'His valor, 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,
Received deep scars in France and Normandy?
'Or hath my uncle Beaufort, and myself,
With all the learned council of the realm,

6

'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 crowned in Paris, in despite of foes?
And shall these labors, and these honors, 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 conquered France;

Undoing all, as all had never been!

*Car. Nephew, what means this passionate discourse?

*This peroration with such circumstance?1
* For France, 'tis ours; 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 duchies 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?

1 This speech crowded with so many circumstances of aggravation.

6

6

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, 'Delivered up again with peaceful words? • Mort Dieu!

*York. For Suffolk's duke-may he be suffocate, *That dims the honor 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 starved 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 you. 'Rancor will out. Proud prelate, in thy face I see thy fury; if I longer stay, We shall begin our ancient bickerings. Lordings, farewell; and say, when I am gone, I prophesied-France will be lost cre long.

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,

[Exit.

*There's reason he should be displeased at it.
* Look to it, lords; let not his smoothing word
* Bewitch your hearts; be wise, and circumspect.
'What though the common people favor him,

6

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 sovereign, *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.

[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 displaced, he'll be protector.

Buck. Or thou, or I, Somerset, will be protector, * Despite duke Humphrey, or the cardinal.

[Exeunt BUCKINGHAM and SOMERSET. Sal. Pride went before, ambition follows him. While these do labor for their own preferment, 'Behooves it us to labor 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 common-weal.-
Warwick, my son, the comfort of my age!

Thy deeds, thy plainness, and thy house-keeping,
Hath won the greatest favor of the commons,

Excepting none but good duke Humphrey.-
And, brother York,' thy acts in Ireland,

In bringing them to civil discipline; 2

Thy late exploits, done in the heart of France,
When thou wert regent for our sovereign,

• Have made thee feared and honored of the people :Join we together, for the public 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 pleased *To change two dukedoms for a duke's fair daughter.

1 Richard Plantagenet, duke of York, married Cicely, the daughter of Ralf Neville, earl of Westmoreland, by Joan, daughter to John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, by his third wife, dame Catherine Swinford. Richard Neville, earl of Salisbury, was son to the earl of Westmoreland by a second wife. He married Alice, only daughter of Thomas Montacute, earl of Salisbury, who was killed at the siege of Orleans (see Part I. of this play, Act i. Sc. 3.), and in consequence of that alliance obtained the title of Salisbury in 1428. His eldest son, Richard, having married the sister and heir of Henry Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, was created earl of Warwick, 1449.

2 This is an anachronism. The present scene is in 1445; but Richard, duke of York, was not viceroy of Ireland till 1449.

3 Tickle is frequently used for ticklish, by ancient writers.

* I cannot blame them all; what is't to them?

* 'Tis thine they give away, and not their own. *Pirates may make cheap pennyworths of their pillage, *And purchase friends, and give to courtesans,

* Still revelling, like lords, till all be gone; *While as the silly owner of the goods

* Weeps over them, and wrings his hapless hands, * And shakes his head, and trembling stands aloof, * While all is shared, and all is borne away; * Ready to starve, and dare not touch his own; *So York must sit, and fret, and bite his tongue, * While his own lands are bargained for, and sold. *Methinks the realms of England, France, and Ireland,

* Bear that proportion to my flesh and blood, * As did the fatal brand Althea burned,

* Unto the prince's heart of Calydon.1

Anjou and Maine, both given unto the French!
Cold news for me; for I had hope of France,
Even as I have of fertile England's soil.

A day will come, when York shall claim his own;
And therefore I will take the Nevils' parts,

And make a show of love to proud duke Humphrey.
And, when I spy advantage, claim the crown,

For that's the golden mark I seek to hit.
Nor shall proud Lancaster usurp my right,
Nor hold his sceptre in his childish fist,
Nor wear the diadem upon his head,

Whose church-like humors fit not for a crown.
Then, York, be still awhile, till time do serve;
Watch thou, and wake, when others be asleep,

Το

pry into the secrets of the state;

Till Henry, surfeiting in joys of love,

With his new bride, and England's dear-bought

queen,

And Humphrey with the peers be fallen at jars;
Then will I raise aloft the milk-white rose,

1 Meleager; whose life was to continue only so long as a certain firebrand should last. His mother, Althea, having thrown it into the fire, he expired in torment.