(27)

SECOND PART OF

KING HENRY VI.

'The Contention of the two famous houses of York and Lancaster,' in two parts, was pubhshed in quarto, in 1600; and the first part was entered on the Stationers' books, (as Mr. Steevens has observed,) March 12, 1593-4. On these two plays, which I believe to have been written by some preceding author, before the year 1590, Shakspeare formed, as I conceive, this and the following drama ; altering, retrenching, or amplifying, as he thought proper. At present it is only necessary to apprize the reader of the method observed in the printing of these plays. All the lines printed in the usual manner are found in the original quarto plays (or at least with such minute variations as are not worth noticing:) and those, I conceive, Shakspeare adopted as he found them. The lines to which inverted commas are prefixed, were, if my hypothesis be well founded, retouched, and greatly improved by him, and those with asterisks were his own original production; the embroidery with which he ornamented the coarse stuff that had been awkwardly made up for the stage by some of his contemporaries. The speeches which he new-modelled, he improved, sometimes by amplification, and sometimes by re

trenchment.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

MALONE.

King Henry the Sirth:

Humphrey, duke of Gloster, his uncle.

Hume and Southwell, two priests.

Bolingbroke, a conjurer. A Spirit raised by him.

Cardinal Beaufort, bishop of Winchester, great Thomas Horner, an armourer. Peter, his man.

uncle to the king.

Clerk of Chatham. Mayor of Saint Alban's.
Simpeox, an impostor. Two Murderers.
Jack Cade, a rébel:

George, John, Dick, Smith, the Weaver, Michael,
&c. his followers.

Alexander Iden, a Kentish Gentleman.

Margaret, queen to king Henry.
Eleanor, duchess of Gloster.

Margery Jourdain, a witch. Wife to Simpcox.

Lords, Ladies, and Attendants; Petitioners, Aldermen, a Beadle, Sheriff, and Officers; Citizens, Prentices, Falconers, Guards, Soldiers, Messengers, &c.

Scene, dispersedly in various parts of England.

Seven earls, twelve barons, twenty reverend bishops,
I have perform'd my task, and was espous'd:
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 receiv'd.

K. Hen. Suffolk, arise.-Welcome, qucen Mar-
garet:

I can express no kinder sign of love,
Than this kind kiss.-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.
Q. Mar. Great king of England, and my gra
cious lord;

R

had'-Studied so long, sat in the council-house,
Early and late, debating to and fro

'The mutual conference that my mind hath
'By day, by night; waking, and in my dreams;
"In courtly company, or at my beads,-
With you mine alder-liefest sovereign,
Makes me the bolder to salute my king
With ruder terms; such as my wit affords,
'And over-joy of heart doth minister.

How France and Frenchmen might be kept in awe ?
And hath his highness in his infancy
Been crown'd in Paris, in despite of foes?
And shall these labours, and these honours, die?
Shall Henry's conquest, Bedford's vigilance,

'K. Hen. Her sight did ravish: but her grace in Your deeds of war, and all our council, die?

speech,

'Her words y-clad with wisdom's majesty,

'Makes me, from wondering fall to weeping joys;
'Such is the fulness of my heart's content.-
'Lords, with one cheerful voice welcome my love.
All. Long live queen Margaret, England's hap-
piness!

Q. Mar. We thank you all.

[Flourish.

'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!

'Car. Nephew, what means this passionate dis-
course?

Suff. My lord protector, so it please your grace,This peroration with such circumstance?" Here are the articles of contracted peace, 'For France, 'tis ours; and we will keep it still. Between our sovereign and the French king Charles, *Glo. Ay, uncle, we will keep it, if we can; 'For eighteen months concluded by consent. But now it is impossible we should: Suffolk, the new-made duke that rules the roast, Hath given the duchies of Anjou and Maine Unto the poor king Reignier, whose large style Agrees not with the leanness of his purse. *Sal. Now, by the death of him that died for all, These counties were the keys of Normandy :But wherefore weeps Warwick, my valiant son? 'War. For grief, that they are past recovery: 'For, were there hope to conquer them again, My sword should shed hot blood, mine eyes no

Glo. [Reads.] Imprimis, It is agreed between the French king, Charles, and William de la Poole, marquess of Suffolk, ambassador for Henry king of England, that the said Henry shall espouse the lady Margaret, daughter unto Reignier king of Naples, Sicilia, and Jerusalem; and crown her queen of England, ere the thirtieth of May next ensuing. -Item,-That the duchy of Anjou and the county of Maine, shall be released and delivered to the king her father—

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,
Deliver'd up again with peaceful words?
Dieu!

K. Hen. Uncle, how now?
Glo.
Pardon me, gracious lord;
Some sudden qualm hath struck me at the heart,
And dimm'd mine eyes, that I can read no further.
K. Hen. Uncle of Winchester, I pray, read on.
Win. Item,-It is further agreed between them'Mort
-that the duchies of Anjou and Maine shall be
released and delivered over to the king her father;
and she sent over of the king of England's own
proper cost and charges, without having dowry.
K. Hen. They please us well.-Lord marquess
kneel down;

We here create thee the first duke of Suffolk,
And girt thee with the sword.-

Cousin of York, we here discharge your grace
From being regent in the parts of France,
Till term of eighteen months be full expir'd.-
Thanks, uncle Winchester, Gloster, York,
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 perform'd.

and

[Exeunt King, Queen, and Suffolk.

*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.

Glo. A proper jest, and never heard before,
*That Suffolk should demand a whole fifteenth,
For costs and charges in transporting her!
*She should have staid in France, and starv'd in
France,

*Before

*Car. My lord of Gloster, now you grow too hot; *It was the pleasure of my lord the king.

*Glo. My lord of Winchester, I know your mind; "Tis not my speeches that you do mislike,

Glo. Brave peers of England, pillars of the state,But 'tis my presence that doth trouble you.

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,
Receiv'd deep scars in France and Normandy?
'Or hath mine uncle Beaufort, and myself,
'With all the learned council of the realm,

(1) I am the bolder to address you, having
already familiarized you to my imagination.
(2) Beloved above all things.

'Rancour will out: Proud prelate, in thy face
I see thy fury: If I longer stay,

We shall begin our ancient bickerings.^—
Lordings, farewell; and say, when I am gone,
I prophesied-France will be lost ere long. [Exit.
Car. 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.

(3) This speech crowded with so many circumstances of aggravation, (4) Skirmishings.

*

Clapping their hands, and crying with a 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.

* Buck. Why should he then protect our sovereign,

*The peers agreed; and Henry is well pleas'd, 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 courtezans, Still revelling, like lords, till all be gone: While as the silly owner of the goods Weeps over them, and wrings his hapless hands, And shakes his head, and trembling stands aloof, *While all is shar'd, and all is borne away; *Ready to starve, and dare not touch his own.

*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 hoise duke Humphrey from his seat.
* Car. This weighty business will not brook de-*
lay;

*I'll to the duke of Suffolk presently.

'Som. Cousin of Buckingham, though phrey's pride,

So York must sit, and fret, and bite his tongue,
While his own lands are bargain'd for, and sold.
Methinks, the realms of England, France, and
Ireland,

[Exit. Bear that proportion to my flesh and blood,
IIum-As did the fatal brand Alibea burn'd,

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 Gloster be displac'd, he'll be protector. Buck. Or thou, or I, Somerset, will be protector, * Despite duke Humphrey, or the cardinal.

[Exeunt Buckingham and Somerset. Sal. 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 Gloster 'Did bear him like a noble gentleinan. 'Oft have I seen the haughty cardinal'More like a soldier, than a man o'the church, 'As stout, and proud, as he were lord of all,'Swear like a ruffian, and demean himself "Unlike the ruler of a common-weal.Warwick, my son, the comfort of my age! Thy deeds, thy plainness, and thy house-keeping, 'Hath won the 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 fear'd, and honour'd, of the people:

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.

* War. So God help Warwick, as he loves the land,

And common profit of his country!

* York. And so says York, for he hath greatest

cause.

Sal. Then let's make haste away, and look unto the main.

War. 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. 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; (1) For ticklish.

Unto the prince's heart of Calydon.2
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 Nevils' 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 his sceptre in his childish fist,
Nor wear the diadem upon his head,
Whose church-like humours fit 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, surfeiting in 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 perfum'd;
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 pull'd fair England down.
[Exit.

SCENE II.-The same. A room in the duke
of Gloster's house. Enter Gloster and the
Duchess.

Duch. Why droops my lord, like over-ripen'd

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 fix'd to the sullen earth,
Gazing on that which seems to dim thy sight?
"What see'st thou there? king Henry's diadem,
Enchas'd with all the honours of the world?
If so, gaze on, and grovel on thy face,

Until thy head be circled with the same.
Put forth thy hand, reach at the glorious gold:-
:What, is't too short? I'll lengthen it with mine:
* And, having both together heav'd it up,
*We'll both together lift our heads to heaven;
And never more abase our sight so low,
* As to vouchafe one glance unto the ground.

(2) Meleager; whose life was to continue only so long as a certain firebrand should last. His mother Althea having thrown it into the fire, he expired in torment.

'Duch. What, what, my lord! are you so Sort how it will, I shall have gold for all. [Exit.

'Mess. My lord protector, 'tis his highness'' pleasure,

"You do prepare to ride unto Saint Albans,
"Whereas the king and queen do mean to hawk.
Glo. I go.-Come, Nell, thou wilt ride with us?*
'Duch. Yes, good my lord, I'll follow presently.
[Exeunt Gloster and Messenger.

Follow I must, I cannot go before,
*While Gloster bears this base and humble mind.
*Were I a man, a duke, and next of blood,
* I would remove these tedious stumbling-blocks,
And smooth my way upon their headless necks:
*And, being a woman, I will not be slack
*To play my part in fortune's pageant.

Where are you there? Sir John! nay, fear not,

master, Thomas Horner, for saying, That the duke of York was rightful heir to the crown.

'Q. Mar. 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.

*

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:

Suff. Who is there? [Enter Servants.]-Take this fellow in, and send for his master with a pursuivant presently:-we'll hear more of your matter before* the king. [Exeunt Servants, with Peter. Q. Mar. 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 petition. 'Away, base cullions !'-Suffolk, let them go.

All Come, let's be gone. [Exeunt Pelitioners. * Q. Mar. My lord of Suffolk, say, is this the guise,

* Is this the fashion 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 Gloster's governance?
Am I a queen in title and in style,
* And must be made a subject to a duke?
'I tell thee, Poole, 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 canoniz'd saints.

* I would, the college of 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.

· Suff. Madam, be patient: as I was cause
"Your highness came to England, so will I
"In England work your grace's full content.
* Q. Mar. Beside the haught protector, have we
Beaufort,

The imperious churchman; Somerset, Buckingham,

So, one by one, we'll weed them all at last,
And you yourself shall steer the happy helm.
Enter King Henry, York, and Somerset, convers
ing with him; Duke and Duchess of Gloster,
Cardinal Beaufort, Buckingham, Salisbury, and
Warwick.

K. Hen. 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.

Som. If Somerset be unworthy of the place,
Let York be regent, I will yield to him.
War. Whether your grace be worthy, yea, or no,
Dispute not that: York is the worthier.

Car. Ambitious Warwick, let thy betters speak.
War. The cardinal's not my better in the field.
Buck. All in this presence are thy betters, War

wick.

War. Warwick may live to be the best of all.
*Sal. Peace, son;--and show some reason,
Buckingham,

Why Somerset should be preferr'd in this.
*Q. Mar. Because the king, forsooth, will have
it so.

'Glo. Madam, the king is old enough himself
To give his censure: these are no women's mat

ters.

Q. Mar. If he be old enough, what need your

grace

To be protector of his excellence?

Glo. Madam, I am protector of the realm, 'And, at his pleasure, will resign my place.

Suff. Resign it then, and leave thine insolence. 'Since thou wert king, (as who is king, but

thou?)

"The commonwealth hath daily run to wreck:
The dauphin hath prevail'd beyond the seas;
*And all the peers and nobles of the realm
Have been as bondmen to thy sovereignty.
* Car. The commons hast thou rack'd; the
clergy's bags

And grumbling York; and not the least of these,
But can do more in England than the king.
*Suff. 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.
'Q. Mar. 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 her poverty:
Shall I not live to be aveng'd on her?
Contemptuous base-born callat 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.
'Suff. Madam, myself have lim'd a bush for her;

(1) Scoundrels. (2) Savings. (3) Drab, trull. (4) i, e. The complaint of Peter the armourer's man against his master.

Are lank and lean with thy extortions.

* Som. Thy sumptuous buildings, and thy wife's
attire,

Have cost a mass of public treasury.
* Buck. Thy cruelty in execution,
Upon offenders, hath exceeded law,
And left thee to the merey of the law.

* Q. Mar. 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 Gloster. The queen drops her fan.
'Give me my fan: What, minion! can you not?
[Gives the Duchess a box on the car.
'I cry you mercy, madam; Was it you?

(5) Denay is frequently used instead of deny among the old writers.

(6) Censure here means simply judgment or

opinion,