3 KING HENRY VI, Act 5 Scene 6 The Third part of King Henry the Sixth  Shakespeare homepage  |  Henry VI, part 3  | Act 5, Scene 6 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE VI. London. The Tower. 

 Enter KING HENRY VI and GLOUCESTER, with the	Lieutenant, on the walls 

 GLOUCESTER  Good  day, my lord. What, at your  book  so hard? 



 KING HENRY VI  Ay, my good lord:--my lord, I should say rather; 

 'Tis sin to flatter; 'good' was  little  better: 

 'Good Gloucester' and 'good devil' were alike, 

 And  both preposterous; therefore, not 'good lord.' 





 GLOUCESTER  Sirrah, leave us to ourselves: we must confer. 

 Exit Lieutenant 

 KING HENRY VI  So  flies the reckless shepherd from the wolf; 

 So  first the harmless sheep doth  yield  his fleece 

 And  next  his throat unto the butcher's knife. 

 What  scene of death hath Roscius now to act? 





 GLOUCESTER  Suspicion  always haunts the guilty mind; 

 The  thief doth fear each bush an officer. 





 KING HENRY VI  The  bird that hath been limed in a bush, 

 With  trembling wings misdoubteth every bush; 

 And  I, the hapless male to one sweet bird, 

 Have  now the fatal object in my  eye 

 Where  my poor young was limed, was caught and kill'd. 





 GLOUCESTER  Why, what a peevish fool was that of Crete, 

 That  taught his son the  office  of a fowl! 

 An  yet, for all his wings, the fool was drown'd. 





 KING HENRY VI  I, Daedalus; my poor boy, Icarus; 

 Thy  father, Minos, that denied our course; 

 The  sun that  sear  'd the wings of my sweet boy 

 Thy  brother Edward, and thyself the sea 

 Whose  envious  gulf  did swallow up his life. 

 Ah, kill me with thy weapon, not with words! 

 My  breast  can better brook thy dagger's  point 

 Than  can my ears that tragic history. 

 But  wherefore dost thou come? is't for my life? 





 GLOUCESTER  Think'st  thou I am an executioner? 



 KING HENRY VI  A  persecutor, I am sure, thou art: 

 If  murdering innocents be executing, 

 Why, then thou art an executioner. 





 GLOUCESTER  Thy  son I kill'd for his presumption. 



 KING HENRY VI  Hadst  thou been kill'd when first thou didst presume, 

 Thou  hadst not lived to kill a son of mine. 

 And  thus I prophesy, that many a thousand, 

 Which  now mistrust no parcel of my fear, 

 And  many an old man's sigh and many a  widow  's, 

 And  many an orphan's water-standing eye-- 

 Men  for their sons, wives for their husbands, 

 And  orphans for their parents  timeless  death-- 

 Shall  rue the hour that ever thou wast born. 

 The  owl shriek'd at thy birth,--an evil  sign  ; 

 The  night-crow cried, aboding luckless time; 

 Dogs  howl'd, and hideous tempest shook down trees; 

 The  raven  rook  'd her on the chimney's top, 

 And  chattering pies in dismal discords sung. 

 Thy  mother felt more than a mother's pain, 

 And, yet brought forth less than a mother's hope, 

 To  wit  , an indigested and deformed lump, 

 Not  like the fruit of such a goodly tree. 

 Teeth  hadst thou in thy head when thou wast born, 

 To  signify thou camest to bite the world: 

 And, if the rest be true which I have heard, 

 Thou  camest-- 





 GLOUCESTER  I'll  hear no more: die, prophet in thy speech: 

 Stabs him  For  this amongst the rest, was I ordain'd. 





 KING HENRY VI  Ay, and for much more slaughter after this. 

 God  forgive my sins, and pardon thee! 



 Dies 

 GLOUCESTER  What, will the aspiring blood of Lancaster 

 Sink  in the ground? I  thought  it would have mounted. 

 See  how my sword weeps for the poor king's death! 

 O, may such purple tears be alway shed 

 From  those that  wish  the downfall of our house! 

 If  any spark of life be yet remaining, 

 Down, down to hell; and say I sent thee thither: 



 Stabs him again  I, that have neither pity, love, nor fear. 

 Indeed, 'tis true that Henry told me of; 

 For  I have often heard my mother say 

 I  came into the world with my legs forward: 

 Had  I not reason, think ye, to make haste, 

 And  seek their ruin that usurp'd our right? 

 The  midwife wonder'd and the women cried 

 'O, Jesus bless us, he is born with teeth!' 

 And  so I was; which plainly signified 

 That  I should snarl and bite and play the dog. 

 Then, since the heavens have shaped my body so, 

 Let  hell make crook'd my mind to  answer  it. 

 I  have no brother, I am like no brother; 

 And  this word 'love,' which graybeards call divine, 

 Be  resident in men like one another 

 And  not in me: I am myself alone. 

 Clarence, beware; thou  keep  'st me from the  light  : 

 But  I will  sort  a pitchy day for thee; 

 For  I will buz  abroad  such prophecies 

 That  Edward shall be  fearful  of his life, 

 And  then, to purge his fear, I'll be thy death. 

 King  Henry and the prince his son are gone: 

 Clarence, thy  turn  is  next  , and then the rest, 

 Counting  myself but bad till I be best. 

 I'll  throw thy body in another room 

 And  triumph, Henry, in thy day of doom. 



 Exit, with the body  Shakespeare homepage  |  Henry VI, part 3  | Act 5, Scene 6 

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