The Complete Plays
Page 44
Spake least; and when they flatly had denied,
Refusing to receive me pledge for him,
The earl of Pembroke mildly thus bespake:
‘My lords, because our sovereign sends for him,
110 And promiseth he shall be safe returned,
I will this undertake: to have him hence
And see him re-delivered to your hands.’
EDWARD
Well, and how fortunes that he came not?
SPENCER
Some treason or some villainy was cause.
ARUNDEL
The earl of Warwick seizèd him on his way;
For, being delivered unto Pembroke’s men,
Their lord rode home, thinking his prisoner safe,
But ere he came, Warwick in ambush lay
And bare him to his death, and in a trench
120 Strake off his head, and marched unto the camp.
SPENCER
A bloody part, flatly against law of arms.
EDWARD
O, shall I speak, or shall I sigh and die?
SPENCER
My lord, refer your vengeance to the sword
Upon these barons; hearten up your men;
Let them not unrevenged murder your friends.
Advance your standard, Edward, in the field,
And march to fire them from their starting-holes.
EDWARD kneels and saith
EDWARD
By earth, the common mother of us all,
By heaven, and all the moving orbs thereof,
By this right hand, and by my father’s sword,
130 And all the honours ’longing to my crown,
I will have heads and lives for him, as many
As I have manors, castles, towns, and towers.
Treacherous Warwick, traitorous Mortimer!
If I be England’s king, in lakes of gore
Your headless trunks, your bodies will I trail,
That you may drink your fill and quaff in blood,
And stain my royal standard with the same,
That so my bloody colours may suggest
Remembrance of revenge immortally
140 On your accursèd traitorous progeny,
You villains that have slain my Gaveston.
[He rises.]
And in this place of honour and of trust,
Spencer, sweet Spencer, I adopt thee here,
And merely of our love we do create thee
Earl of Gloucester and Lord Chamberlain,
Despite of times, despite of enemies.
SPENCER
My lord, here is a messenger from the barons
Desires access unto your majesty.
EDWARD Admit him near.
150 Enter the HERALD from the BARONS, with his coat of arms.
HERALD
Long live King Edward, England’s lawful lord!
EDWARD
So wish not they, iwis, that sent thee hither.
Thou com’st from Mortimer and his complices.
A ranker rout of rebels never was.
Well, say thy message.
HERALD
The barons up in arms by me salute
Your highness with long life and happiness,
And bid me say, as plainer to your grace,
That if without effusion of blood
160 You will this grief have ease and remedy,
That from your princely person you remove
This Spencer, as a putrefying branch
That deads the royal vine whose golden leaves
Impale your princely head, your diadem,
Whose brightness such pernicious upstarts dim,
Say they, and lovingly advise your grace
To cherish virtue and nobility,
And have old servitors in high esteem,
And shake off smooth dissembling flatterers.
170 This granted, they, their honours, and their lives
Are to your highness vowed and consecrate.
SPENCER
Ah, traitors, will they still display their pride?
EDWARD
Away! Tarry no answer, but begone.
Rebels, will they appoint their sovereign
His sports, his pleasures, and his company?
Yet ere thou go, see how I do divorce
Spencer from me. (Embrace SPENCER.)
Now get thee to thy lords,
And tell them I will come to chastise them
For murdering Gaveston. Hie thee, get thee gone.
180 Edward with fire and sword follows at thy heels.
[Exit the HERALD.]
My lords, perceive you how these rebels swell?
Soldiers, good hearts, defend your sovereign’s right,
For now, even now, we march to make them stoop.
Away!
Exeunt.
[Scene 12]
Alarums, excursions, a great fight, and a retreat. Enter the KING, SPENCER the father, SPENCER the son, and the noblemen of the King’s side.
EDWARD
Why do we sound retreat? Upon them, lords!
This day I shall pour vengeance with my sword
On those proud rebels that are up in arms
And do confront and countermand their king.
SPENCER
I doubt it not, my lord, right will prevail.
SPENCER SENIOR
’Tis not amiss, my liege, for either part
To breathe a while; our men, with sweat and dust
All choked well near, begin to faint for heat,
And this retire refresheth horse and man.
SPENCER Here come the rebels.
10 Enter the BARONS: MORTIMER [JUNIOR], LANCASTER, WARWICK, PEMBROKE, with others.
MORTIMER
Look, Lancaster,
Yonder is Edward among his flatterers.
LANCASTER
And there let him be,
Till he pay dearly for their company.
WARWICK
And shall, or Warwick’s sword shall smite in vain.
EDWARD
What, rebels, do you shrink and sound retreat?
MORTIMER
No, Edward, no. Thy flatterers faint and fly.
LANCASTER
Thou’d best betimes forsake them and their trains,
For they’ll betray thee, traitors as they are.
SPENCER
20 Traitor on thy face, rebellious Lancaster!
PEMBROKE
Away, base upstart. Brav’st thou nobles thus?
SPENCER SENIOR
A noble attempt and honourable deed
Is it not, trow ye, to assemble aid
And levy arms against your lawful king?
EDWARD
For which ere long their heads shall satisfy,
T’appease the wrath of their offended king.
MORTIMER
Then, Edward, thou wilt fight it to the last,
And rather bathe thy sword in subjects’ blood
Than banish that pernicious company?
EDWARD
30 Ay, traitors all, rather than thus be braved,
Make England’s civil towns huge heaps of stones,
And ploughs to go about our palace gates.
WARWICK
A desperate and unnatural resolution.
Alarum! To the fight!
Saint George for England and the barons’ right!
EDWARD
Saint George for England and King Edward’s right!
[Alarums. Exeunt.]
[Scene 13]
Enter EDWARD[, the SPENCERS, LEVUNE and BALDOCK], with the BARONS [and KENT] captives.
EDWARD
Now, lusty lords, now, not by chance of war,
But justice of the quarrel and the cause,
Vailed is your pride. Methinks you hang the heads,
But we’ll advance them, traitors. Now ’tis time
To be avenged on you for all your braves
And for the murder
of my dearest friend,
To whom right well you knew our soul was knit:
Good Piers of Gaveston, my sweet favourite.
Ah, rebels, recreants, you made him away!
KENT
Brother, in regard of thee and of thy land
10 Did they remove that flatterer from thy throne.
EDWARD
So, sir, you have spoke. Away, avoid our presence.
[Exit KENT.]
Accursed wretches, was’t in regard of us,
When we had sent our messenger to request
He might be spared to come to speak with us,
And Pembroke undertook for his return,
That thou, proud Warwick, watched the prisoner,
Poor Piers, and headed him against law of arms?
For which thy head shall overlook the rest
20 As much as thou in rage outwent’st the rest.
WARWICK
Tyrant, I scorn thy threats and menaces.
’Tis but temporal that thou canst inflict.
LANCASTER
The worst is death, and better die to live
Than live in infamy under such a king.
EDWARD
Away with them, my lord of Winchester.
These lusty leaders, Warwick and Lancaster,
I charge you roundly: off with both their heads.
Away!
WARWICK
Farewell, vain world.
LANCASTER Sweet Mortimer, farewell.
[Exeunt WARWICK and LANCASTER, guarded, led away by SPENCER SENIOR.]
MORTIMER
England, unkind to thy nobility,
30 Groan for this grief! Behold how thou art maimed.
EDWARD
Go take that haughty Mortimer to the Tower.
There see him safe bestowed, and, for the rest,
Do speedy execution on them all.
Begone!
MORTIMER
What, Mortimer, can ragged stony walls
Immure thy virtue that aspires to heaven?
No, Edward, England’s scourge, it may not be;
Mortimer’s hope surmounts his fortune far.
[Exit MORTIMER JUNIOR, guarded.]
EDWARD
40 Sound drums and trumpets! March with me, my friends.
Edward this day hath crowned him king anew.
Exit.
[Drums and trumpets sound.] Exeunt; SPENCER JUNIOR, LEVUNE and BALDOCK remain.
SPENCER
Levune, the trust that we repose in thee
Begets the quiet of King Edward’s land.
Therefore be gone in haste, and with advice
Bestow that treasure on the lords of France,
That therewith all enchanted, like the guard
That suffered Jove to pass in showers of gold
To Danaë, all aid may be denied
To Isabel the queen, that now in France
50 Makes friends, to cross the seas with her young son
And step into his father’s regiment.
LEVUNE
That’s it these barons and the subtle queen
Long levelled at.
BALDOCK Yea, but, Levune, thou seest
These barons lay their heads on blocks together.
What they intend, the hangman frustrates clean.
LEVUNE
Have you no doubts, my lords. I’ll clap so close
Among the lords of France with England’s gold
That Isabel shall make her plaints in vain,
And France shall be obdurate with her tears.
SPENCER
Then make for France amain, Levune, away!
60 Proclaim King Edward’s wars and victories.
Exeunt.
[Scene 14]
Enter EDMUND [the EARL OF KENT].
KENT
Fair blows the wind for France. Blow, gentle gale,
Till Edmund be arrived for England’s good.
Nature, yield to my country’s cause in this.
A brother, no, a butcher of thy friends,
Proud Edward, dost thou banish me thy presence?
But I’ll to France, and cheer the wrongèd queen,
And certify what Edward’s looseness is.
Unnatural king, to slaughter noble men
And cherish flatterers!
Mortimer, I stay thy sweet escape;
10 Stand gracious, gloomy night, to his device!
Enter MORTIMER [JUNIOR] disguised.
MORTIMER
Holla! Who walketh there? Is’t you, my lord?
KENT
Mortimer, ’tis I.
But hath thy potion wrought so happily?
MORTIMER
It hath, my lord. The warders all asleep,
I thank them, gave me leave to pass in peace.
But hath your grace got shipping unto France?
KENT Fear it not.
Exeunt.
[Scene 15]
Enter the QUEEN and her son [PRINCE EDWARD].
QUEEN
Ah, boy, our friends do fail us all in France,
The lords are cruel, and the king unkind.
What shall we do?
PRINCE Madam, return to England,
And please my father well, and then a fig
For all my uncle’s friendship here in France.
I warrant you, I’ll win his highness quickly;
’A loves me better than a thousand Spencers.
QUEEN
Ah, boy, thou art deceived, at least in this,
To think that we can yet be tuned together.
10 No, no, we jar too far. Unkind Valois,
Unhappy Isabel! When France rejects,
Whither, O, whither dost thou bend thy steps?
Enter SIR JOHN OF HAINAULT.
SIR JOHN
Madam, what cheer?
QUEEN Ah, good Sir John of Hainault,
Never so cheerless nor so far distressed.
SIR JOHN
I hear, sweet lady, of the king’s unkindness.
But droop not, madam; noble minds contemn
Despair. Will your grace with me to Hainault,
And there stay time’s advantage with your son?
How say you, my lord, will you go with your friends
20 And shake off all our fortunes equally?
PRINCE
So pleaseth the queen my mother, me it likes.
The King of England nor the court of France
Shall have me from my gracious mother’s side
Till I be strong enough to break a staff,
And then have at the proudest Spencer’s head.
SIR JOHN Well said, my lord.
QUEEN
O, my sweet heart, how do I moan thy wrongs,
Yet triumph in the hope of thee, my joy.
Ah, sweet Sir John, even to the utmost verge
Of Europe, or the shore of Tanaïs,
30 Will we with thee to Hainault, so we will.
The marquis is a noble gentleman;
His grace, I dare presume, will welcome me.
But who are these?
Enter EDMUND [EARL OF KENT] and MORTIMER [JUNIOR].
KENT Madam, long may you live,
Much happier than your friends in England do.
QUEEN
Lord Edmund and Lord Mortimer alive?
Welcome to France.
[To MORTIMER] The news was here, my lord,
That you were dead, or very near your death.
MORTIMER
Lady, the last was truest of the twain,
But Mortimer, reserved for better hap,
40 Hath shaken off the thraldom of the Tower,
[to PRINCE EDWARD]
And lives t’advance your standard, good my lord.
PRINCE
How mean you, an the king my father lives?
No, my lord Mortimer, not I, I trow.
QUEEN
Not, son? Why not? I would it were no worse.
&
nbsp; But, gentle lords, friendless we are in France.
MORTIMER
Monsieur le Grand, a noble friend of yours,
Told us at our arrival all the news:
How hard the nobles, how unkind the king
Hath showed himself. But, madam, right makes room
50 Where weapons want; and, though a many friends
Are made away – as Warwick, Lancaster,
And others of our party and faction –
Yet have we friends, assure your grace, in England
Would cast up caps and clap their hands for joy
To see us there appointed for our foes.
KENT
Would all were well, and Edward well reclaimed
For England’s honour, peace, and quietness!
MORTIMER
But by the sword, my lord, it must be deserved.
60 The king will ne’er forsake his flatterers.
SIR JOHN
My lords of England, sith the ungentle king
Of France refuseth to give aid of arms
To this distressèd queen his sister here,
Go you with her to Hainault. Doubt ye not
We will find comfort, money, men, and friends
Ere long to bid the English king a base.
How say, young prince, what think you of the match?
PRINCE
I think King Edward will outrun us all.
QUEEN
Nay, son, not so, and you must not discourage
70 Your friends that are so forward in your aid.
KENT
Sir John of Hainault, pardon us, I pray.
These comforts that you give our woeful queen
Bind us in kindness all at your command.
QUEEN
Yea, gentle brother, and the God of heaven
Prosper your happy motion, good Sir John!
MORTIMER
This noble gentleman, forward in arms,
Was born, I see, to be our anchor-hold.
Sir John of Hainault, be it thy renown
That England’s queen and nobles in distress
80 Have been by thee restored and comforted.
SIR JOHN
Madam, along, and you, my lord, with me,
That England’s peers may Hainault’s welcome see.
[Exeunt.]
[Scene 16]
Enter the KING, ARUNDEL, the TWO SPENCERS, with others.
EDWARD
Thus after many threats of wrathful war
Triumpheth England’s Edward with his friends;
And triumph Edward, with his friends uncontrolled.
My lord of Gloucester, do you hear the news?
SPENCER What news, my lord?
EDWARD
Why, man, they say there is great execution
Done through the realm. My lord of Arundel,
You have the note, have you not?
ARUNDEL
From the lieutenant of the Tower, my lord.