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;

40

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. 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

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,

70

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!

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?

I do confess my fault;
And do submit me to your highness' mercy.

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.

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,

Wouldst thou have practised on me for thy use, May it be possible, that foreign hire

100

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 and 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,
That admiration did not hoop at them:

But thou, 'gainst all proportion, didst bring in
Wonder to wait on treason and on murder: 110
And whatsoever cunning fiend it was

That wrought upon thee so preposterously
Hath got the voice in hell for excellence:
All other devils that suggest by treasons
Do botch and bungle up damnation

With patches, colors, and with forms being
fetch'd

From glistering semblances of piety;

But he that temper'd thee bade thee stand up, Gave thee no instance why thou shouldst do treason,

Unless to dub thee with the name of traitor. 120 If that same demon that hath gull'd thee thus Should with his lion gait walk the whole world, 103. "stands off"; stands out.-C. H. H.

114. "by treasons"; Mason conj. "to treasons"; Moberly conj. “by reasons."-I. G.

118. "But he that temper'd thee bade thee stand up"; Moberly conj. "But he that tempter-fiend that stirr'd thee up"; Dyce, Johnson conj. “tempted"; Ff., "bad,” Vaughan conj. “sin thus." No emendation is necessary, though it is uncertain what the exact force of "bade thee stand up” may be, whether (1) “like an honest-man,” or (2) "rise in rebellion.”—I. G.