Shakespeare's Kings (130 page)

Exit Lodwick

The sin is more to hack and hew poor men,

Than to embrace in an unlawful bed

The register of all rarities Since leathern Adam till this youngest hour.

(II, ii)
Enter Countess [and Lodwick]

Go, Lodwick, put thy hand into my purse,

Play, spend, give, riot, waste; do what thou wilt,

So thou wilt hence a while and leave me here.

[Exit Lodwick]

Now, my soul's playfellow! art thou come,

To speak the more than heavenly word of
yea

To my objection in thy beauteous love?

count
. My father on his blessing hath commanded
–

k. ed
. That thou shalt yield to me.

count
. Ay, dear my liege, your due.

k. ed
. And that, my dearest love, can be no less

Than right for right and tender love for love.

count
. Than wrong for wrong and endless hate for hate.

But, - sith I see your majesty so bent,

That my unwillingness, my husband's love,

Your high estate, nor no respect respected

Can be my help, but that your mightiness

Will overbear and awe these dear regards, -

I bind my discontent to my content,

And, what I would not, I'll compel I will;

Provided that yourself remove those lets

That stand between your highness' love and mine.

k. ed
. Name them, fair countess, and, by Heaven, I will.

count
. It is their lives, that stand between our love,

That I would have chok'd up, my sovereign.
k.ed
. Whose lives, my lady?
count.
My thrice-loving liege,

Your queen, and Salisbury my wedded husband;

Who living have that tide in our love

That we can not bestow but by their death.

k. ed
. Thy opposition is beyond our law.

count
. So is your desire: if the law

Can hinder you to execute the one,

Let it forbid you to attempt the other:

I cannot think you love me as you say

Unless you do make good what you have sworn.

k. ed
. No more; thy husband and the queen shall die.

Fairer thou art by far than Hero was;

Beardless Leander not so strong as I:

He swum an easy current for his love;

But I will through a Hellespont of blood

To arrive at Sestos where my Hero lies.

count
. Nay, you'll do more; you'll make the river, too,

(II, ii) With their heart-bloods that keep our love asunder,

Of which my husband and your wife are twain.

k. ed
. Thy beauty makes them guilty of their death

And gives in evidence that they shall die;

Upon which verdict, I, their judge, condemn them.

count
. O perjur'd beauty! more corrupted judge!

When to the great star-chamber o'er our heads

The universal sessions calls to count

This packing evil, we both shall tremble for it.

k. ed
. What says my fair love? is she resolute?

count
. Resolute to be dissolv'd; and, therefore, this,

-Keep but thy word, great king, and I am thine.

Stand where thou dost, I'll part a little from thee,

And see how I will yield me to thy hands.

Here by my side doth hang my wedding knives:

Take thou the one and with it kill thy queen

And learn by me to find her where she lies;

And with this other I'll despatch my love,

Which now lies fast asleep within my heart:

When they are gone, then I'll consent to love.

Stir not, lascivious king, to hinder me;

My resolution is more nimbler far

Than thy prevention can be in my rescue,

And, if thou stir, I strike: therefore stand still,

And hear the choice that I will put thee to:

Either swear to leave thy most unholy suit,

And never henceforth to solicit me;

Or else, by Heaven, this sharp-pointed knife

Shall stain thy earth with that which thou wouldst stain,

My poor chaste blood. Swear, Edward, swear,

Or I will strike and die before thee here.

k. ed
. Even by that Power I swear, that gives me now

The power to be ashamed of myself,

I never mean to part my lips again

In any words that tends to such a suit.

Arise, true English lady, whom our isle

May better boast of, than e'er Roman might

Of her, whose ransack'd treasury hath task'd

The vain endeavour of so many pens:

Arise; and be my fault thy honour's fame,

Which after-ages shall enrich thee with.

I am awaked from this idle dream;

-Warwick, my son, Derby, Artois, and Audley,

Brave warriors all, where are you all this while?

(II, ii)
Enter all

Warwick, I make thee Warden of the North:

-Thou, Prince of Wales, and Audley, straight to sea

Scour to Newhaven; some there stay for me:

-Myself, Artois, and Derby, will through Flanders

To greet our friends there and to crave their aid:

This night will scarce suffice me, to discover

My folly's siege against a faithful lover;

For, ere the sun shall guide the eastern sky,

We'll wake him with our martial harmony.

Exeunt

act
iii scene
i

Flanders. The French Camp.

Enter King John of France; his two Sons,

Charles of Normandy, and Philip; and the Duke of Lorraine.
k. john
. Here, till our navy of a thousand sail

Have made a breakfast to our foe by sea,

Let us encamp to wait their happy speed. -

Lorraine, what readiness is Edward in?

How hast thou heard that he provided is

Of martial furniture for this exploit?

lor
. To lay aside unnecessary soothing

And not to spend the time in circumstance,

'Tis buried for a certainty, my lord,

That he's exceeding strongly fortified;

His subjects flock as willingly to war

As if unto a triumph they were led.

char
. England was wont to harbour malcontents,

Bloodthirsty and seditious Catilines,

Spendthrifts, and such as gape for nothing else

But changing and alteration of the state;

And is it possible,

That they are now so loyal in themselves?

lor
. All but the Scot; who solemnly protests,

As heretofore I have inform'd his grace,

Never to sheathe his sword, or take a truce.

k. john
. Ah, that's the anch'rage of some better hope!

But, on the other side, to think what friends

King Edward hath retain'd in Netherland,

Among those ever-bibbing Epicures,

Those frothy Dutchmen, puff'd with double beer,

(III, i) That drink and swill in every place they come,

Doth not a
little
aggravate mine ire:

Besides, we hear, the Emperor conjoins,

And stalls him in his own authority:

But, all the mightier that their number is,

The greater glory reaps the victory.

Some friends have we beside domestic power;

The stern Polonian, and the warlike Dane,

The King of Bohemia and of Sicily,

Are all become confederates with us,

And, as I think, are marching hither apace.

[Drum within]

But, soft, I hear the music of their drums,

By which I guess that their approach is near.

Enter the King of Bohemia, with Danes, and a

Polonian captain, with other soldiers, another way.

k. boh
. King John of France, as league and neighbourhood

Requires when friends are anyway distress'd,

I come to aid thee with my country's force.

pole
. And from great Moscow, fearful to the Turk,

And lofty Poland, nurse of hardy men,

I bring these servitors to fight for thee

Who willingly will venture in thy cause.

k. john
. Welcome, Bohemian king; and welcome, all:

This your great kindness I will not forget.

Besides your plentiful rewards in crowns,

That from our treasury ye shall receive,

There comes a hare-brain'd nation, deck'd in pride,

The spoil of whom will be a treble game.

And now my hope is full, my joy complete:

At sea, we are as puissant as the force

Of Agamemnon in the haven of Troy;

By land, with Xerxes we compare of strength

Whose soldiers drank up rivers in their thirst:

Then, Bayard-like, blind over-weening Ned,

To reach at our imperial diadem

Is either to be swallow'd of the waves

Or hack'd a-pieces when thou com'st ashore.

Enter [Mariner]

mar
. Near to the coast I have descried, my lord,

As I was busy in my watchful charge,

The proud Armado of King Edward's ships:

Which at the first, far off when I did ken,

(III, i) Seem'd as it were a grove of wither'd pines;

But, drawing near, their glorious bright aspect,

Their streaming ensigns wrought of colour'd silk,

Like to a meadow full of sundry flowers,

Adorns the naked bosom of the earth.

Majestical the order of their course,

Figuring the horned circle of the moon:

And on the top-gallant of the admiral,

And likewise all the handmaids of his train,

The arms of England and of France unite

Are quarter'd equally by herald's art.

Thus, ti
ghtly
carried with a merry gale,

They plough the ocean hitherward amain.

[k. john
].

Dare he already crop the flower-de-luce?

I hope, the honey being gather'd thence,

He, with the spider, afterward approach'd,

Shall suck forth deadly venom from the leaves. -

But where's our navy? how are they prepar'd

To wing themselves against this flight of ravens?

mar
. They, having knowledge brought them by the scouts,

Did break from anchor straight; and, puff'd with rage

No otherwise than were their sails with wind,