Page 2868 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

GAUNT

Alas, the part I had in Gloster’s blood
Doth more solicit me than your exclaims
To stir against the butchers of his life.
But since correction lieth in those hands
Which made the fault that we cannot correct, [5]
Put we our quarrel to the will of heaven
Who, when they see the hours ripe on earth,
Will rain hot vengeance on offenders’ heads.

DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER

Finds brotherhood in thee no sharper spur?
Hath love in thy old blood no living fire? [10]
Edward’s seven sons, whereof thyself art one,
Were as seven vials of his sacred blood,
Or seven fair branches springing from one root.
Some of those seven are dried by nature’s course,
Some of those branches by the Destinies cut. [15]
But Thomas, my dear lord, my life, my Gloucester,
One vial full of Edward’s sacred blood,
One flourishing branch of his most royal root,
Is crack’d, and all the precious liquor spilt;
Is hack’d down, and his summer leaves all faded, [20]
By envy’s hand, and murder’s bloody axe.
Ah, Gaunt, his blood was thine! That bed, that womb,
That mettle, that self mould, that fashioned thee
Made him a man; and though thou liv’st and breath’st
Yet art thou slain in him. Thou dost consent [25]
In some large measure to thy father’s death
In that thou seest thy wretched brother die,
Who was the model of thy father’s life.
Call it not patience, Gaunt. It is despair.
In suffering thus thy brother to be slaught’red [30]
Thou showest the naked pathway to thy life,
Teaching stern murder how to butcher thee.
That which in mean men we entitle patience
Is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts.
What shall I say? To safeguard thine own life [35]
The best way is to venge my Gloucester’s death.

GAUNT