This is close dealing. Well, I will be there. Exit Herald.
My Nell, I take my leave; and, master sheriff,
Let not her penance exceed the King’s commission.
75
SHERIFF
An’t please your grace, here my commission stays,
And Sir John Stanley is appointed now
To take her with him to the Isle of Man.
GLOUCESTER Must you, Sir John, protect my lady here?
STANLEY
So am I given in charge, may’t please your grace.
80
GLOUCESTER Entreat her not the worse, in that I pray
You use her well. The world may laugh again,
And I may live to do you kindness if
You do it her. And so, Sir John, farewell.
[Gloucester begins to leave.]
ELEANOR What, gone, my lord, and bid me not farewell?
85
GLOUCESTER Witness my tears, I cannot stay to speak.
Exeunt Gloucester and Servants.
ELEANOR Art thou gone too? All comfort go with thee,
For none abides with me; my joy is death;
Death, at whose name I oft have been afeared,
Because I wished this world’s eternity.
90
Stanley, I prithee go, and take me hence,
I care not whither, for I beg no favour;
Only convey me where thou art commanded.
STANLEY Why, madam, that is to the Isle of Man,
There to be used according to your state.
95
ELEANOR That’s bad enough, for I am but reproach;
And shall I then be used reproachfully?
STANLEY
Like to a duchess, and Duke Humphrey’s lady,
According to that state you shall be used.
ELEANOR Sheriff, farewell, and better than I fare,
100
Although thou hast been conduct of my shame.
SHERIFF It is my office, and, madam, pardon me.
ELEANOR Ay, ay, farewell; thy office is discharged.
Exit Sheriff with officers and commoners.
Come, Stanley, shall we go?
STANLEY
Madam, your penance done, throw off this sheet,
105
And go we to attire you for our journey.
ELEANOR My shame will not be shifted with my sheet:
No, it will hang upon my richest robes
And show itself, attire me how I can.
Go, lead the way, I long to see my prison. Exeunt.
110
3.1 Sound a sennet. Enter two heralds before, the KING, QUEEN, CARDINAL, SUFFOLK, YORK, BUCKINGHAM, SALISBURY and WARWICK to the parliament, with attendants.
KING I muse my Lord of Gloucester is not come.
’Tis not his wont to be the hindmost man,
Whate’er occasion keeps him from us now.
QUEEN Can you not see, or will ye not observe
The strangeness of his altered countenance?
5
With what a majesty he bears himself,
How insolent of late he is become, how proud,
How peremptory, and unlike himself.
We know the time since he was mild and affable;
An if we did but glance a far-off look,
10
Immediately he was upon his knee,
That all the court admired him for submission.
But meet him now, and be it in the morn,
When everyone will give the time of day,
He knits his brow and shows an angry eye
15
And passeth by with stiff unbowed knee,
Disdaining duty that to us belongs.
Small curs are not regarded when they grin,
But great men tremble when the lion roars;
And Humphrey is no little man in England.
20
First note that he is near you in descent,
And should you fall, he is the next will mount.
Meseemeth then it is no policy,
Respecting what a rancorous mind he bears
And his advantage following your decease,
25
That he should come about your royal person
Or be admitted to your highness’ Council.
By flattery hath he won the commons’ hearts;
And when he please to make commotion,
’Tis to be feared they all will follow him.
30
Now ’tis the spring, and weeds are shallow-rooted;
Suffer them now and they’ll o’ergrow the garden
And choke the herbs for want of husbandry.
The reverent care I bear unto my lord
Made me collect these dangers in the Duke.
35
If it be fond, call it a woman’s fear;
Which fear if better reasons can supplant,
I will subscribe and say I wronged the Duke.
My Lord of Suffolk, Buckingham and York,
Reprove my allegation if you can,
40
Or else conclude my words effectual.
SUFFOLK Well hath your highness seen into this Duke;
And had I first been put to speak my mind,
I think I should have told your grace’s tale.
The Duchess by his subornation,
45
Upon my life, began her devilish practices;
Or if he were not privy to those faults,
Yet by reputing of his high descent,
As next the King he was successive heir –
And such high vaunts of his nobility –
50
Did instigate the bedlam brainsick Duchess
By wicked means to frame our sovereign’s fall.
Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep,
And in his simple show he harbours treason.
The fox barks not when he would steal the lamb.
55
No, no, my sovereign, Gloucester is a man
Unsounded yet and full of deep deceit.
CARDINAL Did he not, contrary to form of law,
Devise strange deaths for small offences done?
YORK And did he not, in his Protectorship,
60
Levy great sums of money through the realm
For soldiers’ pay in France, and never sent it?
By means whereof the towns each day revolted.
BUCKINGHAM
Tut, these are petty faults to faults unknown
Which time will bring to light in smooth Duke Humphrey.
KING My lords, at once: the care you have of us
To mow down thorns that would annoy our foot
Is worthy praise; but, shall I speak my conscience,
Our kinsman Gloucester is as innocent
From meaning treason to our royal person
70
As is the sucking lamb or harmless dove.
The Duke is virtuous, mild and too well given
To dream on evil or to work my downfall.
QUEEN
Ah, what’s more dangerous than this fond affiance?
Seems he a dove? His feathers are but borrowed,
75
For he’s disposed as the hateful raven.
Is he a lamb? His skin is surely lent him,
For he’s inclined as is the ravenous wolves.
Who cannot steal a shape, that means deceit?
Take heed, my lord; the welfare of us all
80
Hangs on the cutting short that fraudful man.
Enter SOMERSET.
SOMERSET All health unto my gracious sovereign!
KING
Welcome, Lord Somerset. What news from France?
SOMERSET That all your interest in those territories
Is utterly bereft you; all is lost.
85
KING
Cold news, Lord Somerset; but God’s will be done.
&nb
sp; YORK [aside] Cold news for me; for I had hope of France
As firmly as I hope for fertile England.
Thus are my blossoms blasted in the bud,
And caterpillars eat my leaves away;
90
But I will remedy this gear ere long,
Or sell my title for a glorious grave.
Enter GLOUCESTER.
GLOUCESTER All happiness unto my lord the King!
Pardon, my liege, that I have stayed so long.
SUFFOLK
Nay, Gloucester, know that thou art come too soon,
95
Unless thou wert more loyal than thou art.
I do arrest thee of high treason here.
GLOUCESTER
Well, Suffolk’s Duke, thou shalt not see me blush,
Nor change my countenance for this arrest.
A heart unspotted is not easily daunted.
100
The purest spring is not so free from mud
As I am clear from treason to my sovereign.
Who can accuse me? Wherein am I guilty?
YORK
’Tis thought, my lord, that you took bribes of France,
And, being Protector, stayed the soldiers’ pay,
105
By means whereof his highness hath lost France.
GLOUCESTER
Is it but thought so? What are they that think it?
I never robbed the soldiers of their pay,
Nor ever had one penny bribe from France.
So help me God, as I have watched the night,
110
Ay, night by night, in studying good for England!
That doit that e’er I wrested from the King,
Or any groat I hoarded to my use,
Be brought against me at my trial day!
No: many a pound of mine own proper store,
115
Because I would not tax the needy commons,
Have I dispursed to the garrisons
And never asked for restitution.
CARDINAL It serves you well, my lord, to say so much.
GLOUCESTER I say no more than truth, so help me God!
120
YORK In your Protectorship you did devise
Strange tortures for offenders, never heard of,
That England was defamed by tyranny.
GLOUCESTER
Why, ’tis well known that whiles I was Protector
Pity was all the fault that was in me,
125
For I should melt at an offender’s tears,
And lowly words were ransom for their fault.
Unless it were a bloody murderer,
Or foul felonious thief that fleeced poor passengers,
I never gave them condign punishment.
130
Murder indeed, that bloody sin, I tortured
Above the felon or what trespass else.
SUFFOLK
My lord, these faults are easy, quickly answered,
But mightier crimes are laid unto your charge
Whereof you cannot easily purge yourself.
135
I do arrest you in his highness’ name
And here commit you to my Lord Cardinal
To keep until your further time of trial.
KING My Lord of Gloucester, ’tis my special hope
That you will clear yourself from all suspense.
140
My conscience tells me you are innocent.
GLOUCESTER
Ah, gracious lord, these days are dangerous.
Virtue is choked with foul ambition,
And charity chased hence by rancour’s hand;
Foul subornation is predominant,
145
And equity exiled your highness’ land.
I know their complot is to have my life;
And if my death might make this island happy
And prove the period of their tyranny,
I would expend it with all willingness.
150
But mine is made the prologue to their play;
For thousands more that yet suspect no peril
Will not conclude their plotted tragedy.
Beaufort’s red sparkling eyes blab his heart’s malice,
And Suffolk’s cloudy brow his stormy hate;
155
Sharp Buckingham unburdens with his tongue
The envious load that lies upon his heart;
And dogged York, that reaches at the moon,
Whose overweening arm I have plucked back,
By false accuse doth level at my life.
160
And you, my sovereign lady, with the rest,
Causeless have laid disgraces on my head
And with your best endeavour have stirred up
My liefest liege to be mine enemy.
Ay, all of you have laid your heads together –
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 220
