Page 601 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

Knowing how hardly I can brook abuse?
King did I call thee? No, thou art not king,
Not fit to govern and rule multitudes,
Which dar’st not, no, nor canst not rule a traitor. [95]
That head of thine doth not become a crown;
Thy hand is made to grasp a palmer’s staff
And not to grace an awful princely sceptre.
That gold must round engirt these brows of mine,
Whose smile and frown, like to Achilles’ spear, [100]
Is able with the change to kill and cure.
Here is a hand to hold a sceptre up
And with the same to act controlling laws.
Give place! By heaven, thou shalt rule no more
O’er him whom heaven created for thy ruler. [105]

SOMERSET

O monstrous traitor! I arrest thee, York,
Of capital treason ’gainst the king and crown.
Obey, audacious traitor, kneel for grace.

Y ORK

Would’st have me kneel? First let me ask of these
If they can brook I bow a knee to man. - [110]
Sirrah, call in my sons to be my bail:

[Exit an Attendant.]
I know, ere they will have me go to ward,
They’ll pawn their swords for my enfranchisement.

MARGARET

Call hither Clifford; bid him come amain
To say if that the bastard boys of York [115]
Shall be the surety for their traitor father.

[Exit Buckingham.]

Y ORK

O blood-bespotted Neapolitan,
Outcast of Naples, England’s bloody scourge!
The sons of York, thy betters in their birth,
Shall be their father’s bail; and bane to those [120]
That for my surety will refuse the boys!