Читать книгу The 30-Minute Shakespeare Anthology - William Shakespeare - Страница 21

HENRY IV, PART 1: ACT III, SCENE II

London. The palace.

Enter NARRATOR from stage right, coming downstage center.

NARRATOR

Prince Hal reconciles with his father, King Henry IV, by swearing to fight the rebels and to defeat Hotspur.

Exit NARRATOR stage right.

Enter KING HENRY IV and PRINCE HENRY from stage left. KING HENRY IV sits on the throne.

KING HENRY IV

I know not whether God will have it so,

For some displeasing service I have done,

But thou dost in thy passages of life

Make me believe that thou art only mark’d

For the hot vengeance and the rod of heaven

To punish my mistreadings. Tell me else,

Could such inordinate and low desires,

Such barren pleasures, rude society,

As thou art match’d withal and grafted to,

Accompany the greatness of thy blood

And hold their level with thy princely heart?

PRINCE HENRY

So please your majesty

Find pardon on my true submission. (kneels)

KING HENRY IV

God pardon thee! Yet let me wonder, Harry,

At thy affections, which do hold a wing

Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors.

The hope and expectation of thy time

Is ruin’d. Harry, thou has lost thy princely privilege

With vile participation: Not an eye

But is a-weary of thy common sight,

Save mine, which hath desired to see thee more.

PRINCE HENRY (touched and surprised)

I shall hereafter be more myself.

KING HENRY IV

For all the world

Percy now leads ancient lords and reverend bishops on

To bloody battles and to bruising arms.

Thrice hath this Hotspur, Mars in swathling clothes,

Discomfited great Douglas, ta’en him once,

And what say you to this? Percy, Northumberland,

The Archbishop’s grace of York, Douglas, Mortimer,

Capitulate against us and are up.

PRINCE HENRY

I will redeem all this on Percy’s head,

And, in the closing of some glorious day,

Be bold to tell you that I am your son,

When I will wear a garment all of blood

And stain my favors in a bloody mask,

Which, washed away, shall scour my shame with it.

And that shall be the day, whene’er it lights,

That this same child of honor and renown,

This gallant Hotspur, this all-praisèd knight,

And your unthought-of Harry chance to meet.

For every honor sitting on his helm,

Would they were multitudes, and on my head

My shames redoubled! For the time will come

That I shall make this northern youth exchange

His glorious deeds for my indignities.

This in the name of God I promise here,

The which if He be pleased I shall perform,

I do beseech your Majesty may salve

The long-grown wounds of my intemperance.

If not, the end of life cancels all bands,

And I will die a hundred thousand deaths

Ere break the smallest parcel of this vow.

KING HENRY IV stands and helps PRINCE HENRY to his feet. They hold a long handshake and eye contact.

KING HENRY IV

A hundred thousand rebels die in this:

Thou shalt have charge and sovereign trust herein.

Exit KING HENRY IV stage right. PRINCE HENRY follows.