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K. Hen. 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.

'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.

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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.

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Enter QUEEN MARGARET and Somerset.

Q. Mar. For thousand Yorks he shall not hide his head,

'But boldly stand, and front him to his face.

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,
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 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, Old CLIFFORD and his Son.

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See, where they come; I'll warrant they'll make it 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.

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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.

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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.

2

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.

Drums.

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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 Milicia beata Maria 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

selves.

you burn your

* 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?

*O, 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;

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*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 himself.

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,1

Might I but know thee by thy household badge.
War. Now, by my father's badge, old Nevil's

crest,

The rampant bear chained 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 thy bear,
And tread it under foot with all contempt,
Despite the bearward that protects the 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.

2

Y. Clif. Foul stigmatic, that's more than thou

canst tell.

• Rich. If not in heaven, you'll surely sup in hell.

[Exeunt severally.

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."

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