* And, whiles I live, to account this world but hell, * Until my mis-shap'd trunk that bears this head, * Be round impaled with a glorious crown. * And yet I know not how to get the crown, * For many lives stand between me and home: *And I,-like one lost in a thorny wood,

That rents the thorns, and is rent with the thorns; Seeking a way, and straying from the way; *Not knowing how to find the open air, *But toiling desperately to find it out,* Torment myself to catch the English crown: * And from that torment I will free myself, * Or hew my way out with a bloody axe. Why, I can smile, and murder while I smile;

And cry, content, to that which grieves my heart; * And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,

*And frame my face to all occasions.

* I'll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall;
* I'll slay more gazers than the basilisk;
* I'll play the orator as well as Nestor,
* Deceive more slily than Ulysses could,
* And, like a Sinon, take another Troy:

I can add colours to the cameleon;

Change shapes, with Proteus, for advantages,

C And set the murd'rous Machiavel to school.
Can I do this, and cannot get a crown?

Tut! were it further off, I'll pluck it down.

[Exit.

SCENE III.

France. A Room in the Palace.

Flourish. Enter LEWIS the French King, and Lady BONA, attended; the King takes his State. Then enter Queen MARGARET, Prince EDWARD, her Son, and the earl of Oxford.

K. Lew. Fair queen of England, worthy Mar

garet,

'Sit down with us; it ill befits thy state,

[Rising.

'And birth, that thou should'st 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: yield not thy neck

Seats her by him. * 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 eas'd, 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 forc'd 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 seiz'd, our soldiers put to flight, * And, as thou see'st, 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

Enter WARWICK attended.

my sorrow.

"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?

[Descending from his State. Queen MARGARET

rises.

* Q. Mar. Ay, now begins a second storm to rise; *For this is he, that moves both wind and tide.

Wor. 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. If that go forward, Henry's hope is done. War. And, gracious madam, [TO BONA.] 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 plac'd 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 a while, * 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 discourse,
You told not, how Henry the sixth had 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 obey'dst 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.

6

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. * Q. Mar. Heaven grant, that Warwick's words bewitch him not!

[Retiring with the Prince and OXFORD.