A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Viii Part 20

[_Bring forth_ ELY, _with a yard in his hand and linen cloth, dressed like a woman_.

ELY. Good fellows, let me go! there's gold to drink, I am a man, though in woman's weeds.

Yonder's Prince John: I pray ye, let me go.

QU. MO. What rude companions have we yonder, Salisbury?

1ST COL. Shall we take his money?

2D COL. No, no; this is the thief that robbed Master Michaels, and came in like a woman in labour, I warrant ye.

SAL. Who have ye here, honest colliers?

2D COL. A monster, a monster! a woman with a beard, a man in a petticoat.

A monster, a monster!

SAL. What, my good Lord of Ely, is it you?--Ely is taken, here's the chancellor!

1ST COL. Pray G.o.d we be not hanged for this trick.

QU. MO. What, my good lord!

ELY. Ay, ay, ambitious lady.

JOHN. Who? My lord chancellor?

ELY. Ay, you proud usurper.

SAL. What, is your surplice turned to a smock?

ELY. Peace, Salisbury, thou changing weather-c.o.c.k.

CHES. Alas, my lord! I grieve to see this sight.

ELY. Chester, it will be day for this dark night.

FITZ. Ely, thou wert the foe to Huntington: Robin, thou knew'st, was my adopted son.

O Ely, thou to him wert too-too cruel!

With him fled hence Matilda, my fair jewel.

For their wrong, Ely, and thy haughty pride, I help'd Earl John; but now I see thee low, At thy distress my heart is full of woe.

QU. MO. Needs must I see Fitzwater's overthrow.

John, I affect him not, he loves not thee: Remove him, John, lest thou removed be.

JOHN. Mother, let me alone; by one and one I will not leave one that envies our good.

My Lord of Salisbury, give these honest colliers For taking Ely each a hundred marks.

SAL. Come, fellows; go with me.

COL. Thank ye, [i'] faith. Farewell, monster.

[_Exeunt_ SALISBURY, _with_ COLLIERS.

JOHN. Sheriff of Kent, take Ely to your charge.

From shrieve to shrieve send him to Nottingham, Where Warman, by our patent, is high shrieve.

There, as a traitor, let him be close-kept.

And to his trial we will follow straight.

ELY. A traitor, John?

JOHN. Do not expostulate: You at your trial shall have time to prate.

[_Exeunt c.u.m_ ELY.

FITZ. G.o.d, for thy pity, what a time is here!

JOHN. Right gracious mother, would yourself and Chester Would but withdraw you for a little s.p.a.ce, While I confer with my good Lord Fitzwater?

QUEEN. My Lord of Chester, will you walk aside?

CHES. Whither your highness please, thither I will.

[_Exeunt_ CHESTER _and_ QUEEN.

JOHN. Soldiers, attend the person of our mother.

[_Exeunt_ SOLDIERS.

n.o.ble Fitzwater, now we are alone, What oft I have desir'd I will entreat, Touching Matilda, fled with Huntington.

FITZ. Of her what would you touch? Touching her flight, She is fled hence with Robert, her true knight.

JOHN. Robert is outlaw'd, and Matilda free; Why through his fault should she exiled be?

She is your comfort, your old[194] age's bliss; Why should your age so great a comfort miss?

She is all England's beauty, all her pride; In foreign lands why should that beauty bide?

Call her again, Fitzwater, call again Guiltless Matilda, beauty's sovereign.

FITZ. I grant, Prince John, Matilda was my joy, And the fair sun that kept old Winter's frost From griping dead the marrow of my bones; And she is gone; yet where she is, G.o.d wot: Aged Fitzwater truly guesseth not.

But where she is, there is kind Huntington; With my fair daughter is my n.o.ble son.

If he may never be recall'd again, To call Matilda back it is in vain.

JOHN. Living with him, she lives in vicious state, For Huntington is excommunicate; And till his debts be paid, by Rome's decree It is agreed absolv'd he cannot be; And that can never be: so ne'er a[195] wife, But a loathed[196] adulterous beggar's life, Must fair Matilda live. This you may amend, And win Prince John your ever-during friend.

FITZ. As how? as how?

JOHN. Call her from him: bring her to England's court, Where, like fair Phoebe, she may sit as queen Over the sacred, honourable maids That do attend the royal queen, my mother.

There shall she live a prince's Cynthia, And John will be her true Endymion.

FITZ. By this construction she should be the moon, And you would be the man within the moon!

JOHN. A pleasant exposition, good Fitzwater: But if it so fell out that I fell in, You of my full joys should be chief partaker.