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

Автор книги: William Shakespeare

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3.1 Enter two Gamekeepers, with crossbows in their hands

FIRST GAMEKEEPER

Under this thick-grown brake we’ll shroud ourselves,

For through this laund anon the deer will come,

And in this covert will we make our stand,

Culling the principal of all the deer.

SECOND GAMEKEEPER

I’ll stay above the hill, so both may shoot.

FIRST GAMEKEEPER

That cannot be—the noise of thy crossbow

Will scare the herd, and so my shoot is lost.

Here stand we both, and aim we at the best.

And, for the time shall not seem tedious,

I’ll tell thee what befell me on a day

In this self place where now we mean to stand.

FIRST GAMEKEEPER

Here comes a man—let’s stay till he be past.

They stand apart. Enter King Henry, disguised, carrying a prayer-book

KING HENRY

From Scotland am I stolen, even of pure love,

To greet mine own land with my wishful sight.

No, Harry, Harry—’tis no land of thine.

Thy place is filled, thy sceptre wrung from thee,

Thy balm washed off wherewith thou wast anointed.

No bending knee will call thee Caesar now,

No humble suitors press to speak for right,

No, not a man comes for redress of thee—

For how can I help them and not myself?

FIRST GAMEKEEPER (to the Second Gamekeeper)

Ay, here’s a deer whose skin’s a keeper’s fee:

This is the quondam king—let’s seize upon him.

KING HENRY

Let me embrace thee, sour adversity,

For wise men say it is the wisest course.

SECOND GAMEKEEPER (to the First Gamekeeper)

Why linger we? Let us lay hands upon him.

FIRST GAMEKEEPER (to the Second Gamekeeper)

Forbear awhile—we’ll hear a little more.

KING HENRY

My queen and son are gone to France for aid,

And, as I hear, the great commanding Warwick

Is thither gone to crave the French King’s sister

To wife for Edward. If this news be true,

Poor Queen and son, your labour is but lost—

For Warwick is a subtle orator,

And Louis a prince soon won with moving words.

By this account, then, Margaret may win him—

For she’s a woman to be pitied much.

Her sighs will make a batt‘ry in his breast,

Her tears will pierce into a marble heart,

The tiger will be mild whiles she doth mourn,

And Nero will be tainted with remorse

To hear and see her plaints, her brinish tears.

Ay, but she’s come to beg; Warwick to give.

She on his left side, craving aid for Henry;

He on his right, asking a wife for Edward.

She weeps and says her Henry is deposed,

He smiles and says his Edward is installed;

That she, poor wretch, for grief can speak no more,

Whiles Warwick tells his title, smooths the wrong,

Inferreth arguments of mighty strength,

And in conclusion wins the King from her

With promise of his sister and what else

To strengthen and support King Edward’s place.

O, Margaret, thus ’twill be; and thou, poor soul,

Art then forsaken, as thou went’st forlorn.

SECOND GAMEKEEPER (coming orward)

Say, what art thou that talk’st of kings and queens?

KING HENRY

More than I seem, and less than I was born to:

A man at least, for less I should not be;

And men may talk of kings, and why not I?

SECOND GAMEKEEPER

Ay, but thou talk’st as if thou wert a king.

KING HENRY

Why, so I am, in mind—and that’s enough.

SECOND GAMEKEEPER

But if thou be a king, where is thy crown?

KING HENRY

My crown is in my heart, not on my head;

Not decked with diamonds and Indian stones,

Nor to be seen. My crown is called content—

A crown it is that seldom kings enjoy.

SECOND GAMEKEEPER

Well, if you be a king crowned with content,

Your crown content and you must be contented

To go along with us—for, as we think,

You are the king King Edward hath deposed,

And we his subjects sworn in all allegiance

Will apprehend you as his enemy.

KING HENRY

But did you never swear and break an oath?

SECOND GAMEKEEPER

No—never such an oath, nor will not now.

KING HENRY

Where did you dwell when I was King of England?

SECOND GAMEKEEPER

Here in this country, where we now remain.

KING HENRY

I was anointed king at nine months old,

My father and my grandfather were kings,

And you were sworn true subjects unto me—

And tell me, then, have you not broke your oaths ?

FIRST GAMEKEEPER

No, for we were subjects but while you were king.

KING HENRY

Why, am I dead? Do I not breathe a man?

Ah, simple men, you know not what you swear.

Look as I blow this feather from my face,

And as the air blows it to me again,

Obeying with my wind when I do blow,

And yielding to another when it blows,

Commanded always by the greater gust—

Such is the lightness of you common men.

But do not break your oaths, for of that sin

My mild entreaty shall not make you guilty.

Go where you will, the King shall be commanded;

And be you kings, command, and I’ll obey.

FIRST GAMEKEEPER

We are true subjects to the King, King Edward.

KING HENRY

So would you be again to Henry,

If he were seated as King Edward is.

FIRST GAMEKEEPER

We charge you, in God’s name and in the King’s,

To go with us unto the officers.

KING HENRY

In God’s name, lead; your king’s name be obeyed;

And what God will, that let your king perform;

And what he will I humbly yield unto. Exeunt

3.2 Enter King Edward, Richard Duke of Gloucester, George Duke of Clarence, and the Lady Gray

KING EDWARD

Brother of Gloucester, at Saint Albans field

This lady’s husband, Sir Richard Gray, was slain,

His lands then seized on by the conqueror.

Her suit is now to repossess those lands,

Which we in justice cannot well deny,

Because in quarrel of the house of York

The worthy gentleman did lose his life.

RICHARD OF GLOUCESTER

Your highness shall do well to grant her suit—

It were dishonour to deny it her.

KING EDWARD

It were no less; but yet I’ll make a pause.

RICHARD OF GLOUCESTER, (aside to George) Yea, is it so?

I see the lady hath a thing to grant

Before the King will grant her humble suit.

GEORGE OF CLARENCE (aside to Richard)

He knows the game; how true he keeps the wind!

RICHARD OF GLOUCESTER (aside to George) Silence.

KING EDWARD (to Lady Gray)

Widow, we will consider of your suit;

And come some other time to know our mind.

LADY GRAY

Right gracious lord, I cannot brook delay.

May it please your highness to resolve me now,

And what your pleasure is shall satisfy me.

RICHARD OF GLOUCESTER, (aside to George)

Ay, widow ? Then I’ll warrant you all your lands

An if what pleases him shall pleasure you.

Fight closer, or, good faith, you’ll catch a blow.

GEORGE OF CLARENCE (aside to Richard)

I fear her not unless she chance to fall.

RICHARD OF GLOUCESTER (aside to George)

God forbid that! For he’ll take vantages.

KING EDWARD (to Lady Gray)

How many children hast thou, widow ? Tell me.

GEORGE OF CLARENCE (aside to Richard)

I think he means to beg a child of her.

RICHARD OF GLOUCESTER (aside to George)

Nay, whip me then—he’ll rather give her two.

LADY GRAY (to King Edward) Three, my most gracious lord.

RICHARD OF GLOUCESTER (aside)

You shall have four, an you’ll be ruled by him.

KING EDWARD (to Lady Gray)

’Twere pity they should lose their father’s lands.

LADY GRAY

Be pitiful, dread lord, and grant it them.

KING EDWARD (to Richard and George)

Lords, give us leave—I’ll try this widow’s wit.

RICHARD OF GLOUCESTER, ⌈aside to George⌉

Ay, good leave have you; for you will have leave,

Till youth take leave and leave you to the crutch.

Richard and George stand apart

KING EDWARD (to Lady Gray)

Now tell me, madam, do you love your children?

LADY GRAY

Ay, full as dearly as I love myself.

KING EDWARD

And would you not do much to do them good?

LADY GRAY

To do them good I would sustain some harm.

KING EDWARD

Then get your husband’s lands, to do them good.

LADY GRAY

Therefore I came unto your majesty.

KING EDWARD

I’ll tell you how these lands are to be got.

LADY GRAY

So shall you bind me to your highness’ service.

KING EDWARD

What service wilt thou do me, if I give them?

LADY GRAY

What you command, that rests in me to do.

KING EDWARD

But you will take exceptions to my boon.

LADY GRAY

No, gracious lord, except I cannot do it.

KING EDWARD

Ay, but thou canst do what I mean to ask.

LADY GRAY

Why, then, I will do what your grace commands.

RICHARD OF GLOUCESTER (to George)

He plies her hard, and much rain wears the marble.

GEORGE OF CLARENCE

As red as fire! Nay, then her wax must melt.

LADY GRAY (to King Edward)

Why stops my lord? Shall I not hear my task?

KING EDWARD

An easy task—’tis but to love a king.

LADY GRAY

That’s soon performed, because I am a subject.

KING EDWARD

Why, then, thy husband’s lands I freely give thee. 55

LADY GRAY (curtsies)

I take my leave, with many thousand thanks.

RICHARD OF GLOUCESTER (to George)

The match is made—she seals it with a curtsy.

KING EDWARD (to Lady Gray)

But stay thee—’tis the fruits of love I mean.

LADY GRAY

The fruits of love I mean, my loving liege.

KING EDWARD

Ay, but I fear me in another sense.

What love think’st thou I sue so much to get?

LADY GRAY

My love till death, my humble thanks, my prayers—

That love which virtue begs and virtue grants.

KING EDWARD

No, by my troth, I did not mean such love.

LADY GRAY

Why, then, you mean not as I thought you did.

KING EDWARD

But now you partly may perceive my mind.

LADY GRAY

My mind will never grant what I perceive

Your highness aims at, if I aim aright.

KING EDWARD

To tell thee plain, I aim to lie with thee.

LADY GRAY

To tell you plain, I had rather lie in prison. 70

KING EDWARD

Why, then, thou shalt not have thy husband’s lands.

LADY GRAY

Why, then, mine honesty shall be my dower;

For by that loss I will not purchase them.

KING EDWARD

Therein thou wrong’st thy children mightily.

LADY GRAY

Herein your highness wrongs both them and me.

But, mighty lord, this merry inclination

Accords not with the sadness of my suit.

Please you dismiss me either with ay or no.

KING EDWARD

Ay, if thou wilt say ‘ay’ to my request;

No, if thou dost say ‘no’ to my demand.

LADY GRAY

Then, no, my lord—my suit is at an end.

RICHARD OF GLOUCESTER (to George)

The widow likes him not—she knits her brows.

GEORGE OF CLARENCE

He is the bluntest wooer in Christendom.

KING EDWARD (aside)

Her looks doth argue her replete with modesty;

Her words doth show her wit incomparable;

All her perfections challenge sovereignty.

One way or other, she is for a king;

And she shall be my love or else my queen.

(To Lady Gray) Say that King Edward take thee for his

queen?

LADY GRAY

’Tis better said than done, my gracious lord.

I am a subject fit to jest withal,

But far unfit to be a sovereign.

KING EDWARD

Sweet widow, by my state I swear to thee

I speak no more than what my soul intends,

And that is to enjoy thee for my love.

LADY GRAY

And that is more than I will yield unto.

I know I am too mean to be your queen,

And yet too good to be your concubine.

KING EDWARD

You cavil, widow-I did mean my queen.

LADY GRAY

’Twill grieve your grace my sons should call you father.

KING EDWARD

No more than when my daughters call thee mother.

Thou art a widow and thou hast some children;

And, by God’s mother, I, being but a bachelor,

Have other some. Why, ’tis a happy thing

To be the father unto many sons.

Answer no more, for thou shalt be my queen.

RICHARD OF GLOUCESTER (to George)

The ghostly father now hath done his shrift.

GEORGE OF CLARENCE

When he was made a shriver, ’twas for shift.

KING EDWARD (to Richard and George)

Brothers, you muse what chat we two have had. Richard and George come forward

RICHARD OF GLOUCESTER

The widow likes it not, for she looks very sad.

KING EDWARD

You’d think it strange if I should marry her.

GEORGE OF CLARENCE

To who, my lord ?

KING EDWARD Why, Clarence, to myself.

RICHARD OF GLOUCESTER

That would be ten days’ wonder at the least.

GEORGE OF CLARENCE

That’s a day longer than a wonder lasts.

RICHARD OF GLOUCESTER

By so much is the wonder in extremes.

KING EDWARD

Well, jest on, brothers—I can tell you both

Her suit is granted for her husband’s lands.

Enter a Nobleman

NOBLEMAN

My gracious lord, Henry your foe is taken

And brought as prisoner to your palace gate.

KING EDWARD

See that he be conveyed unto the Tower—

(To Richard and George)

And go we, brothers, to the man that took him,

To question of his apprehension.

(To Lady Gray) Widow, go you along. ⌈To Richard and

George⌉ Lords, use her honourably.

Exeunt all but Richard

RICHARD OF GLOUCEST’ER

Ay, Edward will use women honourably.

Would he were wasted, marrow, bones, and all,

That from his loins no hopeful branch may spring

To cross me from the golden time I look for.

And yet, between my soul’s desire and me—

The lustful Edward’s title burièd—

Is Clarence, Henry, and his son young Edward,

And all the unlooked-for issue of their bodies,

To take their rooms ere I can place myself.

A cold premeditation for my purpose.

Why, then, I do but dream on sovereignty

Like one that stands upon a promontory

And spies a far-off shore where he would tread,

Wishing his foot were equal with his eye,

And chides the sea that sunders him from thence,

Saying he’ll lade it dry to have his way—

So do I wish the crown being so far off,

And so I chide the means that keeps me from it,

And so I say I’ll cut the causes off,

Flattering me with impossibilities.

My eye’s too quick, my heart o‘erweens too much,

Unless my hand and strength could equal them.

Well, say there is no kingdom then for Richard—

What other pleasure can the world afford?

I’ll make my heaven in a lady’s lap,

And deck my body in gay ornaments,

And ’witch sweet ladies with my words and looks.

O, miserable thought! And more unlikely

Than to accomplish twenty golden crowns.

Why, love forswore me in my mother’s womb,

And, for I should not deal in her soft laws,

She did corrupt frail nature with some bribe

To shrink mine arm up like a withered shrub,

To make an envious mountain on my back—

Where sits deformity to mock my body—

To shape my legs of an unequal size,

To disproportion me in every part,

Like to a chaos, or an unlicked bear whelp

That carries no impression like the dam.

And am I then a man to be beloved?

O, monstrous fault, to harbour such a thought!

Then, since this earth affords no joy to me

But to command, to check, to o‘erbear such

As are of better person than myself,

I’ll make my heaven to dream upon the crown,

And whiles I live, t’account this world but hell,

Until my misshaped trunk that bears this head

Be round impaled with a glorious crown.

And yet I know not how to get the crown,

For many lives stand between me and home.

And I—like one lost in a thorny wood,

That rends the thorns and is rent with the thorns,

Seeking a way and straying from the way,

Not knowing how to find the open air,

But toiling desperately to find it out—

Torment myself to catch the English crown.

And from that torment I will free myself,

Or hew my way out with a bloody axe.

Why, I can smile, and murder whiles I smile,

And cry ‘Content!’ to that which grieves my heart,

And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,

And frame my face to all occasions.

I’ll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall;

I’ll slay more gazers than the basilisk;

I’ll play the orator as well as Nestor,

Deceive more slyly than Ulysses could,

And, like a Sinon, take another Troy.

I can add colours to the chameleon,

Change shapes with Proteus for advantages,

And set the murderous Machiavel to school.

Can I do this, and cannot get a crown?

Tut, were it farther off, I’ll pluck it down. Exit

3.3 ⌈Two⌉ chairs of state. Flourish. Enter King Louis of France, his sister the Lady Bona, Lord Bourbon his admiral, Prince Edward, Queen Margaret, and the Earl of Oxford. Louis goes up upon the state, sits, and riseth up again

KING LOUIS

Fair Queen of England, worthy Margaret,

Sit down with us. It ill befits thy state

And birth that thou shouldst stand while Louis

doth sit.

QUEEN MARGARET

No, mighty King of France, now Margaret

Must strike her sail and learn a while to serve

Where kings command. I was, I must confess,

Great Albion’s queen in former golden days,

But now mischance hath trod my title down,

And with dishonour laid me on the ground,

Where I must take like seat unto my fortune

And to my humble state conform myself.

KING LOUIS

Why, say, fair Queen, whence springs this deep despair ?

QUEEN MARGARET

From such a cause as fills mine eyes with tears

And stops my tongue, while heart is drowned in cares.

KING LOUIS

Whate’er it be, be thou still like thyself,

And sit thee by our side.

Seats her by him

Yield not thy neck

To fortune’s yoke, but let thy dauntless mind

Still ride in triumph over all mischance.

Be plain, Queen Margaret, and tell thy grief.

It shall be eased if France can yield relief.

QUEEN MARGARET

Those gracious words revive my drooping thoughts,

And give my tongue-tied sorrows leave to speak.

Now, therefore, be it known to noble Louis

That Henry, sole possessor of my love,

Is of a king become a banished man,

And forced to live in Scotland a forlorn,

While proud ambitious Edward, Duke of York,

Usurps the regal title and the seat

Of England’s true-anointed lawful King.

This is the cause that I, poor Margaret,

With this my son, Prince Edward, Henry’s heir,

Am come to crave thy just and lawful aid.

An if thou fail us all our hope is done.

Scotland hath will to help, but cannot help;

Our people and our peers are both misled,

Our treasure seized, our soldiers put to flight,

And, as thou seest, ourselves in heavy plight.

KING LOUIS

Renowned Queen, with patience calm the storm,

While we bethink a means to break it off.

QUEEN MARGARET

The more we stay, the stronger grows our foe.

KING LOUIS

The more I stay, the more I’ll succour thee.

QUEEN MARGARET

O, but impatience waiteth on true sorrow.

Enter the Earl of Warwick

And see where comes the breeder of my sorrow.

KING LOUIS

What’s he approacheth boldly to our presence?

QUEEN MARGARET

Our Earl of Warwick, Edward’s greatest friend.

KING LOUIS

Welcome, brave Warwick. What brings thee to France ?

He descends. She ariseth

QUEEN MARGARET (aside)

Ay, now begins a second storm to rise,

For this is he that moves both wind and tide.

WARWICK (to King Louis)

From worthy Edward, King of Albion,

My lord and sovereign, and thy vowed friend,

I come in kindness and unfeigned love,

First, to do greetings to thy royal person,

And then, to crave a league of amity,

And lastly, to confirm that amity

With nuptial knot, if thou vouchsafe to grant

That virtuous Lady Bona, thy fair sister,

To England’s King in lawful marriage.

QUEEN MARGARET (aside)

If that go forward, Henry’s hope is done.

WARWICK (to Lady Bona)

And, gracious madam, in our King’s behalf

I am commanded, with your leave and favour,

Humbly to kiss your hand, and with my tongue

To tell the passion of my sovereign’s heart,

Where fame, late ent‘ring at his heedful ears,

Hath placed thy beauty’s image and thy virtue.

QUEEN MARGARET

King Louis and Lady Bona, hear me speak

Before you answer Warwick. His demand

Springs not from Edward’s well-meant honest love,

But from deceit, bred by necessity.

For how can tyrants safely govern home

Unless abroad they purchase great alliance ?

To prove him tyrant this reason may suffice—

That Henry liveth still; but were he dead,

Yet here Prince Edward stands, King Henry’s son.

Look, therefore, Louis, that by this league and

marriage

Thou draw not on thy danger and dishonour,

For though usurpers sway the rule a while,

Yet heav’ns are just and time suppresseth wrongs.

WARWICK

Injurious Margaret.

PRINCE EDWARD And why not ‘Queen’?

WARWICK

Because thy father Henry did usurp,

And thou no more art prince than she is queen.

OXFORD

Then Warwick disannuls great John of Gaunt,

Which did subdue the greatest part of Spain;

And, after John of Gaunt, Henry the Fourth,

Whose wisdom was a mirror to the wisest;

And, after that wise prince, Henry the Fifth,

Who by his prowess conquered all France.

From these our Henry lineally descends.

WARWICK

Oxford, how haps it in this smooth discourse

You told not how Henry the Sixth hath lost

All that which Henry the Fifth had gotten ?

Methinks these peers of France should smile at that.

But for the rest, you tell a pedigree

Of threescore and two years—a silly time

To make prescription for a kingdom’s worth.

OXFORD

Why, Warwick, canst thou speak against thy liege,

Whom thou obeyedest thirty and six years,

And not bewray thy treason with a blush?

WARWICK

Can Oxford, that did ever fence the right,

Now buckler falsehood with a pedigree?

For shame—leave Henry, and call Edward king.

OXFORD

Call him my king by whose injurious doom

My elder brother, the Lord Aubrey Vere,

Was done to death ? And more than so, my father,

Even in the downfall of his mellowed years,

When nature brought him to the door of death?

No, Warwick, no—while life upholds this arm,

This arm upholds the house of Lancaster.

WARWICK And I the house of York.

KING LOUIS

Queen Margaret, Prince Edward, and Oxford,

Vouchsafe, at our request, to stand aside

While I use further conference with Warwick.

Queen Margaret ⌈comes down from the state and⌉, with Prince Edward and Oxford, stands apart

QUEEN MARGARET

Heavens grant that Warwick’s words bewitch him not.

KING LOUIS

Now, Warwick, tell me even upon thy conscience,

Is Edward your true king? For I were loath

To link with him that were not lawful chosen.

WARWICK

Thereon I pawn my credit and mine honour.

KING LOUIS

But is he gracious in the people’s eye?

WARWICK

The more that Henry was unfortunate.

KING LOUIS

Then further, all dissembling set aside,

Tell me for truth the measure of his love

Unto our sister Bona.

WARWICK Such it seems

As may beseem a monarch like himself.

Myself have often heard him say and swear

That this his love was an eternal plant,

Whereof the root was fixed in virtue’s ground,

The leaves and fruit maintained with beauty’s sun,

Exempt from envy, but not from disdain,

Unless the Lady Bona quit his pain.

KING LOUIS (to Lady Boa)

Now, sister, let us hear your firm resolve.

LADY BONA

Your grant, or your denial, shall be mine.

(To Warwick) Yet I confess that often ere this day,

When I have heard your king’s desert recounted,

Mine ear hath tempted judgement to desire.

KING LOUIS (to Warwick)

Then, Warwick, thus—our sister shall be Edward’s.

And now, forthwith, shall articles be drawn

Touching the jointure that your king must make,

Which with her dowry shall be counterpoised.

(To Queen Margaret) Draw near, Queen Margaret, and

be a witness

That Bona shall be wife to the English king.

Queen Margaret, Prince Edward, ⌈and Oxford⌉ come forward

PRINCE EDWARD

To Edward, but not to the English king.

QUEEN MARGARET

Deceitful Warwick—it was thy device

By this alliance to make void my suit!

Before thy coming Louis was Henry’s friend.

KING LOUIS

And still is friend to him and Margaret.

But if your title to the crown be weak,

As may appear by Edward’s good success,

Then ’tis but reason that I be released

From giving aid which late I promised.

Yet shall you have all kindness at my hand

That your estate requires and mine can yield.

WARWICK (to Queen Margaret)

Henry now lives in Scotland at his ease,

Where having nothing, nothing can he lose.

And as for you yourself, our quondam queen,

You have a father able to maintain you,

And better ’twere you troubled him than France.

QUEEN MARGARET

Peace, impudent and shameless Warwick, peace!

Proud setter-up and puller-down of kings!

I will not hence till, with my talk and tears,

Both full of truth, I make King Louis behold

Thy sly conveyance and thy lord’s false love,

Post blowing a horn within

For both of you are birds of selfsame feather.

KING LOUIS

Warwick, this is some post to us or thee.

Enter the Post

POST (to Warwick)

My lord ambassador, these letters are for you,

Sent from your brother Marquis Montague;

(To Louis) These from our King unto your majesty;

(To Queen Margaret)

And, madam, these for you, from whom I know not.

They all read their letters

OXFORD (to Prince Edward)

I like it well that our fair Queen and mistress

Smiles at her news, while Warwick frowns at his.

PRINCE EDWARD

Nay, mark how Louis stamps as he were nettled.

I hope all’s for the best.

KING LOUIS

Warwick, what are thy news ? And yours, fair Queen?

QUEEN MARGARET

Mine, such as fill my heart with unhoped joys.

WARWICK

Mine, full of sorrow and heart’s discontent.

KING LOUIS

What! Has your king married the Lady Gray?

And now to soothe your forgery and his,

Sends me a paper to persuade me patience?

Is this th’alliance that he seeks with France?

Dare he presume to scorn us in this manner?

QUEEN MARGARET

I told your majesty as much before—

This proveth Edward’s love and Warwick’s honesty.

WARWICK

King Louis, I here protest in sight of heaven

And by the hope I have of heavenly bliss,

That I am clear from this misdeed of Edward‘s,

No more my king, for he dishonours me,

But most himself, if he could see his shame.

Did I forget that by the house of York

My father came untimely to his death?

Did I let pass th’abuse done to my niece?

Did I impale him with the regal crown?

Did I put Henry from his native right?

And am I guerdoned at the last with shame?

Shame on himself, for my desert is honour.

And to repair my honour, lost for him,

I here renounce him and return to Henry.

(To Queen Margaret) My noble Queen, let former

grudges pass,

And henceforth I am thy true servitor.

I will revenge his wrong to Lady Bona

And replant Henry in his former state.

QUEEN MARGARET

Warwick, these words have turned my hate to love,

And I forgive and quite forget old faults,

And joy that thou becom’st King Henry’s friend.

WARWICK

So much his friend, ay, his unfeigned friend,

That if King Louis vouchsafe to furnish us

With some few bands of chosen soldiers,

I’ll undertake to land them on our coast

And force the tyrant from his seat by war.

’Tis not his new-made bride shall succour him.

And as for Clarence, as my letters tell me,

He’s very likely now to fall from him

For matching more for wanton lust than honour,

Or than for strength and safety of our country.

LADY BONA (to King Louis)

Dear brother, how shall Bona be revenged,

But by thy help to this distressed Queen?

QUEEN MARGARET (to King Louis)

Renowned Prince, how shall poor Henry live

Unless thou rescue him from foul despair?

LADY BONA (to King Louis)

My quarrel and this English Queen’s are one.

WARWICK

And mine, fair Lady Bona, joins with yours.

KING LOUIS

And mine with hers, and thine, and Margaret’s.

Therefore at last I firmly am resolved:

You shall have aid.

QUEEN MARGARET

Let me give humble thanks for all at once.

KING LOUIS (to the Post)

Then, England’s messenger, return in post

And tell false Edward, thy supposed king,

That Louis of France is sending over masquers

To revel it with him and his new bride.

Thou seest what’s passed, go fear thy king withal.

LADY BONA (to the Post)

Tell him, in hope he’ll prove a widower shortly,

I’ll wear the willow garland for his sake.

QUEEN MARGARET (to the Post)

Tell him my mourning weeds are laid aside,

And I am ready to put armour on.

WARWICK (to the Post)

Tell him from me that he hath done me wrong,

And therefore I’ll uncrown him ere’t be long.

(Giving money) There’s thy reward—be gone.

Exit Post

KING LOUIS

But, Warwick, thou and Oxford, with five thousand

men,

Shall cross the seas and bid false Edward battle;

And, as occasion serves, this noble Queen

And Prince shall follow with a fresh supply.

Yet, ere thou go, but answer me one doubt:

What pledge have we of thy firm loyalty?

WARWICK

This shall assure my constant loyalty :

That if our Queen and this young Prince agree,

I’ll join mine eldest daughter and my joy

To him forthwith in holy wedlock bands.

QUEEN MARGARET

Yes, I agree, and thank you for your motion.

(To Prince Edward) Son Edward, she is fair and virtuous,

Therefore delay not. Give thy hand to Warwick,

And with thy hand thy faith irrevocable

That only Warwick’s daughter shall be thine.

PRINCE EDWARD

Yes, I accept her, for she well deserves it,

And here to pledge my vow I give my hand.

He and Warwick clasp hands

KING LOUIS

Why stay we now? These soldiers shall be levied,

And thou, Lord Bourbon, our high admiral,

Shall waft them over with our royal fleet.

I long till Edward fall by war’s mischance

For mocking marriage with a dame of France.

Exeunt all but Warwick

WARWICK

I came from Edward as ambassador,

But I return his sworn and mortal foe.

Matter of marriage was the charge he gave me,

But dreadful war shall answer his demand.

Had he none else to make a stale but me?

Then none but I shall turn his jest to sorrow.

I was the chief that raised him to the crown,

And I’ll be chief to bring him down again.

Not that I pity Henry’s misery,

But seek revenge on Edward’s mockery. Exit