Glo. Brave Peers of England, pillars of the state,
To you Duke Humphrey must unload his grief,
Your grief, the common grief of all the land.
What did my brother Henry spend his youth,
His valour, coin, and people in the wars?
Did he so often lodge in open field,

In winter's cold, and summer's parching heat,
To conquer France, his true inheritance?
And did my brother Bedford toil his wits,
To keep by policy what Henry got?

Have you yourselves, Somerset, Buckingham,
Brave York, Salisbury, and victorious Warwick,
Receiv'd deep scars in France and Normandy?
Or hath mine uncle Beaufort, and myself,

7 With all the learned council of the realm, Study'd so long, sat in the council - house, Early and late, debating to and fro

How France and Frenchmen might be kept in awe ?

And hath his Highness in his infancy

Been crown'd in Paris, in despite of foes; And shall these labours, and these honours, die? Shali Henry's conquest, Bedford's vigilance, Your deeds of war, and all our counsel, die? O Peers of England, shameful is this league! Fatal this marriage! cancelling your fame; Blotting your names from books of memory; Razing the characters of your renown; 'Defacing monuments of conquer'd France; Undoing all, as all had never been!

Car. Nephew, what means this passionate discourse?

This peroration with such circumstance? For France, 'tis ours; and we will keep it still. Glo. Ay, uncle, we will keep it, if we can; *Rut now it is impossible we should:

Suffolk, the new-made Duke that rules the roast, Hath given the dnchies of Anjou and Maine

Unto the poor King Reignier, whose large style * Agrees not with the leanness of his purse.

*

Sal. Now, by the death of him that died for all,

These counties were the keys of Normandy: But wherefore wee Warwick, my valiant son? War. For grief that they are past recovery: For, were there hope to conquer them again, My sword should shed hot blood, mine eyes

no tears.

Anjou and Maine! myself did win them both;
Those provinces these arms of mine did

conquer:

And are the cities, that I got with wounds,
Deliver'd up again with peaceful words?
Mort Dieu!

* York, For Suffolk's Duke

suffocate,

may he be

That dims the honour of this warlike isle!
France should have torn and rent my very heart,
Before I would have yielded to this league.

I never read but England's Kings have had
Large sums of gold, and dowries, with their
wives:

And our King Henry gives away his own, To match with her that brings no vantages. * Glo. A proper jest, and never heard before, That Suffolk should demand a whole fifteenth, For costs and charges in transporting her! She should have staid in France, and starv'd in France,

* Before

Car. My Lord of Gloster, now you grow too hot; was the pleasure of my lord the King,

Glo. My Lord of Winchester, I know your
mind;

'Tis not my speeches that you do mislike.
But 'tis my presence that doth trouble you,
Rancour will out: Proud Prelate, in thy face
I see thy fury: if I, longer stay,,

We shall begin our ancient bickerings,
Lordings, farewel; and say, when I am gone.
I prophesy'd- France will be lost ere long. [Exit,
Car. So, there goes our Protector in a rage.
'Tis known to you he is mine enemy:

*

*

*

Nay, more, an enemy unto you all;.

* And no great friend, I fear me, to the King. * Consider Lords, he is the next of blood, And heir apparent to the English crown; Had Henry got an empire by his marriage, And all the wealthy kingdoms of the west. There's reason he should be displeas'd at it. *Look to it, Lords; let not his smoothing words * Bewitch your hearts; be wise, and circumspect. What though the common people favour hin, Calling him Humphrey the good Duke of Gloster ;

Clapping their hands, and crying with loud

voice

Jesu maintain your royal Excellence!
With-God preserve the good Duke Humphrey !
I fear me, Lords, for all this flattering gloss,
He will be found a dangerous Protector,

Buck. Why should he then protect our Sor
vereign,

*He being of age to govern of himself? 'Cousin of Somerset, join you with me. And all together, with the Duke of Suffolk, We'll quickly hoise Duke Humphrey from his seat.

* Car. This weighty business will not brook

delay;

*I'll to the Duke of Suffolk presently..

6

*

[Exit. 'Som. Cousin of Buckingham, though Humphrey's pride,

And greatness of his place be grief to us,
Yet let us watch the haughty Cardinal;
His insolence is more intolerable

Than all the Princes in the land beside;

If Gloster be displac'd, he'll be Protector.

Buck, Or thou, or I, Somerset, will be Protector,

Despight Duke Humphrey, or the Cardinal

[Exeunt BUCKINGHAM and SOMERSET, Sal. Pride went before, ambition follows him. 'While these do labour for their own preferment, Behoves it us to labour for the realm.

I never saw but Humphrey Duke of Gloster
Did bear him like a noble gentleman.

Oft have I seen the haughty Cardinal

More like a soldier, than a man o'the church, As stout, and proud, as he were lord of all, 'Swear like a ruffian, and demean himself Unlike the ruler of a commonweal, Warwick my son, the comfort of my age! Thy deeds, thy plainness, and thy housekeeping,

Hath won the greatest favour of the commons, Excepting noue but good Duke Humphrey, And, brother York, thy acts in Ireland,

In bringing them to civil discipline;

Thy late exploits done in the heart of France, When thou wert regent for our Sovereign, Have made thee fear'd, and honour'd, of the people:

Join we together, for the publick good;

In what we can, to bridle and suppress The pride of Suffolk, and the Cardinal, 'With Somerset's and Buckingham's ambition : And, as we may, cherish Duke Humphrey's deeds,

'While they do tend the profit of the land. * War. So God help Warwick, as he loves the land,

* And common profit of his country!

*York. And so says York, for he hath greatest

cause.

Sal. Then let's make haste away, and look unto the main.

War. Unto the main! O father, Maine is lost; That Maine, which by main force Warwick did win,

* And would have kept, so long as breath did last : Main chance, father, you meant; but I meant Maine;

Which I will win from France, or else be slain. [Exeunt WARWICK and SALISBURY.

York. Anjou and Maine are given to the French; * Paris is lost; the state of Normandy

* Stands on a tickle point, now they are gone: *Suffolk concluded on the articles;

The Peers agreed; and Henry was well pleas'd, *To change two dukedoms for a Duke's fair daughter.

* I cannot blame them all; What is't to them? 'Tis thine they give away, and not their own. Pirates may make cheap penny worth's of their pillage,

*

And purchase friends, and give to courtezans, Still revelling, like lords, till all be gone: While as the silly owner of the goods

Weeps over them, and wrings his hapless hands,