“O, then, my father,
Will you permit that I shall stand condemn’d,
A wand’ring vagabond; my rights and royalties
Pluck’d from my arms perforce, and given away
To upstart unthrifts? Wherefore was I born?
* * * * *
I am deny’d to sue my livery here,
And yet my letters-patent give me leave:
My father’s goods are _all distrained_ and sold;
And these, and _all_, are _all_ amiss employ’d.
What would you have me do? I am a subject
And challenge law: Attornies are deny’d me,
And therefore personally I lay my claim
To my inheritance of free descent.
ACT 3, SCENE 1.
_Boling_. “Myself, a prince by fortune of my birth;
Near to the king in blood; and near in love,
Till you did make him misinterpret me,
Have stoop’d my neck under your injuries,
And sigh’d my English breath in foreign clouds,
Eating the bitter bread of banishment:
Whilst you have fed upon my signories,
Dis_park’d_ my parks, and fell’d my forest woods;
From my own windows torn my household coat,
Raz’d out my _impress_, {32} leaving me no sign,
Save men’s opinions and my living blood,
To shew the world I am a gentleman.
This, and much more, much more than twice all this,
Condemns you to the death. See them deliver’d over
To execution and the hand of death.”
ACT 1, SCENE 3.
_Boling_. Your will be done: this must my comfort be,
That sun, that warms you here, shall shine on me;
And those his golden beams, to you here lent,
Shall point on me, and gild my banishment.
_North_. A dearer merit, not so deep a maim
As to be cast forth in the common air,
Have I deserved at your highness’ hand.
The language I have learn’d these forty years,
My native English, now I must forego, etc., etc.
What is my sentence then, but speechless death,
Which robs my native tongue from breathing native breath?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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