A street outside Sir Oliver’s house
Enter Master Sandfield; Philip, Sir Oliver Twilight’s son; with Savorwit.
PHILIP
If thou talk’st longer, I shall turn to marble,
And death will stop my hearing.
SANDFIELD
Horrible fortune!
SAVORWIT
Nay, sir, our building is so far defac’d
There is no stuff left to raise up a hope.
PHILIP
Oh, with more patience could my flesh endure
A score of wounds and all their several searchings
Than this that thou hast told me!
SAVORWIT
Would that Flemish ram
Had ne’er come near our house! There’s no going home
As long as he has a nest there, and his young one,
A little Flanders’ egg new fledg’d; they gape
For pork, and I shall be made meat for ‘em.
PHILIP
’Tis not the bare news of my mother’s life,
May she live long and happy, that afflicts me
With half the violence that the latter draws,
Though in that news I have my share of grief,
As I had share of sin and a foul neglect:
It is my love’s betraying; that’s the sting
That strikes through flesh and spirit, and sense nor wit
From thee, in whom I ne’er saw ebb till now,
Nor comforts from a faithful friend can ease me.
I’ll try the goodness of a third companion,
What he’ll do for me.
[Draws his sword.]
SANDFIELD
Hold! Why, friend?
SAVORWIT
Why, master, is this all your kindness, sir? Offer to steal into another country and ne’er take your leave on’s? Troth, I take it unkindly at your hands, sir; but I’ll put it up for once. [Puts up the sword.] Faith, there was no conscience in this, sir: leave me here to endure all weathers, whilst you make your soul dance like a juggler’s egg upon the point of a rapier! By my troth, sir, y’are too blame in’t. You might have given us an inkling of your journey; perhaps others would as fain have gone as you.
PHILIP
Burns this clay lamp of miserable life
When joy, the oil that feeds it, is dried up?
Enter his mother [Lady Twilight] new landed; with a gentleman, a scholar [Beveril]; and others.
LADY TWILIGHT
He has remov’d his house.
BEVERIL
So it seems, madam.
LADY TWILIGHT
I’ll ask that gentleman. Pray, can you tell me, sir,
Which is Sir Oliver Twilight’s?
PHILIP
Few can better, gentlewoman.
It is the next fair house your eye can fix on.
LADY TWILIGHT
I thank you, sir. [To the others, who then leave] Go on.
He had a son about some ten years since.
PHILIP
That son still lives.
LADY TWILIGHT
I pray, how does he, sir?
PHILIP
Faith, much about my health; that’s never worse.
If you have any business to him, gentlewoman,
I can cut short your journey to the house.
I’m all that ever was of the same kind.
LADY TWILIGHT
Oh, my sweet son! Never fell fresher joy
Upon the heart of mother! This is he, sir!
BEVERIL
My seven years’ travel has ev’n worn him out
Of my remembrance.
SAVORWIT
[Aside] Oh, this gear’s worse and worse!
PHILIP
[Kneeling] I am so wonderstruck at your bless’d presence
That through amaz’d joy, I neglect my duty.
LADY TWILIGHT
Rise, and a thousand blessings spring up with thee.
SAVORWIT
[Aside] I would we had but one in the meantime;
Let the rest glow at leisure.
LADY TWILIGHT
But know you not this gentleman yet, son?
PHILIP
I take it’s Master Beveril.
BEVERIL
My name’s Beveril, sir.
PHILIP
[Embracing him] Right welcome to my bosom!
LADY TWILIGHT
You’d not think, son,
How much I am beholding to this gentleman
As far as freedom; he laid out the ransom,
Finding me so distress’d.
PHILIP
’Twas worthily done, sir,
And I shall ever rest your servant for’t.
BEVERIL
You quite forget your worth. ’Twas my good hap, sir,
To return home that way after some travels
Where finding your good mother so distress’d,
I could not but in pity see her releas’d.
PHILIP
It was a noble charity, sir; heaven quit you.
SAVORWIT
[Aside] It comes at last.
BEVERIL
I left a sister here,
New married when I last took leave of England.
PHILIP
Oh, Mistress Low-water.
BEVERIL
Pray, sir, how does she?
PHILIP
So little comfort I can give you, sir,
That I would fain excuse myself for silence.
BEVERIL
Why, what’s the worst, sir?
PHILIP
Wrongs has made her poor.
BEVERIL
You strike my heart! Alas, good gentlewoman!
PHILIP
Here’s a gentleman; you know him: Master Sandfield.
BEVERIL
I crave pardon, sir.
PHILIP
He can resolve you from her kinswoman.
SANDFIELD
Welcome to England, madam.
LADY TWILIGHT
Thanks, good sir.
PHILIP
[Taking Savorwit aside] Now there’s no way to ‘scape: I’m compass’d round;
My shame is like a prisoner set with halberds.
SAVORWIT
Pish, master, master! ’Tis young flood again,
And you can take your time now; away quick!
PHILIP
Push, thou’st a swimming head.
SAVORWIT
Will you but hear me?
When did you lose your tide when I set forth with you?
PHILIP
That’s true.
SAVORWIT
Regard me then; though you have no feeling,
I would not hang by th’ thumbs with a good will.
PHILIP
I hang by th’ heart, sir, and would fain have ease.
SAVORWIT
Then this or none. Fly to your mother’s pity,
For that’s the court must help you: y’are quite gone
At common law; no counselor can hear you.
Confess your follies and ask pardon for ‘em,
Tell her the state of all things; stand not nicely:
The meat’s too hard to be minc’d now;
She breeds young bones by this time.
Deal plainly: heaven will bless thee; turn out all,
And shake your pockets after it. Beg, weep,
Kneel, anything; ‘twill break no bones, man.
Let her not rest, take breathing time, nor leave thee
Till thou hast got her help.
PHILIP
Lad, I conceive thee.
SAVORWIT
About it then; it requires haste. Do’t well:
There’s but a short street between us and hell.
BEVERIL
Ah, my poor sister!
LADY TWILIGHT
‘Las, good gentlewoman
My heart ev’n weeps for her.
[Philip] shogs his mother.
Nay, son, we’ll go now.
PHILIP
May I crave one word, madam?
LADY TWILIGHT
With me, son?
The more, the better welcome.
SAVORWIT
[Aside] Now, now luck!
I pray not often: the last prayer I made
Was nine-year-old last Bartholomew-tide; ’twould have been
A jolly chopper, and ‘t ‘ad liv’d till this time.
LADY TWILIGHT
Why do your words start back? Are they afraid
Of her that ever lov’d them?
PHILIP
I have a suit to you, madam.
LADY TWILIGHT
You have told me that already; pray what is’t?
If’t be so great my present state refuse it,
I shall be abler, then command and use it;
Whate’er ‘t be, let me have warning to provide for’t.
PHILIP
[Kneeling] Provide forgiveness then, for that’s the want
My conscience feels. Oh, my wild youth has led me
Into unnatural wrongs against your freedom once.
I spent the ransom which my father sent
To set my pleasures free, while you lay captive.
SAVORWIT
[Aside] He does it finely, faith.
LADY TWILIGHT
And is this all now?
You use me like a stranger; pray stand up.
PHILIP
Rather fall flat; I shall deserve yet worse.
LADY TWILIGHT
[Raising him] Whate’er your faults are, esteem me still a friend,
Or else you wrong me more in asking pardon
Than when you did the wrong you ask’d it for,
And since you have prepar’d me to forgive you,
Pray let me know for what; the first fault’s nothing.
SAVORWIT
[Aside] ’Tis a sweet lady, every inch of her.
PHILIP
Here comes the wrong then that drives home the rest.
I saw a face at Antwerp that quite drew me
From conscience and obedience; in that fray
I lost my heart, I must needs lose my way:
There went the ransom, to redeem my mind;
‘Stead of the money, I brought over her,
And to cast mists before my father’s eyes,
Told him it was my sister, lost so long,
And that yourself was dead. You see the wrong?
LADY TWILIGHT
This is but youthful still. Oh, that word “sister”
Afflicts me when I think on’t. I forgive thee
As freely as thou didst it. For, alas,
This may be call’d good dealing to some parts,
That love and youth plays daily among sons.
SAVORWIT
[Aside] She helps our knavery well; that’s one good comfort.
PHILIP
But such is the hard plight my state lives in
That ‘twixt forgiveness I must sin again,
And seek my help where I bestow’d my wrongs.
Oh, mother, pity once, though against reason,
‘Cause I can merit none; though my wrongs grieve you,
Yet let it be your glory to relieve me.
LADY TWILIGHT
Wherein have I given cause yet of mistrust,
That you should doubt my succour and my love?
Show me but in what kind I may bestow ‘em.
PHILIP
There came a Dutchman with report this day
That you were living.
LADY TWILIGHT
Came he so lately?
PHILIP
Yes, madam.
Which news so struck my father on the sudden
That he grows jealous of my faith in both.
These five hours have I kept me from his sight
And wish’d myself eternally so hid;
And surely, had not your bless’d presence quicken’d
The flame of life in me, all had gone out.
Now to confirm me to his trust again
And settle much aright in his opinion,
Say but she is my sister, and all’s well.
LADY TWILIGHT
You ask devotion like a bashful beggar
That pure need urges and not lazy impudence;
And to express how glad I am to pity you,
My bounty shall flow over your demand.
I will not only with a constant breath
Approve that, but excuse thee for my death.
SAVORWIT
[Aside] Why, here’s a woman made as a man would wish to have her.
PHILIP
Oh, I am plac’d higher in happiness
Than whence I fell before!
SAVORWIT
[Aside] We’re brave fellows once again, and we can keep our own. Now, hoffte toffte, our pipes play as loftily!
BEVERIL
My sister fled!
SANDFIELD
Both fled; that’s the news now. Want must obey;
Oppressions came so thick, they could not stay.
BEVERIL
Mean are my fortunes, yet had I been nigh,
Distress nor wrong should have made virtue fly.
LADY TWILIGHT
Spoke like a brother, worthy such a sister.
BEVERIL
Grief’s like a new wound; heat beguiles the sense,
For I shall feel this smart more three days hence.
Come, madam, sorrow’s rude and forgets manners.
[Exeunt all except Savorwit].
SAVORWIT
Our knavery is for all the world like a shifting bankrupt; it breaks in one place, and sets up in another: he tries all trades, from a goldsmith to a tobacco seller, we try all shifts, from an outlaw to a flatterer; he cozens the husband, and compounds with the widow, we cozen my master, and compound with my mistress. Only here I turn o’ th’ right hand from him: he is known to live like a rascal, when I am thought to live like a gentleman.
[Exit.]