King Henry VI, Part I
ACT I SCENE I | Westminster Abbey. | |
[ Dead March. Enter the Funeral of KING HENRY the Fifth, attended on by Dukes of BEDFORD, Regent of France; GLOUCESTER, Protector; and EXETER, Earl of WARWICK, the BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, Heralds, &c ] | ||
BEDFORD | Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night! | |
Comets, importing change of times and states, | ||
Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky, | ||
And with them scourge the bad revolting stars | ||
That have consented unto Henry’s death! | 5 | |
King Henry the Fifth, too famous to live long! | ||
England ne’er lost a king of so much worth. | ||
GLOUCESTER | England ne’er had a king until his time. | |
Virtue he had, deserving to command: | ||
His brandish’d sword did blind men with his beams: | 10 | |
His arms spread wider than a dragon’s wings; | ||
His sparking eyes, replete with wrathful fire, | ||
More dazzled and drove back his enemies | ||
Than mid-day sun fierce bent against their faces. | ||
What should I say? his deeds exceed all speech: | 15 | |
He ne’er lift up his hand but conquered. | ||
EXETER | We mourn in black: why mourn we not in blood? | |
Henry is dead and never shall revive: | ||
Upon a wooden coffin we attend, | ||
And death’s dishonourable victory | 20 | |
We with our stately presence glorify, | ||
Like captives bound to a triumphant car. | ||
What! shall we curse the planets of mishap | ||
That plotted thus our glory’s overthrow? | ||
Or shall we think the subtle-witted French | 25 | |
Conjurers and sorcerers, that afraid of him | ||
By magic verses have contrived his end? | ||
BISHOP OF WINCHESTER | He was a king bless’d of the King of kings. | |
Unto the French the dreadful judgement-day | ||
So dreadful will not be as was his sight. | 30 | |
The battles of the Lord of hosts he fought: | ||
The church’s prayers made him so prosperous. | ||
GLOUCESTER | The church! where is it? Had not churchmen pray’d, | |
His thread of life had not so soon decay’d: | ||
None do you like but an effeminate prince, | 35 | |
Whom, like a school-boy, you may over-awe. | ||
BISHOP OF WINCHESTER | Gloucester, whate’er we like, thou art protector | |
And lookest to command the prince and realm. | ||
Thy wife is proud; she holdeth thee in awe, | ||
More than God or religious churchmen may. | 40 | |
GLOUCESTER | Name not religion, for thou lovest the flesh, | |
And ne’er throughout the year to church thou go’st | ||
Except it be to pray against thy foes. | ||
BEDFORD | Cease, cease these jars and rest your minds in peace: | |
Let’s to the altar: heralds, wait on us: | 45 | |
Instead of gold, we’ll offer up our arms: | ||
Since arms avail not now that Henry’s dead. | ||
Posterity, await for wretched years, | ||
When at their mothers’ moist eyes babes shall suck, | ||
Our isle be made a nourish of salt tears, | 50 | |
And none but women left to wail the dead. | ||
Henry the Fifth, thy ghost I invocate: | ||
Prosper this realm, keep it from civil broils, | ||
Combat with adverse planets in the heavens! | ||
A far more glorious star thy soul will make | 55 | |
Than Julius Caesar or bright– | ||
[Enter a Messenger] | ||
Messenger | My honourable lords, health to you all! | |
Sad tidings bring I to you out of France, | ||
Of loss, of slaughter and discomfiture: | ||
Guienne, Champagne, Rheims, Orleans, | 60 | |
Paris, Guysors, Poictiers, are all quite lost. | ||
BEDFORD | What say’st thou, man, before dead Henry’s corse? | |
Speak softly, or the loss of those great towns | ||
Will make him burst his lead and rise from death. | ||
GLOUCESTER | Is Paris lost? is Rouen yielded up? | 65 |
If Henry were recall’d to life again, | ||
These news would cause him once more yield the ghost. | ||
EXETER | How were they lost? what treachery was used? | |
Messenger | No treachery; but want of men and money. | |
Amongst the soldiers this is muttered, | 70 | |
That here you maintain several factions, | ||
And whilst a field should be dispatch’d and fought, | ||
You are disputing of your generals: | ||
One would have lingering wars with little cost; | ||
Another would fly swift, but wanteth wings; | 75 | |
A third thinks, without expense at all, | ||
By guileful fair words peace may be obtain’d. | ||
Awake, awake, English nobility! | ||
Let not sloth dim your horrors new-begot: | ||
Cropp’d are the flower-de-luces in your arms; | 80 | |
Of England’s coat one half is cut away. | ||
EXETER | Were our tears wanting to this funeral, | |
These tidings would call forth their flowing tides. | ||
BEDFORD | Me they concern; Regent I am of France. | |
Give me my steeled coat. I’ll fight for France. | 85 | |
Away with these disgraceful wailing robes! | ||
Wounds will I lend the French instead of eyes,![]() | ||
To weep their intermissive miseries. | ||
[Enter to them another Messenger] | ||
Messenger | Lords, view these letters full of bad mischance. | |
France is revolted from the English quite, | 90 | |
Except some petty towns of no import: | ||
The Dauphin Charles is crowned king of Rheims; | ||
The Bastard of Orleans with him is join’d; | ||
Reignier, Duke of Anjou, doth take his part; | ||
The Duke of Alencon flieth to his side. | 95 | |
EXETER | The Dauphin crowned king! all fly to him! | |
O, whither shall we fly from this reproach? | ||
GLOUCESTER | We will not fly, but to our enemies’ throats. | |
Bedford, if thou be slack, I’ll fight it out. | ||
BEDFORD | Gloucester, why doubt’st thou of my forwardness? | 100 |
An army have I muster’d in my thoughts, | ||
Wherewith already France is overrun. | ||
[Enter another Messenger] | ||
Messenger | My gracious lords, to add to your laments, | |
Wherewith you now bedew King Henry’s hearse, | ||
I must inform you of a dismal fight | 105 | |
Betwixt the stout Lord Talbot and the French. | ||
BISHOP OF WINCHESTER | What! wherein Talbot overcame? is’t so? | |
Messenger | O, no; wherein Lord Talbot was o’erthrown: | |
The circumstance I’ll tell you more at large. | ||
The tenth of August last this dreadful lord, | 110 | |
Retiring from the siege of Orleans, | ||
Having full scarce six thousand in his troop. | ||
By three and twenty thousand of the French | ||
Was round encompassed and set upon. | ||
No leisure had he to enrank his men; | 115 | |
He wanted pikes to set before his archers; | ||
Instead whereof sharp stakes pluck’d out of hedges | ||
They pitched in the ground confusedly, | ||
To keep the horsemen off from breaking in. | ||
More than three hours the fight continued; | 120 | |
Where valiant Talbot above human thought | ||
Enacted wonders with his sword and lance: | ||
Hundreds he sent to hell, and none durst stand him; | ||
Here, there, and every where, enraged he flew: | ||
The French exclaim’d, the devil was in arms; | 125 | |
All the whole army stood agazed on him: | ||
His soldiers spying his undaunted spirit | ||
A Talbot! a Talbot! cried out amain | ||
And rush’d into the bowels of the battle. | ||
Here had the conquest fully been seal’d up, | 130 | |
If Sir John Fastolfe had not play’d the coward: | ||
He, being in the vaward, placed behind | ||
With purpose to relieve and follow them, | ||
Cowardly fled, not having struck one stroke. | ||
Hence grew the general wreck and massacre; | 135 | |
Enclosed were they with their enemies: | ||
A base Walloon, to win the Dauphin’s grace, | ||
Thrust Talbot with a spear into the back, | ||
Whom all France with their chief assembled strength | ||
Durst not presume to look once in the face. | 140 | |
BEDFORD | Is Talbot slain? then I will slay myself, | |
For living idly here in pomp and ease, | ||
Whilst such a worthy leader, wanting aid, | ||
Unto his dastard foemen is betray’d. | ||
Messenger | O no, he lives; but is took prisoner, | 145 |
And Lord Scales with him and Lord Hungerford: | ||
Most of the rest slaughter’d or took likewise. | ||
BEDFORD | His ransom there is none but I shall pay: | |
I’ll hale the Dauphin headlong from his throne: | ||
His crown shall be the ransom of my friend; | 150 | |
Four of their lords I’ll change for one of ours. | ||
Farewell, my masters; to my task will I; | ||
Bonfires in France forthwith I am to make, | ||
To keep our great Saint George’s feast withal: | ||
Ten thousand soldiers with me I will take, | 155 | |
Whose bloody deeds shall make all Europe quake. | ||
Messenger | So you had need; for Orleans is besieged; | |
The English army is grown weak and faint: | ||
The Earl of Salisbury craveth supply, | ||
And hardly keeps his men from mutiny, | 160 | |
Since they, so few, watch such a multitude. | ||
EXETER | Remember, lords, your oaths to Henry sworn, | |
Either to quell the Dauphin utterly, | ||
Or bring him in obedience to your yoke. | ||
BEDFORD | I do remember it; and here take my leave, | 165 |
To go about my preparation. | ||
[Exit] | ||
GLOUCESTER | I’ll to the Tower with all the haste I can, | |
To view the artillery and munition; | ||
And then I will proclaim young Henry king. | ||
[Exit] | ||
EXETER | To Eltham will I, where the young king is, | 170 |
Being ordain’d his special governor, | ||
And for his safety there I’ll best devise. | ||
[Exit] | ||
BISHOP OF WINCHESTER | Each hath his place and function to attend: | |
I am left out; for me nothing remains. | ||
But long I will not be Jack out of office: | 175 | |
The king from Eltham I intend to steal | ||
And sit at chiefest stern of public weal. | ||
[Exeunt] |
Continue to 1 Henry VI, Act 1, Scene 2