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Henry VI, Pt. 2: Act V, Scene 1

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Henry VI, Pt. 2
Act V, Scene 1

Scene 1

Fields Between Dartford and Blackheath.

Byam Shaw, 1901

  1. Enter York and his army of Irish with Drum and Colors.

Duke of York

1 - 13
  1. From Ireland thus comes York to claim his right,
  2. And pluck the crown from feeble Henry’s head.
  3. Ring bells, aloud, burn bonfires clear and bright
  4. To entertain great England’s lawful king!
  5. Ah, sancta majestas! Who would not buy thee dear?
  6. Let them obey that knows not how to rule;
  7. This hand was made to handle nought but gold.
  8. I cannot give due action to my words,
  9. Except a sword or sceptre balance it.
  10. A sceptre shall it have, have I a soul,
  11. On which I’ll toss the flow’r-de-luce of France.
  12. Enter Buckingham.
  13. Whom have we here? Buckingham, to disturb me?
  14. The King hath sent him sure; I must dissemble.

Duke of Buckingham

14
  1. York, if thou meanest well, I greet thee well.

Duke of York

15 - 16
  1. Humphrey of Buckingham, I accept thy greeting.
  2. Art thou a messenger, or come of pleasure?

Duke of Buckingham

17 - 22
  1. A messenger from Henry, our dread liege,
  2. To know the reason of these arms in peace;
  3. Or why thou, being a subject as I am,
  4. Against thy oath and true allegiance sworn,
  5. Should raise so great a power without his leave,
  6. Or dare to bring thy force so near the court.

Duke of York

23 - 37
  1. Aside.
  2. Scarce can I speak, my choler is so great.
  3. O, I could hew up rocks and fight with flint,
  4. I am so angry at these abject terms;
  5. And now, like Ajax Telamonius,
  6. On sheep or oxen could I spend my fury.
  7. I am far better born than is the King;
  8. More like a king, more kingly in my thoughts;
  9. But I must make fair weather yet a while,
  10. Till Henry be more weak and I more strong.—
  11. Buckingham, I prithee pardon me,
  12. That I have given no answer all this while;
  13. My mind was troubled with deep melancholy.
  14. The cause why I have brought this army hither
  15. Is to remove proud Somerset from the King,
  16. Seditious to his Grace and to the state.

Duke of Buckingham

38 - 41
  1. That is too much presumption on thy part;
  2. But if thy arms be to no other end,
  3. The King hath yielded unto thy demand:
  4. The Duke of Somerset is in the Tower.

Duke of York

42
  1. Upon thine honor, is he prisoner?

Duke of Buckingham

43
  1. Upon mine honor, he is prisoner.

Duke of York

44 - 53
  1. Then, Buckingham, I do dismiss my pow’rs.
  2. Soldiers, I thank you all; disperse yourselves.
  3. Meet me tomorrow in Saint George’s Field,
  4. You shall have pay and every thing you wish.
  5. Exeunt Soldiers.
  6. And let my sovereign, virtuous Henry,
  7. Command my eldest son, nay, all my sons,
  8. As pledges of my fealty and love;
  9. I’ll send them all as willing as I live.
  10. Lands, goods, horse, armor, any thing I have
  11. Is his to use, so Somerset may die.

Duke of Buckingham

54 - 55
  1. York, I commend this kind submission;
  2. We twain will go into his Highness’ tent.
  1. Enter King and Attendants.

King Henry the Sixth

56 - 57
  1. Buckingham, doth York intend no harm to us
  2. That thus he marcheth with thee arm in arm?

Duke of York

58 - 59
  1. In all submission and humility
  2. York doth present himself unto your Highness.

King Henry the Sixth

60
  1. Then what intends these forces thou dost bring?

Duke of York

61 - 63
  1. To heave the traitor Somerset from hence,
  2. And fight against that monstrous rebel Cade,
  3. Who since I heard to be discomfited.
  1. Enter Iden with Cade’s head.

Alexander Iden

64 - 67
  1. If one so rude and of so mean condition
  2. May pass into the presence of a king,
  3. Lo, I present your Grace a traitor’s head,
  4. The head of Cade, whom I in combat slew.

King Henry the Sixth

68 - 71
  1. The head of Cade! Great God, how just art thou!
  2. O, let me view his visage, being dead,
  3. That living wrought me such exceeding trouble.
  4. Tell me, my friend, art thou the man that slew him?

Alexander Iden

72
  1. I was, an’t like your Majesty.

King Henry the Sixth

73
  1. How art thou call’d? And what is thy degree?

Alexander Iden

74 - 75
  1. Alexander Iden, that’s my name,
  2. A poor esquire of Kent, that loves his king.

Duke of Buckingham

76 - 77
  1. So please it you, my lord, ’twere not amiss
  2. He were created knight for his good service.

King Henry the Sixth

78 - 81
  1. Iden, kneel down.
  2. He kneels.
  3.                   Rise up a knight.
  4. We give thee for reward a thousand marks,
  5. And will that thou henceforth attend on us.

Alexander Iden

82 - 83
  1. May Iden live to merit such a bounty,
  2. And never live but true unto his liege!
  1. Rises.
  1. Enter Queen and Somerset.

King Henry the Sixth

84 - 85
  1. See, Buckingham, Somerset comes with th’ Queen.
  2. Go bid her hide him quickly from the Duke.

Queen Margaret

86 - 87
  1. For thousand Yorks he shall not hide his head,
  2. But boldly stand and front him to his face.

Duke of York

88 - 106
  1. How now? Is Somerset at liberty?
  2. Then, York, unloose thy long-imprisoned thoughts,
  3. And let thy tongue be equal with thy heart.
  4. Shall I endure the sight of Somerset?
  5. False king, why hast thou broken faith with me,
  6. Knowing how hardly I can brook abuse?
  7. King did I call thee? No; thou art not king;
  8. Not fit to govern and rule multitudes,
  9. Which dar’st not, no, nor canst not rule a traitor.
  10. That head of thine doth not become a crown:
  11. Thy hand is made to grasp a palmer’s staff
  12. And not to grace an aweful princely sceptre.
  13. That gold must round engirt these brows of mine,
  14. Whose smile and frown, like to Achilles’ spear,
  15. Is able with the change to kill and cure.
  16. Here is a hand to hold a sceptre up,
  17. And with the same to act controlling laws.
  18. Give place! By heaven, thou shalt rule no more
  19. O’er him whom heaven created for thy ruler.

Duke of Somerset

107 - 109
  1. O monstrous traitor! I arrest thee, York,
  2. Of capital treason ’gainst the King and crown.
  3. Obey, audacious traitor, kneel for grace.

Duke of York

110 - 114
  1. Wouldst have me kneel? First let me ask of these
  2. If they can brook I bow a knee to man.
  3. Sirrah, call in my sons to be my bail.
  4. Exit Attendant.
  5. I know, ere they will have me go to ward,
  6. They’ll pawn their swords for my enfranchisement.

Queen Margaret

115 - 117
  1. Call hither Clifford, bid him come amain,
  2. To say if that the bastard boys of York
  3. Shall be the surety for their traitor father.
  1. Exit Buckingham.

Duke of York

118 - 123
  1. O blood-bespotted Neapolitan,
  2. Outcast of Naples, England’s bloody scourge!
  3. The sons of York, thy betters in their birth,
  4. Shall be their father’s bail, and bane to those
  5. That for my surety will refuse the boys!
  6. Enter Edward and Richard Plantagenet with Drum and Soldiers
  7. at one door.
  8. See where they come, I’ll warrant they’ll make it good.
  1. Enter Clifford and his son Young Clifford with Drum and
  2. Soldiers at the other door.

Queen Margaret

124
  1. And here comes Clifford to deny their bail.

Lord Clifford

125
  1. Health and all happiness to my lord the King!
  1. Kneels.

Duke of York

126 - 129
  1. I thank thee, Clifford. Say, what news with thee?
  2. Nay, do not fright us with an angry look.
  3. We are thy sovereign, Clifford, kneel again;
  4. For thy mistaking so, we pardon thee.

Lord Clifford

130 - 132
  1. This is my king, York, I do not mistake,
  2. But thou mistakes me much to think I do.
  3. To Bedlam with him! Is the man grown mad?

King Henry the Sixth

133 - 134
  1. Ay, Clifford, a bedlam and ambitious humor
  2. Makes him oppose himself against his king.

Lord Clifford

135 - 136
  1. He is a traitor, let him to the Tower,
  2. And chop away that factious pate of his.

Queen Margaret

137 - 138
  1. He is arrested, but will not obey.
  2. His sons, he says, shall give their words for him.

Duke of York

139
  1. Will you not, sons?

Edward, Earl of March

140
  1. Ay, noble father, if our words will serve.

Richard Plantagenet

141
  1. And if words will not, then our weapons shall.

Lord Clifford

142
  1. Why, what a brood of traitors have we here!

Duke of York

143 - 148
  1. Look in a glass, and call thy image so.
  2. I am thy king, and thou a false-heart traitor.
  3. Call hither to the stake my two brave bears,
  4. That with the very shaking of their chains
  5. They may astonish these fell-lurking curs.
  6. Bid Salisbury and Warwick come to me.
  1. Enter the Earls of Warwick and Salisbury with Drum and
  2. Soldiers.

Lord Clifford

149 - 151
  1. Are these thy bears? We’ll bait thy bears to death,
  2. And manacle the bearard in their chains,
  3. If thou dar’st bring them to the baiting-place.

Richard Plantagenet

152 - 157
  1. Oft have I seen a hot o’erweening cur
  2. Run back and bite, because he was withheld,
  3. Who, being suffer’d, with the bear’s fell paw
  4. Hath clapp’d his tail between his legs and cried;
  5. And such a piece of service will you do,
  6. If you oppose yourselves to match Lord Warwick.

Lord Clifford

158 - 159
  1. Hence, heap of wrath, foul indigested lump,
  2. As crooked in thy manners as thy shape!

Duke of York

160
  1. Nay, we shall heat you thoroughly anon.

Lord Clifford

161
  1. Take heed, lest by your heat you burn yourselves.

King Henry the Sixth

162 - 175
  1. Why, Warwick, hath thy knee forgot to bow?
  2. Old Salisbury, shame to thy silver hair,
  3. Thou mad misleader of thy brain-sick son!
  4. What, wilt thou on thy death-bed play the ruffian,
  5. And seek for sorrow with thy spectacles?
  6. O, where is faith? O, where is loyalty?
  7. If it be banish’d from the frosty head,
  8. Where shall it find a harbor in the earth?
  9. Wilt thou go dig a grave to find out war,
  10. And shame thine honorable age with blood?
  11. Why art thou old, and want’st experience?
  12. Or wherefore dost abuse it if thou hast it?
  13. For shame, in duty bend thy knee to me
  14. That bows unto the grave with mickle age.

Earl of Salisbury

176 - 179
  1. My lord, I have considered with myself
  2. The title of this most renowned duke,
  3. And in my conscience do repute his Grace
  4. The rightful heir to England’s royal seat.

King Henry the Sixth

180
  1. Hast thou not sworn allegiance unto me?

Earl of Salisbury

181
  1. I have.

King Henry the Sixth

182
  1. Canst thou dispense with heaven for such an oath?

Earl of Salisbury

183 - 191
  1. It is great sin to swear unto a sin,
  2. But greater sin to keep a sinful oath.
  3. Who can be bound by any solemn vow
  4. To do a murd’rous deed, to rob a man,
  5. To force a spotless virgin’s chastity,
  6. To reave the orphan of his patrimony,
  7. To wring the widow from her custom’d right,
  8. And have no other reason for this wrong
  9. But that he was bound by a solemn oath?

Queen Margaret

192
  1. A subtle traitor needs no sophister.

King Henry the Sixth

193
  1. Call Buckingham, and bid him arm himself.

Duke of York

194 - 195
  1. Call Buckingham, and all the friends thou hast,
  2. I am resolv’d for death or dignity.

Lord Clifford

196
  1. The first I warrant thee, if dreams prove true.

Earl of Warwick

197 - 198
  1. You were best to go to bed and dream again,
  2. To keep thee from the tempest of the field.

Lord Clifford

199 - 202
  1. I am resolv’d to bear a greater storm
  2. Than any thou canst conjure up today;
  3. And that I’ll write upon thy burgonet,
  4. Might I but know thee by thy household badge.

Earl of Warwick

203 - 208
  1. Now, by my father’s badge, old Nevil’s crest,
  2. The rampant bear chain’d to the ragged staff,
  3. This day I’ll wear aloft my burgonet,
  4. As on a mountain top the cedar shows
  5. That keeps his leaves in spite of any storm,
  6. Even to affright thee with the view thereof.

Lord Clifford

209 - 211
  1. And from thy burgonet I’ll rend thy bear,
  2. And tread it under foot with all contempt,
  3. Despite the bearard that protects the bear.

Young Clifford

212 - 213
  1. And so to arms, victorious father,
  2. To quell the rebels and their complices.

Richard Plantagenet

214 - 215
  1. Fie! Charity, for shame! Speak not in spite,
  2. For you shall sup with Jesu Christ tonight.

Young Clifford

216
  1. Foul stigmatic, that’s more than thou canst tell.

Richard Plantagenet

217
  1. If not in heaven, you’ll surely sup in hell.
  1. Exeunt severally.
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