KING Lincoln, what news with you?

LINCOLN

My gracious lord, have care unto yourself,

For there are traitors here.

ALL Traitors? Where? Who?

EYRE

Traitors in my house? God forbid! Where be my officers?

I’ll spend my soul ere my King feel harm.

40

KING

Where is the traitor, Lincoln?

LINCOLN [Indicating LACY] Here he stands.

KING

Cornwall, lay hold on Lacy. Lincoln, speak:

What canst thou lay unto thy nephew’s charge?

LINCOLN

This, my dear liege. Your Grace to do me honour

Heaped on the head of this degenerous boy

45

Desertless favours. You made choice of him

To be commander over powers in France;

But he –

KING Good Lincoln, prithee pause a while.

Even in thine eyes I read what thou wouldst speak.

I know how Lacy did neglect our love,

50

Ran himself deeply, in the highest degree,

Into vile treason.

LINCOLN Is he not a traitor?

KING

Lincoln, he was; now we have pardoned him.

’Twas not a base want of true valour’s fire

That held him out of France, but love’s desire.

55

LINCOLN

I will not bear his shame upon my back.

KING

Nor shalt thou, Lincoln. I forgive you both.

LINCOLN

Then, good my liege, forbid the boy to wed

One whose mean birth will much disgrace his bed.

KING

Are they not married?

LINCOLN No, my liege.

BOTH We are.

60

KING

Shall I divorce them, then? O, be it far

That any hand on earth should dare untie

The sacred knot knit by God’s majesty.

I would not for my crown disjoin their hands

That are conjoined in holy nuptial bands.

65

How sayst thou, Lacy? Wouldst thou lose thy Rose?

LACY

Not for all India’s wealth, my sovereign.

KING

But Rose, I am sure, her Lacy would forgo.

ROSE

If Rose were asked that question, she’d say no.

KING

You hear them, Lincoln?

LINCOLN Yea, my liege, I do.

70

KING

Yet canst thou find i’th’heart to part these two?

Who seeks, besides you, to divorce these lovers?

OATLEY

I do, my gracious lord. I am her father.

KING

Sir Roger Oatley, our last Mayor, I think?

NOBLEMAN

The same, my liege.

KING Would you offend love’s laws?

75

Well, you shall have your wills. You sue to me

To prohibit the match. Soft, let me see:

You both are married, Lacy, art thou not?

LACY

I am, dread sovereign.

KING Then, upon thy life,

I charge thee not to call this woman wife.

80

OATLEY

I thank your Grace.

ROSE O my most gracious lord! Knee!

KING

Nay, Rose, never woo me. I tell you true.

Although as yet I am a bachelor,

Yet I believe I shall not marry you.

ROSE

Can you divide the body from the soul,

85

Yet make the body live?

KING Yea, so profound?

I cannot, Rose; but you I must divide.

Fair maid, this bridegroom cannot be your bride.

Are you pleased, Lincoln? Oatley, are you pleased?

BOTH

Yes, my lord.

KING Then must my heart be eased;

90

For, credit me, my conscience lives in pain

Till these whom I divorced be joined again.

Lacy, give me thy hand. Rose, lend me thine.

Be what you would be. Kiss now; so, that’s fine.

At night, lovers, to bed. Now, let me see,

95

Which of you all mislikes this harmony?

OATLEY

Will you then take me from my child perforce?

KING

Why, tell me, Oatley, shines not Lacy’s name

As bright in the world’s eye as the gay beams

Of any citizen?

LINCOLN Yea, but, my gracious lord,

100

I do mislike the match far more than he.

Her blood is too too base.

KING Lincoln, no more.

Dost thou not know that love respects no blood,

Cares not for difference of birth or state?

The maid is young, well born, fair, virtuous,

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A worthy bride for any gentleman.

Besides, your nephew for her sake did stoop

To bare necessity and, as I hear,

Forgetting honours and all courtly pleasures,

To gain her love became a shoemaker.

110

As for the honour which he lost in France,

Thus I redeem it: Lacy, kneel thee down.