Enter in skirmish,the retainers of GLOUCESTER and WINCHESTER,with bloody pates
KING HENRY.We charge you,on allegiance to ourself,To hold your slaught'ring hands and keep the peace.Pray,uncle Gloucester,mitigate this strife.FIRST SERVING-MAN.Nay,if we be forbidden stones,we'll fall to it with our teeth.SECOND SERVING-MAN.Do what ye dare,we are as resolute.[Skirmish again]GLOUCESTER.You of my household,leave this peevish broil,And set this unaccustom'd fight aside.THIRD SERVING-MAN.My lord,we know your Grace to be a man Just and upright,and for your royal birth Inferior to none but to his Majesty;And ere that we will suffer such a prince,So kind a father of the commonweal,To be disgraced by an inkhorn mate,We and our wives and children all will fight And have our bodies slaught'red by thy foes.FIRST SERVING-MAN.Ay,and the very parings of our nails Shall pitch a field when we are dead.[Begin again]GLOUCESTER.Stay,stay,I say!And if you love me,as you say you do,Let me persuade you to forbear awhile.KING HENRY.O,how this discord doth afflict my soul!Can you,my Lord of Winchester,behold My sighs and tears and will not once relent?Who should be pitiful,if you be not?Or who should study to prefer a peace,If holy churchmen take delight in broils?WARWICK.Yield,my Lord Protector;yield,Winchester;Except you mean with obstinate repulse To slay your sovereign and destroy the realm.You see what mischief,and what murder too,Hath been enacted through your enmity;Then be at peace,except ye thirst for blood.WINCHESTER.He shall submit,or I will never yield.GLOUCESTER.Compassion on the King commands me stoop,Or I would see his heart out ere the priest Should ever get that privilege of me.WARWICK.Behold,my Lord of Winchester,the Duke Hath banish'd moody discontented fury,As by his smoothed brows it doth appear;Why look you still so stem and tragical?GLOUCESTER.Here,Winchester,I offer thee my hand.KING HENRY.Fie,uncle Beaufort!I have heard you preach That malice was a great and grievous sin;And will not you maintain the thing you teach,But prove a chief offender in the same?WARWICK.Sweet King!The Bishop hath a kindly gird.For shame,my Lord of Winchester,relent;What,shall a child instruct you what to do?WINCHESTER.Well,Duke of Gloucester,I will yield to thee;Love for thy love and hand for hand I give.GLOUCESTER [Aside]Ay,but,I fear me,with a hollow heart.See here,my friends and loving countrymen:This token serveth for a flag of truce Betwixt ourselves and all our followers.So help me God,as I dissemble not!WINCHESTER [Aside]
So help me God,as I intend it not!KING HENRY.O loving uncle,kind Duke of Gloucester,How joyful am I made by this contract!Away,my masters!trouble us no more;But join in friendship,as your lords have done.FIRST SERVING-MAN.Content:I'll to the surgeon's.SECOND SERVING-MAN.And so will I.THIRD SERVING-MAN.And I will see what physic the tavern affords.Exeunt servants,MAYOR,&C.WARWICK.Accept this scroll,most gracious sovereign;Which in the right of Richard Plantagenet We do exhibit to your Majesty.GLOUCESTER.Well urg'd,my Lord of Warwick;for,sweet prince,An if your Grace mark every circumstance,You have great reason to do Richard right;Especially for those occasions At Eltham Place I told your Majesty.KING HENRY.And those occasions,uncle,were of force;Therefore,my loving lords,our pleasure is That Richard be restored to his blood.WARWICK.Let Richard be restored to his blood;So shall his father's wrongs be recompens'd.WINCHESTER.As will the rest,so willeth Winchester.KING HENRY.If Richard will be true,not that alone But all the whole inheritance I give That doth belong unto the house of York,From whence you spring by lineal descent.PLANTAGENET.Thy humble servant vows obedience And humble service till the point of death.KING HENRY.Stoop then and set your knee against my foot;And in reguerdon of that duty done I girt thee with the valiant sword of York.Rise,Richard,like a true Plantagenet,And rise created princely Duke of York.PLANTAGENET.And so thrive Richard as thy foes may fall!And as my duty springs,so perish they That grudge one thought against your Majesty!ALL.Welcome,high Prince,the mighty Duke of York!SOMERSET.[Aside]Perish,base Prince,ignoble Duke of York!GLOUCESTER.Now will it best avail your Majesty To cross the seas and to be crown'd in France:The presence of a king engenders love Amongst his subjects and his loyal friends,As it disanimates his enemies.KING HENRY.When Gloucester says the word,King Henry goes;For friendly counsel cuts off many foes.GLOUCESTER.Your ships already are in readiness.Sennet.Flourish.Exeunt all but EXETER EXETER.Ay,we may march in England or in France,Not seeing what is likely to ensue.This late dissension grown betwixt the peers Burns under feigned ashes of forg'd
love And will at last break out into a flame;As fest'red members rot but by degree Till bones and flesh and sinews fall away,So will this base and envious discord breed.And now I fear that fatal prophecy.Which in the time of Henry nam'd the Fifth Was in the mouth of every sucking babe:That Henry born at Monmouth should win all,And Henry born at Windsor should lose all.Which is so plain that Exeter doth wish His days may finish ere that hapless time.Exit