University of Virginia Library

Scena Prima.

Enter King Clotair, and the Eunuch.
Eu.
Look how it flames, I fear some treachrie,
(the bedchamb, on fire
Beat at her Chamber door, cry it aloud,
And let your voice be thunder to this lightning;
Cry, fire, fire, fire, the Court is all a hot-house, fire, fire.

Clot.
Great Queen, royall mother, open your door
Lest you do sleep for ever; mother awake.
The God of sleep lies heavie on her eyes;
Force up the door; fire, fire, fire.

Eu.
It's fortifi'd 'gainst strength, you must call louder.

Clot.
Mother, Queen, Mother, awake awake,
Your sleep was never more like death than now;
Lady, Great Princess; fire, fire, fire.

Enter Queen above in night attire, Landrey.
Qu.
What saucie Groom
Beats our offendless doores thus daringly?
H'had better rows'd a sleeping Lyoness
Than thus t'have broke our slumbers; what art thou?

Clot.
Look,
The fire will give you light, 'tis I your Son,
Flie from your Chamber else you are but dead,
Your Court is all a Bonfire.

Qu.
Let it burn, I have lost my credit everlastingly,
I will not move afoot.

(aside.
Clot.
You must be forced then.

(Exit Eunuch busie to quench the fire.
Land.
Ladie,
Where is your wit now in necessitie?
We shall be taken, and you sham'd for ever.
Bethink, bethink your self, what shall we do.

(aside.
Qu.
I have't, it shall be so; there, put on that,
And as the door flies open meet him full
Appearing in his Brothers warlike form,
Thou wilt amaze and so passe by him safely.
Do not appear to me, I did not wound thee,
(aloud this.
Seek out the beds of those that caus'd thy death,
And howl to them thy pittious complaints;
O do not look on me, be gone, be gone.

Clot.
Whom d'ee hold discourse with, with the air?
Bethink your self, this is no time to dallie.

Qu
O my Son, such horrid apparitions full of dread
Have I beheld, have quite unwitted me;
Thy brothers Ghost, young Clovis Ghost in armes
Has thrice appear'd to me this dismall night,
You heard me speak too't.

Clot.
True, I heard you speak,
But what of that?

Qu.
Calls for Aphelia
To bear him company i'th'other world,
Or else hee'l nightly haunt us in our sleep.

Enter Landrey, as in the Princes Armour.
Clot.
O see, it comes!

Qu.
Fear it not, Son.

Clot.
What art thou that usurp'st this dead of night,
In metal like the age? why art thou sent
To cast a horror on me? If thy soul
Walks unreveng'd, and the grim Ferriman
Deny thy passage, i'l perform thy rights.
(the Ghost points to his wounds.
O do not wound me with such piteous signs,
Lest I dissolve to air, and like thy self
Affright fool mortals: If that thou desir'st
Aphelia's death t'appease thy troubled soul,
Make some consenting sign, and so depart.
Thy sight afflicts my soul.

(Enter Queen.
Qu.
How fares our Son?

(He bends and so goes off; then at the other door enter Eunuch.
Clot.
It was my brothers spirit; nothing but Aphelia?

Qu.
She must die, you see it's requisite.

Clot.
Would he had askt my life first.

Qu.
Why should you be so fond upon a woman?

Clot.
Woman's the least part of her, shee's all Goddesse.

Qu.
'Twas your offer;
Remember there's no jesting with the Gods.

Eu.
What might this mean? ha, where are my brains?

Clot.
I had forgot my self, your pardon Mother;
Bear her from me this Jewel, I esteem
Equall with life; it was my brothers picture;
And with it, this, that she prepare to die;
Pray her to take it; and in death, but kisse
This sad remembrance for the senders sake,
Although for his whose form it represents,
And I shall take it for the greatest grace
That she can give, or I ought to desire.
Tell her, and if you can be mov'd to sorrow
Express it in you tears, it is not I
Pronounce this fatall sentence 'gainst her life
Which needs must ruine mine, but the hid will
And providence of heaven, 'gainst which to rage
It were as impious as not obey.
My brothers funerall is her dying day.
Tell her, though reason and my will do jarr,
My soul speaks peace, although my sentence war.
Say I love, and pray her to forgive me.
(Exit Queen.
Go, all attend my Mother; my estate
Delights not in Court Ceremony; stay,
Castrato stay,
(Exe. all but the Eunuch & Clota.
And with thy Counsell cure thy dying Prince;
Thou art my bosome, Eunuch, and to thee
I dare unclasp my soul; what's to be done?
This is a damned spirit I have seen,
And comes to work my ruine.

Eu.
What spirit?

Clot.
My Brothers spirit in Arms, I swear it came forth here
Out of my Mothers Chamber as I knockt.

Eu.
Was it in Armor said you?

Clot.
Yes, in that Armor he was us'd to wear
When we have run at Tilt, till our cleft Spaeres
Have with their splinters scar'd the Element.

Eu.
That Armor as I well remember, I did leave
In the Queens Bed-chamber as yesterday,
After the Triumphs and the Tournaments,
Having unbrac'd the Prince; 'tis even so,
Ha, ha, ha.

Clot.
Why this ridiculous passion?
My state requires thy tears, and not thy mirth.

Eu.
The Devill came from your Mothers Chamber sir,
She has a circle that can raise a Spirit;
A Mars in armor too, she is a Venus,
And through your licence Landrey is no Eunuch.

Clot.
What killing sense thou utter'st?
There's someting in it I would understand,
And yet I dare not; Landrey? How know'st thou this?

Eu.
Since I have gone so far, i'l tell you;
I looked in at th'Key-hole, and I saw
Him in your Mothers arms upon the bed,
As sportingly as e'r I saw your Father.

Clot.
Thou ly'st, take that; suspition double sees,
(strikes. him, & offers to go out.
Jealous informers ne'r meet better fees.

Eu.
King, thou hadst better far have strook thy Father,
Dig'd up his bones and plaid at logats with them.
Stroken?

(the King returns calmly.
Clot.
I know not,
My Mother alwaies had a scanted fame;
His thoughts too have been mine; I was to blame,
Prethee forgive me; my passions but like lightning,
Flash and away, dead e'r we say it is;
I am not alwaies angry, let that assure:
My Mother may befalse, she is a woman.
(gives him his Purse.
Prethee deliver, come I will believe thee
Even to the utmost syllable.

Eu.
Then, she is false.

Clot.
And didst thou see him mount my Mothers bed?

Eu.
Else pull these out.

Clot.
Thou hast shot poyson through me;
False with Landrey, her sometime Page?

Eu.
Even with the same.

Clot.
But wherefore would they have Aphelia die?
There lies the mystery.

Eu.
They fear you will accept her as the Queen,
Of whom you may beget a hopefull issue
And frustrate their intents, who but expect
Your hop'd-for death, and perhaps plotted too,
That so they might become, what now you crosse,
Lawfully man and wife, and govern in your seat.

Clot.
This carries shew of truth, or is't a lie
Well shadowed by the slave? I cannot tell:
My mother certainly is not so bad,
It is a sin to think it; hence and avoid my sight
Thou sower of debate, thy seeds are strow'd
On steril ground, and therefore ill bestow'd.

(Exit.
Eu.
Is't even so, work and about my brain,
I'm lost for ever if not close again.

(Exit.