The Illustrated Works of Shakespeare/Illustrated Works of Shakespeare, The (1990)(Animated Pixels)[!][CDTV-PC].iso/shakes/text/15/01_01

Text File | 1991-04-10 | 13KB | 374 lines

THE PROLOGUE

Prologue    I come no more to make you laugh. Things now
    That bear a weighty and a serious brow,
    Sad, high, and working, full of state and woe,
    Such noble scenes as draw the eye to flow,
    We now present. Those that can pity here,
    May, if they think it well, let fall a tear;
    The subject will deserve it. Such as give
    Their money out of hope they may believe,
    May here find truth too. Those that come to see
    Only a show or two, and so agree
    The play may pass, if they be still and willing,
    I'll undertake may see away their shilling
    Richly in two short hours. Only they
    That come to hear a merry bawdy play,
    A noise of targets, or to see a fellow
    In a long motley coat guarded with yellow,
    Will be deceived; for gentle hearers, know,
    To rank our chosen truth with such a show
    As fool and fight is, beside forfeiting
    Our own brains, and the opinion that we bring,
    To make that only true we now intend,
    Will leave us never an understanding friend.
    Therefore, for goodness' sake, and as you are known
    The first and happiest hearers of the town,
    Be sad, as we would make ye; think ye see
    The very persons of our noble story
    As they were living; think you see them great,
    And followed with the general throng and sweat
    Of thousand friends; then, in a moment, see
    How soon this mightiness meets misery;
    And if you can be merry then, I'll say
    A man may weep upon his wedding day.
                                            [Exit.

London. An Antechamber in the Palace.
 Enter the DUKE OF NORFOLK at one door.
 At the other, the DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM and the LORD ABERGAVENNY.

Buckingham    Good morrow, and well met. How have ye done
    Since last we saw in France?

Norfolk                                I thank your grace,
    Healthful; and ever since a fresh admirer
    Of what I saw there.

Buckingham                        An untimely ague
    Stayed me a prisoner in my chamber, when
    Those suns of glory, those two lights of men,
    Met in the vale of Andren.

Norfolk                                'Twixt Guynes and Arde.
    I was then present, saw them salute on horseback,
    Beheld them, when they lighted, how they clung
    In their embracement as they grew together;
    Which had they, what four throned ones could have weighed
    Such a compounded one?

Buckingham                            All the whole time
    I was my chamber's prisoner.

Norfolk                                    Then you lost
    The view of earthly glory; men might say,
    Till this time, pomp was single, but now married
    To one above itself. Each following day
    Became the next day's master, till the last
    Made former wonders its. Today the French,
    All clinquant, all in gold like heathen gods,
    Shone down the English; and tomorrow they
    Made Britain India; every man that stood
    Showed like a mine. Their dwarfish pages were
    As cherubins, all gilt; the madams too,
    Not used to toil, did almost sweat to bear
    The pride upon them, that their very labour
    Was to them as a painting. Now this masque
    Was cried incomparable; and the ensuing night
    Made it a fool and beggar. The two kings,
    Equal in lustre, were now best, now worst,
    As presence did present them: him in eye,
    Still him in praise, and, being present both,
    'Twas said they saw but one, and no discerner
    Durst wag his tongue in censure. When these suns-
    For so they phrase 'em - by their heralds challenged
    The noble spirits to arms, they did perform
    Beyond thought's compass, that former fabulous story,
    Being now seen possible enough, got credit,
    That Bevis was believed.

Buckingham                                O, you go far.

Norfolk    As I belong to worship, and affect
    In honour honesty, the tract of everything
    Would by a good discourser lose some life,
    Which action's self was tongue to. All was royal;
    To the disposing of it nought rebelled,
    Order gave each thing view; the office did
    Distinctly his full function.

Buckingham                                    Who did guide,
    I mean, who set the body and the limbs
    Of this great sport together, as you guess?

Norfolk    One certes, that promises no element
    In such a business.

Buckingham                        I pray you, who, my lord?

Norfolk    All this was ordered by the good discretion
    Of the right reverend Cardinal of York.

Buckingham    The devil speed him! No man's pie is freed
    From his ambitious finger. What had he
    To do in these fierce vanities? I wonder
    That such a keech can with his very bulk
    Take up the rays o'th'beneficial sun,
    And keep it from the earth.

Norfolk                                    Surely, sir,
    There's in him stuff that puts him to these ends;
    For being not propped by ancestry, whose grace
    Chalks successors their way, nor called upon
    For high feats done to the crown; neither allied
    To eminent assistants, but spider-like,
    Out of his self-drawing web - O, gives us note-
    The force of his own merit makes his way;
    A gift that heaven gives for him, which buys
    A place next to the king.

Abergavenny                                I cannot tell
    What heaven hath given him - let some graver eye
    Pierce into that - but I can see his pride
    Peep through each part of him. Whence has he that?
    If not from hell the devil is a niggard,
    Or has given all before, and he begins
    A new hell in himself.

Buckingham                            Why the devil,
    Upon this French going-out, took he upon him,
    Without the privity o'th'king, t'appoint
    Who should attend on him? He makes up the file
    Of all the gentry; for the most part such
    To whom as great a charge, as little honour
    He meant to lay upon; and his own letter,
    The honourable board of council, out
    Must fetch him in he papers.

Abergavenny                                    I do know
    Kinsmen of mine, three at the least, that have
    By this so sickened their estates, that never
    They shall abound as formerly.

Buckingham                                    O, many
    Have broke their backs with laying manors on 'em
    For this great journey. What did this vanity
    But minister communication of
    A most poor issue?

Norfolk                        Grievingly I think,
    The peace between the French and us not values
    The cost that did conclude it.

Buckingham                                    Every man,
    After the hideous storm that followed, was
    A thing inspired, and, not consulting, broke
    Into a general prophecy, that this tempest,
    Dashing the garment of this peace, aboded
    The sudden breach on't.

Norfolk                            Which is budded out,
    For France hath flawed the league, and hath attached
    Our merchants' goods at Bordeaux.

Abergavenny                                    Is it therefore
    The ambassador is silenced?

Norfolk                                Marry, is't.

Abergavenny    A proper title of a peace; and purchased
    At a superfluous rate!

Buckingham                            Why, all this business
    Our reverend cardinal carried.

Norfolk                                Like it your grace,
    The state takes notice of the private difference
    Betwixt you and the cardinal. I advise you-
    And take it from a heart that wishes towards you
    Honour and plenteous safety - that you read
    The cardinal's malice and his potency
    Together; to consider further that
    What his high hatred would effect wants not
    A minister in his power. You know his nature,
    That he's revengeful; and I know his sword
    Hath a sharp edge: it's long, and't may be said,
    It reaches far, and where 'twill not extend,
    Thither he darts it. Bosom up my counsel,
    You'll find it wholesome. Lo, where comes that rock
    That I advise your shunning.

        Enter CARDINAL WOLSEY, the Purse borne before him, certain
              of the GUARD, and TWO SECRETARIES with papers.
        The CARDINAL in his passage fixeth his eye on BUCKINGHAM,
               and BUCKINGHAM on him, both full of disdain.

Cardinal    The Duke of Buckingham's surveyor, ha?
    Where's his examination?

1st Secretary                            Here, so please you.

Cardinal    Is he in person ready?

1st Secretary                            Ay, please your grace.

Cardinal    Well, we shall then know more, and Buckingham
    Shall lessen this big look.
                                 [Exeunt CARDINAL and his TRAIN.

Buckingham    This butcher's cur is venom-mouthed, and I
    Have not the power to muzzle him; therefore best
    Not wake him in his slumber. A beggar's book
    Outworths a noble's blood.

Norfolk                                What, are you chafed?
    Ask God for temp'rance; that's the appliance only
    Which your disease requires.

Buckingham                                    I read in's looks
    Matter against me, and his eye reviled
    Me as his abject object; at this instant
    He bores me with some trick. He's gone to th' king;
    I'll follow and outstare him.

Norfolk                                Stay, my lord,
    And let your reason with your choler question
    What 'tis you go about. To climb steep hills
    Requires slow pace at first. Anger is like
    A full-hot horse, who being allowed his way,
    Self-mettle tires him. Not a man in England
    Can advise me like you: be to yourself
    As you would to your friend.

Buckingham                                I'll to the king,
    And from a mouth of honour quite cry down
    This Ipswich fellow's insolence, or proclaim
    There's difference in no persons.

Norfolk                                    Be advised;
    Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot
    That it do singe yourself. We may outrun
    By violent swiftness that which we run at,
    And lose by overrunning. Know you not,
    The fire that mounts the liquor till't run o'er,
    In seeming to augment it wastes it? Be advised;
    I say again, there is no English soul
    More stronger to direct you than yourself,
    If with the sap of reason you would quench,
    Or but allay, the fire of passion.

Buckingham                                    Sir,
    I am thankful to you, and I'll go along
    By your prescription; but this top-proud fellow,
    Whom from the flow of gall I name not, but
    From sincere motions - by intelligence
    And proofs as clear as founts in July, when
    We see each grain of gravel - I do know
    To be corrupt and treasonous.

Norfolk                                Say not treasonous.

Buckingham    To th' king I'll say't, and make my vouch as strong
    As shore of rock. Attend. This holy fox,
    Or wolf, or both, for he is equal ravenous
    As he is subtle, and as prone to mischief
    As able to perform't, his mind and place
    Infecting one another, yea, reciprocally,
    Only to show his pomp as well in France
    As here at home, suggests the king our master
    To this last costly treaty; the interview,
    That swallowed so much treasure, and like a glass
    Did break i'th'wrenching.

Norfolk                            Faith, and so it did.

Buckingham    Pray give me favour, sir. This cunning cardinal
    The articles o'th'combination drew
    As himself pleased; and they were ratified
    As he cried 'Thus let be' to as much end
    As give a crutch to the dead. But our court-cardinal
    Has done this, and 'tis well; for worthy Wolsey,
    Who cannot err, he did it. Now this follows,
    Which, as I take it, is a kind of puppy
    To the old dam, treason, Charles the Emperor,
    Under pretence to see the queen his aunt,
    For 'twas indeed his colour, but he came
    To whisper Wolsey, here makes visitation.
    His fears were that the interview betwixt
    England and France might, through their amity,
    Breed him some prejudice, for from this league
    Peeped harms that menaced him. He privily
    Deals with our cardinal, and, as I trow,
    Which I do well; for I am sure the emperor
    Paid ere he promised, whereby his suit was granted
    Ere it was asked; but when the way was made
    And paved with gold, the emperor thus desired,
    That he would please to alter the king's course
    And break the foresaid peace. Let the king know
    - As soon he shall by me - that thus the cardinal
    Does buy and sell his honour as he pleases,
    And for his own advantage.

Norfolk                                I am sorry
    To hear this of him, and could wish he were
    Something mistaken in't.

Buckingham                            No, not a syllable.
    I do pronounce him in that very shape
    He shall appear in proof.

              Enter BRANDON, a SERGEANT-AT-ARMS before him,
                      and two or three of the GUARD.

Brandon    Your office, Sergeant; execute it.

Sergeant                                    Sir,
    My lord the Duke of Buckingham, and Earl
    Of Hereford, Stafford and Northampton, I
    Arrest thee of high treason, in the name
    Of our most sovereign king.

Buckingham                            Lo you, my lord,
    The net has fall'n upon me! I shall perish
    Under device and practice.

Brandon                                I am sorry
    To see you ta'en from liberty, to look on
    The business present. 'Tis his highness' pleasure
    You shall to the Tower.

Buckingham                            It will help me nothing
    To plead mine innocence, for that dye is on me
    Which makes my whit'st part black. The will of heaven
    Be done in this and all things! I obey.
    O, my lord Abergavenny, fare you well!

Brandon    Nay, he must bear you company. [To ABERGAVENNY.] The king
    Is pleased you shall to the Tower, till you know
    How he determines further.

Abergavenny                                As the duke said,
    The will of heaven be done, and the king's pleasure
    By me obeyed.

Brandon                    Here is a warrant from
    The king to attach Lord Montacute, and the bodies
    Of the duke's confessor, John de la Car,
    One Gilbert Peck, his chancellor-

Buckingham                                    So, so;
    These are the limbs o'th'plot; no more I hope.

Brandon    A monk o'th'Chartreux.

Buckingham                        O, Nicholas Hopkins?

Brandon                                    He.

Buckingham    My surveyor is false; the o'ergreat cardinal
    Hath showed him gold; my life is spanned already;
    I am the shadow of poor Buckingham,
    Whose figure even this instant cloud puts on
    By darkening my clear sun. My lord, farewell.
                                            [Exeunt.