GLOUCESTER    But cloaks and gowns, before this day, a many122.

  WIFE    Never, before this day, in all his life.

  GLOUCESTER    Tell me, sirrah, what’s my name?

  SIMPCOX    Alas, master, I know not.

  GLOUCESTER    What’s his name?

  SIMPCOX    I know not.

  GLOUCESTER    Nor his?

  SIMPCOX    No, indeed, master.

  GLOUCESTER    What’s thine own name?

  SIMPCOX    Saunder Simpcox, an if it please you, master.

  GLOUCESTER    Then, Saunder, sit there, the lying’st knave in

  Christendom. If thou hadst been born blind, thou might’st

  as well have known all our names as thus to name the

  several135 colours we do wear. Sight may distinguish of colours,

  but suddenly to nominate136 them all, it is impossible.— My

  lords, Saint Alban here hath done a miracle: and would ye

  not think his cunning138 to be great, that could restore this

  cripple to his legs again?

  SIMPCOX    O master, that you could!

  GLOUCESTER    My masters of St Albans, have you not beadles141 in

  your town, and things called whips?

  MAYOR    Yes, my lord, if it please your grace.

  GLOUCESTER    Then send for one presently144.

  MAYOR    Sirrah, go fetch the beadle hither straight145.

  Exit [a Townsperson]

  GLOUCESTER    Now fetch me a stool hither by and by146.— Now,

  sirrah, if you mean to save yourself from whipping, leap me

  over this stool and run away.

  SIMPCOX    Alas, master, I am not able to stand alone149: You go

  about to torture me in vain.

  Enter a Beadle with whips

  GLOUCESTER    Well, sir, we must have you find your legs.—

  Sirrah beadle, whip him till he leap over that same stool.

  BEADLE    I will, my lord.— Come on, sirrah, off with your

  doublet154 quickly.

  SIMPCOX    Alas, master, what shall I do? I am not able to stand.

  After the Beadle hath hit him once, he leaps over the stool and runs away: and they follow and cry, ‘A miracle!’

  KING HENRY VI    O God, see’st thou this, and bearest156 so long?

  QUEEN MARGARET    It made me laugh to see the villain run.

  GLOUCESTER    Follow the knave, and take this drab158 away.

  WIFE    Alas, sir, we did it for pure need.

  GLOUCESTER    Let them be whipped through every market town

  Till they come to Berwick, from whence they came.

  Exeunt [Wife, Beadle, Mayor and Townspeople]

  CARDINAL    Duke Humphrey has done a miracle today.

  SUFFOLK    True: made the lame to leap and fly away.

  GLOUCESTER    But you have done more miracles than I:

  You made in a day, my lord, whole towns165 to fly.

  Enter Buckingham

  KING HENRY VI    What tidings with our cousin Buckingham?

  BUCKINGHAM    Such as my heart doth tremble to unfold:

  A sort of naughty persons, lewdly bent168,

  Under the countenance and confederacy169

  Of Lady Eleanor, the Protector’s wife,

  The ringleader and head of all this rout171,

  Have practised172 dangerously against your state,

  Dealing with witches and with conjurers,

  Whom we have apprehended in the fact174,

  Raising up wicked spirits from under ground,

  Demanding of176 King Henry’s life and death,

  And other of your highness’ Privy Council,

  As more at large178 your grace shall understand.

  CARDINAL    And so, my Lord Protector, by this means

  Your lady is forthcoming yet180 at London.

  This news, I think, hath turned181 your weapon’s edge:

  ’Tis like, my lord, you will not keep your hour182.

  GLOUCESTER    Ambitious churchman, leave to afflict183 my heart:

  Sorrow and grief have vanquished all my powers:

  And, vanquished as I am, I yield to thee,

  Or to the meanest groom186.

  KING HENRY VI    O God, what mischiefs work the wicked ones,

  Heaping confusion188 on their own heads thereby!

  QUEEN MARGARET    Gloucester, see here the tainture189 of thy nest,

  And look190 thyself be faultless, thou wert best.

  GLOUCESTER    Madam, for myself, to heaven I do appeal,

  How I have loved my king and commonweal:

  And for my wife, I know not how it stands193:

  Sorry I am to hear what I have heard.

  Noble she is: but if she have forgot

  Honour and virtue and conversed196 with such

  As, like to pitch197, defile nobility,

  I banish her my bed and company

  And give her as a prey to law and shame,

  That hath dishonoured Gloucester’s honest name.

  KING HENRY VI    Well, for this night we will repose us here:

  Tomorrow toward London back again,

  To look into this business thoroughly

  And call these foul offenders to their answers,

  And poise the cause205 in justice’ equal scales,

  Whose beam stands sure206, whose rightful cause prevails.

  Flourish. Exeunt

  [Act 2 Scene 2]

  running scene 6

  Enter York, Salisbury and Warwick

  YORK    Now, my good lords of Salisbury and Warwick,

  Our simple supper ended, give me leave

  In this close3 walk to satisfy myself

  In craving your opinion of my title,

  Which is infallible, to England’s crown.

  SALISBURY    My lord, I long to hear it at full.

  WARWICK    Sweet York, begin: and if thy claim be good,

  The Nevilles are thy subjects to command.

  YORK    Then thus:

  Edward the Third, my lords, had seven sons:

  The first, Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales;

  The second, William of Hatfield: and the third,

  Lionel Duke of Clarence: next to whom

  Was John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster;

  The fifth was Edmund Langley, Duke of York;

  The sixth was Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester;

  William of Windsor was the seventh and last.

  Edward the Black Prince died before his father,

  And left behind him Richard19, his only son,

  Who, after Edward the Third’s death, reigned as king,

  Till Henry Bullingbrook, Duke of Lancaster,

  The eldest son and heir of John of Gaunt,

  Crowned by the name of Henry the Fourth,

  Seized on the realm, deposed the rightful king,

  Sent his poor queen to France, from whence she came,

  And him to Pomfret26: where, as all you know,

  Harmless Richard was murdered traitorously.

  WARWICK    Father, the duke hath told the truth:

  Thus got the house of Lancaster the crown.

  YORK    Which now they hold by force and not by right:

  For Richard, the first son’s heir, being dead,

  The issue32 of the next son should have reigned.

  SALISBURY    But William of Hatfield died without an heir.

  YORK    The third son, Duke of Clarence, from whose line

  I claim the crown, had issue Philippa, a daughter,

  Who married Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March.

  Edmund had issue, Roger Earl of March;

  Roger had issue, Edmund38, Anne and Eleanor.

  SALISBURY    This Edmund39, in the reign of Bullingbrook,

  As I have read, laid claim unto the crown,

  And but for Owen Glendower, had been king,

  Who kept him in captivity till he died42.

  But to the rest.

  YORK    His eldest sister, Anne,

  My mother, being heir unto the crown,

  Married Richard Earl of Cambridge, who was son

  To Edmund Langley, Edward the Third’s fifth son.

  By her I claim the kingdom: she was heir

  To Roger Earl of March, who was the son

  Of Edmund Mortimer, who married Philippe,

  Sole daughter unto Lionel Duke of Clarence.

  So, if the issue of the elder son

  Succeed before the younger, I am king.

  WARWICK    What plain proceedings54 is more plain than this?

  Henry doth claim the crown from John of Gaunt,

  The fourth son: York claims it from the third:

  Till Lionel’s issue fails57, his should not reign.

  It fails not yet, but flourishes in thee

  And in thy sons, fair slips of such a stock59.

  Then, father Salisbury, kneel we together,

  And in this private plot61 be we the first

  That shall salute our rightful sovereign

  With honour of his birthright to the crown.

  BOTH    Long live our sovereign Richard, England’s king!

  YORK    We65 thank you, lords: but I am not your king

  Till I be crowned and that66 my sword be stained

  With heart-blood of the house of Lancaster:

  And that’s not suddenly68 to be performed,

  But with advice69 and silent secrecy.

  Do you as I do in these dangerous days:

  Wink at71 the Duke of Suffolk’s insolence,

  At Beaufort’s pride, at Somerset’s ambition,

  At Buckingham, and all the crew of them,

  Till they have snared the shepherd of the flock,

  That virtuous prince, the good Duke Humphrey:

  ’Tis that they seek, and they, in seeking that,

  Shall find their deaths, if York can prophesy.

  SALISBURY    My lord, break we off: we know your mind at full.

  WARWICK    My heart assures me that the Earl of Warwick

  Shall one day make the Duke of York a king.

  YORK    And, Neville81, this I do assure myself:

  Richard shall live to make the Earl of Warwick

  The greatest man in England but83 the king.

  Exeunt

  [Act 2 Scene 3]

  running scene 7

  Sound trumpets. Enter the King [Henry VI] and state [Queen Margaret, Gloucester, Suffolk, Buckingham and Cardinal], with Guard, to banish the Duchess [Eleanor, with Margaret Jordan, Southwell, Hume and Bullingbrook, all guarded. Enter to them York, Salisbury and Warwick]

  KING HENRY VI    Stand forth, Dame Eleanor Cobham, Gloucester’s wife:

  In sight of God, and us, your guilt is great:

  Receive the sentence of the law for sins

  Such as by God’s book are adjudged to4 death.—

  You four, from hence to prison back again:

  From thence unto the place of execution:

  The witch in Smithfield7 shall be burned to ashes,

  And you three shall be strangled8 on the gallows.

  You, madam, for9 you are more nobly born,

  Despoilèd of your honour in10 your life,

  Shall, after three days’ open11 penance done,

  Live in your country here in banishment,

  With Sir John Stanley, in the Isle of Man13.

  ELEANOR    Welcome is banishment, welcome were14 my death.

  GLOUCESTER    Eleanor, the law, thou see’st, hath judged thee:

  I cannot justify16 whom the law condemns.—

  [Exeunt Eleanor and other prisoners, guarded]

  Mine eyes are full of tears, my heart of grief.

  Ah, Humphrey, this dishonour in thine age

  Will bring thy head with sorrow to the ground.

  I beseech your majesty, give me leave to go:

  Sorrow would21 solace and mine age would ease.

  KING HENRY VI    Stay22, Humphrey Duke of Gloucester: ere thou go,

  Give up thy staff23: Henry will to himself

  Protector be, and God shall be my hope,

  My stay, my guide, and lantern to my feet25:

  And go in peace, Humphrey, no less beloved

  Than when thou wert Protector to thy king.

  QUEEN MARGARET    I see no reason why a king of years28

  Should be to be29 protected like a child:

  God and King Henry govern England’s realm:

  Give up your staff, sir, and the king his31 realm.

  GLOUCESTER    My staff? Here, noble Henry, is my staff:

  As willingly do I the same resign

  As e’er thy father Henry made it mine:

  And even as willingly at thy feet I leave it

  He lays the staff at Henry’s feet

  As others would ambitiously receive it.

  Farewell, good king: when I am dead and gone,

  May honourable peace attend thy throne!

  Exit Gloucester

  QUEEN MARGARET    Why, now is Henry king, and Margaret queen,

  And Humphrey Duke of Gloucester scarce himself,

  That bears so shrewd a maim: two pulls41 at once:

  She picks up the staff

  His lady banished, and a limb lopped off.

  This staff of honour raught43, there let it stand

  She gives the staff to Henry

  Where it best fits to be, in Henry’s hand.

  SUFFOLK    Thus droops this lofty pine and hangs his sprays45:

  Thus Eleanor’s pride dies in her youngest days46.

  YORK    Lords, let him go47.— Please it your majesty,

  This is the day appointed for the combat,

  And ready are the appellant49 and defendant,

  The armourer and his man, to enter the lists50,

  So please your highness to behold the fight.

  QUEEN MARGARET    Ay, good my lord: for purposely therefore52

  Left I the court, to see this quarrel tried.

  KING HENRY VI    A God’s name, see the lists and all things fit54:

  Here let them end it, and God defend the right.

  YORK    I never saw a fellow worse bestead56,

  Or more afraid to fight, than is the appellant,

  The servant of this armourer, my lords.

  Enter at one door [Horner] the armourer and his [three] Neighbours, drinking to him so much that he is drunk: and he enters with a Drum before him and his staff with a sandbag fastened to it: and at the other door [Peter] his man, with a drum and sandbag, and Prentices drinking to him

  FIRST NEIGHBOUR    Here, neighbour Horner, I drink to you in

  a cup of sack60: and fear not, neighbour, you shall do well

  enough.

  SECOND NEIGHBOUR    And here, neighbour, here’s a cup of

  charneco63.

  THIRD NEIGHBOUR    And here’s a pot of good double64 beer,

  neighbour: drink, and fear not your man.

  HORNER    Let it come, i’faith, and I’ll pledge you all, and a fig66

  Horner drinks with them

  for Peter!

  FIRST PRENTICE    Here, Peter, I drink to thee, and be not afraid.

  SECOND PRENTICE    Be merry, Peter, and fear not thy master: fight

  Peter rejects their offers of drinks

  for credit of the prentices.

  PETER    I thank you all: drink, and pray for me,

  I pray you, for I think I have taken my last draught in this

  world. Here, Robin, an if I die, I give thee my apron: and, Will,

  thou shalt have my hammer: and here, Tom, take all the

  money that I have. O Lord bless me, I pray God, for I am never

  able to deal with my master: he hath learnt so much fence76

  already.

  SALISBURY    Come, leave your drinking, and fall to blows. Sirrah,

  what’s thy name?

  PETER    Peter, forsooth.

  SALISBURY    Peter! What more?

  PETER    Thump.

  SALISBURY    Thump? Then see thou thump thy master well.

  HORNER    Masters, I am come hither, as it were, upon my

  man’s instigation, to prove him a knave and myself an

  honest man: and touching the Duke of York, I will take my86

  death I never meant him any ill, nor the king, nor the queen:

  and therefore, Peter, have at thee with a downright88 blow.

  YORK    Dispatch: this knave’s tongue begins to double89.

  Sound, trumpets, alarum90 to the combatants!

  [Alarum.] They fight, and Peter strikes him [Horner] down