GAZETTO
I am what I seem; no doctor I,
But by your husband send in this disguise
To sound your bosom.
TORMIELLA
You bob for eels, do you not?
GAZETTO
Here has he lock’d his mind up, but for me
To put a burning linstock in a hand
That may give fire, and send my soul in powder,
I know not. Pardon me. Fare you well, lady.
TORMIELLA
Hist, do you hear?
GAZETTO
The eyes of mercy guard thee.
Wert known for what I ventur’d thus, ‘twere death.
I’ll to your husband.
TORMIELLA
Stay, I am not mad,
Yet I have cause to rave. My wits like bells
Are backward rung, only to fright the tyrant
That whiles his wild lust wanders, I may fly
To my sweet husband’s arms; here I have hid
The trains I mean to lay for mine escape. [Shows letters.
GAZETTO
Excellent. He shall second you.
TORMIELLA
Should any watch us!
GAZETTO
All’s fast; run mad again then; the King things
Me some rare fellow; you shall leave the court
Now if you’ll taste my counsel.
TORMIELLA
I’ll drink gall
To cure me of this sickness.
GAZETTO
Sit then down here,
I’ll bind you fast because it shall appear
That you grow worse and worse; then I will tell
The King the only course to leave you well
Is to remove you home to mine own lodging.
I’ll bind you.
TORMIELLA
Forever to thee.
GAZETTO
Only hence, you may fly
To th’straights, and then cross over to Barbery.
So th’art a strumpet.
TORMIELLA
What’s that you speak?
GAZETTO
A damn’d one.
Dost thou not know me? I am Gazetto.
TORMIELLA
Mercy!
GAZETTO
Who like a ball of wild-fire have been toss’d
To make others sport, but here I burst and kill.
A perjur’d strumpet.
TORMIELLA
I am none. My father swore
That I should marry thee, and then a tiger
And a lamb had been together; I ne’er was thine,
Nor never will be.
GAZETTO
Swear thou art not mine,
That when I see thy heart drunk with hot oaths
This fiend may pitch thee reeling into hell.
Swear that thou art not mine.
TORMIELLA
By heaven, I am not.
To prove I swear right to thee; change that weapon,
See at my girdle hang my wedding knives.
With those dispatch me.
GAZETTO
To th’heart?
TORMIELLA
Aim right,
I beseech thee.
GAZETTO
I’ll not kill thee now for spite,
Because thou begst it.
TORMIELLA
Then, good villain, spare me!
GAZETTO
Neither. Here’s that shall sink thee. To the King
Thy juggling and these letters shall be shown.
TORMIELLA
Upon thy head be my confusion.
The King, I shall both feed hi rage and lust.
First doom me to any tortures.
GAZETTO
Thou shall then swear, [Unbinds her.
Because I know he’ll force the tie a knot
The church shall see and sigh at; if he marries thee,
Swear when he comes to touch thy naked side
To bury him in those sheets; thou art his bride.
TORMIELLA
By heaven that night’s his last; my just heart keeps
This vow graven there.
GAZETTO
Till then my vengeance sleeps.
Where is the King?
Enter KING, IAGO, ALPHONSO and MALEVENTO.
I have refin’d
That chaos which confounded her fair mind.
KING
Move in thy voice the spheres, when next thou speaks, Tormiella.
TORMIELLA
I am well. My fearful dream
Is vanish’d, thanks to heaven, and that good man.
KING
Thou giv’st me another crown. Oh, Vindicados,
The axletree on which my kingdom moves
Leans on thy shoulders. I am all thine, Tormiella;
Bright Cynthia, look not pale; Endymion here;
Hymen shall fetch a leap from heaven t’alight
Full in thine arms. Back, thou black ominous night!
[Exeunt. Manent GAZETTO.
Enter CORDOLENTE.
CORDOLENTE
Signior Lupo, why Don, not know me? I am the poor shopkeeper whose ware is taken up by the king.
GAZETTO
You lie.
CORDOLENTE
True, as judges do with their wives very seldom, I am Cordolente, a poor gudgeon diving thus under water, to see how Neptune and his mermaids swim together, but dare not come near him, for fear he sets dogfish to devour me.
GAZETTO
An excellent mask against the marriage; now get a private coat; the king means to have you stabb’d.
CORDOLENTE
He does that already, with the bodkin that sticks in my wife’s hair.
GAZETTO
He has not the patience to stay the dressing of his meat of thy providing; he will have it taken up and eat the flesh raw; he will be married incontinently.
CORDOLENTE
Will she set her hands to my horns?
GAZETTO
Yes, and set them to your head; she follows the steps of her old grandma; all evils take their names from her; the ills of Eve, thy wife for the hoop ring thou marriedst her withal, hath sworn to send thee a death’s head.
CORDOLENTE
Sworn!
GAZETTO
Sworn. Were thy case my case, I would set a devil at her elbow in the very church. I would kill her as she gave away her hand.
CORDOLENTE
Wilt help me to a fit circle to play the devil in?
GAZETTO
I’ll place thee. I’ll put thy foot into the stirrup.
CORDOLENTE
And I will rid the world of one of his diseases, a loose woman.
GAZETTO
Farewell. Eat her very heart. [Exit.
CORDOLENTE
As we feed one upon another, hungerly [Exit.
Act Five, Scene Three
DUMBSHOW.
Hoboys. Enter Two Friars setting out an alter; enter IAGO, ALPHONSO, GAZETTO, MALEVENTO, Two Churhmen, TORMIELLA next and the KING; Ladies attending; CORDOLENTE steals in and stands in some by place; the KING stays or sits in a chair; TORMIELLA is brought to him; as she is coming, the KING meets her; as the ring is putting on, CORDOLENTE steps in rudely, breaks them off; TORMIELLA flies to his bosom; the KING offers to stab him, is held; she kneels, sues, weeps; CORDOLENTE is thrust out; GAZETTO laughs at all; they are preparing to it again; it thunders and lightens; all affrightedly exeunt.
Act Five, Scene Four
Enter CORDOLENTE.
CORDOLENTE
Dost thou tell me of thy proclamations that I am banish’d from the court; that court where I came to thee was none of thine; it belongs to a king that keeps open court; one that never wrong’d a beggar, never took way any man’s wife unless he sent his pursuant death for her. Oh, thou daring sacrilegious royal thief! Wilt thou rob the church too as thou has me, thrust me out of that house too in the sanctuary; turn’d devil in a crowd of angels.
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Enter GAZETTO.
GAZETTO
Why didst not kill her?
CORDOLENTE
I had no power to kill her;
Charms of divinity pull’d back mine arm.
She had armour of proof on, reverence of the place,
She is not married, is she? Shorten my pains.
GAZETTO
Heaven came itself down and forbade the banns.
Enter IAGO.
IAGO
You must both to th’king.
GAZETTO
Must! We are for him.
CORDOLENTE
Now do I look for a fig.
GAZETTO
Chew none, fear nothing. [Exeunt.
Act Five, Scene Five
FLOURISH. ENTER KING, TORMIELLA, VALASCO, MALEVENTO and ALPHONSO.
KING
Has heaven left chiding yet? There’s in thy voice
A thunder that worse frights me. Didst thou swear
In bed to kill me had I married thee?
TORMIELLA
It was my vow to do so.
KING
And did that villain,
That Lupo Vindicado’s thrust this vengeance
Into the desperate hand?
TORMIELLA
That villain swore me
To speed you. I had died else. Me had he murdered
When in a doctor’s shape e came to cure
The madness which in me was counterfeit
Only to sun your touches.
KING
Strange preservation.
Enter IAGO, GAZETTO, and CORDOLENTE.
VALASCO
Here comes the traitor!
KING
Devil, didst thou tempt this woman ‘gainst my life?
GAZETTO
Has she betray’d me? Yes. Hence antic visors.
I’ll now appear myself. [Reveals himself.
MALEVENTO
Gazetto!
GAZETTO
The same.
CORDOLENTE
I ha’ warm’d a snake in my bosom.
MALEVENTO
This is he
To whom by promise of my mouth, not hers,
Tormiella should ha’ been married, but flying him
To run away with this, he in disguise
Has followed both thus long to be reveng’d.
GAZETTO
And were not my hands tied by your prevention
I should go forward yet; my plot lay there,
King, to have her kill thee; this cuckold her,
Then had I made him hawks-meat.
VALASCO
Bloody varlet!
KING
Rare providence, I thank thee. What a heap
Of mischiefs have I brought upon my kingdom
By one base act of lust, and my greatest horror
Is that for her I made away my Queen.
By this destroyer’s hand, this crimson hell-hound
That laughs at nothing but fresh villainies.
GAZETTO
The laughing days I wish’d for are now come, sir.
I am glad that leaping into such a gulf
I am not drown’d. Your Queen lives!
KING
Ha!
GAZETTO
She lives.
I had no reason to kill her.
VALASCO
A better spirit
Stood at his elbow than you planted there.
My poor girl, your sad Queen breathes yet.
KING
Long may she!
Fetch her; commend me to her, cheer her, father.
VALASCO
With the best heart I have. [Exit.
KING
Let that sly bawd,
Engine of hell, who wrought upon thy chastity,
Be whipp’d through Seville; four such tempting witches
May undo a city. Come, you wronged pair,
By a king that parted you, you new married are.
Enjoy each other and prosper.
CORDOLENTE
I do already,
Feeling more joys than on my wedding day;
I ne’er till now was married.
TORMIELLA
Nor I ever happy until this hour.
MALEVENTO
Nor I, as I am true lord.
KING
No, sir, y’are no true lord; you have a title,
A face of honour as in courts many have,
For base and servile prostitutions,
And you are such a one; your daughter’s fall
Was first step to your rising, and her rising
Again to that sweet goodness she never went from
Must be your fall, and strip you of all honours.
Your lordship is departed.
MALEVENTO
Does the bell ring out? I care not.
Your kingdom was a departing too; I had a place in court for nothing and if it be gone, I can lose nothing. I ha’ been like a lord in a play, and that done, my part ends.
KING
Yes, sir. I purge my court of such infection.
MALEVENTO
I shall find company i’th’city I warrant. I am not the first hath given up my cloak of honour. [Exit.
Enter VALASCO, JOHN, and QUEEN.
KING
Oh, my abused heart, thy pardon! See,
I have sent home my stol’n goods.
QUEEN
Honestly!
KING
As she was ever, now with full clear eyes
I see thy beauty, and strange cheeks despise.
QUEEN
You call me from a grave of shame and sorrow
In which I lay deep buried.
JOHN
From a grave likewise
Your majesty calls me. I have looked back
On all my poor ambitions, and am sorry
That I fell ever from so bright a sphere
As it the love of such a royal brother.
KING
Be as you speak; we are friends. It was our will
To let you know, we can or save or kill.
JOHN
Your mercy new transforms me.
KING
Sirrah, your saving
My Queen when I confess, lust me so blinded,
I would have gladly lost her, gives thee life.
QUEEN
First I thank heaven, then him, and at last you.
GAZETTO
I had not the heart to hurt a woman. If I had, your little face had meen mall’d ere this, but my anger’s out. Forgive me.
TORMIELLA
With all my heart.
KING
Pray, noble brother, love this man; he’s honest.
I ha’ made of him good proof. We should have had
A wedding, but heaven frown’d at it, and I
Am glad ’tis cross’d. Yet we’ll both feast and dance.
Our fame hath all this while lain in a trance.
Come, Tormiella, well were that city blest
That with but two such women should excel;
But there’s so few good, th’ast no parallel. [Exeunt.
FINIS
The Wonder of a Kingdom (1634)
The Wonder of a Kingdom was printed in quarto format by Robert Raworth and published by Nicholas Vavasour in 1636. It was entered into the Stationers’ Register alongside The Noble Spanish Soldier on 16 May 1631. The author was listed as ‘Tho. Dekker’ and it was licensed for performance by the Master of the Revels at the time, Henry Herbert. It is possible that the play was performed in 1631, the year it was licensed, by Queen Henrietta’s Men, but this is not known for certain. Nicholas Vavasour was a well-established bookseller that owned a shop in the Inner Temple in London and published works by an array of famous Elizabethan, Jacobean and Caroline playwrights, including Richard Brome and Christopher Marlowe. The printer, Robert Raworth, had attempted to buy his way into a position as a master printer in the early seventeenth century,
but was unsuccessful and so spent much of working life involved in questionable printing endeavours which often led to problems with authorities. He was saved by his friendship with the highly successful printer, Nicholas Okes, who provided him with work.
The Wonder of a Kingdom is one of Dekker’s less well known plays and there is very little record of its performance history. It has not been regularly staged in either the twentieth or twenty-first century and it has not been considered one of the author’s best works by literary critics. It is a comedy that centres on the star-crossed love affair between Angelo Lotti and Fiametta, the daughter of the Duke of Florence. The Duke is insistent that his daughter marries the Prince of Pisa, despite her protestations, so when the recently banished Lotti returns to the Kingdom, he must hatch a plan to save his beloved…
A Victorian depiction of Thomas Dekker
CONTENTS
PROLOGUE.
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ
ACT I. SCENE I.
ACT II. SCENE I.
ACT III. SCENE I.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
ACT V. SCENE I.
PROLOGUE.
THUS from the Poet am I bid to say;
He knows what judges sit to doom each play;
(The over-curious critic, or the wise),
The one with squint, t’other with sun-like eyes,
Shoots through each scene; the one cries all things down,
T’other hides strangers’ faults, close as his own.
‘Las! those that out of custom come to jeer,
(Sung the full quire of the nine Muses here)
So carping not from wit, but apish spite,
And feather’d ignorance, thus! our poet does slight.
’Tis not a gay suit, or distorted face,
Can beat his merit off, which has won grace
In the full theatre; nor can now fear
The teeth of any snaky whisperer;
But to the white, and sweet unclouded brow,
(The heaven where true worth moves) our poet does bow:
Patrons of arts, and pilots to the stage,
Who guide it (through all tempests)from the rage
Of envious whirlwinds, O, do you but steer
His muse this day, and bring her to th’ wished shore,
You are those Delphic powers whom she’ll adore.
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ
Duke of Florence.
Prince of Pisa.
Nicoletto, Lord Vanni.
Trebatio, his son.
Mutio, Philippo, Tornelli,Courtiers.
Piero, the Duke’s son.
Gasparo, his friend.
Tibaldo Neri, in love with Lord Vanni’s wife.
Complete Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker Page 87