Текст книги "William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition"

Автор книги: William Shakespeare

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4.5 Enter the Lord Scales upon the Tower, walking. Enter three or four Citizens below

SCALES How now? Is Jack Cade slain?

FIRST CITIZEN No, my lord Scales, nor likely to be slain, for he and his men have won the bridge, killing all those that did withstand them. The Lord Mayor craveth aid of your honour from the Tower to defend the city from the rebels.

SCALES

Such aid as I can spare you shall command,

But I am troubled here with them myself.

The rebels have essayed to win the Tower.

Get you to Smithfield, there to gather head,

And thither will I send you Matthew Gough.

Fight for your king, your country, and your lives!

And so, farewell, for I must hence again.

Exeunt, Scales above, the Citizens below

4.6 Enter Jack Cade, the Weaver, the Butcher, and the rest. Cade strikes his sword on London Stone

CADE Now is Mortimer lord of this city. And, here sitting upon London Stone, I charge and command that, of the city’s cost, the Pissing Conduit run nothing but claret wine this first year of our reign. And now henceforward it shall be treason for any that calls me otherwise than Lord Mortimer.

Enter a Soldier, running

SOLDIER Jack Cade, Jack Cade!

CADE Zounds, knock him down there! They kill him

BUTCHER If this fellow be wise, he’ll never call ye Jack Cade more; I think he hath a very fair warning. ⌈He takes a paper from the soldier’s body and reads it⌉ My lord, there’s an army gathered together in Smithfield.

CADE Come then, let’s go fight with them—but first, go on and set London Bridge afire, and, if you can, burn down the Tower too. Come, let’s away. Exeunt

4.7 Alarums. ⌈Excursions, wherein⌉ Matthew Gough is slain, and all the rest of his men with him. Then enter Jack Cade with his company, among them the Butcher, the Weaver, and John, a rebel

CADE So, sirs, now go some and pull down the Savoy; others to th’ Inns of Court—down with them all.

BUTCHER I have a suit unto your lordship.

CADE Be it a lordship, thou shalt have it for that word.

BUTCHER Only that the laws of England may come out of your mouth.

JOHN (aside to his fellows) Mass, ‘twill be sore law then, for he was thrust in the mouth with a spear, and ’tis not whole yet.

WEAVER (aside to John) Nay, John, it will be stinking law, for his breath stinks with eating toasted cheese.

CADE I have thought upon it—it shall be so. Away! Burn all the records of the realm. My mouth shall be the Parliament of England.

JOHN (aside to his fellows) Then we are like to have biting statutes unless his teeth be pulled out.

CADE And henceforward all things shall be in common. Enter a Messenger

MESSENGER My lord, a prize, a prize! Here’s the Lord Saye which sold the towns in France. He that made us pay one-and-twenty fifteens and one shilling to the pound the last subsidy.

Enter a rebel with the Lord Saye

CADE Well, he shall be beheaded for it ten times. (To Saye) Ah, thou say, thou serge—nay, thou buckram lord! Now art thou within point-blank of our jurisdiction regal. What canst thou answer to my majesty for giving up of Normandy unto Mounsieur Basimecu, the Dauphin of France? Be it known unto thee by these presence, even the presence of Lord Mortimer, that I am the besom that must sweep the court clean of such filth as thou art. Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar school; and, whereas before, our forefathers had no other books but the score and the tally, thou hast caused printing to be used and, contrary to the King his crown and dignity, thou hast built a paper-mill. It will be proved to thy face that thou hast men about thee that usually talk of a noun and a verb and such abominable words as no Christian ear can endure to hear. Thou hast appointed justices of peace to call poor men before them about matters they were not able to answer. Moreover, thou hast put them in prison, and, because they could not read, thou hast hanged them when indeed only for that cause they have been most worthy to live. Thou dost ride on a foot-cloth, dost thou not?

SAYE What of that?

CADE Marry, thou ought’st not to let thy horse wear a cloak when honester men than thou go in their hose and doublets.

BUTCHER And work in their shirts, too; as myself, for example, that am a butcher.

SAYE You men of Kent.

BUTCHER What say you of Kent?

SAYE

Nothing but this—’tis bona terra, mala gens.

CADE Bonum terrum—zounds, what’s that?

BUTCHER He speaks French.

⌈first REBEL⌉ No, ’tis Dutch.

SECOND REBEL⌉ No, ’tis Out-talian, I know it well enough.

SAYE

Hear me but speak, and bear me where you will.

Kent, in the commentaries Caesar writ,

Is termed the civil’st place of all this isle;

Sweet is the country, because full of riches;

The people liberal, valiant, active, wealthy;

Which makes me hope you are not void of pity.

I sold not Maine, I lost not Normandy;

Yet to recover them would lose my life.

Justice with favour have I always done,

Prayers and tears have moved me—gifts could never.

When have I aught exacted at your hands,

But to maintain the King, the realm, and you?

Large gifts have I bestowed on learned clerks

Because my book preferred me to the King,

And seeing ignorance is the curse of God,

Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.

Unless you be possessed with devilish spirits,

You cannot but forbear to murder me.

This tongue hath parleyed unto foreign kings

For your behoof—

CADE Tut, when struck’st thou one blow in the field?

SAYE

Great men have reaching hands. Oft have I struck

Those that I never saw, and struck them dead.

REBEL O monstrous coward! What, to come behind folks?

SAYE

These cheeks are pale for watching for your good—

CADE Give him a box o‘th’ ear, and that will make ’em red again.

⌈One of the rebels strikes Saye⌉

SAYE

Long sitting to determine poor men’s causes

Hath made me full of sickness and diseases.

CADE Ye shall have a hempen caudle, then, and the health o’th’ hatchet.

BUTCHER (to Saye) Why dost thou quiver, man?

SAYE

The palsy, and not fear, provokes me.

CADE Nay, he nods at us as who should say ‘I’ll be even with you’. I’ll see if his head will stand steadier on a pole or no. Take him away, and behead him.

SAYE

Tell me wherein have I offended most ?

Have I affected wealth or honour? Speak.

Are my chests filled up with extorted gold?

Is my apparel sumptuous to behold?

Whom have I injured, that ye seek my death?

These hands are free from guiltless bloodshedding,

This breast from harbouring foul deceitful thoughts.

O let me live!

CADE (aside) I feel remorse in myself with his words, but I’ll bridle it. He shall die an it be but for pleading so well for his life. (Aloud) Away with him—he has a familiar under his tongue; he speaks not a God’s name. Go, take him away, I say, to the Standard in Cheapside, and strike off his head presently; and then go to Mile End Green—break into his son-in-law’s house, Sir James Cromer, and strike off his head, and bring them both upon two poles hither.

ALL CADE’S FOLLOWERS It shall be done!

SAYE

Ah, countrymen, if, when you make your prayers,

God should be so obdurate as yourselves,

How would it fare with your departed souls ?

And therefore yet relent and save my life

CADE Away with him, and do as I command ye!

Exeunt ⌈the Butcher and⌉ one or two with the Lord Saye

The proudest peer in the realm shall not wear a head on his shoulders unless he pay me tribute. There shall not a maid be married but she shall pay to me her maidenhead, ere they have it. Married men shall hold of me in capite. And we charge and command that their wives be as free as heart can wish or tongue can tell.

Enter a Rebel

REBEL O captain, London Bridge is afire!

CADE Run to Billingsgate and fetch pitch and flax and quench it.

Enter the Butcher and a Sergeant

SERGEANT Justice, justice, I pray you, sir, let me have justice of this fellow here.

CADE Why, what has he done?

SERGEANT Alas, sir, he has ravished my wife.

BUTCHER (to Cade) Why, my lord, he would have ’rested me and I went and entered my action in his wife’s proper house.

CADE Dick, follow thy suit in her common place. (To the Sergeant) You whoreson villain, you are a sergeant—you’ll take any man by the throat for twelve pence, and ’rest a man when he’s at dinner, and have him to prison ere the meat be out of his mouth. (To the Butcher) Go, Dick, take him hence: cut out his tongue for cogging, hough him for running, and, to conclude, brain him with his own mace.

Exit the Butcher with the Sergeant

REBEL My lord, when shall we go to Cheapside and take up commodities upon our bills?

CADE Marry, presently. He that will lustily stand to it shall go with me and take up these commodities following—item, a gown, a kirtle, a petticoat, and a smock.

ALL CADE’S FOLLOWERS O brave!

Enter two with the Lord Saye’s head and Sir James Cromer’s upon two poles

CADE But is not this braver? Let them kiss one another, for they loved well when they were alive.

⌈The two heads are made to kiss⌉

Now part them again, lest they consult about the giving up of some more towns in France. Soldiers, defer the spoil of the city until night. For with these borne before us instead of maces will we ride through the streets, and at every corner have them kiss. Away!

⌈Exeunt two with the heads. The others begin to follow⌉

Up Fish Street! Down Saint Magnus’ Corner! Kill and knock down! Throw them into Thames!

Sound a parley

What noise is this? Dare any be so bold to sound retreat or parley when I command them kill?

Enter the Duke of Buckingham and old Lord Clifford

BUCKINGHAM

Ay, here they be that dare and will disturb thee!

Know, Cade, we come ambassadors from the King

Unto the commons, whom thou hast misled,

And here pronounce free pardon to them all

That will forsake thee and go home in peace.

CLIFFORD

What say ye, countrymen, will ye relent

And yield to mercy whilst ‘tis offered you,

Or let a rebel lead you to your deaths?

Who loves the King and will embrace his pardon,

Fling up his cap and say ‘God save his majesty’.

Who hateth him and honours not his father,

Henry the Fifth, that made all France to quake,

Shake he his weapon at us, and pass by.

They ⌈fling up their caps and⌉ forsake Cade

ALL CADE’S FoLLOwERS God save the King! God save the King!

CADE What, Buckingham and Clifford, are ye so brave? (To the rabble) And you, base peasants, do ye believe him? Will you needs be hanged with your pardons about your necks? Hath my sword, therefore, broke through London gates that you should leave me at the White Hart in Southwark? I thought ye would never have given out these arms till you had recovered your ancient freedom. But you are all recreants and dastards, and delight to live in slavery to the nobility. Let them break your backs with burdens, take your houses over your heads, ravish your wives and daughters before your faces. For me, I will make shift for one, and so God’s curse light upon you all.

ALL CADE’S FOLLOWERS We’ll follow Cade! We’ll follow Cade!

They run to Cade again

CLIFFORD

Is Cade the son of Henry the Fifth

That thus you do exclaim you’ll go with him?

Will he conduct you through the heart of France

And make the meanest of you earls and dukes?

Alas, he hath no home, no place to fly to,

Nor knows he how to live but by the spoil—

Unless by robbing of your friends and us.

Were’t not a shame that whilst you live at jar

The fearful French, whom you late vanquished,

Should make a start o‘er seas and vanquish you?

Methinks already in this civil broil

I see them lording it in London streets,

Crying ‘Villiago!’ unto all they meet.

Better ten thousand base-born Cades miscarry

Than you should stoop unto a Frenchman’s mercy.

To France! To France! And get what you have lost!

Spare England, for it is your native coast.

Henry hath money; you are strong and manly;

God on our side, doubt not of victory.

ALL CADE’S FOLLOWERS A Clifford! A Clifford! We’ll follow the King and Clifford!

They forsake Cade

CADE (aside) Was ever feather so lightly blown to and fro as this multitude? The name of Henry the Fifth hales them to an hundred mischiefs, and makes them leave me desolate. I see them lay their heads together to surprise me. My sword make way for me, for here is no staying. (Aloud) In despite of the devils and hell, have through the very middest of you! And heavens and honour be witness that no want of resolution in me, but only my followers’ base and ignominious treasons, makes me betake me to my heels.

He runs through them with his staff, and flies away

BUCKINGHAM

What, is he fled? Go, some, and follow him,

And he that brings his head unto the King

Shall have a thousand crowns for his reward.

Exeunt some of them after Cade

(To the remaining rebels)

Follow me, soldiers, we’ll devise a mean

To reconcile you all unto the King. Exeunt

4.8 Sound trumpets. Enter King Henry, Queen Margaret, and the Duke of Somerset on the terrace

KING HENRY

Was ever King that joyed an earthly throne

And could command no more content than I?

No sooner was I crept out of my cradle

But I was made a king at nine months old.

Was never subject longed to be a king

As I do long and wish to be a subject.

Enter the Duke of Buckingham and Lord Clifford ⌈on the terrace⌉

BUCKINGHAM (to King Henry)

Health and glad tidings to your majesty.

KING HENRY

Why, Buckingham, is the traitor Cade surprised?

Or is he but retired to make him strong?

Enter, below, multitudes with halters about their necks

CLIFFORD

He is fled, my lord, and all his powers do yield,

And humbly thus with halters on their necks

Expect your highness’ doom of life or death.

KING HENRY

Then, heaven, set ope thy everlasting gates

To entertain my vows of thanks and praise.

(To the multitudes below)

Soldiers, this day have you redeemed your lives,

And showed how well you love your prince and

country.

Continue still in this so good a mind,

And Henry, though he be infortunate,

Assure yourselves will never be unkind.

And so, with thanks and pardon to you all,

I do dismiss you to your several countries.

ALL CADE’S FORMER FOLLOWERS God save the King! Gold save the King! ⌈Exeunt multitudes below⌉

Enter a Messenger ⌈on the terrace⌉

MESSENGER (to King Henry)

Please it your grace to be advertised

The Duke of York is newly come from Ireland,

And with a puissant and a mighty power

Of galloglasses and stout Irish kerns

Is marching hitherward in proud array,

And still proclaimeth, as he comes along,

His arms are only to remove from thee

The Duke of Somerset, whom he terms a traitor.

KING HENRY

Thus stands my state, ’twixt Cade and York distressed,

Like to a ship that, having scaped a tempest,

Is straightway calmed and boarded with a pirate.

But now is Cade driven back, his men dispersed,

And now is York in arms to second him.

I pray thee, Buckingham, go and meet him,

And ask him what’s the reason of these arms.

Tell him I’ll send Duke Edmund to the Tower;

And, Somerset, we will commit thee thither,

Until his army be dismissed from him.

SOMERSET

My lord, I’ll yield myself to prison willingly,

Or unto death, to do my country good.

KING HENRY (to Buckingham)

In any case, be not too rough in terms,

For he is fierce and cannot brook hard language.

BUCKINGHAM

I will, my lord, and doubt not so to deal

As all things shall redound unto your good.

KING HENRY

Come, wife, let’s in and learn to govern better;

For yet may England curse my wretched reign.

Flourish. Exeunt

4.9 Enter Jack Cade

CADE Fie on ambitions; fie on myself that have a sword and yet am ready to famish. These five days have I hid me in these woods and durst not peep out, for all the country is laid for me. But now am I so hungry that if I might have a lease of my life for a thousand years, I could stay no longer. Wherefore o‘er a brick wall have I climbed into this garden to see if I can eat grass or pick a sallet another while, which is not amiss to cool a man’s stomach this hot weather. And I think this word ‘sallet’ was born to do me good; for many a time, but for a sallet, my brain-pan had been cleft with a brown bill; and many a time, when I have been dry, and bravely marching, it hath served me instead of a quart pot to drink in; and now the word ‘sallet’ must serve me to feed on.

⌈He lies down picking of herbs and eating them.⌉ Enter Sir Alexander Iden ⌈and five of his men⌉

IDEN

Lord, who would live turmoilèd in the court

And may enjoy such quiet walks as these?

This small inheritance my father left me

Contenteth me, and worth a monarchy.

I seek not to wax great by others’ waning,

Or gather wealth I care not with what envy;

Sufficeth that I have maintains my state,

And sends the poor well pleased from my gate.

⌈Cade rises to his knees⌉

CADE (aside) Zounds, here’s the lord of the soil come to seize me for a stray for entering his fee-simple without leave. (To Iden) A villain, thou wilt betray me and get a thousand crowns of the king by carrying my head to him; but I’ll make thee eat iron like an ostrich and swallow my sword like a great pin, ere thou and I part.

IDEN

Why, rude companion, whatsoe’er thou be,

I know thee not. Why then should I betray thee?

Is’t not enough to break into my garden,

And, like a thief, to come to rob my grounds,

Climbing my walls in spite of me the owner,

But thou wilt brave me with these saucy terms?

CADE Brave thee? Ay, by the best blood that ever was broached—and beard thee too! Look on me well—I have eat no meat these five days, yet come thou and thy five men, an if I do not leave you all as dead as a doornail I pray God I may never eat grass more.

IDEN

Nay, it shall ne’er be said while England stands

That Alexander Iden, an esquire of Kent,

Took odds to combat a poor famished man.

Oppose thy steadfast gazing eyes to mine—

See if thou canst outface me with thy looks.

Set limb to limb, and thou art far the lesser—

Thy hand is but a finger to my fist,

Thy leg a stick compared with this truncheon.

My foot shall fight with all the strength thou hast,

And if mine arm be heaved in the air,

Thy grave is digged already in the earth.

As for words, whose greatness answers words,

Let this my sword report what speech forbears.

(To his men) Stand you all aside.

CADE By my valour, the most complete champion that ever I heard. (To his sword) Steel, if thou turn the edge or cut not out the burly-boned clown in chines of beef ere thou sleep in thy sheath, I beseech God on my knees thou mayst be turned to hobnails.

⌈Cade stands.⌉ Here they fight, and Cade falls down

O, I am slain! Famine and no other hath slain me! Let ten thousand devils come against me, and give me but the ten meals I have lost, and I’d defy them all. Wither, garden, and be henceforth a burying place to all that do dwell in this house, because the unconquered soul of Cade is fled.

IDEN

Is’t Cade that I have slain, that monstrous traitor?

Sword, I will hallow thee for this thy deed

And hang thee o‘er my tomb when I am dead.

Ne’er shall this blood be wiped from thy point

But thou shalt wear it as a herald’s coat

To emblaze the honour that thy master got.

CADE Iden, farewell, and be proud of thy victory. Tell Kent from me she hath lost her best man, and exhort all the world to be cowards. For I, that never feared any, am vanquished by famine, not by valour.

He dies

IDEN

How much thou wrong’st me, heaven be my judge.

Die, damned wretch, the curse of her that bore thee!

And ⌈stabbing him again⌉ as I thrust thy body in with

my sword,

So wish I I might thrust thy soul to hell.

Hence will I drag thee headlong by the heels

Unto a dunghill, which shall be thy grave,

And there cut off thy most ungracious head,

Which I will bear in triumph to the King,

Leaving thy trunk for crows to feed upon.

Exeunt with the body

5.1 Enter the Duke of York and his army of Irish with a drummer and soldiers bearing 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 maiestas! Who would not buy thee dear?

Let them obey that knows 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 as word,

On which I’ll toss the fleur-de-lis of France.

Enter the Duke of Buckingham

(Aside) 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.

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,

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;

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,

Till Henry be more weak and I more strong.

(Aloud) 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

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:

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;

Meet me tomorrow in Saint George’s field.

You shall have pay and everything you wish.

Exeunt soldiers

(To Buckingham) And let my sovereign, virtuous

Henry,

Command my eldest son—nay, all my sons—

As pledges of my fealty and love.

I’ll send them all as willing as I live.

Lands, goods, horse, armour, anything 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.

Enter King Henry and attendants

KING HENRY

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

Then what intends these forces thou dost bring?

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,

⌈Kneeling⌉ Lo, I present your grace a traitor’s head,

The head of Cade, whom I in combat slew.

KING HENRY

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.

Tell me, my friend, art thou the man that slew him?

IDEN ⌈rising⌉

Iwis, an’t like your majesty.

KING HENRY

How art thou called? And what is thy degree?

IDEN

Alexander Iden, that’s my name;

A poor esquire of Kent that loves his king.

BUCKINGHAM (to King Henry)

So please it you, my lord, ’twere not amiss

He were created knight for his good service.

KING HENRY

Iden, kneel down.

Iden kneels and King Henry knights him

Rise up a knight.

Iden rises

We give thee for reward a thousand marks,

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.

⌈Exit⌉

Enter Queen Margaret and the Duke of Somerset

KING HENRY

See, Buckingham, Somerset comes wi’th’ Queen.

Go bid her hide him quickly from the Duke.

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 imprisoned thoughts,

And let thy tongue be equal with thy heart.

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,

Which dar’st 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 aweful princely sceptre.

That gold must round engird these brows of mine,

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

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 (to an attendant)

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 ⌈to Buckingham⌉

Call hither Clifford; bid him come amain,

To say if that the bastard boys of York

Shall be the surety for their traitor father.

Exit ⌈Buckingham⌉

YORK

O blood-bespotted Neapolitan,

Outcast of Naples, England’s bloody scourge!

The sons of York, thy betters in their birth,

Shall be their father’s bail, and bane to those

That for my surety will refuse the boys.

Enter ⌈at one door⌉ York’s sons Edward and crookback Richard ⌈with a drummer and soldiers⌉

See where they come. I’ll warrant they’ll make it good.

Enter ⌈at the other door⌉ Clifford ⌈and his son, with a drummer and soldiers⌉

QUEEN MARGARET

And here comes Clifford to deny their bail.

CLIFFORD (kneeling before King Henry)

Health and all happiness to my lord the King.

He rises

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.

CLIFFORD

This is my king, York; I do not mistake.

But thou mistakes me much to think I do.

(To King Henry)

To Bedlam with him! Is the man grown mad?

KING HENRY

Ay, Clifford, a bedlam and ambitious humour

Makes him oppose himself against his king.

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 (to Edward and Richard) Will you not, sons?

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.

Call hither to the stake my two brave bears,

That with the very shaking of their chains,

They may astonish these fell-lurking curs.

(To an attendant)

Bid Salisbury and Warwick come to me.

Exit attendant

Enter the Earls of Warwick and Salisbury ⌈with a drummer and soldiers⌉

CLIFFORD

Are these thy bears? We’ll bait thy bears to death,

And manacle the bearherd in their chains,

If thou dar’st 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 suffered with the bear’s fell paw,

Hath clapped 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!

YORK

Nay, we shall heat you thoroughly anon.

CLIFFORD

Take heed, lest by your heat you burn yourselves.

KING HENRY

Why, Warwick, hath thy knee forgot to bow?

Old Salisbury, shame to thy silver hair,

Thou mad misleader of thy brainsick son!

What, wilt thou on thy deathbed play the ruffian,

And seek for sorrow with thy spectacles?

O, where is faith? O, where is loyalty?

If it be banished from the frosty head,

Where shall it find a harbour in the earth?

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,

That bows unto the grave with mickle age.

SALISBURY

My lord, I have considered 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.

KING HENRY

Hast thou not sworn allegiance unto me?

SALISBURY I have.

KING HENRY

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.

Who can be bound by any solemn vow

To do a murd’rous 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 customed right,

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 (to an attendant)

Call Buckingham, and bid him arm himself.

Exit attendant

YORK (to King Henry)

Call Buckingham and all the friends thou hast,

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 you from the tempest of the field.

CLIFFORD

I am resolved to bear a greater storm

Than any thou canst conjure up today—

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 Neville’s crest,

The rampant bear chained to the ragged staff,

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,

And tread it under foot with all contempt,

Despite the bearherd 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—

For you shall sup with Jesu Christ tonight.

YOUNG CLIFFORD

Foul stigmatic, that’s more than thou canst tell.

RICHARD

If not in heaven, you’ll surely sup in hell.