Murder indeed, that bloody sin, I tortured Above the felon or what trespass else. SUFFOLK My lord, these faults are easy, quickly answered:
But mightier crimes are laid unto your charge, Whereof you cannot easily purge yourself.
I do arrest you in his highness' name;
And here commit you to my lord cardinal To keep, until your further time of trial. KING HENRY VI My lord of Gloucester, 'tis my special hope That you will clear yourself from all suspect:
My conscience tells me you are innocent. GLOUCESTER Ah, gracious lord, these days are dangerous:
Virtue is choked with foul ambition And charity chased hence by rancour's hand;Foul subornation is predominant And equity exiled your highness' land.
I know their complot is to have my life, And if my death might make this island happy, And prove the period of their tyranny, I would expend it with all willingness:
But mine is made the prologue to their play;For thousands more, that yet suspect no peril, Will not conclude their plotted tragedy.
Beaufort's red sparkling eyes blab his heart's malice, And Suffolk's cloudy brow his stormy hate;Sharp Buckingham unburthens with his tongue The envious load that lies upon his heart;And dogged York, that reaches at the moon, Whose overweening arm I have pluck'd back, By false accuse doth level at my life:
And you, my sovereign lady, with the rest, Causeless have laid disgraces on my head, And with your best endeavour have stirr'd up My liefest liege to be mine enemy:
Ay, all you have laid your heads together--Myself had notice of your conventicles--
And all to make away my guiltless life.
I shall not want false witness to condemn me, Nor store of treasons to augment my guilt;The ancient proverb will be well effected:
'A staff is quickly found to beat a dog.' CARDINAL My liege, his railing is intolerable:
If those that care to keep your royal person From treason's secret knife and traitors' rage Be thus upbraided, chid and rated at, And the offender granted scope of speech, 'Twill make them cool in zeal unto your grace. SUFFOLK Hath he not twit our sovereign lady here With ignominious words, though clerkly couch'd, As if she had suborned some to swear False allegations to o'erthrow his state? QUEEN MARGARET But I can give the loser leave to chide. GLOUCESTER Far truer spoke than meant: I lose, indeed;Beshrew the winners, for they play'd me false!
And well such losers may have leave to speak. BUCKINGHAM He'll wrest the sense and hold us here all day:
Lord cardinal, he is your prisoner. CARDINAL Sirs, take away the duke, and guard him sure. GLOUCESTER Ah! thus King Henry throws away his crutch Before his legs be firm to bear his body.
Thus is the shepherd beaten from thy side, And wolves are gnarling who shall gnaw thee first.
Ah, that my fear were false! ah, that it were!
For, good King Henry, thy decay I fear.
Exit, guarded KING HENRY VI My lords, what to your wisdoms seemeth best, Do or undo, as if ourself were here. QUEEN MARGARET What, will your highness leave the parliament? KING HENRY VI Ay, Margaret; my heart is drown'd with grief, Whose flood begins to flow within mine eyes, My body round engirt with misery, For what's more miserable than discontent?
Ah, uncle Humphrey! in thy face I see The map of honour, truth and loyalty:
And yet, good Humphrey, is the hour to come That e'er I proved thee false or fear'd thy faith.
What louring star now envies thy estate, That these great lords and Margaret our queen Do seek subversion of thy harmless life?
Thou never didst them wrong, nor no man wrong;And as the butcher takes away the calf And binds the wretch, and beats it when it strays, Bearing it to the bloody slaughter-house, Even so remorseless have they borne him hence;And as the dam runs lowing up and down, Looking the way her harmless young one went, And can do nought but wail her darling's loss, Even so myself bewails good Gloucester's case With sad unhelpful tears, and with dimm'd eyes Look after him and cannot do him good, So mighty are his vowed enemies.
His fortunes I will weep; and, 'twixt each groan Say 'Who's a traitor? Gloucester he is none.'
Exeunt all but QUEEN MARGARET, CARDINAL, SUFFOLK, and YORK; SOMERSETremains apart QUEEN MARGARET Free lords, cold snow melts with the sun's hot beams.
Henry my lord is cold in great affairs, Too full of foolish pity, and Gloucester's show Beguiles him as the mournful crocodile With sorrow snares relenting passengers, Or as the snake roll'd in a flowering bank, With shining chequer'd slough, doth sting a child That for the beauty thinks it excellent.
Believe me, lords, were none more wise than I--And yet herein I judge mine own wit good--This Gloucester should be quickly rid the world, To rid us of the fear we have of him. CARDINAL That he should die is worthy policy;But yet we want a colour for his death:
'Tis meet he be condemn'd by course of law. SUFFOLK But, in my mind, that were no policy:
The king will labour still to save his life, The commons haply rise, to save his life;And yet we have but trivial argument, More than mistrust, that shows him worthy death. YORK So that, by this, you would not have him die. SUFFOLK Ah, York, no man alive so fain as I! YORK 'Tis York that hath more reason for his death.
But, my lord cardinal, and you, my Lord of Suffolk, Say as you think, and speak it from your souls, Were't not all one, an empty eagle were set To guard the chicken from a hungry kite, As place Duke Humphrey for the king's protector? QUEEN MARGARET So the poor chicken should be sure of death. SUFFOLK Madam, 'tis true; and were't not madness, then, To make the fox surveyor of the fold?
Who being accused a crafty murderer, His guilt should be but idly posted over, Because his purpose is not executed.
No; let him die, in that he is a fox, By nature proved an enemy to the flock, Before his chaps be stain'd with crimson blood, As Humphrey, proved by reasons, to my liege.
And do not stand on quillets how to slay him: