Re-enter Porter, with Keys. Count. If thou be he, then art thou prisoner. Count. But now the substance shall endure the like; Count. Laughest thou, wretch? thy mirth shall turn to moan. Tal. I laugh to see your ladyship so fond,+ To think that you have aught but Talbot's shadow, Whereon to practice your severity. Count. Why, art not thou the man? Tal. Count. Then have I substance too. I am indeed. Tal. No, no, I am but shadow of myself: I tell you, madam, were the whole frame here, Your roof were not sufficient to contain it. Count. This is a riddling merchant for the nonce; He will be here, and yet he is not here: How can these contrarieties agree? Tal. That will I show you presently. so fond,] i. e. so foolish. He winds a Horn. Drums heard; then a Peal of These are his substance, sinews, arms, and strength, Count. Victorious Talbot! pardon my abuse: I did not entertain thee as thou art. Tal. Be not dismay'd, fair lady; nor misconstrue The mind of Talbot, as you did mistake The outward composition of his body. What you have done, hath not offended me: But only (with your patience,) that we may Count. With all my heart; and think me honoured To feast so great a warrior in my house. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. London. The Temple Garden. Enter the Earls of SOMERSET, SUFFOLK, and WARWICK; RICHARD PLANTAGENET, VERNON, and another Lawyer. Plan. Great lords, and gentlemen, what means this silence? sbruited,] To bruit is to proclaim with noise, to announce loudly. Dare no man answer in a case of truth? Suf. Within the Temple hall we were too loud; The garden here is more convenient. Plan. Then say at once, If I maintain'd the truth; Or, else, was wrangling Somerset in the error? Suf. 'Faith, I have been a truant in the law; And never yet could frame my will to it; And, therefore, frame the law unto my will. Som. Judge you, my lord of Warwick, then be tween us. War. Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch, Between two dogs, which hath the deeper mouth, Plan. Tut, tut, here is a mannerly forbearance : Som. And on my side it is so well apparell'd, So clear, so shining, and so evident, That it will glimmer through a blind man's eye. Plan. Since you are tongue-ty'd, and so loath to speak, In dumb significants proclaim your thoughts: And stands upon the honour of his birth, If he suppose that I have pleaded truth, From off this brier pluck a white rose with me. Som. Let him that is no coward, nor no flatterer, But dare maintain the party of the truth, Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me. bear him best,] i. e. regulate his motions most adroitly. War. I love no colours; and, without all colour Of base insinuating flattery, I pluck this white rose, with Plantagenet. Suf. I pluck this red rose, with young Somerset ; And say withal, I think he held the right. Ver. Stay, lords, and gentlemen; and pluck no more, Till you conclude that he, upon whose side Som. Good master Vernon, it is well objected;" Ver. Then, for the truth and plainness of the case, I pluck this pale, and maiden blossom here, Giving my verdict on the white rose side. Som. Prick not your finger as you pluck it off; Lest, bleeding, you do paint the white rose red, And fall on my side so against your will. Ver. If I, my lord, for my opinion bleed, Opinion shall be surgeon to my hurt, And keep me on the side where still I am. Som. Well, well, come on: Who else? Law. Unless my study and my books be false, The argument you held, was wrong in you; [TO SOMERSET. In sign whereof, I pluck a white rose too. Plan. Now, Somerset, where is your argument? Som. Here, in my scabbard; meditating that, Shall die your white rose in a bloody red. Plan. Mean time, your cheeks do counterfeit our roses; For pale they look with fear, as witnessing "I love no colours;] Colours is here used ambiguously for tints and deceits. 8 well objected;] Properly thrown in our way, justly proposed. The truth on our side. No, Plantagenet, Som. Plan. Hath not thy rose a canker, Somerset? Whiles thy consuming canker eats his falsehood. Som. Well, I'll find friends to wear my bleeding roses, That shall maintain what I have said is true, Plan. Now, by this maiden blossom in my hand, Suf. I'll turn my part thereof into thy throat. Som. Away, away, good William De-la-Poole ! We grace the yeoman, by conversing with him. War. Now, by God's will, thou wrong'st him, Somerset ; His grandfather was Lionel, duke of Clarence, Third son to the third Edward king of England; Spring crestless yeomen' from so deep a root? Plan. He bears him on the place's privilege,' Or durst not, for his craven heart, say thus. Som. By him that made me, I'll maintain my words On any plot of ground in Christendom: Was not thy father, Richard, earl of Cambridge, For treason executed in our late king's days? "Crestless yeomen ] i. e. those who have no right to arms. 1 He bears him on the place's privilege,] The Temple, being a religious house, was an asylum, a place of exemption, from violence, revenge, and bloodshed. JOHNSON. |