King Henry VI, Part I

King Henry VI, Part I

ACT III SCENE I	London. The Parliament-house.
	Flourish. Enter KING HENRY VI, EXETER, GLOUCESTER,WARWICK, SOMERSET, and SUFFOLK; the BISHOP OFWINCHESTER, RICHARD PLANTAGENET, and others.GLOUCESTER offers to put up a bill; BISHOP OFWINCHESTER snatches it, and tears it
BISHOPOF 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,	5
	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 dishonour'd me.	10
	Think not, although in writing I preferr'd
	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,	15
	Thy lewd, pestiferous and dissentious pranks,
	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	20
	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,	25
	The king, thy sovereign, is not quite exempt
	From envious malice of thy swelling heart.
BISHOPOF WINCHESTER	Gloucester, I do defy thee. Lords, vouchsafe
	To give me hearing what I shall reply.
	If I were covetous, ambitious or perverse,	30
	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.	35
	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	40
	And makes him roar these accusations forth.
	But he shall know I am as good--
GLOUCESTER	As good!
	Thou bastard of my grandfather!
BISHOPOF WINCHESTER	Ay, lordly sir; for what are you, I pray,	45
	But one imperious in another's throne?
GLOUCESTER	Am I not protector, saucy priest?
BISHOPOF 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.	50
BISHOPOF WINCHESTER	Unreverent Gloster!
GLOUCESTER	Thou art reverent
	Touching thy spiritual function, not thy life.
BISHOPOF WINCHESTER	Rome shall remedy this.
WARWICK	Roam thither, then.	55
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;	60
	it fitteth not a prelate so to plead.
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?
RICHARDPLANTAGENET	Aside
	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.
BISHOPOF 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?
BISHOPOF WINCHESTER	Well, Duke of Gloucester, I will yield to thee;
	Love for thy love and hand for hand I give.	140
GLOUCESTER	Aside
	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!
BISHOPOF WINCHESTER	Aside
KING HENRY VI	O, loving uncle, kind Duke of Gloucester,	145
	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 Serving-man	Content: I'll to the surgeon's.
Second Serving-man	And so will I.	150
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
	We do exhibit to your majesty.
GLOUCESTER	Well urged, my Lord of Warwick: or sweet prince,	155
	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 VI	And those occasions, uncle, were of force:	160
	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 recompensed.
BISHOPOF WINCHESTER	As will the rest, so willeth Winchester.	165
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,
	From whence you spring by lineal descent.
RICHARDPLANTAGENET	Thy humble servant vows obedience	170
	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,
	I gird thee with the valiant sword of York:
	Rise Richard, like a true Plantagenet,	175
	And rise created princely Duke of York.
RICHARDPLANTAGENET	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!	180
SOMERSET	Aside
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.	185
KING HENRY VI	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.	190
	This late dissension grown betwixt the peers
	Burns under feigned ashes of forged love
	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,	195
	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	200
	And Henry born at Windsor lose all:
	Which is so plain that Exeter doth wish
	His days may finish ere that hapless time.
	Exit