Enter LANCASTER.

Lanc. From enemies Heav'n keep your Majesty! To aid rebellion's caufe, twelve thousand French, Landed on Cambria's fhores, had spread dismay And defolation in Caermarthen's plains.

Vain was their hope of triumph, and short lived
Their dream of conqueft. Tho' loud faction roar,
And difcontent with brooding jealousy
Difdain fubmiffion to authority,

Yet fooner fhall oppofing elements
Unite in concord, than an English heart
Shall court affiftance from the arms of France.
Hence with awaken'd thought, the Rebel hoft
Tore the fly vipers twining round their bofoms,
Drove from their coafts the common enemy,
And bow them to your royal grace and pardon.

K. Hen. Ah, why fhould fickness follow thefe good news?

Will Fortune never come with both hands full,
But write her fair words ftill in fouleft letters?
She either gives a stomach, and no food ;-
Such are the poor in health or else a feaft,
And takes away the ftomach ;-fuch the rich,
That have abundance, and enjoy it not.
I should rejoice at these aufpicious news;
But ah! my fight fails, and my brain is giddy.—
Ah me!-draw near the couch,-for I am faint.
(A couch is brought forward.
Gle.

Glo. Comfort, your Majesty!

Lanc. My royal Father!

K. Hen. I pray you, make no noise,-my gentle friends;

Unless fome foft-and charitable hand-
Will whisper mufic-to my weary fpirit.

West. Call for the mufic in the other room!
K.Hen. Set me the Crown upon my pillow here!

Glo. His eye is hollow, and he changes faft. (Soft music within.

Enter PRINCE HENRY.

P. Hen. Omy dear father!-fay, how doth the King?

Glo. I fear he cannot longer bear this pain.

West. No noife, no noife, my Lords! Sweet Prince, fpeak low!

The King, your Father, is difpos'd to fleep.

Glo. Let us withdraw into the other room.

West. Will't please your Grace to go along with us?

P. Hen. No, I will stay, and watch here by the King.

(Exeunt all, but P. HEN.

Why does the Crown lie there upon his pillow, Being fo troublefome a bed-fellow?

O polish'd

O polifh'd perturbation, golden care!
That keep'ft the gates of flumber open wide
To many a watchful night! fleep with it now!
Yet not fo found, and half fo deeply fweet,
As he, whose brow, with homely biggin bound,
Sleeps out the watch of night. O Majefty !.
When thou doft pinch thy bearer, thou doft fit
Like a rich armour worn in heat of day,
That fcalds with fafety.-By his gates of breath
There lies a downy feather.-It stirs not!
Did he fufpire, this light and weightless down
Perforce muft move.-My gracious Lord! my
Father!-

This fleep is found indeed: this is a sleep,
Which from its golden circle has divorc'd
So many English Kings. Thy due, from me,
Is tears, and heavy forrows of the blood;
Which nature, love, and filial tenderness,
Shall, O dear father, pay thee plenteously.
My due, from thee, is this Imperial Crown,
Which, as immediate from thy place and blood,
Derives itself to me.-Lo, here it fits, (taking it.
Which Heav'n may guard and put the world's
whole ftrength

Into one giant arm, it shall not force

This lineal honor from me!

Glofter!

K. Hen. Lancaster!

L

(Exit.

Enter

Enter LANC. GLO. WEST.

Glo. Does the King call!

Lanc. How fares your Grace?

K..Hen. Why did

you leave me here alone,

my Lords?

Glo. We left the Prince, my Brother, here, my Liege,

Who undertook to stay and watch by you.

K. Hen. Where is the Crown? Who took it from my pillow?

West. When we withdrew, my Liege, we left it here.

K. Hen. The Prince has ta'en it hence. Go, feek him out.

Is he fo hafty, that he doth suppose

My fleep my death? Find him, Lord Weftmoreland,
And chide him hither straight. This act of his
Combines with my disease, and helps to kill me.
See, fons, what things you are! How quickly nature
Falls to revolt, when gold becomes her object.
For this, the foolish, over-careful fathers

Have broke their fleep with thought, their brains.

with care;

For this engrofs'd the canker'd heaps of gold;
For this they have been anxious to invest
Their fons with arts and martial exercises:

When

When, like the bee, culling from ev'ry flow'r,

Our thighs thus pack'd with wax, our mouths with honey,

We bring it to the hive, and like the bees

Are murder'd for our pains.

Enter WESTMORELAND.

Now where is he,

Who will not stay 'till nature ends my courfe?

West. My Lord, I found the Prince in the next

room,

Washing with kindly tears his gentle cheeks, With fuch a deep demeanour in his forrow, That Tyranny, which never quaff'd but blood, Would, by beholding him, have wafh'd his knife With gentle eye-drops. He is coming hither.

K. Hen. But wherefore did he take away the Crown?

Enter PRINCE HENRY.

Depart the chamber, leave us here alone.

P. Hen. I never thought to hear you speak again.

K. Hen. Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought.

I ftay too long for thee, I weary thee,

Doft thou fo hunger for my empty chair,
That thou wilt needs inveft thee with my honors,