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And so to Flushing. There is no staying here.

At Sittingburgh the watch was like to take me,

And had not I with my buckler covered my head.

And run full blank at all adventures,

I am sure I had ne'er gone further than that place ;

For the constable had twenty warrants to apprehend me.

Besides that, I robbed him and his man once at Gadshill.

Farewell, England ; I'll to Flushing now.

Exit Will

SCENE V

Justice-room at Feversham,

Here enters the Mayor, Mosbie, Alice A Michael, SusanA

and Bradshaw.

Mayor. Come, make haste and bring away the prisoners.

Bradshaw. Mistress Arden, you are now going to God,

And I am by the law condemned to die

About a letter I brought from Master Greene,

I pray you, Mistress Arden, speak the truth :

Was I ever privy to your intent or no.

Alice. What should I say? You brought me such a a letter,

But I dare swear thou knewest not the contents.

Leave now to trouble me with worldly things,

And let me meditate upon my saviour Christ,

Whose blood must save me for the blood I shed.

Mosbie. How long shall I live in this hell of grief?

Convey me from the presence of that strumpet.

Alice. Ah, but for thee I had never been a strumpet.

What cannot oaths and protestations do,

When men have opportunity to woo ?

I was too young to sound thy villainies,

But now I find it and repent too late.

Susan. Ah, gentle brother, wherefore should I die ?

I knew not of it till the deed was done.

Mosbie. For thee I mourn more than for myself ;

But let it suffice, I cannot save thee now.

Michael. And if your brother and my mistress

Had not promised me you in marriage,

I had ne'er given consent to this foul deed.

Mayor. Leave to accuse each other now,

And listen to the sentence I shall give.

Bear Mosbie and his sister to London straight,

Where they in Smithfield must be executed ;

Bear Mistress Arden unto Canterbury,

Where her sentence is she must be burnt ;

Michael and Bradshaw in Feversham must suffer death.

Alice. Let my death make amends for all my sins.

Mosbie. Fie upon women ! this shall be my song ;

But bear me hence, for I have lived too long.

Susan. Seeing no hope on earth, in heaven is my hope.

Michael. Faith, I care not, seeing I die with Susan.

Bradshaw. My blood be on his head that gave the sentence.

Mayor. To speedy execution with them all I

Exeunt.

SCENE VI

Here enters Franklin,

Franklin. Thus have you seen the truth of Arden's death.

As for the ruffians, Shakebag and Black Will,

The one took sanctuary, and, being sent for out,

Was murdered in Southwark as he passed

To Greenwich, where the Lord Protector lay.

Black Will was burned in Flushing on a stage ;

Greene was hanged at Osbridge in Kent ;

The painter fled and how he died we know not.

But this above the rest is to be noted :

Arden lay murdered in that plot of ground

Which he by force and violence held from Reede ;

And in the grass his body's print was seen

Two years and more after the deed was done.

Gentlemen, we hope you'll pardon this naked tragedy,

Wherein no filed points are foisted in

To make it gracious to the ear or eye ;

For simple truth is gracious enough,

And needs no other points of glosing stuff.

Exit.

THE BIRTH OF MERLIN

OR

THE CHILD HATH FOUND HIS FATHER

This Jacobean play was first performed in 1622 at the Curtain Theatre in Shoreditch and features a comic depiction of the birth of the fully grown Merlin to a country girl, and also features figures from Arthurian legend, including Uther Pendragon, Vortigern and Aurelius Ambrosius. The play was first published in 1662, in a quarto printed by Thomas Johnson for the booksellers Francis Kirkman and Henry Marsh. That first edition attributed the play to Shakespeare and William Rowley. The Birth of Merlin is one of two plays published in the seventeenth century as a Shakespearean collaboration, the other being The Two Noble Kinsmen. Most scholars reject the attribution to Shakespeare and believe that the play is Rowley's, perhaps with a different