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Edward III: Act II, Scene 2

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Edward III
Act II, Scene 2

Roxborough. Another part of the castle.

Richard de Bury Tutoring Young Edward III

Richard de Bury Tutoring Young Edward III

William Henry Warren Bicknell, Howard Pyle, 1903

  1. Enter at one door Derby from France, At an other door Audley
  2. with a Drum.

Earl of Derby

1 - 2
  1. Thrice noble Audley, well encount’red here!
  2. How is it with our sovereign and his peers?

Audley

3 - 7
  1. ’Tis full a fortnight, since I saw his highness
  2. What time he sent me forth to muster men;
  3. Which I accordingly have done, and bring them hither
  4. In fair array before his majesty.
  5. What news, my Lord of Derby, from the Emperor?

Earl of Derby

8 - 12
  1. As good as we desire: the Emperor
  2. Hath yielded to his highness friendly aid,
  3. And makes our king lieutenant general
  4. In all his lands and large dominions;
  5. Then via! For the spatious bounds of France!

Audley

13
  1. What, doth his highness leap to hear these news?

Earl of Derby

14 - 19
  1. I have not yet found time to open them;
  2. The king is in his closet, malcontent;
  3. For what, I know not, but he gave in charge,
  4. Till after dinner none should interrupt him:
  5. The Countess Salisbury and her father Warwick,
  6. Artois and all look underneath the brows.

Audley

20
  1. Undoubtedly, then, some thing is amiss.
  1. Trumpet within.

Earl of Derby

21
  1. The trumpets sound, the king is now abroad.
  1. Enter the King.

Audley

22
  1. Here comes his highness.

Earl of Derby

23
  1. Befall my sovereign all my sovereign’s wish!

Edward III

24
  1. Ah, that thou wert a witch to make it so!

Earl of Derby

25
  1. The Emperor greeteth you.
  1. Presenting Letters.

Edward III

26
  1. Aside.
  2.                           Would it were the Countess!

Earl of Derby

27
  1. And hath accorded to your highness suite.

Edward III

28
  1. Aside.
  2. Thou liest, she hath not; but I would she had.

Audley

29
  1. All love and duty to my lord the King!

Edward III

30
  1. Aside.
  2. Well, all but one is none.—What news with you?

Audley

31 - 32
  1. I have, my liege, levied those horse and foot
  2. According to your charge, and brought them hither.

Edward III

33 - 35
  1. Then let those foot trudge hence upon those horse
  2. According to our discharge, and be gone.—
  3. Darby, I’ll look upon the Countess’ mind anon.

Earl of Derby

36
  1. The Countess’ mind, my liege?

Edward III

37
  1. I mean the Emperor. Leave me alone.

Audley

38
  1. What is his mind?

Earl of Derby

39
  1.                   Let’s leave him to his humor.
  1. Exeunt.

Edward III

40 - 46
  1. Thus from the heart’s aboundance speaks the tongue;
  2. Countess for Emperor: and, indeed, why not?
  3. She is as imperator over me, and I to her
  4. Am as a kneeling vassal, that observes
  5. The pleasure or displeasure of her eye.
  6. Enter Lodowick.
  7. What says the more than Cleopatra’s match
  8. To Caesar now?

Lodowick

47 - 48
  1. That yet, my liege, ere night
  2. She will resolve your majesty.
  1. Drum within.

Edward III

49 - 75
  1. What drum is this that thunders forth this march,
  2. To start the tender Cupid in my bosom?
  3. Poor sheepskin, how it brawls with him that beateth it!
  4. Go, break the thundring parchment bottom out,
  5. And I will teach it to conduct sweet lines
  6. Unto the bosom of a heavenly nymph;
  7. For I will use it as my writing paper,
  8. And so reduce him from a scolding drum
  9. To be the herald and dear counsel bearer
  10. Betwixt a goddess and a mighty king.
  11. Go, bid the drummer learn to touch the Lute,
  12. Or hang him in the braces of his drum,
  13. For now we think it an uncivil thing,
  14. To trouble heaven with such harsh resounds:
  15. Away!
  16. Exit Lodowick.
  17. The quarrel that I have requires no arms
  18. But these of mine: and these shall meet my foe
  19. In a deep march of penetrable groans;
  20. My eyes shall be my arrows, and my sighs
  21. Shall serve me as the vantage of the wind,
  22. To whirl away my sweetest artillery.
  23. Ah, but, alas, she wins the sun of me,
  24. For that is she herself, and thence it comes
  25. That poets term the wanton warrior blind;
  26. But love hath eyes as judgement to his steps,
  27. Till too much loved glory dazzles them.—
  28. Enter Lodowick.
  29. How now?

Lodowick

76 - 77
  1. My liege, the drum that stroke the lusty march,
  2. Stands with Prince Edward, your thrice valiant son.
  1. Enter Prince Edward.
  1. Exit Lodowick.

Edward III

78 - 84
  1. I see the boy; oh, how his mother’s face,
  2. Modeled in his, corrects my strayed desire,
  3. And rates my heart, and chides my thievish eye,
  4. Who, being rich enough in seeing her,
  5. Yet seeks elsewhere: and basest theft is that
  6. Which cannot cloak itself on poverty.—
  7. Now, boy, what news?

Prince Edward

85 - 88
  1. I have assembled, my dear lord and father,
  2. The choicest buds of all our English blood
  3. For our affairs in France; and here we come
  4. To take direction from your majesty.

Edward III

89 - 103
  1. Still do I see in him delineate
  2. His mother’s visage; those his eyes are hers,
  3. Who, looking wistely on me, make me blush:
  4. For faults against themselves give evidence;
  5. Lust is fire, and men like lanterns show
  6. Light lust within themselves, even through themselves.
  7. Away, loose silks of wavering vanity!
  8. Shall the large limit of fair Britain
  9. By me be overthrown, and shall I not
  10. Master this little mansion of myself?
  11. Give me an armor of eternal steel!
  12. I go to conquer kings; and shall I not then
  13. Subdue myself? And be my enemy’s friend?
  14. It must not be.—Come, boy, forward, advance!
  15. Let’s with our colors sweet the air of France.
  1. Enter Lodowick.

Lodowick

104 - 105
  1. My liege, the Countess with a smiling cheer
  2. Desires access unto your Majesty.

Edward III

106 - 124
  1. Why, there it goes! That very smile of hers
  2. Hath ransomed captive France, and set the King,
  3. The Dauphin, and the peers at liberty.—
  4. Go, leave me, Ned, and revel with thy friends.
  5. Exit Prince Edward.
  6. Thy mother is but black, and thou, like her,
  7. Dost put it in my mind how foul she is.—
  8. Go, fetch the Countess hither in thy hand,
  9. And let her chase away these winter clouds,
  10. For she gives beauty both to heaven and earth.
  11. Exit Lodowick.
  12. The sin is more to hack and hew poor men,
  13. Than to embrace in an unlawful bed
  14. The register of all rarities
  15. Since leatheren Adam till this youngest hour.
  16. Enter Countess escorted by Lodowick.
  17. Go, Lodowick, put thy hand into my purse,
  18. Play, spend, give, riot, waste, do what thou wilt,
  19. So thou wilt hence awhile and leave me here.
  20. Exit Lodowick.
  21. Now, my soul’s playfellow, art thou come
  22. To speak the more than heavenly word of “yea”
  23. To my objection in thy beauteous love?

Countess

125
  1. My father on his blessing hath commanded—

Edward III

126
  1. That thou shalt yield to me?

Countess

127
  1. Aye, dear my liege, your due.

Edward III

128 - 129
  1. And that, my dearest love, can be no less
  2. Than right for right and tender love for love.

Countess

130 - 139
  1. Then wrong for wrong and endless hate for hate.—
  2. But,—sith I see your majesty so bent,
  3. That my unwillingness, my husband’s love,
  4. Your high estate, nor no respect respected
  5. Can be my help, but that your mightiness
  6. Will overbear and awe these dear regards—
  7. I bind my discontent to my content,
  8. And what I would not I’ll compel I will,
  9. Provided that yourself remove those lets
  10. That stand between your highness’ love and mine.

Edward III

140
  1. Name them, fair Countess, and, by heaven, I will.

Countess

141 - 142
  1. It is their lives that stand between our love,
  2. That I would have choked up, my sovereign.

Edward III

143
  1. Whose lives, my Lady?

Countess

144 - 147
  1.                       My thrice loving liege,
  2. Your Queen and Salisbury, my wedded husband,
  3. Who living have that title in our love,
  4. That we cannot bestow but by their death.

Edward III

148
  1. Thy opposition is beyond our Law.

Countess

149 - 153
  1. So is your desire: if the law
  2. Can hinder you to execute the one,
  3. Let it forbid you to attempt the other.
  4. I cannot think you love me as you say,
  5. Unless you do make good what you have sworn.

Edward III

154 - 159
  1. No more; thy husband and the Queen shall die.
  2. Fairer thou art by far than Hero was,
  3. Beardless Leander not so strong as I:
  4. He swom an easy current for his love,
  5. But I will through a Hellespont of blood,
  6. To arrive at Sestos where my Hero lies.

Countess

160 - 162
  1. Nay, you’ll do more; you’ll make the river to
  2. With their heart bloods that keep our love asunder,
  3. Of which my husband and your wife are twain.

Edward III

163 - 165
  1. Thy beauty makes them guilty of their death
  2. And gives in evidence that they shall die;
  3. Upon which verdict I, their Judge, condemn them.

Countess

166 - 169
  1. Aside.
  2. O perjured beauty, more corrupted judge!
  3. When to the great star-chamber o’er our heads
  4. The universal sessions calls to count
  5. This packing evil, we both shall tremble for it.

Edward III

170
  1. What says my fair love? Is she resolute?

Countess

171 - 191
  1. Resolute to be dissolute; and, therefore, this:
  2. Keep but thy word, great king, and I am thine.
  3. Stand where thou dost, I’ll part a little from thee,
  4. And see how I will yield me to thy hands.
  5. Turning suddenly upon him, and showing two daggers.
  6. Here by my side doth hang my wedding knifes:
  7. Take thou the one, and with it kill thy Queen,
  8. And learn by me to find her where she lies;
  9. And with this other I’ll dispatch my love,
  10. Which now lies fast a sleep within my heart:
  11. When they are gone, then I’ll consent to love.
  12. Stir not, lascivious king, to hinder me;
  13. My resolution is more nimbler far,
  14. Than thy prevention can be in my rescue,
  15. And if thou stir, I strike; therefore, stand still,
  16. And hear the choice that I will put thee to:
  17. Either swear to leave thy most unholy suit
  18. And never hence forth to solicit me;
  19. Or else, by heaven, this sharp-pointed knife
  20. Shall stain thy earth with that which thou would stain,
  21. My poor chaste blood. Swear, Edward, swear,
  22. Or I will strike and die before thee here.

Edward III

192 - 212
  1. Even by that power I swear, that gives me now
  2. The power to be ashamed of myself,
  3. I never mean to part my lips again
  4. In any words that tends to such a suit.
  5. Arise, true English lady, whom our isle
  6. May better boast of than ever Roman might
  7. Of her, whose ransacked treasury hath taskt
  8. The vain endeavor of so many pens:
  9. Arise, and be my fault thy honor’s fame,
  10. Which after ages shall enrich thee with.
  11. I am awakened from this idle dream.—
  12. Warwick, my son, Darby, Artois, and Audley!
  13. Brave warriors all, where are you all this while?
  14. Enter all.
  15. Warwick, I make thee Warden of the North:—
  16. Thou, Prince of Wales, and Audley, straight to sea;
  17. Scour to Newhaven; some there stay for me:
  18. Myself, Artois, and Darby will through Flanders,
  19. To greet our friends there and to crave their aide.
  20. This night will scarce suffice a faithful lover;
  21. For, ere the sun shall gild the eastern sky,
  22. We’ll wake him with our martial harmony.
  1. Exeunt.
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