A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Vii Part 89

Well, farewell he, better and better still, These seek for me; yet I will have my will.

SCENE THE NINETEENTH.

_Enter_ PRINCE JOHN, PRINCE RICHARD, _and the_ SHERIFF.

JOHN. Sheriff, in any case be diligent.

Who's yonder? Fauconbridge?

GLO. How now, sweet chuck; how fares my lovely prince?

JOHN. What carest thou? or well or ill, we crave No help of thee.

GLO. G.o.d's mother, do ye scorn me?

JOHN. Go'ut! what then?

RICH. Fie, leave these idle brawls, I prythee, John; Let's follow that we are enjoin'd unto.

GLO. Ay, marry, prince, if now you slip the time, Gloster will slip away; but, though he hate me, I have done service; I have found him out.

RICH. A shame confound thee for thy treachery, Inconstant dotard, timorous old a.s.s, That shakes with cowardice, not with years.

GLO. Go, I have found him, I have winded him.

JOHN. O, let me hug thee, gentle Fauconbridge; Forgive my oft ill-using of thine age.

I'll call thee father; I'll be penitent; Bring me where Gloster is; I'll be thy slave, All that is mine thou in reward shalt have.

GLO. Soft; not too hasty; I would not be seen in't; Marry a' G.o.d, my wife would chide me dead, If Gloster by my means should lose his head.

Princely Richard, at this corner make your stand: And for I know you love my sister well, Know I am Gloster, and not Fauconbridge.

RICH. Heaven prosper thee, sweet prince, in thy escape!

GLO. Sheriff, make this your quarter, make good guard; John, stay you here; this way he means to turn, By Thomas, I lack a sword, body a' me!

JOHN. What wouldst thou with a sword, old Fauconbridge?

GLO. O sir, to make show in his defence, For I have left him yonder at a house, A friend's of mine, an honest citizen.

JOHN. We'll fetch him thence.

GLO. Nay, then, you injure me. Stay, till he come; he's in a russet cloak, And must attend me like a serving-man.

JOHN. Hold, there's my sword, and with my sword my heart.

Bring him, for G.o.d's sake, and for thy desert My brother king and mother queen shall love thee.

GLO. Mark me, good prince; yonder away we come, I go afore, and Gloster follows me; Let not the sheriff nor Richard meddle with us.

Begin you first; seize Gloster, and arrest him.

I'll draw and lay about me here and here; Be heedful that your watchmen hurt me not.

JOHN. I'll hang him that doth hurt thee; prythee, away, I love thee; but thou kill'st me with delay.

GLO. Well, keep close watch; I'll bring him presently.

JOHN, Away then quickly.

GLO. Gloster, close, master sheriff, Prince Richard.

RICH. Gloster, adieu.

GLO. I trust you.

RICH. By my knighthood, I'll prove true.

[_Exit_ GLOSTER.

JOHN. Revenge, I'll build a temple to your name; And the first offering shall be Gloster's head, Thy altars shall be sprinkled with the blood, Whose wanton current his mad humour fed; He was a rhymer and a riddler, A scoffer at my mother, prais'd my father: I'll fit him now for all--escape and all.

RICH. Take heed spite burst not in his proper gall.

SCENE THE TWENTIETH.

_Enter_ FAUCONBRIDGE _and_ BLOCK.

JOHN. How now, what way took Fauconbridge, I wonder?

That is not Gloster, sure, that attends on him?

FAU. He came not at the sheriff's by the morrow-ma.s.s, I sought the Goldsmiths' row, and found him not; Sirrah, y'are sure he sent not home my chain?

BLO. Who should send [home] your chain, sir?

FAU. The prince, Prince John; I lent it him to-day.

JOHN. What's this they talk?

BLO. By my truth, sir, and ye lent it him, I think you may go look it: for one of the drawers of the Salutation told me even now, that he had took up a chamber there till evening, and then he will away to Kent.

FAU. Body of me, he means to spend my chain.

Come, Block; I'll to him.

JOHN. Hear you, Fauconbridge;

FAU. Why, what a knave art thou? yonder's Prince John.

BLO. Then the drawer's a knave; he told me Prince John was at the Salutation.