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George Sewell [1723–5], The works of Shakespear in six [seven] volumes. Collated and Corrected by the former Editions, By Mr. Pope ([Vol. 7] Printed by J. Darby, for A. Bettesworth [and] F. Fayram [etc.], London) [word count] [S11101].
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SCENE II. Enter Exeter, Bedford, and Westmorland.

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 sate,
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 bed-fellow,
Whom he hath lull'd and cloy'd with gracious favours!
That he should for a foreign purse so sell
His Soveraign's life to death and treachery.
[Trumpets sound. Enter the King, Scroop, Cambridge, and Grey.

K. Henry.
Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard.
My lord of Cambridge, and my lord of Masham,
And you my gentle Knight, give me your thoughts:
Think you not that the pow'rs 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. Henry.
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:
And leave not one behind, that doth not wish
Success and conquest to attend on us.

-- 417 --

Cam.
Never was monarch better fear'd and lov'd
Than is your Majesty; there's not 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 steept their gauls in honey, and observe you
With hearts create of duty and of zeal.

K. Henry.
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 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 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, Soveraign, lest example
Breed by his suff'rance 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 enlarge that man,
Though Cambridge, Scroop and Grey in their dear care

-- 418 --


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 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 Westmorland 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 chas'd your blood
Out of appearance?

Camb.
I confess my fault,
And do submit me to your Highness' mercy.

Grey. Scroop.
To which we all appeal.

K. Henry.
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 upon your bosoms,
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 conspir'd,
And sworn unto the practices of France

-- 419 --


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 soul,
That almost might'st have coin'd me into gold,
Would'st 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 see it.
noteTreason and murder ever kept together,
As two yoak-devils sworn to either's purpose;
Working so grosly 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 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 glist'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,

-- 420 --


And tell the legions, I can never win
A soul so easie as that Englishman's.
Oh, how hast thou with jealousie infected
The sweetness of affiance! Shew 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, nor swerving with the blood,
Garnish'd and deck'd in modest complement,
Not working with the eye without the ear,
And but in purged judgment trusting neither?
Such, and so finely † noteboulted didst thou seem.
And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot,
To make b notethe full-fraught man, the best, endu'd
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.

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 Thomas 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

-- 421 --


The sooner to effect what I intended;
But God be thanked for prevention,
Which I in suff'rance heartily rejoice for,
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 of 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 sentence;
You have conspir'd against our royal person,
noteJoin'd with an enemy, and from his coffers
Receiv'd 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,
Whose ruin you three sought, that to her laws
We do deliver you. Go 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.
Now, lords, for France, the enterprize 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 beginning. Now we doubt not
But every rub is smoothed in our way:
Then forth dear countrymen; let us deliver

-- 422 --


Our puissance into the hand of God,
Putting it strait in expedition.
Chearly to sea the signs of war advance,
No King of England, if not King of France. [Exeunt.
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George Sewell [1723–5], The works of Shakespear in six [seven] volumes. Collated and Corrected by the former Editions, By Mr. Pope ([Vol. 7] Printed by J. Darby, for A. Bettesworth [and] F. Fayram [etc.], London) [word count] [S11101].
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