Page 290 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

What the conditions of that league must be.

Y ORK

Speak, Winchester, for boiling choler chokes [120]
The hollow passage of my poisoned voice
By sight of these our baleful enemies.

WINCHEST ER

Charles and the rest, it is enacted thus:
That, in regard King Henry gives consent
Of mere compassion and of lenity, [125]
To ease your country of distressful war
And suffer you to breathe in fruitful peace,
You shall become true liegemen to his crown.
And, Charles, upon condition thou wilt swear
To pay him tribute and submit thyself, [130]
Thou shalt be placed as viceroy under him,
And still enjoy thy regal dignity.

ALENÇON

Must he be then as shadow of himself?
Adorn his temples with a coronet,
And yet, in substance and authority, [135]
Retain but privilege of a private man?
This proffer is absurd and reasonless.

CHARLES

’Tis known already that I am possessed
With more than half the Gallian territories,
And therein reverenced for their lawful king: [140]
Shall I, for lucre of the rest unvanquished,
Detract so much from that prerogative
As to be called but viceroy of the whole?
No, lord ambassador, I’ll rather keep
That which I have than, coveting for more, [145]
Be cast from possibility of all.

Y ORK

Insulting Charles, hast thou by secret means
Used intercession to obtain a league