*So Suffolk had thy heavenly company:

* For where thou art, there is the world itself,
* With every several pleasure in the world;
* And where thou art not, desolation 27.
* I can no more:-Live thou to joy thy life;
Myself no joy in nought, but that thou liv'st.

*

Enter VAUX.

Q. Mar. Whither goes Vaux so fast? what news, I pr'ythee?

Vaux. To signify unto his majesty,

That cardinal Beaufort is at point of death:
For suddenly a grievous sickness took him,
That makes him gasp, and stare, and catch the air,
Blaspheming God, and cursing men on earth.
Sometime, he talks as if Duke Humphrey's ghost
Were by his side; sometime, he calls the king,
And whispers to his pillow, as to him,

6

* The secrets of his overcharged soul 28: And I am sent to tell his majesty,

That even now he cries aloud for him.

'Q. Mar. Go, tell this heavy message to the king.

[Exit VAUX. Ah me! what is this world? what news are these? But wherefore grieve I at an hour's poor loss 29, 27 'Nec sine te pulchrum dias in luminis auras

Exoritur, neque sit lætum nec amabile quicquam.'
Lucretius.

And, still more elegantly, Milton, in a passage of his Comus (afterwards omitted), ver. 214, &c.:

while I see you,

This dusky hollow is a paradise,
And heaven gates o'er my head.'

Infected minds

To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.'

Macbeth.

29 Why do I lament a circumstance of which the impression will pass away in an hour; while I neglect to think on the loss of Suffolk, my affection for whom no time will efface?'

Omitting Suffolk's exile, my soul's treasure?
Why only, Suffolk, mourn I not for thee,
And with the southern clouds contend in tears;
Theirs for the earth's increase, mine for my sorrows?
Now, get thee hence: The king, thou know'st, is
coming?

If thou be found by me, thou art but dead.

Suf. If I depart from thee, I cannot live: And in thy sight to die, what were it else, But like a pleasant slumber in thy lap? Here could I breathe my soul into the air, 'As mild and gentle as the cradle-babe, Dying with mother's dug between its lips: Where 30, from thy sight, I should be raging mad, And cry out for thee to close up mine eyes, To have thee with thy lips to stop my mouth; 'So should'st thou either turn my flying soul 31, • Or I should breathe it so into thy body, And then it liv'd in sweet Elysium.

To die by thee, were but to die in jest;

From thee to die, were torture more than death;
O, let me stay, befall what may befall.

'Q. Mar. Away! though parting be a fretful cor'sive 32

It is applied to a deathful wound.

'To France, sweet Suffolk: Let me hear from thee;

30 Where for whereas; as in other places. Thus in The Two Gentlemen of Verona :

And where I thought the remnant of mine age,' &c. 31 Pope was indebted to this passage in his Eloisa to Abelard, where he makes that votarist of exquisite sensibility say:

See my lips tremble, and my eyeballs roll,

Suck my last breath, and catch my flying soul.'

32 Corrosive was generally pronounced and most frequently written corsive in Shakspeare's time. See Mr. Nares's Glossary in voce. The accent, as Mr. Todd observes, being then on the first syllable, the word was easily thus abbreviated.

• For wheresoe'er thou art in this world's globe, I'll have an Iris 33 that shall find thee out.

Suf. I go.

Q. Mar.

And take my heart with thee.

Suf. A jewel, lock'd into the woeful'st cask That ever did contain a thing of worth.

Even as a splitted bark, so sunder we;

This way

Q. Mar.

fall I to death.

This way for me.

[Exeunt, severally.

SCENE III. London.

Cardinal Beaufort's Bedchamber.

Enter KING HENRY', SALISBURY, WARWICK, and Others. The Cardinal in Bed; Attendants with him.

* K. Hen. How fares my lord? speak, Beaufort, to thy sovereign.

⚫ Car. If thou be'st death, I'll give thee England's

treasure 2,

Enough to purchase such another island,

So thou wilt let me live, and feel no pain.

* K. Hen. Ah, what a sign it is of evil life, * When death's approach is seen so terrible! * War. Beaufort, it is thy sovereign speaks to thee. *Car. Bring me unto my trial when you will. 'Died he not in his bed? where should he die?

33 Iris was the messenger of Juno.

The quarto offers this stage-direction:- Enter the King and Salisbury, and then the curtaines be drawne, and the Cardinal is discovered in his bed, raving and staring as if he were mad.' This description did not escape Shakspeare, for he has availed himself of it in a preceding speech by Vaux, p. 206.

2 A passage in Hall's Chronicle, Henry VI. fol. 70, b. suggested the corresponding lines in the old play.

Can I make men live, whe'r they will or no?— * O! torture me no more, I will confess.'Alive again? then show me where he is; 'I'll give a thousand pound to look upon him.* He hath no eyes, the dust hath blinded them.• Comb down his hair; look! look! it stands upright,

Like lime-twigs set to catch my winged soul!Give me some drink; and bid the apothecary

Bring the strong poison that I bought of him.

* K. Hen. O thou eternal Mover of the heavens, * Look with a gentle eye upon this wretch! * O, beat away the busy meddling fiend, * That lays strong siege unto this wretch's soul, * And from his bosom purge this black despair! ' War. See, how the pangs of death do make him grin.

* Sal. Disturb him not, let him pass peaceably. * K. Hen. Peace to his soul, if God's good pleasure be!

Lord cardinal, if thou think'st on heaven's bliss, Hold up thy hand 5, make signal of thy hopeHe dies, and makes no sign; O God, forgive him!

3 'We cannot hold mortality's strong hand:-
Why do you bend such solemn brows on me?
Think you, I bear the shears of destiny?
Have I commandment on the pulse of life?

4

Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
Which thou dost glare with.'

King John.

Macbeth.

5 Thus in the old play of King John, 1591, Pandulph sees the king dying, and says:

Then, good my lord, if you forgive them all,

Lift up your hand, in token you forgive.'

And again :

Lift up thy hand, that we may witness here

Thou diest the servant of our Saviour Christ.'

' War. So bad a death argues a monstrous life. 'K. Hen. Forbear to judge, for we are sinners

Firing heard at Sea.

Then enter, from a Boat, a Captain, a Master, a Master's Mate, WALTER WHITMORE, and Others; with them SUFFolk, and other Gentlemen, prisoners.

* Cap. The gaudy, blabbing, and remorseful2 day * Is crept into the bosom of the sea;

* And now loud howling wolves arouse the jades

6 Peccantes culpare cave, nam labimur omnes

Aut sumus, aut fuimus, vel possumus esse, quod hic est.' This is one of the scenes which have been applauded by the critics, and which will continue to be admired when prejudices shall cease, and bigotry give way to impartial examination. These are beauties that rise out of nature and of truth; the superficial reader cannot miss them, the profound can image nothing beyond them.'-Johnson.

There is a curious circumstantial account of the event on which this scene is founded in the Paston Letters, published by Sir John Fenn, vol. i. p. 38, Letter X. The scene is founded on the narration of Hall, which is copied by Holinshed.

2 The epithet blabbing, applied to the day by a man about to commit murder, is exquisitely beautiful. Guilt, if afraid of light, considers darkness as a natural shelter, and makes night the confidant of those actions which cannot be trusted to the tell-tale day.-Johnson.

Spenser and Milton make use of the epithet:-
For Venus hated his all-blabbing light.'

Britain's Ida, c. ii.

'Ere the blabbing eastern scout.'

Comus, v. 138.

Remorseful is pitiful.