The Third Part Of King Henry The Sixth

1 Flourish. Enter King Henry, Queen Margaret, the Prince of Wales,
2 Clifford and Northumberland with drums and trumpets.
3 QUEEN MARGARET.
4 Welcome, my lord, to this brave town of York.
5 Yonder’s the head of that arch-enemy
6 That sought to be encompassed with your crown.
7 Doth not the object cheer your heart, my lord?
8 KING HENRY.
9 Ay, as the rocks cheer them that fear their wrack!
10 To see this sight, it irks my very soul.
11 Withhold revenge, dear God! ’Tis not my fault,
12 Nor wittingly have I infringed my vow.
13 CLIFFORD.
14 My gracious liege, this too much lenity
15 And harmful pity must be laid aside.
16 To whom do lions cast their gentle looks?
17 Not to the beast that would usurp their den.
18 Whose hand is that the forest bear doth lick?
19 Not his that spoils her young before her face.
20 Who scapes the lurking serpent’s mortal sting?
21 Not he that sets his foot upon her back.
22 The smallest worm will turn, being trodden on,
23 And doves will peck in safeguard of their brood.
24 Ambitious York did level at thy crown,
25 Thou smiling while he knit his angry brows.
26 He, but a duke, would have his son a king,
27 And raise his issue like a loving sire;
28 Thou, being a king, blest with a goodly son,
29 Didst yield consent to disinherit him,
30 Which argued thee a most unloving father.
31 Unreasonable creatures feed their young;
32 And though man’s face be fearful to their eyes,
33 Yet, in protection of their tender ones,
34 Who hath not seen them, even with those wings
35 Which sometime they have used with fearful flight,
36 Make war with him that climbed unto their nest,
37 Offering their own lives in their young’s defence?
38 For shame, my liege, make them your precedent.
39 Were it not pity that this goodly boy
40 Should lose his birthright by his father’s fault,
41 And long hereafter say unto his child,
42 “What my great-grandfather and grandsire got,
43 My careless father fondly gave away?”
44 Ah, what a shame were this! Look on the boy,
45 And let his manly face, which promiseth
46 Successful fortune, steel thy melting heart
47 To hold thine own and leave thine own with him.
48 KING HENRY.
49 Full well hath Clifford played the orator,
50 Inferring arguments of mighty force.
51 But, Clifford, tell me, didst thou never hear
52 That things ill got had ever bad success?
53 And happy always was it for that son
54 Whose father for his hoarding went to hell?
55 I’ll leave my son my virtuous deeds behind,
56 And would my father had left me no more;
57 For all the rest is held at such a rate
58 As brings a thousand-fold more care to keep
59 Than in possession any jot of pleasure.
60 Ah, cousin York, would thy best friends did know
61 How it doth grieve me that thy head is here!
62 QUEEN MARGARET.
63 My lord, cheer up your spirits; our foes are nigh,
64 And this soft courage makes your followers faint.
65 You promised knighthood to our forward son.
66 Unsheathe your sword and dub him presently.—
67 Edward, kneel down.
68 KING HENRY.
69 Edward Plantagenet, arise a knight;
70 And learn this lesson: draw thy sword in right.
71 PRINCE EDWARD.
72 My gracious father, by your kingly leave,
73 I’ll draw it as apparent to the crown,
74 And in that quarrel use it to the death.
75 CLIFFORD.
76 Why, that is spoken like a toward prince.
77 Enter a Messenger.
78 MESSENGER.
79 Royal commanders, be in readiness;
80 For with a band of thirty thousand men
81 Comes Warwick, backing of the Duke of York,
82 And in the towns, as they do march along,
83 Proclaims him king, and many fly to him.
84 Darraign your battle, for they are at hand.
85 CLIFFORD.
86 I would your highness would depart the field.
87 The Queen hath best success when you are absent.
88 QUEEN MARGARET.
89 Ay, good my lord, and leave us to our fortune.
90 KING HENRY.
91 Why, that’s my fortune too; therefore I’ll stay.
92 NORTHUMBERLAND.
93 Be it with resolution then to fight.
94 PRINCE EDWARD.
95 My royal father, cheer these noble lords,
96 And hearten those that fight in your defence.
97 Unsheathe your sword, good father; cry “Saint George!”
98 March. Enter Edward, George, Richard, Warwick, Norfolk, Montague and
99 Soldiers.
100 EDWARD.
101 Now, perjured Henry, wilt thou kneel for grace
102 And set thy diadem upon my head,
103 Or bide the mortal fortune of the field?
104 QUEEN MARGARET.
105 Go rate thy minions, proud insulting boy!
106 Becomes it thee to be thus bold in terms
107 Before thy sovereign and thy lawful king?
108 EDWARD.
109 I am his king, and he should bow his knee.
110 I was adopted heir by his consent.
111 Since when, his oath is broke; for, as I hear,
112 You that are king, though he do wear the crown,
113 Have caused him by new act of Parliament
114 To blot out me and put his own son in.
115 CLIFFORD.
116 And reason too:
117 Who should succeed the father but the son?
118 RICHARD.
119 Are you there, butcher? O, I cannot speak!
120 CLIFFORD.
121 Ay, crook-back; here I stand, to answer thee,
122 Or any he, the proudest of thy sort.
123 RICHARD.
124 ’Twas you that killed young Rutland, was it not?
125 CLIFFORD.
126 Ay, and old York, and yet not satisfied.
127 RICHARD.
128 For God’s sake, lords, give signal to the fight.
129 WARWICK.
130 What sayst thou, Henry, wilt thou yield the crown?
131 QUEEN MARGARET.
132 Why, how now, long-tongued Warwick, dare you speak?
133 When you and I met at Saint Albans last,
134 Your legs did better service than your hands.
135 WARWICK.
136 Then ’twas my turn to fly, and now ’tis thine.
137 CLIFFORD.
138 You said so much before, and yet you fled.
139 WARWICK.
140 ’Twas not your valour, Clifford, drove me thence.
141 NORTHUMBERLAND.
142 No, nor your manhood that durst make you stay.
143 RICHARD.
144 Northumberland, I hold thee reverently.
145 Break off the parley; for scarce I can refrain
146 The execution of my big-swoln heart
147 Upon that Clifford, that cruel child-killer.
148 CLIFFORD.
149 I slew thy father; call’st thou him a child?
150 RICHARD.
151 Ay, like a dastard and a treacherous coward,
152 As thou didst kill our tender brother Rutland,
153 But ere sunset I’ll make thee curse the deed.
154 KING HENRY.
155 Have done with words, my lords, and hear me speak.
156 QUEEN MARGARET.
157 Defy them then, or else hold close thy lips.
158 KING HENRY.
159 I prithee, give no limits to my tongue.
160 I am a king, and privileged to speak.
161 CLIFFORD.
162 My liege, the wound that bred this meeting here
163 Cannot be cured by words; therefore be still.
164 RICHARD.
165 Then, executioner, unsheathe thy sword.
166 By Him that made us all, I am resolved
167 That Clifford’s manhood lies upon his tongue.
168 EDWARD.
169 Say, Henry, shall I have my right, or no?
170 A thousand men have broke their fasts today
171 That ne’er shall dine unless thou yield the crown.
172 WARWICK.
173 If thou deny, their blood upon thy head;
174 For York in justice puts his armour on.
175 PRINCE EDWARD.
176 If that be right which Warwick says is right,
177 There is no wrong, but everything is right.
178 RICHARD.
179 Whoever got thee, there thy mother stands;
180 For well I wot thou hast thy mother’s tongue.
181 QUEEN MARGARET.
182 But thou art neither like thy sire nor dam,
183 But like a foul misshapen stigmatic,
184 Marked by the Destinies to be avoided,
185 As venom toads or lizards’ dreadful stings.
186 RICHARD.
187 Iron of Naples, hid with English gilt,
188 Whose father bears the title of a king,
189 As if a channel should be called the sea,
190 Sham’st thou not, knowing whence thou art extraught,
191 To let thy tongue detect thy base-born heart?
192 EDWARD.
193 A wisp of straw were worth a thousand crowns
194 To make this shameless callet know herself.
195 Helen of Greece was fairer far than thou,
196 Although thy husband may be Menelaus;
197 And ne’er was Agamemnon’s brother wronged
198 By that false woman as this king by thee.
199 His father revelled in the heart of France,
200 And tamed the King, and made the Dauphin stoop;
201 And had he matched according to his state,
202 He might have kept that glory to this day;
203 But when he took a beggar to his bed
204 And graced thy poor sire with his bridal day,
205 Even then that sunshine brewed a shower for him
206 That washed his father’s fortunes forth of France
207 And heaped sedition on his crown at home.
208 For what hath broached this tumult but thy pride?
209 Hadst thou been meek, our title still had slept;
210 And we, in pity of the gentle king,
211 Had slipped our claim until another age.
212 GEORGE.
213 But when we saw our sunshine made thy spring,
214 And that thy summer bred us no increase,
215 We set the axe to thy usurping root;
216 And though the edge hath something hit ourselves,
217 Yet know thou, since we have begun to strike,
218 We’ll never leave till we have hewn thee down
219 Or bathed thy growing with our heated bloods.
220 EDWARD.
221 And in this resolution I defy thee;
222 Not willing any longer conference,
223 Since thou deniest the gentle King to speak.
224 Sound trumpets! Let our bloody colours wave;
225 And either victory or else a grave!
226 QUEEN MARGARET.
227 Stay, Edward.
228 EDWARD.
229 No, wrangling woman, we’ll no longer stay.
230 These words will cost ten thousand lives this day.
231 [_Exeunt._]