A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Vii Part 86

QUEEN. My dear son Jack!

JOHN. Your dear son Jack-an-apes; Your monkey, your baboon, your a.s.s, your gull!

LEI. What ails Earl John?

JOHN. Hence, further from my sight!

My fiery thoughts and wrath have work in hand; I'll curse ye blacker than th'Avernian[489] Lake, If you stand wond'ring at my sorrow thus.

I am with child, big, hugely swoll'n with rage, Who'll play the midwife, and my throbs a.s.suage?

KING. I will, my son.

HEN. I will, high-hearted brother.

JOHN. You will? and you? tut, tut, all you are nothing!

'Twill out, 'twill out, myself myself can ease: You chafe, you swell: ye are commanding King.

My father is your footstool, when ye please.

Your word's a law; these lords dare never speak.

Gloster must die; your enemies must fall!

HEN. What means our brother?

JOHN. He means that thou art mad: She frantic: Leicester foolish: I the babe-- Thou grind us, bite us, vex us, charge and discharge.

Gloster, O Gloster!

QUEEN. Where is Gloster, son?

HEN. Where is Gloster, brother?

KING. I hope he be escaped.

JOHN. O, I could tear my hair, and, falling thus Upon the solid earth, Dig into Gloster's grave, So he were dead, and gone into the depth Of under-world-- Or get sedition's hundreth thousand hand, And, like Briareus, battle with the stars, To pull him down from heaven, if he were there!

FAU. Look to Earl John; the gentleman is mad.

JOHN. O, who would not be mad at this disgrace?

Gloster the fox is fled; there lies his case.

[_Points to the gown_.

He cozen'd me of mine; the porter helped him.

HEN. The porter shall be hang'd; let's part and seek him: Gloster shall die; all Europe shall not save him.

JOHN. He is wise, too wise for us; yet I'll go with you To get more fools into my company.

QUEEN. This is your father's plot; revenge it, son.

HEN. Father, by heaven, if this were your advice, Your head or heart shall pay the bitter price.

Come, mother, brother, Leicester; let's away.

JOHN. Ay, I'll be one, in hope to meet the b.a.s.t.a.r.d, And then no more: myself will be his headsman.

[_Exeunt_.

KING. Richard and Fauconbridge, follow the search; You may prevent mischance by meeting Gloster.

If ye find Skink, see that you apprehend him.

I hear there is a wizard at Blackheath; Let some inquire of him, where Skink remains.

Although I trust not to those fallacies, Yet now and then such men prove soothsayers.

Will you be gone?

FAU. With all my heart, with all my heart, my lord.

Come, princely Richard, we are ever yok'd.

Pray G.o.d, there be no mystery in this.

RICH. Be not suspicious, where there is no cause.

FAU. Nay, nothing, nothing; I am but in jest.

[_Exeunt_.

KING. Call in a pursuivant.

LAN. Here's one, my liege.

_Enter_ PURSUIVANT.

KING. There is a porter likely to be hang'd For letting Gloster 'scape; sirrah, attend.

You shall have a reprieve to bring him us.

These boys are too-too stubborn, Lancaster; But 'tis their mother's fault. If thus she move me, I'll have her head, though all the world reprove me.

[_Exeunt_.

SCENE THE SIXTEENTH.

_Enter_ ROBIN HOOD _and_ LADY FAUCONBRIDGE.

LADY F. Do not deny me, gentle Huntington.

ROB. My lord will miss me.

LADY F. Tut, let me excuse thee.

ROB. Turn, woman? O, it is intolerable!

Except you promise me to play the page.

Do that, try one night, and you'll laugh for ever To hear the orisons that lovers use: Their ceremonies, sighs, their idle oaths!

To hear how you are prais'd and pray'd unto.

For you are Richard's saint. They talk of Mary The blessed Virgin; but upon his beads He only prays to Marian Fauconbridge.