Your deeds of war, and all our counsel 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 !
Car. Nephew, what means this passionate discourse,
This peroration with such circumstance ?
For France, 'tis ours; and we will keep it still.
Glo. 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 duchies of Anjou and Maine
Unto the poor King Reignier, whose large style
Agrees not with the leanness of his purse.
Sal. Now, by the death of Him that died for all,
These counties were the keys of Normandy.
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.
Glo. A proper jest, and never heard before,
That Suffolk should demand a whole fifteenth
For costs and charges in transporting her!
She should have stay'd in France, and starv'd in France,
Car. My Lord of Gloster, now ye grow too hot :
It was the pleasure of my lord the king.
Glo. 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.
Car. 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 displeas'd 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 Gloster";
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.
Buck. 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.
Car. This weighty business will not brook delay;
I'll to the Duke of Suffolk presently.
Som. 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 Gloster be displac'd, he'll be protector.
Buck. Thou or I, Somerset, will be protector,
Despite Duke Humphrey or the cardinal.
[Exeunt BUCKINGHAM and Somerset.
Sal. 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 Gloster
Did bear him like a noble gentleman.
Oft have I seen the haughty cardinal-
More like a soldier than a man o' the church,
As stout and proud as he were lord of all-
Swear like a ruffian, and demean himself
Unlike the ruler of a commonweal.-
Warwick, my son, the comfort of my age,
Thy deeds, thy plainness, and thy housekeeping,
Have 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.
War. 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. Sal. Let's haste away, and look unto the main.
[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 pleas'd
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;
Whileas the silly owner of the goods
Weeps over them, and wrings his helpless hands,
And shakes his head, and trembling stands aloof,
While all is shar'd, 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.
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 humour 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 perfum'd;
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.
Enter PETER, and other Petitioners.
First Petit. 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.
Sec. Petit. Marry, the Lord protect him, for he's a good man! Jesu bless him!
First Petit. Here 'a comes, methinks, and the queen with him. I'll be the first, sure.
Enter SUFFOLK and QUEEN MARGARET.
Sec. Petit. Come back, fool; this is the Duke of Suffolk, and not my lord protector.
Suf. How now, fellow! wouldst any thing with me?
First Petit. I pray, my lord, pardon me; I took ye for my lord protector.
Q. Mar. For my lord protector! Are your supplications to his lordship? Let me see them :-what is thine?
First Petit. 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.
Suf. 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 ! Sec. Petit. Alas, sir, I am but a poor petitioner of our whole township.
Peter. [Presenting his petition] Against my master, Thomas Horner, for saying that the Duke of York was rightful heir to the crown.
Q. Mar. 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.
Suf. Who is there? [Enter Servants] - Take this fellow in, and send for his master with a pursuivant presently.We'll hear more of your matter before the king.
[Exeunt Servants with PETER.
Q. Mar. 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.
Away, base cullions !-Suffolk, let them go.
All. Come, let's be gone.
[Tears the petitions.
[Exeunt Petitioners.
Q. Mar. 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 Gloster'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 rann'st a tilt in honour of my love,
And stol'st 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:
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