_The palace of the Duke of Genoa._
_Enter_ MALEVOLE _and_ PASSARELLO.
_Mal._ Fool, most happily encountered: canst sing,
fool?
_Pass._ Yes, I can sing, fool, if you'll bear the burden;
and I can play upon instruments, scurvily, as gentlemen
do. O, that I had been gelded! I should then have
been a fat fool for a chamber, a squeaking fool for a
tavern, and a private fool for all the ladies.
_Mal._ You are in good case since you came to court,
fool: what, guarded, guarded![399] 9
_Pass._ Yes, faith, even as footmen and bawds wear
velvet, not for an ornament of honour, but for a badge
of drudgery; for, now the duke is discontented, I am
fain to fool him asleep every night.
_Mal._ What are his griefs?
_Pass._ He hath sore eyes.
_Mal._ I never observed so much.
_Pass._ Horrible sore eyes; and so hath every cuckold,
for the roots of the horns spring in the eyeballs, and
that's the reason the horn of a cuckold is as tender as
his eye, or as that growing in the woman's forehead twelve
years since,[400] that could not endure to be touched. The
duke hangs down his head like a columbine. 22
_Mal._ Passarello, why do great men beg fools?[401]
_Pass._ As the Welshman stole rushes when there was
nothing else to filch; only to keep begging in fashion.
_Mal._ Pooh, thou givest no good reason; thou speakest
like a fool.
_Pass._ Faith, I utter small fragments, as your knight
courts your city widow with jingling[402] of his gilt spurs,
advancing his bush-coloured beard,[403] and taking tobacco:
this is all the mirror of their knightly complements.[404] Nay,
I shall talk when my tongue is a-going once; 'tis like a
citizen on horseback, evermore in a false gallop. 33
_Mal._ And how doth Maquerelle fare nowadays?
_Pass._ Faith, I was wont to salute her as our English
women are at their first landing in Flushing;[405] I would
call her whore: but now that antiquity leaves her as an
old piece of plastic[406] to work by, I only ask her how her
rotten teeth fare every morning, and so leave her. She
was the first that ever invented perfumed smocks for the
gentlewomen, and woollen shoes, for fear of creaking
for the visitant. She were an excellent lady, but that
her face peeleth like Muscovy glass.[407] 43
_Mal._ And how doth thy old lord, that hath wit enough
to be a flatterer, and conscience enough to be a knave?
_Pass._ O, excellent: he keeps beside me fifteen jesters,
to instruct him in the art of fooling, and utters their jests
in private to the duke and duchess: he'll lie like to
your Switzer or lawyer; he'll be of any side for most
money. 50
_Mal._ I am in haste, be brief.
_Pass._ As your fiddler when he is paid.--He'll thrive,
I warrant you, while your young courtier stands like
Good-Friday in Lent; men long to see it, because more
fatting days come after it; else he's the leanest and pitifullest
actor in the whole pageant. Adieu, Malevole.
_Mal._ [_Aside._] O world most vile, when thy loose vanities,
Taught by this fool, do make the fool seem wise!
_Pass._ You'll know me again, Malevole.
_Mal._ O, ay, by that velvet. 60
_Pass._ Ay, as a pettifogger by his buckram bag. I
am as common in the court as an hostess's lips in the
country; knights, and clowns, and knaves, and all share
me: the court cannot possibly be without me. Adieu,
Malevole.
[_Exeunt._
[398] This scene was added in ed. 2.
[399] Ornamented with _guards_ or facings.--The coats of fools
were commonly guarded.
[400] "The woman with the horn in her forehead was probably
Margaret Griffith, wife of David Owen, of Llan Gaduain, in
Montgomery. A portrait of her is in existence, prefixed to a
scarce pamphlet, entitled, '_A miraculous and monstrous, but yet
most true and certayne Discourse of a Woman, now to be seen in
London, of the age of threescore yeares or thereabouts, in the
midst of whose forehead there groweth out a crooked Horne of four
ynches long. Imprinted at London, by Thomas Orwin, and are to be
sold by Edward White, dwelling at the little north dore of Paules
Church, at the signe of the Gun_, 1588.'"--_Gilchrist._
[401] _To beg a person for a fool_ was to apply to be made
guardian of a person who had been legally proved to be an idiot.
It was in the king's power to grant the custody of an idiot's
person and the profits of his estate to any subject.
[402] Gallants prided themselves on wearing spurs that jingled.
Middleton, after elaborately describing a young prodigal's
attire, adds:--"Lastly, he walked the chamber with such a
pestilent jingle that his spurs over-squeaked the lawyer"
(_Works_, viii. 71). So Chapman in _Monsieur D'Olive_:--"You may
hear them (the gallants) half a mile ere they come at you--six or
seven make a perfect morice-dance; they need no bells, their
spurs serve their turn."
[403] This is the reading of Dyce's copy of ed. 2. Other copies
read:-- "Faith, I utter small fragments as your knight courtes
your Citty widow _with something of his guilt: some aduancing his
high-colored beard_," &c.
[404] Accomplishments.
[405] "At this time Flushing was in the hands of the English as
part of the security for money advanced by Queen Elizabeth to the
Dutch. The governor and garrison were all Englishmen."--_Reed._
[406] Model in wax or clay.
[407] Talc.--Reed quotes from Giles Fletcher's _Russe
Commonwealth_, 1591, p. 10:--"In the province of Corelia, and
about the river Duyna towards the North-sea, there groweth a soft
rock which they call Slude. This they cut into pieces, and so
tear it into thin _flakes, which naturally it is apt for_, and so
use it for glasse lanthorns and such like. It giveth both inwards
and outwards a clearer light then glasse, and for this respect is
better than either glasse or horne; for that it neither breaketh
like glasse, nor yet will burne like the lanthorne."
ACT II.
SCENE I.
_Chamber in the Duke's Palace._
_Enter_ MENDOZA _with a sconce,[408] to observe_ FERNEZE'S
_entrance, who, whilst the act is playing, enters unbraced, two
Pages before him with lights; is met by_ MAQUERELLE _and conveyed
in; the Pages[409] are sent away_.
_Men._ He's caught, the woodcock's head is i' the noose.
Now treads Ferneze in dangerous path of lust,
Swearing his sense is merely[410] deified:
The fool grasps clouds, and shall beget Centaurs:
And now, in strength of panting faint delight,
The goat bids heaven envy him. Good goose,
I can afford thee nothing
But the poor comfort of calamity, pity.
Lust's like the plummets hanging on clock-lines,
Will ne'er ha' done till all is quite undone; 10
Such is the course salt sallow lust doth run;
Which thou shalt try. I'll be reveng'd. Duke, thy suspect;
Duchess, thy disgrace; Ferneze, thy rivalship;
Shall have swift vengeance. Nothing so holy,
No band of nature so strong,
No law of friendship so sacred,
But I'll profane, burst, violate, 'fore I'll
Endure disgrace, contempt, and poverty.
Shall I, whose very hum struck all heads bare,
Whose face made silence, creaking of whose shoe 20
Forc'd the most private passages fly ope,
Scrape like a servile dog at some latch'd door?
Learn how to make a leg, and cry "Beseech ye,
Pray ye, is such a lord within?" be aw'd
At some odd usher's scoff'd formality?
First sear my brains! _Unde cadis, non quo, refert_;[411]
My heart cries, "Perish all!" How! how! what fate
Can once avoid revenge, that's desperate?
I'll to the duke: if all should ope--if! tush,
Fortune still dotes on those who cannot blush. 30
[_Exit._
[408] Lantern.
[409] Some copies of ed. 1. "the Dutches pages."
[410] Wholly.
[411] See note 1, p. 49.
SCENE II.
_Chamber in the Duke's Palace._
_Enter_ MALEVOLE _at one door_; BIANCA, EMILIA, _and_
MAQUERELLE _at the other door_.
_Mal._ Bless ye, cast o' ladies![412]--Ha, dipsas![413] how
dost thou, old coal?
_Maq._ Old coal!
_Mal._ Ay, old coal: methinks thou liest like a brand
under these[414] billets of green wood. He that will inflame
a young wench's heart, let him lay close to her an old
coal that hath first been fired, a panderess, my half-burnt
lint, who though thou canst not flame thyself, yet art
able to set a thousand virgin's tapers afire.--And how
does[415] Janivere thy husband, my little periwinkle? is he
troubled with the cough o' the lungs still? does he hawk
o' nights still? he will not bite. 12
_Bian._ No, by my troth, I took him with his mouth
empty of old teeth.
_Mal._ And he took thee with thy belly full of young
bones: marry, he took his maim by the stroke of his
enemy.
_Bian._ And I mine by the stroke of my friend.
_Mal._ The close stock![416] O mortal wench! Lady,
ha' ye now no restoratives for your decayed Jasons?[417]
look ye, crab's guts baked,[418] distilled ox-pith,[419] the
pulverised hairs of a lion's upper-lip, jelly of cock-sparrows,
he-monkey's marrow, or powder of fox-stones?--And
whither are all[420] you ambling now? 24
_Bian._ Why,[421] to bed, to bed.
_Mal._ Do your husbands lie with ye?
_Bian._ That were country fashion, i'faith.
_Mal._ Ha' ye no foregoers about you? come, whither
in good deed, la, now?
_Maq._[422] In good indeed, la, now, to eat the most
miraculously, admirably, astonishable composed posset
with three curds, without any drink. Will ye help me
with a he-fox?--Here's the duke. 33
_Mal._[423] Fried frogs are very good, and French-like, too.
[_Exeunt Ladies._
_Enter_ PIETRO, CELSO, EQUATO, BILIOSO, FERRARDO, _and_
MENDOZA.
_Pietro._ The night grows deep and foul: what hour is't?
_Celso._ Upon the stroke of twelve.
_Mal._ Save ye, duke!
_Pietro._ From thee: begone, I do not love thee; let
me see thee no more; we are displeased.
_Mal._ Why, God b'wi' thee![424] Heaven hear my
curse,--may thy wife and thee live long together! 41
_Pietro._ Begone, sirrah!
_Mal. When Arthur first in court began_,[425]--Agamemnon
--Menelaus--was ever any duke a cornuto?
_Pietro._ Begone, hence!
_Mal._ What religion wilt thou be of next?
_Men._ Out with him!
_Mal._ With most servile patience.--Time will come
When wonder of thy error will strike dumb
Thy bezzled[426] sense.-- 50
Slaves! ay, favour: ay, marry, shall he rise:[427]
Good God! how subtle hell doth flatter vice!
Mounts[428] him aloft, and makes him seem to fly,
As fowl the tortoise mock'd, who to the sky
The ambitious shell-fish rais'd! the end of all
Is only, that from height he might dead fall.
_Bil._[429] Why, when?[430] out, ye rogue! begone, ye rascal!
_Mal._ I shall now leave ye with all my best wishes.
_Bil._ Out, ye cur!
_Mal._ Only let's hold together a firm correspondence.
_Bil._ Out! 61
_Mal._ A mutual-friendly-reciprocal-perpetual kind of
steady-unanimous-heartily-leagued--
_Bil._ Hence, ye gross-jawed, peasantly--out, go!
_Mal._ Adieu, pigeon-house; thou burr, that only
stickest to nappy fortunes. The serpigo, the strangury,
an eternal uneffectual priapism seize thee!
_Bil._ Out, rogue!
_Mal._ May'st thou be a notorious wittolly pander to
thine own wife, and yet get no office, but live to be
the utmost misery of mankind, a beggarly cuckold! 71
[_Exit._
_Pietro._ It shall be so.
_Men._ It must be so, for where great states revenge,
'Tis requisite the parts be closely dogg'd,[431]
(Which piety and soft respect forbears).
Lay one into his breast shall sleep with him,
Feed in the same dish, run in self-faction,
Who may discover[432] any shape of danger;
For once disgrac'd, displayèd[433] in offence,
It makes man blushless, and man is (all confess) 80
More prone to vengeance than to gratefulness.
Favours are writ in dust; but stripes we feel
Depravèd nature stamps in lasting steel.
_Pietro._ You shall be leagu'd with the duchess.
_Equato._ The plot is very good.
_Pietro._[434] You shall both kill, and seem the corse to save.
_Fer._ A most fine brain-trick.
_Celso._ [_aside_] Of a most cunning knave.
_Pietro._ My lords, the heavy action we intend
Is death and shame, two of the ugliest shapes
That can confound a soul; think, think of it: 90
I strike, but yet, like him that 'gainst stone walls
Directs, his shafts rebound in his own face;
My lady's shame is mine, O God, 'tis mine!
Therefore I do conjure all secrecy:
Let it be as very little as may be,
Pray ye, as may be.
Make frightless entrance, salute her with soft eyes,
Stain naught with blood; only Ferneze dies,
But not before her brows. O gentlemen,
God knows I love her! Nothing else, but this:-- 100
I am not well: if grief, that sucks veins dry,
Rivels[435] the skin, casts ashes in men's faces,
Be-dulls the eye, unstrengthens all the blood,
Chance to remove me to another world,
As sure I once must die, let him succeed:
I have no child; all that my youth begot
Hath been your loves, which shall inherit me:
Which as it ever shall, I do conjure it,
Mendoza may succeed: he's nobly[436] born;
With me of much desert.
_Celso._ [_aside_] Much![437] 110
_Pietro._ Your silence answers, "Ay:"
I thank you. Come on now. O, that I might die
Before her shame's display'd! would I were forc'd
To burn my father's tomb, unheal[438] his bones,
And dash them in the dirt, rather than this!
This both the living and the dead offends:
Sharp surgery where naught but death amends.
[_Exeunt._
[412] "Cast o' ladies"--couple of ladies.
[413] A very venomous little serpent. "A man or beast wounded
with this serpent," says Topsel in his _Hist. of Serpents_ (ed.
1658, p. 699), "is afflicted with intolerable thirst, insomuch as
it is easier for him to break his belly than to quench his thirst
with drinking; always gaping like a bull, casteth himself down
into the water and maketh no spare of the cold liquor, but
continually sucketh it in till either the belly break or the
poison drive out the life by overcoming the vital spirits."
[414] Omitted in ed. 2.--"A maquerela, in plain English a bawd,"
says Overbury in his _Characters_, "is an old charcoal that hath
been burnt herself, and therefore is able to kindle a whole green
coppice."
[415] Ed. 2. "dooth."
[416] Stockado--a thrust in fencing.
[417] Ed. 1. "Jason."
[418] So in the _Scourge of Villainy_:
"A crab's baked guts and lobster's butter'd thigh,
I hear them swear is blood for venery."
[419] Ox-pith is mentioned among other provocatives in John
Taylor's _The Sculler_, ep. 32:--
"Look how yon lecher's legs are worn away,
With haunting of the whore-house every day!
He knows more greasy panders, bawds and drabs,
And eats more lobsters, artichokes and crabs,
Blue roasted eggs, potatoes, muscadine,
Oysters, and _pith that grows i' the ox's chine_,
With many drugs, compounds, and simples store,
Which makes him have a stomach to a whore."
[420] Omitted in ed. 2.
[421] Omitted in ed. 2.
[422] This speech is given to Bianca in ed. 2.
[423] This speech was added in ed. 2.
[424] Ed. 2. "be with thee."
[425] The first line of an old ballad (printed in Percy's
_Reliques_). Falstaff is introduced humming a snatch of it
in _2 Henry IV._, ii. 4.
[426] Drunken.
[427] The line is corrupt. Old eds. "slaues I fauour, I marry
shall he rise."--Dyce reads "The slave's in favour: ay, marry,
shall he rise."
[428] Ed. 1. "mount."
[429] "Why, when? ... cuckold" (ll. 57-71).--This passage was
added in ed. 2.
[430] A common exclamation of impatience.
[431] The passage is very corrupt. Old eds. read:--
"'Tis requisite, the parts [ed. 2. _partes_] with piety,
And soft [ed. 2. and some copies of ed. 1. _loft_]
respect forbeares, be closely dogg'd," &c.
Dyce's emendation is:--
"'Tis requisite the parties with piety
And soft respect ever be closely dogg'd."
W. N. Lettsom proposed:--
"It must be so, for where
Great states revenge, 'tis requisite the parties
With spy of close respect be closely dogg'd."
[432] Ed. 1. "disseuer."
[433] Ed. 1. "discouered."
[434] Old eds. "_Mend._"
[435] Wrinkles.
[436] Ed. 2. "noble."
[437] Ironical exclamation.
[438] Uncover.--"Descouvrir. To discover, uncover, _unhill_,
denude, &c."--_Cotgrave._
SCENE III.
_A chamber in the Duke's Palace._
_Enter_ MAQUERELLE, EMILIA, _and_ BIANCA, _with a posset_.
_Maq._ Even here it is, three curds in three regions
individually distinct, most methodically[439] according to
art compos'd, without any drink.
_Bian._ Without any drink!
_Maq._ Upon my honour. Will ye sit and eat?
_Emil._ Good, the composure: the receipt, how is't?
_Maq._ 'Tis a pretty pearl; by this pearl (how does't
with me?) thus it is. Seven and thirty yolks of Barbary
hens' eggs; eighteen spoonfuls and a half of the
juice of cock-sparrow bones; one ounce, three drams,
four scruples, and one quarter of the syrup of Ethiopian
dates; sweetened with three quarters of a pound of pure
candied Indian eringoes; strewed over with the powder
of pearl of America, amber of Cataia, and lamb-stones
of Muscovia. 15
_Bian._ Trust me, the ingredients are very cordial, and,
no question, good, and most powerful in restauration.[440]
_Maq._ I know not what you mean by restauration;
but this it doth,--it purifieth the blood, smootheth the
skin, enliveneth the eye, strengtheneth the veins, mundifieth
the teeth, comforteth the stomach, fortifieth the
back, and quickeneth the wit; that's all. 22
_Emil._ By my troth, I have eaten but two spoonfuls,
and methinks I could discourse most swiftly and wittily
already.
_Maq._ Have you the art to seem honest?
_Bian._ Ay, thank advice and practice. 27
_Maq._ Why, then, eat me o' this posset, quicken your
blood, and preserve your beauty. Do you know Doctor
Plaster-face? by this curd, he is the most exquisite in
forging of veins, sprightening of eyes, dying of hair,
sleeking of skins, blushing of cheeks, surphling[441] of
breasts, blanching and bleaching of teeth, that ever made
an old lady gracious by torchlight; by this curd, la.
_Bian._ Well,[442] we are resolved, what God has given us
we'll cherish. 36
_Maq._ Cherish anything saving your husband; keep
him not too high, lest he leap the pale: but, for your
beauty, let it be your saint; bequeath two hours to it
every morning in your closet. I ha' been young, and
yet, in my conscience, I am not above five-and-twenty:
but, believe me, preserve and use your beauty; for youth
and beauty once gone, we are like bee-hives without
honey, out-o'-fashion apparel that no man will wear:
therefore use me your beauty. 45
_Emil._ Ay, but men say--
_Maq._ Men say! let men say what they will: life o'
woman! they are ignorant of our[443] wants. The more in
years, the more in perfection they grow; if they lose
youth and beauty, they gain wisdom and discretion: but
when our beauty fades, good-night with us. There cannot
be an uglier thing than to see an old woman: from
which, O pruning, pinching, and painting, deliver all
sweet beauties! 54
[_Music within._
_Bian._ Hark! music!
_Maq._ Peace, 'tis i' the duchess' bed-chamber.
Good rest, most prosperously-graced ladies.
_Emil._ Good night, sentinel.
_Bian._ Night, dear Maquerelle.
_Maq._ May my posset's operation send you my wit
and honesty; and me, your youth and beauty: the
pleasingest rest! 62
[_Exeunt, at one door_, BIANCA _and_ EMILIA;
_at another_ MAQUERELLE.
_A Song within._
_Whilst the song is singing, enter_ MENDOZA _with his sword drawn,
standing ready to murder_ FERNEZE _as he flies from the duchess'
chamber.--Tumult within._
[_Within._] Strike, strike!
[_Aur. within._] Save my Ferneze! O, save my Ferneze!
[_Within._] Follow, pursue!
[_Aur. within._] O, save Ferneze!
_Enter_ FERNEZE _in his shirt, and is received upon_
MENDOZA'S _sword_.
_Men._ Pierce, pierce!--Thou shallow fool, drop there!
[_Thrusts his rapier in_ FERNEZE.
He that attempts a princess' lawless love
Must have broad hands, close heart, with Argus' eyes,
And back of Hercules, or else he dies. 70
_Enter_ AURELIA, PIETRO, FERRARDO, BILIOSO, CELSO,
_and_ EQUATO.
_All._ Follow, follow!
_Men._ Stand off, forbear, ye most uncivil lords!
_Pietro._ Strike!
_Men._ Do not; tempt not a man resolv'd:
[MENDOZA _bestrides the wounded body of_ FERNEZE,
_and seems to save him_.
Would you, inhuman murderers, more than death?
_Aur._ O poor Ferneze!
_Men._ Alas, now all defence too late!
_Aur._ He's dead.
_Pietro._ I am sorry for our shame.--Go to your bed:
Weep not too much, but leave some tears to shed
When I am dead. 81
_Aur._ What, weep for thee! my soul no tears shall find.
_Pietr._ Alas, alas, that women's souls are blind!
_Men._ Betray such beauty!
Murder such youth! contemn civility!
He loves him not that rails not at him.
_Pietro._ Thou canst not move us: we have blood enough.--
And please you, lady, we have quite forgot
All your defects: if not, why, then--
_Aur._ Not.
_Pietro._ Not: the best of rest: good-night. 90
[_Exeunt_ PIETRO, FERRARDO, BILIOSO,
CELSO, _and_ EQUATO.
_Aur._ Despite go with thee!
_Men._ Madam, you ha' done me foul disgrace; you
have wronged him much loves you too much: go to,
your soul knows you have.
_Aur._ I think I have.
_Men._ Do you but think so?
_Aur._ Nay, sure, I have: my eyes have witnessed thy
love: thou hast stood too firm for me.
_Men._ Why, tell me, fair-cheeked lady, who even in
tears art powerfully beauteous, what unadvised passion
struck ye into such a violent heat against me? Speak,
what mischief wronged us? what devil injured us?
speak. 103
_Aur._ The thing ne'er worthy of the name of man, Ferneze;
Ferneze swore thou lov'[d]st Emilia;
Which to advance, with most reproachful breath
Thou both didst blemish and denounce my love.
_Men._ Ignoble villain! did I for this bestride
Thy wounded limbs? for[444] this, rank opposite
Even to my sovereign? for this, O God, for this, 110
Sunk all my hopes, and with my hopes my life?
Ripp'd bare my throat unto the hangman's axe?--
Thou most dishonoured trunk!--Emilia!
By life, I know her not--Emilia!--
Did you believe him?
_Aur._ Pardon me, I did.
_Men._ Did you? and thereupon you gracèd him?
_Aur._ I did.
_Men._ Took him to favour, nay, even clasp'd with him?
_Aur._ Alas, I did!
_Men._ This night? 120
_Aur._ This night.
_Men._ And in your lustful twines the duke took you?
_Aur._ A most sad truth.
_Men._ O God, O God! how we dull honest souls,
Heavy-brain'd men, are swallow'd in the bogs
Of a deceitful ground! whilst nimble bloods,
Light-jointed spirits speed;[445] cut good men's throats,
And 'scape. Alas, I am too honest for this age,
Too full of fleam and heavy steadiness;
Stood still whilst this slave cast a noose about me; 130
Nay, then to stand in honour of him and her,
Who had even slic'd my heart!
_Aur._ Come, I did err,
And am most sorry I did err.
_Men._ Why, we are both but dead: the duke hates us;
And those whom princes do once groundly hate,
Let them provide to die, as sure as fate.
Prevention is the heart of policy.
_Aur._ Shall we murder him?
_Men._ Instantly?
_Aur._ Instantly; before he casts a plot, 140
Or further blaze my honour's much-known blot,
Let's murder him.
_Men._ I would do much for you: will ye marry me?
_Aur._ I'll make thee duke. We are of Medicis;
Florence our friend; in court my faction
Not meanly strengthful; the duke then dead;
We well prepar'd for change; the multitude
Irresolutely reeling; we in force;
Our party seconded; the kingdom maz'd;
No doubt of swift success all shall be grac'd. 150
_Men._ You do confirm me; we are resolute:
To-morrow look for change; rest confident.
'Tis now about the immodest waist of night:
The mother of moist dew with pallid light
Spreads gloomy shades about the numbèd earth.
Sleep, sleep, whilst we contrive our mischief's birth.
This man I'll get inhum'd. Farewell: to bed;
Ay, kiss thy[446] pillow, dream the duke is dead.
So, so, good night.
[_Exit_ AURELIA.
How fortune dotes on impudence!
I am in private the adopted son 160
Of yon good prince:
I must be duke; why, if I must, I must.
Most silly lord, name me! O heaven! I see
God made honest fools to maintain crafty knaves.
The duchess is wholly mine too; must kill her husband
To quit her shame; much![447] then marry her: ay.
O, I grow proud in prosperous treachery!
As wrestlers clip, so I'll embrace you all,
Not to support, but to procure your fall.
_Enter_ MALEVOLE.
_Mal._ God arrest thee! 170
_Men._ At whose suit?
_Mal._ At the devil's. Ah, you treacherous, damnable
monster, how dost? how dost, thou treacherous rogue?
Ah, ye rascal! I am banished the court, sirrah.
_Men._ Prithee, let's be acquainted; I do love thee,
faith.
_Mal._ At your service, by the Lord, la: shall's go to
supper? Let's be once drunk together, and so unite a
most virtuously-strengthened friendship: shall's, Huguenot?
shall's? 180
_Men._ Wilt fall upon my chamber to-morrow morn?
_Mal._ As a raven to a dunghill. They say there's one
dead here; pricked for the pride of the flesh.
_Men._ Ferneze: there he is; prithee, bury him.
_Mal._ O, most willingly: I mean to turn pure Rochelle[448]
churchman, I.
_Men._ Thou churchman! why, why?
_Mal._ Because I'll live lazily, rail upon authority, deny
kings' supremacy in things indifferent, and be a pope in
mine own parish. 190
_Men._ Wherefore dost thou think churches were made?
_Mal._ To scour plough-shares: I ha'[449] seen oxen plough
up altars; _et nunc seges ubi Sion fuit_.[450]
_Men._ Strange!
_Mal._ Nay, monstrous! I ha' seen a sumptuous steeple
turned to a stinking privy; more beastly, the sacredest
place made a dogs' kennel; nay, most inhuman, the
stoned coffins of long-dead Christians burst up, and made
hogs' troughs: _hic finis Priami_.[451] Shall I ha' some sack
and cheese at thy chamber? Good night, good mischievous
incarnate devil; good night, Mendoza; ah, ye
inhuman villain, good night! night, fub. 202
_Men._ Goodnight: to-morrow morn?
_Mal._ Ay, I will come, friendly damnation, I will come.
[_Exit_ MENDOZA.] I do descry cross-points; honesty and
courtship straddle as far asunder as a true Frenchman's
legs.
_Fer._ O!
_Mal._ Proclamations! more proclamations!
_Fer._ O! a surgeon! 210
_Mal._ Hark! lust cries for a surgeon. What news from
Limbo? how does[452] the grand cuckold, Lucifer?
_Fer._ O, help, help! conceal and save me.
[FERNEZE _stirs, and_ MALEVOLE _helps him up_.
_Mal._ Thy shame more than thy wounds do grieve me far:
Thy wounds but leave upon thy flesh some scar;
But fame ne'er heals, still rankles worse and worse;
Such is of uncontrollèd lust the curse.
Think what it is in lawless sheets to lie;
But, O Ferneze, what in lust to die!
Then thou that shame respect'st, O, fly converse 220
With women's eyes and lisping wantonness!
Stick candles 'gainst a virgin wall's white back,
If they not burn, yet at the least they'll black.
Come, I'll convey thee to a private port,
Where thou shalt live (O happy man!) from court.
The beauty of the day begins to rise,
From whose bright form night's heavy shadow flies.
Now 'gin close plots to work; the scene grows full,
And craves his eyes who hath a solid skull.
[_Exit, conveying_ FERNEZE _away_.
[439] Ed. 2. "methodicall."
[440] Some copies of ed. 1. "operation."
[441] Washing with cosmetics.
[442] Ed. 2. "We."
[443] Ed. 2. "your."
[444] "For this ... sovereign."--These words are omitted in ed.
2.
[445] Dodsley's correction.--Ed. 1. "pent;" ed. 2. "spent."
[446] Ed. 2. "the."
[447] Ironical exclamation.
[448] At this time Rochelle was an asylum for persecuted
Protestants.
[449] Ed. 2. "have."
[450] "Jam seges est ubi Troja fuit."--Ovid, _Her. Epist._ i. 53.
[451] "Hæc finis Priami fatorum."--Virgil, _Æn._ ii. 554.
[452] Ed. 2. "dooth."
ACT III.
SCENE I.
_A room in the Duke's Palace._
_Enter_ PIETRO, MENDOZA, EQUATO, _and_ BILIOSO.
_Pietro._ 'Tis grown to youth of day: how shall we waste
this light?
My heart's more heavy than a tyrant's crown.
Shall we go hunt? Prepare for field.
[_Exit_ EQUATO.
_Men._ Would ye could be merry!
_Pietro._ Would God I could! Mendoza, bid 'em haste.
[_Exit_ MENDOZA.
I would fain shift place; O vain relief!
Sad souls may well change place, but not change grief:
As deer, being struck, fly thorough many soils,[453]
Yet still the shaft sticks fast, so----
_Bil._ A good old simile, my honest lord. 10
_Pietro._ I am not much unlike to some sick man
That long desirèd hurtful drink; at last
Swills in and drinks his last, ending at once
Both life and thirst. O, would I ne'er had known
My own dishonour! Good God, that men should desire
To search out that, which, being found, kills all
Their joy of life! to taste the tree of knowledge,
And then be driven from out paradise!--
Canst give me some comfort? 19
_Bil._ My lord, I have some books which have been
dedicated to my honour, and I ne'er read 'em, and yet
they had very fine names, _Physic for Fortune_,[454] _Lozenges
of sanctified sincerity_,[455] very pretty works of curates,
scriveners, and schoolmasters. Marry, I remember one
Seneca, Lucius Annæus Seneca----
_Pietro._ Out upon him! he writ of temperance and
fortitude, yet lived like a voluptuous epicure, and died
like an effeminate coward.--Haste thee to Florence:
Here, take our letters; see 'em seal'd: away!
Report in private to the honour'd duke 30
His daughter's forc'd disgrace; tell him at length
We know too much: due compliments[456] advance:
There's naught that's safe and sweet but ignorance.[457]
[_Exit._
_Enter_ BIANCA.
_Bil._ Madam, I am going ambassador for Florence;
'twill be great charges to me.
_Bian._ No matter, my lord, you have the lease of two
manors come out next Christmas; you may lay your
tenants on the greater rack for it: and when you come
home again, I'll teach you how you shall get two hundred
pounds a-year by your teeth. 40
_Bil._ How, madam?
_Bian._ Cut off so much from house-keeping: that
which is saved by the teeth, you know, is got by the
teeth.
_Bil._ 'Fore God, and so I may; I am in wondrous
credit, lady.
_Bian._ See the use of flattery: I did ever counsel you
to flatter greatness, and you have profited well: any
man that will do so shall be sure to be like your Scotch
barnacle,[458] now a block, instantly a worm, and presently a
great goose: this it is to rot and putrefy in the bosom of
greatness. 52
_Bil._ Thou art ever my politician. O, how happy is
that old lord that hath a politician to his young lady!
I'll have fifty gentlemen shall attend upon me: marry,
the most of them shall be farmers' sons, because they
shall bear their own charges; and they shall go apparelled
thus,--in sea-water-green suits, ash-colour cloaks, watchet
stockings, and popinjay-green feathers: will not the
colours do excellent? 60
_Bian._ Out upon't! they'll look like citizens riding to
their friends at Whitsuntide; their apparel just so many
several parishes.
_Bil._ I'll have it so; and Passarello, my fool, shall go
along with me; marry, he shall be in velvet.
_Bian._ A fool in velvet!
_Bil._ Ay, 'tis common for your fool to wear satin; I'll
have mine in velvet.
_Bian._ What will you wear, then, my lord? 69
_Bil._ Velvet too; marry, it shall be embroidered,
because I'll differ from the fool somewhat. I am horribly
troubled with the gout: nothing grieves me, but that
my doctor hath forbidden me wine, and you know your
ambassador must drink. Didst thou ask thy doctor what
was good for the gout?
_Bian._ Yes; he said, ease, wine, and women, were good
for it.
_Bil._ Nay, thou hast such a wit! What was good to
cure it, said he? 79
_Bian._ Why, the rack. All your empirics could never
do the like cure upon the gout the rack did in England,
or your Scotch boot.[459] The French harlequin[460] will
instruct you.
_Bil._ Surely, I do wonder how thou, having for the
instructmost part of thy lifetime been a country body, shouldst
instructhave so good a wit.
_Bian._ Who, I? why, I have been a courtier thrice two
instructmonths. 88
_Bil._ So have I this twenty year, and yet there was a
instructgentleman-usher called me coxcomb t'other day, and to
instructmy face too: was't not a backbiting rascal? I would I
instructwere better travelled, that I might have been better
instructacquainted with the fashions of several countrymen: but
instructmy secretary, I think, he hath sufficiently instructed me.
_Bian._ How, my lord?
_Bil._ "Marry, my good lord," quoth he, "your lordship
instructshall ever find amongst a hundred Frenchmen forty
instructhot-shots; amongst a hundred Spaniards, three-score
instructbraggarts; amongst a hundred Dutchmen, four-score
instructdrunkards; amongst an hundred Englishmen, four-score
instructand ten madmen; and amongst an hundred Welshmen"---- 102
_Bian._ What, my lord?
_Bil._ "Four-score and nineteen gentlemen."[461]
_Bian._ But since you go about a sad embassy, I would
instructhave you go in black, my lord.
_Bil._ Why, dost think I cannot mourn, unless I wear
my hat in cipres,[462] like an alderman's heir? that's vile,
instruct very old, in faith.
_Bian._ I'll learn of you shortly: O, we should have a
fine gallant of you, should not I instruct you! How will
you bear yourself when you come into the Duke of
Florence' court? 113
_Bil._ Proud enough, and 'twill do well enough: as I
walk up and down the chamber, I'll spit frowns about
me, have a strong perfume in my jerkin, let my beard
grow to make me look terrible, salute no man beneath
the fourth button; and 'twill do excellent.
_Bian._ But there is a very beautiful lady there; how
will you entertain her? 120
_Bil._ I'll tell you that, when the lady hath entertained
me: but to satisfy thee, here comes the fool.
_Enter_ PASSARELLO.
Fool, thou shalt stand for the fair lady.
_Pass._ Your fool will stand for your lady most willingly
and most uprightly.
_Bil._ I'll salute her in Latin.
_Pass._ O, your fool can understand no Latin.
_Bil._ Ay, but your lady can.
_Pass._ Why, then, if your lady take down your fool, your
fool will stand no longer for your lady. 130
_Bil._ A pestilent fool! 'fore God, I think the world
be turned upside down too.
_Pass._ O, no, sir; for then your lady and all the ladies
in the palace should go with their heels upward, and that
were a strange sight, you know.
_Bil._ There be many will repine at my preferment.
_Pass._ O, ay, like the envy of an elder sister, that hath
her younger made a lady before her.
_Bil._ The duke is wondrous discontented.
_Pass._ Ay, and more melancholic than a usurer having
all his money out at the death of a prince. 141
_Bil._ Didst thou see Madam Floria to-day?
_Pass._ Yes, I found her repairing her face to-day; the
red upon the white showed as if her cheeks should have
been served in for two dishes of barberries in stewed
broth, and the flesh to them a woodcock.
_Bil._ A bitter fool![463]--Come, madam, this night thou
shalt enjoy me freely, and to-morrow for Florence. 148
_Pass._ What a natural fool is he that would be a pair
of boddice to a woman's petticoat, to be trussed and
pointed to them! Well, I'll dog my lord; and the word
is proper: for when I fawn upon him, he feeds me; when
I snap him by the fingers, he spits in my mouth. If a
dog's death were not strangling, I had rather be one
than a serving-man; for the corruption of coin is either
the generation of a usurer or a lousy beggar.
[_Exeunt_ BIANCA _and_ PASSARELLO.
_Enter_ MALEVOLE _in some frize gown, whilst_ BILIOSO
_reads his patent_.
_Mal._ I cannot sleep; my eyes' ill-neighbouring lids
Will hold no fellowship. O thou pale sober night,
Thou that in sluggish fumes all sense dost steep;
Thou that giv'st all the world full leave to play, 160
Unbend'st the feebled veins of sweaty labour!
The galley-slave, that all the toilsome day
Tugs at his oar against the stubborn wave,
Straining his rugged veins, snores fast;
The stooping scythe-man, that doth barb the field,
Thou mak'st wink sure: in night all creatures sleep;
Only the malcontent, that 'gainst his fate
Repines and quarrels,--alas, he's goodman tell-clock!
His sallow jaw-bones sink with wasting moan;
Whilst others' beds are down, his pillow's stone. 170
_Bil._ Malevole!
_Mal._ Elder of Israel, thou honest defect of wicked
nature and obstinate ignorance, when did thy wife let
thee lie with her?
_Bil._ I am going ambassador to Florence.
_Mal._ Ambassador! Now, for thy country's honour,
prithee, do not put up mutton and porridge i' thy cloakbag.
Thy young lady wife goes to Florence with thee
too, does she not?
_Bil._ No, I leave her at the palace. 180
_Mal._ At the palace! Now, discretion shield, man;
for God's love, let's ha' no more cuckolds! Hymen
begins to put off his saffron[464] robe: keep thy wife i' the
state of grace. Heart o' truth, I would sooner leave my
lady singled in a bordello than in the Genoa palace:
Sin there appearing in her sluttish shape,
Would soon grow loathsome, even to blushes' sense;
Surfeit would choke[465] intemperate appetite,
Make the soul scent the rotten breath of lust.
When in an Italian lascivious palace, 190
A lady guardianless,
Left to the push of all allurement,
The strongest incitements to immodesty,
To have her bound, incens'd with wanton sweets,
Her veins fill'd high with heating delicates,
Soft rest, sweet music, amorous masquerers,
Lascivious banquets, sin itself gilt o'er,
Strong fantasy tricking up strange delights,
Presenting it dress'd pleasingly to sense,
Sense leading it unto the soul, confirm'd 200
With potent examples impudent custom,
Entic'd by that great bawd, opportunity;[466]
Thus being prepar'd, clap to her easy ear
Youth in good clothes, well-shap'd, rich,
Fair-spoken, promising, noble, ardent, blood-full,
Witty, flattering,--Ulysses absent,
O Ithaca,[467] can chastest Penelope hold out?
_Bil._ Mass, I'll think on't. Farewell.
_Mal._ Farewell. Take thy wife with thee. Farewell.
[_Exit_ BILIOSO.
To Florence; um! it may prove good, it may; 210
And we may once unmask our brows.
_Enter_ CELSO.
_Celso._ My honour'd lord,--
_Mal._ Celso, peace! how is't? speak low: pale fears
Suspect that hedges, walls, and trees, have ears:
Speak, how runs all?
_Celso._ I'faith, my lord, that beast with many heads,
The staggering multitude, recoils apace:
Though thorough great men's envy, most men's malice,
Their much-intemperate heat hath banish'd you,
Yet now they find[468] envy and malice ne'er 220
Produce faint reformation.
The duke, the too soft duke, lies as a block,
For which two tugging factions seem to saw;
But still the iron through the ribs they draw.
_Mal._ I tell thee, Celso, I have ever found
Thy breast most far from shifting cowardice
And fearful baseness: therefore I'll tell thee, Celso,
I find the wind begins to come about;
I'll shift my suit of fortune.
I know the Florentine, whose only force, 230
By marrying his proud daughter to this prince,
Both banish'd me, and made this weak lord duke,
Will now forsake them all; be sure he will:
I'll lie in ambush for conveniency,
Upon their severance to confirm myself.
_Celso._ Is Ferneze interr'd?
_Mal._ Of that at leisure: he lives.
_Celso._ But how stands Mendoza? how is't with him?
_Mal._ Faith, like a pair of snuffers, snibs[469] filth in other
men, and retains it in himself.[470] 240
_Celso._ He does fly from public notice, methinks, as a
hare does from hounds; the feet whereon he flies betray
him.
_Mal._ I can track him, Celso.
O, my disguise fools him most powerfully!
For that I seem a desperate malcontent,
He fain would clasp with me: he's the true slave
That will put on the most affected grace
For some vile second cause.
_Celso._ He's here.
_Mal._ Give place.
[_Exit_ CELSO.
_Enter_ MENDOZA.
Illo, ho, ho, ho! art there, old truepenny?[471] Where hast
thou spent thyself this morning? I see flattery in thine
eyes, and damnation in thy soul. Ha, ye[472] huge rascal!
_Men._ Thou art very merry. 253
_Mal._ As a scholar _futuens gratis_. How does[473] the
devil go with thee now?
_Men._ Malevole, thou art an arrant knave.
_Mal._ Who, I? I have been a sergeant, man.
_Men._ Thou art very poor.
_Mal._ As Job, an alchymist, or a poet.
_Men._ The duke hates thee. 260
_Mal._ As Irishmen[474] do bum-cracks.
_Men._ Thou hast lost his amity.
_Mal._ As pleasing as maids lose their virginity.
_Men._ Would thou wert of a lusty spirit! would thou
wert noble! 265
_Mal._ Why, sure my blood gives me I am noble, sure
I am of noble kind; for I find myself possessed with all
their qualities;--love dogs, dice, and drabs, scorn wit in
stuff-clothes; have beat my shoemaker, knocked my
semstress, cuckold my pothecary, and undone my tailor.
Noble! why not? since the stoic said, _Neminem servum
non ex regibus, neminem regem non ex servis esse oriundum_;[475]
only busy Fortune touses, and the provident Chances
blend them together. I'll give you a simile: did you e'er
see a well with two buckets, whilst one comes up full
to be emptied, another goes down empty to be filled?
such is the state of all humanity. Why, look you, I
may be the son of some duke; for, believe me, intemperate
lascivious bastardy makes nobility doubtful: I have
a lusty daring heart, Mendoza. 280
_Men._ Let's grasp; I do like thee infinitely: wilt enact
one thing for me?
_Mal._ Shall I get by it? [MEN. _gives him his purse_.]
Command me; I am thy slave, beyond death and hell.
_Men._ Murder the duke.
_Mal._ My heart's wish, my soul's desire, my fantasy's
dream, my blood's longing, the only height of my hopes!
How, O God, how! O, how my united spirits throng
together, to[476] strengthen my resolve!
_Men._ The duke is now a-hunting. 290
_Mal._ Excellent, admirable, as the devil would have it!
Lend me, lend me, rapier, pistol, cross-bow: so, so, I'll
do it.
_Men._ Then we agree.
_Mal._ As Lent and fishmongers. Come, a-cap-a-pe,
how? inform.
_Men._ Know that this weak-brain'd duke, who only stands
On Florence' stilts, hath out of witless zeal
Made me his heir, and secretly confirm'd
The wreath to me after his life's full point. 300
_Mal._ Upon what merit?
_Men._ Merit! by heaven, I horn him:
Only Ferneze's death gave me state's life.
Tut, we are politic, he must not live now.
_Mal._ No reason, marry: but how must he die now?
_Men._ My utmost project is to murder the duke, that
I might have his state, because he makes me his heir;
to banish the duchess, that I might be rid of a cunning
Lacedæmonian, because I know Florence will forsake
her; and then to marry Maria, the banished Duke
Altofront's wife, that her friends might strengthen me
and my faction: that is all, la. 311
_Mal._ Do you love Maria?
_Men._ Faith, no great affection, but as wise men do
love great women, to ennoble their blood and augment
their revenue. To accomplish this now, thus now. The
duke is in the forest next the sea: single him, kill him,
hurl him i' the main, and proclaim thou sawest wolves
eat him.
_Mal._ Um! not so good. Methinks when he is slain,
To get some hypocrite, some dangerous wretch 320
That's muffled o['e]r with feignèd holiness,
To swear he heard the duke on some steep cliff
Lament his wife's dishonour, and, in an agony
Of his heart's torture, hurl'd his groaning sides
Into the swollen sea,--this circumstance
Well made sounds probable: and hereupon
The duchess----
_Men._ May well be banish'd:
O unpeerable invention! rare!
Thou god of policy! it honeys me. 330
_Mal._ Then fear not for the wife of Altofront;
I'll close to her.
_Men._ Thou shalt, thou shalt. Our excellency is pleas'd:
Why wert not thou an emperor? when we
Are duke, I'll make thee some great man, sure.
_Mal._ Nay,
Make me some rich knave, and I'll make myself
Some great man.
_Men._ In thee be all my spirit:
Retain ten souls, unite thy virtual powers:
Resolve; ha, remember greatness! heart, farewell: 340
The fate of all my hopes in thee doth dwell.
[_Exit._
_Re-enter_ CELSO.
_Mal._ Celso, didst hear?--O heaven, didst hear
Such devilish mischief? suffer'st thou the world
Carouse damnation even with greedy swallow,
And still dost wink, still does thy vengeance slumber?
If now thy brows are clear, when will they thunder?
[_Exeunt._
[453] Streams.--A deer was said to _take soil_ when it took to
the water to escape the hunters.
[454] "In 1579 was published a book, entitled _Physic against
Fortune, as well prosperous as adverse, contained in two Books.
Written in Latin by Francis Petrarch, a most famous poet and
oratour, and now first Englished by Thomas Twyne._ 4to. B.
L."--_Reed._
[455] This seems to be a fictitious book, but some of the old
divines chose titles quite as quaint. One of Thomas Becon's works
is entitled _The Pomander of Prayer_.
[456] Ed. 1. "complaints."
[457] What follows, down to the entrance of Malevole (l. 156),
was added in ed. 2.
[458] It was a common superstition that this shell-fish turned
itself into a solan-goose. See _Nares' Glossary_.
[459] A horrid instrument of torture by which the legs were
crushed. In Milloeus' _Praxis Criminis Persequendi_, Paris, 1541,
fol., there is a blood-curdling representation of a victim
undergoing this torture. The instrument was never used in
England; but was frequently applied in France and Scotland to
extort confession from criminals.
[460] Old ed. "herlakeene."
[461] Concerning Welshmen's pride in their gentility, see
Middleton, iii. 23 (_note_).
[462] Fine crape.
[463] Old ed. "fowl."--The word _fowl_ seems to have been
pronounced _fool_ (Middleton, vi. 249). Perhaps the reading
"fowl" (after the mention of "woodcock") should be retained, as
some sort of joke may have been intended.
[464] Hymen was usually represented in masques with a saffron
robe.
[465] Old eds. "cloake" and "cloke."
[466] "So in Shakespeare's _Lucrece_:
'O _Opportunity_, thy guilt is great!
· · · · · · ·
Thou foul abettor! thou notorious _bawd_!'"--_Dyce._
So Heywood:--
"Win _Opportunity_,
She's the _best bawd_."--_Fair Maid of the West_, i. 1.
[467] Ed. 2. "O Ithacan."
[468] Some copies of ed. 1. "faind."
[469] Snubs, rebukes. Cf. Middleton's _Five Gallants_, ii.
3:--"Push! i'faith, sir, you're to blame; you have _snibbed_ the
poor fellow too much."
[470] Ed. 2. "itself."
[471] "_Hor._ [_within_] _Hillo, ho, ho_, my lord!
_Ham. Hillo, ho, ho_, boy! come, bird, come.
· · · · · · · · · · ·
· · · _art thou there, truepenny_?"--_Hamlet_, i. 5.
[472] Ed. 2. "thou."
[473] Ed. 2. "dooth."
[474] "This fantastical cohibition against the freedom of Nature
in this part, makes me reflect upon as inconvenient a restraint
(deserving but a collateral insertion) imposed upon the reverse
of this and the benefit we receive from the egestions of Port
Esquiline. For the Guineans are very careful [_ne pardant_], and
wondered much at the Netherlanders' rusticity and impudence....
_The Irish are much of the same opinion in this point of
unnatural restraint_, whereas the Romans, by an edict of Claudius
the Emperor, most consonant to the law of Nature, at all times
and in all places, upon a just necessity, freely challenged the
benefit of Nature."--Bulwer's _Artificial Changeling_, ed. 1650,
p. 220.
[475] Seneca, _Epist._ xliv.
[476] Old eds. "so."
SCENE II.
_A forest near the sea._
_Enter_ PIETRO, FERRARDO, PREPASSO, _and_ Three
Pages.
_Fer._ The dogs are at a fault.
[_Cornets like horns within._
_Pietro._ Would God nothing but the dogs were at it!
Let the deer pursue safety,[477] the dogs follow the game,
and do you follow the dogs: as for me, 'tis unfit one
beast should hunt another; I ha' one chaseth me: an't[478]
please you, I would be rid of ye a little.
_Fer._ Would your grief would, as[479] soon as we, leave
you to quietness!
_Pietro._ I thank you.
[_Exeunt_ FERRARDO _and_ PREPASSO.
Boy, what dost thou dream of now? 10
_First Page._ Of a dry summer, my lord; for here's a
hot world towards: but, my lord, I had a strange dream
last night.
_Pietro._ What strange dream?
_First Page._ Why, methought I pleased you with
singing, and then I dreamt that you gave me that short
sword.
_Pietro._ Prettily begged: hold thee, I'll prove thy
dream true; take't.
[_Giving sword._
_First Page._ My duty: but still I dreamt on, my lord;
and methought, an't[478] shall please your excellency, you
would needs out of your royal bounty give me that jewel
in your hat. 23
_Pietro._ O, thou didst but dream, boy; do not believe
it: dreams prove not always true; they may hold in a
short sword, but not in a jewel. But now, sir, you
dreamt you had pleased me with singing; make that
true, as I ha' made the other.
_First Page._ Faith, my lord, I did but dream, and
dreams, you say, prove not always true; they may hold
in a good sword, but not in a good song: the truth is, I
ha' lost my voice. 32
_Pietro._ Lost thy voice! how?
_First Page._ With dreaming, faith: but here's a couple
of sirenical rascals shall enchant ye: what shall they
sing, my good lord?
_Pietro._ Sing of the nature of women; and then the
song shall be surely full of variety, old crotchets, and
most sweet closes: it shall be humorous, grave, fantastic,
amorous, melancholy, sprightly, one in all, and all in
one. 41
_First Page._ All in one!
_Pietro._ By'r lady, too many. Sing: my speech grows
culpable of unthrifty idleness: sing. Ah, so, so, sing.
_Song by_ Second _and_ Third Pages.
I am heavy: walk off; I shall talk in my sleep: walk
off.
[_Exeunt_ Pages.
_Enter_ MALEVOLE, _with cross-bow and pistol_.
_Mal._ Brief, brief: who? the duke! good heaven, that fools
Should stumble upon greatness!--Do not sleep, duke;
Give ye good-morrow: I[480] must be brief, duke;
I am fee'd to murder thee: start not: Mendoza, 50
Mendoza hir'd me; here's his gold, his pistol,
Cross-bow, and[481] sword: 'tis all as firm as earth.
O fool, fool, chokèd with the common maze
Of easy idiots, credulity!
Make him thine heir! what, thy sworn murderer!
_Pietro._ O, can it be?
_Mal._ Can!
_Pietro._ Discover'd he not Ferneze?
_Mal._ Yes, but why? but why? for love to thee?
Much, much![482] to be reveng'd upon his rival,
Who had thrust his jaws awry;
Who being slain, suppos'd by thine own hands, 60
Defended by his sword, made thee most loathsome,
Him most gracious with thy loose princess:
Thou, closely yielding egress and regress to her,
Madest him heir; whose hot unquiet lust
Straight tous'd thy sheets, and now would seize thy state.
Politician! wise man! death! to be
Led to the stake like a bull by the horns;
To make even kindness cut a gentle throat!
Life, why art thou numb'd? thou foggy dulness, speak:
Lives not more faith in a home-thrusting tongue 70
Than in these fencing tip-tap courtiers?
_Enter_ CELSO, _with a hermit's gown and beard_.
_Pietro._[483] Lord Malevole, if this be true----
_Mal._ If! come, shade thee with this disguise. If!
thou shalt handle it; he shall thank thee for killing thyself.
Come, follow my directions, and thou shalt see
strange sleights.
_Pietro._ World, whither wilt thou?
_Mal._ Why, to the devil. Come, the morn grows late:
A steady quickness is the soul of state.
[_Exeunt._
[477] Old eds. "safely."
[478] Ed. 1. "and please you."
[479] Ed. 2. "as soone leaue you as we to quietnesse."
[480] For "I must" ed. 1. reads "must;" ed. 2. "you must."
[481] Omitted in ed. 1.
[482] Ironical exclamation.
[483] Old eds. "_Cel._"
ACT IV.
SCENE I.
_Palace of the Duke._
Enter MAQUERELLE.
_Maq._ [_Knocking at the ladies' door._] Medam, medam,
are you stirring, medam? if you be stirring, medam,--if
I thought I should disturb ye--
_Enter_ Page.
_Page._ My lady is up, forsooth.
_Maq._ A pretty boy, faith: how old art thou?
_Page._ I think fourteen.
_Maq._ Nay, an ye be in the teens--are ye a gentleman
born? do you know me? my name is Medam Maquerelle;
I lie in the old Cunny-court.
[_Page._] See, here the ladies. 10
_Enter_ BIANCA _and_ EMILIA.
_Bian._ A fair day to ye, Maquerelle.
_Emil._ Is the duchess up yet, sentinel?
_Maq._ O ladies, the most abominable mischance! O
dear ladies, the most piteous disaster! Ferneze was
taken last night in the duchess' chamber: alas, the duke
catched him and killed him!
_Bian._ Was he found in bed? 17
_Maq._ O, no; but the villainous certainty is, the door
was not bolted, the tongue-tied hatch held his peace: so
the naked troth is, he was found in his shirt, whilst I,
like an arrant beast, lay in the outward chamber, heard
nothing; and yet they came by me in the dark, and yet
I felt them not, like a senseless creature as I was. O
beauties, look to your busk-points;[484] if not chastely, yet
charily: be sure the door be bolted.--Is your lord gone
to Florence?
_Bian._ Yes, Maquerelle. 27
_Maq._ I hope you'll find the discretion to purchase a
fresh gown 'fore his return.--Now, by my troth, beauties,
I would ha' ye once wise: he loves ye; pish! he is witty;
bubble! fair-proportioned; mew! nobly-born; wind!
Let this be still your fixed position; esteem me every
man according to his good gifts, and so ye shall ever remain
most worthy to be, most dear ladies.
_Emil._ Is the duke returned from hunting yet?
_Maq._ They say not yet.
_Bian._ 'Tis now in midst of day. 37
_Emil._ How bears the duchess with this blemish now?
_Maq._ Faith, boldly; strongly defies defame, as one
that has a duke to her father. And there's a note to
you: be sure of a stout friend in a corner, that may
always awe your husband. Mark the behaviour of the
duchess now: she dares defame; cries, "Duke, do what
thou canst, I'll quit mine honour:" nay, as one confirmed
in her own virtue against ten thousand mouths that
mutter her disgrace, she's presently for dances.
_Bian._ For dances!
_Maq._ Most true.
_Emil._ Most strange.
_Enter_ FERRARDO.
See, here's my servant, young Ferrardo: how many servants
thinkest thou I have, Maquerelle? 51
_Maq._ The more, the merrier: 'twas well said, use
your servants as you do your smocks; have many, use
one, and change often; for that's most sweet and court-like.
_Fer._ Save ye, fair ladies! Is the duke return'd?
_Bian._ Sweet sir, no voice of him as yet in court.
_Fer._ 'Tis very strange.
_Bian._ And how like you my servant, Maquerelle? 59
_Maq._ I think he could hardly draw Ulysses' bow; but,
by my fidelity, were his nose narrower, his eyes broader,
his hands thinner, his lips thicker, his legs bigger, his
feet lesser, his hair blacker, and his teeth whiter, he were
a tolerable sweet youth, i'faith. And he will come to my
chamber, I will read him the fortune of his beard.
[_Cornets sound within._
_Fer._ Not yet returned! I fear--but the duchess
approacheth.
_Enter_ MENDOZA _supporting_ AURELIA _and_ GUERRINO:
_the ladies that are on the stage rise_: FERRARDO
_ushers in_ AURELIA, _and then
takes a lady to tread a measure_.[485]
_Aur._ We will dance:--music!--we will dance.
_Guer. Les quanto_[486] lady, _Pensez bien, Passa regis_, or
_Bianca's brawl_? 70
_Aur._ We have forgot the brawl.
_Fer._ So soon? 'tis wonder.
_Guer._ Why, 'tis but two singles on the left, two on
the right, three doubles[487] forward, a traverse of six round:
do this twice, three singles side, galliard trick-of-twenty,[488]
coranto-pace; a figure of eight, three singles broken
down, come up, meet, two doubles, fall back, and then
honour.
_Aur._ O Dædalus, thy maze! I have quite forgot it.
_Maq._ Trust me, so have I, saving the falling-back, and
then honour. 81
_Aur._ Music, music!
_Enter_ PREPASSO.
_Prep._ Who saw the duke? the duke?
_Aur._ Music!
_Enter_ EQUATO.
_Equato._ The duke? is the duke returned?
_Aur._ Music!
_Enter_ CELSO.
_Celso._ The duke is either quite invisible, or else is not.
_Aur._ We are not pleased with your intrusion upon
our private retirement; we are not pleased: you have
forgot yourselves. 90
_Enter a_ Page.
_Celso._ Boy, thy master? where's the duke?
_Page._ Alas, I left him burying the earth with his spread
joyless limbs: he told me he was heavy, would sleep;
bade[489] me walk off, for that the strength of fantasy oft
made him talk[490] in his dreams. I straight obeyed, nor
ever[491] saw him since: but wheresoe'er he is, he's sad.
_Aur._ Music, sound high, as is our heart! sound high!
_Enter_ MALEVOLE, _and_ PIETRO _disguised like an hermit_.
_Mal._ The duke,--peace!--the duke is dead.
_Aur._ Music!
_Mal._ Is't music? 100
_Men._ Give proof.
_Fer._ How?
_Celso._ Where?
_Prep._ When?
_Mal._ Rest in peace, as the duke does; quietly sit: for
my own part, I beheld him but dead; that's all: marry,
here's one can give you a more particular account of him.
_Men._ Speak, holy father, nor let any brow
Within this presence fright thee from the truth:
Speak confidently and freely.
_Aur._ We attend. 110
_Pietro._ Now had the mounting sun's all-ripening wings
Swept the cold sweat of night from earth's dank breast,
When I, whom men call Hermit of the Rock,
Forsook my cell, and clambered up a cliff,
Against whose base the heady Neptune dash'd
His high-curl'd brows; there 'twas I eas'd my limbs:
When, lo! my entrails melted with the moan
Some one, who far 'bove me was climb'd, did make--
I shall offend.
_Men._ Not. 120
_Aur._ On.
_Pietro._ Methinks I hear him yet:--"O female faith!
Go sow the ingrateful sand, and love a woman:
And do I live to be the scoff of men?
To be the[492] wittol-cuckold, even to hug
My poison? Thou knowest, O truth!
Sooner hard steel will melt with southern wind,
A seaman's whistle calm the ocean,
A town on fire be extinct with tears,
Than women, vow'd to blushless impudence, 130
With sweet behaviour and soft minioning[493]
Will turn from that where appetite is fix'd.
O powerful blood! how thou dost slave their soul!
I wash'd an Ethiop, who, for recompense,
Sullied my name: and must I, then, be forc'd
To walk, to live thus black? must! must! fie!
He that can bear with must, he cannot die."
With that, he sigh'd so[494] passionately deep,
That the dull air even groan'd: at last he cries,
"Sink shame in seas, sink deep enough!" so dies; 140
For then I viewed his body fall, and souse[495]
Into the foamy main. O, then I saw,
That which methinks I see, it was the duke;
Whom straight the nicer-stomach'd sea belch'd up:
But then----
_Mal._ Then came I in; but, 'las, all was too late!
For even straight he sunk.
_Pietro._ Such was the duke's sad fate.
_Celso._ A better fortune to our Duke Mendoza!
_Omnes._ Mendoza! 150
[_Cornets flourish._
_Men._ A guard, a guard!
_Enter a Guard._
We, full of hearty tears,
For our good father's loss,
(For so we well may call him
Who did beseech your loves for our succession),
Cannot so lightly over-jump his death
As leave his woes revengeless.--Woman of shame, [_To_ AURELIA.
We banish thee for ever to the place
From whence this good man comes; nor permit,
On death, unto thy[496] body any ornament;
But, base as was thy life, depart away. 160
_Aur._ Ungrateful!
_Men._ Away!
_Aur._ Villain, hear me!
_Men._ Begone!
[PREPASSO _and_ GUERRINO _lead away_ AURELIA _guarded_.
My lords,
Address to public council; 'tis most fit:
The train of fortune is borne up by wit.
Away! our presence shall be sudden; haste.
[_All depart, except_ MENDOZA, MALEVOLE, _and_ PIETRO.
_Mal._ Now, you egregious devil! ha, ye murdering
politician! how dost, duke? how dost look now? brave
duke, i'faith. 170
_Men._ How did you kill him?
_Mal._ Slatted[497] his brains out, then soused him in the
briny sea.
_Men._ Brained him, and drowned him too?
_Mal._ O 'twas best, sure work; for he that strikes a
great man, let him strike home, or else 'ware, he'll prove
no man: shoulder not a huge fellow, unless you may be
sure to lay him in the kennel.
_Men._ A most sound brain-pan! I'll make you both
emperors. 180
_Mal._ Make us Christians, make us Christians.
_Men._ I'll hoist ye, ye shall mount.
_Mal._ To the gallows, say ye? come:[498] _præmium incertum
petit certum scelus_.[499] How stands the progress?
_Men._ Here, take my ring unto the citadel; [_Giving ring._
Have entrance to Maria, the grave duchess
Of banish'd Altofront. Tell her we love her;
Omit no circumstance to grace our person: do't.
_Mal._ I'll[500] make an excellent pander: duke, farewell;
'dieu, adieu, duke. 190
_Men._ Take Maquerelle with thee; for 'tis found
None cuts a diamond but a diamond.
[_Exit_ MALEVOLE.
Hermit,
Thou art a man for me, my confessor:
O thou selected spirit, born for my good!
Sure thou wouldst make
An excellent elder in a deform'd church.
Come, we must be inward,[501] thou and I all one.
_Pietro._ I am glad I was ordained for ye.
_Men._ Go to, then; thou must know that Malevole is a
strange villain; dangerous, very dangerous: you see how
broad 'a speaks; a gross-jawed rogue: I would have thee
poison him: he's like a corn upon my great toe, I cannot go
for him; he must be cored out, he must. Wilt do't, ha?
_Pietro._ Anything, anything. 204
_Men._ Heart of my life! thus, then. To the citadel:
Thou shalt consort with this Malevole;
There being at supper, poison him: it shall be laid
Upon Maria, who yields love or dies:
Scud quick.[502]
_Pietro._ Like lightning: good deeds crawl, but mischief
flies. [_Exit._ 210
_Re-enter_ MALEVOLE.
_Mal._ Your devilship's ring has no virtue: the buff-captain,
the sallow Westphalian gammon-faced zaza cries,
"Stand out;" must have a stiffer warrant, or no pass
into the castle of comfort.
_Men._ Command our sudden letter.--Not enter! sha't:
what place is there in Genoa but thou shalt? into my
heart, into my very heart: come, let's love; we must love,
we two, soul and body.
_Mal._ How didst like the hermit? a strange hermit,
sirrah. 220
_Men._ A dangerous fellow, very perilous:
He must die.
_Mal._ Ay, he must die.
_Men._ Thou'st[503] kill him.
We are wise; we must be wise.
_Mal._ And provident.
_Men._ Yea, provident: beware an hypocrite;
A churchman once corrupted, O, avoid!
A fellow that makes religion his stalking-horse,[504]
He breeds a plague: thou shalt poison him.
_Mal._ O, 'tis wondrous necessary: how?
_Men._ You both go jointly to the citadel;
There sup, there poison him: and Maria, 230
Because she is our opposite, shall bear
The sad suspect; on which she dies or loves us.
_Mal._ I run. [_Exit._
_Men._ We that are great, our sole self-good still moves us.
They shall die both, for their deserts crave more
Than we can recompense: their presence still
Imbraids[505] our fortunes with beholdingness,
Which we abhor; like deed, not doer: then conclude,
They live not to cry out "Ingratitude!"
One stick burns t'other, steel cuts steel alone: 240
'Tis good trust few; but, O, 'tis best trust none!
[_Exit._
[484] The tagged laces by which the busk (the upright piece of
whalebone in the front of the stays) was fastened.
[485] A slow solemn dance.
[486] "Qy. '_Los guantes?_' Mr. Collier (_Shakespeare Soc.
Papers_, i. 28), quotes from Rawlinson's MS. No. 108, Bodl. Lib.,
a list of dances, among which is 'Quarto dispayne;' while Mr.
Halliwell (_Dict. of Arch. and Prov. Words_) gives from the same
MS., '_Quanto_-dispaine.'--In Munday's _Banquet of Daintie
Conceits_, 1588, is:--
"'A Dyttie expressing a familiar controversie between Wit and
Will: wherein Wit mildlie rebuketh the follies of Will, and
sheweth him (as in a glasse) the fall of wilfull heads.
"'This Dittie may be sung after the note of a courtlie daunce,
called _Les Guanto_.'"--_Dyce._
[487] Ed. 1. "double."
[488] We have the expression "trick-of-twenty" again in the
_Dutch Courtesan_. What the particular figure was I am unable to
say. (Sometimes "trick-of-twenty" is used in the sense of
"excellent device." Cf. Brome's _City Wit_, iv. 2:--"Well, 'twas
mine error, not malice; but as for the procurer of it, if I pay
not him in his own coin, Mr. Footwell! I'll show you a _trick of
twenty_.")
[489] Ed. 2. "bid."
[490] Ed. 1. "talking."
[491] Some copies of ed. 1. "neuer."
[492] Ed. 1. "their."
[493] "_i.e._, being treated as a minion or darling."--_Steevens._
[494] Ed. 2. "too."
[495] Fall with violence.--The word is used of a hawk swooping
down on its prey.
[496] Old eds. "the."
[497] "i.e., _dashed_. It is a North-country word. See Ray's
_Collection of English Words_, p. 54, ed. 1768."--_Reed._
[498] Some copies of ed. 1. "O ô me."
[499] "præmium incertum petis,
Certum scelus."--Seneca, _Phoen._ 632.
[500] Ed. 1. "Iste."
[501] Intimate.
[502] Ed. 2. "Skud quicke like lightning.
\ _Pie._ Good deedes crawl, but mischiefe flies."
[503] A contraction of "_Thou must_."
[504] "In the margin at this place, the words '_shoots under
his belly_' are inserted; which is merely an explanation of
the manner in which a corrupted churchman makes religion his
_stalking-horse_, viz. by shooting at his object under its
belly."--_Collier._
[505] Upbraids.
SCENE II.
_Court of the Palace._
_Enter_ MALEVOLE _and_ PIETRO, _still disguised, at
several doors_.
_Mal._ How do you? how dost, duke?
_Pietro._ O, let
The last day fall! drop, drop on[506] our curs'd heads!
Let heaven unclasp itself, vomit forth flames:
_Mal._ O, do not rave,[507] do not turn player; there's
[_Exit._more of them than can well live one by another already.
What, art an infidel still?
_Pietro._ I am amazed;[508] struck in a swown with wonder:
I am commanded to poison thee--
_Mal._ I am commanded to poison thee at supper--
_Pietro._ At supper--
_Mal._ In the citadel--
_Pietro._ In the citadel. 10
_Mal._ Cross capers! tricks! truth o' heaven! he[509]
would discharge us as boys do eldern guns, one pellet to
strike out another. Of what faith art now?
_Pietro._ All is damnation; wickedness extreme:
There is no faith in man.
_Mal._ In none but usurers and brokers; they deceive
no man: men take 'em for blood-suckers, and so they
are. Now, God deliver me from my friends!
_Pietro._ Thy friends! 19
_Mal._ Yes, from my friends; for from mine enemies
I'll deliver myself. O, cut-throat friendship is the rankest
villainy! Mark this Mendoza; mark him for a villain:
but heaven will send a plague upon him for a rogue.
_Pietro._ O world!
_Mal._ World! 'tis the only region of death, the greatest
shop of the devil; the crudest prison of men, out of
the which none pass without paying their dearest breath
for a fee; there's nothing perfect in it but extreme, extreme
calamity, such as comes yonder.
_Enter_ AURELIA, _two halberts before and two after, supported
by_ CELSO _and_ FERRARDO; AURELIA _in base
mourning attire_.
_Aur._ To banishment! lead[510] on to banishment! 30
_Pietro._ Lady, the blessedness of repentance to you!
_Aur._ Why, why, I can desire nothing but death,
Nor deserve anything but hell.
If heaven should give sufficiency of grace
To clear my soul, it would make heaven graceless:
My sins would make the stock of mercy poor;
O, they would tire[511] heaven's goodness to reclaim them!
Judgment is just yet[512] from that vast villain;
But, sure, he shall not miss sad punishment
'Fore he shall rule.--On to my cell of shame! 40
_Pietro._ My cell 'tis, lady; where, instead of masks,
Music, tilts, tourneys, and such court-like shows,
The hollow murmur of the checkless winds
Shall groan again; whilst the unquiet sea
Shakes the whole rock with foamy battery.
There usherless[513] the air comes in and out:
The rheumy vault will force your eyes to weep,
Whilst you behold true desolation:
A rocky barrenness shall pain[514] your eyes,
Where all at once one reaches where he stands, 50
With brows the roof, both walls with both his hands.
_Aur._ It is too good.--Bless'd spirit of my lord,
O, in what orb soe'er thy soul is thron'd,
Behold me worthily most miserable!
O, let the anguish of my contrite spirit
Entreat some reconciliation!
If not, O, joy, triumph in my just grief!
Death is the end of woes and tears' relief.
_Pietro._ Belike your lord not lov'd you, was unkind.
_Aur._ O heaven! 60
As the soul loves[515] the body, so lov'd he:
'Twas death to him to part my presence, heaven
To see me pleas'd.
Yet I, like to a wretch given o'er to hell,
Brake all the sacred rites of marriage,
To clip a base ungentle faithless villain;
O God! a very pagan reprobate--
What should I say? ungrateful, throws me out,
For whom I lost soul, body, fame, and honour.
But 'tis most fit: why should a better fate 70
Attend on any who forsake chaste sheets;
Fly the embrace of a devoted heart,
Join'd by a solemn vow 'fore God and man,
To taste the brackish flood[516] of beastly lust
In an adulterous touch? O ravenous immodesty!
Insatiate impudence of appetite!
Look, here's your end; for mark, what sap in dust,
What good in sin,[517] even so much love in lust.
Joy to thy ghost, sweet lord! pardon to me!
_Celso._ 'Tis the duke's pleasure this night you rest in court. 80
_Aur._ Soul, lurk in shades; run, shame, from brightsome skies:
In night the blind man misseth not his eyes.
[_Exit with_ CELSO, FERRARDO, _and halberts_.
_Mal._ Do not weep, kind cuckold: take comfort,
man; thy betters have been beccos:[518] Agamemnon,
emperor of all the merry Greeks, that tickled all the
true Trojans, was a cornuto; Prince Arthur, that cut
off twelve kings' beards, was a cornuto; Hercules,
whose back bore up heaven, and got forty wenches with
child in one night,--
_Pietro._ Nay, 'twas fifty. 90
_Mal._ Faith, forty's enow, o' conscience,--yet was a
cornuto. Patience; mischief grows proud: be wise.
_Pietro._ Thou pinchest too deep; art too keen upon
me.
_Mal._ Tut, a pitiful surgeon makes a dangerous sore:
I'll tent thee to the ground. Thinkest I'll sustain myself
by flattering thee, because thou art a prince? I had
rather follow a drunkard, and live by licking up his vomit,
than by servile flattery.
_Pietro._ Yet great men ha' done 't. 100
_Mal._ Great slaves fear better than love, born naturally
for a coal-basket;[519] though the common usher of princes'
presence, Fortune, ha'[520] blindly given them better place.
I am vowed to be thy affliction.
_Pietro._ Prithee, be;
I love much misery, and be thou son to me.
_Mal._ Because you are an usurping duke.----
_Enter_ BILIOSO.
Your lordship's well returned from Florence.
_Bil._ Well returned, I praise my horse.
_Mal._ What news from the Florentines?
_Bil._ I will conceal the great duke's pleasure; only
this was his charge: his pleasure is, that his daughter
die; Duke Pietro be banished for banishing his blood's
dishonour; and that Duke Altofront be re-accepted.
This is all: but I hear Duke Pietro is dead. 114
_Mal._ Ay, and Mendoza is duke: what will you do?
_Bil._ Is Mendoza strongest?
_Mal._ Yet he is.
_Bil._ Then yet I'll hold with him.
_Mal._ But if that Altofront should turn straight again?
_Bil._ Why, then, I would turn straight again. 120
'Tis good run still with him that has most might:
I had rather stand with wrong, than fall with right.
_Mal._[521] What religion will you be of now?
_Bil._ Of the duke's religion,[522] when I know what it is.
_Mal._ O Hercules!
Bil. Hercules! Hercules was the son of Jupiter and
Alcmena.
_Mal._ Your lordship is a very wit-all.
_Bil._ Wittal!
_Mal._ Ay, all-wit. 130
_Bil._ Amphitryo was a cuckold.
_Mal._ Your lordship sweats; your young lady will get
you a cloth for your old worship's brows.
[_Exit_ BILIOSO.
Here's a fellow to be damned: this is his inviolable
maxim,--flatter the greatest and oppress the least: a
whoreson flesh-fly, that still gnaws upon the lean galled
backs.
_Pietro._ Why dost, then, salute him? 138
_Mal._ Faith,[523] as bawds go to church, for fashion' sake.
Come, be not confounded; thou'rt but in danger to lose
a dukedom. Think this:--this earth is the only grave
and Golgotha wherein all things that live must rot; 'tis
but the draught wherein the heavenly bodies discharge
their corruption; the very muck-hill on which the
sublunary orbs cast their excrements: man is the slime
of this dung-pit, and princes are the governors of these
men; for, for our souls, they are as free as emperors,
all of one piece; there[524] goes but a pair of shears
betwixt an emperor and the son of a bagpiper; only
the dying, dressing, pressing, glossing, makes the difference.
Now, what art thou like to lose? 151
A gaoler's office to keep men in bonds,
Whilst toil and treason all life's good confounds.
_Pietro._ I here renounce for ever regency:
O Altofront, I wrong thee to supplant thy right,
To trip thy heels up with a devilish sleight!
For which I now from throne am thrown: world-tricks abjure;
For vengeance though't[525] comes slow, yet it comes sure.
O, I am chang'd! for here, 'fore the dread power,
In true contrition, I do dedicate 160
My breath to solitary holiness,
My lips to prayer, and my breast's care shall be,
Restoring Altofront to regency.
_Mal._ Thy vows are heard, and we accept thy faith.
[_Undisguiseth himself._
_Re-enter_ FERNEZE _and_ CELSO.
Banish amazement: come, we four must stand
Full shock of fortune: be not so wonder-stricken.
_Pietro._ Doth Ferneze live?
_Fer._ For your pardon.
_Pietro._ Pardon and love. Give leave to recollect
My thoughts dispers'd in wild astonishment.
My vows stand fix'd in heaven, and from hence 170
I crave all love and pardon.
_Mal._ Who doubts of providence,
That sees this change? a hearty faith to all!
He needs must rise who[526] can no lower fall:
For still impetuous vicissitude
Touseth[527] the world; then let no maze intrude
Upon your spirits: wonder not I rise;
For who can sink that close can temporise?
The time grows ripe for action: I'll detect
My privat'st plot, lest ignorance fear suspect.
Let's close to counsel, leave the rest to fate: 180
Mature discretion is the life of state.
[_Exeunt._
[506] Ed. 1. "in."
[507] Ed. 2. "rand."
[508] Some copies of ed. 1. "mazde."
[509] Added in ed. 2.
[510] Ed. 1. "led."--Ed. 2. "ledde."
[511] Some copies of ed. 1. "try."
[512] The text is not satisfactory, though the meaning is
perfectly plain.--Quy. "Judgment is just, _yea_, _e'en_ from,"
&c.
[513] "_i.e._ without the ceremony of an usher to give notice of
its approach, as is usual in courts. As fine as Shakespeare: 'the
bleak air thy boisterous chamberlain.'"--_Charles Lamb._
[514] Ed. 2. "pierce."
[515] Old eds. "lou'd."
[516] Old eds. "bloud."
[517] Old eds. "What sinne in good," &c.
[518] Cuckolds.
[519] _To carry coals_ was esteemed the vilest employment to
which a man could be put.
[520] Ed. 2. "hath."
[521] "What [ed. 1. _Of what_] religion ... cuckold" (ll.
123-137).--This passage is not found in some copies of ed. 1.
[522] Cf. Day's _Isle of Gulls_, iii. 1:--
"_Lys._ Thou speak'st like a Christian: prethee what
religion art of?
_Man._ How many soever I make use of, I'll answer with
Piavano Orlotto the Italian, I profess the Duke's only.
_Demet._ What's his reason for that?
_Man._ A very sound reason: for, says he, I came raw into
the world and I would not willingly go roasted out."
[523] Ed. 2. "Yfaith."
[524] "There goes but a pair of shears betwixt"--_i.e._, they are
cut out of the same piece. An old proverbial expression.
[525] Ed. 1. "that."
[526] Omitted in ed. 2.
[527] Ed. 1. "Looseth"
ACT V.
SCENE I.[528]
_A room in the Palace._
_Enter_ BILIOSO _and_ PASSARELLO.
_Bil._ Fool, how dost thou like my calf in a long
stocking?
_Pass._ An excellent calf, my lord.
_Bil._ This calf hath been a reveller this twenty year.
When Monsieur Gundi lay here ambassador, I could
have carried a lady up and down at arm's end in a
platter; and I can tell you, there were those at that time
who, to try the strength of a man's back and his arm,
would be coistered.[529] I have measured calves with most
of the palace, and they come nothing near me; besides,
I think there be not many armours in the arsenal will
fit me, especially for the headpiece. I'll tell thee-- 12
_Pass._ What, my lord?
_Bil._ I can eat stewed broth as it comes seething off
the fire; or a custard as it comes reeking out of the
oven; and I think there are not many lords can do it.
A good pomander,[530] a little decayed in the scent; but
six grains of musk, ground with rose-water, and tempered
with a little civet, shall fetch her again presently.
_Pass._ O, ay, as a bawd with aqua-vitæ. 20
_Bil._ And, what, dost thou rail upon the ladies as thou
wert wont?
_Pass._ I were better roast a live cat, and might do it
with more safety. I am as secret to [the] thieves as
their painting. There's Maquerelle, oldest bawd and a
perpetual beggar--did you never hear of her trick to
be known in the city?
_Bil._ Never.
_Pass._ Why, she gets all the picture-makers to draw
her picture; when they have done, she most courtly
finds fault with them one after another, and never
fetcheth them: they, in revenge of this, execute her in
pictures as they do in Germany, and hang her in their
shops: by this means is she better known to the stinkards
than if she had been five times carted. 35
_Bil._ 'Fore God, an excellent policy.
_Pass._ Are there any revels to-night, my lord?
_Bil._ Yes.
_Pass._ Good my lord, give me leave to break a fellow's
pate that hath abused me. 40
_Bil._ Whose pate?
_Pass._ Young Ferrardo, my lord.
_Bil._ Take heed, he's very valiant; I have known him
fight eight quarrels in five days, believe it.
_Pass._ O, is he so great a quarreller? why, then, he's an
arrant coward.
_Bil._ How prove you that?
_Pass._ Why, thus. He that quarrels seeks to fight;
and he that seeks to fight seeks to die; and he that seeks
to die seeks never to fight more; and he that will quarrel,
and seeks means never to answer a man more, I think
he's a coward. 52
_Bil._ Thou canst prove anything.
_Pass._ Anything but a rich knave; for I can flatter no
man.
_Bil._ Well, be not drunk, good fool: I shall see you
anon in the presence.
[_Exeunt._
[528] This scene was added in ed. 2.
[529] Reed suggests that this word may be derived from old Fr.
_coisser_ (= incommoder) or _coiter_ (= presser, exciter). Nares
explains _coistered_ to mean "coiled up into a small compass."
[530] A ball of perfumed paste, worn round the neck or at the
girdle.
SCENE II.
_Before the Citadel._
_Enter, from opposite sides_, MALEVOLE _and_ MAQUERELLE,
_singing_.
_Mal. The Dutchman for a drunkard_,--
_Maq. The Dane for golden locks_,--
_Mal. The Irishman for usquebaugh_,--
_Maq. The Frenchman for the_ (----).
_Mal._ O, thou art a blessed creature! had I a modest
woman to conceal, I would put her to thy custody; for
no reasonable creature would ever suspect her to be in
thy company: ah, thou art a melodious Maquerelle,--thou
picture of a woman, and substance of a beast!
_Enter_ PASSARELLO _with wine._
_Maq._ O fool,[531] will ye be ready anon to go with me to
the revels? the hall will be so pestered anon. 11
_Pass._ Ay, as the country is with attorneys.
_Mal._ What hast thou there, fool?
_Pass._ Wine; I have learned to drink since I went with
my lord ambassador: I'll drink to the health of Madam
Maquerelle.
_Mal._ Why, thou wast wont to rail upon her.
_Pass._ Ay; but since I borrowed money of her, I'll
drink to her health now; as gentlemen visit brokers, or
as knights send venison to the city, either to take up
more money, or to procure longer forbearance. 21
_Mal._ Give me the bowl. I drink a health to Altofront,
our deposed duke. [_Drinks._
_Pas._ I'll take it [_Drinks_]:--so. Now I'll begin a
health to Madam Maquerelle. [_Drinks._
_Mal._ Pooh! I will not pledge her.
_Pass._ Why, I pledged your lord.
_Mal._ I care not.
_Pass._ Not pledge Madam Maquerelle! why, then,
will I spew up your lord again with this fool's finger. 30
_Mal._ Hold; I'll take it. [_Drinks._
_Maq._ Now thou hast drunk my health, fool, I am
friends with thee.
_Pass._ Art? art?
When Griffon[532] saw the reconcilèd quean
Offering about his neck her arms to cast,
He threw off sword and heart's malignant spleen,
And lovely her below the loins embrac'd.--
Adieu, Madam Maquerelle. [_Exit._
_Mal._ And how dost thou think o' this transformation
of state now? 41
_Maq._ Verily, very well; for we women always note,
the falling of the one is the rising of the other; some must
be fat, some must be lean; some must be fools, and some
must be lords; some must be knaves, and some must be
officers; some must be beggars, some must be knights;
some must be cuckolds, and some must be citizens. As
for example, I have two court-dogs, the most fawning
curs, the one called Watch, the other Catch: now I, like
Lady Fortune, sometimes love this dog, sometimes raise
that dog, sometimes favour Watch, most commonly fancy
Catch. Now, that dog which I favour I feed; and he's
so ravenous, that what I give he never chaws it, gulps it
down whole, without any relish of what he has, but with
a greedy expectation of what he shall have. The other
dog now---- 56
_Mal._ No more dog, sweet Maquerelle, no more dog.
And what hope hast thou of the Duchess Maria? will
she stoop to the duke's lure? will she come,[533] thinkest?
_Maq._ Let me see, where's the sign now? ha' ye e'er a
calendar? where's the sign, trow you? 61
_Mal._ Sign! why, is there any moment in that?
_Maq._ O, believe me, a most secret power: look ye, a
Chaldean or an Assyrian, I am sure 'twas a most sweet
Jew, told me, court any woman in the right sign, you
shall not miss. But you must take her in the right vein
then; as, when the sign is in Pisces, a fishmonger's
wife is very sociable; in Cancer, a precisian's wife is very
flexible; in Capricorn, a merchant's wife hardly holds
out; in Libra, a lawyer's wife is very tractable, especially
if her husband be at the term; only in Scorpio 'tis very
dangerous meddling. Has the duke sent any jewel, any
rich stones? 73
_Mal._ Ay, I think those are the best signs to take a
lady in.
_Enter_ Captain.
By your favour, signior, I must discourse with the Lady
Maria, Altofront's duchess; I must enter for the duke.
_Capt._ She here shall give you interview: I received
the guardship of this citadel from the good Altofront,
and for his use I'll keep't, till I am of no use. 80
_Mal._ Wilt thou? O heavens, that a Christian should
be found in a buff-jerkin! Captain Conscience, I love
thee, captain. We attend.
[_Exit_ Captain.
And what hope hast thou of this duchess' easiness?
_Maq._ 'Twill go hard, she was a cold creature ever;
she hated monkeys, fools, jesters, and gentlemen-ushers
extremely; she had the vile trick on't, not only to be
truly modestly honourable in her own conscience, but
she would avoid the least wanton carriage that might
incur suspect; as, God bless me, she had almost brought
bed-pressing out of fashion; I could scarce get a fine for
the lease of a lady's favour once in a fortnight. 92
_Mal._ Now, in the name of immodesty, how many
maidenheads has thou brought to the block?
_Maq._ Let me see: heaven forgive us our misdeeds!--Here's
the duchess.
_Enter_ MARIA _with_ Captain.
_Mal._ God bless thee, lady!
_Maria._ Out of thy company!
_Mal._ We have brought thee tender of a husband.
_Maria._ I hope I have one already. 100
_Maq._ Nay, by mine honour, madam, as good ha' ne'er
a husband as a banished husband; he's in another world
now. I'll tell ye, lady, I have heard of a sect that maintained,
when the husband was asleep the wife might
lawfully entertain another man, for then her husband
was as dead; much more when he is banished.
_Maria._ Unhonest creature!
_Maq._ Pish, honesty is but an art to seem so:
Pray ye, what's honesty, what's constancy,
But fables feign'd, odd old fools' chat, devis'd 110
By jealous fools to wrong our liberty?
_Mal._ Molly, he that loves thee is a duke, Mendoza;
he will maintain thee royally, love thee ardently, defend
thee powerfully, marry thee sumptuously, and keep thee,
in despite of Rosicleer or Donzel del Phebo.[534] There's
jewels: if thou wilt, so; if not, so.
_Maria._ Captain, for God's love,[535] save poor wretchedness
From tyranny of lustful insolence!
Enforce me in the deepest dungeon dwell,
Rather than here; here round about is hell.-- 120
O my dear'st Altofront! where'er thou breathe,
Let my soul sink into the shades beneath,
Before I stain thine honour! 'tis[536] thou has't,
And long as I can die, I will live chaste.
_Mal._ 'Gainst him that can enforce how vain is strife!
_Maria._ She that can be enforc'd has ne'er a knife:
She that through force her limbs with lust enrolls,
Wants Cleopatra's asps and Portia's coals.
God amend you! 129
[_Exit with_ Captain.
_Mal._ Now, the fear of the devil for ever go with
thee!--Maquerelle,
I tell thee, I have found an honest
woman: faith, I perceive, when all is done, there is of
women, as of all other things, some good, most bad;
some saints, some sinners: for as nowadays no courtier
but has his mistress, no captain but has his cockatrice,[537]
no cuckold but has his horns, and no fool but has his
feather; even so, no woman but has her weakness and
feather too, no sex but has his--I can hunt the letter no
farther.--[_Aside_] O God, how loathsome this toying is
to me! that a duke should be forced to fool it! well,
_stultorum plena sunt omnia_:[538] better play the fool lord
than be the fool lord.--Now, where's your sleights,
Madam Maquerelle? 143
_Maq._ Why, are ye ignorant that 'tis said a squeamish
affected niceness is natural to women, and that the
excuse of their yielding is only, forsooth, the difficult
obtaining? You must put her to't: women are flax, and
will fire in a moment.
_Mal._ Why, was the flax put into thy mouth, and yet
thou--Thou set fire, thou inflame her! 150
_Maq._ Marry, but I'll tell ye now, you were too hot.
_Mal._ The fitter to have inflamed the flax, woman.
_Maq._ You were too boisterous, spleeny, for, indeed----
_Mal._ Go, go, thou art a weak pandress: now I see,
Sooner earth's fire heaven itself shall waste,
Than all with heat can melt a mind that's chaste.
Go: thou the duke's lime-twig! I'll make the duke turn
thee out of thine office: what, not get one touch of hope,
and had her at such advantage! 160
Maq. Now, o' my conscience, now I think in my discretion,
we did not take her in the right sign; the blood
was not in the true vein, sure.
[_Exit._
_Enter_ BILIOSO.
_Bil._ Make way[539] there! the duke returns from the
enthronement.--Malevole,--
_Mal._ Out, rogue!
_Bil._ Malevole,--
_Mal._ Hence, ye gross-jawed, peasantly--out, go![540] 168
_Bil._ Nay, sweet Malevole, since my return I hear you
are become the thing I always prophesied would be,--an
advanced virtue, a worthily-employed faithfulness, a
man o' grace, dear friend. Come; what! _Si quoties
peccant homines_[541]--if as often as courtiers play the knaves,
honest men should be angry--why, look ye, we must
collogue[542] sometimes, forswear sometimes.
_Mal._ Be damned sometimes.
_Bil._ Right: _nemo omnibus horis sapit_; no man can be
honest at all hours: necessity often depraves virtue.
_Mal._ I will commend thee to the duke.
_Bil._ Do: let us be friends, man. 180
_Mal._ And knaves, man.
_Bil._ Right: let us prosper and purchase:[543] our lordships
shall live, and our knavery be forgotten.
_Mal._ He that by any ways gets riches, his means never
shames him.
_Bil._ True.
_Mal._ For impudency and faithlessness are the main
stays to greatness.
_Bil._ By the Lord, thou art a profound lad.
_Mal._ By the Lord, thou art a perfect knave: out, ye
ancient damnation! 191
_Bil._ Peace, peace! and thou wilt not be a friend to
me as I am a knave, be not a knave to me as I am thy
friend, and disclose me. Peace! cornets!
_Enter_ PREPASSO and FERRARDO, _two_ Pages _with lights_,
CELSO _and_ EQUATO, MENDOZA _in duke's robes,
and_ GUERRINO.
_Men._ On, on; leave us, leave us.
[_Exeunt all except_ MALEVOLE _and_ MENDOZA.
Stay, where is the hermit?
_Mal._ With Duke Pietro, with Duke Pietro.
_Men._ Is he dead? is he poisoned?
_Mal._ Dead, as the duke is.
_Men._ Good, excellent: he will not blab; secureness
lives in secrecy. Come hither, come hither. 201
_Mal._ Thou hast a certain strong villainous scent about
thee my nature cannot endure.
_Men._ Scent, man! What returns Maria, what answer
to our suit?
_Mal._ Cold, frosty; she is obstinate.
_Men._ Then she's but dead; 'tis resolute, she dies:
Black deed only through black deed[544] safely flies.
_Mal._ Pooh! _per scelera semper sceleribus tutum est iter_.[545]
_Men._ What, art a scholar? art a politician? sure, thou
art an arrant knave. 211
_Mal._ Who, I? I ha' been twice an under-sheriff,
man.[546] Well, I will go rail upon some great man, that I
may purchase the bastinado, or else go marry some rich
Genoan lady, and instantly go travel.
_Men._ Travel, when thou art married?
_Mal._ Ay, 'tis your young lord's fashion to do so,
though he was so lazy, being a bachelor, that he would
never travel so far as the university: yet when he
married her, tales off, and, Catso,[547] for England! 220
_Men._ And why for England?
_Mal._ Because there is no brothel-houses there.
_Men._ Nor courtezans?
_Mal._ Neither; your whore went down with the stews,
and your punk came up with your puritan.
_Men._ Canst thou empoison? canst thou empoison?
_Mal._ Excellently; no Jew, pothecary, or politician
better. Look ye, here's a box: whom wouldst thou
empoison? here's a box [_Giving it_], which, opened and
the fume ta'en[548] up in conduits[549] thorough which the
brain purges itself, doth instantly for twelve hours' space
bind up all show of life in a deep senseless sleep: here's
another [_Giving it_], which, being opened under the
sleeper's nose, chokes all the pores[550] of life, kills him
suddenly. 235
_Men._ I'll try experiments; 'tis good not to be deceived.--So,
so; catso! [_Seems to poison_ MALEVOLE,_ who falls._
Who would fear that may destroy?
Death hath no teeth nor[551] tongue;
And he that's great, to him are slaves, 240
Shame, murder, fame, and wrong.--
Celso!
_Enter_ CELSO.
_Celso._ My honour'd lord?
_Men._ The good Malevole, that plain-tongu'd man,
Alas, is dead on sudden, wondrous strangely!
He held in our esteem good place. Celso,
See him buried, see him buried.
_Celso._ I shall observe ye.
_Men._ And, Celso, prithee, let it be thy care to-night
To have some pretty show, to solemnise
Our high instalment; some music, maskery. 250
We'll give fair entertain unto Maria,
The duchess to the banish'd Altofront:
Thou shalt conduct her from the citadel
Unto the palace. Think on some maskery.
_Celso._ Of what shape, sweet lord?
_Men._ What[552] shape! why, any quick-done fiction;
As some brave spirits of the Genoan dukes,
To come out of Elysium, forsooth,
Led in by Mercury, to gratulate
Our happy fortune; some such anything, 260
Some far-fet[553] trick good for ladies, some stale toy
Or other, no matter, so't be of our devising.
Do thou prepare't; 'tis but for fashion[554] sake;
Fear not, it shall be grac'd, man, it shall take.
_Celso._ All service.
_Men._ All thanks; our hand shall not be close to thee: farewell.
[_Aside._] Now is my treachery secure, nor can we fall:
Mischief that prospers, men do virtue call.
I'll trust no man: he that by tricks gets wreaths
Keeps them with steel; no man securely breathes 270
Out of deservèd[555] ranks; the crowd will mutter, "fool:"
Who cannot bear with spite, he cannot rule.
The chiefest secret for a man of state
Is, to live senseless of a strengthless hate.
[_Exit._
_Mal._ [_starting up_] Death of the damned thief! I'll
make one i' the mask; thou shalt ha' some brave spirits
of the antique dukes.
_Cel._ My lord, what strange delusion?
_Mal._ Most happy, dear Celso, poisoned with an empty
box: I'll give thee all, anon: my lady comes to court;
there is a whirl of fate comes tumbling on; the castle's
captain stands for me, the people pray for me, and the
great leader of the just stands for me: then courage,
Celso; 284
For no disastrous chance can ever move him
That leaveth nothing but a God above him.
[_Exeunt._
[531] "O fool.... Adieu, Madam Maquerelle" (ll. 10-39).--This
passage was added in ed. 2.
[532] "_Griffon_ is one of the heroes of _Orlando Furioso_, from
whence one might suspect these lines to be taken. I do not,
however, find them there."--_Reed._ For "spleen" in l. 37 all the
editions give "stream."
[533] _i.e._, yield.--Ed. 2. "cowe."
[534] Rosicleer and Donzel del Phebo were heroes in the romance
of _The Mirrour of Knighthood_. See note 3, p. 30.
[535] Ed. 2. "sake."
[536] Ed. 2. "this."
[537] The term _cockatrice_ seems to have been specially applied
to a captain's mistress, though it is also found as a general
name for a courtesan.
[538] Cicero, _Epist. ad Fam._ ix. 22.
[539] "Make way there.... Peace! cornets!" (ll. 164-194).--This
passage was added in ed. 2.
[540] These are the words that Bilioso had used to Malevole, ii.
2. l. 64.
[541] Ovid's _Tristia_, ii. 33.
[542] Cog, wheedle.--"Sadayer. To handle gently or stroke softly;
also to flatter, smooth, cog, or _collogue with_."--_Cotgrave._
The word also means--confer for an unlawful purpose.
[543] Acquire wealth.--_Purchase_ was a cant term for stolen
goods, but it was also used in the general sense of riches.
[544] Ed. 1. "deedes."
[545] Seneca, _Agam._ 115.
[546] Ed. 2. continues thus:--
"_Enter_ MALEVOLE _and_ MENDOZA.
_Mend._ Hast bin with Maria?
_Mal._ As your scriuener to your vsurer I haue delt about
taking of this commoditie, but she's could-frosty. Well, I
will go raile, &c."
Perhaps the scene was intended to begin here and the preceding
speeches were not properly cancelled.--Ed. 1. omits a few
speeches and proceeds as in l. 226:--
"_Men._ Canst thou empoison?" &c.
[547] An obscene expression (_Ital._)
[548] Ed. 2. "taken up."
[549] Some copies of ed. 2. "cõmodites."--The compositor was
thinking of the common expression _take up commodities_.
[550] Ed. 2. "power."
[551] Ed. 2. "or."
[552] Old eds. "Why."
[553] An allusion to the proverb _Far fet and dear bought is
good for ladies_.
[554] Ed. 2. and some copies of ed. 1. "a fashion."
SCENE III.
_The Presence-Chamber._
_Enter_ BILIOSO _and_ PREPASSO, _two_ Pages _before them_;
MAQUERELLE, BIANCA, _and_ EMILIA.
_Bil._ Make room there, room for the ladies! why,
gentlemen, will not ye suffer the ladies to be entered in
the great chamber? why, gallants! and you, sir, to drop
your torch where the beauties must sit too!
_Pre._ And there's a great fellow plays the knave; why
dost not strike him?
_Bil._ Let him play the knave, o' God's name; thinkest
thou I have no more wit than to strike a great fellow?--The
music! more lights! revelling-scaffolds! do you
hear? Let there be oaths enow ready at the door,
swear out the devil himself. Let's leave the ladies, and
go see if the lords be ready for them. 12
[_Exeunt_ BILIOSO, PREPASSO, _and_ Pages.
_Maq._ And, by my troth, beauties, why do you not put
you into the fashion? this is a stale cut; you must come
in fashion: look ye, you must be all felt, felt and feather,
a felt upon your bare hair:[556] look ye, these tiring things
are justly out of request now: and, do ye hear? you
must wear falling-bands, you must come into the falling
fashion: there is such a deal o' pinning these ruffs, when
the fine clean fall is worth all: and again, if ye should
chance to take a nap in the afternoon, your falling-band
requires no poting-stick[557] to recover his form: believe
me, no fashion to the falling,[558] I say. 23
_Bian._ And is not Signior St. Andrew[559] a gallant fellow
now.
_Maq._ By my maidenhead, la, honour and he agree as
well together as a satin suit and woollen stockings.
_Emilia._ But is not Marshal Make-room, my servant
in reversion, a proper gentleman? 29
_Maq._ Yes, in reversion, as he had his office; as, in
truth, he hath all things in reversion: he has his mistress
in reversion, his clothes in reversion, his wit in reversion;
and, indeed, is a suitor to me for my dog in
reversion: but, in good verity, la, he is as proper a
gentleman in reversion as--and, indeed, as fine a man
as may be, having a red beard and a pair of warpt[560] legs.
_Bian._ But, i'faith, I am most monstrously in love with
Count Quidlibet-in-quodlibet: is he not a pretty, dapper,
unidle[561] gallant? 39
_Maq._ He is even one of the most busy-fingered lords;
he will put the beauties to the squeak most hideously.
_Re-enter_ BILIOSO.
_Bil._ Room! make a lane there! the duke is entering:
stand handsomely for beauty's sake, take up the ladies
there! So, cornets, cornets!
_Re-enter_ PREPASSO, _joins to_ BILIOSO; _then enter two_
Pages _with lights_, FERRARDO, MENDOZA; _at the other door, two_
Pages _with lights, and the Captain leading in_ MARIA; MENDOZA
_meets_ MARIA _and closeth with her; the rest fall back_.
_Men._ Madam, with gentle ear receive my suit;
A kingdom's safety should o'er-peise[562] slight rites;
Marriage is merely nature's policy:
Then, since unless our royal beds be join'd,
Danger and civil tumults fright the state,
Be wise as you are fair, give way to fate. 50
_Maria._ What wouldst thou, thou affliction to our house?
Thou ever-devil, 'twas thou that banished'st
My truly noble lord!
_Men._ I!
_Maria._ Ay, by thy plots, by thy black stratagems:
Twelve moons have suffer'd change since I beheld
The lovèd presence of my dearest lord.
O thou far worse than death! he parts but soul
From a weak body; but thou soul from soul
Dissever'st, that which God's own hand did knit; 60
Thou scant of honour, full of devilish wit!
_Men._ We'll check your too-intemperate lavishness:
I can, and will.
_Maria._ What canst?
_Men._ Go to; in banishment thy husband dies.
_Maria._ He ever is at home that's ever wise.
_Men._ You'st[563] ne'er meet more: reason should love control.
_Maria._ Not meet!
She that dear loves, her love's still in her soul.
_Men._ You are but a woman, lady, you must yield. 70
_Maria._ O, save me, thou innated bashfulness,
Thou only ornament of woman's modesty!
_Men._ Modesty! death, I'll torment thee.
_Maria._ Do, urge all torments, all afflictions try;
I'll die my lord's as long as I can die.
_Men._ Thou obstinate, thou shalt die.--Captain, that lady's life
Is forfeited to justice: we have examin'd her,
And we do find she hath empoisonèd
The reverend hermit; therefore we command
Severest custody.--Nay, if you'll do's no good, 80
You'st do's no harm: a tyrant's peace is blood.
_Maria._ O, thou art merciful; O gracious devil,
Rather by much let me condemnèd be
For seeming murder than be damn'd for thee!
I'll mourn no more; come, girt my brows with flowers:
Revel and dance, soul, now thy wish thou hast;
Die like a bride, poor heart, thou shalt die chaste.
_Enter_ AURELIA _in mourning habit_.
Life[564] is a frost of cold felicity,--
_Aur._ And death the thaw of all our vanity:
Was't not an honest priest that wrote so? 90
_Men._ Who let her in?
_Bil._ Forbear!
_Pre._ Forbear!
_Aur._ Alas, calamity is everywhere:
Sad misery, despite your double doors,
Will enter even in court.
_Bil._ Peace!
_Aur._I ha' done.[565]
_Bil._ One word,--take heed!
_Aur._ I ha' done.
_Enter_ MERCURY _with loud music_.
_Mer._ Cyllenian Mercury, the god of ghosts,
From gloomy shades that spread the lower coasts,[566]
Calls four high-famèd Genoan[567] dukes to come, 100
And make this presence their Elysium,
To pass away this high triumphal night
With song and dances, court's more soft delight.
_Aur._ Are you god of ghosts? I have a suit pending
in hell betwixt me and my conscience; I would fain have
thee help me to an advocate.
_Bil._ Mercury shall be your lawyer, lady.
_Aur._ Nay, faith, Mercury has too good a face to be a
right lawyer.
_Pre._ Peace, forbear! Mercury presents the mask. 110
_Cornets: the song to the cornets, which playing, the mask enters_;
MALEVOLE, PIETRO, FERNEZE, _and_ CELSO, _in white robes, with
dukes' crowns upon laurel-wreaths, pistolets and short swords
under their robes_.
_Men._ Celso, Celso, court[568] Maria for our love.--
Lady, be gracious, yet grace.
_Maria._ With me, sir?
[MALEVOLE _takes_ MARIA _to dance_.
_Mal._ Yes, more lovèd than my breath;
With you I'll dance.
_Maria._ Why, then, you dance with death.
But, come, sir, I was ne'er more apt for[569] mirth.
Death gives eternity a glorious breath:
O, to die honour'd, who would fear to die?
_Mal._ They die in fear who live in villainy.
_Men._ Yes, believe him, lady, and be rul'd by him.
_Pietro._ Madam, with me.
[PIETRO _takes_ AURELIA _to dance_.
_Aur._ Wouldst, then, be miserable? 120
_Pietro._ I need not wish.
_Aur._ O, yet forbear my hand! away! fly! fly!
O, seek not her that only seeks to die!
_Pietro._ Poor lovèd soul!
_Aur._ What, wouldst court misery?
_Pietro._ Yes.
_Aur._ She'll come too soon:--O my grievèd heart!
_Pietro._ Lady, ha' done, ha' done:
Come,[570] let us dance; be once from sorrow free.
_Aur._ Art a sad man?
_Pietro._ Yes, sweet.
_Aur._ Then we'll agree. 128
[FERNEZE _takes_ MAQUERELLE _and_ CELSO BIANCA:
_then the cornets sound the measure, one
change, and rest_.
_Fer._ [_to_ BIANCA.] Believe it, lady; shall I swear? let
me enjoy you in private, and I'll marry you, by my soul.
_Bian._ I had rather you would swear by your body:
I think that would prove the more regarded oath with
you.
_Fer._ I'll swear by them both, to please you.
_Bian._ O, damn them not both to please me, for God's
sake! 136
_Fer._ Faith, sweet creature, let me enjoy you to-night,
and I'll marry you to-morrow fortnight, by my troth, la.
_Maq._ On his troth, la! believe him not; that kind of
cony-catching is as stale as Sir Oliver Anchovy's perfumed[571]
jerkin: promise of matrimony by a young gallant,
to bring a virgin lady into a fool's paradise; make her a
great woman, and then cast her off;--'tis as common
and[572] natural to a courtier, as jealousy to a citizen,
gluttony to a puritan, wisdom to an alderman, pride to
a tailor, or an empty hand-basket[573] to one of these sixpenny
damnations: of his troth, la! believe him not;
traps to catch pole-cats.
_Mal._ [_to_ MARIA]. Keep your face constant, let no sudden passion
Speak in your eyes.
_Maria._ O my Altofront! 150
_Pietro._ [_to_ AURELIA.] A tyrant's jealousies
Are very nimble: you receive it all?
_Aur._ My heart, though not my knees, doth humbly fall
Low as the earth, to thee.
_Mal._[574] Peace! next change; no words.
_Maria._ Speech to such, ay, O, what will affords!
[_Cornets sound the measure over again; which
danced, they unmask._
_Men._ Malevole!
[_They environ_ MENDOZA, _bending their pistols on him_.
_Mal._ No.
_Men._ Altofront! Duke Pietro![575] Ferneze! ha!
_All._ Duke Altofront! Duke Altofront!
[_Cornets, a flourish._--_They seize upon_ MENDOZA.
_Men._ Are we surpris'd? what strange delusions mock 160
Our senses? do I dream? or have I dreamt
This two days' space? where am I?
_Mal._ Where an arch-villain is.
_Men._ O, lend me breath till[576] I am fit to die!
For peace with heaven, for your own souls' sake,
Vouchsafe me life!
_Pietro._ Ignoble villain! whom neither heaven nor hell,
Goodness of God or man, could once make good!
_Mal._ Base, treacherous wretch! what grace canst thou expect,
That hast grown impudent in gracelessness? 170
_Men._ O, life!
_Mal._ Slave, take thy life.
Wert thou defencèd, th[o]rough blood and wounds,
The sternest horror of a civil fight,
Would I achieve thee; but prostrate at my feet,
I scorn to hurt thee: 'tis the heart of slaves
That deigns to triumph over peasants' graves;
For such thou art, since birth doth ne'er enroll
A man 'mong monarchs, but a glorious soul.
O,[577] I have seen strange accidents of state! 180
The flatterer, like the ivy, clip the oak,
And waste it to the heart; lust so confirm'd,
That the black act of sin itself not sham'd
To be term'd courtship.
O, they that are as great as be their sins,
Let them remember that th' inconstant people
Love many princes[578] merely for their faces
And outward shows; and they do covet more
To have a sight of these than of their virtues.
Yet thus much let the great ones still conceive,[579] 190
When they observe not heaven's impos'd conditions,
They are no kings,[580] but forfeit their commissions.
_Maq._ O good my lord, I have lived in the court this
twenty year: they that have been old courtiers, and
come to live in the city, they are spited at, and thrust
to the walls like apricocks, good my lord.
_Bil._ My lord, I did know your lordship in this disguise;
you heard me ever say, if Altofront did return, I
would stand for him: besides, 'twas your lordship's
pleasure to call me wittol and cuckold: you must not
think, but that I knew you, I would have put it up so
patiently. 202
_Mal._ You o'er-joy'd spirits, wipe your long-wet eyes.
[_To_ PIETRO _and_ AURELIA.
Hence with this man [_Kicks out_ MENDOZA]: an eagle takes
not flies.
You to your vows [_To_ PIETRO _and_ AURELIA]: and thou
into the suburbs.[581] [_To_ MAQUERELLE.
You to my worst friend I would hardly give;
Thou art a perfect old knave [_To_ BILIOSO]: all-pleas'd live
You two unto my breast [_To_ CELSO and the Captain]:
thou to my heart. [_To_ MARIA.
The rest of idle actors idly part:
And as for me, I here assume my right, 210
To which I hope all's pleas'd: to all, good-night.
[_Cornets, a flourish. Exeunt._
[555] Some copies of ed. 1. "distuned."
[556] Some copies of ed. 1. "head."
[557] Sticks for setting the plaits of ruffs. They were first
made of wood or bone, but afterwards of steel.
[558] Some copies of ed. 1. "falling-band."
[559] Some copies of ed. 1. "St. Andrew Jaques."
[560] Ed. 2. "wrapt."
[561] This is the reading of ed. 2.--Some copies of ed. 1. give
"windle." Perhaps the true reading is "wimble" (= nimble), a word
which Marston uses in _The First Part of Antonio and Mellida_
(see p. 58).
[562] Outweigh.
[563] Contraction of "you must."
[564] Given to _Aurelia_ (perhaps rightly) in ed. 2. and
some copies of ed. 1.
[565] "I ha' done," &c.--Old eds.:--
"_Aur._ I ha done; one word, take heede, I ha done."
[566] Regions.--"Marche. A region, _coast_, or
quarter."--_Cotgrave._
[567] Some copies of ed. 1. "Genoa."
[568] Ed. 2. "count."
[569] Ed. 2. "to."
[570] Some copies of ed. 1. "come downe."
[571] A _frotted_ jerkin--a jerkin in which sweet oil had
been rubbed. Cf. _Cynthia's Revels_, v. 2:--
"_Amo._ Is the perfume rich in this jerkin?
_Per._ Taste, smell; I assure you, sir, pure benjamin, the
only spirited scent that ever awaked a Neapolitan nostril.... I
frotted a jerkin for a new-revenued gentleman yielded me three
score crowns but this morning, and the same titillation."
[572] Old eds. "as."
[573] Omitted in some copies of ed. 1.
[574] Old eds. "_Pietro._"
[575] Some copies of ed. 1. "_Lorenzo._"
[576] Some copies of ed. 1. "to liue till."
[577] "O, I have seen ... so patiently" (ll. 180-202).--This
passage was added in ed. 2.
[578] Some copies read "men."
[579] Old ed. "conceale."
[580] Some copies read "men."
[581] Where the bawdy-houses were located.
AN[582] IMPERFECT ODE, BEING BUT ONE STAFF,
SPOKEN BY THE PROLOGUE.
To wrest each hurtless thought to private sense
Is the foul use of ill-bred impudence:
Immodest censure now grows wild,
All over-running.
Let innocence be ne'er so chaste,
Yet at the last
She is defil'd
With too nice-brainèd cunning.
O you of fairer soul,
Control 10
With an Herculean arm
This harm;
And once teach all old freedom of a pen,
Which still must write of fools, whiles't writes of men!
[582] The "imperfect ode" and the epilogue are not found in some
copies of ed. 1.
EPILOGUS.
Your modest silence, full of heedy stillness,
Makes me thus speak: a voluntary illness
Is merely[583] senseless; but unwilling error,
Such as proceeds from too rash youthful fervour,
May well be call'd a fault, but not a sin:
Rivers take names from founts where they begin.
Then let not too severe an eye peruse
The slighter brakes[584] of our reformèd Muse,
Who could herself herself of faults detect,
But that she knows 'tis easy to correct, 10
Though some men's labour: troth, to err is fit,
As long as wisdom's not profess'd, but wit.
Then till another's happier Muse appears,[585]
Till his Thalia feast your learnèd ears,
To whose desertful lamps pleased Fates impart
Art above nature, judgment above art,
Receive this piece, which hope nor fear yet daunteth:
He that knows most knows most how much he wanteth.
[583] Wholly.
[584] Clearly another form of _bracks_, _i.e._, cracks, flaws.
[585] A fine compliment to Ben Jonson.
END OF VOL. I.
PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO.
EDINBURGH AND LONDON.
Transcriber's Note:
Minor punctuation errors were corrected. Footnotes were renumbered
sequentially and were moved to follow the section of text or scene of
the play in which the related anchors occur. Phrases in Greek have
been transliterated. Words in italics are surrounded by underscores,
_like this_. Superscripted letters are preceded by a carat, li^{ke}
thi^s. The text of prose portions of plays was not wrapped, to
maintain the line numbers.
Anomolies noted and retained unchanged:
Both the prologue and the first scene of Act V of "Antonio's
Revenge" are identified as "Scene 1."
Footnotes [78], [237], and [478] each have two anchors that refer to
the note.
Line counts in the original do not appear to be accurate in several
places.
Changes to text:
Introduction - 'indentified' to 'identified'
... he is to be identified with ...
First part of Antonio and Mellida, Act III, Scene 1, line 113:
duplicate "myself" removed from
... Well, ere yon sun set, I'll show myself myself,...
The Malcontent, Act V, Scene 3, line 88:
duplicate "a" removed from
... Life is a a frost of cold felicity,...
End of Project Gutenberg's The Works of John Marston, by John Marston