The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare (moboreader .TXT) 📕

KING HENRY. Iden, kneel down. [He kneels] Rise up a knight.

We give thee for reward a thousand marks, And will that thou thenceforth attend on us.

IDEN. May Iden live to merit such a bounty, And never live but true unto his liege!

Enter the QUEEN and SOMERSET

KING HENRY. See, Buckingham! Somerset comes with th’ Queen: Go, bid her hide him quickly from the Duke.

QUEEN. 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 awful princely sceptre.

That gold must round engirt 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. Wouldst have me kneel? First let me ask of these, If they can brook I bow a knee to man.

Sirrah, call in my sons to be my bail: Exit attendant I know, ere thy will have me go to ward, They’ll pawn their swords for my enfranchisement.

QUEEN. 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 EDWARD and RICHARD PLANTAGENET

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

Enter CLIFFORD and his SON

QUEEN. And here comes Clifford to deny their bail.

CLIFFORD. Health and all happiness to my lord the King!

[Kneels]

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 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. He is arrested, but will not obey; His sons, he says, shall give their words for him.

YORK. 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.

Bid Salisbury and Warwick come to me.

Enter the EARLS OF WARWICK and SALISBURY

CLIFFORD. Are these thy bears? We’ll bait thy bears to death, And manacle the berard in their chains, If thou dar’st bring them to the baiting-place.

RICHARD. Oft have I seen a hot o’er weening cur Run back and bite, because he was withheld; Who, being suffer’d, with the bear’s fell paw, Hath clapp’d 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 banish’d 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 tide 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 custom’d right, And have no other reason for this wrong But that he was bound by a solemn oath?

QUEEN. A subtle traitor needs no sophister.

KING HENRY. Call Buckingham, and bid him arm himself.

YORK. Call Buckingham, and all the friends thou hast, I am resolv’d 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 thee from the tempest of the field.

CLIFFORD. I am resolv’d to bear a greater storm Than any thou canst conjure up to-day; 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 Nevil’s crest, The rampant bear chain’d 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 berard 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

SCENE II.

Saint Albans

Alarums to the battle. Enter WARWICK

WARWICK. Clifford of Cumberland, ‘tis Warwick calls; And 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.

Enter YORK

How now, my noble lord! what, all a-foot?

YORK. The deadly-handed Clifford slew my steed; But match to match I have encount’red him, And made a prey for carrion kites and crows Even of the bonny beast he lov’d so well.

Enter OLD CLIFFORD

WARWICK. 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.

As I intend, Clifford, to thrive to-day, It grieves my soul to leave thee unassail’d. Exit CLIFFORD. What seest thou in me, York? Why dost thou pause?

YORK. With thy brave bearing should I be in love But that thou art so fast mine enemy.

CLIFFORD. Nor should thy prowess want praise and esteem But that ‘tis shown ignobly and in treason.

YORK. So let it help me now against thy sword, As I in justice and true right express it!

CLIFFORD. My soul and body on the action both!

YORK. A dreadful lay! Address thee instantly.

[They fight and CLIFFORD falls]

CLIFFORD. La fin couronne les oeuvres. [Dies]

YORK. Thus war hath given thee peace, for thou art still.

Peace with his soul, heaven, if it be thy will! Exit 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. [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 ordain’d, 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 turn’d 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; 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 Enter RICHARD and SOMERSET to fight. SOMERSET is killed 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 wrathful still: Priests pray for enemies, but princes kill. Exit Fight. Excursions. Enter KING, QUEEN, and others QUEEN. Away, my lord! You are slow; for shame, away!

KING HENRY. Can we outrun the heavens? Good Margaret, stay.

QUEEN. 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 lov’d, And where this breach now in our fortunes made May readily be stopp’d.

Re-enter YOUNG CLIFFORD

YOUNG CLIFFORD. 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