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Follow I must; I cannot go before,

While Gloucester bears this base and humble mind. Were I a man, a duke, and next of blood,

I would remove these tedious stumbling-blocks And smooth my way upon their headless necks; And, being a woman, I will not be slack

To play my part in Fortune's pageant.

Where are you there? Sir John! nay, fear not, man, We are alone; here's none but thee and I.

Enter HUME.

HUME. Jesus preserve your royal majesty!
DUCH. What say'st thou? majesty! I am but grace.
HUME. But, by the grace of God, and Hume's
advice,

Your grace's title shall be multiplied.

DUCH. What say'st thou, man? hast thou as yet conferr'd

With Margery Jourdain, the cunning witch,
With Roger Bolingbroke, the conjurer?

And will they undertake to do me good?
HUME. This they have promised, to show your
highness

A spirit raised from depth of under-ground,
That shall make answer to such questions
As by your grace shall be propounded him.

DUCH. It is enough; I'll think upon the questions: When from Saint Alban's we do make return, We'll see these things effected to the full.

Here, Hume, take this reward; make merry, man, With thy confederates in this weighty cause. [Exit.

B

HUME. Hume must make merry with the duchess' gold;

Marry, and shall. But, how now, Sir John Hume!
Seal up your lips, and give no words but mum:
The business asketh silent secrecy.

Dame Eleanor gives gold to bring the witch :
Gold cannot come amiss, were she a devil.
Yet have I gold flies from another coast;

I dare not say, from the rich cardinal

And from the great and new-made Duke of Suffolk,

Yet I do find it so; for, to be plain,

They, knowing Dame Eleanor's aspiring humour,
Have hired me to undermine the duchess
And buz these conjurations in her brain.
They say A crafty knave does need no broker ;
Yet am I Suffolk and the cardinal's broker.

Hume, if you take not heed, you shall go near
To call them both a pair of crafty knaves.
Well, so it stands; and thus, I fear, at last
Hume's knavery will be the duchess' wreck,
And her attainture will be Humphrey's fall:
Sort how it will, I shall have gold for all.

SCENE III.

The palace.

Enter three or four Petitioners, PETER, the
Armourer's man, being one.

[Exit.

FIRST PETIT. My masters, let's stand close: my lord protector will come this way by and by, and then we may deliver our supplications in the quill.

SEC. PETIT. Marry, the Lord protect him, for he's a good man! Jesu bless him!

Enter SUFFOLK and QUEEN.

PETER. Here a' comes, methinks, and the queen with him. I'll be the first, sure.

SEC. PETIT. Come back, fool; this is the Duke of Suffolk, and not my lord protector.

SUF. How now, fellow! wouldst any thing with me?

FIRST PETIT. I pray, my lord, pardon me; I took ye for my lord protector.

QUEEN. [Reading] To my Lord Protector! Are your supplications to his lordship? Let me see them what is thine?

FIRST PETIT. Mine is, an't please your grace, against John Goodman, my lord cardinal's man, for keeping my house, and lands, and wife and all, from me.

SUF. Thy wife too! that's some wrong indeed. What's yours? What's here! [Reads] Against the Duke of Suffolk, for enclosing the commons of Melford. How now, sir knave!

SEC. PETIT. Alas, sir, I am but a poor petitioner of our whole township.

PETER. [Giving his petition] Against my master, Thomas Horner, for saying that the Duke of York was rightful heir to the crown.

QUEEN. What say'st thou? did the Duke of York say he was rightful heir to the crown?

PETER. That my master was?, no, forsooth: my master said that he was, and that the king was an usurper.

Take

SUF. Who is there? [Enter Servant.] this fellow in, and send for his master with a pursuivant presently: we'll hear more of your matter before the king. [Exit Servant with Peter. QUEEN. And as for you, that love to be protected Under the wings of our protector's grace,

Begin your suits anew, and sue to him.

Away, base cullions! Suffolk, let them go.

ALL. Come, let's be gone.

[Tears the supplications.

[Exeunt.

QUEEN. My Lord of Suffolk, say, is this the guise,
Is this the fashion in the court of England?
Is this the government of Britain's isle,
And this the royalty of Albion's king?
What, shall King Henry be a pupil still
Under the surly Gloucester's governance?
Am I a queen in title and in style,

And must be made a subject to a duke?
I tell thee, Pole, when in the city Tours
Thou ran'st a tilt in honour of my love
And stolest away the ladies' hearts of France,
I thought King Henry had resembled thee
In courage, courtship and proportion:

But all his mind is bent to holiness,
To number Ave-Maries on his beads;
His champions are the prophets and apostles,
His weapons holy saws of sacred writ,
His study is his tilt-yard, and his loves
Are brazen images of canonized saints.
I would the college of the cardinals

Would choose him pope and carry him to Rome,

And set the triple crown upon his head :
That were a state fit for his holiness.

SUF. Madam, be patient: as I was cause
Your highness came to England, so will I
In England work your grace's full content.

QUEEN. Beside the haughty protector, have we Beaufort

The imperious churchman, Somerset, Buckingham, And grumbling York; and not the least of these But can do more in England than the king.

SUF. And he of these that can do most of all Cannot do more in England than the Nevils : Salisbury and Warwick are no simple peers.

QUEEN. Not all these lords do vex me half so much

As that proud dame, the lord protector's wife.
She sweeps it through the court with troops of ladies,
More like an empress than Duke Humphrey's wife:
Strangers in court do take her for the queen:
She bears a duke's revenues on her back,
And in her heart she scorns our poverty:
Shall I not live to be avenged on her?
Contemptuous base-born callet as she is,
She vaunted 'mongst her minions t'other day,
The very train of her worst wearing gown
Was better worth than all my father's lands,
Till Suffolk gave two dukedoms for his daughter.
Sur. Madam, myself have limed a bush for her,
And placed a quire of such enticing birds,
That she will light to listen to the lays,

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