Act 5 — ACT V. SCENE I.

A great hall in the Duke’s Palace.

Enter Guardiano and the Ward.

Guar. Speak, hast thou any sense of thy abuse?

Dost thou know what wrong’s done thee?

Ward. I were an ass else;

I cannot wash my face but I am feeling on’t.

Guar. Here, take this caltrop^[1110] then [giving caltrop], convey it secretly

Into the place I shew’d you: look you, sir,

This is the trap-door to’t.

Ward. I know’t of old, uncle, since the last triumph;^[1111] here rose up a devil with one eye, I remember, with a company of fireworks at’s tail.

Guar. Prithee, leave squibbing now: mark me, and fail not;

But when thou hear’st me give a stamp, down with’t,

The villain’s caught then.

Ward. If I miss you, hang me: I love to catch a villain, and your stamp^[1112] shall go current, I warrant you. But how shall I rise up and let him down too all at one hole? that will be a horrible puzzle. You know I have a part in’t, I play Slander.

Guar. True, but never make you ready for’t.

Ward. No? my clothes are bought and all, and a foul fiend’s head, with a long, contumelious tongue 624i' the chaps on’t, a very fit shape for Slander i' th' out-parishes.

Guar. It shall not come so far; thou understand’st it not.

Ward. O, O!

Guar. He shall lie deep enough ere that time,

And stick first upon those.

Ward. Now I conceive you, guardianer.

Guar. Away!

List to the privy stamp, that’s all thy part.

Ward. Stamp my horns in a mortar, if I miss you, and give the powder in white wine to sick cuckolds, a very present remedy for the headach. [Exit.

Guar. If this should any way miscarry now—

As, if the fool be nimble enough, ’tis certain—

The pages, that present the swift-wing’d Cupids,

Are taught to hit him with their shafts of love,

Fitting his part, which I have cunningly poison’d:

He cannot ’scape my fury; and those ills

Will be laid all on fortune, not our wills;

That’s all the sport on’t: for who will imagine

That, at the celebration of this night,

Any mischance that haps can flow from spite? [Exit.

Flourish. Enter above^[1113] Duke, Bianca, Lord Cardinal, Fabricio, other Cardinals, and Lords and Ladies in state.

Duke. Now, our fair duchess, your delight shall witness

How you’re belov’d and honour’d; all the glories

Bestow’d upon the gladness of this night

Are done for your bright sake.

Bian. I am the more

In debt, my lord, to loves and courtesies

625That offer up themselves so bounteously

To do me honour’d grace, without my merit.

Duke. A goodness set in greatness; how it sparkles

Afar off, like pure diamonds set in gold!

How perfect my desires were, might I witness

But a fair noble peace ’twixt your two spirits!

The reconcilement would be more sweet to me

Than longer life to him that fears to die.—

Good sir—

Car. I profess peace, and am content.

Duke. I'll see the seal upon’t, and then ’tis firm.

Car. You shall have all you wish. [Kisses Bianca.

Duke. I've all indeed now.

Bian. But I've made surer work; this shall not blind me;

He that begins so early to reprove,

Quickly rid him, or look for little love:

Beware a brother’s envy; he’s next heir too.

Cardinal, you die this night; the plot’s laid surely;

In time of sports death may steal in securely,

Then ’tis least thought on;

For he that’s most religious, holy friend,

Does not at all hours think upon his end;

He has his times of frailty, and his thoughts

Their transportations too through flesh and blood,

For all his zeal, his learning, and his light,

As well as we, poor soul, that sin by night. [Aside.

Duke [looking at a paper]. What’s this, Fabricio?

Fab. Marry, my lord, the model

Of what’s presented.

Duke. O, we thank their loves.—

Sweet duchess, take your seat; list to the argument.

[Reads.

There is a Nymph, that haunts the woods and springs,

In love with two at once, and they with her;

626Equal it runs; but, to decide these things,

The cause to mighty Juno they refer,

She being the marriage-goddess: the two lovers

They offer sighs, the Nymph a sacrifice,

All to please Juno, who by signs discovers

How the event shall be; so that strife dies:

Then springs a second; for the man refus’d

Grows discontent, and, out of love abus’d,

He raises Slander up, like a black fiend,

To disgrace th' other, which pays him i' th' end.

Bian. In troth, my lord, a pretty, pleasing argument,

And fits th' occasion well: envy and slander

Are things soon rais’d against two faithful lovers;

But comfort is, they’re not long unrewarded. [Music.

Duke. This music shews they’re upon entrance now.

Bian. Then enter all my wishes. [Aside.

Enter Hymen in a yellow robe, Ganymede in a blue robe powdered with stars, and Hebe in a white robe with golden stars, each bearing a covered cup: they dance a short dance, and then make obeisance to the Duke, &c.

Hym. To thee, fair bride, Hymen offers up

Of nuptial joys this the celestial cup;

Taste it, and thou shalt ever find

Love in thy bed, peace in thy mind.

Bian. We’ll taste you, sure; ’twere pity to disgrace

So pretty a beginning.

[Takes cup from Hymen, and drinks.

Duke. ’Twas spoke nobly.

Gan. Two cups of nectar have we begg’d from Jove;

Hebe, give that to innocence, I this to love:

627Take heed of stumbling more, look to your way;

Remember still the Via Lactea.

[Ganymede and Hebe respectively offer their cups to the Duke and Cardinal, who drink.

Hebe. Well, Ganymede, you’ve more faults, though not so known;

I spill’d one cup, but you’ve filch’d many a one.

Hym. No more; forbear for Hymen’s sake:

In love we met, and so let’s part.^[1114]

[Exeunt. Hymen, Ganymede, and Hebe.

Duke. But, soft; here’s no such persons in the argument

As these three, Hymen, Hebe, Ganymede;

The actors that this model here discovers

Are only four,—Juno, a Nymph, two lovers.

Bian. This is some antimasque^[1115] belike, my lord,

To entertain time.—Now my peace is perfect,

Let sports come on apace. [Aside.]—Now is their time, my lord: [Music.

Hark you! you hear from ’em.

Duke. The Nymph indeed!

Enter two Nymphs, bearing tapers lighted; then Isabella as a Nymph, dressed with flowers and garlands, carrying a censer with fire in it: they set the censer and tapers on Juno’s altar with much reverence, singing this ditty in parts:

Juno, nuptial goddess,

Thou that rul’st o’er coupled bodies,

Tiest man to woman, never to forsake her,

Thou only powerful marriage-maker,

628 Pity this amaz’d affection!

I love both, and both love me;

Nor know I where to give rejection,

My heart likes so equally,

Till thou sett’st right my peace of life,

And with thy power conclude this strife.

Isa. Now, with my thanks, depart you to the springs,

I to these wells of love. [Exeunt the two Nymphs.]—Thou sacred goddess

And queen of nuptials, daughter to great Saturn,

Sister and wife to Jove, imperial Juno,

Pity this passionate conflict in my breast,

This tedious war ’twixt two affections;

Crown me with victory, and my heart’s at peace!

Enter Hippolito and Guardiano as shepherds.

Hip. Make me that happy man, thou mighty goddess!

Guar. But I live most in hope, if truest love

Merit the greatest comfort.

Isa. I love both

With such an even and fair affection,

I know not which to speak for, which to wish for,

Till thou, great arbitress ’twixt lovers' hearts,

By thy auspicious grace design the man;

Which pity I implore!

Hip. Guar. We all implore it!

Isa. And after sighs—contrition’s truest odours—

I offer to thy powerful deity

This precious incense [waving the censer]; may it ascend peacefully!—

And if it keep true touch, my good aunt Juno,

'Twill try your immortality ere’t be long:

629I fear you’ll ne’er get so nigh heaven again,

When you’re once down. [Aside.

[Livia descends, as Juno, attended by pages as Cupids.

Liv. Though you and your affections

Seem all as dark to our illustrious brightness

As night’s inheritance, hell, we pity you,

And your requests are granted. You ask signs,

They shall be given you; we’ll be gracious to you:

He of those twain which we determine for you,

Love’s arrows shall wound twice; the later wound

Betokens love in age; for so are all

Whose love continues firmly all their lifetime

Twice wounded at their marriage, else affection

Dies when youth ends.—This savour overcomes me!

[Aside.

Now, for a sign of wealth and golden days,

Bright-ey’d prosperity—which all couples love,

Ay, and makes love—take that;^[1116] our brother Jove

Never denies us of his burning treasure

To express bounty. [Isabella falls down and dies.

Duke. She falls down upon’t;

What’s the conceit of that?

Fab. As o’erjoy’d belike:

Too much prosperity o’erjoys us all,

And she has her lapful, it seems, my lord.

Duke. This swerves a little from the argument though:

Look you, my lords. [Shewing paper.

Guar. All’s fast: now comes my part to tole him hither;

630Then, with a stamp given, he’s despatch’d as cunningly.

[Aside.

Hip. [raising the body of Isa.] Stark dead! O treachery! cruelly made away!

[Guardiano stamps, and falls through a trap-door.

How’s that?

Fab. Look, there’s one of the lovers dropt away

too!

Duke. Why, sure, this plot’s drawn false; here’s no such thing.

Liv. O, I am sick to the death! let me down quickly,

This fume is deadly; O, ’t has poison’d me!

My subtlety is sped, her art has quitted me;

My own ambition pulls me down to ruin.

[Falls down and dies.

Hip. Nay, then, I kiss thy cold lips, and applaud

This thy revenge in death. [Kisses the body of Isabella.

Fab. Look, Juno’s down too!

[Cupids shoot at Hippolito.

What makes she there? her pride should keep aloft:

She was wont to scorn the earth in other shows;

Methinks her peacocks' feathers are much pull’d.

Hip. O, death runs through my blood, in a wild flame too!

Plague of those Cupids! some lay hold on ’em,

Let ’em not scape; they’ve spoil’d me, the shaft’s deadly.

Duke. I've lost myself in this quite.

Hip. My great lords,

We’re all confounded.

Duke. How?

Hip. Dead; and I worse.

631Fab. Dead! my girl dead? I hope

My sister Juno has not serv’d me so.

Hip. Lust and forgetfulness have^[1117] been amongst us,

And we are brought to nothing; some blest charity

Lend me the speeding pity of his sword,

To quench this fire in blood! Leantio’s death

Has brought all this upon us—now I taste it—

And made us lay plots to confound each other;

Th' event so proves it; and man’s understanding

Is riper at his fall than all his lifetime.

She, in a madness for her lover’s death,

Reveal’d a fearful lust in our near bloods,

For which I'm punish’d dreadfully and unlook’d for;

Prov’d her own ruin too; vengeance met vengeance,

Like a set match, as if the plague[s] of sin

Had been agreed to meet here altogether:

But how her fawning partner fell I reach not,

Unless caught by some springe of his own setting,—

For, on my pain, he never dream’d of dying;

The plot was all his own, and he had cunning

Enough to save himself: but' tis the property

Of guilty deeds to draw your wise men downward;

Therefore the wonder ceases. O, this torment!

Duke. Our guard below there!

Enter a Lord with a Guard.

Lord. My lord?

Hip. Run and meet death then,

And cut off time and pain!

[Runs on a sword,^[1118] and dies.

Lord. Behold, my lord,

Has run his breast upon a weapon’s point!

632Duke. Upon the first night of our nuptial honours

Destruction play her triumph, and great mischiefs

Mask in expected pleasures! ’tis prodigious!

They’re things most fearfully ominous; I like ’em not.—

Remove these ruin’d bodies from our eyes.

[The Guard remove the bodies of Isabella, Livia, and Hippolito.

Bian. Not yet, no change? when falls he to the earth?

[Aside.

Lord. Please but your excellence to peruse that paper,

[Giving paper to the Duke.

Which is a brief confession from the heart

Of him that fell first, ere his soul departed;

And there the darkness of these deeds speaks plainly,

’Tis the full scope, the manner, and intent:

His ward, that ignorantly let him down,

Fear put to present flight at the voice of him.

Bian. Nor yet? [Aside.

Duke. Read, read, for I am lost in sight and strength!

[Falls.

Car. My noble brother!

Bian. O, the curse of wretchedness!

My deadly hand is faln upon my lord:

Destruction, take me to thee! give me way;

The pains and plagues of a lost soul upon him

That hinders me a moment!

Duke. My heart swells bigger yet; help here, break’t ope!

My breast flies open next. [Dies.

Bian. O, with the poison

That was prepar’d for thee! thee, Cardinal,

’Twas meant for thee.

Car. Poor prince!

633Bian. Accursèd error!

Give me thy last breath, thou infected bosom,

And wrap two spirits in one poison’d vapour!

Thus, thus, reward thy murderer, and turn death

[Kisses the dead body of the Duke.

Into a parting kiss! my soul stands ready at my lips,

Even vex’d to stay one minute after thee.

Car. The greatest sorrow and astonishment

That ever struck the general peace of Florence

Dwells in this hour.

Bian. So, my desires are satisfied,

I feel death’s power within me:

Thou hast prevail’d in something, cursed poison!

Though thy chief force was spent in my lord’s bosom;

But my deformity in spirit’s more foul,

A blemish’d face best fits a leprous soul.

What make I here? these are all strangers to me,

Not known but by their malice now thou’rt gone,

Nor do I seek their pities.

[Drinks from the poisoned cup.^[1119]

Car. O restrain

Her ignorant, wilful hand!

Bian. Now do; ’tis done.

Leantio, now I feel the breach of marriage

At my heart-breaking. O, the deadly snares

634That women set for women, without pity

Either to soul or honour! learn by me

To know your foes: in this belief I die,—

Like our own sex we have no enemy.^[1120]

Lord. See, my lord,

What shift sh’as made to be her own destruction!

Bian. Pride, greatness, honours, beauty, youth, ambition,

You must all down together, there’s no help for’t:

Yet this my gladness is, that I remove

Tasting the same death in a cup of love. [Dies.

Car. Sin, what thou art, these ruins shew too piteously:

Two kings on one throne cannot sit together,

But one must needs down, for his title’s wrong;

So where lust reigns, that prince cannot reign long.

Exeunt omnes.

END OF VOL. IV.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY LEVEY, ROBSON, AND FRANKLYN,

46 St. Martin’s Lane.

Footnotes

Transcriber’s Note

Stage directions, except for entrances, can be:

in-line

in the middle of a line and delimited with ‘[ ]’,

end of line

right-justified on the same line (where there is room), with only the leading ‘[’,

next line

right-justified on the following line, where there is insufficent room, with a hanging indent, if necessary.

The same convention is followed here. Since this version is wider than the original, most directions are on the same line as the speech.

Entrances were centered and separated slightly from lines above and below. This is rendered here as a full blank line.

The footnote scheme used lettered references, repeating a-z. On numerous occasions, letters were repeated, and sometimes skipped. The numeric resequencing of notes here resolves those lapses. Footnotes are sometimes referred to directly in a footnote by its letter designation. The few direct references to a lettered note use the new numeric value.

Note 891 regarding “Familists” of Amsterdam, refers the reader to a note on p. 104 of Volume 1. No relevant note appears there, but it is likely that the reference should be to the introductory note to “The Family of Love” in Volume 2, beginning on p. 103.

The cross-reference in note 194 for the term ‘foisting’ refers to p. 544 of vol. iii. The reference is to note 1186 in vol. ii.

Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and are noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original.

26.33 Thou[l’/’l]t make me play Transposed.

118.33 foisting] See note, vol. ii[i]., p. 544. Removed

119.33 a very small coin.[”] Added.

193.34 [“]First, promise me Added.

466.36 cacokenny] Qy. [“]cacochymy” Added.

A CHASTE MAID IN CHEAPSIDE.

Vol. iv. p. 5, last line.

board] The spelling of the old ed. is right—“bord,” i. e. size. So in Beaumont and Fletcher’s Knight of the Burning Pestle;

“underneath his chin

He plants a brazen piece of mighty bord.”

Act iii. sc. 2—Works, vol. i. p. 214, ed. Weber.

where, says M. Mason, “bord means rim or circumference.”

Vol. iv. p. 32, l. 4.

corps] So the word is used as a plural in Epigrams and Satyres, by Richard Middleton, 1608;

“the Tyrants brazen bull

Of Agrigentine, which being crammed full

Of humane corps, did roare with such a maine,” &c.

p. 34.

Vol. iv. p. 66, note, read

“111 Rider’s Dictionary] A Dict. Engl. and Lat. and Lat. and Engl., by John Rider, first printed at Oxford, 1589, was a work once in great repute.”

THE SPANISH GIPSY.

Vol. iv. p. 145, last line but one.

“this she, trow;”

Read

“this she, trow?”

A GAME AT CHESS.

Vol. iv. p. 310, l. 1.

Roch, Main, and Petronill, itch and ague curers] Compare Taylor the water-poet: “he must be content with his office, 635as ... Saint Roch with scabbes and scurfes ... Saint Petronella the Ague or any Feuer.” A Bawd, p. 93—Workes, 1630.

Vol. iv. p. 407, l. 6.

Epistle to Nicholas the first, &c.] Since writing the note on these words, I have found in the Κειμηλια Literaria of Colomesius what he calls a confirmation of the absurd story of the six thousand infants’ heads. “Simile quid narratur a Joscelino, in Episcoporum Cantuariensium Vitis, p. 210. editionis Hanovianæ. Anno 1309, inquit, Radulphus Bourn Augustinensis Ecclesiæ Abbas electus, cum ad Papam Avinioni agentem confirmandus accessisset, reversus domum, testatur se vidisse in itinere piscinam in quadam Monialium Abbatia, quæ Provines dicebatur; in qua, cum educta aqua luto purgaretur, multa parvulorum ossa, ipsaque corpora adhuc integra reperiebantur. Unde ad criminalia judicia subeunda viginti septem Moniales Parisios ductæ et carceribus mancipatæ fuerunt, de quibus quid actum fuerit, nescivit.” Col. Opera, p. 301, ed. Fabr.

ANY THING FOR A QUIET LIFE.

Vol. iv. p. 489, l. 25.

the new prophet, the astrological tailor] Perhaps Ball, who is thus mentioned by Osborn: “And, if common Fame did not outstrip Truth, King James was by Fear led into this extreme; finding his Son Henry not only averse to any Popish Match, but saluted by the Puritans as one prefigured in the Apocalyps for Rome’s destruction. And to parallel this, one Ball, a Taylor, was inspired with a like Lunacy, tho’ something more chargeable; for not only he, but Ramsay his Majesty’s Watch-maker, put out Money and Clocks, to be paid (but with small Advantage, considering the Improbability) when King James should be crowned in the Pope’s chair.” Trad. Memor. on the Reign of K. James—Works, vol. ii. p. 153, ed. 1722; see also B. Jonson’s Works by Gifford, vol. v. p. 242.

636WOMEN BEWARE WOMEN.

Vol. iv. p. 520, l. 20.

To take out] i. e. to copy—a not uncommon expression in our old writers.