The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works

by William Shakespeare

  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,

  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,