Henry VI, Part II

at London.
This news, I think, hath turn’d your weapon’s edge;
’Tis like, my lord, you will not keep your hour. Gloucester

Ambitious churchman, leave to afflict my heart:
Sorrow and grief have vanquish’d all my powers;
And, vanquish’d as I am, I yield to thee,
Or to the meanest groom.

King

O God, what mischiefs work the wicked ones,
Heaping confusion on their own heads thereby!

Queen

Gloucester, see here the tainture of thy nest.
And look thyself be faultless, thou wert best.

Gloucester

Madam, for myself, to heaven I do appeal,
How I have loved my king and commonweal:
And, for my wife, I know not how it stands;
Sorry I am to hear what I have heard:
Noble she is, but if she have forgot
Honour and virtue and conversed with such
As, like to pitch, defile nobility,
I banish her my bed and company
And give her as a prey to law and shame,
That hath dishonour’d Gloucester’s honest name.

King

Well, for this night we will repose us here:
To-morrow toward London back again,
To look into this business thoroughly
And call these foul offenders to their answers
And poise the cause in justice’ equal scales,
Whose beam stands sure, whose rightful cause prevails. Flourish. Exeunt.

Scene II

London. The Duke of York’s garden.

	Enter York, Salisbury, and Warwick.
York	Now, my good Lords of Salisbury and Warwick, Our simple supper ended, give me leave In this close walk to satisfy myself, In craving your opinion of my title, Which is infallible, to England’s crown.
Salisbury	My lord, I long to hear it at full.
Warwick	Sweet York, begin: and if thy claim be good, The Nevils are thy subjects to command.
York	Then thus: Edward the Third, my lords, had seven sons: The first, Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales; The second, William of Hatfield, and the third, Lionel Duke of Clarence; next to whom Was John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster; The fifth was Edmund Langley, Duke of York; The sixth was Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester; William of Windsor was the seventh and last. Edward the Black Prince died before his father And left behind him Richard, his only son, Who after Edward the Third’s death reign’d as king; Till Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, The eldest son and heir of John of Gaunt, Crown’d by the name of Henry the Fourth, Seized on the realm, deposed the rightful king, Sent his poor queen to France, from whence she came, And him to Pomfret; where, as all you know, Harmless Richard was murder’d traitorously.
Warwick	Father, the duke hath told the truth; Thus got the house of Lancaster the crown.
York	Which now they hold by force and not by right; For Richard, the first son’s heir, being dead, The issue of the next son should have reign’d.
Salisbury	But William of Hatfield died without an heir.
York	The third son, Duke of Clarence, from whose line I claim the crown, had issue, Philippe, a daughter, Who married Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March: Edmund had issue, Roger Earl of March; Roger had issue, Edmund, Anne and Eleanor.
Salisbury	This Edmund, in the reign of Bolingbroke, As I have read, laid claim unto the crown; And, but for Owen Glendower, had been king, Who kept him in captivity till he died. But to the rest.
York	His eldest sister, Anne, My mother, being heir unto the crown, Married Richard Earl of Cambridge; who was son To Edmund Langley, Edward the Third’s fifth son. By her I claim the kingdom: she was heir To Roger Earl of March, who was the son Of Edmund Mortimer, who married Philippe, Sole daughter unto Lionel Duke of Clarence: So, if the issue of the elder son Succeed before the younger, I am king.
Warwick	What plain proceeding is more plain than this? Henry doth claim the crown from John of Gaunt, The fourth son; York claims it from the third. Till Lionel’s issue fails, his should not reign: It fails not yet, but flourishes in thee And in thy sons, fair slips of such a stock. Then, father Salisbury, kneel we together; And in this private plot be we the first That shall salute our rightful sovereign With honour of his birthright to the crown.
Both	Long live our sovereign Richard, England’s king!
York	We thank you, lords. But I am not your king Till I be crown’d and that my sword be stain’d With heart-blood of the house of Lancaster; And that’s not suddenly to be perform’d, But with advice and silent secrecy. Do you as I do in these dangerous days: Wink at the Duke of Suffolk’s insolence, At Beaufort’s pride, at Somerset’s ambition, At Buckingham and all the crew of them, Till they have snared the shepherd of the flock, That virtuous prince, the good Duke Humphrey: ’Tis that they seek, and they in seeking that Shall find their deaths, if York can prophesy.
Salisbury	My lord, break we off; we know your mind at full.
Warwick	My heart assures me that the Earl of Warwick Shall one day make the Duke of York a king.
York	And, Nevil, this I do assure myself: Richard shall live to make the Earl of Warwick The greatest man in England but the king. Exeunt.

Scene III

A hall of justice.

	Sound trumpets. Enter the King, the Queen, Gloucester, York, Suffolk, and Salisbury; the Duchess of Gloucester, Margery Jourdain, Southwell, Hume, and Bolingbroke, under guard.
King	Stand forth, Dame Eleanor Cobham, Gloucester’s wife: In sight of God and us, your guilt is great: Receive the sentence of the law for sins Such as by God’s book are adjudged to death. You four, from hence to prison back again; From thence unto the place of execution: The witch in Smithfield shall be burn’d to ashes, And you three shall be strangled on the gallows. You, madam, for you are more nobly born, Despoiled of your honour in your life, Shall, after three days’ open penance done, Live in your country here in banishment, With Sir John Stanley, in the Isle of Man.
Duchess	Welcome is banishment; welcome were my death.
Gloucester	Eleanor, the law, thou see’st, hath judged thee: I cannot justify whom the law condemns. Exeunt Duchess and other prisoners, guarded. Mine eyes are full of tears, my heart of grief. Ah, Humphrey, this dishonour in thine age Will bring thy head with sorrow to the ground! I beseech your majesty,