University of Virginia Library

ACTVS 4.

SCE. 1.

Enter D' Aumont, with Crequi.
The Duke of Byron is return'd from England,
And (as they say) was Princely entertainde,
Schoold by the matchlesse Queene there, who I heare
Spake most diuinely; and would gladly heare,
Her speech reported.

Cre.
I can serue your turne,
As one that speakes from others not from her,
And thus it is reported at his parting,
Thus Monsieur Du Byron you haue beheld,
Our Court proportion'd to our little kingdome,
In euery entertainment; yet our minde,
To do you all the rites of your repaire,
Is as vnbounded as the ample ayre.
What idle paines haue you bestowd to see
A poore ould woman? who in nothing liues
More, then in true affections, borne your king;
And in the perfect knowledge she hath learn'd,
Of his good knights, and seruants of your sort.
We thanke him that he keepes the memory
Of vs and all our kindnesse; but must say,
That it is onely kept; and not laid out
To such affectionate profit as we wish;
Being so much set on fire with his deserts,
That they consume vs; not to be restorde
By your presentment of him; but his person:
And we had thought, that he whose vertues flye
So beyond wonder, and the reach of thought,
Should check at eight houres saile, and his high spirit
That stoopes to feare, lesse then the Poles of heauen;
Should doubt an vnder billow of the Sea,
And (being a Sea) be sparing of his streames:
And I must blame all you that may aduise him;
That (hauing helpt him through all martiall dangers)
You let him stick, at the kinde rites of peace,
Considering all the forces I haue sent,
To set his martiall seas vp in firme walls,
On both his sides for him to passe at pleasure;
Did plainly open him a guarded way
And led in Nature to this friendly shore,
But here is nothing worth his personall sight,
Here are no walled Citties; for that Christall
Sheds with his light, his hardnesse, and his height
About our thankfull person, and our Realme;
Whose onely ayde, we euer yet desirde;
And now I see, the helpe we sent to him,
Which should haue swum to him in our owne bloud,
Had it beene needfull; (our affections
Being more giuen to his good, then he himselfe)
Ends in the actuall right it did his state,
And ours is sleighted; all our worth is made,
The common-stock, and banck; from whence are seru'd
All mens occasions; yet (thankes to heauen)
Their gratitudes are drawne drye; not our bounties.
And you shall tell your King, that he neglects
Ould friends for new; and sets his soothed Ease
Aboue his honor; Marshals policie
In ranck before his iustice; and his profit
Before his royalty: his humanitie gone,
To make me no repaiment of mine owne.

D' Au.
What answered the Duke?

Cre.
In this sort.
Your highnesse sweete speech hath no sharper end,
Then he would wish his life; if he neglected,
The least grace you haue nam'd; but to his wish,
Much powre is wanting: the greene rootes of warre,
Not yet so close cut vp, but he may dash
Against their relickes to his vtter ruine,
Without more neere eyes, fixt vpon his feete,
Then those that looke out of his countries soyle,
And this may well excuse his personall presence,
Which yet he oft hath long'd to set by yours:
That he might immitate the Maiestie,
Which so long peace hath practisde, and made full,
In your admir'd apparance; to illustrate
And rectifie his habite in rude warre.
And his will to be here, must needs be great,
Since heauen hath thron'de so true a royaltie here,
That he thinkes no king absolutely crownde,
Whose temples haue not stood beneath this skie,
And whose height is not hardned with these starres,
Whose influences for this altitude,
Distild, and wrought in with this temperate ayre,
And this diuision of the Element
Haue with your raigne, brough: forth more worthy spirits,
For counsaile, valour, height of wit, and art,
Then any other region of the earth:
Or were brought forth to all your ancestors,
And as a cunning Orator, reserues
His fairest similies, best-adorning figures,
Chiefe matter, and most mouing arguments
For his conclusion; and doth then supply
His ground-streames layd before, glides ouer them,
Makes his full depth seene through; and so takes vp,
His audience in Aplawses past the clowds.
So in your gouernment, conclusiue nature,
(Willing to end her Excellence in earth
When your foote shall be set vpon the starres)
Showes all her Soueraigne Beauties, Ornaments,
Vertues, and Raptures; ouertakes her workes
In former Empires, makes them but your foyles,
Swels to her full Sea, and againe doth drowne
The world, in admiration of your crowne.

D' Au.
He did her (at all parts) confessed right.

Cre.
She tooke it yet, but as a part of Court-ship,
And sayd, he was the subtle Orator,
To whom he did too gloriously resemble,
Nature in her, and in her gouernment,
He said, he was no Orator, but a Souldier,
More then this ayre, in which you breath hath made me,
My studious loue, of your rare gouernment,
And simple truth, which is most eloquent,
Your Empire is so amply absolute,
That euen your Theaters show more comely rule,
True noblesse, royaltie, and happinesse
Then others courts: you make all state before
Vtterly obsolete; all to come, twice sod.
And therefore doth my royall Soueraigne wish
Your yeares may proue, as vitall, as your virtues,
That (standing on his Turrets this way turn'd,
Ordring and fixing his affaires by yours)
He may at last, on firme grounds, passe your Seas,
And see that Maiden-sea of Maiestie,
In whose chaste armes, so many kingdomes lye.

D' Au.
When came she to her touch of his ambition?

Cre.
In this speech following, which I thus remember.
If I hold any merit worth his presence,
Or any part of that, your Courtship giues me,
My subiects haue bestowd it; some in counsaile,
In action some, and in obedience all;
For none knowes, with such proofe as you my Lord,
How much a subiect may renowne his Prince.
And how much Princes of their subiects hold;
In all the seruices that euer subiect
Did for his Soueraigne; he that best deseru'd
Must (in comparison) except, Byron;
And to winne this prise cleere; without the maimes
Commonly giuen men by ambition,
When all their parts lye open to his view,
Showes continence, past their other excellence,
But for a subiect to affect a kingdome,
Is like the Cammell, that of Ioue begd hornes,
And such mad-hungrie men, as well may eate,
Hote coles of fire, to feede their naturall heate;
For, to aspire to competence with your king
What subiect is so grose, and Gyantly?
He hauing now a Daulphine borne to him,
Whose birth, ten dayes before, was dreadfully
Vsherd with Earth-quakes, in most parts of Europe,
And that giues all men, cause enough to feare
All thought of competition with him.
Commend vs good my Lord, and tell our Brother
How much we ioy, in that his royall issue,
And in what prayers, we raise our heart to heauen,
That in more terror to his foes, and wonder
He may drinke Earthquakes, and deuoure the thunder,
So we admire your valure and your vertues,
And euer will contend, to winne their honor.
Then spake she to Crequie, and Prince D' Auergne,
And gaue all gracious farewels; when Byron
Was thus encountred by a Councellor
Of great and eminent name, and matchlesse merit:
I thinke (my Lord) your princely Daulphin beares
Arion in his Cradle, through your kingdome,
In the sweete Musique ioy strikes from his birth.
He answerd; and good right; the cause commands it.
But (said the other) had we a fift Henry,
To claime his ould right: and one man to friend,
Whom you well know my Lord, that for his friendship
Were promist the Vice-royaltie of France,
We would not doubt of conquest, in despight
Of all those windy Earth-quakes. He replyed;
Treason was neuer guide to English conquests,
And therefore that doubt shall not fright our Daulphine;
Nor would I be the friend to such a foe,
For all the royalties in Christendome.
Fix there your foote (sayd he) I onely giue
False sire, and would be lothe to shoote you of:
He that winnes Empire with the losse of faith,
Out-buies it; and will banck-route; you haue layde
A braue foundation, by the hand of victorie:
Put not the roofe to fortune, foolish statuaries,
That vnder little Saints suppose, great bases
Make lesse, to sence, the Saints; and so where fortune,
Aduanceth vile mindes, to states great and noble,
She much more exposeth them to shame,
Not able to make good, and fill their bases,
With a conformed structure; I haue found,
(Thankes to the blesser of my searche) that counsailes,
Held to the lyne of Iustice; still produce,
The surest states, and greatest, being sure,
Without which fit assurance, in the greatest,
As you may see a mighty promontorie
More digd and vnder-eaten, then may warrant,
A safe supportance, to his hanging browes,
All passengers auoide him, shunne all ground
That lyes within his shadow, and beare still
A flying eye vpon him, so great men
Corrupted in their ground, and building out.
Too swelling fronts, for their foundations;
When most they should be propt, are most forsaken,
And men will rather thrust into the stormes
Of better grounded States, then take a shelter
Beneath their ruinous, and fearefull weight;
Yet they, so ouersee, their faultie bases,
That they remaine securer in conceipt:
And that securitie, doth worse presage
Their nere distructions, then their eaten grounds;
And therefore heauen it selfe is made to vs
A perfect Hierogliphick to expresse,
The Idlenesse of such securitie,
And the graue labour, of a wise distrust,
In both sorts of the all-enclying starres;
Where all men note this difference in their shyning,
As plaine as they distinguish either hand;
The fixt starres mauer, and the erring, stand.

D' Aum.
How tooke he this so worthy admonition?

Cre.
Grauely applied (said he) and like the man,
Whome all the world saies, ouerrules the starres;
Which are diuine bookes to vs; and are read
By vnderstanders onely, the true obiects,
And chiefe companions of the truest men;
And (though I need it not) I thanke your counsaile,
That neuer yet was idle, But spherelike,
Still mooues about, and is the continent
To this blest Ile.