Is, of a king, become a banish'd man, Of England's true-anointed lawful king. With this my son, prince Edward, Henry's heir, Am come to crave thy just and lawful aid; While we bethink a means to break it off. Q. Mar. The more we stay the stronger grows our foe. K. Lew. The more I stay the more I'll succour thee. Q. Mar. O, but impatience waiteth on true sorrow: And see, where comes the breeder of my sorrow. Enter WARWICK, attended. K. Lew. What's he approacheth boldly to our presence? Q. Mar. Our earl of Warwick, Edward's greatest friend. K. Lew. Welcome, brave Warwick! What brings thee to France ? [Descending from his state. QUEEN MAR GARET rises. Q. Mar. Ay, now begins a second storm to rise; For this is he that moves both wind and tide. War. From worthy Edward, king of Albion, My lord and sovereign, and thy vowed friend, I come, in kindness and unfeigned love, First, to do greetings to thy royal person; And then to crave a league of amity: And, lastly, to confirm that amity With nuptial knot, if thou vouchsafe to grant That virtuous lady Bona, thy fair sister, To England's king in lawful marriage. Q. Mar. If that go forward Henry's hope is done. War. And, gracious madam, [to BONA] in our king's behalf, I am commanded, with your leave and favour, Humbly to kiss your hand, and with my tongue To tell the passion of my sovereign's heart; Where fame, late entering at his heedful ears, Hath plac'd thy beauty's image, and thy virtue. Q. Mar. King Lewis, and lady Bona, hear me speak, Before you answer Warwick. His demand Springs not from Edward's well-meant honest love, But from deceit, bred by necessity; son. Look therefore, Lewis, that by this league and marriage Thou draw not on thy danger and dishonour : wrongs. War. Injurious Margaret! And why not queen? War. Because thy father Henry did usurp ; And thou no more art prince than she is queen. Oxf. Then Warwick disannuls great John of Which did subdue the greatest part of Spain; War. Oxford, how haps it in this smooth You told not, how Henry the Sixth hath lost But for the rest, you tell a pedigree Whom thou obey'dst thirty and six years, right, No, Warwick, no; while life upholds this arm, K. Lew. Queen Margaret, prince Edward, and Oxford, Vouchsafe at our request to stand aside, [Retiring with the PRINCE and Oxford. K. Lew. Now, Warwick, tell me, even upon thy conscience, Is Edward your true king? for I were loth, K. Lew. But is he gracious in the people's eye? War. The more, that Henry was unfortu Mess. My lord ambassador, these letters are for you; Sent from your brother, marquis Montague ;- [To MARGARET. They all read their Orf. I like it well, that our fair queen and mistress Smiles at her news, while Warwick frowns at his. Prince. Nay, mark, how Lewis stamps as he were nettled: I hope all's for the best. K. Lew. Warwick, what are thy news? and Q. Mar. I told your majesty as much before: This proveth Edward's love and Warwick's honesty. War. King Lewis, I here protest, in sight of heaven, And by the hope I have of heavenly bliss, That I am clear from this misdeed of Edward's ; No more my king, for he dishonours me; Q. Mar. Warwick, these words have turn'd my hate to love; And I forgive and quite forget old faults, friend. War. So much his friend, ay, his unfeigned friend, That if king Lewis vouchsafe to furnish us him: And as for Clarence, as my letters tell me, nour, Or than for strength and safety of our country. Bona. Dear brother, how shall Bona be reveng'd, But by thy help to this distressed queen? 2. Mar. Renowned prince, how shall poor Henry live, Unless thou rescue him from foul despair? are one. War. And mine, fair lady Bona, joins with yours. K. Lew. And mine with hers, and thine, and Margaret's. Therefore, at last, I firmly am resolv'd, You shall have aid. Q. Mar. Let me give humble thanks for all at once. K. Lew. Then England's messenger, return in post; And tell false Edward, thy supposed king, Bona. Tell him, in hope he'll prove a widower I'll wear the willow garland for his sake. Q. Mar. Tell him, my mourning weeds are laid aside, And I am ready to put armour on. War. Tell him from me, that he hath done me wrong; And therefore I'll uncrown him, ere't be long. There's thy reward; be gone. K. Lew. [Exit Mess. But, Warwick, thou, And Oxford, with five thousand men, Shall cross the seas, and bid false Edward THE first scene exhibits the capture of Henry VI. upon his abandonment of his secure asylum in Scotland. Between that period, 1464, and the accession of Edward, three years had elapsed-years of unavailing struggle on the part of the Lancastrians. The capture of Henry is thus described by Hall:-"Whatsoever jeopardy or peril might be construed or deemed to have ensued by the means of King Henry, all such doubts were now shortly resolved and determined, and all fear of his doings were clearly pnt under and extinct. For he himself, whether he were past all fear, or was not well stablished in his perfect mind, or could not long keep himself secret, in a disguised apparel boldly entered into England. He was no sooner entered but he was known and taken of one Cantlowe, and brought toward the king, whom the Earl of Warwick met on the way, by the king's commandment, and brought him through London to the Tower, and there he was laid in sure hold. Queen Margaret his wife, hearing of the captivity of her husband, mistrusting the chance of her son, all disconsolate and comfortless, departed out of Scotland and sailed into France, where she remained with Duke Reyner her father till she took her unfortunate journey into England again, where she lost both husband and son, and also all her wealth, honour, and worldly felicity." In the second scene the poet, with great dramatic skill, exhibits the course of that wooing which ended in the marriage of Edward with Elizabeth Woodville-an event altogether unpropitious and finally destructive to his house. Hall (whom we still follow, for Holinshed is almost his literal copyist) tells the story with great quaintness, and Shakspere clearly follows him :-"But now consider the old proverb to be true that sayeth that marriage is destiny. For during the time that the Earl of Warwick was thus in France concluding a marriage for king Edward, the king, being on hunting in the forest of Wichwood beside Stoney Stratford, came for his recreation to the manor of Grafton, where the duchess of Bedford sojourned, then wife to Sir Richard Woodville, Lord Rivers, on whom then was attending a daughter of hers, called Dame Elizabeth Grey, widow of Sir John Grey, knight, slain at the last battle of Saint Alban's by the power of King Edward. This widow, having a suit to the king, either to be restored by him to something taken from her, or requiring him of pity to have some |