Enter WINCHESTER, with his Serving-men in tawny coats.

Win. How now, ambitious Humphrey ! what means this?

4

Glo. Peel'd priest, dost thou command me be shut out?
Win. I do, thou most usurping proditor,5
And not protector, of the King or realm.

Glo. Stand back, thou manifest conspirator,
Thou that contrivedst to murder our dead lord ; 6
Thou that givest whores indulgences to sin : 7
I'll canvass thee in thy broad cardinal's hat,
If thou proceed in this thy insolence.

Win. Nay, stand thou back; I will not budge a foot:
This be Damascus, be thou cursèd Cain,

To slay thy brother Abel,9 if thou wilt!

4 Peel'd is bald, alluding to his tonsure or shaven head.

5 Proditor is the same as traitor or betrayer.

6 One of Gloster's charges against Cardinal Beaufort was, that, when Henry the Fifth was Prince of Wales, the Cardinal set on foot a scheme for having him assassinated at his lodgings in the palace of Westminster.

7 The public stews in Southwark were under the jurisdiction of the Bishops of Winchester. So that licenses for keeping them were issued on the Cardinal's authority.

8 Canvass was a technical name for the peculiarly constructed net with which wild hawks were snared by the falconer: at least, it was technically applied to catching wild hawks in this way; and to be canvassed in this sense was to be taken, trapped, or netted. The following, from Pettie's Palace of Pleasure, brings out this meaning: "As the mouse, having escaped out of the trap, wil hardly be allured againe with the intising baite, or as the hawke, having bin once canvassed in the nettes, wil make it daungerous to strike againe at the stale;" &c. The phrase has peculiar expressiveness when applied to the broad-brimmed cardinal's hat, with its long strings knotted into net-like meshes on either side. And Gloster, in saying "I'll canvass thee in thy broad cardinal's hat," expressed his determination to trap and seize the arrogant churchman, if he persisted in his violent courses. Edinburgh Review, October, 1872.

9 The allusion here is well explained by a passage in The Travels of Sir John Mandeville: "In that place where Damascus was founded, Kayn sloughe Abel his brother." And Ritson has another of like drift from the Polychronicon: “Damascus is as much as to say shedding of blood; for there Chaym slew Abel, and hid him in the sand."

Glo. I will not slay thee, but I'll drive thee back : Thy scarlet robes as a child's bearing-cloth

I'll use to carry thee out of this place.

Win. Do what thou darest; I beard thee to thy face.
Glo. What am I dared, and bearded to my face?-
Draw, men, for all this privileged place;
Blue-coats to tawny-coats.10

· Priest, beware your beard;

I mean to tug it, and to cuff you soundly:
Under my feet I'll stamp thy cardinal's hat ;
In spite of Pope or dignities of Church,
Here by the cheeks I'll drag thee up and down.
Win. Gloster, thou'lt answer this before the Pope.
Glo. Winchester goose! 11 I cry, a rope! a rope!
Now beat them hence; why do you let them stay?
Thee I'll chase hence, thou wolf in sheep's array.
Out, tawny-coats! out, scarlet hypocrite!

Here GLOSTER and his Serving-men attack the other party; and enter in the hurly-burly the Mayor of London and Officers.

May. Fie, lords! that you, being supreme magistrates, Thus contumeliously should break the peace!

Glo. Peace, Mayor ! thou know'st little of my wrongs: Here's Beaufort, that regards nor God nor King, Hath here distrain'd 12 the Tower to his use.

Win. Here's Gloucester, a foe to citizens ; One that still motions war, and never peace,

10 It appears from this, that Gloster's servants wore blue coats, and Winchester's tawny. Such was the usual livery of servants in the Poet's time, and long before. Stowe informs us that on a certain occasion the Bishop of London "was attended on by a goodly company of gentlemen in tawny coats."

11 A Winchester goose was a particular stage of the disease contracted in the stews; hence Gloster bestows the epithet on the bishop in derision and scorn. A person affected with that disease was likewise so called.

12 To distrain is to seize arbitrarily or by violence.

O'ercharging your free purses with large fines;
That seeks to overthrow religion,

Because he is Protector of the realm ;

And would have armour here out of the Tower,
To crown himself king, and suppress the Prince.
Glo. I will not answer thee with words, but blows.
[Here they skirmish again.
May. Nought rests for me, in this tumultuous strife,

But to make open proclamation :

Come, officer; as loud as e'er thou canst.

Off. [Reads.] All manner of men assembled here in arms this day against God's peace and the King's, we charge and command you, in his Highness' name, to repair to your several dwelling-places; and not to wear, handle, or use any sword, weapon, or dagger, henceforward, upon pain of death. Glo. Cardinal, I'll be no breaker of the law : But we shall meet, and break our minds at large. Win. Gloster, we'll meet; to thy dear cost, be sure : Thy heart-blood I will have for this day's work. May. I'll call for clubs, 13 if you will not away:

This Cardinal's more haughty than the Devil.

Glo. Mayor, farewell: thou dost but what thou mayst.
Win. Abominable Gloster! guard thy head;

For I intend to have it off ere long. [Exeunt, severally, GLOS-
TER and WINCHESTER with their Serving-men.

May. See the coast clear'd, and then we will depart. -
Good God, that nobles should such stomachs 14 bear!
I myself fight not once in forty year.

[Exeunt.

13 The old practice of calling out Clubs, clubs! to rouse and rally the London apprentices to a street-affray, is often alluded to by contemporary writers. It would seem that shop-keepers generally had clubs ready for such use. See vol. v. page 100, note 4.

14 Stomach here means pride or haughty resentment. See vol. i. page 170, note 6.

Enter, on the walls, the Master-Gunner and his Son.

M. Gun. Sirrah, thou know'st how Orleans is besieged, And how the English have the suburbs won.

Son. Father, I know; and oft have shot at them, Howe'er, unfortunate, I miss'd my aim.

M. Gun. But now thou shalt not.

Be thou ruled by me :

Chief master-gunner am I of this town;
Something I must do to procure me grace.
The Prince's 'spials have informed me

How th' English, in the suburbs close entrench'd,
Wont, through a secret grate of iron bars
In yonder tower, to overpeer the city;
And thence discover how with most advantage
They may vex us with shot or with assault.
To intercept this inconvenience,

A piece of ordnance 'gainst it I have placed;
And even these three days have I watch'd, if I
Could see them.

Now do thou watch, for I can stay no longer.

If thou spy'st any, run and bring me word;

And thou shalt find me at the governor's.

[Exit.

Son. Father, I warrant you; take you no care;

I'll never trouble you, if I may spy them.

Enter, in an upper chamber of a tower, the Lords SALISBURY and TALBOT, Sir WILLIAM GLANSDALE, Sir THOMAS GARGRAVE, and others.

Sal. Talbot, my life, my joy, again return'd!
How wert thou handled being prisoner?

Or by what means gott'st thou to be released?
Discourse, I pr'ythee, on this turret's top.

Tal. The Duke of Bedford had a prisoner
Called the brave Lord Ponton de Santrailles ;
For him was I exchanged and ransoméd.
But with a baser man-of-arms by far,

Once, in contempt, they would have barter'd me:
Which I, disdaining, scorn'd; and cravèd death
Rather than I would be so vile-esteem'd.

In fine, redeem'd I was as I desired.

But, O, the treacherous Fastolfe wounds my heart!
Whom with my bare fists I would execute,

If I now had him brought into my power.

Sal. Yet tell'st thou not how thou wert entertain'd. Tal. With scoffs, and scorns, and contumelious taunts, In open market-place produced they me,

To be a public spectacle to all:

Here, said they, is the terror of the French,

The scarecrow that affrights our children so.1
Then broke I from the officers that led me,
And with my nails digg'd stones out of the ground,
To hurl at the beholders of my shame :

My grisly countenance made others fly;

None durst come near for fear of sudden death.

In iron walls they deem'd me not secure ;

So great fear of my name 'mongst them was spread,
That they supposed I could rend bars of steel,
And spurn in pieces posts of adamant :
Wherefore a guard of chosen shot? I had,
That walk'd about me every minute-while;
And, if I did but stir out of my bed,

1 This man [Talbot] was to the French people a very scourge and a daily terror, insomuch that as his person was fearful and terrible to his adversaries present, so his name and fame was spiteful and dreadful to the common people absent; insomuch that women in France, to feare their yong children, would crye the Talbot cometh. - HALL'S Chronicle. He's a good shot" is still in use.

2 Shot for shooters or marksmen. ""