bac SCENE III. The palace.

Enter three or four Petitioners, PETER, the Armourer’s man, being one.
♦ First Petit. My masters, let’s stand close: my lord protector will come this way by and by, and then we may ♦ deliver our supplications in the quill.
Sec. Petit. Marry, the Lord protect him, for he’s a 5 good man! Jesu bless him!
Enter SUFFOLK and QUEEN.
♦ Peter. Here a’ comes, methinks, and the queen with him. I’ll be the first, sure.
Sec. Petit. Come back, fool; this is the Duke of Suffolk, and not my lord protector.
10 Suf. How now, fellow! wouldst any thing with me?
First Petit. I pray, my lord, pardon me; I took ye for my lord protector.
♦ Queen. [Reading] ‘To my Lord Protector!’ Are your supplications to his lordship? Let me see them: what is 15 thine?
♦ First Petit. Mine is, an’t please your grace, against John Goodman, my lord cardinal’s man, for keeping my house, and lands, and wife and all, from me.
Suf. Thy wife too! that’s some wrong, indeed. 20 What’s yours? What’s here! [Reads] ‘Against the Duke ♦ of Suffolk, for enclosing the commons of Melford.’ How now, sir knave!
Sec. Petit. Alas, sir, I am but a poor petitioner of our whole township.
25 Peter [giving his petition]. Against my master, Thomas Horner, for saying that the Duke of York was rightful heir to the crown.
♦ Queen. What say’st thou? did the Duke of York say he was rightful heir to the crown?
30 Peter. That my master was? no, forsooth: my master said that he was, and that the king was an usurper.
♦ Suf. Who is there? [Enter Servant.] Take this fellow in, and send for his master with a pursuivant presently: ♦ we’ll hear more of your matter before the king. [Exit Servant with Peter.
35 Queen. And as for you, that love to be protected
Under the wings of our protector’s grace,
♦ Begin your suits anew, and sue to him. [Tears the supplications.
Away, base cullions! Suffolk, let them go.
♦ All. Come, let’s be gone. [Exeunt.
40 Queen. My Lord of Suffolk, say, is this the guise,
♦ Is this the fashion in the court of England?
Is this the government of Britain’s isle,
And this the royalty of Albion’s king?
What, shall King Henry be a pupil still
45 Under the surly Gloucester’s governance?
Am I a queen in title and in style,
And must be made a subject to a duke?
I tell thee, Pole, when in the city Tours
♦ Thou ran’st a tilt in honour of my love
50 And stolest away the ladies’ hearts of France,
I thought King Henry had resembled thee
In courage, courtship and proportion:
But all his mind is bent to holiness,
To number Ave-Maries on his beads;
55 His champions are the prophets and apostles,
His weapons holy saws of sacred writ,
His study is his tilt-yard, and his loves
♦ Are brazen images of canonized saints.
♦ I would the college of the cardinals
60 Would choose him pope and carry him to Rome,
And set the triple crown upon his head:
That were a state fit for his holiness.
♦ Suf. Madam, be patient: as I was cause
Your highness came to England, so will I
65 In England work your grace’s full content.
♦ Queen. Beside the haughty protector, have we Beaufort
The imperious churchman, Somerset, Buckingham,
And grumbling York; and not the least of these
But can do more in England than the king.
70 Suf. And he of these that can do most of all
Cannot do more in England than the Nevils:
Salisbury and Warwick are no simple peers.
Queen. Not all these lords do vex me half so much
As that proud dame, the lord protector’s wife.
75 She sweeps it through the court with troops of ladies,
More like an empress than duke Humphrey’s wife:
Strangers in court do take her for the queen:
She bears a duke’s revenues on her back,
♦ And in her heart she scorns our poverty:
80 Shall I not live to be avenged on her?
Contemptuous base-born callet as she is,
She vaunted ’mongst her minions t’other day,
The very train of her worst wearing gown
Was better worth than all my father’s lands,
85 Till Suffolk gave two dukedoms for his daughter.
Suf. Madam, myself have limed a bush for her,
And placed a quire of such enticing birds,
♦ That she will light to listen to the lays,
And never mount to trouble you again.
90 So, let her rest: and, madam, list to me;
For I am bold to counsel you in this.
♦ Although we fancy not the cardinal,
Yet must we join with him and with the lords,
Till we have brought Duke Humphrey in disgrace.
95 As for the Duke of York, this late complaint
Will make but little for his benefit.
♦ So, one by one, we’ll weed them all at last,
♦ And you yourself shall steer the happy helm.
Sound a Sennet. Enter the KING, DUKE HUMPHREY of Gloucester, CARDINAL BEAUFORT, BUCKINGHAM, YORK,SOMERSET, SALISBURY, WARWICK, and the DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER.
♦ King. For my part, noble lords, I care not which;
100 Or Somerset or York, all’s one to me.
York. If York have ill demean’d himself in France,
♦ Then let him be denay’d the regentship.
Som. If Somerset be unworthy of the place,
Let York be regent; I will yield to him.
105 War. Whether your grace be worthy, yea or no,
Dispute not that: York is the worthier.
Car. Ambitious Warwick, let thy betters speak.
♦ War. The cardinal’s not my better in the field.
Buck. All in this presence are thy betters, Warwick.
110 War. Warwick may live to be the best of all.
Sal. Peace, son! and show some reason, Buckingham,
Why Somerset should be preferred in this.
Queen. Because the king, forsooth, will have it so.
Glou. Madam, the king is old enough himself
115 To give his censure: these are no women’s matters.
Queen. If he be old enough, what needs your grace
To be protector of his excellence?
Glou. Madam, I am protector of the realm;
And, at his pleasure, will resign my place.
120 Suf. Resign it then and leave thine insolence.
Since thou wert king—as who is king but thou?—
♦ The commonwealth hath daily run to wreck;
The Dauphin hath prevail’d beyond the seas;
And all the peers and nobles of the realm
125 Have been as bondmen to thy sovereignty.
Car. The commons hast thou rack’d; the clergy’s bags
Are lank and lean with thy extortions.
Som. Thy sumptuous buildings and thy wife’s attire
♦ Have cost a mass of public treasury.
130 Buck. Thy cruelty in execution
Upon offenders hath exceeded law
And left thee to the mercy of the law.
Queen. Thy sale of offices and towns in France,
If they were known, as the suspect is great,
135 Would make thee quickly hop without thy head. [Exit Gloucester. The Queen drops her fan.
Give me my fan: what, minion! can ye not? [She gives the Duchess a box on the ear.
I cry you mercy, madam; was it you?
Duch. Was’t I! yea, I it was, proud Frenchwoman:
Could I come near your beauty with my nails,
140 I’ld set my ten commandments in your face.
King. Sweet aunt, be quiet; ’twas against her will.
Duch. Against her will! good king, look to’t in time;
She’ll hamper thee, and dandle thee like a baby:
♦ Though in this place most master wear no breeches,
145 She shall not strike Dame Eleanor unrevenged. [Exit.
♦ Buck. Lord cardinal, I will follow Eleanor,
And listen after Humphrey, how he proceeds:
♦ She’s tickled now; her fume needs no spurs,
♦ She’ll gallop far enough to her destruction. [Exit.
Re-enter GLOUCESTER.
150 Glou. Now, lords, my choler being over-blown
With walking once about the quadrangle,
I come to talk of commonwealth affairs.
As for your spiteful false objections,
Prove them, and I lie open to the law:
155 But God in mercy so deal with my soul,
As I in duty love my king and country!
But, to the matter that we have in hand:
I say, my sovereign, York is meetest man
To be your regent in the realm of France.
160 Suf. Before we make election, give me leave
To show some reason, of no little force,
That York is most unmeet of any man.
York. I’ll tell thee, Suffolk, why I am unmeet:
First, for I cannot flatter thee in pride;
165 Next, if I be appointed for the place,
♦ My Lord of Somerset will keep me here,
Without discharge, money, or furniture,
Till France be won into the Dauphin’s hands:
Last time, I danced attendance on his will
170 Till Paris was besieged, famish’d, and lost.
War. That can I witness; and a fouler fact
Did never traitor in the land commit.
Suf. Peace, headstrong Warwick!
♦ War. Image of pride, why should I hold my peace?
Enter HORNER, the Armourer, and his man PETER, guarded.
175 Suf. Because here is a man accused of treason:
Pray God the Duke of York excuse himself!
York. Doth any one accuse York for a traitor?
King. What mean’st thou, Suffolk; tell me, what are these?
Suf. Please it your majesty, this is the man
180 That doth accuse his master of high treason:
His words were these: that Richard Duke of York
Was rightful heir unto the English crown
And that your majesty was an usurper.
King. Say, man, were these thy words?
185 Hor. An’t shall please your majesty, I never said nor thought any such matter: God is my witness, I am falsely accused by the villain.
Pet. By these ten bones, my lords, he did speak them to me in the garret one night, as we were scouring my 190 Lord of York’s armour.
York. Base dunghill villain and mechanical,
I’ll have thy head for this thy traitor’s speech.
I do beseech your royal majesty,
Let him have all the rigour of the law.
195 Hor. Alas, my lord, hang me, if ever I spake the words. My accuser is my ’prentice; and when I did correct him for his fault the other day, he did vow upon his knees he would be even with me: I have good witness of this; therefore I beseech your majesty, do not cast away an 200 honest man for a villain’s accusation.
King. Uncle, what shall we say to this in law?
♦ Glou. This doom, my lord, if I may judge:
Let Somerset be regent o’er the French,
Because in York this breeds suspicion:
205 And let these have a day appointed them
For single combat in convenient place,
For he hath witness of his servant’s malice:
♦ This is the law, and this Duke Humphrey’s doom.
Som. I humbly thank your royal majesty.
210 Hor. And I accept the combat willingly.
Pet. Alas, my lord, I cannot fight; for God’s sake, pity ♦ my case. The spite of man prevaileth against me. O Lord, have mercy upon me! I shall never be able to fight a blow. O Lord, my heart!
215 Glou. Sirrah, or you must fight, or else be hang’d.
♦ King. Away with them to prison; and the day of combat shall be the last of the next month. Come, Somerset, we’ll see thee sent away. [Flourish. Exeunt.