Page:Henry VI Part 2 (1923) Yale.djvu/77

King Henry the Sixth, III. ii

To blush and beautify the cheek again.

But see, his face is black and full of blood,

His eyeballs further out than when he liv'd,

Staring full ghastly like a strangled man;

His hair uprear'd, his nostrils stretch'd with struggling:

His hands abroad display'd, as one that grasp'd

And tugg'd for life, and was by strength subdu'd.

Look, on the sheets his hair, you see, is sticking;

His well-proportion'd beard made rough and rugged,

Like to the summer's corn by tempest lodg'd.

It cannot be but he was murder'd here;

The least of all these signs were probable.

Suf. Why, Warwick, who should do the duke to death?

Myself and Beaufort had him in protection;

And we, I hope, sir, are no murtherers.

War. But both of you were vow'd 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.

Queen. Then you, belike, suspect these noblemen

As guilty of Duke Humphrey's timeless death.

War. 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?

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.

 172 abroad display’d: extended

176 lodg’d: beaten down

178 probable: sufficient as proof

191 puttock's: kite's, hawk's 