As the earliest play in this collection, The Spanish Tragedy can be thought of as establishing a number of significant aspects of style and subject that were to be developed by later playwrights. There is no known source for the play, although some critics believe it may have shared one, now lost, with Hamlet (1600) or that an earlier version of The Spanish Tragedy may have inspired Shakespeare’s work. Whatever the case, Kyd’s play was clearly popular in its day and much imitated (and parodied) by other dramatists.
Kyd’s play adapts a range of devices and themes from the Roman dramatist Seneca (c. 4 BC-AD 64). The ghost, the use of soliloquy, the play-within-the-play, the madness and suicide (as well as the principal theme of revenge itself) all emerge from the Elizabethan preoccupation with Senecan drama. Kyd’s innovations include a topical context for the revenge theme, the 1580 war between Portugal and Spain; and, together with other dramatists of his day, he seems to owe something, in his representation of villainy, to the political philosophy of the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli. In Bel-imperia, Kyd created an eloquent and purposeful female figure, such as had been rare on earlier English stages.
That a play about intrigue, corruption and dishonourable death in Spain was popular in an (officially) Protestant country should not surprise us. Elizabeth had been excommunicated for heresy by Pope Pius V in 1570 and, after an initial period of relative calm, anti-Catholic feeling was running high at the time of The Spanish Tragedy. This was exacerbated by increasing anxiety over relations with Spain itself. What may be considered surprising, however, is the manner in which the play invited its audience to consider extremely sensitive aspects of the profound social changes that were occurring in England at the time.
The framing device provided by the presence and commentary of the Ghost of Don Andrea and the figure of Revenge, grounded as it is in a Renaissance vision of a classical underworld, tends to universalise, as well as mirror, the action in the main play. Thus Don Andrea’s impatience for revenge (I.v and II.i) is linked to Hieronimo’s increasing frustration with the agencies of earthly justice, so that both figures seem situated at first in the tradition of an ‘Everyman’. Hieronimo, however, is able to move forward from this position into one of decisiveness and action. This occurs at the point in the play when, as Andy Mousley has noted, ‘the possibility of revenge finding legitimate expression through an official and universally recognised exercise of justice becomes increasingly remote’ (Mousley 2000:68).
Revenge’s promise to Don Andrea that he will turn ‘their day to night’ (I.v.7) never seems in doubt; revenge from beyond the grave seems preordained. The figure of Hieronimo, however, is altogether too human in the uncertainty of his dilemma, his role and the extent of his power. As Catherine Belsey has remarked, Hieronimo is ‘uncertain whether he speaks in the name – the discourse – of heaven or hell, or neither’ so that when he bites out his tongue (IV.iv.191) he is ‘repudiating the right which defines the subject, the right of speech itself’ (Belsey 1985: 75).
Hieronimo, as a ‘subject’, is defined by a range of institutional discourses. His position as Knight Marshal places him at the heart of the Spanish state, yet this guarantees him nothing in a world of such Machiavellian figures as Lorenzo. Indeed, his distracted tearing of the papers of the petitioners (III.xiii.122) signals a despair over the functions of the law which some critics have seen as a parallel with the situation in contemporary England. The empty box of the Pedringano sub-plot is a powerful sign of the manipulation of symbols of justice and redemption in the hands of the cynical: despite his murder of Serberine, the hapless Pedringano is clearly as much a victim of the controlling Lorenzo as Hieronimo has become.
Hieronomo becomes caught between the strictures of Christian teaching, which expressly forbade private acts of revenge (Romans 12.19) and the seductive reasoning of Seneca; on the one hand ‘heaven will be revenged of every ill’ (III.xiii.2) and on the other ‘Strike, and strike home, where wrong is offered thee’ (III.xiii.7). Having contemplated suicide, tested the institutions of justice and endured madness, Hieronimo enacts an elaborate private revenge which, paradoxically, sees him operating as an agent of the divine in the justice that Revenge has promised the Ghost of Don Andrea. As in Hamlet, other figures are swept up in the course of vengeance, which careers to a macabre conclusion that begs further questions about justice, the state and the individual.
In The Spanish Tragedy and other revenge plays, dramatists were able to explore topical issues from the comparative safety of the stage. Hieronimo’s dilemma and consequent actions are a compelling refracted image of the world inhabited by his audience: chivalric values, long-established systems of law and retribution, and implicit faith in divine and human authorities were all giving ground to more secular, pragmatic and ‘political’ systems of social organisation and cultural expression. Distanced from the action (at once identifying with, but ethically repulsed by, the actions of the figures on the stage) an audience might recognise only too well that such plays as The Spanish Tragedy announced the uncertain shift of values and priorities that defined the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The appeal of these plays to succeeding generations signals that the world that emerged from this uncertainty was the one that shaped their own history.
This edition is based on the octavo-in-fours edition believed to date from 1592, the single copy of which is held by the British Library in London (referred to in the footnotes to the text as Q). A further nine editions were published between 1594 and 1633 (evidence of the popularity of the play), and the corrections and variations in these have influenced modern editions; some of these include the anonymous passages known as the ‘Additions’ from 1602. This edition retains the unusual four-act structure of the earliest editions but we have introduced scene divisions.
Boas, F. S. (ed.) (1902) Works of Thomas Kyd, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Edwards, Philip (ed.) (1959) The Spanish Tragedy, The Revels Series, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Joseph, Bertram (ed.) (1964) The Spanish Tragedy, The New Mermaids, London: Ernest Benn.
Kinney, Arthur F. (ed.) (1999) Renaissance Drama: An Anthology of Plays and Entertainments, Oxford: Blackwell.
Smith, Emma (ed.) (1998) The Spanish Tragedie, Renaissance Dramatists Series, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
McIlwraith, A. K. (ed.) (1938) Five Elizabethan Tragedies, The World’s Classics Series, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mulryne, J. R. (ed.) (1989) The Spanish Tragedy, The New Mermaids, London: A. & C. Black.
Wine, M. L. (ed.) (1969) Drama of the English Renaissance, Modern Library College Editions, New York, NY: Random House.
Adams, Barry B. (1969) ‘The Audiences of The Spanish Tragedy’, journal of English and Germanic Philology, 48, 2: 221-36.
Aggeler, Geoffrey (1987) ‘The Eschatological Crux in The Spanish Tragedy’, journal of English and Germanic Philology, 86, 3: 319-31.
Ardolino, Frank (1995) Apocalypse and Armada in Kyd’s ‘Spanish Tragedy’, Kirskville, MO: Sixteenth Century Essays and Studies.
Baines, Barbara (198o) ‘Kyd’s Silenus Box and the Limits of Perception’, journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 10: 41-51.
Belsey, Catherine (1985) The Subject of Tragedy: Identity and Difference in Renaissance Drama, London: Methuen.
Bowers, Fredson (1940) Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy 1587-1640, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Daalder, Joost (1986) ‘The Role of Senex in Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy’, Comparative Drama, 20, 3: 247-60.
Griffin, E. (2001) ‘Ethos, Empire and the Valiant Acts of Thomas Kyd’s Tragedy of”the Spains’”’, English Literary Renaissance, 31, 2: 192-229.
Hamilton, Donna B. (1974) ‘The Spanish Tragedy: A Speaking Picture’, English Literary Renaissance, 4, 2: 203-17.
Hattaway, Michael (1982) Elizabethan Popular Theatre: Plays in Performance, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Henke, J. T. (1981) ‘Politics and Politicians in The Spanish Tragedy’, Studies in Philology, 78, 4: 353-69.
Hill, Eugene D. (1985) ‘Senecan and Vergilian Perspectives in The Spanish Tragedy’, English Literary Renaissance, 15, 2: 143-65.
Justice, Steven (1985) ‘Spain, Tragedy, and The Spanish Tragedy’, Studies in English Literature 1500-1900, 25: 271-88.
Kerrigan, John (1996) Revenge Tragedy: Aeschylus to Armageddon, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Mazzio, C. (1998) ‘Staging the Vernacular: Language and Nation in Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy’, Studies in English Literature 1500-1900, 38, 2: 207-32.
McAdam, I. (2000) ‘The Spanish Tragedy and the Politico-Religious Unconscious’, Texas Studies in Literature and Language, 42, 1: 33-60.
McMillan, Scott (1972) ‘The Figure of Silence in The Spanish Tragedy’, English Literary History, 39: 27-48.
Mousley, Andy (2000) Renaissance Drama and Contemporary Literary Theory, Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Shapiro, James (1991) ‘”Tragedies Natually Performed”: Kyd’s Representation of Violence,’ in David Scott Kastan and Peter Stallybrass (eds) Staging the Renaissance: Reinterpretations of Elizabethan and jacobean Drama, London and New York, NY: Routledge.
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Stockholder, K. (1990) ‘”Yet He Can Write”: Reading the Silences in The Spanish Tragedy’, American Imago, 47, 2: 93-124.
Whigham, Frank (1996) Seizures of the Will in Early Modem English Drama, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus (1593)
William Shakespeare, Richard III (1593)
William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600)
John Marston, Antonio’s Revenge (1600)
Henry Chetde, The Tragedy of Hoffman (1602)
Thomas Middleton or Cyril Tourneur, The Revenger’s Tragedy (1606)
George Chapman, The Tragedy of Bussy D’Ambois (1607)
George Chapman, The Revenge of Bussy D’Ambois (1610)
Cyril Tourneur, The Atheist’s Tragedy (1611)
John Webster, The White Devil (1612)
John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi (1614)
Thomas Middleton, The Changeling (1622)
Thomas Middleton, Women Beware Women (1625)
John Ford, ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore (1633)
Page to LORENZO, Three Watchmen, Messenger, Deputy, Hangman, Maid to ISABELLA, Two Portuguese, Servant, Three Citizens, Portuguese Nobles, Soldiers, Officers, Attendants, Halberdiers, Three Knights, Three Kings, a Drummer in the first Dumb-show, Hymen, Two Torch-bearers in the second Dumb-show
Enter the GHOST OF ANDREA, and with him REVENGE
ANDREA When this eternal substance of my soul
Did live imprisoned in my wanton flesh,
Each in their function serving other’s need,
I was a courtier in the Spanish court.
My name was Don Andrea, my descent,
Though not ignoble, yet inferior far
To gracious fortunes of my tender youth:
For there in prime and pride of all my years,
By duteous service and deserving love,
In secret I possessed a worthy dame, 10
Which hight sweet Bel-imperia by name.
But in the harvest of my summer joys
Death’s winter nipped the blossoms of my bliss,
Forcing divorce betwixt my love and me.
For in the late conflict with Portingale
My valour drew me into danger’s mouth,
Till life to death made passage through my wounds.
When I was slain, my soul descended straight
To pass the flowing stream of Acheron:
But churlish Charon, only boatman there, 20
Said that my rites of burial not performed,
I might not sit amongst his passengers.
Ere Sol had slept three nights in Thetis’ lap
And slaked his smoking chariot in her flood,
By Don Horatio, our Knight Marshal’s son,
My funerals and obsequies were done.
Then was the ferryman of hell content
To pass me over to the slimy strond,
That leads to fell Avernus’ ugly waves:
There, pleasing Cerberus with honeyed speech, 30
I passed the perils of the foremost porch.
Not far from hence, amidst ten thousand souls,
Sat Minos, Aeacus, and Rhadamanth,
To whom no sooner gan I make approach,
To crave a passport for my wandering ghost,
But Minos, in graven leaves of lottery,
Drew forth the manner of my life and death.
’This knight’, quoth he, ‘both lived and died in love,
And for his love tried fortune of the wars,
And by war’s fortune lost both love and life.’ 40
’Why then,’ said Aeacus, ‘convey him hence,
To walk with lovers in our fields of love,
And spend the course of everlasting time
Under green myrtle trees and cypress shades.’
’No, no,’ said Rhadamanth, ‘it were not well
With loving souls to place a martialist:
He died in war, and must to martial fields,
Where wounded Hector lives in lasting pain,
And Achilles’ Myrmidons do scour the plain.’
Then Minos, mildest censor of the three, 50
Made this device to end the difference.
’Send him,’ quoth he, ‘to our infernal king,
To doom him as best seems his majesty.’
To this effect my passport straight was drawn.
In keeping on my way to Pluto’s court,
Through dreadful shades of ever-glooming night,
I saw more sights than thousand tongues can tell,
Or pens can write, or mortal hearts can think.
Three ways there were: that on the right-hand side
Was ready way unto the foresaid fields, 60
Where lovers live and bloody martialists,
But either sort contained within his bounds.
The left-hand path, declining fearfully,
Was ready downfall to the deepest hell,
Where bloody Furies shakes their whips of steel,
And poor Ixion turns an endless wheel;
Where usurers are choked with melting gold,
And wantons are embraced with ugly snakes,
And murderers groan with never-killing wounds,
And perjured wights scalded in boiling lead, 70
And all foul sins with torments overwhelmed.
’Twixt these two ways I trod the middle path
Which brought me to the fair Elysian green,
In midst whereof there stands a stately tower,
The walls of brass, the gates of adamant.
Here finding Pluto with his Proserpine,
I showed my passport, humbled on my knee;
Whereat fair Proserpine began to smile,
And begged that only she might give my doom.
Pluto was pleased, and sealed it with a kiss. 80
Forthwith, Revenge, she rounded thee in th’ear,
And bade thee lead me through the gates of horn,
Where dreams have passage in the silent night.
No sooner had she spoke but we were here,
I wot not how, in twinkling of an eye.
REVENGE Then know, Andrea, that thou art arrived
Where thou shalt see the author of thy death,
Don Balthazar, the prince of Portingale,
Deprived of life by Bel-imperia.
Here sit we down to see the mystery, 90
And serve for Chorus in this tragedy.
Enter SPANISH KING, GENERAL, CASTILE, HIERONIMO
KING Now say, Lord General, how fares our camp?
GENERAL All well, my sovereign liege, except some few
That are deceased by fortune of the war.
KING But what portends thy cheerful countenance,
And posting to our presence thus in haste?
Speak man, hath fortune given us victory?
GENERAL Victory, my liege, and that with little loss.
KING Our Portingals will pay us tribute then?
GENERAL Tribute and wonted homage therewithal.
KING Then blest be heaven, and guider of the heavens,
From whose fair influence such justice flows. 11
CASTILE O multum dilecte Deo, tibi militat aether,
Et conjuratae curvato poplite gentes
Succumbunt: recti soror est victoria juris.
KING Thanks to my loving brother of Castile.
But General, unfold in brief discourse
Your form of battle and your war’s success,
That adding all the pleasure of thy news
Unto the height of former happiness,
With deeper wage and greater dignity 20
We may reward thy blissful chivalry.
GENERAL Where Spain and Portingale do Jointly knit
Their frontiers, leaning on each other’s bound,
There met our armies in their proud array:
Both furnished well, both full of hope and fear,
Both menacing alike with daring shows,
Both vaunting sundry colours of device,
Both cheerly sounding trumpets, drums and fifes,
Both raising dreadful clamours to the sky,
That valleys, hills, and rivers made rebound, 30
And heaven itself was frighted with the sound.
Our battles both were pitched in squadron form,
Each corner strongly fenced with wings of shot:
But ere we joined and came to push of pike
I brought a squadron of our readiest shot
From out our rearward to begin the fight:
They brought another wing to encouter us.
Meanwhile our ordnance played on either side,
And captains strove to have their valours tried.
Don Pedro, their chief horsemen’s colonel, 40
Did with his cornet bravely make attempt
To break the order of our battle ranks:
But Don Rogero, worthy man of war,
Marched forth against him with our musketeers,
And stopped the malice of his fell approach.
While they maintain hot skirmish to and fro,
Both battles join and fall to handy blows,
Their violent shot resembling th’ocean’s rage,
When, roaring loud, and with a swelling tide,
It beats upon the rampiers of huge rocks, 50
And gapes to swallow neighbour-bounding lands.
Now while Bellona rageth here and there,
Thick storms of bullets rain like winter’s hail,
And shivered lances dark the troubled air.
Pede pes et cuspide cuspis;
Arma sonant armis, vir petiturque viro.
On every side drop captains to the ground,
And soldiers, some ill-maimed, some slain outright:
Here falls a body scindered from his head,
There legs and arms lie bleeding on the grass, 60
Mingled with weapons and unbowelled steeds,
That scattering overspread the purple plain.
In all this turmoil, three long hours and more,
The victory to neither part inclined,
Till Don Andrea with his brave lanciers,
In their main battle made so great a breach
That, half dismayed, the multitude retired:
But Balthazar, the Portingals’ young prince,
Brought rescue, and encouraged them to stay.
Here-hence the fight was eagerly renewed, 70
And in that conflict was Andrea slain—
Brave man at arms, but weak to Balthazar.
Yet while the prince, insulting over him,
Breathed out proud vaunts, sounding to our reproach,
Friendship and hardy valour joined in one
Pricked forth Horatio, our Knight Marshal’s son,
To challenge forth that prince in single fight.
Not long between these twain the fight endured,
But straight the prince was beaten from his horse,
And forced to yield him prisoner to his foe: 80
When he was taken, all the rest they fled,
And our carbines pursued them to the death,
Till, Phoebus waning to the western deep,
Our trumpeters were charged to sound retreat.
KING Thanks good Lord General for these good news;
And for some argument of more to come,
Take this and wear it for thy sovereign’s sake.
Give him his chain
But tell me now, hast thou confirmed a peace?
GENERAL No peace, my liege, but peace conditional,
That if with homage tribute be well paid, 90
The fury of your forces will be stayed:
And to this peace their viceroy hath subscribed,
Give the KING a paper
And made a solemn vow that, during life,
His tribute shall be truly paid to Spain.
KING These words, these deeds, become thy person well.
But now, Knight Marshal, frolic with thy king,
For ’tis thy son that wins this battle’s prize.
HIERONIMO Long may he live to serve my sovereign liege,
And soon decay unless he serve my liege.
A tucket afar off
KING Nor thou nor he, shall die without reward. 100
What means the warning of the trumpet’s sound?
GENERAL This tells me that your grace’s men of war,
Such as war’s fortune hath reserved from death,
Come marching on towards your royal seat,
To show themselves before your majesty,
For so I gave in charge at my depart.
Whereby by demonstration shall appear,
That all (except three hundred or few more)
Are safe returned and by their foes enriched.
The Army enters; BALTHAZAR, between LORENZO and HORATIO, captive
KING A gladsome sight. I long to see them here. 110
They enter and pass by
Was that the warlike prince of Portingale,
That by our nephew was in triumph led?
GENERAL It was, my liege, the prince of Portmgale.
KING But what was he that on the other side
Held him by th’arm as partner of the prize?
HIERONIMO That was my son, my gracious sovereign,
Of whom, though from his tender infancy
My loving thoughts did never hope but well,
He never pleased his father’s eyes till now,
Nor filled my heart with overcloying joys. 120
KING Go let them march once more about these walls,
That staying them we may confer and talk
With our brave prisoner and his double guard.
Hieronimo, it gready pleaseth us,
That in our victory thou have a share,
By virtue of thy worthy son’s exploit.
Enter the Army again
Bring hither the young prince of Portingale:
The rest march on, but ere they be dismissed,
We will bestow on every soldier
Two ducats, and on every leader ten, 130
That they may know our largess welcomes them.
Exeunt all the Army but BALTHAZAR, LORENZO, HORATIO
Welcome, Don Balthazar, welcome, nephew,
And thou Horatio, thou art welcome too.
Young prince, although thy father’s hard misdeeds,
In keeping back the tribute that he owes,
Deserve but evil measure at our hands,
Yet shalt thou know that Spain is honourable.
BALTHAZAR The trespass that my father made in peace
Is now controlled by fortune of the wars;
And cards once dealt, it boots not ask why so. 140
His men are slain, a weakening to his realm,
His colours seized, a blot unto his name,
His son distressed, a corsive to his heart:
Those punishments may clear his late offence.
KING Ay, Balthazar, if he observe this truce,
Our peace will grow the stronger or hese wars.
Meanwhile live thou, though not in liberty,
Yet free from bearing any servile yoke;
For in our hearing thy deserts were great,
And in our sight thyself art gracious. 150
BALTHAZAR And I shall study to deserve this grace.
KING But tell me, for their holding makes me doubt,
To which of these twain art thou prisoner?
LORENZO To me, my liege.
HORATIO To me, my sovereign.
LORENZO This hand first took his courser by the reins.
HORATIO But first my lance did put him from his horse.
LORENZO I seized his weapon, and enjoyed it first.
HORATIO But first I forced him lay his weapons down.
KING Let go his arm, upon our privilege.
They let him go
Say, worthy prince, to whether didst thou yield? 160
BALTHAZAR To him in courtesy, to this perforce:
He spake me fair, this other gave me strokes;
He promised life, this other threatened death;
He wan my love, this other conquered me:
And truth to say I yield myself to both.
HIERONIMO But that I know your grace for just and wise,
And might seem partial in this difference,
Enforced by nature and by law of arms
My tongue should plead for young Horatio’s right.
He hunted well that was a lion’s death, 170
Not he that in a garment wore his skin:
So hares may pull dead lions by the beard.
KING Content thee, Marshal, thou shalt have no wrong;
And for thy sake thy son shall want no right.
Will both abide the censure of my doom?
LORENZO I crave no better than your grace awards.
HORATIO Nor I, although I sit beside my right.
KING Then by my judgment thus your strife shall end:
You both deserve and both shall have reward.
Nephew, thou took’st his weapon and his horse, 180
His weapons and his horse are thy reward.
Horatio, thou didst force him first to yield,
His ransom therefore is thy valour’s fee:
Appoint the sum as you shall both agree.
But nephew, thou shalt have the prince in guard,
For thine estate best fitteth such a guest:
Horatio’s house were small for all his train.
Yet in regard thy substance passeth his,
And that just guerdon may befall desert,
To him we yield the armour of the prince. 190
How likes Don Balthazar of this device?
BALTHAZAR Right well my liege, if this proviso were,
That Don Horatio bear us company,
Whom I admire and love for chivalry.
KING Horatio, leave him not that loves thee so.
Now let us hence to see our soldiers paid,
And feast our prisoner as our friendly guest.
Exeunt
Enter VICEROY, ALEXANDRO, VILLUPPO, Attendants
VICEROY Is our ambassador despatched for Spain?
ALEXANDRO Two days, my liege, are passed since his depart.
VICEROY And tribute payment gone along with him?
ALEXANDRO Ay my good lord.
VICEROY Then rest we here awhile in our unrest,
And feed our sorrows with some inward sighs,
For deepest cares break never into tears.
But wherefore sit I in a regal throne?
This better fits a wretch’s endless moan.
Falls to the ground
Yet this is higher than my fortunes reach, 10
And therefore better than my state deserves.
Ay, ay, this earth, image of melancholy,
Seeks him whom fates adjudge to misery:
Here let me lie, now am I at the lowest.
Qui jacet in terra, non habet unde cadat.
In me consumpsit vires fortuna nocendo,
Nil super est ut jam possit obesse magis.
Yes, Fortune may bereave me of my crown:
Here, take it now; let Fortune do her worst,
She will not rob me of this sable weed: 20
O no, she envies none but pleasant things.
Such is the folly of despiteful chance!
Fortune is blind and sees not my deserts,
So is she deaf and hears not my laments:
And could she hear, yet is she wilful mad,
And therefore will not pity my distress.
Suppose that she could pity me, what then?
What help can be expected at her hands,
Whose foot is standing on a rolling stone,
And mind more mutable than fickle winds? 30
Why wail I then, where’s hope of no redress?
O yes, complaining makes my grief seem less.
My late ambition hath distained my faith,
My breach of faith occasioned bloody wars,
Those bloody wars have spent my treasure,
And with my treasure my people’s blood,
And with their blood, my joy and best beloved,
My best beloved, my sweet and only son.
O wherefore went I not to war myself?
The cause was mine, I might have died for both: 40
My years were mellow, his but young and green,
My death were natural, but his was forced.
ALEXANDRO No doubt, my liege, but still the prince survives.
VICEROY Survives! Ay, where?
ALEXANDRO In Spain, a prisoner by mischance of war.
VICEROY Then they have slain him for his father’s fault.
ALEXANDRO That were a breach to common law of arms.
VICEROY They reck no laws that meditate revenge.
ALEXANDRO His ransom’s worth will stay from foul revenge. 49
VICEROY No, if he lived the news would soon be here.
ALEXANDRO Nay, evil news fly faster still than good.
VICEROY Tell me no more of news, for he is dead.
VILLUPPO My sovereign, pardon the author of ill news,
And I’ll bewray the fortune of thy son.
VICEROY Speak on, I’ll guerdon thee whate’er it be:
Mine ear is ready to receive ill news,
My heart grown hard ‘gainst mischief’s battery;
Stand up I say, and tell thy tale at large.
VILLUPPO Then hear that truth which these mine eyes have seen.
When both the armies were in battle joined, 60
Don Balthazar, amidst the thickest troops,
To win renown did wondrous feats of arms:
Amongst the rest I saw him hand to hand
In single fight with their Lord General;
Till Alexandra, that here counterfeits
Under the colour of a duteous friend,
Discharged his pistol at the prince’s back,
As though he would have slain their general.
But therewithal Don Balthazar fell down,
And when he fell, then we began to fly: 70
But had he lived, the day had sure been ours.
ALEXANDRO O wicked forgery! O traitorous miscreant!
VICEROY Hold thou thy peace! But now, Villuppo, say,
Where then became the carcase of my son?
VILLUPPO I saw them drag it to the Spanish tents.
VICEROY Ay, ay, my nightly dreams have told me this.
Thou false, unkind, unthankful, traitorous beast,
Wherein had Balthazar offended thee,
That thou shouldst thus betray him to our foes?
Was’t Spanish gold that bleared so thine eyes 80
That thou couldst see no part of our deserts?
Perchance because thou art Terceira’s lord
Thou hadst some hope to wear this diadem,
If first my son and then myself were slain:
But thy ambitious thought shall break thy neck.
Ay, this was it that made thee spill his blood,
Take the crown and put it on again
But I’ll now wear it till thy blood be spilt.
ALEXANDRO Vouchsafe, dread sovereign, to hear me speak.
VICEROY Away with him, his sight is second hell;
Keep him till we determine of his death. 90
Exeunt Attendants with ALEXANDRO
If Balthazar be dead, he shall not live.
Villuppo, follow us for thy reward.
Exit VICEROY
VILLUPPO Thus have I with an envious, forged tale
Deceived the king, betrayed mine enemy,
And hope for guerdon of my villainy.
Exit
Enter HORATIO and BEL-IMPERIA
BEL-IMPERIA Signior Horatio, this is the place and hour
Wherein I must entreat thee to relate
The circumstance of Don Andrea’s death,
Who, living, was my garland’s sweetest flower,
And in his death hath buried my delights.
HORATIO For love of him and service to yourself,
I nill refuse this heavy doleful charge,
Yet tears and sighs, I fear will hinder me.
When both our armies were enjoined in fight,
Your worthy chevalier amidst the thick’st, 10
For glorious cause still aiming at the fairest,
Was at the last by young Don Balthazar
Encountered hand to hand: their fight was long,
Their hearts were great, their clamours menacing,
Their strength alike, their strokes both dangerous.
But wrathful Nemesis, that wicked power,
Envying at Andrea’s praise and worth,
Cut short his life, to end his praise and worth.
She, she herself, disguised in armour’s mask,
(As Pallas was before proud Pergamus) 20
Brought in a fresh supply of halberdiers,
Which paunched his horse, and dinged him to the ground.
Then young Don Balthazar with ruthless rage
Taking advantage of his foe’s distress,
Did finish what his halberdiers begun,
And left not till Andrea’s life was done.
Then, though too late, incensed with just remorse
I with my band set forth against the prince
And brought him prisoner from his halberdiers.
BEL-IMPERIA Would thou hadst slain him that so slew mylove. 30
But then was Don Andrea’s carcase lost?
HORATIO No, that was it for which I chiefly strove,
Nor stepped I back till I recovered him:
I took him up, and wound him in mine arms,
And welding him unto my private tent,
There laid him down, and dewed him with my tears
And sighed and sorrowed as became a friend.
But neither friendly sorrow, sighs nor tears
Could win pale Death from his usurpèd right.
Yet this I did, and less I could not do: 40
I saw him honoured with due funeral.
This scarf I plucked from off his lifeless arm,
And wear it in remembrance of my friend.
BEL-IMPERIA I know the scarf, would he had kept it still,
For had he lived he would have kept it still,
And worn it for his Bel-imperia’s sake:
For ‘twas my favour at his last depart.
But now wear thou it both for him and me,
For after him thou hast deserved it best.
But, for thy kindness in his life and death, 50
Be sure while Bel-imperia’s life endures,
She will be Don Horatio’s thankful friend.
HORATIO And, madam, Don Horatio will not slack
Humbly to serve fair Bel-imperia.
But now, if your good liking stand thereto,
I’ll crave your pardon to go seek the prince,
For so the duke your father gave me charge.
Exit
BEL-IMPERIA Ay, go Horatio, leave me here alone,
For solitude best fits my cheerless mood.
Yet what avails to wail Andrea’s death, 60
From whence Horatio proves my second love?
Had he not loved Andrea as he did,
He could not sit in Bel-imperia’s thoughts.
But how can love find harbour in my breast,
Till I revenge the death of my beloved?
Yes, second love shall further my revenge.
I’ll love Horatio, my Andrea’s friend,
The more to spite the prince that wrought his end.
And where Don Balthazar, that slew my love,
Himself now pleads for favour at my hands, 70
He shall in rigour of my just disdain
Reap long repentance for his murderous deed.
For what was’t else but murderous cowardice,
So many to oppress one valiant knight,
Without respect of honour in the fight?
And here he comes that murdered my delight.
Enter LORENZO and BALTHAZAR
LORENZO Sister, what means this melancholy walk?
BEL-IMPERIA That for a while I wish no company.
LORENZO But here the prince is come to visit you.
BEL-IMPERIA That argues that he lives in liberty. 80
BALTHAZAR No madam, but in pleasing servitude.
BEL-IMPERIA Your prison then belike is your conceit.
BALTHAZAR Ay, by conceit my freedom is enthralled.
BEL-IMPERIA Then with conceit enlarge yourself again.
BALTHAZAR What if conceit have laid my heart to gage?
BEL-IMPERIA Pay that you borrowed and recover it.
BALTHAZAR I die if it return from whence it lies.
BEL-IMPERIA A heartless man, and live? A miracle!
BALTHAZAR Ay lady, love can work such miracles.
LORENZO Tush, tush, my lord, let go these ambages, 90
And in plain terms acquaint her with your love.
BEL-IMPERIA What boots complaint, when there’s no remedy?
BALTHAZAR Yes, to your gracious self must I complain,
In whose fair answer lies my remedy,
On whose perfection all my thoughts attend,
On whose aspect mine eyes find beauty’s bower,
In whose translucent breast my heart is lodged.
BEL-IMPERIA Alas, my lord, these are but words of course,
And but device to drive me from this place.
She, in going in, lets fall her glove, which Horatio, coming out, takes up
HORATIO Madam, your glove. 100
BEL-IMPERIA Thanks good Horatio, take it for thy pains.
BALTHAZAR Signior Horatio stooped in happy time.
HORATIO I reaped more grace than I deserved or hoped.
LORENZO My lord, be not dismayed for what is past,
You know that women oft are humorous:
These clouds will overblow with litle wind;
Let me alone, I’ll scatter them myself.
Meanwhile let us devise to spend the time
In some delightful sports and revelling. 109
HORATIO The king, my lords, is coming hither straight,
To feast the Portingale ambassador:
Things were in readiness before I came.
BALTHAZAR Then here it fits us to attend the king,
To welcome hither our ambassador,
And learn my father and my country’s health.
Enter the Banquet, Trumpets, the KING and AMBASSADOR
KING See Lord Ambassador, how Spain entreats
Their prisoner Balthazar, thy viceroy’s son:
We pleasure more in kindness than in wars.
AMBASSADOR Sad is our king, and Portingale laments,
Supposing that Don Balthazar is slain. 120
BALTHAZAR (Aside) So am I slain by beauty’s tyranny.
(To him) You see, my lord, how Balthazar is slain:
I frolic with the Duke of Castile’s son,
Wrapped every hour in pleasures of the court,
And graced with favours of his majesty.
KING Put off your greetings till our feast be done;
Now come and sit with us and taste our cheer.
They sit to the banquet
Sit down young prince, you are our second guest;
Brother sit down and nephew take your place;
Signior Horatio, wait thou upon our cup, 130
For well thou hast deserved to be honoured.
Now, Lordings, fall to; Spain is Portugal,
And Portugal is Spain, we both are friends,
Tribute is paid, and we enjoy our right.
But where is old Hieronimo, our marshal?
He promised us, in honour of our guest,
To grace our banquet with some pompous jest.
Enter HIERONIMO with a Drum, three Knights, each with his scutcheon: then he fetches three Kings, the Knights take their crowns and them captive
Hieronimo, this masque contents mine eye,
Although I sound not well the mystery.
HIERONIMO The first armed knight, that hung his scutcheon up, 140
He takes the scutcheon and gives it to the KING
Was English Robert, Earl of Gloucester,
Who when King Stephen bore sway in Albion,
Arrived with five and twenty thousand men
In Portingale, and by success of war
Enforced the king, then but a Saracen,
To bear the yoke of the English monarchy.
KING My lord of Portingale, by this you see
That which may comfort both your king and you,
And make your late discomfort seem the less.
But say, Hieronimo, what was the next? 150
HIERONIMO The second knight, that hung his scutcheon up,
He doth as he did before
Was Edmund, Earl of Kent in Albion,
When English Richard wore the diadem;
He came likewise, and razed Lisbon walls,
And took the King of Portingale in fight:
For which, and other suchlike service done,
He after was created Duke of York.
KING This is another special argument,
That Portingale may deign to bear our yoke,
When it by little England hath been yoked. 160
But now Hieronimo, what were the last?
HIERONIMO The third and last, not least in our account,
Doing as before
Was as the rest a valiant Englishman,
Brave John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster,
As by his scutcheon plainly may appear.
He with a puissant army came to Spain,
And took our King of Castile prisoner.
AMBASSADOR This is an argument for our viceroy,
That Spain may not insult for her success,
Since English warriors likewise conquered Spain, 170
And made them bow their knees to Albion.
KING Hieronimo, I drink to thee for this device,
Which hath pleased both the ambassador and me;
Pledge me, Hieronimo, if thou love the king.
Takes the cup of HORATIO
My lord, I fear we sit but over-long,
Unless our dainties were more delicate:
But welcome are you to the best we have.
Now let us in, that you may be despatched,
I think our council is already set.
Exeunt omnes
ANDREA Come we for this from depth of underground,
To see him feast that gave me my death’s wound?
These pleasant sights are sorrow to my soul,
Nothing but league, and love, and banqueting!
REVENGE Be still Andrea, ere we go from hence,
I’ll turn their friendship into fell despite,
Their love to mortal hate, their day to night,
Their hope into despair, their peace to war,
Their joys to pain, their bliss to misery.
Enter LORENZO and BALTHAZAR
LORENZO My lord, though Bel-imperia seem thus coy,
Let reason hold you in your wonted joy:
’In time the savage bull sustains the yoke,
In time all haggard hawks will stoop to lure,
In time small wedges cleave the hardest oak,
In time the flint is pierced with softest shower’—
And she in time will fall from her disdain,
And rue the sufferance of your friendly pain.
BALTHAZAR ’No, she is wilder, and more hard withal,
Than beast, or bird, or tree, or stony wall.’ 10
But wherefore blot I Bel-imperia’s name?
It is my fault, not she, that merits blame.
My feature is not to content her sight,
My words are rude and work her no delight.
The lines I send her are but harsh and ill,
Such as do drop from Pan and Marsyas’ quill.
My presents are not of sufficient cost,
And being worthless all my labour’s lost.
Yet might she love me for my valiancy;
Ay, but that’s slandered by captivity. 20
Yet might she love me to content her sire;
Ay, but her reason masters his desire.
Yet might she love me as her brother’s friend;
Ay, but her hopes aim at some other end.
Yet might she love me to uprear her state;
Ay, but perhaps she hopes some nobler mate.
Yet might she love me as her beauty’s thrall;
Ay, but I fear she cannot love at all.
LORENZO My lord, for my sake leave these ecstasies,
And doubt not but we’ll find some remedy. 30
Some cause there is that lets you not be loved:
First that must needs be known, and then removed.
What if my sister love some other knight?
BALTHAZAR My summer’s day will turn to winter’s night.
LORENZO I have already found a stratagem,
To sound the bottom of this doubtful theme.
My lord, for once you shall be ruled by me:
Hinder me not whate’er you hear or see.
By force or fair means will I cast about
To find the truth of all this question out. 40
Ho, Pedringano!
PEDRINGANO (Within) Signior!
LORENZO Vien qui presto.
Enter PEDRINGANO
PEDRINGANO Hath your lordship any service to command me?
LORENZO Ay, Pedringano, service of import.
And not to spend the time in trifling words,
Thus stands the case: it is not long thou know’st,
Since I did shield thee from my father’s wrath,
For thy conveyance in Andrea’s love,
For which thou wert adjudged to punishment.
I stood betwixt thee and thy punishment;
And since, thou know’st how I have favoured thee. 50
Now to these favours will I add reward,
Not with fair words, but store of golden coin,
And lands and living joined with dignities,
If thou but satisfy my just demand.
Tell truth and have me for thy lasting friend.
PEDRINGANO Whate’er it be your lordship shall demand,
My bounden duty bids me tell the truth,
If case it lie in me to tell the truth.
LORENZO Then, Pedringano, this is my demand:
Whom loves my sister Bel-imperia? 60
For she reposeth all her trust in thee:
Speak man, and gain both friendship and reward:
I mean, whom loves she in Andrea’s place?
PEDRINGANO Alas, my lord, since Don Andrea’s death,
I have no credit with her as before,
And therefore know not if she love or no.
LORENZO Nay, if thou dally then I am thy foe,
Draws his sword
And fear shall force what friendship cannot win.
Thy death shall bury what thy life conceals.
Thou diest for more esteeming her than me. 70
PEDRINGANO O, stay, my lord!
LORENZO Yet speak the truth and I will guerdon thee,
And shield thee from whatever can ensue,
And will conceal whate’er proceeds from thee:
But if thou dally once again, thou diest.
PEDRINGANO If Madam Bel-imperia be in love—
LORENZO What, villain, ifs and ands?
Offers to kill him
PEDRINGANO O stay my lord, she loves Horatio.
BALTHAZAR starts back
LORENZO What, Don Horatio our Knight Marshal’s son?
PEDRINGANO Even him my lord.80
LORENZO Now say but how know’st thou he is her love;
And thou shalt find me kind and liberal:
Stand up, I say, and fearless tell the truth.
PEDRINGANO She sent him letters which myself perused,
Full-fraught with lines and arguments of love
Preferring him before Prince Balthazar.
LORENZO Swear on this cross that what thou say’st is true,
And that thou wilt conceal what thou hast told.
PEDRINGANO I swear to both by him that made us all.
LORENZO In hope thine oath is true, here’s thy reward,
But if I prove thee perjured and unjust, 91
This very sword whereon thou took’st thine oath,
Shall be the worker of thy tragedy.
PEDRINGANO What I have said is true, and shall for me
Be still concealed from Bel-imperia.
Besides, your honour’s liberality
Deserves my duteous service even till death.
LORENZO Let this be all that thou shalt do for me:
Be watchful when, and where, these lovers meet,
And give me notice in some secret sort. 100
PEDRINGANO I will my lord.
LORENZO Then shalt thou find that I am liberal.
Thou know’st that I can more advance thy state
Than she, be therefore wise and fail me not.
Go and attend her as thy custom is,
Lest absence make her think thou dost amiss.
Exit PEDRINGANO
Why so: tam armis quam ingenio:
Where words prevail not, violence prevails;
But gold doth more than either of them both.
How likes Prince Balthazar this stratagem? 110
BALTHAZAR Both well, and ill: it makes me glad and sad:
Glad, that I know the hinderer of my love,
Sad, that I fear she hates me whom I love.
Glad, that I know on whom to be revenged,
Sad, that she’ll fly me if I take revenge.
Yet must I take revenge or die myself,
For love resisted grows impatient.
I think Horatio be my destined plague:
First, in his hand he brandished a sword,
And with that sword he fiercely waged war, 120
And in that war he gave me dangerous wounds,
And by those wounds he forced me to yield,
And by my yielding I became his slave.
Now in his mouth he carries pleasing words,
Which pleasing words do harbour sweet conceits,
Which sweet conceits are limed with sly deceits,
Which sly deceits smooth Bel-imperia’s ears,
And through her ears dive down into her heart,
And in her heart set him where I should stand.
Thus hath he ta’en my body by his force, 130
And now by sleight would captivate my soul:
But in his fall I’ll tempt the destinies,
And either lose my life, or win my love.
LORENZO Let’s go, my lord, your staying stays revenge.
Do you but follow me and gain your love:
Her favour must be won by his remove.
Exeunt
Enter HORATIO and BEL-IMPERIA
HORATIO Now, madam, since by favour of your love
Our hidden smoke is turned to open flame,
And that with looks and words we feed our thoughts
(Two chief contents, where more cannot be had),
Thus in the midst of love’s fair blandishments,
Why show you sign of inward languishments?
PEDRINGANO showeth all to the PRINCE and LORENZO,
placing them in secret above
BEL-IMPERIA My heart, sweet friend, is like a ship at sea:
She wisheth port, where riding all at ease,
She may repair what stormy times have worn,
And leaning on the shore, may sing with joy 10
That pleasure follows pain, and bliss annoy.
Possession of thy love is th’only port,
Wherein my heart, with fears and hopes long tossed,
Each hour doth wish and long to make resort;
There to repair the joys that it hath lost,
And sitting safe, to sing in Cupid’s choir
That sweetest bliss is crown of love’s desire.
BALTHAZAR O sleep mine eyes, see not my love profaned;
Be deaf, my ears, hear not my discontent;
Die, heart, another joys what thou deservest. 20
LORENZO Watch still mine eyes, to see this love disjoined;
Hear still mine ears, to hear them both lament;
Live, heart, to joy at fond Horatio’s fall.
BEL-IMPERIA Why stands Horatio speechless all this while?
HORATIO The less I speak, the more I meditate.
BEL-IMPERIA But whereon dost thou chiefly meditate?
HORATIO On dangers past, and pleasures to ensue.
BALTHAZAR On pleasures past, and dangers to ensue.
BEL-IMPERIA What dangers and what pleasures dost thou mean?
HORATIO Dangers of war and pleasures of our love. 30
LORENZO Dangers of death, but pleasures none at all.
BEL-IMPERIA Let dangers go, thy war shall be with me,
But such a war as breaks no bond of peace.
Speak thou fair words, I’ll cross them with fair words;
Send thou sweet looks, I’ll meet them with sweet looks;
Write loving lines, I’ll answer loving lines;
Give me a kiss, I’ll countercheck thy kiss:
Be this our warring peace, or peaceful war.
HORATIO But gracious madam, then appoint the field
Where trial of this war shall first be made. 40
BALTHAZAR Ambitious villain, how his boldness grows!
BEL-IMPERIA Then be thy father’s pleasant bower the field,
Where first we vowed a mutual amity:
The court were dangerous, that place is safe.
Our hour shall be when Vesper gins to rise,
That summons home distressful travellers.
There none shall hear us but the harmless birds:
Happily the gentle nightingale
Shall carol us asleep ere we be ware,
And singing with the prickle at her breast, 50
Tell our delight and mirthful dalliance.
Till then each hour will seem a year and more.
HORATIO But, honey sweet, and honourable love,
Return we now into your father’s sight:
Dangerous suspicion waits on our delight.
LORENZO Ay, danger mixed with jealious despite
Shall send thy soul into eternal night.
Exeunt
Enter KING OF SPAIN, PORTINGALE, AMBASSADOR, DON CYPRIAN, etc.
KING Brother of Castile, to the prince’s love
What says your daughter Bel-imperia?
CASTILE Although she coy it as becomes her kind,
And yet dissemble that she loves the prince,
I doubt not, I, but she will stoop in time.
And were she froward, which she will not be,
Yet herein shall she follow my advice,
Which is to love him or forgo my love.
KING Then, Lord Ambassador of Portingale,
Advise thy king to make this marriage up, 10
For strengthening of our late-confirmed league;
I know no better means to make us friends.
Her dowry shall be large and liberal:
Besides that she is daughter and half-heir
Unto our brother here, Don Cyprian,
And shall enjoy the moiety of his land,
I’ll grace her marriage with an uncle’s gift.
And this it is: in case the match go forward,
The tribute which you pay shall be released,
And if by Balthazar she have a son, 20
He shall enjoy the kingdom after us.
AMBASSADOR I’ll make the motion to my sovereign liege,
And work it if my counsel may prevail.
KING Do so, my lord, and if he give consent,
I hope his presence here will honour us
In celebration of the nuptial day:
And let himself determine of the time.
AMBASSADOR Will’t please your grace command me aught beside?
KING Commend me to the king, and so farewell.
But where’s Prince Balthazar to take his leave? 30
AMBASSADOR That is performed already, my good lord.
KING Amongst the rest of what you have in charge,
The prince’s ransom must not be forgot;
That’s none of mine, but his that took him prisoner,
And well his forwardness deserves reward:
It was Horatio, our Knight Marshal’s son.
AMBASSADOR Between us there’s a price already pitched,
And shall be sent with all convenient speed.
KING Then once again farewell, my lord. 39
AMBASSADOR Farewell, my Lord of Castile and the rest.
Exit
KING Now, brother, you must take some little pains
To win fair Bel-imperia from her will:
Young virgins must be ruled by their friends.
The prince is amiable, and loves her well,
If she neglect him and forgo his love,
She both will wrong her own estate and ours.
Therefore, whiles I do entertain the prince
With greatest pleasure that our court affords,
Endeavour you to win your daughter’s thought:
If she give back, all this will come to naught. 50
Exeunt
Enter HORATIO, BEL-IMPERIA, and PEDRINGANO
HORATIO Now that the night begins with sable wings
To overcloud the brightness of the sun,
And that in darkness pleasures may be done,
Come Bel-imperia, let us to the bower,
And there in safety pass a pleasant hour.
BEL-IMPERIA I follow thee my love, and will not back,
Although my fainting heart controls my soul.
HORATIO Why, make you doubt of Pedringano’s faith?
BEL-IMPERIA No, he is as trusty as my second self.
Go Pedringano, watch without the gate, 10
And let us know if any make approach.
PEDRINGANO (Aside) Instead of watching, I’ll deserve more gold
By fetching Don Lorenzo to this match.
Exit PEDRINGANO
HORATIO What means my love?
BEL-IMPERIA I know not what myself.
And yet my heart foretells me some mischance.
HORATIO Sweet say not so, fair fortune is our friend,
And heavens have shut up day to pleasure us.
The stars thou see’st hold back their twinkling shine,
And Luna hides herself to pleasure us.
BEL-IMPERIA Thou hast prevailed, I’ll conquer my misdoubt, 20
And in thy love and counsel drown my fear.
I fear no more, love now is all my thoughts.
Why sit we not? For pleasure asketh ease.
HORATIO The more thou sit’st within these leafy bowers,
The more will Flora deck it with her flowers.
BEL-IMPERIA Ay, but if Flora spy Horatio here,
Her jealous eye will think I sit too near.
HORATIO Hark, madam, how the birds record by night,
For joy that Bel-imperia sits in sight.
BEL-IMPERIA No, Cupid counterfeits the nightingale, 30
To frame sweet music to Horatio’s tale.
HORATIO If Cupid sing, then Venus is not far:
Ay, thou art Venus or some fairer star.
BEL-IMPERIA If I be Venus thou must needs be Mars,
And where Mars reigneth, there must needs be wars.
HORATIO Then thus begin our wars: put forth thy hand,
That it may combat with my ruder hand.
BEL-IMPERIA Set forth thy foot to try the push of mine.
HORATIO But first my looks shall combat against thine.
BEL-IMPERIA Then ward thyself: I dart this kiss at thee. 40
HORATIO Thus I retort the dart thou threw’st at me.
BEL-IMPERIA Nay then, to gain the glory of the field,
My twining arms shall yoke and make thee yield.
HORATIO Nay then, my arms are large and strong withal:
Thus elms by vines are compassed till they fall.
BEL-IMPERIA O let me go, for in my troubled eyes
Now may’st thou read that life in passion dies.
HORATIO O stay a while and I will die with thee,
So shalt thou yield and yet have conquered me.
BEL-IMPERIA Who’s there? Pedringano! We are betrayed! 50
Enter LORENZO, BALTHAZAR, SERBERINE, PEDRINGANO, disguised
LORENZO My lord, away with her, take her aside.
O sir, forbear, your valour is already tried.
Quickly despatch, my masters.
They hang him in the arbour
HORATIO What, will you murder me?
LORENZO Ay, thus, and thus; these are the fruits of love.
They stab him
BEL-IMPERIA O save his life and let me die for him!
O save him, brother, save him, Balthazar:
I loved Horatio, but he loved not me.
BALTHAZAR But Balthazar loves Bel-imperia. 59
LORENZO Although his life were still ambitious proud,
Yet is he at the highest now he is dead.
BEL-IMPERIA Murder! Murder! Help, Hieronimo, help!
LORENZO Come, stop her mouth, away with her.
Exeunt, leaving HORATIO’s body
Enter HIERONIMO in his shirt, etc.
HIERONIMO What outcries pluck me from my naked bed,
And chill my throbbing heart with trembling fear,
Which never danger yet could daunt before?
Who calls Hieronimo? Speak, here I am.
I did not slumber, therefore ‘twas no dream,
No, no, it was some woman cried for help,
And here within this garden did she cry,
And in this garden must I rescue her.
But stay, what murderous spectacle is this?
A man hanged up and all the murderers gone, 10
And in my bower, to lay the guilt on me.
This place was made for pleasure not for death.
He cuts him down
Those garments that he wears I oft have seen—
Alas, it is Horatio, my sweet son!
Oh no, but he that whilom was my son.
O was it thou that calledst me from my bed?
O speak, if any spark of life remain:
I am thy father. Who hath slain my son?
What savage monster, not of human kind,
Hath here been glutted with thy harmless blood, 20
And left thy bloody corpse dishonoured here,
For me, amidst this dark and deathful shades,
To drown thee with an ocean of my tears?
O heavens, why made you night to cover sin?
By day this deed of darkness had not been.
O earth, why didst thou not in time devour
The vild profaner of this sacred bower?
O poor Horatio, what hadst thou misdone,
To leese thy life ere life was new begun?
O wicked butcher, whatsoe’er thou wert, 30
How could thou strangle virtue and desert?
Ay me most wretched, that have lost my joy,
In leesing my Horatio, my sweet boy!
Enter ISABELLA
ISABELLA My husband’s absence makes my heart to throb—
Hieronimo!
HIERONIMO Here, Isabella, help me to lament,
For sighs are stopped and all my tears are spent.
ISABELLA What world of grief! My son Horatio!
O where’s the author of this endless woe?
HIERONIMO To know the author were some ease of grief, 40
For in revenge my heart would find relief.
ISABELLA Then is he gone? And is my son gone too?
O, gush out, tears, fountains and floods of tears;
Blow, sighs, and raise an everlasting storm:
For outrage fits our cursed wretchedness.
HIERONIMO Sweet lovely rose, ill plucked before thy time,
Fair worthy son, not conquered, but betrayed:
I’ll kiss thee now, for words with tears are stayed.
ISABELLA And I’ll close up the glasses of his sight,
For once these eyes were only my delight. 50
HIERONIMO See’st thou this handkercher besmeared with blood?
It shall not from me till I take revenge.
See’st thou those wounds that yet are bleeding fresh?
I’ll not entomb them till I have revenged.
Then will I joy amidst my discontent,
Till then my sorrow never shall be spent.
ISABELLA The heavens are just, murder cannot be hid:
Time is the author both of truth and right,
And time will bring this treachery to light.
HIERONIMO Meanwhile, good Isabella, cease thy plaints, 60
Or at the least dissemble them awhile:
So shall we sooner find the practice out,
And learn by whom all this was brought about.
Come Isabel, now let us take him up,
They take him up
And bear him in from out this cursed place.
I’ll say his dirge, singing fits not this case.
O aliquis mihi quas pulchrum ver educat herbas
HIERONIMO
sets his breast unto his sword
Misceat, et nostro detur medicina dolori;
Aut, si qui faciunt animis oblivia, succos
Praebeat; ipse metam magnum quaecunque per orbem 70
Gramina Sol pulchras effert in luminis oras;
Ipse bibam quicquid meditatur saga veneni,
Quicquid et herbarum vi caeca nenia nectit:
Omnia perpetiar, lethum quoque, dum semel omnis
Noster in extincto moriatur pectore sensus.
Ergo tuos oculos nunquam, mea vita, videbo,
Et tua perpetuus sepelivit lumina somnus?
Emoriar tecum: sic, sic juvat ire sub umbras.
At tamen absistam properato cedere letho,
Ne mortem vindicta tuam tum nulla sequatur. 80
Here he throws it from him and bears the body away
ANDREA Brought’st thou me hither to increase my pain?
I looked that Balthazar should have been slain;
But ’tis my friend Horatio that is slain,
And they abuse fair Bel-imperia,
On whom I doted more than all the world,
Because she loved me more than all the world.
REVENGE Thou talk’st of harvest when the com is green:
The end is crown of every work well done;
The sickle comes not till the com be ripe.
Be still, and ere I lead thee from this place, 10
I’ll show thee Balthazar in heavy case.
Enter VICEROY OF PORTINGALE, Nobles, VILLUPPO
VICEROY Infortunate condition of kings,
Seated amidst so many helpless doubts!
First we are placed upon extremest height,
And oft supplanted with exceeding heat,
But ever subject to the wheel of chance;
And at our highest never joy we so,
As we both doubt and dread our overthrow.
So striveth not the waves with sundry winds
As Fortune toileth in the affairs of kings,
That would be feared, yet fear to be beloved, 10
Sith fear or love to kings is flattery.
For instance, Lordings, look upon your king,
By hate deprived of his dearest son,
The only hope of our successive line.
I NOBLEMAN I had not thought that Alexandra’s heart
Had been envenomed with such extreme hate:
But now I see that words have several works,
And there’s no credit in the countenance.
VILLUPPO No, for, my lord, had you beheld the train
That feigned love had coloured in his looks, 20
When he in camp consorted Balthazar,
Far more inconstant had you thought the sun,
That hourly coasts the centre of the earth,
Than Alexandro’s purpose to the prince.
VICEROY No more, Villuppo, thou hast said enough,
And with thy words thou slay’st our wounded thoughts.
Nor shall I longer dally with the world,
Procrastinating Alexandro’s death:
Go some of you and fetch the traitor forth,
That as he is condemned he may die. 30
Enter ALEXANDRO with a Nobleman and Halberts
2 NOBLEMAN In such extremes will naught but patience serve.
ALEXANDRO But in extremes what patience shall I use?
Nor discontents it me to leave the world
With whom there nothing can prevail but wrong.
2 NOBLEMAN Yet hope the best.
ALEXANDRO ’Tis Heaven is my hope.
As for the earth, it is too much infect
To yield me hope of any of her mould.
VICEROY Why linger ye? Bring forth that daring fiend,
And let him die for his accursed deed.
ALEXANDRO Not that I fear the extremity of death, 40
For nobles cannot stoop to servile fear,
Do I, O king, thus discontented live.
But this, O this, torments my labouring soul,
That thus I die suspected of a sin,
Whereof, as heavens have known my secret thoughts,
So am I free from this suggestion.
VICEROY No more, I say! To the tortures! When!
Bind him, and bum his body in those flames,
They bind him to the stake
That shall prefigure those unquenched fires
Of Phlegethon prepared for his soul. 50
ALEXANDRO My guildess death will be avenged on thee,
On thee, Villuppo, that hath maliced thus,
Or for thy meed hast falsely me accused.
VILLUPPO Nay, Alexandro, if thou menace me,
I’ll lend a hand to send thee to the lake
Where those thy words shall perish with thy works,
Injurious traitor, monstrous homicide!
Enter AMBASSADOR
AMBASSADOR Stay, hold a while,
And here, with pardon of his majesty,
Lay hands upon Villuppo.
VICEROY Ambassador, 60
What news hath urged this sudden entrance?
AMBASSADOR Know, sovereign lord, that Balthazar doth live.
VICEROY What say’st thou? Liveth Balthazar our son?
AMBASSADOR Your highness’ son, Lord Balthazar, doth live;
And, well entreated in the court of Spain,
Humbly commends him to your majesty.
These eyes beheld, and these my followers;
With these, the letters of the king’s commends,
Gives him letters
Are happy witnesses of his highness’ health.
The VICEROY looks on the letters, and proceeds
VICEROY (Reads) ‘Thy son doth live, your tribute is received, 70
Thy peace is made, and we are satisfied.
The rest resolve upon as things proposed
For both our honours and thy benefit.’
AMBASSADOR These are his highness’ farther articles.
He gives him more letters
VICEROY Accursed wretch, to intimate these ills
Against the life and reputation
Of noble Alexandra! Come, my lord,
Let him unbind thee that is bound to death,
To make a quital for thy discontent.
They unbind him
ALEXANDRO Dread lord, in kindness you could do no less, 80
Upon report of such a damned fact.
But thus we see our innocence hath saved
The hopeless life which thou, Villuppo, sought
By thy suggestions to have massacred.
VICEROY Say, false Villuppo, wherefore didst thou thus
Falsely betray Lord Alexandra’s life?
Him, whom thou knowest that no unkindness else,
But even the slaughter of our dearest son,
Could once have moved us to have misconceived.
ALEXANDRO Say, treacherous Villuppo, tell the king, 90
Wherein hath Alexandro used thee ill?
VILLUPPO Rent with remembrance of so foul a deed,
My guilty soul submits me to thy doom:
For, not for Alexandra’s injuries,
But for reward and hope to be preferred,
Thus have I shamelessly hazarded his life.
VICEROY Which, villain, shall be ransomed with thy death,
And not so mean a torment as we here
Devised for him who thou said’st slew our son,
But with the bitterest torments and extremes 100
That may be yet invented for thine end.
Alexandro seems to entreat
Entreat me not, go, take the traitor hence.
Exit VILLUPPO guarded
And, Alexandra, let us honour thee
With public notice of thy loyalty.
To end those things articulated here
By our great lord, the mighty King of Spain,
We with our Council will deliberate.
Come, Alexandra, keep us company.
Exeunt
Enter HIERONIMO
HIERONIMO O eyes, no eyes, but fountains fraught with tears;
O life, no life, but lively form of death;
O world, no world, but mass of public wrongs,
Confused and filled with murder and misdeeds!
O sacred heavens! If this unhallowed deed,
If this inhuman and barbarous attempt,
If this incomparable murder thus
Of mine, but now no more my son,
Shall unrevealed and unrevenged pass,
How should we term your dealings to be just, 10
If you unjustly deal with those that in your justice trust?
The night, sad secretary to my moans,
With direful visions wake my vexed soul,
And with the wounds of my distressful son
Solicit me for notice of his death.
The ugly fiends do sally forth of hell,
And frame my steps to unfrequented paths,
And fear my heart with fierce inflamed thoughts.
The cloudy day my discontents records,
Early begins to register my dreams 20
And drive me forth to seek the murderer.
Eyes, life, world, heavens, hell, night, and day,
See, search, show, send some man, some mean, that may—
What’s here? A letter? Tush, it is not so!
A letter written to Hieronimo!
Red ink
(Reads) ‘For want of ink, receive this bloody writ.
Me hath my hapless brother hid from thee:
Revenge thyself on Balthazar and him,
For these were they that murderèd thy son.
Hieronimo, revenge Horatio’s death, 30
And better fare than Bel-imperia doth.’
What means this unexpected miracle?
My son slain by Lorenzo and the prince!
What cause had they Horatio to malign?
Or what might move thee, Bel-imperia,
To accuse thy brother, had he been the mean?
Hieronimo, beware, thou art betrayed,
And to entrap thy life this train is laid.
Advise thee therefore, be not credulous:
This is devised to endanger thee, 40
That thou by this Lorenzo shouldst accuse,
And he, for thy dishonour done, should draw
Thy life in question, and thy name in hate.
Dear was the life of my beloved son,
And of his death behoves me be revenged:
Then hazard not thine own, Hieronimo,
But live t’effect thy resolution.
I therefore will by circumstances try
What I can gather to confirm this writ,
And, hearkening near the Duke of Castile’s house, 50
Close if I can with Bel-imperia,
To listen more, but nothing to bewray.
Enter PEDRINGANO
Now Pedringano!
PEDRINGANO Now, Hieronimo!
HIERONIMO Where’s thy lady?
PEDRINGANO I know not; here’s my lord.
Enter LORENZO
LORENZO How now, who’s this? Hieronimo?
HIERONIMO My lord.
PEDRINGANO He asketh for my lady Bel-imperia.
LORENZO What to do, Hieronimo? The duke my father hath
Upon some disgrace awhile removed her hence;
But if it be aught I may inform her of,
Tell me, Hieronimo, and I’ll let her know it. 60
HIERONIMO Nay, nay, my lord, I thank you, it shall not need.
I had a suit unto her, but too late,
And her disgrace makes me unfortunate.
LORENZO Why so, Hieronimo? Use me.
HIERONIMO O no, my lord, I dare not, it must not be,
I humbly thank your lordship.
LORENZO Why then, farewell.
HIERONIMO My grief no heart, my thoughts no tongue can tell.
Exit
LORENZO Come hither, Pedringano, see’st thou this?
PEDRINGANO My lord, I see it, and suspect it too.
LORENZO This is that damned villain Serberine, 70
That hath, I fear, revealed Horatio’s death.
PEDRINGANO My lord, he could not, ‘twas so lately done;
And since, he hath not left my company.
LORENZO Admit he have not, his condition’s such,
As fear or flattering words may make him false.
I know his humour, and therewith repent
That e’er I used him in this enterprise.
But Pedringano, to prevent the worst,
And ‘cause I know thee secret as my soul,
Here ‘for thy further satisfaction, take thou this, 80
Gives him more gold
And hearken to me. Thus it is devised:
This night thou must, and prithee so resolve,
Meet Serberine at Saint Luigi’s Park—
Thou know’st ’tis here hard by behind the house.
There take thy stand, and see thou strike him sure,
For die he must if we do mean to live.
PEDRINGANO But how shall Serberine be there, my lord?
LORENZO Let me alone, I’ll send to him to meet
The prince and me, where thou must do this deed. 89
PEDRINGANO It shall be done, my lord, it shall be done,
And I’ll go arm myself to meet him there.
LORENZO When things shall alter, as I hope they will,
Then shalt thou mount for this: thou know’st my mind.
Exit PEDRINGANO
Enter PAGE
PAGE My lord?
LORENZO Go, sirrah, to Serberine,
And bid him forthwith meet the prince and me
At Saint Luigi’s Park, behind the house.
This evening, boy!
PAGE I go, my lord.
LORENZO But, sirrah, let the hour be eight o’clock.
Bid him not fail.
PAGE I fly, my lord.
Exit
LORENZO Now to confirm the complot thou hast cast
Of all these practices, I’ll spread the watch, 101
Upon precise commandment from the king,
Strongly to guard the place where Pedringano
This night shall murder hapless Serberine.
Thus must we work that will avoid distrust,
Thus must we practise to prevent mishap,
And thus one ill another must expulse.
This sly enquiry of Hieronimo
For Bel-imperia breeds suspicion,
And this suspicion bodes a further ill. 110
As for myself, I know my secret fault;
And so do they, but I have dealt for them.
They that for coin their souls endangered,
To save my life, for coin shall venture theirs:
And better it’s that base companions die,
Than by their life to hazard our good haps.
Nor shall they live, for me to fear their faith:
I’ll trust myself, myself shall be my friend,
For die they shall, slaves are ordained to no other end.
Exit
Enter PEDRINGANO with a pistol
PEDRINGANO Now, Pedringano, bid thy pistol hold;
And hold on, Fortune! Once more favour me;
Give but success to mine attempting spirit,
And let me shift for taking of mine aim!
Here is the gold, this is the gold proposed:
It is no dream that I adventure for,
But Pedringano is possessed thereof.
And he that would not strain his conscience
For him that thus his liberal purse hath stretched,
Unworthy such a favour may he fail, 10
And, wishing, want, when such as I prevail.
As for the fear of apprehension,
I know, if need should be, my noble lord
Will stand between me and ensuing harms;
Besides, this place is free from all suspect.
Here therefore will I stay and take my stand.
Enter the WATCH
1 WATCH I wonder much to what intent it is
That we are thus expressly charged to watch.
2 WATCH Tis by commandment in the king’s own name. 19
3 WATCH But we were never wont to watch and ward
So near the duke his brother’s house before.
2 WATCH Content yourself, stand close, there’s somewhat in’t.
Enter SERBERINE
SERBERINE Here, Serberine, attend and stay thy pace,
For here did Don Lorenzo’s page appoint
That thou by his command shouldst meet with him.
How fit a place, if one were so disposed,
Methinks this corner is, to close with one.
PEDRINGANO Here comes the bird that I must seize upon;
Now, Pedringano, or never, play the man!
SERBERINE I wonder that his lordship stays so long, 30
Or wherefore should he send for me so late?
PEDRINGANO For this, Serberine, and thou shalt ha’t.
Shoots the dag
So, there he lies, my promise is performed.
The WATCH coming forward
1 WATCH Hark gentlemen, this is a pistol shot.
2 WATCH And here’s one slain; stay the murderer.
PEDRINGANO Now by the sorrows of the souls in hell,
He strives with the WATCH
Who first lays hand on me, I’ll be his priest.
3 WATCH Sirrah, confess, and therein play the priest;
Why hast thou thus unkindly killed the man? 39
PEDRINGANO Why? Because he walked abroad so late.
3 WATCH Come sir, you had been better kept your bed,
Than have committed this misdeed so late.
3 WATCH Come, to the Marshal’s with the murderer!
1 WATCH On to Hieronimo’s! Help me here
To bring the murdered body with us too.
PEDRINGANO Hieronimo? Carry me before whom you will,
Whate’er he be I’ll answer him and you.
And do your worst, for I defy you all.
Exeunt
Enter LORENZO and BALTHAZAR
BALTHAZAR How now, my lord, what makes you rise so soon?
LORENZO Fear of preventing our mishaps too late.
BALTHAZAR What mischief is it that we not mistrust?
LORENZO Our greatest ills we least mistrust, my lord,
And inexpected harms do hurt us most.
BALTHAZAR Why tell me Don Lorenzo, tell me man,
If aught concerns our honour and your own.
LORENZO Nor you nor me, my lord, but both in one;
For I suspect, and the presumption’s great,
That by those base confederates in our fault 10
Touching the death of Don Horatio,
We are betrayed to old Hieronimo.
BALTHAZAR Betrayed, Lorenzo? Tush, it cannot be.
LORENZO A guilty conscience, urged with the thought
Of former evils, easily cannot err:
I am persuaded, and dissuade me not,
That all’s revealed to Hieronimo.
And therefore know that I have cast it thus—
Enter PAGE
But here’s the page. How now, what news with thee?
PAGE My lord, Serberine is slain. 20
BALTHAZAR Who? Serberine, my man?
PAGE Your highness’ man, my lord.
LORENZO Speak page, who murdered him?
PAGE He that is apprehended for the fact.
LORENZO Who?
PAGE Pedringano.
BALTHAZAR Is Serberine slain, that loved his lord so well?
Injurious villain, murderer of his friend!
LORENZO Hath Pedringano murdered Serberine?
My lord, let me entreat you to take the pains 30
To exasperate and hasten his revenge
With your complaints unto my lord the king.
This their dissension breeds a greater doubt.
BALTHAZAR Assure thee, Don Lorenzo, he shall die,
Or else his highness hardly shall deny.
Meanwhile I’ll haste the Marshal-Sessions,
For die he shall for this his damned deed.
Exit BALTHAZAR
LORENZO Why so, this fits our former policy,
And thus experience bids the wise to deal:
I lay the plot, he prosecutes the point; 40
I set the trap, he breaks the worthless twigs,
And sees not that wherewith the bird was limed.
Thus hopeful men, that mean to hold their own,
Must look like fowlers to their dearest friends.
He runs to kill whom I have holp to catch,
And no man knows it was my reaching fatch.
Tis hard to trust unto a multitude,
Or anyone, in mine opinion,
When men themselves their secrets will reveal.
Enter a MESSENGER with a letter
Boy! 50
PAGE Mylord?
LORENZO What’s he?
MESSENGER I have a letter to your lordship.
LORENZO From whence?
MESSENGER From Pedringano that’s imprisoned.
LORENZO So he is in prison then?
MESSENGER Ay, my good lord.
LORENZO What would he with us? He writes us here
To stand good lord and help him in distress.
Tell him I have his letters, know his mind,
And what we may, let him assure him of.
Fellow, begone: my boy shall follow thee.
Exit MESSENGER
This works like wax; yet once more try thy wits. 60
Boy, go convey this purse to Pedringano,
Thou knowest the prison, closely give it him,
And be advised that none be there about.
Bid him be merry still, but secret;
And though the Marshal-Sessions be today,
Bid him not doubt of his delivery.
Tell him his pardon is already signed,
And thereon bid him boldly be resolved;
For, were he ready to be turned off
(As ’tis my will the uttermost be tried) 70
Thou with his pardon shalt attend him still.
Show him this box, tell him his pardon’s in’t,
But open’t not, and if thou lov’st thy life,
But let him wisely keep his hopes unknown;
He shall not want while Don Lorenzo lives.
Away!
PAGE I go my lord, I run.
LORENZO But sirrah, see that this be cleanly done.
Exit PAGE
Now stands our fortune on a tickle point,
And now or never ends Lorenzo’s doubts.
One only thing is uneffected yet, 80
And that’s to see the executioner.
But to what end? I list not trust the air
With utterance of our pretence therein,
For fear the privy whispering of the wind
Convey our words amongst unfriendly ears,
That lie too open to advantages.
E quel che voglio io, nessun lo sa,
Intendo io: que! mi basterà.
Exit
Enter BOY with the box
PAGE My master hath forbidden me to look in this box, and by my troth ’tis likely, if he had not warned me, I should not have had so much idle time; for we men’s-kind in our minority are like women in their uncertainty: that they are most forbidden, they will soonest attempt. So I now. By my bare honesty, here’s nothing but the bare empty box. Were it not sin against secrecy, I would say it were a piece of gentleman-like knavery. I must go to Pedringano, and tell him his pardon is in this box; nay, I would have sworn it, had I not seen the contrary. I cannot choose but smile to think how the villain will flout the gallows, scorn the audience, and descant on the hangman, and all presuming of his pardon from hence. Will’t not be an odd jest, for me to stand and grace every jest he makes, pointing my finger at this box, as who would say, ‘mock on, here’s thy warrant.’ Is’t not a scurvy jest, that a man should jest himself to death? Alas, poor Pedringano, I am in a sort sorry for thee, but if I should be hanged with thee, I cannot weep. 21
Exit
Enter HIERONIMO and the DEPUTY
HIERONIMO Thus must we toil in other men’s extremes,
That know not how to remedy our own;
And do them justice, when unjustly we,
For all our wrongs, can compass no redress.
But shall I never live to see the day
That I may come, by justice of the heavens,
To know the cause that may my cares allay?
This toils my body, this consumeth age,
That only I to all men just must be,
And neither gods nor men be just to me. 10
DEPUTY Worthy Hieronimo, your office asks
A care to punish such as do transgress.
HIERONIMO So is’t my duty to regard his death
Who, when he lived, deserved my dearest blood.
But come, for that we came for, let’s begin,
For here lies that which bids me to be gone.
Enter OFFICERS, BOY, and PEDRINGANO, with a letter in his hand, bound
DEPUTY Bring forth the prisoner, for the court is set.
PEDRINGANO Gramercy, boy, but it was time to come;
For I had written to my lord anew
A nearer matter that concemeth him, 20
For fear his lordship had forgotten me.
But sith he hath remembered me so well—
Come, come, come on, when shall we to this gear?
HIERONIMO Stand forth, thou monster, murderer of men,
And here, for satisfaction of the world,
Confess thy folly and repent thy fault,
For there’s thy place of execution.
PEDRINGANO This is short work! Well, to your marshalship
First I confess, nor fear I death therefore,
I am the man, ‘twas I slew Serberine. 30
But sir, then you think this shall be the place
Where we shall satisfy you for this gear?
DEPUTY Ay, Pedringano.
PEDRINGANO Now I think not so.
HIERONIMO Peace, impudent, for thou shalt find it so:
For blood with blood shall, while I sit as judge,
Be satisfied, and the law discharged.
And though myself cannot receive the like,
Yet will I see that others have their right.
Despatch, the fault’s approved and confessed,
And by our law he is condemned to die. 40
HANGMAN Come on sir, are you ready?
PEDRINGANO To do what, my fine of ficious knave?
HANGMAN To go to this gear.
PEDRINGANO O sir, you are too forward; thou wouldst fain furnish me with a halter, to disfurnish me of my habit. So I should go out of this gear, my raiment, into that gear, the rope. But, hangman, now I spy your knavery, I’ll not change without boot, that’s flat.
HANGMAN Come sir.
PEDRINGANO So then, I must up? 50
HANGMAN No remedy.
PEDRINGANO Yes, but there shall be for my coming down.
HANGMAN Indeed, here’s a remedy for that.
PEDRINGANO How? Be turned off?
HANGMAN Ay, truly; come, are you ready? I pray, sir, despatch, the day goes away.
PEDRINGANO What, do you hang by the hour? If you do, I may chance to break your old custom.
HANGMAN Faith, you have reason, for I am like to break your young neck. 61
PEDRINGANO Dost thou mock me, hangman? Pray
God I be not preserved to break your knave’s pate for this.
HANGMAN Alas, sir, you are a foot too low to reach it, and I hope you will never grow so high while I am in the office.
PEDRINGANO Sirrah, dost see yonder boy with the box in his hand?
HANGMAN What, he that points to it with his finger?
PEDRINGANO Ay, that companion. 71
HANGMAN I know him not, but what of him?
PEDRINGANO Dost thou think to live till his old doublet will make thee a new truss?
HANGMAN Ay, and many a fair year after, to truss up many an honester man than either thou or he.
PEDRINGANO What hath he in his box, as thou think’st?
HANGMAN Faith, I cannot tell, nor I care not greatly.
Methinks you should rather hearken to your soul’s health. 81
PEDRINGANO Why, sirrah hangman, I take it, that that is good for the body is likewise good for the soul; and it may be, in that box is balm for both.
HANGMAN Well, thou art even the merriest piece of man’s flesh that e’er groaned at my office door.
PEDRINGANO Is your roguery become an ‘office’ with a knave’s name?
HANGMAN Ay, and that shall all they witness that see you seal it with a thiefs name. 90
PEDRINGANO I prithee, request this good company to pray with me.
HANGMAN Ay marry sir, this is a good motion; my masters, you see here’s a good fellow.
PEDRINGANO Nay, nay, now I remember me, let them alone till some other time, for now I have no great need.
HIERONIMO I have not seen a wretch so impudent!
O monstrous times, where murder’s set so light; 99
And where the soul that should be shrined in heaven,
Solely delights in interdicted things,
Still wandering in the thorny passages
That intercepts itself of happiness.
Murder, O bloody monster. God forbid
A fault so foul should ‘scape unpunished.
Despatch and see this execution done—
This makes me to remember thee, my son.
Exit HIERONIMO
PEDRINGANO Nay soft, no haste.
DEPUTY Why, wherefore stay you? Have you hope of life? 110
PEDRINGANO Why, ay.
HANGMAN As how?
PEDRINGANO Why, rascal, by my pardon from the king.
HANGMAN Stand you on that? Then you shall off with this.
He turns him off
DEPUTY So, executioner. Convey him hence,
But let his body be unburied:
Let not the earth be choked or infect 119
With that which heaven contemns, and men neglect.
Exeunt
Enter HIERONIMO
HIERONIMO Where shall I run to breathe abroad my woes,
My woes, whose weight hath wearied the earth?
Or mine exclaims, that have surcharged the air
With ceaseless plaints for my deceased son?
The blustering winds, conspiring with my words,
At my lament have moved the leafless trees,
Disrobed the meadows of their flowered green,
Made mountains marsh with spring-tides of my tears,
And broken through the brazen gates of hell.
Yet still tormented is my tortured soul 10
With broken sighs and restless passions,
That winged mount, and hovering in the air,
Beat at the windows of the brightest heavens,
Soliciting for justice and revenge;
But they are placed in those empyreal heights,
Where, counter-mured with walls of diamond,
I find the place impregnable; and they
Resist my woes, and give my words no way.
Enter HANGMAN with a letter
HANGMAN O lord sir, God bless you sir, the man sir,
Petergade sir, he that was so full of merry conceits—
HIERONIMO Well, what of him? 21
HANGMAN O lord sir, he went the wrong way, the fellow had a fair commission to the contrary. Sir, here is his passport I pray you sir, we have done him wrong.
HIERONIMO I warrant thee, give it me.
HANGMAN You will stand between the gallows and me?
HIERONIMO Ay, ay.
HANGMAN I thank your Lord Worship.
Exit HANGMAN
HIERONIMO And yet, though somewhat nearer me concerns, 30
I will, to ease the grief that I sustain,
Take truce with sorrow while I read on this.
’My lord, I writ as mine extremes required,
That you would labour my delivery;
If you neglect, my life is desperate,
And in my death I shall reveal the troth.
You know, my lord, I slew him for your sake;
And as confederate with the prince and you,
Won by rewards and hopeful promises,
I holp to murder Don Horatio too.’ 40
Holp he to murder mine Horatio?
And actors in th’accursed tragedy
Wast thou, Lorenzo, Balthazar and thou,
Of whom my son, my son deserved so well?
What have I heard, what have mine eyes beheld?
O sacred heavens, may it come to pass
That such a monstrous and detested deed,
So closely smothered, and so long concealed,
Shall thus by this be vengèd or revealed!
Now see I what I durst not then suspect, 50
That Ed-imperia’s letter was not feigned.
Nor feigned she, though falsely they have wronged
Both her, myself, Horatio and themselves.
Now may I make compare, ‘twixt hers and this,
Of every accident; I ne’er could find
Till now, and now I feelingly perceive,
They did what heaven unpunished would not leave.
O false Lorenzo, are these thy flattering looks?
Is this the honour that thou didst my son?
And Balthazar, bane to thy soul and me, 60
Was this the ransom he reserved thee for?
Woe to the cause of these constrained wars,
Woe to thy baseness and captivity,
Woe to thy birth, thy body and thy soul,
Thy cursed father, and thy conquered self!
And banned with bitter execrations be
The day and place where he did pity thee!
But wherefore waste I mine unfruitful words,
When naught but blood will satisfy my woes?
I will go plain me to my lord the king, 70
And cry aloud for justice through the court,
Wearing the flints with these my withered feet,
And either purchase justice by entreats
Or tire them all with my revenging threats.
Exit
ISABELLA So that, you say, this herb will purge the eye,
And this the head?
Ah, but none of them will purge the heart:
No there’s no medicine left for my disease,
Nor any physic to recure the dead.
She runs lunatic
Horatio! O, where’s Horatio?
MAID Good madam, affright not thus yourself
With outrage for your son Horatio:
He sleeps in quiet in the Elysian fields.
ISABELLA Why, did I not give you gowns and goodly things, 10
Bought you a whisde and a whipstalk too,
To be revenged on their villainies?
MAID Madam, these humours do torment my soul.
ISABELLA My soul! Poor soul, thou talks of things
Thou know’st not what—my soul hath silver wings,
That mounts me up unto the highest heavens;
To heaven, ay, there sits my Horatio,
Backed with a troop of fiery cherubins,
Dancing about his newly-healed wounds,
Singing sweet hymns and chanting heavenly notes,
Rare harmony to greet his innocence, 21
That died, ay died a mirror in our days.
But say, where shall I find the men, the murderers,
That slew Horatio? Whither shall I run
To find them out that murdered my son?
Exeunt
BEL-IMPERIA at a window
BEL-IMPERIA What means this outrage that is offered me?
Why am I thus sequestered from the court?
No notice? Shall I not know the cause
Of this my secret and suspicious ills?
Accursed brother, unkind murderer,
Why bends thou thus thy mind to martyr me?
Hieronimo, why writ I of thy wrongs,
Or why art thou so slack in thy revenge?
Andrea, O Andrea, that thou sawest
Me for thy friend Horatio handled thus, 10
And him for me thus causeless murdered.
Well, force perforce, I must constrain myself
To patience, and apply me to the time,
Till heaven, as I have hoped shall set me free.
Enter CHRISTOPHIL
CHRISTOPHIL Come, Madam Bel-imperia, this may not be.
Exeunt
Enter LORENZO, BALTHAZAR, and the PAGE
LORENZO Boy, talk no further, thus far things go well.
Thou art assured that thou sawest him dead?
PAGE Or else my lord I live not.
LORENZO That’s enough.
As for his resolution in his end,
Leave that to him with whom he sojourns now.
Here, take my ring and give it Christophil,
And bid him let my sister be enlarged,
And bring her hither straight.
Exit PAGE
This that I did was for a policy
To smooth and keep the murder secret, 10
Which as a nine-days’ wonder being o’erblown,
My gentle sister will I now enlarge.
BALTHAZAR And time, Lorenzo, for my lord the duke,
You heard, enquired for her yester-night.
LORENZO Why, and, my lord, I hope you heard me say
Sufficient reason why she kept away.
But that’s all one. My lord, you love her?
BALTHAZAR Ay.
LORENZO Then in your love beware, deal cunningly,
Salve all suspicions; only soothe me up;
And if she hap to stand on terms with us, 20
As for her sweetheart, and concealment so,
Jest with her gently: under feigned jest
Are things concealed that else would breed unrest.
But here she comes.
Enter BEL-IMPERIA
Now, sister—
BEL-IMPERIA Sister? No!
Thou art no brother, but an enemy,
Else wouldst thou not have used thy sister so:
First, to affright me with thy weapons drawn,
And with extremes abuse my company;
And then to hurry me, like whirlwind’s rage,
Amidst a crew of thy confederates, 30
And clap me up where none might come at me,
Nor I at any, to reveal my wrongs.
What madding fury did possess thy wits?
Or wherein is’t that I offended thee?
LORENZO Advise you better, Bel-imperia,
For I have done you no disparagement;
Unless, by more discretion than deserved,
I sought to save your honour and mine own.
BEL-IMPERIA Mine honour! Why, Lorenzo, wherein is’t
That I neglect my reputation so, 40
As you, or any, need to rescue it?
LORENZO His highness and my father were resolved
To come confer with old Hieronimo,
Concerning certain matters of estate,
That by the viceroy was determined.
BEL-IMPERIA And wherein was mine honour touched in that?
BALTHAZAR Have patience, Bel-imperia; hear the rest.
LORENZO Me next in sight as messenger they sent,
To give him notice that they were so nigh:
Now when I came, consorted with the prince 50
And unexpected, in an arbour there,
Found Bel-imperia with Horatio—
BEL-IMPERIA How then?
LORENZO Why then, remembering that old disgrace,
Which you for Don Andrea had endured,
And now were likely longer to sustain,
By being found so meanly accompanied,
Thought rather, for I knew no readier mean,
To thrust Horatio forth my father’s way. 59
BALTHAZAR And carry you obscurely somewhere else,
Lest that his highness should have found you there.
BEL-IMPERIA Even so, my lord? And you are witness
That this is true which he entreateth of?
You, gentle brother, forged this for my sake,
And you, my lord, were made his instrument:
A work of worth, worthy the noting too!
But what’s the cause that you concealed me since?
LORENZO Your melancholy, sister, since the news
Of your first favourite Don Andrea’s death,
My father’s old wrath hath exasperate. 70
BALTHAZAR And better was’t for you, being in disgrace,
To absent yourself, and give his fury place.
BEL-IMPERIA But why had I no notice of his ire?
LORENZO That were to add more fuel to your fire,
Who burnt like Aetna for Andrea’s loss.
BEL-IMPERIA Hath not my father then enquired for me?
LORENZO Sister, he hath, and thus excused I thee.
He whispereth in her ear
But, Bel-imperia, see the gentle prince;
Look on thy love, behold young Balthazar,
Whose passions by thy presence are increased; So
And in whose melancholy thou may’st see
Thy hate, his love; thy flight, his following thee.
BEL-IMPERIA Brother, you are become an orator—
I know not, I, by what experience—
Too politic for me, past all compare,
Since last I saw you; but content yourself,
The prince is meditating higher things.
BALTHAZAR ’Tis of thy beauty, then, that conquers kings;
Of those thy tresses, Ariadne’s twines,
Wherewith my liberty thou hast surprised; 90
Of that thine ivory front, my sorrow’s map,
Wherein I see no haven to rest my hope.
BEL-IMPERIA To love and fear, and both at once, my lord,
In my conceit, are things of more import
Than women’s wits are to be busied with.
BALTHAZAR ’Tis I that love.
BEL-IMPERIA Whom?
BALTHAZAR Bel-imperia.
BEL-IMPERIA But I that fear.
BALTHAZAR Whom?
BEL-IMPERIA Bel-imperia.
LORENZO Fear yourself?
BEL-IMPERIA Ay, brother.
LORENZO How?
BEL-IMPERIA As those
That what they love are loath and fear to lose. 99
BALTHAZAR Then, fair, let Balthazar your keeper be.
BEL-IMPERIA No, Balthazar doth fear as well as we:
Et tremulo metui pavidumjunxere timorem,
Et vanum stolidae proditionis opus.
Exit
LORENZO Nay and you argue things so cunningly,
We’ll go continue this discourse at court.
BALTHAZAR Led by the lodestar of her heavenly looks,
Wends poor oppressed Balthazar,
As o’er the mountains walks the wanderer,
Incertain to effect his pilgrimage.
Exeunt
Enter two PORTINGALES, and HIERONIMO meets them
1 PORTINGALE By your leave, sir.
HIERONIMO Good leave have you: nay, I pray you go,
For I’ll leave you; if you can leave me, so.
2 PORTINGALE Pray you, which is the next way to my lord the duke’s?
HIERONIMO The next way from me.
PORTINGALE To his house, we mean.
HIERONIMO O, hard by, ’tis yon house that you see.
PORTINGALE You could not tell us if his son were there?
HIERONIMO Who, my lord Lorenzo?
PORTINGALE Ay, sir.
He goeth in at one door and comes out at another
HIERONIMO O, forbear,
For other talk for us far fitter were.
But if you be importunate to know 10
The way to him, and where to find him out,
Then list to me, and I’ll resolve your doubt.
There is a path upon your left-hand side,
That leadeth from a guilty conscience
Unto a forest of distrust and fear,
A darksome place, and dangerous to pass:
There shall you meet with melancholy thoughts,
Whose baleful humours if you but uphold,
It will conduct you to despair and death;
Whose rocky cliffs when you have once beheld, 20
Within a hugy dale of lasting night,
That, kindled with the world’s iniquities,
Doth cast up filthy and detested fumes,
Not far from thence, where murderers have built
A habitation for their cursed souls,
There, in a brazen cauldron, fixed by Jove
In his fell wrath upon a sulphur flame,
Yourselves shall find Lorenzo bathing him
In boiling lead and blood of innocents.
1 PORTINGALE Ha, ha, ha! 30
HIERONIMO Ha, ha, ha!
Why, ha, ha, ha! Farewell, good, ha, ha, ha!
Exit
2 PORTINGALE Doubtless this man is passing lunatic,
Or imperfection of his age doth make him dote.
Come, let’s away to seek my lord the duke.
Exeunt
Enter HIERONIMO, with a poniard in one hand, and a rope in the other
HIERONIMO Now sir, perhaps I come and see the king,
The king sees me, and fain would hear my suit:
Why, is not this a strange and seld-seen thing,
That standers-by with toys should strike me mute?
Go to, I see their shifts, and say no more.
Hieronimo, ’tis time for thee to trudge:
Down by the dale that flows with purple gore
Standeth a fiery tower; there sits a judge
Upon a seat of steel and molten brass,
And ‘twixt his teeth he holds a fire-brand, 10
That leads unto the lake where hell doth stand.
Away, Hieronimo, to him be gone:
He’ll do thee justice for Horatio’s death.
Turn down this path, thou shalt be with him straight;
Or this, and then thou need’st not take thy breath.
This way or that way? Soft and fair, not so:
For if I hang or kill myself, let’s know
Who will revenge Horatio’s murder then?
No, no! Fie, No! pardon me, I’ll none of that:
He flings away the dagger and halter
This way I’ll take, and this way comes the king; 20
He takes them up again
And here I’ll have a fling at him, that’s flat;
And, Balthazar, I’ll be with thee to bring,
And thee, Lorenzo! Here’s the king; nay, stay,
And here, ay here; there goes the hare away.
Enter KING, AMBASSADOR, CASTILE, and LORENZO
KING Now show, Ambassador, what our viceroy saith:
Hath he received the articles we sent?
HIERONIMO Justice, O, justice to Hieronimo!
LORENZO Back! See’st thou not the king is busy?
HIERONIMO O, is he so?
KING Who is he that interrupts our business? 30
HIERONIMO Not I. Hieronimo, beware: go by, go by.
AMBASSADOR Renowned king, he hath received and read
Thy kingly proffers, and thy promised league,
And, as a man extremely overjoyed
To hear his son so princely entertained
Whose death he had so solemnly bewailed,
This for thy further satisfaction
And kingly love, he kindly lets thee know:
First, for the marriage of his princely son
With Bel-imperia, thy beloved niece, 40
The news are more delightful to his soul,
Than myrrh or incense to the offended heavens.
In person, therefore, will he come himself,
To see the marriage rites solemnised;
And, in the presence of the court of Spain,
To knit a sure, inexplicable band
Of kingly love, and everlasting league,
Betwixt the crowns of Spain and Portingale,
There will he give his crown to Balthazar,
And make a queen of Bel-imperia. 50
KING Brother, how like you this our viceroy’s love?
CASTILE No doubt, my lord, it is an argument
Of honourable care to keep his friend,
And wondrous zeal to Balthazar his son;
Nor am I least indebted to his grace
That bends his liking to my daughter thus.
AMBASSADOR Now last, dread lord, here hath his highness sent
(Although he send not that his son return)
His ransom due to Don Horatio.
HIERONIMO Horatio! Who calls Horatio? 60
KING And well remembered, thank his majesty.
Here, see it given to Horatio.
HIERONIMO Justice, O justice, justice, gentle king!
KING What is that? Hieronimo?
HIERONIMO Justice, O, justice! O my son, my son,
My son, whom naught can ransom or redeem!
LORENZO Hieronimo, you are not well advised.
HIERONIMO Away, Lorenzo, hinder me no more,
For thou hast made me bankrupt of my bliss.
Give me my son, you shall not ransom him! 70
Away! I’ll rip the bowels of the earth,
He diggeth with his dagger
And ferry over to th’ Elysian plains
And bring my son to show his deadly wounds.
Stand from about me!
I’ll make a pickaxe of my poniard,
And here surrender up my marshalship:
For I’ll go marshal up the fiends in hell,
To be avenged on you all for this.
KING What means this outrage?
Will none of you restrain his fury? 80
HIERONIMO Nay, soft and fair: you shall not need to strive,
Needs must he go that the devils drive. Exit
KING What accident hath happed Hieronimo?
I have not seen him to demean him so.
LORENZO My gracious lord, he is with extreme pride,
Conceived of young Horatio his son,
And covetous of having to himself
The ransom of the young prince Balthazar,
Distract, and in a manner lunatic.
KING Believe me, nephew, we are sorry for’t: 90
This is the love that fathers bear their sons.
But, gentle brother, go give to him this gold,
The prince’s ransom; let him have his due.
For what he hath Horatio shall not want:
Haply Hieronimo hath need thereof.
LORENZO But if he be thus helplessly distract,
’Tis requisite his office be resigned,
And given to one of more discretion.
KING We shall increase his melancholy so.
’Tis best that we see further in it first; 100
Till when, ourself will exempt the place.
And brother, now bring in the ambassador,
That he may be a witness of the match
’Twixt Balthazar and Bel-imperia,
And that we may prefix a certain time,
Wherein the marriage shall be solemnised,
That we may have thy lord the viceroy here.
AMBASSADOR Therein your highness highly shall content
His majesty, that longs to hear from hence.
KING On, then, and hear you, Lord Ambassador. 110
Exeunt
Enter HIERONIMO with a book in his hand
HIERONIMO Vindicta mihi!
Ay, heaven will be revenged of every ill,
Nor will they suffer murder unrepaid:
Then stay, Hieronimo, attend their will,
For mortal men may not appoint their time.
’Per scelus semper tutum est sceleribus iter.’
Strike, and strike home, where wrong is offered thee;
For evils unto ills conductors be,
And death’s the worst of resolution.
For he that thinks with patience to contend 10
To quiet life, his life shall easily end.
’Fata si miseros juvant, habes salutem;
Fata si vitam negant, habes sepulchrum.’
If destiny thy miseries do ease,
Then hast thou health, and happy shalt thou be;
If destiny deny thee life, Hieronimo,
Yet shalt thou be assured of a tomb;
If neither, yet let this thy comfort be,
Heaven covereth him that hath no burial.
And to conclude, I will revenge his death! 20
But how? Not as the vulgar wits of men,
With open, but inevitable ills,
As by a secret, yet a certain mean,
Which under kindship will be cloaked best.
Wise men will take their opportunity,
Closely and safely fitting things to time.
But in extremes advantage hath no time;
And therefore all times fit not for revenge.
Thus therefore will I rest me in unrest,
Dissembling quiet in unquietness, 30
Not seeming that I know their villainies;
That my simplicity may make them think
That ignorantly I will let all slip—
For ignorance, I wot, and well they know,
Nor aught avails it me to menace them,
Who, as a wintry storm upon a plain,
Will bear me down with their nobility.
No, no, Hieronimo, thou must enjoin
Thine eyes to observation, and thy tongue 40
To milder speeches than thy spirit affords,
Thy heart to patience, and thy hands to rest,
Thy cap to courtesy, and thy knee to bow,
Till to revenge thou know, when, where and how.
A noise within
How now, what noise? What coil is that you keep?
Enter a SERVANT
SERVANT Here are a sort of poor petitioners,
That are importunate, and it shall please you, sir,
That you should plead their cases to the king.
HIERONIMO That I should plead their several actions?
Why, let them enter, and let me see them. 50
Enter three CITIZENS and an OLD MAN (SENEX)
1 CITIZEN So, I tell you this, for learning and for law,
There’s not any advocate in Spain
That can prevail, or will take half the pain
That he will, in pursuit of equity.
HIERONIMO Come near, you men, that thus importune me.
(Aside) Now must I bear a face of gravity,
For thus I used, before my marshalship,
To plead in causes as corregidor—
Come on sirs, what’s the matter?
2 CITIZEN Sir, an action.
HIERONIMO Of battery?
1 CITIZEN Mine of debt.
HIERONIMO Give place. 60
2 CITIZEN No sir, mine is an action of the case.
3 CITIZEN Mine an ejectione firmae by a lease.
HIERONIMO Content you sirs, are you determined
That I should plead your several actions?
1 CITIZEN Ay sir, and here’s my declaration.
2 CITIZEN And here is my band.
3 CITIZEN And here is my lease.
They give him papers
HIERONIMO But wherefore stands yon silly man so mute,
With mournful eyes and hands to heaven upreared?
Come hither, father, let me know thy cause.
SENEX O worthy sir, my cause, but slightly known, 70
May move the hearts of warlike Myrmidons
And melt the Corsic rocks with ruthful tears.
HIERONIMO Say, father, tell me what’s thy suit?
SENEX No sir, could my woes
Give way unto my most distressful words,
Then should I not in paper, as you see,
With ink bewray what blood began in me.
HIERONIMO What’s here? ‘The humble supplication
Of Don Bazulto for his murdered son.’
SENEX Ay sir. 80
HIERONIMO No sir, it was my murdered son,
O my son, my son, O my son Horatio!
But mine, or thine, Bazulto, be content.
Here, take my handkercher, and wipe thine eyes,
Whiles wretched I in thy mishaps may see
The lively portrait of my dying self.
He draweth out a bloody napkin
O no, not this: Horatio, this was thine,
And when I dyed it in thy dearest blood,
This was a token ‘twixt thy soul and me
That of thy death revenged I should be.
But here, take this, and this—what, my purse?— 90
Ay, this, and that, and all of them are thine;
For all as one are our extremities.
1 CITIZEN O see the kindness of Hieronimo!
2 CITIZEN This gentleness shows him a gentleman.
HIERONIMO See, see, O see thy shame, Hieronimo,
See here a loving father to his son!
Behold the sorrows and the sad laments
That he delivereth for his son’s decease!
If love’s effects so strives in lesser things,
If love enforce such moods in meaner wits, 100
If love express such power in poor estates—
Hieronimo, whenas a raging sea
Tossed with the wind and tide, o’ertumeth then
The upper billows, course of waves to keep,
Whilst lesser waters labour in the deep,
Then sham’st thou not, Hieronimo, to neglect
The sweet revenge of thy Horatio?
Though on this earth justice will not be found,
I’ll down to hell, and in this passion
Knock at the dismal gates of Pluto’s court, 110
Getting by force, as once Alcides did,
A troop of Furies and tormenting hags
To torture Don Lorenzo and the rest.
Yet lest the triple-headed porter should
Deny my passage to the slimy strond,
The Thracian poet thou shalt counterfeit:
Come on, old father, be my Orpheus,
And if thou canst no notes upon the harp,
Then sound the burden of thy sore heart’s grief,
Till we do gain that Proserpine may grant 120
Revenge on them that murdered my son.
Then will I rent and tear them thus and thus,
Shivering their limbs in pieces with my teeth.
Tear the papers
1 CITIZEN O sir, my declaration!
Exit Hieronimo and they after
2 CITIZEN Save my bond!
Enter HIERONIMO
2 CITIZEN Save my bond!
3 CITIZEN Alas, my lease! It cost me ten pound,
And you, my lord, have torn the same.
HIERONIMO That cannot be, I gave it never a wound;
Show me one drop of blood fall from the same: 130
How is it possible I should slay it then?
Tush, no; run after, catch me if you can.
Exeunt all but the OLD MAN
BAZULTO remains till HIERONIMO enters again, who, staring him in the face, speaks
HIERONIMO And art thou come, Horatio, from the depth,
To ask for justice in this upper earth?
To tell thy father thou art unrevenged,
To wring more tears from Isabella’s eyes,
Whose lights are dimmed with over-long laments?
Go back my son, complain to Aeacus,
For here’s no justice; gende boy be gone,
For justice is exiled from the earth; 140
Hieronimo will bear thee company.
Thy mother cries on righteous Rhadamanth
For just revenge against the murderers.
SENEX Alas my lord, whence springs this troubled speech?
HIERONIMO But let me look on my Horatio.
Sweet boy, how art thou changed in death’s black shade!
Had Proserpine no pity on thy youth,
But suffered thy fair crimson-coloured spring
With withered winter to be blasted thus?
Horatio, thou art older than thy father; 150
Ah ruthless fate, that favour thus transforms!
SENEX Ah my good lord, I am not your young son.
HIERONIMO What, not my son? Thou, then, a Fury art,
Sent from the empty kingdom of black night
To summon me to make appearance
Before grim Minos and just Rhadamanth,
To plague Hieronimo that is remiss,
And seeks not vengeance for Horatio’s death.
SENEX I am a grieved man, and not a ghost,
That came for justice for my murdered son. 160
HIERONIMO Ay, now I know thee, now thou nam’st thy son;
Thou art the lively image of my grief:
Within thy face my sorrows I may see.
Thy eyes are gummed with tears, thy cheeks are wan,
Thy forehead troubled, and thy muttering lips
Murmur sad words abruptly broken off,
By force of windy sighs thy spirit breathes;
And all this sorrow riseth for thy son:
And selfsame sorrow feel I for my son.
Come in old man, thou shalt to Isabel; 170
Lean on my arm: I thee, thou me shalt stay,
And thou, and I, and she, will sing a song,
Three parts in one, but all of discords framed—
Talk not of cords, but let us now be gone,
For with a cord Horatio was slain.
Exeunt
Enter KING OF SPAIN, the DUKE, VICEROY, and LORENZO, BALTHAZAR, DON PEDRO and BEL-IMPERIA
KING Go brother, it is the Duke of Castile’s cause,
Salute the viceroy in our name.
CASTILE I go.
VICEROY Go forth, Don Pedro, for thy nephew’s sake,
And greet the Duke of Castile.
PEDRO It shall be so.
KING And now to meet these Portuguese,
For as we now are, so sometimes were these,
Kings and commanders of the western Indis.
Welcome, brave viceroy, to the court of Spain,
And welcome all his honourable train.
’Tis not unknown to us, for why you come, 10
Or have so kingly crossed the seas:
Sufficeth it, in this we note the troth
And more than common love you lend to us.
So is it that mine honourable niece,
(For it beseems us now that it be known)
Already is betrothed to Balthazar,
And by appointment and our candescent
To-morrow are they to be married.
To this intent we entertain thyself,
Thy followers, their pleasure and our peace. 20
Speak, men of Portingale, shall it be so?
If ay, say so; if not, say flatly no.
VICEROY Renowned king, I come not as thou think’st
With doubtful followers, unresolved men,
But such as have upon thine articles
Confirmed thy motion and contented me.
Know sovereign, I come to solemnise
The marriage of thy beloved niece,
Fair Bel-imperia, with my Balthazar—
With thee, my son; whom sith I live to see, 30
Here take my crown, I give it her and thee;
And let me live a solitary life,
In ceaseless prayers,
To think how strangely heaven hath thee preserved.
KING See brother, see, how nature strives in him!
Come, worthy viceroy, and accompany
Thy friend with thine extremities;
A place more private fits this princely mood.
VICEROY Or here or where your highness thinks it good.
Exeunt all but CASTILE and LORENZO
CASTILE Nay stay, Lorenzo, let me talk with you. 40
See’st thou this entertainment of these kings?
LORENZO I do my lord, and joy to see the same.
CASTILE And knowest thou why this meeting is?
LORENZO For her, my lord, whom Balthazar doth love,
And to confirm their promised marriage.
CASTILE She is thy sister?
LORENZO Who, Bel-imperia?
Ay, my gracious lord, and this is the day
That I have longed so happily to see.
CASTILE Thou wouldst be loath that any fault of thine
Should intercept her in her happiness. 50
LORENZO Heavens will not let Lorenzo err so much.
CASTILE Why then, Lorenzo, listen to my words:
It is suspected and reported too,
That thou, Lorenzo, wrong’st Hieronimo,
And in his suits towards his majesty
Still keep’st him back, and seeks to cross his suit.
LORENZO That I, my lord?
CASTILE I tell thee son, myself have heard it said,
When, to my sorrow, I have been ashamed
To answer for thee, though thou art my son. 60
Lorenzo, knowest thou not the common love
And kindness that Hieronimo hath won
By his deserts within the court of Spain?
Or seest thou not the king my brother’s care
In his behalf, and to procure his health?
Lorenzo shouldst thou thwart his passions,
And he exclaim against thee to the king,
What honour were’t in this assembly,
Or what a scandal were’t among the kings
To hear Hieronimo exclaim on thee? 70
Tell me and look thou tell me truly too,
Whence grows the ground of this report in court?
LORENZO My lord, it lies not in Lorenzo’s power
To stop the vulgar, liberal of their tongues:
A small advantage makes a water-breach,
And no man lives that long contenteth all.
CASTILE Myself have seen thee busy to keep back
Him and his supplications from the king.
LORENZO Yourself, my lord, hath seen his passions,
That ill beseemed the presence of a king; 80
And for I pitied him in his distress,
I held him thence with kind and courteous words,
As free from malice to Hieronimo
As to my soul, my lord.
CASTILE Hieronimo, my son, mistakes thee then.
LORENZO My gracious father, believe me so he doth.
But what’s a silly man, distract in mind,
To think upon the murder of his son?
Alas, how easy is it for him to err!
But for his satisfaction and the world’s, 90
‘Twere good, my lord, that Hieronimo and I
Were reconciled, if he misconster me.
CASTILE Lorenzo, thou hast said; it shall be so;
Go one of you and call Hieronimo.
Enter BALTHAZAR and BEL-IMPERIA
BALTHAZAR Come, Bel-imperia, Balthazar’s content,
My sorrow’s ease and sovereign of my bliss,
Sith heaven hath ordained thee to be mine;
Disperse those clouds and melancholy looks,
And clear them up with those thy sun-bright eyes,
Wherein my hope and heaven’s fair beauty lies. 100
BEL-IMPERIA My looks, my lord, are fitting for my love,
Which new begun, can show no brighter yet.
BALTHAZAR New kindled flames should burn as mornmg sun.
BEL-IMPERIA But not too fast, lest heat and all be done.
I see my lord my father.
BALTHAZAR Truce, my love;
I will go salute him.
CASTILE Welcome, Balthazar,
Welcome brave prince, the pledge of Castile’s peace;
And welcome Bel-imperia. How now, girl?
Why com’st thou sadly to salute us thus?
Content thyself, for I am satisfied; 110
It is not now as when Andrea lived,
We have forgotten and forgiven that,
And thou art graced with a happier love.
But Balthazar, here comes Hieronimo,
I’ll have a word with him.
Enter HIERONIMO and a Servant
HIERONIMO And where’s the duke?
SERVANT Yonder.
HIERONIMO Even so:
What new device have they devised, trow?
Pocas palabras, mild as the lamb,
Is’t I will be revenged? No, I am not the man.
CASTILE Welcome Hieronimo. 120
LORENZO Welcome Hieronimo.
BALTHAZAR Welcome Hieronimo.
HIERONIMO My lords, I thank you for Horatio.
CASTILE Hieronimo, the reason that I sent
To speak with you, is this.
HIERONIMO What, so short?
Then I’ll be gone, I thank you for’t.
CASTILE Nay, stay, Hieronimo—go call him, son.
LORENZO Hieronimo, my father craves a word with you.
HIERONIMO With me sir? Why, my lord, I thought you had done.
LORENZO (Aside) No, would he had.
CASTILE Hieronimo, I hear
You find yourself aggrieved at my son 131
Because you have not access unto the king,
And say ’tis he that intercepts your suits.
HIERONIMO Why, is not this a miserable thing, my lord?
CASTILE Hieronimo, I hope you have no cause,
And would be loath that one of your deserts
Should once have reason to suspect my son,
Considering how I think of you myself.
HIERONIMO Your son Lorenzo! Whom, my noble lord?
The hope of Spain, mine honourable friend? 140
Grant me the combat of them, if they dare
Draws out his sword
I’ll meet him face to face, to tell me so.
These be the scandalous reports of such
As love not me, and hate my lord too much.
Should I suspect Lorenzo would prevent
Or cross my suit, that loved my son so well?
My lord I am ashamed it should be said.
LORENZO Hieronimo, I never gave you cause.
HIERONIMO My good lord, I know you did not.
CASTILE There then pause,
And for the satisfaction of the world, 150
Hieronimo, frequent my homely house,
The Duke of Castile, Cyprian’s ancient seat,
And when thou wilt, use me, my son, and it.
But here, before Prince Balthazar and me,
Embrace each other, and be perfect friends.
HIERONIMO Ay marry, my lord, and shall.
Friends, quoth he? See, I’ll be friends with you all:
Specially with you, my lovely lord;
For divers causes it is fit for us
That we be friends, the world is suspicious, 160
And men may think what we imagine not.
BALTHAZAR Why, this is friendly done, Hieronimo.
LORENZO And thus I hope old grudges are forgot.
HIERONIMO What else? It were a shame it should not be so.
CASTILE Come on, Hieronimo, at my request;
Let us intreat your company today.
Exeunt all but HIERONIMO
HIERONIMO Your lordship’s to command.—Pha! Keep your way:
Chi mi fa più carezze che non suole,
Tradito mi ha, o tradir vuole.
Exit
GHOST OF ANDREA and REVENGE
ANDREA Awake, Erichtho! Cerberus, awake!
Solicit Pluto, gentle Proserpine;
To combat, Acheron and Erebus!
For ne’er by Styx and Phlegethon in hell
[…]
Nor ferried Charon to the fiery lakes
Such fearful sights, as poor Andrea sees!
Revenge, awake!
REVENGE Awake? For why?
ANDREA Awake, Revenge, for thou art ill advised 10
To sleep away what thou art warned to watch.
REVENGE Content thyself, and do not trouble me.
ANDREA Awake, Revenge, if love, as love hath had,
Have yet the power or prevalence in hell!
Hieronimo with Lorenzo is joined in league,
And intercepts our passage to revenge:
Awake, Revenge, or we are woe-begone!
REVENGE Thus worldlings ground, what they have dreamed, upon.
Content thyself, Andrea: though I sleep,
Yet is my mood soliciting their souls; 20
Sufficeth thee that poor Hieronimo
Cannot forget his son Horatio.
Nor dies Revenge although he sleep awhile,
For in unquiet, quietness is feigned,
And slumbering is a common worldly wile.
Behold, Andrea, for an instance how
Revenge hath slept, and then imagine thou
What ’tis to be subject to destiny.
Enter a DUMB SHOW, they act and exeunt
ANDREA Awake, Revenge, reveal this mystery.
REVENGE The two first, the nuptial torches bore, 30
As brightly burning as the mid-day’s sun;
But after them doth Hymen hie as fast,
Clothed in sable, and a saffron robe,
And blows them out, and quencheth them with blood,
As discontent that things continue so.
ANDREA Sufficeth me; thy meaning’s understood;
And thanks to thee and those infernal powers
That will not tolerate a lover’s woe.
Rest thee, for I will sit to see the rest.
REVENGE Then argue not, for thou hast thy request. 40
EXEUNT
Enter BEL-IMPERIA and HIERONIMO
BEL-IMPERIA Is this the love thou bear’st Horatio?
Is this the kindness that thou counterfeits?
Are these the fruits of thine incessant tears?
Hieronimo, are these thy passions,
Thy protestations and thy deep laments,
That thou wert wont to weary men withal?
O unkind father, O deceitful world!
With what excuses canst thou show thyself,
With what […]
From this dishonour and the hate of men? 10
Thus to neglect the loss and life of him
Whom both my letters and thine own belief
Assures thee to be causeless slaughtered.
Hieronimo, for shame, Hieronimo,
Be not a history to after times
Of such ingratitude unto thy son.
Unhappy mothers of such children then,
But monstrous fathers, to forget so soon
The death of those, whom they with care and cost
Have tendered so, thus careless should be lost. 20
Myself a stranger in respect of thee,
So loved his life, as still I wish their deaths;
Nor shall his death be unrevenged by me,
Although I bear it out for fashion’s sake:
For here I swear in sight of heaven and earth,
Shouldst thou neglect the love thou shouldst retain
And give it over and devise no more,
Myself should send their hateful souls to hell,
That wrought his downfall with extremest death.
HIERONIMO But may it be that Bel-imperia 30
Vows such revenge as she hath deigned to say?
Why then, I see that heaven applies our drift
And all the saints do sit soliciting
For vengeance on those cursed murderers.
Madam ’tis true, and now I find it so;
I found a letter, written in your name,
And in that letter, how Horatio died.
Pardon, O pardon, Bel-imperia,
My fear and care in not believing it,
Nor think I thoughtless think upon a mean 40
To let his death be unrevenged at full;
And here I vow (so you but give consent,
And will conceal my resolution)
I will ere long determine of their deaths
That causeless thus have murdered my son.
BEL-IMPERIA Hieronimo, I will consent, conceal;
And aught that may effect for thine avail
Join with thee to revenge Horatio’s death.
HIERONIMO On then; whatsoever I devise,
Let me entreat you, grace my practices. 50
For why, the plot’s already in mine head.
Here they are.
Enter BALTHAZAR and LORENZO
BALTHAZAR How now, Hieronimo?
What, courting Bel-imperia?
HIERONIMO Ay, my lord,
Such courting as, I promise you,
She hath my heart, but you, my lord, have hers.
LORENZO But now, Hieronimo, or never,
We are to entreat your help.
HIERONIMO My help?
Why, my good lords, assure yourselves of me,
For you have given me cause,
Ay, by my faith have you.
BALTHAZAR It pleased you 60
At the entertainment of the ambassador
To grace the king so much as with a show:
Now were your study so well furnished,
As, for the passing of the first night’s sport,
To entertain my father with the like,
Or any such-like pleasing motion,
Assure yourself it would content them well.
HIERONIMO Is this all?
BALTHAZAR Ay, this is all.
HIERONIMO Why then I’ll fit you; say no more. 70
When I was young I gave my mind
And plied myself to fruitless poetry:
Which though it profit the professor naught,
Yet is it passing pleasing to the world.
LORENZO And how for that?
HIERONIMO Marry, my good lord, thus—
And yet, methinks, you are too quick with us—
When in Toledo there I studied,
It was my chance to write a tragedy—
See here my lords,
He shows them a book
Which long forgot, I found this other day. 80
Now would your lordships favour me so much
As but to grace me with your acting it—
I mean each one of you to play a part—
Assure you it will prove most passing strange
And wondrous plausible to that assembly.
BALTHAZAR What, would you have us play a tragedy?
HIERONIMO Why, Nero thought it no disparagement,
And kings and emperors have ta’en delight
To make experience of their wits in plays!
LORENZO Nay, be not angry good Hieronimo, 90
The prince but asked a question.
BALTHAZAR In faith, Hieronimo, and you be in earnest,
I’ll make one.
LORENZO And I another.
HIERONIMO Now my good lord, could you entreat
Your sister Bel-imperia to make one?
For what’s a play without a woman in it?
BEL-IMPERIA Little entreaty shall serve me, Hieronimo,
For I must needs be employed in your play.
HIERONIMO Why, this is well; I tell you Lordings, 100
It was determined to have been acted
By gentlemen and scholars too
Such as could tell what to speak.
BALTHAZAR And now it shall be played by princes and courtiers,
Such as can tell how to speak,
If, as it is our country manner,
You will but let us know the argument.
HIERONIMO That shall I roundly. The chronicles of Spain
Record this written of a knight of Rhodes:
He was betrothed, and wedded at the length 110
To one Perseda, an Italian dame,
Whose beauty ravished all that her beheld,
Especially the soul of Soliman,
Who at the marriage was the chiefest guest.
By sundry means sought Soliman to win
Perseda’s love, and could not gain the same.
Then gan he break his passions to a friend,
One of his bashaws whom he held full dear;
Her had this bashaw long solicited,
And saw she was not otherwise to be won 120
But by her husband’s death, this knight of Rhodes,
Whom presently by treachery he slew.
She, stirred with an exceeding hate therefore,
As cause of this slew Soliman;
And to escape the bashaw’s tyranny
Did stab herself: and this the tragedy.
LORENZO O excellent!
BEL-IMPERIA But say, Hieronimo,
What then became of him that was the bashaw?
HIERONIMO Marry thus: moved with remorse of his misdeeds,
Ran to a mountain-top and hung himself. 130
BALTHAZAR But which of us is to perform that part?
HIERONIMO O, that will I my lords, make no doubt of it:
I’ll play the murderer, I warrant you,
For I already have conceited that.
BALTHAZAR And what shall I?
HIERONIMO Great Soliman the Turkish emperor.
LORENZO And I?
HIERONIMO Erastus the knight of Rhodes.
BEL-IMPERIA And I?
HIERONIMO Perseda, chaste and resolute. 140
And here, my lords, are several abstracts drawn,
For each of you to note your parts,
And act it, as occasion’s offered you.
You must provide a Turkish cap,
A black mustachio and a fauchion.
Gives a paper to BALTHAZAR
You with a cross like to a knight of Rhodes.
Gives another to LORENZO
And madam, you must attire yourself
He giveth BEL-IMPERIA another
Like Phoebe, Flora, or the Huntress,
Which to your discretion shall seem best.
And as for me, my lords, I’ll look to one; 150
And, with the ransom that the viceroy sent
So furnish and perform this tragedy,
As all the world shall say Hieronimo
Was liberal in gracing of it so.
BALTHAZAR Hieronimo, methinks a comedy were better.
HIERONIMO A comedy?
Fie, comedies are fit for common wits:
But to present a kingly troop withal,
Give me a stately-written tragedy,
Tragedia cothurnata, fitting kings, 160
Containing matter, and not common things.
My lords, all this must be performed,
As fitting for the first night’s revelling.
The Italian tragedians were so sharp of wit
That in one hour’s meditation
They would perform anything in action.
LORENZO And well it may; for I have seen the like
In Paris, ‘mongst the French tragedians
HIERONIMO In Paris? Mass, and well remembered!
There’s one thing more that rests for us to do. 170
BALTHAZAR What’s that, Hieronimo? Forget not anything.
HIERONIMO Each one of us must act his part
That it may breed the more variety.
As you, my lord, in Latin, I in Greek,
You in Italian; and for because I know
That Bel-imperia hath practised the French,
In courtly French shall all her phrases be.
BEL-IMPERIA You mean to try my cunning then, Hieronimo.
BALTHAZAR But this will be a mere confusion, 180
And hardly shall we all be understood.
HIERONIMO It must be so, for the conclusion
Shall prove the invention and all was good.
And I myself in an oration,
And with a strange and wondrous show besides,
That I will have there behind a curtain,
Assure yourself, shall make the matter known.
And all shall be concluded in one scene,
For there’s no pleasure ta’en in tediousness.
BALTHAZAR (Aside to LORENZO) How like you this? 190
LORENZO Why, thus my lord,
We must resolve to soothe his humours up.
BALTHAZAR On then Hieronimo, farewell till soon.
HIERONIMO You’ll ply this gear?
LORENZO I warrant you.
Exeunt all but HIERONIMO
HIERONIMO Why so.
Now shall I see the fall of Babylon,
Wrought by the heavens in this confusion.
And if the world like not this tragedy,
Hard is the hap of old Hieronimo.
Exit
Enter ISABELLA with a weapon
ISABELLA Tell me no more! O monstrous homicides!
Since neither piety nor pity moves
The king to justice or compassion,
I will revenge myself upon this place
Where thus they murdered my beloved son.
She cuts down the arbour
Down with these branches and these loathsome boughs
Of this unfortunate and fatal pine:
Down with them, Isabella, rent them up
And burn the roots from whence the rest is sprung.
I will not leave a root, a stalk, a tree, 10
A bough, a branch, a blossom, nor a leaf,
No, not an herb within this garden-plot.
Accursed complot of my misery,
Fruitless for ever may this garden be!
Barren the earth, and blissless whosoever
Imagines not to keep it unmanured!
An eastern wind commixed with noisome airs
Shall blast the plants and the young saplings;
The earth with serpents shall be pestered,
And passengers, for fear to be infect, 20
Shall stand aloof, and, looking at it, tell,
‘There, murdered, died the son of Isabel.’
Ay, here he died, and here I him embrace:
See where his ghost solicits with his wounds
Revenge on her that should revenge his death.
Hieronimo, make haste to see thy son,
For sorrow and despair hath cited me
To hear Horatio plead with Rhadamanth:
Make haste, Hieronimo, to hold excused
Thy negligence in pursuit of their deaths, 30
Whose hateful wrath bereaved him of his breath.
Ah nay, thou dost delay their deaths,
Forgives the murderers of thy noble son,
And none but I bestir me—to no end.
And as I curse this tree from further fruit,
So shall my womb be cursed for his sake;
And with this weapon will I wound the breast,
She stabs herself
The hapless breast that gave Horatio suck.
Exit
Enter HIERONIMO; he knocks up the curtain. Enter the DUKE OF CASTILE
CASTILE How now Hieronimo, where’s your fellows,
That you take all this pain?
HIERONIMO O sir, it is for the author’s credit
To look that all things may go well.
But, good my lord, let me entreat your grace
To give the king the copy of the play:
This is the argument of what we show.
CASTILE I will, Hieronimo.
HIERONIMO One thing more, my good lord.
CASTILE What’s that?
HIERONIMO Let me entreat your grace
That, when the train are passed into the gallery,
You would vouchsafe to throw me down the key.
CASTILE I will, Hieronimo.
Exit CASTILE
HIERONIMO What are you ready, Balthazar?
Bring a chair and a cushion for the king.
Enter BALTHAZAR with a chair
Well done, Balthazar; hang up the title.
Our scene is Rhodes—what, is your beard on?
BALTHAZAR Half on, the other is in my hand.
HIERONIMO Despatch for shame, are you so long? 20
Exit BALTHAZAR
Bethink thyself, Hieronimo,
Recall thy wits, recompt thy former wrongs
Thou has received by murder of thy son;
And lastly, not least, how Isabel,
Once his mother and thy dearest wife,
All woe-begone for him, hath slain herself.
Behoves thee then, Hieronimo, to be revenged.
The plot is laid of dire revenge:
On then, Hieronimo, pursue revenge,
For nothing wants but acting of revenge. 30
Exit HIERONIMO
Enter SPANISH KING, VICEROY, the DUKE OF CASTILE, and their train
KING Now, Viceroy, shall we see the tragedy
Of Soliman the Turkish emperor,
Performed of pleasure by your son the prince,
My nephew Don Lorenzo, and my niece.
VICEROY Who, Bel-imperia?
KING Ay, and Hieronimo, our marshal,
At whose request they deign to do’t themselves:
These be our pastimes in the court of Spain.
Here, brother, you shall be the book-keeper:
This is the argument of that they show. 10
He giveth him a book
Gentlemen, this play of Hieronimo, in sundry languages, was thought good to be set down in English more largely, for the easier understanding to every public reader.
Enter BALTHAZAR, BEL-IMPERIA and HIERONIMO
BALTHAZAR Bashaw, that Rhodes is ours, yield heavens the honour,
And holy Mahomet, our sacred prophet;
And be thou graced with every excellence
That Soliman can give, or thou desire.
But thy desert in conquering Rhodes is less
Than in reserving this fair Christian nymph,
Perseda, blissfull lamp of excellence,
Whose eyes compel, like powerful adamant,
The warlike heart of Soliman to wait.
KING See, Viceroy, that is Balthazar, your son, 20
That represents the emperor Soliman:
How well he acts his amorous passion.
VICEROY Ay, Bel-imperia hath taught him that.
CASTILE That’s because his mind runs all on Bel-imperia.
HIERONIMO Whatever joy earth yields betide your majesty.
BALTHAZAR Earth yields no joy without Perseda’s love.
HIERONIMO Let then Perseda on your grace attend.
BALTHAZAR She shall not wait on me, but I on her:
Drawn by the influence of her lights, I yield.
But let my friend, the Rhodian knight, come forth, 30
Erasto, dearer than my life to me,
That he may see Perseda, my beloved.
Enter LORENZO as Erasto
KING Here comes Lorenzo; look upon the plot,
And tell me, brother, what part plays he?
BEL-IMPERIA Ah, my Erasto, welcome to Perseda.
LORENZO Thrice happy is Erasto that thou liv’st—
Rhodes’ loss is nothing to Erasto’s joy;
Sith his Perseda lives, his life survives.
BALTHAZAR Ah, Bashaw, here is love between Erasto
And fair Perseda, sovereign of my soul. 40
HIERONIMO Remove Erasto, mighty Soliman,
And then Perseda will be quickly won.
BALTHAZAR Erasto is my frend, and while he lives
Perseda never will remove her love.
HIERONIMO Let not Erasto live to grieve great Soliman.
BALTHAZAR Dear is Erasto in our princely eye.
HIERONIMO But if he be your rival, let him die.
BALTHAZAR Why, let him die: so love commandeth me.
Yet grieve I that Erasto should so die.
HIERONIMO Erasto, Soliman saluteth thee, 50
And lets thee wit by me his highness’ will
Which is, thou shouldst be thus employed.
Stab him
BEL-IMPERIA Ay me,
Erasto! See, Soliman, Erasto’s slain!
BALTHAZAR Yet liveth Soliman to comfort thee.
Fair queen if beauty, let not favour die,
But with a gracious eye behold his grief,
That with Perseda’s beauty is increased,
If by Perseda his grief be not released.
BEL-IMPERIA Tyrant, desist soliciting vain suits;
Relentless are mine ears to thy laments,
As thy butcher is pitiless and base,
Which seized on my Erasto, harmless knight,
Yet thy power thou thinkest to command,
And to thy power Perseda doth obey;
But were she able, thus she would revenge
Thy treacheries on thee, ignoble prince:
Stab him
And on herself she would be thus revenged.
Stab herself
KING Well said, old Marshal, this was bravely done!
HIERONIMO But Bel-imperia plays Perseda well.
VICEROY Were this in earnest, Bel-imperia, 70
You would be better to my son than so.
KING But now what follows for Hieronimo?
HIERONIMO Marry, this follows for Hieronimo:
Here break we off our sundry languages
And thus conclude I in our vulgar tongue.
Haply you think, but bootless are your thoughts,
That this is fabulously counterfeit
And that we do as all tragedians do:
To die today, for fashioning our scene,
The death of Ajax, or some Roman peer, 80
And in a minute starting up again,
Revive to please tomorrow’s audience.
No, princes; know I am Hieronimo,
The hopeless father of a hapless son,
Whose tongue is tuned to tell his latest tale,
Not to excuse gross errors in the play.
I see your looks urge instance of these words;
Behold the reason urging me to this:
Shows his dead son
See here my show, look on this spectacle.
Here lay my hope, and here my hope hath end; 90
Here lay my heart, and here my heart was slain;
Here lay my treasure, here my treasure lost;
Here lay my bliss, and here my bliss bereft;
But hope, heart, treasure, joy, and bliss,
All fled, failed, died, yea, all decayed with this.
From forth these wounds came breath that gave me life;
They murdered me that made these fatal marks.
The cause was love, whence grew this mortal hate,
The hate, Lorenzo and young Balthazar,
The love, my son to Bel-imperia. 100
But night, the coverer of accursed crimes,
With pitchy silence hushed these traitors’ harms
And lent them leave, for they had sorted leisure
To take advantage in my garden-plot
Upon my son, my dear Horatio:
There merciless they butchered up my boy,
In black dark night, to pale dim cruel death.
He shrieks, I heard, and yet methinks I hear,
His dismal outcry echo in the air.
With soonest speed I hasted to the noise, 110
Where hanging on a tree I found my son,
Through-girt with wounds, and slaughtered as you see.
And grieved I, think you, at this spectacle?
Speak, Portuguese, whose loss resembles mine:
If thou canst weep upon thy Balthazar,
’Tis like I wailed for my Horatio.
And you, my lord, whose reconciled son
Marched in a net, and thought himself unseen
And rated me for brainsick lunacy,
With ‘God amend that mad Hieronimo!’— 120
How can you brook our play’s catastrophe?
And here behold this bloody handkercher,
Which at Horatio’s death I weeping dipped
Within the river of his bleeding wounds:
It as propitious, see I have reserved,
And never hath it left my bloody heart,
Soliciting remembrance of my vow
With these, O these accursed murderers:
Which now performed, my heart is satisfied.
And to this end the bashaw I became 130
That might revenge me on Lorenzo’s life,
Who therefore was appointed to the part,
And was to represent the knight of Rhodes,
That I might kill him more conveniently.
So, Viceroy, was this Balthazar, thy son—
That Soliman which Bel-imperia
In person of Perseda murdered—
Solely appointed to that tragic part
That she might slay him that offended her.
Poor Bel-imperia missed her part in this: 140
For though the story saith she should have died,
Yet I of kindness, and of care to her,
Did otherwise determine of her end;
But love of him whom they did hate too much
Did urge her resolution to be such.
And princes, now behold Hieronimo,
Author and actor in this tragedy,
Bearing his latest fortune in his fist:
And will as resolute conclude his part
As any of the actors gone before. And, gentles, thus I end my play:
Urge no more words: I have no more to say.
He runs to hang himself
KING O hearken, Viceroy! Hold, Hieronimo!
Brother, my nephew and thy son are slain!
VICEROY We are betrayed! My Balthazar is slain!
Break ope the doors, run, save Hieronimo.
They break in, and holdHIERONIMO
Hieronimo, do but inform the king of these events;
Upon mine honour thou shalt have no harm.
HIERONIMO Viceroy, I will not trust thee with my life,
Which I this day have offered to my son. 160
Accursed wretch,
Why stayest thou him that was resolved to die?
KING Speak, traitor; damned, bloody murderer, speak!
For now I have thee I will make thee speak—
Why hast thou done this undeserving deed?
VICEROY Why hast thou murdered my Balthazar?
CASTILE Why hast thou butchered both my children thus?
HIERONIMO O, good words!
As dear to me was my Horatio
As yours, or yours, or yours, my lord, to you. 170
My guiltless son was by Lorenzo slain,
And by Lorenzo and that Balthazar
Am I at last revenged thoroughly,
Upon whose souls may heavens be yet avenged
With greater far than these afflictions.
CASTILE But who were thy confederates in this?
VICEROY That was thy daughter Bel-imperia;
For by her hand my Balthazar was slain:
I saw her stab him.
KING Why speak’st thou not?
HIERONIMO What lesser liberty can kings afford 180
Than harmless silence? Then afford it me:
Sufficeth I may not, nor I will not tell thee.
KING Fetch forth the tortures.
Traitor as thou art, I’ll make thee tell.
HIERONIMO Indeed,
Thou may’st torment me, as his wretched son
Hath done in murdering my Horatio,
But never shalt thou force me to reveal
The thing which I have vowed inviolate.
And therefore in despite of all thy threats,
Pleased with their deaths, and eased with their revenge, 190
First take my tongue, and afterwards my heart.
He bites out his tongue
KING O monstrous resolution of a wretch!
See, Viceroy, he hath bitten forth his tongue
Rather than to reveal what we required.
CASTILE Yet can he write.
KING And if in this he satisfy us not,
We will devise th’extremest kind of death
That ever was invented for a wretch.
Then he makes signs for a knife to mend his pen
CASTILE O, he would have a knife to mend his pen.
VICEROY Here; and advise thee that thou write the troth. 200
KING Look to my brother! Save Hieronimo!
He with a knife stabs the DUKE and himself
What age hath ever heard such monstrous deeds?
My brother, and the whole succeeding hope
That Spain expected after my decease!
Go bear his body hence, that we may mourn
The loss of our beloved brother’s death;
That he may be entombed, whate’er befall:
I am the next, the nearest, last of all.
VICEROY And thou, Don Pedro, do the like for us;
Take up our hapless son, untimely slain: 210
Set me with him, and he with woeful me,
Upon the main-mast of a ship unmanned,
And let the wind and tide haul me along
To Scylla’s barking and untamed gulf,
Or to the loathsome pool of Acheron,
To weep my want for my sweet Balthazar:
Spain hath no refuge for a Portingale.
The trumpets sound a dead march, the KING OF SPAIN mourning cifter his brother’s body, and the VICEROY OF PORTINGALE bearing the body oj his son
ANDREA Ay, now my hopes have end in their effects,
When blood and sorrow finish my desires:
Horatio murdered in his father’s bower,
Vild Serberine by Pedringano slain,
False Pedringano hanged by quaint device,
Fair Isabella by herself misdone,
Prince Balthazar by Bel-imperia stabbed,
The Duke of Castile and his wicked son
Both done to death by old Hieronimo,
My Bel-imperia fallen as Dido fell, 10
And good Hieronimo slain by himself:
Ay, these were spectacles to please my soul.
Now will I beg at lovely Proserpme,
That, by the virtue of her princely doom,
I may consort my friends in pleasing sort,
And on my foes work just and sharp revenge.
I’ll lead my friend Horatio through those fields
Where never-dying wars are still inured:
I’ll lead fair Isabella to that train
Where pity weeps but never feeleth pain: 20
I’ll lead my Bel-imperia to those joys
That vestal virgins and fair queens possess;
I’ll lead Hieronimo where Orpheus plays,
Adding sweet pleasure to eternal days.
But say, Revenge, for thou must help, or none,
Against the rest how shall my hate be shown?
REVENGE This hand shall hale them down to deepest hell,
Where none but Furies, bugs and tortures dwell.
ANDREA Then, sweet Revenge, do this at my request;
Let me be judge, and doom them to unrest:
Let loose poor Tityus from the vulture’s gripe,
And let Don Cyprian supply his room;
Place Don Lorenzo on Ixion’s wheel,
And let the lover’s endless pains surcease—
(Juno forgets old wrath, and grants him ease):
Hang Balthazar about Chimaera’s neck,
And let him there bewail his bloody love,
Repining at our joys that are above;
Let Serberine go roll the fatal stone,
And take from Sisyphus his endless moan;
False Pedringano for his treachery,
Let him be dragged through boiling Acheron,
And there live, dying still in endless flames,
Blaspheming gods and all their holy names.
REVENGE Then haste we down to meet thy friends and foes:
To place thy friends in ease, the rest in woes.
For here, though death hath end their misery,
I’ll there begin their endless tragedy.
Exeunt
SD Enter the GHOST: a reference in Thomas Dekker’s pamphlet The Seven Deadly Sins of London (1606) suggests that this entrance was made from the stage trapdoor
1-2 These opening lines can be compared with the parody in The Knight of the Burning Pestle, V.316-17: ‘When I was mortal, this my costive corpse/Did lap up figs and raisins in the Strand’
8 prime: spring-time
11 hight: was called
18-85 Don Andrea’s description of the underworld is developed from Virgil’s Aeneid (Book VI) with Kyd adapting Virgil to present his own peculiar vision of a classical scene which would have been familar to many in his audience. A parallel is developed between Don Andrea’s passage through the underworld and that of Virgil’s Aeneas
19 Acheron: associated here with the river Styx, across which the dead were ferried by Charon
23 Sol: the Sun
Thetis: the daughter of Nereus, a sea-god, thus the sea
25 Knight Marshal: an officer in an English royal palace with responsibility for upholding the law in the household and within ‘the verge’, an area within a radius of twelve miles of the palace
28 strond: strand or shore
29 Avernus: a lake thought of as an entrance to the underworld
30 Cerberus: a three-headed dog which guarded the entrance
33 Minos, Aeacus, and Rhadamanth: worthy inhabitants of the underworld who stood in judgement over those who entered
34 gan: began
35 a passport: a safe-conduct
36 Minos: the chief judge, with the casting vote. In Virgil, lots are drawn from an urn to determine the fate of the dead, but here Minos seems to be reading an account of Don Andrea’s life in order to judge his worth
46 martialist: a soldier
49 Myrmidons: the killers of Hector
50 censor: judge
53 doom him: make the judgement
55 Pluto’s court: Pluto was the king of the underworld
65 Furies: the mythical avengers of wickedness
66 Ixion: a lover condemned to an everlasting treadmill
67 usurers: money-lenders
73 Elysian green: the place of the blessed in the afterlife
76 Proserpine: the queen of the underworld
81 rounded thee: whispered
82 gates of horn: the gates of true dreams in the Aeneid
85 wot: know
86-9 The audience is told in advance the substance of the drama to come, importantly affecting its response to and judgement of the unfolding events. Revenge and Don Andrea remain on view throughout the play, often in a location somehow ‘between’ the action and the audience (downstage or in a gallery), their presence almost mediating the developing action upon which they comment as a chorus
1 camp: the army in the field
5 posting: speeding
8 Portingals: the Portuguese
tribute: tribute money
12-14 O multum dilecte… est victoria juris: ‘O one much loved of God for thee the heavens contend, and the united peoples fall down on bended knee: victory is sister to just right.’ Adapted from De Terio Consulatu Honorii by the Roman poet Claudian (AD395-404)
20 wage: reward
23 bound: boundary
25 furnished well: well-equipped
27 vaunting sundry colours of device: proudly showing their heraldic banners
32 battles both were pitched in squadron form: formations of soldiers in squares
33 wings of shot: outer ‘wings’ of soldiers with guns on the outside of the squares
34 push of pike: fighting in close quarters, hand-to-hand
38 ordnance: heavy artillery
41 cornet: cavalry, identified by the cornet banner at their head
47 handy: hand-to-hand
50 rampiers: ramparts
52 Bellona: the Roman goddess of war
55-6 Pede pes… petiturque viro: ‘Foot against foot and spear against spear, arms ring on arms and man ts assailed by man’
59 scindered: sundered, or cleaved
61 unbowelled: disembowelled
62 purple: blood-drenched
65 lanciers: lancers
70 Here-hence: as a result of this
73 insulting: proudly exulting
74 sounding to: inferring
76 Pricked forth: spurred on
80 him: himself
83 Phoebus: the sun
deep: the sea
86 argument: token
89 but: except
91 stayed: stopped
92 subscribed: signed his name
96 frolic: celebrate
99 decay: decline in well-being
120 overcloying: satisfying
122 staying: stopping
131 largess: generosity (in gifts or money)
139 controlled: kept in check
143 corsive: corrosive
144 clear: cancel out
late: previous, recent
155 courser: horse
159 upon our privilege: upon our absolute authority
160 whether: which of the two
164 wan: won
167 And might seem partial: Hieronimo says that he may not be impartial since they are speaking of his son
170-2 Hieronimo says that Horatio should be credited as the true victor, referring, as Edwards has done, to the Fourth Fable of Avian concerning an ass who dresses in a lion’s skin
175 censure of my doom: the result of my judgement
177 sit beside: set aside or forgo
188 in regard: with regard to the fact that, or since
189 guerdon: reward
190 him: Horatio
191 device: the judgement (which takes account of the social hierarchy as well as the original problem)
15-17 Qui jacet… obesse magis: ‘If one lies on the ground, one can fall no further. Towards me fortune has exhausted her power to hurt; nothing can harm me more.’ The first sentence is from Alanus de lnsulis, Lib. parah, cap 2, 1.19, the second from Seneca’s Agamemnon, 1.698
20 sable weed: black clothing (expressing his melancholy)
22 despiteful: malicious
23-30 Fortune is blind… fickle winds?: Fortune was commonly shown as blind and deaf, standing on a rolling sphere
30 mutable: changeable
42 forced: unnatural
46 fault: crime
48 reck: heed, acknowledge
54 bewray: reveal
55 guerdon: reward
57 mischief misfortune
72 forgery: malicious fabrication
miscreant: villain
82 Terceira’s lord: as Capitao Donatorio of Terceira, in the Azores, Alexandra has tremendous power
93 envious: malicious
7 nill: will not
11 For glorious cause… the fairest: aiming to perform in the cause of the love inspired by Bel-imperia
16 Nemesis: the goddess of retribution, especially against humans
20 Pallas: Athene, one of the divinities associated with the Greeks at Troy, or Pergamus. Kyd refers to the Aeneid where she is mentioned, although it was Juno who was ‘girt with steel’
21 halberdiers: soldiers armed with halberds, a combined spear and axe
22 paunched: stabbed in the belly
dinged: knocked, struck
27 just remorse: sorrow, pity
42 scarf: lady’s favour worn by a knight in the field but, now worn by Horatio, also representing his loyalty to Don Andrea
71 disdain: indignation
77-89 Sister, what means… such miracles: this line-by-line dialogue (stichomythia) is one of the dramatic conventions derived from the Roman writer Seneca
82 conceit: imagination
83 enthralled: enslaved
84 enlarge: set free
85 laid my heart to gage: given as a pledge
90 ambages: roundabout ways of speaking
92 What boots complaint: what point is there in pleading your love?
96 aspect: appearance
98 words of course: conventional phrases
105 humorous: temperamental
137 pompous jest: stately entertainment
SD Although Hieronimo’s masque contains errors and is difficult to source, it would have appealed to an Elizabethan audience’s patriotism at a time of constant tension between England and Spain. A scutcheon is a shield with armorial bearings
139 mystery: hidden meaning
142 Albion: England
158 special argument: appropriate illustration
166 puissant: powerful
172 device: entertainment
176 Unless: unless it were that
1-4 Don Andrea complains at being made to witness events which necesarily disturb him, a situation which arises for ghosts in Senecan tragedy
6 fell despite: cruel hatred
1 coy: unresponsive
2 wonted: accustomed
3-10 ‘In time… stony wall.’: these lines echo a popular sonnet of the time on the subject of the courting of reluctant women by Thomas Watson; see Watson’s Sonnet XLVII in his Hecatompathia (1582)
4 haggard: wild
stoop to lure: a term derived from the training of hawks which swoop to lures of dead birds or bundles of feathers shaped to look like birds
8 rue: pity
sufferance: patient endurance
13 feature: form, bearing, rather than simply the face
16 Pan and Marsyas: two gods who lost flute-playing contests with Apollo
quill: a) reed (as in a flute); b) pen
19 valiancy: valour
20 slandered: brought into disrepute
25 uprear her state: improve her social position
29 ecstasies: unreasoning passions. Lorenzo implies that Balthazar is exaggerating
36 sound the bottom: to get to the bottom, as in sounding the depth of water beneath a vessel
41 Vien qui presto: ‘Come here quickly’ (Italian)
47 conveyance: secret undertaking
52 store: abundance
58 If case it lie in me: in case I am able
65 credit: particular relationship
71 stay: wait
72 guerdon: reward
85 Full-fraught: loaded
87 this cross: the cross of his sword-hilt
91 unjust: dishonest
100 in some secret sort: by some secret means
103 advance thy state: improve your social and financial status
107 tam armis quam ingenio: ‘by equal parts of force and skill’
125 sweet conceits: pleasing figures of speech
126 limed: made into traps, as in the use of bird-lime, a sticky substance used to trap birds
smooth: seduce
131 sleight: trickery
132 in his fall I’ll tempt the destinies: in his downfall I’ll tempt the gods of fate
136 his remove: his removal (by death)
2 smoke: emotion
flame: passion
4 contents: sources of contentment
5 blandishments: elaborate speeches
6 languishments: weariness
SD Balthazar and Lorenzo watch the lovers from the balcony or upper-stage
9 repair: restore
10 sing: celebrate
20 joys: enjoys
23 fond: foolish
34 cross: match, complement
37 countercheck: oppose
42 bower: an arbour, a seat in a garden half-enclosed by plants and foliage
45 Vesper: Venus, the evening star
gins: begins
46 distressful travellers: weary labourers or ‘travaillers’
48 Happily: haply, perhaps
50 prickle at her breast: a thorn at her breast. This is a reference to the legend of Philomena who revenged herself on her brother-in-law Tereus after he had raped her and pricked her breast with a thorn to remember her suffering
56 jealious: watchful, suspicious. The use of three syllables maintains the metre
3 coy it: pretends disinterest
4 dissemble: pretends
5 stoop: become obedient
6 froward: perverse
16 moiety: half-share
19 released: cancelled
22 make the motion: put the proposal
35 forwardness: enterprise
37 pitched: settled, agreed
38 all convenient speed: as quickly as possible
42 will: wilfulness
50 give back: turn her back. Edwards notes that the usual meaning of ‘retreat’ or ‘yield’ is inappropriate
1-5 A sense of foreboding is invoked in associating night and darkness with protection rather than threat
1 sable: black
7 controls: oppresses
10 without: outside
13 match: meeting
19 Luna: the moon
23 asketh: requires, demands
25 Flora: the Roman goddess of flowers
28 record: sing
30 counterfeits: imitates
31 frame: compose
34 Venus… Mars: Venus (Aphrodite) betrayed her husband Hephaestus having fallen in love with Mars (Ares) the god of war
37 ruder: rougher, coarser
40 ward: shield, guard
43 yoke: join
45 Edwards notes that Horatio inverts the traditional notion that the vine (associated with Venus) held up the elm even after the elm was dead. Here the vine pulls down the elm
48 die: an Elizabethan term for orgasm. Mulryne suggests that this double meaning emphasises the extreme sensuality of the scene
52 tried: as in ‘tried and tested’, referring to Horatio’s military reputation
60 ambitious proud: ambitious in seeking to satisfy his pride
61 highest now he is dead: a bleak joke at Horatio’s expense since he is now hanging on a tree (according to Hieronimo in Act IV). Most editors assume that the tree is part of the arbour
SD shirt: nightshirt
1 naked bed: a proverbial usage. The sleeper is naked, or not fully dressed
15 whilom: was once
21 dishonoured: Kinney suggests a) disgraced; b) violated
22 this: some editors amend to ‘these’, but others note that this was an acceptable plural form for the time
26 in time: at the appropriate time
27 vild: vile
29 leese: lose
life was new begun: Horatio should have been entering a new life now that the war was over
33 leesing: losing
39 the author of: the one responsible for
45 outrage: passionate behaviour
49 glasses of his sight: his eyes
51 handkercher: handkerchief or small scarf
60 plaints: sorrows
61 dissemble: disguise them or hold them back
62 find the practice out: discover the detail of the plot
66 dirge: funeral song
67-80 O aliquis… nulla sequatur: ‘Let someone mix for me the herbs which beautiful spring fosters, and let a salve be given for our grief; or let him apply juices, if there are any that bring oblivion to men’s minds. I myself shall gather anywhere in the great world whatever plants the sun draws forth into the fair regions of light; I myself shall drink whatever drug the wise-woman devises, and whatever herbs incantation assembles by its secret power. I shall face all things, death even, until the moment our every feeling dies in this dead breast. And so shall I never again, my life, see those eyes of yours, and has everlasting slumber sealed up your light of life? I shall perish with you; thus, thus would it please me to go to the shades below. But nonetheless I shall keep myself from yielding to a hasty death, in case then no revenge should follow your death.’ Kyd combines his own lines with others taken from the classical writers Lucretius, Ovid and Virgil
2 looked: expected, hoped
9 sickle: an instrument of harvest but also with a connotation of death, as with the scythe
11 heavy case: in a sad state
1 lnfortunate: unfortunate
2 Seated: placed
helpless: beyond help
doubts: fears
4 heat: fury
5 the wheel of chance: a common image describing rising and falling fortune, especially in political terms
7 doubt: suspect
10 That would be feared: that would wish to be feared
11 Sith: since
12 Lordings: Lords
14 successive line: line of succession
17 words… works: words do not always represent actual deeds
18 credit… countenance: a person’s outward show (face) does not necessarily reflect intention
19 train: treachery
20 coloured: disguised
21 consorted: kept company with
23 hourly coasts… the earth: refers to the belief that the earth was the centre of the universe, thus a symbol of constancy
24 purpose: attitude
SD Halberts: halb erdiers
32-4 Alexandra’s distress anticipates Hieronimo’s in the next scene
34 With whom… but wrong: all I ever see is injustice
36 infect: infected
37 any of her mould: anyone born there
46 suggestion: false accusation
47 When!: exclamation of impatience
50 Phlegethon: the river of fire in Hades, the classical Hell
52 maliced: behaved maliciously
53 meed: advantage
55 lake: the lake of Acheron in Hades, into which the Phlegethon flows
61 entrance: three syllables
66 commends him: sends greetings
79 quital: recompense
80 in kindness: naturally
81 fact: deed
84 suggestions: false accusations
89 misconceived: suspected
92 Rent: torn
97 ransomed: repaid
105 articulated here: expressed in the letter sent by the King of Spain
1 fraught: filled
2 lively form of death: death with the appearance of life
4 Confused: disordered
12 secretary: confidant
14 distressful: giving rise to distress
18 fear: frighten
23 mean: method
SD A letter Jalleth: the sudden arrival of the letter indicates the way that circumstances, directed by Revenge, move towards the working-out of revenge
26 writ: document
27 hapless: luckless
34 malign: hate
36 mean: means
38 train: plot
42-3 should draw/Thy life in question: should endanger your life
47 resolution: resolve (to take revenge)
48 by circumstances: by gathering evidence
51 Close: meet or come to an undertanding
52 bewray: disclose
62 suit unto her: a request to make to her
74 condition’s: disposition’s
76 humour: temperament
79 secret: a) secretive; b) reliable
85 strike him sure: kill him
88 Let me alone: leave it to me
93 mount: rise socially, but also an ironic joke about ‘mounting’ the scaffold
94 Che le Ieron!: the meaning is not clear. Possibly equivalent to the Italian ‘chi là’ (’who’s there?’) with leron the name of the page
100 complot: plot
cast: devised
101 practices: deceits
spread the watch: position the constables
107 expulse: expel
113 for coin: for money (as reward)
115 base companions: low-bred fellow conspirators
116 good haps: good fortune
119 slaves: another contemptuous term for his low-bred associates
1 hold: function properly
4 let me shift: leave it (the taking of aim) to me
10 fail: a) be unsuccessful; b) fall into poverty
15 suspect: suspicion
20 wont to watch and ward: accustomed to keep guard
22 close: a) close; b) concealed
23 stay thy pace: stop walking
27 close: grapple
SD dag: a heavy pistol
35 stay: arrest
37 I’ll be his priest: I’ll attend his death
39 unkindly: unnaturally
40 abroad: out of doors
2 preventing: forestalling
3 not mistrust: anticipate
10 confederates in our fault: partners in our crime
18 cast it thus: laid these plans
24 fact: crime, evil deed
31 exasperate: make harsh
32 complaints: grievances
33 doubt: fear
35 hardly shall deny: Edwards suggests ‘shall show harshness in denying me’
36 the Marshal-Sessions: more properly (in England) the Court of Marshalsea
38 policy: immoral strategy (in the Machiavellian sense)
40 prosecutes the point: fulfils the objective for me
42 limed: caught in bird-lime
45 holp: helped
46 my reaching fatch: my far-reaching stratagem
56 stand good lord: act as a good lord and his protector
60 works like wax: smoothly goes the way I intended
62 closely: secretly
63 be advised: be careful
64 secret: silent
68 boldly be resolved: feel confident
69 turned off: hanged
77 cleanly: efficiently
78 tickle: precarious
79 doubts: fears
82 list not: have no wish to
83 pretence: intention
84 privy: private
86 advantages: getting the upper hand
87-8 E quel… mi basterà: ‘And what I want, no one knows; I understand and that is enough for me’ (Italian)
SD the box is possibly meant to be associated with Pandora’s box in which only hope was left when all human qualities, both good and ill, had vanished
2 by my troth: by my truth, an oath
4 minority: boyhood
5 uncertainty: fearfulness
13 descant: hold forth about
18 scurvy: bitter
SD DEPUTY: the assistant to the Knight Marshal
1-10 Hieronimo’s concern here is with justice rather than simple revenge
1 extremes: difficulties
4 compass: locate
8 toils: burdens
consumeth age: uses up my life
13 regard: concern myself with
14 dearest blood: utmost loyalty
18 Gramercy: an expression of relief
20 nearer: more senous
23 gear: business
32 gear: deed, behaviour
39 approved: proved
43 this gear: the gallows
44 forward: presumptuous
45 halter: noose
disfurnish… habit: referring to the custom which grants the executioner his victim’s clothes or habit
48 boot: compensation
55 turned off: hanged (pushed off the support)
57 despatch: ‘let’s get to work’
58 by the hour: at set times or at an hourly rate
63 pate: head
71 companion: fellow
74 truss: close-fitting garment
75 truss up: hang
80 hearken: to pay attention to
87 ‘office’: Pedringano mocks the hangman’s high notion of his profession
93 motion: idea
101 inderdicted: prohibited
102 Still: forever
108 soft: wait a moment
115 Stand: rely
1 breathe abroad: give expression to
3 exclaims: cries
11 passions: sufferings
15 empyreal: heavenly
16 counter mured: doubly-walled as in a castle with concentric walls
20 Petergade: this is as near as the hangman can get to ‘Pedringano’
conceits: jests
23 fair commission: written authority
33 writ: Q has ‘write’ but editors agree that the past tense is correct. Pedringano refers to the earlier letter
extremes: predicament
48 closely smothered: kept secret
51-2 That Bel-imperia’s … feigned she: ‘He is relieved of two doubts, whether or not Bel-imperia really wrote the letter, and if so whether or not she was telling the truth’ (McIlwraith)
54-7 Now may … not leave: ‘Now I can check on every happening, by using the two letters; I could never be sure till now – but I see very vividly – that they committed this crime which Heaven must and will punish’ (Mulryne)
55 accident: occurrence, with reference to Horatio’s death
find: understand
62 constrained: forced
66 banned: cursed
70-4 I will … revenging threats: Hieronimo determines to seek ‘official’ justice (represented by the king) but this speech ominously foreshadows the inadequacy of this and the consequent impulse towards private revenge
SD Enter ISABELLA and her Maid: some editors have begun a new act at this point, thus giving The Spanish Tragedy the five-act format typical of plays of this period. However, this revision would mean that Act III would end without an exchange between Don Andrea and Revenge
1 purge: cleanse
5 recure: restore to health
11 whipstalk: whip-handle
13 humours: passions
14-22 Isabella’s speech here evokes a Christian afterlife which contrasts with the classical descriptions which have shaped the theology of the play to this point
21 to greet: to honour or celebrate (rather than to welcome)
22 mirror: model of excellence
2 sequestered: kept apart
3 No notice?: kept ignorant?
6 bends: directs
12 force perforce: of necessity
13 apply me to the time: accept the situation
4 resolution: courage
7 enlarged: set free
9 policy: strategem
10 smooth: avoid consequences
19 Salve: again, smooth over the situation (as in a healing balm)
soothe me up: agree with me
20 stand on terms with us: be difficult, try to make conditions
31 clap me up: lock me up
36 disparagement: dishonour
37 Unless, by … than deserved: ‘unless it were that, showing more concern and foresight than you deserved’ (Mulryne)
44 Concerning certain matters of estate: ‘concerning certain matters about possessions which the viceroy had given up’ (Edwards), although Mulryne notes that ‘matters of estate’ could mean ‘matters of importance’ or ‘state-matters’
48 next in sight: standing nearby
57 meanly accompanied: one of a number of references throughout the play to Horatio’s social inferiority
64 forged this: devised and carried through this action
70 exasperate: heightened, made warse
72 give his fury place: let his anger burn itself out
75 Aetna: the volcano in Sicily
89 Ariadne’s twines: in classical mythology Ariadne guided Theseus through the labyrinth using a thread, but Kyd may have confused Ariadne with Arachne, the Lydian weaver who was changed into a spider by Athene. Whatever the case, Balthazar means that Bel-imperia has metaphorically entangled him in the twines of her hair, an expression of her beauty
90 surprised: captured
91 front: forehead
94 In my conceit: to my mind
102-3 Et tremulo … proditionis opus: ‘they linked severe dread to trembling fear, a futile work of idiotic treason’ (Mulryne)
106 lodestar: a guiding star
109 lncertain to effect: unlikely to complete
4 next: nearest
10 be importunate to know: insist on knowing
13 a path upon your left-hand side: the path to deepest hell
18 baleful humours: evil disposition
uphold: persist in
21 hugy: huge
32 passing: exceedingly
33 imperfection of his age: senility
SD Hieronimo enters with a dagger and a halter, the ‘stock “properties” of a would-be suicide’ in Elizabethan drama (Boas)
3 seld: seldom
4 toys: things (or matters) of no importance
5 shifts: tricks
6 trudge: get moving, but not necessarily slowly, as in the modern sense of the word
6-11 Hieronimo, ’tis … doth stand: Hieronimo seeks justice in a symbolic landscape which recalls that in which Don Andrea sought a resting place at the beginning of the play
7 purple: blood-red
22 I’ll be … to bring: I’ll get even with you
24 there goes the hare away: Edwards notes that this refers to losing something one has tried to achieve or hold
31 go by, go by: be careful, don’t get into trouble
46 inexplicable: that which cannot be untied
52 argument: proof
56 bends: directs
58 that: in order that
62 see it given to Horatio: the King believes that Horatio is still alive
83 happed: happened to
84 demean him: behave himself
101 exempt the place: the meaning is unclear but it possible that the King is saying that he will take over Hieronimo’s duties until the whole situation is clearer, rather than hastily removing him from office, as Lorenzo has suggested
SD Hieronimo carries a copy of Seneca
1 Vindicta mihi!: Hieronimo is not quoting Seneca but the beginning of a well-known Biblical admonition: ‘vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord’ (Romans 12.19)
6 ’Per scelus … sceleribus iter’: ‘the safe way for crime is through further crimes’; from Seneca’s Agamemnon (1.115)
12-13 ‘Fata si … habes sepulchrum’: from Seneca’s Troades (II. 511-12). Hieronimo gives a loose translation over the next four lines
21 vulgar: common
22-4 With open … cloaked best: Hieronimo seems to contrast the crude but effective actions of some revengers with the more subtle means he is contemplating
23 mean: course of action
24 kindship: kindness
27-8 But in … for revenge: Hieronimo notes that only in desperate situations (‘extremes’) would a revenger forgo the ‘advantage’ of considered and subtle revenge. Hence his plan, formulated over the next few lines, to delay
35 ‘Remedium malorum iners est’: ‘Is an idle remedy for ills’’; from Seneca, Oedipus, 1. 515
38 nobility: noble rank
46 sort: group
58 corregidor: advocate
61 action of the case: an action which requires a special writ to support it
62 ejectione firmae: ‘a writ to eject a tenant from his holding before the expiration of his lease’ (Edwards)
66 band: bond
67 silly: pitiable
71 Myrmidons: the fearless followers of Achilles
72 Corsic rocks: the craggy rocks of the island of Corsica to which Seneca was exiled
77 blood: passion
100 meaner wits: of lower social rank
102-7 Hieronimo, whenas … thy Horatio?: the sea imagery is not clear, yet the overall impression is that Hieronimo is moved by the plight of the old man (a meaner wit) rather as Hamlet is by the First Player’s show of grief in Shakespeare’s play
109 passion: suffering
110 Pluto: the god of the underworld
111 Alcides: Hercules
114 triple-headed porter: the monstrous three-headed dog who guarded the underworld but was defeated by Hercules
116 Thracian poet: Orpheus, who rescued his dead wife from the underworld by charming Persephone (Proserpine) with his playing
122 rent: rend
138 Aeacus: a judge in the underworld
142 cries on righteous Rhadamanth: pleads to Rhadamanth, a judge in the underworld
149 blasted: blighted
151 favour: countenance, looks
153 Fury: avenging spirit
156 Minos: the third judge in the underworld
162 lively: living
171 stay: support
174 cords: pun on ‘chord’ (musical) and cord meaning rope
9 train: company
12 troth: loyalty
17 candescent: agreement
26 motion: proposal
34 strangely: wonderfully
35 nature strives in him: he weeps
37 extremities: powerful emotions
50 intercept: interrupt
56 cross: prevent
74 vulgar, liberal: common people, hcenttous
75 advantage: opportunity
water-breach: an opening in a wall caused by water pressure
92 misconster: misconstrue
109 sadly: with a serious demeanour
117 trow?: do you think?
118 Pocas palabras: few words (Spanish)
133 intercepts: obstructs
141 the combat of them: the right to meet them in combat
146 cross: obstruct
153 use: make use of
167 Pha!: an exclamation of contempt
168-9 Chi mi … tradir vuole: ‘He who gives me more caresses than usual has betrayed me, or wishes to betray me’ (Italian)
1 Erichtho: the Thessalian sorceress
3 Erebus: spirit of darkness
4 Styx and Phlegethon: rivers in the underworld
5 Edwards and others argue that a line is missing here.
Edwards suggests something like Was I distressed with outrage sore as this’ which gives sense to ll. 4-7
11 To sleep away: to sleep through
18 worldings ground … dreamed, upon: mortals base their belief on their dreams
20 mood: anger or attitude
32 Hymen: god of marriage
33 Clothed in … saffron robe: Hymen’s usual saffron (yellow) robe is here covered in sable (black)
7 unkind: unnatural
9 With what: the compositor repeats the first two words of the previous line and inserts the last six words of the succeeding line. A line, therefore, is missing
15 history: a) example; b) narrative
17-20 Unhappy mothers … be lost: a syntactically fractured sentence, perhaps reflecting Bel-imperia’s state of mind
20 tendered: nurtured
21 in respect of compared to
24 bear it … fashion’s sake: ‘endure it for the sake of appearances’ (Kinney)
27 devise: plot
32 applies our drift: endorses our plan
39 care: caution
40 thoughtless think: unconcerned
44 determine of: bring about
50 grace: support
51 For why: because
59-60 For you … have you: said ironically
66 motion: entertainment
70 Why then I’ll fit you: a) furnish you with what you need; b) give you what you deserve (as punishment)
73 professor: the one who ‘professes’
76 too quick: a) too fast or lively in repartee; b) too much alive
85 plausible: agreeable
87 Nero: the Roman emperor who supported the theatre and acted in plays. Mulryne notes a possible additional allusion in the fact that ‘he was associated with violence and deeds of blood’
89 experience: trial
101 determined: intended, arranged
105 how to speak: Balthazar seems to imply that princes and courtiers are more eloquent than gendemen and scholars, although the exact meaning of this exchange is uncertain
107 argument: plot, narrative
108 roundly: plainly, immediately
108-40 The drama of Soliman and Perseda, as well as being the means by which Hieronimo pursues his revenge, rehearses many of the principal relationships in the main play
117 break: disclose
118 bashaws: pashas, Turkish courtiers
134 conceited: formed a conception of
141 abstracts drawn: outlines written up
145 fauchion: broad, curved sword
148 Huntress: Diana, goddess of hunting
150 look to: prepare
154 gracing of: adorning
160 Tragedia cothurnata: the most serious of Athenian drama, performed by an actor wearing buskins (thick-soled shoes)
164-6 Reference to the performers of the Commedia dell’arte, famous for their skills in improvisation
170 rests: remains
173 unknown languages: it is not dear whether or not this promise is fulfilled in the subsequent performance, although the note in Act IV, scene iv seems to indicate that it may have been
179 cunning: skill
181 hardly: with difficulty
183 invention: basic idea
185 strange and wonderous show: this refers to the body of Horatio
192 soothe his humours up: indulge his whims
194 ply this gear: carry out this business
195 fall of Babylon: this could refer to both the wicked city of Babylon (see Revelation 18) and the Tower of Babel with its many tongues. Babylon was also a term used by Elizabethans to signify Rome to which Spain paid allegiance
13 complot: plot
16 unmanured: barren, uncultivated
17 noisome: pestilent
20 passengers: passers-by
32-4 Ah nay… no end: ‘Even Isabella is deceived by Hieronimo’s plan of stealthy and circumspect revenge’ (Mulryne)
SD he knocks up the curtain: somehow Hieronimo has to erect a curtain (possibly over one of the doors at the rear of an Elizabethan stage) in order to conceal Horatio’s body
1 fellows: fellow actors
12 gallery: probably meaning the hall of an Elizabethan house rather than the upper gallery of the theatre
13 throw me down the key: throw the key to the ground
17 the title: reference to the practice of using a title-board to introduce the play to the audience
20 Despatch: hurry
22 recompt: recall to mind
3 of pleasure: at their pleasure
9 book-keeper: the person who had the one copy of the complete play in an Elizabethan theatre (who could also prompt the actors). The audience would already know ‘the argument of that they show’ but whether or not the note below, addressing the reader of The Spanish Tragedy, means that the play-within-a-play was then performed ‘in sundry languages’ is unknown
16 reserving: protecting, preserving
18 adamant: magnetic loadstone
19 wait: attend on her
20-4 See, Viceroy… on Bel-imperia: Kyd reinforces the parallels between the actors and the parts they have been given
29 lights: eyes
33 plot: the argument (and the cast-list) found in the book
37 to: compared to
55 favour: your love
68 Well said: the king compliments Hieronimo on his play
75 vulgar: everyday
76 Haply: perhaps
bootless: unavailing
77 fabulously counterfeit: a complete fiction
85 latest: last
87 instance: explanation
96 From forth… me life: a) Horatio’s death took away Hieromino’s life-breath; b) the discovery of his murdered body inspired Hieronimo’s new ‘life’ as a revenger
103 sorted: sought out
112 Through-girt: pierced through
118 Marched in a net: a proverbial term for concealment, deception
119 rated: berated
125 propitious: of good omen
153 Hold, Hieronimo: there is a debate over whether the instruction is addressed to Hieronimo (to hold back from hanging himself) or to the others (to arrest him); we prefer the former
171-5 My guildess… these afflictions: Hieronimo repeats his explanation (which some critics have found tedious) yet more detail is provided and the sense of ‘justice’ is enhanced. The dramatic contrast between Hieronimo’s urgent explanation and his later silence is complete
200 troth: truth
213 haul: drive
214 Scylla’s barking and untamed gulf: Scylla and Charybdis were rocks between Italy and Sicily. Homer refers to Scylla as ‘barking’
215 Acheron: one of the rivers of the underworld
216 my want for: my loss of
4 Vild: vile
5 quaint: cunning
6 misdone: slain
10 as Dido fell: Dido killed herself after losing Aeneas (Aeneid, Book IV)
14 doom: justice
15 consort: accompany
18 inured: carried on
19 train: company
22 vestal virgins: virgins dedicated to the Roman goddess Vesta who vowed themselves to chastity
28 bugs: bugbears, horrors of the imagination
31 Tityus: a giant, punished by having his liver devoured by vultures
32 Don Cyprian: Duke of Castile, who had disapproved of Don Andrea’s relationship with Bel-impena supply his room: take his place
34 the lover: Ixion, who had tried to seduce Juno
36 Chimaera’s neck: Chimaera was a monster of Greek mythology with the head of a lion, body of a goat and tail of a dragon
40 Sisyphus: in Greek legend, the king of Crete, punished in the underworld by having, eternally, to roll a stone up a hill
43 still: continually
47 end: ended