Give me an armour of eternal steel:

I go to conquer kings; and shall I not then

Subdue myself and be my enemy’s friend?

It must not be. (To the Prince) Come, boy! Forward!

Advance!

Let’s with our colours sweet the air of France.

Enter Lodowick

LODOWICK (to the King)

My liege, the Countess, with a smiling cheer,

Desires access unto your majesty.

KING EDWARD (aside)

Why there it goes. That very smile of hers

Hath ransomed captive France and set the King,

The Dauphin and the peers at liberty.

(To the Prince) Go, leave me, Ned, and revel with thy friends.

Exit the Prince of Wales

(Aside) Thy mother is but black, and thou, like her,

Dost put it in my mind how foul she is.

(To Lodowick) Go, fetch the Countess hither in thy hand—

Exit Lodowick

And let her chase away these winter clouds,

For she gives beauty both to heaven and earth.

The sin is more to hack and hew poor men

Than to embrace in an unlawful bed

The register of all rarieties

Since leathern Adam till this youngest hour.

Enter Lodowick ⌈leading in by the hand⌉ the Countess of Salisbury

Go, Lod’wick, 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

(To the Countess) 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 OF SALISBURY

My father on his blessing hath commanded—

KING EDWARD

That thou shalt yield to me.

COUNTESS OF SALISBURY

Ay, dear my liege, your due.

KING EDWARD

And that, my dearest love, can be no less

Than right for right, and render love for love.

COUNTESS OF SALISBURY

Than 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 thy content,

And what I would not ill compel I will,

Provided that yourself remove those lets

That stand between your highness’ love and mine.

KING EDWARD

Name them, fair Countess, and by heaven I will.

COUNTESS OF SALISBURY

It is their lives that stand between our love

That I would have choked up, my sovereign.

KING EDWARD

Whose lives, my lady?

COUNTESS OF SALISBURY 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

Their opposition is beyond our law.

COUNTESS OF SALISBURY

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 swam an easy current for his love,

But I will through a Hellespont of blood

To arrive at Sestos, where my Hero lies.

COUNTESS OF SALISBURY

Nay, you’ll do more. You’ll make the river too

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 OF SALISBURY

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 OF SALISBURY

Resolved to be dissolved, and therefore this:

Keep but thy word, great King, and I am thine.

Stand where thou dost—I’ll part a little from thee—

She moves away from the King

⌈kneeling⌉ And see how I will yield me to thy hands.

Here, by my side, doth hang my wedding knives.

She reveals two knives

Take thou the one,

She offers a knife to the King

and with it kill thy Queen,

And learn by me to find her where she lies;

And with this other

She turns the other knife on herself

I’ll dispatch my love,

Which now lies fast asleep within my heart.

When they are gone, then I’ll consent to love.

Stir not, lascivious King, to hinder me.

My resolution is more nimbler far

Than thy prevention can be in my rescue.

An if thou stir, I strike. Therefore stand still,

And hear the choice that I will put thee to.

Either swear to leave thy most unholy suit

And never henceforth to solicit me,

Or else, by heaven, this sharp-pointed knife

Shall stain thy earth with that which thou wouldst stain—

My poor, chaste blood. Swear, Edward, swear,

Or I will strike and die before thee here.

KING EDWARD

Even by that power I swear, that gives me now

The power to be ashamed of myself,

I never mean to part my lips again

In any words that tends to such a suit.

Arise, true English lady, whom our isle