WARWICK

How's it going, my Lord Chief Justice? Where are you going?

CHIEF JUSTICE

How is the King?

WARWICK

Very well. All of his cares are gone. 

CHIEF JUSTICE

I hope you don't mean he's dead.

WARWICK

He's followed the path nature intended. And for our purposes, he is no longer alive. 

CHIEF JUSTICE

I wish his Majesty had taken me with him. The work that I did for him when he was alive has put me in danger now that he's dead.

WARWICK

Indeed, especially as I don't think the young King cares for you. 

CHIEF JUSTICE

I know he doesn't, and I need to be prepared for what's going to happen now. I'm hoping it can't be any worse than what I've pictured in my head. 

WARWICK

Here come the sad children of the dead king. Oh, if only the living Harry had the personality of the worst of these three gentlemen! Then a lot of noblemen would be safe in their positions, whereas now they will be forced to leave and let nasty men take over their roles. 

CHIEF JUSTICE

Oh God, I am scared that everything is going to change. 

LANCASTER

Good morning, Warwick, good morning. 

GLOUCESTER AND CLARENCE

Good morning to you. 

LANCASTER

We're all acting like men who have forgotten how to speak.

WARWICK

We remember how to speak, but the subject we have to talk about is too sad for us to want to say much about it. 

LANCASTER

Well, peace be with the late king, the man who has made us sad. 

CHIEF JUSTICE

And peace be with us, or we'll be even sadder. 

GLOUCESTER

Oh, my good lord, you have certainly lost a friend. I am sure that the sorrow you wear on your face is not borrowed. It is truly yours. 

LANCASTER

Although no man knows what is going to happen to him, you get used to expecting very little from life. I am sorry, I wish things could be different. 

CLARENCE

Well, now we're even going to be expected to say nice things about Sir John Falstaff—which goes against the normal behavior of noble people.

CHIEF JUSTICE

Sweet princes, everything I have done, I did honorably—motivated by impartiality and my moral nature. You will never see me horribly begging for a pardon only for the pardon to be taken away again. If truth and real innocence aren't enough to save me, then I will follow after my dead master, the late King, and tell him who has sent me.  

WARWICK

Here comes the Prince. 

CHIEF JUSTICE

Good morning, and may God save your Majesty. 

PRINCE HENRY

This new addition of the word "majesty" doesn't suit me as well you might think. 

[To LANCASTER, CLARENCE, and GLOUCESTER] Brothers, your sadness seems to be mixed with some fear. This is the English court, not the Turkish one. I am not like Amurath, who killed all of his brothers when he succeeded the late king Amurath. I'm just a Harry, following another Harry. It's all right to be sad, my good brothers. And honestly, it suits you. You all look so grand in your sorrow that I will try and put it on as well, and will wear it in my heart. Be sad, my good brothers. But think of this sadness as a burden which we must all share. I want you to know that as far as I'm concerned, I will be both your father and your brother as well. Give me your love, and I will take car e of you. For now, keep crying for the dead Harry, and I will too. But there is still a living Harry who will gradually change those tears into hours of happiness. 

PRINCES

We hope for nothing more from your Majesty. 

PRINCE HENRY

You are all still looking at me strangely, though.

[To the CHIEF JUSTICE] You most of all. You are convinced that I do not love you, isn't that right?

CHIEF JUSTICE

I am certain that, if you judge me fairly, you should have no reason to hate me. 

PRINCE HENRY

No? How could a great prince forget the awful things you did to me? What, did you think you could judge, punish, and violently send to prison the next heir of England? Did you find this an easy thing to do? Do you think your wrongdoings can now just be washed in the Lethe  River and forgotten?

CHIEF JUSTICE

I was acting on behalf of your father, with the power and responsibility that he had given me. And in terms of the law, while I was busy keeping the country safe, you ignored my rank and the authority and power of law and justice that I had, as a representative of the King. You hit me in the head—the very location of my judgement. And since this action went against your father's laws, I used my power as I was meant to and arrested you. If that was the wrong thing to do, then are you prepared, now that you wear the crown, to have a son who ignores all of your laws? A son who mocks the judges that enforce these laws? A son who disrupts the law and blunts the swords that looks after your own peace and safety? Or even worse, mocks you and the actions taken by the men you have chosen to work for you? Ask yourself these questions, and put yourself in his position. Think of yourself as a father and imagine a son who disrespects your dignity and so easily ignores your most important laws. Think about how it would feel to be scorned by such a son. Then imagine that I support you, and use your power to gently silence your son. Sentence me only after you have considered all of this. Now that you are King, tell me what I have done to overstep my role, my person, or my lord's power. 

PRINCE HENRY

You are right, Justice. And you have made your case very well. Therefore, keep your role as a judge and an enforcer of the law. I hope that your honors will increase and you will even live to see a son of mine offend you and then obey you—just as I have done. In that way, I will live to speak my father's words, "I am happy to have a man who is brave enough to even punish my own son; I am just as happy that my son is prepared to give up his greatness in the name of the law." You did arrest me, and for that I ask you to continue in your role, remembering this: you must always be as brave, just, and impartial as you have been with me. Shake my hand. You will be like a father to me in my young age, and I will say the things that you whisper in my ear. I will bow to you and will be humble in my ideas, needing your years of experience and wise ideas to help me.

[To LANCASTER, CLARENCE, and GLOUCESTER] And, princes, I am asking you to please believe me about this. My wildness is buried with my father; my passions now lie in his tomb. His sensible spirit now lies in me, and I am ready to prove the world wrong, defying their expectations of me. I am going to challenge their predictions, and will destroy the bad opinions of me held by people who judged me based on what I seemed to be like in the past. My actions, the tide of my blood—both used to flow with excess and vanity. But now it is changing its course and turning back to the sea, where it will be able to mix with the ocean's majesty. Now we must assemble parliament, and choose worthy members for this noble council who will allow our country to stand alongside even the best-governed nations. We will be acquainted and familiar with matters of war, peace, or even both at once—and you will be needed greatly for this. Once my coronation is over, we will, as I have mentioned, summon all men of rank. And, if God endorses my good intention, there will be no reason for any prince or man to say that he hopes that God will shorten Harry's happy life by even one day.