Complete Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker

by Thomas Dekker

  When you may escape untouched away?

  Here’s hell, here’s heaven, here if you stay

  You’re gone, you’re gone; Friar Crab and I

  Will here dance frisking whilst you fly.

  Gag us, bind us, come put on -

  The gag’s too wide - so gone, gone, gone.

  PhillipOh! Well, I’ll come again, Lord Cardinal

  Take you your castle; I’ll go to Portugal

  I vow I’ll come again, and if I do…

  CardinalNay good my Lord!

  Phillip Black devil, I’ll conjure you.

  Exeunt

  Scene V

  To the Friars making a noise, gagged and bound, enter Eleazar, Zarack, Baltazar, and other Moors, all with their swords drawn.

  Eleazar Guard all the passages. Zarack, stand there,

  There Baltazar, there you; the Friars,

  Where have you placed the Friars?

  AlveroMy Lord, a noise.

  Baltazar The Friars are gagged and bound.

  Eleazar It is Philip and the Cardinal, shoot; hah, stay!

  Unbind them; where’s Mendoza and the Prince?

  Cole Sancta Maria, who can tell?

  By Peter’s keys they bound us well,

  And having cracked our shaven crowns,

  They have escaped you in our gowns.

  Eleazar Escaped, escaped away? I am glad, it’s good,

  I would their arms may turn to eagles’ wings,

  To fly us swift as time; sweet air, give way,

  Winds, leave your two and thirty palaces,

  And meeting all in one, join all your might,

  To give them speedy and a prosperous flight.

  Escaped, Friars, which way?

  Both This way.

  Eleazar Good. Alas! What sin is it to shed innocent blood;

  For look you, holy men, it is the King;

  The King, the King! See, Friars, sulphuric wrath

  Having once entered into royal breasts,

  Mark how it burns. The Queen, Philip’s mother

  (Oh! Most unnatural) will have you to

  Divulge abroad that he’s a bastard; o,

  Will you do it?

  CrabWhat says my brother Friar?

  Cole A Prince’s love is balm, their wrath a fire.

  Crab It is true, but yet I’ll publish no such thing;

  What fool would lose his soul to please a King?

  Eleazar Keep there, good there, yet for it wounds my soul

  To see the miserablest wretch to bleed.

  I counsel you (in care unto your lives)

  To obey the mother Queen, for by my life

  I think she has been pricked; her conscience -

  Oh! It has stung her, for some fact misdone;

  She would not else disgrace her self and son.

  Do it therefore, hark, she’ll work your deaths else; hate

  Bred in a woman is insatiate.

  Do it, Friars.

  Crab Brother Cole? Zeal sets me in a flame,

  I’ll do it.

  Cole And I:

  His baseness we’ll proclaim.

  Exit Friars.

  Eleazar Do, and be damned. Zarack and Baltazar,

  Dog them at the heels, and when their poisonous breath

  Hath scattered this infection on the hearts

  Of credulous Spaniards, here reward them thus;

  Slaves too much trusted do grow dangerous;

  Why this shall feed

  And fat suspicion, and my policy.

  I’ll ring through all the court this loud alarum:

  That they contrived the murder of the King,

  The Queen and me; and being undermined,

  To escape the blowing up, they fled. Oh God!

  There, there, thou there, cry treason; each one take

  A several door; your cries my music make.

  BaltazarWhere’s the King? Treason pursues him:

  Enter Alvero in his shirt, his sword drawn.

  Eleazar Where’s the sleepy Queen? Rise, rise, and arm against the hand of treason.

  AlveroWhence comes this sound of treason?

  Enter King in his shirt, his sword drawn.

  King FernandoWho frights our quiet slumbers

  With this heavy noise?

  Enter Queen in her night attire.

  Queen MotherWas it a dream? Or did the sound

  Of monster treason call me from my rest?

  King FernandoWho raised this rumour, Eleazar? You?

  Eleazar I did, my Liege, and still continue it,

  Both for your safety and mine own discharge.

  King FernandoWhence comes the ground then?

  Eleazar From the Cardinal,

  And the young Prince, who bearing in his mind

  The true Idea of his late disgrace

  In putting him from the Protectorship,

  And envying the advancement of the Moor,

  Determined this night to murder you;

  And for your highness lodged within my castle,

  They would have laid the murder on my head.

  King Fernando The Cardinal and my brother? Bring them forth;

  Their lives shall answer this ambitious practice.

  Eleazar Alas, my Lord, it is impossible,

  For when they saw I had discovered them,

  They trained two harmless Friars to their lodgings,

  Disrobed them, gagged them, bound them to two posts,

  And in their habits did escape the Castle.

  King FernandoThat Cardinal is all ambition,

  And from him doth our brother gather heart.

  Queen MotherThe ambition of the one infects the other,

  And in a word they are both dangerous;

  But might your mother’s counsel stand in force,

  I would advise you send the trusty Moor

  To fetch them back, before they had seduced

  The squint-eyed multitude from true allegiance,

  And drawn them to their dangerous faction.

  King FernandoIt shall be so; therefore, my state’s best prop,

  Within whose bosom I durst trust my life,

  Both for my safety and thine own discharge,

  Fetch back those traitors and, till your return

  Ourself will keep your castle.

  Eleazar My Liege, the tongue of true obedience

  Most not gainsay his sovereign’s impose;

  By heaven, I will not kiss the cheek of sleep

  Till I have fetched those traitors to the court.

  King FernandoWhy, this sorts right: he gone, his beauteous wife

  Shall sail into the naked arms of love.

  Queen MotherWhy, this is as it should be. He once gone,

  His wife, that keeps me from his marriage bed,

  Shall by this hand of mine be murdered.

  King Fernando This storm is well night past; the swelling clouds,

  That hang so full of treason by the wind,

  In awful majesty are scattered,

  Then each man to his rest. Good night, sweet friend,

  Whilst thou pursu’st the traitors that are fled,

  Fernando means to warm thy marriage bed.

  Exit

  Eleazar Many good nights consume and damn your souls.

  I know he means to cuckold me this night;

  Yet do I know no means to hinder it.

  Besides, who knows whether the lustful King

  Having my wife and castle at command,

  Will ever make surrender back again?

  But if he do not, with my falchion’s point

  I’ll lance those swelling veins in which hot lust

  Does keep his revels, and with that warm blood

  Where Venus’s bastard cooled his sweltering spleen,

  Wash the disgrace from Eleazar’s brows.

  Scene VI

  ENTER MARIA.

  Maria Dear Eleazar -

  Eleazar If they lock the gates

&
nbsp; I’ll toss a ball of wild-fire over the walls.

  Maria Husband, sweet husband -

  Eleazar Or else swim over the moat,

  And make a breach through the flinty sides

  Of the rebellious walls.

  MariaHear me, dear heart.

  Eleazar Or undermine the chamber where they lie,

  And by the violent strength of gunpowder

  Blow up the castle and the incestuous couch,

  In which lust wallows; but my labouring thoughts,

  Wading too deep in bottomless extremes,

  Do drown themselves in their own stratagems.

  MariaSweet husband! Dwell not upon circumstance,

  When weeping sorrow, like an advocate,

  Importunes you for aid. Look in mine eyes:

  There you shall see dim grief swimming in tears,

  Invocating succour, oh succour!

  Eleazar Succour? Zounds, for what?

  Maria To shield me from Fernando’s unchaste love,

  Who with incessant prayers importuned me.

  Eleazar To lie with you, I know it.

  Maria Then seek some means how to prevent it.

  Eleazar ’Tis possible; for to the end that his unbridled lust

  Might have more free access unto thy bed,

  This night he hath enjoined me

  To fetch back Philip and the Cardinal.

  MariaThen this ensuing night shall give an end

  To all my sorrows, for before foul lust

  Shall soil the fair complexion of mine honour,

  This hand shall rob Maria of her life.

  Eleazar Not so, dear soul, for in extremities

  Choose out the least, and ere the hand of death

  Should suck this ivory palace of thy life,

  Embrace my counsel and receive this poison

  Which in the instant he attempts thy love,

  Then, give it him, do, do,

  Do; poison him; he gone, thou art next;

  Be sound in resolution and farewell;

  By one, and one, I’ll ship you all to hell.

  Spain, I will drown thee with thine own proud blood,

  Then make an ark of carcasses. Farewell.

  Revenge and I will sail in blood to hell.

  Exit.

  MariaPoison the King? Alas, my trembling hand

  Would let the poison fall, and through my cheeks

  Fear suited in a bloodless livery,

  Would make the world acquainted with my guilt,

  Both to preserve my royal sovereign’s life,

  And keep myself a true and loyal wife.

  Exit.

  Act III

  Scene I

  ENTER QUEEN MOTHER, with a torch.

  Queen MotherFair eldest child of love, thou spotless night,

  Empress of silence, and the Queen of sleep;

  Who with thy black cheek’s pure complexion

  Mak’st lovers’ eyes enamoured of thy beauty:

  Thou art like my Moor, therefore will I adore thee,

  For lending me this opportunity,

  Oh with the soft skinned Negro! Heavens keep back

  The saucy staring day from the world’s eye

  Until my Eleazar make return;

  Then in his castle shall he find his wife

  Transformed into a strumpet by my son;

  Then shall he hate her whom he would not kill?

  Then shall I kill her whom I cannot love?

  The King is sporting with his concubine.

  Blush not, my boy; be bold like me thy mother,

  But their delights torture my soul like devils,

  Except her shame be seen, wherefore awake

  Christophero, Verdugo, raise the court,

  Arise you Peers of Spain, Alvaro rise,

  Preserve your country from base infamies.

  Enter severally at several doors with lights and rapiers drawn, Alvero, Roderigo, and Christophero, with others.

  AllWho raised these exclamations through the court?

  Queen MotherSheath up your swords, you need not swords, but eyes

  To intercept this treason.

  Alvero What’s the treason?

  Who are traitors? Ring the alarum bell;

  Cry ‘arm’ through all the city once before

  The horrid sound of treason did affright

  Our sleeping spirits.

  Queen MotherStay, you need not cry arm

  For this black deed

  Works treason to your King, to me, to you,

  To Spain and all that shall in Spain ensue.

  This night Maria, Eleazar’s wife,

  Hath drawn the King by her lascivious looks

  Privately to a banquet; I unseen

  Stood and beheld him in him in her lustful arms.

  Oh God! Shall bastards wear Spain’s diadem?

  If you can kneel to baseness, vex them not;

  If you disdain to kneel, wash off this blot.

  Roderigo Let’s break into the chamber and surprise her.

  Alvero Oh miserable me! Do, do, break in:

  My country shall not blush at my child’s sin.

  Queen Mother Delay is nurse to danger; follow me;

  Come you and witness to her villainy.

  AlveroHapless Alvero, how art thou undone,

  In a light daughter and a stubborn son?

  Exeunt omnes.

  Scene II

  ENTER KING WITH his rapier drawn in one hand, leading Maria, seeming affrighted, in the other.

  MariaOh! Kill me ere you stain my chastity.

  King Fernando My hand holds death, but love sits in mine eye;

  Exclaim not, dear Maria; do but hear me:

  Though thus in dead of night, as I do now

  The lustful Tarquinstole to the chaste bed

  Of Collatine’s fair wife, yet shalt thou be

  No Lucrece, nor thy King a Roman slave,

  To make rude villainy thine honour’s grave.

  Maria Why from my bed have you thus frighted me?

  King FernandoTo let thee view a bloody horrid tragedy.

  Maria Begin it then, I’ll gladly lose my life,

  Rather than be an emperor’s concubine.

  King Fernando By my high birth I swear thou shalt be none.

  The tragedy I’ll write with my own hand:

  A King shall act it, and a King shall die,

  Except sweet mercy’s beam shine from thine eye.

  If this affrights thee it shall sleep for ever,

  If still thou hate me, thus this blade

  This royal purple temple shall invade.

  MariaMy husband is from hence, for his sake spare me.

  King FernandoThy husband is no Spaniard; thou art one,

  So is Fernando; then for country’s sake

  Let me not spare thee. On thy husband’s face

  Eternal night in gloomy shades doth dwell;

  But I’ll look on thee like the guilded sun,

  When to the west his fiery horses run.

  MariaTrue, true, you look on me with Sun-set eyes,

  For by beholding you my glory dies.

  King FernandoCall me thy morning then, for like the morn,

  In pride Maria shall through Spain be borne.

  This music I prepared thine ears.

  music plays within.

  Love me and thou shalt hear no other sounds.

  Love, here’s a banquet set with mine own hands;

  A banquet brought in.

  Love me, and thus I’ll feast thee like a Queen.

  I might command thee, being thy sovereign;

  But love me and I’ll kneel and sue to thee,

  And circle this white forehead with the crown

  Of Castile, Portugal and Aragon,

  And all those petty kingdoms which do bow

  Their tributary knees to Philip’s heir.

  Maria I cannot love you whilst my husband lives.

  King FernandoI’ll send h
im to the wars and in the front

  Of some main army shall he nobly die.

  Maria I cannot love you if you murder him.

  King FernandoFor thy sake then, I’ll call a Parliament

  And banish by a law all Moors from Spain.

  Maria I’ll wander with him into banishment.

  King FernandoIt shall be death for any negro’s hand

  To touch the beauty of a Spanish dame.

  Come, come, what needs such cavils with a King?

  Night blinds all jealous eyes and we may play,

  Carouse that bowl to me, I’ll pledge all this;

  Being down, we’ll make it more sweet with a kiss.

  Begin, I’ll lock all doors, begin Spain’s Queen:

  Locks the doors.

  Love’s banquet is most sweet, when ’tis least seen.

  MariaOh thou conserver of my honour’s life!

  Instead of poisoning him, drown him in sleep;

  Because I’ll quench the flames of wild desire,

  I’ll drink this off, let fire conquer love’s fire.

  King FernandoWere love himself in real substance here

  Thus would I drink him down; let your sweet strings

  Speak louder; pleasure is but a slave to Kings,

  In which love swims. Maria, kiss thy King,

  Circle me in this ring of Ivory.

  Oh! I grow dull, and the cold hand of sleep

  Hath thrust his icy fingers in my breast,

  And made a frost within me; sweet, one kiss

  To thaw this deadness that congeals my soul.

  Maria Your majesty hath over-watched yourself.

  He sleeps already, not the sleep of death

  But a sweet slumber, which the powerful drug

  Instilled through all his spirits. Oh! Bright day,

  Bring home my dear Lord, ere his King awake,

  Else of his unstained bed he’ll shipwreck make.

  Offers to go.

  Enter Oberon, and fairies dancing before him and music with them.

  Maria Oh me! What shapes are these?

  OberonStay, stay, Maria.

  Maria My sovereign lord awake, save poor Maria.

  Oberon He cannot save thee, save that pain,

  Before he wakes thou shalt be slain;

  His mother’s hand shall stop thy breath,

  Thinking her own son is done to death:

  And she that takes away thy life,

  Does it to be thy husband’s wife.

  Adieu Maria, we must hence,

  Embrace thine end with patience;

  Elves and fairies make no stand,

  Till you come in Fairy Land.

  Exit dancing and singing.

  Maria Fairies or devils, whatsoever you be,