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Enter a Post.

Post. Great lords, from Ireland am I come anıain,] To signify that rebels there are up, And put the Englishmen unto the sword: Send succours, lords, and stop the rage betime, Before the wound do grow incurable: For, being green, there is great hope of help. Car. A breach,that craves a quick expedient stop! What counsel give you in this weighty cause?

York. That Somerset be sent a regent thither: "Tis meet, that lucky ruler be employ'd; Witness the fortune he hath had in France.

Som. If York, with all his far-fet policy, Had been the regent there instead of me, He never would have staid in France so long. York. No, not to lose it all, as thou hast done: I rather would have lost my life betimes, Than bring a burden of dishonour home, By staying there so long, 'till all were lost. Shew ine one scar character'd on thy skin: Men's flesh preserv'd so whole, do seldom win. 2. Mar. Nay then, this spark will prove a raging fire,

If wind and fuel be brought to feed it with :No more,good York;-sweet Somerset, bestill;Thy fortune, York, hadst thou been regent there, Might happily have prov'd far worse than his. York. What, worse than nought? nay, then a shame take all !

[shame! Som. And, in the number, thee, that wishest Car. My lord of York, try what your fortune is. The uncivil kerns of Ireland are in arms, And temper clay with blood of Englishmen : To Ireland will you lead a band of men, Collected choicely, from each county some, And try your hap against the Irishmen?

York. I will, my lord, so please his majesty. Suf. Why, our authority is his consent; And, what we do establish, he confirms: Then, noble York, take thou this task in hand. York. I am content: Provide me soldiers, lords, Whiles I take order for mine own affairs.

Suf. A charge, lord York, that I will see perform'd.

But now return we to the false duke Humphrey.

Car. No more of him; for I will deal with him, That, henceforth, he shall trouble us no more. And so break off; the day is almost spent:Lord Suffolk, you and I must talk of that event.

My brain, more busy than the labouring spider, Weaves tedious snares to trap mine enemies. Well, nobles, well; 'tis politickly done, To send me packing with an host of men: 5 I fear me, you but warm the starved snake, Who, cherish'd in your breasts, will sting your hearts.

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'Twas men I lack'd, and you will give them me: I take it kindly; yet, be well assur'd You put sharp weapons in a mad-man's hands. Whiles I in Ireland nourish a mighty band, I will stir up in England some black storm, Shall blow ten thousand souls to heaven, or helle And this fell tempest shall not cease to rage 15 Until the golden circuit on my head, Like to the glorious sun's transparent beams, Do calm the fury of this mad-bred flaw'. And, for a minister of my intent,

I have seduc'd a head-strong Kentishuman, 20 John Cade of Ashford,

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To make commotion, as full well he can,
Under the title of John Mortimer.

In Ireland have I seen this stubborn Cade
Oppose himself against a troop of kerns;
And fought so long, 'till that his thighs with darts
Were almost like a sharp-quill'd porcupine:
And, in the end being rescu'd, I have seen him
Caper upright like to a wild Morisco 2,
Shaking the bloody darts, as he his bells.
Full often, like a shag-hair'd crafty kern,
Hath he conversed with the enemy;
And undiscover'd come to me again,
And given me notice of their villainies.
This devil here shall be my substitute:
35 For that John Mortimer, which now is dead,
In face, in gait, in speech he doth resemble:
By this I shall perceive the commons' minds,
How they affect the house and claim of York.
Say, he be taken, rack'd, and tortur'd;
40I know, no pain, they can inflict upon him,
Will make him say-I mov'd him to those arms.
Say, that he thrive, (as 'tis great like he will)
Why, then from Ireland come I with my strength,
And reap the harvest which that rascal sow'd:
45 For, Humphrey being dead, as he shall be,
And Henry put apart, the next for me.

SCENE II.
An Apartment in the Palace.

[Exit.

York. My lord of Suffolk, within fourteen days, 50 Enter two or three, running over the stage, from

At Bristol I expect my soldiers;

For there I'll ship them all for Ireland.
Suf. I'll see it truly done, my lord of York.
[Exeunt all but York.

York. Now, York, or never, steel thy fearful 55
And change misdoubt to resolution: [thoughts,
Be that thou hop'st to be; or what thou art
Resign to death, it is not worth the enjoying:
Let pale-fac'd fear keep with the mean-born man,
And find no harbour in a royal heart. [thought: 60
Faster than spring-time showers,comes thought on
And not a thought, but thinks on dignity.

Flaw is a sudden violent gust of wind. that is, a Moorish dance.

the murder of duke Humphrey.

First M. Run to my lord of Suffolk; let him

know,

We have dispatch'd the duke, as he commanded.
Second M. O, that it were to do!--What have
Didst ever hear a man so penitent? [we done?
Enter Suffolk.
First M. Here comes my lord.
Suf. Now, sirs, have you dispatch'd this thing?
First M. Ay, my good lord, he's dead. [house;
Suf. Why, that's well said. Go, get you to my
I will reward you for this venturous deed.

A Moor in a military dance, now called Morris,

The

Act 3. Scene 2.]

SECOND PART OF KING HENRY VI.

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K. Henry. Go call our uncle to our presence Say, we intend to try his grace to-day, [straight: 10 If he be guilty, as 'tis published.

Suf. I'll call him presently, my noble lord.

I

[Exit. K. Henry. Lords, take your places ;-And pray you all,

Proceed no straiter 'gainst our uncle Gloster,
Than from true evidence, of good esteem,
He be approv'd in practice culpable.

2.Mar. God forbid, any malice should prevail,
That faultless may condemn a nobleman!
Pray God, he may acquit him of suspicion!
K. Henry. I thank thee: Well, these words
content me much,

Re-enter Suffolk.

Although the duke was enemy to him,

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Yet he, most christian-like, laments his death:
And for myself,-foe as he was to me,
Might liquid tears, or heart-offending groans,
Or blood-consuming sighs recall his life,

I would be blind with weeping, sick with groans,
Look pale as primrose with blood-drinking sighs,
And all to have the noble duke alive.

What know I how the world may deem of me?

For it is known, we were but hollow friends; It may be judg'd, I made the duke away: [ed, So shall my name with slander's tongue bewoundAnd princes' courts be fill'd with my reproach. This get I by his death: Ah me, unhappy! 15 To be a queen, and crown'd with infany! K. Henry. Ah, woe is me for Gloster, wretched [he is. 2. Mar. Be woe for me, more wretched than What, dost thou turn away, and hide thy face ? 20I am no loathsome leper, look on me.

How now? why look'st thou pale? why trem-25 blest thou?

Where is our uncle? what is the matter, Suffolk? Suf. Dead in his bed, my lord; Gloster is dead. 2. Mar. Marry, God forefend!

Car. God's secret judgment:-I did dream 30 to-night,

The duke was dumb, and could not speak a word. [The King swoons. 2. Mar. How fares my lord?-Help, lords! the king is dead.

Som. Rear up his body; wring him by the nose.
2. Mar. Run, go, help, help!-Oh, Henry,
ope thine eyes!

Suf. He doth revive again ;-Madam, be pa-
K. Henry. O heavenly God!

comfort!

man!

What, art thou, like the adder, waxen deaf?
Be poisonous too, and kill thy forlorn queen.
Is all thy comfort shut in Gloster's tomb?
Why, then dame Margaret was ne'er thy joy:
Erect his statue then, and worship it,
And make my image but an ale-house sign.
Was I, for this, nigh wreck'd upon the sea;
And twice by awkward wind from England's
bank

Drove back again unto my native clime?
What boded this, but well-fore-warning wind
Did seem to say,-Seek not a scorpion's nest,
Nor set no footing on this unkind shore?
What did I then, but curs'd the gentle gusts,
35 And he that loos'd them from their brazen caves:
And bid them blow towards England's blessed
Or turn our stern upon a dreadful rock? [shore,
Yet Eolus would not be a murderer,

But left that hateful office unto thee:
[tient. 40 The pretty vaulting sea refus'd to drown me;
Knowing, that thou would'st have me drown'd
on shore

2. Mar. How fares my gracious lord?
Suf. Comfort, my sovereign! gracious Henry,
[fort me?
K. Henry. What, doth my lord of Suffolk com-
Came he right now' to sing a raven's note,
Whose dismal tune bereft my vital powers;
And thinks he, that the chirping of a wren,
By crying comfort from a hollow breast,
Can chase away the first-conceived sound?
Hide not thy poison with such sugar'd words.
Lay not thy hands on me; forbear, I say;
Their touch affrights me, as a serpent's sting.
Thou baleful messenger, out of my sight!
Upon thy eye-balls murderous tyranny
Sits, in grim majesty, to fright the world.
Look not upon me, for thine eyes are wounding:-
Yet do not go away;-Come, basilisk,
And kill the innocent gazer with thy sight:
For in the shade of death I shall find joy;
In life, but double death, now Gloster's dead.
2. Mar. Why do you rate my lord of Suffolk
thus?

1 i. e. just now, even now.

With tears as salt as sea through thy unkindness:
The splitting rocks cowr'd in the sinking sands,
45 And would not dash me with their ragged sides;
Because thy flinty heart, more hard than they,
Might in thy palace perish' Margaret.
As far as I could ken thy chalky cliffs,
When from thy shore the tempest beat us back,
50I stood upon the hatches in the storm:
And when the dusky sky began to rob
My earnest-gaping sight of thy land's view,
I took a costly jewel from my neck,-
A heart it was, bound in with diamonds,--
55 And threw it towards thy land; the sea received it;
And, so, I wish'd, thy body might my heart:
And even with this, I lost fair England's view,
And bid mine eyes be packing with my heart;
And call'd them blind and dusky spectacles,
60 For losing ken of Albion's wished coast.
How often have I tempted Suffolk's tongue
(The agent of thy foul inconstancy)

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To sit and witch me, as Ascanius did,
When he to madding Dido would unfold
His father's acts, commenc'd in burning Troy?
Am I not witch'd like her? or thou not false
like him?

Ah me, I can no more! Die, Margaret!
For Henry weeps, that thou dost live so long.

Noise within. Enter Warwick, Salisbury, and
many Commons.

War. It is reported, mighty sovereign, [der'd
That good duke Humphrey traiterously is mur-
By Suffolk's and the cardinal Beaufort's means.
The commons, like an angry hive of bees,
That want their leader, scatter up and down,
And care not who they sting in his revenge,
Myself have calm'd their spleenful mutiny,
Until they hear the order of his death.

K. Henry. That he is dead, good Warwick,
'tis too true;

But how he died, God knows, not Henry:
Enter his chamber, view his breathless corpse,
And comment then upon his sudden death.
War. That I shall do, my liege:-Stay,Salisbury,
With the rude inultitude, 'till I return.

[Warwick goes in.

K. Henry. O Thou that judgest all things, stay my thoughts;

My thoughts, that labour to persuade my soul,

Which with the heart there cools, and ne'er returneth

To blush and beautify the cheek again.
But see, his face is black, and full of blood;
5 His eye-balls further out than when he liv'd,
Staring full ghastly like a strangled man:
His hair up-rear'd, his nostrils stretch'd with
struggling;

His hands abroad display'd, as one that grasp'd
10 And tugg'd for life, and was by strength subdu'd.
Look on the sheets, his hair, you see, is sticking;
Hiswellproportion'dbeardmaderoughandrugged,
Like to the summer's corn by tempest lodg'd.
It cannot be, but he was murder'd here;
15 The least of all these signs were probable.
Suf. Why, Warwick, who should do the duke

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to death?

Myself, and Beaufort, had him in protection;
And we, I hope, sir, are no murderers.

War. But both of you were vow'd duke Hum-
phrey's foes;

And you, forsooth, had the good duke to keep:
Tis like, you would not feast him like a friend;
And 'tis well seen, he found an enemy.

2. Mar. Then you, belike, suspect these no-
blemen

As guilty of duke Humphrey's timeless death. War. "Who finds the heifer dead, and bleeding fresh,

Some violent hands were laid on Humphrey's life! 30 And sees fast by a butcher with an axe,

If my suspect be false, forgive me, God;
For judgment only doth belong to thee!
Fain would I go to chafe his paly lips
With twenty thousand kisses, and to drain
Upon his face an ocean of salt tears;
To tell my love unto his dumb deaf trunk,
And with my fingers feel his hand unfeeling:
But all in vain are these mean obsequies;
And, to survey his dead and earthy image,
What were it but to make my sorrow greater?
[A bed, with Gloster's body, put forth.
War. Come hither, gracious sovereign, view
this body.

K. Henry. That is to see how deep my grave

is made:

For, with his soul, fled all my worldly solace;
For seeing him, I see my life in death'.

War. As surely as my soul intends to live
With that dread King, that took our state upon him
To free us from his Father's wrathful curse,
I do believe that violent hands were laid
Upon the life of this thrice-famed duke.

Suf. A dreadful oath, sworn with a solemn

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But will suspect, 'twas he that made the slaughter? Who finds the partridge in the puttock's nest, But may imagine how the bird was dead, Although the kite soar with unbloody'd beak? 35 Even so suspicious is this tragedy. [your knife?

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2. Mar. Are you the butcher, Suffolk ? where's
Is Beaufort term'd a kite? where are his talons?
Suf. I wear no knife, to slaughter sleeping men;
But here's a vengeful sword, rusted with ease,
That shall be scoured in his rancorous heart,
That slanders me with murder's crimson badge:-
Say, if thou dar'st, proud lord of Warwickshire,
That I am faulty in duke Humphrey's death.
[Exit Cardinal.

War. What dares not Warwick, if false Suffolk

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i. e. I see my life destroyed or endangered by his death.

[thee,

The puttock is the kite.
Quitting

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Quitting thee thereby of ten thousand shames,
And that my sovereign's presence makes me mild,
I would, false murderous coward, on thy knee
Make thee beg pardon for thy passed speech,
And say it was thy mother that thou meant'st,
That thou thyself wast born in bastardy :
And, after all this fearful homage done,
Give thee thy hire, and send thy soul to hell,
Pernicious blood-sucker of sleeping men! [blood,
Suf. Thou shalt be waking, while I shed thy
If from this presence thou dar'st go with me.
War. Away even now, or I will drag thee hence:
Unworthy though thou art, I'll cope with thee,
And do some service to duke Humphrey's ghost.
[Exeunt. 15
K. Henry. What stronger breast-plate than a
heart untainted!

Thrice is he arm'd, that hath his quarrel just;
And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel,
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.
[A noise within.

2. Mar. What noise is this?

Re-enter Suffolk and Warwick, with their weapo's drawn.

K. Henry. Why, how now, lords? your wrath-
ful weapons drawn

Here in our presence? dare you be so bold?-
Why, what tumultuous clamour have we here?
Suf. The traiterous Warwick, with the men
of Bury,

Set all upon me, mighty sovereign.

Noise of a crowd within. Enter Salisbury.
Sal. Sirs, stand apart; the king shall know
your mind.

Dread lord, the commons send you word by me,
Unless lord Suffolk straight be done to death,
Or banished fair England's territories,

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From such fell serpents as false Suffolk is;
With whose envenomed and fatal sting,
Your loving uncle, twenty times his worth,
They say, is shamefully bereft of life.
Commons [within] An answer from the king,
my lord of Salisbury.
[hinds,
Suf. 'Tis like, the commons, rude unpolish'd
Could send such message to their sovereign:
But you, my lord, were glad to be employ'd,
To shew how quaint an orator you are:
But all the honour Salisbury hath won,
Is-that he was the lord ambassador,
Sent from a sort of tinkers to the king.
Within. An answer from the king, or we will
all break in.

K.Hen.Go,Salisbury, and tell them all from me,
I thank them for their tender loving care:
And had I not been cited so by them,
Yet did I purpose as they do entreat;
20 For, sure, my thoughts do hourly prophesy
Mischance unto my state by Suffolk's means.
And therefore,-by His Majesty I swear,
Whose far unworthy deputy I am,-—

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He shall not breathe infection in this air
But three days longer, on the pain of death.
[Exit Salisbury.

2. Mar. Oh Henry, let me plead for gentle

Suffolk!

[Suffolk.
No more, I say; if thou dost plead for him,
K. Henry. Ungentle queen, to call him gentle
Thou wilt but add increase unto my wrath.
Had I but said, I would have kept my word;
But, when I swear, it is irrevocable:

If, after three days space, thou here be'st found 35 On any ground that I am ruler of,

The world shall not be ransom for thy life.-
Come, Warwick, come, good Warwick, go with

me;

I have great matters to impart to thee.

[Exeunt all but Suffolk, and the Queen. 2. Mar. Mischance, and sorrow, go along with you!

Heart's discontent, and sour affliction, Be play-fellows to keep you company! 45 There's two of you; the devil make a third! And three-fold vengeance tend upon your steps! Suf. Cease, gentic queen, these execrations; And let thy Suffolk take his heavy leave. 2. Mar. Fie, coward woman, and soft-hearted wretch!

They will by violence tear him from your palace,
And torture him with grievous ling'ring death. 40
They say, by him the good duke Humphrey died;
They say, in him they fear your highness' death;
And mere instinct of love and loyalty,-
Free from a stubborn opposite intent,
As being thought to contradict your liking,-
Makes them thus forward in his banishment.
They say, in care of your most royal person,
That, if your highness should intend to sleep,
And charge that no man should disturbyour rest,
In pain of your dislike, or pain of death;
Yet, notwithstanding such a strait edict,
Were there a serpent seen, with forked tongue,|
That slily glided towards your majesty,
It were but necessary you were wak'd;
Lest, being suffer'd in that harmful slumber,
The mortal worn' might make the sleep eternal:
And therefore do they cry, though you forbid,
That they will guard you, whe'r you will, or no,

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Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake's groan3,
55I would invent as bitter searching terms,
As curst, as harsh, and horrible to hear,
Deliver'd strongly through my fixed teeth,
With full as many signs of deadly hate,

2 i. e. a company.

1 Serpents in general are called worms. 3 The fabulous accounts of the plant called a mandrake give it an inferior degree of animal life, and relate, that when it is torn from the ground, it groans, and that, this groan being certainly fatal to him that is offering such unwelcome violence, the practice of those who gather mandrak s is to tie one end of a string to the plant, and the other to a dog, upon whom the fatal groan discharges its malignity.

As

As lean-fac'd Envy in her loathsome cave:
My tongue should stumble in mine earnest words;
Mine eyes should sparkle like the beaten flint;
My hair be fix'd on end, as one distract;
Ay, every joint should seem to curse and ban:
And even now my burden'd heart would break,|
Should I not curse them. Poison be their drink!
Gall, worse than gall, the daintiest that they taste!
Their sweetest shade, a grove of cypress trees!
Their chiefest prospect, murdering basilisks 2!
Their softest touch, as smart as lizards' stings!
Their music, frightful as the serpent's hiss!
And boding scritch-owls make the concert full!
All the foul terrors in dark-seated hell-

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Enter Vaur.

2. Mar. Whither goes Vaux so fast! what
news, I pr'ythee?

Vaux. To signify unto his majesty,
That cardinal Beaufort is at point of death:
For suddenly a grievous sickness took him,
That makes him gasp, and stare, and catch the air,
Blaspheming God, and cursing men on earth.
Sometime, he talks as if duke Humphrey's ghost
10 Were by his side; sometime, he calls the king,
And whispers to his pillow, as to him,
The secrets of his over-charged soul;
And I am sent to tell his majesty,
That even now he cries aloud for him.

2. Mar. Enough, sweet Suffolk, thou tor-15
ment'st thyself:

And these dread curses-like the sun 'gainst glass,
Or like an over-charged gun,-recoil,
And turn the force of them upon thyself.

Suf. You bade me ban ', and will you bid me
leave?

Now, by the ground that I am banish'd from,
Well could I curse away a winter's night,
Though standing naked on a mountain top,
Where biting cold would never let grass grow,
And think it but a minute spent in sport.

2. Mar. Oh, let me entreat thee cease! Give
me thy hand,

2. Mar. Go, tell this heavy message to the king. [Exit Vaux. Ah me! what is this world? what news are these? But wherefore grieve I at an hour's poor loss, Omitting Suffolk's exile, my soul's treasure? 20 Why only, Suffolk, mourn I not for thee, And with the southern clouds contend in tears; Theirs for the earth's increase, mine for my sor[coming; Now, get thee hence.-The king, thou know'st, is 25 If thou be found by me, thou art but dead.

rows?

Suf. If I depart from thee, I cannot live: And in thy sight to die, what were it else, But like a pleasant slumber in thy lap? Here could I breathe my soul into the air, 30 As mild and gentle as the cradle babe,

That I may dew it with my mournful tears;
Nor let the rain of heaven wet this place,
To wash away my woeful monuments.
Oh, could this kiss be printed in thy hand;
[Kisses his hand.
That thou might'st think upon these by the seal,
Through whom a thousand sighs are breath'd for 35
thee!

So, get thee gone, that I may know my grief;
'Tis but surmis'd whilst thou art standing by,
As one that surfeits thinking on a want.
I will repeal thee, or, be well assur'd,
Adventure to be banished myself:
And banished I am, if but from thee.
Go, speak not to me; even now be gone.—
Oh, go not yet!-Even thus two friends con-
demn'd

Embrace, and kiss, and take ten thousand leaves,
Lother a hundred times to part than die.
Yet now farewell; and farewell life with thee!

Dying with mother's dug between its lips:
Where, from thy sight, I should be raging mad
And cry out for thee to close up mine eyes,
To have thee with thy lips to stop my mouth;
So shouldst thou either turn my flying soul,
Or I should breathe it so into thy body,
And then it liv'd in sweet Elysium.
To die by thee, were but to die in jest;
From thee to die, were torture more than death;
400, let me stay, befall what may befall. [corrosive,

2. Mar. Away! though parting be a fretful It is applied to a deathful wound.

To France, sweet Suffolk: Let me hear from thee; For wheresoe'er thou art in this world's globe, 45 I'll have an Iris' that shall find thee out.

Suf. Thus is poor Suffolk ten times banished,
Once by the king, and three times thrice by thee. 50
"Tis not the land I care for, wert thou hence;
A wilderness is populous enough,
So Suffolk had thy heavenly company;
For where thou art, there is the world itself,
With every several pleasure in the world;
And where thou art not, desolation.

I can no more :-Live thou to joy thy life;
Myself no joy in nought, but that thou liv'st.

Suf. I go.

2. Mar. And take my heart with thee.
Suf. A jewel lock'd into the woful'st cask
That ever did contain a thing of worth.
Even as a splitted bark, so sunder we:
This way fall I to death.

2. Mar. This way for me. [Exeunt severally.
SCENE III.

The Cardinal's Bed-chamber.

55 Enter King Henry, Salisbury, Warwick, and others, to the Cardinal in bed.

K. Hen. How fares my lord? speak, Beaufort, to thy sovereign.

3 i. e. curse.

4

Meaning,

1 Cypress was employed in the funeral rites of the Romans, and hence is always mentioned as an ill-boding plant. 2 It has been said of the basilisk, that it had the power of destroying by a single glance of its eye.-A lizard has no sting, but is quite inoffensive. Wherefore do I grieve that Beaufort has died an hour before his time, have had a long time to live? Iris was the messenger of Juno.

who, being an old man, could not

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