Lan. Content, I'll bear my part-Holla! whose there? [Guard appears.

Enter Guard.

Y. Mor. I, marry, such a guard as thus doth well.

Lan. Lead on the way.

Guard. Whither will your lordships?

Y. Mor. Whither else but to the king.

Guard. His highness is disposed to be alone.

Lan. Why, so he may, but we will speak to him.
Guard. You may not in, my lord.

Y. Mor. May we not?

Enter1 EDWARD and KENT.

Edw. How now! what noise is this?

Who have we there, is't you?

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[Going.

Y. Mor. Nay, stay, my lord, I come to bring you news; Mine uncle's taken prisoner by the Scots.

Edw. Then ransom him.

Lan. 'Twas in your wars; you should ransom him.
Y. Mor. And you shall ransom him, or else-
Kent. What! Mortimer, you will not threaten him?
Edw. Quiet yourself, you shall have the broad seal,
To gather for him th[o]roughout the realm.

Lan. Your minion Gaveston hath taught you this.
Y. Mor. My lord, the family of the Mortimers
Are not so poor, but, would they sell their land,
'Twould 2 levy men enough to anger you.
We never beg, but use such prayers as these.

1 The scene shifts to the interior of Tynemouth Castle.
2 So ed. 1612.-Ed. 1598 "would."

140

150

Edw. Shall I still be haunted thus?

Y. Mor. Nay, now you're here alone, I'll speak my mind. Lan. And so will I, and then, my lord, farewell.

Y. Mor. The idle triumphs, masks, lascivious shows, And prodigal gifts bestowed on Gaveston,

1

Have drawn thy treasury 1 dry, and made thee weak ;
The murmuring commons, overstretched, break.2

Lan. Look for rebellion, look to be deposed;
Thy garrisons are beaten out of France,
And, lame and poor, lie groaning at the gates.
The wild Oneyl, with swarms of Irish kerns,3
Lives uncontrolled within the English pale.
Unto the walls of York the Scots make road,
And unresisted drive away rich spoils.

160

Y. Mor. The haughty Dane commands the narrow seas," While in the harbour ride thy ships unrigged.

Lan. What foreign prince sends thee ambassadors ? Y. Mor. Who loves thee, but a sort of flatterers? Lan. Thy gentle queen, sole sister to Valois, Complains that thou hast left her all forlorn.

Y. Mor. Thy court is naked, being bereft of those
That make a king seem glorious to the world;
I mean the peers, whom thou should'st dearly love:

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1 So ed. 1612.-Ed. 1598 “thy treasure drie and made the weake." 2 So modern editors.-Old eds. "hath."

3 Light-armed foot soldiers, poor and undisciplined.-Compare a passage in the Contention of York and Lancaster:

"The wild Onele, my lord, is up in arms,

With troops of Irish kernes that uncontroll'd

Doth plant themselves within the English pale."

4 Old eds. "made."-" Road,"=" Inroad." 5 Old eds. "Drave." 6 Cf. 3 Henry VI. i. 1:-"Stern Faulconbridge commands the narrow seas."

1

Libels are cast again 1 thee in the street:

Ballads and rhymes made of thy overthrow.

Lan. The Northern borderers seeing their houses burnt,

Their wives and children slain, run up and down,
Cursing the name of thee and Gaveston.

Y. Mor. When wert thou in the field with banner

spread,

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But once? and then thy soldiers marched like players,
With garish robes, not armour; and thyself,
Bedaubed with gold, rode laughing at the rest,
Nodding and shaking of thy spangled crest,
Where women's favours hung like labels down.

Lan. And thereof came it, that the fleering 2 Scots,
To England's high disgrace, have made this jig;

3

Maids of England, sore may you mourn,

For your lemans you have lost at Bannocksbourn,
With a heave and a ho.

What weeneth the King of England,

So soon to have won Scotland?

With a rombelow? 4

190

This jig (ballad) is taken with slight alteration from Fabyan's "Chronicle," ii. 169 (ed. 1559).—“The battle of Bannockburn," says Mr. Fleay, "was fought in 1314, yet is here alluded to in a scene which is made up from narratives of events which occurred between 1309 and 1311. This is a striking instance of Marlowe's carelessness in such matters."

4 " Common burdens to songs; see Skelton's Works, ii. 110, ed. Dyce."-Dyce.

VOL. II.

L

Y. Mor. Wigmore1 shall fly, to set my uncle free.

Lan. And when 'tis gone, our swords shall purchase

more.

If ye be moved, revenge it if you can ;

Look next to see us with our ensigns spread.

[Exeunt Nobles.

Edw. My swelling heart for very anger breaks!

How oft have I been baited by these peers,

And dare not be revenged, for their power is great! 200 Yet, shall the crowing of these cockerels

Affright a lion? Edward, unfold thy paws,

And let their lives' blood slake thy fury's hunger.

If I be cruel and grow tyrannous,

Now let them thank themselves, and rue too late.
Kent. My lord, I see your love to Gaveston
Will be the ruin of the realm and you,
For now the wrathful nobles theaten wars,

And therefore, brother, banish him for ever.

210

Edw. Art thou an enemy to my Gaveston? Kent. I, and it grieves me that I favoured him. Edw. Traitor, begone! whine thou with Mortimer. Kent. So will I, rather than with Gaveston. Edw. Out of my sight, and trouble me no more! Kent. No marvel though thou scorn thy noble peers, When I thy brother am rejected thus.

Edw. Away!

[Exit.

1 "Ralph de Wigmore, who came into England with the Conqueror, obtained the Castle of Wigmore, Co. Hereford, and the Roger Mortimer of this play was summoned to Parliament as 'de Wigmore.' "' -Cunningham.

Poor Gaveston, that has no friend but me,

Do what they can, we'll live in Tynemouth here,
And, so I walk with him about the walls,
What care I though the Earls begirt us round-
Here cometh she that's cause of all these jars.

Enter the QUEEN, with King's Niece, two Ladies, GAVESTON, BALDOCK, and YOUNG SPENCER.

220

Queen. My lord, 'tis thought the Earls are up in arms. Edw. I, and 'tis likewise thought you favour 'em.1 Queen. Thus do you still suspect me without cause? Lady. Sweet uncle! speak more kindly to the queen. Gav. My lord, dissemble with her, speak her fair. Edw. Pardon me, sweet, I forgot myself.

Queen. Your pardon is quickly got of Isabel.

Edw. The younger Mortimer is grown so brave, 230

That to my face he threatens civil wars.

Gav. Why do you not commit him to the Tower?
Edw. I dare not, for the people love him well.
Gav. Why then we'll have him privily made away.
Edw. Would Lancaster and he had both caroused

A bowl of poison to each other's health!

But let them go, and tell me what are these.

Lady. Two of my father's servants whilst he liv'd,— May't please your grace to entertain them now.

Edw. Tell me, where wast thou born? what is thine

arms?

Bald. My name is Baldock, and my gentry

I fetch from Oxford, not from heraldry.

1 Old eds. "him."

240