Clifford complete text
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Clifford. My gracious liege, this too much lenity | 2.2.9
        And harmful pity must be laid aside. | 2.2.10
        To whom do lions cast their gentle looks? | 2.2.11
        Not to the beast that would usurp their den. | 2.2.12
        Whose hand is that the forest bear doth lick? | 2.2.13
        Not his that spoils her young before her face. | 2.2.14
        Who 'scapes the lurking serpent's mortal sting? | 2.2.15
        Not he that sets his foot upon her back. | 2.2.16
        The smallest worm will turn being trodden on, | 2.2.17
        And doves will peck in safeguard of their brood. | 2.2.18
        Ambitious York doth level at thy crown, | 2.2.19
        Thou smiling while he knit his angry brows: | 2.2.20
        He, but a duke, would have his son a king, | 2.2.21
        And raise his issue, like a loving sire; | 2.2.22
        Thou, being a king, blest with a goodly son, | 2.2.23
        Didst yield consent to disinherit him, | 2.2.24
        Which argued thee a most unloving father. | 2.2.25
        Unreasonable creatures feed their young; | 2.2.26
        And though man's face be fearful to their eyes, | 2.2.27
        Yet, in protection of their tender ones, | 2.2.28
        Who hath not seen them, even with those wings | 2.2.29
        Which sometime they have used with fearful flight, | 2.2.30
        Make war with him that climb'd unto their nest, | 2.2.31
        Offer their own lives in their young's defence? | 2.2.32
        For shame, my liege, make them your precedent! | 2.2.33
        Were it not pity that this goodly boy | 2.2.34
        Should lose his birthright by his father's fault, | 2.2.35
        And long hereafter say unto his child, | 2.2.36
        'What my great-grandfather and his grandsire got | 2.2.37
        My careless father fondly gave away'? | 2.2.38
        Ah, what a shame were this! Look on the boy; | 2.2.39
        And let his manly face, which promiseth | 2.2.40
        Successful fortune, steel thy melting heart | 2.2.41
        To hold thine own and leave thine own with him. | 2.2.42
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Clifford. Here burns my candle out; ay, here it dies, | 2.6.1
        Which, whiles it lasted, gave King Henry light. | 2.6.2
        O Lancaster, I fear thy overthrow | 2.6.3
        More than my body's parting with my soul! | 2.6.4
        My love and fear glued many friends to thee; | 2.6.5
        And, now I fall, thy tough commixture melts. | 2.6.6
        Impairing Henry, strengthening misproud York, | 2.6.7
        The common people swarm like summer flies; | 2.6.8
        And whither fly the gnats but to the sun? | 2.6.9
        And who shines now but Henry's enemies? | 2.6.10
        O Phoebus, hadst thou never given consent | 2.6.11
        That Phaethon should cheque thy fiery steeds, | 2.6.12
        Thy burning car never had scorch'd the earth! | 2.6.13
        And, Henry, hadst thou sway'd as kings should do, | 2.6.14
        Or as thy father and his father did, | 2.6.15
        Giving no ground unto the house of York, | 2.6.16
        They never then had sprung like summer flies; | 2.6.17
        I and ten thousand in this luckless realm | 2.6.18
        Had left no mourning widows for our death; | 2.6.19
        And thou this day hadst kept thy chair in peace. | 2.6.20
        For what doth cherish weeds but gentle air? | 2.6.21
        And what makes robbers bold but too much lenity? | 2.6.22
        Bootless are plaints, and cureless are my wounds; | 2.6.23
        No way to fly, nor strength to hold out flight: | 2.6.24
        The foe is merciless, and will not pity; | 2.6.25
        For at their hands I have deserved no pity. | 2.6.26
        The air hath got into my deadly wounds, | 2.6.27
        And much effuse of blood doth make me faint. | 2.6.28
        Come, York and Richard, Warwick and the rest; | 2.6.29
        I stabb'd your fathers' bosoms, split my breast. | 2.6.30
He faints
| Alarum and retreat. Enter EDWARD, GEORGE, RICHARD, MONTAGUE, WARWICK, and Soldiers
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