Of thousand friends; then, in a moment, see

How soon this mightiness meets misery. 30

And if you can be merry then, I’ll say

A man may weep upon his wedding day.

Exit

1.1 ⌈A cloth of state throughout the play.⌉ Enter the Duke of Norfolk at one door; at the other door enter the Duke of Buckingham and the Lord Abergavenny

BUCKINGHAM (to Norfolk)

Good morrow, and well met. How have ye done

Since last we saw in France?

NORFOLK

I thank your grace,

Healthful, and ever since a fresh admirer

Of what I saw there.

BUCKINGHAM

An untimely ague

Stayed me a prisoner in my chamber when 5

Those suns of glory, those two lights of men,

Met in the vale of Ardres.

NORFOLK

’Twixt Guisnes and Ardres.

I was then present, saw them salute on horseback,

Beheld them when they lighted, how they clung

In their embracement as they grew together,

Which had they, what four throned ones could have

weighed

Such a compounded one?

BUCKINGHAM

All the whole time

I was my chamber’s prisoner.

NORFOLK

Then you lost

The view of earthly glory. Men might say

Till this time pomp was single, but now married

To one above itself. Each following day

Became the next day’s master, till the last

Made former wonders its. Today the French,

All clinquant all in gold, like heathen gods

Shone down the English; and tomorrow they

Made Britain India. Every man that stood

Showed like a mine. Their dwarfish pages were

As cherubim, all gilt; the mesdames, too,

Not used to toil, did almost sweat to bear

The pride upon them, that their very labour

Was to them as a painting. Now this masque

Was cried incomparable, and th‘ensuing night

Made it a fool and beggar. The two kings

Equal in lustre, were now best, now worst,

As presence did present them. Him in eye

Still him in praise, and being present both,

’Twas said they saw but one, and no discerner

Durst wag his tongue in censure. When these suns—

For so they phrase ’em—by their heralds challenged

The noble spirits to arms, they did perform

Beyond thought’s compass, that former fabulous story

Being now seen possible enough, got credit

That Bevis was believed.

BUCKINGHAM

O, you go far!

NORFOLK

As I belong to worship, and affect

In honour honesty, the tract of ev’rything

Would by a good discourser lose some life

Which action’s self was tongue to. All was royal.

To the disposing of it naught rebelled.

Order gave each thing view. The office did

Distinctly his full function.

BUCKINGHAM

Who did guide—

I mean, who set the body and the limbs

Of this great sport together, as you guess?

NORFOLK

One, certes, that promises no element

In such a business.

BUCKINGHAM

I pray you who, my lord?

NORFOLK

All this was ordered by the good discretion

Of the right reverend Cardinal of York.

BUCKINGHAM

The devil speed him! No man’s pie is freed

From his ambitious finger. What had he

To do in these fierce vanities? I wonder

That such a keech can, with his very bulk,

Take up the rays o’th’ beneficial sun,

And keep it from the earth.

NORFOLK

Surely, sir,

There’s in him stuff that puts him to these ends.

For being not propped by ancestry, whose grace

Chalks successors their way, nor called upon no

For high feats done to th’ crown, neither allied

To eminent assistants, but spider-like,

Out of his self-drawing web, a gives us note

The force of his own merit makes his way—

A gift that heaven gives for him which buys

A place next to the King.

ABERGAVENNY

I cannot tell

What heaven hath given him—let some graver eye

Pierce into that; but I can see his pride

Peep through each part of him. Whence has he that?

If not from hell, the devil is a niggard

Or has given all before, and he begins

A new hell in himself.

BUCKINGHAM

Why the devil,

Upon this French going out, took he upon him

Without the privity o’th’ King t’appoint

Who should attend on him? He makes up the file

Of all the gentry, for the most part such

To whom as great a charge as little honour

He meant to lay upon; and his own letter,

The honourable board of council out,

Must fetch him in, he papers.

ABERGAVENNY

I do know

Kinsmen of mine—three at the least—that have

By this so sickened their estates that never

They shall abound as formerly.

BUCKINGHAM

O, many

Have broke their backs with laying manors on ’em

For this great journey. What did this vanity

But minister communication of

A most poor issue?

NORFOLK

Grievingly I think

The peace between the French and us not values

The cost that did conclude it.

BUCKINGHAM

Every man,

After the hideous storm that followed, was

A thing inspired, and, not consulting, broke