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DRAMATIS PERSONE.

KING HENRY THE SIXTH.

HUMPHREY, DUKE OF GLOSTER, his Uncle.
CARDINAL BEAUFORT, Bishop of Winchester.
RICHARD PLANTAGENET, Duke of York.

EDWARD and RICHARD, his Sons.

DUKE OF SOMERSET,

DUKE OF SUFFOLK,

DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM,

LORD CLIFFORD, and his Son,

EARL OF SALISBURY,

EARL OF WARWICK,

of the King's Party.

}

of the York Faction.

LORD SAY. SIR

SIR JOHN

LORD SCALES, Governor of the Tower.

HUMPHREY STAFFORD, and his Brother.

STANLEY.

WALTER WHITMORE.

A Sea-captain, Master, and Master's Mate.

Two Gentlemen, Prisoners with SUFFOLK. VAUX.
HUME and SOUTHWELL, Priests.

BOLINGBROKE, a Conjurer. A Spirit raised by him.
THOMAS HORNER, an Armourer. PETER, his Man.

Clerk of Chatham. Mayor of St. Alban's.

SIMPCOX, an Impostor. Two Murderers.

JACK CADE.

GEORGE, JOHN, DICK, SMITH, the Weaver, MICHAEL, &c.,

Cade's Followers.

ALEXANDER IDEN, a Kentish Gentleman.

MARGARET, Queen to King Henry.

ELEANOR, DUCHESS OF GLOSTER.

MARGERY JOURDAIN, a Witch. Wife to SIMPCOX.

Lords, Ladies, and Attendants; Herald; Petitioners, Aldermen, a Beadle, Sheriff, and Officers; Citizens, Prentices, Falconers, Guards, Soldiers, Messengers, &c.

SCENE, in various Parts of England.

SECOND PART

OF

KING HENRY VI.

ACT I. SCENE I.

London. A Room of State in the Palace.

Flourish of Trumpets: then Hautboys. Enter, on one side, King HENRY, Duke of GLOSTER, SALISBURY, WARWICK, and Cardinal BEAUFORT; on the other, Queen MARGARET, led in by SUFFOLK; YORK, Somerset, BuckinGHAM, and Others, following.

Suf. As by your high imperial majesty

I had in charge at my depart for France,
As procurator to your excellence,

To marry princess Margaret for your grace;

So, in the famous ancient city, Tours,

In presence of the kings of France and Sicil,

The dukes of Orleans, Calaber, Bretaigne, and Alençon,
Seven earls, twelve barons, and twenty reverend bishops',
I have perform'd my task, and was espous'd:
And humbly now upon my bended knee,
In sight of England and her lordly peers,
Deliver up my title in the queen

1 ― TWENTY reverend bishops,] So Holinshed, and Hall whom he copied. The quarto, 1600, of "The First Part of the Contention," reads erroneously, "and then the reverend bishops;" but the edition 1619 of the same play corrects it to "twenty," as in the chroniclers.

To your most gracious hands, that are the substance
Of that great shadow I did represent;

The happiest gift that ever marquess gave,

The fairest queen that ever king receiv'd.

K. Hen. 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.

Q. Mar. 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 alderlievest sovereign2,
Makes me the bolder to salute my king
With ruder terms, such as my wit affords,

And over-joy of heart doth minister.

K. Hen. 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. Long live queen Margaret, England's happiness!

Q. Mar. We thank you all.

[Flourish. Suf. My lord protector, so it please your grace, Here are the articles of contracted peace,

2 With you mine ALDERLIEVEST Sovereign,] "Alderlievest" is a compound word, which does not occur in "The First Part of the Contention," where the whole speech is different. It is derived from alder or aller, as Tyrwhitt states, the genitive case plural, and the superlative of liere; it means, dearest of all. The Germans still use the word allerliebst. In English, "alderlievest" is met with in Gascoigne, and in Marston; but the latter gives it to his Dutch Courtesan, who may be supposed to use it as her native word: it is by no means of frequent occurrence.

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 discourse?

This peroration with such circumstance?

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

Glo. 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:
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,
To match with her that brings no vantages.
Glo. A proper jest, and never heard before,
That Suffolk should demand a whole fifteenth,
For costs and charges in transporting her!

She should have stay'd in France, and starv'd in France,
Before-

Car. My lord of Gloster, now you grow too hot.

VOL. V.

I

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.
Glo. 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,
Receiv'd 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 was his highness in his infancy

Crowned in Paris, in despite of foes1?

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,

4 And was his highness in his infancy

Crowned in Paris, in despite of foes?] We have substituted "was" for hath of the folio, 1623: we have thought this slight change, of one auxiliary verb for another, preferable to the insertion of heen in the second line, before "crowned," which is of course to be read as a dissyllable, and is so printed in all the old copies, showing the line to be complete. Steevens, and other modern editors, add a new word, instead of merely correcting one already found in the original text.

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