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Table of Contents | |
Section | Page |
Start of eBook | 1 |
Scena Prima | 1 |
Scena Prima | 10 |
Actus Tertius | 18 |
Actus Quartus | 29 |
Actus Quintus | 36 |
THE LAWS OF CANDY | 46 |
[Enter Gaspero, and Melitus]
Melitus:
Sir, you’re
the very friend I wish’d to meet with,
I have a large
discourse invites your ear
To be an Auditor.
Gaspero:
And what concerns it?
Melitus:
The sadly thriving
progress of the loves
Between my Lord,
the Prince, and that great Lady,
Whose insolence,
and never-yet-match’d Pride,
Can by no Character
be well exprest,
But in her only
name, the proud Erota.
Gaspero:
Alas, Melitus,
I should guess the best
Success your Prince
could find from her, to be
As harsh as the
event doth prove: but now
’Tis not
a time to pity passionate griefs,
When a whole Kingdom
in a manner lyes
Upon its Death-Bed
bleeding.
Melitus:
Who can tell
Whether or no
these plagues at once
Hang over this
unhappy Land for her sake
That is a Monster
in it?
Gaspero:
Here’s the
misery
Of having a Child
our Prince; else I presume
The bold Venetians
had not dar’d to attempt
So bloody an invasion.
Melitus:
Yet I wonder Why (Master Secretary) still the Senate So almost superstitiously adores Gonzalo, the Venetian Lord, considering The outrage of his Countrymen—
Gaspero:
The Senate
Is wise, and therein
just, for this Gonzalo,
Upon a Massacre
performed at Sea
By the Admiral
of Venice, on a Merchant
Of Candy,
when the cause was to be heard
Before the Senate
there, in open Court
Professed, that
the cruelty the Admiral
Had shewed, deserved
not only fine, but death;
238] For Candy then, and Venice were
at peace:
Since when upon
a motion in the Senate,
For Conquest of
our Land, ’tis known for certain,
That only this
Gonzalo dar’d to oppose it,
His reason was,
because it too much savour’d
Of lawless and
unjust ambition.
The Wars were
scarce begun, but he (in fear
Of quarrels ’gainst
his life) fled from his Country,
And hither came,
where (to confirm his truth)
I know, (Melitus,)
he out of his own store,
Hath monied Cassilanes
the General.
Melitus:
What, without
other pledges than Cassilanes
Bare promise of
payment?
Gaspero:
No, it may be
He has some [pe]tty
Lordship to retire to;
But thus he hath
done; now ’tis fit, Melitus,
The Senate should
be thankful, otherwise
They should annihilate
one of those Laws
For which this
Kingdome is throughout the World
Unfollowed and
admired.
Melitus:
What Laws are
those, Sir?
Let me so much
importune you.
Gaspero:
You shall,
And they be worth
your knowledge: briefly thus:
Who e’r
he be that can detect apparently
Another of ingratitude,
for any
Received Benefit,
the Plaintiff may
Require the Offenders
life; unless he please
Freely and willingly
to grant remission.
Melitus:
By which strict
Law, the Senate is in danger,
Should they neglect
Gonzalo?
Gaspero:
Right, the Law
Permits a like
equality to Aliens,
As to a home-bred
Patriot.
Melitus:
Pray Sir, the other?
Gaspero:
Know, Melitus,
The elder Cretans
flourished many years,
In War, in Peace
unparallel’d, and they
(To spur heroic
Spirits on to Vertue)
Enacted that what
man so ere he were,
239] Did noblest in the field against his enemy,
So by the general
voice approv’d, and known,
Might at his home-return,
make his demand
For satisfaction,
and reward.
Melitus:
They are
Both famous Laws
indeed.
[Enter a Messenger]
Messenger:
Master Secretary,
The Senate is
about to sit, and crave
Your presence.
Gaspero:
What, so suddenly?
Messenger:
These Letters
Will shew the
causes why.
Gaspero:
Heaven, thou art
great,
And worthy to
be thanked!
Melitus:
Your countenance,
Sir,
Doth promise some
good tidings.
Gaspero:
O the best
And happiest for
this land that e’r was told!
All the Venetian
Forces are defeated.
Melitus:
How, Sir?
Gaspero:
And what doth
add some delight more,
There is amongst
the Souldiers a contention
Who shall be the
triumpher, and it stands
Doubtful between
a Father and his Son,
Old Cassilanes,
and young Antinous.
Melitus:
Why may not both demand it?
Gaspero:
The Law denies
it,
But where the
Souldiers do not all consent,
The Parties in
contention, are refer’d
To plead before
the Senate; and from them
Upon an open audience
to be judg’d
The Chief, and
then to make demands.
Melitus:
You ravish me
With wonder and
delight.
Gaspero:
Come; as we walk,
I shall more fully
inform you.
[Exeunt.
240] SCENE II
[Enter Cassilanes, Arcanes, Antinous, and Decius.]
Cassilanes:
Admit no Souldier
near us till the Senate
Have took their
places.
Arcanes:
You are obey’d, my Lord.
Antinous:
Decius, fall off.
Decius:
I shall.
Cassilanes:
Give leave Arcanes:
Young man, come
nearer to me: who am I?
Antinous:
It were a sin
against the piety
Of filial duty,
if I should forget
The debt I owe
my Father on my knee:
Your pleasure?
Cassilanes:
What, so low?
canst thou find joints,
Yet be an Elephant?
Antinous, rise;
Thou wilt belye
opinion, and rebate
The ambition of
thy gallantry, that they
Whose confidence
thou hast bewitch’d, should see
Their little God
of War, kneel to his Father,
Though in my hand
I did grasp Thunder.
Antinous:
Sir,
For proof that
I acknowledge you the Author
Of giving me my
Birth, I have discharg’d
A part of my Obedience.
But if now
You should (as
cruel fathers do) proclaim
Your right, and
Tyrant-like usurp the glory
Of my peculiar
honours, not deriv’d
From successary,
but purchas’d with my bloud,
Then I must stand
first Champion for my self
Against all interposers.
Cassilanes:
Boldly urg’d,
And proudly, I
could love thee, did not anger
Consult with just
disdain, in open language
To call thee most
ungrateful. Say freely,
Wilt thou resign
the flatteries whereon
The reeling pillars
of a popular breath
Have rais’d
thy Giant-like conceit, to add
A suffrage to
thy Fathers merit? speak.
241]
Antinous:
Sir, hear me:
were there not a Chronicle
Well pen’d
by all their tongues, who can report
What they have
seen you do; or had you not
Best in your own
performance writ your self,
And been your
own text, I would undertake
Alone, without
the help of Art, or Character,
But only to recount
your deeds in Arms,
And you should
ever then be fam’d a President
Of living victory:
But as you are
Great, and well
worthy to be stiled Great,
It would betray
a poverty of Spirit
In me to obstruct
my fortunes, or descent,
If I should coward-like
surrender up
The interest which
the inheritance of your vertue
And mine own thrifty
fate can claim in honour:
My Lord, of all
the mass of Fame, which any
That wears a Sword,
and hath but seen me fight,
Gives me, I will
not share, nor yield one jot,
One tittle.
Cassilanes:
Not to me?
Antinous:
You are my Father,
Yet not to you.
Cassilanes:
Ambitious Boy,
how dar’st thou
To tell me, that
thou wilt contend?
Antinous:
Had I
Been slothful,
and not follow’d you in all
The streights
of death, you might have justly then
Reputed me a Bastard:
’tis a cruelty
More than to murther
Innocents, to take
The life of my
yet infant-honour from me.
Cassilanes:
Antinous,
look upon this badge of age,
Thy Father’s
grey-hair’d beard: full fifty years,
(And more than
half of this, ere thou wert born)
I have been known
a Souldier, in which time
I found no difference
’twixt War and Peace,
For War was Peace
to me, and Peace was War.
Antinous,
mark me well; there hath not liv’d
These fifty years
a man whom Crete prefer’d
Before thy Father;
let me boldly boast,
Thy Father, both
for Discipline a[n]d Action
242] Hath so long been the first of all his Nation;
Now, canst thou
think it honest, charitable,
Nay humane, being
so young, my Son, my Child,
Begot, bred, taught
by me, by me thy Father,
For one days service,
and that on thy first,
To rob me of a
glory which I fought for
A half of hundred
years?
Antinous:
My case observes
Both equity and
presidents; for Sir,
That very day
whereon you got your Fame,
You took it from
some other, who was then
Chief in repute,
as you are now, and has been
Perhaps as many
years deserving that
Which you gain’d
in a day, as I have mine.
Cassilanes:
But he was not
my Father then, Antinous;
Thou leav’st
out that.
Antinous:
Sir, had he been
your Father,
He had been then
immortal; for a Father
Heightens his
reputation where his Son
Inherits it, as
when you give us life,
Your life is not
diminish’d but renew’d
In us when you
are dead, and we are still
Your living Images.
Cassilanes:
So be thou curs’d
In thy posterity,
as I in thee,
Dishonourable
Boy; O shall that Sun,
Which not a year
yet since beheld me mounted
Upon a fiery Steed,
waving my Sword,
And teaching this
young Man to manage Arms,
That was a raw,
fresh Novice in the feats
Of Chivalrie,
shall that same Sun be witness
Against this Brat
of his Ingratitude?
Who, to eclipse
the light of my renown,
Can no way hope
to get a noble Name,
But by the treading
on his Father’s Greatness;
Thou wilt not
yield?
[Enter Arcanes]
Antinous:
My life, but not
the prize
My Sword hath
purchas’d.
243]
Arcanes:
The Senate,
My Lord, are here
at hand, and all the Souldiers
Begin to throng
about them.
Cassilanes:
Now, Arcanes, the—
Arcanes:
What, Sir?
Cassilanes:
Trifles will affront
us; that
Fine fighting
Stripling.
Arcanes:
Let him have the
shame on’t;
’Please
you withdraw on this side.
Cassilanes:
My great heart
Was never quail’d
before.
Decius:
My Lord, be confident,
Let not your Father
daunt you.
Arcanes:
Decius,
whither
Must I withdraw?
Decius:
On this side.—See,
the Souldiers
Attend your pleasure—courage,
Sir; the Senate.
Cassilanes:
Way for the Senate.
[Enter Porphycio,
Possenne, (three Senators) Gonzalo,
Gaspero,
Souldiers]
My good Lords
I know not
What tax of arrogance
I may incurr,
Should I presume,
though courted by your Favours,
To take a place
amongst you; I had rather
Give proof of
my unfeign’d humility
By force, though
mean, yet more becoming place,
Than run the hazard
of a doubtful censure.
Possenne:
My Lord, your
wisdom is both known and try’d;
We cannot rank
you in a nobler Friendship
Than your great
service to the State deserves.
Porphycio:
Will’t please you, Sir?
[Enter Fernando with Souldiers.]
Gonzalo:
What’s here,
my Lord Porphycio?
It must not be.
Porphycio:
My Lord, you are too modest.
Gonzalo:
It is no season
to be troublesome,
Else—but
I have done: your Lordships are observ’d.
Gaspero:
Is the demandant ready?
244]
Arcanes:
He is ready.
Gaspero:
Produce him then.
Arcanes:
Before this sacred presence, I, by a general consent, am made The Souldiers voice, and to your gracious Wisedoms, Present as chief in Arms, his Countries Champion, Cassilanes.
Decius:
Most reverend
Lords, you hear the lesser number
Of those who have
been Guardians to this Country,
Approve this Champion;
I, in all their names,
Who fought for
Candy, here present before you
The mightiest
man in Arms, Antinous.
Speak fellow Souldiers.
Souldiers:
Antinous, Antinous.
Gaspero:
Stand by all, save the two Competitors.
Possenne:
My Lords, how
much your Countrey owes you both,
The due reward
of your desertful glories
Must to Posterity
remain: but yet
Since, by our
Law, one only can make claim
To the proposed
honours which you both
(It seems) have
truly merited, take leave
Freely to plead
your rights; we shall attend ye.
Porphycio:
Wherein priority
of voice is granted,
Lord Cassilanes
to you; for that your rare
And long experience
in the Course of War,
As well doth challenge
it as the best priviledge
Of Order and Civility,
for that
You are your brave
Opponents worthy Father.
Say, Country-men,
are you content?
Souldiers:
I, I.
Cassilanes:
Right grave, right
gracious Fathers; how unfit
It is for me,
that all my life time have
Been practis’d
in the School of Bloud, and Slaughter
To bandy words
now in my lifes last farewel,
Your Wisedomes
will consider; were there pitcht
Another, and another
field, like that
Which, not yet
three days since, this Arm hath scatter’d,
Defeated, and
made nothing, then the man
That had a heart
to think he could but follow
(For equal me
he should not) through the lanes
245] Of danger and amazement, might in that
That only of but
following me, be happy,
Reputed worthy
to be made my Rival;
For ’tis
not, Lords, unknown to those about me,
(My fellow Souldiers)
first, with what a confidence
I led them on
to fight, went on still, and
As if I could
have been a second Nature,
As well in heartening
them by my example,
As by my exhortation,
I gave life
To quicken courage,
to inflame revenge,
To heighten resolution;
in a word,
To out-doe action:
It boots not to discover,
How that young
man, who was not fledg’d nor skill’d
In Martial play,
was even as ignorant
As childish:
But I list not to disparage
His non-ability:
The signal given
Of Battel, when
our enemies came on,
(Directed more
by fury, than by warrant
Of Policy and
Stratagem) I met them,
I in the fore-front
of the Armies met them;
And as if this
old weather-beaten body
Had been compos’d
of cannon-proof, I stood
The volleys of
their shot. I, I my self
Was he that first
dis-rankt their woods of Pikes:
But when we came
to handy-stroaks, as often
As I lent blows,
so often I gave wounds,
And every wound
a death. I may be bold
To justifie a
truth, this very sword
Of mine slew more
than any twain besides:
Gonzalo:
With reverence
to the Senate, is it lawfull,
Without your Customes
breach, to say a word?
Possenne:
Say on my Lord Gonzalo.
Gonzalo:
I have heard,
And with no little
wonder, such high deeds
Of Chivalrie discours’d,
that I confess,
I do not think
the Worthies while they liv’d
All nine, deserv’d
as much applause, or memorie,
As this one:
But who can do ought to gain
The crown of honour
from him, must be somewhat
More than a man;
you tread a dangerous path,
Yet I shall hear
you gladly: for believe me,
Thus much let
me profess, in honours cause,
I would not to
my Father, nor my King,
(My Countries
Father) yield: if you transcend
What we have heard,
I can but only say,
That Miracles
are yet in use. I fear
I have offended.
Porphycio:
You have spoken
nobly.
Antinous
use your priviledge.
Antinous:
Princely Fathers,
E’re I begin,
one suit I have to make,
’Tis just,
and honourable.
Porphycio Possenne:
Speak, and have it.
Antinous:
That you would please the souldiers might all stand 247] Together by their General.
Possenne:
’Tis granted.
All fall to yonder
side: Go on, Antinous.
Antinous:
I shall be brief
and plain: all what my Father
(This Countries
Patron) hath discours’d, is true.
Fellows in Arms:
speak you, is’t true?
Souldiers:
True, true.
Antinous:
It follows, that
the blaze of my performance
Took light from
what I saw him do: and thus
A City (though
the flame be much more dreadfull)
May from a little
spark be set on fire;
Of all what I
have done, I shall give instance
Only in three
main proofs of my desert.
First I sought
out (but through how many dangers
My Lords judge
ye) the chief, the great Commander,
The head of that
huge body, whose proud weight
Our Land shrunk
under, him I found and fought with,
Fought with, and
slew. Fellows in Arms, speak you,
Is’t true
or not?
Souldiers:
True, true.
Antinous:
When he was faln,
The hearts of
all our adversaries
Began to quail,
till young Fernando, son
To the last Duke
of Venice gather’d head,
And soon renew’d
the field, by whose example
The bold Venetians
doubling strength and courage
Had got the better
of the day; our men
Supposing that
their adversaries grew
Like Hydra’s
head, recoyle, and ’gan to flye:
I follow’d
them; and what I said, they know;
The summe on’t
is; I call’d them back, new rankt them;
Led on, they follow’d,
shrunk not t[i]ll the end:
Fellows in Arms
is’t true, or no?
Souldiers:
True, true.
Antinous:
Lastly, to finish
all, there was but one,
The only great
exploit; which was to take
Fernando
prisoner, and that hand to hand
In single fight
I did: my self without
The help of any
arm, save the arm of Heaven.
Speak Souldiers,
is it true, or no?
248]
Souldiers:
Antinous, Antinous.
Antinous:
Behold my prisoner, Fathers.
Fernando:
This one man
Ruin’d our
Army, and hath glorifi’d
Crete in
her robes of mightiness and conquest.
Possenne:
We need not use
long circumstance of words,
Antinous
thou art conquerer: the Senate,
The souldiers,
and thy valour have pronounc’d it.
All:
Antinous, Antinous.
Porphycio:
Make thy demand.
Cassilanes:
Please ye (my
Lords) give leave
That I may part.
Possenne:
No Cassilane,
the Court
Should therein
be dishonour’d, do not imagin
We prize your
presence at so slight a rate.
Demand, Antinous.
Antinous:
Thus (my Lords) to witness How far I am from arrogance, or thinking I am more valiant, though more favour’d Than my most matchless father, my demand is, That for a lasting memorie of his name, His deeds, his real, nay his royal worth, You set up in your Capitol in Brass My Fathers Statue, there to stand for ever A Monument and Trophy of his victories, With this Inscription to succeeding ages, Great Cassilanes, Patron of Candy’s Peace, Perpetual Triumpher.
Porphycio Possenne:
It is granted. What more?
Antinous:
No more.
Cassilanes:
How Boy?
Gonzalo:
Thou art immortal,
Both for thy Son-like
pietie, and beauties
Of an unconquer’d
minde.
Antinous:
My Prisoner, Lords,
To your more sacred
wisedoms I surrender:
Fit you his ransom;
half whereof I give
For largess to
the Souldiers: the other half
To the erection
of this monument.
Cassilanes:
Ambitious villain.
249]
Gonzalo:
Thou art all un-imitable.
My Lords, to work
a certain peace for Candy
With Venice,
use Fernando like a Prince;
His ransom I’le
disburse what e’re it be:
Yet you may stay
him with you, till conditions
Of amitie shall
be concluded on:
Are ye content?
Porphycio:
We are, and ever
rest
Both friends and
debters to your nobleness.
Gonzalo:
Souldiers attend
me in the Market-place,
Fie thither send
your largess.
Souldiers:
Antinous, Antinous.
[Exeunt.
Cassilanes:
I have a sute too, Lords.
Porphycio Possenne:
Propose it, ’tis yours, if fit and just.
Cassilanes:
Let not my services,
My being forty
years a drudge, a pack-horse
To you, and to
the State, be branded now
With Ignominy
ne’re to be forgotten:
Rear me no Monument,
unless you mean
To have me fam’d
a Coward, and be stamp’d so.
Possenne:
We understand you not.
Cassilanes:
Proud boy, thou
dost,
And Tyrant-like
insult’st upon my shame.
Antinous:
Sir, Heaven can
tell, and my integrity,
What I did, was
but only to inforce
The Senates gratitude.
I now acknowledge it.
Cassilanes:
Observe it Fathers,
how this haughty boy
Grows cunning
in his envy of mine honours:
He knows no mention
can of me be made,
But that it ever
likewise must be told,
How I by him was
master’d; and for surety
[Ex.
Gonzalo:
Here’s a strange high-born spirit.
Possenne:
’Tis but heat
Of suddain present rage; I dare assure Antinous
of his favour.
Antinous:
I not doubt it,
He is both a good
man, and a good Father.
I shall attend
your Lordships.
Possenne:
Do Antinous.
Gonzalo:
Yes: feast
thy Triumphs
With applause
and pleasures.
Porphycio Possenne:
Lead on.
[Exeunt. Flor. Cornets.
Antinous:
I utterly renounce—’Twas
so?
Was’t not,
my Decius?
Decius:
Pish, you know,
my Lord,
Old men are cholerick.
Antinous:
And lastly parted
With, never henceforth
see my face: O me,
How have I lost
a Father? Such a Father!
Such a one Decius!
I am miserable,
Beyond expression.
Decius:
Fie, how unbecoming
This shews upon
your day of fame!
Antinous:
O mischief!
I must no more
come near him; that I know,
And am assur’d
on’t.
Decius:
Say you do not?
Antinous:
True:
Put case I do
not: what is Candy then
To lost Antinous?
Malta, I resolve
To end my dayes
in thee.
Decius:
How’s that?
Antinous:
I’le trie
All humble means
of being reconcil’d,
Which if deny’d,
then I may justly say,
This day has prov’d
my worst: Decius, my worst.
[Exeunt.
251] Actus Secundus
[Enter Gonzalo, and Gaspero]
Gaspero:
Now to what you
have heard; as no man can
Better than I,
give you her Character;
For I have been
both nurs’d, and train’d up to
Her petulant humours,
and been glad to bear them,
Her Brother, my
late Master, did no less:
Strong apprehensions
of her beauty hath
Made her believe
that she is more than woman:
And as there did
not want those flatterers
Gonzalo:
She should not touch it then, ’tis Poets fare.
Gaspero:
I may take leave
to say, she may as well
Determine of her
self to be a goddess,
With lesser flatterie
than he a god:
For she does conquer
more, although not farther.
Every one looks
on her, dyes in despair,
And would be glad
to do it actually,
To have the next
age tell how worthily,
And what good
cause he had to perish so:
Here beauty is
superlative, she knows it,
And knowing it,
thinks no man can deserve,
But ought to perish,
and to dye for her:
Many great Princes
for her love have languish’d,
And given themselves
a willing sacrifice,
Proud to have
ended so: And now there is
A Prince so madded
in his own passions,
That he forgets
the Royaltie he was born to,
And deems it happiness
to be her slave.
Gonzalo:
You talk as if
you meant to winde me in,
And make me of
the number.
Gaspero:
Sir, mistake me
not, the service that I owe ye
Shall plead for
me: I tell you what she is,
What she expects,
and what she will effect,
252] Unless you be the miracle of men,
That come with
a purpose to behold,
And goe away your
self.
Gonzalo:
I thank you, I
will do it: But pray resolve me,
How is she stor’d
with wit?
Gaspero:
As with beauty,
Infinite, and
more to be admired at,
Than medled with.
Gonzalo:
And walks her tongue the same gate with her feet?
Gaspero:
Much beyond:
what e’re her heart thinks, she utters:
And so boldly,
so readily, as you would judge
It penn’d
and studied.
[Enter Erota, Philander, Annophil, Hyparcha, Mochingo Attendants]
Gonzalo:
She comes.
Gaspero:
I must leave you
then,
But my best wishes
shall remain with you.
[Exit.
Gonzalo:
Still I must thank
you.
This is the most
passionate,
Most pitifull
Prince,
Who in the Caldron
of affections,
Looks as he had
been par-boy’ld.
Philander:
If I offend with
too much loving you,
It is a fault
that I must still commit,
To make your mercy
shine the more on me.
Erota:
You are the self-same
creature you condemn,
Or else you durst
not follow me with hope
That I can pity
you, who am so far
From granting
any comfort in this kind,
That you and all
men else shall perish first:
I will live free
and single, till I find
Something above
a man to equal me;
Put all your brave
Heroes into one,
Your Kings and
Emperours, and let him come
In person of a
man, and I should scorn him:
Must, and will
scorn him.
The god of love
himself hath lost his eyes,
His Bow and Torch
extinguish’d, and the Poets
That made him
first a god, have lost their fire
253] Since I appear’d, and from my eyes must
steal it.
This I dare speak;
and let me see the man,
Now I have spoke
it, that doth, dare deny;
Nay, not believe
it.
Mochingo:
He is mad that does not.
Erota:
Have not all the
nations of the Earth heard of me?
Most come to see
me, and seeing me, return’d
Full of my praises?
teaching their Chroniclers
To make their
Stories perfect? for where the name,
Merely the word
of fair Erota stands,
It is a lasting
History to time,
Begetting admiration
in the men,
And in my own
Sex envie: which glorie’s lost,
When I shall stick
my beautie in a cloud,
And clearly shine
through it.
Gonzalo:
This woman’s
in the altitudes, and he must be
A good Astrologer
shall know her Zodiack.
Philander:
For any man to
think
Himself an able
purchaser of you,
But in the bargain
there must be declar’d
Infinite bounty:
otherwise I vow,
By all that’s
excellent and gracious in you,
I would untenant
every hope lodg’d in me,
And yield my self
up loves, or your own Martyr.
Erota:
So you shall please us.
Philander:
O you cannot be
So heavenly, and
so absolute in all things,
And yet retain
such cruel tyranny.
Erota:
I can, I do, I will.
Gonzalo:
She is in her
Moods, and her
Tenses: I’le Grammer with you,
And make a trial
how I can decline you:
By your leave
(great Lady.)
Erota:
What are you?
Gonzalo:
A man, a good
man, that’s a wealthy;
A Proper man,
and a proud man too; one
That understands
himself, and knows, unless
It be your self,
no woman on the Universe deserves him.
Nay, Lady, I must
tell you too withal,
I may make doubt
of that, unless you paint
254] With better judgement next day than on this;
For (plain I must
be with you) ’tis a dull Fucus.
Erota:
Knows any one here what this fellow is?
Attendants:
He is of Venice
(Madam) a great Magnifico,
And gracious with
the Senate.
Erota:
Let him keep then
among them; what makes he here?
Here’s state
enough where I am: here’s a do—
You, tell him,
if he have ought with us, let him
Look lower, and
give it in Petition.
Mochingo:
Mighty Magnifico,
my Mistris bid me tell you,
If you have ought
with her, you must look lower,
And yield it in
Petition.
Gonzalo:
Here is for thee a Ducket.
Mochingo:
You say well Sir, take your own course.
Gonzalo:
I will not grace
you
(Lady) so much
as take you by the hand;
But when I shall
vouchsafe to touch your lip,
It shall be through
your Court a holy-day
Proclaimed for
so high favour.
Erota:
This is some
Great mans Jester:
Sirrah, begon, here is
No place to fool
in.
Gonzalo:
Where are the
fools you talk of?
I do keep two.
Erota:
No question of
it: for
In your self you
do maintain an hundred.
Gonzalo:
And besides them
I keep a noble train,
Statists, and
men of aclion: my purse is large and deep,
Beyond the reach
of riot to draw drie:
Fortune did vie
with Nature, to bestow
(When I was born)
her bountie equally:
’Tis not
amiss you turn your eyes from me;
For should you
stand and gaze me in the face,
You perish would,
like Semele by Jove:
In Venice
at this instant there do lye
No less than threescore
Ladies in their graves,
And in their Beds
five hundred for my love.
Mochingo:
You lie more than
they; yet it becomes him bravel[y];
Would I could
walk and talk so! I’le endeavour it.
Erota:
Sir, do you know me?
255]
Gonzalo:
Yes, you were
sister to the late Prince of Candy,
Aunt to this young
one: and I in Venice,
Am born a Lord;
equall to you in fortunes,
In shape; I’le
say no more, but view.
Mochingo:
There needs no
more be said, were I a woman—
O he does rarely:
in shape; I’le say no more,
But view:
who could say more, who better?
Man is no man,
nor woman woman is,
Unless they have
a pride like one of these.
How poor the Prince
of Cyprus shews to him!
How poor another
Lady unto her!
Carriage and State
makes us seem demi-gods,
Humility, like
beasts, worms of the Earth.
[Enter Antinous, and Decius.]
Antinous:
Royal Lady, I kiss your hand.
Erota:
Sir, I know you not.
Annophel:
O my noble Brother, welcom from the wars.
Antinous:
Dear Sister.
Annophel:
Where is my Father,
that you come without him?
We have news of
your success: he has his health I hope?
Antinous:
Yes Sister, he has his health, but is not well.
Annophel:
How not well? what Riddles do yo[u] utter?
Antinous:
I’le tell you more in private.
Gonzalo:
Noble Sir,
I cannot be unmindfull
of your merit,
Since I last heard
it: you are a hopefull youth,
And (indeed) the
Soul of Candy.
I must speak my
thoughts.
Annophel:
The Prince of Cyprus Brother, good Decius.
Antinous:
I am his Servant.
Philander:
You are the Patron
of your Countrie, Sir,
So your unimitable
deeds proclaim you,
It is no language
of my own, but all mens.
Gonzalo:
Your Enemies must
needs acknowledge it:
Then do not think
it flatterie in your friends,
For if they had
a heart, they could not want a tongue.
Erota:
Is this your Brother Annophil?
Annophel:
Yes Madam.
Erota:
Your name’s Antinous?
256]
Antinous:
I am (Lady) that most unfortunate man.
Erota:
How unfortunate?
are you not the Souldier,
The Captain of
those Captains, that did bring
Conquest and Victory
home along with you?
Antinous:
I had some share
in’t; but was the least
Of the least worthy.
Gonzalo:
O Sir, in your
modesty you’ld make
A double Conquest:
I was an ear-witness
When this young
man spoke lesser than he acted,
And had the Souldiers
voice to help him out:
But that the Law
compell’d him for his honour,
To inforce him
make a claim for his reward,
I well perceive
he would have stood the man
That he does now,
buried his worth in silence.
Erota:
Sir, I hearken
not to him, but look on you,
And find more
in you than he can relate:
You shall attend
on me.
Antinous:
Madam, your pardon.
Erota:
Deny it not Sir,
for it is more honour
Than you have
gotten i’th’ field: for know you shall,
Upon Erota’s
asking, serve Erota.
Antinous:
I may want answers,
Lady,
But never want
a will to do you service.
I came here to
my Sister, to take leave,
Having enjoyn’d
my self to banishment,
For some cause
that hereafter you may hear,
And wish with
me I had not the occasion.
Annophel:
There shall be
no occasion to divide us:
Dear Madam for
my sake use your power,
Even for the service
that he ought to owe,
Must, and does
owe to you, his friends, and country.
Erota:
Upon your Loyalty
to the state and me,
I do command you
Sir, not depart Candy:
Am I not your
Princess?
Antinous:
You are a great Lady.
Erota:
Then shew your self a Servant and a Subject.
Antinous:
I am your vassal.
Mochingo:
You are a Coward;
I that dare not fight,
Scorn to be vassail
to any Prince in Europe:
Great is my heart
with pride, which I’le encrease
257] When they are gone, with practise on my Vassals.
Attendants:
The noble Cassilane is come to see you Madam.
Decius:
There’s
comfort in those words, Antinous:
For here’s
the place, and persons that have power,
To reconcile you
to his love again.
Antinous:
That were a fortunate meeting.
[Enter Cassilane, and Arcanes.]
Cassilanes:
Greatness still wait you Lady.
Erota:
Good Cassilane,
we do maintain our greatness,
Through your valour.
Cassilanes:
My prayers pull
daily blessings on thy head,
My un-offending
child, my Annophel.
Good Prince, worthy
Gonzalo! ha? art thou here
Before me? in
every action art thou ambitious?
My duty (Lady)
first offered here,
And love to thee
(my child) though he out-strip me;
Thus in the wars
he got the start on me,
By being forward,
but performing less;
All the endeavours
of my life are lost,
And thrown upon
that evil of mine own
Cursed begetting,
whom I shame to father.
O that the heat
thou rob’dst me of, had burnt
Within my Entrails,
and begot a feaver,
Or some worse
sickness, for thou art a disease
Sharper than any
Physick gives a name to.
Annophel:
Why do you say so?
Cassilanes:
O Annophil;
there is good cause my girle:
He has plaid the
thief with me, and filch’d away
The richest jewel
of my life, my honour,
Wearing it publickly
with that applause,
As if he justly
did inherit it.
Antinous:
Would I had in
my Infancy been laid
Within my grave,
covered with your blessings rather
Than grown up
to a man, to meet your curses.
Cassilanes:
O that thou hadst.
Then I had been
the Father of a child,
Dearer than thou
wert ever unto me,
When hope perswaded
me I had begot
Another self in
thee: Out of mine eyes,
258] As far as I have thrown thee from my heart,
That I may live
and dye forgetting thee.
Erota:
How has he deserv’d
this untam’d anger,
That when he might
have ask’t for his reward
Some honour for
himself, or mass of pelf,
He only did request
to have erected
Your Statue in
the Capitol, with Titles
Ingrav’d
upon’t, The Patron of his Countrey?
Cassilanes:
That, that’s
the poison in the gilded cup,
The Serpent in
the flowers, that stings my honour,
And leaves me
dead in fame: Gods do a justice,
And rip his bosom
up, that men may see,
Seeing, believe
the subtle practises
Written within
his heart: But I am heated,
And do forget
this presence, and my self.
Your pardon, Lady.
Erota:
You should not
ask, ’less you knew how to give.
For my sake Cassilane,
cast out of your thoughts
All ill conceptions
of your worthy son,
That (questionless)
has ignorantly offended,
Declared in his
penitence.
Cassilanes:
Bid me dye, Lady,
for your sake I’le do it;
But that you’l
say is nothing, for a man
That has out-liv’d
his honour: But command me
In any thing save
that, and Cassilane
Shall ever be
your servant. Come Annophel,
(My joy in this
world) thou shalt live with me,
(Retired in some
solitarie nook,)
The comfort of
my age; my dayes are short,
And ought to be
well spent: and I desire
No other witness
of them but thy self,
And good Arcanes.
Annophel:
I shall obey you Sir.
Gonzalo:
Noble Sir:
If you taste any
want of worldly means,
Let not that discontent
you: know me your friend,
That hath, and
can supply you.
Cassilanes:
Sir, I am too
much bound to you already,
And ’tis
not of my cares the least, to give you
Fair satisfaction.
259]
Gonzalo:
You may imagine
I do speak to that end,
But trust me,
’tis to make you bolder with me.
Cassilanes:
Sir, I thank you,
and may make trial of you,
Mean time my service.
Annophel:
Brother be comforted;
so long as I continue
Within my Fathers
love, you cannot long
Stand out an Exile:
I must goe live with him,
And I will prove
so good an Orator
In your behalf,
that you again shall gain him,
Or I will stir
in him another anger,
And be lost with
you.
Antinous:
Better I were
neglected: for he is hasty,
And through the
Choler that abounds in him,
(Which for the
time divides from him his judgement)
He may cast you
off, and with you his life;
For grief will
straight surprize him, and that way
Must be his death:
the sword has try’d too often,
And all the deadly
Instruments of war
Have aim’d
at his great heart, but ne’re could touch it:
Yet not a limb
about him wants a scar.
Cassilanes:
Madam my duty—
Erota:
Will you be gone?
Cassilanes:
I must, Lady,
but I shall be ready,
When you are pleas’d
command me, for your service.
Excellent Prince—To
all my heartie love,
And a good Farewel.
Mochingo:
Thanks honest Cassilane.
Cassilanes:
Come Annophel.
Gonzalo:
Shall I not wait upon you Sir?
Cassilanes:
From hence you
shall not stir a foot:
Loving Gonzalo,
it must be all my study
To requite you.
Gonzalo:
If I may be so
fortunate to deserve
The name of friend
from you, I have enough.
Cassilanes:
You are so, and you have made your self so.
Gonzalo:
I will then preserve it.
Erota:
Antinous you are my servant, are you not?
Antinous:
It hath pleased you so to grace me.
Erota:
Why are you then
dejected? you will say,
You have lost
a father; but you have found a Mistris
260] Doubles that loss: be master of your spirit;
You have a cause
for it, which is my favour.
Gonzalo:
And mine.
Erota:
Will no man ease me of this fool?
Gonzalo:
Your fellow.
Erota:
Antinous wait upon us.
Antinous:
I shall Madam.
Gonzalo:
Nay but Ladie, Ladie.
Erota:
Sir, you are rude:
and if you be the Master
Of such means
as you do talk of, you should
Learn good manners.
Gonzalo:
O Lady, you can
find a fault in me,
But not perceive
it in your self: you must, shall hear me:
I love you for
your pride, ’tis the best vertue
In you.
Erota:
I could hang this
fellow now: by whom
Are you supported,
that you dare do this?
Have you not example
here in a Prince
Transcending you
in all things, yet bears himself
As doth become
a man had seen my beautie?
Back to your Country,
and your Curtizans,
Where you may
be admired for your wealth,
Which being consum’d,
may be a means to gain you
The opinion of
some wit. Here’s nothing
To be got but
scorn, and loss of time.
Gonzalo:
Which are things I delight in.
Erota:
Antinous follow me.
[Exit.
Gonzalo:
She is vext to the soul.
Mochingo:
Let her be vext,
’tis fit she should be so:
Give me thy hand
Gonzalo, thou art in our favour,
For we do love
to cherish lofty spirits,
Such as percusse
the Earth, and bound
With an erected
countenance to the clouds.
Gonzalo:
’S-foot, what thing is this?
Mochingo:
I do love fire-works,
because they mount:
An Exhalation
I profess to adore,
Beyond a fixed
star, ’tis more illustrious,
As every thing
rais’d out of smoak is so:
Their vertue is
in action: what do you think of me?
Gonzalo:
Troth Sir,
261] You are beyond my ghess, I know you not.
Mochingo:
Do you know your self?
Gonzalo:
Yes Sir.
Mochingo:
Why you and I
are one: I am proud, and
Very proud too,
that I must tell you; I saw
It did become
you, cousin Gonzalo, prethee
Let it be so.
Gonzalo:
Let it be so good cousin.
Mochingo:
I am no great ones fool.
Gonzalo:
I hope so, for alliance sake.
Mochingo:
Yet I do serve
the Mighty, Monstrous, and Magnanimous
Invincible Erota.
Gonzalo:
O good cousin, now I have you: I’le meet you in your Coat.
Mochingo:
Coat? I have
my horse-mans coat I must confess
Lin’d through
with Velvet, and a Scarlet out-side;
If you’ll
meet me in’t, I’le send for’t;
And cousin you
shall see me with much comfort,
For it is both
a new one, and a right one,
It did not come
collateral.
Gonzalo:
Adieu good cousin; at this present I have some business.
Mochingo:
Farewel, excellent cousin.
Scena Prima
[Enter Gonzalo, and Fernando.]
Gonzalo:
Candy, I say, is lost already.
Fernando:
Yes,
If to be conqueror
be to be lost.
Gonzalo:
You have it; one
days conquest hath undone them.
And sold them
to their vassalage; for what
Have I else toyl’d
my brains, profusely emptied
My moneys, but
to make them slaves to Venice,
That so in case
the sword did lose his edge,
Then art might
sharpen hers?
Fernando:
Gonzalo how?
Gonzalo:
Fernando
thus: you see how through this Land,
Both of the best
and basest I am honour’d;
I only gave the
State of Venice notice,
When, where, and
how to land, or you had found
262] A better entertainment: I was he
Encourag’d
young Antinous to affront
The Devil his
Father: for the Devil I think
Dares not do more
in battel.
Fernando:
But why did ye?
I find no such
great policie in that.
Gonzalo:
Indeed Fernando,
thou canst fight, not plot:
Had they continu’d
one, they two alone
Were of sufficient
courage and performance
To beat an Armie.
Fernando:
Now by all my
hopes,
I rather shall
admire, than envy vertue.
Gonzalo:
Why then by all
your hopes you’l rather have
Your Brains knockt
out, than learn how to be wise;
You States-man?
Well Sir, I did more than this,
When Cassilane
crav’d from the common treasure
Pay for his Souldiers,
I strook home, and lent him
An hundred thousand
Duckets.
Fernando:
Marry Sir,
The policy was
little, the love l[e]ss,
And honesty least
of all.
Gonzalo:
How say ye by
that?
Go fight, I say
goe fight, I’le talk no more with you,
You are insensible.
Fernando:
Well, I shall observe ye.
Gonzalo:
Why look you Sir,
by this means have I got
The greatest part
of Cassilanes estate
Into my hands,
which he can ne’re redeem,
But must of force
sink: do you conceive me now?
Fernando:
So:
But why have you
importuned the Senate,
For me to sojourn
with them?
Gonzalo:
There’s
the quintessence,
The soul, and
grand elixir of my wit:
For he (according
to his noble nature)
Will not be known
to want, though he do want,
And will be bankrupted
so much the sooner,
And made the subject
of our scorn and laughter.
Fernando:
Here’s a perfect plotted stratagem.
Gonzalo:
Why? could you
263] Imagine, that I did not hate in heart
My Countryes enemies?
yes, yes, Fernando,
And I will be
the man that shall undoe them.
Fernando:
Ye are in a ready way.
Gonzalo:
I was never out on’t.
[Enter Gaspero]
Gonzalo:
Peace,
Here comes a wise
Coxcombe, a tame Coward.
Now worthy Gaspero,
what,
You come (I know)
to be my Lord Fernando’s
Conducter to old
Cassilane?
Gaspero:
To wait upon him.
Gonzalo:
And my Lords the Senators sent you?
Gaspero:
My noble Lord they did.
Gonzalo:
My Lord Fernando,
This Gentleman,
(as humble as you see him)
Is even this Kingdoms
treasure; In a word,
’Tis his
chief glory that he is not wiser
Than honest, nor
more honest than approv’d
In truth and faith.
Gaspero:
My Lord.
Gonzalo:
You may be bold
To trust him with
your bosom, he’l not deceive
If you relie upon
him once.
[Fernando]:
Your name is Gaspero?
Gaspero:
Your servant.
Gonzalo:
Go commend me
(Right honest
Gaspero) commend me heartily
To noble Cassilane,
tell him my love
Is vow’d
to him.
Gaspero:
I shall.
Gonzalo:
I know you will.
My Lord I cannot
long be absent from you.
Fernando:
Sir, you are now my guide.
[Exit.
Gonzalo:
Thus my designs
Run uncontroul’d;
yet Venice though I be
Intelligencer
to thee, in my brain
Are other large
Projects: for if proud Erota
Bend to my lure,
I will be Candy’s King,
264] And Duke of Venice too. Ha? Venice
too?
O ’twas
prettily shov’d in: why not? Erota
May in her love
seal all sure: if she swallow
The bait, I am
Lord of both; if not, yet Candy
Despight of all
her power shall be ruin’d.
[Enter Cassilane, Arcanes, and Annophel]
Cassilanes:
Urge me no farther Annopbel.
Annophel:
My Lord.
Cassilanes:
Thy fathers poverty
has made thee happy;
For though ’tis
true, this solitary life
Sutes not with
youth and beautie, O my child,
Yet ’tis
the sweetest Guardian to protect
Chast names from
Court aspersions; there a Lady
Tender and delicate
in years and graces,
Annophel:
My wishes Sir,
Have never soar’d
a higher flight, than truly
To find occasion
wherein I might witness
My duty and obedience.
Cassilanes:
’Tis well
said,
Canst thou forbear
to laugh Arcanes?
Arcanes:
Why Sir?
Cassilanes:
To look upon my
beggerie, to look upon
My patience in
my beggerie: Tell me,
Does it shew handsom?
bravely?
Handsom? thou
wilt flatter me,
And swear that
I am miserable.
Arcanes:
Nothing
More glorifies
the noble, and the valiant,
Than to despise
contempt: if you continue
But to enjoy your
self, you in your self
Enjoy all store
besides.
Cassilanes:
An excellent change:
I that some seven
Apprentice-ships commanded
A hundred Ministers,
that waited on
265] My nod, and sometimes twenty thousand souldiers,
Am now retir’d,
attended in my age
By one poor maid,
follow’d by one old man.
Arcanes:
Sir, you are lower
in your own repute
Than you have
reason for.
Cassilanes:
The Roman
Captains,
I mean the best,
such as with their blouds
Purchas’d
their Countreys peace, the Empires glorie,
Were glad at last
to get them to some Farmes,
Off-from the clamours
of the ingratefull great ones,
And the unsteady
multitude, to live
As I do now, and
’twas their blessing too,
Let it be ours
Arcanes.
Arcanes:
I cannot but
Applaud your scorn
of injuries.
Cassilanes:
Of injuries?
Arcanes,
Annophel, lend both your hands.
So, what say ye
now?
Arcanes:
Why now my Lord—
Cassilanes:
I swear
By all my past
prosperities; thus standing
Between you two,
I think my self as great,
As mighty, as
if in the Capitol
I stood amidst
the Senators, with all
The Cretan
subjects prostrate at my feet.
Annophel:
Sir, you are here more safe.
Cassilanes:
And more beloved:
Why look ye Sirs,
I can forget the weakness
Of the traduced
Souldiers, the negleft
Of the fair-spoken
Senate, the impietie
Of him, the villain,
whom (to my dishonour)
The World miscalls
my son.
But by the—
Arcanes:
Sir, remember
that you promis’d no occasion
Should move your
patience.
Cassilanes:
Thou do’st
chide me friendly,
He shall not have
the honour to be thought upon
Amongst us.
[Enter a Servant.]
Now? the news?
266]
Servant:
The Secretarie,
With the Venetian
prisoner, desire
Admittance to
your Lordship.
Cassilanes:
How? to me?
What mysterie
is this? Arcanes can they,
Thinkst thou,
mean any good?
Arcanes:
My Lord, they
dare not
Intend ought else
but good.
Cassilanes:
’Tis true, they dare not; Arcanes welcom them: Come hither Annophel, Stand close to me, we’l change our affability Into a form of State: and they shall know Our heart is still our own.
[Enter Arcanes, Fernando, and Gaspero.]
Arcanes:
My Lord—
Cassilanes:
Arcanes, I know them both: Fernando, as you are A man of greatness, I should under-value The right my sword hath fought for, to observe Low-fawning complements, but as you are A Captive and a stranger, I can love you, And must be kind. You are welcom.
Fernando:
’Tis the
all
Of my ambition.
Gaspero:
And for proof
how much
He truly honours
your heroick vertues,
The Senate on
his importunity,
Commend him to
your Lordships guard.
Cassilanes:
For what?
Gaspero:
During the time
of his abode in Candy,
To be your houshold
guest.
Fernando:
Wherein my Lord,
You shall more
make me debtor to your nobleness,
Than if you had
return’d me without ransom.
Cassilanes:
Are you in earnest Sir?
Fernando:
My sute to the
Senate
Shall best resolve
you that.
Cassilanes:
Come hither Secretarie,
Look that this
be no trick now put upon me:
267] For if it be—Sirrah—
Gaspero:
As I have troth
(My Lord) it only
is a favour granted
Upon Fernando’s
motion, from himself:
Your Lordship
must conceive, I’de not partake
Ought, but what
should concern your honour; Who
Has been the prop,
our Countries shield, and safety,
But the renowned
Cassilane?
Cassilanes:
Applause?
Is Gaspero—puff—nothing—why,
young Lord,
Would you so much
be sequester’d from those
That are the blazing
Comets of the time,
To live a solitary
Fernando:
Herein
Shall my Captivity
be made my happiness,
Since what I lose
in freedom, I regain
(With int’rest)
by conversing with a Souldier,
So matchless for
experience, as great Cassilane:
’Pray Sir,
admit me.
Cassilanes:
If you, come to
mock me,
I shall be angry.
Fernando:
By the love I
bear
To goodness, my
intents are honourable.
Cassilanes:
Then in a word,
my Lord, your visitations
Shall find all
due respect: but I am now
Grown old, and
have forgot to be an Host;
Come when you
please, you are welcome.
Fernando:
Sir, I thank you.
Annophel:
Good Sir, be not
too urgent; for my Father
268] Will soon be mov’d: yet, in a noble
way
Of courtesie,
he is as easily conquer’d.
Fernando:
Lady, your words
are like your beauty, powerful;
I shall not strive
more how to do him service
Than how to be
your servant.
Cassilanes:
She’s my
Daughter,
And does command
this House.
Fernando:
So I conceive her.
Cassilanes:
Do you hear?
Gaspero:
My honour’d Lord.
Cassilanes:
Commend me to
them:
Tell ’em
I thank them.
Gaspero:
Whom, my Lord?
Cassilanes:
The Senate;
Why, how come
you so dull? O they are gracious,
And infinitely
grateful—Thou art eloquent,
Speak modestly
in mentioning my services;
And if ought fall
out in the By, that must
Of meer necessity
touch any act
Of my deserving
praises, blush when you talk on’t,
Twill make them
blush to hear on’t.
Gaspero:
Why, my Lord—
Cassilanes:
Nay, nay, you
are too wise now; good, observe me.
I do not rail
against the hopeful Springall,
That builds up
Monuments in Brass; rears Trophies
With Mottoes and
Inscriptions, quaint devices
Of Poetry and
Fiction; let’s be quiet.
Arcanes:
You must not cross him.
Gaspero:
Not for Candy’s Wealth.
Fernando:
You shall for ever make me yours.
Annophel:
’Twere pity to double your Captivity.
Arcanes:
Who’s here, Decius?
[Enter Decius]
Cassilanes:
Ha! Decius? who nam’d Decius?
Decius:
My duty to your
Lordship, I am bold,
Presuming on your
noble, and known goodness
To—
Cassilanes:
What?
Decius:
Present you with this—
269]
Cassilanes:
Letter?
Decius:
Yes, my honour’d Lord.
Cassilanes:
From whom?
Decius:
’Please
you peruse
The inside, and
you shall find a name subscrib’d,
In such humility,
in such obedience,
That you your
self will judge it tyranny
Not to receive
it favourably.
Cassilanes:
Hey-day!
Good words my
Masters: this is Court-infection,
And none but Cowards
ply them: tell me, Decius,
Without more circumstance,
who is the Sender?
Decius:
Your most griev’d Son, Antinous.
Cassilanes:
On my life
A Challenge; speak,
as thou art worthy, speak;
I’ll answer’t.
Decius:
Honour’d Sir.
Cassilanes:
No honour’d
Sirs—
Fool your young
Idol with such pompous Attributes.
Say briefly, what
contains it?
Decius:
’Tis a lowly
Petition for your
favour.
Cassilanes:
Rash young man, But that thou art under my own roof, and know’st I dare not any way infringe the Laws Of Hospitality, thou should’st repent Thy bold and rude intrusion. But presume not Again to shew thy Letter, for thy life; Decius, not for thy life.
Arcanes:
Nay then, (my
Lord)
I can with-hold
no longer; you are too rough,
And wrestle against
nature with a violence
More than becomes
a Father; wherein would ye
Come nearer to
the likeness of God,
Than in your being
entreated? Let not thirst
Of Honour, make
you quite forget you are
A Man, and what
makes perfect manhoods, comforts
A Father.
Annophel:
If a memory remain
Of my departed
Mother; if the purity
270] Of her unblemish’d faith deserve to live
In your remembrance,
let me yet by these
Awake your love
to my uncomforted Brother.
Fernando:
I am a Stranger,
but so much I tender
Your Sons desertful
Vertues, that I vow
His Sword ne’r
conquer’d me so absolutely,
As shall your
courtesie, if you vouchsafe
At all our instances,
to new receive him
Into your wonted
favour.
Gaspero:
Sir, you cannot
Require more low
submission.
Annophel:
Am I not
Grown vile yet
in your eyes? then by the name
Of Father, let
me once more sue for him,
Who is the only
now remaining Branch
With me, of that
most ancient root, whose Body
You are, dear
Sir.
Cassilanes:
’Tis well, an host of furies Could not have baited me more torturingly, More rudely, or more most unnaturally. Decius, I say, let me no more hear from him; For this time go thou hence, and know from me Thou art beholding to me that I have not Kill’d thee already, look to’t next, look to’t. Arcanes fie, fie Annophel.
[Exit.
Arcanes:
He’s gone;
Chaf’d beyond
sufferance; we must follow him.
Decius:
Lady, this Letter is to you.
Annophel:
Come with me,
For we must speak
in private; ’please you, Sir,
To see what entertainment
our sad house
Can yield?
[Exit.
Fernando:
I shall attend you, Lady.
Gaspero:
How do you like
To sojourn here,
my Lord?
Fernando:
More than to feast
With all the Princes
of the Earth besides:
Gonzalo
told me that thou wert honest.
Gaspero:
Yes Sir,
And you shall
find it.
271]
Fernando:
Shall I?
Gaspero:
All my follies
Be else recorded
to my shame.
Fernando:
Enough,
My heart is here
for ever lodg’d.
Gaspero:
The Lady.
Fernando:
The place admits
no time to utter all,
But Gaspero
if thou wilt prove my friend,
I’ll say
thou art—
Gaspero:
Your Servant;
I conceive ye,
We’ll chuse
some fitter leisure.
Fernando:
Never man
Was (in a moment)
or more bless’d or wretched.
[Exeunt.
[Enter Hyparcha (placing two Chairs) Antinous, and Erota.]
Erota:
Leave us.
Hyparcha:
I shall.
[Exit.
Erota:
Antinous, sit down.
Antinous:
Madam.
Erota:
I say sit down,
I do command you sit;
For look what
honour thou dost gain by me,
I cannot lose
it: happy Antinous,
The graces and
the higher Deities
Smil’d at
thy Birth, and still continue it:
Then think that
I (who scorn lesser examples)
Must do the like:
such as do taste my power,
And talk of it
with fear and reverence,
Shall do the same
unto the man I favour.
I tell thee Youth,
thou hast a conquest won,
Since thou cam’st
home, greater than that last,
Which dignified
thy Fame, greater than if
Thou should’st
go out again, and conquer farther;
For I am not ashamed
to acknowledge
My self subdued
by thee.
Antinous:
Great Lady—
Erota:
Sit still, I will
not hear thee else; now speak,
And speak like
my Antinous, like my Souldier,
Whom Cupid,
and not Mars hath sent to Battel.
Antinous:
I must (I see) be silent.
272]
Erota:
So thou maist;
There’s
greater action in it than in clamour,
A look (if it
be gracious) will begin the War,
A word conclude
it; then prove no Coward,
Since thou hast
such a friendly enemy,
That teaches thee
to conquer.
Antinous:
You do amaze me,
Madam,
I have no skill,
no practice in this War,
And whether you
be serious, or please
To make your sport
on a dejected man,
I cannot rightly
guess; but be it as it will,
It is a like unhappiness
to me:
My discontents
bear those conditions in them,
And lay me out
so wretched, no designs
(However truly
promising a good)
Can make me relish
ought but a sweet-bitter
Voluntary Exile.
Erota:
Why an Exile?
What comfort can
there be in those Companions
Which sad thoughts
bring along with?
[Enter Hyparcha]
Hyparcha:
Madam.
[Musick.
Erota:
Whence comes this well tun’d sound?
Hyparcha:
I know not, Madam.
Erota:
Listen Wench;
What ever friendly
hands they are that send it,
[Song.
Let ’em
play on; they are Masters of their faculty:
Doth it please
you, Sir?
Antinous:
According to the time.
Erota:
Go to ’em,
Wench,
And tell ’em,
we shall thank ’em; for they have kept
As good time to
our disposition, as to their instruments;
Unless Antinous
shall say he loves,
There never can
be sweeter accents utter’d.
[Enter Philander.]
Philander:
Let then the heart
that did employ those hands,
Receive some small
share of your thanks with them,
’Tis happiness
enough that you did like it;
273] A fortune unto me, that I should send it
In such a lucky
minute; but to obtain
So gracious welcome
did exceed my hopes.
Erota:
Good Prince, I thank you for’t.
Philander:
O Madam, pour
not (too fast) joys on me,
But sprinkle ’em
so gently I may stand ’em;
It is enough at
first, you have laid aside
Those cruel angry
looks out of your eyes,
With which (as
with your lovely) you did strike
All your Beholders
in an Ecstasie.
Erota:
Philander, you have long profest to love me.
Philander:
Have I but profest it, Madam?
Erota:
Nay, but hear me?
Philander:
More attentively than to an Oracle.
Erota:
And I will speak
more truly, if more can be;
Nor shall my language
be wrapt up in Riddles,
But plain as truth
it self; I love this Gentleman,
Whose grief has
made him so uncapable
Of Love, he will
not hear, at least not understand it.
I, that have lookt
with scornful eyes on thee,
And other Princes,
mighty in their states,
And in their friends
as fortunate, have now pray’d,
In a petitionary
kind almost,
This man, this
well-deserving man, (that I must say)
To look upon this
beauty, yet you see
He casts his eyes
rather upon the ground,
Than he will turn
’em this way; Philander,
You look pale;
I’ll talk no more.
Philander:
Pray go forward;
I would be your Martyr,
To dye thus, were
immortally to live.
Erota:
Will you go to
him then, and speak for me?
You have loved
longer, but not ferventer,
Know how to speak,
for you have done it like
An Orator, even
for your self; then how will you for me
Whom you profess
to love above your self.
Philander:
The Curses of
Dissemblers follow me
Unto my Grave,
and if I do not so.
Erota:
You may (as all
men do) speak boldlier, better
In their friends
cause still, than in your own;
But speak your
utmost, yet you cannot feign,
274] I will stand by, and blush to witness it.
Tell him, since
I beheld him, I have lost
The happiness
of this life, food, and rest;
A quiet bosome,
and the state I went with.
Tell him how he
has humbled the proud,
And made the living
but a dead Erota.
Tell him withal,
that she is better pleas’d
With thinking
on him, than enjoying these.
Tell him—Philander,
Prince; I talk in vain
To you, you do
not mark me.
Philander:
Indeed I do.
Erota:
But thou dost
look so pale,
As thou wilt spoil
the story in relating.
Philander:
Not, if I can but live to tell it.
Erota:
It may be you have not the heart.
Philander:
I have a will
I am sure how e’r my heart
May play the Coward,
but if you please, I’ll try.
Erota:
If a kiss will
strengthen thee, I give you leave
To challenge it,
nay, I will give it you.
Philander:
O that a man should
taste such heavenly bliss,
And be enjoyn’d
to beg it for another!
Erota:
Alas, it is a
misery I grieve
To put you to,
and I will suffer rather
In his tyranny,
than thou in mine.
Philander:
Nay Madam, since
I cannot have your love,
I will endeavour
to deserve your pity;
For I had rather
have within the grave
Your love, than
you should want it upon earth.
But how can I
hope, with a feeble tongue
To instruct him
in the rudiments of love,
When your most
powerful Beauty cannot work it?
Erota:
Do what thou wilt
(Philander) the request
Is so unreasonable,
that I quit thee of it.
I desire now no
more but the true patience,
And fortitude
of Lovers, with those helps
Of sighs and tears,
which I think is all the Physick—
Philander:
O if he did but
hear you ’twere enough;
And I will ’wake
him from his Apoplexie.
Antinous.
Antinous:
My Lord?
275]
Philander:
Nay, ’pray,
No courtesie to
me, you are my Lord,
(Indeed you are)
for you command her heart
That commands
mine; nor can you want to know it.
For look you,
she that told it you in words,
Explains it now
more passionately in tears;
Either thou hast
no heart, or a marble one,
If those drops
cannot melt it; prithee look up
And see how sorrow
sits within her eyes,
And love the grief
she goes with (if not her)
Of which thou
art the Parent; and never yet
Was there (by
Nature) that thing made so stony
But it would love
what ever it begot.
Antinous:
He that begot
me did beget these cares
Which are good
issues, though happily by him
Esteemed Monsters:
Nay, the ill-judging World
Is likely enough
to give them those Characters.
Philander:
What’s this
to love, and to the Lady? he’s old,
Wrathful, perverse,
self-will’d, and full of anger,
Which are his
faults; but let them not be thine;
He thrusts you
from his love, she pulls thee on;
He doubts your
Vertues, she doth double them;
O either use thine
own eyes, or take mine,
And with them
my heart, then thou wilt love her,
Nay, dote upon
her more than on thy duty,
And men will praise
thee equally for it,
Neglecting her,
condemn thee as a man
Unworthy such
a fortune: O Antinous,
’Tis not
the friendship that I bear to thee,
But her command,
that makes me utter this;
And when I have
prevail’d, let her but say,
Philander,
you must dye or this is nothing,
It shall be done
together with a breath,
With the same
willingness I live to serve her.
Erota:
No more, Philander.
Philander:
All I have done,
is little yet to purpose,
But ere I leave
him I will perceive him blush;
And make him feel
the passions that I do,
And every true
Lover will assist me in’t,
And lend me their
sad sighs to blow it home,
276] For Cupid wants a Dart to wound this
bosome.
Erota:
No more, no more, Philander,
I can endure no more,
Pray let him go; go good Antinous, make
peace
With your own mind, no matter though I perish.
[Ex.
Scena Prima
[Enter Hyparcha, and Mochingo]
Hyparcha:
I Cannot help it.
Mochingo:
Nor do I require
it,
The malady needs
no Physician,
Help hospital
people.
Hyparcha:
I am glad to hear
You are so valiant.
Mochingo:
Valiant? Can any man be proud that is not valiant? Foolish Woman, what would’st thou say? thou— know not what to call thee.
Hyparcha:
I can you,
For I can call
you Coxcomb, Ass, and Puppy.
Mochingo:
You do doe it, I thank you.
Hyparcha:
That you’ll
lose a Fortune,
Which a Cobler
better deserves than thou dost.
Mochingo:
Do not provoke
my magnanimity,
For when I am
incens’d I am insensible,
Go tell thy Lady,
that hath sent me word
She will discard
me, that I discard her,
And throw a scorn
upon her, which I would not,
But that she does
me wrong.
[Enter Erota, and Antinous.]
Erota:
Do you not glory
in your Conquest more,
To take some great
man Prisoner, than to kill him?
And shall a Lady
find less mercy from you,
That yields her
self your Captive, and for her Ransome,
Will give the
Jewel of her life, her heart,
Which she hath
lockt from all men but thy self?
For shame (Antinous)
throw this dulness off;
Art thou a man
no where but in the field?
277]
Hyparcha:
He must hear Drums,
and Trumpets ere he sleeps,
And at this instant
dreams he’s in his Armour;
These iron-hearted
Souldiers are so cold,
Till they be beaten
to a Womans Arms,
And then they
love ’em better than their own;
No Fort can hold
them out.
Antinous:
What pity it is
(Madam) that your self,
Who are all Excellence,
should become so wretched,
To think on such
a Wretch as Grief hath made me!
Seldome despairing
men look up to Heaven,
Although it still
speak to ’em in its Glories;
For when sad thoughts
perplex the mind of man,
There is a Plummet
in the heart that weighs,
And pulls us (living)
to the dust we came from;
Did you but see
the miseries you pursue,
(As I the happiness
that I avoid
That doubles my
afflictions) you would flye
Unto some Wilderness,
or to your Grave,
And there find
better Comforts than in me,
For Love and Cares
can never dwell together.
Erota:
They should,
If thou hadst
but my Love and I thy Cares.
Antinous:
What wild Beast
in the Desart but would be
Taught by this
Tongue to leave his Cruelty,
Though all the
beauties of the face were vail’d!
But I am savager
than any Beast,
And shall be so
till Decius does arrive,
Whom with so much
submission I have sent
Under my hand,
that if he do not bring
His Benediction
back, he must to me
Be much more cruel
than I to you.
Erota:
Is’t but your Fathers pardon you desire?
Antinous:
With his love, and then nothing next that, like yours.
[Enter Decius]
Erota:
Decius is come.
Antinous:
O welcome Friend;
if I apprehend not
Too much of joy,
there’s comfort in thy looks.
Erota:
There is indeed; I prithee Decius speak it.
Decius:
How! prithee Decius! this Woman’s strangely alter’d. 278]
Antinous:
Why dost not speak
(good friend) and tell me how
The reverend Blessing
of my life receiv’d
My humble lines;
wept he for joy?
Decius:
No, there’s
a Letter will inform you more;
Yet I can tell
you what I think will grieve you,
The Old Man is
in want and angry still,
And poverty is
the Bellows to the Coal
More than distaste
from you as I imagine.
Antinous:
What’s here?
how’s this? It cannot be! now sure
My griefs delude
my senses.
Erota:
In his looks
I read a world
of Changes; Decius, mark
With what a sad
amazement he surveys
The News; canst
thou guess what ’tis?
Decius:
None good, I fear.
Erota:
I fear so too; and then—
Antinous:
It is her hand.
Erota:
Are you not well?
Antinous:
Too well:
if I were ought
But Rock, this
Letter would conclude my miseries,
Peruse it (Lady)
and resolve me then,
In what a case
I stand.
Decius:
Sir, the worst
is,
Your Fathers lowness
and distaste.
Antinous:
No, Decius, My Sister writes Fernando has made suit For love to her; and to express sincerely His constant truth, hath like a noble Gentleman, Discovered plots of treachery; contriv’d By false Gonzalo, not intending more The utter ruine of our house, than generally Candies Confusion.
Decius:
’Tis a generous
part
Of young Fernando.
Antinous:
’Tis, and
I could wish
All thrift to
his affections, Decius.
You find the sum
on’t, Madam.
Erota:
Yes, I do.
Antinous:
And can you now
yet think a heart opprest
With such a throng
of cares, can entertain
279] An amorous thought? Love frees all toils
but one,
Calamity and it
can ill agree.
Erota:
Wil’t please you speak my doom?
Antinous:
Alas, great Lady,
Why will you flatter
thus a desperate Man
That is quite
cast away? O had you not
Procur’d
the Senates Warrant to enforce
My stay, I had
not heard of these sad News.
What would ye
have me do?
Erota:
Love me, or kill
me,
One word shall
sentence either; for as Truth
Is just, if you
refuse me, I am resolute
Not to out-live
my thraldome.
Antinous:
Gentle Lady.
Erota:
Say, must I live, or dye?
Decius:
My Lord, how can
you
Be so inexorable?
here’s Occasion
Of succouring
your Father in his wants
Securely profer’d,
pray Sir, entertain it.
Erota:
What is my sentence?
Antinous:
What you please to have it.
Erota:
As thou art gentle speak those words again.
Antinous:
Madam, you have
prevail’d; yet give me leave
Without offence,
ere I resign the interest
Your heart hath
in my heart, to prove your secresie.
Erota:
Antinous,
’tis the greatest argument
Of thy affections
to me.
Antinous:
Madam, thus then,
My Father stands
for certain sums engag’d
To treacherous
Gonzalo; and has morgag’d
The greatest part
of his estate to him;
If you receive
this Morgage, and procure
Acquittance from
Gonzalo to my Father,
I am what you
would have me be.
Erota:
You’ll love me then?
Antinous:
Provided (Madam)
that my Father know not
I am an Agent
for him.
Erota:
If I fail
In this, I am
unworthy to be lov’d.
Antinous:
Then (with your
favour) thus I seal my truth,
280] To day, and Decius witness how unchangingly
I shall still
love Erota.
Erota:
Thou hast quickned
A dying heart,
Antinous.
Decius:
This is well;
Much happiness
to both.
[Enter Hyparcha]
Hyparcha:
The Lord Gonzalo
Attends you, Madam.
Erota:
Comes as we could wish,
Withdraw Antinous, here’s a Closet,
where
You may partake his errand; let him enter.
[Enter Gonzalo]
Antinous:
Madam you must be wary.
[Exit
Erota:
Fear it not,
I will be ready for him; to entertain him
With smiling Welcome. Noble Sir, you take
Advantage of the time; it had been fit
Some notice of your presence might have fashion’d
A more prepared state.
Gonzalo:
Do you mock me, Madam?
Erota:
Trust me, you
wrong your judgment, to repute
My Gratitude a
fault; I have examin’d
Your portly carriage,
and will now confess
It hath not slightly
won me.
Gonzalo:
The Wind’s
turn’d;
I thought ’twould
come to this; it pleas’d us, Madam,
At our last interview,
to mention Love;
Have you consider’d
on’t?
Erota:
With more than
common
Content:
but Sir, if what you spoke you meant,
(As I have cause
to doubt) then—
Gonzalo:
What, (sweet Lady?)
Erota:
Methinks we should
lay by this form of stateliness;
Loves Courtship
is familiar, and for instance,
See what a change
it hath begot in me,
I could talk humbly
now, as Lovers use.
Gonzalo:
And I, and I, we meet in one self-centre
281] Of blest Consent.
Erota:
I hope my weakness,
Sir,
Shall not deserve
neglect; but if it prove so
I am not the first
Lady has been ruin’d
By being too credulous;
you will smart for’t one day.
Gonzalo:
Angel-like Lady,
let me be held a Villain,
If I love not
sincerely.
Erota:
Would I knew it.
Gonzalo:
Make proof by any fit Command.
Erota:
What, do you mean to marry me?
Gonzalo:
How! mean? nay
more, I mean
To make you Empress
of my Earthly Fortunes,
Regent of my desires,
for did you covet
To be a real Queen,
I could advance you.
Erota:
Now I perceive
you slight me, and would make me
More simple than
my Sexes frailty warrants.
Gonzalo:
But say your mind, and you shall be a Queen.
Erota:
On those Conditions, call me yours.
Gonzalo:
Enough.
But are we safe?
Erota:
Assuredly.
Gonzalo:
In short,
Yet, Lady, first
be plain; would you not chuse
Much rather to
prefer your own Sun-rising,
Than any’s
else though ne’r so near entituled
By Blood, or right
of Birth?
Erota:
’Tis a question
Needs not a resolution.
Gonzalo:
Good; what if
I set the Crown
of Candy on your head?
Erota:
I were a Queen indeed then.
Gonzalo:
Madam, know
There’s
but a Boy ’twixt you and it; suppose him
Transhap’d
into an Angel.
Erota:
Wise Gonzalo,
I cannot but admire
thee.
Gonzalo:
’Tis worth
thinking on;
Besides, your
Husband shall be Duke of Venice.
Erota:
Gonzalo, Duke of Venice?
Gonzalo:
You are mine you say?
282]
Erota:
Pish: you
but dally with me; and would lull me
In a rich golden
dream.
Gonzalo:
You are too much distrustfull of my truth.
Erota:
Then you must
give me leave to apprehend
The means, and
manner how.
Gonzalo:
Why thus—
Erota:
You shall not,
We may be over-heard;
Affairs and counsels
Of such high nature,
are not to be trusted
Not to the Air
it self, you shall in writing,
Draw out the full
design; which if effected,
I am as I profess.
Gonzalo:
O I applaud
Your ready care,
and secresie.
Erota:
Gonzalo,
There is a bar
yet, ’twixt our hopes and us,
And that must
be remov’d.
Gonzalo:
What is’t?
Erota:
Old Cassilane.
Gonzalo:
Ha? fear not him:
I build upon his ruines
Already.
Erota:
I would find a
smoother course
To shift him off.
Gonzalo:
As how?
Erota:
We’l talk
in private,
I have a ready
plot.
Gonzalo:
I shall adore you.
[Exeunt.
[Enter Fernando, a[n]d Annophel]
Fernando:
Madam, although
I hate unnoble practices,
And therefore
have perform’d no more than what
I ought, for honours
safety: yet Annophel,
Thy love hath
been the spur, to urge me forward
For speedier diligence.
Annophel:
Sir your own fame
And memory will
best reward themselves.
Fernando:
All gain is loss
(sweet beauty) if I miss
My comforts here:
The Brother and the Sister
Have double conquer’d
me, but thou maist triumph.
Annophel:
Good Sir, I have a Father.
283]
Fernando:
Yes, a brave one;
Could’st
thou obscure thy beauty, yet the happiness
Of being but his
Daughter, were a dower
Fit for a Prince:
what say ye?
Annophel:
You have deserv’d
As much as I should
grant.
Fernando:
By this fair hand
I take possession.
Annophel:
What in words
I dare not,
Imagine in my
silence.
Fernando:
Thou art all vertue.
[Enter Cassilanes, and Arcanes]
Cassilanes:
I’le tell
thee how: Baldwin the Emperour,
Pretending title,
more through tyranny,
Than right of
conquest, or descent, usurp’d
The stile of Lord
o’re all the Grecian Islands,
And under colour
of an amity
With Creet,
prefer’d the Marquess Mountferato
To be our Governor;
the Cretians vex’d
By the ambitious
Turks, in hope of aid
From the Emperour,
receiv’d for General,
This Mountferato;
he (the wars appeased)
Plots with the
state of Venice and takes money
Of them for Candy:
they paid well, he steals
Away in secret;
since which time, that right
The state of Venice
claims o’re Candy, is
By purchase, not
inheritance or Conquest:
And hence grows
all our quarrel.
Arcanes:
So an Usurer
Or Lumbard-Jew,
might with some bags of trash,
Buy half the Western
world.
Cassilanes:
Mony, Arcanes,
Is now a God on
Earth: it cracks virginities,
And turns a Christian,
Turk;
Bribes justice,
cut-throats honour, does what not?
Arcanes:
Not captives Candy.
Cassilanes:
Nor makes thee
dishonest,
Nor me a Coward—–Now
Sir, here is homely,
But friendly entertainment.
284]
Fernando:
Sir, I find it.
Arcanes:
And like it, do ye not?
Fernando:
My repair speaks for me.
Cassilanes:
Fernando we are speaking off—how this?
[Enter Gonzalo, and Gaspero, with a Casket]
Gonzalo:
Your friend, and servant.
Cassilanes:
Creditors, my
Lord,
Are Masters and
no Servants: as the world goes,
Debters are very
slaves to those to whom
They have been
beholding to; in which respect,
I should fear
you Gonzalo.
Gonzalo:
Me, my Lord?
You owe me nothing.
Cassilanes:
What, nor love, nor mony?
Gonzalo:
Yes, love, I hope, not mony.
Cassilanes:
All this braverie
Will scarcely
make that good.
Gonzalo:
’Tis done
already:
See Sir, your
Mortgage which I only took,
In case you and
your son had in the wars
Miscarried:
I yield it up again: ’tis yours.
Cassilanes:
Are ye so conscionable?
Gonzalo:
’Tis your own.
Cassilanes:
Pish, pish, I’le
not receive what is not mine,
That were a dangerous
business.
Gonzalo:
Sir, I am paid
for’t,
The summes you
borrowed, are return’d; The bonds
Cancel’d,
and your acquittance formerly seal’d:
Look here Sir,
Gaspero is witness to it.
Gaspero:
My honoured Lord, I am.
Gonzalo:
My Lord Fernando, Arcanes and the rest, you all shall testifie, That I acquit Lord Cassilane for ever, Of any debts to me.
Gaspero:
’Tis plain
and ample:
Fortune will once
again smile on us fairly.
Cassilanes:
But hark ye, hark
ye, if you be in earnest,
Whence comes this
bounty? or whose is’t?
Gonzalo:
In short,
285] The great Erota by this Secretary,
Return’d
me my full due.
Cassilanes:
Erota?
why
Should she do
this?
Gonzalo:
You must ask her
the cause,
She knows it best.
Cassilanes:
So ho, Arcanes,
none
But women pity
us? soft-hearted women?
I am become a
brave fellow now, Arcanes,
Am I not?
Arcanes:
Why Sir, if the
gracious Princess
Have took more
special notice of your services,
And means to be
more thankfull than some others,
It were an injury
to gratitude,
To disesteem her
favours.
Annophel:
Sir she ever
For your sake
most respectively lov’d me.
Cassilanes:
The Senate, and
the body of this Kingdom
Are herein (let
me speak it without arrogance)
Beholding to her:
I will thank her for it;
And if she have
reserv’d a means whereby
I may repay this
bounty with some service,
She shall be then
my Patroness: come Sirs,
We’I taste
a cup of wine together now.
Gonzalo:
Fernando, I must speak with you in secret.
Fernando:
You shall—Now Gaspero, all’s well.
Gaspero:
There’s
news
You must be acquainted
with.
Come, there is
no master-piece in Art, like Policie.
[Exeunt.
Scena Prima.
[Enter Fernando, and Michael]
Fernando:
The Senate is inform’d at full.
Michael:
Gonzalo
Dreams not of
my arrival yet.
Fernando:
Nor thinks
’Tis possible
his plots can be discover’d:
He fats himself
with hopes of Crowns, and Kingdoms,
286] And laughs securely, to imagine how
He means to gull
all but himself: when truly,
None is so grosly
gull’d as he.
Michael:
There was never
A more arch villain.
Fernando:
Peace, the Senate comes.
[Enter Porphicio, Pos. Senators, and Gaspero, Attend]
Porphycio:
How closely Treason
cloaks it self in forms
Of Civil honesty!
Possenne:
And yet how palpably
Does heaven reveal
it!
Fernando:
Gracious Lords.
Gaspero:
The Embassadour,
Lord Paulo
Michael, Advocate
To the great Duke
of Venice.
Porphycio:
You are most welcome,
Your Master is
a just and noble Prince.
Michael:
My Lords, he bad
me say, that you may know
How much he scorns,
and (as good Princes ought)
Defies base indirect,
and godless treacheries;
To your more Sacred
wisdomes he refers
The punishment
due to the false Gonzalo,
Or else to send
him home to Venice.
Possenne:
Herein
The Duke is royal:
Gaspero, the Prince
Of Cyprus
answer’d he would come.
Gaspero:
My Lords,
He will not long
be absent.
[Enter Philander, and Melitus]
Porphycio:
You Fernando,
Have made the
State your debter: worthy Prince,
We shall be sutors
to you for your presence,
In hearing, and
determining of matters
Greatly concerning
Candy.
Philander:
Fathers, I am
A stranger.
Possenne:
Why, the cause,
my Lord, concerns
A stranger:
please you seat your self.
287]
Philander:
How e’re
Unfit, since you
will have it so, my Lords,
You shall command
me.
Porphycio:
You my Lord Fernando,
With the Ambassador, withdraw a while.
Fernando:
My Lords, we shall.
[Ex.
Possenne:
Melitus, and the Secretary,
Give notice to Gonzalo, that the Senate
Requires his presence.
[Ex. Gas. and Mel.
[Enter Cassilane, and Arca]
Philander:
What concerns the business?
Porphycio:
Thus noble Prince—
Cassilanes:
Let me alone,
thou troublest me,
I will be heard.
Arcanes:
You know not what you do.
Possenne:
Forbear:
who’s he that is so rude? what’s he that
dares
To interrupt our
counsels?
Cassilanes:
One that has guarded,
Those Purple robes
from Cankers worse than Moths,
One that hath
kept your fleeces on your backs,
That would have
been snatch’d from you: but I see
’Tis better
now to be a Dog, a Spaniel
In times of Peace,
then boast the bruised scars,
Purchas’d
with loss of bloud in noble wars,
My Lords, I speak
to you.
Porphycio:
Lord Cassilane,
We know not what
you mean.
Cassilanes:
Yes, you are set
Upon a bench of
justice; and a day
Will come (hear
this, and quake ye potent great ones)
When you your
selves shall stand before a judge,
Who in a pair
of scales will weigh your actions,
Without abatement
of one grain: as then
You would be found
full weight, I charge ye fathers
Let me have justice
now.
Possenne:
Lord Cassilane,
What strange distemperature
provokes distrust
Of our impartiality?
be sure
We’l flatter
no mans injuries.
288]
Cassilanes:
’Tis well;
You have a Law,
Lords, that without remorse
Dooms such as
are belepred with the curse
Of foul ingratitude
unto death.
Porphycio:
We have.
Cassilanes:
Then do me justice.
[Enter Antinous, Decius, Erota, Hyparcha.]
Decius:
Mad-man, whither run’st thou?
Antinous:
Peace Decius, I am deaf.
Hyparcha:
Will you forget
Your greatness,
and your modesty?
Erota Hyparcha:
leave, I will not hear.
Antinous:
Lady; great, gentle, Lady.
Erota:
Prethee young
man forbear to interrupt me,
Triumph not in
thy fortunes; I will speak.
Possenne:
More uproars yet! who are they that disturb us?
Cassilanes:
The viper’s
come; his fears have drawn him hither,
And now, my Lords,
be Ch[ro]nicled for ever,
And give me justice
against this vile Monster,
This bastard of
my bloud.
Erota:
’Tis justice,
Fathers,
I sue for too:
and though I might command it,
(If you remember
Lords, whose child I was)
Yet I will humbly
beg it; this old wretch
Has forfeited
his life to me.
Cassilanes:
Tricks, tricks;
Complots, devices,
’twixt these pair of young-ones,
To blunt the edge
of your well temper’d Swords,
Wherewith you
strike offenders, Lords, but I
Am not a baby
to be fear’d with bug-bears,
’Tis justice
I require.
Erota:
And I.
Antinous:
You speak too
tenderly; and too much like yourself
To mean a cruelty;
which would make monstrous
Your Sex:
yet for the loves sake, which you once
Pleas’d
to pretend, give my griev’d Father leave
To urge his own
revenge; you have no cause
For yours:
keep peace about ye.
Cassilanes:
Will you hear me?
289]
Philander:
Here’s some strange novelty.
Possenne:
Sure we are mock’d,
Speak one at once:
say wherein hath your Son
Transgress’d
the Law?
Cassilanes:
O the gross mists
of dulness!
Are you this Kingdomes
Oracles, yet can be
So ignorant? first
hear, and then consider.
That I begot him,
gave him birth and life,
And education,
were, I must confess,
Philander:
Can this be so Antinous?
Antinous:
’Tis all
true,
Nor hath my much
wrong’d father limn’d my faults
In colours half
so black, as in themselves,
My guilt hath
dy’d them: were there mercy left,
Yet mine own shame
would be my Executioner:
Lords, I am guilty.
Erota:
Thou beliest,
Antinous,
Thine innocence:
alas, my Lords, he’s desperate,
And talks he knows
not what: you must not credit
290] His lunacy; I can my self disprove
This accusation:
Cassilane, be yet
More mercifull;
I beg it.
Cassilanes:
Time, not fate,
The world, or
what is in it, shall not alter
My resolution:
he shall dye.
Erota:
The Senats
Prayers, or weeping
Lovers, shall not alter
My resolution:
thou shalt dye.
Antinous:
Why Madam,
Are ye all Marble?
Possenne:
Leave your shifts
Antinous,
What plead you
to your Fathers accusation?
Antinous:
Most fully guilty.
Possenne:
You have doom’d
your self,
We cannot quit
you now.
Cassilanes:
A burthen’d
conscience
Will never need
a hang-man: hadst thou dar’d
To have deni’d
it, then this Sword of mine
Should on thy
head have prov’d thy tongue a lyar.
Erota:
Thy sword? wretched
old man, thou hast liv’d too long
To carry peace
or comfort to thy grave;
Thou art a man
condemn’d: my Lords, this tyrant
Had perish’d
but for me, I still suppli’d
His miserable
wants; I sent his Daughter
Cassilanes:
All this is but
deceit, meer trifles forg’d
By combination
to defeat the process
Of Justice, I
will have Antinous life.
Arcanes:
Sir, what do ye mean?
Erota:
I will have Cassilane’s.
Antinous:
Cunning and cruel
Lady, runs the stream
Of your affections
this way? have you not
Conquest enough
by treading on my grave?
Unless you send
me thither in a shrowd
Steept in my fathers
bloud? as you are woman,
As the protests
of love you vow’d were honest;
Be gentler to
my Father.
Erota:
Cassilane,
Thou hast a heart
of flint: let my intreaties,
My tears, the
Sacrifice of griefs unfeigned,
Melt it:
yet be a Father to thy son,
Unmask thy long
besotted judgement, see
A low obedience
kneeling at the feet
Of nature, I beseech
you.
Cassilanes:
Pish, you cozen
Your hopes:
your plots are idle: I am resolute.
Erota:
Antinous, urge no further.
Antinous:
Hence thou Sorcery
Of a beguiling
softness, I will stand,
Like the earths
center, unmov’d; Lords your breath
Must finish these
divisions: I confess
Civility doth
teach I should not speak
Against a Lady
of her birth, so high
As great Erota,
but her injuries
And thankless
wrongs to me, urge me to cry
Aloud for justice,
Fathers.
Decius:
Whither run you?
Antinous:
For (honoured
fathers) that you all may know
That I alone am
not unmatchable
In crimes of this
condition, lest perhaps
You might conceive,
as yet the case appears,
That this foul
stain, and guilt runs in a bloud;
Before this presence,
I accuse this Lady
Of as much vile
ingratitude to me.
292]
Cassilanes:
Impudent Traitor!
Philander:
Her? O spare
Antinous;
The world reputes
thee valiant, do not soyle
All thy past nobleness
with such a cowardize.
As murthering
innocent Ladies will stamp on thee.
Antinous:
Brave Prince,
with what unwillingness I force
Her follies, and
in those her sin, be witness,
All these about
me: she is bloudy minded,
And turns the
justice of the Law to rigor:
It is her cruelites,
not I accuse her:
Shall I have Audience?
Erota:
Let him speak my Lords.
Decius:
Your memory will rot.
Antinous:
Cast all your
eyes
On this, what
shall I call her? truthless woman,
When often in
my discontents, the sway
Of her unruly
bloud, her untam’d passion,
(Or name it as
you list) had hour by hour
Solicited my love,
she vow’d at last
She could not,
would not live unless I granted
What she long
sued for: I in tender pity,
To save a Lady
of her birth from ruine,
Gave her her life,
and promis’d to be hers:
Nor urg’d
I ought from her, but secresie,
And then enjoyn’d
her to supply such wants
As I perceiv’d
my Fathers late engagements
Had made him subject
to; what shall I heap up
Long repetitions?
she to quit my pity,
Not only hath
discover’d to my Father
What she had promis’d
to conceal, but also
Hath drawn my
life into this fatal forfeit;
For which since
I must dye, I crave a like
Equality of justice
against her;
Not that I covet
bloud, but that she may not
Practise this
art of falsehood on some other,
Perhaps more worthy
of her love hereafter.
Porphycio:
If this be true—
Erota:
My Lords, be as
the Law is,
Indifferent, upright,
I do plead guilty:
Now Sir, what
glory have you got by this?
293] ’Las man, I meant not to outlive thy doom,
Shall we be friends
in death?
Cassilanes:
Hear me, the villain
Scandals her,
honour’d Lords.
Erota:
Leave off to doat,
And dye a wise
man.
Antinous:
I am over-reach’d,
And master’d
in my own resolution.
Philander:
Will ye be wilfull
Madam? here’s the curse
Of loves disdain.
Cassilanes:
Why sit you like
dumb Statues?
Demur no longer.
Possenne:
Cassilane,
Erota,
Antinous,
death ye ask; and ’tis your dooms,
You in your follies
liv’d, dye in your follies.
Cassilanes:
I am reveng’d, and thank you for it.
Erota:
Yes, and I: Antlnous hath been gracious.
Antinous:
Sir, may I presume
to crave a blessing from you
Before we part?
Cassilanes:
Yes, such a one
as Parents
Bestow on cursed
sons, now now, I laugh
To see how those
poor younglings are both cheated
Of life and comfort:
look ye, look ye, Lords,
I go but some
ten minutes (more or less)
Before my time,
but they have finely cozen’d
Themselves of
many, many hopefull years
Amidst their prime
of youth and glory; now
[Enter Annophel]
My vengeance is
made full. Welcom my joy,
Thou com’st
to take a seasonable blessing
From thy half
buried Fathers hand; I am dead
Already girle,
and so is she and he,
We all are worms-meat
now.
Annophel:
I have heard all;
Nor shall you
dye alone: Lords on my knees
I beg for justice
too.
Porphycio:
’Gainst whom, for what?
Annophel:
First let me be
resolv’d; does the Law favour
None, be they
ne’re so mighty?
294]
Porphycio:
Not the greatest.
Annophel:
Then justly I
accuse of foul ingratitude
My Lords, you
of the Senate all, not one
Excepted.
Possenne Porphycio:
Us?
Philander:
Annophel—
Annophel:
You are the Authors
Of this unthrifty
bloud-shed; when your enemies
Came marching
to your gates, your children suck’d not
Safe at their
Mothers breasts, your very Cloysters
Were not secure,
your starting-holes of refuge
Not free from
danger, nor your lives your own:
In this most desperate
Ecstasie, my Father,
This aged man,
not only undertook
To guard your
lives, but did so; and beat off
The daring foe;
for you he pawn’d his lands,
To pay your Souldiers,
who without their pay
Refus’d
to strike a blow: but, Lords, when peace
Was purchas’d
for you, and victorie brought home,
Where was your
gratitude, who in your Coffers
Hoarded the rustic
treasure which was due
To my unminded
Father? he was glad
To live retir’d
in want, in penurie,
Whilst you made
feasts of surfeit, and forgot
Your debts to
him: The sum of all is this,
You have been
unthankfull to him; and I crave
The rigor of the
Law against you all.
Cassilanes:
My Royal spirited daughter!
Erota:
Annophel
Thou art a worthy
wench; let me embrace thee.
Annophel:
Lords, why do
ye keep your seats? they are no places
For such as are
offenders.
Possenne:
Though our ignorance
Of Cassilanes
engagements might asswage
Severity of justice,
yet to shew
How no excuse
should smooth a breach of Law,
I yield me to
the trial of it.
Porphycio:
So must I:
Great Prince of
Cyprus, you are left
The only Moderator
in this difference;
295] And as you are a Prince be a Protector
To wofull Candy.
Philander:
What a Scene of
miserie
Hath thine obdurate
frowardness (old man)
Drawn on thy Countries
bosom? and for that
Thy proud ambition
could not mount so high
As to be stil’d
thy Countries only Patron,
Thy malice hath
descended to the depth
Of Hell, to be
renowned in the Title
Of the destroyer?
dost thou yet perceive
What curses all
posterity will brand
Thy grave with?
that at once hast rob’d this Kingdom
Of honour and
of safety.
Erota:
Children yet unborn
Will stop their
ears when thou art nam’d.
Arcanes:
The world will
be too little to contain
The memorie of
this detested deed;
The Furies will
abhorr it.
Decius:
What the sword
Could not enforce,
your peevish thirst of honour
(A brave, cold,
weak, imaginarie fame)
Hath brought on
Candy: Candy groans, not these
That are to die.
Philander:
’Tis happiness
enough
For them, that
they shall not survive to see
The wounds wherewith
thou stab’st the land that gave
Thee life and
name.
Decius:
’Tis Candy’s wrack shall feel—
Cassilanes:
The mischief of your folly.
Porphycio Possenne:
Annophel—
Annophel:
I will not be entreated.
Cassilanes:
Prethee Annophel.
Annophel:
Why would ye urge
me to a mercy which
You in your self
allow not?
Cassilanes:
’Tis the
Law,
That if the party
who complains, remit
The offender,
he is freed: is’t not so Lords?
Porphycio Possenne:
’Tis so.
Cassilanes:
Antinous,
By my shame observe
What a close witch-craft
popular applause is:
296] I am awak’d, and with clear eyes behold
The Lethargie
wherein my reason long
Hath been be-charm’d:
live, live, my matchless son,
Blest in thy Fathers
blessing; much more blest
In thine own vertues:
let me dew thy cheeks
With my unmanly
tears: Rise, I forgive thee:
And good Antinous,
if I shall be thy Father
Forgive me:
I can speak no more.
Antinous:
Dear Sir,
You new beget
me now—Madam your pardon,
I heartily remit
you.
Erota:
I as freely
Discharge thee
Cassilane.
Annophel:
My gracious Lords,
Repute me not
a blemish to my Sex,
In that I strove
to cure a desperate evil
With a more violent
remedy: your lives,
Your honours are
your own.
Philander:
Then with consent
Be reconcil’d
on all sides: Please you Fathers
To take your places.
Possenne:
Let us again ascend,
With joy and thankfulness
to Heaven: and now
To other business
Lords.
[Enter Gaspero, and Melitus, with Gonzalo]
Melitus:
Two hours and
more Sir,
The Senate hath
been set.
Gonzalo:
And I not know
it?
Who sits with
them?
Melitus:
My Lord, the Prince of Cyprus.
Gonzalo:
Gaspero,
Why how comes
that to pass?
Gaspero:
Some weighty cause
I warrant you.
Gonzalo:
Now Lords the
business? ha?
Who’s here,
Erota?
Porphycio:
Secretarie do
your charge
Upon that Traitor.
Gonzalo:
Traitor?
297]
Gaspero:
Yes, Gonzalo,
Traitor,
Of treason to
the peace and state of Candy,
I do arrest thee.
Gonzalo:
Me? thou Dog?
[Enter Fernando, and Michael]
Michael:
With Licence
From this grave
Senate, I arrest thee likewise
Of treason to
the State of Venice.
Gonzalo:
Ha?
Is Michael
here? nay then I see
I am undone.
Erota:
I shall not be
your Queen,
Your Dutchess,
or your Empress.
Gonzalo:
Dull, dull brain.
O I am fool’d!
Gaspero:
Look Sir, do you know this hand?
Michael:
Do you know this
Seal? First, Lords, he writes to Venice,
To make a perfect
league, during which time
He would in private
keep some Troops in pay,
Bribe all the
Centinels throughout this Kingdom,
Corrupt the Captains;
at a Banquet poyson
The Prince, and
greatest Peers, and in conclusion
Yield Candy
slave to Venice.
Gaspero:
Next, he contracted
With the Illustrious
Princess, the Lady Erota,
In hope of marriage
with her, to deliver
All the Venetian
gallantry, and strength,
Upon their first
arrival, to the mercy
Of her and Candy.
Erota:
This is true, Gonzalo.
Gonzalo:
Let it be true: what then?
Possenne:
My Lord Ambassadour,
What’s your
demand?
Michael:
As likes the State
of Candy,
Either to sentence
him as he deserves
Here, or to send
him like a slave to Venice.
Porphycio:
We shall advise upon it.
Gonzalo:
O the Devils,
That had not thrust
this trick into my pate—
298] A Politician fool? destruction plague
Candy and
Venice both.
Possenne Porphycio:
Away with him.
Melitus:
Come Sir, I’le see you safe.
[Exeunt Gonz. Mel.
Erota:
Lords, e’re you part Be witness to another change of wonder; Antinous, now be bold, before this presence, Freely to speak, whether or no I us’d The humblest means affection could contrive, To gain thy love.
Antinous:
Madam, I must
confess it,
And ever am your
servant.
Erota:
Yes Antinous,
My servant, for
my Lord thou shalt be never:
I here disclaim
the interest thou hadst once
In my too passionate
thoughts. Most noble Prince,
If yet a relique
of thy wonted flames
Live warm within
thy bosom, then I blush not
To offer up the
assurance of my faith,
To thee that hast
deserv’d it best.
Philander:
O Madam,
You play with
my calamity.
Erota:
Let heaven
Record my truth
for ever.
Philander:
With more joy
Than I have words
to utter, I accept it.
I also pawn you
mine.
Erota:
The man that in
requital
Of noble and un-sought
affection
Grows cruel, never
lov’d, nor did Antinous.
Yet herein (Prince)
ye are beholding to him;
For his neglect
of me humbled a pride,
Which to a vertuous
wife had been a Monster.
Philander:
For which I’le rank him my deserving friend.
Antinous:
Much comfort dwell
with you, as I could wish
To him I honour
most.
Cassilanes:
O my Antinous,
My own, my own
good son.
Fernando:
One suit I have to make.
Philander:
To whom Fernando?
299]
Fernando:
Lord Cassilane to you.
Cassilanes:
To me?
Fernando:
This Lady
Hath promised
to be mine.
Annophel:
Your blessing
Sir;
Brother your love.
Antinous:
You cannot Sir
bestow her
On a more noble
Gentleman.
Cassilanes:
Saist thou so?
Antinous
I confirm it. Here Fernando,
Live both as one;
she is thine.
Antinous:
And herein Sister,
I honour you for
your wise setled love.
This is a day
of Triumph, all Contentions
Are happily accorded:
Candy’s peace
Secur’d,
and Venice vow’d a worthy friend.
[Exeunt.
460] APPENDIX
The following variations are those of the 1st folio unless otherwise stated
p. 236
ll.
2—43. Not in 1st folio. [e-Text
transcriber’s note: This is the
whole
of the front matter, including cast and actor lists,
with the
exception
of the title]
p. 237
l.
9. insolencie.
l.
19. these many plagues.
p. 238
l.
15. 2nd folio] pretty.
l.
16. But this.
l.
21. are these.
p. 241
l.
40. 2nd folio misprints] aud.
p. 242
l.
12. and had.
p. 243
l.
31. you sit? [omits Sir].
p. 245
l.
7. And as if.
l.
18. fuerie, then warrant,
p. 247
l.
32. 2nd folio] tell.
p. 248
l.
11. Lord.
l.
13. Cassilanes.
461]
p. 249
l.
9. add debters.
p. 251
l.
31. so manded.
p. 252
l.
11. so bold.
p. 253
l.
8. teaching there.
p. 254
l.
34. by Iolus.
l.
38. 2nd folio misprints] bravel.
p. 255
l. 3. I am borne.
l. 22. 2nd folio misprints] your.
p. 257
ll. 33 and 34.
—with your
blessings,
Then growne.
l. 37. even unto.
p. 259
l. 33. Omits If.
p. 260
l. 32. percusseere the.
p. 262
l.
20. 2nd folio] loss.
l.
25. 2nd folio] Erot.
p. 266
l.
16. 2nd folio] Casp.
p. 267
l.
16. This tempest-wearied.
l.
30. Pray.
p. 269
l.
4. Please.
l.
13. Your much.
p. 270
l.
30. please.
p. 271
l.
21. thou didst.
l.
22. lose by it.
p. 272
ll.
13 and 17. Adds stage directions] Musick.
Musick againe.
l.
22. Omits stage direction] Musick.
p. 273
l.
4. for it.
l.
18. griefes.
l.
24. A missing bracket has been added at the end
of the line.
p. 274
l.
38. wake.
p. 275
l.
1. pray.
l.
23. thy owne.
p. 277
l.
7. is it.
l.
27. do arive.
l.
31. crueller.
p. 279
l.
3. please ye.
l.
9. would you.
l.
30. ’has more ’gag’d.
p. 280
l.
31. spake.
p. 281
l.
10. do ye.
l.
40. Ye are.
p. 282
l.
20. He? feare.
l.
28. 2nd folio misprints] aod.
p. 283
l.
29. So a.
p. 286
l.
7. Porphino.
l.
18. 2nd folio misprints] Mie.
p. 288
l.
18. 2nd folio misprints] Chornicled.
l.
25. ’Has.
p. 291
l.
15. intreates.
p. 299
l.
16. Adds Finis.