The midwife wondered and the women cried
‘O, Jesus bless us, he is born with teeth !—
And so I was, which plainly signified
That I should snarl and bite and play the dog.
Then, since the heavens have shaped my body so,
Let hell make crooked my mind to answer it.
I had no father, I am like no father;
I have no brother, I am like no brother;
And this word, ‘love’, which greybeards call divine,
Be resident in men like one another
And not in me—I am myself alone.
Clarence, beware; thou kept’st me from the light—
But I will sort a pitchy day for thee.
For I will buzz abroad such prophecies
That Edward shall be fearful of his life,
And then, to purge his fear, I’ll be thy death.
Henry and his son are gone; thou, Clarence, art next;
And by one and one I will dispatch the rest,
Counting myself but bad till I be best.
I’ll throw thy body in another room
And triumph, Henry, in thy day of doom.
Exit with the body
5.7 ⌈A chair of state.⌉ Flourish. Enter King Edward, Lady Gray his Queen, George Duke off Clarence, Richard Duke of Gloucester, the Lord Hastings, a nurse carrying the infant Prince Edward, and attendants
KING EDWARD
Once more we sit in England’s royal throne,
Repurchased with the blood of enemies.
What valiant foemen, like to autumn’s corn,
Have we mowed down in tops of all their pride!
Three dukes of Somerset, threefold renowned
For hardy and undoubted champions;
Two Cliffords, as the father and the son;
And two Northumbertands—two braver men
Ne’er spurred their coursers at the trumpet’s sound.
With them, the two brave bears, Warwick and
Montague,
That in their chains fettered the kingly lion
And made the forest tremble when they roared.
Thus have we swept suspicion from our seat
And made our footstool of security.
(To Lady Gray)
Come hither, Bess, and let me kiss my boy.
The nurse brings forth the infant prince. King Edward kisses him
Young Ned, for thee, thine uncles and myself
Have in our armours watched the winter’s night,
Went all afoot in summer’s scalding heat,
That thou mightst repossess the crown in peace;
And of our labours thou shalt reap the gain.
RICHARD OF GLOUCESTER (aside)
I’ll blast his harvest, an your head were laid;
For yet I am not looked on in the world.
This shoulder was ordained so thick to heave;
And heave it shall some weight or break my back.
Work thou the way, and thou shalt execute.
KING EDWARD
Clarence and Gloucester, love my lovely queen;
And kiss your princely nephew, brothers, both.
GEORGE OF CLARENCE
The duty that I owe unto your majesty
I seal upon the lips of this sweet babe.
He kisses the infant prince
LADY GRAY
Thanks, noble Clarence—worthy brother, thanks.
RICHARD OF GLOUCESTER
And that I love the tree from whence thou sprang’st,
Witness the loving kiss I give the fruit.
He kisses the infant prince
(Aside) To say the truth, so Judas kissed his master,
And cried ‘All hail!’ whenas he meant all harm.
KING EDWARD
Now am I seated as my soul delights,
Having my country’s peace and brothers’ loves.
GEORGE OF CLARENCE
What will your grace have done with Margaret?
René her father, to the King of France
Hath pawned the Sicils and Jerusalem,
And hither have they sent it for her ransom.
Away with her, and waft her hence to France.
And now what rests but that we spend the time
With stately triumphs, mirthful comic shows,
Such as befits the pleasure of the court?
Sound drums and trumpets—fareweti, sour annoy!
For here, I hope, begins our lasting joy.
⌈Flourish.⌉ Exeunt
ADDITIONAL PASSAGES
A. Our edition adopts the 1595 version of 1.1.120-5 in the belief that it reflects an authorial revision; an edited text of the Folio alternative follows.
KING HENRY
Peace, thou—and give King Henry leave to speak.
WARWICK
Plantagenet shall speak first—hear him, lords,
And be you silent and attentive too,
For he that interrupts him shall not live.
KING HENRY ⌈to York⌉
Think’st thou that I will leave my kingly throne,
B. The 1595 text abridges 5.4.82.1-5.5.17, and may reflect authorial revision. An edited text of the abridged passage follows:
ALL THE LANCASTER PARTY
Saint George for Lancaster!
Alarums to the battle. ⌈The house of⌉ York flies, then the chambers are discharged. Then enter King Edward, George of Clarence, and Richard of Gloucester, and their followers: they make a great shout, and cry ‘For York! For York!’ Then Queen Margaret, Prince Edward, Oxford and Somerset are all taken prisoner. Flourish, and enter all again
KING EDWARD
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.
OXFORD
For my part, I’ll not trouble thee with words.
Exit, guarded
SOMERSET
Nor I, but stoop with patience to my death.
Exit, guarded
KING EDWARD (to Prince Edward)
Edward, what satisfaction canst thou make
For stirring up my subjects to rebellion?
PRINCE EDWARD
Speak like a subject, proud ambitious York.
HENRY VI PART ONE
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE AND OTHERS
THE play printed here first appeared in the 1623 Folio, as The First Part of Henry VI; it tells the beginning of the story that is continued in The First Part of the Contention and in Richard Duke of York. Although in narrative sequence it belongs before those plays, there is good reason to believe that it was written after them. It is probably the ‘new’ play referred to as ‘harey the vj’ in the record of its performance on 3 March 1592 by Lord Strange’s Men. The box-office takings of £3 16s. 8d. were a record for the season, and the play was acted another fifteen times during the following ten months. Its success is mentioned in Thomas Nashe’s satirical pamphlet Piers Penniless, published later in 1592. Defending the drama against moralistic attacks, Nashe claims that plays based on ‘our English chronicles’ celebrate ‘our forefathers’ valiant acts’ and set them up as a ‘reproof to these degenerate effeminate days of ours’. By way of illustration he alludes specifically to the exploits of Lord Talbot, the principal English warrior in Henry VI Part One: ‘How would it have joyed brave Talbot, the terror of the French, to think that after he had lain two hundred years in his tomb he should triumph again on the stage, and have his bones new-embalmed with the tears of ten thousand spectators at least, at several times, who in the tragedian that represents his person imagine they behold him fresh bleeding!’ Nashe may have had personal reasons to puff this play: a variety of evidence suggests that Shakespeare wrote it in collaboration with at least two other authors; Nashe himself was probably responsible for Act 1. The passages most confidently attributed to Shakespeare
are Act 2, Scene 4 and Act 4, Scene 2 to the death of Talbot at 4.7.32.
A mass of material, some derived from ‘English chronicles’, some invented, is packed into this play. It opens impressively with the funeral of Henry V, celebrated for unifying England and subjugating France; but his nobles are at loggerheads even over his coffin, and news rapidly arrives of serious losses in France. The rivalry displayed here between Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester—Protector of the infant Henry VI—and Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, plays an important part in both this play and The Contention, as does the conflict between Richard, Duke of York, and the houses of Somerset and Suffolk; in the Temple Garden scene (2.4), invented by Shakespeare, York’s and Somerset’s supporters symbolize their respective loyalties by plucking white and red roses. Their dissension weakens England’s military strength, but she has a great hero in Lord Talbot, whose nobility as a warrior is pitted against the treachery of the French, led by King Charles and Joan la Pucelle (Joan of Arc), here—following the chronicles—portrayed as a witch and a whore. Historical facts are freely manipulated: Joan was burnt in 1431, though the play’s authors have her take part in a battle of 1451 in which Talbot’s death is brought forward by two years. The play ends with an uneasy peace between England and France.
THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY
The English
KING Henry VI
Duke of GLOUCESTER, Lord Protector, uncle of King Henry
Duke of BEDFORD, Regent of France
Duke of EXETER
Bishop of WINCHESTER (later Cardinal), uncle of King Henry
Duke of SOMERSET
RICHARD PLANTAGENET, later DUKE OF YORK, and Regent of France
Earl of WARWICK
Earl of SALISBURY
Earl of SUFFOLK
Lord TALBOT
JOHN Talbot
Edmund MORTIMER
Sir William GLASDALE
Sir Thomas GARGRAVE
Sir John FASTOLF
Sir William LUCY
WOODVILLE, Lieutenant of the Tower of London
MAYOR of London
VERNON
BASSET
A LAWYER
A LEGATE
Messengers, warders and keepers of the Tower of London, servingmen, officers, captains, soldiers, herald, watch
The French
CHARLES, Dauphin of France
RENÉ, Duke of Anjou, King of Naples
MARGARET, his daughter
Duke of ALENÇON
BASTARD of Orléans
Duke of BURGUNDY, uncle of King Henry
GENERAL of the French garrison at Bordeaux
COUNTESS of Auvergne
MASTER GUNNER of Orléans
A BOY, his son
JOAN la Pucelle
A SHEPHERD, father of Joan
Porter, French sergeant, French sentinels, French scout, French herald, the Governor of Paris, fiends, and soldiers
The First Part of Henry the Sixth
1.1 Dead march. Enter the funeral of King Henry the Fifth, attended on by the Duke of Bedford (Regent of France), the Duke of Gloucester (Protector), the Duke of Exeter, the Earl of Warwick, the Bishop of Winchester, and the Duke of Somerset
BEDFORD
Hung be the heavens with black! Yield, day, to night!
Comets, importing change of times and states,
Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky,
And with them scourge the bad revolting stars
That have consented unto Henry’s death—
King Henry the Fifth, too famous to live long.
England ne’er lost a king of so much worth.
GLOUCESTER
England ne‘er had a king until his time.
Virtue he had, deserving to command.
His brandished sword did blind men with his beams.
His arms spread wider than a dragon’s wings.
His sparkling eyes, replete with wrathful fire,
More dazzled and drove back his enemies
Than midday sun, fierce bent against their faces.
What should I say? His deeds exceed all speech.
He ne’er lift up his hand but conquered.
EXETER
We mourn in black; why mourn we not in blood?
Henry is dead, and never shall revive.
Upon a wooden coffin we attend,
And death’s dishonourable victory
We with our stately presence glorify,
Like captives bound to a triumphant car.
What, shall we curse the planets of mishap,
That plotted thus our glory’s overthrow?
Or shall we think the subtle-witted French
Conjurers and sorcerers, that, afraid of him,
By magic verses have contrived his end?
WINCHESTER
He was a king blest of the King of Kings.
Unto the French, the dreadful judgement day
So dreadful will not be as was his sight.
The battles of the Lord of Hosts he fought.
The Church’s prayers made him so prosperous.
GLOUCESTER
The Church? Where is it? Had not churchmen prayed,
His thread of life had not so soon decayed.
None do you like but an effeminate prince,
Whom like a schoolboy you may overawe.
WINCHESTER
Gloucester, whate’er we like, thou art Protector,
And lookest to command the Prince and realm.
Thy wife is proud: she holdeth thee in awe,
More than God or religious churchmen may.
GLOUCESTER
Name not religion, for thou lov‘st the flesh,
And ne’er throughout the year to church thou go’st,
Except it be to pray against thy foes.
BEDFORD
Cease, cease these jars, and rest your minds in peace.
Let’s to the altar. Heralds, wait on us.
⌈Exeunt Warwick, Somerset, and heralds with coffin⌉
Instead of gold, we’ll offer up our arms—
Since arms avail not, now that Henry’s dead.
Posterity, await for wretched years,
When, at their mothers’ moistened eyes, babes shall suck,
Our isle be made a marish of salt tears,
And none but women left to wail the dead.
Henry the Fifth, thy ghost I invocate:
Prosper this realm; keep it from civil broils;
Combat with adverse planets in the heavens.
A far more glorious star thy soul will make
Than Julius Caesar or bright—
Enter a Messenger
MESSENGER
My honourable lords, health to you all.
Sad tidings bring I to you out of France,
Of loss, of slaughter, and discomfiture.
Guyenne, Compiegne, Rouen, Rheims, Orléans,
Paris, Gisors, Poitiers are all quite lost.
BEDFORD
What sayst thou, man, before dead Henry’s corpse?
Speak softly, or the loss of those great towns
Will make him burst his lead and rise from death.
GLOUCESTER (to the Messenger)
Is Paris lost? Is Rouen yielded up?
If Henry were recalled to life again,
These news would cause him once more yield the ghost.
EXETER (to the Messenger)
How were they lost? What treachery was used?
MESSENGER
No treachery, but want of men and money.
Amongst the soldiers this is mutterèd:
That here you maintain several factions,
And whilst a field should be dispatched and fought,
You are disputing of your generals.
One would have ling’ring wars, with little cost;
Another would fly swift, but wanteth wings;
A third thinks, without expense at all,
By guileful fair words peace may be obtained.
&
nbsp; Awake, awake, English nobility!
Let not sloth dim your honours new-begot.
Cropped are the flower-de-luces in your arms;
Of England’s coat, one half is cut away. ⌈Exit⌉
EXETER
Were our tears wanting to this funeral,
These tidings would call forth her flowing tides.
BEDFORD
Me they concern; Regent I am of France.
Give me my steeled coat. I’ll fight for France.
Away with these disgraceful wailing robes!
⌈He removes his mourning robe
Wounds will I lend the French, instead of eyes,
To weep their intermissive miseries.
Enter to them another Messenger with letters
SECOND MESSENGER
Lords, view these letters, full of bad mischance.
France is revolted from the English quite,
Except some petty towns of no import.
The Dauphin Charles is crowned king in Rheims;
The Bastard of Orléans with him is joined;
René, Duke of Anjou, doth take his part;
The Duke of Alençon flyeth to his side. Exit
EXETER
The Dauphin crowned King? All fly to him?
O whither shall we fly from this reproach?
GLOUCESTER
We will not fly, but to our enemies’ throats.
Bedford, if thou be slack, I’ll fight it out.
BEDFORD
Gloucester, why doubt’st thou of my forwardness?
An army have I mustered in my thoughts,
Wherewith already France is overrun.
Enter another Messenger
THIRD MESSENGER
My gracious lords, to add to your laments,
Wherewith you now bedew King Henry’s hearse,
I must inform you of a dismal fight
Betwixt the stout Lord Talbot and the French.
WINCHESTER
What, wherein Talbot overcame—is’t so?
THIRD MESSENGER
O no, wherein Lord Talbot was o’erthrown.
The circumstance I’ll tell you more at large.
The tenth of August last, this dreadful lord,
Retiring from the siege of Orléans,
Having full scarce six thousand in his troop,
By three-and-twenty thousand of the French
Was round encompassed and set upon.