Complete Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker

by Thomas Dekker

  FERDINAND

  I not deny, my lord, but I am married

  Unto Odillia, though unworthy far

  of such a gracious blessing.Yet her love

  Was forward in the choice as well as mine.

  EMMANUEL

  See how he goes about to choke the fact

  With love and marriage?No, adulterous swain,

  Your hedge-betrothing covenant shall not serve.

  Where is your sweet companion?Where is she?

  But we will talk of that another time.

  Why is my Lord of Bullen so remiss,

  And will not presently be given incharge

  A pair of bolts be clap’d upon his heels?

  LOD’WICK

  Without offence, my lord, unto your grace,

  Myself will undertake to be his bail,

  And he shall answer if you so be pleas’d,

  Your accusation, when you will appoint

  A day of hearing.Be it to-morrow next.

  EMMANUEL

  And even to-morrow let his trial be.

  I will no longer have the cause deffer’d.[Exit.

  EPERNOUN

  And Ferdinando, in this time of need,

  Old Epernoun will stand thee in some stead.

  Good Duke of Bullen, use him kindly yet,

  Whilst I do follow this incensur’d lord,

  And try if tears may drive him to accord.[Exit.

  LOD’WICK

  Now, Ferdinand, here’s nont but you and I.

  Know you not me?

  FERDINAND

  I cannot call it to my mind, my lord,

  That ever I did see your grace till now.

  LOD’WICK

  Bethink yourself.Look better on my face.

  FERDINAND

  There is, my lord, with pardon be it spoke,

  A man in Ards, a sexton of a church,

  With whom I had acquaintance once.He, methinks,

  Is somewhat like your excellence, or else

  I do not know where I have seen your favour.

  LOD’WICK

  The sexton there is Duke of Bullen here.

  Be not abash’d; ’twas I to whom you left

  Your fair Odillia, and ’tis I can witness,

  That you and she are lawfull man and wife.

  This may be some defence against the stream

  Of angry Brabant that pursues your life.

  Come, I have sent in private for the dame,

  And by all means to shield you both from shame. [Exeunt.

  Scene 17

  ENTER SIR NICHOLAS with a letter, ODILLIA with a letter in her hand, BUNCH and NUNTIO.

  SIR NICHOLAS

  And must we then, fair lady, forgo your sweet company?

  ODILLIA

  You see my Lord of Bullen sends for me;

  With him remains my husband, Ferdinand;

  So you perceive how much it me concerns,

  To leave this place to better my estate.

  SIR NICHOLAS

  I cannot blame a fair lady, to leave a bad thing to go to a better.My friend, thank the Duke of Bullen, my quondam sexton, for his kind letter.I may say, that ne’er a priest in Picardy can say beside that I have had a duke to my sexton, be it spoken without pride.

  BUNCH

  The devil ye ha’!Was he not my petticessor, I pray ye?I was his ‘quaintance afore he knew you, friend.Do my condemnations to him; one Bunch that botch’d in his city, ran away in his company, and dwelt where he dwelt, with Dutch Yacob Smelt.And for my better grace, ye may say Barnaby Bunch, that has his sexton’s place.[Aside to NUNTIO.] Hark ye, friend, you have brought no diseases with ye, have ye?

  NUNTIO

  Why dost thou ask so fond a question?

  BUNCH

  Marry, I speak to him when he went, to send the plague or the pox or some disease of High France down into this low country, to lay the men of Ards low that I may have money for their graves, and marry one of their wives.If ye have any ‘firmity about ye, as the stone or the dropsy, the pip or the palsy, I’ll give ye as much for it as another to have it left in our parish.

  ODILLIA

  Will ye not write, Sir Nicholas, to the Duke?

  SIR NICHOLAS

  To tell ye true, lady, a letter of six lines is three days work for me.The Duke knows my mind as well as if I did write; if he have a better benefice or two for me, tell him I will come.

  BUNCH

  Then we come, both the vicar and the sexton.

  ODILLIA

  Why, Bunch, I thought you would have gone with me.

  BUNCH

  Truly, not thus advis’d:if ye had no husband, so; but having ahusband, no.I can be but well, and the hardest of my learning is past.I can say, ‘amen,’ without book, chime two bells at once, whip a dog with both hands, know the difference of the strokes in tolling for men and women, grease the bellropes, turn the clappers, sweep the church, help the vicar on with his surplice.All this I know by rote, ye may tell the duke, as if I had been bound prentice to the trade; and for making a grave, come all Picardy for the price of my pickaxe.

  ODILLIA

  We stay too long.Sir Nicholas, farewell, and farewell, Bunch.

  [Exeunt ODILLIA and NUNTIO.

  BUNCH

  Heartily to you.Prey ye, condemn me to your husband, master Farting Andrew.

  SIR NICHOLAS

  Ferdinando, Bunch.Thou mistermst his name.

  BUNCH

  So have you done many a one in ths first lesson, God forgive ye.

  SIR NICHOLAS

  Let that pass amongst the rest of my venial sins.And tell me, Bunch, tell me, where’s the best liquor?

  BUNCH

  At the Green Dragon, gentle master vicar.

  SIR NICHOLAS

  Will the dragon sting?

  BUNCH

  From the head to the heel,

  He will sting you brain so,

  That he’ll make your feet reel.

  SIR NICHOLAS

  Let’s go play for two pots.Away, Bunch, away!

  BUNCH

  Then the parish is like to have no service to-day. [Exeunt.

  Scene 18

  ENTER LOD’WICK, EMMANUEL, EPERNOUN in his chair, FREDERICK as FERDINAND with the provost and a headsman.

  EMMANUEL

  My Lord of Bullen, many things might urge

  Your speed of justice for so just a wrong;

  As the regard of your own princely state

  In case of him that is an equal peer;

  The right of princes, which should underprop

  An honourable and direct revenge.

  I could perhaps say, were it not injustice,

  The blood of Brabant should deserve of Bullen.

  But I disrobe and strip off all regard,

  And lay my wrongs as nakedly before you

  As comes an infant born into the world.

  LOD’WICK

  My Lord of Brabant, what I freely urge

  Is not to stop or turn the course of justice,

  Which must sway all our actions, and must stand

  Steady and fixed in one certain point;

  But only by entreaty to your grace,

  To supple your proceeding in this case.

  EPERNOUN

  My Lord of Brabant, may old Epernoun,

  By license of my lord, the Duke of Bullen,

  Have leave to speak, an old fool that I am,

  By your good patience let me say my mind.

  Now, by my troth, I cannot speak for tears.

  Alas, alas!There’s something I would say.

  Now, God help age, would I were in my grave!

  Justice may cut off Ferdinand.Where is he?

  Oh, art thou there, poor man?Alas, alas!

  Justice may cut him off, I’ll not deny;

  But turn him with his swrd amongst his foes,

  And he that buys his life shall buy it dear.

  Alas, poor boy, would I could do thee good!

  Oh, to
see him lead an army in the field

  Would make a man young, were as old as I.

  I would thou hadst died where I saw thee last,

  Even in the midst of all the Spanish army,

  On that condition I had died with thee.

  God help, God help, an ill mischance soon falls,

  And still the weakest go unto the walls.

  EMMANUEL

  Defer me not, my lord; let me have justice.

  LOD’WICK

  My lord, you must have juctice, that you know.

  But yet, my Lord of Brabant, might our love

  Rebate this sharp edge of your bitter wrath,

  With what an easy sweetness should our judgment

  Be relished of every gentle heart.

  EMMANUEL

  My Lord of Bullen, urge me not with pity.

  He against whom I am thus pitiless

  Robb’d me of pity.Proceed unto your judgment.

  EPERNOUN

  God help!Pity is banish’d from the earth, I see.

  Thou pitiest none, nor no man pities thee.

  EMMANUEL

  Old man, thou dotest.

  EPERNOUN

  Thou art a naughty lord, I tell thee, Brabant;

  The day hath been thou durst not tell me so.

  LOD’WICK

  Have patience, gentle father.True noble lord,

  He will have death.Who’s there?

  Command the lady presently be brought.

  LOD’WICK ascends.The Lady is brought in.

  EMMANUEL

  Lod’wick of Bullen, is it not enough

  Thou hast delay’d me in the case of justice,

  But bringst this hateful whore unto my sight

  To vex and grieve my soul?I ttell thee, Bullen,

  Thou wrongst mine honour with indignity.

  FERDINAND

  Ah, were i any tongue that call’d thee so

  But his Odillia, I would make that word

  Heretical and full of blasphemy.

  EMMANUEL

  My Lord of Bullen, I will not abide her.

  LOD’WICK

  My lord, you must abide her, since for her

  You seek the life of this young Ferdinand.

  Sift law so strictly, follow the offence,

  Take all advantage of your evidence.

  EPERNOUN

  Now, by my troth, a goodly wench indeed.

  Alas, poor earl.Fair princess, speak thy mind,

  And I’ll stand by thy side.And yet I cannot.

  Ah, this whoreson age.Well, well. [He weeps.

  EMMANUEL

  I will not hear her speak.

  LOD’WICK

  All’s one, my Lord of Brabant.We will hear her.

  Speak freely, princess, and without control.

  ODILLIA

  Right reverend Lord,if only for my sake,

  My father seek the death of Ferdinand,

  I here acquit my husband of the fault,

  Although I cannot of the punishment.

  I was the thief, I was the ravisher,

  And I am only guilty of the fact.

  How like a robber did I lie in wait

  With beauty to entrap his gentle youth?

  And like a spirit when he hath walk’d alone,

  How was I ever tempting him to love?

  How with my favour did I work his breast,

  Which at the first was stubborn, iron, cold,

  Till I brought his heart to supple temper,

  To take the soft impression of affection?

  With these allurements would I oft intice him:

  ‘Though thou be base, my love shall me thee noble;

  Though thou be proud, my power shall make thee rich;

  Though thou be scorn’d, my state shall make thee reverenc’d.’

  Let any of you all think with himself,

  Where he so mean, so friendless, and unknown,

  Wooed by a virgin princess of my birth,

  So young, so great, so rich, as is my self;

  Thinks he, he would not do as he hath done?

  He’s guiltless of the fault; I was the cause.

  Let me endure the rigour of your laws.

  FERDINAND

  Oh, thou dost wound my love with too much loving!

  Thy beauty is too much prized but with death.

  that man hath not a soul that would not die,

  One hour to enjoy thy blessed company.

  EPERNOUN

  Nay, I must weep out these poor eyes are left.

  I never saw a cause so full of pity.

  EMMANUEL

  My lord, proceed.The law adjudges death

  To him that steals the heir of any prince

  That’s not a prince that doth commit the act.

  He is my slave, one that was found by me,

  Being a child, but fully two years old,

  And as’t should seem, begot in bastardy,

  And by the parents to that wicked fruit,

  Left in the river’s sedges, there to be drown’d,

  What time the ward in Burgundy fell out,

  And that my duchess perish’d in the flight,

  Not never did I know what was his name,

  Being so young, he could not tell the same.

  Only upon his muckender and band he had an ‘F,’

  By which I did suppose his name was Ferdinand,

  And so I nam’d him.

  LOD’WICK

  [Aside.] Oh, blessed heaven, what sound is this I hear?

  My little boy was lost even at that time,

  Just of that age, and by that river’s side,

  Whose name was christen’d Frederick by my father,

  And had an ‘F’ on everthing he wore.

  It is my son.Be silent yet awhile.

  [Aloud.] My Lord of Brabant, then I take exception

  Both unto your indictment and your plea.

  EMMANUEL

  As how, my Lord of Bullen?Do me juctice.

  LOD’WICK

  He is indicted by the name of Ferdinand,

  And I will prove him christen’d Frederick,

  And thus is your indictment overthrown.

  EMMANUEL

  It is a fallacy, my Lord of Bullen;

  He hath been ever called by that name.

  Bullen, do me justice, or by heaven,

  It is not France shall hold thee, impious duke!

  LOD’WICK

  Nay, if ye be so hot, my Lord of Brabant,

  Then to your plea, that doth concern him most.

  The law is this:that he should lose his head

  That steals away the heir of any prince,

  If not a prince that doth commit the rape.

  EMMANUEL

  So it my plea.

  LOD’WICK

  I grant, but void in this:

  He is a prince that stole away thy daughter;

  This is not Ferdinand, but Frederick,

  The heir of Bullen and my only son.

  Ah, my sweet boy!Ah, my dear Frederick!

  Here now I stand and here doth stand my boy.

  In Christendom let any two that dare

  Aver it to the father and the son

  That he is not as great a prince as Brabant.

  EPERNOUN

  Nay, I’ll be one.Any three, whate’er they be!

  And Brabant, be thou one to answer us.

  Some honest man, help mt to Frederick.

  For joy I shall weep out mine eyes.

  EMMANUEL

  Bullen, how dost thou know him for thy son?

  LOD’WICK

  Why, cousin Brabant, you say you found him

  Hid in the sedges by the river; even at that instant

  And at the very place, the duchess, my dear sister perished,

  With whom my little boy was at the time.

  The place, the instant, and his certain age,

  The letters set to signify his name,

  The very manner of your fin
ding him,

  When you departed from me with your army

  In the pursuit of trait’rous Mercury,

  These all affirm that he is only mine.

  EMMANUEL

  My Lord of Bullen, I embrace your love

  In all firm and true brotherly affection.

  I make your son my son, my daughter yours,

  And do entreat in princely courtesy

  Old grief henceforth no more be thought upon.

  LOD’WICK

  Dear brother Brabant, your true princely kindness

  Doth but forestall what i would have requested.

  Right noble prince, I give you Frederick,

  And I accept your sweet Odillia.

  Come, thou art now the Duke of Bullen’s daughter;

  Thy husband is the Duke of Brabant’s son;

  Thou shalt be now my care; my son, they father’s.

  Thus do we make exchange betwixt each other’s;

  Thus should it be betwixt two loving brothers.

  EPERNOUN

  Nay, nay, let me be one, I pray you, lords.

  I have no child left to inherit mine

  When I shall die, as long I cannot live,

  I freely give them all that ere I have.[He weeps.

  LOD’WICK

  A thousand thanks, true noble Epernoun.

  Brother of Brabant, Frederick and fair princess,

  Embrace this noble lord and hold him dear.

  FERDINAND & ODILLIA

  Our father, guide and comfort we you call,

  And be you ever honour’d of us all.

  Enter VILLIERS, ORIANA and DIANA.

  VILLIERS

  Justice, my Lord of Bullen, I beseech you.

  LOD’WICK

  My friend, what is thy cuase then.Let us know.

  Sit down, good brother Brabant, and the rest.

  VILLIERS

  My lord, my suit is here against a widow

  That I have long time sued in way of marriage.

  LOD’WICK

  [Aside.] Let me with judgment view this woman well.

  Stay, let me see.It is my Oriana,

  And my poor Dian, my dear loved girl!

  Alas, poor souls, what woe and misery

  Have ye endured since I left you last?

  I will forbear my knowledge till I see

  To what effect this cause will sort unto.

  [Aloud.] Tell on your case:of whence, and what’s your name?

  VILLIERS

  I am of Rochele, and my name, Villiers.

  LOD’WICK

  Of what profession?

  VILLIERS

  A merchant I, my honourable lord.

  ORIANA

  [Aside.] But though you be a merchant, I believe

  Here is some ware you must not deal with.

  [To DIANA.] Thinkst thou, Diana, my dear lord, thy father,

  Will know us in this seamster’s poor disguise?