The Complete Plays (62 page)

To draw a prince.

PEMBROKE
         So, my lord. Come hither, James.

I do commit this Gaveston to thee.

Be thou this night his keeper; in the morning

We will discharge thee of thy charge. Begone.

GAVESTON

Unhappy Gaveston, whither goest thou now?

Exit
[
GAVESTON
]
with
[
JAMES
and
]
          
PEMBROKE'S
[
other
]
servants
.

HORSEBOY

110        My lord, we'll quickly be at Cobham.

Exeunt
.

Enter
GAVESTON
mourning, and the
EARL OF PEMBROKE'S MEN
[
with
JAMES
and four
SOLDIERS
].

GAVESTON

O treacherous Warwick, thus to
wrong thy friend
!

JAMES

I see it is your life these arms pursue.

GAVESTON

Weaponless must I fall, and die in bands?

O, must this day be period of my life?

Centre
of all my bliss! An ye be men,

Speed to the king.

Enter
WARWICK
and his company
.

WARWICK
         My lord of Pembroke's men,

Strive you no longer; I will have that Gaveston.

JAMES

Your lordship doth dishonour to yourself

And wrong our lord, your honourable friend.

WARWICK

10       No, James, it is my country's cause I follow.

Go, take the villain. [
GAVESTON
is taken
.]

Soldiers, come away.

We'll make quick work.

[
To
JAMES
]         Commend me to your master,

My friend, and tell him that I
watched it well
.

[
To
GAVESTON
]

Come, let thy
shadow
parley with King Edward.

GAVESTON

Treacherous earl, shall I not see the king?

WARWICK

The king of heaven perhaps, no other king.

Away!

Exeunt
WARWICK
and his men, with
GAVESTON. JAMES
remains with the others
.

JAMES

Come, fellows, it booted not for us to strive.

We will in haste go certify our lord.

Exeunt
.

Enter
KING EDWARD
and
SPENCER
[
JUNIOR
and
BALDOCK
,]
with drums and fifes
.

EDWARD

I long to hear an answer from the barons

Touching my friend, my dearest Gaveston.

Ah, Spencer, not the riches of my realm

Can ransom him! Ah, he is marked to die.

I know the malice of the younger Mortimer,

Warwick I know is rough, and Lancaster

Inexorable, and I shall never see

My lovely Piers, my Gaveston again.

The barons overbear me with their pride.

SPENCER

Were I King Edward, England's sovereign,

10       Son to the lovely Eleanor of Spain,

Great Edward Longshanks' issue, would I bear

These
braves
, this rage, and suffer uncontrolled

These barons thus to
beard me
in my land,

In mine own realm? My lord, pardon my speech.

Did you retain your father's magnanimity,

Did you regard the honour of your name,

You would not suffer thus your majesty

Be counterbuffed of your nobility.

Strike off their heads, and let them
preach on poles
.

20       No doubt, such lessons they will teach the rest

As, by their preachments, they will profit much

And learn obedience to their lawful king.

EDWARD

Yea, gentle Spencer, we have been too mild,

Too kind to them, but now have drawn our sword,

And if they send me not my Gaveston,

We'll steel
it on their crest and poll their tops.

BALDOCK

This haught resolve becomes your majesty,

Not to be tied to their
affection
,

As though your highness were a schoolboy still,

30       And must be awed and governed like a child.

Enter
HUGH SPENCER
,
an old man, father to the young
SPENCER
,
with his
truncheon
, and
SOLDIERS
.

SPENCER SENIOR

Long live my sovereign, the noble Edward,

In peace triumphant, fortunate in wars!

EDWARD

Welcome, old man. Com'st thou in Edward's aid?

Then tell thy prince of whence and what thou art.

SPENCER SENIOR

Lo, with a band of
bowmen
and of pikes,

Brown bills
and targeteers, four hundred strong,

Sworn to defend King Edward's royal right,

I come in person to your majesty –

40       Spencer, the father of Hugh Spencer there,

Bound to your highness everlastingly

For favours done
in him
unto us all.

EDWARD

Thy father, Spencer?

SPENCER
              True,
an it
like your grace,

That pours, in lieu of all your goodness shown,

His life, my lord, before your princely feet.

EDWARD

Welcome ten thousand times, old man, again.

Spencer, this love, this kindness to thy king

Argues thy noble mind and disposition.

Spencer, I here create thee earl of Wiltshire,

50       And daily will enrich thee with our favour,

That, as the sunshine, shall reflect o'er thee.

Beside, the more to manifest our love,

Because we hear
Lord Bruce
doth sell his land,

And that the Mortimers are
in hand withal
,

Thou shalt have crowns of us t'outbid the barons;

And, Spencer, spare them not, but lay it on.

Soldiers, a largess
, and thrice welcome all!

SPENCER

My lord, here comes the queen.

Enter the
QUEEN
[
with a letter
]
and her son
[
PRINCEEDWARD
],
and
LEVUNE
,
a Frenchman
.

EDWARD
              Madam, what news?

QUEEN

News of dishonour, lord, and discontent.

60       Our friend Levune, faithful and full of trust,

Informeth us, by letters and by words,

That Lord Valois our brother, King of France,

Because your highness hath been slack in homage,

Hath seizèd Normandy into his hands.

These be the letters, this the messenger.

      [
She shows the letter to
EDWARD
.]

EDWARD

Welcome, Levune. Tush,
Sib
, if this be all,

Valois and I will soon be friends again.

But to my Gaveston: shall I never see,

Never behold thee now? Madam, in this matter

We will employ you and your little son;

70       You shall go parley with the King of France.

Boy, see you bear you bravely to the king,

And do your message with a majesty.

PRINCE

Commit not to my youth things of more weight

Than fits a prince so young as I to bear,

And fear not, lord and father,
heaven's
great beams

On Atlas' shoulder shall not lie more safe

Than shall your charge committed to my trust.

QUEEN

Ah, boy, this
towardness
makes thy mother fear

80        Thou art not marked to many days on earth.

EDWARD

Madam, we will that you with speed be shipped,

And this our son; Levune shall follow you

With all the haste we can despatch him hence.

Choose of our lords to bear you company,

And go in peace; leave us in wars at home.

QUEEN

Unnatural wars, where subjects brave their king;

God end them
once
! My lord, I take my leave

To make my preparation for France.

[
Exeunt the
QUEEN
and
PRINCE EDWARD
.]

Enter
LORD ARUNDEL
.

EDWARD

What, Lord Arundel, dost thou come alone?

ARUNDEL

90        Yea, my good lord, for Gaveston is dead.

EDWARD

Ah, traitors! Have they put my friend to death?

Tell me, Arundel, died he ere thou cam'st,

Or didst thou see my friend to take his death?

ARUNDEL

Neither, my lord, for, as he was surprised,

Begirt with weapons and with enemies round,

I did your highness' message to them all,

Demanding him of them – entreating rather –

And said, upon the honour of my name,

That I would undertake to carry him

100  Unto your highness and to bring him back.

EDWARD

And tell me, would the rebels deny me that?

SPENCER

Proud recreants!

EDWARD
         Yea, Spencer, traitors all.

ARUNDEL

I found them at the first inexorable.

The earl of Warwick would not bide the hearing,

Mortimer hardly, Pembroke and Lancaster

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,