網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

Mar. Then they got traitors.

Gui. Yes, angel-traitors, fit to shine in palaces,
Forked into ills, and split into deceits;

Two in their very frame. "Twas well, 'twas well,
I saw thee not at court, thou basilisk;
For if I had, those eyes, without his guards,
Had done the tyrant's work.

Mar. Why then it seems

I was not false in all: I told you, Guise,

If

you left Paris, I would go to court :

You see I kept my promise.

Gui. Still thy sex:

Once true in all thy life, and that for mischief.

Mar. Have I said I loved

Gui. Stab on, stab :

'Tis plain you love the king.

Mar. Nor him, nor you,

you?

In that unlawful way you seem to mean.
My eyes had once so far betrayed my heart,
As to distinguish you from common men;
Whate'er you said, or did, was charming all.

Gui. But yet, it seems, you found a king more charming.

Mar. I do not say more charming, but more noble, More truly royal, more a king in soul,

Than you are now in wishes.

Gui. May be so:

But love has oiled your tongue to run so glib,-
Curse on your eloquence!

Mar. Curse not that eloquence that saved
life:

your

For, when your wild ambition, which defied
A royal mandate, hurried you to town;
When over-weening pride of popular power
Had thrust you headlong in the Louvre toils,
Then had you died: For know, my haughty lord,
Had I not been, offended majesty

[ocr errors]

Had doomed you to the death you well deserved. Gui. Then was't not Henry's fear preserved my life?

Mar. You know him better, or you ought to know him:

He's born to give you fear, not to receive it.
Gui. Say this again; but add, you gave not up
Your honour as the ransom of my life;

For, if you did, 'twere better I had died.
Mar. And so it were.

Gui. Why said you, so it were?

For though 'tis true, methinks 'tis much unkind.
Mar. My lord, we are not now to talk of kindness.
If you acknowledge I have saved your life,
Be grateful in return, and do an act,

Your honour, though unasked by me, requires.
Gui. By heaven, and you, whom next to heaven

I love,

(If I said more, I fear I should not lie,) I'll do whate'er my honour will permit.

Mar. Go, throw yourself at Henry's royal feet, And rise not till approved a loyal subject. Gui. A duteous loyal subject I was ever. Mar. I'll put it short, my lord; depart from Paris. Gui. I cannot leave

My country, friends, religion, all at stake.

Be wise, and be before-hand with your fortune;
Prevent the turn, forsake the ruined court;
Stay here, and make a merit of your love.

Mar. No; I'll return, and perish in those ruins. I find thee now, ambitious, faithless, Guise. Farewell, the basest and the last of men!

Gui. Stay, or-O heaven!-I'll force you: StayMar. I do believe

So ill of you, so villainously ill,

That, if you durst, you would:

[blocks in formation]

Honour you've little, honesty you've less;
But conscience you have none:

Yet there's a thing called fame, and men's esteem,
Preserves me from your force. Once more, farewell.
Look on me, Guise; thou seest me now the last;
Though treason urge not thunder on thy head,
This one departing glance shall flash thee dead. [Exit.
Gui. Ha, said she true? Have I so little honour?
Why, then, a prize so easy and so fair

Had never 'scaped my gripe: but mine she is;
For that's set down as sure as Henry's fall.
But my ambition, that she calls my crime;-
False, false, by fate! my right was born with me,
And heaven confest it in my very frame;
The fires, that would have formed ten thousand angels,
Were crammed together for my single soul.

Enter MALICORN.

Mal. My lord, you trifle precious hours away; The heavens look gaudily upon your greatness, And the crowned moments court you as they fly. Brisac and fierce Aumale have pent the Swiss, And folded them like sheep in holy ground; Where now, with ordered pikes, and colours furled, They wait the word that dooms them all to die: Come forth, and bless the triumph of the day. Gui. So slight a victory required not me: I but sat still, and nodded, like a god, My world into creation; now 'tis time To walk abroad, and carelessly survey

How the dull matter does the form obey.

[Exit with MALICORN.

SCENE IV.

Enter Citizens, and MELANAX, in his fanatic Habit, at the head of them.

Mel. Hold, hold, a little, fellow citizens; and you,

gentlemen of the rabble, a word of godly exhortation to strengthen your hands, ere you give the onset.

1 Cit. Is this a time to make sermons? I would not hear the devil now, though he should come in God's name, to preach peace to us.

2 Cit. Look you, gentlemen, sermons are not to be despised; we have all profited by godly sermons that promote sedition: let the precious man hold forth.

Omn. Let him hold forth, let him hold forth.

Mel. To promote sedition is my business: It has been so before any of you were born, and will be so, when you are all dead and damned; I have led on the rabble in all ages.

1 Cit. That's a lie, and a loud one.

2 Cit. He has led the rabble both old and young, that's all ages: A heavenly sweet man, I warrant him; I have seen him somewhere in a pulpit. Mel. I have sown rebellion every where.

1 Cit. How, every where? That's another lie: How far have you travelled, friend?

Mel. Over all the world.

1 Cit. Now, that's a rapper.

2 Cit. I say no: For, look you, gentlemen, if he has been a traveller, he certainly says true, for he may lie by authority.

Mel. That the rabble may depose their prince, has in all times, and in all countries, been accounted lawful.

1 Cit. That's the first true syllable he has uttered: but as how, and whereby, and when, may they depose him?

Mel. Whenever they have more power to depose, than he has to oppose; and this they may do upon the least occasion.

1 Cit. Sirrah, you mince the matter; you should

say, we may do it upon no occasion, for the less the better.

Mel. [Aside.] Here's a rogue now, will out-shoot the devil in his own bow.

2 Cit. Some occasion, in my mind, were not amiss: for, look you, gentlemen, if we have no occasion, then whereby we have no occasion to depose him; and therefore, either religion or liberty, I stick to those occasions; for when they are gone, good night to godliness and freedom.

Mel. When the most are of one side, as that's our case, we are always in the right; for they, that are in power, will ever be the judges: so that if we say white is black, poor white must lose the cause, and put on mourning; for white is but a single syllable, and we are a whole sentence. Therefore, go on boldly, and lay on resolutely for your Solemn League and Covenant; and if here be any squeamish conscience who fears to fight against the king,though I, that have known you, citizens, these thousand years, suspect not any,-let such understand, that his majesty's politic capacity is to be distinguished from his natural; and though you murder him in one, you may preserve him in the other; and so much for this time, because the enemy is at hand.

2 Cit. [Looking out.] Look you, gentlemen, 'tis Grillon, the fierce colonel; he that devours our wives, and ravishes our children.

1 Cit. He looks so grum, I don't care to have to do with him; would I were safe in my shop, behind the counter.

2 Cit. And would I were under my wife's pettiLook you, gentlemen.

coats.

Mel. You, neighbour, behind your counter, yesterday paid a bill of exchange in glass louis d'ors;

« 上一頁繼續 »