Page 818 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

RICHARD

’Twas odds belike when valiant Warwick fled:
Oft have I heard his praises in pursuit,
But ne’er till now his scandal of retire. [150]

WARWICK

Nor now my scandal, Richard, dost thou hear:
For thou shalt know this strong right hand of mine
Can pluck the diadem from faint Henry’s head
And wring the awful sceptre from his fist,
Were he as famous and as bold in war [155]
As he is famed for mildness, peace, and prayer.

RICHARD

I know it well, Lord Warwick; blame me not:
’Tis love I bear thy glories makes me speak.
But in this troublous time what’s to be done?
Shall we go throw away our coats of steel [160]
And wrap our bodies in black mourning gowns,
Numb’ring our Ave-Maries with our beads?
Or shall we on the helmets of our foes
Tell our devotion with revengeful arms?
If for the last, say ay, and to it, lords. [165]

WARWICK

Why, therefore Warwick came to seek you out
And therefore comes my brother Montague. -
Attend me, lords: the proud insulting queen
With Clifford and the haught Northumberland
And of their feather many more proud birds [170]
Have wrought the easy-melting king like wax.
He swore consent to your succession,
His oath enrollèd in the parliament;
And now to London all the crew are gone
To frustrate both his oath and what beside [175]
May make against the house of Lancaster.
Their power, I think, is thirty thousand strong:
Now if the help of Norfolk and myself
With all the friends that thou, brave Earl of March,
Amongst the loving Welshmen canst procure, [180]
Will but amount to five and twenty thousand,