A staff is quickly found to beat a dog.

Car. My liege, his railing is intolerable.
If those that care to keep your royal person
From treason's secret knife, and traitors' rage,
Be thus upbraided, chid, and rated at,
And the offender granted scope of speech,
"Twill make them cool in zeal unto your grace.
Suf. Hath he not twit our sovereign lady, here,
With ignominious words, though clerkly couch'd,
As if she had suborned some to swear

False allegations to o'erthrow his state?

Q. Mar. But I can give the loser leave to chide.
Glo. Far truer spoke, than meant: I lose, indeed.
Beshrew the winners, for they played me false;
And well such losers may have leave to speak.

Buck. He'll wrest the sense, and hold us here all day.— Lord cardinal, he is your prisoner.

Car. Sirs, take away the duke, and guard him sure.
Glo. Ah! thus king Henry throws away his crutch,
Before his legs be firm to bear his body:

Thus is the shepherd beaten from thy side,
And wolves are gnarling who shall gnaw thee first.
Ah, that my fear were false! ah, that it were!

For, good king Henry, thy decay I fear.

[Exeunt Attendants with GLOSTER. K. Hen. My lords, what to your wisdoms seemeth best,

Do, or undo, as if ourself were here.

[Rising. Q. Mar. What will your highness leave the parliament ? K. Hen. Ay, Margaret, my heart is drown'd with grief, Whose flood begins to flow within mine eyes;

My body round engirt with misery,

For what's more miserable than discontent ?-
Ah, uncle Humphrey! in thy face I see
The map of honour, truth, and loyalty;

And yet, good Humphrey, is the hour to come
That e'er I prov'd thee false, or fear'd thy faith.
What lowering star now envies thy estate,

some modern editors read affected, which, in the language of the time, meant beloved. In proof that our interpretation is correct, it may be stated that "The First Part of the Contention," 1594, reads perform'd for "effected."

Rising.] This stage-direction is from the corr. fo. 1632, and proves that it was then the custom of the stage for the King to quit his seat, and to make his last speech standing.

That these great lords, and Margaret our queen,
Do seek subversion of thy harmless life?

Thou never didst them wrong, nor no man wrong:
And as the butcher takes away the calf,

And binds the wretch, and beats it when it strays,
Bearing it to the bloody slaughter-house,
Even so, remorseless, have they borne him hence;
And as the dam runs lowing up and down,
Looking the way her harmless young one went,
And can do nought but wail her darling's loss,
Even so myself bewails good Gloster's case,
With sad unhelpful tears; and with dimm'd eyes
Look after him, and cannot do him good,
So mighty are his vowed enemies.

His fortunes I will weep; and, 'twixt each groan,

Say "Who's a traitor? Gloster! he is none."

[Exit.

Q. Mar. Free lords', cold snow melts with the sun's hot

beams.

Henry, my lord, is cold in great affairs,

Too full of foolish pity; and Gloster's show
Beguiles him, as the mournful crocodile
With sorrow snares relenting passengers;
Or as the snake, roll'd in a flowering bank,
With shining checker'd slough, doth sting a child,
That for the beauty thinks it excellent.

Believe me, lords, were none more wise than I,
(And yet herein I judge mine own wit good)
This Gloster should be quickly rid the world,
To rid us from the fear we have of him.

Car. That he should die is worthy policy,
But yet we want a colour for his death:
'Tis meet he be condemn'd by course of law.
Suf. But, in my mind, that were no policy:
The king will labour still to save his life;
The commons haply rise to save his life:
And yet we have but trivial argument",

More than mistrust, that shows him worthy death.

Free lords,] The epithet "free" is changed to fair in the corr. fo. 1632, but without any very evident propriety: "free" seems, however, rather an unusual mode of address under such circumstances.

* AND yet we have but trivial argument,] It is "As yet," &c. in the corr. fo. 1632, which is probably right; but "And" is hardly so certainly wrong as to warrant us in making the change.

York. So that, by this, you would not have him die.

Suf. Ah, York! no man alive so fain as I.

9

York. 'Tis York that hath more reason for his death.

But, my lord cardinal, and you, my lord of Suffolk,
Say, as you think, and speak it from your souls,
Wer't not all one an empty eagle were set
To guard the chicken from a hungry kite,

As place duke Humphrey for the king's protector?

Q. Mar. So the poor chicken should be sure of death.
Suf. Madam, 'tis true: and wer't not madness, then,
To make the fox surveyor of the fold?
Who, being accus'd a crafty murderer,
His guilt should be but idly posted over,
Because his purpose is not executed?
No; let him die, in that he is a fox,
By nature prov'd an enemy to the flock,
Before his chaps be stain'd with crimson blood,
As Humphrey prov'd, by reasons, to my liege.
And do not stand on quillets' how to slay him:
Be it by gins, by snares, by subtlety,
Sleeping, or waking, 'tis no matter how,
So he be dead; for that is good deceit
Which mates him first', that first intends deceit.
Q. Mar. Thrice noble Suffolk, 'tis resolutely spoke.
Suf. Not resolute, except so much were done,
For things are often spoke, and seldom meant;
But, that my heart accordeth with my tongue,-
Seeing the deed is meritorious,

And to preserve my sovereign from his foe,

9

that hath MORE reason] "More reason" is in the same predicament as the last proposed emendation in the corr. fo. 1632: "more " is there altered to most, with some appearance of fitness; but in cases like the present, it seems probable that the marginal memoranda of the old annotator represent a difference of reci. tation, on some occasion when he was present at the acting of the play.

46

1 And do not stand on QUILLETS] i. e. On quidlibets, of which it is an abridgment: it means usually in Shakespeare nice distinctions, or legal subtleties. We have already had the word in Love's Labour's Lost," A. iv. sc. 3; and in "Henry VI., Pt. I.," A. ii. sc. 4, in the expression "nice sharp quillets of the law." Coles, in his Dict., renders "quillet res frivola.

2 Which MATES him first,] To "mate" is to destroy or confound, and in that sense it is often used by Shakespeare, as well as by Greene, Peele, Drayton, &c. See "The Comedy of Errors," A. iii. sc. 2. The etymology has been doubted, but in Spanish the ordinary sense of matar is to kill or destroy. It seems to have been figuratively applied to chess: Palsgrave translates Je amatte, I mate or overcome, and I mate at chess. The Prompt. Parv. has “matyn and matted at the chesse," but nothing more: Edit. Camd. Soc. p. 329.

Say but the word, and I will be his priest.

Car. But I would have him dead, my lord of Suffolk, Ere you can take due orders for a priest.

Say, you consent, and censure well the deed,

And I'll provide his executioner;

I tender so the safety of my liege.

Suf. Here is my hand; the deed is worthy doing.
Q. Mar. And so say I.

York. And I and now we three have spoke it,
It skills not greatly who impugns our doom.

Enter a Messenger.

Mess. Great lords, from Ireland am I come amain,

To signify that rebels there are up,

And put the Englishmen unto the sword.

Send succours, lords, and stop the rage betime,
Before the wound do grow incurable;

For, being green, there is great hope of help.

Car. A breach that craves a quick expedient stop! What counsel give you in this weighty cause?

York. That Somerset be sent as regent thither.
'Tis meet that lucky ruler be employ'd;
Witness the fortune he hath had in France.

Som. If York, with all his far-fet policy,
Had been the regent there, instead of me,
He never would have stay'd in France so long.
York. No, not to lose it all, as thou hast done.
I rather would have lost my life betimes,
Than bring a burden of dishonour home,
By staying there so long, till all were lost.
Show me one scar character'd on thy skin:
Men's flesh preserv'd so whole do seldom win.

Q. Mar. Nay then, this spark will prove a raging fire,
If wind and fuel be brought to feed it with.-
No more, good York;-sweet Somerset, be still :-
Thy fortune, York, hadst thou been regent there,
Might happily have prov'd far worse than his.

3 It SKILLS not] An idiomatic phrase for "it matters not,” or “it does not signify." See "Twelfth Night," A. v. sc. 1, Vol. ii. p. 720.

a quick EXPEDIENT stop!] Here the sense of "expedient" might be convenient or fitting: but it is constantly used by Shakespeare for expeditious, as we have already seen in "King John," A. ii. sc. 1, and A. iv. sc. 2, &c. In "The Tempest " alone (A. v. sc. 1) he has "expeditious."

York. What, worse than naught? nay, then a shame

take all.

Som. And, in the number, thee, that wishest shame.

Car. My lord of York, try what your fortune is.
The uncivil kernes of Ireland' are in arms,
And temper clay with blood of Englishmen :
To Ireland will you lead a band of men,
Collected choicely, from each county some,
And try your hap against the Irishmen ?

York. I will, my lord, so please his majesty.
Suf. Why our authority is his consent,
And what we do establish, he confirms:
Then, noble York, take thou this task in hand.

York. I am content.-Provide me soldiers, lords,
Whiles I take order for mine own affairs.

Suf. A charge, lord York, that I will see perform'd.
But now return we to the false duke Humphrey.

Car. No more of him; for I will deal with him,
That henceforth, he shall trouble us no more:
And so break off; the day is almost spent.
Lord Suffolk, you and I must talk of that event.
York. My lord of Suffolk, within fourteen days,
At Bristol I expect my soldiers,
Ι

For there I'll ship them all for Ireland.

Suf. I'll see it truly done, my lord of York.

[Exeunt all but YORK.

York. Now, York, or never, steel thy fearful thoughts,

And change misdoubt to resolution:

Be that thou hop'st to be, or what thou art

Resign to death; it is not worth the enjoying.

Let pale-fac'd fear keep with the mean-born man,

And find no harbour in a royal heart.

Faster than spring-time showers comes thought on thought,

And not a thought but thinks on dignity.

My brain, more busy than the labouring spider,

Weaves tedious snares to trap mine enemies.

Well, nobles, well; 'tis politicly done,

To send me packing with an host of men :

I fear me you but warm the starved snake,

kernes of Ireland] Irish peasants were sometimes called "kernes," but here they mean light-armed foot-soldiers. See " Richard II.," A. ii. sc. 1, Vol. iii. p. 245. Skinner derives the word from the A. S. cyrran, from the admitted activity of the Irish in turning.