My body sink my soul in endless woe. Exeunt

Sc. 3 Enter at one door the Earl of Derby from France. At another door, enter Lord Audley with a drummer

EARL OF DERBY

Thrice-noble Audley, well encountered here.

How is it with our sovereign and his peers?

AUDLEY

‘Tis full a fortnight since I saw his highness,

What time he sent me forth to muster men,

Which I accordingly have done, and bring them hither,

In fair array, before his majesty.

What news, my lord of Derby, from the Emperor?

EARL OF DERBY

As good as we desire. The Emperor

Hath yielded to his highness friendly aid,

And makes our king lieutenant-general

In all his lands and large dominions.

Then via for the spacious bounds of France!

AUDLEY

What, doth his highness leap to hear these news?

EARL OF DERBY

I have not yet found time to open them.

The King is in his closet, malcontent.

For what I know not, but he gave in charge

Till after dinner none should interrupt him.

The Countess Salisbury and her father Warwick,

Artois, and all, look underneath the brows.

AUDLEY

Undoubtedly, then, something is amiss.

Sound trumpets within

EARL OF DERBY

The trumpets sound. The King is now abroad.

Enter King Edward

COMTE D’ARTOIS Here comes his highness.

EARL OF DERBY (to the King)

Befall my sovereign all my sovereign’s wish.

KING EDWARD ⌈aside⌉

Ah, that thou wert a witch to make it so.

EARL OF DERBY

The Emperor greeteth you—

KING EDWARD ⌈aside⌉ Would it were the Countess.

EARL OF DERBY

—And hath accorded to your highness’ suit.

KING EDWARD ⌈aside⌉

Thou liest. She hath not, but I would she had.

AUDLEY

All love and duty to my lord the King.

KING EDWARD ⌈aside⌉

Well, all but one is none. (To Audley) What news with you?

AUDLEY

I have, my liege, levied those horse and foot,

According as your charge, and brought them hither.

KING EDWARD

Then let those foot trudge hence upon those horse,

According to our discharge, and be gone.

Derby, I’ll look upon the Countess’ mind anon.

EARL OF DERBY The Countess’ mind, my liege?

KING EDWARD

I mean the Emperor. Leave me alone.

AUDLEY (to Derby)

What is his mind?

EARL OF DERBY Let’s leave him to his humour.

Exeunt Derby and Audley

KING EDWARD

Thus from the heart’s abundance speaks the tongue:

‘Countess’ for ‘Emperor’—and indeed why not?

She is as imperator over me, and I to her

Am as a kneeling vassal that observes

The pleasure or displeasure of her eye.

Enter Lodowick

(To Lodowick) What says the more-than-Cleopatra’s

match

To Caesar now?

LODOWICK That yet, my liege, ere night

She will resolve your majesty.

Sound drum within

KING EDWARD

What drum is this that thunders forth this march

To start the tender Cupid in my bosom?

Poor sheepskin, how it brawls with him that beateth it!

Go, break the thund’ring parchment-bottom out

And I will teach it to conduct sweet lines

Unto the bosom of a heavenly nymph;

For I will use it as my writing paper,

And so reduce him from a scolding drum

To be the herald, and dear counsel-bearer,

Betwixt a goddess and a mighty king.

Go, bid the drummer learn to touch the lute,

Or hang him in the braces of his drum;

For now we think it an uncivil thing

To trouble heaven with such harsh resounds. Away!

Exit Lodowick

The quarrel that I have requires no arms

But these of mine, and these shall meet my foe

In a deep march of penetrable groans.

My eyes shall be my arrows, and my sighs

Shall serve me as the vantage of the wind

To whirl away my sweet’st artillery.

Ah, but alas, she wins the sun of me,

For that is she herself, and thence it comes

That poets term the wanton warrior blind.

But love hath eyes as judgement to his steps,

Till too much loved glory dazzles them—

Enter Lodowick

How now?

LODOWICK

My liege, the drum that struck the lusty march

Stands with Prince Edward, your thrice-valiant son.

⌈Exit⌉

Enter Edward, Prince of Wales

KING EDWARD

I see the boy. ⌈Aside⌉ O, how his mother’s face,

Modelled in his, corrects my strayed desire,

And rates my heart, and chides my thievish eye,

Who, being rich enough in seeing her,

Yet seek elsewhere; and basest theft is that

Which cannot cloak itself in poverty.

(To the Prince) Now, boy, what news?

PRINCE OF WALES

I have assembled, my dear lord and father,

The choicest buds of all our English blood

For our affairs to France, and here we come

To take direction from your majesty.

KING EDWARD (aside)

Still do I see in him delineate

His mother’s visage. Those his eyes are hers,

Who looking wistly on me make me blush.

For faults against themselves give evidence;

Lust is a fire, and men, like lanterns, show

Light lust within themselves, even through themselves.

Away, loose silks o’er wavering vanity!

Shall the large limit of fair Brittany

By me be overthrown, and shall I not

Master this little mansion of myself?