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Summary
Warwick is joined on the battlefield by Edward, then George and Richard. They are losing the battle. Richard tells Warwick about his half brother’s death, and Warwick, enraged, swears he will have revenge. He vows not to rest until their side wins. Edward joins him in the vow, and the brothers and Warwick head back into fray.
Richard chases after Clifford, wanting revenge for the death of his father and brother. The two fight, but then Warwick comes to help Richard, and Clifford flees. Richard asks Warwick to stay away, and he sets off after Clifford.
Henry sits on a hill overlooking the battle, observing how the opposing sides move back and forth like the churning ocean. He contemplates how his life has been filled with woe, and he thinks he would have been happier had he not been king. He imagines what life as a shepherd might be like, and he imagines it being far more fulfilling than a king’s. A soldier enters, carrying another dead soldier. Henry watches from the side as the soldier strips the armor from the man he has killed, looking for money. As he takes off the helmet, the soldier realizes that he has killed his own father. Then, another soldier enters with another body and looks, like the first soldier, for loot on the body. Removing the helmet, the soldier discovers he has killed his own son. As he looks on, Henry weeps for both soldiers. The cost of civil war is more than he can bear, and he grieves for the suffering of the common people. Prince Edward then enters and tells his father to flee, for Warwick’s army is winning. Margaret and Exeter enter and urge the same.
Clifford enters with an arrow in his neck. He knows it is the end for him, and in his final moments of consciousness he laments how Henry’s weakness has led to so much bloodshed and to the house of York’s advancement. He faints just as Edward enters with Richard and George, followed by Warwick and Montague. Edward speaks of their good fortune in battle and mentions that some troops are pursuing Margaret’s army. They find Clifford as he groans and dies. Warwick commands York’s head to be removed from the town wall, and Clifford’s put up instead. As they drag the body out, the lords interrogate Clifford, mocking him to see if he’s still alive—but he isn’t.
Warwick then hastens the brothers to London to claim the crown and announces his plan to go immediately to France to ask for the hand of Lady Bonnë for Edward. If Edward can ally with France, then they will be able to resist the queen’s armies should they pose a future threat. Edward makes Richard the duke of Gloucester and George the duke of Clarence. Richard asks to switch with George: he doesn’t want to be connected to a title that has been made unlucky by the violent deaths of the previous three dukes who held it. But Edward insists, and they head off for London.
Analysis
As the tides of battle shift back and forth, Henry sits on a nearby hill watching the action like a spectator—indeed, much like the audience watching the play of which he is a part. He has been cast out of the battle by Margaret, who has insisted that she has a greater chance of victory without him present. No doubt this is because she doesn’t have to manage his queasiness at the sight of blood. For as has often been mentioned, both in this play and in Part 2, Henry is a man who much prefers the contemplative life to the active life. He admits as much here, where he speaks in rhyming quatrains and speculates on how much happier he would have been living the simple life of a shepherd. It’s difficult not to pity Henry as he meditates on how little he wants the power that so many others are desperate to have.
Yet despite his feelings, Henry is still the king, and he has serious responsibilities that he is failing to address. From this perspective, he bears a degree of guilt for the state of his kingdom. Most other characters in the play agree on the subject of Henry’s culpability, and they speak about it frequently. Even Clifford, who supports the king, spends his dying moments lamenting how his weakness has enabled rivalries to plunge the kingdom into chaos. By contrast, the king himself seems unable to acknowledge his guilt. As he looks on as soldiers discover that they’ve killed their own fathers and sons, Henry expresses a mournful solidarity with them. He has a great deal of empathy for their suffering, and he even claims to suffer far more than they do, since as king he must bear the weight of all this tragedy. Yet even as he insists on the magnitude of his suffering, he refuses to acknowledge his own complicity in it. Wanting to see himself as an innocent observer, he laments: “How will the country for these woeful chances / Misthink the king, and not be satisfied!” (2.5.105–106). His word misthink means both “blame” and “misunderstand,” which clearly indicates his belief that he’s truly blameless.
Meanwhile, the balance of power continually shifts around Henry. One moment the Yorkist army is in retreat, and the next it is charging in pursuit of Margaret’s fleeing army. Amid this chaos, characters renew their vows of allegiance and vengeance. Warwick asserts, in the face of shifting tides, that he will exhaust himself unto death for the sake of the Yorkist claim. Edward and George both join him in his pledge. Yet however rhetorically powerful in the moment, the audience may also be able to anticipate that these vows, so firmly stated, will not remain firm for long. The state of things is too malleable for any allegiances to retain its solidity. The language of Clifford’s death scene confirms as much, centered as it is on an image of himself as a burned-out wax candle whose “tough commixture melts” (2.6.6). Richard recognizes the political instability of the moment when he tries to refuse the dukedom of Gloucester. He’s reluctant to take on a title that has for so long been caught up in vexatious and murderous rivalries, and at this point in the play, his hesitation seems ominously symbolic.
