Henry vi part 2, p.22
Henry VI, Part 2,
p.22
But that he was bound by a solemn oath?
194
QUEEN MARGARET
A subtle traitor needs no sophister.
195
KING HENRY,
Call Buckingham, and bid him arm himself.
196
YORK,
Call Buckingham and all the friends thou hast,
197
I am resolved for death
198
CLIFFORD
The first, I warrant thee, if dreams prove true.
199
WARWICK
You were best to go to bed and dream again,
200
To keep thee from the tempest of the field.
201
CLIFFORD
I am resolved to bear a greater storm
202
Than any thou canst conjure up today;
203
And that I’ll write upon thy burgonet,
204
Might I but know thee by thy
205
WARWICK
Now, by my father’s badge, old Neville’s crest,
206
The rampant bear chained to the ragged staff,
207
This day I’ll wear aloft my burgonet—
208
As on a mountaintop the cedar shows
209
That keeps his leaves in spite of any storm—
210
Even to affright thee with the view thereof.
211
CLIFFORD
And from thy burgonet I’ll rend thy bear
212
And tread it under foot with all contempt,
213
Despite the bearherd that protects the bear.
214
YOUNG CLIFFORD
And so to arms, victorious father,
215
To quell the rebels and their complices.
216
RICHARD
Fie! Charity, for shame! Speak not in spite,
217
For you shall sup with Jesu Christ tonight.
218
YOUNG CLIFFORD
Foul stigmatic, that’s more than thou canst tell!
219
RICHARD
If not in heaven, you’ll surely sup in hell.
220
Enter Warwick,
WARWICK
Clifford of Cumberland, ’tis Warwick calls!
1
An if thou dost not hide thee from the bear,
2
Now, when the angry trumpet sounds alarum
3
And dead men’s cries do fill the empty air,
4
Clifford, I say, come forth and fight with me;
5
Proud northern lord, Clifford of Cumberland,
6
Warwick is hoarse with calling thee to arms.
7
Enter York,
How now, my noble lord? What, all afoot?
8
YORK
The deadly-handed Clifford slew my steed,
9
But match to match I have encountered him
10
And made a prey for carrion kites and crows
11
Even of the bonny beast he loved so well.
12
Enter
WARWICK
Of one or both of us the time is come.
13
YORK
Hold, Warwick! Seek thee out some other chase,
14
For I myself must hunt this deer to death.
15
WARWICK
Then, nobly, York! ’Tis for a crown thou fight’st.—
16
As I intend, Clifford, to thrive today,
17
It grieves my soul to leave thee unassailed.
18
Warwick exits.
CLIFFORD
What seest thou in me, York? Why dost thou pause?
19
YORK
With thy brave bearing should I be in love,
20
But that thou art so fast mine enemy.
21
CLIFFORD
Nor should thy prowess want praise and esteem,
22
But that ’tis shown ignobly and in treason.
23
YORK
So let it help me now against thy sword
24
As I in justice and true right express it!
25
CLIFFORD
My soul and body on the action both!
26
YORK
A dreadful lay! Address thee instantly.
27
CLIFFORD
La fin courrone les oeuvres.
28
YORK
Thus war hath given thee peace, for thou art still.
29
Peace with his soul, heaven, if it be thy will!
30
Enter young Clifford,
YOUNG CLIFFORD
Shame and confusion! All is on the rout.
31
Fear frames disorder, and disorder wounds
32
Where it should guard. O war, thou son of hell,
33
Whom angry heavens do make their minister,
34
Throw in the frozen bosoms of our part
35
Hot coals of vengeance! Let no soldier fly.
36
He that is truly dedicate to war
37
Hath no self-love; nor he that loves himself
38
Hath not essentially, but by circumstance,
39
The name of valor.
40
let the vile world end
41
And the premised flames of the last day
42
Knit earth and heaven together!
43
Now let the general trumpet blow his blast,
44
Particularities and petty sounds
45
To cease! Wast thou ordained, dear father,
46
To lose thy youth in peace, and to achieve
47
The silver livery of advisèd age,
48
And, in thy reverence and thy chair-days, thus
49
To die in ruffian battle? Even at this sight
50
My heart is turned to stone, and while ’tis mine,
51
It shall be stony. York not our old men spares;
52
No more will I their babes. Tears virginal
53
Shall be to me even as the dew to fire;
54
And beauty, that the tyrant oft reclaims,
55
Shall to my flaming wrath be oil and flax.
56
Henceforth I will not have to do with pity.
57
Meet I an infant of the house of York,
58
Into as many gobbets will I cut it
59
As wild Medea young Absyrtis did.
60
In cruelty will I seek out my fame.
61
Come, thou new ruin of old Clifford’s house;
62
As did Aeneas old Anchises bear,
63
So bear I thee upon my manly shoulders.
64
But then Aeneas bare a living load,
65
Nothing so heavy as these woes of mine.
66
Enter Richard,
RICHARD So lie thou there.
67
For underneath an alehouse’ paltry sign,
68
The Castle in Saint Albans, Somerset
69
Hath made the wizard famous in his death.
70
Sword, hold thy temper! Heart, be wrathful still!
71
Priests pray for enemies, but princes kill.
72
Fight. Excursions. Enter King
QUEEN MARGARET
Away, my lord! You are slow. For shame, away!
73
KING HENRY
Can we outrun the heavens? Good Margaret, stay!
74
QUEEN MARGARET
What are you made of? You’ll nor fight nor fly.
75
Now is it manhood, wisdom, and defense
76
To give the enemy way, and to secure us
77
By what we can, which can no more but fly.
78
Alarum afar off.
If you be ta’en, we then should see the bottom
79
Of all our fortunes; but if we haply scape,
80
As well we may—if not through your neglect—
81
We shall to London get, where you are loved
82
And where this breach now in our fortunes made
83
May readily be stopped.
84
Enter
YOUNG CLIFFORD
But that my heart’s on future mischief set,
85
I would speak blasphemy ere bid you fly;
86
But fly you must. Uncurable discomfit
87
Reigns in the hearts of all our present parts.
88
Away, for your relief! And we will live
89
To see their day and them our fortune give.
90
Away, my lord, away!
91
They exit.
Alarum. Retreat. Enter York,
Warwick, and Soldiers,
with Drum and Colors.
YORK
Of Salisbury, who can report of him,
1
That winter lion, who in rage forgets
2
Agèd contusions and all brush of time,
3
And, like a gallant in the brow of youth,
4
Repairs him with occasion? This happy day
5
Is not itself, nor have we won one foot,
6
If Salisbury be lost.
7
RICHARD My noble father,
8
Three times today I holp him to his horse,
9
Three times bestrid him. Thrice I led him off,
10
Persuaded him from any further act;
11
But still, where danger was, still there I met him,
12
And, like rich hangings in a homely house,
13
So was his will in his old feeble body.
14
But, noble as he is, look where he comes.
15
Enter Salisbury,
Now, by my sword, well hast thou fought today!
16
SALISBURY
By th’ Mass, so did we all. I thank you, Richard.
17
God knows how long it is I have to live,
18
And it hath pleased Him that three times today
19
You have defended me from imminent death.
20
Well, lords, we have not got that which we have;
21
’Tis not enough our foes are this time fled,
22
Being opposites of such repairing nature.
23
YORK
I know our safety is to follow them;
24
For, as I hear, the King is fled to London
25
To call a present court of Parliament.
26
Let us pursue him ere the writs go forth.—
27
What says Lord Warwick? Shall we after them?
28
WARWICK
After them? Nay, before them, if we can.
29
Now, by my hand, lords, ’twas a glorious day.
30
Saint Albans battle won by famous York
31
Shall be eternized in all age to come.—
32
Sound drum and trumpets, and to London all;
33
And more such days as these to us befall!
34
Longer Notes
1.1.1. imperial: The word imperial was used to describe England after its break with the Roman Catholic Church in the early sixteenth century to indicate that the king and the country were subject to no outside sovereign. Its use in this play may be anachronistic. Or it may, instead, refer to the fact that Henry VI was king not just of England but also, from the English perspective, of France and of Ireland, and was thus, in a way, an emperor.
1.1.4. To marry . . . Grace: In the last scene of Henry VI, Part 1 (5.5), Suffolk persuades Henry to marry Reignier’s daughter Margaret, over the protests of Gloucester, the Protector and thus effectively the ruler of England. At Gloucester’s urging, Henry had already promised to marry the daughter of the earl of Armagnac. After hearing Suffolk’s praise of Margaret, Henry ignores his previous betrothal and orders Suffolk to return to France as Henry’s agent in acquiring Margaret as Henry’s bride:
Take therefore shipping; post, my lord, to France;
Agree to any covenants, and procure
That Lady Margaret do vouchsafe to come
To cross the seas to England and be crowned
King Henry’s faithful and anointed queen.
(5.5.87–91)
In the opening scene of Henry VI, Part 2, Suffolk’s humble public submission to Henry VI is in line with his public speeches to Henry in the final scene of Henry VI, Part 1, but it stands in marked contrast to his soliloquy that concludes that play: “Margaret shall now be queen, and rule the King, / But I will rule both her, the King, and realm” (107–8).
1.1.7–8. Orleance, Calaber, Britaigne, Alanson: The names of some French towns and regions are given anglicized spellings in the Folio text of this play. While it is customary for editors to replace these spellings with the appropriate French spellings (so that Orleance appears as Orléans and Alanson as Alençon), such a practice introduces French pronunciations of the words and thus disrupts the meter. In this play, in which the iambic pentameter rhythm is so strongly emphasized, such disruption is particularly disturbing. Retaining the anglicized spellings grants the reader or actor the flexibility to place the stress as the line demands, with Orleance pronounced with the stress on the first (instead of the final) syllable and Alanson pronounced with the stress on the first syllable (as AL-anson). We retain the Folio spelling of Britaigne (BRIT-ane) because both modern spellings of this region (the English “Brittany” and the French “Bretagne”) add an extra syllable to the word, again disrupting the meter.
