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I say 'Amen' to your intention, ...

which is to leave Canutus and his court

and fly to Edmund, our true, lawful king;

but lest you should suspect my secrecy

by being won so soon to your device,

I here assure you that this very plot

hath long been hammering in my troubled brain;

and had you not prevented my intent,

I should ere long have moved you herein;

but what shall then become of our two boys,

who are our pledges? They shall surely die. ...

LEOFRIC: Tut, 'tis no matter: if they die, they die.

They cannot suffer in a better time,

nor for a better cause, their country's good.

We gave them life; for us they shed their blood.

TURKILLUS: He that sent them can send us more again.

Then let us hence, delay of time is vain. [Exeunt.]

Scene I.2

[Enter Edricus solus.]

EDRICUS: What shall I think of him that means to beg

and can thus finely live upon his wit?

I was as mean as any basely born.

Fie, say not so, it will discredit thee.

Tut, no man hears me. Aye, but think not so,

for it will make thy peacock's plumes fall down

if one such abject thought possess thy mind.

'Tis strange to see how I am favored,

possess my dukedom and Canutus' grace

and am the chief of all his counselors; ...

whenas my betters are exiled the court,

being discountenanced and out of grace.

They cannot dissemble as I can:

cloak, cozen, cog and flatter with the king;

crouch and seem courteous; promise and protest;

say much, do naught, in all things use deceit;

tell troth to no man; carry tales abroad;

whisper close secrets in the giddy air;

be a news monger; feed the king with sooths;

please all men's humors with humility ...

which he must do that is a courtier

and minds to keep in favor with the king.

He that had heard my story from the end:

how many treasons I have practiced,

how many vild things I have brought to pass

and what great wonders have been compassed

by this deep-reaching pate, would think Iwis

I had been bound apprentice to deceit

and from my birthday studied villainy.

I understand Prince Edmund's up in arms, ...

lays hold upon occasion's sluggy lock;

and whilst Canutus here securely sleeps,

he wins with ease what we with pain have got.

Mass, if he do, and fortune favor him,

I will so work as I'll be in his grace

and keep my living and myself unhurt;

but if Canutus chance to gain again,

then I am his, for I can gloze with all,

and yet indeed, to say the very troth,

rather of both I love Canutus best, ...

for Edmund's father first did raise me up

and from a plowman's son promoted me

to be a duke for all my villainy,

and so as often as I look on him,

I must remember what he did for me

and whence I did descend and what I am,

which thoughts abase my state most abjectly.

Therefore I hate him and desire his death

and will procure his end in what I can;

but for Canutus, he doth honor me ...

because he knows not whence I did descend.

Therefore of the two I love Canutus best;

yet I can play an Ambodexter's part and

swear I love, yet hate him with my heart. [Exit.]

Scene I.3

[Enter Edmund and Alfric the general under the king.]

EDMUND: Yet are ye sure, my lord, that all is fit?

Are all my soldiers furnished for this war?

What, have they meat and drink to their content?

Do not the captains pince them of their pay?

ALFRIC: Assure your majesty, my care is such

as I do daily oversee them all

and cause the meanest soldier to be served

and have his fill of meat and drink that's good

without controlment, check or menaces;

for th'only means to mar a soldier's fight -- ...

pinch him of meat and pay and pinch his might.

EDMUND: Then do ye well, for I am of this mind --

he that for private base commodity

will starve his soldiers or keep back their pay;

he that to deck himself in gorgeous 'tire

will see his men go naked, die for cold,

is a plain cutthroat to the commonwealth.

A worthy captain, seeing a tall soldier

march barefoot, halting, plucked off his own shoes

and gave them to the soldier, saying 'Fellow, ...

when I want shoes,