QUEEN MARGARET | |
Great lords, wise men ne'er sit and wail their loss, | |
| | But cheerly seek how to redress their harms. | |
| | What though the mast be now blown overboard, | |
| | The cable broke, the holding-anchor lost, | |
| | And half our sailors swallow'd in the flood? | 5 |
| | Yet lives our pilot still. Is't meet that he | |
| | Should leave the helm and like a fearful lad | |
| | With tearful eyes add water to the sea | |
| | And give more strength to that which hath too much, | |
| | Whiles, in his moan, the ship splits on the rock, | 10 |
| | Which industry and courage might have saved? | |
| | Ah, what a shame! ah, what a fault were this! | |
| | Say Warwick was our anchor; what of that? | |
| | And Montague our topmost; what of him? | |
| | Our slaughter'd friends the tackles; what of these? | 15 |
| | Why, is not Oxford here another anchor? | |
| | And Somerset another goodly mast? | |
| | The friends of France our shrouds and tacklings? | |
| | And, though unskilful, why not Ned and I | |
| | For once allow'd the skilful pilot's charge? | 20 |
| | We will not from the helm to sit and weep, | |
| | But keep our course, though the rough wind say no, | |
| | From shelves and rocks that threaten us with wreck. | |
| | As good to chide the waves as speak them fair. | |
| | And what is Edward but ruthless sea? | 25 |
| | What Clarence but a quicksand of deceit? | |
| | And Richard but a ragged fatal rock? | |
| | All these the enemies to our poor bark. | |
| | Say you can swim; alas, 'tis but a while! | |
| | Tread on the sand; why, there you quickly sink: | 30 |
| | Bestride the rock; the tide will wash you off, | |
| | Or else you famish; that's a threefold death. | |
| | This speak I, lords, to let you understand, | |
| | If case some one of you would fly from us, | |
| | That there's no hoped-for mercy with the brothers | 35 |
| | More than with ruthless waves, with sands and rocks. | |
| | Why, courage then! what cannot be avoided | |
| | 'Twere childish weakness to lament or fear. | |
PRINCE EDWARD | |
Methinks a woman of this valiant spirit | |
| | Should, if a coward heard her speak these words, | 40 |
| | Infuse his breast with magnanimity | |
| | And make him, naked, foil a man at arms. | |
| | I speak not this as doubting any here | |
| | For did I but suspect a fearful man | |
| | He should have leave to go away betimes, | 45 |
| | Lest in our need he might infect another | |
| | And make him of like spirit to himself. | |
| | If any such be here--as God forbid!-- | |
| | Let him depart before we need his help. | |
QUEEN MARGARET | |
Lords, knights, and gentlemen, what I should say | |
| | My tears gainsay; for every word I speak, | |
| | Ye see, I drink the water of mine eyes. | |
| | Therefore, no more but this: Henry, your sovereign, | 75 |
| | Is prisoner to the foe; his state usurp'd, | |
| | His realm a slaughter-house, his subjects slain, | |
| | His statutes cancell'd and his treasure spent; | |
| | And yonder is the wolf that makes this spoil. | |
| | You fight in justice: then, in God's name, lords, | 80 |
| | Be valiant and give signal to the fight. | |
| | [Alarum. Retreat. Excursions. Exeunt] |
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