 | The English Traveller |  |
Actus Quintus.
Scena Prima.
Enter Old Geraldine, and Young Geraldine.Old Ger.
Sonne, let me tell you, you are ill aduised;
And doubly to be blam'd, by vndertaking
Vnnecessary trauell; Grounding no reason
For such a rash and giddy enterprise:
What profit aime you at, you haue not reapt;
What Nouelty affoords the Christian world,
Of which your view hath not participated
In a full measure; Can you either better
Your language or experience? Your selfe-will
Hath onely purpose to depriue a father
Of a loued sonne, and many noble friends,
Of your much wisht acquaintance.
Y. Ger.
Oh, deare Sir,
Doe not, I doe intreat you, now repent you
Of your free grant; Which with such care and studdy,
I haue so long, so often laboured for.
Old. Ger.
Say that may be dispens'd with, shew me reason
Why you desire to steale out of your Countrey,
Like some Malefactor that had forfeited
His life and freedome; Heere 's a worthy Gentleman
Hath for your sake inuited many guests,
To his great charge, onely to take of you
A parting leaue; You send him word you cannot,
After, you may not come: Had not my vrgence,
Almost compulsion, driuen you to his house,
Th'vnkindnesse might haue forfeited your loue,
And raced you from his will; In which he hath giuen you
A faire and large estate; Yet you of all this strangenesse,
Show no sufficient ground.
Y. Ger.
Then vnderstand;
The ground thereof tooke his first birth from you,
'Twas you first charg'd me to forbeare the house,
And that vpon your blessing: Let it not then
Offend you Sir, if I so great a charge
Haue striu'd to keepe so strictly.
Old Ger.
Mee perhaps,
Because a Father; But how satisfie
Their deare, and on your part, vnmerited loue?
But this your last obedience may salue all:
Wee now grow neere the house.
Y. Ger.
Whose doores, to mee,
Appeare as horrid as the gates of Hell:
Where shall I borrow patience, or from whence?
Enter Wincott, Wife, Ricott, the two Lionells, Owner, Dalauill, Prudentilla, Reignald, Rioter.
To giue a meeting to this viperous brood,
Of Friend and Mistris.
Winc.
Y'aue entertain'd me with a strange discourse
Of your mans knauish wit, but I reioyce,
That in your safe returne, all ends so well:
Most welcome you, and you, and indeed all;
To whom I am bound, that at so short a warning,
Thus friendly, you will deigne to visit me.
Old Lio.
It seemes my absence hath begot some sport,
Thanke my kind seruant heere.
Reig.
Not so much worth Sir.
Old Lio.
But though their riots tript at my estate,
They haue not quite ore-throwne it.
Winc.
But see Gentlemen, these whom we most expected,
come at length; This I proclaime the master of the Feast,
In which to expresse the bounty of my loue,
I'le shew my selfe no niggard.
Y. Ger.
Your choise fauours,
I still taste in abundance.
Wife.
Methinks it would not mis-become me Sir,
To chide your absence; That haue made your selfe,
To vs, so long a stranger.
Hee turnes away sad, as not being minded.
Y. Ger.
Pardon mee Sir,
That haue not yet, since your returne from Sea,
Voted the least fit opportunity,
To entertaine you with a kind salute.
Old Lio.
Most kindly Sir I thanke yon.
Dal.
Methinks friend,
You should expect greene rushes to be strow'd,
Y. Ger.
Mistris Pru,
I haue not seene you long, but greet you thus,
May you be Lady of a better husband
Then I expect a wife.
Winc.
I like that greeting:
Nay, enter Gentlemen; Dinner perhaps
Is not yet ready, but the time we stay,
Weele find some fresh discourse to spend away.
Exeunt.
Manet Dalauill.
Dal.
Not speake to me? nor once vouchsafe an answere,
But sleight me with a poore and base neglect?
No, nor so much as cast an eye on her,
Or least regard, though in a seeming shew
Shee courted a reply? 'twixt him and her,
Nay him and mee, this was not wont to be;
If she haue braine to apprehend as much
Enter Young Geraldine and Wife.
As I haue done, sheele quickly find it out:
Now as I liue, as our affections meete,
So our conceits, and shee hath singled him
To some such purpose: I'le retire my selfe,
Not interrupt their conference.
Exit.
Wife.
You are sad Sir.
Y. Ger.
I know no cause.
Wife.
Then can I shew you some;
Who could be otherwayes, to leaue a Father
So carefull, and each way so prouident?
To leaue so many, and such worthy Friends?
To abandon your owne countrey? These are some,
Nor doe I thinke you can be much the merrier
For my sake?
Y. Ger.
Now your tongue speakes Oracles;
For all the rest are nothing, 'tis for you,
Onely for you I cannot.
Wife.
So I thought;
Why then haue you bin all this while so strange?
Why will you trauell? suing a diuorce
Betwixt vs, of a loue inseperable;
For heere shall I be left as desolate
Warm'd onely in that future, stor'd in you;
For who can in your absence comfort me?
Y. Ger.
Shall my oppressed sufferance yet breake foorth
Into impatience, or endure her more?
Wife.
But since by no perswasion, no intreats,
Your setled obstinacy can be swai'd,
Though you seeme desperate of your owne deare life,
Haue care of mine, for it exists in you.
Oh Sir, should you miscarry I were lost,
Lost and forsaken; Then by our past vowes,
And by this hand once giuen mee, by these teares,
Which are but springs begetting greater floods,
I doe beseech thee, my deere Geraldine,
Looke to thy safety, and preserue thy health;
Haue care into what company you fall;
Trauell not late, and crosse no dangerous Seas;
For till Heauens blesse me in thy safe returne,
How will this poore heart suffer?
Y. Ger.
I had thought
Long since the Syrens had bin all destroy'd;
But one of them I find suruiues in her;
Shee almost makes me question what I know,
An Hereticke vnto my owne beliefe:
Oh thou mankinds seducer.
Wife.
What? no answere?
Y. Ger.
Yes, thou hast spoke to me in Showres,
I will reply in Thunder; Thou Adultresse,
That hast more poyson in thee then the Serpent,
Who was the first that did corrupt thy sex,
The Deuill.
Wife.
To whom speakes the man?
Y. Ger.
To thee, falsest of all that euer man term'd faire;
Hath Impudence so steel'd thy smooth soft skin,
It cannot blush? Or sinne so obdur'd thy heart,
It doth not quake and tremble? Search thy conscience,
There thou shalt find a thousand clamorous tongues
To speake as loud as mine doth.
Wife.
Saue from yours,
I heare no noise at all.
I'le play the Doctor
To open thy deafe eares; Munday the Ninth
Of the last Moneth; Canst thou remember that?
That Night more blacke in thy abhorred sinne,
Then in the gloomie darknesse; That the time.
Wife.
Munday?
Y. Ger.
Wouldest thou the place know? Thy polluted Chamber,
So often witnesse of my sin-lesse vowes;
Wouldest thou the Person? One not worthy Name,
Yet to torment thy guilty Soule the more,
I'le tell him thee, That Monster Dalauill;
Wouldest thou your Bawd know? Mid-night, that the houre;
The very words thou spake? Now what would Geraldine
Say, if he saw vs heere? To which was answered,
Tush hee 's a Cox-combe, fit to be so fool'd:
No blush? What, no faint Feauer on thee yet?
How hath thy blacke sins chang'd thee? Thou Medusa,
Those Haires that late appeared like golden Wyers,
Now crawle with Snakes and Adders; Thou art vgly.
Wife.
And yet my glasse, till now, neere told me so;
Who gaue you this intelligence?
Y. Ger.
Onely hee,
That pittying such an Innocencie as mine,
Should by two such delinquents bee betray'd,
Hee brought me to that place by mirracle;
And made me an eare witnesse of all this.
Wife.
I am vndone.
Y. Ger.
But thinke what thou hast lost
To forfeit mee; I not withstanding these,
(So fixt was my loue and vnutterable)
I kept this from thy Husband, nay all eares,
With thy transgressions smothering mine owne wrongs,
In hope of thy Repentance.
Wife.
Which begins thus low vpon my knees.
Y. Ger.
Tush, bow to Heauen,
Which thou hast most offended; I alas,
Saue in such (Scarce vnheard of) Treacherie,
Most sinfull like thy selfe;
Wherein, Oh wherein, hath my vnspotted and vnbounded Loue
deseru'd the least of these? Sworne to be made a stale
Die, and die soone, acquit me of my Oath,
But prethee die repentant; Farewell euer,
'Tis thou, and onely thou hast Banisht mee,
Both from my Friends and Countrey.
Wife.
Oh, I am lost.
Sinkes downe.
Enter Dalauill meeting Young Geraldine going out.
Dal.
Why how now, what 's the businesse?
Y. Ger.
Goe take her Vp, whom thou hast oft throwne Downe,
Villaine.
Dal.
That was no language from a Friend,
It had too harsh an accent; But how 's this?
My Mistresse thus low cast vpon the earth
Grauelling and breathlesse, Mistresse, Lady, Sweet—
Wife.
Oh tell me if thy name be Geraldine,
Thy very lookes will kill mee?
Dal.
View me well,
I am no such man; See, I am Dalauill.
Wife.
Th'art then a Deuill, that presents before mee
My horrid sins; perswades me to dispaire;
When hee like a good Angel sent from Heauen,
Besought me of repentance; Swell sicke Heart,
Euen till thou burst the ribs that bound thee in;
So, there 's one string crackt, flow, and flow high,
Euen till thy blood distill out of mine eyes,
To witnesse my great sorrow.
Dal.
Faint againe,
Some helpe within there, no attendant neere?
Thus to expire, in this I am more wretched,
Then all the sweet fruition of her loue
Before could make me happy.
Enter Wincott Old Geraldine, Young Geraldine, the two Lionells, Ricott, Owner, Prudentilla, Reignald, Clowne.
Winc.
What was hee clamor'd so lowd,
To mingle with our mirth this terrour
And affright?
Dal.
See Sir, your Wife in these my armes expiring.
Winc.
How?
Prud.
My sister?
Winc.
Support her, and by all meanes possible
Prouide for her deere safety.
See, shee recouers.
Winc.
Woman, looke vp.
Wife.
Oh Sir, your pardon;
Conuey me to my Chamber, I am sicke,
Sicke euen to death, away thou Sycophant,
Out of my sight, I haue besides thy selfe,
Too many sinnes about mee.
Clo.
My sweet Mistresse.
Dal.
The storme 's comming, I must prouide for harbour.
Exit.
Old Lio.
What strange and sudden alteration 's this,
How quickly is this cleere day ouercast;
But such and so vncertaine are all things,
That dwell beneath the Moone.
Y. Lio.
A Womans qualme,
Frailties that are inherent to her sex,
Soone sicke, and soone recouer'd.
Winc.
If shee misfare,
I am a man more wretched in her losse,
Then had I forfeited life and estate;
Shee was so good a creature.
Old Ger.
I the like
Suffer'd, when I my Wife brought vnto her graue;
So you, when you were first a widower;
Come arme your selfe with patience.
Ric.
These are casualties
That are not new, but common.
Reig.
Burying of Wiues,
As stale as shifting shirts, or for some seruants,
To flout and gull their Masters.
Own.
Best to send
And see how her fit holds her.
Enter Prudentilla and Clowne.
Prud.
Sir, my Sister
In these few Lines commends her last to you,
For she is now no more; What 's therein writ,
Saue Heauen and you, none knowes, This she desir'd
You would take view of; and with these words expired.
Winc.
Dead?
Y. Ger.
She hath made me then a free release,
Of all the debts I owed her.
My feare is beyond pardon, Dalauill
Hath plaid the villaine, but for Geraldine,
Hee hath bin each way Noble—Loue him still,
My peace already I haue made with Heauen;
Oh be not you at warre with me; My Honour
Is in your hands to punish, or preserue;
I am now Confest, and only Geraldine
Hath wrought on mee this vnexpected good;
The Inke I write with, I wish had bin my blood,
To witnesse my Repentance—Dalauill?
Where 's hee? Goe seeke him out.
Clo.
I shall, I shall Sir.
Exit.
Winc.
The Wills of Dead folke should be still obeyed;
How euer false to mee, I'le not reueale 't;
Where Heauen forgiues, I pardon Gentlemen,
I know you all commiserate my losse;
I little thought this Feast should haue bin turn'd
Enter Clowne.
Into a Funerall; What 's the newes of him?
Clo.
Hee went presently to the Stable, put the Sadle vpon his Horse,
put his Foote into the Stirrup, clapt his Spurres into his sides, and away
hee 's Gallopt, as if hee were to ride a Race for a Wager.
Winc.
All our ill lucks goe with him, farewell hee;
But all my best of wishes wait on you,
As my chiefe Friend; This meeting that was made
Onely to take of you a parting leaue,
Shall now be made a Marriage of our Loue,
Which none saue onely Death shall separate.
Y. Ger.
It calles me from all Trauell, and from hencefoorth,
With my Countrey I am Friends.
Winc.
The Lands that I haue left,
You lend mee for the short space of my life;
As soone as Heauen calles mee, they call you Lord;
First feast, and after Mourne; Wee'le like some Gallants
That Bury thrifty Fathers, think 't no sinne,
To weare Blacks without, but other Thoughts within.
Exeunt omnes.
FINIS.
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