• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

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

'T is to be fear'd they all will follow him.

Now 't is 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, can it a woman's fear;

Which fear if better reasons can supplant,

I will subscribe and say I wrong'd 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 brain-sick 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.—

No, no, my sovereign; Gloucester is a man

Unsounded yet and full of deep deceit.

CARDINAL.

Did he not, contrary to form of law,

Devise strange deaths for small offences done?

YORK.

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.

Tut, these are petty faults to faults unknown,

Which time will bring to light in smooth Duke Humphrey.

KING.

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.

Ah, what's more dangerous than this fond affiance!

Seems he a dove? his feathers are but borrow'd,

For he's disposed as the hateful raven;

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

For he's inclin'd 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 SOMERSET.]

SOMERSET.

All health unto my gracious sovereign!

KING.

Welcome, Lord Somerset. What news from France?

SOMERSET.

That all your interest in those territories

Is utterly bereft you; all is lost.

KING.

Cold news, Lord Somerset; but God's will be done!

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;

But I will remedy this gear ere long

Or sell my title for a glorious grave.

[Enter GLOUCESTER.]

GLOUCESTER.

All happiness unto my lord the king!

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

SUFFOLK.

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

Unless thou wert more loyal than thou art.

I do arrest thee of high treason here.

GLOUCESTER.

Well, Suffolk, 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.

'T is thought, my lord, that you took bribes of France,

And, being protector, stay'd 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 robb'd the soldiers of their pay,

Nor ever had one penny bribe from France.

So help me God, as I have watch'd the night,

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

That doit that e'er I wrested