Pist. Nym, thou hast spoke the right;

His heart is fracted and corroborate. Nym. The king is a good king: but it must be as it may: he passes some humors and ca- 140

reers.

Pist. Let us condole the knight; for, lambkins, we will live.

SCENE II

Southampton. A council-chamber.

Enter Exeter, Bedford, and Westmoreland. Bed. 'Fore God, his grace is bold, to trust these traitors.

Exe. They shall be apprehended by and by. West. How smooth and even they do bear themselves!

As if allegiance in their bosoms sat,

Crowned with faith and constant loyalty.
Bed. The king hath note of all that they intend,
By interception which they dream not of.
Exe. Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow,
Whom he hath dull'd and cloy'd with gracious
favors,

That he should, for a foreign purse, so sell 10
His sovereign's life to death and treachery.

8. "the man that was his bed-fellow"; i. e. Lord Scroop, of whom Holinshed reports this as a mark of his intimacy with the king.— C. H. H.

9. "Whom he hath dull'd and cloy'd with gracious favors"; Ff. 3, 4, "lull'd." Qq., followed by Steevens, "whom he hath cloy'd and grac'd with princely favours."-I. G.

Trumpets sound. Enter King Henry, Scroop, Cambridge, Grey, and Attendants.

K. Hen. Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard.

My Lord of Cambridge, and my kind Lord of
Masham,

And you, my gentle knight, give me your
thoughts:

Think you not that the powers we bear with us
Will cut their passage through the force of
France,

Doing the execution and the act

For which we have in head assembled them? Scroop. No doubt, my liege, if each man do his

best.

K. Hen. I doubt not that; since we are well per

suaded

We carry not a heart with us from hence
That grows not in a fair consent with ours,
Nor leave not one behind that doth not wish
Success and conquest to attend on us.

20

Cam. Never was monarch better fear'd and loved Than is your majesty: there's not, I think, a subject

That sits in heart-grief and uneasiness

Under the sweet shade of your government. Grey. True: those that were your father's enemies Have steep'd their galls in honey, and do serve

you

With hearts create of duty and of zeal.

18. "in head"; in force.-C. H. H.

30

K. Hen. We therefore have great cause of thank

fulness;

And shall forget the office of our hand, Sooner than quittance of desert and merit According to the weight and worthiness. Scroop. So service shall with steeled sinews toil, And labor shall refresh itself with hope, To do your grace incessant services.

40

K. Hen. We judge no less. Uncle of Exeter,
Enlarge the man committed yesterday,
That rail'd against our person: we consider
It was excess of wine that set him on;
And on his more advice we pardon him.
Scroop. That's mercy, but too much security:
Let him be punish'd, sovereign, lest example
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, 50
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,
Shall not be wink'd at, how shall we stretch our
eye

33. "office"; use.-C. H. H.

54. "distemper" for intemperance, or riotous excess. Thus in Othello: "Full of supper, and distempering draughts." And in Holinshed: "Give him wine and strong drink in such excessive sort, that he was therewith distempered and reeled as he went."H. N. H.

When capital crimes, chew'd, swallow'd and di

gested,

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?

Cam. I one, my lord:

Your highness bade me ask for it to-day. Scroop. So did you me, my liege.

Grey. And I, my royal sovereign.

60

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 Ex-
eter,
We will aboard to-night. Why, how now,
gentlemen!

What see you in those papers that you lose

70

So much complexion? Look ye, how they change!

61. "Who are the late commissioners?”; Vaughan conj. “Who ask the late commissions?"; Collier MS. "the state c."; but no change is necessary; "late commissioners"="lately appointed commissioners."-I. G.

63. "for it"; i. e. for my commission.-I. G.

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;

81

For your own reasons turn into your bosoms,
As dogs upon their masters, worrying you.
See you, my princes and my noble peers,
These English monsters! My Lord of Cam-
bridge here,

You know how apt our love was to accord
To furnish him with all appertinents
Belonging to his honor; 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.

0,

90

But,

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,