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Dramatis Personae
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/ Home / Library / Complete Shakespeare / King Henry VI, Part 1 / Act III Scene I
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King Henry VI, Part 1: Act 3 Scene 1
Scene I London. The Parliament-house.
- [Flourish. Enter KING HENRY VI, EXETER, GLOUCESTER,
- WARWICK, SOMERSET, and SUFFOLK; the BISHOP OF
- WINCHESTER, RICHARD PLANTAGENET, and others.
- GLOUCESTER offers to put up a bill; BISHOP OF
- WINCHESTER snatches it, and tears it]
- BISHOP OF 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,
- 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.
- 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,
- 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
- 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.
- BISHOP OF 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!
- BISHOP OF WINCHESTER
- Ay, lordly sir; for what are you, I pray,
- But one imperious in another's throne?
- GLOUCESTER
- Am I not protector, saucy priest?
- BISHOP OF 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.
- BISHOP OF WINCHESTER
- Unreverent Gloster!
- GLOUCESTER
- Thou art reverent
- Touching thy spiritual function, not thy life.
- BISHOP OF 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 touch'd so near.
- WARWICK
- State holy or unhallow'd, what of that?
- Is not his grace protector to the king?
- RICHARD 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 VI
- 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 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 Mayor]
- 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 Serving-men, in skirmish, with bloody pates]
- KING HENRY VI
- We charge you, on allegiance to ourself,
- 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.
- [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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- BISHOP OF 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 stern and tragical?
- 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?
- 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?
- BISHOP OF 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!
- BISHOP OF WINCHESTER
- [Aside]
So help me God, as I intend it not!
- KING HENRY VI
- 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 SERVING-MAN
- Content: I'll to the surgeon's.
- SECOND SERVING-MAN
- And so will I.
- 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,
- 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:
- 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.
- BISHOP OF WINCHESTER
- As will the rest, so willeth Winchester.
- 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.
- RICHARD PLANTAGENET
- Thy humble servant vows obedience
- 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,
- And rise created princely Duke of York.
- RICHARD 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 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.
- 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,
- 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 lose all:
- Which is so plain that Exeter doth wish
- His days may finish ere that hapless time.
- [Exit]
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