Henry VI, Part I by William Shakespeare (best big ereader .txt) 📕

and all our followers:
So help me God, as I dissemble not! Winchester Aside. 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;
But join in friendship, as your lords have done.

First Serving-man Content: I’ll to the surgeon’s. Second Serving-man And so will I. Third Serving-man And I will see what physic the tavern affords. Exeunt Serving-men, Mayor, etc. 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,
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
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
But all the whole inheritance I give
That doth belong unto the house of York,
From whence you spring by lineal descent.

Plantagenet

Thy humble servant vows obedience
And humble service till the point of death.

King

Stoop then and set your knee against my foot;
And, in reguerdon of that duty done,
I gird thee with the valiant sword of York:
Rise Richard, like a true Plantagenet,
And rise created princely Duke of York.

Plantagenet

And so thrive Richard as thy foes may fall!
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 Aside. Perish, base prince, ignoble Duke of York! Gloucester

Now will it best avail your majesty
To cross the seas and to be crown’d in France:
The presence of a king engenders love
Amongst his subjects and his loyal friends,
As it disanimates his enemies.

King

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
Burns under feigned ashes of forged love
And will at last break out into a flame:
As fester’d members rot but by degree,
Till bones and flesh and sinews fall away,
So will this base and envious discord breed.
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:
Which is so plain that Exeter doth wish
His days may finish ere that hapless time. Exit.

Scene II

France. Before Rouen.

Enter La Pucelle disguised, with four Soldiers with sacks upon their backs. Pucelle

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.
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 Dauphin may encounter them.

First Soldier

Our sacks shall be a mean to sack the city,
And we be lords and rulers over Rouen;
Therefore we’ll knock. Knocks.

Watch Within Qui est là? Pucelle

Paysans, pauvres gens de France;
Poor market folks that come to sell their corn.

Watch Enter, go in; the market bell is rung. Pucelle Now, Rouen, I’ll shake thy bulwarks to the ground. Exeunt. Enter Charles, the Bastard of Orleans, Alençon, Reignier, and forces. Charles

Saint Denis bless this happy stratagem!
And once again we’ll sleep secure in Rouen.

Bastard

Here enter’d Pucelle and her practisants;
Now she is there, how will she specify
Where is the best and safest passage in?

Reignier

By thrusting out a torch from yonder tower;
Which, once discern’d, shows that her meaning is,
No way to that, for weakness, which she enter’d.

Enter La Pucelle on the top, thrusting out a torch burning. Pucelle

Behold, this is the happy wedding torch
That joineth Rouen unto her countrymen,
But burning fatal to the Talbotites! Exit.

Bastard

See, noble Charles, the beacon of our friend;
The burning torch in yonder turret stands.

Charles

Now shine it like a comet of revenge,
A prophet to the fall of all our foes!

Reignier

Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends:
Enter, and cry “The Dauphin!” presently,
And then do execution on the watch. Alarum. Exeunt.

An alarum. Enter Talbot in an excursion. Talbot

France, thou shalt rue this treason with thy tears,
If Talbot but survive thy treachery.
Pucelle, that witch, that damned sorceress,
Hath wrought this hellish mischief unawares,
That hardly we escaped the pride of France. Exit.

An alarum: excursions. Bedford, brought in sick in a chair. Enter Talbot and Burgundy without: within La Pucelle, Charles, Bastard, Alençon, and Reignier, on the walls. Pucelle

Good morrow, gallants! want ye corn for bread?
I think the Duke of Burgundy will fast
Before he’ll buy again at such a rate:
’Twas full of darnel; do you like the taste?

Burgundy

Scoff on, vile fiend and shameless courtezan!
I trust ere long to choke thee with thine own
And make thee curse the harvest of that corn.

Charles Your grace may starve perhaps before that time. Bedford O, let no words, but deeds, revenge this treason! Pucelle

What will you do, good grey-beard? break a lance,
And run a tilt at death within a chair?

Talbot

Foul fiend of France, and hag of all despite,
Encompass’d with thy lustful paramours!
Becomes it thee to taunt his valiant age
And twit with cowardice a man half dead?
Damsel, I’ll have a bout with you again,
Or else let Talbot perish with this shame.

Pucelle

Are ye so hot, sir? yet, Pucelle, hold thy peace;
If Talbot do but thunder, rain will follow. The English whisper together in