SCENE III.

France. The KING'S palace.

Flourish. Enter LEWIS the French King, his sister BONA, his Admiral, called BOURBON: PRINCE EDWARD, QUEEN MARGARET, and the EARL OF OXFORD. LEWIS sits, and riseth up again.

K. LEW. Fair Queen of England, worthy Margaret, Sit down with us: it ill befits thy state

And birth, that thou shouldst stand while Lewis doth sit.

Q. MAR. No, mighty King of France: now

Margaret

Must strike her sail and learn awhile to serve
Where kings command. I was, I must confess,
Great Albion's queen in former golden days:
But now mischance hath trod my title down,
And with dishonour laid me on the ground;
Where I must take like seat unto my fortune,
And to my humble seat conform myself.

K. LEW. Why, say, fair queen, whence springs this deep despair?

Q. MAR. From such a cause as fills mine eyes with tears

And stops my tongue, while heart is drown'd in

cares.

K. LEW. Whate'er it be, be thou still like thyself, And sit thee by our side: [Seats her by him] yield not thy neck

To fortune's yoke, but let thy dauntless mind

Still ride in triumph over all mischance.
Be plain, Queen Margaret, and tell thy grief;
It shall be eased, if France can yield relief.

Q. MAR. Those gracious words revive my drooping thoughts

And give my tongue-tied sorrows leave to speak. Now, therefore, be it known to noble Lewis, That Henry, sole possessor of my love,

Is of a king become a banish'd man,

And forced to live in Scotland a forlorn;
While proud ambitious Edward Duke of York
Usurps the regal title and the seat

Of England's true-anointed lawful king.
This is the cause that I, poor Margaret,

With this my son, Prince Edward, Henry's heir,
Am come to crave thy just and lawful aid;
And if thou fail us, all our hope is done:
Scotland hath will to help, but cannot help;
Our people and our peers are both misled,
Our treasure seized, our soldiers put to flight,
And, as thou seest, ourselves in heavy plight.
K. LEW. Renowned queen, with patience calm
the storm,

While we bethink a means to break it off.

Q. MAR. The more we stay, the stronger grows our foe.

K. LEW. The more I stay, the more I'll succour thee.

Q. MAR. O, but impatience waiteth on true sorrow. And see where comes the breeder of my sorrow!

Enter WARWICK.

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

Q. MAR. Our Earl of Warwick, Edward's greatest friend.

K. LEW. Welcome, brave Warwick! What brings thee to France?

[He descends. She ariseth. Q. MAR. 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 sovereign, 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.

Q. MAR. [Aside] If that go forward, Henry's hope is done.

WAR. [TO BONA] And, gracious madam, in our king's behalf,

I am commanded, with your leave and favour,
Humbly to kiss your hand and with my tongue
To tell the passion of my sovereign's heart;
Where fame, late entering at his heedful ears,
Hath placed thy beauty's image and thy virtue.
Q. MAR. 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 though usurpers sway the rule awhile,

Yet heavens 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 disannuls 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 dis

course,

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 obeyed'st thirty and six years,

And not bewray thy treason with a blush?

WAR. Can Oxford, that did ever fence the right, Now buckler falsehood 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 downfall 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 further conference with Warwick.

[They stand aloof.

Q. MAR. Heavens 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 loath
To link with him that were not lawful chosen.

WAR. Thereon I pawn my credit and mine honour.