Act 5, Scene 1

Fields between Dartford and Blackheath.

[Enter YORK, and his army of Irish, with drum and colours.]
Richard, Duke of York
2757 From Ireland thus comes York to claim his right,
2758 And pluck the crown from feeble Henry's head.
2759 Ring, bells, aloud; burn, bonfires, clear and bright,
2760 To entertain great England's lawful king.
2761 Ah! sancta majestas! who would not buy thee dear?
2762 Let them obey that knows not how to rule;
2763 This hand was made to handle nought but gold.
2764 I cannot give due action to my words
2765 Except a sword or sceptre balance it.
2766 A sceptre shall it have, have I a soul,
2767 On which I'll toss the flower-de-luce of France.—
[Enter BUCKINGHAM.]
Richard, Duke of York
2768 Whom have we here? Buckingham, to disturb me?
2769 The king hath sent him, sure: I must dissemble.
Duke of Buckingham
2770 York, if thou meanest well, I greet thee well.
Richard, Duke of York
2771 Humphrey of Buckingham, I accept thy greeting.
2772 Art thou a messenger, or come of pleasure?
Duke of Buckingham
2773 A messenger from Henry, our dread liege,
2774 To know the reason of these arms in peace;
2775 Or why thou, being a subject as I am,
2776 Against thy oath and true allegiance sworn,
2777 Should raise so great a power without his leave,
2778 Or dare to bring thy force so near the court.
[Aside.]
Richard, Duke of York
2779 Scarce can I speak, my choler is so great:
2780 O, I could hew up rocks and fight with flint,
2781 I am so angry at these abject terms;
2782 And now, like Ajax Telamonius,
2783 On sheep or oxen could I spend my fury.
2784 I am far better born than is the king,
2785 More like a king, more kingly in my thoughts;
2786 But I must make fair weather yet a while,
2787 Till Henry be more weak and I more strong.—
2788 Buckingham, I prithee, pardon me,
2789 That I have given no answer all this while;
2790 My mind was troubled with deep melancholy.
2791 The cause why I have brought this army hither
2792 Is to remove proud Somerset from the king,
2793 Seditious to his grace and to the state.
Duke of Buckingham
2794 That is too much presumption on thy part;
2795 But if thy arms be to no other end,
2796 The king hath yielded unto thy demand.
2797 The Duke of Somerset is in the Tower.
Richard, Duke of York
2798 Upon thine honour, is he prisoner?
Duke of Buckingham
2799 Upon mine honour, he is prisoner.
Richard, Duke of York
2800 Then, Buckingham, I do dismiss my powers.—
2801 Soldiers, I thank you all; disperse yourselves;
2802 Meet me to-morrow in Saint George's field,
2803 You shall have pay and everything you wish.—
2804 And let my sovereign, virtuous Henry,
2805 Command my eldest son, nay, all my sons,
2806 As pledges of my fealty and love,
2807 I'll send them all as willing as I live;
2808 Lands, goods, horse, armour, anything I have,
2809 Is his to use, so Somerset may die.
Duke of Buckingham
2810 York, I commend this kind submission;
2811 We twain will go into his highness' tent.
[Enter KING and Attendants.]
King Henry VI
2812 Buckingham, doth York intend no harm to us,
2813 That thus he marcheth with thee arm in arm?
Richard, Duke of York
2814 In all submission and humility
2815 York doth present himself unto your highness.
King Henry VI
2816 Then what intends these forces thou dost bring?
Richard, Duke of York
2817 To heave the traitor Somerset from hence,
2818 And fight against that monstrous rebel Cade,
2819 Who since I heard to be discomfited.
[Enter IDEN, with CADE's head.]
Alexander Iden
2820 If one so rude and of so mean condition
2821 May pass into the presence of a king,
2822 Lo, I present your grace a traitor's head,
2823 The head of Cade, whom I in combat slew.
King Henry VI
2824 The head of Cade!—Great God, how just art Thou!—
2825 O, let me view his visage, being dead,
2826 That living wrought me such exceeding trouble.
2827 Tell me, my friend, art thou the man that slew him?
Alexander Iden
2828 I was, an 't like your majesty.
King Henry VI
2829 How art thou call'd? and what is thy degree?
Alexander Iden
2830 Alexander Iden, that's my name;
2831 A poor esquire of Kent, that loves his king.
Duke of Buckingham
2832 So please it you, my lord, 't were not amiss
2833 He were created knight for his good service.
King Henry VI
2834 Iden, kneel down.
[He kneels.]
King Henry VI
2835 Rise up a knight.
2836 We give thee for reward a thousand marks,
2837 And will that thou thenceforth attend on us.
Alexander Iden
2838 May Iden live to merit such a bounty,
2839 And never live but true unto his liege!
[Rises.]
[Enter QUEEN and SOMERSET.]
King Henry VI
2840 See, Buckingham, Somerset comes with the queen.
2841 Go, bid her hide him quickly from the duke.
Queen Margaret
2842 For thousand Yorks he shall not hide his head,
2843 But boldly stand and front him to his face.
Richard, Duke of York
2844 How now! is Somerset at liberty?
2845 Then, York, unloose thy long-imprisoned thoughts,
2846 And let thy tongue be equal with thy heart.
2847 Shall I endure the sight of Somerset?
2848 False king! why hast thou broken faith with me,
2849 Knowing how hardly I can brook abuse?
2850 King did I call thee? no, thou art not king,
2851 Not fit to govern and rule multitudes,
2852 Which dar'st not, no, nor canst not rule a traitor.
2853 That head of thine doth not become a crown;
2854 Thy hand is made to grasp a palmer's staff,
2855 And not to grace an awful princely sceptre.
2856 That gold must round engirt these brows of mine,
2857 Whose smile and frown, like to Achilles' spear,
2858 Is able with the change to kill and cure.
2859 Here is a hand to hold a sceptre up
2860 And with the same to act controlling laws.
2861 Give place; by heaven, thou shalt rule no more
2862 O'er him whom heaven created for thy ruler.
Duke of Somerset
2863 O monstrous traitor!—I arrest thee, York,
2864 Of capital treason 'gainst the king and crown.
2865 Obey, audacious traitor; kneel for grace.
Richard, Duke of York
2866 Wouldst have me kneel? first let me ask of these
2867 If they can brook I bow a knee to man.—
2868 Sirrah, call in my sons to be my bail.—
[Exit Attendant.]
Richard, Duke of York
2869 I know, ere thy will have me go to ward,
2870 They'll pawn their swords for my enfranchisement.
Queen Margaret
2871 Call hither Clifford; bid him come amain,
2872 To say if that the bastard boys of York
2873 Shall be the surety for their traitor father.
[Exit Buckingham.]
Richard, Duke of York
2874 O blood-bespotted Neapolitan,
2875 Outcast of Naples, England's bloody scourge!
2876 The sons of York, thy betters in their birth,
2877 Shall be their father's bail; and bane to those
2878 That for my surety will refuse the boys!
[Enter EDWARD and RICHARD.]
Richard, Duke of York
2879 See where they come; I'll warrant they'll make it good.
[Enter old CLIFFORD and his SON.]
Queen Margaret
2880 And here comes Clifford to deny their bail.
Lord Clifford
2881 Health and all happiness to my lord the king!
[Kneels.]
Richard, Duke of York
2882 I thank thee, Clifford; say, what news with thee?
2883 Nay, do not fright us with an angry look.
2884 We are thy sovereign, Clifford, kneel again;
2885 For thy mistaking so, we pardon thee.
Lord Clifford
2886 This is my king, York, I do not mistake;
2887 But thou mistakes me much to think I do.—
2888 To Bedlam with him! is the man grown mad?
King Henry VI
2889 Ay, Clifford; a bedlam and ambitious humour
2890 Makes him oppose himself against his king.
Lord Clifford
2891 He is a traitor; let him to the Tower,
2892 And chop away that factious pate of his.
Queen Margaret
2893 He is arrested, but will not obey;
2894 His sons, he says, shall give their words for him.
Richard, Duke of York
2895 Will you not, sons?
Edward Plantagenet
2896 Ay, noble father, if our words will serve.
Richard Plantagenet
2897 And if words will not, then our weapons shall.
Lord Clifford
2898 Why, what a brood of traitors have we here!
Richard, Duke of York
2899 Look in a glass, and call thy image so;
2900 I am thy king, and thou a false-heart traitor.—
2901 Call hither to the stake my two brave bears,
2902 That with the very shaking of their chains
2903 They may astonish these fell-lurking curs.
2904 Bid Salisbury and Warwick come to me.
[Enter the EARLS OF WARWICK and SALISBURY.]
Lord Clifford
2905 Are these thy bears? we'll bait thy bears to death,
2906 And manacle the bear-herd in their chains,
2907 If thou dar'st bring them to the baiting-place.
Richard Plantagenet
2908 Oft have I seen a hot o'erweening cur
2909 Run back and bite because he was withheld,
2910 Who, being suffer'd with the bear's fell paw,
2911 Hath clapp'd his tail between his legs and cried;
2912 And such a piece of service will you do
2913 If you oppose yourselves to match Lord Warwick.
Lord Clifford
2914 Hence, heap of wrath, foul indigested lump,
2915 As crooked in thy manners as thy shape!
Richard, Duke of York
2916 Nay, we shall heat you thoroughly anon.
Lord Clifford
2917 Take heed, lest by your heat you burn yourselves.
King Henry VI
2918 Why, Warwick, hath thy knee forgot to bow?—
2919 Old Salisbury, shame to thy silver hair,
2920 Thou mad misleader of thy brainsick son!
2921 What, wilt thou on thy death-bed play the ruffian,
2922 And seek for sorrow with thy spectacles?
2923 O, where is faith? O, where is loyalty?
2924 If it be banish'd from the frosty head,
2925 Where shall it find a harbour in the earth?
2926 Wilt thou go dig a grave to find out war,
2927 And shame thine honourable age with blood?
2928 Why art thou old, and want'st experience?
2929 Or wherefore dost abuse it, if thou hast it?
2930 For shame! in duty bend thy knee to me
2931 That bows unto the grave with mickle age.
Earl of Salisbury
2932 My lord, I have consider'd with myself
2933 The tide of this most renowned duke,
2934 And in my conscience do repute his grace
2935 The rightful heir to England's royal seat.
King Henry VI
2936 Hast thou not sworn allegiance unto me?
Earl of Salisbury
2937 I have.
King Henry VI
2938 Canst thou dispense with heaven for such an oath?
Earl of Salisbury
2939 It is great sin to swear unto a sin,
2940 But greater sin to keep a sinful oath.
2941 Who can be bound by any solemn vow
2942 To do a murtherous deed, to rob a man,
2943 To force a spotless virgin's chastity,
2944 To reave the orphan of his patrimony,
2945 To wring the widow from her custom'd right,
2946 And have no other reason for this wrong
2947 But that he was bound by a solemn oath?
Queen Margaret
2948 A subtle traitor needs no sophister.
King Henry VI
2949 Call Buckingham, and bid him arm himself.
Richard, Duke of York
2950 Call Buckingham, and all the friends thou hast,
2951 I am resolv'd for death or dignity.
Lord Clifford
2952 The first I warrant thee if dreams prove true.
Earl of Warwick
2953 You were best to go to bed and dream again,
2954 To keep thee from the tempest of the field.
Lord Clifford
2955 I am resolv'd to bear a greater storm
2956 Than any thou canst conjure up to-day;
2957 And that I'll write upon thy burgonet,
2958 Might I but know thee by thy household badge.
Earl of Warwick
2959 Now, by my father's badge, old Nevil's crest,
2960 The rampant bear chain'd to the ragged staff,
2961 This day I'll wear aloft my burgonet,
2962 As on a mountain top the cedar shows
2963 That keeps his leaves in spite of any storm,
2964 Even to affright thee with the view thereof.
Lord Clifford
2965 And from thy burgonet I'll rend thy bear
2966 And tread it under foot with all contempt,
2967 Despite the bear-herd that protects the bear.
Young Clifford
2968 And so to arms, victorious father,
2969 To quell the rebels and their complices.
Richard Plantagenet
2970 Fie! charity, for shame! speak not in spite,
2971 For you shall sup with Jesu Christ to-night.
Young Clifford
2972 Foul stigmatic, that's more than thou canst
2973 tell.
Richard Plantagenet
2974 If not in heaven, you'll surely sup in hell.
[Exeunt severally.]

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Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 2757historical topical
“comes York to claim his right”
York's 'right' rests on his descent from Edward III's son Lionel, Duke of Clarence — a senior line to the Lancastrians, who descend from the younger son John of Gaunt. Shakespeare traced York's genealogical claim in 2.2, where York argued point by point that he, not Henry VI, is the legitimate king of England.
historical Edward III and his seven sonshistorical The Wars of the Roses
TLN 2761archaic vocab
“sancta majestas”
Latin for 'holy majesty.' York exclaims in Latin — the prestige language of church and state — at the almost sacred weight of kingship. The phrase signals that the crown is not merely a political prize but a sacred dignity, making his desire for it, in his own mind, a kind of religious calling.
TLN 2762rhetorical device
“Let them obey that knows not how to rule”
York draws a sharp contrast between those fit to obey and those fit to rule, implying that Henry belongs to the first class and he himself to the second. The line echoes the Elizabethan doctrine that kings are born, not made — a claim that conveniently licenses York's treasonous ambition by framing it as natural order.
historical The great chain of being (order and degree)
TLN 2767historical topical
“toss the flower-de-luce of France”
The fleur-de-lis (flower-de-luce) is the stylized lily that was the royal emblem of France. English kings from Edward III onward quartered it on their coat of arms to assert their claim to the French crown. York says he will toss it on his sceptre — meaning he expects to rule both England and France.
TLN 2779cultural context
“my choler is so great”
'Choler' is one of the four humours — the bodily fluids that Elizabethan medicine believed governed personality and health. An excess of choler (yellow bile) made a person hot-tempered, prone to rage, and apt to violence. York is saying his anger is a physical, almost overwhelming force inside him, not just an emotion.
TLN 2782classical allusion
“like Ajax Telamonius, On sheep or oxen could I spend my fury”
Ajax Telamonius — 'son of Telamon' — was one of the greatest Greek warriors at Troy, famous for brute strength. When Achilles's armour was awarded to Odysseus instead of him, Ajax went mad with rage and, deceived by Athena, slaughtered a herd of livestock believing them to be his enemies; recovering his senses, he killed himself in shame. York says his frustration at having to play polite with Buckingham is so overwhelming that, like Ajax, he could waste it on dumb animals.
TLN 2786archaic vocab
“I must make fair weather yet a while”
To 'make fair weather' means to be artificially pleasant and conciliatory — to put on a show of calm goodwill when one feels the opposite. This is a verbal idiom for dissembling; York must pretend to be co-operative and unthreatening until he is strong enough to strike openly.
TLN 2802historical topical
“Meet me to-morrow in Saint George's field”
St George's Fields was a large open area south of the Thames in Southwark — a standard London mustering-ground just outside the city walls. York names it as the place to pay off and disband his Irish army, a realistic and plausible choice: armies returning to London routinely gathered there. The audience would have known it well.
TLN 2830historical topical
“Alexander Iden, that's my name; A poor esquire of Kent”
Alexander Iden is the Kentish gentleman who cornered and killed Jack Cade in his garden (4.10). An 'esquire' ranked just below a knight — a minor landed gentleman, not a nobleman. His plainness here ('a poor esquire') is deliberate humility before the king, and the king immediately rectifies it by making him a knight. The scene pairs neatly: the rebel who rejected all rank is killed by a man content with a modest one.
historical Jack Cade's Rebellion
TLN 2836archaic vocab
“a thousand marks”
A 'mark' was a unit of money equal to two-thirds of a pound sterling — so a thousand marks was roughly £667, an enormous sum. It was a standard reward for exceptional royal service, roughly equivalent to the annual income of a prosperous knight. The gift measures how seriously Henry values the end of Cade's rebellion.
TLN 2854historical topical
“Thy hand is made to grasp a palmer's staff”
A 'palmer' was a pilgrim who had walked to the Holy Land and carried a palm-branch as a badge. York jeers that Henry's hand is fit only for a pilgrim's walking stick — not for a royal sceptre. Henry was known as pious, even saintly in his devotion, and York mocks that piety as incompatible with kingship; the palmer's staff contrasts directly with the 'awful princely sceptre' in the next line.
TLN 2857classical allusion
“like to Achilles' spear, Is able with the change to kill and cure”
According to classical legend, the spear of Achilles had the power both to wound and to heal: it inflicted an incurable wound on the Mysian king Telephus, and an oracle told Telephus that only the weapon that wounded him could cure him — the rust of the spear applied to the wound proved the remedy. York claims that his frown and his smile will wield the same double power over his subjects.
TLN 2874historical topical
“O blood-bespotted Neapolitan, Outcast of Naples”
York insults Queen Margaret as a 'Neapolitan' — she came from the Angevin House of Naples (her father René of Anjou claimed the kingdom of Naples, though he never held it securely). 'Blood-bespotted' accuses her of complicity in murder — most immediately the murder of Gloucester (3.2), which was widely blamed on her and Suffolk. 'Outcast of Naples' mocks the hollowness of her royal blood: René's Neapolitan claim was a title without a throne.
TLN 2901historical topical
“my two brave bears, That with the very shaking of their chains They may astonish these fell-lurking curs”
York calls Warwick and Salisbury his 'bears' — because the bear chained to a ragged staff was the badge of the Neville family (the earls of Warwick). Bear-baiting, where chained bears were attacked by dogs, was a popular Elizabethan spectacle; here York turns the heraldic badge into a metaphor: his bears will terrify Clifford's 'curs' (dogs). The imagery is picked up and developed through the scene's next exchange.
TLN 2914historical topical
“foul indigested lump, As crooked in thy manners as thy shape”
Old Clifford insults the young Richard Plantagenet (York's son, the future Richard III) as physically deformed — 'crooked' in both body and character. This is the play's first hint at Richard's legendary hunched back. Shakespeare will develop Richard's deformity and its connection to his ruthlessness far more fully in 3 Henry VI and Richard III.
TLN 2931archaic vocab
“bows unto the grave with mickle age”
'Mickle' is a Scots and Northern English word meaning 'much' or 'great.' Henry is telling the aged Salisbury that he himself bows low with the weight of great age — i.e., that Salisbury is so old he is already stooping toward the grave. The word was archaic even in Shakespeare's time and adds a formal, even reproachful gravity to the king's rebuke.
TLN 2939rhetorical device
“It is great sin to swear unto a sin, But greater sin to keep a sinful oath”
Salisbury advances a moral-theological argument: an oath sworn in support of a wrong cause is itself sinful, and performing it compounds the sin rather than excusing it. He is arguing that his oath of allegiance to Henry is void because Henry is not the rightful king. The logic was genuinely debated by medieval and Renaissance theologians; it would strike first audiences as dangerously convenient for a traitor but not obviously wrong as a matter of church doctrine.
TLN 2948archaic vocab
“A subtle traitor needs no sophister”
A 'sophister' was a university student trained in formal disputation, but the word also meant someone who uses clever, slippery arguments — a sophist. Margaret is cutting through Salisbury's moral theology with contempt: a clever traitor doesn't need a paid debater to justify betrayal, because he can always invent plausible-sounding reasons himself. The line lands as the audience's common-sense corrective to Salisbury's elaborate argument.
TLN 2957archaic vocab
“write upon thy burgonet”
A 'burgonet' (or burganet) was a light open helmet with a visor, standard military headgear of the sixteenth century. Clifford is saying he will make his challenge visible by inscribing it on Warwick's very helmet — a piece of warlike bravado. Warwick then repeats the word, turning it into a vehicle for his own heraldic boast.
TLN 2959historical topical
“old Nevil's crest, The rampant bear chain'd to the ragged staff”
Warwick names his family badge: a bear standing upright (heraldic 'rampant') chained to a rough wooden staff. This was the Beauchamp badge inherited by the Neville earls of Warwick — among the most famous heraldic devices in England. By swearing on his father's crest, Warwick pledges the entire weight of his family honor to York's cause.
historical The First Battle of St Albans
TLN 2970biblical allusion
“Fie! charity, for shame! speak not in spite, For you shall sup with Jesu Christ to-night”
Richard tells Young Clifford that he will die in the coming battle and dine with Christ that very night — i.e., be in heaven by evening. The 'supper with Christ' echoes the Eucharist (the Lord's Supper) and the promise to the penitent thief in Luke 23:43 ('Today shalt thou be with me in paradise'). The mock-gentle 'charity, for shame!' makes the taunt crueler: Richard is urging charity while promising death.
TLN 2972archaic vocab
“Foul stigmatic”
A 'stigmatic' was a person visibly marked or branded — here meaning someone whose physical deformity was read as a divine or natural brand of ill-character. Young Clifford is hurling Clifford Senior's earlier insult back at young Richard, calling his hunched body proof of inner ugliness. The word anticipates Richard III, who will call himself 'deformed, unfinished' and turn his stigma into a perverse source of pride.