(To King Henry)

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 MARGARET

He is arrested, but will not obey.

His sons, he says, shall give their words for him.

YORK (to Edward and Richard) 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.

(To an attendant)

Bid Salisbury and Warwick come to me.

Exit attendant

Enter the Earls of Warwick and Salisbury ⌈with a drummer and soldiers⌉

CLIFFORD

Are these thy bears? We’ll bait thy bears to death,

And manacle the bearherd in their chains,

If thou dar’st bring them to the baiting place.

RICHARD

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,

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.

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 deathbed 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 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 title 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 customed right,

And have no other reason for this wrong

But that he was bound by a solemn oath?

QUEEN MARGARET

A subtle traitor needs no sophister.

KING HENRY (to an attendant)

Call Buckingham, and bid him arm himself.

Exit attendant

YORK (to King Henry)

Call Buckingham and all the friends thou hast,

I am resolved 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 you from the tempest of the field.

CLIFFORD

I am resolved to bear a greater storm

Than any thou canst conjure up today—

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 Neville’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.

CLIFFORD

And from thy burgonet I’ll rend thy bear,

And tread it under foot with all contempt,

Despite the bearherd 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 tonight.

YOUNG CLIFFORD

Foul stigmatic, that’s more than thou canst tell.

RICHARD

If not in heaven, you’ll surely sup in hell.

Exeunt severally

5.2 ⌈An alehouse sign: a castle.⌉ Alarums to the battle. Then enter the Duke of Somerset and Richard fighting. Richard kills Somerset ⌈under the sign⌉

RICHARD So lie thou there—

For underneath an alehouse’ paltry sign,

The Castle in Saint Albans, Somerset

Hath made the wizard famous in his death.

Sword, hold thy temper; heart, be wrathfull still—

Priests pray for enemies, but princes kill.

Exit ⌈with Somerset’s body. The sign is removed⌉

5.3 ⌈Alarum again.⌉ Enter the Earl of Warwick

WARWICK

Clifford of Cumberland, ’tis Warwick calls!

An 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,