But an attorney from the court of hell

  That thus have housed my spirit in his form

  To do a message to thee from the King.

  550 The mighty King of England dotes on thee.

  He that hath power to take away thy life

  Hath power to take thy honour; then consent

  To pawn thine honour rather than thy life:

  Honour is often lost and got again,

  555 But life, once gone, hath no recovery.

  The sun that withers hay doth nourish grass; [390]

  The King that would distain thee will advance thee.

  The poets write that great Achilles’ spear

  Could heal the wound it made; the moral is,

  560 What mighty men misdo, they can amend.

  The lion doth become his bloody jaws

  And grace his foragement by being mild

  When vassal fear lies trembling at his feet;

  The King will in his glory hide thy shame,

  565 And those that gaze on him to find out thee

  Will lose their eyesight looking in the sun. [400]

  What can one drop of poison harm the sea,

  Whose hugy vastures can digest the ill

  And make it lose his operation?

  570 The King’s great name will temper thy misdeeds

  And give the bitter potion of reproach

  A sugared, sweet and most delicious taste;

  Besides, it is no harm to do the thing

  Which without shame could not be left undone.

  575 Thus have I in his majesty’s behalf

  Apparelled sin in virtuous sentences, [410]

  And dwell upon thy answer in his suit.

  COUNTESS

  Unnatural besiege! Woe me, unhappy,

  To have escaped the danger of my foes

  580 And to be ten times worse envired by friends!

  Hath he no means to stain my honest blood

  But to corrupt the author of my blood

  To be his scandalous and vile solicitor?

  No marvel though the branch be then infected

  585 When poison hath encompassed the root;

  No marvel though the leprous infant die [420]

  When the stern dame envenometh the dug.

  Why then, give sin a passport to offend

  And youth the dangerous rein of liberty.

  590 Blot out the strict forbidding of the law,

  And cancel every canon that prescribes

  A shame for shame, or penance for offence.

  No, let me die, if his too boisterous will

  Will have it so, before I will consent

  595 To be an actor in his graceless lust.

  WARWICK

  Why, now thou speak’st as I would have thee speak, [430]

  And mark how I unsay my words again:

  An honourable grave is more esteemed

  Than the polluted closet of a king;

  600 The greater man, the greater is the thing,

  Be it good or bad, that he shall undertake;

  An unreputed mote flying in the sun

  Presents a greater substance than it is;

  The freshest summer’s day doth soonest taint

  605 The loathed carrion that it seems to kiss;

  Deep are the blows made with a mighty axe; [440]

  That sin doth ten times aggravate itself

  That is committed in a holy place;

  An evil deed done by authority

  610 Is sin and subornation; deck an ape

  In tissue, and the beauty of the robe

  Adds but the greater scorn unto the beast.

  A spacious field of reasons could I urge

  Between his glory, daughter, and thy shame:

  615 That poison shows worst in a golden cup;

  Dark night seems darker by the lightning flash; [450]

  Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds;

  And every glory that inclines to sin,

  The shame is treble by the opposite.

  620 So leave I with my blessing in thy bosom,

  Which then convert to a most heavy curse

  When thou convert’st from honour’s golden name

  To the black faction of bed-blotting shame.

  COUNTESS

  624 I’ll follow thee, and when my mind turns so,

  My body sink my soul in endless woe. Exeunt.

  [

  Sc. 3 ] Enter at one door DERBY [2.2]

  from France, at another door

  AUDLEY with a Drum.

  DERBY

  Thrice-noble Audley, well encountered 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,

  5 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,

  10 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;

  15 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 something is amiss. [Flourish]

  DERBY

  21 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 [aside]

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

  DERBY

  The Emperor greeteth you –

  25 KING EDWARD [aside] Would it were the Countess.

  DERBY

  And hath accorded to your highness’ suit.

  KING EDWARD [aside]

  Thou liest. She hath not, but I would she had.

  AUDLEY

  All love and duty to my lord the King.

  KING EDWARD [aside]

  Well, all but one is none. [to Audley] What news with

  you?

  AUDLEY

  30 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

  35 The Countess’ mind, my liege?

  KING EDWARD

  I mean the Emperor. Leave me alone.

  AUDLEY [aside to Derby]

  What is his mind?

  DERBY Let’s leave him to his humour. Exeunt [all but the King].

  KING EDWARD

  Thus from the heart’s abundance speaks the tongue:

  Countess for Emperor – and indeed why not?

  40 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

  46 What drum is this that thunders forth this march

  To start the tender Cupid in my bosom?

  Poor sheepskin, how it brawls with him that beateth it!

  Go, break the thundering parchment bottom out,

  50 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

  55 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].

  60 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

  65 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,

  70 Till too much loved glory dazzles them.

  Enter LODWICK.

  How now?

  LODWICK

  My liege, the drum that struck the lusty march

  Stands with Prince Edward, your thrice-valiant

  son. [Exit.]

  Enter PRINCE EDWARD.

  KING EDWARD [aside]

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

  75 Modelled in his corrects my strayed 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. –

  80 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 to France; and here we come

  To take direction from your majesty.

  KING EDWARD [aside]

  85 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 lanterns show

  90 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 ?

  95 Give me an armour of eternal steel,

  I go to conquer kings, and shall I not then

  Subdue myself, and be my enemies’ friend?

  It must not be. – Come, boy, forward, advance;

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

  Enter LODWICK.

  LODWICK

  100 My liege, the Countess, with a smiling cheer,

  Desires access unto your majesty.

  KING EDWARD [aside]

  Why, there it goes: that very smile of hers

  Hath ransomed captive France, and set the King,

  The Dauphin and the peers at liberty. –

  105 Go, leave me, Ned, and revel with thy friends.

  Exit Prince [Edward].

  [aside] Thy mother is but black and thou, like her,

  Dost put it in my mind how foul she is. –

  Go, fetch the Countess hither in thy hand, Exit Lodwick.

  And let her chase away these winter clouds,

  110 For she gives beauty both to heaven and earth.

  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.

  Enter [LODWICK, with the] COUNTESS.

  115 Go, Lodwick, put thy hand into thy purse;

  Play, spend, give, riot, waste, do what thou wilt,

  So thou wilt hence awhile and leave me here. [Exit Lodwick.]

  Now, my soul’s playfellow, art thou come

  To speak the more than heavenly word of ‘yea’

  120 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 render love for love.

  COUNTESS

  125 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

  130 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

  135 Name them, fair Countess, and by heaven I will.

  COUNTESS

  It is their lives that stand between our love

  That I would have choked up, my sovereign.

  KING EDWARD

  Whose lives, my lady?

  COUNTESS My thrice-loving liege,

  Your Queen, and Salisbury, my wedded husband,

  140 Who living have that title in our love

  That we cannot 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,

  145 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,

  150 Beardless Leander not so strong as I:

  He swam 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

  155 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 [aside]

  160 O perjured 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

  165 Resolute to be dissolved, 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.

  Here by my side doth hang my wedding-knives:

  170 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.

  175 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:

  180 Either swear to leave thy most unholy suit

  And never henceforth to solicit me,

  Or else, by heaven, this sharp-pointed knife

  Shall stain thy earth with that which thou would

  stain –

  My poor chaste blood. [Kneels.]

  Swear, Edward, swear,

  185 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.

  190 Arise, true English lady, whom our isle

  May better boast of than ever Roman might

  Of her whose ransacked treasury hath tasked

  The vain endeavour of so many pens.

  Arise, and be my fault thy honour’s fame,

  195 Which after ages shall enrich thee with.

  [He raises her.]

  I am awaked from this idle dream.

  [Calls.] Warwick, my son, Derby, Artois and Audley,

  Brave warriors all, where are you all this while?

  Enter all[: PRINCE EDWARD, WARWICK, AUDLEY, DERBY and ARTOIS].

  Warwick, I make thee Warden of the North.

  200 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 aid.

  This night will scarce suffice me to discover

  205 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.

  [

  Sc. 4 ] Enter KING JOHN of France, his two sons, [3.1]

  CHARLES[, Duke] of Normandy, and PHILIP, and the Duke of LORRAINE.

  KING JOHN

  Here, till our navy of a thousand sail

  Have made a breakfast to our foe by sea,

  Let us encamp, to wait their happy speed.

  Lorraine, what readiness is Edward in?

  5 How hast thou heard that he provided is

  Of martial furniture for this exploit?

  LORRAINE

  To lay aside unnecessary soothing

  And not to spend the time in circumstance,

  ’Tis bruited for a certainty, my lord,

  10 That he’s exceeding strongly fortified.

  His subjects flock as willingly to war

  As if unto a triumph they were led.

  CHARLES

  England was wont to harbour malcontents,