Page:Henry IV Part 2 (1921) Yale.djvu/84

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Led on by bloody youth, guarded with rags,

And countenanc'd by boys and beggary;

I say, if damn'd commotion so appear'd,

In his true, native, and most proper shape,

You, reverend father, and these noble lords

Had not been here, to dress the ugly form

Of base and bloody insurrection

With your fair honours. You, lord archbishop,

Whose see is by a civil peace maintain'd,

Whose beard the silver hand of peace hath touch'd,

Whose learning and good letters peace hath tutor'd,

Whose white investments figure innocence,

The dove and very blessed spirit of peace,

Wherefore do you so ill translate yourself

Out of the speech of peace that bears such grace

Into the harsh and boisterous tongue of war;

Turning your books to greaves, your ink to blood,

Your pens to lances, and your tongue divine

To a loud trumpet and a point of war?

Arch. Wherefore do I this? so the question stands.

Briefly to this end: we are all diseas'd;

And, with our surfeiting and wanton hours

Have brought ourselves into a burning fever,

And we must bleed for it: of which disease

Our late king, Richard, being infected, died.

But, my most noble Lord of Westmoreland,

I take not on me here as a physician,

Nor do I as an enemy to peace

Troop in the throngs of military men;

But rather show a while like fearful war,

To diet rank minds sick of happiness

And purge the obstructions which begin to stop

Our very veins of life. Hear me more plainly:

 34 guarded: decked

52 point: trumpet signal 