HOSTESS. As ever you came of women, come in quickly to Sir John. Ah, poor heart! he is so shaked of a burning quotidian tertian, that it is most lamentable to behold. Sweet men, come to him.

NYM.

122

The king hath run bad humours on the knight: that's the even of it.

PISTOL. Nym, thou hast spoke the right; His heart is fracted and corroborate.

128

NYM. The king is a good king: but it must be as it may; he passes some humours and careers. PISTOL. Let us condole the knight; for, lambkins, we will live.

SCENE II.-Southampton. A Council-chamber.

[Exeunt.

Enter EXETER, BEDFORD, and WESTMORELAND. BEDFORD. 'Fore God, his Grace is bold to trust these traitors.

EXETER. They shall be apprehended by and by.

WESTMORELAND.

bear themselves!

How smooth and even they do

As if allegiance in their bosoms sat,

Crowned with faith and constant loyalty.

BEDFORD. The king hath note of all that they intend, By interception which they dream not of.

EXETER. Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow, Whom he hath dull'd and cloy'd with gracious favours, That he should, for a foreign purse, so sell

His sovereign's life to death and treachery!

Trumpets sound. Enter KING HENRY, SCROOP, Cambridge, GREY, Lords, and Attendants.

KING HENRY.

aboard.

Now sits the wind fair, and we will

12

My Lord of Cambridge, and my kind Lord of Masham,

And you, my gentle knight, give me your thoughts:
Think you not that the powers we bear with us
Will cut their passage through the force of France, 16
Doing the execution and the act

For which we have in head assembled them?

SCROOP. No doubt, my liege, if each man do his best.

KING HENRY. I doubt not that; since we are well persuaded

We carry not a heart with us from hence

That grows not in a fair consent with ours;
Nor leave not one behind that doth not wish
Success and conquest to attend on us.

20

24

CAMBRIDGE. 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.

28

GREY. True 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.

KING HENRY. We therefore have great cause of thankfulness,

And shall forget the office of our hand,

Sooner than quittance of desert and merit

According to the weight and worthiness.

32

SCROOP. So service shall with steeled sinews toil, 36

And labour shall refresh itself with hope,

To do your Grace incessant services.

KING HENRY. We judge no less. Uncle of Exeter,

Enlarge the man committed yesterday

40

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.

KING HENRY.

O! let us yet be merciful.

44

CAMBRIDGE. So may your highness, and yet punish

too.

48

GREY. Sir,

You show great mercy, if you give him life
After the taste of much correction.

KING HENRY. Alas! your too much love and care of me

52

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,

57

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

causes:

Who are the late commissioners ?

CAMBRIDGE. I one, my lord:

Your highness bade me ask for it to-day.

SCROOP. So did you me, my liege.

GREY.

And I, my royal sovereign.

60

64

KING HENRY. Then, Richard, Earl of Cambridge, there is yours;

68

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 ?

CAMBRIDGE.

I do confess my fault, And do submit me to your highness' mercy.

GREY.

SCROOP.

}

To which we all appeal.

72

76

80

KING HENRY. 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 you.

84

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 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,
To kill us here in Hampton: to the which
This knight, no less for bounty bound to us

88

92

Than Cambridge is, hath likewise sworn. But 0 !
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 mightst have coin'd me into gold
Wouldst 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 in a natural cause
That admiration did not whoop at them :
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

96

100

104

108

112

With patches, colours, and with forms, being fetch'd 116 From glistering semblances of piety;

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

120

Gave thee no instance why thou shouldst do treason,
Unless to dub thee with the name of traitor.
If that same demon that hath gull'd thee thus
Should with his lion gait walk the whole world,
He might return to vasty Tartar 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?

124

Why, so didst thou: seem they grave and learned? 128

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,
Not working with the eye without the ear,
And but in purged judgment trusting neither ?
Such and so finely bolted didst thou seem:
And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot,
To mark the full-fraught man and best indued
With some suspicion. I will weep for thee;
For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like
Another fall of man. Their faults are open:
Arrest them to the answer of the law;
And God acquit them of their practices!

132

136

140

144

EXETER. I arrest thee of high treason, by the name

of Richard Earl of Cambridge.

I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Henry Lord Scroop of Masham.

148

I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Thomas Grey, knight, of Northumberland.

SCROOP. Our purposes God justly hath discover'd, And I repent my fault more than my death; Which I beseech your highness to forgive, Although my body pay the price of it.

152

CAMBRIDGE. For me, the gold of France did not

seduce,

Although I did admit it as a motive

The sooner to effect what I intended:
But God be thanked for prevention;

Which I in sufferance heartily will rejoice,
Beseeching God and you to pardon me.

GREY. Never did faithful subject more rejoice
At the discovery of most dangerous treason

156

160