ARKCODEX
Act II, Scene 1
1Saint Alban’s.
2Enter the King, Queen, Gloucester, Cardinal, and Suffolk, with Falconers halloing.
3QueenBelieve 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.
4KingBut 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.
5SuffolkNo 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.
6GloucesterMy lord, ’tis but a base ignoble mind
That mounts no higher than a bird can soar.
7CardinalI thought as much; he would be above the clouds.
8GloucesterAy, my lord cardinal? how think you by that?
Were it not good your grace could fly to heaven?
9KingThe treasury of everlasting joy.
10CardinalThy 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!
11GloucesterWhat, 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?
12SuffolkNo malice, sir; no more than well becomes
So good a quarrel and so bad a peer.
13GloucesterAs who, my lord?
14SuffolkWhy, as you, my lord,
An’t like your lordly lord-protectorship.
15GloucesterWhy, Suffolk, England knows thine insolence.
16QueenAnd thy ambition, Gloucester.
17KingI prithee, peace, good queen,
And whet not on these furious peers;
For blessed are the peacemakers on earth.
18CardinalLet me be blessed for the peace I make,
Against this proud protector, with my sword!
19GloucesterAside to Cardinal. Faith, holy uncle, would ’twere come to that!
20CardinalAside to Gloucester. Marry, when thou darest.
21GloucesterAside to Cardinal. Make up no factious numbers for the matter;
In thine own person answer thy abuse.
22CardinalAside to Gloucester. Ay, where thou darest not peep: an if thou darest,
This evening, on the east side of the grove.
23KingHow now, my lords!
24CardinalBelieve 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.
25GloucesterTrue, uncle.
26CardinalAside to Gloucester. Are ye advised? the east side of the grove?
27GloucesterAside to Cardinal. Cardinal, I am with you.
28KingWhy, how now, uncle Gloucester!
29GloucesterTalking 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.
30CardinalAside to Gloucester. Medice, teipsum—
Protector, see to’t well, protect yourself.
31KingThe 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.
32Enter a Townsman of Saint Alban’s, crying “A miracle!”
33GloucesterWhat means this noise?
Fellow, what miracle dost thou proclaim?
34TownsmanA miracle! a miracle!
35SuffolkCome to the king and tell him what miracle.
36TownsmanForsooth, 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.
37KingNow, God be praised, that to believing souls
Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair!
38Enter the Mayor of Saint Alban’s and his brethren, bearing Simpcox, between two in a chair, Simpcox’s Wife following.
39CardinalHere comes the townsmen on procession,
To present your highness with the man.
40KingGreat is his comfort in this earthly vale,
Although by his sight his sin be multiplied.
41GloucesterStand by, my masters: bring him near the king;
His highness’ pleasure is to talk with him.
42KingGood fellow, tell us here the circumstance,
That we for thee may glorify the Lord.
What, hast thou been long blind and now restored?
43SimpcoxBorn blind, an’t please your grace.
44WifeAy, indeed, was he.
45SuffolkWhat woman is this?
46WifeHis wife, an’t like your worship.
47GloucesterHadst thou been his mother, thou couldst have better told.
48KingWhere wert thou born?
49SimpcoxAt Berwick in the north, an’t like your grace.
50KingPoor 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.
51QueenTell me, good fellow, camest thou here by chance,
Or of devotion, to this holy shrine?
52SimpcoxGod 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.”
53WifeMost true, forsooth; and many time and oft
Myself have heard a voice to call him so.
54CardinalWhat, art thou lame?
55SimpcoxAy, God Almighty help me!
56SuffolkHow camest thou so?
57SimpcoxA fall off of a tree.
58WifeA plum-tree, master.
59GloucesterHow long hast thou been blind?
60SimpcoxO, born so, master.
61GloucesterWhat, and wouldst climb a tree?
62SimpcoxBut that in all my life, when I was a youth.
63WifeToo true; and bought his climbing very dear.
64GloucesterMass, thou lovedst plums well, that wouldst venture so.
65SimpcoxAlas, good master, my wife desired some damsons,
And made me climb, with danger of my life.
66GloucesterA 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.
67SimpcoxYes, master, clear as day, I thank God and Saint Alban.
68GloucesterSay’st thou me so? What colour is this cloak of?
69SimpcoxRed, master; red as blood.
70GloucesterWhy, that’s well said. What colour is my gown of?
71SimpcoxBlack, forsooth: coal-black as jet.
72KingWhy, then, thou know’st what colour jet is of?
73SuffolkAnd yet, I think, jet did he never see.
74GloucesterBut cloaks and gowns, before this day, a many.
75WifeNever, before this day, in all his life.
76GloucesterTell me, sirrah, what’s my name?
77SimpcoxAlas, master, I know not.
78GloucesterWhat’s his name?
79SimpcoxI know not.
80GloucesterNor his?
81SimpcoxNo, indeed, master.
82GloucesterWhat’s thine own name?
83SimpcoxSaunder Simpcox, an if it please you, master.
84GloucesterThen, Saunder, sit there, the lyingest knave in Christendom. If thou hadst been born blind, thou 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 hath done a miracle; and would ye not think his cunning to be great, that could restore this cripple to his legs again?
85SimpcoxO master, that you could!
86GloucesterMy masters of Saint Alban’s, have you not beadles in your town, and things called whips?
87MayorYes, my lord, if it please your grace.
88GloucesterThen send for one presently.
89MayorSirrah, go fetch the beadle hither straight. Exit an Attendant.
90GloucesterNow 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.
91SimpcoxAlas, master, I am not able to stand alone:
You go about to torture me in vain. Enter a Beadle with whips.
92GloucesterWell, sir, we must have you find your legs. Sirrah beadle, whip him till he leap over that same stool.
93BeadleI will, my lord. Come on, sirrah; off with your doublet quickly.
94SimpcoxAlas, 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!”
95KingO God, seest Thou this, and bearest so long?
96QueenIt made me laugh to see the villain run.
97GloucesterFollow the knave; and take this drab away.
98WifeAlas, sir, we did it for pure need.
99GloucesterLet them be whipped through every market-town, till they come to Berwick, from whence they came. Exeunt Wife, Beadle, Mayor, etc.
100CardinalDuke Humphrey has done a miracle to-day.
101SuffolkTrue; made the lame to leap and fly away.
102GloucesterBut you have done more miracles than I;
You made in a day, my lord, whole towns to fly.
103Enter Buckingham.
104KingWhat tidings with our cousin Buckingham?
105BuckinghamSuch 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.
106CardinalAside to Gloucester. And so, my lord protector, by this means
Your lady is forthcoming yet at London.
This news, I think, hath turn’d your weapon’s edge;
’Tis like, my lord, you will not keep your hour.
107GloucesterAmbitious churchman, leave to afflict my heart:
Sorrow and grief have vanquish’d all my powers;
And, vanquish’d as I am, I yield to thee,
Or to the meanest groom.
108KingO God, what mischiefs work the wicked ones,
Heaping confusion on their own heads thereby!
109QueenGloucester, see here the tainture of thy nest.
And look thyself be faultless, thou wert best.
110GloucesterMadam, 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.
111KingWell, 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.