Let him depart before we need his help.

  49

  OXFORD

  Women and children of so high a courage,

  50

  And warriors faint? Why, ’twere perpetual shame!

  51

  O, brave young prince, thy famous grandfather

  52

  Doth live again in thee. Long mayst thou live

  53

  To bear his image and renew his glories!

  54

  SOMERSET

  And he that will not fight for such a hope,

  55

  Go home to bed and, like the owl by day,

  56

  If he arise, be mocked and wondered at.

  57

  QUEEN MARGARET

  Thanks, gentle Somerset.—Sweet Oxford, thanks.

  58

  PRINCE EDWARD

  And take his thanks that yet hath nothing else.

  59

  Enter a Messenger.

  MESSENGER

  Prepare you, lords, for Edward is at hand,

  60

  Ready to fight. Therefore be resolute.

  61

 

  OXFORD

  I thought no less. It is his policy

  62

  To haste thus fast to find us unprovided.

  63

  SOMERSET

  But he’s deceived. We are in readiness.

  64

  QUEEN MARGARET

  This cheers my heart to see your forwardness.

  65

  OXFORD

  Here pitch our battle; hence we will not budge.

  66

  Flourish, and march. Enter Edward, Richard,

  Clarence, and Soldiers,

  KING EDWARD,

  Brave followers, yonder stands the thorny wood

  67

  Which by the heavens’ assistance and your strength

  68

  Must by the roots be hewn up yet ere night.

  69

  I need not add more fuel to your fire,

  70

  For, well I wot, you blaze to burn them out.

  71

  Give signal to the fight, and to it, lords!

  72

  QUEEN MARGARET,

  Lords, knights, and gentlemen, what I should say

  73

  My tears gainsay, for every word I speak

  74

  You see I drink the water of my eye.

  75

  Therefore, no more but this: Henry, your sovereign,

  76

  Is prisoner to the foe, his state usurped,

  77

  His realm a slaughterhouse, his subjects slain,

  78

  His statutes cancelled and his treasure spent,

  79

  And yonder is the wolf that makes this spoil.

  80

  You fight in justice. Then, in God’s name, lords,

  81

  Be valiant, and give signal to the fight!

  82

  Alarum, retreat, excursions. They exit.

 

  Flourish. Enter Edward, Richard,

  Clarence,
  guarding> Queen Oxford, Somerset,

 

  KING EDWARD

  Now here a period of tumultuous broils.

  1

  Away with Oxford to Hames Castle straight.

  2

  For Somerset, off with his guilty head.

  3

  Go bear them hence. I will not hear them speak.

  4

  OXFORD

  For my part, I’ll not trouble thee with words.

  5

  SOMERSET

  Nor I, but stoop with patience to my fortune.

  6

  QUEEN MARGARET

  So part we sadly in this troublous world

  7

  To meet with joy in sweet Jerusalem.

  8

  exit,

  KING EDWARD

  Is proclamation made that who finds Edward

  9

  Shall have a high reward, and he his life?

  10

  RICHARD

  It is, and lo where youthful Edward comes.

  11

  Enter Prince
  under guard.>

  KING EDWARD

  Bring forth the gallant; let us hear him speak.

  12

  What, can so young a thorn begin to prick?—

  13

  Edward, what satisfaction canst thou make

  14

  For bearing arms, for stirring up my subjects,

  15

  And all the trouble thou hast turned me to?

  16

  PRINCE EDWARD

  Speak like a subject, proud ambitious York.

  17

  Suppose that I am now my father’s mouth:

  18

  Resign thy chair, and where I stand, kneel thou,

  19

  Whilst I propose the selfsame words to thee

  20

  Which, traitor, thou wouldst have me answer to.

  21

  QUEEN MARGARET

  Ah, that thy father had been so resolved!

  22

  RICHARD

  That you might still have worn the petticoat

  23

  And ne’er have stol’n the breech from Lancaster.

  24

  PRINCE EDWARD

  Let Aesop fable in a winter’s night;

  25

  His currish riddles sorts not with this place.

  26

  RICHARD

  By heaven, brat, I’ll plague you for that word.

  27

  QUEEN MARGARET

  Ay, thou wast born to be a plague to men.

  28

  RICHARD

  For God’s sake, take away this captive scold.

  29

  PRINCE EDWARD

  Nay, take away this scolding crookback, rather.

  30

  KING EDWARD

  Peace, willful boy, or I will charm your tongue.

  31

  CLARENCE,

  Untutored lad, thou art too malapert.

  32

  PRINCE EDWARD

  I know my duty. You are all undutiful.

  33

  Lascivious Edward, and thou perjured George,

  34

  And thou misshapen Dick, I tell you all

  35

  I am your better, traitors as you are,

  36

  And thou usurp’st my father’s right and mine.

  37

  KING EDWARD

  Take that, the likeness of this railer here!

  38

  Stabs him.

  RICHARD

  Sprawl’st thou? Take that to end thy agony!

  39

  Richard stabs him.

  CLARENCE

  And there’s for twitting me with perjury.

  40

  Clarence stabs him.

  QUEEN MARGARET O, kill me too!

  41

  RICHARD Marry, and shall.

  42

  Offers to kill her.

  KING EDWARD

  Hold, Richard, hold, for we have done too much.

  43

  RICHARD

  Why should she live to fill the world with words?

  44

 

  KING EDWARD

  What, doth she swoon? Use means for her recovery.

  45

 

  RICHARD,

  Clarence, excuse me to the King my brother.

  46

  I’ll hence to London on a serious matter.

  47

  Ere you come there, be sure to hear some news.

  48

  CLARENCE What? What?

  49

  RICHARD  Tower, the Tower!

  50

  He exits.

  QUEEN MARGARET,

  O Ned, sweet Ned, speak to thy mother, boy.

  51

  Canst thou not speak? O traitors, murderers!

  52

  They that stabbed Caesar shed no blood at all,

  53

  Did not offend, nor were not worthy blame,

  54

  If this foul deed were by to equal it.

  55

  He was a man; this, in respect, a child,

  56

  And men ne’er spend their fury on a child.

  57

  What’s worse than murderer, that I may name it?

  58

  No, no, my heart will burst an if I speak,

  59

  And I will speak, that so my heart may burst.

  60

  Butchers and villains, bloody cannibals,

  61

  How sweet a plant have you untimely cropped!

  62

  You have no children, butchers. If you had,

  63

  The thought of them would have stirred up remorse.

  64

  But if you ever chance to have a child,

  65

  Look in his youth to have him so cut off

  66

  As, deathsmen, you have rid this sweet young prince.

  67

  KING EDWARD

  Away with her. Go bear her hence perforce.

  68

  QUEEN MARGARET

  Nay, never bear me hence! Dispatch me here.

  69

  Here sheathe thy sword; I’ll pardon thee my death.

  70

  What, wilt thou not?—Then, Clarence, do it thou.

  71

  CLARENCE

  By heaven, I will not do thee so much ease.

  72

  QUEEN MARGARET

  Good Clarence, do! Sweet Clarence, do thou do it.

  73

  CLARENCE

  Didst thou not hear me swear I would not do it?

  74

  QUEEN MARGARET

  Ay, but thou usest to forswear thyself.

  75

  ’Twas sin before, but now ’tis charity.

  76

  What, wilt thou not? Where is that devil’s butcher,

  77

  Richard,

  78

  Hard-favored Richard? Richard, where art thou?

  79

  Thou art not here. Murder is thy alms-deed;

  80

  Petitioners for blood thou ne’er putt’st back.

  81

  KING EDWARD

  Away, I say! <(To Soldiers.)> I charge you bear her

  82

  hence.

  83

  QUEEN MARGARET

  So come to you and yours as to this prince!

  84

  Queen exits
  Soldiers carry off Prince Edward’s body.>

  KING EDWARD Where’s Richard gone?

  85

  CLARENCE

  To London all in post, and, as I guess,

  86

  To make a bloody supper in the Tower.

  87

  KING EDWARD

  He’s sudden if a thing comes in his head.

  88

  Now march we hence. Discharge the common sort

  89

  With pay and thanks, and let’s away to London

  90

  And see our gentle queen how well she fares.

  91

  By this I hope she hath a son for me.

  92

  exit.

 

  Enter Henry the Sixth,

  and Richard

  with the Lieutenant on the walls.

  RICHARD

  Good day, my lord. What, at your book so hard?

  1

  KING HENRY

  Ay, my good lord—“my lord,” I should say rather.

  2

  ’Tis sin to flatter; “good” was little better:

  3

  “Good Gloucester” and “good devil” were alike,

  4

  And both preposterous: therefore, not “good lord.”

  5

  RICHARD,

  Sirrah, leave us to ourselves; we must confer.

  6

 

  KING HENRY

  So flies the reckless shepherd from the wolf;

  7

  So first the harmless sheep doth yield his fleece

  8

  And next his throat unto the butcher’s knife.

  9

  What scene of death hath Roscius now to act?

  10

  RICHARD

  Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind;

  11

  The thief doth fear each bush an officer.

  12

  KING HENRY

  The bird that hath been limèd in a bush,

  13

  With trembling wings misdoubteth every bush;

  14

  And I, the hapless male to one sweet bird,

  15

  Have now the fatal object in my eye

  16

  Where my poor young was limed, was caught, and

  17

  killed.

  18

  RICHARD

  Why, what a peevish fool was that of Crete

  19

  That taught his son the office of a fowl!

  20

  And yet, for all his wings, the fool was drowned.

  21

  KING HENRY

  I Daedalus, my poor boy Icarus,

  22

  Thy father Minos, that denied our course;

  23

  The sun that seared the wings of my sweet boy

  24

  Thy brother Edward, and thyself the sea

  25

  Whose envious gulf did swallow up his life.

  26

  Ah, kill me with thy weapon, not with words!

  27

  My breast can better brook thy dagger’s point

  28

  Than can my ears that tragic history.

  29

  But wherefore dost thou come? Is ’t for my life?

  30

  RICHARD

  Think’st thou I am an executioner?

  31

  KING HENRY

  A persecutor I am sure thou art.

  32

  If murdering innocents be executing,

  33

  Why, then, thou art an executioner.

  34

  RICHARD

  Thy son I killed for his presumption.

  35

  KING HENRY

  Hadst thou been killed when first thou didst presume,

  36

  Thou hadst not lived to kill a son of mine.