Act II, Scene 2

Southampton. A council-chamber.

[Enter EXETER, BEDFORD, and WESTMORELAND]

• Duke of Bedford. 'Fore God, his grace is bold, to trust these traitors.

• Duke of Exeter. They shall be apprehended by and by. 635

• Earl of Westmoreland. How smooth and even they do bear themselves!
  As if allegiance in their bosoms sat,
  Crowned with faith and constant loyalty.

• Duke of Bedford. The king hath note of all that they intend,
  By interception which they dream not of. 640

• Duke of Exeter. Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow,
  Whom he hath dull'd and cloy'd with gracious favours,
  That he should, for a foreign purse, so sell
  His sovereign's life to death and treachery.
  [Trumpets sound. Enter KING HENRY V, SCROOP,] 645
  CAMBRIDGE, GREY, and Attendants]

• Henry V. Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard.
  My Lord of Cambridge, and my kind Lord of Masham,
  And you, my gentle knight, give me your thoughts:
  Think you not that the powers we bear with us 650
  Will cut their passage through the force of France,
  Doing the execution and the act
  For which we have in head assembled them?

• Lord Scroop. No doubt, my liege, if each man do his best.

• Henry V. I doubt not that; since we are well persuaded 655
  We carry not a heart with us from hence
  That grows not in a fair consent with ours,
  Nor leave not one behind that doth not wish
  Success and conquest to attend on us.

• Earl of Cambridge. Never was monarch better fear'd and loved 660
  Than is your majesty: there's not, I think, a subject
  That sits in heart-grief and uneasiness
  Under the sweet shade of your government.

• Sir Thomas Grey. True: those that were your father's enemies
  Have steep'd their galls in honey and do serve you 665
  With hearts create of duty and of zeal.

• Henry V. We therefore have great cause of thankfulness;
  And shall forget the office of our hand,
  Sooner than quittance of desert and merit
  According to the weight and worthiness. 670

• Lord Scroop. So service shall with steeled sinews toil,
  And labour shall refresh itself with hope,
  To do your grace incessant services.

• Henry V. We judge no less. Uncle of Exeter,
  Enlarge the man committed yesterday, 675
  That rail'd against our person: we consider
  it was excess of wine that set him on;
  And on his more advice we pardon him.

• Lord Scroop. That's mercy, but too much security:
  Let him be punish'd, sovereign, lest example 680
  Breed, by his sufferance, more of such a kind.

• Henry V. O, let us yet be merciful.

• Earl of Cambridge. So may your highness, and yet punish too.

• Sir Thomas Grey. Sir,
  You show great mercy, if you give him life, 685
  After the taste of much correction.

• Henry V. Alas, your too much love and care of me
  Are heavy orisons 'gainst this poor wretch!
  If little faults, proceeding on distemper,
  Shall not be wink'd at, how shall we stretch our eye 690
  When capital crimes, chew'd, swallow'd and digested,
  Appear before us? We'll yet enlarge that man,
  Though Cambridge, Scroop and Grey, in their dear care
  And tender preservation of our person,
  Would have him punished. And now to our French causes: 695
  Who are the late commissioners?

• Earl of Cambridge. I one, my lord:
  Your highness bade me ask for it to-day.

• Lord Scroop. So did you me, my liege.

• Sir Thomas Grey. And I, my royal sovereign. 700

• Henry V. Then, Richard Earl of Cambridge, there is yours;
  There yours, Lord Scroop of Masham; and, sir knight,
  Grey of Northumberland, this same is yours:
  Read them; and know, I know your worthiness.
  My Lord of Westmoreland, and uncle Exeter, 705
  We will aboard to night. Why, how now, gentlemen!
  What see you in those papers that you lose
  So much complexion? Look ye, how they change!
  Their cheeks are paper. Why, what read you there
  That hath so cowarded and chased your blood 710
  Out of appearance?

• Earl of Cambridge. I do confess my fault;
  And do submit me to your highness' mercy.

• Sir Thomas Grey. [with Scroop] To which we all appeal.

• Henry V. The mercy that was quick in us but late, 715
  By your own counsel is suppress'd and kill'd:
  You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy;
  For your own reasons turn into your bosoms,
  As dogs upon their masters, worrying you.
  See you, my princes, and my noble peers, 720
  These English monsters! My Lord of Cambridge here,
  You know how apt our love was to accord
  To furnish him with all appertinents
  Belonging to his honour; and this man
  Hath, for a few light crowns, lightly conspired, 725
  And sworn unto the practises of France,
  To kill us here in Hampton: to the which
  This knight, no less for bounty bound to us
  Than Cambridge is, hath likewise sworn. But, O,
  What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop? thou cruel, 730
  Ingrateful, savage and inhuman creature!
  Thou that didst bear the key of all my counsels,
  That knew'st the very bottom of my soul,
  That almost mightst have coin'd me into gold,
  Wouldst thou have practised on me for thy use, 735
  May it be possible, that foreign hire
  Could out of thee extract one spark of evil
  That might annoy my finger? 'tis so strange,
  That, though the truth of it stands off as gross
  As black and white, my eye will scarcely see it. 740
  Treason and murder ever kept together,
  As two yoke-devils sworn to either's purpose,
  Working so grossly in a natural cause,
  That admiration did not whoop at them:
  But thou, 'gainst all proportion, didst bring in 745
  Wonder to wait on treason and on murder:
  And whatsoever cunning fiend it was
  That wrought upon thee so preposterously
  Hath got the voice in hell for excellence:
  All other devils that suggest by treasons 750
  Do botch and bungle up damnation
  With patches, colours, and with forms being fetch'd
  From glistering semblances of piety;
  But he that temper'd thee bade thee stand up,
  Gave thee no instance why thou shouldst do treason, 755
  Unless to dub thee with the name of traitor.
  If that same demon that hath gull'd thee thus
  Should with his lion gait walk the whole world,
  He might return to vasty Tartar back,
  And tell the legions 'I can never win 760
  A soul so easy as that Englishman's.'
  O, how hast thou with 'jealousy infected
  The sweetness of affiance! Show men dutiful?
  Why, so didst thou: seem they grave and learned?
  Why, so didst thou: come they of noble family? 765
  Why, so didst thou: seem they religious?
  Why, so didst thou: or are they spare in diet,
  Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger,
  Constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood,
  Garnish'd and deck'd in modest complement, 770
  Not working with the eye without the ear,
  And but in purged judgment trusting neither?
  Such and so finely bolted didst thou seem:
  And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot,
  To mark the full-fraught man and best indued 775
  With some suspicion. I will weep for thee;
  For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like
  Another fall of man. Their faults are open:
  Arrest them to the answer of the law;
  And God acquit them of their practises! 780

• Duke of Exeter. I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of
  Richard Earl of Cambridge.
  I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of
  Henry Lord Scroop of Masham.
  I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of 785
  Thomas Grey, knight, of Northumberland.

• Lord Scroop. Our purposes God justly hath discover'd;
  And I repent my fault more than my death;
  Which I beseech your highness to forgive,
  Although my body pay the price of it. 790

• Earl of Cambridge. For me, the gold of France did not seduce;
  Although I did admit it as a motive
  The sooner to effect what I intended:
  But God be thanked for prevention;
  Which I in sufferance heartily will rejoice, 795
  Beseeching God and you to pardon me.

• Sir Thomas Grey. Never did faithful subject more rejoice
  At the discovery of most dangerous treason
  Than I do at this hour joy o'er myself.
  Prevented from a damned enterprise: 800
  My fault, but not my body, pardon, sovereign.

• Henry V. God quit you in his mercy! Hear your sentence.
  You have conspired against our royal person,
  Join'd with an enemy proclaim'd and from his coffers
  Received the golden earnest of our death; 805
  Wherein you would have sold your king to slaughter,
  His princes and his peers to servitude,
  His subjects to oppression and contempt
  And his whole kingdom into desolation.
  Touching our person seek we no revenge; 810
  But we our kingdom's safety must so tender,
  Whose ruin you have sought, that to her laws
  We do deliver you. Get you therefore hence,
  Poor miserable wretches, to your death:
  The taste whereof, God of his mercy give 815
  You patience to endure, and true repentance
  Of all your dear offences! Bear them hence.
  [Exeunt CAMBRIDGE, SCROOP and GREY, guarded]
  Now, lords, for France; the enterprise whereof
  Shall be to you, as us, like glorious. 820
  We doubt not of a fair and lucky war,
  Since God so graciously hath brought to light
  This dangerous treason lurking in our way
  To hinder our beginnings. We doubt not now
  But every rub is smoothed on our way. 825
  Then forth, dear countrymen: let us deliver
  Our puissance into the hand of God,
  Putting it straight in expedition.
  Cheerly to sea; the signs of war advance:
  No king of England, if not king of France. 830

[Exeunt]