Page 853 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

O monstrous fault to harbour such a thought!
Then, since this earth affords no joy to me [165]
But to command, to check, to o’erbear such
As are of better person than myself,
I’ll make my heaven to dream upon the crown
And, whiles I live, t’account this world but hell
Until this head my misshaped trunk doth bear [170]
Be round impalèd with a glorious crown.
And yet I know not how to get the crown
For many lives stand between me and home:
And I, like one lost in a thorny wood,
That rents the thorns and is rent with the thorns, [175]
Seeking a way and straying from the way,
Not knowing how to find the open air
But toiling desperately to find it out,
Torment myself to catch the English crown;
And from that torment I will free myself, [180]
Or hew my way out with a bloody axe.
Why, I can smile, and murder whiles I smile,
And cry, ‘Content!’ to that which grieves my heart,
And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,
And frame my face to all occasions. [185]
I’ll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall;
I’ll slay more gazers than the basilisk;
I’ll play the orator as well as Nestor,
Deceive more slyly than Ulysses could,
And, like a Sinon, take another Troy. [190]
I can add colours to the chameleon,
Change shapes with Proteus for advantages,
And set the murderous Machiavel to school.
Can I do this and cannot get a crown?
Tut! Were it farther off, I’ll pluck it down. [195]

Exit.

Scene III IT

Flourish. Enter [to a chair of state] Lewis the French king, his sister
Bona, his Admiral, called Bourbon; Prince Edward, Queen Margaret, and

the Earl of Oxford. Lewis sits and riseth up again.