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140

Proclaim a pardon to the soldiers fled

That in submission will return to us;

And then, as we have ta'en the sacrament,

We will unite the white rose and the red:

Smile, heaven, upon this fair conjunction,

That long have frown'd upon their enmity!

What traitor hears me, and says not amen?

England hath long been mad, and scarr'd herself;

The brother blindly shed the brother's blood,

The father rashly slaughter'd his own son,

The son, compell'd, been butcher to the sire:

All this divided York and Lancaster,

Divided in their dire division,

O, now let Richmond and Elizabeth,

The true succeeders of each royal house,

By God's fair ordinance conjoin together;

And let their heirs—God, if thy will be so,—

Enrich the time to come with smooth-fac'd peace,

With smiling plenty, and fair prosperous days!

Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord,

That would reduce these bloody days again,

And make poor England weep in streams of blood!

Let them not live to taste this land's increase,

That would with treason wound this fair land's peace!

Now civil wounds are stopp'd, peace lives again:

That she may tong live here, God say amen!

 38, 39 Cf. n.

45 their; cf. n.

48 Abate: blunt  

