The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works
Page 246
A noise of targets, or to see a fellow
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In a long motley coat guarded with yellow,
Will be deceived. For, gentle hearers, know
To rank our chosen truth with such a show
As fool and fight is, beside forfeiting
Our own brains and the opinion that we bring
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To make that only true we now intend,
Will leave us never an understanding friend.
Therefore, for goodness’ sake, and as you are known
The first and happiest hearers of the town,
Be sad, as we would make ye. Think ye see
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The very persons of our noble story
As they were living; think you see them great,
And followed with the general throng and sweat
Of thousand friends; then, in a moment, see
How soon this mightiness meets misery;
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And if you can be merry then, I’ll say
A man may weep upon his wedding day. Exit.
1.1 Enter the Duke of NORFOLK at one door. At the other, the Duke of BUCKINGHAM and the Lord ABERGAVENNY.
BUCKINGHAM
Good morrow and well met. How have ye done
Since last we saw in France?
NORFOLK I thank your grace,
Healthful, and ever since a fresh admirer
Of what I saw there.
BUCKINGHAM An untimely ague
Stayed me a prisoner in my chamber when
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Those suns of glory, those two lights of men,
Met in the vale of Andres.
NORFOLK ’Twixt Guînes and Ardres
I was then present, saw them salute on horseback,
Beheld them when they lighted, how they clung
In their embracement as they grew together –
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Which had they, what four throned ones could have weighed
Such a compounded one?
BUCKINGHAM All the whole time
I was my chamber’s prisoner.
NORFOLK Then you lost
The view of earthly glory. Men might say
Till this time pomp was single, but now married
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To one above itself. Each following day
Became the next day’s master, till the last
Made former wonders its. Today the French,
All clinquant, all in gold like heathen gods,
Shone down the English; and tomorrow they
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Made Britain India. Every man that stood
Showed like a mine. Their dwarfish pages were
As cherubims, all gilt. The madams too,
Not used to toil, did almost sweat to bear
The pride upon them, that their very labour
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Was to them as a painting. Now this masque
Was cried incomparable; and th’ensuing night
Made it a fool and beggar. The two kings,
Equal in lustre, were now best, now worst,
As presence did present them: him in eye,
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Still him in praise, and being present both,
’Twas said they saw but one, and no discerner
Durst wag his tongue in censure. When these suns –
For so they phrase ’em – by their heralds challenged
The noble spirits to arms, they did perform
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Beyond thought’s compass – that former fabulous story
Being now seen possible enough, got credit
That Bevis was believed.
BUCKINGHAM O, you go far.
NORFOLK As I belong to worship and affect
In honour honesty, the tract of everything
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Would by a good discourser lose some life
Which action’s self was tongue to. All was royal;
To the disposing of it naught rebelled;
Order gave each thing view; the office did
Distinctly his full function.
BUCKINGHAM Who did guide –
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I mean, who set the body and the limbs
Of this great sport together, as you guess?
NORFOLK One, certes, that promises no element
In such a business.
BUCKINGHAM I pray you who, my lord?
NORFOLK All this was ordered by the good discretion
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Of the right reverend Cardinal of York.
BUCKINGHAM
The devil speed him! No man’s pie is freed
From his ambitious finger. What had he
To do in these fierce vanities? I wonder
That such a keech can with his very bulk
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Take up the rays o’th’ beneficial sun
And keep it from the earth.
NORFOLK Surely, sir,
There’s in him stuff that puts him to these ends;
For being not propped by ancestry, whose grace
Chalks successors their way, nor called upon
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For high feats done to th’ crown, neither allied
To eminent assistants, but spider-like,
Out of his self-drawing web, ’a gives us note
The force of his own merit makes his way
A gift that heaven gives for him, which buys
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A place next to the King.
ABERGAVENNY I cannot tell
What heaven hath given him – let some graver eye
Pierce into that – but I can see his pride
Peep through each part of him. Whence has he that?
If not from hell, the devil is a niggard
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Or has given all before, and he begins
A new hell in himself.
BUCKINGHAM Why the devil,
Upon this French going-out, took he upon him,
Without the privity o’th’ King, t’appoint
Who should attend on him? He makes up the file
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Of all the gentry, for the most part such
To whom as great a charge, as little honour
He meant to lay upon; and his own letter –
The honourable board of Council out –
Must fetch him in he papers.
ABERGAVENNY I do know
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Kinsmen of mine – three at the least – that have
By this so sickened their estates that never
They shall abound as formerly.
BUCKINGHAM O, many
Have broke their backs with laying manors on ’em
For this great journey. What did this vanity
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But minister communication of
A most poor issue?
NORFOLK Grievingly, I think
The peace between the French and us not values
The cost that did conclude it.
BUCKINGHAM Every man,
After the hideous storm that followed, was
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A thing inspired and, not consulting, broke
Into a general prophecy, that this tempest,
Dashing the garment of this peace, aboded
The sudden breach on’t.
NORFOLK Which is budded out,
For France hath flawed the league, and hath attached
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Our merchants’ goods at Bordeaux.
ABERGAVENNY Is it therefore
Th’ambassador is silenced?
NORFOLK Marry, is’t.
ABERGAVENNY A proper title of a peace, and purchased
At a superfluous rate.
BUCKINGHAM Why, all this business
Our reverend Cardinal carried.
NORFOLK Like it your grace,
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The state takes notice of the private difference
Betwixt you and the Cardinal. I advise you –
And take it from a heart that wishes towards you
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Honour and plenteous safety – that you read
The Cardinal’s malice and his potency
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Together; to consider further that
What his high hatred would effect wants not
A minister in his power. You know his nature,
That he’s revengeful, and I know his sword
Hath a sharp edge: it’s long, and’t may be said
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It reaches far, and where ’twill not extend,
Thither he darts it. Bosom up my counsel;
You’ll find it wholesome. Lo, where comes that rock
That I advise your shunning.
Enter Cardinal WOLSEY, the purse borne before him, certain of the guard and two Secretaries with papers. The Cardinal, in his passage, fixeth his eye on Buckingham, and Buckingham on him, both full of disdain.
WOLSEY The Duke of Buckingham’s surveyor, ha?
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Where’s his examination?
SECRETARY Here, so please you.
WOLSEY Is he in person ready?
SECRETARY Ay, please your grace.
WOLSEY
Well, we shall then know more, and Buckingham
Shall lessen this big look.
Exeunt Cardinal and his train.
BUCKINGHAM
This butcher’s cur is venom-mouthed, and I
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Have not the power to muzzle him: therefore best
Not wake him in his slumber. A beggar’s book
Outworths a noble’s blood.
NORFOLK What, are you chafed?
Ask God for temperance: that’s th’appliance only
Which your disease requires.
BUCKINGHAM I read in’s looks
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Matter against me, and his eye reviled
Me as his abject object. At this instant
He bores me with some trick. He’s gone to th’ King:
I’ll follow and out-stare him.
NORFOLK Stay, my lord,
And let your reason with your choler question
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What ’tis you go about. To climb steep hills
Requires slow pace at first. Anger is like
A full hot horse, who being allowed his way
Self-mettle tires him. Not a man in England
Can advise me like you: be to yourself
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As you would to your friend.
BUCKINGHAM I’ll to the King,
And from a mouth of honour quite cry down
This Ipswich fellow’s insolence, or proclaim
There’s difference in no persons.
NORFOLK Be advised:
Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot
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That it do singe yourself. We may outrun
By violent swiftness that which we run at,
And lose by over-running. Know you not
The fire that mounts the liquor till’t run o’er,
In seeming to augment it, wastes it? Be advised:
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I say again there is no English soul
More stronger to direct you than yourself,
If with the sap of reason you would quench
Or but allay the fire of passion.
BUCKINGHAM Sir,
I am thankful to you, and I’ll go along
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By your prescription; but this top-proud fellow –
Whom from the flow of gall I name not, but
From sincere motions – by intelligence
And proofs as clear as founts in July when
We see each grain of gravel, I do know
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To be corrupt and treasonous.
NORFOLK Say not ‘treasonous’.
BUCKINGHAM
To th’ King I’ll say’t, and make my vouch as strong
As shore of rock. Attend. This holy fox,
Or wolf, or both – for he is equal ravenous
As he is subtle, and as prone to mischief
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As able to perform’t – his mind and place
Infecting one another – yea, reciprocally –
Only to show his pomp as well in France
As here at home, suggests the King our master
To this last costly treaty, th’interview
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That swallowed so much treasure and like a glass
Did break i’th’ rinsing.
NORFOLK Faith, and so it did.
BUCKINGHAM
Pray give me favour, sir. This cunning Cardinal
The articles o’th’ combination drew
As himself pleased; and they were ratified
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As he cried, ‘Thus let be’, to as much end
As give a crutch to th’ dead. But our Count–Cardinal