SCENE V.

1st Pr. No, but he will speak very well, and discourse admirably of running horses and White-Friars, and against bawds; and of cocks; and talk as loud as a hunter, but is none.

Re-enter[121] Wolf with Golding, Quicksilver,
Sir Petronel, and Security.

1st Pr. See, he has brought him, and the knight too; salute him, I pray. Sir, this gentleman, upon our report, is very desirous to hear some piece of your Repentance.

Qu. Sir, with all my heart; and, as I told Master Toby, I shall be glad to have any man a witness of it. And the more openly I profess it, I hope it will appear the heartier, and the more unfeigned.

To. Who is this?—my man Francis, and my son-in-law?

Qu. Sir, it is all the testimony I shall leave behind me to the world, and my master that I have so offended.

Fr. Good, sir!    40

Qu. I writ it when my spirits were oppressed.

Pe. Ay, I’ll be sworn for you, Francis.

Qu. It is in imitation of Mannington’s,[122] he that was hanged at Cambridge, that cut off the horse’s head at a blow.

Fr. So, sir!

Qu. To the tune of “I wail in woe, I plunge in pain.”

Pe. An excellent ditty it is, and worthy of a new tune.

Qu. In Cheapside, famous for gold and plate,
Quicksilver I did dwell of late;    50
I had a master good and kind,
That would have wrought me to his mind.
He bade me still, Work upon that,
But, alas! I wrought I knew not what.
He was a Touchstone black, but true,
And told me still what would ensue;
Yet woe is me! I would not learn;
I saw, alas! but could not discern!

Fr. Excellent, excellent well!

Go. O let him alone: he is taken already.    60

Qu. I cast my coat and cap away,
I went in silks and satins gay;
False metal of good manners I
Did daily coin unlawfully.
I scorn’d my master, being drunk;
I kept my gelding and my punk;
And with a knight, Sir Flash by name,
Who now is sorry for the same,—

Qu. Still Eastward-ho was all my word:
But westward I had no regard,
Nor never thought what would come after,
As did, alas! his youngest daughter.
At last the black ox trod o’ my foot,[123]    80
And I saw then what long’d unto ’t;
Now cry I, “Touchstone, touch me still,
And make me current by thy skill.”

To. And I will do it, Francis.

Wo. Stay him, Master Deputy; now is the time: we shall lose the song else.

Fr. I protest it is the best that ever I heard.

Qu. How like you it, gentlemen?

All. O admirable, sir!

Qu. This stanze now following, alludes to the story of Mannington, from whence I took my project for my invention.    92

Fr. Pray you go on, sir.

Qu. This is the last, and the Farewell.—
Farewell, Cheapside, farewell, sweet trade
Of Goldsmiths all, that never shall fade;
Farewell, dear fellow prentices all,
And be you warnèd by my fall:
Shun usurers, bawds, and dice, and drabs,
Avoid them as you would French scabs.
Seek not to go beyond your tether,    120
But cut your thongs unto your leather:
So shall you thrive by little and little,
’Scape Tyburn, Counters, and the Spital!

To. No more repetitions. What else is wanting to make our harmony full?

To. Excellently devised! a good motion![124] What says Master Security?

Sec. I say anything, sir, what you’ll ha’ me say. Would I were no cuckold!

Wi. Cuckold, husband? Why, I think this wearing of yellow[125] has infected you.    187

To. Why, Master Security, that should rather be a comfort to you than a corasive. If you be a cuckold, it’s an argument you have a beautiful woman to your wife; then you shall be much made of; you shall have store of friends, never want money; you shall be eased of much o’ your wedlock pain, others will take it for you. Besides, you being a usurer (and likely to go to hell), the devils will never torment you: they’ll take you for one o’ their own race. Again, if you be a cuckold, and know it not, you are an innocent; if you know it and endure it, a true martyr.    198

Sec. I am resolved, sir. Come hither, Winny.

To. Well, then, all are pleased, or shall be anon. Master Wolf, you look hungry, methinks; have you no apparel to lend Francis to shift him?

EPILOGUS.

[Qu.] Stay, sir, I perceive the multitude are gather’d together to view our coming out at the Counter. See if the streets and the Fronts of the Houses be not thick with people, and the windows fill’d with ladies as on the solemn day of the pageant!
O may you find in this our pageant here
The same contentment which you came to seek,
And as that show but draws you once a year    220
May this attract you hither once a week.

[Exeunt omnes.

THE
INSATIATE COUNTESS.

The Insatiate Countesse. A Tragedie: Acted at White-Fryers. Written By Iohn Marston. London: Printed by T. S. for Thomas Archer, and are to be sold at his Shop in Popes-head-Pallace, neere the Royall-Exchange. 1613. 4to.

Isabella, Countess of Suevia, being left a widow, proceeds with indecent haste to take a second husband, Roberto, Count of Cyprus. At a masqued dance given by the bridegroom’s friends on the day of the wedding, Isabella falls in love with one of the masquers, whom she discovers to be the Count of Massino [Messina?]. She sends him a letter in which she proffers her love and summons him to her presence. With her paramour she flies to Pavia, where she meets Massino’s friend Gniaca, Count of Gaza or Gazia [Gaeta?]. The Insatiate Countess immediately falls in love with Gniaca, who—though at first unwilling to wrong his friend—quickly yields to her blandishments. Returning from a hunting expedition Massino is denied admittance by Isabella. He gives vent to his indignation by penning bitter satirical verses, in which he proclaims to the world her inordinate lust. Enraged at this exposure, Isabella incites Gniaca to slay Massino. An encounter ensues between Gniaca and Massino, but after a few passes the combatants put up their weapons, hold a friendly colloquy, and part in peace. Isabella is furious and resolves to destroy both Gniaca and Massino. She employs the services of a Spanish colonel, Don Sago, who at first sight of her has been violently inflamed with passion. The colonel shoots Massino dead, is arrested, and, being brought before the Duke of Medina, makes full confession. Isabella is condemned to be beheaded. At the place of execution a strange friar requests that he may have private speech with her. The friar is Count Roberto, who has come to pronounce forgiveness, and bid a last farewell, to his erring wife.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.[126]

Amago, Duke of Venice.
Duke of Medina.
Roberto, Count of Cyprus.
Count Massino.
Guido, Count of Arsena.
Gniaca, Count of Gazia.
Mendoza Foscari, nephew to Amago.
Signior Mizaldus.
Claridiana.
Rogero.
Don Sago, a Spanish Colonel.
Cardinal.

Isabella, the Insatiate Countess.
Lady Lentulus, a widow.
Abigail, wife to Claridiana.
Thais, wife to Rogero.
Anna, waiting-woman to Isabella.
Senators, captain, lieutenant, soldiers, messenger, executioner, &c.

Scene—Venice and Pavia.

THE
INSATIATE COUNTESS.

ACT I.

Miz. What should we do in this countess’s dark hole?
She’s sullenly retirèd as the turtle.
Every day has been
A black day with her since her husband died;
And what should we unruly members make[127] here?

Gui. As melancholy night masks up heaven’s face,
So doth the evening star present herself
Unto the careful shepherd’s gladsome eyes,
By which unto the fold he leads his flock.    9

Isa. My lord of Cyprus, do not mock my grief.
Tears are as due a[128] tribute to the dead,
As fear to God, and duty unto kings,
Love to the just, or hate unto the wicked.

Rob. Surcease;
Believe it is a wrong unto the gods.[129]
They sail against the wind that wail the dead:    40
And since his heart hath wrestled with death’s pangs,
From whose stern cave none tracts a backward path,[130]
Leave to lament this necessary change,
And thank the gods, for they can give us good.

Isa. I wail his loss! Sink him ten cubits deeper,
I may not fear his resurrection.
I will be sworn upon the Holy Writ
I mourn thus fervent ’cause he died no sooner:
He buried me alive,
And mewed me up like Cretan Dædalus,    50
And with wall-ey’d[131] jealousy kept me from hope
Of any waxen wings to fly to pleasure;
But now his soul her Argus’ eyes hath closed,
And I am free as air. You of my sex,
In the first flow of youth, use you the sweets
Due to your proper beauties, ere the ebb
And long wane of unwelcome change shall come.
Fair women, play; she’s chaste whom none will have.
Here is a man of a most mild aspect,
Temperate, effeminate, and worthy love;    60
One that with burning ardor hath pursued me.
A donative he hath of every god:
Apollo gave him locks; Jove his high front;[132]
The god of eloquence his flowing speech;
The feminine deities strew’d all their bounties
And beauty on his face; that eye was Juno’s;
Those lips were hers[133] that won the golden ball;
That virgin-blush, Diana’s. Here they meet,
As in a sacred synod. My lords, I must intreat
A while your wish’d forbearance.

Gui.[134] and Miz. We obey you, lady.    70

[Exeunt Guido and Mizaldus.

Isa. My lord, with you I have some conference.
I pray, my lord, do you woo every lady
In this phrase you do me?

Rob. Fairest, till now
Love was an infant in my oratory.

Isa. And kiss thus too?

[Kisses him.

Rob. I never[135] was so kiss’d; leave thus to please;
Flames into flames, seas thou pour’st into seas!

Isa. Pray frown, my lord: let me see how many wives You’ll have.[136] Heigh ho! you’ll bury me, I see——

Rob. In the swan’s down, and tomb thee in mine arms!    80

Isa. Then folks shall pray in vain to send me rest.
Away, you’re such another meddling lord!

Rob. By heaven! my love’s as chaste as thou art fair,
And both exceed comparison. By this kiss,
That crowns me monarch of another world
Superior to the first, fair, thou shalt see
As unto heaven my love, so unto thee!

Isa. Alas!
Poor creatures, when we are once o’ the falling hand,
A man may easily come over us.    90
It is as hard for us to hide our love
As to shut sin from the Creator’s eyes.
I’faith, my lord, I had a month’s mind[137] unto you,
As tedious as a full-riped[138] maiden-head;
And, Count of Cyprus, think my love as pure
As the first opening of the blooms in May:
(You’re virtuous, man;[139] nay, let me not blush to say so:)
And see for your sake thus I leave to sorrow.
Begin this subtile conjuration with me,
And as this taper, due unto the dead,    100
I here extinguish, so my late-dead lord
I put out ever from my memory,
That his remembrance may not wrong our love,

Re-enter[140] Mizaldus and Guido.

Miz.[141] Marry, amen. I say; madam, are you that were in for all day, now come to be in for all night? How now, Count Arsena?

Gui.[142] Faith, signior, not unlike the condemn’d malefactor,
That hears his judgment openly pronounced;
But I ascribe to fate. Joy swell your love;
Cypress and willow grace my drooping crest.

Rob. We do intend our hymeneal rites
With the next rising sun. Count Arsena,[143]
Next to our bride, the welcom’st to our feast.    120

[Exeunt Isabella and Roberto.

Gui. Sancta Maria! what think’st thou of this change?
A player’s passion I’ll believe hereafter,
And in a tragic scene weep for old Priam,[144]
When fell-revenging Pyrrhus with supposed
And artificial wounds mangles his breast,
And think it a more worthy act to me,
Than trust a female mourning o’er her love.
Naught that is done of woman shall me please,
Nature’s step-children, rather her disease.[145]

Miz. Learn of a well-composèd epigram    130
A woman’s love, and thus ’twas sung unto us;

The[146] tapers that stood on her husband’s hearse,
Isabel advances to a second bed:
Is it not wondrous strange for to rehearse
She should so soon forget her husband, dead
One hour? for if the husband’s life once fade,
Both love and husband in one grave are laid.

But we forget ourselves: I am for the marriage
Of Signior Claridiana and the fine Mistress Abigail.    139

Gui. I for his arch-foe’s wedding, Signior Rogero, and the spruce Mistress Thais: but see, the solemn rites are ended, and from their several temples they are come.

Miz. A quarrel, on my life!

Enter at one door Signior Claridiana, Abigail his wife, and the Lady Lentulus, with rosemary,[147] as from church; at the other door Signior Rogero, Thais his wife, and Mendoza Foscari, nephew to the Duke, from the bridal; they see one another, and draw; Guido and others step between them.

Clar. Good, my lord, detain me not; I will tilt at him.

Miz.[148] Remember, sir, this is your wedding-day,
And that triumph belongs only to your wife.

Rog. If you be noble, let me cut off his head.

Gui.[149] Remember, o’ the other side, you have a maiden-head of your own to cut off.    150

Rog. I’ll make my marriage-day like to the bloody bridal
Alcides by the fiery Centaurs had!

Tha. Husband, dear husband!

Rog. Away with these catterwallers!
Come on, sir.

Clar. Thou son of a Jew!

Gui. Alas, poor wench, thy husband’s circumcised!

Clar. Begot when thy father’s face was toward th’ east,
To show that thou would’st prove a caterpiller.
His Messias shall not save thee from me;    160
I’ll send thee to him in collops!

Gui. O fry not in choler so, sir!

Rog. Mountebank, with thy pedantical action—
Rimatrix, Bugloss,[150] Rhinoceros!

Men. Gentlemen, I conjure you
By the virtues of men!

Rog. Shall any broken quacksalver’s bastard oppose him to me in my nuptials? No; but I’ll show him better metal than e’er the gallemawfrey[151] his father used. Thou scum of his melting-pots, that wert christen’d in a crusoile[152] with Mercury’s water to[153] show thou wouldest prove a stinging aspis! for all thou spitt’st is aqua fortis, and thy breath is a compound of poison’s stillatory: if I get within thee, hadst thou the scaly hide of a crocodile, as thou art partly of his nature, I would leave thee as bare as an anatomy[154] at the second viewing.    176

Clar. Thou Jew of the tribe of Gad that, I were[155] sure, were there none here but thou and I, wouldst teach me the art of breathing; thou wouldst run like a dromedary!

Rog. Thou that art the tall’st man of Christendom when thou art alone; if thou dost maintain this to my face, I’ll make thee skip like an ounce.[156]

Men. Nay, good sir, be you still.

Gui. You are of like reputation, Signior Claridiana.
The hatred ’twixt your grandsires first began;
Impute it to the folly of that age:
These your dissensions may erect a faction
Like to the Capulets and the Montagues.[157]

Men. Put it to equal arbitration, choose your friends;
The senators will think ’em happy in ’t.

Rog.[158] I’ll ne’er embrace the smoke of a furnace, the quintessence of mineral or simples, or, as I may say more learnedly, nor the spirit of quicksilver.    200

Clar. Nor I, such a Centaur,—half a man, half an ass, and all a Jew!

Gui. Nay, then, we will be constables, and force a quiet. Gentlemen, keep ’em asunder, and help to persuade ’em.

[Exeunt[159] at one door Mizaldus and Claridiana; at another Guido and Rogero.

Men. Well, ladies, your husbands behave ’em as lustily on their wedding-days as e’er I heard any. Nay, lady-widow, you and I must have a falling; you’re of Signior Mizaldus’ faction, and I am your vowed enemy, from the bodkin to the pincase. Hark in your ear.    210

Abi. Well, Thais. O you’re a cunning carver;[160] we two, that any time these fourteen years have called sisters, brought and bred up together, that have told one another all our wanton dreams, talk’d all night long of young men, and spent many an idle hour; fasted upon the stones on St. Agnes’[161] night together, practised all the petulant amorousness that delights young maids, yet have you conceal’d not only the marriage, but the man: and well you might deceive me, for I’ll be sworn you never dream’d of him, and it stands against all reason you should enjoy him you never dream’d of.    221

Tha. Is not all this the same in you? Did you ever manifest your sweetheart’s nose, that I might nose him by’t? commended his calf or his nether lip? apparent signs that you were not in love, or wisely covered it. Have you ever said, such a man goes upright, or has a better gait than any of the rest, as indeed, since he is proved a magnifico, I thought thou would’st have put it into my hands whate’er ’t had been.    229

Tha. Faith, you little one, if I please him in one thing, he shall please me in all, that’s certain. Who shall I have to keep my counsel if I miss thee? who shall teach me to use the bridle when the reins are in mine own hand? what to long for? when to take physic? where to be melancholy? Why, we two are one another’s grounds,[162] without which would be no music.    242

Abi. Well said, wench; and the prick-song we use shall be our husbands.

Tha. I will long for swine’s-flesh o’ the first child.

Abi. Wilt ’ou, little Jew? And I to kiss thy husband upon the least belly-ache. This will mad ’em.

Tha. I kiss thee, wench, for that, and with it confirm our friendship.

Men. By these sweet lips, widow!    250

Lady Lent. Good my lord, learn to swear by rote;
Your birth and fortune makes my brain suppose
That, like a man heated with wines and lust,
She that is next your object is your mate,
Till the foul water have quench’d out the fire.
You, the duke’s kinsman, tell me I am young,
Fair, rich, and virtuous. I myself will flatter
Myself, till you are gone that are more fair,
More rich, more virtuous, and more debonair:
All which are ladders to an higher reach.    260
Who drinks a puddle that may taste a spring?
Who kiss a subject that may hug a king?

Abig. and Tha. Ha, ha, ha!

Enter at several doors Mizaldus[163] with Claridiana; Guido, with Rogero, at another door; Mendoza meets them.

Men. Signior Rogero, are you yet qualified?

Rog. Yes; does any man think I’ll go like a sheep to the slaughter? Hands off, my lord; your lordship may chance come under my hands. If you do, I shall show myself a citizen, and revenge basely.    299

Clar. I think, if I were receiving the Holy Sacrament,
His sight would make me gnash my teeth terribly.
But there’s the beauty without parallel,[164]
In whom the Graces and the Virtues meet!
In her aspect mild Honour sits and smiles;
And who looks there, were it the savage bear
But would derive new nature from her eyes?
But to be reconciled simply for him,
Were mankind to be lost again, I’d let it,
And a new heap of stones should stock the world.
In heaven and earth this power beauty hath—    310
It inflames temperance and temp’rates wrath.
Whate’er thou art, mine art thou, wise or chaste;
I shall set hard upon thy marriage-vow,
And write revenge high in thy husband’s brow
In a strange character.—You may begin, sir.

Men. Signior Claridiana, I hope Signior Rogero thus employed me about a good office: ’twere worthy Cicero’s tongue, a famous oration now; but friendship, that is mutually embraced of the gods,
And is Jove’s usher to each sacred synod,    320
Without the which he could not reign in heaven,—
That over-goes my admiration, shall not
Under-go my censure!
These hot flames of rage, that else will be
As fire midst your nuptial jollity,
Burning the edge off from[165] the present joy,
And keep you wake to terror.

Clar. I have not yet swallowed the rhimatrix nor the onocentaur—the rhinoceros[166] was monstrous!

Gui. Sir, be you of the more flexible nature, and confess an error.    331

Clar. Slave, I will fight with thee at any odds;    350
Or name an instrument fit for destruction,
That e’er[167] was made to make away a man,
I’ll meet thee on the ridges of the Alps,[168]
Or some inhospitable wilderness,
Stark-naked, at push of pike, or keen curtle-axe,
At Turkish sickle, Babylonian saw,
The ancient hooks of great Cadwallader,
Or any other heathen invention!

Clar. I am not mad—I can hear, I can see, I can feel!
But a wise rage in man, wrong’d[169] past compare,
Should be well nourish’d, as his virtues are.
I’d have it known unto each valiant sprite,[170]
He wrongs no man that to himself does right.
Catzo,[171] I ha’ done; Signior Rogero, I ha’ done!

Gui. By heaven!
This voluntary reconciliation, made    370
Freely and of itself, argues unfeign’d
And virtuous knot of love. So, sirs, embrace!

Rog. Sir, by the conscience of a Catholic man,
And by our mother Church, that binds
And doth atone in amity with God
The souls of men, that they with men be one,
I tread into the centre all the thoughts
Of ill in me toward you, and memory
Of what from you might aught disparage me;
Wishing unfeignedly it may sink low,    380
And, as untimely births, want power to grow.

Clar. If you think not this sufficient, you shall command me to be reconciled in another form—as a rhimatrix or a rhinoceros.[172]

Men. ’Sblood! what will you do?    389

Clar. Well, give me your hands first: I am friends with you, i’faith. Thereupon I embrace you, kiss your wife, and God give us joy!

[To Thais.

Tha. You mean me and my husband?

Clar. You take the meaning better than the speech, lady.

Rog. The like wish I, but ne’er can be the like,
And therefore wish I thee.

Clar. By this bright light, that is deriv’d from thee——

Tha. So, sir, you make me a very light creature!

Clar. But that thou art a blessèd angel, sent
Down from the gods t’ atone mortal men,    400
I would have thought deeds beyond all men’s thoughts,
And executed more upon his corps.
O let him thank the beauty of this eye,
And not his resolute swords or destiny.