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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,2 Shall not be wink'd at, how shall we stretch our eye, When capital crimes, chew'd, swallow'd, and digested,

3

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 ?4

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,

-proceeding on distemper,] 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.

3

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

+ Who are the late commissioners?] That is, as appears from the sequel, who are the persons lately appointed commissioners?

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We will aboard to-night.-Why, how now, gentle

men?

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.
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 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
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 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,
Would'st thou have practis'd on me for thy use?
May it be possible, that foreign hire

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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,
H'ath got the voice in hell for excellence :
And other devils, that suggest by treasons,
Do botch and bungle up damnation

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

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But he, that temper'd thee, bade thee stand up, 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 Tartar9 back,
And tell the legions-I can never win
A soul so easy as that Englishman's.
O, how hast thou with jealousy infected

6 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 étre relevé, to be prominent to the eye, as the strong parts of a picture.

7

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

8 he, that temper'd thee,] i. e. rendered thee pliable to his will.

9vasty Tartar-] i. e. Tartarus, the fabled place of future punishment.

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 ;*
Not working with the eye, without the ear,3
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!

Ere. 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.

10, 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.

2 Garnish'd and deck'd in modest complement;] Complements, in the age of Shakspeare, meant the same as accomplishments in the present one.

3 Not working with the eye, without the ear,] The king means to say of Scroop, that he was a cautious man, who knew that fronti nulla fides, that a specious appearance was deceitful, and therefore did not work with the eye, without the ear, did not trust the air or look of any man till he had tried him by enquiry and conversation.

— and so finely bolted,] Bolted is the same with sifted, and has consequently the meaning of refined.

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.

Cam. 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,
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. God quit you in his 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 unto desolation.
Touching our person, seek we no revenge;
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,

5 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. Shakspeare 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.

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