[Scæna Quinta
A Room in Montsurry’s House.]
Enter Monts[urry] and Tamyra.
Montsurry. Who have you let into my house?
Tamyra. I? none.
Mont. Tis false; I savour the rancke bloud of foes
In every corner.
Tam. That you may doe well;
It is the bloud you lately shed you smell.
Mont. Sdeath! the vault opens. The gulfe opens.
Tam. What vault? hold your sword. 5
Clermont ascends.
Clermont. No, let him use it.
Mont. Treason! murther! murther!
Cler. Exclaime not; tis in vaine, and base in you,
Being one to onely one.
Mont. O bloudy strumpet!
Cler. With what bloud charge you her? it may be mine
As well as yours; there shall not any else10
Enter or touch you: I conferre no guards,
Nor imitate the murtherous course you tooke,
But single here will have my former challenge
Now answer’d single; not a minute more
My brothers bloud shall stay for his revenge,15
If I can act it; if not, mine shall adde
A double conquest to you, that alone
Put it to fortune now, and use no ods.
Storme not, nor beate your selfe thus gainst the dores,
Like to a savage vermine in a trap:20
All dores are sure made, and you cannot scape
But by your valour.
Mont. No, no, come and kill mee.
Cler. If you will die so like a beast, you shall;
But when the spirit of a man may save you,
Doe not so shame man, and a Nobleman.25
Mont. I doe not show this basenesse that I feare thee,
But to prevent and shame thy victory,
Which of one base is base, and so Ile die.
Cler. Here, then.
Mont. Stay, hold! One thought hath harden’d me, He starts up.
And since I must afford thee victorie,30
It shall be great and brave, if one request
Thou wilt admit mee.
Cler. What’s that?
Mont. Give me leave
To fetch and use the sword thy brother gave mee,
When he was bravely giving up his life.
Cler. No; Ile not fight against my brothers sword;35
Not that I feare it, but since tis a tricke
For you to show your backe.
Mont. By all truth, no:
Take but my honourable othe, I will not.
Cler. Your honourable othe! Plaine truth no place has
Where othes are honourable.
Tam. Trust not his othe. 40
Hee will lie like a lapwing; when shee flyes
Farre from her sought nest, still “Here tis” shee cryes.
Mont. Out on thee, damme of divels! I will quite
Disgrace thy bravos conquest, die, not fight. Lyes downe.
Tam. Out on my fortune, to wed such an abject!45
Now is the peoples voyce the voyce of God;
Hee that to wound a woman vants so much,
As hee did mee, a man dares never touch.
Cler. Revenge your wounds now, madame; I resigne him
Up to your full will, since hee will not fight.50
First you shall torture him (as hee did you,
And justice wils) and then pay I my vow.
Here, take this ponyard.
Mont. Sinke earth, open heaven,
And let fall vengeance!
Tam. Come sir, good sir, hold him.
Mont. O shame of women, whither art thou fled!55
Cler. Why (good my lord) is it a greater shame
For her then you? come, I will be the bands
You us’d to her, prophaning her faire hands.
Mont. No, sir, Ile fight now, and the terror be
Of all you champions to such as shee.60
I did but thus farre dally; now observe.
O all you aking fore-heads that have rob’d
Your hands of weapons and your hearts of valour,
Joyne in mee all your rages and rebutters,
And into dust ram this same race of Furies;65
In this one relicke of the Ambois gall,
In his one purple soule shed, drowne it all. Fight.
Mont. Now give me breath a while.
Cler. Receive it freely.
Mont. What thinke y’a this now?
Cler. It is very noble,
Had it beene free, at least, and of your selfe;70
And thus wee see (where valour most doth vant)
What tis to make a coward valiant.
Mont. Now I shall grace your conquest.
Cler. That you shall.
Mont. If you obtaine it.
Cler. True, sir, tis in fortune.
Mont. If you were not a D’Ambois, I would scarce75
Change lives with you, I feele so great a change
In my tall spirits breath’d, I thinke, with the breath
A D’Ambois breathes here; and necessitie
(With whose point now prickt on, and so whose helpe
My hands may challenge) that doth all men conquer,80
If shee except not you of all men onely,
May change the case here.
Cler. True, as you are chang’d;
Her power, in me urg’d, makes y’another man
Then yet you ever were.
Mont. Well, I must on.
Cler. Your lordship must by all meanes.
Mont. Then at all. 85
Fights, and D’Ambois hurts him.
[Enter Renel, the Countess, and] Charlotte above.
Charlotte. Death of my father, what a shame is this!
Sticke in his hands thus! She gets downe.
Renel [trying to stop her]. Gentle sir, forbeare!
Countess. Is he not slaine yet?
Ren. No, madame, but hurt
In divers parts of him.
Mont. Y’have given it me,
And yet I feele life for another vennie.90
Enter Charlotte [below].
Cler. What would you, sir?
Char. I would performe this combat.
Cler. Against which of us?
Char. I care not much if twere
Against thy selfe; thy sister would have sham’d
To have thy brothers wreake with any man
In single combat sticke so in her fingers.95
Cler. My sister! know you her?
Tam. I, sir, shee sent him
With this kinde letter, to performe the wreake
Of my deare servant.
Cler. Now, alas! good sir,
Thinke you you could doe more?
Char. Alas! I doe;
And wer’t not I, fresh, sound, should charge a man100
Weary and wounded, I would long ere this
Have prov’d what I presume on.
Cler. Y’have a minde
Like to my sister, but have patience now;
If next charge speede not, Ile resigne to you.
Mont. Pray thee, let him decide it.
Cler. No, my lord, 105
I am the man in fate; and since so bravely
Your lordship stands mee, scape but one more charge,
And, on my life, Ile set your life at large.
Mont. Said like a D’Ambois, and if now I die,
Sit joy and all good on thy victorie!110
Fights, and fals downe.
Mont. Farewell! I hartily forgive thee; wife,
And thee; let penitence spend thy rest of life. Hee gives his hand to Cler[mont] and his wife.
Cler. Noble and Christian!
Tam. O, it breakes my heart.
Cler. And should; for all faults found in him before
These words, this end, makes full amends and more.115
Rest, worthy soule; and with it the deare spirit
Of my lov’d brother rest in endlesse peace!
Soft lie thy bones; Heaven be your soules abode;
And to your ashes be the earth no lode!
Musicke, and the Ghost of Bussy enters, leading the Ghost[s] of the Guise, Monsieur, Cardinall Guise, and Shattilion; they dance about the dead body, and exeunt.
Cler. How strange is this! The Guise amongst these spirits,120
And his great brother Cardinall, both yet living!
And that the rest with them with joy thus celebrate
This our revenge! This certainely presages
Some instant death both to the Guise and Cardinall.
That the Shattilions ghost to should thus joyne125
In celebration of this just revenge
With Guise that bore a chiefe stroke in his death,
It seemes that now he doth approve the act;
And these true shadowes of the Guise and Cardinall,
Fore-running thus their bodies, may approve130
That all things to be done, as here wee live,
Are done before all times in th’other life.
That spirits should rise in these times yet are fables;
Though learnedst men hold that our sensive spirits
A little time abide about the graves135
Of their deceased bodies, and can take,
In colde condenc’t ayre, the same formes they had
When they were shut up in this bodies shade.
Enter Aumall.
Aumale. O sir, the Guise is slaine!
Cler. Avert it heaven!
Aum. Sent for to Councill by the King, an ambush140
(Lodg’d for the purpose) rusht on him, and tooke
His princely life; who sent (in dying then)
His love to you, as to the best of men.
Cler. The worst and most accursed of things creeping
On earths sad bosome. Let me pray yee all145
A little to forbeare, and let me use
Freely mine owne minde in lamenting him.
Ile call yee straight againe.
Aum. We will forbeare,
And leave you free, sir. Exeunt.
Cler. Shall I live, and hee
Dead, that alone gave meanes of life to me?150
Theres no disputing with the acts of Kings;
Revenge is impious on their sacred persons.
And could I play the worldling (no man loving
Longer then gaine is reapt or grace from him)
I should survive; and shall be wondred at155
Though (in mine owne hands being) I end with him:
But friendship is the sement of two mindes,
As of one man the soule and body is,
Of which one cannot sever but the other
Suffers a needfull separation.160
Ren. I feare your servant, madame: let’s descend. Descend Ren[el] & Coun[tess].
Cler. Since I could skill of man, I never liv’d
To please men worldly, and shall I in death
Respect their pleasures, making such a jarre
Betwixt my death and life, when death should make165
The consort sweetest, th’end being proofe and crowne
To all the skill and worth wee truely owne?
Guise, O my lord, how shall I cast from me
The bands and coverts hindring me from thee?
The garment or the cover of the minde170
The humane soule is; of the soule, the spirit
The proper robe is; of the spirit, the bloud;
And of the bloud, the body is the shrowd.
With that must I beginne then to unclothe,
And come at th’other. Now, then, as a ship175
Touching at strange and farre removed shores,
Her men a shore goe, for their severall ends,
Fresh water, victuals, precious stones, and pearle,
All yet intentive, when the master cals,
The ship to put off ready, to leave all180
Their greediest labours, lest they there be left
To theeves or beasts, or be the countries slaves:
So, now my master cals, my ship, my venture
All in one bottome put, all quite put off,
Gone under saile, and I left negligent185
To all the horrors of the vicious time,
The farre remov’d shores to all vertuous aimes,
None favouring goodnesse, none but he respecting
Pietie or man-hood—shall I here survive,
Not cast me after him into the sea,190
Rather then here live, readie every houre
To feede theeves, beasts, and be the slave of power?
I come, my lord! Clermont, thy creature, comes. Hee kils himselfe.
Enter Aumal, Tamyra, Charlotte.
Aum. What! lye and languish, Clermont! Cursed man,
To leave him here thus! hee hath slaine himselfe.195
Tam. Misery on misery! O me wretched dame,
Of all that breath! all heaven turne all his eyes
In harty envie thus on one poore dame.
Char. Well done, my brother! I did love thee ever,
But now adore thee: losse of such a friend200
None should survive, of such a brother [none.]
With my false husband live, and both these slaine!
Ere I returne to him, Ile turne to earth.
Enter Renel leading the Countesse.
Ren. Horror of humane eyes! O Clermont D’Ambois!
Madame, wee staid too long, your servant’s slaine.205
Coun. It must be so; he liv’d but in the Guise,
As I in him. O follow life mine eyes!
Tam. Hide, hide thy snakie head; to cloisters flie;
In pennance pine; too easie tis to die.
Char. It is. In cloisters then let’s all survive.210
Madame, since wrath nor griefe can helpe these fortunes,
Let us forsake the world in which they raigne,
And for their wisht amends to God complaine.
Count. Tis fit and onely needfull: leade me on;
In heavens course comfort seeke, in earth is none. Exeunt. 215
Enter Henry, Espernone, Soissone, and others.
Henry. Wee came indeede too late, which much I rue,
And would have kept this Clermont as my crowne.
Take in the dead, and make this fatall roome
(The house shut up) the famous D’Ambois tombe. Exeunt.
FINIS
Linenotes
opens. Emended by ed.; Q, opes.
25 Nobleman. Two words in Q.
29 Cler. Here, then. Placed by Q at the end of l. 29.
44 bravos. Emended by ed.; Q, braves.
73-74. Three lines in Q, broken at conquest, it, and fortune.
88-89. Three lines in Q, broken at yet, him, and me.
125 Shattilions. Ed.; Q, Shattilians.
144 accursed. Shepherd, Phelps; Q, accurst.
201 none. Added by ed.
210 Char. Shepherd, Phelps; Q, Cler.