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Glou. O, good my lord, you have lost a friend indeed;

And I dare swear you borrow not that face

Of seeming sorrow, it is sure your own.

Lan. Though no man be assured what grace to find,

You stand in coldest expectation:

I am the sorrier; would 'twere otherwise.

Clar. Well, you must now speak Sir John Falstaff fair;

Which swims against your stream of quality.

Ch. Just. Sweet princes, what I did, I did in honour,

Led by the impartial conduct of my soul;
And never shall you see that I will beg
A ragged and forestall'd remission.
If truth and upright innocency fail me,
I'll to the king my master that is dead,
And tell him who hath sent me after him.
War. Here comes the prince.

Enter KING HENRY the Fifth, attended.

Ch. Just. Good morrow; and God save your majesty !

King. This new and gorgeous garment, majesty,

Sits not so easy on me as you think.

Brothers, you mix your sadness with some fear:
This is the English, not the Turkish court;

38. A ragged and forestall'd remission, a pardon asked for before it could have been spontaneously granted, and thus granted with contempt as to a beggar. It is preferable to

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understand 'forestall'd' thus of an anticipating appeal, rather than of prejudice in the king's mind which would ensure the request being 'refused before it was made.'

Not Amurath an Amurath succeeds,

But Harry Harry. Yet be sad, good brothers,
For, by my faith, it very well becomes you:
Sorrow so royally in you appears

That I will deeply put the fashion on
And wear it in my heart: why then, be sad;
But entertain no more of it, good brothers,
Than a joint burden laid upon us all.
For me, by heaven, I bid you be assured,
I'll be your father and your brother too;
Let me but bear your love, I'll bear your cares :
Yet weep that Harry's dead; and so will I;
But Harry lives, that shall convert those tears
By number into hours of happiness.

Princes. We hope no other from your majesty.
King. You all look strangely on me: and you
most;

You are, I think, assured I love you not.

Ch. Just. I am assured, if I be measured
rightly,

Your majesty hath no just cause to hate me.
King. No!

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,

48. Not Amurath, etc. The Sultan Amurath III., who died in 1595, had strangled his brothers on his accession (1574); and his successor Mahomet III. followed the same Turkish

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custom. The latter event was, of course, quite recent when the play was written.

61. By number, i.e. tear for tear.

71. easy, a slight matter.

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 judgement;
Whereon, as an offender to your father,
I gave bold way to my authority

If the deed were ill,

And did commit you.
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 trip 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 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.

84. the garland, i.e. the

crown.

92. propose, put forward in

imagination, suppose.

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99. in your state, in your kingly capacity.

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 unstained 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.

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;
My father is gone wild into his grave,
For in his tomb lie my affections s;
And with his spirit sadly I survive,
To mock the expectation 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,

109. proper, own.

115. remembrance, injunction. 123. My father is gone wild into his grave; i.e. my wildness is buried with him (cf. Hen. V. i. 1. 25-27).

124. my affections, my wild inclinations.

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125. with his spirit sadly I survive, his serious spirit alone survives in me.

128. Rotten opinion, false reputation.

132. the state of floods, the majesty of the ocean.

133. formal, grave, dignified.

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.
Our coronation done, we will accite,

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,
God shorten Harry's happy life one day!

[Exeunt.

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SCENE III. Gloucestershire. SHALLOW'S
orchard.

Enter FALSTAFF, SHALLOW, SILENCE, DAVY,
BARDOLPH, and the Page.

Shal. Nay, you shall see my orchard, where, in an arbour, we will eat a last year's pippin of my own graffing, with a dish of caraways, and so forth come, cousin Silence: and then to bed.

Fal. 'Fore God, you have here a goodly dwelling and a rich.

Shal. Barren, barren, barren; beggars all, beggars all, Sir John: marry, good air. Spread, Davy; spread, Davy: well said, Davy.

Fal. This Davy serves you for good uses; he is your serving-man and your husband.

141. accite, summon.

143. consigning to, consenting to, confirming.

3. caraways, a kind of sweetmeat in which caraway seeds

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formed one ingredient, then commonly eaten with apples at dessert.

12. husband, husbandman. The two later Ff substitute this form.

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