Volume II Part 34 (1/2)

Unto the walls of York the Scots make[229] road, And unresisted drive[230] away rich spoils.

_Y. Mor._ The haughty Dane commands the narrow seas,[231]

While in the harbour ride thy s.h.i.+ps unrigged.

_Lan._ What foreign prince sends thee amba.s.sadors?

_Y. Mor._ Who loves thee, but a sort of flatterers?

_Lan._ Thy gentle queen, sole sister to Valois, 170 Complains that thou hast left her all forlorn.

_Y. Mor._ Thy court is naked, being bereft of those That make a king seem glorious to the world; I mean the peers, whom thou should'st dearly love: Libels are cast again[232] thee in the street: Ballads and rhymes made of thy overthrow.

_Lan._ The Northern borderers seeing their houses burnt, Their wives and children slain, run up and down, Cursing the name of thee and Gaveston.

_Y. Mor._ When wert thou in the field with banner spread, 180 But once? and then thy soldiers marched like players, With garish robes, not armour; and thyself, Bedaubed with gold, rode laughing at the rest, Nodding and shaking of thy spangled crest, Where women's favours hung like labels down.

_Lan._ And thereof came it, that the fleering[233] Scots, To England's high disgrace, have made this jig; _Maids_[234] _of England, sore may you mourn, For your lemans you have lost at Bannocksbourn, With a heave and a ho._ 190 _What weeneth the King of England, So soon to have won Scotland?

With a rombelow?_[235]

_Y. Mor._ Wigmore[236] shall fly, to set my uncle free.

_Lan._ And when 'tis gone, our swords shall purchase more.

If ye be moved, revenge it if you can; Look next to see us with our ensigns spread.

[_Exeunt_ n.o.bles.

_Edw._ My swelling heart for very anger breaks!

How oft have I been baited by these peers, And dare not be revenged, for their power is great! 200 Yet, shall the crowing of these c.o.c.kerels Affright a lion? Edward, unfold thy paws, And let their lives' blood slake thy fury's hunger.

If I be cruel and grow tyrannous, Now let them thank themselves, and rue too late.

_Kent._ My lord, I see your love to Gaveston Will be the ruin of the realm and you, For now the wrathful n.o.bles threaten wars, And therefore, brother, banish him for ever.

_Edw._ Art thou an enemy to my Gaveston? 210

_Kent._ I, and it grieves me that I favoured him.

_Edw._ Traitor, begone! whine thou with Mortimer.

_Kent._ So will I, rather than with Gaveston.

_Edw._ Out of my sight, and trouble me no more!

_Kent._ No marvel though thou scorn thy n.o.ble peers, When I thy brother am rejected thus. [_Exit._

_Edw._ Away!

Poor Gaveston, that has no friend but me, Do what they can, we'll live in Tynemouth here, And, so I walk with him about the walls, 220 What care I though the Earls begirt us round-- Here cometh she that's cause of all these jars.

_Enter the_ QUEEN, _with_ King's Niece, _two_ Ladies, GAVESTON, BALDOCK, _and_ YOUNG SPENCER.

_Queen._ My lord, 'tis thought the Earls are up in arms.