| ACT V SCENE VI | London. The Tower. | |
| | Enter KING HENRY VI and GLOUCESTER, with theLieutenant, on the walls | |
| GLOUCESTER | Good day, my lord. What, at your book so hard? | |
| KING HENRY VI | Ay, my good lord:--my lord, I should say rather; | |
| | 'Tis sin to flatter; 'good' was little better: | |
| | 'Good Gloucester' and 'good devil' were alike, | 5 |
| | And both preposterous; therefore, not 'good lord.' | |
| GLOUCESTER | Sirrah, leave us to ourselves: we must confer. | |
| | Exit Lieutenant | |
| KING HENRY VI | So flies the reckless shepherd from the wolf; | |
| | So first the harmless sheep doth yield his fleece | |
| | And next his throat unto the butcher's knife. | 10 |
| | What scene of death hath Roscius now to act? | |
| GLOUCESTER | Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind; | |
| | The thief doth fear each bush an officer. | |
| KING HENRY VI | The bird that hath been limed in a bush, | |
| | With trembling wings misdoubteth every bush; | 15 |
| | And I, the hapless male to one sweet bird, | |
| | Have now the fatal object in my eye | |
| | Where my poor young was limed, was caught and kill'd. | |
| GLOUCESTER | Why, what a peevish fool was that of Crete, | |
| | That taught his son the office of a fowl! | 20 |
| | An yet, for all his wings, the fool was drown'd. | |
| KING HENRY VI | I, Daedalus; my poor boy, Icarus; | |
| | Thy father, Minos, that denied our course; | |
| | The sun that sear'd the wings of my sweet boy | |
| | Thy brother Edward, and thyself the sea | 25 |
| | Whose envious gulf did swallow up his life. | |
| | Ah, kill me with thy weapon, not with words! | |
| | My breast can better brook thy dagger's point | |
| | Than can my ears that tragic history. | |
| | But wherefore dost thou come? is't for my life? | 30 |
| GLOUCESTER | Think'st thou I am an executioner? | |
| KING HENRY VI | A persecutor, I am sure, thou art: | |
| | If murdering innocents be executing, | |
| | Why, then thou art an executioner. | |
| GLOUCESTER | Thy son I kill'd for his presumption. | 35 |
| KING HENRY VI | Hadst thou been kill'd when first thou didst presume, | |
| | Thou hadst not lived to kill a son of mine. | |
| | And thus I prophesy, that many a thousand, | |
| | Which now mistrust no parcel of my fear, | |
| | And many an old man's sigh and many a widow's, | 40 |
| | And many an orphan's water-standing eye-- | |
| | Men for their sons, wives for their husbands, | |
| | And orphans for their parents timeless death-- | |
| | Shall rue the hour that ever thou wast born. | |
| | The owl shriek'd at thy birth,--an evil sign; | 45 |
| | The night-crow cried, aboding luckless time; | |
| | Dogs howl'd, and hideous tempest shook down trees; | |
| | The raven rook'd her on the chimney's top, | |
| | And chattering pies in dismal discords sung. | |
| | Thy mother felt more than a mother's pain, | 50 |
| | And, yet brought forth less than a mother's hope, | |
| | To wit, an indigested and deformed lump, | |
| | Not like the fruit of such a goodly tree. | |
| | Teeth hadst thou in thy head when thou wast born, | |
| | To signify thou camest to bite the world: | 55 |
| | And, if the rest be true which I have heard, | |
| | Thou camest-- | |
| GLOUCESTER | I'll hear no more: die, prophet in thy speech: | |
| | Stabs him | |
| | For this amongst the rest, was I ordain'd. | |
| KING HENRY VI | Ay, and for much more slaughter after this. | 60 |
| | God forgive my sins, and pardon thee! | |
| | Dies | |
| GLOUCESTER | What, will the aspiring blood of Lancaster | |
| | Sink in the ground? I thought it would have mounted. | |
| | See how my sword weeps for the poor king's death! | |
| | O, may such purple tears be alway shed | 65 |
| | From those that wish the downfall of our house! | |
| | If any spark of life be yet remaining, | |
| | Down, down to hell; and say I sent thee thither: | |
| | Stabs him again | |
| | I, that have neither pity, love, nor fear. | |
| | Indeed, 'tis true that Henry told me of; | 70 |
| | For I have often heard my mother say | |
| | I came into the world with my legs forward: | |
| | Had I not reason, think ye, to make haste, | |
| | And seek their ruin that usurp'd our right? | |
| | The midwife wonder'd and the women cried | 75 |
| | 'O, Jesus bless us, he is born with teeth!' | |
| | And so I was; which plainly signified | |
| | That I should snarl and bite and play the dog. | |
| | Then, since the heavens have shaped my body so, | |
| | Let hell make crook'd my mind to answer it. | 80 |
| | I have no brother, I am like no brother; | |
| | And this word 'love,' which graybeards call divine, | |
| | Be resident in men like one another | |
| | And not in me: I am myself alone. | |
| | Clarence, beware; thou keep'st me from the light: | 85 |
| | But I will sort a pitchy day for thee; | |
| | For I will buz abroad such prophecies | |
| | That Edward shall be fearful of his life, | |
| | And then, to purge his fear, I'll be thy death. | |
| | King Henry and the prince his son are gone: | 90 |
| | Clarence, thy turn is next, and then the rest, | |
| | Counting myself but bad till I be best. | |
| | I'll throw thy body in another room | |
| | And triumph, Henry, in thy day of doom. | |
| | Exit, with the body | |
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