University of Virginia Library

Actus Primus.

Scena Prima.

Sango, Molosso.
Sang.
Tis true Molosso, fortune hath prepar'd
A full revenge for thee, without thy hazard,
And ere the rising Sun shall yet decline
Imperiale thy proud Lord shall fall
As low as hell; one unexpected blow
Shall recompence those many he gave thee;
When imitating forraigne cruelty,
He bound thee fast, and made thy feet an Anvill.

Molos.
Sango, if thou contemplating our friendship,
Begotten first by consanguinity,
And since confirm'd by our joynt sufferings here,
Hast undertaken some bold stratagem
Against my Patron to revenge my wrongs,
Thy great affection may but ruine me;
Delay not then to make me understand
Thy full intent: beleeve it will be vaine,
Our sword once drawn, to think to sheath again.

Sang.
Then know, the plot is more securely laid,
Than my weake meanes (although my will be strong)
Could ever reach, without my certain death;
And by strange chance I did discover it,
Without the Actors knowledge; thou hast heard
Of the old deadly fewd between our Lords,
Which wound although it were in shew heal'd up,
Is broken out afresh; 'twas not well search't;
For the last night, at setting of the Sunne,
A houshold businesse cal'd me to the Garden,
Where in the thicket, neere the Arbor, lying
To rest my selfe, I quickly fell asleepe,
Into which Arbor in the meane time came
My Patron, with a Brave accompanied,
A Fellow expert in that Mysterie:
At their first entrance to the place I wak'd,
But durst not stir, for had I, death had seaz'd me;
There was I privie to their whole discourse,
Which was in briefe but this, that for the summe
Of fifteene hundred crownes, thy Patrons life
Is sold, and must ere noone be snatch't away.

Mol.
Sure thou did'st dreame, thou wert not throughly awake,
For though our Lords were lately reconcil'd,
Myne keepes a carefull watch, and never stirs
Out of the Citie, where he knowes he's safe.

Sang.
He'le be deceiv'd, the rarenes of the plot
Did please beyond the deare and long'd for Act;
Heer's the designe, this being a solemne day
Annuallie observed by the State,
In memory of a publique benefit
Received by the private care of one
Of thy Lords Ancestors, will draw all sorts
Of People to the Temple, where the Brave
Cloth'd like a silly Pesant, is resolv'd
To watch Imperiale, and keepe neere him,
And when the usuall Ceremonies are done,
In the confused Crowd his cunning hand
Shall guide a poison'd dagger to his heart,
And in an instant, letting fall his cloake,
Which shall be large to hide his rustick habit,
He, with the rest, will stand about the body
And wring his hands at th'horror of the fact,
And thus the Brave shall thy part bravely act.
What? silent? not affected with a joy
Should ravish thee? and swell thy veines with pleasure,
Like to the Estrich in the act of lust?

Mol.
Light joyes are eas'ly vented; such as this
Is entertained with an extasie,
And by degrees exprest: but as the full
Fruition of a thing we most delight in
Is checkt with daily feare of losing it,
So finde I now my rising heart kept downe
With doubt of such a wished happinesse,

Sang.
Had'st thou, as I beheld the Actors looks
When he declar'd his resolution,
To my attentive Patron, thou wouldst rest,
Assur'd of the event, and sweare he needed
No other weapon to distroy a man;
His eies would have outstar'd a Basiliske,
They were two Comets that are surely fatall.

Mol.
May they portend more mischeife to this House,
Then those that blasted ours and our whole Country;
But in this strong desire of a revenge
Discretion must direct our passion;
And therefore let it bee thy cheifest care
Neither in word, nor gesture, to disclose
Thy fortunate discoverie, till the end
Shall crowne the worke, and banish all our feares;
My taske shalbe to make it profitable
No lesse then pleasant, by his foreknown fall
Weel rayse our selves to wealth and libertie,
The great allurements of those bold attempts,
Wherein the Vassall dares affront his Lord,
And quite shake off the yoke of his subjection.

Sang.
Our Magnificos think us flegmatick rascalls
Created but for blowes, and scorne, soe far
In love with servitude as scarce to wish
Revenge or fredome.

Mol.
They shall finde at length
Patience opprest will into fury turne;
Nature, in spite of fortune gave us minds
That cannot like our bodies be enthral'd;
But soft, I doubt our earlie privacie
May render vs suspected; leave to me
The mannage of th'affaire, only let thy
Vertue be now the dumbe mans secrecy.

Scena Secunda.

Spinola, Iustiniano.
Spin.
The hatefull sound of Jmperiale's name
Would strike me deafe, my deare Iustinian,
Were it not temper'd by thy gentle tongue,
That had the art to make m'embrace and trust
A reconciled foe, who hath rejected
With scorne my hopefull sonne, as if his birth,
Fortune, and parts, had not deserv'd that flirt
His gilded daughter; but I taxe not thee,
Whose friendship is a gem without a foile,
And hardly can be valu'd, never matcht:
I know thy milder studies chiefly bent
To weed out Rancor from the minds of men,
Smoothing rough nature with morality,
And this becomes Philosophers: but I
That doe professe the art of killing men,
Encourag'd by all States, impos'd by some
Must follow other precepts: he is sure
Of many wrongs, that will but one endure.

Iust.
Thy Character of me, lov'd Spinola,
Thus farre I may without vaine glory owne,
Truely to love my friend, yet hate no man,
And since mine own experience finds how well
Thou do'st the one, I would perswade the other;
Nor would I now convert thee to a Stoicke,
To make thee thinke there are no injuries,
Or if there be, that wise men cannot feele'm,
These, I confesse, are not compatible
With thy condition; on th'other side,
I can encourage none, much lesse my friend
To take a scandall, when there is none given,
To call that injury, which is in truth
A liberty that every man may challenge;
Or if Imperial ought t'have wav'd the same,
Yet since the will is free, thou could'st expect
But Fatherly perswasion, to incline
Th'affections of his daughter, all the rest
Is ravishment, or tyranny at best.

Spin.
I know not how the rigid schooles define
A fathers power, in their beg'd principles,
As if the freedome of the will extended
To silly wenches, to restraine the power
Of them that gave them first and second being;
No, it was onely his inveterate malice
That closely lurk't under a new fein'd freindship
That stuck on me and mine this contumely,
Which ought to be resented farre above
An injury, by any generous spirit;

Iust.
Let it be what thy fancy apprehends,
Which scarce appeares in the least circumstance.
Yet generous spirits at poore contumelies,
As seldome stoope as Eagles doe to Flyes.

Spin.
What is there that should wound an active spirit,
Like base contempt?

Iust.
The guilt of one base act.

Spin.
Should we not then be jealous of our fame?

Iust.
If we within finde cause of jealousie.

Spi.
Reports may brand, although they be untrue.

Iust.
Yes, those that take their honour upon trust.

Spi.
Our honour by opinion must subsist,

Iust.
Then every puffe of winde will scatter it.
How can we call that ours, which must depend
On the rash will, and vainer voyce of others?
But herein thou most slightst thy selfe to doubt
Thou canst be undervalued by any,
Much more contemn'd by him that dares not thinke
Himselfe to be the worthier, but that thou
Suggests it for him, in thy vaine suspition:
They that beleeve themselves despis'd, confesse
An inward doubt of their owne worthinesse.

Spi.
I am not for my part ambitious
Of the dull fame of stupid patience,
To be admir'd for wanting common sense,
Like Cato, that could let one spit in's face,
And when he should have wip'd off the disgrace
With his sharpe Sword, he did it with a Iest
And his soft handcarcheife: This was that spirit
Thou lift'st above great Alexanders merit.

Just.
I, and above the glory of Hercules,
Or what bold Greece hath left in histories
Of her great Captaines, to their endles fame,
They Monsters, Kingdomes, and their lusts orecame:
Cato fought not with Beasts, nor did live when
T'was thought that Heaven might be borne up by men,
But in an age when (barbarisme being fled)
All industry and learning flourished;
And in that time did bravely set upon
That Monster, in many shapes, Ambition,
With all the crimes of Rome, and when the State
Was ready ev'n to sinke with its owne weight
He it supported with his onlie hand;
And did (as much as one man could) withstand
Romes instant fate, till forc't to let her goe
He became partner in her overthrowe;
And soe one ruine did them both oppresse;
Whom to have severd had bin wickednesse;
For was it fit that liberty should dye
And Cato live? that had bin contumely,
Not the purgation of a mouth that might
As well have don the Sun or Moone dispight:
But I will leave thee to thy thoughts a while,
For wholsome counsell like safe Physick is
Vnpleasant in the taste, and must have time
To worke upon the humor; thou that art master
Of so much worth, wilt master in the end
Those passions that with reason now contend.

Scena Tertia.

Spinola.
Spi.
I must needs make a strong pretence to worth,
That dare pretend, Iustinian, to thy love;
But when I find how much I violate
The sacred lawes of freindship, that refuse
T'anatomize my very Soule to thee;
I am compeld ta'cknowledge myne owne shame
Or to suspect thy knowne fidelitie:
The plot, wherewith I labour, can admit
No Councell, but a necessarie faith
In the bold Actor, whose subsistence binds him
To resolution, and to secrecie;
All freindly trust is folly, every man
H'as one, to whome hee will commit as much
As is to him committed: our designes
When once they creepe from our owne private breasts
Doe in a moment through the Citie flie,
Who tells his secret sells his libertie:
But shall I suffer this black treachery
To boile within my doubtfull brest? mischeife
Though it be safe, can never be secure,
Or shall I ease my thoughts, and giue it vent?
Yes; prick a full swolne bladder to relax it,
Or bore a hole 'ith bottome of the ship
To coole a Calenture? dull foole thy life
Is with thy fame concern'd: besides the base
Rejection of thy Sonne (lodg'd deepely here)
He wrought the Senate to confer the charge
Of our late ayde lent Savoy against France,
On rash Marino, so to blast thy merit,
Be confident, he that durst often venter
T'affront thee, meant to prosecute thy ruine;
And t'is no greater hazard to attempt
Death, than disgrace, that makes his life contemptible:
On then, be bold and secret, Spinola,
So shalt thou reape the double benefit
Of safety and revenge: all wickednesse
Is counted vertue, when 'tis prosperous;
Be not by any reconcilement led
To trust thy foe, th'art safe when he is dead.

Scena Quarta.

Imperiale, Honoria, Angelica, Nugella attending.
Impe.
How comes it, deare, that the clear sky, thy looks,
Is suddenly o're-cast? what misty vapour
Hath rais'd those stormy clouds? can bright Aurora
Rise cheerfully from shrivel'd Tythons bed?
And thou so discontentedly from mine?
But I'le not doubt the cause to spring from me,
Rather from feare of yong Prince Doria's safety,
Whose great affaires perhaps have made him stretch
His promise to the utmost, not to breake it,
Though he could not prevent our expectation,
He'l not deceive't, but like th'approaching Sunne,
Will soone expell these mists, and cheere our hearts.

Hon.
I am solicitous, I must confesse
Of his returne, whom we have long expected,
To whom we have design'd our onely daughter,
And with her both our fortunes and our loves:
But the true cause of all these perturbations
Which you discover in my countenance,
Is a strange dreame (heaven make it but a dreame)
And I perhaps should but have thought it so,
Had not my daughter, ev'n this very night,
And the same houre, as neere as we can guesse,
With the like vision been disquieted:
Me thought we harbour'd in our house a Wolfe,
Bred up so tame, that all did handle him,
Which like a dogge would fawne on them that beat him,
Til on a time, accompanied with another
Of his owne race, he rush't into the chamber
Where I together with my Daughter sate,
There they resum'd their native crueltie:
The one assaulted her, the other me,
And tearing first our Iewells from our necks,
They made us both at length their fatall prey:

Ang.
Oh, how the terrour of that dreadfull vision
Affrights my Soule! I tremble when I thinke on't:
Me thought the heartstrings of Prince Doria crack't
At the dire newes, it prov'd the overthrowe
Of our whole Family: we differ but in this,
The Savadge executioners to me
Seem'd to be Beares, creatures as bloody as wolves.

Imp.
It is no wonder that your dreames concurr'd,
Since there is that relation in your blood:
I must beleeve, you had the day before
Communicated some sad thoughts together,
Which in the night your wakefull fantasies
From a like temperature of braine reduc't
Into like formes, suggesting that for truth
Which is at best but fond imagination;
What can be vainer then a womans dreame?
T'is lesse to be regarded then her teares,
Which are prepar'd to flow at her command.

Hon.
Cassandra's true predictions were dispis'd.

Imp.
And well they might, had Troy bin provident.

Hon.
Many at length deplore their unbeleife.

Imp.
But more lament their rash credulitie.

Hon.
Future events by dreames have bin reveal'd.

Imp.
So did old wisards doubtfull things vnfould
By flights of birds, such witchcrafts now are seas'd,
And we from those darke errours are releas'd:
To talke of visions is an indiscretion,
Practis'd by Children, and distemperd persons:
Go then; prepare your selves for solid joyes,
On this day the Republick yearly paies
A retribution to our Familie,
And as I heare (the time being Carnivall)
Some mirth shall season our solemnitie;
If Doria come to day, as we expect,
To morow nothing shall be heard of us
But songs of Hymen and Thalassius.

Hon.
Never could any wretches be more glad
To be deceiv'd.

Ang.
My heart continues sad.

Scena quinta.

Imperiale.
O wretched state of man, to whom the time
By nature made for ease, is found unquiet;
Sleepe, properly cald rest, who can expresse
How restles it becomes through various dreames?
Which are so strongly formed by the fancy
That though they be most false, and when we wake
Should wholly vanish, yet even then they leave
A deepe Impression in the troubled mind;
Nor doth this onely happen to weake women,
But unto men of speciall eminence,
Working vpon their hopes aswell as feares,
Who many times to their confusion
Have by such drowsie errors bin seduc'd;
Hence did Amilcar venture to assault
Strong Syracuse deluded by a dreame;
But though it be a folly beyond pardon
To venture life or fortune in pursuit
Of such a vanitie, yet in all things
Abundant warines can never hurt:
My slaue may not unfitlie be compar'd
To a tame Wolfe, or Beare, who may perchance
Resent his late sharpe castigation;
Him will I send to my owne Galley, where
He shalbe chain'd from mischiefe, and to me
Nor prove unusefull, when the smallest boudt
May eas'ly be remov'd, who would omit it?
Let others lose themselves in laborinthes
Of hidden superstition, and beleeve
The ayre to be replenished with spirits,
Who by a naturall and inherent virtue
Foreseeing things to come, and taking pity
Vpon improvident man, reveale by visions
The dangers that approach, to th'end he may
By timely care prevent his misery;
I'le not depend on such intelligence
T'informe me whether Spinola hath buried.
Or only hid, his long continued malice,
I'le fetch my preservation neerer; hence,
That shall conserve this individuall;
No man can suffer ill but from himselfe,
Fate only awes the slothfull; wisdom barres
The powerfull operation of the starres.

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