Page 798 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

Who can be patient in such extremes?
Ah, wretched man, would I had died a maid
And never seen thee, never borne thee son,
Seeing thou hast proved so unnatural a father! [220]
Hath he deserved to loose his birthright thus?
Hadst thou but loved him half so well as I
Or felt that pain which I did for him once
Or nourished him, as I did with my blood,
Thou wouldst have left thy dearest heart-blood there, [225]
Rather than have made that savage duke thine heir
And disinherited thine only son.

PRINCE EDWARD

Father, you cannot disinherit me:
If you be king, why should not I succeed?

KING HENRY

Pardon me, Margaret. - Pardon me, sweet son, [230]
The Earl of Warwick and the duke enforced me.

MARGARET

Enforced thee! Art thou king and wilt be forced?
I shame to hear thee speak. Ah, timorous wretch,
Thou hast undone thyself, thy son, and me,
And given unto the house of York such head [235]
As thou shalt reign but by their sufferance.
To entail him and his heirs unto the crown,
What is it but to make thy sepulchre
And creep into it far before thy time?
Warwick is chancellor and the Lord of Calais, [240]
Stern Falconbridge commands the Narrow Seas,
The duke is made Protector of the realm,
And yet shalt thou be safe? Such safety finds
The trembling lamb environèd with wolves.
Had I been there, which am a silly woman, [245]
The soldiers should have tossed me on their pikes
Before I would have granted to that act.
But thou preferr’st thy life before thine honour:
And seeing thou dost, I here divorce myself
Both from thy table, Henry, and thy bed, [250]
Until that act of parliament be repealed