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diff --git a/16753-8.txt b/16753-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1d798c3 --- /dev/null +++ b/16753-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4561 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Noble Spanish Soldier, by Thomas Dekker + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Noble Spanish Soldier + + +Author: Thomas Dekker + + + +Release Date: September 26, 2005 [eBook #16753] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NOBLE SPANISH SOLDIER*** + + +This etext was produced by John Price, University College Worcester, +UK. + +THE NOBLE SPANISH SOLDIER by THOMAS DEKKER + +INTRODUCTION + +THOMAS DEKKER + +Thomas Dekker is believed to have been born in London around 1572, +but nothing is known for certain about his youth. He embarked on a +career as a theatre writer early in his adult life, the first extant +text of his work being 'Old Fortunatus' written around 1596, although +there are plays connected with his name which were performed as early +as 1594. The period from 1596 to 1602 was the most prolific of his +career, with 20 plays being attributed to him and an involvement in +up to 28 other plays being suggested. It was during this period that +he produced his most famous work, 'The Shoemaker's Holiday, or the +Gentle Craft', categorised by modern critics as citizen comedy, it +reflects his concerns with the daily lives of ordinary Londoners. +This play exemplifies his vivid use of language and the intermingling +of everyday subjects with the fantastical, embodied in this case by +the rise of a craftsman to Mayor and the involvement of an unnamed +but idealised king in the concluding banquet. + +He exhibited a similar vigour in such prose pamphlets as the +ironically entitled 'The Wonderfull Yeare' (1603), about the plague, +'The Belman of London' (1608), about roguery and crime, and 'The Guls +Horne-Booke' (1609), a valuable account of behaviour in the London +theatres. + +Dekker was partly responsible for devising the street entertainment +to celebrate the entry of James I into London in 1603 and he managed +the Lord Mayor's pageant in 1612. His fortunes took a turn for the +worse shortly after, when between 1613 and 1619 he was imprisoned, +probably for debt; this experience may be behind his six prison +scenes first included in the sixth edition (1616) of Sir Thomas +Overbury's 'Characters'. He died in 1632 and was buried at St James', +Clerkenwell. + + +HISTORY OF THE NOBLE SPANISH SOLDIER ('NSS') + +Text + +The first clear reference to the play is dated as 16 May 1631 when an +entry was made in the Stationer's Register, effectively licensing +texts for publication. The entry, made for John Jackman, referred to +manuscripts of two plays by 'Tho: Dekker', these being 'The Wonder of +a Kingdom' and 'a Tragedy called The Noble Spanish Soldier'. A +similar entry was made on 9 December 1633, this time for Nicholas +Vavasour. The play was printed in a quarto version in 1634, probably +by John Beale, on behalf of Vavasour, who initialled the foreword +entitled 'The Printer to The Reader'. + +Sources, Authorship and Date + +These aspects of the play have attracted more critical attention than +all others combined, reference frequently being made to the following +known facts: + +(1) Although the entries in the Stationer's Register refer +unambiguously to Dekker as the author, the title page of the Quarto +states that the play is written by 'S.R.', the only Jacobean +playwright with those initials being Samuel Rowley. + +(2) It has been observed, initially by nineteenth century scholar A. +H. Bullen, that three sections of a play by John Day called 'The +Parliament of Bees' are nearly identical to sections of NSS. +Furthermore a further five sections correspond closely to parts of +'The Wonder of a Kingdom' which as is noted above, was registered +alongside NSS in 1931. + +(3) In 1601, theatre manager Philip Henslow made part payment for an +anonymous play called 'The Spanish Fig', no text of which survives +under that name. + +(4) In April 1624 a poster appeared in Norwich advertising a touring +play, being 'An excellent Comedy called The Spanish Contract' to be +performed by Lady Elizabeth's men, a company with which Dekker is +believed to have had connections. + +(5) There is some evidence of confusion in how the play has been +compiled for printing, in particular, a cast list which omits several +significant characters, the late appearance of two pointless +characters (Signor No and Juanna) and the delayed identification of +Alanzo as Captain of the Guard. These have been argued to be evidence +of revision of an earlier work. + +(6) Dekker's 'The Welsh Embassador' reworked much of the material in +NSS, albeit in a comedic form. This is generally dated as c1623. + +As may be imagined, these facts offer a considerable range of +possibilities as to authorship and provenance of the play. Various +critics, such as Fleay and Bullen, have tried to make sense of all of +them by postulating, largely without evidence, a variety of +permutations of collaboration and revision so as to give all of the +authorship candidates a role in the production of the text we now +have. The most persuasive contribution however, comes from Julia +Gasper who, building on work by R. Koeppel, convincingly identifies +the source of NSS as being Volume V of Jacques-Augueste de Thou's +Latin 'Historiarum Sui Temporis', published in 1620 <1>. + +The de Thou volume tells of how Henri IV of France reneged on a +written promise of marriage to Hentiette d'Entragues, by marrying +Marie be Medicis in 1600; both women bore sons by the King, who is +later assassinated. This closely anticipates the marriage plot of NSS +but the critical detail which seals the identification of de Thou as +the source, is his reference to a soldier called Balthazare Sunica +who acted against the King and was clearly, the original of the +character Balthazar in NSS. This evidence demonstrates that the +earliest date for composition of NSS is 1620. Furthermore, due to the +likelihood that NSS predated 'The Welsh Embassador' of 1623/4, a last +possible date for the writing of NSS, can also be deduced and a +composition date of around 1622 can be established with some +certainty. + +With respect to the relationship with other plays, any connection +with the 'The Spanish Fig' would seem to be ruled out on the grounds +that it pre-dates the publication of de Thou's Historiarum. In the +case of the later play 'The Spanish Contract', a connection is +possible although any theories that may be advanced little more than +conjecture. One such theory, put forward by Tirthanker Bose <2>, is +that 'the Spanish Contract' is a version of NSS, reworked as a comedy +and thus is an intermediate stage on the road to 'The Welsh +Embassador'. + +The more pressing matter, the question of the connection with 'The +Parliament of Bees', is also addressed by Julia Gasper. The crucial +evidence here relates to instances where details, meaningful only in +the context of NSS, have become embedded in the text of 'The +Parliament of Bees'. The most significant example of this occurs in +Scene 1, Line 29 of 'The Parliament of Bees' where a character asks +'Is Master Bee at leisure to speak Spanish / With a Bee of Service?'. +There is no connection between 'The Parliament of Bees' and Spain or +indeed, the Spanish language, so it would seem strong evidence that +NSS was the source for 'The Parliament of Bees' and not the other way +around. This evidence is supplemented by an analysis of NSS, Act 2 +Scene 1, a scene common to both plays, when Balthazar sets out his +credentials of loyal service in seeking to advise the King. Gasper +points out that this scene in NSS contains elements from de Thou, not +to be found in The Parliament of Bees, principally the need to +intervene on behalf of Onaelia. The only plausible order of +composition for the plays therefore places NSS before 'The Parliament +of Bees'. Furthermore as Day's name has never been associated with +NSS, there is no reason to suppose he was involved in its +composition. The likelihood is therefore that he was lifting dialogue +from an earlier work by another writer in order to serve his own +convenience. + +The remaining question to be considered concerns the relative claims +to authorship of Dekker and Rowley. In weighing the evidence, it is +important to consider that that the first records, those on the +Stationer's Register, unequivocally record Dekker as the sole author. +Furthermore, textual scholarship is happy to place NSS within the +Dekker cannon, while, as Hoy says 'no scholar has ever succeeded in +demonstrating Rowley's share in the play' <3>. Given that is has been +established that the play post-dates 1620, the possibility of a +Dekker revision of an earlier Rowley text would appear to be +implausible. The attribution to 'S.R.' remains unexplained, although +it may be noted in passing that the initials are the final letters of +Dekker's names, so it may just be a coded reference to Dekker. More +likely perhaps, it could be the result of the editorial confusion +which also pervades the compilation of the cast list. + +Performance + +There is no firm record of the play being performed, although the +foreword does make mention of it being enthusiastically received. +Such references are not, of course, to be taken at face value as they +would hardly be expected to say anything else; nevertheless, it does +strongly suggest that the play has been staged. In practice, the +printing of a text suggests either high popularity, in which case +sales could be expected to compensate for possible plagiarism, or +else relative unpopularity in which case publication was a last +attempt to generate some financial return before the play was +discarded. In this instance, the later circumstance is likely to +obtain, especially in view of the gap between writing and publication +dates. + +ACTION OF THE PLAY + +The sub-title given to the text in the Quarto edition is 'A contract +Broken, Justly Revenged'. Although this title is likely to have been +added by the printers, it does succinctly sum up one aspect the play, +the theme of revenge which is reminiscent of Elizabethan revenge +plays such as Thomas Kidd's 'The Spanish Tragedy'. Revenge plays +however, are generally patterned around a revenger and what may be +termed a 'revengee', while the action of NSS revolves around a power +struggle between two factions both of whom are concerned with violent +intent. In reality, the play reflects the seventeenth century fashion +for mixing elements of tragedy and comedy in a style first identified +by Sir Philip Sydney in 1579 as being 'mongrel tragicomedy'<4>; thus +while death intrudes on the final act, it only strikes unsympathetic +characters. There is also regular light relief provided by two comic +characters, Cornego and Cockadillio, as well the cameo appearances of +Signor No and Medina as a French Doctor. + +The two groups of characters at the centre of the play are on one +hand, the ruling cabal, that is the King, his Italian Queen and their +supporters, including the Italian Malateste and on the other a number +of disenchanted Spanish noblemen who are in sympathy with the King's +former betrothed lover, Onaelia. This later faction, led by the Duke +of Medina, eventually includes the key figure of the patriotic +soldier Balthazar, a man who has earned respect for his martial +exploits and whose 'nobility', as celebrated in the title to the +play, is a tribute earned by action rather than by birth or +inheritance. He is thus differentiated from the King, whose nobility +of birth is cancelled out by the dishonesty of his character. + +Nevertheless, Balthazar is something of a problematic figure and in +many ways an unconvincing hero for a play with ostensibly, a strong +moral theme. His basic character is presented as that of an honest +uncomplicated soldier; in his first appearance(2.1), he has already +been slighted by the Dons, and presents an unkempt appearance and +rails against the 'pied-winged butterflies' of the effete court who +put appearance before patriotic duty. Nevertheless, subterfuge seems +to come too readily to him as we see in 2.2 when he makes a false +offer to assassinate the King to test Onaelia, again in 3.3 when he +pretends to agree to murder Sebastian and Onaelia in order to placate +the Queen and finally in 5.1 when he tells the King that the murder +has been carried out. Scene 3.3 shows a further unedifying side of +Balthazar when he bursts in on the King and stabs a servant and +refuses to express remorse as the servant is a mere groom. On a +different note, the character is also used to comic effect, +especially in 4.2 when he acts out bawdy dialogue with Cornego. His +last significant act is to dissuade the faction from attempting to +assassinate the King, before being reduced to a minor role in the +closing scene where he only has five short speeches and plays no +significant part in the denouement. The character then, is something +of a patchwork affair, playing different roles as the play progresses +before being effectively jettisoned at the conclusion. + +The King by contrast maintains a degree of consistency, +notwithstanding his formulaic deathbed renunciation of evil. As we +have seen, his Queen is Italian, but he may be associated with Italy +by more reasons than his marriage. In Act 5 Scene 2, Daenia says that +'There's in his breast / Both fox and lion, and both those beasts can +bite' This is an direct reference to the works of the Italian +courtier Niccol˜ Machiavelli who wrote in his work on statecraft 'The +Prince': 'A Prince must know how to make good use of the beasts; he +should choose from among the beasts the fox and the lion; for the +lion cannot defend itself from traps and the fox cannot protect +itself from wolves.' <5>. Although the book from which this extract +was taken, 'The Prince', had yet to be published in English, the +ideas it contained (or at least a caricature of them) had been in +circulation for many years following its initial publication in Italy +in 1531. These were often treated with profound suspicion by the +English who saw the advocacy of the use of manipulation and deception +in order to maintain power as being the idea of a disreputable +foreign country. Indeed, Machiavelli was seen as a satanic figure who +was known as 'Old Nick', a still-used reference to the devil, and the +machiavel became a stock figure on the early modern stage, a +tradition which the portrayal of the King is drawing on. + +The other interesting opposition within the play is between the two +claimants to the title of Queen, the current incumbent and Onaelia. +There is little doubt that it is Onaelia who is the representative of +virtue, her behaviour often rising above that of the 'noble' +Balthazar. In Act 1 Scene 2 she makes a fearless statement in +defacing the King's portrait, this being an act of treason <6>. +Despite her strong feelings however, she does not rise to Balthazar's +bait when he introduces the possibility of assassinating the King; +the remnants of her love for him and her concern for the stability of +the realm rule this possibility out. She is not however prepared to +accept her treatment without protest and, in Act 3 Scene 2, engages a +poet to propagandise on her behalf. His refusal, on the grounds of +self-preservation is denounced in striking terms when she accuses +poets generally of being 'apt to lash / Almost to death poor wretches +not worth striking / but fawn with slavish flattery on damned vices / +so great men act them'. The effective conclusion of her involvement +as early as the end of 3.2 impoverishes the rest of the play. The +Queen's less admirable character is highlighted by the way she is +prepared to condone the taking of life in order to secure her +position. Her ruthless outlook is punished when she is deprived of +her position and forced to return to Italy. + +The final scene of the play utilises a dramatic technique that had +played an important part in 'The Shoemakers' Holiday': the banquet +scene. Planned by the King in an attempt to achieve reconciliation +and remove the threat of Onaelia by marrying her off, it represents a +means of bringing almost the entire cast on stage in order to witness +the meeting out of justice. It is ironic that the King's scheme is +undermined, not by his political rivals but by his allies, The Queen +and Malateste, who do not believe that the marriage will provide a +stable settlement and instead seek to pursue a deadlier course of +action. The banquet provides the context for the unwinding of this +plot as vengeance consumes itself, bring about the regime change that +justice demands. + +EDITORIAL PRACTICE + +The text is based on the 1634 Quarto, as reproduced in Tudor +Facsimile series in 1913. Spelling has been modernised, except in +instances where to do so would change a word's pronunciation. +Punctuation has also been modernised and has been used lightly in an +attempt to reflect contemporary speech patterns. Contractions to +words have been eliminated where this is possible without upsetting +the verse rhythm; for example, 'baked' replaces 'bak'd' in 4.2. + +Names have been retained as originally set out except that of the +central character who name was spelt in the original as 'Baltazar'; +Balthazar is the modern Anglicised version of the same name. The cast +list has been newly compiled from the text of the play, rather than +by reference to the one appearing in the Quarto. + +All lines have been left justified, including those cases where +characters share a line of verse. The speeches of Balthazar in the +early part of 2.1 and again in 4.1 appear as verse in the Quarto but +have been rendered as prose in this edition. This appears to makes +more sense of the speech patterns and has the additional effect of +making Balthazar and Cornego, the two non-aristocratic figures, the +consistent prose speakers throughout the play. + +Endnotes have been provided only to explicate words or terms of +unusual obscurity. Numeric references to such notes are enclosed +within angled brackets. + +Stage directions may be identified as being a line of text preceded +by a blank line, rather than by a character's name. These have been +added to occasionally to ensure that all essential movements apparent +from the text are set out. Where significant additions have been +made, these are enclosed within square brackets. Scene divisions +within acts have been deduced from the movements of characters. + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + +Primary text: + +Dekker, T. Ð 'The Noble Spanish Soldier' - Tudor facsimiles Ð 1913. + +Secondary texts: + +Bentley, G.E. Ð 'The Jacobean and Caroline Stage' Ð Oxford: Clarendon +Ð 1956. + +Bowers, F. Ð 'The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker', Volume IV Ð +Cambridge University Press Ð 1961. + +Bose, T. Ð 'The Gentle Craft of Revision in Thomas Dekker's last +Plays' Ð Institut f_r Anglistik und Amerikanistik Ð 1979. + +Bose T. Ð 'The Noble Spanish Soldier' and 'The Spanish Contract' - +Notes and Queries volume 40, Number 2 - 1993. + +Chapman, L.S. Ð 'Thomas Dekker and the Traditions of the English +Drama' Ð Lang Ð 1985. + +Fleay, F. G. Ð 'A Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama' - +Reeves and Turner Ð 1891. + +Gasper, J. - 'The Noble Spanish Soldier', 'The Wonder of a Kingdom' +and 'The Parliament of Bees': a belated solution to this long- +standing problem - Durham University Journal - 1987. + +Gasper, J. Ð 'The Dragon and the Dove: The Plays of Thomas Dekker' Ð +Oxford: Clarendon Ð 1990. + +Greetam, D.C. Ð 'Textual Scholarship An Introduction' Ð Garland Ð +1994. + +Hoy, C. Ð 'Introductions, notes, and commentaries to texts in 'The +dramatic works of Thomas Dekker', Volume IV - Cambridge University +Press Ð 1980. + +Meads, Chris Ð 'Banquets set forth : banqueting in English +Renaissance drama' - Manchester University Press Ð 2001. + +McLuskie, Kathleen. Ð 'Dekker and Heywood : professional dramatists' +- St. Martin's Press Ð 1994. + +Wells, S. Ð 'Re-editing Shakespeare for the Modern Reader' Ð Oxford: +Clarendon -1984. + +ENDNOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION + +1. Gasper, J - 'The Noble Spanish Soldier', 'The Wonder of a Kingdom' +and 'The Parliament of Bees': a belated solution to this long- +standing problem - Durham University Journal LXXIX number 2- 1987. + +2. Bose, T Ð 'The Noble Spanish Soldier' and 'The Spanish Contract' +in Notes and Queries v 40, number 2 Ð 1993. + +3. Hoy, C. - Introductions, notes, and commentaries to texts in 'The +dramatic works of Thomas Dekker, Volume IV, page 99 - Cambridge +University Press Ð 1980. + +4. Sidney, Sir Philip, 'The Defense of Posey' in 'The Norton +Anthology of English Literature, page 944 Ð Norton Ð 2000. + +5. Machiavelli, N. Ð 'The Prince', page 56 Ð Penguin Ð 2003. + +6. See Bowers, F. Ð 'The Stabbing of a Portrait in Elizabethan +Tragedy' Ð Modern language Notes, XLVII, pages 378-385 Ð 1932. + + + +John Price +University College Worcester +1 June 2004 + + + +THE TEXT + +DRAMATIS PERSONAE + +King of Spain +Cardinal, advisor to the King +Count Malateste of Florence, confidant of the Queen +Roderigo, Don of Spain, supporter of the King +Valasco, Don of Spain, supporter of the King +Lopez, Don of Spain, supporter of the King +Duke of Medina, leader of the Faction +Marquis Daenia, member of the Faction +Alba, Don of Spain, member of the Faction +Carlo, Don of Spain, member of the Faction +Alanzo, Captain of the Guard, member of the Faction +Sebastian, illegitimate son of the King +Balthazar, a Spanish soldier +Cornego, servant to Onaelia +Cockadillio, a courtier +Signor No +A Poet + +Queen of Spain, Paulina, daughter of Duke of Florence +Onaelia, niece to the Duke of Medina, mother of Sebastian +Juanna, maid to Onaelia +Ladies in waiting + +Attendants, guards + +THE PRINTER TO THE READER + +Understanding reader, I present this to your view, which has received +applause in action. The poet might conceive a complete satisfaction +upon the stage's approbation; but the printer rests not there, +knowing that that which was acted and approved upon the stage, might +be no less acceptable in print. It is now communicated to you, whose +leisure and knowledge admits of reading and reason. Your judgement +now this Posthumous <1> assures himself will well attest his +predecessor's endeavours to give content to men of the ablest +quality, such as intelligent readers are here conceived to be. I +could have troubled you with a longer epistle, but I fear to stay you +from the book, which affords better words and matter than I can. So +the work modestly depending in the scale of your judgement, the +printer for his part craves your pardon, hoping by his promptness to +do you greater service, as convenience shall enable him to give you +more or better testimony of his entireness towards you. + +N.V. + +ACT 1 SCENE 1 + +Enter in magnificent state to the sound of loud music, the King and +Queen, as from church, attended by the Cardinal, Count Malateste, +Marquis Daenia, Roderigo, Valasco, Alba, Carlo, and ladies-in +waiting. The King and Queen with courtly compliments salute and part. +She [exits] with one half attending her. King, Cardinal and the other +half stay, the King seeming angry and desirous to be rid of them. +King, Cardinal, Daenia and others [remain]. + +KING +Give us what no man here is master of: +Breath. Leave us pray, my father Cardinal +Can by the physic of philosophy +Set all again in order. Leave us pray. + +Exeunt [King and Cardinal remain]. + +CARDINAL +How is it with you, sir? + +KING +As with a ship +Now beat with storms, now safe. The storms are vanished +And having you my Pilot, I not only +See shore, but harbour; I to you will open +The book of a black sin, deep printed in me. +Oh father, my disease lies in my soul. + +CARDINAL +The old wound sir? + +KING +Yes that, it festers inwards. +For though I have a beauty to my bed +That even creation envies at, as wanting +Stuff to make such another, yet on her pillow +I lie by her, but an adulterer, +And she as an adulteress. She is my queen +And wife, yet but my strumpet though the church +Set on the seal of marriage. Good Onaelia, +Niece to our Lord High Constable of Spain +Was precontracted mine. + +CARDINAL +Yet when I stung +Your conscience with remembrance of the act +Your ears were deaf to counsel. + +KING +I confess it. + +CARDINAL +Now to untie the knot with your new Queen +Would shake your crown half from your head. + +KING +Even Troy, though she has wept her eyes out, +Would find tears to wail my kingdom's ruins. + +CARDINAL +What will you do then? + +KING +She has that contract written, sealed by you, +And other churchmen witnesses unto it. +A kingdom should be given for that paper. + +CARDINAL +I would not, for what lies beneath the moon, +Be made a wicked engine to break in pieces +That holy contract. + +KING +'Tis my soul's aim +To tie it upon a faster knot. + +CARDINAL +I do not see +How you can with safe conscience get it from her. + +KING +Oh I know +I wrestle with a lioness. To imprison her +And force her to it, I dare not. Death! What King +Did ever say 'I dare not'? I must have it; +A bastard have I by her, and that cock +Will have, I fear, sharp spurs, if he crow after +Him that trod for him. Something must be done +Both to the hen and the chicken. Haste you therefore +To sad Onaelia, tell her I'm resolved +To give my new hawk bells, and let her fly. +My Queen, I'm weary of, and her will marry. +To this, our text, add you what gloss you please; +The secret drifts of kings are depthless seas. + +Exeunt + +ACT 1 SCENE 2 + +A table set out covered with black. Two waxen tapers. The King's +[defaced] picture at one end and a crucifix at the other. Onaelia +[dressed in black] walking discontentedly weeping to the crucifix. + +A Song. + +QUESTION +Oh sorrow, sorrow, say where do'st thou dwell? + +ANSWER +In the lowest room of hell. + +QUESTION +Art thou born of human race? + +ANSWER +No, no. I have a fury's <2> face. + +QUESTION +Art thou in city, town or court? + +ANSWER +I to every place resort. + +QUESTION +O why into the world is sorrow sent? + +ANSWER +Men afflicted best repent. + +QUESTION +What dost thou feed on? + +ANSWER +Broken sleep. + +QUESTION +What takest thou take pleasure in? + +ANSWER +To weep, +To sigh, to sob, to pine, to groan, +To wring my hands, to sit alone. + +QUESTION +Oh when, oh when, shall sorrow quiet have? + +ANSWER +Never, never, never, never, +Never till she finds a grave. + +Enter Cornego. + +CORNEGO +No lesson Madam but Lacrymae's? <3> If you had buried nine husbands, so much +water as you might squeeze out of an onion had been tears enough to cast away upon +fellows that cannot thank you. Come, be jovial. + +ONAELIA +Sorrow becomes me best. + +CORNEGO +A suit of laugh and lie down would wear better. + +ONAELIA +What should I do to be merry, Cornego? + +CORNGO +Be not sad. + +ONELIA +But what's the best mirth in the world? + +CORNEGO +Marry this, to see much, say little, do little, get little, spend +little and want nothing. + +ONELIA +Oh, but there is a mirth beyond all these; +This picture has so vexed me, I'm half mad, +To spite it therefore, I'll sing any song +Thyself shall tune. Say then, what mirth is best? + +CORNEGO +Why then Madam, what I knock out now is the very marrowbone of mirth +and this it is. + +ONELIA +Say on. + +CORNEGO +The best mirth for a lawyer is to have fools to his clients; for +citizens to have noblemen pay for their debts; for tailors to have +store of satin brought in, for then how little soever their houses +are, they will be sure to have large yards. The best mirth for bawds +is to have fresh handsome whores, and for whores to have rich gulls +come aboard their pinnaces <4>, for then they are sure to build +galleasses <5>. + +ONELIA +These to such souls are mirth, but to mine, none. +Away. + +Exit Cornego, Enter Cardinal. + +CARDINAL +Peace to you, Lady. + +ONELIA +I will not sin so much as to hope for peace +And 'tis a mock ill suits your gravity. + +CARDINAL +I come to knit the nerves of your lost strength, +To build your ruins up, to set you free +From this your voluntary banishment, +And give new being to your murdered fame. + +ONELIA +What Aesculapius <6> can do this? + +CARDINAL +'Tis from the King I come. + +ONELIA +A name I hate. +Oh, I am deaf now to your embassy. + +CARDINAL +Hear what I speak. + +ONELIA +Your language breathed from him +Is death's sad doom upon a wretch condemned. + +CARDINAL +Is it such poison? + +ONELIA +Yes, and were you crystal, +What the King fills you with would make you break. +You should my Lord, be like these robes you wear, +Pure as the dye, and like that reverend shape +Nurse thoughts as full of honour, zeal and purity. +You should be the court-dial, and direct +The King with constant motion, be ever beating, +Like to clock-hammers, on his iron heart +To make it sound clear and to feel remorse. +You should unlock his soul, wake his dead conscience +Which, like a drowsy sentinel, gives leave +For sin's vast armies to beleaguer him. +His ruins will be asked for at your hands. + +CARDINAL +I have raised up a scaffolding to save +Both him and you from falling. Do but hear me. + +ONAELIA +Be dumb for ever. + +CARDINAL +Let your fears thus die: +By all the sacred relics of the church +And by my holy orders, what I minister +Is even the spirit of health. + +ONAELIA +I'll drink it down into my soul at once. + +CARDINAL +You shall. + +ONAELIA +But swear. + +CARDINAL +What conjurations can more bind my oath? + +ONAELIA +But did you swear in earnest? + +CARDINAL +Come, you trifle. + +ONAELIA +No marvel, for my hopes have been so drowned +I still despair, say on. + +CARDINAL +The King repents. + +ONAELIA +Pray, that again my Lord. + +CARDINAL +The King repents. + +ONAELIA +His wrongs to me? + +CARDINAL +His wrongs to you. The sense of sin +Has pierced his soul. + +ONAELIA +Blessed penitence! + +CARDINAL +Has turned his eyes <7> into his leprous bosom +And like a king vows execution +On all his traitorous passions. + +ONAELIA +God-like justice! + +CARDINAL +Intends in person presently to beg +Forgiveness for his acts from heaven and you. + +ONAELIA +Heaven pardon him. I shall. + +CARDINAL +Will marry you. + +ONAELIA +Umh! Marry me? Will he turn bigamist? +When? When? + +CARDINAL +Before the morrow sun hath rode +Half his day's journey, will send home his Queen +As one that stains his bed, and can produce +Nothing but bastard issue to his crown. +Why, how now? Lost in wonder and amazement? + +ONAELIA +I am so stored with joy that I can now +Strongly wear out more years of misery +Than I have lived. + +Enter King. + +CARDINAL +You need not: here is the King. + +KING +Leave us. + +Exit Cardinal. + +ONAELIA +With pardon sir, I will prevent you +And charge upon you first. + +KING +'Tis granted, do. +But stay, what mean these emblems of distress? +My picture so defaced, opposed against +A holy cross! Room hung in black, and you +Dressed like chief mourner at a funeral? + +ONAELIA +Look back upon your guilt, dear Sir, and then +The cause that now seems strange explains itself. +This and the image of my living wrongs +Is still confronted by me to beget +Grief like my shame, whose length may outlive time. +This cross, the object of my wounded soul +To which I pray to keep me from despair; +That ever as the sight of one throws up +Mountains of sorrow on my accursed head. +Turning to that, mercy may check despair +And bind my hands from wilful violence. + +KING +But who has played the tyrant with me thus, +And with such dangerous spite abused my picture? + +ONAELIA +The guilt of that lays claim sir, to yourself +For being, by you, ransacked of all my fame, +Robbed of mine honour and dear chastity, +Made, by your act, the shame of all my house, +The hate of good men and the scorn of bad, +The song of broom-men and the murdering vulgar, +And left alone to bear up all these ills +By you begun, my breast was filled with fire +And wrapped in just disdain, and like a woman +On that dumb picture wreaked I my passions. + +KING +And wished it had been I. + +ONAELIA +Pardon me Sir, +My wrongs were great, and my revenge swelled high. + +KING +I will descend and cease to be a King, +To leave my judging part, freely confessing +Thou canst not give thy wrongs too ill a name. +And here to make thy apprehension full, +And seat thy reason in a sound belief +I vow tomorrow, ere the rising sun +Begins his journey, with all ceremonies +Due to the Church, to seal our nuptials, +To prive <8> thy son with full consent of state, +Spain's heir apparent, born in wedlock's vows. + +ONAELIA +And will you swear to this? + +KING +By this I swear. + +[Takes up Bible.] + +ONAELIA +Oh, you have sworn false oaths upon that book! + +KING +Why then, by this. + +[Takes up crucifix.] + +ONAELIA +Take heed you print it deeply: +How for your concubine, bride I cannot say, +She stains your bed with black adultery, +And though her fame masks in a fairer shape +Than <9> mine to the world's eye, yet King, you know +Mine honour is less strumpeted than hers, +However butchered in opinion. + +KING +This way for her, the contract which thou hast, +By best advice of all our Cardinals, +Today shall be enlarged till it be made +Past all dissolving. Then to our council table +Shall she be called, that read aloud, she told +The church commands her quick return for Florence +With such a dower as Spain received with her, +And that they will not hazard heaven's dire curse +To yield to a match unlawful, which shall taint +The issue of the King with bastardy. +This done, in state majestic come you forth, +Our new crowned Queen in sight of all our peers. +Are you resolved? + +OMAELIA +To doubt of this were treason +Because the King has sworn it. + +KING +And will keep it. +Deliver up the contract then, that I +May make this day end with thy misery. + +ONAELIA +Here as the dearest Jewel of my fame +Locked I this parchment from all viewing eyes. +This your indenture, held alone the life +Of my supposed dead honour; yet behold, +Into your hands I redeliver it. +Oh keep it Sir, as you should keep that vow, +To which, being signed by heaven, even angels bow. + +[Onaelia passes the document to the King.] + +KING +'Tis in the lion's paw, and who dares snatch it? +Now to your beads and crucifix again. + +ONAELIA +Defend me heaven! + +KING +Pray there may come Embassadors from France +Their followers are good customers. + +ONAELIA +Save me from madness! + +KING +'Twill raise the price, being the King's mistress. + +ONAELIA +You do but counterfeit to mock my joys. + +KING +Away bold strumpet! + +ONAELIA +Are there eyes in heaven to see this? + +KING +Call and try, here's a whore's curse +To fall in that belief, which her sins nurse. + +Exit King, Enter Cornego. + +CORNEGO +How now? What quarter of the moon has she cut out now? My Lord puts +me into a wise office to be a mad-woman's keeper. Why, Madam! + +ONAELIA +Ha! Where is the King, thou slave? + +[Clutches Cornego.] + +CORNEGO +Let go your hold, or I'll fall upon you as I am a man. + +ONAELIA +Thou treacherous caitiff <10>, where is the King? + +CORNEGO +He's gone, but not so far as you are. + +ONAELIA +Crack all in sunder, oh you battlements, +And grind me into powder + +CORNEGO +What powder? Come, what powder? When did you ever see a woman grinded +into powder? I am sure some of your sex powder men, and pepper them +too. + +ONAELIA +Is there a vengeance yet lacking to my ruin? +Let it fall, now let it fall upon me! + +CORNEGO +No, there has been too much fallen upon you already. + +ONAELIA +Thou villain, leave thy hold, I'll follow him +Like a raised ghost, I'll haunt him, break his sleep, +Fright him as he is embracing his new leman <11>, +Til want of rest bids him run mad and die, +For making oaths bawds to his perjury. + +CORNEGO +Pray be more seasoned, if he make any bawds, he did ill, for there is +enough of that fly-blown flesh already. + +ONAELIA +I'm left quite naked now; all gone, all, all. + +CORNEGO +No Madam, not all, for you cannot be rid of me. +Here comes your Uncle. + +Enter Medina. + +ONAELIA +Attired in robes of vengeance, are you uncle? + +MEDINA +More horrors yet? + +ONAELIA +'Twas never full till now, +And in this torrent all my hopes lie drowned. + +MEDINA +Instruct me in the cause. + +ONAELIA +The King, the contract! + +Exit Onaelia. + +CORNEGO +That's cud enough for you to chew upon. + +Exit Cornego. + +MEDINA +What's this? A riddle. How? The King, the contract. +The mischief I divine which proving true, +Shall kindle fires in Spain to melt his crown +Even from his head. Here's the decree of fate: +A black deed must a black deed expiate. + +Exit Medina. + +ACT 2 SCENE 1 + +Enter Balthazar, [having been] slighted by the Dons. + +BALTHAZAR +Thou god of good apparel, what strange fellows are bound to do thee +honour. Mercer's <12> books show men's devotions to thee. Heaven +cannot hold a saint so stately. Do not my dons know me because I'm +poor in clothes? Stood my beaten tailor plaiting my rich hose, my +silk stocking man drawing upon my Lordship's courtly calf pairs of +imbroidered things, whose golden clocks strike deeper to the faithful +shop-keeper's heart, than into mine to pay him. Had my barber +perfumed my lousy thatch here and poked out me tusks more stiff than +are a cats muschatoes <13>, these pied-winged butterflies had known +me then. Another fly-boat! <14> Save thee illustrious Don. + +Enter Don Rodrigo. + +Sir, is the King at leisure to speak Spanish with a poor Soldier? + +RODRIGO +No + +BALTHAZAR +No, Sirah, you, no! You Don with the ochre face, I wish to have thee +but on a breach, stifling with smoke and fire. And for thy no, but +whiffing gunpowder out of an iron pipe, I would but ask thee +if thou would'st on, and if thou did'st cry no, thou should'st read +Canon Law. I'd make thee roar, and wear cut-beaten-satin. I would pay +thee though thou payest not thy mercer. Mere Spanish jennets! <15> + +Enter Cockadillio. + +Signor, is the King at leisure? + +COCKADILLO +To do what? + +BALTHAZAR +To hear a soldier speak. + +COCKADILLO +I am no ear picker +To sound his hearing that way. + +BALTHAZAR +Are you of court sir? + +COCKADILLO +Yes, the King's barber. + +BALTHAZAR +That's his ear picker. Your name, I pray. + +COCKADILLO +Don Cockadillio +If, soldier, thou hast suits to beg at court, +I shall descend so low as to betray +Thy paper to the hand Royal. + +BALTHAZAR +I beg, you whorson muscod <16>! My petition is written on my bosom in +red wounds. + +COCKADILLO +I am no barber-surgeon. + +Exit Cockadillio. + +BALTHAZAR +You yellowhammer, why, shaver: that such poor things as these, only +made up of tailor's shreds and merchant's silken rags and 'pothecary +drugs to lend their breath sophisticated smells, when their rank guts +stink worse than cowards in the heat of battle. Such whaleboned- +doublet rascals, that owe more to laundresses and seamsters for laced +linen than all their race from their great grand-father to this their +reign, in clothes were ever worth. +These excrements of silk worms! Oh that such flies do buzz about the +beams of Majesty, like earwigs tickling a King's yielding ear with +that court-organ, flattery, when a soldier must not come near the +court gates twenty score, but stand for want of clothes, though he +win towns, amongst the almsbasket-men! His best reward being scorned +to be a fellow to the blackguard. Why should a soldier, being the +world's right arm, be cut thus by the left, a courtier? Is the world +all ruff and feather and nothing else? Shall I never see a tailor +give his coat with a difference from a gentleman? + +Enter King, Alanzo, Carlo, Cockadillio. + +KING +My Balthazar! +Let us make haste to meet thee. How art thou altered? +Do you not know him? + +ALANZO +Yes Sir, the brave soldier +Employed against the Moors + +KING +Half turned Moor! +I'll honour thee, reach him a chair, that table +And now, Aeneas-like, let thine own trumpet +Sound forth thy battle with those slavish Moors. + +BALTHAZAR +My music is a Cannon, a pitched field my stage, Furies the actors, +blood and vengeance the scene, death the story, a sword imbrued with +blood, the pen that writes, and the poet a terrible buskined <17> +tragical fellow, with a wreath about his head of burning match +instead of bays. + +KING +On to the battle. + +BALTHAZAR +'Tis here without bloodshed. This our main battalia, that the van, +this the vaw <18>, these the wings, here we fight, there they fly, +here they insconce <19>, and here our sconces <20> lay seventeen +moons on the cold earth. + +KING +This satisfies my eye, but now my ear +Must have his music too. Describe the battle. + +BALTHAZAR +The battle? Am I come from doing to talking? The hardest part for a +soldier to play is to prate well. Our tongues are fifes, drums, +petronels <21>, muskets, culverin <22> and cannon. These are our +roarers, the clocks which we go by are our hands. Thus we reckon ten, +our swords strike eleven and when steel targets of proof clatter one +against another, then 'tis noon that's the height and the heat of the +day of battle. + +KING +So. + +BALTHAZAR + +To that heat we came, our drums beat, pikes were shaken and shivered, +swords and targets clashed and clattered, muskets rattled cannons +roared, men died groaning, brave laced jerkings and feathers looked +pale, tottered rascals fought pell mell. Here fell a wing, there +heads were tossed like footballs, legs and arms quarrelled in the air +and yet lay quietly on the earth. Horses trampled upon heaps of +carcasses, troops of carbines tumbled wounded from their horses, we +besiege Moors and famine us, mutinies bluster and are calm. I vowed +not to doff mine armour though my flesh were frozen to it and turn +into iron, nor to cut head nor beard till they yielded. My hairs and +oath are of one length for, with Caesar, thus write I mine own story: +veni, vidi, vici. + +KING +A pitched field, quickly fought. Our hand is thine, +And because thou shalt not murmur that thy blood +Was lavished forth for an ungrateful man, +Demand what we can give thee and 'tis thine. + +BALTHAZAR +Only your love. + +KING +'Tis thine, rise soldier's best accord +When wounds of wrong are healed up by the sword. + +Onaelia knocks loudly at the door. + +ONAELIA +Let me come in, I'll kill the treacherous King, +The murderer of mine honour, let me come in. + +KING +What woman's voice is that? + +ALL +Medina's niece. + +KING +Bar out that fiend. + +ONAELIA +I'll tear him with my nails, +Let me come in, let me come in, help, help me. + +KING +Keep her from following me. A guard. + +ALANZO +They are ready, sir. + +KING +Let a quick summons call our Lords together, +This disease kills me. + +BALTHAZAR +Sir, I would be private with you. + +KING +Forebear us, but see the doors are well guarded. + +Exeunt [King and Balthazar remain]. + +BALTHAZAR +Will you, Sir, promise to give me freedom of speech? + +KING +Yes, I will, take it, speak any thing, 'tis pardoned. + +BALTHAZAR +You are a whoremaster. Do you send me to win towns for you abroad and +you lose a kingdom at home? + +KING +What kingdom? + +BALTHAZAR +The fairest in the world, the kingdom of your fame, your honour. + +KING +Wherein? + +BALTHAZAR +I'll be plain with you. Much mischief is done by the mouth of a +cannon, but the fire begins at a little touch-hole. You heard what +nightingale sung to you even now. + +KING +Ha, ha, ha! + +BALTHAZAR +Angels erred but once and fell, but you Sir, spit in heaven's face +every minute and laugh at it. Laugh still, follow your courses, do. +Let your vices run like your kennels of hounds, yelping after you +till they pluck down the fairest head in the herd, everlasting bliss. + +KING +Any more? + +BALTHAZAR +Take sin as the English snuff tobacco, and scornfully blow the smoke +in the eyes of heaven, the vapour flies up in clouds of bravery. But +when 'tis out, the coal is black, your conscience, and the pipe +stinks. A sea of rosewater cannot sweeten your corrupted bosom. + +KING +Nay, spit thy venom. + +BALTHAZAR +'Tis Aqua Coelestis <23>, no venom. For when you shall clasp up these +two books, never to be opened again, when by letting fall that anchor +which can never more be weighed up, your mortal navigation ends. Then +there's no playing at spurn-point <24> with thunderbolts. A vintner +then for unconscionable reckoning or a tailor for unmeasurable items +shall not answer in half that fear you must. + +KING +No more. + +BALTHAZAR +I will follow truth at the heels, though her foot beat my gums in +pieces. + +KING +The barber that draws out a lion's tooth +Curseth his trade; and so shalt thou. + +BALTHAZAR +I care not. + +KING +Because you have beaten a few base-born moors, +Me think'st thou to chastise? What is past I pardon, +Because I made the key to unlock thy railing; +But if thou dar'st once more be so untuned +I'll sent thee to the galleys. Who are without there, +How now? + +Enter [guards and attendants] drawn. + +ALL +In danger, Sir? + +KING +Yes, yes, I am, but 'tis no point of weapon +Can rescue me. Go presently and summon +All our chief Grandees, Cardinals, and Lords +Of Spain to meet in Council instantly. +We called you forth to execute a business +Of another strain - but 'tis no matter now. +Thou diest when next thou furrowest up our brow. + +BALTHAZAR +So, die! + +Exit Balthazar, enter Cardinal, Rodrigo, Alba, Daenia, Valasco. + +KING +I find my sceptre shaken by enchantments +Charactered in this parchment, which to unloose, +I'll practice only counter-charms of fire, +And blow the spells of lightening into smoke: +Fetch burning tapers. + +[Exit attendant who returns with light.] + +CARDINAL +Give me audience, Sir. +My apprehension opens me a way +To a close fatal mischief, worse than this +You strive to murder. Oh, this act of yours +Alone shall give your dangers life, which else +Can never grow to height. Do, Sir, but read +A book here closed up, which too late you opened, +Now blotted by you with foul marginal notes. + +KING +Art frantic? + +CARDINAL +You are so, Sir. + +KING +If I be, +Then here's my first mad fit. + +CARDINAL +For honour's sake, +For love you bear to conscience - + +KING +Reach the flames: +Grandees and Lords of Spain be witness all +What here I cancel. Read, do you know this bond? + +ALL +Our hands are to it. + +DAENIA +'Tis your confirmed contract +With my sad kinswoman: but wherefore Sir, +Now is your rage on fire, in such a presence +To have it mourn in ashes? + +KING +Marquis Daenia +We'll lend that tongue, when this no more can speak. + +CARDINAL +Dear Sir! + +KING +I am deaf, +Played the full concert of the spheres unto me +Upon their loudest strings - so burn that witch +Who would dry up the tree of all Spain's glories, +But that I purge her sorceries by fire. + +[Burns contract.] + +Troy lies in cinders. Let your Oracles +Now laugh at me if I have been deceived +By their ridiculous riddles. Why, good father, +Now you may freely chide, why was your zeal +Ready to burst in showers to quench our fury? + +CARDINAL +Fury indeed, you give it proper name. +What have you done? Closed up a festering wound +Which rots the heart. Like a bad surgeon, +Labouring to pluck out from your eye a mote, +You thrust the eye clean out. + +KING +Th'art mad ex tempore: +What eye? Which is that wound? + +CARDINAL +That scroll, which now +You make the black indenture of your lust +Although eat up in flames, is printed here, +In me, in him, in these, in all that saw it, +In all that ever did but hear 'twas yours. +The scold of the whole world, fame, will anon +Rail with her thousand tongues at this poor shift +Which gives your sin a flame greater than that +You lend the paper. You to quench a wild fire, +Cast Oil upon it. + +KING +Oil to blood shall turn, +I'll lose a limb before the heart shall mourn. + +Exeunt, Daenia and Alba remain. + +DAENIA +He's mad with rage or joy. + +ALBA +With both; with rage +To see his follies checked, with fruitless joy +Because he hopes his contract is cut off, +Which divine justice more exemplifies. + +Enter Medina. + +MEDINA +Where's the King? + +DAENIA +Wrapped up in clouds of lightning. + +MEDINA +What has he done? Saw you the contract torn? +As I did here a minion swear he threatened. + +ALBA +He tore it not, but burned it. + +MEDINA +Openly! + +DAENIA +And heaven with us to witness. + +MEDINA +Well, that fire +Will prove a catching flame to burn his kingdom. + +ALBA +Meet and consult. + +MEDINA +No more, trust not the air +With our projections, let us all revenge +Wrongs done to our most noble kinswoman. +Action is honours language, swords are tongues, +Which both speak best, and best do right our wrongs. + +Exeunt. + +ACT 2 SCENE 2 + +Enter Onaelia from one way, Cornego another. + +CORNEGO +Madam, there's a bear without to speak with you + +ONAELIA +A bear? + +CORNEGO +It's a man all hair, and that's as bad. + +ONAELIA +Who is it? + +CORNEGO +'Tis one Master Captain Balthazar. + +ONAELIA +I do not know that Balthazar. + +CORNEGO +He desires to see you: and if you love a water-spaniel before he be +shorn, see him. + +ONAELIA +Let him come in. + +Enter Balthazar. + +CORNEGO +Hist; a duck, a duck. There she is, Sir. + +BALTHAZAR +A soldier's good wish bless you lady. + +ONAELIA +Good wishes are most welcome Sir, to me, +So many bad ones blast me. + +BALTHAZAR +Do you not know me? + +ONAELIA +I scarce know myself. + +BALTHAZAR +I have been at tennis Madam, with the king. I gave him fifteen and +all his faults, which is much, and now I come to toss a ball with +you. + +ONAELIA +I am bandied too much up and down already. + +CORNEGO +Yes, she has been struck under line, master soldier. + +BALTHAZAR +I conceit you, dare you trust yourself alone with me? + +ONAELIA +I have been laden with such weights of wrong +That heavier cannot press me. Hence Cornego. + +CORNEGO +Hence Cornego? Stay Captain? When man and woman are put together, +Some egg of villainy is sure to be sat upon. + +Exit Cornego. + +BALTHAZAR +What would you say to him should kill this man that hath you so +dishonoured? + +ONAELIA +Oh, I would Crown him +With thanks, praise, gold and tender of my life. + +BALTHAZAR +Shall I be that German fencer, and beat all the knocking boys before +me? Shall I kill him? + +ONAELIA +There's music in the tongue that dares but speak it. + +BALTHAZAR +That fiddle then is in me, this arm can do it, by poniard, poison or +pistol: but shall I do it indeed? + +ONAELIA +One step to human bliss is sweet revenge. + +BALTHAZAR +Stay. What made you love him? + +ONAELIA +His most goodly shape +Married to royal virtues of his mind. + +BALTHAZAR +Yet now you would divorce all that goodness; and why? For a little +lechery of revenge? It's a lie. The burr that sticks in your throat +is a throne. Let him out of his mess of kingdoms cut out but one, and +lay Sicily, Aragon or Naples or any else upon your trencher <25>, and +you will praise bastard <26> for the sweetest wine in the world, and +call for another quart of it. 'Tis not because the man has left you, +but because you are not the woman you would be that mads you. A she- +cuckold is an untameable monster. + +ONAELIA +Monster of men thou are, thou bloody villain, +Traitor to him who never injured thee. +Dost thou profess arms, and art bound in honour +To stand up like a brazen wall to guard +Thy king and country, and would'st thou ruin both? + +BALTHAZAR +You spur me on to it. + +ONAELIA +True; +Worse am I then the horridest fiend in hell +To murder him who I once loved too well: +For thou I could run mad, and tear my hair, +And kill that godless man that turned me vile, +Though I am cheated by a purjurious Prince +Who has done wickedness, at which even heaven +Shakes when the sun beholds it, O yet I'd rather +Ten thousand poisoned poniards stab my breast +Than one should touch his. Bloody slave! I'll play +Myself the hangman, and will butcher thee +If thou but prickest his finger. + +BALTHAZAR +Sayest thou me so! Give me thy goll <27>, thou are a noble girl. I +did play the Devil's part, and roar in a feigned voice, but I am the +honestest Devil that ever spat fire. I would not drink that infernal +draft of a King's blood, to go reeling to damnation, for the weight +of the world in diamonds. + +ONAELIA +Art thou not counterfeit? + +BALTHAZAR +Now by my scars I am not. + +ONAELIA +I'll call thee honest soldier then, and woo thee +To be an often visitant. + +BALTHAZAR +Your servant, +Yet must I be a stone upon a hill, +For thou I do no good, I'll not lie still. + +Exeunt. + +ACT THREE SCENE ONE + +Enter Malateste and the Queen. + +MALATESTE +When first you came from Florence, would the world +Had with a universal dire eclipse +Been overwhelmed, no more to gaze on day, +That you to Spain had never found the way, +Here to be lost forever. + +QUEEN +We from one climate +Drew suspiration <28>. As thou then hast eyes +To read my wrongs, so be thy head an engine +To raise up ponderous mischief to the height, +And then thy hands, the executioners. +A true Italian spirit is a ball +Of wild-fire, hurting most when it seems spent. +Great ships on small rocks, beating oft are rent. +And so, let Spain by us. But Malateste, +Why from the presence did you single me +Into this gallery? + +MALATESTE +To show you Madam, +The picture of yourself, but so defaced, +And mangled by proud Spaniards, it would whet +A sword to arm the poorest Florentine +In your just wrongs. + +QUEEN +As how? Let's see that picture. + +MALATESTE +Here 'tis then: time is not scarce four days old, +Since I, and certain Dons, sharp-witted fellows, +And of good rank, were with two Jesuits +Grave profound scholars, in deep argument +Of various propositions. At the last, +Question was moved touching your marriage +And the King's pre-contract. + +QUEEN +So, and what followed? + +MALATESTE +Whether it were a question moved by chance, +Or spitefully of purpose, I being there, +And your own Countryman, I cannot tell. +But when much tossing had bandied both the King +And you, as pleased those that took up the racquets. +In conclusion, the Father Jesuits, +To whose subtle music every ear there +Was tied, stood with their lives in stiff defence +Of this opinion - oh pardon me +If I must speak their language. + +QUEEN +Say on. + +MALATESTE +That the most Catholic king in marrying you, +Keeps you but as his whore. + +QUEEN +Are we their themes? + +MALATESTE +And that Medina's niece, Onaelia, +Is his true wife. Her bastard son they said +The King being dead, should claim and wear the crown, +And whatsoever children you shall bear, +To be but bastards in the highest degree, +As being begotten in adultery. + +QUEEN +We will not grieve at this, but with hot vengeance +Beat down this armed mischief. Malateste! +What whirlwinds can we raise to blow this storm +Back in their faces who thus shoot at me? + +MALATESTE +If I were fit to be your councillor, +Thus would I speak - feign that you are with child. +The mother of the maids, and some worn ladies +Who oft have guilty being to court great bellies, +May though it not be so, get you with child +With swearing that 'tis true. + +QUEEN +Say 'tis believed, +Or that it so doth prove? + +MALATESTE +The joy thereof, +Together with these earthquakes, which will shake +All Spain, if they their Prince do disinherit, +So borne, of such a Queen, being only daughter +To such a brave spirit as Duke of Florence. +All this buzzed into the King, he cannot choose +But charge that all the bells in Spain echo up +This joy to heaven, that bonfires change the night +To a high noon, with beams of sparkling flames; +And that in Churches, organs, charmed with prayers, +Speak loud for your most safe delivery. + +QUEEN +What fruits grow out of these? + +MALATESTE +These; you must stick, +As here and there spring weeds in banks of flowers, +Spies amongst the people, who shall lay their ears +To every mouth, and seal to you their whispering. + +QUEEN +So. + +MALATESTE +'Tis a plummet to sound Spanish hearts +How deeply they are yours. Besides a guesse <29> +Is hereby made of any faction +That shall combine against you, which the King seeing, +If then he will not rouse him like a dragon +To guard his golden fleece, and rid his harlot +And her base bastard hence, either by death, +Or in some traps of state ensnare them both, +Let his own ruins crush him. + +QUEEN +This goes to trial. +Be thou my magic book, which reading o'er +Their counterspells we'll break; or if the King +Will not by strong hand fix me in his Throne, +But that I must be held Spain's blazing star, +Be it an ominous charm to call up war. + +ACT THREE SCENE TWO + +Enter Cornego and Onaelia. + +CORNEGO +Here's a parcel of man's flesh has been hanging up and down all this +morning to speak with you. + +ONAELIA +Is't not some executioner? + +CORNEGO +I see nothing about him to hang in but his garters. + +ONAELIA +Sent from the King to warn me of my death: +I prithee bid him welcome. + +CORNEGO +He says he is a poet. + +ONAELIA +Then bid him better welcome. +Belike he's come to write my epitaph, +Some scurvy thing I'll warrant. Welcome Sir. + +Enter Poet. + +POET +Madam, my love presents this book unto you. + +ONAELIA +To me? I am not worthy of a line, +Unless at that Line hang some hook to choke me: + +[Onaelia reads book.] + +To the Most Honoured Lady - Onaelia. +Fellow thou liest, I'm most dishonoured: +Thou should'st have writ to the most wronged Lady. +The title of this book is not to me, +I tear it therefore as mine honour's torn. + +CORNEGO +Your verses are lamed in some of their feet, Master poet. + +ONAELIA +What does it treat of? + +POET +Of the solemn triumphs +Set forth at coronation of the Queen. + +ONAELIA +Hissing, the poet's whirlwind, blast thy lines! +Com'st thou to mock my tortures with her triumphs? + +POET +'Las Madam! + +ONAELIA +When her funerals are past, +Crown thou a dedication to my joys, +And thou shalt swear each line a golden verse. +Cornego, burn this idol. + +CORNGO +Your book shall come to light, Sir. + +Exit Cornego [with book.] + +ONAELIA +I have read legends of disastrous dames; +Will none set pen to paper for poor me? +Canst write a bitter satire? Brainless people +Do call them libels. Darest thou write a libel? + +POET +I dare mix gall and poison with my ink. + +ONAELIA +Do it then for me. + +POET +And every line must be +A whip to draw blood. + +ONAELIA +Better. + +POET +And to dare +The stab from him it touches. He that writes +Such libels, as you call them, must launch wide +The sores of men's corruptions, and even search +To the quick for dead flesh, or for rotten cores: +A poet's ink can better cure some sores +Than surgeon's balsam. + +ONAELIA +Undertake that cure +And crown thy verse with bays. + +POET +Madam, I'll do it, +But I must have the party's character. + +ONAELIA +The King. + +POET +I do not love to pluck the quills, +With which I make pens, out of a lion's claw. +The King! Should I be bitter 'gainst the King, +I shall have scurvy ballads made of me, +Sung to the hanging tune. I dare not, Madam. + +ONAELIA +This baseness follows your profession. +You are like common beadles, apt to lash +Almost to death poor wretches not worth striking, +But fawn with slavish flattery on damned vices +So great men act them. You clap hands at those, +Where the true poet indeed doth scorn to guild +A gaudy tomb with glory of his verse, +Which coffins stinking carrion. No, his lines +Are free as his invention. No base fear +Can shake his pen to temporise even with kings, +The blacker are their crimes, he louder sings. +Go, go, thou canst not write: 'tis but my calling +The muses help, that I may be inspired. +Canst a woman be a poet, Sir? + +POET +Yes, Madam, best of all. For poesie +Is but feigning, feigning is to lie, +And women practice lying more than men. + +ONAELIA +Nay, but if I should write, I would tell truth. +How might I reach a lofty strain? + +POET +Thus Madam: +Books, music, wine, brave company and good cheer +Make poets to soar high and sing most clear. + +ONAELIA +Are they born poets? + +POET +Yes. + +ONAELIA +Die they? + +POET +Oh, never die. + +ONAELIA +My misery is then a poet sure, +For time has given it an eternity. +What sort of poets are there? + +POET +Two sorts lady: +The great poets and the small poets. + +ONAELIA +Great and small! +Which do you call the great? The fat ones? + +POET +No: +But such as have great heads, which emptied forth, +Fill all the world with wonder at their lines; +Fellows which swell big with the wind of praise. +The small ones are but shrimps of poesie. + +ONAELIA +Which in the kingdom now is the best poet? + +POET +Emulation. + +ONAELIA +Which the next? + +POET +Necessity. + +ONAELIA +And which the worst? + +POET +Self-love. + +ONAELIA +Say I turn poet, what should I get? + +POET +Opinion. + +ONAELIA +Alas, I have got too much of that already, +Opinion is my evidence, judge and jury. +Mine own guilt and opinion now condemn me. +I'll therefore be no poet, no nor make +Ten muses of your nine. I'll swear for this; +Verses, though freely born, like slaves are sold, +I crown thy lines with bays, thy love with gold: +So fare thou well. + +POET +Our pen shall honour thee. + +Exit Poet, enter Cornego. + +CORNEGO +The poet's book Madam, has got the inflammation of the liver, it died +of a burning fever. + +ONAELIA +What shall I do, Cornego? For this poet +Has filled me with a fury. I could write +Strange satires now against adulterers, +And marriage-breakers. + +CORNEGO +I believe you Madam - but here comes your uncle. + +Enter Medina, Alanzo, Carlo, Alba, Sebastian, Daenia. + +MEDINA +Where's our niece? +Turn your brains round, and recollect your spirits, +And see your noble friends and kinsmen ready +To pay revenge his due. + +ONAELIA +That word revenge, +Startles my sleepy soul, now thoroughly wakened +By the fresh object of my hapless child +Whose wrongs reach beyond mine. + +SEBASTIAN +How doth my sweet mother? + +ONAELIA +How doth my prettiest boy? + +ALANZO +Wrongs, like great whirlwinds, +Shake highest battlements. Few for heaven would care, +Should they be ever happy. They are half gods +Who both in good days, and good fortune share. + +ONAELIA +I have no part in either. + +CARLO +You shall in both, +Can swords but cut the way. + +ONAELIA +I care not much, so you but gently strike him, +And that my child escape the lightening. + +MEDINA +For that our nerves are knit; is there not here +A promising face of manly princely virtues, +And shall so sweet a plant be rooted out +By him that ought to fix it fast in the ground? +Sebastian, what will you do to him +That hurts your mother? + +SEBASTIAN +The King my father shall kill him I trow. + +DAENIA +But sweet cousin, the King loves not your mother. + +SEBASTIAN +I'll make him love her when I am a King. + +MEDINA +La you, there's in him a king's heart already. +As therefore we before together vowed, +Lay all your warlike hands upon my sword, +And swear. + +SEBASTIAN +Will you swear to kill me, Uncle? + +MEDINA +Oh not for twenty worlds. + +SEBASTIAN +Nay then draw and spare not, for I love fighting. + +MEDINA +Stand in the midst, sweet coz, we are your guard. +These hammers shall for thee beat out a crown +If all hit right. Swear therefore, noble friends, +By your high bloods, by true nobility, +By what you owe religion, owe to your country, +Owe to the raising your posterity, +By love you bear to virtue, and to arms, +The shield of innocence, swear not to sheath +Your swords, when once drawn forth. + +ONAELIA +Oh not to kill him +For twenty thousand worlds. + +MEDINA +Will you be quiet? +Your swords when once drawn forth, till they have forced +Yon godless, perjurous, perfidious man... + +ONAELIA +Pray rail not at him so. + +MEDINA +Art mad? You're idle +Till they have forced him +To cancel his late lawless bond he sealed +At the high altar to his Florentine strumpet, +And in his bed lay this his troth-plight wife. + +ONAELIA +I, I that's well. Pray swear. + +ALL +To this we swear. + +SEBASTIAN +Uncle, I swear too. + +MEDINA +Our forces let's unite, be bold and secret, +And lion-like with open eyes let's sleep, +Streams smooth and slowly running are most deep. + +Exeunt. + +ACT THREE SCENE THREE + +Enter King, Queen, Malateste, Valasco, Lopez, [Roderigo and guards]. + +KING +The presence door be guarded, let none enter +On forfeit of your lives, without our knowledge. +Oh you are false physicians all unto me, +You bring me poison, but no antidotes. + +QUEEN +Yourself that poison brews. + +KING +Prithee, no more. + +QUEEN +I will, I must speak more. + +KING +Thunder aloud. + +QUEEN +My child, yet newly quickened in my womb, +Is blasted with the fires of bastardy. + +KING +Who! Who dares once but think so in his dream? + +MALATESTE +Medina's faction preached it openly. + +KING +Be cursed he and his faction. Oh how I labour +For these preventions! But so cross is fate +My ills are ne'r hid from me, but their cures. +What's to be done? + +QUEEN +That which being left undone, +Your life lies at the stake. Let them be breathless +Both brat and mother. + +KING +Ha! + +MALATESTE +She plays true music Sir. +The mischiefs you are drenched in are so full, +You need not fear to add to them. Since now +No way is left to guard thy rest secure, +But by a means like this. + +LOPEZ +All Spain rings forth +Medina's name, and his confederates. + +RODRIGO +All his allies and friends rush into troops +Like raging torrents. + +VALESCO +And loud trumpet forth +Your perjuries. Seducing the wild people, +And with rebellious faces threatening all. + +KING +I shall be massacred in this their spleen, +Ere I have time to guard myself. I feel +The fire already falling. Where's our guard? + +MALATESTE +Planted at guarded gate, with a strict charge +That none shall enter but by your command. + +KING +Let them be doubled. I am full of thoughts, +A thousand wheels toss my incertain fears, +There is a storm in my hot boiling brains, +Which rises without wind. A horrid one. +What clamour's that? + +QUEEN +Some treason. Guard the King. + +Enter Balthazar drawn, [he strikes] one of the guards who falls. + +BALTHAZAR +Not in? + +MALATESTE +One of the guards is slain, keep off the murderer. + +BALTHAZAR +I am none, sir. + +VALASCO +There's a man dropped down by thee. + +KING +Thou desperate fellow, thus press in upon us! +Is murder all the story we shall read? +What King can stand, when thus his subjects bleed? +What has thou done? + +BALTHAZAR +No hurt. + +KING +Played even the wolf, +And from a fold committed to my charge, +Stolen and devoured one of the flock. + +BALTHAZAR +You have sheep enough for all that, Sir. I have killed none though. +Or if I have, mine <30> own blood, shed in your quarrels, may beg my +pardon. My business was in haste to you. + +KING +I would not have thy sin scored on my head +For all the Indian Treasury. I prithee tell me, +Suppose thou had'st our pardon, oh can that cure +Thy wounded conscience, can there my pardon help thee? +Yet having deserved well both of Spain and us, +We will not pay thy worth with loss of life, +But banish thee for ever. + +BALTHAZAR +For a groom's death? + +KING +No more. We banish thee our court and Kingdom. +A King that fosters men so dipped in blood, +May be called merciful, but never good. +Be gone upon thy life. + +BALTHAZAR +Well, farewell. + +Exit Balthazar. + +VALASCO +The fellow is not dead, but wounded sir. + +QUEEN +After him Malateste. In our lodging +Stay that rough fellow, he's the man shall do't. +Haste or my hopes are lost. + +Exit Malateste. + +Why are you sad, sir? + +KING +For thee, Paulina, swell my troubled thoughts +Like billows beaten by two warring winds. + +QUEEN +Be you ruled but ruled by me, I'll make a calm +Smooth as the breast of heaven. + +KING +Instruct me how. + +QUEEN +You, as your fortunes tie you, are inclined +To have the blow given. + +KING +Where's the instrument? + +QUEEN +'Tis found in Balthazar. + +KING +He's banished. + +QUEEN +True +But stayed by me for this. + +KING +His spirit is hot +And rugged, but so honest that his soul +Will never turn devil to do it. + +QUEEN +Put it to trial. +Retire a little, hither I'll send for him, +Offer repeal and favours if he do it. +But if he deny, you have no finger in't, +And then his doom of banishment stands good. + +KING +Be happy in thy workings, I obey. + +Exit King + +QUEEN +Stay Lopez. + +LOPEZ +Madam. + +QUEEN +Step to our lodging, Lopez +And instantly bid Malateste bring +The banished Balthazar to us. + +LOPEZ +I shall. + +Exit Lopez. + +QUEEN +Thrive my black plots, the mischiefs I have set +Must not so die. Ills must new ills beget. + +Enter Malateste and Balthazar. + +BALTHAZAR +Now! What hot poisoned custard must I put my spoon into now? + +QUEEN +None, for mine honour is now thy protection. + +MALATESTE +Which, noble soldier, she will pawn for thee +But never forfeit. + +BALTHAZAR +'Tis a fair gage <31>, keep it. + +QUEEN +Oh Balthazar! I am thy friend, and marked thee. +When the King sentenced thee to banishment +Fire sparkled from thine eyes of rage and grief. +Rage to be doomed so for a groom so base, +And grief to lose thy Country. Thou hast killed none, +The milk-sop is but wounded, thou are not banished. + +BALTHAZAR +If I were, I lose nothing, I can make any country mine. I have a +private coat for Italian Stilettos, I can be treacherous with the +Walloon, drunk with the Dutch, a chimney-sweeper with the Irish, a +gentleman with the Welsh and true arrant thief with the English. What +then is my country to me? + +QUEEN +The King, who rap'd with fury, banished thee, +Shall give thee favours, yield but to destroy +What him distempers. + +BALTHAZAR +So. And what is the dish I must dress? + +QUEEN +Only the cutting off a pair of lives. + +BALTHAZAR +I love no red-wine healths. + +QUEEN +The King commands it, you are but executioner. + +BALTHAZAR +The hang-man? An office that will hold so long as hemp lasts. Why do +not you beg the office, Sir? + +QUEEN +Thy victories in field never did crown thee +As this one Act shall. + +BALTHAZAR +Prove but that, 'tis done. + +QUEEN +Follow him close, he's yielding. + +MALATESTE +Thou shalt be called thy Country's Patriot, +For quenching out a fire now newly kindling +In factious bosoms, and shalt thereby save +More Noble Spaniards lives, than thou slew Moors. + +QUEEN +Art thou yet converted? + +BALTHAZAR +No point. + +QUEEN +Read me then: +Medina's niece, by a contract from the King, +Lays claim to all that's mine, my crown, my bed. +A son she has by him must fill the throne, +If her great faction can but work that wonder. +Now hear me... + +BALTHAZAR +I do with gaping ears. + +QUEEN +I swell with hopeful issue to the King. + +BALTHAZAR +A brave Don call you mother. + +MALATESTE +Of this danger the fear afflicts the King. + +BALATAZAR +Cannot much blame him. + +QUEEN +If therefore by the riddance of this Dame ... + +BALTHAZAR +Riddance? Oh! The meaning on't is murder. + +MALATESTE +Stab her, or so, that's all. + +QUEEN +That Spain be free from frights, the King from fears, +And I, now held his infamy, be called Queen, +The treasure of the Kingdom shall lie open +To pay thy noble darings. + +BALTHAZAR +Come. I'll do it, provided I hear Jove call to me, though he roars. I +must have the King's hand to this warrant, else I dare not serve it +upon my conscience. + +QUEEN +Be firm then. Behold the King is come. + +Enter King. + +BALTHAZAR +Acquaint him. + +QUEEN +I found the metal hard, but with oft beating +He's now so softened, he shall take impression +From any seal you give him. + +KING +Balthazar, +Come hither, listen. Whatsoe'er our Queen +Has importuned thee to touching Onaelia +Niece to the Constable, and her young son, +My voice shall second it, and sign her promise. + +BALTHAZAR +Their riddance? + +KING +That. + +BALTHAZAR +What way? By poison? + +KING +So. + +BALTHAZAR +Starving? Or strangling, stabbing, smothering? + +QUEEN +Good. + +KING +Any way, so 'tis done. + +BALTHAZAR +But I will have, Sir, +This under your own hand, that you desire it, +You plot it, set me on to't. + +KING +Pen, ink and paper. + +[King writes and signs document.] + +BALTHAZAR +And then as large a pardon as law and wit can engross for me. + +KING +Thou shalt have my pardon. + +BALTHAZAR +A word more, Sir, pray will you tell me one thing? + +KING +Yes, any thing dear Balthazar. + +BALTHAZAR +Suppose I have your strongest pardon, can that cure my wounded +conscience? Can there your pardon help me? You not only knock the ewe +on the head, but cut the innocent lamb's throat too, yet you are no +butcher. + +QUEEN +Is this thy promised yielding to an act +So wholesome for thy country? + +KING +Chide him not. + +BALTHAZAR +I would not have this sin scored on my head +For all the Indian Treasury. + +KING +That song no more. +Do this and I will make thee a great man. + +BALTHAZAR +Is there no farther trick in't but my blow, your purse and my pardon? + +MALTATESTE +No nets upon my life to entrap thee. + +BALTHAZAR +Then trust me. These knuckles work it. + +KING +Farewell. Be confident and sudden. + +BALTHAZAR +Yes. +Subjects may stumble, when kings walk astray. +Thine Acts shall be a new Apocrypha. + +Exeunt. + +ACT FOUR SCENE ONE + +Enter Medina, Alba, [Carlo], and Daenia, met by Balthazar with a +poniard and a pistol. + +BALTHAZAR +You met a Hydra. See, if one head fails +Another with a sulphurous beak stands yawning. + +MEDINA +What hath raised up this devil? + +BALTHAZAR +A great man's vices, that can raise all hell. What would you call +that man, who under-sail in a most goodly ship, wherein he ventures +his life, fortunes, and honours, yet in a fury should hew the mast +down, cast sails overboard, fire all the tacklings, and to crown this +madness, should blow up all the decks, burn th'oaken ribs, and in +that combat 'twix two elements leap desperately, and drown himself in +the seas? What were so brave a fellow? + +ALL +A brave black villain. + +BALTHAZAR +That's I. All that brave black villain dwells in me, if I be that +black villain. But I am not! A nobler character prints out my brow, +which you may thus read, I was banished Spain for emptying a court- +hogshead, but repealed so I would, ere my reeking iron was cold, +promise to give it a deep crimson dye in - none hear, - stay - no, +none hear. + +MEDINA +Whom then? + +BALTHAZAR +Basely to stab a woman, your wronged niece and her most innocent son, +Sebastian. + +ALBA +The boar now foams with wetting. + +DAENIA +What has blunted +Thy weapons point at these? + +BALTHAZAR +My honesty. A sign at which few dwell, pure honesty! I am a vassal to +Medina's house, He taught me first the A-B-C of war. E'er I was +truncheon high, I had the stile on beardless Captain, writing then +but boy, and shall I now turn slave to him that fed me with Cannon- +bullets and taught me, ostrich-like to digest iron and steel! No! Yet +I yielded with willow-bendings to commanding breaths. + +MEDINA +Of whom? + +BALTHAZAR +Of King and Queen. With supple hams and an ill-boding look, I vowed +to do it. Yet, lest some choke-pear <32> of state policy should stop +my throat, and spoil my drinking pipe, see, like his cloak, I hung at +the King's elbow, till I had got his hand to sign my life. + +[Balthazar passes over the document signed by the King.] + +DAENIA +Shall we see this and sleep? + +ALBA +No, whilst these wake. + +MEDINA +'Tis the King's hand? + +BALTHAZAR +Think you me a coiner <33>? + +MEDINA +No, no, +Thou art thy self still, noble Balthazar. +I ever knew thee honest, and the mark +Stands still upon thy forehead. + +BALTHAZAR +Else flea the skin off. + +MEDINA +I ever knew thee valiant, and to scorn +All acts of baseness. I have seen this man +Write in the field such stories with his sword, +That our best chieftains swore there was in him +As 'twere a new philosophy of fighting, +His deeds were so punctilious. In one battle +When death so nearly missed my ribs, he struck +Three horses stone-dead under me. This man, +Three times that day, even through the jaws of danger, +Redeemed me up and, I shall print it ever, +Stood over my body with Colossus thighs +Whilst all the thunder-bolts which war could throw, +Fell on his head. And Balthazar, thou canst not +Be now but honest still, and valiant still, +Not to kill boys and women. + +BALTHAZAR +My biter here, eats no such meat. + +MEDINA +Go fetch the marked-out lamb for slaughter hither, +Good fellow-soldier aid him, and stay, mark, +Give this false fire to the believing King, +That the child's sent to heaven, but that the mother +Stands rocked so strong with friends, ten thousand billows +Cannot once shake her. + +BALTHAZAR +This I'll do. + +MEDINA +Away. +Yet one word more. Your counsel, Noble friends. +Hark Balthazar, because nor eyes nor tongues, +Shall by loud larums, that the poor boy lives, +Question thy false report, the child shall, closely +Mantled in darkness, forthwith be conveyed +To the monastery of Saint Paul. + +ALL +Good. + +MEDINA +Despatch then, be quick. + +BALTHAZAR +As lightning. + +Exit Balthazar. + +ALBA +This fellow is some angel dropped from heaven +To preserve innocence. + +MEDINA +He is a wheel +Of swift and turbulent motion. I have trusted him, +Yet will not hang on him too many plummets, +Lest with a headlong gyre <34> he ruins all. +In these state consternations, when a kingdom +Stands tottering at the centre, out of suspicion +Safety grows often. Let us suspect this fellow, +And that albeit he show us the King's hand, +It may be but a trick. + +DAENIA +Your Lordship hits +A poisoned nail i'th head. This waxen fellow, +By the King's hand so bribing him with gold, +Is set on screws, perhaps is made his creature, +To turn round every way. + +MEDINA +Out of that fear +Will I beget truth. For myself in person +Will sound the King's breast. + +CARLO +How? Yourself in person? + +ALBA +That's half the prize he gapes for. + +MEDINA +I'll venture it, +And come off well I warrant you, and rip up +His very entrails, cut in two his heart, +And search each corner in't, yet shall not he +Know who it is cut up the anatomy. + +DAENIA +'Tis an exploit worth wonder. + +CARLO +Put the worst, +Say some infernal voice should roar from hell, +The infant's cloistering up. + +ALBA +'Tis not our danger, +Nor the imprisoned Prince's, for what thief +Dares by base sacrilege rob the Church of him? + +CARLO +At worst none can be lost but this slight fellow! + +MEDINA +All build on this as on a stable cube. +If we our footing keep, we fetch him forth, +And crown him King. If up we fly i'th air, +We for his soul's health a broad way prepare. + +DAENIS +They come. + +Enter Balthazar and Sebastian. + +MEDINA +Thou knowest where to bestow him, Balthazar. + +BALTHAZAR +Come noble boy. + +ALBA +Hide him from being discovered. + +BALTHAZAR +Discovered? Would there stood a troop of Moors thrusting the paws of +hungry lions forth, to seize this prey, and this but in my hand, I +should do something. + +SEBASTIAN +Must I go with this black fellow, Uncle? + +MEDINA +Yes, pretty coz, hence with him Balthazar. + +BALTHAZAR +Sweet child, within few minutes I'll change thy fate +And take thee hence, but set thee at heavens gate. + +[Exit Balthazar and Sebastian.] + +MEDINA +Some keep aloof and watch this soldier + +CARLO +I'll do't. + +Exit Carlo. + +DAENIA +What's to be done now? + +MEDINA +First to plant strong guard +About the mother, then into some snare +To hunt this spotted panther, and there kill him. + +DAENIA +What snares have we can hold him? + +MEDINA +Be that care mine. +Dangers, like stars, in dark attempts best shine. + +Exeunt. + +ACT FOUR SCENE TWO + +Enter Cornego, Balthazar. + +CORNEGO +The Lady Onaelia dresseth the stead of her commendations in the most +courtly attire that words can be clothed with, from herself to you, +by me. + +BALTHAZAR +So Sir, and what disease troubles her now? + +CORNEGO +The King's evil. And here she hath sent something to you, wrapped up +in a white sheet, you need not fear to open it, 'tis no course. + +BALTHAZAR +What's here? A letter minced into five morsels? What was she doing +when thou camest from her? + +CORNEGO +At her prick-song. + +BALTHAZAR +So me thinks, for here's nothing but sol-re-me-fa-mi. What crotchet +fills her head now, canst tell? + +CORNEGO +No crotchets, 'tis only the Cliff has made her mad. + +BALTHAZAR +What instrument played she upon? + +CORNEGO +A wind instrument, she did nothing but sigh. + +BALTHAZAR +Sol, re, me, fa, mi. + +CORNEGO +My wit has always a singing head, I have found out her note captain. + +BALTHAZAR +The tune? Come. + +CORNEGO +Sol, my soul. Re, is all rent and torn like a ragamuffin. Me, mend it +good captain. Fa, fa. What's fa Captain? + +BALTHAZAR +Fa, why farewell and be hanged. + +CORNEGO +Mi Captain, with all my heart. Have I tickled my Lady's fiddle well? + +BALTHAZAR +Oh, but you stick wants rosin <35> to make the strings sound clearly. +No, this double virginal, being cunningly touched, another matter of +jack leaps up then is now in mine eye. Sol, re me fa, mi, I have it +now. Solus Rex me facit miseram <36>. Alas poor Lady, tell her no +apothecary in Spain has any of that assa foetida <37 > she writes +for. + +CORNEGO +Assa foetida? What's that? + +BALTHAZARA +A thing to be taken in a glister-pipe <38>. + +CORNEGO +Why, what ails my Lady? + +BALTHAZAR +What ails she? Why when she cries out, Solus Rex me facit miseram, +she says in the Hypocronicall <39> language, that she is so miserably +tormented with the wind colic that it racks her very soul. + +CORNEGO +I said somewhat cut her soul in pieces. + +BALTHAZAR +But go to her, and say the oven is heating. + +CORNEGO +And what shall be baked in't? + +BALTHAZAR +Carp pies.<40> And besides, tell her the hole in her coat shall be +mended, and tell her if the dial of good days <41> goes true, why +then bounce buckrum.<42> + +CORNEGO +The devil lies sick of the mulligrubs.<43> + +BALTHAZAR +Or the Cony is dub'd, and three sheepskins ... + +CORNEGO +With the wrong side outward ... + +BALTHAZAR +Shall make the fox a night-cap. + +CORNEGO +So the goose talks French to the buzzard. + +BALTHAZAR +But, Sir, if evil days jostle our prognostication to the wall, then +say there's a fire in a whore-masters cod-piece. + +CORNEGO +And a poisoned bag-pudding in Tom Thumb's belly. + +BALTHAZAR +The first cut be thine. Farewell. + +CORNEGO +Is this all? + +BALTHAZAR +Would'st not trust an Almanac? + +CORNEGO +Not a coranta <44> neither, though it were sealed with butter, <45> +and yet I know where they both lie passing well. + +Enter Lopez. + +LOPEZ +The King sends round about the court to seek you. + +BALTHAZAR +Away Otterhound. + +CORNEGO +Dancing bear, I'm gone. + +Exit Cornego. Enter King attended. + +KING +A Private room, + +Exeunt, King and Balthazar remain + +I'st done? Hast drawn thy two-edged sword out yet? + +BALTHAZAR +No, I was striking at the two iron bars that hinder your passage, and +see Sir. + +Draws. + +KING +What mean'st thou? + +BALTHAZAR +The edge abated, feel. + +KING +No, no I see it. + +BALTHAZAR +As blunt as ignorance. + +KING +How? Put up - so - how? + +BALTHAZAR +I saw by chance hanging in Cardinal Alvarez gallery, a picture of +hell. + +KING +So what of that? + +BALTHAZAR +There lay upon burnt straw ten thousand brave fellows all stark +naked, some leaning upon crowns, some on Mitres, some on bags of +gold. Glory, in another corner lay, a feather beaten in the rain. +Beauty was turned into a watching candle that went out stinking. +Ambition went upon a huge high pair of stilts but horribly rotten. +Some in another nook were killing Kings, and some having their elbows +shoved forward by Kings to murder others. I was, me thought, half in +hell myself whist I stood to view this piece. + +KING +Was this all? + +BALTHAZAR +Was't not enough to see that a man is more healthful that eats dirty +puddings, than he that feeds on a corrupted conscience? + +KING +Conscience! What's that? A conjuring book ne'r opened +Without the reader's danger. 'Tis indeed +A scarecrow set i'th world to frighten weak fools. +Hast thou seen fields paved o'er with carcasses, +Now to be tender-footed, not to tread +On a boy's mangled quarters, and a woman's! + +BALTHAZAR +Nay, Sir, I have searched the records of the Low-Countries, and find +that by your pardon I need not care a pin for goblins, and therefore +I will do it Sir. I did recoil because I was double charged. + +KING +No more. Here comes a satyr with sharp horns. + +Enter Cardinal, and Medina like a French Doctor. + +CARDINAL +Sir, here's a Frenchman charged with some strange business +Which to close ear only he'll deliver, +Or else to none. + +KING +A Frenchman? + +MEDINA +Oui, Monsieur. + +KING +Cannot he speak the Spanish? + +MEDINA +Si Signor, un Poco - Monsieur Acontez in de Corner, me come for offer +to your Bon Grace mi trezhumbla service, by gar no John fidleco shall +put into your near braver melody dan dis un petite pipe shall play to +your great bon Grace. + +KING +What is the tune you strike up, touch the string. + +MEDINA +Dis - me has run up and down mine Country and learn many fine thing, +and mush knavery, now more and all dis me know you'll jumbla de fine +vench and fill her belly with garsoone, her name is La Madam ... + +KING +Onaelia. + +MEDINA +She by gar. Now Monsieur dis Madam send for me to help her malady, +being very naught of her corpus, her body, me know you no point loves +dis vench. But royal Monsieur donne moye ten thousand French Crowns +she shall kick up her tail by gar, and beshide lie dead as dog in de +shannell. + +KING +Speak low. + +MEDINA +As de bag-pipe when de wind is puff, Gar beigh, + +KING +Thou namest ten thousand Crowns, I'll treble them +Rid me of this leprosy. Thy name? + +MEDINA +Monsieur Doctor Devil. + +KING +Shall I a second wheel add to this mischief +To set it faster going? If one break, +T'other may keep his motion. + +MEDINA +Esselent fort boone. + +KING +Balthazar. +To give thy sword an edge again, this Frenchman +Shall whet thee on, that if thy pistol fail, +Or poniard, this can send the poison home. + +BALTHAZAR +Brother Cain we'll shake hands. + +MEDINA +In de bowl of de bloody busher. 'Tis very fine wholesome. + +KING +And more to arm your resolution, +I'll tune this Churchman so, that he shall chime +In sounds harmonious, merit to that man +Whose hand has but a finger in that act. + +BALTHAZAR +That music were worth hearing. + +KING +Holy father, +You must give pardon to me in unlocking +A cave stuffed full with serpents, which my State +Threaten to poison, and it lies in you +To break their bed with thunder of your voice. + +CARDINAL +How princely son? + +KING +Suppose a universal +Hot pestilence beat her mortiferous wings +O'er all my kingdoms, am I not bound in soul, +To empty all our academies of doctors +And Aesculapian <46> spirits to charm this plague? + +CARDINAL +You are. + +KING +Or had the canon made a breach +Into our rich Escurial <47>, down to beat it +About our ears, should I stop this breach +Spare even our richest Ornaments, nay our crown, +Could it keep bullets off. + +CARDINAL +No sir, you should not. + +KING +This linstock <48> gives you fire. Shall then that strumpet +And bastard breathe quick vengeance in my face, +Making my Kingdom reel, my subjects stagger +In their obedience, and yet live? + +CARDINAL +How? Live! +Shed not their bloods to gain a kingdom greater +Than ten times this. + +MEDINA +Pish, not matter how Red-cap and his wit run. + +KING +As I am Catholic King, I'll have their hearts +Panting in these two hands. + +CARDINAL +Dare you turn hangman? +Is this religion Catholic to kill +What even brute beasts abhor to do, your own! +To cut in sunder wedlock's sacred knot +Tied by heaven's fingers! To make Spain a bonfire +To quench which must a second deluge rain +In showers of blood, no water. If you do this +There is an arm armipotent that can fling you +Into a base grave, and your palaces +With lightening strike, and of their ruins make +A tomb for you, unpitied and abhorred, +Bear witness all you lamps celestial +I wash my hands of this. + +KING +Rise my good angel, +Whose holy tunes beat from me that evil spirit +Which jogs mine elbow, hence thou dog of hell. + +MEDINA +Bow wow. + +KING +Bark out no more thou mastiff, get you all gone, +And let my soul sleep. [Aside to Balthazar] There's gold, peace, see +it done. + +Exit King. + +BALTHAZAR +Sirra, you salsa-perilla <49>, rascal, toads-gut, you whorson pockey +French spawn of a butsten-bellyed spider. Do you hear Monsieur? + +MEDINA +Why do you bark and snap at my Narcissus, as if I were de French dog? + +BALTHAZAR +You cur of Cerberus litter, + +[Strikes him] + +You'll poison the honest Lady? Do but once toot <50> into her +chamber-pot, and I'll make thee look worse than a witch does upon a +close stool. + +CARDINAL +You shall not dare to touch him, stood he here +Single before thee. + +BALTHAZAR +I'll cut the rat into anchovies. + +CARDINAL +I'll make thee kiss his hand, embrace him, love him +And call him ... + +Medina [reveals his true identity]. + +BALTHAZAR +The perfection of all Spaniards, Mars in little, the best book of the +art of war printed in these times. As a French doctor, I would have +given you pellets for pills, but as my noblest Lord, rip my heart out +in your service. + +MEDINA +Thou are the truest Clock +That e'er to time paidst tribute, honest soldier, +I lost mine own shape, and put on a French +Only to try thy truth, and the King's falsehood, +Both which I find. Now this great Spanish volume +Is opened to me, I read him o'er and o'er, +Oh what black characters are printed in him. + +CARDINAL +Nothing but certain ruin threats your niece, +Without prevention. Well this plot was laid +In such disguise to sound him, they that know +How to meet dangers, are the less afraid. +Yet let me counsel you not to text down +These wrongs in red lines. + +MEDINA +No, I will not, father. +Now that I have anatomised his thoughts, +I'll read a lecture on them that shall save +Many men's lives, and to the kingdom minister +Most wholesome surgery. Here's our aphorism. +These letters from us in our niece's name, +You know treat of a marriage. + +CARDINAL +There's the strong anchor +To stay all in this tempest. + +MEDINA +Holy sir, +With these works you the King, and so prevail +That all these mischiefs hull <51> with flagging sail. + +CARDINAL +My best in this I'll do. + +MEDINA +Soldier, thy breast +I must lock better things in. + +BALTHAZAR +'Tis your chest, +With three good keys to keep it from opening an honest heart, a +daring hand, and a pocket which scorns money. + +Exeunt. + +ACT FIVE SCENE ONE + +Enter King, Cardinal with letters, [Valesco and Lopez]. + +KING +Commend us to Medina, say his letters +Right pleasing are, and that, except himself +Nothing could be more welcome. Counsel him, +To blot the opinion out of factious numbers, +Only to have his ordinary train +Waiting upon him. For, to quit all fears +Upon his side of us, our very court +Shall even but dimly shine with some few Dons, +Freely to prove our longings great to peace. + +CARDINAL +The Constable expects some pawn from you, +That in this fairy circle shall rise up +No fury to confound his niece nor him. + +KING +A King's word is engaged. + +CARDINAL +It shall be taken. + +KING +Valasco, call the Captain of our Guard, +Bid him attend us instantly. + +VALASCO +I shall. + +Exit Valasco. + +KING +Lopez come hither. See, +Letters from Duke Medina, both in the name +Of him and all his faction, offering peace, +And our old love, his niece Onaelia +In marriage with her free and fair consent +To Cockadillio, a Don of Spain. + +LOPEZ +Will you refuse this? + +KING +My crown as soon. They feel their sinewy plots +Belike to shrink i'the joints. And fearing ruin, +Have found this cement out to piece up all, +Which more endangers all. + +LOPEZ +How sir? Endangers! + +KING +Lions may hunted be into the snare, +But if they once break loose, woe be to him +That first seized on them. A poor prisoner scorns +To kiss his jailer. And shall a king be choked +With sweet-meats by false traitors! No, I will fawn +On them as they stroke me, till they are fast +But in this paw. And then... + +LOPEZ +A brave revenge! +The Captain of your Guard. + +Enter Alanzo, the Captain. + +KING +Upon thy life +Double our guard this day. Let every man +Bear a charged pistol hid, and, at a watch-word +Given by a musket, when our self sees time, +Rush in, and, if Medina's faction wrestle +Against your forces, kill, but if yield, save. +Be secret! + +ALANZO +I am charmed, Sir. + +Exit Alanzo. + +KING +Watch Valasco. +If any wear a Cross, feather or glove, +Or such prodigious signs of a knit faction, +Table their names up. At our court-gate plant +Good strength to bar them out, if once they swarm. +Do this upon thy life. + +VALASCO +Not death shall fright me. + +Exit [Valasco and Lopez,] enter Balthazar. + +BALTHAZAR +'Tis done, Sir. + +KING +Death! What's Done? + +BALTHAZAR +Young cub's flayed, but the she-fox shifting her hole is fled. The +little jackanapes, the boy's brained. + +KING +Sebastian? + +BALTHAZAR +He shall ne'r speak more Spanish. + +KING +Thou teachest me to curse thee. + +BALTHAZAR +For a bargain you set your hand to. + +KING +Half my crown I'd lose were it undone. + +BALTHAZAR +But half a crown! That's nothing. +His brains stick in my conscience more than yours. + +KING +How lost I the French doctor? + +BALTHAZAR +As Frenchmen lose their hair. Here was too hot staying for him. + +KING +Get thou from my sight, the Queen would see thee. + +BALTHAZAR +Your gold, Sir. + +KING +Go with Judas and repent. + +BALTHAZAR +So men hate whores after lust's heat is spent. +I'm gone, Sir. + +KING +Tell me true, is he dead? + +BALTHAZAR +Dead. + +KING +No matter. 'Tis but morning of revenge, +The sunset shall be red and tragical. + +Exit King. + +BALTHAZAR +Sin is a raven croaking <52> her own fall. + +Exit Balthazar. + +ACT FIVE SCENE TWO + +Enter Medina, Daenia, Alba, Carlo and The Faction with Rosemary <53> +in their hats. + +MEDINA +Keep locked the door, and let none enter to us +But who shares our fortunes. + +DAENIA +Lock the doors. + +ALBA +What entertainment did the King bestow +Upon your letters and the Cardinal's? + +MEDINA +With a devouring eye he read them o'er, +Swallowing our offers into his empty bosom, +As gladly as the parched earth drinks healths +Out of the cup of heaven. + +CARLO +Little suspecting +What dangers closely lie enambushed. + +DAENIA +Let us not trust to that. There's in his breast +Both fox and lion, and both these beasts can bite. +We must not now behold the narrowest loop-hole, +But presently suspect a winged bullet +Flies whizzing by our ears. + +MEDINA +For when I let +The plummet fall to sound his very soul +In his close-chamber, being French-Doctor like, +He to the Cardinal's ear sung sorcerous notes, +The burden of his song, to mine, was death, +Onaelia's murder, and Sebastian's. +And think you his voice alters now? 'Tis strange, +To see how brave this tyrant shows in court, +Throned like a god. Great men are pretty stars, +When his rays shine, wonder fills up all eyes +By sight of him, let him but once check sin, +About him round all cry, oh excellent King! +Oh Saint-like man! But, let this King retire +Into his closet to put off his robes, +He like a player leaves his part too. +Open his breast, and with a sunbeam search it, +There's no such man. This King of gilded clay, +Within is ugliness, lust, treachery, +And a base soul, though reared Colossus-like. + +Balthazar beats to come. + +DAENIA +None till he speaks, and that we know his voice. +Who are you? + +BALTHAZAR (within) +An honest house-keeper in Rosemary Lane <54> too, if you dwell in the +same parish. + +MEDINA +Oh 'tis our honest soldier, give him entrance. + +BALTHAZAR +Men show like coarses, for I meet few but are stuck with Rosemary. +Every one asked me who was married today, and I told them Adultery +and Repentance, and that Shame and a Hangman followed them to church. + +MEDINA +There's but two parts to play, shame has done hers, +But execution must close up the scene, +And for that cause these sprigs are worn by all, +Bags of marriage, now of funeral, +For death this day turns courtier. + +BALTHAZAR +Who must dance with him? + +MEDINA +The King, and all that are our opposites. +That dart or this must fly into the court +Either to shoot this blazing star from Spain, +Or else so long to wrap him up in clouds, +Till all the fatal fires in him burn out, +Leaving his state and conscience clear from doubt +Of following uproars. + +ALBA +Kill not, but surprise him. + +CARLO +That's my voice still. + +MEDINA +Thine, soldier? + +BALTHAZAR +Oh, this colic of a kingdom, when the wind of treason gets amongst +the small guts, what a rumbling and a roaring it keeps. And yet, make +the best of it you can, it goes on stinking. Kill a King? + +DAENIA +Why? + +BALTHAZAR +If men should pull the sun out of heaven every time 'tis eclipsed, +not all the wax nor tallow in Spain would serve to make us candles +for one year. + +MEDINA +No way to purge +The sick state, but by opening a vein. + +BALTHAZAR +Is that your French physic? If every one of us should be whipped +according to our faults, to be lashed at a cart's tail would be held +but a flea biting. + +Enter Signor No. + +MEDINA whispers +What are you? Come from the King? + +NO +No. + +BALTHAZAR +No? More no's? I know him, let him enter. + +MEDINA +Signor, I thank your kind intelligence, +The news long since was sent into our ears, +Yet we embrace your love, so fare you well. + +CARLO +Will you smell to a sprig of rosemary? + +NO +No. + +BALTHAZAR +Will you be hanged? + +NO +No. + +BALTHAZAR +This is either Signor No, or no Signor. + +MEDINA +He makes his love to us a warning piece +To arm ourselves against we come to court, +Because the guard is doubled. + +ALL +Tush, we care not. + +BALTHAZAR +If any here arms his hand to cut off the head, let him first pluck +out my throat. In any noble act I'll wade chin-deep with you. But to +kill a King? + +MEDINA +No hear me... + +BALTHAZAR +You were better, my Lord, sail five hundred times to Bantam <55> in +the West Indies, that once to Barathrum in the Low Countries. It's +hot going under the line there, the calenture <56> of the soul is a +most miserable madness. + +MEDINA +Turn then this wheel of fate from shedding blood +Till with her own hand Justice weighs all. + +BALTHAZAR +Good. + +Exeunt. + +ACT FIVE SCENE THREE + +Enter Queen, Malateste. + +QUEEN +Must then his trul <57> be once more sphered in court +To triumph in my spoils, in my eclipses? +And I like moping Juno sit, whilst Jove +Varies his lust into five hundred shapes +To steal to his whore's bed! No Malateste, +Italian fires of Jealousy burn my marrow. +For to delude my hopes, the lecherous king +Cuts out this robe of cunning marriage, +To cover his incontinence, which flames +Hot, as my fury, in his black desires. +I am swollen big with child of vengeance now, +And till delivered, feel the throws of hell. + +MALATESTE +Just is your imagination, high and noble, +And the brave heat of a true Florentine: +For Spain trumpets abroad her interest +In the King's heart, and with a black coal draws +On every wall your scoffed at injuries, +As one that has the refuse of her sheets, +And the sick Autumn of the weakened King, +Where she drunk pleasures up in the full spring. + +QUEEN +That, Malateste, that, that torrent wracks me. +But Hymen's torch, held downward, shall drop out, +And for it, the mad Furies swing their brands +About the bride-chamber. + +MALATESTE +The priest that joins them, +Our twin born malediction. + +QUEEN +Loud it may speak. + +MALATESTE +The herbs and flowers to strew the wedding way, +Be cypress, eugh, cold colliquintida. <58> + +QUEEN +Herbane and poppy, and that magical weed +Which hags at midnight watch to catch the seed. <59> + +MALATESTE +To these our execrations, and what mischief +Hell can but hatch in a distracted brain, +I'll be the executioner, though it look +So horrid it can fright even murder back. + +QUEEN +Poison his whore today, for thou shalt wait +On the King's cup, and when heated with wine +He calls to drink the bride's health, marry her +Alive to a gaping grave. + +MALATESTE +At board? + +QUEEN +At board. + +MALATESTE +When she being guarded round about with friends, +Like a fairy land, hemmed with rocks and seas, +What rescue shall I find? + +QUEEN +Mine arms. Dost faint? +Stood all the Pyrenean hills that part +Spain and our country, on each others shoulders, +Burning with Aetnean flame, yet thou should'st on, +As being my steel of resolution, +First striking sparkles from my flinty breast. +Wert thou to catch the horses of the sun +Fast by their bridles, and to turn back day, +Would'st thou not do it, base coward, to make way +To the Italians second bliss, revenge? + +MALATESTE +Were my bones threatened to the wheel of torture +I'll do it. + +Enter Lopez. + +QUEEN +A raven's voice, and it likes me well. + +LOPEZ +The King expects your presence. + +MALATESTE +So, so we come. +To turn this bride's day to a day of doom. + +Exeunt. + +ACT FIVE SCENE FOUR + +A banquet set out, cornets sounding; enter at one door, Lopez, +Valasco, Alanzo, No. After them King, Cardinal, with Don Cockadillio, +Bridegroom, Queen and Malateste after. At the other door, Alba, +Carlo, Roderigo, Medina and Daenia leading Onaelia as bride, Cornego, +and Juanna after, Balthazar alone. The Bride and Bridegroom kiss, and +by the Cardinal are joined hand in hand. The King is very merry, +hugging Medina very lovingly. + +KING +For half Spain's weigh in ingots I'd not lose +This little man today. + +MEDINA +Not for so much +Twice told Sir, would I miss your Kingly presence. +Mine eyes have lost the acquaintance of your face +So long, and I so little late read o'er +That index of the royal book your mind, +That scarce, without your comment, can I tell +When in those leaves you turn o'er smiles or frowns. + +KING +'Tis dimness of your sight, no fault i'the letter. +Medina, you shall find that free from erratas, +And for a proof, if I could breathe my heart +In welcome forth, this hall should ring naught else. +Welcome Medina, Good Marquis Daenia, +Dons of Spain all welcome. +My dearest love and Queen, be it your place +To entertain the bride, and do her grace. + +QUEEN +With all the love I can, whose fire is such, +To give her heat, I cannot burn too much. + +KING +Contracted bride, and bridegroom sit, +Sweet flowers not plucked in season lose their scent, +So will our pleasures. Father Cardinal, +Methinks this morning new begins our reign. + +CARDINAL +Peace had her Sabbath ne'r till now in Spain. + +KING +Where is our noble soldier Balthazar? +So close in conference with that Signor? + +NO +No. + +KING +What think'st thou of this great day Balthazar? + +BALTHAZAR +Of this day? Why as of a new play, if it ends well, all's well. All +but men are but actors, now if you being the King should be out of +your part, or the Queen out of hers, or your Dons out if theirs, +here's No will never be out of his. + +NO +No. + +BALTHAZAR +'Twere a lamentable piece of stuff to see great statesmen have vile +exits, but I hope there are nothing but plaudities in all your eyes. + +KING +Mine I protest are free. + +QUEEN +And mine by heaven. + +MALATESTE [Aside] +Free from one good look till the blow be given. + +KING +Wine. A full cup crowned to Medina's health. + +MEDINA +Your highness this day so much honours me, +That I to pay you what I truly owe, +My life shall venture for it. + +DAENIA +So shall mine. + +KING +Onaelia, you are sad. Why frowns your brow? + +ONAELIA +A foolish memory of my past ills +Folds up my look in furrows of old care, +But my heart's merry, Sir. + +KING +Which mirth to heighten, +Your bridegroom and yourself first pledge this health +Which we begin to our High Constable. + +Three cups filled, one to the King, the second to the Bridegroom and +the third to Onaelia, with whom the King compliments. + +QUEEN +Is't speeding? + +MALATESTE +As all our Spanish figs are. + +KING +Here's to Medina's heart with all my heart. + +MEDINA +My heart shall pledge your heart i'th deepest draught +That ever Spaniard drank. + +KING +Medina mocks me, +Because I wrong her with the largest bowl. +I'll change with thee Onaelia. + +Malateste rages. + +QUEEN +Sir, you shall not! + +KING +Fear you I cannot fetch it off? + +QUEEN +Malateste! + +KING +This is your scorn to her, because I am doing +This poorest honour to her. Music sound, +It goes were it ten fathoms to the ground. + +Cornets play. King drinks, Queen and Malateste storm. + +MALATESTE +Fate strikes with the wrong weapon. + +QUEEN +Sweet Royal Sir no more, it is too deep. + +MALATESTE +Twill hurt your health sir. + +KING +Interrupt me in my drink? 'Tis off. + +MALATESTE +Alas Sir. +You have drunk your last, that poisoned bowl I filled +Not to be put in your hand, but hers. + +KING +Poisoned? + +ALL +Descend black speckled soul to hell! + +[The faction turn on Malateste and wound him.] + +MALATESTE +The Queen has sent me thither. + +Malateste dies. + +CARDINAL +What new fury shakes now with her snake's locks? + +QUEN +I, I, 'tis I +Whose soul is torn in pieces, till I send +This harlot home. + +CARDINAL +More murders! Save the Lady. + +BALTHAZAR +Rampant? Let the Constable make a mittimus <60>. + +MEDINA +Keep them asunder. + +CARDINAL +How is it royal son? + +KING +I feel no poison yet, only mine eyes +Are putting out their lights. Me thinks I feel +Death's icy fingers stroking down my face. +And now I'm in a mortal cold sweat. + +QUEEN +Dear my Lord. + +KING +Hence, call in my physicians. + +MEDINA +Thy physician tyrant, +Dwells yonder, call on him or none. + +KING +Bloody Medina, stab'st thou Brutus too? + +DAENIA +As he is, so are we all. + +KING +I burn, +My brains boil in a cauldron, oh one drop +Of water now to cool me. + +ONAELIA +Oh, let him have physicians. + +MEDINA +Keep her back. + +KING +Physicians for my soul, I need none else. +You'll not deny me those. Oh holy father, +Is there no mercy hovering in a cloud +For me a miserable King so drenched +In perjury and murder? + +CARDINAL +Oh Sir, great store. + +KING +Come down, come quickly down. + +CARDINAL +I'll forthwith send +For a grave Friar to be your confessor. + +KING +Do, do. + +CARDINAL +And he shall cure your wounded soul. +Fetch him good soldier. + +BALTHAZAR +So good a work, I'll hasten. + +[Exit Balthazar.] + +KING +Onaelia! Oh she's drowned in tears! Onaelia, +Let me not die unpardoned at thy hands. + +Enter Balthazar, Sebastian as a Friar with others. + +CARDINAL +Here comes a better surgeon. + +SEBASTIAN +Hail my good son +I come to be thy ghostly father. + +KING +Ha? +My child! 'Tis my Sebastian, or some spirit +Sent in his shape to fright me. + +BALTHAZAR +'Tis no goblin, Sir, feel. Your own flesh and blood, and much younger +than you though he be bald, and calls you son. Had I been as ready to +have cut his sheep's throat, as you were to send him to the shambles +<61>, he had bleated no more. There's less chalk upon your score of +sins by these round O'es <62>. + +KING +Oh my dull soul look up, thou art somewhat lighter. +Noble Medina, see Sebastian lives. +Onaelia cease to weep, Sebastian lives. +Fetch me my crown. My sweetest pretty Friar +Can my hands do't, I'll raise thee one step higher. +Thou'st been in heaven's house all this while sweet boy? + +SEBASTIAN +I had but coarse cheer. + +KING +Thou could'st n'er fare better. +Religious houses are those hives where bees +Make honey for men's souls. I tell thee boy, +A Friary is a cube, which strongly stands, +Fashioned by men, supported by heaven's hands. +Orders of holy priesthood are as high +I'th eyes of Angels, as a King's dignity. +Both these unto a Crown give the full weight, +And both are thine. You that our contract know, +See how I seal it with this marriage. +My blessing and Spain's kingdom both be thine. + +ALL +Long live Sebastian. + +ONAELIA +Doff that Friar's coarse grey. +And since he's crowned a King, clothe him like one. + +KING +Oh no. Those are right sovereign ornaments. +Had I been clothed so, I had never filled +Spain's chronicle with my black calumny. +My work is almost finished. Where's my Queen? + +QUEEN +Here piecemeal, torn by Furies. + +KING +Onaelia! +Your hand Paulina too, Onaelia yours. +This hand, the pledge of my twice broken faith, +By you usurped is her inheritance. +My love is turned, see as my fate is turned, +Thus they today laugh, yesterday which mourned. +I pardon thee my death. Let her be sent +Back into Florence with a trebled dowry. +Death comes, oh now I see what late I feared! +A contract broke, though pieced up ne'r so well, +Heaven sees, earth suffers, but it ends in hell. + +King Dies. + +ONAELIA +Oh, I could die with him. + +QUEEN +Since the bright sphere +I moved in falls, alas what make I here? + +Exit Queen. + +MEDINA +The hammers of black mischief now cease beating, +Yet some irons still are heating. You Sir Bridegroom, +Set all this while up as a mark to shoot at, +We here discharge you of your bedfellow, +She loves no barber's washing <63>. + +COCKADILLIO +My balls are saved then. + +MEDINA +Be it your charge, so please you reverend Sir, +To see the late Queen safely to Florence. +My niece Onaelia, and that trusty soldier, +We do appoint to guard the infant King. +Other distractions, time must reconcile. +The State is poisoned like a crocodile. + +FINIS + + +ENDNOTES TO THE TEXT + +1. This Posthumous Ð the now dead author of the play. +2. Fury's Ð in classical mythology, the Furies were three daughters +of mother earth that personified conscience and punished crimes +against kindred blood. Furriers in the Quarto. +3. Lacrymae's - the personification of tearfulness, believed to be a +reference to a tune by the luteist, John Dowland, known as 'Lachrimae +, or seven tears'. +4. Pinnace Ð a boat for communicating between ship and shore, also a +procurer. Possible pun on penis. +5. Galleasses Ð large fast sailing vessel, indicative of wealth, also +sexual innuendo. +6. Aesculapius - in Greek mythology, Aesculapius, son of Apollo, was +a Greek healer who became a Greek demigod, and was a famous +physician. +7. Eyes Ð joys in the Quarto. +8. Prive Ð prove, establish. +9. Than Ð Q reads 'then'. +10. Caitiff - a contemptible or cowardly person. +11. Leman Ð lover, sweetheart. +12. Mercer's Ð merchant's. +13. Muschatoes - A pair of moustaches. +14. Fly-boat Ð small vessel supporting large ship +15. Jennets Ð riders of small horses. Balthazar is making a contrast +between his martial exploits and the courtly life of the Dons. +16. Whorson muscod Ð scented fop. +17. Buskined Ð wearing thick-soled boots as worn by tragical actors. +18. Van É vaw Ð the van was the rear of an army's battle formation, +the vaw, although not a recognised usage, is taken to mean the front. +19. Insconce Ð make secure base. +20. Sconce Ð lights. +21. Petronel Ð a hand-cannon. +22. Culverin Ð a long cannon. +23. Aqua Coelestis Ð a sweet cordial. +24. Spurn-point Ð an old game, believed to be similar to hop-scotch. +25. Trencher Ð a wooden board or plate on which food is served. +26. Bastard Ð sweet Spanish Wine. +27. Goll Ð hand. +28. Suspiration Ð Breath. +29. Ghesse Ð ghost. +30. Mine Ð thine in the Quarto. +31. Gage Ð a pledge. +32. Choke-pear - A kind of pear that has a rough, astringent taste, +and is swallowed with difficulty, or which contracts the mucous +membrane of the mouth. +33. Coiner - counterfeiter. +34. Gyre Ð revolution. Cyre in the Quarto +35. Rosin Ð oil or resin, used for lubricating violin stings. +36. Solus Rex me facit miseram Ð the sun king makes me miserable. +37. Assa foetida Ð dried resin, used as a nervous tonic. +38. Glister-pipe Ð also known as a clyster-pipe. A tube used to +inject liquid through the anus to stimulate evacuation. +39. Hypocronicall Ð a nonce word whose meaning is unclear. Possibly +should read Hypocondricall, meaning 'of a melancholy humour'. +40. Carp pies Ð suggests secrecy, based on the belief that the carp +has no tongue. +41. Dial of good days Ð a reference to lists of good and bad days +compiled by producers of almanacs. +42. Bounce Buckram Ð from the proverb 'Bounce buckram, velvet's dear, +Christmas comes but once a year, and when it comes it brings good +cheer, but when it's gone it's never the near.' +43. Mulligrubs Ð depression. +44. Coranta Ð a court dance. +45. Sealed with butter Ð a reference to the musical publications +printed by the newsmonger Nathaniel Butter. +46. Aesculapian Ð relating to medicine. +47. Escurial Ð the chief palace of Spain, some 30 miles from Madrid. +48. Linstock Ð pole for firing a cannon. +49. Salsa-perilla Ð a drug used in the treatment of syphilis +50. Toot Ð to pry. +51. Hull Ð for a cannon-ball to break the hull of a ship. +52. Croaking Ð creaking in the Quarto. Compare with W. Shakespeare, +Hamlet, 3.2.233, 'the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge', itself +a misquotation from the anonymous 'The True Tragedy of Richard III'. +53. Rosemary Ð herb worn at both weddings and funerals. In NSS, it +signifies opposition to the King in a manner reminiscent of the Wars +of the Roses. +54. Rosemary Lane Ð a road in the City of London, known since 1850 as +Royal Mint Street. +55. Bantam Ð in fact, a trade centre in Indonesia, unconnected with +the West Indies. +56. Callenture Ð guilty knowledge. +57. Trul Ð whore. +58. Collinquintida Ð a bitter apple of the gourd family whose soft +fruit made a purgative drug +59. Magical weed / Which hags at midnight watch to catch the seed Ð +the Peony, which needed to be gathered in the dark as the birdlife +were believed to be protective of it. +60. Mittimus Ð notice to quit. +61. Shambles Ð a slaughterhouse. +62. O'es Ð An allusion to the manner of posting scores in an ale- +house. +63. Barber's washing Ð Barbers were users of scent, like Cockadillio. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NOBLE SPANISH SOLDIER*** + + +******* This file should be named 16753-8.txt or 16753-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/7/5/16753 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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