A Select Collection of Old English Plays Part 30

_To the_ FRIARS _making a noise, gagged and bound, enter_ ELEAZAR, ZARACK, BALTHAZAR, _and other Moors, all with their swords drawn_.

ELE. Guard all the pa.s.sages. Zarack, stand there; There Balthazar, there you. The friars?

Where have you plac'd the friars?

ALL. My lord, a noise![59]

BAL. The friars are gagg'd and bound.

ELE. 'Tis Philip and the cardinal; shoot:--ha! stay-- Unbind them. Where's Mendoza and the prince?

COLE. Santa Maria, who can tell!

By Peter's keys, they bound us well, And having crack'd our shaven crowns, They have escap'd you in our gowns.

ELE. Escap'd! escap'd away! I am glad, it's good; I would their arms may turn to eagles' wings, To fly as swift as time. Sweet air, give way: Winds, leave your two-and-thirty palaces, And meeting all in one, join all your might To give them speedy and a prosperous flight.

Escaped, friars! which way?

BOTH. This way.

ELE. Good!

Alas, what sin is't to shed innocent blood?

For look you, holy men, it is the king: The king, the king. See, friars, sulphury wrath Having once entered into royal b.r.e.a.s.t.s, Mark how it burns. The queen, Philip's mother.

O, most unnatural! will have you two Divulge abroad that he's a b.a.s.t.a.r.d. O, Will you do it?

CRAB. What says my brother friar?

COLE. A prince's love is balm, their wrath is fire.

CRAB. 'Tis true; but yet I'll publish no such thing; What fool would lose his soul to please a king?

ELE. Keep there--good, there; yet, for it wounds my soul To see the miserablest wretch to bleed, I counsel you, in care unto your lives, T' obey the mother-queen; for by my life, I think she has been p.r.i.c.k'd [in] her conscience.

O, it has stung her for some fact misdone, She would not else disgrace herself and son.

Do't therefore; hark! she'll work your deaths else, hate Bred in woman is insatiate. Do't, friars.

CRAB. Brother Cole, zeal sets me in a flame: I'll do't.

COLE. And I: his baseness we'll proclaim.

[_Exeunt_ FRIARS.

ELE. Do, and be d.a.m.n'd; Zarack and Balthazar, Dog them at the heels; and when their poisonous breath Hath scatter'd this infection on the hearts Of credulous Spaniards, here reward them thus:

[_Points to his sword._

Slaves too much trusted do grow dangerous.

Why this shall feed and fat suspicion And my policy.

I'll ring through all the court this loud alarum, That they contriv'd the murder of the king, The queen, and me; and, being undermin'd, To 'scape the blowing up, they fled. O, good!

There, there, thou there, cry treason; each one take A several door; your cries my music make.

BAL. Where is the king? treason pursues him.

_Enter_ ALVERO _in his s.h.i.+rt, his sword drawn_.

ELE. Where is the sleeping queen?

Rise, rise, and arm against the hand of treason.

ALV. Whence comes this sound of treason?

_Enter the_ KING _in his s.h.i.+rt, his sword drawn_.

KING. Who frights our quiet slumbers with This heavy noise?

_Enter_ QUEEN _in her night attire_.

QUEEN-M. Was it a dream, or did the sound Of monster treason call me from my rest?

KING. Who rais'd this rumour? Eleazar, you?

ELE. I did, my liege, and still continue it, Both for your safety and mine own discharge.

KING. Whence comes the ground then?

ELE. From the cardinal And the young prince who, bearing in his mind The true idea of his late disgrace In putting him from the protectors.h.i.+p, And envying the advancement of the Moor, Determined this night to murder you; And for your highness lodged within my castle, They would have laid the murder on my head.

KING. The cardinal and my brother! bring them forth: Their lives shall answer this ambitious practice.

ELE. Alas! my lord, it is impossible; For when they saw I had discovered them, They train'd two harmless friars to their lodgings, Disrob'd them, gagg'd them, bound them to two posts, And in their habits did escape the castle.

KING. The cardinal is all ambition, And from him doth our brother gather heart.

QUEEN-M. Th' ambition of the one infects the other, And, in a word, they both are dangerous: But might your mother's counsel stand in force, I would advise you, send the trusty Moor To fetch them back, before they have seduc'd The squint-ey'd mult.i.tude from true allegiance, And drawn them to their dangerous faction.

KING. It shall be so. Therefore, my state's best prop, Within whose bosom I durst trust my life, Both for my safety and thine own discharge, Fetch back those traitors; and till your return Ourself will keep your castle.

ELE. My liege, the tongue of true obedience Must not gainsay his sovereign's impose.

By heaven! I will not kiss the cheek of sleep, Till I have fetched those traitors to the court!

KING. Why, this sorts right: he gone, his beauteous wife Shall sail into the naked arms of love.

[_Aside._

QUEEN-M. Why, this is as it should be; he once gone, His wife, that keeps me from his marriage-bed, Shall by this hand of mine be murdered.

[_Aside._

KING. This storm is well-nigh past; the swelling clouds That hang so full of treason, by the wind In awful majesty are scattered.

Then each man to his rest. Good night, sweet friend!

Whilst thou pursu'st the traitors that are fled, Fernando means to warm thy marriage-bed.