Plan.
Great lords and gentlemen, what means this silence?
Dare no man answer in a case of truth?

Suf.
Within the Temple hall we were too loud,
The garden here is more convenient.

Plan.
Then say at once if I maintain'd the truth:
Or else was wrangling Somerset in th' error?

Suf.
Faith I have been a truant in the law,

I never yet could frame my will to it,
And therefore frame the law unto my will.

Som.
Judge you, my lord of Warwick, then between us.

War.
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.

Plan.
Tut, tut, here is a mannerly forbearance:
The truth appears so naked on my side,
That any pur-blind eye may find it out.

Som.
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.

Plan.
Since you are tongue-ty'd, and so loth to speak,
In dumb significance proclaim your thoughts:
Let him that is a true-born gentleman
And stands upon the honour of his birth,
If he suppose that I have pleaded truth,
From off this briar pluck a white rose with me.

Som.
Let him that is no coward, and no flatterer,
But dare maintain the party of the truth,
Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me.

War.
I love no colours; and without all colour
Of base insinuating flattery,
I pluck this white rose with Plantagenet.

Suf.
I pluck this red rose with young Somerset,
And say withal I think he held the right.

Ver.
Stay, lords and gentlemen, and pluck no more,
'Till you conclude that he upon whose side

The fewest roses are crop'd from the tree,
Shall yield the other in the right opinion.

Som.
Good master Vernon, it is well objected;
If I have fewest, I subscribe in silence.

Plan.
And I.

Ver.
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.* ^note

Som.
Well, well, come on, who else?

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

Plan.
Now Somerset, where is your argument?

Som.
Here in my scabbard, meditating that
Shall dye your white rose to a bloody red.* ^note

Plan.
Now by this maiden blossom in my hand,

I scorn thee and thy ^{a note}passion, peevish boy.

Suf.
Turn not thy scorns this way, Plantagenet.

Plan.
Proud Pool, I will and scorn both him and thee.

Suf.
I'll turn my part thereof into thy throat.

Som.
Away, away, good William de la Pool;
We grace the Yeoman by conversing with him.

War.
Now by God's will thou wrong'st him, Somerset.
His grandfather was Lyonel Duke of Clarence,
Third son to the third Edward king of England:
Spring crestless Yeomen from so deep a root?

Plan.
He bears him on the place's privilege,
Or durst not for his craven heart say thus.

Som.
By him that made me, I'll maintain my words
On any plot of ground in Christendom.
Was not thy father, Richard, Earl of Cambridge,
For treason headed 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,
And 'till thou be restor'd, thou art a yeoman.

Plan.
My father was attached, not attainted,
Condemn'd to die for treason, but no traitor;
And that I'll prove on better men than Somerset,
Were growing time once ripen'd to my will.
For your partaker Pool, and you your self,
I'll note you in my book of memory,
To scourge you for this apprehension;
Look to it well, and say you are well warn'd.

Som.
Ah, thou shalt find us ready for thee still;
And know us by these colours for thy foes:
For these my friends in spight of thee shall wear.

Plan.
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.

Suf.
Go forward, and be choak'd with thy ambition:
And so farewel until I meet thee next. [Exit.

Som.
Have with thee, Pool: farewel, ambitious Richard. [Exit.

Plan.
How I am brav'd, and must perforce endure it!

War.
This blot that they object against your house,
Shall be wip'd out in the next parliament,
Call'd for the truce of Winchester and Gloucester:
And if thou be not then created York,
I will not live to be accounted Warwick.
Mean time in signal of my love to thee,
Against proud Somerset and William Pool,
Will I upon thy party wear this rose.
And here I prophesie; 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.* ^note

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