Read the full text of Henry VI Part 2 Act 4 Scene 1 with a side-by-side translation HERE.
- Take cover: we're on a ship at sea that's under attack.
- A lieutenant fills us in on the deets: basically, things on this ship aren't looking so hot right now. The lieutenant decides to divvy the prisoners up amongst himself and other masters on the ship. Some will be pardoned, others ransomed, and some select few executed.
- Suffolk is on the ship, disguised, and he is given to a man named Whitmore, who will kill him. Since it was prophesied that he would die by water, we're not thinking his odds look too good.
- Naturally Suffolk starts chit-chatting with Whitmore. As you do. After some back and forth about whether he's afraid of death, Suffolk reveals who he is.
- Not only that, but Suffolk says he's too important and high-class to die at the hand of such lowlifes as themselves. At least he hasn't lost his edge.
- The lieutenant isn't buying it: he says Suffolk should be ashamed of himself for kissing the queen, smiling at Gloucester's death, losing lands in France, and calculating against a guiltless king. Bam. He orders for Suffolk to be beheaded.
- Again, Suffolk insists that he is too good for that. But his pleas are in vain: Whitmore is instructed to kill Suffolk.
- Suffolk asks to be allowed to send a message to the queen, and he tells us that he won't beg for his life. Sometimes nobles die at the hands of commoners, and he's not one to get all scared about it. He's escorted off stage by soldiers.
- Moments later, Whitmore returns with Suffolk's head.
- Whitmore is happy to let the body rot in the ground, but one of the crew decides to take the body to the king.