of the king of England's own proper cost and charges, without having any dowry.
K. Hen. They please us well.-Lord marquess, kneel down;
We here create thee the first duke of Suffolk,
And girt thee with the sword.—
Cousin of York, we here discharge your grace
From being regent in the parts of France,
Till term of eighteen months be full expir'd.-
Thanks, uncle Winchester, Gloster, York, and Buck-
ingham,
Somerset, Salisbury, and Warwick;
We thank you all for this great favour 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.
Glo. 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 valour, 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 Warwick,
Receiv'd deep scars in France and Normandy?
Or hath my 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
How France and Frenchmen might be kept in awe?
And hath his highness in his infancy
Been crown'd in Paris, in despite 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 passionate discourse?
This peroration with such circumstance??
Før France, 'tis ours; and we will keep it still.
Glo. Ay, 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 duchies of Anjou and Maine
Unto the poor king Reignier, whose large style
Agrees not with the leanness of his purse9.
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
6 The old copy reads:
"And hath his highness in his infancy
Crowned in Paris, in despite of foes."
Steevens supplied the necessary word Been at the commencement of the second line, which seems to have been omitted by accident. 7 This peroration with such circumstance. This speech crowded with so many circumstances of aggravation.
8 This proverbial phrase is most probably a corruption of "rule the roost," if it was not thus intended here, the word being rost in the old copies. So in Jewell's Defence of the Apologie, p. 35:— "Geate you nowe up into your pulpites like bragginge cockes on the rowst, flappe your whinges, and crowe out aloude." So in Foxe's Actes, p. 345, Edw. II.-" The old queene, Sir Roger Mortimer, and the Bishop of Elie, in such sorte ruled the rost."
9 King Reignier, her father, for all his long style, had too short a purse to send his daughter honourably to the king her spouse. -Holinshed.
War. For grief, that they are past recovery:
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 conquer:
And are the cities, that I got with wounds,
Deliver'd up again with peaceful words 10?
Mort Dieu !
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.
Glo. A proper jest, and never heard before, That Suffolk should demand a whole fifteenth, For costs and charges in transporting her!
She should have staid in France, and starv'd in France, Before
Car. My lord of Gloster, now ye grow too hot; It was the pleasure of my lord the king.
Glo. My lord of Winchester, I know your mind; "Tis not my speeches that you do mislike,
But 'tis my presence that doth trouble
Rancour 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.
Car. So, there goes our protector in a rage.
10 The indignation of Warwick is natural; there is a kind of jingle intended in wounds and words. In the old play the jingle is different. "And must that then which we won with our swords,
be given away with words?"
"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 displeas'd at it.
Look to it, lords; let not his smoothing words
Bewitch your hearts; be wise, and circumspect.
What though the common people favour him,
Calling him-Humphrey the good duke of Gloster;
Clapping their hands, and crying with loud voice-
Jesu maintain your royal excellence!
With-God preserve the good Duke Humphrey!
I fear me, lords, for all this flattering gloss,
He will be found a dangerous protector.
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,
We'll quickly hoise Duke Humphrey from his seat.
Car. This weighty business will not brook delay;
I'll to the duke of Suffolk presently.
[Exit. Som. Cousin of Buckingham, though Humphrey's
And greatness of his place be grief to us,
Yet let us watch the haughty cardinal;
His insolence is more intolerable
Than all the princes in the land beside;
If Gloster be displac'd, he'll be protector.
Buck. Or thou, or I, Somerset, will be protector, Despight 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.
I never saw but Humphrey duke of Gloster
Did bear him like a noble gentleman.
Oft have I seen the haughty cardinal,
More like a soldier, than a man o' the church,
As stout, and proud, as he were lord of all,
Swear like a ruffian, and demean himself
Unlike the ruler of a common-weal.—
Warwick, my son, the comfort of my age!
Thy deeds, thy plainness, and thy house-keeping,
Hath won the greatest favour of the commons,
Excepting none but good duke Humphrey.--
And, brother York 11, thy acts in Ireland,
In bringing them to civil discipline12;
Thy late exploits, done in the heart of France,
When thou wert regent for our sovereign,
Have made thee fear'd, and honour'd, of the people :-
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, cherish Duke Humphrey's deeds,
While they do tend the profit of the land.
War. So God help Warwick, as he loves the land, And common profit of his country !
"Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, married Cicely, the daughter of Ralf Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, by Joan, daughter to John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, by his third wife, dame Catherine Swinford. Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, was son He married to the Earl of Westmoreland by a second wife. Alice, only daughter of Thomas Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, who was killed at the siege of Orleans (see Part I. of this play, Act i. Sc. 3), and in consequence of that alliance obtained the title of Salisbury in 1428. His eldest son, Richard, having married the sister and heir of Henry Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, was created Earl of Warwick, 1449.
12 This is an anachronism. The present scene is in 1445; but Richard, Duke of York, was not viceroy of Ireland till 1449.
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