KING EDWARD How fast they run to bani...

KING EDWARD

How fast they run to banish him I love!

They would not stir, were it to do me good.

Why should a king be subject to a priest?

Proud Rome! that hatchest such imperial grooms,

For these thy superstitious taper-lights,

Wherewith thy antichristian churches blaze,

I’ll fire thy crazed buildings, and enforce

The papal towers to kiss the lowly ground!

With slaughtered priests make Tiber’s channel swell,

And banks rais’d higher with their sepulchres!

As for the peers, that back the clergy thus,

If I be king, not one of them shall live.

[Re-enter GAVESTON]

GAVESTON

My lord, I hear it whispered everywhere,

That I am banish’d, and must fly the land.

KING EDWARD

’Tis true, sweet Gaveston—O! were it false!

The legate of the Pope will have it so,

And thou must hence, or I shall be depos’d.

But I will reign to be reveng’d of them;

And therefore, sweet friend, take it patiently.

Live where thou wilt, I’ll send thee gold enough;

And long thou shalt not stay, or if thou dost,

I’ll come to thee; my love shall ne’er decline.

GAVESTON

Is all my hope turn’d to this hell of grief?

KING EDWARD

Rend not my heart with thy too-piercing words:

Thou from this land, I from myself am banish’d.

GAVESTON

To go from hence grieves not poor Gaveston;

But to forsake you, in whose gracious looks

The blessedness of Gaveston remains,

For nowhere else seeks he felicity.

KING EDWARD

And only this torments my wretched soul

That, whether I will or no, thou must depart.

Be governor of Ireland in my stead,

And there abide till fortune call thee home.

Here take my picture, and let me wear thine; [They exchange pictures.]

O, might I keep thee here as I do this,

Happy were I! but now most miserable!

GAVESTON

’Tis something to be pitied of a king.

KING EDWARD

Thou shalt not hence—I’ll hide thee, Gaveston.

GAVESTON

I shall be found, and then ’twill grieve me more.

KING EDWARD

Kind words and mutual talk makes our grief greater;

Therefore, with dumb embracement, let us part.—

Stay, Gaveston, I cannot leave thee thus.

GAVESTON

For every look, my lord drops down a tear.

Seeing I must go, do not renew my sorrow.

KING EDWARD

The time is little that thou hast to stay,

And, therefore, give me leave to look my fill.

But come, sweet friend, I’ll bear thee on thy way.

GAVESTON

The peers will frown.

KING EDWARD

I pass not for their anger—Come, let’s go;

O that we might as well return as go.

Annotated full text of Edward II: http://elizabethandrama.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Edward-II-Annotated.pdf