Original Text |
Translated Text |
| Source: Folger Shakespeare Library |
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Enter Richard Plantagenet, Warwick, Somerset,
William de la Pole the Earl of Suffolk,
Vernon, a Lawyer, and Others. PLANTAGENET
Great lords and gentlemen, what means this silence?
Dare no man answer in a case of truth? SUFFOLK
Within the Temple Hall we were too loud;
The garden here is more convenient. PLANTAGENET
Then say at once if I maintained the truth, 5
Or else was wrangling Somerset in th’ error? 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. SOMERSET
Judge you, my Lord of Warwick, then, between us. 10 | This scene starts off with a quarrel: Richard Plantagenet is having some sort of fight with Somerset. Interestingly, we never find out what the fight was actually about, but it spirals out of control pretty fast. They already had to take it outside, as Suffolk says. Somerset decides that Warwick should arbitrate. |
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, 15
I have perhaps some shallow spirit of judgment;
But in these nice sharp quillets of the law,
Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw. PLANTAGENET
Tut, tut, here is a mannerly forbearance!
The truth appears so naked on my side 20
That any purblind eye may find it out. SOMERSET
And on my side it is so well appareled,
So clear, so shining, and so evident,
That it will glimmer through a blind man’s eye. | Warwick declines in a tactful and eloquent speech, though, so Richard says he himself is obviously right, as anyone could see. Somerset says the same. You can almost hear them shouting, "Is not, is too!" |
PLANTAGENET
Since you are tongue-tied and so loath to speak, 25
In dumb significants proclaim your thoughts:
Let him that is a trueborn gentleman
And stands upon the honor of his birth,
If he suppose that I have pleaded truth,
From off this brier pluck a white rose with me. 30 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. | Various people take sides, but the scene really gets interesting when everyone starts plucking roses. Wait, roses? Have we suddenly gone all Hallmark card? Nope. Here's the deal: Richard Plantagenet's family, known as the House of York, is symbolized by a white rose. The House of Lancaster is symbolized by a red rose. Later, a war will officially start between the two houses over the crown, and this will be the start of the Wars of the Roses, a turbulent period of civil war in English history. So this scene is ominous. Maybe storm clouds would be more appropriate than roses. Richard asks his followers to pluck a white rose. Somerset asks his followers to pluck a red rose. |
WARWICK
I love no colors; and, without all color
Of base insinuating flattery, 35
I pluck this white rose with Plantagenet. SUFFOLK
I pluck this red rose with young Somerset,
And say withal I think he held the right. VERNON
Stay, lords and gentlemen, and pluck no more
Till you conclude that he upon whose side 40
The fewest roses are croppèd from the tree
Shall yield the other in the right opinion. SOMERSET
Good Master Vernon, it is well objected:
If I have fewest, I subscribe in silence. PLANTAGENET And I. 45 | Warwick now does take sides with Richard, choosing a white rose. Suffolk sides with Somerset, choosing a red rose. Vernon's all hold up and points out that they should agree that whoever gets the most roses wins. Somerset and Richard agree. |
VERNON
Then for the truth and plainness of the case,
I pluck this pale and maiden blossom here,
Giving my verdict on the white rose side. SOMERSET
Prick not your finger as you pluck it off,
Lest, bleeding, you do paint the white rose red, 50
And fall on my side so against your will. VERNON
If I, my lord, for my opinion bleed,
Opinion shall be surgeon to my hurt
And keep me on the side where still I am. SOMERSET Well, well, come on, who else? 55 LAWYER
Unless my study and my books be false,
The argument you held was wrong in law,
In sign whereof I pluck a white rose too. PLANTAGENET
Now, Somerset, where is your argument? | Final count: Somerset: 1 rose, Richard: 3 roses. Richard kind of rubs it in. |
SOMERSET
Here in my scabbard, meditating that 60
Shall dye your white rose in a bloody red. PLANTAGENET
Meantime your cheeks do counterfeit our roses,
For pale they look with fear, as witnessing
The truth on our side. SOMERSET No, Plantagenet. 65
’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. PLANTAGENET
Hath not thy rose a canker, Somerset? SOMERSET
Hath not thy rose a thorn, Plantagenet? 70 PLANTAGENET
Ay, sharp and piercing, to maintain his truth,
Whiles thy consuming canker eats his falsehood. 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. 75 PLANTAGENET
Now, by this maiden blossom in my hand,
I scorn thee and thy fashion, peevish boy. SUFFOLK
Turn not thy scorns this way, Plantagenet. PLANTAGENET
Proud Pole, I will, and scorn both him and thee. SUFFOLK
I’ll turn my part thereof into thy throat. 80 SOMERSET
Away, away, good William de la Pole!
We grace the yeoman by conversing with him. | They keep arguing, and Somerset insults Richard by calling him a
"yeoman" (2.4.82), a much lower rank than his family actually holds. |
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. 85
Spring crestless yeomen from so deep a root? PLANTAGENET
He bears him on the place’s privilege,
Or durst not for his craven heart say thus. SOMERSET
By Him that made me, I’ll maintain my words
On any plot of ground in Christendom. 90
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?
His trespass yet lives guilty in thy blood, 95
And, till thou be restored, thou art a yeoman. | Warwick points out that Richard's grandfather was a Duke, and not only that, but also the third son of a king. Somerset says basically "So what? Richard's father was executed for treason. Doesn't that disqualify Richard from being a nobleman?" (It's true. You could be kicked out of the aristocracy if your father was convicted of treason.) |
PLANTAGENET
My father was attachèd, not attainted,
Condemned to die for treason, but no traitor;
And that I’ll prove on better men than Somerset,
Were growing time once ripened to my will. 100
For your partaker Pole and you yourself,
I’ll note you in my book of memory
To scourge you for this apprehension.
Look to it well, and say you are well warned. SOMERSET
Ah, thou shalt find us ready for thee still, 105
And know us by these colors for thy foes,
For these my friends in spite of thee shall wear. PLANTAGENET
And, by my soul, this pale and angry rose,
As cognizance of my blood-drinking hate,
Will I forever, and my faction, wear 110
Until it wither with me to my grave
Or flourish to the height of my degree. SUFFOLK
Go forward, and be choked with thy ambition!
And so farewell, until I meet thee next. He exits. SOMERSET
Have with thee, Pole.—Farewell, ambitious Richard. 115
He exits. | Richard says his father may have been executed for treason, but he wasn't actually a traitor. He says he won't forget these insults. The quarrelers part on bad terms, and Warwick says that Richard will be restored to the aristocracy at the next parliament, where he will be named the Duke of York. Warwick also says he'll keep wearing the white rose as a sign of support for Richard, a bit like wearing a campaign pin during an election. |
PLANTAGENET
How I am braved, and must perforce endure it! WARWICK
This blot that they object against your house
Shall be whipped out in the next parliament,
Called for the truce of Winchester and Gloucester;
And if thou be not then created York, 120
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.
And here I prophesy: this brawl today, 125
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. | Warwick makes an ominous prophecy: Today's argument will bring about many deaths. This is a hint at the Wars of the Roses, guys. |
PLANTAGENET
Good Master Vernon, I am bound to you,
That you on my behalf would pluck a flower. 130 VERNON
In your behalf still will I wear the same. LAWYER
And so will I. PLANTAGENET Thanks, gentle sir.
Come, let us four to dinner. I dare say
This quarrel will drink blood another day. 135
They exit. | Richard thanks the other guys who sided with him, and they all head off to dinner. (There's a lot of going to dinner in this play. Maybe Shakespeare and Co. were hungry when they wrote it.) |