_Buss._ So! have you said?

_Mons._ How thinkest thou? Doe I flatter? 475 Speak I not like a trusty friend to thee?

_Buss._ That ever any man was blest withall.

So here's for me! I think you are (at worst) No devill, since y'are like to be no King; Of which with any friend of yours Ile lay 480 This poore stillado here gainst all the starres, I, and 'gainst all your treacheries, which are more: That you did never good, but to doe ill, But ill of all sorts, free and for it selfe: That (like a murthering peece making lanes in armies, 485 The first man of a rank, the whole rank falling) If you have wrong'd one man, you are so farre From making him amends that all his race, Friends, and a.s.sociates fall into your chace: That y'are for perjuries the very prince 490 Of all intelligencers; and your voice Is like an easterne winde, that, where it flies, Knits nets of catterpillars, with which you catch The prime of all the fruits the kingdome yeelds: That your politicall head is the curst fount 495 Of all the violence, rapine, cruelty, Tyrannie, & atheisme flowing through the realme: That y'ave a tongue so scandalous, 'twill cut The purest christall, and a breath that will Kill to that wall a spider; you will jest 500 With G.o.d, and your soule to the Devill tender For l.u.s.t; kisse horror, and with death engender: That your foule body is a Lernean fenne Of all the maladies breeding in all men: That you are utterly without a soule; 505 And for your life, the thred of that was spunne When Clotho slept, and let her breathing rock Fall in the durt; and Lachesis still drawes it, Dipping her twisting fingers in a boule Defil'd, and crown'd with vertues forced soule: 510 And lastly (which I must for grat.i.tude Ever remember) that of all my height And dearest life you are the onely spring, Onely in royall hope to kill the King.

_Mons._ Why, now I see thou lov'st me! come to the banquet!

_Exeunt._ 515

_Finis Actus Tertii._

LINENOTES:

_Henry . . . Attendants_. A, _Henry, D'Ambois, Monsieur, Guise, Mont., Elenor, Tam., Pero_.

1 _my_. A; B omits.

4 _sparrowes_. A, nothing.

16 _man_. A, truth.

29 _than_. So in A; B, by.

53 _besieged_. A, oppressed.

58 _the rest_. A, the tother.

67 _bout_. A, charge.

71-72 Three lines in Qq, i.e. _Peace . . . thee peace_

_Let . . . warre_

_He's . . . man_.

76 _n.o.blier_. Emend. ed. Qq, n.o.bly; see note, p. 154.

88 _Stay . . . D'Ambois_. B, Stay them, stay D'Ambois.

89 _honour'd_. A, equall.

96 _empire_. A, eminence.

104 _one stick out_. A, out one sticke.

105 _bound our lifes_. A, was compris'd.

107 _ingenious_. A, ingenuous.

117 _hold_. A, proove. _vertue_. A, rodde.

121 _Decline not to_. A, Engender not.

131-138 _And hope . . . D'Amb[ois], Ladies_. Omitted in A, which after 130 has: _Exeunt Henry, D'Amb., Ely, Ta._

140 _worthy_. A, proper.

149 _ranging_. A, gadding.

153 _for, you know_. A, and indeed.

160-161 _the hart, Being old, and cunning in his_. A, being old, And cunning in his choice of.

163-164 _where . . . his hinde_. A has:--

Where his custome is To beat his vault, and he ruts with his hinde.

168 _chiefest_. A, greatest.

172 _the cunningst_. A, an excellent.

173-177 _I have broken . . . hope there_. A has:--

I have already broke the ice, my lord, With the most trusted woman of your Countesse, And hope I shall wade through to our discovery.

178 _Gui._ A, _Mont._ omitting the speech _Nay . . .

there_.

179 _Starting back_. Omitted in A, which instead continues Montsurry's speech with: And we will to the other.

180 _indeed_. A omits.

185 _Nay_. A, Pray.

189-193 _Well said . . . to thee_. Printed in doggerel form in Qq, the lines ending with _hands_, _me_, _mistresse_, _thee_.

192 _of_. A, concerning.

193 _sworne to thee_. A, promised.

194 _that a.s.surance_. A, that you have sworne.

198-199 _so wee reach our objects_. A, so it bee not to one that will betray thee.

202 _Excellent . . . me_. So punctuated by ed.; A, Excellent Pero thou reviv'st me; B, Excellent! Pero thou reviv'st me.

203 _to perdition_. A, into earth heere.

205 _watching_. A, wondring.

206 _stole up_. A, stole.