GERALDINE

I perhaps, have seen what you have only read of. I must confess, I have seen Jerusalem and Room, have brought Mark from th'one, from th'other Testimony, Know Spain, and France, and from their airs have snckt A breath of every language: but no more Of this discourse since we draw near the place Of them we go to visit. And why ingeniously and nobly? I see your wit is nimble as your tongue, But how does all at home? This fellow I perceive Is well acquainted with his Master's mind, O 'tis a good old man. 'Tis acknowledged, But to the worthy gentleman himself, I am so bound in many courtesies, That not the least, by all the expression My Labour, or my Industry can show, I will know how to cancel. He studies to engross me to himself, And is so wedded to my company, He makes me stranger to my Father's house, Although so near a neighbour. Your Carracter, I must bestow on his unmerited Jove, As one that know I have it, and yet ignorant Which way I should deserve it: Here both come. That defect Heaven hath supplied in this your virtuous Wife, Both fair, and full of all accomplishments. My Father is a Widower, and herein Your happiness transcends him. Truth's a word, That should in every language relish well, Nor have I that exceeded. Any thing, that lies within my knowledge. Intruth Lady I never cast on any in those parts A curious eye of censure, since my Travel Was only aimed at Language, and to know; These passed me but as common objects did, Seen, but not much regarded. I should be loath Profess in outward show to be one Man, And prove my self another. I'll answer you in brief, (as I observe) Each several climb for object, fare, or use, Affords within it self, for all of these What is most pleasing to the man there born; Spain, that yields scant of food, affords the Nation A parsimonious stomach, where our appetites Are not content but with the large excess Of a full table; where the pleasingest fruits Are found most frequent, there they best content; Where plenty flows, it asks abundant Feasts; For so hath prou dent Nature dealt with all; So in the choice of Women, the Greek wantons Comple'd beneath the Turkish slavery, Vassal themselves to all men, and such best Please the voluptious, that delight in change; The French is of one humour, Spain another, The hight Italian he's a strain from both, All pleased with their own nations even the More, He thinks the blackest the most beautiful; And Lady, since you so far tax my choice, I'll thus resolve you; Being and English man, Amongst all these Nations I have seen or tried, To please me best, here would I choose my bride. I shall then, with a kind of Barbarism, Shadow a Jest, that asks a smoother Tongue, For in my poor discourse, I doeprotest, it'll but lose his luster. Then thus it was, this Gentleman and I, Passed but joust now, by your next Neighbours house, Where as they say, dwells one Young Lionel. Why that's they very Subject, upon which It seems, this Jest is grounded, there this Night, Was a great feast. In the height of their Carousing, all their brains, Warmed with the heat of Wine; Discourse was offered, Of Ships, and Storms at Sea; when suddenly, Out of his giddy wildness, one conceives The Room wherein they quafft, to be a Pinnace, Moouning and Floating; and the confused Noise, To be the murmuring Winds, Gusts, Mariners; That their unsteadfast Footing, did proceed From rocking of the Vessel: This conceived, Each one begins to apprehend the danger, And to look out for safety, fly says one Up to the Manne-top, and discourer; He Climbs by the bed post, to the Taster, there Reports a Turbulent Sea and Tempest towards; And wills them if they'le save their Ship and lines, To cast their Lading overboard; At this All fallen to Work, and Hoist into the Street, As to the Sea, What next come to their hand, Stools, Tables, Tressels, Trenchers, Bedsteds, Cups, Pots, Plate, and Glasses; Here a fellow Whistles, They take him for the Boatswain, one lies struggling Upon the floor, as if he swome for life, A third, takes the Base-violl for the Cockboat, Sits in the belly on't, labours and Rows; His Oar, the Stick with which the Fiddler played; A fourth, bestrides his Fellows, thinking to escape As did Arion, on the Dolphins back, Still fumbling on a gittern. The rude multiude, Watching without, and gaping for the spoil Cast from the windows, went bith' ears about it; The Constable is called to Atone the broil, Which done, and hearing such a noise within, Of eminent Shipwreck; enters the house, and finds them In this confusion, They Adore his staff, And think it Neptune's Trident, and that he Comes with his Tritons, (so they called his watch) To calm the Tempest, and appease the Waves; And at this point, we left them. Now good Rest with you. We now are left alone. I must confess, It is in you, your Noble Courtesy, In him, a more then common confidence, And in this Age, canscarce find president. A villain were he, to deceive such trust, Or (were there one) a much worse Carracter. You deserve, even for his sake, to be for ever young; And he for yours, to have his Youth reviewed; So mutual is your true conjugal Love; Yet had the Fates so pleased In those times, Of all the Treasures of my Hope's and Love, You were the Exchequer, they were Stored in you; And had not my unfortunate Travel crossed them, They had been here reserved still. However let us Love still, I entreat: That, Neighbourhood and breeding will allow; So much the Laws Divine and Human both, Betwixt Brother and a Sister will approve; Heaven then forbid, that they should limit us Wish well to one another. Will you resolve me one thing? That's the thing I crave, And only that, to have a place next him. Only thus far, Your Husbands old, to whom my Soul does wish, A Nesters age, So much he merits from me; Yet if (as proof and Nature daily teach) Men cannot always live, especially Such as are old and Crazed; He be called hence, Fairly, in full maturity of time, And we two be reserved to after life, Will you confer your Widowhood on me? Vow to that. It's enough, that word Alone, instates me happy; Now so please you, We will divide, you to your private Chamber, I to find out my friend. Make you doubt? You charge me deeply Lady. By all that you have said, I swear, and by this Kiss Confirm. Sir I shall; Please you to walk. Sir I shall, I now attend your pleasure. Pray your meaning. Pray Sir expound your self, for I protest Of all the Languages I yet have learth'd, This is to me most foreign. Married Sir. Of all which, I have believe me, neither needs nor use; My competence best pleasing as it is; And this my singularity of life, Most to my mind contenting. That I hope: My duty and obedience still unblamed, Did never merit such austerity; And from a father never yet displeased. Unsay that language, I entreat you Sir, And do not so oppress me; Or if needs Your heavy imposition stand in force, Resolve me by your counsel; With more safety May I infringe a sacred vow to heaven, Or to oppose me to your strict command? Since one of these I must. For marry, Sir, I neither may, nor can. It yet stands strong; Both to support you unto future life, And fairer comfort. Both these I can: Then rise Sir, I entreat you; And that innocency, Which poisoned by the breath of Calumny, cast you thus low, Shall, these few stains wiped off, with better thoughts erect you. There's but one fire from which this smoke may grow; Namely, the unmatched yoke of youth; And In which, If ever I occasion was, Of the sma lest breach; The greatest implacable mischief Adultery can threaten, fallen on me; Of you may I be disavowed a son; And unto Heaven a servant: For that Lady, As she is Beauty's mirror, so I hold her For Chastities examples: From her tongue, Never came language, that arrived my ear, That even censurious Cato, lived he now, Could misinterpret; Never from her lips, Came unchaste kiss; Or from her constant eye, Look savouring of the least immodesty: Further— Name it then. As I hope it, I will not fail your charge. lie but inquire for one, at the next Inn, And instantly return. Bess: How dost thou Gentle? He's a noble fellow, And my choice friend. And how's all at home? Nay, weel not partly without a glass of wine, And meet so seldom: Boy, Drawer Anon, anon Sir. A Pint of Clarret, quickly. Nay, fit down: The news, the news, I pray thee; I am sure, I have been much inquired of Thy old Master, and thy young Mistress too. Fill Boy: Here Bess, this glass to both their healths; Why dost weep my wench? Come, I must know. But what? Be more plain. you are too blame, And Bess, you make me angry; He's my friend, And she my second self; In all their meetings, I never saw so much as cast of eye Once entertained betwixt them. For her; I have been with her at all hours, Both late and early; In her bedchamber. And often singly ushered her abroad: Now, would she have been any men alive, She had been mine; You wrong a worthy Friend, And a chaste Mistress, you're not a good Girl; Drink that speak better of her, I could chide you, But I'll forbear; What you have rashly spoke, Shall ever here be buried. Play now the Market-maid. And prithee bout thy business. She a Prostitute? Nay, and to him my troath plighted, and my Friend; As possible it is, that Heaven and Earth Should be in love together, meet and kiss, And so cut off all distance: What strange frenzy Came in this wenches brain, so to surmise? Were she so base? his nobleness is such, He would not entertain it for my sake: Or he so bent? His hight and lust burned appetite Would be soon quenched, at the mere contemplation Of her most Pious and Religious life. The Girl was much too blame; Perhaps her Mistress Hath stirred her anger, by some word or blow, Which she would thus revenge; Not apprehending At what a high price Honour's to be rated; Or else some one that envies her rare virtue, Might hire her thus to brand it; Or, who knows But the young wench may fix a thought on me; And to divert me from her Mistress love, May raise this false aspersion? howsoever, My thoughts on these two columns fixed are, She's good as fresh, and purely chaste as fair. I know the hand that superscribed it well; Stay but till I peruse it, and from me Thou shalt return and answer. He writes me heat, That at my discontinuance he's much grieved, Desiring me, as I have cuer rendered Or him or his, to give him satisfaction Touching my discontent; and that in person, By any private meeting. Thou art then of his council? Though near so strict hath been my father's charge, A little I'll dispense with't, for his love; Commend me to thy Master, tell him from me, On Monday night (then will my leisure serve) I will by Heavens assistance visit him. But it will be midnight first, at which late hour, Please him to let the Garden door stand open, At that I'll enter; But conditionally, That neither Wife, Friend, Servant, no third soul Save him, and thee to whom he trusts this message, Know of my coming in, or passing out: When, tell him, I will fully satisfy him Concerning my forced absence. I'll call for Pen and Ink, And instantly dispatch it. A Friend. Honest Roger. How go the affairs within? Thy word shall be my warrant, but secured Most in thy Master's promise, on which building; By this known way I enter. It could not come From one whom I more honour; Sir, I thank you. Now, first Sir your attention I entreat; Next, your belief that what I speak is joust, Maugre all contradiction. Then I ; With endue acknowledgement Of all your more then many courtesies: Y'aue been my second father, and your wife, My noble and chaste Mistress; All your seruanes At my command; And this your bounteous Table, As free and common as my Father's house; Neither against any, or the least of these, Can I commence joust quarrel. Out of many, I will propose some few: The care I have Of your (as yet unblemished) renown; The untouched honour of your virtuous wife; And (which I valve least, yet dearly too) My own fair reputation. O deer Sir, Bade tongues have been too busy with us all; Of which I never yet had time to think, But with sad thoughts and griefs unspeakable: It hath been whispered by some wicked ones, But loudly thundered in my father's ears, By some that have maligned our happiness; (Heaunen, if it can brook slander, pardon them) That this my customary coming hither, Hath been to base and sorded purposes: To wrong your bed; Injure her chastity; And be mine own undoer: Which, how false? Now this Calumny Arriving first unto my father's ears, His easy nature was induced to think, That these things might perhaps be possible: I answered him, as I would do to Heaven: And cleared my self in his suspicious thoughts, As truly, as the high allknowing Judge Shall of these stains acquit me; which are merely Aspersions and untruths: The good old man Possessed with my sincerity, and yet careful Of your renown, her honour, and my fame; To stop the-worst that scandal could inflict; And to prevent false rumours charges me, The cause removed, to take away the effect; Which only could be, to forbear your house; And this upon his blessing: You hear all. Pray pardon Sir. But my father's charge. You are powerful. May he that made you So joust and good, still guard you. Not to bed, So I perhaps might oversleep my self, And then my tardy waking might be ay me To the more early household; Thus as I am, I'll rest me on this Pallar; But in vain, I find no sleep can fasten on mine eyes, There are in this disturbed brain of mine So many mutinous fancies: This, to me, Will be a tedious night; How shall I spend it? No Book that I can spy? no company? A little let me recollect my self; O, what more wished company can I find, Suiting the apt occasion, time and place; Then the sweet contemplation of her Beauty; And the fruition too, time may produce, Of what is yet lent out? It's a sweet Lady, And every way accomplished: Hath mere accident Brought me thus near, and I not visit her? Should it arrive here are, perhaps might breed Our lasting separation; For betwixt Lovers, No quarrel's to unkindness; Sweet opportunity Offers prevention, and invites me too't: The house is known to me, the stairs and rooms; The way unto her chamber frequently Trodden by me at midnight, and all hours: How joyful to her would a meeting be, So strange and unexpected; Shadowed too Beneath the veil of night; I am resolved To give her visitation, in that place Where we have passed deep vows, her bedchamber: My fiery love this darkness makes seem bright, And and this the path that leads to my delight. And this the gate vntoo't; I'll listen first, Before too rudely I disturb her rest: And gentle breathing; Would? she's sure awake, For in the bed two whisper, and their voices Appear to me unequal;—One a woman's— And hers;—the other should be no maids tongue, It bears too big a tone; And hark, they laugh; (Damnation) But list further; tother sounds— Like—It's the same false perjured traitor, Dalavill, To friend and goodness: Unchaste impious woman, False to all faith, and true conjugal love; There's met, a Serpent and a Crockadell; A Synon and a Circe: O, to what May I Compare you?—But my Sword, I'll act a nobel execution, On two unmatched for sorded vilianie:— I left it in my Chamber, And thanks That I did to; It hath prevented me From playing a base Hangman: Since securely While I, although for many, yet less faults, Strive hourly to repent me; I once loved her, And was to him intir'd; Although I pardon, Heaven will find time to punish, I'll not stretch My joust revenge so far, as once by To make your brazen Impudence to ; Damn on, revenge too great; And to suppress Your Souls yet lower, without hope to Heap Ossa upon Pelion: You have made me To hate my very Country, because here bred: Near two such monsters; First I'll leave this House, And then my Father's; Next I'll take my leave, Both of this Climb and Nation, Travel till Age snow upon this Head: My passion now, Are unexpressable, I'll end the thus: Ill man, bade Woman, your unheard of , This unjust censure, on a Just man give, To seek out place, where no two live. O, deer Sir, Do not, I do entreat you, repent you Of your free grant; Which with such care and study. I have so long, so often laboured for. Then understand; The ground thereof took his first birth from you; 'Twas you first charged me to forbear the house, And that upon your blessing: Let it not then Offend you Sir, if I so great a charge Have strived to keep so strictly. Whose doors, to me, Appear as horrid as the gates of Hell: Where shall I borrow patience, or from whence? To give a meeting to this viperous brood, Of Friend and Mistress. Your choice favours, I still taste in abundance. Pardon me Sir, That have not yet, since your return from Sea, Voted the least fit opportunity, To entertain you with a kind salute. Mistress Pru, I have not seen you long, but greet you thus, May you be Lady of a better husband Then I expect a wife. I know no cause. Now your tongue speaks Oracles; For all the rest are nothing, it's for you, Only for you I cannot. Shall my oppressed sufferance yet break forth Into impatience, or endure her more? I had thought Long since the Sire's had been all destroyed; But one of them I find survives in her; She almost makes me question what I know, And Heretic unto my own belief: O thou mankinds seducer. Yes, thou hast spoke to me in Showers, I will reply in Thunder; Thou Adultress, That hast more poison in thee then the Serpent, Who was the first that did corrupt thy sex, The Devil. To thee, falsest of all that ever man termed fair; Hath Impudence so stooled thy smooth soft skin, It cannot blush? Or sin so obdured thy heart, It does not quake and tremble? Search thy conscience, There thou shalt find a thousand clamorous tongues To speak as loud as mine does. I'll play the Doctor To open thy deaf ears; Monday the Ninth Of the last Month; Canst thou remember that? That Night more black in thy abhorred sin, Then in the gloomy darkness; That the time. Wouldst thou the place know? Thy polluted Chamber, So often, witness of my sinless vows; Wouldst thou the Person? One not worthy Name, Yet to torment thy guilty Soul the more, I'll tell him thee, That Monster Dalavill; Wouldst thou your Bawd know? Midnight, that the hour; The very words thou spam e? Now what would Geraldine Say, if he saw us here? To which was answered, Tush he's a Coxcomb, fit to be so fooled: No blush? What, no faint Fever on thee yet? How hath thy black sins changed thee? Thou Medusa, Those Hairs that late appeared li golden Wyers, Now crawl with Snakes and Adders; Thou art ugly. Only he, That pitying such and Innocenti S mine, Should by two such delinquents be be rayed, He brought me to that place by mirracle; And made mean ear witness of all this. But think wharthou hast lost To forfeit me; I not withstanding these, (So fixed was my love and v erable) I kept this from thy Husband, nay all ears, With thy transgressions smothering mine own wrongs, In hope of thy Tush, bow in , Which thou hast most offended; alas, Save in such (Scam ce unheard of) Treachery, Most sinful Like thy self; Wherein, O wherein, hath my unspotted and unbounded Love deserved the least of these? Sworn to be made a ale For term of life; And all this for my goodness; Die, and die soon, acquit me of my Oath, But prithee die repentant; Farewell ever, It's thou, and only thou hast Banished me, Both from my Friends and Country. Go take her Up, whom thou hast oft thrown Down, Villain. She hath made one then a free release, Of all the debts I owed her. It calls me from all Travel, and from henceforth, With my Country I am Friends.