To Scotland, for a peace between our kingdoms,
A policy of love, which well becomes
His wisdom and our care.

Your knowledge can instruct me; wherein, sir, To fall on ceremony, would seem useless, Which shall not need; for I will be as studious your concealment in our conference,

Of

As

any council shall advise.

Hial. Then, sir,

My chief request is, that on notice given
At my dispatch in Scotland, you will send
Some learned man of power and experience
To join entreaty with me.

K. Hen. I shall do it,

Being that way well provided by a servant,
Which may attend you ever.

Hial. If king James,

By any indirection, should perceive

My coming near your court, I doubt the issue Of my employment.

K. Hen. Be not your own herald:

I learn sometimes without a teacher.
Hial. Good days

Guard all your princely thoughts!

K. Hen. Urswick, no further

Than the next open gallery attend him --
A hearty love go with you!

Hial. Your vow'd beadsman."

[Exeunt URS. and HIAL.

K. Hen. King Ferdinand is not so much a fox, But that a cunning huntsman may in time Fall on the scent; in honourable actions Safe imitation best deserves a praise.

Re-enter URSWICK.

What, the Castillian's past away?

Urs. He is,

And undiscover'd; the two hundred marks
Your majesty convey'd, he gently purs'd
With a right modest gravity.

K. Hen. What was't

He mutter'd in the earnest of his wisdom?
He spoke not to be heard; 'twas about-
Urs. Warbeck;

"How if king Henry were but sure of subjects, Such a wild runnagate might soon be caged, No great ado withstanding."

K. Hen. Nay, nay; something About my son prince Arthur's match.

Urs. Right, right sir:

He humm'd it out, how that king Ferdinand Swore, that the marriage 'twixt the lady Kathe

rine,

His daughter, and the prince of Wales your son,

6 Your vow'd beadsman.] One bound to pray for you; from bede, the old English word for prayer: at this time, however, the expression was sufficiently familiar, and meant little more than the common language of civility—your vowed or devoted servant.

Should never be consummated, as long earl of Warwick lived in England, Except by new creation.

As any

K. Hen. I remember,

'Twas so indeed: the king his master swore it? Urs. Directly, as he said.

K. Hen. An earl of Warwick!

Provide a messenger for letters instantly

To bishop Fox. Our news from Scotland creeps; It comes too slow; we must have airy spirits, Our time requires dispatch.-The earl of Warwick!

Let him be son to Clarence," younger brother To Edward! Edward's daughter is, I think, Mother to our prince Arthur-[Aside.]-Get a messenger. [Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

Before the Castle of Norham.

Enter King JAMES, WARBECK, CRAWFORD, DALYELL, HERON, ASTLEY, JOHN A-WATER, SKETON, and Soldiers.

K. Ja. We trifle time against these castle-walls, The English prelate will not yield: once more Give him a summons! [A parley is sounded.

7 Let him be son to Clarence, &c.] These are ominous musings of the king, who eagerly caught at the words of Ferdinand, as given above, and sought "to export the odium of this innocent prince's execution out of the land, and lay it upon his new ally."

Enter on the walls the Bishop of DURHAM, armed, a truncheon in his hand, with Soldiers.

War. See the jolly clerk

Appears, trimm'd like a ruffian.

K. Ja. Bishop, yet

Set ope the ports, and to your lawful sovereign,
Richard of York, surrender up this castle,

And he will take thee to his grace; else Tweed
Shall overflow his banks with English blood,
And wash the sand that cements those hard stones,
From their foundation.

Dur. Warlike king of Scotland,

Vouchsafe a few words from a man enforced

8

To lay his book aside, and clap on arms,
Unsuitable to my age, or my profession.
Courageous prince, consider on what grounds,
You rend the face of peace, and break a league
With a confederate king that courts your amity;
For whom too? for a vagabond, a straggler,
Not noted in the world by birth or name,
An obscure peasant, by the rage of hell

Loos'd from his chains, to set great kings at strife.

What nobleman, what common man of note,
What ordinary subject hath come in,
Since first you footed on our territories,
To only feign a welcome? children laugh at

And clap on arms.] So the old copy: it is not improbable, however, that the poet's word was clasp.

Your proclamations, and the wiser pity
So great a potentate's abuse, by one

Who juggles merely with the fawns and youth
Of an instructed compliment: such spoils,
Such slaughters as the rapine of your soldiers
Already have committed, is enough

To shew your zeal in a conceited justice.

Yet, great king, wake not yet my master's vengeance;

But shake that viper off which gnaws your en

trails!

I, and my fellow-subjects are resolv'd,
If you persist, to stand your utmost fury,
Till our last blood drop from us.

War. O sir, lend

No ear to this traducer of my honour!-9
What shall I call thee, thou grey-bearded scandal,
That kick'st against the sovereignty to which
Thou owest allegiance?-Treason is bold-faced,
And eloquent in mischief; sacred king,
Be deaf to his known malice.

Dur. Rather yield

Unto those holy motions which inspire
The sacred heart of an anointed body!

It is the surest policy in princes,

To govern well their own, than seek encroach

ment

Upon another's right.

9

to this traducer, &c.] The 4to, by an evident over

sight, reads to this seducer, &c. the same line-me for no.

There is another misprint in