ARKCODEX
Act II, Scene 2
1The same. A room in the castle.
2Enter Derby and Audley, meeting.
3DerbyThrice-noble Audley, well encounter’d here:
How is it with our sovereign and his peers?
4Audley’Tis full a fortnight since I saw his highness,
What time he sent me forth to muster men;
Which I accordingly have done, and bring them hither
In fair array before his majesty.
What news, my Lord of Derby, from the Emperor?
5DerbyAs good as we desire: the Emperor
Hath yielded to his highness friendly aid;
And makes our king lieutenant-general
In all his lands and large dominions:
Then via for the spacious bounds of France!
6AudleyWhat, doth his highness leap to hear these news?
7DerbyI have not yet found time to open them;
The king is in his closet, malcontent,
For what, I know not, but he gave in charge,
Till after dinner, none should interrupt him:
The Countess Salisbury, and her father Warwick,
Artois, and all, look underneath the brows.
8AudleyUndoubtedly then some thing is amiss. Trumpet within.
9DerbyThe trumpets sound; the king is now abroad.
10Enter King Edward.
11AudleyHere comes his highness.
12DerbyBefall my sovereign all my sovereign’s wish!
13King EdwardAh, that thou wert a witch, to make it so!
14DerbyThe emperor greeteth you: Presenting letters.
15King EdwardWould it were the countess!
16DerbyAnd hath accorded to your highness’ suit.
17King EdwardThou liest, she hath not; but I would, she had!
18AudleyAll love and duty to my lord the king!
19King EdwardWell, all but one is none:—what news with you?
20AudleyI have, my liege, levied those horse and foot,
According to your charge, and brought them hither.
21King EdwardThen let those foot trudge hence upon those horse,
According to our discharge, and be gone.—
Derby,
I’ll look upon the countess’ mind anon.
22DerbyThe countess’ mind, my liege?
23King EdwardI mean the emperor: leave me alone.
24AudleyWhat’s in his mind?
25DerbyLet’s leave him to his humour. Exeunt Derby and Audley.
26King EdwardThus from the heart’s abundance speaks the tongue;
Countess for emperor: and, indeed, why not?
She is as imperator over me;
And I to her
Am as a kneeling vassal that observes
The pleasure or displeasure of her eye.—
27Enter Lodwick.
28What says the more than Cleopatra’s match
To Caesar now?
29LodwickThat yet, my liege, ere night
She will resolve your majesty. Drum within.
30King EdwardWhat drum is this, that thunders forth this march,
To start the tender Cupid in my bosom?
Poor sheep-skin, how it brawls with him that beateth it!
Go, break the thund’ring parchment-bottom out,
And I will teach it to conduct sweet lines
Unto the bosom of a heavenly nymph:
For I will use it as my writing-paper;
And so reduce him, from a scolding drum,
To be the herald and dear counsel-bearer
Betwixt a goddess and a mighty king.
Go, bid the drummer learn to touch the lute,
Or hang him in the braces of his drum;
For now we think it an uncivil thing,
To trouble heaven with such harsh resounds:
Away.—Exit Lodwick.
The quarrel, that I have, requires no arms
But these of mine; and these shall meet my foe
In a deep march of penetrable groans:
My eyes shall be my arrows; and my sighs
Shall serve me as the vantage of the wind,
To whirl away my sweet’st artillery:
Ah but, alas, she wins the sun of me,
For that is she herself; and thence it comes
That poets term the wanton warrior blind;
But love hath eyes as judgement to his steps,
Till too-much-loved glory dazzles them.—
31Reenter Lodwick.
32How now?
33LodwickMy liege, the drum that stroke the lusty march
Stands with Prince Edward, your thrice-valiant son.
34Enter Prince Edward. Lodwick retires to the door.
35King EdwardI see the boy. O, how his mother’s face,
Modell’d in his, corrects my stray’d desire
And rates my heart and chides my thievish eye;
Who being rich enough in seeing her,
Yet seeks elsewhere: and basest theft is that,
Which cannot cloak itself on poverty.—
Now, boy, what news?
36Prince EdwardI have assembled, my dear lord and father,
The choicest buds of all our English blood
For our affairs in France; and here we come,
To take direction from your majesty.
37King EdwardStill 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 lanthorns, show
Light lust within themselves, even through themselves.
Away, loose silks of 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 then
Subdue myself and be my enemy’s friend?
It must not be.—Come, boy, forward, advance!
Let’s with our colours sweet the air of France.
38LodwickMy liege, the countess with a smiling cheer
Desires access unto your majesty. Advancing from the door, and whispering to him.
39King EdwardWhy, there it goes! that very smile of hers
Hath ransom’d captive France, and set the king,
The Dauphin, and the peers, at liberty.—
Go, leave me, Ned, and revel with thy friends. Exit Prince.
Thy mother is but black; and thou, like her,
Dost put into my mind how foul she is.—
Go, fetch the countess hither in thy hand
And let her chase away these winter clouds;
For she gives beauty both to heaven and earth. Exit Lodwick.
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.
40Reenter Lodwick, with the Countess.
41Go, 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?
42CountessMy father on his blessing hath commanded—
43King EdwardThat thou shalt yield to me?
44CountessAy, dear my liege, your due.
45King EdwardAnd that, my dearest love, can be no less
Than right for right and tender love for love.
46CountessThan 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.
47King EdwardName them, fair countess, and, by Heaven, I will.
48CountessIt is their lives, that stand between our love,
That I would have chok’d up, my sovereign.
49King EdwardWhose lives, my lady?
50CountessMy thrice-loving liege,
Your queen, and Salisbury my wedded husband;
Who living have that title in our love
That we can not bestow but by their death.
51King EdwardThy opposition is beyond our Law.
52CountessSo 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.
53King EdwardNo 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.
54CountessNay, 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.
55King EdwardThy beauty makes them guilty of their death
And gives in evidence that they shall die;
Upon which verdict, I, their judge, condemn them.
56CountessO 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.
57King EdwardWhat says my fair love? is she resolute?
58CountessResolv’d 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. Turning suddenly upon him, and showing two daggers.
Here by my side doth hang my wedding knifes:
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 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,
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, kneeling 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.
59King EdwardEven 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?
60Enter Prince and Lords.
61Warwick, 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 aide:
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.