King Henry VI, Part II
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? | 5 | |
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, | 10 | |
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, | 15 | |
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. | 20 | |
First note that he is near you in descent, | ||
And should you fall, he as the next will mount. | ||
Me seemeth then it is no policy, | ||
Respecting what a rancorous mind he bears | ||
And his advantage following your decease, | 25 | |
That he should come about your royal person | ||
Or be admitted to your highness’ council. | ||
By flattery hath he won the commons’ hearts, | ||
And when he please to make commotion, | ||
‘Tis to be fear’d they all will follow him. | 30 | |
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. | 35 | |
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; | 40 | |
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, | 45 | |
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, | 50 | |
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. | 55 | |
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, | 60 |
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 | 65 | |
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 | 70 | |
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! | 75 |
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? | 80 | |
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 | 85 |
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 | 90 | |
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. | 95 | |
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: | 100 | |
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, | 105 |
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. | 110 | |
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! | 115 | |
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. | 120 |
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 | 125 |
protector, | ||
Pity was all the fault that was in me; | ||
For I should melt at an offender’s tears, | ||
And lowly words were ransom for their fault. | ||
Unless it were a bloody murderer, | 130 | |
Or foul felonious thief that fleeced poor passengers, | ||
I never gave them condign punishment: | ||
Murder indeed, that bloody sin, I tortured | ||
Above the felon or what trespass else. | ||
SUFFOLK | My lord, these faults are easy, quickly answered: | 135 |
But mightier crimes are laid unto your charge, | ||
Whereof you cannot easily purge yourself. | ||
I do arrest you in his highness’ name; | ||
And here commit you to my lord cardinal | ||
To keep, until your further time of trial. | 140 | |
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 | 145 | |
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, | 150 | |
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. | 155 | |
Beaufort’s red sparkling eyes blab his heart’s malice, | ||
And Suffolk’s cloudy brow his stormy hate; | ||
Sharp Buckingham unburthens with his tongue | ||
The envious load that lies upon his heart; | ||
And dogged York, that reaches at the moon, | 160 | |
Whose overweening arm I have pluck’d back, | ||
By false accuse doth level at my life: | ||
And you, my sovereign lady, with the rest, | ||
Causeless have laid disgraces on my head, | ||
And with your best endeavour have stirr’d up | 165 | |
My liefest liege to be mine enemy: | ||
Ay, all you have laid your heads together– | ||
Myself had notice of your conventicles– | ||
And all to make away my guiltless life. | ||
I shall not want false witness to condemn me, | 170 | |
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 | 175 | |
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 | 180 |
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; | 185 |
Beshrew the winners, for they play’d me false! | ||
And well such losers may have leave to speak. | ||
BUCKINGHAM | He’ll wrest the sense and hold us here all day: | |
Lord cardinal, he is your prisoner. | ||
CARDINAL | Sirs, take away the duke, and guard him sure. | 190 |
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! | 195 | |
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, | 200 |
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: | 205 | |
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? | 210 | |
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; | 215 | |
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 | 220 | |
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. | 225 |
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, | 230 | |
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, | 235 | |
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: | 240 |
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. | 245 |
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 | 250 | |
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? | 255 | |
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, | 260 | |
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, | 265 | |
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: | 270 | |
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, | 275 |
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. | 280 |
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 | 285 | |
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! | 290 |
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, | 295 |
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 | 300 | |
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: | 305 | |
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! | 310 |
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, | 315 | |
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. | 320 | |
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 | 325 |
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; | 330 | |
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 | 335 | |
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, | 340 | |
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: | 345 | |
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 | 350 | |
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 | 355 | |
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, | 360 | |
John Cade of Ashford, | ||
To make commotion, as full well he can, | ||
Under the title of John Mortimer. | ||
In Ireland have I seen this stubborn Cade | ||
Oppose himself against a troop of kerns, | 365 | |
And fought so long, till that his thighs with darts | ||
Were almost like a sharp-quill’d porpentine; | ||
And, in the end being rescued, I have seen | ||
Him caper upright like a wild Morisco, | ||
Shaking the bloody darts as he his bells. | 370 | |
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; | 375 | |
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, | 380 | |
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; | 385 | |
For Humphrey being dead, as he shall be, | ||
And Henry put apart, the next for me. | ||
[Exit] |
Continue to 2 Henry VI, Act 3, Scene 2