A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Vii Part 75

FAU. My lieges both, old Fauconbridge is proud Of your right honour'd charge. He that worst may Will strain his old eyes: G.o.d send peace this day!

A bill for the releas.e.m.e.nt of the queen preferr'd, By Henry the young King, Richard the Prince, John, Earl Of Morton, Bohmine, Earl of Leicester, and the Commons.

OLD K. Did you prefer this bill?

ALL. We did.

CHES. and LAN. Ye did not well.

GLO. Why, this is good; now shall we have the h.e.l.l.

THREE BRO. Chester and Lancaster, you wrong the king.

CHES. and LAN. Our king we do not.

YOUNG K. Do not you see me crown'd?

LAN. But whilst he lives, we to none else are bound.

LEI. Is it not wrong, think you, when all the world['s]

Troubled with rumour of a captive queen, Imprisoned by her husband in a realm, Where her own son doth wear a diadem?

Is like an head of people mutinous, Still murmuring at the shame done her and us?

Is it not more wrong, when her mother zeal, Sounded through Europe, Afric, Asia, Tells in the hollow of news-thirsting ears, Queen Elinor lives in a dungeon, For pity and affection to her son?

But when the true cause, Clifford's daughter's death, Shall be exposed to stranger nations, What volumes will be writ, what libels spread, And in each line our state dishonoured!

FAU. My lord speaks to the purpose; marry, It may be so; pray G.o.d it prove not so.

LEI. Hear me conclude, and therewithal conclude; It is an heinous and unheard-of sin: Queen Elinor, daughter to kingly France, King Henry's wife, and royal Henry's mother, Is kept close prisoner for an act of justice, Committed on an odious concubine.

KING. Thou wrong'st her, Leicester.

LEI. Lechers ever praise The cause of their confusion; she was vile.

FAU. She was ill-spoken of, it's true, [too] true.

GLO. Yonder sits one would do as much for you, Old fool; young Richard hath a gift, I know it, And on your wife my sister would bestow it.

Here's a good world! men hate adulterous sin, Count it a gulf, and yet they needs will in. [_Aside_.

LEI. What answer for the queen?

LAN. The king replies, Your words are foul slanderous forgeries.

JOHN. His highness says not so.

LAN. His highness doth, Tells you it is a shame for such wild youth To smother any impiety, With shew to chastise loose adultery, Say Rosamond was Henry's concubine.

Had never king a concubine but he?

Did Rosamond begin the fires in France?

Made she the northern borders reek with flames?

Unpeopled she the towns of Picardy?

Left she the wives of England husbandless?

O, no. She sinn'd, I grant; so do we all; She fell herself, desiring none should fall.

But Elinor, whom you so much commend, Hath been the bellows of seditious fire, Either through jealous rage or mad desire.

Is't not a shame to think that she hath arm'd Four sons' right hands against their father's head, And not the children of a low-priz'd wretch, But one, whom G.o.d on earth hath deified?

See, where he sits with sorrow in his eyes!

Three of his sons and hers tutor'd by her: Smiles, whilst he weeps, and with a proud disdain Embrace blithe mirth, while his sad heart complain.

FAU. Ha! laugh they? nay, by the rood, that is not well; Now fie, young princes, fie!

HEN. Peace, doting fool.

JOHN. Be silent, a.s.s.

FAU. With all my heart, my lords; my humble leave, my lords.

G.o.d's mother, a.s.s and fool for speaking truth!

'Tis terrible; but fare ye well, my lords.

RlCH. Nay, stay, good Fauconbridge; impute it rage, That thus abuses your right reverend age.

My brothers are too hot.

FAU. Too hot indeed!

Fool, a.s.s, for speaking truth! It's more than need.

RICH. Nay, good Sir Richard, at my kind intreat, For all the love I bear your n.o.ble house, Let not your absence kindle further wrath.

Each side's at council now; sit down, I pray.

I'll quit it with the kindest love I may.

GLOS. Ay, to his wife. [_Aside_.

FAU. Prince Richard, I'll sit down; But by the faith I owe fair England's crown, Had you not been, I would have left the place; My service merits not so much disgrace.

RICH. Good Fauconbridge, I thank thee.

[_Go to their places_.

GLO. And you'll think of him, If you can step into his bower at Stepney.

FAU. Prince Richard's very kind; I know his kindness.

He loves me, but he loves my lady better.

No more. I'll watch him; I'll prevent his game; Young lad, it's ill to halt before the lame. [_Aside.

[They break asunder, papers this while being offered and subscribed between either_.

HEN. I'll not subscribe to this indignity; I'll not be called a king, but be a king.

Allow me half the realm; give me the north, The provinces that lie beyond the seas: Wales and the Isles, that compa.s.s in the main.

GLO. Nay, give him all, and he will scant be pleased. [_Aside_.

RICH. Brother, you ask too much.