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: