The Complete Plays (63 page)

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
.

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
.]

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
.

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
.

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.

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