vpon their troops scaled and fled their waies; but, being pursued, manie were taken, manie slaine, and manie spoiled of that that they had about them, & so permitted to go their waies. Howsoeuer the matter was handled, true it is that the archbishop, and the carle marshall were brought to Pomfret to the king, who in this meane while was aduanced thither with his power; and from thence he went to Yorke, whither the prisoners were also brought, and there beheaded the morrow after Whitsundaie [June 8, 1405] in a place without the citie: that is to vnderstand, the archbishop himselfe, the earle marshall, sir Iohn Lampleie, and sir William1 Plumpton. Unto all which persons, though indemnitie were promised, yet was the same to none of them at anie hand performed.

Act IV. sc. iii.—The surrender of Sir John Colevile of the Dale 2 to Falstaff is a comic incident which appears to have been suggested by the mere record of Colevile's execution at Durham, when Henry was marching against Northumberland.

[Hol. iii. 530/2/31.] At his [Henry's] comming to Durham, the lord Hastings, the lord Fauconbridge, sir Iohn Colleuill of the Dale, and sir Iohn Griffith, being conuicted of the conspiracie, were there beheaded.

Whether the historic time of this scene be 14053 or 1412 is doubtful, for, shortly before leaving the stage, Prince John says (1. 83): I heare the King my father is sore sick.

1 William] Robert Hol.

It appears that in the month of May,-but before the Archbishop and Earl Marshal were arrested, the rebels under Sir John Fauconberg, Sir Ralph Hastings, and Sir John Colvyle de Dale, were embattled near Topcliff, until ("tan que") Prince John and Westmoreland "eux fesoit voider le champ, & eux myst a fuyte & sur lour fuier feurent pris." On May 29 the troops of Prince John and Westmoreland were ranged in order of battle upon Shipton on the Moor, confronting the forces of Scrope and Mowbray, "armes & arraies a faire de guerre, . . . & en tiel arraie les ditz Richard [Scrope] & Thomas [Mowbray] & autres lour complices feuront pris mesme le jour sur le dit More."-Rot. Parl., iii. 604/2; 605/1.

3 Halle (35) makes contemptuous mention of a story that "at the howre of the execucion of " Archbishop Scrope, "the kyng at the same tyme syttyng at dyner... was incontinently striken with a leprey," and (45) denies that the "sore sodayn disease" which caused Henry's death was a "Lepry stryken by the handes of God as folysh Friers before declared" (see p. 160 below). According to Eulog. (408) the king, immediately after Scrope's execution (June 8, 1405), "quasi leprosus apparere cepit." Another account is that, in 1408, Henry, after his return from York, where he had been occupied with punishing Northumberland's accomplices, "decidit in languorem et extasin consequenter, ita ut mortuus putaretur apud Mortlake."-Ott., 263.

The king is vexed with sicknesse.

fish (but not

Under the latter date Holinshed first makes mention of the sickness which eventually proved fatal to Henry.

[Hol. iii. 540/2/72.] He [Henry] held his Christmas this yeare at Eltham, being sore vexed with sicknesse, so that it was thought sometime, [p. 541] that he had beene dead: notwithstanding it pleased God that he somwhat recouered his strength againe, and so passed that Christmasse with as much ioy as he might.

Act IV. sc. iv.-Henry died on March 20, 1413 (Wals., ii. 289), about which time we might suppose this scene to open, if dramatic chronology were reconcilable with historic dates. Soon after entering the King says to Clarence (11. 20-26):

How chance thou art not with the prince thy brother?
He loues thee, and thou dost neglect him, Thomas;

Thou hast a better place in his affection

Then all thy brothers: cherrish it, my boy;

And noble offices thou maist effect

Of mediation, after I am dead,

Between his greatnesse and thy other brethren.

20

24

It is just possible that a hint for these lines was taken from part of a long speech addressed by Henry IV. to his eldest son (Stow, 554556), in which the King-who was then on his deathbed-expressed a fear lest Clarence's ambition and the Prince's haughtiness might cause strife between the two brothers.

The King advises Clarence to refrain from chiding Prince Henry for faults,

Till that his passions, like a whale on ground,
Confound themselues with working.

Perhaps the source of this metaphor was the following account of a stranded whale :

[Hol. iii. 1259/2/32.] The ninth of Iulie [1574. 1573 according to Harrison's Chronologie (Shakspere's England, ed. F. J. Furnivall, App. I. lvi.)], at six of the clocke at night, in the Ile A monstrous of Thanet besid[e]s Ramesgate, in the parish of saint Peter vnder so monstrous the cliffe, a monstrous fish or whale of the sea did shoot himselfe on shore; where, for want of water, beating himselfe on the sands, he died about six of the clocke on the next morning, before which time he roared, and was heard more than a mile on the land.

as some

reported) for

his eies, being great,

were in his head and

not in his backe.

As Westmoreland announces Prince John's success (11. 83-87), time recedes until 1405 is again the historic date, but, when Harcourt brings tidings that Northumberland and Bardolph, "with a great power of English and of Scots," have been overthrown by the Sheriff of Yorkshire (11. 97-99), we are transported to the historical year 1408. Northumberland's defeat is thus described :

[Hol. iii. 534/1/20.] The earle of Northumberland, and the lord Bardolfe, after they had beene in Wales, in France, and Flanders, to purchase aid against king Henrie, were returned backe into Scotland, and had remained there now for the space of a whole yeare: and, as their euill fortune would, whilest the king held a councell of the nobilitie at London, the said earle of Northumberland and lord Bardolfe, in a dismall houre, with a great power of Scots, returned into England; recouering diuerse of the earls castels and seigniories, for the people in great numbers resorted vnto them. Heerevpon, incouraged with hope of good successe, they entred into Yorkeshire, & there began to destroie the countrie. At their comming to Threske, they published a proclamation, signifieng that they were come in comfort of the English nation, as to releeue the common-wealth; willing all such as loued the libertie of their countrie, to repaire vnto them, with their armor on their backes, and in defensible wise to assist them.

1408

The earle of

Northumb. &

the lord returne into

Bardolfe

Englad.

The shirite assembled the county

of Yorkeshire

the forces of

resist them].

The king, aduertised hereof, caused a great armie to be assembled, and came forward with the same towards his enimies; but, yer the king came to Notingham, sir Thomas, or (as other copies haue) Rafe Rokesbie, shiriffe of Yorkeshire, assembled the forces of the countrie to resist the earle and his power; comming to Grimbaut brigs, beside Knaresbourgh, there to stop them the passage; but they, returning aside, got to Weatherbie, and so to Tadcaster, and finallie came forward vnto Bramham more, neere to Haizelwood, where they chose their ground meet to fight vpon. The shiriffe was as readie to giue battell as the earle to receiue it, His hard and so, with a standard of S. George spred, set fiercelie vpon the fight. earle, who, vnder a standard of his owne armes, incountred his aduersaries with great manhood. There was a sore incounter and cruell conflict betwixt the parties, but in the end the victorie fell to the shiriffe. The lord Bardolfe was taken, but sore wounded, so that he shortlie after died of the hurts. T As for the earle of Northumberland, he was slaine outright: . . . This battell was fought the ninteenth day of Februarie [1408].

Hardly has the news of Northumberland's defeat been uttered ere the King swoons, and historic time is again as it was when the scene opened.

corage to

[Lord

Bardolph taken.]

The earle of

Northumber

land slaine.

While the King is unconscious, Clarence mentions a portent 1 (1. 125):

The riuer hath thrice flowed, no ebbe between.

Holinshed says:

[Hol. iii. 540/1/45.] In this yeare [1411], and vpon the twelfth

Abr. Fl. out day of October, were three flouds in the Thames, the one following

of Fabian

pag. 388.

Three floods without ebbing between.

Hall.

[Henry IV. swooned,

vpon the other, & no ebbing betweene: which thing no man then liuing could remember the like to be seene.

Act IV. sc. v.-My next excerpt is the well-known story which is dramatized in the "Crown Scene."

[Hol. iii. 541/1/22.] During this his [Henry IV.'s] last sicknesse, he caused his crowne (as some write) to be set on a pillow at his beds head; 2 and suddenlie his pangs so sore troubled him, and was left that he laie as though all his vitall spirits had beene from him departed. Such as were about him, thinking verelie that he had beene departed, couered his face with a linnen cloth.

for dead,

with his

crown on

his pillow.]

The prince taketh awaie the crowne before his father was dead.

of the king.

The prince, his sonne, being hereof aduertised, entered into the chamber, tooke awaie the crowne, and departed. The father, being suddenlie reuiued out of that trance, quicklie perceiued the lacke of his crowne; and, hauing knowledge that the prince his sonne He is blamed had taken it awaie, caused him to come before his presence, requiring of him what he meant so to misuse himselfe. The prince, with a good audacitie, answered: "Sir, to mine and all 'mens iudgements you seemed dead in this world; wherefore I, as "your next heire apparant, tooke that as mine owne, and not as "yours." "Well, faire sonne" (said the king with a great sigh), what right I had to it, God knoweth." "Well" (said the prince), "if you die king, I will haue the garland, and trust to keepe it "with the sword against all mine enimies, as you haue doone."

His answer.

A guiltie conscience in extremitie of sicknesse pincheth

sore.

1 Recorded by Fab. (576) under the 13th year of Henry IV. Clarence speaks of a threefold tide which occurred "a little time before" Edward III.'s death, and Gloucester is alarmed by "vnfather'd heires, and lothly births of nature" (IV. iv. 121-128), lately observed. I find no records of these latter portents. There may be an allusion to the wet summer of 1594-cp. Mids. N. D., II. i. 82-114-in Gloucester's remark that "the seasons change their manners," &c. (ll. 123, 124).

2 Mons. (ii. 435), who was, I suppose, Halle's authority for the following story, says that, comme il est accoutumé de faire au pays," the crown was placed sur une couche assez près de lui" [Henry].

Henrie the

Then said the king, "I commit all to God, and remember you to "doo well." With that he turned himselfe in his bed, and shortlie The death of after departed to God in a chamber of the abbats of Westminster fourth. called Ierusalem, the twentith daie of March, in the yeare 1413, and in the yeare of his age 46: when he had reigned thirteene yeares, fiue moneths, and od daies, in great perplexitie and little pleasure..

The King's "very latest counsaile" (1. 183) to Prince Henry is illustrated by two passages from Holinshed. Advising engagement in "forraine quarrells" as an expedient for occupying the "giddie mindes" of unfaithful subjects, Henry says (11. 210-213) that he had a purpose now

To leade out manie to the Holy Land,

Lest rest and lying stil might make them looke

Too neare vnto my state.

212

Holinshed thus describes the warlike preparations which were made -as Fabyan asserts1-with the design of reconquering Jerusalem :

The k. meant

to have made

a iournie

against the

Infidels.

[Hol. iii. 540/2/60.] In this fourteenth and last yeare of king Fabian. Henries reigne, a councell was holden in the white friers in London; at the which, among other things, order was taken for ships and gallies to be builded and made readie, and all other things necessarie to be prouided for a voiage which he meant to make into the holie land, there to recouer the citie of Ierusalem from the Infidels.

1413

[Hol. iii. 541/1/5.] The morrow after Candlemas daie began a parlement, which he had called at London, but he departed this 4 parlement. life before the same parlement was ended: for now that his prouisions were readie, and that he was furnished with sufficient treasure, soldiers, capteins, vittels, munitions, tall ships, strong gallies, and all things necessarie for such a roiall iournie as he

1 These preparations have perhaps been postdated, and their object (an expedition against France) misunderstood. On April 18, 1412, a patent (Rymer, viii. 730) was issued to press sailors "ad Deserviendum nobis in quodam Viagio supra Mare infra breve faciendo"; and on July 12, 1412, Henry acknowledges the loan of a thousand marks from the Archbishop of Canterbury, for the expenses which "Nos, pro communi Commodo, circa Prosecutionem & Adeptionem Juris nostri (Deo dante) in partibus Aquitanniæ, ac alibi, in partibus Transmarinis, infra breve facere oportebit."-Rymer, viii. 760. In August, 1412, the Duke of Clarence was sent with a strong force ("manu valida") to the assistance of the Armagnac faction.-Wals., ii. 288. On August 10 he landed at la Hogue-Saint-Vast.-Chron. Normande, 418.