Complete Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker
Page 25
In rich cothurnal pomp. A tragedy
Ought to be grave, graves this shall beautify.
Moor, execute to the life my dread commands;
Vengeance awake, thou hast much work in hand.
Exit.
Zarack I’m weary of this office and this life,
It is too thirsty and I would your blood
Might escape the filling out. By heaven I swear,
I scorn these blows and his rebukes to bear.
IsabelOh! Zarack, pity me, I love thee well;
Love deserves pity, pity Isabel.
Zarack What would you have me do?
Isabel To kill this Moor.
Zarack I’ll cast an eye of death upon my face.
I’ll be no more his slave; swear to advance me;
And by yon setting sun, this hand, and this
Shall rid you of a tyrant.
Isabel By my birth;
No Spaniard’s honoured place shall equal thine.
Zarack I’ll kill him then.
Isabel And Baltazar.
ZarackAnd he.
Isabel I pray thee first, fetch Philip and Hortenzo
Out of that hell; they two will be most glad
To aid thee in this execution.
Zarack My Lord Philip and Hortenzo, rise;
Your hands; so, talk to her; at my return
This sword shall reek with blood of Baltazar.
Exit.
PhillipThree curses, like three commendations
To their three souls, I send. Thy tortured brother
Does curse the Cardinal, the Moor and thy Mother.
IsabelCurse not at all, dear souls; revenge is hot,
And boils in Zarack’s brains; the plot is craft,
Into the mould of hell. You free men are;
Zarack will kill the Moor and Baltazar.
Hortenzo How can that relish?
IsabelWhy? I’ll tell you how.
I did profess I, and protested too,
I loved him well, what will not sorrow do?
Then he professed, I, and protested too
To kill them both, what will not devils do?
PhillipThen I profess; I, and protest it too,
That here’s for him; what will not Philip do?
HortenzoSee where he comes.
Enter the two Moors.
Baltazar Zarack, what do I see?
Hortenzo and Philip, who did this?
Zarack I, Baltazar.
Baltazar Thou art half damned for It, I’ll do my Lord.
Zarack I’ll stop you on your way, lie there!
Thy tongue shall tell no tales today.
Stabs him.
PhillipNor thine tomorrow, his revenge was well.
Stabs him.
By this time both the slaves shake hands in hell.
IsabelPhilip and Hortenzo, stand you still;
What do you both? Cannot you see your play?
Well fare a woman then to lead the way.
Once rob the dead, put the Moors’
Habits on and paint your faces with the oil of hell,
So waiting on the Tyrant.
Philip Come, no more; It is here and here;
Room there below, stand wide, and bury them
Well since they so goodly did.
Hortenzo Away then, fate now let revenge be placed.
Philip Here.
Hortenzo And here, a tyrant’s blood does sweetly taste.
Exit.
Scene VI
ENTER ELEAZAR, ALVERO, Roderigo, Christofero and other lords.
Eleazar Why I imprison? Who?
All Philip and Hortenzo.
Eleazar Philip and Hortenzo, ha, ha, ha.
Roderigo Why laughs the Moor?
Eleazar I laugh because you jest;
Laugh at a jest. Who I, imprison them?
I prize their lives with weights, their necks with chains,
Their hands with manacles. I do all this
Because my face is in night’s colour dyed.
Think you my conscience and my soul is so,
Black faces may have hearts as white as snow
And ’tis a general rule in moral rules,
The whitest faces have the blackest souls.
AlveroBut touching my Hortenzo -
Eleazar Good old man, I never touched him,
Do not touch me then with thy Hortenzo.
Christofero Where’s Philip too?
Eleazar And where’s Philip too?
I pray, I pray is Philip a tame Spaniard?
What can Philip him hither, hither make him fly?
First where’s Hortenzo, where’s Philip too?
Roderigo And where is Isabel? She was with you.
Eleazar And where is Isabel? She was with me,
Enter Philip and Hortenzo like Moors.
And so are you, yet are you
Well you see but in good time, see where their keepers come.
Come hither Zarack,
Baltazar, come hither;
Zarack, old Lord Alvero asks of thee, where young Hortenzo is.
Hortenzo My lord, set free.
Eleazar Oh! Is he so? Come hither Baltazar,
Lord Christofero here would ask of thee
Where Prince Philip is.
PhillipMy Lord, set free.
Eleazar Oh is he so? Roderigo asks me for Isabel.
Philip I say my Lord, she’s free.
Eleazar Oh! Is she so?
PhillipBelieve me, lords.
HortenzoAnd me.
Philip I set Philip -
Hortenzo I set Hortenzo free.
Eleazar My lords, because you shall believe me too,
Go to the Castle, I will follow you.
AlveroThanks to the mighty Moor and for his fame,
Be more in honour than thou art in name;
But let me wish the other prisoners well,
The Queen and Cardinal, let all have right,
Let law absolve them or dissolve them quite.
Eleazar Grave man, thy grey hairs paint out gravity,
Thy counsel’s wisdom, thy wit policy.
There, let us meet and with a general brain,
Erect the peace of spirit and of Spain.
AlveroThen will Spain flourish?
Eleazar Aye, when it is mine.
Roderigo O heavenly meeting!
Eleazar We must part in hell.
Christofero True peace of joy.
Exit; manent Eleazar Phillip and Hortenzo.
Eleazar It is a dissembling knell.
Farewell my lords, meet there so ha, ha, ha.
Draws his rapier.
Now tragedy, thou minion of the night,
Rhamnusias’ pew-fellow, to thee I’ll sing
Upon an harp made of dead Spanish bones,
The proudest instrument the world affords;
When thou in crimson jollity shalt bath,
Thy limbs as black as mine, in springs of blood;
Still gushing from the conduit head of Spain.
To thee that never blushed,
Though thy cheeks are full of blood.
O, Saint Revenge, to thee
I consecrate my murders,
All my stabs, my bloody labours, tortures, stratagems,
The volume of all wounds that wound from me;
Mine is the stage, thine is the tragedy.
Where am I now? O, at the prison?
True, Zarack and Baltazar, come hither, see,
Survey my library. I study, whilst you two sleep,
Marry, it is villainy.
Here’s a good book,
Zarack, behold it well,
It’s deeply written for ’twas made in hell.
Now Baltazar, a better book for thee,
But for myself, this, this,
The best of all;
And therefore do I chain it every day,
For fear the readers steal the art away.
Where thou stan
d’st now?
There must Hortenzo hang,
Like Tantalusin a maw-eating pang;
There, Baltazar must Prince Philip stand,
Like damned Prometheusand, to act his part,
Shall have a dagger sticking at his heart.
But in my room I’ll set the cardinal, and he shall preach
Repentance to them all, ha, ha, ha.
PhillipDamnation tickles him, he laughs again.
Philip must stand there and bleed to death.
Well, villain, I only laugh to see,
That we shall live to out laugh him and thee.
Eleazar Oh! Fit, fit, fit, stay a rare jest, rare jest.
Zarack, suppose thou art Hortenzo now
I pray thee stand in passion of a pang,
To see by thee how quaintly he would hang.
Hortenzo I am Hortenzo, tut-tut,
Fear not man, thou lookest like Zarack.
Eleazar I Hortenzo; here, he shall hang here,
I’faith; come, Zarack, come and Baltazar, take thou Phillip’s room.
First let me see you placed
PhillipWe’re placed.
Eleazar Slaves, ha, ha, ha, you are, but players,
They must end the play,
How like Hortenzo and Philip stand my two slaves,
Were they as black as you!
Well, Zarack, I’ll unfix thee
First of all, thou shalt help me to play the Cardinal,
This iron engine on his head I’ll clap,
Like a pope’s mitre or a cardinal’s cap,Then manaclehis hands as thou dost mine.
So, so, I pray thee, Zarack, set him free,
That both of you may stand and laugh at me.
PhillipIt is fin,e i’faith, call in more company:
Alvero, Roderigo and the rest,
Who will not laugh at Eleazar’s jest?
Eleazar What? Zarack, Baltazar.
PhillipAye, anon, anon, we have not laughs enough, it’s but begun.
Who knocks?
Eleazar Unmanacle my hands, I say!
PhillipThen shall we mar our mirth and spoil the play?
Who knocks within?
AlveroAlvero.
PhillipLet Alvero in.
Eleazar And let me out.
Enter all below.
PhillipI thank you for that flout,
To let Alvero in and let you out.
Eleazar Villains, slaves, am I not your lord the Moor and Eleazar?
Queen MotherAnd the devil of hell,
And more than that, and Eleazar too.
Eleazar And devil’s dam, what do I here with you.
Queen MotherMy tongue shall torture thee.
Eleazar I know thee then;
All women’s tongues are tortures unto men.
Queen MotherSpaniards, this was the villain,
This is he who through enticements of alluring lust
And glory which makes silly women proud,
And men malicious, did incense my spirit
Beyond the limits of a woman’s mind,
To wrong myself and that lord Cardinal;
And that which sticks more near unto my blood,
He that was nearest to my blood,
My son, to dispossess him of his right by wrong;
Oh! That I might embrace him on these breasts,
Which did enclose him when he first was born.
No greater happiness can heaven show upon me
Than to circle in these arms of mine,
That son whose royal blood I did defame,
To crown with honour an ambitious Moor.
PhillipThus then thy happiness is complete,
Embraces her.
Behold thy Philip ransomed from that prison
In which the Moor had cloistered him.
Hortenzo And here’s Hortenzo.
Eleazar Then am I betrayed and cozened in my own designs?
I did contrive their ruin,
But their subtle policy hath blasted my ambitious thoughts.
Villains! Where’s Zarack? Where’s Baltazar?
What have you done with them?
PhillipThey’re gone to Pluto’s kingdom
To provide a place for thee and to attend thee there;
But least they should be tired with too long expecting hopes.
Come, brave spirits of Spain,
This is the Moor, the actor of these evils,
Thus thrust him down to act amongst the devils.
Stabs him.
Eleazar And am I thus dispatched?
Had I but breathed the space of one hour longer,
I would have fully acted my revenge.
But oh! Now pallid death bids me prepare,
And haste to Charonfor to be his fare.
I come, but ere my glass is run,
I’ll curse you all, and cursing end my life.
Maist thou, Lascivious Queen whose damned charms,
Bewitched me to the circle of thy arms,
Unpitied die, consumed with loathed lust,
Which thy venomous mind hath basely nurst.
And for you, Philip, may your days be long,
But clouded with perpetual misery.
May thou Hortenzo, and thy Isabel,
Be fetched alive by furies into hell,
There to be damned forever!
Oh! I faint, devils, come claim your right,
And when I am confined within your kingdom
Then shall out-act you all in perfect villainy.
Dies.
PhillipTake down his body while his blood streams forth,
His acts are past and our last act is done.
Now do I challenge my hereditary right
To the royal Spanish throne, usurped by him.
In which, in all your sights, I thus do plant myself.
Lord Cardinal and you the Queen, my mother,
I pardon all those crimes you have committed.
Queen MotherI’ll now repose myself in peaceful rest,
And fly unto some solitary residence;
Where I’ll spin out the remnant of my life,
In true contrition for my past offences.
PhillipAnd now, Hortenzo, to close up your wound,
I here contract my sister unto thee,
With comic joy to end a tragedy.
And for this Barbarous Moor, and his black train,
Let all the Moors be banished from Spain!
Exit.
The end of the fifth act.
Back matter
FINIS.
The Weakest Goeth to the Wall (1600)
CONTENTS
Dramatis Personæ
Prologue
Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Scene 5
Scene 6
Scene 7
Scene 8
Scene 9
Scene 10
Scene 11
Scene 12
Scene 13
Scene 14
Scene 15
Scene 16
Scene 17
Scene 18
Dramatis Personæ
The King of France.
LODOWICK, Duke of Bullen.
MERCURY, Duke of Anjou.
EMMANUEL, Duke of Brabant.
LEONTIUS, a Courtier of EMMANUEL’s.
FREDERICK, Son to LODOWICK, brought up by EMMANUEL and known as FERDINAND.
SIR NICHOLAS, a parish priest.
SHAMONT, a courtier of EMMANUEL’s.
LORD EPERNON, the French General.
Two Soldiers of EPERNON’s.
HERNANDO DE MEDINA, the Spanish General.
JACOB VAN SMELT, a Flemish host.
UGO DE CORDOVA, his Lieutenant.
BARNABY BUNCH, an English botcher.
VILLIERS, a merchant.
NUNTIO.
SHAMONT, a courtier of EMMANUEL’s.
ORIANA, wife to LODOWICK.
> DIANA, Daughter to LODOWICK.
ODILLIA, Daughter to EMMANUEL.
Gentlemen, Citizens, Messengers, French and Spanish Soldiers, French Nobles, a Provost, and a Headsman.
Prologue
A Dumb Show
AFTER AN ALARUM, enter one way the DUKE OF BURGUNDY; another way the DUKE OF ANJOU with his power; they encounter, BURGUNDY is slain.Then enter the DUCHESS OF BURGUNDY with young FREDERICK in her hand, who being pursued of the French, leaps into a river, leaving the child upon the bank, who is presently found by the DUKE OF BRABANT, when it was too late.
Prologue
The Duke of Anjou, fatally inclin’d
Against the family of Bullen, leads
A mighty army into Burgundy,
Where Philip, younger brother of that house,
Was duke; whose power unequal wit his foes,
Receiv’d the foil, and being slain himself,
The soldiers afterward pursue his wife.
She, flying from the city, took with her,
Her pretty nephew, Lodowick’s tender son,
Brought up and foster’d by his uncle Philip,
And in her flight to ‘scape the bloody hands
Of those that follow’d, leaps into a river,
And there untimely perish’d in the flood.
The little Frederick, left upon the shore,
The tardy Duke of Brabant all too late
That came with succour to relieve his friend,
Espies, and ignorant of whence he was,
Maintains and keeps him, till he came of age.
Of him, his fortune, and his father’s woes,
The Scene ensuing further shall disclose.[Exit.
Scene 1
ENTER KING OF FRANCE, a nobleman bearing his crown and another his hat, staff, and pilgrim’s gown; with them conversing, DUKE OF ANJOU and LOD’WICK, DUKE OF BULLEN.
KING
How long shall I entreat?How long, my lords,
Will you detain our holy pilgrimage?
Are not our vows already register’d
Upon th’unvalued sepulchre of Christ?
And shall your malice and inveterate hate
Like a contrarious tempest still divorce
Our soul and her religious chaste desires?
If it be treason to attempt by force
To take from me this earthly crown of mine,
What is it when you study to deprive
My soul of her eternal diadem?
Oh, did you but regard my just demand,
Or would like subjects tender your king’s zeal,
You could not choose but entertain a peace.
Why frown you then?Why do your sparkling eyes
Dart mortal arrows in each other’s face?
Am I a friend, an can I not persuade?