Henry vi part 2, p.15
Henry VI, Part 2,
p.15
That shall I do, my liege.—Stay, Salisbury,
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With the rude multitude till I return.
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Commons exit through another.>
KING HENRY
O Thou that judgest all things, stay my thoughts,
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My thoughts that labor to persuade my soul
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Some violent hands were laid on Humphrey’s life.
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If my suspect be false, forgive me, God,
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For judgment only doth belong to Thee.
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Fain would I go to chafe his paly lips
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With twenty thousand kisses, and to drain
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Upon his face an ocean of salt tears,
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To tell my love unto his dumb deaf trunk
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And with my fingers feel his hand unfeeling;
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But all in vain are these mean obsequies.
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And to survey his dead and earthy image,
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What were it but to make my sorrow greater?
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Bed put forth,
Enter Warwick.>
WARWICK
Come hither, gracious sovereign. View this body.
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KING HENRY
That is to see how deep my grave is made,
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For with his soul fled all my worldly solace;
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For seeing him, I see my life in death.
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WARWICK
As surely as my soul intends to live
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With that dread King that took our state upon Him
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To free us from His Father’s wrathful curse,
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I do believe that violent hands were laid
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Upon the life of this thrice-famèd duke.
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SUFFOLK
A dreadful oath, sworn with a solemn tongue!
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What instance gives Lord Warwick for his vow?
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WARWICK
See how the blood is settled in his face.
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Oft have I seen a timely-parted ghost,
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Of ashy semblance, meager, pale, and bloodless,
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Being all descended to the laboring heart,
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Who, in the conflict that it holds with death,
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Attracts the same for aidance ’gainst the enemy,
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Which with the heart there cools and ne’er
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returneth
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To blush and beautify the cheek again.
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But see, his face is black and full of blood;
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His eyeballs further out than when he lived,
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Staring full ghastly, like a strangled man;
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His hair upreared, his nostrils stretched with
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struggling;
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His hands abroad displayed, as one that grasped
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And tugged for life and was by strength subdued.
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Look, on the sheets his hair, you see, is sticking;
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His well-proportioned beard made rough and
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rugged,
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Like to the summer’s corn by tempest lodged.
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It cannot be but he was murdered here.
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The least of all these signs were probable.
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SUFFOLK
Why, Warwick, who should do the Duke to death?
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Myself and Beaufort had him in protection,
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And we, I hope, sir, are no murderers.
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WARWICK
But both of you were vowed Duke Humphrey’s foes,
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to keep.
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’Tis like you would not feast him like a friend,
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And ’tis well seen he found an enemy.
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QUEEN MARGARET
Then you, belike, suspect these noblemen
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As guilty of Duke Humphrey’s timeless death.
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WARWICK
Who finds the heifer dead and bleeding fresh,
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And sees fast by a butcher with an ax,
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But will suspect ’twas he that made the slaughter?
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Who finds the partridge in the puttock’s nest
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But may imagine how the bird was dead,
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Although the kite soar with unbloodied beak?
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Even so suspicious is this tragedy.
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QUEEN MARGARET
Are you the butcher, Suffolk? Where’s your knife?
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Is Beaufort termed a kite? Where are his talons?
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SUFFOLK
I wear no knife to slaughter sleeping men,
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But here’s a vengeful sword, rusted with ease,
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That shall be scoured in his rancorous heart
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That slanders me with murder’s crimson badge.—
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Say, if thou dar’st, proud lord of Warwickshire,
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That I am faulty in Duke Humphrey’s death.
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WARWICK
What dares not Warwick, if false Suffolk dare him?
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QUEEN MARGARET
He dares not calm his contumelious spirit
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Nor cease to be an arrogant controller,
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Though Suffolk dare him twenty thousand times.
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WARWICK
Madam, be still—with reverence may I say—
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For every word you speak in his behalf
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Is slander to your royal dignity.
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SUFFOLK
Blunt-witted lord, ignoble in demeanor!
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If ever lady wronged her lord so much,
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Thy mother took into her blameful bed
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Some stern untutored churl, and noble stock
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Was graft with crab-tree slip, whose fruit thou art
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And never of the Nevilles’ noble race.
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WARWICK
But that the guilt of murder bucklers thee
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And I should rob the deathsman of his fee,
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Quitting thee thereby of ten thousand shames,
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And that my sovereign’s presence makes me mild,
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I would, false murd’rous coward, on thy knee
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Make thee beg pardon for thy passèd speech
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And say it was thy mother that thou meant’st,
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That thou thyself wast born in bastardy;
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And after all this fearful homage done,
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Give thee thy hire and send thy soul to hell,
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Pernicious bloodsucker of sleeping men!
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SUFFOLK
Thou shalt be waking while I shed thy blood,
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If from this presence thou dar’st go with me.
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WARWICK
Away even now, or I will drag thee hence!
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Unworthy though thou art, I’ll cope with thee
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And do some service to Duke Humphrey’s ghost.
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KING HENRY
What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted?
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Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just,
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And he but naked, though locked up in steel,
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Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.
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A noise within.
QUEEN MARGARET What noise is this?
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Enter Suffolk and Warwick, with their weapons drawn.
KING HENRY
Why, how now, lords? Your wrathful weapons
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drawn
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Here in our presence? Dare you be so bold?
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Why, what tumultuous clamor have we here?
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SUFFOLK
The trait’rous Warwick, with the men of Bury,
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Set all upon me, mighty sovereign.
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Enter Salisbury.
SALISBURY,
Sirs, stand apart. The King shall know your mind.—
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Dread lord, the Commons send you word by me,
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Unless Lord Suffolk straight be done to death
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Or banishèd fair England’s territories,
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They will by violence tear him from your palace
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And torture him with grievous ling’ring death.
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They say, by him the good duke Humphrey died;
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They say, in him they fear your Highness’ death;
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And mere instinct of love and loyalty,
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Free from a stubborn opposite intent,
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As being thought to contradict your liking,
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Makes them thus forward in his banishment.
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They say, in care of your most royal person,
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That if your Highness should intend to sleep,
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And charge that no man should disturb your rest,
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In pain of your dislike or pain of death,
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Yet, notwithstanding such a strait edict,
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Were there a serpent seen with forkèd tongue
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That slyly glided towards your Majesty,
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It were but necessary you were waked,
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Lest, being suffered in that harmful slumber,
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The mortal worm might make the sleep eternal.
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And therefore do they cry, though you forbid,
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That they will guard you, whe’er you will or no,
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From such fell serpents as false Suffolk is,
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With whose envenomèd and fatal sting
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Your loving uncle, twenty times his worth,
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They say, is shamefully bereft of life.
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COMMONS, within
An answer from the King, my lord of Salisbury!
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SUFFOLK
’Tis like the Commons, rude unpolished hinds,
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Could send such message to their sovereign!
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employed,
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To show how quaint an orator you are.
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But all the honor Salisbury hath won
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Is that he was the lord ambassador
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Sent from a sort of tinkers to the King.
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An answer from the King, or we will all break in.
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KING HENRY
Go, Salisbury, and tell them all from me,
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I thank them for their tender loving care;
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And, had I not been cited so by them,
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Yet did I purpose as they do entreat.
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For, sure, my thoughts do hourly prophesy
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Mischance unto my state by Suffolk’s means.
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And therefore, by His Majesty I swear,
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Whose far unworthy deputy I am,
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He shall not breathe infection in this air
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But three days longer, on the pain of death.
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QUEEN MARGARET
O Henry, let me plead for gentle Suffolk!
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KING HENRY
Ungentle queen to call him gentle Suffolk!
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No more, I say. If thou dost plead for him,
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Thou wilt but add increase unto my wrath.
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Had I but said, I would have kept my word;
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But when I swear, it is irrevocable.
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be’st found
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On any ground that I am ruler of,
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The world shall not be ransom for thy life.—
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Come, Warwick, come, good Warwick, go with me.
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I have great matters to impart to thee.
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QUEEN MARGARET,
Warwick>
Mischance and sorrow go along with you!
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Heart’s discontent and sour affliction
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Be playfellows to keep you company!
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There’s two of you; the devil make a third,
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And threefold vengeance tend upon your steps!
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SUFFOLK
Cease, gentle queen, these execrations,
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And let thy Suffolk take his heavy leave.
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QUEEN MARGARET
Fie, coward woman and soft-hearted wretch!
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Hast thou not spirit to curse thine
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SUFFOLK
A plague upon them! Wherefore should I curse
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them?
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I would invent as bitter searching terms,
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As curst, as harsh, and horrible to hear,
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Delivered strongly through my fixèd teeth,
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With full as many signs of deadly hate,
