A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Viii Part 61

RICH. List, Leicester: hear'st thou not a mournful march?

LEI. Yes, Richmond, and it seemeth old De Vere.

OX. Lords, by your leave, is not our sovereign here?

KING. Yes, good old Aubrey.

OX. Ah, my gracious lord!

That you so much your high state should neglect!

Ah! G.o.d in heaven forgive this b.l.o.o.d.y deed!

Young Bruce, young Bruce, I weep Thy mother and thy brother's wrong; Yet to afflict thee more, more grief I bring.

BRUCE. O honourable Aubery de Vere, Let sorrow in a sable suit appear: Do not misshape her garment like delight; If it be grief, why cloth'st thou her in white?

OX. I cannot tell thee yet: I must sit down.

Attend, young Bruce, and listen to the queen; She'll not be tongue-tied: we shall have a stir Anon, I fear, would make a man half-sick.

QUEEN. Are you here, lecher? O intemperate king!

Wilt thou not see me? Come, come, show your face, Your grace's graceless, king's unkingly face.

What, mute? hands folded, eyes fix'd on the earth?

Whose turn is next now to be murdered?

The famish'd Bruces are on yonder side, On this, another I will name anon; One for whose head this garland I do bear, And this fair, milk-white, spotless pendant too.

Look up, King John! see, yonder sits thy shame; Yonder it lies! what, must I tell her name?

It is Matilda, poisoned by thee.

KING. Matilda! O that foul swift-footed slave, That kills, ere one have time to bid him save!

Fair, gentle girl, ungently made away.

BRUCE. My banish'd uncle's daughter, art thou there?

Then I defy all hope, and swear--

LEI. Stay, Bruce, and listen well what oath to swear.

Louis the Dolphin, pitying our estate, Is by the Christian king his father sent With aid to help us, and is landed too.

Lords, that will fly the den of cruelty, And fight to free yourselves from tyranny[374]-- Bruce, keep that castle to the only use Of our elected king, Louis of France.

OX. G.o.d's pa.s.sion! do not so: King John is here!

Lords, whisper not with Leicester? Leicester, fie!

Stir not again regardless mutiny.

Speak to them, Hugh:[375] I know thou lov'st the king.

Madam, go to them; nay do, for G.o.d's sake, do!

Down with your stomach,[376] for if he go down, You must down too, and be no longer queen: Advise you; go, entreat them speedily.

My sovereign, wherefore sit you sighing there?

The lords are all about to follow Louis: Up and entreat them, else they will away.

KING. Good Oxford, let them go. Why should they stay?

OX. What, are ye desperate? That must not be.

Hear me, my lords.

[_All stand in council_.

KING. This pendant let me see.

_Amoris Cast.i.tatis et Honoris Honos_.

She was, indeed, of love the honour once,[377]

When she was lov'd of virtuous Huntington: Of chast.i.ty the honour all her life; To impure thoughts she never could be won: And she of honour was the honour too.

By birth and life[378] she honour honoured.

Bring in two tapers lighted: quick, despatch!

LEI. Remember, Bruce, thy charge. Come, lords, away!

ALL _but_ OXFORD _and_ HUBERT. Away! we will away.

[_Bring in two white tapers_.

OX. Hark, Leicester, but one word: a little stay.

Help me, good Hubert! help me, gentle queen!

[_Again confer_.[379]

KING. How dim these tapers burn! they give no light.

Here were two beauteous lamps, that could have taught The sun to shine by day, the moon by night; But they are dim, too, clean extinguished.

Away with these, sith those fair lights be dead!

OX. And, as I say--hark, Bruce, unto our talk-- Think you it is for love of England Louis comes?

Nay. France is not so kind; I would it were.

Advise yourselves. Hark, dost thou hear me, Bruce?

BRUCE. Oxford, I do.

OX. Can n.o.ble English hearts bear the French yoke?

No, Leicester: Richmond, think on Louis' sire, That left you and your king in Palestine.

QUEEN. And think, beside, you know not Louis's nature, Who may be as bad as John, or, rather, worse Than he.

HUB. And look, my lords, upon his silent woe; His soul is at the door of death, I know.

See how he seeks to suck, if he could draw Poison from dead Matilda's ashy lips.

I will be sworn his very heart-string nips.

A vengeance on that slave, that cursed Brand!

I'll kill him, if I live, with this right hand.

OX. Thou canst not, Hubert; he hath kill'd himself-- But to our matter. Leicester, pray thee speak.

Young Bruce, for G.o.d's sake, let us know thy mind.

BRUCE. I would be loth to be a stranger's slave: For England's love, I would no French king have.

LEI. Well, Oxford, if I be deceiv'd in John again, It's 'long of you, Lord Hubert, and the queen.

Yield up the castle, Bruce: we'll once more try King John's proceedings. Oxford, tell him so.

[OXFORD _goes to the_ KING, _does his duty, and talks with him_.