With safety let them be conveyed to London.

[They all rise.

It is our pleasure no uncivil outrage,
Taunts, or abuse be sufferèd to their persons;
They shall meet fairer law than they deserve.
Time may restore their wits, whom vain ambition
Hath many years distracted.

Warbeck.

Noble thoughts

Meet freedom in captivity: the Tower!
Our childhood's dreadful nursery!

King Henry.

No more.

Urswick. Come, come, you shall have leisure to bethink ye.

80

[Exit, with Perkin and his Followers closely guarded. King Henry. Was ever so much impudence in forgery? 85 The custom, sure, of being styled a king

Hath fastened in his thought that he is such.

SCENE IV. FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH.

The scene is Tower Hill. Enter a Constable and Officers, Warbeck, Urswick, Lambert Simnel, like a falconer, a rabble following them.

Constable. Make room there! keep off, I require ye; and none come within twelve foot of his majesty's new stocks, upon pain of displeasure. [The crowd are thrust back.] Bring forward the malefactor. Friend, you must to this gear, no remedy! Open the hole, and in with his 5 legs, just in the middle hole-there-that hole ! [Warbeck is put in the stocks.] Keep off, or I'll commit you all. [The crowd laugh.] Shall not a man in authority be obeyed? So, so, there! 'tis as it should be. Put on the padlock and give me the key. [The crowd push round 10 again.] Off, I say, keep off!

[The Officers mount guard. Urswick. Yet, Warbeck, clear thy conscience. Thou hast tasted

King Henry's mercy liberally; the law

Has forfeited thy life, an equal jury

Have doomed thee to the gallows; twice most wickedly, 15
Most desperately, hast thou escaped the Tower,
Inveigling to thy party with thy witchcraft

Young Edward, Earl of Warwick, son to Clarence,
Whose head must pay the price of that attempt,

Poor gentleman !-unhappy in his fate
And ruined by thy cunning! so a mongrel
May pluck the true stag down. Yet, yet confess
Thy parentage, for yet the King has mercy.

20

25

Simnel. You would be Dick the Fourth, very likely!
Your pedigree is published, you are known
For Osbeck's son of Tournay, a loose runagate,
A landloper; your father was a Jew,

Turned Christian merely to repair his miseries.
Where's now your kingship?

Warbeck.

Intolerable cruelty! I laugh at

Baited to my death?

The Duke of Richmond's practice on my fortunes.
Possession of a crown ne'er wanted heralds.
Simnel. You will not know me who I am.
Urswick.

30

Lambert Simnel,

Your predecessor in a dangerous uproar,
But, on submission, not alone received

35

To grace, but by the King vouchsafed his service. Simnel. I would be Earl of Warwick, toiled and ruffled

Against my master, leaped to catch the moon,
Vaunted my name Plantagenet, as you do,
An earl forsooth! Whenas in truth I was,

As you are, a mere rascal: yet his majesty,

40

A prince composed of sweetness (heaven protect him!), Forgave me all my villainies, reprieved

The sentence of a shameful end, admitted

My surety of obedience to his service;

45

And I am now his falconer, live plenteously,

Eat from the King's purse, and enjoy the sweetness
Of liberty and favour, sleep securely.
And is not this now better than to buffet

The hangman's clutches or to brave the cordage

50

Of a tough halter which will break your neck?
So then the gallant totters. Prithee, Perkin,
Let my example lead thee, be no longer
A counterfeit; confess and hope for pardon.
Warbeck. For pardon ! hold, my heart-strings! Thou
poor vermin,

How dar'st thou creep so near me? Thou an earl!
Why thou enjoy'st as much of happiness
As all the swing of slight ambition flew at.

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59

Bread and a slavish ease, with some assurance
From the base beadle's whip, crowned all thy hopes.
But, sirrah, ran there in thy veins one drop
Of such a royal blood as flows in mine,
Thou would'st not change condition to be second
In England's state without the crown itself.
Coarse creatures are incapable of excellence :

65

[Simnel jeers at him.

But let the world, as all to whom I am
This day a spectacle, to time deliver,
And by tradition fix posterity
Without another chronicle than truth,
How constantly my resolution suffered
A martyrdom of majesty !

Simnel.

He's past Recovery, a Bedlam cannot cure him.

70

Urswick. Away, inform the King of his behaviour. Simnel. Perkin, beware the rope; the hangman 's coming.

[Exit.

Urswick. If yet thou hast no pity of thy body, 75 Pity thy soul.

Enter Katherine, Jane, Dalyell, and the Earl of Oxford.

Jane.

Dear lady!

Oxford [trying to stop her]. Whither will ye Without respect of shame?

Katherine [turning from him]. Forbear me, sir, And trouble not the current of my duty.

[She steps up to her husband.

Oh, my loved lord! can any scorn be yours

In which I have no interest? Some kind hand 80 Lend me assistance that I may partake

The infliction of this penance; my life's dearest, Forgive me, I have stayed too long from tendering Attendance on reproach, yet bid me welcome.

Warbeck. Great miracle of constancy! my miseries Were never bankrupt of their confidence In worst afflictions till this now I feel them. Report and thy deserts, thou best of creatures, Might to eternity have stood a pattern For every virtuous wife, without this conquest. Thou hast outdone belief; yet may their ruin In after marriages be never pitied,

84

90

To whom thy story shall appear a fable.

Why wouldst thou prove so much unkind to greatness
To glorify thy vows by such a servitude?

I cannot weep, but trust me, dear, my heart
Is liberal of passion. Harry Richmond,

A woman's faith hath robbed thy fame of triumph.
Oxford. Remember, lady, who you are; come from
That impudent impostor.

Katherine.

You abuse us,

For, when the holy churchman joined our hands,
Our vows were real then; the ceremony
Was not in apparition, but in act.

Be what these people term thee, I am certain
Thou art my husband; no divorce in heaven
Has been sued out between us; 'tis injustice
For any earthly power to divide us.

Or we will live, or let us die together;
There is a cruel mercy.

Warbeck.
Spite of tyranny
We reign in our affections. Blessed woman,
Read in my destiny the wrack of honour;
Point out, in my contempt of death, to memory
Some miserable happiness: since herein,

Even when I fell, I stood enthroned a monarch

95

Of one chaste wife's troth pure and uncorrupted. 115
Fair angel of perfection, immortality

Shall raise thy name up to an adoration,
Court every rich opinion of true merit,
And saint it in the Calendar of Virtue,
When I am turned into the selfsame dust
Of which I was first formed.

120

Oxford. The Lord Ambassador Huntley, your father, madam, should a' look on Your strange subjection in a gaze so public, Would blush on your behalf, and wish his country Unleft, for entertainment to such sorrow.

125

Katherine. Why art thou angry, Oxford? I must be More peremptory in my duty. [To Warbeck.] Sir, Impute it not unto immodesty

That I presume to press you for a legacy

Before we part for ever.

Warbeck.

Let it be then

My heart, the rich remains of all my fortunes.

130

Katherine. Confirm it with a kiss, pray.

Warbeck.

Oh, with that

I wish to breath my last; upon thy lips,

Those equal twins of comeliness, I seal

134

The testament of honourable vows. [She kisses him.
Whoever be that man that shall unkiss

This sacred print next, may he prove more thrifty
In this world's just applause and more desertful.
Katherine. By this sweet pledge of both our souls,
I swear

To die a faithful widow to thy bed,

Not to be forced or won-oh never, never!

140

Enter Surrey, Dawbeney, Huntley, and Crawford. Dawbeney. Free the condemnèd person, quickly free him: [The Constable takes Warbeck out of the stocks. What, has a' yet confessed?

Urswick.

But still a' will be king.
Surrey.

Nothing to purpose;

Prepare your journey

145

To a new kingdom then, unhappy madman,
Wilfully foolish! See, my Lord Ambassador,
Your lady daughter will not leave the counterfeit
In this disgrace of fate.

I never pointed

Huntley.
Thy marriage, girl, but yet, being married,
Enjoy thy duty to a husband freely :

Thy griefs are mine, I glory in thy constancy
And must not say I wish that I had missed
Some partage in these trials of a patience.
Katherine. You will forgive me, noble sir?
Huntley.

In every duty of a wife and daughter

I dare not disavow thee. To your husband (For such you are, sir) I impart a farewell

150

Yes, yes;

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160

Of manly pity; what your life has passed through,
The dangers of your end will make apparent,
And I can add, for comfort to your sufferance,
No cordial but the wonder of your frailty
Which keeps so firm a station. We are parted.
Warbeck. We are; a crown of peace renew thy age,
Most honourable Huntley. Worthy Crawford,

We may embrace; I never thought thee injury. 165