Original Text |
Translated Text |
| Source: Folger Shakespeare Library |
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Enter two or three running over the stage, from the
murder of Duke Humphrey. FIRST MURDERER
Run to my lord of Suffolk. Let him know
We have dispatched the Duke as he commanded. SECOND MURDERER
O, that it were to do! What have we done?
Didst ever hear a man so penitent? | Two murderers discuss knocking Gloucester off. One of them feels bad
about what they've done; the other just wants to get the news to Suffolk
that his order has been fulfilled. |
Enter Suffolk. FIRST MURDERER Here comes my lord. 5 SUFFOLK Now, sirs, have you dispatched this thing? FIRST MURDERER Ay, my good lord, he’s dead. SUFFOLK
Why, that’s well said. Go, get you to my house;
I will reward you for this venturous deed.
The King and all the peers are here at hand. 10
Have you laid fair the bed? Is all things well,
According as I gave directions? FIRST MURDERER ’Tis, my good lord. SUFFOLK Away, be gone. | Suffolk enters and asks the men if they've gone through with the murder. Yep, just as instructed. The men are all patting themselves on the back, and Suffolk tells the murderers to go to his house to get paid. |
The Murderers exit. Sound trumpets. Enter King Henry, Queen
Margaret, Cardinal, Somerset, with Attendants. KING HENRY
Go, call our uncle to our presence straight. 15
Say we intend to try his Grace today
If he be guilty, as ’tis publishèd. SUFFOLK
I’ll call him presently, my noble lord. He exits. KING HENRY
Lords, take your places; and, I pray you all,
Proceed no straiter ’gainst our uncle Gloucester 20
Than from true evidence of good esteem
He be approved in practice culpable. QUEEN MARGARET
God forbid any malice should prevail
That faultless may condemn a nobleman!
Pray God he may acquit him of suspicion! 25 | Luckily, the murderers leave right then, because Henry, Margaret, and some nobles come on stage. Henry announces that Gloucester will have a fair trial, and Margaret outwardly supports that. |
KING HENRY
I thank thee, Meg. These words content me much. Enter Suffolk. How now? Why look’st thou pale? Why tremblest
thou?
Where is our uncle? What’s the matter, Suffolk? SUFFOLK
Dead in his bed, my lord. Gloucester is dead. 30 QUEEN MARGARET Marry, God forfend! CARDINAL
God’s secret judgment. I did dream tonight
The Duke was dumb and could not speak a word. King Henry swoons. | Suffolk goes out to get Gloucester, but when he returns, he has grave news. Gloucester has been murdered. Um, gasp. Of course, this isn't news to Suffolk and Margaret, but they both pretend to be shocked. Henry is actually shocked: he faints over the news. |
QUEEN MARGARET
How fares my lord? Help, lords, the King is dead! SOMERSET
Rear up his body. Wring him by the nose. 35 QUEEN MARGARET
Run, go, help, help! O Henry, ope thine eyes!
King Henry stirs. SUFFOLK
He doth revive again. Madam, be patient. KING HENRY
O heavenly God! QUEEN MARGARET How fares my gracious lord? SUFFOLK
Comfort, my sovereign! Gracious Henry, comfort! 40 KING HENRY
What, doth my lord of Suffolk comfort me?
Came he right now to sing a raven’s note,
Whose dismal tune bereft my vital powers,
And thinks he that the chirping of a wren,
By crying comfort from a hollow breast, 45
Can chase away the first-conceivèd sound?
Hide not thy poison with such sugared words.
Lay not thy hands on me. Forbear, I say!
Their touch affrights me as a serpent’s sting.
Thou baleful messenger, out of my sight! 50
Upon thy eyeballs, murderous Tyranny
Sits in grim majesty to fright the world.
Look not upon me, for thine eyes are wounding.
Yet do not go away. Come, basilisk,
And kill the innocent gazer with thy sight; 55
For in the shade of death I shall find joy,
In life but double death, now Gloucester’s dead. | Everything happens pretty quickly, because Margaret is worried about Henry and calls for help again and again. Suffolk tries to help, but Henry suddenly accuses him of being fake. He hated Gloucester, but now he mourns when he's dead? That's not cool, says Henry. |
QUEEN MARGARET
Why do you rate my lord of Suffolk thus?
Although the Duke was enemy to him,
Yet he most Christian-like laments his death. 60
And for myself, foe as he was to me,
Might liquid tears or heart-offending groans
Or blood-consuming sighs recall his life,
I would be blind with weeping, sick with groans,
Look pale as primrose with blood-drinking sighs, 65
And all to have the noble duke alive.
What know I how the world may deem of me?
For it is known we were but hollow friends.
It may be judged I made the Duke away;
So shall my name with slander’s tongue be wounded 70
And princes’ courts be filled with my reproach.
This get I by his death. Ay me, unhappy,
To be a queen and crowned with infamy! KING HENRY
Ah, woe is me for Gloucester, wretched man! | Before Suffolk can even respond, Margaret jumps in and defends him. Look how Christian he is: he didn't even like Gloucester, and here he is mourning the guy's death. Well, that's one way to spin it, we guess. Plus, like any good wife, Margaret's worried about herself. What will the people think of her now that Gloucester is dead? She's worried that since she openly didn't like Gloucester, people will think—get this—that she had something to do with his death. (Of course she did—she helped Suffolk plan it. She just doesn't want people thinking she had anything to do with it.) Henry doesn't seem to notice his wife's musings; he just goes on lamenting Gloucester. |
QUEEN MARGARET
Be woe for me, more wretched than he is. 75
What, dost thou turn away and hide thy face?
I am no loathsome leper. Look on me.
What, art thou, like the adder, waxen deaf?
Be poisonous too, and kill thy forlorn queen.
Is all thy comfort shut in Gloucester’s tomb? 80
Why, then, Dame Margaret was ne’er thy joy.
Erect his statue and worship it,
And make my image but an alehouse sign.
Was I for this nigh-wracked upon the sea
And twice by awkward wind from England’s bank 85
Drove back again unto my native clime?
What boded this, but well forewarning wind
Did seem to say “Seek not a scorpion’s nest,
Nor set no footing on this unkind shore”?
What did I then but cursed the gentle gusts 90
And he that loosed them forth their brazen caves
And bid them blow towards England’s blessèd shore
Or turn our stern upon a dreadful rock?
Yet Aeolus would not be a murderer,
But left that hateful office unto thee. 95
The pretty-vaulting sea refused to drown me,
Knowing that thou wouldst have me drowned on
shore
With tears as salt as sea, through thy unkindness.
The splitting rocks cow’red in the sinking sands 100
And would not dash me with their ragged sides
Because thy flinty heart, more hard than they,
Might in thy palace perish Margaret.
As far as I could ken thy chalky cliffs,
When from thy shore the tempest beat us back, 105
I stood upon the hatches in the storm,
And when the dusky sky began to rob
My earnest-gaping sight of thy land’s view,
I took a costly jewel from my neck—
A heart it was, bound in with diamonds— 110
And threw it towards thy land. The sea received it,
And so I wished thy body might my heart.
And even with this I lost fair England’s view,
And bid mine eyes be packing with my heart,
And called them blind and dusky spectacles 115
For losing ken of Albion’s wishèd coast.
How often have I tempted Suffolk’s tongue,
The agent of thy foul inconstancy,
To sit and watch me, as Ascanius did
When he to madding Dido would unfold 120
His father’s acts commenced in burning Troy!
Am I not witched like her, or thou not false like
him?
Ay me, I can no more. Die, Margaret,
For Henry weeps that thou dost live so long. 125 | At the sight of this, Margaret delivers a long speech about how unfair this is. Henry is grieving for Gloucester instead of focusing on his wife's worries and feelings. She shouldn't have come to England during such a troubling time. Suffolk told her about a great and mighty king, and all she sees is… Henry. Ouch. Margaret claims she'd rather die than live in England, where her own husband doesn't even care about her. |
Noise within. Enter Warwick and Salisbury,
and many Commons. WARWICK
It is reported, mighty sovereign,
That good Duke Humphrey traitorously is murdered
By Suffolk and the Cardinal Beaufort’s means.
The Commons, like an angry hive of bees
That want their leader, scatter up and down 130
And care not who they sting in his revenge.
Myself have calmed their spleenful mutiny,
Until they hear the order of his death. KING HENRY
That he is dead, good Warwick, ’tis too true;
But how he died God knows, not Henry. 135
Enter his chamber, view his breathless corpse,
And comment then upon his sudden death. WARWICK
That shall I do, my liege.—Stay, Salisbury,
With the rude multitude till I return. Warwick exits through one door; Salisbury and
Commons exit through another. | There's no time to deal with any of this, because Warwick comes in with news from the commoners. They've heard that Gloucester was murdered by Suffolk and Cardinal Beaufort. Henry confirms that Gloucester is dead, but he doesn't know how it happened. Henry suggests that Warwick look at the body to figure out what happened. As Warwick and Salisbury go to get the body, Henry reports that he believes Gloucester died violently. Uh oh. |
KING HENRY
O Thou that judgest all things, stay my thoughts, 140
My thoughts that labor to persuade my soul
Some violent hands were laid on Humphrey’s life.
If my suspect be false, forgive me, God,
For judgment only doth belong to Thee.
Fain would I go to chafe his paly lips 145
With twenty thousand kisses, and to drain
Upon his face an ocean of salt tears,
To tell my love unto his dumb deaf trunk
And with my fingers feel his hand unfeeling;
But all in vain are these mean obsequies. 150
And to survey his dead and earthy image,
What were it but to make my sorrow greater? Bed put forth, bearing Gloucester’s body.
Enter Warwick. WARWICK
Come hither, gracious sovereign. View this body. KING HENRY
That is to see how deep my grave is made,
For with his soul fled all my worldly solace; 155
For seeing him, I see my life in death. WARWICK
As surely as my soul intends to live
With that dread King that took our state upon Him
To free us from His Father’s wrathful curse,
I do believe that violent hands were laid 160
Upon the life of this thrice-famèd duke. SUFFOLK
A dreadful oath, sworn with a solemn tongue!
What instance gives Lord Warwick for his vow? WARWICK
See how the blood is settled in his face.
Oft have I seen a timely-parted ghost, 165
Of ashy semblance, meager, pale, and bloodless,
Being all descended to the laboring heart,
Who, in the conflict that it holds with death,
Attracts the same for aidance ’gainst the enemy,
Which with the heart there cools and ne’er 170
returneth
To blush and beautify the cheek again.
But see, his face is black and full of blood;
His eyeballs further out than when he lived,
Staring full ghastly, like a strangled man; 175
His hair upreared, his nostrils stretched with
struggling;
His hands abroad displayed, as one that grasped
And tugged for life and was by strength subdued.
Look, on the sheets his hair, you see, is sticking; 180
His well-proportioned beard made rough and
rugged,
Like to the summer’s corn by tempest lodged.
It cannot be but he was murdered here.
The least of all these signs were probable. 185 The bed is removed. | Seeing the body, Beaufort makes a quick exit. Regretting his murder plot, perhaps? The men are back with the body. Trying to be a good CSI agent, Warwick points out that Gloucester's eyeballs are big, and his face looks like he was staring at someone when he died. Surprise, surprise: Gloucester seems to have been murdered. |
SUFFOLK
Why, Warwick, who should do the Duke to death?
Myself and Beaufort had him in protection,
And we, I hope, sir, are no murderers. WARWICK
But both of you were vowed Duke Humphrey’s foes,
To Cardinal. And you, forsooth, had the good duke 190
to keep.
’Tis like you would not feast him like a friend,
And ’tis well seen he found an enemy. QUEEN MARGARET
Then you, belike, suspect these noblemen
As guilty of Duke Humphrey’s timeless death. 195 | But Suffolk disagrees: how could Gloucester have been murdered while he and Cardinal Beaufort were protecting him? Warwick points out that both men hated Gloucester, so it's not a big jump to think that they wouldn't have treated Gloucester like a friend. Margaret gets into a confrontation with Warwick, asking just what he's getting at. |
WARWICK
Who finds the heifer dead and bleeding fresh,
And sees fast by a butcher with an ax,
But will suspect ’twas he that made the slaughter?
Who finds the partridge in the puttock’s nest
But may imagine how the bird was dead, 200
Although the kite soar with unbloodied beak?
Even so suspicious is this tragedy. QUEEN MARGARET
Are you the butcher, Suffolk? Where’s your knife?
Is Beaufort termed a kite? Where are his talons? SUFFOLK
I wear no knife to slaughter sleeping men, 205
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.—
Say, if thou dar’st, proud lord of Warwickshire,
That I am faulty in Duke Humphrey’s death. 210 WARWICK
What dares not Warwick, if false Suffolk dare him? QUEEN MARGARET
He dares not calm his contumelious spirit
Nor cease to be an arrogant controller,
Though Suffolk dare him twenty thousand times. WARWICK
Madam, be still—with reverence may I say— 215
For every word you speak in his behalf
Is slander to your royal dignity. SUFFOLK
Blunt-witted lord, ignoble in demeanor!
If ever lady wronged her lord so much,
Thy mother took into her blameful bed 220
Some stern untutored churl, and noble stock
Was graft with crab-tree slip, whose fruit thou art
And never of the Nevilles’ noble race. WARWICK
But that the guilt of murder bucklers thee
And I should rob the deathsman of his fee, 225
Quitting thee thereby of ten thousand shames,
And that my sovereign’s presence makes me mild,
I would, false murd’rous coward, on thy knee
Make thee beg pardon for thy passèd speech
And say it was thy mother that thou meant’st, 230
That thou thyself wast born in bastardy;
And after all this fearful homage done,
Give thee thy hire and send thy soul to hell,
Pernicious bloodsucker of sleeping men! SUFFOLK
Thou shalt be waking while I shed thy blood, 235
If from this presence thou dar’st go with me. WARWICK
Away even now, or I will drag thee hence!
Unworthy though thou art, I’ll cope with thee
And do some service to Duke Humphrey’s ghost. Warwick and Suffolk exit. KING HENRY
What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted? 240
Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just,
And he but naked, though locked up in steel,
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted. A noise within. QUEEN MARGARET What noise is this? Enter Suffolk and Warwick, with their weapons drawn. | Everyone knows exactly what Warwick is suggesting, but Warwick himself claims that he's just pointing out facts. Don't blame the messenger, or something like that. Suffolk dares Warwick to accuse him and not be a chicken about it. Baited like this, Warwick goes ahead and accuses Suffolk. A fight ensues, and the two men leave, only to return with their weapons drawn. |
KING HENRY
Why, how now, lords? Your wrathful weapons 245
drawn
Here in our presence? Dare you be so bold?
Why, what tumultuous clamor have we here? SUFFOLK
The trait’rous Warwick, with the men of Bury,
Set all upon me, mighty sovereign. 250 Enter Salisbury. SALISBURY, to the offstage Commons
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
Or banishèd fair England’s territories,
They will by violence tear him from your palace 255
And torture him with grievous ling’ring 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,
Free from a stubborn opposite intent, 260
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,
And charge that no man should disturb your rest, 265
In pain of your dislike or pain of death,
Yet, notwithstanding such a strait edict,
Were there a serpent seen with forkèd tongue
That slyly glided towards your Majesty,
It were but necessary you were waked, 270
Lest, being suffered in that harmful slumber,
The mortal worm might make the sleep eternal.
And therefore do they cry, though you forbid,
That they will guard you, whe’er you will or no,
From such fell serpents as false Suffolk is, 275
With whose envenomèd and fatal sting
Your loving uncle, twenty times his worth,
They say, is shamefully bereft of life. | Suffolk tells Henry that Warwick has set the commoners against him.
Salisbury enters and tells Henry the commoners will destroy him if
Suffolk is not killed. The commoners think that Suffolk killed
Gloucester and that he wants to hurt the king. Well, they're not too far
off base. |
COMMONS, within
An answer from the King, my lord of Salisbury! SUFFOLK
’Tis like the Commons, rude unpolished hinds, 280
Could send such message to their sovereign!
To Salisbury. But you, my lord, were glad to be
employed,
To show how quaint an orator you are.
But all the honor Salisbury hath won 285
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. KING HENRY
Go, Salisbury, and tell them all from me,
I thank them for their tender loving care; 290
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, 295
Whose far unworthy deputy I am,
He shall not breathe infection in this air
But three days longer, on the pain of death. Salisbury exits. | Henry has to decide—now. The commoners are shouting for him to answer.
He does. and it's not good news for Suffolk, who will now be banished. |
QUEEN MARGARET
O Henry, let me plead for gentle Suffolk! KING HENRY
Ungentle queen to call him gentle Suffolk! 300
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.
To Suffolk. If, after three days’ space, thou here 305
be’st found
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. 310 | Margaret protests on Suffolk's behalf, but Henry tells her it's of no use and leaves. |
All but the Queen and Suffolk exit. QUEEN MARGARET, calling after King Henry and
Warwick
Mischance and sorrow go along with you!
Heart’s discontent and sour affliction
Be playfellows to keep you company!
There’s two of you; the devil make a third,
And threefold vengeance tend upon your steps! 315 SUFFOLK
Cease, gentle queen, these execrations,
And let thy Suffolk take his heavy leave. QUEEN MARGARET
Fie, coward woman and soft-hearted wretch!
Hast thou not spirit to curse thine enemies? SUFFOLK
A plague upon them! Wherefore should I curse 320
them?
Could curses kill, as doth the mandrake’s groan,
I would invent as bitter searching terms,
As curst, as harsh, and horrible to hear,
Delivered strongly through my fixèd teeth, 325
With full as many signs of deadly hate,
As lean-faced Envy in her loathsome cave.
My tongue should stumble in mine earnest words;
Mine eyes should sparkle like the beaten flint;
Mine hair be fixed on end, as one distract; 330
Ay, every joint should seem to curse and ban;
And even now my burdened heart would break
Should I not curse them. Poison be their drink!
Gall, worse than gall, the daintiest that they taste;
Their sweetest shade, a grove of cypress trees; 335
Their chiefest prospect, murd’ring basilisks;
Their softest touch, as smart as lizards’ stings!
Their music, frightful as the serpent’s hiss,
And boding screech owls make the consort full!
All the foul terrors in dark-seated hell— 340 | Only Margaret and Suffolk are together on stage. They play the blame game and hate their enemies for putting them in this situation. |
QUEEN MARGARET
Enough, sweet Suffolk, thou torment’st thyself,
And these dread curses, like the sun ’gainst glass,
Or like an over-chargèd gun, recoil
And turn the force of them upon thyself. SUFFOLK
You bade me ban, and will you bid me leave? 345
Now, by the ground that I am banished from,
Well could I curse away a winter’s night,
Though standing naked on a mountain top
Where biting cold would never let grass grow,
And think it but a minute spent in sport. 350 QUEEN MARGARET
O, let me entreat thee cease! Give me thy hand,
That I may dew it with my mournful tears;
Nor let the rain of heaven wet this place
To wash away my woeful monuments.
She kisses his hand.
O, could this kiss be printed in thy hand, 355
That thou mightst think upon these by the seal,
Through whom a thousand sighs are breathed for
thee!
So, get thee gone, that I may know my grief;
’Tis but surmised whiles thou art standing by, 360
As one that surfeits thinking on a want.
I will repeal thee, or, be well assured,
Adventure to be banishèd myself;
And banishèd I am, if but from thee.
Go, speak not to me. Even now be gone! 365
O, go not yet! Even thus two friends condemned
Embrace and kiss and take ten thousand leaves,
Loather a hundred times to part than die.
They embrace.
Yet now farewell, and farewell life with thee. SUFFOLK
Thus is poor Suffolk ten times banishèd, 370
Once by the King, and three times thrice by thee.
’Tis not the land I care for, wert thou thence.
A wilderness is populous enough,
So Suffolk had thy heavenly company;
For where thou art, there is the world itself, 375
With every several pleasure in the world;
And where thou art not, desolation.
I can no more. Live thou to joy thy life;
Myself no joy in naught but that thou liv’st. | Then talk turns to the banishment. Margaret promises she'll get Suffolk returned to England. Suffolk knows he could be wherever Margaret is, and she'd rather die than say good-bye to him. Aww. It's all very sweet for scheming murderers. |
Enter Vaux. QUEEN MARGARET
Whither goes Vaux so fast? What news, I prithee? 380 VAUX To signify unto his Majesty,
That Cardinal Beaufort is at point of death;
For suddenly a grievous sickness took him
That makes him gasp and stare and catch the air,
Blaspheming God and cursing men on Earth. 385
Sometimes he talks as if Duke Humphrey’s ghost
Were by his side; sometimes he calls the King
And whispers to his pillow, as to him,
The secrets of his overchargèd soul.
And I am sent to tell his Majesty 390
That even now he cries aloud for him. QUEEN MARGARET
Go, tell this heavy message to the King. Vaux exits.
Ay me! What is this world? What news are these!
But wherefore grieve I at an hour’s poor loss,
Omitting Suffolk’s exile, my soul’s treasure? 395
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’?
Now get thee hence. The King, thou know’st, is 400
coming;
If thou be found by me, thou art but dead. SUFFOLK
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? 405
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;
Where, from thy sight, I should be raging mad
And cry out for thee to close up mine eyes, 410
To have thee with thy lips to stop my mouth.
So shouldst thou either turn my flying soul,
Or I should breathe it so into thy body,
And then it lived in sweet Elysium.
To die by thee were but to die in jest; 415
From thee to die were torture more than death.
O, let me stay, befall what may befall! | During this heartfelt goodbye, a messenger enters with news that Cardinal Beaufort is close to death and is crying out for the king. Margaret sends the messenger off to the king, and she and Suffolk exchange a few more romantic comments. They say again that they can't bear to live without each other. |
QUEEN MARGARET
Away! Though parting be a fretful corrosive,
It is applièd to a deathful wound.
To France, sweet Suffolk. Let me hear from thee, 420
For wheresoe’er thou art in this world’s globe,
I’ll have an Iris that shall find thee out. SUFFOLK I go. QUEEN MARGARET And take my heart with thee. SUFFOLK
A jewel locked into the woefull’st cask 425
That ever did contain a thing of worth!
Even as a splitted bark, so sunder we.
This way fall I to death. QUEEN MARGARET This way for me. They exit through different doors. | Finally, Margaret and Suffolk part, and she tells him to send her news of what he's doing once he's out of England. Margaret kisses Suffolk. They promise to keep each other in their hearts before walking in opposite directions. |