The Second Part Of King Henry The Sixth

1 Flourish of trumpets, then hautboys. Enter the King, Gloucester,
2 Salisbury, Warwick, and Cardinal Beaufort on the one side; the Queen,
3 Suffolk, York, Somerset and Buckingham on the other.
4 SUFFOLK.
5 As by your high imperial Majesty
6 I had in charge at my depart for France,
7 As procurator to your excellence,
8 To marry Princess Margaret for your grace,
9 So, in the famous ancient city Tours,
10 In presence of the Kings of France and Sicil,
11 The Dukes of Orleans, Calaber, Bretagne, and Alençon,
12 Seven earls, twelve barons, and twenty reverend bishops,
13 I have performed my task and was espoused,
14 And humbly now upon my bended knee,
15 In sight of England and her lordly peers,
16 Deliver up my title in the Queen
17 To your most gracious hands, that are the substance
18 Of that great shadow I did represent:
19 The happiest gift that ever marquess gave,
20 The fairest queen that ever king received.
21 KING HENRY.
22 Suffolk, arise.—Welcome, Queen Margaret.
23 I can express no kinder sign of love
24 Than this kind kiss.—O Lord, that lends me life,
25 Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness!
26 For Thou hast given me in this beauteous face
27 A world of earthly blessings to my soul,
28 If sympathy of love unite our thoughts.
29 QUEEN MARGARET.
30 Great King of England and my gracious lord,
31 The mutual conference that my mind hath had
32 By day, by night, waking and in my dreams,
33 In courtly company or at my beads,
34 With you, mine alderliefest sovereign,
35 Makes me the bolder to salute my King
36 With ruder terms, such as my wit affords
37 And overjoy of heart doth minister.
38 KING HENRY.
39 Her sight did ravish, but her grace in speech,
40 Her words yclad with wisdom’s majesty,
41 Makes me from wondering fall to weeping joys,
42 Such is the fulness of my heart’s content.
43 Lords, with one cheerful voice welcome my love.
44 ALL.
45 [_Kneeling_.] Long live Queen Margaret, England’s happiness!
46 QUEEN MARGARET.
47 We thank you all.
48 [_Flourish._]
49 SUFFOLK.
50 My Lord Protector, so it please your grace,
51 Here are the articles of contracted peace
52 Between our sovereign and the French king Charles,
53 For eighteen months concluded by consent.
54 GLOUCESTER.
55 [_Reads_.] Imprimis, _it is agreed between the French king Charles and
56 William de la Pole, Marquess of Suffolk, ambassador for Henry, King of
57 England, that the said Henry shall espouse the Lady Margaret, daughter
58 unto Reignier King of Naples, Sicilia, and Jerusalem, and crown her
59 Queen of England ere the thirtieth of May next ensuing._ Item, _that
60 the duchy of Anjou and the county of Maine shall be released and
61 delivered to the King her father_—
62 [_Lets the paper fall._]
63 KING HENRY.
64 Uncle, how now?
65 GLOUCESTER.
66 Pardon me, gracious lord.
67 Some sudden qualm hath struck me at the heart
68 And dimmed mine eyes, that I can read no further.
69 KING HENRY.
70 Uncle of Winchester, I pray read on.
71 CARDINAL.
72 [_Reads_.] Item, _it is further agreed between them, that the duchies
73 of Anjou and Maine shall be released and delivered to the King her
74 father, and she sent over of the King of England’s own proper cost and
75 charges, without having any dowry._
76 KING HENRY.
77 They please us well.—Lord Marquess, kneel down.
78 We here create thee the first Duke of Suffolk,
79 And girt thee with the sword.—Cousin of York,
80 We here discharge your grace from being regent
81 I’ th’ parts of France, till term of eighteen months
82 Be full expired.—Thanks, uncle Winchester,
83 Gloucester, York, Buckingham, Somerset,
84 Salisbury, and Warwick;
85 We thank you all for this great favour done
86 In entertainment to my princely Queen.
87 Come, let us in, and with all speed provide
88 To see her coronation be performed.
89 [_Exeunt King, Queen and Suffolk._]
90 GLOUCESTER.
91 Brave peers of England, pillars of the state,
92 To you Duke Humphrey must unload his grief,
93 Your grief, the common grief of all the land.
94 What! Did my brother Henry spend his youth,
95 His valour, coin, and people, in the wars?
96 Did he so often lodge in open field,
97 In winter’s cold and summer’s parching heat,
98 To conquer France, his true inheritance?
99 And did my brother Bedford toil his wits
100 To keep by policy what Henry got?
101 Have you yourselves, Somerset, Buckingham,
102 Brave York, Salisbury, and victorious Warwick,
103 Received deep scars in France and Normandy?
104 Or hath mine uncle Beaufort and myself,
105 With all the learned council of the realm,
106 Studied so long, sat in the council house
107 Early and late, debating to and fro
108 How France and Frenchmen might be kept in awe,
109 And had his highness in his infancy
110 Crowned in Paris in despite of foes?
111 And shall these labours and these honours die?
112 Shall Henry’s conquest, Bedford’s vigilance,
113 Your deeds of war, and all our counsel die?
114 O peers of England, shameful is this league!
115 Fatal this marriage, cancelling your fame,
116 Blotting your names from books of memory,
117 Razing the characters of your renown,
118 Defacing monuments of conquered France,
119 Undoing all, as all had never been!
120 CARDINAL.
121 Nephew, what means this passionate discourse,
122 This peroration with such circumstance?
123 For France, ’tis ours; and we will keep it still.
124 GLOUCESTER.
125 Ay, uncle, we will keep it if we can,
126 But now it is impossible we should.
127 Suffolk, the new-made duke that rules the roast,
128 Hath given the duchy of Anjou and Maine
129 Unto the poor King Reignier, whose large style
130 Agrees not with the leanness of his purse.
131 SALISBURY.
132 Now, by the death of Him that died for all,
133 These counties were the keys of Normandy!
134 But wherefore weeps Warwick, my valiant son?
135 WARWICK.
136 For grief that they are past recovery;
137 For, were there hope to conquer them again,
138 My sword should shed hot blood, mine eyes no tears.
139 Anjou and Maine! Myself did win them both,
140 Those provinces these arms of mine did conquer;
141 And are the cities that I got with wounds
142 Delivered up again with peaceful words?
143 _Mort Dieu!_
144 YORK.
145 For Suffolk’s duke, may he be suffocate,
146 That dims the honour of this warlike isle!
147 France should have torn and rent my very heart
148 Before I would have yielded to this league.
149 I never read but England’s kings have had
150 Large sums of gold and dowries with their wives;
151 And our King Henry gives away his own,
152 To match with her that brings no vantages.
153 GLOUCESTER.
154 A proper jest, and never heard before,
155 That Suffolk should demand a whole fifteenth
156 For costs and charges in transporting her!
157 She should have staid in France, and starved in France,
158 Before—
159 CARDINAL.
160 My Lord of Gloucester, now ye grow too hot.
161 It was the pleasure of my lord the King.
162 GLOUCESTER.
163 My Lord of Winchester, I know your mind.
164 ’Tis not my speeches that you do mislike,
165 But ’tis my presence that doth trouble ye.
166 Rancour will out. Proud prelate, in thy face
167 I see thy fury. If I longer stay,
168 We shall begin our ancient bickerings.—
169 Lordings, farewell; and say, when I am gone,
170 I prophesied France will be lost ere long.
171 [_Exit._]
172 CARDINAL.
173 So, there goes our Protector in a rage.
174 ’Tis known to you he is mine enemy,
175 Nay, more, an enemy unto you all,
176 And no great friend, I fear me, to the King.
177 Consider, lords, he is the next of blood
178 And heir apparent to the English crown.
179 Had Henry got an empire by his marriage,
180 And all the wealthy kingdoms of the west,
181 There’s reason he should be displeased at it.
182 Look to it, lords. Let not his smoothing words
183 Bewitch your hearts; be wise and circumspect.
184 What though the common people favour him,
185 Calling him “Humphrey, the good Duke of Gloucester,”
186 Clapping their hands, and crying with loud voice,
187 “Jesu maintain your royal excellence!”
188 With “God preserve the good Duke Humphrey!”
189 I fear me, lords, for all this flattering gloss,
190 He will be found a dangerous Protector.
191 BUCKINGHAM.
192 Why should he, then, protect our sovereign,
193 He being of age to govern of himself?
194 Cousin of Somerset, join you with me,
195 And all together, with the Duke of Suffolk,
196 We’ll quickly hoist Duke Humphrey from his seat.
197 CARDINAL.
198 This weighty business will not brook delay;
199 I’ll to the Duke of Suffolk presently.
200 [_Exit._]
201 SOMERSET.
202 Cousin of Buckingham, though Humphrey’s pride
203 And greatness of his place be grief to us,
204 Yet let us watch the haughty cardinal;
205 His insolence is more intolerable
206 Than all the princes’ in the land beside.
207 If Gloucester be displaced, he’ll be Protector.
208 BUCKINGHAM.
209 Or thou or I, Somerset, will be Protector,
210 Despite Duke Humphrey or the Cardinal.
211 [_Exeunt Buckingham and Somerset._]
212 SALISBURY.
213 Pride went before; Ambition follows him.
214 While these do labour for their own preferment,
215 Behoves it us to labour for the realm.
216 I never saw but Humphrey Duke of Gloucester,
217 Did bear him like a noble gentleman.
218 Oft have I seen the haughty Cardinal,
219 More like a soldier than a man o’ th’ church,
220 As stout and proud as he were lord of all,
221 Swear like a ruffian and demean himself
222 Unlike the ruler of a commonweal.—
223 Warwick my son, the comfort of my age,
224 Thy deeds, thy plainness, and thy housekeeping,
225 Hath won the greatest favour of the commons,
226 Excepting none but good Duke Humphrey.—
227 And, brother York, thy acts in Ireland,
228 In bringing them to civil discipline,
229 Thy late exploits done in the heart of France,
230 When thou wert regent for our sovereign,
231 Have made thee feared and honoured of the people.
232 Join we together for the public good,
233 In what we can to bridle and suppress
234 The pride of Suffolk and the Cardinal,
235 With Somerset’s and Buckingham’s ambition;
236 And, as we may, cherish Duke Humphrey’s deeds
237 While they do tend the profit of the land.
238 WARWICK.
239 So God help Warwick, as he loves the land
240 And common profit of his country!
241 YORK.
242 And so says York, [_Aside_.] for he hath greatest cause.
243 SALISBURY.
244 Then let’s make haste away and look unto the main.
245 WARWICK.
246 Unto the main! O father, Maine is lost,
247 That Maine which by main force Warwick did win,
248 And would have kept so long as breath did last!
249 Main chance, father, you meant; but I meant Maine,
250 Which I will win from France, or else be slain.
251 [_Exeunt Warwick and Salisbury._]
252 YORK.
253 Anjou and Maine are given to the French;
254 Paris is lost; the state of Normandy
255 Stands on a tickle point now they are gone.
256 Suffolk concluded on the articles,
257 The peers agreed, and Henry was well pleased
258 To change two dukedoms for a duke’s fair daughter.
259 I cannot blame them all. What is’t to them?
260 ’Tis thine they give away, and not their own.
261 Pirates may make cheap pennyworths of their pillage,
262 And purchase friends, and give to courtesans,
263 Still revelling like lords till all be gone;
264 Whileas the silly owner of the goods
265 Weeps over them, and wrings his hapless hands,
266 And shakes his head, and trembling stands aloof,
267 While all is shared and all is borne away,
268 Ready to starve and dare not touch his own.
269 So York must sit and fret and bite his tongue,
270 While his own lands are bargained for and sold.
271 Methinks the realms of England, France, and Ireland
272 Bear that proportion to my flesh and blood
273 As did the fatal brand Althaea burnt
274 Unto the prince’s heart of Calydon.
275 Anjou and Maine both given unto the French!
276 Cold news for me, for I had hope of France,
277 Even as I have of fertile England’s soil.
278 A day will come when York shall claim his own;
279 And therefore I will take the Nevilles’ parts,
280 And make a show of love to proud Duke Humphrey,
281 And when I spy advantage, claim the crown,
282 For that’s the golden mark I seek to hit.
283 Nor shall proud Lancaster usurp my right,
284 Nor hold the sceptre in his childish fist,
285 Nor wear the diadem upon his head,
286 Whose church-like humours fits not for a crown.
287 Then, York, be still awhile till time do serve.
288 Watch thou and wake when others be asleep,
289 To pry into the secrets of the state;
290 Till Henry, surfeiting in joys of love
291 With his new bride and England’s dear-bought Queen,
292 And Humphrey with the peers be fallen at jars.
293 Then will I raise aloft the milk-white rose,
294 With whose sweet smell the air shall be perfumed,
295 And in my standard bear the arms of York,
296 To grapple with the house of Lancaster;
297 And force perforce I’ll make him yield the crown,
298 Whose bookish rule hath pulled fair England down.
299 [_Exit._]