And present execution of our wills

To us, and to our purposes, consigned,-1
We come within our awful banks again,
And knit our powers to the arm of peace.

West. This will I show the general. Please you, lords,

In sight of both our battles we may meet:
And either end in peace, which Heaven so frame;
Or to the place of difference call the swords
Which must decide it.

Arch.

My lord, we will do so. [Exit WEST. Mowb. There is a thing within my bosom, tells me, That no conditions of our peace can stand.

Hast. Fear you not that. If we can make our peace Upon such large terms, and so absolute,

As our conditions shall consist3 upon,

Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains.
Mowb. Ay, but our valuation shall be such,
That every slight and false-derived cause,
Yea, every idle, nice, and wanton reason,
Shall, to the king, taste of this action;
That, were our royal faiths martyrs in love,
We shall be winnowed with so rough a wind,
That even our corn shall seem as light as chaff,

And good from bad find no partition.

Arch. No, no, my lord. Note this; the king is

weary

Of dainty and such picking 5 grievances;

For he hath found, to end one doubt by death,

Revives two greater in the heirs of life.

6

And therefore will he wipe his tables clean;
And keep no telltale to his memory,

1 The old copy reads confined. Johnson proposed to read consigned; which must be understood in the Latin sense, consignatus, signed, sealed, ratified, confirmed; which was indeed the old meaning. Shakspeare uses consign and consigning in other places in this sense.

2 Awful for lawful; or under the due awe of authority.

3 To consist, to rest; consisto.-Baret.

4 The faith due to a king.

5 Insignificant.

6 Alluding to table books of slate, ivory, &c.

That may repeat and history his loss

To new remembrance. For full well he knows
He cannot so precisely weed this land,
As his misdoubts present occasion.
His foes are so enrooted with his friends,
That, plucking to unfix an enemy,
He doth unfasten so, and shake a friend.
So that this land, like an offensive wife,
That hath enraged him on to offer strokes,
As he is striking, holds his infant up,
And hangs resolved correction in the arm
That was upreared to execution.

Hast. Besides, the king hath wasted all his rods
On late offenders, that he now doth lack
The very instruments of chastisement;
So that his power, like to a fangless lion,
May offer, but not hold.

Arch.

'Tis very true;

And therefore be assured, my good lord marshal,
If we do now make our atonement well,

Our peace will, like a broken limb united,
Grow stronger for the breaking.

Mowb.

Be it so.

Here is returned my lord of Westmoreland.

Re-enter WESTMORELAND.

West. The prince is here at hand. Pleaseth your lordship

To meet his grace just distance 'tween our armies? Mowb. Your grace of York, in God's name then set

forward.

Arch. Before, and greet his grace: my lord, we [Exeunt.

come.

SCENE II. Another Part of the Forest.

Enter, from one side, MOWBRAY, the Archbishop, HASTINGS, and others: from the other side, PRINCE JOHN of Lancaster, WESTMORELAND, Officers, and Attendants.

P. John. You are well encountered here, my cousin
Mowbray.-

Good day to you, gentle lord archbishop;
And so to you, lord Hastings, and to all.-
My lord of York, it better showed with you,
When that your flock, assembled by the bell,
Encircled you, to hear with reverence
Your exposition on the holy text,

Than now to see you here an iron man,1
Cheering a rout of rebels with your drum,
Turning the word to sword, and life to death.
That man that sits within a monarch's heart,
And ripens in the sunshine of his favor,
Would he abuse the countenance of the king,
Alack, what mischiefs might he set abroach,

In shadow of such greatness! With you, lord bishop,
It is even so. Who hath not heard it spoken,
How deep you were within the books of God?
To us, the speaker in his parliament;
To us, the imagined voice of God himself;
The very opener, and intelligencer,

Between the grace, the sanctities of Heaven,
And our dull workings. O, who shall believe,
But you misuse the reverence of your place;
Employ the countenance and grace of Heaven,
As a false favorite doth his prince's name,
In deeds dishonorable? You have taken up,"

1 Holinshed says of the archbishop, that, "coming forth amongst them clad in armour, he encouraged and pricked them foorth to take the enterprize in hand."

2 Dull workings are labors of thought.

3 Raised up in arms.

VOL. IV.

10

Under the counterfeited zeal of God,

The subjects of Heaven's substitute, my father;
And, both against the peace of Heaven and him,
Have here up-swarmed them.

Arch.

Good my lord of Lancaster,

I am not here against your father's peace;

But, as I told my lord of Westmoreland,

The time misordered doth, in common sense,1
Crowd us, and crush us, to this monstrous form,
To hold our safety up. I sent your grace

The parcels and particulars of our grief;

The which hath been with scorn shoved from the court,
Whereon this Hydra son of war is born;

Whose dangerous eyes may well be charmed asleep,
With grant of our most just and right desires;
And true obedience of this madness cured,
Stoop tamely to the foot of majesty.

Mowb. If not, we ready are to try our fortunes
To the last man.

Hast.
And though we here fall down,
We have supplies to second our attempt.
If they miscarry, theirs shall second them;
And so, success of mischief shall be born;
And heir from heir shall hold this quarrel up,

2

Whiles England shall have generation.

P. John. You are too shallow, Hastings, much too shallow,

To sound the bottom of the after-times.

West. Pleaseth your grace to answer them directly, How far-forth do you like their articles?

P. John. I like them all, and do allow them well; And swear here by the honor of my blood,

My father's purposes have been mistook ;
And some about him have too lavishly
Wrested his meaning, and authority.-

My lord, these griefs shall be with speed redressed;
Upon my soul, they shall. If this may please you,

1 Common sense is the general sense of general danger.

2 Succession.

Discharge your powers unto their several counties,
As we will ours; and here, between the armies,
Let's drink together friendly, and embrace;
That all their eyes may bear those tokens home,
Of our restored love and amity.

Arch. I take your princely word for these redresses. P. John. I give it you, and will maintain my word; And thereupon I drink unto your grace.

Hast. Go, captain, [To an Officer.] and deliver to

the army

This news of peace; let them have pay, and part;
I know it will well please them. Hie thee, captain.
[Exit Officer.
Arch. To you, my noble lord of Westmoreland.
West. I pledge your grace; and, if you knew what

pains

I have bestowed to breed this present peace,
You would drink freely; but my love to you
Shall show itself more openly hereafter.

Arch. I do not doubt you.

West.

I am glad of it.— Health to my lord, and gentle cousin, Mowbray. Mowb. You wish me health in very happy season;

For I am, on the sudden, something ill.

Arch. Against ill chances, men are ever merry;

But heaviness foreruns the good event.

West. Therefore be merry, coz; since sudden sorrow Serves to say thus,-Some good thing comes to-morrow. Arch. Believe me, I am passing light in spirit. Mowb. So much the worse, if your own rule be true. [Shouts within.

P. John. The word of peace is rendered. Hark, how they shout!

Mowb. This had been cheerful, after victory.
Arch. A peace is of the nature of a conquest;

1 It was Westmoreland who made this deceitful proposal, as appears from Holinshed:-"The earl of Westmoreland, using more policie than the rest, said, whereas our people have been long in armour, let them depart home to their woonted trades: In the mean time let us drink togither in signe of agreement, that the people on both sides may see it, and know that it is true, that we be light at a point."