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.
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 206
