Hial. Your vow'd beadsman.

[Exeunt URs. and HIAL. K. Hen. King Ferdinand is not so much a fox, But that a cunning huntsman may in time Fall on the scent; in honourable actions Safe imitation best deserves a praise.

Re-enter URSWICK.
What, the Castillian's past away?

Urs. He is,
And undiscover'd; the two hundred marks
Your majesty convey'd, he gently purs'd
With a right modest gravity.

K. Hen. What was't
He mutter'd in the earnest of his wisdom?
He spoke not to be heard ; 'twas about---

Urs. Warbeck;
“How if king Henry were but sure of subjects,
Such a wild runnagate might soon be caged,
No great ado withstanding.

K. Hen. Nay, nay; something About my son prince Arthur's match.

Urs. Right, right sir : He humm'd it out, how that king Ferdinand Swore, that the marriage 'twixt the lady Kathe

rine, His daughter, and the prince of Wales your son,

Should never be consummated, as long
As any earl of Warwick lived in England,
Except by new creation.

K. Hen. I remember, 'Twas so indeed: the king his master swore it?

Urs. Directly, as he said.

K. Hen. An earl of Warwick ! Provide a messenger for letters instantly To bishop Fox. Our news from Scotland creeps; It comes too slow; we must have airy spirits, Our time requires dispatch.—The earl of War

wick! Let him be son to Clarence, younger brother To Edward ! Edward's daughter is, I think, Mother to our prince Arthur-[Aside.]—Get a messenger.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

Before the Castle of Norham. Enter King James, WARBECK, CRAWFORD, Dal

YELL, HERON, ASTLEY, JOHN A-WATER, SKETON, and Soldiers.

K. Ja. We trifle time against these castle-walls, The English prelate will not yield : once more Give him a summons ! [A parley is sounded.

? Let him be son to Clarence, &c.] These are ominous musings of the king, who eagerly caught at the words of Ferdinand, as given above, and sought “ to export the odium of this innocent prince's execution out of the land, and lay it upon his new ally."

a

Enter on the walls the Bishop of DURHAM, armed,

a truncheon in his hand, with Soldiers. War. See the jolly clerk Appears, trimm'd like a ruffian.

K. Ja. Bishop, yet Set ope the ports, and to your lawful sovereign, Richard of York, surrender

up

this castle, And he will take thee to his grace; else Tweed Shall overflow his banks with English blood, And wash the sand that cements those hard stones, From their foundation.

Dur. Warlike king of Scotland, Vouchsafe a few words from a man enforced To lay his book aside, and clap on arms, Unsuitable to my age, or my profession. Courageous prince, consider on what grounds, You rend the face of peace, and break a league With a confederate king that courts your amity; For whom too? for a vagabond, a straggler, Not noted in the world by birth or name, An obscure peasant, by the rage

of hell Loos'd from his chains, to set great kings at

strife.
What nobleman, what common man of note,
What ordinary subject hath come in,
Since first you footed on our territories,
To only feign a welcome ? children laugh at

8

8 And clap on arms.] So the old copy: it is not improbable, however, that the poet's word was clasp.

Your proclamations, and the wiser pity
So great a potentate's abuse, by one
Who juggles merely with the fawns and youth
Of an instructed compliment: such spoils,
Such slaughters as the rapine of your soldiers
Already have committed, is enough
To shew your zeal in a conceited justice.
Yet, great king, wake not yet my master's ven-

geance; But shake that viper off which gnaws your en

trails! I, and my fellow-subjects are resolv'd, If

you persist, to stand your utmost fury, Till our last blood drop from us.

War. O sir, lend No ear to this traducer of my honour ! _ What shall I call thee, thou grey-bearded scandal, That kick'st against the sovereignty to which Thou owest allegiance ?-Treason is bold-faced, And eloquent in mischief; sacred king, Be deaf to his known malice.

Dur. Rather yield Unto those holy motions which inspire The sacred heart of an anointed body! It is the surest policy in princes, To govern well their own, than seek encroach

ment Upon another's right.

9

to this traducer, &c.] The 4to, by an evident oversight, reads--to this seducer, &c. There is another misprint in the same line-me for no.

Craw. The king is serious,
Deep in his meditation[s].

Dal. Lift them up
To heaven, his better genius!

War. Can you study,
While such a devil raves ? Oh, sir.

K. Ja. Well,-bishop,
You'll not be drawn to mercy ?

Dur. Construe me In like case by a subject of your own: My resolution's fix'd; king James, be consell’d, A greater fate waits on thee.

[Exeunt DURHAM and Soldiers from

the walls. K. Ja. Forage through The country; spare no prey of life or goods. War. Oh, sir, then give me leave to yield to

nature: I am most miserable; had I been Born what this clergyman would, by defame, Baffle belief with, I had never sought The truth of mine inheritance with rapes Of women, or of infants murder'd; virgins Deflower'd; old men butcher'd; dwellings fired; My land depopulated, and my people Afflicted with a kingdom's devastation: Shew more remorse, great king, or I shall never Endure to see such havock with dry eyes; Spare, spare, my dear, dear England !

K. Ja. You fool your piety, Ridiculously careful of an interest