Item: it is further agreed between them that the duchy of Anjou and the county of Maine shall be released and delivered to the King her fa—

⌈Gloucester lets the paper fall⌉

KING HENRY

Uncle, how now?

GLOUCESTER Pardon me, gracious lord.

Some sudden qualm hath struck me at the heart

And dimmed mine eyes that I can read no further.

KING HENRY (to Cardinal Beaufort)

Uncle of Winchester, I pray read on.

CARDINAL BEAUFORT (reads) Item: it is further agreed between them that the duchy of Anjou and the county of Maine shall be released and delivered to the King her father, and she sent over of the King of England’s own proper cost and charges, without dowry.

KING HENRY

They please us well. (To Suffolk) Lord Marquis, kneel down.

Suffolk kneels

We here create thee first Duke of Suffolk,

And gird thee with the sword.

Suffolk rises

Cousin of York,

We here discharge your grace from being regent

I’th’ parts of France till term of eighteen months

Be full expired. Thanks uncle Winchester,

Gloucester, York, and Buckingham, Somerset,

Salisbury, and Warwick.

We thank you all for this great favour done

In entertainment to my princely Queen.

Come, let us in, and with all speed provide

To see her coronation be performed.

Exeunt King Henry, Queen Margaret, and

Suffolk. ⌈Gloucester stays⌉ all the rest

GLOUCESTER

Brave peers of England, pillars of the state,

To you Duke Humphrey must unload his grief,

Your grief, the common grief of all the land.

What—did my brother Henry spend his youth,

His valour, coin, and people in the wars?

Did he so often lodge in open field

In winter’s cold and summer’s parching heat

To conquer France, his true inheritance?

And did my brother Bedford toil his wits

To keep by policy what Henry got?

Have you yourselves, Somerset, Buckingham,

Brave York, Salisbury, and victorious Warwick,

Received deep scars in France and Normandy?

Or hath mine uncle Beaufort and myself,

With all the learned Council of the realm,

Studied so long, sat in the Council House

Early and late, debating to and fro,

How France and Frenchmen might be kept in awe,

And had his highness in his infancy

Crowned in Paris in despite of foes?

And shall these labours and these honours die?

Shall Henry’s conquest, Bedford’s vigilance,

Your deeds of war, and all our counsel die?

O peers of England, shameful is this league,

Fatal this marriage, cancelling your fame,

Blotting your names from books of memory,

Razing the characters of your renown,

Defacing monuments of conquered France,

Undoing all, as all had never been!

CARDINAL BEAUFORT

Nephew, what means this passionate discourse,

This peroration with such circumstance?

For France, ’tis ours; and we will keep it still.

GLOUCESTER

Ay, uncle, we will keep it if we can—

But now it is impossible we should.

Suffolk, the new-made duke that rules the roast,

Hath given the duchy of Anjou and Maine

Unto the poor King René, whose large style

Agrees not with the leanness of his purse.

SALISBURY

Now by the death of Him that died for all,

These counties were the keys of Normandy—

But wherefore weeps Warwick, my valiant son?

WARWICK

For grief that they are past recovery.

For were there hope to conquer them again

My sword should shed hot blood, mine eyes no tears.

Anjou and Maine? Myself did win them both!

Those provinces these arms of mine did conquer—

And are the cities that I got with wounds

Delivered up again with peaceful words?

Mort Dieu!

YORK

For Suffolk’s duke, may he be suffocate,

That dims the honour of this warlike isle!

France should have torn and rent my very heart

Before I would have yielded to this league.

I never read but England’s kings have had

Large sums of gold and dowries with their wives—

And our King Henry gives away his own,

To match with her that brings no vantages.

GLOUCESTER

A proper jest, and never heard before,

That Suffolk should demand a whole fifteenth

For costs and charges in transporting her!

She should have stayed in France and starved in

France

Before—

CARDINAL BEAUFORT

My lord of Gloucester, now ye grow too hot!

It was the pleasure of my lord the King.

GLOUCESTER

My lord of Winchester, I know your mind.

’Tis not my speeches that you do mislike,

But ‘tis my presence that doth trouble ye.

Rancour will out. Proud prelate, in thy face

I see thy fury. If I longer stay

We shall begin our ancient bickerings—

But I’ll be gone, and give thee leave to speak.

Lordings, farewell, and say when I am gone,

I prophesied France will be lost ere long. Exit

CARDINAL BEAUFORT

So, there goes our Protector in a rage.

’Tis known to you he is mine enemy;

Nay more, an enemy unto you all,