Page:Henry IV Part 2 (1921) Yale.djvu/69

King Henry the Fourth, III. i

Would shut the book, and sit him down and die.

'Tis not ten years gone

Since Richard and Northumberland, great friends,

Did feast together, and in two years after

Were they at wars: it is but eight years since

This Percy was the man nearest my soul,

Who like a brother toil'd in my affairs

And laid his love and life under my foot;

Yea, for my sake, even to the eyes of Richard

Gave him defiance. But which of you was by,—

[To Warwick.] You, cousin Nevil, as I may remember,—

When Richard, with his eye brimful of tears,

Then check'd and rated by Northumberland,

Did speak these words, now prov'd a prophecy?

'Northumberland, thou ladder, by the which

My cousin Bolingbroke ascends my throne';

Though then, God knows, I had no such intent,

But that necessity so bow'd the state

That I and greatness were compelled to kiss:

'The time shall come,' thus did he follow it,

'The time will come, that foul sin, gathering head,

Shall break into corruption':—so went on,

Foretelling this same time's condition

And the division of our amity.

War. There is a history in all men's lives,

Figuring the nature of the times deceas'd;

The which observ'd, a man may prophesy,

With a near aim, of the main chance of things

As yet not come to life, which in their seeds

And weak beginnings lie intreasured.

Such things become the hatch and brood of time;

And by the necessary form of this

 68 check'd: rebuked

81 Figuring: symbolizing

87 necessary form: logical necessity 