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

Автор книги: William Shakespeare

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1.4 Enter Margery Jordan, a witch; Sir John Hume and John Southwell, two priests; and Roger Bolingbroke, a conjuror

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 Jordan, be you prostrate and grovel on the earth.

She lies down upon her face.

⌈Enter Eleanor, the Duchess of Gloucester, aloft⌉

John Southwell, read you and let us to our work.

DUCHESS Well said, my masters, and welcome all. To this gear the sooner the better.

⌈Enter Hume aloft⌉

BOLINGBROKE

Patience, good lady—wizards know their times.

Deep night, dark night, the silent of the night,

The time of night when Troy was set on fire,

The time when screech-owls cry and bandogs howl,

And spirits walk, and ghosts break up their graves—

That time best fits the work we have in hand.

Madam, sit you, and fear not. Whom we raise

We will make fast within a hallowed verge.

Here do the ceremonies belonging, and make the circle. Southwell reads ‘Coniuro te’, &c. It thunders and lightens terribly, then the spirit Asnath riseth

ASNATH Adsum.

WITCH Asnath,

By the eternal God whose name and power

Thou tremblest at, answer that I shall ask,

For till thou speak, thou shalt not pass from hence.

ASNATH

Ask what thou wilt, that I had said and done.

BOLINGBROKE (reads)

‘First, of the King: what shall of him become ?’

ASNATH

The Duke yet lives that Henry shall depose,

But him outlive, and die a violent death.

As the spirit speaks, ⌈Southwell⌉ writes the answer

BOLINGBROKE (reads)

‘Tell me what fate awaits the Duke of Suffolk.’

ASNATH

By water shall he die, and take his end.

BOLINGBROKE (reads)

‘What shall betide the Duke of Somerset?’

ASNATH

Let him shun castles. Safer shall he be

Upon the sandy plains than where castles mounted

stand.

Have done—for more I hardly can endure.

BOLINGBROKE

Descend to darkness and the burning lake! False fiend, avoid!

Thunder and lightning. The spirit sinks down again

Enter, breaking in, the Dukes of York and

Buckingham with their guard, among them Sir

Humphrey Stafford

YORK

Lay hands upon these traitors and their trash.

⌈Bolingbroke, Southwell, and Jordan are taken

prisoner. Buckingham takes the writings from

Bolingbroke and Southwell⌉

(To Jordan) Beldam, I think we watched you at an inch.

(To the Duchess) What, madam, are you there? The

King and common weal

Are deep indebted for this piece of pains.

My lord Protector will, I doubt it not,

See you well guerdoned for these good deserts.

DUCHESS

Not half so bad as thine to England’s king,

Injurious Duke, that threatest where’s no cause.

BUCKINGHAM

True, madam, none at all—

⌈He raises the writings⌉

what call you this?

(To his men) Away with them. Let them be clapped up

close

And kept asunder. (To the Duchess) You, madam, shall

with us.

Stafford, take her to thee.

Exeunt Stafford ⌈and others⌉ to the Duchess

⌈and Hume⌉ above

We’ll see your trinkets here all forthcoming.

All away!

Exeunt below Jordan, Southwell, and

Bolingbroke, guarded, and, above, ⌈Hume and⌉

the Duchess guarded by Stafford ⌈and others.

York and Buckingham remain⌉

YORK

Lord Buckingham, methinks you watched her well.

A pretty plot, well chosen to build upon.

Now pray, my lord, let’s see the devil’s writ.

⌈Buckingham gives him the writings⌉

What have we here?

He reads the writings

Why, this is just

Aio Aeacidam, Romanos vincere posse.

These oracles are hardily attained

And hardly understood. Come, come, my lord,

The King is now in progress towards Saint Albans;

With him the husband of this lovely lady.

Thither goes these news as fast as horse can carry

them—

A sorry breakfast for my lord Protector.

BUCKINGHAM

Your grace shall give me leave, my lord of York,

To be the post in hope of his reward.

YORK (returning the writings to Buckingham)

At your pleasure, my good lord. ⌈Exit Buckingham⌉ (Calling within) Who’s within there, ho!

Enter a servingman

Invite my lords of Salisbury and Warwick

To sup with me tomorrow night. Away.

Exeunt severally

2.1 Enter King Henry, Queen Margaret with her hawk on her fist, Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, Cardinal Beaufort, and the Duke of Suffolk, with falconers hollering

QUEEN MARGARET

Believe me, lords, for flying at the brook

I saw not better sport these seven years’ day;

Yet, by your leave, the wind was very high,

And, ten to one, old Joan had not gone out.

KING HENRY (to Gloucester)

But what a point, my lord, your falcon made,

And what a pitch she flew above the rest!

To see how God in all his creatures works!

Yea, man and birds are fain of climbing high.

SUFFOLK

No marvel, an it like your majesty,

My Lord Protector’s hawks do tower so well;

They know their master loves to be aloft,

And bears his thoughts above his falcon’s pitch.

GLOUCESTER

My lord, ‘tis but a base ignoble mind

That mounts no higher than a bird can soar.

CARDINAL BEAUFORT

I thought as much; he would be above the clouds.

GLOUCESTER

Ay, my lord Cardinal, how think you by that?

Were it not good your grace could fly to heaven?

KING HENRY

The treasury of everlasting joy.

CARDINAL BEAUFORT (to Gloucester)

Thy heaven is on earth; thine eyes and thoughts

Beat on a crown, the treasure of thy heart,

Pernicious Protector, dangerous peer,

That smooth’st it so with King and common weal!

GLOUCESTER

What, Cardinal? Is your priesthood grown

peremptory ?

Tantaene animis caelestibus irae?

Churchmen so hot? Good uncle, hide such malice

With some holiness—can you do it?

SUFFOLK

No malice, sir, no more than well becomes

So good a quarrel and so bad a peer.

GLOUCESTER

As who, my lord ?

SUFFOLK

Why, as you, my lord—

An’t like your lordly Lord’s Protectorship.

GLOUCESTER

Why, Suffolk, England knows thine insolence.

QUEEN MARGARET

And thy ambition, Gloucester.

KING HENRY I prithee peace, Good Queen, and whet not on these furious peers—For blessèd are the peacemakers on earth.

CARDINAL BEAUFORT

Let me be blessed for the peace I make

Against this proud Protector with my sword.

⌈Gloucester and Cardinal Beaufort speak privately to one another⌉

GLOUCESTER

Faith, holy uncle, would’t were come to that.

CARDINAL BEAUFORT

Marry, when thou dar’st.

GLOUCESTER

Dare? I tell thee, priest,

Plantagenets could never brook the dare!

CARDINAL BEAUFORT

I am Plantagenet as well as thou,

And son to John of Gaunt.

GLOUCESTER In bastardy.

CARDINAL BEAUFORT I scorn thy words.

GLOUCESTER

Make up no factious numbers for the matter,

In thine own person answer thy abuse.

CARDINAL BEAUFORT

Ay, where thou dar‘st not peep; an if thou dar’st,

This evening on the east side of the grove.

KING HENRY

How now, my lords?

CARDINAL BEAUFORT (aloud)

Believe me, cousin Gloucester,

Had not your man put up the fowl so suddenly,

We had had more sport. (Aside to Gloucester) Come

with thy two-hand sword.

GLOUCESTER (aloud) True, uncle.

(Aside to Cardinal Beaufort)

Are ye advised? The east side of the grove.

CARDINAL BEAUFORT (aside to Gloucester)

I am with you.

KING HENRY Why, how now, uncle Gloucester?

GLOUCESTER

Talking of hawking, nothing else, my lord.

(Aside to the Cardinal)

Now, by God’s mother, priest, I’ll shave your crown

for this,

Or all my fence shall fail.

CARDINAL BEAUFORT (aside to Gloucester)

Medice, teipsum—

Protector, see to’t well; protect yourself.

KING HENRY

The winds grow high; so do your stomachs, lords.

How irksome is this music to my heart !

When such strings jar, what hope of harmony?

I pray, my lords, let me compound this strife.

Enter one crying ‘a miracle’

GLOUCESTER What means this noise?

Fellow, what miracle dost thou proclaim?

ONE

A miracle, a miracle!

SUFFOLK

Come to the King—tell him what miracle.

ONE (to King Henry)

Forsooth, a blind man at Saint Alban’s shrine

Within this half-hour hath received his sight—

A man that ne’er saw in his life before.

KING HENRY

Now God be praised, that to believing souls

Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair!

Enter the Mayor and aldermen of Saint Albans, with music, bearing the man, Simpcox, between two in a chair. Enter Simpcox’s Wife ⌈and other townsmeni with them

CARDINAL BEAUFORT

Here comes the townsmen on procession

To present your highness with the man.

⌈The townsmen kneel⌉

KING HENRY

Great is his comfort in this earthly vale,

Although by sight his sin be multiplied.

GLOUCESTER (to the townsmen)

Stand by, my masters, bring him near the King.

His highness’ pleasure is to talk with him.

They ⌈ rise and ⌉ bear Simpcox before the King

KING HENRY (to Simpcox)

Good fellow, tell us here the circumstance,

That we for thee may glorify the Lord.

What, hast thou been long blind and now restored?

SIMPCOX

Born blind, an’t please your grace.

SIMPCOX’S WIFE

Ay, indeed, was he.

SUFFOLK What woman is this?

SIMPCOX’S WIFE His wife, an’t like your worship.

GLOUCESTER Hadst thou been his mother

Thou couldst have better told.

KING HENRY (to Simpcox) Where wert thou born?

SIMPCOX

At Berwick, in the north, an’t like your grace.

KING HENRY

Poor soul, God’s goodness hath been great to thee.

Let never day nor night unhallowed pass,

But still remember what the Lord hath done.

QUEEN MARGARET (to Simpcox)

Tell me, good fellow, cam’st thou here by chance,

Or of devotion to this holy shrine?

SIMPCOX

God knows, of pure devotion, being called

A hundred times and oftener, in my sleep,

By good Saint Alban, who said, ‘Simon, come;

Come offer at my shrine and I will help thee.’

SIMPCOX’S WIFE

Most true, forsooth, and many time and oft

Myself have heard a voice to call him so.

CARDINAL BEAUFORT (to Simpcox)

What, art thou lame ?

SIMPCOX Ay, God almighty help me.

SUFFOLK

How cam’st thou so?

SIMPCOX A fall off of a tree.

SIMPCOX’S WIFE (to Suffolk)

A plum tree, master.

GLOUCESTER How long hast thou been blind?

SIMPCOX

O, born so, master.

GLOUCESTER What, and wouldst climb a tree? SIMPCOX

But that in all my life, when I was a youth.

SIMPCOX’S WIFE (to Gloucester)

Too true—and bought his climbing very dear.

GLOUCESTER (to Simpcox)

Mass, thou loved’st plums well that wouldst venture so.

SIMPCOX

Alas, good master, my wife desired some damsons,

And made me climb with danger of my life.

GLOUCESTER ⌈aside⌉

A subtle knave, but yet it shall not serve.

(To Simpcox) Let me see thine eyes: wink now, now

open them.

In my opinion yet thou seest not well.

SIMPCOX Yes, master, clear as day, I thank God and Saint Alban.

GLOUCESTER

Sayst thou me so? (Pointing) What colour is this cloak of?

SIMPCOX

Red, master; red as blood.

GLOUCESTER Why, that’s well said.

(Pointing) And his cloak?

SIMPCOX Why, that’s green.

GLOUCESTER (pointing) And what colour’s

His hose?

SIMPCOX Yellow, master; yellow as gold.

GLOUCESTER

And what colour’s my gown?

SIMPCOX Black, sir; coal-black, as jet.

KING HENRY

Why, then, thou know’st what colour jet is of?

UFFOLK

And yet I think jet did he never see.

GLOUCESTER

But cloaks and gowns before this day, a many.

SIMPCOX’S WIFE

Never before this day in all his life.

GLOUCESTER Tell me, sirrah, what’s my name?

SIMPCOX Alas, master, I know not.

GLOUCESTER (pointing) What’s his name?

SIMPCOX I know not.

GLOUCESTER (pointing) Nor his?

SIMPCOX No, truly, sir.

GLOUCESTER (pointing) Nor his name?

SIMPCOX No indeed, master.

GLOUCESTER What’s thine own name?

SIMPCOX

Simon Simpcox, an it please you, master.

GLOUCESTER

Then, Simon, sit thou there the lying’st knave

In Christendom. If thou hadst been born blind

Thou mightst as well have known our names as thus

To name the several colours we do wear.

Sight may distinguish colours, but suddenly

To nominate them all—it is impossible.

Saint Alban here hath done a miracle.

Would you not think his cunning to be great

That could restore this cripple to his legs again?

SIMPCOX O master, that you could!

GLOUCESTER (to the Mayor and aldermen)

My masters of Saint Albans, have you not

Beadles in your town, and things called whips?

MAYOR

We have, my lord, an if it please your grace.

GLOUCESTER Then send for one presently.

MAYOR (to a townsman)

Sirrah, go fetch the beadle hither straight. Exit one

GLOUCESTER

Bring me a stool.

A stool is brought

(To Simpcox) Now, sirrah, if you mean

To save yourself from whipping, leap me o’er

This stool and run away.

SIMPCOX

Alas, master,

I am not able even to stand alone.

You go about to torture me in vain.

Enter a Beadle with whips

GLOUCESTER

Well, sirrah, we must have you find your legs.

(To the Beadle) Whip him till he leap over that same

stool.

BEADLE I will, my lord.

(To Simpcox) Come on, sirrah, off with your doublet quickly.

SIMPCOX Alas, master, what shall I do ? I am not able to stand.

After the Beadle hath hit him once, he leaps over the stool and runs away. ⌈Some of ⌉the townsmen follow and cry, ‘A miracle ! A miracle !’

KING HENRY

O God, seest thou this and bear’st so long?

QUEEN MARGARET

It made me laugh to see the villain run!

GLOUCESTER ⌈to the Beadlel⌉

Follow the knave, and take this drab away.

SIMPCOX’S WIFE

Alas, sir, we did it for pure need.

⌈Exit the Beadle with the Wife⌉

GLOUCESTER ⌈to the Mayor⌉

Let them be whipped through every market-town 160

Till they come to Berwick, from whence they came.

Exeunt the Mayor ⌈and any remaining townsmen⌉

CARDINAL BEAUFORT

Duke Humphrey has done a miracle today.

SUFFOLK

True: made the lame to leap and fly away.

GLOUCESTER

But you have done more miracles than I—

You made, in a day, my lord, whole towns to fly.

Enter the Duke of Buckingham

KING HENRY

What tidings with our cousin Buckingham?

BUCKINGHAM

Such as my heart doth tremble to unfold.

A sort of naughty persons, lewdly bent,

Under the countenance and confederacy

Of Lady Eleanor, the Protector’s wife,

The ringleader and head of all this rout,

Have practised dangerously against your state,

Dealing with witches and with conjurors,

Whom we have apprehended in the fact,

Raising up wicked spirits from under ground,

Demanding of King Henry’s life and death

And other of your highness’ Privy Council.

And here’s the answer the devil did make to them.

Buckingham gives King Henry the writings

⌈KING HENRY⌉ (reads)

‘First of the King: what shall of him become?

The Duke yet lives that Henry shall depose,

But him outlive and die a violent death.’

God’s will be done in all. Well, to the rest.

(Reads) ‘Tell me what fate awaits the Duke of Suffolk?

By water shall he die, and take his end.’

SUFFOLK [aside]

By water must the Duke of Suffolk die?

It must be so, or else the devil doth lie.

KING HENRY (reads)

‘What shall betide the Duke of Somerset?

Let him shun castles. Safer shall he be

Upon the sandy plains than where castles mounted

stand.’

CARDINAL BEAUFORT (to Gloucester)

And so, my Lord Protector, by this means

Your lady is forthcoming yet at London.

(Aside to Gloucester)

This news, I think, hath turned your weapon’s edge.

᾽“Tis like, my lord, you will not keep your hour.

GLOUCESTER

Ambitious churchman, leave to afflict my heart.

Sorrow and grief have vanquished all my powers,

And, vanquished as I am, I yield to thee

Or to the meanest groom.

KING HENRY

O God, what mischiefs work the wicked ones,

Heaping confusion on their own heads thereby!

QUEEN MARGARET

Gloucester, see here the tainture of thy nest,

And look thyself be faultless, thou wert best.

GLOUCESTER

Madam, for myself, to heaven I do appeal,

How I have loved my King and common weal;

And for my wife, I know not how it stands.

Sorry I am to hear what I have heard.

Noble she is, but if she have forgot

Honour and virtue and conversed with such

As, like to pitch, defile nobility,

I banish her my bed and company,

And give her as a prey to law and shame

That hath dishonoured Gloucester’s honest name.

KING HENRY

Well, for this night we will repose us here;

Tomorrow toward London back again,

To look into this business thoroughly,

And call these foul offenders to their answers,

And poise the cause in justice’ equal scales,

Whose beam stands sure, whose rightful cause

prevails. Flourish. Exeunt

2.2 Enter the Duke of York and the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick

YORK

Now, my good lords of Salisbury and Warwick,

Our simple supper ended, give me leave

In this close walk to satisfy myself

In craving your opinion of my title,

Which is infallible, to England’s crown.

SALISBURY

My lord, I long to hear it out at full.

WARWICK

Sweet York, begin, and if thy claim be good,

The Nevilles are thy subjects to command.

YORK Then thus:

Edward the Third, my lords, had seven sons:

The first, Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales;

The second, William of Hatfield; and the third,

Lionel Duke of Clarence; next to whom

Was John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster;

The fifth was Edmund Langley, Duke of York;

The sixth was Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of

Gloucester;

William of Windsor was the seventh and last.

Edward the Black Prince died before his father

And left behind him Richard, his only son,

Who, after Edward the Third’s death, reigned as king

Till Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster,

The eldest son and heir of John of Gaunt,

Crowned by the name of Henry the Fourth,

Seized on the realm, deposed the rightful king,

Sent his poor queen to France from whence she came,

And him to Pomfret; where, as well you know,

Harmless Richard was murdered traitorously.

WARWICK (to Salisbury)

Father, the Duke of York hath told the truth;

Thus got the house of Lancaster the crown.

YORK

Which now they hold by force and not by right;

For Richard, the first son’s heir, being dead,

The issue of the next son should have reigned.

SALISBURY

But William of Hatfield died without an heir.

YORK

The third son, Duke of Clarence, from whose line

I claim the crown, had issue Phillipe, a daughter,

Who married Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March;

Edmund had issue, Roger, Earl of March;

Roger had issue, Edmund, Anne and Eleanor.

SALISBURY

This Edmund, in the reign of Bolingbroke,

As I have read, laid claim unto the crown,

And, but for Owain Glyndwr, had been king,

Who kept him in captivity till he died.

But to the rest.

YORK His eldest sister, Anne,

My mother, being heir unto the crown,

Married Richard, Earl of Cambridge, who was son

To Edmund Langley, Edward the Third’s fifth son.

By her I claim the kingdom: she was heir

To Roger, Earl of March, who was the son

Of Edmund Mortimer, who married Phillipe,

Sole daughter unto Lionel, Duke of Clarence.

So if the issue of the elder son

Succeed before the younger, I am king.

WARWICK

What plain proceedings is more plain than this?

Henry doth claim the crown from John of Gaunt,

The fourth son; York claims it from the third:

Till Lionel’s issue fails, John’s should not reign.

It fails not yet, but flourishes in thee

And in thy sons, fair slips of such a stock.

Then, father Salisbury, kneel we together,

And in this private plot be we the first

That shall salute our rightful sovereign

With honour of his birthright to the crown.

SALISBURY and WARWICK (kneeling)

Long live our sovereign Richard, England’s king!

YORK

We thank you, lords;

⌈Salisbury and Warwick rise⌉

but I am not your king

Till I be crowned, and that my sword be stained

With heart-blood of the house of Lancaster—

And that’s not suddenly to be performed,

But with advice and silent secrecy.

Do you, as I do, in these dangerous days,

Wink at the Duke of Suffolk’s insolence,

At Beaufort’s pride, at Somerset’s ambition,

At Buckingham, and all the crew of them,

Till they have snared the shepherd of the flock,

That virtuous prince, the good Duke Humphrey.

᾽Tis that they seek, and they, in seeking that,

Shall find their deaths, if York can prophesy.

SALISBURY

My lord, break off—we know your mind at full.

WARWICK

My heart assures me that the Earl of Warwick

Shall one day make the Duke of York a king.

YORK

And Neville, this I do assure myself—

Richard shall live to make the Earl of Warwick

The greatest man in England but the King. Exeunt

2.3 Sound trumpets. Enter King Henry and state, with guard, to banish the Duchess: King Henry and Queen Margaret, Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, the Duke of Suffolk [and the Duke of Buckingham, Cardinal [Beaufort], and, led with officers, Dame Eleanor Cobham the Duchess, Margery Jordan the witch, John Southwell and Sir John Hume the two priests, and Roger Bolingbroke the conjuror; then enter to them] the Duke of York and the Earls of Salisbury rand Warwick⌉

KING HENRY (to the Duchess)

Stand forth, Dame Eleanor Cobham, Gloucester’s wife.

She comes forward

In sight of God and us your guilt is great;

Receive the sentence of the law for sins

Such as by God’s book are adjudged to death.

(To the Witch, Southwell, Hume, and Bolingbroke)

You four, from hence to prison back again;

From thence, unto the place of execution.

The witch in Smithfield shall be burned to ashes,

And you three shall be strangled on the gallows.

⌈Exeunt Witch, Southwell, Hume, and Bolingbroke, guarded⌉

(To the Duchess)

You, madam, for you are more nobly born,

Despoiled of your honour in your life,

Shall, after three days’ open penance done,

Live in your country here in banishment

With Sir John Stanley in the Isle of Man.

DUCHESS

Welcome is banishment; welcome were my death.

GLOUCESTER

Eleanor, the law, thou seest, hath judged thee;

I cannot justify whom the law condemns.

⌈Exit the Duchess, guarded⌉

Mine eyes are full of tears, my heart of grief.

Ah, Humphrey, this dishonour in thine age

Will bring thy head with sorrow to the grave.

(To King Henry)

I beseech your majesty, give me leave to go.

Sorrow would solace, and mine age would ease.

KING HENRY

Stay, Humphrey Duke of Gloucester. Ere thou go,

Give up thy staff. Henry will to himself

Protector be; and God shall be my hope,

My stay, my guide, and lantern to my feet.

And go in peace, Humphrey, no less beloved

Than when thou wert Protector to thy King.

QUEEN MARGARET

I see no reason why a king of years

Should be to be protected like a child.

God and King Henry govern England’s helm!

Give up your staff, sir, and the King his realm.

GLOUCESTER

My staff? Here, noble Henry, is my staff.

As willingly do I the same resign

As erst thy father Henry made it mine;

And even as willing at thy feet I leave it

As others would ambitiously receive it.

He lays the staff at King Henry’s feet

Farewell, good King. When I am dead and gone,

May honourable peace attend thy throne. Exit

QUEEN MARGARET

Why, now is Henry King and Margaret Queen,

And Humphrey Duke of Gloucester scarce himself,

That bears so shrewd a maim; two pulls at once—

His lady banished and a limb lopped off.

She picks up the staff

This staff of honour raught, there let it stand

Where it best fits to be, in Henry’s hand.

She gives the staff to King Henry

SUFFOLK

Thus droops this lofty pine and hangs his sprays;

Thus Eleanor’s pride dies in her youngest days.

YORK

Lords, let him go. Please it your majesty,

This is the day appointed for the combat,

And ready are the appellant and defendant—

The armourer and his man—to enter the lists,

So please your highness to behold the fight.

QUEEN MARGARET

Ay, good my lord, for purposely therefor

Left I the court to see this quarrel tried.

KING HENRY

A God’s name, see the lists and all things fit;

Here let them end it, and God defend the right.

YORK

I never saw a fellow worse bestead,

Or more afraid to fight, than is the appellant,

The servant of this armourer, my lords.

Enter at one door Horner the armourer and his

Neighbours, drinking to him so much that he is

drunken; and he enters with a drummer before him

and ⌈carrying⌉ his staff with a sandbag fastened to

it. Enter at the other door Peter his man, also with

a drummer and a staff with sandbag, and Prentices

drinking to him

FIRST NEIGHBOUR (offering drink to Horner) Here, neighbour Horner, I drink to you in a cup of sack, and fear not, neighbour, you shall do well enough.

SECOND NEIGHBOUR (offering drink to Horner) And here, neighbour, here’s a cup of charneco.

THIRD NEIGHBOUR (offering drink to Horner) Here’s a pot of good double beer, neighbour, drink and be merry, and fear not your man. HORNER ⌈accepting the offers of drink⌉ Let it come, i’faith I’ll pledge you all, and a fig for Peter.

FIRST PRENTICE (offering drink to Peter) Here, Peter, I drink to thee, and be not afeard.

SECOND PRENTICE (offering drink to Peter) Here, Peter, here’s a pint of claret wine for thee.

THIRD PRENTICE (offering drink to Peter) And here’s a quart for me, and be merry, Peter, and fear not thy master. Fight for credit of the prentices!

PETER ⌈refusing the offers of drink⌉ I thank you all. Drink and pray for me, I pray you, for I think I have taken my last draught in this world. Here, Robin, an if I die, I give thee my apron; and, Will, thou shalt have my hammer; and here, Tom, take all the money that I have. OLord bless me, I pray God, for I am never able to deal with my master, he hath learned so much fence already.

SALISBURY Come, leave your drinking, and fall to blows. (To Peter) Sirrah, what’s thy name?

PETER Peter, forsooth.

SALISBURY Peter? What more?

PETER Thump.

SALISBURY Thump! Then see that thou thump thy master well.

HORNER Masters, I am come hither, as it were, upon my man’s instigation, to prove him a knave and myself an honest man; and touching the Duke of York, I will take my death I never meant him any ill, nor the King, nor the Queen; and therefore, Peter, have at thee with a downright blow.

YORK

Dispatch; this knave’s tongue begins to double.

Sound trumpets an alarum to the combatants. They fight and Peter hits Horner on the head and strikes him down

HORNER Hold, Peter, hold—I confess, I confess treason. He dies

YORK (to an attendant, pointing to Horner) Take away his weapon. (To Peter) Fellow, thank God and the good wine in thy master’s wame.

PETER [kneeling] O God, have I overcome mine enemy in this presence? O, Peter, thou hast prevailed in right.

KING HENRY (to attendants, pointing to Horner)

Go, take hence that traitor from our sight,

For by his death we do perceive his guilt.

And God in justice hath revealed to us

The truth and innocence of this poor fellow,

Which he had thought to have murdered wrongfully.

(To Peter) Come, fellow, follow us for thy reward.

Sound a flourish. Exeunt, some carrying Horner’s body