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. (R.) Even those that were your father's enemies Have steep'd their galls in honey, and do serve you With hearts create2 of duty and of zeal.

K.Hen.(c.) 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.
Uncle of Exeter, R.

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,3 we pardon him.

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

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,-

2 hearts create] Hearts compounded or made up of duty

and zeal.

3 - more advice,] On his return to more coolness of mind.

4 Are heavy orisons'gainst, &c.] i. e., are weighty supplications against this poor wretch.

5 · proceeding on distemper,] Distemper'd in liquor was a common expression. We read in Holinshed, vol. iii., page 626:gave him wine and strong drink in such excessive sort, that he was therewith distempered, and reeled as he went."

6

how shall we stretch our eye] If we may not wink at small faults, how wide must we open our eyes at great.

Would have him punish'd. And now to our French causes: [All take their places at Council table.

Who are the late Commissioners ?"

Cam. (B. of table.) I one, my lord:

Your highness bade me ask for it to-day.

Scroop. (R. of table.) So did you me, my liege.
Grey. (R. of table.) 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,-[L. of table.
We will aboard to-night. (Conspirators start from their
places.) 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?

Cam.

I do confess my fault;

And do submit me to your highness'mercy.[Falling on his knees.

Grey.

Scroop.

}

To which we all appeal.

[Kneeling.

K. Hen. (rising; all the LORDS rise with the KING.) 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.

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 practises of France,
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,

"Who are the late commissioners?] That is, who are the persons lately appointed commissioners.

8

quick] That is, living.

What shall I say to thee, lord Scroop? thou cruel,
Ingrateful, savage, and inhuman creature!

Thou that did'st 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,
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,10 my eye will scarcely see it;
For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like
Another fall of man.-Their faults are open:
Arrest them to the answer of the law;-

9

[EXETER goes to door U.E.L.H, and calls on the Guard. And Heaven acquit them of their practises!

Exe. (comes down, R.C.) 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.

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

Scroop. (B., kneeling.) Our purposes Heaven justly hath discover'd;

And I repent my fault more than my death.

Cam. (R., kneeling.) For me,—the gold of France did not seduce; (B)

Although I did admit it as a motive

The sooner to effect what I intended:
But Heaven be thanked for prevention;
Which I in sufferance heartily will rejoice,"
Beseeching Heaven and you to pardon me.

9 as gross] As palpable.

10 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.

11 Which I in sufferance heartily will rejoice,] Cambridge means to say, at which prevention, or, which intended scheme that it was prevented, I shall rejoice. Shakespeare has many such elliptical expressions. The intended scheme that he alludes to was the taking off Henry, to make room for his brother-in-law.-MALONE.

Grey. (B. kneeling.) Never did faithful subject more rejoice At the discovery of most dangerous treason Than I do at this hour joy o'er myself, Prevented from a damned enterprize:

My fault, but not my body, pardon, sovereign.

K. Hen. (c.) Heaven quit you in its mercy! Hear your

sentence.

You have conspir'd against our royal person,

Join'd with an enemy proclaim'd, and from his coffers
Receiv'd the golden earnest of our death;

Wherein you would have sold your king to slaughter,
His princes and his peers to servitude,
His subjects to oppression and contempt,
And his whole kingdom into desolation.
Touching our person, seek we no revenge; (c)
But we our kingdom's safety must so tender,
Whose ruin you three sought, that to her laws
We do deliver you. Get you, therefore, hence,
Poor miserable wretches, to your death:

12

The taste whereof, Heaven of its mercy give you
Patience to endure, and true repentance

Of all your dear offences!13-Bear them hence.

[Conspirators rise and exeunt guarded, with EXETER. Now, Lords, for France; the enterprize whereof Shall be to you, as us, like glorious.

We doubt not of a fair and lucky war,

Since Heaven so graciously hath brought to light
This dangerous treason, lurking in our way.

Then, forth, dear countrymen: let us deliver
Our puissance1 into the hand of Heaven,
Putting it straight in expedition.

Cheerly to sea; the signs of war advance: (D)

No king of England, if not king of France. [Exeunt, U.E.L.H.

12

13

our kingdom's safety must so tender,] i.e., must so regard. dear offences !-] To dere, in ancient language, was to hurt ; the meaning, therefore, is hurtful-pernicious offences. 14 Our puissance] i.e., our power, our force.

SCENE II.-FRANCE. A ROOM IN THE FRENCH

KING'S PALACE.

Trumpets sound:

·•Enter the FRENCH KING,15 attended; the DAUPHIN, the DUKE OF BURGUNDY, the CONSTABLE, and Others,(E) L.H. Fr. King(c.)Thus come the English with full power upon us; And more than carefully it us concerns16

To answer royally in our defences.

Therefore the Dukes of Berry and of Bretagne,
Of Brabant and of Orleans, shall make forth,--
And you, Prince Dauphin,—with all swift despatch,
To line and new repair our towns of war

With men of courage and with means defendant.
Dau. (R.c.)

My most redoubted father,

It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe:

And let us do it with no show of fear;

No, with no more than if we heard that England

Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance:

For, my good liege, she is so idly king'd,
Her sceptre so fantastically borne

By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth,
That fear attends her not.

Con. (L.C.)

O peace, prince Dauphin
You are too much mistaken in this king:
With what great state he heard our embassy,
How well supplied with noble counsellors,
How modest in exception," and withal
How terrible in constant resolution,
And you shall find his vanities fore-spent

Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus,

Covering discretion with a coat of folly.

Dau. Well, 'tis not so, my lord high constable; But though we think it so, it is no matter:

15

FRENCH KING,] The costume of Charles VI. is copied from Willemin. Monuments Français. The dresses of the other Lords are selected from Montfaucon Monarchie Françoise.

16 more than carefully it us concerns,] More than carefully is with more than common care; a phrase of the same kind with better than well.-JOHNSON.

17 How modest in exception,] How diffident and decent in making objections.