Part 2 / Act 3 — ACT III. SCENE I.

A Field.

Enter Captain Ager and two Friends.

Cap. Ager. Well, your wills now?

First Fr. of Cap. Our wills? our loves, our duties

To honour’d fortitude: what wills have we

But our desires to nobleness and merit,

Valour’s advancement, and the sacred rectitude

Due to a valorous cause?

Cap. Ager. O that’s not mine!

487Sec. Fr. of Cap. War has his court of justice, that’s the field,

Where all cases of manhood are determin’d,

And your case is no mean one.

Cap. Ager. True; then 'twere virtuous;

But mine is in extremes, foul and unjust.

Well, now you’ve got me hither, you’re as far

To seek in your desire as at first minute;

For by the strength and honour of a vow,

I will not lift a finger in this quarrel.

First Fr. of Cap. How? not in this? be not so rash a sinner:

Why, sir, do you ever hope to fight again then?

Take heed on’t; you must never look for that:

Why, th’ universal stock of the world’s injury

Will be too poor to find a quarrel for you.

Give up your right and title to desert, sir:

If you fail virtue here, she needs you not

All your time after; let her take this wrong,

And never presume then to serve her more:

Bid farewell to th’ integrity of arms,

And let that honourable name of soldier

Fall from you like a shiver’d wreath of laurel

By thunder struck from a desertless forehead,

That wears another’s right by usurpation.

Good captain, do not wilfully cast away

At one hour all the fame your life has won:

This is your native seat; here you should seek

Most to preserve it; or if you will dote

So much on life,—poor life, which in respect

Of life in honour is but death and darkness,—

That you will prove neglectful of yourself,

Which is to me too fearful to imagine,

Yet for that virtuous lady’s cause, your mother,

Her reputation, dear to nobleness

As grace to penitence, whose fair memory

488E'en crowns fame in your issue, for that blessedness

Give not this ill place, but in spite of hell,

And all her base fears, be exactly valiant.

Cap. Ager. O, O!

Sec. Fr. of Cap. Why, well said, there’s fair hope in that;

Another such a one!

Cap. Ager. Came they in thousands,

’Tis all against you.

First Fr. of Cap. Then, poor friendless merit,

Heaven be good to thee! thy professor leaves thee.

Enter Colonel and two Friends.

He’s come;^[753] do but you draw, we’ll fight it for you.

Cap. Ager. I know too much to grant that.

First Fr. of Cap. O dead manhood!

Had ever such a cause so faint a servant?

Shame brand me, if I do not suffer for him!

Col. I’ve heard, sir, you’ve been guilty of much boasting

For your brave earliness at such a meeting:

You’ve lost the glory of that way this morning;

I was the first to-day.

Cap. Ager. So were you ever

In my respect, sir.

First Fr. of Cap. O most base præludium!

Cap. Ager. I never thought on Victory, our mistress,

With greater reverence than I have your worth,

Nor ever lov’d her better.

First Fr. of Cap. ’Slight, I could knock

His brains 'bout his heels, methinks!

Sec. Fr. of Cap. Peace, prithee, peace.

489Cap. Ager. Success in you has been my absolute joy;

And when I’ve wish’d content, I’ve wish’d your friendship.

First Fr. of Cap. Stay, let me but run him through the tongue a little;

There’s lawyer’s blood in’t, you shall see foul gear straight.

Sec. Fr. of Cap. Come, you’re as mad now as he’s cowardous.

Col. I came not hither, sir, for an encomium.

First Fr. of Cap. No, the more coxcomb he that claws the head

Of your vain-glory with’t! [Aside.

Col. I came provided

For storms and tempests, and the foulest season

That ever rage let forth, or blew in wildness

From the incensed prison of man’s blood.

Cap. Ager. ’Tis otherwise with me; I come with mildness,

Peace, constant amity, and calm forgiveness,

The weather of a Christian and a friend.

First Fr. of Cap. Give me a valiant Turk, though not worth tenpence,^[754] rather.

Cap. Ager. Yet, sir, the world will judge the injury mine,

Insufferably^[755] mine, mine beyond injury:

Thousands have made a less wrong reach to hell,

Ay, and rejoic’d in his most endless vengeance,

A miserable triumph, though a just one!

But when I call to memory our long friendship,

490Methinks it cannot be too great a wrong

That then I should not pardon. Why should man,

For a poor hasty syllable or two,

And vented only in forgetful fury,

Chain all the hopes and riches of his soul

To the revenge of that, die lost for ever?

For he that makes his last peace with his Maker

In anger, anger is his peace eternally:

He must expect the same return again

Whose venture is deceitful; must he not, sir?

Col. I see what I must do, fairly put up again;

For here’ll be nothing done, I perceive that.

Cap. Ager. What shall be done in such a worthless business

But to be sorry, and to be forgiven;

You, sir, to bring repentance, and I pardon?

Col. I bring repentance, sir?

Cap. Ager. If’t be too much

To say repentance, call it what you please, sir;

Choose your own word: I know you’re sorry for’t,

And that’s as good.

Col. I sorry? by fame’s honour, I am wrong’d!

Do you seek for peace, and draw the quarrel larger?

Cap. Ager. Then ’tis I am sorry that I thought you so.

First Fr. of Cap. A captain! I could gnaw his title off.

Cap. Ager. Nor is it any misbecoming virtue, sir,

In the best manliness to repent a wrong,

Which made me bold with you.

First Fr. of Cap. I could cuff his head off.

Sec. Fr. of Cap. Nay, pish!

First Fr. of Cap. Pox on him, I could eat his buttock bak’d, methinks!

Col. So, once again take thou thy peaceful rest, then;

[Sheathing his sword.

491But as I put thee up, I must proclaim

This captain here, both to his friends and mine,

That only came to see fair valour righted,

A base submissive coward; so I leave him.

[Offers to go away.

Cap. Ager. O, heaven has pitied my excessive patience,

And sent me a cause! now I have a cause;

A coward I was never.—Come you back, sir!

Col. How?

Cap. Ager. You left a coward here.

Col. Yes, sir, with you.

Cap. Ager. ’Tis such base metal, sir, 'twill not be taken;

It must home again with you.

Sec. Fr. of Cap. Should this be true now!

First Fr. of Cap. Impossible! coward do more than bastard?

Col. I prithee, mock me not, take heed you do not;

For if I draw once more, I shall grow terrible,

And rage will force me do what will grieve honour.

Cap. Ager. Ha, ha, ha!

Col. He smiles; dare it be he?—What think you, gentlemen?

Your judgments, shall I not be cozen’d in him?

This cannot be the man: why, he was bookish,

Made an invective lately against fighting,

A thing, in troth, that mov’d a little with me,

Put up a fouler contumely far

Than thousand cowards came to, and grew thankful.

Cap. Ager. Blessed remembrance^[756] in time of need!

I’d lost my honour else.

492Sec. Fr. of Cap. Do you note his joy?

Cap. Ager. I never felt a more severe necessity;

Then came thy excellent pity. Not yet ready?

Have you such confidence in my just manhood,

That you dare so long trust me, and yet tempt me

Beyond the toleration of man’s virtue?

Why, would you be more cruel than your injury?

Do you first take pride to wrong me, and then think me

Not worth your fury? do not use me so;

I shall deceive you then. Sir, either draw,

And that not slightingly, but with the care

Of your best preservation, with that watchfulness

As you’d defend yourself from circular fire,

Your sin’s rage, or her lord—this will require it—

Or you’ll be too soon lost, for I’ve an anger

Has gather’d mighty strength against you, mighty:

Yet you shall find it honest to the last,

Noble and fair.

Col. I’ll venture’t once again;

And if’t be but as true as it is wondrous,

I shall have that I come for: your leave, gentlemen.

First Fr. of Cap. If he should do’t indeed, and deceive’s all now!

Stay, by this hand he offers—fights, i’faith!

[Colonel and Captain Ager fight.

Fights, by this light he fights, sir!

Sec. Fr. of Cap. So methinks, sir.

First Fr. of Cap. An absolute punto, hey?

Sec. Fr. of Cap. 'Twas a passado, sir.

First Fr. of Cap. Why, let it pass, and^[757] ’twas; I’m sure ’twas somewhat.

What’s that now?

Sec. Fr. of Cap. That’s a punto.

493First Fr. of Cap. O, go to, then;

I knew ’twas not far off. What a world’s this!

Is coward a more stirring meat than bastard, my masters?

Put in more eggs, for shame, when you get children,

And make it true court-custard.—Ho, I honour thee!

’Tis right and fair; and he that breathes against it,

He breathes against the justice of a man,

And man to cut him off ’tis no injustice.

[The Colonel falls.

Thanks, thanks for this most unexpected nobleness!

Cap. Ager. Truth never fails her servant, sir, nor leaves him

With the day’s shame upon him.

First Fr. of Cap. Thou’st redeem’d

Thy worth to the same height ’twas first esteem’d.^[758]

[Exit Captain Ager with his Friends.

494First Fr. of Col. Alas, how is it, sir? give us some hope

Of your stay with us: let your spirit be seen

Above your fortune; the best fortitude

Has been of fate ill-friended: now force your empire,

And reign above your blood, spite of dejection;

Reduce^[759] the monarchy of your abler mind,

Let not flesh straiten it.

Col. O, just heaven has found me,

And turn’d the stings^[760] of my too hasty injuries

Into my own blood! I pursu’d my ruin,

And urg’d him past the patience of an angel:

Could man’s revenge extend beyond man’s life,

This would ha’ wak’d it. If this flame will light me

But till I see my sister, ’tis a kind one;

More I expect not from’t. Noble deserver!

Farewell, most valiant and most wrong’d of men;

Do but forgive me, and I’m victor then.

[Exit, led off by his Friends.

495