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,