University of Virginia Library

Scene V.

Compasse. Diaphanous. Practise. Bias. Ironside.
Com.
O Sir Diaphanous, ha' yon done?

Dia.
I ha' brought it.

Pra.
That's well.

Com.
But who shall carry it now?

Dia.
A friend:
Ile find a friend to carry it; Mr. Bias here.
Will not deny me that.

Bia.
What is't?

Dia.
To carry.
A Challenge I have writ unto the Captaine.

Bias.
Faith but I will Sir, you shall pardon me.
For a twi-reason of State. Ile beare no Challenges;
I will not hazard my Lords favour so;
Or forfeit mine owne Judgement with his honour,
To turne a Ruffian: I have to commend me
Nought but his Lordships good opinion;
And to't my Kallygraphy, a faire hand,
Fit for a Secretary: Now you know, a mans hand
Being his executing part in fight,
Is more obnoxious to the common perill—

Dia.
You shall not fight Sir, you shall onely search
My Antagonist; commit us fairely there
Vpo' the ground on equall termes.

Bia.
O Sir!
But if my Lord should heare I stood at end
Of any quarrell, 'twere an end of me
In a state course! I ha' read the Politiques;
And heard th'opinions of our best Divines.

Com.
The Gentleman has reason! Where was first
The birth of your acquaintance? or the Cradle
Of your strickt friendship made?

Dia.
We met in France, Sir.

Com.
In France! that Garden of humanity,
The very seed-plot of all courtesies:
I wonder that your friendship suck'd that aliment,
The milke of France; and see this sower effect
It doth produce, 'gainst all the sweets of travell:
There, every Gentleman professing armes,
Thinkes he is bound in honour to imbrace
The bearing of a Challenge for another,
Without or questioning the cause, or asking
Least colour of a reason. There's no Cowardize,
No Poultrounerie, like urging why? wherefore?
But carry a Challenge, die, and doe the thing.

Bia.
Why, heare you Mr. Compasse, I but crave
Your eare in private? I would carry his Challenge,
If I but hop'd your Captaine angry enough
To kill him: For (to tell you truth) this Knight,
Is an impertinent in Court, (wee thinke him:)
And troubles my Lords Lodgings, and his Table
With frequent, and unnecessary visits,
Which wee (the better sort of Servants) like not:
Being his Fellowes in all other places,
But at our Masters boord; and we disdaine
To doe those servile offices, oft times,
His foolish pride, and Empire will exact,
Against the heart, or humour of a Gentleman.

Com.
Truth Mr. Bias, I'ld not ha' you thinke
I speake to flatter you: but you are one
O' the deepest Politiques I ever met,
And the most subtily rationall. I admire you.
But doe not you conceive in such a case,
That you are accessary to his death,
From whom you carry a Challenge with such purpose.

Bia.
Sir the corruption of one thing in nature,
Is held the Generation of another;
And therefore, I had as leive be accessory
Vnto his death, as to his life.

Com.
A new
Morall Philosophy too! you'l carry't then.

Bia.
If I were sure, 't would not incense his choller
To beat the Messenger.

Com.
O' Ile secure you,
You shall deliver it in my lodging; safely,
And doe your friend a service worthy thankes.

Bia.
Ile venture it, upon so good Induction,
To rid the Court of an Impediment,
This baggage Knight.

Iro.
Peace to you all Gentlemen,
Enter Ironside.
Save to this Mushrome; who I heare is menacing
Me with a Challenge: which I come to anticipate,
And save the Law a labour: Will you fight Sir?

Dia.
Yes, in my shirt.

Iro.
O, that's to save your doublet;
I know it a Court trick! you had rather have
An Vlcer in your body, then a Pinke
More i' your clothes.

Dia.
Captaine, you are a Coward,
If you not fight i' your shirt.

Iro.
Sir I not meane
To put it off for that, nor yet my doublet:
Yo' have cause to call me Coward, that more feare
The stroke of the common, and life giving aire,
Then all your fury, and the Panoplie.

Pra.
(Which is at best, but a thin linnen armour.)
I thinke a cup of generous wine were better,
Then fighting i' your shirts.

Dia.
Sir, Sir, my valour,
It is a valour of another nature,
Then to be mended by a cup of wine.

Com.
I should be glad to heare of any valours,
Differing in kind; who have knowne hitherto,
Only one vertue, they call Fortitude,
Worthy the name of valour.

Iro.
Which, who hath not,
Is justly thought a Coward: And he is such.

Dia.
O, you ha' read the Play there, the New Inne,
Of Ionsons, that decries all other valour
But what is for the publike.

Iro.
I doe that too,
But did not learne it there; I thinke no valour
Lies for a private cause.

Dia.
Sir, Ile redargue you,
By disputation.

Com.
O let's heare this!
I long to heare a man dispute in his shirt
Of valour, and his sword drawne in his hand.

Pra.
His valour will take cold; put on your doublet.

Com.
His valour will keepe cold, you are deceiv'd;
And relish much the sweter in our eares:
It may be too, i' the ordinance of nature.
Their valours are not yet so combatant,
Or truly antagonistick, as to fight;
But may admit to heare of some divisions,
Of Fortitude, may put 'hem off their Quarrell.

Dia.
I would have no man thinke me so ungovern'd,
Or subject to my passion, but I can
Reade him a Lecture 'twixt my undertakings,
And executions: I doe know all kinds
Of doing the busines, which the Towne cals valour.

Com.
Yes, he has read the Towne, Towne-top's his Author!
Your first?

Dia.
Is a rash head-long unexperience.

Com.
Which is in Children, Fooles, or your street Gallants
O' the first head.

Pra.
A pretty kind of valour!

Com.
Commend him, he will spin it out in's shirt,
Fine, as that thred.

Dia.
The next, an indiscreet
Presumption, grounded upon often scapes.

Com.
Or th'insufficiencie of Adversaries,
And this is in your common fighting Brothers.
Your old Perdu's, who (after a time) doe thinke,
The one, that they are shot free; the other, sword free.
Your third?

Dia.
Is nought but an excesse of choller,
That raignes in testy old men—.

Com.
Noble mens Porters,
And selfe conceited Poëts.

Dia.
And is rather
A peevishnesse, then any part of valour.

Pra.
He but reherses, he concludes no valour.

Com.
A history of distempers, as they are practiz'd,
His Harangue undertaketh, and no more.
Your next?

Dia.
Is a dull desperate resolving.

Com.
In case of some necessitous misery, or
Incumbent mischiefe.

Pra.
Narrownesse of mind,
Or ignorance being the root of it.

Dia.
Which shou shall find in Gamesters, quite blowne up.

Com.
Banckrupt Merchants, undiscovered Traytors.

Pra.
Or your exemplified Malefactors,
That have surviv'd their infamy, and punishment.

Com.
One that hath lost his eares, by a just sentence
O' the Starre-Chamber, a right valiant Knave—
And is a Histrionicall Contempt,
Of what a man feares most; it being a mischiefe
In his owne apprehension unavoidable.

Pra.
Which is in Cowards wounded mortally,
Or Theeves adjudg'd to die.

Com.
This is a valour,
I should desire much to see incourag'd:
As being a speciall entertainment
For our rogue People; and make oft good sport
Vnto 'hem, from the Gallowes to the ground.

Dia.
But mine is a Judiciall resolving,
Or liberall undertaking of a danger—.

Com.
That might be avoided.

Dia.
I, and with assurance,
That it is found in Noble-men, and Gentlemen,
Of the best sheafe.

Com.
Who having lives to lose,
Like private men, have yet a world of honour,
And publike reputation to defend—.

Dia.
Which in the brave historified Greeks,
And Romans you shall reade of.

Com.
And (no doubt)
May in our Alder-men meet it, and their Deputies,
The Souldiers of the Citie, valiant blades,
Who (rather then their houses should be ransack'd)
Would fight it out, like so many wild beasts;
Not for the fury they are commonly arm'd with:
But the close manner of their fight, and custome,
Of joyning head to head, and foot to foot.

Iro.
And which of these so well-prest resolutions
Am I to encounter now? For commonly,
Men that have so much choise before 'hem, have
Some trouble to resolve of any one.

Bia.
There are three valours yet, which Sir Diaphanous,
Hath (with his leave) not touch'd.

Dia.
Yea? which are those?

Pra.
He perks at that!

Com.
Nay, he does more, he chatters

Bia.
A Philosophicall contempt of death,
Is one: Then an infused kind of valour,
Wrought in us by our Genii, or good spirits;
Of which the gallant Ethnicks had deepe sense:
Who generally held, that no great States-man,
Scholler, or Souldier, ere did any thing
Sine divino aliquo afflatu.

Pra.
But there's a Christian valour, 'bove these too.

Bia.
Which is a quiet patient toleration,
Of whatsoever the malitious world
With Injury doth unto you; and consists
In passion, more then action, Sir Diaphanous.

Dia.
Sure, I doe take mine to be Christian valour—.

Com.
You may mistake though. Can you justifie
On any cause, this seeking to deface,
The divine Image in a man?

Bia.
O Sir!
Let 'hem alone: Is not Diaphanous
As much a divine Image, as is Ironside?
Let Images fight, if they will fight, a God's name.