The clothiers all, not able to maintain
The many to them 'longing, have put off
The spinsters, carders, fullers, weavers, who,
Unfit for other life, compell'd by hunger
And lack of other means, in desperate manner
Daring th' event to the teeth, are all in uproar,
And danger serves among them?.

K. Hen.

Taxation!

Wherein? and what taxation? My lord cardinal, You that are blam'd for it alike with us,

Know you of this taxation?

Wol.

Please you, sir,

I know but of a single part, in aught

Pertains to the state; and front but in that file
Where others tell steps with me.

Q. Kath.
No, my lord,
You know no more than others: but you frame
Things that are known alike, which are not wholesome
To those which would not know them, and yet must
Perforce be their acquaintance. These exactions,
Whereof my sovereign would have note, they are
Most pestilent to the hearing; and, to bear them,
The back is sacrifice to the load. They say,
They are devis'd by you; or else you suffer

Too hard an exclamation.

K. Hen.

Still exaction!

The nature of it? In what kind, let's know,

Is this exaction?

Q. Kath.

I am much too venturous
In tempting of your patience; but am bolden'd

2 Warburton is full of admiration at this sudden rising of the poet "to a height truly sublime!" where by the noblest stretch of fancy Danger is personified as serving in the rebel army, and shaking the established government. Gower, Chaucer, Skelton, and Spenser have also personified Danger. It was here however suggested by an expressive personification by one of the ringleaders in Holingshed, p. 709.

Under your promis'd pardon. The subject's grief Comes through commissions, which compel from each The sixth part of his substance, to be levied

Without delay and the pretence for this

:

Is nam'd, your wars in France.

mouths :

This makes bold

Tongues spit their duties out, and cold hearts freeze Allegiance in them; their curses now

Live where their prayers did; and it's come to pass
That a tractable obedience is a slave

To each incensed will. I would, your highness
Would give it quick consideration, for

There is no primer business3.

K. Hen.

This is against our pleasure.

Wol.

By my life,

And for me,

I have no further gone in this, than by

A single voice; and that not pass'd me, but
By learned approbation of the judges. If I am
Traduc'd by ignorant tongues, which neither know
My faculties, nor person, yet will be

The chronicles of my doing, let me say,

'Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake That virtue must go through. We must not stint Our necessary actions, in the fear

To cope5 malicious censurers; which ever,
As ravenous fishes do a vessel follow

That is new trimm'd, but benefit no further
Than vainly longing. What we oft do best,

a The old copies have " This tractable obedience."

3 The old copy reads "there is no primer baseness." Warburton made the alteration. In my mind, whoever looks at the whole tenor of the speech will not only think it a necessary but an imperative correction.

4 i. e. thicket of thorns.

To cope, i. e. to engage with, to encounter. Thus in As You Like It:

"I love to cope him in these sullen fits."

By sick interpreters, once weak ones, is
Not ours, or not allow'd'; what worst, as oft,
Hitting a grosser quality, is cried up

For our best act. If we shall stand still,

In fear our motion will be mock'd or carp'd at,
We should take root here where we sit, or sit
State statues only.

K. Hen.

Things done well,

And with a care, exempt themselves from fear;
Things done without example, in their issue
Are to be fear'd. Have you a precedent
Of this commission? I believe, not any.
We must not rend our subjects from our laws,
And stick them in our will. Sixth part of each?
A trembling contribution! Why, we take,
From every tree, lop, bark, and part o' the timber;
And, though we leave it with a root, thus hack'd,
The air will drink the sap. Το every county,
Where this is question'd, send our letters, with
Free pardon to each man that has denied
The force of this commission; Pray, look to't;
I put it to your care.

Wol.

A word with you.

[To the Secretary.

Let there be letters writ to every shire,

Of the king's grace and pardon. The griev'd commons Hardly conceive of me; let it be nois'd,

That, through our intercession, this revokement

6 Once is not unfrequently used for sometime, or at one time or other. Thus Drayton in his Thirteenth Idea:

"This diamond shall once consume to dust."

And in The Merry Wives of Windsor :

66 I pray thee once to-night give my sweet Nan this ring." "Allow'd, i. e. approved. Vide Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 11. Sc. 2, note 19.

8 By a trembling contribution, a fearful one is probably meant, one that makes the subject tremble,

And pardon comes.
Further in the proceeding.

I shall anon advise you

Enter Surveyor9.

[Exit Secretary.

Q. Kath. I am sorry, that the duke of Buckingham Is run in your displeasure.

K. Hen.

It grieves many :

The gentleman is learn'd, and a most rare speaker 10, To nature none more bound; his training such, That he may furnish and instruct great teachers, And never seek for aid out of himself.

Yet see

When these so noble benefits shall prove
Not well dispos'd, the mind growing once corrupt,
They turn to vicious forms, ten times more ugly
Than ever they were fair. This man so complete,
Who was enroll'd 'mongst wonders, and when we,
Almost with ravish'd list'ning, could not find
His hour of speech a minute; he, my lady,
Hath into monstrous habits put the graces
That once were his, and is become as black
As if besmear'd in hell. Sit by us; you shall hear
(This was his gentleman in trust) of him
Things to strike honour sad.-Bid him recount
The fore-recited practices; whereof

We cannot feel too little, hear too much.

Wol. Stand forth; and with bold spirit relate what

you,

Most like a careful subject, have collected

Out of the duke of Buckingham.

K. Hen.

Speak freely.

• Holinshed says that this surveyor's name was Charles Knyvet.. 10 It appears from the prologue to the Romance of the Knight of the Swanne, that it was translated from the French at the request of this unfortunate nobleman. Copland, the printer, says, "Helyas the Knight of the Swanne, from whom lineally is descended my said lord." The duke was executed on Friday the 17th of May, 1521. The book has no date.

Surv. First, it was usual with him, every day
It would infect his speech,-That if the king
Should without issue die, he'd carry it so
To make the sceptre his.-These very words
I've heard him utter to his son-in-law,
Lord Aberga'ny; to whom by oath he menac'd
Revenge upon the cardinal.

Wol.

Please your highness, note This dangerous conception; in this point Not friended by his wish; to your high person His will is most malignant; and it stretches Beyond you, to your friends.

Q. Kath.

Deliver all with charity.

K. Hen.

My learn'd lord cardinal,

Speak on:

How grounded he his title to the crown,

Upon our fail? to this point hast thou heard him

At any time speak aught?

Surv.

By a vain prophecy of Nicholas Hopkins 11.

K. Hen. What was that Hopkins?

Surv.

His confessor; who fed him

With words of sovereignty.

K. Hen.

He was brought to this

How know'st thou this?

Surv. Not long before your highness sped to France, The duke being at the Rose 12, within the parish Saint Lawrence Poultney, did of me demand What was the speech among the Londoners Concerning the French journey. I replied, Men fear'd, the French would prove perfidious,

11 In the old copy he is here called Nicholas Henton, a name by which he was also known from the Convent of Henton near Bristol, to which he belonged.

12 The Rose. This house was purchased about the year 1561, by Richard Hill, sometime master of the Merchant Tailors' Company, and is now the Merchant Tailors' School, in Suffolk-lane.