Act II, Scene 4

London. The Temple-garden.

[Enter the Earls of SOMERSET, SUFFOLK, and WARWICK;] [p]RICHARD PLANTAGENET, VERNON, and another Lawyer]

• Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester). Great lords and gentlemen, what means this silence? 920
  Dare no man answer in a case of truth?

• Earl of Suffolk. Within the Temple-hall we were too loud;
  The garden here is more convenient.

• Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester). Then say at once if I maintain'd the truth; 925
  Or else was wrangling Somerset in the error?

• Earl of Suffolk. Faith, I have been a truant in the law,
  And never yet could frame my will to it;
  And therefore frame the law unto my will.

• Duke/Earl of Somerset. Judge you, my Lord of Warwick, then, between us. 930

• Earl of Warwick. Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch;
  Between two dogs, which hath the deeper mouth;
  Between two blades, which bears the better temper:
  Between two horses, which doth bear him best;
  Between two girls, which hath the merriest eye; 935
  I have perhaps some shallow spirit of judgement;
  But in these nice sharp quillets of the law,
  Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw.

• Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester). Tut, tut, here is a mannerly forbearance: 940
  The truth appears so naked on my side
  That any purblind eye may find it out.

• Duke/Earl of Somerset. And on my side it is so well apparell'd,
  So clear, so shining and so evident
  That it will glimmer through a blind man's eye. 945

• Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester). Since you are tongue-tied and so loath to speak,
  In dumb significants proclaim your thoughts:
  Let him that is a true-born gentleman
  And stands upon the honour of his birth, 950
  If he suppose that I have pleaded truth,
  From off this brier pluck a white rose with me.

• Duke/Earl of Somerset. Let him that is no coward nor no flatterer,
  But dare maintain the party of the truth,
  Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me. 955

• Earl of Warwick. I love no colours, and without all colour
  Of base insinuating flattery
  I pluck this white rose with Plantagenet.

• Earl of Suffolk. I pluck this red rose with young Somerset
  And say withal I think he held the right. 960

• Vernon. Stay, lords and gentlemen, and pluck no more,
  Till you conclude that he upon whose side
  The fewest roses are cropp'd from the tree
  Shall yield the other in the right opinion.

• Duke/Earl of Somerset. Good Master Vernon, it is well objected: 965
  If I have fewest, I subscribe in silence.

• Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester). And I.

• Vernon. Then for the truth and plainness of the case.
  I pluck this pale and maiden blossom here, 970
  Giving my verdict on the white rose side.

• Duke/Earl of Somerset. Prick not your finger as you pluck it off,
  Lest bleeding you do paint the white rose red
  And fall on my side so, against your will.

• Vernon. If I my lord, for my opinion bleed, 975
  Opinion shall be surgeon to my hurt
  And keep me on the side where still I am.

• Duke/Earl of Somerset. Well, well, come on: who else?

• Lawyer. Unless my study and my books be false,
  The argument you held was wrong in you: 980
  [To SOMERSET]
  In sign whereof I pluck a white rose too.

• Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester). Now, Somerset, where is your argument?

• Duke/Earl of Somerset. Here in my scabbard, meditating that 985
  Shall dye your white rose in a bloody red.

• Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester). Meantime your cheeks do counterfeit our roses;
  For pale they look with fear, as witnessing
  The truth on our side. 990

• Duke/Earl of Somerset. No, Plantagenet,
  'Tis not for fear but anger that thy cheeks
  Blush for pure shame to counterfeit our roses,
  And yet thy tongue will not confess thy error.

• Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester). Hath not thy rose a canker, Somerset?

• Duke/Earl of Somerset. Hath not thy rose a thorn, Plantagenet?

• Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester). Ay, sharp and piercing, to maintain his truth;
  Whiles thy consuming canker eats his falsehood. 1000

• Duke/Earl of Somerset. Well, I'll find friends to wear my bleeding roses,
  That shall maintain what I have said is true,
  Where false Plantagenet dare not be seen.

• Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester). Now, by this maiden blossom in my hand, 1005
  I scorn thee and thy fashion, peevish boy.

• Earl of Suffolk. Turn not thy scorns this way, Plantagenet.

• Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester). Proud Pole, I will, and scorn both him and thee.

• Earl of Suffolk. I'll turn my part thereof into thy throat. 1010

• Duke/Earl of Somerset. Away, away, good William de la Pole!
  We grace the yeoman by conversing with him.

• Earl of Warwick. Now, by God's will, thou wrong'st him, Somerset;
  His grandfather was Lionel Duke of Clarence,
  Third son to the third Edward King of England: 1015
  Spring crestless yeomen from so deep a root?

• Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester). He bears him on the place's privilege,
  Or durst not, for his craven heart, say thus.

• Duke/Earl of Somerset. By him that made me, I'll maintain my words 1020
  On any plot of ground in Christendom.
  Was not thy father, Richard Earl of Cambridge,
  For treason executed in our late king's days?
  And, by his treason, stand'st not thou attainted,
  Corrupted, and exempt from ancient gentry? 1025
  His trespass yet lives guilty in thy blood;
  And, till thou be restored, thou art a yeoman.

• Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester). My father was attached, not attainted,
  Condemn'd to die for treason, but no traitor; 1030
  And that I'll prove on better men than Somerset,
  Were growing time once ripen'd to my will.
  For your partaker Pole and you yourself,
  I'll note you in my book of memory,
  To scourge you for this apprehension: 1035
  Look to it well and say you are well warn'd.

• Duke/Earl of Somerset. Ah, thou shalt find us ready for thee still;
  And know us by these colours for thy foes,
  For these my friends in spite of thee shall wear.

• Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester). And, by my soul, this pale and angry rose,
  As cognizance of my blood-drinking hate,
  Will I for ever and my faction wear,
  Until it wither with me to my grave
  Or flourish to the height of my degree. 1045

• Earl of Suffolk. Go forward and be choked with thy ambition!
  And so farewell until I meet thee next.

[Exit]

• Duke/Earl of Somerset. Have with thee, Pole. Farewell, ambitious Richard.

[Exit]

• Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester). How I am braved and must perforce endure it!

• Earl of Warwick. This blot that they object against your house
  Shall be wiped out in the next parliament
  Call'd for the truce of Winchester and Gloucester; 1055
  And if thou be not then created York,
  I will not live to be accounted Warwick.
  Meantime, in signal of my love to thee,
  Against proud Somerset and William Pole,
  Will I upon thy party wear this rose: 1060
  And here I prophesy: this brawl to-day,
  Grown to this faction in the Temple-garden,
  Shall send between the red rose and the white
  A thousand souls to death and deadly night.

• Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester). Good Master Vernon, I am bound to you,
  That you on my behalf would pluck a flower.

• Vernon. In your behalf still will I wear the same.

• Lawyer. And so will I.

• Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester). Thanks, gentle sir.
  Come, let us four to dinner: I dare say
  This quarrel will drink blood another day.

[Exeunt]