[477]Oldeds.“safely.”[478]Ed.1. “and please you.”[479]Ed.2. “as soone leaue you as we to quietnesse.”[480]For “I must”ed.1. reads “must;”ed.2. “you must.”[481]Omitted ined.1.[482]Ironical exclamation.[483]Oldeds.“Cel.”
[477]Oldeds.“safely.”
[478]Ed.1. “and please you.”
[479]Ed.2. “as soone leaue you as we to quietnesse.”
[480]For “I must”ed.1. reads “must;”ed.2. “you must.”
[481]Omitted ined.1.
[482]Ironical exclamation.
[483]Oldeds.“Cel.”
SCENEI.
Palace of the Duke.
EnterMaquerelle.
Maq.[Knocking at the ladies’ door.] Medam, medam, are you stirring, medam? if you be stirring, medam,—if I thought I should disturb ye—
EnterPage.
Page.My lady is up, forsooth.
Maq.A pretty boy, faith: how old art thou?
Page.I think fourteen.
Maq.Nay, an ye be in the teens—are ye a gentleman born? do you know me? my name is Medam Maquerelle; I lie in the old Cunny-court.
[Page.] See, here the ladies.10
EnterBiancaandEmilia.
Bian.A fair day to ye, Maquerelle.
Emil.Is the duchess up yet, sentinel?
Maq.O ladies, the most abominable mischance! O dear ladies, the most piteous disaster! Ferneze was taken last night in the duchess’ chamber: alas, the duke catched him and killed him!
Bian.Was he found in bed?17
Maq.O, no; but the villainous certainty is, the door was not bolted, the tongue-tied hatch held his peace: so the naked troth is, he was found in his shirt, whilst I, like an arrant beast, lay in the outward chamber, heard nothing; and yet they came by me in the dark, and yet I felt them not, like a senseless creature as I was. O beauties, look to your busk-points;[484]if not chastely, yet charily: be sure the door be bolted.—Is your lord gone to Florence?
Bian.Yes, Maquerelle.27
Maq.I hope you’ll find the discretion to purchase a fresh gown ’fore his return.—Now, by my troth, beauties, I would ha’ ye once wise: he loves ye; pish! he is witty; bubble! fair-proportioned; mew! nobly-born; wind! Let this be still your fixed position; esteem me every man according to his good gifts, and so ye shall ever remain most worthy to be, most dear ladies.
Emil.Is the duke returned from hunting yet?
Maq.They say not yet.
Bian.’Tis now in midst of day.37
Emil.How bears the duchess with this blemish now?
Maq.Faith, boldly; strongly defies defame, as one that has a duke to her father. And there’s a note toyou: be sure of a stout friend in a corner, that may always awe your husband. Mark the behaviour of the duchess now: she dares defame; cries, “Duke, do what thou canst, I’ll quit mine honour:” nay, as one confirmed in her own virtue against ten thousand mouths that mutter her disgrace, she’s presently for dances.
Bian.For dances!
Maq.Most true.
Emil.Most strange.
EnterFerrardo.
See, here’s my servant, young Ferrardo: how many servants thinkest thou I have, Maquerelle?51
Maq.The more, the merrier: ’twas well said, use your servants as you do your smocks; have many, use one, and change often; for that’s most sweet and court-like.
Fer.Save ye, fair ladies! Is the duke return’d?
Bian.Sweet sir, no voice of him as yet in court.
Fer.’Tis very strange.
Bian.And how like you my servant, Maquerelle?59
Maq.I think he could hardly draw Ulysses’ bow; but, by my fidelity, were his nose narrower, his eyes broader, his hands thinner, his lips thicker, his legs bigger, his feet lesser, his hair blacker, and his teeth whiter, he were a tolerable sweet youth, i’faith. And he will come to my chamber, I will read him the fortune of his beard.
[Cornets sound within.
Fer.Not yet returned! I fear—but the duchess approacheth.
EnterMendozasupportingAureliaandGuerrino:the ladies that are on the stage rise:Ferrardoushers inAurelia,and then takes a lady to tread a measure.[485]
Aur.We will dance:—music!—we will dance.
Guer.Les quanto[486]lady,Pensez bien,Passa regis, orBianca’s brawl?70
Aur.We have forgot the brawl.
Fer.So soon? ’tis wonder.
Guer.Why, ’tis but two singles on the left, two on the right, three doubles[487]forward, a traverse of six round: do this twice, three singles side, galliard trick-of-twenty,[488]coranto-pace; a figure of eight, three singles broken down, come up, meet, two doubles, fall back, and then honour.
Aur.O Dædalus, thy maze! I have quite forgot it.
Maq.Trust me, so have I, saving the falling-back, and then honour.81
Aur.Music, music!
EnterPrepasso.
Prep.Who saw the duke? the duke?
Aur.Music!
EnterEquato.
Equato.The duke? is the duke returned?
Aur.Music!
EnterCelso.
Celso.The duke is either quite invisible, or else is not.
Aur.We are not pleased with your intrusion upon our private retirement; we are not pleased: you have forgot yourselves.90
Enter aPage.
Celso.Boy, thy master? where’s the duke?
Page.Alas, I left him burying the earth with his spread joyless limbs: he told me he was heavy, would sleep; bade[489]me walk off, for that the strength of fantasy oft made him talk[490]in his dreams. I straight obeyed, nor ever[491]saw him since: but wheresoe’er he is, he’s sad.
Aur.Music, sound high, as is our heart! sound high!
EnterMalevole,andPietrodisguised like an hermit.
Mal.The duke,—peace!—the duke is dead.
Aur.Music!
Mal.Is’t music?100
Men.Give proof.
Fer.How?
Celso.Where?
Prep.When?
Mal.Rest in peace, as the duke does; quietly sit: for my own part, I beheld him but dead; that’s all: marry, here’s one can give you a more particular account of him.
Men.Speak, holy father, nor let any brow Within this presence fright thee from the truth: Speak confidently and freely.
Aur.We attend.110
Pietro.Now had the mounting sun’s all-ripening wingsSwept the cold sweat of night from earth’s dank breast,When I, whom men call Hermit of the Rock,Forsook my cell, and clambered up a cliff,Against whose base the heady Neptune dash’dHis high-curl’d brows; there ’twas I eas’d my limbs:When, lo! my entrails melted with the moanSome one, who far ’bove me was climb’d, did make—I shall offend.
Men.Not.120
Aur.On.
Pietro.Methinks I hear him yet:—“O female faith!Go sow the ingrateful sand, and love a woman:And do I live to be the scoff of men?To be the[492]wittol-cuckold, even to hugMy poison? Thou knowest, O truth!Sooner hard steel will melt with southern wind,A seaman’s whistle calm the ocean,A town on fire be extinct with tears,Than women, vow’d to blushless impudence,130With sweet behaviour and soft minioning[493]Will turn from that where appetite is fix’d.O powerful blood! how thou dost slave their soul!I wash’d an Ethiop, who, for recompense,Sullied my name: and must I, then, be forc’dTo walk, to live thus black? must! must! fie!He that can bear with must, he cannot die.”With that, he sigh’d so[494]passionately deep,That the dull air even groan’d: at last he cries,“Sink shame in seas, sink deep enough!” so dies;140For then I viewed his body fall, and souse[495]Into the foamy main. O, then I saw,That which methinks I see, it was the duke;Whom straight the nicer-stomach’d sea belch’d up:But then——
Mal.Then came I in; but, ’las, all was too late!For even straight he sunk.
Pietro.Such was the duke’s sad fate.
Celso.A better fortune to our Duke Mendoza!
Omnes.Mendoza!150
[Cornets flourish.
Men.A guard, a guard!
Enter a Guard.
We, full of hearty tears,For our good father’s loss,(For so we well may call himWho did beseech your loves for our succession),Cannot so lightly over-jump his deathAs leave his woes revengeless.—Woman of shame,
[ToAurelia.
We banish thee for ever to the placeFrom whence this good man comes; nor permit,On death, unto thy[496]body any ornament;But, base as was thy life, depart away.160
Aur.Ungrateful!
Men.Away!
Aur.Villain, hear me!
Men.Begone!
[PrepassoandGuerrinolead awayAureliaguarded.
My lords,Address to public council; ’tis most fit:The train of fortune is borne up by wit.Away! our presence shall be sudden; haste.
[All depart, exceptMendoza, Malevole,andPietro.
Mal.Now, you egregious devil! ha, ye murdering politician! how dost, duke? how dost look now? brave duke, i’faith.170
Men.How did you kill him?
Mal.Slatted[497]his brains out, then soused him in the briny sea.
Men.Brained him, and drowned him too?
Mal.O ’twas best, sure work; for he that strikes a great man, let him strike home, or else ’ware, he’ll prove no man: shoulder not a huge fellow, unless you may be sure to lay him in the kennel.
Men.A most sound brain-pan! I’ll make you both emperors.180
Mal.Make us Christians, make us Christians.
Men.I’ll hoist ye, ye shall mount.
Mal.To the gallows, say ye? come:[498]præmium incertum petit certum scelus.[499]How stands the progress?
Men.Here, take my ring unto the citadel;
[Giving ring.
Have entrance to Maria, the grave duchessOf banish’d Altofront. Tell her we love her;Omit no circumstance to grace our person: do’t.
Mal.I’ll[500]make an excellent pander: duke, farewell; ’dieu, adieu, duke.190
Men.Take Maquerelle with thee; for ’tis foundNone cuts a diamond but a diamond.
[ExitMalevole.
Hermit,Thou art a man for me, my confessor:O thou selected spirit, born for my good!Sure thou wouldst makeAn excellent elder in a deform’d church.Come, we must be inward,[501]thou and I all one.
Pietro.I am glad I was ordained for ye.
Men.Go to, then; thou must know that Malevole is a strange villain; dangerous, very dangerous: you see how broad ’a speaks; a gross-jawed rogue: I would have thee poison him: he’s like a corn upon my great toe, I cannot go for him; he must be cored out, he must. Wilt do’t, ha?
Pietro.Anything, anything.204
Men.Heart of my life! thus, then. To the citadel:Thou shalt consort with this Malevole;There being at supper, poison him: it shall be laidUpon Maria, who yields love or dies:Scud quick.[502]
Pietro.Like lightning: good deeds crawl, but mischief flies.210
[Exit.
Re-enterMalevole.
Mal.Your devilship’s ring has no virtue: the buff-captain, the sallow Westphalian gammon-faced zaza cries, “Stand out;” must have a stiffer warrant, or no pass into the castle of comfort.
Men.Command our sudden letter.—Not enter! sha’t: what place is there in Genoa but thou shalt? into myheart, into my very heart: come, let’s love; we must love, we two, soul and body.
Mal.How didst like the hermit? a strange hermit, sirrah.220
Men.A dangerous fellow, very perilous:He must die.
Mal.Ay, he must die.
Men.Thou’st[503]kill him.We are wise; we must be wise.
Mal.And provident.
Men.Yea, provident: beware an hypocrite;A churchman once corrupted, O, avoid!A fellow that makes religion his stalking-horse,[504]He breeds a plague: thou shalt poison him.
Mal.O, ’tis wondrous necessary: how?
Men.You both go jointly to the citadel;There sup, there poison him: and Maria,230Because she is our opposite, shall bearThe sad suspect; on which she dies or loves us.
Mal.I run.
[Exit.
Men.We that are great, our sole self-good still moves us.They shall die both, for their deserts crave moreThan we can recompense: their presence stillImbraids[505]our fortunes with beholdingness,Which we abhor; like deed, not doer: then conclude,They live not to cry out “Ingratitude!”One stick burns t’other, steel cuts steel alone:240’Tis good trust few; but, O, ’tis best trust none!
[Exit.
[484]The tagged laces by which the busk (the upright piece of whalebone in the front of the stays) was fastened.[485]A slow solemn dance.[486]“Qy. ‘Los guantes?’ Mr. Collier (ShakespeareSoc.Papers,i.28), quotes from Rawlinson’sMS. No.108,Bodl. Lib., a list of dances, among which is ‘Quarto dispayne;’ while Mr. Halliwell (Dict. of Arch. and Prov. Words) gives from the sameMS., ‘Quanto-dispaine.’—In Munday’sBanquet of Daintie Conceits, 1588, is:—“‘A Dyttie expressing a familiar controversie between Wit and Will: wherein Wit mildlie rebuketh the follies of Will, and sheweth him (as in a glasse) the fall of wilfull heads.“‘This Dittie may be sung after the note of a courtlie daunce, calledLes Guanto.’”—Dyce.[487]Ed.1. “double.”[488]We have the expression “trick-of-twenty” again in theDutch Courtesan. What the particular figure was I am unable to say. (Sometimes “trick-of-twenty” is used in the sense of “excellent device.”Cf.Brome’sCity Wit,iv.2:—“Well, ’twas mine error, not malice; but as for the procurer of it, if I pay not him in his own coin, Mr. Footwell! I’ll show you atrick of twenty.”)[489]Ed.2. “bid.”[490]Ed.1. “talking.”[491]Some copies ofed.1. “neuer.”[492]Ed.1. “their.”[493]“i.e., being treated as a minion or darling.”—Steevens.[494]Ed.2. “too.”[495]Fall with violence.—The word is used of a hawk swooping down on its prey.[496]Oldeds.“the.”[497]“i.e.,dashed. It is a North-country word. See Ray’sCollection of English Words,p.54,ed.1768.”—Reed.[498]Some copies ofed.1. “O ô me.”[499]“præmium incertum petis,Certum scelus.”—Seneca,Phœn.632.[500]Ed.1. “Iste.”[501]Intimate.[502]Ed.2. “Skud quicke like lightning.Pie.Good deedes crawl, but mischiefe flies.”[503]A contraction of “Thou must.”[504]“In the margin at this place, the words ‘shoots under his belly’ are inserted; which is merely an explanation of the manner in which a corrupted churchman makes religion hisstalking-horse, viz. by shooting at his object under its belly.”—Collier.[505]Upbraids.
[484]The tagged laces by which the busk (the upright piece of whalebone in the front of the stays) was fastened.
[485]A slow solemn dance.
[486]“Qy. ‘Los guantes?’ Mr. Collier (ShakespeareSoc.Papers,i.28), quotes from Rawlinson’sMS. No.108,Bodl. Lib., a list of dances, among which is ‘Quarto dispayne;’ while Mr. Halliwell (Dict. of Arch. and Prov. Words) gives from the sameMS., ‘Quanto-dispaine.’—In Munday’sBanquet of Daintie Conceits, 1588, is:—
“‘A Dyttie expressing a familiar controversie between Wit and Will: wherein Wit mildlie rebuketh the follies of Will, and sheweth him (as in a glasse) the fall of wilfull heads.
“‘This Dittie may be sung after the note of a courtlie daunce, calledLes Guanto.’”—Dyce.
[487]Ed.1. “double.”
[488]We have the expression “trick-of-twenty” again in theDutch Courtesan. What the particular figure was I am unable to say. (Sometimes “trick-of-twenty” is used in the sense of “excellent device.”Cf.Brome’sCity Wit,iv.2:—“Well, ’twas mine error, not malice; but as for the procurer of it, if I pay not him in his own coin, Mr. Footwell! I’ll show you atrick of twenty.”)
[489]Ed.2. “bid.”
[490]Ed.1. “talking.”
[491]Some copies ofed.1. “neuer.”
[492]Ed.1. “their.”
[493]“i.e., being treated as a minion or darling.”—Steevens.
[494]Ed.2. “too.”
[495]Fall with violence.—The word is used of a hawk swooping down on its prey.
[496]Oldeds.“the.”
[497]“i.e.,dashed. It is a North-country word. See Ray’sCollection of English Words,p.54,ed.1768.”—Reed.
[498]Some copies ofed.1. “O ô me.”
[499]
“præmium incertum petis,Certum scelus.”—Seneca,Phœn.632.
[500]Ed.1. “Iste.”
[501]Intimate.
[502]Ed.2. “Skud quicke like lightning.
Pie.Good deedes crawl, but mischiefe flies.”
[503]A contraction of “Thou must.”
[504]“In the margin at this place, the words ‘shoots under his belly’ are inserted; which is merely an explanation of the manner in which a corrupted churchman makes religion hisstalking-horse, viz. by shooting at his object under its belly.”—Collier.
[505]Upbraids.
SCENEII.
Court of the Palace.
EnterMalevoleandPietro,still disguised, at several doors.
Mal.How do you? how dost, duke?
Pietro.O, letThe last day fall! drop, drop on[506]our curs’d heads!Let heaven unclasp itself, vomit forth flames:
Mal.O, do not rave,[507]do not turn player; there’s more of them than can well live one by another already. What, art an infidel still?
Pietro.I am amazed;[508]struck in a swown with wonder: I am commanded to poison thee—
Mal.I am commanded to poison thee at supper—
Pietro.At supper—
Mal.In the citadel—
Pietro.In the citadel.10
Mal.Cross capers! tricks! truth o’ heaven! he[509]would discharge us as boys do eldern guns, one pellet to strike out another. Of what faith art now?
Pietro.All is damnation; wickedness extreme:There is no faith in man.
Mal.In none but usurers and brokers; they deceive no man: men take ’em for blood-suckers, and so they are. Now, God deliver me from my friends!
Pietro.Thy friends!19
Mal.Yes, from my friends; for from mine enemies I’ll deliver myself. O, cut-throat friendship is the rankest villainy! Mark this Mendoza; mark him for a villain: but heaven will send a plague upon him for a rogue.
Pietro.O world!
Mal.World! ’tis the only region of death, the greatest shop of the devil; the crudest prison of men, out of the which none pass without paying their dearest breath for a fee; there’s nothing perfect in it but extreme, extreme calamity, such as comes yonder.
EnterAurelia,two halberts before and two after, supported byCelsoandFerrardo;Aureliain base mourning attire.
Aur.To banishment! lead[510]on to banishment!30
Pietro.Lady, the blessedness of repentance to you!
Aur.Why, why, I can desire nothing but death,Nor deserve anything but hell.If heaven should give sufficiency of graceTo clear my soul, it would make heaven graceless:My sins would make the stock of mercy poor;O, they would tire[511]heaven’s goodness to reclaim them!Judgment is just yet[512]from that vast villain;But, sure, he shall not miss sad punishment’Fore he shall rule.—On to my cell of shame!40
Pietro.My cell ’tis, lady; where, instead of masks,Music, tilts, tourneys, and such court-like shows,The hollow murmur of the checkless windsShall groan again; whilst the unquiet seaShakes the whole rock with foamy battery.There usherless[513]the air comes in and out:The rheumy vault will force your eyes to weep,Whilst you behold true desolation:A rocky barrenness shall pain[514]your eyes,Where all at once one reaches where he stands,50With brows the roof, both walls with both his hands.
Aur.It is too good.—Bless’d spirit of my lord,O, in what orb soe’er thy soul is thron’d,Behold me worthily most miserable!O, let the anguish of my contrite spiritEntreat some reconciliation!If not, O, joy, triumph in my just grief!Death is the end of woes and tears’ relief.
Pietro.Belike your lord not lov’d you, was unkind.
Aur.O heaven!60As the soul loves[515]the body, so lov’d he:’Twas death to him to part my presence, heavenTo see me pleas’d.Yet I, like to a wretch given o’er to hell,Brake all the sacred rites of marriage,To clip a base ungentle faithless villain;O God! a very pagan reprobate—What should I say? ungrateful, throws me out,For whom I lost soul, body, fame, and honour.But ’tis most fit: why should a better fate70Attend on any who forsake chaste sheets;Fly the embrace of a devoted heart,Join’d by a solemn vow ’fore God and man,To taste the brackish flood[516]of beastly lustIn an adulterous touch? O ravenous immodesty!Insatiate impudence of appetite!Look, here’s your end; for mark, what sap in dust,What good in sin,[517]even so much love in lust.Joy to thy ghost, sweet lord! pardon to me!
Celso.’Tis the duke’s pleasure this night you rest in court.
Aur.Soul, lurk in shades; run, shame, from brightsome skies:80In night the blind man misseth not his eyes.
[Exit withCelso,Ferrardo,and halberts.
Mal.Do not weep, kind cuckold: take comfort, man; thy betters have been beccos:[518]Agamemnon,emperor of all the merry Greeks, that tickled all the true Trojans, was a cornuto; Prince Arthur, that cut off twelve kings’ beards, was a cornuto; Hercules, whose back bore up heaven, and got forty wenches with child in one night,—
Pietro.Nay, ’twas fifty.90
Mal.Faith, forty’s enow, o’ conscience,—yet was a cornuto. Patience; mischief grows proud: be wise.
Pietro.Thou pinchest too deep; art too keen upon me.
Mal.Tut, a pitiful surgeon makes a dangerous sore: I’ll tent thee to the ground. Thinkest I’ll sustain myself by flattering thee, because thou art a prince? I had rather follow a drunkard, and live by licking up his vomit, than by servile flattery.
Pietro.Yet great men ha’ done ’t.100
Mal.Great slaves fear better than love, born naturally for a coal-basket;[519]though the common usher of princes’ presence, Fortune, ha’[520]blindly given them better place. I am vowed to be thy affliction.
Pietro.Prithee, be;I love much misery, and be thou son to me.
Mal.Because you are an usurping duke.——
EnterBilioso.
Your lordship’s well returned from Florence.
Bil.Well returned, I praise my horse.
Mal.What news from the Florentines?
Bil.I will conceal the great duke’s pleasure; only this was his charge: his pleasure is, that his daughter die; Duke Pietro be banished for banishing his blood’s dishonour; and that Duke Altofront be re-accepted. This is all: but I hear Duke Pietro is dead.114
Mal.Ay, and Mendoza is duke: what will you do?
Bil.Is Mendoza strongest?
Mal.Yet he is.
Bil.Then yet I’ll hold with him.
Mal.But if that Altofront should turn straight again?
Bil.Why, then, I would turn straight again.120’Tis good run still with him that has most might:I had rather stand with wrong, than fall with right.
Mal.[521]What religion will you be of now?
Bil.Of the duke’s religion,[522]when I know what it is.
Mal.O Hercules!
Bil. Hercules! Hercules was the son of Jupiter and Alcmena.
Mal.Your lordship is a very wit-all.
Bil.Wittal!
Mal.Ay, all-wit.130
Bil.Amphitryo was a cuckold.
Mal.Your lordship sweats; your young lady will get you a cloth for your old worship’s brows. [ExitBilioso. Here’s a fellow to be damned: this is his inviolable maxim,—flatter the greatest and oppress the least: a whoreson flesh-fly, that still gnaws upon the lean galled backs.
Pietro.Why dost, then, salute him?138
Mal.Faith,[523]as bawds go to church, for fashion’ sake. Come, be not confounded; thou’rt but in danger to lose a dukedom. Think this:—this earth is the only grave and Golgotha wherein all things that live must rot; ’tis but the draught wherein the heavenly bodies discharge their corruption; the very muck-hill on which the sublunary orbs cast their excrements: man is the slime of this dung-pit, and princes are the governors of these men; for, for our souls, they are as free as emperors, all of one piece; there[524]goes but a pair of shears betwixt an emperor and the son of a bagpiper; only the dying, dressing, pressing, glossing, makes the difference. Now, what art thou like to lose?151A gaoler’s office to keep men in bonds,Whilst toil and treason all life’s good confounds.
Pietro.I here renounce for ever regency:O Altofront, I wrong thee to supplant thy right,To trip thy heels up with a devilish sleight!For which I now from throne am thrown: world-tricks abjure;For vengeance though’t[525]comes slow, yet it comes sure.O, I am chang’d! for here, ’fore the dread power,In true contrition, I do dedicate160My breath to solitary holiness,My lips to prayer, and my breast’s care shall be,Restoring Altofront to regency.
Mal.Thy vows are heard, and we accept thy faith.
[Undisguiseth himself.
Re-enterFernezeandCelso.
Banish amazement: come, we four must standFull shock of fortune: be not so wonder-stricken.
Pietro.Doth Ferneze live?
Fer.For your pardon.
Pietro.Pardon and love. Give leave to recollectMy thoughts dispers’d in wild astonishment.My vows stand fix’d in heaven, and from hence170I crave all love and pardon.
Mal.Who doubts of providence,That sees this change? a hearty faith to all!He needs must rise who[526]can no lower fall:For still impetuous vicissitudeTouseth[527]the world; then let no maze intrudeUpon your spirits: wonder not I rise;For who can sink that close can temporise?The time grows ripe for action: I’ll detectMy privat’st plot, lest ignorance fear suspect.Let’s close to counsel, leave the rest to fate:180Mature discretion is the life of state.
[Exeunt.