The Complete Works of William Shakespeare In Plain and Simple English (Translated) (170 page)

We should be very thankful and remember the importance of our mission.

Scroop

So service shall with steeled sinews toil,


And labour shall refresh itself with hope,


To do your Grace incessant services.

Every man in your service should work hard and with hope.

King

We judge no less. Uncle of Exeter,


Enlarge the man committed yesterday,


That rail'd against our person. We consider


It was excess of wine that set him on,


And on his more advice we pardon him.

We will accept nothing less. Uncle Exeter, pardon the man who talked poorly about me yesterday. I think he just drank too much.

Scroop

That's mercy, but too much security.


Let him be punish'd, sovereign, lest example


Breed, by his sufferance, more of such a kind.

That’s merciful, but don’t be too soft. Let him be punished and set forth as an example or else others may follow suit.

King

O, let us yet be merciful.

Oh, let’s be merciful.

CAMBRIDGE

So may your Highness, and yet punish too.

Grey

Sir,


You show great mercy if you give him life


After the taste of much correction.

Sir, you show him mercy, if you allow him to live after he has been corrected.

King

Alas, your too much love and care of me


Are heavy orisons 'gainst this poor wretch!


If little faults, proceeding on distemper,


Shall not be wink'd at, how shall we stretch our eye


When capital crimes, chew'd, swallow'd, and digested,


Appear before us? We'll yet enlarge that man,


Though Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey, in their dear care


And tender preservation of our person,


Would have him punish'd. And now to our French causes.


Who are the late commissioners?

You love and care for me so much. Don’t hold it against this poor man! If we can’t overlook such trivial crimes, how are we going to act when faced with capital crimes? Free this man, although Cambridge, Scroop and Grey would like to have him punished. Now, to our French dilemma: Who are the late commissioners?

Cambridge

I one, my lord.


Your Highness bade me ask for it to-day.

I am, my lord. You asked me to come today.

Scroop

So did you me, my liege.

Me too, my liege.

Grey

And I, my royal sovereign.

And me, my king.

King

Then, Richard Earl of Cambridge, there is yours;


There yours, Lord Scroop of Masham; and, sir knight,


Grey of Northumberland, this same is yours.


Read them, and know I know your worthiness.


My Lord of Westmoreland, and uncle Exeter,


We will aboard to-night.--Why, how now, gentlemen!


What see you in those papers that you lose


So much complexion?--Look ye, how they change!


Their cheeks are paper.--Why, what read you there,


That have so cowarded and chas'd your blood


Out of appearance?

Then here you go. Read them and know I know you are capable of this. My Lord Westmoreland ad Uncle Exeter, we will leave tonight. Now, gentlemen, what is in those papers that make you so pale? Look at how your faces have turned white as paper. What have you read that has made your blood disappear?

Cambridge

I do confess my fault,


And do submit me to your Highness' mercy.

I confess my fault and appeal to your mercy.

Grey and Scroop

To which we all appeal.

We all appeal.

King

The mercy that was quick in us but late,


By your own counsel is suppress'd and kill'd.


You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy,


For your own reasons turn into your bosoms,


As dogs upon their masters, worrying you.

See you, my princes and my noble peers,


These English monsters! My Lord of Cambridge here,


You know how apt our love was to accord


To furnish him with an appertinents


Belonging to his honour; and this man


Hath, for a few light crowns, lightly conspir'd


And sworn unto the practices of France


To kill us here in Hampton; to the which


This knight, no less for bounty bound to us


Than Cambridge is, hath likewise sworn. But, O


What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop? thou cruel,


Ingrateful, savage, and inhuman creature!


Thou that didst bear the key of all my counsels,


That knew'st the very bottom of my soul,


That almost mightst have coin'd me into gold,


Wouldst thou have practis'd on me for thy use,--


May it be possible that foreign hire


Could out of thee extract one spark of evil


That might annoy my finger? 'Tis so strange,


That, though the truth of it stands off as gross


As black and white, my eye will scarcely see it.


Treason and murder ever kept together,


As two yoke-devils sworn to either's purpose,


Working so grossly in a natural cause


That admiration did not whoop at them;


But thou, 'gainst all proportion, didst bring in


Wonder to wait on treason and on murder;


And whatsoever cunning fiend it was


That wrought upon thee so preposterously


Hath got the voice in hell for excellence;


And other devils that suggest by treasons


Do botch and bungle up damnation


With patches, colours, and with forms being fetch'd


From glist'ring semblances of piety.


But he that temper'd thee bade thee stand up,


Gave thee no instance why thou shouldst do treason,


Unless to dub thee with the name of traitor.


If that same demon that hath gull'd thee thus


Should with his lion gait walk the whole world,


He might return to vasty Tartar back,


And tell the legions, "I can never win


A soul so easy as that Englishman's."


O, how hast thou with jealousy infected


The sweetness of affiance! Show men dutiful?


Why, so didst thou. Seem they grave and learned?

Why, so didst thou. Come they of noble family?


Why, so didst thou. Seem they religious?


Why, so didst thou. Or are they spare in diet,


Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger,


Constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood,


Garnish'd and deck'd in modest complement,


Not working with the eye without the ear,


And but in purged judgement trusting neither?


Such and so finely bolted didst thou seem.


And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot


To mark the full-fraught man and best indued


With some suspicion. I will weep for thee;


For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like


Another fall of man. Their faults are open.


Arrest them to the answer of the law;


And God acquit them of their practices!

Like the mercy you would have shown before. It is too late, and you shouldn’t dare talk of mercy. You are like dogs that turn on their masters. See here, my princes and noble peers, the Lord of Cambridge whom we have lavished with honor has sold us out to France for a few little crowns. He swore as well as this knight to kill us here in Hampton. What should I say to you, Lord Scroop? You are a cruel, ungrateful, and inhumane creature! You, who have been the closest to me and knew my heart and soul, would sell me out to murderers. I can barely comprehend it, but here it is in black and white, treason and murder. You have no reason to do this other than to be called a traitor. The devil could walk the entire earth and say, “An Englishman’s soul is easy to win.” You are infected with jealousy. You seemed serious and educated. You came from a noble family. You seemed religious and pious. You seemed to act justly and judiciously, but here you are fallen. I will cry for you. Arrest them and hold them to the full extent of the law. May God forgive you.

Exeter

I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Richard Earl of Cambridge. I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Henry Lord Scroop of Masham. I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Thomas Grey, knight, of Northumberland.

I arrest you and charge you with high treason, Richard Earl of Cambridge, Henry Lord Scroop of Masham, and Thomas Grey, Knight of Northumberland.

Scroop

Our purposes God justly hath discover'd,


And I repent my fault more than my death,


Which I beseech your Highness to forgive,


Although my body pay the price of it.

God has seen fit to reveal our purposes and I repent my actions and pay with my life. I ask you to forgive me.

Cambridge

For me, the gold of France did not seduce,


Although I did admit it as a motive


The sooner to effect what I intended.


But God be thanked for prevention,


Which I in sufferance heartily will rejoice,


Beseeching God and you to pardon me.

The gold of France didn’t seduce me, although it was a motivation. I am thankful we didn’t succeed and I ask God and you to forgive me.

Grey

Never did faithful subject more rejoice


At the discovery of most dangerous treason


Than I do at this hour joy o'er myself,


Prevented from a damned enterprise.


My fault, but not my body, pardon, sovereign.

I rejoice at the discovery of this treason and the prevention of such a crime. Please forgive me, king.

King

God quit you in his mercy! Hear your sentence.


You have conspir'd against our royal person,


Join'd with an enemy proclaim'd, and from his coffers


Received the golden earnest of our death;


Wherein you would have sold your king to slaughter,


His princes and his peers to servitude,


His subjects to oppression and contempt,


And his whole kingdom into desolation.


Touching our person seek we no revenge;


But we our kingdom's safety must so tender,


Whose ruin you have sought, that to her laws


We do deliver you. Get you therefore hence,


Poor miserable wretches, to your death,


The taste whereof God of his mercy give


You patience to endure, and true repentance


Of all your dear offences! Bear them hence.