Act 4, Scene 1

The Coast of Kent.

[Alarum. Fight at sea. Ordnance goes off. Enter a Captain, a Master, a Master's Mate, WALTER WHITMORE, and others; with them SUFFOLK, and others, prisoners.]
Sea-Captain
2013 The gaudy, blabbing, and remorseful day
2014 Is crept into the bosom of the sea;
2015 And now loud-howling wolves arouse the jades
2016 That drag the tragic melancholy night,
2017 Who, with their drowsy, slow, and flagging wings,
2018 Clip dead men's graves and from their misty jaws
2019 Breathe foul contagious darkness in the air.
2020 Therefore bring forth the soldiers of our prize;
2021 For, whilst our pinnace anchors in the Downs,
2022 Here shall they make their ransom on the sand
2023 Or with their blood stain this discolour'd shore.—
2024 Master, this prisoner freely give I thee;—
2025 And thou that art his mate, make boot of this;—
2026 The other, Walter Whitmore, is thy share.
First Gentleman
2027 What is my ransom, master? let me know?
Ship-master
2028 A thousand crowns, or else lay down your head.
Master's Mate
2029 And so much shall you give, or off goes yours.
Sea-Captain
2030 What, think you much to pay two thousand crowns,
2031 And bear the name and port of gentlemen?—
2032 Cut both the villains' throats;—for die you shall.
2033 The lives of those which we have lost in fight
2034 Be counterpois'd with such a petty sum!
First Gentleman
2035 I'll give it, sir; and therefore spare my life.
Second Gentleman
2036 And so will I, and write home for it straight.
Walter Whitmore
2037 I lost mine eye in laying the prize aboard,—
[To Suffolk]
Walter Whitmore
2038 And therefore, to revenge it, shalt thou die;—
2039 And so should these, if I might have my will.
Sea-Captain
2040 Be not so rash; take ransom, let him live.
Duke of Suffolk
2041 Look on my George; I am a gentleman.
2042 Rate me at what thou wilt, thou shalt be paid.
Walter Whitmore
2043 And so am I; my name is Walter Whitmore.
2044 How now! why start'st thou? What, doth death affright?
Duke of Suffolk
2045 Thy name affrights me, in whose sound is death.
2046 A cunning man did calculate my birth
2047 And told me that by water I should die.
2048 Yet let not this make thee be bloody-minded;
2049 Thy name is Gaultier, being rightly sounded.
Walter Whitmore
2050 Gaultier or Walter, which it is, I care not.
2051 Never yet did base dishonour blur our name
2052 But with our sword we wip'd away the blot;
2053 Therefore, when merchant-like I sell revenge,
2054 Broke be my sword, my arms torn and defac'd,
2055 And I proclaim'd a coward through the world!
Duke of Suffolk
2056 Stay, Whitmore; for thy prisoner is a prince,
2057 The Duke of Suffolk, William de la Pole.
Walter Whitmore
2058 The Duke of Suffolk muffled up in rags!
Duke of Suffolk
2059 Ay, but these rags are no part of the duke;
2060 Jove sometime went disguis'd, and why not I?
Sea-Captain
2061 But Jove was never slain, as thou shalt be.
Duke of Suffolk
2062 Obscure and lowly swain, King Henry's blood,
2063 The honourable blood of Lancaster,
2064 Must not be shed by such a jaded groom.
2065 Hast thou not kiss'd thy hand and held my stirrup?
2066 Bare-headed plodded by my foot-cloth mule
2067 And thought thee happy when I shook my head?
2068 How often hast thou waited at my cup,
2069 Fed from my trencher, kneel'd down at the board,
2070 When I have feasted with Queen Margaret?
2071 Remember it and let it make thee crest-fallen,
2072 Ay, and allay thus thy abortive pride,
2073 How in our voiding lobby hast thou stood
2074 And duly waited for my coming forth.
2075 This hand of mine hath writ in thy behalf,
2076 And therefore shall it charm thy riotous tongue.
Walter Whitmore
2077 Speak, captain, shall I stab the forlorn swain?
Sea-Captain
2078 First let my words stab him, as he hath me.
Duke of Suffolk
2079 Base slave, thy words are blunt and so art thou.
Sea-Captain
2080 Convey him hence, and on our long-boat's side
2081 Strike off his head.
Duke of Suffolk
2082 Thou dar'st not, for thy own.
Sea-Captain
2083 Yes, Pole!
Duke of Suffolk
2084 Pole!
Sea-Captain
2085 Pool! Sir Pool! lord!
2086 Ay, kennel, puddle, sink, whose filth and dirt
2087 Troubles the silver spring where England drinks.
2088 Now will I dam up this thy yawning mouth
2089 For swallowing the treasure of the realm;
2090 Thy lips that kiss'd the queen shall sweep the ground;
2091 And thou that smil'dst at good Duke Humphrey's death
2092 Against the senseless winds shalt grin in vain,
2093 Who in contempt shall hiss at thee again.
2094 And wedded be thou to the hags of hell,
2095 For daring to affy a mighty lord
2096 Unto the daughter of a worthless king,
2097 Having neither subject, wealth, nor diadem.
2098 By devilish policy art thou grown great
2099 And, like ambitious Sylla, overgorg'd
2100 With gobbets of thy mother's bleeding heart.
2101 By thee Anjou and Maine were sold to France,
2102 The false revolting Normans thorough thee
2103 Disdain to call us lord, and Picardy
2104 Hath slain their governors, surpris'd our forts,
2105 And sent the ragged soldiers wounded home.
2106 The princely Warwick, and the Nevils all,
2107 Whose dreadful swords were never drawn in vain,
2108 As hating thee are rising up in arms;
2109 And now the house of York, thrust from the crown
2110 By shameful murther of a guiltless king
2111 And lofty proud encroaching tyranny,
2112 Burns with revenging fire, whose hopeful colours
2113 Advance our half-fac'd sun, striving to shine,
2114 Under the which is writ 'Invitis nubibus.'
2115 The commons here in Kent are up in arms;
2116 And, to conclude, reproach and beggary
2117 Is crept into the palace of our king,
2118 And all by thee.—Away! convey him hence.
Duke of Suffolk
2119 O that I were a god, to shoot forth thunder
2120 Upon these paltry, servile, abject drudges!
2121 Small things make base men proud; this villain here,
2122 Being captain of a pinnace, threatens more
2123 Than Bargulus the strong Illyrian pirate.—
2124 Drones suck not eagles' blood but rob bee-hives.
2125 It is impossible that I should die
2126 By such a lowly vassal as thyself.
2127 Thy words move rage and not remorse in me.
2128 I go of message from the queen to France;
2129 I charge thee waft me safely cross the Channel.
Sea-Captain
2130 Walter,—
Walter Whitmore
2131 Come, Suffolk, I must waft thee to thy death.
Duke of Suffolk
2132 Gelidus timor occupat artus; it is thee I fear.
Walter Whitmore
2133 Thou shalt have cause to fear before I leave thee.
2134 What, are ye daunted now? now will ye stoop?
First Gentleman
2135 My gracious lord, entreat him, speak him fair.
Duke of Suffolk
2136 Suffolk's imperial tongue is stern and rough,
2137 Us'd to command, untaught to plead for favour.
2138 Far be it we should honour such as these
2139 With humble suit; no, rather let my head
2140 Stoop to the block than these knees bow to any
2141 Save to the God of heaven and to my king,
2142 And sooner dance upon a bloody pole
2143 Than stand uncover'd to the vulgar groom.
2144 True nobility is exempt from fear;
2145 More can I bear than you dare execute.
Sea-Captain
2146 Hale him away, and let him talk no more.
Duke of Suffolk
2147 Come, soldiers, show what cruelty ye can,
2148 That this my death may never be forgot!
2149 Great men oft die by vile bezonians:
2150 A Roman sworder and banditto slave
2151 Murther'd sweet Tully; Brutus' bastard hand
2152 Stabb'd Julius Caesar; savage islanders
2153 Pompey the Great; and Suffolk dies by pirates.
[Exeunt Whitmore and others with Suffolk.]
Sea-Captain
2154 And as for these whose ransom we have set,
2155 It is our pleasure one of them depart,
2156 Therefore come you with us, and let him go.
[Exeunt all but the 1 Gentleman.]
[Re-enter WHITMORE with SUFFOLK'S body.]
Walter Whitmore
2157 There let his head and lifeless body lie
2158 Until the queen his mistress bury it.
[Exit.]
First Gentleman
2159 O barbarous and bloody spectacle!
2160 His body will I bear unto the king.
2161 If he revenge it not, yet will his friends;
2162 So will the queen, that living held him dear.
[Exit with the body.]

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Notes

TLN 2013rhetorical device
“gaudy, blabbing, and remorseful day”
The Captain opens with a sustained personification of day as a gossiping, guilt-ridden informer who has crept away, allowing the wolves of night to drag their horses across the sky and breathe plague into the air. 'Blabbing' casts daylight as something that would expose the murder about to happen; 'remorseful' means full of pity or regret. The speech frames Suffolk's execution as an act of night justice.
TLN 2021archaic vocab
“our pinnace anchors in the Downs”
A 'pinnace' is a small, fast sailing vessel used as a tender or scout-ship for a larger fleet. 'The Downs' is a famous anchorage in the English Channel off the coast of Kent, sheltered by the Goodwin Sands — the same stretch of water through which ships travelling between England and France would pass. The Captain's crew has paused there long enough to execute the prisoners on the shore.
TLN 2025archaic vocab
“make boot of this”
'Make boot' means to take profit or plunder from something — 'boot' here is booty or gain. The Captain is dividing up the captured prisoners as prizes of war: each captor gets to ransom (or kill) his assigned prisoner and pocket the proceeds.
TLN 2041historical topical
“Look on my George; I am a gentleman”
A 'George' is the jewelled badge of the Order of the Garter, England's highest order of knighthood, showing Saint George slaying the dragon. Suffolk is pointing to it as proof of his rank — a knight of the Garter is by definition a great nobleman, whose life should be worth ransom rather than summary execution. The gesture is an appeal to social hierarchy that the Captain will brutally dismiss.
TLN 2045wordplay
“Thy name affrights me, in whose sound is death”
The name 'Walter' was commonly pronounced 'Water' in Elizabethan English, so the prophesied death 'by water' is literally contained in the name of Suffolk's killer. Suffolk tries to escape the pun by insisting Whitmore's name is really 'Gaultier' (the French or Norman form of the same name), but Whitmore refuses the rebranding. The pun makes Whitmore's identity itself the fulfilment of fate.
TLN 2046historical topical
“A cunning man did calculate my birth”
A 'cunning man' is a practitioner of astrology or folk magic who reads the stars at a person's birth to foretell their fate — here, that Suffolk would die by water. This prophecy was delivered in 1.4 of the play, when Eleanor Cobham's conjured spirit listed the fates of the great lords; 'Suffolk shall die by water' was one of its riddles. The name 'Walter' contains 'water,' making Whitmore the instrument of the prophecy's fulfilment.
historical Eleanor Cobham and the Witchcraft Trial
TLN 2060classical allusion
“Jove sometime went disguis'd, and why not I”
Jove (Jupiter, king of the gods) repeatedly disguised himself in classical myth to walk among mortals — as a bull, a swan, a mortal man — usually for amorous purposes. Suffolk claims that wearing a disguise is not beneath a great man. The Captain demolishes the parallel immediately: Jove was never killed in disguise, as Suffolk is about to be.
TLN 2066cultural context
“Bare-headed plodded by my foot-cloth mule”
A 'foot-cloth' was a large, richly ornamented cloth draped over a horse or mule and hanging almost to the ground — a display of status reserved for the very great, because it demonstrated the owner could afford a slow, ceremonial pace. Walking 'bare-headed' beside a superior's mounted animal was an act of enforced humility and service. Suffolk taunts Whitmore by reminding him that he once served in exactly this degrading role, walking hatless at Suffolk's stirrup.
TLN 2085wordplay
“Pool! Sir Pool! lord!”
The Captain plays on the multiple meanings of Suffolk's family name 'de la Pole': 'Pole' sounds like 'pool' (a stagnant, dirty body of water), and he immediately riffs through 'kennel' (a street gutter), 'puddle,' and 'sink' (a cesspool) — all images of filth and polluted water choking England's clean spring. The pun reduces the Duke's aristocratic French surname to sewage, accusing him of corrupting the realm.
TLN 2091historical topical
“thou that smil'dst at good Duke Humphrey's death”
The Captain accuses Suffolk of having connived at the murder of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester — 'good Duke Humphrey,' the Lord Protector — who was strangled in his bed at Bury St Edmunds in Act 3. Suffolk was the architect of Gloucester's arrest and the man who arranged the killing; the commons' loss of their protector is the political catastrophe that makes Suffolk's own death feel, to the Captain, like rough justice.
historical Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester ('Good Duke Humphrey')
TLN 2099classical allusion
“like ambitious Sylla, overgorg'd”
Sulla (spelled 'Sylla' in Elizabethan texts) was the Roman general and dictator who, in 82-79 BCE, seized Rome by force and carried out mass executions called proscriptions — posting lists of enemies to be killed and confiscating their estates. The Captain compares Suffolk to Sulla to name him a man who fattened himself on his own country's blood: 'gobbets of thy mother's bleeding heart' means chunks of England's bleeding flesh.
TLN 2113historical topical
“half-fac'd sun, striving to shine, Under the which is writ 'Invitis nubibus.'”
The 'half-faced sun' is the heraldic badge of the House of York — a sun emerging from behind clouds, which was adopted by Edward IV (York's son) and used by the Yorkist cause. The Latin motto 'Invitis nubibus' means 'In spite of the clouds' or 'Despite the clouds that oppose' — expressing the Yorkist claim that their sun-right to the crown cannot be permanently obscured. The Captain is saying that York's rising power is already visible and cannot be stopped.
historical The Wars of the Roseshistorical Edward III and his seven sons
TLN 2151classical allusion
“Murther'd sweet Tully; Brutus' bastard hand / Stabb'd Julius Caesar; savage islanders / Pompey the Great”
Suffolk's dying speech lists three great Romans killed by low or treacherous hands: Cicero ('Tully,' his family name Tullius) murdered by hired soldiers on Antony's orders in 43 BCE; Julius Caesar stabbed by Brutus — called 'bastard' because one tradition held Brutus was Caesar's illegitimate son; and Pompey the Great, murdered by an Egyptian soldier after fleeing the battle of Pharsalus (48 BCE). Suffolk places himself alongside these victims to insist that great men have always been brought low by vile agents.