Thou Setter-up and Plucker-down of kings; Now, lords, take leave until we meet again, Rich. Brother, give me thy hand; — and, gentle Warwick, Let me embrace thee in my weary arms: I, that did never weep, now melt with woe That Winter should cut off our Spring-time so. War. Away, away! Once more, sweet lords, farewell. Geo. Yet let us all together to our troops, And give them leave to fly that will not stay; And call them pillars that will stand to us; And, if we thrive, promise them such rewards As victors ware 4 at the Olympian games : This may plant courage in their quailing breasts; For yet is hope of life and victory. Forslow 5 no longer, make we hence amain. SCENE IV. Another Part of the Field. Excursions. [Exeunt. Enter RICHARD and CLIFFORD. Rich. Now, Clifford, I have singled thee alone : Suppose this arm is for the Duke of York, And this for Rutland; both bound to revenge, Wert thou environ'd with a brazen wall. 3 Such was the language of the time. So in St. Matthew, vi. 10: "Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven." 4 Ware is the old preterite of wear, as bare is of bear. 5 To forslow is to delay, to loiter. So in Holland's Livy: "The consull for his part forslowed not to come to hand-fight, the onely thing he sought for in threatening to give assault." Clif. Now, Richard, I am with thee here alone : And so, have at thee ! [They fight. WARWICK enters; CLIFFORD flies. Rich. Nay, Warwick, single out some other chase;1 For I myself will hunt this wolf to death. SCENE V. Another Part of the Field. Alarums. Enter King HENRY. King. This battle fares like to the morning's war, So is the equal poise of this fell war.3 1 Chase for game; the object chased. [Exeunt. 2 This seems to have been a mode of whiling away one's time, when one could do nothing else or had nothing else to do. See vol. ii. page 156, note 17. So in Holinshed: "This deadlie conflict continued ten houres in doubtfull state of victorie, uncertainlie heaving and setting on both sides." Than doth a rich-embroider'd canopy And, to conclude, the western : tomay exrds, His wonted sleep under a fel, vera malik, All which secure and tweet Is far beyond a prince, de ele To whom God will, there be the victory! To carve out dials quaintly,5 point by point, So weeks ere the So many days my ewes have been with young; So minutes, hours, days, weeks, and months, and years, Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave. Ah, what a life were this! how sweet! how lovely! To shepherds looking on their silly sheep, 4 This speech is mournful and soft, exquisitely suited to the character of the King, and makes a pleasing interchange by affording, amidst the tumult and horror of the battle, an unexpected glimpse of rural innocence and pastoral tranquillity. — JOHNSON. 5 Quaintly is curiously, ingeniously, or artfully. |