Your duchess-aunt, informed her nephew; so, The lesson prompted and well conned, was moulded Till, learnt by heart, 'tis now received for truth. War. Truth, in her pure simplicity, wants art The sphere of majesty: in such a court By which the sovereign is best distinguished K. Hen. Sirrah, shift Your antic pageantry, and now appear In your own nature, or you'll taste the danger War. I expect No less than what severity calls justice, And politicians safety; let such beg As feed on alms: but if there can be mercy In a protested enemy, then may it Descend to these poor creatures, whose engagements, A loss of all; to them if any charity Flow from some noble orator, in death I owe the fee of thankfulness. K. Hen. So brave! What a bold knave is this!--Which of these rebels Has been the Mayor of Cork? Daw. This wise formality. [They kneel. Canst thou hope Kneel to the king, ye rascals! K. Hen. A pardon, where thy guilt is so apparent? J. a- Wat. Under your good favours, as men are men,' they may err; for I confess, respectively, in taking great parts, the one side prevailing, the other side must go down herein the point is clear, if the proverb hold, that hanging goes by destiny, that it is to little purpose to say, this thing or that shall be thus or thus; for, as the Fates will have it, so it must be; and who can help it ? Daw. O, blockhead! thou a privy-counsellor? Beg life, and cry aloud, "Heaven save King Henry!" J. a- Wat. Every man knows what is best, as it happens; for my own part, I believe it is true, if I be not deceived, that kings must be kings and subjects subjects; but which is which, you shall pardon me for that: whether we speak or hold our peace, all are mortal; no man knows his end. K. Hen. We trifle time with follies. Her. John a- W. Ast. Skel. Mercy, mercy! K. Hen. Urswick, command the dukeling and these fellows To Digby, the lieutenant of the Tower: With safety let them be conveyed to London. It is our pleasure no uncivil outrage, Taunts or abuse be suffered to their persons; [They rise. They shall meet fairer law than they deserve. War. Noble thoughts Meet freedom in captivity: the Tower,— Our childhood's dreadful nursery! K. Hen. No more! Urs. Come, come, you shall have leisure to bethink ye. [Exit URSWICK with PERKIN WARBECK and his Followers, guarded. K. Hen. Was ever so much impudence in forgery? The custom, sure, of being styled a king. Hath fastened in his thought that he is such ; But we shall teach the lad another language: 'Tis good we have him fast. Daw. Will purge this saucy humour. K. Hen. The hangman's physic Very likely; Yet we could temper mercy with extremity, Enter Earl of Oxford, Lady KATHERINE in her richest attire, Lord DALYELL, JANE, and Attendants. Oxf. Great sir, be pleased, With your accustomed grace to entertain The Princess Katherine Gordon. K. Hen. 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! At league with love. Kath. O, 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 Kath. But my husband? Whose generous truth hath famed a rare observance. 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 encountered. Kath. Of fate! what rests to hope for? Cruel misery Forward, lords, To London.--Fair, ere long I shall present ye With a glad object, peace, and Huntley's blessing. [Exeunt. SCENE III.-London: The Tower-hill. Enter Constable and Officers, PERKIN WARBECK, URSWICK, and LAMBERT SIMNEL as a Falconer, followed by the rabble. Const. Make room there! keep off, I require ye; 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 gear, no remedy.-Open the hole, and in with his legs, just in the middle hole; there, that hole. [WARBECK is put in the stocks.]—Keep off, or I'll commit you all: shall not a man in authority be obeyed! So, so, there; 'tis as it should be: 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 Have doomed thee to the gallows; twice most wickedly, Young Edward Earl of Warwick, son to Clarence, And ruined by thy cunning! so a mongrel May pluck the true stag down. Yet, yet, confess Sim. You would be Dick the Fourth; very likely ! Turned Christian merely to repair his miseries : War. Intolerable cruelty! I laugh at Baited to my death? The Duke of Richmond's practice on my fortunes: Possession of a crown ne'er wanted heralds. Sim. You will not know who I am? Urs. Your predecessor in a dangerous uproar ; But, on submission, not alone received Lambert Simnel, To grace, but by the king vouchsafed his service. Simn. I would be Earl of Warwick, toiled and ruffled Against my master, leaped to catch the moon, Vaunted my name Plantagenet, as you do ; An earl, forsooth! whenas in truth I was, 1 Thus therefore it came to pass. There was a townsman of Tournay . . whose name was John Osbeck, a converted Jew, married to Katherine 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 as to be 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."-Bacon, 2 He (Perkin) had been from his childhood such a wanderer, or, as the king called it, such a landloper, as it was extreme hard to hunt out his nest."-Bacon. |
