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. Henry. I doubt not that; since we are well per[fuaded,
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 lov'd, Than is your Majesty; there's not a subject, That fits in heart-grief and uneasiness
Under the sweet shade of your government.
Grey. True; those, that were your father's enemies, Have steept their gauls in honey, and do serve you With hearts create of duty and of zeal.
K. Henry. We therefore have great cause of thankful[ness;
And shall forget the office of our hand, Sooner than quittance of defert and merit, According to the weight and worthiness. Scroop. So service shall with steeled finews toil;
And labour shall refresh it self with hope, To do your Grace incessant services.
K. Henry. We judge no less. Uncle of Exeter, Inlarge the man committed yesterday, That rail'd against our person: we confider, 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, Soveraign, lest example Breed (by his fuffrance) more of such a kind. K. Henry. O, let us yet be merciful. Cam. So may your Highness, and yet punish too. Grey. You shew great mercy, if you give him life, After the taste of much correction.
K. Henry. 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 digested, Appear before us? we'll yet enlarge that man,
Though
Though Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey, in their dear care And tender preservation of our person,
Would have him punish'd. Now to our French causes, Who are the late Commissioners?
Cam. I one, my lord.
Your Highness bad me ask for it to-day.
Scroop. So did you me, my Liege.
Grey. And I, my Soveraign.
K. Henry. Then Richard, Earl of Cambridge, there is
There yours, lord Scroop of Masham; and Sir Knight, Grey of Northumberland, this fame is yours; Read them, and know, I know your worthiness.
My lord of Westmorland and uncle Exeter,
We will aboard to night. Why, how now, gentlemen? What fee 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 chas'd your blood Out of appearance?
Cam. I confefs my fault,
And do submit me to your Highness' mercy. Grey. Scroop. Τo which we all. appeal.
K. Henry. The mercy, that was quick in us but late, By your own counsel is fuppress'd and kill'd: You must not dare for shame to talk of inercy; For your own reasons turn upon your bofoms, As dogs upon their masters, worrying you. See you, my Princes and my noble Peers, These English monsters! my lord 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 confpir'd, 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. 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 foul, That almost might'st have coin'd me into gold, Would'ft thou have practis'd 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 stand off as gross As black and white, my eye will scarcely fee it. Treason and murder ever kept together, As two yoak-devils sworn to either's purpose: Working fo grofly in a natural cause, That admiration did not whoop at them. But thou, 'gainst all proportion, didst bring in Wonder to wait on treason, and on murther: And whatsoever cunning fiend it was, That wrought upon thee so prepost'rously, Hath got the voice in hell for excellence: And other devils, that suggest by-treasons, Do botch and bungle up damnation, With patches, colours, and with forms being fetcht From glift'ring semblances of piety: But he, that temper'd thee, bad thee stand up; Gave thee no instance why thou shouldst do treason, Unless to dub thee with the name of traitor. If that same Dæmon, that hath gull'd thee thus, Should with his Lion-gate walk the whole world, He might return to vasty Tartar back, And tell the legions, I can never win A foul so easy as that Englishman's. Oh, how haft thou with jealousie infected The sweetness of affiance! Shew men dutiful?. Why so didst thou: or feem they grave and learned ? Why so didst thou: come they of noble family? Why so didst thou: feem they religious? Why so didst thou: or are they spare in diet, Free from gross paffion or of mirth, or anger, Constant in spirit, nor swerving with the blood, Garnish'd and deck'd in modest compliment,
Not working with the ear, but with the eye, (15) And but in purged judgment trusting neither? Such, and fo finely boulted didst thou seem. And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot, (16) To mark the full-fraught man, the best endu'd, With some fufpicion. I will weep for thee. For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like Another fall of man Their faults are open; Arreft 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 Richard Earl of Cambridge.
I arreft thee of high treason, by the name of Henry (17) Lord Scroop of Mafham.
(15) Not working with the Eye without the Ear,) He is here giving the Character of a compleat Gentleman, and says, he did not trust his Eye without the Confirmation of his Ear. But was ever any thing so preposterous? When Men have Eyesight-proof, they think they have sufficient Evidence, and don't stay for the Confirmation of an Hear-say. But prudent Men, on the contrary, won't trust the Credit of the Ear, till it be confirmed by the Demonstration of the Eye. And this is that Conduct for which the King would here commend him. So that we must
Not working with the Ear, but with the Eye. (16) And thus thy Fall hath left a kind of Blot,
To make the full-fraught Man, the best, endued
With some fufpicion.] Thus Mr. Pope has stop'd this Passage. If he understands the Sense of it, as it stands here, it is more than I do; or if he believes, that, to make a Man endued with Suspicion, was the Phrase of our Author, I must beg to be excus'd if I have not so much Credulity. I am perfuaded, I have rescued the Text from the Obscurity and Corruption it lay under. Our Author has the same Thought again in his Cymbeline.
I had almost forgot to observe, that in Timon of Athens, we again meet
with mark, employ'd as in this Passage.
by the name of Thomas Lord Scroop of Masham.] The
Blunder of the Editors in the first Folio's led Mr. Rorve and Mr. Pope into
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 fooner to effect what I intended; But God be thanked for prevention, Which I in fuffrance heartily rejoice for, Beseeching God and you to pardon me.
Grey. Never did faithful subject more rejoice At the discovery of most dangerous treafon, Than I do at this hour joy o'er my self, Prevented from a damned enterprize :
My fault, but not my body, pardon, Soveraign. K. Henry. God quit you in his mercy! hear your sen-
You have conspir'd against our royal person, Join'd with an enemy proclaim'd, and from his coffers Receiv'd the golden earnest of our death;
Wherein you would have fold your King to flaughter, His Princes and his Peers to fervitude, His fubjects to oppreffion and contempt, And his whole kingdom into defolation. Touching our person, seek we no revenge; But we our kingdom's safety must so tender, Whose ruin you three fought, that to her laws We do deliver you. Go therefore hence, (Poor miferable 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. Now, lords, for France; the enterprize whereof Shall be to you, as us, like glorious.
an Error here: which they might have been aware of, had they either consulted the Chronicles, or the Reading of the old 4to's in this Passage. Nay, had they but turn'd back to the Chorus at the End of the first Act, they might have found that Lord Masham's Christian Name was Henry, and not Thomas.
« AnteriorContinuar » |