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diff --git a/44015-0.txt b/44015-0.txt index 5bb75fe..b129138 100644 --- a/44015-0.txt +++ b/44015-0.txt @@ -1,41 +1,4 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Fatal Dowry, by Philip Massinger and Nathaniel Field - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. 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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 Fatal Dowry - -Author: Philip Massinger - Nathaniel Field - -Editor: Charles Lacy Lockert - -Release Date: October 23, 2013 [EBook #44015] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FATAL DOWRY *** - - - - -Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Jennifer Linklater and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - - - - - - - - - - THE FATAL DOWRY - - BY - - PHILIP MASSINGER AND - NATHANIEL FIELD - - EDITED, FROM THE ORIGINAL QUARTO, - WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES - - A DISSERTATION - - PRESENTED TO THE - FACULTY OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY - IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE - OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY - - BY - CHARLES LACY LOCKERT, JR. - - ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH, KENYON COLLEGE - - PRESS OF - THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY - LANCASTER, PA. - - 1918 - - Accepted by the Department of English, June, 1916 - - - - -PREFACE - - -This critical edition of _The Fatal Dowry_ was undertaken as a Thesis -in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Ph.D. at -Princeton University. It was compiled under the guidance and direction -of Professor T. M. Parrott of that institution, and every page of -it is indebted to him for suggestion, advice, and criticism. I can -but inadequately indicate the scope of his painstaking and scholarly -supervision, and can even less adequately express my appreciation of -his ever-patient aid, which alone made this work possible. - -I desire also to acknowledge my debt to Professor J. Duncan Spaeth -of Princeton University, for his valuable suggestions in regard to -the presentation of my material, notably in the Introduction; also to -Professor T. W. Baldwin of Muskingum College and Mr. Henry Bowman, -both of them then fellow graduate students of mine at Princeton, for -assistance on several occasions in matters of special inquiry; and to -Dr. M. W. Tyler of the Princeton Department of History for directing me -in clearing up a lego-historical point; and finally to the libraries of -Yale and Columbia Universities for their kind loan of needed books. - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -In the Stationer's Register the following entry is recorded under the -date of "30º Martij 1632:" - - CONSTABLE Entred for his copy vnder the hands of Sir HENRY HERBERT - and master _SMITHWICKE_ warden a Tragedy called _the ffatall - Dowry_. Vj d. - -In the year 1632 was published a quarto volume whose title-page was -inscribed: _The Fatall Dowry_: a Tragedy: As it hath been often Acted -at the Private House in Blackfriars, by his Majesties Servants. -Written by P. M. and N. F. London, Printed by John Norton, for Francis -Constable, and are to be sold at his shop at the Crane, in Pauls -Churchyard. 1632. - -That the initials by which the authors are designated stand for Philip -Massinger and Nathaniel Field is undoubted. - - -LATER TEXTS - -There is no other seventeenth century edition of _The Fatal Dowry_. It -was included in various subsequent collections, as follows: - -I. _The Works of Philip Massinger_--edited by Thomas Coxeter, -1759--re-issued in 1761, with an introduction by T. Davies. - -II. _The Dramatic Works of Philip Massinger_--edited by John Monck -Mason, 1779. - -III. _The Plays of Philip Massinger_--edited by William Gifford, 1805. -There was a revised second edition in 1813, which is still regarded as -the Standard Massinger Text, and was followed in subsequent editions of -Gifford. - -IV. _Modern British Drama_--edited by Sir Walter Scott, 1811. The text -of this reprint of _The Fatal Dowry_ is Gifford's. - -V. _Dramatic Works of Massinger and Ford_--edited by Hartley Coleridge, -1840 (_et seq._). This follows the text of Gifford. - -VI. _The Plays of Philip Massinger._ From the Text of William Gifford. -With the Addition of the Tragedy Believe as You List. Edited by Francis -Cunningham, 1867 (_et seq._). The Fatal Dowry in this edition, as in -the preceding, is a mere reprint of the Second Edition of Gifford. - -VII. _Philip Massinger._ Selected Plays. (Mermaid Series.) Edited by -Arthur Symons, 1887-9 (_et seq._). - -In addition to the above, _The Fatal Dowry_ appeared in _The Plays of -Philip Massinger_, adapted for family reading and the use of young -persons, by the omission of objectionable passages,--edited by Harness, -1830-1; and another expurgated version was printed in the _Mirror of -Taste and Dramatic Censor_, 1810. Both of these are based on the text -of Gifford. - -The edition of Coxeter is closest of all to the Quarto, following even -many of its most palpable mistakes, and adding some blunders on its -own account. Mason accepts practically all of Coxeter's corrections, -and supplies a great many more variants himself, not all of which are -very happy. Both these eighteenth century editors continually contract -for the sake of securing a perfectly regular metre (e. g.: _You're_ -for _You are_, I, i, 139; _th' honours_ for _the honours_, I, ii, 35; -etc.), while Gifford's tendency is to give the full form for even the -contractions of the Quarto, changing its _'em's_ to _them's_, etc. -Gifford can scarce find words sharp enough to express his scorn for his -predecessors in their lack of observance of the text of the Quarto, -yet he himself frequently repeats their gratuitous emendations when -the original was a perfectly sure guide, and he has almost a mania for -tampering with the Quarto on his own account. Symons' _Mermaid_ text, -while based essentially on that of Gifford, in a number of instances -departs from it, sometimes to make further emendations, but more often -to go back from those of Gifford to the version of the original, so -that on the whole this is the best text yet published. - -There has been a German translation by the Graf von Baudisson, under -the title of _Die Unselige Mitgift_, in his _Ben Jonson und seine -Schule_, Leipsig, 1836; and a French translation, in prose, under -the title of _La dot fatale_ by E. Lafond in _Contemporains de -Shakespeare_, Paris, 1864. - - -DATE - -The date of the composition or original production of _The Fatal Dowry_ -is not known. The Quarto speaks of it as having been "often acted," so -there is nothing to prevent our supposing that it came into existence -many years before its publication. It does not seem to have been -entered in Sir Henry Herbert's Office Book.[1] This would indicate its -appearance to have been prior to Herbert's assumption of the duties of -his office in August, 1623. In seeking a more precise date we can deal -only in probabilities.[2] - -The play having been produced by the King's Men, a company in which -Field acted, it was most probably written during his association -therewith. This was formed in 1616; the precise date of his retirement -from the stage is not known. His name appears in the patent of March -27, 1619, just after the death of Burbage, and again and for the last -time in a livery list for his Majesty's Servants, dated May 19, 1619. -It is absent from the next grant for livery (1621) and from the actors' -lists for various plays which are assigned to 1619 or 1620. We may -therefore assume safely that his connection with the stage ended before -the close of 1619. On the basis of probability, then, the field is -narrowed to 1616-19.[3] - -More or less presumptive evidence may be adduced for a yet more -specific dating. During these years that Field acted with the King's -Men, two plays appeared which bear strong internal evidence of being -products of his collaboration with Massinger and Fletcher: _The Knight -of Malta_ and _The Queen of Corinth_. While several parallels of -phraseology are afforded for _The Fatal Dowry_ by these (as, indeed, by -every one of the works of Massinger) they are not nearly so numerous -or so striking as similarities discoverable between it and certain -other dramas of the Massinger _corpus_. With none does the connection -seem so intimate as with _The Unnatural Combat_. Both plays open with -a scene in which a young suppliant for a father's cause is counseled, -in passages irresistibly reminiscent of each other, to lay aside pride -and modesty for the parent's sake, because not otherwise can justice -be gained, and it is the custom of the age to sue for it shamelessly. -Moreover, the offer by Beaufort and his associates to Malefort of any -boon he may desire as a recompense for his service, and his acceptance -of it, correspond strikingly in both conduct and language with the -conferring of a like favor upon Rochfort by the Court (I, ii, 258 -ff.); while the request which Malefort prefers, that his daughter be -married to Beaufort Junior, and the language with which that young man -acknowledges this meets his own dearest wish, bear a no less patent -resemblance to the bestowal of Beaumelle upon Charalois (II, ii, -284-297). Now this last parallel is significant, because _The Unnatural -Combat_ is an unaided production of Massinger, while the analogue in -_The Fatal Dowry_ occurs in a scene that is by the hand of Field. The -similarity may, of course, be only an accident, but presumably it is -not. Then did Field borrow from Massinger, or did Massinger from Field? -The most plausible theory is that _The Unnatural Combat_ was written -immediately after _The Fatal Dowry_, when Massinger's mind was so -saturated with the contents of the tragedy just laid aside that he was -liable to echo in the new drama the expressions and import of lines in -the old, whether by himself or his collaborator. That at any rate the -chronological relationship of the two plays is one of juxtaposition is -further attested by the fact that in minor parallelisms,[4] too, to -_The Fatal Dowry_, _The Unnatural Combat_ is richer than any other work -of Massinger. - -Unfortunately _The Unnatural Combat_ is itself another play of whose -date no more can be said with assurance than that it preceeds the entry -of Sir Henry Herbert into office in 1623, though its crude horrors, -its ghost, etc., suggest moreover that it is its author's initial -independent venture in the field of tragedy, his _Titus Andronicus_, an -ill-advised attempt to produce something after the "grand manner" of -half a generation back. Next in closeness to _The Fatal Dowry_ among -the works of Massinger as regards the number of its reminiscences of -phraseology stands his share of _The Virgin Martyr_; next in closeness -as regards the _strikingness_ of these parallels stands his share of -_The Little French Lawyer_. These two plays can be dated _circa_ 1620. - - * * * * * - -To sum up: - -_The Fatal Dowry_ appears to antedate the installation of Sir Henry -Herbert in 1623. - -It was probably written while Field was with the King's Men; with whom -he became associated in 1616, and whom he probably quitted in 1619. - -The indications point to its composition during the latter part of this -three-year period (1616-19), for it yields more and closer parallels -to _The Virgin Martyr_ and _The Little French Lawyer_, dated about -1620, than to _The Knight of Malta_ and _The Queen of Corinth_, dated -1617-8,--closer, indeed, than to any work of Massinger save one, _The -Unnatural Combat_, itself an undated but evidently early play, with -which its relationship is clearly of the most intimate variety. - - * * * * * - -The following (at best hazardously conjectural) scheme of sequence may -be advanced: - -Fletcher and Massinger and Field together wrote _The Knight of Malta_ -and _The Queen of Corinth_--according to received theory, in 1617 or -1618. Thereafter, the last two collaborators (desirous, perhaps, of -trying what they could do unaided and unshackled by the dominating -association of the chief dramatist of the day) joined hands in the -production of the tragedy which is the subject of our study. Then, upon -Field's retirement, Massinger struck off, with _The Unnatural Combat_, -into unassisted composition; but we next find him, whether because he -recognized the short-comings of this turgid play or for other reasons, -again in double harness, at work upon _The Virgin Martyr_ and _The -Little French Lawyer_. On this hypothesis, _The Fatal Dowry_ would be -dated 1618-9. - - -SOURCES - -No source is known for the main plot of _The Fatal Dowry_. A Spanish -original has been suspected, but it has never come to light. The stress -laid throughout the action on that peculiarly Spanish conception of -"the point of honor" (see under CRITICAL ESTIMATE, in consideration -of the character of Charalois) is unquestionably suggestive of the -land south of the Pyrenees, and we have an echo of _Don Quixote_ -in the exclamation of Charalois (III, i, 441): "Away, thou curious -impertinent." The identification, however, of the situation at Aymer's -house in IV, ii with a scene in Cervantes' _El viejo celoso_ (Obras -Completas De Cervantes, Tomo XII, p. 277) is extremely fanciful. The -only similarity consists in the circumstance that in both, while the -husband is on the stage, the wife, who, unknown to him, entertains -a lover in the next room, is heard speaking within. But this is a -spontaneous outcry on the part of Beaumelle, who does not suspect the -proximity of her husband, and her discovery follows, and from this -the denouement of the play; whereas in Cervantes' _entremes_ the wife -deliberately calls in bravado to her niece, who is also on-stage, and -boasts of her lover,--and the husband thinks this is in jest, and -nothing comes of it but comedy. - -The theme of the son's redemption of his father's corpse by his own -captivity is from the classical story of Cimon and Miltiades, as -narrated by Valerius Maximus, De dictis factisque memorabilibus, etc. -Lib. V, cap. III. De ingratis externorum: _Bene egissent Athenienses -cum Miltiade, si eum post trecenta millia Persarum Marathone devicta, -in exilium protinus misissent, ac non in carcere et vinculis mori -coegissent; sed, ut puto, hactenus saevire adversus optime meritum -abunde duxerunt: immo ne corpus quidem eius, sic expirare coacti -sepulturae primus mandari passi sunt, quam filius eius Cimon eisdem -vinculis se constrigendum traderet. Hanc hereditatem paternam maximi -ducis filius, et futurus ipse aetatis suae dux maximus, solam se -crevisse, catenas et carcerem, gloriari potuit._ - -In the version of Cornelius Nepos (Vitae, Cimon I) Cimon is -incarcerated against his will. - -The action of the play is given the historical setting of the later -fifteenth century wars of Louis XI of France and Charles the Bold of -Burgundy, although this background is extremely hazy. The hero's name -is the title which Charles bore while heir-apparent to the Duchy of -Burgundy; mention is made of Charles himself ("The warlike Charloyes," -I, ii, 171), to Louis ("the subtill Fox of France, The politique -Lewis," I, ii, 123-4), and to "the more desperate Swisse" (I, ii, -124), against whom Charles lost his life and the power of Burgundy -was broken; while the three great defeats he suffered at their hands, -Granson, Morat, Nancy, are named in I, ii, 170. Shortly after these -disasters the events which the play sets forth must be supposed to -occur; the parliament by which in our drama Dijon is governed was -established by Louis XI when he annexed Burgundy in 1477 and thereby -abolished her ducal independence. - - -COLLABORATION - -It is doubtful if Massinger ever collaborated with any author whose -manner harmonized as well with his own as did Field's. In his -partnership with Decker in _The Virgin Martyr_, the alternate hands -of the two dramatists afford a weird contrast.[5] His union with -Fletcher was less incongruous, but Fletcher was too much inclined to -take the bit between his teeth to be a comfortable companion in double -harness,[6] and at all times his volatile, prodigal genius paired ill -with the earnest, painstaking, not over-poetic moralist. But in Field -Massinger found an associate whose connection with himself was not only -congenial, but even beneficial, to the end that together they could -achieve certain results of which either was individually incapable; -just as it has been established was the case in the Middleton-Rowley -collaboration. To a formal element of verse different, indeed, from -Massinger's, but not obtrusively so, a certain moral fibre of his -own (perhaps derived from his clerical antecedents), and a like -familiarity with stage technique, Field added qualities which Massinger -notably lacked, and thereby complemented him: a light and vigorous -(if sometimes coarse) comic touch as opposed to Massinger's cumbrous -humor; a freshness and first-hand acquaintance with life as opposed to -Massinger's bookishness; a capacity to visualize and individualize -character as opposed to Massinger's weakness for drawing types rather -than people. The fruit of their joint endeavors testifies to a -harmonious, conscientious, and mutually respecting partnership. - -In consideration of the above, it is surprising how substantially in -accord are most of the opinions that have been expressed concerning the -share of the play written by each author. - -"A critical reader," says Monck Mason, "will perceive that Rochfort -and Charalois speak a different language in the Second and Third Acts, -from that which they speak in the first and last, which are undoubtedly -Massinger's; as is also Part of the Fourth Act, but not the whole of -it." - -Dr. Ireland, in a postscript to the text of _The Fatal Dowry_ in -Gifford's edition, agrees with Mason in assigning the Second Act -to Field and also the First Scene of the Fourth Act; the Third -Act, however, he claims for Massinger, as well as that share of -the play with which Mason credits him. Fleay and Boyle, the chief -modern commentators who have taken up the question of the division -of authorship with the aid of metrical tests and other criteria, -agree fairly well with the speculations of their less scientific -predecessors, and adopt an intermediate, reconciling position on the -disputed Third Act, dividing it between the two dramatists.[7] - -Boyle (_Englische Studien_, V, 94) assigns to Massinger Act I; Act III -as far as line 316; Act IV, Scenes ii, iii, and iv; and the whole of -Act V, with the exception of Scene ii, lines 80-120, which he considers -an interpolation of Field, whom he also believes to have revised the -latter part of I, ii (from _Exeunt Officers with Romont_ to end). - -Fleay (_Chron. Eng. Dra._, I, 208) exactly agrees with this division -save that the latter part of I, ii, which Boyle believes emended by -Field, he assigns to that author outright; and that he places the -division in Act III twenty-seven lines later (Field after _Manent Char. -Rom._). - -In my own investigation I have used for each Scene the following tests -to distinguish the hands of the two authors: - -(_a_) Broad aesthetic considerations: the comparison of style and -method of treatment with the known work of either dramatist. - -(_b_) The test of parallel phrases. Massinger's habit of repeating -himself is notorious. I have gone through the entire body of his -work, both that which appears under his name, and that which has been -assigned to him by modern research in the Beaumont & Fletcher plays, -and noted all expressions I found analogous to any which occur in -_The Fatal Dowry_. I have done the same for Field's work, examining -his two comedies, _Woman is a Weathercock_ and _Amends for Ladies_, -and Acts I and V of _The Knight of Malta_ and III and IV of _The -Queen of Corinth_, which the consensus of critical opinion recognizes -(in my judgment, correctly) as his. He is generally believed to have -collaborated also in _The Honest Man's Fortune_, but the exact extent -of his work therein is so uncertain that I have not deemed it a proper -field from which to adduce evidence. His hand has been asserted by one -authority or another to appear in various other plays of the period, -he having served, as it were, the role of a literary scapegoat on whom -it was convenient to father any Scene not identified as belonging to -Beaumont, Fletcher, or Massinger; but there is no convincing evidence -for his participation in the composition of any extant dramas save the -above named. - -(_c_) Metrical tests. I have computed the figures for _The Fatal Dowry_ -in regard to double or feminine endings and run-on lines. Massinger's -verse displays high percentages (normally 30 per cent, to 45 per cent.) -in the case of either. Field's verse varies considerably in the matter -of run-on lines at various periods of his life, but the proportion of -them is always smaller than Massinger's. His double endings average -about 18 per cent. I have also counted in each Scene the number -of speeches that end within the line, and that end with the line, -respectively. (Speeches ending with fragmentary lines are considered to -have mid-line endings.) This is declared by Oliphant (_Eng. Studien_, -XIV, 72) the surest test for the work of Massinger. "His percentage of -speeches," he says, "that end where the verses end is ordinarily as low -as 15." This is a tremendous exaggeration, but it is true that the -ratio of mid-line endings is much higher in Massinger than in any of -his contemporaries--commonly 2:1, or higher. - -We find the First Scene of Act I one of those skillful introductions -to the action which the "stage-poet" knew so well how to handle, for -which reason, probably, he was generally intrusted with the initial -Scene of the plays in which he collaborated. Thoroughly Massingerian -are its satire upon the degenerate age and its grave, measured -style, rhetorical where it strives to be passionate, and replete -with characteristic expressions. Especially striking examples of the -dramatist's well-known and never-failing _penchant_ for the recurrent -use of certain ideas and phrases are: _As I could run the hazard of a -check for't._ (l. 10)--cf. [8]C-G. 87 b, 156 b, 327 b; D. V, 328; XI, -28;--_You shall o'ercome._ (l. 101)--cf. C-G. 230 b, 248 b, 392 a;--and -ll. 183-7--cf. C-G. 206 a, 63 a, 91 a, 134 b. The correspondence -between ll. 81-99 and the opening of _The Unnatural Combat_ has already -been remarked on, while further reminiscences of the same passage are -to be found elsewhere in Massinger (C-G. 104 a, 195 b). Metrical tests -show for the Scene 33 per cent. double endings and 29 per cent. run-on -lines, figures which substantiate the conclusions derivable from a -scrutiny of its style and content.[9] - -In I, ii Massinger appears in his element, an episode permitting -opportunities for the forensic fervor which was his especial forte. -Such Scenes occur again and again in his plays: the conversion of -the daughters of Theophilus by the Virgin Martyr, the plea of the -Duke of Milan to the Emperor, of old Malefort to his judges in _The -Unnatural Combat_, of Antiochus to the Carthagenian senate in _Believe -as You List_. From the speech with which Du Croy opens court (I, ii, -1-3)--cf. the inauguration of the senate-house scene in _The Roman -Actor_, C-G. 197 b, - - _Fathers conscript, may this our meeting be - Happy to Caesar and the commonwealth!_ - ---to the very end, it abounds with Massingerisms: _Knowing judgment_; -_Speak to the cause_; _I foresaw this_ (an especial favorite of the -poet's); _Strange boldness!_; the construction, _If that curses_, -etc;--also cf. l. 117 ff. with - - _To undervalue him whose least fam'd service - Scornes to be put in ballance with the best - Of all your Counsailes._ - - (_Sir John van Olden B._, Bullen's _Old Plays_, II, 232.) - -We have seen that the hand of Field has been asserted to appear in the -last half of this Scene. This is probably due to the presence here of -several rhymed couplets, which are uncommon in Massinger save as tags -at the end of Scenes or of impressive speeches, but not absolutely -unknown in his work; whereas Field employs them frequently--in -particular to set off a gnomic utterance. If Field's indeed, they -can scarcely represent more than his revising touch here and there; -everything else in this part of the Scene bespeaks Massinger no less -clearly than does the portion which preceeds it. There continues the -same stately declamation, punctuated at intervals by brief comments -or replies, the same periodic sentence-structure, the same or even -greater frequency of characteristic diction. Massinger again and again -refers in his plays to the successive hardships of the summer's heat -and winter's frost (l. 184--cf. C-G. 168 b, 205 a, 392 b, 488 b); -_stand bound_ occurs literally scores of times upon his pages (three -times on C-G. 77 a alone);--typical also are _in their dreadful ruins -buried quick_ (l. 178--cf. C-G. 603 a, 625 a, _Sir John van Olden B._, -Bullin's _Old Plays_, II, 209), _Be constant in it_ (l. 196--cf. C-G. -2 a, 137 a, 237 a, 329 a), _Strange rashness!_, _It is my wonder_ -(l. 293--cf. C-G. 26 b, 195 b; D. VIII, 438; XI, 34). Cf. also l. 156, - - _To quit the burthen of a hopeless life,_ - -with C-G. 615 b, - - _To ease the burthen of a wretched life._ - -And ll. 284-6, - - _But would you had - Made trial of my love in anything - But this,_ - -with C-G. 286 a, - - _I could wish you had - Made trial of my love some other way._ - -And again, ll. 301-3, - - _and his goodness - Rising above his fortune, seems to me, - Princelike, to will, not ask, a courtesy._ - -with D. XI. 37, - - _in his face appears - A kind of majesty which should command, - Not sue for favour._ - -and the general likeness of l. 258 ff. with C-G. 44 b-45 a, as above -noted. Nor do the verse tests reveal any break in the continuity of -the Scene; the figures for the first part are: double endings, 45 per -cent.; run-on lines, 33 per cent.--for the second part: double endings, -36 per cent.; run-on lines, 36 per cent. - -Passing to the Second Act, we discover at once a new manner of -expression, in which the sentence has a looser structure, the verse -a quicker _tempo_, the poetry a striving now and again for a note of -lyric beauty which, although satisfactorily achieved in but few lines, -is by Massinger's verse not even attempted. A liberal sprinkling -of rhymes appears. The Scene is a trifle more vividly conceived; -the emotions have a somewhat more genuine ring. Simultaneously, -resemblances to the phraseology of Massinger's other plays become -infrequent; _and, to increase the wonder_, is almost the only reminder -of him in the whole of Scene i. On the other hand we must not expect -to find in the work of Field the same large number of recognizable -expressions as mark that of Massinger; for he was not nearly so given -to repeating himself, nor are there many of his plays extant from -which to garner parallels. The figure of speech with which Charalois -opens his funeral address [Field shows a great predilection for -"aqueous" similes and metaphors], the liberal use of oaths (_'Slid_, -_'Slight_), a reference (l. 137) to the Bermudas (also mentioned -in _Amends for Ladies_: M. 427), and the comparison to the oak and -pine (ll. 119-121--cf. a Field Scene of _The Queen of Corinth_: D. V, -436-7) are the only specific minutia to which a finger can be pointed. -The verse analysis testifies similarly to a different author from -that of Act I, double endings being 20 per cent., run-on lines 15 per -cent.--figures which are quite normal to Field. - -To the actor-dramatist may be set down the prose of II, ii without -question. Massinger practically never uses prose, which is liberally -employed by Field, as is the almost indistinguishable prose-or-verse by -which a transition is made from one medium to the other. The dialogue -between Beaumelle and her maids is strikingly like that between two -"gentlewomen" in _The Knight of Malta_, I, ii--a Scene generally -recognized as by his hand; the visit of Novall Junior which follows -is like a page out of his earlier comedies. Notable resemblances are -ll. 177-8, _Uds-light! my lord, one of the purls of your band is, -without all discipline, fallen out of his rank_, with _I have seen him -sit discontented a whole play because one of the purls of his band was -fallen out of his reach to order again_. (_Amends for Ladies_, M. 455); -and l. 104, _they skip into my lord's cast skins some twice a year_, -with _and then my lord_ (_like a snake_) _casts a suite every quarter, -which I slip into_: (_Woman is a Weathercock_, M. 374). The song, after -l. 131, recalls that in _Amends for Ladies_, M. 465. - -Of the verse which follows, most of the observations made in regard to -the preceeding Scene are applicable. The comic touch in the midst of -Romont's tirade (ll. 174-206) against old Novall, when the vehemence -of his indignation leads him to seek at every breath the epithet of -a different beast for his foe, is surely Field's, not Massinger's. A -Field scene of _The Queen of Corinth_, D. V, 438, parallels with its -_Thou a gentleman! thou an ass_, the construction of l. 276, while -there too is duplicated the _true-love knots_ of l. 314, though in a -rather grotesque connection. The verse tests are confirmative of Field: -21 per cent. double endings; 19 per cent, run-on lines. While a few -resemblances to phrases occurring somewhere in the works of Massinger -can be marked here and there in the 355 lines of the Scene, they are -not such as would demand consideration, nor are more numerous than -sheer chance would yield in the case of a writer so prolific as the -"stage-poet." The parallel between ll. 284-297 and a passage from _The -Unnatural Combat_ is pointed out under the head of DATE, and one of -several possible explanations for this coincidence is there offered. -These lines in _The Fatal Dowry_ are as unmistakably Field's as any -verse in the entire play; their short, abruptly broken periods and -their rapid flow are as characteristic of him as the style of their -analogue in _The Unnatural Combat_ is patently Massingerian. - -Act III presents a more difficult problem. It will be noted that Fleay -and Boyle alike declare that its single long Scene is divided between -the two authors, but are unable to agree as to the point of division. -The first 316 lines are beyond question the work of Massinger. The tilt -between Romont and Beaumelle is conducted with that flood of rhetorical -vituperation by which he customarily attempts to delineate passion; -in no portion of the play is his diction and sentence-structure more -marked; and the parallels to passages elsewhere in his works reappear -with redoubled profusion. Indeed, they become too numerous for complete -citation; let it suffice to refer ll. 43-4 to D. III, 477; ll. 53-4 to -C-G. 173 a; ll. 80-3 to D. III, 481; l. 104 to C-G. 532 a; l. 116 to -C-G. 146 b; ll. 117-8 to D. VI, 294 and D. VI, 410; ll. 232-5 to C-G. -307 a, also to 475 b, and to D. VIII, 406; while the phrase, _Meet with -an ill construction_ (l. 238) is a common one with Massinger (cf. C-G. -76 a, 141 b, 193 b, 225 b, 339 b), as are such ironic observations as -the _Why, 'tis exceeding well_ of l. 293 (cf., e. g., 175 b). This part -of the Scene contains 45 per cent. double endings and 36 per cent. -run-on lines. - -The last 161 lines of the Act with scarcely less certainty can be -established as Field's, though on a first reading one might imagine, -from the wordiness of the vehement dialogue and the rather high ratio -(19:11) of speeches ending in mid-line, that the hand of Massinger -continues throughout. But the closest examination no longer will reveal -traces of that playwright's distinctive handiwork, while a ratio of 17 -per cent. for double endings and 28 per cent. for run-on lines, the -introduction of rhyme, the oaths, and the change from the previous -full-flowing declamation to shorter, more abrupt periods are vouchers -that this part of the Scene is from the pen of the actor-dramatist. We -can scarcely imagine the ponderous-styled Massinger writing anything -so easy and rapid as - - _I'll die first. - Farewell; continue merry, and high heaven - Keep your wife chaste._ - -Such phrases as _So I not heard them_ (l. 352) and _Like George -a-horseback_ (l. 433) in the loose structure of the one and the slangy -scurrility of the other, exhibit no kinship to his manner; l. 373, -_They are fools that judge me by my outward seeming_ recalls a Field -passage in _The Queen of Corinth_ (D. V, 444) _They are fools that hold -them dignified by blood_. There is here and there, moreover, a certain -violence of expression, a compressed over-trenchancy of phrase, that -brings to mind the rant of the early Elizabethans, and is found among -the Jacobeans only in the work of Rowley, Beaumont, and Field. For the -last named, this is notably exemplified in the opening soliloquy of -_The Knight of Malta_; we cannot but recognize the same touch here in -ll. 386-8: - - _Thou dost strike - A deathful coldness to my heart's high heat, - And shrink'st my liver like the calenture._ - -The _Something I must do_, which concludes the Act, is repeatedly -paralleled in Massinger's plays, but a similar indefinite resolve is -expressed in _Woman is a Weathercock_ (M. 363), and it consequently -cannot be adduced as evidence of his hand. Immediately above, however -(ll. 494-6), we encounter, in the allusion to the Italian and Dutch -temperaments, a thought twice echoed by the "stage-poet" in plays of -not greatly later date, _The Duke of Milan_ and _The Little French -Lawyer_ (C-G. 90 a; D. III, 505). It may represent an interpolation by -Massinger; it may be merely that this rather striking conclusion to the -climatic speech of his collaborator's scene so fixed itself on his mind -as to crop out afterwards in his own productions. - -In the short disputed passage (ll. 317-343) which separates what is -undoubtedly Massinger's from what is undoubtedly Field's, it would -appear that both playwrights had a hand. The _'Sdeath and Gads me!_, -the play upon the word _currier_, and the phrase, _I shall be with -you suddenly_ (cf. _Q. of Cor._ D. V, 467) speak for Field; while -Massinger, on the other hand, parallels - - _His back - Appears to me as it would tire a beadle;_ - -with - - _A man of resolution, whose shoulders - Are of themselves armour of proof, against - A bastinado, and will tire ten beadles._--C-G. 186 b; - -and the phrase "to sit down with a disgrace" occurs something like a -dozen times on his pages, especially frequently in the collaborated -plays--that is to say, in the earlier period of his work, to which -_The Fatal Dowry_ belongs. It is probable, and not unnatural, that -the labors of the partners in composition overlapped on this bit of -the Scene, but metrical analysis claims with as much certainty as -can attach to this test in the case of so short a passage that it is -substantially Massinger's, and should go rather with what preceeds than -with what comes after it, the verse being all one piece with that of -the former section. It has 37 per cent. double endings and 41 per cent. -run-on lines. - -IV, i, opens with a prose passage for all the world like that of -_Woman is a Weathercock_, I, ii, with its picture of the dandy, his -parasites, and the pert page who forms a sort of chorus with his -caustic _asides_; and writes itself down indisputably as by the same -author. Novall Junior and his coterie appear here as in their former -presentation in II, ii. We have again the same racy comedy, the same -faltering of the vehicle between verse and prose (see ll. 61-8; -137-153). After the clearing of the stage of all save Romont and young -Novall, uninterrupted verse ensues, which, despite a rather notable -parallel in _The Beggars' Bush_, D. IX, 9 to l. 174, is evidently -Field's also. An analogue of ll. 180-1 is discoverable in _Amends -for Ladies_ (M. 421), as is of the reference (l. 197) to "fairies' -treasure" in _Woman is a Weathercock_ (M. 344). Novall's exclamation -(l. 182), _Pox of this gun!_ and his retort (l. 201), _Good devil to -your rogueship!_ are Fieldian, and the entire passage possesses a -vigor and an easy naturalness which declare his authorship. It is not -improbable, however, that his contribution ends with the fragmentary -l. 207, and that the remaining four lines of the Scene are a Massinger -tag. _The Maid of Honour_ (C-G. 28 a) furnishes a striking parallel -for ll. 208-9, while for 210-1 cf. C-G. 192 a. The metrical tests for -IV, i, confirm Field: 22 per cent. double endings; 22 per cent. run-on -lines. - -With the next Scene the hand of Massinger is once more in evidence with -all its accustomed manifestations. One interested in his duplication of -characteristic phrasing may refer for comparison ll. 13-4 to C-G. 299 -b; l. 17 to C-G. 241 a; ll. 24-6 to C-G. 547 b; ll. 29-30 to C-G. 425 -b; l. 57 to C-G. 41 b, 70 b; l. 94 to C-G. 182 b. The Scene contains 32 -per cent. double endings and 37 per cent. run-on lines. The authorship -of its two songs is less certain. Field was more given to song-writing -than was Massinger, and the second of this pair is reminiscent in its -conception of the Grace Seldom episode in _Amends for Ladies_ (II, i). - -The short IV, iii is by Massinger. In evidence of him are its 36 per -cent. of double endings and 55 per cent. of run-on lines, its involved -sentence structure, and the familiar phrasing which makes itself -manifest even in so brief a passage (e. g.: _To play the parasite_, -l. 7--cf. V, iii, 78 and C-G. 334 b. Cf. also ll. 9-10 with D. III, -476; and l. 22 with C-G. 40 b, 153 a, 262 b.). - -The same dramatist's work continues through the last Scene of the Act. -This, the emotional climax of the play, representing a quasi-judicial -procedure, affords him abundant opportunity for fervid moralizing and -speech-making, of which he takes advantage most typically. Massinger -commonplaces are l. 29, _Made shipwreck of your faith_ (cf. C-G. 55 b, -235 a, 414 b); l. 56, _In the forbidden labyrinth of lust_ (cf. C-G. -298 b); l. 89, _Angels guard me!_ (cf. C-G. 59 b, 475 b); l. 118-9, -_and yield myself Most miserably guilty_ (cf. C-G. 61 b, 66 b, 130 -a; D. VI, 354); etc.; while within a year or so of the time when he -wrote referring to "those famed matrons" (l. 70), he expatiated upon -them in detail (see _The Virgin Martyr_, C-G. 33 a). Yet more specific -parallels may be found: for l. 63 cf. C-G. 179 a; ll. 76-7, cf. C-G. 28 -a; l. 78, cf. C-G. 32 b; ll. 162-3, cf. C-G. 3 b, in a passage wherein -there is a certain similarity of situation; l. 177, cf. D. IX, 7. -Were any further confirmation needed for Massinger's authorship, the -metrical tests would supply it, with their 36 per cent. double endings -and 34 per cent. run-on lines. - -The most cursory reading of V, i is sufficient to establish the -conviction that its author is not identical with that of the earlier -comic passages--is not Field, but Massinger. The humor, such as it is, -is of a graver, more restrained sort--satiric rather than burlesque; it -has lost lightness and verve, and approaches to high-comedy and even -to moralizing. One feels that the confession of the tailor-gallant is -no mere fun-making devise, but a caustic attack upon social conditions -against which the writer nurtured a grudge. Massingerian are such -expressions as _And now I think on't better_ (l. 77--cf. C-G. 57 b, -468 a, 615 a; D. XI, 28), and _use a conscience_ (l. 90--cf. C-G. 444 -a, 453 a), while the metrical evidence of 36 per cent. double endings -and 29 per cent. run-on lines fortifies a case concerning which all -commentators are in agreement. But despite the unanimity of critical -opinion hitherto, I am not sure that Field did not contribute a minor -touch here and there to the Scene. Such contribution, if a fact, must -have been small, for the Massinger flavor is unmistakable throughout; -yet in the _Plague on't!_ and the _'Slid!_, in the play upon words -(ll. 13-4, 20-1, 44), which is rare with Massinger and common with -Field, in the line, _I only know_ [_thee_] _now to hate thee deadly_: -(cf. _Amends for Ladies_, M. 421: _I never more Will hear or see thee, -but will hate thee deadly._), we may, perhaps, detect a hint of his -hand. - -Scene ii (which in the Quarto ends with the reconciliation of Charalois -and Romont, the entry of Du Croy, Charmi, etc. being marked as the -beginning of a third Scene, though the place is unchanged and the -action continuous, wherefore modern editors disregard the Quarto's -division and count Scene ii as including all the remainder of the Act) -presents the usual distinctive earmarks of a Massinger passage. The -last third of it, however (ll. 80-121), has, on account of the presence -of several rhymes, been commonly assigned to Field. No doubt his hand -is here discernable; l. 118, _mark'd me out the way how to defend it_, -is scarcely a Massinger construction either; but I cannot think Field's -presence here more than that of a reviser, just as in the latter half -of I, ii. The language remains more Massinger's than Field's; and while -the passage is over-short for metrical tests to be decisive, the 39 -per cent. of double endings and 35 per cent. of run-on lines which it -yields (for the earlier part of the Scene the figures are respectively -28 per cent. and 35 per cent.) are corroborative of Massinger's -authorship. Cf. also ll. 96-8 with this from _The Renegado_ (C-G. 157 -a): - - _This applause - Confirm'd in your allowance, joys me more - Than if a thousand full-cramm'd theatres - Should clap their eager hands._ - -Of the final Scene, V, iii, little need be said. It brings before us -again a court-room, with another trial, and continues the manner of -its predecessor, I, ii, as only Massinger can. His customary formulae, -_stand bound_, _play the parasite_, etc., are here; characteristic too -are his opposition of _wanton heat_ and _lawful fires_ (ll. 141-2--cf. -C-G. 37 b; D. V. 476), while further material for comparison may be -found in ll. 95-6 with _Respect_, _wealth_, _favour_, _the whole world -for a dower_ of _The Virgin Martyr_ (C-G. 6 b), and in ll. 165-7: - - Char. _You must find other proofs to strengthen these - But mere presumptions._ - - Du Croy _Or we shall hardly - Allow your innocence._ - -with C-G. 39 a and b: - - _You must produce - Reasons of more validity and weight - To plead in your defence, or we shall hardly - Conclude you innocent._ - -The last passage cited for comparison also exhibits another feature -normal to the work of this dramatist: the splitting of an observation, -frequently a single sentence, between two speakers; so ll. 38-9, and -again, l. 59. The Scene and play are rounded off with the pointing of a -moral, so indispensable to Massinger's satisfaction. - -To sum up, therefore, disregarding for practical purposes the slight -touches of Field in I, ii, ll. 146-_end_; III, i, ll. 317-343; V, ii, -ll. 80-_end_; and perhaps in V, i;--and the apparent Massinger touches -in IV, i, and possibly at one or two other points in the Field Scenes, -we may divide the play as follows: - -MASSINGER: I; III, ll. 1-343; IV, ii, iii, iv; V. - -FIELD: II; III, ll. 344-_end_; IV, i. - -A metrical analysis of the play is appended in tabular form, in -which I have computed separately the figures for each portion of any -Scene on which there has been a question. It will be noted that the -single simple test of the mid-line speech-ending would, with but two -exceptions--one (III, i, c) doubtful, and the other (V, ii, b) too -short a passage to afford a fair test--have made a clean-cut and -correct determination of authorship in every case. - - A = Scene - B = Prose Lines - C = Verse Lines - D = Double Endings - E = Per Cent. - F = Run-on Lines - G = Per Cent. - H = Fragmentary Lines - I = Rhymed Lines - J = Speeches Ending in Mid-line - K = Speeches Ending with Line - L = Author - - ==========+====+=====+=====+====+====+====+===+====+====+====+========= - A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L - ----------+----+-----+-----+----+----+----+---+----+----+----+--------- - I, i | -- | 196 | 64 | 33 | 56 | 29 | 1 | 2 | 42 | 22 |Massinger - I, ii (a) | -- | 145 | 64 | 45 | 48 | 33 | 1 | 2 | 25 | 14 |Massinger - I, ii (b) | -- | 158 | 57 | 36 | 57 | 36 | 0 | 12 | 30 | 16 |Massinger - | | | | | | | | | | |(Field - | | | | | | | | | | |revision) - II, i | -- | 145 | 29 | 20 | 22 | 15 | 4 | 16 | 19 | 17 |Field - II, ii | 82 | 273 | 57 | 21 | 52 | 19 | 9 | 12 | 47 | 50 |Field - III, i (a)| -- | 316 | 142 | 45 |114 | 36 | 1 | 2 | 67 | 29 |Massinger - III, i (b)| -- | 27 | 10 | 37 | 11 | 41 | 3 | 0 | 13 | 6 |Massinger - | | | | | | | | | | |(with - | | | | | | | | | | |Field?) - III, i (c)| -- | 161 | 28 | 17 | 45 | 28 | 0 | 10 | 19 | 11 |Field - IV, i | 88 | 124 | 27 | 22 | 27 | 22 | 4 | 6 | 26 | 24 |Field - IV, ii | -- | 104 | 33 | 32 | 38 | 37 | 2 | 2 | 24 | 10 |Massinger - IV, iii | -- | 22 | 8 | 36 | 12 | 55 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 |Massinger - IV, iv | -- | 195 | 71 | 36 | 67 | 34 | 0 | 6 | 32 | 8 |Massinger - V, i | -- | 107 | 38 | 36 | 31 | 29 | 1 | 2 | 16 | 5 |Massinger - V, ii (a) | -- | 80 | 22 | 28 | 27 | 34 | 0 | 2 | 17 | 2 |Massinger - V, ii (b) | -- | 41 | 15 | 37 | 14 | 35 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 3 |Massinger - | | | | | | | | | | |(Field - | | | | | | | | | | |revision) - V, iii | -- | 229 | 98 | 43 | 50 | 22 | 0 | 4 | 34 | 19 |Massinger - ----------+----+-----+-----+----+----+----+---+----+----+----+--------- - - -CRITICAL ESTIMATE - -No less an authority than Swinburne has pronounced _The Fatal Dowry_ -the finest tragedy in the Massinger _corpus_. Certainly it would be -the most formidable rival of _The Duke of Milan_ for that distinction. -It occupies an anomalous position among the works of the "stage -poet." His dramas are, as a rule, strongest in construction; he -went at play-making like a skillful architect, and put together and -moulded his material with steady hand. They are likely to be weakest -in characterization. Massinger could not get inside his figures and -endow them with the breath of life; they remain stony shapes chiseled -in severely angular and conventional lines, like some old Egyptian -bas-relief. But _The Fatal Dowry_ is strong in characterization and -defective in construction. - -The structural fault is less surprising when it is ascertained to be -fundamental--inevitable in the theme. The play breaks in the middle: -it is really composed of two stories; the first two Acts present and -resolve one action, while another, hitherto barely presaged, occupies -the last three, and is the proper story of the Fatal Dowry. Charalois' -self-immolation for the corpse of his heroic father, and his rescue -and reward by the great-hearted Rochfort, form a little play in -themselves--a brief but stately tragi-comedy, which is followed by -a tense drama of intrigue and retribution, of adultery and avenged -honor--itself complete in itself, for which we are prepared in the -first two Acts only by one figure, whose potentialities for disaster -are ominous if not obvious:--Beaumelle, of whom more later. This -plot-building by _enjambment_ precludes the slow, steady mounting of -suspense from the initial moment and inexorable gathering of doom which -are manifested in a well-conceived tragedy; yet crude, amorphous, -inorganic as it may seem--defying, as it does, unity of action--like -as it is to the earliest Elizabethan plays, which were concerned -with a single career rather than a single theme, it would appear -inevitably necessary, if a maximum effect is to be gained from the -given plot-material. Just as Wagner found it impossible to do justice -to the story of Siegfried without first presenting that of Siegmund -and Sieglinde, so the experiment of Rowe (who in re-working the story -for _The Fair Penitent_ relegated to expository dialogue the narration -of what corresponds to the first two Acts of _The Fatal Dowry_) sadly -demonstrated that unless the reader or audience actually sees, and -not merely hears about, Charalois' previous devotion, Rochfort's -generosity, and Romont's loyalty, these characters do not attract to -themselves a full measure of sympathy, and the story of their later -vicissitudes is somehow unconvincing and falls flat. - -Massinger and Field accepted frankly the structural awkwardness of -their plot as they had fashioned or found it. Making, apparently, no -attempt to obviate its essential duality, they went to work in the most -straightforward manner, and achieved, thanks in no small measure to -that same resolute directness of approach, a drama of so naturalistic -a tone as half to redeem its want of unity. _The Fatal Dowry_ is not -an Aristotelian tragedy with a definite beginning, middle, and end--it -is rather a cross-section of life. The unconventionality and vitality -of such a production are startling, and obtain a high degree of -verisimilitude. - -Both authors seem to have been themselves inspired by their virile -theme to give to it their best work. The stately, somewhat monotonous -verse of Massinger, which never loses dignity and is so incapable of -expressing climaxes of passion, is once or twice almost forgotten, -or else rises to a majesty which transfigures it. Though forensic -declamation was always the especial forte of this dramatist, he -literally out-did himself in his management of the suit for the dead -Marshal's body. The elaborate rhetoric of Charmi, checked by the stern -harshness of Novall Senior, the indignant outburst of Romont, and the -sad, yet noble calmness of Charalois' speech in which he presses the -forlorn alternative, succeed one another with striking contrast; the -very flow of the verse changes with the speaker in a manner which -recalls the wonderful employment of this device by Shakespeare, as, for -example, in the First Act of _Othello_. In the final Scene of Act IV, -Massinger achieves a climax worthy of Fletcher himself;--save, perhaps, -the _denouement_ of _A New Way to Pay Old Debts_, and the great scene -in _The Duke of Milan_ in which Sforza's faith in his Duchess is broken -down by aspersion after aspersion, until he slays her, only to learn -the terrible truth one instant later, it is the most dramatic situation -he ever worked up. Field, too, seems to have been on his mettle: his -verse is more trenchant, his care greater than in his two earlier -comedies; the lines (II, i, 126-7) - - _My root is earthed, and I a desolate branch - Left scattered in the highway of the world,_ - -touch the high-water mark of his poetic endeavor. - -Blemishes, indeed, are not unapparent. The episodic first Scene of Act -V is a rather stupid piece of pseudo-comedy by Massinger, which serves -no function adequate to justify its existence, while it interrupts the -thread of the main story at a point where its culminating intensity -does not, of right, permit such a diversion. Gifford in commenting upon -this Scene makes the amazing pronouncement that it serves "to prove -how differently the comic part of this drama would have appeared, if -the whole had fortunately fallen into the hands of Massinger." Surely -never was criticism more fatuous. - -But the most serious--indeed, the outstanding--defect of the play -is the easy readiness of Charalois to break with Romont. The calm, -unregretful placidity with which he untwists the long web of friendship -with a man who has stood by him through weal and woe, who has courted a -prison's chains for his sake, shocks us, and repels us with its flinty -self-sufficiency. It is not that we know him to be wrong and Romont -to be right; suppose the high faith of Charalois in Beaumelle to be -entirely justified and the charge of Romont to be as groundless as it -is wildly delivered and unconvincing, yet there is no excuse for the -_immediacy_ with which, on the first revelation of what he himself -has demanded to know, the hero rejects, along with the report of his -friend, the friend himself, whose aim could have been only his best -interest. For the fault lies not in the situation, which is sound, but -in its over-hasty development. A little more length to the scene, a few -more speeches to either participant in the dialogue, a little longer -and more vituperative insistence on the part of Romont in the face -of Charalois' warnings that he has gone far enough, and the quarrel -would have been thoroughly realized and developed. As it is, it comes -on insufficient provocation; the hero, at the moment when he should -excite regret and sympathy because of his blind, mistaken trust in his -unworthy wife, excites rather indignation; the later words of Romont -with which he justifies his unshaken loyalty to his comrade turn back -the mind perforce to that comrade's lack of loyalty to _him_, and -unwittingly ring out as a judgment upon Charalois: - - _That friendship's raised on sand, - Which every sudden gust of discontent, - Or flowing of our passions can change, - As if it ne'er had been:_-- - -The faulty passage, it will be noted upon reference to the analysis -of shares in collaboration, is by the hand of Field. Unconvincing -precipitancy in the conduct of situations marks his work elsewhere, -notably in the _Amends for Ladies_. - -As it has already been said, the strongest feature of the play is its -characterization. Almost every figure is, if not an individual, at -least a type so vitalized as to appear to take on life. One or two -touches, to be sure, of conventional Massingerian habits of thought -still cling about them; even the noblest cannot entirely forget to -consider how their conduct will pose them before the eyes of the world -and posterity. But apart from such slight occasional lapses, they may -truthfully be said to speak and move quite in the manner of real men -and women. - -The hero, Charalois, is drawn as of a gentle, meditative, temperate, -and self-possessed disposition, in strong and effective contrast to his -friend. Though his military exploits are spoken of with admiration, and -Romont testifies that he can "pursue a foe like lightning," he betrays -a certain readiness to yield to discouragement scarce to be expected -in the son of the great general. In consequence of these facts, he has -been described by some (notably Cunningham, in his Edition of Gifford, -Introduction, p. xiii;--cf. also Phelan, p. 61; and Beck, pp. 22-3) as -"a Hamlet whose mind has not yet been sicklied o'er by the pale cast -of thought," and his long silence at the opening of Act I is compared -to that of the Danish Prince on his first appearance. But, in reality, -excess of pride is the chief reason of Charalois' backwardness on this -occasion, and thereafter he acts promptly and efficiently always. The -same over-sensitive pride continues to manifest itself throughout -the play--when he is confronted with Rochfort's generosity; when he -finds (III, i, 365 ff.) that it is he who is the object of the jests -of Novall Junior and his satellites (though scarce a breath earlier -he has chided Romont for noticing the yapping of such petty curs); -and in the viscissitudes of the catastrophe and its consequences. A -harmonious twin-birth with his pride, at once proceeding from it, bound -up with it, and on occasion over-weighing its scruples, is an extreme -punctiliousness at every turn to the dictates of that peculiarly -Spanish imperative, "the point of honor,"--a consideration so prominent -throughout the play as to have convinced many critics that the source -of the story, although still undiscovered, must have been Spanish. -These two traits--pride and an adherence to "the point of honor," are -almost invariably the mainsprings of Charalois' conduct. His pride -holds him back from supplicating in behalf of his father the clemency -of the unworthy ministers of the law, till he is persuaded by Romont -that honor not only permits but requires that he do so; he feels -that honor demands that he sacrifice himself to secure his father's -burial, and he does it; that honor demands that he put away his friend -in loyalty to his wife, and he does it; that honor demands that he -slay the adulteress--and he does it; he even consents to lay bare the -details of his ignominious wrong before the eyes of men, because he is -brought to believe that "the point of honor" calls for a justification -of his course and the holding of it up as an example to the world. -It is a striking and consistent portrait--how unlike the usual -conventionally noble hero of romantic drama! - -Romont, however, is the finest figure of the play. He draws to -himself rather more than his share of interest and sympathy, to the -detriment of the protagonist. Of a type common enough on the stage -of that day--the bluff, loyal soldier-friend of the hero--he is yet -so thoroughly individualized that we can discuss him and calculate -what he will do in given situations, even as with a character of -Shakespeare's. The portrait suffers from no jarring inconsistencies; -almost his every utterance is absolutely in part, and adds its touch -to round out our conception of him. His negligence of his personal -appearance, his quick temper, his impulsiveness, his violence, his -lack of restraint, his fierce, uncompromising honesty, his devotion -to the "grave General dead" and his unshaken fidelity to the living -son, his flashes of unexpected tenderness, his homage for the -reverend virtue of Rochfort--a sort of child-like awe for what he -knows is finer if not of truer metal than his own rough spirit, his -ill-disguised scorn for Novall Junior and his creatures, "those dogs -in doublets," his lack of tact which unfits him for effective service -in the delicate task of preserving Beaumelle's honor, and dooms his -story to Charalois to disbelief and resentment, his prompt, fearless -decisiveness of action, the tumultuous flood of nervous and at times -eloquent speech which pours from his lips when he is aroused, yet -dies in his throat when he is lashed by a woman's tongue--a flood of -speech which is most torrential when the situation is most doubtful -or hopeless of good issue, but which gives place to a self-possessed -terseness when he is quite sure of his ground:--all go to give detail -and reality to a character at once amazingly alive and irresistibly -attractive. "Romont is one of the noblest of all Massinger's men," -says Swinburne, "and Shakespeare has hardly drawn noble men more nobly -than Massinger." To find a parallel creation who can over-match him in -vigor of presentation and theatrical efficiency, we must go back to the -Melantius of Beaumont and Fletcher. These two characters represent the -ultimate elaborations of the stock figure of the faithful friend and -blunt soldier; Melantius is the supreme romantic, Romont the supreme -realistic, development of the type. - -Yet though Romont is the most compelling of the _dramatis personae_, -into none does Massinger enter more thoroughly than the noble figure of -Rochfort. Utter devotion to virtue, to which he had paid a life-long -fidelity, is the key-note of the nature of the aged Premier President, -and accordingly in him the deep-seated ethical seriousness of the -"stage-poet" found a congenial expression. A statelier dignity is wont -to echo in his lines than in the utterance of any other character; they -breathe an exalted calm, a graciousness, a grave courtesy, as though -the very spirit of their speaker had entered them. - -An inability to judge the character of others was his great weakness--a -weakness which he himself realized, for he called upon Beaumont to -confirm the one strikingly sure, true appraisement which he exhibited, -his admiration for Charalois. Characteristically, this weakness seems -to have taken the form of a too-generous estimate of his fellows. This -caused him to bestow his vacated office upon the harsh and unjust -Novall, and to be blind to the disposition of his daughter, and the -danger that lay in her intimacy with Novall Junior. But if his kindly -nature saw the better side of even that contemptible young man, he at -least understood him well enough not to take him at all seriously as a -suitor for Beaumelle's hand. - -Of the Novalls, father and son, there is a much briefer presentation. -Yet even so, in the case of old Novall we have as masterly a sketch -as in Romont a detailed study. His every word is eloquent of his -stern, not to say _mean_, nature--curt and severe towards others, all -prejudice where he himself is concerned, inexorably malevolent against -those who incur his animosity. Yet it never enters his head to seek the -satisfaction of his hate in any way save through the law; for example, -he does not seize upon, or even think seriously of, Pontalier's proffer -of private vengeance; the law is his sphere--he will abuse it to his -advantage, if he can, but he will not go outside of it. He is, in other -words, the Official Bureaucrat _par excellence_, and his enmity against -the martial house of the Charaloises and the rigor with which he is -said to "cross every deserved soldier and scholar," and, on the other -hand, the detestation in which Romont holds him, are manifestations of -the feud of type against type. It has been suggested that the especial -fervor with which he is devoted to execration argues a prototype in -actual life, and that in him is to be recognized Sir Edward Coke, -notorious for the savage vindictiveness of his conduct towards Sir -Walter Raleigh. - -Novall Junior, the cowardly, foppish, and unscrupulous gallant, though -a flimsy personality, affords once or twice, in the Fieldian prose, -rather good humor: e. g.-- - -_Nay, o' my soul, 'tis so; what fouler object in the world, than to see -a young, fair, handsome beauty unhandsomely dighted, and incongruently -accoutred? or a hopeful chevalier unmethodically appointed in the -external ornaments of nature? For, even as the index tells us the -contents of stories, and directs to the particular chapters, even so -does the outward habit and superficial order of garments (in man or -woman) give us a taste of the spirit, and demonstratively point (as -it were a manual note from the margin) all the internal quality and -habiliment of the soul; and there cannot be a more evident, palpable, -gross manifestation of poor, degenerate, dunghilly blood and breeding, -than a rude, unpolished, disordered, and slovenly outside._ (IV, i, -48-60.) - -Of the remaining characters, only two call for especial notice. -The three Creditors are a blemish upon the otherwise striking -verisimilitude of the play; they are impossible, inhuman monsters of -greed and relentlessness, who serve as vehicles for a kind of grotesque -comedy. A personal rancour on the part of the authors may have been -responsible for this presentation, as it is probable that they -themselves had had none-too-pleasant experiences with money-lenders. -Pontalier, however, is very well conceived and skillfully executed. -Occupying a relation to Novall Junior quite similar to that of Romont -to Charalois, he is yet differentiated from his parallel, while at -the same time he is kept free from any taint of the despicableness -and fawning servility which are chiefly prominent in the parasites of -the vicious and feather-brained young lord. There is something really -pathetic about this brave, honorable soldier, committed to the defense -of an unworthy benefactor, ranged on the side of wrong against right, -by his very best qualities: his noble sense of gratitude, his loyalty, -his devotion to what he conceives to be his duty. It will be observed -that he never joins with the rest of the group about Novall Junior in -their jibes against Charalois and Romont. - -The last figure for consideration, and not the least important, is -Beaumelle. So general has been the misconception of her character that -it calls for a more detailed analysis than has been accorded to the -other personages of the drama, or than the place she occupies might -appear to warrant. That place, indeed, is not a striking one; she is -scarce more than a character of second rank, appearing in but few -scenes and speaking not many lines. Yet her part in the story is one -of such potentialities that in Rowe's version of the same theme her -analogue becomes the central figure, and even in _The Fatal Dowry_ a -failure to understand her has probably been at the bottom of most of -the less favorable judgments that have been passed upon the play, while -those critics who appraise it higher yet acknowledge her to be its -one outstanding defect. "_The Fatal Dowry_," says Saintsbury (_Hist. -Eng. Lit._, vol. ii, p. 400) "... is ... injured by the unattractive -character of the light-of-love Beaumelle before her repentance -(Massinger never could draw a woman)." She is declared by Swinburne to -be "too thinly and feebly drawn to attract even the conventional and -theatrical sympathy which Fletcher might have excited for a frail and -penitent heroine: and the almost farcical insignificance and baseness -of her paramour would suffice to degrade his not involuntary victim -beneath the level of any serious interest or pity." If these and -similar pronouncements were well founded, the play as a cross-section -of life would have the great weakness of being unconvincing at a very -vital point. A study of the text, however, will discover Beaumelle -to be portrayed, in the brief compass of her appearance, in no -wise inadequately, but rather, if anything, somewhat beyond the -requirements of her dramatic function--will reveal her, not, indeed, -a personage of heroic proportions and qualities, but a young woman of -considerable naturalness, plausibility, and realistic convincingness. - -The trouble has probably been that the critics of Beaumelle have -passed hastily over the very scurrilous prose scene in which she first -appears. They have looked on this passage as merely a piece of Fieldian -low-comedy, a coarse bit of buffoonery which pretends to no function -save that of humor, and can sustain not even this pretense. Nothing can -be further from the truth. The passage _is_ a piece of coarse comedy -such as Field had an over-fondness for writing; but it is something -more; in reality, a proper understanding of the heroine is conditioned -upon it. - -Beaumelle is a young girl whose mother, we may infer, has long been -dead. The cares of the bench have been too great to allow her father -time for much personal supervision of her; she has had for associates -her two maids, and of these she not unnaturally finds the gay and -witty, but thoroughly depraved, Bellapert the more congenial, and -adopts her as her mentor and confidant. She is in love, after a -fashion--caught, like the impressionable, uncritical girl she is, by -the fair exterior of a young magnificent, whose elegant dress and -courtly show of devotion quite blind her to his real worthlessness--and -there is scant likelihood of her getting the man who has charmed -her fancy. Her disposition is high-spirited and wayward, but not -deliberately vicious; she has certain hazily defined ideals, mingled -with the same romantic mist through which the superfine dandy, Novall, -appears in her eyes a very Prince Charming: she "would meet love and -marriage both at once"; she desires to preserve her honor. She has -ideals, but she doubts their tangibility; she is in an unsettled -state of mind, questioning the fundamentals of conduct and social -relationships, in much need of good counsel. In that perilous mood -she talks with Bellapert--Bellapert, the dearest cabinet of her -secrets--Bellapert, the bribed instrument of Novall--and is told -by that worldly-wise wench that marriage almost never unites with -love, but must be used as a cloak for it; that honor is a foolish -fancy; that a husband is a master to be outwitted and despised. The -shaft sinks home all too surely; a visit at that very moment by -Beaumelle's lover completes the conquest, when her father interrupts -their tete-a-tete--her father, who comes with the anouncement that -she must marry a man whom she does not even know! In the scene where -the destined bride and groom are brought face to face, she stands -throughout in stony silence quite as eloquent as the more famous -speechlessness of Charalois at the beginning of the play. She has -ever been "handmaid" to her father's will; she realizes all her hopes -and fortunes "have reference to his liking;" and now she obeys, with -the bitter thought in her heart that Fate, in denying her her will, -has wronged Love itself (II, ii, 154); only when Charalois turns to -her with a direct question, "Fair Beaumelle, can you love me?" does -she utter a word--then from her lips a brief, desperate, "Yes, my -lord"--and a moment later (II, ii, 315) she is weeping silently. (Her -answer was honest in as far as she really did mean to give to the man -chosen for her husband her duty with her hand.) Then the voice of the -tempter whispers in her ear, she feels its tug at her heart, and with a -cry, "Oh, servant!--Virtue strengthen me!" she hurries from the room. -That is the situation at the end of the Second Act and first part of -the play; an appreciation of its significance makes the connection with -what follows less arbitrary and inorganic. - -When Beaumelle next appears, in the Third Act, there has been a change. -We may imagine that she has had time to ponder those cynical maxims -of Bellapert on the natural course of romance. Her union has been -unwilling; she does not care for her husband; Novall appeals to her as -much as ever: with her eyes open, she deliberately chooses the path of -sin--because the enforced marriage which shattered her hopes must needs -appear to her the final demonstration of the correctness of her maid's -contention (towards which she was already inclining) that she has been -foolishly impractical to dream of the satisfaction of her heart's wish -through wedlock, but that it is by secret amour that love must be, and -is wont to be, enjoyed. - -It may not be unreasonable to regard the resourcefulness and effrontery -which characterize her throughout the Third Act as the result of a sort -of mental intoxication, into which she has been lifted by her reckless -resolve and the consciousness of danger; at any rate she now shows -herself altogether too much for Romont; she finds a shrewdness and an -eloquence that carry her triumphant to the consummation of her desire. -When discovery ensues, her paramour is slain, and she herself is haled -to die, she is overcome--abruptly and, one might say, strangely--with -remorse and penitence. But it is not at all by one of those -theatrically convenient but psychologically absurd changes of heart so -frequent in the drama of that period; nothing, indeed, could be more -true to life. Novall Junior, coward and fop that he was, has hitherto -always borne himself in lordly fashion before her, even when they were -surprised by Romont; but now at last she beholds him stripped to the -shivering abjectness of his contemptible soul, that she may observe -his baseness. She sees him cowed and beaten and slain, while Charalois -(whom she never knew before their marriage nor has tried to understand -in the brief period of their wedlock) with his outraged honor and -irresistible prowess assumes to her eyes the proportions of a hero; and -with her girl's romanticism[10] of nature, she bows down and worships -him. It is somewhat the same note that is struck by Thackeray in the -similar situation where Rawdon Crawley, returning home unexpectedly, -finds his wife with Lord Steyne and knocks the man down. - -_It was all done before Rebecca could interpose. She stood there -trembling before him. She admired her husband, strong, brave, -victorious._ - -So it was with Beaumelle. Except for one brief cry of "Undone for -ever!" she utters no word from the moment of the surprise to the end -of the Scene. She hangs back, shrinking, for a moment, when ordered -into the coach with the dead body of her partner in guilt. "Come," says -Charalois, in terrible jest, "you have taught me to say, you must and -shall.... You are but to keep him company you love--" and she obeys -mutely. - -Thus, all contriteness, Beaumelle goes to her fate. It should be -observed how, even at the last, her tendency to romantic idealization -vehemently asserts itself; she looks fondly back (IV, iv, 53) to an -imagined time, which never really existed, when she was "good" and "a -part of" Charalois, made one with him through the virtuous harmony of -their minds!--no voice is more unfaltering than her own to pronounce -her doom as both righteous and necessary, and she conceives herself -to climb, by her ecstatic welcoming of death, into the company of the -ancient heroines and martyrs. In its realism of the commonplace and its -slightly ironic conception, it is the outline drawing of a character -that might have received elaborate portraiture at the hands of Flaubert. - -Whether we are to regard this consistent "study in little" as a -deliberate piece of work on the part of the authors, must remain a -matter of opinion. There is no similar figure elsewhere in the dramatic -output of Massinger, nor any quite so minutely conceived within the -same number of speech-lines in that of Field, and one could scarce -be blamed for believing that a number of hap-hazard, sketchy strokes -with which the collaborators dashed off a character whom they deemed -of no great importance, all so fell upon the canvas that, by a miracle -of chance, they went to form the lineaments of a real woman. The -discussion of the probability or possibility of such a hypothesis would -carry us very far afield, and would involve the question of the extent -to which all genius is unconscious and intuitive. But however that may -be, the _result_ of their labors remains the same, there to behold in -black and white, and Beaumelle, so far from being a poorly conceived -and unsatisfactory wanton who is the chief defect of the play, is -a figure of no mean verisimilitude who succeeds after a fashion in -linking together the loose-knit dual structure of the drama; to whose -main catastrophe she adds her own tragedy, a tragedy neither impressive -nor deeply stirring, it is true, for she is a petty spirit from whom -great tragedy does not proceed--but tragedy still--the eternal, -inevitable tragedy of false romanticism, that has found its culmination -in the person of Emma Bovary. - -In this study of Beaumelle, _The Fatal Dowry_ has been subjected to -a much more intensive examination than it is the custom to bestow -upon the dramas of the successors of Shakespeare. The truth is that -the plays of the Jacobean period do not, as a rule, admit of such -analysis. In most of them, and especially in the plays of Massinger, he -who searches and probes them comes presently to a point beyond which -critical inquiry is stopped short with a desperate finality; be they -ever so strikingly splendid and glittering fair in their poetry and -their characterization, these dazzling qualities lie upon the surface, -and a few careful perusals exhaust their possibilities and tell us all -there is to know of them. But _The Fatal Dowry_, though less imposing -than a number of others, stands almost alone among its contemporaries -in sharing with the great creations of Shakespeare the power to open -new vistas, to present new aspects, to offer new suggestions, the -longer it is studied. Perhaps this is due to the fact that, as has -already been said, it is not so much a tragedy of the accepted type as -a cross-section of life. - -How does it come about, we may well ask, that this play possesses -qualities so rare and so strangely at variance with those which are -normal to the work of Massinger--its masterly portrait-gallery of -_dramatis personae_ and its inexhaustible field for interpretation. We -can suspect an answer only in the complementary nature of the two minds -that went to fashion it--in the union in this one production of the -talents of Massinger and of Field. - -A reference to the analysis of collaboration discloses that, so far -as the actual writing of the play goes, the figure of Novall Senior -is altogether the work of Massinger. His son, on the other hand, is -almost entirely the work of Field; in Massinger's share he appears only -in the first part of III, i, and in the scene of his surprisal and -death. Indeed, both the young gallant himself and all his satellites -can safely be put down as creations of the actor-dramatist. They have -their parallels in his comedy of _Woman is a Weathercock_, down to the -page whose pert _asides_ of satiric comment are anticipated in the -earlier work by those of a youngster of identical kidney. The long -scene in which we are introduced to Beaumelle and given insight into -her character and mental attitude is Field's throughout; thereafter she -has only to act out her already-revealed nature--first as the impudent -adulteress and later as the repentant sinner, in both of which roles -she affords Massinger excellent opportunities to display his favorite -powers of speech-making. Charalois, Romont, and Rochfort are treated at -length by both dramatists. - -But in a harmonious collaboration, such as _The Fatal Dowry_ plainly -was, the contributions of the two authors cannot be identified with the -passages from their respective pens. Each must inevitably have planned, -suggested, criticised. The question remains whether we can in any -measure determine what part of the conception was due to each. Beyond -the Novall Junior group we cannot establish distinct lines of cleavage. -What we can do is to suggest the features of the finished product which -Field and Massinger brought severally to its making--to point out the -qualities of the two men which were joined to produce the play they -have given us. - -The outstanding excellences of Massinger were a thorough grasp of the -architectonics of play-making in the building both of separate Act -and entire drama; an adherence to an essential unity of design and -treatment; a conscientious regard to the details of stage-craft; a -vehicle of dignified and at times noble verse, without violent conceits -or lapses into triviality, sustained, lucid, regular; and a genuine -eloquence in forensic passages. His chief weaknesses were a certain -stiffness of execution which made his plays appear always as structures -rather than organisms, a ponderous monotony of fancy, and an inability -to create or reproduce or understand human nature. His characters are -normally types, their qualities--honor, virtue, bravery, etc.--mere -properties which they can assume or lay aside at pleasure like -garments, their conduct governed more by the exigencies of plot than by -any conceivable psychology. - -The weaknesses of Field--as revealed in his two independent -comedies--were of a nature more evasive, less capable of definition. A -tendency to weave too many threads into the action, an occasional hasty -and skimping treatment of his scenes which leaves them unconvincing -for lack of sufficient elaboration, and a general thinness of design -and workmanship are discoverable. Defects such as these could be -readily corrected by association with the single-minded, painstaking, -thorough Massinger. On the other hand he possessed a lightness of -touch, a blithe vigor, and a racy, though often obscene, humor foreign -to his colleague. What is more important, he possessed a considerable -first-hand knowledge of men and women, and an ability to put them in -his plays and endow them with something of life--not to conceive great -figures, such as dominate the imagination, but to reproduce with -vitality and freshness the sort of people he saw about him--in other -words, not to create but to depict; and furthermore Field seems to -have had a special gift for sketching them rather clearly in a very -brief compass.[11] Mr. Saintsbury was right in declaring that Massinger -never could draw a woman. But Field could, and the critic was rather -unfortunate in applying his broadly correct observation to the one -woman of Massinger's in the delineation of whom he had Field to help -him! - -With these facts in mind, the distinctive virtues of _The Fatal Dowry_ -can be accounted for. Massinger here possessed a colleague who had -just those talents of insight and verve and grasp of life that were -denied his own plodding, bookishly learned mind. Not only young Novall -and his satellites, but Beaumelle certainly, and probably Pontalier -(whom Massinger would have been more likely to degrade to the baseness -of Novall's other dependents) may be put down as essentially Field's -creations, while in the case of the others he was ever at Massinger's -elbow to guard him against blunders, if, indeed, their preliminary -mapping out of the rather obvious lines along which the action and -characters must develop were not of itself a sufficiently sure guide. -To Massinger, on the other hand, may safely be ascribed the basic -conception of such stately figures as Charalois and Rochfort, however -much Field may have been responsible for preserving them as fresh and -living portraits. - -As to share in plot structure, in the absence of any known source, -we may conjecture that the germ from which the play evolved was the -conception of that situation by which Charalois, burdened as he is with -an immense debt of thankfulness to Rochfort, finds himself suddenly -called by the imperative demands of honor to do that which will -strike his benefactor to the heart. The grounding of the hero's debt -of gratitude in the story of Miltiades and Cimon was probably the work -of Massinger, of whose veneration for things classic we have abundant -evidence, while to him also, we may believe, was due the shaping of the -story in such fashion that he had opportunity to exploit his greatest -gift in no less than two formal trials, one informal trial, and a -long Act besides given over almost exclusively to verbose disputes -and exhortations. The circumstances of the discovery of the amour of -Beaumelle and Novall, while penned by Massinger, are more likely an -invention of Field's, not only as faintly reminiscent of his _Amends -for Ladies_, but as according better with the general spirit of his -work. - -Several plays of the Massinger _corpus_ are more striking on first -acquaintance than _The Fatal Dowry_, and yet others surpass it in -regard to this feature or that. It has not the gigantic protagonist -of _A New Way to Pay Old Debts_, or the admirable structure of that -fine play, which works with ever-cumulating intensity to one final, -tremendous climax. It has not the impressiveness of _The Duke of -Milan_, or its sheer sweep of tragic passion and breathless intensity, -or anything so compelling as its great scene of gathering jealousy -that breaks forth at last in murder. Its verse is less poetic than -that of _The Maid of Honor_; it lacks the charm of _The Great Duke of -Florence_, and the ethical fervor of _The Roman Actor_. But in utter -reality, in convincing simulation of life, which holds good under the -most exhaustive study and makes that study forever continue to yield -new suggestions and new appreciations, and in abundance and inherent -truthfulness of detailed characterization, it stands alone, and these -sterling qualities must so outweigh its defects as to insure for it a -high place, not only among the productions of its authors, but among -the plays of the Jacobean Period as a whole. - - -STAGE HISTORY--ADAPTATIONS--DERIVATIVES - -Beyond the statement on the title-page of the 1632 Quarto, that -_The Fatal Dowry_ had been "often acted at the Private House in -Blackfriars by his Majesties Servants," nothing is known of its -early stage history. It was not revived after the Restoration, and -until the publication of the Coxeter edition of Massinger seems to -have been almost unknown. At last, in 1825, an emended version was -placed upon the boards by no less an actor than the great Macready. -January 5 of that year was the date, and Drury Lane the place, of -its initial performance, Macready himself taking the part of Romont, -Wallack--Charalois, Terry--Rochfort, and Mrs. W. West--Beaumelle. "The -play was well acted and enthusiastically applauded," says Macready in -his _Reminiscences_ (p. 228); "its repetition for the following Tuesday -was hailed most rapturously; but Friday[12] came, and with it a crowded -house, to find me laboring under such indisposition that it was with -difficulty I could keep erect without support." Macready's serious -illness cut short the run of the play, and when he was at length (April -11) able to take it up again, the interest of the public had abated, -and it in consequence was repeated only a few times--seven being the -total number of its performances. - -The variant of _The Fatal Dowry_ in which Macready acted was the work -of Sheil, and involved substantial divergences. Romont's release from -prison follows immediately upon Novall Senior's consent to his pardon, -and in consequence, together with his conversation with Rochfort, is -transferred from Act II to the close of Act I, while the redemption of -Charalois takes place at the funeral of his father, which concludes -Act II. For the scene between Beaumelle and her maids is substituted -another coloquy of similar import but chastened tone. A brief scene -of no especial significance is inserted at the beginning of Act III, -in the interval between which and the preceding Act three weeks -are supposed to have elapsed; the rest of Act III follows much the -same course as the original, save that the application of Romont to -Rochfort and his foiling by the stratagem of Beaumelle and Bellapert -are omitted. A really notable departure is found in the discovery of -the amour by Charalois. According to Sheil, Novall Junior and his -mistress attempt to elope, but the note which appoints their rendezvous -falls into Charalois' hands, and he waits for the lovers and surprises -them, killing Novall off-stage. The Fifth Act opens with a scene of -a few lines only, in which Beaumont bears to Rochfort a request from -Charalois to meet him in the church yard. Then follows a lugubrious -scene in the dead of night beside the tomb of the hero's father, -to which place are transferred the reconciliation between Charalois -and Romont, and the judgment of Rochfort! Beaumelle, however, does -not appear during the trial, and upon the paternal sentence of doom, -Charalois reveals her body, slain already by his hand. To the father -he vindicates his action in much the same words as in Massinger's -last court-room scene, and then, on the appearance of Novall Senior -clamoring for vengeance and accompanied by the minions of the law, -stabs himself. - -The version of Sheil follows with but occasional exceptions the -language of the original wherever possible. It makes some slight -changes in the minor characters. - -Sheil's redaction was also presented at Bath on February 18 and 21, -Romont being acted by Hamblin, Charalois by Warde, Beaumelle by Miss E. -Tree. "Hamblin never appeared to so much advantage--in the scene with -Novall he reminded one strongly of John Kemble," says Genest (_Hist. -Dra. and Stage in Eng._, IX, 322). - -At Sadler's Wells, Samuel Phelps, who at that time was reviving a -number of the old dramas, took the stage in _The Fatal Dowry_ on August -27, 1845. This, however, was Sheil's version, and not the original -play of Massinger and Field, as has been sometimes supposed. It ranked -as one of his four chief productions of that year. He, too, chose for -himself the part of Romont, which was considered by many his greatest -quasi-tragic role. Marston appeared as Charalois, G. Bennett as -Rochfort, and Miss Cooper as Beaumelle. - -_The Fatal Dowry_ in substantially its own proper form does not appear -ever to have been acted after Jacobean times. - - * * * * * - -If the stage career of _The Fatal Dowry_ has been meagre, not so the -extent of its influence. Its literary parenthood begins before "the -closing of the theatres" and continues even to our own day. As early as -1638 it was echoed in _The Lady's Trial_ of Ford. Here the figures of -Auria, Adurni, Aurelio, and Spinella correspond roughly with Charalois, -young Novall, Romont, and Beaumelle respectively. Auria has gone -to the wars, and in his absence his wife is pursued by Adurni, who -sits at table with her in private, when Aurelio breaks in upon them, -bursting open the doors. Spinella bitterly resents the intrusion and -the aspersions of the intruder, and when, on the return home of Auria, -Aurelio accuses her to him, it is without shaking his faith in her -loyalty. Here the analogy ends: spite of Auria's incredulousness there -is no rupture between the friends; Spinella establishes her innocence; -and Adurni, while guilty enough in his intent against her, shows -himself thereafter to be an essentially noble youth, who will defend -to any length the lady's honor which has become subject to question -through fault of his, and for this gallant reparation, is not only -forgiven, but even cherished ever after by the husband he had sought to -wrong. - -The more steadily one regards the man John Ford and his work, the more -probable does it appear that the relationship between _The Fatal Dowry_ -and _The Lady's Trial_ is not one of mere reminiscence or influence, -but of direct parentage. That strange and baleful figure, who seems -almost a modern Decadent born out of his time, had a profound interest -in moral problems, to the study of which he brought morbid ethical -sensibilities scarce matched before the latter nineteenth century. -(Witness his conception, in _The Broken Heart_, of a loveless marriage -as tantamount to adultery.) Ford's talent for invention was deficient -to the extent that he was hard put to it for plots. It is not at all -unlikely that he surveyed the Massingerian tragedy, and, repelled by -the conduct of its figures, exclaimed to himself: "I will write a play -to centre around a situation as incriminating as that of Act III of -_The Fatal Dowry_; but my personages will be worthier characters; I -will show a lady who, spite of appearances, is of stainless innocence -and vindicates her husband's trust in the face of evidence; I will show -a friendship strong enough to endure an honestly mistaken aspersion put -upon the chastity of a wife, though the charge is not for one moment -credited; I will show that even the would-be seducer may be a fine -fellow at bottom, and set forth a generous emulation in magnanimity -between him and the husband. See how finely everything would work out -with the _right_ sort of people!" It is at least a plausible hypothesis. - -Nicholas Rowe, who was the first modern editor of Shakespeare, -contemplated also an edition of Massinger, but gave up the project that -he might more safely plunder one of his plays. Rowe's famous tragedy, -_The Fair Penitent_, was deliberately stolen from _The Fatal Dowry_. -It appeared in 1703, and spite of a ludicrous accident[13] which cut -short its first run, took rank as one of the most celebrated dramas of -the English stage. Rowe lived during the vogue of the "She-tragedy," -while the canons of literary criticism of his day demanded a "regular," -pseudo-classical form and a sententious tone. Accordingly, in his hands -the chief figure in the play, as is evidenced by the change in title, -becomes the guilty wife, here called Calista, who is "now the evil -queen of the heroic plays; now the lachrymose moralizer;" the theme is -indeed _her_ story, not Altamont's (Charalois)--her seduction (prior -to the nuptuals and before the opening of the play), her grief, her -plight, her exposure, her death;--she holds the centre of the stage -to the very end. The number of the _dramatis personae_ is cut down -to eight; all touches of comedy are excised; and the double plot of -the original is unified by the bold stroke of throwing back to a time -before the opening of the play the entire episode of the unburied -corpse and the origin of the hero's friendship with the father of the -heroine. - -Discussions of the relative merits of _The Fair Penitent_ and its -source have been almost invariably acrimonious. Nor is this to be -wondered at, for after reading the old tragedy with its severe -dignity and noble restraint, one can scarce peruse without irritation -the cloyingly melifluous, emasculated verse of Rowe--by turns -grandiloquent and sentimental. The characterization of _The Fair -Penitent_ is, in the main, insipid, and while Rowe's heroine holds a -commanding place in her drama to which Beaumelle does not pretend, the -latter is a great deal more natural, and indeed, for that matter, far -more truly a "penitent." An exception to the general insipidity is -Lothario, who is the analogue of the insignificant Novall Junior--"the -gay Lothario"--whose very name has been ever since a synonym for -the graceful, graceless, devil-may-care libertine--whose figure has -been the prototype of a long line of similar characters in English -literature, beginning with Richardson's Lovelace and not yet closed -with Anthony Hope's Rupert of Hentzau. Beside this striking creation, -the seducer of Beaumelle shows poorly indeed; but it is doubtful if the -old dramatists would have consented to paint such an attractive rogue, -had they been able; they wanted their Novall to be just the cowardly, -dandyfied thing they made him. Beyond the portrait of Lothario, small -ground for praise can be found in _The Fair Penitent_. That part of the -action of _The Fatal Dowry_ which under Rowe's treatment antedates the -rise of the curtain is narrated in the most stiffly mechanical sort -of exposition; the action is developed by such threadbare theatrical -devices as a lost letter and an overheard conversation; the voluble -speeches of the several characters are, throughout, declamatory -effusions almost unbelievably divorced from the apposite utterance of -any rational human being under the circumstances. An Altamont who has -been assured and reassured from his bride's own lips of her aversion -for him can fling himself from a quarrel with his life-long friend in -hysterical defence of her, to seek solace in her arms-- - - _There if in any pause of love I rest - Breathless with bliss upon her panting breast, - In broken, melting accents I will swear, - Henceforth to trust my heart with none save her;_ - -a Sciolto who has given his daughter a dagger with which to end her -shame, and then has arrested her willing arm with the prayer that she -will not dispatch herself until he is gone from the sight of her, can -thereupon take leave of her with the statement: - - _There is I know not what of sad presage - That tells me I shall never see thee more._ - -The play, which enjoyed an immense fame, high contemporary -appreciation, and a long career on the stage, remains a curious -memorial of the taste of a bygone day. - -It is noteworthy that in _The Fair Penitent_ Horatio, as Romont in -all modern reproductions of _The Fatal Dowry_, is the great acting -part--not the husband. - -In 1758 was produced at the Hay market a drama entitled _The Insolvent -or Filial Piety_, from the pen of Aaron Hill. In the preface it is -said--according to Genest (IV, 538)--"Wilks about 30 years before gave -an old manuscript play, called the _Guiltless Adulteress_, to Theo. -Cibber who was manager of what then was the Summer Company--after an -interval of several years this play was judged to want a revisal to -fit it for representation--Aaron Hill at the request of Theo. Cibber -almost new wrote the whole, and the last act was entirely his in -conduct, sentiment and diction." In reality, _The Insolvent_ is _The -Fatal Dowry_ over again, altered to tragicomedy, and with the names of -the characters changed. The first two Acts of Hill's play proceed much -after the manner of its prototype, with close parallels in language. -From thenceforward, however, the action diverges. The bride, Amelia, -resists the further attentions of her former sweetheart. They are none -the less observed and suspected by her husband's friend, who speaks -of the matter to both her father and her lord. The former promises -to observe her with watchful eye; Chalons, the husband, is at first -resentful of the imputation, but presently yields to his friend's -advice, that he pretend a two-days' journey, from which he will return -unexpectedly. During his absence, his wife's maid introduces the lover -into her mistress' chamber while Amelia sleeps. There Chalons surprises -him kneeling beside the bed, and kills him. Amelia stabs herself, but -the confession of her maid reveals her innocence, and her wound is -pronounced not mortal. - -It has been suggested (_Biographia Dramatica_, II, 228--quoted by -Phelan, p. 59, and Schwarz, p. 74) that in Hill's _Zara_ (adaptation -of the _Zaire_ of Voltaire), also, Nerestan's voluntary return to -captivity in order to end that of his friends, whom he lacked the means -to ransom with gold, was suggested by the behavior of Charalois; but -this can be no more than a coincidence, as it here but reproduces what -is in the French original. - -A long interval, and finally, in the dawn of the twentieth century, -there appeared the next and latest recrudescence of _The Fatal -Dowry_. This was _Der Graf von Charolais, ein Trauerspiel_, by -Richard Beer-Hofmann, disciple of the Neo-Romantic School or -_Vienna Decadents_, a coterie built about the leadership of Hugo -von Hofmannsthal. Beer-Hofmann's play--a five-Act tragedy in blank -verse--was produced for the first time at the Neue Theatre, Berlin, on -December 24, 1904, and was received with considerable acclaim. Unlike -Rowe, he gives full credit to his source, from which he has drawn no -less extensively than the author of _The Fair Penitent_. Unlike Rowe, -he goes back to the old dramatists in the matter of construction, -placing upon the stage once more the episode of the unburied corpse -and the noble son; he even outdoes _The Fatal Dowry_ in this respect, -by allowing the first half of his plot three Acts instead of two, with -only two Acts for the amour and its tragic consequences. In his hands -the hero again becomes the central figure; in fact, the three principal -versions of this _donnee_ suggest by their titles their respective -viewpoints: _The Fatal Dowry_; _The Fair Penitent_; _Der Graf von -Charolais_. DER GRAF VON CHAROLAIS, be it observed;--this new redaction -is no longer the tale of a "fatal dowry;" no longer is the first part -of the dual theme merely introductory and accessory--it is coördinate -with the second. Beer-Hofmann has sought to achieve a kind of unity -from his double plot by making his fundamental theme not the adulterous -intrigue, but _the destiny of Charolais_, thus converting the play -into a Tragedy of Fate, which pursues the hero inexorably through all -his life. This strictly classical _motif_ animating the _donnee_ of a -Jacobean play reproduced in the twentieth century presents, as might -be expected, the aspect of an exotic growth, which is not lessened by -the extreme sensuousness of treatment throughout, such as has always -been one of the cardinal and distinctive qualities of the Decadent -School the world over. But as a contrast in the dramatic technique -and verse of Jacobean and modern times, _Der Graf von Charolais_ is -extremely interesting. The difference is striking between the severe -simplicity of three centuries ago, and the elaborate stagecraft of -to-day, its insistence on detail, and studied care in the portraiture -of minor characters. Yet minutia do not make tragedy, and while their -superficial realism and the congeniality of the contemporary point of -view undeniably lend to Beer-Hofmann's redaction a palatability and a -power to interest and appeal which its original does not possess to -the modern reader, yet a discriminating critic will turn back to the -old play with a feeling that, for all its stiffness and conventions, -he breathes there a more vital air. To the enrichment of his theme -Beer-Hofmann contributes every ingenious effect possible to symbolism, -delicate suggestion, and scenic device; this exterior decoration is -gorgeous in its color and seductive warmth, but no amount of such stuff -can compensate for the fundamental flaw in the crucial episode of -his tragedy. In spite of the care which he has lavished on the scene -between his heroine and her seducer, the surrender of the wife--three -years married, a mother, and loving both husband and child--remains -insufficiently motivated and sheerly inexplicable, and by this vital, -inherent defect the play must fall. Moreover, it lacks a hero. Romont -can no longer play the main part he did in former versions; he is -reduced to a mere shadow. In a tragedy of Fate, which blights a man's -career, phase by phase, with persistent, relentless hand, that man -must necessarily be the central figure, and, of right, _should_ be an -imposing figure--a protagonist at once gigantic and appealing, who will -draw all hearts to him in pity and terror at the helpless, hopeless -struggle of over-matched greatness and worth; whereas Charolais-- - -The case of Charolais is peculiar. _A priori_ we should expect him -to be just such a personage, yet his conduct throughout is best -explainable as that of a man dominated, not by noble impulses, -but by an extreme egoism--a man acutely responsive alike to his -sense-impressions and his feverish imagination, and possessed of an -exaggerated squeamishness towards the ugly and the unpleasant. When, -in the First Act, he bursts into tears, he confesses it is not for his -father that he weeps, but for his own hard lot; he suffers from his -repugnance to the idea of his father's corpse rotting above ground--a -repugnance so intolerable to him that he will yield his liberty to -escape it. He purposes to cashier the innkeeper because the sight of -the lecherous patrons of his hostelry has disgusted him, and he alters -his resolve and forgives the fellow, not from any considerations of -mercy, but because the mental picture of the man's distress tortures -him. And by similar personal repugnances reacting on egoism is his -behavior in the denouement to be accounted for, and in this light -becomes logically credible and clearly understood. Few practices are -more hazardous or unjust than judging an artist by his objective -creations; but an ignoble protagonist, as Charolais is represented, -is in such ill accord with any conceivable purpose on the part of -Beer-Hofmann, and so unlikely to have been intended by him, that one -cannot help strongly suspecting that the author unconsciously projected -himself into the character and thus revealed his own nature and point -of view. In any case he has presented for his hero a whimperer who can -command neither our sympathy nor our respect when he cries above the -bodies of his benefactor and her who is that benefactor's daughter, his -own wife, and the mother of his child: - - _Ist dies Stück denn aus, - Weil jene starb? Und ich? An mich denkt keiner?_ - -We have come a long way from Massinger and Field and the early -seventeenth century. The shadow of the old dramatists reaches far, -even to our own time; we have seen their play redeveloped, but never -improved upon, by pseudo-classicist, and popularizer, and Decadent -hyper-aesthete. That which was the vulnerable point in the original -production--its two-fold plot--has been still for every imitator a -stone of stumbling. Rowe tried to escape it by the suppression of the -antecedent half, and the fraction which remained in his hand was an -artificial thing without the breath of life, that had to be attenuated -and padded out with speechifying to fill the compass of its five Acts. -Beer-Hofmann tried to escape it by superimposing an idea not proper -to the story, and beneath the weight of this his tragedy collapsed in -the middle, for its addition over-packed the drama, and left him not -room enough to make convincing the conduct of his characters. The first -essayers, who attacked in straightforward fashion their unwieldy theme, -succeeded best; all attempts to obviate its essential defect have -marred rather than mended. Perhaps the theme is by its nature unsuited -to dramatic treatment, and yet there is much that is dramatic about -that theme, as is evinced by the fact that playwrights have been unable -to let it lie. - - - - -EDITOR'S NOTE ON TEXT - - -The present text aims to reproduce exactly the Quarto edition of 1632, -retaining its punctuation, spelling, capitals, italics, and stage -directions--amending only the metrical alignment.[14] Mere mistakes -of printing--inverted and broken letters--are restored, but are duly -catalogued in the foot notes. The division into scenes, as made by -Gifford, and his affixment of the _locus_ of each, are inserted into -the text, inclosed in brackets. In the foot notes are recorded all -variants of all subsequent editions. Differences of punctuation are -given, if they could possibly alter the meaning, but not otherwise--nor -mere differences _in wording_ of stage directions, nor differences in -spelling, nor elision for metre. In the Quarto the elder Novall is -sometimes designated before his lines as _Novall Senior_, sometimes -merely as _Novall_--no confusion is possible, since he and his son are -never on the stage at the same time. Gifford and Symons always write -_Novall Senior_, while Coxeter and Mason write _Novall_ alone in I, i, -and _Novall Senior_ thereafter. I have not thought it worth while to -note the variants of the several texts on this point. - - - - - Q.--The Quarto--1632 - - C.--Coxeter's edition, 1759 - - M.--Monck Mason's edition, 1779 - - G.--Gifford's [2nd.] edition, 1813 - - S.--Symons' (Mermaid) edition, 1893 - - f.--and all later editions - - s.d.--stage direction - - - - - THE FATALL DOWRY: - - A TRAGEDY: - - _As it hath beene often Acted at the Priuate - House in Blackefryers, by his - Maiesties Seruants._ - - _Written by P. M. and N. F._ - - - LONDON, - - Printed by IOHN NORTON, for FRANCIS - CONSTABLE, and are to be iold at his - shop at the _Crane_, in _Pauls Churchyard_. - 1632. - - - - - _Charalois._ - - _Romont._ - - _Charmi._ - - _Nouall Sen._ - - _Liladam._ - - _DuCroy._ - - _Rochfort._ - - _Baumont._ - - _Pontalier._ - - _Malotin._ - - _Beaumelle._ - - _Florimel._ } - - _Bellapert._} - - _Aymer._ - - _Nouall Jun._ - - _Aduocates._ - - _Creditors 3._ - - _Officers._ - - _Priest._ - - _Taylor._ - - _Barber._ - - _Perfumer._ - - [Page.] - - [Presidents, Captains, Soldiers, Mourners, Gaoler, Bailiffs, - Servants.] - - - - -The Fatall Dowry: - -A Tragedy: - - - - -_Act. primus._ - - -_Scaena prima:_ - -[_A Street before the Court of Justice_] - -_Enter_ Charaloyes _with a paper_, Romont, Charmi. - - _Charmi_ Sir, I may moue the Court to serue your will, - But therein shall both wrong you and my selfe. - - _Rom._ Why thinke you so sir? - - _Charmi._ 'Cause I am familiar - With what will be their answere: they will say, - 'Tis against law, and argue me of Ignorance 5 - For offering them the motion. - - _Rom._ You know not, Sir, - How in this cause they may dispence with Law, - And therefore frame not you their answere for them, - But doe your parts. - - _Charmi._ I loue the cause so well, - As I could runne, the hazard of a checke for 't. 10 - - _Rom._ From whom? - - _Charmi._ Some of the bench, that watch to give it, - More then to doe the office that they fit for: - But giue me (sir) my fee. - - _Rom._ Now you are Noble. - - _Charmi._ I shall deserue this better yet, in giuing - My Lord some counsell, (if he please to heare it) 15 - Then I shall doe with pleading. - - _Rom._ What may it be, sir? - - _Charmi._ That it would please his Lordship, as the presidents, - And Counsaylors of Court come by, to stand - Heere, and but shew your selfe, and to some one - Or two, make his request: there is a minute 20 - When a mans presence speakes in his owne cause, - More then the tongues of twenty aduocates. - - _Rom._ I haue vrg'd that. - - _Enter_ Rochfort: _DuCroye_. - - _Charmi._ Their Lordships here are coming, - I must goe get me a place, you'l finde me in Court, - And at your seruice - - _Exit Charmi._ - - _Rom._ Now put on your Spirits. 25 - - _Du Croy._ The ease that you prepare your selfe, my Lord, - In giuing vp the place you hold in Court, - Will proue (I feare) a trouble in the State, - And that no slight one. - - _Roch._ Pray you sir, no more. - - _Rom._ Now sir, lose not this offerd means: their lookes 30 - Fixt on you, with a pittying earnestnesse, - Inuite you to demand their furtherance - To your good purpose.--This such a dulnesse - So foolish and vntimely as-- - - _Du Croy._ You know him. - - _Roch._ I doe, and much lament the sudden fall 35 - Of his braue house. It is young _Charloyes_. - Sonne to the Marshall, from whom he inherits - His fame and vertues onely. - - _Rom._ Ha, they name you. - - _Du Croye._ His father died in prison two daies since. - - _Roch._ Yes, to the shame of this vngrateful State; 40 - That such a Master in the art of warre, - So noble, and so highly meriting, - From this forgetfull Country, should, for want - Of meanes to satisfie his creditors, - The summes he tooke vp for the generall good, 45 - Meet with an end so infamous. - - _Rom._ Dare you euer - Hope for like opportunity? - - _Du Croye._ My good Lord! - - _Roch._ My wish bring comfort to you. - - _Du Croye._ The time calls vs. - - _Roch._ Good morrow Colonell. - - _Exeunt Roch. Du Croye._ - - _Rom._ This obstinate spleene, - You thinke becomes your sorrow, and sorts wel 50 - With your blacke suits: but grant me wit, or iudgement, - And by the freedome of an honest man, - And a true friend to boote, I sweare 'tis shamefull. - And therefore flatter not your selfe with hope, - Your sable habit, with the hat and cloake, 55 - No though the ribons helpe, haue power to worke 'em - To what you would: for those that had no eyes, - To see the great acts of your father, will not, - From any fashion sorrow can put on, - Bee taught to know their duties. - - _Char._ If they will not, 60 - They are too old to learne, and I too young - To giue them counsell, since if they partake - The vnderstanding, and the hearts of men, - They will preuent my words and teares: if not, - What can perswasion, though made eloquent 65 - With griefe, worke vpon such as haue chang'd natures - With the most sauage beast? Blest, blest be euer - The memory of that happy age, when iustice - Had no gards to keepe off wrongd innocence, - From flying to her succours, and in that 70 - Assurance of redresse: where now (_Romont_) - The damnd, with more ease may ascend from Hell, - Then we ariue at her. One Cerberus there - Forbids the passage, in our Courts a thousand, - As lowd, and fertyle headed, and the Client 75 - That wants the sops, to fill their rauenous throats, - Must hope for no accesse: why should I then - Attempt impossibilities: you friend, being - Too well acquainted with my dearth of meanes, - To make my entrance that way? - - _Rom._ Would I were not. 80 - But Sir, you haue a cause, a cause so iust, - Of such necessitie, not to be deferd, - As would compell a mayde, whose foot was neuer - Set ore her fathers threshold, nor within - The house where she was borne, euer spake word, 85 - Which was not vshered with pure virgin blushes, - To drowne the tempest of a pleaders tongue, - And force corruption to giue backe the hire - It tooke against her: let examples moue you. - You see great men in birth, esteeme and fortune, 90 - Rather then lose a scruple of their right, - Fawne basely vpon such, whose gownes put off, - They would disdaine for Seruants. - - _Char._ And to these - Can I become a suytor? - - _Rom._ Without losse, - Would you consider, that to game their fauors, 95 - Our chastest dames put off their modesties, - Soldiers forget their honors, vsurers - Make sacrifice of Gold, poets of wit, - And men religious, part with fame, and goodnesse? - Be therefore wonne to vse the meanes, that may 100 - Aduance your pious ends. - - _Char._ You shall orecome. - - _Rom._ And you receiue the glory, pray you now practise. - 'Tis well. - - _Enter Old Nouall, Liladam, & 3 Creditors._ - - _Char._ Not looke on me! - - _Rom._ You must haue patience---- - Offer't againe. - - _Char._ And be againe contemn'd? - - _Nou._ I know whats to be done. - - _1 Cred._ And that your Lordship 105 - Will please to do your knowledge, we offer, first - Our thankefull hearts heere, as a bounteous earnest - To what we will adde. - - _Nou._ One word more of this - I am your enemie. Am I a man - Your bribes can worke on? ha? - - _Lilad._ Friends, you mistake 110 - The way to winne my Lord, he must not heare this, - But I, as one in fauour, in his sight, - May harken to you for my profit. Sir, - I pray heare em. - - _Nou._ Tis well. - - _Lilad._ Obserue him now. - - _Nou._ Your cause being good, and your proceedings so, 115 - Without corruption; I am your friend, - Speake your desires. - - _2 Cred._ Oh, they are charitable, - The Marshall stood ingag'd vnto vs three, - Two hundred thousand crownes, which by his death - We are defeated of. For which great losse 120 - We ayme at nothing but his rotten flesh, - Nor is that cruelty. - - _1 Cred._ I haue a sonne, - That talkes of nothing but of Gunnes and Armors, - And sweares hee'll be a soldier, tis an humor - I would diuert him from, and I am told 125 - That if I minister to him in his drinke - Powder, made of this banquerout Marshalls bones, - Provided that the carcase rot aboue ground - 'Twill cure his foolish frensie. - - _Nou._ You shew in it - A fathers care. I haue a sonne my selfe, 130 - A fashionable Gentleman and a peacefull: - And but I am assur'd he's not so giuen, - He should take of it too, Sir what are you? - - _Char._ A Gentleman. - - _Nou._ So are many that rake dunghills. - If you haue any suit, moue it in Court. 135 - I take no papers in corners. - - _Rom._ Yes - As the matter may be carried, and hereby - To mannage the conuayance----Follow him. - - _Lil._ You are rude. I say, he shall not passe. - - _Exit Nouall, Char: and Aduocates_ - - _Rom._ You say so. - On what assurance? 140 - For the well cutting of his Lordships cornes, - Picking his toes, or any office else - Neerer to basenesse! - - _Lil._ Looke vpon mee better, - Are these the ensignes of so coorse a fellow? - Be well aduis'd. - - _Rom._ Out, rogue, do not I know, (_Kicks him_) 145 - These glorious weedes spring from the sordid dunghill - Of thy officious basenesse? wert thou worthy - Of anything from me, but my contempt, - I would do more then this, more, you Court-spider. - - _Lil._ But that this man is lawlesse; - he should find that I am valiant. 150 - - _1 Cred._ If your eares are fast, - Tis nothing. Whats a blow or two? As much-- - - _2 Cred._ These chastisements, as vsefull are as frequent - To such as would grow rich. - - _Rom._ Are they so Rascals? - I will be-friend you then. - - _1 Cred._ Beare witnesse, Sirs. 155 - - _Lil._ Trueth, I haue borne my part already, friends. - In the Court you shall haue more. - - _Exit._ - - _Rom._ I know you for - The worst of spirits, that striue to rob the tombes - Of what is their inheritance, from the dead. - For vsurers, bred by a riotous peace: 160 - That hold the Charter of your wealth & freedome, - By being Knaues and Cuckolds that ne're prayd, - But when you feare the rich heires will grow wise, - To keepe their Lands out of your parchment toyles: - And then, the Diuell your father's cald vpon, 165 - To inuent some ways of _Luxury_ ne're thought on. - Be gone, and quickly, or Ile leaue no roome - Vpon your forhead for your hornes to sprowt on, - Without a murmure, or I will vndoe you; - For I will beate you honest. - - _1 Cred._ Thrift forbid. 170 - We will beare this, rather then hazard that. - - _Ex: Creditor._ - - _Enter Charloyes._ - - _Rom._ I am some-what eas'd in this yet. - - _Char._ (Onely friend) - To what vaine purpose do I make my sorrow, - Wayte on the triumph of their cruelty? - Or teach their pride from my humilitie, 175 - To thinke it has orecome? They are determin'd - What they will do: and it may well become me, - To robbe them of the glory they expect - From my submisse intreaties. - - _Rom._ Thinke not so, Sir, - The difficulties that you incounter with, 180 - Will crowne the vndertaking--Heaven! you weepe: - And I could do so too, but that I know, - Theres more expected from the sonne and friend - Of him, whose fatall losse now shakes our natures, - Then sighs, or teares, (in which a village nurse 185 - Or cunning strumpet, when her knaue is hangd, - May ouercome vs.) We are men (young Lord) - Let vs not do like women. To the Court, - And there speake like your birth: wake sleeping justice, - Or dare the Axe. This is a way will sort 190 - With what you are. I call you not to that - I will shrinke from my selfe, I will deserue - Your thankes, or suffer with you--O how bravely - That sudden fire of anger shewes in you! - Give fuell to it, since you are on a shelfe, 195 - Of extreme danger suffer like your selfe. - - _Exeunt._ - - -[SCENE II] - -[_The Court of Justice_] - -_Enter Rochfort_, _Nouall Se. Charmi_, _Du Croye_, -_Aduocates_, _Baumont_, _and Officers_, _and 3. Presidents_. - - _Du Croye._ Your Lordship's seated. May this meeting proue prosperous - to vs, and to the generall good - Of _Burgundy_. - - _Nou. Se._ Speake to the poynt. - - _Du Croy._ Which is, - With honour to dispose the place and power - Of primier President, which this reuerent man 5 - Graue _Rochfort_, (whom for honours sake I name) - Is purpos'd to resigne a place, my Lords, - In which he hath with such integrity, - Perform'd the first and best parts of a Iudge, - That as his life transcends all faire examples 10 - Of such as were before him in _Dijon_, - So it remaines to those that shall succeed him, - A President they may imitate, but not equall. - - _Roch._ I may not sit to heare this. - - _Du Croy._ Let the loue - And thankfulnes we are bound to pay to goodnesse, 15 - In this o'recome your modestie. - - _Roch._ My thankes - For this great fauour shall preuent your trouble. - The honourable trust that was impos'd - Vpon my weaknesse since you witnesse for me, - It was not ill discharg'd, I will not mention, 20 - Nor now, if age had not depriu'd me of - The little strength I had to gouerne well, - The Prouince that I vndertooke, forsake it. - - _Nou._ That we could lend you of our yeeres. - - _Du Croy._ Or strength. - - _Nou._ Or as you are, perswade you to continue 25 - The noble exercise of your knowing iudgement. - - _Roch._ That may not be, nor can your Lordships goodnes, - Since your imployments haue confer'd vpon me - Sufficient wealth, deny the vse of it, - And though old age, when one foot's in the graue, 30 - In many, when all humors else are spent - Feeds no affection in them, but desire - To adde height to the mountaine of their riches: - In me it is not so, I rest content - With the honours, and estate I now possesse, 35 - And that I may haue liberty to vse, - What Heauen still blessing my poore industry, - Hath made me Master of: I pray the Court - To ease me of my burthen, that I may - Employ the small remainder of my life, 40 - In liuing well, and learning how to dye so. - - _Enter Romont, and Charalois._ - - _Rom._ See sir, our Aduocate. - - _Du Croy._ The Court intreats, - Your Lordship will be pleasd to name the man, - Which you would haue your successor, and in me, - All promise to confirme it. - - _Roch._ I embrace it, 45 - As an assurance of their fauour to me, - And name my Lord Nouall. - - _Du Croy._ The Court allows it. - - _Roch._ But there are suters waite heere, and their causes - May be of more necessity to be heard, - And therefore wish that mine may be defer'd, 50 - And theirs haue hearing. - - _Du Croy._ If your Lordship please - To take the place, we will proceed. - - _Charm._ The cause - We come to offer to your Lordships censure, - Is in it selfe so noble, that it needs not - Or Rhetorique in me that plead, or fauour 55 - From your graue Lordships, to determine of it. - Since to the prayse of your impartiall iustice - (Which guilty, nay condemn'd men, dare not scandall) - It will erect a trophy of your mercy - With married to that Iustice. - - _Nou. Se._ Speaks to the cause. 60 - - _Charm._ I will, my Lord: to say, the late dead Marshall - The father of this young Lord heer, my Clyent, - Hath done his Country great and faithfull seruice, - Might taske me of impertinence to repeate, - What your graue Lordships cannot but remember, 65 - He in his life, become indebted to - These thriftie men, I will not wrong their credits, - By giuing them the attributes they now merit, - And fayling by the fortune of the warres, - Of meanes to free himselfe, from his ingagements, 70 - He was arrested, and for want of bayle - Imprisond at their suite: and not long after - With losse of liberty ended his life. - And though it be a Maxime in our Lawes, - All suites dye with the person, these mens malice 75 - In death find matter for their hate to worke on, - Denying him the decent Rytes of buriall, - Which the sworne enemies of the Christian faith - Grant freely to their slaues; may it therefore please - Your Lordships, so to fashion your decree, 80 - That what their crueltie doth forbid, your pittie - May giue allowance to. - - _Nou. Se._ How long haue you Sir - Practis'd in Court? - - _Charmi._ Some twenty yeeres, my Lord. - - _Nou. Se._ By your grosse ignorance it should appeare, - Not twentie dayes. - - _Charmi._ I hope I haue giuen no cause 85 - In this, my Lord-- - - _Nou. Se._ How dare you moue the Court, - To the dispensing with an Act confirmd - By Parlament, to the terror of all banquerouts? - Go home, and with more care peruse the Statutes: - Or the next motion fauoring of this boldnesse, 90 - May force you to leape (against your will) - Ouer the place you plead at. - - _Charmi._ I foresaw this. - - _Rom._ Why does your Lordship thinke, the mouing of - A cause more honest then this Court had euer - The honor to determine, can deserue 95 - A checke like this? - - _Nou. Se._ Strange boldnes! - - _Rom._ Tis fit freedome: - Or do you conclude, an aduocate cannot hold - His credit with the Iudge, vnlesse he study - His face more then the cause for which he pleades? - - _Charmi._ Forbeare. - - _Rom._ Or cannot you, that haue the power 100 - To qualifie the rigour of the Lawes, - When you are pleased, take a little from - The strictnesse of your fowre decrees, enacted - In fauor of the greedy creditors - Against the orethrowne debter? - - _Nou. Se._ Sirra, you that prate 105 - Thus sawcily, what are you? - - _Rom._ Why Ile tell you, - Thou purple-colour'd man, I am one to whom - Thou owest the meanes thou hast of sitting there - A corrupt Elder. - - _Charmi._ Forbeare. - - _Rom._ The nose thou wearst, is my gift, and those eyes 110 - That meete no obiect so base as their Master, - Had bin, long since, torne from that guiltie head, - And thou thy selfe slaue to some needy Swisse, - Had I not worne a sword, and vs'd it better - Then in thy prayers thou ere didst thy tongue. 115 - - _Nou. Se._ Shall such an Insolence passe vnpunisht? - - _Charmi._ Heere mee. - - _Rom._ Yet I, that in my seruice done my Country, - Disdaine to bee put in the scale with thee, - Confesse my selfe vnworthy to bee valued - With the least part, nay haire of the dead Marshall, 120 - Of whose so many glorious vndertakings, - Make choice of any one, and that the meanest - Performd against the subtill Fox of France, - The politique _Lewis_, or the more desperate Swisse, - And 'twyll outwaygh all the good purpose, 125 - Though put in act, that euer Gowneman practizd. - - _Nou. Se._ Away with him to prison. - - _Rom._ If that curses, - Vrg'd iustly, and breath'd forth so, euer fell - On those that did deserue them; let not mine - Be spent in vaine now, that thou from this instant 130 - Mayest in thy feare that they will fall vpon thee, - Be sensible of the plagues they shall bring with them. - And for denying of a little earth, - To couer what remaynes of our great soldyer: - May all your wiues proue whores, your factors theeues, 135 - And while you liue, your riotous heires vndoe you, - And thou, the patron of their cruelty. - Of all thy Lordships liue not to be owner - Of so much dung as will conceale a Dog, - Or what is worse, thy selfe in. And thy yeeres, 140 - To th' end thou mayst be wretched, I wish many, - And as thou hast denied the dead a graue, - May misery in thy life make thee desire one, - Which men and all the Elements keepe from thee: - I haue begun well, imitate, exceed. 145 - - _Roch._ Good counsayle were it, a prayse worthy deed. - - _Ex. Officers with Rom._ - - _Du Croye._ Remember what we are. - - _Chara._ Thus low my duty - Answeres your Lordships counsaile. I will vse - In the few words (with which I am to trouble - Your Lordships eares) the temper that you wish mee. 150 - Not that I feare to speake my thoughts as lowd, - And with a liberty beyond _Romont_: - But that I know, for me that am made vp - Of all that's wretched, so to haste my end, - Would seeme to most, rather a willingnesse 155 - To quit the burthen of a hopelesse life, - Then scorne of death, or duty to the dead. - I therefore bring the tribute of my prayse - To your seueritie, and commend the Iustice, - That will not for the many seruices 160 - That any man hath done the Common wealth - Winke at his least of ills: what though my father - Writ man before he was so, and confirmd it, - By numbring that day, no part of his life, - In which he did not seruice to his Country; 165 - Was he to be free therefore from the Lawes, - And ceremonious forme in your decrees? - Or else because he did as much as man - In those three memorable ouerthrowes - At _Granson_, _Morat_, _Nancy_, where his Master, 170 - The warlike _Charloyes_ (with whose misfortunes - I beare his name) lost treasure, men and life, - To be excus'd, from payment of those summes - Which (his owne patri mony spent) his zeale, - To serue his Countrey, forc'd him to take vp? 175 - - _Nou. Se._ The president were ill. - - _Chara._ And yet, my Lord, this much - I know youll grant; After those great defeatures, - Which in their dreadfull ruines buried quick, _Enter officers._ - Courage and hope, in all men but himselfe, - He forst the proud foe, in his height of conquest, 180 - To yield vnto an honourable peace. - And in it saued an hundred thousand liues, - To end his owne, that was sure proofe against - The scalding Summers heate, and Winters frost, - Illayres, the Cannon, and the enemies sword, 185 - In a most loathsome prison. - - _Du Croy._ Twas his fault - To be so prodigall. - - _Nou. Se._ He had frô the state - Sufficent entertainment for the Army. - - _Char._ Sufficient? My Lord, you sit at home, - And though your fees are boundlesse at the barre: 190 - Are thriftie in the charges of the warre, - But your wills be obeyd. To these I turne, - To these soft-hearted men, that wisely know - They are onely good men, that pay what they owe. - - _2 Cred._ And so they are. - - _1 Cred._ 'Tis the City Doctrine, 195 - We stand bound to maintaine it. - - _Char._ Be constant in it, - And since you are as mercilesse in your natures, - As base, and mercenary in your meanes - By which you get your wealth, I will not vrge - The Court to take away one scruple from 200 - The right of their lawes, or one good thought - In you to mend your disposition with. - I know there is no musique in your eares - So pleasing as the groanes of men in prison, - And that the teares of widows, and the cries 205 - Of famish'd Orphants, are the feasts that take you. - That to be in your danger, with more care - Should be auoyded, then infectious ayre, - The loath'd embraces of diseased women, - A flatterers poyson, or the losse of honour. 210 - Yet rather then my fathers reuerent dust - Shall want a place in that faire monument, - In which our noble Ancestors lye intomb'd, - Before the Court I offer vp my selfe - A prisoner for it: loade me with those yrons 215 - That haue worne out his life, in my best strength - Ile run to th' incounter of cold hunger, - And choose my dwelling where no Sun dares enter, - So he may be releas'd. - - _1 Cred._ What meane you sir? - - _2 Aduo._ Onely your fee againe: ther's so much sayd 220 - Already in this cause, and sayd so well, - That should I onely offer to speake in it, - I should not bee heard, or laught at for it. - - _1 Cred._ 'Tis the first mony aduocate ere gaue backe, - Though hee sayd nothing. - - _Roch._ Be aduis'd, young Lord, 225 - And well considerate, you throw away - Your liberty, and ioyes of life together: - Your bounty is imployd vpon a subiect - That is not sensible of it, with which, wise man - Neuer abus'd his goodnesse; the great vertues 230 - Of your dead father vindicate themselues, - From these mens malice, and breake ope the prison, - Though it containe his body. - - _Nou. Se._ Let him alone, - If he loue Lords, a Gods name let him weare 'em, - Prouided these consent. - - _Char._ I hope they are not 235 - So ignorant in any way of profit, - As to neglect a possibility - To get their owne, by seeking it from that - Which can returne them nothing, but ill fame, - And curses for their barbarous cruelties. 240 - - _3 Cred._ What thinke you of the offer? - - _2 Cred._ Very well. - - _1 Cred._ Accept it by all meanes: let's shut him vp, - He is well-shaped and has a villanous tongue, - And should he study that way of reuenge, - As I dare almost sweare he loues a wench, 245 - We haue no wiues, nor neuer shall get daughters - That will hold out against him. - - _Du Croy._ What's your answer? - - _2 Cred._ Speake you for all. - - _1 Cred._ Why let our executions - That lye vpon the father, bee return'd - Vpon the sonne, and we release the body. 250 - - _Nou. Se._ The Court must grant you that. - - _Char._ I thanke your Lordships, - They haue in it confirm'd on me such glory, - As no time can take from me: I am ready, - Come lead me where you please: captiuity - That comes with honour, is true liberty. 255 - - _Exit Charmi, Cred. & Officers._ - - _Nou. Se._ Strange rashnesse. - - _Roch._ A braue resolution rather, - Worthy a better fortune, but howeuer - It is not now to be disputed, therefore - To my owne cause. Already I haue found - Your Lordships bountifull in your fauours to me; 260 - And that should teach my modesty to end heere - And presse your loues no further. - - _Du Croy._ There is nothing - The Court can grant, but with assurance you - May aske it and obtaine it. - - _Roch._ You incourage - A bold Petitioner, and 'tis not fit 265 - Your fauours should be lost. Besides, 'tas beene - A custome many yeeres, at the surrendring - The place I now giue vp, to grant the President - One boone, that parted with it. And to confirme - Your grace towards me, against all such as may 270 - Detract my actions, and life hereafter, - I now preferre it to you. - - _Du Croy._ Speake it freely. - - _Roch._ I then desire the liberty of _Romont_, - And that my Lord _Nouall_, whose priuate wrong - Was equall to the iniurie that was done 275 - To the dignity of the Court, will pardon it, - And now signe his enlargement. - - _Nou. Se._ Pray you demand - The moyety of my estate, or any thing - Within my power, but this. - - _Roch._ Am I denyed then-- - My first and last request? - - _Du Croy._ It must not be. 280 - - _2 Pre._ I haue a voyce to giue in it. - - _3 Pre._ And I. - And if perswasion will not worke him to it, - We will make knowne our power. - - _Nou. Se._ You are too violent, - You shall haue my consent--But would you had - Made tryall of my loue in any thing 285 - But this, you should haue found then--But it skills not. - You haue what you desire. - - _Roch._ I thanke your Lordships. - - _Du Croy._ The court is vp, make way. - - _Ex. omnes, praeter Roch. & Beaumont._ - - _Roch._ I follow you--_Baumont_. - - _Baum._ My Lord. - - _Roch._ You are a scholler, _Baumont_, - And can search deeper into th' intents of men, 290 - Then those that are lesse knowing--How appear'd - The piety and braue behauior of - Young _Charloyes_ to you? - - _Baum._ It is my wonder, - Since I want language to expresse it fully; - And sure the Collonell-- - - _Roch._ Fie! he was faulty-- 295 - What present mony haue I? - - _Baum._ There is no want - Of any summe a priuate man has use for. - - _Roch._ 'Tis well: - I am strangely taken with this _Charaloyes_; - Me thinkes, from his example, the whole age - Should learne to be good, and continue so. 300 - Vertue workes strangely with vs: and his goodnesse - Rising aboue his fortune, seemes to me - Princelike, to will, not aske a courtesie. - - _Exeunt._ - - - - -_Act. secundus._ - - -_Scæna prima:_ - -[_A Street before the Prison_] - -_Enter Pontalier_, _Malotin_, _Baumont_. - - _Mal._ Tis strange. - - _Baum._ Me thinkes so. - - _Pont._ In a man, but young, - Yet old in iudgement, theorique, and practicke - In all humanity (and to increase the wonder) - Religious, yet a Souldier, that he should - Yeeld his free liuing youth a captiue, for 5 - The freedome of his aged fathers Corpes, - And rather choose to want lifes necessaries, - Liberty, hope of fortune, then it should - In death be kept from Christian ceremony. - - _Malo._ Come, 'Tis a golden president in a Sonne, 10 - To let strong nature haue the better hand, - (In such a case) of all affected reason. - What yeeres sits on this Charolois? - - _Baum._ Twenty eight, - For since the clocke did strike him 17 old - Vnder his fathers wing, this Sonne hath fought, 15 - Seru'd and commanded, and so aptly both, - That sometimes he appear'd his fathers father, - And neuer lesse then's sonne; the old man's vertues - So recent in him, as the world may sweare, - Nought but a faire tree, could such fayre fruit beare. 20 - - _Pont._ But wherefore lets he such a barbarous law, - And men more barbarous to execute it, - Preuaile on his soft disposition, - That he had rather dye aliue for debt - Of the old man in prison, then he should 25 - Rob him of Sepulture, considering - These monies borrow'd bought the lenders peace, - And all their meanes they inioy, nor was diffus'd - In any impious or licencious path? - - _Bau._ True: for my part, were it my fathers trunke, 30 - The tyrannous Ram-heads, with their hornes should gore it, - Or, cast it to their curres (than they) lesse currish, - Ere prey on me so, with their Lion-law, - Being in my free will (as in his) to shun it. - - _Pont._ Alasse! he knowes him selfe (in pouerty) lost: 35 - For in this parciall auaricious age - What price beares Honor? Vertue? Long agoe - It was but prays'd, and freez'd, but now a dayes - 'Tis colder far, and has, nor loue, nor praise, - Very prayse now freezeth too: for nature 40 - Did make the heathen, far more Christian then, - Then knowledge vs (lesse heathenish) Christian. - - _Malo._ This morning is the funerall. - - _Pont._ Certainely! - And from this prison 'twas the sonnes request - That his deare father might interment haue. 45 - - _Recorders Musique,_ - - See, the young sonne interd a liuely graue. - - _Baum._ They come, obserue their order. - - _Enter Funerall. Body borne by 4. Captaines and Souldiers, - Mourners, Scutchions, and very good order. Charolois, and Romont - meet it. Char. speaks. Rom. weeping, solemne Musique, 3 Creditors._ - - _Char._ How like a silent streame shaded with night, - And gliding softly with our windy sighes; - Moues the whole frame of this solemnity! 50 - Teares, sighs, and blackes, filling the simily, - Whilst I the onely murmur in this groue - Of death, thus hollowly break forth! Vouchsafe - To stay a while, rest, rest in peace, deare earth, - Thou that brought'st rest to their vnthankfull lyues, 55 - Whose cruelty deny'd thee rest in death: - Heere stands thy poore Executor thy sonne, - That makes his life prisoner, to bale thy death; - Who gladlier puts on this captiuity, - Then Virgins long in loue, their wedding weeds: 60 - Of all that euer thou hast done good to, - These onely haue good memories, for they - Remember best, forget not gratitude. - I thanke you for this last and friendly loue. - And tho this Country, like a viperous mother, 65 - Not onely hath eate vp vngratefully - All meanes of thee her sonne, but last thy selfe, - Leauing thy heire so bare and indigent, - He cannot rayse thee a poore Monument, - Such as a flatterer, or a vsurer hath. 70 - Thy worth, in euery honest brest buyldes one, - Making their friendly hearts thy funerall stone. - - _Pont._ Sir. - - _Char._ Peace, O peace, this sceane is wholy mine. - What weepe ye, souldiers? Blanch not, _Romont_ weepes. 75 - Ha, let me see, my miracle is eas'd, - The iaylors and the creditors do weepe; - Euen they that make vs weepe, do weepe themselues. - Be these thy bodies balme: these and thy vertue - Keepe thy fame euer odoriferous, 80 - Whilst the great, proud, rich, vndeseruing man, - Aliue stinkes in his vices, and being vanish'd, - The golden calfe that was an Idoll dect - With marble pillars Iet, and Porphyrie, - Shall quickly both in bone and name consume, 85 - Though wrapt in lead, spice, Searecloth and perfume - - _1 Cred._ Sir. - - _Char._ What! Away for shame: you prophane rogues - Must not be mingled with these holy reliques: - This is a Sacrifice, our showre shall crowne 90 - His sepulcher with Oliue, Myrrh and Bayes - The plants of peace, of sorrow, victorie, - Your teares would spring but weedes. - - _1 Cred._ Would they not so? - Wee'll keepe them to stop bottles then: - - _Rom._ No; keepe 'em - For your owne sins, you Rogues, till you repent: 95 - You'll dye else and be damn'd. - - _2 Cred._ Damn'd, ha! ha, ha. - - _Rom._ Laugh yee? - - _3 Cred._ Yes faith, Sir, weel'd be very glad - To please you eyther way. - - _1 Cred._ Y'are ne're content, - Crying nor laughing. - - _Rom._ Both with a birth shee rogues. - - _2 Cred._ Our wiues, Sir, taught vs. 100 - - _Rom._ Looke, looke, you slaues, your thanklesse cruelty - And sauage manners, of vnkind _Dijon_, - Exhaust these flouds, and not his fathers death. - - _1 Cred._ Slid, Sir, what would yee, ye'are so cholericke? - - _2 Cred._ Most soldiers are so yfaith, let him alone: 105 - They haue little else to liue on, we haue not had - A penny of him, haue we? - - _3 Cred._ 'Slight, wo'd you haue our hearts? - - _1 Cred._ We haue nothing but his body heere in durance - For all our mony. - - _Priest._ On. - - _Char._ One moment more, - But to bestow a few poore legacyes, 110 - All I haue left in my dead fathers rights, - And I haue done. Captaine, weare thou these spurs - That yet ne're made his horse runne from a foe. - Lieutenant, thou, this Scarfe, and may it tye - Thy valor, and thy honestie together: 115 - For so it did in him. Ensigne, this Curace - Your Generalls necklace once. You gentle Bearers, - Deuide this purse of gold, this other, strow - Among the poore: tis all I haue. _Romont_, - (Weare thou this medall of himselfe) that like 120 - A hearty Oake, grew'st close to this tall Pine, - Euen in the wildest wildernese of war, - Whereon foes broke their swords, and tyr'd themselues; - Wounded and hack'd yee were, but neuer fell'd. - For me my portion prouide in Heauen: 125 - My roote is earth'd, and I a desolate branch - Left scattered in the high way of the world, - Trod vnder foot, that might haue bin a Columne, - Mainly supporting our demolish'd house, - This would I weare as my inheritance. 130 - And what hope can arise to me from it, - When I and it are both heere prisoners? - Onely may this, if euer we be free, - Keepe, or redeeme me from all infamie. - - _Song. Musicke._ - - _1 Cred._ No farther, looke to 'em at your owne perill. 135 - - _2 Cred._ No, as they please: their Master's a good man. - I would they were the _Burmudas_. - - _Saylor._ You must no further. - The prison limits you, and the Creditors - Exact the strictnesse. - - _Rom._ Out you wooluish mungrells! - Whose braynes should be knockt out, like dogs in Iuly, 140 - Leste your infection poyson a whole towne. - - _Char._ They grudge our sorrow: your ill wills perforce - Turnes now to Charity: they would not haue vs - Walke too farre mourning, vsurers reliefe - Grieues, if the Debtors haue too much of griefe. 145 - - _Exeunt._ - - -[SCENE II] - -[_A Room in Rochfort's House._] - -_Enter Beaumelle_: _Florimell_: _Bellapert_. - - _Beau._ I prithee tell me, _Florimell_, why do women marry? - - _Flor._ Why truly Madam, I thinke, to lye with their husbands. - - _Bella._ You are a foole: She lyes, Madam, women marry husbands, - To lye with other men. 5 - - _Flor._ Faith eene such a woman wilt thou make. By this - light, Madam, this wagtaile will spoyle you, if you take - delight in her licence. - - _Beau._ Tis true, _Florimell_: and thou wilt make me too good - for a yong Lady. What an electuary found my father out for 10 - his daughter, when hee compounded you two my women? - for thou, _Florimell_, art eene a graine to heauy, simply for a - wayting Gentlewoman. - - _Flor._ And thou _Bellapert_, a graine too light. - - _Bella._ Well, go thy wayes goodly wisdom, whom no body 15 - regards. I wonder, whether be elder thou or thy hood: you - thinke, because you serue my Laydes mother, are 32 yeeres - old which is a peepe out, you know. - - _Flor._ Well sayd, wherligig. - - _Bella._ You are deceyu'd: I want a peg ith' middle. 20 - Out of these Prerogatiues! you thinke to be mother of the - maydes heere, & mortifie em with prouerbs: goe, goe, gouern - the sweet meates, and waigh the Suger, that the wenches - steale none: say your prayers twice a day, and as I take it, you - haue performd your function. 25 - - _Flor._ I may bee euen with you. - - _Bell._ Harke, the Court's broke vp. Goe helpe my old Lord - out of his Caroch, and scratch his head till dinner time. - - _Flor._ Well. - - _Exit._ - - _Bell._ Fy Madam, how you walke! By my mayden-head 30 - you looke 7 yeeres older then you did this morning: why, - there can be nothing vnder the Sunne vanuable, to make you - thus a minute. - - _Beau._ Ah my sweete Bellapert thou Cabinet - To all my counsels, thou dost know the cause 35 - That makes thy Lady wither thus in youth. - - _Bel._ Vd'd-light, enioy your wishes: whilst I liue, - One way or other you shall crowne your will. - Would you haue him your husband that you loue, - And can't not bee? he is your seruant though, 40 - And may performe the office of a husband. - - _Beau._ But there is honor, wench. - - _Bell._ Such a disease - There is in deed, for which ere I would dy.-- - - _Beau._ Prethee, distinguish me a mayd & wife. - - _Bell._ Faith, Madam, one may beare any mans children, 45 - Tother must beare no mans. - - _Beau._ What is a husband? - - _Bell._ Physicke, that tumbling in your belly, will make you - sicke ith' stomacke: the onely distinction betwixt a husband - and a seruant is: the first will lye with you, when he please; - the last shall lye with you when you please. Pray tell me, 50 - Lady, do you loue, to marry after, or would you marry, to - loue after. - - _Beau._ I would meete loue and marriage both at once. - - _Bell._ Why then you are out of the fashion, and wilbe contemn'd; - for (Ile assure you) there are few women i'th world, 55 - but either they haue married first, and loue after, or loue - first, and marryed after: you must do as you may, not as you - would: your fathers will is the Goale you must fly to: if a - husband approach you, you would haue further off, is he your - loue? the lesse neere you. A husband in these days is but a 60 - cloake to bee oftner layde vpon your bed, then in your - bed. - - _Baum._ Humpe. - - _Bell._ Sometimes you may weare him on your shoulder, - now and then vnder your arme: but seldome or neuer let him 65 - couer you: for 'tis not the fashion. - - _Enter y. Nouall_, _Pontalier_, _Malotin_, _Lilladam_, _Aymer_. - - _Nou._ Best day to natures curiosity, - Starre of _Dijum_, the lustre of all _France_, - Perpetuall spring dwell on thy rosy cheekes, - Whose breath is perfume to our Continent, 70 - See _Flora_ turn'd in her varieties. - - _Bell._ Oh diuine Lord! - - _Nou._ No autumne, nor no age euer approach - This heauenly piece, which nature hauing wrought, - She lost her needle and did then despaire, 75 - Euer to work so liuely and so faire. - - _Lilad._ Vds light, my Lord one of the purles of your band - is (without all discipline falne) out of his ranke. - - _Nou._ How? I would not for a 1000 crownes she had seen't. - Deare _Liladam_, reforme it. 80 - - _Bell._ O Lord: _Per se_, Lord, quintessence of honour, - shee walkes not vnder a weede that could deny thee any - thing. - - _Baum._ Prethy peace, wench, thou dost but blow the fire, - that flames too much already. 85 - - _Lilad. Aym. trim Nouall, whilst Bell her Lady._ - - _Aym._ By gad, my Lord, you haue the diuinest - Taylor of Christendome; he hath made - you looke like an Angell in your cloth of Tissue doublet. - - _Pont._ This is a three-leg'd Lord, ther's a fresh assault, oh - that men should spend time thus! 90 - See see, how her blood driues to her heart, and straight - vaults to her cheekes againe. - - _Malo._ What are these? - - _Pont._ One of 'em there the lower is a good, foolish, knauish - sociable gallimaufry of a man, and has much taught 95 - my Lord with singing, hee is master of a musicke house: the - other is his dressing blocke, vpon whom my Lord layes all - his cloathes, and fashions, ere he vouchsafes 'em his owne - person; you shall see him i'th morning in the Gally-foyst, at - noone in the Bullion, i'th euening in Quirpo, and all night 100 - in-- - - _Malo._ A Bawdy house. - - _Pont._ If my Lord deny, they deny, if hee affirme, they affirme: - they skip into my Lords cast skins some twice a yeere, - and thus they liue to eate, eate to liue, 105 - and liue to prayfe my Lord. - - _Malo._ Good sir, tell me one thing. - - _Pont._ What's that? - - _Malo._ Dare these men euer fight, on any cause? - - _Pont._ Oh no, 't would spoyle their cloathes, and put their 110 - bands out of order. - - _Nou._ _Mrs_, you heare the news: your father has resign'd - his Presidentship to my Lord my father. - - _Malo._ And Lord Charolois vndone foreuer. - - _Pont._ Troth, 'tis pity, sir. - A brauer hope of so assur'd a father 115 - Did neuer comfort _France_. - - _Lilad._ A good dumbe mourner. - - _Aym._ A silent blacke. - As if he had come this Christmas from St. _Omers_. - - _Nou._ Oh fie vpon him, how he weares his cloathes! - To see his friends, and return'd after Twelfetyde. 120 - - _Lilad._ His Colonell lookes fienely like a drouer. - - _Nou._ That had a winter ly'n perdieu i'th rayne. - - _Aym._ What, he that weares a clout about his necke, - His cuffes in's pocket, and his heart in's mouth? - - _Nou._ Now out vpon him! - - _Beau._ Seruant, tye my hand. 125 - How your lips blush, in scorne that they should pay - Tribute to hands, when lips are in the way! - - _Nou._ I thus recant, yet now your hand looks white - Because your lips robd it of such a right. - _Mounsieur Aymour_, I prethy sing the song 130 - Deuoted to my _Mrs._ - - _Cant._ _Musicke._ - - _After the Song, Enter Rochfort, & Baumont._ - - _Baum._ Romont will come, sir, straight. - - _Roch._ 'Tis well. - - _Beau._ My Father. - - _Nouall._ My honorable Lord. - - _Roch._ My Lord _Nouall_ this is a vertue in you. - So early vp and ready before noone, 135 - That are the map of dressing through all _France_. - - _Nou._ I rise to say my prayers, sir, heere's my Saint. - - _Roch._ Tis well and courtly; you must giue me leaue, - I haue some priuate conference with my daughter, - Pray vse my garden, you shall dine with me. 140 - - _Lilad._ Wee'l waite on you. - - _Nou._ Good morne vnto your Lordship, - Remember what you haue vow'd----to his _Mrs._ - - _Exeunt omnes praeter Roch. Daug._ - - _Beau._ Performe I must. - - _Roch._ Why how now _Beaumelle_, thou look'st not well. - Th' art sad of late, come cheere thee, I haue found - A wholesome remedy for these mayden fits, 145 - A goodly Oake whereon to twist my vine, - Till her faire branches grow vp to the starres. - Be neere at hand, successe crowne my intent, - My businesse fills my little time so full, - I cannot stand to talke: I know, thy duty 150 - Is handmayd to my will, especially - When it presents nothing but good and fit. - - _Beau._ Sir, I am yours. Oh if my teares proue true, _Exit Daug_ - Fate hath wrong'd loue, and will destroy me too. - - _Enter Romont keeper_ - - _Rom._ Sent you for me, sir? - - _Roch._ Yes. - - _Rom._ Your Lordships pleasure? 155 - - _Roch._ Keeper, this prisoner I will see forth comming - Vpon my word--Sit downe good Colonell. _Exit keeper._ - Why I did wish you hither, noble sir, - Is to aduise you from this yron carriage, - Which, so affected, _Romont_, you weare, 160 - To pity and to counsell yee submit - With expedition to the great _Nouall_: - Recant your sterne contempt, and slight neglect - Of the whole Court, and him, and opportunity, - Or you will vndergoe a heauy censure 165 - In publique very shortly. - - _Rom._ Hum hum: reuerend sir, - I haue obseru'd you, and doe know you well, - And am now more affraid you know not me, - By wishing my submission to _Nouall_, - Then I can be of all the bellowing mouthes 170 - That waite vpon him to pronounce the censure, - Could it determine me torments, and shame. - Submit, and craue forgiuenesse of a beast? - Tis true, this bile of state weares purple Tissue. - Is high fed, proud: so is his Lordships horse, 175 - And beares as rich Caparisons. I know, - This Elephant carries on his back not onely - Towres, Castles, but the ponderous republique, - And neuer stoops for't, with his strong breath trunk - Snuffes others titles, Lordships, Offices, 180 - Wealth, bribes, and lyues, vnder his rauenous iawes. - Whats this vnto my freedome? I dare dye; - And therefore aske this Cammell, if these blessings - (For so they would be vnderstood by a man) - But mollifie one rudenesse in his nature, 185 - Sweeten the eager relish of the law, - At whose great helme he sits: helps he the poore - In a iust businesse? nay, does he not crosse - Euery deserued souldier and scholler, - As if when nature made him, she had made 190 - The generall Antipathy of all vertue? - How sauagely, and blasphemously hee spake - Touching the Generall, the graue Generall dead, - I must weepe when I thinke on't. - - _Roch._ Sir - - _Rom._ My Lord, - I am not stubborne, I can melt, you see, 195 - And prize a vertue better then my life: - For though I be not learnd, I euer lou'd - That holy Mother of all issues, good, - Whose white hand (for a Scepter) holds a File - To pollish roughest customes, and in you 200 - She has her right: see, I am calme as sleepe, - But when I thinke of the grosse iniuries - The godlesse wrong done, to my Generall dead, - I raue indeed, and could eate this Nouall - A lsoule-esse Dromodary. - - _Roch._ Oh bee temperate, 205 - Sir, though I would perswade, I'le not constraine: - Each mans opinion freely is his owne, - Concerning any thing or any body, - Be it right or wrong, tis at the Iudges perill. - - _Enter Baumond,_ - - _Bau._ These men, Sir, waite without, my Lord is come too. 210 - - _Roch._ Pay 'em those summes vpon the table, take - Their full releases: stay, I want a witnesse: - Let mee intreat you Colonell, to walke in, - And stand but by, to see this money pay'd, - It does concerne you and your friends, it was 215 - The better cause you were sent for, though sayd otherwise. - The deed shall make this my request more plaine. - - _Rom._ I shall obey your pleasure Sir, though ignorant - To what is tends? - - _Exit Seruant: Romont. Enter Charolois_ - - _Roch._ Worthiest Sir, 220 - You are most welcome: fye, no more of this: - You haue out-wept a woman, noble Charolois. - No man but has, or must bury a father. - - _Char._ Graue Sir, I buried sorrow, for his death, - In the graue with him. I did neuer thinke 225 - Hee was immortall, though I vow I grieue, - And see no reason why the vicious, - Vertuous, valiant and vnworthy man - Should dye alike. - - _Roch._ They do not. - - _Char._ In the manner - Of dying, Sir, they do not, but all dye, 230 - And therein differ not: but I haue done. - I spy'd the liuely picture of my father, - Passing your gallery, and that cast this water - Into mine eyes: see, foolish that I am, - To let it doe so. - - _Roch._ Sweete and gentle nature, 235 - How silken is this well comparatiuely - To other men! I haue a suite to you Sir. - - _Char._ Take it, tis granted. - - _Roch._ What? - - _Char._ Nothing, my Lord. - - _Roch._ Nothing is quickly granted. - - _Char._ Faith, my Lord, - That nothing granted, is euen all I haue, 240 - For (all know) I haue nothing left to grant. - - _Roch._ Sir, ha' you any suite to me? Ill grant - You something, any thing. - - _Char._ Nay surely, I that can - Giue nothing, will but sue for that againe. 245 - No man will grant mee any thing I sue for. - But begging nothing, euery man will giue't. - - _Roch._ Sir, the loue I bore your father, and the worth - I see in you, so much resembling his. - Made me thus send for you. And tender heere 250 - - _Drawes a Curtayne._ - - What euer you will take, gold, Iewels, both, - All, to supply your wants, and free your selfe. - Where heauenly vertue in high blouded veines - Is lodg'd, and can agree, men should kneele downe, - Adore, and sacrifice all that they haue; 255 - And well they may, it is so seldome seene. - Put off your wonder, and heere freely take - Or send your seruants. Nor, Sir, shall you vse - In ought of this, a poore mans fee, or bribe, - Vniustly taken of the rich, but what's 260 - Directly gotten, and yet by the Law. - - _Char._ How ill, Sir, it becomes those haires to mocke? - - _Roch._ Mocke? thunder strike mee then. - - _Char._ You doe amaze mee: - But you shall wonder too, I will not take - One single piece of this great heape: why should I 265 - Borrow, that haue not meanes to pay, nay am - A very bankerupt, euen in flattering hope - Of euer raysing any. All my begging, - Is _Romonts_ libertie. - - _Enter Romont. Creditors loaden with mony. Baumont._ - - _Roch._ Heere is your friend, - Enfranchist ere you spake. I giue him you, 270 - And Charolois. I giue you to your friend - As free a man as hee; your fathers debts - Are taken off. - - _Char._ How? - - _Rom._ Sir, it is most true. - I am the witnes. - - _1 Cred._ Yes faith, wee are pay'd. - - _2 Cred._ Heauen blesse his Lordship, I did thinke him wiser. 275 - - _3 Cred._ He a states-man, he an asse Pay other mens debts? - - _1 Cred._ That he was neuer bound for. - - _Rom._ One more such - Would saue the rest of pleaders. - - _Char._ _Honord Rochfort._ - Lye still my toung and bushes, cal'd my cheekes, - That offter thankes in words, for such great deeds. 280 - - _Roch._ Call in my daughter: still I haue a suit to you. - - _Baum. Exit._ - - Would you requite mee. - - _Rom._ With his life, assure you. - - _Roch._ Nay, would you make me now your debter, Sir. - This is my onely child: what shee appeares, _Enter Baum. Beau._ - Your Lordship well may see her education 285 - Followes not any: for her mind, I know it - To be far fayrer then her shape, and hope - It will continue so: if now her birth - Be not too meane for Charolois, take her - This virgin by the hand, and call her wife, 290 - Indowd with all my fortunes: blesse me so, - Requite mee thus, and make mee happier, - In ioyning my poore empty name to yours, - Then if my state were multiplied ten fold. - - _Char._ Is this the payment, Sir, that you expect? 295 - Why, you participate me more in debt, - That nothing but my life can euer pay, - This beautie being your daughter, in which yours - I must conceiue necessitie of her vertue - Without all dowry is a Princes ayme, 300 - Then, as shee is, for poore and worthlesse I, - How much too worthy! Waken me, _Romont_, - That I may know I dream't and find this vanisht - - _Rom._ Sure, I sleepe not. - - _Roch._ Your sentence life or death. - - _Char._ Faire Beaumelle, can you loue me? - - _Beau._ Yes, my Lord. 305 - - _Enter Nouall, Ponta. Malotine, Lilad. Aymer. All salute_ - - _Char._ You need not question me, if I can you. - You are the fayrest virgin in _Digum_, - And _Rochfort_ is your father. - - _Nou._ What's this change? - - _Roch._ You met my wishes, Gentlemen. - - _Rom._ What make - These dogs in doublets heere? - - _Beau._ A Visitation, Sir. 310 - - _Char._ Then thus, Faire _Beaumelle_, I write my faith - Thus seale it in the sight of Heauen and men. - Your fingers tye my heart-strings with this touch - In true-loue knots, which nought but death shall loose. - And yet these eares (an Embleme of our loues) 315 - Like Cristall riuers indiuidually - Flow into one another, make one source, - Which neuer man distinguish, lesse deuide: - Breath, marry, breath, and kisses, mingle soules - Two hearts, and bodies, heere incorporate: 320 - And though with little wooing I haue wonne - My future life shall be a wooing tyme. - And euery day, new as the bridall one. - Oh Sir I groane vnder your courtesies, - More then my fathers bones vnder his wrongs, 325 - You _Curtius_-like, haue throwne into the gulfe, - Of this his Countries foule ingratitude, - Your life and fortunes, to redeeme their shames. - - _Roch._ No more, my glory, come, let's in and hasten - This celebration. - - _Rom. Mal. Pont. Bau._ All faire blisse vpon it. 330 - - _Exeunt Roch. Char. Rom. Bau. Mal._ - - _Nou._ Mistresse. - - _Beau._ Oh seruant, vertue strengthen me. - Thy presence blowes round my affections vane: - You will vndoe me, if you speake againe. - - _Exit Beaum._ - - _Lilad. Aym._ Heere will be sport for you. This workes. - - _Exeunt Lilad. Aym._ - - _Nou._ Peace, peace, - - _Pont._ One word, my Lord _Nouall_. - - _Nou._ What, thou wouldst mony; there. 335 - - _Pont._ No, Ile none, Ile not be bought a slaue, - A Pander, or a Parasite, for all - Your fathers worth, though you haue sau'd my life, - Rescued me often from my wants, I must not - Winke at your follyes: that will ruine you. 340 - You know my blunt way, and my loue to truth: - Forsake the pursuit of this Ladies honour, - Now you doe see her made another mans, - And such a mans, so good, so popular, - Or you will plucke a thousand mischiefes on you. 345 - The benefits you haue done me, are not lost, - Nor cast away, they are purs'd heere in my heart, - But let me pay you, sir, a fayrer way - Then to defend your vices, or to sooth 'em. - - _Nou._ Ha, ha, ha, what are my courses vnto thee? 350 - Good Cousin _Pontalier_, meddle with that - That shall concerne thyselfe. - - _Exit Nouall._ - - _Pont._ No more but scorne? - Moue on then, starres, worke your pernicious will. - Onely the wise rule, and preuent your ill. - - _Exit. Hoboyes._ - - _Here a passage ouer the Stage, while the Act is playing for the - Marriage of Charalois with Beaumelle, &c._ - - - - -_Actus tertius._ - - -_Scaena prima._ - -[_A Room in Charalois' House_] - -_Enter Nouall Iunior, Bellapert._ - - _Nou. Iu._ Flie not to these excuses: thou hast bin - False in thy promise, and when I haue said - Vngratefull, all is spoke. - - _Bell._ Good my Lord, - But heare me onely. - - _Nou._ To what purpose, trifler? - Can anything that thou canst say, make voyd 5 - The marriage? or those pleasures but a dreame, - Which _Charaloyes_ (oh _Venus_) hath enioyd? - - _Bell._ I yet could say that you receiue aduantage, - In what you thinke a losse, would you vouchsafe me - That you were neuer in the way till now 10 - With safety to arriue at your desires, - That pleasure makes loue to you vnattended - By danger or repentance? - - _Nou._ That I could. - But apprehend one reason how this might be, - Hope would not then forsake me. - - _Bell._ The enioying 15 - Of what you most desire, I say th' enioying - Shall, in the full possession of your wishes, - Confirme that I am faithfull. - - _Nou._ Giue some rellish - How this may appeare possible. - - _Bell._ I will - Rellish, and taste, and make the banquet easie: 20 - You say my Ladie's married. I confesse it, - That Charalois hath inioyed her, 'tis most true - That with her, hee's already Master of - The best part of my old Lords state. Still better, - But that the first, or last, should be your hindrance, 25 - I vtterly deny: for but obserue me: - While she went for, and was, I sweare, a Virgin, - What courtesie could she with her honour giue - Or you receiue with safety--take me with you, - When I say courtesie, doe not think I meane 30 - A kisse, the tying of her shoo or garter, - An houre of priuate conference: those are trifles. - In this word courtesy, we that are gamesters point at - The sport direct, where not alone the louer - Brings his Artillery, but vses it. 35 - Which word expounded to you, such a courtesie - Doe you expect, and sudden. - - _Nou._ But he tasted - The first sweetes, _Bellapert_. - - _Bell._ He wrong'd you shrewdly, - He toyl'd to climbe vp to the _Phoenix_ nest, - And in his prints leaues your ascent more easie. 40 - I doe not know, you that are perfect Crittiques - In womens bookes, may talke of maydenheads. - - _Nou._ But for her marriage. - - _Bell._ 'Tis a faire protection - 'Gainst all arrests of feare, or shame for euer. - Such as are faire, and yet not foolish, study 45 - To haue one at thirteene; but they are mad - That stay till twenty. Then sir, for the pleasure, - To say Adulterie's sweeter, that is stale. - This onely is not the contentment more, - To say, This is my Cuckold, then my Riuall. 50 - More I could say--but briefly, she doates on you, - If it proue otherwise, spare not, poyson me - With the next gold you giue me. - - _Enter Beaumely_ - - _Beau._ Hows this seruant, - Courting my woman? - - _Bell._ As an entrance to - The fauour of the mistris: you are together 55 - And I am perfect in my qu. - - _Beau._ Stay _Bellapert_. - - _Bell._ In this I must not with your leaue obey you. - Your Taylor and your Tire-woman waite without - And stay my counsayle, and direction for - Your next dayes dressing. I haue much to doe, 60 - Nor will your Ladiship know, time is precious, - Continue idle: this choise Lord will finde - So fit imployment for you. - - _Exit Bellap._ - - _Beau._ I shall grow angry. - - _Nou._ Not so, you haue a iewell in her, Madam. - - _Enter againe._ - - _Bell._ I had forgot to tell your Ladiship 65 - The closet is priuate and your couch ready: - And if you please that I shall loose the key, - But say so, and tis done. - - _Exit Bellap._ - - _Baum._ You come to chide me, seruant, and bring with you - Sufficient warrant, you will say and truely, 70 - My father found too much obedience in me, - By being won too soone: yet if you please - But to remember, all my hopes and fortunes - Had reuerence to this likening: you will grant - That though I did not well towards you, I yet 75 - Did wisely for my selfe. - - _Nou._ With too much feruor - I haue so long lou'd and still loue you, Mistresse, - To esteeme that an iniury to me - Which was to you conuenient: that is past - My helpe, is past my cure. You yet may, Lady, 80 - In recompence of all my dutious seruice, - (Prouided that your will answere your power) - Become my Creditresse. - - _Beau._ I vnderstand you, - And for assurance, the request you make - Shall not be long vnanswered. Pray you sit, 85 - And by what you shall heare, you'l easily finde, - My passions are much fitter to desire, - Then to be sued to. - - _Enter Romont and Florimell._ - - _Flor._ Sir, tis not enuy - At the start my fellow has got of me in - My Ladies good opinion, thats the motiue 90 - Of this discouery; but due payment - Of what I owe her Honour. - - _Rom._ So I conceiue it. - - _Flo._ I haue obserued too much, nor shall my silence - Preuent the remedy--yonder they are, - I dare not bee seene with you. You may doe 95 - What you thinke fit, which wil be, I presume, - The office of a faithfull and tryed friend - To my young Lord. - - _Exit Flori._ - - _Rom._ This is no vision: ha! - - _Nou._ With the next opportunity. - - _Beau._ By this kisse, - And this, and this. - - _Nou._ That you would euer sweare thus. 100 - - _Rom._ If I seeme rude, your pardon, Lady; yours - I do not aske: come, do not dare to shew mee - A face of anger, or the least dislike. - Put on, and suddaily a milder looke, - I shall grow rough else. - - _Nou._ What haue I done, Sir, 105 - To draw this harsh vnsauory language from you? - - _Rom._ Done, Popinjay? why, dost thou thinke that if - I ere had dreamt that thou hadst done me wrong, - Thou shouldest outliue it? - - _Beau._ This is something more - Then my Lords friendship giues commission for. 110 - - _Nou._ Your presence and the place, makes him presume - Vpon my patience. - - _Rom._ As if thou ere wer't angry - But with thy Taylor, and yet that poore shred - Can bring more to the making vp of a man, - Then can be hop'd from thee: thou art his creature, 115 - And did hee not each morning new create [thee] - Thou wouldst stinke and be forgotten. Ile not change - On syllable more with thee, vntill thou bring - Some testimony vnder good mens hands, - Thou art a Christian. I suspect thee strongly, 120 - And wilbe satisfied: till which time, keepe from me. - The entertaiment of your visitation - Has made what I intended on a businesse. - - _Nou._ So wee shall meete--Madam. - - _Rom._ Vse that legge again, - And Ile cut off the other. - - _Nou._ Very good. 125 - - _Exit Nouall._ - - _Rom._ What a perfume the Muske-cat leaues behind him! - Do you admit him for a property, - To saue you charges, Lady. - - _Beau._ Tis not vselesse, - Now you are to succeed him. - - _Rom._ So I respect you, - Not for your selfe, but in remembrance of, 130 - Who is your father, and whose wife you now are, - That I choose rather not to vnderstand - Your nasty scoffe then,-- - - _Beau._ What, you will not beate mee, - If I expound it to you. Heer's a Tyrant - Spares neyther man nor woman. - - _Rom._ My intents 135 - Madam, deserue not this; nor do I stay - To be the whetstone of your wit: preserue it - To spend on such, as know how to admire - Such coloured stuffe. In me there is now speaks to you - As true a friend and seruant to your Honour, 140 - And one that will with as much hazzard guard it, - As euer man did goodnesse.--But then Lady, - You must endeauour not alone to bee, - But to appeare worthy such loue and seruice. - - _Beau._ To what tends this? - - _Rom._ Why, to this purpose, Lady, 145 - I do desire you should proue such a wife - To _Charaloys_ (and such a one hee merits) - As Caesar, did hee liue, could not except at, - Not onely innocent from crime, but free - From all taynt and suspition. - - _Beau._ They are base 150 - That iudge me otherwise. - - _Rom._ But yet bee carefull. - Detraction's a bold monster, and feares not - To wound the fame of Princes, if it find - But any blemish in their liues to worke on. - But Ile bee plainer with you: had the people 155 - Bin learnd to speake, but what euen now I saw, - Their malice out of that would raise an engine - To ouerthrow your honor. In my fight - (With yonder pointed foole I frighted from you) - You vs'd familiarity beyond 160 - A modest entertaynment: you embrac'd him - With too much ardor for a stranger, and - Met him with kisses neyther chaste nor comely: - But learne you to forget him, as I will - Your bounties to him, you will find it safer 165 - Rather to be vncourtly, then immodest. - - _Beau._ This prety rag about your necke shews well, - And being coorse and little worth, it speakes you, - As terrible as thrifty. - - _Rom._ Madam. - - _Beau._ Yes. - And this strong belt in which you hang your honor 170 - Will out-last twenty scarfs. - - _Rom._ What meane you, Lady? - - _Beau._ And all else about you Cap a pe - So vniforme in spite of handsomnesse, - Shews such a bold contempt of comelinesse, - That tis not strange your Laundresse in the League, 175 - Grew mad with loue of you. - - _Rom._ Is my free counsayle - Answerd with this ridiculous scorne? - - _Beau._ These obiects - Stole very much of my attention from me, - Yet something I remember, to speake truth, - Deceyued grauely, but to little purpose, 180 - That almost would haue made me sweare, some Curate - Had stolne into the person of _Romont_, - And in the praise of goodwife honesty, - Had read an homely. - - _Rom._ By thy hand. - - _Beau._ And sword, - I will make vp your oath, twill want weight else. 185 - You are angry with me, and poore I laugh at it. - Do you come from the Campe, which affords onely - The conuersation of cast suburbe whores, - To set downe to a Lady of my ranke, - Lymits of entertainment? 190 - - _Rom._ Sure a Legion has possest this woman. - - _Beau._ One stampe more would do well: yet I desire not - You should grow horne-mad, till you haue a wife. - You are come to warme meate, and perhaps cleane linnen: - Feed, weare it, and bee thankefull. For me, know, 195 - That though a thousand watches were set on mee, - And you the Master-spy, I yet would vse, - The liberty that best likes mee. I will reuell, - Feast, kisse, imbreace, perhaps grant larger fauours: - Yet such as liue vpon my meanes, shall know 200 - They must not murmur at it. If my Lord - Bee now growne yellow, and has chose out you - To serue his Iealouzy that way, tell him this, - You haue something to informe him: - - _Exit Beau._ - - _Rom._ And I will. - Beleeue it wicked one I will. Heare, Heauen, 205 - But hearing pardon mee: if these fruts grow - Vpon the tree of marriage, let me shun it, - As a forbidden sweete. An heyre and rich, - Young, beautifull, yet adde to this a wife, - And I will rather choose a Spittle sinner 210 - Carted an age before, though three parts rotten, - And take it for a blessing, rather then - Be fettered to the hellish slauery - Of such an impudence. - - _Enter Baumont with writings._ - - _Bau._ Collonell, good fortune - To meet you thus: you looke sad, but Ile tell you 215 - Something that shall remoue it. Oh how happy - Is my Lord _Charaloys_ in his faire bride! - - _Rom._ A happy man indeede!--pray you in what? - - _Bau._ I dare sweare, you would thinke so good a Lady, - A dower sufficient. - - _Rom._ No doubt. But on. 220 - - _Bau._ So faire, so chaste, so vertuous: so indeed - All that is excellent. - - _Rom._ Women haue no cunning - To gull the world. - - _Bau._ Yet to all these, my Lord - Her father giues the full addition of - All he does now possesse in _Burgundy_: 225 - These writings to confirme it, are new seal'd - And I most fortunate to present him with them, - I must goe seeke him out, can you direct mee? - - _Rom._ You'l finde him breaking a young horse. - - _Bau._ I thanke you. - - _Exit Baumont._ - - _Rom._ I must do something worthy _Charaloys_ friendship. 230 - If she were well inclin'd to keepe her so, - Deseru'd not thankes: and yet to stay a woman - Spur'd headlong by hot lust, to her owne ruine, - Is harder then to prop a falling towre - With a deceiuing reed. - - _Enter Rochfort._ - - _Roch._ Some one seeke for me, 235 - As soone as he returnes. - - _Rom._ Her father! ha? - How if I breake this to him? sure it cannot - Meete with an ill construction. His wisedome - Made powerfull by the authority of a father, - Will warrant and giue priuiledge to his counsailes. 240 - It shall be so--my Lord. - - _Roch._ Your friend _Romont_: - Would you ought with me? - - _Rom._ I stand so engag'd - To your so many fauours, that I hold it - A breach in thankfulnesse, should I not discouer, - Though with some imputation to my selfe, 245 - All doubts that may concerne you. - - _Roch._ The performance - Will make this protestation worth my thanks. - - _Rom._ Then with your patience lend me your attention - For what I must deliuer, whispered onely - You will with too much griefe receiue. - - _Enter Beaumelle, Bellapert._ - - _Beau._ See wench! 250 - Vpon my life as I forespake, hee's now - Preferring his complaint: but be thou perfect, - And we will fit him. - - _Bell._ Feare not mee, pox on him: - A Captaine turne Informer against kissing? - Would he were hang'd vp in his rusty Armour: 255 - But if our fresh wits cannot turne the plots - Of such a mouldy murrion on it selfe; - Rich cloathes, choyse faire, and a true friend at a call, - With all the pleasures the night yeelds, forsake vs. - - _Roch._ This in my daughter? doe not wrong her. - - _Bell._ Now. 260 - Begin. The games afoot, and wee in distance. - - _Beau._ Tis thy fault, foolish girle, pinne on my vaile, - I will not weare those iewels. Am I not - Already matcht beyond my hopes? yet still - You prune and set me forth, as if I were 265 - Againe to please a suyter. - - _Bell._ Tis the course - That our great Ladies take. - - _Rom._ A weake excuse. - - _Beau._ Those that are better seene, in what concernes - A Ladies honour and faire same, condemne it. - You waite well, in your absence, my Lords friend 270 - The vnderstanding, graue and wise _Romont_. - - _Rom._ Must I be still her sport? - - _Beau._ Reproue me for it. - And he has traueld to bring home a iudgement - Not to be contradicted. You will say - My father, that owes more to yeeres then he, 275 - Has brought me vp to musique, language, Courtship, - And I must vse them. True, but not t'offend, - Or render me suspected. - - _Roch._ Does your fine story - Begin from this? - - _Beau._ I thought a parting kisse - From young _Nouall_, would haue displeasd no more 280 - Then heretofore it hath done; but I finde - I must restrayne such fauours now; looke therefore - As you are carefull to continue mine, - That I no more be visited. Ile endure - The strictest course of life that iealousie 285 - Can thinke secure enough, ere my behauiour - Shall call my fame in question. - - _Rom._ Ten dissemblers - Are in this subtile deuill. You beleeue this? - - _Roch._ So farre that if you trouble me againe - With a report like this, I shall not onely 290 - Iudge you malicious in your disposition, - But study to repent what I haue done - To such a nature. - - _Rom._ Why, 'tis exceeding well. - - _Roch._ And for you, daughter, off with this, off with it: - I haue that confidence in your goodnesse, I, 295 - That I will not consent to haue you liue - Like to a Recluse in a cloyster: goe - Call in the gallants, let them make you merry, - Vse all fit liberty. - - _Bell._ Blessing on you. - If this new preacher with the sword and feather 300 - Could proue his doctrine for Canonicall, - We should haue a fine world. - - _Exit Bellapert._ - - _Roch._ Sir, if you please - To beare your selfe as fits a Gentleman, - The house is at your seruice: but if not, - Though you seeke company else where, your absence 305 - Will not be much lamented-- - - _Exit Rochfort._ - - _Rom._ If this be - The recompence of striuing to preserue - A wanton gigglet honest, very shortly - 'Twill make all mankinde Panders--Do you smile, - Good Lady Loosenes? your whole sex is like you, 310 - And that man's mad that seekes to better any: - What new change haue you next? - - _Beau._ Oh, feare not you, sir, - Ile shift into a thousand, but I will - Conuert your heresie. - - _Rom._ What heresie? Speake. - - _Beau._ Of keeping a Lady that is married, 315 - From entertayning seruants.-- - - _Enter Nouall Iu._ _Malatine_, _Liladam_, _Aymer_, _Pontalier_. - - O, you are welcome, - Vae any meanes to vexe him, - And then with welcome follow me. - - _Exit Beau_ - - _Nou._ You are tyr'd - With your graue exhortations, Collonell. - - _Lilad._ How is it? Fayth, your Lordship may doe well, 320 - To helpe him to some Church-preferment: 'tis - Now the fashion, for men of all conditions, - How euer they haue liu'd; to end that way. - - _Aym._ That face would doe well in a surplesse. - - _Rom._ Rogues, - Be silent--or-- - - _Pont._ S'death will you suffer this? 325 - - _Rom._ And you, the master Rogue, the coward rascall, - I shall be with you suddenly. - - _Nou._ _Pontallier_, - If I should strike him, I know I shall kill him: - And therefore I would haue thee beate him, for - Hee's good for nothing else. - - _Lilad._ His backe 330 - Appeares to me, as it would tire a Beadle, - And then he has a knotted brow, would bruise - A courtlike hand to touch it. - - _Aym._ Hee lookes like - A Curryer when his hides grown deare. - - _Pont._ Take heede - He curry not some of you. - - _Nou._ Gods me, hee's angry. 335 - - _Rom._ I breake no Iests, but I can breake my sword - About your pates. - - _Enter Charaloyes and Baumont._ - - _Lilad._ Heeres more. - - _Aym._ Come let's bee gone, - Wee are beleaguerd. - - _Nou._ Looke they bring vp their troups. - - _Pont._ Will you sit downe - With this disgrace? You are abus'd most grosely. 340 - - _Lilad._ I grant you, Sir, we are, and you would haue vs - Stay and be more abus'd. - - _Nou._ My Lord, I am sorry, - Your house is so inhospitable, we must quit it. - - _Exeunt. Manent. Char. Rom._ - - _Cha._ Prethee _Romont_, what caus'd this vprore? - - _Rom._ Nothing. - They laugh'd and vs'd their scuruy wits vpon mee. 345 - - _Char._ Come, tis thy Iealous nature: but I wonder - That you which are an honest man and worthy, - Should softer this suspition: no man laughes; - No one can whisper, but thou apprehend'st - His conference and his scorne reflects on thee: 350 - For my part they should scoffe their thin wits out, - So I not heard 'em, beate me, not being there. - Leaue, leaue these fits, to conscious men, to such - As are obnoxious, to those foolish things - As they can gibe at. - - _Rom._ Well, Sir. - - _Char._ Thou art know'n 355 - Valiant without detect, right defin'd - Which is (as fearing to doe iniury, - As tender to endure it) not a brabbler, - A swearer. - - _Rom._ Pish, pish, what needs this my Lord? - If I be knowne none such, how vainly, you 360 - Do cast away good counsaile? I haue lou'd you, - And yet must freely speake; so young a tutor, - Fits not so old a Souldier as I am. - And I must tell you, t'was in your behalfe - I grew inraged thus, yet had rather dye, 365 - Then open the great cause a syllable further. - - _Cha._ In my behalfe? wherein hath _Charalois_ - Vnfitly so demean'd himselfe, to giue - The least occasion to the loosest tongue, - To throw aspersions on him, or so weakely 370 - Protected his owne honor, as it should - Need a defence from any but himselfe? - They are fools that iudge me by my outward seeming, - Why should my gentlenesse beget abuse? - The Lion is not angry that does sleepe 375 - Nor euery man a Coward that can weepe. - For Gods sake speake the cause. - - _Rom._ Not for the world. - Oh it will strike disease into your bones - Beyond the cure of physicke, drinke your blood, - Rob you of all your rest, contract your sight, 380 - Leaue you no eyes but to see misery, - And of your owne, nor speach but to wish thus - Would I had perish'd in the prisons iawes: - From whence I was redeem'd! twill weare you old, - Before you haue experience in that Art, 385 - That causes your affliction. - - _Cha._ Thou dost strike - A deathfull coldnesse to my hearts high heate, - And shrinkst my liuer like the _Calenture_. - Declare this foe of mine, and lifes, that like - A man I may encounter and subdue it 390 - It shall not haue one such effect in mee, - As thou denouncest: with a Souldiers arme, - If it be strength, Ile meet it: if a fault - Belonging to my mind, Ile cut it off - With mine owne reason, as a Scholler should 395 - Speake, though it make mee monstrous. - - _Rom._ Ile dye first. - Farewell, continue merry, and high Heauen - Keepe your wife chaste. - - _Char._ Hump, stay and take this wolfe - Out of my brest, that thou hast lodg'd there, or - For euer lose mee. - - _Rom._ Lose not, Sir, your selfe. 400 - And I will venture--So the dore is fast. _Locke the dore._ - Now noble _Charaloys_, collect your selfe, - Summon your spirits, muster all your strength - That can belong to man, sift passion, - From euery veine, and whatsoeuer ensues, 405 - Vpbraid not me heereafter, as the cause of - Iealousy, discontent, slaughter and ruine: - Make me not parent to sinne: you will know - This secret that I burne with. - - _Char._ Diuell on't, - What should it be? _Romont_, I heare you wish 410 - My wifes continuance of Chastity. - - _Rom._ There was no hurt in that. - - _Char._ Why? do you know - A likelyhood or possibility vnto the contrarie? - - _Rom._ I know it not, but doubt it, these the grounds - The seruant of your wife now young _Nouall_, 415 - The sonne vnto your fathers Enemy - (Which aggrauates my presumption the more) - I haue been warnd of, touching her, nay, seene them - Tye heart to heart, one in anothers armes, - Multiplying kisses, as if they meant 420 - To pose Arithmeticke, or whose eyes would - Bee first burnt out, with gazing on the others. - I saw their mouthes engender, and their palmes - Glew'd, as if Loue had lockt them, their words flow - And melt each others, like two circling flames, 425 - Where chastity, like a Phoenix (me thought) burn'd, - But left the world nor ashes, nor an heire. - Why stand you silent thus? what cold dull flegme, - As if you had no drop of choller mixt - In your whole constitution, thus preuailes, 430 - To fix you now, thus stupid hearing this? - - _Cha._ You did not see 'em on my Couch within, - Like George a horse-backe on her, nor a bed? - - _Rom._ Noe. - - _Cha._ Ha, ha. - - _Rom._ Laugh yee? eene so did your wife, - And her indulgent father. - - _Cha._ They were wife. 435 - Wouldst ha me be a foole? - - _Rom._ No, but a man. - - _Cha._ There is no dramme of manhood to suspect, - On such thin ayrie circumstance as this - Meere complement and courtship. Was this tale - The hydeous monster which you so conceal'd? 440 - Away, thou curious impertinent - And idle searcher of such leane nice toyes. - Goe, thou sedicious sower of debate: - Fly to such matches, where the bridegroome doubts: - He holds not worth enough to counteruaile 445 - The vertue and the beauty of his wife. - Thou buzzing drone that 'bout my eares dost hum, - To strike thy rankling sting into my heart, - Whose vemon, time, nor medicine could asswage. - Thus doe I put thee off, and confident 450 - In mine owne innocency, and desert, - Dare not conceiue her so vnreasonable, - To put _Nouall_ in ballance against me, - An vpstart cran'd vp to the height he has. - Hence busiebody, thou'rt no friend to me, 455 - That must be kept to a wiues iniury, - - _Rom._ Ist possible? farewell, fine, honest man, - Sweet temper'd Lord adieu: what Apoplexy - Hath knit fence vp? Is this _Romonts_ reward? - Beare witnes the great spirit of my father, 460 - With what a healthfull hope I administer - This potion that hath wrought so virulently, - I not accuse thy wife of act, but would - Preuent her _Praecipuce_, to thy dishonour, - Which now thy tardy sluggishnesse will admit. 465 - Would I had seene thee grau'd with thy great Sire, - Ere liue to haue mens marginall fingers point - At Charaloys, as a lamented story. - An Emperour put away his wife for touching - Another man, but thou wouldst haue thine tasted 470 - And keepe her (I thinke.) Puffe. I am a fire - To warme a dead man, that waste out myselfe. - Bleed--what a plague, a vengeance i'st to mee, - If you will be a Cuckold? Heere I shew - A swords point to thee, this side you may shun, 475 - Or that: the perrill, if you will runne on, - I cannot helpe it. - - _Cha._ Didst thou neuer see me - Angry, _Romont_? - - _Rom._ Yes, and pursue a foe - Like lightening - - _Char._ Prethee see me so no more. - I can be so againe. Put vp thy sword, 480 - And take thy selfe away, lest I draw mine. - - _Rom._ Come fright your foes with this: sir, I am your friend, - And dare stand by you thus. - - _Char._ Thou art not my friend, - Or being so, thou art mad, I must not buy - Thy friendship at this rate; had I iust cause, 485 - Thou knowst I durst pursue such iniury - Through fire, ayre, water, earth, nay, were they all - Shuffled againe to _Chaos_, but ther's none. - Thy skill, _Romont_, consists in camps, not courts. - Farewell, vnciuill man, let's meet no more. 490 - Heere our long web of friendship I vntwist. - Shall I goe whine, walke pale, and locke my wife - For nothing, from her births free liberty, - That open'd mine to me? yes; if I doe - The name of cuckold then, dog me with scorne. 495 - I am a _Frenchman_, no _Italian_ borne. - - _Exit._ - - _Rom._ A dull _Dutch_ rather: fall and coole (my blood) - Boyle not in zeal of thy friends hurt, so high, - That is so low, and cold himselfe in't. Woman, - How strong art thou, how easily beguild? 500 - How thou dost racke vs by the very hornes? - Now wealth I see change manners and the man: - Something I must doe mine owne wrath to asswage, - And note my friendship to an after-age. - - _Exit._ - - - - -_Actus quartus._ - - -_Scaena prima._ - -[_A Room in Nouall's House_] - -_Enter Nouall Iunior, as newly dressed, a Taylor, Barber, Perfumer, -Liladam, Aymour, Page._ - - _Nou._ Mend this a little: pox! thou hast burnt me. oh fie - vpon't, O Lard, hee has made me smell (for - all the world) like a flaxe, or a red headed womans chamber: - powder, powder, powder. - - _Perf._ Oh sweet Lord! 5 - - _Nouall sits in a chaire,_ - - _Page._ That's his Perfumer. - - _Barber orders his haire,_ - - _Tayl._ Oh deare Lord, - - _Perfumer giues powder,_ - - _Page._ That's his Taylor. - - _Taylor sets his clothese._ - - _Nou._ Monsieur _Liladam_, _Aymour_, how allow you the - modell of these clothes? 10 - - _Aym._ Admirably, admirably, oh sweet Lord! assuredly - it's pity the wormes should eate thee. - - _Page._ Here's a fine Cell; a Lord, a Taylor, a Perfumer, a - Barber, and a paire of Mounsieurs: 3 to 3, as little will in the - one, as honesty in the other. S'foote ile into the country 15 - againe, learne to speake truth, drinke Ale, and conuerse with - my fathers Tenants; here I heare nothing all day, but - vpon my soule as I am a Gentleman, and an honest - man. - - _Aym._ I vow and affirme, your Taylor must needs be an expert 20 - Geometrician, he has the Longitude, Latitude, Altitude, - Profundity, euery Demension of your body, so exquisitely, - here's a lace layd as directly, as if truth were a - Taylor. - - _Page._ That were a miracle. 25 - - _Lila._ With a haire breadth's errour, ther's a shoulder - piece cut, and the base of a pickadille in _puncto_. - - _Aym._ You are right, Mounsieur his vestaments fit: as if - they grew vpon him, or art had wrought 'em on the same - loome, as nature fram'd his Lordship as if your Taylor were 30 - deepely read in Astrology, and had taken measure of your - honourable body, with a _Iacobs_ staffe, an _Ephimerides_. - - _Tayl._ I am bound t'ee Gentlemen. - - _Page._ You are deceiu'd, they'll be bound to you, you must 35 - remember to trust 'em none. - - _Nou._ Nay, fayth, thou art a reasonable neat Artificer, giue - the diuell his due. - - _Page._ I, if hee would but cut the coate according to the - cloth still. 40 - - _Nou._ I now want onely my misters approbation, who is - indeed, the most polite punctuall Queene of dressing in all - _Burgundy_. Pah, and makes all other young Ladies appeare, - as if they came from boord last weeke out of the country, - Is't not true, Liladam? 45 - - _Lila._ True my Lord, as if any thing your Lordship could - say, could be othewrise then true. - - _Nou._ Nay, a my soule, 'tis so, what fouler obiect in the - world, then to see a young faire, handsome beauty, vnhandsomely - dighted and incongruently accoutred; or a hopefull 50 - _Cheualier_, vnmethodically appointed, in the externall ornaments - of nature? For euen as the Index tels vs the contents - of stories, and directs to the particular Chapters, euen so - does the outward habit and superficiall order of garments - (in man or woman) giue vs a tast of the spirit, and 55 - demonstratiuely poynt (as it were a manuall note from the margin) - all the internall quality, and habiliment of the soule, and - there cannot be a more euident, palpable, grosse manifestation - of poore degenerate dunghilly blood, and breeding, then - rude, vnpolish'd, disordered and slouenly outside. 60 - - _Page._ An admirable! lecture. Oh all you gallants, that hope - to be saued by your cloathes, edify, edify. - - _Aym._ By the Lard, sweet Lard, thou deseru'st a pension - o' the State. - - _Page._ O th' Taylors, two such Lords were able to spread 65 - Taylors ore the face of a whole kingdome. - - _Nou._ Pox a this glasse! it flatters, I could find in my heart - to breake it. - - _Page._ O saue the glasse my Lord, and breake their heads, - they are the greater flatterers I assure you. 70 - - _Aym._ Flatters, detracts, impayres, yet put it by, - Lest thou deare Lord (_Narcissus_-like) should doate - Vpon thyselfe, and dye; and rob the world - Of natures copy, that she workes forme by. - - _Lila._ Oh that I were the Infanta Queene of Europe, 75 - Who (but thy selfe sweete Lord) shouldst marry me. - - _Nou._ I marry? were there a Queene oth' world, not I. - Wedlocke? no padlocke, horselocke, I weare spurrs _He capers._ - To keepe it off my heeles; yet my _Aymour_, - Like a free wanton iennet i'th meddows, 80 - I looke aboute, and neigh, take hedge and ditch, - Feede in my neighbours pastures, picke my choyce - Of all their faire-maind-mares: but married once, - A man is stak'd, or pown'd, and cannot graze - Beyond his owne hedge. - - _Enter Pontalier, and Malotin._ - - _Pont._ I haue waited, sir, 85 - Three hours to speake w'ee, and not take it well, - Such magpies are admitted, whilst I daunce - Attendance. - - _Lila._ Magpies? what d'ee take me for? - - _Pont._ A long thing with a most vnpromising face. - - _Aym._ I'll ne're aske him what he takes me for? - - _Mal._ Doe not, sir, 90 - For hee'l goe neere to tell you. - - _Pont._ Art not thou - A Barber Surgeon? - - _Barb._ Yes sira why. - - _Pont._ My Lord is sorely troubled with two scabs. - - _Lila._ _Aym._ Humph-- - - _Pont._ I prethee cure him of 'em. - - _Nou._ Pish: no more, 95 - Thy gall sure's ouer throwne; these are my Councell, - And we were now in serious discourse. - - _Pont._ Of perfume and apparell, can you rise - And spend 5 houres in dressing talke, with these? - - _Nou._ Thou 'idst haue me be a dog: vp, stretch and shake, 100 - And ready for all day. - - _Pont._ Sir, would you be - More curious in preseruing of your honour. - Trim, 'twere more manly. I am come to wake - Your reputation, from this lethargy - You let it sleep in, to perswade, importune, 105 - Nay, to prouoke you, sir, to call to account - This Collonell _Romont_, for the foule wrong - Which like a burthen, he hath layd on you, - And like a drunken porter, you sleepe vnder. - 'Tis all the towne talkes, and beleeue, sir, 110 - If your tough sense persist thus, you are vndone, - Vtterly lost, you will be scornd and baffled - By euery Lacquay; season now your youth, - With one braue thing, and it shall keep the odour - Euen to your death, beyond, and on your Tombe, 115 - Sent like sweet oyles and Frankincense; sir, this life - Which once you sau'd, I ne're since counted mine, - I borrow'd it of you; and now will pay it; - I tender you the seruice of my sword - To beare your challenge, if you'll write, your fate: 120 - Ile make mine owne: what ere betide you, I - That haue liu'd by you, by your side will dye. - - _Nou._ Ha, ha, would'st ha' me challenge poore _Romont_? - Fight with close breeches, thou mayst think I dare not. - Doe not mistake me (cooze) I am very valiant, 125 - But valour shall not make me such an Asse. - What vse is there of valour (now a dayes?) - 'Tis sure, or to be kill'd, or to be hang'd. - Fight thou as thy minde moues thee, 'tis thy trade, - Thou hast nothing else to doe; fight with _Romont_? 130 - No i'le not fight vnder a Lord. - - _Pont._ Farewell, sir, - I pitty you. - Such louing Lords walke their dead honours graues, - For no companions fit, but fooles and knaues. - Come _Malotin_. - - _Exeunt Pont. Mal._ - - _Enter Romont._ - - _Lila._ 'Sfoot, _Colbran_, the low gyant. 135 - - _Aym._ He has brought a battaile in his face, let's goe. - - _Page._ _Colbran_ d'ee call him? hee'l make some of you smoake, - I beleeue. - - _Rom._ By your leaue, sirs. - - _Aym._ Are you a Consort? - - _Rom._ D'ee take mee - For a fidler? ya're deceiu'd: Looke. Ile pay you. - - _Kickes 'em._ - - _Page._ It seemes he knows you one, he bumfiddles you so. 140 - - _Lila._ Was there euer so base a fellow? - - _Aym._ A rascall? - - _Lila._ A most vnciuill Groome? - - _Aym._ Offer to kicke a Gentleman, in a Noblemans chamber? - A pox of your manners. 145 - - _Lila._ Let him alone, let him alone, thou shalt lose thy - arme, fellow: if we stirre against thee, hang vs. - - _Page._ S'foote, I thinke they haue the better on him, - though they be kickd, they talke so. - - _Lila._ Let's leaue the mad Ape. 150 - - _Nou._ Gentlemen. - - _Lilad._ Nay, my Lord, we will not offer to dishonour you - so much as to stay by you, since hee's alone. - - _Nou._ Harke you. - - _Aym._ We doubt the cause, and will not disparage you, so 155 - much as to take your Lordships quarrel in hand. Plague on - him, how he has crumpled our bands. - - _Page._ Ile eene away with 'em, for this souldier beates - man, woman, and child. - - _Exeunt. Manent Nou. Rom._ - - _Nou._ What meane you, sir? My people. - - _Rom._ Your boye's gone. 160 - - _Lockes the doore._ - - And doore's lockt, yet for no hurt to you, - But priuacy: call vp your blood againe, sir, - Be not affraid, I do beseach you, sir, - (And therefore come) without, more circumstance - Tell me how farre the passages haue gone 165 - 'Twixt you and your faire Mistresse _Beaumelle_, - Tell me the truth, and by my hope of Heauen - It neuer shall goe further. - - _Nou._ Tell you why sir? - Are you my confessor? - - _Rom._ I will be your confounder, if you doe not. 170 - - _Drawes a pocket dag._ - - Stirre not, nor spend your voyce. - - _Nou._ What will you doe? - - _Rom._ Nothing but lyne your brayne-pan, sir, with lead, - If you not satisfie me suddenly, - I am desperate of my life, and command yours. - - _Nou._ Hold, hold, ile speake. I vow to heauen and you, 175 - Shee's yet vntouch't, more then her face and hands: - I cannot call her innocent; for I yeeld - On my sollicitous wrongs she consented - Where time and place met oportunity - To grant me all requests. - - _Rom._ But may I build 180 - On this assurance? - - _Nou._ As vpon your fayth. - - _Rom._ Write this, sir, nay you must. - - _Drawes Inkehorne and paper._ - - _Nou._ Pox of this Gunne. - - _Rom._ Withall, sir, you must sweare, and put your oath - Vnder your hand, (shake not) ne're to frequent - This Ladies company, nor euer send 185 - Token, or message, or letter, to incline - This (too much prone already) yeelding Lady. - - _Nou._ 'Tis done, sir. - - _Rom._ Let me see, this first is right, - And heere you wish a sudden death may light - Vpon your body, and hell take your soule, 190 - If euer more you see her, but by chance, - Much lesse allure. Now, my Lord, your hand. - - _Nou._ My hand to this? - - _Rom._ Your heart else I assure you. - - _Nou._ Nay, there 'tis. - - _Rom._ So keepe this last article - Of your fayth giuen, and stead of threatnings, sir, 195 - The seruice of my sword and life is yours: - But not a word of it, 'tis Fairies treasure; - Which but reueal'd, brings on the blabbers, ruine. - Vse your youth better, and this excellent forme - Heauen hath bestowed vpon you. So good morrow to your Lordship. 200 - - _Nou._ Good diuell to your rogueship. No man's safe: - Ile haue a Cannon planted in my chamber, _Exit._ - Against such roaring roagues. - - _Enter Bellapert._ - - _Bell._ My Lord away - The Coach stayes: now haue your wish, and iudge, - If I haue been forgetfull. - - _Nou._ Ha? - - _Bell._ D'ee stand 205 - Humming and hawing now? - - _Exit._ - - _Nou._ Sweet wench, I come. - Hence feare, - I swore, that's all one, my next oath 'ile keepe - That I did meane to breake, and then 'tis quit. - No paine is due to louers periury. 210 - If loue himselfe laugh at it, so will I. - - _Exit Nouall._ - - -_Scaena 2._ - -_Enter Charaloys, Baumont._ - -[_An outer Room in Aymer's House_] - - _Bau._ I grieue for the distaste, though I haue manners, - Not to inquire the cause, falne out betweene - Your Lordship and _Romont_. - - _Cha._ I loue a friend, - So long as he continues in the bounds - Prescrib'd by friendship, but when he vsurpes 5 - Too farre on what is proper to my selfe, - And puts the habit of a Gouernor on, - I must and will preserue my liberty. - But speake of something, else this is a theame - I take no pleasure in: what's this _Aymeire_, 10 - Whose voyce for Song, and excellent knowledge in - The chiefest parts of Musique, you bestow - Such prayses on? - - _Bau._ He is a Gentleman, - (For so his quality speakes him) well receiu'd - Among our greatest Gallants; but yet holds 15 - His maine dependance from the young Lord _Nouall_: - Some tricks and crotchets he has in his head, - As all Musicians haue, and more of him - I dare not author: but when you haue heard him, - I may presume, your Lordship so will like him, 20 - That you'l hereafter be a friend to Musique. - - _Cha._ I neuer was an enemy to't, _Baumont_, - Nor yet doe I subscribe to the opinion - Of those old Captaines, that thought nothing musicall, - But cries of yeelding enemies, neighing of horses, 25 - Clashing of armour, lowd shouts, drums, and trumpets: - Nor on the other side in fauour of it, - Affirme the world was made by musicall discord, - Or that the happinesse of our life consists - In a well varied note vpon the Lute: 30 - I loue it to the worth of it, and no further. - But let vs see this wonder. - - _Bau._ He preuents - My calling of him. - - _Aym._ Let the Coach be brought _Enter Aymiere._ - To the backe gate, and serue the banquet vp: - My good Lord _Charalois_, I thinke my house 35 - Much honor'd in your presence. - - _Cha._ To haue meanes - To know you better, sir, has brought me hither - A willing visitant, and you'l crowne my welcome - In making me a witnesse to your skill, - Which crediting from others I admire. 40 - - _Aym._ Had I beene one houre sooner made acquainted - With your intent my Lord, you should haue found me - Better prouided: now such as it is, - Pray you grace with your acceptance. - - _Bau._ You are modest. - Begin the last new ayre. - - _Cha._ Shall we not see them? 45 - - _Aym._ This little distance from the instruments - Will to your eares conuey the harmony - With more delight. - - _Cha._ Ile not consent. - - _Aym._ Y'are tedious, - By this meanes shall I with one banquet please - Two companies, those within and these Guls heere. 50 - - _Song aboue._ - - _Musique and a Song, Beaumelle within--ha, ha, ha._ - - _Cha._ How's this? It is my Ladies laugh! most certaine - When I first pleas'd her, in this merry language, - She gaue me thanks. - - _Bau._ How like you this? - - _Cha._ 'Tis rare, - Yet I may be deceiu'd, and should be sorry 55 - Vpon vncertaine suppositions, rashly - To write my selfe in the blacke list of those - I haue declaym'd against, and to _Romont_. - - _Aym._ I would he were well of--perhaps your Lordship - Likes not these sad tunes, I haue a new Song 60 - Set to a lighter note, may please you better; - Tis cal'd The happy husband. - - _Cha._ Pray sing it. - - _Song below. At the end of the Song, Beaumelle within._ - - _Beau._ Ha, ha, 'tis such a groome. - - _Cha._ Doe I heare this, - And yet stand doubtfull? - - _Exit Chara._ - - _Aym._ Stay him I am vndone, - And they discouered. - - _Bau._ Whats the matter? - - _Aym._ Ah! 65 - That women, when they are well pleas'd, cannot hold, - But must laugh out. - - _Enter Nouall Iu. Charaloys, Beaumley, Bellapert_. - - _Nou._ Helpe, saue me, murrher, murther. - - _Beau._ Vndone foreuer. - - _Cha._ Oh, my heart! - Hold yet a little--doe not hope to scape - By flight, it is impossible: though I might 70 - On all aduantage take thy life, and iustly; - This sword, my fathers sword, that nere was drawne, - But to a noble purpose, shall not now - Doe th' office of a hangman, I reserue it - To right mine honour, not for a reuenge 75 - So poore, that though with thee, it should cut off - Thy family, with all that are allyed - To thee in lust, or basenesse, 'twere still short of - All termes of satisfaction. Draw. - - _Nou._ I dare not, - I haue already done you too much wrong, 80 - To fight in such a cause. - - _Cha._ Why, darest thou neyther - Be honest, coward, nor yet valiant, knaue? - In such a cause come doe not shame thy selfe: - Such whose bloods wrongs, or wrong done to themselues - Could neuer heate, are yet in the defence 85 - Of their whores, daring looke on her againe. - You thought her worth the hazard of your soule, - And yet stand doubtfull in her quarrell, to - Venture your body. - - _Bau._ No, he feares his cloaths, - More then his flesh - - _Cha._ Keepe from me, garde thy life, 90 - Or as thou hast liu'd like a goate, thou shalt - Dye like a sheepe. - - _Nou._ Since ther's no remedy - - _They fight, Nouall is slaine._ - - Despaire of safety now in me proue courage. - - _Cha._ How soone weak wrong's or'throwne! lend me your hand, - Beare this to the Caroach--come, you haue taught me 95 - To say you must and shall: I wrong you not, - Y'are but to keepe him company you loue. - Is't done? 'tis well. Raise officers, and take care, - All you can apprehend within the house - May be forth comming. Do I appeare much mou'd? 100 - - _Bau._ No, sir. - - _Cha._ My griefes are now, Thus to be borne. - Hereafter ile finde time and place to mourne. - - _Exeunt._ - - -_Scaena 3._ - -_Enter Romont, Pontalier._ - -[_A Street_] - - _Pont._ I was bound to seeke you, sir. - - _Rom._ And had you found me - In any place, but in the streete, I should - Haue done,--not talk'd to you. Are you the Captaine? - The hopefull _Pontalier_? whom I haue seene - Doe in the field such seruice, as then made you 5 - Their enuy that commanded, here at home - To play the parasite to a gilded knaue, - And it may be the Pander. - - _Pont._ Without this - I come to call you to account, for what - Is past already. I by your example 10 - Of thankfulnesse to the dead Generall - By whom you were rais'd, haue practis'd to be so - To my good Lord _Nouall_, by whom I liue; - Whose least disgrace that is, or may be offred, - With all the hazzard of my life and fortunes, 15 - I will make good on you, or any man, - That has a hand in't; and since you allowe me - A Gentleman and a souldier, there's no doubt - You will except against me. You shall meete - With a faire enemy, you vnderstand 20 - The right I looke for, and must haue. - - _Rom._ I doe, - And with the next dayes sunne you shall heare from me. - - _Exeunt._ - - -_Scaena 4._ - -_Enter Charalois with a casket, Beaumelle, Baumont._ - -[_A Room in_ Charalois' _House_] - - _Cha._ Pray beare this to my father, at his leasure - He may peruse it: but with your best language - Intreat his instant presence: you haue sworne - Not to reueale what I haue done. - - _Bau._ Nor will I-- - But-- - - _Cha._ Doubt me not, by Heauen, I will doe nothing 5 - But what may stand with honour: Pray you leaue me - To my owne thoughts. If this be to me, rise; - I am not worthy the looking on, but onely - To feed contempt and scorne, and that from you - Who with the losse of your faire name haue caus'd it, 10 - Were too much cruelty. - - _Beau._ I dare not moue you - To heare me speake. I know my fault is farre - Beyond qualification, or excuse, - That 'tis not fit for me to hope, or you - To thinke of mercy; onely I presume 15 - To intreate, you would be pleas'd to looke vpon - My sorrow for it, and beleeue, these teares - Are the true children of my griefe and not - A womans cunning. - - _Cha._ Can you _Beaumelle_, - Hauing deceiued so great a trust as mine, 20 - Though I were all credulity, hope againe - To get beleefe? no, no, if you looke on me - With pity or dare practise any meanes - To make my sufferings lesse, or giue iust cause - To all the world, to thinke what I must doe 25 - Was cal'd vpon by you, vse other waies, - Deny what I haue seene, or iustifie - What you haue done, and as you desperately - Made shipwracke of your fayth to be a whore, - Vse th' armes of such a one, and such defence, 30 - And multiply the sinne, with impudence, - Stand boldly vp, and tell me to my teeth, - You haue done but what's warranted, - By great examples, in all places, where - Women inhabit, vrge your owne deserts, 35 - Or want of me in merit; tell me how, - Your dowre from the lowe gulfe of pouerty, - Weighed vp my fortunes, to what now they are: - That I was purchas'd by your choyse and practise - To shelter you from shame: that you might sinne 40 - As boldly as securely, that poore men - Are married to those wiues that bring them wealth, - One day their husbands, but obseruers euer: - That when by this prou'd vsage you haue blowne - The fire of my iust vengeance to the height, 45 - I then may kill you: and yet say 'twas done - In heate of blood, and after die my selfe, - To witnesse my repentance. - - _Beau._ O my fate, - That neuer would consent that I should see, - How worthy thou wert both of loue and duty 50 - Before I lost you; and my misery made - The glasse, in which I now behold your vertue: - While I was good, I was a part of you, - And of two, by the vertuous harmony - Of our faire minds, made one; but since I wandred 55 - In the forbidden Labyrinth of lust, - What was inseparable, is by me diuided. - With iustice therefore you may cut me off, - And from your memory, wash the remembrance - That ere I was like to some vicious purpose 60 - Within your better iudgement, you repent of - And study to forget. - - _Cha._ O _Beaumelle_, - That you can speake so well, and doe so ill! - But you had been too great a blessing, if - You had continued chast: see how you force me 65 - To this, because my honour will not yeeld - That I againe should loue you. - - _Beau._ In this life - It is not fit you should: yet you shall finde, - Though I was bold enough to be a strumpet, - I dare not yet liue one: let those fam'd matrones 70 - That are canoniz'd worthy of our sex, - Transcend me in their sanctity of life, - I yet will equall them in dying nobly, - Ambitious of no honour after life, - But that when I am dead, you will forgiue me. 75 - - _Cha._ How pity steales vpon me! should I heare her - But ten words more, I were lost--one knocks, go in. - - _Knock within. Exit Beaumelle. Enter Rochfort._ - - That to be mercifull should be a sinne. - O, sir, most welcome. Let me take your cloake, - I must not be denyed--here are your robes, 80 - As you loue iustice once more put them on: - There is a cause to be determind of - That doe's require such an integrity, - As you haue euer vs'd--ile put you to - The tryall of your constancy, and goodnesse: 85 - And looke that you that haue beene Eagle-eyd - In other mens affaires, proue not a Mole - In what concernes your selfe. Take you your seate: - I will be for you presently. - - _Exit._ - - _Roch._ Angels guard me, - To what strange Tragedy does this destruction 90 - Serue for a Prologue? - - _Enter Charaloys with Nouals body. Beaumelle, Baumont._ - - _Cha._ So, set it downe before - The Iudgement seate, and stand you at the bar: - For me? I am the accuser. - - _Roch._ _Nouall_ slayne, - And _Beaumelle_ my daughter in the place - Of one to be arraign'd. - - _Cha._ O, are you touch'd? 95 - I finde that I must take another course, - Feare nothing. I will onely blind your eyes, - For Iustice should do so, when 'tis to meete - An obiect that may sway her equall doome - From what it should be aim'd at.--Good my Lord, 100 - A day of hearing. - - _Roch._ It is granted, speake-- - You shall haue iustice. - - _Cha._ I then here accuse, - Most equall Iudge, the prisoner your faire Daughter, - For whom I owed so much to you: your daughter, - So worthy in her owne parts: and that worth 105 - Set forth by yours, to whose so rare perfections, - Truth witnesse with me, in the place of seruice - I almost pay'd Idolatrous sacrifice - To be a false advltresse. - - _Roch._ With whom? - - _Cha._ With this _Nouall_ here dead. - - _Roch._ Be wel aduis'd 110 - And ere you say adultresse againe, - Her fame depending on it, be most sure - That she is one. - - _Cha._ I tooke them in the act. - I know no proofe beyond it. - - _Roch._ O my heart. - - _Cha._ A Iudge should feele no passions. - - _Roch._ Yet remember 115 - He is a man, and cannot put off nature. - What answere makes the prisoner? - - _Beau._ I confesse - The fact I am charg'd with, and yeeld my selfe - Most miserably guilty. - - _Roch._ Heauen take mercy - Vpon your soule then: it must leaue your body. 120 - Now free mine eyes, I dare vnmou'd looke on her, - And fortifie my sentence, with strong reasons. - Since that the politique law prouides that seruants, - To whose care we commit our goods shall die, - If they abuse our trust: what can you looke for, 125 - To whose charge this most hopefull Lord gaue vp - All he receiu'd from his braue Ancestors, - Or he could leaue to his posterity? - His Honour, wicked woman, in whose safety - All his lifes ioyes, and comforts were locked vp, 130 - With thy lust, a theefe hath now stolne from him, - And therefore-- - - _Cha._ Stay, iust Iudge, may not what's lost - By her owne fault, (for I am charitable, - And charge her not with many) be forgotten - In her faire life hereafter? - - _Roch._ Neuer, Sir. 135 - The wrong that's done to the chaste married bed, - Repentant teares can neuer expiate, - And be assured, to pardon such a sinne, - Is an offence as great as to commit it. - - _Cha._ I may not then forgiue her. - - _Roch._ Nor she hope it. 140 - Nor can she wish to liue no sunne shall rise, - But ere it set, shall shew her vgly lust - In a new shape, and euery on more horrid: - Nay, euen those prayers, which with such humble feruor - She seemes to send vp yonder, are beate backe, 145 - And all suites, which her penitance can proffer, - As soone as made, are with contempt throwne - Off all the courts of mercy. - - _He kills her._ - - _Cha._ Let her die then. - Better prepar'd I am. Sure I could not take her, - Nor she accuse her father, as a Iudge 150 - Partiall against her. - - _Beau._ I approue his sentence, - And kisse the executioner; my lust - Is now run from me in that blood; in which - It was begot and nourished. - - _Roch._ Is she dead then? - - _Cha._ Yes, sir, this is her heart blood, is it not? 155 - I thinke it be. - - _Roch._ And you haue kild here? - - _Cha._ True, - And did it by your doome - - _Roch._ But I pronounc'd it - As a Iudge onely, and friend to iustice, - And zealous in defence of your wrong'd honour, - Broke all the tyes of nature: and cast off 160 - The loue and soft affection of a father. - I in your cause, put on a Scarlet robe - Of red died cruelty, but in returne, - You haue aduanc'd for me no flag of mercy: - I look'd on you, as a wrong'd husband, but 165 - You clos'd your eyes against me, as a father. - O _Beaumelle_, my daughter. - - _Cha._ This is madnesse. - - _Roch._ Keepe from me--could not one good thought rise vp, - To tell you that she was my ages comfort, - Begot by a weake man, and borne a woman, 170 - And could not therefore, but partake of frailety? - Or wherefore did not thankfulnesse step forth, - To vrge my many merits, which I may - Obiect vnto you, since you proue vngratefull, - Flinty-hearted _Charaloys_? - - _Cha._ Nature does preuaile 175 - Aboue your vertue. - - _Roch._ No! it giues me eyes, - To pierce the heart of designe against me. - I finde it now, it was my state was aym'd at, - A nobler match was fought for, and the houres - I liu'd, grew teadious to you: my compassion 180 - Towards you hath rendred me most miserable, - And foolish charity vndone my selfe: - But ther's a Heauen aboue, from whose iust wreake - No mists of policy can hide offendors. - - _Enter Nouall se. with Officers._ - - _Nou. se._ Force ope the doors--O monster, caniball, 185 - Lay hold on him, my sonne, my sonne.--O _Rochfort_, - 'Twas you gaue liberty to this bloody wolfe - To worry all our comforts,--But this is - No time to quarrell; now giue your assistance - For the reuenge. - - _Roch._ Call it a fitter name-- 190 - Iustice for innocent blood. - - _Cha._ Though all conspire - Against that life which I am weary of, - A little longer yet ile striue to keepe it, - To shew in spite of malice, and their lawes, - His plea must speed that hath an honest cause. 195 - - _Exeunt_ - - - - -_Actus quintus._ - - -_Scaena prima._ - -[_A Street_] - -_Enter Liladam_, _Taylor_, _Officers_. - - _Lila_ Why 'tis both most vnconscionable, and vntimely - T'arrest a gallant for his cloaths, before - He has worne them out: besides you sayd you ask'd - My name in my Lords bond but for me onely, - And now you'l lay me vp for't. Do not thinke 5 - The taking measure of a customer - By a brace of varlets, though I rather wait - Neuer so patiently, will proue a fashion - Which any Courtier or Innes of court man - Would follow willingly. - - _Tayl._ There I beleeue you. 10 - But sir, I must haue present moneys, or - Assurance to secure me, when I shall.-- - Or I will see to your comming forth. - - _Lila._ Plague on't, - You haue prouided for my enterance in: - That comming forth you talke of, concernes me. 15 - What shall I doe? you haue done me a disgrace - In the arrest, but more in giuing cause - To all the street, to thinke I cannot stand - Without these two supporters for my armes: - Pray you let them loose me: for their satisfaction 20 - I will not run away. - - _Tayl._ For theirs you will not, - But for your owne you would; looke to them fellows. - - _Lila._ Why doe you call them fellows? doe not wrong - Your reputation so, as you are meerely - A Taylor, faythfull, apt to beleeue in Gallants 25 - You are a companion at a ten crowne supper - For cloth of bodkin, and may with one Larke - Eate vp three manchets, and no man obserue you, - Or call your trade in question for't. But when - You study your debt-booke, and hold correspondence 30 - With officers of the hanger, and leaue swordmen, - The learned conclude, the Taylor and Sergeant - In the expression of a knaue are these - To be _Synonima_. Looke therefore to it, - And let vs part in peace, I would be loth 35 - You should vndoe your selfe. - - _Tayl._ To let you goe - - _Enter old Nouall, and Pontalier._ - - Were the next way. - But see! heeres your old Lord, - Let him but giue his worde I shall be paide, - And you are free. - - _Lila._ S'lid, I will put him to't: - I can be but denied: or what say you? 40 - His Lordship owing me three times your debt, - If you arrest him at my suite, and let me - Goe run before to see the action entred. - 'Twould be a witty iest. - - _Tayl._ I must haue ernest: - I cannot pay my debts so. - - _Pont._ Can your Lordship 45 - Imagine, while I liue and weare a sword, - Your sonnes death shall be reueng'd? - - _Nou. se._ I know not - One reason why you should not doe like others: - I am sure, of all the herd that fed vpon him, - I cannot see in any, now hee's gone, 50 - In pitty or in thankfulnesse one true signe - Of sorrow for him. - - _Pont._ All his bounties yet - Fell not in such vnthankfull ground: 'tis true - He had weakenesses, but such as few are free from, - And though none sooth'd them lesse then I: for now 55 - To say that I foresaw the dangers that - Would rise from cherishing them, were but vntimely. - I yet could wish the iustice that you seeke for - In the reuenge, had been trusted to me, - And not the vncertaine issue of the lawes: 60 - 'Tas rob'd me of a noble testimony - Of what I durst doe for him: but howeuer, - My forfait life redeem'd by him though dead, - Shall doe him seruice. - - _Nou. se._ As farre as my griefe - Will giue me leaue, I thanke you. - - _Lila._ Oh my Lord, 65 - Oh my good Lord, deliuer me from these furies. - - _Pont._ Arrested? This is one of them whose base - And obiect flattery helpt to digge his graue: - He is not worth your pitty, nor my anger. - Goe to the basket and repent. - - _Nou. se._ Away 70 - I onely know now to hate thee deadly: - I will doe nothing for thee. - - _Lila._ Nor you, Captaine. - - _Pont._ No, to your trade againe, put off this case, - It may be the discouering what you were, - When your vnfortunate master tooke you vp, 75 - May moue compassion in your creditor. - Confesse the truth. - - _Exit Nouall se. Pont._ - - _Lila._ And now I thinke on't better, - I will, brother, your hand, your hand, sweet brother. - I am of your sect, and my gallantry but a dreame, - Out of which these two fearefull apparitions 80 - Against my will haue wak'd me. This rich sword - Grew suddenly out of a taylors bodkin; - These hangers from my vailes and fees in Hell: - And where as now this beauer sits, full often - A thrifty cape compos'd of broad cloth lifts, 85 - Nere kin vnto the cushion where I sate. - Crosse-leg'd, and yet vngartred, hath beene seene, - Our breakefasts famous for the buttred loaues, - I haue with ioy bin oft acquainted with, - And therefore vse a conscience, though it be 90 - Forbidden in our hall towards other men, - To me that as I haue beene, will againe - Be of the brotherhood. - - _Offi._ I know him now: - He was a prentice to _Le Robe_ at _Orleance_. - - _Lila._ And from thence brought by my young Lord, now dead, 95 - Vnto _Dijon_, and with him till this houre - Hath bin receiu'd here for a compleate Mounsieur. - Nor wonder at it: for but tythe our gallants, - Euen those of the first ranke, and you will finde - In euery ten, one: peraduenture two, 100 - That smell ranke of the dancing schoole, or fiddle, - The pantofle or pressing yron: but hereafter - Weele talke of this. I will surrender vp - My suites againe: there cannot be much losse, - 'Tis but the turning of the lace, with ones 105 - Additions more you know of, and what wants - I will worke out. - - _Tayl._ Then here our quarrell ends. - The gallant is turn'd Taylor, and all friends. - - _Exeunt._ - - -_Scaena 2._ - -_Enter Romont, Baumont._ - -[_The Court of Justice_] - - _Rom._ You haue them ready. - - _Bau._ Yes, and they will speake - Their knowledg in this cause, when thou thinkst fit - To haue them cal'd vpon. - - _Rom._ 'Tis well, and something - I can adde to their euidence, to proue - This braue reuenge, which they would haue cal'd murther, 5 - A noble Iustice. - - _Bau._ In this you expresse - (The breach by my Lords want of you, new made vp) - A faythfull friend. - - _Rom._ That friendship's rays'd on sand, - Which euery sudden gust of discontent, - Or flowing of our passions can change, 10 - As if it nere had bin: but doe you know - Who are to sit on him? - - _Bau._ Mounsieur _Du Croy_ - Assisted by _Charmi_. - - _Rom._ The Aduocate - That pleaded for the Marshalls funerall, - And was checkt for it by _Nouall_. - - _Bau._ The same 15 - - _Rom._ How fortunes that? - - _Bau._ Why, sir, my Lord _Nouall_ - Being the accuser, cannot be the Iudge, - Nor would grieue _Rochfort_, but Lord _Charaloys_ - (Howeuer he might wrong him by his power,) - Should haue an equall hearing. - - _Rom._ By my hopes 20 - Of _Charaloys_ acquitall, I lament - That reuerent old mans fortune. - - _Bau._ Had you seene him, - As to my griefe I haue now promis'd patience, - And ere it was beleeu'd, though spake by him - That neuer brake his word, inrag'd againe 25 - So far as to make warre vpon those heires - Which not a barbarous Sythian durst presume - To touch, but with a superstitious feare, - As something sacred, and then curse his daughter, - But with more frequent violence himselfe, 30 - As if he had bin guilty of her fault, - By being incredulous of your report, - You would not onely iudge him worrhy pitty, - But suffer with him. - - _Enter Charalois, with Officers._ - - But heere comes the prisoner, - I dare not stay to doe my duty to him, 35 - Yet rest assur'd, all possible meanes in me - To doe him seruice, keepes you company. - - _Exit Bau._ - - _Rom._ It is not doubted. - - _Cha._ Why, yet as I came hither, - The people apt to mocke calamity, - And tread on the oppress'd, made no hornes at me, 40 - Though they are too familiar: I deserue them. - And knowing what blood my sword hath drunke - In wreake of that disgrace, they yet forbare - To shake their heads, or to reuile me for - A murtherer, they rather all put on 45 - (As for great losses the old _Romans_ vs'd) - A generall face of sorrow, waighted on - By a sad murmur breaking through their silence, - And no eye but was readier with a teare - To witnesse 'twas shed for me, then I could 50 - Discerne a face made vp with scorne against me. - Why should I then, though for vnusuall wrongs, - I chose vnusuall meanes to right those wrongs, - Condemne my selfe, as over-partiall - In my owne cause Romont? - - _Rom._ Best friend, well met, 55 - - By my heart's loue to you, and ioyne to that, - My thankfulness that still liues to the dead, - I looke upon you now with more true ioy, - Than when I saw you married. - - _Cha._ You have reason - To give you warrant for't; my falling off 60 - From such a friendship with the scorne that answered - Your too propheticke counsell, may well moue you - To thinke your meeting me going to my death, - A fit encounter for that hate which iustly - I have deseru'd from you. - - _Rom._ Shall I still then 65 - Speake truth, and be ill vnderstood? - - _Cha._ You are not. - I am conscious, I haue wrong'd you, and allow me - Only a morall man to looke on you, - Whom foolishly I haue abus'd and iniur'd, - Must of necessity be more terrible to me, 70 - Than any death the Iudges can pronounce - From the tribunall which I am to plead at. - - _Rom._ Passion transports you. - - _Cha._ For what I haue done - To my false Lady, or _Nouall_, I can - Giue some apparent cause: but touching you, 75 - In my defence, childlike, I can say nothing, - But I am sorry for't, a poore satisfaction: - And yet mistake me not: for it is more - Then I will speake, to haue my pardon sign'd - For all I stand accus'd of. - - _Rom._ You much weaken 80 - The strength of your good cause. Should you but thinke - A man for doing well could entertaine - A pardon, were it offred, you haue giuen - To blinde and slow-pac'd iustice, wings, and eyes - To see and ouertake impieties, 85 - Which from a cold proceeding had receiu'd - Indulgence or protection. - - _Cha._ Thinke you so? - - _Rom._ Vpon my soule nor should the blood you chalenge - And took to cure your honour, breed more scruple - In your soft conscience, then if your sword 90 - Had bin sheath'd in a Tygre, or she Beare, - That in their bowels would haue made your tombe - To iniure innocence is more then murther: - But when inhumane lusts transforme vs, then - Like beasts we are to suffer, not like men 95 - To be lamented. Nor did _Charalois_ euer - Performe an act so worthy the applause - Of a full theater of perfect men, - As he hath done in this: the glory got - By ouerthrowing outward enemies, 100 - Since strength and fortune are maine sharers in it, - We cannot but by pieces call our owne: - But when we conquer our intestine foes, - Our passions breed within vs, and of those - The most rebellious tyrant powerfull loue, 105 - Our reason suffering vs to like no longer - Then the faire obiect being good deserues it, - That's a true victory, which, were great men - Ambitious to atchieue, by your example - Setting no price vpon the breach of fayth, 110 - But losse of life, 'twould fright adultery - Out of their families, and make lust appeare - As lothsome to vs in the first consent, - As when 'tis wayted on by punishment. - - _Cha._ You haue confirm'd me. Who would loue a woman 115 - That might inioy in such a man, a friend? - You haue made me know the iustice of my cause, - And mark't me out the way, how to defend it. - - _Rom._ Continue to that resolution constant, - And you shall, in contempt of their worst malice, 120 - Come off with honour. Heere they come. - - _Cha._ I am ready. - - -_Scaena 3._ - -_Enter Du Croy_, _Charmi_, _Rochfort_, _Nouall se._ _Pontalier_, -_Baumont_. - - _Nou. se._ See, equall Iudges, with what confidence - The cruel murtherer stands, as if he would - Outface the Court and Iustice! - - _Roch._ But looke on him. - And you shall find, for still methinks I doe, - Though guilt hath dide him black, something good in him, 5 - That may perhaps worke with a wiser man - Then I haue beene, againe to set him free - And giue him all he has. - - _Charmi._ This is not well. - I would you had liu'd so, my Lord that I, - Might rather haue continu'd your poore seruant, 10 - Then sit here as your Iudge. - - _Du Croy_ I am sorry for you. - - _Roch._ In no act of my life I haue deseru'd - This iniury from the court, that any heere - Should thus vnciuilly vsurpe on what - Is proper to me only. - - _Du Cr._ What distaste 15 - Receiues my Lord? - - _Roch._ You say you are sorry for him: - A griefe in which I must not haue a partner: - 'Tis I alone am sorry, that I rays'd - The building of my life for seuenty yeeres - Vpon so sure a ground, that all the vices 20 - Practis'd to ruine man, though brought against me, - Could neuer vndermine, and no way left - To send these gray haires to the graue with sorrow. - Vertue that was my patronesse betrayd me: - For entring, nay, possessing this young man, 25 - It lent him such a powerfull Maiesty - To grace what ere he vndertooke, that freely - I gaue myselfe vp with my liberty, - To be at his disposing; had his person - Louely I must confesse, or far fain'd valour, 30 - Or any other seeming good, that yet - Holds a neere neyghbour-hood, with ill wrought on me, - I might haue borne it better: but when goodnesse - And piety it selfe in her best figure - Were brib'd to by destruction, can you blame me, 35 - Though I forget to suffer like a man, - Or rather act a woman? - - _Bau._ Good my Lord. - - _Nou. se._ You hinder our proceeding. - - _Charmi._ And forget - The parts of an accuser. - - _Bau._ Pray you remember - To vse the temper which to me you promis'd. 40 - - _Roch._ Angels themselues must breake _Baumont_, that promise - Beyond the strength and patience of Angels. - But I haue done, my good Lord, pardon me - A weake old man, and pray adde to that - A miserable father, yet be carefull 45 - That your compassion of my age, nor his, - Moue you to anything, that may dis-become - The place on which you sit. - - _Charmi._ Read the Inditement. - - _Cha._ It shall be needelesse, I my selfe, my Lords, - Will be my owne accuser, and confesse 50 - All they can charge me with, or will I spare - To aggrauate that guilt with circumstance - They seeke to loade me with: onely I pray, - That as for them you will vouchsafe me hearing: - I may not be, denide it for my selfe, 55 - When I shall vrge by what vnanswerable reasons - I was compel'd to what I did, which yet - Till you haue taught me better, I repent not. - - _Roch._ The motion honest. - - _Charmi._ And 'tis freely granted. - - _Cha._ Then I confesse my Lords, that I stood bound, 60 - When with my friends, euen hope it selfe had left me - To this mans charity for my liberty, - Nor did his bounty end there, but began: - For after my enlargement, cherishing - The good he did, he made me master of 65 - His onely daughter, and his whole estate: - Great ties of thankfulnesse I must acknowledge, - Could any one freed by you, presse this further - But yet consider, my most honourd Lords, - If to receiue a fauour, make a seruant, 70 - And benefits are bonds to tie the taker - To the imperious will of him that giues, - Ther's none but slaues will receiue courtesie, - Since they must fetter vs to our dishonours. - Can it be cal'd magnificence in a Prince, 75 - To powre downe riches, with a liberall hand, - Vpon a poore mans wants, if that must bind him - To play the soothing parasite to his vices? - Or any man, because he sau'd my hand, - Presume my head and heart are at his seruice? 80 - Or did I stand ingag'd to buy my freedome - (When my captiuity was honourable) - By making my selfe here and fame hereafter, - Bondslaues to mens scorne and calumnious tongues? - Had his faire daughters mind bin like her feature, 85 - Or for some little blemish I had sought - For my content elsewhere, wasting on others - My body and her dowry; my forhead then - Deseru'd the brand of base ingratitude: - But if obsequious vsage, and faire warning 90 - To keepe her worth my loue, could preserue her - From being a whore, and yet no cunning one, - So to offend, and yet the fault kept from me? - What should I doe? let any freeborne spirit - Determine truly, if that thankfulnesse, 95 - Choise forme with the whole world giuen for a dowry, - Could strengthen so an honest man with patience, - As with a willing necke to vndergoe - The insupportable yoake of slaue or wittoll. - - _Charmi._ What proofe haue you she did play false, besides 100 - your oath? - - _Cha._ Her owne confession to her father. - I aske him for a witnesse. - - _Roch._ 'Tis most true. - I would not willingly blend my last words - With an vntruth. - - _Cha._ And then to cleere my selfe, - That his great wealth was not the marke I shot at, 105 - But that I held it, when faire _Beaumelle_ - Fell from her vertue, like the fatall gold - Which _Brennus_ tooke from _Delphos_, whose possession - Brought with it ruine to himselfe and Army. - Heer's one in Court, _Baumont_, by whom I sent 110 - All graunts and writings backe, which made it mine, - Before his daughter dy'd by his owne sentence, - As freely as vnask'd he gaue it to me. - - _Bau._ They are here to be seene. - - _Charmi._ Open the casket. - Peruse that deed of gift. - - _Rom._ Halfe of the danger 115 - Already is discharg'd: the other part - As brauely, and you are not onely free, - But crownd with praise for euer. - - _Du Croy._ 'Tis apparent. - - _Charmi._ Your state, my Lord, againe is yours. - - _Roch._ Not mine, - I am not of the world, if it can prosper, 120 - (And being iustly got, Ile not examine - Why it should be so fatall) doe you bestow it - On pious vses. Ile goe seeke a graue. - And yet for proofe, I die in peace, your pardon - I aske, and as you grant it me, may Heauen 125 - Your conscience, and these Iudges free you from - What you are charg'd with. So farewell for euer.-- - - _Exit Roch._ - - _Nouall se._ Ile be mine owne guide. Passion, nor example - Shall be my leaders. I haue lost a sonne, - A sonne, graue Iudges, I require his blood 130 - From his accursed homicide. - - _Charmi._ What reply you - In your defence for this? - - _Cha._ I but attended - Your Lordships pleasure. For the fact, as of - The former, I confesse it, but with what - Base wrongs I was vnwillingly drawne to it, 135 - To my few wordes there are some other proofes - To witnesse this for truth, when I was married: - For there I must begin. The slayne _Nouall_ - Was to my wife, in way of our French courtship, - A most deuoted seruant, but yet aym'd at 140 - Nothing but meanes to quench his wanton heate, - His heart being neuer warm'd by lawfull fires - As mine was (Lords:) and though on these presumptions, - Ioyn'd to the hate betweene his house and mine, - I might with opportunity and ease 145 - Haue found a way for my reuenge, I did not; - But still he had the freedome as before - When all was mine, and told that he abus'd it - With some vnseemely licence, by my friend - My appou'd friend _Romont_, I gaue no credit 150 - To the reporter, but reprou'd him for it - As one vncourtly and malicious to him. - What could I more, my Lords? yet after this - He did continue in his first pursute - Hoter then euer, and at length obtaind it; 155 - But how it came to my most certaine knowledge, - For the dignity of the court and my owne honour - I dare not say. - - _Nou. se._ If all may be beleeu'd - A passionate prisoner speakes, who is so foolish - That durst be wicked, that will appeare guilty? 160 - No, my graue Lords: in his impunity - But giue example vnto iealous men - To cut the throats they hate, and they will neuer - Want matter or pretence for their bad ends. - - _Charmi._ You must find other proofes to strengthen these 165 - But more presumptions. - - _Du Croy._ Or we shall hardly - Allow your innocence. - - _Cha._ All your attempts - Shall fall on me, like brittle shafts on armour, - That breake themselues; or like waues against a rocke, - That leaue no signe of their ridiculous fury 170 - But foame and splinters, my innocence like these - Shall stand triumphant, and your malice serue - But for a trumpet; to proclaime my conquest - Nor shall you, though you doe the worst fate can, - How ere condemne, affright an honest man. 175 - - _Rom._ May it please the Court, I may be heard. - - _Nou. se._ You come not - To raile againe? but doe, you shall not finde, - Another _Rochfort_. - - _Rom._ In _Nouall_ I cannot. - But I come furnished with what will stop - The mouth of his conspiracy against the life 180 - Of innocent _Charaloys_. Doe you know this Character? - - _Nou. se._ Yes, 'tis my sonnes. - - _Rom._ May it please your Lordships, reade it, - And you shall finde there, with what vehemency - He did sollicite _Beaumelle_, how he had got - A promise from her to inioy his wishes, 185 - How after he abiur'd her company, - And yet, but that 'tis fit I spare the dead, - Like a damnd villaine, assoone as recorded, - He brake that oath, to make this manifest - Produce his bands and hers. - - _Enter Aymer_, _Florimell_, _Bellapert_. - - _Charmi._ Haue they tooke their oathes? 190 - - _Rom._ They haue; and rather then indure the racke, - Confesse the time, the meeting, nay the act; - What would you more? onely this matron made - A free discouery to a good end; - And therefore I sue to the Court, she may not 195 - Be plac'd in the blacke list of the delinquents. - - _Pont._ I see by this, Nouals reuenge needs me, - And I shall doe. - - _Charmi._ 'Tis euident. - - _Nou. se._ That I - Till now was neuer wretched, here's no place - To curse him or my stars. - - _Exit Nouall senior._ - - _Charmi._ Lord _Charalois_, 200 - The iniurie: you haue sustain'd, appeare - So worthy of the mercy of the Court, - That notwithstanding you haue gone beyond - The letter of the Law, they yet acquit you. - - _Pont._ But in Nouall, I doe condemne him thus. 205 - - _Cha._ I am slayne. - - _Rom._ Can I looke on? Oh murderous wretch, - Thy challenge now I answere. So die with him. - - _Charmi._ A guard: disarme him. - - _Rom._ I yeeld vp my sword - Vnforc'd. Oh _Charaloys_. - - _Cha._ For shame, _Romont_, - Mourne not for him that dies as he hath liu'd, 210 - Still constant and vnmou'd: what's falne vpon me, - Is by Heauens will, because I made my selfe - A Iudge in my owne cause without their warrant: - But he that lets me know thus much in death, - With all good men forgiue mee. - - _Pont._ I receiue 215 - The vengeance, which my loue not built on vertue, - Has made me worthy, worthy of. - - _Charmi._ We are taught - By this sad president, how iust foeuer - Our reasons are to remedy our wrongs, - We are yet to leaue them to their will and power, 220 - That to that purpose haue authority. - For you, _Romont_, although in your excuse - You may plead, what you did, was in reuenge - Of the dishonour done vnto the Court: - Yet since from vs you had not warrant for it, 225 - We banish you the State: for these, they shall, - As they are found guilty or innocent, - Be set free, or suffer punishment. - - _Exeunt omnes._ - - -_FINIS_ - - - - -First Song. - - _Fie, cease to wonder, - Though you are heare Orpheus with his Iuory Lute, - Moue Trees and Rockes. - Charme Buls, Beares, and men more sauage to be mute, - Weake foolish singer, here is one, 5 - Would haue transform'd thy selfe, to stone._ - - -Second Song. - -A Dialogue betweene _Nouall_, and _Beaumelle_. - - _Man._ - - _Set_ Phoebus, _set, a fayrer sunne doth rise, - From the bright Radience of my Mrs. eyes - Then euer thou begat'st. I dare not looke, - Each haire a golden line, each word a hooke, - The more I striue, the more I still am tooke._ 5 - - Wom. - - _Fayre seruant, come, the day these eyes doe lend - To warme thy blood, thou doest so vainely spend. - Come strangled breath._ - - Man. - - _What noate so sweet as this, - That calles the spirits to a further blisse?_ - - Wom. - - _Yet this out-sauours wine, and this Perfume._ 10 - - Man. - - _Let's die, I languish, I consume._ - - -CITTIZENS SONG OF THE COURTIER. - - _Courtier, if thou needs wilt wiue, - From this lesson learne to thriue. - If thou match a Lady, that - Passes thee in birth and state, - Let her curious garments be 5 - Twice aboue thine owne degree; - This will draw great eyes vpon her, - Get her seruants and thee honour._ - - -COURTIERS SONG OF THE CITIZEN. - - _Poore Citizen, if thou wilt be - A happy husband, learne of me; - To set thy wife first in thy shop, - A faire wife, a kinde wife, a sweet wife, sets a poore man vp. - What though thy shelues be ne're so bare: 5 - A woman still is currant ware: - Each man will cheapen, foe, and friend, - But whilst thou art at tother end, - What ere thou seest, or what dost heare, - Foole, haue no eye to, nor an eare; 10 - And after supper for her sake, - When thou hast fed, snort, though thou wake: - What though the Gallants call thee mome? - Yet with thy lanthorne light her home: - Then looke into the town and tell, 15 - If no such Tradesmen there doe dwell._ - - - - -NOTES - - -[_Dramatis personae._] _Charalois_--the name _Charalois_ is a -corruption of _Charolais_, the Count of Charolais being the hereditary -title of the heir-apparent of the Duchy of Burgundy, for whom the -county of Charolais, an arrière-fief of Burgundy, was reserved as an -appanage. This domain had been purchased by Philip the Bold for his -son, John the Fearless. - -I, i, 4. _argue me of_--obsolete construction: "accuse me of." Cf. Ray, -_Disc._ II, v, 213: "Erroneously argues Hubert Thomas ... of a mistake." - -I, i, 7. _dispence with_--give special exemption from. Cf. I, ii, 87. - -I, i, 33. _This such_--_This_ for _this is_ is a common Elizabethan -construction. Cf. "O this the poison of deep grief"--_Hamlet_, IV, v, -76; "This a good block"--_Lear_, IV, vi, 187. - -I, i, 45. _tooke vp_--borrowed. Cf. Shakespeare, _Henry IV, Part II_, -I, ii, 46: "if a man is through with them in honest taking up, they -stand upon security." - -I, i, 55-6. _Your sable habit, with the hat and cloak ... haue -power_--the details of hat, cloak, and ribbons, interposed between -subject and verb, have attracted the latter into the plural, to the -violation of its agreement with its substantive. - -I, i, 70. _in that_--i. e., in the fact that justice had no such guards. - -I, i, 73-7. For the allusion to _Cerberus_ and the _sops_, cf. Virgil's -picture of Aeneas' journey to Hades (Aeneid, VI, 417-425): "Huge -Cerberus makes these realms to resound with barking from his tripple -jaws, stretched at his enormous length in a den that fronts the gate. -To whom the prophetess, seeing his neck now bristle with horrid snakes, -flings a soporific cake of honey and medicated grain. He, in the mad -rage of hunger, opening his three mouths, snatches the offered morsel, -and, spread on the ground, relaxes his monstrous limbs, and is extended -at vast length over all the cave. Aeneas, now that the keeper [of Hell] -is buried [in sleep], seizes the passage and swift overpasses the bank -of that flood whence there is no return."--_Davidson's trans._ - -I, i, 75. _fertyle headed--many headed_, _fertyle_ is used in the now -obsolete sense of _abundant_. - -I, i, 92. _such, whose_--for the construction, cf. Shakespeare: "Such I -will have, whom I am sure he knows not from the enemy."--_All's Well_, -III, iv, 24. - -I, i, 99. _men religious_--the adjective is regularly placed after its -noun in Eliz. Eng. when the substantive is unemphatic and the modifier -not a mere epithet, but essential to the sense. See Abbott, S. G. § 419. - -I, i, 137-8.--The thought of these lines is undeveloped, the phrasing -being broken and disconnected. It is a scornful observation on the -part of Romont that whether or not Novall takes papers depends on how -the matter is brought before him--and he is about to add that there is -a way in which Charalois can manage to gain his point, when he breaks -off with the cry, "Follow him!" _Conuayance_ = contrivance. - -I, i, 164. _parchment toils_--snares in the shape of documents upon -parchment, such as bonds, mortgages, etc. - -I, i, 166. _Luxury_--used here in the modern sense,--not, as more -commonly in Elizabethan times, with the meaning, _laciviousness_, -_lust_. The thought of the somewhat involved period which ends with -this line is, that the creditors prayed only on an occasion when they -feared to lose their clutch on some rich spendthrift--on which occasion -they would pray to the devil to invent some new and fantastic pleasure -which would lure their victim back into the toils. - -I, ii, 11. _Dijon_--the scene of the drama,--situated on the western -border of the fertile plain of Burgundy, and at the confluence of the -Ouche and the Suzon. It was formerly the capital of the province of -Burgundy, the dukes of which acquired it early in the eleventh century, -and took up their residence there in the thirteenth century. For the -decoration of the palace and other monuments built by them, eminent -artists were gathered from northern France and Flanders, and during -this period the town became one of the great intellectual centers of -France. The union of the duchy with the crown in 1477 deprived Dijon -of the splendor of the ducal court, but to counterbalance this loss it -was made the capital of the province and the seat of a _parlement_. -To-day it possesses a population of some 65,000, and is a place of -considerable importance. - -I, ii, 21-3. _Nor now ... that I vndertooke, forsake it._--The -expression is elliptical, the verb of the preceding period being in -the future indicative--whereas here the incomplete verb is in the -conditional mood. In full: _Nor now ... that I undertook, would I -forsake it._ - -I, ii, 56. _determine of--of_ is the preposition in obs. usage which -follows _determine_ used, as here, in the sense of _decide_, _come to a -judicial decision_, _come to a decision on_ (_upon_). Cf. IV, iv, 82. - -I, ii, 57. _to_--in addition to. - -I, ii, 66. _become_--modern editors, beginning with Mason, read -_became_; but _become_ may be taken as a variant form of the past -tense (or even as participle for _having become_, with nom. absolute -construction, though this is less likely). - -I, ii, 91-2. _May force you ... plead at_--i. e. "may cause your -dismissal from the bar." - -I, ii, 107. _purple-colour'd_--Novall wears the official red robe of -judge. - -I, ii, 123-4. _the subtill Fox of France, The politique Lewis_--Louis -XI of France, an old enemy of Burgundy. - -I, ii, 127. _If that_, etc.--Gradually, as the interrogatives were -recognized as relatives, the force of _that_, _so_, _as_, in "when -_that_", "when _so_", "when _as_", seems to have tended to make the -relative more general and indefinite; "who so" being now nearly (and -once quite) as indefinite as "whosoever."... In this sense, by analogy, -_that_ was attached to other words, such as "if", "though", "why", -etc.--Abbott, S. G. § 287. - -Cf. - - "If that rebellion - Came like itself, in base and abject routs." - - _Henry IV, Part_ II, IV, i, 32. - -The same construction appears in V, iii, 95. - -I, ii, 163. _Writ man_--i. e., wrote himself down as a man. - -I, ii, 170. _Granson_, _Morat_, _Nancy_--the "three memorable -overthrows" which Charles the Bold suffered at the hands of the Swiss -cantons and Duke René of Loraine. The battle of Granson took place -March 3, 1476; that of Morat, June 22, 1476; that of Nancy, January -5, 1477. On each occasion the army of Charles was annihilated; and -finally at Nancy he was himself slain. These defeats ended the power of -Burgundy. - -I, ii, 171. _The warlike Charloyes_--Charles the Bold, the Duke of -Burgundy. - -I, ii, 185. _Ill ayres_--noxious exhalations, miasma. - -I, ii, 194-5. _They are onely good men, that pay what they owe._ - - 2 Cred. _And so they are._ - - 1 Cred. _'Tis the City Doctrine._ - -Cf. Shakespeare in _The Merchant of Venice_, I, iii, 12 ff.: - - "_Shy._ Antonio is a good man. - - _Bass._ Have you heard any imputation to the contrary? - - _Shy._ Ho, no, no, no, no! My meaning in saying he is a good man is - to have you understand me that he is sufficient." - -I, ii, 201. _right_--so in all texts. With this word the meaning is -perfectly plain, but the substitution, in its place, of _weight_ would -better sustain the figure used in the preceding line. _Weight_ is a -word which it is not unlikely the printer would mis-read from the Ms. -as _right_. - -I, ii, 207. _in your danger_--regularly, "in your power", "at your -mercy"; so here, "in your debt". - -I, ii, 245. _As_--used here in its demonstrative meaning, to introduce -a parenthetical clause. Cf. Abbott, S. G. § 110. - -II, i, 13. _sits_--the common Elizabethan 3rd. person plural in _s_, -generally and without warrant altered by modern editors. See Abbott, -S. G. § 333. Cf. _keepes_, V, ii, 37. - -II, i, 28. _was--monies_ is taken in the collective sense. - -II, i, 46. _interd a liuely graue_--i. e., _enter'd a lively_ -[_living_] _grave_. G., who first prints it so, considers he has made a -change in the first word, taking it in the Q. for _interr'd_, as does -M., who suggests in a footnote the reading: _enters alive the grave_. -But _interd_ may be, and is best, taken as merely an old spelling for -_enter'd_, naturally attracted to the _i_-form by the presence of the -word _interment_ in the preceding line. - -II, i, 63. _Remember best, forget not gratitude_--ellipsis for: -_Remember best who forget not gratitude_. Modern usage confines the -omission of the relative mostly to the objective. In Eliz. Eng., -however, the nominative relative was even more frequently omitted, -especially when the antecedent clause was emphatic and evidently -incomplete, and where the antecedent immediately preceded the verb to -which the relative would be subject. See Abbott, S. G., § 244. - -Cf. III, i, 134-5; i, 139; i, 332; IV, ii, 61. - -II, i, 65. _viperous_--according to various classical authorities -[e. g., Pliny, X, 82], the young of vipers eat their way forth to light -through the bowels of their dam. The figure here seems to be somewhat -confused, as the dead hero is the _son_ of the country, his mother, -who devours _him_. The thought, perhaps, in the mind of the dramatist, -albeit ill-expressed, was that the mother-country owed her existence to -her son, and, viper-like had devoured the author of her life. - -II, i, 66. _eate_--owing to the tendency to drop the inflectional -ending _-en_, the Elizabethans frequently used the curtailed forms of -past participles, which are common in Early English: "I have spoke, -forgot, writ, chid," etc.--Abbott, S. G., § 343. Cf. _broke_, II, ii, -27; _spoke_, III, i, 3; _begot_, IV, iv, 154; 170. - -II, i, 83. _golden calf_--the figure, from its immediate application -to _a dolt of great wealth_, is transferred to the false god whom the -children of Israel worshipped at the foot of Mount Sinaï. - -II, i, 93-4. _Would they not so_, etc.--the Q. reading is to be -preferred to either of the modern emendations. It is probably in the -sense of "Would they no more but so?", with the ensuing declaration -that in that case they would keep their tears to stop (fill?) bottles -(probably meaning lachrimatories or phials used in ancient times for -the preservation of tears of mourning). - -II, i, 98-9. _Y'are ne're content, Crying nor laughing_--The meaning -is, of course: "You are never content with us, whether we are crying or -laughing." - -II, i, 100. _Both with a birth_--i. e., both together, at the same time. - -II, i, 137. _Burmudas_--The Bermuda islands, known only through the -tales of early navigators who suffered shipwreck there, enjoyed a -most unsavory reputation in Elizabethan times, as being the seat of -continual tempests, and the surrounding waters "a hellish sea for -thunder, lightning, and storms." Cf. Shakespeare, _The Tempest_, I, ii, -269: "the still-vexed Bermoothes." They were said to be enchanted, and -inhabited by witches and devils. They were made famous by the shipwreck -there in 1609 of Sir George Somers; the following year one of his -party, Sil. Jordan, published _A Discovery of the Bermudas, otherwise -called the Isle of Devils_. - -Field has another reference to "the Barmuthoes" in _Amends for Ladies_, -III, iv; but there it is not clear whether he means the islands or -certain narrow passages north of Covent Garden, which went by the slang -name of "the Bermudas" or "the Streights." It _is_ in this latter sense -that the word is used in Jonson's _The Devil is an Ass_, II, i. - -II, i, 139. _Exact the strictnesse_--i. e., require a strict -enforcement of the sentence which limits Charalois to the confines of -the prison. - -II, i, 144. _vsurers relief_, etc.--a rather awkward expression, so -phrased for the sake of the end-scene rhyme. The thought seems to be: -"The relief which usurers have to offer mourns, if the debtors have -(exhibit) too much grief." Charalois' remark is, of course, ironical. - -II, ii, 10. _electuary_--a medicinal conserve or paste, consisting of -a powder or some other ingredient mixed with honey, preserve, or syrup -of some other kind. Beaumelle means that Florimal is the medicine and -Bellapert the sweet which makes it palatable. - -II, ii, 17. _serue_--G. and S. read _served_, which is certainly -correct. Not only is there nothing throughout the play to suggest that -Beaumelle's mother is still alive, but she herself has just spoken of -"you two my women" (l. 11). - -II, ii, 18. _a peepe out_--a "pip" [old spelling _peepe_] is one of the -spots on playing cards, dice, or dominoes. The allusion is to a game of -cards called "one-and-thirty"; thirty-two is a pip too many. - -II, ii, 21-2. _the mother of the maydes_--a title properly applied to -the head of the maids of honour in a Royal household. - -II, ii, 22. _mortifie_--there is a significant ambiguity to the word -Bellapert uses. It means "bring into subjection," "render dead to the -world and the flesh;" it formerly had also a baleful meaning: "to -kill;" "to destroy the vitality, vigor, or activity of." - -II, ii, 32. _vanuable, to make you thus--valuable_ is used in its -generic sense of _value-able_, _of sufficient value_. - -II, ii, 71. _turn'd in her varieties_--G., S. read: _trimm'd in her -varieties_--i. e., "decked in her varieties [varied aspects]." But -adherence to the Q. is possible, with the meaning, "fashioned in her -varieties." - -II, ii, 82. _walkes not vnder a weede_--i. e., "wears not a garment," -"is not in existence." - -II, ii, 88. _Tissue_--a rich kind of cloth, often interwoven with gold -or silver. So again in II, ii, 175. - -II, ii, 89. _a three-leg'd lord_--the meaning is that Young Novall -cannot independently "stand upon his own legs," but requires the triple -support of himself, Liladam, and Aymer. - -II, ii, 96. _musicke house_--a public hall or saloon for musical -performances. - -II, ii, 99-100. _in the Galley foyst_, etc.--a Galley-foist was a state -barge, especially that of the Lord Mayor of London. This, however, can -hardly be the meaning of the word here, used as it is in connection -with _Bullion_, which were trunk-hose, puffed out at the upper part, -in several folds; and with _Quirpo_, a variant of _cuerpo_--i. e., _in -undress_. "Galley-foist" may be the name of some dress of the period, -so-called for its resemblance to the gaily bedecked Mayor's-barge. But -it is not unlikely, as Mason suggests, that _The Galley-foist_ and _The -Bullion_ were the names of taverns of that day; or else of houses of -public resort for some kind of amusement. - -II, ii, 104. _skip_--so in all texts. But Field has elsewhere (_Woman -is a Weathercock_, II, i.): "and then my lord ... casts a suit every -quarter, which I _slip_ into." It is probable that the word was the -same in both passages,--though whether _skip_ or _slip_ I have no means -of determining. - -II, ii, 119. _St Omers_--more properly, _St. Omer_, a town of northern -France. A College of Jesuits was located there, and the point of -Novall's comparison is perhaps an allusion to the mean appearance of -Jesuit spies who would come from thence to England on some pretext, -such as to see their friends during the Christmas season. - -II, ii, 122. _ly'n perdieu_--"to lie perdu" is properly a military -term for, "to be placed as a sentinel or outpost," especially in an -exposed position. _Ly'n_ is one of the many obsolete forms of the past -participle of the verb "to lie." - -II, ii, 125. _tye my hand_--i. e., tie the ribbon-strings which -depended from the sleeve over the hand. - -II, ii, 163. _slight neglect_--contemptuous disrespect. - -II, ii, 174. _bile_--all editors after the Q. read _boil_. _Bile_ was -an old spelling for _boil_; but in the other sense, one of the "four -humours" of medieval physiology, the passage is perfectly clear, and -the figure perhaps even more effective. - -II, ii, 186. _eager relish_--acrid taste. The figure is that the law in -itself is often like a sharp and bitter flavor, but that a good judge -will sweeten this. - -II, ii, 250 _s. d._ _Drawes a Curtayne_--the curtain of the alcove or -back-stage, within which was placed the "treasure," thus to be revealed. - -II, ii, 298. _in which yours_--i. e., "because of the fact of her being -yours." - -II, ii, 301. _for poore and worthlesse I--I_ for _me_, like other -irregularities in pronominal inflection, was not infrequent in -Elizabethan times. Cf. Abbott, S. G., § 205. - -II, ii, 326. _Curtius-like_--like Marcus Curtius, legendary hero of -ancient Rome. See Livy, vii, 6. - -II, ii, _final s. d._ _while the Act is playing_--i. e., while the -interlude music is played, at the close of the Act. - -III, i, 18. _relish_--a trace or tinge of some quality, a -suggestion.--In III, i, 20: _a flavor_; or, if read with the Q.'s -punctuation, a verb: _give a relish_. It appears preferable, however, -to take the passage as punctuated by G., S., which makes _relish_ a -noun. - -III, i, 29. _take me with you_--understand me. - -III, i, 37. _sudden_--adv. for _suddenly_. The _-ly_ suffix was -frequently omitted in Elizabethan times. - -III, i, 45. _Such as are faire_, etc.--the connection goes back to -l. 42, Bellapert taking up again the thread of her remark which -Novall's objection and her summary answer thereto had broken in upon. - -III, i, 120. _Christian_--probably used here in the colloq. sense -of: _a human being_, as distinguished from a brute; a "decent" or -"respectable" person. Cf. Shakespeare, _Twelfth Night_, I, iii, 89: -"Methinks ... I have no more wit than a Christian, or an ordinary man -has." - -III, i, 122. _The entertaiment of your visitation_--i. e., the -entertainment which your visit received. - -III, i, 123. _on_ [old spelling for _one_]--i. e., a visitation. - -III, i, 126. _Muske-cat_--the civet-cat; applied as a term of contempt -to a fop, as being a person perfumed with musk. - -III, i, 139. _there is now speaks to you_--G., S. omit _is_, at the -same time clearing the construction and securing a more regular metre. -The Q. reading, however, is perfectly possible, as an ellipsis, by -omission of the subject relative, for, _there is that now speaks to -you_ [i. e., _there is now speaking to you_], or even, by a change of -punctuation, _there is--now speaks to you_--, etc. - -III, i, 148. _As Caesar, did he liue, could not except at_--see -Plutarch's _Life of Julius Caesar_, Chapters 9 & 10, wherein it -is narrated how Caesar divorced his wife, Pompeia, when scandal -assailed her name, although he denied any knowledge as to her guilt; -"'Because' said he, 'I would have the chastity of my wife clear even of -suspicion.'" - -III, i, 148. _except at_--take exception at. - -III, i, 159. _pointed_--all editors after the Q. read _painted_, an -absolutely unnecessary and unwarranted emendation. _Pointed_ means -"fitted or furnished with tagged points or laces;" "wearing points;" -"laced." Cf. Maurice Hewlett's novel, _The Queen's Quair_, p. 83: -"saucy young men, trunked, puffed, pointed, trussed and doubleted." -Huloet in his Dictionary (1552) has: "Poynted, or tyed with poynts, -_ligulatus_." - -III, i, 167. _This pretty rag_--i. e., the "clout" mentioned in II, ii, -123. - -III, i, 173. _in spite of_--in scorn of, in defiance of. - -III, i, 184. _thy_--so the Q. All later editors read _this_. It is not -impossible, of course, that Romont should begin an oath "By thy hand," -and Beaumelle flash back at him "And sword," transferring the _thy_ -from herself to him. But Romont would be more likely to swear by his -own hand than by Beaumelle's. - -III, i, 188. _cast suburb whores_--prostitutes who had been cashiered -from service. Houses of ill-fame were customarily located in the -suburbs. - -III, i, 191. _legion_--i. e., of evil spirits. Cf. _Mark_, v, 9. - -III, i, 193. _horne-mad_--the word was originally applied to horned -beasts, in the sense: "enraged so as to horn any one;" hence of -persons: "stark mad," "mad with rage," "furious." By word-play it -acquires its sense in the present passage. "mad with rage at having -been made a cuckold." - -III, i, 202. _yellow_--this color was regarded as a token or symbol of -jealousy. - -III, i, 211. _Carted_--carried in a cart through the streets, by way of -punishment or public exposure (especially as the punishment of a bawd). - -III, i, 261. _in distance_--within reach, in striking distance. - -III, i, 331. _as it would tire--as_ appears to be used for _as if_; in -reality the _if_ is implied in the (conditional) subjunctive.--Abbott, -S. G., § 107. - -III, i, 331. _a beadle_--it was one of the duties of a beadle to whip -petty offenders. - -III, i, 352. _So I not heard them_--Abbott explains this construction, -not uncommon in the Elizabethan period, as an omission of the auxiliary -verb "do" (S. G. § 305). But here the main verb is _heard_, whereas, -according to his explanation, grammar would require _hear_. May not the -construction be better taken as a simple, though to our ears cumbrous, -inversion of, _So I heard them not_? - -III, i, 366. _cause_--affair, business--so also in III, i, 377. - -III, i, 388. _Calenture_--a disease incident to sailors within the -tropics; a burning fever. - -III, i, 428-9. _flegme ... choller_--in the old physiologies the -predominance of the "humour, phlegm," was held to cause constitutional -indolence or apathy,--the predominance of "choler" to cause -irascibility. - -III, i, 432. _'em_--grammatical precision would require _him_, as is -substituted in M., f. In Field's rapid, loose style, however, a change -of construction in mid-sentence is not improbable, and the Q. reading -may very well reproduce accurately what he wrote. - -III, i, 441. _thou curious impertinent_--the epithet is from _The -Curious Impertinent_ of Cervantes, a story imbedded in _Don Quixote, -Part I_. - -III, i, 463. _I not accuse_--cf. note on l. 354. - -III, i, 467. _Ere liue--Ere I should live_ is required in full by -strict grammar, but Field's verse is frequently elliptical. Gifford's -emendation to _lived_ for the sake of grammatical regularity, which is -followed by all later editors, is unwarranted. - -III, i, 467. _mens marginall fingers_--the figure is an allusion to -the ancient custom of placing an index hand in the margin of books, -to direct the reader's attention to a striking passage. So does -Romont picture men's fingers pointing to the story of Charalois as a -noteworthy and lamentable thing. Cf. IV, i, 56. - -III, i, 469-470. _An Emperour put away his wife for touching Another -man._--The source of this allusion is not apparent. Can it be a -perversion in the mind of Field of the story of Caesar's divorce of his -wife, to which Massinger has already referred above (l. 148)? - -IV, i, 3. _a flaxe_--the flax wick of a lamp or candle. - -IV, i, 3. _a red headed womans chamber_--Since early times red-haired -individuals have been supposed to emit an emanation having a powerful -sexually exciting influence. In the Romance countries, France and -Italy, this belief is universally diffused.--Iwan Block: _The Sexual -Life of our Time_--transl. by Eden Paul--p. 622. - -Cf. also Gabrielle D'Annunzio: _Il Piacere_, p. 90: - - "'Have you noticed the armpits of Madame Chrysoloras? Look!'" - - "The Duke di Beffi indicated a dancer, who had upon her brow, white - as a marble of Luni, a firebrand of red tresses, like a priestess - of Alma Tadema. Her bodice was fastened on the shoulders by mere - ribbons, and there were revealed beneath the armpits two luxuriant - tufts of red hair. - - "Bomminaco began to discourse upon the peculiar odour which - red-haired women have." - -IV, i, 13. _Cell_--so in the Q. and all later texts. Yet the word is -utterly unsatisfactory to the sense of the passage; it should almost -certainly be _coil_--i. e., tumult, confusion, fuss, ado. Cf. Field in -_Amends for Ladies_, II, iv: "Here's a coil with a lord and his sister." - -IV, i, 23. _a lace_--a trimming of lace. - -IV, i, 27. _pickadille_--the expansive collar fashionable in the early -part of the seventeenth century. - -IV, i, 27. _in puncto_--in point; i. e., in proper condition, in order. - -IV, i, 32. _Iacobs staffe_--an instrument formerly used for measuring -the altitude of the sun; a cross-staff. - -IV, i, 32. _Ephimerides_--a table showing the positions of a heavenly -body for a series of successive days. - -IV, i, 39-40. _if he would but cut the coate according to the cloth -still_--"to cut one's coat after one's cloth" was: "to adapt one's -self to circumstances;" "to measure expense by income." The point of -its employment here is not plain; it is doubtful if anything were -very clear in Field's own mind, who was merely trying to hit off an -epigrammatical phrase. Perhaps, "make the coat match the man." - -IV, i, 72. _Narcissus-like_--like Narcissus, in classic myth. See Ovid, -_Meta._, iii, 341-510. - -IV, i, 72. _should_--G., f. read _shouldst_, but the breach of -agreement between subject and verb is to be explained by the attraction -of the verb to the third person by the interposed _Narcissus-like_; -just as four lines further on we find _shouldst_ for _should_, because -of the similar intrusion between subject and verb of (_but thy selfe -sweete Lord_). - -IV, i, 92. _a Barber Surgeon_--formerly the barber was also a regular -practitioner in surgery and dentistry. Cf. Beaumont & Fletcher, _The -Knight of the Burning Pestle_, III, iv. - -IV, i, 96. _ouerthrowne_--M., f. read _overflown_, i. e., become -excessive or inordinate; so full that the contents run over the -brim. The reading of the Q., however, is quite intelligible,--taking -_overthrown_ in the sense of _thrown too strongly_. - -IV, i, 135. _Colbran_--more properly _Colbrand_ or _Collebrand_, a -wicked giant in the medieval romance of Guy of Warwick. He is the -champion of the invading King of Denmark, who challenges the English -King, Athelstan, to produce a knight who can vanquish Colbrand, or to -yield as his vassal. In this hour of need Guy appears, fights with the -giant, and kills him. - -IV, i, 137. _hee'l make some of you smoake_,--i. e., "make some of you -_suffer_." Cf. Beaumont & Fletcher, _The Knight of the Burning Pestle_, -I, ii, 136: "I'll make some of 'em smoke for't;" and Shakespeare, -_Titus Andronicus_, IV, iii, 111: "Or some of you shall smoke for it in -Rome." - -IV, i, 138. _a Consort_--"In the author's age, the taverns were -infested with itinerant bands of musicians, each of which (jointly and -individually) was called a noise or _consort_: these were sometimes -invited to play for the company, but seem more frequently to have -thrust themselves, unasked, into it, with an offer of their services: -their intrusion was usually prefaced with, 'By your leave, gentlemen, -will you hear any music?'"--Gifford. - -IV, i, 145. _of_--formerly sometimes substituted, as here, for _on_ in -colloquial usage. So also _on_ for _of_, as in l. 148. Cf. also l. 182. - -IV, i, 197-8. _'tis Fairies treasure Which but reueal'd brings on the -blabbers ruine._--To confide in any one about a fairy's gift rendered -it void, according to popular tradition, and drew down the fairy -giver's anger. In instance, see John Aubrey's _Remains_ (Reprinted in -_Publications of the Folk-Lore Society_, vol. IV, p. 102): "Not far -from Sir Bennet Hoskyns, there was a labouring man, that rose up early -every day to go to worke; who for a good while many dayes together -found a nine-pence in the way that he went. His wife wondering how he -came by so much money, was afraid he gott it not honestlye; at last he -told her, and afterwards he never found any more." - -There are numerous literary allusions to this superstition: e. g., -Shakespeare, _The Winter's Tale_, III, iii, 127, ff.: "This is fairy -gold, boy; and 'twill prove so. Up with't, keep it close.... We are -lucky, boy; and to be so still requires nothing but secrecy." - -And Field himself in _Woman is a Weathercock_, I, i: - - "I see you labour with some serious thing, - And think (like fairy's treasure) to reveal it, - Will cause it vanish." - -IV, i, 210-1. _louers periury_, etc.--that Jove laughed at and -overlooked lovers' perjuries was a familiar proverb. Cf. Massinger, -_The Parliament of Love_, C-G. 192 a: "Jupiter and Venus smile At -lovers' perjuries;" and Shakespeare, _Romeo and Juliet_, II, ii, 92: -"at lovers' perjuries, They say, Jove laughs." The saying goes back to -Ovid's _Art of Love_, book I;--as Marlowe has translated it: - - "For Jove himself sits in the azure skies, - And laughs below at lovers' perjuries." - -IV, ii, 71. _On all aduantage take thy life_--i. e., "Taking every -advantage of you, kill you." - -IV, ii, 84. Such whose bloods wrongs, or wrong done to -_themselues_--the Q.'s regular omission of the possessive apostrophe -has in this instance confused later editors in their understanding of -the passage. We would write _blood's_,--with the meaning: "Those whom -wrongs to kindred or to themselves," etc. - -IV, iii, 12. _so_--there is no direct antecedent, but one is easily -understandable from the general sense of what precedes; _to be -so_--i. e., "as you were in thankfulness to the General." - -IV, iv, 10. _it_--another case of a pronoun with antecedent merely -implied in the general sense of what precedes; _it_ = "the fact that I -am not worthy the looking on, but only," etc. - -IV, iv, 30. _such defence_--i. e., "the defence of such a one." _Such_ -= qualis. - -IV, iv, 66. _To this_--i. e., to tears. - -IV, iv, 70. _those fam'd matrones_--cf. Massinger in _The Virgin -Martyr_, C-G. 33 a: - - "You will rise up with reverence, and no more, - As things unworthy of your thoughts, remember - What the canonized Spartan ladies were, - Which lying Greece so boasts of. Your own matrons, - Your Roman dames, whose figures you yet keep - As holy relics, in her history - Will find a second urn: Gracchus' Cornelia, - Paulina, that in death desired to follow - Her husband Seneca, nor Brutus' Portia, - That swallowed burning coals to overtake him, - Though all their several worths were given to one, - With this is to be mention'd." - -IV, iv, 112. _on it_--i. e., "on what you say." - -IV, iv, 156. _be_--"be" expresses more doubt than "is" after a verb of -_thinking_. Cf. Abbott, S. G., § 299. - -V, i, 5. _lay me vp_--imprison me. - -V, i, 7. _varlets_--the name given to city bailiffs or sergeants. -Perhaps here, however, it is applied merely as a term of abuse. - -V, i, 9. _Innes of court man_--a member of one of the four Inns of -Court (The Inner Temple, The Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's -Inn), legal societies which served for the Elizabethan the function -which our law-schools perform to-day. Overbury says of the Inns of -Court Man, in his _Characters_: "Hee is distinguished from a scholler -by a pair of silk-stockings, and a beaver hat, which make him contemn -a scholler as much as a scholler doth a school-master.... He is as far -behind a courtier in his fashion, as a scholler is behind him.... He -laughs at every man whose band sits not well, or that hath not a faire -shoo-tie, and he is ashamed to be seen in any mans company that weares -not his clothes well. His very essence he placeth in his outside.... -You shall never see him melancholy, but when he wants a new suit, or -feares a sergeant...." - -V, i, 13. _coming forth_--appearance in court, or from prison. - -V, i, 28. _manchets_--small loaves or rolls of the finest wheaten -bread. There seems to have been a commonplace concerning the huge -quantities of bread devoured by tailors. Cf. l. 88 below, and Note. - -V, i, 31. _leaue swordmen_--i. e., swordmen (swaggering ruffians who -claim the profession of arms) _on leave_. It is possible, however, that -_leaue_ is a misprint (by inversion of a letter) for _leane_ = hungry. - -V, i, 83. _hangers_--not "short-swords", as in l. 31, but here -"pendants", perhaps a part of the hat-band hanging loose, or else loops -or straps on the swordbelt, often richly ornamented, from which the -sword was hung. Cf. Shakespeare, _Hamlet_, V, ii, 157-167. - -V, i, 83. _Hell_--a place under a tailor's shop-board, in which shreds -or pieces of cloth, cut off in the process of cutting clothes, are -thrown, and looked upon as perquisites. Cf. Overbury's _Characters, A -Taylor_: "Hee differeth altogether from God; for with him the best -pieces are still marked out for damnation, and without hope of recovery -shall be cast down into hell." - -V, i, 88. _Our breakefasts famous for the buttred loaues_--Cf. above -l. 28, and Note; also Glapthorne's _Wit in a Constable_, V, i: - - "as easily as a Taylor - Would do six hot loaves in a morning fasting, - And yet dine after." - -V, i, 90. _vse a conscience_--show or feel compunction; be -tender-hearted. - -V, i, 91. _hall_--a house or building belonging to a guild or -fraternity of merchants or tradesmen. At such places the business -of the respective guilds was transacted; and in some instances they -served as the market-houses for the sale of the goods of the associated -members. - -V, i, 97. _compleate Mounsieur_--perfect gentleman. - -V, i, 102. _pantofle_--slipper; here used figuratively for: the -shoe-maker's profession. - -V, ii, 27. _a barbarous Sythian_--Cf. Purchas' _Pilgrimage_ (ed. 1613, -p. 333): "They [The Scythians] cut off the noses of men, and imprinted -pictures in the flesh of women, whom they overcame: and generally -their customes of warre were bloudie: what man soever the Scythian -first taketh, he drinketh his bloud: he offereth to the King all the -heads of the men he hath slaine in battell: otherwise he may not share -in the spoile: the skinnes of their crownes flaid off, they hang at -their horse bridles: their skinnes they use to flay for napkins and -other uses, and some for cloathing.... These customes were generall to -the Scythians of Europe and Asia (for which cause _Scytharum facinora -patrare_, grew into a proverbe of immane crueltie, and their Land was -justly called Barbarous)." - -V, ii, 40. _made no hornes at me_--to "make horns" at any one was the -common method of taunting one with having horns,--i. e., with being a -cuckold. - -V, ii, 51. _made vp with_--set with the expression of. - -V, ii, 102. _by pieces_--in part. - -V, iii, 8.--Charmi's speech is addressed to Charalois, as is that of Du -Croy which follows it. - -V, iii, 18 ff.--M., f. insert _when_ after _that_ of l. 18. This is -probably the correct reading. It would be possible, however, to let -the line stand without alteration, if the _that_ of l. 20 be taken -as coordinate with the _that_ of l. 18, introducing a second clause -depending on _am sorry_ (instead of correlative with _so_ to introduce -a result-clause). With this reading, _left_ (l. 22) would be taken as -an ellipsis for _being left_; with the emended reading, for _was left_. -Though the construction is in doubt, the sense is easy. - -V, iii, 22. _vndermine_--an object, _it_, is understood,--i. e., _the -building of my life_. - -V, iii, 34. _her--its_ was rare in Elizabethan usage. Cf. Abbott, -S. G., §§ 228, 229. - -V, iii, 46. _compassion of_--former obsolete construction for -"compassion for." Cf. Shakespeare, _Henry VI, Part I_, IV, i, 56; -"Mov'd with compassion of my country's wreck." - -V, iii, 59. _motion_--C., f. read _motion's_,--an uncalled-for -emendation, since ellipsis of _is_ was not infrequent. Cf. Shakespeare, -_Henry V_, IV, i, 197: "'Tis certain, every man that dies ill, the ill -[is] upon his own head." - -V, iii, 93. _and yet the fault kept from me_--loose construction, not -easily parsed, though the sense is clear. - -V, iii, 98. _As ... to vndergoe_--again a loose construction. It should -be, properly: _That ... he would undergo_, etc. - -V, iii, 107-9. _like the fatall gold_, etc.--In this passage the two -leaders of the Gauls known to history by the same name appear to be -confounded--(1): Brennus, who sacked Rome in 390 B. C., and consented -to withdraw after receiving a large ransom of gold;--and (2): Brennus, -who led the irruption of the Gauls into Greece in the second century -B. C., and attempted to despoil Delphi of its treasure, but did not -succeed in doing so. The fact that their respective expeditions are -said to have borne an immediate sequel of disaster and death for both -alike, may be responsible for the dramatist's mistake. - -V, iii, 131. _homicide_--formerly, as here, = _murderer_. - -V, iii, 139. _in way of_--in the manner of. - -V, iii, 144. _the hate betweene his house and mine_--cf. III, i, 416. - -V, iii, 166. _more presumptions_--C., f. read _mere presumptions_, -which is probably correct. An alternative possibility should be -noted, however: that _presumptions_ by mis-reading from the Ms. (or -by the mere inversion of a _u_) may be a mis-print for presumptious -(presumptuous) = _presumptive_, in which case _more_ would be retained, -with the passage to mean: "You must find other proofs to strengthen -these, and they must, moreover, be of a nature to give more reasonable -grounds for presumption." - -V, iii, 174-5.--The last two lines of Charalois' speech are addressed -to his judges; what preceded them to Novall. - -V, iii, 190. _bands_--the emendation _bawds_, proposed by Coxeter and -followed by all subsequent editors, seems almost surely correct. "Bawd" -prior to 1700 was a term applied to men as well as--and, indeed, more -frequently than--to women. Cf. Shakespeare, _Hamlet_, I, iii, 130. - -V, iii, 190. _tooke_--where the common Elizabethan custom of dropping -the _-en_ inflectional ending of the past participle rendered a -confusion with the infinitive liable, the past tense of the verb was -used for the participle. Cf. Abbott, S. G., § 343. - -V, iii, 193. _this matron_--i. e., Florimel. - -V, iii, 205. _in Nouall_--i. e., "in the person of Novall." - -V, iii, 207. _Thy challenge now I answere_--this phrase would indicate -that Romont crosses swords with Pontalier, and after a moment of -fencing runs him through; instead of striking him unawares, as the -modern stage direction, "_Stabs Pontalier_," would imply. - -V, iii, 226. _these--i. e._, Aymer, Florimel, and Bellapert. - -_Court. Song_, l. 3. first--i. e., "in the front part of," to meet the -customers and be herself an attraction and an object of display, while -the husband remains "at tother end" (l. 8) of the store. - -_Court. Song_, l. 4.--This is a most unduly long line. It seems -probable that, in the Ms. from which the play was printed, the three -phrases, "A faire wife," "a kinde wife," and "a sweet wife," were -_three variant_ readings, which, by mistake, were _all_ incorporated in -the text. Any one of them used alone would give a perfectly normal line. - - - - -GLOSSARY - - -_affection_, bent, inclination, _penchant_. I, ii, 32. - -_allow_, command, approve. IV, i, 9. - -_answere_, correspond to. III, i, 82. - -_arrests_, stoppages, delays. III, i, 43. - -_author_, to be the author, of a statement; to state, declare, say. IV, -ii, 19. - - -_baffled_, disgraced, treated with contumely. IV, i, 112. - -_balm_, an aromatic preparation for embalming the dead. II, i, 79. - -_band_, a collar or ruff worn round the neck by man or woman. II, ii, -77; etc. - -_banquerout_, early spelling of _bankrupt_, which was originally _banke -rota_ (see N. E. D. for variants under _bankrupt_), from Italian _banca -rotta_, of which _banqueroute_ is the French adaptation. The modern -spelling, _bankrupt_, with the second part of the word assimilated to -the equivalent Latin _ruptus_, as in _abrupt_, etc., first appears in -1543. I, i, 127; ii, 88. - -_black_, a funereal drapery. II, i, 51; ii, 117. - -_brabler_, a quarrelsome fellow; a brawler. III, i, 358. - -_braue_, in loose sense of approbation, good, excellent, worthy, etc. -I, ii, 256; 292; etc. - -_bumfiddles_, beats, thumps. IV, i, 140. - - -_cabinet_, a secret receptacle; a jewel-box. II, ii, 34. - -_canniball_, a strong term of abuse for "blood-thirsty savage." IV, iv, -185. - -_Caroch_, coach. II, ii, 28; IV, ii, 95. - -_case_, exterior; skin or hide of an animal, or garments--hence, -perhaps, _disguise_. V, i, 73. - -_censure_, a judicial sentence. I, ii, 53.--in the sense of _sentence -to punishment_. II, ii, 166; 172. - -_chalenge_, demand. V, ii, 88. - -_change_, exchange. III, i, 117.--_chang'd_, I, i, 66. - -_charges_, expenses. I, ii, 191. - -_charitable_, benevolent, kindly, showing Christian charity. I, i, 117. - -_circumstance_, the adjuncts of a fact which make it more or less -criminal. V, iii, 52. - -_close_, close-fitting. IV, i, 124. - -_cold_, unimpassioned, deliberate. V, ii, 86. - -_coloured_, specious. III, i, 139. - -_comely_, becoming, proper, decorous. III, i, 163. - -_complement_, observing of ceremony in social relations; formal -civility, politeness. III, i, 439. - -_conference_, subject of conversation. II, ii, 139. - -_conscious_, inwardly sensible of wrong-doing. III, i, 353.--aware. V, -ii, 67. - -_consists_, lies, has its place. III, i, 489. - -_courtesie_, generosity, benevolence. V, iii, 73. - -_Courtship_, courteous behavior, courtesy. III, i, 276; 439. - -_credits_, reputations, good name. I, ii, 67. - -_curiosity_, elegance of construction. II, ii, 67. - -_curious_, careful, studious, solicitous. IV, i, 102.--made with art or -care; elaborately or beautifully wrought; fine; "nice". _Cit. Song._ -l. 5. - - -_dag_, a kind of heavy pistol or hand-gun. IV, i, 170 _s. d._ - -_debate_, strife, dissension, quarreling. III, i, 443. - -_decent_, becoming, appropriate, fitting. I, ii, 77. - -_defeatures_, defeats. I, ii, 177. - -_demonstrauely_, in a manner that indicates clearly or plainly. IV, i, -55. - -_deserued_, deserving. II, ii, 189. - -_determine_, decree. II, ii, 172. - -_detract_, disparage, traduce, speak evil of. I, ii, 271. - -_dis-become_, misbecome, be unfitting for or unworthy of. V, iii, 47. - -_discouery_, revelation, disclosure. III, i, 91; V, iii, 194. - -_distaste_, estrangement, quarrel. IV, ii, 1.--offence. V, iii, 15. - -_doubtfull_, fearful, apprehensive. IV, ii, 88. - -_doubts_, apprehensions. III, i, 246. - - -_earth'd_, buried. II, i, 126. - -_edify_, gain instruction; profit, in a spiritual sense. IV, i, 62. - -_engag'd_, obliged, attached by gratitude. III, i, 242. - -_engender_, copulate. III, i, 423. - -_engine_, device, artifice, plot. III, i, 157. - -_ensignes_, signs, tokens, characteristic marks. I, i, 144. - -_entertaine_, accept. V, ii, 82. - -_entertainment_, provision for the support of persons in -service--especially soldiers; pay, wages. I, ii, 188. - -_ernest_, a sum of money paid as an installment to secure a contract. -V, i, 44. - -_except against_, take exception against. IV, iii, 19. - -_exhaust_, "draw out"; not as to-day, "use up completely." II, i, 103. - -_expression_, designation. V, i, 33. - - -_factor_, one who has the charge and manages the affairs of an estate; -a bailiff, land-steward. I, ii, 135. Cf. Shakespeare, _Henry IV, Part -I_, III, ii, 147: "Percy is but my factor," etc. - -_familiar_, well acquainted. I, i, 3. - -_feares_, fears for. IV, ii, 89. - -_fit_, punish; visit with a fit penalty. III, i, 253. - -_forespake_, foretold, predicted. III, i, 251. - -_fortunes_, happens, chances, occurs. V, ii, 16. - - -_gallimaufry_, contemptuous term for "a man of many accomplishments"; a -ridiculous medley; a hodge-podge. II, ii, 95. - -_gamesters_, those addicted to amorous sport. III, i, 33. - -_Geometrician_, one who measures the earth or land; a land-surveyor. -IV, i, 21. - -_get_, beget. I, ii, 246. - -_gigglet_, a lewd, wanton woman. III, i, 308. - - -_honestie_, honorable character, in a wide, general sense. To the -Elizabethan it especially connoted _fidelity_, _trustiness_. II, i, 115. - -_horslock_, a shackle for a horse's feet; hence applied to any hanging -lock; a padlock. IV, i, 78. - -_humanity_, learning or literature concerned with human culture: a -term including the various branches of polite scholarship, as grammar, -rhetoric, poetry, and esp. the study of the ancient Latin and Greek -classics. II, i, 3. - -_humour_, used here in the specific Jonsonian sense of a dominating -trait or mood. I, i, 124; ii, 31. - - -_imployments_, services (to a person). I, ii, 28. - -_individually_, indivisibly, inseparably. II, ii, 316. - -_Infanta_, the title properly applied to a daughter of the King and -Queen of Spain or Portugal. IV, i, 75. - -_issues_, actions, deeds. II, ii, 198. - - -_kinde_, agreeable, pleasant, winsome. _Court. Song._ l. 4. - - -_Lard_, an obsolete form of _Lord_. IV, i, 2. Cf. Congreve, _Old -Bach._, II, iii: "Lard, Cousin, you talk oddly." - -_League_, probably used for _Leaguer_ (so emended by M., f.): a -military camp, especially one engaged in a siege. III, i, 175. - -_learnd_, informed. III, i, 156. - -_legge_, an obeisance made by drawing back one leg and bending the -other; a bow, scrape. III, i, 124. - -_lively_, _living_. II, i, 46.--gay, full of life. II, ii, -76.--life-like. II, ii, 232. - - -_map_, embodiment, incarnation. II, ii, 136. Cf. H. Smith, _Sinf. Man's -Search_, Six Sermons: "What were man if he were once left to himselfe? -A map of misery." - -_mome_, blockhead, dolt, fool. Court. Song, l. 13. - -_monument_, sepulchre. I, ii, 212. - -_moue_, urge, appeal to, make a request to. IV, iv, 11. - - -_next_, shortest, most convenient or direct. V, i, 37. - -_nice_, petty, insignificant, trifling. III, i, 442. - -_note_, show forth; demonstrate. III, i, 504. - - -_Obiect_, bring forward in opposition as an adverse reason, or by way -of accusation. IV, iv, 174. - -_obnoxious_, liable, exposed, open, vulnerable. III, i, 354. - -_obsequious_, prompt to serve or please, dutiful. V, iii, 90. - -_obseruers_, those who show respect, deference, or dutiful attention; -obsequious followers. IV, iv, 43. - -_Orphants_, obsolete corrupt form of _Orphans_. I, ii, 206. It survives -in dialect. Cf. James Whitcomb Riley's _Little Orphant Annie_. - -_overcome_, usually, "conquer", "prevail"; but here, "out-do", -"surpass". I, i, 187. - - -_parts_, function, office, business, duty. Formerly used in the plural, -as here, though usually when referring to a number of persons. I, i, 9; -ii, 9; V. iii, 39.--qualities. IV, iv, 105. - -_pious_, used in the arch. sense of _dutiful_. I, i, 101. - -_practicke_, practical work or application; practice as opposed to -theory. II, i, 2. - -_Praecipuce_ (mis-print for _precipice_), a precipitate or headlong -fall or descent, especially to a great depth. III, i, 464. - -_presently_, immediately, quickly, promptly. IV, iv, 89. - -_president_ [variant of _precedent_], example, instance, illustration. -V, iii, 226. - -_preuent_, anticipate. I, i, 64; ii, 17; IV, ii, 32. - -_Prouince_, duty, office, function; branch of the government. I, ii, 23. - -_punctual_, punctilious, careful of detail. IV, i, 42. - -_purl_, the pleat or fold of a ruff or band; a frill. II, ii, 77. - - -_quick_, alive. I, ii, 178. - - -_Ram-heads_, cuckolds. II, i, 31. - -_recent_, fresh. II, i, 19. - -_roaring_, riotous, bullying, hectoring. IV, i, 203. - - -_sawcily_, formerly a word of more serious reprobation than in modern -usage: "with presumptuous insolence." I, ii, 106. - -_scandall_, to spread scandal concerning; to defame. I, ii, 58. - -_sect_, class, order. V, i, 79. - -_seene_, experienced, versed. III, i, 268. - -_seruant_, a professed lover; one who is devoted to the service of a -lady. II, ii, 40; etc. - -_seruice_, the devotion of a lover. III, i, 81; IV, iv, 107. - -_set forth_, adorned. IV, iv, 106. - -_skills_, signifies, matters. I, ii, 286. - -_snort_, snore. _Court. Song._ l. 12. - -_soft_, tender-hearted, pitiful. II, i, 23. - -_sooth'd_, assented to; humoured by agreement or concession. V, i, 55. - -_Spittle_, hospital. III, i, 210. Cf. Shakespeare, _Henry V_, II, i, -78; V, i, 86. - -_spleene_, caprice. I, i, 49. - -_state_, estate. II, ii, 294; III, i, 24; IV, iv, 178; V, iii, 119. - -_submisse_, submissive. I, i, 179. - - -_take_, charm, captivate. I, ii, 206. - -_taske_, take to task; censure, reprove, chide, reprehend = _tax_. I, -ii, 64. - -_temper_, temperateness, calmness of mind, self-restraint. V, iii, 40. - -_theorique_, theory; theoretical knowledge, as opposed to practice. II, -i, 2. - -_Thrift_, here used in the old sense of _prosperity_ or _success_. I, -i, 170. - -_toyes_, whims, caprices, trifles. III, i, 442. - - -_vncivil_, unrefined, ill-bred, not polished. III, i, 490. - -_vailes_, perquisites. V, i, 83. - -_Visitation_, visit. II, ii, 310. - - -_wagtaile_, a term of familiarity and contempt; a wanton. II, ii, 7. - -_where_, whereas. I, i, 71. - -_wittoll_, a man who knows of his wife's infidelity and submits to it; -a submissive cuckold. V, iii, 99. - -_wreake_, vengeance, revenge. IV, iv, 183; V, ii, 43. - - - - -BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE - - -The Quarto, and the various modern editions and translations of _The -Fatal Dowry_ have already been recorded in the opening pages of the -INTRODUCTION. In the editions there noted of the collected works of -Massinger will be found all the plays which bear his name. (_Believe As -You List_ appears only in Cunningham's edition of Gifford and in the -Mermaid Series' _Massinger_.) Field's two independent plays, _Woman is -a Weathercock_ (Q. 1612) and _Amends for Ladies_ (Q's. 1618, 1639), -were reprinted by J. P. Collier, London, 1829. They are included in -Thomas White's _Old English Dramas_, London, 1830; in W. C. Hazlitt's -edition of Dodsley's _Old English Plays_, London, Reeves and Turner, -1875; and in the Mermaid Series volume, _Nero and Other Plays_, with -an Introduction by A. W. Verity, London and New York, 1888. All other -extant dramas in which either Massinger or Field had a share may be -found in any edition of the collected works of Beaumont & Fletcher, -with the exception of _Sir John van Olden Barnavelt_, which appears in -vol. II of Bullen's _Old Plays_, London, Weyman and Sons, 1883. - -The stage version of _The Fatal Dowry_ by Sheil is printed in _French's -Acting Edition_, vol. 9. Of the related plays, _The Lady's Trial_ and -_The Fair Penitent_ may be found in all editions of the collected works -respectively of John Ford and Nicholas Rowe; _The Fair Penitent_ is -also published along with Rowe's _Jane Shore_ in the Belles Lettres -Series, 1907. For _The Insolvent_, see _The Dramatic Works of Aaron -Hill, Esq._, 2 vols., 1760. DER GRAF VON CHAROLAIS _ein Trauerspiel von -Richard Beer-Hofmann_ is printed by S. Fischer, Berlin, 1906. - -The following works have bearing upon the play or its authors: - - Beck, C.: _Phil. Massinger_, THE FATALL DOWRY. _Einleitung zu einer - neuen Ausgabe_. Beyreuth, 1906. - - Boyle, R.: _Beaumont, Fletcher and Massinger_. Englische Studien, - vol. V. - - CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, THE,--vol. VI. Cambridge, - 1910. - - Courthope, W. J.: _A History of English Poetry_, vol. IV. Macmillan, - 1903. - - Cumberland: His famous comparison of _The Fatal Dowry_ with _The - Fair Penitent_, which originally appeared in _The Observer_, Nos. - LXXVII-LXXIX, is reprinted in Gifford's Edition of Massinger. - - DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY--_Field_, by J. Knight; _Massinger_, - by R. Boyle. - - Fleay, F. G.: _A Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama_ - (1559-1642). 2 vols. London. Reeves and Turner. 1891. - - _Annals of the Career of Nathaniel Field_. Englische Studien, vol. - XIII. - - Genest, John: _Some Account of the English Stage from the Restoration - in 1660 to 1830_. 10 vols. Bath, 1832. - - Gosse, E. W.: _The Jacobean Poets_. (Univ. Series). Scribner's, 1894. - - Koeppel, E.: _Quelenstudien zu den Dramen George Chapman's, Philip - Massinger's und John Ford's_. Strassburg. 1897. - - Murray, John Tucker: _English Dramatic Companies_ (1558-1642). 2 - vols. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1910. - - Oliphant, E. F.: _The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher_. Englische - Studien, vols. XIV-XVI. [This is not concerned with _The Fatal - Dowry_, but contains inquiry into other collaboration work of - Massinger and Field in plays of the period, with an analysis of the - distinctive characteristics of Massinger (XIV, 71-6) and the same for - Field (XV, 330-1).] - - Phelan, James: _On Philip Massinger_. Halle. 1878. Reprinted in - _Anglia_, vol. II, 1879. - - Schelling, F. E.: _Elizabethan Drama_. 2 vols. Houghton, Mifflin & - Co. 1908. - - Schwarz, F. H.: _Nicholas Rowe's_ FAIR PENITENT. A Contribution to - Literary Analysis. _With a Side-reference to Richard Beer-Hofmann's_ - GRAF VON CHAROLAIS. Berne. 1907. - - Stephens, Sir Leslie: _Philip Massinger_. The Cornhill Magazine. - Reprinted in _Hours in a Library_, Third Series. 1879. - - Swinburne, A. C.: _Philip Massinger_. The Fortnightly Review. July, - 1889. - - Thorndike, Ashley H.: _Tragedy_. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1908. - - Ward, A. W.: _A History of English Dramatic Literature_. 3 vols. - Macmillan. 1899. - - Wurzbach, W. von: _Philip Massinger_. Shakesp. Jahrb., vols. XXXV and - XXXVI. - - - - -Footnotes: Preface and Introduction - - -[1] Fleay (_Chron. Eng. Dra._, I, 208) thinks that the otherwise lost -Massinger play, _The Judge_, licensed by Herbert in 1627, and included -in the list of Warburton's collection, may have been _The Fatal Dowry_. -He declares, moreover, that "the decree in favor of creditors in I, ii -_a_ was a statute made in 1623," and suggests that Massinger after this -date made over an independent play of Field's, now lost. But I think -that any one who surveys in _The Fatal Dowry_ the respective hands of -its authors will incline strongly to the conviction that this drama is -the offspring of joint effort rather than the re-handling of one man's -work by another. The decree to which Fleay has reference appears to be -that to be found in _Statutes of the Realm_, IV, ii, 1227-9, recorded -as 21º Jac I, 19. This is an act passed by the parliament of 1623-4; -it somewhat increases the stringency of the already-existing severe -laws in regard to bankrupts, but contains nothing which even faintly -suggests the decree in our play, by which the creditors are empowered -to withhold the corpse of their debtor from burial; and, indeed, it is -obviously impossible that a statute permitting any such practice could -have been passed in Christian England of the seventeenth century. The -fact is that this feature of the plot is taken direct from a classical -author (see under SOURCES), and it would be gratuitous to assume in -it a reference to contemporaneous legislation. As for the hypothesis -that _The Fatal Dowry_ and _The Judge_ are the same play, in the utter -absence of any supporting evidence it must be thrown out of court. This -sort of identification is a confirmed vice with Fleay. _The Judge_ -is, moreover, listed as a comedy (see reprint of Warburton's list in -Fleay's _The Life and Work of Shakespeare_, p. 358). - -[2] Two other arguments--both fallacious--have been advanced for a more -assured dating. - -Formal prologues and epilogues came into fashion about 1620, and the -absence of such appendages in the case of _The Fatal Dowry_ has been -generally taken as evidence for its appearance before that year; but -for a Massinger production no such inference can be drawn--there is -no formal prologue or epilogue in any of his extant plays before _The -Emperor of the East_ and _Believe as You List_, which were licensed for -acting in 1631. - -The suggestion (Fleay: _Chron. Eng. Dra._, I, p. 208) that Field took -the part of Florimel, and that the mention of her age as thirty-two -years (II, ii, 17) has reference to his own age at the time the play -was produced (thus fixing the date: 1619), is an idea so far-fetched -and fantastic that it is amazing to find it quoted with perfect gravity -by Ward (_Hist. Eng. Dra. Lit._, III, 39). That Field, second only to -Burbage among the actors of his time, should have played the petty role -of Florimel is a ridiculous supposition. It is strange that anyone who -considered references of this sort a legitimate clue did not build -rather upon the statement (II, i, 13) that Charalois was twenty-eight. -But such grounds for theorizing are utterly unsubstantial; there is no -earthly warrant for identifying the age of an author's creation with -the age of the author himself. - -[3] I would not, however, think it very improbable that Field might -have engaged in the composition of _The Fatal Dowry_ immediately after -his retirement, when the ties with his old profession were, perhaps, -not yet altogether broken. - -[4] On a careful inspection of the entire dramatic output of Massinger, -both unaided work and plays done in collaboration, I have found worthy -of record parallels to passages in _The Fatal Dowry_ to the number of: -24, in _The Unnatural Combat_, 14 in the Massinger share (about 3/5) of -_The Virgin Martyr_, 18 in _The Renegado_, 11 in _The Duke of Milan_, -10 in _The Guardian_, and in none of the rest as many as 8.--But -Massinger's undoubted share (1/3) of _The Little French Lawyer_ yields 6; -2/5 of _The Double Marriage_, 6; 2/5 of _The Spanish Curate_, 6; 2/5 of _Sir -John van Olden Barnavelt_, 4. - -[5] _E. g._, I, i (Massinger) with its grave rhetoric uniformly -sustained, and, in immediate succession, II, i (Decker), a medley of -coarse buffoonery and tender and beautiful verse. - -[6] As witness _The False One_. Here Massinger seems to have projected -a stately historical drama of war and factional intrigue, with a -conception of Cleopatra as the Great Queen, more a Semiramis or a -Zenobia than "the serpent of old Nile," and so treats his subject in -the first and last Acts; while Fletcher "assists" him by filling the -middle section of the play with scenes theatrically effective but -leading nowhere, and in them makes the heroine the traditional "gipsy" -Cleopatra. - -[7] The only other modern attempt to apportion the play is that of -C. Beck (_The Fatal Dowry_, Friedrich-Alexander Univ. thesis, 1906, -pp. 89-94). He assigns Massinger everything except the prose passages -of II, ii and IV, i, and perhaps II, i, 93-109. His _a priori_ theory -of distribution seems to be that all portions of the play which he -deems of worth must be Massinger's. It is difficult to speak of Beck's -monograph with sufficiently scant respect. - -[8] References to the plays of Massinger are either by page and column -of the Cunningham-Gifford edition of his works (designated C-G.), or, -in the case of plays in the Beaumont & Fletcher _corpus_ in which he or -Field collaborated, by volume and page of the Dyce edition (designated -_D._). Field's two independent comedies are referred to by page of -the Mermaid Series volume which contains them: _Nero and Other Plays_ -(designated _M._). - -[9] The figures for the speech-ending test for each scene will be found -in the table at the end of this section, and are not given in the -course of the detailed examination of the play, save in the case of one -passage, where the ambiguity of their testimony is noted. In all other -Scenes they merely corroborate the evidence of the other tests. - -[10] This is all the more rampant in that it is suddenly called back -into activity after its period of obscuration while she yielded herself -to a cynical, immoral opportunism, and is now brought, by a fearful -shock, to confront higher ethical values and real manhood. For this -time she is given not a Novall but a Charalois to idealize. - -[11] See the figure of Captain Pouts in _Woman is a Weathercock_. He -might easily have been made a mere _miles gloriosus_; instead he is a -real man,--coarse, revengeful, dissolute, quarrelsome, hectoring--no -doubt at heart a coward, but not more absurdly so in the face of his -pretensions than many of his type in actual life. For characters -clearly visualized in a few simple strokes, may be noted in the same -play Lady Ninny, Lucida, and, apart from one speech (M. 356-7) out of -character obviously for comic effect, Kate; in _Amends for Ladies_, -Ingen. Examples of Field's power in more idealistic work may be found -in _The Knight of Malta_ in the delineation of Montferrat's passion (I, -i) and in the scene between Miranda and Oriana (V, i). - -[12] Apparently _The Fatal Dowry_ was not performed every day. - -[13] During the run of this play one Warren, who was Powell's dresser, -claimed a right of lying for his master and performing the dead part -of Lothario--about the middle of the scene Powell called for Warren; -who as loudly replied from the stage, "Here Sir"--Powell (who was -ignorant of the part his man was doing) repeated without loss of time, -"Come here this moment you Son of a Whore or I'll break all the bones -in your skin"--Warren knew his hasty temper, and therefore without any -reply jumped up with all his sables about him, which unfortunately were -tied to the handles of the bier and dragged after him--but this was -not all--the laugh and roar began in the audience and frightened poor -Warren so much that with the bier at his tail he threw down Calista and -overwhelmed her, with the table, lamp, books, bones, &c.--he tugged -till he broke off his trammels and made his escape, and the play at -once ended with immoderate fits of laughter--Betterton would not suffer -The Fair Penitent to be played again, till poor Warren's misconduct -was somewhat forgotten--this story was told to Chetwood by Bowman -[Sciolto]--(GENEST, II, 281-2). - -[14] This, of course, may require the substitution of a capital for -a small letter, as when a mid-line word of the Quarto becomes in the -re-alignment the first word of the verse. - - - - -Footnotes: the Play - - -[Dramatis Personae] - -G. and S. omit _Officers_, and add those roles which are enclosed in -brackets. - -They add explanations of each character, also changing the order. For -_Gaoler_, S. reads _Gaolers_. - -Baumont--M., f spell _Beaumont_. - -C. & M. add after the list of _Dramatis Personae: The Scene_, Dijon -_in_ Burgundy. - - -[Act I, Scene i] - -10 _As--That_ (C., M. - -12, 16, etc. _then_--modernized to _than_ throughout by all later eds. - -13, end s. d. _Gives him his purse_ (G., S. - -19 _your--him_ (G., S. - -33 _This such--This is such_ (S. - -34 .--? (C., f. - -45 _summes--sum_ (C., M. - -46 and 47 _Dare ... oportunity?_--printed as one line in Q. - -47, end s. d.: _They salute him as they pass by_ (G., S. - -56, after _No_--, (C., f. - -56 _'em--them_ (G., S. - -70 _and in that--and, in that,_ (C., f. - -71 _where--whereas_ (C, M. - -90 _great men--men great_ (C., f. - -92 and 93 _And ... suytor?_--printed as one line in Q. - -103 _'Tis well._--G. & S. assign to _Char._ and follow with s. d.: -_Tenders his petition._ The change is uncalled for. - -103 s. d., after Nouall--G. & S. insert _Advocates_. - -103 and 104 _You ... againe._--printed as one line in Q. - -104 _Offer't--Offer it_ (M., f. - -110 end s. d. _Aside to Cred._ (G., S. - -114 _I pray heare em.--Pray hear them._ (G.--_I pray hear them._ (S. - -114 _Tis--It is_ (G. - -116 ;--M., f. omit. - -123 _Armors--Armour_ (C., M., G. - -127 _banquerout_--here and elsewhere by later eds. always _bankrupt_. - -133 _Sir_--assigned to _Char._ by G., who adds s. d.: _Tenders his -petition._ - -136 and 137 _Yes ... hereby_--printed as one line in Q. - -137 _hereby--whereby_ (M., G. - -139 _You are--You're_ (C., M. - -139, after _so._--? (C., M.--! (G., S. - -139 s. d.--The exit of Novall is placed earlier, at l. 136, by G. & S. - -145 G. & S. omit s. d. - -149, after _this_,--s. d.; _Beats him_ (G.--_Kicks him_ (S. - -154 and 155 _Are ... then_--printed as one line in Q. - -155, after _then_.--s. d.: _Kicks them_ (C., f. - -157 _haue--hear_ (M. - -159 _from_--omitted by C., f. - -162, after _Cuckolds_--, (C., M--; (G., S. - -162 _ne'er--never_ (M. - -162 _prayd_--pray (G. - -166 _To--T'_ (M. - -168 _forhead--foreheads_ (G. - -171 _then_--this form retained in C. - -171 s. d. _Creditor--Creditors_ (G., S. - -195 _you are--you're_ (C., M. - - -[Act I, Scene ii] - -first s. d., _3 Presidents--Presidents,... three Creditors_ (G., S. - -1 _Lordship's seated. May--lordships seated, may_ (G., S. - -2 and 3 _prosperous ... Burgundy_.--printed as a line in Q. - -7, after _resigne_--; (M., f. - -13 _President--precedent_ (C., f. - -13 _President they--precedent that they_ (C., M. - -15 _we are--we're_ (C., M. - -35 _the--th'_ (C., M. - -50 _And--I_ (G., S. - -51, end --s. d.: _To Nov. sen._ (G., S. - -60 _With--Which_ (C., M., G. - -64 _taske--tax_ (M. - -66 _become--became_ (M., f. - -76 _find--finds_ (G., S. - -82 and 83 _How ... Court?_--printed as one line in Q. - -85 and 86 _I hope ... Lord--_--printed as one line in Q. - -91, after _you_ --G. & S. insert, _sir_, - -93, after _Why_ --, (C., f. - -106 _tell you--tell thee_ (G. - -107 _I am--I'm_ (C., M. - -115 _ere--ever_ (C., M., G. - -125 _purpose--purposes_ (G., S. - -145, end --s. d.: _Aside to_ Charalois (G., S. - -146 C., f. insert , after _counsayle_ and omit , after _it_. - -180 _proud_--S. omits. - -185 _enemies_--enemy's (C., f. - -186-'8 Lines in Q. are: _In ... prison._ | _Twas ... prodigall._ | _He -... Army._ - -187 _frô--from_ (C., f. - -189 _Sufficent? My Lord,--Sufficient, my Lord?_ (C., f. G. & S. have -_lords_. - -194 _They are--They're_ (M., f. - -195 _'Tis--It is_ (G., S. - -201 _right_--See Notes; after _or_ --G. inserts _wish_ in brackets, -which S. accepts in text. - -217 _th' incounter--the incounter_ (C., f. - -217, after _cold_--, (G., S.--a plausible but unnecessary emendation. - -223 _not be--be or not_ (G.--_or not be_ (S. - -234 _Lords--cords_ (C., f. - -234 _a--in_ (G., S. - -234 _'em--them_ (G., S. - -243 _n_ in _tongue_ inverted in Q. - -244 _u_ in _reuenge_ inverted in Q. - -246 _never--ever_ (C., M. - -247 _n_ in _answer_ inverted in Q. - -After 255, s. d.: C. & M. substitute _Charalois_ for _Charmi_; G. & S. -insert _Charalois_ before _Charmi_. - -264 and 265 _You ... fit_--printed as one line in Q. - -266 _'tas--'t has_ (C., M., S.; _'t'as_ (G. - -279 and 280 _Am ... request?_--printed as one line in Q. - -288 and 289 _I follow you_--Baumont--printed as one line in Q. - -290 _th'_--the (G., S. - -295 and 296 _Fie ... I?_--printed as one line in Q. - -296 _There is--There's_ (G., S. - - -[Act II, Scene i] - -2 _m_ in _iudgement_ inverted in Q. - -13 _sits--sit_ (C., f. - -13 and 14 _Twenty eight ... old_--printed as one line in Q. - -18 _then's_--than his (M. - -25 _he--they_ (C., M., G. - -28 _their--the_ (G., S. - -28 _was--were_ (G., S. - -40 G. & S. insert _The_ at beginning of line. - -43, after _funerall_.--_?_ (G., S. - -44 and 45 G. & S. punctuate with . at end of 44 and , at end of 45. The -emendation is plausible, even probable, but not warranted by necessity. - -45 and 46 G. & S. omit s. d., _Recorders Musique_, - -46 _interd--interr'd_ (M.--_enter'd_ (G., S. See Notes. - -After 47, s. d.--G. & S. render: _Solemn music. Enter the Funeral -Procession. The Coffin borne by four, preceeded by a Priest._ Captains, -Lieutenants, Ensigns, _and_ Soldiers; Mourners, Scutcheons _&c., and -very good order_. Romont _and_ Charalois, _followed by the_ Gaolers -_and_ Officers, _with_ Creditors, _meet it_. - -After 53 G. & S. insert s. d.: _To the Bearers, who set down the -Coffin_. - -After 64 G. & S. insert s. d.: _To the Soldiers_. - -75, after _What_ --! (C., f. - -93 _Would they not so?--Would they so?_ (C., M., G.--_Would they? Not -so._ (S. See Notes. - -94, 95, and 96 Lines in Q.: _Wee'll ... then_: | _No ... Rogues._ | -_Till ... damn'd._ | _Damn'd ... ha._ - -94 _'em--them_ (G., S. - -95 _Rogues--rogue_ (S. - -97 _weel'd--we would_ (M., f. - -98 _Y'are--Ye're_ (C., M.--_You are_ (G., S. - -100 _shee--ye_ (M., f. The emendation is probably correct. - -100, after rogues.--? (G., S. - -104 _yee, ye'are--you, you're_ (C., M., G. - -105 _2 Cred.--1 Cred._ (M., probably misprint. - -106 _They have--They've_ (C., M. - -106 _We have--We've_ (C., f. - -108 _We haue--we've_ (M. - -111 _rights--right_ (M. - -132 _both heere--here both_ (M. - -134 s. d.: _Song. Musicke._--i. e. the First Song, on page -145.--introduced here in text by all editors save Gifford and Coleridge. - -135 _'em--them_ (G., S. - -137, after _were --at_ inserted by C., f. - -137 _Saylor_--misprint for _Iaylor_,--emended by C., f. - -143 _Turnes--Turn_ (M., f. - - -[Act II, Scene ii] - -6 _eene--even_ (G., S. - -12 _eene--even_ (G., S. - -17 _serue--served_ (G., S. See Notes. - -18 _Peepe--pip_ (M., f. - -20 _ith'--in the_ (G., S. - -22 _em--them_ G., S. - -37 _Vd'd--Uds_--(M., f. - -40 _can't--can it_ (M., f. - -48 _ith'--in the_ (G., S. - -49 _please--pleases_ (C., M., G. - -55 _Ile--I will_ (G., S. - -55 _i'th--in the_ (M., f. - -59 _your--you_ (M. (in corrigenda at end of vol. 4), f. A correct -emendation. - -60 _loue? the lesse neare you.--love the less near you?_ (M., f. - -63 _Humpe--Hum_ (C., M.; _Humph_ (G., S. - -64, after _shoulder_, --C. & M. insert _and_. - -67 Nou.--C., f. affix Junior throughout. - -71 _turn'd--trimm'd_ (G., S. Emend. sug. by M. - -78 _discipline falne_) _out--discipline, fallen out_ (C., f. - -81 _Lord:_ Per se, _Lord--lord_ per se, _lord_! (G., S. - -94 _'em--them_ (G., S. - -95 _taught--caught_ (M., f. - -98 _'em--them_ (G., S. - -99 _i'th--in the_ (G., S. - -100 _Quirpo_--thus C. & G.; M. & S. read _Querpo_. - -104 _skip_--See Notes. - -105 _liue to eate_--for _liue_, G. reads _flatters_; S reads _lie_, -which is probably right. - -112 _Mrs.--Must_ (C., M. - -122 _i'th_--in the (G., S. - -125 end--s. d.: _Nov. jun. kisses her hand._ (G., S. - -128 after _recant_,--s. d.: _Kisses her_ (G,. S. - -131 _Cant._--i. e. the Second Song, on page 145.--introduced here in -text by all editors save Gifford and Coleridge. - -144 _Th' art--Thou art_ (G., S. - -153 _teares_--thus C. & M.;--G. & S. read _fears_, which seems a fitter -word here. - -153 s. d.--G. & S. read, _Aside and exit_. - -159 _affected_--affectedly (S. - -159, after _you_--C., M., & G. insert _will_. - -161 _yee--you_ (C., f. - -164 _opportunity--opportunely_ (M., f. The emendation is probably -correct. - -165 _Hum hum_--omitted by C., M., & G. - -172, after _me_ --C. & M. insert _to_. - -174 _bile--boil_ (C., f. See Notes. - -179 _breath--breath'd_ (M., f. - -193 _graue--brave_ (M., f. - -194 and 195 _My Lord ... see_,--printed as one line in Q. - -198, after _issues_--M., f. omit ,. A correct emendation. - -205 _lsoule-esse_--misprint for _soul-less_--corrected by C., f. - -211 _'em--them_ (G., S. - -215 _friends--friend_ (M., f. - -219 _is--it_ (C., f. - -219 s. d., _Seruant--Beaumont_ (G., S. - -228 _man--Men_ (C., M. - -242 _ha'--have_ (C., f. - -250 s. d.: _Drawes a Curtayne._--G. & S. add, _and discovers a table -with money and jewels upon it_. - -266 _not--no_ (G. - -269 s. d.--G. & S. omit _loaden with mony_. - -270 _Enfranchist--Enfranchise_ (C. - -270, after _him_--G. & S. insert _to_. - -277 and 278 Lines in Q.: _That ... for._ | _One ... pleaders._ | -_Honord Rochfort._ - -279 _bushes, cal'd--blushes, scald_ (C., G., S.--_blushes scald_ (M. - -281, end . --, (G., S. - -282, before _assure_--C., M., & G. insert _I_. - -284 s. d. placed by G. & S. _before_ instead of _after_ line. - -285, after _see_--: (M., f. - -285 _her education,--her education. Beaumelle_ (C.; & _for education -Beaumelle_ (M., these editors taking _Beau._ in Q. s. d. to be in text! - -286 First _l_ in _Followes_ almost invisible in Q. - -289 _take her--take her, take_ (G. - -296 _participate--precipitate_ (C., f. - -301 _I--me_ (C., f. - -303 _know_--its _n_ is broken in the Q. - -308, end--G. & S. s. d.: _Aside._ - -309 _met--meet_ (G., S. - -310. Beau. This might be either Beaumelle or Beaumont. The Q. generally -spells the latter _Baumont_, but the present speech, none the less, -probably belongs to him, and is so assigned by C., f. - -315 _yet these eares--yet these tears_ (C.--_let these tears_ (M., f. -The latter emendation is correct. - -319 --M., f. punctuate: _Breath marry breath, and kisses mingle souls._ - -330 _Mistresse_--G. & S. insert s. d.: _As Beaumelle is going out._ - -336 1st. _Ile--I will_ (G., S. - -346 _you haue--you've_ (C., M. - -349 _'em--them_ (G., S. - -350 G. & S. omit the third _ha_. - -After 354 G. omits s. d., _Hoboyes_. - - -[Act III, Scene i] - -3 _spoke--spoken_ (G., S. - -3 and 4 _Good ... onely_.--printed as one line in Q. - -9, end --; (C., f. - -13, end . --omitted by M., f. - -19, end --. (C., M.--, (G., S. The latter emendation seems preferable. - -22, end --: (C., f. - -24 _old_--M. omits. - -37 and 38 _But ... Bellapert._--printed as one line in Q. - -49, after _onely_----(C., f. - -53 and 54 _Hows ... woman?_--printed as one line in Q. - -56, after _qu_--C., f. insert s. d.: _Going._ - -61 _know--now_ (C., f. A correct emendation. - -66, after _couch_ --G. suggests to insert _there_ in -brackets,--accepted by S. - -74 _reuerence to this likening--reference to his liking_ (M., f. The -emendation appears necessary. - -88, after _to_--G. inserts s. d.: _They court._ - -88 _Enter Romont and Florimell--Enter Romont and Florimell behind_ -(G., S - -88 _tis--it is_ (G., S. - -91 _but due--but the due_ (G., S. - -99, after _opportunity_ .--? (G., S. - -99 and 100 The three speeches composing these two lines are printed in -Q. severally in three lines. - -101, after Rom.--G. & S. insert s. d.: _Comes forward._ - -111 _makes--make_ (G., S. - -116 [_thee_]--so all later editors. The word in the Q. is -illegible,--possibly _yee_. - -117 _Thou wouldst--Thou'dst_ (C., f. - -123 _on_--i. e., _one_; c. f. line 118. But C. keeps _on_. - -124 and 125 _Vse ... other._--printed as one line in Q. - -127 _for--as_ (M. in Corrigenda, vol. 4, p. 379, where are supplied ll. -126-130, which are omitted in his text. - -139 _is_--G. & S. omit. See Notes. - -150 and 151 _They ... otherwise._--printed as one line in Q. - -159 _pointed--painted_ (C., f. See Notes. - -172, after _And_--G. suggests to insert _then_ in brackets; accepted by -S. - -175 _League--Leaguer_ (M., f. - -180 _Deceyued--Delivered_ (C., f. - -184 _thy--this_ (C., f. See Notes. - -185 _twill--it will_ (G., S. - -186 _You are--You're_ (C., M. - -203 _that--this_ (G., S. - -204 _You haue--You've_ (C., M. - -221 _so indeed_--C. & M. omit _so; so--indeed_, (G., S.--The Q. reading -is preferable. - -222 and 223 _Women ... world._--printed as one line in Q. - -223, after _world_.--G. & S. s. d.: _Aside._ - -231, after _inclin'd_--, (C., f. - -235 s. d.--in G. & S.: _Enter_ Rochfort, _speaking to a servant within_. - -241 and 242 _Your ... me?_--printed as one line in Q. - -250 s. d.--in G. & S.: _Enter_ Beaumelle _and_ Bellapert, _behind_. - -254 _turne--turn'd_ (M. - -259, end .--_?_ (S., probably misprint for _!_ - -260 _This in my daughter?_--S. reads: _This is my daughter!_ - -260 and 261. Lines in Q.: _This ... her._ | _Now begin._ | _The ... -distance._ - -262 Before Beaumelle's speech G. & S. insert s. d.: _Comes forward._ - -267 Rom. _A weak excuse._--G. & S. assign to Beau. with the lines which -follow. The change is without warrant and makes no improvement on Q -reading. - -272, after _sport_--C. & M. insert s. d.: _Aside._ - -272 _Reproue_--Reproved (M., f. - -278 and 279 _Does ... this?_--printed as one line in Q. - -300 _the--his_ (S. - -316 _you are--you're_ (C., M. - -318 s. d.--G. & S. read: _Aside to them, and exit._ - -322 _Now the fashion--The fashion now_ (G., S. - -324 _Rogues_ in Q. begins the succeeding line. - -328 _shall--should_ (G., S. - -334 _grown--grow_ (G., S. - -334 and 335 _Take ... you._--printed as one line in Q. - -335 _Gods--Gads_ (C., M., G. - -339 and 340 _Will ... disgrace?_--printed as one line in Q. - -342 _I am--I'm_ (C., f. - -350 _reflects--reflect_ (G., S. - -352 _'em--them_ (C., f. - -352 _beate--bait_ (M. - -354 ,--omitted by C., f.,--a probably correct emendation. - -356 _detect--defect_ (C., f.,--a correct emendation. - -356 _right--rightly_ (M., f.,--an unnecessary emendation for the sense, -but probably correct, as it improves the metre. - -357 and 358 --the ( )'s are omitted by M., f. - -372 _a_--C. & M. omit. - -373 _They are--They're_ (C., M. - -395, end--. (C., f. - -396 _Ile--I will_ (G. - -398 _Hump--Hum_ (C., f. - -403 _you_--C., f. make obvious correction to _your_. - -405 _whatsoeuer--whatsoe'er_ (M., f. - -409, after _with_ . --_?_ (G., S. - -410 _heare_--G. & S. read _heard_. The final _e_ is blurred in Q., but -certainly _e_, not _d_. - -412 and 413 _Why ... possibility_--printed as one line in Q. - -416 _u_ in _your_ inverted in Q. - -417 _my_--G. & S. omit. - -419 _Tye--tied_ (G. - -432 _'em--him_ (M., f. See Notes. - -434 _yee--you_ (C., f. - -434 _eene--even_ (G., S. - -436 _ha--have_ (M., f. - -460 _my--thy_ (C., f.--The emendation is probably correct. - -461 _I administer--I did administer_ (M., f. The Ms. reading may have -been: _administer'd_. - -464 _Praecipuce--precipice_ (C., f. - -467 _liue--lived_ (G., S. See Notes. - -471 _Puffe--Phoh_ (C., M., G. - -473 _Bleed--Blood_ (C., M. - -482 _this: sir,--this, sir!_ (C., G., S.--_this, sir?_ (M. - -483 _Thou art--Thou'rt_ (C., M. - -484 _thou art--thou'rt_ (C., M. - - -[Act IV, Scene i] - -_Enter Nouall_, etc.--G. & S. introduce the scene with the following -variant s. d., also omitting s. d. of lines 5-8 of Q.: Noval _junior -discovered seated before a looking-glass, with a Barber and_ Perfumer -_dressing his hair, while a Tailor adjusts a new suit which he wears._ -Liladam, Aymer, _and_ a Page _attending_. - -13 _Cell_--See Notes. - -14 _will--wit_ (C., f. The emendation is probably correct. - -19, end--G. & S. insert s. d.: _Aside_, as also after the speeches of -_Page_ ending lines, 25, 36, 40, 62, 66, and 70. - -26 _haire breadth's--hair's breadth's_ (C., M., G.--_hair's breadth_ (S. - -29 _'em--them_ (G., S. - -30, after _Lordship_--_;_ (C., f. - -34 _t'ee--t'ye_ (C., f. - -36 _'em--them_ (G., S. - -39 _I--Ay_ (G., S. - -41 _misters--mistress's_ (C., M.--_mistress'_ (G., S. - -48 _a--O_ (C., M.--_o'_ (G., S. - -59 after _then--a_ inserted by C., f. - -66 _a--the_ (G. - -67 _a--o_ (G., S. - -71, after _Flatters,--!_ (G., S. - -72 _should--shouldst_ (G., S. - -74 _forme--form_ (C., f. - -76 _shouldst--should_ (C., f. See Note on l. 72. - -77 _oth'--o' the_ (G., S. - -80 _i'th--in the_ (G., S. - -84 _pown'd--pounded_ (M. - -86 _w'ee--with you_ (C., M.--_wi' ye_ (G., S. - -86 _not take it well--take it not well_ (C., M. - -88 _d'ee--d'ye_ (C., f. - -90 _ne're--never_ (M., f. - -91 and 92 _Art ... Surgeon?_--printed as one line in Q. - -94 _Humph--Hum_ (G., S. - -95 _'em--them_ (G., S. - -96 _ouer throwne_--overflown (M., f. See Notes. - -100 _Thou' idst--Thou'ldst_ (C., f. - -102, _end_ .--omitted by C., f. - -103 G. makes _Trim_ last word of line 102, and lengthens _'twere_ to -_It were_. - -110 _towne talkes--Town-Talk_ (C., M. - -110, after _beleeue_--G. & S. insert _it_. - -111 _you are--you're_ C., M. - -116 _Sent_--i. e. _Scent_; so all later editors. - -123 _ha'--have_ (G., S. - -125 _I am--I'm_ (C., M. - -131 and 132 _Farewell ... you._--printed as one line in Q. - -133 _louing--living_ (G., S. - -137 _d'ee--d'ye_ (C., f. - -138 _D'ee--D'ye_ (C., M.--_Do you_ (G., S. - -139 In Q., _For_ is last word of line 138. - -139 _ya're--you're_ (G., S. - -145 _of--o'_ (C., f. - -147 _arme--aim_ (M., f. - -150, end--G. & S. insert s. d.: _Going._ - -158 _'em--them_ (G., S. - -161 _And doore's--And your door's_ (G., S. - -162-164 --printed as two lines in Q.: _But ... do_ | _Beseach ... -circumstance._ - -163 --this line is omitted in M. - -168 _Tell you why sir--Tell you? why sir?_ (C., M.--_Tell you! why, -sir._ G., S. - -171. s. d. _dag.--dagger_ (C., M. - -174 _I am--I'm_ (C., M. - -178 _wrongs--wooing_ (M., f. Perhaps the Ms. reading was _wooings_. - -180 and 181 _But ... assurance?_--printed as one line in Q. - -188, after _see_ ,--omitted by G. & S. - -189, end G. & S. insert s. d.: _Reading_. - -194, after _So_--, (C., M.--_!_ (G., S. - -198 _blabbers, ruine--blabber's ruin_ (M., f. The emendation is -plausible, but not absolutely required. - -202, s. d. _Exit_--C., f. place at end of line 200, its obviously -correct position, as would undoubtedly Q., but for insufficient margin -in the page at this point. - -203 G. & S. give s. d.: _Enter_ Bellapert, _hastily_. - -204 _Coach--caroch_ (G., S. - -205 _D'ee--D'ye_ (C., M.--_Do you_ (G., S. - -211 _loue--Jove_ (C., f. - - -[Act IV, Scene ii] - -6 _on_--omitted by C., M. - -9 , following _something_ transferred to follow _else_ by C., f. - -31 _of it--of't_ (G., S. - -32 and 33 _He ... him._--printed as one line in Q. - -33, s. d.--G. & S. read: _Enter_ Aymer, _speaking to one within_. - -45, after _ayre._--G. & S. insert s. d.: _To the_ Musicians _within_. - -48 _consent--content_ (C., f--a correct emendation. - -48 _Y'are--You are_ (G., S. - -48, end--G. & S. insert s. d.: _To the_ Musicians. - -Before 49 --S. inserts s. d.: _Aside._ - -After 50, s. d.: _Song_--i. e. the _Cittizens Song of the Courtier_, on -page 146.--introduced here in text by Cunningham and S. - -52, end--C. & M. punctuate with--; G. & S. with .. - -54, after _thanks_--G. & S. insert s. d.: _Aside._ - -58, end--G. & S. insert s. d.: _Aside._ - -62 _Pray sing--Pray you sing_ (G. - -s. d. after 62, _Song below--Song by Aymer_ (G., S.; it is the -_Courtiers Song of the Citizen_, page 146.--introduced here in text by -Cunningham and S. - -63 and 64 _Doe ... doubtfull?_--printed as one line in Q. - -66 _they are--they're_ (C., f. - -67, s. d.--_Enter Nouall Iu. Charaloys_,--_Enter_ Charalois, _with his -sword drawn, pursuing_ Novall _junior_, etc. (G., S. - -68 _Vndone foreuer--Undone, undone, forever!_ (G.--C. & M. give this -speech to _Bellapert_. - -74 _th'--the_ (G., S. - -82 M., f. omit _,_'s after _honest_ and _valiant_. - -86 _daring looke--daring._ _Look_ (C., f. - -89 and 90 _No ... flesh_--printed as one line in Q. - -93 _of_--its _f_ is almost invisible in Q. - -95 _haue_--its _e_ is almost invisible in Q. - -96 _:_ --_?_ (G. - -96, after _shall_ G. & S. insert s. d.: _Exeunt_ Beaumont _and_ -Bellapert, _with the body of Nouall_; _followed by Beaumelle_. - -97 _Y'are--you are_ (G., S. - -97, end G. & S. insert s. d.: _Re-enter Beaumont._ - - -[Act IV, Scene iii] - -3 _not--nor_ (C. - -8 .--_?_ (C., f. - - -[Act IV, Scene iv] - -4 and 5 _Nor ... but--_ --printed as one line in Q. - -6, end--C., f. insert s. d.: _Exit_ Beaumont. - -7, end--C., f. insert s. d.: Beaumelle _kneels_. - -8 _worthy--worth_ (G., S. - -30 _th'--the_ (G., S. - -33 variously emended for defective metre: _That you have done but -what's warranted,_ (C., M.; _That you have done but what is warranted,_ -(G.; _You have done merely but what's warranted,_ (S. - -36 _of me in--in me of_ (C., M., S. The emendation is unnecessary. - -38 _now they--they now_ (G. - -50 _thou wert--you were_ (G., S. - -60, after _was_--; (C., f. - -61 _Within--Which in_ (M., f. - -77, _post_--The three s. d.'s are made by C., f. to follow respectively -lines 76, 77, and 78. - -89 _be for--before_ (C., M. - -90 _destruction--induction_ (G., S., following the suggestion of M. - -91, s. d.--G. & S. omit phrase _with Nouals body_. and affix to s. d. -_with Servants bearing the Body of_ Novall _junior_. - -92, after _seate_,--G. & S. insert s. d.: _Exeunt Servants._ - -93 _me_--the _e_ is obliterated in Q. - -93 _?_--,(C., f. - -96, end--C. & M. insert s. d.: _He hoodwinks_ Rochfort. G. & S. place a -similar s. d. at the end of the following line. - -101 and 102 _It ... iustice_--printed as one line in Q. - -121, end--G. & S. insert s. d.: Charalois _unbinds his eyes_. - -131 _With--Which_ (M., f. - -131, after _thy_--G. says a monosyllable has been lost here. S. inserts -_foul_. But an acceptable rhythm is secured by the natural stress of -the voice, which emphasizes and dwells upon _thy_, and again stresses -_kept_. - -133 _owne--one_ (M., f. - -140, after _her_ .--? (C., f. - -141 _liue no--liue. No_ (C., M.--_liue_: _no_ (G., S. - -143 _on--one_ (C., f. - -147, end--G. & S. insert _out_, changing first word of l. 148 to _Of_. -C. & M. make _Off_ of l. 148 conclude 147, and insert _From_ to begin -l. 148. It is preferable to let the line stand as it is, letting the -voice, in reading, dwell and pause upon _are_. - -148 s. d., _He kils her_. transferred to end of line by C., f. - -149 _I am. Sure--I am sure_ (M.--_I'm sure_ (G., S. - -154, after _nourished_. --C., f. inserts s. d.: _Dies._ - -156 and 157 _True ... doome_--printed as one line in Q. - -158 _and friend--and a friend_ (C., f. - -175 _Flinty- -- Flint-_ (G., S. - -175 and 176 _Nature ... vertue._--printed as one line in Q. - -177, after _of_--C., f. insert _your_. But the change is not required -by the sense; nor by the metre, if the voice be allowed to dwell on -_heart_. - -184 s. d.: _Enter Nouall_, etc.--G. & S. place after _doors_ in next -line. - -185, before _Force_ --G. & S. insert s. d.: _Within._ - -190 and 191 _Call ... blood._--printed as one line in Q. - - -[Act V, Scene i] - -_Enter_, etc. _Officers--two_ Bailiffs. (G., S. - -2 _T'arrest--To arrest_ (G., S. - -4 _for me--for form_ (M., f. - -16 _you haue--you've_ (C., M. - -22 _them--him_ (C., f. The Q. reading is preferable in every way. - -24 _so_--M. omits. - -26 _You are--You're_ (C., M. - -32, after _and_--G. & S. insert _the_. - -33 _are these--or thief_ (M.--_and thief_ (G., S., which seems slightly -the more probable correction. - -34 _Synonima--synonymous_ (C., M. - -36, end s. d.--C., f. place s. d. after _selfe_. - -39 _I will--I'll_ (C., m. - -47 _reueng'd--un-revenged_ (C., f.,--an obviously correct emendation. - -57, end .--, (C., f. - -61 _'Tas--It has_ (M., f. - -68 _obiect--abject_ (C., f. - -70 and 71 _Away ... deadly:_--printed as one line in Q. - -71, after _know_--G. & S. insert _thee_, which secures a smoother -metre, but is not warranted. - -79 _I am--I'm_ (C., f. - -84 _sits_--M. reads _fits_, the first letter in Q. not being certainly -distinguishable as _s_ or _f_. - -85 _cape--cap_ (C., f. - -86 _sate.--sat,_ (C., f. - -93 Offi.--1 Bail. (G., S. - -97 _Hath--Have_ (M., G. - -105 _ones--one_ (C., f. - -106 _Additions--Addition_ (C., f. - - -[Act V, Scene ii] - -2 _thou thinkst--you think_ (G., S. - -7 _new--now_ (M. - -15, after _Nouall_ .--_?_ (G., S. - -18 _grieue--grieved_ (M., f., a correct emendation. - -23, after _haue_--C., f. insert , . - -23 _promis'd--promise_ (C., f. - -26 _heires_--i. e., of course, _hairs_;--so modernized by C., f. - -33 _worrhy_--Q. misprint for _worthy_;--corrected by C., f. - -39, after _people_--C., f. insert ,. - -42, after _knowing_--M., f. insert _too_. - -55, after _cause_--.--(C., M.--?--(G., S., which is right. - -67 _I am--I'm_ (C., M. - -68, after _man_--M. inserts , , and G. & S. ;--. - -76, end G. & S. omit , . - -77, after _But_--G. & S. insert , . - -80 and 81 _You ... cause._--printed as one line in Q. - -88 _chalenge--challenged_ (G., S.--a correct emendation. - -91 _Tygre--tigress_ (C., M. - -104 _breed--bread_ (C., f. The Q. reading is perfectly satisfactory. - -117 _You haue--You've_ (C., M. - - -[Act V, Scene iii] - -_Scaena 3_--omitted by G. & S.,--and correctly so, for there is no -change in place from the preceding, and the action is uninterrupted. - -18, after _that_--M., f. insert _when_. See Notes. - -30 _fain'd-- -famed_ (M., f. - -32 --, after _neyghbour-hood_ in Q. is placed after _ill_ by C., f. - -35 _by--my_ (C., f. - -44, after _pray_--G. & S. insert _you_. - -47 _dis-become--mis-become_ (C., M. - -50 --_u_ in _accuser_ is inverted in Q. - -51 _or--nor_ (C., f. - -59 _motion--motion's_ (C., f. - -60 --_n_ in _confesse_ is inverted in Q. - -68 _freed--feed_ (M., f. - -68, end--_?_ (C., f. - -73 _courtesie--courtesies_ (C., f. Q. reading is preferable. See -Glossary. - -77 _that--they_ (S. - -88 _dowry--dower_ (G., S. - -91 _could preserue--could not preserve_ (C., f. The emendation is -clearly required. - -137, after _truth_ ,--. (M., f. - -138, after _begin_ .--, (G., S.--C. & M. inclose _For ... begin_ in -( )'s. - -139 _n_ in _French_ is inverted in Q. - -150 _appou'd_--i. e., _approu'd_; in Q. the _r_ is wanting as above. -Later editors correct. - -166 _more--mere_ (C., f. See Notes. - -168 _fall--fail_ (M. - -169 _like_--omitted by G. & S. - -170 _signe--signs_ (S. - -180 _against--'gainst_ (G., S. - -184 _had_--omitted by G. - -190 _bands--bawds_ (C., f. - -190 s. d. _Enter Aymer_, etc.--_Enter Officers with_ Aymer, etc. (G., S. - -190, _tooke--ta'en_ (G. - -201 _iniurie:_--C., f. read _injuries_, the colon in the Q. being -blurred to appear like a broken _s_. - -205, end. --C., f. insert s. d.: _Stabs him._ - -206 _I am--I'm_ (C., M. - -207, end--C., f. insert s. d.: _Stabs Pontalier._ See Notes. - -215 after _mee_.--C., f. insert s. d.: _Dies._ - -215-217 --lines in Q. are: _I ... loue_ | _Not ... of._ - -217 _worthy, worthy of--worthy of_ (C., M. - -217, after _of_.--C., f. insert s. d.: _Dies._ - -217 _We are--We're_ (C., M. - -220 _We are--We're_ (C., M. - -227 _As--A_ (M., misprint. - -228 _Be set--Or be set_ (C., M., G.--_Be or set_ (S. - - -[Songs] - -These songs are printed thus in an Appendix at the end of the play -in Q., G., and the edition of Hartley Coleridge. The _First Song_ is -inserted at its proper point in the text--II, i, after line 134--by -C., M., Cunningham, and S.;--so, too, the _Second Song_, after line -131 of II, ii. The other two songs were omitted in C., and appear in -an appendix of vol. 4 of M.,--there wrongly assigned (by D.) to the -"passage over the stage" which closes Act II. Gifford correctly assigns -them to follow respectively IV, ii, 50; and IV, ii, 62;--where they are -printed in the text of Cunningham and S. - -_First Song_--A DIRGE (G., S. - -_Second Song_--A SONG BY AYMER (G., S. - -_A_ ... Nouall, _and_ Beaumelle.--_A ... a Man and a Woman._ (C., f. - -2-4 --lines in Q.: _From ... begat'st._ | _I dare ... line,_ | _Each -word ... hooke,_. - -7 _doest--dost_ (C., f. - -8 _Come strangled--Come, strangle_ (M., f. - -(_Citizens Song_) 3 and 4: _If ... state,_--printed as one line in Q. - -7 _seruants_--its _u_ is inverted in Q. - -(_Courtiers Song_) 16: _Tradesmen--tradesman_ (M. - - - - - * * * * * - - - - -Transcriber's Notes - -In the play itself all apparent printing errors have been retained; no -attempt has been made to standardise formatting. - -In the front and end matter, simple typographical errors have been -corrected; variant spelling, punctuation, and inconsistent hyphenation -have been preserved as printed. - -On some reading devices, inline stage directions are set off from the -text by parentheses added by the transcriber. Footnote headings and -navigational [links] in brackets were also added. - -The following shows the changed text below the original text: - - Page 34: - the repentent sinner - the repentant sinner - - Page 163: - --life-like. II, i, 232. - --life-like. II, ii, 232. - - Page 164: - _skills_, signifies, matters. I, i, 286. - _skills_, signifies, matters. I, ii, 286. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fatal Dowry, by -Philip Massinger and Nathaniel Field - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FATAL DOWRY *** - -***** This file should be named 44015-8.txt or 44015-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/0/1/44015/ - -Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Jennifer Linklater and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - - -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. 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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 Fatal Dowry - -Author: Philip Massinger - Nathaniel Field - -Editor: Charles Lacy Lockert - -Release Date: October 23, 2013 [EBook #44015] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FATAL DOWRY *** - - - - -Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Jennifer Linklater and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - - - - - - - - - - THE FATAL DOWRY - - BY - - PHILIP MASSINGER AND - NATHANIEL FIELD - - EDITED, FROM THE ORIGINAL QUARTO, - WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES - - A DISSERTATION - - PRESENTED TO THE - FACULTY OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY - IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE - OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY - - BY - CHARLES LACY LOCKERT, JR. - - ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH, KENYON COLLEGE - - PRESS OF - THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY - LANCASTER, PA. - - 1918 - - Accepted by the Department of English, June, 1916 - - - - -PREFACE - - -This critical edition of _The Fatal Dowry_ was undertaken as a Thesis -in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Ph.D. at -Princeton University. It was compiled under the guidance and direction -of Professor T. M. Parrott of that institution, and every page of -it is indebted to him for suggestion, advice, and criticism. I can -but inadequately indicate the scope of his painstaking and scholarly -supervision, and can even less adequately express my appreciation of -his ever-patient aid, which alone made this work possible. - -I desire also to acknowledge my debt to Professor J. Duncan Spaeth -of Princeton University, for his valuable suggestions in regard to -the presentation of my material, notably in the Introduction; also to -Professor T. W. Baldwin of Muskingum College and Mr. Henry Bowman, -both of them then fellow graduate students of mine at Princeton, for -assistance on several occasions in matters of special inquiry; and to -Dr. M. W. Tyler of the Princeton Department of History for directing me -in clearing up a lego-historical point; and finally to the libraries of -Yale and Columbia Universities for their kind loan of needed books. - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -In the Stationer's Register the following entry is recorded under the -date of "30th Martij 1632:" - - CONSTABLE Entred for his copy vnder the hands of Sir HENRY HERBERT - and master _SMITHWICKE_ warden a Tragedy called _the ffatall - Dowry_. Vj d. - -In the year 1632 was published a quarto volume whose title-page was -inscribed: _The Fatall Dowry_: a Tragedy: As it hath been often Acted -at the Private House in Blackfriars, by his Majesties Servants. -Written by P. M. and N. F. London, Printed by John Norton, for Francis -Constable, and are to be sold at his shop at the Crane, in Pauls -Churchyard. 1632. - -That the initials by which the authors are designated stand for Philip -Massinger and Nathaniel Field is undoubted. - - -LATER TEXTS - -There is no other seventeenth century edition of _The Fatal Dowry_. It -was included in various subsequent collections, as follows: - -I. _The Works of Philip Massinger_--edited by Thomas Coxeter, -1759--re-issued in 1761, with an introduction by T. Davies. - -II. _The Dramatic Works of Philip Massinger_--edited by John Monck -Mason, 1779. - -III. _The Plays of Philip Massinger_--edited by William Gifford, 1805. -There was a revised second edition in 1813, which is still regarded as -the Standard Massinger Text, and was followed in subsequent editions of -Gifford. - -IV. _Modern British Drama_--edited by Sir Walter Scott, 1811. The text -of this reprint of _The Fatal Dowry_ is Gifford's. - -V. _Dramatic Works of Massinger and Ford_--edited by Hartley Coleridge, -1840 (_et seq._). This follows the text of Gifford. - -VI. _The Plays of Philip Massinger._ From the Text of William Gifford. -With the Addition of the Tragedy Believe as You List. Edited by Francis -Cunningham, 1867 (_et seq._). The Fatal Dowry in this edition, as in -the preceding, is a mere reprint of the Second Edition of Gifford. - -VII. _Philip Massinger._ Selected Plays. (Mermaid Series.) Edited by -Arthur Symons, 1887-9 (_et seq._). - -In addition to the above, _The Fatal Dowry_ appeared in _The Plays of -Philip Massinger_, adapted for family reading and the use of young -persons, by the omission of objectionable passages,--edited by Harness, -1830-1; and another expurgated version was printed in the _Mirror of -Taste and Dramatic Censor_, 1810. Both of these are based on the text -of Gifford. - -The edition of Coxeter is closest of all to the Quarto, following even -many of its most palpable mistakes, and adding some blunders on its -own account. Mason accepts practically all of Coxeter's corrections, -and supplies a great many more variants himself, not all of which are -very happy. Both these eighteenth century editors continually contract -for the sake of securing a perfectly regular metre (e. g.: _You're_ -for _You are_, I, i, 139; _th' honours_ for _the honours_, I, ii, 35; -etc.), while Gifford's tendency is to give the full form for even the -contractions of the Quarto, changing its _'em's_ to _them's_, etc. -Gifford can scarce find words sharp enough to express his scorn for his -predecessors in their lack of observance of the text of the Quarto, -yet he himself frequently repeats their gratuitous emendations when -the original was a perfectly sure guide, and he has almost a mania for -tampering with the Quarto on his own account. Symons' _Mermaid_ text, -while based essentially on that of Gifford, in a number of instances -departs from it, sometimes to make further emendations, but more often -to go back from those of Gifford to the version of the original, so -that on the whole this is the best text yet published. - -There has been a German translation by the Graf von Baudisson, under -the title of _Die Unselige Mitgift_, in his _Ben Jonson und seine -Schule_, Leipsig, 1836; and a French translation, in prose, under -the title of _La dot fatale_ by E. Lafond in _Contemporains de -Shakespeare_, Paris, 1864. - - -DATE - -The date of the composition or original production of _The Fatal Dowry_ -is not known. The Quarto speaks of it as having been "often acted," so -there is nothing to prevent our supposing that it came into existence -many years before its publication. It does not seem to have been -entered in Sir Henry Herbert's Office Book.[1] This would indicate its -appearance to have been prior to Herbert's assumption of the duties of -his office in August, 1623. In seeking a more precise date we can deal -only in probabilities.[2] - -The play having been produced by the King's Men, a company in which -Field acted, it was most probably written during his association -therewith. This was formed in 1616; the precise date of his retirement -from the stage is not known. His name appears in the patent of March -27, 1619, just after the death of Burbage, and again and for the last -time in a livery list for his Majesty's Servants, dated May 19, 1619. -It is absent from the next grant for livery (1621) and from the actors' -lists for various plays which are assigned to 1619 or 1620. We may -therefore assume safely that his connection with the stage ended before -the close of 1619. On the basis of probability, then, the field is -narrowed to 1616-19.[3] - -More or less presumptive evidence may be adduced for a yet more -specific dating. During these years that Field acted with the King's -Men, two plays appeared which bear strong internal evidence of being -products of his collaboration with Massinger and Fletcher: _The Knight -of Malta_ and _The Queen of Corinth_. While several parallels of -phraseology are afforded for _The Fatal Dowry_ by these (as, indeed, by -every one of the works of Massinger) they are not nearly so numerous -or so striking as similarities discoverable between it and certain -other dramas of the Massinger _corpus_. With none does the connection -seem so intimate as with _The Unnatural Combat_. Both plays open with -a scene in which a young suppliant for a father's cause is counseled, -in passages irresistibly reminiscent of each other, to lay aside pride -and modesty for the parent's sake, because not otherwise can justice -be gained, and it is the custom of the age to sue for it shamelessly. -Moreover, the offer by Beaufort and his associates to Malefort of any -boon he may desire as a recompense for his service, and his acceptance -of it, correspond strikingly in both conduct and language with the -conferring of a like favor upon Rochfort by the Court (I, ii, 258 -ff.); while the request which Malefort prefers, that his daughter be -married to Beaufort Junior, and the language with which that young man -acknowledges this meets his own dearest wish, bear a no less patent -resemblance to the bestowal of Beaumelle upon Charalois (II, ii, -284-297). Now this last parallel is significant, because _The Unnatural -Combat_ is an unaided production of Massinger, while the analogue in -_The Fatal Dowry_ occurs in a scene that is by the hand of Field. The -similarity may, of course, be only an accident, but presumably it is -not. Then did Field borrow from Massinger, or did Massinger from Field? -The most plausible theory is that _The Unnatural Combat_ was written -immediately after _The Fatal Dowry_, when Massinger's mind was so -saturated with the contents of the tragedy just laid aside that he was -liable to echo in the new drama the expressions and import of lines in -the old, whether by himself or his collaborator. That at any rate the -chronological relationship of the two plays is one of juxtaposition is -further attested by the fact that in minor parallelisms,[4] too, to -_The Fatal Dowry_, _The Unnatural Combat_ is richer than any other work -of Massinger. - -Unfortunately _The Unnatural Combat_ is itself another play of whose -date no more can be said with assurance than that it preceeds the entry -of Sir Henry Herbert into office in 1623, though its crude horrors, -its ghost, etc., suggest moreover that it is its author's initial -independent venture in the field of tragedy, his _Titus Andronicus_, an -ill-advised attempt to produce something after the "grand manner" of -half a generation back. Next in closeness to _The Fatal Dowry_ among -the works of Massinger as regards the number of its reminiscences of -phraseology stands his share of _The Virgin Martyr_; next in closeness -as regards the _strikingness_ of these parallels stands his share of -_The Little French Lawyer_. These two plays can be dated _circa_ 1620. - - * * * * * - -To sum up: - -_The Fatal Dowry_ appears to antedate the installation of Sir Henry -Herbert in 1623. - -It was probably written while Field was with the King's Men; with whom -he became associated in 1616, and whom he probably quitted in 1619. - -The indications point to its composition during the latter part of this -three-year period (1616-19), for it yields more and closer parallels -to _The Virgin Martyr_ and _The Little French Lawyer_, dated about -1620, than to _The Knight of Malta_ and _The Queen of Corinth_, dated -1617-8,--closer, indeed, than to any work of Massinger save one, _The -Unnatural Combat_, itself an undated but evidently early play, with -which its relationship is clearly of the most intimate variety. - - * * * * * - -The following (at best hazardously conjectural) scheme of sequence may -be advanced: - -Fletcher and Massinger and Field together wrote _The Knight of Malta_ -and _The Queen of Corinth_--according to received theory, in 1617 or -1618. Thereafter, the last two collaborators (desirous, perhaps, of -trying what they could do unaided and unshackled by the dominating -association of the chief dramatist of the day) joined hands in the -production of the tragedy which is the subject of our study. Then, upon -Field's retirement, Massinger struck off, with _The Unnatural Combat_, -into unassisted composition; but we next find him, whether because he -recognized the short-comings of this turgid play or for other reasons, -again in double harness, at work upon _The Virgin Martyr_ and _The -Little French Lawyer_. On this hypothesis, _The Fatal Dowry_ would be -dated 1618-9. - - -SOURCES - -No source is known for the main plot of _The Fatal Dowry_. A Spanish -original has been suspected, but it has never come to light. The stress -laid throughout the action on that peculiarly Spanish conception of -"the point of honor" (see under CRITICAL ESTIMATE, in consideration -of the character of Charalois) is unquestionably suggestive of the -land south of the Pyrenees, and we have an echo of _Don Quixote_ -in the exclamation of Charalois (III, i, 441): "Away, thou curious -impertinent." The identification, however, of the situation at Aymer's -house in IV, ii with a scene in Cervantes' _El viejo celoso_ (Obras -Completas De Cervantes, Tomo XII, p. 277) is extremely fanciful. The -only similarity consists in the circumstance that in both, while the -husband is on the stage, the wife, who, unknown to him, entertains -a lover in the next room, is heard speaking within. But this is a -spontaneous outcry on the part of Beaumelle, who does not suspect the -proximity of her husband, and her discovery follows, and from this -the denouement of the play; whereas in Cervantes' _entremes_ the wife -deliberately calls in bravado to her niece, who is also on-stage, and -boasts of her lover,--and the husband thinks this is in jest, and -nothing comes of it but comedy. - -The theme of the son's redemption of his father's corpse by his own -captivity is from the classical story of Cimon and Miltiades, as -narrated by Valerius Maximus, De dictis factisque memorabilibus, etc. -Lib. V, cap. III. De ingratis externorum: _Bene egissent Athenienses -cum Miltiade, si eum post trecenta millia Persarum Marathone devicta, -in exilium protinus misissent, ac non in carcere et vinculis mori -coegissent; sed, ut puto, hactenus saevire adversus optime meritum -abunde duxerunt: immo ne corpus quidem eius, sic expirare coacti -sepulturae primus mandari passi sunt, quam filius eius Cimon eisdem -vinculis se constrigendum traderet. Hanc hereditatem paternam maximi -ducis filius, et futurus ipse aetatis suae dux maximus, solam se -crevisse, catenas et carcerem, gloriari potuit._ - -In the version of Cornelius Nepos (Vitae, Cimon I) Cimon is -incarcerated against his will. - -The action of the play is given the historical setting of the later -fifteenth century wars of Louis XI of France and Charles the Bold of -Burgundy, although this background is extremely hazy. The hero's name -is the title which Charles bore while heir-apparent to the Duchy of -Burgundy; mention is made of Charles himself ("The warlike Charloyes," -I, ii, 171), to Louis ("the subtill Fox of France, The politique -Lewis," I, ii, 123-4), and to "the more desperate Swisse" (I, ii, -124), against whom Charles lost his life and the power of Burgundy -was broken; while the three great defeats he suffered at their hands, -Granson, Morat, Nancy, are named in I, ii, 170. Shortly after these -disasters the events which the play sets forth must be supposed to -occur; the parliament by which in our drama Dijon is governed was -established by Louis XI when he annexed Burgundy in 1477 and thereby -abolished her ducal independence. - - -COLLABORATION - -It is doubtful if Massinger ever collaborated with any author whose -manner harmonized as well with his own as did Field's. In his -partnership with Decker in _The Virgin Martyr_, the alternate hands -of the two dramatists afford a weird contrast.[5] His union with -Fletcher was less incongruous, but Fletcher was too much inclined to -take the bit between his teeth to be a comfortable companion in double -harness,[6] and at all times his volatile, prodigal genius paired ill -with the earnest, painstaking, not over-poetic moralist. But in Field -Massinger found an associate whose connection with himself was not only -congenial, but even beneficial, to the end that together they could -achieve certain results of which either was individually incapable; -just as it has been established was the case in the Middleton-Rowley -collaboration. To a formal element of verse different, indeed, from -Massinger's, but not obtrusively so, a certain moral fibre of his -own (perhaps derived from his clerical antecedents), and a like -familiarity with stage technique, Field added qualities which Massinger -notably lacked, and thereby complemented him: a light and vigorous -(if sometimes coarse) comic touch as opposed to Massinger's cumbrous -humor; a freshness and first-hand acquaintance with life as opposed to -Massinger's bookishness; a capacity to visualize and individualize -character as opposed to Massinger's weakness for drawing types rather -than people. The fruit of their joint endeavors testifies to a -harmonious, conscientious, and mutually respecting partnership. - -In consideration of the above, it is surprising how substantially in -accord are most of the opinions that have been expressed concerning the -share of the play written by each author. - -"A critical reader," says Monck Mason, "will perceive that Rochfort -and Charalois speak a different language in the Second and Third Acts, -from that which they speak in the first and last, which are undoubtedly -Massinger's; as is also Part of the Fourth Act, but not the whole of -it." - -Dr. Ireland, in a postscript to the text of _The Fatal Dowry_ in -Gifford's edition, agrees with Mason in assigning the Second Act -to Field and also the First Scene of the Fourth Act; the Third -Act, however, he claims for Massinger, as well as that share of -the play with which Mason credits him. Fleay and Boyle, the chief -modern commentators who have taken up the question of the division -of authorship with the aid of metrical tests and other criteria, -agree fairly well with the speculations of their less scientific -predecessors, and adopt an intermediate, reconciling position on the -disputed Third Act, dividing it between the two dramatists.[7] - -Boyle (_Englische Studien_, V, 94) assigns to Massinger Act I; Act III -as far as line 316; Act IV, Scenes ii, iii, and iv; and the whole of -Act V, with the exception of Scene ii, lines 80-120, which he considers -an interpolation of Field, whom he also believes to have revised the -latter part of I, ii (from _Exeunt Officers with Romont_ to end). - -Fleay (_Chron. Eng. Dra._, I, 208) exactly agrees with this division -save that the latter part of I, ii, which Boyle believes emended by -Field, he assigns to that author outright; and that he places the -division in Act III twenty-seven lines later (Field after _Manent Char. -Rom._). - -In my own investigation I have used for each Scene the following tests -to distinguish the hands of the two authors: - -(_a_) Broad aesthetic considerations: the comparison of style and -method of treatment with the known work of either dramatist. - -(_b_) The test of parallel phrases. Massinger's habit of repeating -himself is notorious. I have gone through the entire body of his -work, both that which appears under his name, and that which has been -assigned to him by modern research in the Beaumont & Fletcher plays, -and noted all expressions I found analogous to any which occur in -_The Fatal Dowry_. I have done the same for Field's work, examining -his two comedies, _Woman is a Weathercock_ and _Amends for Ladies_, -and Acts I and V of _The Knight of Malta_ and III and IV of _The -Queen of Corinth_, which the consensus of critical opinion recognizes -(in my judgment, correctly) as his. He is generally believed to have -collaborated also in _The Honest Man's Fortune_, but the exact extent -of his work therein is so uncertain that I have not deemed it a proper -field from which to adduce evidence. His hand has been asserted by one -authority or another to appear in various other plays of the period, -he having served, as it were, the role of a literary scapegoat on whom -it was convenient to father any Scene not identified as belonging to -Beaumont, Fletcher, or Massinger; but there is no convincing evidence -for his participation in the composition of any extant dramas save the -above named. - -(_c_) Metrical tests. I have computed the figures for _The Fatal Dowry_ -in regard to double or feminine endings and run-on lines. Massinger's -verse displays high percentages (normally 30 per cent, to 45 per cent.) -in the case of either. Field's verse varies considerably in the matter -of run-on lines at various periods of his life, but the proportion of -them is always smaller than Massinger's. His double endings average -about 18 per cent. I have also counted in each Scene the number -of speeches that end within the line, and that end with the line, -respectively. (Speeches ending with fragmentary lines are considered to -have mid-line endings.) This is declared by Oliphant (_Eng. Studien_, -XIV, 72) the surest test for the work of Massinger. "His percentage of -speeches," he says, "that end where the verses end is ordinarily as low -as 15." This is a tremendous exaggeration, but it is true that the -ratio of mid-line endings is much higher in Massinger than in any of -his contemporaries--commonly 2:1, or higher. - -We find the First Scene of Act I one of those skillful introductions -to the action which the "stage-poet" knew so well how to handle, for -which reason, probably, he was generally intrusted with the initial -Scene of the plays in which he collaborated. Thoroughly Massingerian -are its satire upon the degenerate age and its grave, measured -style, rhetorical where it strives to be passionate, and replete -with characteristic expressions. Especially striking examples of the -dramatist's well-known and never-failing _penchant_ for the recurrent -use of certain ideas and phrases are: _As I could run the hazard of a -check for't._ (l. 10)--cf. [8]C-G. 87 b, 156 b, 327 b; D. V, 328; XI, -28;--_You shall o'ercome._ (l. 101)--cf. C-G. 230 b, 248 b, 392 a;--and -ll. 183-7--cf. C-G. 206 a, 63 a, 91 a, 134 b. The correspondence -between ll. 81-99 and the opening of _The Unnatural Combat_ has already -been remarked on, while further reminiscences of the same passage are -to be found elsewhere in Massinger (C-G. 104 a, 195 b). Metrical tests -show for the Scene 33 per cent. double endings and 29 per cent. run-on -lines, figures which substantiate the conclusions derivable from a -scrutiny of its style and content.[9] - -In I, ii Massinger appears in his element, an episode permitting -opportunities for the forensic fervor which was his especial forte. -Such Scenes occur again and again in his plays: the conversion of -the daughters of Theophilus by the Virgin Martyr, the plea of the -Duke of Milan to the Emperor, of old Malefort to his judges in _The -Unnatural Combat_, of Antiochus to the Carthagenian senate in _Believe -as You List_. From the speech with which Du Croy opens court (I, ii, -1-3)--cf. the inauguration of the senate-house scene in _The Roman -Actor_, C-G. 197 b, - - _Fathers conscript, may this our meeting be - Happy to Caesar and the commonwealth!_ - ---to the very end, it abounds with Massingerisms: _Knowing judgment_; -_Speak to the cause_; _I foresaw this_ (an especial favorite of the -poet's); _Strange boldness!_; the construction, _If that curses_, -etc;--also cf. l. 117 ff. with - - _To undervalue him whose least fam'd service - Scornes to be put in ballance with the best - Of all your Counsailes._ - - (_Sir John van Olden B._, Bullen's _Old Plays_, II, 232.) - -We have seen that the hand of Field has been asserted to appear in the -last half of this Scene. This is probably due to the presence here of -several rhymed couplets, which are uncommon in Massinger save as tags -at the end of Scenes or of impressive speeches, but not absolutely -unknown in his work; whereas Field employs them frequently--in -particular to set off a gnomic utterance. If Field's indeed, they -can scarcely represent more than his revising touch here and there; -everything else in this part of the Scene bespeaks Massinger no less -clearly than does the portion which preceeds it. There continues the -same stately declamation, punctuated at intervals by brief comments -or replies, the same periodic sentence-structure, the same or even -greater frequency of characteristic diction. Massinger again and again -refers in his plays to the successive hardships of the summer's heat -and winter's frost (l. 184--cf. C-G. 168 b, 205 a, 392 b, 488 b); -_stand bound_ occurs literally scores of times upon his pages (three -times on C-G. 77 a alone);--typical also are _in their dreadful ruins -buried quick_ (l. 178--cf. C-G. 603 a, 625 a, _Sir John van Olden B._, -Bullin's _Old Plays_, II, 209), _Be constant in it_ (l. 196--cf. C-G. -2 a, 137 a, 237 a, 329 a), _Strange rashness!_, _It is my wonder_ -(l. 293--cf. C-G. 26 b, 195 b; D. VIII, 438; XI, 34). Cf. also l. 156, - - _To quit the burthen of a hopeless life,_ - -with C-G. 615 b, - - _To ease the burthen of a wretched life._ - -And ll. 284-6, - - _But would you had - Made trial of my love in anything - But this,_ - -with C-G. 286 a, - - _I could wish you had - Made trial of my love some other way._ - -And again, ll. 301-3, - - _and his goodness - Rising above his fortune, seems to me, - Princelike, to will, not ask, a courtesy._ - -with D. XI. 37, - - _in his face appears - A kind of majesty which should command, - Not sue for favour._ - -and the general likeness of l. 258 ff. with C-G. 44 b-45 a, as above -noted. Nor do the verse tests reveal any break in the continuity of -the Scene; the figures for the first part are: double endings, 45 per -cent.; run-on lines, 33 per cent.--for the second part: double endings, -36 per cent.; run-on lines, 36 per cent. - -Passing to the Second Act, we discover at once a new manner of -expression, in which the sentence has a looser structure, the verse -a quicker _tempo_, the poetry a striving now and again for a note of -lyric beauty which, although satisfactorily achieved in but few lines, -is by Massinger's verse not even attempted. A liberal sprinkling -of rhymes appears. The Scene is a trifle more vividly conceived; -the emotions have a somewhat more genuine ring. Simultaneously, -resemblances to the phraseology of Massinger's other plays become -infrequent; _and, to increase the wonder_, is almost the only reminder -of him in the whole of Scene i. On the other hand we must not expect -to find in the work of Field the same large number of recognizable -expressions as mark that of Massinger; for he was not nearly so given -to repeating himself, nor are there many of his plays extant from -which to garner parallels. The figure of speech with which Charalois -opens his funeral address [Field shows a great predilection for -"aqueous" similes and metaphors], the liberal use of oaths (_'Slid_, -_'Slight_), a reference (l. 137) to the Bermudas (also mentioned -in _Amends for Ladies_: M. 427), and the comparison to the oak and -pine (ll. 119-121--cf. a Field Scene of _The Queen of Corinth_: D. V, -436-7) are the only specific minutia to which a finger can be pointed. -The verse analysis testifies similarly to a different author from -that of Act I, double endings being 20 per cent., run-on lines 15 per -cent.--figures which are quite normal to Field. - -To the actor-dramatist may be set down the prose of II, ii without -question. Massinger practically never uses prose, which is liberally -employed by Field, as is the almost indistinguishable prose-or-verse by -which a transition is made from one medium to the other. The dialogue -between Beaumelle and her maids is strikingly like that between two -"gentlewomen" in _The Knight of Malta_, I, ii--a Scene generally -recognized as by his hand; the visit of Novall Junior which follows -is like a page out of his earlier comedies. Notable resemblances are -ll. 177-8, _Uds-light! my lord, one of the purls of your band is, -without all discipline, fallen out of his rank_, with _I have seen him -sit discontented a whole play because one of the purls of his band was -fallen out of his reach to order again_. (_Amends for Ladies_, M. 455); -and l. 104, _they skip into my lord's cast skins some twice a year_, -with _and then my lord_ (_like a snake_) _casts a suite every quarter, -which I slip into_: (_Woman is a Weathercock_, M. 374). The song, after -l. 131, recalls that in _Amends for Ladies_, M. 465. - -Of the verse which follows, most of the observations made in regard to -the preceeding Scene are applicable. The comic touch in the midst of -Romont's tirade (ll. 174-206) against old Novall, when the vehemence -of his indignation leads him to seek at every breath the epithet of -a different beast for his foe, is surely Field's, not Massinger's. A -Field scene of _The Queen of Corinth_, D. V, 438, parallels with its -_Thou a gentleman! thou an ass_, the construction of l. 276, while -there too is duplicated the _true-love knots_ of l. 314, though in a -rather grotesque connection. The verse tests are confirmative of Field: -21 per cent. double endings; 19 per cent, run-on lines. While a few -resemblances to phrases occurring somewhere in the works of Massinger -can be marked here and there in the 355 lines of the Scene, they are -not such as would demand consideration, nor are more numerous than -sheer chance would yield in the case of a writer so prolific as the -"stage-poet." The parallel between ll. 284-297 and a passage from _The -Unnatural Combat_ is pointed out under the head of DATE, and one of -several possible explanations for this coincidence is there offered. -These lines in _The Fatal Dowry_ are as unmistakably Field's as any -verse in the entire play; their short, abruptly broken periods and -their rapid flow are as characteristic of him as the style of their -analogue in _The Unnatural Combat_ is patently Massingerian. - -Act III presents a more difficult problem. It will be noted that Fleay -and Boyle alike declare that its single long Scene is divided between -the two authors, but are unable to agree as to the point of division. -The first 316 lines are beyond question the work of Massinger. The tilt -between Romont and Beaumelle is conducted with that flood of rhetorical -vituperation by which he customarily attempts to delineate passion; -in no portion of the play is his diction and sentence-structure more -marked; and the parallels to passages elsewhere in his works reappear -with redoubled profusion. Indeed, they become too numerous for complete -citation; let it suffice to refer ll. 43-4 to D. III, 477; ll. 53-4 to -C-G. 173 a; ll. 80-3 to D. III, 481; l. 104 to C-G. 532 a; l. 116 to -C-G. 146 b; ll. 117-8 to D. VI, 294 and D. VI, 410; ll. 232-5 to C-G. -307 a, also to 475 b, and to D. VIII, 406; while the phrase, _Meet with -an ill construction_ (l. 238) is a common one with Massinger (cf. C-G. -76 a, 141 b, 193 b, 225 b, 339 b), as are such ironic observations as -the _Why, 'tis exceeding well_ of l. 293 (cf., e. g., 175 b). This part -of the Scene contains 45 per cent. double endings and 36 per cent. -run-on lines. - -The last 161 lines of the Act with scarcely less certainty can be -established as Field's, though on a first reading one might imagine, -from the wordiness of the vehement dialogue and the rather high ratio -(19:11) of speeches ending in mid-line, that the hand of Massinger -continues throughout. But the closest examination no longer will reveal -traces of that playwright's distinctive handiwork, while a ratio of 17 -per cent. for double endings and 28 per cent. for run-on lines, the -introduction of rhyme, the oaths, and the change from the previous -full-flowing declamation to shorter, more abrupt periods are vouchers -that this part of the Scene is from the pen of the actor-dramatist. We -can scarcely imagine the ponderous-styled Massinger writing anything -so easy and rapid as - - _I'll die first. - Farewell; continue merry, and high heaven - Keep your wife chaste._ - -Such phrases as _So I not heard them_ (l. 352) and _Like George -a-horseback_ (l. 433) in the loose structure of the one and the slangy -scurrility of the other, exhibit no kinship to his manner; l. 373, -_They are fools that judge me by my outward seeming_ recalls a Field -passage in _The Queen of Corinth_ (D. V, 444) _They are fools that hold -them dignified by blood_. There is here and there, moreover, a certain -violence of expression, a compressed over-trenchancy of phrase, that -brings to mind the rant of the early Elizabethans, and is found among -the Jacobeans only in the work of Rowley, Beaumont, and Field. For the -last named, this is notably exemplified in the opening soliloquy of -_The Knight of Malta_; we cannot but recognize the same touch here in -ll. 386-8: - - _Thou dost strike - A deathful coldness to my heart's high heat, - And shrink'st my liver like the calenture._ - -The _Something I must do_, which concludes the Act, is repeatedly -paralleled in Massinger's plays, but a similar indefinite resolve is -expressed in _Woman is a Weathercock_ (M. 363), and it consequently -cannot be adduced as evidence of his hand. Immediately above, however -(ll. 494-6), we encounter, in the allusion to the Italian and Dutch -temperaments, a thought twice echoed by the "stage-poet" in plays of -not greatly later date, _The Duke of Milan_ and _The Little French -Lawyer_ (C-G. 90 a; D. III, 505). It may represent an interpolation by -Massinger; it may be merely that this rather striking conclusion to the -climatic speech of his collaborator's scene so fixed itself on his mind -as to crop out afterwards in his own productions. - -In the short disputed passage (ll. 317-343) which separates what is -undoubtedly Massinger's from what is undoubtedly Field's, it would -appear that both playwrights had a hand. The _'Sdeath and Gads me!_, -the play upon the word _currier_, and the phrase, _I shall be with -you suddenly_ (cf. _Q. of Cor._ D. V, 467) speak for Field; while -Massinger, on the other hand, parallels - - _His back - Appears to me as it would tire a beadle;_ - -with - - _A man of resolution, whose shoulders - Are of themselves armour of proof, against - A bastinado, and will tire ten beadles._--C-G. 186 b; - -and the phrase "to sit down with a disgrace" occurs something like a -dozen times on his pages, especially frequently in the collaborated -plays--that is to say, in the earlier period of his work, to which -_The Fatal Dowry_ belongs. It is probable, and not unnatural, that -the labors of the partners in composition overlapped on this bit of -the Scene, but metrical analysis claims with as much certainty as -can attach to this test in the case of so short a passage that it is -substantially Massinger's, and should go rather with what preceeds than -with what comes after it, the verse being all one piece with that of -the former section. It has 37 per cent. double endings and 41 per cent. -run-on lines. - -IV, i, opens with a prose passage for all the world like that of -_Woman is a Weathercock_, I, ii, with its picture of the dandy, his -parasites, and the pert page who forms a sort of chorus with his -caustic _asides_; and writes itself down indisputably as by the same -author. Novall Junior and his coterie appear here as in their former -presentation in II, ii. We have again the same racy comedy, the same -faltering of the vehicle between verse and prose (see ll. 61-8; -137-153). After the clearing of the stage of all save Romont and young -Novall, uninterrupted verse ensues, which, despite a rather notable -parallel in _The Beggars' Bush_, D. IX, 9 to l. 174, is evidently -Field's also. An analogue of ll. 180-1 is discoverable in _Amends -for Ladies_ (M. 421), as is of the reference (l. 197) to "fairies' -treasure" in _Woman is a Weathercock_ (M. 344). Novall's exclamation -(l. 182), _Pox of this gun!_ and his retort (l. 201), _Good devil to -your rogueship!_ are Fieldian, and the entire passage possesses a -vigor and an easy naturalness which declare his authorship. It is not -improbable, however, that his contribution ends with the fragmentary -l. 207, and that the remaining four lines of the Scene are a Massinger -tag. _The Maid of Honour_ (C-G. 28 a) furnishes a striking parallel -for ll. 208-9, while for 210-1 cf. C-G. 192 a. The metrical tests for -IV, i, confirm Field: 22 per cent. double endings; 22 per cent. run-on -lines. - -With the next Scene the hand of Massinger is once more in evidence with -all its accustomed manifestations. One interested in his duplication of -characteristic phrasing may refer for comparison ll. 13-4 to C-G. 299 -b; l. 17 to C-G. 241 a; ll. 24-6 to C-G. 547 b; ll. 29-30 to C-G. 425 -b; l. 57 to C-G. 41 b, 70 b; l. 94 to C-G. 182 b. The Scene contains 32 -per cent. double endings and 37 per cent. run-on lines. The authorship -of its two songs is less certain. Field was more given to song-writing -than was Massinger, and the second of this pair is reminiscent in its -conception of the Grace Seldom episode in _Amends for Ladies_ (II, i). - -The short IV, iii is by Massinger. In evidence of him are its 36 per -cent. of double endings and 55 per cent. of run-on lines, its involved -sentence structure, and the familiar phrasing which makes itself -manifest even in so brief a passage (e. g.: _To play the parasite_, -l. 7--cf. V, iii, 78 and C-G. 334 b. Cf. also ll. 9-10 with D. III, -476; and l. 22 with C-G. 40 b, 153 a, 262 b.). - -The same dramatist's work continues through the last Scene of the Act. -This, the emotional climax of the play, representing a quasi-judicial -procedure, affords him abundant opportunity for fervid moralizing and -speech-making, of which he takes advantage most typically. Massinger -commonplaces are l. 29, _Made shipwreck of your faith_ (cf. C-G. 55 b, -235 a, 414 b); l. 56, _In the forbidden labyrinth of lust_ (cf. C-G. -298 b); l. 89, _Angels guard me!_ (cf. C-G. 59 b, 475 b); l. 118-9, -_and yield myself Most miserably guilty_ (cf. C-G. 61 b, 66 b, 130 -a; D. VI, 354); etc.; while within a year or so of the time when he -wrote referring to "those famed matrons" (l. 70), he expatiated upon -them in detail (see _The Virgin Martyr_, C-G. 33 a). Yet more specific -parallels may be found: for l. 63 cf. C-G. 179 a; ll. 76-7, cf. C-G. 28 -a; l. 78, cf. C-G. 32 b; ll. 162-3, cf. C-G. 3 b, in a passage wherein -there is a certain similarity of situation; l. 177, cf. D. IX, 7. -Were any further confirmation needed for Massinger's authorship, the -metrical tests would supply it, with their 36 per cent. double endings -and 34 per cent. run-on lines. - -The most cursory reading of V, i is sufficient to establish the -conviction that its author is not identical with that of the earlier -comic passages--is not Field, but Massinger. The humor, such as it is, -is of a graver, more restrained sort--satiric rather than burlesque; it -has lost lightness and verve, and approaches to high-comedy and even -to moralizing. One feels that the confession of the tailor-gallant is -no mere fun-making devise, but a caustic attack upon social conditions -against which the writer nurtured a grudge. Massingerian are such -expressions as _And now I think on't better_ (l. 77--cf. C-G. 57 b, -468 a, 615 a; D. XI, 28), and _use a conscience_ (l. 90--cf. C-G. 444 -a, 453 a), while the metrical evidence of 36 per cent. double endings -and 29 per cent. run-on lines fortifies a case concerning which all -commentators are in agreement. But despite the unanimity of critical -opinion hitherto, I am not sure that Field did not contribute a minor -touch here and there to the Scene. Such contribution, if a fact, must -have been small, for the Massinger flavor is unmistakable throughout; -yet in the _Plague on't!_ and the _'Slid!_, in the play upon words -(ll. 13-4, 20-1, 44), which is rare with Massinger and common with -Field, in the line, _I only know_ [_thee_] _now to hate thee deadly_: -(cf. _Amends for Ladies_, M. 421: _I never more Will hear or see thee, -but will hate thee deadly._), we may, perhaps, detect a hint of his -hand. - -Scene ii (which in the Quarto ends with the reconciliation of Charalois -and Romont, the entry of Du Croy, Charmi, etc. being marked as the -beginning of a third Scene, though the place is unchanged and the -action continuous, wherefore modern editors disregard the Quarto's -division and count Scene ii as including all the remainder of the Act) -presents the usual distinctive earmarks of a Massinger passage. The -last third of it, however (ll. 80-121), has, on account of the presence -of several rhymes, been commonly assigned to Field. No doubt his hand -is here discernable; l. 118, _mark'd me out the way how to defend it_, -is scarcely a Massinger construction either; but I cannot think Field's -presence here more than that of a reviser, just as in the latter half -of I, ii. The language remains more Massinger's than Field's; and while -the passage is over-short for metrical tests to be decisive, the 39 -per cent. of double endings and 35 per cent. of run-on lines which it -yields (for the earlier part of the Scene the figures are respectively -28 per cent. and 35 per cent.) are corroborative of Massinger's -authorship. Cf. also ll. 96-8 with this from _The Renegado_ (C-G. 157 -a): - - _This applause - Confirm'd in your allowance, joys me more - Than if a thousand full-cramm'd theatres - Should clap their eager hands._ - -Of the final Scene, V, iii, little need be said. It brings before us -again a court-room, with another trial, and continues the manner of -its predecessor, I, ii, as only Massinger can. His customary formulae, -_stand bound_, _play the parasite_, etc., are here; characteristic too -are his opposition of _wanton heat_ and _lawful fires_ (ll. 141-2--cf. -C-G. 37 b; D. V. 476), while further material for comparison may be -found in ll. 95-6 with _Respect_, _wealth_, _favour_, _the whole world -for a dower_ of _The Virgin Martyr_ (C-G. 6 b), and in ll. 165-7: - - Char. _You must find other proofs to strengthen these - But mere presumptions._ - - Du Croy _Or we shall hardly - Allow your innocence._ - -with C-G. 39 a and b: - - _You must produce - Reasons of more validity and weight - To plead in your defence, or we shall hardly - Conclude you innocent._ - -The last passage cited for comparison also exhibits another feature -normal to the work of this dramatist: the splitting of an observation, -frequently a single sentence, between two speakers; so ll. 38-9, and -again, l. 59. The Scene and play are rounded off with the pointing of a -moral, so indispensable to Massinger's satisfaction. - -To sum up, therefore, disregarding for practical purposes the slight -touches of Field in I, ii, ll. 146-_end_; III, i, ll. 317-343; V, ii, -ll. 80-_end_; and perhaps in V, i;--and the apparent Massinger touches -in IV, i, and possibly at one or two other points in the Field Scenes, -we may divide the play as follows: - -MASSINGER: I; III, ll. 1-343; IV, ii, iii, iv; V. - -FIELD: II; III, ll. 344-_end_; IV, i. - -A metrical analysis of the play is appended in tabular form, in -which I have computed separately the figures for each portion of any -Scene on which there has been a question. It will be noted that the -single simple test of the mid-line speech-ending would, with but two -exceptions--one (III, i, c) doubtful, and the other (V, ii, b) too -short a passage to afford a fair test--have made a clean-cut and -correct determination of authorship in every case. - - A = Scene - B = Prose Lines - C = Verse Lines - D = Double Endings - E = Per Cent. - F = Run-on Lines - G = Per Cent. - H = Fragmentary Lines - I = Rhymed Lines - J = Speeches Ending in Mid-line - K = Speeches Ending with Line - L = Author - - ==========+====+=====+=====+====+====+====+===+====+====+====+========= - A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L - ----------+----+-----+-----+----+----+----+---+----+----+----+--------- - I, i | -- | 196 | 64 | 33 | 56 | 29 | 1 | 2 | 42 | 22 |Massinger - I, ii (a) | -- | 145 | 64 | 45 | 48 | 33 | 1 | 2 | 25 | 14 |Massinger - I, ii (b) | -- | 158 | 57 | 36 | 57 | 36 | 0 | 12 | 30 | 16 |Massinger - | | | | | | | | | | |(Field - | | | | | | | | | | |revision) - II, i | -- | 145 | 29 | 20 | 22 | 15 | 4 | 16 | 19 | 17 |Field - II, ii | 82 | 273 | 57 | 21 | 52 | 19 | 9 | 12 | 47 | 50 |Field - III, i (a)| -- | 316 | 142 | 45 |114 | 36 | 1 | 2 | 67 | 29 |Massinger - III, i (b)| -- | 27 | 10 | 37 | 11 | 41 | 3 | 0 | 13 | 6 |Massinger - | | | | | | | | | | |(with - | | | | | | | | | | |Field?) - III, i (c)| -- | 161 | 28 | 17 | 45 | 28 | 0 | 10 | 19 | 11 |Field - IV, i | 88 | 124 | 27 | 22 | 27 | 22 | 4 | 6 | 26 | 24 |Field - IV, ii | -- | 104 | 33 | 32 | 38 | 37 | 2 | 2 | 24 | 10 |Massinger - IV, iii | -- | 22 | 8 | 36 | 12 | 55 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 |Massinger - IV, iv | -- | 195 | 71 | 36 | 67 | 34 | 0 | 6 | 32 | 8 |Massinger - V, i | -- | 107 | 38 | 36 | 31 | 29 | 1 | 2 | 16 | 5 |Massinger - V, ii (a) | -- | 80 | 22 | 28 | 27 | 34 | 0 | 2 | 17 | 2 |Massinger - V, ii (b) | -- | 41 | 15 | 37 | 14 | 35 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 3 |Massinger - | | | | | | | | | | |(Field - | | | | | | | | | | |revision) - V, iii | -- | 229 | 98 | 43 | 50 | 22 | 0 | 4 | 34 | 19 |Massinger - ----------+----+-----+-----+----+----+----+---+----+----+----+--------- - - -CRITICAL ESTIMATE - -No less an authority than Swinburne has pronounced _The Fatal Dowry_ -the finest tragedy in the Massinger _corpus_. Certainly it would be -the most formidable rival of _The Duke of Milan_ for that distinction. -It occupies an anomalous position among the works of the "stage -poet." His dramas are, as a rule, strongest in construction; he -went at play-making like a skillful architect, and put together and -moulded his material with steady hand. They are likely to be weakest -in characterization. Massinger could not get inside his figures and -endow them with the breath of life; they remain stony shapes chiseled -in severely angular and conventional lines, like some old Egyptian -bas-relief. But _The Fatal Dowry_ is strong in characterization and -defective in construction. - -The structural fault is less surprising when it is ascertained to be -fundamental--inevitable in the theme. The play breaks in the middle: -it is really composed of two stories; the first two Acts present and -resolve one action, while another, hitherto barely presaged, occupies -the last three, and is the proper story of the Fatal Dowry. Charalois' -self-immolation for the corpse of his heroic father, and his rescue -and reward by the great-hearted Rochfort, form a little play in -themselves--a brief but stately tragi-comedy, which is followed by -a tense drama of intrigue and retribution, of adultery and avenged -honor--itself complete in itself, for which we are prepared in the -first two Acts only by one figure, whose potentialities for disaster -are ominous if not obvious:--Beaumelle, of whom more later. This -plot-building by _enjambment_ precludes the slow, steady mounting of -suspense from the initial moment and inexorable gathering of doom which -are manifested in a well-conceived tragedy; yet crude, amorphous, -inorganic as it may seem--defying, as it does, unity of action--like -as it is to the earliest Elizabethan plays, which were concerned -with a single career rather than a single theme, it would appear -inevitably necessary, if a maximum effect is to be gained from the -given plot-material. Just as Wagner found it impossible to do justice -to the story of Siegfried without first presenting that of Siegmund -and Sieglinde, so the experiment of Rowe (who in re-working the story -for _The Fair Penitent_ relegated to expository dialogue the narration -of what corresponds to the first two Acts of _The Fatal Dowry_) sadly -demonstrated that unless the reader or audience actually sees, and -not merely hears about, Charalois' previous devotion, Rochfort's -generosity, and Romont's loyalty, these characters do not attract to -themselves a full measure of sympathy, and the story of their later -vicissitudes is somehow unconvincing and falls flat. - -Massinger and Field accepted frankly the structural awkwardness of -their plot as they had fashioned or found it. Making, apparently, no -attempt to obviate its essential duality, they went to work in the most -straightforward manner, and achieved, thanks in no small measure to -that same resolute directness of approach, a drama of so naturalistic -a tone as half to redeem its want of unity. _The Fatal Dowry_ is not -an Aristotelian tragedy with a definite beginning, middle, and end--it -is rather a cross-section of life. The unconventionality and vitality -of such a production are startling, and obtain a high degree of -verisimilitude. - -Both authors seem to have been themselves inspired by their virile -theme to give to it their best work. The stately, somewhat monotonous -verse of Massinger, which never loses dignity and is so incapable of -expressing climaxes of passion, is once or twice almost forgotten, -or else rises to a majesty which transfigures it. Though forensic -declamation was always the especial forte of this dramatist, he -literally out-did himself in his management of the suit for the dead -Marshal's body. The elaborate rhetoric of Charmi, checked by the stern -harshness of Novall Senior, the indignant outburst of Romont, and the -sad, yet noble calmness of Charalois' speech in which he presses the -forlorn alternative, succeed one another with striking contrast; the -very flow of the verse changes with the speaker in a manner which -recalls the wonderful employment of this device by Shakespeare, as, for -example, in the First Act of _Othello_. In the final Scene of Act IV, -Massinger achieves a climax worthy of Fletcher himself;--save, perhaps, -the _denouement_ of _A New Way to Pay Old Debts_, and the great scene -in _The Duke of Milan_ in which Sforza's faith in his Duchess is broken -down by aspersion after aspersion, until he slays her, only to learn -the terrible truth one instant later, it is the most dramatic situation -he ever worked up. Field, too, seems to have been on his mettle: his -verse is more trenchant, his care greater than in his two earlier -comedies; the lines (II, i, 126-7) - - _My root is earthed, and I a desolate branch - Left scattered in the highway of the world,_ - -touch the high-water mark of his poetic endeavor. - -Blemishes, indeed, are not unapparent. The episodic first Scene of Act -V is a rather stupid piece of pseudo-comedy by Massinger, which serves -no function adequate to justify its existence, while it interrupts the -thread of the main story at a point where its culminating intensity -does not, of right, permit such a diversion. Gifford in commenting upon -this Scene makes the amazing pronouncement that it serves "to prove -how differently the comic part of this drama would have appeared, if -the whole had fortunately fallen into the hands of Massinger." Surely -never was criticism more fatuous. - -But the most serious--indeed, the outstanding--defect of the play -is the easy readiness of Charalois to break with Romont. The calm, -unregretful placidity with which he untwists the long web of friendship -with a man who has stood by him through weal and woe, who has courted a -prison's chains for his sake, shocks us, and repels us with its flinty -self-sufficiency. It is not that we know him to be wrong and Romont -to be right; suppose the high faith of Charalois in Beaumelle to be -entirely justified and the charge of Romont to be as groundless as it -is wildly delivered and unconvincing, yet there is no excuse for the -_immediacy_ with which, on the first revelation of what he himself -has demanded to know, the hero rejects, along with the report of his -friend, the friend himself, whose aim could have been only his best -interest. For the fault lies not in the situation, which is sound, but -in its over-hasty development. A little more length to the scene, a few -more speeches to either participant in the dialogue, a little longer -and more vituperative insistence on the part of Romont in the face -of Charalois' warnings that he has gone far enough, and the quarrel -would have been thoroughly realized and developed. As it is, it comes -on insufficient provocation; the hero, at the moment when he should -excite regret and sympathy because of his blind, mistaken trust in his -unworthy wife, excites rather indignation; the later words of Romont -with which he justifies his unshaken loyalty to his comrade turn back -the mind perforce to that comrade's lack of loyalty to _him_, and -unwittingly ring out as a judgment upon Charalois: - - _That friendship's raised on sand, - Which every sudden gust of discontent, - Or flowing of our passions can change, - As if it ne'er had been:_-- - -The faulty passage, it will be noted upon reference to the analysis -of shares in collaboration, is by the hand of Field. Unconvincing -precipitancy in the conduct of situations marks his work elsewhere, -notably in the _Amends for Ladies_. - -As it has already been said, the strongest feature of the play is its -characterization. Almost every figure is, if not an individual, at -least a type so vitalized as to appear to take on life. One or two -touches, to be sure, of conventional Massingerian habits of thought -still cling about them; even the noblest cannot entirely forget to -consider how their conduct will pose them before the eyes of the world -and posterity. But apart from such slight occasional lapses, they may -truthfully be said to speak and move quite in the manner of real men -and women. - -The hero, Charalois, is drawn as of a gentle, meditative, temperate, -and self-possessed disposition, in strong and effective contrast to his -friend. Though his military exploits are spoken of with admiration, and -Romont testifies that he can "pursue a foe like lightning," he betrays -a certain readiness to yield to discouragement scarce to be expected -in the son of the great general. In consequence of these facts, he has -been described by some (notably Cunningham, in his Edition of Gifford, -Introduction, p. xiii;--cf. also Phelan, p. 61; and Beck, pp. 22-3) as -"a Hamlet whose mind has not yet been sicklied o'er by the pale cast -of thought," and his long silence at the opening of Act I is compared -to that of the Danish Prince on his first appearance. But, in reality, -excess of pride is the chief reason of Charalois' backwardness on this -occasion, and thereafter he acts promptly and efficiently always. The -same over-sensitive pride continues to manifest itself throughout -the play--when he is confronted with Rochfort's generosity; when he -finds (III, i, 365 ff.) that it is he who is the object of the jests -of Novall Junior and his satellites (though scarce a breath earlier -he has chided Romont for noticing the yapping of such petty curs); -and in the viscissitudes of the catastrophe and its consequences. A -harmonious twin-birth with his pride, at once proceeding from it, bound -up with it, and on occasion over-weighing its scruples, is an extreme -punctiliousness at every turn to the dictates of that peculiarly -Spanish imperative, "the point of honor,"--a consideration so prominent -throughout the play as to have convinced many critics that the source -of the story, although still undiscovered, must have been Spanish. -These two traits--pride and an adherence to "the point of honor," are -almost invariably the mainsprings of Charalois' conduct. His pride -holds him back from supplicating in behalf of his father the clemency -of the unworthy ministers of the law, till he is persuaded by Romont -that honor not only permits but requires that he do so; he feels -that honor demands that he sacrifice himself to secure his father's -burial, and he does it; that honor demands that he put away his friend -in loyalty to his wife, and he does it; that honor demands that he -slay the adulteress--and he does it; he even consents to lay bare the -details of his ignominious wrong before the eyes of men, because he is -brought to believe that "the point of honor" calls for a justification -of his course and the holding of it up as an example to the world. -It is a striking and consistent portrait--how unlike the usual -conventionally noble hero of romantic drama! - -Romont, however, is the finest figure of the play. He draws to -himself rather more than his share of interest and sympathy, to the -detriment of the protagonist. Of a type common enough on the stage -of that day--the bluff, loyal soldier-friend of the hero--he is yet -so thoroughly individualized that we can discuss him and calculate -what he will do in given situations, even as with a character of -Shakespeare's. The portrait suffers from no jarring inconsistencies; -almost his every utterance is absolutely in part, and adds its touch -to round out our conception of him. His negligence of his personal -appearance, his quick temper, his impulsiveness, his violence, his -lack of restraint, his fierce, uncompromising honesty, his devotion -to the "grave General dead" and his unshaken fidelity to the living -son, his flashes of unexpected tenderness, his homage for the -reverend virtue of Rochfort--a sort of child-like awe for what he -knows is finer if not of truer metal than his own rough spirit, his -ill-disguised scorn for Novall Junior and his creatures, "those dogs -in doublets," his lack of tact which unfits him for effective service -in the delicate task of preserving Beaumelle's honor, and dooms his -story to Charalois to disbelief and resentment, his prompt, fearless -decisiveness of action, the tumultuous flood of nervous and at times -eloquent speech which pours from his lips when he is aroused, yet -dies in his throat when he is lashed by a woman's tongue--a flood of -speech which is most torrential when the situation is most doubtful -or hopeless of good issue, but which gives place to a self-possessed -terseness when he is quite sure of his ground:--all go to give detail -and reality to a character at once amazingly alive and irresistibly -attractive. "Romont is one of the noblest of all Massinger's men," -says Swinburne, "and Shakespeare has hardly drawn noble men more nobly -than Massinger." To find a parallel creation who can over-match him in -vigor of presentation and theatrical efficiency, we must go back to the -Melantius of Beaumont and Fletcher. These two characters represent the -ultimate elaborations of the stock figure of the faithful friend and -blunt soldier; Melantius is the supreme romantic, Romont the supreme -realistic, development of the type. - -Yet though Romont is the most compelling of the _dramatis personae_, -into none does Massinger enter more thoroughly than the noble figure of -Rochfort. Utter devotion to virtue, to which he had paid a life-long -fidelity, is the key-note of the nature of the aged Premier President, -and accordingly in him the deep-seated ethical seriousness of the -"stage-poet" found a congenial expression. A statelier dignity is wont -to echo in his lines than in the utterance of any other character; they -breathe an exalted calm, a graciousness, a grave courtesy, as though -the very spirit of their speaker had entered them. - -An inability to judge the character of others was his great weakness--a -weakness which he himself realized, for he called upon Beaumont to -confirm the one strikingly sure, true appraisement which he exhibited, -his admiration for Charalois. Characteristically, this weakness seems -to have taken the form of a too-generous estimate of his fellows. This -caused him to bestow his vacated office upon the harsh and unjust -Novall, and to be blind to the disposition of his daughter, and the -danger that lay in her intimacy with Novall Junior. But if his kindly -nature saw the better side of even that contemptible young man, he at -least understood him well enough not to take him at all seriously as a -suitor for Beaumelle's hand. - -Of the Novalls, father and son, there is a much briefer presentation. -Yet even so, in the case of old Novall we have as masterly a sketch -as in Romont a detailed study. His every word is eloquent of his -stern, not to say _mean_, nature--curt and severe towards others, all -prejudice where he himself is concerned, inexorably malevolent against -those who incur his animosity. Yet it never enters his head to seek the -satisfaction of his hate in any way save through the law; for example, -he does not seize upon, or even think seriously of, Pontalier's proffer -of private vengeance; the law is his sphere--he will abuse it to his -advantage, if he can, but he will not go outside of it. He is, in other -words, the Official Bureaucrat _par excellence_, and his enmity against -the martial house of the Charaloises and the rigor with which he is -said to "cross every deserved soldier and scholar," and, on the other -hand, the detestation in which Romont holds him, are manifestations of -the feud of type against type. It has been suggested that the especial -fervor with which he is devoted to execration argues a prototype in -actual life, and that in him is to be recognized Sir Edward Coke, -notorious for the savage vindictiveness of his conduct towards Sir -Walter Raleigh. - -Novall Junior, the cowardly, foppish, and unscrupulous gallant, though -a flimsy personality, affords once or twice, in the Fieldian prose, -rather good humor: e. g.-- - -_Nay, o' my soul, 'tis so; what fouler object in the world, than to see -a young, fair, handsome beauty unhandsomely dighted, and incongruently -accoutred? or a hopeful chevalier unmethodically appointed in the -external ornaments of nature? For, even as the index tells us the -contents of stories, and directs to the particular chapters, even so -does the outward habit and superficial order of garments (in man or -woman) give us a taste of the spirit, and demonstratively point (as -it were a manual note from the margin) all the internal quality and -habiliment of the soul; and there cannot be a more evident, palpable, -gross manifestation of poor, degenerate, dunghilly blood and breeding, -than a rude, unpolished, disordered, and slovenly outside._ (IV, i, -48-60.) - -Of the remaining characters, only two call for especial notice. -The three Creditors are a blemish upon the otherwise striking -verisimilitude of the play; they are impossible, inhuman monsters of -greed and relentlessness, who serve as vehicles for a kind of grotesque -comedy. A personal rancour on the part of the authors may have been -responsible for this presentation, as it is probable that they -themselves had had none-too-pleasant experiences with money-lenders. -Pontalier, however, is very well conceived and skillfully executed. -Occupying a relation to Novall Junior quite similar to that of Romont -to Charalois, he is yet differentiated from his parallel, while at -the same time he is kept free from any taint of the despicableness -and fawning servility which are chiefly prominent in the parasites of -the vicious and feather-brained young lord. There is something really -pathetic about this brave, honorable soldier, committed to the defense -of an unworthy benefactor, ranged on the side of wrong against right, -by his very best qualities: his noble sense of gratitude, his loyalty, -his devotion to what he conceives to be his duty. It will be observed -that he never joins with the rest of the group about Novall Junior in -their jibes against Charalois and Romont. - -The last figure for consideration, and not the least important, is -Beaumelle. So general has been the misconception of her character that -it calls for a more detailed analysis than has been accorded to the -other personages of the drama, or than the place she occupies might -appear to warrant. That place, indeed, is not a striking one; she is -scarce more than a character of second rank, appearing in but few -scenes and speaking not many lines. Yet her part in the story is one -of such potentialities that in Rowe's version of the same theme her -analogue becomes the central figure, and even in _The Fatal Dowry_ a -failure to understand her has probably been at the bottom of most of -the less favorable judgments that have been passed upon the play, while -those critics who appraise it higher yet acknowledge her to be its -one outstanding defect. "_The Fatal Dowry_," says Saintsbury (_Hist. -Eng. Lit._, vol. ii, p. 400) "... is ... injured by the unattractive -character of the light-of-love Beaumelle before her repentance -(Massinger never could draw a woman)." She is declared by Swinburne to -be "too thinly and feebly drawn to attract even the conventional and -theatrical sympathy which Fletcher might have excited for a frail and -penitent heroine: and the almost farcical insignificance and baseness -of her paramour would suffice to degrade his not involuntary victim -beneath the level of any serious interest or pity." If these and -similar pronouncements were well founded, the play as a cross-section -of life would have the great weakness of being unconvincing at a very -vital point. A study of the text, however, will discover Beaumelle -to be portrayed, in the brief compass of her appearance, in no -wise inadequately, but rather, if anything, somewhat beyond the -requirements of her dramatic function--will reveal her, not, indeed, -a personage of heroic proportions and qualities, but a young woman of -considerable naturalness, plausibility, and realistic convincingness. - -The trouble has probably been that the critics of Beaumelle have -passed hastily over the very scurrilous prose scene in which she first -appears. They have looked on this passage as merely a piece of Fieldian -low-comedy, a coarse bit of buffoonery which pretends to no function -save that of humor, and can sustain not even this pretense. Nothing can -be further from the truth. The passage _is_ a piece of coarse comedy -such as Field had an over-fondness for writing; but it is something -more; in reality, a proper understanding of the heroine is conditioned -upon it. - -Beaumelle is a young girl whose mother, we may infer, has long been -dead. The cares of the bench have been too great to allow her father -time for much personal supervision of her; she has had for associates -her two maids, and of these she not unnaturally finds the gay and -witty, but thoroughly depraved, Bellapert the more congenial, and -adopts her as her mentor and confidant. She is in love, after a -fashion--caught, like the impressionable, uncritical girl she is, by -the fair exterior of a young magnificent, whose elegant dress and -courtly show of devotion quite blind her to his real worthlessness--and -there is scant likelihood of her getting the man who has charmed -her fancy. Her disposition is high-spirited and wayward, but not -deliberately vicious; she has certain hazily defined ideals, mingled -with the same romantic mist through which the superfine dandy, Novall, -appears in her eyes a very Prince Charming: she "would meet love and -marriage both at once"; she desires to preserve her honor. She has -ideals, but she doubts their tangibility; she is in an unsettled -state of mind, questioning the fundamentals of conduct and social -relationships, in much need of good counsel. In that perilous mood -she talks with Bellapert--Bellapert, the dearest cabinet of her -secrets--Bellapert, the bribed instrument of Novall--and is told -by that worldly-wise wench that marriage almost never unites with -love, but must be used as a cloak for it; that honor is a foolish -fancy; that a husband is a master to be outwitted and despised. The -shaft sinks home all too surely; a visit at that very moment by -Beaumelle's lover completes the conquest, when her father interrupts -their tete-a-tete--her father, who comes with the anouncement that -she must marry a man whom she does not even know! In the scene where -the destined bride and groom are brought face to face, she stands -throughout in stony silence quite as eloquent as the more famous -speechlessness of Charalois at the beginning of the play. She has -ever been "handmaid" to her father's will; she realizes all her hopes -and fortunes "have reference to his liking;" and now she obeys, with -the bitter thought in her heart that Fate, in denying her her will, -has wronged Love itself (II, ii, 154); only when Charalois turns to -her with a direct question, "Fair Beaumelle, can you love me?" does -she utter a word--then from her lips a brief, desperate, "Yes, my -lord"--and a moment later (II, ii, 315) she is weeping silently. (Her -answer was honest in as far as she really did mean to give to the man -chosen for her husband her duty with her hand.) Then the voice of the -tempter whispers in her ear, she feels its tug at her heart, and with a -cry, "Oh, servant!--Virtue strengthen me!" she hurries from the room. -That is the situation at the end of the Second Act and first part of -the play; an appreciation of its significance makes the connection with -what follows less arbitrary and inorganic. - -When Beaumelle next appears, in the Third Act, there has been a change. -We may imagine that she has had time to ponder those cynical maxims -of Bellapert on the natural course of romance. Her union has been -unwilling; she does not care for her husband; Novall appeals to her as -much as ever: with her eyes open, she deliberately chooses the path of -sin--because the enforced marriage which shattered her hopes must needs -appear to her the final demonstration of the correctness of her maid's -contention (towards which she was already inclining) that she has been -foolishly impractical to dream of the satisfaction of her heart's wish -through wedlock, but that it is by secret amour that love must be, and -is wont to be, enjoyed. - -It may not be unreasonable to regard the resourcefulness and effrontery -which characterize her throughout the Third Act as the result of a sort -of mental intoxication, into which she has been lifted by her reckless -resolve and the consciousness of danger; at any rate she now shows -herself altogether too much for Romont; she finds a shrewdness and an -eloquence that carry her triumphant to the consummation of her desire. -When discovery ensues, her paramour is slain, and she herself is haled -to die, she is overcome--abruptly and, one might say, strangely--with -remorse and penitence. But it is not at all by one of those -theatrically convenient but psychologically absurd changes of heart so -frequent in the drama of that period; nothing, indeed, could be more -true to life. Novall Junior, coward and fop that he was, has hitherto -always borne himself in lordly fashion before her, even when they were -surprised by Romont; but now at last she beholds him stripped to the -shivering abjectness of his contemptible soul, that she may observe -his baseness. She sees him cowed and beaten and slain, while Charalois -(whom she never knew before their marriage nor has tried to understand -in the brief period of their wedlock) with his outraged honor and -irresistible prowess assumes to her eyes the proportions of a hero; and -with her girl's romanticism[10] of nature, she bows down and worships -him. It is somewhat the same note that is struck by Thackeray in the -similar situation where Rawdon Crawley, returning home unexpectedly, -finds his wife with Lord Steyne and knocks the man down. - -_It was all done before Rebecca could interpose. She stood there -trembling before him. She admired her husband, strong, brave, -victorious._ - -So it was with Beaumelle. Except for one brief cry of "Undone for -ever!" she utters no word from the moment of the surprise to the end -of the Scene. She hangs back, shrinking, for a moment, when ordered -into the coach with the dead body of her partner in guilt. "Come," says -Charalois, in terrible jest, "you have taught me to say, you must and -shall.... You are but to keep him company you love--" and she obeys -mutely. - -Thus, all contriteness, Beaumelle goes to her fate. It should be -observed how, even at the last, her tendency to romantic idealization -vehemently asserts itself; she looks fondly back (IV, iv, 53) to an -imagined time, which never really existed, when she was "good" and "a -part of" Charalois, made one with him through the virtuous harmony of -their minds!--no voice is more unfaltering than her own to pronounce -her doom as both righteous and necessary, and she conceives herself -to climb, by her ecstatic welcoming of death, into the company of the -ancient heroines and martyrs. In its realism of the commonplace and its -slightly ironic conception, it is the outline drawing of a character -that might have received elaborate portraiture at the hands of Flaubert. - -Whether we are to regard this consistent "study in little" as a -deliberate piece of work on the part of the authors, must remain a -matter of opinion. There is no similar figure elsewhere in the dramatic -output of Massinger, nor any quite so minutely conceived within the -same number of speech-lines in that of Field, and one could scarce -be blamed for believing that a number of hap-hazard, sketchy strokes -with which the collaborators dashed off a character whom they deemed -of no great importance, all so fell upon the canvas that, by a miracle -of chance, they went to form the lineaments of a real woman. The -discussion of the probability or possibility of such a hypothesis would -carry us very far afield, and would involve the question of the extent -to which all genius is unconscious and intuitive. But however that may -be, the _result_ of their labors remains the same, there to behold in -black and white, and Beaumelle, so far from being a poorly conceived -and unsatisfactory wanton who is the chief defect of the play, is -a figure of no mean verisimilitude who succeeds after a fashion in -linking together the loose-knit dual structure of the drama; to whose -main catastrophe she adds her own tragedy, a tragedy neither impressive -nor deeply stirring, it is true, for she is a petty spirit from whom -great tragedy does not proceed--but tragedy still--the eternal, -inevitable tragedy of false romanticism, that has found its culmination -in the person of Emma Bovary. - -In this study of Beaumelle, _The Fatal Dowry_ has been subjected to -a much more intensive examination than it is the custom to bestow -upon the dramas of the successors of Shakespeare. The truth is that -the plays of the Jacobean period do not, as a rule, admit of such -analysis. In most of them, and especially in the plays of Massinger, he -who searches and probes them comes presently to a point beyond which -critical inquiry is stopped short with a desperate finality; be they -ever so strikingly splendid and glittering fair in their poetry and -their characterization, these dazzling qualities lie upon the surface, -and a few careful perusals exhaust their possibilities and tell us all -there is to know of them. But _The Fatal Dowry_, though less imposing -than a number of others, stands almost alone among its contemporaries -in sharing with the great creations of Shakespeare the power to open -new vistas, to present new aspects, to offer new suggestions, the -longer it is studied. Perhaps this is due to the fact that, as has -already been said, it is not so much a tragedy of the accepted type as -a cross-section of life. - -How does it come about, we may well ask, that this play possesses -qualities so rare and so strangely at variance with those which are -normal to the work of Massinger--its masterly portrait-gallery of -_dramatis personae_ and its inexhaustible field for interpretation. We -can suspect an answer only in the complementary nature of the two minds -that went to fashion it--in the union in this one production of the -talents of Massinger and of Field. - -A reference to the analysis of collaboration discloses that, so far -as the actual writing of the play goes, the figure of Novall Senior -is altogether the work of Massinger. His son, on the other hand, is -almost entirely the work of Field; in Massinger's share he appears only -in the first part of III, i, and in the scene of his surprisal and -death. Indeed, both the young gallant himself and all his satellites -can safely be put down as creations of the actor-dramatist. They have -their parallels in his comedy of _Woman is a Weathercock_, down to the -page whose pert _asides_ of satiric comment are anticipated in the -earlier work by those of a youngster of identical kidney. The long -scene in which we are introduced to Beaumelle and given insight into -her character and mental attitude is Field's throughout; thereafter she -has only to act out her already-revealed nature--first as the impudent -adulteress and later as the repentant sinner, in both of which roles -she affords Massinger excellent opportunities to display his favorite -powers of speech-making. Charalois, Romont, and Rochfort are treated at -length by both dramatists. - -But in a harmonious collaboration, such as _The Fatal Dowry_ plainly -was, the contributions of the two authors cannot be identified with the -passages from their respective pens. Each must inevitably have planned, -suggested, criticised. The question remains whether we can in any -measure determine what part of the conception was due to each. Beyond -the Novall Junior group we cannot establish distinct lines of cleavage. -What we can do is to suggest the features of the finished product which -Field and Massinger brought severally to its making--to point out the -qualities of the two men which were joined to produce the play they -have given us. - -The outstanding excellences of Massinger were a thorough grasp of the -architectonics of play-making in the building both of separate Act -and entire drama; an adherence to an essential unity of design and -treatment; a conscientious regard to the details of stage-craft; a -vehicle of dignified and at times noble verse, without violent conceits -or lapses into triviality, sustained, lucid, regular; and a genuine -eloquence in forensic passages. His chief weaknesses were a certain -stiffness of execution which made his plays appear always as structures -rather than organisms, a ponderous monotony of fancy, and an inability -to create or reproduce or understand human nature. His characters are -normally types, their qualities--honor, virtue, bravery, etc.--mere -properties which they can assume or lay aside at pleasure like -garments, their conduct governed more by the exigencies of plot than by -any conceivable psychology. - -The weaknesses of Field--as revealed in his two independent -comedies--were of a nature more evasive, less capable of definition. A -tendency to weave too many threads into the action, an occasional hasty -and skimping treatment of his scenes which leaves them unconvincing -for lack of sufficient elaboration, and a general thinness of design -and workmanship are discoverable. Defects such as these could be -readily corrected by association with the single-minded, painstaking, -thorough Massinger. On the other hand he possessed a lightness of -touch, a blithe vigor, and a racy, though often obscene, humor foreign -to his colleague. What is more important, he possessed a considerable -first-hand knowledge of men and women, and an ability to put them in -his plays and endow them with something of life--not to conceive great -figures, such as dominate the imagination, but to reproduce with -vitality and freshness the sort of people he saw about him--in other -words, not to create but to depict; and furthermore Field seems to -have had a special gift for sketching them rather clearly in a very -brief compass.[11] Mr. Saintsbury was right in declaring that Massinger -never could draw a woman. But Field could, and the critic was rather -unfortunate in applying his broadly correct observation to the one -woman of Massinger's in the delineation of whom he had Field to help -him! - -With these facts in mind, the distinctive virtues of _The Fatal Dowry_ -can be accounted for. Massinger here possessed a colleague who had -just those talents of insight and verve and grasp of life that were -denied his own plodding, bookishly learned mind. Not only young Novall -and his satellites, but Beaumelle certainly, and probably Pontalier -(whom Massinger would have been more likely to degrade to the baseness -of Novall's other dependents) may be put down as essentially Field's -creations, while in the case of the others he was ever at Massinger's -elbow to guard him against blunders, if, indeed, their preliminary -mapping out of the rather obvious lines along which the action and -characters must develop were not of itself a sufficiently sure guide. -To Massinger, on the other hand, may safely be ascribed the basic -conception of such stately figures as Charalois and Rochfort, however -much Field may have been responsible for preserving them as fresh and -living portraits. - -As to share in plot structure, in the absence of any known source, -we may conjecture that the germ from which the play evolved was the -conception of that situation by which Charalois, burdened as he is with -an immense debt of thankfulness to Rochfort, finds himself suddenly -called by the imperative demands of honor to do that which will -strike his benefactor to the heart. The grounding of the hero's debt -of gratitude in the story of Miltiades and Cimon was probably the work -of Massinger, of whose veneration for things classic we have abundant -evidence, while to him also, we may believe, was due the shaping of the -story in such fashion that he had opportunity to exploit his greatest -gift in no less than two formal trials, one informal trial, and a -long Act besides given over almost exclusively to verbose disputes -and exhortations. The circumstances of the discovery of the amour of -Beaumelle and Novall, while penned by Massinger, are more likely an -invention of Field's, not only as faintly reminiscent of his _Amends -for Ladies_, but as according better with the general spirit of his -work. - -Several plays of the Massinger _corpus_ are more striking on first -acquaintance than _The Fatal Dowry_, and yet others surpass it in -regard to this feature or that. It has not the gigantic protagonist -of _A New Way to Pay Old Debts_, or the admirable structure of that -fine play, which works with ever-cumulating intensity to one final, -tremendous climax. It has not the impressiveness of _The Duke of -Milan_, or its sheer sweep of tragic passion and breathless intensity, -or anything so compelling as its great scene of gathering jealousy -that breaks forth at last in murder. Its verse is less poetic than -that of _The Maid of Honor_; it lacks the charm of _The Great Duke of -Florence_, and the ethical fervor of _The Roman Actor_. But in utter -reality, in convincing simulation of life, which holds good under the -most exhaustive study and makes that study forever continue to yield -new suggestions and new appreciations, and in abundance and inherent -truthfulness of detailed characterization, it stands alone, and these -sterling qualities must so outweigh its defects as to insure for it a -high place, not only among the productions of its authors, but among -the plays of the Jacobean Period as a whole. - - -STAGE HISTORY--ADAPTATIONS--DERIVATIVES - -Beyond the statement on the title-page of the 1632 Quarto, that -_The Fatal Dowry_ had been "often acted at the Private House in -Blackfriars by his Majesties Servants," nothing is known of its -early stage history. It was not revived after the Restoration, and -until the publication of the Coxeter edition of Massinger seems to -have been almost unknown. At last, in 1825, an emended version was -placed upon the boards by no less an actor than the great Macready. -January 5 of that year was the date, and Drury Lane the place, of -its initial performance, Macready himself taking the part of Romont, -Wallack--Charalois, Terry--Rochfort, and Mrs. W. West--Beaumelle. "The -play was well acted and enthusiastically applauded," says Macready in -his _Reminiscences_ (p. 228); "its repetition for the following Tuesday -was hailed most rapturously; but Friday[12] came, and with it a crowded -house, to find me laboring under such indisposition that it was with -difficulty I could keep erect without support." Macready's serious -illness cut short the run of the play, and when he was at length (April -11) able to take it up again, the interest of the public had abated, -and it in consequence was repeated only a few times--seven being the -total number of its performances. - -The variant of _The Fatal Dowry_ in which Macready acted was the work -of Sheil, and involved substantial divergences. Romont's release from -prison follows immediately upon Novall Senior's consent to his pardon, -and in consequence, together with his conversation with Rochfort, is -transferred from Act II to the close of Act I, while the redemption of -Charalois takes place at the funeral of his father, which concludes -Act II. For the scene between Beaumelle and her maids is substituted -another coloquy of similar import but chastened tone. A brief scene -of no especial significance is inserted at the beginning of Act III, -in the interval between which and the preceding Act three weeks -are supposed to have elapsed; the rest of Act III follows much the -same course as the original, save that the application of Romont to -Rochfort and his foiling by the stratagem of Beaumelle and Bellapert -are omitted. A really notable departure is found in the discovery of -the amour by Charalois. According to Sheil, Novall Junior and his -mistress attempt to elope, but the note which appoints their rendezvous -falls into Charalois' hands, and he waits for the lovers and surprises -them, killing Novall off-stage. The Fifth Act opens with a scene of -a few lines only, in which Beaumont bears to Rochfort a request from -Charalois to meet him in the church yard. Then follows a lugubrious -scene in the dead of night beside the tomb of the hero's father, -to which place are transferred the reconciliation between Charalois -and Romont, and the judgment of Rochfort! Beaumelle, however, does -not appear during the trial, and upon the paternal sentence of doom, -Charalois reveals her body, slain already by his hand. To the father -he vindicates his action in much the same words as in Massinger's -last court-room scene, and then, on the appearance of Novall Senior -clamoring for vengeance and accompanied by the minions of the law, -stabs himself. - -The version of Sheil follows with but occasional exceptions the -language of the original wherever possible. It makes some slight -changes in the minor characters. - -Sheil's redaction was also presented at Bath on February 18 and 21, -Romont being acted by Hamblin, Charalois by Warde, Beaumelle by Miss E. -Tree. "Hamblin never appeared to so much advantage--in the scene with -Novall he reminded one strongly of John Kemble," says Genest (_Hist. -Dra. and Stage in Eng._, IX, 322). - -At Sadler's Wells, Samuel Phelps, who at that time was reviving a -number of the old dramas, took the stage in _The Fatal Dowry_ on August -27, 1845. This, however, was Sheil's version, and not the original -play of Massinger and Field, as has been sometimes supposed. It ranked -as one of his four chief productions of that year. He, too, chose for -himself the part of Romont, which was considered by many his greatest -quasi-tragic role. Marston appeared as Charalois, G. Bennett as -Rochfort, and Miss Cooper as Beaumelle. - -_The Fatal Dowry_ in substantially its own proper form does not appear -ever to have been acted after Jacobean times. - - * * * * * - -If the stage career of _The Fatal Dowry_ has been meagre, not so the -extent of its influence. Its literary parenthood begins before "the -closing of the theatres" and continues even to our own day. As early as -1638 it was echoed in _The Lady's Trial_ of Ford. Here the figures of -Auria, Adurni, Aurelio, and Spinella correspond roughly with Charalois, -young Novall, Romont, and Beaumelle respectively. Auria has gone -to the wars, and in his absence his wife is pursued by Adurni, who -sits at table with her in private, when Aurelio breaks in upon them, -bursting open the doors. Spinella bitterly resents the intrusion and -the aspersions of the intruder, and when, on the return home of Auria, -Aurelio accuses her to him, it is without shaking his faith in her -loyalty. Here the analogy ends: spite of Auria's incredulousness there -is no rupture between the friends; Spinella establishes her innocence; -and Adurni, while guilty enough in his intent against her, shows -himself thereafter to be an essentially noble youth, who will defend -to any length the lady's honor which has become subject to question -through fault of his, and for this gallant reparation, is not only -forgiven, but even cherished ever after by the husband he had sought to -wrong. - -The more steadily one regards the man John Ford and his work, the more -probable does it appear that the relationship between _The Fatal Dowry_ -and _The Lady's Trial_ is not one of mere reminiscence or influence, -but of direct parentage. That strange and baleful figure, who seems -almost a modern Decadent born out of his time, had a profound interest -in moral problems, to the study of which he brought morbid ethical -sensibilities scarce matched before the latter nineteenth century. -(Witness his conception, in _The Broken Heart_, of a loveless marriage -as tantamount to adultery.) Ford's talent for invention was deficient -to the extent that he was hard put to it for plots. It is not at all -unlikely that he surveyed the Massingerian tragedy, and, repelled by -the conduct of its figures, exclaimed to himself: "I will write a play -to centre around a situation as incriminating as that of Act III of -_The Fatal Dowry_; but my personages will be worthier characters; I -will show a lady who, spite of appearances, is of stainless innocence -and vindicates her husband's trust in the face of evidence; I will show -a friendship strong enough to endure an honestly mistaken aspersion put -upon the chastity of a wife, though the charge is not for one moment -credited; I will show that even the would-be seducer may be a fine -fellow at bottom, and set forth a generous emulation in magnanimity -between him and the husband. See how finely everything would work out -with the _right_ sort of people!" It is at least a plausible hypothesis. - -Nicholas Rowe, who was the first modern editor of Shakespeare, -contemplated also an edition of Massinger, but gave up the project that -he might more safely plunder one of his plays. Rowe's famous tragedy, -_The Fair Penitent_, was deliberately stolen from _The Fatal Dowry_. -It appeared in 1703, and spite of a ludicrous accident[13] which cut -short its first run, took rank as one of the most celebrated dramas of -the English stage. Rowe lived during the vogue of the "She-tragedy," -while the canons of literary criticism of his day demanded a "regular," -pseudo-classical form and a sententious tone. Accordingly, in his hands -the chief figure in the play, as is evidenced by the change in title, -becomes the guilty wife, here called Calista, who is "now the evil -queen of the heroic plays; now the lachrymose moralizer;" the theme is -indeed _her_ story, not Altamont's (Charalois)--her seduction (prior -to the nuptuals and before the opening of the play), her grief, her -plight, her exposure, her death;--she holds the centre of the stage -to the very end. The number of the _dramatis personae_ is cut down -to eight; all touches of comedy are excised; and the double plot of -the original is unified by the bold stroke of throwing back to a time -before the opening of the play the entire episode of the unburied -corpse and the origin of the hero's friendship with the father of the -heroine. - -Discussions of the relative merits of _The Fair Penitent_ and its -source have been almost invariably acrimonious. Nor is this to be -wondered at, for after reading the old tragedy with its severe -dignity and noble restraint, one can scarce peruse without irritation -the cloyingly melifluous, emasculated verse of Rowe--by turns -grandiloquent and sentimental. The characterization of _The Fair -Penitent_ is, in the main, insipid, and while Rowe's heroine holds a -commanding place in her drama to which Beaumelle does not pretend, the -latter is a great deal more natural, and indeed, for that matter, far -more truly a "penitent." An exception to the general insipidity is -Lothario, who is the analogue of the insignificant Novall Junior--"the -gay Lothario"--whose very name has been ever since a synonym for -the graceful, graceless, devil-may-care libertine--whose figure has -been the prototype of a long line of similar characters in English -literature, beginning with Richardson's Lovelace and not yet closed -with Anthony Hope's Rupert of Hentzau. Beside this striking creation, -the seducer of Beaumelle shows poorly indeed; but it is doubtful if the -old dramatists would have consented to paint such an attractive rogue, -had they been able; they wanted their Novall to be just the cowardly, -dandyfied thing they made him. Beyond the portrait of Lothario, small -ground for praise can be found in _The Fair Penitent_. That part of the -action of _The Fatal Dowry_ which under Rowe's treatment antedates the -rise of the curtain is narrated in the most stiffly mechanical sort -of exposition; the action is developed by such threadbare theatrical -devices as a lost letter and an overheard conversation; the voluble -speeches of the several characters are, throughout, declamatory -effusions almost unbelievably divorced from the apposite utterance of -any rational human being under the circumstances. An Altamont who has -been assured and reassured from his bride's own lips of her aversion -for him can fling himself from a quarrel with his life-long friend in -hysterical defence of her, to seek solace in her arms-- - - _There if in any pause of love I rest - Breathless with bliss upon her panting breast, - In broken, melting accents I will swear, - Henceforth to trust my heart with none save her;_ - -a Sciolto who has given his daughter a dagger with which to end her -shame, and then has arrested her willing arm with the prayer that she -will not dispatch herself until he is gone from the sight of her, can -thereupon take leave of her with the statement: - - _There is I know not what of sad presage - That tells me I shall never see thee more._ - -The play, which enjoyed an immense fame, high contemporary -appreciation, and a long career on the stage, remains a curious -memorial of the taste of a bygone day. - -It is noteworthy that in _The Fair Penitent_ Horatio, as Romont in -all modern reproductions of _The Fatal Dowry_, is the great acting -part--not the husband. - -In 1758 was produced at the Hay market a drama entitled _The Insolvent -or Filial Piety_, from the pen of Aaron Hill. In the preface it is -said--according to Genest (IV, 538)--"Wilks about 30 years before gave -an old manuscript play, called the _Guiltless Adulteress_, to Theo. -Cibber who was manager of what then was the Summer Company--after an -interval of several years this play was judged to want a revisal to -fit it for representation--Aaron Hill at the request of Theo. Cibber -almost new wrote the whole, and the last act was entirely his in -conduct, sentiment and diction." In reality, _The Insolvent_ is _The -Fatal Dowry_ over again, altered to tragicomedy, and with the names of -the characters changed. The first two Acts of Hill's play proceed much -after the manner of its prototype, with close parallels in language. -From thenceforward, however, the action diverges. The bride, Amelia, -resists the further attentions of her former sweetheart. They are none -the less observed and suspected by her husband's friend, who speaks -of the matter to both her father and her lord. The former promises -to observe her with watchful eye; Chalons, the husband, is at first -resentful of the imputation, but presently yields to his friend's -advice, that he pretend a two-days' journey, from which he will return -unexpectedly. During his absence, his wife's maid introduces the lover -into her mistress' chamber while Amelia sleeps. There Chalons surprises -him kneeling beside the bed, and kills him. Amelia stabs herself, but -the confession of her maid reveals her innocence, and her wound is -pronounced not mortal. - -It has been suggested (_Biographia Dramatica_, II, 228--quoted by -Phelan, p. 59, and Schwarz, p. 74) that in Hill's _Zara_ (adaptation -of the _Zaire_ of Voltaire), also, Nerestan's voluntary return to -captivity in order to end that of his friends, whom he lacked the means -to ransom with gold, was suggested by the behavior of Charalois; but -this can be no more than a coincidence, as it here but reproduces what -is in the French original. - -A long interval, and finally, in the dawn of the twentieth century, -there appeared the next and latest recrudescence of _The Fatal -Dowry_. This was _Der Graf von Charolais, ein Trauerspiel_, by -Richard Beer-Hofmann, disciple of the Neo-Romantic School or -_Vienna Decadents_, a coterie built about the leadership of Hugo -von Hofmannsthal. Beer-Hofmann's play--a five-Act tragedy in blank -verse--was produced for the first time at the Neue Theatre, Berlin, on -December 24, 1904, and was received with considerable acclaim. Unlike -Rowe, he gives full credit to his source, from which he has drawn no -less extensively than the author of _The Fair Penitent_. Unlike Rowe, -he goes back to the old dramatists in the matter of construction, -placing upon the stage once more the episode of the unburied corpse -and the noble son; he even outdoes _The Fatal Dowry_ in this respect, -by allowing the first half of his plot three Acts instead of two, with -only two Acts for the amour and its tragic consequences. In his hands -the hero again becomes the central figure; in fact, the three principal -versions of this _donnee_ suggest by their titles their respective -viewpoints: _The Fatal Dowry_; _The Fair Penitent_; _Der Graf von -Charolais_. DER GRAF VON CHAROLAIS, be it observed;--this new redaction -is no longer the tale of a "fatal dowry;" no longer is the first part -of the dual theme merely introductory and accessory--it is coordinate -with the second. Beer-Hofmann has sought to achieve a kind of unity -from his double plot by making his fundamental theme not the adulterous -intrigue, but _the destiny of Charolais_, thus converting the play -into a Tragedy of Fate, which pursues the hero inexorably through all -his life. This strictly classical _motif_ animating the _donnee_ of a -Jacobean play reproduced in the twentieth century presents, as might -be expected, the aspect of an exotic growth, which is not lessened by -the extreme sensuousness of treatment throughout, such as has always -been one of the cardinal and distinctive qualities of the Decadent -School the world over. But as a contrast in the dramatic technique -and verse of Jacobean and modern times, _Der Graf von Charolais_ is -extremely interesting. The difference is striking between the severe -simplicity of three centuries ago, and the elaborate stagecraft of -to-day, its insistence on detail, and studied care in the portraiture -of minor characters. Yet minutia do not make tragedy, and while their -superficial realism and the congeniality of the contemporary point of -view undeniably lend to Beer-Hofmann's redaction a palatability and a -power to interest and appeal which its original does not possess to -the modern reader, yet a discriminating critic will turn back to the -old play with a feeling that, for all its stiffness and conventions, -he breathes there a more vital air. To the enrichment of his theme -Beer-Hofmann contributes every ingenious effect possible to symbolism, -delicate suggestion, and scenic device; this exterior decoration is -gorgeous in its color and seductive warmth, but no amount of such stuff -can compensate for the fundamental flaw in the crucial episode of -his tragedy. In spite of the care which he has lavished on the scene -between his heroine and her seducer, the surrender of the wife--three -years married, a mother, and loving both husband and child--remains -insufficiently motivated and sheerly inexplicable, and by this vital, -inherent defect the play must fall. Moreover, it lacks a hero. Romont -can no longer play the main part he did in former versions; he is -reduced to a mere shadow. In a tragedy of Fate, which blights a man's -career, phase by phase, with persistent, relentless hand, that man -must necessarily be the central figure, and, of right, _should_ be an -imposing figure--a protagonist at once gigantic and appealing, who will -draw all hearts to him in pity and terror at the helpless, hopeless -struggle of over-matched greatness and worth; whereas Charolais-- - -The case of Charolais is peculiar. _A priori_ we should expect him -to be just such a personage, yet his conduct throughout is best -explainable as that of a man dominated, not by noble impulses, -but by an extreme egoism--a man acutely responsive alike to his -sense-impressions and his feverish imagination, and possessed of an -exaggerated squeamishness towards the ugly and the unpleasant. When, -in the First Act, he bursts into tears, he confesses it is not for his -father that he weeps, but for his own hard lot; he suffers from his -repugnance to the idea of his father's corpse rotting above ground--a -repugnance so intolerable to him that he will yield his liberty to -escape it. He purposes to cashier the innkeeper because the sight of -the lecherous patrons of his hostelry has disgusted him, and he alters -his resolve and forgives the fellow, not from any considerations of -mercy, but because the mental picture of the man's distress tortures -him. And by similar personal repugnances reacting on egoism is his -behavior in the denouement to be accounted for, and in this light -becomes logically credible and clearly understood. Few practices are -more hazardous or unjust than judging an artist by his objective -creations; but an ignoble protagonist, as Charolais is represented, -is in such ill accord with any conceivable purpose on the part of -Beer-Hofmann, and so unlikely to have been intended by him, that one -cannot help strongly suspecting that the author unconsciously projected -himself into the character and thus revealed his own nature and point -of view. In any case he has presented for his hero a whimperer who can -command neither our sympathy nor our respect when he cries above the -bodies of his benefactor and her who is that benefactor's daughter, his -own wife, and the mother of his child: - - _Ist dies Stueck denn aus, - Weil jene starb? Und ich? An mich denkt keiner?_ - -We have come a long way from Massinger and Field and the early -seventeenth century. The shadow of the old dramatists reaches far, -even to our own time; we have seen their play redeveloped, but never -improved upon, by pseudo-classicist, and popularizer, and Decadent -hyper-aesthete. That which was the vulnerable point in the original -production--its two-fold plot--has been still for every imitator a -stone of stumbling. Rowe tried to escape it by the suppression of the -antecedent half, and the fraction which remained in his hand was an -artificial thing without the breath of life, that had to be attenuated -and padded out with speechifying to fill the compass of its five Acts. -Beer-Hofmann tried to escape it by superimposing an idea not proper -to the story, and beneath the weight of this his tragedy collapsed in -the middle, for its addition over-packed the drama, and left him not -room enough to make convincing the conduct of his characters. The first -essayers, who attacked in straightforward fashion their unwieldy theme, -succeeded best; all attempts to obviate its essential defect have -marred rather than mended. Perhaps the theme is by its nature unsuited -to dramatic treatment, and yet there is much that is dramatic about -that theme, as is evinced by the fact that playwrights have been unable -to let it lie. - - - - -EDITOR'S NOTE ON TEXT - - -The present text aims to reproduce exactly the Quarto edition of 1632, -retaining its punctuation, spelling, capitals, italics, and stage -directions--amending only the metrical alignment.[14] Mere mistakes -of printing--inverted and broken letters--are restored, but are duly -catalogued in the foot notes. The division into scenes, as made by -Gifford, and his affixment of the _locus_ of each, are inserted into -the text, inclosed in brackets. In the foot notes are recorded all -variants of all subsequent editions. Differences of punctuation are -given, if they could possibly alter the meaning, but not otherwise--nor -mere differences _in wording_ of stage directions, nor differences in -spelling, nor elision for metre. In the Quarto the elder Novall is -sometimes designated before his lines as _Novall Senior_, sometimes -merely as _Novall_--no confusion is possible, since he and his son are -never on the stage at the same time. Gifford and Symons always write -_Novall Senior_, while Coxeter and Mason write _Novall_ alone in I, i, -and _Novall Senior_ thereafter. I have not thought it worth while to -note the variants of the several texts on this point. - - - - - Q.--The Quarto--1632 - - C.--Coxeter's edition, 1759 - - M.--Monck Mason's edition, 1779 - - G.--Gifford's [2nd.] edition, 1813 - - S.--Symons' (Mermaid) edition, 1893 - - f.--and all later editions - - s.d.--stage direction - - - - - THE FATALL DOWRY: - - A TRAGEDY: - - _As it hath beene often Acted at the Priuate - House in Blackefryers, by his - Maiesties Seruants._ - - _Written by P. M. and N. F._ - - - LONDON, - - Printed by IOHN NORTON, for FRANCIS - CONSTABLE, and are to be iold at his - shop at the _Crane_, in _Pauls Churchyard_. - 1632. - - - - - _Charalois._ - - _Romont._ - - _Charmi._ - - _Nouall Sen._ - - _Liladam._ - - _DuCroy._ - - _Rochfort._ - - _Baumont._ - - _Pontalier._ - - _Malotin._ - - _Beaumelle._ - - _Florimel._ } - - _Bellapert._} - - _Aymer._ - - _Nouall Jun._ - - _Aduocates._ - - _Creditors 3._ - - _Officers._ - - _Priest._ - - _Taylor._ - - _Barber._ - - _Perfumer._ - - [Page.] - - [Presidents, Captains, Soldiers, Mourners, Gaoler, Bailiffs, - Servants.] - - - - -The Fatall Dowry: - -A Tragedy: - - - - -_Act. primus._ - - -_Scaena prima:_ - -[_A Street before the Court of Justice_] - -_Enter_ Charaloyes _with a paper_, Romont, Charmi. - - _Charmi_ Sir, I may moue the Court to serue your will, - But therein shall both wrong you and my selfe. - - _Rom._ Why thinke you so sir? - - _Charmi._ 'Cause I am familiar - With what will be their answere: they will say, - 'Tis against law, and argue me of Ignorance 5 - For offering them the motion. - - _Rom._ You know not, Sir, - How in this cause they may dispence with Law, - And therefore frame not you their answere for them, - But doe your parts. - - _Charmi._ I loue the cause so well, - As I could runne, the hazard of a checke for 't. 10 - - _Rom._ From whom? - - _Charmi._ Some of the bench, that watch to give it, - More then to doe the office that they fit for: - But giue me (sir) my fee. - - _Rom._ Now you are Noble. - - _Charmi._ I shall deserue this better yet, in giuing - My Lord some counsell, (if he please to heare it) 15 - Then I shall doe with pleading. - - _Rom._ What may it be, sir? - - _Charmi._ That it would please his Lordship, as the presidents, - And Counsaylors of Court come by, to stand - Heere, and but shew your selfe, and to some one - Or two, make his request: there is a minute 20 - When a mans presence speakes in his owne cause, - More then the tongues of twenty aduocates. - - _Rom._ I haue vrg'd that. - - _Enter_ Rochfort: _DuCroye_. - - _Charmi._ Their Lordships here are coming, - I must goe get me a place, you'l finde me in Court, - And at your seruice - - _Exit Charmi._ - - _Rom._ Now put on your Spirits. 25 - - _Du Croy._ The ease that you prepare your selfe, my Lord, - In giuing vp the place you hold in Court, - Will proue (I feare) a trouble in the State, - And that no slight one. - - _Roch._ Pray you sir, no more. - - _Rom._ Now sir, lose not this offerd means: their lookes 30 - Fixt on you, with a pittying earnestnesse, - Inuite you to demand their furtherance - To your good purpose.--This such a dulnesse - So foolish and vntimely as-- - - _Du Croy._ You know him. - - _Roch._ I doe, and much lament the sudden fall 35 - Of his braue house. It is young _Charloyes_. - Sonne to the Marshall, from whom he inherits - His fame and vertues onely. - - _Rom._ Ha, they name you. - - _Du Croye._ His father died in prison two daies since. - - _Roch._ Yes, to the shame of this vngrateful State; 40 - That such a Master in the art of warre, - So noble, and so highly meriting, - From this forgetfull Country, should, for want - Of meanes to satisfie his creditors, - The summes he tooke vp for the generall good, 45 - Meet with an end so infamous. - - _Rom._ Dare you euer - Hope for like opportunity? - - _Du Croye._ My good Lord! - - _Roch._ My wish bring comfort to you. - - _Du Croye._ The time calls vs. - - _Roch._ Good morrow Colonell. - - _Exeunt Roch. Du Croye._ - - _Rom._ This obstinate spleene, - You thinke becomes your sorrow, and sorts wel 50 - With your blacke suits: but grant me wit, or iudgement, - And by the freedome of an honest man, - And a true friend to boote, I sweare 'tis shamefull. - And therefore flatter not your selfe with hope, - Your sable habit, with the hat and cloake, 55 - No though the ribons helpe, haue power to worke 'em - To what you would: for those that had no eyes, - To see the great acts of your father, will not, - From any fashion sorrow can put on, - Bee taught to know their duties. - - _Char._ If they will not, 60 - They are too old to learne, and I too young - To giue them counsell, since if they partake - The vnderstanding, and the hearts of men, - They will preuent my words and teares: if not, - What can perswasion, though made eloquent 65 - With griefe, worke vpon such as haue chang'd natures - With the most sauage beast? Blest, blest be euer - The memory of that happy age, when iustice - Had no gards to keepe off wrongd innocence, - From flying to her succours, and in that 70 - Assurance of redresse: where now (_Romont_) - The damnd, with more ease may ascend from Hell, - Then we ariue at her. One Cerberus there - Forbids the passage, in our Courts a thousand, - As lowd, and fertyle headed, and the Client 75 - That wants the sops, to fill their rauenous throats, - Must hope for no accesse: why should I then - Attempt impossibilities: you friend, being - Too well acquainted with my dearth of meanes, - To make my entrance that way? - - _Rom._ Would I were not. 80 - But Sir, you haue a cause, a cause so iust, - Of such necessitie, not to be deferd, - As would compell a mayde, whose foot was neuer - Set ore her fathers threshold, nor within - The house where she was borne, euer spake word, 85 - Which was not vshered with pure virgin blushes, - To drowne the tempest of a pleaders tongue, - And force corruption to giue backe the hire - It tooke against her: let examples moue you. - You see great men in birth, esteeme and fortune, 90 - Rather then lose a scruple of their right, - Fawne basely vpon such, whose gownes put off, - They would disdaine for Seruants. - - _Char._ And to these - Can I become a suytor? - - _Rom._ Without losse, - Would you consider, that to game their fauors, 95 - Our chastest dames put off their modesties, - Soldiers forget their honors, vsurers - Make sacrifice of Gold, poets of wit, - And men religious, part with fame, and goodnesse? - Be therefore wonne to vse the meanes, that may 100 - Aduance your pious ends. - - _Char._ You shall orecome. - - _Rom._ And you receiue the glory, pray you now practise. - 'Tis well. - - _Enter Old Nouall, Liladam, & 3 Creditors._ - - _Char._ Not looke on me! - - _Rom._ You must haue patience---- - Offer't againe. - - _Char._ And be againe contemn'd? - - _Nou._ I know whats to be done. - - _1 Cred._ And that your Lordship 105 - Will please to do your knowledge, we offer, first - Our thankefull hearts heere, as a bounteous earnest - To what we will adde. - - _Nou._ One word more of this - I am your enemie. Am I a man - Your bribes can worke on? ha? - - _Lilad._ Friends, you mistake 110 - The way to winne my Lord, he must not heare this, - But I, as one in fauour, in his sight, - May harken to you for my profit. Sir, - I pray heare em. - - _Nou._ Tis well. - - _Lilad._ Obserue him now. - - _Nou._ Your cause being good, and your proceedings so, 115 - Without corruption; I am your friend, - Speake your desires. - - _2 Cred._ Oh, they are charitable, - The Marshall stood ingag'd vnto vs three, - Two hundred thousand crownes, which by his death - We are defeated of. For which great losse 120 - We ayme at nothing but his rotten flesh, - Nor is that cruelty. - - _1 Cred._ I haue a sonne, - That talkes of nothing but of Gunnes and Armors, - And sweares hee'll be a soldier, tis an humor - I would diuert him from, and I am told 125 - That if I minister to him in his drinke - Powder, made of this banquerout Marshalls bones, - Provided that the carcase rot aboue ground - 'Twill cure his foolish frensie. - - _Nou._ You shew in it - A fathers care. I haue a sonne my selfe, 130 - A fashionable Gentleman and a peacefull: - And but I am assur'd he's not so giuen, - He should take of it too, Sir what are you? - - _Char._ A Gentleman. - - _Nou._ So are many that rake dunghills. - If you haue any suit, moue it in Court. 135 - I take no papers in corners. - - _Rom._ Yes - As the matter may be carried, and hereby - To mannage the conuayance----Follow him. - - _Lil._ You are rude. I say, he shall not passe. - - _Exit Nouall, Char: and Aduocates_ - - _Rom._ You say so. - On what assurance? 140 - For the well cutting of his Lordships cornes, - Picking his toes, or any office else - Neerer to basenesse! - - _Lil._ Looke vpon mee better, - Are these the ensignes of so coorse a fellow? - Be well aduis'd. - - _Rom._ Out, rogue, do not I know, (_Kicks him_) 145 - These glorious weedes spring from the sordid dunghill - Of thy officious basenesse? wert thou worthy - Of anything from me, but my contempt, - I would do more then this, more, you Court-spider. - - _Lil._ But that this man is lawlesse; - he should find that I am valiant. 150 - - _1 Cred._ If your eares are fast, - Tis nothing. Whats a blow or two? As much-- - - _2 Cred._ These chastisements, as vsefull are as frequent - To such as would grow rich. - - _Rom._ Are they so Rascals? - I will be-friend you then. - - _1 Cred._ Beare witnesse, Sirs. 155 - - _Lil._ Trueth, I haue borne my part already, friends. - In the Court you shall haue more. - - _Exit._ - - _Rom._ I know you for - The worst of spirits, that striue to rob the tombes - Of what is their inheritance, from the dead. - For vsurers, bred by a riotous peace: 160 - That hold the Charter of your wealth & freedome, - By being Knaues and Cuckolds that ne're prayd, - But when you feare the rich heires will grow wise, - To keepe their Lands out of your parchment toyles: - And then, the Diuell your father's cald vpon, 165 - To inuent some ways of _Luxury_ ne're thought on. - Be gone, and quickly, or Ile leaue no roome - Vpon your forhead for your hornes to sprowt on, - Without a murmure, or I will vndoe you; - For I will beate you honest. - - _1 Cred._ Thrift forbid. 170 - We will beare this, rather then hazard that. - - _Ex: Creditor._ - - _Enter Charloyes._ - - _Rom._ I am some-what eas'd in this yet. - - _Char._ (Onely friend) - To what vaine purpose do I make my sorrow, - Wayte on the triumph of their cruelty? - Or teach their pride from my humilitie, 175 - To thinke it has orecome? They are determin'd - What they will do: and it may well become me, - To robbe them of the glory they expect - From my submisse intreaties. - - _Rom._ Thinke not so, Sir, - The difficulties that you incounter with, 180 - Will crowne the vndertaking--Heaven! you weepe: - And I could do so too, but that I know, - Theres more expected from the sonne and friend - Of him, whose fatall losse now shakes our natures, - Then sighs, or teares, (in which a village nurse 185 - Or cunning strumpet, when her knaue is hangd, - May ouercome vs.) We are men (young Lord) - Let vs not do like women. To the Court, - And there speake like your birth: wake sleeping justice, - Or dare the Axe. This is a way will sort 190 - With what you are. I call you not to that - I will shrinke from my selfe, I will deserue - Your thankes, or suffer with you--O how bravely - That sudden fire of anger shewes in you! - Give fuell to it, since you are on a shelfe, 195 - Of extreme danger suffer like your selfe. - - _Exeunt._ - - -[SCENE II] - -[_The Court of Justice_] - -_Enter Rochfort_, _Nouall Se. Charmi_, _Du Croye_, -_Aduocates_, _Baumont_, _and Officers_, _and 3. Presidents_. - - _Du Croye._ Your Lordship's seated. May this meeting proue prosperous - to vs, and to the generall good - Of _Burgundy_. - - _Nou. Se._ Speake to the poynt. - - _Du Croy._ Which is, - With honour to dispose the place and power - Of primier President, which this reuerent man 5 - Graue _Rochfort_, (whom for honours sake I name) - Is purpos'd to resigne a place, my Lords, - In which he hath with such integrity, - Perform'd the first and best parts of a Iudge, - That as his life transcends all faire examples 10 - Of such as were before him in _Dijon_, - So it remaines to those that shall succeed him, - A President they may imitate, but not equall. - - _Roch._ I may not sit to heare this. - - _Du Croy._ Let the loue - And thankfulnes we are bound to pay to goodnesse, 15 - In this o'recome your modestie. - - _Roch._ My thankes - For this great fauour shall preuent your trouble. - The honourable trust that was impos'd - Vpon my weaknesse since you witnesse for me, - It was not ill discharg'd, I will not mention, 20 - Nor now, if age had not depriu'd me of - The little strength I had to gouerne well, - The Prouince that I vndertooke, forsake it. - - _Nou._ That we could lend you of our yeeres. - - _Du Croy._ Or strength. - - _Nou._ Or as you are, perswade you to continue 25 - The noble exercise of your knowing iudgement. - - _Roch._ That may not be, nor can your Lordships goodnes, - Since your imployments haue confer'd vpon me - Sufficient wealth, deny the vse of it, - And though old age, when one foot's in the graue, 30 - In many, when all humors else are spent - Feeds no affection in them, but desire - To adde height to the mountaine of their riches: - In me it is not so, I rest content - With the honours, and estate I now possesse, 35 - And that I may haue liberty to vse, - What Heauen still blessing my poore industry, - Hath made me Master of: I pray the Court - To ease me of my burthen, that I may - Employ the small remainder of my life, 40 - In liuing well, and learning how to dye so. - - _Enter Romont, and Charalois._ - - _Rom._ See sir, our Aduocate. - - _Du Croy._ The Court intreats, - Your Lordship will be pleasd to name the man, - Which you would haue your successor, and in me, - All promise to confirme it. - - _Roch._ I embrace it, 45 - As an assurance of their fauour to me, - And name my Lord Nouall. - - _Du Croy._ The Court allows it. - - _Roch._ But there are suters waite heere, and their causes - May be of more necessity to be heard, - And therefore wish that mine may be defer'd, 50 - And theirs haue hearing. - - _Du Croy._ If your Lordship please - To take the place, we will proceed. - - _Charm._ The cause - We come to offer to your Lordships censure, - Is in it selfe so noble, that it needs not - Or Rhetorique in me that plead, or fauour 55 - From your graue Lordships, to determine of it. - Since to the prayse of your impartiall iustice - (Which guilty, nay condemn'd men, dare not scandall) - It will erect a trophy of your mercy - With married to that Iustice. - - _Nou. Se._ Speaks to the cause. 60 - - _Charm._ I will, my Lord: to say, the late dead Marshall - The father of this young Lord heer, my Clyent, - Hath done his Country great and faithfull seruice, - Might taske me of impertinence to repeate, - What your graue Lordships cannot but remember, 65 - He in his life, become indebted to - These thriftie men, I will not wrong their credits, - By giuing them the attributes they now merit, - And fayling by the fortune of the warres, - Of meanes to free himselfe, from his ingagements, 70 - He was arrested, and for want of bayle - Imprisond at their suite: and not long after - With losse of liberty ended his life. - And though it be a Maxime in our Lawes, - All suites dye with the person, these mens malice 75 - In death find matter for their hate to worke on, - Denying him the decent Rytes of buriall, - Which the sworne enemies of the Christian faith - Grant freely to their slaues; may it therefore please - Your Lordships, so to fashion your decree, 80 - That what their crueltie doth forbid, your pittie - May giue allowance to. - - _Nou. Se._ How long haue you Sir - Practis'd in Court? - - _Charmi._ Some twenty yeeres, my Lord. - - _Nou. Se._ By your grosse ignorance it should appeare, - Not twentie dayes. - - _Charmi._ I hope I haue giuen no cause 85 - In this, my Lord-- - - _Nou. Se._ How dare you moue the Court, - To the dispensing with an Act confirmd - By Parlament, to the terror of all banquerouts? - Go home, and with more care peruse the Statutes: - Or the next motion fauoring of this boldnesse, 90 - May force you to leape (against your will) - Ouer the place you plead at. - - _Charmi._ I foresaw this. - - _Rom._ Why does your Lordship thinke, the mouing of - A cause more honest then this Court had euer - The honor to determine, can deserue 95 - A checke like this? - - _Nou. Se._ Strange boldnes! - - _Rom._ Tis fit freedome: - Or do you conclude, an aduocate cannot hold - His credit with the Iudge, vnlesse he study - His face more then the cause for which he pleades? - - _Charmi._ Forbeare. - - _Rom._ Or cannot you, that haue the power 100 - To qualifie the rigour of the Lawes, - When you are pleased, take a little from - The strictnesse of your fowre decrees, enacted - In fauor of the greedy creditors - Against the orethrowne debter? - - _Nou. Se._ Sirra, you that prate 105 - Thus sawcily, what are you? - - _Rom._ Why Ile tell you, - Thou purple-colour'd man, I am one to whom - Thou owest the meanes thou hast of sitting there - A corrupt Elder. - - _Charmi._ Forbeare. - - _Rom._ The nose thou wearst, is my gift, and those eyes 110 - That meete no obiect so base as their Master, - Had bin, long since, torne from that guiltie head, - And thou thy selfe slaue to some needy Swisse, - Had I not worne a sword, and vs'd it better - Then in thy prayers thou ere didst thy tongue. 115 - - _Nou. Se._ Shall such an Insolence passe vnpunisht? - - _Charmi._ Heere mee. - - _Rom._ Yet I, that in my seruice done my Country, - Disdaine to bee put in the scale with thee, - Confesse my selfe vnworthy to bee valued - With the least part, nay haire of the dead Marshall, 120 - Of whose so many glorious vndertakings, - Make choice of any one, and that the meanest - Performd against the subtill Fox of France, - The politique _Lewis_, or the more desperate Swisse, - And 'twyll outwaygh all the good purpose, 125 - Though put in act, that euer Gowneman practizd. - - _Nou. Se._ Away with him to prison. - - _Rom._ If that curses, - Vrg'd iustly, and breath'd forth so, euer fell - On those that did deserue them; let not mine - Be spent in vaine now, that thou from this instant 130 - Mayest in thy feare that they will fall vpon thee, - Be sensible of the plagues they shall bring with them. - And for denying of a little earth, - To couer what remaynes of our great soldyer: - May all your wiues proue whores, your factors theeues, 135 - And while you liue, your riotous heires vndoe you, - And thou, the patron of their cruelty. - Of all thy Lordships liue not to be owner - Of so much dung as will conceale a Dog, - Or what is worse, thy selfe in. And thy yeeres, 140 - To th' end thou mayst be wretched, I wish many, - And as thou hast denied the dead a graue, - May misery in thy life make thee desire one, - Which men and all the Elements keepe from thee: - I haue begun well, imitate, exceed. 145 - - _Roch._ Good counsayle were it, a prayse worthy deed. - - _Ex. Officers with Rom._ - - _Du Croye._ Remember what we are. - - _Chara._ Thus low my duty - Answeres your Lordships counsaile. I will vse - In the few words (with which I am to trouble - Your Lordships eares) the temper that you wish mee. 150 - Not that I feare to speake my thoughts as lowd, - And with a liberty beyond _Romont_: - But that I know, for me that am made vp - Of all that's wretched, so to haste my end, - Would seeme to most, rather a willingnesse 155 - To quit the burthen of a hopelesse life, - Then scorne of death, or duty to the dead. - I therefore bring the tribute of my prayse - To your seueritie, and commend the Iustice, - That will not for the many seruices 160 - That any man hath done the Common wealth - Winke at his least of ills: what though my father - Writ man before he was so, and confirmd it, - By numbring that day, no part of his life, - In which he did not seruice to his Country; 165 - Was he to be free therefore from the Lawes, - And ceremonious forme in your decrees? - Or else because he did as much as man - In those three memorable ouerthrowes - At _Granson_, _Morat_, _Nancy_, where his Master, 170 - The warlike _Charloyes_ (with whose misfortunes - I beare his name) lost treasure, men and life, - To be excus'd, from payment of those summes - Which (his owne patri mony spent) his zeale, - To serue his Countrey, forc'd him to take vp? 175 - - _Nou. Se._ The president were ill. - - _Chara._ And yet, my Lord, this much - I know youll grant; After those great defeatures, - Which in their dreadfull ruines buried quick, _Enter officers._ - Courage and hope, in all men but himselfe, - He forst the proud foe, in his height of conquest, 180 - To yield vnto an honourable peace. - And in it saued an hundred thousand liues, - To end his owne, that was sure proofe against - The scalding Summers heate, and Winters frost, - Illayres, the Cannon, and the enemies sword, 185 - In a most loathsome prison. - - _Du Croy._ Twas his fault - To be so prodigall. - - _Nou. Se._ He had fro the state - Sufficent entertainment for the Army. - - _Char._ Sufficient? My Lord, you sit at home, - And though your fees are boundlesse at the barre: 190 - Are thriftie in the charges of the warre, - But your wills be obeyd. To these I turne, - To these soft-hearted men, that wisely know - They are onely good men, that pay what they owe. - - _2 Cred._ And so they are. - - _1 Cred._ 'Tis the City Doctrine, 195 - We stand bound to maintaine it. - - _Char._ Be constant in it, - And since you are as mercilesse in your natures, - As base, and mercenary in your meanes - By which you get your wealth, I will not vrge - The Court to take away one scruple from 200 - The right of their lawes, or one good thought - In you to mend your disposition with. - I know there is no musique in your eares - So pleasing as the groanes of men in prison, - And that the teares of widows, and the cries 205 - Of famish'd Orphants, are the feasts that take you. - That to be in your danger, with more care - Should be auoyded, then infectious ayre, - The loath'd embraces of diseased women, - A flatterers poyson, or the losse of honour. 210 - Yet rather then my fathers reuerent dust - Shall want a place in that faire monument, - In which our noble Ancestors lye intomb'd, - Before the Court I offer vp my selfe - A prisoner for it: loade me with those yrons 215 - That haue worne out his life, in my best strength - Ile run to th' incounter of cold hunger, - And choose my dwelling where no Sun dares enter, - So he may be releas'd. - - _1 Cred._ What meane you sir? - - _2 Aduo._ Onely your fee againe: ther's so much sayd 220 - Already in this cause, and sayd so well, - That should I onely offer to speake in it, - I should not bee heard, or laught at for it. - - _1 Cred._ 'Tis the first mony aduocate ere gaue backe, - Though hee sayd nothing. - - _Roch._ Be aduis'd, young Lord, 225 - And well considerate, you throw away - Your liberty, and ioyes of life together: - Your bounty is imployd vpon a subiect - That is not sensible of it, with which, wise man - Neuer abus'd his goodnesse; the great vertues 230 - Of your dead father vindicate themselues, - From these mens malice, and breake ope the prison, - Though it containe his body. - - _Nou. Se._ Let him alone, - If he loue Lords, a Gods name let him weare 'em, - Prouided these consent. - - _Char._ I hope they are not 235 - So ignorant in any way of profit, - As to neglect a possibility - To get their owne, by seeking it from that - Which can returne them nothing, but ill fame, - And curses for their barbarous cruelties. 240 - - _3 Cred._ What thinke you of the offer? - - _2 Cred._ Very well. - - _1 Cred._ Accept it by all meanes: let's shut him vp, - He is well-shaped and has a villanous tongue, - And should he study that way of reuenge, - As I dare almost sweare he loues a wench, 245 - We haue no wiues, nor neuer shall get daughters - That will hold out against him. - - _Du Croy._ What's your answer? - - _2 Cred._ Speake you for all. - - _1 Cred._ Why let our executions - That lye vpon the father, bee return'd - Vpon the sonne, and we release the body. 250 - - _Nou. Se._ The Court must grant you that. - - _Char._ I thanke your Lordships, - They haue in it confirm'd on me such glory, - As no time can take from me: I am ready, - Come lead me where you please: captiuity - That comes with honour, is true liberty. 255 - - _Exit Charmi, Cred. & Officers._ - - _Nou. Se._ Strange rashnesse. - - _Roch._ A braue resolution rather, - Worthy a better fortune, but howeuer - It is not now to be disputed, therefore - To my owne cause. Already I haue found - Your Lordships bountifull in your fauours to me; 260 - And that should teach my modesty to end heere - And presse your loues no further. - - _Du Croy._ There is nothing - The Court can grant, but with assurance you - May aske it and obtaine it. - - _Roch._ You incourage - A bold Petitioner, and 'tis not fit 265 - Your fauours should be lost. Besides, 'tas beene - A custome many yeeres, at the surrendring - The place I now giue vp, to grant the President - One boone, that parted with it. And to confirme - Your grace towards me, against all such as may 270 - Detract my actions, and life hereafter, - I now preferre it to you. - - _Du Croy._ Speake it freely. - - _Roch._ I then desire the liberty of _Romont_, - And that my Lord _Nouall_, whose priuate wrong - Was equall to the iniurie that was done 275 - To the dignity of the Court, will pardon it, - And now signe his enlargement. - - _Nou. Se._ Pray you demand - The moyety of my estate, or any thing - Within my power, but this. - - _Roch._ Am I denyed then-- - My first and last request? - - _Du Croy._ It must not be. 280 - - _2 Pre._ I haue a voyce to giue in it. - - _3 Pre._ And I. - And if perswasion will not worke him to it, - We will make knowne our power. - - _Nou. Se._ You are too violent, - You shall haue my consent--But would you had - Made tryall of my loue in any thing 285 - But this, you should haue found then--But it skills not. - You haue what you desire. - - _Roch._ I thanke your Lordships. - - _Du Croy._ The court is vp, make way. - - _Ex. omnes, praeter Roch. & Beaumont._ - - _Roch._ I follow you--_Baumont_. - - _Baum._ My Lord. - - _Roch._ You are a scholler, _Baumont_, - And can search deeper into th' intents of men, 290 - Then those that are lesse knowing--How appear'd - The piety and braue behauior of - Young _Charloyes_ to you? - - _Baum._ It is my wonder, - Since I want language to expresse it fully; - And sure the Collonell-- - - _Roch._ Fie! he was faulty-- 295 - What present mony haue I? - - _Baum._ There is no want - Of any summe a priuate man has use for. - - _Roch._ 'Tis well: - I am strangely taken with this _Charaloyes_; - Me thinkes, from his example, the whole age - Should learne to be good, and continue so. 300 - Vertue workes strangely with vs: and his goodnesse - Rising aboue his fortune, seemes to me - Princelike, to will, not aske a courtesie. - - _Exeunt._ - - - - -_Act. secundus._ - - -_Scaena prima:_ - -[_A Street before the Prison_] - -_Enter Pontalier_, _Malotin_, _Baumont_. - - _Mal._ Tis strange. - - _Baum._ Me thinkes so. - - _Pont._ In a man, but young, - Yet old in iudgement, theorique, and practicke - In all humanity (and to increase the wonder) - Religious, yet a Souldier, that he should - Yeeld his free liuing youth a captiue, for 5 - The freedome of his aged fathers Corpes, - And rather choose to want lifes necessaries, - Liberty, hope of fortune, then it should - In death be kept from Christian ceremony. - - _Malo._ Come, 'Tis a golden president in a Sonne, 10 - To let strong nature haue the better hand, - (In such a case) of all affected reason. - What yeeres sits on this Charolois? - - _Baum._ Twenty eight, - For since the clocke did strike him 17 old - Vnder his fathers wing, this Sonne hath fought, 15 - Seru'd and commanded, and so aptly both, - That sometimes he appear'd his fathers father, - And neuer lesse then's sonne; the old man's vertues - So recent in him, as the world may sweare, - Nought but a faire tree, could such fayre fruit beare. 20 - - _Pont._ But wherefore lets he such a barbarous law, - And men more barbarous to execute it, - Preuaile on his soft disposition, - That he had rather dye aliue for debt - Of the old man in prison, then he should 25 - Rob him of Sepulture, considering - These monies borrow'd bought the lenders peace, - And all their meanes they inioy, nor was diffus'd - In any impious or licencious path? - - _Bau._ True: for my part, were it my fathers trunke, 30 - The tyrannous Ram-heads, with their hornes should gore it, - Or, cast it to their curres (than they) lesse currish, - Ere prey on me so, with their Lion-law, - Being in my free will (as in his) to shun it. - - _Pont._ Alasse! he knowes him selfe (in pouerty) lost: 35 - For in this parciall auaricious age - What price beares Honor? Vertue? Long agoe - It was but prays'd, and freez'd, but now a dayes - 'Tis colder far, and has, nor loue, nor praise, - Very prayse now freezeth too: for nature 40 - Did make the heathen, far more Christian then, - Then knowledge vs (lesse heathenish) Christian. - - _Malo._ This morning is the funerall. - - _Pont._ Certainely! - And from this prison 'twas the sonnes request - That his deare father might interment haue. 45 - - _Recorders Musique,_ - - See, the young sonne interd a liuely graue. - - _Baum._ They come, obserue their order. - - _Enter Funerall. Body borne by 4. Captaines and Souldiers, - Mourners, Scutchions, and very good order. Charolois, and Romont - meet it. Char. speaks. Rom. weeping, solemne Musique, 3 Creditors._ - - _Char._ How like a silent streame shaded with night, - And gliding softly with our windy sighes; - Moues the whole frame of this solemnity! 50 - Teares, sighs, and blackes, filling the simily, - Whilst I the onely murmur in this groue - Of death, thus hollowly break forth! Vouchsafe - To stay a while, rest, rest in peace, deare earth, - Thou that brought'st rest to their vnthankfull lyues, 55 - Whose cruelty deny'd thee rest in death: - Heere stands thy poore Executor thy sonne, - That makes his life prisoner, to bale thy death; - Who gladlier puts on this captiuity, - Then Virgins long in loue, their wedding weeds: 60 - Of all that euer thou hast done good to, - These onely haue good memories, for they - Remember best, forget not gratitude. - I thanke you for this last and friendly loue. - And tho this Country, like a viperous mother, 65 - Not onely hath eate vp vngratefully - All meanes of thee her sonne, but last thy selfe, - Leauing thy heire so bare and indigent, - He cannot rayse thee a poore Monument, - Such as a flatterer, or a vsurer hath. 70 - Thy worth, in euery honest brest buyldes one, - Making their friendly hearts thy funerall stone. - - _Pont._ Sir. - - _Char._ Peace, O peace, this sceane is wholy mine. - What weepe ye, souldiers? Blanch not, _Romont_ weepes. 75 - Ha, let me see, my miracle is eas'd, - The iaylors and the creditors do weepe; - Euen they that make vs weepe, do weepe themselues. - Be these thy bodies balme: these and thy vertue - Keepe thy fame euer odoriferous, 80 - Whilst the great, proud, rich, vndeseruing man, - Aliue stinkes in his vices, and being vanish'd, - The golden calfe that was an Idoll dect - With marble pillars Iet, and Porphyrie, - Shall quickly both in bone and name consume, 85 - Though wrapt in lead, spice, Searecloth and perfume - - _1 Cred._ Sir. - - _Char._ What! Away for shame: you prophane rogues - Must not be mingled with these holy reliques: - This is a Sacrifice, our showre shall crowne 90 - His sepulcher with Oliue, Myrrh and Bayes - The plants of peace, of sorrow, victorie, - Your teares would spring but weedes. - - _1 Cred._ Would they not so? - Wee'll keepe them to stop bottles then: - - _Rom._ No; keepe 'em - For your owne sins, you Rogues, till you repent: 95 - You'll dye else and be damn'd. - - _2 Cred._ Damn'd, ha! ha, ha. - - _Rom._ Laugh yee? - - _3 Cred._ Yes faith, Sir, weel'd be very glad - To please you eyther way. - - _1 Cred._ Y'are ne're content, - Crying nor laughing. - - _Rom._ Both with a birth shee rogues. - - _2 Cred._ Our wiues, Sir, taught vs. 100 - - _Rom._ Looke, looke, you slaues, your thanklesse cruelty - And sauage manners, of vnkind _Dijon_, - Exhaust these flouds, and not his fathers death. - - _1 Cred._ Slid, Sir, what would yee, ye'are so cholericke? - - _2 Cred._ Most soldiers are so yfaith, let him alone: 105 - They haue little else to liue on, we haue not had - A penny of him, haue we? - - _3 Cred._ 'Slight, wo'd you haue our hearts? - - _1 Cred._ We haue nothing but his body heere in durance - For all our mony. - - _Priest._ On. - - _Char._ One moment more, - But to bestow a few poore legacyes, 110 - All I haue left in my dead fathers rights, - And I haue done. Captaine, weare thou these spurs - That yet ne're made his horse runne from a foe. - Lieutenant, thou, this Scarfe, and may it tye - Thy valor, and thy honestie together: 115 - For so it did in him. Ensigne, this Curace - Your Generalls necklace once. You gentle Bearers, - Deuide this purse of gold, this other, strow - Among the poore: tis all I haue. _Romont_, - (Weare thou this medall of himselfe) that like 120 - A hearty Oake, grew'st close to this tall Pine, - Euen in the wildest wildernese of war, - Whereon foes broke their swords, and tyr'd themselues; - Wounded and hack'd yee were, but neuer fell'd. - For me my portion prouide in Heauen: 125 - My roote is earth'd, and I a desolate branch - Left scattered in the high way of the world, - Trod vnder foot, that might haue bin a Columne, - Mainly supporting our demolish'd house, - This would I weare as my inheritance. 130 - And what hope can arise to me from it, - When I and it are both heere prisoners? - Onely may this, if euer we be free, - Keepe, or redeeme me from all infamie. - - _Song. Musicke._ - - _1 Cred._ No farther, looke to 'em at your owne perill. 135 - - _2 Cred._ No, as they please: their Master's a good man. - I would they were the _Burmudas_. - - _Saylor._ You must no further. - The prison limits you, and the Creditors - Exact the strictnesse. - - _Rom._ Out you wooluish mungrells! - Whose braynes should be knockt out, like dogs in Iuly, 140 - Leste your infection poyson a whole towne. - - _Char._ They grudge our sorrow: your ill wills perforce - Turnes now to Charity: they would not haue vs - Walke too farre mourning, vsurers reliefe - Grieues, if the Debtors haue too much of griefe. 145 - - _Exeunt._ - - -[SCENE II] - -[_A Room in Rochfort's House._] - -_Enter Beaumelle_: _Florimell_: _Bellapert_. - - _Beau._ I prithee tell me, _Florimell_, why do women marry? - - _Flor._ Why truly Madam, I thinke, to lye with their husbands. - - _Bella._ You are a foole: She lyes, Madam, women marry husbands, - To lye with other men. 5 - - _Flor._ Faith eene such a woman wilt thou make. By this - light, Madam, this wagtaile will spoyle you, if you take - delight in her licence. - - _Beau._ Tis true, _Florimell_: and thou wilt make me too good - for a yong Lady. What an electuary found my father out for 10 - his daughter, when hee compounded you two my women? - for thou, _Florimell_, art eene a graine to heauy, simply for a - wayting Gentlewoman. - - _Flor._ And thou _Bellapert_, a graine too light. - - _Bella._ Well, go thy wayes goodly wisdom, whom no body 15 - regards. I wonder, whether be elder thou or thy hood: you - thinke, because you serue my Laydes mother, are 32 yeeres - old which is a peepe out, you know. - - _Flor._ Well sayd, wherligig. - - _Bella._ You are deceyu'd: I want a peg ith' middle. 20 - Out of these Prerogatiues! you thinke to be mother of the - maydes heere, & mortifie em with prouerbs: goe, goe, gouern - the sweet meates, and waigh the Suger, that the wenches - steale none: say your prayers twice a day, and as I take it, you - haue performd your function. 25 - - _Flor._ I may bee euen with you. - - _Bell._ Harke, the Court's broke vp. Goe helpe my old Lord - out of his Caroch, and scratch his head till dinner time. - - _Flor._ Well. - - _Exit._ - - _Bell._ Fy Madam, how you walke! By my mayden-head 30 - you looke 7 yeeres older then you did this morning: why, - there can be nothing vnder the Sunne vanuable, to make you - thus a minute. - - _Beau._ Ah my sweete Bellapert thou Cabinet - To all my counsels, thou dost know the cause 35 - That makes thy Lady wither thus in youth. - - _Bel._ Vd'd-light, enioy your wishes: whilst I liue, - One way or other you shall crowne your will. - Would you haue him your husband that you loue, - And can't not bee? he is your seruant though, 40 - And may performe the office of a husband. - - _Beau._ But there is honor, wench. - - _Bell._ Such a disease - There is in deed, for which ere I would dy.-- - - _Beau._ Prethee, distinguish me a mayd & wife. - - _Bell._ Faith, Madam, one may beare any mans children, 45 - Tother must beare no mans. - - _Beau._ What is a husband? - - _Bell._ Physicke, that tumbling in your belly, will make you - sicke ith' stomacke: the onely distinction betwixt a husband - and a seruant is: the first will lye with you, when he please; - the last shall lye with you when you please. Pray tell me, 50 - Lady, do you loue, to marry after, or would you marry, to - loue after. - - _Beau._ I would meete loue and marriage both at once. - - _Bell._ Why then you are out of the fashion, and wilbe contemn'd; - for (Ile assure you) there are few women i'th world, 55 - but either they haue married first, and loue after, or loue - first, and marryed after: you must do as you may, not as you - would: your fathers will is the Goale you must fly to: if a - husband approach you, you would haue further off, is he your - loue? the lesse neere you. A husband in these days is but a 60 - cloake to bee oftner layde vpon your bed, then in your - bed. - - _Baum._ Humpe. - - _Bell._ Sometimes you may weare him on your shoulder, - now and then vnder your arme: but seldome or neuer let him 65 - couer you: for 'tis not the fashion. - - _Enter y. Nouall_, _Pontalier_, _Malotin_, _Lilladam_, _Aymer_. - - _Nou._ Best day to natures curiosity, - Starre of _Dijum_, the lustre of all _France_, - Perpetuall spring dwell on thy rosy cheekes, - Whose breath is perfume to our Continent, 70 - See _Flora_ turn'd in her varieties. - - _Bell._ Oh diuine Lord! - - _Nou._ No autumne, nor no age euer approach - This heauenly piece, which nature hauing wrought, - She lost her needle and did then despaire, 75 - Euer to work so liuely and so faire. - - _Lilad._ Vds light, my Lord one of the purles of your band - is (without all discipline falne) out of his ranke. - - _Nou._ How? I would not for a 1000 crownes she had seen't. - Deare _Liladam_, reforme it. 80 - - _Bell._ O Lord: _Per se_, Lord, quintessence of honour, - shee walkes not vnder a weede that could deny thee any - thing. - - _Baum._ Prethy peace, wench, thou dost but blow the fire, - that flames too much already. 85 - - _Lilad. Aym. trim Nouall, whilst Bell her Lady._ - - _Aym._ By gad, my Lord, you haue the diuinest - Taylor of Christendome; he hath made - you looke like an Angell in your cloth of Tissue doublet. - - _Pont._ This is a three-leg'd Lord, ther's a fresh assault, oh - that men should spend time thus! 90 - See see, how her blood driues to her heart, and straight - vaults to her cheekes againe. - - _Malo._ What are these? - - _Pont._ One of 'em there the lower is a good, foolish, knauish - sociable gallimaufry of a man, and has much taught 95 - my Lord with singing, hee is master of a musicke house: the - other is his dressing blocke, vpon whom my Lord layes all - his cloathes, and fashions, ere he vouchsafes 'em his owne - person; you shall see him i'th morning in the Gally-foyst, at - noone in the Bullion, i'th euening in Quirpo, and all night 100 - in-- - - _Malo._ A Bawdy house. - - _Pont._ If my Lord deny, they deny, if hee affirme, they affirme: - they skip into my Lords cast skins some twice a yeere, - and thus they liue to eate, eate to liue, 105 - and liue to prayfe my Lord. - - _Malo._ Good sir, tell me one thing. - - _Pont._ What's that? - - _Malo._ Dare these men euer fight, on any cause? - - _Pont._ Oh no, 't would spoyle their cloathes, and put their 110 - bands out of order. - - _Nou._ _Mrs_, you heare the news: your father has resign'd - his Presidentship to my Lord my father. - - _Malo._ And Lord Charolois vndone foreuer. - - _Pont._ Troth, 'tis pity, sir. - A brauer hope of so assur'd a father 115 - Did neuer comfort _France_. - - _Lilad._ A good dumbe mourner. - - _Aym._ A silent blacke. - As if he had come this Christmas from St. _Omers_. - - _Nou._ Oh fie vpon him, how he weares his cloathes! - To see his friends, and return'd after Twelfetyde. 120 - - _Lilad._ His Colonell lookes fienely like a drouer. - - _Nou._ That had a winter ly'n perdieu i'th rayne. - - _Aym._ What, he that weares a clout about his necke, - His cuffes in's pocket, and his heart in's mouth? - - _Nou._ Now out vpon him! - - _Beau._ Seruant, tye my hand. 125 - How your lips blush, in scorne that they should pay - Tribute to hands, when lips are in the way! - - _Nou._ I thus recant, yet now your hand looks white - Because your lips robd it of such a right. - _Mounsieur Aymour_, I prethy sing the song 130 - Deuoted to my _Mrs._ - - _Cant._ _Musicke._ - - _After the Song, Enter Rochfort, & Baumont._ - - _Baum._ Romont will come, sir, straight. - - _Roch._ 'Tis well. - - _Beau._ My Father. - - _Nouall._ My honorable Lord. - - _Roch._ My Lord _Nouall_ this is a vertue in you. - So early vp and ready before noone, 135 - That are the map of dressing through all _France_. - - _Nou._ I rise to say my prayers, sir, heere's my Saint. - - _Roch._ Tis well and courtly; you must giue me leaue, - I haue some priuate conference with my daughter, - Pray vse my garden, you shall dine with me. 140 - - _Lilad._ Wee'l waite on you. - - _Nou._ Good morne vnto your Lordship, - Remember what you haue vow'd----to his _Mrs._ - - _Exeunt omnes praeter Roch. Daug._ - - _Beau._ Performe I must. - - _Roch._ Why how now _Beaumelle_, thou look'st not well. - Th' art sad of late, come cheere thee, I haue found - A wholesome remedy for these mayden fits, 145 - A goodly Oake whereon to twist my vine, - Till her faire branches grow vp to the starres. - Be neere at hand, successe crowne my intent, - My businesse fills my little time so full, - I cannot stand to talke: I know, thy duty 150 - Is handmayd to my will, especially - When it presents nothing but good and fit. - - _Beau._ Sir, I am yours. Oh if my teares proue true, _Exit Daug_ - Fate hath wrong'd loue, and will destroy me too. - - _Enter Romont keeper_ - - _Rom._ Sent you for me, sir? - - _Roch._ Yes. - - _Rom._ Your Lordships pleasure? 155 - - _Roch._ Keeper, this prisoner I will see forth comming - Vpon my word--Sit downe good Colonell. _Exit keeper._ - Why I did wish you hither, noble sir, - Is to aduise you from this yron carriage, - Which, so affected, _Romont_, you weare, 160 - To pity and to counsell yee submit - With expedition to the great _Nouall_: - Recant your sterne contempt, and slight neglect - Of the whole Court, and him, and opportunity, - Or you will vndergoe a heauy censure 165 - In publique very shortly. - - _Rom._ Hum hum: reuerend sir, - I haue obseru'd you, and doe know you well, - And am now more affraid you know not me, - By wishing my submission to _Nouall_, - Then I can be of all the bellowing mouthes 170 - That waite vpon him to pronounce the censure, - Could it determine me torments, and shame. - Submit, and craue forgiuenesse of a beast? - Tis true, this bile of state weares purple Tissue. - Is high fed, proud: so is his Lordships horse, 175 - And beares as rich Caparisons. I know, - This Elephant carries on his back not onely - Towres, Castles, but the ponderous republique, - And neuer stoops for't, with his strong breath trunk - Snuffes others titles, Lordships, Offices, 180 - Wealth, bribes, and lyues, vnder his rauenous iawes. - Whats this vnto my freedome? I dare dye; - And therefore aske this Cammell, if these blessings - (For so they would be vnderstood by a man) - But mollifie one rudenesse in his nature, 185 - Sweeten the eager relish of the law, - At whose great helme he sits: helps he the poore - In a iust businesse? nay, does he not crosse - Euery deserued souldier and scholler, - As if when nature made him, she had made 190 - The generall Antipathy of all vertue? - How sauagely, and blasphemously hee spake - Touching the Generall, the graue Generall dead, - I must weepe when I thinke on't. - - _Roch._ Sir - - _Rom._ My Lord, - I am not stubborne, I can melt, you see, 195 - And prize a vertue better then my life: - For though I be not learnd, I euer lou'd - That holy Mother of all issues, good, - Whose white hand (for a Scepter) holds a File - To pollish roughest customes, and in you 200 - She has her right: see, I am calme as sleepe, - But when I thinke of the grosse iniuries - The godlesse wrong done, to my Generall dead, - I raue indeed, and could eate this Nouall - A lsoule-esse Dromodary. - - _Roch._ Oh bee temperate, 205 - Sir, though I would perswade, I'le not constraine: - Each mans opinion freely is his owne, - Concerning any thing or any body, - Be it right or wrong, tis at the Iudges perill. - - _Enter Baumond,_ - - _Bau._ These men, Sir, waite without, my Lord is come too. 210 - - _Roch._ Pay 'em those summes vpon the table, take - Their full releases: stay, I want a witnesse: - Let mee intreat you Colonell, to walke in, - And stand but by, to see this money pay'd, - It does concerne you and your friends, it was 215 - The better cause you were sent for, though sayd otherwise. - The deed shall make this my request more plaine. - - _Rom._ I shall obey your pleasure Sir, though ignorant - To what is tends? - - _Exit Seruant: Romont. Enter Charolois_ - - _Roch._ Worthiest Sir, 220 - You are most welcome: fye, no more of this: - You haue out-wept a woman, noble Charolois. - No man but has, or must bury a father. - - _Char._ Graue Sir, I buried sorrow, for his death, - In the graue with him. I did neuer thinke 225 - Hee was immortall, though I vow I grieue, - And see no reason why the vicious, - Vertuous, valiant and vnworthy man - Should dye alike. - - _Roch._ They do not. - - _Char._ In the manner - Of dying, Sir, they do not, but all dye, 230 - And therein differ not: but I haue done. - I spy'd the liuely picture of my father, - Passing your gallery, and that cast this water - Into mine eyes: see, foolish that I am, - To let it doe so. - - _Roch._ Sweete and gentle nature, 235 - How silken is this well comparatiuely - To other men! I haue a suite to you Sir. - - _Char._ Take it, tis granted. - - _Roch._ What? - - _Char._ Nothing, my Lord. - - _Roch._ Nothing is quickly granted. - - _Char._ Faith, my Lord, - That nothing granted, is euen all I haue, 240 - For (all know) I haue nothing left to grant. - - _Roch._ Sir, ha' you any suite to me? Ill grant - You something, any thing. - - _Char._ Nay surely, I that can - Giue nothing, will but sue for that againe. 245 - No man will grant mee any thing I sue for. - But begging nothing, euery man will giue't. - - _Roch._ Sir, the loue I bore your father, and the worth - I see in you, so much resembling his. - Made me thus send for you. And tender heere 250 - - _Drawes a Curtayne._ - - What euer you will take, gold, Iewels, both, - All, to supply your wants, and free your selfe. - Where heauenly vertue in high blouded veines - Is lodg'd, and can agree, men should kneele downe, - Adore, and sacrifice all that they haue; 255 - And well they may, it is so seldome seene. - Put off your wonder, and heere freely take - Or send your seruants. Nor, Sir, shall you vse - In ought of this, a poore mans fee, or bribe, - Vniustly taken of the rich, but what's 260 - Directly gotten, and yet by the Law. - - _Char._ How ill, Sir, it becomes those haires to mocke? - - _Roch._ Mocke? thunder strike mee then. - - _Char._ You doe amaze mee: - But you shall wonder too, I will not take - One single piece of this great heape: why should I 265 - Borrow, that haue not meanes to pay, nay am - A very bankerupt, euen in flattering hope - Of euer raysing any. All my begging, - Is _Romonts_ libertie. - - _Enter Romont. Creditors loaden with mony. Baumont._ - - _Roch._ Heere is your friend, - Enfranchist ere you spake. I giue him you, 270 - And Charolois. I giue you to your friend - As free a man as hee; your fathers debts - Are taken off. - - _Char._ How? - - _Rom._ Sir, it is most true. - I am the witnes. - - _1 Cred._ Yes faith, wee are pay'd. - - _2 Cred._ Heauen blesse his Lordship, I did thinke him wiser. 275 - - _3 Cred._ He a states-man, he an asse Pay other mens debts? - - _1 Cred._ That he was neuer bound for. - - _Rom._ One more such - Would saue the rest of pleaders. - - _Char._ _Honord Rochfort._ - Lye still my toung and bushes, cal'd my cheekes, - That offter thankes in words, for such great deeds. 280 - - _Roch._ Call in my daughter: still I haue a suit to you. - - _Baum. Exit._ - - Would you requite mee. - - _Rom._ With his life, assure you. - - _Roch._ Nay, would you make me now your debter, Sir. - This is my onely child: what shee appeares, _Enter Baum. Beau._ - Your Lordship well may see her education 285 - Followes not any: for her mind, I know it - To be far fayrer then her shape, and hope - It will continue so: if now her birth - Be not too meane for Charolois, take her - This virgin by the hand, and call her wife, 290 - Indowd with all my fortunes: blesse me so, - Requite mee thus, and make mee happier, - In ioyning my poore empty name to yours, - Then if my state were multiplied ten fold. - - _Char._ Is this the payment, Sir, that you expect? 295 - Why, you participate me more in debt, - That nothing but my life can euer pay, - This beautie being your daughter, in which yours - I must conceiue necessitie of her vertue - Without all dowry is a Princes ayme, 300 - Then, as shee is, for poore and worthlesse I, - How much too worthy! Waken me, _Romont_, - That I may know I dream't and find this vanisht - - _Rom._ Sure, I sleepe not. - - _Roch._ Your sentence life or death. - - _Char._ Faire Beaumelle, can you loue me? - - _Beau._ Yes, my Lord. 305 - - _Enter Nouall, Ponta. Malotine, Lilad. Aymer. All salute_ - - _Char._ You need not question me, if I can you. - You are the fayrest virgin in _Digum_, - And _Rochfort_ is your father. - - _Nou._ What's this change? - - _Roch._ You met my wishes, Gentlemen. - - _Rom._ What make - These dogs in doublets heere? - - _Beau._ A Visitation, Sir. 310 - - _Char._ Then thus, Faire _Beaumelle_, I write my faith - Thus seale it in the sight of Heauen and men. - Your fingers tye my heart-strings with this touch - In true-loue knots, which nought but death shall loose. - And yet these eares (an Embleme of our loues) 315 - Like Cristall riuers indiuidually - Flow into one another, make one source, - Which neuer man distinguish, lesse deuide: - Breath, marry, breath, and kisses, mingle soules - Two hearts, and bodies, heere incorporate: 320 - And though with little wooing I haue wonne - My future life shall be a wooing tyme. - And euery day, new as the bridall one. - Oh Sir I groane vnder your courtesies, - More then my fathers bones vnder his wrongs, 325 - You _Curtius_-like, haue throwne into the gulfe, - Of this his Countries foule ingratitude, - Your life and fortunes, to redeeme their shames. - - _Roch._ No more, my glory, come, let's in and hasten - This celebration. - - _Rom. Mal. Pont. Bau._ All faire blisse vpon it. 330 - - _Exeunt Roch. Char. Rom. Bau. Mal._ - - _Nou._ Mistresse. - - _Beau._ Oh seruant, vertue strengthen me. - Thy presence blowes round my affections vane: - You will vndoe me, if you speake againe. - - _Exit Beaum._ - - _Lilad. Aym._ Heere will be sport for you. This workes. - - _Exeunt Lilad. Aym._ - - _Nou._ Peace, peace, - - _Pont._ One word, my Lord _Nouall_. - - _Nou._ What, thou wouldst mony; there. 335 - - _Pont._ No, Ile none, Ile not be bought a slaue, - A Pander, or a Parasite, for all - Your fathers worth, though you haue sau'd my life, - Rescued me often from my wants, I must not - Winke at your follyes: that will ruine you. 340 - You know my blunt way, and my loue to truth: - Forsake the pursuit of this Ladies honour, - Now you doe see her made another mans, - And such a mans, so good, so popular, - Or you will plucke a thousand mischiefes on you. 345 - The benefits you haue done me, are not lost, - Nor cast away, they are purs'd heere in my heart, - But let me pay you, sir, a fayrer way - Then to defend your vices, or to sooth 'em. - - _Nou._ Ha, ha, ha, what are my courses vnto thee? 350 - Good Cousin _Pontalier_, meddle with that - That shall concerne thyselfe. - - _Exit Nouall._ - - _Pont._ No more but scorne? - Moue on then, starres, worke your pernicious will. - Onely the wise rule, and preuent your ill. - - _Exit. Hoboyes._ - - _Here a passage ouer the Stage, while the Act is playing for the - Marriage of Charalois with Beaumelle, &c._ - - - - -_Actus tertius._ - - -_Scaena prima._ - -[_A Room in Charalois' House_] - -_Enter Nouall Iunior, Bellapert._ - - _Nou. Iu._ Flie not to these excuses: thou hast bin - False in thy promise, and when I haue said - Vngratefull, all is spoke. - - _Bell._ Good my Lord, - But heare me onely. - - _Nou._ To what purpose, trifler? - Can anything that thou canst say, make voyd 5 - The marriage? or those pleasures but a dreame, - Which _Charaloyes_ (oh _Venus_) hath enioyd? - - _Bell._ I yet could say that you receiue aduantage, - In what you thinke a losse, would you vouchsafe me - That you were neuer in the way till now 10 - With safety to arriue at your desires, - That pleasure makes loue to you vnattended - By danger or repentance? - - _Nou._ That I could. - But apprehend one reason how this might be, - Hope would not then forsake me. - - _Bell._ The enioying 15 - Of what you most desire, I say th' enioying - Shall, in the full possession of your wishes, - Confirme that I am faithfull. - - _Nou._ Giue some rellish - How this may appeare possible. - - _Bell._ I will - Rellish, and taste, and make the banquet easie: 20 - You say my Ladie's married. I confesse it, - That Charalois hath inioyed her, 'tis most true - That with her, hee's already Master of - The best part of my old Lords state. Still better, - But that the first, or last, should be your hindrance, 25 - I vtterly deny: for but obserue me: - While she went for, and was, I sweare, a Virgin, - What courtesie could she with her honour giue - Or you receiue with safety--take me with you, - When I say courtesie, doe not think I meane 30 - A kisse, the tying of her shoo or garter, - An houre of priuate conference: those are trifles. - In this word courtesy, we that are gamesters point at - The sport direct, where not alone the louer - Brings his Artillery, but vses it. 35 - Which word expounded to you, such a courtesie - Doe you expect, and sudden. - - _Nou._ But he tasted - The first sweetes, _Bellapert_. - - _Bell._ He wrong'd you shrewdly, - He toyl'd to climbe vp to the _Phoenix_ nest, - And in his prints leaues your ascent more easie. 40 - I doe not know, you that are perfect Crittiques - In womens bookes, may talke of maydenheads. - - _Nou._ But for her marriage. - - _Bell._ 'Tis a faire protection - 'Gainst all arrests of feare, or shame for euer. - Such as are faire, and yet not foolish, study 45 - To haue one at thirteene; but they are mad - That stay till twenty. Then sir, for the pleasure, - To say Adulterie's sweeter, that is stale. - This onely is not the contentment more, - To say, This is my Cuckold, then my Riuall. 50 - More I could say--but briefly, she doates on you, - If it proue otherwise, spare not, poyson me - With the next gold you giue me. - - _Enter Beaumely_ - - _Beau._ Hows this seruant, - Courting my woman? - - _Bell._ As an entrance to - The fauour of the mistris: you are together 55 - And I am perfect in my qu. - - _Beau._ Stay _Bellapert_. - - _Bell._ In this I must not with your leaue obey you. - Your Taylor and your Tire-woman waite without - And stay my counsayle, and direction for - Your next dayes dressing. I haue much to doe, 60 - Nor will your Ladiship know, time is precious, - Continue idle: this choise Lord will finde - So fit imployment for you. - - _Exit Bellap._ - - _Beau._ I shall grow angry. - - _Nou._ Not so, you haue a iewell in her, Madam. - - _Enter againe._ - - _Bell._ I had forgot to tell your Ladiship 65 - The closet is priuate and your couch ready: - And if you please that I shall loose the key, - But say so, and tis done. - - _Exit Bellap._ - - _Baum._ You come to chide me, seruant, and bring with you - Sufficient warrant, you will say and truely, 70 - My father found too much obedience in me, - By being won too soone: yet if you please - But to remember, all my hopes and fortunes - Had reuerence to this likening: you will grant - That though I did not well towards you, I yet 75 - Did wisely for my selfe. - - _Nou._ With too much feruor - I haue so long lou'd and still loue you, Mistresse, - To esteeme that an iniury to me - Which was to you conuenient: that is past - My helpe, is past my cure. You yet may, Lady, 80 - In recompence of all my dutious seruice, - (Prouided that your will answere your power) - Become my Creditresse. - - _Beau._ I vnderstand you, - And for assurance, the request you make - Shall not be long vnanswered. Pray you sit, 85 - And by what you shall heare, you'l easily finde, - My passions are much fitter to desire, - Then to be sued to. - - _Enter Romont and Florimell._ - - _Flor._ Sir, tis not enuy - At the start my fellow has got of me in - My Ladies good opinion, thats the motiue 90 - Of this discouery; but due payment - Of what I owe her Honour. - - _Rom._ So I conceiue it. - - _Flo._ I haue obserued too much, nor shall my silence - Preuent the remedy--yonder they are, - I dare not bee seene with you. You may doe 95 - What you thinke fit, which wil be, I presume, - The office of a faithfull and tryed friend - To my young Lord. - - _Exit Flori._ - - _Rom._ This is no vision: ha! - - _Nou._ With the next opportunity. - - _Beau._ By this kisse, - And this, and this. - - _Nou._ That you would euer sweare thus. 100 - - _Rom._ If I seeme rude, your pardon, Lady; yours - I do not aske: come, do not dare to shew mee - A face of anger, or the least dislike. - Put on, and suddaily a milder looke, - I shall grow rough else. - - _Nou._ What haue I done, Sir, 105 - To draw this harsh vnsauory language from you? - - _Rom._ Done, Popinjay? why, dost thou thinke that if - I ere had dreamt that thou hadst done me wrong, - Thou shouldest outliue it? - - _Beau._ This is something more - Then my Lords friendship giues commission for. 110 - - _Nou._ Your presence and the place, makes him presume - Vpon my patience. - - _Rom._ As if thou ere wer't angry - But with thy Taylor, and yet that poore shred - Can bring more to the making vp of a man, - Then can be hop'd from thee: thou art his creature, 115 - And did hee not each morning new create [thee] - Thou wouldst stinke and be forgotten. Ile not change - On syllable more with thee, vntill thou bring - Some testimony vnder good mens hands, - Thou art a Christian. I suspect thee strongly, 120 - And wilbe satisfied: till which time, keepe from me. - The entertaiment of your visitation - Has made what I intended on a businesse. - - _Nou._ So wee shall meete--Madam. - - _Rom._ Vse that legge again, - And Ile cut off the other. - - _Nou._ Very good. 125 - - _Exit Nouall._ - - _Rom._ What a perfume the Muske-cat leaues behind him! - Do you admit him for a property, - To saue you charges, Lady. - - _Beau._ Tis not vselesse, - Now you are to succeed him. - - _Rom._ So I respect you, - Not for your selfe, but in remembrance of, 130 - Who is your father, and whose wife you now are, - That I choose rather not to vnderstand - Your nasty scoffe then,-- - - _Beau._ What, you will not beate mee, - If I expound it to you. Heer's a Tyrant - Spares neyther man nor woman. - - _Rom._ My intents 135 - Madam, deserue not this; nor do I stay - To be the whetstone of your wit: preserue it - To spend on such, as know how to admire - Such coloured stuffe. In me there is now speaks to you - As true a friend and seruant to your Honour, 140 - And one that will with as much hazzard guard it, - As euer man did goodnesse.--But then Lady, - You must endeauour not alone to bee, - But to appeare worthy such loue and seruice. - - _Beau._ To what tends this? - - _Rom._ Why, to this purpose, Lady, 145 - I do desire you should proue such a wife - To _Charaloys_ (and such a one hee merits) - As Caesar, did hee liue, could not except at, - Not onely innocent from crime, but free - From all taynt and suspition. - - _Beau._ They are base 150 - That iudge me otherwise. - - _Rom._ But yet bee carefull. - Detraction's a bold monster, and feares not - To wound the fame of Princes, if it find - But any blemish in their liues to worke on. - But Ile bee plainer with you: had the people 155 - Bin learnd to speake, but what euen now I saw, - Their malice out of that would raise an engine - To ouerthrow your honor. In my fight - (With yonder pointed foole I frighted from you) - You vs'd familiarity beyond 160 - A modest entertaynment: you embrac'd him - With too much ardor for a stranger, and - Met him with kisses neyther chaste nor comely: - But learne you to forget him, as I will - Your bounties to him, you will find it safer 165 - Rather to be vncourtly, then immodest. - - _Beau._ This prety rag about your necke shews well, - And being coorse and little worth, it speakes you, - As terrible as thrifty. - - _Rom._ Madam. - - _Beau._ Yes. - And this strong belt in which you hang your honor 170 - Will out-last twenty scarfs. - - _Rom._ What meane you, Lady? - - _Beau._ And all else about you Cap a pe - So vniforme in spite of handsomnesse, - Shews such a bold contempt of comelinesse, - That tis not strange your Laundresse in the League, 175 - Grew mad with loue of you. - - _Rom._ Is my free counsayle - Answerd with this ridiculous scorne? - - _Beau._ These obiects - Stole very much of my attention from me, - Yet something I remember, to speake truth, - Deceyued grauely, but to little purpose, 180 - That almost would haue made me sweare, some Curate - Had stolne into the person of _Romont_, - And in the praise of goodwife honesty, - Had read an homely. - - _Rom._ By thy hand. - - _Beau._ And sword, - I will make vp your oath, twill want weight else. 185 - You are angry with me, and poore I laugh at it. - Do you come from the Campe, which affords onely - The conuersation of cast suburbe whores, - To set downe to a Lady of my ranke, - Lymits of entertainment? 190 - - _Rom._ Sure a Legion has possest this woman. - - _Beau._ One stampe more would do well: yet I desire not - You should grow horne-mad, till you haue a wife. - You are come to warme meate, and perhaps cleane linnen: - Feed, weare it, and bee thankefull. For me, know, 195 - That though a thousand watches were set on mee, - And you the Master-spy, I yet would vse, - The liberty that best likes mee. I will reuell, - Feast, kisse, imbreace, perhaps grant larger fauours: - Yet such as liue vpon my meanes, shall know 200 - They must not murmur at it. If my Lord - Bee now growne yellow, and has chose out you - To serue his Iealouzy that way, tell him this, - You haue something to informe him: - - _Exit Beau._ - - _Rom._ And I will. - Beleeue it wicked one I will. Heare, Heauen, 205 - But hearing pardon mee: if these fruts grow - Vpon the tree of marriage, let me shun it, - As a forbidden sweete. An heyre and rich, - Young, beautifull, yet adde to this a wife, - And I will rather choose a Spittle sinner 210 - Carted an age before, though three parts rotten, - And take it for a blessing, rather then - Be fettered to the hellish slauery - Of such an impudence. - - _Enter Baumont with writings._ - - _Bau._ Collonell, good fortune - To meet you thus: you looke sad, but Ile tell you 215 - Something that shall remoue it. Oh how happy - Is my Lord _Charaloys_ in his faire bride! - - _Rom._ A happy man indeede!--pray you in what? - - _Bau._ I dare sweare, you would thinke so good a Lady, - A dower sufficient. - - _Rom._ No doubt. But on. 220 - - _Bau._ So faire, so chaste, so vertuous: so indeed - All that is excellent. - - _Rom._ Women haue no cunning - To gull the world. - - _Bau._ Yet to all these, my Lord - Her father giues the full addition of - All he does now possesse in _Burgundy_: 225 - These writings to confirme it, are new seal'd - And I most fortunate to present him with them, - I must goe seeke him out, can you direct mee? - - _Rom._ You'l finde him breaking a young horse. - - _Bau._ I thanke you. - - _Exit Baumont._ - - _Rom._ I must do something worthy _Charaloys_ friendship. 230 - If she were well inclin'd to keepe her so, - Deseru'd not thankes: and yet to stay a woman - Spur'd headlong by hot lust, to her owne ruine, - Is harder then to prop a falling towre - With a deceiuing reed. - - _Enter Rochfort._ - - _Roch._ Some one seeke for me, 235 - As soone as he returnes. - - _Rom._ Her father! ha? - How if I breake this to him? sure it cannot - Meete with an ill construction. His wisedome - Made powerfull by the authority of a father, - Will warrant and giue priuiledge to his counsailes. 240 - It shall be so--my Lord. - - _Roch._ Your friend _Romont_: - Would you ought with me? - - _Rom._ I stand so engag'd - To your so many fauours, that I hold it - A breach in thankfulnesse, should I not discouer, - Though with some imputation to my selfe, 245 - All doubts that may concerne you. - - _Roch._ The performance - Will make this protestation worth my thanks. - - _Rom._ Then with your patience lend me your attention - For what I must deliuer, whispered onely - You will with too much griefe receiue. - - _Enter Beaumelle, Bellapert._ - - _Beau._ See wench! 250 - Vpon my life as I forespake, hee's now - Preferring his complaint: but be thou perfect, - And we will fit him. - - _Bell._ Feare not mee, pox on him: - A Captaine turne Informer against kissing? - Would he were hang'd vp in his rusty Armour: 255 - But if our fresh wits cannot turne the plots - Of such a mouldy murrion on it selfe; - Rich cloathes, choyse faire, and a true friend at a call, - With all the pleasures the night yeelds, forsake vs. - - _Roch._ This in my daughter? doe not wrong her. - - _Bell._ Now. 260 - Begin. The games afoot, and wee in distance. - - _Beau._ Tis thy fault, foolish girle, pinne on my vaile, - I will not weare those iewels. Am I not - Already matcht beyond my hopes? yet still - You prune and set me forth, as if I were 265 - Againe to please a suyter. - - _Bell._ Tis the course - That our great Ladies take. - - _Rom._ A weake excuse. - - _Beau._ Those that are better seene, in what concernes - A Ladies honour and faire same, condemne it. - You waite well, in your absence, my Lords friend 270 - The vnderstanding, graue and wise _Romont_. - - _Rom._ Must I be still her sport? - - _Beau._ Reproue me for it. - And he has traueld to bring home a iudgement - Not to be contradicted. You will say - My father, that owes more to yeeres then he, 275 - Has brought me vp to musique, language, Courtship, - And I must vse them. True, but not t'offend, - Or render me suspected. - - _Roch._ Does your fine story - Begin from this? - - _Beau._ I thought a parting kisse - From young _Nouall_, would haue displeasd no more 280 - Then heretofore it hath done; but I finde - I must restrayne such fauours now; looke therefore - As you are carefull to continue mine, - That I no more be visited. Ile endure - The strictest course of life that iealousie 285 - Can thinke secure enough, ere my behauiour - Shall call my fame in question. - - _Rom._ Ten dissemblers - Are in this subtile deuill. You beleeue this? - - _Roch._ So farre that if you trouble me againe - With a report like this, I shall not onely 290 - Iudge you malicious in your disposition, - But study to repent what I haue done - To such a nature. - - _Rom._ Why, 'tis exceeding well. - - _Roch._ And for you, daughter, off with this, off with it: - I haue that confidence in your goodnesse, I, 295 - That I will not consent to haue you liue - Like to a Recluse in a cloyster: goe - Call in the gallants, let them make you merry, - Vse all fit liberty. - - _Bell._ Blessing on you. - If this new preacher with the sword and feather 300 - Could proue his doctrine for Canonicall, - We should haue a fine world. - - _Exit Bellapert._ - - _Roch._ Sir, if you please - To beare your selfe as fits a Gentleman, - The house is at your seruice: but if not, - Though you seeke company else where, your absence 305 - Will not be much lamented-- - - _Exit Rochfort._ - - _Rom._ If this be - The recompence of striuing to preserue - A wanton gigglet honest, very shortly - 'Twill make all mankinde Panders--Do you smile, - Good Lady Loosenes? your whole sex is like you, 310 - And that man's mad that seekes to better any: - What new change haue you next? - - _Beau._ Oh, feare not you, sir, - Ile shift into a thousand, but I will - Conuert your heresie. - - _Rom._ What heresie? Speake. - - _Beau._ Of keeping a Lady that is married, 315 - From entertayning seruants.-- - - _Enter Nouall Iu._ _Malatine_, _Liladam_, _Aymer_, _Pontalier_. - - O, you are welcome, - Vae any meanes to vexe him, - And then with welcome follow me. - - _Exit Beau_ - - _Nou._ You are tyr'd - With your graue exhortations, Collonell. - - _Lilad._ How is it? Fayth, your Lordship may doe well, 320 - To helpe him to some Church-preferment: 'tis - Now the fashion, for men of all conditions, - How euer they haue liu'd; to end that way. - - _Aym._ That face would doe well in a surplesse. - - _Rom._ Rogues, - Be silent--or-- - - _Pont._ S'death will you suffer this? 325 - - _Rom._ And you, the master Rogue, the coward rascall, - I shall be with you suddenly. - - _Nou._ _Pontallier_, - If I should strike him, I know I shall kill him: - And therefore I would haue thee beate him, for - Hee's good for nothing else. - - _Lilad._ His backe 330 - Appeares to me, as it would tire a Beadle, - And then he has a knotted brow, would bruise - A courtlike hand to touch it. - - _Aym._ Hee lookes like - A Curryer when his hides grown deare. - - _Pont._ Take heede - He curry not some of you. - - _Nou._ Gods me, hee's angry. 335 - - _Rom._ I breake no Iests, but I can breake my sword - About your pates. - - _Enter Charaloyes and Baumont._ - - _Lilad._ Heeres more. - - _Aym._ Come let's bee gone, - Wee are beleaguerd. - - _Nou._ Looke they bring vp their troups. - - _Pont._ Will you sit downe - With this disgrace? You are abus'd most grosely. 340 - - _Lilad._ I grant you, Sir, we are, and you would haue vs - Stay and be more abus'd. - - _Nou._ My Lord, I am sorry, - Your house is so inhospitable, we must quit it. - - _Exeunt. Manent. Char. Rom._ - - _Cha._ Prethee _Romont_, what caus'd this vprore? - - _Rom._ Nothing. - They laugh'd and vs'd their scuruy wits vpon mee. 345 - - _Char._ Come, tis thy Iealous nature: but I wonder - That you which are an honest man and worthy, - Should softer this suspition: no man laughes; - No one can whisper, but thou apprehend'st - His conference and his scorne reflects on thee: 350 - For my part they should scoffe their thin wits out, - So I not heard 'em, beate me, not being there. - Leaue, leaue these fits, to conscious men, to such - As are obnoxious, to those foolish things - As they can gibe at. - - _Rom._ Well, Sir. - - _Char._ Thou art know'n 355 - Valiant without detect, right defin'd - Which is (as fearing to doe iniury, - As tender to endure it) not a brabbler, - A swearer. - - _Rom._ Pish, pish, what needs this my Lord? - If I be knowne none such, how vainly, you 360 - Do cast away good counsaile? I haue lou'd you, - And yet must freely speake; so young a tutor, - Fits not so old a Souldier as I am. - And I must tell you, t'was in your behalfe - I grew inraged thus, yet had rather dye, 365 - Then open the great cause a syllable further. - - _Cha._ In my behalfe? wherein hath _Charalois_ - Vnfitly so demean'd himselfe, to giue - The least occasion to the loosest tongue, - To throw aspersions on him, or so weakely 370 - Protected his owne honor, as it should - Need a defence from any but himselfe? - They are fools that iudge me by my outward seeming, - Why should my gentlenesse beget abuse? - The Lion is not angry that does sleepe 375 - Nor euery man a Coward that can weepe. - For Gods sake speake the cause. - - _Rom._ Not for the world. - Oh it will strike disease into your bones - Beyond the cure of physicke, drinke your blood, - Rob you of all your rest, contract your sight, 380 - Leaue you no eyes but to see misery, - And of your owne, nor speach but to wish thus - Would I had perish'd in the prisons iawes: - From whence I was redeem'd! twill weare you old, - Before you haue experience in that Art, 385 - That causes your affliction. - - _Cha._ Thou dost strike - A deathfull coldnesse to my hearts high heate, - And shrinkst my liuer like the _Calenture_. - Declare this foe of mine, and lifes, that like - A man I may encounter and subdue it 390 - It shall not haue one such effect in mee, - As thou denouncest: with a Souldiers arme, - If it be strength, Ile meet it: if a fault - Belonging to my mind, Ile cut it off - With mine owne reason, as a Scholler should 395 - Speake, though it make mee monstrous. - - _Rom._ Ile dye first. - Farewell, continue merry, and high Heauen - Keepe your wife chaste. - - _Char._ Hump, stay and take this wolfe - Out of my brest, that thou hast lodg'd there, or - For euer lose mee. - - _Rom._ Lose not, Sir, your selfe. 400 - And I will venture--So the dore is fast. _Locke the dore._ - Now noble _Charaloys_, collect your selfe, - Summon your spirits, muster all your strength - That can belong to man, sift passion, - From euery veine, and whatsoeuer ensues, 405 - Vpbraid not me heereafter, as the cause of - Iealousy, discontent, slaughter and ruine: - Make me not parent to sinne: you will know - This secret that I burne with. - - _Char._ Diuell on't, - What should it be? _Romont_, I heare you wish 410 - My wifes continuance of Chastity. - - _Rom._ There was no hurt in that. - - _Char._ Why? do you know - A likelyhood or possibility vnto the contrarie? - - _Rom._ I know it not, but doubt it, these the grounds - The seruant of your wife now young _Nouall_, 415 - The sonne vnto your fathers Enemy - (Which aggrauates my presumption the more) - I haue been warnd of, touching her, nay, seene them - Tye heart to heart, one in anothers armes, - Multiplying kisses, as if they meant 420 - To pose Arithmeticke, or whose eyes would - Bee first burnt out, with gazing on the others. - I saw their mouthes engender, and their palmes - Glew'd, as if Loue had lockt them, their words flow - And melt each others, like two circling flames, 425 - Where chastity, like a Phoenix (me thought) burn'd, - But left the world nor ashes, nor an heire. - Why stand you silent thus? what cold dull flegme, - As if you had no drop of choller mixt - In your whole constitution, thus preuailes, 430 - To fix you now, thus stupid hearing this? - - _Cha._ You did not see 'em on my Couch within, - Like George a horse-backe on her, nor a bed? - - _Rom._ Noe. - - _Cha._ Ha, ha. - - _Rom._ Laugh yee? eene so did your wife, - And her indulgent father. - - _Cha._ They were wife. 435 - Wouldst ha me be a foole? - - _Rom._ No, but a man. - - _Cha._ There is no dramme of manhood to suspect, - On such thin ayrie circumstance as this - Meere complement and courtship. Was this tale - The hydeous monster which you so conceal'd? 440 - Away, thou curious impertinent - And idle searcher of such leane nice toyes. - Goe, thou sedicious sower of debate: - Fly to such matches, where the bridegroome doubts: - He holds not worth enough to counteruaile 445 - The vertue and the beauty of his wife. - Thou buzzing drone that 'bout my eares dost hum, - To strike thy rankling sting into my heart, - Whose vemon, time, nor medicine could asswage. - Thus doe I put thee off, and confident 450 - In mine owne innocency, and desert, - Dare not conceiue her so vnreasonable, - To put _Nouall_ in ballance against me, - An vpstart cran'd vp to the height he has. - Hence busiebody, thou'rt no friend to me, 455 - That must be kept to a wiues iniury, - - _Rom._ Ist possible? farewell, fine, honest man, - Sweet temper'd Lord adieu: what Apoplexy - Hath knit fence vp? Is this _Romonts_ reward? - Beare witnes the great spirit of my father, 460 - With what a healthfull hope I administer - This potion that hath wrought so virulently, - I not accuse thy wife of act, but would - Preuent her _Praecipuce_, to thy dishonour, - Which now thy tardy sluggishnesse will admit. 465 - Would I had seene thee grau'd with thy great Sire, - Ere liue to haue mens marginall fingers point - At Charaloys, as a lamented story. - An Emperour put away his wife for touching - Another man, but thou wouldst haue thine tasted 470 - And keepe her (I thinke.) Puffe. I am a fire - To warme a dead man, that waste out myselfe. - Bleed--what a plague, a vengeance i'st to mee, - If you will be a Cuckold? Heere I shew - A swords point to thee, this side you may shun, 475 - Or that: the perrill, if you will runne on, - I cannot helpe it. - - _Cha._ Didst thou neuer see me - Angry, _Romont_? - - _Rom._ Yes, and pursue a foe - Like lightening - - _Char._ Prethee see me so no more. - I can be so againe. Put vp thy sword, 480 - And take thy selfe away, lest I draw mine. - - _Rom._ Come fright your foes with this: sir, I am your friend, - And dare stand by you thus. - - _Char._ Thou art not my friend, - Or being so, thou art mad, I must not buy - Thy friendship at this rate; had I iust cause, 485 - Thou knowst I durst pursue such iniury - Through fire, ayre, water, earth, nay, were they all - Shuffled againe to _Chaos_, but ther's none. - Thy skill, _Romont_, consists in camps, not courts. - Farewell, vnciuill man, let's meet no more. 490 - Heere our long web of friendship I vntwist. - Shall I goe whine, walke pale, and locke my wife - For nothing, from her births free liberty, - That open'd mine to me? yes; if I doe - The name of cuckold then, dog me with scorne. 495 - I am a _Frenchman_, no _Italian_ borne. - - _Exit._ - - _Rom._ A dull _Dutch_ rather: fall and coole (my blood) - Boyle not in zeal of thy friends hurt, so high, - That is so low, and cold himselfe in't. Woman, - How strong art thou, how easily beguild? 500 - How thou dost racke vs by the very hornes? - Now wealth I see change manners and the man: - Something I must doe mine owne wrath to asswage, - And note my friendship to an after-age. - - _Exit._ - - - - -_Actus quartus._ - - -_Scaena prima._ - -[_A Room in Nouall's House_] - -_Enter Nouall Iunior, as newly dressed, a Taylor, Barber, Perfumer, -Liladam, Aymour, Page._ - - _Nou._ Mend this a little: pox! thou hast burnt me. oh fie - vpon't, O Lard, hee has made me smell (for - all the world) like a flaxe, or a red headed womans chamber: - powder, powder, powder. - - _Perf._ Oh sweet Lord! 5 - - _Nouall sits in a chaire,_ - - _Page._ That's his Perfumer. - - _Barber orders his haire,_ - - _Tayl._ Oh deare Lord, - - _Perfumer giues powder,_ - - _Page._ That's his Taylor. - - _Taylor sets his clothese._ - - _Nou._ Monsieur _Liladam_, _Aymour_, how allow you the - modell of these clothes? 10 - - _Aym._ Admirably, admirably, oh sweet Lord! assuredly - it's pity the wormes should eate thee. - - _Page._ Here's a fine Cell; a Lord, a Taylor, a Perfumer, a - Barber, and a paire of Mounsieurs: 3 to 3, as little will in the - one, as honesty in the other. S'foote ile into the country 15 - againe, learne to speake truth, drinke Ale, and conuerse with - my fathers Tenants; here I heare nothing all day, but - vpon my soule as I am a Gentleman, and an honest - man. - - _Aym._ I vow and affirme, your Taylor must needs be an expert 20 - Geometrician, he has the Longitude, Latitude, Altitude, - Profundity, euery Demension of your body, so exquisitely, - here's a lace layd as directly, as if truth were a - Taylor. - - _Page._ That were a miracle. 25 - - _Lila._ With a haire breadth's errour, ther's a shoulder - piece cut, and the base of a pickadille in _puncto_. - - _Aym._ You are right, Mounsieur his vestaments fit: as if - they grew vpon him, or art had wrought 'em on the same - loome, as nature fram'd his Lordship as if your Taylor were 30 - deepely read in Astrology, and had taken measure of your - honourable body, with a _Iacobs_ staffe, an _Ephimerides_. - - _Tayl._ I am bound t'ee Gentlemen. - - _Page._ You are deceiu'd, they'll be bound to you, you must 35 - remember to trust 'em none. - - _Nou._ Nay, fayth, thou art a reasonable neat Artificer, giue - the diuell his due. - - _Page._ I, if hee would but cut the coate according to the - cloth still. 40 - - _Nou._ I now want onely my misters approbation, who is - indeed, the most polite punctuall Queene of dressing in all - _Burgundy_. Pah, and makes all other young Ladies appeare, - as if they came from boord last weeke out of the country, - Is't not true, Liladam? 45 - - _Lila._ True my Lord, as if any thing your Lordship could - say, could be othewrise then true. - - _Nou._ Nay, a my soule, 'tis so, what fouler obiect in the - world, then to see a young faire, handsome beauty, vnhandsomely - dighted and incongruently accoutred; or a hopefull 50 - _Cheualier_, vnmethodically appointed, in the externall ornaments - of nature? For euen as the Index tels vs the contents - of stories, and directs to the particular Chapters, euen so - does the outward habit and superficiall order of garments - (in man or woman) giue vs a tast of the spirit, and 55 - demonstratiuely poynt (as it were a manuall note from the margin) - all the internall quality, and habiliment of the soule, and - there cannot be a more euident, palpable, grosse manifestation - of poore degenerate dunghilly blood, and breeding, then - rude, vnpolish'd, disordered and slouenly outside. 60 - - _Page._ An admirable! lecture. Oh all you gallants, that hope - to be saued by your cloathes, edify, edify. - - _Aym._ By the Lard, sweet Lard, thou deseru'st a pension - o' the State. - - _Page._ O th' Taylors, two such Lords were able to spread 65 - Taylors ore the face of a whole kingdome. - - _Nou._ Pox a this glasse! it flatters, I could find in my heart - to breake it. - - _Page._ O saue the glasse my Lord, and breake their heads, - they are the greater flatterers I assure you. 70 - - _Aym._ Flatters, detracts, impayres, yet put it by, - Lest thou deare Lord (_Narcissus_-like) should doate - Vpon thyselfe, and dye; and rob the world - Of natures copy, that she workes forme by. - - _Lila._ Oh that I were the Infanta Queene of Europe, 75 - Who (but thy selfe sweete Lord) shouldst marry me. - - _Nou._ I marry? were there a Queene oth' world, not I. - Wedlocke? no padlocke, horselocke, I weare spurrs _He capers._ - To keepe it off my heeles; yet my _Aymour_, - Like a free wanton iennet i'th meddows, 80 - I looke aboute, and neigh, take hedge and ditch, - Feede in my neighbours pastures, picke my choyce - Of all their faire-maind-mares: but married once, - A man is stak'd, or pown'd, and cannot graze - Beyond his owne hedge. - - _Enter Pontalier, and Malotin._ - - _Pont._ I haue waited, sir, 85 - Three hours to speake w'ee, and not take it well, - Such magpies are admitted, whilst I daunce - Attendance. - - _Lila._ Magpies? what d'ee take me for? - - _Pont._ A long thing with a most vnpromising face. - - _Aym._ I'll ne're aske him what he takes me for? - - _Mal._ Doe not, sir, 90 - For hee'l goe neere to tell you. - - _Pont._ Art not thou - A Barber Surgeon? - - _Barb._ Yes sira why. - - _Pont._ My Lord is sorely troubled with two scabs. - - _Lila._ _Aym._ Humph-- - - _Pont._ I prethee cure him of 'em. - - _Nou._ Pish: no more, 95 - Thy gall sure's ouer throwne; these are my Councell, - And we were now in serious discourse. - - _Pont._ Of perfume and apparell, can you rise - And spend 5 houres in dressing talke, with these? - - _Nou._ Thou 'idst haue me be a dog: vp, stretch and shake, 100 - And ready for all day. - - _Pont._ Sir, would you be - More curious in preseruing of your honour. - Trim, 'twere more manly. I am come to wake - Your reputation, from this lethargy - You let it sleep in, to perswade, importune, 105 - Nay, to prouoke you, sir, to call to account - This Collonell _Romont_, for the foule wrong - Which like a burthen, he hath layd on you, - And like a drunken porter, you sleepe vnder. - 'Tis all the towne talkes, and beleeue, sir, 110 - If your tough sense persist thus, you are vndone, - Vtterly lost, you will be scornd and baffled - By euery Lacquay; season now your youth, - With one braue thing, and it shall keep the odour - Euen to your death, beyond, and on your Tombe, 115 - Sent like sweet oyles and Frankincense; sir, this life - Which once you sau'd, I ne're since counted mine, - I borrow'd it of you; and now will pay it; - I tender you the seruice of my sword - To beare your challenge, if you'll write, your fate: 120 - Ile make mine owne: what ere betide you, I - That haue liu'd by you, by your side will dye. - - _Nou._ Ha, ha, would'st ha' me challenge poore _Romont_? - Fight with close breeches, thou mayst think I dare not. - Doe not mistake me (cooze) I am very valiant, 125 - But valour shall not make me such an Asse. - What vse is there of valour (now a dayes?) - 'Tis sure, or to be kill'd, or to be hang'd. - Fight thou as thy minde moues thee, 'tis thy trade, - Thou hast nothing else to doe; fight with _Romont_? 130 - No i'le not fight vnder a Lord. - - _Pont._ Farewell, sir, - I pitty you. - Such louing Lords walke their dead honours graues, - For no companions fit, but fooles and knaues. - Come _Malotin_. - - _Exeunt Pont. Mal._ - - _Enter Romont._ - - _Lila._ 'Sfoot, _Colbran_, the low gyant. 135 - - _Aym._ He has brought a battaile in his face, let's goe. - - _Page._ _Colbran_ d'ee call him? hee'l make some of you smoake, - I beleeue. - - _Rom._ By your leaue, sirs. - - _Aym._ Are you a Consort? - - _Rom._ D'ee take mee - For a fidler? ya're deceiu'd: Looke. Ile pay you. - - _Kickes 'em._ - - _Page._ It seemes he knows you one, he bumfiddles you so. 140 - - _Lila._ Was there euer so base a fellow? - - _Aym._ A rascall? - - _Lila._ A most vnciuill Groome? - - _Aym._ Offer to kicke a Gentleman, in a Noblemans chamber? - A pox of your manners. 145 - - _Lila._ Let him alone, let him alone, thou shalt lose thy - arme, fellow: if we stirre against thee, hang vs. - - _Page._ S'foote, I thinke they haue the better on him, - though they be kickd, they talke so. - - _Lila._ Let's leaue the mad Ape. 150 - - _Nou._ Gentlemen. - - _Lilad._ Nay, my Lord, we will not offer to dishonour you - so much as to stay by you, since hee's alone. - - _Nou._ Harke you. - - _Aym._ We doubt the cause, and will not disparage you, so 155 - much as to take your Lordships quarrel in hand. Plague on - him, how he has crumpled our bands. - - _Page._ Ile eene away with 'em, for this souldier beates - man, woman, and child. - - _Exeunt. Manent Nou. Rom._ - - _Nou._ What meane you, sir? My people. - - _Rom._ Your boye's gone. 160 - - _Lockes the doore._ - - And doore's lockt, yet for no hurt to you, - But priuacy: call vp your blood againe, sir, - Be not affraid, I do beseach you, sir, - (And therefore come) without, more circumstance - Tell me how farre the passages haue gone 165 - 'Twixt you and your faire Mistresse _Beaumelle_, - Tell me the truth, and by my hope of Heauen - It neuer shall goe further. - - _Nou._ Tell you why sir? - Are you my confessor? - - _Rom._ I will be your confounder, if you doe not. 170 - - _Drawes a pocket dag._ - - Stirre not, nor spend your voyce. - - _Nou._ What will you doe? - - _Rom._ Nothing but lyne your brayne-pan, sir, with lead, - If you not satisfie me suddenly, - I am desperate of my life, and command yours. - - _Nou._ Hold, hold, ile speake. I vow to heauen and you, 175 - Shee's yet vntouch't, more then her face and hands: - I cannot call her innocent; for I yeeld - On my sollicitous wrongs she consented - Where time and place met oportunity - To grant me all requests. - - _Rom._ But may I build 180 - On this assurance? - - _Nou._ As vpon your fayth. - - _Rom._ Write this, sir, nay you must. - - _Drawes Inkehorne and paper._ - - _Nou._ Pox of this Gunne. - - _Rom._ Withall, sir, you must sweare, and put your oath - Vnder your hand, (shake not) ne're to frequent - This Ladies company, nor euer send 185 - Token, or message, or letter, to incline - This (too much prone already) yeelding Lady. - - _Nou._ 'Tis done, sir. - - _Rom._ Let me see, this first is right, - And heere you wish a sudden death may light - Vpon your body, and hell take your soule, 190 - If euer more you see her, but by chance, - Much lesse allure. Now, my Lord, your hand. - - _Nou._ My hand to this? - - _Rom._ Your heart else I assure you. - - _Nou._ Nay, there 'tis. - - _Rom._ So keepe this last article - Of your fayth giuen, and stead of threatnings, sir, 195 - The seruice of my sword and life is yours: - But not a word of it, 'tis Fairies treasure; - Which but reueal'd, brings on the blabbers, ruine. - Vse your youth better, and this excellent forme - Heauen hath bestowed vpon you. So good morrow to your Lordship. 200 - - _Nou._ Good diuell to your rogueship. No man's safe: - Ile haue a Cannon planted in my chamber, _Exit._ - Against such roaring roagues. - - _Enter Bellapert._ - - _Bell._ My Lord away - The Coach stayes: now haue your wish, and iudge, - If I haue been forgetfull. - - _Nou._ Ha? - - _Bell._ D'ee stand 205 - Humming and hawing now? - - _Exit._ - - _Nou._ Sweet wench, I come. - Hence feare, - I swore, that's all one, my next oath 'ile keepe - That I did meane to breake, and then 'tis quit. - No paine is due to louers periury. 210 - If loue himselfe laugh at it, so will I. - - _Exit Nouall._ - - -_Scaena 2._ - -_Enter Charaloys, Baumont._ - -[_An outer Room in Aymer's House_] - - _Bau._ I grieue for the distaste, though I haue manners, - Not to inquire the cause, falne out betweene - Your Lordship and _Romont_. - - _Cha._ I loue a friend, - So long as he continues in the bounds - Prescrib'd by friendship, but when he vsurpes 5 - Too farre on what is proper to my selfe, - And puts the habit of a Gouernor on, - I must and will preserue my liberty. - But speake of something, else this is a theame - I take no pleasure in: what's this _Aymeire_, 10 - Whose voyce for Song, and excellent knowledge in - The chiefest parts of Musique, you bestow - Such prayses on? - - _Bau._ He is a Gentleman, - (For so his quality speakes him) well receiu'd - Among our greatest Gallants; but yet holds 15 - His maine dependance from the young Lord _Nouall_: - Some tricks and crotchets he has in his head, - As all Musicians haue, and more of him - I dare not author: but when you haue heard him, - I may presume, your Lordship so will like him, 20 - That you'l hereafter be a friend to Musique. - - _Cha._ I neuer was an enemy to't, _Baumont_, - Nor yet doe I subscribe to the opinion - Of those old Captaines, that thought nothing musicall, - But cries of yeelding enemies, neighing of horses, 25 - Clashing of armour, lowd shouts, drums, and trumpets: - Nor on the other side in fauour of it, - Affirme the world was made by musicall discord, - Or that the happinesse of our life consists - In a well varied note vpon the Lute: 30 - I loue it to the worth of it, and no further. - But let vs see this wonder. - - _Bau._ He preuents - My calling of him. - - _Aym._ Let the Coach be brought _Enter Aymiere._ - To the backe gate, and serue the banquet vp: - My good Lord _Charalois_, I thinke my house 35 - Much honor'd in your presence. - - _Cha._ To haue meanes - To know you better, sir, has brought me hither - A willing visitant, and you'l crowne my welcome - In making me a witnesse to your skill, - Which crediting from others I admire. 40 - - _Aym._ Had I beene one houre sooner made acquainted - With your intent my Lord, you should haue found me - Better prouided: now such as it is, - Pray you grace with your acceptance. - - _Bau._ You are modest. - Begin the last new ayre. - - _Cha._ Shall we not see them? 45 - - _Aym._ This little distance from the instruments - Will to your eares conuey the harmony - With more delight. - - _Cha._ Ile not consent. - - _Aym._ Y'are tedious, - By this meanes shall I with one banquet please - Two companies, those within and these Guls heere. 50 - - _Song aboue._ - - _Musique and a Song, Beaumelle within--ha, ha, ha._ - - _Cha._ How's this? It is my Ladies laugh! most certaine - When I first pleas'd her, in this merry language, - She gaue me thanks. - - _Bau._ How like you this? - - _Cha._ 'Tis rare, - Yet I may be deceiu'd, and should be sorry 55 - Vpon vncertaine suppositions, rashly - To write my selfe in the blacke list of those - I haue declaym'd against, and to _Romont_. - - _Aym._ I would he were well of--perhaps your Lordship - Likes not these sad tunes, I haue a new Song 60 - Set to a lighter note, may please you better; - Tis cal'd The happy husband. - - _Cha._ Pray sing it. - - _Song below. At the end of the Song, Beaumelle within._ - - _Beau._ Ha, ha, 'tis such a groome. - - _Cha._ Doe I heare this, - And yet stand doubtfull? - - _Exit Chara._ - - _Aym._ Stay him I am vndone, - And they discouered. - - _Bau._ Whats the matter? - - _Aym._ Ah! 65 - That women, when they are well pleas'd, cannot hold, - But must laugh out. - - _Enter Nouall Iu. Charaloys, Beaumley, Bellapert_. - - _Nou._ Helpe, saue me, murrher, murther. - - _Beau._ Vndone foreuer. - - _Cha._ Oh, my heart! - Hold yet a little--doe not hope to scape - By flight, it is impossible: though I might 70 - On all aduantage take thy life, and iustly; - This sword, my fathers sword, that nere was drawne, - But to a noble purpose, shall not now - Doe th' office of a hangman, I reserue it - To right mine honour, not for a reuenge 75 - So poore, that though with thee, it should cut off - Thy family, with all that are allyed - To thee in lust, or basenesse, 'twere still short of - All termes of satisfaction. Draw. - - _Nou._ I dare not, - I haue already done you too much wrong, 80 - To fight in such a cause. - - _Cha._ Why, darest thou neyther - Be honest, coward, nor yet valiant, knaue? - In such a cause come doe not shame thy selfe: - Such whose bloods wrongs, or wrong done to themselues - Could neuer heate, are yet in the defence 85 - Of their whores, daring looke on her againe. - You thought her worth the hazard of your soule, - And yet stand doubtfull in her quarrell, to - Venture your body. - - _Bau._ No, he feares his cloaths, - More then his flesh - - _Cha._ Keepe from me, garde thy life, 90 - Or as thou hast liu'd like a goate, thou shalt - Dye like a sheepe. - - _Nou._ Since ther's no remedy - - _They fight, Nouall is slaine._ - - Despaire of safety now in me proue courage. - - _Cha._ How soone weak wrong's or'throwne! lend me your hand, - Beare this to the Caroach--come, you haue taught me 95 - To say you must and shall: I wrong you not, - Y'are but to keepe him company you loue. - Is't done? 'tis well. Raise officers, and take care, - All you can apprehend within the house - May be forth comming. Do I appeare much mou'd? 100 - - _Bau._ No, sir. - - _Cha._ My griefes are now, Thus to be borne. - Hereafter ile finde time and place to mourne. - - _Exeunt._ - - -_Scaena 3._ - -_Enter Romont, Pontalier._ - -[_A Street_] - - _Pont._ I was bound to seeke you, sir. - - _Rom._ And had you found me - In any place, but in the streete, I should - Haue done,--not talk'd to you. Are you the Captaine? - The hopefull _Pontalier_? whom I haue seene - Doe in the field such seruice, as then made you 5 - Their enuy that commanded, here at home - To play the parasite to a gilded knaue, - And it may be the Pander. - - _Pont._ Without this - I come to call you to account, for what - Is past already. I by your example 10 - Of thankfulnesse to the dead Generall - By whom you were rais'd, haue practis'd to be so - To my good Lord _Nouall_, by whom I liue; - Whose least disgrace that is, or may be offred, - With all the hazzard of my life and fortunes, 15 - I will make good on you, or any man, - That has a hand in't; and since you allowe me - A Gentleman and a souldier, there's no doubt - You will except against me. You shall meete - With a faire enemy, you vnderstand 20 - The right I looke for, and must haue. - - _Rom._ I doe, - And with the next dayes sunne you shall heare from me. - - _Exeunt._ - - -_Scaena 4._ - -_Enter Charalois with a casket, Beaumelle, Baumont._ - -[_A Room in_ Charalois' _House_] - - _Cha._ Pray beare this to my father, at his leasure - He may peruse it: but with your best language - Intreat his instant presence: you haue sworne - Not to reueale what I haue done. - - _Bau._ Nor will I-- - But-- - - _Cha._ Doubt me not, by Heauen, I will doe nothing 5 - But what may stand with honour: Pray you leaue me - To my owne thoughts. If this be to me, rise; - I am not worthy the looking on, but onely - To feed contempt and scorne, and that from you - Who with the losse of your faire name haue caus'd it, 10 - Were too much cruelty. - - _Beau._ I dare not moue you - To heare me speake. I know my fault is farre - Beyond qualification, or excuse, - That 'tis not fit for me to hope, or you - To thinke of mercy; onely I presume 15 - To intreate, you would be pleas'd to looke vpon - My sorrow for it, and beleeue, these teares - Are the true children of my griefe and not - A womans cunning. - - _Cha._ Can you _Beaumelle_, - Hauing deceiued so great a trust as mine, 20 - Though I were all credulity, hope againe - To get beleefe? no, no, if you looke on me - With pity or dare practise any meanes - To make my sufferings lesse, or giue iust cause - To all the world, to thinke what I must doe 25 - Was cal'd vpon by you, vse other waies, - Deny what I haue seene, or iustifie - What you haue done, and as you desperately - Made shipwracke of your fayth to be a whore, - Vse th' armes of such a one, and such defence, 30 - And multiply the sinne, with impudence, - Stand boldly vp, and tell me to my teeth, - You haue done but what's warranted, - By great examples, in all places, where - Women inhabit, vrge your owne deserts, 35 - Or want of me in merit; tell me how, - Your dowre from the lowe gulfe of pouerty, - Weighed vp my fortunes, to what now they are: - That I was purchas'd by your choyse and practise - To shelter you from shame: that you might sinne 40 - As boldly as securely, that poore men - Are married to those wiues that bring them wealth, - One day their husbands, but obseruers euer: - That when by this prou'd vsage you haue blowne - The fire of my iust vengeance to the height, 45 - I then may kill you: and yet say 'twas done - In heate of blood, and after die my selfe, - To witnesse my repentance. - - _Beau._ O my fate, - That neuer would consent that I should see, - How worthy thou wert both of loue and duty 50 - Before I lost you; and my misery made - The glasse, in which I now behold your vertue: - While I was good, I was a part of you, - And of two, by the vertuous harmony - Of our faire minds, made one; but since I wandred 55 - In the forbidden Labyrinth of lust, - What was inseparable, is by me diuided. - With iustice therefore you may cut me off, - And from your memory, wash the remembrance - That ere I was like to some vicious purpose 60 - Within your better iudgement, you repent of - And study to forget. - - _Cha._ O _Beaumelle_, - That you can speake so well, and doe so ill! - But you had been too great a blessing, if - You had continued chast: see how you force me 65 - To this, because my honour will not yeeld - That I againe should loue you. - - _Beau._ In this life - It is not fit you should: yet you shall finde, - Though I was bold enough to be a strumpet, - I dare not yet liue one: let those fam'd matrones 70 - That are canoniz'd worthy of our sex, - Transcend me in their sanctity of life, - I yet will equall them in dying nobly, - Ambitious of no honour after life, - But that when I am dead, you will forgiue me. 75 - - _Cha._ How pity steales vpon me! should I heare her - But ten words more, I were lost--one knocks, go in. - - _Knock within. Exit Beaumelle. Enter Rochfort._ - - That to be mercifull should be a sinne. - O, sir, most welcome. Let me take your cloake, - I must not be denyed--here are your robes, 80 - As you loue iustice once more put them on: - There is a cause to be determind of - That doe's require such an integrity, - As you haue euer vs'd--ile put you to - The tryall of your constancy, and goodnesse: 85 - And looke that you that haue beene Eagle-eyd - In other mens affaires, proue not a Mole - In what concernes your selfe. Take you your seate: - I will be for you presently. - - _Exit._ - - _Roch._ Angels guard me, - To what strange Tragedy does this destruction 90 - Serue for a Prologue? - - _Enter Charaloys with Nouals body. Beaumelle, Baumont._ - - _Cha._ So, set it downe before - The Iudgement seate, and stand you at the bar: - For me? I am the accuser. - - _Roch._ _Nouall_ slayne, - And _Beaumelle_ my daughter in the place - Of one to be arraign'd. - - _Cha._ O, are you touch'd? 95 - I finde that I must take another course, - Feare nothing. I will onely blind your eyes, - For Iustice should do so, when 'tis to meete - An obiect that may sway her equall doome - From what it should be aim'd at.--Good my Lord, 100 - A day of hearing. - - _Roch._ It is granted, speake-- - You shall haue iustice. - - _Cha._ I then here accuse, - Most equall Iudge, the prisoner your faire Daughter, - For whom I owed so much to you: your daughter, - So worthy in her owne parts: and that worth 105 - Set forth by yours, to whose so rare perfections, - Truth witnesse with me, in the place of seruice - I almost pay'd Idolatrous sacrifice - To be a false advltresse. - - _Roch._ With whom? - - _Cha._ With this _Nouall_ here dead. - - _Roch._ Be wel aduis'd 110 - And ere you say adultresse againe, - Her fame depending on it, be most sure - That she is one. - - _Cha._ I tooke them in the act. - I know no proofe beyond it. - - _Roch._ O my heart. - - _Cha._ A Iudge should feele no passions. - - _Roch._ Yet remember 115 - He is a man, and cannot put off nature. - What answere makes the prisoner? - - _Beau._ I confesse - The fact I am charg'd with, and yeeld my selfe - Most miserably guilty. - - _Roch._ Heauen take mercy - Vpon your soule then: it must leaue your body. 120 - Now free mine eyes, I dare vnmou'd looke on her, - And fortifie my sentence, with strong reasons. - Since that the politique law prouides that seruants, - To whose care we commit our goods shall die, - If they abuse our trust: what can you looke for, 125 - To whose charge this most hopefull Lord gaue vp - All he receiu'd from his braue Ancestors, - Or he could leaue to his posterity? - His Honour, wicked woman, in whose safety - All his lifes ioyes, and comforts were locked vp, 130 - With thy lust, a theefe hath now stolne from him, - And therefore-- - - _Cha._ Stay, iust Iudge, may not what's lost - By her owne fault, (for I am charitable, - And charge her not with many) be forgotten - In her faire life hereafter? - - _Roch._ Neuer, Sir. 135 - The wrong that's done to the chaste married bed, - Repentant teares can neuer expiate, - And be assured, to pardon such a sinne, - Is an offence as great as to commit it. - - _Cha._ I may not then forgiue her. - - _Roch._ Nor she hope it. 140 - Nor can she wish to liue no sunne shall rise, - But ere it set, shall shew her vgly lust - In a new shape, and euery on more horrid: - Nay, euen those prayers, which with such humble feruor - She seemes to send vp yonder, are beate backe, 145 - And all suites, which her penitance can proffer, - As soone as made, are with contempt throwne - Off all the courts of mercy. - - _He kills her._ - - _Cha._ Let her die then. - Better prepar'd I am. Sure I could not take her, - Nor she accuse her father, as a Iudge 150 - Partiall against her. - - _Beau._ I approue his sentence, - And kisse the executioner; my lust - Is now run from me in that blood; in which - It was begot and nourished. - - _Roch._ Is she dead then? - - _Cha._ Yes, sir, this is her heart blood, is it not? 155 - I thinke it be. - - _Roch._ And you haue kild here? - - _Cha._ True, - And did it by your doome - - _Roch._ But I pronounc'd it - As a Iudge onely, and friend to iustice, - And zealous in defence of your wrong'd honour, - Broke all the tyes of nature: and cast off 160 - The loue and soft affection of a father. - I in your cause, put on a Scarlet robe - Of red died cruelty, but in returne, - You haue aduanc'd for me no flag of mercy: - I look'd on you, as a wrong'd husband, but 165 - You clos'd your eyes against me, as a father. - O _Beaumelle_, my daughter. - - _Cha._ This is madnesse. - - _Roch._ Keepe from me--could not one good thought rise vp, - To tell you that she was my ages comfort, - Begot by a weake man, and borne a woman, 170 - And could not therefore, but partake of frailety? - Or wherefore did not thankfulnesse step forth, - To vrge my many merits, which I may - Obiect vnto you, since you proue vngratefull, - Flinty-hearted _Charaloys_? - - _Cha._ Nature does preuaile 175 - Aboue your vertue. - - _Roch._ No! it giues me eyes, - To pierce the heart of designe against me. - I finde it now, it was my state was aym'd at, - A nobler match was fought for, and the houres - I liu'd, grew teadious to you: my compassion 180 - Towards you hath rendred me most miserable, - And foolish charity vndone my selfe: - But ther's a Heauen aboue, from whose iust wreake - No mists of policy can hide offendors. - - _Enter Nouall se. with Officers._ - - _Nou. se._ Force ope the doors--O monster, caniball, 185 - Lay hold on him, my sonne, my sonne.--O _Rochfort_, - 'Twas you gaue liberty to this bloody wolfe - To worry all our comforts,--But this is - No time to quarrell; now giue your assistance - For the reuenge. - - _Roch._ Call it a fitter name-- 190 - Iustice for innocent blood. - - _Cha._ Though all conspire - Against that life which I am weary of, - A little longer yet ile striue to keepe it, - To shew in spite of malice, and their lawes, - His plea must speed that hath an honest cause. 195 - - _Exeunt_ - - - - -_Actus quintus._ - - -_Scaena prima._ - -[_A Street_] - -_Enter Liladam_, _Taylor_, _Officers_. - - _Lila_ Why 'tis both most vnconscionable, and vntimely - T'arrest a gallant for his cloaths, before - He has worne them out: besides you sayd you ask'd - My name in my Lords bond but for me onely, - And now you'l lay me vp for't. Do not thinke 5 - The taking measure of a customer - By a brace of varlets, though I rather wait - Neuer so patiently, will proue a fashion - Which any Courtier or Innes of court man - Would follow willingly. - - _Tayl._ There I beleeue you. 10 - But sir, I must haue present moneys, or - Assurance to secure me, when I shall.-- - Or I will see to your comming forth. - - _Lila._ Plague on't, - You haue prouided for my enterance in: - That comming forth you talke of, concernes me. 15 - What shall I doe? you haue done me a disgrace - In the arrest, but more in giuing cause - To all the street, to thinke I cannot stand - Without these two supporters for my armes: - Pray you let them loose me: for their satisfaction 20 - I will not run away. - - _Tayl._ For theirs you will not, - But for your owne you would; looke to them fellows. - - _Lila._ Why doe you call them fellows? doe not wrong - Your reputation so, as you are meerely - A Taylor, faythfull, apt to beleeue in Gallants 25 - You are a companion at a ten crowne supper - For cloth of bodkin, and may with one Larke - Eate vp three manchets, and no man obserue you, - Or call your trade in question for't. But when - You study your debt-booke, and hold correspondence 30 - With officers of the hanger, and leaue swordmen, - The learned conclude, the Taylor and Sergeant - In the expression of a knaue are these - To be _Synonima_. Looke therefore to it, - And let vs part in peace, I would be loth 35 - You should vndoe your selfe. - - _Tayl._ To let you goe - - _Enter old Nouall, and Pontalier._ - - Were the next way. - But see! heeres your old Lord, - Let him but giue his worde I shall be paide, - And you are free. - - _Lila._ S'lid, I will put him to't: - I can be but denied: or what say you? 40 - His Lordship owing me three times your debt, - If you arrest him at my suite, and let me - Goe run before to see the action entred. - 'Twould be a witty iest. - - _Tayl._ I must haue ernest: - I cannot pay my debts so. - - _Pont._ Can your Lordship 45 - Imagine, while I liue and weare a sword, - Your sonnes death shall be reueng'd? - - _Nou. se._ I know not - One reason why you should not doe like others: - I am sure, of all the herd that fed vpon him, - I cannot see in any, now hee's gone, 50 - In pitty or in thankfulnesse one true signe - Of sorrow for him. - - _Pont._ All his bounties yet - Fell not in such vnthankfull ground: 'tis true - He had weakenesses, but such as few are free from, - And though none sooth'd them lesse then I: for now 55 - To say that I foresaw the dangers that - Would rise from cherishing them, were but vntimely. - I yet could wish the iustice that you seeke for - In the reuenge, had been trusted to me, - And not the vncertaine issue of the lawes: 60 - 'Tas rob'd me of a noble testimony - Of what I durst doe for him: but howeuer, - My forfait life redeem'd by him though dead, - Shall doe him seruice. - - _Nou. se._ As farre as my griefe - Will giue me leaue, I thanke you. - - _Lila._ Oh my Lord, 65 - Oh my good Lord, deliuer me from these furies. - - _Pont._ Arrested? This is one of them whose base - And obiect flattery helpt to digge his graue: - He is not worth your pitty, nor my anger. - Goe to the basket and repent. - - _Nou. se._ Away 70 - I onely know now to hate thee deadly: - I will doe nothing for thee. - - _Lila._ Nor you, Captaine. - - _Pont._ No, to your trade againe, put off this case, - It may be the discouering what you were, - When your vnfortunate master tooke you vp, 75 - May moue compassion in your creditor. - Confesse the truth. - - _Exit Nouall se. Pont._ - - _Lila._ And now I thinke on't better, - I will, brother, your hand, your hand, sweet brother. - I am of your sect, and my gallantry but a dreame, - Out of which these two fearefull apparitions 80 - Against my will haue wak'd me. This rich sword - Grew suddenly out of a taylors bodkin; - These hangers from my vailes and fees in Hell: - And where as now this beauer sits, full often - A thrifty cape compos'd of broad cloth lifts, 85 - Nere kin vnto the cushion where I sate. - Crosse-leg'd, and yet vngartred, hath beene seene, - Our breakefasts famous for the buttred loaues, - I haue with ioy bin oft acquainted with, - And therefore vse a conscience, though it be 90 - Forbidden in our hall towards other men, - To me that as I haue beene, will againe - Be of the brotherhood. - - _Offi._ I know him now: - He was a prentice to _Le Robe_ at _Orleance_. - - _Lila._ And from thence brought by my young Lord, now dead, 95 - Vnto _Dijon_, and with him till this houre - Hath bin receiu'd here for a compleate Mounsieur. - Nor wonder at it: for but tythe our gallants, - Euen those of the first ranke, and you will finde - In euery ten, one: peraduenture two, 100 - That smell ranke of the dancing schoole, or fiddle, - The pantofle or pressing yron: but hereafter - Weele talke of this. I will surrender vp - My suites againe: there cannot be much losse, - 'Tis but the turning of the lace, with ones 105 - Additions more you know of, and what wants - I will worke out. - - _Tayl._ Then here our quarrell ends. - The gallant is turn'd Taylor, and all friends. - - _Exeunt._ - - -_Scaena 2._ - -_Enter Romont, Baumont._ - -[_The Court of Justice_] - - _Rom._ You haue them ready. - - _Bau._ Yes, and they will speake - Their knowledg in this cause, when thou thinkst fit - To haue them cal'd vpon. - - _Rom._ 'Tis well, and something - I can adde to their euidence, to proue - This braue reuenge, which they would haue cal'd murther, 5 - A noble Iustice. - - _Bau._ In this you expresse - (The breach by my Lords want of you, new made vp) - A faythfull friend. - - _Rom._ That friendship's rays'd on sand, - Which euery sudden gust of discontent, - Or flowing of our passions can change, 10 - As if it nere had bin: but doe you know - Who are to sit on him? - - _Bau._ Mounsieur _Du Croy_ - Assisted by _Charmi_. - - _Rom._ The Aduocate - That pleaded for the Marshalls funerall, - And was checkt for it by _Nouall_. - - _Bau._ The same 15 - - _Rom._ How fortunes that? - - _Bau._ Why, sir, my Lord _Nouall_ - Being the accuser, cannot be the Iudge, - Nor would grieue _Rochfort_, but Lord _Charaloys_ - (Howeuer he might wrong him by his power,) - Should haue an equall hearing. - - _Rom._ By my hopes 20 - Of _Charaloys_ acquitall, I lament - That reuerent old mans fortune. - - _Bau._ Had you seene him, - As to my griefe I haue now promis'd patience, - And ere it was beleeu'd, though spake by him - That neuer brake his word, inrag'd againe 25 - So far as to make warre vpon those heires - Which not a barbarous Sythian durst presume - To touch, but with a superstitious feare, - As something sacred, and then curse his daughter, - But with more frequent violence himselfe, 30 - As if he had bin guilty of her fault, - By being incredulous of your report, - You would not onely iudge him worrhy pitty, - But suffer with him. - - _Enter Charalois, with Officers._ - - But heere comes the prisoner, - I dare not stay to doe my duty to him, 35 - Yet rest assur'd, all possible meanes in me - To doe him seruice, keepes you company. - - _Exit Bau._ - - _Rom._ It is not doubted. - - _Cha._ Why, yet as I came hither, - The people apt to mocke calamity, - And tread on the oppress'd, made no hornes at me, 40 - Though they are too familiar: I deserue them. - And knowing what blood my sword hath drunke - In wreake of that disgrace, they yet forbare - To shake their heads, or to reuile me for - A murtherer, they rather all put on 45 - (As for great losses the old _Romans_ vs'd) - A generall face of sorrow, waighted on - By a sad murmur breaking through their silence, - And no eye but was readier with a teare - To witnesse 'twas shed for me, then I could 50 - Discerne a face made vp with scorne against me. - Why should I then, though for vnusuall wrongs, - I chose vnusuall meanes to right those wrongs, - Condemne my selfe, as over-partiall - In my owne cause Romont? - - _Rom._ Best friend, well met, 55 - - By my heart's loue to you, and ioyne to that, - My thankfulness that still liues to the dead, - I looke upon you now with more true ioy, - Than when I saw you married. - - _Cha._ You have reason - To give you warrant for't; my falling off 60 - From such a friendship with the scorne that answered - Your too propheticke counsell, may well moue you - To thinke your meeting me going to my death, - A fit encounter for that hate which iustly - I have deseru'd from you. - - _Rom._ Shall I still then 65 - Speake truth, and be ill vnderstood? - - _Cha._ You are not. - I am conscious, I haue wrong'd you, and allow me - Only a morall man to looke on you, - Whom foolishly I haue abus'd and iniur'd, - Must of necessity be more terrible to me, 70 - Than any death the Iudges can pronounce - From the tribunall which I am to plead at. - - _Rom._ Passion transports you. - - _Cha._ For what I haue done - To my false Lady, or _Nouall_, I can - Giue some apparent cause: but touching you, 75 - In my defence, childlike, I can say nothing, - But I am sorry for't, a poore satisfaction: - And yet mistake me not: for it is more - Then I will speake, to haue my pardon sign'd - For all I stand accus'd of. - - _Rom._ You much weaken 80 - The strength of your good cause. Should you but thinke - A man for doing well could entertaine - A pardon, were it offred, you haue giuen - To blinde and slow-pac'd iustice, wings, and eyes - To see and ouertake impieties, 85 - Which from a cold proceeding had receiu'd - Indulgence or protection. - - _Cha._ Thinke you so? - - _Rom._ Vpon my soule nor should the blood you chalenge - And took to cure your honour, breed more scruple - In your soft conscience, then if your sword 90 - Had bin sheath'd in a Tygre, or she Beare, - That in their bowels would haue made your tombe - To iniure innocence is more then murther: - But when inhumane lusts transforme vs, then - Like beasts we are to suffer, not like men 95 - To be lamented. Nor did _Charalois_ euer - Performe an act so worthy the applause - Of a full theater of perfect men, - As he hath done in this: the glory got - By ouerthrowing outward enemies, 100 - Since strength and fortune are maine sharers in it, - We cannot but by pieces call our owne: - But when we conquer our intestine foes, - Our passions breed within vs, and of those - The most rebellious tyrant powerfull loue, 105 - Our reason suffering vs to like no longer - Then the faire obiect being good deserues it, - That's a true victory, which, were great men - Ambitious to atchieue, by your example - Setting no price vpon the breach of fayth, 110 - But losse of life, 'twould fright adultery - Out of their families, and make lust appeare - As lothsome to vs in the first consent, - As when 'tis wayted on by punishment. - - _Cha._ You haue confirm'd me. Who would loue a woman 115 - That might inioy in such a man, a friend? - You haue made me know the iustice of my cause, - And mark't me out the way, how to defend it. - - _Rom._ Continue to that resolution constant, - And you shall, in contempt of their worst malice, 120 - Come off with honour. Heere they come. - - _Cha._ I am ready. - - -_Scaena 3._ - -_Enter Du Croy_, _Charmi_, _Rochfort_, _Nouall se._ _Pontalier_, -_Baumont_. - - _Nou. se._ See, equall Iudges, with what confidence - The cruel murtherer stands, as if he would - Outface the Court and Iustice! - - _Roch._ But looke on him. - And you shall find, for still methinks I doe, - Though guilt hath dide him black, something good in him, 5 - That may perhaps worke with a wiser man - Then I haue beene, againe to set him free - And giue him all he has. - - _Charmi._ This is not well. - I would you had liu'd so, my Lord that I, - Might rather haue continu'd your poore seruant, 10 - Then sit here as your Iudge. - - _Du Croy_ I am sorry for you. - - _Roch._ In no act of my life I haue deseru'd - This iniury from the court, that any heere - Should thus vnciuilly vsurpe on what - Is proper to me only. - - _Du Cr._ What distaste 15 - Receiues my Lord? - - _Roch._ You say you are sorry for him: - A griefe in which I must not haue a partner: - 'Tis I alone am sorry, that I rays'd - The building of my life for seuenty yeeres - Vpon so sure a ground, that all the vices 20 - Practis'd to ruine man, though brought against me, - Could neuer vndermine, and no way left - To send these gray haires to the graue with sorrow. - Vertue that was my patronesse betrayd me: - For entring, nay, possessing this young man, 25 - It lent him such a powerfull Maiesty - To grace what ere he vndertooke, that freely - I gaue myselfe vp with my liberty, - To be at his disposing; had his person - Louely I must confesse, or far fain'd valour, 30 - Or any other seeming good, that yet - Holds a neere neyghbour-hood, with ill wrought on me, - I might haue borne it better: but when goodnesse - And piety it selfe in her best figure - Were brib'd to by destruction, can you blame me, 35 - Though I forget to suffer like a man, - Or rather act a woman? - - _Bau._ Good my Lord. - - _Nou. se._ You hinder our proceeding. - - _Charmi._ And forget - The parts of an accuser. - - _Bau._ Pray you remember - To vse the temper which to me you promis'd. 40 - - _Roch._ Angels themselues must breake _Baumont_, that promise - Beyond the strength and patience of Angels. - But I haue done, my good Lord, pardon me - A weake old man, and pray adde to that - A miserable father, yet be carefull 45 - That your compassion of my age, nor his, - Moue you to anything, that may dis-become - The place on which you sit. - - _Charmi._ Read the Inditement. - - _Cha._ It shall be needelesse, I my selfe, my Lords, - Will be my owne accuser, and confesse 50 - All they can charge me with, or will I spare - To aggrauate that guilt with circumstance - They seeke to loade me with: onely I pray, - That as for them you will vouchsafe me hearing: - I may not be, denide it for my selfe, 55 - When I shall vrge by what vnanswerable reasons - I was compel'd to what I did, which yet - Till you haue taught me better, I repent not. - - _Roch._ The motion honest. - - _Charmi._ And 'tis freely granted. - - _Cha._ Then I confesse my Lords, that I stood bound, 60 - When with my friends, euen hope it selfe had left me - To this mans charity for my liberty, - Nor did his bounty end there, but began: - For after my enlargement, cherishing - The good he did, he made me master of 65 - His onely daughter, and his whole estate: - Great ties of thankfulnesse I must acknowledge, - Could any one freed by you, presse this further - But yet consider, my most honourd Lords, - If to receiue a fauour, make a seruant, 70 - And benefits are bonds to tie the taker - To the imperious will of him that giues, - Ther's none but slaues will receiue courtesie, - Since they must fetter vs to our dishonours. - Can it be cal'd magnificence in a Prince, 75 - To powre downe riches, with a liberall hand, - Vpon a poore mans wants, if that must bind him - To play the soothing parasite to his vices? - Or any man, because he sau'd my hand, - Presume my head and heart are at his seruice? 80 - Or did I stand ingag'd to buy my freedome - (When my captiuity was honourable) - By making my selfe here and fame hereafter, - Bondslaues to mens scorne and calumnious tongues? - Had his faire daughters mind bin like her feature, 85 - Or for some little blemish I had sought - For my content elsewhere, wasting on others - My body and her dowry; my forhead then - Deseru'd the brand of base ingratitude: - But if obsequious vsage, and faire warning 90 - To keepe her worth my loue, could preserue her - From being a whore, and yet no cunning one, - So to offend, and yet the fault kept from me? - What should I doe? let any freeborne spirit - Determine truly, if that thankfulnesse, 95 - Choise forme with the whole world giuen for a dowry, - Could strengthen so an honest man with patience, - As with a willing necke to vndergoe - The insupportable yoake of slaue or wittoll. - - _Charmi._ What proofe haue you she did play false, besides 100 - your oath? - - _Cha._ Her owne confession to her father. - I aske him for a witnesse. - - _Roch._ 'Tis most true. - I would not willingly blend my last words - With an vntruth. - - _Cha._ And then to cleere my selfe, - That his great wealth was not the marke I shot at, 105 - But that I held it, when faire _Beaumelle_ - Fell from her vertue, like the fatall gold - Which _Brennus_ tooke from _Delphos_, whose possession - Brought with it ruine to himselfe and Army. - Heer's one in Court, _Baumont_, by whom I sent 110 - All graunts and writings backe, which made it mine, - Before his daughter dy'd by his owne sentence, - As freely as vnask'd he gaue it to me. - - _Bau._ They are here to be seene. - - _Charmi._ Open the casket. - Peruse that deed of gift. - - _Rom._ Halfe of the danger 115 - Already is discharg'd: the other part - As brauely, and you are not onely free, - But crownd with praise for euer. - - _Du Croy._ 'Tis apparent. - - _Charmi._ Your state, my Lord, againe is yours. - - _Roch._ Not mine, - I am not of the world, if it can prosper, 120 - (And being iustly got, Ile not examine - Why it should be so fatall) doe you bestow it - On pious vses. Ile goe seeke a graue. - And yet for proofe, I die in peace, your pardon - I aske, and as you grant it me, may Heauen 125 - Your conscience, and these Iudges free you from - What you are charg'd with. So farewell for euer.-- - - _Exit Roch._ - - _Nouall se._ Ile be mine owne guide. Passion, nor example - Shall be my leaders. I haue lost a sonne, - A sonne, graue Iudges, I require his blood 130 - From his accursed homicide. - - _Charmi._ What reply you - In your defence for this? - - _Cha._ I but attended - Your Lordships pleasure. For the fact, as of - The former, I confesse it, but with what - Base wrongs I was vnwillingly drawne to it, 135 - To my few wordes there are some other proofes - To witnesse this for truth, when I was married: - For there I must begin. The slayne _Nouall_ - Was to my wife, in way of our French courtship, - A most deuoted seruant, but yet aym'd at 140 - Nothing but meanes to quench his wanton heate, - His heart being neuer warm'd by lawfull fires - As mine was (Lords:) and though on these presumptions, - Ioyn'd to the hate betweene his house and mine, - I might with opportunity and ease 145 - Haue found a way for my reuenge, I did not; - But still he had the freedome as before - When all was mine, and told that he abus'd it - With some vnseemely licence, by my friend - My appou'd friend _Romont_, I gaue no credit 150 - To the reporter, but reprou'd him for it - As one vncourtly and malicious to him. - What could I more, my Lords? yet after this - He did continue in his first pursute - Hoter then euer, and at length obtaind it; 155 - But how it came to my most certaine knowledge, - For the dignity of the court and my owne honour - I dare not say. - - _Nou. se._ If all may be beleeu'd - A passionate prisoner speakes, who is so foolish - That durst be wicked, that will appeare guilty? 160 - No, my graue Lords: in his impunity - But giue example vnto iealous men - To cut the throats they hate, and they will neuer - Want matter or pretence for their bad ends. - - _Charmi._ You must find other proofes to strengthen these 165 - But more presumptions. - - _Du Croy._ Or we shall hardly - Allow your innocence. - - _Cha._ All your attempts - Shall fall on me, like brittle shafts on armour, - That breake themselues; or like waues against a rocke, - That leaue no signe of their ridiculous fury 170 - But foame and splinters, my innocence like these - Shall stand triumphant, and your malice serue - But for a trumpet; to proclaime my conquest - Nor shall you, though you doe the worst fate can, - How ere condemne, affright an honest man. 175 - - _Rom._ May it please the Court, I may be heard. - - _Nou. se._ You come not - To raile againe? but doe, you shall not finde, - Another _Rochfort_. - - _Rom._ In _Nouall_ I cannot. - But I come furnished with what will stop - The mouth of his conspiracy against the life 180 - Of innocent _Charaloys_. Doe you know this Character? - - _Nou. se._ Yes, 'tis my sonnes. - - _Rom._ May it please your Lordships, reade it, - And you shall finde there, with what vehemency - He did sollicite _Beaumelle_, how he had got - A promise from her to inioy his wishes, 185 - How after he abiur'd her company, - And yet, but that 'tis fit I spare the dead, - Like a damnd villaine, assoone as recorded, - He brake that oath, to make this manifest - Produce his bands and hers. - - _Enter Aymer_, _Florimell_, _Bellapert_. - - _Charmi._ Haue they tooke their oathes? 190 - - _Rom._ They haue; and rather then indure the racke, - Confesse the time, the meeting, nay the act; - What would you more? onely this matron made - A free discouery to a good end; - And therefore I sue to the Court, she may not 195 - Be plac'd in the blacke list of the delinquents. - - _Pont._ I see by this, Nouals reuenge needs me, - And I shall doe. - - _Charmi._ 'Tis euident. - - _Nou. se._ That I - Till now was neuer wretched, here's no place - To curse him or my stars. - - _Exit Nouall senior._ - - _Charmi._ Lord _Charalois_, 200 - The iniurie: you haue sustain'd, appeare - So worthy of the mercy of the Court, - That notwithstanding you haue gone beyond - The letter of the Law, they yet acquit you. - - _Pont._ But in Nouall, I doe condemne him thus. 205 - - _Cha._ I am slayne. - - _Rom._ Can I looke on? Oh murderous wretch, - Thy challenge now I answere. So die with him. - - _Charmi._ A guard: disarme him. - - _Rom._ I yeeld vp my sword - Vnforc'd. Oh _Charaloys_. - - _Cha._ For shame, _Romont_, - Mourne not for him that dies as he hath liu'd, 210 - Still constant and vnmou'd: what's falne vpon me, - Is by Heauens will, because I made my selfe - A Iudge in my owne cause without their warrant: - But he that lets me know thus much in death, - With all good men forgiue mee. - - _Pont._ I receiue 215 - The vengeance, which my loue not built on vertue, - Has made me worthy, worthy of. - - _Charmi._ We are taught - By this sad president, how iust foeuer - Our reasons are to remedy our wrongs, - We are yet to leaue them to their will and power, 220 - That to that purpose haue authority. - For you, _Romont_, although in your excuse - You may plead, what you did, was in reuenge - Of the dishonour done vnto the Court: - Yet since from vs you had not warrant for it, 225 - We banish you the State: for these, they shall, - As they are found guilty or innocent, - Be set free, or suffer punishment. - - _Exeunt omnes._ - - -_FINIS_ - - - - -First Song. - - _Fie, cease to wonder, - Though you are heare Orpheus with his Iuory Lute, - Moue Trees and Rockes. - Charme Buls, Beares, and men more sauage to be mute, - Weake foolish singer, here is one, 5 - Would haue transform'd thy selfe, to stone._ - - -Second Song. - -A Dialogue betweene _Nouall_, and _Beaumelle_. - - _Man._ - - _Set_ Phoebus, _set, a fayrer sunne doth rise, - From the bright Radience of my Mrs. eyes - Then euer thou begat'st. I dare not looke, - Each haire a golden line, each word a hooke, - The more I striue, the more I still am tooke._ 5 - - Wom. - - _Fayre seruant, come, the day these eyes doe lend - To warme thy blood, thou doest so vainely spend. - Come strangled breath._ - - Man. - - _What noate so sweet as this, - That calles the spirits to a further blisse?_ - - Wom. - - _Yet this out-sauours wine, and this Perfume._ 10 - - Man. - - _Let's die, I languish, I consume._ - - -CITTIZENS SONG OF THE COURTIER. - - _Courtier, if thou needs wilt wiue, - From this lesson learne to thriue. - If thou match a Lady, that - Passes thee in birth and state, - Let her curious garments be 5 - Twice aboue thine owne degree; - This will draw great eyes vpon her, - Get her seruants and thee honour._ - - -COURTIERS SONG OF THE CITIZEN. - - _Poore Citizen, if thou wilt be - A happy husband, learne of me; - To set thy wife first in thy shop, - A faire wife, a kinde wife, a sweet wife, sets a poore man vp. - What though thy shelues be ne're so bare: 5 - A woman still is currant ware: - Each man will cheapen, foe, and friend, - But whilst thou art at tother end, - What ere thou seest, or what dost heare, - Foole, haue no eye to, nor an eare; 10 - And after supper for her sake, - When thou hast fed, snort, though thou wake: - What though the Gallants call thee mome? - Yet with thy lanthorne light her home: - Then looke into the town and tell, 15 - If no such Tradesmen there doe dwell._ - - - - -NOTES - - -[_Dramatis personae._] _Charalois_--the name _Charalois_ is a -corruption of _Charolais_, the Count of Charolais being the hereditary -title of the heir-apparent of the Duchy of Burgundy, for whom the -county of Charolais, an arriere-fief of Burgundy, was reserved as an -appanage. This domain had been purchased by Philip the Bold for his -son, John the Fearless. - -I, i, 4. _argue me of_--obsolete construction: "accuse me of." Cf. Ray, -_Disc._ II, v, 213: "Erroneously argues Hubert Thomas ... of a mistake." - -I, i, 7. _dispence with_--give special exemption from. Cf. I, ii, 87. - -I, i, 33. _This such_--_This_ for _this is_ is a common Elizabethan -construction. Cf. "O this the poison of deep grief"--_Hamlet_, IV, v, -76; "This a good block"--_Lear_, IV, vi, 187. - -I, i, 45. _tooke vp_--borrowed. Cf. Shakespeare, _Henry IV, Part II_, -I, ii, 46: "if a man is through with them in honest taking up, they -stand upon security." - -I, i, 55-6. _Your sable habit, with the hat and cloak ... haue -power_--the details of hat, cloak, and ribbons, interposed between -subject and verb, have attracted the latter into the plural, to the -violation of its agreement with its substantive. - -I, i, 70. _in that_--i. e., in the fact that justice had no such guards. - -I, i, 73-7. For the allusion to _Cerberus_ and the _sops_, cf. Virgil's -picture of Aeneas' journey to Hades (Aeneid, VI, 417-425): "Huge -Cerberus makes these realms to resound with barking from his tripple -jaws, stretched at his enormous length in a den that fronts the gate. -To whom the prophetess, seeing his neck now bristle with horrid snakes, -flings a soporific cake of honey and medicated grain. He, in the mad -rage of hunger, opening his three mouths, snatches the offered morsel, -and, spread on the ground, relaxes his monstrous limbs, and is extended -at vast length over all the cave. Aeneas, now that the keeper [of Hell] -is buried [in sleep], seizes the passage and swift overpasses the bank -of that flood whence there is no return."--_Davidson's trans._ - -I, i, 75. _fertyle headed--many headed_, _fertyle_ is used in the now -obsolete sense of _abundant_. - -I, i, 92. _such, whose_--for the construction, cf. Shakespeare: "Such I -will have, whom I am sure he knows not from the enemy."--_All's Well_, -III, iv, 24. - -I, i, 99. _men religious_--the adjective is regularly placed after its -noun in Eliz. Eng. when the substantive is unemphatic and the modifier -not a mere epithet, but essential to the sense. See Abbott, S. G. Sec. 419. - -I, i, 137-8.--The thought of these lines is undeveloped, the phrasing -being broken and disconnected. It is a scornful observation on the -part of Romont that whether or not Novall takes papers depends on how -the matter is brought before him--and he is about to add that there is -a way in which Charalois can manage to gain his point, when he breaks -off with the cry, "Follow him!" _Conuayance_ = contrivance. - -I, i, 164. _parchment toils_--snares in the shape of documents upon -parchment, such as bonds, mortgages, etc. - -I, i, 166. _Luxury_--used here in the modern sense,--not, as more -commonly in Elizabethan times, with the meaning, _laciviousness_, -_lust_. The thought of the somewhat involved period which ends with -this line is, that the creditors prayed only on an occasion when they -feared to lose their clutch on some rich spendthrift--on which occasion -they would pray to the devil to invent some new and fantastic pleasure -which would lure their victim back into the toils. - -I, ii, 11. _Dijon_--the scene of the drama,--situated on the western -border of the fertile plain of Burgundy, and at the confluence of the -Ouche and the Suzon. It was formerly the capital of the province of -Burgundy, the dukes of which acquired it early in the eleventh century, -and took up their residence there in the thirteenth century. For the -decoration of the palace and other monuments built by them, eminent -artists were gathered from northern France and Flanders, and during -this period the town became one of the great intellectual centers of -France. The union of the duchy with the crown in 1477 deprived Dijon -of the splendor of the ducal court, but to counterbalance this loss it -was made the capital of the province and the seat of a _parlement_. -To-day it possesses a population of some 65,000, and is a place of -considerable importance. - -I, ii, 21-3. _Nor now ... that I vndertooke, forsake it._--The -expression is elliptical, the verb of the preceding period being in -the future indicative--whereas here the incomplete verb is in the -conditional mood. In full: _Nor now ... that I undertook, would I -forsake it._ - -I, ii, 56. _determine of--of_ is the preposition in obs. usage which -follows _determine_ used, as here, in the sense of _decide_, _come to a -judicial decision_, _come to a decision on_ (_upon_). Cf. IV, iv, 82. - -I, ii, 57. _to_--in addition to. - -I, ii, 66. _become_--modern editors, beginning with Mason, read -_became_; but _become_ may be taken as a variant form of the past -tense (or even as participle for _having become_, with nom. absolute -construction, though this is less likely). - -I, ii, 91-2. _May force you ... plead at_--i. e. "may cause your -dismissal from the bar." - -I, ii, 107. _purple-colour'd_--Novall wears the official red robe of -judge. - -I, ii, 123-4. _the subtill Fox of France, The politique Lewis_--Louis -XI of France, an old enemy of Burgundy. - -I, ii, 127. _If that_, etc.--Gradually, as the interrogatives were -recognized as relatives, the force of _that_, _so_, _as_, in "when -_that_", "when _so_", "when _as_", seems to have tended to make the -relative more general and indefinite; "who so" being now nearly (and -once quite) as indefinite as "whosoever."... In this sense, by analogy, -_that_ was attached to other words, such as "if", "though", "why", -etc.--Abbott, S. G. Sec. 287. - -Cf. - - "If that rebellion - Came like itself, in base and abject routs." - - _Henry IV, Part_ II, IV, i, 32. - -The same construction appears in V, iii, 95. - -I, ii, 163. _Writ man_--i. e., wrote himself down as a man. - -I, ii, 170. _Granson_, _Morat_, _Nancy_--the "three memorable -overthrows" which Charles the Bold suffered at the hands of the Swiss -cantons and Duke Rene of Loraine. The battle of Granson took place -March 3, 1476; that of Morat, June 22, 1476; that of Nancy, January -5, 1477. On each occasion the army of Charles was annihilated; and -finally at Nancy he was himself slain. These defeats ended the power of -Burgundy. - -I, ii, 171. _The warlike Charloyes_--Charles the Bold, the Duke of -Burgundy. - -I, ii, 185. _Ill ayres_--noxious exhalations, miasma. - -I, ii, 194-5. _They are onely good men, that pay what they owe._ - - 2 Cred. _And so they are._ - - 1 Cred. _'Tis the City Doctrine._ - -Cf. Shakespeare in _The Merchant of Venice_, I, iii, 12 ff.: - - "_Shy._ Antonio is a good man. - - _Bass._ Have you heard any imputation to the contrary? - - _Shy._ Ho, no, no, no, no! My meaning in saying he is a good man is - to have you understand me that he is sufficient." - -I, ii, 201. _right_--so in all texts. With this word the meaning is -perfectly plain, but the substitution, in its place, of _weight_ would -better sustain the figure used in the preceding line. _Weight_ is a -word which it is not unlikely the printer would mis-read from the Ms. -as _right_. - -I, ii, 207. _in your danger_--regularly, "in your power", "at your -mercy"; so here, "in your debt". - -I, ii, 245. _As_--used here in its demonstrative meaning, to introduce -a parenthetical clause. Cf. Abbott, S. G. Sec. 110. - -II, i, 13. _sits_--the common Elizabethan 3rd. person plural in _s_, -generally and without warrant altered by modern editors. See Abbott, -S. G. Sec. 333. Cf. _keepes_, V, ii, 37. - -II, i, 28. _was--monies_ is taken in the collective sense. - -II, i, 46. _interd a liuely graue_--i. e., _enter'd a lively_ -[_living_] _grave_. G., who first prints it so, considers he has made a -change in the first word, taking it in the Q. for _interr'd_, as does -M., who suggests in a footnote the reading: _enters alive the grave_. -But _interd_ may be, and is best, taken as merely an old spelling for -_enter'd_, naturally attracted to the _i_-form by the presence of the -word _interment_ in the preceding line. - -II, i, 63. _Remember best, forget not gratitude_--ellipsis for: -_Remember best who forget not gratitude_. Modern usage confines the -omission of the relative mostly to the objective. In Eliz. Eng., -however, the nominative relative was even more frequently omitted, -especially when the antecedent clause was emphatic and evidently -incomplete, and where the antecedent immediately preceded the verb to -which the relative would be subject. See Abbott, S. G., Sec. 244. - -Cf. III, i, 134-5; i, 139; i, 332; IV, ii, 61. - -II, i, 65. _viperous_--according to various classical authorities -[e. g., Pliny, X, 82], the young of vipers eat their way forth to light -through the bowels of their dam. The figure here seems to be somewhat -confused, as the dead hero is the _son_ of the country, his mother, -who devours _him_. The thought, perhaps, in the mind of the dramatist, -albeit ill-expressed, was that the mother-country owed her existence to -her son, and, viper-like had devoured the author of her life. - -II, i, 66. _eate_--owing to the tendency to drop the inflectional -ending _-en_, the Elizabethans frequently used the curtailed forms of -past participles, which are common in Early English: "I have spoke, -forgot, writ, chid," etc.--Abbott, S. G., Sec. 343. Cf. _broke_, II, ii, -27; _spoke_, III, i, 3; _begot_, IV, iv, 154; 170. - -II, i, 83. _golden calf_--the figure, from its immediate application -to _a dolt of great wealth_, is transferred to the false god whom the -children of Israel worshipped at the foot of Mount Sinai. - -II, i, 93-4. _Would they not so_, etc.--the Q. reading is to be -preferred to either of the modern emendations. It is probably in the -sense of "Would they no more but so?", with the ensuing declaration -that in that case they would keep their tears to stop (fill?) bottles -(probably meaning lachrimatories or phials used in ancient times for -the preservation of tears of mourning). - -II, i, 98-9. _Y'are ne're content, Crying nor laughing_--The meaning -is, of course: "You are never content with us, whether we are crying or -laughing." - -II, i, 100. _Both with a birth_--i. e., both together, at the same time. - -II, i, 137. _Burmudas_--The Bermuda islands, known only through the -tales of early navigators who suffered shipwreck there, enjoyed a -most unsavory reputation in Elizabethan times, as being the seat of -continual tempests, and the surrounding waters "a hellish sea for -thunder, lightning, and storms." Cf. Shakespeare, _The Tempest_, I, ii, -269: "the still-vexed Bermoothes." They were said to be enchanted, and -inhabited by witches and devils. They were made famous by the shipwreck -there in 1609 of Sir George Somers; the following year one of his -party, Sil. Jordan, published _A Discovery of the Bermudas, otherwise -called the Isle of Devils_. - -Field has another reference to "the Barmuthoes" in _Amends for Ladies_, -III, iv; but there it is not clear whether he means the islands or -certain narrow passages north of Covent Garden, which went by the slang -name of "the Bermudas" or "the Streights." It _is_ in this latter sense -that the word is used in Jonson's _The Devil is an Ass_, II, i. - -II, i, 139. _Exact the strictnesse_--i. e., require a strict -enforcement of the sentence which limits Charalois to the confines of -the prison. - -II, i, 144. _vsurers relief_, etc.--a rather awkward expression, so -phrased for the sake of the end-scene rhyme. The thought seems to be: -"The relief which usurers have to offer mourns, if the debtors have -(exhibit) too much grief." Charalois' remark is, of course, ironical. - -II, ii, 10. _electuary_--a medicinal conserve or paste, consisting of -a powder or some other ingredient mixed with honey, preserve, or syrup -of some other kind. Beaumelle means that Florimal is the medicine and -Bellapert the sweet which makes it palatable. - -II, ii, 17. _serue_--G. and S. read _served_, which is certainly -correct. Not only is there nothing throughout the play to suggest that -Beaumelle's mother is still alive, but she herself has just spoken of -"you two my women" (l. 11). - -II, ii, 18. _a peepe out_--a "pip" [old spelling _peepe_] is one of the -spots on playing cards, dice, or dominoes. The allusion is to a game of -cards called "one-and-thirty"; thirty-two is a pip too many. - -II, ii, 21-2. _the mother of the maydes_--a title properly applied to -the head of the maids of honour in a Royal household. - -II, ii, 22. _mortifie_--there is a significant ambiguity to the word -Bellapert uses. It means "bring into subjection," "render dead to the -world and the flesh;" it formerly had also a baleful meaning: "to -kill;" "to destroy the vitality, vigor, or activity of." - -II, ii, 32. _vanuable, to make you thus--valuable_ is used in its -generic sense of _value-able_, _of sufficient value_. - -II, ii, 71. _turn'd in her varieties_--G., S. read: _trimm'd in her -varieties_--i. e., "decked in her varieties [varied aspects]." But -adherence to the Q. is possible, with the meaning, "fashioned in her -varieties." - -II, ii, 82. _walkes not vnder a weede_--i. e., "wears not a garment," -"is not in existence." - -II, ii, 88. _Tissue_--a rich kind of cloth, often interwoven with gold -or silver. So again in II, ii, 175. - -II, ii, 89. _a three-leg'd lord_--the meaning is that Young Novall -cannot independently "stand upon his own legs," but requires the triple -support of himself, Liladam, and Aymer. - -II, ii, 96. _musicke house_--a public hall or saloon for musical -performances. - -II, ii, 99-100. _in the Galley foyst_, etc.--a Galley-foist was a state -barge, especially that of the Lord Mayor of London. This, however, can -hardly be the meaning of the word here, used as it is in connection -with _Bullion_, which were trunk-hose, puffed out at the upper part, -in several folds; and with _Quirpo_, a variant of _cuerpo_--i. e., _in -undress_. "Galley-foist" may be the name of some dress of the period, -so-called for its resemblance to the gaily bedecked Mayor's-barge. But -it is not unlikely, as Mason suggests, that _The Galley-foist_ and _The -Bullion_ were the names of taverns of that day; or else of houses of -public resort for some kind of amusement. - -II, ii, 104. _skip_--so in all texts. But Field has elsewhere (_Woman -is a Weathercock_, II, i.): "and then my lord ... casts a suit every -quarter, which I _slip_ into." It is probable that the word was the -same in both passages,--though whether _skip_ or _slip_ I have no means -of determining. - -II, ii, 119. _St Omers_--more properly, _St. Omer_, a town of northern -France. A College of Jesuits was located there, and the point of -Novall's comparison is perhaps an allusion to the mean appearance of -Jesuit spies who would come from thence to England on some pretext, -such as to see their friends during the Christmas season. - -II, ii, 122. _ly'n perdieu_--"to lie perdu" is properly a military -term for, "to be placed as a sentinel or outpost," especially in an -exposed position. _Ly'n_ is one of the many obsolete forms of the past -participle of the verb "to lie." - -II, ii, 125. _tye my hand_--i. e., tie the ribbon-strings which -depended from the sleeve over the hand. - -II, ii, 163. _slight neglect_--contemptuous disrespect. - -II, ii, 174. _bile_--all editors after the Q. read _boil_. _Bile_ was -an old spelling for _boil_; but in the other sense, one of the "four -humours" of medieval physiology, the passage is perfectly clear, and -the figure perhaps even more effective. - -II, ii, 186. _eager relish_--acrid taste. The figure is that the law in -itself is often like a sharp and bitter flavor, but that a good judge -will sweeten this. - -II, ii, 250 _s. d._ _Drawes a Curtayne_--the curtain of the alcove or -back-stage, within which was placed the "treasure," thus to be revealed. - -II, ii, 298. _in which yours_--i. e., "because of the fact of her being -yours." - -II, ii, 301. _for poore and worthlesse I--I_ for _me_, like other -irregularities in pronominal inflection, was not infrequent in -Elizabethan times. Cf. Abbott, S. G., Sec. 205. - -II, ii, 326. _Curtius-like_--like Marcus Curtius, legendary hero of -ancient Rome. See Livy, vii, 6. - -II, ii, _final s. d._ _while the Act is playing_--i. e., while the -interlude music is played, at the close of the Act. - -III, i, 18. _relish_--a trace or tinge of some quality, a -suggestion.--In III, i, 20: _a flavor_; or, if read with the Q.'s -punctuation, a verb: _give a relish_. It appears preferable, however, -to take the passage as punctuated by G., S., which makes _relish_ a -noun. - -III, i, 29. _take me with you_--understand me. - -III, i, 37. _sudden_--adv. for _suddenly_. The _-ly_ suffix was -frequently omitted in Elizabethan times. - -III, i, 45. _Such as are faire_, etc.--the connection goes back to -l. 42, Bellapert taking up again the thread of her remark which -Novall's objection and her summary answer thereto had broken in upon. - -III, i, 120. _Christian_--probably used here in the colloq. sense -of: _a human being_, as distinguished from a brute; a "decent" or -"respectable" person. Cf. Shakespeare, _Twelfth Night_, I, iii, 89: -"Methinks ... I have no more wit than a Christian, or an ordinary man -has." - -III, i, 122. _The entertaiment of your visitation_--i. e., the -entertainment which your visit received. - -III, i, 123. _on_ [old spelling for _one_]--i. e., a visitation. - -III, i, 126. _Muske-cat_--the civet-cat; applied as a term of contempt -to a fop, as being a person perfumed with musk. - -III, i, 139. _there is now speaks to you_--G., S. omit _is_, at the -same time clearing the construction and securing a more regular metre. -The Q. reading, however, is perfectly possible, as an ellipsis, by -omission of the subject relative, for, _there is that now speaks to -you_ [i. e., _there is now speaking to you_], or even, by a change of -punctuation, _there is--now speaks to you_--, etc. - -III, i, 148. _As Caesar, did he liue, could not except at_--see -Plutarch's _Life of Julius Caesar_, Chapters 9 & 10, wherein it -is narrated how Caesar divorced his wife, Pompeia, when scandal -assailed her name, although he denied any knowledge as to her guilt; -"'Because' said he, 'I would have the chastity of my wife clear even of -suspicion.'" - -III, i, 148. _except at_--take exception at. - -III, i, 159. _pointed_--all editors after the Q. read _painted_, an -absolutely unnecessary and unwarranted emendation. _Pointed_ means -"fitted or furnished with tagged points or laces;" "wearing points;" -"laced." Cf. Maurice Hewlett's novel, _The Queen's Quair_, p. 83: -"saucy young men, trunked, puffed, pointed, trussed and doubleted." -Huloet in his Dictionary (1552) has: "Poynted, or tyed with poynts, -_ligulatus_." - -III, i, 167. _This pretty rag_--i. e., the "clout" mentioned in II, ii, -123. - -III, i, 173. _in spite of_--in scorn of, in defiance of. - -III, i, 184. _thy_--so the Q. All later editors read _this_. It is not -impossible, of course, that Romont should begin an oath "By thy hand," -and Beaumelle flash back at him "And sword," transferring the _thy_ -from herself to him. But Romont would be more likely to swear by his -own hand than by Beaumelle's. - -III, i, 188. _cast suburb whores_--prostitutes who had been cashiered -from service. Houses of ill-fame were customarily located in the -suburbs. - -III, i, 191. _legion_--i. e., of evil spirits. Cf. _Mark_, v, 9. - -III, i, 193. _horne-mad_--the word was originally applied to horned -beasts, in the sense: "enraged so as to horn any one;" hence of -persons: "stark mad," "mad with rage," "furious." By word-play it -acquires its sense in the present passage. "mad with rage at having -been made a cuckold." - -III, i, 202. _yellow_--this color was regarded as a token or symbol of -jealousy. - -III, i, 211. _Carted_--carried in a cart through the streets, by way of -punishment or public exposure (especially as the punishment of a bawd). - -III, i, 261. _in distance_--within reach, in striking distance. - -III, i, 331. _as it would tire--as_ appears to be used for _as if_; in -reality the _if_ is implied in the (conditional) subjunctive.--Abbott, -S. G., Sec. 107. - -III, i, 331. _a beadle_--it was one of the duties of a beadle to whip -petty offenders. - -III, i, 352. _So I not heard them_--Abbott explains this construction, -not uncommon in the Elizabethan period, as an omission of the auxiliary -verb "do" (S. G. Sec. 305). But here the main verb is _heard_, whereas, -according to his explanation, grammar would require _hear_. May not the -construction be better taken as a simple, though to our ears cumbrous, -inversion of, _So I heard them not_? - -III, i, 366. _cause_--affair, business--so also in III, i, 377. - -III, i, 388. _Calenture_--a disease incident to sailors within the -tropics; a burning fever. - -III, i, 428-9. _flegme ... choller_--in the old physiologies the -predominance of the "humour, phlegm," was held to cause constitutional -indolence or apathy,--the predominance of "choler" to cause -irascibility. - -III, i, 432. _'em_--grammatical precision would require _him_, as is -substituted in M., f. In Field's rapid, loose style, however, a change -of construction in mid-sentence is not improbable, and the Q. reading -may very well reproduce accurately what he wrote. - -III, i, 441. _thou curious impertinent_--the epithet is from _The -Curious Impertinent_ of Cervantes, a story imbedded in _Don Quixote, -Part I_. - -III, i, 463. _I not accuse_--cf. note on l. 354. - -III, i, 467. _Ere liue--Ere I should live_ is required in full by -strict grammar, but Field's verse is frequently elliptical. Gifford's -emendation to _lived_ for the sake of grammatical regularity, which is -followed by all later editors, is unwarranted. - -III, i, 467. _mens marginall fingers_--the figure is an allusion to -the ancient custom of placing an index hand in the margin of books, -to direct the reader's attention to a striking passage. So does -Romont picture men's fingers pointing to the story of Charalois as a -noteworthy and lamentable thing. Cf. IV, i, 56. - -III, i, 469-470. _An Emperour put away his wife for touching Another -man._--The source of this allusion is not apparent. Can it be a -perversion in the mind of Field of the story of Caesar's divorce of his -wife, to which Massinger has already referred above (l. 148)? - -IV, i, 3. _a flaxe_--the flax wick of a lamp or candle. - -IV, i, 3. _a red headed womans chamber_--Since early times red-haired -individuals have been supposed to emit an emanation having a powerful -sexually exciting influence. In the Romance countries, France and -Italy, this belief is universally diffused.--Iwan Block: _The Sexual -Life of our Time_--transl. by Eden Paul--p. 622. - -Cf. also Gabrielle D'Annunzio: _Il Piacere_, p. 90: - - "'Have you noticed the armpits of Madame Chrysoloras? Look!'" - - "The Duke di Beffi indicated a dancer, who had upon her brow, white - as a marble of Luni, a firebrand of red tresses, like a priestess - of Alma Tadema. Her bodice was fastened on the shoulders by mere - ribbons, and there were revealed beneath the armpits two luxuriant - tufts of red hair. - - "Bomminaco began to discourse upon the peculiar odour which - red-haired women have." - -IV, i, 13. _Cell_--so in the Q. and all later texts. Yet the word is -utterly unsatisfactory to the sense of the passage; it should almost -certainly be _coil_--i. e., tumult, confusion, fuss, ado. Cf. Field in -_Amends for Ladies_, II, iv: "Here's a coil with a lord and his sister." - -IV, i, 23. _a lace_--a trimming of lace. - -IV, i, 27. _pickadille_--the expansive collar fashionable in the early -part of the seventeenth century. - -IV, i, 27. _in puncto_--in point; i. e., in proper condition, in order. - -IV, i, 32. _Iacobs staffe_--an instrument formerly used for measuring -the altitude of the sun; a cross-staff. - -IV, i, 32. _Ephimerides_--a table showing the positions of a heavenly -body for a series of successive days. - -IV, i, 39-40. _if he would but cut the coate according to the cloth -still_--"to cut one's coat after one's cloth" was: "to adapt one's -self to circumstances;" "to measure expense by income." The point of -its employment here is not plain; it is doubtful if anything were -very clear in Field's own mind, who was merely trying to hit off an -epigrammatical phrase. Perhaps, "make the coat match the man." - -IV, i, 72. _Narcissus-like_--like Narcissus, in classic myth. See Ovid, -_Meta._, iii, 341-510. - -IV, i, 72. _should_--G., f. read _shouldst_, but the breach of -agreement between subject and verb is to be explained by the attraction -of the verb to the third person by the interposed _Narcissus-like_; -just as four lines further on we find _shouldst_ for _should_, because -of the similar intrusion between subject and verb of (_but thy selfe -sweete Lord_). - -IV, i, 92. _a Barber Surgeon_--formerly the barber was also a regular -practitioner in surgery and dentistry. Cf. Beaumont & Fletcher, _The -Knight of the Burning Pestle_, III, iv. - -IV, i, 96. _ouerthrowne_--M., f. read _overflown_, i. e., become -excessive or inordinate; so full that the contents run over the -brim. The reading of the Q., however, is quite intelligible,--taking -_overthrown_ in the sense of _thrown too strongly_. - -IV, i, 135. _Colbran_--more properly _Colbrand_ or _Collebrand_, a -wicked giant in the medieval romance of Guy of Warwick. He is the -champion of the invading King of Denmark, who challenges the English -King, Athelstan, to produce a knight who can vanquish Colbrand, or to -yield as his vassal. In this hour of need Guy appears, fights with the -giant, and kills him. - -IV, i, 137. _hee'l make some of you smoake_,--i. e., "make some of you -_suffer_." Cf. Beaumont & Fletcher, _The Knight of the Burning Pestle_, -I, ii, 136: "I'll make some of 'em smoke for't;" and Shakespeare, -_Titus Andronicus_, IV, iii, 111: "Or some of you shall smoke for it in -Rome." - -IV, i, 138. _a Consort_--"In the author's age, the taverns were -infested with itinerant bands of musicians, each of which (jointly and -individually) was called a noise or _consort_: these were sometimes -invited to play for the company, but seem more frequently to have -thrust themselves, unasked, into it, with an offer of their services: -their intrusion was usually prefaced with, 'By your leave, gentlemen, -will you hear any music?'"--Gifford. - -IV, i, 145. _of_--formerly sometimes substituted, as here, for _on_ in -colloquial usage. So also _on_ for _of_, as in l. 148. Cf. also l. 182. - -IV, i, 197-8. _'tis Fairies treasure Which but reueal'd brings on the -blabbers ruine._--To confide in any one about a fairy's gift rendered -it void, according to popular tradition, and drew down the fairy -giver's anger. In instance, see John Aubrey's _Remains_ (Reprinted in -_Publications of the Folk-Lore Society_, vol. IV, p. 102): "Not far -from Sir Bennet Hoskyns, there was a labouring man, that rose up early -every day to go to worke; who for a good while many dayes together -found a nine-pence in the way that he went. His wife wondering how he -came by so much money, was afraid he gott it not honestlye; at last he -told her, and afterwards he never found any more." - -There are numerous literary allusions to this superstition: e. g., -Shakespeare, _The Winter's Tale_, III, iii, 127, ff.: "This is fairy -gold, boy; and 'twill prove so. Up with't, keep it close.... We are -lucky, boy; and to be so still requires nothing but secrecy." - -And Field himself in _Woman is a Weathercock_, I, i: - - "I see you labour with some serious thing, - And think (like fairy's treasure) to reveal it, - Will cause it vanish." - -IV, i, 210-1. _louers periury_, etc.--that Jove laughed at and -overlooked lovers' perjuries was a familiar proverb. Cf. Massinger, -_The Parliament of Love_, C-G. 192 a: "Jupiter and Venus smile At -lovers' perjuries;" and Shakespeare, _Romeo and Juliet_, II, ii, 92: -"at lovers' perjuries, They say, Jove laughs." The saying goes back to -Ovid's _Art of Love_, book I;--as Marlowe has translated it: - - "For Jove himself sits in the azure skies, - And laughs below at lovers' perjuries." - -IV, ii, 71. _On all aduantage take thy life_--i. e., "Taking every -advantage of you, kill you." - -IV, ii, 84. Such whose bloods wrongs, or wrong done to -_themselues_--the Q.'s regular omission of the possessive apostrophe -has in this instance confused later editors in their understanding of -the passage. We would write _blood's_,--with the meaning: "Those whom -wrongs to kindred or to themselves," etc. - -IV, iii, 12. _so_--there is no direct antecedent, but one is easily -understandable from the general sense of what precedes; _to be -so_--i. e., "as you were in thankfulness to the General." - -IV, iv, 10. _it_--another case of a pronoun with antecedent merely -implied in the general sense of what precedes; _it_ = "the fact that I -am not worthy the looking on, but only," etc. - -IV, iv, 30. _such defence_--i. e., "the defence of such a one." _Such_ -= qualis. - -IV, iv, 66. _To this_--i. e., to tears. - -IV, iv, 70. _those fam'd matrones_--cf. Massinger in _The Virgin -Martyr_, C-G. 33 a: - - "You will rise up with reverence, and no more, - As things unworthy of your thoughts, remember - What the canonized Spartan ladies were, - Which lying Greece so boasts of. Your own matrons, - Your Roman dames, whose figures you yet keep - As holy relics, in her history - Will find a second urn: Gracchus' Cornelia, - Paulina, that in death desired to follow - Her husband Seneca, nor Brutus' Portia, - That swallowed burning coals to overtake him, - Though all their several worths were given to one, - With this is to be mention'd." - -IV, iv, 112. _on it_--i. e., "on what you say." - -IV, iv, 156. _be_--"be" expresses more doubt than "is" after a verb of -_thinking_. Cf. Abbott, S. G., Sec. 299. - -V, i, 5. _lay me vp_--imprison me. - -V, i, 7. _varlets_--the name given to city bailiffs or sergeants. -Perhaps here, however, it is applied merely as a term of abuse. - -V, i, 9. _Innes of court man_--a member of one of the four Inns of -Court (The Inner Temple, The Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's -Inn), legal societies which served for the Elizabethan the function -which our law-schools perform to-day. Overbury says of the Inns of -Court Man, in his _Characters_: "Hee is distinguished from a scholler -by a pair of silk-stockings, and a beaver hat, which make him contemn -a scholler as much as a scholler doth a school-master.... He is as far -behind a courtier in his fashion, as a scholler is behind him.... He -laughs at every man whose band sits not well, or that hath not a faire -shoo-tie, and he is ashamed to be seen in any mans company that weares -not his clothes well. His very essence he placeth in his outside.... -You shall never see him melancholy, but when he wants a new suit, or -feares a sergeant...." - -V, i, 13. _coming forth_--appearance in court, or from prison. - -V, i, 28. _manchets_--small loaves or rolls of the finest wheaten -bread. There seems to have been a commonplace concerning the huge -quantities of bread devoured by tailors. Cf. l. 88 below, and Note. - -V, i, 31. _leaue swordmen_--i. e., swordmen (swaggering ruffians who -claim the profession of arms) _on leave_. It is possible, however, that -_leaue_ is a misprint (by inversion of a letter) for _leane_ = hungry. - -V, i, 83. _hangers_--not "short-swords", as in l. 31, but here -"pendants", perhaps a part of the hat-band hanging loose, or else loops -or straps on the swordbelt, often richly ornamented, from which the -sword was hung. Cf. Shakespeare, _Hamlet_, V, ii, 157-167. - -V, i, 83. _Hell_--a place under a tailor's shop-board, in which shreds -or pieces of cloth, cut off in the process of cutting clothes, are -thrown, and looked upon as perquisites. Cf. Overbury's _Characters, A -Taylor_: "Hee differeth altogether from God; for with him the best -pieces are still marked out for damnation, and without hope of recovery -shall be cast down into hell." - -V, i, 88. _Our breakefasts famous for the buttred loaues_--Cf. above -l. 28, and Note; also Glapthorne's _Wit in a Constable_, V, i: - - "as easily as a Taylor - Would do six hot loaves in a morning fasting, - And yet dine after." - -V, i, 90. _vse a conscience_--show or feel compunction; be -tender-hearted. - -V, i, 91. _hall_--a house or building belonging to a guild or -fraternity of merchants or tradesmen. At such places the business -of the respective guilds was transacted; and in some instances they -served as the market-houses for the sale of the goods of the associated -members. - -V, i, 97. _compleate Mounsieur_--perfect gentleman. - -V, i, 102. _pantofle_--slipper; here used figuratively for: the -shoe-maker's profession. - -V, ii, 27. _a barbarous Sythian_--Cf. Purchas' _Pilgrimage_ (ed. 1613, -p. 333): "They [The Scythians] cut off the noses of men, and imprinted -pictures in the flesh of women, whom they overcame: and generally -their customes of warre were bloudie: what man soever the Scythian -first taketh, he drinketh his bloud: he offereth to the King all the -heads of the men he hath slaine in battell: otherwise he may not share -in the spoile: the skinnes of their crownes flaid off, they hang at -their horse bridles: their skinnes they use to flay for napkins and -other uses, and some for cloathing.... These customes were generall to -the Scythians of Europe and Asia (for which cause _Scytharum facinora -patrare_, grew into a proverbe of immane crueltie, and their Land was -justly called Barbarous)." - -V, ii, 40. _made no hornes at me_--to "make horns" at any one was the -common method of taunting one with having horns,--i. e., with being a -cuckold. - -V, ii, 51. _made vp with_--set with the expression of. - -V, ii, 102. _by pieces_--in part. - -V, iii, 8.--Charmi's speech is addressed to Charalois, as is that of Du -Croy which follows it. - -V, iii, 18 ff.--M., f. insert _when_ after _that_ of l. 18. This is -probably the correct reading. It would be possible, however, to let -the line stand without alteration, if the _that_ of l. 20 be taken -as coordinate with the _that_ of l. 18, introducing a second clause -depending on _am sorry_ (instead of correlative with _so_ to introduce -a result-clause). With this reading, _left_ (l. 22) would be taken as -an ellipsis for _being left_; with the emended reading, for _was left_. -Though the construction is in doubt, the sense is easy. - -V, iii, 22. _vndermine_--an object, _it_, is understood,--i. e., _the -building of my life_. - -V, iii, 34. _her--its_ was rare in Elizabethan usage. Cf. Abbott, -S. G., Secs. 228, 229. - -V, iii, 46. _compassion of_--former obsolete construction for -"compassion for." Cf. Shakespeare, _Henry VI, Part I_, IV, i, 56; -"Mov'd with compassion of my country's wreck." - -V, iii, 59. _motion_--C., f. read _motion's_,--an uncalled-for -emendation, since ellipsis of _is_ was not infrequent. Cf. Shakespeare, -_Henry V_, IV, i, 197: "'Tis certain, every man that dies ill, the ill -[is] upon his own head." - -V, iii, 93. _and yet the fault kept from me_--loose construction, not -easily parsed, though the sense is clear. - -V, iii, 98. _As ... to vndergoe_--again a loose construction. It should -be, properly: _That ... he would undergo_, etc. - -V, iii, 107-9. _like the fatall gold_, etc.--In this passage the two -leaders of the Gauls known to history by the same name appear to be -confounded--(1): Brennus, who sacked Rome in 390 B. C., and consented -to withdraw after receiving a large ransom of gold;--and (2): Brennus, -who led the irruption of the Gauls into Greece in the second century -B. C., and attempted to despoil Delphi of its treasure, but did not -succeed in doing so. The fact that their respective expeditions are -said to have borne an immediate sequel of disaster and death for both -alike, may be responsible for the dramatist's mistake. - -V, iii, 131. _homicide_--formerly, as here, = _murderer_. - -V, iii, 139. _in way of_--in the manner of. - -V, iii, 144. _the hate betweene his house and mine_--cf. III, i, 416. - -V, iii, 166. _more presumptions_--C., f. read _mere presumptions_, -which is probably correct. An alternative possibility should be -noted, however: that _presumptions_ by mis-reading from the Ms. (or -by the mere inversion of a _u_) may be a mis-print for presumptious -(presumptuous) = _presumptive_, in which case _more_ would be retained, -with the passage to mean: "You must find other proofs to strengthen -these, and they must, moreover, be of a nature to give more reasonable -grounds for presumption." - -V, iii, 174-5.--The last two lines of Charalois' speech are addressed -to his judges; what preceded them to Novall. - -V, iii, 190. _bands_--the emendation _bawds_, proposed by Coxeter and -followed by all subsequent editors, seems almost surely correct. "Bawd" -prior to 1700 was a term applied to men as well as--and, indeed, more -frequently than--to women. Cf. Shakespeare, _Hamlet_, I, iii, 130. - -V, iii, 190. _tooke_--where the common Elizabethan custom of dropping -the _-en_ inflectional ending of the past participle rendered a -confusion with the infinitive liable, the past tense of the verb was -used for the participle. Cf. Abbott, S. G., Sec. 343. - -V, iii, 193. _this matron_--i. e., Florimel. - -V, iii, 205. _in Nouall_--i. e., "in the person of Novall." - -V, iii, 207. _Thy challenge now I answere_--this phrase would indicate -that Romont crosses swords with Pontalier, and after a moment of -fencing runs him through; instead of striking him unawares, as the -modern stage direction, "_Stabs Pontalier_," would imply. - -V, iii, 226. _these--i. e._, Aymer, Florimel, and Bellapert. - -_Court. Song_, l. 3. first--i. e., "in the front part of," to meet the -customers and be herself an attraction and an object of display, while -the husband remains "at tother end" (l. 8) of the store. - -_Court. Song_, l. 4.--This is a most unduly long line. It seems -probable that, in the Ms. from which the play was printed, the three -phrases, "A faire wife," "a kinde wife," and "a sweet wife," were -_three variant_ readings, which, by mistake, were _all_ incorporated in -the text. Any one of them used alone would give a perfectly normal line. - - - - -GLOSSARY - - -_affection_, bent, inclination, _penchant_. I, ii, 32. - -_allow_, command, approve. IV, i, 9. - -_answere_, correspond to. III, i, 82. - -_arrests_, stoppages, delays. III, i, 43. - -_author_, to be the author, of a statement; to state, declare, say. IV, -ii, 19. - - -_baffled_, disgraced, treated with contumely. IV, i, 112. - -_balm_, an aromatic preparation for embalming the dead. II, i, 79. - -_band_, a collar or ruff worn round the neck by man or woman. II, ii, -77; etc. - -_banquerout_, early spelling of _bankrupt_, which was originally _banke -rota_ (see N. E. D. for variants under _bankrupt_), from Italian _banca -rotta_, of which _banqueroute_ is the French adaptation. The modern -spelling, _bankrupt_, with the second part of the word assimilated to -the equivalent Latin _ruptus_, as in _abrupt_, etc., first appears in -1543. I, i, 127; ii, 88. - -_black_, a funereal drapery. II, i, 51; ii, 117. - -_brabler_, a quarrelsome fellow; a brawler. III, i, 358. - -_braue_, in loose sense of approbation, good, excellent, worthy, etc. -I, ii, 256; 292; etc. - -_bumfiddles_, beats, thumps. IV, i, 140. - - -_cabinet_, a secret receptacle; a jewel-box. II, ii, 34. - -_canniball_, a strong term of abuse for "blood-thirsty savage." IV, iv, -185. - -_Caroch_, coach. II, ii, 28; IV, ii, 95. - -_case_, exterior; skin or hide of an animal, or garments--hence, -perhaps, _disguise_. V, i, 73. - -_censure_, a judicial sentence. I, ii, 53.--in the sense of _sentence -to punishment_. II, ii, 166; 172. - -_chalenge_, demand. V, ii, 88. - -_change_, exchange. III, i, 117.--_chang'd_, I, i, 66. - -_charges_, expenses. I, ii, 191. - -_charitable_, benevolent, kindly, showing Christian charity. I, i, 117. - -_circumstance_, the adjuncts of a fact which make it more or less -criminal. V, iii, 52. - -_close_, close-fitting. IV, i, 124. - -_cold_, unimpassioned, deliberate. V, ii, 86. - -_coloured_, specious. III, i, 139. - -_comely_, becoming, proper, decorous. III, i, 163. - -_complement_, observing of ceremony in social relations; formal -civility, politeness. III, i, 439. - -_conference_, subject of conversation. II, ii, 139. - -_conscious_, inwardly sensible of wrong-doing. III, i, 353.--aware. V, -ii, 67. - -_consists_, lies, has its place. III, i, 489. - -_courtesie_, generosity, benevolence. V, iii, 73. - -_Courtship_, courteous behavior, courtesy. III, i, 276; 439. - -_credits_, reputations, good name. I, ii, 67. - -_curiosity_, elegance of construction. II, ii, 67. - -_curious_, careful, studious, solicitous. IV, i, 102.--made with art or -care; elaborately or beautifully wrought; fine; "nice". _Cit. Song._ -l. 5. - - -_dag_, a kind of heavy pistol or hand-gun. IV, i, 170 _s. d._ - -_debate_, strife, dissension, quarreling. III, i, 443. - -_decent_, becoming, appropriate, fitting. I, ii, 77. - -_defeatures_, defeats. I, ii, 177. - -_demonstrauely_, in a manner that indicates clearly or plainly. IV, i, -55. - -_deserued_, deserving. II, ii, 189. - -_determine_, decree. II, ii, 172. - -_detract_, disparage, traduce, speak evil of. I, ii, 271. - -_dis-become_, misbecome, be unfitting for or unworthy of. V, iii, 47. - -_discouery_, revelation, disclosure. III, i, 91; V, iii, 194. - -_distaste_, estrangement, quarrel. IV, ii, 1.--offence. V, iii, 15. - -_doubtfull_, fearful, apprehensive. IV, ii, 88. - -_doubts_, apprehensions. III, i, 246. - - -_earth'd_, buried. II, i, 126. - -_edify_, gain instruction; profit, in a spiritual sense. IV, i, 62. - -_engag'd_, obliged, attached by gratitude. III, i, 242. - -_engender_, copulate. III, i, 423. - -_engine_, device, artifice, plot. III, i, 157. - -_ensignes_, signs, tokens, characteristic marks. I, i, 144. - -_entertaine_, accept. V, ii, 82. - -_entertainment_, provision for the support of persons in -service--especially soldiers; pay, wages. I, ii, 188. - -_ernest_, a sum of money paid as an installment to secure a contract. -V, i, 44. - -_except against_, take exception against. IV, iii, 19. - -_exhaust_, "draw out"; not as to-day, "use up completely." II, i, 103. - -_expression_, designation. V, i, 33. - - -_factor_, one who has the charge and manages the affairs of an estate; -a bailiff, land-steward. I, ii, 135. Cf. Shakespeare, _Henry IV, Part -I_, III, ii, 147: "Percy is but my factor," etc. - -_familiar_, well acquainted. I, i, 3. - -_feares_, fears for. IV, ii, 89. - -_fit_, punish; visit with a fit penalty. III, i, 253. - -_forespake_, foretold, predicted. III, i, 251. - -_fortunes_, happens, chances, occurs. V, ii, 16. - - -_gallimaufry_, contemptuous term for "a man of many accomplishments"; a -ridiculous medley; a hodge-podge. II, ii, 95. - -_gamesters_, those addicted to amorous sport. III, i, 33. - -_Geometrician_, one who measures the earth or land; a land-surveyor. -IV, i, 21. - -_get_, beget. I, ii, 246. - -_gigglet_, a lewd, wanton woman. III, i, 308. - - -_honestie_, honorable character, in a wide, general sense. To the -Elizabethan it especially connoted _fidelity_, _trustiness_. II, i, 115. - -_horslock_, a shackle for a horse's feet; hence applied to any hanging -lock; a padlock. IV, i, 78. - -_humanity_, learning or literature concerned with human culture: a -term including the various branches of polite scholarship, as grammar, -rhetoric, poetry, and esp. the study of the ancient Latin and Greek -classics. II, i, 3. - -_humour_, used here in the specific Jonsonian sense of a dominating -trait or mood. I, i, 124; ii, 31. - - -_imployments_, services (to a person). I, ii, 28. - -_individually_, indivisibly, inseparably. II, ii, 316. - -_Infanta_, the title properly applied to a daughter of the King and -Queen of Spain or Portugal. IV, i, 75. - -_issues_, actions, deeds. II, ii, 198. - - -_kinde_, agreeable, pleasant, winsome. _Court. Song._ l. 4. - - -_Lard_, an obsolete form of _Lord_. IV, i, 2. Cf. Congreve, _Old -Bach._, II, iii: "Lard, Cousin, you talk oddly." - -_League_, probably used for _Leaguer_ (so emended by M., f.): a -military camp, especially one engaged in a siege. III, i, 175. - -_learnd_, informed. III, i, 156. - -_legge_, an obeisance made by drawing back one leg and bending the -other; a bow, scrape. III, i, 124. - -_lively_, _living_. II, i, 46.--gay, full of life. II, ii, -76.--life-like. II, ii, 232. - - -_map_, embodiment, incarnation. II, ii, 136. Cf. H. Smith, _Sinf. Man's -Search_, Six Sermons: "What were man if he were once left to himselfe? -A map of misery." - -_mome_, blockhead, dolt, fool. Court. Song, l. 13. - -_monument_, sepulchre. I, ii, 212. - -_moue_, urge, appeal to, make a request to. IV, iv, 11. - - -_next_, shortest, most convenient or direct. V, i, 37. - -_nice_, petty, insignificant, trifling. III, i, 442. - -_note_, show forth; demonstrate. III, i, 504. - - -_Obiect_, bring forward in opposition as an adverse reason, or by way -of accusation. IV, iv, 174. - -_obnoxious_, liable, exposed, open, vulnerable. III, i, 354. - -_obsequious_, prompt to serve or please, dutiful. V, iii, 90. - -_obseruers_, those who show respect, deference, or dutiful attention; -obsequious followers. IV, iv, 43. - -_Orphants_, obsolete corrupt form of _Orphans_. I, ii, 206. It survives -in dialect. Cf. James Whitcomb Riley's _Little Orphant Annie_. - -_overcome_, usually, "conquer", "prevail"; but here, "out-do", -"surpass". I, i, 187. - - -_parts_, function, office, business, duty. Formerly used in the plural, -as here, though usually when referring to a number of persons. I, i, 9; -ii, 9; V. iii, 39.--qualities. IV, iv, 105. - -_pious_, used in the arch. sense of _dutiful_. I, i, 101. - -_practicke_, practical work or application; practice as opposed to -theory. II, i, 2. - -_Praecipuce_ (mis-print for _precipice_), a precipitate or headlong -fall or descent, especially to a great depth. III, i, 464. - -_presently_, immediately, quickly, promptly. IV, iv, 89. - -_president_ [variant of _precedent_], example, instance, illustration. -V, iii, 226. - -_preuent_, anticipate. I, i, 64; ii, 17; IV, ii, 32. - -_Prouince_, duty, office, function; branch of the government. I, ii, 23. - -_punctual_, punctilious, careful of detail. IV, i, 42. - -_purl_, the pleat or fold of a ruff or band; a frill. II, ii, 77. - - -_quick_, alive. I, ii, 178. - - -_Ram-heads_, cuckolds. II, i, 31. - -_recent_, fresh. II, i, 19. - -_roaring_, riotous, bullying, hectoring. IV, i, 203. - - -_sawcily_, formerly a word of more serious reprobation than in modern -usage: "with presumptuous insolence." I, ii, 106. - -_scandall_, to spread scandal concerning; to defame. I, ii, 58. - -_sect_, class, order. V, i, 79. - -_seene_, experienced, versed. III, i, 268. - -_seruant_, a professed lover; one who is devoted to the service of a -lady. II, ii, 40; etc. - -_seruice_, the devotion of a lover. III, i, 81; IV, iv, 107. - -_set forth_, adorned. IV, iv, 106. - -_skills_, signifies, matters. I, ii, 286. - -_snort_, snore. _Court. Song._ l. 12. - -_soft_, tender-hearted, pitiful. II, i, 23. - -_sooth'd_, assented to; humoured by agreement or concession. V, i, 55. - -_Spittle_, hospital. III, i, 210. Cf. Shakespeare, _Henry V_, II, i, -78; V, i, 86. - -_spleene_, caprice. I, i, 49. - -_state_, estate. II, ii, 294; III, i, 24; IV, iv, 178; V, iii, 119. - -_submisse_, submissive. I, i, 179. - - -_take_, charm, captivate. I, ii, 206. - -_taske_, take to task; censure, reprove, chide, reprehend = _tax_. I, -ii, 64. - -_temper_, temperateness, calmness of mind, self-restraint. V, iii, 40. - -_theorique_, theory; theoretical knowledge, as opposed to practice. II, -i, 2. - -_Thrift_, here used in the old sense of _prosperity_ or _success_. I, -i, 170. - -_toyes_, whims, caprices, trifles. III, i, 442. - - -_vncivil_, unrefined, ill-bred, not polished. III, i, 490. - -_vailes_, perquisites. V, i, 83. - -_Visitation_, visit. II, ii, 310. - - -_wagtaile_, a term of familiarity and contempt; a wanton. II, ii, 7. - -_where_, whereas. I, i, 71. - -_wittoll_, a man who knows of his wife's infidelity and submits to it; -a submissive cuckold. V, iii, 99. - -_wreake_, vengeance, revenge. IV, iv, 183; V, ii, 43. - - - - -BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE - - -The Quarto, and the various modern editions and translations of _The -Fatal Dowry_ have already been recorded in the opening pages of the -INTRODUCTION. In the editions there noted of the collected works of -Massinger will be found all the plays which bear his name. (_Believe As -You List_ appears only in Cunningham's edition of Gifford and in the -Mermaid Series' _Massinger_.) Field's two independent plays, _Woman is -a Weathercock_ (Q. 1612) and _Amends for Ladies_ (Q's. 1618, 1639), -were reprinted by J. P. Collier, London, 1829. They are included in -Thomas White's _Old English Dramas_, London, 1830; in W. C. Hazlitt's -edition of Dodsley's _Old English Plays_, London, Reeves and Turner, -1875; and in the Mermaid Series volume, _Nero and Other Plays_, with -an Introduction by A. W. Verity, London and New York, 1888. All other -extant dramas in which either Massinger or Field had a share may be -found in any edition of the collected works of Beaumont & Fletcher, -with the exception of _Sir John van Olden Barnavelt_, which appears in -vol. II of Bullen's _Old Plays_, London, Weyman and Sons, 1883. - -The stage version of _The Fatal Dowry_ by Sheil is printed in _French's -Acting Edition_, vol. 9. Of the related plays, _The Lady's Trial_ and -_The Fair Penitent_ may be found in all editions of the collected works -respectively of John Ford and Nicholas Rowe; _The Fair Penitent_ is -also published along with Rowe's _Jane Shore_ in the Belles Lettres -Series, 1907. For _The Insolvent_, see _The Dramatic Works of Aaron -Hill, Esq._, 2 vols., 1760. DER GRAF VON CHAROLAIS _ein Trauerspiel von -Richard Beer-Hofmann_ is printed by S. Fischer, Berlin, 1906. - -The following works have bearing upon the play or its authors: - - Beck, C.: _Phil. Massinger_, THE FATALL DOWRY. _Einleitung zu einer - neuen Ausgabe_. Beyreuth, 1906. - - Boyle, R.: _Beaumont, Fletcher and Massinger_. Englische Studien, - vol. V. - - CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, THE,--vol. VI. Cambridge, - 1910. - - Courthope, W. J.: _A History of English Poetry_, vol. IV. Macmillan, - 1903. - - Cumberland: His famous comparison of _The Fatal Dowry_ with _The - Fair Penitent_, which originally appeared in _The Observer_, Nos. - LXXVII-LXXIX, is reprinted in Gifford's Edition of Massinger. - - DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY--_Field_, by J. Knight; _Massinger_, - by R. Boyle. - - Fleay, F. G.: _A Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama_ - (1559-1642). 2 vols. London. Reeves and Turner. 1891. - - _Annals of the Career of Nathaniel Field_. Englische Studien, vol. - XIII. - - Genest, John: _Some Account of the English Stage from the Restoration - in 1660 to 1830_. 10 vols. Bath, 1832. - - Gosse, E. W.: _The Jacobean Poets_. (Univ. Series). Scribner's, 1894. - - Koeppel, E.: _Quelenstudien zu den Dramen George Chapman's, Philip - Massinger's und John Ford's_. Strassburg. 1897. - - Murray, John Tucker: _English Dramatic Companies_ (1558-1642). 2 - vols. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1910. - - Oliphant, E. F.: _The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher_. Englische - Studien, vols. XIV-XVI. [This is not concerned with _The Fatal - Dowry_, but contains inquiry into other collaboration work of - Massinger and Field in plays of the period, with an analysis of the - distinctive characteristics of Massinger (XIV, 71-6) and the same for - Field (XV, 330-1).] - - Phelan, James: _On Philip Massinger_. Halle. 1878. Reprinted in - _Anglia_, vol. II, 1879. - - Schelling, F. E.: _Elizabethan Drama_. 2 vols. Houghton, Mifflin & - Co. 1908. - - Schwarz, F. H.: _Nicholas Rowe's_ FAIR PENITENT. A Contribution to - Literary Analysis. _With a Side-reference to Richard Beer-Hofmann's_ - GRAF VON CHAROLAIS. Berne. 1907. - - Stephens, Sir Leslie: _Philip Massinger_. The Cornhill Magazine. - Reprinted in _Hours in a Library_, Third Series. 1879. - - Swinburne, A. C.: _Philip Massinger_. The Fortnightly Review. July, - 1889. - - Thorndike, Ashley H.: _Tragedy_. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1908. - - Ward, A. W.: _A History of English Dramatic Literature_. 3 vols. - Macmillan. 1899. - - Wurzbach, W. von: _Philip Massinger_. Shakesp. Jahrb., vols. XXXV and - XXXVI. - - - - -Footnotes: Preface and Introduction - - -[1] Fleay (_Chron. Eng. Dra._, I, 208) thinks that the otherwise lost -Massinger play, _The Judge_, licensed by Herbert in 1627, and included -in the list of Warburton's collection, may have been _The Fatal Dowry_. -He declares, moreover, that "the decree in favor of creditors in I, ii -_a_ was a statute made in 1623," and suggests that Massinger after this -date made over an independent play of Field's, now lost. But I think -that any one who surveys in _The Fatal Dowry_ the respective hands of -its authors will incline strongly to the conviction that this drama is -the offspring of joint effort rather than the re-handling of one man's -work by another. The decree to which Fleay has reference appears to be -that to be found in _Statutes of the Realm_, IV, ii, 1227-9, recorded -as 21st Jac I, 19. This is an act passed by the parliament of 1623-4; -it somewhat increases the stringency of the already-existing severe -laws in regard to bankrupts, but contains nothing which even faintly -suggests the decree in our play, by which the creditors are empowered -to withhold the corpse of their debtor from burial; and, indeed, it is -obviously impossible that a statute permitting any such practice could -have been passed in Christian England of the seventeenth century. The -fact is that this feature of the plot is taken direct from a classical -author (see under SOURCES), and it would be gratuitous to assume in -it a reference to contemporaneous legislation. As for the hypothesis -that _The Fatal Dowry_ and _The Judge_ are the same play, in the utter -absence of any supporting evidence it must be thrown out of court. This -sort of identification is a confirmed vice with Fleay. _The Judge_ -is, moreover, listed as a comedy (see reprint of Warburton's list in -Fleay's _The Life and Work of Shakespeare_, p. 358). - -[2] Two other arguments--both fallacious--have been advanced for a more -assured dating. - -Formal prologues and epilogues came into fashion about 1620, and the -absence of such appendages in the case of _The Fatal Dowry_ has been -generally taken as evidence for its appearance before that year; but -for a Massinger production no such inference can be drawn--there is -no formal prologue or epilogue in any of his extant plays before _The -Emperor of the East_ and _Believe as You List_, which were licensed for -acting in 1631. - -The suggestion (Fleay: _Chron. Eng. Dra._, I, p. 208) that Field took -the part of Florimel, and that the mention of her age as thirty-two -years (II, ii, 17) has reference to his own age at the time the play -was produced (thus fixing the date: 1619), is an idea so far-fetched -and fantastic that it is amazing to find it quoted with perfect gravity -by Ward (_Hist. Eng. Dra. Lit._, III, 39). That Field, second only to -Burbage among the actors of his time, should have played the petty role -of Florimel is a ridiculous supposition. It is strange that anyone who -considered references of this sort a legitimate clue did not build -rather upon the statement (II, i, 13) that Charalois was twenty-eight. -But such grounds for theorizing are utterly unsubstantial; there is no -earthly warrant for identifying the age of an author's creation with -the age of the author himself. - -[3] I would not, however, think it very improbable that Field might -have engaged in the composition of _The Fatal Dowry_ immediately after -his retirement, when the ties with his old profession were, perhaps, -not yet altogether broken. - -[4] On a careful inspection of the entire dramatic output of Massinger, -both unaided work and plays done in collaboration, I have found worthy -of record parallels to passages in _The Fatal Dowry_ to the number of: -24, in _The Unnatural Combat_, 14 in the Massinger share (about 3/5) of -_The Virgin Martyr_, 18 in _The Renegado_, 11 in _The Duke of Milan_, -10 in _The Guardian_, and in none of the rest as many as 8.--But -Massinger's undoubted share (1/3) of _The Little French Lawyer_ yields 6; -2/5 of _The Double Marriage_, 6; 2/5 of _The Spanish Curate_, 6; 2/5 of _Sir -John van Olden Barnavelt_, 4. - -[5] _E. g._, I, i (Massinger) with its grave rhetoric uniformly -sustained, and, in immediate succession, II, i (Decker), a medley of -coarse buffoonery and tender and beautiful verse. - -[6] As witness _The False One_. Here Massinger seems to have projected -a stately historical drama of war and factional intrigue, with a -conception of Cleopatra as the Great Queen, more a Semiramis or a -Zenobia than "the serpent of old Nile," and so treats his subject in -the first and last Acts; while Fletcher "assists" him by filling the -middle section of the play with scenes theatrically effective but -leading nowhere, and in them makes the heroine the traditional "gipsy" -Cleopatra. - -[7] The only other modern attempt to apportion the play is that of -C. Beck (_The Fatal Dowry_, Friedrich-Alexander Univ. thesis, 1906, -pp. 89-94). He assigns Massinger everything except the prose passages -of II, ii and IV, i, and perhaps II, i, 93-109. His _a priori_ theory -of distribution seems to be that all portions of the play which he -deems of worth must be Massinger's. It is difficult to speak of Beck's -monograph with sufficiently scant respect. - -[8] References to the plays of Massinger are either by page and column -of the Cunningham-Gifford edition of his works (designated C-G.), or, -in the case of plays in the Beaumont & Fletcher _corpus_ in which he or -Field collaborated, by volume and page of the Dyce edition (designated -_D._). Field's two independent comedies are referred to by page of -the Mermaid Series volume which contains them: _Nero and Other Plays_ -(designated _M._). - -[9] The figures for the speech-ending test for each scene will be found -in the table at the end of this section, and are not given in the -course of the detailed examination of the play, save in the case of one -passage, where the ambiguity of their testimony is noted. In all other -Scenes they merely corroborate the evidence of the other tests. - -[10] This is all the more rampant in that it is suddenly called back -into activity after its period of obscuration while she yielded herself -to a cynical, immoral opportunism, and is now brought, by a fearful -shock, to confront higher ethical values and real manhood. For this -time she is given not a Novall but a Charalois to idealize. - -[11] See the figure of Captain Pouts in _Woman is a Weathercock_. He -might easily have been made a mere _miles gloriosus_; instead he is a -real man,--coarse, revengeful, dissolute, quarrelsome, hectoring--no -doubt at heart a coward, but not more absurdly so in the face of his -pretensions than many of his type in actual life. For characters -clearly visualized in a few simple strokes, may be noted in the same -play Lady Ninny, Lucida, and, apart from one speech (M. 356-7) out of -character obviously for comic effect, Kate; in _Amends for Ladies_, -Ingen. Examples of Field's power in more idealistic work may be found -in _The Knight of Malta_ in the delineation of Montferrat's passion (I, -i) and in the scene between Miranda and Oriana (V, i). - -[12] Apparently _The Fatal Dowry_ was not performed every day. - -[13] During the run of this play one Warren, who was Powell's dresser, -claimed a right of lying for his master and performing the dead part -of Lothario--about the middle of the scene Powell called for Warren; -who as loudly replied from the stage, "Here Sir"--Powell (who was -ignorant of the part his man was doing) repeated without loss of time, -"Come here this moment you Son of a Whore or I'll break all the bones -in your skin"--Warren knew his hasty temper, and therefore without any -reply jumped up with all his sables about him, which unfortunately were -tied to the handles of the bier and dragged after him--but this was -not all--the laugh and roar began in the audience and frightened poor -Warren so much that with the bier at his tail he threw down Calista and -overwhelmed her, with the table, lamp, books, bones, &c.--he tugged -till he broke off his trammels and made his escape, and the play at -once ended with immoderate fits of laughter--Betterton would not suffer -The Fair Penitent to be played again, till poor Warren's misconduct -was somewhat forgotten--this story was told to Chetwood by Bowman -[Sciolto]--(GENEST, II, 281-2). - -[14] This, of course, may require the substitution of a capital for -a small letter, as when a mid-line word of the Quarto becomes in the -re-alignment the first word of the verse. - - - - -Footnotes: the Play - - -[Dramatis Personae] - -G. and S. omit _Officers_, and add those roles which are enclosed in -brackets. - -They add explanations of each character, also changing the order. For -_Gaoler_, S. reads _Gaolers_. - -Baumont--M., f spell _Beaumont_. - -C. & M. add after the list of _Dramatis Personae: The Scene_, Dijon -_in_ Burgundy. - - -[Act I, Scene i] - -10 _As--That_ (C., M. - -12, 16, etc. _then_--modernized to _than_ throughout by all later eds. - -13, end s. d. _Gives him his purse_ (G., S. - -19 _your--him_ (G., S. - -33 _This such--This is such_ (S. - -34 .--? (C., f. - -45 _summes--sum_ (C., M. - -46 and 47 _Dare ... oportunity?_--printed as one line in Q. - -47, end s. d.: _They salute him as they pass by_ (G., S. - -56, after _No_--, (C., f. - -56 _'em--them_ (G., S. - -70 _and in that--and, in that,_ (C., f. - -71 _where--whereas_ (C, M. - -90 _great men--men great_ (C., f. - -92 and 93 _And ... suytor?_--printed as one line in Q. - -103 _'Tis well._--G. & S. assign to _Char._ and follow with s. d.: -_Tenders his petition._ The change is uncalled for. - -103 s. d., after Nouall--G. & S. insert _Advocates_. - -103 and 104 _You ... againe._--printed as one line in Q. - -104 _Offer't--Offer it_ (M., f. - -110 end s. d. _Aside to Cred._ (G., S. - -114 _I pray heare em.--Pray hear them._ (G.--_I pray hear them._ (S. - -114 _Tis--It is_ (G. - -116 ;--M., f. omit. - -123 _Armors--Armour_ (C., M., G. - -127 _banquerout_--here and elsewhere by later eds. always _bankrupt_. - -133 _Sir_--assigned to _Char._ by G., who adds s. d.: _Tenders his -petition._ - -136 and 137 _Yes ... hereby_--printed as one line in Q. - -137 _hereby--whereby_ (M., G. - -139 _You are--You're_ (C., M. - -139, after _so._--? (C., M.--! (G., S. - -139 s. d.--The exit of Novall is placed earlier, at l. 136, by G. & S. - -145 G. & S. omit s. d. - -149, after _this_,--s. d.; _Beats him_ (G.--_Kicks him_ (S. - -154 and 155 _Are ... then_--printed as one line in Q. - -155, after _then_.--s. d.: _Kicks them_ (C., f. - -157 _haue--hear_ (M. - -159 _from_--omitted by C., f. - -162, after _Cuckolds_--, (C., M--; (G., S. - -162 _ne'er--never_ (M. - -162 _prayd_--pray (G. - -166 _To--T'_ (M. - -168 _forhead--foreheads_ (G. - -171 _then_--this form retained in C. - -171 s. d. _Creditor--Creditors_ (G., S. - -195 _you are--you're_ (C., M. - - -[Act I, Scene ii] - -first s. d., _3 Presidents--Presidents,... three Creditors_ (G., S. - -1 _Lordship's seated. May--lordships seated, may_ (G., S. - -2 and 3 _prosperous ... Burgundy_.--printed as a line in Q. - -7, after _resigne_--; (M., f. - -13 _President--precedent_ (C., f. - -13 _President they--precedent that they_ (C., M. - -15 _we are--we're_ (C., M. - -35 _the--th'_ (C., M. - -50 _And--I_ (G., S. - -51, end --s. d.: _To Nov. sen._ (G., S. - -60 _With--Which_ (C., M., G. - -64 _taske--tax_ (M. - -66 _become--became_ (M., f. - -76 _find--finds_ (G., S. - -82 and 83 _How ... Court?_--printed as one line in Q. - -85 and 86 _I hope ... Lord--_--printed as one line in Q. - -91, after _you_ --G. & S. insert, _sir_, - -93, after _Why_ --, (C., f. - -106 _tell you--tell thee_ (G. - -107 _I am--I'm_ (C., M. - -115 _ere--ever_ (C., M., G. - -125 _purpose--purposes_ (G., S. - -145, end --s. d.: _Aside to_ Charalois (G., S. - -146 C., f. insert , after _counsayle_ and omit , after _it_. - -180 _proud_--S. omits. - -185 _enemies_--enemy's (C., f. - -186-'8 Lines in Q. are: _In ... prison._ | _Twas ... prodigall._ | _He -... Army._ - -187 _fro--from_ (C., f. - -189 _Sufficent? My Lord,--Sufficient, my Lord?_ (C., f. G. & S. have -_lords_. - -194 _They are--They're_ (M., f. - -195 _'Tis--It is_ (G., S. - -201 _right_--See Notes; after _or_ --G. inserts _wish_ in brackets, -which S. accepts in text. - -217 _th' incounter--the incounter_ (C., f. - -217, after _cold_--, (G., S.--a plausible but unnecessary emendation. - -223 _not be--be or not_ (G.--_or not be_ (S. - -234 _Lords--cords_ (C., f. - -234 _a--in_ (G., S. - -234 _'em--them_ (G., S. - -243 _n_ in _tongue_ inverted in Q. - -244 _u_ in _reuenge_ inverted in Q. - -246 _never--ever_ (C., M. - -247 _n_ in _answer_ inverted in Q. - -After 255, s. d.: C. & M. substitute _Charalois_ for _Charmi_; G. & S. -insert _Charalois_ before _Charmi_. - -264 and 265 _You ... fit_--printed as one line in Q. - -266 _'tas--'t has_ (C., M., S.; _'t'as_ (G. - -279 and 280 _Am ... request?_--printed as one line in Q. - -288 and 289 _I follow you_--Baumont--printed as one line in Q. - -290 _th'_--the (G., S. - -295 and 296 _Fie ... I?_--printed as one line in Q. - -296 _There is--There's_ (G., S. - - -[Act II, Scene i] - -2 _m_ in _iudgement_ inverted in Q. - -13 _sits--sit_ (C., f. - -13 and 14 _Twenty eight ... old_--printed as one line in Q. - -18 _then's_--than his (M. - -25 _he--they_ (C., M., G. - -28 _their--the_ (G., S. - -28 _was--were_ (G., S. - -40 G. & S. insert _The_ at beginning of line. - -43, after _funerall_.--_?_ (G., S. - -44 and 45 G. & S. punctuate with . at end of 44 and , at end of 45. The -emendation is plausible, even probable, but not warranted by necessity. - -45 and 46 G. & S. omit s. d., _Recorders Musique_, - -46 _interd--interr'd_ (M.--_enter'd_ (G., S. See Notes. - -After 47, s. d.--G. & S. render: _Solemn music. Enter the Funeral -Procession. The Coffin borne by four, preceeded by a Priest._ Captains, -Lieutenants, Ensigns, _and_ Soldiers; Mourners, Scutcheons _&c., and -very good order_. Romont _and_ Charalois, _followed by the_ Gaolers -_and_ Officers, _with_ Creditors, _meet it_. - -After 53 G. & S. insert s. d.: _To the Bearers, who set down the -Coffin_. - -After 64 G. & S. insert s. d.: _To the Soldiers_. - -75, after _What_ --! (C., f. - -93 _Would they not so?--Would they so?_ (C., M., G.--_Would they? Not -so._ (S. See Notes. - -94, 95, and 96 Lines in Q.: _Wee'll ... then_: | _No ... Rogues._ | -_Till ... damn'd._ | _Damn'd ... ha._ - -94 _'em--them_ (G., S. - -95 _Rogues--rogue_ (S. - -97 _weel'd--we would_ (M., f. - -98 _Y'are--Ye're_ (C., M.--_You are_ (G., S. - -100 _shee--ye_ (M., f. The emendation is probably correct. - -100, after rogues.--? (G., S. - -104 _yee, ye'are--you, you're_ (C., M., G. - -105 _2 Cred.--1 Cred._ (M., probably misprint. - -106 _They have--They've_ (C., M. - -106 _We have--We've_ (C., f. - -108 _We haue--we've_ (M. - -111 _rights--right_ (M. - -132 _both heere--here both_ (M. - -134 s. d.: _Song. Musicke._--i. e. the First Song, on page -145.--introduced here in text by all editors save Gifford and Coleridge. - -135 _'em--them_ (G., S. - -137, after _were --at_ inserted by C., f. - -137 _Saylor_--misprint for _Iaylor_,--emended by C., f. - -143 _Turnes--Turn_ (M., f. - - -[Act II, Scene ii] - -6 _eene--even_ (G., S. - -12 _eene--even_ (G., S. - -17 _serue--served_ (G., S. See Notes. - -18 _Peepe--pip_ (M., f. - -20 _ith'--in the_ (G., S. - -22 _em--them_ G., S. - -37 _Vd'd--Uds_--(M., f. - -40 _can't--can it_ (M., f. - -48 _ith'--in the_ (G., S. - -49 _please--pleases_ (C., M., G. - -55 _Ile--I will_ (G., S. - -55 _i'th--in the_ (M., f. - -59 _your--you_ (M. (in corrigenda at end of vol. 4), f. A correct -emendation. - -60 _loue? the lesse neare you.--love the less near you?_ (M., f. - -63 _Humpe--Hum_ (C., M.; _Humph_ (G., S. - -64, after _shoulder_, --C. & M. insert _and_. - -67 Nou.--C., f. affix Junior throughout. - -71 _turn'd--trimm'd_ (G., S. Emend. sug. by M. - -78 _discipline falne_) _out--discipline, fallen out_ (C., f. - -81 _Lord:_ Per se, _Lord--lord_ per se, _lord_! (G., S. - -94 _'em--them_ (G., S. - -95 _taught--caught_ (M., f. - -98 _'em--them_ (G., S. - -99 _i'th--in the_ (G., S. - -100 _Quirpo_--thus C. & G.; M. & S. read _Querpo_. - -104 _skip_--See Notes. - -105 _liue to eate_--for _liue_, G. reads _flatters_; S reads _lie_, -which is probably right. - -112 _Mrs.--Must_ (C., M. - -122 _i'th_--in the (G., S. - -125 end--s. d.: _Nov. jun. kisses her hand._ (G., S. - -128 after _recant_,--s. d.: _Kisses her_ (G,. S. - -131 _Cant._--i. e. the Second Song, on page 145.--introduced here in -text by all editors save Gifford and Coleridge. - -144 _Th' art--Thou art_ (G., S. - -153 _teares_--thus C. & M.;--G. & S. read _fears_, which seems a fitter -word here. - -153 s. d.--G. & S. read, _Aside and exit_. - -159 _affected_--affectedly (S. - -159, after _you_--C., M., & G. insert _will_. - -161 _yee--you_ (C., f. - -164 _opportunity--opportunely_ (M., f. The emendation is probably -correct. - -165 _Hum hum_--omitted by C., M., & G. - -172, after _me_ --C. & M. insert _to_. - -174 _bile--boil_ (C., f. See Notes. - -179 _breath--breath'd_ (M., f. - -193 _graue--brave_ (M., f. - -194 and 195 _My Lord ... see_,--printed as one line in Q. - -198, after _issues_--M., f. omit ,. A correct emendation. - -205 _lsoule-esse_--misprint for _soul-less_--corrected by C., f. - -211 _'em--them_ (G., S. - -215 _friends--friend_ (M., f. - -219 _is--it_ (C., f. - -219 s. d., _Seruant--Beaumont_ (G., S. - -228 _man--Men_ (C., M. - -242 _ha'--have_ (C., f. - -250 s. d.: _Drawes a Curtayne._--G. & S. add, _and discovers a table -with money and jewels upon it_. - -266 _not--no_ (G. - -269 s. d.--G. & S. omit _loaden with mony_. - -270 _Enfranchist--Enfranchise_ (C. - -270, after _him_--G. & S. insert _to_. - -277 and 278 Lines in Q.: _That ... for._ | _One ... pleaders._ | -_Honord Rochfort._ - -279 _bushes, cal'd--blushes, scald_ (C., G., S.--_blushes scald_ (M. - -281, end . --, (G., S. - -282, before _assure_--C., M., & G. insert _I_. - -284 s. d. placed by G. & S. _before_ instead of _after_ line. - -285, after _see_--: (M., f. - -285 _her education,--her education. Beaumelle_ (C.; & _for education -Beaumelle_ (M., these editors taking _Beau._ in Q. s. d. to be in text! - -286 First _l_ in _Followes_ almost invisible in Q. - -289 _take her--take her, take_ (G. - -296 _participate--precipitate_ (C., f. - -301 _I--me_ (C., f. - -303 _know_--its _n_ is broken in the Q. - -308, end--G. & S. s. d.: _Aside._ - -309 _met--meet_ (G., S. - -310. Beau. This might be either Beaumelle or Beaumont. The Q. generally -spells the latter _Baumont_, but the present speech, none the less, -probably belongs to him, and is so assigned by C., f. - -315 _yet these eares--yet these tears_ (C.--_let these tears_ (M., f. -The latter emendation is correct. - -319 --M., f. punctuate: _Breath marry breath, and kisses mingle souls._ - -330 _Mistresse_--G. & S. insert s. d.: _As Beaumelle is going out._ - -336 1st. _Ile--I will_ (G., S. - -346 _you haue--you've_ (C., M. - -349 _'em--them_ (G., S. - -350 G. & S. omit the third _ha_. - -After 354 G. omits s. d., _Hoboyes_. - - -[Act III, Scene i] - -3 _spoke--spoken_ (G., S. - -3 and 4 _Good ... onely_.--printed as one line in Q. - -9, end --; (C., f. - -13, end . --omitted by M., f. - -19, end --. (C., M.--, (G., S. The latter emendation seems preferable. - -22, end --: (C., f. - -24 _old_--M. omits. - -37 and 38 _But ... Bellapert._--printed as one line in Q. - -49, after _onely_----(C., f. - -53 and 54 _Hows ... woman?_--printed as one line in Q. - -56, after _qu_--C., f. insert s. d.: _Going._ - -61 _know--now_ (C., f. A correct emendation. - -66, after _couch_ --G. suggests to insert _there_ in -brackets,--accepted by S. - -74 _reuerence to this likening--reference to his liking_ (M., f. The -emendation appears necessary. - -88, after _to_--G. inserts s. d.: _They court._ - -88 _Enter Romont and Florimell--Enter Romont and Florimell behind_ -(G., S - -88 _tis--it is_ (G., S. - -91 _but due--but the due_ (G., S. - -99, after _opportunity_ .--? (G., S. - -99 and 100 The three speeches composing these two lines are printed in -Q. severally in three lines. - -101, after Rom.--G. & S. insert s. d.: _Comes forward._ - -111 _makes--make_ (G., S. - -116 [_thee_]--so all later editors. The word in the Q. is -illegible,--possibly _yee_. - -117 _Thou wouldst--Thou'dst_ (C., f. - -123 _on_--i. e., _one_; c. f. line 118. But C. keeps _on_. - -124 and 125 _Vse ... other._--printed as one line in Q. - -127 _for--as_ (M. in Corrigenda, vol. 4, p. 379, where are supplied ll. -126-130, which are omitted in his text. - -139 _is_--G. & S. omit. See Notes. - -150 and 151 _They ... otherwise._--printed as one line in Q. - -159 _pointed--painted_ (C., f. See Notes. - -172, after _And_--G. suggests to insert _then_ in brackets; accepted by -S. - -175 _League--Leaguer_ (M., f. - -180 _Deceyued--Delivered_ (C., f. - -184 _thy--this_ (C., f. See Notes. - -185 _twill--it will_ (G., S. - -186 _You are--You're_ (C., M. - -203 _that--this_ (G., S. - -204 _You haue--You've_ (C., M. - -221 _so indeed_--C. & M. omit _so; so--indeed_, (G., S.--The Q. reading -is preferable. - -222 and 223 _Women ... world._--printed as one line in Q. - -223, after _world_.--G. & S. s. d.: _Aside._ - -231, after _inclin'd_--, (C., f. - -235 s. d.--in G. & S.: _Enter_ Rochfort, _speaking to a servant within_. - -241 and 242 _Your ... me?_--printed as one line in Q. - -250 s. d.--in G. & S.: _Enter_ Beaumelle _and_ Bellapert, _behind_. - -254 _turne--turn'd_ (M. - -259, end .--_?_ (S., probably misprint for _!_ - -260 _This in my daughter?_--S. reads: _This is my daughter!_ - -260 and 261. Lines in Q.: _This ... her._ | _Now begin._ | _The ... -distance._ - -262 Before Beaumelle's speech G. & S. insert s. d.: _Comes forward._ - -267 Rom. _A weak excuse._--G. & S. assign to Beau. with the lines which -follow. The change is without warrant and makes no improvement on Q -reading. - -272, after _sport_--C. & M. insert s. d.: _Aside._ - -272 _Reproue_--Reproved (M., f. - -278 and 279 _Does ... this?_--printed as one line in Q. - -300 _the--his_ (S. - -316 _you are--you're_ (C., M. - -318 s. d.--G. & S. read: _Aside to them, and exit._ - -322 _Now the fashion--The fashion now_ (G., S. - -324 _Rogues_ in Q. begins the succeeding line. - -328 _shall--should_ (G., S. - -334 _grown--grow_ (G., S. - -334 and 335 _Take ... you._--printed as one line in Q. - -335 _Gods--Gads_ (C., M., G. - -339 and 340 _Will ... disgrace?_--printed as one line in Q. - -342 _I am--I'm_ (C., f. - -350 _reflects--reflect_ (G., S. - -352 _'em--them_ (C., f. - -352 _beate--bait_ (M. - -354 ,--omitted by C., f.,--a probably correct emendation. - -356 _detect--defect_ (C., f.,--a correct emendation. - -356 _right--rightly_ (M., f.,--an unnecessary emendation for the sense, -but probably correct, as it improves the metre. - -357 and 358 --the ( )'s are omitted by M., f. - -372 _a_--C. & M. omit. - -373 _They are--They're_ (C., M. - -395, end--. (C., f. - -396 _Ile--I will_ (G. - -398 _Hump--Hum_ (C., f. - -403 _you_--C., f. make obvious correction to _your_. - -405 _whatsoeuer--whatsoe'er_ (M., f. - -409, after _with_ . --_?_ (G., S. - -410 _heare_--G. & S. read _heard_. The final _e_ is blurred in Q., but -certainly _e_, not _d_. - -412 and 413 _Why ... possibility_--printed as one line in Q. - -416 _u_ in _your_ inverted in Q. - -417 _my_--G. & S. omit. - -419 _Tye--tied_ (G. - -432 _'em--him_ (M., f. See Notes. - -434 _yee--you_ (C., f. - -434 _eene--even_ (G., S. - -436 _ha--have_ (M., f. - -460 _my--thy_ (C., f.--The emendation is probably correct. - -461 _I administer--I did administer_ (M., f. The Ms. reading may have -been: _administer'd_. - -464 _Praecipuce--precipice_ (C., f. - -467 _liue--lived_ (G., S. See Notes. - -471 _Puffe--Phoh_ (C., M., G. - -473 _Bleed--Blood_ (C., M. - -482 _this: sir,--this, sir!_ (C., G., S.--_this, sir?_ (M. - -483 _Thou art--Thou'rt_ (C., M. - -484 _thou art--thou'rt_ (C., M. - - -[Act IV, Scene i] - -_Enter Nouall_, etc.--G. & S. introduce the scene with the following -variant s. d., also omitting s. d. of lines 5-8 of Q.: Noval _junior -discovered seated before a looking-glass, with a Barber and_ Perfumer -_dressing his hair, while a Tailor adjusts a new suit which he wears._ -Liladam, Aymer, _and_ a Page _attending_. - -13 _Cell_--See Notes. - -14 _will--wit_ (C., f. The emendation is probably correct. - -19, end--G. & S. insert s. d.: _Aside_, as also after the speeches of -_Page_ ending lines, 25, 36, 40, 62, 66, and 70. - -26 _haire breadth's--hair's breadth's_ (C., M., G.--_hair's breadth_ (S. - -29 _'em--them_ (G., S. - -30, after _Lordship_--_;_ (C., f. - -34 _t'ee--t'ye_ (C., f. - -36 _'em--them_ (G., S. - -39 _I--Ay_ (G., S. - -41 _misters--mistress's_ (C., M.--_mistress'_ (G., S. - -48 _a--O_ (C., M.--_o'_ (G., S. - -59 after _then--a_ inserted by C., f. - -66 _a--the_ (G. - -67 _a--o_ (G., S. - -71, after _Flatters,--!_ (G., S. - -72 _should--shouldst_ (G., S. - -74 _forme--form_ (C., f. - -76 _shouldst--should_ (C., f. See Note on l. 72. - -77 _oth'--o' the_ (G., S. - -80 _i'th--in the_ (G., S. - -84 _pown'd--pounded_ (M. - -86 _w'ee--with you_ (C., M.--_wi' ye_ (G., S. - -86 _not take it well--take it not well_ (C., M. - -88 _d'ee--d'ye_ (C., f. - -90 _ne're--never_ (M., f. - -91 and 92 _Art ... Surgeon?_--printed as one line in Q. - -94 _Humph--Hum_ (G., S. - -95 _'em--them_ (G., S. - -96 _ouer throwne_--overflown (M., f. See Notes. - -100 _Thou' idst--Thou'ldst_ (C., f. - -102, _end_ .--omitted by C., f. - -103 G. makes _Trim_ last word of line 102, and lengthens _'twere_ to -_It were_. - -110 _towne talkes--Town-Talk_ (C., M. - -110, after _beleeue_--G. & S. insert _it_. - -111 _you are--you're_ C., M. - -116 _Sent_--i. e. _Scent_; so all later editors. - -123 _ha'--have_ (G., S. - -125 _I am--I'm_ (C., M. - -131 and 132 _Farewell ... you._--printed as one line in Q. - -133 _louing--living_ (G., S. - -137 _d'ee--d'ye_ (C., f. - -138 _D'ee--D'ye_ (C., M.--_Do you_ (G., S. - -139 In Q., _For_ is last word of line 138. - -139 _ya're--you're_ (G., S. - -145 _of--o'_ (C., f. - -147 _arme--aim_ (M., f. - -150, end--G. & S. insert s. d.: _Going._ - -158 _'em--them_ (G., S. - -161 _And doore's--And your door's_ (G., S. - -162-164 --printed as two lines in Q.: _But ... do_ | _Beseach ... -circumstance._ - -163 --this line is omitted in M. - -168 _Tell you why sir--Tell you? why sir?_ (C., M.--_Tell you! why, -sir._ G., S. - -171. s. d. _dag.--dagger_ (C., M. - -174 _I am--I'm_ (C., M. - -178 _wrongs--wooing_ (M., f. Perhaps the Ms. reading was _wooings_. - -180 and 181 _But ... assurance?_--printed as one line in Q. - -188, after _see_ ,--omitted by G. & S. - -189, end G. & S. insert s. d.: _Reading_. - -194, after _So_--, (C., M.--_!_ (G., S. - -198 _blabbers, ruine--blabber's ruin_ (M., f. The emendation is -plausible, but not absolutely required. - -202, s. d. _Exit_--C., f. place at end of line 200, its obviously -correct position, as would undoubtedly Q., but for insufficient margin -in the page at this point. - -203 G. & S. give s. d.: _Enter_ Bellapert, _hastily_. - -204 _Coach--caroch_ (G., S. - -205 _D'ee--D'ye_ (C., M.--_Do you_ (G., S. - -211 _loue--Jove_ (C., f. - - -[Act IV, Scene ii] - -6 _on_--omitted by C., M. - -9 , following _something_ transferred to follow _else_ by C., f. - -31 _of it--of't_ (G., S. - -32 and 33 _He ... him._--printed as one line in Q. - -33, s. d.--G. & S. read: _Enter_ Aymer, _speaking to one within_. - -45, after _ayre._--G. & S. insert s. d.: _To the_ Musicians _within_. - -48 _consent--content_ (C., f--a correct emendation. - -48 _Y'are--You are_ (G., S. - -48, end--G. & S. insert s. d.: _To the_ Musicians. - -Before 49 --S. inserts s. d.: _Aside._ - -After 50, s. d.: _Song_--i. e. the _Cittizens Song of the Courtier_, on -page 146.--introduced here in text by Cunningham and S. - -52, end--C. & M. punctuate with--; G. & S. with .. - -54, after _thanks_--G. & S. insert s. d.: _Aside._ - -58, end--G. & S. insert s. d.: _Aside._ - -62 _Pray sing--Pray you sing_ (G. - -s. d. after 62, _Song below--Song by Aymer_ (G., S.; it is the -_Courtiers Song of the Citizen_, page 146.--introduced here in text by -Cunningham and S. - -63 and 64 _Doe ... doubtfull?_--printed as one line in Q. - -66 _they are--they're_ (C., f. - -67, s. d.--_Enter Nouall Iu. Charaloys_,--_Enter_ Charalois, _with his -sword drawn, pursuing_ Novall _junior_, etc. (G., S. - -68 _Vndone foreuer--Undone, undone, forever!_ (G.--C. & M. give this -speech to _Bellapert_. - -74 _th'--the_ (G., S. - -82 M., f. omit _,_'s after _honest_ and _valiant_. - -86 _daring looke--daring._ _Look_ (C., f. - -89 and 90 _No ... flesh_--printed as one line in Q. - -93 _of_--its _f_ is almost invisible in Q. - -95 _haue_--its _e_ is almost invisible in Q. - -96 _:_ --_?_ (G. - -96, after _shall_ G. & S. insert s. d.: _Exeunt_ Beaumont _and_ -Bellapert, _with the body of Nouall_; _followed by Beaumelle_. - -97 _Y'are--you are_ (G., S. - -97, end G. & S. insert s. d.: _Re-enter Beaumont._ - - -[Act IV, Scene iii] - -3 _not--nor_ (C. - -8 .--_?_ (C., f. - - -[Act IV, Scene iv] - -4 and 5 _Nor ... but--_ --printed as one line in Q. - -6, end--C., f. insert s. d.: _Exit_ Beaumont. - -7, end--C., f. insert s. d.: Beaumelle _kneels_. - -8 _worthy--worth_ (G., S. - -30 _th'--the_ (G., S. - -33 variously emended for defective metre: _That you have done but -what's warranted,_ (C., M.; _That you have done but what is warranted,_ -(G.; _You have done merely but what's warranted,_ (S. - -36 _of me in--in me of_ (C., M., S. The emendation is unnecessary. - -38 _now they--they now_ (G. - -50 _thou wert--you were_ (G., S. - -60, after _was_--; (C., f. - -61 _Within--Which in_ (M., f. - -77, _post_--The three s. d.'s are made by C., f. to follow respectively -lines 76, 77, and 78. - -89 _be for--before_ (C., M. - -90 _destruction--induction_ (G., S., following the suggestion of M. - -91, s. d.--G. & S. omit phrase _with Nouals body_. and affix to s. d. -_with Servants bearing the Body of_ Novall _junior_. - -92, after _seate_,--G. & S. insert s. d.: _Exeunt Servants._ - -93 _me_--the _e_ is obliterated in Q. - -93 _?_--,(C., f. - -96, end--C. & M. insert s. d.: _He hoodwinks_ Rochfort. G. & S. place a -similar s. d. at the end of the following line. - -101 and 102 _It ... iustice_--printed as one line in Q. - -121, end--G. & S. insert s. d.: Charalois _unbinds his eyes_. - -131 _With--Which_ (M., f. - -131, after _thy_--G. says a monosyllable has been lost here. S. inserts -_foul_. But an acceptable rhythm is secured by the natural stress of -the voice, which emphasizes and dwells upon _thy_, and again stresses -_kept_. - -133 _owne--one_ (M., f. - -140, after _her_ .--? (C., f. - -141 _liue no--liue. No_ (C., M.--_liue_: _no_ (G., S. - -143 _on--one_ (C., f. - -147, end--G. & S. insert _out_, changing first word of l. 148 to _Of_. -C. & M. make _Off_ of l. 148 conclude 147, and insert _From_ to begin -l. 148. It is preferable to let the line stand as it is, letting the -voice, in reading, dwell and pause upon _are_. - -148 s. d., _He kils her_. transferred to end of line by C., f. - -149 _I am. Sure--I am sure_ (M.--_I'm sure_ (G., S. - -154, after _nourished_. --C., f. inserts s. d.: _Dies._ - -156 and 157 _True ... doome_--printed as one line in Q. - -158 _and friend--and a friend_ (C., f. - -175 _Flinty- -- Flint-_ (G., S. - -175 and 176 _Nature ... vertue._--printed as one line in Q. - -177, after _of_--C., f. insert _your_. But the change is not required -by the sense; nor by the metre, if the voice be allowed to dwell on -_heart_. - -184 s. d.: _Enter Nouall_, etc.--G. & S. place after _doors_ in next -line. - -185, before _Force_ --G. & S. insert s. d.: _Within._ - -190 and 191 _Call ... blood._--printed as one line in Q. - - -[Act V, Scene i] - -_Enter_, etc. _Officers--two_ Bailiffs. (G., S. - -2 _T'arrest--To arrest_ (G., S. - -4 _for me--for form_ (M., f. - -16 _you haue--you've_ (C., M. - -22 _them--him_ (C., f. The Q. reading is preferable in every way. - -24 _so_--M. omits. - -26 _You are--You're_ (C., M. - -32, after _and_--G. & S. insert _the_. - -33 _are these--or thief_ (M.--_and thief_ (G., S., which seems slightly -the more probable correction. - -34 _Synonima--synonymous_ (C., M. - -36, end s. d.--C., f. place s. d. after _selfe_. - -39 _I will--I'll_ (C., m. - -47 _reueng'd--un-revenged_ (C., f.,--an obviously correct emendation. - -57, end .--, (C., f. - -61 _'Tas--It has_ (M., f. - -68 _obiect--abject_ (C., f. - -70 and 71 _Away ... deadly:_--printed as one line in Q. - -71, after _know_--G. & S. insert _thee_, which secures a smoother -metre, but is not warranted. - -79 _I am--I'm_ (C., f. - -84 _sits_--M. reads _fits_, the first letter in Q. not being certainly -distinguishable as _s_ or _f_. - -85 _cape--cap_ (C., f. - -86 _sate.--sat,_ (C., f. - -93 Offi.--1 Bail. (G., S. - -97 _Hath--Have_ (M., G. - -105 _ones--one_ (C., f. - -106 _Additions--Addition_ (C., f. - - -[Act V, Scene ii] - -2 _thou thinkst--you think_ (G., S. - -7 _new--now_ (M. - -15, after _Nouall_ .--_?_ (G., S. - -18 _grieue--grieved_ (M., f., a correct emendation. - -23, after _haue_--C., f. insert , . - -23 _promis'd--promise_ (C., f. - -26 _heires_--i. e., of course, _hairs_;--so modernized by C., f. - -33 _worrhy_--Q. misprint for _worthy_;--corrected by C., f. - -39, after _people_--C., f. insert ,. - -42, after _knowing_--M., f. insert _too_. - -55, after _cause_--.--(C., M.--?--(G., S., which is right. - -67 _I am--I'm_ (C., M. - -68, after _man_--M. inserts , , and G. & S. ;--. - -76, end G. & S. omit , . - -77, after _But_--G. & S. insert , . - -80 and 81 _You ... cause._--printed as one line in Q. - -88 _chalenge--challenged_ (G., S.--a correct emendation. - -91 _Tygre--tigress_ (C., M. - -104 _breed--bread_ (C., f. The Q. reading is perfectly satisfactory. - -117 _You haue--You've_ (C., M. - - -[Act V, Scene iii] - -_Scaena 3_--omitted by G. & S.,--and correctly so, for there is no -change in place from the preceding, and the action is uninterrupted. - -18, after _that_--M., f. insert _when_. See Notes. - -30 _fain'd-- -famed_ (M., f. - -32 --, after _neyghbour-hood_ in Q. is placed after _ill_ by C., f. - -35 _by--my_ (C., f. - -44, after _pray_--G. & S. insert _you_. - -47 _dis-become--mis-become_ (C., M. - -50 --_u_ in _accuser_ is inverted in Q. - -51 _or--nor_ (C., f. - -59 _motion--motion's_ (C., f. - -60 --_n_ in _confesse_ is inverted in Q. - -68 _freed--feed_ (M., f. - -68, end--_?_ (C., f. - -73 _courtesie--courtesies_ (C., f. Q. reading is preferable. See -Glossary. - -77 _that--they_ (S. - -88 _dowry--dower_ (G., S. - -91 _could preserue--could not preserve_ (C., f. The emendation is -clearly required. - -137, after _truth_ ,--. (M., f. - -138, after _begin_ .--, (G., S.--C. & M. inclose _For ... begin_ in -( )'s. - -139 _n_ in _French_ is inverted in Q. - -150 _appou'd_--i. e., _approu'd_; in Q. the _r_ is wanting as above. -Later editors correct. - -166 _more--mere_ (C., f. See Notes. - -168 _fall--fail_ (M. - -169 _like_--omitted by G. & S. - -170 _signe--signs_ (S. - -180 _against--'gainst_ (G., S. - -184 _had_--omitted by G. - -190 _bands--bawds_ (C., f. - -190 s. d. _Enter Aymer_, etc.--_Enter Officers with_ Aymer, etc. (G., S. - -190, _tooke--ta'en_ (G. - -201 _iniurie:_--C., f. read _injuries_, the colon in the Q. being -blurred to appear like a broken _s_. - -205, end. --C., f. insert s. d.: _Stabs him._ - -206 _I am--I'm_ (C., M. - -207, end--C., f. insert s. d.: _Stabs Pontalier._ See Notes. - -215 after _mee_.--C., f. insert s. d.: _Dies._ - -215-217 --lines in Q. are: _I ... loue_ | _Not ... of._ - -217 _worthy, worthy of--worthy of_ (C., M. - -217, after _of_.--C., f. insert s. d.: _Dies._ - -217 _We are--We're_ (C., M. - -220 _We are--We're_ (C., M. - -227 _As--A_ (M., misprint. - -228 _Be set--Or be set_ (C., M., G.--_Be or set_ (S. - - -[Songs] - -These songs are printed thus in an Appendix at the end of the play -in Q., G., and the edition of Hartley Coleridge. The _First Song_ is -inserted at its proper point in the text--II, i, after line 134--by -C., M., Cunningham, and S.;--so, too, the _Second Song_, after line -131 of II, ii. The other two songs were omitted in C., and appear in -an appendix of vol. 4 of M.,--there wrongly assigned (by D.) to the -"passage over the stage" which closes Act II. Gifford correctly assigns -them to follow respectively IV, ii, 50; and IV, ii, 62;--where they are -printed in the text of Cunningham and S. - -_First Song_--A DIRGE (G., S. - -_Second Song_--A SONG BY AYMER (G., S. - -_A_ ... Nouall, _and_ Beaumelle.--_A ... a Man and a Woman._ (C., f. - -2-4 --lines in Q.: _From ... begat'st._ | _I dare ... line,_ | _Each -word ... hooke,_. - -7 _doest--dost_ (C., f. - -8 _Come strangled--Come, strangle_ (M., f. - -(_Citizens Song_) 3 and 4: _If ... state,_--printed as one line in Q. - -7 _seruants_--its _u_ is inverted in Q. - -(_Courtiers Song_) 16: _Tradesmen--tradesman_ (M. - - - - - * * * * * - - - - -Transcriber's Notes - -In the play itself all apparent printing errors have been retained; no -attempt has been made to standardise formatting. - -In the front and end matter, simple typographical errors have been -corrected; variant spelling, punctuation, and inconsistent hyphenation -have been preserved as printed. - -On some reading devices, inline stage directions are set off from the -text by parentheses added by the transcriber. Footnote headings and -navigational [links] in brackets were also added. - -The following shows the changed text below the original text: - - Page 34: - the repentent sinner - the repentant sinner - - Page 163: - --life-like. II, i, 232. - --life-like. II, ii, 232. - - Page 164: - _skills_, signifies, matters. I, i, 286. - _skills_, signifies, matters. I, ii, 286. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fatal Dowry, by -Philip Massinger and Nathaniel Field - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FATAL DOWRY *** - -***** This file should be named 44015.txt or 44015.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/0/1/44015/ - -Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Jennifer Linklater and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - - -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. 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