The Second Part of King Henry the Sixth - Уильям Шекспир

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Brave peers of England, pillars of the state,

          To you Duke Humphrey must unload his grief

          Your grief, the common grief of all the land.

          What! did my brother Henry spend his youth,

          His valour, coin, and people, in the wars?

          Did he so often lodge in open field,

          In winter's cold and summer's parching heat,

          To conquer France, his true inheritance?

          And did my brother Bedford toil his wits

          To keep by policy what Henry got?

          Have you yourselves, Somerset, Buckingham,

          Brave York, Salisbury, and victorious Warwick,

          Receiv'd deep scars in France and Normandy?

          Or hath mine uncle Beaufort and myself,

          With all the learned Council of the realm,

          Studied so long, sat in the Council House

          Early and late, debating to and fro

          How France and Frenchmen might be kept in awe?

          And had his Highness in his infancy

          Crowned in Paris, in despite of foes?

          And shall these labours and these honours die?

          Shall Henry's conquest, Bedford's vigilance,

          Your deeds of war, and all our counsel die?

          O peers of England, shameful is this league!

          Fatal this marriage, cancelling your fame,

          Blotting your names from books of memory,

          Razing the characters of your renown,

          Defacing monuments of conquer'd France,

          Undoing all, as all had never been!

        CARDINAL. Nephew, what means this passionate discourse,

          This peroration with such circumstance?

          For France, 'tis ours; and we will keep it still.

        GLOUCESTER. Ay, uncle, we will keep it if we can;

          But now it is impossible we should.

          Suffolk, the new-made duke that rules the roast,

          Hath given the duchy of Anjou and Maine

          Unto the poor King Reignier, whose large style

          Agrees not with the leanness of his purse.

        SALISBURY. Now, by the death of Him that died for all,

          These counties were the keys of Normandy!

          But wherefore weeps Warwick, my valiant son?

        WARWICK. For grief that they are past recovery;

          For were there hope to conquer them again

          My sword should shed hot blood, mine eyes no tears.

          Anjou and Maine! myself did win them both;

          Those provinces these arms of mine did conquer;

          And are the cities that I got with wounds

          Deliver'd up again with peaceful words?

          Mort Dieu!

        YORK. For Suffolk's duke, may he be suffocate,

          That dims the honour of this warlike isle!

          France should have torn and rent my very heart

          Before I would have yielded to this league.

          I never read but England's kings have had

          Large sums of gold and dowries with their wives;

          And our King Henry gives away his own

          To match with her that brings no vantages.

        GLOUCESTER. A proper jest, and never heard before,

          That Suffolk should demand a whole fifteenth

          For costs and charges in transporting her!

          She should have stay'd in France, and starv'd in France,

          Before-

        CARDINAL. My Lord of Gloucester, now ye grow too hot:

          It was the pleasure of my lord the King.

        GLOUCESTER. My Lord of Winchester, I know your mind;

          'Tis not my speeches that you do mislike,

          But 'tis my presence that doth trouble ye.

          Rancour will out: proud prelate, in thy face

          I see thy fury; if I longer stay

          We shall begin our ancient bickerings.

          Lordings, farewell; and say, when I am gone,

          I prophesied France will be lost ere long. Exit

        CARDINAL. So, there goes our Protector in a rage.

          'Tis known to you he is mine enemy;

          Nay, more, an enemy unto you all,

          And no great friend, I fear me, to the King.

          Consider, lords, he is the next of blood

          And heir apparent to the English crown.

          Had Henry got an empire by his marriage

          And all the wealthy kingdoms of the west,

          There's reason he should be displeas'd at it.

          Look to it, lords; let not his smoothing words

          Bewitch your hearts; be wise and circumspect.

          What though the common people favour him,

          Calling him 'Humphrey, the good Duke of Gloucester,'

          Clapping their hands, and crying with loud voice

          'Jesu maintain your royal excellence!'

          With 'God preserve the good Duke Humphrey!'

          I fear me, lords, for all this flattering gloss,

          He will be found a dangerous Protector.

        BUCKINGHAM. Why should he then protect our sovereign,

          He being of age to govern of himself?

          Cousin of Somerset, join you with me,

          And all together, with the Duke of Suffolk,

          We'll quickly hoise Duke Humphrey from his seat.

        CARDINAL. This weighty business will not brook delay;

          I'll to the Duke of Suffolk presently. Exit

        SOMERSET. Cousin of Buckingham, though Humphrey's pride

          And greatness of his place be grief to us,

          Yet let us watch the haughty cardinal;

          His insolence is more intolerable

          Than

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