• K. Hen. The head of Cade?-Great God, how just art thou !• 0, 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. • K. Hen. How art thou called ? 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. · K. Hen. 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. • Iden. May Iden live to merit such a bounty, · And never live but true unto his liege! · K. Hen. See, Buckingham! Somerset comes with the queen. • Go, bid her hide him quickly from the duke. 6 Enter QUEEN MARGARET and SOMERSET. head, · York. How now! is Somerset at liberty? · Then, York, unloose thy long-imprisoned 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 dar'st 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, • 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, • 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 an Attendant. * I know, ere they will have me go to ward, They'll pawn their swords for my enfranchisement. • Q. Mar. Call hither Clifford; bid him come amain, * To say, if that the bastard boys of York * Shall be the surety for their traitor father. * 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 • That for my surety will refuse the boys. Enter EDWARD and RICHARD PLANTAGENET, with Forces, at one side; at the other, with Forces also, good. * Q. Mar. 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 mistak'st me much, to think I do. • To Bedlam with him! Is the man grown mad? • K. Hen. Ay, Clifford; a bedlam and ambitious humor • 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. • Q. Mar. 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 serve. · Rich. And if words will not, then our weapons shall. 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. * 2 6 Drums. Enter WARWICK and SalISBURY, with Forces. Clif. Are these thy bears ? we'll bait thy bears to death, • And manacle the bearward in their chains, • If thou dar'st bring them to the baiting-place. * Rich. Oft have I seen a hot, o'erweening cur * Run back and bite, because he was withheld; Who, being suffered with the bear's fell paw, 1 This has been thought an anachronism ; but Stowe shows that it is not :-“ Next unto the parish of St. Buttolph is a fayre inne for receipt of travellers; then an hospitall of S. Mary of Bethlehem, founded by Simon Fitz-Mary, one of the Sheriffes of London, in the yeare 1246. He founded it to have beene a priorie of cannons with brethren and sisters, and king Edward the Thirde granted a protection, which I have seene, for the brethren Miliciæ beatæ Mariæ de Bethlem, within the citie of London, the 14th yeare of his raigne. It was an hospitall for distracted people.”-Survey of London, p. 127, 1598. 2 The Nevils, earls of Warwick, had a bear and ragged staff for their crest. * * Hath clapped 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 yourselves. * K. Hen. 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 ? * 0, where is faith? O, where is loyalty ? * If it be banished from the frosty head, * Where shall it find a harbor in the earth? * Wilt thou go dig a grave to find out war, * And shame thine honorable 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 considered 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. * K. Hen. Hast thou not sworn allegiance unto me? * Sal. I have. * K. Hen. Canst thou dispense with Heaven for such an oath ? * Sal. It is great sin, to swear unto a sin; * But greater sin, to keep a sinful oath. * Who can be bound by any solemn vow * To do a murderous deed, to rob a man, * To force a spotless virgin's chastity, * To reave the orphan of his patrimony, * To wring the widow from her customed right; 54 VOL. IV. * And have no other reason for this wrong, But that he was bound by a solemn oath ? * Q. Mar. A subtle traitor needs no sophister. • K. Hen. Call Buckingham, and bid him arm bim self. • York. Call Buckingham and all the friends thou hast, • I am resolved for death or dignity. Clif. The first, I warrant thee, if dreams prove true. • War. You were best to go to bed, and dream again, To keep thee from the tempest of the field. 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, Clif. And from thy burgonet I'll rend thy bear, · 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. • Rich. If not in heaven, you'll surely sup in hell. [Exeunt severally. 6 1 A burgonet is a helmet ; a Burgundian’s steel cap or casque. 2 One on whom nature has set a mark of deformity, a stigma. It was, originally and properly,“ a person who had been branded with a hot iron for some crime.” |