University of Virginia Library

ACTVS 3.

SCAENA 1.

Enter La Fin, Byron following vnseene.
Laff.
A fained passion in his hearing now,
(Which he thinkes I perceaue not) making conscience,
Of the reuolt that he hath vrdgd to me,
Which now he meanes to prosecute would sound,
How deepe he stands affected with that scruple.
As when the Moone hath comforted the Night,
And set the world in siluer of her light,
The Planets, Asterisims and whole state of Heauen,
In beames of gold desending; all the windes,
Bound vp in caues, chargd not to driue abrode,
Their cloudy heads; an vniuersall peace,
Proclaimd in scilence of the quiet earth.
Soone as her hot and dry fumes are let loose,
Stormes and cloudes mixing; sodainely put out.
The eyes of all those glories: The creation,
Turnd into Chaos, and we then desire,
For all our ioye of life, the death of sleepe;
So when the glories of our liues, mens loues,
Cleere consciences, our fames, and loyalties,
That did vs worthy comfort, are eclipsd,
Griefe and disgrace inuade vs; and for all,
Our night of life besides, our Miserie craues,
Darke earth would ope and hide vs in our graues,

Byr.
How Strange is this?

Laff.
What? did your highnesse heare?

Byr.
Both heard and wonderd, that your wit and spirit,
And proffit in experience of the slaueries,
Impos'd on vs; in those mere politique termes,
Of loue, fame, loyalty, can be carried vp,
To such a height of ignorant conscience;
Of cowardise, and dissolution,
In all the free-borne powers of royall man,
You that haue made way through all the guards,
Of Ielouse State; and seen on both your sides,
The pikes points chardging heauen to let you passe,
Will you, (in flying with a Scrupulouse wing,
Aboue those pikes to heauen-ward) fall on them?
This is like men, that (spirrited with wine,)
Passe dangerouse places safe; and die for feare,
With onely thought of them, being simply sober;
We must (in passing to our wished ends,
Through things calld good and bad) be like the ayre,
That euenly interposd betwixt the seas,
And the opposed Element of fire;
At either toucheth, but pertakes with neither;
Is neither hot, nor cold, but with a sleight.
And harmelesse temper mixt of both th'extreames;

Laff.
Tis shrode.

Byr.
There is no truth of any good
To be descernd on earth: and by conuersion,
Nought therefore simply bad: But as the stuffe,
Prepard for Arras pictures, is no Picture,
Till it be formd, and man hath cast the beames,
Of his imaginouse fancie through it,
In forming antient Kings and conquerors,
As he conceiues they look't, and were attirde,
Though they were nothing so: so all things here,
Haue all their price set downe, from mens concepts,
Which make all terms and actions, good, or bad,
And are but pliant, and wel-coloured threads,
Put into fained images of truth:
To which, to yeeld, and kneele, as truth pure kings,
That puld vs downe with cleere truth of their Ghospell,
Were Superstition to be hist to hell.

Laff.
Beleeue it, this is reason;

Byr.
T'is the saith,
Of reason and of wisdome.

Laff.
You perswade,
As if you could create: what man can shunne,
The serches, and compressions of your graces.

Byr.
We must haue these lures when we hawke for friends,
And wind about them like a subtle Riuer,
That (seeming onely to runne on his course)
Doth serch yet, as he runnes; and still finds out,
The easiest parts of entry on the shore;
Glyding so slyly by, as scarce it toucht,
Yet still eates some thing in it: so must those,
That haue large fields, and currants to dispose.
Come, let vs ioyne our streames, we must runne far.
And haue but little time: The duke Sauoy,
Is shortly to be gone, and I must needes,
Make you well knowne to him,

Laff.
But hath your highnes,
Some enterprise of value ioynd with him?

Byr.
With him and greater persons?

Laffi.
I will creepe.
Vpon my bosome in your Princely seruice,
Vouch-safe to make me knowne. I heare there liues not,
So kind, so bountyfull, and wise a Prince,
But in your owne excepted excellence.

Byr.
He shall both know, and loue you: are you mine?

Laff.
I take the honor of it, on my knee,
And hope to quite it with your Maiesty.

Exit.
Enter Sauoy, Roncas, Rochet Breton.
Sau.
La Fin, is in the right; and will obtaine;
He draweth with his weight; and like a plummet
That swaies a dore, with falling of, pulls after,

Ron.
Thus will Laffin be brought a Stranger to you,
By him he leads; he conquers that is conquerd,
Thats sought, as hard to winne, that sues to be wonne.

Sau.
But is my Painter warnd to take his picture.
When he shall see me, and present Laffin?

Roch.
He is (my Lord) and (as your highnesse willd)
All we will presse about him and admire,
The royall promise of his rare aspect,
As if he heard not.

Sau.
Twill enflame him.
Such trickes the Arch-duke vsd t'extoll his greatnes,
Which complements though plaine men hold absurd,
And a meere remedy for desire of Greatnesse.
Yet great men vse them; as they eate Potatoes,
High Coollises, and potions to excite
The lust of their ambition: and this Duke;
You know is noted in his naturall garb
Extreamly glorious; who will therefore bring
An appetite expecting such a baite;
He comes, go instantly, and fetch the Painter,

Enter Byron, La Fin.
Byr.
All honor to your heighnesse,

Sau.
Tis most true.
All honours flow to me, in you their Ocean;
As welcome worthyest duke, as if my marquisate,
Were circkl'd with you in these amorous armes;

Byr.
I sorrow Sir I could not bring it with me,
That I might so supply the fruitelesse complement,
Of onely visiting your excellence,
With which the king now sends me t'entertaine you,
Which notwithstanding doth confer this good,
That it hath giuen me some small time to shew,
My gratitude for the many secret bounties,
I haue (by this your Lord Ambassador)
Felt from your heighnesse and in short, t'assure you,
That all my most deserts are at your seruice.

Sau.
Had the king sent me by you halfe his kingdome,
It were not halfe so welcom;

Byr.
For defect.
Of whatsoeuer in my selfe, (my Lord,)
I here commend to your most Princely Seruice
This honord friend of mine;

Sau.
Your name I pray you Sir.

Laff.
Laffin, my Lord.

Sau.
Laffin? Is this the man,
That you so recommended to my Loue?

Ron.
The same my Lord,

Sau.
Y'are next my Lord the duke,
The most desird of all men. O my Lord,
The King and I, haue had a mighty conflict,
About your conflicts, and your matchles worth,
In military vertues; which I put
In Ballance with the continent of France,
In all the peace and safty it enioyes.
And made euen weight with all he could put in
Of all mens else; and of their owne deserts,

Byr.
Of all mens else? would he weigh other mens,
With my deseruings,

Sau.
I vpon my life,
The English Generall, the Mylor' Norris,
That seru'd amongst you here, he paralleld
With you, at all parts, and in some preferd him,
And Collonell Williams (a Welch Collonell)
He made a man, that at your most containd you:
Which the Welch Herrald of their praise, the Cucko.
Would scarce haue put, in his monology,
In iest, and said with reuerence to his merits,

Byr.
With reuerence? Reuerence skornes him: by the spoyle,
Of all her Merits in me, he shall rue it;
Did euer Curtian Gullffe play such a part?
Had Curtius beene so vsed, if he had brook't,
That rauenous whirlepoole, pourd his solide spirrits,
Through earth dissolued sinews, stopt her veines,
And rose with saued Rome, vpon his backe,
As I swum pooles of fire, and Gullfs of brasse,
To saue my country? thrust this venturous arme,
Beneath her ruines; tooke her on my necke,
And set her safe on her appeased shore?
And opes the king, a fouler bog then this,
In his so rotten bosome, to deuoure
Him that deuourd, what else had swalloed him
In a detraction, so with spight embrewed,
And drowne such good in such ingratitude?
My spirrit as yet, but stooping to his rest,
Shines hotly in him, as the Sunne in clowds,
Purpled, and made proud with a peacefull Eden:
But when I throughly set to him; his cheekes,
Will (like those clouds) forgoe their collour quite,
And his whole blaze, smoke into endles night,

Sau.
Nay nay, we must haue no such gall my Lord,
O'reflow our friendly liuers: my relation,
Onely deliuers my enflamed zeale
To your religious merits; which me thinkes,
Should make your highnes canonizd, a Saint.

Byr.
What had his armes beene, without my arme,
That with his motion, made the whole field moue?
And this held vp, we still had victory.
When ouer charg'd with number, his few friends,
Retir'd amazed, I set them on assurd,
And what rude ruine seas'd on I confirmed;
When I left leading, all his army reeld,
One fell on other foule, and as the Cyclop
That hauing lost his eye, strooke euery way,
His blowes directed to no certaine scope;
Or as the soule departed from the body,
The body wants coherence in his parts,
Can not consist, but seuer, and dissolue;
So I remou'd once, all his armies shooke,
Panted, and fainted, and were euer flying,
Like wandring pulses sperst through bodies dying,

Sau.
It cannot be denied, tis all so true,
That what seemes arogance, is desert in you,

Byr.
What monstrous humors feed a Princes blood,
Being bad to good men, and to bad men good?

Sau.
Well let these contradictions passe (my lord,)
Till they be reconcil'd, or put in forme,
By power giuen to your will, and you present,
The fashion of a prefect gouernment;
In meane space but a word, we haue small time,
To spend in priuate, which I wish may be
With all aduantage taken; Lord Laffin.

Ron.
Ist not a face of excellent presentment,
Though not so amorouse with pure white, and red,
Yet is the whole proportion singular;

Roch.
That euer I beheld,

Bret.
It hath good lines,
And tracts drawne through it: The purfle, rare,

Ron.
I heard the famous and right learned Earle,
And Archbishop of Lions Peirse Pinac,
Who was reported to haue wondrouse Iudgment
In mens euents, and natures, by their lookes:
(Vpon his death bed, visited by this duke)
He told his sister, when his grace was gon,
That he had neuer yet obserud a face,
Of worse presage then this: and I will sweare,
That (something seene in Phisiognomy)
I do not find in all the rules he giues
One slendrest blemish tending to mishap,
But (on the opposite part) as we may see,
On trees late blossomd, when all frosts are past,
How they are taken, and what wil be fruit:
So, on this tree of Scepters, I discerne
How it is loden with apparances,
Rules answering Rules; and glances, crownd with glances;

He snatches away the picture.
Byr.
What, does he take my picture?

Sau.
I my Lord.

Byr.
Your Highnesse will excuse me; I will giue you
My likenesse put in Statue, not in picture;
And by a Statuary of mine owne,
That can in Brasse expresse the witte of man,
And in his forme, make all men see his vertues:
Others that with much strictnesse imitate,
The some-thing stooping carriage of my neck,
The voluble, and milde radiance of mine eyes,
Neuer obserue my Masculine aspect,
And Lyon-like instinct, it shaddoweth:
Which Enuie cannot say, is flatterie:
And I will haue my Image promist you,
Cut in such matter, it shall euer last;
Where it shall stand, fixt with eternall rootes,
And with a most vnmooued grauitie;
For I will haue the famous mountaine Oros,
That lookes out of the Dutchy where I gouerne,
(Into your highnesse Dukedome) first made yours,
And then with such inimitable art
Exprest and handled; chieflie from the place
Where most conspicuously, he shewes his face,
That though it keepe the true forme of that hill
In all his longitudes, and latitudes,
His height, his distances, and full proportion,
Yet shall it cleerely beare my counterfaite,
Both in my face and all my lineaments:
And euery man shall say, this is Byron.
Within my left hand, I will hold a Cittie,
Which is the Cittie Amiens; at whose siedge
I seru'd so memorably: from my right,
Ile powre an endlesse flood, into a Sea
Raging beneath me; which shall intimate
My ceaselesse seruice, drunke vp by the King
As th'Ocean drinkes vp riuers, and makes all
Beare his proude title; Iuory, Brasse and Goulde,
That theeues may purchase; and be bought and sould,
Shall not be vsde about me; lasting worth
Shall onely set the duke of Byron forth;

Sau.
O that your statuary could expresse you,
With any nerenesse to your owne instructions;
That statue would I prise past all the iewells
Within my cabinet of Beatrice,
The memorie of my Grandame Portugall;
Most roiall duke: we can not longe endure
To be thus priuate, let vs then conclude,
With this great resolution: that your wisedome,
Will not forget to cast a pleasing vaile
Ouer your anger; that may hide each glance,
Of any notice taken of your wronge,
And shew your self the more obsequious,
Tis but the virtue of a little patience,
There are so oft attempts made gainst his person,
That sometimes they may speede, for they are palnts
That spring the more for cutting, and at last
Will cast their wished shadow; marke ere long,
Enter Nemours Soisson.
See who comes here my Lord, as now no more,
Now must we turne our streame another way;
My Lord, I humbly thanke his maiesty,
That he would grace my idle time spent here
With entertainement of your princely person;
VVhich, worthely, he keepes for his owne bosome.
My Lord, the duke Nemours? and Count Soisson?
Your honours haue beene bountifully done me
In often visitation: let me pray you,
To see some iewells now, and helpe my choice:
In making vp a present for the King.

Nem.
Your highnesse shall much grace vs.

Sau.
I am doubtfull
That I haue much incenst the duke Byron,
With praising the Kings worthinesse in armes
So much past all men.

Sois.
He deserues it, highly.

Exit. mænet Byr: Laffin.
Byr.
What wrongs are these, laid on me by the King,
To equall others worths in warre, with mine;
Endure this, and be turnd into his Moile
To beare his sumptures: honord friend be true,
And we will turne these torrents, hence.

The King. Exit Laffi.
Enter Henry, Espe: Vitry, Ianin.
Hen.
Why suffer you that ill aboding vermine,
To breede so neere your bosome? bee assurde,
His hants are omenous, not the throtes of Rauens,
Spent on infected house; houles of dogges,
When no sound stirres, at mid-night; apparitions,
And strokes of spirits, clad in black mens shapes:
Or ougly womens: the aduerse decrees
Of constellations, not securitie,
In vicious peace, are surer fatall vshers
Of femall mischiefes, and mortallities,
Then this prodigious feend is, where he fawnes:
La fiend, and not Laffin, he should be cald.

Byr.
Be what he will, men in themselues entire,
March safe with naked feete on coles of fire:
I build not outward, nor depend on proppes,
Nor chuse my consort by the common eare:
Nor by the Moone-shine in the grace of Kings:
So rare are true deseruers, lou'd or knowne,
That men lou'd vulgarely, are euer none:
Nor men grac't seruilely, for being spots
In Princes traines, though borne euen with their crownes;
The Stalion powre hath such a beesome taile,
That it sweepes all from iustice, and such filth
He beares out in it, that men mere exempt,
Are merely cleerest: men will shortly buie
Friends from the prison or the pillorie,
Rather then honors markets. I feare none,
But foule Ingratitude, and Detraction,
In all the brood of villanie.

Hen.
No? not treason?
Be circumspect, for to a credulous eye,
He comes inuisible, vail'd with flatterie,
And flaterers looke like friends, as Woolues, like Dogges.
And as a glorious Poeme fronted well
With many a goodly Herrald of his praise,
So farre from hate of praises to his face,
That he praies men to praise him, and they ride
Before, with trumpets in their mouthes, proclayming
Life to the holie furie of his lines:
All drawne, as if with one eye he had leerd,
On his lou'd hand, and led it by a rule;
That his plumes onely Imp the Muses wings,
He sleepes with them, his head is napt with baies,
His lips breake out with Nectar, his tunde feete
Are of the great last, the perpetuall motion,
And he puft with their empty breath beleeues
Full merit, eas'd those passions of winde,
Which yet serue, but to praise, and cannot merit,
And so his furie in their ayre expires:
So de Laffin, and such corrupted Herralds,
Hirde to encorage, and to glorifie
May force what breath they will into their cheekes
Fitter to blow vp bladders, then full men:
Yet may puff men to, with perswasions
That they are Gods in worth; and may rise Kings
With treading on their noises; yer the worthiest,
From onely his owne worth receiues his spirit
And right is worthy bound to any merit;
Which right, shall you haue euer; leaue him then,
He followes none but markt, and wretched men;
And now for England you shall goe my lord,
Our Lord Ambassador to that matchlesse Queene;
You neuer had a voiage of such pleasure
Honor, and worthy obiects: Ther's a Queene
Where nature keepes her state, and state her Court,
Wisdome her studie, Conntinence her fort,
Where Magnanimity, Humanitie:
Firmnesse in counsaile and integritie:
Grace to her porest subiects: Maiestie
To awe the greatest, haue respects diuine,
And in her each part, all the vertues shine.

Exit Hen. & Sau. manet Byron.
Byr.
Inioy your will a while, I may haue mine.
VVherefore (before I part to this ambassage)
Ile be resolu'd by a Magician
That dwells hereby, to whome ile goe disguisde,
And shew him my births figure, set before:
By one of his profession, of the which
Ile craue his iudgement, fayning I am sent
From some great personage, whose natiuitie,
He wisheth should be censurd by his skill.
But on go my plots, be it good or ill.

Exit.
Enter La Brosse.
This houre by all rules of Astrologie,
Is dangerous to my person, if not deadly.
How haples is our knowledge to fore-tel
And not be able to preuent a mischiefe,
O the strange difference twixt vs and the stars:
They worke with inclynations stronge and fatall
And nothing know; and we know all there working
And nought can do, or nothing can preuent?
Rude ignorance is beastly, knowledge wretched:
The heauenly powers enuy what they Enioyne:
VVe are commanded t'imitate there natures,
In making all our ends eternitie:
And in that imitation we are plagued,
And worsse then they esteemd, that haue no soules,
But in their nostrils, and like beasts expire;
As they do that are ignorant of arts,
By drowning there eternall parts in sence,
And sensuall affectations: while wee liue
Our good parts take away, the more they giue.

Byron solus disguizd like a Carrier of letters.
Byr.
The forts that fauorites hold in Princes hearts,
In common subiects loues; and their owne strengths
Are not so sure, and vnexpugnable,
But that the more they are presum'd vpon,
The more they faile; dayly and hourely proofe,
Tels vs prosperity is at highest degree
The founte and handle of calamitie:
Like dust before a whirle-winde those men flie,
That prostrate on the grounds of fortune lye:
And being great (like trees that broadest sproyte)
Their owne top-heauy state grubs vp their roote.
These apprehensions startle all my powers,
And arme them with suspition gainst them-selues,
In my late proiects; I haue cast my selfe
Into the armes of others; and will see
If they will let me fall; or tosse me vp
Into th'affected compasse of a throne.
God saue you sir.

Labross.
Y'are welcome friend; what would you?

Byr.
I would entreate you, for some crownes I bring,
To giue your iudgement of this figure cast.
To know by his natiuitie there seene;
What sort of end the person shall endure,
Who sent me to you, and whose birth it is.

Labross.
Ile herein do my best, in your desire;
The man is raisd out of a good descent,
And nothing oulder then your selfe I thinke;
Is it not you?

Byr.
I will not tell you that:
But tell me on what end he shall arriue.

Labross.
My sonne, I see, that he whose end is cast
In this set figure, is of Noble parts,
And by his militarie valure raisde,
To princely honors; and may be a king,
But that I see a Caput Algol here,
That hinders it I feare.

Byr.
A Caput Algol?
What's that I pray?

Labross.
Forbeare to aske me, sonne,
You bid me speake, what feare bids me conceale.

Byr.
You haue no cause to feare, and therefore speake.

Labross.
Youle rather wish you had beene ignorant,
Then be instructed in a thing so ill.

Byr.
Ignorance is an idle salue for ill,
And therefore do not vrge me to enforce,
What I would freely know: for by the skill
Showne in thy aged hayres, ile lay thy braine
Here scattered at my feete, and seeke in that,
What safely thou must vtter with thy tongue,
If thou deny it.

Labross.
Will you not allow me
To hold my peace? what lesse can I desire?
If not, be pleasd with my constrained speech.

Byr.
Was euer man yet punisht for expressing
What he was chargde? be free, and speake the wurst.

Labross.
Then briefly this; the man hath lately done
An action that will make him loose his head.

Byr.
Curst be thy throte & soule, Rauen, Shriech-owle, hag.

Labross.
O hold, for heauens sake hold.

Byr.
Hold on, I will,
Vault, and contractor of all horrid sounds,
Trumpet of all the miseries in hell,
Of my confusions; of the shamefull end
Of all my seruices; witch, fiend, accurst
For euer be the poison of thy tongue,
And let the black fume of thy venomd breath,
Infect the ayre, shrinke heauen, put out the starres,
And raine so fell and blew a plague on earth,
That all the world may falter with my fall.

Labross.
Pitty my age, my Lord.

Byr.
Out prodigie,
Remedy of pitty, mine of flint,
Whence with my nailes and feete, ile digge enough,
Horror, and sauadge cruelty, to build
Temples to Massacre: dam of deuils take thee,
Hadst thou no better end to crowne my parts.
The Buls of Colchos, nor his triple neck,
That howles out Earthquakes: the most mortall vapors,
That euer stifled and strooke dead the fowles,
That flew at neuer such a sightly pitch,
Could not haue burnt my bloud so.

Labross.
I told truth,
And could haue flatterd you.

Byr.
O that thou hadst;
Would I had giuen thee twenty thousand crownes
That thou hadst flatterd me: there's no ioy on earth,
Neuer so rationall, so pure, and holy,
But is a Iester, Parasite, a Whore,
In the most worthy parts, with which they please,
A drunkennesse of soule, and a disease.

Labross.
I knew you not.

Byr.
Peace, dog of Pluto, peace,
Thou knewst my end to come, not me here present:
Pox of your halting humane knowledges;
O death! how farre off hast thou kild? how soone
A man may know too much, though neuer nothing?
Spight of the Starres, and all Astrologie,
I will not loose my head: or if I do,
A hundred thousand heads shall off before.
I am a nobler substance then the Starres,
And shall the bafer ouer-rule the better?
Or are they better, since they are the bigger?
I haue a will, and faculties of choise,
To do, or not to do: and reason why,
I doe, or not doe this: the starres haue none,
They know not why they shine, more then this Taper,
Nor how they worke, nor what: ile change my course,
Ile peece-meale pull, the frame of all my thoughts,
And cast my will into another mould:
And where are all your Caput Algols then?
Your Plannets all, being vnderneath the earth,
At my natiuitie: what can they doe?
Malignant in aspects? in bloudy houses?
Wilde fire consume them; one poore cup of wine,
More then I vse, that my weake braine will beare,
Shall make them drunke and reele out of their spheres,
For any certaine act they can enforce.
O that mine armes were wings, that I might flie,
And pluck out of their hearts, my destinie!
Ile weare those golden Spurres vpon my heeles,
And kick at fate; be free all worthy spirits,
And stretch your selues, for greatnesse and for height:
Vntrusse your slaueries, you haue height enough,
Beneath this steepe heauen to vse all your reaches,
'Tis too farre off, to let you, or respect you.
Giue me a spirit that on this lifes rough sea,
Loues t'haue his sailes fild with a lustie winde,
Euen till his Sayle-yeards tremble; his Masts crack,
And his rapt ship runne on her side so lowe
That she drinkes water, and her keele plowes ayre;
There is no danger to a man, that knowes
What life and death is: there's not any law,
Exceeds his knowledge; neither is it lawfull
That he should stoope to any other lawe.
He goes before them, and commands them all,
That to him-selfe is a law rationall,

Exit.