Enter MARGERY JOURDAIN, HUME, SOUTHWELL, and BOLINGBROKE. Hume. Come, my masters; the duchess, I tell you, expects performance of your promises. Boling. Master Hume, we are therefore provided; Will her ladyship behold and hear our exorcisms? Hume. Ay: What else? fear you not her courage. Boling. I have heard her reported to be a woman of an invincible spirit: But it shall be convenient, master Hume, that you be by her aloft while we be busy below; and so, I pray you, go in God's name, and leave us. [Exit HUME.] Mother Jourdain, be you prostrate, and grovel on the earth :-John Southwell, read you; and let us to our work.. Boling. What fates await the duke of Suffolk?' Spir. By water shall he die, and take his end. Boling. What shall befall the duke of Somerset ? ' Spir. Let him shun castles; Safer shall he be upon the sandy plains, False fiend, avoid! [Thunder and lightning. Spirit descends. Enter YORK and BUCKINGHAM, hastily, with their Guards, and others. York. Lay hands upon these traitors, and their trash. Beldame, I think, we watch'd you at an inch.What, madam, are you there? the king and commonweal Are deeply indebted for this piece of pains; king, Injurious duke; that threat'st where is no cause. Buck. True, madam, none at all. What call you this? [Showing her the papers. Away with them; let them be clapp'd up close, And kept asunder :-You, madam, shall with us: Stafford, take her to thee. [Exit DUCHESS from above. We'll see your trinkets here all forthcoming; All, away! [Exeunt Guards, with SOUTH., BOLING., &c. York. Lord Buckingham, methinks, you watch'd her well: A pretty plot, well chosen to build upon: Aio te, Eacida, Romanos vincere posse. 'Tell me, what fate awaits the duke of Suffolk? THE Connexion between the last scene' of the First Part of Henry VI. and the first scene of the Second Part is as perfect as if they each belonged to one play. The concluding words of that last scene show us Suffolk departing for France for the accomplishment of the anxious wish of Henry "That lady Margaret do vouchsafe to come In the first lines of the Second Part we find Suffolk returned from his mission, the purpose of which, as expressed in the last scene of the First Part, he here recapitulates. The passage of the poet is almost exactly copied from the historians, -Holinshed being in this case a literal transcriber from Hall:-"The Marquis of Suffolk, as procurator to King Henry, espoused the said lady in the church of Saint Martin's. At the which marriage were present the father and mother of the bride; the French king himself, which was uncle to the husband; and the French queen also, which was aunt to the wife. There were also the Dukes of Orleans, of Calaber, of Alanson, and of Britaine, seven earls, twelve barons, twenty bishops, beside knights and gentlemen." HISTORIES.-VOL. II. G The displeasure of the Duke of Gloster at this marriage is indicated by the poet in the last scene of the First Part. There Henry says, "Agree to any covenants." The announcement of the surrender of Anjou and Maine is reserved by the dramatist for the scene before us. This surrender is the chief cause of the Duke of Gloster's indignation, as expressed in the celebrated speech, "Brave peers of England, pillars of the state," &c. The poet makes the duke intimate no dislike of the queen's person; and Henry, indeed, expressly thanks him "for this great favour done, In entertainment to my princely queen." The poet here follows Holinshed, who copies Fabian :-"On the eighteenth of May she came to London, all the lords of England in most sump. tuous sort meeting and receiving her upon the way, and specially the Duke of Gloster, with such honour as stood with the dignity of his person." Of this circumstance Hall has no mention. Margaret of Anjou arrived in England in 1445. 81 Her impatience under the authority of the Protector Gloster, and her intrigues to procure his disgrace, are set forth very graphically by Hall :-"This woman, perceiving that her husband did not frankly rule as he would, but did all things by the advice and counsel of Humphrey Duke of Gloster, and that he passed not much on the authority and governance of the realm, determined with herself to take upon her the rule and regiment both of the king and his kingdom, and to deprive and evict out of all rule and authority the said duke, then called the lord protector of the realm: lest men should say and report that she had neither wit nor stomach, which would permit and suffer her husband, being of perfect age and man's estate, like a young scholar or innocent pupil to be governed by the disposition of another man." But the hatred of Queen Margaret to "duke Humphrey's wife" is purely an invention of the poet. The disgrace of Eleanor Cobham took place three years before the arrival of Margaret in England. It is insinuated, however, by the chroniclers, that the accusation of the duchess upon a charge of sorcery and treason was prompted by the enemies of the protector. The following is Hall's account of this tragedy, in which "horror and absurdity are mingled in about equal portions :" *— "But renom will once break out, and inward grudge will soon appear, which was this year to all men apparent : for divers secret attempts were advanced forward this season against the noble duke Humphrey of Gloster, afar off, which in conclusion came so near that they bereft him both of life and land, as you shall hereafter more manifestly perceive. For first this year, dame Eleanor Cobham, wife to the said duke, was accused of treason, for that she, by sorcery and enchantment, intended to Pictorial History of England, vol. ii., p. 83. destroy the king, to the intent to advance and to promote her husband to the crown: upon this she was examined in Saint Stephen's chapel, before the bishop of Canterbury, and there by examination convict and judged to do open penance in three open places within the city of London, and after that adjudged to perpetual prison in the Isle of Man, under the keeping of Sir John Stanley, knight. At the same season were arrested, as aiders and counsellors to the said duchess, Thomas Southwel, priest and canon of Saint Stephen's in Westminster; John Hum, priest; Roger Bolingbroke, a cunning necromancer; and Margery Jourdain, surnamed the witch of Eye: to whose charge it was laid, that they, at the request of the duchess, had devised an image of wax representing the king, which by their sorcery a little and little consumed, intending thereby in conclusion to waste and destroy the king's person, and so to bring him death; for the which treason they were adjudged to die and so Margery Jourdain was burnt in Smithfield, and Roger Bolingbroke was drawn and quartered at Tyburn, taking upon his death that there was never no such thing by them imagined. John Hum had his pardon, and Southwel died in the Tower before execution. The Duke of Gloster took all these things patiently, and said little." In the third scene, the charges which Beaufort, and Somerset, and Buckingham, insultingly heap upon the protector, are supported by this passage of Hall: :- "Divers articles, both heinous and odious, were laid to his charge in open council; and in especial, one that he had caused men adjudged to die to be put to other execution than the law of the land had ordered or assigned." This is the charge of Buckingham: "Thy cruelty in execution, Upon offenders, hath exceeded law, And left thee to the mercy of the law." Enter KING HENRY, QUEEN MARGARET, GLOSTER, CARDINAL, and SUFFOLK, with Falconers hollaing. Q. Mar. Believe me, lords, for flying at the brook,a I saw not better sport these seven years' day: Yet, by your leave, the wind was very high; And ten to one old Joan had not gone out.b K. Hen. But what a point, my lord, your falcon made, And what a pitch she flew above the rest!- a Flying at the brook-flying at birds of the brook; hawking at waterfowl. b Percy explains that "the wind was so high it was ten to one that old Joan would not have taken her flight at the game." c Fain. Steevens says that fain here signifies fond; and he quotes Heywood's Epigrams on Proverbs: ' "Fayre words make fooles faine." Surely, in this quotation fain means glad,-the Saxon meanG 2 Suf. No marvel, an it like your majesty, My lord protector's hawks do tower so well; They know their master loves to be aloft, And bears his thoughts above his falcon's pitch. Glo. My lord, 't is but a base ignoble mind That mounts no higher than a bird can soar. Car. I thought as much; he would be above |
