Imatges de pàgina
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I'll make my heaven-to dream upon the crown;
And, whiles I live, to account this world but hell,
Until my mis-shaped trunk that bears this head,
Be round impaled with a glorious crown.
And yet I know not how to get the crown,
For many lives stand between me and home:
And 1,-like one lost in a thorny wood,

That rents the thorns, and is rent with the thorns;
Seeking a way, and straying from the way;
Not knowing how to find the open air,
But toiling desperately to find it out,-
Torment myself to catch the English crown:
And from that torment I will free myself,
Or hew my way out with a bloody axe.
Why, I can smile, and murder while I smile;
And cry, content, to that which grieves my heart;
And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,
Aud frame my face to all occasions.

I'll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall;
I'll slay more gazers than the basilisk;
I'll play the orator as well as Nestor,
Deceive more slily than Ulysses could,
And, like a Sinon, take another Troy :
I can add colours to the cameleon;
Change shapes, with Proteus, for advantages,
And set the murd'rous Machiavel to school.
Can I do this, and cannot get a crown?
Tat! were it further off, I'll pluck it down. [Exit.

SCENE III-France.-A Room in the Palace. Flourish.-Enter LEWIS the French King, and Lady BONA, attended; the King takes his State.-Then enter Queen MARGARET, Prince EDWARD, her Son, and the Earl of OXFORD.

K. Lew. Fair queen of England, worthy Margaret, [Rising.

Sit down with us; it ill befits thy state, And birth, that thou shouldst stand, while Lewis doth sit.

Q. Mar. No, mighty king of France; now Margaret

Must strike her sail, and learn a while to serve, Where kings command. I was, I must confess, Great Albion's queen in former golden days: But now mischance hath trod my title down, And with dishonour laid me on the ground;

• Encircled.

Where I must take like seat unto my fortune,
And to my humble seat conform myself.

K. Lew. Why, say, fair queen, whence springs this deep despair?

Q. Mar. From such a cause as fills mine eyes with tears,

And stops my tongue, while heart is drown'd in

cares.

K. Lew. Whate'er it be, be thou still like thyself, And sit thee by our side: yield not thy neck [Seats her by him. To Fortune's yoke, but let thy dauntless mind Still ride in triumph over all mischance. Be plain, queen Margaret, and tell thy grief; It shall be eased, if France can yield relief.

Q. Mar. Those gracious words revive my drooping thoughts,

And give my tongue-tied sorrows leave to speak.
Now, therefore, be it known to noble Lewis,-
That Henry, sole possessor of my love,
Is, of a king, become a banish'd man,
And forced to live in Scotland a forlorn;
While proud ambitious Edward, duke of York,
Usurps the regal title, and the seat

Of England's true-anointed lawful king.
This is the cause, that 1, poor Margaret,-
With this my son, prince Edward, Henry's heir,-
Am come to crave thy just and lawful aid;
And, if thou fail us, all our hope is done:
Scotland hath will to help, but cannot help;
Our people and our peers are both misled,
Our treasure seized, our soldiers put to flight,
And, as thou seest, ourselves in heavy plight.

K. Lew. Renowned queen, with patience calm the storm,

While we bethink a means to break it off.

Q. Mar. The more we stay, the-stronger grows our foe.

K. Lew. The more I stay, the more I'll succour

thee.

Q. Mar. O, but impatience waiteth on true sor

row:

And see, where comes the breeder of my sorrow. Enter WARWICK, attended.

K. Lew. What's he, approacheth boldly to our presence?

Q. Mar. Our earl of Warwick, Edward's greatest friend.

K. Lew. Welcome, brave Warwick! What brings thee to France ?

[Descending from his State.-Queen Margaret rises.

Q. Mar. Ay, now begins a second storm to rise;
For this is he, that moves both wind and tide.
War. From worthy Edward, king of Albion,
My lord and sovereign, and thy vowed friend,
I come,-in kindness, and unfeigned love,-
First, to do greetings to thy royal person;
And, then, to crave a league of amity :
And, lastly, to confirm that amity

With nuptial knot, if thou vouchsafe to grant
That virtuous lady Bona, thy fair sister,

To England's king in lawful marriage.

Q. Mar. If that go forward, Henry's hope is done.

War. And, gracious madam, [To Bona.] in our king's behalf,

I am commanded, with your leave and favour,
Humbly to kiss your hand, and with my tongue
To tell the passion of my sovereign's heart;
Where fame, late entering at his heedful ears,
Hath placed thy_beauty's image, and thy virtue.
Q. Mar. King Lewis,-and lady Bona,-hear me
speak,

Before you answer Warwick. His demand

Springs not from Edward's well-meant honest love,
But from deceit, bred by necessity:

For how can tyrants safely govern home,
Unless abroad they purchase great alliance:
To prove him tyrant, this reason may suffice,-
That Henry liveth still: but were he dead,

Yet here prince Edward stands, king Henry's son. Look, therefore, Lewis, that by this league and marriage,

Thou draw not on thy danger and dishonour :
For though usurpers sway the rule awhile,
Yet heavens are just, and time suppresseth wrongs.
War. Injurious Margaret!

Prince. And why not queen?

War. Because thy father Henry did usurp;
And thou no more art prince, than she is queen.
Oxf. Then Warwick disannuls great John of
Gaunt,

Which did subdue the greatest part of Spain;
And, after John of Gaunt, Henry the fourth,
Whose wisdom was a mirror, to the wisest;
And, after that wise prince, Henry the fifth,

Who by his prowess conquered all France:
From these our Henry lineally descends.

War. Oxford, how haps it, in this smooth dis

course,

You told not, how Henry the sixth hath lost
All that which Henry the fifth had gotten?
Methinks, these peers of France should smile at
that.

But for the rest,-You tell a pedigree

Of threescore and two years; a silly time
To make prescription for a kingdom's worth.

Orf. Why, Warwick, canst thou speak against thy
liege,

Whom thou obeyed'st thirty and six years,
And not bewray thy treason with a blush?

War. Can Oxford, that did ever fence the rigirt,
Now buckler falsehood with a pedigree? -
For shame, leave Henry, and call Edward king.
Orf. Call him my king, by whose injurious doom
My elder brother, the lord Aubrey Vere,

Was done to death? And more than so, my father,
Even in the downfall of his mellow'd years,
When nature brought him to the door of death?
No, Warwick, no; while life upholds this arm,
This arm upholds the house of Lancaster.
War. And I the house of York.

K. Lew. Queen Margaret, prince Edward, and and Oxford,

Vouchsafe, at our request, to stand aside,
While I use further conference with Warwick,
Q. Mar. Heaven grant, that Warwick's words
bewitch him not!

[Retiring with the Prince and Oxford. K. Lew. Now, Warwick, tell me, even upon thy conscience,

Is Edward your true king? For I were loath,
To link with him that were not lawful chosen.
War. Thereon I pawn my credit and mine honour
K. Lew. But is he gracious in the people's eye?
War. The more, that Henry was unfortunate.
K. Lew. Then further,-All dissembling set aside,
Tell me for truth the measure of his love
Unto our sister Bona.

War. Such it seems,

As may beseem a monarch like himself.

Myself have often heard him say, and swear,-
That this his love was an eternal plant;

Whereof the root was fix'd in virtue's ground,
The leaves and fruit maintain'd with beauty's sun;

Exempt from envy but not from disdain,
Unless the lady Bona quit his pain.

K. Lew. Now, sister, let us hear your firm resolve. Bona. Your grant, or your denial, shall be mine. Yet I confess, [To War.] that often ere this day, When 1 have heard your king's desert recounted, Mine ear hath tempted judgment to desire.

K. Lew. Then, Warwick, thus,+Our sister shall be
Edward's;

And now forthwith shall articles be drawn

Touching the jointure that your king must make, Which with her dowry shall be counterpoised :Draw near, queen Margaret; and be a witness, That Bona shall be wife to the English king.

Prince. To Edward, but not to the English king. Q. Mar. Deceitful Warwick! It was thy device By this alliance to make void my suit;

Before thy coming, Lewis was Henry's friend.
K. Lew. And still is friend to him and Margaret:
But if your title to the crown be weak,-
As may appear by Edward's good success,
Then 'tis but reason, that I be released
From giving aid, which late I promised.
Yet shall you have all kindness at my hand,
That your estaté requires, and mine can yield.
War. Henry now lives in Scotland, at his ease;
Where, having nothing, nothing he can lose.
And as for you yourself, our quondam queen,-
You have a father, able to maintain you;

And better 'twere you troubled him than France. Q. Mar. Peace, impudent and shameless Warwick, peace;

Proud setter-up and puller-down of kings!
I will not hence, till with my talk and tears,
Both full of truth, I make king Lewis behold
Thy sly conveyance t, and thy lord's false love;
For both of you are birds of self-same feather.

[A Horn sounded within. K. Lew. Warwick, this is some post to us, or thee.

Enter a MESSENGER.

Mess.My lord ambassador, these letters are for you; Sent from your brother, Marquis Montague.These from our king unto your majesty.

And, madam, these for you; from whom, I know not. [To Margaret.-They all read their

Letters.

+ Juggling.

H

• Malice or hatred,

VOL. IV.

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