And his advantage following your decease,

That he should come about your royal person,

Or be admitted to your highness’ Council.

By flattery hath he won the commons’ hearts,

And when he please to make commotion,

“Tis to be feared they all will follow him.

Now ‘tis the spring, and weeds are shallow-rooted;

Suffer them now, and they’ll o’ergrow the garden,

And choke the herbs for want of husbandry.

The reverent care I bear unto my lord

Made me collect these dangers in the Duke.

If it be fond, call it a woman’s fear;

Which fear, if better reasons can supplant,

I will subscribe and say I wronged the Duke.

My lord of Suffolk, Buckingham, and York,

Reprove my allegation if you can,

Or else conclude my words effectual.

SUFFOLK

Well hath your highness seen into this Duke,

And had I first been put to speak my mind,

I think I should have told your grace’s tale.

The Duchess by his subornation,

Upon my life, began her devilish practices;

Or if he were not privy to those faults,

Yet by reputing of his high descent,

As next the King he was successive heir,

And such high vaunts of his nobility,

Did instigate the bedlam brainsick Duchess

By wicked means to frame our sovereign’s fall.

Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep,

And in his simple show he harbours treason.

The fox barks not when he would steal the lamb.

(To King Henry)

No, no, my sovereign, Gloucester is a man

Unsounded yet, and full of deep deceit.

CARDINAL BEAUFORT (to King Henry)

Did he not, contrary to form of law,

Devise strange deaths for small offences done?

YORK (to King Henry)

And did he not, in his Protectorship,

Levy great sums of money through the realm

For soldiers’ pay in France, and never sent it,

By means whereof the towns each day revolted?

BUCKINGHAM (to King Henry)

Tut, these are petty faults to faults unknown,

Which time will bring to light in smooth Duke

Humphrey.

KING HENRY

My lords, at once: the care you have of us

To mow down thorns that would annoy our foot

Is worthy praise, but shall I speak my conscience?

Our kinsman Gloucester is as innocent

From meaning treason to our royal person

As is the sucking lamb or harmless dove.

The Duke is virtuous, mild, and too well given

To dream on evil or to work my downfall.

QUEEN MARGARET

Ah, what’s more dangerous than this fond affiance?

Seems he a dove? His feathers are but borrowed,

For he’s disposed as the hateful raven.

Is he a lamb? His skin is surely lent him,

For he’s inclined as is the ravenous wolf.

Who cannot steal a shape that means deceit?

Take heed, my lord, the welfare of us all

Hangs on the cutting short that fraudful man.

Enter the Duke of Somerset

SOMERSET ⌈kneeling before King Henry⌉

All health unto my gracious sovereign.

KING HENRY

Welcome, Lord Somerset. What news from France?

SOMERSET

That all your interest in those territories

Is utterly bereft you—all is lost.

KING HENRY

Cold news, Lord Somerset; but God’s will be done.

⌈Somerset rises⌉

YORK (aside)

Cold news for me, for I had hope of France,

As firmly as I hope for fertile England.

Thus are my blossoms blasted in the bud,

And caterpillars eat my leaves away. 90

But I will remedy this gear ere long,

Or sell my title for a glorious grave.

Enter Duke Humphrey of Gloucester

GLOUCESTER ⌈kneeling before King Henry⌉

All happiness unto my lord the King.

Pardon, my liege, that I have stayed so long.

SUFFOLK

Nay, Gloucester, know that thou art come too soon 95

Unless thou wert more loyal than thou art.

I do arrest thee of high treason here.

GLOUCESTER ⌈rising⌉

Well, Suffolk’s Duke, thou shalt not see me blush,

Nor change my countenance for this arrest.

A heart unspotted is not easily daunted.

The purest spring is not so free from mud

As I am clear from treason to my sovereign.

Who can accuse me? Wherein am I guilty?

YORK

“Tis thought, my lord, that you took bribes of France,

And, being Protector, stayed the soldiers’ pay,

By means whereof his highness hath lost France.

GLOUCESTER

Is it but thought so? What are they that think it?

I never robbed the soldiers of their pay,

Nor ever had one penny bribe from France.

So help me God, as I have watched the night,

Ay, night by night, in studying good for England,

That doit that e’er I wrested from the King,

Or any groat I hoarded to my use,

Be brought against me at my trial day I

No: many a pound of mine own proper store,

Because I would not tax the needy commons,

Have I dispursèd to the garrisons,

And never asked for restitution.