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Actus quintus
Scæna prima.
Enteer Rossella, Clarinda, Crocale, Juletta, Hippolita.Ros.
I am deaf to all your intreaties: she that moves me
For pity or compassion to these Pirates,
Digs up her fathers, or her brothers Tombe,
And spurns about their ashes.
Couldst thou remember what a father thou hast once,
Twould steele thy heart against foolish pity.
By his memory, and the remembrance of his deere embraces,
I am taught, that in a Noble cause revenge is Noble;
And they shal fall the sacrifices to appease
His wandering Ghost, and my incensed fury.
Cla.
The new come prisoner to?
Ros.
Him to. Yet that we may learn
Whether they are the same, or neere ally'd
To those that forc'd me to this cruell course,
Better their poore allowance, and permit 'em
To meet together and confer,
Within the distance of your eare; perhaps
They may discover something that may kill
Despaire in me, and be a means to save 'em
From certain ruine.
Cro.
That shal be my charge.
Ros.
Yet to prevent
All hope of rescue: for this new come Captain
Hath both a ship and men not far off from us,
Though ignorant to find the onely Port,
That can yeeld entrance to our happy Island,
Guard the place strongly, and ere the next Sunne
Ends his diurnall progresse, I wil be
Happy in my revenge, or set 'em free.
Exeunt.
Enter Crocale, Juletta, Hippolita.
A Table furnisht.
Cro.
So serve it plentifully,
And lose not time to enquire the cause;
There is a main design that hangs upon this bounty.
See the Table furnisht with Wine too,
That discovers secrets which tortures cannot open:
Open the doores too of the severall prisons,
And give all free entrance into this room.
25
Enter Tib. Mast.
Here's Captain carelesse, and the tough Ship-master,
The slaves are nos'd like Vultures
How wilde they look.
Tib.
Ha, the mystery of this,
Some good Hobgoblin rise and reveale.
Mast.
I am amazed at it: nor can I sound the intent.
Tib.
Is not this Bread,
Substantiall bread, not painted?
Mast.
But take heed,
You may be poysoned.
Tib.
I am sure I am famisht;
And as the wise man says,
Gripes the guts as much as any Minerall.
This may be Treacle sent to preserve me
After a long fast: or be it Vipers spittle,
Ile run the hazzard.
Mast.
We are past all feare, Ile take part with ye.
Tib.
Do: and now yfaith, how d'e feel your selfe?
I finde great ease in't. What's here?
Wine, and it be thy will;
Strong lusty Wine. Well, fooles may talke
Of Metridate, Cordials, and Elixars.
But from my youth this was my onely Physick.
Here's a colour, what Ladies cheek,
Though ceruss'd over, comes neere it?
It sparkles too: hangs out Diamonds.
O my sweet heart, how I will hug thee,
Again, and again! They are poor drunkards,
And not worth thy favours,
That number thy moyst kisses in these Christals.
Mast.
But Mounsiuer,
Here are Suckets, and sweet dishes.
Tib.
Tush, boys meat,
I am past it; here's strong food fit for men:
Nectar, old lad. Mistris of merry hearts,
Once more I am bold with you.
Mast.
Take heed (man)
Too much will breed distemper.
Tib.
Hast thou liv'd at Sea
The most part of thy life, where to be sober
While we have Wine aboord, is capital treason;
And dost thou preach sobriety?
Mast.
prethee forbeare,
We may offend in it; we know not for whom
It was provided.
Tib.
I am sure for me: therefore footra,
When I am full, let 'em hang me, I care not.
Mast.
This has been his temper ever.
Enter Albert, Aminta, Raymond, Lamure, Morrillat, Franvile, severally.
See, provoking dishes, candid Eringoes,
And Potatoes.
Tib.
Ile not touch 'em, I will drink;
But not a bit on a march, Ile be an Eunuch rather.
Mast.
Who are these?
Tib.
Marry, who you will;
I keep my text here.
Alb.
Raymond!
Raym.
Albert!
Tib.
Away, Ile be drunke alone;
Keep off rogues, or Ile belch ye into ayre;
Not a drop here.
Amin.
Deere brother, put not in your eyes such anger;
Those looks poyson'd with fury shot at him,
Reflect on me. O brother looke milder, or
The Christall of his temperance
Will turn 'em on your selfe.
Alb.
Sir, I have sought ye long
To finde your pardon: you have ploughed the Ocean
To wreak your vengeance on me, for the rape
Of this faire virgin. Now our fortune guides us
To meet on such hard terms, that we need rather
A mutuall pitty of our present state,
Then to expostulate of breaches past,
Which cannot be made up. And though it be
Far from your power to force me to confesse,
That I have done ye wrong, or such submission
Failing to make my peace, to vent your anger;
You being your selfe slav'd, as I to others:
Yet for your sisters sake, her blessed sake,
In part of recompence of what she has suffered
For my rash folly; the contagion
Of my black actions catching hold upon
Her purer innocence: I crave your mercy,
And wish however severall motives kept us
From being friends while we had hope to live,
Let death which we expect, and cannot fly from,
End all contention.
Tib.
Drink upon't, 'tis a good motion;
Ratifie it in Wine, and tis authenticall.
Raym.
When I consider
The ground of our long difference, and look on
Our not to be avoyded miseries,
It doth beget in me I know not how
A soft religious tendernesse; which tels me,
Though we have many faults to answer for
Upon our own account, our fathers crimes
Are in us punisht. O Albert, the course
They took to leave us rich was not honest,
Nor can that friendship last, which vertue joyns not.
When first they forc'd the industrious Portugals,
From their Plantations in the happy Islands.
Cro.
This is that I watch for.
Raym.
And did omit no tyranny, which men
Inured to spoyle and mischiefe could inflict,
On the griev'd sufferers; when by lawlesse rapine
They reapt the harvest, which their labours sowed;
And not content to force 'em from their dwelling,
But layd for 'em at Sea, to ravish from 'em
The last remainder of their wealth; then, then,
After a long pursuit, each doubting other,
As guilty of the Portugals escape,
They did begin to quarrell, like ill men;
(Forgive me piety, that I call em so)
No longer love, or correspondence holds,
Then it is cimented with prey or profit:
Then did they turn those Swords they oft had bloodied
With innocent gore, upon their wretched selves,
And payd the forfeit of their cruelty
Shown to Sebastian, and his Collonie,
By being fatall Enemies to each other.
Thence grew Amintas rape, and my desire
To be reveng'd. And now observe the issue:
As they for spoyle ever forgot compassion
To women, (who should be exempted
From the extremities of a lawfull war)
We now, young able men, are faln into
The hands of women; that, against the soft
Tendernesse familiar to their sex,
Enter Crocale.
Will shew no mercy.
Cro.
None, unlesse you shew us
Our long lost husbands.
We are those Potugals you talk'd of.
Raym.
Stay,
I met upon the Sea in a tall ship
Two Portugals, famisht almost to death.
Tib.
Our ship by this Wine.
18
Left us to famish in the barraine Islands.
Ray.
Some such tale they told me,
And something of a woman, which I find,
To be my sister.
Cro.
Where are these men?
Ray.
I left 'em,
Supposing they had deluded me with forg'd tales,
In the Island where they sayd
They had liv'd many years the wretched owners
Of a huge masse of treasure.
Alb.
The same men: and that the fatall muck
We quarreld for.
Cro.
They were Portugals you say.
Ray.
So they profess'd.
Cro.
They may prove such men as may save your lives,
And so much I am taken with faire hope,
That I will hazard life to be resolv'd on't:
How came you hither?
Ray.
My ship lies by the rivers mouth,
That can convey yee to these wretched men,
Which you desire to see.
Cro.
Back to your prisons,
And pray for the successe: if they be those
Which I desire to finde, you are safe;
If not, prepare to die to morrow:
For the world cannot redeem ye.
Alb.
How ever, we are armd
For either fortune.
Exit.
Ti.
What must become of me now
That I am not dismis'd?
Cro.
O sir, I purpose
To have your company.
Ti.
Take heed wicked woman,
I am apt to mischiefe now.
Cro.
You cannot be so unkind,
To her that gives you liberty.
Ti.
No, I shall be too kind, thats the devil on't;
I have had store of good wine: and when I am drunk,
Joane is a Lady to me, and I shall
Lay about me like a Lord: I feele strange motions:
Avoid me temptation.
Cro.
Come sir, i'le help yee in.
Exeunt.
Enter Sebastian, and Nicusa.
Nicu.
VVhat may that be
That mooves upon the Lake?
Seba.
Still it drawes neerer,
And now I plainly can descerne it.
Tis the French ship.
Nicu.
In it a woman,
VVho seemes to invite us to her,
Seba.
Still she cals with signes of Love to hasten to her;
So lovely hope doth still appeare:
I feele nor age nor weaknesse.
Nicu.
Though it bring death,
To us tis comfort: and deserves a meeting.
Or els fortune tyrd with what we have suffer'd,
And in it overcome, as it may be,
Now sets a period to our misery.
Exeunt.
Enter severally, Raymond, Albert, Aminta.
horrid Musicke.
Ray.
What dreadfull sounds are these?
Amin.
Infernall Musick,
Fit for a bloody Feast.
Alb.
It seemes prepar'd
To kill our courages, e're they divorse
Our soules and bodies.
Ray.
But they that fearelesse fall,
Deprive them of their triumph.
An alter prepar'd.
Enter Rossillia, Clarinda, Iulletta, Hippollitta, &c.
Aminta.
See the furies,
In their full Trym of cruelty.
Ros.
Tis the last
Duty that I can pay to my dead Lord,
Set out the Altar, I my selfe wilbe
The Priest, and boldly do those horrid Rites
You shake to think on: lead these Captaines neerer,
For they shall have the honour to fall first
To my Sebastians ashes: and now wretches,
As I am taught already that you are,
And lately by your free confession,
French pirats, and the sons of those I hate,
Even equall with the devil; here with horror,
What tis invites me to this cruell course,
And what you are to suffer; no Amazons we,
But women of Portugall, that must have from you
Sebastian and Nicusa; we are they
That groan'd beneath your fathers wrongs:
VVe are those wretched women,
Their injuries pursu'd, and overtook;
And from the sad remembrance of our losses
We are taught to be cruell; when we were forc'd
From that sweet ayre we breathed in, by their rapine,
And sought a place of being; as the Seas
And winds conspird with their ill purposses,
To load us with afflictions, in a storme
That fell upon us; the two ships that brought us,
To seek new fortunes in an unknown world
Were severed: the one bore all the able men,
Our treasure and our Jewels: in the other,
We women were imbarq'd: and fell upon,
After long tossing in the troubled maine,
This pleasant Island: But in few moneths,
The men that did conduct us hither died,
We long before had given our husbands lost:
Remembring what we had suffred by the French,
We took a solemn Oath never to admit
The curs'd society of men: necessity
Taught us those arts not usuall to our sex:
And the fertile Earth yeelding abundance to us,
We did resolve thus shapt like Amazons
To end our lives; but when you ariv'd here,
And brought as presents to us our own Jewels;
Those which were boorn in the other ship,
How can ye hope to scape our vengeance?
Amin.
It boots not then to swear our innocence?
Alb.
Or that we never forc'd it from the owners?
Ray.
Or that there are a remnant of that wrack,
And not far off?
Ros.
All you affirme, I know,
Is but to win time; therefore prepare your throats,
The world shall not redeem ye: and that your cries
May find no entrance to our eares,
To moove pitty in any: bid lowd Musick sound
Their fatall Knels; if ye have prayers use 'em quickly,
To any power will own yea; but ha!
Enter Crocale, Sebastian, Nicusa, Tibalt. Cro.
Who are these? what spectacles of misfortun?
Why are their looks
So full of Joy and wonder?
19
Oh! lay by
These instruments of death, and welcome
To your armes what you durst never hope to imbrace:
This is Sebastian, this Nicusa Maddam:
Preserv'd by miracle: look up deer sir,
And know your own Rossellia: be not lost
In wonder and amazment; or if nature
Can by instinct instruct you what it is,
To be blessed with the name of Father,
Freely injoy it in this faire Virgin.
Seba.
Though my miseries,
And many years of wants, I have indur'd,
May well deprave me of the memory
Of all joyes past; yet looking on this building,
This ruind building of a heavenly forme
In my Rossella; I must remember, I am Sebastian.
Ros.
O my joyes!
Seba.
And here,
I see a perfect modell of thy selfe,
As thou wert when thy choyce first made thee mine:
These cheecks and fronts though wrinkled now with time
Which art cannot restore: had equall purenesse,
Of naturall white and red, and as much ravishing:
Which by fayre order and succession,
I see descend on her: and may thy vertues
Winde into her forme, and make her a perfect dower:
No part of thy sweet goodnesse wanting to her.
I will not now Rossellia aske thy fortunes,
Nor trouble thee with hearing mine;
Those shall hereafter serve to make glad howers
In their relation: All past wrongs forgot;
I am glad to see you Gentlemen; but most,
That it is in my power to save your Lives;
You sav'd ours when we were neer starv'd at Sea,
And I despaire not, for if she be mine?
Rossellia can deny Sebastian nothing.
Ros.
She do's give up her selfe,
Her power and joyes, and all, to you,
To be discharged of 'em as to burthensome;
Wellcome in any shape.
Sebast.
Sir in your looks,
I read your sute of my Clarinda: she is yours:
And Lady if it be in me to confirme
Your hopes in this brave Gentleman,
Presume I am your servant.
Alb.
We thanke you sir.
Amin.
O Happy houre!
Alb.
O my deer Aminta;
Now all our feares are ended.
Tib.
Here I fix: she's mettle,
Steele to the back: and will cut my leaden dagger,
If not us'd with discretion.
Cro.
You are still no changling.
Sebast.
Nay,
All look cheerfully, for none shalbe
Denyd their lawfull wishes; when a while
We have here refresht our selves; wee'l returne
To our severall homes; and well that voyage ends,
That makes of deady enemies faythfull friends.
Exeunt
FINIS.
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