PERSONS REPRESENTED.

EDWARD II.

PRINCE EDWARD, his son, afterwards Edward III.

GAVESTON.

OLD SPENCER.

YOUNG SPENCER.

EARL MORTIMER.

YOUNG MORTIMER.

BERKELEY.

LANCASTER.

LEICESTER.

EDMUND, Earl of Kent.

ARUNDEL.

WARWICK.

PEMBROKE.

ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

BISHOP OF WINCHESTER.

BISHOP OF COVENTRY.

BEAUMONT.

TRUSSEL.

Sir JOHN HAINAULT.

LEVUNE.

BALDOCK.

MATREVIS.

GURNEY.

RICE AP HOWEL.

LIGHTBORN.

Abbot.

Lords, Messengers, Monks, James, &c., &c.

QUEEN ISABElla.

Niece to Edward II.

Ladies.

EDWARD THE SECOND.

ACT THE FIRST.

SCENE I.

Enter1 GAVESTON, reading a letter from the King.

Gav. My father is deceased! Come, Gaveston,
And share the kingdom with thy dearest friend.
Ah! words that make me surfeit with delight!
What greater bliss can hap to Gaveston

Than live and be the favourite of a king!

Sweet prince, I come; these, these thy amorous lines
Might have enforced me to have swum from France,
And, like Leander, gasped upon the sand,

So thou would'st smile, and take me in thine arms.
The sight of London to my exiled eyes
Is as Elysium to a new-come soul;
Not that I love the city, or the men,
But that it harbours him I hold so dear-
The king, upon whose bosom let me die,2

1 Scene: a street in London.

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2 So 4tos.-Dyce gives "lie;" but "die" may perhaps be interpreted as "swoon."

And with the world be still at enmity.

What need the arctic people love starlight,

To whom the sun shines both by day and night?
Farewell base stooping to the lordly peers!
My knee shall bow to none but to the king.
As for the multitude, that are but sparks,
Raked up in embers of their poverty;—
Tanti;1 I'll fawn 2 first on the wind
That glanceth at my lips, and flieth away.
But how now, what are these?

Enter three poor Men.

Men. Such as desire your worship's service.
Gav. What canst thou do?

I Man. I can ride.

Gav. But I have no horse. What art thou?

2 Man. A traveller.

Gav. Let me see-thou would'st do well

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To wait at my trencher and tell me lies at dinner-time; 30 And as I like your discoursing, I'll have you.

And what art thou?

3 Man. A soldier, that hath served against the Scot.

1 Cf. Day's Parliament of Bees :

"Yet if you meet a tart antagonist,

Or discontented rugged satirist,

That slights your errant or his art that penned it,
Cry Tanti!"

So in the Prologue to Day's Isle of Gulls:

"Detraction he scorns, honours the best :

Tanti for hate, thus low for all the rest."

2 So Dyce.-4tos. ''fanne."

Gav. Why, there are hospitals for such as you; I have no war, and therefore, sir, begone.

3 Man. Farewell, and perish by a soldier's hand, That would'st reward them with an hospital.

Gav. I, I, these words of his move me as much

As if a goose would play the porcupine,

And dart her plumes,1 thinking to pierce my breast. 40
But yet it is no pain to speak men fair;

I'll flatter these, and make them live in hope.
You know that I came lately out of France,
And yet I have not viewed my lord the king;
If I speed well, I'll entertain you all.

Omnes. We thank your worship.

[Aside.

Gav. I have some business. Leave me to myself.
Omnes. We will wait here about the court.

Gav. Do; these are not men for me;

I must have wanton poets, pleasant wits,
Musicians, that with touching of a string
May draw the pliant king which way I please.
Music and poetry is his delight;

Therefore I'll have Italian masks by night,
Sweet speeches, comedies, and pleasing shows;
And in the day, when he shall walk abroad,
Like silvian 2 nymphs my pages shall be clad;
My men, like satyrs grazing on the lawns,

[Exeunt

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1 Mr. Tancock quotes from Pliny's Natural History:—“ "Hystrici longiores aculei et cum intendit cutem missiles. Ora urgentium figit canum et paulo longius jaculatur."

2 So the 4tos.-Dyce reads "sylvan."

Shall with their goat-feet dance the antic hay.1
Sometime a lovely boy in Dian's shape,
With hair that gilds the water as it glides,
Crownets of pearl about his naked arms,
And in his sportful hands an olive-tree,

To hide those parts which men delight to see,
Shall bathe him in a spring; and there hard by,
One like Acteon peeping through the grove,
Shall by the angry goddess be transformed,
And running in the likeness of an hart

By yelping hounds pulled down, and 2 seem to die ;Such things as these best please his majesty.

3

Here comes my lord the king, and [here] the nobles
From the parliament. I'll stand aside.

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70

Enter the KING, LANCASTER, OLD MORTIMER, YOUNG MORTIMER, EDMUND, Earl of Kent, Guy, Earl of Warwick, &c.

Edw. Lancaster !

Lan. My lord.

Gav. That Earl of Lancaster do I abhor.

[Aside.

Edw. Will you not grant me this? In spite of them

3 The 4tos. read, "My lord, here comes the king and the nobles." Dyce gives, "Here comes my lord the king and the nobles." Mr. Fleay arranges the passage thus :—

"Here comes my lord

The king and th' nobles from the parliament.

I'll stand aside."