_Win._ [_Aside, gloating_] Weep, fool, my star is in my hand! _Pem._ God send you comfort, sire. [_Exeunt Winchester and Pembroke_] _Hen._ [_To attendant_] Let none approach me. [_Exit attendant._] _Henry sings_] I laid a rose upon my heart, Ay me! Soon 'gan its beauty to depart, Ay, ay me! I nursed it with desire, Still did its beauty go. For O, my heart was fire, Cruel fire! Ay me, I did not know, I did not know. [_Enter a friar through panel door behind altar_] Art thou a shadow come to say All men are shadows and naught living is? _Friar._ I come to give God's help and ask for thine, My son and king. _Hen._ 'Tis death, sir, thus to steal Into my presence. _Friar._ So I prove my love For thee, your highness, venturing life to reach Thine ear's seclusion. _Hen._ What wouldst tell me, father? I've heard your voice before and found it honest. By that, mayhap, we'll prove old friends. Come in. [_Exeunt_] SCENE 2. _A prison corridor. Kent alone._ _Kent._ Is this the end of Kent? The block and axe His porters to throw ope the sealed gate? I thought a good wife's prayers had ushered me, And weeping peers had held my garments back Until the soul disdained to hide therein. ... What value's in this world that men will buy 't With so much groaning? This strange human chaos Where vice is often merit, merit vice, Or if they be themselves so change deserts That wisdom is clapped to gallows, folly to thrones. And innocence lifts up thin, fettered hands While guilt walks angel free. Where palsy shakes The pen from the seer's hand, and crowing health Bids fools to write; where Fame forgets to blush At Flattery's board, and Honor, pendulous 'Twixt bribe and faith, dwindles inert and like A withered finger shames the hand of state. ... Where Margarets can stripe their souls' pure white With guileless blood. She, she that was a dove To falcon turn and rend a fledgling's breast! It casts a doubt on Heaven, makes of faith A leper scourged from man's hale faculties, And love a monster of diseased minds! Come, dearest Death, and mis-shaped world away! [_Margaret is admitted, left, by a turnkey_] _Turnkey._ You're honest? All your jewels, ma'am? _Mar._ Ay, all! They have been praised, but had no worth till now When each one buys a minute with my lord. [_Exeunt turnkey, locking door_] [_Margaret comes down corridor toward Kent, her hands behind her_] _Kent._ [_Looking up_] What devil drove you here? _Mar._ Did Hubert speak?