Dear, my lord,
There are some thoughts
That through this stormy weather of my soul
Cannot now travel toward you.
Act II, Scene 5
In Act I, Scene 3, spies have just informed Queen Elinor of the King’s love for Rosamund, and of the place where he has hidden her:
Q. Elinor. Thank God for boys!
To have reared a treasonous brood from his own blood,
To have it at my call!
[To the King, who has entered.
I tell you to your face, that boy of ours,
Crowned Henry, has my love, because he has
My bridegroom’s eyes; but for the rest, my lord,
You’re old to think of love: when you were young
You thought not of it.
K. Henry. I embraced your lands,
Not you.
Q. Elinor. Plantagenet, you wronged yourself
As you had made the day and night your foe,
And roused
The violated seasons to confer
Each his peculiar catastrophe
Of death or pestilence.—;Embraced my lands!
I’ll shatter you
As Nature shatters—;you as impotent
As the uprooted tree to lash the earth....
Embraced my lands.—;Ah, I forget myself,
The loveless are insensate to presage;
’Tis in calamity’s harsh stubble-field
They learn to suffer. I’ll be harvester,
And sickle your ripe joys.
The last scene is in Rosamund’s room at Woodstock. It is night, and she is waiting for the King. But Queen Elinor has found the clue to the labyrinth, and is at this moment approaching the secret bower, intent upon killing her rival:
Rosamund. White moon, art thou the only visitant?
Thou lookst like death!
Dost glisten through the trees
My Henry bows his plumes to in the gloom?
He comes to-night; for good Sir Topaz said,
“My lady, put you on the crimson gown
The King had wrought for you, and ask no more,
But trust an old man’s word.
And be you ready.” It’s a silver night;
I’ll put me out apparel. How blood red
Burn the dark folds! I cannot put it on;
And yet I will. My lute; what is’t I want—;
God, or the King?
[Sings.