• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

1 PETITIONER.

Mine is, an 't please your grace, against John

Goodman, my lord cardinal's man, for keeping my house and lands,

and wife and all, from me.

SUFFOLK.

Thy wife too! that's some wrong, indeed.—What's yours?—What's here! [Reads] 'Against the Duke of Suffolk for enclosing the commons of Melford.'—How now, sir knave!

2 PETITIONER. Alas, sir, I am but a poor petitioner of our whole township.

PETER.

[Giving his petition] Against my master, Thomas Horner, for saying that the Duke of York was rightful heir to the crown.

QUEEN.

What say'st thou? did the Duke of York say he was rightful heir to the crown?

PETER.

That my master was? no, forsooth; my master said that he was, and that the king was an usurper.

SUFFOLK.

Who is there? [Enter Servant.] Take this fellow in, and send for his master with a pursuivant presently.—We'll hear more of your matter before the king.

[Exit Servant with Peter.]

QUEEN.

And as for you, that love to be protected

Under the wings of our protector's grace,

Begin your suits anew and sue to him.

[Tears the supplications.]

Away, base cullions!—Suffolk, let them go.

ALL.

Come, let's be gone.

[Exeunt.]

QUEEN.

My Lord of Suffolk, say, is this the guise,

Is this the fashion in the court of England?

Is this the government of Britain's isle,

And this the royalty of Albion's king?

What, shall King Henry be a pupil still

Under the surly Gloucester's governance?

Am I a queen in title and in style,

And must be made a subject to a duke?

I tell thee, Pole, when in the city Tours

Thou ran'st a tilt in honour of my love

And stol'st away the ladies' hearts of France,

I thought King Henry had resembled thee

In courage, courtship, and proportion;

But all his mind is bent to holiness,

To number Ave-Maries on his beads,

His champions are the prophets and apostles,

His weapons holy saws of sacred writ,

His study is his tilt-yard, and his loves

Are brazen images of canoniz'd saints.

I would the college of the cardinals

Would choose him pope and carry him to Rome,

And set the triple crown upon his head;

That were a state fit for his holiness.

SUFFOLK.

Madam, be patient; as I was cause

Your highness came to England, so will I

In England work your grace's full content.

QUEEN.

Beside the haughty protector, have we Beaufort

The imperious churchman, Somerset, Buckingham,

And grumbling York; and not the least of these

But can do more in England than the king.

SUFFOLK.

And he of these that can do most of all

Cannot do more in England than the Nevils;

Salisbury and Warwick are no simple peers.

QUEEN.

Not all these lords do vex me half so much

As that proud dame, the lord protector's wife.

She sweeps it through the court with troops of ladies,

More like an empress than Duke Humphrey's wife.

Strangers in court do take her for the queen;

She bears a duke's revenues on her back,

And in her heart she scorns our poverty.

Shall I not live to be aveng'd on her?

Contemptuous base-born callat as she is,

She vaunted 'mongst her minions t' other day,

The very train of her worst wearing gown

Was better worth than all my father's land

Till Suffolk gave two dukedoms for his daughter.

SUFFOLK.

Madam, myself have lim'd a bush for her,

And plac'd a quire of such enticing birds

That she will light to listen to the lays,

And never mount to trouble you again.

So, let her rest; and, madam, list to me,

For I am bold to counsel you in this.

Although we fancy not the cardinal,

Yet must we join with him and with the lords

Till we have brought Duke Humphrey in disgrace.

As for the Duke of York, this late complaint

Will make but little for his benefit.

So, one by one, we'll weed them all at last,

And you yourself shall steer the happy helm.

[Sennet. Enter the KING, DUKE HUMPHREY, CARDINAL

BEAUFORT, BUCKINGHAM, YORK, SOMERSET, SALISBURY,

WARWICK, and the DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER.]

KING.

For my part, noble lords, I care not which;

Or Somerset or York, all's one