Act 2
Act 2.
[Enter HANS, LASSINGBERGH and OTHERS following, serving in a banquet.]
HANS. Come, sir, it is not your painting alone makes your absolute man; there’s as fine a hand to be required in carrying a dish, and as sweet art to be showed in’t as in any masterpiece whatsoever; better then as you painted the Doctor e’en now with his nose in an urinal.
LASSINGBERGH. Be quiet, sir, or I’ll paint you by and by eating my master’s comfits. [They Exit. Enter FLORES, CASSIMERE, ALBERDURE, CORNELIA, and MOTTO.]
FLORES. Prince Alberdure, my great desire to answer
The greatness of your birth and high deserts
With entertainment fitting to your state
Makes all things seem too humble for your presence.
ALBERDURE. Courteous Sir Flores, your kind welcome is
Worthy the presence of the greatest Prince,
And I am bound to good Earl Cassimere
For honouring me with your desired acquaintance.
CASSIMERE. Will’t please you therefore to draw near, my lord?
FLORES. Will’t please your grace to sit?
ALBERDURE. No, good Sir Flores; I am here admiring
The cunning strangeness of your antic work:
For though the general tract of it be rough
Yet is it sprinkled with rare flowers of art.
See what a lively piercing eye is here;
Mark the conveyance of this lovely hand;
Where are the other parts of this rare cheek?
Is it not pity that they should be hid?
FLORES. More pity ‘tis (my lord) that such rare art
Should be obscured by needy poverty;
He’s but a simple man kept in my house.
ALBERDURE. Come, sirrah, you are a practitioner,
Let’s have your judgment here.
HANS. Will you have a stool, sir?
MOTTO. Ay, and I thank you too, sir.
FLORES. Hath this young gentleman such skill in drawing?
ALBERDURE. Many great masters think him (for his years)
Exceeding cunning.
CASSIMERE. Now, sir, what think you?
MOTTO. My lord, I think more art is shadowed here
Then any man in Germany can show
Except Earl Lassingbergh; and (in my concept)
This work was never wrought without his hand.
FLORES. Earl Lassingbergh! Aye me, my jealous thoughts
Suspect a mischief which I must prevent.
Hans, call Lucilia and the painter straight,
Bid them come both t’attend us at our feast.
— Is not your Grace yet weary of this object?
I’ll show your lordship things more worth the sight
Both for their substance and their curious art.
ALBERDURE. Thanks, good sir Flores.
FLORES. See, then, (my lord) this agate that contains
The image of that goddess and her son,
Whom ancients held the Sovereigns of Love;
See naturally wrought out of the stone
(Besides the perfect shape of every limb,
Besides the wondrous life of her bright hair)
A waving mantle of celestial blue
Embroidering itself with flaming stars.
ALBERDURE. Most excellent: and see besides (my lords)
How Cupid’s wings do spring out of the stone
As if they needed not the help of art.
FLORES. My lord, you see all sorts of jewels here,
I will not tire your grace with view of them;
I’ll only show you one faire agate more,
Commended chiefly for the workmanship.
ALBERDURE. O excellent! This is the very face
Of Cassimere: by viewing both at once,
Either I think that both of them do live
Or both of them are images and dead.
FLORES. My lord, I fear I trouble you too long:
Will’t please your lordship’s taste, these homely cates?
CORNELIA. First (if it please you) give me leave to greet
Your Princely hand with this unworthy gift,
Yet worthy since it represents yourself.
ALBERDURE. What? Myself, Lady? Trust me it is pity
So fair a gem should hold so rude a picture.
CORNELIA. My Lord, ‘tis made a jewel in your picture,
Which otherwise had not deserved the name.
ALBERDURE. Kind mistress, kindly I accept your favour. [Enter LASSINGBERGH, HANS and LUCILIA.]
FLORES. Here, you young gentleman; do you know this man? [Exit HANS.]
MOTTO. Yes, signor Flores, ‘tis Earl Lassingbergh.
— My lord, what mean you to come this disguised?
LUCILIA. Aye me!
LASSINGBERGH. The foolish boy is mad; I am Cornelius.
Earl Lassingbergh? I never heard of him.
FLORES. O Lassingbergh, we know your villainy,
And thy dishonour (fond Lucilia.)
Ass that I was, dull, senseless, gross-brained fool
That daily saw so many evident signs
Of their close dealings, winkings, becks and touches,
And what not? To enforce me to discern,
Had I not been effatuate even by Fate.
Your presence, noble lords (in my disgrace)
Doth deeply move me, and I here protest
Most solemnly (in sight of heaven and you)
That if Earl Lassingbergh this day refuse
To make fair mends for this foul trespass done,
I will revenge me on his treacherous heart
Though I sustain for him a thousand deaths.
CASSIMERE. This action (traitor Lassingbergh) deserves
Great satisfaction, or else great revenge.
ALBERDURE. Believe me, gallant Earl, your choice is fair.
And worthy your most honourable love.
LASSINGBERGH. My lord, it grieves me to be thus unmasked
And made ridiculous in the stealth of love;
But (for Lucilia’s honour) I protest
(Not for the desperate vow that Flores made)
She was my wife before she knew my love,
By secret promise made in sight of heaven.
The marriage which he urgeth I accept,
But this compulsion and unkind disgrace
Hath altered the condition of my love
And filled my heart with irksome discontent.
FLORES. My Lord, I must prefer mine honour still
Before the pleasure of the greatest monarch,
Which since your lordship seeks to gratify
With just and friendly satisfaction,
I will endeavour to redeem the thought
Of your affection and lost love to us.
Will’t please you therefore now to associate
This worthy Prince at this unworthy banquet?
ALBERDURE. My lord, let me entreat your company.
LASSINGBERGH. Hold me excused, fair Prince; my grieved thoughts
Are far unmet for festival delights:
Here will I sit and feed on melancholia,
A humour (now) most pleasing to my taste.
FLORES. Lucilia, wait the pleasure of your love. My lord, now to the banquet: Daughter, command us a carouse of wine. [Music sounds awhile; and they sing Boire a le Fountaine.]
My Lord, I greet you with this first carouse,
And as this wine (the elements’ sweet soul)
Shall grow in me to blood and vital spirit,
So shall your love and honour grow in me.
ALBERDURE. I pledge you, sir.
CASSIMERE. How like you him, my lord?
ALBERDURE. Exceeding well. [Sing Boire a le Fountaine.]
FLORES. Cornelia, do you serve the Prince with wine? [She puts the powder into the cup and gives it the Prince.]
ALBERDURE. I thank you, Lady;
Earl Cassimere, I greet you, and remember
Your fair Hyanthe.
CASSIMERE. I thank your honour. [Sing Boire a &c.]
FLORES. Fill my Lord Cassimere his right of wine.
CASSIMERE. Cornelia, I give you this dead carouse.
CORNELIA. I thank your lordship. [Sing Boire a &c.]
ALBERDURE. What smoke? Smoke and fire.
CASSIMERE. What means your honour?
ALBERDURE. Powder, powder, Etna, sulphur, fire: quench it, quench it.
FLORES. I fear the medcine hath distempered him. — O villain Doctor!
ALBERDURE. Down with the battlements, pour water on!
I burn, I burn; O give me leave to fly
Out of these flames, these fires that compass me. [Exit.]
CASSIMERE. What an unheard of accident is this? Would God, friend Flores, t’had not happened here.
FLORES. My lord, ‘tis sure some planet striketh him; No doubt the fury will away again.
CASSIMERE. I’ll follow him. [Exit.]
LASSINGBERGH. What hellish sprite ordained this hateful feast
That ends with horror thus and discontent?
FLORES. I hope no danger will succeed therein;
However, I resolve me to conceal it. —
My Lord, will’t please you now to change this habit,
And deck yourself with ornaments more fit
For celebration of your marriage?
LASSINGBERGH. Ay, ay, put on me what attire you will;
My discontent, that dwells within me still. [Exeunt.]
SCENE 2.
[Enter HANS, solus.]
HANS. Whom shall a man trust? A painter? No: a servant? No: a bed fellow? No:
For, seeming for to see, it falls out right:
All day a painter, and an Earl at night. [Enter DOCTOR.]
DOCTOR. Ho, Zachary, bid Ursula brush my two, tree fine Damask gown; spread de rishe coverlet on de fair bed; vashe de fine plate; smoke all de shambra vit de sweet perfume.
HANS. Here’s the Doctor: what a gaping his wisdom keeps i’the street! As if he could not have spoken all this within.
DOCTOR. Ho, Zachary, if de grand patient come, you find me signor Flores.
HANS. By your leave, master Doctor.
DOCTOR. Hans, my very special friend; fait and trot, me be right glad for see you veale.
HANS. What, do you make a calf of me, Mr. Doctor?
DOCTOR. O no, pardona moy; I say vell, be glad for see you vell, in good health.
HANS. O, but I am sick, Mr. Doctor; very exceeding sick, sir.
DOCTOR. Sick? Tella me, by garr; me cure you presently.
HANS. A dead palsy, Mr. Doctor, a dead palsy.
DOCTOR. Veare? Veare?
HANS. Here, MR. Doctor; I cannot feel, I cannot feel.
DOCTOR. By garr, you be de brave, merry man; de fine proper man; de very fine, brave, little, propta sweet Jack man; by garr, me loov’a you, me honour you, me kisse’a your foot.
HANS. You shall not stoop so low, good MR. Doctor; kiss higher if it please you.
DOCTOR. In my trot me honour you.
HANS. Ay, but you give me nothing, sir.
DOCTOR. No? By garr, me giv’a de high commendation pass all de gold, precious pearl in de vorld.
HANS. I, sir, pass by it, you mean so, sir. Well, I shall have your good word, I see, Mr. Doctor.
DOCTOR. I sayt.
HANS. But not a rag of money.
DOCTOR. No, by my trot, no point money; me give de beggra de money, no point de brave man.
HANS. Would I were not so brave in your mouth. — But I can tell you news, master Doctor.
DOCTOR. Vat be dat?
HANS. The young Prince hath drunk himself mad at my master’s today.
DOCTOR. By garr, drunk, I tinck.
HANS. No, sir, stark mad; he cries out as if the town were afire.
DOCTOR. By garr, me suspect a ting.
HANS. Nay, I can tell you more news yet.
DOCTOR. Vat news?
HANS. If your cap be of capacity to conceive it now, so it is. I’ll deal with you by way of interrogation: —
Who is it must marry with Lucilia bright?
All day a painter, and an Earl at night.
DOCTOR. By garr, me no conceive vatt you say.
HANS. Let wisdom answer: I ask what is man? A Pancake tossed in Fortune’s frying pan.
DOCTOR. Vat frying pan? By garr, I tinck de foolish petit Jack is mad.
HANS. For, as an ass may wear a lion’s skin,
So noble Earls have sometimes painters been.
DOCTOR. Garrs blurr, he ryme de grand rats from my house: me no stay, me go seek ‘a my fair Cornelia. [Exit.]
HANS. Farewell Doctor Doddie,
In mind and in body
An excellent noddy:
A coxcomb inconny,
But that he wants money
To give legem pone.
O what a pitiful case is this! What might I have done with this wit if my friends had bestowed learning upon me? Well, when all’s done, a natural gift is worth all. [Exit.]
SCENE 3.
[Enter ALPHONSO, HARDENBERGH, HOSCHERMAN, with others, &c.]
HARDENBERGH. The Ambassador of Brunswick (good my lord)
Begins to murmur at his long delays?
HOSCHERMAN. ‘Twere requisite your highness would dismiss him.
ALPHONSO. Who holds him? Let him go.
HARDENBERGH. My lord, you know his message is more great
Than to depart so slightly without answer,
Urging the marriage that your grace late sought
With Katherine, sister to the Saxon Duke.
HOSCHERMAN. Whom if your highness should so much neglect
As to forsake his sister and delude him,
Considering already your old jar
With the stout Lantsgrave, what harms might ensue?
ALPHONSO. How am I crossed? Hyanthe ‘tis for thee
That I neglect the Duchess and my vows.
HARDENBERGH. My lord, ‘twere specially convenient
Your grace would satisfy th’ambassador.
ALPHONSO. Well, call him in.
HOSCHERMAN. But will your highness then forsake Hyanthe?
ALPHONSO. Nothing less, Hosk.
HOSCHERMAN. How will you then content th’ambassador?
ALPHONSO. I will delay him with some kind excuse.
HARDENBERGH. What kind excuse, my lord?
ALPHONSO. For that let me alone; do thou but soothe
What I myself will presently devise
And I will send him, satisfied, away.
HARDENBERGH. Be sure (my lord) I’ll soothe whate’er you say.
ALPHONSO. Then let them come, we are provided for them. [Enter VANDERCLEEVE the AMBASSADOR, attended.]
My lord Ambassador, we are right sorry
Our urgent causes have deferred you thus
In the dispatch of that we most desire.
But for your answer: know I am deterred
By many late prodigious ostents
From present consummation of the nuptials
Vowed twixt your beauteous Duchess and ourself.
O what cold fear men’s jealous stomachs feel
In that they most desire! Suspecting still
‘Tis either too, too sweet to take effect
Or (in th’effect) must meet with some harsh chance
To intervent the joy of the success.
The same wished day (my Lord) you here arrived
I bade Lord Hardenbergh command two horse
Should privately be brought for me and him,
To meet you on the way for honour’s sake
And to express my joy of your repair:
When (lo!) the horse I used to ride upon
(That would be gently backed at other times)
Now, offering but to mount him, stood aloft,
Flinging and bound. You know, Lord Hardenbergh.
HARDENBERGH. Yes, my good Lord.
ALPHONSO. And was so strangely out of wonted rule
That I could hardly back him.
HARDENBERGH. True, my liege; I stood amazed at it.
ALPHONSO. Well, yet I did,
And riding (not a furlong) down he fell.
HARDENBERGH. That never heretofore would trip with him.
ALPHONSO. Yet would I forward needs, but Hardenbergh,
More timorous then wise, as I supposed,
(For love so hardened me, fear was my slave)
Did ominate such likely ill to me
If I went forward, that with much enforcement
Of what might chance he drove me to retreat.
Didst thou not Hardenbergh?
HARDENBERGH. I did, my Lord.
ALPHONSO. I warrant thou wilt say
Thou never yet saw’st any man so loathe
To be persuaded ill of so ill signs.
HARDENBERGH. Never in all my life.
ALPHONSO. Thou wonderst at it?
HARDENBERGH. I did indeed, my liege, not without cause.
ALPHONSO. O blame not, Hardenbergh, for thou dost know
How sharp my heart was set to entertain
The lord of this ambassage lovingly.
HARDENBERGH. True, my good Lord.
ALPHONSO. But (coming back) how gently the jade went — Did he not, Hardenbergh?
HARDENBERGH. As any horse on earth could do, my Lord.
ALPHONSO. Well, sir, this drew me into deep conceit,
And to recomfort me I did command
Lord Hardenbergh should ope a cabinet
Of my choice jewels and to bring me thence
A ring, a rich and violet Hyacinth,
Whose sacred virtue is to cheer the heart
And to excite our heavy spirits to mirth;
Which, putting on my finger, swift did break.
Now this, indeed, did much discomfort me,
And heavy to the death I went to bed;
Where in a slumber I did strongly think
I should be married to the beauteous Duchess,
And coming to my chapel to that end,
Duke Constantine her brother with his lords
And all our peers (me thought) attending us,
Forth comes my princely Katherine led by death,
Who threatening me stood close unto her side,
Urging by those most horrible portents
That wedding her I married mine own death.
I, frighted in my sleep, struggled and sweat,
And in the violence of my thoughts cried out
So loud that Hardenbergh awaked and rose.
Didst thou not Hardenbergh?
HARDENBERGH. I felt I did, for never yet (my lord)
Was I in heart and soul so much dismayed.
ALPHONSO. Why thus you see (my Lord) how your delays
Were mightily and with huge cause enforced.
AMBASSADOR. But dreams (my lord) you know grow by the humours
Of the moist night, which, store of vapours lending
Unto our stomachs when we are in sleep
And to the body’s supreme parts ascending,
Are thence sent back by coldness of the brain,
And these present our idle fantasies
With nothing true but what our labouring souls
Without their active organs safely work.
ALPHONSO. My lord, know you there are two sorts of dreams,
One sort whereof are only physical,
And such are they whereof your lordship speaks;
The other hyper-physical, that is
Dreams sent from heaven or from the wicked fiends,
Which nature doth not form of her own power
But are extrinsicate, by marvel wrought;
And such was mine. Yet, notwithstanding this,
I hope fresh stars will govern in the spring;
And then, assure your princely friend your master,
Our promise in all honour shall be kept.
Return this answer, Lord Ambassador,
And recommend me to my sacred love.
AMBASSADOR. I will, my lord; but how it will be accepted I know not yet; yourself shall shortly hear.
ALPHONSO. Lords, some of you associate him. — Ha, ha! [Exeunt all but ALPHONSO and HARDENBERGH.]
HARDENBERGH. Exceeding well and gravely good, my lord.
ALPHONSO. Come, let’s go and visit my Hyanthe,
She whose perfections are of power to move
The thoughts of Caesar (did he live) to love. [Exeunt.]
[Finis Actus Secundus.]