Henry VI, Part 3 (Octavo 1, 1595)
Not Peer Reviewed
¶
Enter Gloster to king Henry in the Tower.
¶Tis sinne to flatter, good was little better,
¶Good Gloster, and good Diuell, were all alike,
3090Haue now the fatall obiect in mine eie,
¶Where my poore young was limde, was caught & kild.
¶Glo. Why, what a foole was that of Creete?
¶That taught his sonne the office
¶Of a birde, and yet for all that the poore
Fowle was drownde.
¶Thy father Minos that denide our course,
¶And thou the enuious gulfe that swallowed him.
3100Oh better can my brest abide thy daggers point,
¶Then can mine eares that tragike historie.
¶And if murdering innocents be executions,
¶Then I know thou art an executioner.
¶And thus I prophesie of thee.
¶That manie a Widdow for her husbands death,
¶And many an infants water standing eie,
¶Widowes for their husbands, children for their fathers,
¶Shall curse the time that euer thou wert borne.
¶The Rauen rookt her on the Chimnies top,
¶Thy mother felt more then a mothers paine,
3125To wit: an vndigest created lumpe,
¶Not like the fruit of such a goodly tree,
¶And if the rest be true that I haue heard
3130Thou camst into the world
He stabs him.
3135O God forgiue my sinnes, and pardon thee.
He dies.
¶Sinke into the ground, I had thought it would haue
mounted,
¶See how my sward weepes for the poore kings death.
¶If anie sparke of life remaine in thee,
¶
Stab him againe.
Downe, downe to hell, and saie I sent thee thither.
¶I that haue neither pittie, loue nor feare.
3145Indeed twas true that Henry told me of,
¶For I haue often heard my mother saie,
¶That I came into the world with my legs forward,
3150The women wept and the midwife cride,
3155Let hell make crookt my mind to answere it.
¶I had no father, I am like no father,
¶I haue no brothers, I am like no brothers,
And this word Loue which graybeards tearme diuine,
¶Be resident in men like one another,
¶And not in me, I am my selfe alone,
3160Clarence beware, thou keptst me from the light
¶But I will sort a pitchte daie for thee.
¶As Edward shall be fearefull of his life,
¶And then to purge his feare, Ile be thy death.
3165Henry and his sonne are gone, thou Clarence next,
¶Ile drag thy bodie in another roome.
¶And triumph Henry in thy daie of doome.
Exit.
