ی سے ایم تا 7 Henry, the Lieutenant of the Tower: al your book so hard? K. Hen. Ay, my good lord: My lord, I should say rather; 'Tis sin to flatter, good was little better : Good Gloster, and good devil, were alike, * And both preposterous; therefore, not good lord. * Glo. Sirrah, leave us to ourselves: we must confer. [Exit Lieutenant. * K. Hen. So flies the reckless shepherd from the wolf: * So first the harmless sheep doth yield his fleece, * And next his throat unto the butcher's knife. What scene of death hath Roscius now to act? Glo. Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind; The thief doth fear each bush an officer. • K. Hen. The bird, that hath been limed in abush, « With trembling wings misdoubteth every bush: And I, the hapless male to one sweet bird, Have now the fatal object in my eye, Where my poor young was lim'd, was eaught, and kill'd.. . • Glo. Why, what a peevish fool was that of Crete, That taught his son the office of a fowl ? And yet, for all his wings, the fool was drown'd. K. Hen. I, Dædalus; my poor boy, Icarus; Thy father, Minos, that denied our course; The sun, that sear'd the wings of my sweet boy, * Thy brother Edward; and thyself, the sea, Whose envious gulf did swallow up his life. * Ah, kill me with thy weapon, not with words.! My breast can better brook thy dagger's point, Than can my ears that tragick history. * But wherefore dost thou come? is't for my life? Glo. Think'st thou, I am an executioner? · K. Hen. A persecutor, I am sure, thou art; 8- hapless male —] The word male is here used in a very uncommon sense, not for the male of the female, but for the male parent; the sweet bird is evidently his son Prince Edward. hich now misid man's sigh standing eyeinds' fate, • If murdering innocents be executing, Glo. Thy son I kill'd for his presumption. didst presume, Thou hadst not liv'd to kill a son of mine. • And thus I prophecy,—that many a thousand, • Which now mistrust no parcel of my fear; "And many an old man's sigh, and many a widow's, And many an orphan's water-standing eye,Men for their sons, wives for their husbands' fate, • And orphans for their parents' timeless death, Shall rue the hour that ever thou wast born. The owl shriek’d at thy birth, an evil sign; · The night-crow cried, aboding luckless time; Dogs howl'd, and hideous tempests shook down trees; The raven rook'd her on the chimney's top, And chattering pies in dismal discords sung. Thy mother felt more than a mother's pain, And yet brought forth less than a mother's hope; " To wit,an indigest deformed lump, Not like the fruit of such a goodly tree. Teeth hadst thou in thy head, when thou wast born, To signify, thou cam'st to bite the world: And, if the rest be true which I have heard, - Thou cam'stGlo. I'll hear no more;-Die, prophet, in thy speech: Stabs him. For this, amongst the rest, was I ordain'd. K. Hen. Ay, and for much more slaughter after this. O God! forgive my sins, and pardon thee! [Dies. • Which now mistrust no parcel of my fear;] Who suspect no part of what my fears presage. The raven rook'd her -] To rook, or rather to ruck, is a north-country word, signifying to squat down, or lodge on any thing. Glo. What, will the aspiring blood of Lancaster Sink in the ground? I thought it would have mounted. See, how my sword weeps for the poor king's death! "O, may such purple tears be always shed * From those that wish the downfal of our house ! If any spark of life be yet remaining, Down, down to hell; and say—I sent thee thither, [Stabs him again. I, that have neither pity, love, nor fear.Indeed, 'tis true, that Henry told me of; For I have often heard my mother say, I came into the world with my legs forward : Had I not reason, think ye, to make haste, And seek their ruin that usurp'd our right? The midwife wonder'd ; and the women cried, 0, Jesus bless us, he is born with teeth! And so I was; which plainly signifiedThat I should snarl, and bite, and play the dog. * Then, since the heavens have shap'd my body so, Let hell make crook'd my mind to answer it. I have no brother, I am like no brother: * And this word-love, which greybeards call divine, Be resident in men like one another, And not in me; I am myself alone.Clarence, beware; thou keep'st me from the light; But I will sort a pitchy day for thee: 2 For I will buz abroad such prophecies, i « That Edward shall be fearful of his life; And then, to purge his fear, I'll be thy death. • King Henry, and the prince his son, are gone: • Clarence, thy turn is next, and then the rest; Counting myself but bad, till I be best. — • I'll throw thy body in another room, And triumph, Henry, in thy day of doom. [Exit. ? But I will sort a pitchy day for thee :) But I will choose out an hour whose gloom shall be as fatal to you. To sort is to select. |