Page 737 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

That men would tell their children, ‘This is he!’
Others would say, ‘Where? Which is Bolingbroke?’
And then I stole all courtesy from heaven, [50]
And dressed myself in such humility

That I did pluck allegiance from men’s hearts,
Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths
Even in the presence of the crownèd king.
Thus did I keep my person fresh and new, [55]

My presence, like a robe pontifical,
Ne’er seen but wond’red at; and so my state,
Seldom but sumptuous, showed like a feast
And wan by rareness such solemnity.

The skipping king, he ambled up and down [60]
With shallow jesters and rash bavin wits,
Soon kindled and soon burnt; carded his state;
Mingled his royalty with cap’ring fools;

Had his great name profanèd with their scorns
And gave his countenance, against his name, [65]
To laugh at gibing boys and stand the push
Of every beardless vain comparative;

Grew a companion to the common streets,
Enfeoffed himself to popularity;
That, being daily swallowed by men’s eyes, [70]
They surfeited with honey and began

To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof a little
More than a little is by much too much.
So, when he had occasion to be seen,
He was but as the cuckoo is in June, [75]

Heard, not regarded − seen, but with such eyes
As, sick and blunted with community,
Afford no extraordinary gaze,
Such as is bent on sunlike majesty

When it shines seldom in admiring eyes; [80]
But rather drowsed and hung their eyelids down,
Slept in his face, and rend’red such aspect
As cloudy men use to their adversaries,

Being with his presence glutted, gorged, and full.
And in that very line, Harry, standest thou; [85]