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SCENE III.

London.-The Tower-hill.

Enter Constable and Officers, WARBECK, URSWICK, and LAMBERT SIMNEL as a Falconer, followed by the rabble.

Const. Make room there! keep off, I require you; and none come within twelve foot of his majesty's new stocks, upon pain of displeasure. Bring forward the malefactors.-Friend, you must to this geer, no remedy.-Open the hole, and in with the legs, just in the middle hole; there, that hole. Keep off, or I'll commit you all! shall not a man in authority be obeyed? So, so, there; 'tis as it should be:-[WARBECK is put in the stocks.] put on the padlock, and give me the key. Off, I say, keep off.

Urs. Yet, Warbeck, clear thy conscience; thou hast tasted

King Henry's mercy liberally; the law

Has forfeited thy life; an equal jury

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Have doom'd thee to the gallows. Twice most wickedly,

Most desperately hast thou escaped the Tower;
Inveigling to thy party, with thy witchcraft,
Young Edward, earl of Warwick, son to Clarence;
Whose head must pay the price of that attempt;
Poor gentleman!-unhappy in his fate,—
And ruin'd by thy cunning! so a mongrel

May pluck the true stag down. Yet, yet, confess Thy parentage; for yet the king has mercy.

Simn. You would be Dick the Fourth, very likely!

Your pedigree is publish'd;3 you are known
For Osbeck's son of Tournay, a loose runagate,
A land-loper; your father was a Jew,
Turn'd Christian merely to repair his miseries :
Where's now your kingship?

War. Baited to my death?

Intolerable cruelty! I laugh at

The duke of Richmond's practice on my fortunes; Possession of a crown ne'er wanted heralds.

Simn. You will not know who I am?

Urs. Lambert Simnel,

Your predecessor in a dangerous uproar:
But, on submission, not alone received

To grace, but by the king vouchsafed his service.
Simn. I would be earl of Warwick, toil'd and

ruffled

Against my master, leap'd to catch the moon,

3 Your pedigree is publish'd, &c.] From Bacon." Thus it was. There was a townsman of Tournay, whose name was John Osbeck, a convert Jew, married to Catherine de Faro, whose business drew him to live, for a time, with his wife at London, in King Edward the IVth's days. During which time he had a son by her; and being known in court, the king did him the honour to stand godfather to his child, and named him Peter. But afterwards proving a dainty and effeminate youth, he was commonly called by the diminutive of his name, Peter-kin or Perkin." The term land-loper, applied to him by Simnel, is also from the historian. He (Perkin) had been from his childhood such a wanderer, or, as the king called him, such a land-loper, as it was extreme hard to hunt out his nest."

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Vaunted my name Plantagenet, as you do;
An earl forsooth! whenas in truth I was,
As you are, a mere rascal: yet his majesty,
A prince composed of sweetness,-Heaven protect
him!-

Forgave me all my villanies, reprieved
The sentence of a shameful end, admitted
My surety of obedience to his service,
And I am now his falconer; live plenteously,
Eat from the king's purse, and enjoy the sweetness
Of liberty and favour; sleep securely :

And is not this, now, better than to buffet

The hangman's clutches? or to brave the cordage
Of a tough halter, which will break your neck?
So, then, the gallant totters!-prithee, Perkin,
Let my example lead thee; be no longer
A counterfeit; confess and hope for pardon.
War. For pardon? hold my heart-strings, whilst
contempt

Of injuries, in scorn, may bid defiance

To this base man's foul language! Thou poor vermin,

How dar'st thou creep so near me? thou an earl!
Why, thou enjoy'st as much of happiness

As all the swing of slight ambition flew at.
A dunghill was thy cradle. So a puddle,
By virtue of the sunbeams, breathes a vapour
To infect the purer air, which drops again
Into the muddy womb that first exhaled it.
Bread, and a slavish ease, with some assurance

From the base beadle's whip, crown'd all thy

hopes:

But, sirrah, ran there in thy veins one drop
Of such a royal blood as flows in mine,

Thou would'st not change condition, to be second
In England's state, without the crown itself!
Coarse creatures are incapable of excellence :
But let the world, as all, to whom I am
This day a spectacle, to time deliver,
And, by tradition, fix posterity,
Without another chronicle than truth,
How constantly my resolution suffer'd
A martyrdom of majesty !

Simn. He's past

Recovery; a Bedlam cannot cure him.

Urs. Away, inform the king of his behaviour.

Simn. Perkin, beware the rope! the hangman's

coming.

Urs. If yet thou hast no pity of thy body,

Pity thy soul!

[Exit.

Enter KATHERINE, JANE, DALYELL, and Ox

Jane. Dear lady!

FORD.

Oxf. Whither will you,
Without respect of shame?
Kath. Forbear me, sir,

And trouble not the current of my duty!-
Oh my lov'd lord! can any scorn be yours
In which I have no interest? some kind hand

Lend me assistance, that I may partake

Th' infliction of this penance. My life's dearest, Forgive me; I have staid too long from tend'ring Attendance on reproach, yet bid me welcome.

War. Great miracle of constancy! my miseries Were never bankrupt of their confidence In worst afflictions, till this-now, I feel them. Report, and thy deserts, thou best of creatures, Might to eternity have stood a pattern For every virtuous wife, without this conquest. Thou hast outdone belief; yet may their ruin In after marriages, be never pitied,

To whom thy story shall appear a fable!
Why would'st thou prove so much unkind to
greatness,

To glorify thy vows by such a servitude?
I cannot weep; but trust me, dear, my heart
Is liberal of passion: Harry Richmond,

A woman's faith hath robb'd thy fame of triumph!

Orf. Sirrah, leave off your juggling, and tie up The devil that ranges in your tongue.

Urs. Thus witches,

Possess'd, even [to] their deaths deluded,+ say,

Thus witches,

Possess'd, even to their deaths deluded, &c.] The old copy is imperfect here; it reads,

Possess'd, even their deaths deluded, &c. Perhaps it may be set right by a change still more slight than that of the text, by reading e'en in, for even. Of the fact itself, the age of our poet afforded unfortunately too many instances.

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