The First Web Folio Edition of Shakespeare's Works
Before York. |
[Flourish. Enter KING HENRY VI, QUEEN MARGARET, | ||
PRINCE EDWARD, CLIFFORD, and NORTHUMBERLAND, with | ||
drum and trumpets] |
QUEEN MARGARET | Welcome, my lord, to this brave town of York. | ||
Yonder's the head of that arch-enemy | |||
That sought to be encompass'd with your crown: | |||
Doth not the object cheer your heart, my lord? |
KING HENRY VI | Ay, as the rocks cheer them that fear their wreck: | 5 | |
To see this sight, it irks my very soul. | |||
Withhold revenge, dear God! 'tis not my fault, | |||
Nor wittingly have I infringed my vow. |
CLIFFORD | My gracious liege, this too much lenity | ||
And harmful pity must be laid aside. | 10 | ||
To whom do lions cast their gentle looks? | |||
Not to the beast that would usurp their den. | |||
Whose hand is that the forest bear doth lick? | |||
Not his that spoils her young before her face. | |||
Who 'scapes the lurking serpent's mortal sting? | 15 | ||
Not he that sets his foot upon her back. | |||
The smallest worm will turn being trodden on, | |||
And doves will peck in safeguard of their brood. | |||
Ambitious York doth level at thy crown, | |||
Thou smiling while he knit his angry brows: | 20 | ||
He, but a duke, would have his son a king, | |||
And raise his issue, like a loving sire; | |||
Thou, being a king, blest with a goodly son, | |||
Didst yield consent to disinherit him, | |||
Which argued thee a most unloving father. | 25 | ||
Unreasonable creatures feed their young; | |||
And though man's face be fearful to their eyes, | |||
Yet, in protection of their tender ones, | |||
Who hath not seen them, even with those wings | |||
Which sometime they have used with fearful flight, | 30 | ||
Make war with him that climb'd unto their nest, | |||
Offer their own lives in their young's defence? | |||
For shame, my liege, make them your precedent! | |||
Were it not pity that this goodly boy | |||
Should lose his birthright by his father's fault, | 35 | ||
And long hereafter say unto his child, | |||
'What my great-grandfather and his grandsire got | |||
My careless father fondly gave away'? | |||
Ah, what a shame were this! Look on the boy; | |||
And let his manly face, which promiseth | 40 | ||
Successful fortune, steel thy melting heart | |||
To hold thine own and leave thine own with him. |
KING HENRY VI | Full well hath Clifford play'd the orator, | ||
Inferring arguments of mighty force. | |||
But, Clifford, tell me, didst thou never hear | 45 | ||
That things ill-got had ever bad success? | |||
And happy always was it for that son | |||
Whose father for his hoarding went to hell? | |||
I'll leave my son my virtuous deeds behind; | |||
And would my father had left me no more! | 50 | ||
For all the rest is held at such a rate | |||
As brings a thousand-fold more care to keep | |||
Than in possession and jot of pleasure. | |||
Ah, cousin York! would thy best friends did know | |||
How it doth grieve me that thy head is here! | 55 |
QUEEN MARGARET | My lord, cheer up your spirits: our foes are nigh, | ||
And this soft courage makes your followers faint. | |||
You promised knighthood to our forward son: | |||
Unsheathe your sword, and dub him presently. | |||
Edward, kneel down. | 60 |
KING HENRY VI | Edward Plantagenet, arise a knight; | ||
And learn this lesson, draw thy sword in right. |
PRINCE | My gracious father, by your kingly leave, | ||
I'll draw it as apparent to the crown, | |||
And in that quarrel use it to the death. | 65 |
CLIFFORD | Why, that is spoken like a toward prince. | ||
[Enter a Messenger] |
Messenger | Royal commanders, be in readiness: | ||
For with a band of thirty thousand men | |||
Comes Warwick, backing of the Duke of York; | |||
And in the towns, as they do march along, | 70 | ||
Proclaims him king, and many fly to him: | |||
Darraign your battle, for they are at hand. |
CLIFFORD | I would your highness would depart the field: | ||
The queen hath best success when you are absent. |
QUEEN MARGARET | Ay, good my lord, and leave us to our fortune. | 75 |
KING HENRY VI | Why, that's my fortune too; therefore I'll stay. |
NORTHUMBERLAND | Be it with resolution then to fight. |
PRINCE EDWARD | My royal father, cheer these noble lords | ||
And hearten those that fight in your defence: | |||
Unsheathe your sword, good father; cry 'Saint George!' | 80 | ||
[March. Enter EDWARD, GEORGE, RICHARD, WARWICK, | |||
NORFOLK, MONTAGUE, and Soldiers] |
EDWARD | Now, perjured Henry! wilt thou kneel for grace, | ||
And set thy diadem upon my head; | |||
Or bide the mortal fortune of the field? |
QUEEN MARGARET | Go, rate thy minions, proud insulting boy! | ||
Becomes it thee to be thus bold in terms | 85 | ||
Before thy sovereign and thy lawful king? |
EDWARD | I am his king, and he should bow his knee; | ||
I was adopted heir by his consent: | |||
Since when, his oath is broke; for, as I hear, | |||
You, that are king, though he do wear the crown, | 90 | ||
Have caused him, by new act of parliament, | |||
To blot out me, and put his own son in. |
CLIFFORD | And reason too: | ||
Who should succeed the father but the son? |
RICHARD | Are you there, butcher? O, I cannot speak! | 95 |
CLIFFORD | Ay, crook-back, here I stand to answer thee, | ||
Or any he the proudest of thy sort. |
RICHARD | 'Twas you that kill'd young Rutland, was it not? |
CLIFFORD | Ay, and old York, and yet not satisfied. |
RICHARD | For God's sake, lords, give signal to the fight. | 100 |
WARWICK | What say'st thou, Henry, wilt thou yield the crown? |
QUEEN MARGARET | Why, how now, long-tongued Warwick! dare you speak? | ||
When you and I met at Saint Alban's last, | |||
Your legs did better service than your hands. |
WARWICK | Then 'twas my turn to fly, and now 'tis thine. | 105 |
CLIFFORD | You said so much before, and yet you fled. |
WARWICK | 'Twas not your valour, Clifford, drove me thence. |
NORTHUMBERLAND | No, nor your manhood that durst make you stay. |
RICHARD | Northumberland, I hold thee reverently. | ||
Break off the parley; for scarce I can refrain | 110 | ||
The execution of my big-swoln heart | |||
Upon that Clifford, that cruel child-killer. |
CLIFFORD | I slew thy father, call'st thou him a child? |
RICHARD | Ay, like a dastard and a treacherous coward, | ||
As thou didst kill our tender brother Rutland; | 115 | ||
But ere sunset I'll make thee curse the deed. |
KING HENRY VI | Have done with words, my lords, and hear me speak. |
QUEEN MARGARET | Defy them then, or else hold close thy lips. |
KING HENRY VI | I prithee, give no limits to my tongue: | ||
I am a king, and privileged to speak. | 120 |
CLIFFORD | My liege, the wound that bred this meeting here | ||
Cannot be cured by words; therefore be still. |
RICHARD | Then, executioner, unsheathe thy sword: | ||
By him that made us all, I am resolved | |||
that Clifford's manhood lies upon his tongue. | 125 |
EDWARD | Say, Henry, shall I have my right, or no? | ||
A thousand men have broke their fasts to-day, | |||
That ne'er shall dine unless thou yield the crown. |
WARWICK | If thou deny, their blood upon thy head; | ||
For York in justice puts his armour on. | 130 |
PRINCE EDWARD | If that be right which Warwick says is right, | ||
There is no wrong, but every thing is right. |
RICHARD | Whoever got thee, there thy mother stands; | ||
For, well I wot, thou hast thy mother's tongue. |
QUEEN MARGARET | But thou art neither like thy sire nor dam; | 135 | |
But like a foul mis-shapen stigmatic, | |||
Mark'd by the destinies to be avoided, | |||
As venom toads, or lizards' dreadful stings. |
RICHARD | Iron of Naples hid with English gilt, | ||
Whose father bears the title of a king,-- | 140 | ||
As if a channel should be call'd the sea,-- | |||
Shamest thou not, knowing whence thou art extraught, | |||
To let thy tongue detect thy base-born heart? |
EDWARD | A wisp of straw were worth a thousand crowns, | ||
To make this shameless callet know herself. | 145 | ||
Helen of Greece was fairer far than thou, | |||
Although thy husband may be Menelaus; | |||
And ne'er was Agamemnon's brother wrong'd | |||
By that false woman, as this king by thee. | |||
His father revell'd in the heart of France, | 150 | ||
And tamed the king, and made the dauphin stoop; | |||
And had he match'd according to his state, | |||
He might have kept that glory to this day; | |||
But when he took a beggar to his bed, | |||
And graced thy poor sire with his bridal-day, | 155 | ||
Even then that sunshine brew'd a shower for him, | |||
That wash'd his father's fortunes forth of France, | |||
And heap'd sedition on his crown at home. | |||
For what hath broach'd this tumult but thy pride? | |||
Hadst thou been meek, our title still had slept; | 160 | ||
And we, in pity of the gentle king, | |||
Had slipp'd our claim until another age. |
GEORGE | But when we saw our sunshine made thy spring, | ||
And that thy summer bred us no increase, | |||
We set the axe to thy usurping root; | 165 | ||
And though the edge hath something hit ourselves, | |||
Yet, know thou, since we have begun to strike, | |||
We'll never leave till we have hewn thee down, | |||
Or bathed thy growing with our heated bloods. |
EDWARD | And, in this resolution, I defy thee; | 170 | |
Not willing any longer conference, | |||
Since thou deniest the gentle king to speak. | |||
Sound trumpets! let our bloody colours wave! | |||
And either victory, or else a grave. |
QUEEN MARGARET | Stay, Edward. | 175 |
EDWARD | No, wrangling woman, we'll no longer stay: | ||
These words will cost ten thousand lives this day. | |||
[Exeunt] |
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