Speeches (Lines) for Winchester in "History of Henry VI, Part II"

Henry VI. Uncle of Winchester, I pray, read on.

Winchester. [Reads] 'Item, It is further agreed between them,
that the duchies of Anjou and Maine shall be
released and delivered over to the king her father,
and she sent over of the King of England's own
proper cost and charges, without having any dowry.'

Humphrey of Lancaster - Duke of Gloucester. 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,
Received 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!

Winchester. Nephew, what means this passionate discourse,
This peroration with such circumstance?
For France, 'tis ours; and we will keep it still.

Humphrey of Lancaster - Duke of 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 stayed in France and starved
in France, Before--

Winchester. My Lord of Gloucester, now ye grow too hot:
It was the pleasure of my lord the King.

Humphrey of Lancaster - Duke of 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.

Winchester. 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 displeased 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.

Duke of 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.

Winchester. This weighty business will not brook delay:
I'll to the Duke of Suffolk presently.

Warwick. Whether your grace be worthy, yea or no,
Dispute not that: York is the worthier.

Winchester. Ambitious Warwick, let thy betters speak.

Earl of Suffolk. Resign it then and leave thine insolence.
Since thou wert king--as who is king but thou?--
The commonwealth hath daily run to wreck;
The Dauphin hath prevail'd beyond the seas;
And all the peers and nobles of the realm
Have been as bondmen to thy sovereignty.

Winchester. The commons hast thou rack'd; the clergy's bags
Are lank and lean with thy extortions.

Humphrey of Lancaster - Duke of Gloucester. My lord, 'tis but a base ignoble mind
That mounts no higher than a bird can soar.

Winchester. I thought as much; he would be above the clouds.

Henry VI. The treasury of everlasting joy.

Winchester. 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!

Henry VI. I prithee, peace, good queen,
And whet not on these furious peers;
For blessed are the peacemakers on earth.

Winchester. Let me be blessed for the peace I make,
Against this proud protector, with my sword!

Humphrey of Lancaster - Duke of Gloucester. [Aside to CARDINAL] Faith, holy uncle, would
'twere come to that!

Winchester. [Aside to GLOUCESTER] Marry, when thou darest.

Humphrey of Lancaster - Duke of Gloucester. [Aside to CARDINAL] Make up no factious
numbers for the matter;
In thine own person answer thy abuse.

Winchester. [Aside to GLOUCESTER] Ay, where thou darest
not peep: an if thou darest,
This evening, on the east side of the grove.

Henry VI. How now, my lords!

Winchester. 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.

Humphrey of Lancaster - Duke of Gloucester. True, uncle.

Winchester. [Aside to GLOUCESTER] Are ye advised? the
east side of the grove?

Humphrey of Lancaster - Duke of 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.

Winchester. [Aside to GLOUCESTER] Medice, teipsum--
Protector, see to't well, protect yourself.

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]

Winchester. Here comes the townsmen on procession,
To present your highness with the man.

Simpcox's Wife. Most true, forsooth; and many time and oft
Myself have heard a voice to call him so.

Winchester. What, art thou lame?

Humphrey of Lancaster - Duke of Gloucester. Let them be whipped through every market-town, till
they come to Berwick, from whence they came.

Winchester. Duke Humphrey has done a miracle to-day.

Duke of 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.

Winchester. [Aside 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.

Earl of Suffolk. Well hath your highness seen into this duke;
And, had I first been put to speak my mind,
I think I should have told your grace's tale.
The duchess, by his subornation,
Upon my life, began her devilish practises:
Or, if he were not privy to those faults,
Yet, by reputing of his high descent,
As next the king he was successive heir,
And such high vaunts of his nobility,
Did instigate the bedlam brain-sick duchess
By wicked means to frame our sovereign's fall.
Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep;
And in his simple show he harbours treason.
The fox barks not when he would steal the lamb.
No, no, my sovereign; Gloucester is a man
Unsounded yet and full of deep deceit.

Winchester. Did he not, contrary to form of law,
Devise strange deaths for small offences done?

Humphrey of Lancaster - Duke of Gloucester. Is it but thought so? what are they that think it?
I never robb'd the soldiers of their pay,
Nor ever had one penny bribe from France.
So help me God, as I have watch'd the night,
Ay, night by night, in studying good for England,
That doit that e'er I wrested from the king,
Or any groat I hoarded to my use,
Be brought against me at my trial-day!
No; many a pound of mine own proper store,
Because I would not tax the needy commons,
Have I disbursed to the garrisons,
And never ask'd for restitution.

Winchester. It serves you well, my lord, to say so much.

Humphrey of Lancaster - Duke of Gloucester. Ah, gracious lord, these days are dangerous:
Virtue is choked with foul ambition
And charity chased hence by rancour's hand;
Foul subornation is predominant
And equity exiled your highness' land.
I know their complot is to have my life,
And if my death might make this island happy,
And prove the period of their tyranny,
I would expend it with all willingness:
But mine is made the prologue to their play;
For thousands more, that yet suspect no peril,
Will not conclude their plotted tragedy.
Beaufort's red sparkling eyes blab his heart's malice,
And Suffolk's cloudy brow his stormy hate;
Sharp Buckingham unburthens with his tongue
The envious load that lies upon his heart;
And dogged York, that reaches at the moon,
Whose overweening arm I have pluck'd back,
By false accuse doth level at my life:
And you, my sovereign lady, with the rest,
Causeless have laid disgraces on my head,
And with your best endeavour have stirr'd up
My liefest liege to be mine enemy:
Ay, all you have laid your heads together--
Myself had notice of your conventicles--
And all to make away my guiltless life.
I shall not want false witness to condemn me,
Nor store of treasons to augment my guilt;
The ancient proverb will be well effected:
'A staff is quickly found to beat a dog.'

Winchester. My liege, his railing is intolerable:
If those that care to keep your royal person
From treason's secret knife and traitors' rage
Be thus upbraided, chid and rated at,
And the offender granted scope of speech,
'Twill make them cool in zeal unto your grace.

Duke of Buckingham. He'll wrest the sense and hold us here all day:
Lord cardinal, he is your prisoner.

Winchester. Sirs, take away the duke, and guard him sure.

Queen Margaret. Free lords, cold snow melts with the sun's hot beams.
Henry my lord is cold in great affairs,
Too full of foolish pity, and Gloucester's show
Beguiles him as the mournful crocodile
With sorrow snares relenting passengers,
Or as the snake roll'd in a flowering bank,
With shining chequer'd slough, doth sting a child
That for the beauty thinks it excellent.
Believe me, lords, were none more wise than I--
And yet herein I judge mine own wit good--
This Gloucester should be quickly rid the world,
To rid us of the fear we have of him.

Winchester. That he should die is worthy policy;
But yet we want a colour for his death:
'Tis meet he be condemn'd by course of law.

Earl of Suffolk. Not resolute, except so much were done;
For things are often spoke and seldom meant:
But that my heart accordeth with my tongue,
Seeing the deed is meritorious,
And to preserve my sovereign from his foe,
Say but the word, and I will be his priest.

Winchester. But I would have him dead, my Lord of Suffolk,
Ere you can take due orders for a priest:
Say you consent and censure well the deed,
And I'll provide his executioner,
I tender so the safety of my liege.

Post. Great lords, from Ireland am I come amain,
To signify that rebels there are up
And put the Englishmen unto the sword:
Send succors, lords, and stop the rage betime,
Before the wound do grow uncurable;
For, being green, there is great hope of help.

Winchester. A breach that craves a quick expedient stop!
What counsel give you in this weighty cause?

Duke/Earl of Somerset. And, in the number, thee that wishest shame!

Winchester. My Lord of York, try what your fortune is.
The uncivil kerns of Ireland are in arms
And temper clay with blood of Englishmen:
To Ireland will you lead a band of men,
Collected choicely, from each county some,
And try your hap against the Irishmen?

Earl of Suffolk. A charge, Lord York, that I will see perform'd.
But now return we to the false Duke Humphrey.

Winchester. No more of him; for I will deal with him
That henceforth he shall trouble us no more.
And so break off; the day is almost spent:
Lord Suffolk, you and I must talk of that event.

Queen Margaret. Marry, God forfend!

Winchester. God's secret judgment: I did dream to-night
The duke was dumb and could not speak a word.

Henry VI. How fares my lord? speak, Beaufort, to
thy sovereign.

Winchester. If thou be'st death, I'll give thee England's treasure,
Enough to purchase such another island,
So thou wilt let me live, and feel no pain.

Warwick. Beaufort, it is thy sovereign speaks to thee.

Winchester. Bring me unto my trial when you will.
Died he not in his bed? where should he die?
Can I make men live, whether they will or no?
O, torture me no more! I will confess.
Alive again? then show me where he is:
I'll give a thousand pound to look upon him.
He hath no eyes, the dust hath blinded them.
Comb down his hair; look, look! it stands upright,
Like lime-twigs set to catch my winged soul.
Give me some drink; and bid the apothecary
Bring the strong poison that I bought of him.