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

For it will be very late ere we get home.

MICHAEL

Ay, god he knows, and so doth Will end Shakebag

That thou shalt never go further than that down;

And therefore have I pricked the horse on purpose

Because I would not view the massacre. (Exit MICHAEL

ARDEN

Come, master Franklin, onwards with your tale.

FRANKLIN

I do assure you, sir, you task me much:

A heavy blood is gathered at my heart,

And on the sudden is my wind so short

As hindereth the passage of my speech;

So fierce a qualm yet ne’er assailed me.

ARDEN

Come, master Franklin, let us go on softly:

The annoyance of the dust or else some meat

You ate at dinner cannot brook with you.

I have been often so, and soon amended.

FRANKLIN

Do you remember where my tale did leave?

ARDEN

Ay, where the gentleman did check his wife.

FRANKLIN

She being reprehended for the fact,

Witness produced that took her with the deed,

Her glove brought in which there she left behind,

And many other assured arguments,

Her husband asked her whether it were not so.

ARDEN

Her answer then? I wonder how she looked,

Having forsworn it with such vehement oaths,

And at the instant so approved upon her.

FRANKLIN

First did she cast her eyes down to the earth,

Watching the drops that fell amain from thence;

Then softly draws she forth her hand kercher,

And modestly she wipes her tear stained face;

And with a majesty addressed her self

To encounter all their accusations. -

Pardon, me, master Arden, I can no more;

This fighting at my heart makes short my wind.

You are a stranger, man, in the isle of sheppy.

ARDEN

Your honor’s always bound, to do you service.

LORD

Come you from London and ne’er a man with you?

ARDEN

My man’s coming after,

But here’s my honest friend that came along with me.

LORD

My lord protector’s man I take you to be.

FRANKLIN

Ay, my good lord, and highly bound to you.

LORD

You and your friend come home and sup with me.

ARDEN

I beseech your honor pardon me;

I have made a promise to a gentleman,

My honest friend, to meet him at my house;

The occasion is great, or else would I wait on you.

LORD

Will you come to morrow and dine with me, and bring your honest friend along with you? I have divers matters to talk with you about.

ARDEN

To morrow we’ll wait upon your honor.

LORD

One of you stay my horse at the top of the hill.

what! Black Will? For whose purse wait you?

Thou wilt be hanged in kent, when all is done.

WILL

Not hanged, god save your honor;

I am your bedesman, bound to pray for you.

LORD

I think thou ne’er said’st prayer in all thy life. -

One of you give him a crown: -

And, sirrah, leave this kind of life.

If thou beest tainted for a penny matter,

And come in question, surely thou wilt truss.

come, master Arden, let us be going;

Your way and mine lies four miles together. (Exeunt.

(manet Black Will and SHAKEBAG

WILL

The devil break all your necks at four miles’ end!

Zounds, I could kill myself for very anger!

His lordship chops me in, even when

My dag was levelled at his heart.

I would his crown were molten down his throat.

SHAKEBAG

Arden, thou hast wondrous holy luck.

Well, I’ll discharge my pistol at the sky,

For by this bullet Arden might not die.

(here enters GREENE

GREENE

What is he down? Is he dispatched?

SHAKEBAG

Ay, in health towards feversham, to shame us all.

GREENE

The devil he is! Why, sirs, how escap’d he?

SHAKEBAG

When we were ready to shoot,

Comes my lord cheney to prevent his death.

GREENE

The lord of heaven hath preserved him.

WILL

Preserved a fig! The lord cheney hath preserved him,

And bids him to a feast to his house at shorlow.

But by the way once more I’ll meet with him,

And, if all the cheneys in the world say no,

I’ll have a bullet in his breast tomorrow.

Therefore come, Greene, and let us to feversham.

GREENE

Ay, and excuse ourselves to mistress Arden:

O, how she’ll chafe when she hears of this!

SHAKEBAG

Why, I’ll warrant you she’ll think we dare not do it.

WILL

Why, then let us go, and tell her all the matter.

And plat the news to cut him off to morrow. (Exeunt.

(here Enter Arden and his wife, Franklin, and MICHAEL

ARDEN

See how the hours, the gardeant of heaven’s gate

Have by their toil removed the darksome clouds,

That sol may well discern the trampled pace

Wherein he wont to guide his golden car;

The season fits; come, Franklin, let’s away.

ALICE

I thought you did pretend some special hunt,

That made you thus cut short the time of rest.

ARDEN

It was no chase that made me rise so early,

But, as I told thee yesternight, to go to the isle of sheppey,

To the isle of sheppy, there to dine with my lord cheney,

For so his honor late commanded me.

ALICE

Ay, such kind husbands seldom want excuses

Home is a wild cat to a wandering wit.

The time hath been, - would god it were not past, -

That honor’s title nor a lord’s command

But my deserts or your desires decay,