| ACT II SCENE IV | London. The Temple-garden. | |
| [
Enter the Earls of SOMERSET, SUFFOLK, and WARWICK;
RICHARD PLANTAGENET, VERNON, and another Lawyer
] |
| RICHARD PLANTAGENET | Great lords and gentlemen, what means this silence? |
| Dare no man answer in a case of truth? |
| SUFFOLK | Within the Temple-hall we were too loud; |
| The garden here is more convenient. |
| RICHARD PLANTAGENET | Then say at once if I maintain'd the truth; | 5 |
| Or else was wrangling Somerset in the error? |
| SUFFOLK | Faith, I have been a truant in the law, |
| And never yet could frame my will to it; |
| And therefore frame the law unto my will. |
| SOMERSET | Judge you, my Lord of Warwick, then, between us. | 10 |
| WARWICK | Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch; |
| Between two dogs, which hath the deeper mouth; |
| Between two blades, which bears the better temper: |
| Between two horses, which doth bear him best; |
| Between two girls, which hath the merriest eye; | 15 |
| I have perhaps some shallow spirit of judgement; |
| But in these nice sharp quillets of the law, |
| Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw. |
| RICHARD PLANTAGENET | Tut, tut, here is a mannerly forbearance: |
| The truth appears so naked on my side | 20 |
| That any purblind eye may find it out. |
| SOMERSET | And on my side it is so well apparell'd, |
| So clear, so shining and so evident |
| That it will glimmer through a blind man's eye. |
| RICHARD PLANTAGENET | Since you are tongue-tied and so loath to speak, | 25 |
| In dumb significants proclaim your thoughts: |
| Let him that is a true-born gentleman |
| And stands upon the honour of his birth, |
| If he suppose that I have pleaded truth, |
| From off this brier pluck a white rose with me. | 30 |
| SOMERSET | Let him that is no coward nor no flatterer, |
| But dare maintain the party of the truth, |
| Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me. |
| WARWICK | I love no colours, and without all colour |
| Of base insinuating flattery | 35 |
| I pluck this white rose with Plantagenet. |
| SUFFOLK | I pluck this red rose with young Somerset |
| And say withal I think he held the right. |
| VERNON | Stay, lords and gentlemen, and pluck no more, |
| Till you conclude that he upon whose side | 40 |
| The fewest roses are cropp'd from the tree |
| Shall yield the other in the right opinion. |
| SOMERSET | Good Master Vernon, it is well objected: |
| If I have fewest, I subscribe in silence. |
| RICHARD PLANTAGENET | And I. | 45 |
| VERNON | Then for the truth and plainness of the case. |
| I pluck this pale and maiden blossom here, |
| Giving my verdict on the white rose side. |
| SOMERSET | Prick not your finger as you pluck it off, |
| Lest bleeding you do paint the white rose red | 50 |
| And fall on my side so, against your will. |
| VERNON | If I my lord, for my opinion bleed, |
| Opinion shall be surgeon to my hurt |
| And keep me on the side where still I am. |
| SOMERSET | Well, well, come on: who else? | 55 |
| Lawyer | Unless my study and my books be false, |
| The argument you held was wrong in you: |
[To SOMERSET] |
| In sign whereof I pluck a white rose too. |
| RICHARD PLANTAGENET | Now, Somerset, where is your argument? |
| SOMERSET | Here in my scabbard, meditating that | 60 |
| Shall dye your white rose in a bloody red.
|
| RICHARD PLANTAGENET | Meantime your cheeks do counterfeit our roses; |
| For pale they look with fear, as witnessing |
| The truth on our side. |
| SOMERSET | No, Plantagenet, | 65 |
| 'Tis not for fear but anger that thy cheeks |
| Blush for pure shame to counterfeit our roses, |
| And yet thy tongue will not confess thy error. |
| RICHARD PLANTAGENET | Hath not thy rose a canker, Somerset? |
| SOMERSET | Hath not thy rose a thorn, Plantagenet? | 70 |
| RICHARD PLANTAGENET | Ay, sharp and piercing, to maintain his truth; |
| Whiles thy consuming canker eats his falsehood. |
| SOMERSET | Well, I'll find friends to wear my bleeding roses, |
| That shall maintain what I have said is true, |
| Where false Plantagenet dare not be seen. | 75 |
| RICHARD PLANTAGENET | Now, by this maiden blossom in my hand, |
| I scorn thee and thy fashion, peevish boy. |
| SUFFOLK | Turn not thy scorns this way, Plantagenet. |
| RICHARD PLANTAGENET | Proud Pole, I will, and scorn both him and thee. |
| SUFFOLK | I'll turn my part thereof into thy throat. | 80 |
| SOMERSET | Away, away, good William de la Pole! |
| We grace the yeoman by conversing with him. |
| WARWICK | Now, by God's will, thou wrong'st him, Somerset; |
| His grandfather was Lionel Duke of Clarence, |
| Third son to the third Edward King of England: | 85 |
| Spring crestless yeomen from so deep a root? |
| RICHARD PLANTAGENET | He bears him on the place's privilege, |
| Or durst not, for his craven heart, say thus. |
| SOMERSET | By him that made me, I'll maintain my words |
| On any plot of ground in Christendom. | 90 |
| Was not thy father, Richard Earl of Cambridge, |
| For treason executed in our late king's days? |
| And, by his treason, stand'st not thou attainted, |
| Corrupted, and exempt from ancient gentry? |
| His trespass yet lives guilty in thy blood; | 95 |
| And, till thou be restored, thou art a yeoman. |
| RICHARD PLANTAGENET | My father was attached, not attainted, |
| Condemn'd to die for treason, but no traitor; |
| And that I'll prove on better men than Somerset, |
| Were growing time once ripen'd to my will. | 100 |
| For your partaker Pole and you yourself, |
| I'll note you in my book of memory, |
| To scourge you for this apprehension: |
| Look to it well and say you are well warn'd. |
| SOMERSET | Ah, thou shalt find us ready for thee still; | 105 |
| And know us by these colours for thy foes, |
| For these my friends in spite of thee shall wear. |
| RICHARD PLANTAGENET | And, by my soul, this pale and angry rose, |
| As cognizance of my blood-drinking hate, |
| Will I for ever and my faction wear, | 110 |
| Until it wither with me to my grave |
| Or flourish to the height of my degree. |
| SUFFOLK | Go forward and be choked with thy ambition! |
| And so farewell until I meet thee next. |
| [Exit] |
| SOMERSET | Have with thee, Pole. Farewell, ambitious Richard. | 115 |
| [Exit] |
| RICHARD PLANTAGENET | How I am braved and must perforce endure it! |
| WARWICK | This blot that they object against your house |
| Shall be wiped out in the next parliament |
| Call'd for the truce of Winchester and Gloucester; |
| And if thou be not then created York, | 120 |
| I will not live to be accounted Warwick. |
| Meantime, in signal of my love to thee, |
| Against proud Somerset and William Pole, |
| Will I upon thy party wear this rose: |
| And here I prophesy: this brawl to-day, | 125 |
| Grown to this faction in the Temple-garden, |
| Shall send between the red rose and the white |
| A thousand souls to death and deadly night. |
| RICHARD PLANTAGENET | Good Master Vernon, I am bound to you, |
| That you on my behalf would pluck a flower. | 130 |
| VERNON | In your behalf still will I wear the same. |
| Lawyer | And so will I. |
| RICHARD PLANTAGENET | Thanks, gentle sir. |
| Come, let us four to dinner: I dare say |
| This quarrel will drink blood another day. | 135 |
| [Exeunt] |
The Essential Student History Quiz (with answers and illustrations)