And in this application to the sun

Bid her be free and general as the sun,

Who smiles upon the basest weed that grows

As lovingly as on the fragrant rose.

Let’s see what follows that same moonlight line.

LODOWICK (reading)

‘More fair and chaste than is the queen of shades,

More bold in constancy’—

KING EDWARD (staying him)

In constancy than who?

LODOWICK (reading)

‘...than Judith was.’

KING EDWARD

O monstrous line! Put in the next a sword

And I shall woo her to cut off my head!

Blot, blot, good Lod’wick. Let us hear the next.

LODOWICK There’s all that yet is done.

KING EDWARD

I thank thee then. Thou hast done little ill,

But what is done is passing passing ill.

No, let the captain talk of boist’rous war,

The prisoner of emurèd dark constraint;

The sick man best sets down the pangs of death,

The man that starves the sweetness of a feast,

The frozen soul the benefit of fire,

And every grief his happy opposite.

Love cannot sound well but in lovers’ tongues.

Give me the pen and paper. I will write.

Lodowick gives him the pen and paper.

Enter the Countess of Salisbury

(Aside) But soft—here comes the treasurer of my spirit.

(Aloud to Lodowick, showing him the paper in his hand)

Lod‘wick, thou know’st not how to draw a battle!

These wings, these flankers and these squadrons

Argue in thee defective discipline.

Thou shouldst have placed this here, this other here—

COUNTESS OF SALISBURY

Pardon my boldness, my thrice-gracious lords.

Let my intrusion here be called my duty

That comes to see my sovereign how he fares.

KING EDWARD (to Lodowick, giving him the paper)

Go, draw the same, I tell thee in what form.

LODOWICK I go. Exit

COUNTESS OF SALISBURY

Sorry I am to see my liege so sad.

What may thy subject do to drive from thee

Thy gloomy consort, sullen melancholy?

KING EDWARD

Ah, lady, I am blunt and cannot strew

The flowers of solace in a ground of shame.

Since I came hither, Countess, I am wronged.

COUNTESS OF SALISBURY

Now God forbid that any in my house

Should think my sovereign wrong! Thrice-gentle King,

Acquaint me with thy cause of discontent.

KING EDWARD

How near, then, shall I be to remedy?

COUNTESS OF SALISBURY

As near, my liege, as all my woman’s power

Can pawn itself to buy thy remedy.

KING EDWARD

If thou speak’st true, then have I my redress.

Engage thy power to redeem my joys,

And I am joyful, Countess; else I die.

COUNTESS OF SALISBURY I will, my liege.

KING EDWARD Swear, Countess, that thou wilt.

COUNTESS OF SALISBURY By heaven, I will.

KING EDWARD

Then take thyself a little way aside

And tell thyself a king doth dote on thee.

Say that within thy power it doth lie

To make him happy, and that thou hast sworn

To give him all the joy within thy power-

Do this, and tell me when I shall be happy.

COUNTESS OF SALISBURY

All this is done, my thrice-dread sovereign.

That power of love that I have power to give

Thou hast, with all devout obedience.

Employ me how thou wilt in proof thereof.

KING EDWARD

Thou hear’st me say that I do dote on thee.

COUNTESS OF SALISBURY

If on my beauty, take it if thou canst;

Though little, I do prize it ten times less.

If on my virtue, take it if thou canst;

For virtue’s store, by giving, doth augment.

Be it on what it will that I can give,

And thou canst take away, inherit it.

KING EDWARD

It is thy beauty that I would enjoy.

COUNTESS OF SALISBURY

O, were it painted I would wipe it off

And dispossess myself to give it thee!

But, sovereign, it is soldered to my life:

Take one, and both, for, like an humble shadow,

It haunts the sunshine of my summer’s life—

KING EDWARD

But thou mayst lend it me to sport withal.

COUNTESS OF SALISBURY

As easy may my intellectual soul

Be lent away and yet my body live

As lend my body, palace to my soul,

Away from her and yet retain my soul.

My body is her bower, her court, her abbey;

And she an angel, pure, divine, unspotted.

If I should lend her house, my lord, to thee,

I kill my poor soul, and my poor soul me.

KING EDWARD

Didst thou not swear to give me what I would?

COUNTESS OF SALISBURY

I did, my liege, so what you would I could.

KING EDWARD

I wish no more of thee than thou mayst give,

Nor beg I do not, but I rather buy—

That is, thy love; and for that love of thine

In rich exchange I tender to thee mine.

COUNTESS OF SALISBURY

But that your lips were sacred, good my lord,

You would profane the holy name of love.

That love you offer me you cannot give,

For Caesar owes that tribute to his queen.

That love you beg of me I cannot give,

For Sarah owes that duty to her lord.

He that doth clip or counterfeit your stamp

Shall die, my lord: and will your sacred self

Commit high treason ‘gainst the king of heaven

To stamp his image in forbidden metal,

Forgetting your allegiance and your oath?