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Act 1, Scene 4
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Henry VI Part 2, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Ambition
Nobles vs. Commoners
Religion and Politics
Patriotism
Magic
Summary
Analysis
King Henry, Queen Margaret, Gloucester, Cardinal Beaufort, Suffolk, and the rest of the hawking party enter. When Henry praises Gloucester’s falcon for flying high, Suffolk comments that it’s fitting: Gloucester himself likes to ascend. When Cardinal Beaufort adds that Gloucester wants to “be above the clouds,” Gloucester asks whether the Cardinal wouldn’t like to reach “heaven.” The Cardinal accuses Gloucester of wanting the crown, but Gloucester replies that the Cardinal’s ill will is unpriestly. When Suffolk says that it’s appropriate for the Cardinal to be angry at an evil lord like Gloucester, Gloucester criticizes Suffolk’s “insolence”—only for Margaret to criticize Gloucester’s “ambition.”
Suffolk and Cardinal Beaufort are using Gloucester’s high-flying falcon as a pretext to insinuate that Gloucester is politically ambitious, saying that Gloucester too wants to be “above the clouds”—that is, superior to everyone else, implicitly including King Henry. Gloucester intentionally reinterprets the accusation as religious rather than political, suggesting that he indeed wants to travel “above the clouds” in the sense of reaching the Christian “heaven.” This reinterpretation is a subtle criticism of Cardinal Beaufort, who is a Catholic priest as well as an English aristocrat. Gloucester is implying that Beaufort is too concerned with worldly power and not concerned enough with religion. Suffolk and Margaret’s subsequent criticisms of Gloucester are ironic: Suffolk, not Gloucester, is the unethical one, while Margaret, not Gloucester, has “ambition.”
Active
Themes
Henry asks Margaret not to egg on the lords, reminding her that “blessed are the peacemakers.” After Cardinal Beaufort declares that he’ll make peace with Gloucester “with a sword,” Gloucester and the Cardinal in furious undertones agree to a duel that night. Henry is lamenting the lords’ anger when a villager runs up, yelling about a miracle: a man blind from birth has just been cured at nearby St. Alban’s shrine. Henry gives thanks to God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers” is a quotation from Matthew 5:9 in the Christian New Testament. Ironically, King Henry quotes the Bible while Catholic priest Cardinal Beaufort plans to resolve his and Gloucester’s disagreement “with a sword.” This irony emphasizes the play’s characterization of Henry as too religious to be a successful politician and Beaufort as too political to be a good priest.
Active
Themes
Villagers from St. Albans arrive, carrying the man supposedly cured of blindness. Gloucester summons the man to talk to King Henry. After Henry asks the man some sympathetic questions, Gloucester says the man’s vision still seems poor and asks the man what color cloak and gown he (Gloucester) is wearing. The man says the cloak is red and the gown black. Gloucester demands the man’s name. After the man hesitatingly identifies himself as Sander Simpcox, Gloucester calls him a liar, pointing out that if he were blind from birth and cured just now, he wouldn’t know which colors went with which color names.
Active
Themes
Gloucester summons beadles to whip Simpcox. After one strike, Simpcox runs away. King Henry rhetorically asks how God can forbear after witnessing this scene. When Gloucester orders the beadles to take away Simpcox’s wife, who accompanied him, she claims piteously that they faked the miracle “for pure need.”
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Buckingham arrives and announces that they caught the Duchess colluding with conjurers who summoned a spirit and asked it questions about King Henry and some other lords. When Cardinal Beaufort gloats to Gloucester that Gloucester probably won’t be able to keep their duel appointment, Gloucester tells the Cardinal to leave him alone. Horror at this turn of events has overcome him. Queen Margaret warns Gloucester that he had better be innocent in all this. Gloucester swears his loyalty to King Henry and to England. Though he admits he doesn’t know what his wife may have done, he promises to shun her and not to protect her from consequences if she’s guilty.
Active
Themes
