 | The Conspiracie of Charles Duke of Byron, Marshall of France |  |
ACT. 5.
SCEN. 1.
Enter Byron, D' Auergne, Laffin.Byr.
The Circkle of this ambassie is closde,
For which I long haue long'd, for mine owne ends;
To see my faithfull, and leaue courtly friends,
To whom I came (me thought) with such a spirit,
As you haue seene, a lusty courser showe,
That hath beene longe time at his manger tied;
High fead, alone, and when (his headstall broken)
Cuts ayre, in high curuets, and shakes his head:
(With wanton stopings, twixt his forelegs) mocking
The heauy center; spreds his flying crest,
Like to an Ensigne, hedge, and ditches leaping,
Till in the fresh meate, at his naturall foode
He sees free fellowes, and hath met them free:
And now (good friend) I would be faine inform'd,
What our right Princely Lord, the duke of Sauoy
Hath thought on, to employ my comming home.
Laf.
To try the Kings trust in you, and withall,
How hot he trailes on our conspiracie:
He first would haue you, begge the gouernment,
Of the important Citadell of Bourg:
Or to place in it, any you shall name:
VVhich wilbe wondrous fit, to march before,
His other purposes; and is a fort
Hee rates, in loue, aboue his patrimonie;
To make which fortresse worthie of your suite:
He vowes (if you obtaine it) to bestowe
His third faire daughter, on your excellence,
And hopes the King will not deny it you.
Byr.
Denie it me? deny me such a suite?
VVho will he grant, if he deny it me.
Laf.
He'le finde some politique shift to do't, I feare.
Bir.
VVhat shift? or what euasion can he finde,
VVhat one patch is there in all policies shop,
(That botcher vp of Kingdomes) that can mend
The brack betwixt vs, any way denying.
D' Au.
Thats at your perill:
Byr.
Come, he dares not do't.
D' Au.
Dares not? presume not so; you know (good duke)
That all things hee thinkes fit to do, he dares.
Byr.
By heauen I wonder at you, I will aske it,
As sternely, and secure of all repulse
As th'antient Persians did when they implorde,
Their idoll fire to grant them any boone;
With which they would descend into a flood,
Of that they ask't it:
Laffi.
Said like your Kings King;
Cold hath no act in depth, nor are suites wrought
(Of any high price) that are coldly sought:
Ile hast, and with your courage, comfort Sauoy.
Exit Laffin.
D' Au.
I am your friend (my Lord) and will deserue
That name, with following any course you take;
Yet (for your owne sake) I could wish your spirit
Would let you spare all broade termes of the King,
Or, on my life you will at last repent it:
Byr.
What can he doe?
D' Au.
All that you can not feare.
Byr.
You feare too much, be by, when next I see him,
And see how I will vrge him in this suite,
He comes, marke you, that thinke
He will not grant it.
Enter Henry, Esp. Soiss. Ia.
I am become a suiter to your highnesse.
Hen.
For what, my Lord, tis like you shall obtaine.
Byr.
I do not much doubt that; my seruices,
I hope haue more strength in your good conceite
Then to receiue repulse, in such requests.
Hen.
What is it?
Byr.
That you would bestowe on one whom I shall name,
The keeping of the Citadell of Bourg,
Hen.
Excuse me sir, I must not grant you that.
Byr.
Not grant me this sute?
Hen.
It is not fit I should;
You are my gouernor in Burgundy,
And Prouince gouernors, that command in chiefe,
Ought not to haue the charge of fortresses;
Besides, it is the chiefe key of my kingdome,
That opens towards Italie, and must therefore,
Be giuen to one that hath imediatly
Dependance on vs.
These are wondrous reasons,
Is not a man depending on his merits
As fit to haue the charge of such a key
As one that meerely hangs vppon your humors?
Hen:
Do not enforce your merits so your self;
It takes away their luster, and reward.
Byr:
But you will grant my suite?
Hen:
I sweare I cannot
Keeping the credit of my braine and place.
Byr:
Will you deny me then?
Hen:
I am inforcst;
I haue no power, more then your selfe in things
That are beyond my reason.
Byr:
Then my selfe?
That's a strange sleight in your comparison;
Am I become th'example of such men
As haue lest power? Such a diminitiue?
I was comparatiue in the better sort;
And such a King as you, would say I cannot,
Do such; or such a thing; were I as great
In power as he; euen that indefinite he,
Exprest me full: This Moone is strangely chang'd;
Hen:
How can I helpe it? would you haue a King
That hath a white beard; haue so greene a braine?
Byr:
A plague of braine; what doth this touch your braine?
You must giue me more reason or I sweare
Hen:
Sweare; what do you sweare?
Byr:
I Sweare you wrong me,
And deale not like a King, to iest, and sleight,
A man that you should curiously reward;
Tell me of your gray beard? it is not gray
With care to recompence me, who eas'd your care.
Hen:
You haue beene recompenc't, from head to foote.
Byr:
With a distrusted dukedome: Take your dukedome
Bestow'd on me againe; It was not giuen
For any loue, but feare, and force of shame;
Hen:
Yet twas your honor; which if you respect not,
Why seeke you this Adition?
Since this honour,
Would shew you lou'd me to, in trusting me,
Without which loue, and trust; honor is shame;
A very Pageant, and a propertie:
Honor, with all his Adiuncts, I deserue,
And you quit my deserts, with your gray beard.
Hen:
Since you expostulate the matter so;
I tell you plaine; Another reason is
Why I am mou'd to make you this deniall
That I suspect you to haue had intelligence
With my vowd enimies.
Byr:
Miserie of vertue,
Ill is made good, with worse? This reason poures
Poyson, for Balme, into the wound you made;
You make me madde, and rob me of my soule,
To take away my try'd loue, and my Truth;
Which of my labors, which of all my woundes,
Which ouerthrow, which Battayle wonne for you,
Breedes this suspition? Can the blood of faith,
(Lost in all these to finde it proofe, and strength)
Beget disloya'ty? all my raine is falne,
Into the horse-fayre; springing pooles and myre;
And not in thankfull grounds, or fields of fruite;
Fall then before vs, O thou flaming Christall,
That art the vncorrupted Register
Of all mens merits: And remonstrate heere,
The fights, the dangers, the affrights and horrors,
Whence I haue rescu'd this vnthankefull King:
And shew (commixt with them) the ioyes, the glories
Of his state then: Then his kind thoughts of me:
Then my deseruings: Now my infamie:
But I will be mine owne King: I will see,
That all your Chronicles be fild with me,
That none but I, and my renowned Syre
Be said to winne the memorable fieldes
Of Arques and Deepe: and none but we of all
Kept you from dying there, in an Hospitall;
None but my selfe, that wonne the day at Dreux:
A day of holy name, and needes, no night:
The heart strings of the leaguers; I alone,
Tooke Amiens in these armes and held her fast,
In spight of all the Pitchy fires she cast,
And clowds of bullets pourd vpon my brest,
Till she shewd yours; and tooke her naturall forme,
Onely my selfe (married to victory)
Did people Artois, Douay, Picardie,
Bethune, and Saint Paul, Bapaume, and Courcelles,
With her triumphant issue;
Hen.
Ha ha ha,
Exit,
Byron drawing and is held by D'Au.
D' Au.
O hold my Lord; for my sake, mighty Spirrit.
Exit.
Enter Byron Dau following vnseene.
Byr.
Respect Reuendge, slaughter, repaie for laughter,
Whats' graue in Earth, what awfull? what abhord.
If my rage be ridiculouse? I will make it,
The law and rule of all things serious,
So long as such as he
Are suffered, soothed and wrest all right, to safty
So long is mischiefe gathering massacres,
For their curst kingdomes; which I will preuent,
Laughter? I'le fright it from him, farre as he,
Hath cast irreuocable shame; which euer,
Being found is lost and lost returneth neuer;
Should Kings cast of their bounties, with their dangers?
He that can warme at fires, where vertue burnes.
Hunt pleasure through her torments; nothing feele,
Of all his subiects suffer; but (long hid)
In wants, and miseries, and hauing past
Through all the grauest shapes, of worth and honor,
(For all Heroique fashions to be learned,
By those hard lessons) shew and antique vizard,
Who would not wish him rather hewd to nothing,
Then left so monstrous? slight my seruices?
My blowes, as but the passages of shadowes,
Ouer the highest and most barraine hills,
And vse me, like, no man; but as he tooke me
Into a desart, gasht with all my wounds,
Sustaind for him, and buried me in flies;
Forth vengeance then, and open wounds in him
Shall let in Spaine, and Sauoy.
Offers to draw and D' Au: againe holds him.
D' Au:
O my Lord,
This is to large a licence giuen your furie;
Giue time to it, what reason, sodainely,
Can not extend, respite doth oft supplie.
Byr.
While respite, holds reuenge, the wrong redoubles,
And so the shame of sufferance, it torments me,
To thinke what I endure, at his shrunke hands,
That skorne, the guift, of one pore fort to me:
That haue subdu'd for him; O iniurie,
Forts, Citties, Countries, I, and yet my furie.
Exieunt.
Hen.
Byron?
D' Au.
My Lord? the King calls,
Hen.
Turne I pray,
How now? from whence flow these distracted faces?
From what attempt returne they? as disclayming,
Their late Heroique bearer? what, a pistall?
Why, good my Lord, can mirth make you so wrathfull?
Byr.
Mirth? twas mockerie, a contempt; a scandall
To my renowne for euer: a repulse,
As miserably cold, as Stygian water,
That from sincere earth issues, and doth breake
The strongest vessells, not to be containde,
But in the tough hoofe of a pacient Asse.
Hen.
My Lord, your iudgement is not competent,
In this dissention, I may say of you;
As Fame saies of the antient Eleans,
That, in th'Olimpian contentions,
They euer were the iustest Arbitrators,
If none of them contended, nor were parties;
Must not themselues affect the coronet;
For as the ayre, containd within our eares:
If it be not in quiet; nor refrains,
Troubling our hearing, with offensiue sounds;
But our affected instrument of hearing,
Replcat with noise, and singings in it selfe,
It faithfully receiues no other voices;
So, of all iudgements, if within themselues
They suffer spleene, and are tumultuous;
They can not equall differences without them;
And this winde, that doth sing so in your eares,
I know, is no disease bred in your selfe;
But whisperd in by others; who in swelling
Your vaines with emptie hope of much, yet able,
To performe nothing; are like shallow streames,
That make themselues so many heauens; to sight;
Since you may see in them, the Moone, and Starres,
The blew space of the ayre; as farre from vs,
(To our weake sences) in those shallow streames
As if they were as deepe, as heauen is high;
Yet with your middle finger onely, sound them,
And you shall pierce them to the very earth;
And therefore leaue them, and be true to me
Or yow'le be left by all; or be like one
That in cold nights will needes haue all the fire,
And there is held by others, and embrac't
Onely to burne him: your fire wilbe inward,
Which not another deluge can put out:
Byron kneeles while the King goes on.
O Inocence the sacred amulet,
Gainst all the poisons of infirmitie:
Of all misfortune, iniurie, and death,
That makes a man, in tune still in himselfe;
Free from the hell to be his owne accuser,
Euer in quiet, endle, ioy enioying;
No strife, nor no sedition is his powres:
No motion in his will, against his reason,
Of wishing, and repenting) doth possesse
Onely a wayward, and tumultuose peace,
But (all parts in him, friendly and secure,
Fruitefull of all best thinges in all worst Seasons)
He can with every wish, be in their plenty,
When, the infectious guilt of one foule crime,
Destroyes the free content of all our time.
Byr:
Tis all acknowlegd, and, (though all to late)
Heere the short madnesse of my anger ends:
If euer I did good I lockt it safe
In you, th'impregnable defence of goodnesse:
If ill, I presse it with my penitent knees
To that vnsounded depth, whence naught returneth.
Hen:
Tis musique to mine eares: rise then for euer,
Quit of what guilt soeuer till this houre,
And nothing toucht in honnor or in spirit,
Rise without flattery, rise by absolute merit.
Enter: Esp: to the King, Byron: &c. Enter Sauoy with three Ladies.
Esp.
Sir if it please you to bee taught any Courtship take
you to your stand: Sauoy is at it with three Mistresses at once
he loues each of them best, yet All differently.
Hen:
For the time he hath beene here, he hath talkt a Volume
greater then the Turkes Alcaron; stand vp close; his lips
go still.
Sau:
Excuse me, excuse me; The King has ye all;
1.
True Sir, in honorable subiection.
2.
To the which we are bound by our loyallty.
Sau:
Nay your excuse, your excuse, intend me for affection?
you are all bearers of his fauours; and deny him not
your opposition by night.
3
You say rightly in that; for therein we oppose vs to his
command.
1.
In the which he neuer yet prest vs.
2.
Such is the benediction of our peace.
Sau:
You take me still in flat misconstruction, and conceiue
1
Therein we are strong in our owne purposes; for it were
something scandalous for vs to conceiue by you.
2.
Though there might be question made of your fruitfulnes,
yet drie weather in haruest dooes no harme.
Hen.
They will talke him into Sauoy; he beginnes to hunt
downe.
Sau.
As the King is, and hath beene, a most admired, and
the most vnmatchable souldier, so hath he beene, and is, a sole
excellent, and vnparalelld Courtier.
Hen.
Pouvre Amy Mercie.
1.
Your highness does the king but right sir.
2.
And heauen shall blesse you for that iustice,
With plentiful store of want in Ladies affections.
Sau.
You are cruell, and wil not vouchsafe me audience to
any conclusion.
1.
Beseech your grace conclude, that we may present our
curtsies to you, and giue you the adiew.
Sau.
It is saide, the king will bring an army into Sauoy.
2.
Truely we are not of his counsaile of warre.
Sau.
Nay but vouchsafe me.
3.
Vouchsafe him, vouchsafe him, else there's no play in't.
1.
Well I vouchsafe your Grace.
Sau.
Let the king bring an army into Sauoy, and Ile finde
him sport for fortie yeares.
Hen.
Would I were sure of that, I should then haue a long
gae, and a merry.
1.
I thinke your Grace woulde play with his army at Balloone.
2.
My faith, and that's a martiall recreation.
3.
It is next to impious courting.
Sau.
I am not hee that can set my Squadrons ouer-night,
by midnight leape my horse, curry seauen miles, and by three,
leape my mistris; returne to mine armie againe, and direct as
I were infatigable, I am no such tough souldier.
1.
Your disparitie is beleeu'd sir.
2.
And tis a peece of virtue to tell true.
Gods me, the king,
Sau.
Well, I haue said nothing that may offend.
1.
Tis hop't so,
2.
If there be any mercie in laughter.
Sau.
Ile take my leaue.
After the tedious stay my loue hath made,
(Most worthy to command our earthly zeale)
I come for pardon, and to take my leaue;
Affirming though I reape no other good,
By this my voiage; but t'haue seene a Prince
Of greatnes, in all grace so past report;
I nothing should repent me, and to shew,
Some token of my gratitude, I haue sent,
Into your treasury, the greatest Iewells,
In all my Cabinet of Beatrice.
And of my late-deceased wife, th'Infanta,
Which are two Basigus, and their Ewrs of christall,
Neuer yet vallewd for their workmanship,
Nor the exceding riches of their matter
And to your stable, (worthy duke of Byron,
I haue sent in two of my fayrest horses.
Byr.
Sent me your horses? vpon what desert?
I entertaine no presents but for merits;
Which I am farre from at your highnes hands;
As being of all men to you the most stranger,
There is as ample bounty in refusing;
As in bestowing, and with this I quit you.
Sau.
Then haue I lost nought but my poore good will,
Hen.
Well cosine, I with all thankes, welcome that;
And the rich arguments with which you proue it,
Wishing I could, to your wish welcome you;
Draw, for your marquisate, the articles;
Agreed on in our composition,
And it is yours, but where you haue porpos'd,
(In your aduices) my designe for Millane,
I will haue no warre with the king of Spaine,
Vnlesse his hopes proue weary of our peace;
And (Princely cosine) it is farre from me,
Yet loue, oft-times must offer things vnneedeful,
And therefore I would counsaile you to hold
All good termes, with his Maiestie of Spaine:
If any troubles should be stirr'd betwixt you,
I would not stirre therein, but to appease them;
I haue too much care of my royal word,
To breake a Peace so iust and consequent,
Without force of precedent iniurie:
Endles desires are worthles of iust Princes,
And onely proper to the swinge of tyrants.
Sau.
At al partes spoke like the most christian king,
I take my humblest leaue, and pray your Highnes,
To holde me as your seruant, and poore kinsman,
Who wisheth no supreamer happines
Than to be yours: To you (right worthy Princes)
I wish for all your fauours powr'd on me
The loue of al these Ladies mutually,
And (so they please their Lordes) that they may please
Themselues by all meanes. And be you assurde
(Most louely Princesses) as of your liues,
You cannot be true women, if true wiues.
Exit.
Hen.
Is this he Espernon, that you would needes
Perswades vs courted so absurdly.
Esp.
This is euen he sir, howsoeuer he hath studied his Parting
Courtship.
Hen.
In what one point seemde hee so ridiculous as you
would present him?
Esp.
Behold me sir, I beseech you behold me, I appeare to
you as the great Duke of Sauoy with these three Ladies.
Hen.
Well sir, we graunt your resemblance.
Esp.
He stole a carriage sir, from Count d' Auuergne heere.
D' Auer.
From me sir?
Esp.
Excuse me sir, from you I assure you: heere sir, he lies
at the Lady Antoniette, iust thus, for the worlde, in the true
posture of Count d' Auuergne.
D' Auer.
Y'are exceeding delightsome.
Hen.
Why is not that wel? it came in with the organ hose.
Organ hose? a pox ant; let it pipe it selfe into contempt;
hee hath stolne it most felloniously, and it graces him
like a disease.
Hen.
I thinke he stole it from D' Avuergne indeed.
Esp.
Well, would he had robd him of all his other diseases,
He were then the soundest lord in France.
D' Au.
As I am sir, I shall stand all wethers with you.
Esp.
But sir, he has praisd you aboue th'inuention of Rimers.
Hen.
Wherein? or how?
Esp.
He tooke vpon him to describe your victories in warre,
and where hee should haue sayd, you were the most absolute
souldier in Christendome, (no Asse could haue mist it) hee deliuerd
you for as pretty a fellow of your hands, as any was
in France.
Hen.
Marry God dild him.
Esp.
A pox on him.
Hen.
Well, (to be serious) you know him well
To be a gallant Courtier: his great wit
Can turne him into any forme he lists,
More fit to be auoyded, then deluded.
For my Lord Duke of Byron here, well knowes,
That it infecteth, where it doth affect:
And where it seemes to counsaile, it conspires.
With him go all our faults, and from vs flie,
(With all his counsaile) all conspiracie.
Finis Actus Quinti, & vltimi.
| The Conspiracie of Charles Duke of Byron, Marshall of France | |