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 strip 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 profaned,
See your most dreadful laws so loosely slighted,
Behold yourself so by a son disdain'd;
And then imagine me taking your part,
And, in your power soft silencing your son :
After this "cold considerance, sentence me;
And as you are a king, speak in your state,
What I have done, that misbecame my place,
My person, or my liege's sovereignty.
King. You are right, justice, and you weigh this well: Therefore still bear the 12 balance, and the sword:
And I do wish your honours may increase,
Till you do live to see a son of mine
Offend you and obey you, as I did.
So shall I live to speak my father's words,—
Happy am I, that have a man so bold,
That dares do justice on my proper son;
And not less happy, having such a son,
That would deliver up his greatness so
Into the hands of justice.—You did commit me :
For which, I do commit into your hand
The unstain'd sword that you have used to bear,
With this remembrance,-that you use the same
With the like bold, just, and impartial spirit,
As you have done 'gainst me. There is my hand d;
You shall be as a father to my youth:
My voice shall sound as you do prompt mine ear;
And I will stoop and humble my intents
To your well-practised, wise directions.—
And, princes all, believe me, I beseech you,
18 My father is gone wild into his grave,
For in his tomb lie my affections;
And with his spirit sadly I survive,
To mock the expectations of the world;
To frustrate prophecies: and to raze out
Rotten opinion, who hath writ me down
After my seeming. The tide of blood in me
Hath proudly flow'd in vanity, till now :
Now doth it turn, and ebb back to the sea;
Where it shall mingle with the state of floods,
And flow henceforth in formal majesty.
Now call we our high court of Parliament :
And let us choose such limbs of noble counsel,
That the great body of our state may go
In equal rank with the best govern'd nation :
That war, or peace, or both at once, may be
As things acquainted and familiar to us;
In which you, father, shall have foremost hand.--
(To the Lord Chief Justice.)
Our coronation done, we will 1accite,
As I before remember'd, all our state :
And (God consigning to my good intents)
No prince, nor peer, shall have just cause to say,-
Heaven shorten Harry's happy life one day.
1 Amurath. This was a name common to emperors of the Turks. Among the latter the accession of a new emperor was often accompanied by frightful massacres of the relatives of the late sovereign, with a view of getting rid of rivals to the throne. Henry V. therefore means to say: "This is the English, not the Turkish court, and you have no reason to fear violence from me." 2 royally, nobly. 3 by number, your hours of happiness shall equal in number your present tears. rate, chide; scold. 5 Lethe. In ancient mythology this was the name of a river in the world of spirits, the water of which, when drunk by the souls of the departed, caused them to forget all their past lives. garland, crown; emblem of sovereignty. awful, that which fills with awe and reverence. 8 trip, trip up; cause to fall. workings, etc., those things which you do by means of another (the judge who represents you). propose, place before; imagine. 11 cold considerance, cool consideration; calm reflection. 12 balance, the scales of justice. Justice is often represented by painters and sculptors as a female figure, holding a pair of scales and a sword, weighing the merits of the cases brought before her, and inflicting due punishment for offences. 13 These lines mean: "My wild spirit is buried in my father's tomb, his calm, sober spirit still lives in my soul, on which it has descended, and I am about to manifest such a change of life as will falsify the expectations of those who believed that I should prove but a worthless and dissolute king." 14 limbs, members. 15 aceite, call to; summon. consign, to sign with; consent; agree.
SCENES FROM AS YOU LIKE IT.
[The Duke his been driven from his dominions by Frederick, his brother. He goes, with some of his faithful lords, to live in banishment in the beautiful Forest of Arden.]
SCENE: The Forest of Arden.
Enter DUKE Senior, AMIENS, and other Lords, in the dress of
Foresters.
Duke S. Now, my co-mates, and brothers in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?
Here feel we but the penalty of Adam,
The season's difference; as, the icy 'fang,
And churlish chiding of the winter's wind;
Which, when it bites and blows upon my body,
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile, and say,—
This is no flattery: these are counsellors,
That feelingly persuade me what I am.
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head ;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
Ami. I would not change it. Happy is your grace,
That can translate the stubbornness of fortune
Into so quiet and so sweet a style.
Duke. S. Come, shall we go and kill us venison ?
And yet it irks me, the poor dappled fools,—
Being native burghers of this desert city,--
Should, in their own 'confines, with forked heads
Have their round haunches gored.
1 Lord. Indeed, my lord,
The melancholy Jaques grieves at that;
And, in that kind, swears you do more usurp
Than doth your brother, that hath banish'd you.
To-day, my lord of Amiens and myself
Did steal behind him, as he lay along
Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out
Upon the brook that brawls along this wood :
To the which place a poor sequester'd stag,
That from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt,
Did come to languish ; and, indeed, my lord,
The wretched animal heaved forth such groans,
That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat
Almost to bursting; and the big round tears
Coursed one another down his innocent nose
In piteous chase; and thus the hairy fool,
Much marked of the melancholy Jaques,
Stood on the extremest verge of the swift brook,
Augmenting it with tears.
Duke S. But what said Jaques ?
Did he not moralize this spectacle?
1 Lord. O yes, into a thousand similes.
First, for his weeping in the needless stream:
Poor deer, quoth he, thou makest a testament
As worldlings do, giving thy sum of more
To that which had too much. Then being alone,
Left and abandon'd of his velvet friends:
'Tis right, quoth he; thus misery doth part
The 'flux of company. Anon, a careless herd,
Full of the pasture, jumps along by him,
And never stays to greet him: Ay, quoth Jaques,
Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens ;
'Tis just the fashion; Wherefore do you look
Upon that poor and broken bankrupt there?
Thus most invectively he pierceth through
The body of the country, city, court,
Yea, and of this our life: swearing that we
Are mere usurpers, tyrants, and what's worse,
To fright the animals, and to kill them up,
In their assign'd and native dwelling place.
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