Nor leave not one behind, that doth not wish
Success and conquest to attend on us.

CAM. Never was monarch better fear'd, and lov'd,
Than is your majesty; there's not, I think, a subject,
That sits in heart-grief and uneasiness
Under the sweet shade of your government.

GREY. Even those, that were your father's enemies,

Have steep'd their galls in honey; and do serve you With hearts create of duty and of zeal.

K. HEN. We therefore have great cause of thank-
fulness;

And shall forget the office of our hand,
Sooner than quittance of desert and merit,
According to the weight and worthiness.

SCROOP. So service shall with steeled sinews toil;
And labour shall refresh itself with hope,
To do your grace incessant services.

K. HEN. We judge no less.-Uncle of Exeter, Enlarge the man committed yesterday, That rail'd against our person: we consider, It was excess of wine that set him on; And, on his more advice, we pardon him.

SCROOP. That's mercy, but too much security: Let him be punish'd, sovereign; lest example Breed, by his sufferance, more of such a kind.

ours.

3

"If you shall cleave to my consent," &c.

Consent is union, party, &c. STEEVENS.

""

11

in a fair concent·

In friendly concord; in unison with See vol. xi. p. 92, n. 3. MALONE.

hearts CREATE] Hearts compounded or made up of duty and zeal. JOHNSON.

4 And shall forget the office of our hand,] Perhaps our author, when he wrote this line, had the fifth verse of the 137th Psalm in his thoughts: "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning." STEEVENS.

5 — more advice,] On his return to more coolness of mind. JOHNSON.

See vol. iv. p. 56, n. 7. MALONE.

K. HEN. O, let us yet be merciful.
CAM. So may your highness, and yet punish too.
GREY. Sir, you show great mercy, if you give
him life,

After the taste of much correction.

K. HEN. Alas, your too much love and care of me Are heavy orisons 'gainst this poor wretch.

If little faults, proceeding on distemper, Shall not be wink'd at, how shall we stretch our eye",

When capital crimes, chew'd, swallow'd, and digested,

Appear before us?-We'll yet enlarge that man, Though Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey,-in their dear care,

And tender preservation of our person,

Would have him punish'd. And now to our French

causes; Who are the late commissioners $?

Perturbation of mind. from an equipoise or due is the predominance of a dominance of a humour.

6 - proceeding on DISTEMPER,] i. e. sudden passions.

WARBURTON. Temper is equality or calmness of mind, mixture of passions. Distemper of mind passion, as distemper of body is the preJOHNSON.

It has been just said by the king, that "it was excess of wine that set him on," and distemper may therefore mean intoxication. Distemper'd in liquor is still a common expression. Chapman, in his Epicedium on the Death of Prince Henry, 1612, has personified this species of distemper:

"Frantick distemper, and hare-ey'd unrest." And Brabantio says, that Roderigo is

66

"Full of supper and distemp'ring draughts." Again, Holinshed, vol. iii. p. 626 : gave him wine and strong drink in such excessive sort, that he was therewith distempered, and reel'd as he went." STEEVENS.

7

how shall we stretch our eye,] If we may not wink at small faults, how wide must we open our eyes at great? JOHNSON. 8 Who are the late commissioners?] That is, as appears from the sequel, who are the persons lately appointed commissioners? M. MASON.

-

CAM. I one, my lord;

Your highness bade me ask for it to-day.
SCROOP. So did you me, my liege.

GREY. And me, my royal sovereign.
K. HEN. Then, Richard, earl of Cambridge, there
is yours:-

There yours, lord Scroop of Masham :-and, sir knight,

Grey of Northumberland, this same is yours:Read them; and know, I know your worthiness.My lord of Westmoreland,-and uncle Exeter,We will aboard to-night.-Why, how now, gentlemen?

What see you in those papers, that you lose
So much complexion ?-look ye, how they change!
Their cheeks are paper.-Why, what read you there,
That hath so cowarded and chas'd your blood
Out of appearance?

Сам.

I do confess my fault; And do submit me to your highness' mercy. GREY. SCROOP. To which we all appeal.

K. HEN. The mercy that was quick in us but late, By your own counsel is suppress'd and kill'd; You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy; For your own reasons turn into your bosoms, As dogs upon their masters, worrying them *.See you, my princes, and my noble peers, These English monsters! My lord of Cambridge here,

. You know, how apt our love was, to accord
To furnish him 1 with all appertinents
Belonging to his honour; and this man
Hath, for a few light crowns, lightly conspir'd,
And sworn unto the practices of France,

* Folio, you.

9-quick-] That is, living. JOHNSON.

To furnish HIM ] The latter word, which is wanting in the first folio, was supplied by the editor of the second. MALONE.

To kill us here in Hampton: to the which,
This knight, no less for bounty bound to us
Than Cambridge is,-hath likewise sworn.-But O!
What shall I say to thee, lord Scroop; thou cruel,
Ingrateful, savage, and inhuman creature!
Thou that didst bear the key of all my counsels,
That knew'st the very bottom of my soul,
That almost might'st have coin'd me into gold,
Would'st thou have practis'd on me for thy use?
May it be possible, that foreign hire
Could out of thee extract one spark of evil,
That might annoy my finger? 'tis so strange,
That, though the truth of it stands off as gross
As black from white', my eye will scarcely see it.
Treason, and murder, ever kept together,
As two yoke-devils sworn to either's purpose,
Working so grossly 3 in a natural cause,
That admiration did not whoop at them 2:
But thou, 'gainst all proportion, didst bring in
Wonder to wait on treason, and on murder:
And whatsoever cunning fiend it was,
That wrought upon thee so preposterously,
Hath got the voice in hell for excellence :
And other devils that suggest by treasons,
Do botch and bungle up damnation

3

With patches, colours, and with forms being fetch'd From glistering semblances of piety:

But he, that temper'd thee, bade thee stand up,

I

though the truth of it stands off as gross

As black from white,] Though the truth be as apparent and visible as black and white contiguous to each other. To stand off is être relevé, to be prominent to the eye, as the strong parts of a picture. JOHNSON.

2

WHOOP at them:] That they excited no exclamation of surprise. Such, I think, is meant by the word in As You Like It : "O wonderful, wonderful, &c. and after that out of all whooping." See vol. vi. p. 429, n. 6. BOSWELL.

3

so grossly Palpably; with a plain and visible connection of cause and effect. JOHNSON.

- he, that TEMPER'D thee,] Though temper'd may stand for

Gave thee no instance why thou should'st do trea

son,

Unless to dub thee with the name of traitor.
If that same dæmon, that hath gull'd thee thus,
Should with his lion gait walk the whole world,
He might return to vasty Tartar 5 back,
And tell the legions-I can never win
A soul so easy as that Englishman's.
O, how hast thou with jealousy infected
The sweetness of affiance! Show men dutiful?
Why, so didst thou: Seem they grave and learned?
Why, so didst thou: Come they of noble family?
Why, so didst thou: Seem they religious?
Why, so didst thou: Or are they spare in diet;
Free from gross passion, or of mirth, or anger;
Constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood;
Garnish'd and deck'd in modest complement';

formed or moulded, yet I fancy tempted was the author's word, for it answers better to suggest in the opposition. JOHNSON.

Temper'd, I believe, is the true reading, and means-rendered thee pliable to his will. Falstaff says of Shallow, that he has him tempering between his thumb and finger." STEEVENS.

66

5

vasty TARTAR -] i. e. Tartarus, the fabled place of future punishment.

So, in Heywood's Brazen Age, 1613:

"With aconitum that in Tartar springs." STEEVENS. Again, in The Troublesome Raigne of King John, 1591: "And let the black tormentors of black Tartary,

"Upbraide them with this damned enterprize." MALONE. 6 O, how hast thou with jealousy infected

The sweetness of affiance!] Shakspeare uses this aggravation of the guilt of treachery with great judgment. One of the worst consequences of breach of trust is the diminution of that confidence which makes the happiness of life, and the dissemination of suspicion, which is the poison of society. JOHNSON.

7 Garnish'd and deck'd in MODEST COMPLEMENT;] Complement has, in this instance, the same sense as in Love's Labour's Lost, Act I. Complements, in the age of Shakspeare, meant the same as accomplishments in the present one.

STEEVENS.