University of Virginia Library

sena secunda.

Enter Lavinio the great Duke, Isabella the Dutchess with Attendants.
Lav.
My hearts sweet solace, my dear Isabella
You are most welcome unto Florence;
Live according to your wishes happily,
And may I perish if I do not strive
In every thing to please you to my power;
I'm sorry at my coming home I find
Such strange and unexpected alterations,
That for to quiet them I must deprive
My self some houres of your company.

Isab.
Most Excellent Sir, I do account my self
Most highly blest, that am not onely married
Unto a Prince, but one that can
And doth vouchsafe his love unto me, being
Defective of those beauties should deserve it.
To your affairs betake you Worthy Sir,
I will expect you till your leisure serves.

Lav.
You are good unto a miracle
Sweet Isabella—attend the Dutches in;
Adieu my Love, some few but tedious minutes
Past over I will come unto you.

Isa.
I will await your leisure.

Exeunt with Isabella.
Lav.
What mad fantastick humours have possest
In general the heads of the Florentines?
They have amaz'd me, speak as if I
Had been with them before my Dutchesse came.

Barbarino and Machiavil appear in prison.
Bar.
You great commander of the Tuscan Cities,
Pity your subjects, and your loyal servants;
In what we sued for we had no design,
Neither the least intent for to offend.

Mac.
Be merciful therefore most gracious Prince,
Let not the noblest of the Florentines
VVear out their daies and thraldom in a Prison,
Being men not long ago high in your favour.

Lav.
I am lost within a Labyrinth of wonders,
I know not what to think, the chiefest of
The Florentine Nobility in prison,
And sue to me as if I had commanded
Them to this place; sure some ill spirit hath
Possest mens minds while I was absent: do you
Know me?

Bar.
Your Highness is the Duke our Master.

Lav.
Are you not called Barb. and you

Macha.
the Lords unto whom I left
The government of Tuskany in
My absence?

Mac.

We are your loyal subjects though your prisoners;
and were left your Deputies when your Highness
went to Milain.

Lav.
How came you there?

Bar.
Great Sir, you know most well,
At your command.

Lav.
I must be satisfied in this:
Puchanello so ho!

Puch.
Who calls? whats the matter I wonder.

Within.
Lav.
Release me the Lords presently, and send them
To me hither:
The more I think of these accidents,
The more I marvel how they come to pass;
The men whom I did leave here governours
Are prisoners (and which increaseth more
Amazement in me) they say it was I
That made them so; some unheard malady
Unknown unto the world before it seems,
Hath infected all my subjects with a frenzy.

Enter Barberino and Machiavil.
Bar.
He hath chang'd his humor it seems.

Mach.
And may he continue in this if it be a good one.

Lav.
I am astonished to see the things
I every minute do, especially
You two (to whom I left the weighty charge
Of rule) in prison; resolve me for heavens sake
How you came there.

Bar.
Sure he doth jest with us.

Mac.

Your Highness is disposed to be merry;
You know (most excelent Sir,) full well that none
except your self could do it.

Lav.

I do it?

Barb.

He doth things in his madness he remembers
not when he's in's right sences it seems.

Lav.
Florence I left a wise ingenious City;
But I have found it now at my return
Possessed with a strange unheard of madness:
Who put you in prison? collect your wits in't order
And answer wisely.

Mac.
I vow by the prosperity of Tuscany,
Your Highness.

Lav.
Most strange! Why did I so?

Bar.
Because we did (most gracious Sir) give notice
Unto you how the Princesse Prudentia,
Your machless beauteous sister lov'd Brunetto.

Lav.
Whom? what Brunetto!

Mac.
Your prisoner taken in the Mantoan warrs.

Lav.
My sister so forget her self! I am
Full of amazement: she that had refused
The youthfull Dukes of Modena and Parma,
Dote on a slave slighted by all the starrs!
My sister also so to lose her sences,
She that was wise, and honoured for her vertues!
Sure also this same strange infection
Of madness wood ha seis'd upon my self
If I had stayd at home. I will not now
So marvel at the common people, seeing
The most discreet of the Nobility,
And my own sister equally distracted.

Mac.

I hope he comes to himself again, he talks
something more wisely then of late.

Lav.
It is a frequent thing to see a City
Miserably groan under a heavy sickness,
To have the Plague, or fierce diseases full
Of danger, rage and even unpopulate places;
But such a general phrenzy to possess
And to distract all Florence, is a wonder,
A miracle unmach'd in historie.

Bar.

How he talks as if all we were mad, and he
had done nothing!

Lav.
Are you sure you are both in your right sences?

Mac.
Did once your Highness know us so?

Lav.
Yes.

Bar.
VVe are as free from any distraction
As ever yet we were since we were born.

Lav.

You must both of you tho give me leave to
think what I know.

Enter Mattemoros.

Ile trie an he be mad too. Cap. these Lords say I put
them in prison, how say you?

Mat.

So your Highness did—he's distracted another
way.

Lav.
Good Gods be merciful. Why?

Mat.
Because they spoke against Brunetto's liberty.

Lav.
He's in the same tale;
Though they are all deprived of their sences,
They do not differ.
But why (good Cap.) answer me a little,
Should I desire Brunetto's freedom, being
Beloved by my sister as they say?
Wood it not be a great dishonour, think you,
Unto the Family of the Medices,
That she should cast her self away upon one
VVe do neither know whom, or whence he is?
I pray you Captain, if that yet you have
Any small remnant of your wit remaining,
Reply according to it.

Mat.
And he be grown wise again, Heavens be praised.
It is a certain truth your Highness speaks,
That if your sister should bestow her self
(Being a Princesse meriting so much
For her unequal'd beauty, and her vertues)
Upon a man such as you pleas'd to mention,
It would be a great weakness in her; but you
Your self I heard (most excellent Sir)
To call Brunetto Prince Horatio,
The second Sonne unto the Duke of Savoy.

Lav.
How, I call him so! truth Captain you
Have heard these things which I did never say.

Bar.
You never heard him call Brunetto so.

Mac.
Never, this is the first time I ever heard of it.

Lav.
My wonder is so great, I do want words
VVhereby to give it vent; I see that all
My subjects being distracted think me mad.

Mat.
And more, so please your Highness, you did send
Brunetto, whom you Prince Horatio called,
Unto your sister, to bid her prepare
Her self; for you within a day or two
Would see them married.

Lav.
Enough,
Captain, I swear unto you by my Dukedome,
That rather I would send Brunetto (though
He were the Duke of Savoys second son)
To have his head struck off, then on that message
You say I did.

Mat.
He doth remember nothing.

Bar.
If the Duke be come to his right sences again,
I beseech the Gods keep him so.

Mac.
And I.

Enter Horatio and Prudentia.
Mac.
Beseech your Highness look, let your own eyes
Be witness of their mutual affection;
Behold the Princess your sister and Brunetto:
Let us withdraw where we may stand unseen,
And you shall hear them talk what I have said.

Hor.
Dear Lady, you have raised me to a fortune
So high, that when I look upon my self
I am amaz'd, and wonder at your goodness.

Pru.
Most noble Prince, let my unfeigned love
Excuse the weak expressions of my tongue;
I'm glad my Brother bears so noble a mind,
As to be willing to unite our bodies
As we have done our hearts.

Hora.
Not only willing, divine Prudentia,
But earnest for us; he doth seem to grieve
That two such faithful lovers as we are
Should live so long a sunder.

Prud.
It is a worthy nature in him.

Lav.
I can contain my self no longer: though this
Be out of madness done I will not suffer it.
Sister!

Prud.
Live long most worthy Brother happily.

Lav.
So should I wish for you, bore you a mind
Deserv'd your self.

Prud.
What mean you Sir?

Hor.
Good Heavens be kind, and do not now undo
What you have almost brought unto perfection;
I fear his madness that once favoured me;
Hath chang'd his mind to my undoing.

Lav.
I will but spend few words; are you a Son
Of the Duke of Savoys?

Hora.
Your Highness knowes I am his second.

Lav.
Whether
You are or no I care not; and if you be,
My sister once deserv'd a better husband,
And she shall rather in a Monastery
Spend all her future dayes then be your wife:
And be you what you will Sir, I will shew you
That you have wronged me, and I do not fear
The Duke of Savoy if he be your father.
Puchanello, Puchanello come hither.

Mac.
I like this.

Pru.
He's wonderfully distracted—most worthy Brother,
Be not so much unmerciful.

Lav.
Peace Prudentia, I never thought
You had so weak a reason.

Hor.
He's mad to my undoing; gracious Gods,
Soon make him leave this humour.

Bar.
I hope he's come unto himself.

Enter Pucchanello.
Lav.
Sirra, convey Brunetto into prison,
Lock him up close.

Puc.
Here's do and undo—Will our Duke nere be in his
Right sences again?

Prud.
My dear Horatio, love me still, for I
Unto thee will be constant though I die.

Hor.
Though I be tortured unto death my Dear.

Exeunt with Horatio.
Mat.
I know not what to think of these alterations.

Lav.
Thus (but the heavens assist) I hope to bring
Int' order from confusion every thing.

Exeunt Omnes.