West. This will I show the general. Please you,

lords,

In sight of both our battles we may meet:

And either end in peace, which heaven so frame! Or to the place of difference call the swords Which must decide it.

Arch.

My lord, we will do so. [Exit WEST. Mowb. There is a thing within my bosom, tells me, That no conditions of our peace can stand.

Hast. Fear you not that: if we can make our peace
Upon such large terms, and so absolute,
As our conditions shall consist 23 upon,

Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains.
Mowb. Ay, but our valuation shall be such,
That every slight and false-derived cause,
Yea, every idle, nice 24, and wanton reason,
Shall, to the king, taste of this action:
That, were our royal faiths 25 martyrs in love,
We shall be winnow'd with so rough a wind,
That even our corn shall seem as light as chaff,
And good from bad find no partition.

Arch. No, no, my lord; Note this, the king is

weary

Of dainty and such picking 26 grievances:

For he hath found,-to end one doubt by death,
Revives two greater in the heirs of life.
And therefore will he wipe his tables 27 clean;
And keep no tell-tale to his memory,

23 To consist, to rest; consisto.-Baret. So in Pericles :Then welcome peace, if he on peace consist.'

24 Trivial.

25 The faith due to a king. So in King Henry VIII. :-' The citizens have shown at full their royal minds,' i. e. their minds well affected to the king.

26 Piddling, insignificant.

27 Alluding to the table books of slate, ivory, &c. used by our

ancestors.

That may repeat and history his loss,

To new remembrance: For full well he knows,
He cannot so precisely weed this land,
As his misdoubts present occasion:
His foes are so enrooted with his friends,
That, plucking to unfix an enemy,
He doth unfasten so, and shake a friend.
So that this land, like an offensive wife,
That hath enrag'd him on to offer strokes ;
As he is striking, holds his infant up,
And hangs resolv'd correction in the arm
That was uprear'd to execution.

Hast. Besides, the king hath wasted all his rods On late offenders, that he now doth lack The very instruments of chastisement: So that his power, like to a fangless lion, May offer, but not hold.

Arch.
'Tis very true;—
And therefore be assur'd, my good lord marshal,
If we do now make our atonement well,

Our peace will, like a broken limb united,
Grow stronger for the breaking.

Mowb.

Be it so.

Here is return'd my lord of Westmoreland.

Re-enter WESTMORELAND.

West. The prince is here at hand: Pleaseth your lordship,

To meet his grace just distance 'tween our armies? Mowb. Your grace of York, in God's name then set forward.

Arch. Before, and greet his grace: my lord, we [Exeunt.

come.

VOL. V.

G G

SCENE ILI Another Part of the Forest. Enter, from one side, MOWBRAY, the Archbishop, HASTINGS, and Others: from the other side, PRINCE JOHN of Lancaster, WESTMORELAND, Officers, and Attendants.

P. John. You are well encounter'd here, my cousin Mowbray :

Good day to you, gentle lord archbishop ;-
And so to you, Lord Hastings,-and to all.—
My lord of York, it better show'd with you,
When that your flock, assembled by the bell,
Encircled you, to hear with reverence
Your exposition on the holy text;

Than now to see you here an iron man1,
Cheering a rout of rebels with your drum,
Turning the word to sword, and life to death.
That man, that sits. within a monarch's heart,
And ripens in the sunshine of his favour,
Would he abuse the countenance of the king,
Alack, what mischiefs might he set abroach,
In shadow of such greatness! With you, lord bishop,
It is even so:-Who hath not heard it spoken,
How deep you were within the books of God?

To us, the speaker in his parliament;

To us, the imagin'd voice of God himself;
The very opener, and intelligencer,

Between the grace, the sanctities of heaven,
And our dull workings 3: O, who shall believe,

6

1 Holinshed says of the Archbishop, that, coming foorth amongst them clad in armour, he encouraged and pricked them foorth to take the enterprize in hand.'

2 This expression has been adopted by Milton:

'Around him all the sanctities of heaven

Stood thick as stars.'

3 Dull workings are labours of thought. So in King Henry V. : The forge and working-house of thought.'

But you misuse the reverence of your place;
Employ the countenance and grace of heaven,
As a false favourite doth his prince's name,
In deeds dishonourable? You have taken up1;
Under the counterfeited zeal of God,

The subjects of his substitute, my father;
And, both against the peace of heaven and him,
Have here up-swarm'd them.

Arch.

Good my lord of Lancaster, I am not here against your father's peace: But, as I told my lord of Westmoreland, The time misorder'd doth, in common sense 5, Crowd us, and crush us, to this monstrous form, To hold our safety up. I sent your grace The parcels and particulars of our grief;

The which hath been with scorn shov'd from the court,
Whereon this Hydra son of war is born:

Whose dangerous eyes may well be charm'd asleep",
With grant of our most just and right desires:
And true obedience of this madness cur'd,
Stoop tamely to the foot of majesty.

Mowb. If not, we ready are to try our fortunes To the last man.

Hast. And though we here fall down, We have supplies to second our attempt; If they miscarry, theirs shall second them: And so, success of mischief shall be born; And heir from heir shall hold this quarrel up, Whiles England shall have generation.

P. John. You are too shallow, Hastings, much too shallow,

To sound the bottom of the after-times.

4 Raised up in arms.

5 Common sense is the general sense of general danger.

6 Alluding to the dragon charmed to rest by the spells of Medea.

7 Succession.

West. Pleaseth your grace, to answer them di

rectly,

How far-forth do you like their articles?

P. John. I like them all, and do allow them well :
And swear here by the honour of my blood,
My father's purposes have been mistook;
And some about him have too lavishly
Wrested his meaning, and authority.-

My lord, these griefs shall be with speed redress'd;
Upon my soul, they shall. If this may please you,
Discharge your powers? unto their several counties,
As we will ours: and here, between the armies,
Let's drink together friendly, and embrace;
That all their eyes may bear those tokens home,
Of our restored love, and amity.

Arch. I take your princely word for these redresses. P. John. I give it you, and will maintain my word: And thereupon I drink unto your grace.

Hast. Go, captain [To an Officer], and deliver to

the army

This news of peace; let them have pay, and part: I know, it will well please them; Hie thee, captain. [Exit Officer. Arch. To you, my noble lord of Westmoreland. West. I pledge your grace: And, if you knew what pains

I have bestow'd, to breed this present peace,
You would drink freely: but my love to you
Shall show itself more openly hereafter.

Arch. I do not doubt

8 Approve.

you.

9 It was Westmoreland who made this deceitful proposal, as appears from Holinshed :— The earl of Westmoreland, using more policie than the rest, said, whereas our people have been long in armour, let them depart home to their woonted trades: In the mean time let us drink togither in signe of agreement, that the people on both sides may see it, and know that it is true, that we be light at a point.'