Henry vi part 2, p.6
Henry VI, Part 2,
p.6
54
father—
55
KING HENRY
Uncle, how now?
56
GLOUCESTER Pardon me, gracious lord.
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Some sudden qualm hath struck me at the heart
58
And dimmed mine eyes, that I can read no further.
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KING HENRY
Uncle of Winchester, I pray read on.
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CARDINAL
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ther agreed between them that the
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Anjou and Maine shall be released and delivered to
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the King her father, and she sent over of the King of
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England’s own proper cost and charges, without
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having any dowry.
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KING HENRY
They please us well.—Lord Marquess, kneel down.
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We here create thee the first Duke of Suffolk
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And girt thee with the sword.
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of York,
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We here discharge your Grace from being regent
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I’ th’ parts of France till term of eighteen months
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Be full expired.—Thanks, Uncle Winchester,
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Gloucester, York, Buckingham, Somerset,
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Salisbury, and Warwick;
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We thank you all for this great favor done
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In entertainment to my princely queen.
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Come, let us in, and with all speed provide
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To see her coronation be performed.
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King, Queen, and Suffolk exit.
The rest remain.
GLOUCESTER
Brave peers of England, pillars of the state,
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To you Duke Humphrey must unload his grief,
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Your grief, the common grief of all the land.
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What, did my brother Henry spend his youth,
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His valor, coin, and people in the wars?
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Did he so often lodge in open field,
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In winter’s cold and summer’s parching heat,
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To conquer France, his true inheritance?
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And did my brother Bedford toil his wits
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To keep by policy what Henry got?
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Have you yourselves, Somerset, Buckingham,
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Brave York, Salisbury, and victorious Warwick,
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Received deep scars in France and Normandy?
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Or hath mine uncle Beaufort and myself,
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With all the learnèd council of the realm,
94
Studied so long, sat in the Council House,
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Early and late, debating to and fro
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How France and Frenchmen might be kept in awe,
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And
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Crowned in Paris in despite of foes?
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And shall these labors and these honors die?
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Shall Henry’s conquest, Bedford’s vigilance,
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Your deeds of war, and all our counsel die?
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O peers of England, shameful is this league,
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Fatal this marriage, cancelling your fame,
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Blotting your names from books of memory,
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Razing the characters of your renown,
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Defacing monuments of conquered France,
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Undoing all, as all had never been!
108
CARDINAL
Nephew, what means this passionate discourse,
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This peroration with such circumstance?
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For France, ’tis ours, and we will keep it still.
111
GLOUCESTER
Ay, uncle, we will keep it if we can,
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But now it is impossible we should.
113
Suffolk, the new-made duke that rules the roast,
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Hath given the duchy of Anjou and Maine
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Unto the poor King Reignier, whose large style
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Agrees not with the leanness of his purse.
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SALISBURY
Now, by the death of Him that died for all,
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These counties were the keys of Normandy.
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But wherefore weeps Warwick, my valiant son?
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WARWICK
For grief that they are past recovery;
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For, were there hope to conquer them again,
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My sword should shed hot blood, mine eyes no
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tears.
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Anjou and Maine? Myself did win them both!
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Those provinces these arms of mine did conquer.
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And are the cities that I got with wounds
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Delivered up again with peaceful words?
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Mort Dieu!
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YORK
For Suffolk’s duke, may he be suffocate
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That dims the honor of this warlike isle!
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France should have torn and rent my very heart
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Before I would have yielded to this league.
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I never read but England’s kings have had
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Large sums of gold and dowries with their wives;
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And our King Henry gives away his own
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To match with her that brings no vantages.
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GLOUCESTER
A proper jest, and never heard before,
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That Suffolk should demand a whole fifteenth
139
For costs and charges in transporting her!
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She should have stayed in France and starved in
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France
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Before—
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CARDINAL
My lord of Gloucester, now you grow too hot.
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It was the pleasure of my lord the King.
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GLOUCESTER
My lord of Winchester, I know your mind.
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’Tis not my speeches that you do mislike,
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But ’tis my presence that doth trouble you.
148
Rancor will out. Proud prelate, in thy face
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I see thy fury. If I longer stay,
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We shall begin our ancient bickerings.—
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Lordings, farewell; and say, when I am gone,
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I prophesied France will be lost ere long.
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Gloucester exits.
CARDINAL
So, there goes our Protector in a rage.
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’Tis known to you he is mine enemy,
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Nay, more, an enemy unto you all,
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And no great friend, I fear me, to the King.
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Consider, lords, he is the next of blood
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And heir apparent to the English crown.
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Had Henry got an empire by his marriage,
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And all the wealthy kingdoms of the West,
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There’s reason he should be displeased at it.
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Look to it, lords. Let not his smoothing words
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Bewitch your hearts; be wise and circumspect.
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What though the common people favor him,
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Calling him “Humphrey, the good Duke of
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Gloucester,”
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Clapping their hands and crying with loud voice
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“Jesu maintain your royal Excellence!”
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With “God preserve the good Duke Humphrey!”
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I fear me, lords, for all this flattering gloss,
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He will be found a dangerous Protector.
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BUCKINGHAM
Why should he, then, protect our sovereign,
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He being of age to govern of himself?—
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Cousin of Somerset, join you with me,
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And all together, with the Duke of Suffolk,
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We’ll quickly hoise Duke Humphrey from his seat.
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CARDINAL
This weighty business will not brook delay.
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I’ll to the Duke of Suffolk presently.
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Cardinal exits.
SOMERSET
Cousin of Buckingham, though Humphrey’s pride
180
And greatness of his place be grief to us,
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Yet let us watch the haughty cardinal.
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His insolence is more intolerable
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Than all the princes’ in the land besides.
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If Gloucester be displaced, he’ll be Protector.
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BUCKINGHAM
Or thou or I, Somerset, will be
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Despite Duke Humphrey or the Cardinal.
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Buckingham and Somerset exit.
SALISBURY
Pride went before; Ambition follows him.
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While these do labor for their own preferment,
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Behooves it us to labor for the realm.
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I never saw but Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester,
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Did bear him like a noble gentleman.
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Oft have I seen the haughty cardinal,
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More like a soldier than a man o’ th’ Church,
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As stout and proud as he were lord of all,
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Swear like a ruffian and demean himself
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Unlike the ruler of a commonweal.—
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Warwick, my son, the comfort of my age,
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Thy deeds, thy plainness, and thy housekeeping
199
Hath won the greatest favor of the Commons,
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Excepting none but good Duke Humphrey.—
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And, brother York, thy acts in Ireland,
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In bringing them to civil discipline,
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Thy late exploits done in the heart of France,
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When thou wert regent for our sovereign,
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Have made thee feared and honored of the people.
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Join we together for the public good
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In what we can to bridle and suppress
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The pride of Suffolk and the Cardinal,
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With Somerset’s and Buckingham’s ambition;
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And, as we may, cherish Duke Humphrey’s deeds
211
While they do tend the profit of the land.
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WARWICK
So God help Warwick, as he loves the land
213
And common profit of his country!
214
YORK
And so says York—
