 | The Spanish Curat |  |
Actus Primus.
Scæna Prima.
Enter Angelo, Milanes, Arsenio.Arsenio.
Leandro paid all.
Mil.
'Tis his usuall custome,
And requisite he should: he has now put off
The Funerall black, (your rich heirs weares with joy,
When he pretends to weep for his dead Father,)
Your gathering Sires, so long heape muck together,
That their kind Sonnes, to rid them of their care
Wish them in heaven; Or if they take a taste
Of Purgatory by the way, it matters not:
Provided they remove hence; What is befalne
To his Father, in the other world, I ask not,
I am sure his prayre is heard: would I could use one
For mine, in the same method.
Arsen.
Fy upon thee.
This is prophane,
Mil.
Good Doctor, doe not schoole me,
For a fault you are not free from: On my life
Were all Heires in Corduba, put too their oathes
They would confesse with me, 'tis a sound Tenet:
I am sure Leandro do's.
Ars.
He is th'owner
Of a faire Estate.
Mil.
And fairly he deserves it,
He's a royall Fellow: yet observes a meane
In all his courses, carefull to on whom
He showres his bounties: he that's liberall
To all alike, may doe a Good by chance,
But never out of Judgement: This invites
The prime men of the Citie to frequent
All places he resorts to, and are happy
In his sweet Converse.
Ars.
Don Jamie the Brother
To the Grandee Don Henrique, appeares much taken
With his behaviour.
Mil.
There is something more in't:
Hee needs his Purse, and knowes how to make use on't,
'Tis now in fashion for your Don, that's poore,
To vow all Leagues of friendship with a Merchant
That can supply his wants, and howsoe're
Don Jamie's noble borne, his elder Brother
Don Henrique rich, and his Revenues long since
Encreasing by marrying with a wealthy Heire
Call'd Madam Violante, he yet holds
A hard hand o're Jamie, allowing him
A bare annuity onely.
Ars.
Yet 'tis said
He hath no child, and by the Lawes of Spaine
If he die without issue, Don Iamie
Inherits his Estate.
Mil.
Why that's the reason
Of their so many jarres: Though the young Lord
Be sick of the elder Brother, and in reason
Should flatter, and observe him, he's of a nature
Too bold, and fierce, to stoop so, but beares up,
Presuming on his hopes.
Ars.
What's the young Lad
That all of 'em make so much of?
Mil.
'Tis a sweet-One,
And the best condition'd youth, I ever saw yet,
So humble and so affable, that he wins
The love of all that know him, and so modest,
That (in despight of povertie) he would starve
Rather then aske a courtesie; He's the Sonne
Of a poore cast-Captaine, one Octavio
And She, that once was calld th'faire Iacinta,
Is happy in being his Mother: for his sake.
Enter Jamie, Leandro, and Ascanio.
(Though in their Fortunes falne) they are esteem'd of,
And cherish'd by the best. O here they come,
I now may spare his Character, but observe him,
Hee'l justifie my report.
Ia.
My good Ascanio
Repaire more often to me: above Women
Thou ever shalt be welcome.
Asc.
My Lord your favours
May quickly teach a raw untutour'd Youth
To be both rude and sawcie.
Leandro.
You cannot be
Too frequent, where you are so much desir'd:
And give me leave (deare friend) to be your Rivall
In part of his Affection; I will buy it
At any rate.
Ia.
Stood I but now possess'd
28
I then would make it cleare thou hadst a Patron
That would not say but do: yet as I am,
Be mine, I'le not receive thee as a servant,
But as my Son (and though I want my self)
No Page attending in the Court of Spain
Shall find a kinder master.
Ars.
I beseech you
That my refusall of so great an offer
May make no ill construction, 'tis not pride
(That common vice is farre from my condition)
That makes you a denyall to receive
A favour I should sue for: nor the fashion
Which the country followes, in which to be a servant
In those that groan beneath the heavy weight
Of povertie is held an argument
Of a base and abject mind, I wish my yeares
Were fit to do you service in a nature
That might become a Gentleman (give me leave
To think my self one) My father serv'd the King
As a Captain in the field; and though his fortune
Return'd him home a poore man, he was rich
In reputation, and wounds fairly taken.
Nor am I by his ill successe deterr'd,
I rather feel a strong desire that swayes me
To follow his Profession, and if heaven
Hath marked me out to be a man, how proud,
In the service of my Country, should I be,
To traile a pike under your brave command.
There, I would follow you as a guid to honour,
Though all the horrours of the Warre made up
To stop my passage.
Ia.
Thou art a hopefull Boye,
And it was bravely spoken: For this answer,
I love thee more then ever.
Mil.
Pitty such seeds
Of promising courage should not grow and prosper
Ang.
What ever his reputed Parents bee,
He hath a mind that speakes him right and noble.
Lea.
You make him blush: it needs not sweet Ascanio,
We may heare praises when they are deserv'd,
Or modestie unwounded. By my life
I would adde something to the building up
So fair a mind, and if till you are fit
To beare Armes in the field, you'l spend some yeares
In Salamanca, I'le supply your studies
With all conveniences.
Ars.
Your goodnesse (Signiors)
And charitable favours overwhelm me.
If I were of your blood, you could not be
More tender of me: what then can I pay
(A poore boy and a stranger) but a heart
Bound to your service? with what willingnes
I would receive (good Sir) your noble offer,
Heaven can beare witnes for me: but alas
Should I embrace the meanes to raise my fortunes,
I must destroy the lives of my poore Parents
(To whom I ow my being) they in me
Place all their comforts, and (as if I were
The light of their dim eyes) are so indulgent
They cannot brook one short dayes absence from me;
And (what will hardly win belief) though young,
I am their steward and their nurse: the bounties
VVhich others bestow on me serves to sustain 'em,
And to forsake them in their age, in me
VVere more then murther.
Enter Henrique.
Ang.
This is a kind of begging
VVould make a Broker charitable,
Mil.
Here (sweet heart)
I wish that it were more.
Lean.
VVhen this is spent,
Seek for supply from me
Ja.
Thy pietie
For ever be remembred: nay take all,
Though 'twere my exhibition to a Royall
For one whole yeare.
Asc.
High heavens reward your goodnes.
Hen.
So Sir, is this a slip of your own grafting,
You are so prodigall?
Ia.
A slip Sir?
Hen.
Yes,
A slip; or call it by the proper name
Your Bastard.
Ia.
You are foul-mouth'd; do not provoke me,
I shall forget your Birth, if you proceed,
And use you, (as your manners do deserve) uncivilly.
Hen.
So brave? pray you give me hearing,
Who am I Sir?
Ia.
My elder Brother: One
That might have been born a fool and so reputed,
But that you had the luck to creep into
The world a yeare before me.
Lean.
Be more temperate.
Ia.
I neither can nor will, unlesse I learn it
By this example: let him use his harsh
Unsavoury reprehensions upon those
That are his hinds, and not on me. The Land
Our father left to him alone rewards him,
For being twelve moneths elder, let that be
Forgotten, and let his Parasites remember
One quality of worth or vertue in him
That may authorise him, to be a censurer
Of me, or of my manners, and I will
Acknowledge him for a tutor, til then, never
Hen.
From whom have you your meanes Sir?
Ia.
From the will
Of my dead father; I am sure I spend not
Nor give't upon your purse.
Hen.
But will it hold out
Without my help?
Ja.
I am sure it shall I'le sink else
For sooner I will seek aid from a whore,
Then a courtesie from you.
Hen.
'Tis well; you are proud of
Your new Exchequer when you have cheated him
And worn him to the quick, I may be found
In the List of your acquaintance
Lea.
Pray you hold
And give me leave (my Lord) to say thus much
(And in mine own defence) I am no Gull
To be wrought on by perswasion: nor no Coward
To be beaten out of my meanes, but know to whom
And why I give or lend; and will do nothing
But what my reason warrants; you may be
As sparing as you please, I must be bold
To make use of mine own, without your licence.
Ia.
'Pray thee let him alone, he is not worth thy anger
All that he do's (Leandro) is for my good,
I think there's not a Gentleman of Spain,
That ha's a better steward, then I have of him.
Hen.
Your steward Sir?
27
Yes, and a provident one:
Why, he knowes I am given to large Expence,
And therefore layes up for me: could you believe els
That he, that sixteen years hath worne the yoke
Of barren wedlock, without hope of issue,
(His Coffer's full, his Lands, and Vineyards fruitfull)
Could be so sold to base, and sordid thrift,
As almost to deny himselfe, the meanes
And necessaries of life? Alas, he knowes
The Lawes of Spaine appoint me for his heire,
That all must come to me, if I out-live him,
(Which sure I must doe, by the course of Nature,)
And the assistance of good Mirth, and Seck,
How ever you prove Melancholy.
Hen.
If I live,
Thou dearly shalt repent this,
Ja.
When thou art dead,
I am sure I shall not.
Mil.
Now they begin to burn
Like oppos'd Meteors.
Ars.
Give them line, and way,
My life for Don Jamie.
Ja.
Continue still
The excellent Husband, and joyne Farme to Farme,
Suffer no Lordship, that in a cleare day
Falls in the prospect of your coveteous eye
To be an others; Forget you are a Grandee
Take use upon use, and cut the throats of heires
With cozening Mort-gages: rack your poore Tenants,
Till they looke like so many Skeletons
For want of Food; And when that Widowes curses,
The ruines of ancient Families, teares of Orphans
Have hurried you to the divell. ever remember
All was rak'd up, for me, (your thankfull Brother)
That will dance merrily upon your Grave,
And perhaps give a double Pistolet
To some poore needy Frier, to say a Masse
To keep your Ghost from walking.
Hen.
That the Law
Should force me to endure this!
Ia.
Verely,
When this shall come to passe (as sure it will)
If you can find a loope-hole, though in hell'
To looke on my behaviour, you shall see me
Ransack your Iron Chests, and once againe
Pluto's flame-colour'd Daughter shall be free
To dominier in Taverns, Maskes, and Revells
As she was us'd before she was your Captive.
Me thinkes the meere conceipt of it, should make you
Goe home sick and distemper'd, if it do's.
I'le send you a Doctor of mine owne, and after
Take order for your Funerall.
Hen.
You have said, sir,
I will not fight with words, but deeds to tame you,
Rest confident I will, and thou shalt wish
This day thou hadst been dumb.—
Exit.
Mil.
You have given him a heat.
But with your owne distemper.
Ia.
Not a whit
Now he is from mine eye, I can be merry,
Forget the cause, and him: all plagues goe with him,
Let's talke of something els: what newes is stirring?
Nothing to passe the time?
Mil.
'Faith, it is said
That the next Summer will determine much
Of that we long have talk'd of, touching the Wars.
Lea.
What have we to doe with them? Let us discourse
Of what concernes our selves. 'Tis now in fashion
To have you Gallants set downe, in a Taverne,
Whatthe Arch-Dukes purpose is the next spring, & what
Defence my Lords (the States) prepare: what course
The Emperour takes against the encroching Turke,
And whither his Moony-Standards are design'd
For Persia or Polonia: and all this
The wiser sort of State-Wormes seeme to know
Better then their owne Affaires: this is discourse
Fit for the Counsell it concernes; we are young,
And if that I might give the Theame, 'twere better
To talke of handsome women.
Mil.
And that's one,
Almost as generall.
Ars.
Yet none agree
Who are the fairest.
Lea.
Some prefer the French,
For their conceited Dressings: some the plump
Italian Bona-Robas, some the State
That ours observe; and I have heard one sweare,
(A merry friend of mine) that once in London,
He did enjoy the company of a Gamester,
(A common Gamester too) that in one night
Met him th'Italian, French, and Spanish waies,
And ended in the Dutch; for, to coole her selfe,
She kiss'd him drunke in the morning.
Ia.
Wee may spare
The travell of our tongues in forraigne Nations,
When in Corduba, if you dare give credit
To my report (for I have seene her, Gallants)
There lives a woman) of a meane birth too,
And meanly match'd) whose all-excelling Forme
Disdaines comparison with any She
That puts in for a faire one, and though you borrow
From every Country of the Earth the best
Of those perfections, which the Clymat yeilds
To help to make her up, if put in Ballance,
This will weigh-downe the Scale.
Lea.
You talke of wonders.
Ia.
She is indeed a wonder, and so kept,
And, as the world deserv'd not to behold
What curious Nature made without a patterne,
Whose Copy she hath lost too, she's shut up,
Sequestred from the world.
Lea.
Who is the owner
Of such a Jem? I am fir'd.
Ia.
One Bartolus,
A wrangling Advocate.
Ars.
A knave on Record.
Mil.
I am sure he cheated me of the best part
Of my Estate.
Ia.
Some Businesse calls me hence,
(And of importance) which denies me leisure
To give you his full character: In few words
(Though rich) he's covetous beyond expression,
And to encrease his heape, will dare the Divell,
And all the plagues of darknesse: and to these
So jealous, as if you would paralell
Old Argus to him, you must multiply
His Eies an hundred times: of these, none sleepe.
He that would charme the heaviest lid, must hire
A better Mercurie; then Iove made use of:
Blesse your selves from the thought of him and her.
For 'twill be labour lost: So farewell Signiors.—
Exit.
Ars.
Leandro? in a dreame? wake man for shame.
28
Trayned into a fooles paradise with a tale
Of an imagin'd Forme,
Lea.
Iamie is noble,
And with a forg'd Tale would not wrong his Friend,
Nor am I so much fired with lust as Envie,
That such a churl as Bartolus should reap
So sweet a harvest, half my State to any
To help me to a share.
Ars.
Tush do not hope for
Impossibilities,
Lea.
I must enjoy her,
And my prophetique love tells me I shall,
Lend me but your assistance;
Ars.
Give it 'ore,
Mil.
I would not have thee fool'd
Lea.
I have strange Engines,
Fashioning here: and Bartolus on the Anville
Diswade me not, but help me,
Mil.
Take your fortune,
If you come off well; praise your wit, if not,
Expect to be the subject of our Laughter.
Exeunt.
Scæna Secunda.
Enter Octavio, and Iacinta.Iac.
You met Don Henrique.
Oct.
Yes:
Iac.
What comfort bring you?
Speake cheerefully: how did my Letter worke?
On his hard temper? I am sure I wrot it,
So feelingly, and with the pen of sorrow,
That it must force Compunction,
Oct.
You are cozen'd;
Can you with one hand prop a falling Tower?
Or with the other stop the raging maine,
When it breakes in on the usurped Shore?
Or any thing that is impossible?
And then conclude that there is some way left,
To move him to compassion.
Iac.
Is there a Justice
Or thunder (my Octavio) and he
Not sunk unto the center?
Oct.
Good Iacinta.
With your long practised patience beare afflictions,
And by provoking it call not on Heavens anger,
He did not onely scorne to read your Letter,
But (most inhumane as he is) he cursed you,
Cursed you most bitterly,
Iac.
The bad mans charity,
Oh that I could forget there were a Tye,
In me, upon him! or the releife I seeke,
(If given) were bounty in him, and not debt,
Debt of a deere accompt!
Oct.
Touch not that string,
'Twill but encrease your Sorrow, and tame silence,
(The Balme of the oppressed) which hitherto
Hath eas'd your grieved soule, and preserv'd your fame,
Must be your Surgeon still.
Iac.
If the contagion
Of my misfortunes had not spread it self,
Upon my Son Ascanio, though my wants
Were centupli'd upon my self, I could be patient:
But he is so good, I so miserable,
His pious care his dutie, and obedience,
And all that can be wish'd for from a Son,
Discharg'd to me, and I, bard of all meanes,
To returne any scruple of the debt
I owe him as a Mother, is a Torment,
Too painefull to be borne.
Oct.
I suffer with you,
In that; yet find in this assurance comfort,
High heaven ordaines (whose purposes cannot alter)
Enter Ascanio.
Children that pay obedience to their Parents,
Shall never beg their Bread.
Iac.
Here comes our joy,
Where has my dearest been?
Asc.
I have made (Mother)
A fortunate voyage and brought home rich prize,
In a few houres: the owners too contented,
From whom I tooke it. See heres Gold, good store too
Nay, pray you take it,
Iac.
Mens Charities are so cold,
That if I knew not, thou wert made of Goodnes,
'Twould breed a jealousie in me by what meanes,
Thou cam'st by such a sum
Asc.
Were it ill got,
I am sure it could not be employed so well,
As to relieve your wants. Some noble Friends,
(Rais'd by heavens mercy to me, not my merits)
Bestow'd it on me.
Oct.
It were a sacriledge
To rob thee of their bounty, since they gave it,
To thy use onely;
Iac.
Buy thee brave Cloathes with it
And fit thee for a fortune, and leave us,
To our necessities; why do'st thou weep?
Asc.
Out of my feare, I have offended you;
For had I not, I am sure you are too kind,
Not to accept the offer of my service,
In which I am a gainer; I have heard
My tutor say of all aiereall foule
The Storke's the Embleme of true pietie,
Because when age hath seiz'd upon her dam,
And made unfit for flight, the gratefull young one
Takes her upon his back, provides her foode,
Repaying so, her tender care of him,
'Ere he was fit to fly, by bearing her:
Shall I then that have reason, and discourse
That tell me all I can doe is too litle,
Be more unnaturall then a silly Bird?
Or feed or cloth my selfe superfluously,
And know, nay see you want? holy Saints keepe me.
Iac.
Can I be wretched,
And know my selfe the Mother to such Goodnes?
Oct.
Come, let us drie our eyes, wee'll have a Feast,
Thanks to our little Steward;
Iac.
And in him,
Beleeve that we are rich.
Asc.
I am sure I am,
While I have power to comfort you, and serve you.
Exeunt.
Scæna Tertia.
Enter Henrique and Violante.Viol.
Is it my fault (Don Henrique) or my fate,
What's my offence? I came young to your Bed
I had a fruitfull Mother and you met me,
With equall ardour in your May of blood;
And why then am I barren?
29
'Tis not in Man
To yield a reason for the will of Heaven;
Which is inscrutable.
Viol.
To what use serve
Full fortunes, and the meaner sort of Blessings,
When that, which is the Crowne of all our wishes,
The period of humane happines,
One only Child that may possesse what's ours,
Is cruelly denide us?
Hen.
'Tis the curse,
Of great Estates to want those Pledges which,
The poore are happy in: They in a Cottage,
With joy, behold the Modells of their youth,
And as their Roote decaies those budding Branches,
Sprout forth and flourish, to renew their age;
But this is the beginning, not the end
To me, of, that misery against my will,
(Since Heaven denies us Issue of our owne)
Must leave the fruit of all my care and travell
To an unthankfull Brother that insults,
On my Calamity.
Viol.
I will rather choose,
A Bastard from the Hospitall and adopt him,
And nourish him, as mine owne.
Hen.
Such an evasion
(My Violante) is forbid to us;
Happy the Romane State, where it was lawfull,
(If our owne Sonnes were vicious) to choose one
Out of a vertuous Stock, though of poore Parents,
And make him noble. But the Lawes of Spaine,
(Intending to preserve all ancient Houses)
Prevent such free elections; with this my Brothers
Too well acquainted, and this makes him bold to
Reigne 'ore me, as a Master,
Viol.
I will fire
The Portion I brought with me, 'ere he spend,
A Royall of it: No Quirck left? no Quiddit
That may defeate him?
Hen.
Were I but confirmed,
That you would take the meanes I use, with patience,
As I must practise it with my dishonour,
I could lay levell with the earth his hopes
That soare above the clouds with expectation
To see me in my grave.
Viol.
Effect but this
And our revenge shall be to us a Son
That shall inherit for us.
Hen.
Do not repent
When 'tis too late.
Viol.
I feare not what may fall
He disposess'd that doe's usurpe on all
Exeunt.
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