Gloucester (2 Henry VI)

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Henry VI, Part 2

Summary

Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, known as "the Good Duke Humphrey," is Lord Protector of England and the last effective check on the faction of Suffolk and Winchester. His wife Eleanor's fall on witchcraft charges weakens him fatally, and his enemies contrive his arrest on false treason charges; he is then smothered in his bed before he can be tried, the murder of a good man that symbolises the collapse of just governance.

Notable Quotations

"Ah, thus King Henry throws away his crutch / Before his legs be firm to bear his body: / Thus is the shepherd beaten from thy side, / And wolves are gnarling who shall gnaw thee first." *(3.1)*

"Fair lords, cold snow melts with the sun's hot beams: / Henry my lord is cold in great affairs, / Too full of foolish pity." *(3.1)*

"Virtue is chok'd with foul ambition, / And charity chas'd hence by rancour's hand; / Foul subornation is predominant, / And equity exil'd your highness' land." *(3.1)*

Cross-references