I see the boy;oh,how his mother's face,Modeled in his,corrects my strayed 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 it self on poverty.--Now,boy,what news?
PRINCE EDWARD.
I 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.
KING EDWARD.
Still do I see in him delineate His mother's visage;those his eyes are hers,Who,looking wistely on me,make me blush:
For faults against themselves give evidence;
Lust is fire,and men like lanthornes show Light lust within them selves,even through them selves.
Away,loose silks of wavering vanity!
Shall the large limit of fair Brittain By me be overthrown,and shall I not Master this little mansion of my self?
Give me an Armor of eternal steel!
I go to conquer kings;and shall I not then Subdue my self?and be my enemy's friend?
It must not be.--Come,boy,forward,advance!
Let's with our colours sweet the Air of France.
[Enter Lodowick.]
LODOWICK.
My liege,the Countess with a smiling cheer Desires access unto your Majesty.
KING EDWARD.
Why,there it goes!That very smile of hers Hath ransomed captive France,and set the King,The Dauphin,and the Peers at liberty.--Go,leave me,Ned,and revel with thy friends.
[Exit Prince Edward.]
Thy mother is but black,and thou,like her,Dost put it in 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 Lodowick.]
The sin is more to hack and hew poor men,Than to embrace in an unlawful bed The register of all rarities Since Letherne Adam till this youngest hour.
[Enter Countess escorted by Lodowick.]
Go,Lodowick,put thy hand into my purse,Play,spend,give,riot,waste,do what thou wilt,So thou wilt hence awhile and leave me here.
[Exit Lodowick.]
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.
My father on his blessing hath commanded--
KING EDWARD.
That thou shalt yield to me?
COUNTESS.
Aye,dear my liege,your due.
KING EDWARD.
And that,my dearest love,can be no less Than right for right and tender love for love.
COUNTESS.
Then 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 your self remove those lets That stand between your highness'love and mine.
KING EDWARD.
Name them,fair Countess,and,by heaven,I will.
COUNTESS.
It is their lives that stand between our love,That I would have choked up,my sovereign.
KING EDWARD.
Whose lives,my Lady?
COUNTESS.
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.
KING EDWARD.
Thy opposition is beyond our Law.
COUNTESS.
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.
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 swom an easy current for his love,But I will through a Hellespont of blood,To arrive at Cestus where my Hero lies.
COUNTESS.
Nay,you'll do more;you'll make the River to 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.
COUNTESS.
[Aside.]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.
KING EDWARD.
What says my fair love?is she resolute?
COUNTESS.
Resolute to be dissolute;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 shewing 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 a sleep 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 hence forth to solicit me;Or else,by heaven,this sharp pointed knife Shall stain thy earth with that which thou would 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 my self,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 taskt The vain endeavor of so many pens:
Arise,and be my fault thy honor's fame,Which after ages shall enrich thee with.
I am awakened from this idle dream.--
Warwick,my Son,Darby,Artois,and Audley!
Brave warriors all,where are you all this while?
[Enter all.]
Warwick,I make thee Warden of the North:
Thou,Prince of Wales,and Audley,straight to Sea;Scour to New-haven;some there stay for me:
My self,Artois,and Darby will through Flanders,To greet our friends there and to crave their aide.
This night will scarce suffice a faithful lover;For,ere the Sun shall gild the eastern sky,We'll wake him with our Marshall harmony.
[Exeunt.]
