Henry VI, Part III

I⁠—like one lost in a thorny wood,
That rends the thorns and is rent with the thorns,
Seeking a way and straying from the way;
Not knowing how to find the open air,
But toiling desperately to find it out⁠—
Torment myself to catch the English crown:
And from that torment I will free myself,
Or hew my way out with a bloody axe.
Why, I can smile, and murder whiles I smile,
And cry “Content” to that which grieves my heart,
And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,
And frame my face to all occasions.
I’ll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall;
I’ll slay more gazers than the basilisk;
I’ll play the orator as well as Nestor,
Deceive more slyly than Ulysses could,
And, like a Sinon, take another Troy.
I can add colours to the chameleon,
Change shapes with Proteus for advantages,
And set the murderous Machiavel to school.
Can I do this, and cannot get a crown?
Tut, were it farther off, I’ll pluck it down. Exit.

Scene III

France. The King’s palace.

	Flourish. Enter Lewis the French King, his sister Bona, his Admiral, called Bourbon: Prince Edward, Queen Margaret, and the Earl of Oxford. Lewis sits, and riseth up again.
King Lewis	Fair Queen of England, worthy Margaret, Sit down with us: it ill befits thy state And birth, that thou shouldst stand while Lewis doth sit.
Queen Margaret	No, mighty King of France: now Margaret Must strike her sail and learn awhile to serve Where kings command. I was, I must confess, Great Albion’s queen in former golden days: But now mischance hath trod my title down, And with dishonour laid me on the ground; Where I must take like seat unto my fortune, And to my humble seat conform myself.
King Lewis	Why, say, fair queen, whence springs this deep despair?
Queen Margaret	From such a cause as fills mine eyes with tears And stops my tongue, while heart is drown’d in cares.
King Lewis	Whate’er it be, be thou still like thyself, And sit thee by our side: Seats her by him. yield not thy neck To fortune’s yoke, but let thy dauntless mind Still ride in triumph over all mischance. Be plain, Queen Margaret, and tell thy grief; It shall be eased, if France can yield relief.
Queen Margaret	Those gracious words revive my drooping thoughts And give my tongue-tied sorrows leave to speak. Now, therefore, be it known to noble Lewis, That Henry, sole possessor of my love, Is of a king become a banish’d man, And forced to live in Scotland a forlorn; While proud ambitious Edward Duke of York Usurps the regal title and the seat Of England’s true-anointed lawful king. This is the cause that I, poor Margaret, With this my son, Prince Edward, Henry’s heir, Am come to crave thy just and lawful aid; And if thou fail us, all our hope is done: Scotland hath will to help, but cannot help; Our people and our peers are both misled, Our treasures seized, our soldiers put to flight, And, as thou seest, ourselves in heavy plight.
King Lewis	Renowned queen, with patience calm the storm, While we bethink a means to break it off.
Queen Margaret	The more we stay, the stronger grows our foe.
King Lewis	The more I stay, the more I’ll succour thee.
Queen Margaret	O, but impatience waiteth on true sorrow. And see where comes the breeder of my sorrow!
	Enter Warwick.
King Lewis	What’s he approacheth boldly to our presence?
Queen Margaret	Our Earl of Warwick, Edward’s greatest friend.
King Lewis	Welcome, brave Warwick! What brings thee to France? He descends. She ariseth.
Queen Margaret	Ay, now begins a second storm to rise; For this is he that moves both wind and tide.
Warwick	From worthy Edward, King of Albion, My lord and sovereign, and thy vowed friend, I come, in kindness and unfeigned love, First, to do greetings to thy royal person; And then to crave a league of amity; And lastly, to confirm that amity With a nuptial knot, if thou vouchsafe to grant That virtuous Lady Bona, thy fair sister, To England’s king in lawful marriage.
Queen Margaret	Aside. If that go forward, Henry’s hope is done.
Warwick	To Bona. And, gracious madam, in our king’s behalf, I am commanded, with your leave and favour, Humbly to kiss your hand and with my tongue To tell the passion of my sovereign’s heart; Where fame, late entering at his heedful ears, Hath placed thy beauty’s image and thy virtue.
Queen Margaret	King Lewis and Lady Bona, hear me speak, Before you answer Warwick. His demand Springs not from Edward’s well-meant honest love, But from deceit bred by necessity; For how can tyrants safely govern home, Unless abroad they purchase great alliance? To prove him tyrant this reason may suffice, That Henry liveth still: but were he dead, Yet here Prince Edward stands, King Henry’s son. Look, therefore, Lewis, that by this league and marriage Thou draw not on thy danger and dishonour; For though usurpers sway the rule awhile, Yet heavens are just, and time suppresseth wrongs.
Warwick	Injurious Margaret!
Prince	And why not queen?
Warwick	Because thy father Henry did usurp; And thou no more art prince than she is queen.
Oxford	Then Warwick disannuls great John of Gaunt, Which did subdue the greatest part of Spain: And, after John of Gaunt, Henry the Fourth, Whose wisdom was a mirror to the wisest; And, after that wise prince, Henry the Fifth, Who by his prowess conquered all France: From these our Henry lineally descends.
Warwick	Oxford, how haps it, in this smooth discourse, You told not how Henry the Sixth hath lost All that which Henry Fifth had gotten? Methinks these peers of France should smile at that. But for the rest, you tell a pedigree Of threescore and two years; a silly time To make prescription for a kingdom’s worth.
Oxford	Why, Warwick, canst thou speak against thy liege, Whom thou obeyed’st thirty and six years, And not bewray thy treason with a blush?
Warwick	Can Oxford, that did ever fence the right, Now buckler falsehood with a pedigree? For shame! leave Henry, and call Edward king.
Oxford	Call him my king by whose injurious doom My elder brother, the Lord Aubrey Vere, Was done to death? and more than so, my father, Even in the downfall of his mellow’d years, When nature brought him to the door of death? No, Warwick, no; while life upholds this arm, This arm upholds the