English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600
_Kath_. I prythee leave me; I am not displeasd,
But fayne would vent my sorrowe from my heart.
Hold, take my purse, spend that and leave my presence.
Goe everywhere; enquire my Pembrooke out,
And if thou bringst me to his breathlesse truncke
I will reward thee with a treble gift.
_Clow_. Well, I were best bee going, now I am so fayrely offred.
Mistris, your reward hath stopt my eares and entic'de my legs to be
walking. Farewell, I will goe, God knows whither, to seeke and to finde
both and neyther. Farewell, sweet Mistris. [_Exit_.
_Kath_. O Pembrooke, let me kneele unto thy bloud:
And yet I know not whether't be thy bloud,
Save that my soule by a divine instinct
Tells me it is the treasure of thy veynes.
If thou beest dead, thou mirrour of all men,
I vow to dye with thee: this field, this grove,
Shall be my receptacle till my last;
My pillow shall be made a banke of mosse,
And what I drinke the silver brooke shall yeeld.
No other campe nor Court will Katharine have
Till fates do limit her a common grave.
[SCENE 3.]
_Enter Fraunce, Navar, Philip, Flaunders, Thomasin, and attendants_.
_Nav_. Our daughter fled? when? whither? which way? how?
_Tho_. I know not.
_Phil_. Bellamira, my lives joy!
Upon those pinnyons that support her flight
Hovers my heart; you beare away my soule.
Turne, turne agayn, and give this earthly frame
Essentiall power, which for thine absence dyes.
Thou art the sweet of sweets, the joy of joyes;
For thee was Philip borne. O turne agayne,
And Philip is the blessedest of men.
_Lew_. We are glad she's gone though we dissemble it.
--Sonne, bridle this affection, cease these laments:
She did not value them.
_Nav_. Lewis, she did,
Till savage hate that shape disfigured.
_Phil_. O she was worthy to be Queene of heaven;
Her beauty, e're it suffred violence,
Was like the Sunne in his Meridian Throne,
Too splendent for weake eyes to gaze upon.
She was too bright before, till being hid
Under that envious cloud, it took the place
Of a darke ground to show a lovelyer face.
That Leprosie in her seemd perfect beauty
And she did guild her imperfections o're
With vertue, which no foule calumnious breath
Could ever soyle: true vertues dye is such
That malice cannot stayne nor envy tuch.
Then say not but her worth surmounts these woes.
_Nav_. She griev'd to tye you to a hated bed
And therefore followed Burbon for revenge.
_Phil_. Bourbon! who names him? that same verball sound
Is like a thunderclap to Philips eares,
Frighting my very soule. Sure you said Burbon,
And to that prodegie you joynd revenge,
Revenge that like a shaddow followes him.
'Twas he that made me bankrout of all blisse,
Sude the divorce of that pure white and red
Which deckt my Bellamiraes lovely cheeks:
And shall he scape unpunisht?
_Lew_. Joyne your hands
And all with us sweare vengeance on the Duke.
_Phil_. Not for the world: who prosecutes his hate
On Burbon injures me; I am his foe,
And none but I will work his overthrow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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