Lieut.
Asleep so soon! but sorrow minds no seasons.
The morning, noon, and night, with her's the same;

She's fond of any hour that yields repose.

K. Henry.
Who's there! Lieutenant! is it you? Come hither!

Lieut.
You shake, my lord, and look affrighted.

K. Henry.
Oh! I have had the fearfull'st dream! such sights,
That, as I live,
I would not pass another hour so dreadful,
Tho' 'twere to buy a world of happy days.
Reach me a book—I'll try if reading can
Divert these melancholy thoughts. Enter Glo'ster.

* ^noteGlo'st.
Good day, my lord; what, at your book so hard?
I disturb you.

K. Henry.
You do, indeed.

Glo'st.
Friend, leave us to ourselves, we must confer.

K. Henry.
What bloody scene has Roscius now to act? [Exit Lieutenant.

Glo'st.
Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind:
The thief does fear each bush an officer.

K. Henry.
Where thieves without controlment rob and kill,
The traveller does fear each bush a thief:
The poor bird that has been already lim'd,
With trembling wings misdoubts of every bush;
And I, the hapless male to one sweet bird,
Have now the fatal object in my eye,
By whom my young one bled, was caught, and kill'd.

Glo'st.
Why, what a peevish fool was that of Crete,
That taught his son the office of a fowl?
And yet for all his wings, the fool was drown'd:
Thou should'st have taught thy boy his prayers alone,
And then he had not broke his neck with climbing.

K. Henry.
Ah! kill me with thy weapon, not thy words;

My breast can better brook thy dagger's point,
Than can my ears that piercing story;
But wherefore dost thou come? is't for my life?

Glo'st.
Think'st thou I am an executioner?

K. Henry.
If murdering innocents be executing,
Then thou'rt the worst of executioners.

Glo'st.
Thy son I kill'd, for his presumption.

K. Henry.
Hadst thou been kill'd, when first thou didst presume,
Thou hadst not liv'd to kill a son of mine:
But thou wert born to massacre mankind.
How many old men's sighs, and widows' moans;
How many orphans water-standing eyes,
Men for their sons, wives for their husbands fate,
And children for their parents' timeless death,
Will rue the hour that ever thou wert born?
The owl shriek'd at thy birth, an evil sign!
The night-crow cry'd, foreboding luckless time;
Dogs howl'd, and hideous tempests shook down trees;
The raven rook'd her on the chimney's top,
And chattering pies in dismal discord sung;
Thy mother felt more than a mother's pain,
And yet brought forth less than a mother's hope.
Teeth hadst thou in thy head, when thou wert born,
Which plainly said, thou cam'st to bite mankind,
And if the rest be true which I have heard,
Thou cam'st—

Glo'st.
I'll hear no more—Die, prophet, in thy speech;
For this, amongst the rest, was I ordain'd. [Stabs him.

K. Henry.
Oh! and for much more slaughter after this;
Just heav'n forgive my sins, and pardon thee! [Dies.

Glo'st.
What! will the aspiring blood of Lancaster;
Sink in the ground?—I thought it would have mounted.
See how my sword weeps for the poor king's death.
Oh, may such purple tears be always shed,
From those that wish the downfal of our house!
If any spark of life be yet remaining,
Down, down to hell, and say I sent thee thither;
I that have neither pity, love, nor fear:

Indeed, 'tis true, what Henry told me of;
For I have often heard my mother say,
I came into the world with my legs forward;
The midwife wonder'd, and the women cry'd,
Good heaven bless us! he is born with teeth!
And so I was, which plainly signified,
That I should snarl, and bite, and play the dog.
Then since the heav'ns have shap'd my body so,
Let hell make crook'd my mind to answer it;
I have no brother, am like no brother,
And this word Love, which grey-beards call divine,
Be resident in men, like one another,
And not in me—I am—myself alone.
Clarence, beware, thou keep'st me from the light;
But if I fail not in my deep intent,
Thou'st not another day to live; which done,
Heav'n take the weak king Edward to his mercy,
And leave the world for me to bustle in.
But soft—I'm sharing spoil, before the field is won.
Clarence still breathes, Edward still lives and reigns,
When they are gone, then I must count my gains. [Exit.* ^note

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