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,-

Would have him punish'd. And now to our French causes;
Who are the latef commissioners ?

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,
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 chased 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 conspired,
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 Oh!
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 practised on me for thy use?
May it be possible, that foreign hire

Could out of thee extract one spark of evil,

*Disorder from wine.

† Lately appointed.

+ Living.

That might annoy my finger? 'tis so strange,*
That, though the truth of it stands offt 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:

But he, that temper'd thee, bade thee stand up,
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?
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; T
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,+t
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!

Exe. 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.

* Palpable. Tartarus. ** Sifted.

VOL. III.

+ Stands out.
Trust, confidence.
tt Endowed.

C

Rendered thee pliable. Accomplishment.

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 conspired against our royal person,

Join'd with an enemy proclaim'd, and from his coffers
Received 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,
Poor miserable wretches, to your death:
The taste whereof, God, of his mercy, give you
Patience to endure, and true repentance
Of all your dear offences !-Bear them hence.

[Exeunt Conspirators, guarded.
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 God so graciously hath brought to light
This dangerous treason, lurking in our way.
To hinder our beginnings, we doubt not now,
But every rub is smoothed on our way.
Then, forth, dear countrymen; let us deliver
Our puissance into the hand of God,
Putting it straight in expedition.

Cheerly to sea; the signs of war advance:

No king of England, if not king of France.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III-London. Mrs. QUICKLY's House in Eastcheap.

Enter PISTOL, Mrs. QUICKLY, NYM, BARDOLPH, and BOY.

Quick. Prythee, honey-sweet husband, let me bring thee to Staines.

Pist. No; for my manly heart doth yearn.+

Bardolph, be blithe;-Nym, rouse thy vaunting veins;
Boy, bristle thy courage up; for Falstaff he is dead,
And we must yearn therefore.

Bard. 'Would, I were with him, wheresome'er he is, whether in heaven, or in hell!

Quick. Nay, sure, he's not in hell; he's in Arthur's bosom, if ever man went to Arthur's bosom. 'A made a finer end, and went away, an it had been any christom child; 'a parted even just between twelve and one, e'en at turning o' the tide for after I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers, and smile upon his fingers' ends, I knew there was but one way; for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and 'a babbled of green fields. How now, Sir John? quoth I: what, man! be of good cheer. So 'a cried out God, God, God! three or four times: now I, to comfort him, bid him, 'a should not think of God; I hoped, there was no need to trouble himself with any such thoughts yet: So, 'a bade me lay more clothes on his feet: I put my hand into the bed, and felt them, and they were as cold as any stone; then I felt to his knees, and so upward, and upward, and all was as cold as any stone.

Nym. They say, he cried out of sack.

Quick. Ay, that 'a did.

Bard. And of women.

Quick. Nay, that 'a did not.

Boy. Yes, that 'a did; and said, they were devils incarnate. Quick. 'A could never abide carnation; 'twas a colour he never liked.

Boy. 'A said once, the devil would have him about women. Quick. 'A did in some sort, indeed, handle women: but then he was rheumatic; and talked of the whore of Babylon.

Boy. Do you not remember 'a saw a flea stick upon Bardolph's nose; and 'a said, it was a black soul burning in hell-fire?

Bard. Well, the fuel is gone, that maintained that fire: that's all the riches I got in his service.

Nym. Shall we shog off? the king will be gone from Southampton.

Pist. Come, let's away. My love, give me thy lips.

Look to my chattels, and my moveables:

Let senses rule; the word is Pitch and pay;

Trust none;

For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes,
And hold-fast is the only dog, my duck;

Therefore caveto be thy counsellor.

Go, clear thy crystals.+-Yoke-fellows in arms,

Let us to France! like horse-leeches, my boys;

To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck!

Boy. And that is but unwholesome food, they say.
Pist. Touch her soft mouth, and march."

Bard. Farewell, hostess.

[Kissing her.

Nym. I cannot kiss, that is the humour of it; but adieu.

Pist. Let housewifery appear; keep close, I thee command. Quick. Farewell; adieu.

Exeunt.

SCENE IV-France. A Room in the French King's Palace.

Enter the French KING attended; the DAUPHIN, the Duke of BURGUNDY, the CONSTABLE, and others.

Fr. King. Thus come the English, with full power upon us; And more than carefully it us concerns,

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:
For England his approaches makes as fierce,
As waters to the sucking of a gulf.

It fits us then, to be as provident

As fear may teach us, cut of late examples
Left by the fatal and neglected English
Upon our fields.

Dau. My most redoubted father,

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

For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom

(Though war, nor no known quarrel, were in question),

But that defences, musters, preparations,

Should be maintain'd, assembled, and collected,

As were a war in expectation.

Therefore, I say, 'tis meet we all go forth,

To view the sick and feeble parts of France:

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. O peace, prince Dauphin!

You are too much mistaken in this king:
Question your grace the late ambassadors,-
With what great state he heard their 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;
As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots
That shall first spring, and be most delicate.
Dau. Well, 'tis not so, my lord high constable,
But though we think it so, it is no matter:

* Diffident in objection.

+ Exhausted.