'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,

6

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; * 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. 'Rancour 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 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 ine, 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

VOL. V.

(1) Skirmishings.

G

* Bewitch your hearts; be wise, and circumspect. What though the common people favour him, • Calling him-Humphrey, the good duke of Glos

ter;

Clapping their hands, and crying with a 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 sove

reign,

* 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 de

lay;

* I'll to the duke of Suffolk presently.

[Exit.

Som. Cousin of Buckingham, though Hum

phrey'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, * Despite 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 common-weal.Warwick, my son, the comfort of my age! Thy deeds, thy plainness, and thy house-keeping

Hath won the greatest favour of the commons,
'Excepting none 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 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. York. Anjou and Maine are given to the French; [Exeunt Warwick and Salisbury. * Paris is lost; the state of Normandy * Stands on a ticklel 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 pennyworths of their

pillage,

(1) For ticklish.

102

SECOND PART OF

to courtezans,

* And purchase friends, and give * 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 shar'd, 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 bargain'd 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 burn'd, * 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 humours fit not for a crown. Then, York, be still a while, till time do serve: Watch thou, and wake, when others be asleep, To 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 fall'n at jars: Then will I raise aloft the milk-white rose,

With whose sweet smell the air shall be perfum'd;

His

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

expired in torment.

And in my standard bear the arms of York,
To grapple with the house of Lancaster;
And, force perforce, I'll make him yield the crown,
Whose bookish rule hath pull'd fair England down.

SCENE II. The same. A room in the duke
[Exit.
of Gloster's house. Enter Gloster and the
Duchess.

Duch. Why droops my lord, like over-ripen'd

corn,

Hanging the head at Ceres" plenteous load?
* Why doth the great duke Humphrey knit his

brows,

* As frowning at the favours of the world? * Why are thine eyes fix'd to the sullen earth, * Gazing on that which seems to dim thy sight? 'What see'st thou there? king Henry's diadem, * Enchas'd with all the honours of the world? * If so, gaze on, and grovel on thy face, * Until thy head be circled with the same. 'Put forth thy hand, reach at the glorious gold :'What, is't too short? I'll lengthen it with mine: * And, having both together heav'd it up, * We'll both together lift our heads to heaven; * And never more abase our sight so low, * As to vouchsafe one glance unto the ground. 'Glo. O Nell, sweet Nell, if thou dost love thy

'Banish the canker of ambitious thoughts:
lord,
And may that thought, when I imagine ill
Against my king and nephew, virtuous Henry,
Be my last breathing in this mortal world!
'My troublous dream this night doth make me sad.
'Duch. What dream, my lord? tell me, and

I'll requite it
With sweet rehearsal of my morning's dream.
Glo. Methought, this staff, mine office-badge

in court,
Was broke in twain, by whom I have forgot,
'But, as I think, it was by the cardinal;