Page 900 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

Flourish. March. Enter the Queen [Margaret], young [Prince] Edward,
Somerset, Oxford [with Drum and Soldiers].

MARGARET

Great lords, wise men ne’er sit and wail their loss
But cheerly seek how to redress their harms.
What though the mast be now blown overboard,
The cable broke, the holding anchor lost,
And half our sailors swallowed in the flood - [5]
Yet lives our pilot still. Is’t meet that he
Should leave the helm and, like a fearful lad,
With tearful eyes add water to the sea
And give more strength to that which hath too much,
Whiles, in his moan, the ship splits on the rock, [10]
Which industry and courage might have saved?
Ah, what a shame; ah, what a fault were this!
Say Warwick was our anchor, what of that?
And Montague our top-mast, what of him?
Our slaughtered friends the tackles, what of these? [15]
Why, is not Oxford another anchor,
And Somerset another goodly mast,
The friends of France our shrouds and tacklings?
And, though unskilful, why not Ned and I
For once allowed the skilful pilot’s charge? [20]
We will not from the helm to sit and weep
But keep our course, though the rough wind say no,
From shelves and rocks that threaten us with wrack.
As good to chide the waves as speak them fair.
And what is Edward, but a ruthless sea, [25]
What Clarence but a quicksand of deceit,
And Richard, but a ragged fatal rock?
All these the enemies to our poor bark.
Say you can swim: alas, ’tis but awhile;
Tread on the sand; why, there you quickly sink; [30]
Bestride the rock: the tide will wash you off,
Or else you famish - that’s a three-fold death.
This speak I, lords, to let you understand,
If case some one of you would fly from us,
That there’s no hoped-for mercy with the brothers [35]
More than with ruthless waves, with sands, and rocks.
Why, courage then! What cannot be avoided