Duch. Yes, good my lord, I'll follow presently.
[Exeunt GLOSTER and Messenger.

Follow I must, I cannot go before,

* While Gloster bears this base and humble mind.
* Were I a man, a duke, and next of blood,

* I would remove these tedious stumbling-blocks,
* And smooth my way upon their headless necks;
*And, being a woman, I will not be slack

* To play my part in fortune's pageant.

Where are you there? sir John!1 Nay, fear not, man, 'We are alone; here's none but thee, and I.

Enter HUME.

Hume. Jesu preserve your royal majesty!

• Duch. What say'st thou, majesty! I am but grace. • Hume. But, by the grace of God, and Hume's advice, 'Your grace's title shall be multiplied.

Duch. What say'st thou, man? Hast thou as yet

conferred

' With Margery Jourdain, the cunning witch;2

' And Roger Bolingbroke, the conjurer?

And will they undertake to do me good?

Hume. This they have promised, to show your
highness

A spirit raised from depth of under ground,
That shall make answer to such questions,

'As by your grace shall be propounded him.

Duch. It is enough; I'll think upon the questions. • When from Saint Albans we do make return,

'We'll see these things effected to the full.

1 A title frequently bestowed on the clergy. See the first note on the Merry Wives of Windsor.

2 It appears from Rymer's Fœdera, vol. x. p. 505, that in the tenth year of Henry VI., Margery Jourdemayn, John Virley clerk, and friar John Ashwell, were, on the ninth of May, brought from Windsor by the constable of the castle, to which they had been committed for sorcery, before the council at Westminster, and afterwards committed to the custody of the lord chancellor. It was ordered that whenever the said Virley and Ashwell should find security for their good behavior, they should be set at liberty, and in like manner that Jourdemayn should be discharged on her husband's finding security. This woman was afterwards burned in Smithfield, as stated in the play, and also in the Chronicles.

Here, Hume, take this reward; make merry, man, • With thy confederates in this weighty cause.

[Exit Duchess.

* Hume. Hume must make merry with the duchess'

gold;

Marry, and shall. But how now, sir John Hume? Seal up your lips, and give no words but-mum!

• The business asketh silent secrecy.

*Dame Eleanor gives gold, to bring the witch;
* Gold cannot come amiss, were she a devil.
'Yet have I gold, flies from another coast:

6

I dare not say, from the rich cardinal,

And from the great and new-made duke of Suffolk;

• Yet I do find it so; for, to be plain,

They, knowing dame Eleanor's aspiring humor,

• Have hired me to undermine the duchess,

‘And buzz these conjurations in her brain.
*They say, A crafty knave does need no broker;
* Yet am I Suffolk and the cardinal's broker.
* Hume, if you take not heed, you shall go near
*To call them both-a pair of crafty knaves.
*Well, so it stands; and thus, I fear, at last,
* Hume's knavery will be the duchess' wreck;
* And her attainture will be Humphrey's fall.
*Sort how it will,' I shall have gold for all.

SCENE III. The same.

[Exit.

A Room in the Palace.

Enter PETER, and others, with petitions.

1 Pet. My masters, let's stand close; my lord protector will come this way by and by, and then we 'may deliver our supplications in the quill.2

2 Pet. Marry, the Lord protect him, for he's a ' good man! Jesu bless him!

1 Let the issue be what it will.

2 There have been some strange conjectures in explanation of this phrase, in the quill. It appears to be nothing more than an intention to mark the vulgar pronunciation of "in the coil," i. e. in the bustle. This word is spelled in the old dictionaries quoil, and was no doubt often pronounced by ignorant persons quile, or quill.

Enter SUFFOLK and QUEEN MARGARET.

*1 Pet. Here 'a comes, methinks, and the queen * with him. I'll be the first, sure.

'2 Pet. Come back, fool; this is the duke of Suf'folk, and not my lord protector.

6.

Suff. How now, fellow? wouldst any thing with

• me?

' 1 Pet. I pray, my lord, pardon me! I took ye for my lord protector.

6

Q. Mar. [Reading the superscription.] To my lord protector! Are your supplications to his lordship? 'Let me see them. What is thine?

6

1 Pet. Mine is, an't please your grace, against John Goodman, my lord cardinal's man, for keeping my house, and lands, and wife and all, from me.

Suff. Thy wife too? That is some wrong indeed. -What's yours?-What's here? [Reads.] Against the duke of Suffolk, for inclosing the commons of Melford. -How now, sir knave?

2 Pet. Alas, sir, I am but a poor petitioner of our whole township.

Peter. [Presenting his petition.] Against my master, Thomas Horner, for saying, that the duke of York was rightful heir to the crown.

6

'Q. Mar. What say'st thou? Did the duke of York say, he was rightful heir to the crown?

Peter. That my master was? No, forsooth: my 'master said, that he was; and that the king was an 'usurper.1

Suff. Who is there? [Enter Servants.]-Take this fellow in, and send for his master with a pursuivant presently.—We'll hear more of your matter before the [Exeunt Servants, with Peter. · Q. Mar. And as for you, that love to be protected • Under the wings of our protector's grace,

king.

6

Begin your suits anew, and sue to him.

[Tears the petition.

Away, base cullions!-Suffolk, let them go.

* All. Come, let's be gone. [Exeunt Petitioners. * Q. Mar. My lord of Suffolk, say, is this the guise, *Is this the fashion in the court of England? *Is this the government of Britain's isle, * And this the royalty of Albion's king? * What, shall king Henry be a pupil still, * Under the surly Gloster's governance? * Am I a queen in title and in style, * And must be made a subject to a duke? 'I tell thee, Poole, when in the city Tours • Thou rann'st a tilt in honor of my love, ' And stol'st away the ladies' hearts of France, 'I thought king Henry had resembled thee, In courage, courtship, and proportion:

• But all his mind is bent to holiness,
*To number. Ave-Maries on his beads;

* His champions are-the prophets and apostles,
* His weapons, holy saws of sacred writ;
*His study is his tilt-yard, and his loves
* Are brazen images of canonized saints.
*I would the college of cardinals

*Would choose him pope, and carry him to Rome,
* And set the triple crown upon his head;

*That were a state fit for his holiness.

6

Suff. Madam, be patient; as I was cause 'Your highness came to England, so will I

In England work your grace's full content.

* Q. Mar. Beside the haught protector, have we Beaufort,

* The imperious churchman; Somerset, Buckinghamı, * And grumbling York; and not the least of these, *But can do more in England than the king.

*Suff. And he of these, that can do most of all, * Cannot do more in England than the Nevils.

* Salisbury and Warwick are no simple peers.

6

• Q. Mar. Not all these lords do vex me half so much,

As that proud dame, the lord protector's wife.

She sweeps it through the court with troops of ladies, 'More like an empress than duke Humphrey's wife. Strangers in court do take her for the queen;

* She bears a duke's revénues on her back.
* And in her heart she scorns her poverty.
* Shall I not live to be avenged on her?
*Contemptuous, base-born callat as she is,
'She vaunted 'mongst her minions t' other day,
The very train of her worst wearing-gown
Was better worth than all my father's lands,

* Till Suffolk gave two dukedoms for his daughter.

Suff. Madam, myself have limed a bush for her;1

* And placed a quire of such enticing birds,

* That she will light to listen to the lays,
*And never mount to trouble you again.
*So, let her rest; and, madam, list to me;
*For I am bold to counsel you in this.

* Although we fancy not the cardinal,

* Yet must we join with him, and with the lords, *Till we have brought duke Humphrey in disgrace. *As for the duke of York, this late complaint

* Will make but little for his benefit.

*

So, one by one, we'll weed them all at last, * And you yourself shall steer the happy helm.

Enter KING HENRY, YORK, and SOMERSET, conversing with him; DUKE and DUCHESS of GLOSTER, CARDINAL BEAUFORT, BUCKINGHAM, SALISBURY, and WARWICK.

K. Hen. For my part, noble lords, I care not which Or Somerset, or York, all's one to me.

York. If York have ill demeaned himself in France, Then let him be denayed the regentship. Som. If Somerset be unworthy of the place,

Let York be.regent; I will yield to him.

1 In the original play :

"I have set limetwigs that will entangle them."

2 Denay is frequently used instead of deny among the old writers.

;