196 C. F. Tucker Brooke, 



" Great is his comfort in this earthly vale, 



Although by his sight his sin be multiplied " ; (1. 70 t.) 



" God! seest thou this, and bearst so long' " (1. 153) 



" O God ! what mischiefs work the wicked ones, 



Heaping confusion on their own heads thereby " ; (1. 184 f.) 



" And poise the cause in justice ' equal scales, 



Whose beam stands sure, whose rightful cause prevails." (202 f.) 



These lines, found only in the revised scene, are strikingly at 

 variance with the bald insipidities of Henry's speeches in the Con- 

 tention. They mark the presence of a mind to which was revealed, 

 behind the practical incompetence of the monarch, a counter- 

 balancing wealth of moral and poetic feeling entirely unpercieved by 

 the original author. 



The same new-birth of sympathy for the king is conspicuous in 

 the scene where Duke Humphrey is arraigned (2 Henry VI, HI, i). 

 Marlowe's version of this passage, in the Contention, treats Henry 

 with open contempt. He is allowed to speak only twelve detached 

 Hues expressive of his total inability to cope with the situation or 

 even to comprehend it. Shakespeare's version still depicts the king 

 as weak, of course ; but it no longer presents him as a mere puppet. 

 Whereas the Contention permits Margaret and Suffolk to slander 

 Duke Humphrey without a word of protest from the passive ruler, 

 the 1623 text inserts a fine sympathetic speech admirably expressive 

 of Henry's shy timidity before his headstrong peers and of his innate 

 feeling for righteousness (2 Henry VI, III, 1, 66—73) : 



" My lords, at once : the care you have of us. 

 To mow down thorns that would annoy our foot. 

 Is worthy praise ; but shall I speak my conscience. 

 Our kinsman Gloucester is as innocent 

 From meaning treason to our royal person, 

 As is the sucking lamb or harmless dove. 

 The duke is virtuous, mild, and too well given 

 To dream on evil, or to work my downfall." 



Unconvinced, the protesting king is simply talked down by Mar- 

 garet. Later in the scene, when Humphrey is formally accused and 

 led away by the Cardinal's men, the king goes out, leaving the Queen 

 and her counselors to do as they please. Marlowe here gives Henry 

 only three bare lines in which to speak his feeble sorrow {Contention, 

 p. 33, 1. 109-111) : 



