Page images
PDF
EPUB

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 of her father, and she sent over of 60 the King 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,
And gird thee with the sword. Cousin of
York,

We here discharge your grace from being re-
gent

I' the parts of France, till term of eighteen months

Be full expired. Thanks, uncle Winchester,
Gloucester, York, Buckingham, Somerset,
Salisbury, and Warwick;

70

We thank you all for this great favor done,
In entertainment to my princely queen.

Come, let us in, and with all speed provide

To see her coronation be perform'd.

[Exeunt King, Queen, and Suffolk.

60. Of course the reader will observe that this item does not run the same as it did in the hands of Gloster. Malone remarks, that "the words of the instrument could not thus vary whilst it was passing from the hands of the duke to those of the cardinal." Doubtless Gloster had caught the drift and substance of the document, but the dimness of his eyes prevented his reading with literal exactness.-H. N. H.

63. "kneel down"; Pope reads "kneel you down"; Keightley, Collier MS., "kneel thee down." Perhaps "kneel" is to be read as a dissyllable.-I. G.

80

Glou. Brave peers of England, pillars of the state,
To you Duke Humphrey must unload his grief,
Your grief, the common grief of all the land.
What! did my brother Henry spend his youth,
His valor, coin, and people, in the wars?
Did he so often lodge in open field,
In winter's cold and summer's parching heat,
To conquer France, his true inheritance?
And did my brother Bedford toil his wits,
To keep by policy what Henry got?
Have you yourselves, Somerset, Buckingham,
Brave York, Salisbury, and victorious War-

wick,

Received deep scars in France and Normandy?
Or hath mine uncle Beaufort and myself,
With all the learned council of the realm,
Studied so long, sat in the council-house
Early and late, debating to and fro

90

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 labors and these honors die?
Shall Henry's conquest, Bedford's vigilance,
Your deeds of war and all our counsel die?
O peers of England, shameful is this league!
Fatal this marriage, cancelling your fame,
Blotting your names from books of memory,

88. "Beaufort"; Ff. read "Beauford"; Rowe, "Bedford."-I. G. 93. "And had his highness in his infancy Crowned"; Grant White's

emendation of Ff., "And hath

Crowned"; Rowe reads "And

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

Razing the characters of your renown,
Defacing monuments of conquer'd France,

Undoing all, as all had never been!

101

Car. Nephew, what means this passionate dis

course,

This peroration with such circumstance?
For France, 'tis ours; and we will keep it still.

Glou. Aye, uncle, we will keep it, if we can;
But now it is impossible we should:
Suffolk, the new-made duke that rules the roast,
Hath given the duchy of Anjou and Maine 110
Unto the poor King Reignier, whose large
style

Agrees not with the leanness of his purse.

Sal. Now, by the death of Him that died for all, These counties were the keys of Normandy. But wherefore weeps Warwick, my valiant son? War. For grief that they are past recovery:

102. "Defacing"; Capell reads, "Reversing," following The Contention.-I. G.

105. This speech crowded with so many circumstances of aggravation.-H. Ν. Η.

109. "Roast; this word, spelled rost in the original, ought perhaps to be roost. However, Richardson explains it, "to rule the roast, as king of the feast, orderer, purveyor, president"; and he adds, "or may it not be to rule the roost, an expression of which every poultryyard would supply an explanation?" So in Bishop Jewell's Defence: "Geate you nowe up into your pulpets like bragginge cockes on the rowst, flappe your whinges, and crowe out aloude."-H. Ν. Η.

115. The Salisbury of this play was Richard Nevil, second son to Ralph Nevil, whom we have often met with in former plays as earl of Westmoreland. Richard was married to Alice, the only child and heir of Thomas Montacute, the earl of Salisbury who was killed at the siege of Orleans in 1428; and thus brought that earldom into the Nevil family. His oldest son, Richard, again, was married to Anne, the sister and heir of Henry Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, and so succeeded to that earldom in 1449. Shakespeare, though he rightly makes Warwick the son of Salisbury, attributes to him the acts of Richard Beauchamp, the earl of Warwick who figures

For, were there hope to conquer them again,
My sword should shed hot blood, mine eyes no

tears.

Anjou and Maine! myself did win them both;
Those provinces these arms of mine did con-
quer:

And are the cities, that I got with wounds,
Deliver'd up again with peaceful words?
Mort Dieu!

120

York. For Suffolk's duke, may he be suffocate,
That dims the honor 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;

130

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!

in the preceding play. Perhaps it should be added that there is the same confusion in the quarto; which may be some evidence that Shakespeare was the author of that.-H. N. H.

133. "fifteenth," i. e. of the personal property of every subject.С. Н. Н.

134. So in Holinshed: "First, the king had not one penie with hir; and for the fetching of hir the marquesse of Suffolke demanded a whole fifteenth in open parlement. And also there was delivered for hir the duchie of Anjou, the citie of Mans, and the whole countie of Maine, which countries were the verie staies and backestands to the duchie of Normandie." -H. Ν. Η.

She should have stay'd in France and starved in

France,

Before

140

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;
'Tis not my speeches that you do mislike,
But 'tis my presence that doth trouble ye.
Rancor 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.

151

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 me, 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 displeased at it.
Look to it, lords; let not his smoothing words
Bewitch your hearts; be wise and circumspect.
What though the common people favor him,
Calling him 'Humphrey, the good Duke of

Gloucester,'

Clapping their hands, and crying with loud voice,

'Jesus maintain your royal excellence!'

160

« PreviousContinue »