The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works

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The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 206

by William Shakespeare


  And makes him roar these accusations forth.

  40

  But he shall know I am as good –

  GLOUCESTER As good?

  Thou bastard of my grandfather!

  WINCHESTER Ay, lordly sir; for what are you, I pray,

  But one imperious in another’s throne?

  GLOUCESTER Am I not Protector, saucy priest?

  45

  WINCHESTER And am not I a prelate of the Church?

  GLOUCESTER Yes, as an outlaw in a castle keeps

  And useth it to patronage his theft.

  WINCHESTER Unreverent Gloucester!

  GLOUCESTER Thou art reverend

  Touching thy spiritual function, not thy life.

  50

  WINCHESTER Rome shall remedy this.

  GLOUCESTER Roam thither, then.

  WARWICK [to Gloucester]

  My lord, it were your duty to forbear.

  SOMERSET Ay, see the Bishop be not overborne.

  Methinks my lord should be religious

  And know the office that belongs to such.

  55

  WARWICK Methinks his lordship should be humbler:

  It fitteth not a prelate so to plead.

  SOMERSET Yes, when his holy state is touched so near.

  WARWICK State – holy or unhallowed – what of that?

  Is not his grace Protector to the King?

  60

  RICHARD [to the audience]

  Plantagenet, I see, must hold his tongue,

  Lest it be said, ‘Speak, sirrah, when you should:

  Must your bold verdict enter talk with lords?’

  Else would I have a fling at Winchester.

  KING Uncles of Gloucester and of Winchester,

  65

  The special watchmen of our English weal,

  I would prevail – if prayers might prevail –

  To join your hearts in love and amity.

  O what a scandal is it to our crown

  That two such noble peers as ye should jar?

  70

  Believe me, lords – my tender years can tell –

  Civil dissension is a viperous worm,

  That gnaws the bowels of the commonwealth.

  [A noise within. Gloucester’s men shout: ‘ Down with

  the tawny coats’.]

  What tumult’s this?

  WARWICK An uproar, I dare warrant,

  Begun through malice of the Bishop’s men.

  75

  [A noise again. Gloucester’s and Winchester’s men shout:

  ‘ Stones, stones’.]

  Enter Mayor.

  MAYOR O my good lords, and virtuous Henry,

  Pity the city of London, pity us:

  The Bishop and the Duke of Gloucester’s men,

  Forbidden late to carry any weapon,

  Have filled their pockets full of pebble stones

  80

  And, banding themselves in contrary parts,

  Do pelt so fast at one another’s pate

  That many have their giddy brains knocked out.

  Our windows are broke down in every street,

  And we, for fear, compelled to shut our shops.

  85

  Enter Servingmen of Gloucester and Winchester in skirmish, with bloody pates.

  KING We charge you, on allegiance to ourself,

  To hold your slaughtering hands and keep the peace.

  Pray, uncle Gloucester, mitigate this strife.

  1 SERVINGMAN Nay, if we be forbidden stones, we’ll

  fall to it with our teeth.

  90

  2 SERVINGMAN Do what ye dare, we are as resolute.

  [Skirmish again.]

  GLOUCESTER

  You of my household, leave this peevish broil

  And set this unaccustomed fight aside.

  3 SERVINGMAN

  My lord, we know your grace to be a man

  Just and upright, and for your royal birth

  95

  Inferior to none but to his majesty;

  And ere that we will suffer such a prince,

  So kind a father of the commonweal,

  To be disgraced by an ink-horn mate,

  We and our wives and children all will fight,

  100

  And have our bodies slaughtered by thy foes.

  1 SERVINGMAN Ay, and the very parings of our nails

  Shall pitch a field when we are dead. [They begin again.]

  GLOUCESTER Stay, stay, I say:

  And if you love me, as you say you do,

  105

  Let me persuade you to forbear awhile.

  KING O, how this discord doth afflict my soul.

  Can you, my lord of Winchester, behold

  My sighs and tears, and will not once relent?

  Who should be pitiful, if you be not?

  110

  Or who should study to prefer a peace

  If holy churchmen take delight in broils?

  WARWICK

  Yield, my lord Protector, yield, Winchester –

  Except you mean with obstinate repulse

  To slay your sovereign and destroy the realm.

  115

  You see what mischief, and what murder too,

  Hath been enacted through your enmity:

  Then be at peace – except ye thirst for blood.

  WINCHESTER He shall submit, or I will never yield.

  GLOUCESTER

  Compassion on the King commands me stoop,

  120

  Or I would see his heart out ere the priest

  Should ever get that privilege of me.

  WARWICK Behold, my lord of Winchester – the Duke

  Hath banished moody discontented fury,

  As by his smoothed brows it doth appear.

  125

  Why look you still so stern and tragical?

  GLOUCESTER Here, Winchester, I offer thee my hand.

  [Winchester ignores Gloucester’s offered hand.]

  KING Fie, uncle Beaufort, I have heard you preach

  That malice was a great and grievous sin:

  And will not you maintain the thing you teach,

  130

  But prove a chief offender in the same?

  WARWICK Sweet King! The Bishop hath a kindly gird.

  For shame, my lord of Winchester, relent;

  What, shall a child instruct you what to do?

  WINCHESTER

  Well, Duke of Gloucester, I will yield to thee.

  135

  Love for thy love and hand for hand I give.

  [He takes Gloucester’s hand.]

  GLOUCESTER Ay, but I fear me with a hollow heart.

  See here, my friends and loving countrymen,

  This token serveth for a flag of truce

  Betwixt ourselves, and all our followers:

  140

  So help me God, as I dissemble not.

  WINCHESTER So help me God, as I intend it not.

  KING O loving uncle, kind Duke of Gloucester,

  How joyful am I made by this contract.

  Away, my masters, trouble us no more,

  145

  But join in friendship, as your lords have done.

  1 SERVINGMAN Content. I’ll to the surgeon’s.

  2 SERVINGMAN And so will I.

  3 SERVINGMAN And I will see what physic the tavern

  affords. Exeunt Servingmen and Mayor.

  150

  WARWICK Accept this scroll, most gracious sovereign,

  Which in the right of Richard Plantagenet

  We do exhibit to your majesty.

  GLOUCESTER

  Well urged, my lord of Warwick – for, sweet prince,

  An if your grace mark every circumstance,

  155

  You have great reason to do Richard right,

  Especially for those occasions

  At Eltham Place I told your majesty.

  KING And those occasions, uncle, were of force.

  Therefore,
my loving lords, our pleasure is

  160

  That Richard be restored to his blood.

  WARWICK Let Richard be restored to his blood:

  So shall his father’s wrongs be recompensed.

  WINCHESTER As will the rest, so willeth Winchester.

  KING If Richard will be true, not that alone

  165

  But all the whole inheritance I give

  That doth belong unto the house of York,

  From whence you spring by lineal descent.

  RICHARD Thy humble servant vows obedience

  And humble service till the point of death.

  170

  KING Stoop then and set your knee against my foot:

  And, in reguerdon of that duty done,

  I girt thee with the valiant sword of York.

  Rise, Richard, like a true Plantagenet,

  And rise created princely Duke of York.

  RICHARD And so thrive Richard, as thy foes may fall:

  175

  And, as my duty springs, so perish they

  That grudge one thought against your majesty.

  ALL Welcome, high prince, the mighty Duke of York.

  SOMERSET [to the audience]

  Perish, base prince, ignoble Duke of York.

  180

  GLOUCESTER Now will it best avail your majesty

  To cross the seas and to be crowned in France:

  The presence of a king engenders love

  Amongst his subjects and his loyal friends,

  As it disanimates his enemies.

  KING

  185

  When Gloucester says the word, King Henry goes –

  For friendly counsel cuts off many foes.

  GLOUCESTER Your ships already are in readiness.

  Sennet. Flourish. Exeunt all but Exeter.

  EXETER Ay, we may march in England or in France,

  Not seeing what is likely to ensue:

  This late dissension grown betwixt the peers

  190

  Burns under feigned ashes of forged love

  And will at last break out into a flame:

  As festered members rot but by degree,

  Till bones and flesh and sinews fall away,

  So will this base and envious discord breed.

  195

  And now I fear that fatal prophecy,

  Which in the time of Henry, named the Fifth,

  Was in the mouth of every sucking babe –

  That Henry born at Monmouth should win all,

  And Henry born at Windsor lose all:

  200

  Which is so plain that Exeter doth wish

  His days may finish ere that hapless time. Exit.

  3.2 Enter JOAN Puzel, disguised as a poor peasant, with four Soldiers with sacks upon their backs.

  JOAN These are the city gates, the gates of Rouen,

  Through which our policy must make a breach.

  Take heed – be wary how you place your words;

  Talk like the vulgar sort of market men

  That come to gather money for their corn.

  5

  If we have entrance, as I hope we shall,

  And that we find the slothful watch but weak,

  I’ll by a sign give notice to our friends

  That Charles the Dolphin may encounter them.

  SOLDIER Our sacks shall be a mean to sack the city,

  10

  And we be lords and rulers over Rouen.

  Therefore we’ll knock. [They knock.]

  WATCH [within] Qui est là?

  JOAN Paysans, les pauvres gens de France,

  Poor market folks that come to sell their corn.

  WATCH [within] Enter, go in – the market bell is rung.

  15

  [Opens the gate.]

  JOAN

  Now, Rouen, I’ll shake thy bulwarks to the ground.

  Exeunt into the town.

  Enter CHARLES, the BASTARD, ALENÇON and REIGNIER.

  CHARLES Saint Denis bless this happy stratagem,

  And once again we’ll sleep secure in Rouen.

  BASTARD Here entered Puzel and her practisants.

  Now she is there, how will she specify

  20

  ‘Here is the best and safest passage in’?

  REIGNIER By thrusting out a torch from yonder tower;

  Which, once discerned, shows that her meaning is,

  No way to that – for weakness – which she entered.

  Enter JOAN Puzel, on the top, thrusting out a torch, burning.

  JOAN Behold, this is the happy wedding torch

  25

  That joineth Rouen unto her countrymen –

  But burning fatal to the Talbonites.

  BASTARD See, noble Charles, the beacon of our friend;

  The burning torch in yonder turret stands.

 

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