Page 553 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

Look, on the sheets his hair, you see, is sticking;
His well-proportioned beard made rough and rugged, [175]
Like to the summer’s corn by tempest lodged.
It cannot be but he was murdered here:
The least of all these signs were probable.

SUFFOLK

Why, Warwick, who should do the duke to death?
Myself and Beaufort had him in protection [180]
Ad we, I hope, sir, are no murderers.

WARWICK

But both of you were vowed Duke Humphrey’s foes,
And you, forsooth, had the good duke to keep:
’Tis like you would not feast him like a friend,
And ’tis well seen he found an enemy. [185]

MARGARET

Then you, belike, suspect these noblemen
As guilty of Duke Humphrey’s timeless death?

WARWICK

Who finds the heifer dead and bleeding fresh
And sees fast by a butcher with an axe,
But will suspect ’twas he that made the slaughter? [190]
Who finds the partridge in the puttock’s nest,
But may imagine how the bird was dead,
Although the kite soar with unbloodied beak?
Even so suspicious is this tragedy.

MARGARET

Are you the butcher, Suffolk? Where’s your knife? [195]
Is Beaufort termed a kite? Where are his talons?

SUFFOLK

I wear no knife to slaughter sleeping men;
But here’s a vengeful sword, rusted with ease,
That shall be scourèd in his rancorous heart
That slanders me with murder’s crimson badge. [200]
Say, if thou dar’st, proud Lord of Warwickshire,