Of the King’s Party
KING HENRY VI
QUEEN MARGARET
William de la Pole, Marquis, later Duke, of SUFFOLK, the Queen’s lover
Duke Humphrey of GLOUCESTER, the Lord Protector, the King’s uncle
Dame Eleanor Cobham, the DUCHESS of Gloucester
CARDINAL BEAUFORT, Bishop of Winchester, Gloucester’s uncle and the King’s great-uncle
Duke of BUCKINGHAM
Duke of SOMERSET
Old Lord CLIFFORD
YOUNG CLIFFORD, his son
Of the Duke of York’s Party
Earl of SALISBURY
Earl of WARWICK, his son
The petitions and the combat
Two or three PETITIONERS
Thomas HORNER, an armourer
PETER Thump, his man
Three NEIGHBOURS, who drink to Horner
Three PRENTICES, who drink to Peter
The conjuration
Margery Jordan, a WITCH
Roger BOLINGBROKE, a conjurer
ASNATH, a spirit
The false miracle
Simon SIMPCOX
SIMPCOX’S WIFE
The MAYOR of Saint Albans
Aldermen of Saint Albans
A BEADLE of Saint Albans
Townsmen of Saint Albans
Eleanor’s penance
Gloucester’s SERVANTS
Two SHERIFFS of London
Sir John STANLEY
HERALD
The murder of Gloucester
Two MURDERERS
COMMONS
The murder of Suffolk
CAPTAIN of a ship
MASTER of that ship
The Master’s MATE
Walter WHITMORE
Two GENTLEMEN
The Cade Rebellion
Jack CADE, a Kentishman suborned by the Duke of York
Three or four CITIZENS of London
Alexander IDEN, an esquire of Kent, who kills Cade
Others
VAUX, a messenger
APOST
MESSENGERS
A SOLDIER
Attendants, guards, servants, soldiers, falconers
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,
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,