Nor shall not be the last; like silly beggars, With nothing shall be pleas'd, till he be eas'd KING HENRY IV. PART I ACT I. PEACE AFTER CIVIL WAR. SO shaken as we are, so wan with care, Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood; And furious close of civil butchery, Shall now, in mutual, well-beseeming ranks, * Strands, banks of the sea. The fury of discord. March all one way; and be no more oppos'd KING HENRY'S CHARACTER OF PERCY, AND OF Yea, there thou mak'st me sad, and mak'st me sin A son, who is the theme of honour's tongue; PRINCE HENRY'S SOLILOQUY. I know you all, and will awhile uphold The unyok'd humour of your idleness: Yet herein will I imitate the sun; Who doth permit the base contagious clouds To smother up his beauty from the world, That, when he please again to be himself, Being wanted, he may be more wonder'd at, By breaking through the foul and ugly mists Of vapours that did seem to strangle him. If all the year were playing holidays, To sport would be as tedious as to work; But, when they seldom come, they wish'd-for come, And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents. So, when this loose behaviour I throw off, And pay the debt I never promised, By how much better than my word I am, By so much shall I falsify men's hopes;* And, like bright metal on a sullent ground, My reformation, glittering o'er my fault, Shall show more goodly, and attract more eyes, Than that which hath no foil to set it off. I'll so offend, to make offence a skill; Redeeming time, when men think least I will. + Dull. * Expectations. HOTSPUR'S DESCRIPTION OF A FINICAL COURTIER. But, I remember, when the fight was done, And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held He gave his nose, and took't away again;- He call'd them-untaught knaves, unmannerly, I then, all smarting, with my wounds being cold, Out of my grieft and my impatience, He should, or he should not; for he made me mad, Of guns, and drums, and wounds, (God save the And telling me, the sovereign'st thing on earth And that it was great pity, so it was, *A small box for musk or other perfumes. Parrot. DANGER. I'll read you matter deep and dangerous; HONOUR. By heaven, methinks, it were an easy leap, Where fathom-line could never touch the ground But out upon this half-fac'd fellowship!† ACT II. LADY PERCY'S PATHETIC SPEECH TO HER HUSBAND O my good lord, why are you thus alone? For what offence have I, this fortnight, been A banish'd woman from my Harry's bed? Tell me, sweet lord, what is't that takes from thee Thy stomach, pleasure, and thy golden sleep? Why dost thou bend thine eyes upon the earth: And start so often when thou sit'st alone? Why hast thou lost the fresh blood in thy cheeks And given my treasures, and my rights of thee, To thick-ey'd musing, and curs'd melancholy? In thy faint slumbers, I by thee have watch'd, And heard thee murmur tales of iron wars: Speak terms of manage to thy bounding steed; Cry, Courage!-to the field! And thou hast talk' Of sallies, and retires; of trenches, tents, Of pallisadoes, frontiers, parapets; Of basilisks, of cannon, culverin; Of prisoners ransom, and of soldiers slain, And all the 'currents of a heady fight. Thy spirit within thee hath been so at war, And thus hath so bestirr'd thee in thy sleep, + Friendship Occurrences. * A rival. That beads of sweat have stood upon thy brow, And in thy face strange motions have appear'd, Some heavy business hath my lord in hand, ACT III. PRODIGIES RIDICULED. I cannot blame him: at my nativity Hot. Why, so it would have done At the same season, if your mother's cat had But kitten'd, though yourself had ne'er been born. Diseased nature oftentimes breaks forth Within her womb; which, for enlargement striving, ON MISERABLE RHYMERS. Marry, and I am glad of it with all my heart: I had rather be a kitten, and cry--mew, And that would set my teeth nothing on edge, * Drops. Lights set cross ways upon beacons, and also upon poles, which were used in processions, &c. § Candlestick. Tumbles. |