William Shakespeare - The Complete Apocryphal Works of William Shakespeare - All 17 Rare Plays in One Edition

Come, master Franklin, we’ll now walk in paul’s

And dine together at the ordinary,

And by my man’s direction draw to the key,

And with the tide go down to feversham.

Say, master Franklin, shall it not be so?

FRANKLIN

At your good pleasure sir,

I’ll bear you company.

Shakebag at another door.

(here enters Michael at one door. Here Enter Greene, Will, and

WILL

Draw, Shakebag, for here’s that villain MICHAEL

GREENE

First, Will, let’s hear what he can say.

WILL

Speak, milksop slave, and never after speak.

MICHAEL

For god’s sake, sirs, let me excuse myself.

For here I swear, by heaven and earth and all,

I did perform the utMost of my task,

But see the chance: Franklin and my master

Were very late conferring in the porch,

And Franklin left his napkin where he sat

With certain gold knit in it, as he said.

Being in bed, he did bethink himself,

And coming down he found the doors unshut:

He locked the gates, and brought away the keys,

For which offence my master rated me.

But now I am going to see what flood it is,

For with the tide my master will away;

Where you may front him well on rainham down,

A place well fitting such a stratagem.

WILL

Your excuse hath somewhat mollified my choler,

MOSBIE

Disturbed thoughts drives me from company,

And dries my marrow with their watchfulness;

Continual trouble of my moody brain

Feebles my body by excess of drink,

And nips me as the bitter northeast wind

Doth check the tender blossoms in the spring.

Well fares the man, howe’er his cates do taste,

That tables not with foul suspicion;

And he but pines amongst his delicates,

Whose troubled mind is stuffed with discontent.

Thought then I wanted, yet I slept secure;

My daily toil begat me night’s repose,

But since I climbed the top bough of the tree

And sought to build my nest among the clouds,

Each gentle stirry gale doth shake my bed,

And makes me dread my downfall to the earth.

But whither doth contemplation carry me?

The way I seek to find, where pleasure dwells,

Is hedged behind me that I cannot back,

But needs must on, although to danger’s gate.

Then, Arden, perish thou by that decree;

For Greene doth ear the land and weed thee up

To make my harvest nothing but pure corn.

And for his pains I’ll hive him up a while,

And after smother him to have his wax:

Such bees as Greene must never live to sting.

Then is there Michael and the painter too,

Chief actors to Arden’s overthrow;

They will insult upon me for my meed,

Or fright me by detecting of his end.

I’ll none of that, for I can cast a bone

To make these curs pluck out each other’s throat,

And then am I sole ruler of mine own.

Yet mistress Arden lives; but she’s my self,

And holy church rites makes us two but one.

But what for that? I may not trust you, Alice,

You have supplanted Arden for my sake,

And will extirpen me to plant another.

‘tis fearful sleeping in a serpent’s bed,

And I will cleanly rid my hands of her.

(here enters ALICE

But here she comes, and I must flatter her.

how now, Alice? What, sad and passionate?

Make me partaker of thy pensiveness:

Fire divided burns with lesser force.

ALICE

But I will dam that fire in my breast

Till by the force thereof my part consume, ah, Mosbie!

MOSBIE

Such deep pathaires, like to a cannon’s burst

Discharged against a ruinated wall,

Breaks my relenting heart in thousand pieces.

Ungentle Alice, thy sorrow is my sore;

Thou know’st it well, and ‘tis thy policy

To forge distressful looks to wound a breast

Where lies a heart that dies when thou art sad.

It is not love that loves to anger love.

ALICE

It is not love that loves to murder love.

MOSBIE

How mean you that?

ALICE

Thou knowest how dearly Arden loved me.

MOSBIE

And then?

ALICE

And then - conceal the rest, for ‘tis too bad,

Lest that my words be carried with the wind,

And published in the world to both our shames.

I pray thee, Mosbie, let our springtime wither;

Our harvest else will yield but loathsome weeds.

Forget, I pray thee, what hath passes betwixt us,

For now I blush and tremble at the thoughts!

MOSBIE

What? Are you changed?

ALICE

Ay, to my former happy life again,

From title of an odious strumpet’s name

To honest Arden’s wife, not Arden’s honest wife.

And made me slanderous to all my kin;

Even in my forehead is thy name ingraven,

A mean artificer, that low born name.

I was bewitched: woe worth the hapless hour

And all the causes that enchanted me!

MOSBIE

Nay, if thou ban, let me breathe curses forth,

And if you stand so nicely at your fame,

Let me repent the credit I have lost.

And thou unhallowed hast enchanted me.

But I will break thy spells and exorcisms,

And put another sight upon these eyes

That showed my heart a raven for a dove.

Thou art not fair, I viewed thee not till now;

Thou art not kind, till now I knew thee not;

And now the rain hath beaten off thy gilt,

Thy worthless copper shows thee counterfeit.

It grieves me not to see how foul thou art,

But mads me that ever I thought thee fair.