PROLOGUE STUDIES have of this nature been of late Who bids them be in love with their own wits. A history of noble mention, known, Famous, and true; most noble, 'cause our own; Of brave attempts as ever fertile rage DRAMATIS PERSONE. HENRY VII. Lord DAWBENEY. Sir WILLIAM STANLEY, Lord Chamberlain. Earl of OXFORD. Earl of SURREY. Fox, Bishop of Durham. URSWICK, Chaplain to the King. Sir ROBERT CLIFFORD. LAMBERT SIMNEL. HIALAS, a Spanish Agent. Earl of CRAWFORD. Lord DALYELL. MARCHMONT, a Herald. PERKIN WARBECK. STEPHEN FRION, his Secretary. JOHN A-WATER, Mayor of Cork. HERON, a Mercer. SKELTON, a Tailor. ASTLEY, a Scrivener. Sheriff, Constable, Officers, Messenger, Guards, Soldiers, Masquers, and Attendants. Lady KATHERINE GORDON. Countess of CRAWFORD. JANE DOUGLAS, Lady Katherine's attendant. SCENE-Partly in ENGLAND, partly in SCOTLAND SCENE I. Westminster. The royal Presence-chamber. Enter King HENRY, supported to the throne by the Bishop of DURHAM and Sir WILLIAM STANLEY; Earls of OXFORD and SURREY, and Lord DAWBENEY. A Guard. ING HEN. Still to be haunted, still to be pursued, Still to be frightened with false apparitions Of pageant majesty and new-coined As if we were a mockery king in state, 1 66 At this time the king began again to be haunted with sprites by the magic and curious arts of the Lady Margaret, who raised up the ghost of Richard, Duke of York, second son to King Edward the Fourth, to walk and vex the king," &c.-Bacon's Henry VII. And bleeding wounds of England's slaughtered people Dur. Of discord and ambition: this hot vengeance And desolation had rained on, but that Edward and Richard, the inheritance Of a most bloody purchase: these young princes, For this poor panting island, if some shreds, Oxf. Blows fresh coals of division. Margaret of Burgundy 1 An allusion to the armorial bearings of Richard III, Sur. Painted fires, Without or heat to scorch or light to cherish. Daw. York's headless trunk, her father; Edward's fate, Her brother, king; the smothering of her nephews By tyrant Gloster, brother to her nature; Nor Gloster's own confusion,-all decrees Sacred in heaven,-can move this woman-monster, Of devilish policies, doth vent the ore Of troubles and sedition. Great sir, observe the wonder-she grows fruitful, At nine or ten months' end; she has been with child Is fifteen years of age at his first entrance, As soon as known i' the world; tall striplings, strong Idols of Yorkish malice. Daw. And but idols ; A steely hammer crushes 'em to pieces. K. Hen. Lambert, the eldest, lords, is in our service, Preferred by an officious care of duty From the scullery to a falconer;2 strange example! 1 "It is the strangest thing in the world," said Henry's ambassador to the archduke, "that the Lady Margaret should now, when she is old, at the time when other women give-over child-bearing, bring forth two such monsters, being not the births of nine or ten months, but of many years. And whereas other natural mothers Iring forth children weak and not able to help themselves, she bringeth forth tall striplings, able soon after their coming into the world to bid battle to mighty kings." 2 Lambert Simnel, taken prisoner at the battle of Newark, had been made a turnspit in the king's kitchen, and was afterwards promoted to the office of under-falconer. Ford. CC |