Act 5, Scene 3

Fields near Saint Alban's.

[Alarum. Retreat. Enter YORK, RICHARD, WARWICK, and Soldiers, with drum and colours.]
Richard, Duke of York
3066 Of Salisbury, who can report of him,
3067 That winter lion, who in rage forgets
3068 Aged contusions and all brush of time
3069 And, like a gallant in the brow of youth,
3070 Repairs him with occasion? This happy day
3071 Is not itself, nor have we won one foot,
3072 If Salisbury be lost.
Richard Plantagenet
3073 My noble father,
3074 Three times to-day I holp him to his horse,
3075 Three times bestrid him; thrice I led him off,
3076 Persuaded him from any further act;
3077 But still, where danger was, still there I met him;
3078 And like rich hangings in a homely house,
3079 So was his will in his old feeble body.
3080 But, noble as he is, look where he comes.
[Enter SALISBURY.]
Earl of Salisbury
3081 Now, by my sword, well hast thou fought to-day;
3082 By the mass, so did we all.—I thank you, Richard;
3083 God knows how long it is I have to live,
3084 And it hath pleas'd him that three times to-day
3085 You have defended me from imminent death.—
3086 Well, lords, we have not got that which we have;
3087 'T is not enough our foes are this time fled,
3088 Being opposites of such repairing nature.
Richard, Duke of York
3089 I know our safety is to follow them;
3090 For, as I hear, the king is fled to London,
3091 To call a present court of parliament.
3092 Let us pursue him ere the writs go forth.—
3093 What says Lord Warwick? shall we after them?
Earl of Warwick
3094 After them! nay, before them, if we can.
3095 Now, by my hand, lords, 'twas a glorious day;
3096 Saint Alban's battle won by famous York
3097 Shall be eterniz'd in all age to come.—
3098 Sound drums and trumpets!—and to London all;
3099 And more such days as these to us befall!
[Exeunt.]

Notes

TLN 3067rhetorical device

“winter lion, who in rage forgets”

York calls the elderly Salisbury a 'winter lion' — a man in the winter of his life who, in the heat of battle, forgets the bruises and wearing of old age ('aged contusions and all brush of time') and fights with a young man's fury. The image fuses the lion's traditional ferocity with the paradox of an old fighter animated by rage.

TLN 3074archaic vocab

“I holp him to his horse, / Three times bestrid him”

'Holp' is an archaic past tense of 'help.' 'Bestrid him' means Richard stood over the fallen Salisbury, straddling his body, to protect him from being killed or taken — a recognized act of chivalric courage on the battlefield: a soldier who 'bestrode' a fallen comrade refused to leave him to the enemy.

TLN 3086rhetorical device

“we have not got that which we have”

Salisbury's paradox means: we have not truly secured what we seem to have won. Winning a battle is not enough when the enemy — 'of such repairing nature' (able to regroup and recover) — is still in the field. The self-contradicting phrase is deliberate, jarring the victors out of premature celebration.

TLN 3091historical topical

“call a present court of parliament. / Let us pursue him ere the writs go forth”

A 'writ' was the royal legal summons that formally convened a parliament; once issued, members were bound to appear and the session had legal force. York's urgency is political: if Henry reaches London and gets the writs out before the Yorkists arrive, he can use parliament to put the realm legally back under Lancaster's control. The race to London is as much a race to control the law as it is a military pursuit.

historical The First Battle of St Albans