York. Doth any one accuse York for a traitor?

K. Hen. What mean'st thou, Suffolk ? tell me : What

are these?

Suf. Please it your majesty, this is the man

That doth accuse his master of high treason:
'His words were these ;-that Richard, duke of York,
Was rightful heir unto the English crown;
And that your majesty was an usurper.

K. Hen. Say, man, were these thy words?

Hor. An't shall please your majesty, I never said nor thought any such matter: God is my witness, I am falsely accused by the villain.

Pet. By these ten bones, my lords, [Holding up his hands.] he did speak them to me in the garret one night, as we were scouring my lord of York's armour.

York. Base dunghill villain, and mechanical,

I'll have thy head for this thy traitor's speech :-
I do beseech your royal majesty,

Let him have all the rigour of the law.

Hor. Alas, my lord, hang me, if ever I spake the words. My accuser is my prentice; and when I did correct him for his fault the other day, he did vow upon his knees he would be even with me: I have good witness of this ; therefore, I beseech your majesty, do not cast away an honest man for a villain's accusation.

K. Hen. Uncle, what shall we say to this in law?
Glo. This doom, my lord, if I may judge:
Let Somerset be regent o'er the French,
Because in York this breeds suspicion:
And let these have a day appointed them
For single combat in convenient place;
For he hath witness of his servant's malice :
This is the law, and this duke Humphrey's doom.
K. Hen. Then be it so. My lord of Somerset,
We make your grace lord regent o'er the French.
Som. I humbly thank your royal majesty.

Hor. And I accept the combat willingly.

Pet. Alas, my lord, I cannot fight; for God's sake, pity my case the spite of man prevaileth against me. 0, Lord have mercy upon me! I shall never be able to fight a blow: O Lord, my heart!

[8] The jets in this play turn rather too much on the enumeration of fingers. We have just heard a Duchess threaten to set her ten commandments in the face of a Queen. This adjuration is, however, very ancient. STEEVENS.

VOL. VI.

1 2

Glo. Sirrah, or you must fight, or else be hang'd. K. Hen. Away with them to prison: and the day Of combat shall be the last of the next month.Come, Somerset, we'll see thee sent away.

The same.

SCENE IV.

[Exeunt.

The Duke of GLOSTER's Garden. Enter MARGery Jourdain, HUME, SOUTHWELL, and Bolingbroke. Hume. Come, my masters; the duchess, I tell you, expects performance of your promises.

Boling. Master Hume, we are therefore provided: Will her ladyship behold and hear our exorcisms ??

Hume. Ay; What else? fear you not her courage. Boling. I have heard her reported to be a woman of an invincible spirit: But it shall be convenient, master Hume, that you be by her aloft, while we be busy below; and so, I pray you, go in God's name, and leave us. [Exit HUME.] Mother Jourdain, be you prostrate, and grovel on the earth :-John Southwell, read you; and let us to our work.

Enter Duchess, above.

Duch. Well said, my masters; and welcome all. To this geer; the sooner the better.

Boling. Patience, good lady; wizards know their times: Deep night, dark night, the silent of the night,' The time of night when Troy was set on fire;

The time when screech-owls cry, and ban-dogs howl,'
And spirits walk, and ghosts break up their graves,
That time best fits the work we have in hand.

Madam, sit you, and fear not; whom we raise,
We will make fast within a hallow'd.

verge.

[9] The word exorcise, and its derivatives, are used by Shakespeare in an uncommon sense. In all other writers it means to lay spirits, but in these plays it invariably means to raise them. M. MASON.

[1] The old quarto reads, the silence of the night. The variation between the copies is worth notice:

"Bolingbrooke makes a circle.

"Bol. Dark night, dread night, the silence of the night,

"Wherein the furies mask in hellish troops,

"Send up, I charge you, from Cocytus' lake

"The spirit Ascalon to come to me;

"To pierce the bowels of this centrick earth,

"And hither come in twinkling of an eye!

66

Ascalon, ascend, ascend!"

STEEVENS.

[2] I was unacquainted with the etymology of this word, till it was pointed out to me by an ingenious correspondent in the Gentleman's Magazine: "Shakespeare's ban-dogs (says he) is simply a village-dog, or mastiff, which was formerly called a band-dog, per syncopen, bandog.'" Caius de canibus Britannicis. STEEVENS. In support of this opinion he quotes

[Here they perform the ceremonies appertaining, and make the circle; BOLINGBROKE, or SOUTHWELL, reads, Conjuro te, &c. It thunders and lightens terribly; then the Spirit riseth.

Spir. Adsum.

M. Jourd. Asmath,

By the eternal God, whose name and power

Thou tremblest at, answer that I shall ask ;

For, till thou speak, thou shalt not pass from hence.
Spir. Ask what thou wilt:-That I had said and done!3
Boling. First of the king. What shall of him become?
[Reading out of a paper.
Spir. The duke yet lives, that Henry shall depose;
But him outlive, and die a violent death.

[As the Spirit speaks, SOUTHWELL writes the answer.
Boling. What fate awaits the duke of Suffolk?
Spir. By water shall he die, and take his end.
Boling. What shall befall the duke of Somerset ?
Spir. Let him shun castles;

Safer shall he be upon the sandy plains

Than where castles mounted stand.*

Have done, for more I hardly can endure.

Boling. Descend to darkness, and the burning lake: False fiend, avoid !5

[Thunder and lightning. Spirit descends.

Enter YORK and BUCKINGHAM, hastily, with their Guards, and others.

York. Lay hands upon these traitors, and their trash. Beldame, I think, we watch'd you at an inch.What, madam, are you there? the king and commonweal Are deeply indebted for this piece of pains;

[3] It was anciently believed that spirits, who were raised by incantations, re mained above ground, and answered questions with reluctance. STEEVENS. [4] I remember to have read this prophecy in some old Chronicle, where I think it ran thus:

"Safer shall he be on sand,

"Than where castles mounted stand."

STEEVENS.

[5] Instead of this short speech, the old quarto gives us the following

"Then down, I say, unto the damned pool,

"Where Pluto in his fiery waggon sits,

Riding amidst the sing'd and parched smoaks,

"The road of Dytas, by the river Styx;

"There howle and burn for ever in those flames:

Rise, Jordane, rise, and stay thy charming spells :"Zounds! we are betray'd!"

Dytas is printed by mistake for Ditis, the genitive case of Dis, which is used instead of the nominative by more than one ancient author. STEEVENS.

My lord protector will, I doubt it not,

See you well guerdon'd for these good deserts.

Duch. Not half so bad as thine to England's king, Injurious duke; that threat'st where is no cause. Buck. True, madam, none at all. What call you this [Shewing her the Away with them; let them be clapp'd up close,

papers

And kept asunder :-You, madam, shall with us :—
Stafford, take her to thee. [Exit Duchess from above
-We'll see your trinkets here all forth-coming;
All-Away!

[Exeunt Guards, with SOUTH. BOLING. &C York. Lord Buckingham, methinks, you watch'd her

well:

A pretty plot, well chosen to build upon!

Now, pray, my lord, let's see the devil's writ.

What have we here?

The duke yet lives, that Henry shall depose;
But him outlive, and die a violent death.
Why, this is just,

Aio te, acida, Romanos vincere posse.
Well, to the rest :

Tell me, what fate awaits the duke of Suffolk?
By water shall he die, and take his end.-
What shall betide the duke of Somerset ?-

Let him shun castles;

Safer shall he be upon the sandy plains,
Than where castles mounted stand.

Come, come, my

lords;

These oracles are hardly attain'd,

And hardly understood.

The king is now in progress toward Saint Albans,
With him, the husband of this lovely lady :

[Reads

Thither go these news, as fast as horse can carry them my lord protector.

A

sorry

breakfast for

;

Buck. Your grace shall give me leave, my lord of

York,

To be the post, in hope of his reward.

York. At your pleasure, my good lord.-Who's within there, ho!

Enter a Servant.

Invite my lords of Salisbury, and Warwick,
To sup with me to-morrow night.—Away!

[Exeunt.

ACT II.

SCENE I.-Saint Albans.

coners hollaing.

Enter King HENRY, Queen

MARGARET, GLOSTER, Cardinal, and SUFFOLK, with Fal

Queen Margaret.

BELIEVE me, lords, for flying at the brook,"

I saw not better sport these seven years' day :
Yet, by your leave, the wind was very high;
And, ten to one, old Joan had not gone out.7

K. Hen. But what a point, my lord, your falcon made,
And what a pitch she flew above the rest!-
To see how God in all his creatures works!
Yea, man and birds, are fain of climbing high.

8

Suf. No marvel, an it like your majesty,
My lord protector's hawks do tower so well;
They know their master loves to be aloft,
And bears his thoughts above his falcon's pitch.
Glo. My lord, 'tis but a base ignoble mind
That mounts no higher than a bird can soar:

Car. I thought as much; he'd be above the clouds.
Glo. Ay, my lord cardinal; How think you by that?
Were it not good, your grace would fly to heaven?
K. Hen. The treasury of everlasting joy!

Car. Thy heaven is on earth; thine eyes and thoughts Beat on a crown,9 the treasure of thy heart; Pernicious protector, dangerous peer,

That smooth'st it so with king and commonweal!

Glo. What, cardinal, is your priesthood grown perémp-` tory?

Tantæne animis cœlestibus iræ ?

[6] The falconer's term for hawking at water-fowl. JOHNSON.

i. e. the wind was so high it was ten to one that the old hawk would not have taken her flight at the game. "PERCY.

The ancient books of hawking do not enable me to decide the merits of this explanation. It may yet be remarked, that the terms belonging to this once popular amusement were in general settled with the utmost precision; and I may at least venture to declare, that a mistress might have been kept at a cheaper rate than a falcon. To compound a medicine to cure one of these birds of worms, it was necessary to destroy no fewer animals than a lamb, a culver, a pigeon, a buck, and a cat. I have this from the Booke of Haukinge, bl. 1. no date. STEEVENS.

[8] Fain, fond. The word, as I am informed, is still used in Scotland. STEEV. [9] To bait, or beat (bathe) is a term in falconry. JOHNSON.

To bathe, and to beat, or bate, are distinct terms in this diversion. To bathe a hawk was to wash his plumage. To beat, or bate, was to flutter with his wings. To beat on a crown, however, is equivalent to an expression still used-to hammer, i. e. to work in the mind. STEEVENS.