Re-enter SALISBURY
SALISBURY.[To the Commons within]Sirs,stand apart,the King shall know your mind.Dread lord,the commons send you word by me Unless Lord Suffolk straight be done to death,Or banished fair England's territories,They will by violence tear him from your palace And torture him with grievous ling'ring death.They say by him the good Duke Humphrey died;They say in him they fear your Highness'death;And mere instinct of love and loyalty,Free from a stubborn opposite intent,As being thought to contradict your liking,Makes them thus forward in his banishment.They say,in care of your most royal person,That if your Highness should intend to sleep And charge that no man should disturb your rest,In pain of your dislike or pain of death,Yet,notwithstanding such a strait edict,Were there a serpent seen with forked tongue That slily glided towards your Majesty,It were but necessary you were wak'd,Lest,being suffer'd in that harmful slumber,The mortal worm might make the sleep eternal.And therefore do they cry,though you forbid,That they will guard you,whe'er you will or no,From such fell serpents as false Suffolk is;With whose envenomed and fatal sting Your loving uncle,twenty times his worth,They say,is shamefully bereft of life.COMMONS.[Within]An answer from the King,my Lord of Salisbury!SUFFOLK.'Tis like the commons,rude unpolish'd hinds,Could send such message to their sovereign;But you,my lord,were glad to be employ'd,To show how quaint an orator you are.But all the honour Salisbury hath won Is that he was the lord ambassador Sent from a sort of tinkers to the King.COMMONS.[Within]An answer from the King,or we will all break in!KING HENRY.Go,Salisbury,and tell them all from me I thank them for their tender loving care;And had I not been cited so by them,Yet did I purpose as they do entreat;For sure my thoughts do hourly prophesy Mischance unto my state by Suffolk's means.And therefore by His Majesty I swear,Whose far unworthy deputy I am,He shall not breathe infection in this air But three days longer,on the pain of death.Exit SALISBURY QUEEN.O Henry,let me plead for gentle Suffolk!KING
HENRY.Ungentle Queen,to call him gentle Suffolk!No more,I say;if thou dost plead for him,Thou wilt but add increase unto my wrath.Had I but said,I would have kept my word;But when I swear,it is irrevocable.If after three days'space thou here be'st found On any ground that I am ruler of,The world shall not be ransom for thy life.Come,Warwick,come,good Warwick,go with me;I have great matters to impart to thee.Exeunt all but QUEEN and SUFFOLK QUEEN.Mischance and sorrow go along with you!Heart's discontent and sour affliction Be playfellows to keep you company!There's two of you;the devil make a third,And threefold vengeance tend upon your steps!SUFFOLK.Cease,gentle Queen,these execrations,And let thy Suffolk take his heavy leave.QUEEN.Fie,coward woman and soft-hearted wretch,Has thou not spirit to curse thine enemy?SUFFOLK.A plague upon them!Wherefore should I curse them?Would curses kill as doth the mandrake's groan,I would invent as bitter searching terms,As curst,as harsh,and horrible to hear,Deliver'd strongly through my fixed teeth,With full as many signs of deadly hate,As lean-fac'd Envy in her loathsome cave.My tongue should stumble in mine earnest words,Mine eyes should sparkle like the beaten flint,Mine hair be fix'd an end,as one distract;Ay,every joint should seem to curse and ban;And even now my burden'd heart would break,Should I not curse them.Poison be their drink!Gall,worse than gall,the daintiest that they taste!Their sweetest shade a grove of cypress trees!Their chiefest prospect murd'ring basilisks!Their softest touch as smart as lizards'stings!Their music frightful as the serpent's hiss,And boding screech-owls make the consort full!all the foul terrors in dark-seated hell-QUEEN.Enough,sweet Suffolk,thou torment'st thyself;And these dread curses,like the sun 'gainst glass,Or like an overcharged gun,recoil,And turns the force of them upon thyself.SUFFOLK.You bade me ban,and will you bid me leave?Now,by the ground that I am banish'd from,Well could I curse away a winter's night,Though standing naked on a mountain top Where biting cold would never let grass grow,And think it but a minute spent in sport.QUEEN.O,let me entreat thee cease!Give me thy hand,That I may dew it with my mournful tears;Nor let the rain of heaven wet this place To wash away my woeful monuments.
