Simp. No, indeed, master.

Glo. What's thine own name ?

Simp. Saunder Simpcox, an if it please you, niaster.

Glo. Then, Saunder, sit there, the lyingest knave in Christendom. If thou hadst been born blind, thou mightst as well have known all our names as thus to name the several colours we do wear. Sight may distinguish of colours; but suddenly to nominate them all, it is impossible.-My lords, Saint Alban here hath done a miracle; and would ye not think his cunning (48) to be great that could restore this cripple to his legs again?

Simp. O master, that you could!

Glo. My masters of Saint Alban's, have you not beadles in your town, and things called whips?

May. Yes, my lord, if it please your grace.

Glo. Then send for one presently.

May. Sirrah, go fetch the beadle hither straight.

[Exit an Attenäant.

Glo. How fetch me a stool hither by and by. [A stool brought out.] Now, sirrah, if you mean to save yourself from whipping, leap me over this stool and run away.

Simp. Alas, master, I am not able to stand alone: You go about to torture me in vain.

Re-enter Attendant, with the Beadle.

Glo. Well, sir, we must have you find your legs.-Sirrah beadle, whip him till he leap over that same stool.

Bead. I will, my lord.-Come on, sirrah; off with your doublet quickly.

(48) think his cunning] So The First Part of the Contention, &c.—The folio his "thinke it, Cunning," but in the rest of the speech it agrees verbatim with the quarto.-The whole is printed as prose in the older play. The folio divides it into lines of unequal length (which, by the by, does not prove that the editor of the folio took the speech for verse, since he afterwards allows several prose-speeches of Cade to stand so divided). Boswell apprehends that "no metre was intended" here: but I see every reason to believe that the present speech was written by the original author in verse, and that his verse has been corrupted into prose. I think, however, with Mr. Knight, that prose is preferable to such verse as an attempt at metrical arrangement, without alterations of the text, produces here.

Simp. Alas, master, what shall I do? I am not able to stand.

[After the Beadle hath hit him once, he leaps over

the stool and runs away; and the people follow and cry,

A miracle!"

K. Hen. O God, seest thou this, and bear'st so long? Q. Mar. It made me laugh to see the villain run. Glo. Follow the knave; and take this drab away. Wife. Alas, sir, we did it for pure need. Glo. Let them be whipped through every market-town till they come to Berwick, from whence they came.

[Exeunt Mayor, Beadle, Wife, &c.

Car. Duke Humphrey has done a miracle to-day. Suf. True; made the lame to leap and fly away. Glo. But you have done more miracles than I; You made in a day, my lord, whole towns to fly.

Enter BUCKINGHAM.

K. Hen. What tidings with our cousin Buckingham 7
Buck. Such as my heart doth tremble to unfold.

A sort of naughty persons, lewdly bent,-
Under the countenance and confederacy
Of Lady Eleanor, the protector's wife,
The ringleader and head of all this rout,-
Have practis'd dangerously against your state,
Dealing with witches and with conjurers:
Whom we have apprehended in the fact;
Raising up wicked spirits from under ground,
Demanding of King Henry's life and death.
And other of your highness' privy-council;
As more at large your grace shall understand.

Car. And so, my lord protector, by this means

Your lady is forthcoming yet at London.

[Aside to Gloster] This news, I think, hath turn'd your weapon's edge;

'Tis like, my lord, you will not keep your hour.

Glo. Ambitious churchman, leave t' afflict my heart:

Sorrow and grief have vanquish'd all my powers;"
And, vanquish'd as I am, I yield to thee,

Or to the meanest groom.

K. Hen. O God, what mischiefs work the wicked ones, Heaping confusion on their own heads thereby!

Q. Mar. Gloster, see here the tainture of thy nest;
And look thyself be faultless, thou wert best.

Glo. Madam, for myself, to heaven I do appeal,
How I have lov'd my king and commonweal:
And, for my wife, I know not how it stands;
Sorry I am to hear what I have heard:
Noble she is; but if she have forgot
Honour and virtue, and convers'd with such
As, like to pitch, defile nobility,

I banish her my bed and company,

And give her, as a prey, to law and shame,

That hath dishonour'd Gloster's honest name.

K. Hen. Well, for this night we will repose us here: To-morrow toward London back again,

To look into this business thoroughly,

And call these foul offenders to their answers;

And poise the cause in justice' equal scales,

Whose beam stands sure, whose rightful cause prevails.

[Flourish. Exeunt.

SCENE II. London. The Duke of YORK's garden.

Enter YORK, SALISBURY, and WARWICK.

York. Now, my good Lords of Salisbury and Warwick, Our simple supper ended, give me leave,

In this close walk, to satisfy myself,

In craving your opinion of my title,
Which is infallible, to England's crown.

(49) vanquish'd all my powers;] "I believe the author wrote 'languish'd all my powers.' I am pretty sure that I have met with instances of to languish as an active verb in this sense, though I do not at present recollect the passages." Walker's Crit. Exam., &c., vol. i. p. 309.

Sal. My lord, I long to hear it at full.(50)

War. Sweet York, begin: an if thy claim be good, The Nevils are thy subjects to command.

York. Then thus:

Edward the Third, my lords, had seven sons:

The first, Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales;
The second, William of Hatfield; and the third,
Lionel Duke of Clarence; next to whom

Was John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster;
The fifth was Edmund Langley, Duke of York;
The sixth was Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloster;
William of Windsor was the seventh and last.
Edward the Black Prince died before his father;

And left behind him Richard, his only son,

Who, after Edward the Third's death, reign'd as king; (51)
Till Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster,

The eldest son and heir of John of Gaunt,
Crown'd by the name of Henry the Fourth,
Seized on the realm, depos'd the rightful king,

Sent his poor queen to France, from whence she came,
And him to Pomfret,-where, as all you know,
Harmless Richard was murder'd traitorously.(52)

War. Father, the duke hath told the very (53) truth;

Thus got the house of Lancaster the crown.

York. Which now they hold by force, and not by right; For Richard, the first son's heir, being dead,

The issue of the next son should have reign'd.

(50) hear it at full.] Qy. is "hear" to be considered as a dissyllable? -Pope printed "hear it thus at full.”—Capell and Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector give "hear it at the full."

(51) Who, after Edward the Third's death, reign'd as king;] Walker (Crit. Exum., &c., vol. iii. p. 140) would expunge "the." But see note 2. where, as all you know,

(52)

Harmless Richard was murder'd traitorously.]

In the corresponding passage of The First Part of the Contention, &c., we find "both you," instead of "all you." but see note 48 on The Second Part of King Henry IV.-As to the second line, I once conjectured "Was harmless Richard murder'd traitorously."

(3) very] Added by Hanmer. (Capell prints "Father, the duke hath surely told the truth.")

Sal. But William of Hatfield died without an heir.

York. The third son, Duke of Clarence,-from whose line

I claim the crown,-had issue, Philippe, a daughter,
Who married Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March:
Edmund had issue, Roger Earl of March;
Roger had issue, Edmund, Anne, and Eleanor.

Sal. This Edmund, in the reign of Bolingbroke,
As I have read, laid claim unto the crown ;
And, but for Owen Glendower, had been king,
Who kept him in captivity till he died.

But to the rest.

York.

His eldest sister, Anne,

My mother, being heir unto the crown,

Married Richard Earl of Cambridge; who was son
To Edmund Langley, Edward the Third's fifth son.(54)
By her I claim the kingdom: she was heir
To Roger Earl of March; who was the son
Of Edmund Mortimer; who married Philippe,
Sole daughter unto Lionel Duke of Clarence:
So, if the issue of the elder son

Succeed before the younger, I am king.

War. What plain proceeding (55) is more plain than this? Henry doth claim the crown from John of Gaunt.

The fourth son; while (56) York claims it from the third.

Till Lionel's issue fails, his should not reign:

It fails not yet, but flourishes in thee,
And in thy sons, fair slips of such a stock.-
Then, father Salisbury, kneel we together;
And, in this private plot, be we the first
That shall salute our rightful sovereign
With honour of his birthright to the crown.

(54) Married Richard Earl of Cambridge; who was son
To Edmund Langley, Edward the third's fifth son.]

The folio has

"Marryed Richard, Earle of Cambridge,
Who was to Edmond Langley,

Edward the thirds fift Sonnes Sonne."

(65) proceeding] The folio has "proceedings."-Corrected in the second folio.

(56) while] Not in the folio.