Alas,
your too much love and care of me
Are
heavy orisons ‘gainst this poor wretch!
-King Henry
King Henry the Fifth Act II Scene ii, Line 52
Henry is talking to Scroop (I love that name), Cambridge, and Thomas
Grey. They’re discussing the punishment for some anonymous henchman, this poor
wretch, who apparently rail’d against the king. I’m not sure exactly what that
means, but it sounds like he got drunk and was going off about Henry.
Henry says the
guy just had too much wine, so let him go. These other three want him punished,
because he needs to be made an example of for the sake of Henry’s safety, and
that’s what Henry is responding to in today’s Totally Random line. Orisons
in this context are pleas.
Of course, the funny
part about this is that several lines down the king arrests all three of these
guys for treason. When they appeal to him for mercy he answers
The mercy that was quick in us but
late,
By your own counsel is suppress’d and
kill’d:
You must not dare, for shame, to talk of
mercy;
What comes around
goes around, eh?
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