Brecht Collected Plays: 1: Baal; Drums in the Night; In the Jungle of Cities; Life of Edward II of England; & 5 One Act Plays: "Baal", "Drums in the Night", "In the Jungle of Ci (World Classics) (35 page)

London believes he is with you.

RICE AP HOWELL:

Berkeley had an order signed by Mortimer.

KENT:

‘Tis strange that no one’s seen the king

Face to face and strange that no one’s

Heard him and strange that now he speaks

In Mortimer’s mouth.

RICE AP HOWELL:

‘Tis strange indeed.

KENT:

Therefore to Berkeley swiftly will I hie

To learn from Edward’s mouth what’s truth, what lie.

THE QUEEN LAUGHS AT THE WORLD’S EMPTINESS.

The Queen, Mortimer, the two brothers Gurney
.

MORTIMER:

Did Berkeley give him to you willingly?

ELDER GURNEY:

No.

ANNE
aside
:

Here among the tapestries of Westminster it reeks

Of strangled chickens. You walked easier

In Scottish air.

MORTIMER
talking with the Gurneys
:

Look you, this Berkeley was a man

With milk in his bones, who wept too easy.

If he saw someone draw another’s tooth

He’d faint on you. The earth lie easy on him.

You are not other such?

ELDER GURNEY:

Oh no, my lord, we are not of that sort.

ANNE:

Business! Business! The smell of too much

History between the walls of

Westminster. Will your hands not

Peel in London’s lye? Your

Hands are scribbler’s hands.

MORTIMER:

Where is your prisoner?

YOUNGER GURNEY:

North east south west from Berkeley, my lord.

MORTIMER:

See there are men whom cold air

Cannot harm. Know you aught

Of geography? Could you show England

To a man who knows it all too little?

In all directions?

ELDER GURNEY:

So we should lead him round about?

MORTIMER:

And specially where there’s no sun nor men.

ELDER GURNEY:

Good, my lord, we are the men for that.

ANNE:

Ale! Ale! Jonah sat and waited

For the promised overthrow of Nineveh

But in those days God came that way

No more and Nineveh fell not. Now

I have richly eaten and am full of food

And I can eat more now than in the time

When I was growing. Are you learned still

In metaphysics, Earl Mortimer?

MORTIMER:

There are, to be sure, men who talk

From morn till night.

YOUNGER GURNEY:

We are other men than that.

MORTIMER:

Have you ever read a Chronicle?

ELDER GURNEY:

No. No.

MORTIMER:

‘Tis good.

Exeunt the two Gurneys
.

MORTIMER:

We hold an old wolf by the ear

That if he slip will seize upon us both.

ANNE:

Do you sleep badly? See something white at night?

Often? They are sheets, Mortimer, nothing else.

It comes from the stomach.

MORTIMER:

At his name the Commons turn to water.

ANNE:

He of whom it seems you speak, is silent.

MORTIMER:

Since he is obdurate and will not speak

Lies with lies must be o’erlain.

ANNE:

Business! Business! The days fly too slow

For me in Westminster and too many.

MORTIMER:

Husband’s murder comes soon after father’s murder

In the catechism.

ANNE:

You’ve an indulgence.

MORTIMER:

With knees wide and closed eyes

Catching at anything, you are insatiable, Anne.

You eat in your sleep and talk in sleep

Of things shall kill me.

ANNE:

I sleep, you say. How do you wake me?

MORTIMER:

With Westminster bells and grinding teeth

And in despite of these incredulous lords

You should crown your son in haste.

ANNE:

Not my son, I pray you!

Not this child, suckled by a she-wolf’s milk

In weeks when she was wandering, dragged

Through bogs and hills in dark Scotland

Not this child

Too much night upon his lids to look up guiltless

Entangled in the filthy net with which you fish.

MORTIMER:

Dragging a little burden from

An age-old slimy pond, always

Though weary in the flesh, I see hanging from it

Human weed. More and more.

Hoisting myself up I feel ever a new

Weight.

And from the knees of the last another

Last. Human coils.

And at the moving wheel of this pulley block

Of human coils, breathless, lugging at them all

Myself.

ANNE:

Name the faces of those human weeds.

My husband Edward? My son Edward?

MORTIMER:

Yours.

ANNE:

Often I feared that these tired arms

With which I held a man upright perforce

Must yield, but now I know, when age

Has mingled weariness in my veins’ flow

My outstretched arms are but a crude pretence

A vain machine that grabs – naught else

Remains. Roger Mortimer, I am

Tired and old.

Enter Young Edward
.

MORTIMER:

Hook your dress up, Anne, so your son

See not tear-stained flesh.

YOUNG EDWARD:

Take this intruder, mother, from our sight.

We would have talk with you.

ANNE:

Earl Mortimer, child, is thy mother’s prop.

YOUNG EDWARD:

I pray you for news of my father Edward.

ANNE:

If thy mother, child, hung on thy poor lips

This most fearful choice, say, wouldst thou

Go with her unto the Tower if by

Thy answer’s colour the dice so fell?

Young Edward is silent
.

MORTIMER:

You show wise caution, Edward.

YOUNG EDWARD:

You should drink less, mother.

Anne laughs
.

Exit Young Edward
.

MORTIMER:

Why do you laugh?

Anne is silent
.

MORTIMER:

So prepare we in haste the boy’s crowning.

For this our business wears another face

When a king’s name is underwrit.

ANNE:

What has or ever will befall –

If Heaven will pardon it or no –

Your blood I’ve tasted and will not let you go

Till all this crack.

Meanwhile write, underwrite, decree

As you think fit. I will seal it for you sure.

She laughs
.

MORTIMER:

Why do you laugh a second time?

ANNE:

I laugh for the world’s emptiness.

KENT
alone
:

Berkeley is dead and Edward disappeared.

And Mortimer, in London, ever bolder, claims

In Berkeley’s hearing Edward resigned the crown.

The light is murky now for us, Edward Longshanks’

Sons. Already there’s a sign the sky will brighten.

The Commons were in uproar, clamoured

To be told the prisoner’s whereabouts

And many called him poor Edward.

In Wales the people murmured against the butcher Mortimer.

Perchance now only crows and ravens

Know where lies Edward of England.

And I had hopes my rue came not too late!

Who is that poor man there mid pikes and lances?

Enter Edward, the two Gurneys, soldiers
.

YOUNGER GURNEY:

Holà. Who comes there?

ELDER GURNEY:

Guard the King sure; it is his brother, Kent.

EDWARD:

O gentle brother, help to rescue me!

ELDER GURNEY:

Keep them asunder! Away with the prisoner!

KENT:

Soldiers, let me but talk to him one word.

YOUNGER GURNEY:

Stop up his mouth!

ELDER GURNEY:

Throw him in the ditch!

Edward is taken out
.

KENT
alone
:

Edward, hast resigned? Edward! Edward!

Woe to us!

They drag England’s king away like a calf.

3
DECEMBER
1325:
THE MIGHTY EARL ROGER MORTIMER IS TAKEN TO TASK FOR THE KING’S DISAPPEARANCE

Mortimer, Queen, Lord Abbot, Rice ap Howell
.

ABBOT:

My Lord, like to a canker grows the rumour

Edward has not resigned.

MORTIMER:

At Berkeley, in Robert Berkeley’s hearing

Edward the Second resigned, unforced.

ABBOT:

In my hearing, at Shrewsbury, clearly

Edward cried: No.

RICE AP HOWELL:

And thus often to me.

ABBOT:

It were good if this Berkeley

Could testify on oath before the Commons

How and ’fore whom Edward put away the crown.

MORTIMER:

Today I have news from Lord Berkeley

That he is on his way to London.

RICE AP HOWELL:

And where is the king?

MORTIMER:

At Berkeley, where else? Too much knowledge, Rice ap Howell

Dulls the appetite. Since I set aside

Books and learning I sleep better and digest.

RICE AP HOWELL:

Yes, but where is Edward?

MORTIMER:

I know nothing of your Edward, I love

Him not nor hate, he comes not

In my dreams. For things concerning him

Turn to Berkeley, not to me! Yourself, Winchester

Were against him.

ABBOT:

The Church was, with whom God was.

MORTIMER:

With whom was God?

ABBOT:

With him who conquered, Mortimer.

Enter Kent with Young Edward
.

KENT:

We hear my brother

Is no more at Shrewsbury.

MORTIMER:

Your brother is at Berkeley, Edmund.

KENT:

We hear he is no more at Berkeley either.

MORTIMER:

Since Harwich rumours grow like

Mildew in the rain.

ANNE:

Come to thy mother, child.

MORTIMER:

How fares my honourable Lord of Kent?

KENT:

In health, sweet Mortimer. And you

My lady?

ANNE:

Well, Kent. Times are good for me and I

Am quite content. This past week I was

Fishing in Tynemouth.

MORTIMER:

To have gone fishing years ago at Tynemouth

Truly would have done a certain man

No harm.

ANNE:

Go fishing at Tynemouth next week with me, Kent.

MORTIMER
aside
:

You eat too much and do not chew, Anne.

ANNE
aside
:

I eat, I drink, I love with you.

ABBOT:

What were you saying, my Lord of Berkeley?

MORTIMER
to Kent
:

You were missed in London for three weeks.

KENT:

I rode across the mangled countryside

And meditated on my brother’s tracks.

YOUNG EDWARD:

Mother, persuade me not to wear the crown

I’ll not do it.

ANNE:

You should be pleased. The Barons wish it.

MORTIMER:

London wills it.

YOUNG EDWARD:

Let me speak with my father first

And then I will.

KENT:

That’s a good answer, Ned.

ANNE:

Brother, you know it is impossible.

YOUNG EDWARD:

Is he dead?

KENT:

London says many things.

You must have knowledge, Roger Mortimer.

MORTIMER:

I? In Little Street at brightest noon

Five sharks were seen to go into a tavern

Take ale, and then, a little merry

To kneel in Westminster Abbey.

Laughter
.

KENT:

They prayed, sure, for Berkeley’s soul.

MORTIMER:

Inconstant Edmund, dost thou favour him

Who wast the cause of his imprisonment?

KENT:

The more cause now to make amends.

YOUNG EDWARD:

Aye aye!

KENT:

Ned, I counsel thee, be not wheedled

Take not the crown from thy father’s head.

YOUNG EDWARD:

Indeed I will not.

RICE AP HOWELL:

He will not, Edward.

MORTIMER
takes Young Edward and drags him to his mother
:

My Lady, signify to your son Edward

It is not England’s wont to suffer