Queen Margaret

William Shakespeare, Jeanie O'Hare

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781848428102
• eBook ISBN: 9781788501002
• Topic: Literatur
• Subtopic: Britisches Drama

'This lady excelled all others, as well in beauty and favour, as in wit and policy, and was of stomach more like a man than a woman' Holinshed's Chronicles, 1577

Hungry for power and angered by their king, the nobles of Henry VI's court plot and scheme against each other. As Henry wavers and the factions split, Queen Margaret is determined to hold on to power and protect the crown that will one day belong to her son.

Using Shakespeare's orginal lines, alongside new text, Jeanie O'Hare retells the Wars of the Roses through the eyes of the Queen. A captivating exploration of an iconic moment in British history, the play premiered at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, in September 2018, directed by Elizabeth Freestone and featuring Jade Anouka as Margaret of Anjou.

ACT ONE

Scene One – Ten Years Earlier, Margaret Arrives in England

London. The Palace.

HENRY.

Welcome all from your happy voyage from France.

SUFFOLK.

Your High Imperial Majesty

I have performed my task. And humbly now,

In sight of England and her lordly peers,

Deliver up to you, your Queen.

The happiest gift that ever Marquess gave,

The fairest queen that ever king received.

HENRY.

Suffolk, we thank you. Welcome, Queen Margaret.

I can express no kinder sign of love

Than this kind kiss. O Lord, that lends me life,

Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness!

For you have given me in this beauteous face

A world of earthly blessings to my soul,

If sympathy of love unite our thoughts.

MARGARET embraces him, a faux pas.

MARGARET.

Great King of England and my gracious lord,

The mutual conference that my mind hath had,

With you, by day, by night, waking and in my dreams,

In courtly company or at my beads,

Makes me the bolder to salute my king

With ruder terms, such as my wit affords

And over-joy of heart doth minister.

HENRY.

Such is the fullness of my heart’s content.

Lords, with one cheerful voice welcome my love.

ALL.

Long live Queen Margaret, England’s happiness!

MARGARET (aside).

So here the son of Henry Five and there the brother.

And these fellow nobles I will soon embrace.

Such a happy breed.

I thank you all.

SUFFOLK.

My Lord Protector, so it please your grace,

Here are the articles of contracted peace

Between our sovereign and the French King Charles.

GLOUCESTER (reads).

‘Imprimis, it is agreed between the French

King Charles, and the Marquess of Suffolk,

ambassador for Henry King of England, that

the said Henry shall espouse the Lady Margaret,

daughter unto Reignier King of Naples, Sicilia and

Jerusalem, and crown her Queen of England before the

thirtieth of May next ensuing. Item, that the duchy

of Anjou and the county of Maine shall be released

and delivered to the King her father’ –

(Drops the paper from his hand.)

HENRY.

Uncle, how now!

GLOUCESTER.

Pardon me, gracious lord,

Some sudden qualm has struck me at the heart

And dimmed my eyes that I can read no further.

HENRY.

Suffolk, I pray, read on.

SUFFOLK (reads).

‘Item: It is agreed that the duchies of Anjou

and Maine shall be released and delivered over to the King

her father,

and she sent over of the King of England’s own

proper cost and charges, without having any dowry.’

HENRY.

They please us well. Lord Marquess,

We here create you the first Duke of Suffolk.

Cousin of York, we here discharge you from being Regent,

In these parts of France, till term of eighteen months.

Thanks, Cousin of York,

MARGARET flinches.

thanks, uncle Gloucester,

Somerset, Warwick, and Cardinal too.

We thank you all for the great favour done,

In entertainment to my princely Queen.

Come, let us in, and with all speed provide

To see her coronation be performed.

Exit HENRY, MARGARET and SUFFOLK.

GLOUCESTER.

Brave peers of England, pillars of the state,

To you Duke Humphrey must unload his grief,

Your grief, the common grief of all the land.

What? Did my brother Henry spend his youth,

His valour, coin and people, in the wars?

Did he so often lodge in open field,

In winter’s cold and summer’s parching heat,

To conquer France, his true inheritance?

Have you yourselves, noble Somerset,

Brave York, and victorious Warwick,

Received deep scars in France and Normandy?

They all unroll their sleeves in practised manner.

Or has the reverend Cardinal and myself,

With all the learned council of the realm,

Studied so long, sat in the council-house

Early and late, debating to and fro

How France and Frenchmen might be kept in awe,

And saw His Highness in his infancy

Crowned in Paris despite his foes?

And shall these labours and these honours die?

Shall Henry’s conquest, and his vigilance,

Your deeds of war and all our counsel die?

O peers of England, shameful is this league!

Fatal this marriage, cancelling your fame,

Undoing all, as if it had never been!

CARDINAL.

Humphrey, what means this passionate discourse?

Anjou and Maine are minor counties.

France is ours, and will remain ours.

GLOUCESTER.

Ay, your grace, we would keep it if we could,

But now it is impossible we should.

Suffolk, the new-made duke that rules the roost,

Has given the duchies of Anjou and Maine

To the girl’s father.

WARWICK.

These counties were the keys of Normandy

I grieve that they are past recovery.

Anjou and Maine! I won them both in battle,

Those provinces these arms of mine did conquer.

YORK.

For Suffolk’s dukedom, may he suffocate!

I never read but England’s kings have had

Large sums of gold and dowries with their wives.

And our King Henry gives away his own,

To match with her that brings no advantage?

GLOUCESTER (reads).

A proper jest, and never heard before,

That Suffolk should demand fifteen per cent

For costs and charges in transporting her!

She should have ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Original Production
• Dedication
• Characters
• Prologue – Margaret Remembers France
• Queen Margaret
• About the Author
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information