Enter DAWBENEY. Daw. Ten thousand Cornish, Grudging to pay your subsidies, have gather'd A head; led by a blacksmith and a lawyer, They make for London, and to them is join'd Lord Audley: as they march, their number daily Increases; they are

K. Hen. Rascals!-talk no more; Such are not worthy of my thoughts to-night. To bed—and if I cannot sleep,-I'll wake.When counsels fail, and there's in man no trust, Even then, an arm from heaven fights for the just.

Edinburgh.—The Presence-Chamber in the Palace. Enter above, the Countess of CRAWFORD, Lady KA

THERINE, JANE, and other ladies. Countess. Come, ladies, here's a solemn prepa

ration For entertainment of this English prince; The king intends grace more than ordinary; 'Twere pity now, if he should prove a counterfeit. Kath. Bless the young man, our nation would

be laugh'd at For honest souls through Christendom! my

father Hath a weak stomach to the business, madam, But that the king must not be cross'd.

Countess. He brings A goodly troop, they say, of gallants with him ; But very modest people, for they strive not To fame their names too much; their godfathers May be beholding to them, but their fathers Scarce owe them thanks: they are disguised

princes, Brought up it seems to honest trades; no matter, They will break forth in season.

Jane. Or break out; For most of them are broken by report.- [Music. The king!

Kath. Let us observe them and be silent.

A Flourish.—Enter King James, HUNTLEY, Craw

FORD, DALYELL, and other Noblemen. K. Ja. The right of kings, my lords, extends

not only To the safe conservation of their own, But also to the aid of such allies, As change of time and state hath oftentimes Hurld down from careful crowns, to undergo An exercise of sufferance in both fortunes : So English Richard, surnam'd Cour-de-Lion, So Robert Bruce, our royal ancestor, · Forced by the trial of the wrongs they felt, Both sought, and found supplies from foreign kings, To repossess their own; then grudge not, lords,

2

they are disguised princes, &c.] The Countess is pleased to be facetious. It appears, however, from better authorities than those before us, that Perkin was very respectably, not to say honourably, attended, on this occasion. VOL. II.

D

A much distressed prince: king Charles of France,
And Maximilian of Bohemia both,
Have ratified his credit by their letters;
Shall we then be distrustful? No; compassion
Is one rich jewel that shines in our crown,
And we will have it shine there.

Hunt. Do your will, sir.
K. Ja. The young duke is at hand; Dalyell,

from us First greet him, and conduct him on; then Craw

ford Shall meet him next, and Huntley, last of all, Present him to our arms.-(Exit Dal.)-Sound

sprightly music, Whilst majesty encounters majesty. [Flourish.

Re-enter DALYELL, with PERKIN WARBECK, fol

lowed at a distance by Frion, HERON, SKETON, ASTLEY, and JOHN A-WATER. CRAWFORD advances, and salutes PERkin at the door, and afterwards HUNTLEY, who presents him to the King: they embrace; the Noblemen slightly salute his followers. War. Most high, most mighty king! that now

there stands Before your eyes, in presence of your peers,

A subject of the rarest kind of pity
That hath in any age touch'd noble hearts,
The vulgar story of a prince's ruin,
Hath made it too apparent: Europe knows,
And all the western world, what persecution
Hath raged in malice against us, sole heir
To the great throne of th' old Plantagenets.
How, from our nursery, we have been hurried
Unto the sanctuary, from the sanctuary
Forced to the prison, from the prison haled
By cruel hands, to the tormentor's fury,
Is register'd already in the volume
Of all men's tongues; whose true relation draws
Compassion, melted into weeping eyes,
And bleeding souls : but our misfortunes since,
Have rang'd a larger progress thro' strange lands,
Protected in our innocence by Heaven.
Edward the Fifth, our brother, in his tragedy,
Quench'd their hot thirst of blood, whose hire to

murther
Paid them their wages of despair and horror;
The softness of

my
childhood smiled

upon The roughness of their task, and robb’d them fargrew in

Great king, they spared my life, the butchers

spared it!
Return'd the tyrant, my unnatural uncle,
A truth of my dispatch; I was convey'd
With secrecy and speed to Tournay; foster'd
By obscure means, taught to unlearn myself:
But as I

years, I grew in sense Of fear and of disdain; fear of the tyrant Whose power sway'd the throne then: when dis

dain Of living so unknown, in such a servile And abject lowness, prompted me to thoughts Of recollecting who I was, I shook off My bondage, and made haste to let my aunt Of Burgundy acknowledge me her kinsman; Heir to the crown of England, snatch'd by Henry From Richard's head; a thing scarce known i'th'

world. K. Ja. My lord, it stands not with your coun

sel now

To fly upon invectives; if

you can Make this apparent what you

have discours’d, In every circumstance, we will not study An answer, but are ready in your cause.

.
War. You are a wise and just king, by the

powers
Above reserv’d, beyond all other aids,
To plant me in mine own inheritance:
To marry these two kingdoms in a love
Never to be divorced, while time is time.
As for the manner, first of my escape,