Page:Henry VI Part 2 (1923) Yale.djvu/107

King Henry the Sixth, IV. vii

Which makes me hope you are not void of pity.

I sold not Maine, I lost not Normandy;

Yet, to recover them, would lose my life.

Justice with favour have I always done;

Prayers and tears have mov'd me, gifts could never.

When have I aught exacted at your hands,

But to maintain the king, the realm, and you?

Large gifts have I bestow'd on learned clerks,

Because my book preferr'd me to the king,

And seeing ignorance is the curse of God,

Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven,

Unless you be possess'd with devilish spirits,

You cannot but forbear to murther me.

This tongue hath parley'd unto foreign kings

For your behoof,—

Cade. Tut! when struck'st thou one blow in the field?

Say. Great men have reaching hands: oft have I struck

Those that I never saw, and struck them dead.

Geo. O monstrous coward! what, to come

behind folks!

Say. These cheeks are pale for watching for your good.

Cade. Give him a box o' the ear, and that

will make 'em red again.

Say. Long sitting, to determine poor men's causes,

Hath made me full of sickness and diseases.

Cade. Ye shall have a hempen caudle then,

and the help of hatchet.

Dick. Why dost thou quiver, man?

Say. The palsy, and not fear, provokes me.

 77 book: i.e. learning

85 reaching: far-reaching

94 hempen caudle: hangman's noose

95 help of hatchet: i.e. cure by decapitation 