FATHER

No (graceless Imp, degenerate and unkind) Thou art no son of mine, but Tigers whelp, That hast be fostered by some Lyons pap, But as the tallest Ash is cut down, because it yields no fruit, And and unprofitable cow, yielding no milk, is slaughtered, And the idle rone, gathering no honey, is contemned, So ungrateful children, that will yield no natural obedience, Must be cut off, as unfit to bear the name Christians. Whose lives digress both from reason and humanity, But as thou hast dealt unnatural with me, So I resolve to pull my heart from thee, Therefore dread Prince, vouchsafe to pity me, And grant I may have Justice on my son. Will Edgar now be found a partial Judge, In pleading pardon for a graceless child? Is it not true, that one coal of fire will burn many houses? And one small bracke in finest cloth that is, Will both disgrace and blemish the whole piece: So wilful children, spotted with one ill, Are apt to fallen to twenty thousand more. And therefore (mighty Sovereign) leave to speak, And pass joust sentence on Philarchus life. Then virtue us Prince, seeing you will have it so, Although the place be far unfit for me, I am content your Grace shall have your mind, Thus like and Ass attired in costly robes, Or like a ring thrust in a foul Sows snout, So do these robes and sceptre fit mine age: But for I am Judge, Philarchus, stand thou forth, And know, as there is nothing so good, but it hath some inconveni ence, So there is no man whatsoever without some fault: Yet this is no argument to maintain thy wilful disobedience, As the Rose hath his prickle, the finest Velvet his bracke, The fairest flower his bran, so the best wit his wanton will: But (Philarchus) thou hast be more than wanton, Because thou hast disobeyed the laws both of God and nature, The tears that thou hast shed, might warrant me That thou art penitent for thy amiss: Beside (my son) a father's natural care, Does challenge pardon for thy first amiss. Nay, stay my Lord, this did I speak as father to Phi larchus But now my (Lord) I must speak as a Judge. And now Philarchus, mark what I set down, Because thou hast be disobedient, And wronged thy aged father wilsullie, And given a blow to him that nourished thee. And thereby hast incurd thy mother's And in that curse to the wrath of God, And so be hated on the earth amongst men. And for I will be found no partial Judge, Because I fit as Gods Utzegerent now: Here I do banish thee from England's bounds, And never to Thanks (virtuous king) I humbly take my leave. Then virtuous Prince, mirror of courtesy, Whose Judgements, and whose laws for government, And punishing of every foul abuse, Is Like the judgement of great Alexander, Third of that name, whom some termed the Severe, Or like Vaspasian, Rome's virtuous governor, Who for a blow his son did give a Swain, Did straight command that he should lose his hand. TO en virtuous Edgar, be Vaspasian once, In giving sentence on a graceless child, Know (virtuous Prince) that in my pride of years, When lustful pleasure pricked my wanton mind: Even in the April of my flourishing time, I was betr worser, and wedded to a wife, By whom, too soon, I had that unkind boy, Whose disobedience to his aged Sire, The Lord will plague with torments worse than death, This disobedient child, nay base Abstranogant, Whom I with care did nourish to this state, Puffed with a pride, that upstarted Courtiers use, And seeing that I was brought to poverty, He did refuse to know me for his Sire. And when I challenged him by Nature's laws, To yield obedience to his Father's age, He told me straight, he took it in great scorn, To be begotten by one so base as I. My age that ill could brook his sharp reply, Did with this wand (my Lord) reach him a blow: But he contrary laws of God and en, Did me such a blow in vild dis aine, That with the stroke I fell to earth again.