The Illustrated Works of Shakespeare/Illustrated Works of Shakespeare, The (1990)(Animated Pixels)[!][CDTV-PC].iso/shakes/text/00/03_02

Text File | 1991-04-10 | 21KB | 530 lines

Bury St. Edmunds. A Room in the Palace.
 Enter two or three MURDERERS running over the stage,
 from the murder of Duke Humphrey.

1st Murderer    Run to my Lord of Suffolk; let him know
    We have dispatched the duke as he commanded.

2nd Murderer    O, that it were to do! What have we done?
    Didst ever hear a man so penitent?

                              Enter SUFFOLK.

1st Murderer    Here comes my Lord.

Suffolk    Now, sirs, have you dispatched this thing?

1st Murderer    Ay, my good lord, he's dead.

Suffolk    Why, that's well said. Go, get you to my house;
    I will reward you for this venturous deed.
    The king and all the peers are here at hand.
    Have you laid fair the bed? Is all things well,
    According as I gave directions?

1st Murderer    'Tis, my good lord.

Suffolk    Away; be gone.
                                                    [Exeunt MURDERERS.
                             Sound trumpets.
   Enter the KING, QUEEN MARGARET, CARDINAL, SOMERSET, with ATTENDANTS.

King Henry    Go, call our uncle to our presence straight.
    Say we intend to try his grace today
    If he be guilty, as 'tis publishd.

Suffolk    I'll call him presently, my noble lord.
                                                    [Exit.
King Henry    Lords, take your places; and, I pray you all,
    Proceed no straiter 'gainst our uncle Gloucester
    Than from true evidence, of good esteem,
    He be approved in practice culpable.

Margaret    God forbid any malice should prevail
    That faultless may condemn a nobleman!
    Pray God he may acquit him of suspicion!

King Henry    I thank thee, Meg; these words content me much.

                            Re-enter SUFFOLK.

    How now, why look'st thou pale? Why tremblest thou?
    Where is our uncle? What's the matter, Suffolk?

Suffolk    Dead in his bed, my lord; Gloucester is dead.

Margaret    Marry, God forfend!

Cardinal    God's secret judgment. I did dream tonight
    The duke was dumb and could not speak a word.
                                                    [KING swoons.

Margaret    How fares my lord? Help, lords, the king is dead!

Somerset    Rear up his body; wring him by the nose.

Margaret    Run, go, help, help! O Henry, ope thine eyes!

Suffolk    He doth revive again. Madam, be patient.

King Henry    O heavenly God!

Margaret                        How fares my gracious lord?

Suffolk    Comfort, my sovereign! Gracious Henry, comfort!

King Henry    What, doth my Lord of Suffolk comfort me?
    Came he right now to sing a raven's note,
    Whose dismal tune bereft my vital powers,
    And thinks he that the chirping of a wren,
    By crying comfort from a hollow breast,
    Can chase away the first-conceivd sound?
    Hide not thy poison with such sugared words.
    Lay not thy hands on me; forbear, I say:
    Their touch affrights me as a serpent's sting.
    Thou baleful messenger, out of my sight!
    Upon thy eyeballs murderous tyranny
    Sits in grim majesty to fright the world.
    Look not upon me, for thine eyes are wounding;
    Yet do not go away; come, basilisk,
    And kill the innocent gazer with thy sight;
    For in the shade of death I shall find joy,
    In life but double death, now Gloucester's dead.

Margaret    Why do you rate my Lord of Suffolk thus?
    Although the duke was enemy to him,
    Yet he, most Christianlike, laments his death;
    And for myself, foe as he was to me,
    Might liquid tears, or heart-offending groans,
    Or blood-consuming sighs recall his life,
    I would be blind with weeping, sick with groans,
    Look pale as primrose with blood-drinking sighs,
    And all to have the noble duke alive.
    What know I how the world may deem of me?
    For it is known we were but hollow friends:
    It may be judged I made the duke away;
    So shall my name with slander's tongue be wounded,
    And princes' courts be filled with my reproach.
    This get I by his death. Ay me, unhappy!-
    To be a queen, and crowned with infamy!

King Henry    Ah, woe is me for Gloucester, wretched man!

Margaret    Be woe for me, more wretched than he is.
    What, dost thou turn away and hide thy face?
    I am no loathsome leper; look on me.
    What, art thou, like the adder, waxen deaf?
    Be poisonous too, and kill thy forlorn queen.
    Is all thy comfort shut in Gloucester's tomb?
    Why, then Dame Margaret was ne'er thy joy.
    Erect his statu and worship it,
    And make my image but an alehouse sign.
    Was I for this nigh wrecked upon the sea,
    And twice by awkward wind from England's bank
    Drove back again unto my native clime?
    What boded this, but well forewarning wind
    Did seem to say "Seek not a scorpion's nest,
    Nor set no footing on this unkind shore"?
    What did I then, but cursed the gentle gusts
    And he that loosed them forth their brazen caves,
    And bid them blow towards England's blessd shore,
    Or turn our stern upon a dreadful rock.
    Yet Aeolus would not be a murderer,
    But left that hateful office unto thee.
    The pretty vaulting sea refused to drown me,
    Knowing that thou wouldst have me drowned on shore
    With tears as salt as sea through thy unkindness.
    The splitting rocks cowered in the sinking sands,
    And would not dash me with their ragged sides,
    Because thy flinty heart, more hard than they,
    Might in thy palace perish Margaret.
    As far as I could ken thy chalky cliffs,
    When from thy shore the tempest beat us back,
    I stood upon the hatches in the storm,
    And when the dusky sky began to rob
    My earnest-gaping sight of thy land's view,
    I took a costly jewel from my neck,
    - A heart it was, bound in with diamonds-
    And threw it towards thy land. The sea received it;
    And so I wished thy body might my heart.
    And even with this I lost fair England's view,
    And bid mine eyes be packing with my heart,
    And called them blind and dusky spectacles
    For losing ken of Albion's wishd coast.
    How often have I tempted Suffolk's tongue
    - The agent of thy foul inconstancy-
    To sit and witch me, as Ascanius did
    When he to madding Dido would unfold
    His father's acts, commenced in burning Troy!
    Am I not witched like her? Or thou not false like him?
    Ay me, I can no more! Die, Margaret!
    For Henry weeps that thou dost live so long.
                                                    [Noise within.

               Enter WARWICK, SALISBURY, and many COMMONS.

Warwick    It is reported, mighty sovereign,
    That good Duke Humphrey traitorously is murdered
    By Suffolk and the Cardinal Beaufort's means.
    The commons, like an angry hive of bees
    That want their leader, scatter up and down,
    And care not who they sting in his revenge.
    Myself have calmed their spleenful mutiny,
    Until they hear the order of his death.

King Henry    That he is dead, good Warwick, 'tis too true;
    But how he died God knows, not Henry.
    Enter his chamber, view his breathless corpse,
    And comment then upon his sudden death.

Warwick    That I shall do, my liege. Stay, Salisbury,
    With the rude multitude till I return.
                                                    [Exit.
                                     [Exit SALISBURY with the COMMONS.

King Henry    O Thou that judgest all things, stay my thoughts,
    My thoughts that labour to persuade my soul
    Some violent hands were laid on Humphrey's life.
    If my suspect be false, forgive me, God,
    For judgment only doth belong to Thee.
    Fain would I go to chafe his paly lips
    With twenty thousand kisses, and to drain
    Upon his face an ocean of salt tears,
    To tell my love unto his dumb deaf trunk,
    And with my fingers feel his hand unfeeling.
    But all in vain are these mean obsequies,
    And to survey his dead and earthy image
    What were it but to make my sorrow greater?

                Bed put forth with the body of Gloucester.

                            Re-enter WARWICK.

Warwick    Come hither, gracious sovereign, view this body.

King Henry    That is to see how deep my grave is made;
    For with his soul fled all my worldly solace,
    For, seeing him, I see my life in death.

Warwick    As surely as my soul intends to live
    With that dread king that took our state upon Him
    To free us from His Father's wrathful curse,
    I do believe that violent hands were laid
    Upon the life of this thrice-famd duke.

Suffolk    A dreadful oath, sworn with a solemn tongue!
    What instance gives Lord Warwick for his vow?

Warwick    See how the blood is settled in his face.
    Oft have I seen a timely-parted ghost
    Of ashy semblance, meagre, pale, and bloodless,
    Being all descended to the labouring heart,
    Who, in the conflict that it holds with death,
    Attracts the same for aidance 'gainst the enemy;
    Which with the heart there cools, and ne'er returneth
    To blush and beautify the cheek again.
    But see, his face is black and full of blood,
    His eyeballs further out than when he lived,
    Staring full ghastly like a strangled man;
    His hair upreared; his nostrils stretched with struggling;
    His hands abroad displayed, as one that grasped
    And tugged for life, and was by strength subdued.
    Look on the sheets, his hair, you see, is sticking;
    His well-proportioned beard made rough and rugged,
    Like to the summer's corn by tempest lodged.
    It cannot be but he was murdered here;
    The least of all these signs were probable.

Suffolk    Why, Warwick, who should do the duke to death?
    Myself and Beaufort had him in protection;
    And we, I hope, sir, are no murderers.

Warwick    But both of you were vowed Duke Humphrey's foes,
    And you, forsooth, had the good duke to keep.
    'Tis like you would not feast him like a friend,
    And 'tis well seen he found an enemy.

Margaret    Then you, belike, suspect these noblemen
    As guilty of Duke Humphrey's timeless death.

Warwick    Who finds the heifer dead and bleeding fresh,
    And sees fast by a butcher with an axe,
    But will suspect 'twas he that made the slaughter?
    Who finds the partridge in the puttock's nest,
    But may imagine how the bird was dead,
    Although the kite soar with unbloodied beak?
    Even so suspicious is this tragedy.

Margaret    Are you the butcher, Suffolk? Where's your knife?
    Is Beaufort termed a kite? Where are his talons?

Suffolk    I wear no knife to slaughter sleeping men;
    But here's a vengeful sword, rusted with ease,
    That shall be scourd in his rancorous heart
    That slanders me with murder's crimson badge.
    Say, if thou dar'st, proud Lord of Warwickshire,
    That I am faulty in Duke Humphrey's death.
                                         [Exeunt CARDINAL and SOMERSET.

Warwick    What dares not Warwick, if false Suffolk dare him?

Margaret    He dares not calm his contumelious spirit,
    Nor cease to be an arrogant controller,
    Though Suffolk dare him twenty thousand times.

Warwick    Madam, be still, with reverence may I say;
    For every word you speak in his behalf
    Is slander to your royal dignity.

Suffolk    Blunt-witted lord, ignoble in demeanour!
    If ever lady wronged her lord so much,
    Thy mother took into her blameful bed
    Some stern untutored churl, and noble stock
    Was graft with crab-tree slip, whose fruit thou art,
    And never of the Nevils' noble race.

Warwick    But that the guilt of murder bucklers thee,
    And I should rob the deathsman of his fee,
    Quitting thee thereby of ten thousand shames,
    And that my sovereign's presence makes me mild,
    I would, false murderous coward, on thy knee
    Make thee beg pardon for thy passd speech,
    And say it was thy mother that thou meant'st-
    That thou thyself wast born in bastardy,
    And, after all this fearful homage done,
    Give thee thy hire and send thy soul to hell,
    Pernicious bloodsucker of sleeping men!

Suffolk    Thou shalt be waking while I shed thy blood,
    If from this presence thou dar'st go with me.

Warwick    Away even now, or I will drag thee hence.
    Unworthy though thou art, I'll cope with thee,
    And do some service to Duke Humphrey's ghost.
                                                [Exeunt SUFFOLK and WARWICK.

King Henry    What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted!
    Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just,
    And he but naked, though locked up in steel,
    Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.
                                                    [A noise within.

Margaret    What noise is this?

         Re-enter SUFFOLK and WARWICK, with their weapons drawn.

King Henry    Why, how now, lords? Your wrathful weapons drawn
    Here in our presence? Dare you be so bold?
    Why, what tumultuous clamour have we here?

Suffolk    The traitorous Warwick, with the men of Bury,
    Set all upon me, mighty sovereign.

           Re-enter SALISBURY; the COMMONS press to the door..

Salisbury    [To the COMMONS.]
    Sirs, stand apart; the king shall know your mind.
    [To KING HENRY.]
    Dread lord, the commons sends you word by me,
    Unless Lord Suffolk straight be done to death,
    Or banishd fair England's territories,
    They will by violence tear him from your palace
    And torture him with grievous ling'ring death.
    They say by him the good Duke Humphrey died;
    They say in him they fear your highness' death;
    And mere instinct of love and loyalty,
    Free from a stubborn opposite intent,
    As being thought to contradict your liking,
    Makes them thus forward in his banishment.
    They say, in care of your most royal person,
    That if your highness should intend to sleep,
    And charge that no man should disturb your rest
    In pain of your dislike or pain of death,
    Yet, notwithstanding such a strait edict,
    Were there a serpent seen with forkd tongue,
    That slily glided towards your majesty,
    It were but necessary you were waked,
    Lest, being suffered in that harmful slumber,
    The mortal worm might make the sleep eternal.
    And therefore do they cry, though you forbid,
    That they will guard you, whe'er you will or no,
    From such fell serpents as false Suffolk is;
    With whose envenomd and fatal sting,
    Your loving uncle, twenty times his worth,
    They say is shamefully bereft of life.

Commons    [Within.]. An answer from the king, my Lord of Salisbury!

Suffolk    'Tis like the commons, rude unpolished hinds,
    Could send such message to their sovereign;
    But you, my lord, were glad to be employed,
    To show how quaint an orator you are;
    But all the honour Salisbury hath won
    Is that he was the lord ambassador
    Sent from a sort of tinkers to the king.

Commons    [Within.] An answer from the king, or we will all break in!

King Henry    Go, Salisbury, and tell them all from me
    I thank them for their tender loving care;
    And had I not been cited so by them,
    Yet did I purpose as they do entreat;
    For sure my thoughts do hourly prophesy
    Mischance unto my state by Suffolk's means.
    And therefore by His majesty I swear,
    Whose far unworthy deputy I am,
    He shall not breathe infection in this air
    But three days longer, on the pain of death.
                                                    [Exit SALISBURY.

Margaret    O Henry, let me plead for gentle Suffolk.

King Henry    Ungentle queen, to call him gentle Suffolk!
    No more, I say; if thou dost plead for him
    Thou wilt but add increase unto my wrath.
    Had I but said, I would have kept my word;
    But when I swear, it is irrevocable.
    [to SUFFOLK.]
    If after three days' space thou here be'st found
    On any ground that I am ruler of,
    The world shall not be ransom for thy life.
    Come, Warwick, come, good Warwick, go with me;
    I have great matters to impart to thee.
                                [Exeunt all but MARGARET and SUFFOLK.

Margaret    Mischance and sorrow go along with you!
    Heart's discontent and sour affliction
    Be playfellows to keep you company!
    There's two of you, the devil make a third,
    And threefold vengeance tend upon your steps!

Suffolk    Cease, gentle queen, these execrations,
    And let thy Suffolk take his heavy leave.

Margaret    Fie, coward woman and soft-hearted wretch!
    Hast thou not spirit to curse thine enemy?

Suffolk    A plague upon them! Wherefore should I curse them?
    Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake's groan,
    I would invent as bitter searching terms,
    As curst, as harsh, and horrible to hear,
    Delivered strongly through my fixd teeth,
    With full as many signs of deadly hate,
    As lean-faced Envy in her loathsome cave.
    My tongue should stumble in mine earnest words,
    Mine eyes should sparkle like the beaten flint,
    My hair be fixed an end, as one distract;
    Ay, every joint should seem to curse and ban;
    And even now my burdened heart would break,
    Should I not curse them. Poison be their drink!
    Gall worse than gall the daintiest that they taste!
    Their sweetest shade a grove of cypress trees!
    Their chiefest prospect murd'ring basilisks!
    Their softest touch as smart as lizards' stings!
    Their music frightful as the serpent's hiss,
    And boding screech-owls make the consort full!
    All the foul terrors in dark-seated hell-

Margaret    Enough, sweet Suffolk, thou torment'st thyself;
    And these dread curses, like the sun 'gainst glass,
    Or like an overchargd gun, recoil
    And turns the force of them upon thyself.

Suffolk    You bade me ban, and will you bid me leave?
    Now, by the ground that I am banished from,
    Well could I curse away a winter's night,
    Though standing naked on a mountain top,
    Where biting cold would never let grass grow,
    And think it but a minute spent in sport.

Margaret    O let me entreat thee cease! Give me thy hand,
    That I may dew it with my mournful tears;
    Nor let the rain of heaven wet this place
    To wash away my woeful monuments.
    O, could this kiss be printed in thy hand,
    That thou mightst think upon these by the seal,
    Through whom a thousand sighs are breathed for thee.
    So, get thee gone, that I may know my grief;
    'Tis but surmised whiles thou art standing by,
    As one that surfeits thinking on a want.
    I will repeal thee, or, be well assured,
    Adventure to be banishd myself;
    And banishd I am, if but from thee.
    Go, speak not to me; even now be gone.
    O, go not yet! Even thus two friends condemned
    Embrace and kiss and take ten thousand leaves,
    Loather a hundred times to part than die.
    Yet now farewell; and farewell life with thee.

Suffolk    Thus is poor Suffolk ten times banishd:
    Once by the king, and three times thrice by thee.
    'Tis not the land I care for, wert thou thence;
    A wilderness is populous enough,
    So Suffolk had thy heavenly company;
    For where thou art, there is the world itself,
    With every several pleasure in the world;
    And where thou art not, desolation.
    I can no more. Live thou to joy thy life;
    Myself to joy in nought but that thou liv'st.

                               Enter VAUX.

Margaret    Whither goes Vaux so fast? What news, I prithee?

Vaux    To signify unto his majesty
    That Cardinal Beaufort is at point of death;
    For suddenly a grievous sickness took him,
    That makes him gasp and stare and catch the air,
    Blaspheming God, and cursing men on earth.
    Sometime he talks as if Duke Humphrey's ghost
    Were by his side; sometime he calls the king,
    And whispers to his pillow, as to him,
    The secrets of his overchargd soul.
    And I am sent to tell his majesty
    That even now he cries aloud for him.

Margaret    Go, tell this heavy message to the king.
                                                    [Exit VAUX.
    Ay me, what is this world! What news are these!
    But wherefore grieve I at an hour's poor loss,
    Omitting Suffolk's exile, my soul's treasure?
    Why only, Suffolk, mourn I not for thee,
    And with the southern clouds contend in tears-
    Theirs for the earth's increase, mine for my sorrows?
    Now get thee hence; the king, thou know'st, is coming.
    If thou be found by me thou art but dead.

Suffolk    If I depart from thee I cannot live;
    And in thy sight to die, what were it else
    But like a pleasant slumber in thy lap?
    Here could I breathe my soul into the air,
    As mild and gentle as the cradle-babe
    Dying with mother's dug between its lips;
    Where, from thy sight, I should be raging mad,
    And cry out for thee to close up mine eyes,
    To have thee with thy lips to stop my mouth;
    So shouldst thou either turn my flying soul,
    Or I should breathe it so into thy body,
    And then it lived in sweet Elysium.
    To die by thee were but to die in jest;
    From thee to die were torture more than death.
    O let me stay, befall what may befall!

Margaret    Away! Though parting be a fretful corrosive,
    It is applid to a deathful wound.
    To France, sweet Suffolk! Let me hear from thee;
    For wheresoe'er thou art in this world's globe,
    I'll have an Iris that shall find thee out.

Suffolk    I go.

Margaret    And take my heart with thee.
                                                    [She kisseth him.
Suffolk    A jewel, locked into the woefull'st cask
    That ever did contain a thing of worth.
    Even as a splitted bark, so sunder we:
    This way fall I to death.

Margaret                                This way for me.
                                                    [Exeunt severally.