WESTMORELAND. That argues but the shame of your offence:
A
rotten case abides no handling.
HASTINGS. Hath the Prince John a full commission,
In very ample
virtue of his father,
To hear and
absolutely to determine
Of what conditions we shall stand upon?
WESTMORELAND. That is intended in the general's name.
I muse you make so slight a question.
ARCHBISHOP. Then take, my Lord of Westmoreland, this schedule,
For this contains our general grievances.
Each several article
herein redress'd,
All members of our cause, both here and hence,
That are insinewed to this action,
Acquitted by a true
substantial form,
And present
execution of our wills
To us and to our purposes confin'd-
We come within our awful banks again,
And knit our powers to the arm of peace.
WESTMORELAND. This will I show the general. Please you, lords,
In sight of both our battles we may meet;
And either end in peace- which God so frame!-
Or to the place of diff'rence call the swords
Which must decide it.
ARCHBISHOP. My lord, we will do so. Exit WESTMORELAND
MOWBRAY. There is a thing within my bosom tells me
That no conditions of our peace can stand.
HASTINGS. Fear you not that: if we can make our peace
Upon such large terms and so absolute
As our conditions shall consist upon,
Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains.
MOWBRAY. Yea, but our
valuation shall be such
That every slight and false-derived cause,
Yea, every idle, nice, and
wanton reason,
Shall to the King taste of this action;
That, were our royal faiths martyrs in love,
We shall be winnow'd with so rough a wind
That even our corn shall seem as light as chaff,
And good from bad find no partition.
ARCHBISHOP. No, no, my lord. Note this: the King is weary
Of
dainty and such picking grievances;
For he hath found to end one doubt by death
Revives two greater in the heirs of life;
And
therefore will he wipe his tables clean,
And keep no tell-tale to his memory
That may repeat and history his los
To new
remembrance. For full well he knows
He cannot so
precisely weed this land
As his misdoubts present occasion:
His foes are so enrooted with his friends
That, plucking to unfix an enemy,
He doth unfasten so and shake a friend.
So that this land, like an
offensive wife
That hath enrag'd him on to offer strokes,
As he is
striking, holds his
infant up,
And hangs resolv'd
correction in the arm
That was uprear'd to
execution.
HASTINGS. Besides, the King hath wasted all his rods
On late offenders, that he now doth lack
The very instruments of chastisement;
So that his power, like to a fangless lion,
May offer, but not hold.
ARCHBISHOP. 'Tis very true;
And
therefore be assur'd, my good Lord Marshal,
If we do now make our atonement well,
Our peace will, like a broken limb united,
Grow stronger for the breaking.
MOWBRAY. Be it so.
Here is return'd my Lord of Westmoreland.
Re-enter WESTMORELAND
WESTMORELAND. The Prince is here at hand. Pleaseth your lordship
To meet his Grace just distance 'tween our armies?
MOWBRAY. Your Grace of York, in God's name then, set forward.
ARCHBISHOP. Before, and greet his Grace. My lord, we come.
Exeunt
SCENE II.
Another part of the forest
Enter, from one side, MOWBRAY, attended; afterwards, the
ARCHBISHOP, HASTINGS, and others; from the other side,
PRINCE JOHN of LANCASTER, WESTMORELAND, OFFICERS, and others
PRINCE JOHN. You are well encount'red here, my cousin Mowbray.
Good day to you, gentle Lord Archbishop;
And so to you, Lord Hastings, and to all.
My Lord of York, it better show'd with you
When that your flock, assembled by the bell,
Encircled you to hear with
reverenceYour
exposition on the holy text
Than now to see you here an iron man,
Cheering a rout of rebels with your drum,
Turning the word to sword, and life to death.
That man that sits within a monarch's heart
And ripens in the
sunshine of his favour,
Would he abuse the
countenance of the king,
Alack, what
mischiefs might he set abroach
In shadow of such greatness! With you, Lord Bishop,
It is even so. Who hath not heard it spoken
How deep you were within the books of God?
To us the
speaker in His parliament,
To us th' imagin'd voice of God himself,
The very opener and intelligencer
Between the grace, the sanctities of heaven,
And our dull workings. O, who shall believe
But you
misuse the
reverence of your place,
Employ the
countenance and grace of heav'n
As a false favourite doth his
prince's name,
In deeds dishonourable? You have ta'en up,
Under the counterfeited zeal of God,
The subjects of His
substitute, my father,
And both against the peace of heaven and him
Have here up-swarm'd them.
ARCHBISHOP. Good my Lord of Lancaster,
I am not here against your father's peace;
But, as I told my Lord of Westmoreland,
The time misord'red doth, in common sense,
Crowd us and crush us to this
monstrous form
To hold our safety up. I sent your Grace
The parcels and particulars of our grief,
The which hath been with scorn shov'd from the court,
Whereon this hydra son of war is born;
Whose dangerous eyes may well be charm'd asleep
With grant of our most just and right desires;
And true
obedience, of this
madness cur'd,
Stoop tamely to the foot of majesty.
MOWBRAY. If not, we ready are to try our fortunes
To the last man.
HASTINGS. And though we here fall down,
We have supplies to second our attempt.
If they miscarry,
theirs shall second them;
And so success of
mischief shall be born,
And heir from heir shall hold this quarrel up
Whiles England shall have generation.
PRINCE JOHN. YOU are too
shallow, Hastings, much to
shallow,
To sound the bottom of the after-times.
WESTMORELAND. Pleaseth your Grace to answer them directly
How far forth you do like their articles.
PRINCE JOHN. I like them all and do allow them well;
And swear here, by the honour of my blood,
My father's purposes have been mistook;
And some about him have too lavishly
Wrested his meaning and authority.
My lord, these griefs shall be with speed redress'd;
Upon my soul, they shall. If this may please you,
Dis
charge your powers unto their several counties,
As we will ours; and here, between the armies,
Let's drink together friendly and embrace,
That all their eyes may bear those tokens home
Of our restored love and amity.
ARCHBISHOP. I take your
princely word for these redresses.
PRINCE JOHN. I give it you, and will
maintain my word;
And
thereupon I drink unto your Grace.
HASTINGS. Go, Captain, and deliver to the army
This news of peace. Let them have pay, and part.
I know it will please them. Hie thee, Captain.
Exit Officer
ARCHBISHOP. To you, my noble Lord of Westmoreland.
WESTMORELAND. I
pledge your Grace; and if you knew what pains
I have bestow'd to breed this present peace,
You would drink
freely; but my love to ye
Shall show itself more
openly hereafter.
ARCHBISHOP. I do not doubt you.
WESTMORELAND. I am glad of it.
Health to my lord and gentle cousin, Mowbray.
MOWBRAY. You wish me health in very happy season,
For I am on the sudden something ill.
ARCHBISHOP. Against ill chances men are ever merry;
But
heaviness foreruns the good event.
WESTMORELAND. Therefore be merry, coz; since sudden sorrow
Serves to say thus, 'Some good thing comes to-morrow.'
ARCHBISHOP. Believe me, I am passing light in spirit.
MOWBRAY. So much the worse, if your own rule be true.
[Shouts within]
PRINCE JOHN. The word of peace is rend'red. Hark, how they shout!
MOWBRAY. This had been
cheerful after victory.
ARCHBISHOP. A peace is of the nature of a conquest;
For then both parties nobly are subdu'd,
And neither party loser.
PRINCE JOHN. Go, my lord,
And let our army be dis
charged too.
Exit WESTMORELAND
And, good my lord, so please you let our trains
March by us, that we may peruse the men
We should have cop'd withal.
ARCHBISHOP. Go, good Lord Hastings,
And, ere they be dismiss'd, let them march by.
Exit HASTINGS
PRINCE JOHN. I trust, lords, we shall lie to-night together.
Re-enter WESTMORELAND
Now, cousin,
wherefore stands our army still?
WESTMORELAND. The leaders, having
charge from you to stand,
Will not go off until they hear you speak.
PRINCE JOHN. They know their duties.
Re-enter HASTINGS
HASTINGS. My lord, our army is dispers'd already.
Like
youthful steers unyok'd, they take their courses
East, west, north, south; or like a school broke up,
Each hurries toward his home and sporting-place.
WESTMORELAND. Good
tidings, my Lord Hastings; for the which
I do
arrest thee,
traitor, of high
treason;
And you, Lord Archbishop, and you, Lord Mowbray,
Of capital
treason I
attach you both.
MOWBRAY. Is this
proceeding just and honourable?
WESTMORELAND. Is your
assembly so?