* Stan. Like to a duchess and Duke Humphrey's

lady,

* According to that state you shall be used. 'Duch. Sheriff, farewell, and better than I fare; Although thou hast been conduct11 of my shame! Sher. It is my office; and, madam, pardon me. Duch. Ay, ay, farewell; thy office is discharg'd. Come, Stanley, shall we go?

Stan. Madam, your penance done, throw off this sheet,

And go we to attire you for our journey.

Duch. My shame will not be shifted with my sheet: * No, it will hang upon my richest robes, * And show itself, attire me how I can.

* Go, lead the way; I long to see my prison12.

[Exeunt.

ACT III.

SCENE I. The Abbey at Bury.

Enter to the Parliament, KING HENRY, QUEEN MARGARET, CARDINAL BEAUFORT, SUFFOLK, YORK, BUCKINGHAM, and Others.

'K. Hen. I muse1, my lord of Gloster is not come: "Tis not his wont to be the hindmost man, Whate'er occasion keeps him from us now.

Q. Mar. Can you not see? or will you not observe 'The strangeness of his alter'd countenance? With what a majesty he bears himself?

11 For conductor.

12 This impatience of a high spirit is very natural. It is not so dreadful to be imprisoned as it is desirable in a state of disgrace to be sheltered from the scorn of gazers. This is one of those touches which came from the hand of Shakspeare, it is not in the old play. Rowe, in Tamerlane, has put a similar sentiment into the mouth of Bajazet :—

Come, lead me to my dungeon; plunge me down
Deep from the hated sight of man and day.'

1 Wonder.

How insolent of late he is become,

How proud, how peremptory, and unlike himself? We know the time, since he was mild and affable;

• And, if we did but glance a far off look, Immediately he was upon his knee,

That all the court admir'd him for submission:
But meet him now, and, be it in the morn,
When every one will give the time of day,
He knits his brow, and shows an angry eye,
And passeth by with stiff unbowed knee,
'Disdaining duty that to us belongs.

Small curs are not regarded, when they grin:
But great men tremble, when the lion roars:
And Humphrey is no little man in England.
First, note, that he is near you in descent;
And should you fall, he is the next will mount.
Me seemeth2 then, it is no policy,

Respecting what a rancorous mind he bears, And his advantage following your decease,That he should come about your royal person, 'Or be admitted to your highness' council. By flattery hath he won the commons' hearts; ' And, when he please to make commotion, "Tis to be fear'd, they all will follow him. 'Now 'tis the spring, and weeds are shallow-rooted; Suffer them now, and they'll o'ergrow the garden, And choke the herbs for want of husbandry. The reverent care, I bear unto my lord, 'Made me collects these dangers in the duke. If it be fond+, call it a woman's fear; Which fear if better reasons can supplant, I will subscribe and say-I wrong'd the duke. My lord of Suffolk,-Buckingham,-and York,Reprove my allegation, if you can;

'Or else conclude my words effectual.

2 i. e. it seemeth to me, a word more grammatical than me thinks, which has intruded into its place. JOHNSON.

3 i. e. assemble by observation.

4 Foolish.

Suf. Well hath your highness seen into this duke;
And, had I first been put to speak my mind,
I think, I should have told your grace's tale.
The duchess, by his subornation,

* Upon my life, began her devilish practices:
* Or if he were not privy to those faults,
* Yet, by reputing of his high descent
*(As next the king he was successive heir),
And such high vaunts of his nobility,

* Did instigate the bedlam brain-sick duchess,
* By wicked means, to frame our sovereign's fall.
Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep;
* And in his simple show he harbours treason.
The fox barks not, when he would steal the lamb.
No, no, my sovereign; Gloster is a man
Unsounded yet, and full of deep deceit.

* Car. Did he not, contrary to form of law, * Devise strange deaths for small offences done? York. And did he not, in his protectorship, * Levy great sums of money through the realm, * For soldiers' pay in France, and never sent it? * By means whereof, the towns each day revolted. * Buck. Tut! these are petty faults to faults un

known,

* Which time will bring to light in smooth Duke Humphrey.

* K. Hen. My lords, at once: The care you have

of us,

*To mow down thorns that would annoy our foot, *Is worthy praise: But shall I speak my conscience? * Our kinsman Gloster is as innocent

5 Suffolk uses highness and grace promiscuously to the queen. Camden says that majesty came into use in the reign of King Henry the Eighth, as sacred majesty lately, in our memory. Selden says that this must be understood so far as it relates to the title being commonly in use, and properly to the king applied,' because he adduces an instance of the use of majesty so carly as the reign of Henry the Second. The reader will see more on the subject in Mr Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 11. 6 i. e. valuing himself on his high descent. The word occurs again in Act v:

And in my conscience do repute his grace,' &c.

* From meaning treason to our royal person, * As is the sucking lamb, or harmless dove: * The duke is virtuous, mild; and too well given, * To dream on evil, or to work my downfall. * Q. Mar. Ah, what's more dangerous than this fond affiance!

* Seems he a dove? his feathers are but borrow'd, * For he's disposed as the hateful raven.

* Is he a lamb? his skin is surely lent him, *For he's inclin'd as are the ravenous wolves. * Who cannot steal a shape, that means deceit ? * Take heed, my lord; the welfare of us all * Hangs on the cutting short that fraudful man.

Enter SOMERSET.

*Som. All health unto my gracious sovereign! K. Hen. Welcome, Lord Somerset. What news from France?

'Som. That all your interest in those territories Is utterly bereft you; all is lost.

K. Hen. Cold news, Lord Somerset: But God's Iwill be done!

York. Cold news for me; for I had hope of France, As firmly as I hope for fertile England'. * Thus are my blossoms blasted in the bud, * And caterpillars eat my leaves away: * But I will remedy this gears ere long, * Or sell my title for a glorious grave.

Enter GLOster.

[Aside.

Glo. All happiness unto my lord the king! Pardon, my liege, that I have staid so long. Suf. Nay, Gloster, know, that thou art come too

soon,

These two lines York had spoken before in the first act of

this play. He is now meditating on this disappointment, and comparing his former hopes with his present loss.

8 Gear was a general word for matter, subject, or business in general.

Unless thou wert more loyal than thou art:

I do arrest thee of high treason here.

Glo. Well, Suffolk, yet thou shalt not see me blush,

Nor change my countenance for this arrest; * A heart unspotted is not easily daunted.

The purest spring is not so free from mud,
As I am clear from treason to my sovereign:
Who can accuse me? wherein am I guilty?
York. "Tis thought, my lord, that you took bribes
of France,

And, being protector, stayed the soldiers' pay;
By means whereof, his highness hath lost France.
Glo. Is it but thought so? What are they that
think it?

'I never robb'd the soldiers of their pay,
'Nor ever had one penny bribe from France.
'So help me God, as I have watch'd the night,—
Ay, night by night,-in studying good for England!
That doit that e'er I wrested from the king,
'Or any groat I hoarded to my use,

'Be brought against me at my trial day!

No! many a pound of mine own proper store, 'Because I would not tax the needy commons, 'Have I dispursed to the garrisons,

And never ask'd for restitution.

*Car. It serves you well, my lord, to say so much. * Glo. I say no more than truth, so help me God! York. In your protectorship, you did devise Strange tortures for offenders, never heard of, That England was defam'd by tyranny.

Glo. Why, 'tis well known, that whiles I was protector,

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.

This is the reading of the second folio. The first folio reads 'Well Suffolk, thou', &c. Mr. Malone reads Well, Suffolk's duke, &c. from the old play.