KING EDWARD. Still do I see in him delineate His mother's visage; those his eyes are hers, Who, looking wistely on me, make me blush: For faults against themselves give evidence; Lust is fire, and men like lanthornes show Light lust within them selves, even through them selves. Away, loose silks of wavering vanity! Shall the large limit of fair Brittain By me be overthrown, and shall I not Master this little mansion of my self? Give me an Armor of eternal steel! I go to conquer kings; and shall I not then Subdue my self? and be my enemy's friend? It must not be.--Come, boy, forward, advance! Let's with our colours sweet the Air of France.
[Enter Lodowick.]
LODOWICK. My liege, the Countess with a smiling cheer Desires access unto your Majesty.
KING EDWARD. Why, there it goes! That very smile of hers Hath ransomed captive France, and set the King, The Dauphin, and the Peers at liberty.-- Go, leave me, Ned, and revel with thy friends.
[Exit Prince Edward.]
Thy mother is but black, and thou, like her, Dost put it in my mind how foul she is.-- Go, fetch the Countess hither in thy hand, And let her chase away these winter clouds, For she gives beauty both to heaven and earth.
[Exit Lodowick.]
The sin is more to hack and hew poor men, Than to embrace in an unlawful bed The register of all rarities Since Letherne Adam till this youngest hour.
[Enter Countess escorted by Lodowick.]
Go, Lodowick, put thy hand into my purse, Play, spend, give, riot, waste, do what thou wilt, So thou wilt hence awhile and leave me here.
[Exit Lodowick.]
Now, my soul's playfellow, art thou come To speak the more than heavenly word of yea To my objection in thy beauteous love?
COUNTESS. My father on his blessing hath commanded--
KING EDWARD. That thou shalt yield to me?
COUNTESS. Aye, dear my liege, your due.
KING EDWARD. And that, my dearest love, can be no less Than right for right and tender love for love.
COUNTESS. Then wrong for wrong and endless hate for hate.-- But,--sith I see your majesty so bent, That my unwillingness, my husband's love, Your high estate, nor no respect respected Can be my help, but that your mightiness Will overbear and awe these dear regards-- I bind my discontent to my content, And what I would not I'll compel I will, Provided that your self remove those lets That stand between your highness' love and mine.
KING EDWARD. Name them, fair Countess, and, by heaven, I will.
COUNTESS. It is their lives that stand between our love, That I would have choked up, my sovereign.
KING EDWARD. Whose lives, my Lady?
COUNTESS. My thrice loving liege, Your Queen and Salisbury, my wedded husband, Who living have that title in our love, That we cannot bestow but by their death.
KING EDWARD. Thy opposition is beyond our Law.
COUNTESS. So is your desire: if the law Can hinder you to execute the one, Let it forbid you to attempt the other. I cannot think you love me as you say, Unless you do make good what you have sworn.
KING EDWARD. No more; thy husband and the Queen shall die. Fairer thou art by far than Hero was, Beardless Leander not so strong as I: He swom an easy current for his love, But I will through a Hellespont of blood, To arrive at Cestus where my Hero lies.
COUNTESS. Nay, you'll do more; you'll make the River to With their heart bloods that keep our love asunder, Of which my husband and your wife are twain.
KING EDWARD. Thy beauty makes them guilty of their death And gives in evidence that they shall die; Upon which verdict I, their Judge, condemn them.
COUNTESS. [Aside.] O perjured beauty, more corrupted Judge! When to the great Star-chamber o'er our heads The universal Sessions calls to count This packing evil, we both shall tremble for it.
KING EDWARD. What says my fair love? is she resolute?
COUNTESS. Resolute to be dissolute; and, therefore, this: Keep but thy word, great king, and I am thine. Stand where thou dost, I'll part a little from thee, And see how I will yield me to thy hands.