The First Part Of Henry The Sixth

1 Enter the Earls of Somerset, Suffolk, and Warwick; Richard Plantagenet,
2 Vernon and another Lawyer.
3 PLANTAGENET.
4 Great lords and gentlemen, what means this silence?
5 Dare no man answer in a case of truth?
6 SUFFOLK.
7 Within the Temple Hall we were too loud;
8 The garden here is more convenient.
9 PLANTAGENET.
10 Then say at once if I maintain’d the truth;
11 Or else was wrangling Somerset in th’ error?
12 SUFFOLK.
13 Faith, I have been a truant in the law
14 And never yet could frame my will to it;
15 And therefore frame the law unto my will.
16 SOMERSET.
17 Judge you, my Lord of Warwick, then, between us.
18 WARWICK.
19 Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch;
20 Between two dogs, which hath the deeper mouth;
21 Between two blades, which bears the better temper;
22 Between two horses, which doth bear him best;
23 Between two girls, which hath the merriest eye;
24 I have perhaps some shallow spirit of judgement;
25 But in these nice sharp quillets of the law,
26 Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw.
27 PLANTAGENET.
28 Tut, tut, here is a mannerly forbearance!
29 The truth appears so naked on my side
30 That any purblind eye may find it out.
31 SOMERSET.
32 And on my side it is so well apparell’d,
33 So clear, so shining and so evident,
34 That it will glimmer through a blind man’s eye.
35 PLANTAGENET.
36 Since you are tongue-tied and so loath to speak,
37 In dumb significants proclaim your thoughts:
38 Let him that is a true-born gentleman
39 And stands upon the honour of his birth,
40 If he suppose that I have pleaded truth,
41 From off this brier pluck a white rose with me.
42 SOMERSET.
43 Let him that is no coward nor no flatterer,
44 But dare maintain the party of the truth,
45 Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me.
46 WARWICK.
47 I love no colours, and without all colour
48 Of base insinuating flattery
49 I pluck this white rose with Plantagenet.
50 SUFFOLK.
51 I pluck this red rose with young Somerset,
52 And say withal I think he held the right.
53 VERNON.
54 Stay, lords and gentlemen, and pluck no more
55 Till you conclude that he upon whose side
56 The fewest roses are cropp’d from the tree
57 Shall yield the other in the right opinion.
58 SOMERSET.
59 Good Master Vernon, it is well objected:
60 If I have fewest, I subscribe in silence.
61 PLANTAGENET.
62 And I.
63 VERNON.
64 Then for the truth and plainness of the case,
65 I pluck this pale and maiden blossom here,
66 Giving my verdict on the white rose side.
67 SOMERSET.
68 Prick not your finger as you pluck it off,
69 Lest, bleeding, you do paint the white rose red,
70 And fall on my side so against your will.
71 VERNON.
72 If I, my lord, for my opinion bleed,
73 Opinion shall be surgeon to my hurt
74 And keep me on the side where still I am.
75 SOMERSET.
76 Well, well, come on, who else?
77 LAWYER.
78 Unless my study and my books be false,
79 [_To Somerset._]
80 The argument you held was wrong in law;
81 In sign whereof I pluck a white rose too.
82 PLANTAGENET.
83 Now, Somerset, where is your argument?
84 SOMERSET.
85 Here in my scabbard, meditating that
86 Shall dye your white rose in a bloody red.
87 PLANTAGENET.
88 Meantime your cheeks do counterfeit our roses;
89 For pale they look with fear, as witnessing
90 The truth on our side.
91 SOMERSET.
92 No, Plantagenet,
93 ’Tis not for fear but anger that thy cheeks
94 Blush for pure shame to counterfeit our roses,
95 And yet thy tongue will not confess thy error.
96 PLANTAGENET.
97 Hath not thy rose a canker, Somerset?
98 SOMERSET.
99 Hath not thy rose a thorn, Plantagenet?
100 PLANTAGENET.
101 Ay, sharp and piercing, to maintain his truth;
102 Whiles thy consuming canker eats his falsehood.
103 SOMERSET.
104 Well, I’ll find friends to wear my bleeding roses,
105 That shall maintain what I have said is true,
106 Where false Plantagenet dare not be seen.
107 PLANTAGENET.
108 Now, by this maiden blossom in my hand,
109 I scorn thee and thy fashion, peevish boy.
110 SUFFOLK.
111 Turn not thy scorns this way, Plantagenet.
112 PLANTAGENET.
113 Proud Pole, I will, and scorn both him and thee.
114 SUFFOLK.
115 I’ll turn my part thereof into thy throat.
116 SOMERSET.
117 Away, away, good William de la Pole!
118 We grace the yeoman by conversing with him.
119 WARWICK.
120 Now, by God’s will, thou wrong’st him, Somerset;
121 His grandfather was Lionel Duke of Clarence,
122 Third son to the third Edward King of England.
123 Spring crestless yeomen from so deep a root?
124 PLANTAGENET.
125 He bears him on the place’s privilege,
126 Or durst not for his craven heart, say thus.
127 SOMERSET.
128 By Him that made me, I’ll maintain my words
129 On any plot of ground in Christendom.
130 Was not thy father, Richard Earl of Cambridge,
131 For treason executed in our late king’s days?
132 And, by his treason, stand’st not thou attainted,
133 Corrupted, and exempt from ancient gentry?
134 His trespass yet lives guilty in thy blood;
135 And, till thou be restored, thou art a yeoman.
136 PLANTAGENET.
137 My father was attached, not attainted,
138 Condemn’d to die for treason, but no traitor;
139 And that I’ll prove on better men than Somerset,
140 Were growing time once ripen’d to my will.
141 For your partaker Pole and you yourself,
142 I’ll note you in my book of memory,
143 To scourge you for this apprehension.
144 Look to it well, and say you are well warn’d.
145 SOMERSET.
146 Ah, thou shalt find us ready for thee still;
147 And know us by these colours for thy foes,
148 For these my friends in spite of thee shall wear.
149 PLANTAGENET.
150 And, by my soul, this pale and angry rose,
151 As cognizance of my blood-drinking hate,
152 Will I for ever and my faction wear,
153 Until it wither with me to my grave,
154 Or flourish to the height of my degree.
155 SUFFOLK.
156 Go forward, and be chok’d with thy ambition!
157 And so farewell until I meet thee next.
158 [_Exit._]
159 SOMERSET.
160 Have with thee, Pole. Farewell, ambitious Richard.
161 [_Exit._]
162 PLANTAGENET.
163 How I am braved and must perforce endure it!
164 WARWICK.
165 This blot that they object against your house
166 Shall be wiped out in the next parliament
167 Call’d for the truce of Winchester and Gloucester;
168 And if thou be not then created York,
169 I will not live to be accounted Warwick.
170 Meantime, in signal of my love to thee,
171 Against proud Somerset and William Pole,
172 Will I upon thy party wear this rose.
173 And here I prophesy: this brawl today,
174 Grown to this faction in the Temple Garden,
175 Shall send between the Red Rose and the White
176 A thousand souls to death and deadly night.
177 PLANTAGENET.
178 Good Master Vernon, I am bound to you,
179 That you on my behalf would pluck a flower.
180 VERNON.
181 In your behalf still will I wear the same.
182 LAWYER.
183 And so will I.
184 PLANTAGENET.
185 Thanks, gentlemen.
186 Come, let us four to dinner. I dare say
187 This quarrel will drink blood another day.
188 [_Exeunt._]