NONo.
BALTHAZAR 'Twere a lamentable piece of stuff to see great statesmen have vile exits, but I hope there are nothing but plaudities in all your eyes.
KINGMine I protest are free.
QUEENAnd mine by heaven.
MALATESTE [Aside]Free from one good look till the blow be given.
KINGWine. A full cup crowned to Medina's health.
MEDINAYour highness this day so much honours me,That I to pay you what I truly owe,My life shall venture for it.
DAENIASo shall mine.
KINGOnaelia, you are sad. Why frowns your brow?
ONAELIAA foolish memory of my past illsFolds up my look in furrows of old care,But my heart's merry, Sir.
KINGWhich mirth to heighten,Your bridegroom and yourself first pledge this healthWhich we begin to our High Constable.
Three cups filled, one to the King, the second to the Bridegroom and the third to Onaelia, with whom the King compliments.
QUEENIs't speeding?
MALATESTEAs all our Spanish figs are.
KINGHere's to Medina's heart with all my heart.
MEDINAMy heart shall pledge your heart i'th deepest draughtThat ever Spaniard drank.
KINGMedina mocks me,Because I wrong her with the largest bowl.I'll change with thee Onaelia.
Malateste rages.
QUEENSir, you shall not!
KINGFear you I cannot fetch it off?
QUEENMalateste!
KINGThis is your scorn to her, because I am doingThis poorest honour to her. Music sound,It goes were it ten fathoms to the ground.
Cornets play. King drinks, Queen and Malateste storm.
MALATESTEFate strikes with the wrong weapon.
QUEENSweet Royal Sir no more, it is too deep.
MALATESTETwill hurt your health sir.
KINGInterrupt me in my drink? 'Tis off.
MALATESTEAlas Sir.You have drunk your last, that poisoned bowl I filledNot to be put in your hand, but hers.
KINGPoisoned?
ALLDescend black speckled soul to hell!
[The faction turn on Malateste and wound him.]
MALATESTEThe Queen has sent me thither.
Malateste dies.
CARDINALWhat new fury shakes now with her snake's locks?
QUENI, I, 'tis IWhose soul is torn in pieces, till I sendThis harlot home.
CARDINALMore murders! Save the Lady.
BALTHAZARRampant? Let the Constable make a mittimus <60>.
MEDINAKeep them asunder.
CARDINALHow is it royal son?
KINGI feel no poison yet, only mine eyesAre putting out their lights. Me thinks I feelDeath's icy fingers stroking down my face.And now I'm in a mortal cold sweat.
QUEENDear my Lord.
KINGHence, call in my physicians.
MEDINAThy physician tyrant,Dwells yonder, call on him or none.
KINGBloody Medina, stab'st thou Brutus too?
DAENIAAs he is, so are we all.
KINGI burn,My brains boil in a cauldron, oh one dropOf water now to cool me.
ONAELIAOh, let him have physicians.
MEDINAKeep her back.
KINGPhysicians for my soul, I need none else.You'll not deny me those. Oh holy father,Is there no mercy hovering in a cloudFor me a miserable King so drenchedIn perjury and murder?
CARDINALOh Sir, great store.
KINGCome down, come quickly down.
CARDINALI'll forthwith sendFor a grave Friar to be your confessor.
KINGDo, do.
CARDINALAnd he shall cure your wounded soul.Fetch him good soldier.
BALTHAZARSo good a work, I'll hasten.
[Exit Balthazar.]
KINGOnaelia! Oh she's drowned in tears! Onaelia,Let me not die unpardoned at thy hands.
Enter Balthazar, Sebastian as a Friar with others.
CARDINALHere comes a better surgeon.
SEBASTIANHail my good sonI come to be thy ghostly father.
KINGHa?My child! 'Tis my Sebastian, or some spiritSent in his shape to fright me.
BALTHAZAR 'Tis no goblin, Sir, feel. Your own flesh and blood, and much younger than you though he be bald, and calls you son. Had I been as ready to have cut his sheep's throat, as you were to send him to the shambles <61>, he had bleated no more. There's less chalk upon your score of sins by these round O'es <62>.
KINGOh my dull soul look up, thou art somewhat lighter.Noble Medina, see Sebastian lives.Onaelia cease to weep, Sebastian lives.Fetch me my crown. My sweetest pretty FriarCan my hands do't, I'll raise thee one step higher.Thou'st been in heaven's house all this while sweet boy?
SEBASTIANI had but coarse cheer.
KINGThou could'st n'er fare better.Religious houses are those hives where beesMake honey for men's souls. I tell thee boy,A Friary is a cube, which strongly stands,Fashioned by men, supported by heaven's hands.Orders of holy priesthood are as highI'th eyes of Angels, as a King's dignity.Both these unto a Crown give the full weight,And both are thine. You that our contract know,See how I seal it with this marriage.My blessing and Spain's kingdom both be thine.
ALLLong live Sebastian.
ONAELIADoff that Friar's coarse grey.And since he's crowned a King, clothe him like one.
KINGOh no. Those are right sovereign ornaments.Had I been clothed so, I had never filledSpain's chronicle with my black calumny.My work is almost finished. Where's my Queen?
QUEENHere piecemeal, torn by Furies.
KINGOnaelia!Your hand Paulina too, Onaelia yours.This hand, the pledge of my twice broken faith,By you usurped is her inheritance.My love is turned, see as my fate is turned,Thus they today laugh, yesterday which mourned.I pardon thee my death. Let her be sentBack into Florence with a trebled dowry.Death comes, oh now I see what late I feared!A contract broke, though pieced up ne'r so well,Heaven sees, earth suffers, but it ends in hell.
King Dies.
ONAELIAOh, I could die with him.
QUEENSince the bright sphereI moved in falls, alas what make I here?
Exit Queen.
MEDINAThe hammers of black mischief now cease beating,Yet some irons still are heating. You Sir Bridegroom,Set all this while up as a mark to shoot at,We here discharge you of your bedfellow,She loves no barber's washing <63>.
COCKADILLIOMy balls are saved then.
MEDINABe it your charge, so please you reverend Sir,To see the late Queen safely to Florence.My niece Onaelia, and that trusty soldier,We do appoint to guard the infant King.Other distractions, time must reconcile.The State is poisoned like a crocodile.
1. This Posthumous Ð the now dead author of the play. 2. Fury's Ð in classical mythology, the Furies were three daughters of mother earth that personified conscience and punished crimes against kindred blood. Furriers in the Quarto. 3. Lacrymae's - the personification of tearfulness, believed to be a reference to a tune by the luteist, John Dowland, known as 'Lachrimae , or seven tears'. 4. Pinnace Ð a boat for communicating between ship and shore, also a procurer. Possible pun on penis. 5. Galleasses Ð large fast sailing vessel, indicative of wealth, also sexual innuendo. 6. Aesculapius - in Greek mythology, Aesculapius, son of Apollo, was a Greek healer who became a Greek demigod, and was a famous physician. 7. Eyes Ð joys in the Quarto. 8. Prive Ð prove, establish. 9. Than Ð Q reads 'then'. 10. Caitiff - a contemptible or cowardly person. 11. Leman Ð lover, sweetheart. 12. Mercer's Ð merchant's. 13. Muschatoes - A pair of moustaches. 14. Fly-boat Ð small vessel supporting large ship 15. Jennets Ð riders of small horses. Balthazar is making a contrast between his martial exploits and the courtly life of the Dons. 16. Whorson muscod Ð scented fop. 17. Buskined Ð wearing thick-soled boots as worn by tragical actors. 18. Van É vaw Ð the van was the rear of an army's battle formation, the vaw, although not a recognised usage, is taken to mean the front. 19. Insconce Ð make secure base. 20. Sconce Ð lights. 21. Petronel Ð a hand-cannon. 22. Culverin Ð a long cannon. 23. Aqua Coelestis Ð a sweet cordial. 24. Spurn-point Ð an old game, believed to be similar to hop-scotch. 25. Trencher Ð a wooden board or plate on which food is served. 26. Bastard Ð sweet Spanish Wine. 27. Goll Ð hand. 28. Suspiration Ð Breath. 29. Ghesse Ð ghost. 30. Mine Ð thine in the Quarto. 31. Gage Ð a pledge. 32. Choke-pear - A kind of pear that has a rough, astringent taste, and is swallowed with difficulty, or which contracts the mucous membrane of the mouth. 33. Coiner - counterfeiter. 34. Gyre Ð revolution. Cyre in the Quarto 35. Rosin Ð oil or resin, used for lubricating violin stings. 36. Solus Rex me facit miseram Ð the sun king makes me miserable. 37. Assa foetida Ð dried resin, used as a nervous tonic. 38. Glister-pipe Ð also known as a clyster-pipe. A tube used to inject liquid through the anus to stimulate evacuation. 39. Hypocronicall Ð a nonce word whose meaning is unclear. Possibly should read Hypocondricall, meaning 'of a melancholy humour'. 40. Carp pies Ð suggests secrecy, based on the belief that the carp has no tongue. 41. Dial of good days Ð a reference to lists of good and bad days compiled by producers of almanacs. 42. Bounce Buckram Ð from the proverb 'Bounce buckram, velvet's dear, Christmas comes but once a year, and when it comes it brings good cheer, but when it's gone it's never the near.' 43. Mulligrubs Ð depression. 44. Coranta Ð a court dance. 45. Sealed with butter Ð a reference to the musical publications printed by the newsmonger Nathaniel Butter. 46. Aesculapian Ð relating to medicine. 47. Escurial Ð the chief palace of Spain, some 30 miles from Madrid. 48. Linstock Ð pole for firing a cannon. 49. Salsa-perilla Ð a drug used in the treatment of syphilis 50. Toot Ð to pry. 51. Hull Ð for a cannon-ball to break the hull of a ship. 52. Croaking Ð creaking in the Quarto. Compare with W. Shakespeare, Hamlet, 3.2.233, 'the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge', itself a misquotation from the anonymous 'The True Tragedy of Richard III'. 53. Rosemary Ð herb worn at both weddings and funerals. In NSS, it signifies opposition to the King in a manner reminiscent of the Wars of the Roses. 54. Rosemary Lane Ð a road in the City of London, known since 1850 as Royal Mint Street. 55. Bantam Ð in fact, a trade centre in Indonesia, unconnected with the West Indies. 56. Callenture Ð guilty knowledge. 57. Trul Ð whore. 58. Collinquintida Ð a bitter apple of the gourd family whose soft fruit made a purgative drug 59. Magical weed / Which hags at midnight watch to catch the seed Ð the Peony, which needed to be gathered in the dark as the birdlife were believed to be protective of it. 60. Mittimus Ð notice to quit. 61. Shambles Ð a slaughterhouse. 62. O'es Ð An allusion to the manner of posting scores in an ale- house. 63. Barber's washing Ð Barbers were users of scent, like Cockadillio.