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,<
br />
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.
Exeunt severally
5.2 ⌈An alehouse sign: a castle.⌉ Alarums to the battle. Then enter the Duke of Somerset and Richard fighting. Richard kills Somerset ⌈under the sign⌉
RICHARD So lie thou there—
For underneath an alehouse’ paltry sign,
The Castle in Saint Albans, Somerset
Hath made the wizard famous in his death.
Sword, hold thy temper; heart, be wrathfull still—
Priests pray for enemies, but princes kill.
Exit ⌈with Somerset’s body. The sign is removed⌉
5.3 ⌈Alarum again.⌉ Enter the Earl of Warwick
WARWICK
Clifford of Cumberland, ’tis Warwick calls!
An if thou dost not hide thee from the bear,
Now, when the angry trumpet sounds alarum,
And dead men’s cries do fill the empty air,
Clifford I say, come forth and fight with me!
Proud northern lord, Clifford of Cumberland,
Warwick is hoarse with calling thee to arms!
CLIFFORD (Within)
Warwick, stand still; and stir not till I come.
Enter the Duke of York
WARWICK
How now, my noble lord? What, all afoot?
YORK
The deadly-handed Clifford slew my steed.
But match to match I have encountered him,
And made a prey for carrion kites and crows
Even of the bonny beast he loved so well.
Enter Lord Clifford
WARWICK (to Clifford)
Of one or both of us the time is come.
YORK
Hold, Warwick—seek thee out some other chase,
For I myself must hunt this deer to death.
WARWICK
Then nobly, York; ‘tis for a crown thou fight’st.
(To Clifford) As I intend, Clifford, to thrive today,
It grieves my soul to leave thee unassailed. Exit
YORK
Clifford, since we are singled here alone,
Be this the day of doom to one of us.
For know my heart hath sworn immortal hate
To thee and all the house of Lancaster.
CLIFFORD
And here I stand and pitch my foot to thine,
Vowing not to stir till thou or I be slain.
For never shall my heart be safe at rest
Till I have spoiled the hateful house of York.
Alarums. They fight. York kills Clifford
YORK
Now, Lancaster, sit sure—thy sinews shrink.
Come, fearful Henry, grovelling on thy face—
Yield up thy crown unto the prince of York. Exit
Alarums, then enter Young Clifford
YOUNG CLIFFORD
Shame and confusion, all is on the rout!
Fear frames disorder, and disorder wounds
Where it should guard. O, war, thou son of hell,
Whom angry heavens do make their minister,
Throw in the frozen bosoms of our part
Hot coals of vengeance! Let no soldier fly!
He that is truly dedicate to war
Hath no self-love; nor he that loves himself
Hath not essentially, but by circumstance,
The name of valour.
He sees his father’s body
O, let the vile world end,
And the premised flames of the last day
Knit earth and heaven together.
Now let the general trumpet blow his blast,
Particularities and petty sounds
To cease! Wast thou ordained, dear father,
To lose thy youth in peace, and to achieve
The silver livery of advised age,
And in thy reverence and thy chair-days, thus
To die in ruffian battle? Even at this sight
My heart is turned to stone, and while ’tis mine
It shall be stony. York not our old men spares;
No more will I their babes. Tears virginal
Shall be to me even as the dew to fire,
And beauty that the tyrant oft reclaims
Shall to my flaming wrath be oil and flax.
Henceforth I will not have to do with pity.
Meet I an infant of the house of York,
Into as many gobbets will I cut it
As wild Medea young Absyrtus did.
In cruelty will I seek out my fame.
Come, thou new ruin of old Clifford’s house,
He takes his father’s body up on his back
As did Aeneas old Anchises bear,
So bear I thee upon my manly shoulders.
But then Aeneas bare a living load,
Nothing so heavy as these woes of mine.
Exit with the body
5.4 ⌈Alarums again. Then enter three or four bearing the Duke of Buckingham wounded to his tent.⌉ Alarums still. Enter King Henry, Queen Margaret, and others
&nbs
p; QUEEN MARGARET
Away, my lord! You are slow. For shame, away!
KING HENRY
Can we outrun the heavens? Good Margaret, stay.
QUEEN MARGARET
What are you made of? You’ll nor fight nor fly.
Now is it manhood, wisdom, and defence,
To give the enemy way, and to secure us
By what we can, which can no more but fly.
Alarum afar off
If you be ta’en, we then should see the bottom
Of all our fortunes; but if we haply scape—
As well we may if not through your neglect—
We shall to London get where you are loved,
And where this breach now in our fortunes made
May readily be stopped.
Enter Young Clifford
YOUNG CLIFFORD (to King Henry)
But that my heart’s on future mischief set,
I would speak blasphemy ere bid you fly;
But fly you must; uncurable discomfit
Reigns in the hearts of all our present parts.
Away for your relief, and we will live
To see their day and them our fortune give.
Away, my lord, away! Exeunt
5.5 Alarum. Retreat. Enter the Duke of York, his sons Edward and Richard, and soldiers, including a drummer and some bearing colours
YORK (to Edward and Richard)
How now, boys! Fortunate this fight hath been,
I hope, to us and ours for England’s good
And our great honour, that so long we lost
Whilst faint-heart Henry did usurp our rights.
Of Salisbury, who can report of him?
That winter lion who in rage forgets
Aged contusions and all brush of time,
And, like a gallant in the brow of youth,
Repairs him with occasion. This happy day
Is not itself, nor have we won one foot
If Salisbury be lost.
RICHARD My noble father,
Three times today I holp him to his horse;
Three times bestrid him; thrice I led him off,
Persuaded him from any further act;
But still where danger was, still there I met him,
And like rich hangings in a homely house,
So was his will in his old feeble body.
Enter the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick
The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works Page 38
