The Dramatic Works of John Ford

Kath. Not more, my lord, than I can welcome;

speak it, The worst, the worst I look for.

Dal. All the Cornish, At Exeter were by the citizens Repulsed, encounter'd by the earl of Devonshire, And other worthy gentlemen of the country. Your husband march'd to Taunton, and was there Affronted by king Henry's chamberlain ;' The king himself in person, with his army Advancing nearer, to renew the fight On all occasions : but the night before The battles were to join, your husband privately, Accompanied with some few horse, departed From out the camp, and posted none knows whi

ther.
Kath. Fled without battle given?

Dal. Fled, but follow'd
By Dawbeney; all his parties left to taste
King Henry's mercy, for to that they yielded;
Victorious without bloodshed.

Kath. Oh, my sorrows!
If both our lives had proved the sacrifice

9 Affronted by King Henry's chamberlain.] i.e. met directly in front by Dawbeney. It is sufficiently clear from the exulting language of this wily monarch in the scene with Urswick, p. 95. that he had made himself sure of the overthrow of Warbeck, whom be had, by this time, environed with his agents: hence the disgraceful flight of the usurper, the recourse to the sanctuary of Bewley, and subsequent surrender. Bacon shrewdly observes, on this occasion, that the king was grown to be such a partner with Fortune, as no body could tell what actions the one, and what the other owned. It was generally believed, he adds, that Perkin“ was betrayed, and that the king led him, at the time of his flight, in a line;" a fact to which he does not seem disposed to give credit.

To Henry's tyranny, we had fall’n like princes, And robb’d him of the glory of his pride.

Dal. Impute it not to faintness or to weakness
Of noble courage, lady, but (to] foresight;
For by some secret friend he had intelligence
Of being bought and sold by his base followers.
Worse yet remains untold.

Kath, No, no, it cannot.
Dal. I fear you are betray'd : the Earl of Ox-

ford
Runs hot in your pursuit.'

Kath. He shall not need ;

the Earl of Oxford Runs hot in your pursuit.] “ There were also sent (Lord Bacon says) with all speed some horse to St. Michael's Mount, in Cornwall, where the Lady Catharine Gordon was left by her husband, whom in all fortunes she intirely loved, adding the virtues of a wife to the virtues of her sex.”

The reader, in whose breast the extraordinary merits of this highborn lady can scarcely fail to have created some degree of interest, will not be displeased, perhaps, with the brief recital of her subsequent fortunes, as given by Sir R. Gordon, whom Douglas calls the Historian of the Family. After quoting the preceding passage from Bacon, Sir Robert adds- .“ shoe wes brought from St. Michael's Mount, in Cornuall, and delyvered to King Henrie the Seaventh, who intertayned her honorablie, and for her better mantenance, according to her birth and vertue, did assigne vnto her good lands and rents for all the dayes of her lyff. After the death of her husband Richard, shoe mareid Sir Mathie Cradock, (a man of great power at that tyme in Clamorganshyre, in Wales,) of the which mariage is descended this William, Earle of Pembroke, by his grandmother, and had some lands by inheritance from the Cradockes. Lady Katheren Gordon died in Wales, and was buried in a chappell at one of the Earle of Pembrok bis dwelling-places in that cuntrey. The Englesh histories doe much commend her for her beauty, comliness, and chastetie.”

It would be a pity to omit the pretty passage with which Bacon winds up her eventful story. “ The name of the WhiteRose, which had been given to her husband's false title, was continued in common speech to her true beauty.”

We'll run as hot in resolution, gladly,
To make the earl our jailor.

Jane. Madam, madam,
They come, they come!

Enter OXFORD, with his followers.
Dal. Keep back, or he who dares
Rudely to violate the law of honour,
Runs on my sword.

Kath. Most noble sir, forbear!
What reason draws you hither, gentlemen ?
Whom seek ye?
Oxf. All stand off.

With favour, lady,
From Henry, England's king, I would present,
Unto the beauteous princess, Katherine Gordon,
The tender of a gracious entertainment.
Kath. We are that princess, whom your master

king
Pursues with reaching arms, to draw into
His power: let him use his tyranny,
We shall not be his subjects.

Oxf. My commission
Extends no further, excellentest lady,
Than to a service; 'tis king Henry's pleasure,
That you, and all that have relation to you,
Be guarded as becomes your birth and greatness:
For, rest assured, sweet princess, that not aught
Of what you do call yours, shall find disturbance,
Or any welcome, other than what suits
Your high condition.

Kath. By what title, sir,
May I acknowledge you?

Oxf. Your servant, lady,
Descended from the line of Oxford's earls,
Inherits what bis ancestors before him
Were owners of.

Kath. Your king is herein royal,
That by a peer so ancient in desert,
As well as blood, commands us to his presence.

Oxf. Invites you, princess, not commands.

Kath. Pray use Your own phrase as you list; to your protection, Both I and mine submit.

Oxf. There's in your number A nobleman, whom fame hath bravely spoken. To him the king my master bade me say How willingly he courts his friendship ; far From an enforcement, more than what in terms Of courtesy, so great a prince may hope for.

Dal. My name is Dalyell.

Oxf. 'Tis a name hath won
Both thanks and wonder, from report, my lord;
The court of England emulates your merit,
And covets to embrace you.

Dal. I must wait on
The princess in her fortunes.

Oxf. Will you please,
Great lady, to set forward?

Kath. Being driven
By fate, it were in vain to strive with heaven.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Salisbury.
Enter King HENRY, SURREY, Urswick, and a

Guard of Soldiers.
K. Hen. The counterfeit king Perkin is es-

caped:-
Escape! so let him; he is hedged too fast
Within the circuit of our English pale,
To steal out of our ports, or leap the walls
Which guard our land; the seas are rough, and

wider Than his weak arms can tug with. Surrey, hence

forth
Your king may reign in quiet; turmoils past,
Like some unquiet dream, have rather busied
Our fancy, than affrighted rest of state.-
But, Surrey," why, in articling a peace
With James of Scotland, was not restitution
Of losses which our subjects did sustain
By the Scotch inroads, question'd?.

Sur. Both demanded
And urged, my lord; to which the king replied,

• But, Surrey, why, &c.] Henry seems to have taken an odd time to question Surrey on this point. Perhaps the poet here, as in a former scene, intended to characterise the eager cupidity of the king, always alive to his pecuniary interests. The passage stands thus in Bacon. “The bishop (Fox) demanded restitution of the spoils taken by the Scotish, as damages for the same. But the Scotish commissioners answered, that that was but as water spilt upon the ground, which could not be gotten up again ; and that the king's people were better able to bear the loss, than their master, to repair it."

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