TPTT The First Part of Henry the Sixth: ACT II
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
SCENE I. Before Orleans.
SCENE II. Orleans. Within the town.
SCENE III. Auvergne. The COUNTESS's castle.
SCENE IV. London. The Temple-garden.
SCENE V. The Tower of London.
ACT III
ACT IV
ACT V
About the Play
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SCENE IV. London. The Temple-garden.
Enter the Earls of SOMERSET, SUFFOLK, and WARWICK; RICHARD PLANTAGENET, VERNON, and another Lawyer
RICHARD PLANTAGENET
      Great lords and gentlemen, what means this silence?
      Dare no man answer in a case of truth?
SUFFOLK
      Within the Temple-hall we were too loud;
      The garden here is more convenient.
RICHARD PLANTAGENET
5     Then say at once if I maintain'd the truth;
      Or else was wrangling Somerset in the error?
SUFFOLK
      Faith, I have been a truant in the law,
      And never yet could frame my will to it;
      And therefore frame the law unto my will.
SOMERSET
10    Judge you, my Lord of Warwick, then, between us.
WARWICK
      Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch;
      Between two dogs, which hath the deeper mouth;
      Between two blades, which bears the better temper:
      Between two horses, which doth bear him best;
15    Between two girls, which hath the merriest eye;
      I have perhaps some shallow spirit of judgement;
      But in these nice sharp quillets of the law,
      Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw.
RICHARD PLANTAGENET
      Tut, tut, here is a mannerly forbearance:
20    The truth appears so naked on my side
      That any purblind eye may find it out.
SOMERSET
      And on my side it is so well apparell'd,
      So clear, so shining and so evident
      That it will glimmer through a blind man's eye.
RICHARD PLANTAGENET
25    Since you are tongue-tied and so loath to speak,
      In dumb significants proclaim your thoughts:
      Let him that is a true-born gentleman
      And stands upon the honour of his birth,
      If he suppose that I have pleaded truth,
30    From off this brier pluck a white rose with me.
SOMERSET
      Let him that is no coward nor no flatterer,
      But dare maintain the party of the truth,
      Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me.
WARWICK
      I love no colours, and without all colour
35    Of base insinuating flattery
      I pluck this white rose with Plantagenet.
SUFFOLK
      I pluck this red rose with young Somerset
      And say withal I think he held the right.
VERNON
      Stay, lords and gentlemen, and pluck no more,
40    Till you conclude that he upon whose side
      The fewest roses are cropp'd from the tree
      Shall yield the other in the right opinion.
SOMERSET
      Good Master Vernon, it is well objected:
      If I have fewest, I subscribe in silence.
RICHARD PLANTAGENET
45    And I.
VERNON
      Then for the truth and plainness of the case.
      I pluck this pale and maiden blossom here,
      Giving my verdict on the white rose side.
SOMERSET
      Prick not your finger as you pluck it off,
50    Lest bleeding you do paint the white rose red
      And fall on my side so, against your will.
VERNON
      If I my lord, for my opinion bleed,
      Opinion shall be surgeon to my hurt
      And keep me on the side where still I am.
SOMERSET
55    Well, well, come on: who else?
Lawyer
      Unless my study and my books be false,
      The argument you held was wrong in you:

To SOMERSET

      In sign whereof I pluck a white rose too.
RICHARD PLANTAGENET
      Now, Somerset, where is your argument?
SOMERSET
60    Here in my scabbard, meditating that
      Shall dye your white rose in a bloody red.
RICHARD PLANTAGENET
      Meantime your cheeks do counterfeit our roses;
      For pale they look with fear, as witnessing
      The truth on our side.
SOMERSET
65    No, Plantagenet,
      'Tis not for fear but anger that thy cheeks
      Blush for pure shame to counterfeit our roses,
      And yet thy tongue will not confess thy error.
RICHARD PLANTAGENET
      Hath not thy rose a canker, Somerset?
SOMERSET
70    Hath not thy rose a thorn, Plantagenet?
RICHARD PLANTAGENET
      Ay, sharp and piercing, to maintain his truth;
      Whiles thy consuming canker eats his falsehood.
SOMERSET
      Well, I'll find friends to wear my bleeding roses,
      That shall maintain what I have said is true,
75    Where false Plantagenet dare not be seen.
RICHARD PLANTAGENET
      Now, by this maiden blossom in my hand,
      I scorn thee and thy fashion, peevish boy.
SUFFOLK
      Turn not thy scorns this way, Plantagenet.
RICHARD PLANTAGENET
      Proud Pole, I will, and scorn both him and thee.
SUFFOLK
80    I'll turn my part thereof into thy throat.
SOMERSET
      Away, away, good William de la Pole!
      We grace the yeoman by conversing with him.
WARWICK
      Now, by God's will, thou wrong'st him, Somerset;
      His grandfather was Lionel Duke of Clarence,
85    Third son to the third Edward King of England:
      Spring crestless yeomen from so deep a root?
RICHARD PLANTAGENET
      He bears him on the place's privilege,
      Or durst not, for his craven heart, say thus.
SOMERSET
      By him that made me, I'll maintain my words
90    On any plot of ground in Christendom.
      Was not thy father, Richard Earl of Cambridge,
      For treason executed in our late king's days?
      And, by his treason, stand'st not thou attainted,
      Corrupted, and exempt from ancient gentry?
95    His trespass yet lives guilty in thy blood;
      And, till thou be restored, thou art a yeoman.
RICHARD PLANTAGENET
      My father was attached, not attainted,
      Condemn'd to die for treason, but no traitor;
      And that I'll prove on better men than Somerset,
100   Were growing time once ripen'd to my will.
      For your partaker Pole and you yourself,
      I'll note you in my book of memory,
      To scourge you for this apprehension:
      Look to it well and say you are well warn'd.
SOMERSET
105   Ah, thou shalt find us ready for thee still;
      And know us by these colours for thy foes,
      For these my friends in spite of thee shall wear.
RICHARD PLANTAGENET
      And, by my soul, this pale and angry rose,
      As cognizance of my blood-drinking hate,
110   Will I for ever and my faction wear,
      Until it wither with me to my grave
      Or flourish to the height of my degree.
SUFFOLK
      Go forward and be choked with thy ambition!
      And so farewell until I meet thee next.
Exit
SOMERSET
115   Have with thee, Pole. Farewell, ambitious Richard.
Exit
RICHARD PLANTAGENET
      How I am braved and must perforce endure it!
WARWICK
      This blot that they object against your house
      Shall be wiped out in the next parliament
      Call'd for the truce of Winchester and Gloucester;
120   And if thou be not then created York,
      I will not live to be accounted Warwick.
      Meantime, in signal of my love to thee,
      Against proud Somerset and William Pole,
      Will I upon thy party wear this rose:
125   And here I prophesy: this brawl to-day,
      Grown to this faction in the Temple-garden,
      Shall send between the red rose and the white
      A thousand souls to death and deadly night.
RICHARD PLANTAGENET
      Good Master Vernon, I am bound to you,
130   That you on my behalf would pluck a flower.
VERNON
      In your behalf still will I wear the same.
Lawyer
      And so will I.
RICHARD PLANTAGENET
      Thanks, gentle sir.
      Come, let us four to dinner: I dare say
135   This quarrel will drink blood another day.
Exeunt
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