Henry VI Part 2 Act 3, Scene 3 Summary & Analysis

King Henry, Salisbury, and Warwick visit Cardinal Beaufort, who is lying in bed. The Cardinal asks whether Henry is Death and tries to bribe him in exchange for more life. Henry calls it evidence of sin when someone is so scared to die. The Cardinal, delirious, asks for a trial, asks whether “he” too died in bed, and says that his hair is standing up like “lime-twigs” for the Cardinal’s soul. Henry prays to God to have mercy and asks the Cardinal to raise his hand if he has hope of heaven. The Cardinal dies without raising his hand. Henry asks God to forgive the Cardinal. When Warwick argues that the Cardinal’s death bespeaks his sinfulness, Henry reproves him, pointing out, “we are sinners all.”

When the Cardinal refers to a “trial” and an unnamed “he,” it implies that the Cardinal’s dying delirium revolves around Gloucester, whom the Cardinal conspired to have murdered while Gloucester was awaiting trial. “Lime-twigs” are a kind of trap for birds, so the Cardinal, hallucinating Gloucester or haunted by his ghost, is comparing Gloucester’s hair to a trap and his own soul to a bird. This comparison hints that, by participating in Gloucester’s murder, the Cardinal has “trapped” or damned his own soul—a hint that both Henry and Warwick catch. Henry’s attitude of mercy toward the Cardinal can be interpreted multiple ways. On the one hand, it may seem like yet more evidence of Henry’s softness, which makes him unfit for the hard world of politics. On the other hand, Henry’s reminder that “we are sinners all” seems like thematically relevant foreshadowing: the play’s major characters are all involved in violent political power struggles, which will lead to a destructive war. Arguably, then, none of them are morally superior to the Cardinal and all should hope for mercy.

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Henry VI Part 2: Act 3, Scene 3 Summary & Analysis