ERCOLE

Mistake not excellent Mistress, these commends Express, his Majesty of Spain has given me Both addition of honour, as you may perceive By my habit, and a place here to command Over thirty Galleys; this your brother shows, As wishing that you would be partner In my good Fortune. Sir, you have done me The mainest wrong that ere was offered To a Gentleman of my breeding. You have led me With a vain confidence, that I should marry Your sister, have proclaimed it to my friends, Employed the greatest Lawyers of our State To settle her a jointure, and the issue Is, that I must become ridiculous Both to my friends and enemies: I will leave you, Till I call to you for a strict account Of your unmanly dealing. Lady, I will do a manly Office for you, I will leave you, to the freedom of your own soul, May it move whither heaven and you please. Alas, she mistakes, 'Tis Contarino she wishes living; but I must fasten On her last words, for my own safety. Here in the vowed comfort of your daughter. Collect your self, good Lady, Would you behold brave Contarino living? There cannot be a nobler Chronicle Of his good then my self: if you would view him dead, I will present him to you bleeding fresh, In my penitency. Here begin a I my compassion: o poor soul! She is with child by Contarino, and he dead, By whom should she preerue her fame to'th world, But by my self that loved her above the world? There never was a way more honourable, To exercise my virtue, then to father it, And preserve her credit, and to marry her. I'll suppose her Contarino's widow, bequeathed to me Upon his Death: for sure she was his wife, But that the Ceremony a'th Church was wanting. Report this to her, Madam, and withal, That never father did conceive more joy For the birth of and heir, then I to understand, She had such confidence in me. I will not now Press a Visit upon her, till you have prepared her: For I do read in your distraction, Should I be brought a'th sudden to her presence, Either the hasty fright, or else the shame May blast the fruit within her. I will leave you, To commend as loyal faith and service to her, As ere heart harboured; by my hope of bliss, I never lived to do good act but this. Stay my Lord here's a window To let in more light to the Court. I am Ercole. I obey the arrest o'th Court. Away, thou art the Traitor: I only live to challenge this former suit, Touched but thy fame, this accusation Reaches to thy fame and life: the brave Contarino Is generally supposed slain by this hand. The report of his mother delivered to me, In distraction for Contarino's death. My love to Contarino. 'Tis true: but I begun to love him, When I had most cause to hate him, when our bloods Embraced each other, then I pitied, That so much valour should be hazarded On the fortune of a single Rapier, And not spent against the Turk. Sir, I do not know you. Cry you me , I have known of your Nation Brave Soldiers. You have judged to day A most confused practice, that takes end In as bloody a trial, and we may observe By these great persons, and their indirect Proceedings, shadowed in a veil of State. Mountains are deformed heaps, swelled up alofts Vales wholesomer, though lower, and trod on oft. Leave the Room, Gentlemen. Sir, I'll tell you, My love, as I have formerly protested To Contarino, whose unfortunate end, The traitor wrought: and here is one thing more, Deads all good thoughts of him, which I now received From Iolenta. Yes, in this Letter: For having sent to her to be resolved Most truly, who was father of the child, She writes back, that the shame she goes withal, Was begotten by her brother. Yes sir. Of whom? Living! You were but now my second, now I make you My self for ever. O 'tis the fair Iolenta; to what purpose Are you thus eclipsed? O rise Lady, certainly heaven never intended Kneeling to this fearful purpose. Give me your hand. O my right worthy friends, you have stayed me long, one health, and then aboard; for all the Galleys are come about. Pray why fit? Pray leave us Gentlemen. Wilt please you fit? Unfeigned. Compare her beauty, and my youth together, And you will find the fair effects of love No miracle at all. Your Warrant must be mighty. You deal fair sir. Move it. If I tell truth, you will not credit me. I will tell you truth, Yet show some reason you have not to believe me: Her Brother had no hand in't, is't not hard For you to credit this: for you may think, I count it baseness to engage another Into my quarrel; and for that take leave To dissemble the truth. Sir, if you will fight With any but my self, fight with her Mother, She was the motive. I will sir. I will haste before you, point whither. Yet me thinks, this looks not Like a quarrel. You have not appareled your sury well, It goes too plain Like a Scholar. You promise well to your self. Shall's have no Seconds? The length of our weapons. For that let me embrace you: No believe me, I take your heart to be sufficient proof, Without a privy coat; and for my partly, A Taffaty is all the shirt of Mail I am armed with. My sword shall answer that; come, are you ready? Idem as soon take Your counsel in Divinity at this present, As I would take a kind direction from you For the managing my weapon; and indeed, Both would show much alike. Come are you ready? O, I cannot forget it. Did you come hither only to tell me so, Or to do it? I mean well, but it'll not thrive. I do look on my Actium with a thought of terror, To do ill and dwell in't, is unmanly. I fought for one, in whom I have no more right, Then false executors have in Orphans goods, They cozen them of; yet though my cause were nought, I rather chosen the hazard of my soul, Then forego the compliment of a choleric man. I pray continue the report of my death, and give out, Cause the Church denied me Christian burial, The Vice admiral of my Galleys took my body, With purpose to commit it to the earth, Either in Cicil, or Malta. There is hope of life In Contarino; and he has my prayers, That he may live to enjoy what is his own, The fair Iolenta; where, should it be thought That I were breathing, happily her friends Would oppose it still. That's prevented thus, There does belong a noble Privilege To all his Family, ever since his father, Boar from the worthy Emperor Charles the fifth, And answer to the French Kings challenge, at such time The two noble Princes were engaged to fight. Upon a frontier arm o'th sea in a flat-bottomed Boat, That if any of his Family should chance To kill a man i'th Field, in a noble cause, He should have his Pardon; now sir, for his cause, The world may judge if it were not honest. Pray help me in speech, 'tis very painful to me. The gilded of this lies in Romelio, And as I hear, to second this good Contract, He has God a Nun with child. I have much compassion on him, For sin and shame are ever tied together, With Gordion knots, of such a strong thread spun, They cannot without violence be undone. Yes sir. But truth is, Having received from me some certain wounds, Which were not mortal, this vild murderer, Being by Will deputed Overseer Of the Nobleman's Estate, to his sisters use, That he might make him sure from surviving, To revoke that Will, stole to him in's bed, and killed him. I protest, before I thought 'twas Contarinos Issue, And for that would have veiled her dishonour. I will leave you excellent Lady, and withal Leave a heart with you so entirely yours, That I protest, had I the least of hope To enjoy you, though I were to wait the time That Scholars do in taking their degree In the noble Arts, 'twere nothing, howsoever He parts from you, that will depart from life, To do you any service, and so humbly I take my leave. Never, till the graven gather one of us. You prate as if you were in a Fence-school. When I am all in pieces, I am now vnsit For any Ladies bed; take the rest with you. To the pangs of death I shall, but not to thee. I thank you; there's money. O most foolishly demanded, To bid me beg that which thou canst not give.