O sleep, O gentle sleep, 5 Nature’s soft nurse, how have I frighted thee, 6 That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down 7 And steep my senses in forgetfulness?
⟨ACT 3⟩
⟨Scene 1⟩
Enter the King in his nightgown ⟨with a Page⟩.
KING
Go call the Earls of Surrey and of Warwick; 1
But, ere they come, bid them o’erread these letters 2
And well consider of them. Make good speed. 3
< Page > ⟨exits.⟩
How many thousand of my poorest subjects 4 Are at this hour asleep! O sleep, O gentle sleep, 5
Nature’s soft nurse, how have I frighted thee, 6
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down 7
And steep my senses in forgetfulness? 8
Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs, 9
Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee, 10
And hushed with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber, 11
Than in the perfumed chambers of the great, 12
Under the canopies of costly state, 13
And lulled with sound of sweetest melody? 14
O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile 15
In loathsome beds and leavest the kingly couch 16
A watch-case or a common ’larum bell? 17
Wilt thou upon the high and giddy ⟨mast⟩ 18
Seal up the shipboy’s eyes and rock his brains 19
In cradle of the rude imperious surge 20
And in the visitation of the winds, 21
Who take the ruffian ⟨billows⟩ by the top, 22
Curling their monstrous heads and hanging them 23
With deafing clamor in the slippery clouds 24
That with the hurly death itself awakes? 25
Canst thou, O partial sleep, give ⟨thy⟩ repose 26
To the wet ⟨sea-boy⟩ in an hour so rude, 27
And, in the calmest and most stillest night, 28
With all appliances and means to boot, 29
Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down. 30
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. 31
Enter Warwick, Surrey and Sir John Blunt.
