Enter EDWARD and RICHARD PLANTAGENET See where they come:I'll warrant they'll make it good.
Enter CLIFFORD and his SON
QUEEN.And here comes Clifford to deny their bail.CLIFFORD.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.CLIFFORD.This is my King,York,I do not mistake;But thou mistakes me much to think I do.To Bedlam with him!Is the man grown mad?KING HENRY.Ay,Clifford;a bedlam and ambitious humour Makes him oppose himself against his king.CLIFFORD.He is a traitor;let him to the Tower,And chop away that factious pate of his.QUEEN.He is arrested,but will not obey;His sons,he says,shall give their words for him.YORK.Will you not,sons?EDWARD.Ay,noble father,if our words will serve.RICHARD.And if words will not,then our weapons shall.CLIFFORD.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.
Enter the EARLS OF WARWICK and SALISBURY
CLIFFORD.Are these thy bears?We'll bait thy bears to death,And manacle the berard in their chains,If thou dar'st bring them to the baiting-place.RICHARD.Oft have I seen a hot o'er weening cur Run back and bite,because he was withheld;Who,being suffer'd,with the bear's fell paw,Hath clapp'd his tail between his legs and cried;And such a piece of service will you do,If you oppose yourselves to match Lord Warwick.CLIFFORD.Hence,heap of wrath,foul indigested lump,As crooked in thy manners as thy shape!YORK.Nay,we shall heat you thoroughly anon.CLIFFORD.Take heed,lest by your heat you burn yourselves.KING HENRY.Why,Warwick,hath thy knee forgot to bow?Old Salisbury,shame to thy silver hair,Thou mad misleader of thy brainsick 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 banish'd from the frosty head,Where shall it find a harbour in the earth?Wilt thou go dig a grave to find out war And shame thine honourable 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.SALISBURY.My lord,I have considered with myself The tide of this most renowned duke,And in my conscience do repute his Grace The rightful heir to England's royal seat.KING HENRY.Hast thou not sworn allegiance unto me?SALISBURY.I have.KING HENRY.Canst thou dispense with heaven for such an oath?SALISBURY.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 murd'rous 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 custom'd right,And have no other reason for this wrong But that he was bound by a solemn oath?QUEEN.A subtle traitor needs no sophister.KING HENRY.Call Buckingham,and bid him arm himself.YORK.Call Buckingham,and all the friends thou hast,I am resolv'd for death or dignity.CLIFFORD.The first I warrant thee,if dreams prove true.WARWICK.You were best to go to bed and dream again To keep thee from the tempest of the field.CLIFFORD.I am resolv'd 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.WARWICK.Now,by my father's badge,old Nevil's crest,The rampant bear chain'd 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.CLIFFORD.And from thy burgonet I'll rend thy bear And tread it under foot with all contempt,Despite the berard that protects the bear.YOUNG CLIFFORD.And so to arms,victorious father,To quell the rebels and their complices.RICHARD.Fie!charity,for shame!Speak not in spite,For you shall sup with Jesu Christ to-night.YOUNG CLIFFORD.Foul stigmatic,that's more than thou canst tell.RICHARD.If not in heaven,you'll surely sup in hell.Exeunt severally
SCENE II.Saint Albans
Alarums to the battle.Enter WARWICK
WARWICK.Clifford of Cumberland,'tis Warwick calls;And if thou dost not hide thee from the bear,Now,when the angry trumpet sounds alarum And dead men's cries do fill the empty air,Clifford,I say,come forth and fight with me.Proud northern lord,Clifford of Cumberland,WARWICK is hoarse with calling thee to arms.
Enter YORK
How now,my noble lord!what,all a-foot?YORK.The deadly-handed Clifford slew my steed;But match to match I have encount'red him,And made a prey for carrion kites and crows Even of the bonny beast he lov'd so well.