The Complete Works of William Shakespeare/The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.iso/shakespr/2henry6.txt

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    2 KING HENRY VI


    DRAMATIS PERSONAE


KING HENRY
the Sixth    (KING HENRY VI:)

HUMPHREY    Duke of Gloucester, his uncle. (GLOUCESTER:)

CARDINAL BEAUFORT    Bishop of Winchester, great-uncle to the King.
    (CARDINAL:)

RICHARD
PLANTAGENET    Duke of York. (YORK:)


EDWARD    |
    |  his sons
RICHARD    |


DUKE OF SOMERSET    (SOMERSET:)

DUKE OF SUFFOLK    (SUFFOLK:)

DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM    (BUCKINGHAM:)

LORD CLIFFORD    (CLIFFORD:)

YOUNG CLIFFORD    his son.

EARL OF SALISBURY    (SALISBURY:)

EARL OF WARWICK    (WARWICK:)

LORD SCALES    (SCALES:)

LORD SAY    (SAY:)

SIR HUMPHREY
STAFFORD    (SIR HUMPHREY:)

WILLIAM STAFFORD    Sir Humphrey Stafford's brother.

SIR JOHN STANLEY    (STANLEY:)

VAUX:

MATTHEW GOFFE:

    A Sea-captain, (Captain:)  Master, and Master's-Mate.

WALTER WHITMORE:

    Two Gentlemen, prisoners with Suffolk.
    (First Gentleman:)
    (Second Gentleman:)


JOHN HUME (HUME:)    |
    |  priests.
JOHN SOUTHWELL    |


BOLINGBROKE    a conjurer.

THOMAS HORNER    an armourer. (HORNER:)

PETER    Thomas Horner's man.

    Clerk of Chatham. (Clerk:)

    Mayor of Saint Alban's. (Mayor:)

SIMPCOX    an impostor.

ALEXANDER IDEN    a Kentish gentleman. (IDEN:)

JACK CADE    a rebel. (CADE:)


GEORGE BEVIS    (BEVIS:)    |
        |
JOHN HOLLAND    (HOLLAND:)    |
        |
DICK the butcher    (DICK:)    |
        |  followers of Cade.
SMITH the weaver    (SMITH:)    |
        |
MICHAEL    (MICHAEL:)    |
        |
&c.        |


    Two Murderers
    (First Murderer:)
    (Second Murderer:)

QUEEN MARGARET    Queen to King Henry.

ELEANOR    Duchess of Gloucester. (DUCHESS:)

MARGARET JOURDAIN    a witch.

    Wife to Simpcox  (Wife:)

    Lords, Ladies, and Attendants. Petitioners,
    Aldermen, a Herald, a Beadle, Sheriff, and
    Officers, Citizens, 'Prentices, Falconers,
    Guards, Soldiers, Messengers, &c.
    (First Neighbour:)
    (Second Neighbour:)
    (Third Neighbour:)
    (First Petitioner:)
    (Second Petitioner:)
    (Herald:)
    (Beadle:)
    (Sheriff:)
    (Servant:)
    (Soldier:)
    (Townsman:)
    (First 'Prentice:)
    (Second 'Prentice:)
    (Post:)
    (Messenger:)

    A Spirit. (Spirit:)



SCENE    England.




    2 KING HENRY VI


ACT I



SCENE I    London. The palace.


    [Flourish of trumpets: then hautboys. Enter KING
    HENRY VI, GLOUCESTER, SALISBURY, WARWICK, and
    CARDINAL, on the one side; QUEEN MARGARET, SUFFOLK,
    YORK, SOMERSET, and BUCKINGHAM, on the other]

SUFFOLK    As by your high imperial majesty
    I had in charge at my depart for France,
    As procurator to your excellence,
    To marry Princess Margaret for your grace,
    So, in the famous ancient city, Tours,
    In presence of the Kings of France and Sicil,
    The Dukes of Orleans, Calaber, Bretagne and Alencon,
    Seven earls, twelve barons and twenty reverend bishops,
    I have perform'd my task and was espoused:
    And humbly now upon my bended knee,
    In sight of England and her lordly peers,
    Deliver up my title in the queen
    To your most gracious hands, that are the substance
    Of that great shadow I did represent;
    The happiest gift that ever marquess gave,
    The fairest queen that ever king received.

KING HENRY VI    Suffolk, arise. Welcome, Queen Margaret:
    I can express no kinder sign of love
    Than this kind kiss. O Lord, that lends me life,
    Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness!
    For thou hast given me in this beauteous face
    A world of earthly blessings to my soul,
    If sympathy of love unite our thoughts.

QUEEN MARGARET    Great King of England and my gracious lord,
    The mutual conference that my mind hath had,
    By day, by night, waking and in my dreams,
    In courtly company or at my beads,
    With you, mine alder-liefest sovereign,
    Makes me the bolder to salute my king
    With ruder terms, such as my wit affords
    And over-joy of heart doth minister.

KING HENRY VI    Her sight did ravish; but her grace in speech,
    Her words y-clad with wisdom's majesty,
    Makes me from wondering fall to weeping joys;
    Such is the fulness of my heart's content.
    Lords, with one cheerful voice welcome my love.

ALL    [Kneeling]  Long live Queen Margaret, England's
    happiness!

QUEEN MARGARET    We thank you all.

    [Flourish]

SUFFOLK    My lord protector, so it please your grace,
    Here are the articles of contracted peace
    Between our sovereign and the French king Charles,
    For eighteen months concluded by consent.

GLOUCESTER    [Reads]  'Imprimis, it is agreed between the French
    king Charles, and William de la Pole, Marquess of
    Suffolk, ambassador for Henry King of England, that
    the said Henry shall espouse the Lady Margaret,
    daughter unto Reignier King of Naples, Sicilia and
    Jerusalem, and crown her Queen of England ere the
    thirtieth of May next ensuing. Item, that the duchy
    of Anjou and the county of Maine shall be released
    and delivered to the king her father'--

    [Lets the paper fall]

KING HENRY VI    Uncle, how now!

GLOUCESTER           Pardon me, gracious lord;
    Some sudden qualm hath struck me at the heart
    And dimm'd mine eyes, that I can read no further.

KING HENRY VI    Uncle of Winchester, I pray, read on.

CARDINAL    [Reads]  'Item, It is further agreed between them,
    that the duchies of Anjou and Maine shall be
    released and delivered over to the king her father,
    and she sent over of the King of England's own
    proper cost and charges, without having any dowry.'

KING HENRY VI    They please us well. Lord marquess, kneel down:
    We here create thee the first duke of Suffolk,
    And gird thee with the sword. Cousin of York,
    We here discharge your grace from being regent
    I' the parts of France, till term of eighteen months
    Be full expired. Thanks, uncle Winchester,
    Gloucester, York, Buckingham, Somerset,
    Salisbury, and Warwick;
    We thank you all for the great favour done,
    In entertainment to my princely queen.
    Come, let us in, and with all speed provide
    To see her coronation be perform'd.

    [Exeunt KING HENRY VI, QUEEN MARGARET, and SUFFOLK]

GLOUCESTER    Brave peers of England, pillars of the state,
    To you Duke Humphrey must unload his grief,
    Your grief, the common grief of all the land.
    What! did my brother Henry spend his youth,
    His valour, coin and people, in the wars?
    Did he so often lodge in open field,
    In winter's cold and summer's parching heat,
    To conquer France, his true inheritance?
    And did my brother Bedford toil his wits,
    To keep by policy what Henry got?
    Have you yourselves, Somerset, Buckingham,
    Brave York, Salisbury, and victorious Warwick,
    Received deep scars in France and Normandy?
    Or hath mine uncle Beaufort and myself,
    With all the learned council of the realm,
    Studied so long, sat in the council-house
    Early and late, debating to and fro
    How France and Frenchmen might be kept in awe,
    And had his highness in his infancy
    Crowned in Paris in despite of foes?
    And shall these labours and these honours die?
    Shall Henry's conquest, Bedford's vigilance,
    Your deeds of war and all our counsel die?
    O peers of England, shameful is this league!
    Fatal this marriage, cancelling your fame,
    Blotting your names from books of memory,
    Razing the characters of your renown,
    Defacing monuments of conquer'd France,
    Undoing all, as all had never been!

CARDINAL    Nephew, what means this passionate discourse,
    This peroration with such circumstance?
    For France, 'tis ours; and we will keep it still.

GLOUCESTER    Ay, uncle, we will keep it, if we can;
    But now it is impossible we should:
    Suffolk, the new-made duke that rules the roast,
    Hath given the duchy of Anjou and Maine
    Unto the poor King Reignier, whose large style
    Agrees not with the leanness of his purse.

SALISBURY    Now, by the death of Him that died for all,
    These counties were the keys of Normandy.
    But wherefore weeps Warwick, my valiant son?

WARWICK    For grief that they are past recovery:
    For, were there hope to conquer them again,
    My sword should shed hot blood, mine eyes no tears.
    Anjou and Maine! myself did win them both;
    Those provinces these arms of mine did conquer:
    And are the cities, that I got with wounds,
    Delivered up again with peaceful words?
    Mort Dieu!

YORK    For Suffolk's duke, may he be suffocate,
    That dims the honour of this warlike isle!
    France should have torn and rent my very heart,
    Before I would have yielded to this league.
    I never read but England's kings have had
    Large sums of gold and dowries with their wives:
    And our King Henry gives away his own,
    To match with her that brings no vantages.

GLOUCESTER    A proper jest, and never heard before,
    That Suffolk should demand a whole fifteenth
    For costs and charges in transporting her!
    She should have stayed in France and starved
    in France, Before--

CARDINAL    My Lord of Gloucester, now ye grow too hot:
    It was the pleasure of my lord the King.

GLOUCESTER    My Lord of Winchester, I know your mind;
    'Tis not my speeches that you do mislike,
    But 'tis my presence that doth trouble ye.
    Rancour will out: proud prelate, in thy face
    I see thy fury: if I longer stay,
    We shall begin our ancient bickerings.
    Lordings, farewell; and say, when I am gone,
    I prophesied France will be lost ere long.

    [Exit]

CARDINAL    So, there goes our protector in a rage.
    'Tis known to you he is mine enemy,
    Nay, more, an enemy unto you all,
    And no great friend, I fear me, to the king.
    Consider, lords, he is the next of blood,
    And heir apparent to the English crown:
    Had Henry got an empire by his marriage,
    And all the wealthy kingdoms of the west,
    There's reason he should be displeased at it.
    Look to it, lords! let not his smoothing words
    Bewitch your hearts; be wise and circumspect.
    What though the common people favour him,
    Calling him 'Humphrey, the good Duke of
    Gloucester,'
    Clapping their hands, and crying with loud voice,
    'Jesu maintain your royal excellence!'
    With 'God preserve the good Duke Humphrey!'
    I fear me, lords, for all this flattering gloss,
    He will be found a dangerous protector.

BUCKINGHAM    Why should he, then, protect our sovereign,
    He being of age to govern of himself?
    Cousin of Somerset, join you with me,
    And all together, with the Duke of Suffolk,
    We'll quickly hoise Duke Humphrey from his seat.

CARDINAL    This weighty business will not brook delay:
    I'll to the Duke of Suffolk presently.

    [Exit]

SOMERSET    Cousin of Buckingham, though Humphrey's pride
    And greatness of his place be grief to us,
    Yet let us watch the haughty cardinal:
    His insolence is more intolerable
    Than all the princes in the land beside:
    If Gloucester be displaced, he'll be protector.

BUCKINGHAM    Or thou or I, Somerset, will be protector,
    Despite Duke Humphrey or the cardinal.

    [Exeunt BUCKINGHAM and SOMERSET]

SALISBURY    Pride went before, ambition follows him.
    While these do labour for their own preferment,
    Behoves it us to labour for the realm.
    I never saw but Humphrey Duke of Gloucester
    Did bear him like a noble gentleman.
    Oft have I seen the haughty cardinal,
    More like a soldier than a man o' the church,
    As stout and proud as he were lord of all,
    Swear like a ruffian and demean himself
    Unlike the ruler of a commonweal.
    Warwick, my son, the comfort of my age,
    Thy deeds, thy plainness and thy housekeeping,
    Hath won the greatest favour of the commons,
    Excepting none but good Duke Humphrey:
    And, brother York, thy acts in Ireland,
    In bringing them to civil discipline,
    Thy late exploits done in the heart of France,
    When thou wert regent for our sovereign,
    Have made thee fear'd and honour'd of the people:
    Join we together, for the public good,
    In what we can, to bridle and suppress
    The pride of Suffolk and the cardinal,
    With Somerset's and Buckingham's ambition;
    And, as we may, cherish Duke Humphrey's deeds,
    While they do tend the profit of the land.

WARWICK    So God help Warwick, as he loves the land,
    And common profit of his country!

YORK    [Aside]  And so says York, for he hath greatest cause.

SALISBURY    Then let's make haste away, and look unto the main.

WARWICK    Unto the main! O father, Maine is lost;
    That Maine which by main force Warwick did win,
    And would have kept so long as breath did last!
    Main chance, father, you meant; but I meant Maine,
    Which I will win from France, or else be slain,

    [Exeunt WARWICK and SALISBURY]

YORK    Anjou and Maine are given to the French;
    Paris is lost; the state of Normandy
    Stands on a tickle point, now they are gone:
    Suffolk concluded on the articles,
    The peers agreed, and Henry was well pleased
    To change two dukedoms for a duke's fair daughter.
    I cannot blame them all: what is't to them?
    'Tis thine they give away, and not their own.
    Pirates may make cheap pennyworths of their pillage
    And purchase friends and give to courtezans,
    Still revelling like lords till all be gone;
    While as the silly owner of the goods
    Weeps over them and wrings his hapless hands
    And shakes his head and trembling stands aloof,
    While all is shared and all is borne away,
    Ready to starve and dare not touch his own:
    So York must sit and fret and bite his tongue,
    While his own lands are bargain'd for and sold.
    Methinks the realms of England, France and Ireland
    Bear that proportion to my flesh and blood
    As did the fatal brand Althaea burn'd
    Unto the prince's heart of Calydon.
    Anjou and Maine both given unto the French!
    Cold news for me, for I had hope of France,
    Even as I have of fertile England's soil.
    A day will come when York shall claim his own;
    And therefore I will take the Nevils' parts
    And make a show of love to proud Duke Humphrey,
    And, when I spy advantage, claim the crown,
    For that's the golden mark I seek to hit:
    Nor shall proud Lancaster usurp my right,
    Nor hold the sceptre in his childish fist,
    Nor wear the diadem upon his head,
    Whose church-like humours fits not for a crown.
    Then, York, be still awhile, till time do serve:
    Watch thou and wake when others be asleep,
    To pry into the secrets of the state;
    Till Henry, surfeiting in joys of love,
    With his new bride and England's dear-bought queen,
    And Humphrey with the peers be fall'n at jars:
    Then will I raise aloft the milk-white rose,
    With whose sweet smell the air shall be perfumed;
    And in my standard bear the arms of York
    To grapple with the house of Lancaster;
    And, force perforce, I'll make him yield the crown,
    Whose bookish rule hath pull'd fair England down.

    [Exit]




    2 KING HENRY VI


ACT I



SCENE II    GLOUCESTER'S house.


    [Enter GLOUCESTER and his DUCHESS]

DUCHESS    Why droops my lord, like over-ripen'd corn,
    Hanging the head at Ceres' plenteous load?
    Why doth the great Duke Humphrey knit his brows,
    As frowning at the favours of the world?
    Why are thine eyes fixed to the sullen earth,
    Gazing on that which seems to dim thy sight?
    What seest thou there? King Henry's diadem,
    Enchased with all the honours of the world?
    If so, gaze on, and grovel on thy face,
    Until thy head be circled with the same.
    Put forth thy hand, reach at the glorious gold.
    What, is't too short? I'll lengthen it with mine:
    And, having both together heaved it up,
    We'll both together lift our heads to heaven,
    And never more abase our sight so low
    As to vouchsafe one glance unto the ground.

GLOUCESTER    O Nell, sweet Nell, if thou dost love thy lord,
    Banish the canker of ambitious thoughts.
    And may that thought, when I imagine ill
    Against my king and nephew, virtuous Henry,
    Be my last breathing in this mortal world!
    My troublous dream this night doth make me sad.

DUCHESS    What dream'd my lord? tell me, and I'll requite it
    With sweet rehearsal of my morning's dream.

GLOUCESTER    Methought this staff, mine office-badge in court,
    Was broke in twain; by whom I have forgot,
    But, as I think, it was by the cardinal;
    And on the pieces of the broken wand
    Were placed the heads of Edmund Duke of Somerset,
    And William de la Pole, first duke of Suffolk.
    This was my dream: what it doth bode, God knows.

DUCHESS    Tut, this was nothing but an argument
    That he that breaks a stick of Gloucester's grove
    Shall lose his head for his presumption.
    But list to me, my Humphrey, my sweet duke:
    Methought I sat in seat of majesty
    In the cathedral church of Westminster,
    And in that chair where kings and queens are crown'd;
    Where Henry and dame Margaret kneel'd to me
    And on my head did set the diadem.

GLOUCESTER    Nay, Eleanor, then must I chide outright:
    Presumptuous dame, ill-nurtured Eleanor,
    Art thou not second woman in the realm,
    And the protector's wife, beloved of him?
    Hast thou not worldly pleasure at command,
    Above the reach or compass of thy thought?
    And wilt thou still be hammering treachery,
    To tumble down thy husband and thyself
    From top of honour to disgrace's feet?
    Away from me, and let me hear no more!

DUCHESS    What, what, my lord! are you so choleric
    With Eleanor, for telling but her dream?
    Next time I'll keep my dreams unto myself,
    And not be cheque'd.

GLOUCESTER    Nay, be not angry; I am pleased again.

    [Enter Messenger]

Messenger    My lord protector, 'tis his highness' pleasure
    You do prepare to ride unto Saint Alban's,
    Where as the king and queen do mean to hawk.

GLOUCESTER    I go. Come, Nell, thou wilt ride with us?

DUCHESS    Yes, my good lord, I'll follow presently.

    [Exeunt GLOUCESTER and Messenger]

    Follow I must; I cannot go before,
    While Gloucester bears this base and humble mind.
    Were I a man, a duke, and next of blood,
    I would remove these tedious stumbling-blocks
    And smooth my way upon their headless necks;
    And, being a woman, I will not be slack
    To play my part in Fortune's pageant.
    Where are you there? Sir John! nay, fear not, man,
    We are alone; here's none but thee and I.

    [Enter HUME]

HUME    Jesus preserve your royal majesty!

DUCHESS    What say'st thou? majesty! I am but grace.

HUME    But, by the grace of God, and Hume's advice,
    Your grace's title shall be multiplied.

DUCHESS    What say'st thou, man? hast thou as yet conferr'd
    With Margery Jourdain, the cunning witch,
    With Roger Bolingbroke, the conjurer?
    And will they undertake to do me good?

HUME    This they have promised, to show your highness
    A spirit raised from depth of under-ground,
    That shall make answer to such questions
    As by your grace shall be propounded him.

DUCHESS    It is enough; I'll think upon the questions:
    When from St. Alban's we do make return,
    We'll see these things effected to the full.
    Here, Hume, take this reward; make merry, man,
    With thy confederates in this weighty cause.

    [Exit]

HUME    Hume must make merry with the duchess' gold;
    Marry, and shall. But how now, Sir John Hume!
    Seal up your lips, and give no words but mum:
    The business asketh silent secrecy.
    Dame Eleanor gives gold to bring the witch:
    Gold cannot come amiss, were she a devil.
    Yet have I gold flies from another coast;
    I dare not say, from the rich cardinal
    And from the great and new-made Duke of Suffolk,
    Yet I do find it so; for to be plain,
    They, knowing Dame Eleanor's aspiring humour,
    Have hired me to undermine the duchess
    And buz these conjurations in her brain.
    They say 'A crafty knave does need no broker;'
    Yet am I Suffolk and the cardinal's broker.
    Hume, if you take not heed, you shall go near
    To call them both a pair of crafty knaves.
    Well, so it stands; and thus, I fear, at last
    Hume's knavery will be the duchess' wreck,
    And her attainture will be Humphrey's fall:
    Sort how it will, I shall have gold for all.

    [Exit]




    2 KING HENRY VI


ACT I



SCENE III    The palace.


    [Enter three or four Petitioners, PETER, the
    Armourer's man, being one]

First Petitioner    My masters, let's stand close: my lord protector
    will come this way by and by, and then we may deliver
    our supplications in the quill.

Second Petitioner    Marry, the Lord protect him, for he's a good man!
    Jesu bless him!

    [Enter SUFFOLK and QUEEN MARGARET]

PETER    Here a' comes, methinks, and the queen with him.
    I'll be the first, sure.

Second Petitioner    Come back, fool; this is the Duke of Suffolk, and
    not my lord protector.

SUFFOLK    How now, fellow! would'st anything with me?

First Petitioner    I pray, my lord, pardon me; I took ye for my lord
    protector.

QUEEN MARGARET    [Reading]  'To my Lord Protector!' Are your
    supplications to his lordship? Let me see them:
    what is thine?

First Petitioner    Mine is, an't please your grace, against John
    Goodman, my lord cardinal's man, for keeping my
    house, and lands, and wife and all, from me.

SUFFOLK    Thy wife, too! that's some wrong, indeed. What's
    yours? What's here!

    [Reads]

    'Against the Duke of Suffolk, for enclosing the
    commons of Melford.' How now, sir knave!

Second Petitioner    Alas, sir, I am but a poor petitioner of our whole township.

PETER    [Giving his petition]  Against my master, Thomas
    Horner, for saying that the Duke of York was rightful
    heir to the crown.

QUEEN MARGARET    What sayst thou? did the Duke of York say he was
    rightful heir to the crown?

PETER    That my master was? no, forsooth: my master said
    that he was, and that the king was an usurper.

SUFFOLK    Who is there?

    [Enter Servant]

    Take this fellow in, and send for
    his master with a pursuivant presently: we'll hear
    more of your matter before the King.

    [Exit Servant with PETER]

QUEEN MARGARET    And as for you, that love to be protected
    Under the wings of our protector's grace,
    Begin your suits anew, and sue to him.

    [Tears the supplication]

    Away, base cullions! Suffolk, let them go.

ALL    Come, let's be gone.

    [Exeunt]

QUEEN MARGARET    My Lord of Suffolk, say, is this the guise,
    Is this the fashion in the court of England?
    Is this the government of Britain's isle,
    And this the royalty of Albion's king?
    What shall King Henry be a pupil still
    Under the surly Gloucester's governance?
    Am I a queen in title and in style,
    And must be made a subject to a duke?
    I tell thee, Pole, when in the city Tours
    Thou ran'st a tilt in honour of my love
    And stolest away the ladies' hearts of France,
    I thought King Henry had resembled thee
    In courage, courtship and proportion:
    But all his mind is bent to holiness,
    To number Ave-Maries on his beads;
    His champions are the prophets and apostles,
    His weapons holy saws of sacred writ,
    His study is his tilt-yard, and his loves
    Are brazen images of canonized saints.
    I would the college of the cardinals
    Would choose him pope, and carry him to Rome,
    And set the triple crown upon his head:
    That were a state fit for his holiness.

SUFFOLK    Madam, be patient: as I was cause
    Your highness came to England, so will I
    In England work your grace's full content.

QUEEN MARGARET    Beside the haughty protector, have we Beaufort,
    The imperious churchman, Somerset, Buckingham,
    And grumbling York: and not the least of these
    But can do more in England than the king.

SUFFOLK    And he of these that can do most of all
    Cannot do more in England than the Nevils:
    Salisbury and Warwick are no simple peers.

QUEEN MARGARET    Not all these lords do vex me half so much
    As that proud dame, the lord protector's wife.
    She sweeps it through the court with troops of ladies,
    More like an empress than Duke Humphrey's wife:
    Strangers in court do take her for the queen:
    She bears a duke's revenues on her back,
    And in her heart she scorns our poverty:
    Shall I not live to be avenged on her?
    Contemptuous base-born callet as she is,
    She vaunted 'mongst her minions t'other day,
    The very train of her worst wearing gown
    Was better worth than all my father's lands,
    Till Suffolk gave two dukedoms for his daughter.

SUFFOLK    Madam, myself have limed a bush for her,
    And placed a quire of such enticing birds,
    That she will light to listen to the lays,
    And never mount to trouble you again.
    So, let her rest: and, madam, list to me;
    For I am bold to counsel you in this.
    Although we fancy not the cardinal,
    Yet must we join with him and with the lords,
    Till we have brought Duke Humphrey in disgrace.
    As for the Duke of York, this late complaint
    Will make but little for his benefit.
    So, one by one, we'll weed them all at last,
    And you yourself shall steer the happy helm.

    [Sound a sennet. Enter KING HENRY VI, GLOUCESTER,
    CARDINAL, BUCKINGHAM, YORK, SOMERSET, SALISBURY,
    WARWICK, and the DUCHESS]

KING HENRY VI    For my part, noble lords, I care not which;
    Or Somerset or York, all's one to me.

YORK    If York have ill demean'd himself in France,
    Then let him be denay'd the regentship.

SOMERSET    If Somerset be unworthy of the place,
    Let York be regent; I will yield to him.

WARWICK    Whether your grace be worthy, yea or no,
    Dispute not that: York is the worthier.

CARDINAL    Ambitious Warwick, let thy betters speak.

WARWICK    The cardinal's not my better in the field.

BUCKINGHAM    All in this presence are thy betters, Warwick.

WARWICK    Warwick may live to be the best of all.

SALISBURY    Peace, son! and show some reason, Buckingham,
    Why Somerset should be preferred in this.

QUEEN MARGARET    Because the king, forsooth, will have it so.

GLOUCESTER    Madam, the king is old enough himself
    To give his censure: these are no women's matters.

QUEEN MARGARET    If he be old enough, what needs your grace
    To be protector of his excellence?

GLOUCESTER    Madam, I am protector of the realm;
    And, at his pleasure, will resign my place.

SUFFOLK    Resign it then and leave thine insolence.
    Since thou wert king--as who is king but thou?--
    The commonwealth hath daily run to wreck;
    The Dauphin hath prevail'd beyond the seas;
    And all the peers and nobles of the realm
    Have been as bondmen to thy sovereignty.

CARDINAL    The commons hast thou rack'd; the clergy's bags
    Are lank and lean with thy extortions.

SOMERSET    Thy sumptuous buildings and thy wife's attire
    Have cost a mass of public treasury.

BUCKINGHAM    Thy cruelty in execution
    Upon offenders, hath exceeded law,
    And left thee to the mercy of the law.

QUEEN MARGARET    They sale of offices and towns in France,
    If they were known, as the suspect is great,
    Would make thee quickly hop without thy head.

    [Exit GLOUCESTER. QUEEN MARGARET drops her fan]

    Give me my fan: what, minion! can ye not?

    [She gives the DUCHESS a box on the ear]

    I cry you mercy, madam; was it you?

DUCHESS    Was't I! yea, I it was, proud Frenchwoman:
    Could I come near your beauty with my nails,
    I'd set my ten commandments in your face.

KING HENRY VI    Sweet aunt, be quiet; 'twas against her will.

DUCHESS    Against her will! good king, look to't in time;
    She'll hamper thee, and dandle thee like a baby:
    Though in this place most master wear no breeches,
    She shall not strike Dame Eleanor unrevenged.

    [Exit]

BUCKINGHAM    Lord cardinal, I will follow Eleanor,
    And listen after Humphrey, how he proceeds:
    She's tickled now; her fume needs no spurs,
    She'll gallop far enough to her destruction.

    [Exit]

    [Re-enter GLOUCESTER]

GLOUCESTER    Now, lords, my choler being over-blown
    With walking once about the quadrangle,
    I come to talk of commonwealth affairs.
    As for your spiteful false objections,
    Prove them, and I lie open to the law:
    But God in mercy so deal with my soul,
    As I in duty love my king and country!
    But, to the matter that we have in hand:
    I say, my sovereign, York is meetest man
    To be your regent in the realm of France.

SUFFOLK    Before we make election, give me leave
    To show some reason, of no little force,
    That York is most unmeet of any man.

YORK    I'll tell thee, Suffolk, why I am unmeet:
    First, for I cannot flatter thee in pride;
    Next, if I be appointed for the place,
    My Lord of Somerset will keep me here,
    Without discharge, money, or furniture,
    Till France be won into the Dauphin's hands:
    Last time, I danced attendance on his will
    Till Paris was besieged, famish'd, and lost.

WARWICK    That can I witness; and a fouler fact
    Did never traitor in the land commit.

SUFFOLK    Peace, headstrong Warwick!

WARWICK    Image of pride, why should I hold my peace?

    [Enter HORNER, the Armourer, and his man
    PETER, guarded]

SUFFOLK    Because here is a man accused of treason:
    Pray God the Duke of York excuse himself!

YORK    Doth any one accuse York for a traitor?

KING HENRY VI    What mean'st thou, Suffolk; tell me, what are these?

SUFFOLK    Please it your majesty, this is the man
    That doth accuse his master of high treason:
    His words were these: that Richard, Duke of York,
    Was rightful heir unto the English crown
    And that your majesty was a usurper.

KING HENRY VI    Say, man, were these thy words?

HORNER    An't shall please your majesty, I never said nor
    thought any such matter: God is my witness, I am
    falsely accused by the villain.

PETER    By these ten bones, my lords, he did speak them to
    me in the garret one night, as we were scouring my
    Lord of York's armour.

YORK    Base dunghill villain and mechanical,
    I'll have thy head for this thy traitor's speech.
    I do beseech your royal majesty,
    Let him have all the rigor of the law.

HORNER    Alas, my lord, hang me, if ever I spake the words.
    My accuser is my 'prentice; and when I did correct
    him for his fault the other day, he did vow upon his
    knees he would be even with me: I have good
    witness of this: therefore I beseech your majesty,
    do not cast away an honest man for a villain's
    accusation.

KING HENRY VI    Uncle, what shall we say to this in law?

GLOUCESTER    This doom, my lord, if I may judge:
    Let Somerset be regent over the French,
    Because in York this breeds suspicion:
    And let these have a day appointed them
    For single combat in convenient place,
    For he hath witness of his servant's malice:
    This is the law, and this Duke Humphrey's doom.

SOMERSET    I humbly thank your royal majesty.

HORNER    And I accept the combat willingly.

PETER    Alas, my lord, I cannot fight; for God's sake, pity
    my case. The spite of man prevaileth against me. O
    Lord, have mercy upon me! I shall never be able to
    fight a blow. O Lord, my heart!

GLOUCESTER    Sirrah, or you must fight, or else be hang'd.

KING HENRY VI    Away with them to prison; and the day of combat
    shall be the last of the next month. Come,
    Somerset, we'll see thee sent away.

    [Flourish. Exeunt]




    2 KING HENRY VI


ACT I



SCENE IV    GLOUCESTER's garden.


    [Enter MARGARET JOURDAIN, HUME, SOUTHWELL, and
    BOLINGBROKE]

HUME    Come, my masters; the duchess, I tell you, expects
    performance of your promises.

BOLINGBROKE    Master Hume, we are therefore provided: will her
    ladyship behold and hear our exorcisms?

HUME    Ay, what else? fear you not her courage.

BOLINGBROKE    I have heard her reported to be a woman of an
    invincible spirit: but it shall be convenient,
    Master Hume, that you be by her aloft, while we be
    busy below; and so, I pray you, go, in God's name,
    and leave us.

    [Exit HUME]

    Mother Jourdain, be you
    prostrate and grovel on the earth; John Southwell,
    read you; and let us to our work.

    [Enter the DUCHESS aloft, HUME following]

DUCHESS    Well said, my masters; and welcome all. To this
    gear the sooner the better.

BOLINGBROKE    Patience, good lady; wizards know their times:
    Deep night, dark night, the silent of the night,
    The time of night when Troy was set on fire;
    The time when screech-owls cry and ban-dogs howl,
    And spirits walk and ghosts break up their graves,
    That time best fits the work we have in hand.
    Madam, sit you and fear not: whom we raise,
    We will make fast within a hallow'd verge.

    [Here they do the ceremonies belonging, and make the
    circle; BOLINGBROKE or SOUTHWELL reads, Conjuro te,
    &c. It thunders and lightens terribly; then the
    Spirit riseth]

Spirit    Adsum.

MARGARET JOURDAIN    Asmath,
    By the eternal God, whose name and power
    Thou tremblest at, answer that I shall ask;
    For, till thou speak, thou shalt not pass from hence.

Spirit    Ask what thou wilt. That I had said and done!

BOLINGBROKE    'First of the king: what shall of him become?'

    [Reading out of a paper]

Spirit    The duke yet lives that Henry shall depose;
    But him outlive, and die a violent death.

    [As the Spirit speaks, SOUTHWELL writes the answer]

BOLINGBROKE    'What fates await the Duke of Suffolk?'

Spirit    By water shall he die, and take his end.

BOLINGBROKE    'What shall befall the Duke of Somerset?'

Spirit    Let him shun castles;
    Safer shall he be upon the sandy plains
    Than where castles mounted stand.
    Have done, for more I hardly can endure.

BOLINGBROKE    Descend to darkness and the burning lake!
    False fiend, avoid!

    [Thunder and lightning. Exit Spirit]

    [Enter YORK and BUCKINGHAM with their Guard
    and break in]

YORK    Lay hands upon these traitors and their trash.
    Beldam, I think we watch'd you at an inch.
    What, madam, are you there? the king and commonweal
    Are deeply indebted for this piece of pains:
    My lord protector will, I doubt it not,
    See you well guerdon'd for these good deserts.

DUCHESS    Not half so bad as thine to England's king,
    Injurious duke, that threatest where's no cause.

BUCKINGHAM    True, madam, none at all: what call you this?
    Away with them! let them be clapp'd up close.
    And kept asunder. You, madam, shall with us.
    Stafford, take her to thee.

    [Exeunt above DUCHESS and HUME, guarded]

    We'll see your trinkets here all forthcoming.
    All, away!

    [Exeunt guard with MARGARET JOURDAIN, SOUTHWELL, &c]

YORK    Lord Buckingham, methinks, you watch'd her well:
    A pretty plot, well chosen to build upon!
    Now, pray, my lord, let's see the devil's writ.
    What have we here?

    [Reads]

    'The duke yet lives, that Henry shall depose;
    But him outlive, and die a violent death.'
    Why, this is just
    'Aio te, AEacida, Romanos vincere posse.'
    Well, to the rest:
    'Tell me what fate awaits the Duke of Suffolk?
    By water shall he die, and take his end.
    What shall betide the Duke of Somerset?
    Let him shun castles;
    Safer shall he be upon the sandy plains
    Than where castles mounted stand.'
    Come, come, my lords;
    These oracles are hardly attain'd,
    And hardly understood.
    The king is now in progress towards Saint Alban's,
    With him the husband of this lovely lady:
    Thither go these news, as fast as horse can
    carry them:
    A sorry breakfast for my lord protector.

BUCKINGHAM    Your grace shall give me leave, my Lord of York,
    To be the post, in hope of his reward.

YORK    At your pleasure, my good lord. Who's within
    there, ho!

    [Enter a Servingman]

    Invite my Lords of Salisbury and Warwick
    To sup with me to-morrow night. Away!

    [Exeunt]




    2 KING HENRY VI


ACT II



SCENE I    Saint Alban's.


    [Enter KING HENRY VI, QUEEN MARGARET, GLOUCESTER,
    CARDINAL, and SUFFOLK, with Falconers halloing]

QUEEN MARGARET    Believe me, lords, for flying at the brook,
    I saw not better sport these seven years' day:
    Yet, by your leave, the wind was very high;
    And, ten to one, old Joan had not gone out.

KING HENRY VI    But what a point, my lord, your falcon made,
    And what a pitch she flew above the rest!
    To see how God in all his creatures works!
    Yea, man and birds are fain of climbing high.

SUFFOLK    No marvel, an it like your majesty,
    My lord protector's hawks do tower so well;
    They know their master loves to be aloft,
    And bears his thoughts above his falcon's pitch.

GLOUCESTER    My lord, 'tis but a base ignoble mind
    That mounts no higher than a bird can soar.

CARDINAL    I thought as much; he would be above the clouds.

GLOUCESTER    Ay, my lord cardinal? how think you by that?
    Were it not good your grace could fly to heaven?

KING HENRY VI    The treasury of everlasting joy.

CARDINAL    Thy heaven is on earth; thine eyes and thoughts
    Beat on a crown, the treasure of thy heart;
    Pernicious protector, dangerous peer,
    That smooth'st it so with king and commonweal!

GLOUCESTER    What, cardinal, is your priesthood grown peremptory?
    Tantaene animis coelestibus irae?
    Churchmen so hot? good uncle, hide such malice;
    With such holiness can you do it?

SUFFOLK    No malice, sir; no more than well becomes
    So good a quarrel and so bad a peer.

GLOUCESTER    As who, my lord?

SUFFOLK           Why, as you, my lord,
    An't like your lordly lord-protectorship.

GLOUCESTER    Why, Suffolk, England knows thine insolence.

QUEEN MARGARET    And thy ambition, Gloucester.

KING HENRY VI    I prithee, peace, good queen,
    And whet not on these furious peers;
    For blessed are the peacemakers on earth.

CARDINAL    Let me be blessed for the peace I make,
    Against this proud protector, with my sword!

GLOUCESTER    [Aside to CARDINAL]  Faith, holy uncle, would
    'twere come to that!

CARDINAL    [Aside to GLOUCESTER]  Marry, when thou darest.

GLOUCESTER    [Aside to CARDINAL]  Make up no factious
    numbers for the matter;
    In thine own person answer thy abuse.

CARDINAL    [Aside to GLOUCESTER]  Ay, where thou darest
    not peep: an if thou darest,
    This evening, on the east side of the grove.

KING HENRY VI    How now, my lords!

CARDINAL           Believe me, cousin Gloucester,
    Had not your man put up the fowl so suddenly,
    We had had more sport.

    [Aside to GLOUCESTER]

         Come with thy two-hand sword.

GLOUCESTER    True, uncle.

CARDINAL    [Aside to GLOUCESTER]  Are ye advised? the
    east side of the grove?

GLOUCESTER    [Aside to CARDINAL]  Cardinal, I am with you.

KING HENRY VI    Why, how now, uncle Gloucester!

GLOUCESTER    Talking of hawking; nothing else, my lord.

    [Aside to CARDINAL]

    Now, by God's mother, priest, I'll shave your crown for this,
    Or all my fence shall fail.

CARDINAL    [Aside to GLOUCESTER]  Medice, teipsum--
    Protector, see to't well, protect yourself.

KING HENRY VI    The winds grow high; so do your stomachs, lords.
    How irksome is this music to my heart!
    When such strings jar, what hope of harmony?
    I pray, my lords, let me compound this strife.

    [Enter a Townsman of Saint Alban's, crying 'A miracle!']

GLOUCESTER    What means this noise?
    Fellow, what miracle dost thou proclaim?

Townsman    A miracle! a miracle!

SUFFOLK    Come to the king and tell him what miracle.

Townsman    Forsooth, a blind man at Saint Alban's shrine,
    Within this half-hour, hath received his sight;
    A man that ne'er saw in his life before.

KING HENRY VI    Now, God be praised, that to believing souls
    Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair!

    [Enter the Mayor of Saint Alban's and his
    brethren, bearing SIMPCOX, between two in a
    chair, SIMPCOX's Wife following]

CARDINAL    Here comes the townsmen on procession,
    To present your highness with the man.

KING HENRY VI    Great is his comfort in this earthly vale,
    Although by his sight his sin be multiplied.

GLOUCESTER    Stand by, my masters: bring him near the king;
    His highness' pleasure is to talk with him.

KING HENRY VI    Good fellow, tell us here the circumstance,
    That we for thee may glorify the Lord.
    What, hast thou been long blind and now restored?

SIMPCOX    Born blind, an't please your grace.

Wife    Ay, indeed, was he.

SUFFOLK    What woman is this?

Wife    His wife, an't like your worship.

GLOUCESTER    Hadst thou been his mother, thou couldst have
    better told.

KING HENRY VI    Where wert thou born?

SIMPCOX    At Berwick in the north, an't like your grace.

KING HENRY VI    Poor soul, God's goodness hath been great to thee:
    Let never day nor night unhallow'd pass,
    But still remember what the Lord hath done.

QUEEN MARGARET    Tell me, good fellow, camest thou here by chance,
    Or of devotion, to this holy shrine?

SIMPCOX    God knows, of pure devotion; being call'd
    A hundred times and oftener, in my sleep,
    By good Saint Alban; who said, 'Simpcox, come,
    Come, offer at my shrine, and I will help thee.'

Wife    Most true, forsooth; and many time and oft
    Myself have heard a voice to call him so.

CARDINAL    What, art thou lame?

SIMPCOX    Ay, God Almighty help me!

SUFFOLK    How camest thou so?

SIMPCOX    A fall off of a tree.

Wife    A plum-tree, master.

GLOUCESTER    How long hast thou been blind?

SIMPCOX    Born so, master.

GLOUCESTER           What, and wouldst climb a tree?

SIMPCOX    But that in all my life, when I was a youth.

Wife    Too true; and bought his climbing very dear.

GLOUCESTER    Mass, thou lovedst plums well, that wouldst
    venture so.

SIMPCOX    Alas, good master, my wife desired some damsons,
    And made me climb, with danger of my life.

GLOUCESTER    A subtle knave! but yet it shall not serve.
    Let me see thine eyes: wink now: now open them:
    In my opinion yet thou seest not well.

SIMPCOX    Yes, master, clear as day, I thank God and
    Saint Alban.

GLOUCESTER    Say'st thou me so? What colour is this cloak of?

SIMPCOX    Red, master; red as blood.

GLOUCESTER    Why, that's well said. What colour is my gown of?

SIMPCOX    Black, forsooth: coal-black as jet.

KING HENRY VI    Why, then, thou know'st what colour jet is of?

SUFFOLK    And yet, I think, jet did he never see.

GLOUCESTER    But cloaks and gowns, before this day, a many.

Wife    Never, before this day, in all his life.

GLOUCESTER    Tell me, sirrah, what's my name?

SIMPCOX    Alas, master, I know not.

GLOUCESTER    What's his name?

SIMPCOX    I know not.

GLOUCESTER    Nor his?

SIMPCOX    No, indeed, master.

GLOUCESTER    What's thine own name?

SIMPCOX    Saunder Simpcox, an if it please you, master.

GLOUCESTER    Then, Saunder, sit there, the lyingest knave in
    Christendom. If thou hadst been born blind, thou
    mightest as well have known all our names as thus to
    name the several colours we do wear. Sight may
    distinguish of colours, but suddenly to nominate them
    all, it is impossible. My lords, Saint Alban here
    hath done a miracle; and would ye not think his
    cunning to be great, that could restore this cripple
    to his legs again?

SIMPCOX    O master, that you could!

GLOUCESTER    My masters of Saint Alban's, have you not beadles in
    your town, and things called whips?

Mayor    Yes, my lord, if it please your grace.

GLOUCESTER    Then send for one presently.

Mayor    Sirrah, go fetch the beadle hither straight.

    [Exit an Attendant]

GLOUCESTER    Now fetch me a stool hither by and by. Now, sirrah,
    if you mean to save yourself from whipping, leap me
    over this stool and run away.

SIMPCOX    Alas, master, I am not able to stand alone:
    You go about to torture me in vain.

    [Enter a Beadle with whips]

GLOUCESTER    Well, sir, we must have you find your legs. Sirrah
    beadle, whip him till he leap over that same stool.

Beadle    I will, my lord. Come on, sirrah; off with your
    doublet quickly.

SIMPCOX    Alas, master, what shall I do? I am not able to stand.

    [After the Beadle hath hit him once, he leaps over
    the stool and runs away; and they follow and cry, 'A miracle!']

KING HENRY VI    O God, seest Thou this, and bearest so long?

QUEEN MARGARET    It made me laugh to see the villain run.

GLOUCESTER    Follow the knave; and take this drab away.

Wife    Alas, sir, we did it for pure need.

GLOUCESTER    Let them be whipped through every market-town, till
    they come to Berwick, from whence they came.

    [Exeunt Wife, Beadle, Mayor, &c]

CARDINAL    Duke Humphrey has done a miracle to-day.

SUFFOLK    True; made the lame to leap and fly away.

GLOUCESTER    But you have done more miracles than I;
    You made in a day, my lord, whole towns to fly.

    [Enter BUCKINGHAM]

KING HENRY VI    What tidings with our cousin Buckingham?

BUCKINGHAM    Such as my heart doth tremble to unfold.
    A sort of naughty persons, lewdly bent,
    Under the countenance and confederacy
    Of Lady Eleanor, the protector's wife,
    The ringleader and head of all this rout,
    Have practised dangerously against your state,
    Dealing with witches and with conjurers:
    Whom we have apprehended in the fact;
    Raising up wicked spirits from under ground,
    Demanding of King Henry's life and death,
    And other of your highness' privy-council;
    As more at large your grace shall understand.

CARDINAL    [Aside to GLOUCESTER]  And so, my lord protector,
    by this means
    Your lady is forthcoming yet at London.
    This news, I think, hath turn'd your weapon's edge;
    'Tis like, my lord, you will not keep your hour.

GLOUCESTER    Ambitious churchman, leave to afflict my heart:
    Sorrow and grief have vanquish'd all my powers;
    And, vanquish'd as I am, I yield to thee,
    Or to the meanest groom.

KING HENRY VI    O God, what mischiefs work the wicked ones,
    Heaping confusion on their own heads thereby!

QUEEN MARGARET    Gloucester, see here the tainture of thy nest.
    And look thyself be faultless, thou wert best.

GLOUCESTER    Madam, for myself, to heaven I do appeal,
    How I have loved my king and commonweal:
    And, for my wife, I know not how it stands;
    Sorry I am to hear what I have heard:
    Noble she is, but if she have forgot
    Honour and virtue and conversed with such
    As, like to pitch, defile nobility,
    I banish her my bed and company
    And give her as a prey to law and shame,
    That hath dishonour'd Gloucester's honest name.

KING HENRY VI    Well, for this night we will repose us here:
    To-morrow toward London back again,
    To look into this business thoroughly
    And call these foul offenders to their answers
    And poise the cause in justice' equal scales,
    Whose beam stands sure, whose rightful cause prevails.

    [Flourish. Exeunt]




    2 KING HENRY VI


ACT II



SCENE II    London. YORK'S garden.


    [Enter YORK, SALISBURY, and WARWICK]

YORK    Now, my good Lords of Salisbury and Warwick,
    Our simple supper ended, give me leave
    In this close walk to satisfy myself,
    In craving your opinion of my title,
    Which is infallible, to England's crown.

SALISBURY    My lord, I long to hear it at full.

WARWICK    Sweet York, begin: and if thy claim be good,
    The Nevils are thy subjects to command.

YORK    Then thus:
    Edward the Third, my lords, had seven sons:
    The first, Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales;
    The second, William of Hatfield, and the third,
    Lionel Duke of Clarence: next to whom
    Was John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster;
    The fifth was Edmund Langley, Duke of York;
    The sixth was Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester;
    William of Windsor was the seventh and last.
    Edward the Black Prince died before his father
    And left behind him Richard, his only son,
    Who after Edward the Third's death reign'd as king;
    Till Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster,
    The eldest son and heir of John of Gaunt,
    Crown'd by the name of Henry the Fourth,
    Seized on the realm, deposed the rightful king,
    Sent his poor queen to France, from whence she came,
    And him to Pomfret; where, as all you know,
    Harmless Richard was murder'd traitorously.

WARWICK    Father, the duke hath told the truth:
    Thus got the house of Lancaster the crown.

YORK    Which now they hold by force and not by right;
    For Richard, the first son's heir, being dead,
    The issue of the next son should have reign'd.

SALISBURY    But William of Hatfield died without an heir.

YORK    The third son, Duke of Clarence, from whose line
    I claimed the crown, had issue, Philippe, a daughter,
    Who married Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March:
    Edmund had issue, Roger Earl of March;
    Roger had issue, Edmund, Anne and Eleanor.

SALISBURY    This Edmund, in the reign of Bolingbroke,
    As I have read, laid claim unto the crown;
    And, but for Owen Glendower, had been king,
    Who kept him in captivity till he died.
    But to the rest.

YORK           His eldest sister, Anne,
    My mother, being heir unto the crown
    Married Richard Earl of Cambridge; who was son
    To Edmund Langley, Edward the Third's fifth son.
    By her I claim the kingdom: she was heir
    To Roger Earl of March, who was the son
    Of Edmund Mortimer, who married Philippe,
    Sole daughter unto Lionel Duke of Clarence:
    So, if the issue of the elder son
    Succeed before the younger, I am king.

WARWICK    What plain proceeding is more plain than this?
    Henry doth claim the crown from John of Gaunt,
    The fourth son; York claims it from the third.
    Till Lionel's issue fails, his should not reign:
    It fails not yet, but flourishes in thee
    And in thy sons, fair slips of such a stock.
    Then, father Salisbury, kneel we together;
    And in this private plot be we the first
    That shall salute our rightful sovereign
    With honour of his birthright to the crown.

BOTH    Long live our sovereign Richard, England's king!

YORK    We thank you, lords. But I am not your king
    Till I be crown'd and that my sword be stain'd
    With heart-blood of the house of Lancaster;
    And that's not suddenly to be perform'd,
    But with advice and silent secrecy.
    Do you as I do in these dangerous days:
    Wink at the Duke of Suffolk's insolence,
    At Beaufort's pride, at Somerset's ambition,
    At Buckingham and all the crew of them,
    Till they have snared the shepherd of the flock,
    That virtuous prince, the good Duke Humphrey:
    'Tis that they seek, and they in seeking that
    Shall find their deaths, if York can prophesy.

SALISBURY    My lord, break we off; we know your mind at full.

WARWICK    My heart assures me that the Earl of Warwick
    Shall one day make the Duke of York a king.

YORK    And, Nevil, this I do assure myself:
    Richard shall live to make the Earl of Warwick
    The greatest man in England but the king.

    [Exeunt]




    2 KING HENRY VI


ACT II



SCENE III    A hall of justice.


    [Sound trumpets. Enter KING HENRY VI, QUEEN
    MARGARET, GLOUCESTER, YORK, SUFFOLK, and SALISBURY;
    the DUCHESS, MARGARET JOURDAIN, SOUTHWELL, HUME,
    and BOLINGBROKE, under guard]

KING HENRY VI    Stand forth, Dame Eleanor Cobham, Gloucester's wife:
    In sight of God and us, your guilt is great:
    Receive the sentence of the law for sins
    Such as by God's book are adjudged to death.
    You four, from hence to prison back again;
    From thence unto the place of execution:
    The witch in Smithfield shall be burn'd to ashes,
    And you three shall be strangled on the gallows.
    You, madam, for you are more nobly born,
    Despoiled of your honour in your life,
    Shall, after three days' open penance done,
    Live in your country here in banishment,
    With Sir John Stanley, in the Isle of Man.

DUCHESS    Welcome is banishment; welcome were my death.

GLOUCESTER    Eleanor, the law, thou see'st, hath judged thee:
    I cannot justify whom the law condemns.

    [Exeunt DUCHESS and other prisoners, guarded]

    Mine eyes are full of tears, my heart of grief.
    Ah, Humphrey, this dishonour in thine age
    Will bring thy head with sorrow to the ground!
    I beseech your majesty, give me leave to go;
    Sorrow would solace and mine age would ease.

KING HENRY VI    Stay, Humphrey Duke of Gloucester: ere thou go,
    Give up thy staff: Henry will to himself
    Protector be; and God shall be my hope,
    My stay, my guide and lantern to my feet:
    And go in peace, Humphrey, no less beloved
    Than when thou wert protector to thy King.

QUEEN MARGARET    I see no reason why a king of years
    Should be to be protected like a child.
    God and King Henry govern England's realm.
    Give up your staff, sir, and the king his realm.

GLOUCESTER    My staff? here, noble Henry, is my staff:
    As willingly do I the same resign
    As e'er thy father Henry made it mine;
    And even as willingly at thy feet I leave it
    As others would ambitiously receive it.
    Farewell, good king: when I am dead and gone,
    May honourable peace attend thy throne!

    [Exit]

QUEEN MARGARET    Why, now is Henry king, and Margaret queen;
    And Humphrey Duke of Gloucester scarce himself,
    That bears so shrewd a maim; two pulls at once;
    His lady banish'd, and a limb lopp'd off.
    This staff of honour raught, there let it stand
    Where it best fits to be, in Henry's hand.

SUFFOLK    Thus droops this lofty pine and hangs his sprays;
    Thus Eleanor's pride dies in her youngest days.

YORK    Lords, let him go. Please it your majesty,
    This is the day appointed for the combat;
    And ready are the appellant and defendant,
    The armourer and his man, to enter the lists,
    So please your highness to behold the fight.

QUEEN MARGARET    Ay, good my lord; for purposely therefore
    Left I the court, to see this quarrel tried.

KING HENRY VI    O God's name, see the lists and all things fit:
    Here let them end it; and God defend the right!

YORK    I never saw a fellow worse bested,
    Or more afraid to fight, than is the appellant,
    The servant of this armourer, my lords.

    [Enter at one door, HORNER, the Armourer, and his
    Neighbours, drinking to him so much that he is drunk;
    and he enters with a drum before him and his staff
    with a sand-bag fastened to it; and at the other
    door PETER, his man, with a drum and sand-bag, and
    'Prentices drinking to him]

First Neighbour    Here, neighbour Horner, I drink to you in a cup of
    sack: and fear not, neighbour, you shall do well enough.

Second Neighbour    And here, neighbour, here's a cup of charneco.

Third Neighbour    And here's a pot of good double beer, neighbour:
    drink, and fear not your man.

HORNER    Let it come, i' faith, and I'll pledge you all; and
    a fig for Peter!

First 'Prentice    Here, Peter, I drink to thee: and be not afraid.

Second 'Prentice    Be merry, Peter, and fear not thy master: fight
    for credit of the 'prentices.

PETER    I thank you all: drink, and pray for me, I pray
    you; for I think I have taken my last draught in
    this world. Here, Robin, an if I die, I give thee
    my apron: and, Will, thou shalt have my hammer:
    and here, Tom, take all the money that I have. O
    Lord bless me! I pray God! for I am never able to
    deal with my master, he hath learnt me so much fence already.

SALISBURY    Come, leave your drinking, and fall to blows.
    Sirrah, what's thy name?

PETER    Peter, forsooth.

SALISBURY    Peter! what more?

PETER    Thump.

SALISBURY    Thump! then see thou thump thy master well.

HORNER    Masters, I am come hither, as it were, upon my man's
    instigation, to prove him a knave and myself an
    honest man: and touching the Duke of York, I will
    take my death, I never meant him any ill, nor the
    king, nor the queen: and therefore, Peter, have at
    thee with a downright blow!

YORK    Dispatch: this knave's tongue begins to double.
    Sound, trumpets, alarum to the combatants!

    [Alarum. They fight, and PETER strikes him down]

HORNER    Hold, Peter, hold! I confess, I confess treason.

    [Dies]

YORK    Take away his weapon. Fellow, thank God, and the
    good wine in thy master's way.

PETER    O God, have I overcome mine enemy in this presence?
    O Peter, thou hast prevailed in right!

KING HENRY VI    Go, take hence that traitor from our sight;
    For his death we do perceive his guilt:
    And God in justice hath revealed to us
    The truth and innocence of this poor fellow,
    Which he had thought to have murder'd wrongfully.
    Come, fellow, follow us for thy reward.

    [Sound a flourish. Exeunt]




    2 KING HENRY VI


ACT II



SCENE IV    A street.


    [Enter GLOUCESTER and his Servingmen, in
    mourning cloaks]

GLOUCESTER    Thus sometimes hath the brightest day a cloud;
    And after summer evermore succeeds
    Barren winter, with his wrathful nipping cold:
    So cares and joys abound, as seasons fleet.
    Sirs, what's o'clock?

Servants    Ten, my lord.

GLOUCESTER    Ten is the hour that was appointed me
    To watch the coming of my punish'd duchess:
    Uneath may she endure the flinty streets,
    To tread them with her tender-feeling feet.
    Sweet Nell, ill can thy noble mind abrook
    The abject people gazing on thy face,
    With envious looks, laughing at thy shame,
    That erst did follow thy proud chariot-wheels
    When thou didst ride in triumph through the streets.
    But, soft! I think she comes; and I'll prepare
    My tear-stain'd eyes to see her miseries.

    [Enter the DUCHESS in a white sheet, and a taper
    burning in her hand; with STANLEY, the Sheriff,
    and Officers]

Servant    So please your grace, we'll take her from the sheriff.

GLOUCESTER    No, stir not, for your lives; let her pass by.

DUCHESS    Come you, my lord, to see my open shame?
    Now thou dost penance too. Look how they gaze!
    See how the giddy multitude do point,
    And nod their heads, and throw their eyes on thee!
    Ah, Gloucester, hide thee from their hateful looks,
    And, in thy closet pent up, rue my shame,
    And ban thine enemies, both mine and thine!

GLOUCESTER    Be patient, gentle Nell; forget this grief.

DUCHESS    Ah, Gloucester, teach me to forget myself!
    For whilst I think I am thy married wife
    And thou a prince, protector of this land,
    Methinks I should not thus be led along,
    Mail'd up in shame, with papers on my back,
    And followed with a rabble that rejoice
    To see my tears and hear my deep-fet groans.
    The ruthless flint doth cut my tender feet,
    And when I start, the envious people laugh
    And bid me be advised how I tread.
    Ah, Humphrey, can I bear this shameful yoke?
    Trow'st thou that e'er I'll look upon the world,
    Or count them happy that enjoy the sun?
    No; dark shall be my light and night my day;
    To think upon my pomp shall be my hell.
    Sometime I'll say, I am Duke Humphrey's wife,
    And he a prince and ruler of the land:
    Yet so he ruled and such a prince he was
    As he stood by whilst I, his forlorn duchess,
    Was made a wonder and a pointing-stock
    To every idle rascal follower.
    But be thou mild and blush not at my shame,
    Nor stir at nothing till the axe of death
    Hang over thee, as, sure, it shortly will;
    For Suffolk, he that can do all in all
    With her that hateth thee and hates us all,
    And York and impious Beaufort, that false priest,
    Have all limed bushes to betray thy wings,
    And, fly thou how thou canst, they'll tangle thee:
    But fear not thou, until thy foot be snared,
    Nor never seek prevention of thy foes.

GLOUCESTER    Ah, Nell, forbear! thou aimest all awry;
    I must offend before I be attainted;
    And had I twenty times so many foes,
    And each of them had twenty times their power,
    All these could not procure me any scathe,
    So long as I am loyal, true and crimeless.
    Wouldst have me rescue thee from this reproach?
    Why, yet thy scandal were not wiped away
    But I in danger for the breach of law.
    Thy greatest help is quiet, gentle Nell:
    I pray thee, sort thy heart to patience;
    These few days' wonder will be quickly worn.

    [Enter a Herald]

Herald    I summon your grace to his majesty's parliament,
    Holden at Bury the first of this next month.

GLOUCESTER    And my consent ne'er ask'd herein before!
    This is close dealing. Well, I will be there.

    [Exit Herald]

    My Nell, I take my leave: and, master sheriff,
    Let not her penance exceed the king's commission.

Sheriff    An't please your grace, here my commission stays,
    And Sir John Stanley is appointed now
    To take her with him to the Isle of Man.

GLOUCESTER    Must you, Sir John, protect my lady here?

STANLEY    So am I given in charge, may't please your grace.

GLOUCESTER    Entreat her not the worse in that I pray
    You use her well: the world may laugh again;
    And I may live to do you kindness if
    You do it her: and so, Sir John, farewell!

DUCHESS    What, gone, my lord, and bid me not farewell!

GLOUCESTER    Witness my tears, I cannot stay to speak.

    [Exeunt GLOUCESTER and Servingmen]

DUCHESS    Art thou gone too? all comfort go with thee!
    For none abides with me: my joy is death;
    Death, at whose name I oft have been afear'd,
    Because I wish'd this world's eternity.
    Stanley, I prithee, go, and take me hence;
    I care not whither, for I beg no favour,
    Only convey me where thou art commanded.

STANLEY    Why, madam, that is to the Isle of Man;
    There to be used according to your state.

DUCHESS    That's bad enough, for I am but reproach:
    And shall I then be used reproachfully?

STANLEY    Like to a duchess, and Duke Humphrey's lady;
    According to that state you shall be used.

DUCHESS    Sheriff, farewell, and better than I fare,
    Although thou hast been conduct of my shame.

Sheriff    It is my office; and, madam, pardon me.

DUCHESS    Ay, ay, farewell; thy office is discharged.
    Come, Stanley, shall we go?

STANLEY    Madam, your penance done, throw off this sheet,
    And go we to attire you for our journey.

DUCHESS    My shame will not be shifted with my sheet:
    No, it will hang upon my richest robes
    And show itself, attire me how I can.
    Go, lead the way; I long to see my prison.

    [Exeunt]




    2 KING HENRY VI


ACT III



SCENE I    The Abbey at Bury St. Edmund's.


    [Sound a sennet. Enter KING HENRY VI, QUEEN
    MARGARET, CARDINAL, SUFFOLK, YORK, BUCKINGHAM,
    SALISBURY and WARWICK to the Parliament]

KING HENRY VI    I muse my Lord of Gloucester is not come:
    'Tis not his wont to be the hindmost man,
    Whate'er occasion keeps him from us now.

QUEEN MARGARET    Can you not see? or will ye not observe
    The strangeness of his alter'd countenance?
    With what a majesty he bears himself,
    How insolent of late he is become,
    How proud, how peremptory, and unlike himself?
    We know the time since he was mild and affable,
    And if we did but glance a far-off look,
    Immediately he was upon his knee,
    That all the court admired him for submission:
    But meet him now, and, be it in the morn,
    When every one will give the time of day,
    He knits his brow and shows an angry eye,
    And passeth by with stiff unbowed knee,
    Disdaining duty that to us belongs.
    Small curs are not regarded when they grin;
    But great men tremble when the lion roars;
    And Humphrey is no little man in England.
    First note that he is near you in descent,
    And should you fall, he as the next will mount.
    Me seemeth then it is no policy,
    Respecting what a rancorous mind he bears
    And his advantage following your decease,
    That he should come about your royal person
    Or be admitted to your highness' council.
    By flattery hath he won the commons' hearts,
    And when he please to make commotion,
    'Tis to be fear'd they all will follow him.
    Now 'tis the spring, and weeds are shallow-rooted;
    Suffer them now, and they'll o'ergrow the garden
    And choke the herbs for want of husbandry.
    The reverent care I bear unto my lord
    Made me collect these dangers in the duke.
    If it be fond, call it a woman's fear;
    Which fear if better reasons can supplant,
    I will subscribe and say I wrong'd the duke.
    My Lord of Suffolk, Buckingham, and York,
    Reprove my allegation, if you can;
    Or else conclude my words effectual.

SUFFOLK    Well hath your highness seen into this duke;
    And, had I first been put to speak my mind,
    I think I should have told your grace's tale.
    The duchess, by his subornation,
    Upon my life, began her devilish practises:
    Or, if he were not privy to those faults,
    Yet, by reputing of his high descent,
    As next the king he was successive heir,
    And such high vaunts of his nobility,
    Did instigate the bedlam brain-sick duchess
    By wicked means to frame our sovereign's fall.
    Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep;
    And in his simple show he harbours treason.
    The fox barks not when he would steal the lamb.
    No, no, my sovereign; Gloucester is a man
    Unsounded yet and full of deep deceit.

CARDINAL    Did he not, contrary to form of law,
    Devise strange deaths for small offences done?

YORK    And did he not, in his protectorship,
    Levy great sums of money through the realm
    For soldiers' pay in France, and never sent it?
    By means whereof the towns each day revolted.

BUCKINGHAM    Tut, these are petty faults to faults unknown.
    Which time will bring to light in smooth
    Duke Humphrey.

KING HENRY VI    My lords, at once: the care you have of us,
    To mow down thorns that would annoy our foot,
    Is worthy praise: but, shall I speak my conscience,
    Our kinsman Gloucester is as innocent
    From meaning treason to our royal person
    As is the sucking lamb or harmless dove:
    The duke is virtuous, mild and too well given
    To dream on evil or to work my downfall.

QUEEN MARGARET    Ah, what's more dangerous than this fond affiance!
    Seems he a dove? his feathers are but borrowed,
    For he's disposed as the hateful raven:
    Is he a lamb? his skin is surely lent him,
    For he's inclined as is the ravenous wolf.
    Who cannot steal a shape that means deceit?
    Take heed, my lord; the welfare of us all
    Hangs on the cutting short that fraudful man.

    [Enter SOMERSET]

SOMERSET    All health unto my gracious sovereign!

KING HENRY VI    Welcome, Lord Somerset. What news from France?

SOMERSET    That all your interest in those territories
    Is utterly bereft you; all is lost.

KING HENRY VI    Cold news, Lord Somerset: but God's will be done!

YORK    [Aside]  Cold news for me; for I had hope of France
    As firmly as I hope for fertile England.
    Thus are my blossoms blasted in the bud
    And caterpillars eat my leaves away;
    But I will remedy this gear ere long,
    Or sell my title for a glorious grave.

    [Enter GLOUCESTER]

GLOUCESTER    All happiness unto my lord the king!
    Pardon, my liege, that I have stay'd so long.

SUFFOLK    Nay, Gloucester, know that thou art come too soon,
    Unless thou wert more loyal than thou art:
    I do arrest thee of high treason here.

GLOUCESTER    Well, Suffolk, thou shalt not see me blush
    Nor change my countenance for this arrest:
    A heart unspotted is not easily daunted.
    The purest spring is not so free from mud
    As I am clear from treason to my sovereign:
    Who can accuse me? wherein am I guilty?

YORK    'Tis thought, my lord, that you took bribes of France,
    And, being protector, stayed the soldiers' pay;
    By means whereof his highness hath lost France.

GLOUCESTER    Is it but thought so? what are they that think it?
    I never robb'd the soldiers of their pay,
    Nor ever had one penny bribe from France.
    So help me God, as I have watch'd the night,
    Ay, night by night, in studying good for England,
    That doit that e'er I wrested from the king,
    Or any groat I hoarded to my use,
    Be brought against me at my trial-day!
    No; many a pound of mine own proper store,
    Because I would not tax the needy commons,
    Have I disbursed to the garrisons,
    And never ask'd for restitution.

CARDINAL    It serves you well, my lord, to say so much.

GLOUCESTER    I say no more than truth, so help me God!

YORK    In your protectorship you did devise
    Strange tortures for offenders never heard of,
    That England was defamed by tyranny.

GLOUCESTER    Why, 'tis well known that, whiles I was
    protector,
    Pity was all the fault that was in me;
    For I should melt at an offender's tears,
    And lowly words were ransom for their fault.
    Unless it were a bloody murderer,
    Or foul felonious thief that fleeced poor passengers,
    I never gave them condign punishment:
    Murder indeed, that bloody sin, I tortured
    Above the felon or what trespass else.

SUFFOLK    My lord, these faults are easy, quickly answered:
    But mightier crimes are laid unto your charge,
    Whereof you cannot easily purge yourself.
    I do arrest you in his highness' name;
    And here commit you to my lord cardinal
    To keep, until your further time of trial.

KING HENRY VI    My lord of Gloucester, 'tis my special hope
    That you will clear yourself from all suspect:
    My conscience tells me you are innocent.

GLOUCESTER    Ah, gracious lord, these days are dangerous:
    Virtue is choked with foul ambition
    And charity chased hence by rancour's hand;
    Foul subornation is predominant
    And equity exiled your highness' land.
    I know their complot is to have my life,
    And if my death might make this island happy,
    And prove the period of their tyranny,
    I would expend it with all willingness:
    But mine is made the prologue to their play;
    For thousands more, that yet suspect no peril,
    Will not conclude their plotted tragedy.
    Beaufort's red sparkling eyes blab his heart's malice,
    And Suffolk's cloudy brow his stormy hate;
    Sharp Buckingham unburthens with his tongue
    The envious load that lies upon his heart;
    And dogged York, that reaches at the moon,
    Whose overweening arm I have pluck'd back,
    By false accuse doth level at my life:
    And you, my sovereign lady, with the rest,
    Causeless have laid disgraces on my head,
    And with your best endeavour have stirr'd up
    My liefest liege to be mine enemy:
    Ay, all you have laid your heads together--
    Myself had notice of your conventicles--
    And all to make away my guiltless life.
    I shall not want false witness to condemn me,
    Nor store of treasons to augment my guilt;
    The ancient proverb will be well effected:
    'A staff is quickly found to beat a dog.'

CARDINAL    My liege, his railing is intolerable:
    If those that care to keep your royal person
    From treason's secret knife and traitors' rage
    Be thus upbraided, chid and rated at,
    And the offender granted scope of speech,
    'Twill make them cool in zeal unto your grace.

SUFFOLK    Hath he not twit our sovereign lady here
    With ignominious words, though clerkly couch'd,
    As if she had suborned some to swear
    False allegations to o'erthrow his state?

QUEEN MARGARET    But I can give the loser leave to chide.

GLOUCESTER    Far truer spoke than meant: I lose, indeed;
    Beshrew the winners, for they play'd me false!
    And well such losers may have leave to speak.

BUCKINGHAM    He'll wrest the sense and hold us here all day:
    Lord cardinal, he is your prisoner.

CARDINAL    Sirs, take away the duke, and guard him sure.

GLOUCESTER    Ah! thus King Henry throws away his crutch
    Before his legs be firm to bear his body.
    Thus is the shepherd beaten from thy side,
    And wolves are gnarling who shall gnaw thee first.
    Ah, that my fear were false! ah, that it were!
    For, good King Henry, thy decay I fear.

    [Exit, guarded]

KING HENRY VI    My lords, what to your wisdoms seemeth best,
    Do or undo, as if ourself were here.

QUEEN MARGARET    What, will your highness leave the parliament?

KING HENRY VI    Ay, Margaret; my heart is drown'd with grief,
    Whose flood begins to flow within mine eyes,
    My body round engirt with misery,
    For what's more miserable than discontent?
    Ah, uncle Humphrey! in thy face I see
    The map of honour, truth and loyalty:
    And yet, good Humphrey, is the hour to come
    That e'er I proved thee false or fear'd thy faith.
    What louring star now envies thy estate,
    That these great lords and Margaret our queen
    Do seek subversion of thy harmless life?
    Thou never didst them wrong, nor no man wrong;
    And as the butcher takes away the calf
    And binds the wretch, and beats it when it strays,
    Bearing it to the bloody slaughter-house,
    Even so remorseless have they borne him hence;
    And as the dam runs lowing up and down,
    Looking the way her harmless young one went,
    And can do nought but wail her darling's loss,
    Even so myself bewails good Gloucester's case
    With sad unhelpful tears, and with dimm'd eyes
    Look after him and cannot do him good,
    So mighty are his vowed enemies.
    His fortunes I will weep; and, 'twixt each groan
    Say 'Who's a traitor? Gloucester he is none.'

    [Exeunt all but QUEEN MARGARET, CARDINAL,
    SUFFOLK, and YORK; SOMERSET remains apart]

QUEEN MARGARET    Free lords, cold snow melts with the sun's hot beams.
    Henry my lord is cold in great affairs,
    Too full of foolish pity, and Gloucester's show
    Beguiles him as the mournful crocodile
    With sorrow snares relenting passengers,
    Or as the snake roll'd in a flowering bank,
    With shining chequer'd slough, doth sting a child
    That for the beauty thinks it excellent.
    Believe me, lords, were none more wise than I--
    And yet herein I judge mine own wit good--
    This Gloucester should be quickly rid the world,
    To rid us of the fear we have of him.

CARDINAL    That he should die is worthy policy;
    But yet we want a colour for his death:
    'Tis meet he be condemn'd by course of law.

SUFFOLK    But, in my mind, that were no policy:
    The king will labour still to save his life,
    The commons haply rise, to save his life;
    And yet we have but trivial argument,
    More than mistrust, that shows him worthy death.

YORK    So that, by this, you would not have him die.

SUFFOLK    Ah, York, no man alive so fain as I!

YORK    'Tis York that hath more reason for his death.
    But, my lord cardinal, and you, my Lord of Suffolk,
    Say as you think, and speak it from your souls,
    Were't not all one, an empty eagle were set
    To guard the chicken from a hungry kite,
    As place Duke Humphrey for the king's protector?

QUEEN MARGARET    So the poor chicken should be sure of death.

SUFFOLK    Madam, 'tis true; and were't not madness, then,
    To make the fox surveyor of the fold?
    Who being accused a crafty murderer,
    His guilt should be but idly posted over,
    Because his purpose is not executed.
    No; let him die, in that he is a fox,
    By nature proved an enemy to the flock,
    Before his chaps be stain'd with crimson blood,
    As Humphrey, proved by reasons, to my liege.
    And do not stand on quillets how to slay him:
    Be it by gins, by snares, by subtlety,
    Sleeping or waking, 'tis no matter how,
    So he be dead; for that is good deceit
    Which mates him first that first intends deceit.

QUEEN MARGARET    Thrice-noble Suffolk, 'tis resolutely spoke.

SUFFOLK    Not resolute, except so much were done;
    For things are often spoke and seldom meant:
    But that my heart accordeth with my tongue,
    Seeing the deed is meritorious,
    And to preserve my sovereign from his foe,
    Say but the word, and I will be his priest.

CARDINAL    But I would have him dead, my Lord of Suffolk,
    Ere you can take due orders for a priest:
    Say you consent and censure well the deed,
    And I'll provide his executioner,
    I tender so the safety of my liege.

SUFFOLK    Here is my hand, the deed is worthy doing.

QUEEN MARGARET    And so say I.

YORK    And I    and now we three have spoke it,
    It skills not greatly who impugns our doom.

    [Enter a Post]

Post    Great lords, from Ireland am I come amain,
    To signify that rebels there are up
    And put the Englishmen unto the sword:
    Send succors, lords, and stop the rage betime,
    Before the wound do grow uncurable;
    For, being green, there is great hope of help.

CARDINAL    A breach that craves a quick expedient stop!
    What counsel give you in this weighty cause?

YORK    That Somerset be sent as regent thither:
    'Tis meet that lucky ruler be employ'd;
    Witness the fortune he hath had in France.

SOMERSET    If York, with all his far-fet policy,
    Had been the regent there instead of me,
    He never would have stay'd in France so long.

YORK    No, not to lose it all, as thou hast done:
    I rather would have lost my life betimes
    Than bring a burthen of dishonour home
    By staying there so long till all were lost.
    Show me one scar character'd on thy skin:
    Men's flesh preserved so whole do seldom win.

QUEEN MARGARET    Nay, then, this spark will prove a raging fire,
    If wind and fuel be brought to feed it with:
    No more, good York; sweet Somerset, be still:
    Thy fortune, York, hadst thou been regent there,
    Might happily have proved far worse than his.

YORK    What, worse than nought? nay, then, a shame take all!

SOMERSET    And, in the number, thee that wishest shame!

CARDINAL    My Lord of York, try what your fortune is.
    The uncivil kerns of Ireland are in arms
    And temper clay with blood of Englishmen:
    To Ireland will you lead a band of men,
    Collected choicely, from each county some,
    And try your hap against the Irishmen?

YORK    I will, my lord, so please his majesty.

SUFFOLK    Why, our authority is his consent,
    And what we do establish he confirms:
    Then, noble York, take thou this task in hand.

YORK    I am content: provide me soldiers, lords,
    Whiles I take order for mine own affairs.

SUFFOLK    A charge, Lord York, that I will see perform'd.
    But now return we to the false Duke Humphrey.

CARDINAL    No more of him; for I will deal with him
    That henceforth he shall trouble us no more.
    And so break off; the day is almost spent:
    Lord Suffolk, you and I must talk of that event.

YORK    My Lord of Suffolk, within fourteen days
    At Bristol I expect my soldiers;
    For there I'll ship them all for Ireland.

SUFFOLK    I'll see it truly done, my Lord of York.

    [Exeunt all but YORK]

YORK    Now, York, or never, steel thy fearful thoughts,
    And change misdoubt to resolution:
    Be that thou hopest to be, or what thou art
    Resign to death; it is not worth the enjoying:
    Let pale-faced fear keep with the mean-born man,
    And find no harbour in a royal heart.
    Faster than spring-time showers comes thought
    on thought,
    And not a thought but thinks on dignity.
    My brain more busy than the labouring spider
    Weaves tedious snares to trap mine enemies.
    Well, nobles, well, 'tis politicly done,
    To send me packing with an host of men:
    I fear me you but warm the starved snake,
    Who, cherish'd in your breasts, will sting
    your hearts.
    'Twas men I lack'd and you will give them me:
    I take it kindly; and yet be well assured
    You put sharp weapons in a madman's hands.
    Whiles I in Ireland nourish a mighty band,
    I will stir up in England some black storm
    Shall blow ten thousand souls to heaven or hell;
    And this fell tempest shall not cease to rage
    Until the golden circuit on my head,
    Like to the glorious sun's transparent beams,
    Do calm the fury of this mad-bred flaw.
    And, for a minister of my intent,
    I have seduced a headstrong Kentishman,
    John Cade of Ashford,
    To make commotion, as full well he can,
    Under the title of John Mortimer.
    In Ireland have I seen this stubborn Cade
    Oppose himself against a troop of kerns,
    And fought so long, till that his thighs with darts
    Were almost like a sharp-quill'd porpentine;
    And, in the end being rescued, I have seen
    Him caper upright like a wild Morisco,
    Shaking the bloody darts as he his bells.
    Full often, like a shag-hair'd crafty kern,
    Hath he conversed with the enemy,
    And undiscover'd come to me again
    And given me notice of their villanies.
    This devil here shall be my substitute;
    For that John Mortimer, which now is dead,
    In face, in gait, in speech, he doth resemble:
    By this I shall perceive the commons' mind,
    How they affect the house and claim of York.
    Say he be taken, rack'd and tortured,
    I know no pain they can inflict upon him
    Will make him say I moved him to those arms.
    Say that he thrive, as 'tis great like he will,
    Why, then from Ireland come I with my strength
    And reap the harvest which that rascal sow'd;
    For Humphrey being dead, as he shall be,
    And Henry put apart, the next for me.

    [Exit]




    2 KING HENRY VI


ACT III



SCENE II    Bury St. Edmund's. A room of state.


    [Enter certain Murderers, hastily]

First Murderer    Run to my Lord of Suffolk; let him know
    We have dispatch'd the duke, as he commanded.

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

    [Enter SUFFOLK]

First Murder    Here comes my lord.

SUFFOLK    Now, sirs, have you dispatch'd this thing?

First 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?

First Murderer    'Tis, my good lord.

SUFFOLK    Away! be gone.

    [Exeunt Murderers]

    [Sound trumpets. Enter KING HENRY VI, QUEEN
    MARGARET, CARDINAL, SOMERSET, with Attendants]

KING HENRY VI    Go, call our uncle to our presence straight;
    Say we intend to try his grace to-day.
    If he be guilty, as 'tis published.

SUFFOLK    I'll call him presently, my noble lord.

    [Exit]

KING HENRY VI    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 practise culpable.

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

KING HENRY VI    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.

QUEEN MARGARET    Marry, God forfend!

CARDINAL    God's secret judgment: I did dream to-night
    The duke was dumb and could not speak a word.

    [KING HENRY VI swoons]

QUEEN MARGARET    How fares my lord? Help, lords! the king is dead.

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

QUEEN MARGARET    Run, go, help, help! O Henry, ope thine eyes!

SUFFOLK    He doth revive again: madam, be patient.

KING HENRY VI    O heavenly God!

QUEEN MARGARET    How fares my gracious lord?

SUFFOLK    Comfort, my sovereign! gracious Henry, comfort!

KING HENRY VI    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-conceived sound?
    Hide not thy poison with such sugar'd 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 eye-balls 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.

QUEEN MARGARET    Why do you rate my Lord of Suffolk thus?
    Although the duke was enemy to him,
    Yet he most Christian-like 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 fill'd with my reproach.
    This get I by his death: ay me, unhappy!
    To be a queen, and crown'd with infamy!

KING HENRY VI    Ah, woe is me for Gloucester, wretched man!

QUEEN 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 statue and worship it,
    And make my image but an alehouse sign.
    Was I for this nigh wreck'd 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 blessed 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 drown'd on shore,
    With tears as salt as sea, through thy unkindness:
    The splitting rocks cower'd 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 wish'd 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 call'd them blind and dusky spectacles,
    For losing ken of Albion's wished 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 witch'd 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 murder'd
    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 calm'd their spleenful mutiny,
    Until they hear the order of his death.

KING HENRY VI    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 shall I do, my liege. Stay, Salisbury,
    With the rude multitude till I return.

    [Exit]

KING HENRY VI    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 earthly image,
    What were it but to make my sorrow greater?

    [Re-enter WARWICK and others, bearing
    GLOUCESTER'S body on a bed]

WARWICK    Come hither, gracious sovereign, view this body.

KING HENRY VI    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-famed 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 eye-balls further out than when he lived,
    Staring full ghastly like a strangled man;
    His hair uprear'd, his nostrils stretched with struggling;
    His hands abroad display'd, as one that grasp'd
    And tugg'd for life and was by strength subdued:
    Look, on the sheets his hair you see, is sticking;
    His well-proportion'd beard made rough and rugged,
    Like to the summer's corn by tempest lodged.
    It cannot be but he was murder'd 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 vow'd 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.

QUEEN 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.

QUEEN MARGARET    Are you the butcher, Suffolk? Where's your knife?
    Is Beaufort term'd 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 scoured in his rancorous heart
    That slanders me with murder's crimson badge.
    Say, if thou darest, proud Lord of Warwick-shire,
    That I am faulty in Duke Humphrey's death.

    [Exeunt CARDINAL, SOMERSET, and others]

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

QUEEN 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 demeanor!
    If ever lady wrong'd her lord so much,
    Thy mother took into her blameful bed
    Some stern untutor'd 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 passed speech,
    And say it was thy mother that thou meant'st
    That thou thyself was born in bastardy;
    And after all this fearful homage done,
    Give thee thy hire and send thy soul to hell,
    Pernicious blood-sucker of sleeping men!

SUFFOLK    Thou shall be waking well I shed thy blood,
    If from this presence thou darest 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 VI    What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted!
    Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just,
    And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel
    Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.

    [A noise within]

QUEEN MARGARET    What noise is this?

    [Re-enter SUFFOLK and WARWICK, with their
    weapons drawn]

KING HENRY VI    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.

SALISBURY    [To the Commons, entering]  Sirs, stand apart;
    the king shall know your mind.
    Dread lord, the commons send you word by me,
    Unless Lord Suffolk straight be done to death,
    Or banished fair England's territories,
    They will by violence tear him from your palace
    And torture him with grievous lingering 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 forked tongue,
    That slily glided towards your majesty,
    It were but necessary you were waked,
    Lest, being suffer'd 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, whether you will or no,
    From such fell serpents as false Suffolk is,
    With whose envenomed 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 unpolish'd hinds,
    Could send such message to their sovereign:
    But you, my lord, were glad to be employ'd,
    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 VI    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]

QUEEN MARGARET    O Henry, let me plead for gentle Suffolk!

KING HENRY VI    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.
    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 QUEEN MARGARET and SUFFOLK]

QUEEN 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.

QUEEN 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,
    Deliver'd strongly through my fixed 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;
    Mine hair be fixed on end, as one distract;
    Ay, every joint should seem to curse and ban:
    And even now my burthen'd 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 murdering basilisks!
    Their softest touch as smart as lizards' sting!
    Their music frightful as the serpent's hiss,
    And boding screech-owls make the concert full!
    All the foul terrors in dark-seated hell--

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

SUFFOLK    You bade me ban, and will you bid me leave?
    Now, by the ground that I am banish'd 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.

QUEEN 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 woful 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 banished myself:
    And banished I am, if but from thee.
    Go; speak not to me; even now be gone.
    O, go not yet! Even thus two friends condemn'd
    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 banished;
    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 no joy in nought but that thou livest.

    [Enter VAUX]

QUEEN MARGARET    Wither 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.
    Sometimes 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 overcharged soul;
    And I am sent to tell his majesty
    That even now he cries aloud for him.

QUEEN 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!

QUEEN MARGARET    Away! though parting be a fretful corrosive,
    It is applied 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.

QUEEN MARGARET    And take my heart with thee.

SUFFOLK    A jewel, lock'd into the wofull'st cask
    That ever did contain a thing of worth.
    Even as a splitted bark, so sunder we
    This way fall I to death.

QUEEN MARGARET    This way for me.

    [Exeunt severally]




    2 KING HENRY VI


ACT III



SCENE III    A bedchamber.


    [Enter the KING, SALISBURY, WARWICK, to the
    CARDINAL in bed]

KING HENRY VI    How fares my lord? speak, Beaufort, to
    thy sovereign.

CARDINAL    If thou be'st death, I'll give thee England's treasure,
    Enough to purchase such another island,
    So thou wilt let me live, and feel no pain.

KING HENRY VI    Ah, what a sign it is of evil life,
    Where death's approach is seen so terrible!

WARWICK    Beaufort, it is thy sovereign speaks to thee.

CARDINAL    Bring me unto my trial when you will.
    Died he not in his bed? where should he die?
    Can I make men live, whether they will or no?
    O, torture me no more! I will confess.
    Alive again? then show me where he is:
    I'll give a thousand pound to look upon him.
    He hath no eyes, the dust hath blinded them.
    Comb down his hair; look, look! it stands upright,
    Like lime-twigs set to catch my winged soul.
    Give me some drink; and bid the apothecary
    Bring the strong poison that I bought of him.

KING HENRY VI    O thou eternal Mover of the heavens.
    Look with a gentle eye upon this wretch!
    O, beat away the busy meddling fiend
    That lays strong siege unto this wretch's soul.
    And from his bosom purge this black despair!

WARWICK    See, how the pangs of death do make him grin!

SALISBURY    Disturb him not; let him pass peaceably.

KING HENRY VI    Peace to his soul, if God's good pleasure be!
    Lord cardinal, if thou think'st on heaven's bliss,
    Hold up thy hand, make signal of thy hope.
    He dies, and makes no sign. O God, forgive him!

WARWICK    So bad a death argues a monstrous life.

KING HENRY VI    Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all.
    Close up his eyes and draw the curtain close;
    And let us all to meditation.

    [Exeunt]




    2 KING HENRY VI


ACT IV



SCENE I    The coast of Kent.


    [Alarum. Fight at sea. Ordnance goes off. Enter a
    Captain, a Master, a Master's-mate, WALTER WHITMORE,
    and others; with them SUFFOLK, and others, prisoners]

Captain    The gaudy, blabbing and remorseful day
    Is crept into the bosom of the sea;
    And now loud-howling wolves arouse the jades
    That drag the tragic melancholy night;
    Who, with their drowsy, slow and flagging wings,
    Clip dead men's graves and from their misty jaws
    Breathe foul contagious darkness in the air.
    Therefore bring forth the soldiers of our prize;
    For, whilst our pinnace anchors in the Downs,
    Here shall they make their ransom on the sand,
    Or with their blood stain this discolour'd shore.
    Master, this prisoner freely give I thee;
    And thou that art his mate, make boot of this;
    The other, Walter Whitmore, is thy share.

First Gentleman    What is my ransom, master? let me know.

Master    A thousand crowns, or else lay down your head.

Master's-Mate    And so much shall you give, or off goes yours.

Captain    What, think you much to pay two thousand crowns,
    And bear the name and port of gentlemen?
    Cut both the villains' throats; for die you shall:
    The lives of those which we have lost in fight
    Be counterpoised with such a petty sum!

First Gentleman    I'll give it, sir; and therefore spare my life.

Second Gentleman    And so will I and write home for it straight.

WHITMORE    I lost mine eye in laying the prize aboard,
    And therefore to revenge it, shalt thou die;

    [To SUFFOLK]

    And so should these, if I might have my will.

Captain    Be not so rash; take ransom, let him live.

SUFFOLK    Look on my George; I am a gentleman:
    Rate me at what thou wilt, thou shalt be paid.

WHITMORE    And so am I; my name is Walter Whitmore.
    How now! why start'st thou? what, doth
    death affright?

SUFFOLK    Thy name affrights me, in whose sound is death.
    A cunning man did calculate my birth
    And told me that by water I should die:
    Yet let not this make thee be bloody-minded;
    Thy name is Gaultier, being rightly sounded.

WHITMORE    Gaultier or Walter, which it is, I care not:
    Never yet did base dishonour blur our name,
    But with our sword we wiped away the blot;
    Therefore, when merchant-like I sell revenge,
    Broke be my sword, my arms torn and defaced,
    And I proclaim'd a coward through the world!

SUFFOLK    Stay, Whitmore; for thy prisoner is a prince,
    The Duke of Suffolk, William de la Pole.

WHITMORE    The Duke of Suffolk muffled up in rags!

SUFFOLK    Ay, but these rags are no part of the duke:
    Jove sometimes went disguised, and why not I?

Captain    But Jove was never slain, as thou shalt be.

SUFFOLK    Obscure and lowly swain, King Henry's blood,
    The honourable blood of Lancaster,
    Must not be shed by such a jaded groom.
    Hast thou not kiss'd thy hand and held my stirrup?
    Bare-headed plodded by my foot-cloth mule
    And thought thee happy when I shook my head?
    How often hast thou waited at my cup,
    Fed from my trencher, kneel'd down at the board.
    When I have feasted with Queen Margaret?
    Remember it and let it make thee crest-fall'n,
    Ay, and allay this thy abortive pride;
    How in our voiding lobby hast thou stood
    And duly waited for my coming forth?
    This hand of mine hath writ in thy behalf,
    And therefore shall it charm thy riotous tongue.

WHITMORE    Speak, captain, shall I stab the forlorn swain?

Captain    First let my words stab him, as he hath me.

SUFFOLK    Base slave, thy words are blunt and so art thou.

Captain    Convey him hence and on our longboat's side
    Strike off his head.

SUFFOLK    Thou darest not, for thy own.

Captain    Yes, Pole.

SUFFOLK           Pole!

Captain             Pool! Sir Pool! lord!
    Ay, kennel, puddle, sink; whose filth and dirt
    Troubles the silver spring where England drinks.
    Now will I dam up this thy yawning mouth
    For swallowing the treasure of the realm:
    Thy lips that kiss'd the queen shall sweep the ground;
    And thou that smiledst at good Duke Humphrey's death,
    Against the senseless winds shalt grin in vain,
    Who in contempt shall hiss at thee again:
    And wedded be thou to the hags of hell,
    For daring to affy a mighty lord
    Unto the daughter of a worthless king,
    Having neither subject, wealth, nor diadem.
    By devilish policy art thou grown great,
    And, like ambitious Sylla, overgorged
    With gobbets of thy mother's bleeding heart.
    By thee Anjou and Maine were sold to France,
    The false revolting Normans thorough thee
    Disdain to call us lord, and Picardy
    Hath slain their governors, surprised our forts,
    And sent the ragged soldiers wounded home.
    The princely Warwick, and the Nevils all,
    Whose dreadful swords were never drawn in vain,
    As hating thee, are rising up in arms:
    And now the house of York, thrust from the crown
    By shameful murder of a guiltless king
    And lofty proud encroaching tyranny,
    Burns with revenging fire; whose hopeful colours
    Advance our half-faced sun, striving to shine,
    Under the which is writ 'Invitis nubibus.'
    The commons here in Kent are up in arms:
    And, to conclude, reproach and beggary
    Is crept into the palace of our king.
    And all by thee. Away! convey him hence.

SUFFOLK    O that I were a god, to shoot forth thunder
    Upon these paltry, servile, abject drudges!
    Small things make base men proud: this villain here,
    Being captain of a pinnace, threatens more
    Than Bargulus the strong Illyrian pirate.
    Drones suck not eagles' blood but rob beehives:
    It is impossible that I should die
    By such a lowly vassal as thyself.
    Thy words move rage and not remorse in me:
    I go of message from the queen to France;
    I charge thee waft me safely cross the Channel.

Captain    Walter,--

WHITMORE    Come, Suffolk, I must waft thee to thy death.

SUFFOLK    Gelidus timor occupat artus it is thee I fear.

WHITMORE    Thou shalt have cause to fear before I leave thee.
    What, are ye daunted now? now will ye stoop?

First Gentleman    My gracious lord, entreat him, speak him fair.

SUFFOLK    Suffolk's imperial tongue is stern and rough,
    Used to command, untaught to plead for favour.
    Far be it we should honour such as these
    With humble suit: no, rather let my head
    Stoop to the block than these knees bow to any
    Save to the God of heaven and to my king;
    And sooner dance upon a bloody pole
    Than stand uncover'd to the vulgar groom.
    True nobility is exempt from fear:
    More can I bear than you dare execute.

Captain    Hale him away, and let him talk no more.

SUFFOLK    Come, soldiers, show what cruelty ye can,
    That this my death may never be forgot!
    Great men oft die by vile bezonians:
    A Roman sworder and banditto slave
    Murder'd sweet Tully; Brutus' bastard hand
    Stabb'd Julius Caesar; savage islanders
    Pompey the Great; and Suffolk dies by pirates.

    [Exeunt Whitmore and others with Suffolk]

Captain    And as for these whose ransom we have set,
    It is our pleasure one of them depart;
    Therefore come you with us and let him go.

    [Exeunt all but the First Gentleman]

    [Re-enter WHITMORE with SUFFOLK's body]

WHITMORE    There let his head and lifeless body lie,
    Until the queen his mistress bury it.

    [Exit]

First Gentleman    O barbarous and bloody spectacle!
    His body will I bear unto the king:
    If he revenge it not, yet will his friends;
    So will the queen, that living held him dear.

    [Exit with the body]




    2 KING HENRY VI


ACT IV



SCENE II    Blackheath.


    [Enter GEORGE BEVIS and JOHN HOLLAND]

BEVIS    Come, and get thee a sword, though made of a lath;
    they have been up these two days.

HOLLAND    They have the more need to sleep now, then.

BEVIS    I tell thee, Jack Cade the clothier means to dress
    the commonwealth, and turn it, and set a new nap upon it.

HOLLAND    So he had need, for 'tis threadbare. Well, I say it
    was never merry world in England since gentlemen came up.

BEVIS    O miserable age! virtue is not regarded in handicrafts-men.

HOLLAND    The nobility think scorn to go in leather aprons.

BEVIS    Nay, more, the king's council are no good workmen.

HOLLAND    True; and yet it is said, labour in thy vocation;
    which is as much to say as, let the magistrates be
    labouring men; and therefore should we be
    magistrates.

BEVIS    Thou hast hit it; for there's no better sign of a
    brave mind than a hard hand.

HOLLAND    I see them! I see them! there's Best's son, the
    tanner of Wingham,--

BEVIS    He shall have the skin of our enemies, to make
    dog's-leather of.

HOLLAND    And Dick the Butcher,--

BEVIS    Then is sin struck down like an ox, and iniquity's
    throat cut like a calf.

HOLLAND    And Smith the weaver,--

BEVIS    Argo, their thread of life is spun.

HOLLAND    Come, come, let's fall in with them.

    [Drum. Enter CADE, DICK the Butcher, SMITH the
    Weaver, and a Sawyer, with infinite numbers]

CADE    We John Cade, so termed of our supposed father,--

DICK    [Aside]  Or rather, of stealing a cade of herrings.

CADE    For our enemies shall fall before us, inspired with
    the spirit of putting down kings and princes,
    --Command silence.

DICK    Silence!

CADE    My father was a Mortimer,--

DICK    [Aside]  He was an honest man, and a good
    bricklayer.

CADE    My mother a Plantagenet,--

DICK    [Aside]  I knew her well; she was a midwife.

CADE    My wife descended of the Lacies,--

DICK    [Aside]  She was, indeed, a pedler's daughter, and
    sold many laces.

SMITH    [Aside]  But now of late, notable to travel with her
    furred pack, she washes bucks here at home.

CADE    Therefore am I of an honourable house.

DICK    [Aside]  Ay, by my faith, the field is honourable;
    and there was he borne, under a hedge, for his
    father had never a house but the cage.

CADE    Valiant I am.

SMITH    [Aside]  A' must needs; for beggary is valiant.

CADE    I am able to endure much.

DICK    [Aside]  No question of that; for I have seen him
    whipped three market-days together.

CADE    I fear neither sword nor fire.

SMITH    [Aside]  He need not fear the sword; for his coat is of proof.

DICK    [Aside]  But methinks he should stand in fear of
    fire, being burnt i' the hand for stealing of sheep.

CADE    Be brave, then; for your captain is brave, and vows
    reformation. There shall be in England seven
    halfpenny loaves sold for a penny: the three-hooped
    pot; shall have ten hoops and I will make it felony
    to drink small beer: all the realm shall be in
    common; and in Cheapside shall my palfrey go to
    grass: and when I am king, as king I will be,--

ALL    God save your majesty!

CADE    I thank you, good people: there shall be no money;
    all shall eat and drink on my score; and I will
    apparel them all in one livery, that they may agree
    like brothers and worship me their lord.

DICK    The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.

CADE    Nay, that I mean to do. Is not this a lamentable
    thing, that of the skin of an innocent lamb should
    be made parchment? that parchment, being scribbled
    o'er, should undo a man? Some say the bee stings:
    but I say, 'tis the bee's wax; for I did but seal
    once to a thing, and I was never mine own man
    since. How now! who's there?

    [Enter some, bringing forward the Clerk of Chatham]

SMITH    The clerk of Chatham: he can write and read and
    cast accompt.

CADE    O monstrous!

SMITH    We took him setting of boys' copies.

CADE    Here's a villain!

SMITH    Has a book in his pocket with red letters in't.

CADE    Nay, then, he is a conjurer.

DICK    Nay, he can make obligations, and write court-hand.

CADE    I am sorry for't: the man is a proper man, of mine
    honour; unless I find him guilty, he shall not die.
    Come hither, sirrah, I must examine thee: what is thy name?

Clerk    Emmanuel.

DICK    They use to write it on the top of letters: 'twill
    go hard with you.

CADE    Let me alone. Dost thou use to write thy name? or
    hast thou a mark to thyself, like an honest
    plain-dealing man?

CLERK    Sir, I thank God, I have been so well brought up
    that I can write my name.

ALL    He hath confessed: away with him! he's a villain
    and a traitor.

CADE    Away with him, I say! hang him with his pen and
    ink-horn about his neck.

    [Exit one with the Clerk]

    [Enter MICHAEL]

MICHAEL    Where's our general?

CADE    Here I am, thou particular fellow.

MICHAEL    Fly, fly, fly! Sir Humphrey Stafford and his
    brother are hard by, with the king's forces.

CADE    Stand, villain, stand, or I'll fell thee down. He
    shall be encountered with a man as good as himself:
    he is but a knight, is a'?

MICHAEL    No.

CADE    To equal him, I will make myself a knight presently.

    [Kneels]

    Rise up Sir John Mortimer.

    [Rises]

    Now have at him!

    [Enter SIR HUMPHREY and WILLIAM STAFFORD, with
    drum and soldiers]

SIR HUMPHREY    Rebellious hinds, the filth and scum of Kent,
    Mark'd for the gallows, lay your weapons down;
    Home to your cottages, forsake this groom:
    The king is merciful, if you revolt.

WILLIAM STAFFORD    But angry, wrathful, and inclined to blood,
    If you go forward; therefore yield, or die.

CADE    As for these silken-coated slaves, I pass not:
    It is to you, good people, that I speak,
    Over whom, in time to come, I hope to reign;
    For I am rightful heir unto the crown.

SIR HUMPHREY    Villain, thy father was a plasterer;
    And thou thyself a shearman, art thou not?

CADE    And Adam was a gardener.

WILLIAM STAFFORD    And what of that?

CADE    Marry, this: Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March.
    Married the Duke of Clarence' daughter, did he not?

SIR HUMPHREY    Ay, sir.

CADE    By her he had two children at one birth.

WILLIAM STAFFORD    That's false.

CADE    Ay, there's the question; but I say, 'tis true:
    The elder of them, being put to nurse,
    Was by a beggar-woman stolen away;
    And, ignorant of his birth and parentage,
    Became a bricklayer when he came to age:
    His son am I; deny it, if you can.

DICK    Nay, 'tis too true; therefore he shall be king.

SMITH    Sir, he made a chimney in my father's house, and
    the bricks are alive at this day to testify it;
    therefore deny it not.

SIR HUMPHREY    And will you credit this base drudge's words,
    That speaks he knows not what?

ALL    Ay, marry, will we; therefore get ye gone.

WILLIAM STAFFORD    Jack Cade, the Duke of York hath taught you this.

CADE    [Aside]  He lies, for I invented it myself.
    Go to, sirrah, tell the king from me, that, for his
    father's sake, Henry the Fifth, in whose time boys
    went to span-counter for French crowns, I am content
    he shall reign; but I'll be protector over him.

DICK    And furthermore, well have the Lord Say's head for
    selling the dukedom of Maine.

CADE    And good reason; for thereby is England mained, and
    fain to go with a staff, but that my puissance holds
    it up. Fellow kings, I tell you that that Lord Say
    hath gelded the commonwealth, and made it an eunuch:
    and more than that, he can speak French; and
    therefore he is a traitor.

SIR HUMPHREY    O gross and miserable ignorance!

CADE    Nay, answer, if you can: the Frenchmen are our
    enemies; go to, then, I ask but this: can he that
    speaks with the tongue of an enemy be a good
    counsellor, or no?

ALL    No, no; and therefore we'll have his head.

WILLIAM STAFFORD    Well, seeing gentle words will not prevail,
    Assail them with the army of the king.

SIR HUMPHREY    Herald, away; and throughout every town
    Proclaim them traitors that are up with Cade;
    That those which fly before the battle ends
    May, even in their wives' and children's sight,
    Be hang'd up for example at their doors:
    And you that be the king's friends, follow me.

    [Exeunt WILLIAM STAFFORD and SIR HUMPHREY, and soldiers]

CADE    And you that love the commons, follow me.
    Now show yourselves men; 'tis for liberty.
    We will not leave one lord, one gentleman:
    Spare none but such as go in clouted shoon;
    For they are thrifty honest men, and such
    As would, but that they dare not, take our parts.

DICK    They are all in order and march toward us.

CADE    But then are we in order when we are most
    out of order. Come, march forward.

    [Exeunt]




    2 KING HENRY VI


ACT IV



SCENE III    Another part of Blackheath.


    [Alarums to the fight, wherein SIR HUMPHREY and
    WILLIAM STAFFORD are slain. Enter CADE and the rest]

CADE    Where's Dick, the butcher of Ashford?

DICK    Here, sir.

CADE    They fell before thee like sheep and oxen, and thou
    behavedst thyself as if thou hadst been in thine own
    slaughter-house: therefore thus will I reward thee,
    the Lent shall be as long again as it is; and thou
    shalt have a licence to kill for a hundred lacking
    one.

DICK    I desire no more.

CADE    And, to speak truth, thou deservest no less. This
    monument of the victory will I bear;

    [Putting on SIR HUMPHREY'S brigandine]

    and the bodies shall be dragged at my horse' heels
    till I do come to London, where we will have the
    mayor's sword borne before us.

DICK    If we mean to thrive and do good, break open the
    gaols and let out the prisoners.

CADE    Fear not that, I warrant thee. Come, let's march
    towards London.

    [Exeunt]




    2 KING HENRY VI


ACT IV



SCENE IV    London. The palace.


    [Enter KING HENRY VI with a supplication, and the
    QUEEN with SUFFOLK'S head, BUCKINGHAM and Lord SAY]

QUEEN MARGARET    Oft have I heard that grief softens the mind,
    And makes it fearful and degenerate;
    Think therefore on revenge and cease to weep.
    But who can cease to weep and look on this?
    Here may his head lie on my throbbing breast:
    But where's the body that I should embrace?

BUCKINGHAM    What answer makes your grace to the rebels'
    supplication?

KING HENRY VI    I'll send some holy bishop to entreat;
    For God forbid so many simple souls
    Should perish by the sword! And I myself,
    Rather than bloody war shall cut them short,
    Will parley with Jack Cade their general:
    But stay, I'll read it over once again.

QUEEN MARGARET    Ah, barbarous villains! hath this lovely face
    Ruled, like a wandering planet, over me,
    And could it not enforce them to relent,
    That were unworthy to behold the same?

KING HENRY VI    Lord Say, Jack Cade hath sworn to have thy head.

SAY    Ay, but I hope your highness shall have his.

KING HENRY VI    How now, madam!
    Still lamenting and mourning for Suffolk's death?
    I fear me, love, if that I had been dead,
    Thou wouldst not have mourn'd so much for me.

QUEEN MARGARET    No, my love, I should not mourn, but die for thee.

    [Enter a Messenger]

KING HENRY VI    How now! what news? why comest thou in such haste?

Messenger    The rebels are in Southwark; fly, my lord!
    Jack Cade proclaims himself Lord Mortimer,
    Descended from the Duke of Clarence' house,
    And calls your grace usurper openly
    And vows to crown himself in Westminster.
    His army is a ragged multitude
    Of hinds and peasants, rude and merciless:
    Sir Humphrey Stafford and his brother's death
    Hath given them heart and courage to proceed:
    All scholars, lawyers, courtiers, gentlemen,
    They call false caterpillars, and intend their death.

KING HENRY VI    O graceless men! they know not what they do.

BUCKINGHAM    My gracious lord, return to Killingworth,
    Until a power be raised to put them down.

QUEEN MARGARET    Ah, were the Duke of Suffolk now alive,
    These Kentish rebels would be soon appeased!

KING HENRY VI    Lord Say, the traitors hate thee;
    Therefore away with us to Killingworth.

SAY    So might your grace's person be in danger.
    The sight of me is odious in their eyes;
    And therefore in this city will I stay
    And live alone as secret as I may.

    [Enter another Messenger]

Messenger    Jack Cade hath gotten London bridge:
    The citizens fly and forsake their houses:
    The rascal people, thirsting after prey,
    Join with the traitor, and they jointly swear
    To spoil the city and your royal court.

BUCKINGHAM    Then linger not, my lord, away, take horse.

KING HENRY VI    Come, Margaret; God, our hope, will succor us.

QUEEN MARGARET    My hope is gone, now Suffolk is deceased.

KING HENRY VI    Farewell, my lord: trust not the Kentish rebels.

BUCKINGHAM    Trust nobody, for fear you be betray'd.

SAY    The trust I have is in mine innocence,
    And therefore am I bold and resolute.

    [Exeunt]




    2 KING HENRY VI


ACT IV



SCENE V    London. The Tower.


    [Enter SCALES upon the Tower, walking.
    Then enter two or three Citizens below]

SCALES    How now! is Jack Cade slain?

First Citizen    No, my lord, nor likely to be slain; for they have
    won the bridge, killing all those that withstand
    them: the lord mayor craves aid of your honour from
    the Tower, to defend the city from the rebels.

SCALES    Such aid as I can spare you shall command;
    But I am troubled here with them myself;
    The rebels have assay'd to win the Tower.
    But get you to Smithfield, and gather head,
    And thither I will send you Matthew Goffe;
    Fight for your king, your country and your lives;
    And so, farewell, for I must hence again.

    [Exeunt]




    2 KING HENRY VI


ACT IV



SCENE VI    London. Cannon Street.


    [Enter CADE and the rest, and strikes his staff on
    London-stone]

CADE    Now is Mortimer lord of this city. And here, sitting
    upon London-stone, I charge and command that, of the
    city's cost, the pissing-conduit run nothing but
    claret wine this first year of our reign. And now
    henceforward it shall be treason for any that calls
    me other than Lord Mortimer.

    [Enter a Soldier, running]

Soldier    Jack Cade! Jack Cade!

CADE    Knock him down there.

    [They kill him]

SMITH    If this fellow be wise, he'll never call ye Jack
    Cade more: I think he hath a very fair warning.

DICK    My lord, there's an army gathered together in
    Smithfield.

CADE    Come, then, let's go fight with them; but first, go
    and set London bridge on fire; and, if you can, burn
    down the Tower too. Come, let's away.

    [Exeunt]




    2 KING HENRY VI


ACT IV



SCENE VII    London. Smithfield.


    [Alarums. MATTHEW GOFFE is slain, and all the rest.
    Then enter CADE, with his company.

CADE    So, sirs: now go some and pull down the Savoy;
    others to the inns of court; down with them all.

DICK    I have a suit unto your lordship.

CADE    Be it a lordship, thou shalt have it for that word.

DICK    Only that the laws of England may come out of your mouth.

HOLLAND    [Aside]  Mass, 'twill be sore law, then; for he was
    thrust in the mouth with a spear, and 'tis not whole
    yet.

SMITH    [Aside]  Nay, John, it will be stinking law for his
    breath stinks with eating toasted cheese.

CADE    I have thought upon it, it shall be so. Away, burn
    all the records of the realm: my mouth shall be
    the parliament of England.

HOLLAND    [Aside]  Then we are like to have biting statutes,
    unless his teeth be pulled out.

CADE    And henceforward all things shall be in common.

    [Enter a Messenger]

Messenger    My lord, a prize, a prize! here's the Lord Say,
    which sold the towns in France; he that made us pay
    one and twenty fifteens, and one shilling to the
    pound, the last subsidy.

    [Enter BEVIS, with Lord SAY]

CADE    Well, he shall be beheaded for it ten times. Ah,
    thou say, thou serge, nay, thou buckram lord! now
    art thou within point-blank of our jurisdiction
    regal. What canst thou answer to my majesty for
    giving up of Normandy unto Mounsieur Basimecu, the
    dauphin of France? Be it known unto thee by these
    presence, even the presence of Lord Mortimer, that I
    am the besom that must sweep the court clean of such
    filth as thou art. Thou hast most traitorously
    corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a
    grammar school; and whereas, before, our forefathers
    had no other books but the score and the tally, thou
    hast caused printing to be used, and, contrary to
    the king, his crown and dignity, thou hast built a
    paper-mill. It will be proved to thy face that thou
    hast men about thee that usually talk of a noun and
    a verb, and such abominable words as no Christian
    ear can endure to hear. Thou hast appointed
    justices of peace, to call poor men before them
    about matters they were not able to answer.
    Moreover, thou hast put them in prison; and because
    they could not read, thou hast hanged them; when,
    indeed, only for that cause they have been most
    worthy to live. Thou dost ride in a foot-cloth, dost thou not?

SAY    What of that?

CADE    Marry, thou oughtest not to let thy horse wear a
    cloak, when honester men than thou go in their hose
    and doublets.

DICK    And work in their shirt too; as myself, for example,
    that am a butcher.

SAY    You men of Kent,--

DICK    What say you of Kent?

SAY    Nothing but this; 'tis 'bona terra, mala gens.'

CADE    Away with him, away with him! he speaks Latin.

SAY    Hear me but speak, and bear me where you will.
    Kent, in the Commentaries Caesar writ,
    Is term'd the civil'st place of this isle:
    Sweet is the country, because full of riches;
    The people liberal, valiant, active, wealthy;
    Which makes me hope you are not void of pity.
    I sold not Maine, I lost not Normandy,
    Yet, to recover them, would lose my life.
    Justice with favour have I always done;
    Prayers and tears have moved me, gifts could never.
    When have I aught exacted at your hands,
    But to maintain the king, the realm and you?
    Large gifts have I bestow'd on learned clerks,
    Because my book preferr'd me to the king,
    And seeing ignorance is the curse of God,
    Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven,
    Unless you be possess'd with devilish spirits,
    You cannot but forbear to murder me:
    This tongue hath parley'd unto foreign kings
    For your behoof,--

CADE    Tut, when struck'st thou one blow in the field?

SAY    Great men have reaching hands: oft have I struck
    Those that I never saw and struck them dead.

BEVIS    O monstrous coward! what, to come behind folks?

SAY    These cheeks are pale for watching for your good.

CADE    Give him a box o' the ear and that will make 'em red again.

SAY    Long sitting to determine poor men's causes
    Hath made me full of sickness and diseases.

CADE    Ye shall have a hempen caudle, then, and the help of hatchet.

DICK    Why dost thou quiver, man?

SAY    The palsy, and not fear, provokes me.

CADE    Nay, he nods at us, as who should say, I'll be even
    with you: I'll see if his head will stand steadier
    on a pole, or no. Take him away, and behead him.

SAY    Tell me wherein have I offended most?
    Have I affected wealth or honour? speak.
    Are my chests fill'd up with extorted gold?
    Is my apparel sumptuous to behold?
    Whom have I injured, that ye seek my death?
    These hands are free from guiltless bloodshedding,
    This breast from harbouring foul deceitful thoughts.
    O, let me live!

CADE    [Aside]  I feel remorse in myself with his words;
    but I'll bridle it: he shall die, an it be but for
    pleading so well for his life. Away with him! he
    has a familiar under his tongue; he speaks not o'
    God's name. Go, take him away, I say, and strike
    off his head presently; and then break into his
    son-in-law's house, Sir James Cromer, and strike off
    his head, and bring them both upon two poles hither.

ALL    It shall be done.

SAY    Ah, countrymen! if when you make your prayers,
    God should be so obdurate as yourselves,
    How would it fare with your departed souls?
    And therefore yet relent, and save my life.

CADE    Away with him! and do as I command ye.

    [Exeunt some with Lord SAY]

    The proudest peer in the realm shall not wear a head
    on his shoulders, unless he pay me tribute; there
    shall not a maid be married, but she shall pay to me
    her maidenhead ere they have it: men shall hold of
    me in capite; and we charge and command that their
    wives be as free as heart can wish or tongue can tell.

DICK    My lord, when shall we go to Cheapside and take up
    commodities upon our bills?

CADE    Marry, presently.

ALL    O, brave!

    [Re-enter one with the heads]

CADE    But is not this braver? Let them kiss one another,
    for they loved well when they were alive. Now part
    them again, lest they consult about the giving up of
    some more towns in France. Soldiers, defer the
    spoil of the city until night: for with these borne
    before us, instead of maces, will we ride through
    the streets, and at every corner have them kiss. Away!

    [Exeunt]




    2 KING HENRY VI


ACT IV



SCENE VIII    Southwark.


    [Alarum and retreat. Enter CADE and all his
    rabblement]

CADE    Up Fish Street! down Saint Magnus' Corner! Kill
    and knock down! throw them into Thames!

    [Sound a parley]

    What noise is this I hear? Dare any be so bold to
    sound retreat or parley, when I command them kill?

    [Enter BUCKINGHAM and CLIFFORD, attended]

BUCKINGHAM    Ay, here they be that dare and will disturb thee:
    Know, Cade, we come ambassadors from the king
    Unto the commons whom thou hast misled;
    And here pronounce free pardon to them all
    That will forsake thee and go home in peace.

CLIFFORD    What say ye, countrymen? will ye relent,
    And yield to mercy whilst 'tis offer'd you;
    Or let a rebel lead you to your deaths?
    Who loves the king and will embrace his pardon,
    Fling up his cap, and say 'God save his majesty!'
    Who hateth him and honours not his father,
    Henry the Fifth, that made all France to quake,
    Shake he his weapon at us and pass by.

ALL    God save the king! God save the king!

CADE    What, Buckingham and Clifford, are ye so brave? And
    you, base peasants, do ye believe him? will you
    needs be hanged with your pardons about your necks?
    Hath my sword therefore broke through London gates,
    that you should leave me at the White Hart in
    Southwark? I thought ye would never have given out
    these arms till you had recovered your ancient
    freedom: but you are all recreants and dastards,
    and delight to live in slavery to the nobility. Let
    them break your backs with burthens, take your
    houses over your heads, ravish your wives and
    daughters before your faces: for me, I will make
    shift for one; and so, God's curse light upon you
    all!

ALL    We'll follow Cade, we'll follow Cade!

CLIFFORD    Is Cade the son of Henry the Fifth,
    That thus you do exclaim you'll go with him?
    Will he conduct you through the heart of France,
    And make the meanest of you earls and dukes?
    Alas, he hath no home, no place to fly to;
    Nor knows he how to live but by the spoil,
    Unless by robbing of your friends and us.
    Were't not a shame, that whilst you live at jar,
    The fearful French, whom you late vanquished,
    Should make a start o'er seas and vanquish you?
    Methinks already in this civil broil
    I see them lording it in London streets,
    Crying 'Villiago!' unto all they meet.
    Better ten thousand base-born Cades miscarry
    Than you should stoop unto a Frenchman's mercy.
    To France, to France, and get what you have lost;
    Spare England, for it is your native coast;
    Henry hath money, you are strong and manly;
    God on our side, doubt not of victory.

ALL    A Clifford! a Clifford! we'll follow the king and Clifford.

CADE    Was ever feather so lightly blown to and fro as this
    multitude? The name of Henry the Fifth hales them
    to an hundred mischiefs, and makes them leave me
    desolate. I see them lay their heads together to
    surprise me. My sword make way for me, for here is
    no staying. In despite of the devils and hell, have
    through the very middest of you? and heavens and
    honour be witness, that no want of resolution in me.
    but only my followers' base and ignominious
    treasons, makes me betake me to my heels.

    [Exit]

BUCKINGHAM    What, is he fled? Go some, and follow him;
    And he that brings his head unto the king
    Shall have a thousand crowns for his reward.

    [Exeunt some of them]

    Follow me, soldiers: we'll devise a mean
    To reconcile you all unto the king.

    [Exeunt]




    2 KING HENRY VI


ACT IV



SCENE IX    Kenilworth Castle.


    [Sound Trumpets. Enter KING HENRY VI, QUEEN
    MARGARET, and SOMERSET, on the terrace]

KING HENRY VI    Was ever king that joy'd an earthly throne,
    And could command no more content than I?
    No sooner was I crept out of my cradle
    But I was made a king, at nine months old.
    Was never subject long'd to be a king
    As I do long and wish to be a subject.

    [Enter BUCKINGHAM and CLIFFORD]

BUCKINGHAM    Health and glad tidings to your majesty!

KING HENRY VI    Why, Buckingham, is the traitor Cade surprised?
    Or is he but retired to make him strong?

    [Enter below, multitudes, with halters about
    their necks]

CLIFFORD    He is fled, my lord, and all his powers do yield;
    And humbly thus, with halters on their necks,
    Expect your highness' doom of life or death.

KING HENRY VI    Then, heaven, set ope thy everlasting gates,
    To entertain my vows of thanks and praise!
    Soldiers, this day have you redeemed your lives,
    And show'd how well you love your prince and country:
    Continue still in this so good a mind,
    And Henry, though he be infortunate,
    Assure yourselves, will never be unkind:
    And so, with thanks and pardon to you all,
    I do dismiss you to your several countries.

ALL    God save the king! God save the king!

    [Enter a Messenger]

Messenger    Please it your grace to be advertised
    The Duke of York is newly come from Ireland,
    And with a puissant and a mighty power
    Of gallowglasses and stout kerns
    Is marching hitherward in proud array,
    And still proclaimeth, as he comes along,
    His arms are only to remove from thee
    The Duke of Somerset, whom he terms traitor.

KING HENRY VI    Thus stands my state, 'twixt Cade and York distress'd.
    Like to a ship that, having 'scaped a tempest,
    Is straightway calm'd and boarded with a pirate:
    But now is Cade driven back, his men dispersed;
    And now is York in arms to second him.
    I pray thee, Buckingham, go and meet him,
    And ask him what's the reason of these arms.
    Tell him I'll send Duke Edmund to the Tower;
    And, Somerset, we'll commit thee thither,
    Until his army be dismiss'd from him.

SOMERSET    My lord,
    I'll yield myself to prison willingly,
    Or unto death, to do my country good.

KING HENRY VI    In any case, be not too rough in terms;
    For he is fierce and cannot brook hard language.

BUCKINGHAM    I will, my lord; and doubt not so to deal
    As all things shall redound unto your good.

KING HENRY VI    Come, wife, let's in, and learn to govern better;
    For yet may England curse my wretched reign.

    [Flourish. Exeunt]




    2 KING HENRY VI


ACT IV



SCENE X    Kent. IDEN's garden.


    [Enter CADE]

CADE    Fie on ambition! fie on myself, that have a sword,
    and yet am ready to famish! These five days have I
    hid me in these woods and durst not peep out, for
    all the country is laid for me; but now am I so
    hungry that if I might have a lease of my life for a
    thousand years I could stay no longer. Wherefore,
    on a brick wall have I climbed into this garden, to
    see if I can eat grass, or pick a sallet another
    while, which is not amiss to cool a man's stomach
    this hot weather. And I think this word 'sallet'
    was born to do me good: for many a time, but for a
    sallet, my brainpan had been cleft with a brown
    bill; and many a time, when I have been dry and
    bravely marching, it hath served me instead of a
    quart pot to drink in; and now the word 'sallet'
    must serve me to feed on.

    [Enter IDEN]

IDEN    Lord, who would live turmoiled in the court,
    And may enjoy such quiet walks as these?
    This small inheritance my father left me
    Contenteth me, and worth a monarchy.
    I seek not to wax great by others' waning,
    Or gather wealth, I care not, with what envy:
    Sufficeth that I have maintains my state
    And sends the poor well pleased from my gate.

CADE    Here's the lord of the soil come to seize me for a
    stray, for entering his fee-simple without leave.
    Ah, villain, thou wilt betray me, and get a thousand
    crowns of the king carrying my head to him: but
    I'll make thee eat iron like an ostrich, and swallow
    my sword like a great pin, ere thou and I part.

IDEN    Why, rude companion, whatsoe'er thou be,
    I know thee not; why, then, should I betray thee?
    Is't not enough to break into my garden,
    And, like a thief, to come to rob my grounds,
    Climbing my walls in spite of me the owner,
    But thou wilt brave me with these saucy terms?

CADE    Brave thee! ay, by the best blood that ever was
    broached, and beard thee too. Look on me well: I
    have eat no meat these five days; yet, come thou and
    thy five men, and if I do not leave you all as dead
    as a doornail, I pray God I may never eat grass more.

IDEN    Nay, it shall ne'er be said, while England stands,
    That Alexander Iden, an esquire of Kent,
    Took odds to combat a poor famish'd man.
    Oppose thy steadfast-gazing eyes to mine,
    See if thou canst outface me with thy looks:
    Set limb to limb, and thou art far the lesser;
    Thy hand is but a finger to my fist,
    Thy leg a stick compared with this truncheon;
    My foot shall fight with all the strength thou hast;
    And if mine arm be heaved in the air,
    Thy grave is digg'd already in the earth.
    As for words, whose greatness answers words,
    Let this my sword report what speech forbears.

CADE    By my valour, the most complete champion that ever I
    heard! Steel, if thou turn the edge, or cut not out
    the burly-boned clown in chines of beef ere thou
    sleep in thy sheath, I beseech God on my knees thou
    mayst be turned to hobnails.

    [Here they fight. CADE falls]

    O, I am slain! famine and no other hath slain me:
    let ten thousand devils come against me, and give me
    but the ten meals I have lost, and I'll defy them
    all. Wither, garden; and be henceforth a
    burying-place to all that do dwell in this house,
    because the unconquered soul of Cade is fled.

IDEN    Is't Cade that I have slain, that monstrous traitor?
    Sword, I will hollow thee for this thy deed,
    And hang thee o'er my tomb when I am dead:
    Ne'er shall this blood be wiped from thy point;
    But thou shalt wear it as a herald's coat,
    To emblaze the honour that thy master got.

CADE    Iden, farewell, and be proud of thy victory. Tell
    Kent from me, she hath lost her best man, and exhort
    all the world to be cowards; for I, that never
    feared any, am vanquished by famine, not by valour.

    [Dies]

IDEN    How much thou wrong'st me, heaven be my judge.
    Die, damned wretch, the curse of her that bare thee;
    And as I thrust thy body in with my sword,
    So wish I, I might thrust thy soul to hell.
    Hence will I drag thee headlong by the heels
    Unto a dunghill which shall be thy grave,
    And there cut off thy most ungracious head;
    Which I will bear in triumph to the king,
    Leaving thy trunk for crows to feed upon.

    [Exit]




    2 KING HENRY VI


ACT V



SCENE I    Fields between Dartford and Blackheath.


    [Enter YORK, and his army of Irish, with drum
    and colours]

YORK    From Ireland thus comes York to claim his right,
    And pluck the crown from feeble Henry's head:
    Ring, bells, aloud; burn, bonfires, clear and bright,
    To entertain great England's lawful king.
    Ah! sancta majestas, who would not buy thee dear?
    Let them obey that know not how to rule;
    This hand was made to handle naught but gold.
    I cannot give due action to my words,
    Except a sword or sceptre balance it:
    A sceptre shall it have, have I a soul,
    On which I'll toss the flower-de-luce of France.

    [Enter BUCKINGHAM]

    Whom have we here? Buckingham, to disturb me?
    The king hath sent him, sure: I must dissemble.

BUCKINGHAM    York, if thou meanest well, I greet thee well.

YORK    Humphrey of Buckingham, I accept thy greeting.
    Art thou a messenger, or come of pleasure?

BUCKINGHAM    A messenger from Henry, our dread liege,
    To know the reason of these arms in peace;
    Or why thou, being a subject as I am,
    Against thy oath and true allegiance sworn,
    Should raise so great a power without his leave,
    Or dare to bring thy force so near the court.

YORK    [Aside]  Scarce can I speak, my choler is so great:
    O, I could hew up rocks and fight with flint,
    I am so angry at these abject terms;
    And now, like Ajax Telamonius,
    On sheep or oxen could I spend my fury.
    I am far better born than is the king,
    More like a king, more kingly in my thoughts:
    But I must make fair weather yet a while,
    Till Henry be more weak and I more strong,--
    Buckingham, I prithee, pardon me,
    That I have given no answer all this while;
    My mind was troubled with deep melancholy.
    The cause why I have brought this army hither
    Is to remove proud Somerset from the king,
    Seditious to his grace and to the state.

BUCKINGHAM    That is too much presumption on thy part:
    But if thy arms be to no other end,
    The king hath yielded unto thy demand:
    The Duke of Somerset is in the Tower.

YORK    Upon thine honour, is he prisoner?

BUCKINGHAM    Upon mine honour, he is prisoner.

YORK    Then, Buckingham, I do dismiss my powers.
    Soldiers, I thank you all; disperse yourselves;
    Meet me to-morrow in St. George's field,
    You shall have pay and every thing you wish.
    And let my sovereign, virtuous Henry,
    Command my eldest son, nay, all my sons,
    As pledges of my fealty and love;
    I'll send them all as willing as I live:
    Lands, goods, horse, armour, any thing I have,
    Is his to use, so Somerset may die.

BUCKINGHAM    York, I commend this kind submission:
    We twain will go into his highness' tent.

    [Enter KING HENRY VI and Attendants]

KING HENRY VI    Buckingham, doth York intend no harm to us,
    That thus he marcheth with thee arm in arm?

YORK    In all submission and humility
    York doth present himself unto your highness.

KING HENRY VI    Then what intends these forces thou dost bring?

YORK    To heave the traitor Somerset from hence,
    And fight against that monstrous rebel Cade,
    Who since I heard to be discomfited.

    [Enter IDEN, with CADE'S head]

IDEN    If one so rude and of so mean condition
    May pass into the presence of a king,
    Lo, I present your grace a traitor's head,
    The head of Cade, whom I in combat slew.

KING HENRY VI    The head of Cade! Great God, how just art Thou!
    O, let me view his visage, being dead,
    That living wrought me such exceeding trouble.
    Tell me, my friend, art thou the man that slew him?

IDEN    I was, an't like your majesty.

KING HENRY VI    How art thou call'd? and what is thy degree?

IDEN    Alexander Iden, that's my name;
    A poor esquire of Kent, that loves his king.

BUCKINGHAM    So please it you, my lord, 'twere not amiss
    He were created knight for his good service.

KING HENRY VI    Iden, kneel down.

    [He kneels]

    Rise up a knight.
    We give thee for reward a thousand marks,
    And will that thou henceforth attend on us.

IDEN    May Iden live to merit such a bounty.
    And never live but true unto his liege!

    [Rises]

    [Enter QUEEN MARGARET and SOMERSET]

KING HENRY VI    See, Buckingham, Somerset comes with the queen:
    Go, bid her hide him quickly from the duke.

QUEEN MARGARET    For thousand Yorks he shall not hide his head,
    But boldly stand and front him to his face.

YORK    How now! is Somerset at liberty?
    Then, York, unloose thy long-imprison'd thoughts,
    And let thy tongue be equal with thy heart.
    Shall I endure the sight of Somerset?
    False king! why hast thou broken faith with me,
    Knowing how hardly I can brook abuse?
    King did I call thee? no, thou art not king,
    Not fit to govern and rule multitudes,
    Which darest not, no, nor canst not rule a traitor.
    That head of thine doth not become a crown;
    Thy hand is made to grasp a palmer's staff,
    And not to grace an awful princely sceptre.
    That gold must round engirt these brows of mine,
    Whose smile and frown, like to Achilles' spear,
    Is able with the change to kill and cure.
    Here is a hand to hold a sceptre up
    And with the same to act controlling laws.
    Give place: by heaven, thou shalt rule no more
    O'er him whom heaven created for thy ruler.

SOMERSET    O monstrous traitor! I arrest thee, York,
    Of capital treason 'gainst the king and crown;
    Obey, audacious traitor; kneel for grace.

YORK    Wouldst have me kneel? first let me ask of these,
    If they can brook I bow a knee to man.
    Sirrah, call in my sons to be my bail;

    [Exit Attendant]

    I know, ere they will have me go to ward,
    They'll pawn their swords for my enfranchisement.

QUEEN MARGARET    Call hither Clifford! bid him come amain,
    To say if that the bastard boys of York
    Shall be the surety for their traitor father.

    [Exit BUCKINGHAM]

YORK    O blood-besotted Neapolitan,
    Outcast of Naples, England's bloody scourge!
    The sons of York, thy betters in their birth,
    Shall be their father's bail; and bane to those
    That for my surety will refuse the boys!

    [Enter EDWARD and RICHARD]

    See where they come: I'll warrant they'll
    make it good.

    [Enter CLIFFORD and YOUNG CLIFFORD]

QUEEN MARGARET    And here comes Clifford to deny their bail.

CLIFFORD    Health and all happiness to my lord the king!

    [Kneels]

YORK    I thank thee, Clifford: say, what news with thee?
    Nay, do not fright us with an angry look;
    We are thy sovereign, Clifford, kneel again;
    For thy mistaking so, we pardon thee.

CLIFFORD    This is my king, York, I do not mistake;
    But thou mistakest me much to think I do:
    To Bedlam with him! is the man grown mad?

KING HENRY VI    Ay, Clifford; a bedlam and ambitious humour
    Makes him oppose himself against his king.

CLIFFORD    He is a traitor; let him to the Tower,
    And chop away that factious pate of his.

QUEEN MARGARET    He is arrested, but will not obey;
    His sons, he says, shall give their words for him.

YORK    Will you not, sons?

EDWARD    Ay, noble father, if our words will serve.

RICHARD    And if words will not, then our weapons shall.

CLIFFORD    Why, what a brood of traitors have we here!

YORK    Look in a glass, and call thy image so:
    I am thy king, and thou a false-heart traitor.
    Call hither to the stake my two brave bears,
    That with the very shaking of their chains
    They may astonish these fell-lurking curs:
    Bid Salisbury and Warwick come to me.

    [Enter the WARWICK and SALISBURY]

CLIFFORD    Are these thy bears? we'll bait thy bears to death.
    And manacle the bear-ward in their chains,
    If thou darest bring them to the baiting place.

RICHARD    Oft have I seen a hot o'erweening cur
    Run back and bite, because he was withheld;
    Who, being suffer'd with the bear's fell paw,
    Hath clapp'd his tail between his legs and cried:
    And such a piece of service will you do,
    If you oppose yourselves to match Lord Warwick.

CLIFFORD    Hence, heap of wrath, foul indigested lump,
    As crooked in thy manners as thy shape!

YORK    Nay, we shall heat you thoroughly anon.

CLIFFORD    Take heed, lest by your heat you burn yourselves.

KING HENRY VI    Why, Warwick, hath thy knee forgot to bow?
    Old Salisbury, shame to thy silver hair,
    Thou mad misleader of thy brain-sick son!
    What, wilt thou on thy death-bed play the ruffian,
    And seek for sorrow with thy spectacles?
    O, where is faith? O, where is loyalty?
    If it be banish'd from the frosty head,
    Where shall it find a harbour in the earth?
    Wilt thou go dig a grave to find out war,
    And shame thine honourable age with blood?
    Why art thou old, and want'st experience?
    Or wherefore dost abuse it, if thou hast it?
    For shame! in duty bend thy knee to me
    That bows unto the grave with mickle age.

SALISBURY    My lord, I have consider'd with myself
    The title of this most renowned duke;
    And in my conscience do repute his grace
    The rightful heir to England's royal seat.

KING HENRY VI    Hast thou not sworn allegiance unto me?

SALISBURY    I have.

KING HENRY VI    Canst thou dispense with heaven for such an oath?

SALISBURY    It is great sin to swear unto a sin,
    But greater sin to keep a sinful oath.
    Who can be bound by any solemn vow
    To do a murderous deed, to rob a man,
    To force a spotless virgin's chastity,
    To reave the orphan of his patrimony,
    To wring the widow from her custom'd right,
    And have no other reason for this wrong
    But that he was bound by a solemn oath?

QUEEN MARGARET    A subtle traitor needs no sophister.

KING HENRY VI    Call Buckingham, and bid him arm himself.

YORK    Call Buckingham, and all the friends thou hast,
    I am resolved for death or dignity.

CLIFFORD    The first I warrant thee, if dreams prove true.

WARWICK    You were best to go to bed and dream again,
    To keep thee from the tempest of the field.

CLIFFORD    I am resolved to bear a greater storm
    Than any thou canst conjure up to-day;
    And that I'll write upon thy burgonet,
    Might I but know thee by thy household badge.

WARWICK    Now, by my father's badge, old Nevil's crest,
    The rampant bear chain'd to the ragged staff,
    This day I'll wear aloft my burgonet,
    As on a mountain top the cedar shows
    That keeps his leaves in spite of any storm,
    Even to affright thee with the view thereof.

CLIFFORD    And from thy burgonet I'll rend thy bear
    And tread it under foot with all contempt,
    Despite the bear-ward that protects the bear.

YOUNG CLIFFORD    And so to arms, victorious father,
    To quell the rebels and their complices.

RICHARD    Fie! charity, for shame! speak not in spite,
    For you shall sup with Jesu Christ to-night.

YOUNG CLIFFORD    Foul stigmatic, that's more than thou canst tell.

RICHARD    If not in heaven, you'll surely sup in hell.

    [Exeunt severally]




    2 KING HENRY VI


ACT V



SCENE II    Saint Alban's.


    [Alarums to the battle. Enter WARWICK]

WARWICK    Clifford of Cumberland, 'tis Warwick calls:
    And if thou dost not hide thee from the bear,
    Now, when the angry trumpet sounds alarum
    And dead men's cries do fill the empty air,
    Clifford, I say, come forth and fight with me:
    Proud northern lord, Clifford of Cumberland,
    Warwick is hoarse with calling thee to arms.

    [Enter YORK]

    How now, my noble lord? what, all afoot?

YORK    The deadly-handed Clifford slew my steed,
    But match to match I have encounter'd him
    And made a prey for carrion kites and crows
    Even of the bonny beast he loved so well.

    [Enter CLIFFORD]

WARWICK    Of one or both of us the time is come.

YORK    Hold, Warwick, seek thee out some other chase,
    For I myself must hunt this deer to death.

WARWICK    Then, nobly, York; 'tis for a crown thou fight'st.
    As I intend, Clifford, to thrive to-day,
    It grieves my soul to leave thee unassail'd.

    [Exit]

CLIFFORD    What seest thou in me, York? why dost thou pause?

YORK    With thy brave bearing should I be in love,
    But that thou art so fast mine enemy.

CLIFFORD    Nor should thy prowess want praise and esteem,
    But that 'tis shown ignobly and in treason.

YORK    So let it help me now against thy sword
    As I in justice and true right express it.

CLIFFORD    My soul and body on the action both!

YORK    A dreadful lay! Address thee instantly.

    [They fight, and CLIFFORD falls]

CLIFFORD    La fin couronne les oeuvres.

    [Dies]

YORK    Thus war hath given thee peace, for thou art still.
    Peace with his soul, heaven, if it be thy will!

    [Exit]

    [Enter YOUNG CLIFFORD]

YOUNG CLIFFORD    Shame and confusion! all is on the rout;
    Fear frames disorder, and disorder wounds
    Where it should guard. O war, thou son of hell,
    Whom angry heavens do make their minister
    Throw in the frozen bosoms of our part
    Hot coals of vengeance! Let no soldier fly.
    He that is truly dedicate to war
    Hath no self-love, nor he that loves himself
    Hath not essentially but by circumstance
    The name of valour.

    [Seeing his dead father]

    O, let the vile world end,
    And the premised flames of the last day
    Knit earth and heaven together!
    Now let the general trumpet blow his blast,
    Particularities and petty sounds
    To cease! Wast thou ordain'd, dear father,
    To lose thy youth in peace, and to achieve
    The silver livery of advised age,
    And, in thy reverence and thy chair-days, thus
    To die in ruffian battle? Even at this sight
    My heart is turn'd to stone: and while 'tis mine,
    It shall be stony. York not our old men spares;
    No more will I their babes: tears virginal
    Shall be to me even as the dew to fire,
    And beauty that the tyrant oft reclaims
    Shall to my flaming wrath be oil and flax.
    Henceforth I will not have to do with pity:
    Meet I an infant of the house of York,
    Into as many gobbets will I cut it
    As wild Medea young Absyrtus did:
    In cruelty will I seek out my fame.
    Come, thou new ruin of old Clifford's house:
    As did AEneas old Anchises bear,
    So bear I thee upon my manly shoulders;
    But then AEneas bare a living load,
    Nothing so heavy as these woes of mine.

    [Exit, bearing off his father]

    [Enter RICHARD and SOMERSET to fight. SOMERSET
    is killed]

RICHARD    So, lie thou there;
    For underneath an alehouse' paltry sign,
    The Castle in Saint Alban's, Somerset
    Hath made the wizard famous in his death.
    Sword, hold thy temper; heart, be wrathful still:
    Priests pray for enemies, but princes kill.

    [Exit]

    [Fight: excursions. Enter KING HENRY VI, QUEEN
    MARGARET, and others]

QUEEN MARGARET    Away, my lord! you are slow; for shame, away!

KING HENRY VI    Can we outrun the heavens? good Margaret, stay.

QUEEN MARGARET    What are you made of? you'll nor fight nor fly:
    Now is it manhood, wisdom and defence,
    To give the enemy way, and to secure us
    By what we can, which can no more but fly.

    [Alarum afar off]

    If you be ta'en, we then should see the bottom
    Of all our fortunes: but if we haply scape,
    As well we may, if not through your neglect,
    We shall to London get, where you are loved
    And where this breach now in our fortunes made
    May readily be stopp'd.

    [Re-enter YOUNG CLIFFORD]

YOUNG CLIFFORD    But that my heart's on future mischief set,
    I would speak blasphemy ere bid you fly:
    But fly you must; uncurable discomfit
    Reigns in the hearts of all our present parts.
    Away, for your relief! and we will live
    To see their day and them our fortune give:
    Away, my lord, away!

    [Exeunt]




    2 KING HENRY VI


ACT V



SCENE III    Fields near St. Alban's.


    [Alarum. Retreat. Enter YORK, RICHARD, WARWICK,
    and Soldiers, with drum and colours]

YORK    Of Salisbury, who can report of him,
    That winter lion, who in rage forgets
    Aged contusions and all brush of time,
    And, like a gallant in the brow of youth,
    Repairs him with occasion? This happy day
    Is not itself, nor have we won one foot,
    If Salisbury be lost.

RICHARD    My noble father,
    Three times to-day I holp him to his horse,
    Three times bestrid him; thrice I led him off,
    Persuaded him from any further act:
    But still, where danger was, still there I met him;
    And like rich hangings in a homely house,
    So was his will in his old feeble body.
    But, noble as he is, look where he comes.

    [Enter SALISBURY]

SALISBURY    Now, by my sword, well hast thou fought to-day;
    By the mass, so did we all. I thank you, Richard:
    God knows how long it is I have to live;
    And it hath pleased him that three times to-day
    You have defended me from imminent death.
    Well, lords, we have not got that which we have:
    'Tis not enough our foes are this time fled,
    Being opposites of such repairing nature.

YORK    I know our safety is to follow them;
    For, as I hear, the king is fled to London,
    To call a present court of parliament.
    Let us pursue him ere the writs go forth.
    What says Lord Warwick? shall we after them?

WARWICK    After them! nay, before them, if we can.
    Now, by my faith, lords, 'twas a glorious day:
    Saint Alban's battle won by famous York
    Shall be eternized in all age to come.
    Sound drums and trumpets, and to London all:
    And more such days as these to us befall!

    [Exeunt]