The Second Part Of King Henry The Sixth

1 Sound a sennet. Enter the King, the Queen, Cardinal Beaufort, Suffolk,
2 York, Buckingham, Salisbury and Warwick to the Parliament.
3 KING HENRY.
4 I muse my Lord of Gloucester is not come.
5 ’Tis not his wont to be the hindmost man,
6 Whate’er occasion keeps him from us now.
7 QUEEN MARGARET.
8 Can you not see, or will ye not observe
9 The strangeness of his altered countenance?
10 With what a majesty he bears himself,
11 How insolent of late he is become,
12 How proud, how peremptory, and unlike himself?
13 We know the time since he was mild and affable;
14 And if we did but glance a far-off look,
15 Immediately he was upon his knee,
16 That all the court admired him for submission.
17 But meet him now, and be it in the morn
18 When everyone will give the time of day,
19 He knits his brow and shows an angry eye
20 And passeth by with stiff unbowed knee,
21 Disdaining duty that to us belongs.
22 Small curs are not regarded when they grin,
23 But great men tremble when the lion roars;
24 And Humphrey is no little man in England.
25 First note that he is near you in descent,
26 And should you fall, he is the next will mount.
27 Me seemeth then it is no policy,
28 Respecting what a rancorous mind he bears
29 And his advantage following your decease,
30 That he should come about your royal person
31 Or be admitted to your Highness’ Council.
32 By flattery hath he won the commons’ hearts;
33 And when he please to make commotion,
34 ’Tis to be feared they all will follow him.
35 Now ’tis the spring, and weeds are shallow-rooted;
36 Suffer them now, and they’ll o’ergrow the garden
37 And choke the herbs for want of husbandry.
38 The reverent care I bear unto my lord
39 Made me collect these dangers in the Duke.
40 If it be fond, can it a woman’s fear;
41 Which fear if better reasons can supplant,
42 I will subscribe and say I wronged the Duke.
43 My Lord of Suffolk, Buckingham, and York,
44 Reprove my allegation if you can,
45 Or else conclude my words effectual.
46 SUFFOLK.
47 Well hath your highness seen into this Duke;
48 And, had I first been put to speak my mind,
49 I think I should have told your grace’s tale.
50 The Duchess by his subornation,
51 Upon my life, began her devilish practices;
52 Or, if he were not privy to those faults,
53 Yet, by reputing of his high descent,
54 As next the King he was successive heir,
55 And such high vaunts of his nobility—
56 Did instigate the bedlam brain-sick Duchess
57 By wicked means to frame our sovereign’s fall.
58 Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep,
59 And in his simple show he harbours treason.
60 The fox barks not when he would steal the lamb.
61 No, no, my sovereign, Gloucester is a man
62 Unsounded yet and full of deep deceit.
63 CARDINAL.
64 Did he not, contrary to form of law,
65 Devise strange deaths for small offences done?
66 YORK.
67 And did he not, in his protectorship,
68 Levy great sums of money through the realm
69 For soldiers’ pay in France, and never sent it?
70 By means whereof the towns each day revolted.
71 BUCKINGHAM.
72 Tut, these are petty faults to faults unknown,
73 Which time will bring to light in smooth Duke Humphrey.
74 KING HENRY.
75 My lords, at once: the care you have of us
76 To mow down thorns that would annoy our foot
77 Is worthy praise; but, shall I speak my conscience,
78 Our kinsman Gloucester is as innocent
79 From meaning treason to our royal person
80 As is the sucking lamb or harmless dove.
81 The Duke is virtuous, mild, and too well given
82 To dream on evil or to work my downfall.
83 QUEEN MARGARET.
84 Ah, what’s more dangerous than this fond affiance?
85 Seems he a dove? His feathers are but borrowed,
86 For he’s disposed as the hateful raven.
87 Is he a lamb? His skin is surely lent him,
88 For he’s inclined as is the ravenous wolves.
89 Who cannot steal a shape that means deceit?
90 Take heed, my lord; the welfare of us all
91 Hangs on the cutting short that fraudful man.
92 Enter Somerset.
93 SOMERSET.
94 All health unto my gracious sovereign!
95 KING HENRY.
96 Welcome, Lord Somerset. What news from France?
97 SOMERSET.
98 That all your interest in those territories
99 Is utterly bereft you; all is lost.
100 KING HENRY.
101 Cold news, Lord Somerset; but God’s will be done.
102 YORK.
103 [_Aside_.] Cold news for me, for I had hope of France
104 As firmly as I hope for fertile England.
105 Thus are my blossoms blasted in the bud,
106 And caterpillars eat my leaves away;
107 But I will remedy this gear ere long,
108 Or sell my title for a glorious grave.
109 Enter Gloucester.
110 GLOUCESTER.
111 All happiness unto my lord the King!
112 Pardon, my liege, that I have staid so long.
113 SUFFOLK.
114 Nay, Gloucester, know that thou art come too soon,
115 Unless thou wert more loyal than thou art.
116 I do arrest thee of high treason here.
117 GLOUCESTER.
118 Well, Suffolk, thou shalt not see me blush,
119 Nor change my countenance for this arrest.
120 A heart unspotted is not easily daunted.
121 The purest spring is not so free from mud
122 As I am clear from treason to my sovereign.
123 Who can accuse me? Wherein am I guilty?
124 YORK.
125 ’Tis thought, my lord, that you took bribes of France,
126 And, being Protector, stayed the soldiers’ pay,
127 By means whereof his highness hath lost France.
128 GLOUCESTER.
129 Is it but thought so? What are they that think it?
130 I never robbed the soldiers of their pay,
131 Nor ever had one penny bribe from France.
132 So help me God, as I have watched the night,
133 Ay, night by night, in studying good for England!
134 That doit that e’er I wrested from the King,
135 Or any groat I hoarded to my use,
136 Be brought against me at my trial day!
137 No, many a pound of mine own proper store,
138 Because I would not tax the needy commons,
139 Have I dispursed to the garrisons
140 And never asked for restitution.
141 CARDINAL.
142 It serves you well, my lord, to say so much.
143 GLOUCESTER.
144 I say no more than truth, so help me God!
145 YORK.
146 In your protectorship you did devise
147 Strange tortures for offenders never heard of,
148 That England was defamed by tyranny.
149 GLOUCESTER.
150 Why, ’tis well known that, whiles I was Protector,
151 Pity was all the fault that was in me;
152 For I should melt at an offender’s tears,
153 And lowly words were ransom for their fault.
154 Unless it were a bloody murderer,
155 Or foul felonious thief that fleeced poor passengers,
156 I never gave them condign punishment.
157 Murder indeed, that bloody sin, I tortured
158 Above the felon or what trespass else.
159 SUFFOLK.
160 My lord, these faults are easy, quickly answered;
161 But mightier crimes are laid unto your charge
162 Whereof you cannot easily purge yourself.
163 I do arrest you in his highness’ name,
164 And here commit you to my Lord Cardinal
165 To keep until your further time of trial.
166 KING HENRY.
167 My Lord of Gloucester, ’tis my special hope
168 That you will clear yourself from all suspense.
169 My conscience tells me you are innocent.
170 GLOUCESTER.
171 Ah, gracious lord, these days are dangerous.
172 Virtue is choked with foul ambition,
173 And charity chased hence by rancour’s hand;
174 Foul subornation is predominant,
175 And equity exiled your highness’ land.
176 I know their complot is to have my life;
177 And if my death might make this island happy
178 And prove the period of their tyranny,
179 I would expend it with all willingness.
180 But mine is made the prologue to their play;
181 For thousands more, that yet suspect no peril,
182 Will not conclude their plotted tragedy.
183 Beaufort’s red sparkling eyes blab his heart’s malice,
184 And Suffolk’s cloudy brow his stormy hate;
185 Sharp Buckingham unburdens with his tongue
186 The envious load that lies upon his heart;
187 And dogged York, that reaches at the moon,
188 Whose overweening arm I have plucked back,
189 By false accuse doth level at my life.
190 And you, my sovereign lady, with the rest,
191 Causeless have laid disgraces on my head
192 And with your best endeavour have stirred up
193 My liefest liege to be mine enemy.
194 Ay, all of you have laid your heads together—
195 Myself had notice of your conventicles—
196 And all to make away my guiltless life.
197 I shall not want false witness to condemn me,
198 Nor store of treasons to augment my guilt.
199 The ancient proverb will be well effected:
200 “A staff is quickly found to beat a dog.”
201 CARDINAL.
202 My liege, his railing is intolerable.
203 If those that care to keep your royal person
204 From treason’s secret knife and traitor’s rage
205 Be thus upbraided, chid, and rated at,
206 And the offender granted scope of speech,
207 ’Twill make them cool in zeal unto your grace.
208 SUFFOLK.
209 Hath he not twit our sovereign lady here
210 With ignominious words, though clerkly couched,
211 As if she had suborned some to swear
212 False allegations to o’erthrow his state?
213 QUEEN MARGARET.
214 But I can give the loser leave to chide.
215 GLOUCESTER.
216 Far truer spoke than meant. I lose, indeed.
217 Beshrew the winners, for they played me false!
218 And well such losers may have leave to speak.
219 BUCKINGHAM.
220 He’ll wrest the sense and hold us here all day.
221 Lord Cardinal, he is your prisoner.
222 CARDINAL.
223 Sirs, take away the Duke, and guard him sure.
224 GLOUCESTER.
225 Ah, thus King Henry throws away his crutch
226 Before his legs be firm to bear his body.
227 Thus is the shepherd beaten from thy side,
228 And wolves are gnarling who shall gnaw thee first.
229 Ah, that my fear were false; ah, that it were!
230 For, good King Henry, thy decay I fear.
231 [_Exit Gloucester, guarded._]
232 KING HENRY.
233 My lords, what to your wisdoms seemeth best
234 Do, or undo, as if ourself were here.
235 QUEEN MARGARET.
236 What, will your highness leave the parliament?
237 KING HENRY.
238 Ay, Margaret; my heart is drowned with grief,
239 Whose flood begins to flow within mine eyes,
240 My body round engirt with misery;
241 For what’s more miserable than discontent?
242 Ah, uncle Humphrey, in thy face I see
243 The map of honour, truth, and loyalty;
244 And yet, good Humphrey, is the hour to come
245 That e’er I proved thee false or feared thy faith.
246 What louring star now envies thy estate
247 That these great lords and Margaret our Queen
248 Do seek subversion of thy harmless life?
249 Thou never didst them wrong nor no man wrong.
250 And as the butcher takes away the calf
251 And binds the wretch and beats it when it strains,
252 Bearing it to the bloody slaughterhouse,
253 Even so remorseless have they borne him hence;
254 And as the dam runs lowing up and down,
255 Looking the way her harmless young one went,
256 And can do naught but wail her darling’s loss,
257 Even so myself bewails good Gloucester’s case
258 With sad unhelpful tears, and with dimmed eyes
259 Look after him, and cannot do him good,
260 So mighty are his vowed enemies.
261 His fortunes I will weep and ’twixt each groan
262 Say “Who’s a traitor? Gloucester he is none.”
263 [_Exeunt all but Queen, Cardinal Beaufort, Suffolk and York; Somerset
264 remains apart._]
265 QUEEN MARGARET.
266 Free lords, cold snow melts with the sun’s hot beams.
267 Henry my lord is cold in great affairs,
268 Too full of foolish pity; and Gloucester’s show
269 Beguiles him, as the mournful crocodile
270 With sorrow snares relenting passengers,
271 Or as the snake, rolled in a flowering bank,
272 With shining checkered slough, doth sting a child
273 That for the beauty thinks it excellent.
274 Believe me, lords, were none more wise than I—
275 And yet herein I judge mine own wit good—
276 This Gloucester should be quickly rid the world,
277 To rid us from the fear we have of him.
278 CARDINAL.
279 That he should die is worthy policy,
280 But yet we want a colour for his death.
281 ’Tis meet he be condemned by course of law.
282 SUFFOLK.
283 But, in my mind, that were no policy.
284 The King will labour still to save his life,
285 The commons haply rise to save his life,
286 And yet we have but trivial argument,
287 More than mistrust, that shows him worthy death.
288 YORK.
289 So that, by this, you would not have him die.
290 SUFFOLK.
291 Ah, York, no man alive so fain as I!
292 YORK.
293 ’Tis York that hath more reason for his death.
294 But, my Lord Cardinal, and you, my Lord of Suffolk,
295 Say as you think, and speak it from your souls:
296 Were ’t not all one an empty eagle were set
297 To guard the chicken from a hungry kite,
298 As place Duke Humphrey for the King’s Protector?
299 QUEEN MARGARET.
300 So the poor chicken should be sure of death.
301 SUFFOLK.
302 Madam, ’tis true; and were ’t not madness then
303 To make the fox surveyor of the fold,
304 Who being accused a crafty murderer,
305 His guilt should be but idly posted over
306 Because his purpose is not executed?
307 No, let him die in that he is a fox,
308 By nature proved an enemy to the flock,
309 Before his chaps be stained with crimson blood,
310 As Humphrey, proved by reasons, to my liege.
311 And do not stand on quillets how to slay him;
312 Be it by gins, by snares, by subtlety,
313 Sleeping or waking, ’tis no matter how,
314 So he be dead; for that is good deceit
315 Which mates him first that first intends deceit.
316 QUEEN MARGARET.
317 Thrice-noble Suffolk, ’tis resolutely spoke.
318 SUFFOLK.
319 Not resolute, except so much were done,
320 For things are often spoke and seldom meant;
321 But that my heart accordeth with my tongue,
322 Seeing the deed is meritorious,
323 And to preserve my sovereign from his foe,
324 Say but the word, and I will be his priest.
325 CARDINAL.
326 But I would have him dead, my Lord of Suffolk,
327 Ere you can take due orders for a priest.
328 Say you consent and censure well the deed,
329 And I’ll provide his executioner.
330 I tender so the safety of my liege.
331 SUFFOLK.
332 Here is my hand, the deed is worthy doing.
333 QUEEN MARGARET.
334 And so say I.
335 YORK.
336 And I. And now we three have spoke it,
337 It skills not greatly who impugns our doom.
338 Enter a Post.
339 POST.
340 Great lords, from Ireland am I come amain
341 To signify that rebels there are up
342 And put the Englishmen unto the sword.
343 Send succours, lords, and stop the rage betime,
344 Before the wound do grow uncurable;
345 For, being green, there is great hope of help.
346 CARDINAL.
347 A breach that craves a quick expedient stop!
348 What counsel give you in this weighty cause?
349 YORK.
350 That Somerset be sent as regent thither.
351 ’Tis meet that lucky ruler be employed;
352 Witness the fortune he hath had in France.
353 SOMERSET.
354 If York, with all his far-fet policy,
355 Had been the regent there instead of me,
356 He never would have stayed in France so long.
357 YORK.
358 No, not to lose it all as thou hast done.
359 I rather would have lost my life betimes
360 Than bring a burden of dishonour home
361 By staying there so long till all were lost.
362 Show me one scar charactered on thy skin;
363 Men’s flesh preserved so whole do seldom win.
364 QUEEN MARGARET.
365 Nay then, this spark will prove a raging fire
366 If wind and fuel be brought to feed it with.
367 No more, good York. Sweet Somerset, be still.
368 Thy fortune, York, hadst thou been regent there,
369 Might happily have proved far worse than his.
370 YORK.
371 What, worse than naught? Nay, then a shame take all!
372 SOMERSET.
373 And, in the number, thee that wishest shame!
374 CARDINAL.
375 My Lord of York, try what your fortune is.
376 Th’ uncivil kerns of Ireland are in arms
377 And temper clay with blood of Englishmen.
378 To Ireland will you lead a band of men,
379 Collected choicely, from each county some,
380 And try your hap against the Irishmen?
381 YORK.
382 I will, my lord, so please his majesty.
383 SUFFOLK.
384 Why, our authority is his consent,
385 And what we do establish he confirms.
386 Then, noble York, take thou this task in hand.
387 YORK.
388 I am content. Provide me soldiers, lords,
389 Whiles I take order for mine own affairs.
390 SUFFOLK.
391 A charge, Lord York, that I will see performed.
392 But now return we to the false Duke Humphrey.
393 CARDINAL.
394 No more of him; for I will deal with him
395 That henceforth he shall trouble us no more.
396 And so break off; the day is almost spent.
397 Lord Suffolk, you and I must talk of that event.
398 YORK.
399 My Lord of Suffolk, within fourteen days
400 At Bristol I expect my soldiers;
401 For there I’ll ship them all for Ireland.
402 SUFFOLK.
403 I’ll see it truly done, my Lord of York.
404 [_Exeunt all but York._]
405 YORK.
406 Now, York, or never, steel thy fearful thoughts,
407 And change misdoubt to resolution.
408 Be that thou hop’st to be, or what thou art
409 Resign to death; it is not worth th’ enjoying.
410 Let pale-faced fear keep with the mean-born man
411 And find no harbour in a royal heart.
412 Faster than springtime showers comes thought on thought,
413 And not a thought but thinks on dignity.
414 My brain, more busy than the labouring spider
415 Weaves tedious snares to trap mine enemies.
416 Well, nobles, well, ’tis politicly done,
417 To send me packing with an host of men;
418 I fear me you but warm the starved snake,
419 Who, cherished in your breasts, will sting your hearts.
420 ’Twas men I lacked, and you will give them me;
421 I take it kindly, yet be well assured
422 You put sharp weapons in a madman’s hands.
423 Whiles I in Ireland nourish a mighty band,
424 I will stir up in England some black storm
425 Shall blow ten thousand souls to heaven or hell;
426 And this fell tempest shall not cease to rage
427 Until the golden circuit on my head,
428 Like to the glorious sun’s transparent beams,
429 Do calm the fury of this mad-bred flaw.
430 And for a minister of my intent,
431 I have seduced a headstrong Kentishman,
432 John Cade of Ashford,
433 To make commotion, as full well he can,
434 Under the title of John Mortimer.
435 In Ireland have I seen this stubborn Cade
436 Oppose himself against a troop of kerns,
437 And fought so long till that his thighs with darts
438 Were almost like a sharp-quilled porpentine;
439 And in the end being rescued, I have seen
440 Him caper upright like a wild Morisco,
441 Shaking the bloody darts as he his bells.
442 Full often, like a shag-haired crafty kern,
443 Hath he conversed with the enemy,
444 And undiscovered come to me again
445 And given me notice of their villainies.
446 This devil here shall be my substitute;
447 For that John Mortimer, which now is dead,
448 In face, in gait, in speech, he doth resemble.
449 By this I shall perceive the commons’ mind,
450 How they affect the house and claim of York.
451 Say he be taken, racked, and tortured,
452 I know no pain they can inflict upon him
453 Will make him say I moved him to those arms.
454 Say that he thrive, as ’tis great like he will,
455 Why then from Ireland come I with my strength
456 And reap the harvest which that rascal sowed.
457 For Humphrey being dead, as he shall be,
458 And Henry put apart, the next for me.
459 [_Exit._]