Act I
Scene I
London. The palace.
Flourish of trumpets: then hautboys. Enter the King, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, Salisbury, Warwick, and Cardinal Beaufort, on the one side; the Queen, Suffolk, York, Somerset, and Buckingham, on the other. | |
Suffolk |
As by your high imperial majesty
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King |
Suffolk, arise. Welcome, Queen Margaret:
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Queen |
Great King of England and my gracious lord,
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King |
Her sight did ravish; but her grace in speech,
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All | Kneeling. Long live Queen Margaret, England’s happiness! |
Queen | We thank you all. Flourish. |
Suffolk |
My lord protector, so it please your grace,
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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 | Uncle, how now! |
Gloucester |
Pardon me, gracious lord;
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King | 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 |
They please us well. Lord marquess, kneel down:
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Gloucester |
Brave peers of England, pillars of the state,
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Cardinal |
Nephew, what means this passionate discourse,
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Gloucester |
Ay, uncle, we will keep it, if we can;
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Salisbury |
Now, by the death of Him that died for all,
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Warwick |
For grief that they are past recovery:
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York |
For Suffolk’s duke, may he be suffocate,
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Gloucester |
A proper jest, and never heard before,
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Cardinal |
My Lord of Gloucester, now ye grow too hot:
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Gloucester |
My Lord of Winchester, I know your mind;
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Cardinal |
So, there goes our protector in a rage.
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Buckingham |
Why should he, then, protect our sovereign,
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Cardinal |
This weighty business will not brook delay;
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Somerset |
Cousin of Buckingham, though Humphrey’s pride
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Buckingham |
Or thou or I, Somerset, will be protector,
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Salisbury |
Pride went before, ambition follows him.
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Warwick |
So God help Warwick, as he loves the land,
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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;
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York |
Anjou and Maine are given to the French;
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Scene II
The Duke of Gloucester’s house.
Enter Duke Humphrey and his wife Eleanor. | |
Duchess |
Why droops my lord, like over-ripen’d corn,
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Gloucester |
O Nell, sweet Nell, if thou dost love thy lord,
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Duchess |
What dream’d my lord? tell me, and I’ll requite it
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Gloucester |
Methought this staff, mine office-badge in court,
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Duchess |
Tut, this was nothing but an argument
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Gloucester |
Nay, Eleanor, then must I chide outright:
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Duchess |
What, what, my lord! are you so choleric
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Gloucester | Nay, be not angry; I am pleased again. |
Enter Messenger. | |
Messenger |
My lord protector, ’tis his highness’ pleasure
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Gloucester | I go. Come, Nell, thou wilt ride with us? |
Duchess |
Yes, my good lord, I’ll follow presently. Exeunt Gloucester and Messenger.
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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,
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Duchess |
What say’st thou, man? hast thou as yet conferr’d
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Hume |
This they have promised, to show your highness
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Duchess |
It is enough; I’ll think upon the questions:
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Hume |
Hume must make merry with the duchess’ gold;
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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. | |
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 any thing with me? |
First Petitioner | I pray, my lord, pardon me; I took ye for my lord protector. |
Queen | 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 | What say’st 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 |
And as for you, that love to be protected
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All | Come, let’s be gone. Exeunt. |
Queen |
My Lord of Suffolk, say, is this the guise,
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Suffolk |
Madam, be patient: as I was cause
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Queen |
Beside the haughty protector, have we Beaufort
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Suffolk |
And he of these that can do most of all
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Queen |
Not all these lords do vex me half so much
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Suffolk |
Madam, myself have limed a bush for her,
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Sound a sennet. Enter the King, Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, Cardinal Beaufort, Buckingham, York, Somerset, Salisbury, Warwick, and the Duchess of Gloucester. | |
King |
For my part, noble lords, I care not which;
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York |
If York have ill demean’d himself in France,
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Somerset |
If Somerset be unworthy of the place,
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Warwick |
Whether your grace be worthy, yea or no,
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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,
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Queen | Because the king, forsooth, will have it so. |
Gloucester |
Madam, the king is old enough himself
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Queen |
If he be old enough, what needs your grace
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Gloucester |
Madam, I am protector of the realm;
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Suffolk |
Resign it then and leave thine insolence.
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Cardinal |
The commons hast thou rack’d; the clergy’s bags
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Somerset |
Thy sumptuous buildings and thy wife’s attire
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Buckingham |
Thy cruelty in execution
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Queen |
Thy sale of offices and towns in France,
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Duchess |
Was’t I! yea, I it was, proud Frenchwoman:
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King | Sweet aunt, be quiet; ’twas against her will. |
Duchess |
Against her will! good king, look to’t in time;
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Buckingham |
Lord cardinal, I will follow Eleanor,
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Re-enter Gloucester. | |
Gloucester |
Now, lords, my choler being over-blown
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Suffolk |
Before we make election, give me leave
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York |
I’ll tell thee, Suffolk, why I am unmeet:
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Warwick |
That can I witness; and a fouler fact
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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:
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York | Doth any one accuse York for a traitor? |
King | What mean’st thou, Suffolk; tell me, what are these? |
Suffolk |
Please it your majesty, this is the man
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King | 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,
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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 | Uncle, what shall we say to this in law? |
Gloucester |
This doom, my lord, if I may judge:
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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 | 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 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:
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Spirit | Adsum. |
Margaret Jourdain |
Asmath,
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Spirit | Ask what thou wilt. That I had said and done! |
Bolingbroke | “First of the king: what shall of him become?” Reading out of a paper. |
Spirit |
The Duke yet lives that Henry shall depose;
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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;
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Bolingbroke |
Descend to darkness and the burning lake!
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Enter the Duke of York and the Duke of Buckingham with their Guard and break in. | |
York |
Lay hands upon these traitors and their trash.
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Duchess |
Not half so bad as thine to England’s king,
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Buckingham |
True, madam, none at all: what call you this?
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York |
Lord Buckingham, methinks, you watch’d her well:
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Buckingham |
Your grace shall give me leave, my Lord of York,
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York | At your pleasure, my good lord. Who’s within there, ho! |
Enter a Servingman. | |
Invite my Lords of Salisbury and Warwick
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