The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 5 of 9] · William Shakespeare
SCENE II. _Saint Alban’s_.
_Clif._ My soul and body on the action both! _York._ A dreadful lay! Address thee instantly. [beb027] [_They fight, and Clifford falls._ _Clif._ La fin couronne les œuvres. [_Dies._ [beb028] _York._ Thus war hath given thee peace, for thou art still. Peace with his soul, heaven, if it be thy will! [_Exit._ ·beb030· _Enter young_ CLIFFORD. _Y. Clif._ Shame and confusion! all is on the rout; [beb031] Fear frames disorder, and disorder wounds Where it should guard. O war, thou son of hell, Whom angry heavens do make their minister, Throw in the frozen bosoms of our part ·beb035· Hot coals of vengeance! Let no soldier fly. [beb036] He that is truly dedicate to war Hath no self-love, nor he that loves himself [beb038] Hath not essentially but by circumstance The name of valour. [_Seeing his dead father_] O, let the vile world end, [beb040] And the premised flames of the last day [beb041] Knit earth and heaven together! [beb042] Now let the general trumpet blow his blast, Particularities and petty sounds To cease! Wast thou ordain’d, dear father, [beb045] To lose thy youth in peace, and to achieve The silver livery of advised age, And, in thy reverence and thy chair-days, thus To die in ruffian battle? Even at this sight My heart is turn’d to stone: and while ’tis mine, ·beb050· It shall be stony. York not our old men spares; No more will I their babes: tears virginal Shall be to me even as the dew to fire, And beauty that the tyrant oft reclaims Shall to my flaming wrath be oil and flax. ·beb055· Henceforth I will not have to do with pity: Meet I an infant of the house of York, Into as many gobbets will I cut it As wild Medea young Absyrtus did: [beb059] In cruelty will I seek out my fame. ·beb060· Come, thou new ruin of old Clifford’s house: As did Æneas old Anchises bear, So bear I thee upon my manly shoulders; But then Æneas bare a living load, Nothing so heavy as these woes of mine. [beb065] [_Exit, bearing off his father._
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