Page 520 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

The ringleader and head of all this rout,
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, [180]
Demanding of King Henry’s life and death,
And other of your highness’ Privy Council,
As more at large your grace shall understand.

WINCHEST ER

And so, my Lord Protector, by this means
Your lady is forthcoming yet at London. [185]
This news, I think, hath turned your weapon’s edge;
’Tis like, my lord, you will not keep your hour.

GLOUCEST ER

Ambitious churchman, leave to afflict my heart:
Sorrow and grief have vanquished all my powers;
And, vanquished as I am, I yield to thee, [190]
Or to the meanest groom.

KING HENRY

O God, what mischiefs work the wicked ones,
Heaping confusion on their own heads thereby.

MARGARET

Gloucester, see here the tainture of thy nest;
And look thyself be faultless, thou wert best. [195]

GLOUCEST ER

Madam, for myself, to heaven I do appeal,
How I have loved my king and commonweal;
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 [200]
Honour and virtue and conversed with such
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 dishonoured Gloucester’s honest name. [205]