As if he labour'd yet to grasp the state With those rebellious parts. Cato. A brave bad death! Had this been honest now, and for his country, As 'twas against it, who had e'er fall'n greater? [Accusation and Death of Silius in the Senate House.] [Silius, an honourable Roman, hated by Tiberius Cæsar, the emperor, and Sejanus, is unjustly accused in the senate-house by Varro, the consul. The other persons present are Domitius Afer, Latiaris, and Cotta, enemies of Silius, and Arruntius and Sabinus, his friends, with lictores and præcones, inferior officers of the senate.] Afer. Cite Caius Silius. Pra. Caius Silius! Sil. Here. Afer. The triumph that thou hadst in Germany For thy late victory on Sacrovir, Thou hast enjoy'd so freely, Caius Silius, Or Rome admit, that thou wert then defrauded Afer. Patience, Silius. Sil. Tell thy moil of patience I am a Roman. What are my crimes? proclaim them. Afer. Nay, Silius, if the name Of crime so touch thee, with what impotence Sil. I tell thee, Afer, with more scorn than fear: Var. Here. Arr. Varro the consul. Is he thrust in ? Var. 'Tis I accuse thee, Silius. Against the majesty of Rome, and Cæsar, Only to make thy entertainment more: Whilst thou and thy wife Sosia poll'd the province : Sil. Thou liest. Arr. I thank thee, Silius, speak so still and often. Var. If I not prove it, Cæsar, but unjustly Have call'd him into trial; here I bind Myself to suffer what I claim against him; And yield to have what I have spoke, confirm'd By judgment of the court, and all good men. Sil. Caesar, I crave to have my cause deferr'd, Till this man's consulship be out. Tib. We cannot. Nor may we grant it. Sil. Why? shall he design My day of trial? is he my accuser! And must he be my judge? Tib. It hath been usual, And is a right that custom hath allow'd The magistrate, to call forth private men ; Sil. Caesar, thy fraud is worse than violence. Tib. Silius, mistake us not, we dare not use The credit of the consul to thy wrong; But only do preserve his place and power, So far as it concerns the dignity And honour of the state. Arr. Believe him, Silius. Cot. Why, so he may, Arruntius. And he may choose too. Tib. By the Capitol, And all our gods, but that the dear republic, Are interess'd therein, I should be silent.. Sil. Nay, I shall have law; Afer. Would you have more? Sil. No, my well-spoken man, I would no more; Nor less might I enjoy it natural, Not taught to speak unto your present ends, Foul wresting, and impossible construction. Sil. Thou durst not tell me so, Hadst thou not Cæsar's warrant. I can see Var. This betrays his spirit. Var. An enemy to the state. Sil. Because I am an enemy to thee, And such corrupted ministers o' the state, That here art made a present instrument To gratify it with thine own disgrace. Sej. This to the consul is most insolent! And impious! Sil. Ay, take part. Reveal yourselves. Perform so noble and so brave defeat To boast my deeds, when he, whom they concern, Afer. Silius, Silius, These are the common customs of thy blood, Remain'd in their obedience. Thou wert he Thou gav'st to Cæsar, and to Rome, their surety, Their name, their strength, their spirit, and their state, Their being was a donative from thee. Arr. Well worded, and most like an orator. Tib. Is this true, Silius ? Sil. Save thy question, Cæsar, Thy spy of famous credit hath affirm'd it. Arr. Excellent Roman! Sab. He doth answer stoutly. Sej. If this be so, there needs no other cause Sil. Come, do not hunt And labour so about for circumstance, To make him guilty, whom you have foredoom'd: With ease restore them; that transcended once, The means that make your greatness, must not come So much away, you think: and that which help'd, Shall soonest perish, if it stand in eye, Where it may front, or but upbraid the high. Cot. Suffer him speak no more. Var. Note but his spirit. 'Afer. This shows him in the rest. The coward and the valiant man must fall, Look upon Silius, and so learn to die. [Stabs himself. Arr. An honourable hand! Tib. Look, is he dead? Sab. 'Twas nobly struck, and home. Arr. My thought did prompt him to it. Farewell, Silius. Be famous ever for thy great example. [Love.] [From the New Inn.'] Fall of Sejanus. LOVEL and HOST of the New Inn. Lov. There is no life on earth, but being in love! There are no studies, no delights, no business, No intercourse, or trade of sense, or soul, But what is love! I was the laziest creature, The most unprofitable sign of nothing, The veriest drone, and slept away my life Beyond the dormouse, till I was in love! And now I can out-wake the nightingale, Out-watch an usurer, and out-walk him too, Stalk like a ghost that haunted 'bout a treasure; And all that fancied treasure, it is love! Host. But is your name Love-ill, sir, or Love-well! I would know that. Lov. I do not know 't myself, Whether it is. But it is love hath been Host. How then? Lov. I have sent her toys, verses, and anagrams, And look'd upon her a whole day, admir'd her, But, as a man neglected, I came off, Host. Could you blame her, sir, When you were silent and not said a word! Lov. O, but I lov'd the more; and she might read it Best in my silence, had she been— Host. As melancholic Sej. He hath spoke enough to prove him Cæsar's foe. As you are. Pray you, why would you stand mute, sir! Lat. Let him be censur'd. Cot. His thoughts look through his words. Sej. A censure. Sil. Stay, Stay, most officious senate, I shall straight The frown of Cæsar, proud Sejanus' hatred, And can look down upon: they are beneath me. Lov. O thereon hangs a history, mine host. Did you e'er know or hear of the Lord Beaufort, Who serv'd so bravely in France? I was his page, And, ere he died, his friend: I follow'd him First in the wars, and in the times of peace I waited on his studies; which were right. He had no Arthurs, nor no Rosicleers, Bearing his aged parent on his shoulders, Down to the laps of thankful men! But then, [A Simpleton and a Braggadocio.] [Bobadil, the braggadocio, in his mean and obscure lodging, is visited by Matthew, the simpleton.] Mat. Save you, sir; save you, captain. Is it you, sir ? Mat. Thank you, good captain, you may see I am somewhat audacious. Bob. Not so, sir. I was requested to supper last night by a sort of gallants, where you were wish'd for, and drunk to, I assure you. this book. O eyes, no eyes, but fountains fraught with tears! There's a conceit !-fountains fraught with tears! O life, no life, but lively form of death!' Another! O world, no world, but mass of public wrongs A third! Confused and fill'd with murder and misdeeds!' A fourth! O, the muses! Is't not excellent Is't not simply the best that ever you heard, captain! Ha! how do you like it! Bob. "Tis good. Mat. To thee, the purest object to my sense, [Bobadil is making him ready all this while. Mat. This, sir? a toy o' mine own, in my nonage; the infancy of my muses! But when will you come and see my study? Good faith, I can show you some very good things I have done of late. That boot becomes your leg passing well, captain, methinks. Bob. So, so; it's the fashion gentlemen now use. Mat. Troth, captain, and now you speak o' the fashion, Master Well-bred's elder brother and I are fallen out exceedingly. This other day, I happened to enter into some discourse of a hanger, which, I assure you, both for fashion and workmanship, was most peremptory-beautiful and gentleman-like; yet he condemned and cried it down for the most pyed and ridiculous that ever he saw. Bob. Squire Downright, the half-brother, was't not! Bob. Hang him, rook, he! why, he has no more judgment than a malt-horse. By St George, I wonder you'd lose a thought upon such an animal; the most peremptory absurd clown of Christendom, this day, he is holden. I protest to you, as I am a gentleman and a soldier, I ne'er changed words with his like. By his discourse, he should eat nothing but hay he was born for the manger, pannier, or packsaddle! He has not so much as a good phrase in his Bob. Body o' me!--it was so late ere we parted last belly, but all old iron and rusty proverbs!--a good night, I can scarce open my eyes yet; I was but new commodity for some smith to make hob-nails of. risen, as you came: how passes the day abroad, sir?-manhood still, where he comes: he brags he will gi' Mat. Ay, and he thinks to carry it away with his Mat. Vouchsafe me, by whom, good captain? Bob. Marry, by young Well-bred, and others. Why, hostess, a stool here for this gentleman. Mat. No haste, sir; 'tis very well. you can tell. Mat. Faith, some half hour to seven: now, trust me, you have an exceeding fine lodging here, very neat and private! Bob. Ay, sir; sit down, I pray you. Mr Matthew (in any case) possess no gentlemen of our acquaintance with notice of my lodging. Mat. Who! I, sir?-no. Bob. Not that I need to care who know it, for the cabin is convenient, but in regard I would not be too popular, and generally visited as some are. Mat. True, captain, I conceive you. Bob. For, do you see, sir, by the heart of valour in me (except it be to some peculiar and choice spirits, to whom I am extraordinarily engaged, as yourself, or so), I could not extend thus far. Mat. O Lord, sir, I resolve so. Bob. I confess I love a cleanly and quiet privacy, above all the tumult and roar of fortune. What new book ha' you there! What! Go by, Hieronymo !1 Mat. Ay, did you ever see it acted? Is't not well penn'd ? Bob. Well-penn'd! I would fain see all the poets of these times pen such another play as that was !— they'll prate and swagger, and keep a stir of art and devices, when (as I am a gentleman), read 'em, they are the most shallow, pitiful, barren fellows, that live upon the face of the earth again. Mat. Indeed; here are a number of fine speeches in 1 A cant phrase of the day. me the bastinado, as I hear. that word, trow? Mat. Nay, indeed, he said cudgel me; I term'd it so for my more grace. Bob. That may be, for I was sure it was none of his word but when? when said he so ? Mat. Faith, yesterday, they say; a young gallant, a friend of mine, told me so. Bob. By the foot of Pharaoh, an 'twere my case now, I should send him a chartel presently. The bastinado! A most proper and sufficient dependance, warranted by the great Caranza. Come hither; you shall chartel him; I'll show you a trick or two, you shall kill him with at pleasure; the first stoccata, if you will, by this air. Mat. Indeed; you have absolute knowledge i' the mystery, I have heard, sir Bob. Of whom of whom ha' you heard it, I beseech you? Mat. Troth I have heard it spoken of divers, that you have very rare, and un-in-one-breath-utter-able skill, sir. Bob. By heav'n, no not I; no skill i' the earth; some small rudiments i' the science, as to know my time, distance, or so: I have profest it more for noblemen and gentlemen's use than mine own practice, I assure you. Hostess, accommodate us with another bed-staff here quickly: lend us another bed-staff: the woman does not understand the words of action. Look you, sir, exalt not your point above this state, at any hand, and let your poniard maintain your defence, thus; (give it the gentleman, and leave us ;) so, sir. Come on. O twine your body more about, that you may fall to a more sweet, comely, gentleman-like guard; so, indifferent: hollow your body more, sir, thus; stand fast o' your left leg, note your distance, keep your due proportion of time. O, you disorder your point most irregularly! DOW, Mat. How is the bearing of it now, sir? Bob. O, out of measure ill!-a well-experienced hand would pass upon you at pleasure. Mat. How mean you, sir, pass upon me? Bob. Why, thus, sir, (make a thrust at me); come in upon the answer, control your point, and make a full career at the body; the best practis'd gallants of the time name it the passado; a most desperate thrust, Mat. But one venue, sir. Bob. Venue! fie; most gross denomination as ever I heard. O, the stoccata, while you live, sir, note that; come, put on your cloak, and we'll go to some private place where you are acquainted-some tavern or so and have a bit; I'll send for one of these fencers, and he shall breathe you, by my direction, and then I will teach you your trick; you shall kill him with it at the first, if you please. Why, I will learn you by the true judgment of the eye, hand, and foot, to control any enemy's point i' the world. Should your adversary confront you with a pistol, 'twere nothing, by this hand; you should, by the same rule, control his bullet, in a line, except it were hail shot, and spread. What money ha' you about you, Master Matthew! Mat. Faith, I ha' not past a two shillings, or so. Bob. 'Tis somewhat with the least; but come; we will have a bunch of radish, and salt to taste our wine, and a pipe of tobacco, to close the orifice of the stomach; and then we'll call upon young Well-bred : perhaps we shall meet the Coridon his brother there, and put him to the question. Every Man in his Humour. [Bobadil's Plan for Saving the Expense of an Army.] Bob. I will tell you, sir, by the way of private, and under seal, I am a gentleman, and live here obscure, and to myself; but were I known to her majesty and the lords (observe me), I would undertake, upon this poor head and life, for the public benefit of the state, not only to spare the entire lives of her subjects in general, but to save the one half, nay, three parts of her yearly charge in holding war, and against what enemy soever. And how would I do it, think you? E. Kno. Nay, I know not, nor can I conceive. Bob. Why thus, sir. I would select nineteen more, to myself, throughout the land; gentlemen they should be of good spirit, strong and able constitution; I would choose them by an instinct, a character that I have: and I would teach these nineteen the special rules, as your punto, your reverso, your stoccata, your imbroccato, your passado, your montanto, till they could all play very near, or altogether as well as myself. This done, say the enemy were forty thousand strong, we twenty would come into the field the tenth of March, or thereabouts; and we would challenge twenty of the enemy; they could not in their honour refuse us; well, we would kill them: challenge twenty more, kill them; twenty more, kill them; twenty more, kill them too; and thus would we kill every man his twenty a-day, that's twenty score: twenty score. that's two kinsman; Learn to be wise, and practise how to thrive, [The Alchemist.] Ibid. MAMMON. SURLY, his Friend. The scene, SUBTLE'S House. Mam. Come on, sir. Now you set your foot on shore In noro orbe. Here's the rich Peru: And there within, sir, are the golden mines, [FACE answers from within. Sir, he'll come to you by and by. Mam. That's his fire-drake, 4 To all the plumbers and the pewterers, Sur. What, and turn that too? Mam. Yes, and I'll purchase Devonshire and Corn- And make them perfect Indies! You admire now? Mam. But when you see the effects of the great Of which one part projected on a hundred Of Mercury, or Venus, or the Moon, Shall turn it to as many of the Sun; Nay, to a thousand, so ad infinitum: Sur. Yes, when I see't, I will. Do you think I fable with you? I assure you, The perfect Ruby, which we call Elixir, I'll make an old man of fourscore a child. Restore his years, renew him like an eagle, To the fifth age; make him get sons and daughters, (The ancient patriarchs afore the flood), By taking, once a-week, on a knife's point, That keep the fire alive there. Mam. Tis the secret Of nature naturised 'gainst all infections, A month's grief in a day; a year's in twelve; Out o' the kingdom in three months. Sur. And I'll would Be bound the players shall sing your praises, then, Without their poets. Mam. Sir, I'll do't. Meantime, I'll give away so much unto my man, Shall serve the whole city with preservative water! Mam. You are incredulous. Sur. Faith, I have a humour, I would not willingly be gull'd. Your Stone Mam. Pertinax Surly, Will you believe antiquity! Records? I'll show you a book, where Moses, and his sister, Sur. How! Which was no other than a book of Alchemy, THE COURT MASQUES OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. The courts of James I. and Charles I., while as yet danger neither existed nor was anticipated, were enlivened by the peculiar theatrical entertainment called the Masque a trifle, or little better, in itself, but which has derived particular interest from the genius of Jonson and Milton. The origin of the masque is to be looked for in the 'revels' and 'shows' which, during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, were presented on high festive occasions at court, in the inns of the lawyers, and at the universities, and in those mysteries and moralities which were the earliest forms of the spoken drama. Henry VIII., in his earlier and better days, had frequent entertainments, consisting of a set of masked and gaily-dressed characters, or of such representations as the following: In the hall of the palace at Greenwich, a castle was reared, with numerous towers and gates, and every appearance of preparation for a long siege, and inscribed, Le fortresse dangereux; it was defended by six richly-dressed ladies; the king and five of his courtiers then entered in the disguise of knights, and attacked the castle, which the ladies, after a gallant resistance, surrendered, the affair concluding with a dance of the ladies and knights. Here there was nothing but scenery and pantomime; by and by, poetical dialogue, song, and music, were added; and when the masque had reached its height in the reigns of James and the first Charles, it employed the first talent of the country in its composition, and, as Bacon remarks, being designed for princes, was by princes played. Masques were generally prepared for some remarkable occasion, as a coronation, the birth of a young prince or noble, a peer's marriage, or the visit of some royal personage of foreign countries; and they usually took place in the hall of the palace. Many of them were enacted in that banqueting room at Whitehall, through which a prince, who often took part in them, afterwards walked to the scaffold. Allegory and mythology were the taste of that age: we wonder at the fact, but we do not perhaps sufficiently allow for the novelty of classical imagery and characters in those days, and it may be only a kind of prejudice, or the effect of fashion, which makes us so rigorously banish from our literature allusions to Mam. Of the Philosopher's Stone, and in High the poetic beings of Grecian antiquity; while we con Mam. 'Tis like your Irish wood Will last 'gainst worms. tentedly solace ourselves in contemplating, through what are called historical novels, the much ruder, and perhaps not more truly represented, personages of the middle ages. The action of a masque was always something short and simple; and it is easy to see that, excepting where very high poetical and musical talent was engaged, the principal charm must have lain in the elegance of the dresses and decorations, and the piquancy of a constant reference from the actors in 'Gainst cobwebs. I have a piece of Jason's fleece too, their assumed, to the actors in their real characters |