The Third Part Of King Henry The Sixth

1 Enter King Henry.
2 KING HENRY.
3 This battle fares like to the morning’s war,
4 When dying clouds contend with growing light,
5 What time the shepherd, blowing of his nails,
6 Can neither call it perfect day nor night.
7 Now sways it this way, like a mighty sea
8 Forced by the tide to combat with the wind;
9 Now sways it that way, like the selfsame sea
10 Forced to retire by fury of the wind.
11 Sometime the flood prevails, and then the wind;
12 Now one the better, then another best,
13 Both tugging to be victors, breast to breast,
14 Yet neither conqueror nor conquered.
15 So is the equal poise of this fell war.
16 Here on this molehill will I sit me down.
17 To whom God will, there be the victory!
18 For Margaret my queen, and Clifford too,
19 Have chid me from the battle, swearing both
20 They prosper best of all when I am thence.
21 Would I were dead, if God’s good will were so;
22 For what is in this world but grief and woe?
23 O God! Methinks it were a happy life
24 To be no better than a homely swain;
25 To sit upon a hill, as I do now,
26 To carve out dials quaintly, point by point,
27 Thereby to see the minutes how they run:
28 How many make the hour full complete,
29 How many hours brings about the day,
30 How many days will finish up the year,
31 How many years a mortal man may live.
32 When this is known, then to divide the times:
33 So many hours must I tend my flock;
34 So many hours must I take my rest;
35 So many hours must I contemplate;
36 So many hours must I sport myself;
37 So many days my ewes have been with young;
38 So many weeks ere the poor fools will ean;
39 So many years ere I shall shear the fleece.
40 So minutes, hours, days, months, and years,
41 Passed over to the end they were created,
42 Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave.
43 Ah, what a life were this! How sweet, how lovely!
44 Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade
45 To shepherds looking on their silly sheep
46 Than doth a rich embroidered canopy
47 To kings that fear their subjects’ treachery?
48 O, yes, it doth; a thousand-fold it doth.
49 And to conclude, the shepherd’s homely curds,
50 His cold thin drink out of his leather bottle,
51 His wonted sleep under a fresh tree’s shade,
52 All which secure and sweetly he enjoys,
53 Is far beyond a prince’s delicates—
54 His viands sparkling in a golden cup,
55 His body couched in a curious bed,
56 When care, mistrust, and treason waits on him.
57 Alarum. Enter a Son that hath killed his father, bringing in the dead
58 body.
59 SON.
60 Ill blows the wind that profits nobody.
61 This man, whom hand to hand I slew in fight,
62 May be possessed with some store of crowns;
63 And I, that haply take them from him now,
64 May yet ere night yield both my life and them
65 To some man else, as this dead man doth me.
66 Who’s this? O God! It is my father’s face,
67 Whom in this conflict I unwares have killed.
68 O heavy times, begetting such events!
69 From London by the King was I pressed forth;
70 My father, being the Earl of Warwick’s man,
71 Came on the part of York, pressed by his master;
72 And I, who at his hands received my life,
73 Have by my hands of life bereaved him.
74 Pardon me, God, I knew not what I did;
75 And pardon, father, for I knew not thee.
76 My tears shall wipe away these bloody marks,
77 And no more words till they have flowed their fill.
78 KING HENRY.
79 O piteous spectacle! O bloody times!
80 Whiles lions war and battle for their dens,
81 Poor harmless lambs abide their enmity.
82 Weep, wretched man, I’ll aid thee tear for tear;
83 And let our hearts and eyes, like civil war,
84 Be blind with tears and break o’ercharged with grief.
85 Enter a Father who has killed his son, with the body in his arms.
86 FATHER.
87 Thou that so stoutly hath resisted me,
88 Give me thy gold, if thou hast any gold,
89 For I have bought it with an hundred blows.
90 But let me see: is this our foeman’s face?
91 Ah, no, no, no; it is mine only son!
92 Ah, boy, if any life be left in thee,
93 Throw up thine eye! See, see what showers arise,
94 Blown with the windy tempest of my heart
95 Upon thy wounds, that kill mine eye and heart!
96 O, pity, God, this miserable age!
97 What stratagems, how fell, how butcherly,
98 Erroneous, mutinous, and unnatural,
99 This deadly quarrel daily doth beget!
100 O boy, thy father gave thee life too soon,
101 And hath bereft thee of thy life too late!
102 KING HENRY.
103 Woe above woe, grief more than common grief!
104 O that my death would stay these ruthful deeds!
105 O pity, pity, gentle heaven, pity!
106 The red rose and the white are on his face,
107 The fatal colours of our striving houses;
108 The one his purple blood right well resembles,
109 The other his pale cheeks, methinks, presenteth.
110 Wither one rose, and let the other flourish!
111 If you contend, a thousand lives must wither.
112 SON.
113 How will my mother for a father’s death
114 Take on with me and ne’er be satisfied!
115 FATHER.
116 How will my wife for slaughter of my son
117 Shed seas of tears and ne’er be satisfied!
118 KING HENRY.
119 How will the country for these woeful chances
120 Misthink the King and not be satisfied!
121 SON.
122 Was ever son so rued a father’s death?
123 FATHER.
124 Was ever father so bemoaned his son?
125 KING HENRY.
126 Was ever king so grieved for subjects’ woe?
127 Much is your sorrow, mine ten times so much.
128 SON.
129 I’ll bear thee hence, where I may weep my fill.
130 [_Exit with the body._]
131 FATHER.
132 These arms of mine shall be thy winding-sheet;
133 My heart, sweet boy, shall be thy sepulchre,
134 For from my heart thine image ne’er shall go.
135 My sighing breast shall be thy funeral bell;
136 And so obsequious will thy father be,
137 Even for the loss of thee, having no more,
138 As Priam was for all his valiant sons.
139 I’ll bear thee hence; and let them fight that will,
140 For I have murdered where I should not kill.
141 [_Exit with the body._]
142 KING HENRY.
143 Sad-hearted men, much overgone with care,
144 Here sits a king more woeful than you are.
145 Alarums. Excursions. Enter Queen Margaret, Prince of Wales and Exeter.
146 PRINCE EDWARD.
147 Fly, father, fly, for all your friends are fled,
148 And Warwick rages like a chafed bull.
149 Away, for death doth hold us in pursuit.
150 QUEEN MARGARET.
151 Mount you, my lord; towards Berwick post amain.
152 Edward and Richard, like a brace of greyhounds
153 Having the fearful flying hare in sight,
154 With fiery eyes sparkling for very wrath,
155 And bloody steel grasped in their ireful hands,
156 Are at our backs; and therefore hence amain.
157 EXETER.
158 Away, for vengeance comes along with them.
159 Nay, stay not to expostulate; make speed,
160 Or else come after; I’ll away before.
161 KING HENRY.
162 Nay, take me with thee, good sweet Exeter;
163 Not that I fear to stay, but love to go
164 Whither the Queen intends. Forward; away!
165 [_Exeunt._]