That Sword is seldome drawne, by which is meant,
It should strike seldome: neuer th’innocent.
Tis held before thee by anothers Hand,
But the point vpwards (heauen must that co¯mand)
Snatch it not then in Wrath; it must be giuen,
But to cut none, till warranted by Heauen.
The Head, the politike Body must aduance
For which thou hast this Cap of Maintenance,
And since the most iust Magistrate often erres,
Thou guarded art about with Officers,
Who knowing the Oathes of Others that are gone,
Should teach thee what to do, what leaue vndone.
Nights Candles lighted are, and burne amaine,
Cut therefore here off, Thy Officious Traine
Which Loue and Custome lend thee: All Delight
Crowne both this Day and Citty: A good Night
To Thee, and these Graue Senators, to whom
My last Fare-wels, in these glad wishes come,
That thou & they (whose strength the City beares)
May be as old in Goodnesse as in Yeares.
THE Title-page of this Booke makes promise of all the Shewes by water, as of these On the Land; but Apollo hauing no hand in them, I suffer them to dye by that which fed them; that is to say, Powder & Smoake. Their thunder (according to the old Gally-foyst-fashion) was too lowd for any of the Nine Muses to be bidden to it. I had deuiz’d One, altogether Musicall, but Times Glasse could spare no Sand, nor lend conuenient Howres for the performance of it. Night cuts off the glory of this Day, and so consequently of these Triumphes, whose brightnesse beeing ecclipsed, my labours can yeeld no longer shadow. They are ended, but my Loue and Duty to your Lordship shall neuer.
— Non displicuisse meretur,
Festinat (Prætor) Qui placuisse Tibi.
FINIS.
The Welsh Ambassador (1623)
CONTENTS
Dramatis Personæ
Act One, Scene One
Act One, Scene Two
Act One, Scene Three
Act Two, Scene One
Act Two, Scene Two
Act Two, Scene Three
Act Three, Scene One
Act Three, Scene Two
Act Three, Scene Three
Act Four, Scene One
Act Four, Scene Two
Act Four, Scene Three
Act Five, Scene One
Act Five, Scene Two
Act Five, Scene Three
Dramatis Personæ
ATHELSTANE, King of England.
EDMUND, his
ELDRED, brothers.
THE DUKE OF CORNWALL.
PENDA, his son.
DUKE OF COLCHESTER.
The PRINCE,
EARL OF KENT.
EARL OF CHESTER.
BISHOP OF WINCHESTER.
VOLTIMAR, a captain.
A Servant
The Clown.
DUCHESS CARINTHA, wife to CORNWALL
ARMANTE, daughter of Colchester
Act One, Scene One
ENTER THE DUKE OF CORNWALL, the EARLS OF CHESTER and MERCIA, and EDWIN; ELFRED and EDMOND, the KING’s brothers, disguised like soldiers.
CORNWALL
Your business?
EDMUND
To the king.
ELFRED
And mine.
CORNWALL
Whence come you?
EDMUND
From France.
ELDRED
And from France I.
Enter the KING.
KING
Which are they that come from France.These?
OMNES
Yes, sir.
KING
How is it with our army we sent thither
Under the conduct of out two valiant brothers,
Edmund and Eldred and that far-fam’d Penda,
Son to our new-made Duke of Cornwall here?
ELDRED
I lay far off from Penda’s regiment
Nor know I what fate follows him.
EDMOND
Nor I.
ELDRED
From Eldred’s tent I come.
EDMOND
And I from Edmond’s.
KING
Hinder not one another.Take time.Speak both.
ELDRED
Your brother Eldred’s slain.
OMNES
Ha, the prince slain?
EDMOND
Ravens, I see, fly together.Of his fall
Can I sigh nothing; though into the world,
This pair of princes came not hand in hand,
Death hath a mind, it seems, to have them twins,
For Edmond is slain too.
CORNWALL
Both princes lost?
KING
Look I not pale, so much blood being drawn from me
As made two brothers?Here is yet their honours:
They died like princes on the beds of danger
And like men fighting.
Enter PENDA like a common soldier.
CHESTER
Here’s another soldier.
CORNWALL
And gladder news I hope.
KING
When com’st thou?
PENDA
The last battle fought in France.
KING
Mischief sits on thy brow too.
PENDA
If, sir, you are perfect
Already in the history clasp’d up here,
What need the book be open’d?
KING
Our princely brothers,
Eldred and Edmond’s slain.Are these the news?
PENDA
No.This I hear but know not.The French epitaph
I bring is of young Penda.
CORNWALL
Epitaph?
PENDA
He cut his way to immortality,
Through dangers, which to see but put in picture
Would startle a brave soldier.
CORNWALL
Slain?
PENDA
Sir, I saw him
Fall with more wounds upon his breast than years,
Yet far more spirit than wounds.
He die>d no coward then.
CORNWALL
Sir, had I stood but by to see my boy
Acted what he speaks, I would have clapp’d my hands,
And though I will not mourn for him in black,
I cannot for my heart hinder mine eyes
From dropping this warm balsam into’s wounds
Though it do no good but wash them.Now I ha’ done,
His funeral is past by.To his sad wife
I’ll go and tell the news. [Exit.
KING
And comfort her.
He will be drown’d too.Pray go and comfort him.
CHESTER
I shall.
KING
Soldiers, your names.
ELDRED
Mine Uffa.
EDMOND
And mine, Gildas.
KING
See us anon. [Exeunt ELDRED and EDMOND.
And how art thou call’d?
PENDA
Conon.
KING
A Saxon?
PENDA
Yes.
KING
And how saw’st thou Penda fall?
PENDA
I did, and help’d to tear the scaffoldings down
That did support his life.Please you, read this.[Gives a paper.
KING
Whose?
PENDA
Captain Voltimar’s.
KING
Oh, Voltimar’s.
PENDA
When hottest wear the fires, and that the battle
Flam’d in wild uproars, Voltimar — and I,
Set on by him — struck both our well-aim’d swords
/> Through Penda’s back.
KING
Here all he writes; ’tis done.
PENDA
’Tis done, and ’twas your will to have it done.
Your oaths too, flew to France when it was done
To pay us gold.
KING
Did Voltimar tell thee that too?
Thou canst not sure but be an honest man,
A wondrous honest man, whom Voltimar
Would turn into a cabinet to lock
A treasure of this value in’t.My brother —
Heaven speed ’em on their voyage, ambitious boys!
Hard feathers shall no more now stuff my pillow,
But Penda stood between me and a prize
Worth a whole mass of kingdoms.
PENDA
I understand you not.
KING
I would not have thee yet; thou shalt hereafter
Understand this:the whilst, with thy best speed
Ask to the Duke of Cornwall, the old fellow
That cried here for that Penda— ’twas his son —
And let his daughter hear it from the lips,
Her husband’s dead.She’ll not believe it else.
PENDA
But, sir, if to this duke you in some fit
Should tell what I have done —
KING
I tell?Hang padlocks
Best on your own lips, you and Voltimar.
Should you blab all, this can outface you both.
Look to’t.
PENDA
I am lesson’d. [Exit.
Enter EDMOND and ELDRED.
KING
Uffa and Gildas, ha,
Hit I your names right?
BOT
Ye>s, sir.
< > Penda’s loss too, a noble fel
< d >ly <>
EDMOND
Unless your majesty
Command my service I will o’er again.
ELDRED
And I.
KING
Your service state; we shall employ you
In troub’d steams, which if you dare convey —
ELDRED
Dare!
EDMOND
Try us.
KING
So, you shall have golden pay. [Exeunt.
Act One, Scene Two
ENTER CARINTHA, CORNWALL and CHESTER.
CARINTHA
Where is his body?Let me see but that.
CORNWALL
Now as we came along, we heard his body,
After the French had seized it, could by no force
Gold or entreaties be rescued, for in triumph
Away the spoil they hurried.
CHESTER
And you must, lady,
Make up your great loss by sweet patience
To keep your heart from breaking.His noble father,
You see, plays the physician to restore you
When his own sickness is more desperate;
Nor must it be your torment now to look o’er
Th’accompts of Penda’s valour, youth, or virtues,
For he’s run out of all, but so well spent
You cannot at the layings out repent.
CARINTHA
I do not.
CHESTER
Please you, lady, hear the soldier
That tells the perfect story of his death.
‘Twill so delight you that he outwent man
In’s doings.You’ll scarce wish him here again.
CARINTHA
That soldier sung me the funeral anthem
Ere you or the king heard it.I thank you loves
For this your tracts of consolation,
But, sir, methinks I were best comfort you.
You have a manly way to fight with grief,
Yet I that am a woman can ward off
The blows better than you.I ha’ lost a husband,
A son you.If you will make our wracks even,
And here’s the balance — he’s gone well to heaven.
Penda, my noblest love, for’s country died,
And is not so much mourn’d for as envied,
For the brave end he made.Three times he flew,
Like an arm’d thunder, into the thickest French,
And with the lightening of his sword made way
As great winds do through woods, rooting up oaks;
So reel’d the armies building at his strokes.
Must not I proudlier hear this than behold him
Break twenty staves i’th’tiltyard?’Tis more honour.
Could I wed twenty husbands, I would wish
Their glories in this world to be no greater,
Their fate no worse, and their farewell no better.
CORNWALL
Thou art a noble girl.
CHESTER
And teachest all of us
To put on the best armour.Here comes the soldier.
Enter PENDA, disguised as CONON.
PENDA
The king for fear these lords, as loath to wound you,
Should fail in some points of your husband’s story,
Sends me to speak it fully, that your sorrows
May know what they must trust to, and not stagger
In hope that he’s alive, for these eyes aw>
CORINTHA
PENDA
CARINTHA
< > a bad suit to< .>
Enter KING.
KING
By this his coming
To dry the widow’s tears up, ’tis a sign
He would not have her kill herself with weeping.
CARINTHA
My cheeks have not been wet, sir.
KING
Pity to drown
Such a rush land of beauty in salt water.
Pray, let her be my patient.I have physic
Were she eaten up with anguish shall again
Put life into her, though her soul and she
Were shaking hands.
CORNWALL
Apply your physic, sir.
CHESTER
We shall be proud of her recovery. [Exeunt CORNWALL and CHESTER.
KING
Who now shall pluck Carintha from mine arms?
Before a fatal matrimonial chain
Lay cross our ways, mine to a wish’d-for bed,
Thine to a crown.Both rocks are now remov’d.
We both have sea room, sit thou at helm alone;
The ship my kingdom, and the sails my throne.
CARINTHA
Brave voyage,
Who would not venture.Are the destinies
Your spinsters that when you cry cut that thread,
’Tis done?
KING
I am puzzl’d.A riddle?
CARINTHA
’Tis here resolv’d:
I know — at least a spirit within me prompts it —
Penda was shipp’d for France that Athelstane
Might without danger besiege his fort.
KING
’Tis true.
CARINTHA
And win it if he could.
KING
I’ll practise
What engines a whole kingdom can invent
But I will enter it.
CARINTHA
You shall never force it.
’Tis yielded, sir, on composition.
KING
Name it.
CARINTHA
To be your queen.
KING
We’ll to church instantly.
CARINTHA
Were I lady, lock’d in a brazen tower,
And that a prince but spied me, passing by,
I’d leap, wert ne’er so high, into his arms,
Beckon’d he for me; the name of prince should bear it.
I’d spurn at Indian
hills of new-tried gold
To come to his embraces; but to a king’s —
KING
Never such music; ’tis some angel sings.
Tomorrow we’ll be married.
CARINTHA
Not for ten kingdoms.
I must awhile in mourning mask mine eyes
To stop the world’s tongue, and to temporize
With Penda’s father.
KING
Do so then.
CARINTHA
Besides,
There’s a duke’s daughter, whom men call Armante,
Contracted to you under your own hand
And has by you a son.Untie that knot,
Unwind that bottom, I’m yours; otherwise —
KING
Not.
I’ll do’t with my little finger.
Enter WINCHESTER.
My lord of Winchester, in happy time
You come to be my good physician.
WINCHESTER
First let me know your sickness.
KING
There is, you know,
A contract written under mine own hand,
Seal’d by yourself and other witnesses.
WINCHESTER
Between the lady Armante and your highness.
KING
Right, my spiritual surgeon.Step you to her
And cure her ever I come of that wild frenzy
at s
I got upon her body.She shall change
Her name of a king’s concubine to a queen.
WINCHESTER
I would not for what lies beneath the moon
Be made a wicked engine to break in pieces
That holy contract.
KING
’Tis my aim to tie it
Upon a knot never to be undone.
Go to my dear Armante; tell her I am hers
At first by oath and now by conscience.
WINCHESTER
I am happy in the message. [Exit
Enter COLCHESTER.
KING
My lord of Colchester, the man I look for.
COLCHESTER
And you the man I look for, my dear liege.
KING
Thou hast a buxom cheek, a jovial front.
COLCHESTER
Have I not cause when the blood royal roons
Into some part of mine?My girl, king’s mistress.
My grandchild, one of Jupiter’s scapes, your son.
KING
Ha, ha!
COLCHESTER
He was got laughing, he laughs so too.
He has your own eyes; there’s his nose, his lip,
His gait just yours, a leg and foot like yours;
But yours is somewhat more calf.King, he’s thine own,
For when he plays at trap, of all the boys,
He must be king too, all call him the young prince.
KING
Complete Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker Page 61