Henry VI, Pt. 2
Act II, Scene 1
St. Albans.
- Enter the King, Queen with her hawk on her fist, Protector
- Gloucester, Cardinal, and Suffolk, with Falc’ners hallowing.
Queen Margaret
1 - 4- Believe me, lords, for flying at the brook,
- 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.
King Henry the Sixth
5 - 8- 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 of climbing high.
Duke of Suffolk
9 - 12- No marvel, and it like your Majesty,
- My Lord Protector’s hawks do tow’r so well;
- They know their master loves to be aloft,
- And bears his thoughts above his falcon’s pitch.
Duke of Gloucester
13 - 14- My lord, ’tis but a base ignoble mind
- That mounts no higher than a bird can soar.
Cardinal Beauford
15- I thought as much, he would be above the clouds.
Duke of Gloucester
16 - 17- Ay, my Lord Cardinal, how think you by that?
- Were it not good your Grace could fly to heaven?
King Henry the Sixth
18- The treasury of everlasting joy.
Cardinal Beauford
19 - 22- Thy heaven is on earth, thine eyes and thoughts
- Beat on a crown, the treasure of thy heart,
- Pernicious Protector, dangerous peer,
- That smooth’st it so with king and commonweal!
Duke of Gloucester
23 - 26- What, Cardinal? Is your priesthood grown peremptory?
- Tantaene animis caelestibus irae?
- Churchmen so hot? Good uncle, hide such malice;
- With such holiness can you do it?
Duke of Suffolk
27 - 28- No malice, sir, no more than well becomes
- So good a quarrel and so bad a peer.
Duke of Gloucester
29- As who, my lord?
Duke of Suffolk
30 - 31- Why, as you, my lord,
- An’t like your lordly Lord’s Protectorship.
Duke of Gloucester
32- Why, Suffolk, England knows thine insolence.
Queen Margaret
33- And thy ambition, Gloucester.
King Henry the Sixth
34 - 36- I prithee peace,
- Good queen, and whet not on these furious peers,
- For blessed are the peacemakers on earth.
Cardinal Beauford
37 - 38- Let me be blessed for the peace I make
- Against this proud Protector with my sword!
Duke of Gloucester
39- Aside to Cardinal
- Faith, holy uncle, would’t were come to that!
Cardinal Beauford
40- Aside to Gloucester
- Marry, when thou dar’st.
Duke of Gloucester
41 - 42- Aside to Cardinal
- Make up no factious numbers for the matter,
- In thine own person answer thy abuse.
Cardinal Beauford
43 - 44- Aside to Gloucester
- Ay, where thou dar’st not peep. And if thou dar’st,
- This evening, on the east side of the grove.
King Henry the Sixth
45- How now, my lords?
Cardinal Beauford
46 - 49- Believe me, cousin Gloucester,
- Had not your man put up the fowl so suddenly,
- We had had more sport.
- Aside to Gloucester.
- Come with thy two-hand sword.
Duke of Gloucester
50- True, uncle.
Cardinal Beauford
51- Aside to Gloucester
- Are ye advis’d? The east side of the grove.
Duke of Gloucester
52- Aside to Cardinal
- Cardinal, I am with you.
King Henry the Sixth
53- Why, how now, uncle Gloucester?
Duke of Gloucester
54 - 57- Talking of hawking; nothing else, my lord.
- Aside to Cardinal.
- Now by God’s Mother, priest,
- I’ll shave your crown for this,
- Or all my fence shall fail.
Cardinal Beauford
58 - 59- Aside to Gloucester.
- Medice, teipsum—
- Protector, see to’t well, protect yourself.
King Henry the Sixth
60 - 63- 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 one crying, “A miracle!”
Duke of Gloucester
64 - 65- What means this noise?
- Fellow, what miracle dost thou proclaim?
One Citizen
66- A miracle, a miracle!
Duke of Suffolk
67- Come to the King and tell him what miracle.
One Citizen
68 - 70- Forsooth, a blind man at Saint Alban’s shrine,
- Within this half hour, hath receiv’d his sight,
- A man that ne’er saw in his life before.
King Henry the Sixth
71 - 72- Now God be prais’d, that to believing souls
- Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair!
- Enter the Mayor of Saint Albans and his Brethren, with
- music, bearing the man Simpcox between two in a chair,
- Simpcox’s Wife and others following.
Cardinal Beauford
73 - 74- Here comes the townsmen on procession,
- To present your Highness with the man.
King Henry the Sixth
75 - 76- Great is his comfort in this earthly vale,
- Although by his sight his sin be multiplied.
Duke of Gloucester
77 - 78- Stand by, my masters. Bring him near the King,
- His Highness’ pleasure is to talk with him.
Margaret of Anjou, wife of King Henry VI
Talbot Master, circa 1445
King Henry the Sixth
79 - 81- Good fellow, tell us here the circumstance,
- That we for thee may glorify the Lord.
- What, hast thou been long blind and now restor’d?
Saunder Simpcox
82- Born blind, and’t please your Grace.
Simpcox’s Wife
83- Ay indeed was he.
Duke of Suffolk
84- What woman is this?
Simpcox’s Wife
85- His wife, and’t like your worship.
Duke of Gloucester
86- Hadst thou been his mother, thou couldst have better told.
King Henry the Sixth
87- Where wert thou born?
Saunder Simpcox
88- At Berwick in the north, and’t like your Grace.
King Henry the Sixth
89 - 91- Poor soul, God’s goodness hath been great to thee.
- Let never day nor night unhallowed pass,
- But still remember what the Lord hath done.
Queen Margaret
92 - 93- Tell me, good fellow, cam’st thou here by chance
- Or of devotion, to this holy shrine?
Saunder Simpcox
94 - 97- God knows, of pure devotion, being call’d
- A hundred times and oft’ner, in my sleep,
- By good Saint Alban, who said, “Simon, come;
- Come offer at my shrine, and I will help thee.”
Simpcox’s Wife
98 - 99- Most true, forsooth; and many time and oft
- Myself have heard a voice to call him so.
Cardinal Beauford
100- What, art thou lame?
Saunder Simpcox
101- Ay, God Almighty help me!
Duke of Suffolk
102- How cam’st thou so?
Saunder Simpcox
103- A fall off of a tree.
Simpcox’s Wife
104- A plum-tree, master.
Duke of Gloucester
105- How long hast thou been blind?
Saunder Simpcox
106- O, born so, master.
Duke of Gloucester
107- What, and wouldst climb a tree?
Saunder Simpcox
108- But that in all my life, when I was a youth.
Simpcox’s Wife
109- Too true, and bought his climbing very dear.
Duke of Gloucester
110- Mass, thou lov’dst plums well, that wouldst venture so.
Saunder Simpcox
111 - 112- Alas, good master, my wife desired some damsons,
- And made me climb, with danger of my life.
Duke of Gloucester
113 - 115- A subtile knave, but yet it shall not serve.
- Let me see thine eyes. Wink now; now open them.
- In my opinion yet thou seest not well.
Saunder Simpcox
116- Yes, master, clear as day, I thank God and Saint Alban.
Duke of Gloucester
117- Say’st thou me so? What color is this cloak of?
Saunder Simpcox
118- Red, master, red as blood.
Duke of Gloucester
119- Why, that’s well said. What color is my gown of?
Saunder Simpcox
120- Black, forsooth, coal-black as jet.
King Henry the Sixth
121- Why then, thou know’st what color jet is of?
Duke of Suffolk
122- And yet, I think, jet did he never see.
Duke of Gloucester
123- But cloaks and gowns, before this day, a many.
Simpcox’s Wife
124- Never, before this day, in all his life.
Duke of Gloucester
125- Tell me, sirrah, what’s my name?
Saunder Simpcox
126- Alas, master, I know not.
Duke of Gloucester
127- What’s his name?
Saunder Simpcox
128- I know not.
Duke of Gloucester
129- Nor his?
Saunder Simpcox
130- No indeed, master.
Duke of Gloucester
131- What’s thine own name?
Saunder Simpcox
132- Saunder Simpcox, and if it please you, master.
Duke of Gloucester
133 - 141- Then, Saunder, sit there, the lying’st knave
- In Christendom. If thou hadst been born blind,
- Thou mightst as well have known all our names, as thus
- To name the several colors we do wear.
- Sight may distinguish colors; but suddenly
- To nominate them all, it is impossible.
- My lords, Saint Alban here hath done a miracle;
- And would ye not think his cunning to be great,
- That could restore this cripple to his legs again?
Saunder Simpcox
142- O master, that you could!
Duke of Gloucester
143 - 144- My masters of Saint Albans, have you not
- Beadles in your town, and things call’d whips?
Mayor
145- Yes, my lord, if it please your Grace.
Duke of Gloucester
146- Then send for one presently.
Mayor
147- Sirrah, go fetch the beadle hither straight.
- Exit One Citizen.
Duke of Gloucester
148 - 150- Now fetch me a stool hither by and by.
- A stool brought.
- Now, sirrah, if you mean to save yourself from whipping,
- leap me over this stool and run away.
Saunder Simpcox
151 - 152- Alas, master, I am not able to stand alone;
- You go about to torture me in vain.
- Enter a Beadle with whips.
Duke of Gloucester
153 - 154- Well, sir, we must have you find your legs. Sirrah beadle,
- whip him till he leap over that same stool.
Now, sirrah, if you mean to save yourself from whipping, leap me over this stool and run away.
Edward Matthew Ward, circa 1850
Beadle
155 - 156- I will, my lord. Come on, sirrah, off with your doublet
- quickly.
Saunder Simpcox
157- Alas, master, what shall I do? I am not able to stand.
- After the Beadle hath hit him once, he leaps over the stool
- and runs away; and they follow and cry, “A miracle!”
King Henry the Sixth
158- O God, seest thou this, and bearest so long?
Queen Margaret
159- It made me laugh to see the villain run.
Duke of Gloucester
160- Follow the knave, and take this drab away.
Simpcox’s Wife
161- Alas, sir, we did it for pure need.
Duke of Gloucester
162 - 163- Lee them be whipt through every market town,
- Till they come to Berwick, from whence they came.
- Exeunt Wife, Beadle, Mayor, etc.
Cardinal Beauford
164- Duke Humphrey has done a miracle today.
Duke of Suffolk
165- True; made the lame to leap and fly away.
Duke of Gloucester
166 - 167- But you have done more miracles than I:
- You made in a day, my lord, whole towns to fly.
- Enter Buckingham.
King Henry the Sixth
168- What tidings with our cousin Buckingham?
Duke of Buckingham
169 - 180- Such as my heart doth tremble to unfold:
- A sort of naughty persons, lewdly bent,
- Under the countenance and confederacy
- Of Lady Eleanor, the Protector’s wife,
- The ringleader and head of all this rout,
- Have practic’d dangerously against your state,
- Dealing with witches and with conjurers,
- Whom we have apprehended in the fact,
- Raising up wicked spirits from under ground,
- Demanding of King Henry’s life and death,
- And other of your Highness’ Privy Council,
- As more at large your Grace shall understand.
Cardinal Beauford
181 - 184- And so, my Lord Protector, by this means
- Your lady is forthcoming yet at London.
- Aside to Gloucester.
- This news, I think, hath turn’d your weapon’s edge;
- ’Tis like, my lord, you will not keep your hour.
Duke of Gloucester
185 - 188- Ambitious churchman, leave to afflict my heart.
- Sorrow and grief have vanquish’d all my powers;
- And vanquish’d as I am, I yield to thee,
- Or to the meanest groom.
King Henry the Sixth
189 - 190- O God, what mischiefs work the wicked ones,
- Heaping confusion on their own heads thereby!
Queen Margaret
191 - 192- Gloucester, see here the tainture of thy nest,
- And look thyself be faultless, thou wert best.
Duke of Gloucester
193 - 202- Madam, for myself, to heaven I do appeal,
- How I have lov’d my king and commonweal;
- And for my wife, I know not how it stands.
- Sorry I am to hear what I have heard.
- Noble she is; but if she have forgot
- Honor and virtue, and convers’d with such
- As, like to pitch, defile nobility,
- I banish her my bed and company,
- And give her as a prey to law and shame,
- That hath dishonored Gloucester’s honest name.
King Henry the Sixth
203 - 208- Well, for this night we will repose us here;
- Tomorrow toward London back again,
- To look into this business thoroughly,
- And call these foul offenders to their answers,
- And poise the cause in justice’ equal scales,
- Whose beam stands sure, whose rightful cause prevails.
- Flourish. Exeunt.