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SECOND PART

OF

KING HENRY VI.

ACT I. SCENE I.

London. A Room of State in the Palace.

Flourish of Trumpets: then Hautboys. Enter, on one side, King HENRY, Duke of GLOSTER, SALISBURY, WARWICK, and Cardinal BEAUFORT; on the other, Queen MARGARET, led in by SUFFOLK; YORK, SOMERSET, BUCKINGHAM, and others, following.

Suf. As by your high imperial majesty
I had in charge at my depart for France,
As procurator to your excellence,

To marry princess Margaret for your grace;
So, in the famous ancient city, Tours,

In presence of the kings of France and Sicil,

The dukes of Orleans, Calaber, Bretaigne, and Alençon,
Seven earls, twelve barons, and twenty reverend bishops',

I have perform'd my task, and was espous'd:

And humbly now, upon my bended knee,

In sight of England and her lordly peers,

Deliver up my title in the queen

To your most gracious hands, that are the substance
Of that great shadow I did represent;

1 TWENTY reverend bishops,] So Holinshed, and Hall whom he copied. The 4to, 1594, of "The first Part of the Contention," reads erroneously, probably from mishearing, "and then the reverend bishops;" but the edition 1619 of the same play corrects it to "twenty," as in the chronicles and folios.

The happiest gift that ever marquess gave,

The fairest queen that ever king receiv'd'.

K. Hen. Suffolk, arise.-Welcome, queen Margaret: I can express no kinder sign of love,

Than this kind kiss.-O Lord! that lends me life,

Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness;

For thou hast given me, in this beauteous face,
A world of earthly blessings to my soul,

If sympathy of love unite our thoughts.

Q. Mar. Great king of England, and my gracious lord,
The mutual conference that my mind hath had

By day, by night, waking, and in my dreams,
In courtly company, or at my beads,
With you mine alderlievest sovereign3,
Makes me the bolder to salute my king
With ruder terms, such as my wit affords,
And over-joy of heart doth minister.

grace

in speech,

K. Hen. Her sight did ravish, but her
Her words y-clad with wisdom's majesty,
Makes me from wondering fall to weeping joys;
Such is the fulness of my heart's content.-
Lords, with one cheerful voice welcome my love.
All. Long live queen Margaret, England's happiness!
Q. Mar. We thank you all.

Suf. My lord protector, so it please your grace,
Here are the articles of contracted peace,

[Flourish.

Between our sovereign, and the French king Charles,
For eighteen months, concluded by consent.

Glo. [Reads.] "Imprimis: it is agreed between the French king Charles, and William de la Poole, marquess of Suffolk, ambassador for Henry king of England,-that the said Henry

2 The fairest queen that ever king RECEIV'D.] "That ever king possess'd" is the word in the old "Contention," 1594. The reason for the change was, of course, that "receiv'd" is a better antithesis to "gave," than the older word possess'd.

3 With you mine ALDERLIEVEST Sovereign,] "Alderlievest" is a compound word, which does not occur in "The First Part of the Contention," where the whole speech is different. It is derived from alder or aller, as Tyrwhitt states, the genitive case plural, and the superlative of lieve: it means dearest of all, or all-dearest. In the German translation of Professor Mommsen it is allerliebster Herr. In English, "alderlievest" is met with in Chaucer, Gascoigne, and in Marston; but the latter gives it to his Dutch Courtesan. It is not of frequent occurrence; but we find it, in the comparative degree, in The Cobbler of Canterbury," 4to, 1590:

"An alder liefer swaine, I weene,

In the barge there was not seene."

shall espouse the lady Margaret, daughter unto Reignier king of Naples, Sicilia, and Jerusalem; and crown her queen of England ere the thirtieth of May next ensuing.Item,That the duchy of Anjou and the county of Maine, shall be released and delivered to the king her father".

[He lets the treaty fall.

K. Hen. Uncle, how now?
Glo.
Some sudden qualm hath struck me at the heart,
And dimm'd mine eyes, that I can read no farther.

Pardon me, gracious lord;

K. Hen. Uncle of Winchester, I pray, read on. Win. Item,-"It is farther agreed between them,—that the duchies of Anjou and Maine shall be released and delivered over to the king her father; and she sent over of the king of England's own proper cost and charges, without having any dowry."

K. Hen. They please us well.-Lord marquess, kneel down ':

We here create thee the first duke of Suffolk,
And girt thee with the sword.-Cousin of York,
We here discharge your grace from being regent
I' the parts of France, till term of eighteen months
Be full expir'd.-Thanks, uncle Winchester,
Gloster, York, Buckingham, Somerset,
Salisbury, and Warwick;

We thank you all for this great favour done
In entertainment to my princely queen.
Come, let us in; and with all speed provide
To see her coronation be perform'd.

[Exeunt King, Queen, and SUFFOLK.

and delivered to the king her father"] In the 4to. "Contention," 1594, Gloster breaks off at the first syllable of the word "father," and a stage-direction is added, "Duke Humphrey lets it fall." No such intimation is given in the folio, 1623, and we are to suppose that Winchester picks up the treaty, and that the King, in consequence, requires him to continue the perusal of it. The corr. fo. 1632 adds Pausing as a stage-direction after the word "father." There is a verbal variation between what Gloster has read, as part of the document, and the words Winchester reads: possibly it was not meant that Gloster should give the exact words, on account of the state of his mind; but still he is more particular on some points than Winchester.

They please us well.-Lord MARQUESS, kneel down:] Unless we read marquess" as three syllables the line is incomplete, and the corr. fo. 1632 inserts thee after "kneel," in order to make out the measure; but nothing of the sort is found in the old "Contention" where the passage is exactly as in the folio, 1623, and we make no change.

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,
With all the learned council of the realm,
Studied 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?
Shall 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?

6 And HATH his highness in his infancy

BEEN crown'd in Paris, in despite of foes?] The folio, 1623, reads,

"And hath his highness, in his infancy

Crowned in Paris in despite of foes?"

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which accords with the form of expression used above, “Or hath mine uncle,” &c. The fact, according to the corr. fo. 1632, and probability, seems to be that "Been was accidentally omitted at the beginning of the second line: Steevens was therefore right in supplying "Been" instead of altering "hath" to was in the preceding line, as recommended by some other commentators.

7 Undoing all, as all had never been.] This speech consists of only fifteen lines in the old "Contention," 1594, and it ends as follows:

"Reversing monuments of conquer'd France,

Undoing all, as none had ne'er been done."

The whole is an irregular and confused jumble, and at least two out of the fifteen lines are borrowed from Gloster's next speech.

This peroration with such circumstance?

For France, 'tis our's; and we will keep it still.
Glo. Ay, uncle, we will keep it, if we can;
But now it is impossible we should.
Suffolk, the new-made duke that rules the roast,
Hath given the duchy 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 weeps 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, may he be suffocate,
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 stay'd in France, and starv'd in France,
Before-

Car. My lord of Gloster, now you grow too hot,

It 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 ye.

And are the cities that I got with wOUNDS,

Deliver'd up again with peaceful words?] It seems possible that for "wounds" we ought to read swords, and that the speech ended with a rhyming couplet: it is prose in the copies of the old "Contention," but there Warwick asks, "must that, then, which we won with our swords, be given away with words." Of course, our text is from the folio, 1623.

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