Act 3, Scene 1: London. The Parliament-house

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