QUEEN. We thank you all. [Flourish. SUF. My lord protector, so it please your grace, Here are the articles of contracted peace Between our sovereign and the French king Charles, For eighteen months concluded by consent. GLOU. [Reads] Imprimis, It is agreed between the French king Charles, and William de la Pole, Marquess of Suffolk, ambassador for Henry King of England, that the said Henry shall espouse the Lady Margaret, daughter unto Reignier King of Naples, Sicilia and Jerusalem, and crown her Queen of England ere the thirtieth of May next ensuing. Item, that the duchy of Anjou and the county of Maine shall be released and delivered to the king her father— KING. Uncle, how now! GLOU. [Lets the paper fall. Pardon me, gracious lord; Some sudden qualm hath struck me at the heart And dimm'd mine eyes, that I can read no further. KING. Uncle of Winchester, I pray, read on. CAR. [Reads] Item, It is further agreed between them, that the duchies of Anjou and Maine shall be released and delivered over to the king her father, and she sent over of the King of England's own proper cost and charges, without having any dowry. KING. They please us well. Lord marquess, kneel down: We here create thee the first duke of Suffolk, I' the parts of France, till term of eighteen months We thank you all for this great favour done, [Exeunt KING, QUEEN, and SUFFOLK. GLOU. Brave peers of England, pillars of the state, To you Duke Humphrey must unload his grief, In winter's cold and summer's parching heat, Have you yourselves, Somerset, Buckingham, Early and late, debating to and fro How France and Frenchmen might be kept in awe, And had his highness in his infancy Crowned in Paris in despite of foes? And shall these labours and these honours die? CAR. Nephew, what means this passionate dis course, This peroration with such circumstance? For France, 'tis ours; and we will keep it still. Suffolk, the new-made duke that rules the roast, SAL. Now, by the death of Him that died for all, And are the cities, that I got with wounds, 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, To match with her that brings no vantages. GLOU. A proper jest, and never heard before That Suffolk should demand a whole fifteenth For costs and charges in transporting her! She should have stayed in France and starved in France, Before CAR. My Lord of Gloucester, now ye grow too hot: It was the pleasure of my lord the king. GLOU. My Lord of Winchester, I know your mind; We shall begin our ancient bickerings. CAR. So, there goes our protector in a rage. And no great friend, I fear me, to the king. [Exit. And all the wealthy kingdoms of the west, With God preserve the good Duke Humphrey ! 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, [Exit. SOM. Cousin of Buckingham, though Humphrey's pride And greatness of his place be grief to us, Than all the princes in the land beside : If Gloucester 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 labour for their own preferment, Behoves it us to labour for the realm. |