They sell the pasture now to buy the horse;
Following the mirror of all Christian kings,
With winged heels, as English Mercuries.
For now sits Expectation in the air;

And hides a sword from hilts unto the point
With crowns imperial, crowns, and coronets,
Promised to Harry and his followers.
The French, advised by good intelligence
Of this most dreadful preparation,

Shake in their fear; and with pale policy
Seek to divert the English purposes.

O England!-model to thy inward greatness,
Like little body with a mighty heart, -

What mightst thou do, that honour would thee do,
Were all thy children kind and natural!

But see thy fault! France hath in thee found out
A nest of hollow bosoms, which he fills

With treacherous crowns; and three corrupted men,
One, Richard, Earl of Cambridge; and the second,
Henry Lord Scroop of Masham; and the third,
Sir Thomas Grey, knight, of Northumberland,-
Have, for the gilt of France -O guilt indeed!·

1 This was Richard Plantagenet, second son to Edmund of Langley, Duke of York, who, again, was the fourth son of Edward the Third. He was married to Anne Mortimer, sister to Edmund, Earl of March, and great-granddaughter of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, who was the second son of Edward the Third. From this marriage sprun Richard, who in the next reign was restored to the rights and titles forfeited by his father, and was made Duke of York. This Richard afterwards' claimed the crown in right of his mother, and as the lineal heir from the aforesaid Lionel; and hence arose the long war between the Houses of York and Lancaster. So that the present Earl of Cambridge was the grandfather of Edward the Fourth and Richard the Third. His older brother, Edward, the Duke of York of this play, was killed at the battle of Agincourt, and left no child.

Confirm'd conspiracy with fearful France;

And by their hands this grace of kings must die,
If Hell and treason hold their promises,

Ere he take ship for France, and in Southampton.
The sum is paid; the traitors are agreed;
The King is set from London; and the scene
Is now transported, gentles, to Southampton;
There is the playhouse now, there must you sit:
And thence to France shall we convey you safe,
And bring you back, charming the narrow seas
To give you gentle pass; for, if we may,
We'll not offend one stomach with our play.

SCENE I. Southampton. A Council-Chamber.

Enter EXETER, BEDFORD, and WESTMORELAND.

[Exit.

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 favours;

That he should, for a foreign purse, so sell

His sovereign's life to death and treachery!

Trumpets sound. Enter King HENRY, CAMBRIDGE, SCROOP, GREY, Lords, and Attendants.

King. 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.
King. I doubt not that; since we are well persuaded
We carry not a heart with us from hence

That grows not in a fair concent with ours,
Nor leave not one behind that doth not wish

Success and conquest to attend on us.

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 heart's create of duty1 and of zeal.

King. We therefore have great cause of thankfulness; And shall forget the office of our hand,

Sooner than quittance 2 of desert and merit

According to their weight and worthiness.

Scroop. So service shall with steelèd sinews toil,

And labour shall refresh itself with hope,

To do your Grace incessant services.

King. We judge no less.—Uncle of Exeter,

Enlarge the man committed yesterday,

1 Create for created. The Poet has many such shortened preterites; as frustrate, situate, suffocate, &c.— Duty, here, is dutifulness, the act for the motive or principle of it.

2 Quittance for requital or return. See 2 Henry IV., page 60, note 12.

That rail'd against our person: we consider
It was excess of wine that set him on;
And, on our more advice,3 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.
King. 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,

After the taste of much correction.

King. Alas, your too much love and care of me
Are heavy orisons 'gainst this poor wretch!
If little faults, proceeding on distemper,4

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 late 5 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.

King. Then, Richard Earl of Cambridge, there is yours ;

8" On more advice" is on further consideration. See The Merchant, page 180, note 1. Security, in the next line, has the sense of the Latin securus; over-confidence. A frequent usage. See Macbeth, page 119, note 4. 4 Distemper for intemperance. The King has just said, “It was excess of wine that set him on." So in Othello, i. 1: "Being full of supper and distempering draughts."

5 Late in the sense of recent or newly-appointed.

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. To which we all appeal.

Scroop.

}

King. 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 you.-
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 7 with all appertinents

Belonging to his honour; and this man

8

Hath, for a few light crowns, lightly conspired,

And sworn unto the practices of France,

To kill us here in Hampton: to the which

6 Quick, here, is living or alive. See The Winter's Tale, page 117, note 18.

7 In furnishing him; the infinitive used gerundively, as very often. Accord in the sense of agree or consent.

8 Lightly, here, is promptly, readily, or without scruple. So in The Comedy, iv. 4: "And will not lightly trust the messenger."