Bussy D'Ambois and The Revenge of Bussy D'AmboisChapman, George
General
Bussy D'Ambois and The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois
Chapman, George
Bussy d'Amboise, 1549?-1579 -- Drama; English drama -- 17th century; Revenge -- Drama; Tragedies (Drama)
_Buss._ Ile make you sport enough, then. Let me have
My lucerns too, or dogs inur'd to hunt
Beasts of most rapine, but to put them up,
And if I trusse not, let me not be trusted.
Shew me a great man (by the peoples voice, 25
Which is the voice of God) that by his greatnesse
Bumbasts his private roofes with publique riches;
That affects royaltie, rising from a clapdish;
That rules so much more than his suffering King,
That he makes kings of his subordinate slaves: 30
Himselfe and them graduate like woodmongers
Piling a stack of billets from the earth,
Raising each other into steeples heights;
Let him convey this on the turning props
Of Protean law, and (his owne counsell keeping) 35
Keepe all upright--let me but hawlk at him,
Ile play the vulture, and so thump his liver
That (like a huge unlading Argosea)
He shall confesse all, and you then may hang him.
Shew me a clergie man that is in voice 40
A lark of heaven, in heart a mowle of earth;
That hath good living, and a wicked life;
A temperate look, and a luxurious gut;
Turning the rents of his superfluous cures
Into your phesants and your partriches; 45
Venting their quintessence as men read Hebrew--
Let me but hawlk at him, and like the other,
He shall confesse all, and you then may hang him.
Shew me a lawyer that turnes sacred law
(The equall rendrer of each man his owne, 50
The scourge of rapine and extortion,
The sanctuary and impregnable defence
Of retir'd learning and besieged vertue)
Into a Harpy, that eates all but's owne,
Into the damned sinnes it punisheth, 55
Into the synagogue of theeves and atheists;
Blood into gold, and justice into lust:--
Let me but hawlk at him, as at the rest,
He shall confesse all, and you then may hang him.
_Enter Mont-surrey, Tamira and Pero._
_Gui._ Where will you find such game as you would hawlk at? 60
_Buss._ Ile hawlk about your house for one of them.
_Gui._ Come, y'are a glorious ruffin and runne proud
Of the Kings headlong graces; hold your breath,
Or, by that poyson'd vapour, not the King
Shall back your murtherous valour against me. 65
_Buss._ I would the King would make his presence free
But for one bout betwixt us: by the reverence
Due to the sacred space twixt kings and subjects,
Here would I make thee cast that popular purple
In which thy proud soule sits and braves thy soveraigne. 70
_Mons._ Peace, peace, I pray thee, peace!
_Buss._ Let him peace first
That made the first warre.
_Mons._ He's the better man.
_Buss._ And, therefore, may doe worst?
_Mons._ He has more titles.
_Buss._ So Hydra had more heads.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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