The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 5 of 9] · William Shakespeare
SCENE VI. _Another part of the field_.
_A loud alarum. Enter_ CLIFFORD, _wounded_. _Clif._ Here burns my candle out; ay, here it dies, [cbf001] Which, whiles it lasted, gave King Henry light. [cbf002] O Lancaster, I fear thy overthrow [cbf003] More than my body’s parting with my soul! My love and fear glued many friends to thee; [cbf005] And, now I fall, thy tough commixture melts. [cbf006] Impairing Henry, strengthening misproud York, The common people swarm like summer flies; [cbf008] And whither fly the gnats but to the sun? [cbf009] And who shines now but Henry’s enemies? [cbf010] O Phœbus, hadst thou never given consent That Phaëthon should check thy fiery steeds, [cbf012] Thy burning car never had scorch’d the earth! [cbf013] And, Henry, hadst thou sway’d as kings should do, Or as thy father and his father did, [cbf015] Giving no ground unto the house of York, They never then had sprung like summer flies; [cbf017] I and ten thousand in this luckless realm Had left no mourning widows for our death; [cbf019] And thou this day hadst kept thy chair in peace. ·cbf020· For what doth cherish weeds but gentle air? [cbf021] And what makes robbers bold but too much lenity? Bootless are plaints, and cureless are my wounds; No way to fly, nor strength to hold out flight: [cbf024] The foe is merciless, and will not pity; ·cbf025· For at their hands I have deserved no pity. [cbf026] The air hath got into my deadly wounds, And much effuse of blood doth make me faint. Come, York and Richard, Warwick and the rest; I stabb’d your fathers’ bosoms, split my breast. [cbf030] [_He faints._
_Edw._ Bring forth that fatal screech-owl to our house, That nothing sung but death to us and ours: Now death shall stop his dismal threatening sound, And his ill-boding tongue no more shall speak. [cbf059] _War._ I think his understanding is bereft. [cbf060] Speak, Clifford, dost thou know who speaks to thee? Dark cloudy death o’ershades his beams of life, And he nor sees nor hears us what we say. _Rich._ O, would he did! and so perhaps he doth: ’Tis but his policy to counterfeit, ·cbf065· Because he would avoid such bitter taunts Which in the time of death he gave our father. [cbf067] _Geo._ If so thou think’st, vex him with eager words. [cbf068] _Rich._ Clifford, ask mercy and obtain no grace. _Edw._ Clifford, repent in bootless penitence. ·cbf070· _War._ Clifford, devise excuses for thy faults. _Geo._ While we devise fell tortures for thy faults. [cbf072] _Rich._ Thou didst love York, and I am son to York. _Edw._ Thou pitied’st Rutland; I will pity thee. _Geo._ Where’s Captain Margaret, to fence you now? ·cbf075· _War._ They mock thee, Clifford: swear as thou wast wont. [cbf076] _Rich._ What, not an oath? nay, then the world goes hard [cbf077] When Clifford cannot spare his friends an oath. I know by that he’s dead; and, by my soul, If this right hand would buy two hours’ life, [cbf080] That I in all despite might rail at him, This hand should chop it off, and with the issuing blood [cbf082] Stifle the villain whose unstanched thirst York and young Rutland could not satisfy.
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