The Illustrated Works of Shakespeare/Illustrated Works of Shakespeare, The (1990)(Animated Pixels)[!][CDTV-PC].iso/shakes/text/02/03_01

Text File | 1991-04-10 | 10KB | 288 lines

London. The Parliament House.
 Flourish.
 Enter KING, EXETER, GLOUCESTER, WINCHESTER, WARWICK, SOMERSET,
 SUFFOLK, RICHARD PLANTAGENET, and OTHERS.
 GLOUCESTER offers to put up a bill;
 WINCHESTER snatches it, and tears it.

Winchester    Com'st 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;
    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 dishonoured me.
    Think not, although in writing I preferred
    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,
    As very infants prattle of thy pride.
    Thou art a most pernicious usurer,
    Froward by nature, enemy to peace;
    Lascivious, wanton, more than well beseems
    A man of thy profession and degree;
    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
    From envious malice of thy swelling heart.

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?
    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;
    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.
    But he shall know I am as good-

Gloucester                                        As good?
    Thou bastard of my grandfather!

Winchester    Ay, lordly sir, for what are you, I pray,
    But one imperious in another's throne?

Gloucester    Am I not Protector, saucy priest?

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.

Winchester    Unreverent Gloucester!

Gloucester                                Thou art reverend
    Touching thy spiritual function, not thy life.

Winchester    Rome shall remedy this.

Warwick                            Roam thither then.

Somerset    My lord, it were your duty to forbear.

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.

Somerset    Yes, when his holy state is touched so near.

Warwick    State holy or unhallowed, what of that?
    Is not his grace Protector to the king?

Plantagenet    [Aside.] Plantagenet, I see, must hold his tongue,
    Lest it be said 'Speak, sirrah, when you should;
    Must your bold verdict enter talk with lords?'
    Else would I have a fling at Winchester.

King Henry    Uncles of Gloucester and of Winchester,
    The special watchmen of our English weal,
    I would prevail, if prayers might prevail,
    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 tears can tell
    Civil dissension is a viperous worm
    That gnaws the bowels of the commonwealth.
                     [A noise within: "Down with the tawny-coats!"

King Henry    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.

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 filled 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 knocked out.
    Our windows are broke down in every street,
    And we for fear compelled to shut our shops.

                  Enter, in skirmish with bloody pates,
           Gloucester's SERVINGMEN and Winchester's SERVINGMEN.

King Henry    We charge you, on allegiance to ourself,
    To hold your slaughtering hands and keep the peace.
    Pray, uncle Gloucester, mitigate this strife.

1st Servant    Nay, if we be forbidden stones, we'll fall to it with our
    teeth.

2nd Servant    Do what ye dare, we are as resolute.
                                                    [Skirmish again.

Gloucester    You of my household, leave this peevish broil,
    And set this unaccustomed fight aside.

3rd Servant    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 to the commonweal,
    To be disgracd by an inkhorn mate,
    We and our wives and children all will fight
    And have our bodies slaughtered by thy foes.

1st Servant    Ay, and the very parings of our nails
    Shall pitch a field when we are dead.
                                                    [Begin skirmish 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 banished moody discontented fury,
    As by his smoothd brows it doth appear:
    Why look you still so stern 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 you not 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    So help me God - [Aside.] 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.

1st Servant    Content; I'll to the surgeon's.

2nd Servant    And so will I.

3rd Servant    And I will see what physic the tavern affords.
                                      [Exeunt SERVINGMEN and MAYOR.

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

Gloucester    Well urged, my Lord of Warwick; for, sweet prince,
    And 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 restord to his blood.

Warwick    Let Richard be restord to his blood;
    So shall his father's wrongs be recompensed.

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 crowned 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.
                              Manet 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 feignd ashes of forged love
    And will at last break out into a flame:
    As festered 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 named 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.

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