Page images
PDF
EPUB

But we shall teach the lad another language: 'Tis good we have him fast.

Daw. The hangman's physic

Will purge this saucy humour.
K. Hen. Very likely :

Yet we could temper mercy with extremity,
Being not too far provoked.

Enter OXFORD, Katherine in her richest Attire, DALYELL, JANE, and Attendants.

Orf. Great sir, be pleased,

With your accustom'd grace, to entertain
The princess Katherine Gordon.

K. Hen. Oxford, herein

We must beshrew thy knowledge of our nature.
A lady of her birth and virtues could not
Have found us so unfurnish'd of good manners,
As not, on notice given, to have met her
Half way in point of love. Excuse, fair cousin,
The oversight! oh fie! you may not kneel;
'Tis most unfitting: first, vouchsafe this welcome,
A welcome to your own; for you shall find us
But guardian to your fortune and your honours.
Kath. My fortunes and mine honours are weak
champions,

As both are now befriended, sir; however,
Both bow before your clemency.

K. Hen. Our arms

Shall circle them from malice-a sweet lady!
Beauty incomparable !-here lives majesty
At league with love.

Kath. Oh, sir, I have a husband.

K. Hen. We'll prove your father, husband, friend, and servant,

Prove what you wish to grant us. Lords, be careful
A patent presently be drawn, for issuing

A thousand pounds from our exchequer yearly,
During our cousin's life; our queen shall be
Your chief companion, our own court your home,
Our subjects all your servants.

Kath. But my husband?

K. Hen. By all descriptions, you are noble Dalyell,

Whose generous truth hath famed a rare obser

vance.

We thank you; 'tis a goodness gives addition
To every title boasted from your ancestry,
In all most worthy.

Dal. Worthier than your praises,

Right princely sir, I need not glory in.

K. Hen. Embrace him, lords. Whoever calls you mistress,

Is lifted in our charge:-a goodlier beauty

Mine eyes yet ne'er encounter'd.

Kath. Cruel misery

Of fate! what rests to hope for?

K. Hen. Forward, lords,

To London. Fair, ere long, I shall present you With a glad object, peace, and Huntley's blessing.

[Exeunt.

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

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; 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."

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

« PreviousContinue »