MRS. HATHAWAY. Will you not come? She bade me say That the boy cries for you-- SHAKESPEARE. A lie! A gross lie! He never called me father. MRS. HATHAWAY. That he does! You are his Merlin and his Arthur too, And God-Almighty Sundays. Thus it goes-- “My Father says--” and “When my Father comes--” “I’ll tell my Father!” To his mother’s hand He clings and whispers in his fever now, With bright eyes wide--your eyes, son, your quick eyes-- That she shall fetch you (she? she cannot speak) To bring him wonders home like Whittington, (And where’s your cat?) and tell the tales you know Of Puck and witches, and the English kings, To whistle down the birds as Orpheus did, And for a silver penny pick the moon From the sky’s pocket, and buy him gingerbread-- And so he rambles on, breaking her heart A second time, God help her! SHAKESPEARE. I will come. A MAN’S VOICE [_off the stage_]. Shakespeare! Will Shakespeare! Call Will Shakespeare! SHAKESPEARE [_to_ MRS. HATHAWAY]. Here! When do we start? MRS. HATHAWAY. The horses wait at the inn. VOICE. Will Shakespeare! SHAKESPEARE. Give me an hour. The bridge is nearer. On London Bridge at midnight! I’ll be there! MRS. HATHAWAY. Not later, I warn you, if you’d see the child alive. SHAKESPEARE. Fear not, I’ll be there. D’you think so ill of me? I could have been a good father to my own son--if I had known. If I had known! This is a woman’s way of enduring a wrong. Oh, dumb beast! Could she not send for me--send to me? Am I a monster that she could not come to me? “Buy him gingerbread”! To send me no word till he’s dying! Would any she-devil in hell do so to a man? Dying? I tell you he shall live and not die. There was a man once fought death for a friend and held him. Can I not fight death for my own son? Can I not beat death off for an hour, for a little hour, till I have kissed my only son? MARLOWE’S VOICE. Shakespeare! The Queen--the Queen has asked for you, And sent her woman twice. Will Shakespeare! Will! SHAKESPEARE. At midnight then. MRS. HATHAWAY _goes out._ VOICE. Will Shakespeare! SHAKESPEARE. Coming! Coming! MARY [_in the doorway, followed by_ MARLOWE]. Is Shakespeare--? SHAKESPEARE. Oh, not now, not now, not now!