No Fear Shakespeare
Henry IV Part 2
Get this No Fear to go!
Act 3, Scene 1, Page 2
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And, in the calmest and most stillest night,
With all appliances and means to boot,
Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down.
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
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A king on the calmest, stillest night, with everything available for sleep? Then, you happy commoners, put yourselves to bed. The head that wears the crown sleeps uneasily.
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Enter WARWICK and SURREY
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WARWICK and SURREY enter. |
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WARWICK
Many good morrows to your Majesty.
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WARWICK
Good morning, your highness.
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KING
Is it good morrow, lords?
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KING
Is it morning, lords?
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WARWICK
'Tis one o'clock, and past.
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WARWICK
It’s after one o'clock.
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KING
Why then, good morrow to you all, my lords.
Have you read o'er the letter that I sent you?
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KING
Well, then, good morning to you all, my lords. Have you read the letters I sent you?
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WARWICK
We have, my liege.
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WARWICK
We have, your highness.
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KING
Then you perceive the body of our kingdom
How foul it is, what rank diseases grow
And with what danger near the heart of it.
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KING
Then you can tell how sick the kingdom is. There are serious diseases spreading through its body, very near its heart.
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WARWICK
It is but as a body yet distempered,
Which to his former strength may be restored
With good advice and little medicine.
My Lord Northumberland will soon be cooled.
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WARWICK
The body’s only out of sorts. It can be brought back to full health through good care and some medicine. Northumberland will soon be suppressed.
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KING
O God, that one might read the book of fate
And see the revolution of the times
Make mountains level, and the continent,
Weary of solid firmness, melt itself
Into the sea, and other times to see
The beachy girdle of the ocean
Too wide for Neptune’s hips; how chance’s mocks
And changes fill the cup of alteration
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KING
Oh God! If only we could read the book of destiny! We’d see how time changes everything, bringing mountains low and melting the land—which is tired of being solid and firm—into the sea. We’d see how the beach is sometimes too wide for even the tide to conquer. We’d see how blind luck can make mockeries of men, and how change can affect you in countless ways.
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