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

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.

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.

K. Hen. We therefore have great cause of
thankfulness;

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 labour 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.

20

30

40

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.

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

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.

French causes :

50

And now to our

60

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.

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 Exeter,
We will aboard to night. Why, how now, gen-
tlemen!

What see you in those papers that you lose

70

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.

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;
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 with all appertinents
Belonging to his honour; 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

But, O,

Than Cambridge is, hath likewise sworn.
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

80

90

100

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:

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, colours, 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.
If that same demon that hath gull'd thee thus
Should with his lion gait walk the whole world,
He might return to vasty Tartar 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: seem they grave and learned ?
Why, so didst thou: come they of noble family?
Why, so didst thou: seem they religious?

130

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,
Not working with the eye without the ear,
And but in purged judgement trusting neither ?
Such and so finely bolted didst thou seem :
And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot,

To mark the full-fraught man and best-indued

With some suspicion. I will weep for thee;
For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like
Another fall of man. Their faults are open:
Arrest them to the answer of the law;
And God acquit them of their practices !

140

Exe. I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Richard 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;

Although I did admit it as a motive
The sooner to effect what I intended :

133. blood, impulse of passion. 134. compiement, outward demeanour, manners.

150

139. full-fraught, equipped

with all excellences.

Ff

148. Henry; so Qq. 'Thomas,' corrected by Malone. 152. more than my death, more than I regret my death.