| ACT II SCENE I | Saint Alban's. | |
| [
Enter KING HENRY VI, QUEEN MARGARET, GLOUCESTER,
CARDINAL, and SUFFOLK, with Falconers halloing
] |
| QUEEN MARGARET | Believe me, lords, for flying at the brook, |
| I saw not better sport these seven years' day: |
| Yet, by your leave, the wind was very high; |
| And, ten to one, old Joan had not gone out. |
| KING HENRY VI | But what a point, my lord, your falcon made, | 5 |
| And what a pitch she flew above the rest! |
| To see how God in all his creatures works! |
| Yea, man and birds are fain of climbing high. |
| SUFFOLK | No marvel, an it like your majesty, |
| My lord protector's hawks do tower so well; | 10 |
| They know their master loves to be aloft, |
| And bears his thoughts above his falcon's pitch. |
| GLOUCESTER | My lord, 'tis but a base ignoble mind |
| That mounts no higher than a bird can soar. |
| CARDINAL | I thought as much; he would be above the clouds. | 15 |
| GLOUCESTER | Ay, my lord cardinal? how think you by that? |
| Were it not good your grace could fly to heaven? |
| KING HENRY VI | The treasury of everlasting joy. |
| CARDINAL | Thy heaven is on earth; thine eyes and thoughts |
| Beat on a crown, the treasure of thy heart; | 20 |
| Pernicious protector, dangerous peer, |
| That smooth'st it so with king and commonweal! |
| GLOUCESTER | What, cardinal, is your priesthood grown peremptory? |
| Tantaene animis coelestibus irae? |
| Churchmen so hot? good uncle, hide such malice; | 25 |
| With such holiness can you do it? |
| SUFFOLK | No malice, sir; no more than well becomes |
| So good a quarrel and so bad a peer. |
| GLOUCESTER | As who, my lord? |
| SUFFOLK | Why, as you, my lord, | 30 |
| An't like your lordly lord-protectorship. |
| GLOUCESTER | Why, Suffolk, England knows thine insolence. |
| QUEEN MARGARET | And thy ambition, Gloucester. |
| KING HENRY VI | I prithee, peace, good queen, |
| And whet not on these furious peers; | 35 |
| For blessed are the peacemakers on earth. |
| CARDINAL | Let me be blessed for the peace I make, |
| Against this proud protector, with my sword! |
| GLOUCESTER | [Aside to CARDINAL] Faith, holy uncle, would
|
| 'twere come to that! | 40 |
| CARDINAL | [Aside to GLOUCESTER] Marry, when thou darest.
|
| GLOUCESTER | [Aside to CARDINAL] Make up no factious
|
| numbers for the matter; |
| In thine own person answer thy abuse. |
| CARDINAL | [Aside to GLOUCESTER] Ay, where thou darest
| 45 |
| not peep: an if thou darest, |
| This evening, on the east side of the grove. |
| KING HENRY VI | How now, my lords! |
| CARDINAL | Believe me, cousin Gloucester, |
| Had not your man put up the fowl so suddenly, | 50 |
| We had had more sport. |
[Aside to GLOUCESTER] |
| Come with thy two-hand sword. |
| GLOUCESTER | True, uncle. |
| CARDINAL | [Aside to GLOUCESTER] Are ye advised? the
|
| east side of the grove? | 55 |
| GLOUCESTER | [Aside to CARDINAL] Cardinal, I am with you.
|
| KING HENRY VI | Why, how now, uncle Gloucester! |
| GLOUCESTER | Talking of hawking; nothing else, my lord. |
[Aside to CARDINAL] |
| Now, by God's mother, priest, I'll shave your crown for this, |
| Or all my fence shall fail. | 60 |
| CARDINAL | [Aside to GLOUCESTER] Medice, teipsum--
|
| Protector, see to't well, protect yourself. |
| KING HENRY VI | The winds grow high; so do your stomachs, lords. |
| How irksome is this music to my heart! |
| When such strings jar, what hope of harmony? | 65 |
| I pray, my lords, let me compound this strife. |
| [Enter a Townsman of Saint Alban's, crying 'A miracle!'] |
| GLOUCESTER | What means this noise? |
| Fellow, what miracle dost thou proclaim? |
| Townsman | A miracle! a miracle! |
| SUFFOLK | Come to the king and tell him what miracle. | 70 |
| Townsman | Forsooth, a blind man at Saint Alban's shrine, |
| Within this half-hour, hath received his sight; |
| A man that ne'er saw in his life before. |
| KING HENRY VI | Now, God be praised, that to believing souls |
| Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair! | 75 |
| [
Enter the Mayor of Saint Alban's and his
brethren, bearing SIMPCOX, between two in a
chair, SIMPCOX's Wife following
] |
| CARDINAL | Here comes the townsmen on procession, |
| To present your highness with the man. |
| KING HENRY VI | Great is his comfort in this earthly vale, |
| Although by his sight his sin be multiplied. |
| GLOUCESTER | Stand by, my masters: bring him near the king; | 80 |
| His highness' pleasure is to talk with him. |
| KING HENRY VI | Good fellow, tell us here the circumstance, |
| That we for thee may glorify the Lord. |
| What, hast thou been long blind and now restored? |
| SIMPCOX | Born blind, an't please your grace. | 85 |
| Wife | Ay, indeed, was he. |
| SUFFOLK | What woman is this? |
| Wife | His wife, an't like your worship. |
| GLOUCESTER | Hadst thou been his mother, thou couldst have |
| better told. | 90 |
| KING HENRY VI | Where wert thou born? |
| SIMPCOX | At Berwick in the north, an't like your grace. |
| KING HENRY VI | Poor soul, God's goodness hath been great to thee: |
| Let never day nor night unhallow'd pass, |
| But still remember what the Lord hath done. | 95 |
| QUEEN MARGARET | Tell me, good fellow, camest thou here by chance, |
| Or of devotion, to this holy shrine? |
| SIMPCOX | God knows, of pure devotion; being call'd |
| A hundred times and oftener, in my sleep, |
| By good Saint Alban; who said, 'Simpcox, come, | 100 |
| Come, offer at my shrine, and I will help thee.' |
| Wife | Most true, forsooth; and many time and oft |
| Myself have heard a voice to call him so. |
| CARDINAL | What, art thou lame? |
| SIMPCOX | Ay, God Almighty help me! | 105 |
| SUFFOLK | How camest thou so? |
| SIMPCOX | A fall off of a tree. |
| Wife | A plum-tree, master. |
| GLOUCESTER | How long hast thou been blind? |
| SIMPCOX | Born so, master. | 110 |
| GLOUCESTER | What, and wouldst climb a tree? |
| SIMPCOX | But that in all my life, when I was a youth. |
| Wife | Too true; and bought his climbing very dear. |
| GLOUCESTER | Mass, thou lovedst plums well, that wouldst |
| venture so. | 115 |
| SIMPCOX | Alas, good master, my wife desired some damsons, |
| And made me climb, with danger of my life. |
| GLOUCESTER | A subtle knave! but yet it shall not serve. |
| Let me see thine eyes: wink now: now open them: |
| In my opinion yet thou seest not well. | 120 |
| SIMPCOX | Yes, master, clear as day, I thank God and |
| Saint Alban. |
| GLOUCESTER | Say'st thou me so? What colour is this cloak of? |
| SIMPCOX | Red, master; red as blood. |
| GLOUCESTER | Why, that's well said. What colour is my gown of? | 125 |
| SIMPCOX | Black, forsooth: coal-black as jet. |
| KING HENRY VI | Why, then, thou know'st what colour jet is of? |
| SUFFOLK | And yet, I think, jet did he never see. |
| GLOUCESTER | But cloaks and gowns, before this day, a many. |
| Wife | Never, before this day, in all his life. | 130 |
| GLOUCESTER | Tell me, sirrah, what's my name? |
| SIMPCOX | Alas, master, I know not. |
| GLOUCESTER | What's his name? |
| SIMPCOX | I know not. |
| GLOUCESTER | Nor his? | 135 |
| SIMPCOX | No, indeed, master. |
| GLOUCESTER | What's thine own name? |
| SIMPCOX | Saunder Simpcox, an if it please you, master. |
| GLOUCESTER | Then, Saunder, sit there, the lyingest knave in |
| Christendom. If thou hadst been born blind, thou | 140 |
| mightest as well have known all our names as thus to |
| name the several colours we do wear. Sight may |
| distinguish of colours, but suddenly to nominate them |
| all, it is impossible. My lords, Saint Alban here |
| hath done a miracle; and would ye not think his | 145 |
| cunning to be great, that could restore this cripple |
| to his legs again? |
| SIMPCOX | O master, that you could! |
| GLOUCESTER | My masters of Saint Alban's, have you not beadles in |
| your town, and things called whips? | 150 |
| Mayor | Yes, my lord, if it please your grace. |
| GLOUCESTER | Then send for one presently. |
| Mayor | Sirrah, go fetch the beadle hither straight. |
| [Exit an Attendant] |
| GLOUCESTER | Now fetch me a stool hither by and by. Now, sirrah, |
| if you mean to save yourself from whipping, leap me | 155 |
| over this stool and run away. |
| SIMPCOX | Alas, master, I am not able to stand alone: |
| You go about to torture me in vain. |
| [Enter a Beadle with whips] |
| GLOUCESTER | Well, sir, we must have you find your legs. Sirrah |
| beadle, whip him till he leap over that same stool. | 160 |
| Beadle | I will, my lord. Come on, sirrah; off with your |
| doublet quickly. |
| SIMPCOX | Alas, master, what shall I do? I am not able to stand. |
| [
After the Beadle hath hit him once, he leaps over
the stool and runs away; and they follow and cry, 'A miracle!'
] |
| KING HENRY VI | O God, seest Thou this, and bearest so long? |
| QUEEN MARGARET | It made me laugh to see the villain run. | 165 |
| GLOUCESTER | Follow the knave; and take this drab away. |
| Wife | Alas, sir, we did it for pure need. |
| GLOUCESTER | Let them be whipped through every market-town, till |
| they come to Berwick, from whence they came. |
| [Exeunt Wife, Beadle, Mayor, &c] |
| CARDINAL | Duke Humphrey has done a miracle to-day. | 170 |
| SUFFOLK | True; made the lame to leap and fly away. |
| GLOUCESTER | But you have done more miracles than I; |
| You made in a day, my lord, whole towns to fly. |
| [Enter BUCKINGHAM] |
| KING HENRY VI | What tidings with our cousin Buckingham? |
| BUCKINGHAM | Such as my heart doth tremble to unfold. | 175 |
| A sort of naughty persons, lewdly bent, |
| Under the countenance and confederacy |
| Of Lady Eleanor, the protector's wife, |
| The ringleader and head of all this rout, |
| Have practised dangerously against your state, | 180 |
| Dealing with witches and with conjurers: |
| Whom we have apprehended in the fact; |
| Raising up wicked spirits from under ground, |
| Demanding of King Henry's life and death, |
| And other of your highness' privy-council; | 185 |
| As more at large your grace shall understand. |
| CARDINAL | [Aside to GLOUCESTER] And so, my lord protector,
|
| by this means |
| Your lady is forthcoming yet at London. |
| This news, I think, hath turn'd your weapon's edge; | 190 |
| '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. | 195 |
| KING HENRY VI | O God, what mischiefs work the wicked ones, |
| Heaping confusion on their own heads thereby! |
| QUEEN MARGARET | 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, | 200 |
| 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 | 205 |
| 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 HENRY VI | Well, for this night we will repose us here: | 210 |
| 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. | 215 |
| [Flourish. Exeunt] |
The Essential Student History Quiz (with answers and illustrations)