Shakespeare's Kings (125 page)
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A Constitutional History of England.
3
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M.
W.
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1944. Trevelyan,
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M.
England in the Age of Wycliffe.
4th
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London
1909. Tuchman,
Barbara.
A Distant Mirror.
London
1978. Walpole,
Horace.
Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of Richard III.
London
1768. Weir,
Alison.
The Wars of the Roses.
London
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—The Princes in the Tower.
London
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J.
Dover,
ed.
Richard II.
Cambridge
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H.
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Appendix
Shakespeare's
Edward III
The following text
of Edward III
is
an early version taken from
Elizabethan History Plays,
William A. Armstrong (ed.), Oxford
1965.
DRAMATIS
PERSONAE
edward the third
, King of England
edward
, Prince of Wales, his Son
earl of warwick
earl of derby
earl of salisbury
lord audley
lord percy
lodwick
, Edward's Confidant
sir william montague sir john copland
Two Esquires, and a Herald, English
R
obert
, styling himself Earl, of Artois
lord mountford
(or
montfort) gobin de grey
john,
King of France
villiers
, a French Lord King of Bohemia ,
david
, King of Scotland
earl douglas
Two Messengers, Scotch
philippa
, Edward's Queen
countess of salisbury
A French Woman
Lords, and divers other Attendants; Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, etc.
scene
- dispersed; in
E
ngland, flanders
, and
F
rance
THE REIGN OF KING EDWARD THE THIRD
act
i scene
i
London. A Room of State in the Palace. Enter King Edward, Derby, Prince Edward, Audley, and Artois.
k. ed
. Robert of Artois, banish'd though thou be
From France, thy native country, yet with us
Thou shalt retain as great a signiory;
For we create thee Earl of Richmond here.
And now go forwards with our pedigree;
Who next succeeded Philip Le Beau?
art
. Three sons of his; which all, successively,
Did sit upon their father's regal throne,
Yet died and left no issue of their loins.
k. ed.
But was my mother sister unto those?
art
. She was, my lord; and only Isabel
Was all the daughters that this Philip had:
Whom afterward your father took to wife;
And, from the fragrant garden of her womb,
Your gracious self, the flower of Europe's hope,
Derived is inheritor to France.
But note the rancour of rebellious minds.
When thus the lineage of Le Beau was out,
The French obscur'd your mother's privilege;
And, though she were the next of blood, proclaim'd
John, of the house of Valois, now their king:
The reason was, they say, the realm of France,
(I, i)
Replete with princes of great parentage,
Ought not admit a governor to rule
Except he be descended of the male;
And that's the special ground of their contempt
Wherewith they study to exclude your grace:
k. ed
. But they shall find that forged ground of theirs
To be but dusty heaps of brittle sand.
art
. Perhaps it will be thought a heinous thing
That I, a Frenchman, should discover this:
But Heaven I call to record of my vows;
It is not hate nor any private wrong,
But love unto my country and the right,
Provokes my tongue thus lavish in report:
You are the lineal watchman of our peace,
And John of Valois indire
ctly
climbs:
What then should subjects, but embrace their king?
Ah, wherein may our duty more be seen,
Than striving to rebate a tyrant's pride
And place the true shepherd of our commonwealth?
k. ed
. This counsel, Artois, like to fruitful showers,
Hath added growth unto my dignity:
And, by the fiery vigour of thy words,
Hot courage is engendered in my breast,
Which heretofore was rack'd in ignorance,
But now doth mount with golden wings of fame,
And will approve fair Isabel's descent
Able to yoke their stubborn necks with steel
That spurn against my sov'reignty in France.-
Sound a horn
A messenger? - Lord Audley, know from whence.
Enter, as messenger, Lorraine
aud
. The Duke of Lorraine, having cross'd the seas,
Entreats he may have conference with your highness.
k. ed
. Admit him, lords, that we may hear the news. -
Say, Duke of Lorraine, wherefore art thou come?
lor
. The most renowned prince, K[ing] John of France,
Doth greet thee, Edward: and by me commands,
That, for so much as by his liberal gift
The Giiyenne dukedom is entail'd to thee,
Thou do him lowly.homage for the same:
And, for that purpose, here I summon thee
Repair to France within these forty days,
That there, according as the custom is,
Thou may'st be sworn true liegeman to our king;
Or, else thy title in that province dies,
And he himself will repossess the place.
k. ed
. See, how occasion laughs me in the face!
No sooner minded to prepare for France,
But straight I am invited, nay, with threats,
Upon a penalty, enjoin'd to come:
'Twere but a childish part to say him nay.
-Lorraine, return this answer to thy lord:
I mean to visit him as he requests;
But how? not servilely dispos'd to bend,
But like a conqueror, to make him bow,
His lame unpolish'd shifts are come to light,
And truth hath pull'd the vizard from his face
That set a gloss upon his arrogance.
Dare he command a fealty in me?
Tell him, the crown, that he usurps, is mine,
And where he sets his foot, he ought to kneel:
'Tis not a petty dukedom that I claim,
But all the whole dominions of the realm;
Which if with grudging he refuse to yield,
I'll take away those borrow'd plumes
of his
And send him naked to the wilderness.
lor
.
Then, Edward, here, in spite of all thy lords,
I do pronounce defiance to thy face.
pr. ed
.
Defiance, Frenchman? we rebound it back,
Even to the bottom of thy master's throat:
And, - be it spoke with reverence of the king
My gracious father, and these other lords,
-I hold thy message but as scurrilous,
And him that sent thee, like the lazy drone
Crept up by stealth unto the eagle's nest;
From whence we'll shake him with so rough a storm,
As others shall be warned by his harm.
war
.
Bid him leave off the lion's case he wears,
Lest, meeting with the lion in the field,
He chance to tear him piecemeal for his pride.
art
. The soundest counsel I can give his grace
Is to surrender ere he be constrain'd.
A voluntary mischief hath less scorn,
Than when reproach with violence is borne.
lor
.
Degenerate traitor, viper to the place
Where thou wast foster'd in thine infancy,
Bear'st thou a part in this conspiracy?
He draws his sword
k. ed
. Lorraine, behold the sharpness of this steel:
Drawing his
Fervent desire, that sits against my heart,
Is far more thorny-pricking than this blade;
That, with the nightingale, I shall be scar'd,
As oft as I dispose myself to rest,
Until my colours be display'd in France.
This is thy final answer; so be gone.
lor
. It is not that, nor any English brave,
Afflicts me so, as doth his poison'd view,
That is most false, should most of all be true.
Exeunt Lorraine
k. ed
. Now, Lord, our fleeting bark is under sail;
Our gage is thrown, and war is soon begun,
But not so quickly brought unto an end. -
Enter Montague
But wherefore comes Sir William Montague?
How stands the league between the Scot and us?
mon
. Crack'd and dissever'd, my renowned lord.
The treacherous king no sooner was inform'd
Of your withdrawing of your army back,
But straight, forgetting of his former oath,
He made invasion on the bordering towns.
Berwick is won; New
castle
spoil'd and lost;
And now the tyrant hath begirt with siege
The castle of Roxborough, where enclos'd
The Countess Salisbury is like to perish.
k. ed
. That is thy daughter, Warwick - is it not? -
Whose husband hath in Britain serv'd so long,
About the planting of Lord Mountford there?
war
. It is, my lord.
k. ed
. Ignoble David! hast thou none to grieve,
But silly ladies, with thy threat'ning arms?
But I will make you shrink your snaily horns.
-First, therefore, Audley, this shall be thy charge;
Go levy footmen for our wars in France:
And, Ned, take muster of our men at arms:
In every shire elect a several band.
Let them be soldiers of a lusty spirit,
Such as dread nothing but dishonour's blot:
Be wary therefore; since we do commence
A famous war and with so mighty a nation.
Derby, be thou ambassador for us.
