Текст книги "William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition"

Автор книги: William Shakespeare

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The First Part of the Contention of the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster

1.1 Flourish of trumpets, then hautboys. Enter, at one door, King Henry and Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, the Duke of Somerset, the Duke of Buckingham, Cardinal Beaufort,⌈and others⌉. Enter, at the other door, the Duke of York, and the Marquis of Suffolk, and Queen Margaret, and the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick

SUFFOLK (kneeling before King Henry)

As by your high imperial majesty

I had in charge at my depart for France,

As Procurator to your excellence,

To marry Princess Margaret for your grace,

So, in the famous ancient city Tours,

In presence of the Kings of France and Sicil,

The Dukes of Orléans, Calaber, Bretagne, and Alençon,

Seven earls, twelve barons, and twenty reverend

bishops,

I have performed my task and was espoused,

And humbly now upon my bended knee,

In sight of England and her lordly peers,

Deliver up my title in the Queen

To your most gracious hands, that are the substance

Of that great shadow I did represent—

The happiest gift that ever marquis gave,

The fairest queen that ever king received.

KING HENRY

Suffolk, arise. Welcome, Queen Margaret.

I can express no kinder sign of love

Than this kind kiss.

He kisses her

O Lord that lends me life,

Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness!

For thou hast given me in this beauteous face

A world of earthly blessings to my soul,

If sympathy of love unite our thoughts.

QUEEN MARGARET

Th’excess of love I bear unto your grace

Forbids me to be lavish of my tongue

Lest I should speak more than beseems a woman.

Let this suffice: my bliss is in your liking,

And naught can make poor Margaret miserable

Unless the frown of mighty England’s King.

KING HENRY

Her sight did ravish, but her grace in speech,

Her words yclad with wisdom’s majesty,

Makes me from wond’ring fall to weeping joys,

Such is the fullness of my heart’s content.

Lords, with one cheerful voice, welcome my love.

LORDS (kneeling)

Long live Queen Margaret, England’s happiness.

QUEEN MARGARET We thank you all.

Flourish. ⌈They all rise⌉

SUFFOLK (to Gloucester)

My Lord Protector, so it please your grace,

Here are the articles of contracted peace

Between our sovereign and the French King Charles,

For eighteen months concluded by consent.

GLOUCESTER (reads) Imprimis: it is agreed between the French King Charles and William de la Pole, Marquis of Suffolk, ambassador for Henry, King of England, that the said Henry shall espouse the Lady Margaret, daughter unto René, King of Naples, Sicilia, and Jerusalem, and crown her Queen of England, ere the thirtieth of May next ensuing.

Item: it is further agreed between them that the duchy of Anjou and the county of Maine shall be released and delivered to the King her fa—

⌈Gloucester lets the paper fall⌉

KING HENRY

Uncle, how now?

GLOUCESTER Pardon me, gracious lord.

Some sudden qualm hath struck me at the heart

And dimmed mine eyes that I can read no further.

KING HENRY (to Cardinal Beaufort)

Uncle of Winchester, I pray read on.

CARDINAL BEAUFORT (reads) Item: it is further agreed between them that the duchy of Anjou and the county of Maine shall be released and delivered to the King her father, and she sent over of the King of England’s own proper cost and charges, without dowry.

KING HENRY

They please us well. (To Suffolk) Lord Marquis, kneel down.

Suffolk kneels

We here create thee first Duke of Suffolk,

And gird thee with the sword.

Suffolk rises

Cousin of York,

We here discharge your grace from being regent

I’th’ parts of France till term of eighteen months

Be full expired. Thanks uncle Winchester,

Gloucester, York, and Buckingham, Somerset,

Salisbury, and Warwick.

We thank you all for this great favour done

In entertainment to my princely Queen.

Come, let us in, and with all speed provide

To see her coronation be performed.

Exeunt King Henry, Queen Margaret, and

Suffolk. ⌈Gloucester stays⌉ all the rest

GLOUCESTER

Brave peers of England, pillars of the state,

To you Duke Humphrey must unload his grief,

Your grief, the common grief of all the land.

What—did my brother Henry spend his youth,

His valour, coin, and people in the wars?

Did he so often lodge in open field

In winter’s cold and summer’s parching heat

To conquer France, his true inheritance?

And did my brother Bedford toil his wits

To keep by policy what Henry got?

Have you yourselves, Somerset, Buckingham,

Brave York, Salisbury, and victorious Warwick,

Received deep scars in France and Normandy?

Or hath mine uncle Beaufort and myself,

With all the learned Council of the realm,

Studied so long, sat in the Council House

Early and late, debating to and fro,

How France and Frenchmen might be kept in awe,

And had his highness in his infancy

Crowned in Paris in despite of foes?

And shall these labours and these honours die?

Shall Henry’s conquest, Bedford’s vigilance,

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 conquered France,

Undoing all, as all had never been!

CARDINAL BEAUFORT

Nephew, what means this passionate discourse,

This peroration with such circumstance?

For France, ’tis ours; and we will keep it still.

GLOUCESTER

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 duchy of Anjou and Maine

Unto the poor King René, whose large style

Agrees not with the leanness of his purse.

SALISBURY

Now by the death of Him that died for all,

These counties were the keys of Normandy—

But wherefore weeps Warwick, my valiant son?

WARWICK

For grief that they are past recovery.

For were there hope to conquer them again

My sword should shed hot blood, mine eyes no tears.

Anjou and Maine? Myself did win them both!

Those provinces these arms of mine did conquer—

And are the cities that I got with wounds

Delivered up again with peaceful words?

Mort Dieu!

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.

GLOUCESTER

A proper jest, and never heard before,

That Suffolk should demand a whole fifteenth

For costs and charges in transporting her!

She should have stayed in France and starved in

France

Before—

CARDINAL BEAUFORT

My lord of Gloucester, now ye grow too hot!

It was the pleasure of my lord the King.

GLOUCESTER

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—

But I’ll be gone, and give thee leave to speak.

Lordings, farewell, and say when I am gone,

I prophesied France will be lost ere long. Exit

CARDINAL BEAUFORT

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 displeased 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 Gloucester‘,

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.

BUCKINGHAM

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 hoist Duke Humphrey from his seat.

CARDINAL BEAUFORT

This weighty business will not brook delay—

I’ll to the Duke of Suffolk presently. Exit

SOMERSET

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 Gloucester be displaced, he’ll be Protector.

BUCKINGHAM

Or thou or I, Somerset, will be Protector,

Despite Duke Humphrey or the Cardinal.

Exeunt Buckingham and Somerset

SALISBURY

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 Gloucester

Did bear him like a noble gentleman.

Oft have I seen the haughty Cardinal,

More like a soldier than a man o’th’ 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

Hath won thee 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 feared and honoured of the people.

The reverence of mine age and Neville’s name

Is of no little force if I command.

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.

WARWICK

So God help Warwick, as he loves the land,

And common profit of his country!

YORK

And so says York, (aside) for he hath greatest cause.

SALISBURY

Then let’s away, and look unto the main.

WARWICK

Unto the main? O, father, Maine is lost !

That Maine which by main force Warwick did win,

And would have kept so long as breath did last!

Main chance, father, you meant—but I meant Maine,

Which I will win from France or else be slain.

Exeunt Warwick and Salisbury, leaving only York

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 pleased

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 courtesans,

Still revelling like lords till all be gone,

Whileas the seely owner of the goods

Weeps over them, and wrings his hapless hands,

And shakes his head, and, trembling, stands aloof,

While all is shared 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 bargained for and sold.

Methinks the realms of England, France, and Ireland

Bear that proportion to my flesh and blood

As did the fatal brand Althaea burnt

Unto the prince’s heart of Calydon.

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 Nevilles’ 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 humours fits not for a crown.

Then, York, be still a while till time do serve.

Watch thou, and wake when others be asleep,

To pry into the secrets of the state—

Till Henry, surfeit in the 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 perfumed,

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 pulled fair England down.

Exit

1.2 Enter Duke Humphrey of Gloucester and his wife Eleanor, the Duchess

DUCHESS

Why droops my lord, like over-ripened corn

Hanging the head at Ceres’ plenteous load?

Why doth the great Duke Humphrey knit his brows,

As frowning at the favours of the world ?

Why are thine eyes fixed to the sullen earth,

Gazing on that which seems to dim thy sight?

What seest thou there? King Henry’s diadem,

Enchased with all the honours of the world?

If so, gaze on, and grovel on thy face

Until thy head be circled with the same.

Put forth thy hand, reach at the glorious gold.

What, is’t too short? I’ll lengthen it with mine;

And having both together heaved it up,

We’ll both together lift our heads to heaven

And never more abase our sight so low

As to vouchsafe one glance unto the ground.

GLOUCESTER

O Nell, sweet Nell, if thou dost love thy lord,

Banish the canker of ambitious thoughts!

And may that hour when I imagine ill

Against my king and nephew, virtuous Henry,

Be my last breathing in this mortal world! !

My troublous dream this night doth make me sad.

DUCHESS

What dreamed my lord? Tell me and I’ll requite it

With sweet rehearsal of my morning’s dream.

GLOUCESTER

Methought this staff, mine office-badge in court,

Was broke in twain—by whom I have forgot,

But, as I think, it was by th’ Cardinal—

And on the pieces of the broken wand

Were placed the heads of Edmund, Duke of Somerset,

And William de la Pole, first Duke of Suffolk.

This was my dream—what it doth bode, God knows.

DUCHESS

Tut, this was nothing but an argument

That he that breaks a stick of Gloucester’s grove

Shall lose his head for his presumption.

But list to me, my Humphrey, my sweet duke:

Methought I sat in seat of majesty

In the cathedral church of Westminster,

And in that chair where kings and queens are

crowned,

Where Henry and Dame Margaret kneeled to me,

And on my head did set the diadem.

GLOUCESTER

Nay, Eleanor, then must I chide outright.

Presumptuous dame! Ill-nurtured Eleanor!

Art thou not second woman in the realm,

And the Protector’s wife beloved of him ?

Hast thou not worldly pleasure at command

Above the reach or compass of thy thought?

And wilt thou still be hammering treachery

To tumble down thy husband and thyself

From top of honour to disgrace’s feet?

Away from me, and let me hear no more!

DUCHESS

What, what, my lord? Are you so choleric

With Eleanor for telling but her dream?

Next time I’ll keep my dreams unto myself

And not be checked.

GLOUCESTER

Nay, be not angry; I am pleased again. Enter a Messenger

MESSENGER

My Lord Protector, ’tis his highness’ pleasure

You do prepare to ride unto Saint Albans,

Whereas the King and Queen do mean to hawk.

GLOUCESTER

I go. Come, Nell, thou wilt ride with us ?

DUCHESS

Yes, my good lord, I’ll follow presently.

Exeunt Gloucester and the Messenger

Follow I must; I cannot go before

While Gloucester bears this base and humble mind.

Were I am an, a duke, and next of blood,

I would remove these tedious stumbling blocks

And smooth my way upon their headless necks.

And, being a woman, I will not be slack

To play my part in fortune’s pageant.

(Calling within) Where are you there? Sir John! Nay,

fear not man.

We are alone. Here’s none but thee and I.

Enter Sir John Hume

HUME

Jesus preserve your royal majesty.

DUCHESS

What sayst thou? ‘Majesty’ ? I am but ‘grace’.

HUME

But by the grace of God and Hume’s advice

Your grace’s title shall be multiplied.

DUCHESS

What sayst thou, man? Hast thou as yet conferred

With Margery Jordan, the cunning witch of Eye,

With Roger Bolingbroke, the conjuror?

And will they undertake to do me good?

HUME

This they have promisèd: to show your highness

A spirit raised from depth of underground

That shall make answer to such questions

As by your Grace shall be propounded him.

DUCHESS

It is enough. I’ll think upon the questions.

When from Saint Albans we do make return,

We’ll see these things effected to the full.

Here, Hume (giving him money), take this reward.

Make merry, man,

With thy confederates in this weighty cause.

Exit

HUME

Hume must make merry with the Duchess’ gold;

Marry, and shall. But how now, Sir John Hume?

Seal up your lips, and give no words but mum ;

The business asketh silent secrecy.

Dame Eleanor gives gold to bring the witch.

Gold cannot come amiss were she a devil.

Yet have I gold flies from another coast—

I dare not say from the rich Cardinal

And from the great and new-made Duke of Suffolk,

Yet I do find it so; for, to be plain,

They, knowing Dame Eleanor’s aspiring humour,

Have hired me to undermine the Duchess,

And buzz these conjurations in her brain.

They say ‘A crafty knave does need no broker’,

Yet am I Suffolk and the Cardinal’s broker.

Hume, if you take not heed you shall go near

To call them both a pair of crafty knaves.

Well, so it stands; and thus, I fear, at last

Hume’s knavery will be the Duchess’ wrack,

And her attainture will be Humphrey’s fall.

Sort how it will, I shall have gold for all.

Exit

1.3 Enter Peter, the armourer’s man, with two or three other Petitioners

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 the Duke of Suffolk and Queen Margaret

⌈FIRST PETITIONER ⌉Here a comes, methinks, and the Queen with him. I’ll be the first, sure.

He goes to meet Suffolk and the Queen

SECOND PETITIONER Come back, foot—this is the Duke of Suffolk and not my Lord Protector.

SUFFOLK (to the First Petitioner) How now, fellow—wouldst anything with me?

FIRST PETITIONER I pray, my lord, pardon me—I took ye for my Lord Protector.

QUEEN MARGARET ⌈seeing his supplication, she reads⌉ ‘Tomy Lord Protector’—are your supplications to his lordship ? Let me see them.

⌈She takes First Petitioner’s supplication⌉

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. ⌈To the Second Petitioners⌉ What’s yours?

He takes the supplication

What’s here? (Reads) ‘Against the Duke of Suffolk for

enclosing the commons of Melford’ ! ⌈To the Second

Petitioner⌉ How now, Sir Knave?

SECOND PETITIONER Alas, sir, I am but a poor petitioner of our whole township.

PETER ⌈offering his petition⌉ Against my master, Thomas Horner, for saying that the Duke of York was rightful heir to the crown.

QUEEN MARGARET What sayst 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 usurer.

QUEEN MARGARET An usurper thou wouldst say.

PETER Ay, forsooth—an usurper.

SUFFOLK (calling within) Who is there?

Enter a servant

Take this fellow in and send for his master with a pursuivant presently. (To Peter) We’ll hear more of your matter before the King. Exit the servant with Peter

QUEEN MARGARET (to the Petitioners)

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.

⌈She⌉ tears the supplication

Away, base cullions! Suffolk, let them go.

ALL PETITIONERS Come, let’s be gone. Exeunt Petitioners

QUEEN MARGARET

My lord of Suffolk, say, is this the guise?

Is this the fashions 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 Gloucester’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.

His champions are the prophets and apostles,

His weapons holy saws of sacred writ,

His study is his tilt-yard, and his loves

Are brazen images of canonized saints.

I would the college of the cardinals

Would choose him Pope, and carry him to Rome,

And set the triple crown upon his head—

That were a state fit for his holiness.

SUFFOLK

Madam, be patient—as I was cause

Your highness came to England, so will I

In England work your grace’s full content.

QUEEN MARGARET

Beside the haught Protector have we Beaufort

The imperious churchman, Somerset, Buckingham,

And grumbling York; and not the least of these

But can do more in England than the King.

SUFFOLK

And he of these that can do most of all

Cannot do more in England than the Nevilles:

Salisbury and Warwick are no simple peers.

QUEEN MARGARET

Not all these lords do vex me half so much

As that proud dame, the Lord Protector’s wife.

She sweeps it through the court with troops of ladies

More like an empress than Duke Humphrey’s wife.

Strangers in court do take her for the queen.

She bears a duke’s revenues on her back,

And in her heart she scorns our poverty.

Shall I not live to be avenged on her?

Contemptuous base-born callet as she is,

She vaunted ‘mongst her minions t’other day

The very train of her worst-wearing gown

Was better worth than all my father’s lands,

Till Suffolk gave two dukedoms for his daughter.

SUFFOLK

Madam, myself have limed a bush for her,

And placed a choir of such enticing birds

That she will light to listen to their lays,

And never mount to trouble you again.

So let her rest; and, madam, list to me,

For I am bold to counsel you in this:

Although we fancy not the Cardinal,

Yet must we join with him and with the lords

Till we have brought Duke Humphrey in disgrace.

As for the Duke of York, this late complaint

Will make but little for his benefit.

So one by one we’ll weed them all at last,

And you yourself shall steer the happy helm.

Sound a sennet. ⌈Enter King Henry with the Duke

of York and the Duke of Somerset on either side of

him whispering with him. Also enter Duke

Humphrey of Gloucester, Dame Eleanor the

Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Buckingham, the

Earls of Salisbury and Warwick, and Cardinal

Beaufort Bishop of Winchesteri ⌉

KING HENRY

For my part, noble lords, I care not which:

Or Somerset or York, all’s one to me.

YORK

If York have ill demeaned himself in France

Then let him be denied the regentship.

SOMERSET

If Somerset be unworthy of the place,

Let York be regent—I will yield to him.

WARWICK

Whether your grace be worthy, yea or no,

Dispute not that: York is the worthier.

CARDINAL BEAUFORT

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; (to Buckingham) and show some reason, Buckingham,

Why Somerset should be preferred in this.

QUEEN MARGARET

Because the King, forsooth, will have it so.

GLOUCESTER

Madam, the King is old enough himself

To give his censure. These are no women’s matters.

QUEEN MARGARET

If he be old enough, what needs your grace

To be Protector of his excellence?

GLOUCESTER

Madam, I am Protector of the realm,

And at his pleasure will resign my place.

SUFFOLK

Resign it then, and leave thine insolence.

Since thou wert king—as who is king but thou?—

The commonwealth hath daily run to wrack,

The Dauphin hath prevailed beyond the seas,

And all the peers and nobles of the realm

Have been as bondmen to thy sovereignty.

CARDINAL BEAUFORT (to Gloucester)

The commons hast thou racked, the clergy’s bags

Are lank and lean with thy extortions.

SOMERSET (to Gloucester)

Thy sumptuous buildings and thy wife’s attire

Have cost a mass of public treasury.

BUCKINGHAM (to Gloucester)

Thy cruelty in execution

Upon offenders hath exceeded law

And left thee to the mercy of the law.

QUEEN MARGARET (to Gloucester)

Thy sale of offices and towns in France—

If they were known, as the suspect is great—

Would make thee quickly hop without thy head.

Exit Gloucester

Queen Margaret lets fall her fan

(To the Duchess)

Give me my fan—what, minion, can ye not?

She gives the Duchess a box on the ear

I cry you mercy, madam! Was it you ?

DUCHESS

Was’t I? Yea, I it was, proud Frenchwoman!

Could I come near your beauty with my nails,

I’d set my ten commandments in your face.

KING HENRY

Sweet aunt, be quiet—’twas against her will.

DUCHESS

Against her will? Good King, look to’t in time!

She’ll pamper thee and dandle thee like a baby.

Though in this place most master wear no breeches,

She shall not strike Dame Eleanor unrevenged ! Exit

BUCKINGHAM (aside to Cardinal Beaufort)

Lord Cardinal, I will follow Eleanor

And listen after Humphrey how he proceeds.

She’s tickled now, her fury needs no spurs—

She’ll gallop far enough to her destruction. Exit

Enter Duke Humphrey of Gloucester

GLOUCESTER

Now, lords, my choler being overblown

With walking once about the quadrangle,

I come to talk of commonwealth affairs.

As for your spiteful false objections,

Prove them, and I lie open to the law.

But God in mercy so deal with my soul

As I in duty love my King and country.

But to the matter that we have in hand—

I say, my sovereign, York is meetest man

To be your regent in the realm of France.

SUFFOLK

Before we make election, give me leave

To show some reason of no little force

That York is most unmeet of any man.

YORK

I’ll tell thee, Suffolk, why I am unmeet:

First, for I cannot flatter thee in pride;

Next, if I be appointed for the place,

My lord of Somerset will keep me here

Without discharge, money, or furniture,

Till France be won into the Dauphin’s hands.

Last time I danced attendance on his will

Till Paris was besieged, famished, and lost.

WARWICK

That can I witness, and a fouler fact

Did never traitor in the land commit.

SUFFOLK Peace, headstrong Warwick.

WARWICK

Image of pride, why should I hold my peace?

Enter, guarded, Horner the armourer and Peter his man

SUFFOLK

Because here is a man accused of treason—

Pray God the Duke of York excuse himself!

YORK

Doth anyone accuse York for a traitor?

KING HENRY

What mean’st thou, Suffolk? Tell me, what are these?

SUFFOLK

Please it your majesty, this is the man

He indicates Peter

That doth accuse his master (indicating Horner) of high

treason.

His words were these: that Richard Duke of York

Was rightful heir unto the English crown,

And that your majesty was an usurper.

KING HENRY (to Horner) 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 ⌈raising his hands⌉ 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,

I’ll have thy head for this thy traitor’s speech !

(To King Henry) I do beseech your royal majesty,

Let him have all the rigour of the law.

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 HENRY (to Gloucester)

Uncle, what shall we say to this in law?

GLOUCESTER

This doom, my lord, if I may judge by case:

Let Somerset be regent o’er the French,

Because in York this breeds suspicion.

(Indicating Horner and Peter)

And let these have a day appointed them

For single combat in convenient place,

For he (indicating Horner) hath witness of his servant’s

malice.

This is the law, and this Duke Humphrey’s doom.

KING HENRY

Then be it so. (To Somerset) My lord of Somerset,

We make you regent o‘er the realm of France

There to defend our rights ’gainst foreign foes.

SOMERSET

I humbly thank your royal majesty.

HORNER

And I accept the combat willingly.

PETER ⌈to Gloucester⌉ 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 hanged.

KING HENRY

Away with them to prison, and the day

Of combat be the last of the next month.

Come, Somerset, we’ll see thee sent away.

Flourish. Exeunt