Mayor. To speedy execution with them all! [Exeunt.
V. v. 30. ‘For the charges of brenning Mistress Arden and execution of George Bradshaw, XLIII S.’—Canterbury Records.
SCENE VI
Here enters Franklin.
Franklin. Thus have you seen the truth of Arden’s death.
As for the ruffians, Shakebag and Black Will,
The one took sanctuary, and, being sent for out,
Was murdered in Southwark as he passed
To Greenwich, where the Lord Protector lay.
Black Will was burned in Flushing on a stage;
Greene was hanged at Osbridge in Kent;
The painter fled and how he died we know not.
But this above the rest is to be noted:
Arden lay murdered in that plot of ground 10
Which he by force and violence held from Reede;
And in the grass his body’s print was seen
Two years and more after the deed was done.
Gentlemen, we hope you’ll pardon this naked tragedy,
Wherein no filèd points are foisted in
To make it gracious to the ear or eye;
For simple truth is gracious enough,
And needs no other points of glosing stuff. [Exit.
V. vi. 2. By the Wardmote Book, ‘George Loosebagg, i.e. Shakebag, escaped at that time.’ John Green, who like Mosbie was a tailor, was taken in July in Cornwall and brought to Faversham and hanged in chains within the liberties. Susan, in the play, combines the characters of Cecily Pounder, Mosbie’s sister, and of Elizabeth Stafford, the maid-servant. Morsby and his sister were hanged in Smithfield; Michael Saunderson was ‘drawn and hanged in chains’ in Faversham, where Elizabeth was burnt. By the Wardmote Book Alice Arden did not stab her husband.
GLOSSARY
Abhors from, differs entirely from; I. 54; an uncommon use. Dr. Murray quotes Fox, A. and M.; II. 357, ‘It did nothing at all abhor from nature.’
Angel, the coin of that name; II. i. 89, etc.
Arming sword, a large two-handed sword, V. i. 72.