History of Henry VI, Part I (Act 2, Scene 4) | The William Shakespeare Project

[Enter the Earls of SOMERSET, SUFFOLK, and WARWICK;] [p]RICHARD PLANTAGENET, VERNON, and another Lawyer]

917

Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester) Great lords and gentlemen, what means this silence?
Dare no man answer in a case of truth?

920

Earl of Suffolk Within the Temple-hall we were too loud;
The garden here is more convenient.

922

Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester) Then say at once if I maintain'd the truth;
Or else was wrangling Somerset in the error?

925

Earl of Suffolk Faith, I have been a truant in the law,
And never yet could frame my will to it;
And therefore frame the law unto my will.

927

Duke/Earl of Somerset Judge you, my Lord of Warwick, then, between us.

930

Earl of Warwick Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch;
Between two dogs, which hath the deeper mouth;
Between two blades, which bears the better temper:
Between two horses, which doth bear him best;
Between two girls, which hath the merriest eye;
I have perhaps some shallow spirit of judgement;
But in these nice sharp quillets of the law,
Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw.

931

Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester) Tut, tut, here is a mannerly forbearance:
The truth appears so naked on my side
That any purblind eye may find it out.

940

Duke/Earl of Somerset And on my side it is so well apparell'd,
So clear, so shining and so evident
That it will glimmer through a blind man's eye.

943

Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester) Since you are tongue-tied and so loath to speak,
In dumb significants proclaim your thoughts:
Let him that is a true-born gentleman
And stands upon the honour of his birth,
If he suppose that I have pleaded truth,
From off this brier pluck a white rose with me.

947

Duke/Earl of Somerset Let him that is no coward nor no flatterer,
But dare maintain the party of the truth,
Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me.

953

Earl of Warwick I love no colours, and without all colour
Of base insinuating flattery
I pluck this white rose with Plantagenet.

956

Earl of Suffolk I pluck this red rose with young Somerset
And say withal I think he held the right.

959

Vernon Stay, lords and gentlemen, and pluck no more,
Till you conclude that he upon whose side
The fewest roses are cropp'd from the tree
Shall yield the other in the right opinion.

961

Duke/Earl of Somerset Good Master Vernon, it is well objected:
If I have fewest, I subscribe in silence.

965

Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester) And I.

968

Vernon Then for the truth and plainness of the case.
I pluck this pale and maiden blossom here,
Giving my verdict on the white rose side.

969

Duke/Earl of Somerset Prick not your finger as you pluck it off,
Lest bleeding you do paint the white rose red
And fall on my side so, against your will.

972

Vernon If I my lord, for my opinion bleed,
Opinion shall be surgeon to my hurt
And keep me on the side where still I am.

975

Duke/Earl of Somerset Well, well, come on: who else?

978

Lawyer Unless my study and my books be false,
The argument you held was wrong in you:
[To SOMERSET]
In sign whereof I pluck a white rose too.

979

Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester) Now, Somerset, where is your argument?

984

Duke/Earl of Somerset Here in my scabbard, meditating that
Shall dye your white rose in a bloody red.

985

Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester) Meantime your cheeks do counterfeit our roses;
For pale they look with fear, as witnessing
The truth on our side.

988

Duke/Earl of Somerset No, Plantagenet,
'Tis not for fear but anger that thy cheeks
Blush for pure shame to counterfeit our roses,
And yet thy tongue will not confess thy error.

991

Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester) Hath not thy rose a canker, Somerset?

996

Duke/Earl of Somerset Hath not thy rose a thorn, Plantagenet?

997

Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester) Ay, sharp and piercing, to maintain his truth;
Whiles thy consuming canker eats his falsehood.

999

Duke/Earl of Somerset Well, I'll find friends to wear my bleeding roses,
That shall maintain what I have said is true,
Where false Plantagenet dare not be seen.

1001

Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester) Now, by this maiden blossom in my hand,
I scorn thee and thy fashion, peevish boy.

1005

Earl of Suffolk Turn not thy scorns this way, Plantagenet.

1007

Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester) Proud Pole, I will, and scorn both him and thee.

1009

Earl of Suffolk I'll turn my part thereof into thy throat.

1010

Duke/Earl of Somerset Away, away, good William de la Pole!
We grace the yeoman by conversing with him.

1011

Earl of Warwick Now, by God's will, thou wrong'st him, Somerset;
His grandfather was Lionel Duke of Clarence,
Third son to the third Edward King of England:
Spring crestless yeomen from so deep a root?

1013

Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester) He bears him on the place's privilege,
Or durst not, for his craven heart, say thus.

1018

Duke/Earl of Somerset By him that made me, I'll maintain my words
On any plot of ground in Christendom.
Was not thy father, Richard Earl of Cambridge,
For treason executed in our late king's days?
And, by his treason, stand'st not thou attainted,
Corrupted, and exempt from ancient gentry?
His trespass yet lives guilty in thy blood;
And, till thou be restored, thou art a yeoman.

1020

Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester) My father was attached, not attainted,
Condemn'd to die for treason, but no traitor;
And that I'll prove on better men than Somerset,
Were growing time once ripen'd to my will.
For your partaker Pole and you yourself,
I'll note you in my book of memory,
To scourge you for this apprehension:
Look to it well and say you are well warn'd.

1029

Duke/Earl of Somerset Ah, thou shalt find us ready for thee still;
And know us by these colours for thy foes,
For these my friends in spite of thee shall wear.

1037

Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester) And, by my soul, this pale and angry rose,
As cognizance of my blood-drinking hate,
Will I for ever and my faction wear,
Until it wither with me to my grave
Or flourish to the height of my degree.

1041

Earl of Suffolk Go forward and be choked with thy ambition!
And so farewell until I meet thee next.

1046

[Exit]

1048

Duke/Earl of Somerset Have with thee, Pole. Farewell, ambitious Richard.

1049

[Exit]

1050

Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester) How I am braved and must perforce endure it!

1052

Earl of Warwick This blot that they object against your house
Shall be wiped out in the next parliament
Call'd for the truce of Winchester and Gloucester;
And if thou be not then created York,
I will not live to be accounted Warwick.
Meantime, in signal of my love to thee,
Against proud Somerset and William Pole,
Will I upon thy party wear this rose:
And here I prophesy: this brawl to-day,
Grown to this faction in the Temple-garden,
Shall send between the red rose and the white
A thousand souls to death and deadly night.

1053

Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester) Good Master Vernon, I am bound to you,
That you on my behalf would pluck a flower.

1066

Vernon In your behalf still will I wear the same.

1068

Lawyer And so will I.

1069

Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester) Thanks, gentle sir.
Come, let us four to dinner: I dare say
This quarrel will drink blood another day.

1071

[Exeunt]

1074

History of Henry VI, Part I (1591-2)

Act II, Scene 4

WORKS

CO-PRODUCTIONS

Contact