The Complete Works of William Shakespeare · William Shakespeare
SCENE II. A Field of Battle near Barnet
Alarum and excursions. Enter King Edward bringing forth Warwick wounded. KING EDWARD. So, lie thou there. Die thou, and die our fear, For Warwick was a bug that feared us all. Now, Montague, sit fast; I seek for thee, That Warwick’s bones may keep thine company. [_Exit._] WARWICK. Ah, who is nigh? Come to me, friend or foe, And tell me who is victor, York or Warwick? Why ask I that? My mangled body shows, My blood, my want of strength, my sick heart shows That I must yield my body to the earth And, by my fall, the conquest to my foe. Thus yields the cedar to the axe’s edge, Whose arms gave shelter to the princely eagle, Under whose shade the ramping lion slept, Whose top branch overpeered Jove’s spreading tree, And kept low shrubs from winter’s pow’rful wind. These eyes, that now are dimmed with death’s black veil, Have been as piercing as the midday sun, To search the secret treasons of the world; The wrinkles in my brows, now filled with blood, Were likened oft to kingly sepulchres, For who lived King but I could dig his grave? And who durst smile when Warwick bent his brow? Lo, now my glory smeared in dust and blood! My parks, my walks, my manors that I had, Even now forsake me; and of all my lands Is nothing left me but my body’s length. Why, what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and dust? And live we how we can, yet die we must.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.