Edmund Ironside by William Shakespeare - Apocryphal (Illustrated)

William Shakespeare (Apocryphal), Delphi Classics

• Verlag: Delphi Classics (Parts Edition)
• Jahr: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781786563217
• Thema: Littérature
• Thema: Classiques

This eBook features the unabridged text of 'Edmund Ironside' from the bestselling edition of 'The Complete Works of William Shakespeare'.

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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 ...