“ They speake together.
Sost. Come living image of thy dead mother,
And take my loving farewell, ere we part.
I love thee dearly for thy fathers sake,
But for thy mothers dote with jealousie.
Oh I do feare, before I see thy face,
Or thou or I shall taste of bitternesse.
Kisse me, sweete boy, and, kissing, folde thine Aunte
Within the circle of thy little armes.
I neede not feare, death cannot offer wrong ”

“ FINIS. INTRODUCTION TO THE COSTLIE WHORE. The Costlie Whore, though not of the highest rarity, is a scarce play. It has never been reprinted, and thoroughly deserves on its own merits a place in the present collection. The conduct of the story is simple and straight-forward; the interest is well sustained; and the poetry has all the freshness and glow of youth. ”

“ Tush, tush, on earth; come, come, I know your suite, tis graunted sure, what ere it be.
Tul. My sute craves death, for treason to my friend.
Teren. The Traitor lives while I have breath to spend, Then let me die to satisfie your will.
Lent. Neither, yfaith, kneele not, rise, rise, I pray; You both confesse you have offended me?
Both. We doe, we have.
Lent. Then for this offence, be this your doome: Tulley must die, but not till fates decree To cut your vital threed, or Terentia Finde in her heart to be your Deathes-man. ”

“ Albert. 'Tis madnesse in the King and worse in you.
Hat. Though you prove traytors, we'll not prove untrue.
Fred. Will you dismisse this Strumpet to the stewes, Or our allegance in this act refuse?
Duke. Doe what you dare, the election still shall stand.
Fred. Woe and destruction then must rule the land.
Come, Lord Rinaldo, valiant Alberto, come;
We have friends enough to grace a warlike Drum. ”

“ Art thou not wife Unto my father?
Val. Thinke upon thy life:
It lyes like mine, onely in gentle breath;
Or that thy father's dead, and after death
'Tis in my choice to marry whom I will.
Fred. Any but me.
Valen. O doe not thinke so ill,
Rather thinke, thou art a stranger, not his sonne;
Then 'tis no incest tho the Act be done.
Nature unto her selfe is too unkind
To buzze such scruples into Fredericks minde;
Twas a device of man to avoid selfe love,
Else every pleasure in one stocke should move,
Beautie in grace part never from the kinne. ”

“ Beyond all sufferance, monster, thou dost move me.
'Twas for my fathers sake, not for thine owne;
That, to thy lifes losse, thou hadst throughly knowne
But that relenting nature playde her part,
To save thy blood whose losse had slaine his heart:
And it repents me not hee doth survive,
But that his fortune was so ill to wive.
Come, kill, for for that you came; shun delayes
Lest living Ile tell this to thy dispraise,
Make him to hate thee, as he hath just cause,
And like a strumpet turne thee to the lawes.
Valen. Good Fredericke.
Fred. Tis resolv'd on, I haue said. ”

“ Arm. Enough, kinde brother; we assure us so,
Else would we seeke another friend abroade,
To do our willes and dying Testament.
Nature and love will have a double care
To bring him up with carefull diligence,
As best beseemes one of such parentage.
Fall. Assure your selfe, the safest course I can, Shall be provided for your little sonne,— He shall be sent unto the King of Heaven. ”

“ There, take it, Fredericke, our last guift of grace;
Since thou must die, Ile have thee die apace.
Fred. O happie meanes, given by a trecherous hand,
To be my true guide to the heavenly land!
Death steales upon me like a silken sleepe;
Through every vaine doe leaden rivers flowe, [213]
The gentlest poyson that I ever knewe,
To work so coldly, yet to be so true.
Like to an infant patiently I goe,
Out of this vaine world, from all worldly woe;
Thankes to the meanes, tho they deserve no thankes,
My soule beginnes t'ore-flow these fleshly bankes. ”

“ Goe to, there's knaves in my house! I know of no Varlets, I have an eye has his sence, a brain that can reach, I have bene cald Polititian, my wife is my wife. I am her top, i'me her head: if mine Host say the word, the Mouse [314] shall be dun.
Corn. Not so my sweet Host, mum, mum, no words against your wife; he that meanes to live quiet, to sleep in cleane sheetes, a Pillowe under his head, his dyet drest cleanely, mum, mum, no words against his wife.
Host. Thar't a foole, thar't a foole, bee rulde by mine host, shew thy self a brave man, of the true seede of Troy, a gallant Agamemnon ”

“ Arden is far more powerful than the two other plays; but I venture to think that the superiority lies rather in single scenes and detached passages than in general dramatic treatment. The noble scene of the quarrel and reconciliation between Alice Arden and Mosbie is incomparably finer than any scene in the Warning or Two Tragedies; but I am not sure that Arden contains another scene which can be definitely pronounced to be beyond Yarington's ability, though there are many scattered passages displaying such poetry as we find nowhere in the Two Tragedies. ”

“ Those little stickes, do hide the murthred course,
But stickes, nor ought besides, can hide the sinne.
He sits on high, whose quick all-seeing eye,
Cannot be blinded by mans subtilties.
Mer. Look every where, can you discerne him now?
Rach. Not with mine eye, but with my heart I can.
Mer. That is because thou knowest I laide him there:
To guiltinesse each thought begetteth feare. ”

“ Are nothinge nowe but windowes, broad bay windowes
So spatious that carts laded may drive throughe
And neather loush oth' topp or eathere syde.
Lights every where, we shall have lightnes inoughe:
Heares stupid woork for daubers!
Ashburne. We are forct All to forsake the villaige and to fly Unto the feilds for succor.
Godfrey. Syr, it putt me
In minde of the greate King Agathocles,
Who was, as I have heard you oft relate,
Brain'd with a Tyle. Why may not meaner men
Then feare the fall of brick batts?
Enter Raphael, Treadway, and the Clowne.
Treadway. A strange night And full of terror ”

“ That will not bend the browe and bite the lippe,
Trouble his quiet soule with venome spleene
And feare least the all over-seeer
Can without vengeance see these ignomies?
Grac. Why, therfore are they belooved like Sargeants and entertained like Beggers; Think'st thou but any honorable Gate, But will be shut against these Butterflies?
Acut. Oh Graccus! thou beguil'st opinion:
The Gates of great men stand more wide
To entertaine a foole then Cresus armes
To hug the Golden God ”

“ If this villadge bee inhabited with men as this place within is with monsters; if with men that have eyes and can distinguishe bewty, or that have hartes and therfore saver of pitty; if you bee fathers and know what belonges to children, or christians and therefore what is ment by charity; if husbandmen and have hope of your harvest, or marchants of your trade's increase; if fishermen that would thryve by your labours, or any of all these that would be knowne by your honesty—
Ashburne. Many of those thou namest have place in us, Great'st part if not all. ”

“ Being not her husband, thou wilt be no friend.
Thus is thy policy by heaven prevented:
Therefore henceforth we banish thee our Court;
Our Court? our territorie, every place
Wherein we beare the state of Royaltie.
Urge no replie, the fact is plainely prov'd,
And thou art hatefull where thou wert belov'd.
Mon. My gracious Lord—
Duke. We can afford no grace: Stay here, and reade thy ruine in my face.
Mon. I goe contented with this heavy doome; 'Twas mine owne seeking. Faire and wise, adiew; Deceit hath kil'd conceit, you know tis true. ”

“ In Yarington's case we have no such feeling. He seems to be giving us the best that he had to give; and it must be confessed that he is intolerably flat at times. It is difficult to resist a smile when the compassionate Neighbour (in his shirt) , discovering poor Thomas Winchester with the hammer sticking in his head, delivers himself after this fashion:—
"What cruell hand hath done so foule a deede,
Thus to bemangle a distressed youth
Without all pittie or a due remorse! ”

“ Feare no relenting, I dare pawne my soule,
(And thats no gadge, it is the divels due)
He shall imbrew his greedie griping hands
In the dead bosome of the bloodie boy,
And winde himselfe, his sonne, and harmlesse wife,
In endlesse foldes of sure destruction.
Now, Homicide, thy lookes are like thyselfe,
For blood and death are thy companions.
Let my confounding plots but goe before,
And thou shalt wade up to the chin in gore.
Homi. I finde it true, for where thou art let in,
There is no scruple made of any sinne ”

“ I am Host of the Hobby, Cornutus is my neighbour, Graccus, a mad spirit, Accutus is my friend, Sir Scillicet is my guest; al mad comrades of the true seede of Troy, that love juce of Grapes; we are all true friends, merrie harts live long, let Pipers strike up, ile daunce my cinquepace, cut aloft my brave capers, whirle about my toe, doe my tricks above ground, ile kisse my sweet hostesse, make a curtesie to thy grace; God blesse thy Maiestie and the Mouse shall be dun. ”

“ Speake still, if thou wilt, but not for him;
The more thou speak'st the more augments my love,
If that thou can'st adde more to infinite;
The more thou speakest the more decreaseth his,
If thou canst take away ought from nothing;
Thinke, Tulley, if Lentulus can love me,
So much and more Terentia doth love thee.
Tull. Oh Madam, Tulley is poore, and poore is counted base.
Ter. Vertue is ritch and blots a poore disgrace.
Tul. Lentulus is great, his frowne's my woe, And of a friend he will become my foe.
Ter. As he is friend, we will intreate his love ”

“ But dying needie, poore and bare,
Wanting to discharge the Fryer,
Unto his grave hee's like to passe
Having neither Dirge nor Masse:
So set forward, let him goe,
Et benedicamus Domino.
Phy. And then to Apollo hollo, trees, hollo.—Tapster a few more cloathes to my feete.
Omnes. Oh heavens!
Acut. Gentles, keep your places, feare nothing; in the name of God, what art thou?
Phy. My Hearse and winding-sheete! what meanes this? why, Gentles, I am a living man.
Acut. Spirit, thou ly'st; thou deludest us.
Citty wife. Conjure him, Fryer. ”

“ Valen. Are you not well sir, that your colour failes?
Duke. If I be sicke, 'tis onely in the minde:
To see so faire, so common to all kinde;
I am growne jealous now of all the world.—
Lady, how ere you prize me, without pleasure
More then a kisse, I tender you this treasure;
O what's a mint spent in such desire
But like a sparke that makes a greater fire?—
She must be made my Dutches, there it goes;
And marrying her, I marry thousand woes.—
Adiew, kind Mistresse;—the next newes you heare
Is to sit crown'd in an Imperiall chair. [185]
Valen. ”

“ Tis but my goods and lands my Unckle seekes;
Having that safely, he desires no more.
I do protest by my dead parents soules,
By the deare love of false Fallerios sonne,
Whose heart, my heart assures me, will be griev'd
To heare his fathers inhumanitie,
I will forsake my countrie, goods, and lands,
I, and my selfe will even change my selfe,
In name, in life, in habit, and in all,
And live in some farre-moved continent,
So you will spare my weake and tender youth,
Which cannot entertaine the stroake of death
In budding yeares and verie spring of life. ”

“ That all men wish to heare such harmony,
And I will place stern Murther by my side,
That we may do more harmes then haughty pride.
Homi. Truth, now farewell; hereafter thou shalt see Ile vexe thee more with many tragedies.
Truth. The more the pitty; would the hart of man
Were not so open wide to entertaine
The harmfull baites of selfe-devouring sinne! ”

“ The grasse greene pavement shall be drownd in blood, And yet Ile wade to kill her in the flood.
Duke. Alarum, Drum! madnesse is on their side,
All vertuous counsell is by them defied.
Upon our part strike Drums, Trumpets proclaime
Death most assur'd to those that love their shame.
Alarum, fight lustily, and drive away the Duke; Fredericke pursues Valentia over the stage and takes her; a Retreate sounded.
Enter at one doore the Duke, Mon., Hatto, and Alfred, with Drum and Colours.—Enter at the other doore Fredericke leading Valentia prisoner, Rinaldo and Alberto with Drum and Colours. ”

“ A good policie to praise Cicero, For feare I rob you of your Lentulus.
Ter. Faith, a Souldier is not for thy [255] humor; now I crie a Warrier; he fights stoutly in a field-bed, discharges his work sure, under his Curtaines would I fight. But come, our Lovers melt while we meditate; thou for thy Scholler, I for my soldier; and if we can not please them so, weele shake off this loose habit and turn Pages to suit their humors.
[Exeunt.
[Scene 2.]
Enter Accutus and Graccus.
Grac. Come, Accutus, discharge your follower; lets leave rubbing a while, since the byas runs so much the wrong way. ”

“ If thou hast any anger in thy brest
Towards this Lady, turne it all on me.
She is a woman, timerous by her kinde;
I, man-like borne, and beare a man-like minde.
Mon. Ile trie your courage. [Draw. [164]
Euph. As thou fear'st my frowne,
As thou hast hope to thrive in thy new choice,
As thou respect'st the favour of the gods,
Welfare in any action thou intends,
Doe not reveale unto my fretfull father
This humble choice that my high birth hath made. ”