Complete Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker

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Complete Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker Page 195

by Thomas Dekker


  TYMETHES

  Well, I will shift me instantly, and be content

  With my groping fortune.

  Exit.

  ROXANO

  Oh, sir, you’ll grope to purpose.

  Exit.

  MAZERES

  I’ll after thee, and see the measure of my vengeance unheap’d.

  His ruin is my charge; I have seen that

  This night would make one blush through this vizard:

  Like lightning in a tempest her lust shows,

  Or drinking drunk in thunder, horrible,

  For on this act a thousand dangers wait.

  The king will seize him in his burning fury

  And seal his vengeance on his reeking breast,

  Though I make pander’s use of ear and eye,

  No office vile to damn mine enemy.

  This course is but the first, ‘twill not rest there:

  The next shall change him into fire and air.

  Exit.

  Act IV Scene 1.

  A ROOM IN the castle

  Enter Tymethes and Zenarchus.

  TYMETHES

  Nay, did e’er subtly match it?

  ZENARCHUS

  ‘Slight, led to a lady hoodwink’d,

  Placed in state, and banqueted in vizards!

  TYMETHES

  All, by this light! But all this nothing was

  To the delicious pleasures of her bed.

  ZENARCHUS

  Who should this be?

  TYMETHES

  Nay, enquire not, brother;

  I’d give one eye to see her with the other.

  Seest thou this jewel? In the midst of night

  I slipp’d it from her veil, unfelt of her;

  ‘T may be so kind unto me as to bring

  Her beauty to my knowledge.

  ZENARCHUS

  Canst not guess at her, nor at the place?

  TYMETHES

  At neither for my heart; why, I’ll tell thee, man,

  ’Twas handled with such art, such admir’d cunning,

  What with my blindness and their general darkness,

  That when mine eyes receiv’d their liberty,

  I was ne’er the nearer.

  To them in full form I appear’d unshrouded,

  But all their lights to me were mask’d and clouded.

  Enter tyrant [Armatrites] and Mazeres, observing.

  ZENARCHUS

  ‘Fore heaven, I do admire the cunning of’t!

  TYMETHES

  Nay, you cannot outvie my admiration:

  I had a feeling of’t beyond your passion.

  Enter Amphridote.

  ZENARCHUS

  Well, blow this over; see, our sister comes.

  [ARMATRITES]

  Art sure, Mazeres, that he courts our daughter?

  MAZERES

  I’m sure of more, my lord: she favours him.

  [ARMATRITES]

  That beggar?

  MAZERES

  Worse, my lord, that villain traitor,

  And yet worse, my lord.

  [ARMATRITES]

  How?

  MAZERES

  Pardon, my lord; a riper time

  Shall bring him forth.

  Tymethes kisses her.

  Behold him there, my lord.

  [ARMATRITES]

  Dares she so far forget respect to us

  And dim her own lustre to give him grace?

  MAZERES

  Favours are grown to custom ‘twixt them both:

  Letters, close banquets, whisperings, private meetings.

  [ARMATRITES]

  I’ll make them dangerous meetings.

  AMPHRIDOTE

  In faith, my lord, I’ll have this jewel.

  TYMETHES

  ’Tis not my gift, lady.

  [ARMATRITES]

  What’s that, Mazeres?

  MAZERES

  Marry, my lord, she courtly begs a jewel of him

  Which he keeps back as courtly, with fair words.

  AMPHRIDOTE

  I have sworn, my lord.

  TYMETHES

  Why, upon that condition

  You’ll keep it safe and close from all strange eyes,

  Not wronging me, ’tis yours.

  AMPHRIDOTE

  I swear.

  TYMETHES

  It shall suffice.

  [They kiss. Exit Zenarchus and Amphridote.]

  MAZERES

  ’Tis hers, my lord, at which they part in kisses.

  [ARMATRITES]

  I’ll make those meetings bitter; both shall rue.

  We have found Mazeres to this minute true.

  Exit [cum] Mazeres.

  TYMETHES

  No trick to see this lady? Heart of ill fortune!

  The jewel that was begg’d from me too was

  The hope I had to gain her, wish’d for knowledge.

  Well, here’s a heart within will not be quiet.

  The eye is the sweet feeder of the soul

  When the taste wants: that keeps the memory whole.

  ’Tis bad to be in darkness, all know well,

  Than not to see what doth it want of hell.

  What says the note?

  “Unless your life you would forgo,

  [Who] we are seek not to know.”

  Pish, all idle.

  As if she’d suffer death to threaten me

  Whom she so bounteously and firmly loves!

  No trick? Excellent, ‘twill fit; make use of that.

  Enter Mazeres and Roxano.

  MAZERES

  [Aside to Roxano] Enough; th’art honest. I affect thee much.

  Go, train him to his ruin.

  ROXANO

  [Aside to Mazeres] Let me alone, my lord; doubt not I’ll train him:

  Perhaps, sir, I have the art.

  Exit [Mazeres].

  TYMETHES

  Oh, I know thy mind.

  ROXANO

  The further lodge?

  TYMETHES

  Enough; I’ll meet thee presently.

  ROXANO

  [Aside] Why, so. I like one that will make an end of himself at few words. A man that hath a quick perseverance in ill, a leaping spirit, he’ll run through horror’s jaws to catch a sin, but to o’ertake a virtue, he softly paces, like a man that’s sent some tedious, dark, unprofitable journey. Corrupt is nature: she loves nothing more than what she most should hate. There’s nothing springs apace in man but gray hairs, cares, and sins.

  Exit.

  TYMETHES

  I’ll see her, come what can; but what can prove?

  She cannot seek my death that seeks my love.

  Exit.

  Act IV Scene 2.

  ANOTHER ROOM IN the castle

  Enter Amphridote and Mazeres.

  AMPHRIDOTE

  My lord, what is the matter?

  MAZERES

  I know not what;

  The king sent.

  AMPHRIDOTE

  Well, we obey.

  Enter tyrant [Armatrites].

  MAZERES

  Here comes his highness.

  [ARMATRITES]

  How now, what’s she?

  AMPHRIDOTE

  I, my lord? Your highness

  Knew me once, your most obedient daughter.

  [ARMATRITES]

  They lie that tell me so; this is not she.

  AMPHRIDOTE

  No, my lord?

  [ARMATRITES]

  No, for as thou art I know thee not,

  And I shall strive still to forget thee more.

  Thou neither bear’st in memory my respects

  Nor thy own worths; how can we think of thee

  But as of a dejected, worthless creature,

  So far beneath our grace and thy own lustre,

  That we disdain to know thee?

  Was there no choice ‘mong our selected nobles

  To make thy favourite besides Tymethes,

  Son to our enemy,
a wretch, a beggar,

  Dead to all fortunes, honours, or their hopes,

  Besides his breath worth nothing? Abject wretch,

  To place thy affection so vigourously

  On him can ne’er requite it! Deny ‘t not;

  We know the favours thou hast given him:

  Pledges of love, close letters, private meetings,

  And whisperings are customary ‘twixt you.

  Come, which be his gifts? Whereabout lie his pledges?

  AMPHRIDOTE

  Your grace hath been injuriously inform’d;

  I ne’er receiv’d pledge.

  [ARMATRITES]

  Impudent creature,

  When in our sight and hearing,

  Shamefully undervaluing thy best honours

  And setting by all modesty of blood,

  Thou begg’dst a jewel of him.

  AMPHRIDOTE

  Oh, pardon me, my lord, I had forgot. Here ’tis;

  That is the same, and that e’er was his.

  [ARMATRITES]

  Ha! This! How came this hither?

  AMPHRIDOTE

  I gave it you, my lord.

  [ARMATRITES]

  Who gave it thee?

  AMPHRIDOTE

  Tymethes.

  [ARMATRITES]

  He! Who gave it him?

  AMPHRIDOTE

  I know

  Not that, my lord.

  [ARMATRITES]

  Then here it sticks, Mazeres!

  MAZERES

  My lord!

  [ARMATRITES]

  ’Tis my queen’s, my queen’s, Mazeres!

  How to him came this?

  MAZERES

  I can resolve your highness.

  [ARMATRITES]

  Can Mazeres?

  MAZERES

  He is some ape; the husk falls from him now,

  And you shall know his inside: he’s a villain,

  A traitor to the pleasures of your bed.

  [ARMATRITES]

  Oh, I shall burst with torment!

  MAZERES

  He’s receiv’d this night

  Into her bosom.

  [ARMATRITES]

  I feel a whirlwind in me

  Ready to tear the frame of my mortality!

  MAZERES

  I trac’d him to the deed.

  [ARMATRITES]

  And saw it done?

  MAZERES

  I abus’d my eyes in the true survey of’t,

  Tainted my hearing with lascivious sounds;

  My loyalty did prompt me to be sure

  Of what I found so wicked and impure.

  [ARMATRITES]

  ’Tis spring-tide in my gall; all my blood’s bitter,

  Puh, lungs too!

  MAZERES

  This night.

  [ARMATRITES]

  [Lodovicus]!

  Enter [Lodovicus].

  LODOVICUS

  My lord.

  [ARMATRITES]

  How cam’st thou up? Let’s hear.

  LODOVICUS

  My lord, my first beginning was a broker.

  [ARMATRITES]

  A knave from the beginning; there’s no hope

  Of him. [Sextorio]?

  Enter [Sextorio].

  [SEXTORIO]

  Here, my lord.

  [ARMATRITES]

  We know thee just; how cam’st thou up? Let’s hear.

  [SEXTORIO]

  From no desert that I can challenge

  But your highness’ favour.

  [ARMATRITES]

  Thou art honest in that answer.

  Go, report we are forty leagues off:

  Ride forth; spread it about the castle cunningly.

  [SEXTORIO]

  I’ll do it faithfully, my lord.

  [ARMATRITES]

  Do’t cunningly,

  Go; if thou shouldst do’t faithfully, thou liest.

  [Exit Sextorio.]

  I’m lost by violence through all my senses;

  I’m blind with rage, Mazeres. Guide me forth:

  I tread in air, and see no foot nor path;

  I have lost myself, yet cannot lose my wrath.

  Exeunt all but Amphridote.

  AMPHRIDOTE

  What have I heard? It dares not be but true.

  Tymethes taken in adulterate trains,

  And with the queen my mother? Now I hate him,

  As beauty abhors years or usurers charity;

  He does appear unto my eye a leper,

  Full of sin’s black infection, foul adultery.

  Enter Mazeres.

  Cursed be the hour in which I first did grace him,

  And let Mazeres starve in my disdain

  That hath so long observ’d me with true love,

  Whose loyalty in this approves the same.

  MAZERES

  Madam.

  AMPHRIDOTE

  My love?

  My lord, I should say, but would say my love.

  MAZERES

  I do beseech your grace for what I have done.

  Lay no oppressing censure upon me;

  I could not but in honesty reveal it,

  Not envying in that he was my rival,

  Nor in the force of any ancient grudge,

  But as the deed in its own nature crav’d.

  So ‘mong the rest it was reveal’d to me,

  Appearing so detested that yourself,

  Gracious and kind, had you but seen the manner

  Would have thrown by all pity and remorse

  And took my office or one more in force.

  AMPHRIDOTE

  Rise, dear Mazeres, in our favours, rise;

  So far am I from censure to reprove thee

  That in my hate to him I choose and love thee.

  MAZERES

  If constant service may be call’d desert,

  I shall deserve.

  AMPHRIDOTE

  Man hath no better part.

  MAZERES aside

  Why, this was happily observ’d and follow’d;

  The king will to the castle late tonight

  And tread through all the vaults. I must attend.

  AMPHRIDOTE

  I wish that at first sight th’ hadst forc’d his end.

  Exit.

  MAZERES

  ’Tis better thus; so my revenge imports.

  Now thrive my plots; the end shall make me great:

  She mine, the crown sits here; I am then complete.

  Exit.

  Act IV Scene 3.

  A DRAWING-ROOM IN the lodge

  Enter [Young] Queen and her maid with a light.

  [YOUNG] QUEEN

  So, leave us here awhile; bear back the light:

  I would not be discovered if he come.

  You know his entertainment, so be gone.

  [Exit maid.]

  I am not cheerful, troth, what point soe’er

  My powers arrive at: I desire a league

  With desolate [darkness] and disconsolate fancies;

  There is no music in my soul tonight.

  What should I fear when all my servants’ faiths

  Sleep in my bounty, and no bribes nor threats

  Can wake them from my safety? For the king,

  He’s forty leagues rode forth; I heard it lately.

  Yet heaviness, like a tyrant, proud in night,

  Usurps my power, rules where it hath no right.

  She sleeps. [Enter Roxano with Tymethes hoodwink’d.]

  TYMETHES

  Methinks this a longer voyage than the first.

  ROXANO

  Pleasure once tasted makes the next seem worse.

  TYMETHES

  Is that the trick?

  ROXANO

  Oh, sir, experience proves it:

  You came at first to enjoy what you ne’er knew;

  Now all is but the same, whate’er you do.

  TYMETHES

  [Aside] I’ll prove that false; the sight of her is new.


  ROXANO

  [Taking off Tymethes’s hood] I have forgot a business to my Lord Mazeres;

  My safety to the king relies upon’t.

  You are in the house, my lord; this is the withdrawing-room.

  TYMETHES

  I see nothing.

  ROXANO

  No matter, sir, as long as you have

  Feeling enough.

  TYMETHES

  Is the hood off?

  ROXANO

  ’Tis here in my hand, sir.

  I must crave pardon, leave you here awhile,

  But as you love my safety and your own,

  Remove not from this room till my return.

  TYMETHES

  Well, here’s my hand I will not.

  ROXANO

  ’Tis enough, sir.

  Exit.

  TYMETHES

  Hist! Art gone? Then boldly I step forth,

  Cunning discoverer of an unknown beauty

  As subtle as her plot. Thou art mask’d too.

  Show me a little comfort in this condensive darkness;

  Play the flatterer, laugh in my face.

  Opens a dark lanthorn.

  Why, here’s enough to perfect all my wishes;

  With this I taste of that forbidden fruit

  Which, as she says, death follows: death, ‘twill sting.

  Soft, what room’s this? Let’s see, ’tis not the former

  I was entertain’d in; no, it somewhat differs:

  Rich hangings still, court deckings, ay, and all —

  He spies the [Young] Queen.

  Oh, all that can be in man’s wish compris’d

  Is in thy love immortal, in thy graces!

  I am not the same flesh; my touch is alter’d.

  She awakes.

  [YOUNG] QUEEN

  Hast thou betray’d me? What hast thou attempted?

  TYMETHES

  Nothing that can be prejudicial

  To the sweet peace of those illustrious graces.

  [YOUNG] QUEEN

  Oh, my most certain ruin!

  TYMETHES

  Admired lady, hear me, hear my vow.

  [YOUNG] QUEEN

  Oh, miserable youth, none saves thee now!

  TYMETHES

  By that which man holds dearest, dreadful queen,

  And all that can be in a vow constrain’d,

  I’ll prove as true, secret, and vigilant

  As ever man observ’d with serious virtue

  The dreadful call of his departing soul.

  Your own soul to your secrets shall not prove more true

  Than mine to it, to them, to all, to you.

  [YOUNG] QUEEN

  Oh, misery of affection built on breath!

  Were I as far past my belief in heaven

  As in man’s oaths, I were the foulest devil.

  TYMETHES

  May I eat and ne’er be nourished, live and know nothing,

  Love without enjoying, if ever —

  [YOUNG] QUEEN

  Come, this is more than needs.

  TYMETHES

  There’s comfort then.

  [YOUNG] QUEEN

 

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