The Complete Apocryphal Works of William Shakespeare - All 17 Rare Plays in One Edition. William Shakespeare
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for Franklin thinks that we have murdered him.
ALICE
Ay, but he cannot prove it for his life.
We’ll spend this night in dalliance and in sport.
(here enters MICHAEL
MICHAEL
O mistress, the Mayor and all the watch
Are coming towards our house with glaives and bills.
ALICE
Make the door fast; let them not come in.
MOSBIE
Tell me, sweet Alice, how shall I escape?
ALICE
Out at the back door, over the pile of wood,
And for one night lie at the flower-de-luce.
MOSBIE
That is the next way to betray my self.
GREENE
Alas, mistress Arden, the watch will take me here,
And cause suspicion, where else would be none.
ALICE
Why, take that way that master Mosbie doth,
But first convey the body to the fields.
(then they bear the body into the fields.
MOSBIE
Until to morrow, sweet Alice, now farewell:
And see you confess nothing in any case.
GREENE
Be resolute, mistress Arden, betray us not,
But cleave to us as we will stick to you.
(Exeunt Mosbie and GREENE
ALICE
Now, let the judge and juries do their worst:
My house is clear, and now I fear them not.
SUSAN
As we went, it snowed all the way,
Which makes me fear our footsteps will be spied.
ALICE
Peace, fool, the snow will cover them again.
SUSAN
But it had done before we came back again.
ALICE
Hark, hark, they knock!
Go Michael, let them in.
(here enters the Mayor and the watch.
How now, Master Mayor, have you brought my husband home?
MAYOR
I saw him come into your house an hour ago.
ALICE
You are deceived; it was a londoner.
MAYOR
Mistress Arden know you not one
That is called Black Will?
ALICE
I know none such: what mean these questions?
MAYOR
I have the council’s warrant to apprehend him.
ALICE
I am glad it is no worse.
Why, master Mayor, think you I harbor any such?
MAYOR
We are informed that here he is;
And therefore pardon us, for we must search.
ALICE
Ay, search, and spare you not, through every room,
Were my husband at home, you would not offer this.
(here enters FRANKLIN
Master Franklin, what mean you come so sad?
FRANKLIN
Arden, thy husband and my friend, is slain.
ALICE
Ah, by whom? Master Franklin, can you tell?
FRANKLIN
I know not; but behind the abbey
There he lies murdered in Most piteous case.
MAYOR
But, master Franklin, are you sure ‘tis he?
FRANKLIN
I am too sure; would god I were deceived.
ALICE
Find out the murderers, let them be known.
FRANKLIN
Ay, so they shall: come you along with us.
ALICE
Wherefore?
FRANKLIN
Know you this hand-towel and this knife?
SUSAN
ah, Michael, through this thy negligence
Thou hast betrayed and undone us all.
MICHAEL
I was so afraid I knew not what I did:
I thought I had thrown them both into the well.
ALICE
It is the pig’s blood we had to supper.
But wherefore stay you? Find out the murderers.
MAYOR
I fear me you’ll prove one of them yourself.
ALICE
I one of them? What mean such questions?
FRANKLIN
I fear me he was murdered in this house
And carried to the fields; for from that place
The print of many feet within the snow.
And look about this chamber where we are,
And you shall find part of his guiltless blood;
For in his slipshoe did I find some rushes,
Which argueth he was murdered in this room.
MAYOR
Look in the place where he was wont to sit.
See, see! His blood! It is too manifest.
ALICE
It is a cup of wine that Michael shed.
And seek for Mosbie, and apprehend him too.
(Exeunt. Here enters Shakebag solus.
SHAKEBAG
The widow chambly in her husband’s days I kept
And now he’s dead, she is grown so stout
She will not know her old companions.
I came thither, thinking to have had
Harbor as I was wont,
And she was ready to thrust me out at doors,
But whether she would or no, I got me up,
And as she followed me, I spurned her down the stairs,
And broke her neck, and cut her tapster’s throat,
And now I am going to fling them in the thames.
I have the gold; what care I though it be known!
I’ll cross the water and take sanctuary.
(Exit