Page 835 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

A loud alarum. Enter Clifford wounded [, with an arrow in his neck].

CLIFFORD

Here burns my candle out; ay, here it dies,
Which, whiles it lasted, gave King Henry light.
O Lancaster, I fear thy overthrow
More than my body’s parting with my soul!
My love and fear glued many friends to thee [5]
And now I fall, thy tough commixtures melts,
Impairing Henry, strength’ning misproud York.
The common people swarm like summer flies;
And whither fly the gnats but to the sun?
And who shines now but Henry’s enemies? [10]
O Phoebus, hadst thou never given consent
That Phaëthon should check thy fiery steeds,
Thy burning car never had scorched the earth!
And, Henry, hadst thou swayed as kings should do
Or as thy father and his father did, [15]
Giving no ground unto the house of York,
They never then had sprung like summer flies;
I and ten thousand in this luckless realm
Had left no mourning widows for our death,
And thou this day hadst kept thy chair in peace. [20]
For what doth cherish weeds but gentle air,
And what makes robbers bold but too much lenity?
Bootless are plaints and cureless are my wounds;
No way to fly nor strength to hold out flight;
The foe is merciless and will not pity, [25]
For at their hands I have deserved no pity.
The air hath got into my deadly wounds
And much effuse of blood doth make me faint.
Come, York and Richard, Warwick and the rest:
I stabbed your father’s bosoms - split my breast. [30]

[He faints.] Alarum and retreat. Enter Edward [now Duke of York],
Warwick, Richard, and Soldiers, Montague, [and George].

EDWARD

Now breathe we, lords: good fortune bids us pause
And smooth the frowns of war with peaceful looks.
Some troops pursue the bloody-minded queen