Page:Henry VI Part 2 (1923) Yale.djvu/63

King Henry the Sixth, III. i

For thousands more, that yet suspect no peril,

Will not conclude their plotted tragedy.

Beaufort's red sparkling eyes blab his heart's malice,

And Suffolk's cloudy brow his stormy hate;

Sharp Buckingham unburthens with his tongue

The envious load that lies upon his heart;

And dogged York, that reaches at the moon,

Whose overweening arm I have pluck'd back,

By false accuse doth level at my life:

And you, my sovereign lady, with the rest,

Causeless have laid disgraces on my head,

And with your best endeavour have stirr'd up

My liefest liege to be mine enemy.

Ay, all of you have laid your heads together;

Myself had notice of your conventicles;

And all to make away my guiltless life.

I shall not want false witness to condemn me,

Nor store of treasons to augment my guilt;

The ancient proverb will be well effected:

'A staff is quickly found to beat a dog.'

Car. My liege, his railing is intolerable.

If those that care to keep your royal person

From treason's secret knife and traitor's rage

Be thus upbraided, chid, and rated at,

And the offender granted scope of speech,

'Twill make them cool in zeal unto your Grace.

Suf. Hath he not twit our sovereign lady here

With ignominious words, though clerkly couch'd,

As if she had suborned some to swear

False allegations to o'erthrow his state?

 153 conclude: by their deaths bring to conclusion

159 overweening: presumptuous; cf. n.

160 accuse: accusation

level: aim

164 liefest liege: dearest sovereign

166 conventicles: secret meetings

170 effected: put into effect

173 care: endure care, trouble themselves

178 twit: twitted

179 clerkly couch'd; phrased with learned circumlocution 