Thomas Dekker

“ Leaving his state and conscience clear from doubt
Of following uproars.
ALBA
Kill not, but surprise him.
CARLO
That's my voice still.
MEDINA
Thine, soldier?
BALTHAZAR Oh, this colic of a kingdom, when the wind of treason gets amongst the small guts, what a rumbling and a roaring it keeps. And yet, make the best of it you can, it goes on stinking. Kill a King?
DAENIA
Why?
BALTHAZAR If men should pull the sun out of heaven every time 'tis eclipsed, not all the wax nor tallow in Spain would serve to make us candles for one year. ”

“ Oh that such flies do buzz about the beams of Majesty, like earwigs tickling a King's yielding ear with that court-organ, flattery, when a soldier must not come near the court gates twenty score, but stand for want of clothes, though he win towns, amongst the almsbasket-men! His best reward being scorned to be a fellow to the blackguard. Why should a soldier, being the world's right arm, be cut thus by the left, a courtier? Is the world all ruff and feather and nothing else? Shall I never see a tailor give his coat with a difference from a gentleman?
Enter King, Alanzo, Carlo, Cockadillio. ”

“ Freely to prove our longings great to peace.
CARDINAL
The Constable expects some pawn from you,
That in this fairy circle shall rise up
No fury to confound his niece nor him.
KING
A King's word is engaged.
CARDINAL
It shall be taken.
KING
Valasco, call the Captain of our Guard,
Bid him attend us instantly.
VALASCO
I shall.
Exit Valasco.
KING
Lopez come hither. See,
Letters from Duke Medina, both in the name
Of him and all his faction, offering peace,
And our old love, his niece Onaelia
In marriage with her free and fair consent
To Cockadillio, a Don of Spain. ”

“ Medina's faction preached it openly.
KING
Be cursed he and his faction. Oh how I labour
For these preventions! But so cross is fate
My ills are ne'r hid from me, but their cures.
What's to be done?
QUEEN
That which being left undone,
Your life lies at the stake. Let them be breathless
Both brat and mother.
KING
Ha!
MALATESTE
She plays true music Sir.
The mischiefs you are drenched in are so full,
You need not fear to add to them. Since now
No way is left to guard thy rest secure,
But by a means like this.
LOPEZ
All Spain rings forth
Medina's name, and his confederates. ”

“ QUEEN
Say on.
MALATESTE
That the most Catholic king in marrying you,
Keeps you but as his whore.
QUEEN
Are we their themes?
MALATESTE
And that Medina's niece, Onaelia,
Is his true wife. Her bastard son they said
The King being dead, should claim and wear the crown,
And whatsoever children you shall bear,
To be but bastards in the highest degree,
As being begotten in adultery.
QUEEN
We will not grieve at this, but with hot vengeance
Beat down this armed mischief. Malateste! ”

“ Thy wounded conscience, can there my pardon help thee?
Yet having deserved well both of Spain and us,
We will not pay thy worth with loss of life,
But banish thee for ever.
BALTHAZAR
For a groom's death?
KING
No more. We banish thee our court and Kingdom.
A King that fosters men so dipped in blood,
May be called merciful, but never good.
Be gone upon thy life.
BALTHAZAR
Well, farewell.
Exit Balthazar.
VALASCO
The fellow is not dead, but wounded sir.
QUEEN
After him Malateste. In our lodging
Stay that rough fellow, he's the man shall do't. ”

“ MEDINA
Openly!
DAENIA
And heaven with us to witness.
MEDINA
Well, that fire
Will prove a catching flame to burn his kingdom.
ALBA
Meet and consult.
MEDINA
No more, trust not the air
With our projections, let us all revenge
Wrongs done to our most noble kinswoman.
Action is honours language, swords are tongues,
Which both speak best, and best do right our wrongs.
Exeunt.
ACT 2 SCENE 2 Enter Onaelia from one way, Cornego another.
CORNEGO
Madam, there's a bear without to speak with you
ONAELIA
A bear?
CORNEGO
It's a man all hair, and that's as bad. ”

“ Can never grow to height. Do, Sir, but read
A book here closed up, which too late you opened,
Now blotted by you with foul marginal notes.
KING
Art frantic?
CARDINAL
You are so, Sir.
KING
If I be,
Then here's my first mad fit.
CARDINAL
For honour's sake,
For love you bear to conscience -
KING
Reach the flames:
Grandees and Lords of Spain be witness all
What here I cancel. Read, do you know this bond?
ALL
Our hands are to it.
DAENIA
'Tis your confirmed contract
With my sad kinswoman: but wherefore Sir,
Now is your rage on fire, in such a presence
To have it mourn in ashes? ”

“ Yes, I will, take it, speak any thing, 'tis pardoned.
BALTHAZAR You are a whoremaster. Do you send me to win towns for you abroad and you lose a kingdom at home?
KING
What kingdom?
BALTHAZAR
The fairest in the world, the kingdom of your fame, your honour.
KING
Wherein?
BALTHAZAR I'll be plain with you. Much mischief is done by the mouth of a cannon, but the fire begins at a little touch-hole. You heard what nightingale sung to you even now. ”

“ ONAELIA
Is't not some executioner?
CORNEGO
I see nothing about him to hang in but his garters.
ONAELIA
Sent from the King to warn me of my death:
I prithee bid him welcome.
CORNEGO
He says he is a poet.
ONAELIA
Then bid him better welcome.
Belike he's come to write my epitaph,
Some scurvy thing I'll warrant. Welcome Sir.
Enter Poet.
POET
Madam, my love presents this book unto you.
ONAELIA
To me? I am not worthy of a line,
Unless at that Line hang some hook to choke me:
[Onaelia reads book.] ”

“ Rush in, and, if Medina's faction wrestle
Against your forces, kill, but if yield, save.
Be secret!
ALANZO
I am charmed, Sir.
Exit Alanzo.
KING
Watch Valasco.
If any wear a Cross, feather or glove,
Or such prodigious signs of a knit faction,
Table their names up. At our court-gate plant
Good strength to bar them out, if once they swarm.
Do this upon thy life.
VALASCO
Not death shall fright me.
Exit [Valasco and Lopez,] enter Balthazar.
BALTHAZAR
'Tis done, Sir.
KING
Death! What's Done?
BALTHAZAR Young cub's flayed, but the she-fox shifting her hole is fled. ”

“ ALANZO
Yes Sir, the brave soldier
Employed against the Moors
KING
Half turned Moor!
I'll honour thee, reach him a chair, that table
And now, Aeneas-like, let thine own trumpet
Sound forth thy battle with those slavish Moors.
BALTHAZAR My music is a Cannon, a pitched field my stage, Furies the actors, blood and vengeance the scene, death the story, a sword imbrued with blood, the pen that writes, and the poet a terrible buskined <17> tragical fellow, with a wreath about his head of burning match instead of bays.
KING
On to the battle.
BALTHAZAR 'Tis here without bloodshed. ”

“ Where the true poet indeed doth scorn to guild
A gaudy tomb with glory of his verse,
Which coffins stinking carrion. No, his lines
Are free as his invention. No base fear
Can shake his pen to temporise even with kings,
The blacker are their crimes, he louder sings.
Go, go, thou canst not write: 'tis but my calling
The muses help, that I may be inspired.
Canst a woman be a poet, Sir?
POET
Yes, Madam, best of all. For poesie
Is but feigning, feigning is to lie,
And women practice lying more than men.
ONAELIA
Nay, but if I should write, I would tell truth. ”

“ MEDINA
Thou knowest where to bestow him, Balthazar.
BALTHAZAR
Come noble boy.
ALBA
Hide him from being discovered.
BALTHAZAR Discovered? Would there stood a troop of Moors thrusting the paws of hungry lions forth, to seize this prey, and this but in my hand, I should do something.
SEBASTIAN
Must I go with this black fellow, Uncle? ”

“ Peace had her Sabbath ne'r till now in Spain.
KING
Where is our noble soldier Balthazar?
So close in conference with that Signor?
NO
No.
KING
What think'st thou of this great day Balthazar?
BALTHAZAR Of this day? Why as of a new play, if it ends well, all's well. All but men are but actors, now if you being the King should be out of your part, or the Queen out of hers, or your Dons out if theirs, here's No will never be out of his. ”

“ Yes, yes, I am, but 'tis no point of weapon
Can rescue me. Go presently and summon
All our chief Grandees, Cardinals, and Lords
Of Spain to meet in Council instantly.
We called you forth to execute a business
Of another strain - but 'tis no matter now.
Thou diest when next thou furrowest up our brow.
BALTHAZAR
So, die!
Exit Balthazar, enter Cardinal, Rodrigo, Alba, Daenia, Valasco. ”

“ Great ships on small rocks, beating oft are rent.
And so, let Spain by us. But Malateste,
Why from the presence did you single me
Into this gallery?
MALATESTE
To show you Madam,
The picture of yourself, but so defaced,
And mangled by proud Spaniards, it would whet
A sword to arm the poorest Florentine
In your just wrongs.
QUEEN
As how? Let's see that picture.
MALATESTE
Here 'tis then: time is not scarce four days old,
Since I, and certain Dons, sharp-witted fellows,
And of good rank, were with two Jesuits
Grave profound scholars, in deep argument
Of various propositions. ”

“ BALTHAZAR Take sin as the English snuff tobacco, and scornfully blow the smoke in the eyes of heaven, the vapour flies up in clouds of bravery. But when 'tis out, the coal is black, your conscience, and the pipe stinks. A sea of rosewater cannot sweeten your corrupted bosom. ”

“ What would you call that man, who under-sail in a most goodly ship, wherein he ventures his life, fortunes, and honours, yet in a fury should hew the mast down, cast sails overboard, fire all the tacklings, and to crown this madness, should blow up all the decks, burn th'oaken ribs, and in that combat 'twix two elements leap desperately, and drown himself in the seas? ”

“ Medina mocks me,
Because I wrong her with the largest bowl.
I'll change with thee Onaelia.
Malateste rages.
QUEEN
Sir, you shall not!
KING
Fear you I cannot fetch it off?
QUEEN
Malateste!
KING
This is your scorn to her, because I am doing
This poorest honour to her. Music sound,
It goes were it ten fathoms to the ground.
Cornets play. King drinks, Queen and Malateste storm.
MALATESTE
Fate strikes with the wrong weapon.
QUEEN
Sweet Royal Sir no more, it is too deep.
MALATESTE
Twill hurt your health sir.
KING
Interrupt me in my drink? 'Tis off. ”

“ ONAELIA
His most goodly shape
Married to royal virtues of his mind.
BALTHAZAR Yet now you would divorce all that goodness; and why? For a little lechery of revenge? It's a lie. The burr that sticks in your throat is a throne. Let him out of his mess of kingdoms cut out but one, and lay Sicily, Aragon or Naples or any else upon your trencher <25>, and you will praise bastard <26> for the sweetest wine in the world, and call for another quart of it. 'Tis not because the man has left you, but because you are not the woman you would be that mads you. A she- cuckold is an untameable monster. ”

“ Planned by the King in an attempt to achieve reconciliation and remove the threat of Onaelia by marrying her off, it represents a means of bringing almost the entire cast on stage in order to witness the meeting out of justice. It is ironic that the King's scheme is undermined, not by his political rivals but by his allies, The Queen and Malateste, who do not believe that the marriage will provide a stable settlement and instead seek to pursue a deadlier course of action. ”

“ I have a private coat for Italian Stilettos, I can be treacherous with the Walloon, drunk with the Dutch, a chimney-sweeper with the Irish, a gentleman with the Welsh and true arrant thief with the English. What then is my country to me? ”

“ What sort of poets are there?
POET
Two sorts lady:
The great poets and the small poets.
ONAELIA
Great and small!
Which do you call the great? The fat ones? ”

“ ACT FIVE SCENE FOUR A banquet set out, cornets sounding; enter at one door, Lopez, Valasco, Alanzo, No. After them King, Cardinal, with Don Cockadillio, Bridegroom, Queen and Malateste after. At the other door, Alba, Carlo, Roderigo, Medina and Daenia leading Onaelia as bride, Cornego, and Juanna after, Balthazar alone. The Bride and Bridegroom kiss, and by the Cardinal are joined hand in hand. The King is very merry, hugging Medina very lovingly. ”

“ ONAELIA
I, I that's well. Pray swear.
ALL
To this we swear.
SEBASTIAN
Uncle, I swear too.
MEDINA
Our forces let's unite, be bold and secret,
And lion-like with open eyes let's sleep,
Streams smooth and slowly running are most deep.
Exeunt.
ACT THREE SCENE THREE Enter King, Queen, Malateste, Valasco, Lopez, [Roderigo and guards] . ”

“ Get thou from my sight, the Queen would see thee.
BALTHAZAR
Your gold, Sir.
KING
Go with Judas and repent.
BALTHAZAR
So men hate whores after lust's heat is spent.
I'm gone, Sir.
KING
Tell me true, is he dead?
BALTHAZAR
Dead.
KING
No matter. 'Tis but morning of revenge,
The sunset shall be red and tragical.
Exit King.
BALTHAZAR
Sin is a raven croaking <52> her own fall.
Exit Balthazar.
ACT FIVE SCENE TWO Enter Medina, Daenia, Alba, Carlo and The Faction with Rosemary <53> in their hats.
MEDINA
Keep locked the door, and let none enter to us
But who shares our fortunes. ”

“ The hardest part for a soldier to play is to prate well. Our tongues are fifes, drums, petronels <21>, muskets, culverin <22> and cannon. These are our roarers, the clocks which we go by are our hands. Thus we reckon ten, our swords strike eleven and when steel targets of proof clatter one against another, then 'tis noon that's the height and the heat of the day of battle. ”