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

MICHAEL

leave that to my charge, let me alone.

‘tis very late, master Bradshaw,

And you have many narrow lanes to pass.

BRADSHAW

Faith, friend Michael, and thou sayest true,

Therefore I pray thee light’s forth and lend’s a link.

(Exeunt Bradshaw, Adam, and MICHAEL

ALICE

Michael, bring them to the doors, but do not stay,

You know I do not love to be alone.

(here enters Mosbie and GREENE

MOSBIE

How now, Alice, whither will you bear him?

ALICE

Sweet Mosbie, art thou come?

Then weep that will:

I have my wish in that I joy thy sight.

GREENE

Well it ‘hooves us to be circumspect.

MOSBIE

Ay, for Franklin thinks that we have murdered him.

ALICE

Ay, but he cannot prove it for his life.

We’ll spend this night in dalliance and in sport.

(here enters MICHAEL

MICHAEL

O mistress, the Mayor and all the watch

Are coming towards our house with glaives and bills.

ALICE

Make the door fast; let them not come in.

MOSBIE

Tell me, sweet Alice, how shall I escape?

ALICE

Out at the back door, over the pile of wood,

And for one night lie at the flower-de-luce.

MOSBIE

That is the next way to betray my self.

GREENE

Alas, mistress Arden, the watch will take me here,

And cause suspicion, where else would be none.

ALICE

Why, take that way that master Mosbie doth,

But first convey the body to the fields.

(then they bear the body into the fields.

MOSBIE

Until to morrow, sweet Alice, now farewell:

And see you confess nothing in any case.

GREENE

Be resolute, mistress Arden, betray us not,

But cleave to us as we will stick to you.

(Exeunt Mosbie and GREENE

ALICE

Now, let the judge and juries do their worst:

My house is clear, and now I fear them not.

SUSAN

As we went, it snowed all the way,

Which makes me fear our footsteps will be spied.

ALICE

Peace, fool, the snow will cover them again.

SUSAN

But it had done before we came back again.

ALICE

Hark, hark, they knock!

Go Michael, let them in.

(here enters the Mayor and the watch.

How now, Master Mayor, have you brought my husband home?

MAYOR

I saw him come into your house an hour ago.

ALICE

You are deceived; it was a londoner.

MAYOR

Mistress Arden know you not one

That is called Black Will?

ALICE

I know none such: what mean these questions?

MAYOR

I have the council’s warrant to apprehend him.

ALICE

I am glad it is no worse.

Why, master Mayor, think you I harbor any such?

MAYOR

We are informed that here he is;

And therefore pardon us, for we must search.

ALICE

Ay, search, and spare you not, through every room,

Were my husband at home, you would not offer this.

(here enters FRANKLIN

Master Franklin, what mean you come so sad?

FRANKLIN

Arden, thy husband and my friend, is slain.

ALICE

Ah, by whom? Master Franklin, can you tell?

FRANKLIN

I know not; but behind the abbey

There he lies murdered in Most piteous case.

MAYOR

But, master Franklin, are you sure ‘tis he?

FRANKLIN

I am too sure; would god I were deceived.

ALICE

Find out the murderers, let them be known.

FRANKLIN

Ay, so they shall: come you along with us.

ALICE

Wherefore?

FRANKLIN

Know you this hand-towel and this knife?

SUSAN

ah, Michael, through this thy negligence

Thou hast betrayed and undone us all.

MICHAEL

I was so afraid I knew not what I did:

I thought I had thrown them both into the well.

ALICE

It is the pig’s blood we had to supper.

But wherefore stay you? Find out the murderers.

MAYOR

I fear me you’ll prove one of them yourself.

ALICE

I one of them? What mean such questions?

FRANKLIN

I fear me he was murdered in this house

And carried to the fields; for from that place

The print of many feet within the snow.

And look about this chamber where we are,

And you shall find part of his guiltless blood;

For in his slipshoe did I find some rushes,

Which argueth he was murdered in this room.

MAYOR

Look in the place where he was wont to sit.

See, see! His blood! It is too manifest.

ALICE

It is a cup of wine that Michael shed.

And seek for Mosbie, and apprehend him too.

(Exeunt. Here enters Shakebag solus.

SHAKEBAG

The widow chambly in her husband’s days I kept

And now he’s dead, she is grown so stout

She will not know her old companions.

I came thither, thinking to have had

Harbor as I was wont,

And she was ready to thrust me out at doors,

But whether she would or no, I got me up,

And as she followed me, I spurned her down the stairs,

And broke her neck, and cut her tapster’s throat,

And now I am going to fling them in the thames.

I have the gold; what care I though it be known!

I’ll cross the water and take sanctuary.

(Exit SHAKEBAG

Here Enter the Mayor, Mosbie, Alice, Franklin, Michael and susan.