A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Vii Part 109

FAU. Now, by my halidom, a virtuous deed!

HEN. Father, you see your most rebellious son, Stricken with horror of his horrid guilt, Requesting sentence fitting his desert: O, tread upon his head, that trod [upon]

Your heart: I do deliver up all dignity, Crown, sceptre, sword, unto your majesty.

KING. My heart surfeits with joy in hearing this, And, dear[est] son, I'll bless thee with a kiss.

HEN. I will not rise; I will not leave this ground Till all these voices, joined in one sound, Cry: G.o.d save Henry, second of that name, Let his friends live, his foes see death with shame!

ALL. G.o.d save Henry, second of that name, Let his friends live, his foes see death with shame!

HEN. Amen, amen, amen!

JOHN. Hark! mother, hark!

My brother is already turned clerk.

QUEEN. He is a recreant; I am mad with rage.

HEN. Be angry at your envy, gracious mother, Learn patience and true humility Of your worst-tutor'd son; for I am he.

Hence, hence that Frenchwoman; give her her dowry, Let her not speak, to trouble my mild soul, Which of this world hath taken her last leave: And by her power will my proud flesh control.

Off with these silks; my garments shall be grey, My shirt hard hair; my bed the ashy dust; My pillow but a lump of hard'ned clay: For clay I am, and with clay I must.

O, I beseech ye, let me go alone, To live, where my loose life I may bemoan.

KING. Son!

QUEEN. Son!

RICH. Brother!

JOHN. Brother!

HEN. Let none call me their son; I'm no man's brother, My kindred is in heav'n, I know no other.

Farewell, farewell; the world is your's; pray take it, I'll leave vexation, and with joy forsake it.

[_Exit_.

LADY F. Wondrous conversion!

FAU. Admirable good: Now, by my halidom, Moll, pa.s.sing good.

RICH. H'hath fir'd my soul; I will to Palestine.

And pay my vows before the Sepulchre.

Among the mult.i.tude of misbelief, I'll show myself the soldier of Christ: Spend blood, sweat tears, for satisfaction Of many--many sins, which I lament; And never think to have them pardoned, Till I have part of Syria conquered.

GLO. He makes me wonder, and inflames my spirits, With an exceeding zeal to Portingale, Which kingdom the unchris'ned Saracens[556], The black-fac'd Africans, and tawny Moors, Have got unjustly in possession: Whence I will fire them with the help of heaven.

SKINK. Skink will scorch them, brave Gloster; Make carbonadoes of their bacon-flitches; Deserve to be counted valiant by his valour, And Rivo[557] will he cry, and Castile too, And wonders in the land of Seville do.

ROB. O, that I were a man to see these fights: To spend my blood amongst these worthy knights.

FAU. Marry, aye me, were I a boy again, I'd either to Jerusalem or Spain.

JOHN. Faith, I'll keep England; mother, you and I Will live from[558] all this fight and foolery.

KING. Peace to us all, let's all for peace give praise, Unlook'd-for peace, unlook'd-for happy days!

Love Henry's birth-day; he hath been new-born; I am new-crowned, new-settled in my seat.

Let's all to th'chapel, there give thanks and praise, Beseeching grace from Heaven's eternal throne, That England never know more prince than one.

[_Exeunt_.

FINIS.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] He is mentioned by Webbe, in his "Discourse of English Poetrie,"

1586, Sign. C 4, with other poets of that time, as Whetstone, Munday, Grange, Knight, _Wilmot_, Darrell, F.C. F.K., G.B., and others, whose names he could not remember.

[2] Robert Wilmot, A.M., was presented to the rectory of North Okenham, in Ess.e.x, the 28th of November 1582, by Gabriel Poyntz: and to the vicarage of Horndon on the Hill, in the same county, the 2d December 1585, by the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's.--Newcourt's "Repertorium."

--_Steevens_.

[3] The same person, who was the author of "A Discourse of English Poetrie: together with the Authors judgment, touching the reformation of our English Verse." B.L. 4to, 1586. [This "Discourse" is reprinted in Haslewood'a "Ancient Critical Essays," 1811-15.]

[4] [An English translation was published in 1577.]

[5] These three sonnets following occur both in Lansdowne MS. (786) and Hargrave MS. (205), but the first was not included in the printed copy of 1591.

[6] _Pheer_ signifies a husband, a friend, or a companion, and in all these senses it is used in our ancient writers. It here means _a husband_. So in Lyly's "Euphues," 1581, p. 29: "If he be young, he is the more fitter to be thy _pheere_. If he bee olde, the lyker to thine aged father." It occurs again in act ii. sc. 3, and act iv. sc. 3.

[7] _Prevent_, or _forbid_. So in "Euphues and his England," 1582, p. 40: "For never shall it be said that Iffida was false to Thirsus, though Thirsus be faithlesse (which the G.o.ds _forefend_) unto Iffida."

[8] _Command_. So in Lyly's "Euphues and his England," p. 78: "For this I sweare by her whose lightes canne never die, Vesta, and by her _whose heasts_ are not to be broken, Diana," &c.

Again, in Shakespeare's "Tempest," act iii. sc. 1--

"O my father, I have broke _your hest_ to say so!"

And in the prologue to [Peele's] "Araygnement of Paris," 1584--

"Done by the pleasure of the powers above, Whose _hestes_ men must obey."

The word occurs again in act iv. sc. 2, act iv. sc. 4, and act v. sc. 1.

[9] The second and third sonnets are now given (_verbatim et literatim_) in a note, as they stand in Lansdowne MS. 786. They will serve to show how slight were Wilmot's improvements, and will leave it perhaps open to doubt whether the changes made in 1591 were always changes for the better.

_An other to the same_.