ACT II.
Enter Chorus.
Chor. Now all the youth of England are on fire,[4645]
And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies:
Now thrive the armorers, and honour's thought[4646]
Reigns solely in the breast of every man:
They sell the pasture now to buy the horse,5
Following the mirror of all Christian kings,
With winged heels, as English Mercuries.
For now sits Expectation in the air,
And hides a sword from hilts unto the point
With crowns imperial, crowns and coronets,10
Promised to Harry and his followers.
The French, advised by good intelligence
Of this most dreadful preparation,
Shake in their fear and with pale policy
Seek to divert the English purposes.15
O England! model to thy inward greatness,
Like little body with a mighty heart,
What mightst thou do, that honour would thee do,
Were all thy children kind and natural!
But see thy fault! France hath in thee found out[4647]20
A nest of hollow bosoms, which he fills[4647][4648]
With treacherous crowns; and three corrupted men,
One, Richard Earl of Cambridge, and the second,
Henry Lord Scroop of Masham, and the third,
Sir Thomas Grey, knight, of Northumberland,25
Have, for the gilt of France,—O guilt indeed!—
Confirm'd conspiracy with fearful France;
And by their hands this grace of kings must die,[4649]
If hell and treason hold their promises,[4649]
Ere he take ship for France, and in Southampton.[4649][4650]30
Linger your patience on; and we'll digest[4649][4651][4652]
The abuse of distance; force a play:[4649][4651][4653]
The sum is paid; the traitors are agreed;[4649][4654]
The king is set from London; and the scene[4649]
Is now transported, gentles, to Southampton;[4649]35
There is the playhouse now, there must you sit:
And thence to France shall we convey you safe,
And bring you back, charming the narrow seas
To give you gentle pass; for, if we may,
We'll not offend one stomach with our play.40
But, till the king come forth, and not till then,[4655]
Unto Southampton do we shift our scene. [Exit.
Scene I. London. A street.[4656]
Enter Corporal Nym and Lieutenant Bardolph.
Bard. Well met, Corporal Nym.
Nym. Good morrow, Lieutenant Bardolph.
Bard. What, are Ancient Pistol and you friends yet?
Nym. For my part, I care not: I say little; but when
time shall serve, there shall be smiles; but that shall be as[4657]5
it may. I dare not fight; but I will wink and hold out
mine iron: it is a simple one; but what though? it will
toast cheese, and it will endure cold as another man's
sword will: and there's an end.[4658]
Bard. I will bestow a breakfast to make you friends;10
and we'll be all three sworn brothers to France: let it be[4659]
so, good Corporal Nym.
Nym. Faith, I will live so long as I may, that's the
certain of it; and when I cannot live any longer, I will
do as I may: that is my rest, that is the rendezvous[4660]15
of it.
Bard. It is certain, corporal, that he is married to Nell
Quickly: and, certainly, she did you wrong; for you were
troth-plight to her.
Nym. I cannot tell: things must be as they may: men20
may sleep, and they may have their throats about them at[4661]
that time; and some say knives have edges. It must be
as it may: though patience be a tired mare, yet she will[4662]
plod. There must be conclusions. Well, I cannot tell.
Enter Pistol and Hostess.[4663]
Bard. Here comes Ancient Pistol and his wife: good25
corporal, be patient here. How now, mine host Pistol!
Pist. Base tike, call'st thou me host?[4664][4665]
Now, by this hand, I swear, I scorn the term;[4665]
Nor shall my Nell keep lodgers.[4665]
Host. No, by my troth, not long; for we cannot lodge30
and board a dozen or fourteen gentlewomen that live
honestly by the prick of their needles, but it will be thought
we keep a bawdy house straight. [Nym and Pistol draw.][4666]
O well a day, Lady, if he be not drawn now! we shall see[4667]
wilful adultery and murder committed.35
Bard. Good lieutenant! good corporal! offer nothing[4668]
here.
Pist. Pish for thee, Iceland dog! thou prick-ear'd cur of Iceland![4670]
Host. Good Corporal Nym, show thy valour, and put[4671]40
up your sword.
Nym. Will you shog off? I would have you solus.[4672]
Pist. 'Solus,' egregious dog? O viper vile![4673]
The 'solus' in thy most mervailous face;[4673][4674]
The 'solus' in thy teeth, and in thy throat,[4673]45
And in thy hateful lungs, yea, in thy maw, perdy,[4673]
And, which is worse, within thy nasty mouth![4673][4675]
1 do retort the 'solus' in thy bowels;[4673]
For I can take, and Pistol's cock is up,[4673][4676]
And flashing fire will follow.[4673]50
Nym. I am not Barbason; you cannot conjure me. I
have an humour to knock you indifferently well. If you
grow foul with me, Pistol, I will scour you with my rapier,
as I may, in fair terms: if you would walk off, I would
prick your guts a little, in good terms, as I may: and55
that's the humour of it.
Pist. O braggart vile and damned furious wight!
The grave doth gape, and doting death is near;[4677]
Therefore exhale.[4678]
Bard. Hear me, hear me what I say: he that strikes the60
first stroke, I'll run him up to the hilts, as I am a soldier.
[Draws.[4679]
Pist. An oath of mickle might; and fury shall abate.
Give me thy fist, thy fore-foot to me give:[4680]
Thy spirits are most tall.[4680][4681]
Nym. I will cut thy throat, one time or other, in fair65
terms: that is the humour of it.
Pist. 'Couple a gorge!'[4682]
That is the word. I thee defy again.[4683][4684]
O hound of Crete, think'st thou my spouse to get?[4683]
No; to the spital go,[4683]70
And from the powdering-tub of infamy[4683]
Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind,[4683]
Doll Tearsheet she by name, and her espouse:[4683]
I have, and I will hold, the quondam Quickly[4683]
For the only she; and—pauca, there's enough.[4683]
Go to.[4683]75
Enter the Boy.[4683][4685]
Boy. Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master,[4686]
and you, hostess: he is very sick, and would to bed.
Good Bardolph, put thy face between his sheets, and do[4687]
the office of a warming-pan. Faith, he's very ill.80
Bard. Away, you rogue!
Host. By my troth, he'll yield the crow a pudding one
of these days. The king has killed his heart. Good husband,
come home presently. [Exeunt Hostess and Boy.[4688]
Bard. Come, shall I make you two friends? We must85
to France together: why the devil should we keep knives
to cut one another's throats?
Pist. Let floods o'erswell, and fiends for food howl on!
Nym. You'll pay me the eight shillings I won of you
at betting?90
Pist. Base is the slave that pays.
Nym. That now I will have: that's the humour of it.
Pist. As manhood shall compound: push home.
[They draw.[4689]
Bard. By this sword, he that makes the first thrust,
I'll kill him; by this sword, I will.95
Pist. Sword is an oath, and oaths must have their course.[4690]
Bard. Corporal Nym, an thou wilt be friends, be[4690]
friends: an thou wilt not, why, then, be enemies with me
too. Prithee, put up.
Pist. A noble shalt thou have, and present pay;[4692]
And liquor likewise will I give to thee,[4692]
And friendship shall combine, and brotherhood:[4692][4693]
I'll live by Nym, and Nym shall live by me;[4692]105
Is not this just? for I shall sutler be[4692]
Unto the camp, and profits will accrue.[4692]
Give me thy hand.[4692]
Nym. I shall have my noble?
Pist. In cash most justly paid.110
Nym. Well, then, that's the humour of't.
Re-enter Hostess.[4694]
Host. As ever you came of women, come in quickly to[4695]
Sir John. Ah, poor heart! he is so shaked of a burning[4696]
quotidian tertian, that it is most lamentable to behold.
Sweet men, come to him.115
Nym. The king hath run bad humours on the knight;
that's the even of it.
Pist. Nym, thou hast spoke the right;[4697]
His heart is fracted and corroborate.[4697]
Nym. The king is a good king: but it must be as it120
may; he passes some humours and careers.
Pist. Let us condole the knight; for, lambkins we will[4698]
live.
Scene II. Southampton. A council-chamber.[4699]
Enter Exeter, Bedford, and Westmoreland.
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 sat,
Crowned with faith and constant loyalty.5
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 bedfellow,[4700]
Whom he hath dull'd and cloy'd with gracious favours,[4700][4701]
That he should, for a foreign purse, so sell[4700]10
His sovereign's life to death and treachery.[4700]
Trumpets sound. Enter King Henry, Scroop, Cambridge, Grey,
and Attendants.[4702]
K. Hen. Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard.
My Lord of Cambridge, and my kind Lord of Masham,[4703]
And you, my gentle knight, give me your thoughts:
Think you not that the powers we bear with us15
Will cut their passage through the force of France,
Doing the execution and the act
For which we have in head assembled them?[4704]
Scroop. No doubt, my liege, if each man do his best.
K. Hen. I doubt not that; since we are well persuaded20
We carry not a heart with us from hence
That grows not in a fair consent with ours,[4705]
Nor leave not one behind that doth not wish[4706]
Success and conquest to attend on us.
Cam. Never was monarch better fear'd and loved[4707]25
Than is your majesty: there's not, I think, a subject[4708]
That sits in heart-grief and uneasiness
Under the sweet shade of your government.
Grey. True: those that were your father's enemies[4709]
Have steep'd their galls in honey and do serve you[4710]30
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.[4711]35
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,40
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.[4712]
Scroop. That's mercy, but too much security:
Let him be punish'd, sovereign, lest example45
Breed, by his sufferance, more of such a kind.
K. Hen. O, let us yet be merciful.[4713]
Cam. So may your highness, and yet punish too.
Grey. Sir,[4714]
You show great mercy, if you give him life,[4714]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 eye55
When capital crimes, chew'd, swallow'd and digested,
Appear before us? We'll yet enlarge that man,[4715]
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:[4716]60
Who are the late commissioners?[4717]
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.[4718]65
K. Hen. Then, Richard Earl of Cambridge, there is yours;
There yours, Lord Scroop of Masham; and, sir knight,[4719]
Grey of Northumberland, this same is yours:
Read them; and know, I know your worthiness.
My Lord of Westmoreland, and uncle Exeter,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!
Their cheeks are paper. Why, what read you there,
That hath so cowarded and chased your blood[4720]75
Out of appearance?
Cam. I do confess my fault;[4721]
And do submit me to your highness' mercy.
Grey. } To which we all appeal.
Scroop. }
K. Hen. The mercy that was quick in us but late,
By your own counsel is suppress'd and kill'd:80
You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy;
For your own reasons turn into your bosoms,[4722]
As dogs upon their masters, worrying you.[4723]
See you, my princes and my noble peers,
These English monsters! My Lord of Cambridge here,[4724]85
You know how apt our love was to accord
To furnish him with all appertinents[4725]
Belonging to his honour; and this man
Hath, for a few light crowns, lightly conspired,
And sworn unto the practices of France,90
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!95
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 hire100
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[4726]
As black and white, my eye will scarcely see it.[4727]
Treason and murder ever kept together,105
As two yoke-devils sworn to either's purpose,
Working so grossly in a natural cause,[4728]
That admiration did not whoop at them:[4729]
But thou, 'gainst all proportion, didst bring in
Wonder to wait on treason and on murder:[4730]110
And whatsoever cunning fiend it was
That wrought upon thee so preposterously[4731]
Hath got the voice in hell for excellence:[4732]
All other devils that suggest by treasons[4733]
Do botch and bungle up damnation115
With patches, colours, and with forms being fetch'd[4734]
From glistering semblances of piety;
But he that temper'd thee bade thee stand up,[4735]
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,[4736]
He might return to vasty Tartar back,
And tell the legions 'I can never win
A soul so easy as that Englishman's.'125
O, how hast thou with jealousy infected
The sweetness of affiance! Show men dutiful?
Why, so didst thou: seem they grave and learned?[4737]
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,[4738]
Garnish'd and deck'd in modest complement,[4739]
Not working with the eye without the ear,[4740]135
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[4741]
With some suspicion. I will weep for thee;[4741][4742]140
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 of145
Richard Earl of Cambridge.
I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Henry[4743]
Lord Scroop of Masham.
I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Thomas
Grey, knight, of Northumberland.[4744]150
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;[4745]155
Although I did admit it as a motive
The sooner to effect what I intended:
But God be thanked for prevention;
Which I in sufferance heartily will rejoice,[4746]
Beseeching God and you to pardon me.160
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 damned enterprise:
My fault, but not my body, pardon, sovereign.165
K. Hen. God quit you in his mercy! Hear your sentence.
You have conspired against our royal person,
Join'd with an enemy proclaim'd and from his coffers[4747]
Received the golden earnest of our death;
Wherein you would have sold your king to slaughter,170
His princes and his peers to servitude,
His subjects to oppression and contempt
And his whole kingdom into desolation.[4748]
Touching our person seek we no revenge;
But we our kingdom's safety must so tender,175
Whose ruin you have sought, that to her laws[4749]
We do deliver you. Get you therefore hence,[4750]
Poor miserable wretches, to your death:
The taste whereof, God of his mercy give
You patience to endure, and true repentance180
Of all your dear offences! Bear them hence.
[Exeunt Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey, guarded.[4751]