Pity was all the fault that was in me;

*For I should melt at an offender's tears,

* And lowly words were ransome for their fault. • Unless it were a bloody murderer,

• Or foul felonious thief that fleec'd poor passengers, 'I never gave them condign punishment: 'Murder, indeed, that bloody sin, I tortur'd "Above the felon, or what trespass else.

Suf. My lord, these faults are easy, quickly

answer'd:

• But mightier crimes are laid unto your charge,
'Whereof you cannot easily purge yourself.
'I do arrest you in his highness' name;
And here commit you to my lord cardinal
To keep, until your further time of trial.

• K. Hen. My lord of Gloster, 'tis my special hope, That you will clear yourself from all

suspects;

My conscience tells me, you are innocent.

Glo. Ah, gracious lord, these days are dangerous!

* Virtue is chok'd with foul ambition,

* And charity chas'd hence by rancour's hand; * Foul subornation is predominant,

* And equity exíl'd your highness' land.

* I know, their complot is to have my

life;

And, if my death might make this island happy, And prove the period of their tyranny,

'I would expend it with all willingness:

But mine is made the prologue to their play; For thousands more, that yet suspect no peril, • Will not conclude their plotted tragedy.

'Beaufort's red sparkling eyes blab his heart's malice,

' And Suffolk's cloudy brow his stormy hate;

Sharp Buckingham unburdens with his tongue

The envious load that lies upon his heart;

6—these faults are easy,] Easy is an adjective used adverbially.

And dogged York, that reaches at the moon, Whose overweening arm I have pluck'd back, "By false accuse' doth level at my life :

And you, my sovereign lady, with the rest,
'Causeless have laid disgraces on my head;
* And, with your best endeavour, have stirr❜d up
*My liefest liege to be mine enemy :-
* Ay, all of you have laid your heads together,
* Myself had notice of your conventicles,

"I shall not want false witness to condemn me,
• Nor store of treasons to augment my guilt;
The ancient proverb will be well affected,-
A staff is quickly found to beat a dog.

* Car. My liege, his railing is intolerable: * If those that care to keep your royal person * From treason's secret knife, and traitors' rage, * Be thus upbraided, chid, and rated at, *And the offender granted scope of speech, * "Twill make them cool in zeal unto your grace. Suf. Hath he not twit our sovereign lady here, With ignominious words, though clerkly couch'd, As if she had suborned some to swear

"False allegations to o'erthrow his state?

'Q. Mar. But I can give the loser leave to chide. Glo. Far truer spoke, than meant: I lose, indeed;

'Beshrew the winners, for they played me false! * And well such losers may have leave to speak. Buck. He'll wrest the sense, and hold us here all day:

• Lord cardinal, he is your prisoner.

Car. Sirs, take away the duke, and guard him

sure.

Glo. Ah, thus king Henry throws away his crutch,

Before his legs be firm to bear his body:

Thus is the shepherd beaten from thy side,

And wolves are gnarling who shall gnaw thee first. 'Ah, that my fear were false! ah, that it were!

For, good king Henry, thy decay I fear.

Exeunt Attendants, with GLOster. K. Hen. My lords, what to your wisdoms seemeth best,

Do, or undo, as if ourself were here.

Q. Mar. What, will your highness leave the parliament ?

K. Hen. Ay, Margaret; my heart is drown'd with

grief,

* Whose flood begins to flow within mine eyes; * My body round engirt with misery;

*For what's more miserable than discontent?* Ah, uncle Humphrey! in thy face I see *The map of honour, truth, and loyalty; * And yet, good Humphrey, is the hour to come, * That e'er I prov'd thee false, or fear'd thy faith. * What low'ring star now envies thy estate, * That these great lords, and Margaret our queen, * Do seek subversion of thy harmless life?

* Thou never didst them wrong, nor no man wrong: * And as the butcher takes away the calf,

* And binds the wretch, and beats it when it strays, * Bearing it to the bloody slaughter-house;

* Even so, remorseless, have they borne him hence, * And as the dam runs lowing up and down, * Looking the way her harmless young one went, * And can do nought but wail her darling's loss; * Even so myself bewails good Gloster's case, * With sad unhelpful tears; and with dimm'd eyes *Look after him, and cannot do him good; *So mighty are his vowed enemies.

His fortunes I will weep; and, 'twixt each groan, Say-Who's a traitor, Gloster he is none. Exit. I I

VOL. V,

* Q. Mar. Free lords, cold snow melts with the sun's hot beams.

*Henry my lord is cold in great affairs, * Too full of foolish pity: and Gloster's show * Beguiles him, as the mournful crocodile * With sorrow snares relenting passengers; *Or as the snake, roll'd in a flowering bank,' * With shining checker'd slough, doth sting a child, * That, for the beauty, thinks it excellent.

* Believe me, lords, were none more wise than I, * (And yet, herein, I judge mine own wit good,) This Gloster should be quickly rid the world, To rid us from the fear we have of him.

* Car. That he should die, is worthy policy: * But yet we want a colour for his death: * 'Tis meet, he be condemn'd by course of law. * Suf. But, in my mind, that were no policy: * The king will labour still to save his life, * The commons haply rise to save his life; * And yet we have but trivial argument,

* More than mistrust, that shows him worthy death. * York. So that, by this, you would not have him die.

*Suf. Ah, York, no man alive so fain as I.

*York. "Tis York that hath more reason for his death.

* But, my lord cardinal, and you, my lord of Suffolk,

* Say as you think, and speak it from your souls,* Wer't not all one, an empty eagle were set

*To guard the chicken from a hungry kite,

"Free lords, &c.] By this she means (as may be seen by the sequel) you who are not bound up to such precise regards of religion as is the king; but are men of the world, and know how to live.

1-in a flowering bank,] i. e. in the flowers growing on a bank.

* As place duke Humphrey for the king's protector? Q.Mar. So the poor chicken should be sure of death.

'Suf. Madam, 'tis true: And wer't not madness

then,

To make the fox surveyor of the fold? "Who being accus'd a crafty murderer, "His guilt should be but idly posted over, Because his purpose is not executed. 'No; let him die, in that he is a fox, By nature prov'd an enemy to the flock, 'Before his chaps be stain'd with crimson blood; 'As Humphrey, prov'd by reasons, to my liege.2 And do not stand on quillets, how to slay him: Be it by gins, by snares, by subtilty,

Sleeping, or waking, 'tis no matter how,

'So he be dead; for that is good deceit

'Which mates him first, that first intends deceit.3 * Q. Mar. Thrice-noble Suffolk, 'tis resolutely spoke.

*Suf. Not resolute, except so much were done; * For things are often spoke, and seldom meant: * But, that my heart accordeth with my tongue,

No; let him die, in that he is a fox,

By nature prov'd an enemy to the flock,

Before his chaps be stain'd with crimson blood;

As Humphrey, prov'd by reasons, to my liege.] The meaning of the speaker is not hard to be discovered, but his expression is very much perplexed. He means that the fox may be lawfully killed, as being known to be by nature an enemy to sheep, even before he has actually killed them; so Humphrey may be properly destroyed, as being proved by arguments to be the King's enemy, before he has committed any actual crime.

Some may be tempted to read treasons for reasons, but the drift of the argument is to show that there may be reason to kill him before any treason has broken out. JOHNSON.

3 - for that is good deceit

Which mates him first, that first intends deceit.] Mates him, means confounds him; from amatir or mater, Fr.