Shall pitch a field, when we are dead.

Glo.

[Skirmish again. Stay, stay, I say!

And, if you love me, as you say you do,

Let me persuade you to forbear a while.

K. Hen. 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?
War. My lord protector, yield;-yield, Win-
chester ;-

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.
Win. He shall submit, or I will never yield.
Glo. Compassion on the king commands me stoop;
Or, I would see his heart out, ere the priest
Should ever get that privilege of me.

War. 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 stern, and tragical?
Glo. Here, Winchester, I offer thee my hand.
K. Hen. Fye, uncle Beaufort! I have heard

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?

you

War. Sweet king!-the bishop hath a kindly gird.

9 hath a kindly gird.] i. e. feels an emotion of kind re

morse.

For shame, my lord of Winchester! relent;
What, shall a child instruct you what to do?
Win. Well, duke of Gloster, I will yield to thee;
Love for thy love, and hand for hand I give.

Glo. 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!

Win. So help me God, as I intend it not!

[Aside. K. Hen. O loving uncle, kind duke of Gloster, How joyful am I made by this contract!Away, my masters! trouble us no more; But join in friendship, as your lords have done. 1 Serv. Content; I'll to the surgeon's.

2 Serv.
And so will I.
3 Serv. And I will see what physick the tavern
affords. [Exeunt Servants, Mayor, &c.
War. Accept this scroll, most gracious sove-
reign;

Which in the right of Richard Plantagenet
We do exhibit to your majesty.

Glo. 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.

K. Hen. And those occasions, uncle, were of force:

Therefore, my loving lords, our pleasure is,
That Richard be restored to his blood.

War. Let Richard be restored to his blood;
So shall his father's wrongs be recompens'd.
Win. As will the rest, so willeth Winchester.
K. Hen. If Richard will be true, not that alone,
A A

VOL, V.

But all the whole inheritance I give,
That doth belong unto the house of York,
From whence you spring by lineal descent.
Plan. Thy humble servant vows obedience,
And humble service, till the point of death..
K. Hen. 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.
Plan. And so thrive Richard, as thy foes
And as my duty springs so perish they
That grudge one thought against your majesty!
All. Welcome, high prince, the mighty duke of
York!

may fall!

Som. Perish, base prince, ignoble duke of York! [Aside.

Glo. 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.

K. Hen. When Gloster says the word, king Henry
goes;

For friendly counsel cuts off many foes.

Glo. Your ships already are in readiness.

[Exeunt all but EXETER.

Ere. Ay, we may march in England, or in France,

Not seeing what is likely to ensue :

This late dissention, grown betwixt the peers,
Burns under feigned ashes of forg'd love,
And will at last break out into a flame:
As fester'd members rot but by degrees,
Till bones, and flesh, and sinews, fall away.

1 reguerdon - Recompence, return.

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.

SCENE II.

France. Before Rouen.

[Erit

Enter LA PUCELLE disguised, and Soldiers dressed
like Countrymen, with Sacks upon their Backs.
Puc. These are the city gates, the gates of Rouen,
Through which our policy must make a breach:
Take heed, be wary how you place your words;
Talk like the vulgar sort of market-men,
That come to gather money for their corn.
If we have entrance, (as, I hope, we shall,)
And that we find the slothful watch but weak,
I'll by a sign give notice to our friends,
That Charles the Dauphin may encounter them.
1 Sold. Our sacks shall be a mean to sack the

city,

And we be lords and rulers over Rouen;

Therefore we'll knock.

Guard. [Within.] Qui est là?

[Knocks

Puc. Paisans, pauvres gens de France: Poor market-folks, that come to sell their corn. Guard. Enter, go in; the market-bell is rung. [Opens the Gates.

Puc. Now, Rouen, I'll shake thy bulwarks to the ground.

[PUCELLE, &c. enter the City.

Enter CHARLES, Bastard of Orleans, ALENÇON, and Forces.

Char. Saint Dennis bless this happy stratagem! And once again we'll sleep secure in Roüen. Bast. Here enter'd Pucelle, and her practisants;2 Now she is there, how will she specify Where is the best and safest passage in?

Alen. By thrusting out a torch from yonder tower; Which, once discern'd, shows, that her meaning

is,

3

No way to that, for weakness, which she enter'd.

Enter LA PUCELLE on a Battlement: holding out a Torch burning.

Puc. Behold, this is the happy wedding torch, That joineth Roüen unto her countrymen; But burning fatal to the Talbotites.

Bast. See, noble Charles! the beacon of our
friend,

The burning torch in yonder turret stands.
Char. Now shine it like a comet of revenge,

A prophet to the fall of all our foes!

Alen. Defer no time, Delays have dangerous
ends;

Enter, and cry-The Dauphin!-presently,
And then do execution on the watch. [They enter.

2 Here enter'd Pucelle, and her practisants;] Practice, in the language of that time, was treachery, and perhaps in the softer sense stratagem. Practisants are therefore confederates in stratagems. JOHNSON.

3 No way to that,] That is, no way equal to that, no way so fit as that. JOHNSON.