I have perform'd my task and was espoused:
And humbly now upon my bended knee,
In sight of England and her lordly peers,
Deliver up my title in the queen

To your most gracious hands, that are the sub

stance

Of that great shadow I did represent;

The happiest gift that ever marquess gave,
The fairest queen that ever king received.

King. Suffolk, arise. Welcome, Queen Margaret :

I can express no kinder sign of love

Than this kind kiss. O Lord, that lends me life,
Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness!
For thou hast given me in this beauteous face
A world of earthly blessings to my soul,

If sympathy of love unite our thoughts.

Queen. Great King of England and my gracious
lord,

The mutual conference that my mind hath had,
By day, by night, waking and in my dreams,
In courtly company or at my beads,
With you, mine alder-liefest sovereign,
Makes me the bolder to salute my king
With ruder terms, such as my wit affords
And over-joy of heart doth minister.

King. Her sight did ravish; but her grace in speech,

Her words y-clad with wisdom's majesty,

Makes me from wondering fall to weeping joys;

Such is the fulness of my heart's content.

Lords, with one cheerful voice welcome my love.
All [kneeling]. Long live Queen Margaret,
England's happiness!

18. kinder, more natural, unmistakable.
28. alder-liefest, most beloved.

Queen. We thank you all.

[Flourish. Suf. My lord protector, so it please your grace, Here are the articles of contracted peace Between our sovereign and the French king Charles, For eighteen months concluded by consent.

40

Glou. [Reads] 'Imprimis, It is agreed between the French king Charles, and William de la Pole, Marquess of Suffolk, ambassador for Henry King of England, that the said Henry shall espouse the Lady Margaret, daughter unto Reignier King of Naples, Sicilia and Jerusalem, and crown her Queen of England ere the thirtieth of May next ensuing. Item, that the duchy of Anjou and the 50 county of Maine shall be released and delivered to the king her father'.

King. Uncle, how now!
Glou.

[Lets the paper fall.

Pardon me, gracious lord;

Some sudden qualm hath struck me at the heart And dimm'd mine eyes, that I can read no further.

King. Uncle of Winchester, I pray, read on.

Car. [Reads] Item, It is further agreed between them, that the duchies of Anjou and Maine shall be released and delivered over to the king her father, and she sent over of the King of 60 England's own proper cost and charges, without having any dowry.'

King. They please us well.

kneel down :

Lord marquess,

We here create thee the first duke of Suffolk,
And gird thee with the sword. Cousin of York,
We here discharge your grace from being regent
I' the parts of France, till term of eighteen months
Be full expired. Thanks, uncle Winchester,

Gloucester, York, Buckingham, Somerset,
Salisbury, and Warwick;

70

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 perform'd.

[Exeunt King, Queen, and Suffolk. Glou. 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,

83. toil, strain, laboriously

exert.

92. in awe, i.e. of the English.

80

90

100

93. had; Grant White's

emendation of Ff hath.

Razing the characters of your renown,
Defacing monuments of conquer'd France,
Undoing all, as all had never been !

Car. Nephew, what means this passionate dis

course,

This peroration with such circumstance?
For France, 'tis ours; and we will keep it still.
Glou. 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 Reignier, whose large style
Agrees not with the leanness of his purse.

Sal. Now, by the death of Him that died for all,

These counties were the keys of Normandy.
But wherefore weeps Warwick, my valiant son?
War. 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: 120
And are the cities, that I got with wounds,

Deliver'd 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,

IOI. characters, record.
105. circumstance, detail.
124. suffocate, suffocated.

130

To match with her that brings no vantages.

Glou. 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

Car. My Lord of Gloucester, now ye grow too
hot:

It was the pleasure of my lord the king.

Glou. 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.

Lordings, farewell; and say, when I am gone,
I prophesied France will be lost ere long. [Exit.
Car. So, there goes our protector in a rage.
'Tis known to you he is mine enemy,

Nay, more, an enemy unto you all,
And no great friend, I fear me, to the king.
Consider, lords, he is the next of blood,
And heir apparent to the English crown:
Had Henry got an empire by his marriage,
And all the wealthy kingdoms of the west,
There's reason he should be displeased at it.
Look to it, lords; let not his smoothing words
Bewitch your hearts; be wise and circumspect.
What though the common people favour him,
Calling him Humphrey, the good Duke of Glou-
cester,'

140

150

Clapping their hands, and crying with loud voice, 160 'Jesu maintain your royal excellence !'

133. fifteenth, i.e. of the personal property of every subject.