Your grace's title shall be multiply'd.

Elean. What say'st thou, man? hast thou as yet conferr'd

With Margery Jourdain, the cunning witch;
And Roger Bolingbroke, the conjurer ?
And will they undertake to do me good?

Hume. This they have promised-to shew your highness

A spirit rais'd from depth of under ground,
That shall make answer to such questions,
As by your grace shall be propounded him.

341

Elean. It is enough; I'll think upon the questions: When from St. Alban's we do make return, We'll see those things effected to the full. Here, Hume, take this reward; make merry, man, With thy confederates in this weighty cause.

[Exit ELEANOR.

Hume. Hume must make merry with the dutchess

gold;

Marry, and shall. But, how now, Sir John Hume?
Seal up your lips, and give no words but-mum !
The business asketh silent secrecy.

Dame Eleanor gives gold, to bring the witch:
Gold cannot come amiss, were she a devil.
Yet have I gold, flies from another coast :

I dare not say, from the rich cardinal,

350

And from the great and new-made duke of Suffolk ; Yet I do find it so: for, to be plain,

They, knowing dame Eleanor's aspiring humour,

Have hired me to undermine the dutchess,

And

And buz these conjurations in her brain.

They say, A crafty knave does need no broker;
Yet am I Suffolk's and the cardinal's broker.
Hume, if you take not heed, you shall go near 360
To call them both--a pair of crafty knaves.
Well, so it stands: And thus, I fear, at last,
Hume's knavery will be the dutchess' wreck;

And her attainture will be Humphrey's fall:
Sort how it will, I shall have gold for all.

[Exit.

SCENE III.

An Apartment in the Palace. Enter three or four Petitioners, PETER, the Armourer's Man, being one.

1 Pet. My masters, let's stand close; my lord protector will come this way by and by, and then we may deliver our supplications in the quill.

2 Pet. Marry, the Lord protect him, for he's a good man! Jesu bless him!

Enter SUFFOLK, and Queen.

379

1 Pet. Here 'a comes, methinks, and the queen with him: I'll be the first, sure.

2 Pet. Come back, fool; this is the duke of Suffolk, and not my lord protector.

Suf. How now, fellow would'st any thing with

1 Pet.

me?

pray, my lord, pardon me! I took ye for my lord protector.

Q. Mar.

Q. Mar. For my lord protector! are your sup

plications to his lordship? Let me see them: What is thine? 380 蹙 i Pet. Mine is, an't please your grace, against John Goodman, my lord cardinal's man, for keeping my house, and lands, and wife and all, from me.

Suf. Thy wife too? that is some wrong, indeed. What's your's? what's here? [reads.] Against the duke of Suffolk, for enclosing the commons of Melford.-How now, sir knave?

2 Pet. Alas, sir, I am but a poor petitioner of our whole township.

389 Peter. Against my master, Thomas Horner, for saying, That the duke of York was rightful heir to the crown.

Q. Mar. What say'st thou ? Did the duke of York say, he was rightful heir to the crown?

Peter. That my mistress was? No, forsooth: my master said, That he was; and that the king was an usurper.

Suf. Who is there?-Take this fellow in, and send for his master with a pursuivant presently:-we'll hear more of your matter before the king.

400

[Exit PETER, guarded. Q. Mar. And as for you, that love to be protected Under the wings of our protector's grace,

Begin your suits anew, and sue to him.

[Tears the Petitions.

Away, base eullions!-Suffolk, let them go.

All. Come, let's be gone.

[Exeunt Petitioners.

Q. Mar.

410

Q. Mar. My lord of Suffolk, say, is this the guise, Is this the fashion in the court of England? Is this the government of Britain's isle, And this the royalty of Albion's king? What! shall king Henry be a pupil still, Under the surly Gloster's governance ? Am I a queen in title and in style, And must be made a subject to a duke? I tell thee, Poole, when in the city Tours Thou ran'st a tilt in honour of my love, And stol'st away the ladies' hearts of France; I thought, king Henry had resembled thee, In courage, courtship, and proportion:

But all his mind is bent to holiness,

To number Ave-Maries on his beads:

His champions are-the prophets, and apostles;
His weapons, holy saws of sacred writ;
His study is his tilt-yard, and his loves
Are brazen images of canoniz'd saints.
I would, the college of the cardinals
Would choose him pope, and carry him to Rome,
And set the triple crown upon his head;
That were a state fit for his holiness.

Suf. Madam, be patient: as I was cause
Your highness came to England; so will I
In England work your grace's full content.

420

430

The imperious churchman; Somerset, Buckingham, And grumbling York: and not the least of these,

But

But can do more in England than the king.

Suf. And he of these, that can do most of all, Cannot do more in England than the Nevils: Salisbury, and Warwick, are no simple peers.

* Q. Mar. Not all these lords do vex me half so much,
As that proud dame, the lord protector's wife. 440
She sweeps it through the court with troops of ladies,
More like an empress than duke Humphrey's wife;
Strangers in court do take her for the queen:
She bears a duke's revenues on her back,
And in her heart she scorns our poverty:
Shall I not live to be aveng'd on her ?
Contemptuous base-born callat as she is,
She vaunted 'mongst her minions t'other day,
The very train of her worst wearing-gown
Was better worth than all my father's lands,
'Till Suffolk gave two dukedoms for his daughter.

450

Suf. Madam, myself have lim'd a bush for her;

And plac'd a quire of such enticing birds,
That she will light to listen to their lays,

And never mount to trouble you again.
So, let her rest: And, madam, list to me;
For I am bold to counsel you in this.

Athough we fancy not the cardinal,

Yet must we join with him, and with the lords, 459 'Till we have brought duke Humphrey in disgrace. As for the duke of York-this late complaint

Will make but little for his benefit:

So, one by one, we'll weed them all at last,
And you yourself shall steer the happy helm.

To