The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works
Page 202
GLOUCESTER Lieutenant, is it you whose voice I hear?
Open the gates, here’s Gloucester that would enter.
WOODVILLE
Have patience, noble duke, I may not open;
The Cardinal of Winchester forbids.
From him I have express commandment
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That thou nor none of thine shall be let in.
GLOUCESTER
Faint-hearted Woodville, prizest him ’fore me?
Arrogant Winchester, that haughty prelate
Whom Henry, our late sovereign, ne’er could brook?
Thou art no friend to God, or to the King:
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Open the gates, or I’ll shut thee out shortly.
SERVINGMEN Open the gates unto the Lord Protector,
Or we’ll burst them open, if that you come not quickly.
Enter, to the Protector at the Tower gates, WINCHESTER, and his men in tawny coats.
WINCHESTER
How now, ambitious Humphrey, what means this?
GLOUCESTER
Peeled priest, dost thou command me to be shut out?
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WINCHESTER I do, thou most usurping proditor –
And not Protector – of the King, or realm.
GLOUCESTER Stand back, thou manifest conspirator,
Thou that contrived’st to murder our dead lord,
Thou that giv’st whores indulgences to sin;
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I’ll canvas thee in thy broad cardinal’s hat
If thou proceed in this thy insolence.
WINCHESTER
Nay, stand thou back – I will not budge a foot.
This be Damascus, be thou cursed Cain,
To slay thy brother Abel, if thou wilt.
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GLOUCESTER
I will not slay thee, but I’ll drive thee back:
Thy scarlet robes as a child’s bearing cloth
I’ll use, to carry thee out of this place.
WINCHESTER
Do what thou dar’st, I beard thee to thy face.
GLOUCESTER
What? Am I dared, and bearded to my face?
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Draw, men, for all this privileged place.
Blue coats to tawny coats. Priest, beware your beard;
I mean to tug it and to cuff you soundly.
Under my feet I stamp thy cardinal’s hat.
In spite of Pope or dignities of Church,
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Here by the cheeks I’ll drag thee up and down.
WINCHESTER
Gloucester, thou wilt answer this before the Pope.
GLOUCESTER Winchester goose, I cry, a rope, a rope.
Now beat them hence – why do you let them stay?
Thee I’ll chase hence, thou wolf in sheep’s array.
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Out, tawny coats – out, scarlet hypocrite.
Here Gloucester’s men beat out the Cardinal’s men, and enter in the hurly-burly the Mayor of London and his Officers.
MAYOR
Fie, lords, that you, being supreme magistrates,
Thus contumeliously should break the peace.
GLOUCESTER
Peace, mayor, thou knowst little of my wrongs.
Here’s Beaufort, that regards nor God nor king,
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Hath here distrained the Tower to his use.
WINCHESTER Here’s Gloucester, a foe to citizens,
One that still motions war and never peace,
O’ercharging your free purses with large fines –
That seeks to overthrow religion,
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Because he is Protector of the realm,
And would have armour here out of the Tower,
To crown himself king and suppress the Prince.
GLOUCESTER
I will not answer thee with words, but blows.
[Here they skirmish again.]
MAYOR Naught rests for me, in this tumultuous strife,
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But to make open proclamation.
Come, officer, as loud as e’er thou canst.
[The Officer gives the cry:]
OFFICER All manner of men, assembled here in arms this day
against God’s peace and the King’s, we charge and command
you, in his Highness’s name, to repair to your several dwelling
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places, and not to wear, handle or use any sword, weapon or
dagger henceforward, upon pain of death.
GLOUCESTER Cardinal, I’ll be no breaker of the law:
But we shall meet and break our minds at large.
WINCHESTER
Gloucester, we’ll meet to thy cost, be sure.
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Thy heart-blood I will have for this day’s work.
MAYOR I’ll call for clubs, if you will not away:
[to the audience] This Cardinal’s more haughty than the devil.
GLOUCESTER
Mayor, farewell: thou dost but what thou mayst.
WINCHESTER Abominable Gloucester, guard thy head,
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For I intend to have it ere long.
Exeunt Winchester, Gloucester and their men.
MAYOR See the coast cleared, and then we will depart.
Good God, these nobles should such stomachs bear!
I myself fight not once in forty year. Exeunt.
1.4 Enter the Master Gunner of Orleans and his Boy.
GUNNER Sirrah, thou knowst how Orleans is besieged,
And how the English have the suburbs won.
BOY Father, I know, and oft have shot at them –
Howe’er, unfortunate, I missed my aim.
GUNNER But now thou shalt not: be thou ruled by me.
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Chief master gunner am I of this town –
Something I must do to procure me grace.
The Prince’s espials have informed me
How the English, in the suburbs close entrenched,
Went through a secret grate of iron bars
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In yonder tower, to overpeer the city
And thence discover how with most advantage
They may vex us with shot or with assault.
To intercept this inconvenience,
A piece of ordnance ’gainst it I have placed,
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And even these three days have I watched if I could see them.
Now do thou watch, for I can stay no longer.
If thou spiest any, run and bring me word,
And thou shalt find me at the Governor’s.
BOY Father, I warrant you, take you no care.
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Exit Gunner.
I’ll never trouble you, if I may spy them. Exit.
Enter SALISBURY and TALBOT on the turrets, with others, Sir Thomas GARGRAVE and Sir William GLANSDALE.
SALISBURY Talbot, my life, my joy, again returned?
How wert thou handled, being prisoner?
Or by what means got’st thou to be released?
Discourse, I prithee, on this turret’s top.
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TALBOT The Earl of Bedford had a prisoner
Called the brave Lord Ponton de Saintrailles:
For him was I exchanged and ransomed.
But with a baser man of arms by far,
Once, in contempt, they would have bartered me:
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Which I, disdaining, scorned and craved death,
Rather than I would be so peeled esteemed.
In fine, redeemed I was as I desired.
But O, the treacherous Fastolfe wounds my heart,
Whom with my bare fists I would execute,
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If I now had him brought into my power.
SALISBURY
Yet tellest thou not how thou wert entertained.
TALBOT
With scoffs and scorns and contumelious taunts.
In open market-place produced they me
To be a p
ublic spectacle to all.
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‘Here’, said they, ‘is the terror of the French,
The scarecrow that affrights our children so’.
Then broke I from the officers that led me
And with my nails digged stones out of the ground
To hurl at the beholders of my shame.
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My grisly countenance made others fly;
None durst come near for fear of sudden death.
In iron walls they deemed me not secure:
So great fear of my name ’mongst them were spread
That they supposed I could rend bars of steel
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And spurn in pieces posts of adamant.
Wherefore a guard of chosen shot I had,
That walked about me every minute while,
And if I did but stir out of my bed
Ready they were to shoot me to the heart.
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Enter the Boy with a linstock lit and burning, and passes over the stage.
SALISBURY
I grieve to hear what torments you endured;
But we will be revenged sufficiently.
Now it is supper-time in Orleans.
Here, through this grate, I count each one
And view the Frenchmen how they fortify.
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Let us look in: the sight will much delight thee.
Sir Thomas Gargrave and Sir William Glansdale,
Let me have your express opinions –
Where is best place to make our battery next?
GARGRAVE
I think at the north gate, for there stands lords.
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GLANSDALE And I, here, at the bulwark of the bridge.
TALBOT For aught I see, this city must be famished,
Or with light skirmishes enfeebled.
[Here they shoot from offstage, and Salisbury
and Gargrave fall down.]
SALISBURY
O Lord, have mercy on us, wretched sinners.
GARGRAVE O Lord, have mercy on me, woeful man.
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TALBOT
What chance is this that suddenly hath crossed us?
Speak, Salisbury; at least, if thou canst, speak.
How far’st thou, mirror of all martial men?
One of thy eyes and thy cheek’s side struck off?
Accursed tower, accursed fatal hand,
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That hath contrived this woeful tragedy.
In thirteen battles Salisbury o’ercame:
Henry the Fifth he first trained to the wars.
Whilst any trump did sound or drum struck up,
His sword did ne’er leave striking in the field.
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Yet liv’st thou, Salisbury? Though thy speech doth fail,
One eye thou hast to look to heaven for grace.
The sun with one eye vieweth all the world.
Heaven, be thou gracious to none alive,
If Salisbury wants mercy at thy hands.
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Bear hence his body – I will help to bury it.
Sir Thomas Gargrave, hast thou any life?
Speak unto Talbot, nay, look up to him.
Salisbury, cheer thy spirit with this comfort;
Thou shalt not die whiles –
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He beckons with his hand and smiles on me
As who should say, ‘When I am dead and gone,
Remember to avenge me on the French’.
Plantagenet, I will; and like thee, Nero,
Play on the lute, beholding the towns burn:
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Wretched shall France be only in my name.
[Here an alarum, and it thunders and lightens.]
What stir is this? What tumult’s in the heavens?
Whence cometh this alarum and the noise?
Enter a Messenger.
MESSENGER
My lord, my lord, the French have gathered head.
The Dolphin, with one Joan de Puzel joined –
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A holy prophetess, new risen up –
Is come with a great power to raise the siege.
[Here Salisbury lifteth himself up, and groans.]
TALBOT Hear, hear, how dying Salisbury doth groan:
It irks his heart he cannot be revenged.
Frenchmen, I’ll be a Salisbury to you.
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Puzel or pussel, Dolphin or dogfish,
Your hearts I’ll stamp out with my horse’s heels
And make a quagmire of your mingled brains.
Convey me Salisbury into his tent –
And then we’ll try what these dastard Frenchmen
dare. Alarum. Exeunt.
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1.5 Here an alarum again, and TALBOT pursueth CHARLES the Dolphin, and driveth him; then enter JOAN Puzel driving Englishmen before her. Then enter TALBOT.
TALBOT