The Complete Apocryphal Works of William Shakespeare - All 17 Rare Plays in One Edition. William Shakespeare
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to the law.
MUCEDORUS.
Segasto, cease, these threats are needless.
Accuse not me of murther, that have done
Nothing but in mine own defence.
SEGASTO.
Nay, shepherd, reason not with me.
I’ll manifest thy fact unto the King,
Whose doom will be thy death, as thou deservest.
What ho, Mouse, come away!
[Enter Mouse.]
MOUSE.
Why how now, what’s the matter?
I thought you would be calling before I had done.
SEGASTO.
Come, help; away with my friend.
MOUSE.
Why, is he drunk? cannot he stand on his feet?
SEGASTO.
No, he is not drunk, he is slain.
MOUSE.
Flaine? no, by Lady, he is not flaine.
SEGASTO.
He’s killed, I tell thee.
MOUSE.
What, do you use to kill your friends?
I will serve you no longer.
SEGASTO.
I tell thee, the shepherd killed him.
MOUSE. O, did a so? but, master, I will have all his apparel if I carry him away.
SEGASTO.
Why, so thou shalt.
MOUSE. Come, then, I will help; mas, master, I think his mother song looby to him, he is so heavy.
[Exeunt Segasto and Mouse.}
MUCEDORUS.
Behold the fickle state of man, always mutable,
Never at one. Sometimes we feed on fancies
With the sweet of our desires; sometimes again
We feel the heat of extreme misery.
Now am I in favour about the court and country.
To morrow those favours will turn to frowns:
To day I live revenged on my foe,
To morrow I die, my foe revenged on me.
[Exit.]
SCENE III. The Forest.
[Enter Bremo, a wild man.]
BREMO.
No passengers this morning? what, not one?
A chance that seldom doth befall.
What, not one? then lie thou there,
And rest thyself till I have further need,
Now, Bremo, sith thy leisure so affords—
An endless thing. Who knows not Bremo’s strength,
Who like a king commands within these woods?
The bear, the boar, dares not abide my sight,
But hastes away to save themselves by flight:
The crystal waters in the bubbling brooks,
When I come by, doth swiftly slide away,
And claps themselves in closets under banks,
Afraid to look bold Bremo in the face:
The aged oaks at Bremo’s breath do bow,
And all things else are still at my command.
Else what would I?
Rent them in pieces and pluck them from the earth,
And each way else I would revenge my self.
Why who comes here with whom I dare not fight?
Who fights with me & doth not die the death?
Not one: What favour shews this sturdy stick to those,
That here within these woods are combatants with me?
Why, death, and nothing else but present death.
With restless rage I wander through these woods,
No creature here but feareth Bremo’s force,
Man, woman, child, beast and bird,
And every thing that doth approach my sight,
Are forced to fall if Bremo once but frown.
Come, cudgel, come, my partner in my spoils,
For here I see this day it will not be;
But when it falls that I encounter any,
One pat sufficeth for to work my will.
What, comes not one? then let’s begone;
A time will serve when we shall better speed.
[Exit.]
SCENE IV. Arragon. a Room of State in the Court.
[Enter the King, Segasto, the Shepherd, and the Clown, with others.]
KING.
Shepherd, thou hast heard thin accusers;
Murther is laid to thy charge.
What canst thou say? thou hast deserved death.
MUCEDORUS.
Dread sovereign, I must needs confess,
I slew this captain in mine own defence,
Not of any malice, but by chance;
But mine accuser hath a further meaning.
SEGASTO.
Words will not here prevail,
I seek for justice, & justice craves his death.
KING.
Shepherd, thine own confession hath condemned thee.
Sirra, take him away, 7 do him to execution straight.
MOUSE.
So he shall, I warrant him; but do you hear, master
King, he is kin to a monkey, his neck is bigger than
his head.
SEGASTO. Come, sirra, away with him, and hang him about the middle.
MOUSE. Yes, forsooth, I warrant you: come on, sir. A, so like a sheep biter a looks!
[Enter Amadine and a boy with a bear’s head.]
AMADINE.
Dread sovereign and wellbeloved sire,
On bended knees I crave the life of this
Condemned shepherd, which heretofore preserved
The life of thy sometime distressed daughter.
KING.
Preserved the life of my sometime distress daughter?
How can that be? I never knew the time
Wherein thou wast distressed; I never knew the day
But that I have maintained thy state,
As best beseemed the daughter of a king.
I never saw the shepherd until now.
How comes it, then, that he preserved thy life?
AMADINE.
Once walking with Segasto in the woods,
Further than our accustomed manner was,
Right before us, down a steep fall hill,
A monstrous ugly bear doth hie him fast
To meet us both: now whether this be true,