Vocativo, ô! he’s gone if he cries so;
Ablativo, ab hoc, away with him, he has the pock;
Pluraliter, Nominativo, Hi gallanti, if the pox he can defy;
Genitivo, Horum, Yet here’s a beggar in coram;
Dativo, His, his gilt rapier he does miss;
Accusativo Hos, without his cloak he goes;
Accusativo Has, to the Counter he must pass;
Hos, has, et Hæc, with two catchpoles at his back;
Vocative, ô! a hole he desired, and to’th’ hole he must go.
Ablativo, ab His, this many a gallant declined is.[Exit.
Act Four, Scene Three
ENTER SUBPRIOR AND ERMINHILD.
SUBPRIOR
What art thou?
ERMINHILD
Daughter to the Calabriam duke
The hapless troth-plight to your sad king.
SUBPRIOR
Alack!What notes are these I hear you sing?
Pardon me, madam.
O Lady!Want of you has bred much woe.
Calamity does every where o’erflow;
All long of your strange absence.[Drums afar off, marching.
ERMINHILD
I confess,
Loaden with your king’s contempt, and loath to bear
Shame to my country, who from thence came freighted
With many glorious honours, I preferr’d
An obscure life before a public shame;
O then, good father, be it not my blame
If my suppos’d death on the king hath thrown
Dangers which from himself are merely grown.
SUBPRIOR
What, princely maiden, would you wish me do?
ERMINHILD
I do conjure you, sir, by all the bonds
Tie you to pious acts, you would make way
To my incensed father; give him these lines,
This ring, pledge of that blessing he deliver’d me
At our last parting; add unto these, if ever
His daughter’s memory to him were dear,
To would the prince let his rash hand forbear,
Since through each wound he gives him, I am slain.
If the sad king you meet, venture to tell him
That more for him, than he for me, I bide,
And am his subject still, though not his bride.
SUBPRIOR
This shall I do.How shall we meet again?
ERMINHILD
Fears follow me so, I know not where nor when.
SUBPRIOR
Hark how the sound of horror beats the air!
Your father’s up in arms and does prepare
Sharp vengeance for this city; woe is me.Trust you
To me, who ne’er made much of woman yet,
Rest his sweet maid till an old friar beget
What joys he can to comfort thee.Is Clement grown
A woman man now?No, I am not mine own
Where your command may sway me.Much more in this,
Where Heaven, through virtue’s trial, makes you his. [Exeunt.
Act Four, Scene Four
A table is set out with a candle burning, a death’s head, a cloak, and
A cross.SUBPRIOR sits reading.Enter SHACKLE-SOUL leading in an
Italian Zany, five or six Courtesans, every-one holding a jewel.
SHACKLE-SOUL
That’s he, and there’s your golden hire to charm him.
Your fees I’ll treble, let but lust’s flame be felt.
The Alpine snow at the sun’s beams does melt,
So let your beauties thaw his frozen age,
First t’act an old lecher, then a devil on Hell’s black stage.
Strike, strike your silver strings, brave set of whore![Music.
At your striking up, devils dance, and all Hell roars.
[Zany and Courtesans fall into a short dance.
SUBPRIOR
What sound offends mine ear?Soul of temptation!
Enchanters, I defy you; get you gone!
I’m blind to your enticements; from this I learn
At how dear rate the careless world does earn
That thing call’d pleasure; how many souls do fall,
Sold for a little gilt to daub this wall?
Hence with your witchcrafts, the sight of this drives hence
All thoughts besieging out voluptuous sense.
SHACKLE-SOUL
Another bite; at this he will not bite.
[The Zany sings; SUBPRIOR holds his head down as fast asleep.
ZANY
Will you have a dainty girl?here ’tis!
Curral lips, teeth of pearl; here ’tis!
Cherry cheeks, softest flash; that’s she!
Breath like May, sweet and fresh; she, she!
Be she white, black or brown,
Pleasure your bed shall crown,
Choose her then, use her then
Women are made for men.
Pretty, pretty wast;
Sweet to be embraced.
Pretty leg, O, pretty foot;
To beauty’s tree the root;
This is she shall do’t;
Or she shall do’t, or she shall do’t, she shall do’t, she shall do’t.
Kiss, kiss, play, play, come and dally,
Tumble, tumble, tumble, in beauty’s valley!
SHACKLE-SOUL
His soul is chain’d in pleasures; bind it fast,
If he break your charms, the strongest spell comes last.[Exit.All wake SUBPRIOR.
SUBPRIOR
Hence, devils incarnate!’Tis not the sorcery
Of your deceitful tunes shuts up mine eye;
Mine ears are likewise stopp’d.Hence, hence I say!
OMNES
Ha, ha, a man of ice, a clod of clay! [Exeunt.
Enter SHACKLE-SOUL, or some spirit in a frightful shape.
SUBPRIOR
Are all thy incantations spent now?Art come again?
Base workmanship of Heaven, what other train
Were all Hell’s frightful horrors stuck in thy look
Thou canst not shake me.
SHACKLE-SOUL
I can.
SUBPRIOR
Thou liest, thou shalt not!
SHACKLE-SOUL
I bring thee tidings of thy death this night.
SUBPRIOR
How dost thou know that hour of my last sight?
False herald! Ministers of despair and lies!
SHACKLE-SOUL
I know to how many minutes thy days must rise.
SUBPRIOR
Who gives thee the number?
SHACKLE-SOUL
All things to us are known,
What ever have been, are, or shall be done.
SUBPRIOR
I’ll pose thee presently; what’s this thou fiend
Which now I have turn’d to?Do but tell me that
And I’ll believe thee.
SHACKLE-SOUL
I scorn to be thy slave.
SUBPRIOR
Down, down, and sink into thy damned cave!
Look here, dost thou fly, thy hell-hound?I dare thee stand
O’er thee by these holy spells have I strong command;
Thy batt’ries are too weak; by good men’s prayers,
Thy continence of saints, by which, as stairs,
Thy ascend to Heaven, by virgin’s chastity,
By martyr’s crown’d deaths, which recorded lie
In silver leaves above; I charge thee down,
Howl where th’art bound in slavery, till the last dome!
SHACKLE-SOUL
Storms, thunder, lighting, rip up the earth’s womb!
SUBPRIOR
Eternal power, thanks on my humblest knees,
Thou still to constant breasts giv’st victory![Exit.
SHACKLE-SOUL
No way to conquer thee?I’ll give thee o’er.
Ne’er fish’d I so, yet lost a soul, before. [Exit.
Act Five, Sc
ene One
Alarums.Enter KING, RUFFMAN, SPENDOLA, & BRISCO,
with drawn weapons.
KING
Black horrors, mischief, ruin, and confusion
Affright us, follow us.
RUFFMAN
Dare them to the face
And you fright them.
SPENDOLA
No safety but to fly.
KING
Wither, Spendola, wither?Better stay and die.
Enter NARCISSO.Alarums afar off.
OMNES
What hope?What news?
KING
Is my uncle fled?
NARCISSO
He’s gone,
And fights against you.
KING
Follow him damnation
That leaves his prince so in distress, in misery.
O bane of kings, thou enchanting flattery,
Thy venom now I feel eating my heart,
More mortal than an Indian’s poison’d dart!
RUFFMAN
Ya’re too dejected; gather head and fight it out!
KING
The head’s here; where are the hands to lay about?
Enter JOVINELLI.
JOVINELLI
Where is the king?
KING
The man that title mocks
Is here, thou sad-visage man.Are any hir’d
To kill me or betray me?Let ’em come!
Griefs growing extreme, death is a gentle doom.
JOVINELLI
Prepare then for the worst.
KING
I am arm’d for’t.Show it.
JOVINELLI
Thy kingdom is a weak ship, split, sinking,
Nor hast thou any pilot to waft us o’er
Out of this foul sea to some calmer shore.
Thy people’s hearts are turn’d to rocks of flint,
The scholar, soldier, and the mariner
Whom, as themselves say, once thou trodst upon,
Now serve as wheels of thy destruction.
KING
Flying swiftly backward, the kingly lion quail’d;
What shall the weaker herds do if he fall?
SPENDOLA
Let’s fly.
OMNES
Zounds!Whither?
BRISCO
So we may be safe.
JOVINELLI
But where?
SPENDOLA
At Bartervile.The churl’s to me beholden;
His house so stands, we may enter without fear.
OMNES
Be’t so!To Bartervile!
SPENDOLA
What will your Highness do?
KING
Die, Spendola, a miserable king;
None here can hinder us of that.
SPENDOLA
How!Die!
Ha’ you any stomach to death, sirs?
OMNES
Not I.
SPENDOLA
Nor I.
Troth’s though you grow desperate, we’ll grow wise.
OMNES
Farewell, sir; we’ll save one. [Exeunt all but KING and RUFFMAN.
KING
Oh, my cruell’st enemies!
Stabs Brutus at me too?
RUFFMAN
[Aside.] Now my own, or never!
KING
Why art not thou gone?
RUFFMAN
I, I’ll stick to you ever;
I am no courtier, sir, of Fortune’s making.
KING
Thou art no wise man to prefer thy love
To me, before thy life; pray thee, leave me!
RUFFMAN
Not I.
KING
I shall not hate the world so really
As else I would.O, had the ancient race
Of men, who had long leases of their lives,
Been wretched as we are, no recompense
Could the gods have given them for their being here!
But now more pitiful wise nature grows
Who cuts of man’s years to cut off his woes!
RUFFMAN
True, sir, and teaches him a thousand ways
To lead him out this horrid giddy maze.
KING
I apprehend thee a small dagger’s point
Opens the veins to cure our pleurisy.
RUFFMAN
Than to be made your foe’s slave, better die.
KING
A hundred thousand deaths, than like a captive,
Be chained to grace proud Cæsar’s chariot wheel.
RUFFMAN
Much less a petty duke’s.
KING
Fetch me, dear friend,
An armed pistol, and mouth it at my breast.
I’ll make away myself, and all my sorrows
Are made away.
RUFFMAN
The best and nobler spirits
Have done the like.
KING
Your bravest men-at-arms
Have done the like.
RUFFMAN
Philosophers have done it.
KING
Great peers have done it.
RUFFMAN
Kings have done the like.
KING
And I will do it.
RUFFMAN
Nay, it shall ne’er be said
I liv’d a minute after you; here, here!
KING
I embrace thee, noblest friend!
RUFFMAN
Let’s sail together!
KING
Content, brave Bohor.Oh!But whither? whither?
RUFFMAN
From Hell, this world, from fiends, in shapes of men.
KING
No, into Hell, from men to be damn’d black with fiends.
Methinks I see hell yawn to swallow us.
RUFFMAN
Foh!This is but the swimming of your brain
By looking downward with a timorous eye.
KING
My soul was snuck too low to look more high.
Forgiveness, Heaven! [Alarums.
RUFFMAN
The whips of furies lash me; the foe come on.
KING
And we will meet him, dare confusion
And the world’s mixed poisons; there is a hand
That fights for kings, and under that we’ll stand.
Alarums still afar off; enter a Friar running.
RUFFMAN
Whither runs this friar?
FRIAR
To save my wretched life
From th’insolent soldier threat’ning the city’s spoil.
KING
Of what house art thou?
FRIAR
Of Father Clement’s order,
The Capachine’s subprior; a quick messenger
Fetched me to be rich Bartervile’s confessor
Who lies a-dying.
KING
A-dying!
FRIAR
He does, but I
Have come thus far with so much jeopardy
That could I safely get to the lee shore
Him nor the priory would I see more.
For charity’s sake, direct me and defend me!
KING
To help distressed men religion binds me.
Shouldst thou in this hot broils be met abroad
It will be judged you leave your priory
Carrying gold and silver with you.
FRIAR
‘Las, I have none!
KING
But, Friar, if you be thus taken, your life is gone.
Here, here cast off thy habit, better that lie
I’th’ streets than thou poor wretch; wear mine, and away;
Strike down that lane.
FRIAR
Thanks, master; for your lives I’ll pray. [Exit.
KING
This, Bohor, shall disguise me.Whither wilt thou fly?
RUFFMAN
I’ll shift, I warrant.Haste thou to the priory.
If we ne’er meet again, best friend, farewell.
RUFFMAN
[Aside.] Not meet!Yes, I hope, you must not thus cheat Hell. [Exit.
KING
I will not trust this fellow.To th’priory, no.
Bartervile’s confessor; if to betray
Thou findst the churl apt, leave him; if not, there stay.
The downfall of that prince is quick and steep
Who has no heart to leave, nor power to keep.[Exit.
Act Five, Scene Two
ENTER BARTERVILE AS a Turk, and LURCHALL with the Courtiers.
LURCHALL
Make the door sure; the house is round beset.
OMNES
Beset!
BARTERVILE
Put up; fear nothing.Armies, should they enter,
Cannot here find you.
OMNES
How shall we escape?
BARTERVILE
Send for your trunks and jewels; I’ll ship you this night; meantime this unknown way leads to a cellar where a world cannot fetch you forth.In, in; if danger pursue you, in a dry-fat I’ll pack you hence.
OMNES
Zounds!Into the dungeon!
BARTERVILE
So, to Sardini.[Exeunt Courtiers.
Your cloaks and your gilt rapiers, down, down, down.
Enter KING as a Friar, aloof.
KING
How soon meets Babel’s pride, confusion?
LURCHALL
What nest of birds are these new-kill’d with fear?
BARTERVILE
Foul cannot last long sweet, therefore kept there
In my cold cellar.Stay, house beset?What fees?
LURCHALL
Such as strike dead the heart, yet give no blows.
Sergeants.
BARTERVILE
This, foutre for them!Proclamations, Lurchall,
Six thousand crowns are his; can these betray
Soon earned, we’ll share.Fetch the Calabriam hither;
They are hearsay; damn ’em!
LURCHALL
[Aside.] You shall be damn’d together. [Exit.
KING
[Coming forward.] Where’s that devote sick man desires to take
Leave of this world?Deus hic to all now here.
BARTERVILE
Now domine friar, what I to you confess
You are bound by oath to keep.
KING
I aver no less.
BARTERVILE
Keep then this close:I am no Turk, not I,
But Bartervile disguised in policy.
KING
Are you the sick man?
BARTERVILE
Sick of a disease,
Bad as a plague to citizens, I must break,
Play a bankrout’s part, I have money of the kings,
Of merchants; I’ll keep all, these are city-sprigs.
Here lies Sergeant Leaguer; about my doors,
My house to me is an hospital, they the sores
Which up upon me vily; peep I but out,
To raise the Dunkirk’s siege, thus cast I about.
Complete Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker Page 56