William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition (134 page)
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Authors: William Shakespeare
Tags: #Drama, #Literary Criticism, #Shakespeare
BOOK: William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition
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Enter Lodowick
How now?
LODOWICK
My liege, the drum that struck the lusty march
Stands with Prince Edward, your thrice-valiant son.
Stands with Prince Edward, your thrice-valiant son.
⌈
Exit
⌉
Exit
⌉
Enter Edward, Prince of Wales
KING EDWARD
I see the boy. ⌈
Aside
⌉ O, how his mother’s face,
Modelled in his, corrects my strayed desire,
And rates my heart, and chides my thievish eye,
Who, being rich enough in seeing her,
Yet seek elsewhere; and basest theft is that
Which cannot cloak itself in poverty.
(
To the Prince
) Now, boy, what news?
Aside
⌉ O, how his mother’s face,
Modelled in his, corrects my strayed desire,
And rates my heart, and chides my thievish eye,
Who, being rich enough in seeing her,
Yet seek elsewhere; and basest theft is that
Which cannot cloak itself in poverty.
(
To the Prince
) Now, boy, what news?
PRINCE OF WALES
I have assembled, my dear lord and father,
The choicest buds of all our English blood
For our affairs to France, and here we come
To take direction from your majesty.
The choicest buds of all our English blood
For our affairs to France, and here we come
To take direction from your majesty.
KING EDWARD (
aside
)
aside
)
Still do I see in him delineate
His mother’s visage. Those his eyes are hers,
Who looking wistly on me make me blush.
For faults against themselves give evidence;
Lust is a fire, and men, like lanterns, show
Light lust within themselves, even through themselves.
Away, loose silks o’er wavering vanity!
Shall the large limit of fair Brittany
By me be overthrown, and shall I not
Master this little mansion of myself?
Give me an armour of eternal steel:
I go to conquer kings; and shall I not then
Subdue myself and be my enemy’s friend?
It must not be. (
To the Prince
) Come, boy! Forward!
His mother’s visage. Those his eyes are hers,
Who looking wistly on me make me blush.
For faults against themselves give evidence;
Lust is a fire, and men, like lanterns, show
Light lust within themselves, even through themselves.
Away, loose silks o’er wavering vanity!
Shall the large limit of fair Brittany
By me be overthrown, and shall I not
Master this little mansion of myself?
Give me an armour of eternal steel:
I go to conquer kings; and shall I not then
Subdue myself and be my enemy’s friend?
It must not be. (
To the Prince
) Come, boy! Forward!
Advance!
Let’s with our colours sweet the air of France.
Enter Lodowick
LODOWICK (
to the King
)
to the King
)
My liege, the Countess, with a smiling cheer,
Desires access unto your majesty.
Desires access unto your majesty.
KING EDWARD (
aside
)
aside
)
Why there it goes. That very smile of hers
Hath ransomed captive France and set the King,
The Dauphin and the peers at liberty.
(
To the Prince
) Go, leave me, Ned, and revel with thy friends.
Hath ransomed captive France and set the King,
The Dauphin and the peers at liberty.
(
To the Prince
) Go, leave me, Ned, and revel with thy friends.
Exit the Prince of Wales
(
Aside
) Thy mother is but black, and thou, like her,
Dost put it in my mind how foul she is.
(
To Lodowick
) Go, fetch the Countess hither in thy hand—
Aside
) Thy mother is but black, and thou, like her,
Dost put it in my mind how foul she is.
(
To Lodowick
) Go, fetch the Countess hither in thy hand—
Exit Lodowick
And let her chase away these winter clouds,
For she gives beauty both to heaven and earth.
The sin is more to hack and hew poor men
Than to embrace in an unlawful bed
The register of all rarieties
Since leathern Adam till this youngest hour.
For she gives beauty both to heaven and earth.
The sin is more to hack and hew poor men
Than to embrace in an unlawful bed
The register of all rarieties
Since leathern Adam till this youngest hour.
Enter Lodowick ⌈leading in by the hand⌉ the Countess of Salisbury
Go, Lod’wick, put thy hand into my purse—
Play, spend, give, riot, waste, do what thou wilt
So thou wilt hence awhile and leave me here.
Play, spend, give, riot, waste, do what thou wilt
So thou wilt hence awhile and leave me here.
Exit Lodowick
(
To the Countess
) Now, my soul’s playfellow, art thou come
To speak the more-than-heavenly word of ‘yea’
To my objection in thy beauteous love?
To the Countess
) Now, my soul’s playfellow, art thou come
To speak the more-than-heavenly word of ‘yea’
To my objection in thy beauteous love?
COUNTESS OF SALISBURY
My father on his blessing hath commanded—
KING EDWARD
That thou shalt yield to me.
COUNTESS OF SALISBURY
Ay, dear my liege, your due.
KING EDWARD
And that, my dearest love, can be no less
Than right for right, and render love for love.
Than right for right, and render love for love.
COUNTESS OF SALISBURY
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 thy content,
And what I would not ill compel I will,
Provided that yourself remove those lets
That stand between your highness’ love and mine.
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 thy content,
And what I would not ill compel I will,
Provided that yourself remove those lets
That stand between your highness’ love and mine.
KING EDWARD
Name them, fair Countess, and by heaven I will.
COUNTESS OF SALISBURY
It is their lives that stand between our love
That I would have choked up, my sovereign.
That I would have choked up, my sovereign.
KING EDWARD
Whose lives, my lady?
COUNTESS OF SALISBURY My thrice-loving liege,
Your Queen and Salisbury, my wedded husband,
Who, living, have that title in our love
That we cannot bestow but by their death.
Who, living, have that title in our love
That we cannot bestow but by their death.
KING EDWARD
Their opposition is beyond our law.
COUNTESS OF SALISBURY
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.
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.
KING EDWARD
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 swam an easy current for his love,
But I will through a Hellespont of blood
To arrive at Sestos, where my Hero lies.
Fairer thou art by far than Hero was;
Beardless Leander not so strong as I.
He swam an easy current for his love,
But I will through a Hellespont of blood
To arrive at Sestos, where my Hero lies.
COUNTESS OF SALISBURY
Nay, you’ll do more. You’ll make the river too
With their heart bloods that keep our love asunder,
Of which my husband and your wife are twain.
With their heart bloods that keep our love asunder,
Of which my husband and your wife are twain.
KING EDWARD
Thy beauty makes them guilty of their death,
And gives in evidence that they shall die—
Upon which verdict I, their judge, condemn them.
And gives in evidence that they shall die—
Upon which verdict I, their judge, condemn them.
COUNTESS OF SALISBURY
O, perjured 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.
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.
KING EDWARD
What says my fair love? Is she resolute?
COUNTESS OF SALISBURY
Resolved to be dissolved, and therefore this:
Keep but thy word, great King, and I am thine.
Stand where thou dost—I’ll part a little from thee—
Keep but thy word, great King, and I am thine.
Stand where thou dost—I’ll part a little from thee—
She moves away from the King
⌈
kneeling
⌉ And see how I will yield me to thy hands.
Here, by my side, doth hang my wedding knives.
kneeling
⌉ And see how I will yield me to thy hands.
Here, by my side, doth hang my wedding knives.
She reveals two knives
Take thou the one,
She offers a knife to the King
and with it kill thy Queen,
And learn by me to find her where she lies;
And with this other
And with this other
She turns the other knife on herself
I’ll dispatch 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.
An 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.
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.
An 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.
KING EDWARD
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 ever Roman might
Of her, whose ransacked treasury hath tasked
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 awakèd from this idle dream.
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 ever Roman might
Of her, whose ransacked treasury hath tasked
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 awakèd from this idle dream.
⌈
The
Countess
stands
⌉
(Calling) Warwick, my son, Derby, Artois and Audley—
Brave warriors all, where are you all this while?
Brave warriors all, where are you all this while?
Enter all the peers: the Earl of Warwick, the
Prince of Wales, the Earl of Derby, the Comte d’Artois
and Lord Audley
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 gild the eastern sky
We’ll wake him with our martial harmony.
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 gild the eastern sky
We’ll wake him with our martial harmony.
Exeunt
Sc. 4Enter Jean King of France, his two sons (the Dauphin and Prince Philippe) and the Duc de Lorraine
KING OF FRANCE
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?
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?
DUC DE LORRAINE
To lay aside unnecessary soothing,
And not to spend the time in circumstance,
’Tis bruited 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.
And not to spend the time in circumstance,
’Tis bruited 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.
DAUPHIN
England was wont to harbour malcontents,
Bloodthirsty and seditious Catilines,
Spendthrifts, and such as gape for nothing else
But change and alteration of the state.
And is it possible
That they are now so loyal in themselves?
Bloodthirsty and seditious Catilines,
Spendthrifts, and such as gape for nothing else
But change and alteration of the state.
And is it possible
That they are now so loyal in themselves?
DUC DE LORRAINE
All but the Scot, who solemnly protests,
As heretofore I have informed his grace,
Never to sheathe his sword or take a truce.
As heretofore I have informed his grace,
Never to sheathe his sword or take a truce.
KING OF FRANCE
Ah, that’s the anch’rage of some better hope.
But on the other side, to think what friends
King Edward hath retained in Netherland,
Among those ever-bibbing epicures—
Those frothy Dutchmen, puffed with double beer,
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 Bohême, and of Sicily,
Are all become confederates with us
And, as I think, are marching hither apace—
But on the other side, to think what friends
King Edward hath retained in Netherland,
Among those ever-bibbing epicures—
Those frothy Dutchmen, puffed with double beer,
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 Bohême, and of Sicily,
Are all become confederates with us
And, as I think, are marching hither apace—
Sound drums within
But soft, I hear the music of their drums,
By which I guess that their approach is near.
By which I guess that their approach is near.
Enter ⌈at one door⌉ the King of Bohemia with Danish soldiers ⌈and a drummer⌉. Enter ⌈at another door⌉ a Polish captain with Muscovite and Polish soldiers
⌈
and a drummer
⌉
KING OF BOHEMIA
King Jean of France, as league and neighbourhood
Requires when friends are any way distressed,
I come to aid thee with my country’s force.
Requires when friends are any way distressed,
I come to aid thee with my country’s force.
POLISH CAPTAIN (
to the King of France
)
to the King of France
)
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.
And lofty Poland, nurse of hardy men,
I bring these servitors to fight for thee,
Who willingly will venture in thy cause.
KING OF FRANCE
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 harebrained nation, decked in pride,
The spoil of whom will be a treble gain.
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 overweening Ned,
To reach at our imperial diadem
Is either to be swallowed of the waves,
Or hacked a-pieces when thou com’st ashore.
This your great kindness I will not forget.
Besides your plentiful rewards in crowns
That from our treasury ye shall receive,
There comes a harebrained nation, decked in pride,
The spoil of whom will be a treble gain.
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 overweening Ned,
To reach at our imperial diadem
Is either to be swallowed of the waves,
Or hacked a-pieces when thou com’st ashore.
Enter a French Mariner
MARINER
Near to the coast I have descried, my lord,
As I was busy in my watchful charge,
The proud armada of King Edward’s ships,
Which, at the first far off when I did ken,
Seemed as it were a grove of withered pines,
But drawing near, their glorious bright aspect,
Their streaming ensigns wrought of coloured silk,
Like to a meadow full of sundry flowers,
Adorns the naked bosom of the earth.
Majestical the order of their course,
Figuring the hornèd 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 quartered equally by herald’s art.
Thus titely carried with a merry gale
They plough the ocean hitherward amain.
As I was busy in my watchful charge,
The proud armada of King Edward’s ships,
Which, at the first far off when I did ken,
Seemed as it were a grove of withered pines,
But drawing near, their glorious bright aspect,
Their streaming ensigns wrought of coloured silk,
Like to a meadow full of sundry flowers,
Adorns the naked bosom of the earth.
Majestical the order of their course,
Figuring the hornèd 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 quartered equally by herald’s art.
Thus titely carried with a merry gale
They plough the ocean hitherward amain.
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