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

William Shakespeare

Arden of Faversham, The Lamentable Tragedy of Locrine, Mucedorus and Amadine…

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ISBN 978-80-272-2384-8

ARDEN OF FAVERSHAM

A YORKSHIRE TRAGEDY

THE LAMENTABLE TRAGEDY OF LOCRINE

MUCEDORUS THE KING’S SON OF VALENTIA, AND AMADINE, THE KING’S DAUGHTER OF ARRAGON.

THE LONDON PRODIGAL

THE PURITAINE WIDDOW

THE SECOND MAIDEN’S TRAGEDY

SIR JOHN OLD CASTLE

LORD CROMWELL

KING EDWARD THE THIRD

EDMUND IRONSIDE

SIR THOMAS MORE

FAIRE EM

A FAIRY TALE IN TWO ACTS

THE MERRY DEVILL OF EDMONTON

THOMAS OF WOODSTOCK

Table of Contents Table of Contents ARDEN OF FAVERSHAM A YORKSHIRE TRAGEDY THE LAMENTABLE TRAGEDY OF LOCRINE MUCEDORUS THE KING’S SON OF VALENTIA, AND AMADINE, THE KING’S DAUGHTER OF ARRAGON. THE LONDON PRODIGAL THE PURITAINE WIDDOW THE SECOND MAIDEN’S TRAGEDY SIR JOHN OLD CASTLE LORD CROMWELL KING EDWARD THE THIRD EDMUND IRONSIDE SIR THOMAS MORE FAIRE EM A FAIRY TALE IN TWO ACTS THE MERRY DEVILL OF EDMONTON THOMAS OF WOODSTOCK

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ADAM FOWL

FRANKLIN

ARDEN

ALICE ARDEN, his wife

MICHAEL, their servant

MOSBIE, Alice’s lover

BLACK WILL, Assasin

SHAKEBAG, Assassin

CLARKE, a clerk

BRADSHAW

DICK GREENE

SUSAN

LORD CLIFFORD

MAYOR OF FAVERSHAM

FERRYMAN

PRENTICE, An Apprentice

DICK REEDE

A SAILOR

Enter Arden and Fraknlin

FRANKLIN

Arden, cheer up thy spirits, and droop no more

My gracious lord, the duke of somerset,

Hath freely given to thee and to thy heirs,

by letters patent from his majesty,

All the lands of the abbey of feversham.

Read them, and leave this melancholy mood.

ARDEN

Franklin, thy love prolongs my weary life;

And but for thee how odious were this life,

That shows me nothing but torments my soul,

And those foul objects that offend mine eyes,

Which makes me wish that for this vale of heaven

The earth hung over my head and covered me.

Love letters past twixt Mosbie and my wife,

And they have privy meetings in the town:

Nay, on his finger did I spy the ring

Which at our marriage-day the priest put on.

Can any grief be half so great as this?

FRANKLIN

Comfort thyself, sweet friend; it is not strange

That women will be false and wavering.

ARDEN

Ay, but to dote on such a one as he

Is monstrous, Franklin, and intolerable.

FRANKLIN

Why, what is he?

ARDEN

A botcher, and no better at the first;

Who, by base brokage getting some small stock,

Crept into service of a nobleman,

And by his servile flattery and fawning

Is now become the steward of his house,

And bravely jets it in his silken gown.

ARDEN

Yes, the lord Clifford, he that loves not me,

But through his favor let him not grow proud,

For were he by the lord protector backed,

He should not make me to be pointed at.

I am by birth a gentlfr. s rival that attempts

To violate my dear wife’s chastity

(for dear I hold her love, as dear as heaven)

Shall on the bed which he thinks to defile

See his dissevered joints and sinews torn,

Whilst on the planchers pants his weary body,

Smeared in the channels of his lustful blood.

FRANKLIN

Be patient, gentle friend, and learn of me

To ease thy grief and save her chastity:

Intreat her fair; sweet words are fittest engines

To race the flint walls of a woman’s breast.

In any case be not too jealious.

Nor make no question of her love to thee;

But, as securely, presently take horse,

And lie with me at London all this term;

For women, when they may, will not,

But, being kept back, straight grow outrageous.

ARDEN

Though this abhors from reason, yet I’ll try it

And call her forth and presently take leave.

How! Alice! (here enters ALICE

Summer nights are short, and yet you rise ere day.

Had I been wake, you had not risen so soon.

ARDEN

Sweet love, thou knowest that we two ovid-like,

Have often chid the morning when it ‘gan to peep,

And often wished that dark night’s purblind steeds,

Would pull her by the purple mantle back,

And cast her in the ocean to her love.

But this night, sweet Alice, thou hast killed my heart,

I heard thee call on Mosbie in thy sleep.

ALICE

‘tis like I was asleep when I named him,

For being awake he comes not in my thoughts.

ALICE

And thereof came it, and therefore blame not me.

ARDEN

I know it did, and therefore let it pass.

I must to London, sweet Alice, presently.

ALICE

But tell me do you mean to stay there long?

ARDEN

No longer there till my affairs be done.

FRANKLIN

He will not stay above a month at Most.