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.
KING HENRY VI 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 fain 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, ’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.
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;
Pernicious protector, dangerous peer,
That smooth’st it so with king and commonweal!
GLOUCESTER 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 thine insolence.
QUEEN MARGARET And thy ambition, Gloucester.
KING HENRY VI I prithee, 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 [Aside to CARDINAL]
Faith, holy uncle,
would ’twere come to that!
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 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,
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?
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.
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?
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.
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!
[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;
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.
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.
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.
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,
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!
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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?
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
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
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?
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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,
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 hath dishonour’d Gloucester’s honest name.
KING HENRY VI Well,
for this night we will repose us here:
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.
[Flourish. Exeunt]
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