University of Virginia Library

Scene III.

A Hall in the Castle.
Enter Eliduke and Walter.
Eli.
Leave me? go home?
Tut, tut, man! you are passionate, and know not
What 'tis you ask. I say you shall not go.

Walt.
My lord, I must and will.

Eli.
I say you shall not;
What idle freak is this? Come, you are angry.
I have been too hasty. What, man, we are friends still?

Walt.
Once when you said so I esteemed the title
Above my other honours; did I so now,
I would not cast it for a hasty word.

Eli.
Do you think I am not grateful? You shall try me.
Do you lack gold? Ask. I was never niggard.
Has any wronged you? I stand here engaged
To right you with my sword and countenance.
Is this your grief because I am not grateful?

Walt.
Not that, my lord.

Eli.
What then? Pish! you are changing!

Walt.
Shall I tell you, then? Because you are not noble,
And the intent you hold, and ask my aid in,
Bad and dishonourable.

Eli.
Ha! you can speak, then!

Walt.
Ay, boldly; and I say your honest seeming
Discords with what's within. You are not true!
Does it become you, being dedicated
By the close tie of wedlock to a lady,
Whose beauty and whose worth are only matched
By her deep love to you, to cast that off,
And that which was her due, your true affection,
To yield a foreign breast? Does it become you
To train this princess from her father's court,
And teach her young and unpolluted ears
A title of dishonour? I was wrong
That egged you on in making love to her,
And thought it but the pastime of the hour
To rifle women's hearts. Look what it grows to.

Eli.
Grow where it may, I will go through with it.

Walt.
Oh, reckon up how many wrongs you heap
To build yourself a monument of shame!
You wrong your wife,—your chaste, your wedded wife;
You wrong the lady whom you swear to love;
You wrong the King who housed and did you honour;
Wrong hospitality, wrong confidence.
You wrong yourself to stir in such a cause;
You wrong your friends to ask their aid in it;
You wrong the day that looks on such a wrong;
You wrong the darkness that must cover it;
You wrong all good deeds by their opposite;
You wrong all former wrongs to lessen them.
Stay here, and move not in this enterprise.

Eli.
Now, though a hundred such sick consciences,
Set in the breasts of idiot-witted fools,
Stood in my way, I would not stir one jot from't!

Walt.
Why, then, go on!

Eli.
And will; for who shall stay me?

Walt.
Not virtue, for your eager tongue to speak her
Outgoes your acts.

Eli.
Beware! beware! beware!

Walt.
Not honour, for the part you had in her
Is gone since the black day you told a lie,
A hideous lie, making the boy believe
The favour that he fought for was his sister's.
What! must the boy die for't? Could you not
Defend your wanton's glove? A coward too!
A liar and a coward! Add to that
A foul adulterer! Take the sum of it!
[Eliduke rushes at him with his sword.
A murderer too!

Eli.
Out, man! Thy life runs short!

Walt.
Out, then! look to your own too!

[Eliduke strikes the sword from the hand of Walter, throws him to the ground, and plants his foot on his breast.
Eli.
Ha! you dog!

Walt.
Strike, and fill up your crimes! I fear you not.
Dare you not strike?

Eli.
Away, thou murderous fiend!
Mak'st my soul itch for blood!
[Flinging his sword away.
Hence, instrument!
Let your life buy your silence. Get you up.
Pick up your sword. I'll go alone. There's gold.

[Flinging it on the ground.
Walt.
Even yet, my lord—

Eli.
Peace, peace! I am not for you!
[Exit Walter, leaving the purse lying.
What, ho! within there! Enter Page.

How runs the tide? Give me my sword lies yonder.

Page.
Nigh to the full, my lord.

Eli.
Pooh! keep the gold!
Part it among the house. Where's Castabel?

Page.
Within, sir.

Eli.
Knows my going?

Page.
I think no, sir.

Eli.
Get me my cloak. Are all the sailors ready?
Attend me to the boat. The moon's at change.
Pray Heaven the weather hold! What say the sailors?

[Exeunt.