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?

- 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.

- 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
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
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
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,
etc.. 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?'

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?

- 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
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.

- 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.

- 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.

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
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
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.

- 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.

- 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
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?

- 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
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.

- 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.

- SUFFOLK
- My lord, these faults are easy, quickly answered:
- But mightier crimes are laid unto your charge,
- Whereof you cannot easily purge yourself.

- 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.

- 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!

- 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.

- 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
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.

- Myself have calm'd their spleenful mutiny,
- Until they hear the order of his 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.

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?

- 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.

- 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.

- 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!

- 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
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.

Exeunt
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'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.

- 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!

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.

- 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
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.

- 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
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
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
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.

Exeunt
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
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.

- 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?

- 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
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.

- 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.
 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
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!

 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
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