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  • Title: Henry VI, Part 3 (Octavo 1, 1595)

  • Copyright Internet Shakespeare Editions. This text may be freely used for educational, non-proift purposes; for all other uses contact the Coordinating Editor.
    Author: William Shakespeare
    Not Peer Reviewed

    Henry VI, Part 3 (Octavo 1, 1595)

    Yorke, and Henrie the Sixt.
    Come bloudie Clifford, rough Northumberland,
    I dare your quenchlesse furie to more bloud:
    This is the But, and this abides your shot.
    490Northum. Yeeld to our mercies proud Plantagenet.
    Clif. I, to such mercie as his ruthfull arme
    With downe right paiment lent vnto my father,
    Now Phaeton hath tumbled from his carre,
    And made an euening at the noone tide pricke.
    495York. My ashes like the Phoenix maie bring forth
    A bird that will reuenge it on you all,
    And in that hope I cast mine eies to heauen,
    Skorning what ere you can afflict me with:
    Why staie you Lords? what, multitudes and feare?
    500Clif. So cowards fight when they can flie no longer:
    So Doues doe pecke the Rauens piersing tallents:
    So desperate theeues all hopelesse of their liues,
    Breath out inuectiues gainst the officers.
    York. Oh Clifford, yet bethinke thee once againe,
    505And in thy minde orerun my former time:
    And bite thy toung that slaunderst him with cowardise,
    Whose verie looke hath made thee quake ere this.
    Clif. I will not bandie with thee word for word,
    510But buckle with thee blowes twise two for one.
    Queene. Hold valiant Clifford for a thousand causes,
    I would prolong the traitors life a while.
    Wrath makes him death, speake thou Northumberland.
    Nor. Hold Clifford, doe not honour him so much,
    515To pricke thy finger though to wound his hart:
    What valure were it when a curre doth grin,
    For one to thrust his hand betweene his teeth,
    When he might spurne him with his foote awaie?
    B