King. Then what intends these forces thou dost bring? 60 To heave the traitor Somerset from

York. hence,

And fight against that monstrous rebel Cade,
Who since I heard to be discomfited.

Enter IDEN, with CADE's head.

Iden. If one so rude and of so mean condition May pass into the presence of a king, Lo, I present your grace a traitor's head, The head of Cade, whom I in combat slew.

King. The head of Cade! Great God, how just art Thou!

O, let me view his visage, being dead,
That living wrought me such exceeding trouble.
Tell me, my friend, art thou the man that slew
him?

Iden. I was, an't like your majesty.

71

King. How art thou call'd? and what is thy degree?

Iden. Alexander Iden, that's my name; A poor esquire of Kent, that loves his king. Buck. So please it you, my lord, 'twere not amiss

He were created knight for his good service. King. Iden, kneel down. [He kneels.] Rise up a knight.

We give thee for reward a thousand marks,
And will that thou henceforth attend on us.

80

90

York. How now! is Somerset at liberty? Then, York, unloose thy long-imprison'd thoughts, And let thy tongue be equal with thy heart. Shall I endure the sight of Somerset? False king! why hast thou broken faith with me, Knowing how hardly I can brook abuse? King did I call thee? no, thou art not king, Not fit to govern and rule multitudes, Which darest not, no, nor canst not rule a traitor. That head of thine doth not become a crown; Thy hand is made to grasp a palmer's staff, 114 And not to grace an awful princely sceptre./ That gold must round engirt these brows of mine, Whose smile and frown, like to Achilles' spear, 100 Is able with the change to kill and cure. Here is a hand to hold a sceptre up And with the same to act controlling laws. Give place: by heaven, thou shalt rule no more O'er him whom heaven created for thy ruler. Som. O monstrous traitor! I arrest thee, York,

Of capital treason 'gainst the king and crown:
Obey, audacious traitor; kneel for grace.
York. Wouldst have me kneel? first let me
ask of these,

If they can brook I bow a knee to man.
Sirrah, call in my sons to be my bail:

[Exit Attendant. I know, ere they will have me go to ward,

They'll pawn their swords for my enfranchise

ment.

Queen. Call hither Clifford; bid him come amain,

To say if that the bastard boys of York Shall be the surety for their traitor father. [Exit Buckingham.

York. O blood-bespotted Neapolitan, Outcast of Naples, England's bloody scourge ! The sons of York, thy betters in their birth, Shall be their father's bail; and bane to those 120 That for my surety will refuse the boys!

Enter EDWARD and RICHARD.

See where they come: I'll warrant they'll make it good.

Enter old CLIFFORD and his Son. Queen. And here comes Clifford to deny their bail.

Clif. Health and all happiness to my lord the king! [Kneels.

York. I thank thee, Clifford: say, what news with thee?

Nay, do not fright us with an angry look:
We are thy sovereign, Clifford, kneel again;
For thy mistaking so, we pardon thee.

Clif. This is my king, York, I do not mistake;

But thou mistakest me much to think I do: 130 To Bedlam with him! is the man grown mad? King. Ay, Clifford; a bedlam and ambitious humour

Makes him oppose himself against his king.

Clif He is a traitor; let him to the Tower, And chop away that factious pate of his. Queen. He is arrested, but will not obey; His sons, he says, shall give their words for him. York. Will you not, sons?

Edw. Ay, noble father, if our words will

Clif. Why, what a brood of traitors have we here!

York. Look in a glass, and call thy image so: I am thy king, and thou a false-heart traitor. Call hither to the stake my two brave bears, That with the very shaking of their chains They may astonish these fell-lurking curs: Bid Salisbury and Warwick come to me.

Enter the EARLS OF WARWICK and SALISBURY.

Clif. Are these thy bears? we'll bait thy bears to death,

And manacle the bear-ward in their chains,
If thou darest bring them to the baiting place. 150

Rich. Oft have I seen a hot o'erweening cur Run back and bite, because he was withheld; Who, being suffer'd with the bear's fell paw, Hath clapp'd his tail between his legs and cried: And such a piece of service will you do,

If you oppose yourselves to match Lord Warwick. Clif. Hence, heap of wrath, foul indigested lump,

As crooked in thy manners as thy shape!
York. Nay, we shall heat you thoroughly

anon.

Clif. Take heed, lest by your heat you burn yourselves.

160

King. Why, Warwick, hath thy knee forgot to bow?

Old Salisbury, shame to thy silver hair,
Thou mad misleader of thy brain-sick son!
What, wilt thou on thy death-bed play the
ruffian,

And seek for sorrow with thy spectacles?
O, where is faith? O, where is loyalty?
If it be banish'd from the frosty head,
Where shall it find a harbour in the earth?
Wilt thou go dig a grave to find out war,
And shame thine honourable age with blood?
Why art thou old, and want'st experience?
Or wherefore dost abuse it, if thou hast it?
For shame! in duty bend thy knee to me
That bows unto the grave with mickle age.

Sal. My lord, I have consider'd with myself The title of this most renowned duke; And in my conscience do repute his grace The rightful heir to England's royal seat. King. Hast thou not sworn allegiance unto me?

War. You were best to go to bed and dream again,

To keep thee from the tempest of the field.

200

Clif. I am resolved to bear a greater storm
Than any thou canst conjure up to-day;
And that I'll write upon thy burgonet,
Might I but know thee by thy household badge.
War. Now, by my father's badge, old Nevil's
crest,

The rampant bear chain'd to the ragged staff,
This day I'll wear aloft my burgonet,
As on a mountain top the cedar shows
That keeps his leaves in spite of any storm,
Even to affright thee with the view thereof.
Clif. And from thy burgonet I'll rend

bear

thy

And tread it under foot with all contempt,
Despite the bear-ward that protects the bear. 210
Y. Clif. And so to arms, victorious father,
To quell the rebels and their complices.

Rich. Fie! charity, for shame! speak not in spite,

For you shall sup with Jesu Christ to-night. Y. Clif. Foul stigmatic, that's more than thou canst tell.

But that 'tis shown ignobly and in treason. York. So let it help me now against thy sword

As I in justice and true right express it.

Clif. My soul and body on the action both! York. A dreadful lay! Address thee instantly. [They fight, and Clifford falls. Clif La fin couronne les œuvres. [Dies. York. Thus war hath given thee peace, for thou art still.

Peace with his soul, heaven, if it be thy will! 30

Enter young Clifford.

[Exit.

Y. Clif. Shame and confusion! all is on the

rout;

Fear frames disorder, and disorder wounds
Where it should guard. O war, thou son of hell,
Whom angry heavens do make their minister,
Throw in the frozen bosoms of our part
Hot coals of vengeance! Let no soldier fly.
He that is truly dedicate to war

Hath no self-love, nor he that loves himself
Hath not essentially but by circumstance
The name of valour. [Seeing his dead father]
O, let the vile world end,

And the premised flames of the last day>
Knit earth and heaven together!

Now let the general trumpet blow his blast,

40

Particularities and petty sounds

To cease! Wast thou ordain'd, dear father, To lose thy youth in peace, and to achieve The silver livery of advised age,

49

And, in thy reverence and thy chair-days, thus
To die in ruffian battle? Even at this sight
My heart is turn'd to stone: and while 'tis mine,
It shall be stony. York not our old men spares;
No more will I their babes: tears virginal
Shall be to me even as the dew to fire,
And beauty that the tyrant oft reclaims
Shall to my flaming wrath be oil and flax.
Henceforth I will not have to do with pity:
Meet I an infant of the house of York,
Into as many gobbets will I cut it
As wild Medea young Absyrtus did: ·
In cruelty will I seek out my fame.
Come, thou new ruin of old Clifford's house:
As did Æneas old Anchises bear,

So bear I thee upon my manly shoulders;
But then Æneas bare a living load,
Nothing so heavy as these woes of mine.

60

[Exit, bearing off his father.

Queen. Away, my lord! you are slow; for shame, away!

King. Can we outrun the heavens? good Margaret, stay.

Queen. What are you made of? you'll nor fight nor fly:

Now is it manhood, wisdom and defence,
To give the enemy way, and to secure us
By what we can, which can no more but fly.
[Alarum afar off.
If you be ta'en, we then should see the bottom
Of all our fortunes: but if we haply scape,
As well we may, if not through your neglect,
We shall to London get, where you are loved
And where this breach now in our fortunes made
May readily be stopp'd.

80

Re-enter young CLIFFORD.

Y. Clif. But that my heart's on future mischief

set,

I would speak blasphemy ere bid you fly:
But fly you must; uncurable discomfit
Reigns in the hearts of all our present parts.
Away, for your relief! and we will live
To see their day and them our fortune give:
Away, my lord, away!
[Exeunt.

SCENE III. Fields near St Alban's. Alarum. Retreat. Enter YORK, RICHARD, WARWICK, and Soldiers, with drum and colours.

York. Of Salisbury, who can report of him, That winter lion, who in rage forgets

Aged contusions and all brush of time,
And, like a gallant in the brow of youth,
Repairs him with occasion? This happy day
Is not itself, nor have we won one foot,
If Salisbury be lost.

Rich.

My noble father,
Three times to-day I holp him to his horse,
Three times bestrid him; thrice I led him off,
Persuaded him from any further act:
But still, where danger was, still there I met him ;
And like rich hangings in a homely house,
So was his will in his old feeble body.

But, noble as he is, look where he comes.
Enter SALIsbury.

10

Sal. Now, by my sword, well hast thou fought to-day;

By the mass, so did we all. I thank you, Richard:
God knows how long it is I have to live;
And it hath pleased him that three times to-day
You have defended me from imminent death.
Well, lords, we have not got that which we have:
'Tis not enough our foes are this time fled,
Being opposites of such repairing nature.

21

York. I know our safety is to follow them; For, as I hear, the king is fled to London, To call a present court of parliament. Let us pursue him ere the writs go forth. What says Lord Warwick? shall we after them? War. After them! nay, before them, if we can. Now, by my faith, lords, 'twas a glorious day: Saint Alban's battle won by famous York Shall be eternized in all age to come. Sound drums and trumpets, and to London all: And more such days as these to us befall!

30

[Exeunt.

SCENE I. London. The Parliament-house. Alarum. Enter the DUKE OF YORK, EDWARD, RICHARD, NORFOLK, MONTAGUE, WARWICK, and Soldiers.

War. I wonder how the king escaped our hands.

York. While we pursued the horsemen of the north,

He slily stole away and left his men:
Whereat the great Lord of Northumberland,
Whose warlike ears could never brook retreat,
Cheer'd up the drooping army; and himself,
Lord Clifford and Lord Stafford, all abreast,
Charged our main battle's front, and breaking in
Were by the swords of common soldiers slain.
Edw. Lord Stafford's father, Duke of Buck-
ingham,

Is either slain or wounded dangerously;
I cleft his beaver with a downright blow:
That this is true, father, behold his blood.
Mont. And, brother, here's the Earl of Wilt-
shire's blood,

Whom I encounter'd as the battles join'd.

Rich. Speak thou for me and tell them what I did.

[Throwing down the Duke of Somerset's head. York. Richard hath best deserved of all my

sons.

But is your grace dead, my Lord of Somerset ? Norf. Such hope have all the line of John of Gaunt!

LORD STAFFord.

SIR JOHN MORTIMER, uncles to the Duke of

SIR HUGH MORTIMER,

York.

HENRY, Earl of Richmond, a youth.

LORD RIVERS, brother to Lady Grey. SIR WILLIAM STANLEY.

SIR JOHN MONTGOMERY.

SIR JOHN SOMERVILLE.

Tutor to Rutland. Mayor of York. Lieutenant of the Tower.

A Nobleman.

Two Keepers. A Huntsman.
A Son that has killed his father.
A Father that has killed his son.

QUEEN MARGaret.

LADY GREY, afterwards Queen to Edward IV. BONA, sister to the French Queen.

Soldiers, Attendants, Messengers, Watchmen, &c.

SCENE: England and France.

Rich. Thus do I hope to shake King Henry's head.

20

War. And so do I. Victorious Prince of York, Before I see thee seated in that throne Which now the house of Lancaster usurps, I vow by heaven these eyes shall never close. This is the palace of the fearful king, And this the regal seat: possess it, York; For this is thine and not King Henry's heirs'. York. Assist me, then, sweet Warwick, and I will;

For hither we have broken in by force.

Norf. We'll all assist you; he that flies shall die.

30

York. Thanks, gentle Norfolk: stay by me, my lords;

And, soldiers, stay and lodge by me this night. [They go up. War. And when the king comes, offer him no violence,

Unless he seek to thrust you out perforce.
York. The queen this day here holds her
parliament,

But little thinks we shall be of her council:
By words or blows here let us win our right.
Rich. Arm'd as we are, let's stay within this
house.

War. The bloody parliament shall this be call'd,

Unless Plantagenet, Duke of York, be king, 40 And bashful Henry deposed, whose cowardice Hath made us by-words to our enemies.

York. Then leave me not, my lords; be resolute;