All: It's good to be the King. Give ME that crown!
RUMOR: Upon my tongues continual slanders ride, The which in every language I pronounce. Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.
The heir to Henry IV's throne is his eldest son, Prince Hal. The prince is a continual worry to his father and the court because his behavior is out of control. While Prince Hal is a fierce warrior in battle, his private life is spent with a gang of thieves, drunks and prostitutes. He spends his days with a notorious rogue, John Falstaff, and hangs about at Mistress Quickly's Tavern and brothel. The Prince was even arrested and only his royalty kept him from prison.
The Chief Justice comes to the tavern to arrest Falstaff for a robbery he committed with Prince Hal. Falstaff denies it and uses the Prince's influence to escape prison.
CHIEF JUSTICE: There are matters against you for your life. The truth is, Sir John, you live in great infamy. You have mislead the youthful prince.
FALSTAFF: Virtue is of so little regard in these costermongers' times that true valor is turned bearherd....all the other gifts are not worth a gooseberry.
Falstaff promises to join Henry IV's army and fight in the coming battle, and the Chief Justice lets him off since the King has assigned Falstaff a different company than the prince. Then Falstaff, who is always in debt, asks the Chief Justice for some money!
CHIEF JUSTICE: Well, the King hath severed you and Prince Hal. I hear you are going with Lancaster against the Archbishop and Northumberland.
FALSTAFF: Will your Lordship lend me a thousand pound to furnish me forth?
CHIEF JUSTICE: Not a penny, not a penny!
The battles for the throne of England continue, rumors feed the plots against the throne, rebels organize, and the royal treasury is nearly empty.
All: It's good to be the King. Give ME that crown!
The rebels think they can outnumber King Henry's forces and win, knowing that they have more money to supply their armies.
HASTINGS: I think we are a body strong enough, even as we are, to equal with the King.
LORD BARDOLPH: What, is the King but five-and-twenty thousand?
HASTINGS: The unfirm king is in three divided, and his coffers sound with hollow poverty and emptiness.
ARCHBISHOP: That he should draw his several strengths together need not to be dreaded.
The King's forces prepare to meet their rivals, and agree to forget their differences in view of the coming battle. In his sleepless nights the King's greatest worry is what will happen to the kingdom when Prince Hal becomes ruler.
KING: How many thousand of my poorest subjects are at this hour asleep! O sleep, O gentle sleep, canst thou deny it to a king? Then happy low, lie down, Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
All: It's good to be the King. Give ME that crown!
Meanwhile Prince Hal begins to reevaluate his friendship with Falstaff and the gang at Mistress Quickly's tavern. . .
PRINCE to Falstaff: Why, thou globe of sinful continents, what a life dost thou lead?
FALSTAFF: A better than thou. I am a gentleman. Thou art a drawer.
PRINCE: Very true, sir, and I come to draw you out by the ears.
HOSTESS: Who knocks so loud at the door? Look to the door there.
Enter a messenger: to the Prince: The King your father is at Westminister.
PRINCE: By heaven, I feel me much to blame so idly to profane the precious time...give me my sword and cloak.- Falstaff, good night.
King Henry's forces manage to prevail and the kingdom is secure, but these trials have taken a severe toll on his health, and he fears he has not much longer to live. Prince Hal gets word of his father's illness and finally realizes his royal obligations.
WESTMORELAND: Health to my sovereign, and new happiness...there is not now a rebel's sword unsheathed, but peace puts forth her olive everywhere.
KING: And wherefore should these good news make me sick? O me! Come near me now, I am much ill.
King Henry IV calls for his chief ministers and his sons to be with him in his last hours. They gather and the king becomes weak and must lie down.
HUMPHREY: This apoplexy will certain be his end.
KING: I pray you take me up and bear me hence into some other chamber. Softly, pray....Set me the crown upon my pillow here.
CLARENCE: His eye is hollow and he changes much.
All: It's good to be the King. Give ME that crown!
Prince Hal arrives and goes in to see his father.
WARWICK: The King your father is disposed to sleep. Will it please your Grace to go away with us?
PRINCE: No, I will sit and watch here by the King.
Prince Hal looks at his father and sees the crown lying on the pillow; he swiftly picks it up.
PRINCE: My gracious lord, my father, this sleep is sound indeed. This is a sleep that from this golden ring hath divorced so many English kings. Thy due from me is tears and heavy sorrows. My due from thee is this imperial crown.
The Prince puts the crown on his own head and leaves the room. Shortly thereafter the king wakes up.
All: It's good to be the King. Give ME that crown!
KING: Warwick! Gloucester! Clarence! Why did you leave me here alone?
ALL: We left the Prince, my liege, who undertook to sit and watch by you.
KING: The Prince of Wales? Where is he? Where is the crown? Who took it from my pillow?
WARWICK: When we withdrew, My liege, we left it here.
KING: The Prince hath taken it hence. Go seek him out. Is he so hasty that he doth suppose my sleep my death?
Prince Hal is found nearby, overcome with grief and with tears streaming down his cheeks. He apologizes to his father, but the king soundly reprimands him.
KING: I stay too long by thee; I weary thee. Dost thou so hunger for mine empty chair that thou wilt needs invest thee with my honors before thy hour be ripe? O foolish youth, thou seek'st the greatness that will overwhelm thee.
All: It's good to be the King. Give ME that crown!
The king then, with his last strength, tell Prince Hal of the dangers facing a ruler, both from abroad and also from among his own countrymen. He worries that Hal could not control his own behavior, and will not be able to keep England under control.
KING: And to the English court assemble now, from every region, apes of idleness....O my poor kingdom, sick with civil blows! When that my care could not withhold thy riots, what wilt thou do when riot is thy care?
Prince Hal wipes away his tears and swears to his father that he will turn away from his past and take responsibility for the kingdom.
PRINCE: O, let me in my present wildness die and never live to show th' incredulous world the noble change that I have purposed.
The king then tells Hal that the best way secure the kingdom is to confront a foreign enemy and to keep England united and focused on battles with outsiders.
KING: Therefore, my Harry, be it thy course to busy giddy minds with foreign quarrels.
Soon thereafter King Henry IV passes peacefully to rest and Prince Hal has apologized to the Chief Justice who had once arrested him, promising that his rule will abide by the laws.
Falstaff and the gang are overjoyed that their companion will rule the land. Falstaff promises everyone he owes money to that he will repay them with money from the king and they rush out to the procession where Hal is on his way to be officially crowned as King Henry V.
All: It's good to be the King. Give Henry V the Crown! God Save King Henry!
FALSTAFF: Stand here by me Master Shallow, I will make the King do you grace...God save thy Grace, King Hal, my royal Hal.
KING HENRY V: I know thee not, old man. Fall to thy prayers. Presume not that I am the thing I was, for God doth know - so shall the world perceive- that I have turned away from my former self. So will I those that kept me company.
The Chief Justice comes and arrests Falstaff for his crimes, and King Henry V is crowned, and taking his father's advice, leads England to recapture lands in France. King Henry V lives on in history as England's legendary warrior king.
All: It's good to be the King. Give Henry, Prince of Wales, the Crown! God Save King Henry!