Part 14

_Suf._ I wear no knife to slaughter sleeping men; But here’s a vengeful sword, rusted with ease, That shall be scoured in his rancorous heart That slanders me with murder’s crimson badge.   ·bcb200· Say, if thou darest, proud Lord of Warwickshire, That I am faulty in Duke Humphrey’s death.   [bcb202] [_Exeunt Cardinal, Somerset, and others._

_War._ What dares not Warwick, if false Suffolk dare him?

_Queen._ He dares not calm his contumelious spirit   [bcb204] Nor cease to be an arrogant controller,   ·bcb205· Though Suffolk dare him twenty thousand times.

_War._ Madam, be still; with reverence may I say;   [bcb207] For every word you speak in his behalf Is slander to your royal dignity.

_Suf._ Blunt-witted lord, ignoble in demeanour!   ·bcb210· If ever lady wrong’d her lord so much, Thy mother took into her blameful bed Some stern untutor’d churl, and noble stock Was graft with crab-tree slip; whose fruit thou art And never of the Nevils’ noble race.   ·bcb215·

_War._ But that the guilt of murder bucklers thee And I should rob the deathsman of his fee, Quitting thee thereby of ten thousand shames, And that my sovereign’s presence makes me mild, I would, false murderous coward, on thy knee   ·bcb220· Make thee beg pardon for thy passed speech And say it was thy mother that thou meant’st, That thou thyself wast born in bastardy; And after all this fearful homage done, Give thee thy hire and send thy soul to hell,   [bcb225] Pernicious blood-sucker of sleeping men!

_Suf._ Thou shalt be waking while I shed thy blood, If from this presence thou darest go with me.

_War._ Away even now, or I will drag thee hence: Unworthy though thou art, I’ll cope with thee   ·bcb230· And do some service to Duke Humphrey’s ghost.   [bcb231] [_Exeunt Suffolk and Warwick._

_King._ What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted!   [bcb232] Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just, And he but naked, though lock’d up in steel, Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.   ·bcb235· [_A noise within._

_Queen._ What noise is this?   [bcb236]

_Re-enter_ SUFFOLK _and_ WARWICK, _with their weapons drawn_.

_King._ Why, how now, lords! your wrathful weapons drawn   [bcb237] Here in our presence! dare you be so bold? Why, what tumultuous clamour have we here?

_Suf._ The traitorous Warwick with the men of Bury   ·bcb240· Set all upon me, mighty sovereign.   [bcb241]

_Sal._ [_to the Commons, entering_] Sirs, stand apart; the king shall know your mind. Dread Lord, the commons send you word by me, Unless Lord Suffolk straight be done to death,   [bcb244] Or banished fair England’s territories,   ·bcb245· They will by violence tear him from your palace And torture him with grievous lingering death. They say, by him the good duke Humphrey died; They say, in him they fear your highness’ death; And mere instinct of love and loyalty,   ·bcb250· Free from a stubborn opposite intent, As being thought to contradict your liking, Makes them thus forward in his banishment. They say, in care of your most royal person, That if your highness should intend to sleep   ·bcb255· And charge that no man should disturb your rest In pain of your dislike or pain of death,   [bcb257] Yet, notwithstanding such a strait edict,   [bcb258] Were there a serpent seen, with forked tongue, That slily glided towards your majesty,   ·bcb260· It were but necessary you were waked, Lest, being suffer’d in that harmful slumber,   [bcb262] The mortal worm might make the sleep eternal; And therefore do they cry, though you forbid, That they will guard you, whether you will or no,   [bcb265] From such fell serpents as false Suffolk is, With whose envenomed and fatal sting, Your loving uncle, twenty times his worth, They say, is shamefully bereft of life.

_Commons_ [_within_]. An answer from the king, my Lord of Salisbury!   ·bcb270·

_Suf._ ’Tis like the commons, rude unpolish’d hinds, Could send such message to their sovereign: But you, my lord, were glad to be employ’d, To show how quaint an orator you are: But all the honour Salisbury hath won   ·bcb275· Is, that he was the lord ambassador Sent from a sort of tinkers to the king.

_Commons_ [_within_] An answer from the king, or we will all break in!   [bcb278]

_King._ Go, Salisbury, and tell them all from me, I thank them for their tender loving care;   ·bcb280· And had I not been cited so by them, Yet did I purpose as they do entreat; For, sure, my thoughts do hourly prophesy Mischance unto my state by Suffolk’s means: And therefore, by His majesty I swear,   ·bcb285· Whose far unworthy deputy I am, He shall not breathe infection in this air But three days longer, on the pain of death.   [bcb288] [_Exit Salisbury._

_Queen._ O Henry, let me plead for gentle Suffolk!

_King._ Ungentle queen, to call him gentle Suffolk!   ·bcb290· No more, I say: if thou dost plead for him, Thou wilt but add increase unto my wrath. Had I but said, I would have kept my word, But when I swear, it is irrevocable. If, after three days’ space, thou here be’st found   ·bcb295· On any ground that I am ruler of, The world shall not be ransom for thy life. Come, Warwick, come, good Warwick, go with me; I have great matters to impart to thee.   [bcb299] [_Exeunt all but Queen and Suffolk._

_Queen._ Mischance and sorrow go along with you!   [bcb300] Heart’s discontent and sour affliction Be playfellows to keep you company! There’s two of you; the devil make a third!   [bcb303] And threefold vengeance tend upon your steps!

_Suf._ Cease, gentle queen, these execrations   ·bcb305· And let thy Suffolk take his heavy leave.

_Queen._ Fie, coward woman and soft-hearted wretch!   [bcb307] Hast thou not spirit to curse thine enemy?   [bcb308]

_Suf._ A plague upon them! wherefore should I curse them? Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake’s groan,   ·bcb310· I would invent as bitter-searching terms,   [bcb311] As curst, as harsh and horrible to hear, Deliver’d strongly through my fixed teeth, With full as many signs of deadly hate, As lean-faced Envy in her loathsome cave:   ·bcb315· My tongue should stumble in mine earnest words; Mine eyes should sparkle like the beaten flint; Mine hair be fix’d on end, as one distract;   [bcb318] Ay, every joint should seem to curse and ban: And even now my burthen’d heart would break,   ·bcb320· Should I not curse them. Poison be their drink! Gall, worse than gall, the daintiest that they taste!   [bcb322] Their sweetest shade a grove of cypress trees! Their chiefest prospect murdering basilisks! Their softest touch as smart as lizards’ stings!   [bcb325] Their music frightful as the serpent’s hiss, And boding screech-owls make the concert full!   [bcb327] All the foul terrors in dark-seated hell--   [bcb328]

_Queen._ Enough, sweet Suffolk; thou torment’st thyself; And these dread curses, like the sun ’gainst glass,   ·bcb330· Or like an overcharged gun, recoil,   [bcb331] And turn the force of them upon thyself.   [bcb332]

_Suf._ You bade me ban, and will you bid me leave? Now, by the ground that I am banish’d from, Well could I curse away a winter’s night,   ·bcb335· Though standing naked on a mountain top, Where biting cold would never let grass grow, And think it but a minute spent in sport.

_Queen._ O, let me entreat thee cease. Give me thy hand, That I may dew it with my mournful tears;   ·bcb340· Nor let the rain of heaven wet this place, To wash away my woful monuments.   [bcb342] O, could this kiss be printed in thy hand, That thou mightst think upon these by the seal,   [bcb344] Through whom a thousand sighs are breathed for thee!   [bcb345] So, get thee gone, that I may know my grief; ’Tis but surmised whiles thou art standing by,   [bcb347] As one that surfeits thinking on a want. I will repeal thee, or, be well assured, Adventure to be banished myself:   ·bcb350· And banished I am, if but from thee. Go; speak not to me; even now be gone. O, go not yet! Even thus two friends condemn’d Embrace and kiss and take ten thousand leaves, Loather a hundred times to part than die.   ·bcb355· Yet now farewell; and farewell life with thee!

_Suf._ Thus is poor Suffolk ten times banished; Once by the king, and three times thrice by thee. ’Tis not the land I care for, wert thou thence;   [bcb359] A wilderness is populous enough,   ·bcb360· So Suffolk had thy heavenly company: For where thou art, there is the world itself, With every several pleasure in the world, And where thou art not, desolation. I can no more: live thou to joy thy life;   ·bcb365· Myself no joy in nought but that thou livest.   [bcb366]

_Enter_ VAUX.

_Queen._ Whither goes Vaux so fast? what news, I prithee?   [bcb367]

_Vaux._ To signify unto his majesty That Cardinal Beaufort is at point of death;   [bcb369] For suddenly a grievous sickness took him,   ·bcb370· That makes him gasp and stare and catch the air, Blaspheming God and cursing men on earth. Sometime he talks as if Duke Humphrey’s ghost   [bcb373] Were by his side; sometime he calls the king And whispers to his pillow as to him   ·bcb375· The secrets of his overcharged soul: And I am sent to tell his majesty That even now he cries aloud for him.

_Queen._ Go tell this heavy message to the king.   [bcb379] [_Exit Vaux._ Ay me! what is this world! what news are these!   ·bcb380· But wherefore grieve I at an hour’s poor loss,   [bcb381] Omitting Suffolk’s exile, my soul’s treasure? Why only, Suffolk, mourn I not for thee, And with the southern clouds contend in tears, Theirs for the earth’s increase, mine for my sorrows?   ·bcb385· Now get thee hence: the king, thou know’st, is coming; If thou be found by me, thou art but dead.

_Suf._ If I depart from thee, I cannot live; And in thy sight to die, what were it else But like a pleasant slumber in thy lap?   ·bcb390· Here could I breathe my soul into the air, As mild and gentle as the cradle-babe Dying with mother’s dug between its lips:   [bcb393] Where, from thy sight, I should be raging mad And cry out for thee to close up mine eyes,   ·bcb395· To have thee with thy lips to stop my mouth; So shouldst thou either turn my flying soul,   [bcb397] Or I should breathe it so into thy body, And then it lived in sweet Elysium.   [bcb399] To die by thee were but to die in jest;   ·bcb400· From thee to die were torture more than death: O, let me stay, befall what may befall!

_Queen._ Away! though parting be a fretful corrosive,   [bcb403] It is applied to a deathful wound. To France, sweet Suffolk: let me hear from thee;   ·bcb405· For wheresoe’er thou art in this world’s globe,   [bcb406] I’ll have an Iris that shall find thee out.

_Suf._ I go.

_Queen._ And take my heart with thee.   [bcb408]

_Suf._ A jewel, lock’d into the wofull’st cask   [bcb409] That ever did contain a thing of worth.   ·bcb410· Even as a splitted bark, so sunder we: This way fall I to death.

_Queen._ This way for me.   [bcb412] [_Exeunt severally._

## SCENE III. _A bedchamber_.

_Enter the_ KING, SALISBURY, WARWICK, _to the_ CARDINAL _in bed_.

_King._ How fares my lord? speak, Beaufort, to thy sovereign.   [bcc001]

_Car._ If thou be’st death, I’ll give thee England’s treasure, Enough to purchase such another island, So thou wilt let me live, and feel no pain.   [bcc004]

_King._ Ah, what a sign it is of evil life,   ·bcc005· Where death’s approach is seen so terrible!

_War._ Beaufort, it is thy sovereign speaks to thee.

_Car._ Bring me unto my trial when you will. Died he not in his bed? where should he die?   [bcc009] Can I make men live, whether they will or no?   [bcc010] O, torture me no more! I will confess. Alive again? then show me where he is: I’ll give a thousand pound to look upon him. He hath no eyes, the dust hath blinded them. Comb down his hair; look, look! it stands upright,   ·bcc015· Like lime-twigs set to catch my winged soul. Give me some drink; and bid the apothecary Bring the strong poison that I bought of him.

_King._ O thou eternal Mover of the heavens, Look with a gentle eye upon this wretch!   ·bcc020· O, beat away the busy meddling fiend   [bcc021] That lays strong siege unto this wretch’s soul   [bcc022] And from his bosom purge this black despair!

_War._ See, how the pangs of death do make him grin!

_Sal._ Disturb him not; let him pass peaceably.   ·bcc025·

_King._ Peace to his soul, if God’s good pleasure be!   [bcc026] Lord cardinal, if thou think’st on heaven’s bliss, Hold up thy hand, make signal of thy hope.   [bcc028] He dies, and makes no sign. O God, forgive him!

_War._ So bad a death argues a monstrous life.   ·bcc030·

_King._ Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all. Close up his eyes and draw the curtain close; And let us all to meditation. [_Exeunt._

## ACT IV.

## SCENE I. _The coast of Kent_.

_Alarum. Fight at Sea. Ordnance goes off. Enter a_ Captain, _a_ Master, _a_ Master’s-Mate, WALTER WHITMORE, _and others; with them_ SUFFOLK, _and others, prisoners_.

_Cap._ The gaudy, blabbing and remorseful day   [bda001] Is crept into the bosom of the sea; And now loud-howling wolves arouse the jades That drag the tragic melancholy night; Who, with their drowsy, slow and flagging wings,   ·bda005· Clip dead men’s graves and from their misty jaws   [bda006] Breathe foul contagious darkness in the air. Therefore bring forth the soldiers of our prize; For, whilst our pinnace anchors in the Downs, Here shall they make their ransom on the sand,   ·bda010· Or with their blood stain this discoloured shore.   [bda011] Master, this prisoner freely give I thee; And thou that art his mate, make boot of this; The other, Walter Whitmore, is thy share.   [bda014]

_First Gent._ What is my ransom, master? let me know.   ·bda015·

_Mast._ A thousand crowns, or else lay down your head.

_Mate._ And so much shall you give, or off goes yours.   [bda018]

_Cap._ What, think you much to pay two thousand crowns, And bear the name and port of gentlemen? Cut both the villains’ throats; for die you shall:   [bda020] The lives of those which we have lost in fight   [bda021] Be counterpoised with such a petty sum!

_First Gent._ I’ll give it, sir; and therefore spare my life.

_Sec. Gent._ And so will I and write home for it straight.

_Whit._ I lost mine eye in laying the prize aboard   ·bda025· And therefore to revenge it, shalt thou die; [_To Suf._   [bda026] And so should these, if I might have my will.

_Cap._ Be not so rash; take ransom, let him live.

_Suf._ Look on my George; I am a gentleman:   [bda029] Rate me at what thou wilt, thou shalt be paid.   ·bda030·

_Whit._ And so am I; my name is Walter Whitmore. How now! why start’st thou? what, doth death affright?   [bda032]

_Suf._ Thy name affrights me, in whose sound is death. A cunning man did calculate my birth And told me that by water I should die:   ·bda035· Yet let not this make thee be bloody-minded; Thy name is Gaultier, being rightly sounded.

_Whit._ Gaultier or Walter, which it is, I care not: Never yet did base dishonour blur our name,   [bda039] But with our sword we wiped away the blot;   ·bda040· Therefore, when merchant-like I sell revenge, Broke be my sword, my arms torn and defaced, And I proclaim’d a coward through the world!   [bda043]

_Suf._ Stay, Whitmore; for thy prisoner is a prince, The Duke of Suffolk, William de la Pole.   ·bda045·

_Whit._ The Duke of Suffolk muffled up in rags!   [bda046]

_Suf._ Ay, but these rags are no part of the duke: Jove sometime went disguised, and why not I?   [bda048]

_Cap._ But Jove was never slain, as thou shalt be.

_Suf._ Obscure and lowly swain, King Henry’s blood,   [bda050] The honourable blood of Lancaster,   [bda051] Must not be shed by such a jaded groom.   [bda052] Hast thou not kiss’d thy hand and held my stirrup? Bare-headed plodded by my foot-cloth mule   [bda054] And thought thee happy when I shook my head?   ·bda055· How often hast thou waited at my cup, Fed from my trencher, kneel’d down at the board, When I have feasted with Queen Margaret? Remember it and let it make thee crest-fall’n, Ay, and allay this thy abortive pride;   ·bda060· How in our voiding lobby hast thou stood And duly waited for my coming forth? This hand of mine hath writ in thy behalf   [bda063] And therefore shall it charm thy riotous tongue.

_Whit._ Speak, captain, shall I stab the forlorn swain?   [bda065]

_Cap._ First let my words stab him, as he hath me.

_Suf._ Base slave, thy words are blunt and so art thou.

_Cap._ Convey him hence and on our long-boat’s side Strike off his head.

_Suf._ Thou darest not, for thy own.   [bda069]

_Cap._ Yes, Pole.

_Suf._ Pole!

_Cap._ Pool! Sir Pool! lord!   [bda070] Ay, kennel, puddle, sink; whose filth and dirt   [bda071] Troubles the silver spring where England drinks. Now will I dam up this thy yawning mouth For swallowing the treasure of the realm:   [bda074] Thy lips that kiss’d the queen shall sweep the ground;   ·bda075· And thou that smiledst at good Duke Humphrey’s death Against the senseless winds shalt grin in vain,   [bda077] Who in contempt shall hiss at thee again: And wedded be thou to the hags of hell, For daring to affy a mighty lord   ·bda080· Unto the daughter of a worthless king, Having neither subject, wealth, nor diadem.   [bda082] By devilish policy art thou grown great And, like ambitious Sylla, overgorged   [bda084] With gobbets of thy mother’s bleeding heart.   [bda085] By thee Anjou and Maine were sold to France, The false revolting Normans thorough thee Disdain to call us lord, and Picardy Hath slain their governors, surprised our forts And sent the ragged soldiers wounded home.   ·bda090· The princely Warwick, and the Nevils all, Whose dreadful swords were never drawn in vain, As hating thee, are rising up in arms:   [bda093] And now the house of York, thrust from the crown By shameful murder of a guiltless king   ·bda095· And lofty proud encroaching tyranny,   [bda096] Burns with revenging fire; whose hopeful colours Advance our half-faced sun, striving to shine,   [bda098] Under the which is writ ‘Invitis nubibus.’ The commons here in Kent are up in arms:   ·bda100· And, to conclude, reproach and beggary Is crept into the palace of our king,   [bda102] And all by thee. Away! convey him hence.

_Suf._ O that I were a god, to shoot forth thunder Upon these paltry, servile, abject drudges!   ·bda105· Small things make base men proud: this villain here, Being captain of a pinnace, threatens more   [bda107] Than Bargulus the strong Illyrian pirate.   [bda108] Drones suck not eagles’ blood but rob bee-hives: It is impossible that I should die   [bda110] By such a lowly vassal as thyself. Thy words move rage and not remorse in me: I go of message from the queen to France; I charge thee waft me safely cross the Channel.

_Cap._ Walter,--   [bda115]

_Whit._ Come, Suffolk, I must waft thee to thy death.

_Suf._ Gelidus timor occupat artus: it is thee I fear.   [bda117]

_Whit._ Thou shalt have cause to fear before I leave thee.   [bda118] What, are ye daunted now? now will ye stoop?

_First Gent._ My gracious lord, entreat him, speak him fair.   ·bda120·

_Suf._ Suffolk’s imperial tongue is stern and rough, Used to command, untaught to plead for favour. Far be it we should honour such as these With humble suit: no, rather let my head Stoop to the block than these knees bow to any   ·bda125· Save to the God of heaven and to my king; And sooner dance upon a bloody pole Than stand uncover’d to the vulgar groom.   [bda128] True nobility is exempt from fear:   [bda129] More can I bear than you dare execute.   ·bda130·

_Cap._ Hale him away, and let him talk no more.

_Suf._ Come, soldiers, show what cruelty ye can,   [bda132] That this my death may never be forgot! Great men oft die by vile bezonians: A Roman sworder and banditto slave   [bda135] Murder’d sweet Tully; Brutus’ bastard hand   [bda136] Stabb’d Julius Cæsar; savage islanders   [bda137]

Pompey the Great; and Suffolk dies by pirates.   [bda138] [_Exeunt Whitmore and others with Suffolk._

_Cap._ And as for these whose ransom we have set, It is our pleasure one of them depart:   ·bda140· Therefore come you with us and let him go.   [bda141] [_Exeunt all but the First Gentleman._

_Re-enter_ WHITMORE _with_ SUFFOLK’S _body_.

_Whit._ There let his head and lifeless body lie,   [bda142] Until the queen his mistress bury it. [_Exit._   [bda143]

_First Gent._ O barbarous and bloody spectacle! His body will I bear unto the king:   ·bda145· If he revenge it not, yet will his friends; So will the queen, that living held him dear.   [bda147] [_Exit with the body._

## SCENE II. _Blackheath_.

_Enter_ GEORGE BEVIS _and_ JOHN HOLLAND.

_Bevis._ Come, and get thee a sword, though made of a   [bdb001] lath: they have been up these two days.

_Holl._ They have the more need to sleep now, then.   [bdb003]

_Bevis._ I tell thee, Jack Cade the clothier means to dress the commonwealth, and turn it, and set a new nap   ·bdb005· upon it.

_Holl._ So he had need, for ’tis threadbare. Well, I say it   [bdb007] was never merry world in England since gentlemen came up.   [bdb008]

_Bevis._ O miserable age! virtue is not regarded in handicrafts-men.   ·bdb010·

_Holl._ The nobility think scorn to go in leather aprons.

_Bevis._ Nay, more, the king’s council are no good workmen.

_Holl._ True; and yet it is said, labour in thy vocation; which is as much to say as, let the magistrates be labouring   [bdb015] men; and therefore should we be magistrates.

_Bevis._ Thou hast hit it; for there’s no better sign of a brave mind than a hard hand.

_Holl._ I see them! I see them! There’s Best’s son, the tanner of Wingham,--   ·bdb020·

_Bevis._ He shall have the skin of our enemies, to make dog’s-leather of.

_Holl._ And Dick the butcher,--

_Bevis._ Then is sin struck down like an ox, and iniquity’s throat cut like a calf.   ·bdb025·

_Holl._ And Smith the weaver,--   [bdb026]

_Bevis._ Argo, their thread of life is spun.

_Holl._ Come, come, let’s fall in with them.   [bdb028]

_Drum. Enter_ CADE, DICK Butcher, SMITH _the Weaver, and a Sawyer, with infinite numbers_.

_Cade._ We John Cade, so termed of our supposed father,--   [bdb030]

_Dick._ [_Aside_] Or rather, of stealing a cade of herrings.   [bdb031]

_Cade._ For our enemies shall fall before us, inspired   [bdb032] with the spirit of putting down kings and princes,--Command   [bdb033] silence.

_Dick._ Silence!   ·bdb035·

_Cade._ My father was a Mortimer,--

_Dick._ [_Aside_] He was an honest man, and a good bricklayer.

_Cade._ My mother a Plantagenet,--

_Dick._ [_Aside_] I knew her well; she was a midwife.   ·bdb040·

_Cade._ My wife descended of the Lacies,--

_Dick._ [_Aside_] She was, indeed, a pedler’s daughter, and sold many laces.

_Smith._ [_Aside_] But now of late, not able to travel with   [bdb044] her furred pack, she washes bucks here at home.   ·bdb045·

_Cade._ Therefore am I of an honourable house.

_Dick._ [_Aside_] Ay, by my faith, the field is honourable; and there was he born, under a hedge, for his father had never a house but the cage.

_Cade._ Valiant I am.   ·bdb050·

_Smith._ [_Aside_] A’ must needs; for beggary is valiant.

_Cade._ I am able to endure much.

_Dick._ [_Aside_] No question of that; for I have seen him whipped three market-days together.

_Cade._ I fear neither sword nor fire.   ·bdb055·

_Smith._ [_Aside_] He need not fear the sword; for his coat is of proof.   [bdb057]