⌈He raises the writings⌉

what call you this?

(To his men) Away with them. Let them be clapped up

close

And kept asunder. (To the Duchess) You, madam, shall

with us.

Stafford, take her to thee.

Exeunt Stafford ⌈and others⌉ to the Duchess

⌈and Hume⌉ above

We’ll see your trinkets here all forthcoming.

All away!

Exeunt below Jordan, Southwell, and

Bolingbroke, guarded, and, above, ⌈Hume and⌉

the Duchess guarded by Stafford ⌈and others.

York and Buckingham remain⌉

YORK

Lord Buckingham, methinks you watched her well.

A pretty plot, well chosen to build upon.

Now pray, my lord, let’s see the devil’s writ.

⌈Buckingham gives him the writings⌉

What have we here?

He reads the writings

Why, this is just

Aio Aeacidam, Romanos vincere posse.

These oracles are hardily attained

And hardly understood. Come, come, my lord,

The King is now in progress towards Saint Albans;

With him the husband of this lovely lady.

Thither goes these news as fast as horse can carry

them—

A sorry breakfast for my lord Protector.

BUCKINGHAM

Your grace shall give me leave, my lord of York,

To be the post in hope of his reward.

YORK (returning the writings to Buckingham)

At your pleasure, my good lord. ⌈Exit Buckingham⌉ (Calling within) Who’s within there, ho!

Enter a servingman

Invite my lords of Salisbury and Warwick

To sup with me tomorrow night. Away.

Exeunt severally

2.1 Enter King Henry, Queen Margaret with her hawk on her fist, Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, Cardinal Beaufort, and the Duke of Suffolk, with falconers hollering

QUEEN MARGARET

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 (to Gloucester)

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.

SUFFOLK

No marvel, an it like your majesty,

My Lord Protector’s hawks do tower so well;

They know their master loves to be aloft,

And bears his thoughts above his falcon’s pitch.

GLOUCESTER

My lord, ‘tis but a base ignoble mind

That mounts no higher than a bird can soar.

CARDINAL BEAUFORT

I thought as much; he would be above the clouds.

GLOUCESTER

Ay, my lord Cardinal, how think you by that?

Were it not good your grace could fly to heaven?

KING HENRY

The treasury of everlasting joy.

CARDINAL BEAUFORT (to Gloucester)

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 common weal!

GLOUCESTER

What, Cardinal? Is your priesthood grown

peremptory ?

Tantaene animis caelestibus irae?

Churchmen so hot? Good uncle, hide such malice

With some holiness—can you do it?

SUFFOLK

No malice, sir, no more than well becomes

So good a quarrel and so bad a peer.

GLOUCESTER

As who, my lord ?

SUFFOLK

Why, as you, my lord—

An’t like your lordly Lord’s Protectorship.

GLOUCESTER

Why, Suffolk, England knows thine insolence.

QUEEN MARGARET

And thy ambition, Gloucester.

KING HENRY I prithee peace, Good Queen, and whet not on these furious peers—For blessèd are the peacemakers on earth.

CARDINAL BEAUFORT

Let me be blessed for the peace I make

Against this proud Protector with my sword.

⌈Gloucester and Cardinal Beaufort speak privately to one another⌉

GLOUCESTER

Faith, holy uncle, would’t were come to that.

CARDINAL BEAUFORT

Marry, when thou dar’st.

GLOUCESTER

Dare? I tell thee, priest,

Plantagenets could never brook the dare!

CARDINAL BEAUFORT

I am Plantagenet as well as thou,

And son to John of Gaunt.

GLOUCESTER In bastardy.

CARDINAL BEAUFORT I scorn thy words.

GLOUCESTER

Make up no factious numbers for the matter,

In thine own person answer thy abuse.

CARDINAL BEAUFORT

Ay, where thou dar‘st not peep; an if thou dar’st,

This evening on the east side of the grove.

KING HENRY

How now, my lords?

CARDINAL BEAUFORT (aloud)

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.

GLOUCESTER (aloud) True, uncle.

(Aside to Cardinal Beaufort)

Are ye advised? The east side of the grove.

CARDINAL BEAUFORT (aside to Gloucester)

I am with you.

KING HENRY Why, how now, uncle Gloucester?

GLOUCESTER

Talking of hawking, nothing else, my lord.

(Aside to the Cardinal)

Now, by God’s mother, priest, I’ll shave your crown

for this,

Or all my fence shall fail.

CARDINAL BEAUFORT (aside to Gloucester)

Medice, teipsum—

Protector, see to’t well; protect yourself.

KING HENRY

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’

GLOUCESTER What means this noise?

Fellow, what miracle dost thou proclaim?

ONE

A miracle, a miracle!

SUFFOLK

Come to the King—tell him what miracle.

ONE (to King Henry)

Forsooth, a blind man at Saint Alban’s shrine

Within this half-hour hath received his sight—