| ACT III SCENE I | London. The Parliament-house.. | |
| [
Flourish. Enter KING HENRY VI, EXETER, GLOUCESTER,
WARWICK, SOMERSET, and SUFFOLK; the BISHOP OF
WINCHESTER, RICHARD PLANTAGENET, and others.
GLOUCESTER offers to put up a bill; BISHOP OF
WINCHESTER snatches it, and tears it
] |
| BISHOP OF WINCHESTER | Comest thou with deep premeditated lines, |
| With written pamphlets studiously devised, |
| Humphrey of Gloucester? If thou canst accuse, |
| Or aught intend'st to lay unto my charge, |
| Do it without invention, suddenly; | 5 |
| As I with sudden and extemporal speech |
| Purpose to answer what thou canst object. |
| GLOUCESTER | Presumptuous priest! this place commands my patience, |
| Or thou shouldst find thou hast dishonour'd me. |
| Think not, although in writing I preferr'd | 10 |
| The manner of thy vile outrageous crimes, |
| That therefore I have forged, or am not able |
| Verbatim to rehearse the method of my pen: |
| No, prelate; such is thy audacious wickedness, |
| Thy lewd, pestiferous and dissentious pranks, | 15 |
| As very infants prattle of thy pride. |
| Thou art a most pernicious usurer, |
| Forward by nature, enemy to peace; |
| Lascivious, wanton, more than well beseems |
| A man of thy profession and degree; | 20 |
| And for thy treachery, what's more manifest? |
| In that thou laid'st a trap to take my life, |
| As well at London bridge as at the Tower. |
| Beside, I fear me, if thy thoughts were sifted, |
| The king, thy sovereign, is not quite exempt | 25 |
| From envious malice of thy swelling heart. |
| BISHOP OF WINCHESTER | Gloucester, I do defy thee. Lords, vouchsafe |
| To give me hearing what I shall reply. |
| If I were covetous, ambitious or perverse, |
| As he will have me, how am I so poor? | 30 |
| Or how haps it I seek not to advance |
| Or raise myself, but keep my wonted calling? |
| And for dissension, who preferreth peace |
| More than I do?--except I be provoked. |
| No, my good lords, it is not that offends; | 35 |
| It is not that that hath incensed the duke: |
| It is, because no one should sway but he; |
| No one but he should be about the king; |
| And that engenders thunder in his breast |
| And makes him roar these accusations forth. | 40 |
| But he shall know I am as good-- |
| GLOUCESTER | As good! |
| Thou bastard of my grandfather! |
| BISHOP OF WINCHESTER | Ay, lordly sir; for what are you, I pray, |
| But one imperious in another's throne? | 45 |
| GLOUCESTER | Am I not protector, saucy priest? |
| BISHOP OF WINCHESTER | And am not I a prelate of the church? |
| GLOUCESTER | Yes, as an outlaw in a castle keeps |
| And useth it to patronage his theft. |
| BISHOP OF WINCHESTER | Unreverent Gloster! | 50 |
| GLOUCESTER | Thou art reverent |
| Touching thy spiritual function, not thy life. |
| BISHOP OF WINCHESTER | Rome shall remedy this. |
| WARWICK | Roam thither, then. |
| SOMERSET | My lord, it were your duty to forbear. | 55 |
| WARWICK | Ay, see the bishop be not overborne. |
| SOMERSET | Methinks my lord should be religious |
| And know the office that belongs to such. |
| WARWICK | Methinks his lordship should be humbler; |
| it fitteth not a prelate so to plead. | 60 |
| SOMERSET | Yes, when his holy state is touch'd so near. |
| WARWICK | State holy or unhallow'd, what of that? |
| Is not his grace protector to the king? |
| RICHARD PLANTAGENET | [Aside] Plantagenet, I see, must hold his tongue,
|
| Lest it be said 'Speak, sirrah, when you should; | 65 |
| Must your bold verdict enter talk with lords?'
|
| Else would I have a fling at Winchester. |
| KING HENRY VI | Uncles of Gloucester and of Winchester, |
| The special watchmen of our English weal, |
| I would prevail, if prayers might prevail, | 70 |
| To join your hearts in love and amity. |
| O, what a scandal is it to our crown, |
| That two such noble peers as ye should jar! |
| Believe me, lords, my tender years can tell |
| Civil dissension is a viperous worm | 75 |
| That gnaws the bowels of the commonwealth. |
[A noise within, 'Down with the tawny-coats!'] |
| What tumult's this? |
| WARWICK | An uproar, I dare warrant, |
| Begun through malice of the bishop's men. |
| [A noise again, 'Stones! stones!' Enter Mayor] |
| Mayor | O, my good lords, and virtuous Henry, | 80 |
| Pity the city of London, pity us! |
| The bishop and the Duke of Gloucester's men, |
| Forbidden late to carry any weapon, |
| Have fill'd their pockets full of pebble stones |
| And banding themselves in contrary parts | 85 |
| Do pelt so fast at one another's pate |
| That many have their giddy brains knock'd out: |
| Our windows are broke down in every street |
| And we for fear compell'd to shut our shops. |
| [Enter Serving-men, in skirmish, with bloody pates] |
| KING HENRY VI | We charge you, on allegiance to ourself, | 90 |
| To hold your slaughtering hands and keep the peace. |
| Pray, uncle Gloucester, mitigate this strife. |
| First Serving-man | Nay, if we be forbidden stones, |
| We'll fall to it with our teeth. |
| Second Serving-man | Do what ye dare, we are as resolute. | 95 |
| [Skirmish again] |
| GLOUCESTER | You of my household, leave this peevish broil |
| And set this unaccustom'd fight aside. |
| Third Serving-man | My lord, we know your grace to be a man |
| Just and upright; and, for your royal birth, |
| Inferior to none but to his majesty: | 100 |
| And ere that we will suffer such a prince, |
| So kind a father of the commonweal, |
| To be disgraced by an inkhorn mate, |
| We and our wives and children all will fight |
| And have our bodies slaughtered by thy foes. | 105 |
| First Serving-man | Ay, and the very parings of our nails |
| Shall pitch a field when we are dead. |
| [Begin again] |
| GLOUCESTER | Stay, stay, I say! |
| And if you love me, as you say you do, |
| Let me persuade you to forbear awhile. | 110 |
| KING HENRY VI | O, how this discord doth afflict my soul! |
| Can you, my Lord of Winchester, behold |
| My sighs and tears and will not once relent? |
| Who should be pitiful, if you be not? |
| Or who should study to prefer a peace. | 115 |
| If holy churchmen take delight in broils? |
| WARWICK | Yield, my lord protector; yield, Winchester; |
| Except you mean with obstinate repulse |
| To slay your sovereign and destroy the realm. |
| You see what mischief and what murder too | 120 |
| Hath been enacted through your enmity; |
| Then be at peace except ye thirst for blood. |
| BISHOP OF WINCHESTER | He shall submit, or I will never yield. |
| GLOUCESTER | Compassion on the king commands me stoop; |
| Or I would see his heart out, ere the priest | 125 |
| Should ever get that privilege of me. |
| WARWICK | Behold, my Lord of Winchester, the duke |
| Hath banish'd moody discontented fury, |
| As by his smoothed brows it doth appear: |
| Why look you still so stern and tragical? | 130 |
| GLOUCESTER | Here, Winchester, I offer thee my hand. |
| KING HENRY VI | Fie, uncle Beaufort! I have heard you preach |
| That malice was a great and grievous sin; |
| And will not you maintain the thing you teach, |
| But prove a chief offender in the same? | 135 |
| WARWICK | Sweet king! the bishop hath a kindly gird. |
| For shame, my lord of Winchester, relent! |
| What, shall a child instruct you what to do? |
| BISHOP OF WINCHESTER | Well, Duke of Gloucester, I will yield to thee; |
| Love for thy love and hand for hand I give. | 140 |
| GLOUCESTER | [Aside] Ay, but, I fear me, with a hollow heart.--
|
| See here, my friends and loving countrymen, |
| This token serveth for a flag of truce |
| Betwixt ourselves and all our followers: |
| So help me God, as I dissemble not! | 145 |
| BISHOP OF WINCHESTER | [Aside] So help me God, as I intend it not!
|
| KING HENRY VI | 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. | 150 |
| 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, &c] |
| WARWICK | Accept this scroll, most gracious sovereign, |
| Which in the right of Richard Plantagenet | 155 |
| We do exhibit to your majesty. |
| GLOUCESTER | Well urged, my Lord of Warwick: or sweet prince, |
| And if your grace mark every circumstance, |
| You have great reason to do Richard right; |
| Especially for those occasions | 160 |
| At Eltham Place I told your majesty. |
| KING HENRY VI | 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; | 165 |
| So shall his father's wrongs be recompensed. |
| BISHOP OF WINCHESTER | As will the rest, so willeth Winchester. |
| KING HENRY VI | If Richard will be true, not that alone |
| But all the whole inheritance I give |
| That doth belong unto the house of York, | 170 |
| From whence you spring by lineal descent. |
| RICHARD PLANTAGENET | Thy humble servant vows obedience |
| And humble service till the point of death. |
| KING HENRY VI | Stoop then and set your knee against my foot; |
| And, in reguerdon of that duty done, | 175 |
| I gird thee with the valiant sword of York: |
| Rise Richard, like a true Plantagenet, |
| And rise created princely Duke of York. |
| RICHARD PLANTAGENET | And so thrive Richard as thy foes may fall! |
| And as my duty springs, so perish they | 180 |
| 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: | 185 |
| The presence of a king engenders love |
| Amongst his subjects and his loyal friends, |
| As it disanimates his enemies. |
| KING HENRY VI | When Gloucester says the word, King Henry goes; |
| For friendly counsel cuts off many foes. | 190 |
| 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 | 195 |
| 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 | 200 |
| 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 | 205 |
| His days may finish ere that hapless time. |
| [Exit] |
The Essential Student History Quiz (with answers and illustrations)