Alarum. Excursions. Enter WARWICK WARWICK Forspent with toil, as runners with a race, I lay me down a little while to breathe;For strokes received, and many blows repaid, Have robb'd my strong-knit sinews of their strength, And spite of spite needs must I rest awhile.
Enter EDWARD, running EDWARD Smile, gentle heaven! or strike, ungentle death!
For this world frowns, and Edward's sun is clouded. WARWICK How now, my lord! what hap? what hope of good?
Enter GEORGE GEORGE Our hap is loss, our hope but sad despair;Our ranks are broke, and ruin follows us:
What counsel give you? whither shall we fly? EDWARD Bootless is flight, they follow us with wings;And weak we are and cannot shun pursuit.
Enter RICHARD RICHARD Ah, Warwick, why hast thou withdrawn thyself?
Thy brother's blood the thirsty earth hath drunk, Broach'd with the steely point of Clifford's lance;And in the very pangs of death he cried, Like to a dismal clangour heard from far, 'Warwick, revenge! brother, revenge my death!'
So, underneath the belly of their steeds, That stain'd their fetlocks in his smoking blood, The noble gentleman gave up the ghost. WARWICK Then let the earth be drunken with our blood:
I'll kill my horse, because I will not fly.
Why stand we like soft-hearted women here, Wailing our losses, whiles the foe doth rage;And look upon, as if the tragedy Were play'd in jest by counterfeiting actors?
Here on my knee I vow to God above, I'll never pause again, never stand still, Till either death hath closed these eyes of mine Or fortune given me measure of revenge. EDWARD O Warwick, I do bend my knee with thine;And in this vow do chain my soul to thine!
And, ere my knee rise from the earth's cold face, I throw my hands, mine eyes, my heart to thee, Thou setter up and plucker down of kings, Beseeching thee, if with they will it stands That to my foes this body must be prey, Yet that thy brazen gates of heaven may ope, And give sweet passage to my sinful soul!
Now, lords, take leave until we meet again, Where'er it be, in heaven or in earth. RICHARD Brother, give me thy hand; and, gentle Warwick, Let me embrace thee in my weary arms:
I, that did never weep, now melt with woe That winter should cut off our spring-time so. WARWICK Away, away! Once more, sweet lords farewell. GEORGE Yet let us all together to our troops, And give them leave to fly that will not stay;And call them pillars that will stand to us;And, if we thrive, promise them such rewards As victors wear at the Olympian games:
This may plant courage in their quailing breasts;For yet is hope of life and victory.
Forslow no longer, make we hence amain.
Exeunt SCENE IV. Another part of the field. Excursions. Enter RICHARD and CLIFFORD RICHARD Now, Clifford, I have singled thee alone:
Suppose this arm is for the Duke of York, And this for Rutland; both bound to revenge, Wert thou environ'd with a brazen wall. CLIFFORD Now, Richard, I am with thee here alone:
This is the hand that stabb'd thy father York;And this the hand that slew thy brother Rutland;And here's the heart that triumphs in their death And cheers these hands that slew thy sire and brother To execute the like upon thyself;And so, have at thee!
They fight. WARWICK comes; CLIFFORD flies RICHARD Nay Warwick, single out some other chase;For I myself will hunt this wolf to death.
Exeunt SCENE V. Another part of the field. Alarum. Enter KING HENRY VI alone KING HENRY VI This battle fares like to the morning's war, When dying clouds contend with growing light, What time the shepherd, blowing of his nails, Can neither call it perfect day nor night.
Now sways it this way, like a mighty sea Forced by the tide to combat with the wind;Now sways it that way, like the selfsame sea Forced to retire by fury of the wind:
Sometime the flood prevails, and then the wind;Now one the better, then another best;Both tugging to be victors, breast to breast, Yet neither conqueror nor conquered:
So is the equal of this fell war.
Here on this molehill will I sit me down.
To whom God will, there be the victory!
For Margaret my queen, and Clifford too, Have chid me from the battle; swearing both They prosper best of all when I am thence.
Would I were dead! if God's good will were so;For what is in this world but grief and woe?
O God! methinks it were a happy life, To be no better than a homely swain;To sit upon a hill, as I do now, To carve out dials quaintly, point by point, Thereby to see the minutes how they run, How many make the hour full complete;How many hours bring about the day;How many days will finish up the year;
How many years a mortal man may live.
When this is known, then to divide the times:
So many hours must I tend my flock;
So many hours must I take my rest;
So many hours must I contemplate;
So many hours must I sport myself;
So many days my ewes have been with young;So many weeks ere the poor fools will ean:
So many years ere I shall shear the fleece:
So minutes, hours, days, months, and years, Pass'd over to the end they were created, Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave.
Ah, what a life were this! how sweet! how lovely!
Gives not the hawthorn-bush a sweeter shade To shepherds looking on their silly sheep, Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy To kings that fear their subjects' treachery?
O, yes, it doth; a thousand-fold it doth.
And to conclude, the shepherd's homely curds, His cold thin drink out of his leather bottle.
His wonted sleep under a fresh tree's shade, All which secure and sweetly he enjoys, Is far beyond a prince's delicates, His viands sparkling in a golden cup, His body couched in a curious bed, When care, mistrust, and treason waits on him.
Alarum. Enter a Son that has killed his father, dragging in the dead body Son Ill blows the wind that profits nobody.
This man, whom hand to hand I slew in fight, May be possessed with some store of crowns;And I, that haply take them from him now, May yet ere night yield both my life and them To some man else, as this dead man doth me.
Who's this? O God! it is my father's face, Whom in this conflict I unwares have kill'd.
O heavy times, begetting such events!