The First Part Of Henry The Sixth

1 Flourish. Enter King, Exeter, Gloucester, the Bishop of Winchester,
2 Richard Plantagenet, Warwick, and Somerset, Suffolk, and others.
3 Gloucester offers to put up a bill. Winchester snatches it, tears it.
4 WINCHESTER.
5 Com’st thou with deep premeditated lines,
6 With written pamphlets studiously devised,
7 Humphrey of Gloucester? If thou canst accuse
8 Or aught intend’st to lay unto my charge,
9 Do it without invention, suddenly;
10 As I with sudden and extemporal speech
11 Purpose to answer what thou canst object.
12 GLOUCESTER.
13 Presumptuous priest, this place commands my patience,
14 Or thou shouldst find thou hast dishonour’d me.
15 Think not, although in writing I preferr’d
16 The manner of thy vile outrageous crimes,
17 That therefore I have forged, or am not able
18 Verbatim to rehearse the method of my pen.
19 No, prelate; such is thy audacious wickedness,
20 Thy lewd, pestiferous, and dissentious pranks,
21 As very infants prattle of thy pride.
22 Thou art a most pernicious usurer,
23 Froward by nature, enemy to peace;
24 Lascivious, wanton, more than well beseems
25 A man of thy profession and degree;
26 And for thy treachery, what’s more manifest,
27 In that thou laid’st a trap to take my life,
28 As well at London Bridge as at the Tower?
29 Beside, I fear me, if thy thoughts are sifted,
30 The King, thy sovereign, is not quite exempt
31 From envious malice of thy swelling heart.
32 WINCHESTER.
33 Gloucester, I do defy thee. Lords, vouchsafe
34 To give me hearing what I shall reply.
35 If I were covetous, ambitious, or perverse,
36 As he will have me, how am I so poor?
37 Or how haps it I seek not to advance
38 Or raise myself, but keep my wonted calling?
39 And for dissension, who preferreth peace
40 More than I do, except I be provoked?
41 No, my good lords, it is not that offends;
42 It is not that that hath incensed the Duke.
43 It is because no one should sway but he,
44 No one but he should be about the King;
45 And that engenders thunder in his breast
46 And makes him roar these accusations forth.
47 But he shall know I am as good—
48 GLOUCESTER.
49 As good!
50 Thou bastard of my grandfather!
51 WINCHESTER.
52 Ay, lordly sir; for what are you, I pray,
53 But one imperious in another’s throne?
54 GLOUCESTER.
55 Am I not Protector, saucy priest?
56 WINCHESTER.
57 And am not I a prelate of the church?
58 GLOUCESTER.
59 Yes, as an outlaw in a castle keeps,
60 And useth it to patronage his theft.
61 WINCHESTER.
62 Unreverent Gloucester!
63 GLOUCESTER.
64 Thou art reverend
65 Touching thy spiritual function, not thy life.
66 WINCHESTER.
67 Rome shall remedy this.
68 GLOUCESTER.
69 Roam thither, then.
70 WARWICK.
71 My lord, it were your duty to forbear.
72 SOMERSET.
73 Ay, so the bishop be not overborne.
74 Methinks my lord should be religious,
75 And know the office that belongs to such.
76 WARWICK.
77 Methinks his lordship should be humbler;
78 It fitteth not a prelate so to plead.
79 SOMERSET.
80 Yes, when his holy state is touch’d so near.
81 WARWICK.
82 State holy or unhallow’d, what of that?
83 Is not his Grace Protector to the King?
84 PLANTAGENET.
85 [_Aside_.] Plantagenet, I see, must hold his tongue,
86 Lest it be said, “Speak, sirrah, when you should;
87 Must your bold verdict enter talk with lords?”
88 Else would I have a fling at Winchester.
89 KING HENRY.
90 Uncles of Gloucester and of Winchester,
91 The special watchmen of our English weal,
92 I would prevail, if prayers might prevail,
93 To join your hearts in love and amity.
94 O, what a scandal is it to our crown
95 That two such noble peers as ye should jar!
96 Believe me, lords, my tender years can tell
97 Civil dissension is a viperous worm
98 That gnaws the bowels of the commonwealth.
99 [_A noise within, “Down with the tawny-coats!”._]
100 What tumult’s this?
101 WARWICK.
102 An uproar, I dare warrant,
103 Begun through malice of the Bishop’s men.
104 [_A noise again, “Stones! stones!”_]
105 Enter Mayor.
106 MAYOR.
107 O, my good lords, and virtuous Henry,
108 Pity the city of London, pity us!
109 The Bishop and the Duke of Gloucester’s men,
110 Forbidden late to carry any weapon,
111 Have fill’d their pockets full of pebble stones
112 And, banding themselves in contrary parts,
113 Do pelt so fast at one another’s pate
114 That many have their giddy brains knock’d out;
115 Our windows are broke down in every street,
116 And we for fear compell’d to shut our shops.
117 Enter Servingmen in skirmish with bloody pates.
118 KING HENRY.
119 We charge you, on allegiance to ourself,
120 To hold your slaughtering hands and keep the peace.
121 Pray, uncle Gloucester, mitigate this strife.
122 FIRST SERVINGMAN.
123 Nay, if we be forbidden stones, we’ll fall to it with our teeth.
124 SECOND SERVINGMAN.
125 Do what ye dare, we are as resolute.
126 [_Skirmish again._]
127 GLOUCESTER.
128 You of my household, leave this peevish broil,
129 And set this unaccustom’d fight aside.
130 THIRD SERVINGMAN.
131 My lord, we know your Grace to be a man
132 Just and upright, and, for your royal birth,
133 Inferior to none but to his Majesty;
134 And ere that we will suffer such a prince,
135 So kind a father of the commonweal,
136 To be disgraced by an inkhorn mate,
137 We and our wives and children all will fight
138 And have our bodies slaughter’d by thy foes.
139 FIRST SERVINGMAN.
140 Ay, and the very parings of our nails
141 Shall pitch a field when we are dead.
142 [_Begin again._]
143 GLOUCESTER.
144 Stay, stay, I say!
145 And if you love me, as you say you do,
146 Let me persuade you to forbear awhile.
147 KING HENRY.
148 O, how this discord doth afflict my soul!
149 Can you, my Lord of Winchester, behold
150 My sighs and tears, and will not once relent?
151 Who should be pitiful, if you be not?
152 Or who should study to prefer a peace
153 If holy churchmen take delight in broils?
154 WARWICK.
155 Yield, my Lord Protector; yield, Winchester;
156 Except you mean with obstinate repulse
157 To slay your sovereign and destroy the realm.
158 You see what mischief and what murder too,
159 Hath been enacted through your enmity;
160 Then be at peace, except ye thirst for blood.
161 WINCHESTER.
162 He shall submit, or I will never yield.
163 GLOUCESTER.
164 Compassion on the King commands me stoop,
165 Or I would see his heart out, ere the priest
166 Should ever get that privilege of me.
167 WARWICK.
168 Behold, my Lord of Winchester, the Duke
169 Hath banish’d moody discontented fury,
170 As by his smoothed brows it doth appear.
171 Why look you still so stern and tragical?
172 GLOUCESTER.
173 Here, Winchester, I offer thee my hand.
174 KING HENRY.
175 Fie, uncle Beaufort! I have heard you preach
176 That malice was a great and grievous sin;
177 And will not you maintain the thing you teach,
178 But prove a chief offender in the same?
179 WARWICK.
180 Sweet King! The bishop hath a kindly gird.
181 For shame, my Lord of Winchester, relent!
182 What, shall a child instruct you what to do?
183 WINCHESTER.
184 Well, Duke of Gloucester, I will yield to thee;
185 Love for thy love and hand for hand I give.
186 GLOUCESTER.
187 [_Aside_.] Ay, but, I fear me, with a hollow heart.—
188 See here, my friends and loving countrymen,
189 This token serveth for a flag of truce
190 Betwixt ourselves and all our followers,
191 So help me God, as I dissemble not!
192 WINCHESTER.
193 [_Aside_.] So help me God, as I intend it not!
194 KING HENRY.
195 O loving uncle, kind Duke of Gloucester,
196 How joyful am I made by this contract!
197 Away, my masters, trouble us no more,
198 But join in friendship, as your lords have done.
199 FIRST SERVINGMAN.
200 Content. I’ll to the surgeon’s.
201 SECOND SERVINGMAN.
202 And so will I.
203 THIRD SERVINGMAN.
204 And I will see what physic the tavern affords.
205 [_Exeunt Servingmen, Mayor, &c._]
206 WARWICK.
207 Accept this scroll, most gracious sovereign,
208 Which in the right of Richard Plantagenet
209 We do exhibit to your Majesty.
210 GLOUCESTER.
211 Well urged, my Lord of Warwick. For, sweet prince,
212 An if your Grace mark every circumstance,
213 You have great reason to do Richard right,
214 Especially for those occasions
215 At Eltham Place I told your Majesty.
216 KING HENRY.
217 And those occasions, uncle, were of force;
218 Therefore, my loving lords, our pleasure is
219 That Richard be restored to his blood.
220 WARWICK.
221 Let Richard be restored to his blood;
222 So shall his father’s wrongs be recompensed.
223 WINCHESTER.
224 As will the rest, so willeth Winchester.
225 KING HENRY.
226 If Richard will be true, not that alone
227 But all the whole inheritance I give
228 That doth belong unto the house of York,
229 From whence you spring by lineal descent.
230 PLANTAGENET.
231 Thy humble servant vows obedience
232 And humble service till the point of death.
233 KING HENRY.
234 Stoop then and set your knee against my foot;
235 And in reguerdon of that duty done
236 I girt thee with the valiant sword of York.
237 Rise, Richard, like a true Plantagenet,
238 And rise created princely Duke of York.
239 PLANTAGENET.
240 And so thrive Richard as thy foes may fall!
241 And as my duty springs, so perish they
242 That grudge one thought against your Majesty!
243 ALL.
244 Welcome, high prince, the mighty Duke of York!
245 SOMERSET.
246 [_Aside_.] Perish, base prince, ignoble Duke of York!
247 GLOUCESTER.
248 Now will it best avail your Majesty
249 To cross the seas and to be crown’d in France.
250 The presence of a king engenders love
251 Amongst his subjects and his loyal friends,
252 As it disanimates his enemies.
253 KING HENRY.
254 When Gloucester says the word, King Henry goes;
255 For friendly counsel cuts off many foes.
256 GLOUCESTER.
257 Your ships already are in readiness.
258 [_Sennet. Flourish. Exeunt all but Exeter._]
259 EXETER.
260 Ay, we may march in England or in France,
261 Not seeing what is likely to ensue.
262 This late dissension grown betwixt the peers
263 Burns under feigned ashes of forged love,
264 And will at last break out into a flame;
265 As festered members rot but by degree
266 Till bones and flesh and sinews fall away,
267 So will this base and envious discord breed.
268 And now I fear that fatal prophecy
269 Which in the time of Henry named the Fifth
270 Was in the mouth of every sucking babe:
271 That Henry born at Monmouth should win all,
272 And Henry born at Windsor lose all,
273 Which is so plain that Exeter doth wish
274 His days may finish ere that hapless time.
275 [_Exit._]