"What would you with the king?" -From the book "Eats, Shoots and Leaves"

In the book Eats, Shoots and Leaves, in order to show how punctuation changes meaning and can be used for jokes, it says:

Instead of “What would you with the king?” you can have someone say in Marlowe’s Edward II, “What? Would you? With the king?"

I understand the innuendo but I don't understand the sentence in bold. It sounds like there is a word missing? Or is it grammatically correct and I'm missing something here? Thanks

"What would you with the king?" is an archaic construct (but of course common in Marlowe's time), meaning "what do you want with the king?", or "what is your reason for wanting to talk to the king?"

"Would" is a form of "will". In current English, "will" and "would" are almost always used with another verb to indicate future or potential action. That's why you're expecting another word. But in Marlowe's time it was common to use "will" as a stand-alone verb meaning "to wish or desire", and "would" as its subjunctive. So "what would you?" has a meaning similar to "what do you want?" (only softer) or "what would you like to do?"

Christopher Marlowe lived between 1564 and 1593, so it is not to be expected that his English is entirely our English.

In his play Edward the Second, the following exchange takes place.

Young Mortimer. Cease to lament, and tell us where’s the king?
Queen Isabella. What would you with the king? Is’t him you seek?

From which it is readily seen that the meaning is equivalent to 'what do you want the king for?'

The same construction can be seen at about the same time in 1611 in the English translation (Authorised King James Version) of Joshua 15:18 :

And it came to pass, as she came unto him, that she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she dismounted from her mule; and Caleb said unto her, What wouldest thou?

This quote is actually the 1769 rendering, the original 1611 version is :

And it came to passe as shee came vnto him, that she moued him to aske of her father a field, and she lighted off her asse; and Caleb said vnto her, What wouldest thou?

In context, it becomes clear that Caleb's daughter has a request about irrigation, having been granted land but no springs.

So, again, the meaning is clear - What is it that you wish ?