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

Let me like Orpheus cause thee to return

From murder, bloodshed and like cruelty.

What, should we fight before we have a cause?

No, let’s live and love together faithfully.

I’ll fight for thee.

BREMO.

Fight for me or die: or fight or else thou diest.

AMADINE.

Hold, Bremo, hold!

BREMO.

Away, I say, thou troublest me.

AMADINE.

You promised me to make me your queen.

BREMO.

I did, I mean no less.

AMADINE.

You promised that I should have my will.

BREMO.

I did, I mean no less.

AMADINE.

Then save this hermit’s life, for he may save us both.

BREMO. At thy request I’ll spare him, but never any after him. Say, hermit, what canst thou do?

MUCEDORUS.

I’ll wait on thee, sometime upon the queen. Such

Service shalt thou shortly have as Bremo never had.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE IV. The Court.

[Enter Segasto, the Clown, and ROMBELO.]

SEGASTO.

Come, sirs; what, shall I never have you find out

Amadine and the shepherd?

MOUSE. And I have been through the woods, and through the woods, and could see nothing but an emet.

ROMBELO.

Why, I see thousand emets; thou meanest a little one?

MOUSE.

Nay, that emet that I saw was bigger than thou art.

ROMBELO.

Bigger than I? what a fool have you to your man:

I pray you, master, turn him away.

SEGASTO.

But dost thou hear? was he not a man?

MOUSE. I think he was, for he said he did lead a saltseller life about the woods.

SEGASTO.

Thou wouldest say a solitary life about the woods.

MOUSE.

I think it was so, indeed.

ROMBELO.

I thought what a fool thou art.

MOUSE. Thou art a wise man! why, he did nothing but sleep since he went.

SEGASTO.

But tell me, Mouse, how did he go?

MOUSE. In a white gown and a white hat on his head, and a staff in his hand.

SEGASTO. I thought so: it was a hermit that walked a solitary life in the woods. Well, get you to dinner, and after never leave seeking till you bring some news of them, or I’ll hang you both.

[Exit.]

MOUSE.

How now, Rombelo? what shall we do now?

ROMBELO.

Faith, I’ll home to dinner, and afterward to sleep.

MOUSE.

Why, then, thou wilt be hanged.

ROMBELO.

Faith, I care not, for i know I shall never find them:

well, I’ll once more abroad, & if I cannot find them,

I’ll never come home again.

MOUSE. I tell thee what, Rombelo, thou shalt go in at one end of the wood and I at the other, and we will meet both together at the midst.

ROMBELO.

Content! let’s away to dinner.

[Exeunt.]

ACT V.

SCENE I. The Forest.

[Enter Mucedorus solus.]

MUCEDORUS.

Unknown to any here within these woods

With bloody Bremo do I led my life.

The monster, he doth murther all he meets,

He spareth none and none doth him escape.

Who would continue, who but only I,

In such a cruel cutthroat’s company?

Yet Amadine is there; how can I choose?

Ah, silly soul, how often times she sits

And sighs, and calls: ‘come, shepherd, come,

Sweet Mucedorus, come and set me free;

When Mucedorus present stands her by:

But here she comes.

[Enter Amadine.]

What news, fair Lady, as you walk these woods.

AMADINE.

Ah, hermit, none but bad & such as thou knowest.

MUCEDORUS.

How do you like your Bremo and his woods?

AMADINE.

Not my Bremo nor Bremo his woods.

MUCEDORUS.

And why not yours? me thinks he loves you well.

AMADINE.

I like him not, his love to me is nothing worth.

MUCEDORUS.

Lady, in this me thinks you offer wrong,

To hate the man that ever loves you best.

AMADINE.

Ah hermit, I take no pleasure in his love;

Neither yet doth Bremo like me best.

MUCEDORUS.

Pardon my boldness, fair lady: sith we both

May safely talk now out of Bremo’s sight,

Unfold to me, if so you please, the full discourse

How, when, and why you came into these woods,

And fell into this bloody butcher’s hands.

AMADINE.

Hermit, I will;

Of late a worthy shepherd I did love.

MUCEDORUS.

A shepherd, lady? sure a man unfit

To match with you.

AMADINE.

Hermit, this is true, and when we had—

MUCEDORUS.

Stay there, the wild man comes.

Refer the rest until another time.

[Enter Bremo.]

BREMO.

What secret tale is this? what whispering have we here?

Villain, I charge thee tell thy tale again.

MUCEDORUS.

If needs I must, lo, here it is again:

When as we both had lost the sight of thee,

It grieved us both, but specially thy queen,

Who in thy absence ever fears the worst,

Least some mischance befall your royal grace.

‘Shall my sweet Bremo wander through the woods?

Toil to and fro for to redress my want,

Hazard his life; and all to cherish me?

I like not this,’ quoth she,

And thereupon craved to know of me

If I could teach her handle weapons well.

My answer was I had small skill therein,

But glad, most mighty king, to learn of thee.

And this was all.

BREMO.

Wast so? none can dislike of this.

I’ll teach

You both to fight: but first, my queen, begin.

Here, take this weapon; see how thou canst use it.