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

Queen.
Our Earl of Warwick, Edward's greatest friend.

K. Lew.
Welcome, brave Warwick, what brings thee to France? [He descends. She ariseth.

Queen.
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 Sov'raign, 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.

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

War.
And gracious madam, in our King's behalf, [Speaking to Bona.
I am commanded, with your leave and favour,
Humbly to kiss your hand, and with my tongue

To tell the passion of my Sov'raign's heart;
Where fame late ent'ring at his heedful ears,
Hath plac'd thy beauty's image and thy virtue.

Queen.
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 tho' usurpers sway the rule a while,
Yet heav'ns 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 disanuls 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 discourse,
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.

Oxf.
Why Warwick, canst thou speak against thy liege
Whom thou obeyedst thirty and six years,
And not bewray thy treason with a blush?

War.
Can Oxford, that did ever fence the right,
Now buckler falshood with a pedigree?
For shame leave Henry, and call Edward King.

Oxf.
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 downfal 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 Oxford
Vouchsafe at our request to stand aside,
While I use farther conference with Warwick. [They stand aloof.

Queen.
Heav'ns grant that Warwick's words bewitch him not.

K. Lew.
Now Warwick tell me even upon thy conscience,
Is Edward your true King? for I were loth
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 eyes?

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:
My self have often heard him say and swear

That this his love was an external 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, that often ere this day, [Speaks to Warwick.
When I have heard your King's desert recounted,
Mine ear hath tempted judgment to desire.

K. Lew.
Then Warwick, this: 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 counterpois'd.
Draw near Queen Margaret, and be a witness
That Bona shall be wife to th' English King.

Prince.
To Edward, but not to the English King.

Queen.
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 releas'd
From giving aid, which late I promised.
Yet shall you have all kindness at my hand,
That your estate requires and mine can yield.

War.
Henry now lives in Scotland at his ease,
Where having nothing, nothing can he lose.
And as for you your self, our quondam Queen,
You have a father able to maintain you,
And better 'twere you troubled him than France.

Queen.
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, and thy lord's false love, [Post blowing a horn within.
For both of you are birds of self-same feather.

K. Lew.
Warwick, this is some post to us or thee.

Previous section

Next section