Enter the King in his nightgown with a Page. KING
Go call the Earls of Surrey and of Warwick;
But, ere they come, bid them o’erread these letters
And well consider of them. Make good speed. Page exits. How many thousand of my poorest subjects
Are at this hour asleep! O sleep, O gentle sleep, 5
Nature’s soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down
And steep my senses in forgetfulness?
Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,
Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee, 10
And hushed with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,
Than in the perfumed chambers of the great,
Under the canopies of costly state,
And lulled with sound of sweetest melody?
O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile 15
In loathsome beds and leavest the kingly couch
A watch-case or a common ’larum bell?
Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast
Seal up the shipboy’s eyes and rock his brains
In cradle of the rude imperious surge 20
And in the visitation of the winds,
Who take the ruffian billows by the top,
Curling their monstrous heads and hanging them
With deafing clamor in the slippery clouds
That with the hurly death itself awakes? 25
Canst thou, O partial sleep, give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,
And, in the calmest and most stillest night,
With all appliances and means to boot,
Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down. 30
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. | At the palace at Westminster, King Henry IV gives a page some letters to deliver to the Earl of Warwick and the Earl of Surrey. Then the king delivers a soliloquy (a speech that reveals what's on his mind). The entire kingdom is snoozing away peacefully but, alas, Henry cannot seem to fall asleep. It's not fair that the god of sleep should reward the commoners with rest when he, a king, is deprived of slumber. Even a sailor who's aboard a ship during a terrible storm gets to sleep so why is the king still awake on such a calm night? Henry concludes that kings don't get any sleep or rest because they're burdened with weighty matters. |
Enter Warwick, Surrey and Sir John Blunt. WARWICK
Many good morrows to your Majesty. KING Is it good morrow, lords? WARWICK ’Tis one o’clock, and past. KING
Why then, good morrow to you all, my lords. 35
Have you read o’er the letter that I sent you? WARWICK We have, my liege. KING
Then you perceive the body of our kingdom
How foul it is, what rank diseases grow,
And with what danger near the heart of it. 40 | Warwick and Surrey arrive and say they've read the king's letters. Henry says the "body" of the "kingdom" is full of "disease" (rebellion). FYI: Get your highlighter out because that's important. |
WARWICK
It is but as a body yet distempered,
Which to his former strength may be restored
With good advice and little medicine.
My Lord Northumberland will soon be cooled. KING
O God, that one might read the book of fate 45
And see the revolution of the times
Make mountains level, and the continent,
Weary of solid firmness, melt itself
Into the sea, and other times to see
The beachy girdle of the ocean 50
Too wide for Neptune’s hips; how chance’s mocks
And changes fill the cup of alteration
With divers liquors! O, if this were seen,
The happiest youth, viewing his progress through,
What perils past, what crosses to ensue, 55
Would shut the book and sit him down and die.
’Tis not ten years gone
Since Richard and Northumberland, great friends,
Did feast together, and in two years after
Were they at wars. It is but eight years since 60
This Percy was the man nearest my soul,
Who like a brother toiled in my affairs
And laid his love and life under my foot,
Yea, for my sake, even to the eyes of Richard
Gave him defiance. But which of you was by— 65
To Warwick. You, cousin Nevil, as I may
remember—
When Richard, with his eye brimful of tears,
Then checked and rated by Northumberland,
Did speak these words, now proved a prophecy? 70
“Northumberland, thou ladder by the which
My cousin Bolingbroke ascends my throne”—
Though then, God knows, I had no such intent,
But that necessity so bowed the state
That I and greatness were compelled to kiss— 75
“The time shall come,” thus did he follow it,
“The time will come that foul sin, gathering head,
Shall break into corruption”—so went on,
Foretelling this same time’s condition
And the division of our amity. 80 | Warwick says yep, the kingdom's sick alright and needs a little "medicine," especially the rebel, Northumberland. Henry is full of despair and launches into a lengthy speech that's full of doom and gloom about the future of the kingdom. He remembers the time when everybody was friends. That is, until Northumberland helped him, Henry, overthrow King Richard II. Now Richard's prophesy (about Northumberland and Henry having a falling out) has come true. Henry's worried that he and the kingdom are fated for destruction. |
WARWICK
There is a history in all men’s lives
Figuring the natures of the times deceased,
The which observed, a man may prophesy,
With a near aim, of the main chance of things
As yet not come to life, who in their seeds 85
And weak beginning lie intreasurèd.
Such things become the hatch and brood of time,
And by the necessary form of this,
King Richard might create a perfect guess
That great Northumberland, then false to him, 90
Would of that seed grow to a greater falseness,
Which should not find a ground to root upon
Unless on you. KING Are these things then necessities?
Then let us meet them like necessities. 95
And that same word even now cries out on us.
They say the Bishop and Northumberland
Are fifty thousand strong. WARWICK It cannot be, my lord.
Rumor doth double, like the voice and echo, 100
The numbers of the feared. Please it your Grace
To go to bed. Upon my soul, my lord,
The powers that you already have sent forth
Shall bring this prize in very easily.
To comfort you the more, I have received 105
A certain instance that Glendower is dead.
Your Majesty hath been this fortnight ill,
And these unseasoned hours perforce must add
Unto your sickness. KING I will take your counsel. 110
And were these inward wars once out of hand,
We would, dear lords, unto the Holy Land. They exit. | Nonsense, says Warwick. There's no such thing as prophetic power. King Richard only made a "perfect guess" that Northumberland would betray Henry and that's because Northumberland had already betrayed one king. Henry says that he's heard the rebels (Northumberland and York) have any army that's 50,000 men strong. Warwick insists that's impossible – it's just a rumor. King Henry should go to bed and get some sleep. Henry says fine, he'll go to bed, but he wishes this civil war were over. That way, he could go on a crusade to the Holy Land. (Ever since he became king, he's been hot to rumble with the "pagans" in the Holy Land.) |