A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 11
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 11
English drama
PAN. Peace, not a word, be silent and admire.
ALB. As for the issue of the next summer's wars.
Reveal't to none, keep it to thyself in secret,
As touchstone of my skill in prophecy. Begone.
RON. I go, sir. [_Exit._
ALB. Signior Pandolfo, I pray you, pardon me,
Exotical despatches of great consequence
Stay'd me; and casting the nativity
O' th' Cham of Tartary, and a private conference
With a mercurial intelligence.
Y' are welcome in a good hour, better minute,
Best second, happiest third, fourth, fifth, and scruple.
Let the twelve houses of the horoscope
Be lodg'd with fortitudes and fortunates,[263]
To make you bless'd in your designs, Pandolfo.
PAN. Were't not much trouble to your starry employments,
I, a poor mortal, would entreat your furtherance
In a terrestrial business.
ALB. My ephemeris[264] lies,
Or I foresee your errand. Thus, 'tis thus.
You had a neighbour call'd Antonio,
A widower like yourself, whose only daughter,
Flavia, you love, and he as much admir'd
Your child Sulpitia. Is not this right?
PAN. Yes, sir: O strange! Cricca, admire in silence.
ALB. You two decreed a countermatch betwixt you,
And purposed to truck daughters. Is't not so?
PAN. Just as you say't. Cricca, admire and wonder.
CRI. This is no such secret: look to yourself; he'll cheat you.
[_Aside._]
ALB. Antonio, after this match concluded,
Having great sums of gold in Barbary,
Desires of you, before he consummate
The rites of matrimony, he might go thither
For three months; but as now 'tis three and three,
Since he embark'd, and is not yet return'd;
Now, sir, your business is to me to know
Whether Antonio be dead or living.
I'll tell you instantly.
PAN. Hast thou reveal'd it?
I told it none but thee.
CRI. Not I.
PAN. Why stare you?
Are you not well?
ALB. I wander 'twixt the poles
And heavenly hinges, 'mongst excentricals,
Centres, concentrics, circles, and epicycles,
To hunt out an aspect fit for your business.
CRI. Mean ostentation! For shame, awake yourself. [_Aside._
ALB. And, since the lamp of heaven is newly enter'd
To Cancer, old Antonio is stark dead,
Drown'd in the sea, stone dead; for _radius directorius_
In the sixth house, and the waning moon by Capricorn;
He's dead, he's dead.
CRI. 'Tis an ill time to marry.
The moon grows fork'd, and walks with Capricorn.
PAN. Peace, fool! these words are full of mysteries.
ALB. What ominous face and dismal countenance,
Mark'd for disasters, hated of all the heavens,
Is this that follows you?
PAN. He is my servant;
A plain and honest speaker, but no harm in him.
CRI. What see you in my face?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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