The Same. A Room in the Palace. | |
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Enter three or four Petitioners, PETER, the Armourer’s man, being one. | |
| First Pet. 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. | |
| Sec. Pet. Marry, the Lord protect him, for he’s a good man! Jesu bless him! | 4 |
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Enter SUFFOLK and QUEEN MARGARET. | |
| First Pet. Here a’ comes, methinks, and the queen with him. I’ll be the first, sure. | |
| Sec. Pet. Come back, fool! this is the Duke of Suffolk and not my Lord Protector. | |
| Suf. How now, fellow! wouldst anything with me? | 8 |
| First Pet. I pray, my lord, pardon me: I took ye for my Lord Protector. | |
| Q. Mar. [Glancing at the Superscriptions.] To my Lord Protector! are your supplications to his lordship? Let me see them: what is thine? | |
| First Pet. Mine is, an’t please your Grace, against John Goodman, my Lord Cardinal’s man, for keeping my house, and lands, my wife and all, from me. | |
| Suf. Thy wife too! that is some wrong indeed. What’s yours? What’s here? Against the Duke of Suffolk, for enclosing the commons of Melford! How now, sir knave! | 12 |
| Sec. Pet. Alas! sir, I am but a poor petitioner of our whole township. | |
| Peter. [Presenting his petition.] Against my master, Thomas Horner, for saying that the Duke of York was rightful heir to the crown. | |
| Q. Mar. What sayst thou? Did the Duke of York say he was rightful heir to the crown? | |
| Pet. That my master was? No, forsooth: my master said that he was; and that the king was an usurper. | 16 |
| Suf. Who is there? | |
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Enter Servants. | |
| Take this fellow in, and send for his master with a pursuivant presently. We’ll hear more of your matter before the king. [Exeunt Servants with PETER. | |
| Q. Mar. And as for you, that love to be protected | 20 |
| Under the wings of our protector’s grace, | |
| Begin your suits anew and sue to him. [Tears the petitions. | |
| Away, base cullions! Suffolk, let them go. | |
| All. Come, let’s be gone. [Exeunt Petitioners. | 24 |
| Q. Mar. My Lord of Suffolk, say, is this the guise, | |
| Is this the fashion of the court of England? | |
| Is this the government of Britain’s isle, | |
| And this the royalty of Albion’s king? | 28 |
| 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? | 32 |
| I tell thee, Pole, when in the city Tours | |
| Thou ran’st a tilt in honour of my love, | |
| And stol’st away the ladies’ hearts of France, | |
| I thought King Henry had resembled thee | 36 |
| 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; | 40 |
| His weapons holy saws of sacred writ; | |
| His study is his tilt-yard, and his loves | |
| Are brazen images of canoniz’d saints. | |
| I would the college of the cardinals | 44 |
| 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. | |
| Suf. Madam, be patient; as I was cause | 48 |
| Your highness came to England, so will I | |
| In England work your Grace’s full content. | |
| Q. Mar. Beside the haught protector, have we Beaufort | |
| The imperious churchman, Somerset, Buckingham, | 52 |
| And grumbling York; and not the least of these | |
| But can do more in England than the king. | |
| Suf. And he of these that can do most of all | |
| Cannot do more in England than the Nevils: | 56 |
| Salisbury and Warwick are no simple peers. | |
| Q. Mar. Not all these lords do vox me half so much | |
| As that proud dame, the Lord Protector’s wife: | |
| She sweeps it through the court with troops of ladies, | 60 |
| 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. | 64 |
| Shall I not live to be aveng’d on her? | |
| Contemptuous base-born callot as she is, | |
| She vaunted ’mongst her minions t’other day | |
| The very train of her worst wearing gown | 68 |
| Was better worth than all my father’s lands, | |
| Till Suffolk gave two dukedoms for his daughter. | |
| Suf. Madam, myself have lim’d a bush for her, | |
| And plac’d a quire of such enticing birds | 72 |
| 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. | 76 |
| 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 | 80 |
| 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. | |
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Sound a sennet. Enter KING HENRY, YORK, and SOMERSET; DUKE and DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER, CARDINAL BEAUFORT, BUCKINGHAM, SALISBURY, and WARWICK. | 84 |
| K. Hen. 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. | 88 |
| Som. If Somerset be unworthy of the place, | |
| Let York be regent; I will yield to him. | |
| War. Whether your Grace be worthy, yea or no, | |
| Dispute not that: York is the worthier. | 92 |
| Car. Ambitious Warwick, let thy betters speak. | |
| War. The cardinal’s not my better in the field. | |
| Buck. All in this presence are thy betters, Warwick. | |
| War. Warwick may live to be the best of all. | 96 |
| Sal. Peace, son! and show some reason, Buckingham, | |
| Why Somerset should be preferr’d in this. | |
| Q. Mar. Because the king, forsooth, will have it so. | |
| Glo. Madam, the king is old enough himself | 100 |
| To give his censure: these are no women’s matters. | |
| Q. Mar. If he be old enough, what needs your Grace | |
| To be protector of his excellence? | |
| Glo. Madam, I am protector of the realm; | 104 |
| And at his pleasure will resign my place. | |
| Suf. Resign it then and leave thine insolence. | |
| Since thou wertking,—as who is king but thou?— | |
| The commonwealth hath daily run to wrack; | 108 |
| The Dauphin hath prevail’d beyond the seas; | |
| And all the peers and nobles of the realm | |
| Have been as bondmen to thy sovereignty. | |
| Car. The commons hast thou rack’d; the clergy’s bags | 112 |
| Are lank and lean with thy extortions. | |
| Som. Thy sumptuous buildings and thy wife’s attire | |
| Have cost a mass of public treasury. | |
| Buck. Thy cruelty in execution | 116 |
| Upon offenders hath exceeded law, | |
| And left thee to the mercy of the law. | |
| Q. Mar. Thy sale of offices and towns in France, | |
| If they were known, as the suspect is great, | 120 |
| Would make thee quickly hop without thy head. [Exit GLOUCESTER. The QUEEN drops her fan. | |
| Give me my fan: what, minion! can ye not? [Giving the DUCHESS a box on the ear. | |
| I cry you mercy, madam, was it you? | |
| Duch. Was’t I? yea, I it was, proud French-woman: | 124 |
| Could I come near your beauty with my nails | |
| I’d set my ten commandments in your face. | |
| K. Hen. Sweet aunt, be quiet; ’twas against her will. | |
| Duch. Against her will! Good king, look to ’t in time; | 128 |
| 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 unreveng’d. [Exit. | |
| Buck. Lord Cardinal, I will follow Eleanor, | 132 |
| And listen after Humphrey, how he proceeds: | |
| She’s tickled now; her fume can need no spurs, | |
| She’ll gallop far enough to her destruction. [Exit BUCKINGHAM. | |
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Re-enter GLOUCESTER. | 136 |
| Glo. 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, | 140 |
| 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. | 144 |
| I say, my sov’reign, York is meetest man | |
| To be your regent in the realm of France. | |
| Suf. Before we make election, give me leave | |
| To show some reason, of no little force, | 148 |
| 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, | 152 |
| 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 danc’d attendance on his will | 156 |
| Till Paris was besieg’d, famish’d, and lost. | |
| War. That can I witness; and a fouler fact | |
| Did never traitor in the land commit. | |
| Suf. Peace, headstrong Warwick! | 160 |
| War. Image of pride, why should I hold my peace? | |
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Enter Servants of SUFFOLK, bringing in HORNER and PETER. | |
| Suf. Because here is a man accus’d of treason: | |
| Pray God the Duke of York excuse himself! | 164 |
| York. Doth any one accuse York for a traitor? | |
| K. Hen. What mean’st thou, Suffolk? tell me, what are these? | |
| Suf. Please it your majesty, this is the man | |
| That doth accuse his master of high treason. | 168 |
| His words were these: that Richard, Duke of York, | |
| Was rightful heir unto the English crown, | |
| And that your majesty was a usurper. | |
| K. Hen. Say, man, were these thy words? | 172 |
| Hor. 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. | |
| Pet. 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. | 176 |
| I do beseech your royal majesty | |
| Let him have all the rigour of the law. | |
| Hor. 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. | |
| K. Hen. Uncle, what shall we say to this in law? | 180 |
| Glo. This doom, my lord, if I may judge. | |
| Let Somerset be regent o’er the French, | |
| Because in York this breeds suspicion; | |
| And let these have a day appointed them | 184 |
| 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. | |
| K. Hen. Then be it so. My Lord of Somerset, | 188 |
| We make your Grace lord regent o’er the French. | |
| Som. I humbly thank your royal majesty. | |
| Hor. And I accept the combat willingly. | |
| Pet. 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! | 192 |
| Glo. Sirrah, or you must fight, or else be hang’d. | |
| K. Hen. 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. [Exeunt. | 196 |