Henry vi part 3, p.20
Henry VI, Part 3,
p.20
Drum and Colors.
WARWICK
O, cheerful colors, see where Oxford comes!
59
OXFORD Oxford, Oxford for Lancaster!
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RICHARD
The gates are open; let us enter too.
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KING EDWARD
So other foes may set upon our backs.
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Stand we in good array, for they no doubt
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Will issue out again and bid us battle.
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If not, the city being but of small defense,
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We’ll quickly rouse the traitors in the same.
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WARWICK
O welcome, Oxford, for we want thy help.
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Enter Montague,
with
MONTAGUE Montague, Montague for Lancaster!
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RICHARD
Thou and thy brother both shall buy this treason
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Even with the dearest blood your bodies bear!
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KING EDWARD
The harder matched, the greater victory.
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My mind presageth happy gain and conquest.
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Enter Somerset,
with
SOMERSET Somerset, Somerset for Lancaster!
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RICHARD
Two of thy name, both dukes of Somerset,
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Have sold their lives unto the house of York,
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And thou shalt be the third, if this sword hold.
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Enter Clarence,
with
WARWICK
And lo, where George of Clarence sweeps along,
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Of force enough to bid his brother battle,
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With whom
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More than the nature of a brother’s love.—
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Come, Clarence, come; thou wilt, if Warwick call.
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CLARENCE
Father of Warwick, know you what this means?
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Look, here I throw my infamy at thee.
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I will not ruinate my father’s house,
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Who gave his blood to lime the stones together
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And set up Lancaster. Why, trowest thou, Warwick,
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That Clarence is so harsh, so blunt, unnatural,
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To bend the fatal instruments of war
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Against his brother and his lawful king?
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Perhaps thou wilt object my holy oath.
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To keep that oath were more impiety
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Than Jephthah when he sacrificed his daughter.
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I am so sorry for my trespass made
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That, to deserve well at my brother’s hands,
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I here proclaim myself thy mortal foe,
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With resolution, wheresoe’er I meet thee—
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As I will meet thee if thou stir abroad—
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To plague thee for thy foul misleading me.
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And so, proud-hearted Warwick, I defy thee
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And to my brother turn my blushing cheeks.—
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Pardon me, Edward, I will make amends.—
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And, Richard, do not frown upon my faults,
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For I will henceforth be no more unconstant.
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KING EDWARD
Now, welcome more, and ten times more beloved,
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Than if thou never hadst deserved our hate.
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RICHARD
Welcome, good Clarence; this is brother-like.
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WARWICK
O, passing traitor, perjured and unjust.
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KING EDWARD
What, Warwick, wilt thou leave the town and fight?
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Or shall we beat the stones about thine ears?
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WARWICK
Alas, I am not cooped here for defense.
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I will away towards Barnet presently
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And bid thee battle, Edward, if thou dar’st.
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KING EDWARD
Yes, Warwick, Edward dares, and leads the way.—
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Lords, to the field! Saint George and victory!
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They exit. March. Warwick and his company follows.
Alarum and excursions. Enter
KING EDWARD
So, lie thou there. Die thou, and die our fear,
1
For Warwick was a bug that feared us all.
2
Now, Montague, sit fast. I seek for thee,
3
That Warwick’s bones may keep thine company.
4
He exits.
WARWICK
Ah, who is nigh? Come to me, friend or foe,
5
And tell me who is victor, York or Warwick?
6
Why ask I that? My mangled body shows,
7
My blood, my want of strength, my sick heart shows
8
That I must yield my body to the earth
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And, by my fall, the conquest to my foe.
10
Thus yields the cedar to the axe’s edge,
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Whose arms gave shelter to the princely eagle,
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Under whose shade the ramping lion slept,
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Whose top branch overpeered Jove’s spreading tree
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And kept low shrubs from winter’s pow’rful wind.
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These eyes, that now are dimmed with death’s black
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veil,
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Have been as piercing as the midday sun
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To search the secret treasons of the world.
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The wrinkles in my brows, now filled with blood,
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Were likened oft to kingly sepulchers,
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For who lived king but I could dig his grave?
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And who durst smile when Warwick bent his brow?
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Lo, now my glory smeared in dust and blood!
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My parks, my walks, my manors that I had
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Even now forsake me; and of all my lands
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Is nothing left me but my body’s length.
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Why, what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and dust?
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And live we how we can, yet die we must.
29
Enter Oxford and Somerset,
SOMERSET
Ah, Warwick, Warwick, wert thou as we are,
30
We might recover all our loss again.
31
The Queen from France hath brought a puissant
32
power;
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Even now we heard the news. Ah, could’st thou fly—
34
WARWICK
Why, then, I would not fly. Ah, Montague,
35
If thou be there, sweet brother, take my hand
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And with thy lips keep in my soul awhile.
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Thou lov’st me not, for, brother, if thou didst,
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Thy tears would wash this cold congealèd blood
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That glues my lips and will not let me speak.
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Come quickly, Montague, or I am dead.
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SOMERSET
Ah, Warwick, Montague hath breathed his last,
42
And to the latest gasp cried out for Warwick,
43
And said “Commend me to my valiant brother.”
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And more he would have said, and more he spoke,
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Which sounded like a cannon in a vault,
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That mought not be distinguished, but at last
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I well might hear, delivered with a groan,
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“O, farewell, Warwick.”
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WARWICK
Sweet rest his soul! Fly, lords, and save yourselves,
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For Warwick bids you all farewell to meet in heaven.
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OXFORD
Away, away, to meet the Queen’s great power!
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Here they bear away his body. They exit.
Flourish. Enter King Edward in triumph, with Richard,
Clarence, and the rest,
KING EDWARD
Thus far our fortune keeps an upward course,
1
And we are graced with wreaths of victory.
2
But in the midst of this bright-shining day,
3
I spy a black suspicious threat’ning cloud
4
That will encounter with our glorious sun
5
Ere he attain his easeful western bed.
6
I mean, my lords, those powers that the Queen
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Hath raised in Gallia have arrived our coast
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And, as we hear, march on to fight with us.
9
CLARENCE
A little gale will soon disperse that cloud
10
And blow it to the source from whence it came;
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Thy very beams will dry those vapors up,
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For every cloud engenders not a storm.
13
RICHARD
The Queen is valued thirty thousand strong,
14
And Somerset, with Oxford, fled to her.
15
If she have time to breathe, be well assured
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Her faction will be full as strong as ours.
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KING EDWARD
We are advertised by our loving friends
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That they do hold their course toward Tewkesbury.
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We having now the best at Barnet Field
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Will thither straight, for willingness rids way,
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And, as we march, our strength will be augmented
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In every county as we go along.
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Strike up the drum, cry “Courage!” and away.
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They exit.
Flourish. March. Enter Queen
young
and Soldiers,
QUEEN MARGARET
Great lords, wise men ne’er sit and wail their loss
1
But cheerly seek how to redress their harms.
2
What though the mast be now blown overboard,
3
The cable broke, the holding-anchor lost,
4
And half our sailors swallowed in the flood?
5
Yet lives our pilot still. Is ’t meet that he
6
Should leave the helm and, like a fearful lad,
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With tearful eyes add water to the sea
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And give more strength to that which hath too much,
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Whiles in his moan the ship splits on the rock,
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Which industry and courage might have saved?
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Ah, what a shame, ah, what a fault were this!
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Say Warwick was our anchor; what of that?
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And Montague our topmast; what of him?
14
Our slaughtered friends the tackles; what of these?
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Why, is not Oxford here another anchor?
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And Somerset another goodly mast?
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The friends of France our shrouds and tacklings?
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And, though unskillful, why not Ned and I
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For once allowed the skillful pilot’s charge?
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We will not from the helm to sit and weep,
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But keep our course, though the rough wind say no,
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From shelves and rocks that threaten us with wrack.
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As good to chide the waves as speak them fair.
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And what is Edward but a ruthless sea?
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What Clarence but a quicksand of deceit?
26
And Richard but a ragged fatal rock—
27
All these the enemies to our poor bark?
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Say you can swim: alas, ’tis but awhile;
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Tread on the sand: why, there you quickly sink;
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Bestride the rock: the tide will wash you off
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Or else you famish; that’s a threefold death.
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This speak I, lords, to let you understand,
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If case some one of you would fly from us,
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That there’s no hoped-for mercy with the brothers
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More than with ruthless waves, with sands and rocks.
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Why, courage then! What cannot be avoided
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’Twere childish weakness to lament or fear.
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PRINCE EDWARD
Methinks a woman of this valiant spirit
39
Should, if a coward heard her speak these words,
40
Infuse his breast with magnanimity
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And make him, naked, foil a man-at-arms.
42
I speak not this as doubting any here,
43
For did I but suspect a fearful man,
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He should have leave to go away betimes,
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Lest in our need he might infect another
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And make him of like spirit to himself.
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If any such be here, as God forbid,
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