Enter a Beadle with whips. GLOU. Well, sir, we must have you find your legs. Sirrah beadle, whip him till he leap over that same stool. BEAD. I will, my lord. with your doublet quickly. Come on, sirrah; off SIMP. Alas, master, what shall I do? I am not able to stand. [After the Beadle hath hit him once, he leaps over the stool and runs away; and they follow and cry, A miracle! KING. O God, seest Thou this, and bearest so long? QUEEN. It made me laugh to see the villain run. GLOU. Follow the knave; and take this drab away. WIFE. Alas, sir, we did it for pure need. they came. GLOU. Let them be whipped through every market-town, till they come to Berwick, from whence [Exeunt Wife, Beadle, Mayor, etc. CAR. Duke Humphrey has done a miracle to-day. SUF. True; made the lame to leap and fly away. GLOU. But you have done more miracles than I; You made in a day, my lord, whole towns to fly. Enter BUCKINGHAM. KING. What tidings with our cousin Buckingham? BUCK. Such as my heart doth tremble to unfold. A sort of naughty persons, lewdly bent, Under the countenance and confederacy Of Lady Eleanor, the protector's wife, The ringleader and head of all this rout, Your lady is forthcoming yet at London. This news, I think, hath turn'd your weapon's edge; 'Tis like, my lord, you will not keep your hour. GLOU. Ambitious churchman, leave to afflict my heart: Sorrow and grief have vanquish'd all my powers; And, vanquish'd as I am, I yield to thee, Or to the meanest groom. KING. O God, what mischiefs work the wicked ones, Heaping confusion on their own heads thereby ! QUEEN. Gloucester, see here the tainture of thy nest, And look thyself be faultless, thou wert best. GLOU. Madam, for myself, to heaven I do appeal, How I have loved my king and commonweal: And, for my wife, I know not how it stands ; Sorry I am to hear what I have heard: Noble she is, but if she have forgot Honour and virtue and conversed with such As, like to pitch, defile nobility, I banish her my bed and company And give her as a prey to law and shame, here: To-morrow toward London back again, To look into this business thoroughly And call these foul offenders to their answers prevails. London. SCENE II. [Flourish. Exeunt. The DUKE OF YORK's garden. Enter YORK, SALISBURY, and WARWICK. YORK. Now, my good Lords of Salisbury and Our simple supper ended, give me leave SAL. My lord, I long to hear it at full. WAR. Sweet York, begin: and if thy claim be good, The Nevils are thy subjects to command. YORK. Then thus: Edward the Third, my lords, had seven sons: Lionel Duke of Clarence; next to whom William of Windsor was the seventh and last. king; Till Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, The eldest son and heir of John of Gaunt, came, And him to Pomfret; where, as all you know, WAR. Father, the duke hath told the truth; For Richard, the first son's heir, being dead, SAL. But William of Hatfield died without an heir. YORK. The third son, Duke of Clarence, from whose line I claim the crown, had issue, Philippe, a daughter, SAL. This Edmund, in the reign of Bolingbroke, As I have read, laid claim unto the crown; And, but for Owen Glendower, had been king, Who kept him in captivity till he died. But to the rest. YORK. His eldest sister, Anne, My mother, being heir unto the crown, Married Richard Earl of Cambridge; who was son Succeed before the younger, I am king. WAR. What plain proceeding is more plain than this? Henry doth claim the crown from John of Gaunt, BOTH. Long live our sovereign Richard. England's king! YORK. We thank you, lords. But I am not your king Till I be crown'd and that my sword be stain'd |