A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 14
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 14
English drama
MEN. His treasons need no trial, they're too plain.
Come not within the court; for, if you do,
To beg with Indian slaves I'll banish you.
[_Exeunt all but_ ALVERO, QUEEN _and_ ELEAZAR.
SCENE IV.
ALV. Why should my son be banished?
_Enter_ MARIA.
QUEEN-M. Of that dispute not now. Alvero,
I'll to the king my son; it shall be tried,
If Castile's king can cool a cardinal's pride.
[_Exeunt_ QUEEN _and_ ALVERO.
ELE. If I digest this gall--O my Maria,
I am whipp'd, and rack'd, and torn upon the wheel
Of giddy Fortune; she and her minions
Have got me down, and treading on my bosom,
They cry, _Lie still_: the cardinal
(O rare!) would bandy me away from Spain,
And banish me to beg--ay, beg with slaves.
MARIA. Conquer with patience these indignities.
ELE. Patience! ha, ha! yes, yes, an honest cardinal!
MARIA. Yet smother [still] the grief, and seek revenge.
ELE. Ha! banish me! s'foot, why, say they do,
There's Portugal--a good air, and France--a fine country,
Or Barbary--rich, and has Moors; the Turk,
Pure devil, and allows enough to fat
The sides of villany--good living there!
I can live there, and there, and there;
Troth, 'tis a villain can live anywhere.
But say I go from hence: I leave behind me
A cardinal that will laugh; I leave behind me
A Philip that will clap his hands for joy.
And dance lavoltoes through the Castile court;
But the deep'st wound of all is this, I leave
My wrongs, dishonours, and my discontents--
O, unreveng'd; my bedrid enemies
Shall never be rais'd up by the strong physical
Curing of my sword; therefore stay still;
Many have hearts to strike, that dare not kill
Leave me, Maria. Cardinal, this disgrace
Shall dye thy soul as inky as my face.
Pish!--hence, Maria.
_Enter_ ALVERO.
MARIA. To the king I'll fly,
He shall revenge my lord's indignity.
[_Exit._
ALV. Mendoza woos the king to banish thee.
Startle thy wonted spirits, awake thy soul,
And on thy resolution fasten wings,
Whose golden feathers may outstrip their hate.
ELE. I'll tie no golden feathers to my wings.
ALV. Shall they thus tread thee down, which once were glad
To lacquey by thy conquering chariot-wheels?
ELE. I care not: I can swallow more sour wrongs.
ALV. If they triumph o'er thee, they'll spurn me down.
ELE. Look: spurn again!
ALV. What ice hath cool'd that fire,
Which sometimes made thy thoughts to heaven aspire?
This patience had not wont to dwell with thee.
_Enter_ FERNANDO _and_ MARIA.
ELE. 'Tis right, but now the world is chang'd, you see;
Though I seem dead to you, here lives a fire----
No more, here comes the king and my Maria:
The Spaniard loves my wife; she swears to me
She's chaste as the white moon; well, if she be;
Well, too, if she be not, I care not, I;
I'll climb up by that love to dignity.
FER. Thou woo'st me to revenge thy husband's wrong,
I woo thy fair self not to wrong thyself;
Swear but to love me, and to thee I'll swear
To crown thy husband with a diadem.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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