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ACT 1
Scene I.I: Southampton
[Enter Canutus, Archbishop of Canterbury, Earl of Southampton, Edricus, Leofric, Turkillus, Uskataulf and Swetho. They sit at a table.]
CANUTUS: Archbishop and you other English peers
I hear how Ethelredus late your king
my tributary, is departed life
and how his son prince Edmund wears the crown
without the notice of your free consent
or homage unto me, his sovereign.
Yourselves, lords spiritual and temporal,
besides the due my father’s conquest claims
have chosen me,
and by a universal sound decree ...
have solemnly throughout this little world
proclaimed me heir-apparent to the crown
when Ethelredus lived.
Then let not this young upstart prince of prates [He riseth.]
curb your proceedings with untutored words
but finish boldly what you have begun:
resist his private coronation
and put not up this vild dishonor done
unto you, chief commanders of the realm,
as though you were not worth the sending-for. ...
CANTERBURY: Indeed his rashness is unportable
and merely nothing but a proud contempt
against us of the clergy and the rest
that have for public profit of the realm
for peace, for quiet and utility
elected prince Canutus for our king,
whose valor we have proved unto our cost,
whose love unto the church we need not doubt,
whose care for all we may rely upon,
and whose true bounty is so notable ...
that even his foes admire and honor him,
when th’ other what he is I need not tell
’tis too well known. I would I could say well;
but this I say and swear — were I myself [He riseth.]
professed a soldier or a man at arms,
as I am one deprived from the world
and from my cradle called to serve the Lord,
I would with lance approve his title naught
and plead your coronation with my sword.
CANUTUS: Stout-hearted bishop, spoken like a man! ...
Would all the English lords were of thy mind.
SOUTHAMPTON: Am I not ready to defend your right
with force of arms as doth become a knight?
LEOFRIC: I ne’er was slack or hindmost of the rest,
but ever first and foremost with the best.
EDRICUS: Had I not been a help unto your father
whenas he first arrived in Albion,
you ne’er had stood in question for the crown
nor had your father’s wars so prospered.
’Twas I that first did counsel Ethelred ...
to pay you tribute and to buy your league,
whereby we emptied all the treasury;
and had not gold failed, you had ne’er been king.
I had a navy once (the time when ’twas
in Ethelredus’ days, your father living),
with which I should have met you on the sea
within the straits of England, and Iwis
had then no little vantage on your ships;
yet I as favoring your party most,
gave way and let you land without resistance, ...
and for that fact rest foully scandalized.
Was it not I that gave intelligence
of all the councils of king Ethelred
unto your father? Did not I, I pray,
feign sickness, weakness, disadvantages
whenas the king sent me to fight with him?
Was I not causer of your good success
in all your actions since your father’s death,
as namely in that battle lately fought
between yourself and Edmund Ironside, ...
where I fled from him and did succor you?
Then since the only ladder upon which
your father climbed to get and you to hold
this gotten kingdom was my diligence,
I hope you will not [let] the least motion
of an ill thought creep in to hinder me,
nor do I think you used this speech by me.
CANUTUS: Why, what need all this repetition?
Good faith, I ...
