The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, William Shakespeare [book recommendations based on other books txt] 📗

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

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 the MAYOR OF LONDON, attended MAYOR. O, my good lords, and virtuous Henry, 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, 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 in skirmish, the retainers of GLOUCESTER and WINCHESTER, with bloody pates KING HENRY. We charge you, on allegiance to ourself, To hold your slaught’ring hands and keep the peace.

Pray, uncle Gloucester, mitigate this strife.

FIRST SERVINGMAN. Nay, if we be forbidden stones, we’ll fall to it with our teeth.

SECOND SERVINGMAN. Do what ye dare, we are as resolute.

[Skirmish again]

GLOUCESTER. You of my household, leave this peevish broil, And set this unaccustom’d fight aside.

THIRD SERVINGMAN. 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;

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 slaught’red by thy foes.

FIRST SERVINGMAN. 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.

KING HENRY. 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, 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, Hath been enacted through your enmity; Then be at peace, except ye thirst for blood.

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 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 stem and tragical?

GLOUCESTER. Here, Winchester, I offer thee my hand.

KING HENRY. 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?

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?

WINCHESTER. Well, Duke of Gloucester, I will yield to thee; Love for thy love and hand for hand I give.

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!

WINCHESTER [Aside] So help me God, as I intend it not!

KING HENRY. 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.

FIRST SERVINGMAN. Content: I’ll to the surgeon’s.

SECOND SERVINGMAN. And so will I.

THIRD SERVINGMAN. And I will see what physic the tavern affords. Exeunt servants, MAYOR, &C.

WARWICK. Accept this scroll, most gracious sovereign; Which in the right of Richard Plantagenet We do exhibit to your Majesty.

GLOUCESTER. Well urg’d, my Lord of Warwick; for, sweet prince,

An if your Grace mark every circumstance, You have great reason to do Richard right; Especially for those occasions

At Eltham Place I told your Majesty.

KING HENRY. 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; So shall his father’s wrongs be recompens’d.

WINCHESTER. As will the rest, so willeth Winchester.

KING HENRY. If Richard will be true, not that alone But all the whole inheritance I give

That doth belong unto the house of York, From whence you spring by lineal descent.

PLANTAGENET. Thy humble servant vows obedience And humble service till the point of death.

KING HENRY. Stoop then and set your knee against my foot; And in reguerdon of that duty done

I girt thee with the valiant sword of York.

Rise, Richard, like a true Plantagenet, And rise created princely Duke of York.

PLANTAGENET. And so thrive Richard as thy foes may fall!

And as my duty springs, so perish they 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: The presence of a king engenders love Amongst his subjects and his loyal friends, As it disanimates his enemies.

KING HENRY. When Gloucester says the word, King Henry goes;

For friendly counsel cuts off many foes.

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 forg’d love And will at last break out into a flame; As fest’red 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.

Which in the time of Henry nam’d the Fifth Was in the mouth of every sucking babe: That Henry born at Monmouth should win all, And Henry born at Windsor should lose all.

Which is so plain that Exeter doth wish His days may finish ere that hapless time. Exit

SCENE 2.

 

France. Before Rouen Enter LA PUCELLE disguis’d, with four soldiers dressed like countrymen, with sacks upon their backs PUCELLE. These are the city gates, the gates of Rouen, Through which our policy must make a breach.

Take heed, be wary how you place your words; Talk like the vulgar sort of market-men That come to gather money for their corn.

If we have entrance, as I hope we shall, And that we find the slothful watch but weak, I’ll by a sign give notice to our friends, That Charles the Dauphin may encounter them.

FIRST SOLDIER. Our sacks shall be a mean to sack the city, And we be lords and rulers over Rouen; Therefore we’ll knock. [Knocks]

WATCH. [Within] Qui est la?

PUCELLE. Paysans, pauvres gens de France Poor market-folks that come to sell their corn.

WATCH. Enter, go in; the market-bell is rung.

PUCELLE. Now, Rouen, I’ll shake thy bulwarks to the ground.

 

[LA PUCELLE, &c., enter the town]

 

Enter CHARLES, BASTARD, ALENCON, REIGNIER, and forces CHARLES. Saint Denis bless this happy stratagem!

And once again we’ll sleep secure in Rouen.

BASTARD. Here ent’red Pucelle and her practisants; Now she is there, how will she specify Here is the best and safest passage in?

ALENCON. By thrusting out a torch from yonder tower; Which once discern’d shows that her meaning is No way to that, for weakness, which she ent’red.

 

Enter LA PUCELLE, on the top, thrusting out a torch burning

 

PUCELLE. Behold, this is the happy wedding torch That joineth Rouen unto her countrymen, But burning fatal to the Talbotites. Exit BASTARD. See, noble Charles, the beacon of our friend; The burning torch in yonder turret stands.

CHARLES. Now shine it like a comet of revenge, A prophet to the fall of all our foes!

ALENCON. Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends; Enter, and cry ‘The Dauphin!’ presently, And then do execution on the watch. Alarum. Exeunt An alarum. Enter TALBOT in an excursion TALBOT. France, thou shalt rue this treason with thy tears, If Talbot but survive thy treachery.

PUCELLE, that witch, that damned sorceress, Hath wrought this hellish mischief unawares, That hardly we escap’d the pride of France. Exit An alarum; excursions. BEDFORD brought in sick in a chair. Enter TALBOT and BURGUNDY without; within, LA PUCELLE, CHARLES, BASTARD, ALENCON, and REIGNIER, on the walls PUCELLE. Good morrow, gallants! Want ye corn for bread?

I think the Duke of Burgundy will fast Before he’ll buy again at such a rate.

‘Twas full of darnel-do you like the taste?

BURGUNDY. Scoff on, vile fiend and shameless courtezan.

I trust ere long to choke thee with thine own, And make thee curse the harvest of that corn.

CHARLES. Your Grace may starve, perhaps, before that time.

BEDFORD. O, let no words, but deeds, revenge this treason!

PUCELLE. What you do, good grey beard? Break a lance,

And run a tilt at death within a chair?

TALBOT. Foul fiend of France and hag of all despite, Encompass’d with thy lustful paramours, Becomes it thee to taunt his valiant age And twit with cowardice a man half dead?

Damsel, I’ll have a bout with you again, Or else let Talbot perish with this shame.

PUCELLE. Are ye so hot, sir? Yet, Pucelle, hold thy peace; If Talbot do but thunder, rain will follow.

[The English party whisper together in council]

God speed the parliament! Who shall be the Speaker?

TALBOT. Dare ye come forth and meet us in the field?

PUCELLE. Belike your lordship takes us then for fools, To try if that our own be ours or no.

TALBOT. I speak not to that railing Hecate, But unto thee, Alencon, and the rest.

Will ye, like soldiers, come and fight it out?

ALENCON. Signior, no.

TALBOT. Signior, hang! Base muleteers of France!

Like peasant footboys do they keep the walls, And dare not take up arms like gentlemen.

PUCELLE. Away, captains! Let’s get us from the walls; For Talbot means no goodness by his looks.

God b’uy, my lord; we came but to tell you That we are here. Exeunt from the walls TALBOT. And there will we be too, ere it be long, Or else reproach be Talbot’s greatest fame!

Vow, Burgundy, by honour of thy house, Prick’d on by public wrongs sustain’d in France, Either to get the town again or die;

And I, as sure as English Henry lives And as his father here was conqueror, As sure as in this late betrayed town Great Coeur-de-lion’s heart was buried So sure I swear to get the town or die.

BURGUNDY. My vows are equal partners with thy vows.

TALBOT. But ere we go, regard this dying prince, The valiant Duke of Bedford. Come, my lord, We will bestow you in some better place, Fitter for sickness and for crazy age.

BEDFORD. Lord Talbot, do not so dishonour me; Here will I sit before the walls of Rouen, And will be partner of your weal or woe.

BURGUNDY. Courageous Bedford, let us now persuade you.

BEDFORD. Not to be gone from hence; for once I read That stout Pendragon in his litter sick Came to the field, and vanquished his foes.

Methinks I should revive the soldiers’ hearts, Because I ever found them as myself.

TALBOT.