The Project Gutenberg ebook of The Works of John Marston, Vol. 3, edited by A. H. Bullen.

Clar. No, nor this day had it been falsely born,
But that I mean to sound it with his horn. 409

Miz. I liked the former jar better. Then they show’d like men and soldiers, now like cowards and lechers.

Gui. Well said, Mizaldus; thou art like the bass viol in a consort,—let the other instruments [173] wish and delight in your highest sense, thou art still grumbling.

Clar. Nay, sweet, receive it [gives a letter to Thais [174]], and in it my heart:
And when thou read’st a moving syllable,
Think that my soul was secretary to ’t.
It is your love, and not the odious wish
Of my revenge in styling him a cuckold,
Makes me presume thus far. Then read it, fair, 420
My passion’s ample, as your [175] beauties are.

Lady Len. Well, my lord, I am none of these
That have my second husband bespoke;
My door shall be a testimony of it; 440
And but these noble marriages incite me,
My much abstracted presence should have show’d it.
If you come to me, hark in your ear, my lord,
Look your ladder of ropes be strong,
For I shall tie you to your tackling.

Clar. Above the adamant; the goat’s blood [180] shall not break me.
Yet shallow fools and plainer moral men,
That understand not what they undertake,
Fall in their own snares or come short of vengeance.
No; let the sun view with an open face,
And afterward shrink in his blushing cheeks,
Ashamed and cursing of the fix’d decree,
That makes his light bawd to the crimes of men.
When I have ended what I now devise,
Apollo’s oracle shall swear me wise. 460
Strumpet his wife! branch my false-seeming friend!
And make him foster what my hate begot,
A bastard, that, when age and sickness seize him,
Shall be a corsive [181] to his griping heart.
I’ll write to her; for what her modesty
Will not permit, nor my adulterate forcing,
That blushless herald shall not fear to tell.
Rogero shall know yet that his foe’s a man,
And, what is more, a true Italian!

[127] “What should we make here?” = What business have we here? See Middleton, i. 202.

[128] So ed. 1613.—Ed. 1631 “as.”

[129] Cf. Hamlet, i. 2:—
“Fie, ’tis a fault to heaven,
A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,” &c.

[130] Cf. Hamlet, iii. 1:—
“The undiscovered country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns.”

[131] “Wall-ey’d”—having eyes in which the proportion of white is too large; fierce-eyed. “Œil de chevre. A whall, or over-white eye; an eye full of white spots, or whose apple seems divided by a streake of white.”—Cotgrave.

[132] Cf. Hamlet, iii. 4:—
“See what a grace was seated on this brow
Hyperion’s curls; the front of Jove himself,” &c.

[133] Old eds. “his.”

[134] Old eds. “Omnes. ”

[135] Old eds. “ne’er.”

[136] “It is a vulgar belief that a man is destined to have as many wives as there appear wrinkles in his forehead when he frowns.”—Ed. of 1820.

[137] “Month’s mind” = a strong desire. See Dyce’s Shakesp. Gloss.

[138] So ed. 1613.—Ed. 1631 “full-ri’dd.”

[139] Ed. 1613 gives “Your vertues man.”—Ed. 1631 “Your vertues may.”

[140] Old eds. “Enter Mizaldus and Mendosa.”

[141] Old eds. “Guid.”

[142] Old eds. “Miz. ”

[143] Old eds. “Cypres.”

[144] This play bears many traces of the study of Hamlet. The present passage was clearly suggested by the player’s speech, “The rugged Pyrrhus,” &c., and Hamlet’s comments thereon.

[145] Old eds. “desire.”

[146] Cf. Hamlet, i. 2:—
“The funeral baked meats
Did coldly furnish forth the marriage-tables.”

[147] Branches of rosemary were formerly used at weddings. See note on Middleton, i. 9, 10.

[148] Old eds. “Rogero.”

[149] Old eds. “Clarid.”

[150] Old eds. “Buglors, Rhimocers.”—The herb bugloss was much used for medicinal purposes. The same virtues were attributed to the rhinoceros’ horn as to the unicorn’s horn: see Topsel’s Hist. of Four-footed Beasts.

[151] Hotchpotch, farrago; a contemptuous term for an apothecary.

[152] Crucible.

[153] Ed. 1631 “O.”

[154] Subject for dissection.

[155] “I were”—omitted in ed. 1613.

[156] Ed. 1631 “skip on ounce.”

[157] If Romeo and Juliet had not been a highly popular play the allusion to the Montagues and Capulets could hardly have been generally intelligible.

[158] Old eds. “Miz. ”

[159] Not marked in old eds.

[160] i.e., you are a clever schemer.

[161] Girls who fasted on St. Agnes’ night (January 21) dreamed of their future husbands.—“They’ll give anything to know when they shall be married, how many husbands they shall have by Cromnyomantia, a kind of divination with onions laid on the altar on Christmas eve, or by fasting on St. Agnes’ eve or night to know who shall be their first husband.” Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, ed. 1660, p. 538. See the sixth stanza of Keats’ Eve of St. Agnes.

[162] See note, vol. i. p. 37.

[163] Old eds. “Count Ars.”

[164] In old eds. is the stage-direction “To Abigall.”—Claridiana is of course glancing at Thais.

[165] Ed. 1631 “to.”

[166] So ed. 1631.—Ed. I, “rimocheros.”

[167] Old eds. “ne’er” and “ne’re.”

[168] An echo from Richard II. (i. 1):—
“Which to maintain I would allow him odds
And meet him, were I tied to run a-foot
Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps,
Or any other ground inhabitable.”

[169] Old eds. “wrongs.”

[170] Ed. 1613 “sp’rit.”—Ed. 1631 “spirit.”

[171] A vulgar oath.

[172] Ed. 1613 “rimocheros.”

[173] Ed. 1613 “instrument.”

[174] Old eds. “Abigall” and “Abigail.”

[175] Old eds. “our.”

[176] Old eds. “Abig. ”

[177] Ed. 1631 “Countesse of Sweuia.”

[178] Cf. vol. 1, p. 62.

[179] Old eds. “Abigall” and “Abig. ”

[180] In Vulgar Errors, ii. 5, Sir Thomas Browne discusses the question whether “a diamond, which is the hardest of stones, not yielding unto steel, emery, or anything but its own powder, is yet made soft or broke by the blood of a goat.”

[181] Contracted form (found in Spenser, Jonson, &c.) for corrosive.

ACT II.

Rob. Give them kind entertainment.—Some worthy friends of mine, my lord, unknown to me, too lavish of their loves, bring their own welcome in a solemn masque. 23

Abi. I am glad there’s noblemen in the masque, with our husbands to overrule them; they had shamed us all [183] else.

Abi. Why?—marry, they had come in with some city show else; hired a few tinsel coats, at the vizard-makers, which would ha’ made them look for all the world like bakers in their linen bases [184] and mealy vizards, new come from boulting. I saw a show once at the marriage of Magnificero’s daughter, presented by Time, which Time was an old bald thing, a servant: ’twas the best man; he was a dyer, and came in likeness of the rainbow, in all manner of colours, to show his art; but the rainbow smelt of urine so we were all afraid the property was changed, and look’d for a shower. Then came in after him, one that, it seem’d, feared no colours [185]—a grocer that had trimm’d up himself handsomely: he was justice, and show’d reasons [186] why. And I think this grocer—I mean this justice—had borrowed a weather-beaten balance from some justice of a conduit, both which scales were replenish’d with the choice of his ware. And the more liberally to show his nature, he gave every woman in the room her handful. 46

Tha. O great act of justice! Well, and my husband come cleanly off with this, he shall ne’er betray his weakness more, but confess himself a citizen hereafter, and acknowledge their wit, for alas! they come short.

Enter in the Masque, the Count of Massino,[187] Mendoza, Claridiana, and Torch-bearers. They deliver their shields to their several mistresses—that is to say, Mendoza to the Lady Lentulus; Claridiana to Thais;[188] to Isabella, Massino; to Abigail, Rogero.

Car. The sun setting, a man pointing at it:
The motto, Senso tamen ipse calorem.
Fair bride, some servant of yours, that here imitates
To have felt the heat of love bred in your brightness,
But setting thus from him by marriage;
He only here acknowledgeth your power,
And must [189] expect beams of a morrow-sun.

Rob. A sable shield: the word,[190] Vidua spes. 60
What—the forlorn hope, in black, despairing?
Lady Lentulus, is this the badge of all your suitors?

Abi.[192] Would Love could make you so! but ’tis his guise
To let us surfeit ere he ope our eyes.

Clar. Not as you grasp my heart, unwilling wanton.
Were but my breast bare and anatomised,
Thou shouldst behold there how thou torturest it;
And as Apelles limn’d the Queen of Love, 100
In her right hand grasping a heart in flames,
So may I thee, fairer, but crueller.

Clar. Grace me to wear this favour; ’tis a gem
That vails to your eyes, though not to the eagle’s,
And in exchange give me one word of comfort.

Tha.[193] Ay, marry: I like this wooer well:
He’ll win’s pleasure out o’ the stones.

[The second change, Isabella falls in love with Massino;[194] when[195] they change she speaks.

Abi. He shall not be long out, but you shall put in, I warrant you. Have a care that you stand just i’ the nick about six o’clock in the evening; my maid shall conduct you up. To save mine honour, you must come up darkling, and to avoid suspicion. 133

Clar.[199] The worse my fate, that ploughs a marble quarry:
Pygmalion, yet thy image was more kind,
Although thy love [200] not half so true as mine.
Dance they that list, I sail against the wind.

Tha. Nay, sir, betray not your infirmities,
You’ll make my husband jealous by and by.
We will think of you, and that presently. 150

Isa. [Aside.] He speaks not to this pledge; has he no mistress?
Would I might choose one for him! but ’t may be
He doth adore a brighter star than we.

Rob. We’ll after her. Gallants, unmasque I pray,
And taste a homely banquet, we entreat.

Men. Come, widow, I’ll be bold to put you in.
My lord, will you have a sociate? 170

Mass.[205] Good gentlemen, if I have any interest in you,
Let me depart unknown; ’tis a disgrace
Of an eternal memory.

Rog.[206] What, the fall, my lord?—as common a thing as can be. The stiffest man in Italy may fall between a woman’s legs.

Clar. Would I had changed places with you, my lord—would it had been my hap!

Isa. Sir, if wine were nectar, I’d [209] begin a health
To her that were most gracious in your eye: 190
Yet deign, as simply ’tis the gift of Bacchus,
To give her pledge that drinks. This god of wine
Cannot inflame me more to appetite,
Though he be co-supreme [210] with mighty Love,
Than thy fair shape.

Isa. That kiss shall serve
To be a pledge, although my lips should starve.—
[Aside.] No trick to get that vizor from his face?

Isa. Follow yond stranger; prithee learn his name.
We may hereafter thank him. [Exit Anna.] How I dote!
Is he not a god
That can command what other men would win
With the hard’st advantage? I must have him,
Or, shadow-like, follow his fleeting steps.
Were I as Daphne, and he followed chase,
(Though I rejected young Apollo’s love,
And like a dream beguile his wand’ring steps;)
Should he pursue me through the neighbouring grove,
Each cowslip-stalk should trip a willing fall, 220
Till he were mine, who till then am his thrall.
Nor will I blush, since worthy is my chance:[213]
’Tis said that Venus with a satyr slept;
And how much short came she of my fair aim!
Then, Queen of Love, a precedent I’ll be,
To teach fair women learn to love of me.
Speak, music: what’s his name?

Isa. I thank thee. Take the wings of night,
Beloved secretary, and post with them to Pavia;[214]
There furnish up some stately palace
Worthy to entertain the king of love:
Prepare it for my coming and my love’s.
Ere Phœbus’ steeds once more unharness’d be, 240
Or ere he sport with his belovèd Thetis,
The silver-footed goddess of the sea,
We will set forward. Fly like the northern wind,
Or swifter, Anna,—fleet like to my mind.