From shelves and rocks that threaten us with wrack.
As good to chide the waves as speak them fair.
And what is Edward but a ruthless sea?
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What Clarence but a quicksand of deceit?
And Richard but a ragged fatal rock?
All these the enemies to our poor bark.
Say you can swim – alas, ’tis but a while!
Tread on the sand – why, there you quickly sink:
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Bestride the rock – the tide will wash you off,
Or else you famish; that’s a threefold death.
This speak I, lords, to let you understand,
If case some one of you would fly from us,
That there’s no hop’d-for mercy with the brothers
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More than with ruthless waves, with sands, and rocks.
Why, courage then! what cannot be avoided
’Twere childish weakness to lament or fear.
PRINCE Methinks a woman of this valiant spirit
Should, if a coward heard her speak these words,
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Infuse his breast with magnanimity
And make him, naked, foil a man at arms.
I speak not this as doubting any here;
For did I but suspect a fearful man,
He should have leave to go away betimes,
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Lest in our need he might infect another
And make him of like spirit to himself.
If any such be here – as God forbid! –
Let him depart before we need his help.
OXFORD Women and children of so high a courage,
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And warriors faint! why, ’twere perpetual shame.
O brave young Prince! thy famous grandfather
Doth live again in thee: long may’st thou live
To bear his image and renew his glories!
SOMERSET And he that will not fight for such a hope
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Go home to bed and, like the owl by day,
If he arise, be mock’d and wonder’d at.
QUEEN MARGARET
Thanks, gentle Somerset; sweet Oxford, thanks.
PRINCE And take his thanks that yet hath nothing else.
Enter a Messenger.
MESSENGER Prepare you, lords, for Edward is at hand
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Ready to fight; therefore be resolute.
OXFORD I thought no less: it is his policy
To haste thus fast, to find us unprovided.
SOMERSET But he’s deceiv’d; we are in readiness.
QUEEN MARGARET
This cheers my heart, to see your forwardness.
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OXFORD
Here pitch our battle; hence we will not budge.
Flourish, and march. Enter KING EDWARD, RICHARD, GEORGE and soldiers.
KING EDWARD
Brave followers, yonder stands the thorny wood
Which by the heavens’ assistance and your strength
Must by the roots be hewn up yet ere night.
I need not add more fuel to your fire,
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For well I wot ye blaze to burn them out.
Give signal to the fight, and to it, lords!
QUEEN MARGARET
Lords, knights, and gentlemen, what I should say
My tears gainsay; for every word I speak
Ye see I drink the water of my eye.
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Therefore no more but this: Henry, your sovereign,
Is prisoner to the foe, his state usurp’d,
His realm a slaughter-house, his subjects slain,
His statutes cancell’d, and his treasure spent;
And yonder stands the wolf that makes this spoil.
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You fight in justice: then, in God’s name, lords,
Be valiant, and give signal to the fight.
Alarum. Retreat. Excursions. Exeunt.
5.5 Flourish. Enter KING EDWARD, RICHARD, GEORGE and soldiers; with QUEEN MARGARET, OXFORD and SOMERSET, prisoners.
KING EDWARD Now here a period of tumultuous broils.
Away with Oxford to Hames Castle straight:
For Somerset, off with his guilty head.
Go, bear them hence; I will not hear them speak.
OXFORD For my part, I’ll not trouble thee with words.
5
SOMERSET
Nor I; but stoop with patience to my fortune.
Exeunt Oxford and Somerset, guarded.
QUEEN MARGARET
So part we sadly in this troublous world,
To meet with joy in sweet Jerusalem.
KING EDWARD
Is proclamation made that who finds Edward
Shall have a high reward, and he his life?
10
RICHARD It is: and lo where youthful Edward comes.
Enter soldiers, with PRINCE EDWARD.
KING EDWARD
Bring forth the gallant: let us hear him speak.
What, can so young a thorn begin to prick?
Edward, what satisfaction canst thou make
For bearing arms, for stirring up my subjects,
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And all the trouble thou hast turn’d me to?
PRINCE Speak like a subject, proud ambitious York.
Suppose that I am now my father’s mouth;
Resign thy chair, and where I stand kneel thou,
Whilst I propose the self-same words to thee
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Which, traitor, thou would’st have me answer to.
QUEEN MARGARET
Ah, that thy father had been so resolv’d!
RICHARD That you might still have worn the petticoat
And ne’er have stol’n the breech from Lancaster.
PRINCE Let Aesop fable in a winter’s night;
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His currish riddles sorts not with this place.
RICHARD By heaven, brat, I’ll plague ye for that word.
QUEEN MARGARET
Ay, thou wast born to be a plague to men.
RICHARD For God’s sake, take away this captive scold.
PRINCE Nay, take away this scolding crookback rather.
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KING EDWARD
Peace, wilful boy, or I will charm your tongue.
GEORGE Untutor’d lad, thou art too malapert.
PRINCE I know my duty; you are all undutiful:
Lascivious Edward, and thou perjur’d George,
And thou misshapen Dick, I tell ye all
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I am your better, traitors as ye are,
And thou usurp’st my father’s right and mine.
KING EDWARD
Take that, the likeness of this railer here. [Stabs him.]
RICHARD Sprawl’st thou? Take that to end thy agony.
[Stabs him.]
GEORGE And there’s for twitting me with perjury.
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[Stabs him.]
QUEEN MARGARET O, kill me too!
RICHARD Marry, and shall.
[Offers to kill her.]
KING EDWARD
Hold, Richard, hold; for we have done too much.
RICHARD
Why should she live to fill the world with words?
KING EDWARD
What, doth she swoon? Use means for her recovery.
RICHARD Clarence, excuse me to the King my brother:
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I’ll hence to London on a serious matter:
Ere ye come there, be sure to hear some news.
GEORGE What? what?
RICHARD The Tower! the Tower! I’ll root them out.
Exit.
QUEEN MARGARET
O Ned, sweet Ned, speak to thy mother, boy!
Canst thou not speak? O traitors! murderers!
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They that stabb’d Caesar shed no blood at all,
Did not offend, nor were not worthy blame,
If this foul deed were by to equal it.
He was a man; this, in respect, a child;
And men ne’er spend their fury on a child.
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What’s worse than murderer, that I may name it?
No, no, my heart will burst and if I speak;
And I will speak, that so my heart may burst.
Butchers and villains! bloody cannibals!
How sweet a plant have you untimely cropp’d!
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You have no children, butchers; if you had,
The thought of them would have stirr’d up remorse:
But if you ever chance to have a child,
Look in his youth to have him so cut off
As, deathsmen, you have rid this sweet young prince!
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KING EDWARD
Away with her; go bear her hence perforce.
QUEEN MARGARET
Nay, never bear me hence; dispatch me here:
Here sheath thy sword; I’ll pardon thee my death.
What, wilt thou not? Then, Clarence, do it thou.
GEORGE By heaven, I will not do thee so much ease.
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QUEEN MARGARET
Good Clarence, do; sweet Clarence, do thou do it.
GEORGE
Didst thou not hear me swear I would not do it?
QUEEN MARGARET
Ay, but thou usest to forswear thyself.
’Twas sin before, but now ’tis charity.
What! wilt thou not? Where is that devil’s butcher?
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Richard, hard-favour’d Richard, where art thou,
Thou art not here: murder is thy alms-deed;
Petitioners for blood thou ne’er put’st back.
KING EDWARD Away, I say; I charge ye bear her hence.
QUEEN MARGARET
So come to you and yours as to this prince!
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Exit, led out forcibly.
KING EDWARD Where’s Richard gone?
GEORGE To London all in post, and, as I guess,
To make a bloody supper in the Tower.
KING EDWARD He’s sudden if a thing come in his head.
Now march we hence: discharge the common sort
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With pay and thanks, and let’s away to London
And see our gentle Queen how well she fares:
By this, I hope, she hath a son for me. Exeunt.
5.6 Enter KING HENRY and RICHARD, with the lieutenant, on the walls.
RICHARD
Good day, my lord. What, at your book so hard?
KING HENRY
Ay, my good lord – my lord, I should say rather.
’Tis sin to flatter; ‘good’ was little better:
‘Good Gloucester’ and ‘good devil’ were alike,
And both preposterous; therefore not ‘good lord’.
5
RICHARD
Sirrah, leave us to ourselves; we must confer.
Exit lieutenant.
KING HENRY
So flies the reckless shepherd from the wolf;
So first the harmless sheep doth yield his fleece,
And next his throat unto the butcher’s knife.
What scene of death hath Roscius now to act?
10
RICHARD Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind;
The thief doth fear each bush an officer.
KING HENRY The bird that hath been limed in a bush
With trembling wings misdoubteth every bush;
And I, the hapless male to one sweet bird,
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Have now the fatal object in my eye
Where my poor young was lim’d, was caught, and kill’d.
RICHARD Why, what a peevish fool was that of Crete,
That taught his son the office of a fowl!
And yet, for all his wings, the fool was drown’d.
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KING HENRY I, Daedalus; my poor boy, Icarus;
Thy father, Minos, that denied our course;
The sun that sear’d the wings of my sweet boy,
Thy brother Edward; and thyself, the sea
Whose envious gulf did swallow up his life.
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Ah, kill me with thy weapon, not with words!
My breast can better brook thy dagger’s point
Than can my ears that tragic history.
But wherefore dost thou come? Is’t for my life?
RICHARD Think’st thou I am an executioner?
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KING HENRY A persecutor I am sure thou art:
If murdering innocents be executing,
Why then thou art an executioner.
RICHARD Thy son I kill’d for his presumption.
KING HENRY
Hadst thou been kill’d when first thou didst presume,
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Thou hadst not liv’d to kill a son of mine.
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 244
