Complete Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker
Page 53
BARTERVILE
Besides the use.
FIRST GENTLEMAN
The use is there too.
BARTERVILE
Hold.
I’ll take it without telling.Put it up.
BOTH
Not till we see the writings.
Enter LURCHALL.
BARTERVILE
Dare you touch it?
BOTH
Dare!Yes, sir, and date stab him to the heart
Offers to take it from us.
BARTERVILE
Who stabs first? [Flings money amongst it.
Now, touch it if you dare; there’s gold of mine
And if they lay one finger on’t, cry thieves,
They come to rob me!Touch it if you dare.
FIRST GENTLEMAN
Damn’d wretch, thou wild go quick to hell I fear.
BARTERVILE
No, sir, the devil shall fetch me when I go.
LURCHALL
[Aside.] Th’art all my errand.
SECOND GENTLEMAN
We are cheated both.
BARTERVILE
Proceed in your Chancery suit; I have begun your bill.
Humbly complaining.
FIRST GENTLEMAN
Of thee, villain, I’ll complain
That sells thy soul for money; devils on earth dwell,
And men are nowhere; all this world is hell! [Exeunt Gentlemen.
BARTERVILE
I kiss thy forehead, my witty Oedipus,
That canst unfold such riddles.[One rings.Exit one Servant.
LURCHALL
Sir, I am bound
To do you all service, [Aside.] till I you all confound.
Enter First Servant.
FIRST SERVANT
Master Silverpen the proctor, sir, sends word if you come not in to-morrow and personally depose your payment of the two hundred crowns, you’ll be non-suited.
BARTERVILE
That is a law-draught goes down coldly.
LURCHALL
Why sir?’Tis but your swearing the money is paid.
BARTERVILE
If oaths had back doors to come in at without danger of damnation to catch a man’s soul bith back swearing were brave.
FIRST SERVANT
What answer shall I give the proctor’s man?
LURCHALL
Tell him my master shall come in and swear. [Exit Servant and enter.
BARTERVILE
Do, tell him; on thee I’ll build.Now all my fear
Is for appearance at the Chancellor’s court.
No trick to save that?
LURCHALL
I have a brave one for’t.
Bring in a pottle of wine.[Exit Servant.] Will Carlo here,
My fellow, depose a truth if he see it, to help
His master?
BARTERVILE
Wut thou not, honest Carlo?
SECOND SERVANT
Yes, sir.
Enter Servant with wine.
FIRST SERVANT
Here’s the wine.
LURCHALL
Set this to your head anon, sir; when ’tis there
Away you, and to-morrow thou mayst swear
Before the chancellor, and swear true, if he
Were in that case thou leftst him, ‘twere in vain
To hope he could live till thou camst back again.
BARTERVILE
All knights i’th’ post learn this trick; the fits upon me now.
LURCHALL
Take a good draught; ‘twill help you, sir.It gulps;
He’s almost breathless.Carolo, away!
FIRST SERVANT
I am gone.[Exit.
LURCHALL
He’s gone, he’s gone, sir.
BARTERVILE
One gulp more had choked me;
This wine has washed my fears off. Tha’st given me power
To make me dote upon thee.Carolo’s gone?
LURCHALL
Yes, and will swear his heart out to your good.
Swear let him; be thyself and he damn’d too.
BARTERVILE
So I may get by it.In my bosom’s sleep,
My dove, my love, prosper but thou and I.
LURCHALL
And let all else sink.
BARTERVILE
Let ’em, so I kiss gold;
The young man’s whore, the saint of him that’s old.[Exeunt.
Act Two, Scene Three
ENTER PRIOR, ALPHEGE, HILLARY, and Friars with pruning knives, spades, &c. met by SUBPRIOR and SHACKLE-SOUL.
SUBPRIOR
Whither, mad men, run you?
OMNES
To our vines.
SUBPRIOR
Your vines!
The tree of sin and shame!This serpent here
Has with that liquorish poison so set on fire
The brains of Nicodeme and Sylvester
That they in drunken rage have stab’d each other.
PRIOR
Stab’d!
SHACKLE-SOUL
Yes, they bleed a little, but have no harm.
Their young blood with the grapes being made warm
They brawl’d and struck, but I help off the blows,
Yet the subprior says from me their quarrel rose.
SUBPRIOR
It did.
SHACKLE-SOUL
In very deed, for I’ll not swear,
It did not, sir; to me your malice bear
As if that all such mischief done were mine;
But ‘cause yourself shall see how I repine
To see vice prosper, pardon me, good Lord Prior,
If I a tell-tale be of what mine eyes
Beheld with water in them.Sin will rise
In holy circles I see sometimes.
PRIOR
What sin?
SUBPRIOR
What hast thou seen?
SHACKLE-SOUL
Would present I had not been,
But till I utter it, my clogg’d conscience bears
A man upon a woman.
OMNES
Ha!
SHACKLE-SOUL
I speak’t in tears;
Scumbroth, our cook, and a female I beheld
Kissing in our orchard; on her lips he dwell’d,
I think, some half hour.
SUBPRIOR
Shame to our reverend order!
A woman in our covent!Sin black as murder.
PRIOR
Our cook shall be severely punished; a woman,
A tempter here!
OMNES
Abominable!
PRIOR
Rush, thou’lt rebuke sin.
SHACKLE-SOUL
Though, my lord, I’m bad,
I’m not given that way.
PRIOR
Let up some plagues invent
To lay on this lecherous knave.
SHACKLE-SOUL
Some light punishment,
Good my Lord Prior; suppose ‘twere your own fault,
Whip as you would be whipp’d, the best’s naught.
SUBPRIOR
He shall be punish’d and then lose his place.
PRIOR
That, sir, shall be as we will.To our vines, away!
SUBPRIOR
For shame, give o’er! Dare you profane the day
That is to holy uses consecrate?
PRIOR
Why?What day is this?
SUBPRIOR
Lambert the martyr.
PRIOR
No matter,
To vex thee deeper, this whole day we’ll spend
Only about our vines.
SUBPRIOR
You vex not me,
But heaven; what warrants you to do this?
PRIOR
Our will.
SUBPRIOR
Thou hast thy will, thy wish thou ne’er shalt have,
In sight of heaven who sees and punishes
Men’s black i
mpieties; and in sight of these,
Sharers in thy full sin, and in his sight
T’express whose vileness there’s no epithet.
PRIOR
No matter what he says, Rush.
SHACKLE-SOUL
I’m known what I am.
SUBPRIOR
To thee I prophecy, vicious old man to thee,
Who erst with lift-up-hands and down-bowed knee
Seemest to have has work in heaven; now, full of spite,
Only to sate a liquorish appetite;
Digs our religious wails up, planting there
Luxurious fruits to pamper belly-cheer;
For all thy pains to dress it, of this vine
Thy lustful lips shall never taste the wine.
PRIOR
Distracted fool, instead of my just anger
Thou only hast my pity.Thou prophecy?
OMNES
Ha, ha!
SUBPRIOR
Laugh on, but since nor prayers prevail nor tears,
I’ll power my grief into my prince’s ears. [Exit.
SHACKLE-SOUL
He’ll go and complain to the king.
PRIOR
Let him complain,
Kings cannot subjects of their food restrain.
Away![Exeunt.Manet SHACKLE-SOUL.
SHACKLE-SOUL
Engender sin with sin; that wins rich heat
May bring forth lust; lust murder may beget;
But here strike sail, this bark awhile hale in
And launch into the deep a brighter sin.
Ho, Glitterback, ascend to Shackle-Soul,
To Shackle-Soul ascend, ho Glitterback!
Thou richest spirit, thrust up thy golden head
From Hell thus high.When?Art imprisoned
In miser’s chests so fast thou canst not come?
Or feast thou thieves or cutpurses?Here be some
Can save thee from their fingers.When?Arise,
And dazzle th’approaching night with thy glist’ning eyes.
GLITTERBACK
Here.
A Golden Head ascends.
SHACKLE-SOUL
How thou sweatst with coming!Save me those drops,
Gold’s pure elixir, stilling from thy locks
Shake from thy brows and hair that golden shower.
So, get home, quick, to Hell lest Hell grow poor,
If rich men’s paws once fasten thee, and beware
I’th’ way thou meetst no lawyers; they’ll pull thee bare.
Hence, down!
GLITTERBACK
I’m gone. [Descendit.
SHACKLE-SOUL
Cool night, will call Friar Clement forth anon.
Angels, be you his strong temptation.
Wine’s lustful fires him warm not.At this spring,
Scorn’d by the rest, for him, spread thy gilt wing
Full in his eye.As he drinks water down
In streams of avarice, let his weak soul drown.[Exit.
Act Three, Scene One
Enter the KING, NARCISSO, BRISCO, SPENDOLA,
JOVINELLI, RUFFMAN, followed by ASTOLFO.
ASTOLFO
I do beseech your Highness, yet turn back
And comfort the sad lady whose fair eyes
Are worn away with weeping.
JOVINELLI
If her eyes be worn away, what should a man do with a blind wife?Kill her with flies?
KING
I cannot abide a woman that’s fond of me.
SPENDOLA
Nor I.
NARCISSO
I would love a woman, but as I love a walnut, to crack it and peel it, eat the meat, and then throw away the shell.
JOVINELLI
Or as noblemen use their great horses, when they are past service, sell ’em to brewers and make ’em drey-horses.So use a woman.
ASTOLFO
So, so.
RUFFMAN
The Indians are warm without clothes and a man is best at ease without a woman; or if your Highness must needs have one,
Have factors to but the fairest, dote not any,
But like the Turk, regard none, yet keep many.
KING
You hear the jury’s verdict.
ASTOLFO
Whose foreman’s the devil!
These council thee to thy destruction.
KING
Destruction?Why?Though Heaven can abide but one sun, I hope we on earth may love many men’s daughters.Tell Erminhilda so; send her home to the duke her father and tell him too, because the disease of marriage brings the stone with it.I hate a woman; I love not to be cut; enclos’d grounds are too rank.
RUFFMAN
Best feeding on the commons.
ASTOLFO
Will you not marry this chaste lady then?
KING
No, sir, and will you now my reason have?
A woman is an insatiate grave
Wherein he’s damn’d that lies buried.
OMNES
On, on, away!
RUFFMAN
[Aside.] Brave battles!Fight you, but I’ll win the day. [Exeunt.Manet ASTOLFO.
Enter OCTAVIO and ERMINHILDA
ERMINHILDA
I heard the story; tell’t not o’er again.
‘Twere cruelty to wound men being half slain.
OCTAVIO
’Tis cruelty too much, and too much shame
That one of your high birth, youth, beauty, name,
And virtues shining bright, should hence be sent,
Like some offender into banishment,
Abus’d by a king and his luxurious train
Of parasites, knaves, and fools, a kingdom’s bane.
For them, by him not car’d for, you came not so,
But as his bride, his queen, and bedfellow.
ERMINHILDA
And yet am neither.From my father’s court
Came I, being sued by princes too, for this?
To see him, his subjects scorn and myself his?
Once thought I that his love had been, as fate,
Unmoveable, and is’t now turn’d to hate?
Yes, yes, he’s wavering as the running stream,
And far more idle than a madman’s dream.
ASTOLFO
Send to the duke your father; let him enforce
Your plighted marriage.
ERMINHILDA
Worse than a divorce.
No, to his eyes since hateful I am grown;
I’ll leave his court and him, and die unknown.[Exit.
ASTOLFO
All runs I see to ruin.
OCTAVIO
If he pursue
These godless courses, best we leave him too;
That land to itself must a quick downfall bring
Whose king has lost all but the name of king.[Exeunt.
Act Three, Scene Two
Enter SUBPRIOR with an earthen pot and a lanthorn;
SCUMBROTH with him, with a piece.
SUBPRIOR
Get thee to bed, thou foolish man, and sleep.
SCUMBROTH
How?Sleep?No, sir, no.I am turn’d a tyrant and cannot sleep.
I stand sentinel perdu, and somebody dies if I sleep.
I am posses’d with the devil and cannot sleep.
SUBPRIOR
What devil possesses thee?
SCUMBROTH
The fencer’s devil, a fighting devil.Rush has committed a murder upon my body, and his carcass shall answer it.The cock of my revenge is up.
SUBPRIOR
Murder!What murder?
SCUMBROTH
He has taken away my good name, which is flat manslaughter, and half hang’d me, which is as much as a murder.He told the Lord Prior and you that I was kissing a wench.It’s a lie; I give him the lie, and he shall fight with me at single pistol against my caliver.Do I look like a whore-monger?When have you seen a wencher thus hairy as I am?Rush, thou diest for this treason against
my member’s concupiscentiality?
SUBPRIOR
Thou would not kill him, would thou?
SCUMBROTH
No, but I’ll make him know what ’tis to boil a cook in’s own grease!I am scalding hot; I am charg’d with fury; I carry a heart-burning within me.I kiss a whore?I shall have boys cry out to me now, “Who kiss’d Mary?”No, Rush, Scumbroth shall give thee sugar pellets to eat.I will not be danc’d upon!
SUBPRIOR
Let me persuade thy piece of mind to-night:
Get thee to rest; if Rush have thee belied,
Rejoice by wrongs to have thy patience tried.
He shall forgiveness ask thee.
SCUMBROTH
Let me have but one blow at’s head with my cleaver i’th’ kitchen and I freely forgive him, or let me bounce at him.
SUBPRIOR
These bloody thoughts will damn thee into hell.
SCUMBROTH
Do you think so? What becomes of our roaring boys then that stab healths one to another; do you think they will be damn’d up too?
SUBPRIOR
I think so, for I know it.Dear son, to prayer;
Two sins beset thee:murder and despair.
I charge thee, meet me at my cell anon
To save thee will I spend my orison.
In name of Heaven, I charge thee to be gone!
SCUMBROTH
Well, sir, the cold water of your council has laid the heat of my fury. He has met with his match but I will shoot off my anger.I will be gone, and why?Look you, because the moon is up and make horns at one of us.As the nobleman’s coach is drawn by four horses, the knights by two, and the cuckold by three, even so am I drawn away with none at all.Vale, bonos noches; I am possess’d still.It buzzes here.Vale.[Exit.
SUBPRIOR
Bless’d stay of light, struck there to illuminate
This world darkened o’er with sin.Thou watchest late
To guide men’s coming home, showing thereby
Heaven’s care of us, seeing how we tread awry.
We have two great lights for midnight and for noon,
Because black deeds at no time should be done.
All hail to thee, now my best guide, be given!
What needs I earth’s candle, having the lamp of heaven?
Now Benedicite? Where am I?
Enter SHACKLE-SOUL as RUSH, aloof.
O, whether am I going?Which way came I?
Ah, well-a-da,’ I come to fill my pot
With water not with thee.Thou art misbegot,
Else wouldst not lie there.What orphan’s blood
Hast thou suck’d out to make this golden flood?
None drink this well but I; how is it then
Thou thus waylay’st me, thief to the soul of man?
Would some poor wretch, by loss of law undone,
Had thee!Go do him good; me canst thou none.
My wholesome cup is poison’d; it flows o’er
With man’s damnation, gold; drink there no more.