The Complete Plays (65 page)

And we must seek to right it as we may.

Meanwhile, have hence this rebel to the block.

[
To
SPENCER SENIOR
]

70        
Your lordship
cannot privilege your head.

SPENCER SENIOR

Rebel is he that fights against his prince;

So fought not they that fought in Edward's right.

MORTIMER

Take him away, he prates, [
SPENCER SENIOR
is led away
.]

You, Rice ap Howell,

Shall do good service to her majesty,

Being of countenance
in your country here,

To follow these rebellious runagates.

We in mean while, madam, must take advice

How Baldock, Spencer, and their complices

May in their fall be followed to their end.

Exeunt
.

Enter the
ABBOT, MONKS
, [
KING
]
EDWARD, SPENCER
[
JUNIOR
],
and
BALDOCK
[
disguised as monks
].

ABBOT

Have you no doubt, my lord, have you no fear.

As silent and as careful will we be

To keep your royal person safe with us,

Free from suspect and fell invasion

Of such as have your majesty in chase,

Yourself – and those your chosen company –

As danger of this stormy time requires.

EDWARD

Father, thy face should harbour no deceit.

O, hadst thou ever been a king, thy heart,

10       Pierced deeply with sense of my distress,

Could not but take compassion of my state.

Stately and proud, in riches and in train,

Whilom I was, powerful and full of pomp;

But what is he whom rule and empery

Have not in life or death made miserable?

Come, Spencer, come, Baldock, come sit down by me;

Make trial now of that philosophy

That in our famous
nurseries of arts

Thou sucked'st from Plato and from Aristotle.

20       Father, this
life contemplative
is heaven.

O, that I might this life in quiet lead!

But we, alas, are chased, and you my friends;

Your lives and my dishonour they pursue.

Yet, gentle monks, for treasure, gold, nor fee

Do you betray us and our company.

MONKS

Your grace may sit secure if none but we

Do wot of your abode.

SPENCER

Not one alive; but shrewdly I suspect

A
gloomy fellow
in a mead below.

'A gave a long look after us, my lord,

30       And all the land, I know, is up in arms –

Arms that pursue our lives with deadly hate.

BALDOCK

We were embarked for Ireland, wretched we,

With awkward winds and sore tempests driven,

To
fall on shore
and here to pine in fear

Of Mortimer and his confederates.

EDWARD

Mortimer! Who talks of Mortimer?

Who wounds me with the name of Mortimer,

That bloody man? Good father, on thy lap

Lay I this head, laden with mickle care.

40       O, might I never open these eyes again,

Never again lift up this drooping head,

O, never more lift up this dying heart!

SPENCER

Look up, my lord. Baldock, this
drowsiness

Betides no good; here even we are betrayed.

Enter, with
Welsh hooks
, [
SOLDIERS
,]
RICE
ap
HOWELL
,
a
MOWER
,
and the
EARL OF LEICESTER
.

MOWER

Upon my life, those be the men ye seek.

RICE
ap
HOWELL

Fellow, enough. My lord, I pray be short.

A fair commission warrants what we do.

LEICESTER
[
aside
]

The queen's commission, urged by Mortimer.

What cannot gallant Mortimer with the queen?

50       Alas, see where he sits and hopes unseen

T'escape their hands that seek to reave his life.

Too true it is,
Quem
dies vidit veniens superbum
,

Hunc dies vidit fugiens iacentem
.

But, Leicester, leave to grow so passionate.

Spencer and Baldock,
by no other names

I arrest you of high treason here.

Stand not on titles
, but obey th'arrest;

'Tis in the name of Isabel the queen.

60     My lord, why droop you thus?

EDWARD

O day
, the last of all my bliss on earth,

Centre of all misfortune! O my stars!

Why do you lour unkindly on a king?

Comes Leicester, then, in Isabella's name

To take my life, my company from me?

Here, man, rip up this panting breast of mine

And take my heart
in rescue of
my friends.

RICE
ap
HOWELL

Away with them.

SPENCER
[
to
LEICESTER
]

It may become thee yet

To let us take our farewell of his grace.

ABBOT

70       My heart with pity earns to see this sight,

A king to bear these words and proud commands.

EDWARD

Spencer, ah, sweet Spencer, thus then must we part?

SPENCER

We must, my lord; so will the angry heavens.

EDWARD

Nay, so will hell and cruel Mortimer,

The gentle heavens have not to do in this.

BALDOCK

My lord, it is in vain to grieve or storm.

Here humbly of your grace we take our leaves.

Our lots are cast; I fear me, so is thine.

EDWARD

In heaven we may, in earth never shall we meet.

80       And, Leicester, say, what shall become of us?

LEICESTER

Your majesty must go to
Killingworth
.

EDWARD

‘Must'! 'Tis somewhat hard when kings must go.

LEICESTER

Here is a litter ready for your grace

That waits your pleasure, and the day grows old.

RICE
ap
HOWELL

As good
be gone as stay and be benighted.

EDWARD

A litter hast thou? Lay me in a hearse,

And to the gates of hell convey me hence;

Let Pluto's bells ring out my fatal knell,

And
hags
howl for my death at Charon's shore,

For friends hath Edward none, but
these, and these
,

90       And these must die under a tyrant's sword.

RICE
ap
HOWELL

My lord, be going. Care not for these,

For we shall see them shorter by the heads.

EDWARD

Well, that shall be shall be. Part we must,

Sweet Spencer, gentle Baldock, part we must.

[
He discards his robes
.]

Hence,
feignèd weeds
! Unfeignèd are my woes.

Father, farewell. Leicester, thou stay'st for me,

And go I must.
Life
, farewell, with my friends.

Exeunt
EDWARD
[
guarded
]
and
LEICESTER
.

SPENCER

O, is he gone? Is noble Edward gone,

Parted from hence, never to see us more?

100  
Rend, sphere
of heaven, and fire, forsake thy orb;

Earth melt to air! Gone is my sovereign,

Gone, gone, alas, never to make return.

BALDOCK

Spencer, I see our souls are fleeted hence;

We are deprived the sunshine of our life.

Make for a new life, man; throw up thy eyes

And heart and hand to heaven's immortal throne;

Pay nature's debt with cheerful countenance.

Reduce we all our lessons unto this:

To die, sweet Spencer, therefore live we all;

110  Spencer, all live to die, and rise to fall.

RICE
ap
HOWELL
Come, come, keep these preachments till you
come to
the place appointed
. You, and such as you are, have
made wise work in England. Will your lordships away?

MOWER

Your worship, I trust, will
remember me
?

RICE
ap
HOWELL
Remember thee, fellow? What else? Follow
me to the town.

[
Exeunt, with
SPENCER JUNIOR
and
BALDOCK
guarded
.]

Enter the
KING
[
crowned
],
LEICESTER
,
with a
BISHOP
[
OF WINCHESTER
,
and
TRUSSELL
]
for the crown
, [
with
ATTENDANTS
].

LEICESTER

Be patient, good my lord, cease to lament.

Imagine Killingworth Castle were your court,

And that you
lay
for pleasure here a space,

Not of compulsion or necessity.

EDWARD

Leicester, if gentle words might comfort me,

Thy speeches long ago had eased my sorrows,

For kind and loving hast thou always been.

The griefs of private men are soon allayed,

But not of kings. The
forest deer
, being struck,

10       Runs to an herb that closeth up the wounds,

But when the imperial lion's flesh is gored,

He rends
and
tears it with his wrathful paw,

And, highly scorning that the lowly earth

Should drink his blood, mounts up into the air;

And so it fares with me, whose dauntless mind

The ambitious Mortimer would seek to curb,

And that unnatural queen, false Isabel,

That thus hath
pent and mewed
me in a prison.

For such outrageous passions cloy my soul

20       As with the wings of rancour and disdain

Full often am I soaring up to heaven,

To plain me to the gods against them both;

But when I call to mind I am a king,

Methinks I should revenge me of the wrongs

That Mortimer and Isabel have done.

But what are kings, when regiment is gone,

But
perfect
shadows in a sunshine day?

My nobles rule, I bear the name of king;

I wear the crown but am controlled by them,

By Mortimer and my unconstant queen,

30       Who spots my nuptial bed with infamy,

Whilst I am lodged within this cave of care,

Where sorrow at my elbow still attends

To company my heart with sad laments

That bleeds within me for this strange
exchange
.

But tell me, must I now resign my crown

To make usurping Mortimer a king?

WINCHESTER

Your grace mistakes, it is for England's good

And princely Edward's right we crave the crown.

EDWARD

No, 'tis for Mortimer, not Edward's head,

40       For he's a lamb encompassèd by wolves

Which in a moment will abridge his life.

But if proud Mortimer do wear
this crown
,

Heavens turn it to a blaze of quenchless fire,

Or, like the snaky wreath of Tisiphon,

Engirt the temples of his hateful head!

So shall not England's
vine
be perishèd,

But Edward's name survives, though Edward dies.

LEICESTER

My lord, why waste you thus the time away?

50        They stay your answer. Will you yield your crown?

EDWARD

Ah, Leicester, weigh how hardly I can brook

To lose my crown and kingdom without cause,

To give ambitious Mortimer my right,

That like a mountain overwhelms my bliss,

In which extreme my mind here murdered is.

But what the heavens appoint, I must obey.

[
He removes the crown
.]

Here, take my crown, the life of Edward too!

Two kings in England cannot reign at once.

But stay a while. Let me be king till night,

60       That I may gaze upon this glittering crown;

So shall my eyes receive their last content,

My head the latest honour due to it,

And jointly both yield up their wishèd right.

Continue ever, thou celestial sun;

Let never silent night possess this clime.

Stand still, you
watches of the element;

All times and seasons,
rest
you at a stay,

That Edward may be still fair England's king.

But day's bright beams doth vanish fast away,

70       And needs I must resign my wishèd crown.

Inhuman creatures, nursed with
tiger's milk
,

Why gape you for your sovereign's overthrow?

My diadem, I mean, and guiltless life.

[
He puts the crown back on
.]

See, monsters, see, I'll wear my crown again.

What, fear you not the fury of your king?

But, hapless Edward, thou art fondly led;

They pass not for thy frowns as late they did,

But seeks to make a new-elected king,