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
But what a point, my lord, your falcon made,
And what a pitch she flew above the rest!
To see how God in all His creatures works!
Yea, man and birds are of climbing high.
SUFFOLK
No marvel, an it like your majesty,
My Lord Protector’s hawks do tower so well;
They know their master loves to be aloft,
And bears his thoughts above his falcon’s pitch.
GLOUCESTER
My lord, 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.
GLOUCESTER
Ay, my Lord Cardinal, how think you by that?
Were it not good your grace could fly to heaven?
KING HENRY
The treasury of everlasting joy.
CARDINAL
heaven is on earth; eyes and thoughts
Beat on a crown, the treasure of heart,
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.
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,
An ’t like your lordly Lord Protectorship.
GLOUCESTER
Why, Suffolk, England knows insolence.
QUEEN MARGARET
And ambition, Gloucester.
KING HENRY
I , peace, good queen,
And whet not on these furious peers;
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
Faith, holy uncle, would ’twere come to that!
CARDINAL
Marry, when dar’st.
GLOUCESTER
Make up no factious numbers for the matter,
In own person answer abuse.
CARDINAL
Ay, where dar’st not peep; an if dar’st,
This evening, on the east side of the grove.
KING HENRY
How now, my lords?
CARDINAL
Believe me, cousin Gloucester,
Had not your man put up the fowl so suddenly,
We had had more sport.—
Come with two-hand sword.
GLOUCESTER
True, uncle.
Are advised? The east side of the grove?
CARDINAL
I am with you.
KING HENRY
Why, how now, uncle Gloucester?
GLOUCESTER
Talking of hawking; nothing else, my lord.
Now, by God’s mother, priest,
I’ll shave your crown for this,
Or all my fence shall fail.
CARDINAL
Medice, teipsum.—
Protector, see to ’t well, protect yourself.
KING HENRY
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?
I pray, my lords, let me compound this strife.
GLOUCESTER
What means this noise?
Fellow, what miracle proclaim?
TOWNSMAN
A miracle! A miracle!
SUFFOLK
Come to the King, and tell him what miracle.
TOWNSMAN
, a blind man at Saint Alban’s shrine,
Within this half hour, received his sight,
A man that saw in his life before.
KING HENRY
Now, God be praised, that to believing souls
Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair!
CARDINAL
Here comes the townsmen on procession,
To present your highness with the man.
KING HENRY
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.
His highness’ pleasure is to talk with him.
KING HENRY
Good fellow, tell us here the circumstance,
That we for may glorify the Lord.
What, been long blind and now restored?
SIMPCOX
Born blind, an ’t please your grace.
WIFE
Ay, indeed, was he.
SUFFOLK
What woman is this?
WIFE
His wife, an ’t like your worship.
GLOUCESTER
Hadst been his mother, have better told.
KING HENRY
Where wert born?
SIMPCOX
At Berwick in the north, an ’t like your grace.
KING HENRY
Poor soul, God’s goodness been great to .
Let never day nor night unhallowed pass,
But still remember what the Lord done.
QUEEN MARGARET
Tell me, good fellow, cam’st here by chance,
Or of devotion, to this holy shrine?
SIMPCOX
God knows, of pure devotion; being called
A hundred times and oftener, in my sleep,
By good Saint Alban, who said “Simpcox, come,
Come, offer at my shrine, and I will help .”
WIFE
Most true, ; and many time and
Myself have heard a voice to call him so.
CARDINAL
What, art lame?
SIMPCOX
Ay, God Almighty help me!
SUFFOLK
How cam’st so?
SIMPCOX
A fall off of a tree.
WIFE
A plum-tree, master.
GLOUCESTER
How long been blind?
SIMPCOX
O, born so, master.
GLOUCESTER
What, and 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, lov’dst plums well, that venture so.
SIMPCOX
Alas, good master, my wife desired some damsons,
And made me climb, with danger of my life.
GLOUCESTER
A subtle ! But yet it shall not serve.—
Let me see eyes. Wink now. Now open them.
In my opinion yet seest not well.
SIMPCOX
Yes, master, clear as day, I thank God and Saint Alban.
GLOUCESTER
Sayst 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?
SIMPCOX
Black, , coal-black as jet.
KING HENRY
Why, then, 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.
GLOUCESTER
Tell me, , what’s my name?
SIMPCOX
Alas, master, I know not.
GLOUCESTER
What’s his name?
SIMPCOX
I know not.
GLOUCESTER
Nor his?
SIMPCOX
No, indeed, master.
GLOUCESTER
What’s own name?
SIMPCOX
Sander Simpcox, an if it please you, master.
GLOUCESTER
Then, Sander, sit there, the lyingest in Christendom. If hadst been born blind, mightst 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 done a miracle; and would not think his cunning to be great that could restore this cripple to his legs again?
SIMPCOX
O master, that you could!
GLOUCESTER
My masters of Saint Albans, have you not beadles in your town, and things called whips?
MAYOR
Yes, my lord, if it please your grace.
GLOUCESTER
Then send for one .
MAYOR
, go fetch the beadle straight.
GLOUCESTER
Now fetch me a stool by and by.—Now, , if you mean to save yourself from whipping, leap me over this stool and run away.
SIMPCOX
Alas, master, I am not able to stand alone.
You go about to torture me in vain.
GLOUCESTER
Well, sir, we must have you find your legs.
beadle, whip him till he leap over that same stool.
BEADLE
I will, my lord.—Come on, ; off with your doublet quickly.
SIMPCOX
Alas, master, what shall I do? I am not able to stand.
KING HENRY
O God, seest this, and bearest so long?
QUEEN MARGARET
It made me laugh to see the villain run.
GLOUCESTER
Follow the , 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 they came.
CARDINAL
Duke Humphrey has done a miracle today.
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.
KING HENRY
What tidings with our cousin Buckingham?
BUCKINGHAM
Such as my heart tremble to unfold.
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,
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,
As more at large your Grace shall understand.
CARDINAL
And so, my Lord Protector, by this means
Your lady is forthcoming yet at London.
This news, I think, turned your weapon’s edge;
like, my lord, you will not keep your hour.
GLOUCESTER
Ambitious churchman, leave to afflict my heart.
Sorrow and grief have vanquished all my powers,
And, vanquished as I am, I yield to ,
Or to the meanest groom.
KING HENRY
O God, what mischiefs work the wicked ones,
Heaping confusion on their own heads thereby!
QUEEN MARGARET
Gloucester, see here the tainture of nest,
And look thyself be faultless, wert best.
GLOUCESTER
Madam, for myself, to heaven I do appeal
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
As like to pitch defile nobility,
I banish her my bed and company
And give her as a prey to law and shame
That dishonoured Gloucester’s honest name.
KING HENRY
Well, for this night we will repose us here;
Tomorrow 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.