My lord of Suffolk,- Buckingham,—and York,
Reprove my allegation, if you can;
Or else conclude my words effectual.
Suff. 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,
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,
Did instigate the bedlam, brain-sick 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 harbors treason.
The fox barks not when he would steal the lamb.
No, no, my sovereign; Gloster is a man
Unsounded yet, and full of deep deceit.
Car. Did he not, contrary to form of law,
Devise strange deaths for small offences done?
York. And did he not, in his protectorship,
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.
Buck. Tut! these are petty faults to faults unknown,
Which time will bring to light in smooth duke Humphrey.
K. Hen. 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 Gloster is as innocent
From meaning treason to our royal person,
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.
Q. Mar. Ah, what's more dangerous than this fond affiance!
Seems he a dove? his feathers are but borrowed,
For he's disposed as the hateful raven.
Is he a lamb? his skin is surely lent him,
For he's inclined as are the ravenous wolves.
Who cannot steal a shape, that means deceit ?
Take heed, my lord; the welfare of us all
Hangs on the cutting short that fraudful man.
Som. All health unto my gracious sovereign!
K. Hen. Welcome, lord Somerset. What news from
Som. That all your interest in those territories
Is utterly bereft you; all is lost.
K. Hen. Cold news, lord Somerset; but God's will be done! York. 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;
But I will remedy this gear ere long,
Or sell my title for a glorious grave.
Glo. All happiness unto my lord the king! Pardon, my liege, that I have staid so long.
Suff. Nay, Gloster, know, that thou art come too soon, Unless thou wert more loyal than thou art.
I do arrest thee of high treason here.
Glo. Well, Suffolk, yet thou shalt not see me blush, Nor change my countenance for this arrest; A heart unspotted is not easily daunted. 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;
By means whereof, his highness hath lost France.
Glo. Is it but thought so? What are they that think it?
I never robbed the soldiers of their pay,
Nor never had one penny bribe from France.
So help me God, as I have watched the night,
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,
Because I would not tax the needy commons,
Have I dispursed to the garrisons,
And never asked for restitution.
Car. It serves you well, my lord, to say so much.
Glo. I say no more than truth, so help me God!
York. In your protectorship you did devise
Strange tortures for offenders, never heard of,
That England was defamed by tyranny.
Glo. Why, 'tis well khown, that whiles I was protector,
Pity was all the fault that was in me;
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 cóndign punishment:
Murder, indeed, that bloody sin, I tortured
Above the felon, or what trespass else.
Suff. My lord, these faults are easy, quickly answered:
But mightier crimes are laid unto your charge,
Whereof you cannot easily purge yourself.
I do arrest you in his highness' name;
And here commit you to my lord cardinal
To keep, until your further time of trial.
K. Hen. My lord of Gloster, 'tis my special hope,
That you will clear yourself from all suspects;
My conscience tells me you are innocent.
Glo. Ah, gracious lord, these days are dangerous! Virtue is choked with foul ambition,
And charity chased hence by rancor's hand;
Foul subornation is predominant,
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;
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;
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;
And you, my sovereign lady, with the rest,
Causeless have laid disgraces on my head;
And, with your best endeavor, have stirred up
My liefest liege to be mine enemy:
Ay, all of you have laid your heads together;
Myself had notice of your conventicles;
And all to make away my guiltless life.
I shall not want false witness to condemn me,
Nor store of treasons to augment my guilt;
The ancient proverb will be well affected,-
A staff is quickly found to beat a dog.
Car. My liege, his railing is intolerable;
If those that care to keep your royal person
From treason's secret knife, and traitors' rage,
Be thus upbraided, chid, and rated at,
And the offender granted scope of speech,
"Twill make them cool in zeal unto your grace.
Suff. Hath he not twit our sovereign lady here,
With ignominious words, though clerkly couched,
As if she had suborned some to swear
False allegations to o'erthrow his state?
Q. Mar. But I can give the loser leave to chide.
Glo. Far truer spoke than meant; I lose indeed;
Beshrew the winners, for they played me false !
And well such losers may have leave to speak.
Buck. He'll wrest the sense, and hold us here all day.Lord cardinal, he is your prisoner.
Car. Sirs, take away the duke, and guard him sure. Glo. Ah, thus king Henry throws away his crutch, Before his legs be firm to bear his body;
Thus is the shepherd beaten from thy side,
And wolves are gnarling who shall gnaw thee first.
Ah, that my fear were false! ah, that it were!
For, good king Henry, thy decay I fear.
[Exeunt Attendants, with GLOSTER. K. Hen. My lords, what to your wisdoms seemeth best, Do, or undo, as if ourself were here.
Q. Mar. What, will your highness leave the parliament ? K. Hen. Ay, Margaret; my heart is drowned with grief, Whose flood begins to flow within mine eyes;
My body round engirt with misery;
For what's more miserable than discontent? -
Ah, uncle Humphrey in thy face I see
The map of honor, truth, and loyalty!
And yet, good Humphrey, is the hour to come,
That e'er I proved thee false, or feared thy faith.
What lowering star now envies thy estate,
That these great lords, and Margaret our queen,
Do seek subversion of thy harmless life?
Thou never didst them wrong, nor no man wrong;
And as the butcher takes away the calf,
And binds the wretch, and beats it when it strays,
Bearing it to the bloody slaughter-house,
Even so, remorseless, have they borne him hence.
And as the dam runs lowing up and down,
Looking the way her harmless young one went,
And can do nought but wail her darling's loss,
Even so myself bewails good Gloster's case,
With sad, unhelpful tears; and with dimmed eyes
Look after him, and cannot do him good;
So mighty are his vowed enemies.
His fortunes I will weep; and, 'twixt each groan,
Say-Who's a traitor, Gloster he is none.
Q. Mar. Free lords; cold snow melts with the sun's hot beams. Henry my lord is cold in great affairs,
Too full of foolish pity; and Gloster's show
Beguiles him, as the mournful crocodile
With sorrow snares relenting passengers;
Or as the snake, rolled in a flowering bank,
With shining, checkered slough, doth sting a child,
That, for the beauty, thinks it excellent.
Believe me, lords, were none more wise than I,
(And yet, herein, I judge mine own wit good,)
This Gloster should be quickly rid the world,
To rid us from the fear we have of him.
Car. That he should die, is worthy policy;
But yet we want a color for his death:
'Tis meet he be condemned by course of law.
Suff. But, in my mind, that were no policy;
The king will labor still to save his life;
The commons haply rise to save his life;
And yet we have but trivial argument,
More than mistrust, that shows him worthy death.
York. So that, by this, you would not have him die.
Suff. Ah, York, no man alive so fain as I.
York. 'Tis York that hath more reason for his death.But, my lord cardinal, and you, my lord of Suffolk,Say as you think, and speak it from your souls,— Wer't not all one, an empty eagle were set
To guard the chicken from a hungry kite,
As place duke Humphrey for the king's protector?
Q. Mar. So the poor chicken should be sure of death.
Suff. Madam, 'tis true; and wer't not madness, then,
To make the fox surveyor of the fold?
Who being accused a crafty murderer,
His guilt should be but idly posted over,
Because his purpose is not executed.
No; let him die, in that he is a fox,
By nature proved an enemy to the flock,
Before his chaps be stained with crimson blood;
As Humphrey, proved by reasons, to my liege.
And do not stand on quillets, how to slay him:
Be it by gins, by snares, by subtlety,
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