THE EVIL POWER.
K. RICHARD. As I intend to prosper, and repent,
So thrive I in my dangerous attempt
Of hostile arms! myself, myself confound!
Heaven, and fortune, bar me happy hours!
Day, yield me not thy light; nor, night, thy rest!
Be opposite all planets of good luck
To my proceeding, if, with pure heart's love,
Immaculate devotion, holy thoughts,
I tender not thy beauteous princely daughter!
In her consists my happiness, and thine;
Without her, follows to myself, and thee,
Herself, the land, and many a Christian soul,
Death, desolation, ruin, and decay:
It cannot be avoided, but by this;
It will not be avoided, but by this.
Therefore, dear mother, (I must call you so,)
Be the attorney of my love to her.
Plead what I will be, not what I have been;
Not my deserts, but what I will deserve:
Urge the necessity and state of times,
And be not peevish found in great designs.
Q. ELIZABETH. Shall I be tempted of the
devil thus ?
K. RICH. Ay, if the devil tempt thee to do good.
Q. ELIZ. Shall I forget myself, to be myself? K. RICH. Ay, if your self's remembrance wrong yourself.
Q. ELIZ. But thou didst kill my children. K. RICH. But in your daughter's womb I bury them:
Where, in that nest of spicery, they shall breed Selves of themselves to your recomforture.
Q. ELIZ. Shall I go win my daughter to thy will?
K. RICH. And be a happy mother by the deed.
Q. ELIZ. I go.-Write to me very shortly, And you shall understand from me her mind. K. RICH. Bear her my true love's kiss, and so farewell.
[Kissing her. Exit Q. ELIZABETH. Relenting fool, and shallow, changing woman!
K. RICHARD III., A. 4, s. 4.
THE KING'S LEGACY-EXPERIENCE. K. HENRY. Where is the crown? who took it from my pillow?
WARWICK. When we withdrew, my liege, we left it here.
K. HEN. The prince hath ta'en it hence:go, seek him out.
Is he so hasty, that he doth suppose
My sleep my death ?
Find him, my lord of Warwick; chide him hither.
This part of his conjoins with my disease,
And helps to end me.-See, sons, what things
How quickly nature falls into revolt,
When gold becomes her object!
For this the foolish over-careful fathers
Have broke their sleep with thoughts, their
brains with care,
Their bones with industry,
For this they have engrossed and pil'd up
The canker'd heaps of strange-achieved gold; For this they have been thoughtful to invest Their sons with arts, and martial exercises: When, like the bee, tolling from every flower The virtuous sweets;
Our thighs pack'd with wax, our mouths with honey,
We bring it to the hive; and, like the bees,
Are murder'd for our pains. This bitter taste
Yield his engrossments to the ending father.-
Re-enter WARWICK.
Now, where is he that will not stay so long,
Till his friend sickness hath determin'd me?
WAR. My lord, I found the prince in the
next room,
Washing with kindly tears his gentle cheeks;
With such a deep demeanour in great sorrow,
That tyranny, which never quaff'd but blood,
Would, by beholding him, have wash'd his knife
With gentle eye-drops. He is coming hither.
K. HEN. But wherefore did he take away
the crown?
Re-enter PRINCE HENRY. Lo, where he comes,-Come hither to me, Harry:
Depart the chamber, leave us here alone.
[Exeunt CLARENCE, PRINCE HUMPHREY, Lords, &c.
I never thought to hear you
K. HEN. Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought:
I stay too long by thee, I weary thee.
Dost thou so hunger for my empty chair,
That thou wilt needs invest thee with mine
Before thy hour be ripe? O foolish youth! Thou seek'st the greatness that will overwhelm thee.
Stay but a little; for my cloud of dignity
Is held from falling with so weak a wind,
That it will quickly drop: my day is dim.
Thou hast stol'n that, which, after some few
hours,
Were thine without offence; and, at my death,
Thou hast seal'd up my expectation:
Thy life did manifest, thou lov'dst me not,
And thou wilt have me die assur'd of it.
Thou hid'st a thousand daggers in thy thoughts;
Which thou hast whetted on thy stony heart,
To stab at half an hour of my life.
What! canst thou not forbear me half an hour?
Then get thee gone; and dig my grave thyself;
And bid the merry bells ring to thine ear,
That thou art crowned, not that I am dead.
Let all the tears that should bedew my hearse,
Be drops of balm, to sanctify thy head:
Only compound me with forgotten dust;
Give that, which gave thee life, unto the worms.
Pluck down my officers, break my decrees;
For now a time is come to mock at form,
Harry the fifth is crown'd:-Up, vanity!
Down, royal state! all you sage counsellors,
hence!
And to the English court assemble now,
From every region, apes of idleness!
Now, neighbour confines, purge you of your
Have you a ruffian, that will swear, drink, dance,
Revel the night; rob, murder, and commit
The oldest sins the newest kind of ways?
Be happy, he will trouble you no more:
England shall double gild his treble gilt:
England shall give him office, honour, might:
For the fifth Harry from curb'd licence plucks
The muzzle of restraint, and the wild dog
Shall flesh his tooth in every innocent.
O my poor kingdom, sick with civil blows!
When that my care could not withhold thy riots,
What wilt thou do, when riot is thy care?
O, thou wilt be a wilderness again,
Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants!
P. HEN. O, pardon me, my liege! but for my
tears,
[Kneeling.
The moist impediments unto my speech,
I had forestall'd this dear and deep rebuke,
Ere you with grief had spoke, and I had heard
The course of it so far. There is your crown:
And He that wears the crown immortally,
Long guard it yours! If I affect it more,
Than as your honour, and as your renown,
Let me no more from this obedience rise,
(Which my most true and inward duteous spirit
Teacheth,) this prostrate and exterior bending!
Heaven witness with me, when I here came in
And found no course of breath within your
majesty,
How cold it struck my heart! If I do feign,
O, let me in my present wildness die;
And never live to show the incredulous world
The noble change that I have purposed!
Coming to look on you, thinking you dead,
(And dead almost, my liege, to think you were,)
I spake unto the crown as having sense,
And thus upbraided it. The care on thee
depending,
Hath fed upon the body of my father; Therefore, thou, best of gold, art worst of gold.
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