The Complete Works of William Shakespeare · William Shakespeare
SCENE III. London. A street
Enter one Citizen at one door, and Another at the other. FIRST CITIZEN. Good morrow, neighbour, whither away so fast? SECOND CITIZEN. I promise you, I scarcely know myself. Hear you the news abroad? FIRST CITIZEN. Yes, that the King is dead. SECOND CITIZEN. Ill news, by’r Lady; seldom comes the better. I fear, I fear ’twill prove a giddy world. Enter another Citizen. THIRD CITIZEN. Neighbours, God speed. FIRST CITIZEN. Give you good morrow, sir. THIRD CITIZEN. Doth the news hold of good King Edward’s death? SECOND CITIZEN. Ay, sir, it is too true, God help the while. THIRD CITIZEN. Then, masters, look to see a troublous world. FIRST CITIZEN. No, no; by God’s good grace, his son shall reign. THIRD CITIZEN. Woe to that land that’s governed by a child. SECOND CITIZEN. In him there is a hope of government, Which, in his nonage, council under him, And, in his full and ripened years, himself, No doubt shall then, and till then, govern well. FIRST CITIZEN. So stood the state when Henry the Sixth Was crowned in Paris but at nine months old. THIRD CITIZEN. Stood the state so? No, no, good friends, God wot. For then this land was famously enriched With politic grave counsel; then the King Had virtuous uncles to protect his Grace. FIRST CITIZEN. Why, so hath this, both by his father and mother.
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