ACT II.

SCENE I. Saint Alban's.

Enter King HENRY, Queen MARGARET, GLOSTER, the Cardinal, and SUFFOLK, with Falconers hallooing.

Queen. Believe me, lords, for flying at the brook,1
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.2

King. But what a point, my lord, your falcon made,
And what a pitch she flew above the rest!
To see how God in all his creatures works!
Yea, man and birds are fain 3 of climbing high.
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, 'tis but a base ignoble mind
That mounts no higher than a bird can soar.

Car. I thought as much: he'd be above the clouds.

1 The falconer's term for hawking at water-fowl. Here, as often, for is as for, or as to the matter of

2 Percy explains this, "The wind was so high, it was ten to one old Joan would not have taken her flight at the game." Which is confirmed by Latham's Falconry, 1633: "When you shall come afterward to fly her, she must be altogether guided and governed by her stomacke; yea, she will be kept and also lost by the same: for let her faile of that never so little, and every puff of wind will blow her away from you; nay, if there be no wind stirring, yet she will wheele and sinke away from him and from his voice, that all the time before had lured and trained her up."

8 Fain is fond or glad. So Spenser:

And in her hand she held a mirror bright,
Wherein her face she often viewed fain.

Glo. Ay, my Lord Cardinal, how think you by that? Were it not good your Grace could fly to Heaven?

King. The treasury of everlasting joy!

Car. Thy Heaven is on Earth; thine eyes and thoughts Beat on a crown,4 the treasure of thy heart;

Pernicious Protector, dangerous peer,

That smooth'st it so with King and commonweal!

Glo. What, Cardinal, is your priesthood grown peremptory?

Tantæne animis cœlestibus iræ ?

Churchmen so hot? good uncle, hide such malice;

For with such holiness you well can do it.

Suf. No malice, sir; no more than well becomes

So good a quarrel and so bad a peer.

Glo. As who, my lord?

Suf.

Why, as you, my lord,

An't like your lordly Lord-protectorship.

Glo. Why, Suffolk, England knows thine insolence.
Queen. And thy ambition, Gloster.

King.
I pr'ythee, peace,
Good Queen, and whet not on these furious peers ;
For blessed are the peacemakers on Earth.

Car. Let me be blessèd for the peace I make,

Against this proud Protector, with my sword!

Glo. [Aside to Car.] Faith, holy uncle, would 'twere come

to that!

Car. [Aside to GLO.] Marry, when thou darest.

Glo. [Aside to Car.] Make up no factious numbers for the

matter;

In thine own person answer thy abuse.

4 That is, "thy mind is working on a crown." So in The Tempest:

Do not infest your mind with beating on

The strangeness of this business.

5 To smooth is to stroke, to caress, to wheedle, to flatter. So in i. 1, of this play: "Let not his smoothing words bewitch your hearts."

Car. [Aside to Glo.] Ay, where thou darest not peep: an

if thou darest,

This evening on the east side of the grove.

King. How now, my lords!
Car.

Believe me, cousin Gloster,

Had not your man put up the fowl so suddenly,

We had had more sport. — [Aside to GLO.] Come with thy

two-hand sword.5

Glo. True, uncle.

Car. [Aside to GLO.] Are ye advised?-the east side of

the grove?

Glo. [Aside to Car.] Cardinal, I am with you.

King. Why, how now, uncle Gloster!

Glo. Talking of hawking; nothing else, my lord. —

[Aside to Car.] Now, by God's Mother, priest, I'll shave

your crown

For this, or all my fence' shall fail.

Car. [Aside to GLO.] Medice, teipsum;8

Protector, see to't well, protect yourself.

King. The winds grow high; so do your stomachs, lords.

How irksome is this music to my heart!

When such strings jar, what hope of harmony?

I pray, my lords, let me compound this strife.

Enter a Townsman of Saint Alban's, crying A miracle!

Glo. What means this noise?

Fellow, what miracle dost thou proclaim?

Towns. A miracle! a miracle!

Suf. Come to the King, and tell him what miracle.

6 The two-hand sword was sometimes called the common use before the introduction of the rapier.

long sword, and was in Justice Shallow, in The

Merry Wives of Windsor, boasts of the exploits he had performed in his youth with this instrument.

7 Fence is the art of defence.

8" Medice, cura teipsum," " Physician, heal thyself." St. Luke, iv. 23.

Towns. Forsooth, a blind man at Saint Alban's shrine, Within this half-hour, hath received his sight;

A man that ne'er saw in his life before.

King. Now, God be praised, that to believing souls Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair!

Enter the Mayor of Saint Alban's and his Brethren; and SIMPCOX, borne between two persons in a chair, his Wife and a Multitude following.

Car. Here are the townsmen on procession,

Come to present your Highness with the man.

King. Great is his comfort in this earthly vale,

Though by his sight his sin be multiplied.

Glo. Stand by, my masters: - bring him near the King; His Highness' pleasure is to talk with him.

King. Good fellow, tell us here the circumstance,

That we for thee may glorify the Lord.

What, hast thou been long blind, and now restored?
Simp. Born blind, an't please your Grace.
Wife.

Suf. What woman's this?

Wife.

Ay, indeed was he.

His wife, an't like your Worship.

Glo. Hadst thou been his mother, thou couldst have better

told.

King. Where wert thou born?

Simp. At Berwick in the North, an't like your Grace.

King. Poor soul, God's goodness hath been great to thee: Let never day nor night unhallow'd pass,

But still remember what the Lord hath done.

Queen. Tell me, good fellow, camest thou here by chance, Or of devotion, to this holy shrine?

Simp. God knows, of pure devotion; being call'd

A hundred times and oftener, in my sleep,

By good Saint Alban; who said, Simpcox, come,·

Come, offer at my shrine, and I will help thee.

Wife. Most true, forsooth; and many time and oft
Myself have heard a voice to call him so.

Car. What, art thou lame?
Simp.

Suf. How camest thou so?
Simp.

Wife. A plum-tree, master.
Glo.

Simp. O, born so, master.
Glo.

Ay, God Almighty help me!

A fall off of a tree.

How long hast thou been blind.

What, and wouldst climb a tree?

Simp. But that in all my life, when I was a youth.

Wife. Too true; and bought his climbing very dear.
Glo. Mass, thou lovedst plums well, that wouldst ven-

ture so.

Simp. Alas, good master, my wife desired some damsons, And made me climb, with danger of my life.

Glo. A subtle knave! but yet it shall not serve.

Let me see thine eyes: wink now;

In my opinion yet thou see'st not well.

now open them:

Simp. Yes, master, clear as day, I thank God and Saint

Alban.

Glo. Say'st thou me so? What colour is this cloak of?

Simp. Red, master; red as blood.

Glo. Why, that's well said. What colour is my gown of? Simp. Black, forsooth; coal-black as jet.

King. Why, then thou know'st what colour jet is of?

Suf. And yet, I think, jet did he never see.

Glo. But cloaks and gowns, before this day, a many.
Wife. Never, before this day, in all his life.

Glo. Tell me, sirrah, what's my name?

Simp. Alas, master, I know not.

Glo. What's his name?

Simp. I know not.