Home
This site uses cookies
log out

Henry VI, Pt. 2: Act I, Scene 3

Sign in with Google to add your annotations.

Henry VI, Pt. 2
Act I, Scene 3

London. A room in the palace.

Byam Shaw, 1901

  1. Enter three or four Petitioners, Peter the Armorer’s man
  2. being one.

First Petitioner

1 - 3
  1. My masters, let’s stand close. My Lord Protector will come
  2. this way by and by, and then we may deliver our
  3. supplications in the quill.

Second Petitioner

4 - 5
  1. Marry, the Lord protect him, for he’s a good man! Jesu bless
  2. him!
  1. Enter Suffolk and Queen.

Peter

6 - 7
  1. Here ’a comes, methinks, and the Queen with him. I’ll be the
  2. first, sure.

Second Petitioner

8 - 9
  1. Come back, fool. This is the Duke of Suffolk and not my Lord
  2. Protector.

Duke of Suffolk

10
  1. How now, fellow? Wouldst any thing with me?

First Petitioner

11
  1. I pray, my lord, pardon me, I took ye for my Lord Protector.

Queen Margaret

12 - 14
  1. Reading.
  2. “To my Lord Protector”?
  3. Are your supplications to his lordship? Let me see them.
  4. What is thine?

First Petitioner

15 - 17
  1. Mine is, and’t please your Grace, against John Goodman, my
  2. Lord Cardinal’s man, for keeping my house, and lands, and
  3. wife and all, from me.

Duke of Suffolk

18 - 21
  1. Thy wife too? That’s some wrong indeed. What’s yours? What’s
  2. here?
  3. Reads.
  4. “Against the Duke of Suffolk, for enclosing the commons of
  5. Melford.” How now, sir knave?

Second Petitioner

22
  1. Alas, sir, I am but a poor petitioner of our whole township.

Peter

23 - 24
  1. Giving his petition.
  2. Against my master, Thomas Horner, for saying that the Duke
  3. of York was rightful heir to the crown.

Queen Margaret

25 - 26
  1. What say’st thou? Did the Duke of York say he was rightful
  2. heir to the crown?

Peter

27 - 28
  1. That my master was? No, forsooth; my master said that he
  2. was, and that the King was an usurper.

Duke of Suffolk

29 - 32
  1. Who is there?
  2. Enter Servant.
  3. Take this fellow in, and send for his master with a
  4. pursuivant presently. We’ll hear more of your matter before
  5. the King.
  1. Exit Servant with Peter.

Queen Margaret

33 - 36
  1. And as for you, that love to be protected
  2. Under the wings of our Protector’s grace,
  3. Begin your suits anew, and sue to him.
  4. Tear the supplication.
  5. Away, base cullions! Suffolk, let them go.

All Petitioners

37
  1. Come, let’s be gone.
  1. Exeunt.

Queen Margaret

38 - 60
  1. My Lord of Suffolk, say, is this the guise,
  2. Is this the fashions in the court of England?
  3. Is this the government of Britain’s isle,
  4. And this the royalty of Albion’s king?
  5. What, shall King Henry be a pupil still
  6. Under the surly Gloucester’s governance?
  7. Am I a queen in title and in style,
  8. And must be made a subject to a duke?
  9. I tell thee, Pole, when in the city Tours
  10. Thou ran’st a-tilt in honor of my love
  11. And stol’st away the ladies’ hearts of France,
  12. I thought King Henry had resembled thee
  13. In courage, courtship, and proportion;
  14. But all his mind is bent to holiness,
  15. To number Ave-Maries on his beads;
  16. His champions are the prophets and apostles,
  17. His weapons holy saws of sacred writ,
  18. His study is his tilt-yard, and his loves
  19. Are brazen images of canonized saints.
  20. I would the college of the Cardinals
  21. Would choose him Pope and carry him to Rome,
  22. And set the triple crown upon his head—
  23. That were a state fit for his holiness.

Duke of Suffolk

61 - 63
  1. Madam, be patient. As I was cause
  2. Your Highness came to England, so will I
  3. In England work your Grace’s full content.

Queen Margaret

64 - 67
  1. Beside the haughty Protector, have we Beauford
  2. The imperious churchman, Somerset, Buckingham,
  3. And grumbling York; and not the least of these
  4. But can do more in England than the King.

Duke of Suffolk

68 - 70
  1. And he of these that can do most of all
  2. Cannot do more in England than the Nevils:
  3. Salisbury and Warwick are no simple peers.

Queen Margaret

71 - 83
  1. Not all these lords do vex me half so much
  2. As that proud dame, the Lord Protector’s wife:
  3. She sweeps it through the court with troops of ladies,
  4. More like an empress than Duke Humphrey’s wife.
  5. Strangers in court do take her for the Queen.
  6. She bears a duke’s revenues on her back,
  7. And in her heart she scorns our poverty.
  8. Shall I not live to be aveng’d on her?
  9. Contemptuous base-born callot as she is,
  10. She vaunted ’mongst her minions t’ other day,
  11. The very train of her worst wearing gown
  12. Was better worth than all my father’s lands,
  13. Till Suffolk gave two dukedoms for his daughter.
Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham

Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham

William Bond, 1798

Duke of Suffolk

84 - 96
  1. Madam, myself have lim’d a bush for her,
  2. And plac’d a choir of such enticing birds
  3. That she will light to listen to the lays,
  4. And never mount to trouble you again.
  5. So let her rest; and, madam, list to me,
  6. For I am bold to counsel you in this.
  7. Although we fancy not the Cardinal,
  8. Yet must we join with him and with the lords,
  9. Till we have brought Duke Humphrey in disgrace.
  10. As for the Duke of York, this late complaint
  11. Will make but little for his benefit.
  12. So one by one we’ll weed them all at last,
  13. And you yourself shall steer the happy helm.
  1. Sound a sennet. Enter the King, Duke Humphrey of Gloucester,
  2. Cardinal, Buckingham, York, Somerset, Salisbury, Warwick,
  3. and the Duchess of Gloucester.

King Henry the Sixth

97 - 98
  1. For my part, noble lords, I care not which,
  2. Or Somerset or York, all’s one to me.

Duke of York

99 - 100
  1. If York have ill demean’d himself in France,
  2. Then let him be denay’d the regentship.

Duke of Somerset

101 - 102
  1. If Somerset be unworthy of the place,
  2. Let York be Regent, I will yield to him.

Earl of Warwick

103 - 104
  1. Whether your Grace be worthy, yea or no,
  2. Dispute not that; York is the worthier.

Cardinal Beauford

105
  1. Ambitious Warwick, let thy betters speak.

Earl of Warwick

106
  1. The Cardinal’s not my better in the field.

Duke of Buckingham

107
  1. All in this presence are thy betters, Warwick.

Earl of Warwick

108
  1. Warwick may live to be the best of all.

Earl of Salisbury

109 - 110
  1. Peace, son, and show some reason, Buckingham,
  2. Why Somerset should be preferr’d in this.

Queen Margaret

111
  1. Because the King, forsooth, will have it so.

Duke of Gloucester

112 - 113
  1. Madam, the King is old enough himself
  2. To give his censure. These are no women’s matters.

Queen Margaret

114 - 115
  1. If he be old enough, what needs your Grace
  2. To be Protector of his Excellence?

Duke of Gloucester

116 - 117
  1. Madam, I am Protector of the realm,
  2. And at his pleasure will resign my place.

Duke of Suffolk

118 - 123
  1. Resign it then and leave thine insolence.
  2. Since thou wert king—as who is king but thou?—
  3. The commonwealth hath daily run to wrack,
  4. The Dauphin hath prevail’d beyond the seas,
  5. And all the peers and nobles of the realm
  6. Have been as bondmen to thy sovereignty.

Cardinal Beauford

124 - 125
  1. The commons hast thou rack’d, the clergy’s bags
  2. Are lank and lean with thy extortions.

Duke of Somerset

126 - 127
  1. Thy sumptuous buildings and thy wive’s attire
  2. Have cost a mass of public treasury.

Duke of Buckingham

128 - 130
  1. Thy cruelty in execution
  2. Upon offenders hath exceeded law,
  3. And left thee to the mercy of the law.

Queen Margaret

131 - 135
  1. Thy sale of offices and towns in France,
  2. If they were known, as the suspect is great,
  3. Would make thee quickly hop without thy head.
  4. Exit Humphrey. The Queen lets fall her fan.
  5. Give me my fan. What, minion, can ye not?
  6. She gives the Duchess a box on the ear.
  7. I cry you mercy, madam; was it you?

Duchess

136 - 138
  1. Was’t I? Yea, I it was, proud Frenchwoman.
  2. Could I come near your beauty with my nails,
  3. I could set my ten commandments in your face.

King Henry the Sixth

139
  1. Sweet aunt, be quiet, ’twas against her will.

Duchess

140 - 143
  1. Against her will, good king? Look to’t in time,
  2. She’ll hamper thee, and dandle thee like a baby.
  3. Though in this place most master wear no breeches,
  4. She shall not strike Dame Eleanor unreveng’d.
  1. Exit Eleanor.

Duke of Buckingham

144 - 147
  1. Lord Cardinal, I will follow Eleanor,
  2. And listen after Humphrey, how he proceeds.
  3. She’s tickled now; her fume needs no spurs,
  4. She’ll gallop far enough to her destruction.
  1. Exit Buckingham.
  1. Enter Humphrey of Gloucester.

Duke of Gloucester

148 - 157
  1. Now, lords, my choler being overblown
  2. With walking once about the quadrangle,
  3. I come to talk of commonwealth affairs.
  4. As for your spiteful false objections,
  5. Prove them, and I lie open to the law;
  6. But God in mercy so deal with my soul
  7. As I in duty love my king and country!
  8. But to the matter that we have in hand.
  9. I say, my sovereign, York is meetest man
  10. To be your Regent in the realm of France.
Coat of Arms of Sir William de la Pole, 4th Earl of Suffolk

Coat of Arms of Sir William de la Pole, 4th Earl of Suffolk

Rs-nourse

Duke of Suffolk

158 - 160
  1. Before we make election, give me leave
  2. To show some reason, of no little force,
  3. That York is most unmeet of any man.

Duke of York

161 - 168
  1. I’ll tell thee, Suffolk, why I am unmeet:
  2. First, for I cannot flatter thee in pride;
  3. Next, if I be appointed for the place,
  4. My Lord of Somerset will keep me here
  5. Without discharge, money, or furniture,
  6. Till France be won into the Dauphin’s hands.
  7. Last time, I danc’d attendance on his will
  8. Till Paris was besieg’d, famish’d, and lost.

Earl of Warwick

169 - 170
  1. That can I witness, and a fouler fact
  2. Did never traitor in the land commit.

Duke of Suffolk

171
  1. Peace, headstrong Warwick!

Earl of Warwick

172
  1. Image of pride, why should I hold my peace?
  1. Enter Horner the armorer and his man Peter, guarded.

Duke of Suffolk

173 - 174
  1. Because here is a man accused of treason.
  2. Pray God the Duke of York excuse himself!

Duke of York

175
  1. Doth any one accuse York for a traitor?

King Henry the Sixth

176
  1. What mean’st thou, Suffolk? Tell me, what are these?

Duke of Suffolk

177 - 181
  1. Please it your Majesty, this is the man
  2. That doth accuse his master of high treason.
  3. His words were these: that Richard Duke of York
  4. Was rightful heir unto the English crown
  5. And that your Majesty was an usurper.

King Henry the Sixth

182
  1. Say, man, were these thy words?

Thomas Horner

183 - 185
  1. And’t shall please your Majesty, I never said nor thought
  2. any such matter. God is my witness, I am falsely accus’d by
  3. the villain.

Peter

186 - 188
  1. By these ten bones, my lords
  2. Holding up his hands.
  3. he did speak them to me in the garret one night, as we were
  4. scouring my Lord of York’s armor.

Duke of York

189 - 192
  1. Base dunghill villain and mechanical,
  2. I’ll have thy head for this thy traitor’s speech.
  3. I do beseech your royal Majesty,
  4. Let him have all the rigor of the law.

Thomas Horner

193 - 198
  1. Alas, my lord, hang me if ever I spake the words. My accuser
  2. is my prentice, and when I did correct him for his fault the
  3. other day, he did vow upon his knees he would be even with
  4. me. I have good witness of this; therefore I beseech your
  5. Majesty, do not cast away an honest man for a villain’s
  6. accusation.

King Henry the Sixth

199
  1. Uncle, what shall we say to this in law?

Duke of Gloucester

200 - 206
  1. This doom, my lord, if I may judge:
  2. Let Somerset be Regent o’er the French,
  3. Because in York this breeds suspicion;
  4. And let these have a day appointed them
  5. For single combat in convenient place,
  6. For he hath witness of his servant’s malice.
  7. This is the law, and this Duke Humphrey’s doom.

Duke of Somerset

207
  1. I humbly thank your royal Majesty.

Thomas Horner

208
  1. And I accept the combat willingly.

Peter

209 - 212
  1. Alas, my lord, I cannot fight; for God’s sake pity my case.
  2. The spite of man prevaileth against me. O Lord, have mercy
  3. upon me! I shall never be able to fight a blow. O Lord, my
  4. heart!

Duke of Gloucester

213
  1. Sirrah, or you must fight, or else be hang’d.

King Henry the Sixth

214 - 216
  1. Away with them to prison; and the day of combat shall be the
  2. last of the next month. Come, Somerset, we’ll see thee sent
  3. away.
  1. Flourish. Exeunt.
The Siege of Paris

Till Paris was besieg’d, famish’d, and lost.

The Siege of Paris

Unknown artist, circa 1484

© 2021 Unotate.com • contact • privacy policy • Creative Commons text from PlayShakespeare.com • All illustrations are public domain or Creative Commons