Act 5 — [Scene III.][1086]

Bu. Sit up to-night, and watch; I’ll speak with none But the old Friar, who bring to me. Pa. We will, sir. Exeunt. Bu. What violent heat is this? Methinks the fire Of twenty lives doth on a sudden flash Through all my faculties; the air goes high5 In this close chamber, and the frighted earth Thunder. Trembles, and shrinks beneath me; the whole house Nods with his shaken burthen. Enter Umbra Friar. Bless me, heaven! Um. Note what I want, dear son, and be forewarn’d; O there are bloody deeds past and to come.10 I cannot stay; a fate doth ravish me; I’ll meet thee in the chamber of thy love. Exit. Bu. What dismal change is here; the good old Friar Is murder’d; being made known to serve my love;14 And now his restless spirit would forewarn me Of some plot dangerous and imminent. Note what he wants? He wants his upper weed, He wants his life and body; which of these Should be the want he means, and may supply me19 With any fit forewarning? This strange vision (Together with the dark prediction Us’d by the Prince of Darkness that was rais’d By this embodied shadow) stir my thoughts With reminiscion[1087] of the spirit’s promise, Who told me that by any invocation25 I should have power to raise him, though it wanted The powerful words and decent rights of art. Never had my set brain such need of spirit T’ instruct and cheer it; now, then, I will claim Performance of his free and gentle vow30 T’ appear in greater light, and make more plain His rugged oracle. I long to know How my dear mistress fares, and be inform’d What hand she now holds on the troubled blood Of her incensed lord. Methought the spirit35 (When he had utter’d his perplext presage) Threw his chang’d countenance headlong into clouds, His forehead bent, as it would hide his face, He knockt his chin against his dark’ned breast, And struck a churlish silence through his powers.40 Terror of darkness! O, thou king of flames! That with thy music-footed horse dost strike The clear light out of crystal on dark earth, And hurl’st instructive fire about the world,44 Wake, wake the drowsy and enchanted night, That sleeps with dead eyes in this heavy riddle! Or thou great prince of shades, where never sun Sticks his far-darted beams, whose eyes are made To shine in darkness, and see ever best Where men are blindest, open now the heart50 Of thy abashed oracle, that, for fear Of some ill it includes, would fain lie hid, And rise thou with it in thy greater light. Thunders. Surgit Spiritus cum suis. Beh. Thus to observe my vow of apparition In greater light, and explicate thy fate,55 I come; and tell thee that if thou obey The summons that thy mistress next will send thee, Her hand shall be thy death. Bu. When will she send? Beh. Soon as I set again, where late I rose.59 Bu. Is the old Friar slain? Beh. No, and yet lives not. Bu. Died he a natural death? Beh. He did. Bu. Who then Will my dear mistress send? Beh. I must not tell thee. Bu. Who lets[1088] thee? Beh. Fate. Bu. Who are fate’s ministers? Beh. The Guise and Monsieur. Bu. A fit pair of shears To cut the threads of kings and kingly spirits, And consorts fit to sound forth harmony,65 Set to the falls of kingdoms: shall the hand Of my kind mistress kill me? Beh. If thou yield To her next summons, y’are fair-warn’d: farewell! Thunders. Exit. Bu. I must fare well, however, though I die, My death consenting[1089] with his augury.71 Should not my powers obey when she commands, My motion must be rebel to my will, My will to life: if, when I have obey’d, Her hand should so reward me, they must arm it,75 Bind me or force it: or, I lay my life, She rather would convert it many times On her own bosom, even to many deaths; But were there danger of such violence, I know ’tis far from her intent to send;80 And who she should send is as far from thought, Since he is dead, whose only mean she us’d. Knocks. Who’s there! Look to the door, and let him in, Though politic Monsieur or the violent Guise.

Mont. Hail to my worthy son. Bu. Oh, lying spirit![1090] To say the Friar was dead; I’ll now believe86 Nothing of all his forg’d predictions. My kind and honour’d father, well reviv’d, I have been frighted with your death and mine, And told my mistress’ hand should be my death If I obey’d this summons. Mont. I believ’d91 Your love had been much clearer than to give Any such doubt a thought, for she is clear, And having freed her husband’s jealousy (Of which her much abus’d hand here is witness) She prays, for urgent cause, your instant presence.96 Bu. Why, then your prince of spirits may be call’d The prince of liars. Mont. Holy Writ so calls him. Bu. What, writ in blood? Mont. Ay, ’tis the ink of lovers. Bu. O, ’tis a sacred witness of her love.100 So much elixir of her blood as this Dropt in the lightest dame, would make her firm As heat to fire; and, like to all the signs,[1091] Commands the life confin’d in all my veins. O, how it multiplies my blood with spirit,105 And makes me apt t’ encounter death and hell. But come, kind father, you fetch me to heaven, And to that end your holy weed was given. Exeunt.