O, thou wilt be a wilderness again, Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants! P. HEN. [Kneeling]. O, pardon me, my liege! but for my tears, The moist impediments unto my speech, I had forestall'd this dear and deep rebuke Ere you with grief had spoke, and I had heard 50 55 Teacheth, this prostrate and exterior bending. And found no course of breath within your majesty, 60 How cold it struck my heart! If I do feign, O, let me in my present wildness die, And never live to show the incredulous world The noble change that I have purposed! Coming to look on you, thinking you dead, 65 And dead almost, my liege, to think you were, I spake unto this crown as having sense, And thus upbraided it: "The care on thee depending Hath fed upon the body of my father; Therefore, thou best of gold art worst of gold: 70 Other, less fine in carat, is more precious, Preserving life in medicine potable; But thou, most fine, most honour'd, most renown'd, Hast eat thy bearer up". Thus, my most royal liege, Accusing it, I put it on my head ; 75 To try with it, as with an enemy That had before my face murder'd my father, The quarrel of a true inheritor. But if it did infect my blood with joy, 80 Or swell my thoughts to any strain of pride; Did with the least affection of a welcome Let God for ever keep it from my head, 85 And make me as the poorest vassal is That doth with awe and terror kneel to it K. HEN. O my son, 90 Pleading so wisely in excuse of it! Come hither, Harry, sit thou by my bed; And hear, I think, the very latest counsel For all the soil of the achievement goes 100 With me into the earth. It seem'd in me But as an honour snatched with boisterous hand; My gain of it by their assistances; Which daily grew to quarrel and to bloodshed, 105 Wounding supposed peace: all these bold fears Thou seest with peril I have answered; For all my reign hath been but as a scene Changes the mode; for what in me was purchased 110 Falls upon thee in a more fairer sort; So thou the garland wear'st successively. Yet, though thou stand'st more sure than I could do. Have but their stings and teeth newly ta'en out; I cut them off; and had a purpose now 115 120 Lest rest and lying still might make them look Too near unto my state. Therefore, my Harry, With foreign quarrels; that action, hence borne out, May waste the memory of the former days. 125 More would I, but my lungs are wasted so From "King Henry IV.,” Part II., Act IV., Scene 5. P. Hen. Prince Henry, after- "I found the prince in the 130 Washing with kindly tears his gentle cheeks". When the prince enters he expresses his surprise at seeing the king alive. Thy wish, etc. You thought that I was dead because you wished me to be dead. Invest thee. Put on. My honours. The crown. Con Compound. Mix. Neighbour confines. Neighbouring countries. Shall double gild his treble guilt. Notwithstanding his great wickedness (his "treble guilt") Henry will make him rich ("double gild" him). Shakspeare was, especially in his earlier plays, rather fond of such playing upon words where no joke was intended. From curbed licence, etc. Under Henry IV. vice and disorder have the muzzle of restraint on; Henry V. will take off the muzzle. Shakspeare makes him, after a wild youth, resolve to be a model king and man. His father, not knowing of his intentions, thought that the accession of Henry V. would lead to the dismissal of the wise counsellors of Henry IV., and that all the rioters of Europe would be welcomed in the new court. Flesh his tooth. Put his tooth into the flesh of; glut itself. With civil blows. The civil war which had gone on during the reign of Henry IV. When that my care, etc. With all my care I could not prevent disorder; what then will be the state of the kingdom when the king increases instead of trying to prevent disorder? Should have Obedience. Obeisance, bowing, kneeling. Let me no more rise from this position which I take because of the inward loyalty of my spirit. Incredulous. Unbelieving. Less fine in carat. Having a larger mixture of alloy. Potable. Drinkable. It was believed that dissolved gold was a wonderfully good medicine. The prince says: "Though gold less precious will preserve the life of those who drink it, this more precious gold has eaten up the life of him who wore it". Soil of the achievement. Blame or dishonour of the getting. To upbraid, etc. To reproach me with having gained it only by their help, and with having then refused to reward them. Fears. Causes of fear, dangers. Acting that argument. Fighting that quarrel. Purchased. Here, attained by other means than inheritance. Successively. In succession, as heir. Green. Fresh. And all my friends, etc. You must make my friends yours. My old friends who helped me I cut off for my own protection, and now I meant to take many of the most powerful nobles to Palestine in order that they might have something else than the weakness of my title to think of. Pain. Pains, care, trouble. COMPOSITION.—What was the advice of Henry IV. to his son ? Show from history how the son acted upon it. LESSON 5. A BRUSH WITH THE ENEMY. PART I. Captain Marryat (1792-1848) lived his stories before writing them. He passed through every grade of the navy from midshipman to captain; he took part in every kind of service from chasing smugglers to guarding an emperor. He was given no command after 1830: and 99 66 The then began the life of a man of letters. "Frank Mildmay," King's Own,” "Newton Forster," "Jacob Faithful," ""Mr. Midshipman Easy," and "Masterman Ready" are by no means the whole of his works. As a writer of sea-stories Marryat is second to none. He fails to make the grandeur and mystery of the great deep felt, but his tales are full of movement; he makes quite real to the reader the life of a sailor in storm and battle, in peace and calm; and he has a very keen sense of fun. THE Windsor Castle was within two hundred miles of the Mauritius, when a strange vessel was discovered on the weather beam, bearing down to them with all the canvas she could spread. Her appearance was warlike; but what her force might be, it was impossible to ascertain at the distance she was off, and the position which she then offered, being then nearly end on". "Can you make out her hull, Mr. Forster?" cried Captain Oughton, hailing Newton, who was at the mast-head with a glass. "No, sir; her foreyard is but now clear of the water, but she rises very fast." "What do you think of her spars, Forster?" said Captain Oughton to Newton, who had just descended to the last rattling of the main rigging. 66 'She is very taut, sir, and her canvas appears to be foreign." “Then clear up the decks, and beat to quarters." The strange vessel came down with such rapidity that, by the time the captain's orders were obeyed, she was not more than two miles distant, and as soon as she had reduced her sails, she rounded to the wind on the same tack as the Windsor Castle, displaying her broadside. "A corvette, sir," said Newton, reconnoitring through his glass; "two and twenty guns besides her |