Preserve you in your virtues!-Prithee, Dalyell,
Come with me; for I feel thy griefs as full
As mine; let's steal away and cry together.
Dal. My hopes are in their ruins.

[Exeunt HUNT. and DAL.

K. Ja. Good, kind Huntley

Is overjoy'd: a fit solemnity

Shall perfect these delights; Crawford, attend
Our order for the preparation.

[Exeunt all but FRION, HER. SKET. J. A-WAT. and

AST.

Fri. Now, worthy gentlemen, have I not follow'd My undertakings with success? Here's entrance Into a certainty above a hope.

Her. Hopes are but hopes; I was ever confident, when I traded but in remnants, that my stars had reserved me to the title of a viscount at least: honour is honour, though cut out of any stuffs.'

Sket. My brother Heron hath right wisely deliver'd his opinion; for he that threads his needle with the sharp eyes of industry, shall in time go thorough stitch with the new suit of preferment.

Ast. Spoken to the purpose, my fine witted brother Sketon; for as no indenture but has its counterpane; no noverint but his condition or defeisance; so no right but may have claim, no claim but may have possession, any act of parliament to the contrary notwithstanding.

Fri. You are all read in mysteries of state,
And quick of apprehension, deep in judgment,
Active in resolution; and 't is pity

Such counsel should lie buried in obscurity.
But why, in such a time and cause of triumph,
Stands the judicious mayor of Cork so silent?

1 Her. Honour is honour, though cut out of any stuffs.] Ford has made the speakers express themselves characteristically. Heron, or Herne, as Lord Bacon calls him, was a mercer; Sketon, or rather Skelton, was a tailor, and Astley a scrivener; they were all men of broken fortunes, a circumstance to which the poet frequently alludes.-GIFFORD.

Believe it, sir, as English Richard prospers,
You must not miss employment of high nature.

J. a-Wat. If men may be credited in their mortality, which I dare not peremptorily aver but they may, or not be; presumptions by this marriage are then, in sooth, of fruitful expectation. Or else I must not justify other men's belief, more than other should rely on mine.

Fri. Pith of experience; those that have borne office

Weigh every word before it can drop from them.
But, noble counsellors, since now the present
Requires, in point of honour (pray mistake not),
Some service to our lord, 't is fit the Scots
Should not engross all glory to themselves,
At this so grand and eminent solemnity.

Sket. The Scots? the motion is defied; I had rather, for my part, without trial of my country, suffer persecution under the pressing-iron of reproach; or let my skin be punch'd full of eyelet-holes with the bodkin of derision.

Ast. I will sooner lose both my ears on the pillory of forgery.

Her. Let me first live a bankrupt, and die, in the hole, of hunger, without compounding for sixpence in the pound.

J. a-Wat. If men fail not in their expectations, there may be spirits also that digest no rude affronts, master secretary Frion, or I am cozen'd; which is possible, I grant.

Fri. Resolv'd like men of knowledge! at this feast, then,

In honour of the bride, the Scots, I know,
Will in some show, some mask, or some device,
Prefer their duties: now, it were uncomely,
That we be found less forward for our prince,
Than they are for their lady; and by how much
We outshine them in persons of account,

By so much more will our endeavours meet with

A livelier applause. Great emperors
Have, for their recreations, undertook
Such kind of pastimes; as for the conceit,
Refer it to my study; the performance

You all shall share a thanks in: 't will be grateful. Her. The motion is allow'd; I have stole to a dancing-school when I was a 'prentice.

Ast. There have been Irish-hubbubs,' when I have made one too.

Sket. For fashioning of shapes, and cutting a cross caper, turn me off to my trade again.

J. a-Wat. Surely, there is, if I be not deceived, a kind of gravity in merriment; as there is, or perhaps ought to be, respect of persons in the quality of carriage, which is, as it is construed, either so, or so. Fri. Still you come home to me; upon occasion, I find you relish courtship with discretion: And such are fit for statesmen of your merits. Pray ye wait the prince, and in his ear acquaint him With this design; I'll follow and direct you. Oh the toil [Exeunt all but FRION. Of humouring this abject scum of mankind! Muddy-brain'd peasants! princes feel a misery Beyond impartial sufferance, whose extremes Must yield to such abetters:-yet2 our tide Runs smoothly without adverse winds; run on, Flow to a full sea! time alone debates Quarrels forewritten in the book of fates.

[Exit.

1 Irish-hubbubs.] Tumultuous merry-meetings at wakes and fairs.— The speakers, it should be observed, are all from Ireland. Astley, as has been said, was a pettifogger; his presence at these hubbubs, therefore, is natural enough.-GIFFORD.

2 i. e. as yet, hitherto, thus far, &c.; so p. 275, yet (i. e. thus far) we are safe.

ACT III. SCENE I.

Westminster-The Palace.

Enter King HENRY, with his gorget on, his sword, plume of feathers, and leading-staff (truncheon), followed by URSWICK.

K. Hen. How runs the time of day?
Urs. Past ten, my lord.

K. Hen. A bloody hour will it prove to some,
Whose disobedience, like the sons o' th' earth,
Throws a defiance 'gainst the face of Heaven.
Oxford, with Essex, and stout De la Pole,
Have quieted the Londoners, I hope,
And set them safe from fear.

Urs. They are all silent.

K. Hen. From their own battlements, they may behold

Saint George's fields o'erspread with armed men;
Among whom our own royal standard threatens
Confusion to opposers: we must learn

To practise war again in time of peace,
Or lay our crown before our subjects' feet;
Ha, Urswick, must we not?

Urs. The powers who seated

King Henry on his lawful throne will ever
Rise up in his defence.

K. Hen. Rage shall not fright

The bosom of our confidence; in Kent
Our Cornish 1ebels, cozen'd of their hopes,
Met brave resistance by that country's earl,
George Abergeny, Cobham, Poynings, Guilford,
And other loyal hearts; now, if Blackheath
Must be reserv'd the fatal tomb to swallow
Such stiff-neck'd abjects, as with weary marches
Have travell'd from their homes, their wives, and
children,

To pay,
instead of subsidies, their lives,
We may continue sovereign! Yet, Urswick,
We'll not abate one penny, what in parliament
Hath freely been contributed; we must not;
Money gives soul to action. Our competitor,
The Flemish counterfeit, with James of Scotland,
Will prove what courage need and want can nou-
rish,

ན

Without the food of fit supplies;-but, Urswick.

I have a charm in secret, that shall loose

The witchcraft, wherewith young King James is bound,

And free it at my pleasure without bloodshed.

Urs. Your majesty's a wise king, sent from heaven,

Protector of the just.

K. Hen. Let dinner cheerfully

Be serv'd in; this day of the week is ours,
Our day of providence; for Saturday

Yet never fail'd, in all my undertakings,

To yield me rest at night.'-[A Flourish.]-What means this warning?

Good fate, speak peace to Henry!

Enter DAWBENEY, OXFORD, and Attendants.

Daw. Live the king,

Triumphant in the ruin of his enemies!

Oxf. The head of strong rebellion is cut off, The body hew'd in pieces.

K. Hen. Dawbeney, Oxford,

Minions to noblest fortunes, how yet stands
The comfort of your wishes?

1

Daw. Briefly thus:

for Saturday

Yet never fail'd me, &c.] The king's predilection for Saturday is notice by Lord Bacon. Henry had taken great pains to induce the insurgents to believe that he intended to put off the action till the succeeding Monday: they fell into the snare, and were accordingly unprepared for the attack, which took place on Saturday, the 22d of June.GIFFORD.