Henry VI, Part II by William Shakespeare
Act 5 - Scene 2
Saint Alban’s.
Young Clifford : Shame and confusion! all is on the rout;
[p]Fear frames disorder, and
disorder wounds
[p]Where it should guard. O war, thou son of
hell,
[p]Whom angry heavens do make their minister
[p]Throw in the
frozen bosoms of our part
[p]Hot coals of vengeance! Let no soldier
fly.
[p]He that is truly dedicate to war
[p]Hath no self-love, nor he
that loves himself
[p]Hath not essentially but by circumstance
[p]The
name of valour.
[p][Seeing his dead father]
[p]O, let the vile world
end,
[p]And the premised flames of the last day
[p]Knit earth and
heaven together!
[p]Now let the general trumpet blow his
blast,
[p]Particularities and petty sounds
[p]To cease! Wast thou
ordain'd, dear father,
[p]To lose thy youth in peace, and to
achieve
[p]The silver livery of advised age,
[p]And, in thy reverence
and thy chair-days, thus
[p]To die in ruffian battle? Even at this
sight
[p]My heart is turn'd to stone: and while 'tis mine,
[p]It shall
be stony. York not our old men spares;
[p]No more will I their babes:
tears virginal
[p]Shall be to me even as the dew to fire,
[p]And
beauty that the tyrant oft reclaims
[p]Shall to my flaming wrath be
oil and flax.
[p]Henceforth I will not have to do with pity:
[p]Meet I
an infant of the house of York,
[p]Into as many gobbets will I cut
it
[p]As wild Medea young Absyrtus did:
[p]In cruelty will I seek out
my fame.
[p]Come, thou new ruin of old Clifford's house:
[p]As did
AEneas old Anchises bear,
[p]So bear I thee upon my manly
shoulders;
[p]But then AEneas bare a living load,
[p]Nothing so heavy
as these woes of mine.
[p][Exit, bearing off his father]
[p][Enter
RICHARD and SOMERSET to fight. SOMERSET]
[p]is killed]
Richard Plantagenet the Younger : So, lie thou there;
[p]For underneath an alehouse' paltry sign,
[p]The
Castle in Saint Alban's, Somerset
[p]Hath made the wizard famous in
his death.
[p]Sword, hold thy temper; heart, be wrathful
still:
[p]Priests pray for enemies, but princes
kill.
[p][Exit]
[p][Fight: excursions. Enter KING HENRY VI,
QUEEN]
[p]MARGARET, and others]
Young Clifford : But that my heart's on future mischief set,
[p]I would speak blasphemy
ere bid you fly:
[p]But fly you must; uncurable discomfit
[p]Reigns in
the hearts of all our present parts.
[p]Away, for your relief! and we
will live
[p]To see their day and them our fortune give:
[p]Away, my
lord, away!
Previous: Act 5 - Scene 1
Next: Act 5 - Scene 3
