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Wasted our country, slain our citizens,

And sent our sons and husbands captivate.

TALBOT.

Ha, ha, ha!

COUNTESS.

Laughest thou, wretch? Thy mirth shall turn to moan.

TALBOT.

I laugh to see your ladyship so fond

To think that you have aught but Talbot's shadow

Whereon to practice your severity.

COUNTESS.

Why, art not thou the man?

TALBOT.

I am indeed.

COUNTESS.

Then have I substance too.

TALBOT.

No, no, I am but shadow of myself:

You are deceived, my substance is not here;

For what you see is but the smallest part

And least proportion of humanity:

I tell you, madam, were the whole frame here,

It is of such a spacious lofty pitch,

Your roof were not sufficient to contain 't.

COUNTESS.

This is a riddling merchant for the nonce;

He will be here, and yet he is not here:

How can these contrarieties agree?

TALBOT.

That will I show you presently.

[Winds his horn. Drums strike up: a peal of ordnance. Enter

Soldiers.]

How say you, madam? are you now persuaded

That Talbot is but shadow of himself?

These are his substance, sinews, arms and strength,

With which he yoketh your rebellious necks,

Razeth your cities and subverts your towns,

And in a moment makes them desolate.

COUNTESS.

Victorious Talbot! pardon my abuse:

I find thou art no less than fame hath bruited,

And more than may be gather'd by thy shape.

Let my presumption not provoke thy wrath;

For I am sorry that with reverence

I did not entertain thee as thou art.

TALBOT.

Be not dismay'd, fair lady; nor misconstrue

The mind of Talbot, as you did mistake

The outward composition of his body.

What you have done hath not offended me;

Nor other satisfaction do I crave,

But only, with your patience, that we may

Taste of your wine and see what cates you have;

For soldiers' stomachs always serve them well.

COUNTESS.

With all my heart, and think me honored

To feast so great a warrior in my house.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE IV. London. The Temple-garden.

[Enter the Earls of Somerset, Suffolk, and Warwick;

Richard Plantagenet, Vernon, and another Lawyer.]

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 maintain'd the truth;

Or else was wrangling Somerset in the 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.

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;

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

That any purblind eye may find it out.

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.

PLANTAGENET.

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 honor of his birth,

If he suppose that I have pleaded truth,

From off this brier pluck a white rose with me.

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.

WARWICK.

I love no colours, and without all colour

Of base insinuating flattery

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

The fewest roses are cropp'd from the tree