Monday 21 October 2013

Edward II by Christopher Marlowe (in English)




All. We will wait here about the court.

Gaveston. Do. [Exeunt Poor Men.
              These are not men for me;
   I must have wanton poets, pleasant wits,
   Musicians, that with touching of a string
   May draw the pliant king which way I please:
   Music and poetry is his delight;
   Therefore I'll have Italian masks by night,
   Sweet speeches, comedies, and pleasing shows;
   And in the day, when he shall walk abroad,
   Like sylvan nymphs my pages shall be clad;
   My men, like satyrs grazing on the lawns,
   Shall with their goat-feet dance the antic hay;
   Sometime a lovely boy in Dian's shape,
   With hair that gilds the water as it glides
   Crownets of pearl about his naked arms,
   And in his sportful hands an olive-tree,
   To hide those parts which men delight to see,
   Shall bathe him in a spring; and there, hard by,
   One like Actæon, peeping through the grove,
   Shall by the angry goddess be transform'd,
   And running in the likeness of an hart,
   By yelping hounds pull'd down, shall semm to die:
   Such things as these best please his majesty.—
   Here comes my lord the king, and the nobles,
   From the parliament. I'll stand aside. [Retires.

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