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Give sorrow leave awhile to tutor me
To this submission. Yet I well remember
The favours of these men : were they not mine?
Did they not sometime cry, ‘All hail!' to me?
So Judas did to Christ: but he, in twelve,
Found truth in all but one; I, in twelve thousand,

none.
God save the King! Will no man say, amen?
Am I both priest and clerk ? well then, amen.
God save the King! although I be not he;
And yet, amen, if heaven do think him me.
To do what service am I sent for hither?

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York. To do that office of thine own good will
Which tired majesty did make thee offer,
The resignation of thy state and crown
To Henry Bolingbroke.
King Richard. Give me the crown. Here, cousin,

seize the crown;
Here cousin,
On this side my hand and on that side thine.
Now is this golden crown like a deep well
That owes two buckets filling one another;
The emptier ever dancing in the air,

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The other down, unseen and full of water:
That bucket down and full of tears am I,
Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high.
Bolingbroke. I thought you had been willing to

resign. King Richard. My crown, I am; but still my griefs are mine.

30 You may my glories and my state depose, But not my griefs; still am I king of those. Bolingbroke. Part of your cares you give me with

your crown. King Richard. Your cares set up do not pluck

my cares down. My care is loss of care, by old care done; 35 Your care is gain of care, by new care won.

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45

The cares I give I have, though given away;
They tend the crown, yet still with me they stay.
Bolingbroke. Are you contented to resign the

crown? King Richard. Ay, no; no, ay; for I must nothing

be; Therefore no no, for I resign to thee. Now mark me how I will undo myself: I give this heavy weight from off my head, And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand, The pride of kingly sway from out my heart; With mine own tears I wash away my balm, With mine own hands I give away my crown, With mine own tongue deny my sacred state, With mine own breath release all duteous rites: All pomp and niajesty I do forswear; My manors, rents, revenues, I forego; My acts, decrees, and statutes I deny: God pardon all oaths that are broke to me! God keep all vows unbroke are made to thee! Make me, that nothing have, with nothing griev'd, 55 And thou with all pleas'd, that hast all achiev'd! Long mayst thou live in Richard's seat to sit, And soon lie Richard in an carthy pit ! God save King Henry, unking'd Richard says, And send him many years of sunshine days! 60

W. SHAKESPEARE (from Richard II).

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46. balm) the sacred oil.

THE RED HARLAW

(1411) The battle of the Harlaw settled whether the Gaelic or the Saxon race should be predominant in Scotland. The weak rule of the early Stuarts had led to such a state of anarchy in the country that the Highlanders thought Scotland would be an easy prey.

Donald, Lord of the Isles, enforced his claim to the earldom of Ross by ravaging the North with an army of Highlanders and Islesmen. He was opposed by Alexander Earl of Mar at the head of the Northern nobility and gentry of Saxon and Norman descent, for once united against the common peril. The battle was indecisive, but Donald had to retire and renounce his claims to Ross; so that all the advantages of the field were gained by the Saxons. [See Scott's Antiquary.]

Now haud your tongue, baith wife and carle,

And listen, great and sma'
And I will sing of Glenallan's Earl

That fought on the red Harlaw.
The cronach's cried on Bennachie,

And doun the Don and a',
And hieland and lawland may mournfu' be

For the sair field of Harlaw.

They saddled a hundred milk-white steeds,

They hae bridled a hundred black,
With a chafron of steel on each horse's head,

And a good knight upon his back.
They hadna ridden a mile, a mile,

A mile, but barely ten,
When Donald came branking down the brae

Wi' twenty thousand men

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Their tartans they were waving wide,

Their glaives were glancing clear, The pibrochs rung frae side to side,

Would deafen ye to hear.

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The great Earl in his stirrups stood,

That Highland host to see;
Now here a knight that 's stout and good

May prove a jeopardie:

• What would'st thou do, my squire so gay, 25

That rides beside my reyne, Were ye Glenallan's Earl the day,

And I were Roland Cheyne?

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• To turn the rein were sin and shame,

To fight were wond'rous peril ;
What would ye do now, Roland Cheyne,

Were ye Glenallan's Earl ?'
Were I Glenallan's Earl this tide,

And ye were Roland Cheyne,
The spur should be in my horse's side,

And the bridle upon his mane.

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* If they hae twenty thousand blades,

And we twice ten times ten,
Yet they hae but their tartan plaids,

And we are mail-clad men.

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My horse shall ride through ranks sae rude,

As through the moorland fern,-
Then ne'er let the gentle Norman blude

Grow cauld for Highland kerne.'

SIR W. SCOTT.

44. kerne) foot-soldier.

HENRY V IN FRANCE

(1415)

After reducing Harfleur, Henry V's purpose was to march on Paris. But he had underestimated the resistance of northern France, and with his army much weakened he was forced to fall back on Calais, and at Agincourt to fight his way through the French in order to secure his retreat.

CHORUS

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O! FOR a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention ;
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene.
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,
Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire
Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all,
The flat unraised spirits that hath dar'd
On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth
So great an object : can this cockpit hold
The vasty fields of France? or may we cram
Within this wooden O the very casques
That did affright the air at Agincourt ?
O, pardon ! since a crooked figure may

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Attest in little place a million ;
And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,
On your imaginary forces work.
Suppose within the girdle of these walls
Are now confin'd two mighty monarchies,
Whose high upreared and abutting fronts
The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder:
Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts:

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