To fee her coronation be perform'd.
[Exeunt King, Queen, and Suffolk.
Glo. Brave Peers of England, pillars of the state, To you Duke Humphry must unload his grief, Your grief, the common grief of all the land. What! did my brother Henry spend his youth, His valour, coin, and people in the wars? Did he fo 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, and Salisbury, victorious Warwick, Receiv'd deep scars in France and Normandy ? Or hath mine uncle Beauford, and myself, (3) With all the learned council of the realm, Studied so long, fat in the council-house, Early and late, debating to and fro, How France and Frenchmen might be kept in awe, And was his Highness in his infancy Crowned in Paris, in despight of foes? And shall these labours and these honours 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; Razing the characters of your renown, Defacing monuments of conquer'd France, Undoing all, as all had never been.
Car. Nephew, what means this paffionate discourse? This peroration with fuch circumstances ? For France, 'tis ours; and we will keep it still.
(3) Or bath mine uncle Bedford---] Here again the indolence of our modern editors is very fignal; for within fix lines Gloucefter is made to call Bedford both his brother and uncle. I have the warrant of the older books for restoring the true reading here.
For were there hope to conquer them again, My fword should shed hot blood, mine eyes no Anjou and Maine! myself did win them both : Those provinces these arms of mine did conquei And are the cities, that I got with wounds, Delivered up again with peaceful words ?.**
York. For Suffolk's Duke, may he be fuffocate, That dims the honour of this warlike ifle ! 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 wiv And our King Henry gives away his own, To match with her that brings no vantages.
Glo. A proper jest, and never heard before, That Suffolk should demand a whole fifteenth, For coft and charges in transporting her:She should have ftaid in France, and starv'd in i Before-
Car. My Lord of Glo'ster, now ye grow too h It was the pleasure of my Lord the King.
Glo. My Lord of Winchester, I know your min 'Tis not my speeches that you do miflike, 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, farewel; and say, when I am gone, I prophesy'd, France will be loft ere long.
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. Confider, 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 weft, There's reafon he should be displeas'd at it. Look to it, Lords, let not his foothing words Bewitch your hearts; be wife and circumspect. What though the common people favour him, Calling him Humphry, the good Duke of Glo'fter, Clapping their hands and crying with loud voice, Jefu maintain your royal excellence ! With, God preserve the good Duke Humphry! I fear me, Lords, for all this flattering gloss, He well be found a dangerous Protector.
Buck. Why should he then protect our Sovereign, He being of age to govern of himself ? Coufin of Somerset, join you with me, And all together with the Duke of Suffolk, We'll quickly hoift Duke Humphry from his feat.
Car. This weighty business will not brook delay.
I'll to the Duke of Suffolk presently.
Som. Cousin of Buckingham, though Humphry's pride And greatness of his place be grief to us, Yet let us watch the haughty Cardinal : His infolence is more intolerable Than all the Princes in the land befide: If Glo'ster be displeas'd, he'll be Protector. Buck. Or Somerset, or I, will be Protector, Defpight Duke Humphry, or the Cardinal.
[Exe. 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 faw, but Humphry Duke of Glo'fter Did bear him like a noble Gentleman : Oft have I feen the haughty Cardinal
More like a foldier, than a man o'th' church;
When thou wert regent for our Sovereign, Have made thee fear'd and honour'd of the peo Join we together for the publick 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, cherith Duke Humphry's deed While they do tend the profit of the land. War. So God help Warwick, as he loves the And common profit of his country ! York. And so says York, for he hath greatest c
Sal. Then let's make haste, and look unto the War. Unto the main? Oh father, Maine is le That Maine, which by main force Warwick did And would have kept, so long as breath did la Main-chance, father, you meant; but I meant Which I will win from France, or else be flain. [Exe. Warwick and Sal
York. Anjou and Maine are given to the Frenc Paris is lost; the state of Normandy Stands on a tickle 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 da I cannot blame them all, what is't to them? 'Tis thine they give away, and not their own. Pirates may make cheap penn'worths of their
And purchase friends, and give to curtezans, Still revelling, like Lords, till all be gone: While as the filly 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 dares not touch his own. So York must fit, and fret, and bite his tongue, While his own lands are bargain'd for, and fold. Methinks, the realms of England, France, and Ireland, Bear that proportion to my flesh and blood, As did the fatal brand Althea burnt, Unto the prince's heart of Calydon.
Anjou and Maine, both giv'n unto the French! Cold news for me: for I had hope of France, Ev'n as I have of fertile England's foil. A day will come, when York shall claim his own; And therefore I will take the Nevills parts. And make a shew of love to proud Duke Humphry : And when I spy advantage, claim the crown; For that's the golden mark I seek to hit. Nor shall proud Lancaster ufurp my right, Nor hold the fcepter in his childish fift, Nor wear the diadem upon his head, Whose church-like humour fits not for a crown. Then, York, be still a while, till time do serve; Watch thou, and wake when others be afleep, To pry into the secrets of the state; Till Henry, furfeiting in joys of love,
With his new bride, and England's dear-bought Queen, And Humphry with the peers be fall'n at jars. Then will I raise aloft the milk-white rofe, With whose sweet smell the air fhall be perfum'd; 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.
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