QUEEN MARGARET.
Gloucester, see here the tainture of thy nest,
And look thyself be faultless, thou wert best.
GLOUCESTER.
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
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.
KING HENRY.
Well, for this night we will repose us here;
Tomorrow 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,
Whose beam stands sure, whose rightful cause prevails.
[Flourish. Exeunt.]
SCENE II. London. The Duke of York’s Garden
Enter York, Salisbury and Warwick.
YORK.
Now, my good Lords of Salisbury and Warwick,
Our simple supper ended, give me leave
In this close walk to satisfy myself
In craving your opinion of my title,
Which is infallible, to England’s crown.
SALISBURY.
My lord, I long to hear it at full.
WARWICK.
Sweet York, begin; and if thy claim be good,
The Nevilles are thy subjects to command.
YORK.
Then thus:
Edward the Third, my lords, had seven sons:
The first, Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales;
The second, William of Hatfield; and the third,
Lionel, Duke of Clarence; next to whom
Was John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster;
The fifth was Edmund Langley, Duke of York;
The sixth was Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester;
William of Windsor was the seventh and last.
Edward the Black Prince died before his father
And left behind him Richard, his only son,
Who after Edward the Third’s death reigned as king,
Till Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster,
The eldest son and heir of John of Gaunt,
Crowned by the name of Henry the Fourth,
Seized on the realm, deposed the rightful king,
Sent his poor queen to France, from whence she came,
And him to Pomfret; where, as all you know,
Harmless Richard was murdered traitorously.