English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600; Heywood, Thomas, approximately 1574-1641
Merchant.
Our lives, and all our fortunes whatsoever,
Are wholly at your service.
Bess.
These gentlemen have been dejected long.
Let me peruse[2.59] them all, and give them money
To drink our health. And pray forget not, sirs,
To pray for----[_She sees_ Spencer.] Hold! support me, or I faint.
Roughman.
What sudden, unexpected ecstasy
Disturbs your conquest?
Bess.
Interrupt me not;
But give me way, for Heaven’s sake!
Spencer.
I have seen
A face, ere now, like that young gentleman,
But not remember where.
Bess.
But he was slain;
Lay buried in yon church; and thence removed,
Denied all Christian rites, and, like an infidel,
Confined unto the fields; and thence digged up,
His body, after death, had martyrdom.
All these assure me ’tis his shadow dogs me,
For some most just revenge, thus far to sea.--
Is it because the Spaniards scaped with life,
That were to thee so cruel after death,
Thou haunt’st me thus? Sweet ghost, thy rage forbear;
I will revenge thee on the next we seize.
I am amazed; this sight I’ll not endure.
Sleep, sleep, fair ghost, for thy revenge is sure.
Roughman.
Fawcett, convey the owner to his cabin.
[_Exit_ Fawcett _with_ Bess.
Spencer.
I pray, sir, what young gentleman is that?
Roughman.
He’s both the owner of the ship and goods,
That for some reasons hath his name concealed.
Spencer.
Methinks he looks like Bess; for in his eyes
Lives the first love that did my heart surprise.
Roughman.
Come, gentlemen, first make your losses good,
Out of this Spanish prize. Let’s then divide
Both several ways, and Heavens be our guide.
Merchant.
We towards Mamorah.
Roughman.
We where the Fates do please,
Till we have tracked a wilderness of seas.
[_Flourish. Exeunt_.
_Enter_ Chorus.
Chorus.
Our stage so lamely can express a sea,
That we are forced by Chorus to discourse
What should have been in action. Now, imagine
Her passion o’er, and Goodlack well recovered;
Who, had he not been wounded, and seen Spencer,
Had sure descried him. Much prize they have ta’en:
The French and Dutch she spares; only makes spoil
Of the rich Spaniard and the barbarous Turk.
And now her fame grows great in all these seas.
Suppose her rich, and forced, for want of water,
To put into Mamorah, in Barbary,
Where, wearied with the habit of a man,
She was discovered by the Moors aboard,
Which told it to the amorous King of Fez,
That ne’er before had English lady seen.
He sends for her on shore. How he receives her,
How she and Spencer meet, must next succeed.
Sit patient, then: when these are fully told,
Some may hap say, “Ay, there’s a girl worth gold.” [_Exit_.
ACT THE FIFTH.
SCENE I.--_Morocco. The Court_.
_Enter_ Mullisheg, Bashaw Alcade, Bashaw Joffer, Attendants,
_&c._
Mullisheg.
But was she of such presence?
Alcade.
To describe her
Were to make eloquence dumb.
Mullisheg.
Well habited?[2.60]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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