Henry VI, Pt. 3
Act V, Scene 5
Another part of the battlefield near Barnet.
O Ned, sweet Ned, speak to thy mother, boy!
Alexandre Bida, 19th century
- Flourish. Enter King Edward, Richard of Gloucester with
- Queen Margaret prisoner, Clarence, and Soldiers with Oxford,
- Somerset prisoners.
King Edward
1 - 4- Now here a period of tumultuous broils.
- Away with Oxford to Hames Castle straight;
- For Somerset, off with his guilty head.
- Go bear them hence, I will not hear them speak.
Earl of Oxford
5- For my part, I’ll not trouble thee with words.
Duke of Somerset
6- Nor I, but stoop with patience to my fortune.
- Exeunt Oxford and Somerset, guarded.
Queen Margaret
7 - 8- So part we sadly in this troublous world,
- To meet with joy in sweet Jerusalem.
King Edward
9 - 10- Is proclamation made, that who finds Edward
- Shall have a high reward, and he his life?
Duke of Gloucester
11- It is, and lo where youthful Edward comes!
- Enter Soldiers with the Prince Edward.
King Edward
12 - 16- Bring forth the gallant, let us hear him speak.
- What? Can so young a thorn begin to prick?
- Edward, what satisfaction canst thou make
- For bearing arms, for stirring up my subjects,
- And all the trouble thou hast turn’d me to?
Prince
17 - 21- Speak like a subject, proud ambitious York!
- Suppose that I am now my father’s mouth:
- Resign thy chair, and where I stand kneel thou,
- Whilst I propose the self-same words to thee,
- Which, traitor, thou wouldst have me answer to.
Queen Margaret
22- Ah, that thy father had been so resolv’d!
Duke of Gloucester
23 - 24- That you might still have worn the petticoat,
- And ne’er have stol’n the breech from Lancaster.
Prince
25 - 26- Let Aesop fable in a winter’s night,
- His currish riddles sorts not with this place.
Duke of Gloucester
27- By heaven, brat, I’ll plague ye for that word.
Queen Margaret
28- Ay, thou wast born to be a plague to men.
Duke of Gloucester
29- For God’s sake, take away this captive scold.
Prince
30- Nay, take away this scolding crook-back, rather.
King Edward
31- Peace, willful boy, or I will charm your tongue.
Duke of Clarence
32- Untutor’d lad, thou art too malapert.
Prince
33 - 37- I know my duty, you are all undutiful.
- Lascivious Edward, and thou perjur’d George,
- And thou misshapen Dick, I tell ye all
- I am your better, traitors as ye are,
- And thou usurp’st my father’s right and mine.
King Edward
38- Take that, the likeness of this railer here.
- Stabs him.
Duke of Gloucester
39- Sprawl’st thou? Take that, to end thy agony.
- Richard stabs him.
Duke of Clarence
40- And there’s for twitting me with perjury.
- Clarence stabs him.
Queen Margaret
41- O, kill me too!
Duke of Gloucester
42- Marry, and shall.
- Offers to kill her.
King Edward
43- Hold, Richard, hold, for we have done too much.
Duke of Gloucester
44- Why should she live, to fill the world with words?
King Edward
45- What? Doth she swoun? Use means for her recovery.
Duke of Gloucester
46 - 48- Clarence, excuse me to the King my brother;
- I’ll hence to London on a serious matter.
- Ere ye come there, be sure to hear some news.
Duke of Clarence
49- What? What?
Duke of Gloucester
50- The Tower, the Tower.
- Exit.
O traitors, murderers!
Thomas Stothard, circa 1789
Queen Margaret
51 - 67- O Ned, sweet Ned, speak to thy mother, boy!
- Canst thou not speak? O traitors, murderers!
- They that stabb’d Caesar shed no blood at all,
- Did not offend, nor were not worthy blame,
- If this foul deed were by to equal it.
- He was a man; this, in respect, a child,
- And men ne’er spend their fury on a child.
- What’s worse than murderer, that I may name it?
- No, no, my heart will burst and if I speak,
- And I will speak, that so my heart may burst.
- Butchers and villains! Bloody cannibals!
- How sweet a plant have you untimely cropp’d!
- You have no children, butchers; if you had,
- The thought of them would have stirr’d up remorse,
- But if you ever chance to have a child,
- Look in his youth to have him so cut off
- As, deathsmen, you have rid this sweet young prince!
King Edward
68- Away with her, go bear her hence perforce.
Queen Margaret
69 - 71- Nay, never bear me hence, dispatch me here;
- Here sheathe thy sword, I’ll pardon thee my death.
- What? Wilt thou not? Then, Clarence, do it thou.
Duke of Clarence
72- By heaven, I will not do thee so much ease.
Queen Margaret
73- Good Clarence, do; sweet Clarence, do thou do it.
Duke of Clarence
74- Didst thou not hear me swear I would not do it?
Queen Margaret
75 - 80- Ay, but thou usest to forswear thyself.
- ’Twas sin before, but now ’tis charity.
- What, wilt thou not? Where is that devil’s butcher,
- Hard-favor’d Richard? Richard, where art thou?
- Thou art not here. Murder is thy alms-deed;
- Petitioners for blood thou ne’er put’st back.
King Edward
81- Away I say, I charge ye bear her hence.
Queen Margaret
82- So come to you, and yours, as to this prince!
- Exit Queen Margaret, led out forcibly.
King Edward
83- Where’s Richard gone?
Duke of Clarence
84 - 85- To London, all in post, and as I guess,
- To make a bloody supper in the Tower.
King Edward
86 - 90- He’s sudden, if a thing comes in his head.
- Now march we hence. Discharge the common sort
- With pay and thanks, and let’s away to London
- And see our gentle queen how well she fares.
- By this, I hope, she hath a son for me.
- Exeunt.
For Somerset, off with his guilty head.
Beheading of the Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset
late fifteenth century