I promise you, I scarcely know myself.
Hear you the news abroad?
FIRST CITIZEN
Yes, that the King is dead.
SECOND CITIZEN
Ill news, by‘r Lady; seldom comes the better.
I fear, I fear, ’twill prove a giddy world.
Enter another Citizen
THIRD CITIZEN
Neighbours, God speed.
FIRST CITIZEN
Give you good morrow, sir.
THIRD CITIZEN
Doth the news hold of good King Edward’s death?
SECOND CITIZEN
Ay, sir, it is too true. God help the while.
THIRD CITIZEN
Then, masters, look to see a troublous world.
FIRST CITIZEN
No, no, by God’s good grace his son shall reign.
THIRD CITIZEN
Woe to that land that’s governed by a child.
SECOND CITIZEN
In him there is a hope of government,
Which in his nonage council under him,
And in his full and ripened years himself,
No doubt shall then, and till then, govern well.
FIRST CITIZEN
So stood the state when Henry the Sixth
Was crowned in Paris but at nine months old.
THIRD CITIZEN
Stood the state so? No, no, good friends, God wot.
For then this land was famously enriched
With politic, grave counsel; then the King
Had virtuous uncles to protect his grace.
FIRST CITIZEN
Why, so hath this, both by his father and mother.
THIRD CITIZEN
Better it were they all came by his father,
Or by his father there were none at all.
For emulation who shall now be near’st
Will touch us all too near, if God prevent not.
O full of danger is the Duke of Gloucester,
And the Queen’s sons and brothers haught and proud.
And were they to be ruled, and not to rule,
This sickly land might solace as before.
FIRST CITIZEN
Come, come, we fear the worst. All will be well.
THIRD CITIZEN
When clouds are seen, wise men put on their cloaks;
When great leaves fall, then winter is at hand;
When the sun sets, who doth not look for night?
Untimely storms make men expect a dearth.
All may be well, but if God sort it so
’Tis more than we deserve, or I expect.
SECOND CITIZEN
Truly the hearts of men are full of fear.
You cannot reason almost with a man
That looks not heavily and full of dread.
THIRD CITIZEN
Before the days of change still is it so.
By a divine instinct men’s minds mistrust
Ensuing danger, as by proof we see
The water swell before a boist’rous storm.
But leave it all to God. Whither away?
SECOND CITIZEN
Marry, we were sent for to the justices.
THIRD CITIZEN
And so was I. I’ll bear you company. Exeunt
2.4 Enter ⌈Lord Cardinal⌉, young Duke of York, Queen Elizabeth, and the old Duchess of York
⌈CARDINAL⌉
Last night, I hear, they lay them at Northampton.
At Stony Stratford they do rest tonight.
Tomorrow, or next day, they will be here.
DUCHESS OF YORK
I long with all my heart to see the Prince.
I hope he is much grown since last I saw him.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
But I hear, no. They say my son of York
Has almost overta’en him in his growth.
YORK
Ay, mother, but I would not have it so.
DUCHESS OF YORK
Why, my young cousin, it is good to grow.
YORK
Grandam, one night as we did sit at supper,
My uncle Rivers talked how I did grow
More than my brother. ‘Ay’, quoth my nuncle
Gloucester,
‘Small herbs have grace; gross weeds do grow apace’.
And since, methinks I would not grow so fast,
Because sweet flow’rs are slow, and weeds make
haste.
DUCHESS OF YORK
Good faith, good faith, the saying did not hold
In him that did object the same to thee.
He was the wretched’st thing when he was young,
So long a-growing, and so leisurely,
That if his rule were true he should be gracious.
⌈CARDINAL⌉
Why, so no doubt he is, my gracious madam.
DUCHESS OF YORK
I hope he is, but yet let mothers doubt.
YORK
Now, by my troth, if I had been remembered,
I could have given my uncle’s grace a flout
To touch his growth, nearer than he touched mine.
DUCHESS OF YORK
How, my young York? I pray thee, let me hear it.
YORK
Marry, they say my uncle grew so fast
That he could gnaw a crust at two hours old.
’Twas full two years ere I could get a tooth.
Grannam, this would have been a biting jest.
DUCHESS OF YORK
I pray thee, pretty York, who told thee this?
YORK Grannam, his nurse.
DUCHESS OF YORK
His nurse? Why, she was dead ere thou wast born.
YORK
If ’twere not she, I cannot tell who told me.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
A parlous boy! Go to, you are too shrewd.
⌈CARDINAL⌉
Good madam, be not angry with the child.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Pitchers have ears.
Enter ⌈Marquis Dorset⌉
⌈CARDINAL⌉
Here comes your son, Lord Dorset.
What news, Lord Marquis?
⌈DORSET⌉ Such news, my lord,
As grieves me to report.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
How doth the Prince?
⌈DORSET⌉
Well, madam, and in health.
DUCHESS OF YORK
What is thy news then?
⌈DORSET⌉
Lord Rivers and Lord Gray are sent to Pomfret,
And with them Thomas Vaughan, prisoners.
DUCHESS OF YORK
Who hath committed them?
⌈DORSET⌉
The mighty dukes,
Gloucester and Buckingham.
⌈CARDINAL⌉
For what offence?
⌈DORSET⌉
The sum of all I can, I have disclosed.
Why or for what the nobles were committed
Is all unknown to me, my gracious lord.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Ay me! I see the ruin of our house.
The tiger now hath seized the gentle hind.
Insulting tyranny begins to jet
Upon the innocent and aweless throne.
Welcome destruction, blood, and massacre!
I see, as in a map, the end of all.