King Henry VI, Part II
ACT V SCENE I | Fields between Dartford and Blackheath. | |
[ Enter YORK, and his army of Irish, with drum and colours ] | ||
YORK | From Ireland thus comes York to claim his right, | |
And pluck the crown from feeble Henry’s head: | ||
Ring, bells, aloud; burn, bonfires, clear and bright, | ||
To entertain great England’s lawful king. | ||
Ah! sancta majestas, who would not buy thee dear? | 5 | |
Let them obey that know not how to rule; | ||
This hand was made to handle naught but gold. | ||
I cannot give due action to my words, | ||
Except a sword or sceptre balance it: | ||
A sceptre shall it have, have I a soul, | 10 | |
On which I’ll toss the flower-de-luce of France. | ||
[Enter BUCKINGHAM] | ||
Whom have we here? Buckingham, to disturb me? | ||
The king hath sent him, sure: I must dissemble. | ||
BUCKINGHAM | York, if thou meanest well, I greet thee well. | |
YORK | Humphrey of Buckingham, I accept thy greeting. | 15 |
Art thou a messenger, or come of pleasure? | ||
BUCKINGHAM | A messenger from Henry, our dread liege, | |
To know the reason of these arms in peace; | ||
Or why thou, being a subject as I am, | ||
Against thy oath and true allegiance sworn, | 20 | |
Should raise so great a power without his leave, | ||
Or dare to bring thy force so near the court. | ||
YORK | [Aside] Scarce can I speak, my choler is so great: | |
O, I could hew up rocks and fight with flint, | ||
I am so angry at these abject terms; | 25 | |
And now, like Ajax Telamonius, | ||
On sheep or oxen could I spend my fury. | ||
I am far better born than is the king, | ||
More like a king, more kingly in my thoughts: | ||
But I must make fair weather yet a while, | 30 | |
Till Henry be more weak and I more strong,– | ||
Buckingham, I prithee, pardon me, | ||
That I have given no answer all this while; | ||
My mind was troubled with deep melancholy. | ||
The cause why I have brought this army hither | 35 | |
Is to remove proud Somerset from the king, | ||
Seditious to his grace and to the state. | ||
BUCKINGHAM | That is too much presumption on thy part: | |
But if thy arms be to no other end, | ||
The king hath yielded unto thy demand: | 40 | |
The Duke of Somerset is in the Tower. | ||
YORK | Upon thine honour, is he prisoner? | |
BUCKINGHAM | Upon mine honour, he is prisoner. | |
YORK | Then, Buckingham, I do dismiss my powers. | |
Soldiers, I thank you all; disperse yourselves; | 45 | |
Meet me to-morrow in St. George’s field, | ||
You shall have pay and every thing you wish. | ||
And let my sovereign, virtuous Henry, | ||
Command my eldest son, nay, all my sons, | ||
As pledges of my fealty and love; | 50 | |
I’ll send them all as willing as I live: | ||
Lands, goods, horse, armour, any thing I have, | ||
Is his to use, so Somerset may die. | ||
BUCKINGHAM | York, I commend this kind submission: | |
We twain will go into his highness’ tent. | 55 | |
[Enter KING HENRY VI and Attendants] | ||
KING HENRY VI | Buckingham, doth York intend no harm to us, | |
That thus he marcheth with thee arm in arm? | ||
YORK | In all submission and humility | |
York doth present himself unto your highness. | ||
KING HENRY VI | Then what intends these forces thou dost bring? | 60 |
YORK | To heave the traitor Somerset from hence, | |
And fight against that monstrous rebel Cade, | ||
Who since I heard to be discomfited. | ||
[Enter IDEN, with CADE’S head] | ||
IDEN | If one so rude and of so mean condition | |
May pass into the presence of a king, | 65 | |
Lo, I present your grace a traitor’s head, | ||
The head of Cade, whom I in combat slew. | ||
KING HENRY VI | The head of Cade! Great God, how just art Thou! | |
O, let me view his visage, being dead, | ||
That living wrought me such exceeding trouble. | 70 | |
Tell me, my friend, art thou the man that slew him? | ||
IDEN | I was, an’t like your majesty. | |
KING HENRY VI | How art thou call’d? and what is thy degree? | |
IDEN | Alexander Iden, that’s my name; | |
A poor esquire of Kent, that loves his king. | 75 | |
BUCKINGHAM | So please it you, my lord, ’twere not amiss | |
He were created knight for his good service. | ||
KING HENRY VI | Iden, kneel down. | |
[He kneels] | ||
Rise up a knight. | ||
We give thee for reward a thousand marks, | 80 | |
And will that thou henceforth attend on us. | ||
IDEN | May Iden live to merit such a bounty. | |
And never live but true unto his liege! | ||
[Rises] | ||
[Enter QUEEN MARGARET and SOMERSET] | ||
KING HENRY VI | See, Buckingham, Somerset comes with the queen: | |
Go, bid her hide him quickly from the duke. | 85 | |
QUEEN MARGARET | For thousand Yorks he shall not hide his head, | |
But boldly stand and front him to his face. | ||
YORK | How now! is Somerset at liberty? | |
Then, York, unloose thy long-imprison’d thoughts, | ||
And let thy tongue be equal with thy heart. | 90 | |
Shall I endure the sight of Somerset? | ||
False king! why hast thou broken faith with me, | ||
Knowing how hardly I can brook abuse? | ||
King did I call thee? no, thou art not king, | ||
Not fit to govern and rule multitudes, | 95 | |
Which darest not, no, nor canst not rule a traitor. | ||
That head of thine doth not become a crown; | ||
Thy hand is made to grasp a palmer’s staff, | ||
And not to grace an awful princely sceptre. | ||
That gold must round engirt these brows of mine, | 100 | |
Whose smile and frown, like to Achilles’ spear, | ||
Is able with the change to kill and cure. | ||
Here is a hand to hold a sceptre up | ||
And with the same to act controlling laws. | ||
Give place: by heaven, thou shalt rule no more | 105 | |
O’er him whom heaven created for thy ruler. | ||
SOMERSET | O monstrous traitor! I arrest thee, York, | |
Of capital treason ‘gainst the king and crown; | ||
Obey, audacious traitor; kneel for grace. | ||
YORK | Wouldst have me kneel? first let me ask of these, | 110 |
If they can brook I bow a knee to man. | ||
Sirrah, call in my sons to be my bail; | ||
[Exit Attendant] | ||
I know, ere they will have me go to ward, | ||
They’ll pawn their swords for my enfranchisement. | ||
QUEEN MARGARET | Call hither Clifford! bid him come amain, | 115 |
To say if that the bastard boys of York | ||
Shall be the surety for their traitor father. | ||
[Exit BUCKINGHAM] | ||
YORK | O blood-besotted Neapolitan, | |
Outcast of Naples, England’s bloody scourge! | ||
The sons of York, thy betters in their birth, | 120 | |
Shall be their father’s bail; and bane to those | ||
That for my surety will refuse the boys! | ||
[Enter EDWARD and RICHARD] | ||
See where they come: I’ll warrant they’ll | ||
make it good. | ||
[Enter CLIFFORD and YOUNG CLIFFORD] | ||
QUEEN MARGARET | And here comes Clifford to deny their bail. | 125 |
CLIFFORD | Health and all happiness to my lord the king! | |
[Kneels] | ||
YORK | I thank thee, Clifford: say, what news with thee? | |
Nay, do not fright us with an angry look; | ||
We are thy sovereign, Clifford, kneel again; | ||
For thy mistaking so, we pardon thee. | 130 | |
CLIFFORD | This is my king, York, I do not mistake; | |
But thou mistakest me much to think I do: | ||
To Bedlam with him! is the man grown mad? | ||
KING HENRY VI | Ay, Clifford; a bedlam and ambitious humour | |
Makes him oppose himself against his king. | 135 | |
CLIFFORD | He is a traitor; let him to the Tower, | |
And chop away that factious pate of his. | ||
QUEEN MARGARET | He is arrested, but will not obey; | |
His sons, he says, shall give their words for him. | ||
YORK | Will you not, sons? | 140 |
EDWARD | Ay, noble father, if our words will serve. | |
RICHARD | And if words will not, then our weapons shall. | |
CLIFFORD | Why, what a brood of traitors have we here! | |
YORK | Look in a glass, and call thy image so: | |
I am thy king, and thou a false-heart traitor. | 145 | |
Call hither to the stake my two brave bears, | ||
That with the very shaking of their chains | ||
They may astonish these fell-lurking curs: | ||
Bid Salisbury and Warwick come to me. | ||
[Enter the WARWICK and SALISBURY] | ||
CLIFFORD | Are these thy bears? we’ll bait thy bears to death. | 150 |
And manacle the bear-ward in their chains, | ||
If thou darest bring them to the baiting place. | ||
RICHARD | Oft have I seen a hot o’erweening cur | |
Run back and bite, because he was withheld; | ||
Who, being suffer’d with the bear’s fell paw, | 155 | |
Hath clapp’d his tail between his legs and cried: | ||
And such a piece of service will you do, | ||
If you oppose yourselves to match Lord Warwick. | ||
CLIFFORD | Hence, heap of wrath, foul indigested lump, | |
As crooked in thy manners as thy shape! | 160 | |
YORK | Nay, we shall heat you thoroughly anon. | |
CLIFFORD | Take heed, lest by your heat you burn yourselves. | |
KING HENRY VI | Why, Warwick, hath thy knee forgot to bow? | |
Old Salisbury, shame to thy silver hair, | ||
Thou mad misleader of thy brain-sick son! | 165 | |
What, wilt thou on thy death-bed play the ruffian, | ||
And seek for sorrow with thy spectacles? | ||
O, where is faith? O, where is loyalty? | ||
If it be banish’d from the frosty head, | ||
Where shall it find a harbour in the earth? | 170 | |
Wilt thou go dig a grave to find out war, | ||
And shame thine honourable age with blood? | ||
Why art thou old, and want’st experience? | ||
Or wherefore dost abuse it, if thou hast it? | ||
For shame! in duty bend thy knee to me | 175 | |
That bows unto the grave with mickle age. | ||
SALISBURY | My lord, I have consider’d with myself | |
The title of this most renowned duke; | ||
And in my conscience do repute his grace | ||
The rightful heir to England’s royal seat. | 180 | |
KING HENRY VI | Hast thou not sworn allegiance unto me? | |
SALISBURY | I have. | |
KING HENRY VI | Canst thou dispense with heaven for such an oath? | |
SALISBURY | It is great sin to swear unto a sin, | |
But greater sin to keep a sinful oath. | 185 | |
Who can be bound by any solemn vow | ||
To do a murderous deed, to rob a man, | ||
To force a spotless virgin’s chastity, | ||
To reave the orphan of his patrimony, | ||
To wring the widow from her custom’d right, | 190 | |
And have no other reason for this wrong | ||
But that he was bound by a solemn oath? | ||
QUEEN MARGARET | A subtle traitor needs no sophister. | |
KING HENRY VI | Call Buckingham, and bid him arm himself. | |
YORK | Call Buckingham, and all the friends thou hast, | 195 |
I am resolved for death or dignity. | ||
CLIFFORD | The first I warrant thee, if dreams prove true. | |
WARWICK | You were best to go to bed and dream again, | |
To keep thee from the tempest of the field. | ||
CLIFFORD | I am resolved to bear a greater storm | 200 |
Than any thou canst conjure up to-day; | ||
And that I’ll write upon thy burgonet, | ||
Might I but know thee by thy household badge. | ||
WARWICK | Now, by my father’s badge, old Nevil’s crest, | |
The rampant bear chain’d to the ragged staff, | 205 | |
This day I’ll wear aloft my burgonet, | ||
As on a mountain top the cedar shows | ||
That keeps his leaves in spite of any storm, | ||
Even to affright thee with the view thereof. | ||
CLIFFORD | And from thy burgonet I’ll rend thy bear | 210 |
And tread it under foot with all contempt, | ||
Despite the bear-ward that protects the bear. | ||
YOUNG CLIFFORD | And so to arms, victorious father, | |
To quell the rebels and their complices. | ||
RICHARD | Fie! charity, for shame! speak not in spite, | 215 |
For you shall sup with Jesu Christ to-night. | ||
YOUNG CLIFFORD | Foul stigmatic, that’s more than thou canst tell. | |
RICHARD | If not in heaven, you’ll surely sup in hell. | |
[Exeunt severally] |
Continue to 2 Henry VI, Act 5, Scene 2