Page:Henry VI Part 2 (1923) Yale.djvu/127

King Henry the Sixth, V. ii

Whom angry heavens do make their minister,

Throw in the frozen bosoms of our part

Hot coals of vengeance! Let no soldier fly:

He that is truly dedicate to war

Hath no self-love; nor he that loves himself

Hath not essentially, but by circumstance,

The name of valour.

O, let the vile world end,

And the premised flames of the last day

Knit heaven and earth together;

Now let the general trumpet blow his blast,

Particularities and petty sounds

To cease!—Wast thou ordain'd, dear father,

To lose thy youth in peace, and to achieve

The silver livery of advised age,

And in thy reverence and thy chair-days thus

To die in ruffian battle? Even at this sight

My heart is turn'd to stone: and while 'tis mine

It shall be stony. York not our old men spares;

No more will I their babes: tears virginal

Shall be to me even as the dew to fire;

And beauty, that the tyrant oft reclaims,

Shall to my flaming wrath be oil and flax.

Henceforth I will not have to do with pity:

Meet I an infant of the house of York,

Into as many gobbets will I cut it

As wild Medea young Absyrtus did:

In cruelty will I seek out my fame.

 35 part: party, side

39 not circumstance: not really but through accident

41 premised: sent before their time (?), foreordained (?)

44 Particularities: individual affairs

45 cease: put an end to

47 advised: experienced, cautious

48 reverence: state of dignity

chair-days: time of repose

53 as fire: i.e. shall make the flame hotter

54 that reclaims: which often subdues ferocity

59 Medea Absyrtus; cf. n. 