The Third Part Of King Henry The Sixth

1 A march. Enter Edward and Richard and their power.
2 EDWARD.
3 I wonder how our princely father scaped,
4 Or whether he be scaped away or no
5 From Clifford’s and Northumberland’s pursuit.
6 Had he been ta’en, we should have heard the news;
7 Had he been slain, we should have heard the news;
8 Or had he scaped, methinks we should have heard
9 The happy tidings of his good escape.
10 How fares my brother? Why is he so sad?
11 RICHARD.
12 I cannot joy until I be resolved
13 Where our right valiant father is become.
14 I saw him in the battle range about,
15 And watched him how he singled Clifford forth.
16 Methought he bore him in the thickest troop
17 As doth a lion in a herd of neat;
18 Or as a bear, encompassed round with dogs,
19 Who having pinched a few and made them cry,
20 The rest stand all aloof and bark at him.
21 So fared our father with his enemies;
22 So fled his enemies my warlike father.
23 Methinks ’tis pride enough to be his son.
24 See how the morning opes her golden gates
25 And takes her farewell of the glorious sun.
26 How well resembles it the prime of youth,
27 Trimmed like a younker prancing to his love!
28 EDWARD.
29 Dazzle mine eyes, or do I see three suns?
30 RICHARD.
31 Three glorious suns, each one a perfect sun;
32 Not separated with the racking clouds,
33 But severed in a pale clear-shining sky.
34 See, see, they join, embrace, and seem to kiss,
35 As if they vowed some league inviolable.
36 Now are they but one lamp, one light, one sun.
37 In this the heaven figures some event.
38 EDWARD.
39 ’Tis wondrous strange, the like yet never heard of.
40 I think it cites us, brother, to the field,
41 That we, the sons of brave Plantagenet,
42 Each one already blazing by our meeds,
43 Should notwithstanding join our lights together,
44 And overshine the earth, as this the world.
45 Whate’er it bodes, henceforward will I bear
46 Upon my target three fair shining suns.
47 RICHARD.
48 Nay, bear three daughters: by your leave I speak it,
49 You love the breeder better than the male.
50 Enter a Messenger, blowing.
51 But what art thou, whose heavy looks foretell
52 Some dreadful story hanging on thy tongue?
53 MESSENGER.
54 Ah, one that was a woeful looker-on
55 When as the noble Duke of York was slain,
56 Your princely father and my loving lord.
57 EDWARD.
58 O, speak no more, for I have heard too much!
59 RICHARD.
60 Say how he died, for I will hear it all.
61 MESSENGER.
62 Environed he was with many foes,
63 And stood against them as the hope of Troy
64 Against the Greeks that would have entered Troy.
65 But Hercules himself must yield to odds;
66 And many strokes, though with a little axe,
67 Hews down and fell the hardest-timbered oak.
68 By many hands your father was subdued,
69 But only slaughtered by the ireful arm
70 Of unrelenting Clifford and the Queen,
71 Who crowned the gracious duke in high despite,
72 Laughed in his face; and when with grief he wept,
73 The ruthless Queen gave him to dry his cheeks
74 A napkin steeped in the harmless blood
75 Of sweet young Rutland, by rough Clifford slain.
76 And after many scorns, many foul taunts,
77 They took his head, and on the gates of York
78 They set the same; and there it doth remain,
79 The saddest spectacle that e’er I viewed.
80 EDWARD.
81 Sweet Duke of York, our prop to lean upon,
82 Now thou art gone, we have no staff, no stay.
83 O Clifford, boisterous Clifford, thou hast slain
84 The flower of Europe for his chivalry;
85 And treacherously hast thou vanquished him,
86 For hand to hand he would have vanquished thee.
87 Now my soul’s palace is become a prison.
88 Ah, would she break from hence, that this my body
89 Might in the ground be closed up in rest!
90 For never henceforth shall I joy again;
91 Never, O, never, shall I see more joy!
92 RICHARD.
93 I cannot weep, for all my body’s moisture
94 Scarce serves to quench my furnace-burning heart;
95 Nor can my tongue unload my heart’s great burthen,
96 For selfsame wind that I should speak withal
97 Is kindling coals that fires all my breast
98 And burns me up with flames that tears would quench.
99 To weep is to make less the depth of grief:
100 Tears, then, for babes; blows and revenge for me!
101 Richard, I bear thy name; I’ll venge thy death,
102 Or die renowned by attempting it.
103 EDWARD.
104 His name that valiant duke hath left with thee;
105 His dukedom and his chair with me is left.
106 RICHARD.
107 Nay, if thou be that princely eagle’s bird,
108 Show thy descent by gazing ’gainst the sun;
109 For chair and dukedom, throne and kingdom say,
110 Either that is thine, or else thou wert not his.
111 March. Enter Warwick, Marquess Montague and their army.
112 WARWICK.
113 How now, fair lords! What fare? What news abroad?
114 RICHARD.
115 Great Lord of Warwick, if we should recount
116 Our baleful news, and at each word’s deliverance
117 Stab poniards in our flesh till all were told,
118 The words would add more anguish than the wounds.
119 O valiant lord, the Duke of York is slain!
120 EDWARD.
121 O, Warwick, Warwick, that Plantagenet
122 Which held thee dearly as his soul’s redemption
123 Is by the stern Lord Clifford done to death.
124 WARWICK.
125 Ten days ago I drowned these news in tears,
126 And now, to add more measure to your woes,
127 I come to tell you things sith then befall’n.
128 After the bloody fray at Wakefield fought,
129 Where your brave father breathed his latest gasp,
130 Tidings, as swiftly as the posts could run,
131 Were brought me of your loss and his depart.
132 I, then in London, keeper of the King,
133 Mustered my soldiers, gathered flocks of friends,
134 And very well appointed, as I thought,
135 Marched toward Saint Albans to intercept the Queen,
136 Bearing the King in my behalf along;
137 For by my scouts I was advertised
138 That she was coming with a full intent
139 To dash our late decree in Parliament
140 Touching King Henry’s oath and your succession.
141 Short tale to make, we at Saint Albans met,
142 Our battles joined, and both sides fiercely fought.
143 But, whether ’twas the coldness of the King,
144 Who looked full gently on his warlike Queen,
145 That robbed my soldiers of their heated spleen,
146 Or whether ’twas report of her success;
147 Or more than common fear of Clifford’s rigour,
148 Who thunders to his captives blood and death,
149 I cannot judge; but, to conclude with truth,
150 Their weapons like to lightning came and went;
151 Our soldiers’, like the night-owl’s lazy flight,
152 Or like an idle thresher with a flail,
153 Fell gently down, as if they struck their friends.
154 I cheered them up with justice of our cause,
155 With promise of high pay and great rewards,
156 But all in vain; they had no heart to fight,
157 And we in them no hope to win the day;
158 So that we fled: the King unto the Queen;
159 Lord George your brother, Norfolk, and myself,
160 In haste, post-haste, are come to join with you;
161 For in the Marches here we heard you were,
162 Making another head to fight again.
163 EDWARD.
164 Where is the Duke of Norfolk, gentle Warwick?
165 And when came George from Burgundy to England?
166 WARWICK.
167 Some six miles off the Duke is with the soldiers;
168 And for your brother, he was lately sent
169 From your kind aunt, Duchess of Burgundy,
170 With aid of soldiers to this needful war.
171 RICHARD.
172 ’Twas odds, belike, when valiant Warwick fled.
173 Oft have I heard his praises in pursuit,
174 But ne’er till now his scandal of retire.
175 WARWICK.
176 Nor now my scandal, Richard, dost thou hear;
177 For thou shalt know this strong right hand of mine
178 Can pluck the diadem from faint Henry’s head
179 And wring the awful sceptre from his fist,
180 Were he as famous and as bold in war
181 As he is famed for mildness, peace, and prayer.
182 RICHARD.
183 I know it well, Lord Warwick; blame me not.
184 ’Tis love I bear thy glories makes me speak.
185 But in this troublous time what’s to be done?
186 Shall we go throw away our coats of steel
187 And wrap our bodies in black mourning gowns,
188 Numbering our Ave-Maries with our beads?
189 Or shall we on the helmets of our foes
190 Tell our devotion with revengeful arms?
191 If for the last, say ay, and to it, lords.
192 WARWICK.
193 Why, therefore Warwick came to seek you out,
194 And therefore comes my brother Montague.
195 Attend me, lords. The proud insulting Queen,
196 With Clifford and the haught Northumberland,
197 And of their feather many moe proud birds,
198 Have wrought the easy-melting King like wax.
199 He swore consent to your succession,
200 His oath enrolled in the Parliament;
201 And now to London all the crew are gone,
202 To frustrate both his oath and what beside
203 May make against the house of Lancaster.
204 Their power, I think, is thirty thousand strong.
205 Now, if the help of Norfolk and myself,
206 With all the friends that thou, brave Earl of March,
207 Amongst the loving Welshmen canst procure,
208 Will but amount to five and twenty thousand,
209 Why, _via_, to London will we march amain,
210 And once again bestride our foaming steeds,
211 And once again cry “Charge upon our foes!”
212 But never once again turn back and fly.
213 RICHARD.
214 Ay, now methinks I hear great Warwick speak.
215 Ne’er may he live to see a sunshine day
216 That cries “Retire,” if Warwick bid him stay.
217 EDWARD.
218 Lord Warwick, on thy shoulder will I lean;
219 And when thou fail’st—as God forbid the hour!—
220 Must Edward fall, which peril heaven forfend!
221 WARWICK.
222 No longer Earl of March, but Duke of York.
223 The next degree is England’s royal throne;
224 For King of England shalt thou be proclaimed
225 In every borough as we pass along,
226 And he that throws not up his cap for joy
227 Shall for the fault make forfeit of his head.
228 King Edward, valiant Richard, Montague,
229 Stay we no longer dreaming of renown,
230 But sound the trumpets and about our task.
231 RICHARD.
232 Then, Clifford, were thy heart as hard as steel,
233 As thou hast shown it flinty by thy deeds,
234 I come to pierce it, or to give thee mine.
235 EDWARD.
236 Then strike up, drums! God and Saint George for us!
237 Enter a Messenger.
238 WARWICK.
239 How now, what news?
240 MESSENGER.
241 The Duke of Norfolk sends you word by me,
242 The Queen is coming with a puissant host,
243 And craves your company for speedy counsel.
244 WARWICK.
245 Why then it sorts; brave warriors, let’s away.
246 [_Exeunt._]