Exit, led out forcibly KING EDWARD IV Where's Richard gone? CLARENCE To London, all in post; and, as I guess, To make a bloody supper in the Tower. KING EDWARD IV He's sudden, if a thing comes in his head.
Now march we hence: discharge the common sort With pay and thanks, and let's away to London And see our gentle queen how well she fares:
By this, I hope, she hath a son for me.
Exeunt SCENE VI. London. The Tower. Enter KING HENRY VI and GLOUCESTER, with the Lieutenant, 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, 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.
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;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!
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 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? 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. 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, 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;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, 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:
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.
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!