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Boling. [Reading out of a paper.] First of the King:

what shall of him become?

Spir. The duke yet lives that Henry shall depose; But him outlive, and die a violent death.

[As the Spirit speaks, SOUTHWELL writes the answers. Boling. What fates await the Duke of Suffolk? Spir. By water shall he die, and take his end.

Boling. What shall befall the Duke of Somerset?
Spir. Let him shun castles;

Safer shall he be upon the sandy plains

'Than where castles mounted stand.

Have done, for more I hardly can endure.

Boling. Descend to darkness and the burning lake! Foul fiend, avoid! [Thunder and lightning. Spirit descends. Enter YORK and BUCKINGHAM, breaking in with their Guards.

York. Lay hands upon these traitors and their trash. Beldam, I think we watch'd you at an inch.

What, madam, are you there? the King and commonweal Are deep-indebted for this piece of pains :

My Lord Protector will, I doubt it not,

See you well guerdon'd for these good deserts.

Duch. Not half so bad as thine to England's King,

Injurious duke, that threatest where's no cause.

Buck. True, madam, none at all: what call you this?-
[Showing her the papers.

Away with them! let them be clapp'd up close,
And kept asunder. You, madam, shall with us.
Stafford, take her to thee.

We'll see your trinkets here forthcoming all.

Away!

[Exeunt, above, Duchess and HUME, guarded. [Exeunt, below, SOUTHWELL, BOLINGBROKE, &c., guarded. York. Lord Buckingham, methinks you watch'd her well: A pretty plot, well chosen to build upon !

Now, pray, my lord, let's see the Devil's writ.

What have we here?

[Reads.] The duke yet lives that Henry shall depose; But him outlive, and die a violent death.

Why, this is just

Aio te,

acida, Romanos vincere posse.6

Well, to the rest :

Tell me what fate awaits the Duke of Suffolk? 7

By water shall he die, and take his end.

What shall betide the Duke of Somerset ?

Let him shun castles;

Safer shall he be upon the sandy plains
Than where castles mounted stand.

Come, come, my lord;

These oracles are hardily attain'd,

And hardly understood.8

The King is now in progress towards Saint Alban's,
With him the husband of this lovely lady:

Thither go these news, as fast as horse can carry them;
A sorry breakfast for my Lord Protector.

Buck. Your Grace shall give me leave, my Lord of York, To be the post, in hope of his reward.

York. At your pleasure, my good lord.Who's within there, ho!

Enter a Servant.

Invite my Lords of Salisbury and Warwick
To sup with me to-morrow night. — Away!

[Exeunt.

6 The ambiguous oracle which is said to have been given by the Pythian Apollo to Pyrrhus. The English of it is, "I say that you, the son of Æacus, the Romans can conquer."

7 Here, again, and also in the second line below, the wording of the matter has changed rather notably in passing from one hand to another. See page 136, note 2.

8 That is, it requires much hardihood to obtain them, and when obtained they are hard to understand.

ACT II.

SCENE I. Saint Alban's.

Enter King HENRY, Queen MARGARET, GLOSTER, the Cardinal, and SUFFOLK, with Falconers hallooing.

Queen. Believe me, lords, for flying at the brook,1
I saw not better sport these seven years' day :
Yet, by your leave, the wind was very high;
And, ten to one, old Joan had not gone out.2

King. But what a point, my lord, your falcon made,
And what a pitch she flew above the rest!
To see how God in all his creatures works!
Yea, man and birds are fain 3 of climbing high.
Suf. No marvel, an it like your Majesty,
My Lord Protector's hawks do tower so well;
They know their master loves to be aloft,
And bears his thoughts above his falcon's pitch.
Glo. My lord, 'tis but a base ignoble mind
That mounts no higher than a bird can soar.

Car. I thought as much: he'd be above the clouds.

1 The falconer's term for hawking at water-fowl. Here, as often, for is as for, or as to the matter of

2 Percy explains this, "The wind was so high, it was ten to one old Joan would not have taken her flight at the game." Which is confirmed by Latham's Falconry, 1633: "When you shall come afterward to fly her, she must be altogether guided and governed by her stomacke; yea, she will be kept and also lost by the same: for let her faile of that never so little, and every puff of wind will blow her away from you; nay, if there be no wind stirring, yet she will wheele and sinke away from him and from his voice, that all the time before had lured and trained her up."

3 Fain is fond or glad. So Spenser:

And in her hand she held a mirror bright,
Wherein her face she often viewed fain.

Glo. Ay, my Lord Cardinal, how think you by that? Were it not good your Grace could fly to Heaven? King. The treasury of everlasting joy!

Car. Thy Heaven is on Earth; thine eyes and thoughts Beat on a crown,4 the treasure of thy heart;

Pernicious Protector, dangerous peer,

That smooth'st it so with King and commonweal!

Glo. What, Cardinal, is your priesthood grown perémptory?

Tantæne animis cœlestibus iræ ?

Churchmen so hot? good uncle, hide such malice;

For with such holiness you well can do it.

Suf. No malice, sir; no more than well becomes

So good a quarrel and so bad a peer.

Glo. As who, my lord?

Suf.

Why, as you, my lord,

An't like your lordly Lord-protectorship.

Glo. Why, Suffolk, England knows thine insolence.
Queen. And thy ambition, Gloster.

King.
I pr'ythee, peace,
Good Queen, and whet not on these furious peers;
For blessed are the peacemakers on Earth.

Car. Let me be blessèd for the peace I make,

Against this proud Protector, with my sword!

Glo. [Aside to Car.] Faith, holy uncle, would 'twere come to that!

Car. [Aside to GLO.] Marry, when thou darest.

Glo. [Aside to Car.] Make up no factious numbers for the

matter;

In thine own person answer thy abuse.

4 That is, "thy mind is working on a crown." So in The Tempest:

Do not infest your mind with beating on

The strangeness of this business.

5 To smooth is to stroke, to caress, to wheedle, to flatter. So in i. 1, of this play: "Let not his smoothing words bewitch your hearts."

Car. [Aside to Glo.] Ay, where thou darest not peep an

if thou darest,

This evening on the east side of the grove.

King. How now, my lords!

Car.

Believe me, cousin Gloster,

Had not your man put up the fowl so suddenly,

We had had more sport. — [Aside to GLO.] Come with thy two-hand sword.5

Glo. True, uncle.

Car. [Aside to GLO.] Are ye advised?— the east side of

the grove?

Glo. [Aside to Car.] Cardinal, I am with you.

King. Why, how now, uncle Gloster !

Glo. Talking of hawking; nothing else, my lord.

[Aside to Car.] Now, by God's Mother, priest, I'll shave

your crown

For this, or all my fence shall fail.

Car. [Aside to GLO.] Medice, teipsum; .8

Protector, see to't well, protect yourself.

King. The winds grow high; so do your stomachs, lords.

How irksome is this music to my heart!

When such strings jar, what hope of harmony?

I pray, my lords, let me compound this strife.

Enter a Townsman of Saint Alban's, crying A miracle!

Glo. What means this noise?

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Fellow, what miracle dost thou proclaim?

Towns. A miracle! a miracle!

Suf. Come to the King, and tell him what miracle.

6 The two-hand sword was sometimes called the long sword, and was in common use before the introduction of the rapier. Justice Shallow, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, boasts of the exploits he had performed in his youth with this instrument.

7 Fence is the art of defence.

8" Medice, cura teipsum," "Physician, heal thyself." St. Luke, iv. 23.

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