The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare (moboreader .TXT) 📕

DUCHESS. What say’st thou? Majesty! I am but Grace.

HUME. But, by the grace of God and Hume’s advice, Your Grace’s title shall be multiplied.

DUCHESS. What say’st thou, man? Hast thou as yet conferr’d With Margery Jourdain, the cunning witch of Eie, With Roger Bolingbroke, the conjurer?

And will they undertake to do me good?

HUME. This they have promised, to show your Highness A spirit rais’d from depth of underground That shall make answer to such questions As by your Grace shall be propounded him DUCHESS. It is enough; I’ll think upon the questions; When from Saint Albans we do make return We’ll see these things effected to the full.

Here, Hume, take this reward; make merry, man, With thy confederates in this weighty cause. Exit HUME. Hume must make merry with the Duchess’ gold; Marry, and shall. But, how now, Sir John Hume!

Seal up your lips and give no words but mum: The business asketh silent secrecy.

Dame Eleanor gives gold to bring the witch: Gold cannot come amiss were she a devil.

Yet have I gold flies from another coastI dare not say from the rich Cardinal, And from the great and new-made Duke of Suffolk; Yet I do find it so; for, to be plain, They, knowing Dame Eleanor’s aspiring humour, Have hired me to undermine the Duchess, And buzz these conjurations in her brain.

They say ‘A crafty knave does need no broker’; Yet am I Suffolk and the Cardinal’s broker.

Hume, if you take not heed, you shall go near To call them both a pair of crafty knaves.

Well, so its stands; and thus, I fear, at last Hume’s knavery will be the Duchess’ wreck, And her attainture will be Humphrey’s fall Sort how it will, I shall have gold for all. Exit

SCENE III.

London. The palace

Enter three or four PETITIONERS, PETER, the Armourer’s man, being one FIRST PETITIONER. My masters, let’s stand close; my Lord Protector will come this way by and by, and then we may deliver our supplications in the quill.

SECOND PETITIONER. Marry, the Lord protect him, for he’s a good man, Jesu bless him!

Enter SUFFOLK and QUEEN

FIRST PETITIONER. Here ‘a comes, methinks, and the Queen with him.

I’ll be the first, sure.

SECOND PETITIONER. Come back, fool; this is the Duke of Suffolk and not my Lord Protector.

SUFFOLK. How now, fellow! Wouldst anything with me?

FIRST PETITIONER. I pray, my lord, pardon me; I took ye for my Lord Protector.

QUEEN. [Reads] ‘To my Lord Protector!’ Are your supplications to his lordship? Let me see them. What is thine?

FIRST PETITIONER. Mine is, an’t please your Grace, against John Goodman, my Lord Cardinal’s man, for keeping my house and lands, and wife and all, from me.

SUFFOLK. Thy wife too! That’s some wrong indeed. What’s yours?

What’s here! [Reads] ‘Against the Duke of Suffolk, for enclosing the commons of Melford.’ How now, sir knave!

SECOND PETITIONER. Alas, sir, I am but a poor petitioner of our whole township.

PETER. [Presenting his petition] Against my master, Thomas Horner, for saying that the Duke of York was rightful heir to the crown.

QUEEN. What say’st thou? Did the Duke of York say he was rightful heir to the crown?

PETER. That my master was? No, forsooth. My master said that he was, and that the King was an usurper.

SUFFOLK. Who is there? [Enter servant] Take this fellow in, and send for his master with a pursuivant presently. We’ll hear more of your matter before the King.

Exit servant with PETER

QUEEN. And as for you, that love to be protected Under the wings of our Protector’s grace, Begin your suits anew, and sue to him.

[Tears the supplications]

Away, base cullions! Suffolk, let them go.

ALL. Come, let’s be gone. Exeunt QUEEN. My Lord of Suffolk, say, is this the guise, Is this the fashions in the court of England?

Is this the government of Britain’s isle, And this the royalty of Albion’s king?

What, shall King Henry be a pupil still, Under the surly Gloucester’s governance?

Am I a queen in title and in style,

And must be made a subject to a duke?

I tell thee, Pole, when in the city Tours Thou ran’st a tilt in honour of my love And stol’st away the ladies’ hearts of France, I thought King Henry had resembled thee In courage, courtship, and proportion; But all his mind is bent to holiness, To number Ave-Maries on his beads;

His champions are the prophets and apostles; His weapons, holy saws of sacred writ; His study is his tilt-yard, and his loves Are brazen images of canonized saints.

I would the college of the Cardinals

Would choose him Pope, and carry him to Rome, And set the triple crown upon his head; That were a state fit for his holiness.

SUFFOLK. Madam, be patient. As I was cause Your Highness came to England, so will I In England work your Grace’s full content.

QUEEN. Beside the haughty Protector, have we Beaufort The imperious churchman; Somerset, Buckingham, And grumbling York; and not the least of these But can do more in England than the King.

SUFFOLK. And he of these that can do most of all Cannot do more in England than the Nevils; Salisbury and Warwick are no simple peers.

QUEEN. Not all these lords do vex me half so much As that proud dame, the Lord Protector’s wife.

She sweeps it through the court with troops of ladies, More like an empress than Duke Humphrey’s wife.

Strangers in court do take her for the Queen.

She bears a duke’s revenues on her back, And in her heart she scorns our poverty; Shall I not live to be aveng’d on her?

Contemptuous base-born callet as she is, She vaunted ‘mongst her minions t’ other day The very train of her worst wearing gown Was better worth than all my father’s lands, Till Suffolk gave two dukedoms for his daughter.

SUFFOLK. Madam, myself have lim’d a bush for her, And plac’d a quire of such enticing birds That she will light to listen to the lays, And never mount to trouble you again.

So, let her rest. And, madam, list to me, For I am bold to counsel you in this: Although we fancy not the Cardinal,

Yet must we join with him and with the lords, Till we have brought Duke Humphrey in disgrace.

As for the Duke of York, this late complaint Will make but little for his benefit.

So one by one we’ll weed them all at last, And you yourself shall steer the happy helm.

Sound a sennet. Enter the KING, DUKE HUMPHREY, CARDINAL BEAUFORT, BUCKINGHAM, YORK, SOMERSET, SALISBURY, WARWICK, and the DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER

KING HENRY. For my part, noble lords, I care not which: Or Somerset or York, all’s one to me.

YORK. If York have ill demean’d himself in France, Then let him be denay’d the regentship.

SOMERSET. If Somerset be unworthy of the place, Let York be Regent; I will yield to him.

WARWICK. Whether your Grace be worthy, yea or no, Dispute not that; York is the worthier.

CARDINAL. Ambitious Warwick, let thy betters speak.

WARWICK. The Cardinal’s not my better in the field.

BUCKINGHAM. All in this presence are thy betters, Warwick.

WARWICK. Warwick may live to be the best of all.

SALISBURY. Peace, son! And show some reason, Buckingham, Why Somerset should be preferr’d in this.

QUEEN. Because the King, forsooth, will have it so.

GLOUCESTER. Madam, the King is old enough himself To give his censure. These are no women’s matters.

QUEEN. If he be old enough, what needs your Grace To be Protector of his Excellence?

GLOUCESTER. Madam, I am Protector of the realm; And at his pleasure will resign my place.

SUFFOLK. Resign it then, and leave thine insolence.

Since thou wert king-as who is king but thou?-

The commonwealth hath daily run to wrack, The Dauphin hath prevail’d beyond the seas, And all the peers and nobles of the realm Have been as bondmen to thy sovereignty.

CARDINAL. The commons hast thou rack’d; the clergy’s bags Are lank and lean with thy extortions.

SOMERSET. Thy sumptuous buildings and thy wife’s attire Have cost a mass of public treasury.

BUCKINGHAM. Thy cruelty in execution

Upon offenders hath exceeded law,

And left thee to the mercy of the law.

QUEEN. Thy sale of offices and towns in France, If they were known, as the suspect is great, Would make thee quickly hop without thy head.

Exit GLOUCESTER. The QUEEN drops QUEEN her fan Give me my fan. What, minion, can ye not?

[She gives the DUCHESS a box on the ear]

I cry your mercy, madam; was it you?

DUCHESS. Was’t I? Yea, I it was, proud Frenchwoman.

Could I come near your beauty with my nails, I could set my ten commandments in your face.

KING HENRY. Sweet aunt, be quiet; ‘twas against her will.

DUCHESS. Against her will, good King? Look to ‘t in time; She’ll hamper thee and dandle thee like a baby.

Though in this place most master wear no breeches, She shall not strike Dame Eleanor unreveng’d. Exit BUCKINGHAM. Lord Cardinal, I will follow Eleanor, And listen after Humphrey, how he proceeds.

She’s tickled now; her fume needs no spurs, She’ll gallop far enough to her destruction. Exit Re-enter GLOUCESTER

GLOUCESTER. Now, lords, my choler being overblown With walking once about the quadrangle, I come to talk of commonwealth affairs.

As for your spiteful false objections, Prove them, and I lie open to the law; But God in mercy so deal with my soul As I in duty love my king and country!

But to the matter that we have in hand: I say, my sovereign, York is meetest man To be your Regent in the realm of France.

SUFFOLK. Before we make election, give me leave To show some reason, of no little force, That York is most unmeet of any man.

YORK. I’ll tell thee, Suffolk, why I am unmeet: First, for I cannot flatter thee in pride; Next, if I be appointed for the place, My Lord of Somerset will keep me here Without discharge, money, or furniture, Till France be won into the Dauphin’s hands.

Last time I danc’d attendance on his will Till Paris was besieg’d, famish’d, and lost.

WARWICK. That can I witness; and a fouler fact Did never traitor in the land commit.

SUFFOLK. Peace, headstrong Warwick!

WARWICK. Image of pride, why should I hold my peace?

Enter HORNER, the Armourer, and his man PETER, guarded SUFFOLK. Because here is a man accus’d of treason: Pray God the Duke of York excuse himself!

YORK. Doth any one accuse York for a traitor?

KING HENRY. What mean’st thou, Suffolk? Tell me, what are these?

SUFFOLK. Please it your Majesty, this is the man That doth accuse his master of high treason; His words were these: that Richard Duke of York Was rightful heir unto the English crown, And that your Majesty was an usurper.

KING HENRY. Say, man, were these thy words?

HORNER. An’t shall please your Majesty, I never said nor thought any such matter. God is my witness, I am falsely accus’d by the villain.

PETER. [Holding up his hands] By these ten bones, my lords, he did speak them to me in the garret one night, as we were scouring my Lord of York’s armour.

YORK. Base dunghill villain and mechanical, I’ll have thy head for this thy traitor’s speech.

I do beseech your royal Majesty,

Let him have all the rigour of the law.

HORNER`. Alas, my lord, hang me if ever I spake the words. My accuser is my prentice; and when I did correct him for his fault the other day, he did vow upon his knees he would be even with me. I have