This knight, no less for bounty bound to us

Than Cambridge is, hath likewise sworn.— But, O,
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,
Wouldst thou have practised on me for thy use;
May it be possible, that foreign hire

Could out of thee extract one spark of evil
That might annoy my finger? 'tis so strange,
That, though the truth of it stands off as gross
As black from white, my eye will scarcely see it.
Treason and murder ever kept together,
As two yoke-devils sworn to either's purpose,
Working so grossly in a natural cause,9
That admiration did not whoop at them:
But thou, 'gainst all proportion,10 didst bring in
Wonder to wait on treason and on murder:
And whatsoever cunning fiend it was
That wrought upon thee so preposterously,
Hath got the voice in Hell for excellence :
And other devils, that suggest 11 by treasons,

9 Heath probably gives the right explanation of this: "Working so apparently under the influence of some motive which nature excuses at least in some measure; such as self-preservation, revenge, and the like, which have the greatest sway in the constitution of human nature."- In the next line, admiration is wonder, as usual in Shakespeare. To whoop is to exclaim, or utter a note of surprise.

10 Proportion in the sense of natural order or fitness. The sense of the passage is, that Scroop's course is to be wondered at because it is against all the proper analogies of crime, and therefore monstrous.

11 To suggest, in old usage, is to tempt, to seduce. The same with suggestion. See The Tempest, page 89, note 53.

Do botch and bungle up damnation

With patches, colours, and with forms being fetch'd
From glistering semblances of piety;

But he that tempted thee bade thee stand up,

Gave thee no instance 12 why thou shouldst do treason,

Unless to dub thee with the name of traitor.

If that same demon that hath gull'd thee thus
Should with his lion-gait walk the whole world,13
He might return to vasty Tartar 14 back,
And tell the legions, I can never win

A soul so easy as that Englishman's.
O, how hast thou with jealousy infected
The sweetness of affiance!

Show men dutiful?

Why, so didst thou: or seem they grave and learned?
Why, so didst thou: come they of noble family?

Why, so didst thou: seem they religious?
Why, so didst thou: or are they spare in diet;
Free from gross passion, or of mirth or anger;
Constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood;
Garnish'd and deck'd in modest complement; 15
Not working with the eye without the ear,

And, but 16 in purgèd judgment, trusting neither?

12 The Poet uses instance in a great variety of senses, which are sometimes not easy to define. Here it means example, purpose, or inducement. See 2 Henry IV., page 116, note 6.

13 Evidently alluding to 1 Peter, v. 8: "The Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."

14 The Tartarus of classical mythology. Vasty in the sense of the Latin vastus; hideous, frightful, devouring. So, again, in the third scene of this Act: "The poor souls for whom this hungry war opens his vasty jaws."

15 Complement is accomplishment or completeness; quite distinct from compliment.

16 But is here exceptive; and the sense of the whole passage is, not trusting so absolutely in his own perceptions as to despise or neglect the

Such and so finely bolted 17 didst thou seem:
And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot,

To mark the full-fraught man and best-indued 18
With some suspicion. I will weep for thee;
For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like
Another Fall of Man.19 — Their faults are open :
Arrest them to the answer of the law;

And God acquit them of their practices!

Exe. I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Rich- ✔ ard Earl of Cambridge.

I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Henry Lord Scroop of Masham.

I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Thomas Grey, knight, of Northumberland.

Scroop. Our purposes God justly hath discover'd; |
And I repent my fault more than my death;
Which I beseech your Highness to forgive,

Although my body pay the price of it.

Cam. For me, the gold of France did not seduce;

advice of others; and then not acting upon either till he has brought a judgment purged from the distempers of passion to bear upon the joint result. 17 Bolted is sifted. So in The Winter's Tale, iv. 3: “The fann'd snow that's bolted by the northern blasts."

18 Here the force of best retroacts on full-fraught, giving it the sense of the superlative. The Poet has many instances of similar language. See The Merchant, page 150, note 43.

19 Lord Scroop has already been spoken of as having been the King's bedfellow. Holinshed gives the following account of him: "The said lord Scroope was in such favour with the king, that he admitted him sometime to be his bedfellow, in whose fidelitie the king reposed such trust, that when anie privat or publike councell was in hand, this lord had much in the determination of it. For he represented so great gravitie in his countenance, such modestie in behaviour, and so vertuous zeale to all godlinesse in his talke, that whatsoever he said was thought for the most part necessarie to be doone and followed."

Although I did admit it as a motive
The sooner to effect what I intended: 20
But God be thankèd for prevention ;
Which I in sufferance heartily will rejoice,21
Beseeching God and you to pardon me.

Grey. Never did faithful subject more rejoice
At the discovery of most dangerous treason
Than I do at this hour joy o'er myself,

Prevented from a damnèd enterprise :

My fault, but not my body, pardon, sovereign

King. God quit 22 you in His mercy! -Hear your sen

tence.

You have conspired against our royal person,

Join'd with an enemy proclaim'd, and from his coffers
Received the golden earnest of our death;

Wherein you would have sold your King to slaughter,
His princes and his peers to servitude,
His subjects to oppression and contempt,
And his whole kingdom into desolation.
Touching our person, seek we no revenge;
But we our kingdom's safety must so tender,23

20 According to Holinshed, Cambridge's purpose in joining the conspiracy was, to give the crown to his brother-in-law, the Earl of March, and also to open the succession to his own children, as he knew the Earl of March was not likely to have any. As heirs from Lionel, Duke of Clarence, his children would, in strict order, precede the Lancastrian branch; as John of Gaunt, the grandfather of the present King, was the third son of Edward the Third. See page 64, note I.

21 Rather odd and harsh in construction; but the meaning is, "at which I will heartily rejoice, even while suffering the pain it involves."

22 Quit for acquit; as a little before, "And God acquit them of their practices!" See As You Like It, page 78, note 2.

23 To tender a thing, as the word is here used is to esteem it, to be careful or tender of it. See The Tempest, page 88, note 49.

Whose ruin you have sought, that to her laws
We do deliver you. Get you, therefore, hence,
Poor miserable wretches, to your death:
The taste whereof, God of His mercy give
You patience to endure, and true repentance
Of all your dear offences! - Bear them hence.

[Exeunt CAMBRIDGE, SCROOP, and GREY, guarded.

Now, lords, for France; the enterprise whereof
Shall be to you as us like glorious.

We doubt not of a fair and lucky war,

Since God so graciously hath brought to light
This dangerous treason, lurking in our way
To hinder our beginnings; we doubt not now
But every rub is smoothèd on our way.
Then, forth, dear countrymen : let us deliver
Our puissance into the hand of God,
Putting it straight in expedition.

Cheerly to sea; the signs of war advance :
No King of England, if not King of France.

SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

- London. Before the Boar's-head Tavern,

Eastcheap.

Enter PISTOL, Hostess, NYM, BARDOLPH, and the Boy.

Host. Pr'ythee, honey-sweet husband, let me bring thee1 to Staines.

Pist. No; for my manly heart doth yearn.2–

Bardolph, be blithe;- Nym, rouse thy vaunting veins ; —

1 That is, accompany thee. Often so.

2 To yearn is to grieve, to be sorry, to mourn. See King Richard the Second, page 157, note 15.