Enter Mazeres, musing.
MAZERES
[Aside] I’ll have some other, for he must not live.
ROXANO
[Aside] Who’s this? My Lord Mazeres, discontent!
H’ has been to seek me twice, and privately;
I wonder at the business. I’m no statesman;
If I be, ’tis more than I know: I protest therefore
I dare not call it in question. What should he make with me?
I’ll discover myself to him; if th’ other come
In the meantime, so I may be caught bravely,
Yet ’tis scarce the hour. I’ll put it to the trial.
MAZERES
[Aside] Roxano in my judgment had been fittest,
And farthest from suspect of such a deed
Because he keeps in the castle.
ROXANO
My lov’d lord.
MAZERES
Roxano!
ROXANO
The same, my lord.
MAZERES
I was to seek thee twice.
Tell me, Roxano, have I any power in thee?
Do I move there, or any part of me
Flow in thy blood?
ROXANO
As far as life, my lord.
MAZERES
As far as love, man; I ask no further.
ROXANO
Touch me then, my lord, and try my mettle.
MAZERES
[Giving him gold] First, there’s gold for thee,
After which follow favour, eminence,
And all those gifts which fortune calls her own.
ROXANO
Well, my lord.
MAZERES
There’s one Tymethes, son to the banish’d king,
Lives about court, Zenarchus gives him grace,
That fellows my diseases; I thrive not with him:
He’s like a prison chain shook in my ears;
I take no sleep for him, his favours mad me.
My honours and my dignities are dreams
When I behold him; that right arm can ease me:
I will not boast my bounties, but forever
Live rich and happy. Thou art wise; farewell.
Exit.
ROXANO
Hum, what news is here now? “Thou art wise; farewell.” By my troth, I think it is a part of wisdom to take gold when it is offer’d: many wise men will do’t; that I learnt of my learned counsel. This is worth thinking on now. To kill Tymethes, so strangely belov’d by a lady, and so monstrously detested by a lord? Here’s gold to bring Tymethes, and here’s gold to kill Tymethes. Ay, let me see: which weighs heaviest? By my faith, I think the killing gold will carry ‘t. I shall like many a bad lawyer run my conscience upon the greatest fee: who gives most is like to fare best. I like my safety so much the worse in this business in that Lord Mazeres is his profess’d enemy. He’s the king’s bosom; he blows his thoughts into him, and I had rather be torn with whirlwinds than fall into any of their furies. Troth, as far as I can see, the wisest course is to play the knave, lay open this venery, betray him. But see, my lord again.
Enter Mazeres.
MAZERES
Hast thou thought of me? May I do good upon thee?
I’ll out of recreation make thee worthy,
Play honours to thy hand.
ROXANO
My lord?
MAZERES
Art thou resolv’d and I will be thy lord?
ROXANO
It will appear I am so.
Be proud of your revenge before I name it.
Never was man so fortunate in his hate;
I’ll give you a whole age but to think how.
MAZERES
Thou mak’st me thirst.
ROXANO
Tymethes meets me here.
MAZERES
Here? Excellent. On Roxano; he meets thee here.
ROXANO
I meant at first to betray all to you, sir;
Understand that, my lord.
MAZERES
I’faith, I do.
ROXANO
Then thus, my lord —
Enter Tymethes.
He comes.
MAZERES
Withdraw behind the lodge; relate it briefly.
[Roxano and Mazeres withdraw.]
TYMETHES
A delicate, sweet creature? ‘Slight, who should it be?
I must not know her name nor see her face?
It may be some trick to have my bones bastinadoed
Well, and so sent back again. What say you to a blanketing?
Faith, so ‘twere done by a lady and her chambermaids
I care not, for if they toss me in the blankets,
I’ll toss them in the sheets, and that’s one for th’ other.
A man may be led into a thousand villainies,
But the fellow swore enough,
And here’s blood apt enough to believe him.
MAZERES
I both admire the deed and my revenge.
ROXANO
My lord, I’ll make your way.
MAZERES
Thou mak’st thy friend.
Exit. [Roxano approaches Tymethes.]
TYMETHES
Art come? We meet e’en jump upon a minute.
ROXANO
Ay, but you’ll play the better jumper of the two;
I shall not jump so near as you by a handful.
TYMETHES
How! At a running leap?
ROXANO
That is more hard;
At a running leap you may give me a handful.
TYMETHES
So, so, what’s to be done?
ROXANO
Nothing but put this hood over your head.
TYMETHES
How? I never went blindfold before.
ROXANO
You never went otherwise, sir, for all folly is blind.
Besides, sir, when we see the sin we act,
We think each trivial crime a bloody fact.
TYMETHES
Well follow’d of a serving-man.
ROXANO
serving-men always follow their masters, sir.
TYMETHES
No, not in their mistresses.
ROXANO
There I leave you, sir.
TYMETHES
I desire to be left when I come there, sir.
But faith, sincerely, is there no trick in this?
Prithee, deal honestly with me.
ROXANO
Honestly, if protestation be not honest,
I know not what to call it.
TYMETHES
Why, if she affect me so truly, she
Might trust me with her knowledge; I could be secret
To her chief actions. Why, I love women too well.
ROXANO
She’ll trust you the worse for that, sir.
TYMETHES
Why, because I love women?
ROXANO
Oh, sir, ’tis most common,
He that loves women is ne’er true to woman.
Experience daily proves he loveth none
With a true heart that affects more than one.
TYMETHES
Your wit runs nimbly, sir; pray, use your pleasure.
ROXANO
Why, then goodnight, sir.
He puts on the hood.
TYMETHES
Mass, the candle’s out.
ROXANO
Oh, sir, the better sports taste best in th’ night,
And what we do in the dark we hate i’ th’ light.
TYMETHES
A good doer mayst thou prove for thy experience.
Come, give my thy hand; thou mayst prove an honest lad,
But however I’ll trust thee.
ROXANO
Oh, sir, first try me.
But we protract good hours; come, follow me, sir.
Why, this is right your sportive gallants prize:
Before they’ll lose
their sport, they’ll lose their eyes.
Exeunt.
Act III Scene 2.
A ROOM IN the lodge
Enter the [Young] Queen and four Servants, [the first called Valesta,] she with a book in her hand.
[YOUNG] QUEEN
Oh, my fear-fighting blood! Are you all here?
VALESTA
All at your pleasure, madam.
[YOUNG] QUEEN
That’s my wish, and my opinion
Hath ever been persuaded of your truths,
And I have found you willing t’ all employments
We put into your charge.
SECOND SERVANT
In our faiths, madam.
THIRD SERVANT
For we are bound in duty to your bounty.
[YOUNG] QUEEN
Will you to what I shall prescribe swear secrecy?
FOURTH SERVANT
Try us, sweet lady, and you shall prove our faiths.
[YOUNG] QUEEN
To all things that you hear or see
I swear you all to secrecy:
I pour my life into your breasts;
There my doom or safety rests.
If you prove untrue to all,
Now I rather choose to fall
With loss of my desire than light
Into the tyrant’s wrathful spite.
But in vain I doubt your trust;
I never found your hearts but just.
On this book your vows arrive,
And as in truth in favour thrive.
[They lay their hands on the book.]
OMNES
We wish no higher, so we swear.
[YOUNG] QUEEN
Like jewels all your vows I’ll wear.
Here, take this paper; there those secrets dwell.
Go read your charge, which I should blush to tell.
[Aside] All’s sure, I nothing doubt of safety now,
To which each servant hath combin’d his vow.
Roxano, that begins it trustily,
I cannot choose but praise him; he’s so needful:
There’s nothing can be done about a lady
But he is for it. Honest Roxano!
Even from our head to feet he’s so officious.
The time draws on; I feel the minutes here:
No clock so true as love that strikes in fear.
Exeunt.
Act III Scene 3.
A BANQUETING ROOM in the lodge
Soft music, a table with lights set out, arras spread. Enter Roxano leading Tymethes [hooded]. Mazeres meets them.
TYMETHES
How far lack I yet of my blind pilgrimage?
MAZERES
[Aside to Roxano] Whist! Roxano!
ROXANO
You are at your — [Aside to Mazeres] In, my lord,
Away; I’ll help you to a disguise.
MAZERES
[Aside to Roxano] Enough.
Exit.
TYMETHES
Methinks I walk in a vault all underground.
ROXANO
And now your long lost eyes again are found.
Good morrow, sir.
Pulls off the hood.
TYMETHES
By the mass, the day breaks!
ROXANO
Rest here, my lord, and you shall find content;
Catch your desires, stay here, they shall be sent.
TYMETHES
[Aside] Though it be night, ’tis morning to that night which brought me hither.
Ha! The ground spread with arras? What place is this?
Rich hangings? Faire room gloriously furnish’d?
Lights and their lustre? Riches and their splendour?
’Tis no mean creature, these dumb token witness;
Troth, I begin t’ affect my hostess better:
I love her in her absence, though unknown,
For courtly form that’s here observ’d and shown.
Loud music. Enter [the four Servants masked,] two with a banquet, other two with lights; they set ’em down and depart, making observance. Roxano takes one of them [Valesta] aside.
ROXANO
Valesta? Yes, the same; ’tis my lady’s pleasure
You give to me your coat, and vizarded attend without
Till she employ you.
[Exit Valesta.]
So now this [disguise]
Serves for my Lord Mazeres, for he watches
[For] fit occasion. Lecher, now beware:
Securely sit and fearlessly quaff and eat;
You’ll find sour sauce still after your sweetmeat.
Exit.
TYMETHES
The servants all in vizards? By this light,
I do admire the carriage of her love,
For I account that woman above wife
Can sin and hide the shame from a man’s eyes.
They never do their easy sex more [wrong]
Than when they venture fame upon man’s tongue.
Yet I could swear concealment in love’s plot,
But happy woman that believes me not.
Whate’er is spoke or to be spoke seems fit;
All still concludes her happiness and wit.
Loud music. Enter Roxano, Mazeres [masked and wearing Valesta’s coat], and the [three other] Servants with dishes of sweetmeats; Roxano places them. Each having delivered his dish makes low obeisance to Tymethes. [Exeunt Servants.]
ROXANO
This banquet from her own hand received grace:
Herself prepar’d it for you, as appears
By the choice sweets it yields, able to move
A man past sense to the delights of love.
I bid you welcome as her most priz’d guest,
First to this banquet, next to pleasure’s feast.
TYMETHES
Whoe’er she be, we thank her, and commend
Her care and love to entertain a friend.
ROXANO
That speaks her sex’s rareness, for to woman
The darkest path love treads is clear and common;
She wishes your content may be as great
As if her presence fill’d that other seat.
TYMETHES
Convey my thanks to her, and fill some wine.
MAZERES
[Offering wine] My lord?
ROXANO
[Aside] My Lord Mazeres caught the office:
I can’t but laugh to see how well he plays
The devil in a vizard, damns where he crouches.
Little thinks the prince
Under that face lurks his life’s enemy,
Yet he but keeps the fashion: great men kill
As flatterers stab, who laugh when they mean ill.
MAZERES
[Aside] Now could I poison him fitly, aptly, rarely!
Enter a Lady with wine.
My vengeance speaks me happy: there it goes.
TYMETHES
Some wine?
MAZERES
It comes, my lord.
LADY
My lady begun to you, sir, and doth commend
This to your heart, and with it her affection.
TYMETHES
I’ll pledge her thankfully.
Spills the wine.
There, remove that.
MAZERES
[Aside] And in this my revenge must be remov’d
Where first I left it; now my abused wrath
Pursues thy ruin in this dangerous path.
ROXANO
[Aside] That cup hath quite dash’d my Lord Mazeres.
TYMETHES
[To the Lady] Return my faith, my reverence, my respect,
And tell her this, which courteously I find:
She hides her face, but lets me see her mind.
[Exit Lady.]
ROXANO
[Aside] I would not taste of such a banquet to feel that which follows it, for the love of an empress. ’Tis more dangerous to be a lecher than to enter upon a breach. Yet how sec
urely he munches!
His thoughts are sweeter than the very meats before him;
He little dreams of his destruction,
His horrible, fearful ruin which cannot be withstood:
The end of venery is disease or blood.
Soft music. Enter the [Young] Queen masked in her nightgown, her maid with a shirt and a nightcap. [Maid gives Roxano the shirt and nightcap; the Young Queen and maid exeunt.]
TYMETHES
[Aside] I have not known one happier for his pleasure
Than in that state we are; ’tis a strange trick
And [sweetly] carried. By this light, a delicate creature,
And should have a good face if all hit right,
For they that have good bodies and bad faces
Were all mismatch’d and made up in blind places.
ROXANO
The wind and tide serve, sir; you have lighted upon a sea of pleasure. Here’s your sail, sir, and your top streamer, a fair wrought shirt and a nightcap.
TYMETHES
I shall make a sweet voyage of this.
ROXANO
Ay, if you knew all, sir.
TYMETHES
Is not all known yet? What’s to be told?
ROXANO
Five hundred crowns in the shirt sleeve of gold.
TYMETHES
How!
ROXANO
’Tis my good lady’s pleasure:
No clouds eclipse her bounty; she shines clear.
Some like that pleasure best that costs most dear;
Yet I think your lordship is not of that mind now:
You like that best that brings a banquet with it,
And five hundred crowns.
TYMETHES
Ay, by this light, do I,
And I think thou art of my mind.
ROXANO
We jump somewhat near, sir.
TYMETHES
But what does she mean to reward me aforehand?
I may prove an eunuch now for ought she knows.
ROXANO
Oh, sir, I ne’er knew any of your hair
But he was absolute at the game.
TYMETHES
Faith,
We are much of a colour. But here’s a note; what says it?
He reads.
“Our love and bounty shall increase
So long as you regard our peace;
Unless your life you would forgo,
Who we are seek not to know.
Enjoy me freely: for your sake
This dangerous shift I undertake.
Be therefore wise, keep safe your breath;
You cannot see me under death.”
I’d be loath to venture so far for the sight
Of any creature under heaven.
ROXANO
Nay, sir,
I think you may see a thousand faces better.
Complete Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker Page 194