ACT 1
Scene 1
Flourish of trumpets, then hautboys. Enter King Henry, Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, Salisbury, Warwick, and Cardinal Beaufort, on the one side; Queen Margaret, Suffolk, York, Somerset, and Buckingham, on the other.

...welcome my love.
kneel.
Long live Queen Margaret, England’s happiness!

...thank you all.
Flourish. All rise.

...words? Mort Dieu!
For Suffolk’s duke, may he be suffocate
That dims the honor of this warlike isle!
France should have torn and rent my very heart
Before I would have yielded to this league.
I never read but England’s kings have had
Large sums of gold and dowries with their wives;
And our King Henry gives away his own
To match with her that brings no vantages.

...of his country!
And so says York—aside
for he hath greatest cause.

...else be slain.
Anjou and Maine are given to the French;
Paris is lost; the state of Normandy
Stands on a tickle point now they are gone.
Suffolk concluded on the articles,
The peers agreed, and Henry was well pleased
To change two dukedoms for a duke’s fair daughter.
I cannot blame them all. What is ’t to them?
’Tis thine they give away, and not their own.
Pirates may make cheap pennyworths of their pillage,
And purchase friends, and give to courtesans,
Still reveling like lords till all be gone;
Whileas the silly owner of the goods
Weeps over them, and wrings his hapless hands,
And shakes his head, and trembling stands aloof,
While all is shared and all is borne away,
Ready to starve, and dare not touch his own.
So York must sit and fret and bite his tongue
While his own lands are bargained for and sold.
Methinks the realms of England, France, and Ireland
Bear that proportion to my flesh and blood
As did the fatal brand Althaea burnt
Unto the Prince’s heart of Calydon.
Anjou and Maine both given unto the French!
Cold news for me, for I had hope of France,
Even as I have of fertile England’s soil.
A day will come when York shall claim his own;
And therefore I will take the Nevilles’ parts
And make a show of love to proud Duke Humphrey,
And, when I spy advantage, claim the crown,
For that’s the golden mark I seek to hit.
Nor shall proud Lancaster usurp my right,
Nor hold the scepter in his childish fist,
Nor wear the diadem upon his head,
Whose churchlike humors fits not for a crown.
Then, York, be still awhile till time do serve.
Watch thou and wake, when others be asleep,
To pry into the secrets of the state
Till Henry, surfeiting in joys of love
With his new bride and England’s dear-bought queen,
And Humphrey with the peers be fall’n at jars.
Then will I raise aloft the milk-white rose,
With whose sweet smell the air shall be perfumed,
And in my standard bear the arms of York,
To grapple with the house of Lancaster;
And force perforce I’ll make him yield the crown,
Whose bookish rule hath pulled fair England down.
York exits.

Scene 3

...the happy helm.
Sound a sennet. Enter King Henry, Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, Cardinal, Somerset, wearing the red rose, Buckingham, Salisbury; York and Warwick, both wearing the white rose; and the Duchess of Gloucester.

...one to me.
If York have ill demeaned himself in France,
Then let him be denied the regentship.

...of any man.
I’ll tell thee, Suffolk, why I am unmeet:
First, for I cannot flatter thee in pride;
Next, if I be appointed for the place,
My lord of Somerset will keep me here
Without discharge, money, or furniture
Till France be won into the Dauphin’s hands.
Last time I danced attendance on his will
Till Paris was besieged, famished, and lost.

...York excuse himself!
Doth anyone accuse York for a traitor?

...of York’s armor.
to Horner
Base dunghill villain and mechanical,
I’ll have thy head for this thy traitor’s speech!—
I do beseech your royal Majesty,
Let him have all the rigor of the law.

...thee sent away.
Flourish. They exit.

Scene 4

...Spirit exits, descending.
Enter the Duke of York and the Duke of Buckingham with their Guard and Sir Humphrey Stafford, and break in.
Lay hands upon these traitors and their trash.

The Guard arrest Margery Jourdain and her accomplices and seize their papers.
To Jourdain.
Beldam, I think we watched you at an inch.
To the Duchess, aloft.
What, madam, are you there? The King and commonweal
Are deeply indebted for this piece of pains.
My Lord Protector will, I doubt it not,
See you well guerdoned for these good deserts.

...forthcoming. All away!
Lord Buckingham, methinks you watched her well.
A pretty plot, well chosen to build upon!
Now, pray, my lord, let’s see the devil’s writ. Buckingham hands him the papers.
What have we here?
(Reads.)
The duke yet lives that Henry shall depose,
But him outlive and die a violent death.
Why, this is just Aio te, Aeacida,
Romanos vincere posse. Well, to the rest:
(Reads.)
Tell me what fate awaits the Duke of Suffolk?
By water shall he die and take his end.
What shall betide the Duke of Somerset?
Let him shun castles;
Safer shall he be upon the sandy plains
Than where castles mounted stand.
Come, come, my lord, these oracles
Are hardly attained and hardly understood.
The King is now in progress towards Saint Albans;
With him the husband of this lovely lady.
Thither goes these news as fast as horse can carry them—
A sorry breakfast for my Lord Protector.

...of his reward.
At your pleasure, my good lord.
Who’s within there, ho!

Enter a Servingman.
Invite my lords of Salisbury and Warwick
To sup with me tomorrow night. Away!
They exit.

ACT 2
Scene 2

...cause prevails.
Enter York, Salisbury, and Warwick.
Now, my good lords of Salisbury and Warwick,
Our simple supper ended, give me leave,
In this close walk, to satisfy myself
In craving your opinion of my title,
Which is infallible, to England’s crown.

...subjects to command.
Then thus:
Edward the Third, my lords, had seven sons:
The first, Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales;
The second, William of Hatfield; and the third,
Lionel, Duke of Clarence; next to whom
Was John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster;
The fifth was Edmund Langley, Duke of York;
The sixth was Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester;
William of Windsor was the seventh and last.
Edward the Black Prince died before his father
And left behind him Richard, his only son,
Who, after Edward the Third’s death, reigned as king
Till Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster,
The eldest son and heir of John of Gaunt,
Crowned by the name of Henry the Fourth,
Seized on the realm, deposed the rightful king,
Sent his poor queen to France, from whence she came,
And him to Pomfret; where, as all you know,
Harmless Richard was murdered traitorously.

...Lancaster the crown.
Which now they hold by force and not by right;
For Richard, the first son’s heir, being dead,
The issue of the next son should have reigned.

...without an heir.
The third son, Duke of Clarence, from whose line
I claim the crown, had issue, Philippa, a daughter,
Who married Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March.
Edmund had issue, Roger, Earl of March;
Roger had issue: Edmund, Anne, and Eleanor.

...to the rest.
His eldest sister, Anne,
My mother, being heir unto the crown,
Married Richard, Earl of Cambridge, who was son
To Edmund Langley, Edward the Third’s fifth son.
By her I claim the kingdom. She was heir
To Roger, Earl of March, who was the son
Of Edmund Mortimer, who married Philippa,
Sole daughter unto Lionel, Duke of Clarence.
So, if the issue of the elder son
Succeed before the younger, I am king.

...Richard, England’s king!
We thank you, lords.

They rise.
But I am not your king
Till I be crowned, and that my sword be stained
With heart-blood of the house of Lancaster;
And that’s not suddenly to be performed,
But with advice and silent secrecy.
Do you as I do in these dangerous days:
Wink at the Duke of Suffolk’s insolence,
At Beaufort’s pride, at Somerset’s ambition,
At Buckingham, and all the crew of them,
Till they have snared the shepherd of the flock,
That virtuous prince, the good Duke Humphrey.
’Tis that they seek; and they, in seeking that,
Shall find their deaths, if York can prophesy.

...York a king.
And, Neville, this I do assure myself:
Richard shall live to make the Earl of Warwick
The greatest man in England but the King.
They exit.

Scene 3
Sound trumpets. Enter King Henry and State (Queen Margaret, Gloucester, York, Salisbury, Suffolk, and Others) with Guard, to banish the Duchess of Gloucester, who is accompanied by Margery Jourdain, Southwell, Hume, and Bolingbroke, all guarded.

...her youngest days.
Lords, let him go.—Please it your Majesty,
This is the day appointed for the combat,
And ready are the appellant and defendant—
The armorer and his man—to enter the lists,
So please your Highness to behold the fight.

...defend the right!
I never saw a fellow worse bestead
Or more afraid to fight than is the appellant,
The servant of this armorer, my lords.

...a downright blow!
Dispatch. This knave’s tongue begins to double.
Sound, trumpets. Alarum to the combatants!

...treason. He dies.
Take away his weapon.—Fellow, thank God and
the good wine in thy master’s way.

...for thy reward.
Sound a flourish. They exit, bearing Horner’s body.

ACT 3
Scene 1

...see my prison.
Sound a sennet. Enter King Henry, Queen Margaret, Cardinal, Suffolk, York, Buckingham, Salisbury, and Warwick, and Others to the Parliament.

...small offenses done?
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?

...will be done.
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.

...am I guilty?
’Tis thought, my lord, that you took bribes of France
And, being Protector, stayed the soldiers’ pay,
By means whereof his Highness hath lost France.

...help me God.
In your protectorship, you did devise
Strange tortures for offenders, never heard of,
That England was defamed by tyranny.

...him worthy death.
So that, by this, you would not have him die.

...fain as I!
’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?

...so say I.
And I. And now we three have spoke it,
It skills not greatly who impugns our doom.

...this weighty cause?
That Somerset be sent as regent thither.
’Tis meet that lucky ruler be employed—
Witness the fortune he hath had in France.

...France so long.
No, not to lose it all, as thou hast done.
I rather would have lost my life betimes
Than bring a burden of dishonor home
By staying there so long till all were lost.
Show me one scar charactered on thy skin.
Men’s flesh preserved so whole do seldom win.

...worse than his.
What, worse than naught? Nay, then, a shame take all!

...against the Irishmen?
I will, my lord, so please his Majesty.

...task in hand.
I am content. Provide me soldiers, lords,
Whiles I take order for mine own affairs.

...of that event.
My lord of Suffolk, within fourteen days
At Bristow I expect my soldiers,
For there I’ll ship them all for Ireland.

...lord of York.
Now, York, or never, steel thy fearful thoughts
And change misdoubt to resolution.
Be that thou hop’st to be, or what thou art
Resign to death; it is not worth th’ enjoying.
Let pale-faced fear keep with the mean-born man
And find no harbor in a royal heart.
Faster than springtime showers comes thought on thought,
And not a thought but thinks on dignity.
My brain, more busy than the laboring spider,
Weaves tedious snares to trap mine enemies.
Well, nobles, well, ’tis politicly done
To send me packing with an host of men.
I fear me you but warm the starvèd snake,
Who, cherished in your breasts, will sting your hearts.
’Twas men I lacked, and you will give them me;
I take it kindly. Yet be well assured
You put sharp weapons in a madman’s hands.
Whiles I in Ireland nourish a mighty band,
I will stir up in England some black storm
Shall blow ten thousand souls to heaven or hell;
And this fell tempest shall not cease to rage
Until the golden circuit on my head,
Like to the glorious sun’s transparent beams,
Do calm the fury of this mad-bred flaw.
And for a minister of my intent,
I have seduced a headstrong Kentishman,
John Cade of Ashford,
To make commotion, as full well he can,
Under the title of John Mortimer.
In Ireland have I seen this stubborn Cade
Oppose himself against a troop of kerns,
And fought so long till that his thighs with darts
Were almost like a sharp-quilled porpentine;
And in the end being rescued, I have seen
Him caper upright like a wild Morisco,
Shaking the bloody darts as he his bells.
Full often, like a shag-haired crafty kern,
Hath he conversèd with the enemy,
And undiscovered come to me again
And given me notice of their villainies.
This devil here shall be my substitute;
For that John Mortimer, which now is dead,
In face, in gait, in speech he doth resemble.
By this, I shall perceive the Commons’ mind,
How they affect the house and claim of York.
Say he be taken, racked, and torturèd,
I know no pain they can inflict upon him
Will make him say I moved him to those arms.
Say that he thrive, as ’tis great like he will,
Why then from Ireland come I with my strength
And reap the harvest which that rascal sowed.
For, Humphrey being dead, as he shall be,
And Henry put apart, the next for me.
He exits.

ACT 5
Scene 1

...to feed upon.
Enter York, wearing the white rose, and his army of Irish, with Attendants, Drum and Colors.
From Ireland thus comes York to claim his right
And pluck the crown from feeble Henry’s head.
Ring, bells, aloud! Burn, bonfires, clear and bright
To entertain great England’s lawful king!
Ah, sancta maiestas, who would not buy thee dear?
Let them obey that knows not how to rule.
This hand was made to handle naught but gold.
I cannot give due action to my words
Except a sword or scepter balance it.
A scepter shall it have, have I a soul,
On which I’ll toss the fleur-de-luce of France.

Enter Buckingham, wearing the red rose.
Aside.
Whom have we here? Buckingham, to disturb me?
The King hath sent him, sure. I must dissemble.

...greet thee well.
Humphrey of Buckingham, I accept thy greeting.
Art thou a messenger, or come of pleasure?

...near the court.
aside
Scarce can I speak, my choler is so great.
O, I could hew up rocks and fight with flint,
I am so angry at these abject terms!
And now, like Ajax Telamonius,
On sheep or oxen could I spend my fury.
I am far better born than is the King,
More like a king, more kingly in my thoughts.
But I must make fair weather yet awhile,
Till Henry be more weak and I more strong.—
Buckingham, I prithee, pardon me,
That I have given no answer all this while.
My mind was troubled with deep melancholy.
The cause why I have brought this army hither
Is to remove proud Somerset from the King,
Seditious to his Grace and to the state.

...in the Tower.
Upon thine honor, is he prisoner?

...he is prisoner.
Then, Buckingham, I do dismiss my powers.—
Soldiers, I thank you all. Disperse yourselves.
Meet me tomorrow in Saint George’s field;
You shall have pay and everything you wish.
And let my sovereign, virtuous Henry,
Command my eldest son, nay, all my sons,
As pledges of my fealty and love;
I’ll send them all as willing as I live.
Lands, goods, horse, armor, anything I have
Is his to use, so Somerset may die.

...his Highness’ tent.
They walk arm in arm.

...arm in arm?
In all submission and humility
York doth present himself unto your Highness.

...thou dost bring?
To heave the traitor Somerset from hence
And fight against that monstrous rebel Cade,
Who since I heard to be discomfited.

...to his face.
aside
How now? Is Somerset at liberty?
Then, York, unloose thy long-imprisoned thoughts,
And let thy tongue be equal with thy heart.
Shall I endure the sight of Somerset?—
False king, why hast thou broken faith with me,
Knowing how hardly I can brook abuse?
“King” did I call thee? No, thou art not king,
Not fit to govern and rule multitudes,
Which dar’st not—no, nor canst not—rule a traitor.
That head of thine doth not become a crown;
Thy hand is made to grasp a palmer’s staff,
And not to grace an awful princely scepter.
That gold must round engirt these brows of mine,
Whose smile and frown, like to Achilles’ spear,
Is able with the change to kill and cure.
Here is a hand to hold a scepter up
And with the same to act controlling laws.
Give place. By heaven, thou shalt rule no more
O’er him whom heaven created for thy ruler.

...Kneel for grace.
Wouldst have me kneel? First let me ask of these
If they can brook I bow a knee to man.
To an Attendant.
Sirrah, call in my sons to be my bail.
I know, ere they will have me go to ward,
They’ll pawn their swords for my enfranchisement.

...their traitor father.
to Queen Margaret
O, blood-bespotted Neapolitan,
Outcast of Naples, England’s bloody scourge!
The sons of York, thy betters in their birth,
Shall be their father’s bail, and bane to those
That for my surety will refuse the boys.

Enter York’s sons Edward and Richard, wearing the white rose.
See where they come; I’ll warrant they’ll make it good.

...King. He rises.
I thank thee, Clifford. Say, what news with thee?
Nay, do not fright us with an angry look.
We are thy sovereign, Clifford; kneel again.
For thy mistaking so, we pardon thee.

...words for him.
Will you not, sons?

...have we here!
Look in a glass, and call thy image so.
I am thy king and thou a false-heart traitor.
Call hither to the stake my two brave bears,
That, with the very shaking of their chains,
They may astonish these fell-lurking curs.
To an Attendant.
Bid Salisbury and Warwick come to me.

...as thy shape!
Nay, we shall heat you thoroughly anon.

...him arm himself.
to King Henry
Call Buckingham and all the friends thou hast,
I am resolved for death or dignity.

...sup in hell.
They exit separately.

Scene 2

...thee to arms.
Enter York, wearing the white rose.

...What, all afoot?
The deadly-handed Clifford slew my steed,
But match to match I have encountered him
And made a prey for carrion kites and crows
Even of the bonny beast he loved so well.

...time is come.
Hold, Warwick! Seek thee out some other chase,
For I myself must hunt this deer to death.

...dost thou pause?
With thy brave bearing should I be in love,
But that thou art so fast mine enemy.

...and in treason.
So let it help me now against thy sword
As I in justice and true right express it!

...the action both!
A dreadful lay! Address thee instantly.
They fight and Clifford falls.

...les oeuvres.He dies.
Thus war hath given thee peace, for thou art still.
Peace with his soul, heaven, if it be thy will!
He exits.

Scene 3

...my lord, away!
Alarum. Retreat. Enter York, Edward, Richard, Warwick, and Soldiers, all wearing the white rose, with Drum and Colors.
Of Salisbury, who can report of him,
That winter lion, who in rage forgets
Agèd contusions and all brush of time,
And, like a gallant in the brow of youth,
Repairs him with occasion? This happy day
Is not itself, nor have we won one foot,
If Salisbury be lost.

...such repairing nature.
I know our safety is to follow them;
For, as I hear, the King is fled to London
To call a present court of Parliament.
Let us pursue him ere the writs go forth.—
What says Lord Warwick? Shall we after them?

...to us befall!
Flourish. They exit.