Scene + 

II + 

The same. A room in the castle. + 

Enter Derby and Audley, meeting. + 

Derby + 

Thrice-noble Audley, well encounter’d here: + 

How is it with our sovereign and his peers? + 

Audley + 

’Tis full a fortnight since I saw his highness, + 

What time he sent me forth to muster men; + 

Which I accordingly have done, and bring them hither + 

In fair array before his majesty. + 

What news, my Lord of Derby, from the Emperor? + 

Derby + 

As good as we desire: the Emperor + 

Hath yielded to his highness friendly aid; + 

And makes our king lieutenant-general + 

In all his lands and large dominions: + 

Then via for the spacious bounds of France! + 

Audley + 

What, doth his highness leap to hear these news? + 

Derby + 

I have not yet found time to open them; + 

The king is in his closet, malcontent, + 

For what, I know not, but he gave in charge, + 

Till after dinner, none should interrupt him: + 

The Countess Salisbury, and her father Warwick, + 

Artois, and all, look underneath the brows. + 

Audley + 

Undoubtedly then some thing is amiss. Trumpet within. + 

Derby + 

The trumpets sound; the king is now abroad. + 

Enter King Edward. + 

Audley + 

Here comes his highness. + 

Derby + 

Befall my sovereign all my sovereign’s wish! + 

King Edward + 

Ah, that thou wert a witch, to make it so! + 

Derby + 

The emperor greeteth you: Presenting letters. + 

King Edward + 

Would it were the countess! + 

Derby + 

And hath accorded to your highness’ suit. + 

King Edward + 

Thou liest, she hath not; but I would, she had! + 

Audley + 

All love and duty to my lord the king! + 

King Edward + 

Well, all but one is none:⁠—what news with you? + 

Audley + 

I have, my liege, levied those horse and foot, + 

According to your charge, and brought them hither. + 

King Edward + 

Then let those foot trudge hence upon those horse, + 

According to our discharge, and be gone.⁠— + 

Derby, + 

I’ll look upon the countess’ mind anon. + 

Derby + 

The countess’ mind, my liege? + 

King Edward + 

I mean the emperor: leave me alone. + 

Audley + 

What’s in his mind? + 

Derby + 

Let’s leave him to his humour. Exeunt Derby and Audley. + 

King Edward + 

Thus from the heart’s abundance speaks the tongue; + 

Countess for emperor: and, indeed, why not? + 

She is as imperator over me; + 

And I to her + 

Am as a kneeling vassal that observes + 

The pleasure or displeasure of her eye.⁠— + 

Enter Lodwick. + 

What says the more than Cleopatra’s match + 

To Caesar now? + 

Lodwick + 

That yet, my liege, ere night + 

She will resolve your majesty. Drum within. + 

King Edward + 

What drum is this, that thunders forth this march, + 

To start the tender Cupid in my bosom? + 

Poor sheep-skin, how it brawls with him that beateth it! + 

Go, break the thund’ring parchment-bottom out, + 

And I will teach it to conduct sweet lines + 

Unto the bosom of a heavenly nymph: + 

For I will use it as my writing-paper; + 

And so reduce him, from a scolding drum, + 

To be the herald and dear counsel-bearer + 

Betwixt a goddess and a mighty king. + 

Go, bid the drummer learn to touch the lute, + 

Or hang him in the braces of his drum; + 

For now we think it an uncivil thing, + 

To trouble heaven with such harsh resounds: + 

Away.⁠—Exit Lodwick. + 

The quarrel, that I have, requires no arms + 

But these of mine; and these shall meet my foe + 

In a deep march of penetrable groans: + 

My eyes shall be my arrows; and my sighs + 

Shall serve me as the vantage of the wind, + 

To whirl away my sweet’st artillery: + 

Ah but, alas, she wins the sun of me, + 

For that is she herself; and thence it comes + 

That poets term the wanton warrior blind; + 

But love hath eyes as judgement to his steps, + 

Till too-much-loved glory dazzles them.⁠— + 

Reenter Lodwick. + 

How now? + 

Lodwick + 

My liege, the drum that stroke the lusty march + 

Stands with Prince Edward, your thrice-valiant son. + 

Enter Prince Edward. Lodwick retires to the door. + 

King Edward + 

I see the boy. O, how his mother’s face, + 

Modell’d in his, corrects my stray’d desire + 

And rates my heart and chides my thievish eye; + 

Who being rich enough in seeing her, + 

Yet seeks elsewhere: and basest theft is that, + 

Which cannot cloak itself on poverty.⁠— + 

Now, boy, what news? + 

Prince Edward + 

I have assembled, my dear lord and father, + 

The choicest buds of all our English blood + 

For our affairs in France; and here we come, + 

To take direction from your majesty. + 

King Edward + 

Still do I see in him delineate + 

His mother’s visage; those his eyes are hers, + 

Who looking wistly on me make me blush; + 

For faults against themselves give evidence: + 

Lust is a fire; and men, like lanthorns, show + 

Light lust within themselves, even through themselves. + 

Away, loose silks of wavering vanity! + 

Shall the large limit of fair Brittany + 

By me be overthrown? and shall I not + 

Master this little mansion of myself? + 

Give me an armour of eternal steel; + 

I go to conquer kings; and shall I then + 

Subdue myself and be my enemy’s friend? + 

It must not be.⁠—Come, boy, forward, advance! + 

Let’s with our colours sweet the air of France. + 

Lodwick + 

My liege, the countess with a smiling cheer + 

Desires access unto your majesty. Advancing from the door, and whispering to him. + 

King Edward + 

Why, there it goes! that very smile of hers + 

Hath ransom’d captive France, and set the king, + 

The Dauphin, and the peers, at liberty.⁠— + 

Go, leave me, Ned, and revel with thy friends. Exit Prince. + 

Thy mother is but black; and thou, like her, + 

Dost put into my mind how foul she is.⁠— + 

Go, fetch the countess hither in thy hand + 

And let her chase away these winter clouds; + 

For she gives beauty both to heaven and earth. Exit Lodwick. + 

The sin is more to hack and hew poor men, + 

Than to embrace in an unlawful bed + 

The register of all rarieties + 

Since leathern Adam till this youngest hour. + 

Reenter Lodwick, with the Countess. + 

Go, Lodwick, put thy hand into my purse, + 

Play, spend, give, riot, waste; do what thou wilt, + 

So thou wilt hence a while and leave me here. Exit Lodwick. + 

Now, my soul’s playfellow! art thou come, + 

To speak the more than heavenly word of yea + 

To my objection in thy beauteous love? + 

Countess + 

My father on his blessing hath commanded⁠— + 

King Edward + 

That thou shalt yield to me? + 

Countess + 

Ay, dear my liege, your due. + 

King Edward + 

And that, my dearest love, can be no less + 

Than right for right and tender love for love. + 

Countess + 

Than wrong for wrong and endless hate for hate. + 

But⁠—sith I see your majesty so bent, + 

That my unwillingness, my husband’s love, + 

Your high estate, nor no respect respected + 

Can be my help, but that your mightiness + 

Will overbear and awe these dear regards⁠— + 

I bind my discontent to my content, + 

And what I would not, I’ll compel I will; + 

Provided that yourself remove those lets + 

That stand between your highness’ love and mine. + 

King Edward + 

Name them, fair countess, and, by Heaven, I will. + 

Countess + 

It is their lives, that stand between our love, + 

That I would have chok’d up, my sovereign. + 

King Edward + 

Whose lives, my lady? + 

Countess + 

My thrice-loving liege, + 

Your queen, and Salisbury my wedded husband; + 

Who living have that title in our love + 

That we can not bestow but by their death. + 

King Edward + 

Thy opposition is beyond our Law. + 

Countess + 

So is your desire: if the law + 

Can hinder you to execute the one, + 

Let it forbid you to attempt the other: + 

I cannot think you love me as you say + 

Unless you do make good what you have sworn. + 

King Edward + 

No more; thy husband and the queen shall die. + 

Fairer thou art by far than Hero was; + 

Beardless Leander not so strong as I: + 

He swum an easy current for his love; + 

But I will through a Hellespont of blood + 

To arrive at Sestos where my Hero lies. + 

Countess + 

Nay, you’ll do more; you’ll make the river, too, + 

With their heart-bloods that keep our love asunder, + 

Of which my husband and your wife are twain. + 

King Edward + 

Thy beauty makes them guilty of their death + 

And gives in evidence that they shall die; + 

Upon which verdict, I, their judge, condemn them. + 

Countess + 

O perjur’d beauty! more corrupted judge! + 

When to the great star-chamber o’er our heads + 

The universal sessions calls to count + 

This packing evil, we both shall tremble for it. + 

King Edward + 

What says my fair love? is she resolute? + 

Countess + 

Resolv’d to be dissolv’d; and, therefore, this⁠— + 

Keep but thy word, great king, and I am thine. + 

Stand where thou dost, I’ll part a little from thee, + 

And see how I will yield me to thy hands. Turning suddenly upon him, and showing two daggers. + 

Here by my side doth hang my wedding knifes: + 

Take thou the one and with it kill thy queen + 

And learn by me to find her where she lies; + 

And with this other I’ll dispatch my love, + 

Which now lies fast asleep within my heart: + 

When they are gone, then I’ll consent to love. + 

Stir not, lascivious king, to hinder me; + 

My resolution is more nimbler far + 

Than thy prevention can be in my rescue, + 

And, if thou stir, I strike: therefore stand still, + 

And hear the choice that I will put thee to: + 

Either swear to leave thy most unholy suit, + 

And never henceforth to solicit me; + 

Or else, by Heaven, kneeling this sharp-pointed knife + 

Shall stain thy earth with that which thou wouldst stain, + 

My poor chaste blood. Swear, Edward, swear, + 

Or I will strike and die before thee here. + 

King Edward + 

Even by that Power I swear, that gives me now + 

The power to be ashamed of myself, + 

I never mean to part my lips again + 

In any words that tends to such a suit. + 

Arise, true English Lady, whom our isle + 

May better boast of, than e’er Roman might + 

Of her, whose ransack’d treasury hath task’d + 

The vain endeavour of so many pens: + 

Arise; and be my fault thy honour’s fame, + 

Which after-ages shall enrich thee with. + 

I am awaked from this idle dream;⁠— + 

Warwick, my son, Derby, Artois, and Audley, + 

Brave warriors all, where are you all this while? + 

Enter Prince and Lords. + 

Warwick, I make thee Warden of the North:⁠— + 

Thou, Prince of Wales, and Audley, straight to sea; + 

Scour to Newhaven; some there stay for me:⁠— + 

Myself, Artois, and Derby, will through Flanders + 

To greet our friends there and to crave their aide: + 

This night will scarce suffice me, to discover + 

My folly’s siege against a faithful lover; + 

For, ere the sun shall gild the eastern sky, + 

We’ll wake him with our martial harmony. Exeunt. + 