The Tragedy of Arthur_ A Novel - Arthur Phillips [137]
My smoking44 blade did cleave Norwegian skulls.
Take heed of word from lover45 such as this:
Hot war, so fleetingly combusted up,
Doth hardly46 snuff itself back down again.
And look! Our arms have built for us high walls!
Sit circummured47 behind the winding Tweed,
Our uplands48 scoff at foemen’s bow and ax.
Say, Loth, what matter is that lack-brain prince
Who weens49 to term himself all Britain’s king?
MORDRED
What peace has man e’er joyed but paid in blood?
What dream wouldst thou my father dream abed,
Whilst puppy50 Arthur, king of laystalls,51 hopes
To trim aside two-thirds my promised birth?
LOTH
No more. I have no appetite to war.
Send embassy and vouch that Arthur’s king.
MORDRED
But not of Britain.
LOTH
England then, your will.
MORDRED
I will discharge it to your terms precise.
LOTH
Duke Mordred, heir, be satisfied.
MORDRED
I am.
Full correspondence to my lord’s desires
Is satisfaction to your loving son.
LOTH
Embrace me then your uncle-king of Scotland.
MORDRED
With fullest heart.
CONRANUS
It glads me.
[They embrace] Loth swoons
MORDRED
Physic,52 wine!
A cup, a drench53 of wine! [To Loth] How do you, sir?—
[To servant] You! See him to his chamber, I’ll anon.
Exeunt [but Mordred and Calvan]
Dear Calvan, brother, bearer of my trust.
Two embassies will we dispatch. First, you.
CALVAN
How frame54 my tongue?
MORDRED
To words of amity.
Ride to the Saxon force at York. Their chief,
Flame-bearded Colgerne, takes your embassy.
In York he swills and vows and kicks his dogs,
And burns up offal to his red-eyed gods—
The carrion fumes offending Christian sense55—
And seizes not his vantage. Whet him on.
In Mordred’s name give gold that he from York
Drive out to waste all ’round with Saxon blade.
But, brother, still our hands must clasp in darkness.
Teach Colgerne that our love blooms best in shade.
CALVAN
Such toadstool56 love I’ll passioning derive.57
Exit Calvan
Enter messenger
MORDRED
What messenger is there?
ALEXANDER
My lord.
MORDRED
Thy name?
ALEXANDER
’Tis Alexander, Duke. I come from Wick.
MORDRED
Great Alexander boasts a comely face.
Thou hast an air of gentle-seeming manners.
ALEXANDER
It please your grace, my mother taught me well.
MORDRED
Then come. We must needs teach thee new to speak
In terms of harsh defiance and contempt.
Exeunt
[ACT I,] SCENE IV1
[Location: The Tower of London]
Enter Gloucester, Bishop of Caerleon, Somerset, Norfolk, Cumbria, Kent, Derby
KENT
How? Are you then protector of the realm?
GLOUCESTER
With patience, lords, but for a single day.
The morrow when, at your hand, Caerleon,
Prince Arthur is in London’s abbey blest,
He will from flexure2 rise your perfect3 king,
And will no more require protector’s aid.
Today I rate4 the puissance5 of our arms,
For after morrow hie we back to war.
Prince Arthur wants the numbers, man and beast,
To make account of all your mighty ranks.
How stand your noble lance and common pike?
SOMERSET
But soft, Lord Gloucester waits upon our haste,
Foresees6 we will obey with no complaint.
Yet English barons joy long-customed rights
And freely choose ere kneel to any king,
Though he be Uter’s son or no.
GLOUCESTER
Or no?
NORFOLK
To be black Uter’s son makes not an heir.
By such a stamp7 ten thousand British kings
Do dance a-maypole, yoke the ox to coulter,8
Or skink9 the wine at table for my thirst,
Though none so like their sire as Arthur be,
Who with his mawks on beef and ling10 doth dine,
Who’d ’change all England for St. George’s field.11
SOMERSET
He’s born on George’s day, so ’tis like home.12, 13
GLOUCESTER
Ignoble, rude and slanderous babble, lords
Ill suits the love that’s due your sovereign prince.
NORFOLK
Come morrow, Gloucester, what names you the king?
GLOUCESTER
The king will have me England’s seneschal.
SOMERSET
You’ll hold the keys to all the postern gates14
Until the midnight king doth steal the guard.
GLOUCESTER
These hare-brained comments will find quittance, Dukes.
CUMBRIA
But who makes doubt of Arthur