University of Virginia Library

Scena quinta.

Sforza, Ascanio, Maluezzo.
Sf.
We are not man, for such an empty thing
Could not haue this solidity of ioy:
Say the French King is dead, and say withall
We are immortall, and ones happy truth,
Shall expiate for the others flattery.
But speake the manner too as well, as death.

Asc.
When now his gadding thoughts had won the world,
And Jtaly was to be taken in
But onely as an easie seat, from whence
He might deriue his further victories;
Ottoman quak'd, and 'twas in chance, if now
New Rome, should be new-French, & the proud Turke
Be brought to know what their beginnings were;
When Fortune had aduanc'd him to that height,
That growne forgetfull of a lowly tombe,
He rear'd huge Pyramides, and troubled Art
To match his fancy with magnificence
Fit for a conqu'ring builder, who had learnt
To ruine first, and then to build a City,
When Marbles were to be inrich with wounds,
And cut for their aduancement: then, Heau'ns sport,
He rais'd competitors to dare the Heau'ns:
Nor dreames his owne descent into low Earth.

Sf.
Ascanio, you make him liue too long,
Tell how he dy'd, without more circumstance.

Asc.
He went (such was his vse) to see the play
At Tennis-court, when by his trembling Queene
He sanke into halfe-death: thence he's conuey'd
To the next roome, where on a couch of straw,
As if a downe-bed were too soft for him,
Whom rottennesse attended, and the graue,
That harder lodging of Mortality,
A King, a conqu'ring, youthfull King expires.
Thrice from deaths slumbers he awak't to speake,
Thrice did he cry to heau'n, vnto deafe heau'n,
And after nine houres death he dy'd.

Sf.
I find
A certaine grumbling against Fortune here:
Which that I may whet to a liuely rage,
Repeat Maluezzo her last treachery
Against the French, and Neopolitan.

Mal.
Naples now wonne, and the vnstable French
(As if they were afraid of their owne lucke)
Ridiculously leauing what th'ad wonne;
The Deputy was Mompenieer, a man
Of an high birth, but of vnequall deeds.
For when yong Ferdinand with some few boates
(Which onely feare might make a Nauy of,
And nothing but the strength of cowardize
Could possibly iudge strong) approacht the shoare,
As if the poore Prince once more had desir'd
Onely to see his ancient gouernement,
And therefore had aduentur'd to the Sea,
The Sea was in the City, for ne're was
Such a confusion in the vulgar waues:
All cry a Ferdinand, a Ferdinand,
Eu'n those who lately banisht Ferdinand:
Part ope the gates to him, and part shut vp
The French into the Cittadells, where he
Besiegeth his once Conquerors.

Sf.
Tis true
Not the world onely, but a man's a ball,
Will Fortune neuer leaue her tossing him?

Mal.
Whether their owne neglect forc'd them to want,
Or want to yeeld, 'tis doubted: but they yeeld:
Thus as in triuiall sports we oft haue seene
After a tedious inconstancy,
The Corke returne to him that strucke it first,
So in this fatall reuolution,
Fortune giues Naples vnto him againe,
Whom she first iniur'd in the taking it.

Sf.
Who hearing this would not erect his soule
To a contempt of Fortune! that blind wretch
Whom onely sottishnesse hath Deifi'd?
Man hath a nobler Godhead in himselfe,
His vertue and his wisdome, vnto these
Bend all our knees, let vs still honour these:
And count it comfort in our lowest state,
He that is wise, would not be fortunate.

Ex.