Page:Henry IV Part 2 (1921) Yale.djvu/120

108

You are, I think, assur'd I love you not.

''Ch. Just.'' I am assur'd, if I be measur'd rightly,

Your majesty hath no just cause to hate me.

Prince. No?

How might a prince of my great hopes forget

So great indignities you laid upon me?

What! rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prison

The immediate heir of England! Was this easy?

May this be wash'd in Lethe, and forgotten?

''Ch. Just.'' I then did use the person of your father;

The image of his power lay then in me:

And, in the administration of his law,

Whiles I was busy for the commonwealth,

Your highness pleased to forget my place,

The majesty and power of law and justice,

The image of the king whom I presented,

And struck me in my very seat of judgment;

Whereon, as an offender to your father,

I gave bold way to my authority,

And did commit you. If the deed were ill,

Be you contented, wearing now the garland,

To have a son set your decrees at nought,

To pluck down justice from your awful bench,

To trip the course of law, and blunt the sword

That guards the peace and safety of your person:

Nay, more, to spurn at your most royal image

And mock your workings in a second body.

Question your royal thoughts, make the case yours;

Be now the father and propose a son,

Hear your own dignity so much profan'd,

See your most dreadful laws so loosely slighted,

 71 easy: trivial

72 Lethe: the river of oblivion

73 use the person: make use of my position as personal representative

79 presented: represented

84 garland: crown

90 second body: deputy

92 propose: imagine 