Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH, RIVERS, and GREY RIVERS Have patience, madam: there's no doubt his majesty Will soon recover his accustom'd health. GREY In that you brook it in, it makes him worse:
Therefore, for God's sake, entertain good comfort, And cheer his grace with quick and merry words. QUEEN ELIZABETH If he were dead, what would betide of me? RIVERS No other harm but loss of such a lord. QUEEN ELIZABETH The loss of such a lord includes all harm. GREY The heavens have bless'd you with a goodly son, To be your comforter when he is gone. QUEEN ELIZABETH Oh, he is young and his minority Is put unto the trust of Richard Gloucester, A man that loves not me, nor none of you. RIVERS Is it concluded that he shall be protector? QUEEN ELIZABETH It is determined, not concluded yet:
But so it must be, if the king miscarry.
Enter BUCKINGHAM and DERBY GREY Here come the lords of Buckingham and Derby. BUCKINGHAM Good time of day unto your royal grace! DERBY God make your majesty joyful as you have been! QUEEN ELIZABETH The Countess Richmond, good my Lord of Derby.
To your good prayers will scarcely say amen.
Yet, Derby, notwithstanding she's your wife, And loves not me, be you, good lord, assured I hate not you for her proud arrogance. DERBY I do beseech you, either not believe The envious slanders of her false accusers; Or, if she be accused in true report, Bear with her weakness, which, I think proceeds From wayward sickness, and no grounded malice. RIVERS Saw you the king to-day, my Lord of Derby? DERBY But now the Duke of Buckingham and I Are come from visiting his majesty. QUEEN ELIZABETH What likelihood of his amendment, lords? BUCKINGHAM Madam, good hope; his grace speaks cheerfully. QUEEN ELIZABETH God grant him health! Did you confer with him? BUCKINGHAM Madam, we did: he desires to make atonement Betwixt the Duke of Gloucester and your brothers, And betwixt them and my lord chamberlain;
And sent to warn them to his royal presence. QUEEN ELIZABETH Would all were well! but that will never be I fear our happiness is at the highest.
Enter GLOUCESTER, HASTINGS, and DORSET GLOUCESTER They do me wrong, and I will not endure it:
Who are they that complain unto the king, That I, forsooth, am stern, and love them not?
By holy Paul, they love his grace but lightly That fill his ears with such dissentious rumours.
Because I cannot flatter and speak fair, Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive and cog, Duck with French nods and apish courtesy, I must be held a rancorous enemy.
Cannot a plain man live and think no harm, But thus his simple truth must be abused By silken, sly, insinuating Jacks? RIVERS To whom in all this presence speaks your grace? GLOUCESTER To thee, that hast nor honesty nor grace.
When have I injured thee? when done thee wrong?
Or thee? or thee? or any of your faction?
A plague upon you all! His royal person,--Whom God preserve better than you would wish!--Cannot be quiet scarce a breathing-while, But you must trouble him with lewd complaints. QUEEN ELIZABETH Brother of Gloucester, you mistake the matter.
The king, of his own royal disposition, And not provoked by any suitor else;
Aiming, belike, at your interior hatred, Which in your outward actions shows itself Against my kindred, brothers, and myself, Makes him to send; that thereby he may gather The ground of your ill-will, and so remove it. GLOUCESTER I cannot tell: the world is grown so bad, That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch:
Since every Jack became a gentleman There's many a gentle person made a Jack. QUEEN ELIZABETH Come, come, we know your meaning, brother Gloucester;
You envy my advancement and my friends':
God grant we never may have need of you! GLOUCESTER Meantime, God grants that we have need of you:
Your brother is imprison'd by your means, Myself disgraced, and the nobility Held in contempt; whilst many fair promotions Are daily given to ennoble those That scarce, some two days since, were worth a noble. QUEEN ELIZABETH By Him that raised me to this careful height From that contented hap which I enjoy'd, I never did incense his majesty Against the Duke of Clarence, but have been An earnest advocate to plead for him.
My lord, you do me shameful injury, Falsely to draw me in these vile suspects. GLOUCESTER You may deny that you were not the cause Of my Lord Hastings' late imprisonment. RIVERS She may, my lord, for-- GLOUCESTER She may, Lord Rivers! why, who knows not so?
She may do more, sir, than denying that:
She may help you to many fair preferments, And then deny her aiding hand therein, And lay those honours on your high deserts.
What may she not? She may, yea, marry, may she-- RIVERS What, marry, may she? GLOUCESTER What, marry, may she! marry with a king, A bachelor, a handsome stripling too:
I wis your grandam had a worser match. QUEEN ELIZABETH My Lord of Gloucester, I have too long borne Your blunt upbraidings and your bitter scoffs:
By heaven, I will acquaint his majesty With those gross taunts I often have endured.
I had rather be a country servant-maid Than a great queen, with this condition, To be thus taunted, scorn'd, and baited at:
Enter QUEEN MARGARET, behind Small joy have I in being England's queen. QUEEN MARGARET And lessen'd be that small, God, I beseech thee!
Thy honour, state and seat is due to me. GLOUCESTER What! threat you me with telling of the king?
Tell him, and spare not: look, what I have said I will avouch in presence of the king:
I dare adventure to be sent to the Tower.
'Tis time to speak; my pains are quite forgot. QUEEN MARGARET Out, devil! I remember them too well:
Thou slewest my husband Henry in the Tower, And Edward, my poor son, at Tewksbury. GLOUCESTER Ere you were queen, yea, or your husband king, I was a pack-horse in his great affairs;
A weeder-out of his proud adversaries, A liberal rewarder of his friends:
To royalize his blood I spilt mine own. QUEEN MARGARET Yea, and much better blood than his or thine. GLOUCESTER In all which time you and your husband Grey Were factious for the house of Lancaster;
