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The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 5 of 9] cover

The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 5 of 9]

Chapter 229: feb SCENE II. The camp near Tamworth.
By William Shakespeare
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About This Book

The volume presents a connected sequence of historical dramas that dramatize the disintegration of centralized power and the violent struggle among rival claimants for the crown. Through scenes of political intrigue, popular unrest, pitched battles, and calculated betrayals, it shows how shifting alliances and personal ambition accelerate dynastic collapse and reshape leadership. The plays interweave public spectacle with intimate moments of downfall and remorse, exploring themes of legitimacy, governance, and the human cost of civil war. Scholarly apparatus accompanies the texts, offering prefatory and editorial commentary, variant readings, and notes on publication history.

feb SCENE II. The camp near Tamworth.

Enter RICHMOND, OXFORD, BLUNT, HERBERT, and others, with drum and colours.
♦ Richm. Fellows in arms, and my most loving friends,
Bruised underneath the yoke of tyranny,
Thus far into the bowels of the land
Have we march’d on without impediment;
5 And here receive we from our father Stanley
Lines of fair comfort and encouragement.
♦ The wretched, bloody, and usurping boar,
♦ That spoil’d your summer fields and fruitful vines,
♦ Swills your warm blood like wash, and makes his trough
10 In your embowell’d bosoms, this foul swine
♦ Lies now even in the centre of this isle,
Near to the town of Leicester, as we learn:
From Tamworth thither is but one day’s march.
♦ In God’s name, cheerly on, courageous friends,
15 To reap the harvest of perpetual peace
By this one bloody trial of sharp war.
♦ Oxf. Every man’s conscience is a thousand swords,
♦ To fight against that bloody homicide.
♦ Herb. I doubt not but his friends will fly to us.
20 Blunt. He hath no friends but who are friends for fear,
♦ Which in his greatest need will shrink from him.
♦ Richm. All for our vantage. Then, in God’s name, march:
True hope is swift, and flies with swallow’s wings;
♦ Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings. [Exeunt.