This night the siege assuredly I'll raise:
Expect Saint Martin's summer, halcyon days,
Since I have entered into these wars.
Glory is like a circle in the water,
Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself
Till by broad spreading it disperse to nought.
With Henry's death the English circle ends;
Dispersed are the glories it included.
Now am I like that proud insulting ship
Which Cæsar and his fortune bare at once.

Char. Was Mahomet inspired with a dove?
Thou with an eagle art inspired then.
Helen, the mother of great Constantine,
Nor yet Saint Philip's daughters, were like thee.
Bright star of Venus, fall'n down on the earth,
How may I reverently worship thee enough?

Alen. Leave off delays, and let us raise the siege.

Reig. Woman, do what thou canst to save our honours ;

131. halcyon days, i. e. calm weather (after storm), associated with the days about St. Martin's Day (November 11), when the kingfisher was said to breed.

138. insulting, exulting, triumphant. The reference is suggested by a passage in Plutarch's Life of Cæsar, translated by North, where Cæsar discovers himself to the anxious captain of the pinnace with the words : 'Good fellow, be of good cheer,

and fear not, for thou hast Cæsar and his fortune with thee.'

140. This tradition was well known among the Elizabethans. Raleigh embodied it in a more detailed form in his History of the World, relating that Moham

130

140

med had a dove 'which he used to feed with wheat out of his ear; which dove, when it was hungry, lighted on Mahomet's shoulder and thrust its bill in to find its breakfast; Mahomet persuading the rude and simple Arabians that it was the Holy Ghost that gave him advice.'

142. Helen. The empress Helena, according to Christian legend, succeeded by divine guidance in recovering the Cross of Christ.

143. Saint Philip's daughters. Cf. Acts xxi. 9.

145. reverently; Dyce's reading, reverent,' is the least unsatisfactory emendation of this line.

Drive them from Orleans and be immortalized.
Char. Presently we'll try: come, let's away

about it:

No prophet will I trust, if she prove false.

[Exeunt.

150

SCENE III. London. Before the Tower.

Enter the DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, with his
Serving-men in blue coats.

Glou. I am come to survey the Tower this

day:

Since Henry's death, I fear, there is conveyance.
Where be these warders, that they wait not here?
Open the gates; 'tis Gloucester that calls.

First Warder. [Within] Who's there that knocks so imperiously?

First Serv. It is the noble Duke of Gloucester.

Second Warder. [Within] Whoe'er he be, you may not be let in.

First Serv. Villains, answer you so the lord protector ?

First Warder. [Within] The Lord protect him! so we answer him:

We do no otherwise than we are will'd.

Glou. Who willed you? or whose will stands but mine?

There's none protector of the realm but I.
Break up the gates, I'll be your warrantize :

2. conveyance, dishonest practice, trickery.

4. Gloucester; (here a trisyllable), Pope's emendation for

FfGloster.'

62.

ΤΟ

So in vv. 6,

13. Break up, break open. ib. warrantize, warranty.

Shall I be flouted thus by dunghill grooms? [Gloucester's men rush at the Tower Gates, and Woodvile the Lieutenant speaks within. Woodo. What noise is this? what traitors have we here?

Glou. Lieutenant, is it you whose voice I hear? Open the gates; here's Gloucester that would

enter.

Woodv. Have patience, noble duke; I may

not open;

The Cardinal of Winchester forbids:

From him I have express commandment

That thou nor none of thine shall be let in.

Glou. Faint-hearted Woodvile, prizest him 'fore me?

Arrogant Winchester, that haughty prelate,

Whom Henry, our late sovereign, ne'er could
brook ?

Thou art no friend to God or to the king:
Open the gates, or I'll shut thee out shortly.

Serving-men. Open the gates unto the lord
protector,

Or we'll burst them open, if that you come not quickly.

Enter to the Protector at the Tower Gates WIN-
CHESTER and his men in tawny coats.

Win. How now, ambitious Humphry! what
means this?

Glou. Peel'd priest, dost thou command me to be shut out?

Win. I do, thou most usurping proditor,

And not protector, of the king or realm.

28. in tawny coats, the brown coats worn by the servants of the ecclesiastical court.

20

30

30. Peel'd, i.e. tonsured. 31. proditor, betrayer; Latinism foreign to Shakespeare.

a

Glou. Stand back, thou manifest conspirator,
Thou that contrivedst to murder our dead lord;
Thou that givest whores indulgences to sin :
I'll canvass thee in thy broad cardinal's hat,
If thou proceed in this thy insolence.

Win. Nay, stand thou back; I will not budge
a foot:

This be Damascus, be thou cursed Cain,

To slay thy brother Abel, if thou wilt.

Glou. I will not slay thee, but I'll drive thee back :

Thy scarlet robes as a child's bearing-cloth

I'll use to carry thee out of this place.

Win. Do what thou darest; I beard thee to thy face.

Glou. What! am I dared and bearded to my face?

Draw, men, for all this privileged place;

Blue coats to tawny coats.

beard;

Priest, beware your

I mean to tug it and to cuff you soundly:
Under my feet I stamp thy cardinal's hat:
In spite of pope or dignities of church,
Here by the cheeks I'll drag thee up and down.
Win. Gloucester, thou wilt answer this before

the pope.

Glou. Winchester goose, I cry, a rope! a rope! Now beat them hence; why do you let them stay?

34. contrivedst, didst plot. 35. The houses of ill-fame south of the Thames were under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Winchester, holding licenses from him, and paying a tax into his treasury.

36. canvass, toss as in a blanket.

39. Damascus; founded, ac

40

50

cording to a legend told by Mandeville, on the site of Abel's grave.

42. bearing-cloth, the robe in which the child was borne to the font at baptism.

53. Winchester goose; cant term for a harlot.

53. a rope, i.e. a halter.

Thee I'll chase hence, thou wolf in sheep's array.
Out, tawny coats! out, scarlet hypocrite!

Here Gloucester's men beat out the Cardinal's men, and enter in the hurly-burly the Mayor of London and his Officers.

May. Fie, lords! that you, being supreme magistrates,

Thus contumeliously should break the peace!

Glou. Peace, mayor! thou know'st little of my

wrongs:

Here's Beaufort, that regards nor God nor king,
Hath here distrain'd the Tower to his use.

Win. Here's Gloucester, a foe to citizens,
One that still motions war and never peace,
O'ercharging your free purses with large fines,
That seeks to overthrow religion,
Because he is protector of the realm,

And would have armour here out of the Tower,
To crown himself king and suppress the prince.
Glou. I will not answer thee with words, but
blows.
[Here they skirmish again.
May. Nought rests for me in this tumultuous strife
But to make open proclamation:
Come, officer; as loud as e'er thou canst :
Cry.

Off. All manner of men assembled here in arms this day against God's peace and the king's, we charge and command you, in his highness' name, to repair to your several dwelling-places; and not to wear, handle, or use any sword, weapon, or dagger, henceforward, upon pain of death.

ба

70

Glou. Cardinal, I'll be no breaker of the law: 8a But we shall meet, and break our minds at large. 61. distrain'd, appropriated. 63. motions, moves for, seeks. 81. break, open, disclose.