The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 5 of 9] · William Shakespeare
SCENE I. _Saint Alban’s_.
_Suf._ No malice, sir; no more than well becomes So good a quarrel and so bad a peer. _Glou._ As who, my lord? _Suf._ Why, as you, my lord, [bba029] An’t like your lordly lord-protectorship. [bba030] _Glou._ Why, Suffolk, England knows thine insolence. _Queen._ And thy ambition, Gloucester. _King._ I prithee, peace, good queen, [bba033] And whet not on these furious peers; [bba034] For blessed are the peacemakers on earth. ·bba035· _Car._ Let me be blessed for the peace I make, Against this proud protector, with my sword! _Glou._ [_Aside to Car._] Faith, holy uncle, would ’twere come to that! [bba038] _Car._ [_Aside to Glou._] Marry, when thou darest. _Glou._ [_Aside to Car._] Make up no factious numbers for the matter; [bba040] In thine own person answer thy abuse. _Car._ [_Aside to Glou._] Ay, where thou darest not peep: an if thou darest, [bba042] This evening, on the east side of the grove. _King._ How now, my lords! _Car._ Believe me, cousin Gloucester, Had not your man put up the fowl so suddenly, ·bba045· We had had more sport. [_Aside to Glou._] Come with thy two-hand sword. [bba046] _Glou._ True, uncle. [bba047] _Car._ [_Aside to Glou._] Are ye advised? the east side of the grove? [bba048] _Glou._ [_Aside to Car._] Cardinal, I am with you. _King._ Why, how now, uncle Gloucester!
_Glou._ Talking of hawking; nothing else, my lord. ·bba050· [_Aside to Car._] Now, by God’s mother, priest, I’ll shave your crown for this. [bba051] Or all my fence shall fail. _Car._ [_Aside to Glou._] Medice, teipsum-- [bba053] Protector, see to’t well, protect yourself. _King._ The winds grow high; so do your stomachs, lords. [bba055] How irksome is this music to my heart! When such strings jar, what hope of harmony? I pray, my lords, let me compound this strife. _Enter a_ Townsman _of Saint Alban’s crying_ ‘A miracle!’ _Glou._ What means this noise? [bba059] Fellow, what miracle dost thou proclaim? ·bba060· _Towns._ A miracle! a miracle! [bba061] _Suf._ Come to the king and tell him what miracle. [bba062] _Towns._ Forsooth, a blind man at Saint Alban’s shrine, Within this half-hour, hath received his sight; A man that ne’er saw in his life before. ·bba065· _King._ Now, God be praised, that to believing souls Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair! [bba067] _Enter the_ Mayor _of Saint Alban’s and his brethren, bearing_ SIMPCOX, _between two in a chair_, SIMPCOX’S Wife _following_. _Car._ Here comes the townsmen on procession, [bba068] To present your highness with the man. [bba069] _King._ Great is his comfort in this earthly vale, ·bba070· Although by his sight his sin be multiplied. [bba071] _Glou._ Stand by, my masters: bring him near the king; His highness’ pleasure is to talk with him.
_King._ Good fellow, tell us here the circumstance, That we for thee may glorify the Lord. ·bba075· What, hast thou been long blind and now restored? _Simp._ Born blind, an’t please your grace. [bba077] _Wife._ Ay, indeed, was he. _Suf._ What woman is this? _Wife._ His wife, an’t like your worship. ·bba080· _Glou._ Hadst thou been his mother, thou couldst have better told. [bba081] _King._ Where wert thou born? _Simp._ At Berwick in the north, an’t like your grace. [bba083] _King._ Poor soul, God’s goodness hath been great to thee: [bba084] Let never day nor night unhallow’d pass, [bba085] But still remember what the Lord hath done. _Queen._ Tell me, good fellow, camest thou here by chance, Or of devotion, to this holy shrine? _Simp._ God knows, of pure devotion; being call’d A hundred times and oftener, in my sleep, ·bba090· By good Saint Alban; who said, ‘Simpcox, come, [bba091] Come, offer at my shrine, and I will help thee.’ [bba092] _Wife._ Most true, forsooth; and many time and oft [bba093] Myself have heard a voice to call him so. _Car._ What, art thou lame? _Simp._ Ay, God Almighty help me! ·bba095· _Suf._ How earnest thou so? _Simp._ A fall off of a tree. [bba096] _Wife._ A plum-tree, master. _Glou._ How long hast thou been blind? _Simp._ O, born so, master.
_Glou._ Then, Saunder, sit there, the lyingest knave in [bba125] Christendom. If thou hadst been born blind, thou mightst as well have known all our names as thus to name the [bba127] several colours we do wear. Sight may distinguish of colours, but suddenly to nominate them all, it is impossible. My [bba129] lords, Saint Alban here hath done a miracle; and would [bba130] ye not think his cunning to be great, that could restore this [bba131] cripple to his legs again? [bba132] _Simp._ O master, that you could! _Glou._ My masters of Saint Albans, have you not beadles in your town, and things called whips? ·bba135· _May._ Yes, my lord, if it please your grace. [bba136] _Glou._ Then send for one presently. _May._ Sirrah, go fetch the beadle hither straight. [bba138] [_Exit an Attendant._ _Glou._ Now fetch me a stool hither by and by. Now, [bba139] sirrah, if you mean to save yourself from whipping, leap ·bba140· me over this stool and run away. _Simp._ Alas, master, I am not able to stand alone: You go about to torture me in vain. _Enter a_ Beadle _with whips_. _Glou._ Well, sir, we must have you find your legs. Sirrah beadle, whip him till he leap over that same stool. ·bba145· _Bead._ I will, my lord. Come on, sirrah; off with your doublet quickly.
_Simp._ Alas, master, what shall I do? I am not able to stand. [_After the Beadle hath hit him once, he leaps over the stool and runs away; and they follow and cry_, ‘A miracle!’ _King._ O God, seest Thou this, and bearest so long? [bba150] _Queen._ It made me laugh to see the villain run. _Glou._ Follow the knave; and take this drab away. [bba152] _Wife._ Alas, sir, we did it for pure need. [bba153] _Glou._ Let them be whipped through every market-town, [bba154] till they come to Berwick, from whence they came. [bba155] [_Exeunt Wife, Beadle, Mayor, &c._ _Car._ Duke Humphrey has done a miracle to-day. [bba156] _Suf._ True; made the lame to leap and fly away. _Glou._ But you have done more miracles than I; You made in a day, my lord, whole towns to fly. [bba159] _Enter_ BUCKINGHAM. _King._ What tidings with our cousin Buckingham? [bba160] _Buck._ Such as my heart doth tremble to unfold. A sort of naughty persons, lewdly bent, Under the countenance and confederacy Of Lady Eleanor, the protector’s wife, The ringleader and head of all this rout, ·bba165· Have practised dangerously against your state, Dealing with witches and with conjurers: Whom we have apprehended in the fact; Raising up wicked spirits from under ground, Demanding of King Henry’s life and death, ·bba170· And other of your highness’ privy-council; As more at large your grace shall understand.
_Car._ [_Aside to Glou._] And so, my lord protector, by this means [bba173] Your lady is forthcoming yet at London. This news, I think, hath turn’d your weapon’s edge; ·bba175· ’Tis like, my lord, you will not keep your hour. _Glou._ Ambitious churchman, leave to afflict my heart: Sorrow and grief have vanquish’d all my powers; And, vanquish’d as I am, I yield to thee, [bba179] Or to the meanest groom. ·bba180· _King._ O God, what mischiefs work the wicked ones, Heaping confusion on their own heads thereby! [bba182] _Queen._ Gloucester, see here the tainture of thy nest, And look thyself be faultless, thou wert best. _Glou._ Madam, for myself, to heaven I do appeal, ·bba185· How I have loved my king and commonweal: [bba186] And, for my wife, I know not how it stands; Sorry I am to hear what I have heard: Noble she is, but if she have forgot Honour and virtue and conversed with such ·bba190· As, like to pitch, defile nobility, I banish her my bed and company And give her as a prey to law and shame, That hath dishonour’d Gloucester’s honest name. _King._ Well, for this night we will repose us here: ·bba195· To-morrow toward London back again, To look into this business thoroughly And call these foul offenders to their answers And poise the cause in justice’ equal scales, [bba199] Whose beam stands sure, whose rightful cause prevails. [bba200] [_Flourish. Exeunt._
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.