1    Comest thou with deep premeditated lines,
2    With written pamphlets studiously devised,
3    Humphrey of Gloucester? If thou canst accuse,
4    Or aught intend'st to lay unto my charge,
5    Do it without invention, suddenly;
6    As I with sudden and extemporal speech
7    Purpose to answer what thou canst object.

8    Presumptuous priest! this place commands my patience,
9    Or thou shouldst find thou hast dishonour'd me.
10   Think not, although in writing I preferr'd
11   The manner of thy vile outrageous crimes,
12   That therefore I have forged, or am not able
13   Verbatim to rehearse the method of my pen:
14   No, prelate; such is thy audacious wickedness,
15   Thy lewd, pestiferous and dissentious pranks,
16   As very infants prattle of thy pride.
17   Thou art a most pernicious usurer,
18   Forward by nature, enemy to peace;
19   Lascivious, wanton, more than well beseems
20   A man of thy profession and degree;
21   And for thy treachery, what's more manifest?
22   In that thou laid'st a trap to take my life,
23   As well at London bridge as at the Tower.
24   Beside, I fear me, if thy thoughts were sifted,
25   The king, thy sovereign, is not quite exempt
26   From envious malice of thy swelling heart.

27   Gloucester, I do defy thee. Lords, vouchsafe
28   To give me hearing what I shall reply.
29   If I were covetous, ambitious or perverse,
30   As he will have me, how am I so poor?
31   Or how haps it I seek not to advance
32   Or raise myself, but keep my wonted calling?
33   And for dissension, who preferreth peace
34   More than I do?--except I be provoked.
35   No, my good lords, it is not that offends;
36   It is not that that hath incensed the duke:
37   It is, because no one should sway but he;
38   No one but he should be about the king;
39   And that engenders thunder in his breast
40   And makes him roar these accusations forth.
41   But he shall know I am as good--

42   As good!
43   Thou bastard of my grandfather!

44   Ay, lordly sir; for what are you, I pray,
45   But one imperious in another's throne?

46   Am I not protector, saucy priest?

47   And am not I a prelate of the church?

48   Yes, as an outlaw in a castle keeps
49   And useth it to patronage his theft.

50   Unreverent Gloster!

51   Thou art reverent
52   Touching thy spiritual function, not thy life.

53   Rome shall remedy this.

54   Roam thither, then.

55   My lord, it were your duty to forbear.

56   Ay, see the bishop be not overborne.

57   Methinks my lord should be religious
58   And know the office that belongs to such.

59   Methinks his lordship should be humbler;
60   it fitteth not a prelate so to plead.

61   Yes, when his holy state is touch'd so near.

62   State holy or unhallow'd, what of that?
63   Is not his grace protector to the king?

Aside
64    Plantagenet, I see, must hold his tongue,
65   Lest it be said 'Speak, sirrah, when you should;
66   Must your bold verdict enter talk with lords?'
67   Else would I have a fling at Winchester.

68   Uncles of Gloucester and of Winchester,
69   The special watchmen of our English weal,
70   I would prevail, if prayers might prevail,
71   To join your hearts in love and amity.
72   O, what a scandal is it to our crown,
73   That two such noble peers as ye should jar!
74   Believe me, lords, my tender years can tell
75   Civil dissension is a viperous worm
76   That gnaws the bowels of the commonwealth.
A noise within, 'Down with the tawny-coats!'
77   What tumult's this?

78   An uproar, I dare warrant,
79   Begun through malice of the bishop's men.

80   O, my good lords, and virtuous Henry,
81   Pity the city of London, pity us!
82   The bishop and the Duke of Gloucester's men,
83   Forbidden late to carry any weapon,
84   Have fill'd their pockets full of pebble stones
85   And banding themselves in contrary parts
86   Do pelt so fast at one another's pate
87   That many have their giddy brains knock'd out:
88   Our windows are broke down in every street
89   And we for fear compell'd to shut our shops.

90   We charge you, on allegiance to ourself,
91   To hold your slaughtering hands and keep the peace.
92   Pray, uncle Gloucester, mitigate this strife.

93   Nay, if we be forbidden stones,
94   We'll fall to it with our teeth.

95   Do what ye dare, we are as resolute.

96   You of my household, leave this peevish broil
97   And set this unaccustom'd fight aside.

98   My lord, we know your grace to be a man
99   Just and upright; and, for your royal birth,
100  Inferior to none but to his majesty:
101  And ere that we will suffer such a prince,
102  So kind a father of the commonweal,
103  To be disgraced by an inkhorn mate,
104  We and our wives and children all will fight
105  And have our bodies slaughtered by thy foes.

106  Ay, and the very parings of our nails
107  Shall pitch a field when we are dead.

108  Stay, stay, I say!
109  And if you love me, as you say you do,
110  Let me persuade you to forbear awhile.

111  O, how this discord doth afflict my soul!
112  Can you, my Lord of Winchester, behold
113  My sighs and tears and will not once relent?
114  Who should be pitiful, if you be not?
115  Or who should study to prefer a peace.
116  If holy churchmen take delight in broils?

117  Yield, my lord protector; yield, Winchester;
118  Except you mean with obstinate repulse
119  To slay your sovereign and destroy the realm.
120  You see what mischief and what murder too
121  Hath been enacted through your enmity;
122  Then be at peace except ye thirst for blood.

123  He shall submit, or I will never yield.

124  Compassion on the king commands me stoop;
125  Or I would see his heart out, ere the priest
126  Should ever get that privilege of me.

127  Behold, my Lord of Winchester, the duke
128  Hath banish'd moody discontented fury,
129  As by his smoothed brows it doth appear:
130  Why look you still so stern and tragical?

131  Here, Winchester, I offer thee my hand.

132  Fie, uncle Beaufort! I have heard you preach
133  That malice was a great and grievous sin;
134  And will not you maintain the thing you teach,
135  But prove a chief offender in the same?

136  Sweet king! the bishop hath a kindly gird.
137  For shame, my lord of Winchester, relent!
138  What, shall a child instruct you what to do?

139  Well, Duke of Gloucester, I will yield to thee;
140  Love for thy love and hand for hand I give.

Aside
141   Ay, but, I fear me, with a hollow heart.--
142  See here, my friends and loving countrymen,
143  This token serveth for a flag of truce
144  Betwixt ourselves and all our followers:
145  So help me God, as I dissemble not!

Aside
146   So help me God, as I intend it not!

147  O, loving uncle, kind Duke of Gloucester,
148  How joyful am I made by this contract!
149  Away, my masters! trouble us no more;
150  But join in friendship, as your lords have done.

151  Content: I'll to the surgeon's.

152  And so will I.

153  And I will see what physic the tavern affords.

154  Accept this scroll, most gracious sovereign,
155  Which in the right of Richard Plantagenet
156  We do exhibit to your majesty.

157  Well urged, my Lord of Warwick: or sweet prince,
158  And if your grace mark every circumstance,
159  You have great reason to do Richard right;
160  Especially for those occasions
161  At Eltham Place I told your majesty.

162  And those occasions, uncle, were of force:
163  Therefore, my loving lords, our pleasure is
164  That Richard be restored to his blood.

165  Let Richard be restored to his blood;
166  So shall his father's wrongs be recompensed.

167  As will the rest, so willeth Winchester.

168  If Richard will be true, not that alone
169  But all the whole inheritance I give
170  That doth belong unto the house of York,
171  From whence you spring by lineal descent.

172  Thy humble servant vows obedience
173  And humble service till the point of death.

174  Stoop then and set your knee against my foot;
175  And, in reguerdon of that duty done,
176  I gird thee with the valiant sword of York:
177  Rise Richard, like a true Plantagenet,
178  And rise created princely Duke of York.

179  And so thrive Richard as thy foes may fall!
180  And as my duty springs, so perish they
181  That grudge one thought against your majesty!

182  Welcome, high prince, the mighty Duke of York!

Aside
183   Perish, base prince, ignoble Duke of York!

184  Now will it best avail your majesty
185  To cross the seas and to be crown'd in France:
186  The presence of a king engenders love
187  Amongst his subjects and his loyal friends,
188  As it disanimates his enemies.

189  When Gloucester says the word, King Henry goes;
190  For friendly counsel cuts off many foes.

191  Your ships already are in readiness.

192  Ay, we may march in England or in France,
193  Not seeing what is likely to ensue.
194  This late dissension grown betwixt the peers
195  Burns under feigned ashes of forged love
196  And will at last break out into a flame:
197  As fester'd members rot but by degree,
198  Till bones and flesh and sinews fall away,
199  So will this base and envious discord breed.
200  And now I fear that fatal prophecy
201  Which in the time of Henry named the Fifth
202  Was in the mouth of every sucking babe;
203  That Henry born at Monmouth should win all
204  And Henry born at Windsor lose all:
205  Which is so plain that Exeter doth wish
206  His days may finish ere that hapless time.