1
A Game at Chess
Thomas Middleton — EMOTHE0672_AGameAtChess
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
White King
White Knight
White Duke
White Bishop
[White] Pawns
Black King
Black Knight
Black Duke
Black Bishop
Fat Bishop
His Pawn
White Queen
Her Pawn
Black Queen
Her Pawn
[Black] Pawns
Ignatius Loyola
Error
Prologue
WHAT of the game call'd Chess-play can be made
1
To make a stage-play, shall this day be play'd:
2
First, you shall see the men in order set,
3
States and their pawns, when both the sides are met,
4
The Houses well distinguish'd; in the game
5
Some men entrapp'd and taken, to their shame,
6
Rewarded by their play; and, in the close,
7
You shall see check-mate given to virtue's foes:
8
But the fair'st jewel that our hopes can deck,
9
Is so to play our game to avoid your check.
10
The Induction
(Ignatius Loyola appearing, Error at his foot as asleep)
Ignatius
Ha! where? what angle of the world is this,
11
That I can neither see the politic face,
12
Nor with my refin'd nostrils taste the footsteps
13
Of any of my disciples, sons and heirs
14
As well of my designs as institution?
15
I thought they'd spread over the world by this time,
16
Cover'd the earth's face, and made dark the land,
17
Like the Egyptian grasshoppers.
18
Here's too much light appears, shot from the eyes
19
Of Truth and Goodness never yet deflower'd:
20
Sure they were never here; then is their monarchy
21
Unperfect yet; a just reward, I see,
22
For their ingratitude so long to me,
23
Their father and their founder.
24
'Tis not five years since I was sainted by 'em:
25
Where slept my honour all the time before?
26
Could they be so forgetful to canónize
27
Their prosperous institutor? when they had sainted me,
28
They found no room in all their calendar
29
To place my name, that should have remov'd princes,
30
Pull'd the most eminent prelates by the roots up
31
For my dear coming, to make way for me;
32
Let every petty martyr and saint homily,
33
Roch, Main, and Petronill, itch- and ague-curers,
34
Your Abbess Aldegund and Cunegund,
35
The widow Marcell, parson Polycarp,
36
Cecily and Ursula, all take place of me;
37
And but for the bissextile or leap-year,
38
And that's but one in three, I fall by chance
39
Into the nine-and-twentieth day of February;
40
There were no room else for me: see their love,
41
Their conscience too, to thrust me a lame soldier
42
Into leap-year! My wrath's up, and, methinks,
43
I could with the first syllable of my name
44
Blow up their colleges. –– Up, Error, wake!
45
Father of supererogation, rise!
46
It is Ignatius calls thee, Loyola.
47
Error
What have you done? O, I could sleep in ignorance
48
Immortally, the slumber is so pleasing!
49
I saw the bravest setting for a game now
50
That ever my eye fix'd on.
51
Ignatius
Game, what game?
52
Error
The noblest game of all, a game at chess,
53
Betwixt our side and the White House; the men set
54
In their just order, ready to go to it.
55
Ignatius
Were any of my sons plac'd for the game?
56
Error
Yes, and a daughter too; a secular daughter
57
That plays the Black Queen's Pawn, he the Black Bishop's.
58
Ignatius
If ever power could show a mastery in thee,
59
Let it appear in this!
60
Error
'Tis but a dream,
A vision, you must think.
61
Ignatius
I care not what,
So I behold the children of my cunning,
62
And see what rank they keep.
63
Error
You have your wish:
(Music.)
(Enter severally, in order of game, the White and Black Houses)
Behold, there's the full number of the game,
64
Kings and their Pawns, Queens, Bishops, Knights, and Dukes.
65
Ignatius
Dukes? they're call'd Rooks by some.
66
Error
Corruptively;
Le roc the word, custode de la roche,
67
The keeper of the forts, in whom both Kings
68
Repose much confidence; and for their trust-sake,
69
Courage, and worth, do well deserve those titles.
70
Ignatius
The answer's high: I see my son and daughter.
71
Error
Those are two Pawns, the Black Queen's and Black Bishop's.
72
Ignatius
Pawns argue but poor spirits and slight preferments,
73
Nor worthy of the name of my disciples:
74
If I had stood so nigh, I would have cut
75
That bishop's throat but I'd have had his place,
76
And told the Queen a love-tale in her ear
77
Would make her best pulse dance: there's no elixir
78
Of brain or spirit amongst 'em.
79
Error
Why, would you have 'em play against themselves?
80
That's quite against the rule of game, Ignatius.
81
Ignatius
Pish; I would rule myself, not observe rule.
82
Error
Why, then, you'd play a game all by yourself.
83
Ignatius
I would do anything to rule alone:
84
'Tis rare to have the world reign'd in by one.
85
Error
See 'em anon, and mark 'em in their play;
86
Observe, as in a dance, they glide away.
87
([Exeunt the two Houses.])
Ignatius
O, with what longings will this breast be toss'd,
88
Until l see this great game won and lost.
89
([Exeunt.])
Actus Primi
Scena Prima
([Field between the two Houses])
(Enter from the Black House, the Black Queen's Pawn, from the White House, the White Queen's Pawn)
Black Queen's Pawn
I ne'er see that face but my pity rises;
1
When I behold so clear a masterpiece
2
Of heaven's art wrought out of dust and ashes,
3
And at next thought to give her lost eternally,
4
In being not ours, but the daughter of heresy,
5
My soul bleeds at mine eyes.
6
White Queen's Pawn
Where should truth speak,
If not in such a sorrow? they're tears plainly:
7
Beshrew me, if she weep not heartily!
8
What is my peace to her to take such pains in 't?
9
If I wander to loss, and with broad eyes
10
Yet miss the path she can run blindfold in
11
Through often exercise, why should my oversight,
12
Though in the best game that e'er Christian lost,
13
Raise the least spring-of pity in her eye?
14
'Tis doubtless a great charity; and no virtue
15
Could-win me surer:
16
Black Queen's Pawn
Blessed things prevail with 't!
If ever goodness made a gracious promise,
17
It is in yonder look: what little pains
18
Would build a fort for virtue to all memory
19
In that sweet creature, were the ground-work firmer!
20
White Queen's Pawn
It has been all my glory to be firm
21
In what I have professed.
22
Black Queen's Pawn
That is the enemy
That steals your strength away, and fights against you,
23
Disarms your soul e'en in the heat of battle;
24
Your firmness that way makes you more infirm
25
For the right Christian conflict. There I spied
26
A zealous primitive sparkle but now flew
27
From your devoted eye,
28
Able to blow up all the heresies
29
That ever sate in council with your spirit.
30
And here comes he whose sanctimonious breath
31
Can make that spark a flame. List to him, virgin,
32
At whose first entrance princes will fall prostrate;
33
Women are weaker vessels.
34
(Enter the Black Bishop's Pawn: a Jesuit)
White Queen's Pawn
By my penitence,
A comely presentation, and the habit
35
To admiration reverend!
36
Black Queen's Pawn
But the heart, the heart, lady,
So meek that as you see good Charity pictured still
37
With young ones in her arms, so will he cherish
38
All his young, tractable, sweet obedient daughters
39
E'en in his bosom, in his own dear bosom.
40
I am myself a secular Jesuit,
41
As many ladies are of wealth and greatness:
42
A second sort are Jesuits in voto ,
43
Giving their vow in to the Father General,
44
That's the Black Bishop of our House, whose Pawn
45
This gentleman now stands for, to receive
46
The college-habit at his holy pleasure.
47
White Queen's Pawn
But how are those in voto employed, lady,
48
Till they receive the habit?
49
Black Queen's Pawn
They're not idle;
He finds 'em all true labourers in the work
50
Of the universal monarchy, which he
51
And his disciples principally aim at:
52
Those are maintained in many courts and palaces,
53
And are induced by noble personages
54
Into great princes' services, and prove
55
Some councillors of state, some secretaries;
56
All serving in notes of intelligence —
57
As parish-clerks their mortuary-bills –
58
To the Father General: so are designs
59
Oft-times prevented, and important secrets
60
Of states discovered, yet no author found,
61
But those suspected oft that are most sound.
62
This mystery is too deep yet for your entrance;
63
And I offend to set your zeal so back:
64
Checked by obedience with desire to hasten
65
Your progress to perfection, I commit you
66
To the great worker's hands; to whose grave worth
67
I fit my reverence, as to you my wishes.
68
Black Bishop's Pawn
Dost find her supple?
69
Black Queen's Pawn
There's a little passage made.
([Exit.])
Black Bishop's Pawn
Let me contemplate,
70
With holy wonder season my access,
71
And, by degrees, approach the sanctuary
72
Of unmatched beauty, set in grace and goodness.
73
Amongst the daughters of men I have not found
74
A more Catholical aspéct: that eye
75
Does promise single life and meek obedience;
76
Upon those lips, the sweet fresh buds of youth,
77
The holy dew of prayer lies, like pearl
78
Dropped from the opening eyelids of the morn
79
Upon the bashful rose. How beauteously
80
A gentle fast, not rigorously imposed,
81
Would look upon that cheek! and how delightfully
82
The courteous physic of a tender penance,
83
Whose utmost cruelty should not exceed
84
The first fear of a bride, to beat down frailty,
85
Would work to sound health your long-festered judgment,
86
And make your merit, which, through erring ignorance,
87
Appears but spotted righteousness to me,
88
Far clearer than the innocence of infants!
89
White Queen's Pawn
To that good work I bow, and will become
90
Obedience' humblest daughter, since I find
91
Th' assistance of a sacred strength to aid me:
92
The labour is as easy to serve virtue
93
The right way, since 'tis she I ever served
94
In my desire, though I transgressed in judgment.
95
Black Bishop's Pawn
That's easily absolved amongst the rest:
96
You shall not find the virtue that you serve now
97
A sharp and cruel mistress; her ear's open
98
To all your supplications; you may boldly
99
And safely let in the most secret sin
100
Into her knowledge, which, like vanished man,
101
Never returns into the world again;
102
Fate locks not up more trulier.
103
White Queen's Pawn
To the guilty
That may appear some benefit.
104
Black Bishop's Pawn
Who is so innocent
That never stands in need on't in some kind?
105
If every thought were blabbed that's so confessed.
106
The very air we breathe would be unblest. —
107
Now to the work indeed, which is to catch
108
Her inclination; that's the special use
109
We make of all our practice in all kingdoms;
110
For by disclosing their most secret frailties
111
Things which, once ours, they must not hide from us
112
(That's the first article in the creed we teach 'em),
113
Finding to what point their blood most inclines
114
Know best to apt them then to our designs.
115
Daughter, the sooner you disperse your errors,
116
The sooner you make haste to your recovery:
117
You must part with 'em; to be nice or modest
118
Toward this good action, is to imitate
119
The bashfulness of one conceals an ulcer,
120
For the uncomely parts the tumour vexes,
121
Till 't be past cure. Resolve you thus far, lady;
122
The privat'st thought that runs to hide itself
123
In the most secret corner of your heart now,
124
Must be of my acquaintance, so familiarly
125
Never she-friend of your night-counsel nearer.
126
White Queen's Pawn
I stand not much in fear of any action
127
Guilty of that black time, most noble holiness.
128
I must confess, as in a sacred temple
129
Thronged with an auditory, some come rather
130
To feed on human object than to taste
131
Of angels' food;
132
So in the congregation of quick thoughts,
133
Which are more infinite than such assemblies,
134
I cannot with truth's safety speak for all:
135
Some have been wanderers, some fond, some sinful,
136
But those found ever but poor entertainment,
137
They'd small encouragement to come again.
138
The single life, which strongly I profess now,
139
Heaven pardon me! I was about to part from.
140
Black Bishop's Pawn
Then you have passed through love?
141
White Queen's Pawn
But left no stain
142
In all my passage, sir, no print of wrong
143
For the most chaste maid that may trace my footsteps.
144
Black Bishop's Pawn
How came you off so clear?
145
White Queen's Pawn
I was discharged
By an inhuman accident, which modesty
146
Forbids me to put any language to.
147
Black Bishop's Pawn
How you forget yourself! all actions
148
Clad in their proper language, though most sordid,
149
My ear is bound by duty to let in
150
And look up everlastingly. Shall I help you?
151
He was not found to answer his creation:
152
A vestal virgin in a slip of prayer
153
Could not deliver man's loss modestlier:
154
'Twas the White Bishop's Pawn.
155
White Queen's Pawn
The same, blest sir.
Black Bishop's Pawn
An heretic well pickled.
156
White Queen's Pawn
By base treachery,
And violence prepared by his competitor,
157
The Black Knight's Pawn, whom I shall ever hate for 't.
158
Black Bishop's Pawn
'Twas of revenges the unmanliest way
159
That ever rival took; a villainy
160
That, for your sake, I'll ne'er absolve him of.
161
White Queen's Pawn
I wish it not so heavy.
162
Black Bishop's Pawn
He must feel it:
I never yet gave absolution
163
To any crime of that unmanning nature.
164
It seems then you refused him for defect;
165
Therein you stand not pure from the desire
166
That other women have in ends of marriage:
167
Pardon my boldness, if I sift your goodness
168
To the last grain.
169
White Queen's Pawn
I reverence your pains, sir,
And must acknowledge custom to enjoy
170
What other women challenge and possess
171
More ruled me than desire; for my desires
172
Dwell all in ignorance, and I'll never wish
173
To know that fond way may redeem them thence.
174
Black Bishop's Pawn
I never was so taken; beset doubly
175
Now with her judgment: what a strength it puts forth! —
176
I bring work nearer to you: when you have seen
177
A masterpiece of man, composed by heaven
178
For a great prince's favour, kingdom's love;
179
So exact, envy could not find a place
180
To stick a blot on person or on fame;
181
Have you not found ambition swell your wish then,
182
And desire stir your blood?
183
White Queen's Pawn
By virtue, never!
I have only in the dignity of the creature
184
Admired the maker's glory.
185
Black Bishop's Pawn
She's impregnable;
A second siege must not fall off so tamely:
186
She's one of those must be informed to know
187
A daughter's duty, which some take untaught:
188
Her modesty brings her behind-hand much;
189
My old means I must fly to: yes, 'tis it. —
190
Please you, peruse this small tract of obedience:
191
'Twill help you forward well.
192
([Gives a book.])
White Queen's Pawn
Sir, that's a virtue
I have ever thought on with especial reverence.
193
Black Bishop's Pawn
You will conceive by that my power, your duty.
194
(Enter White Bishop's Pawn)
White Queen's Pawn
The knowledge will be precious of both, sir.
195
White Bishop's Pawn
What makes yond troubler of all Christian waters
196
So near that blessed spring? But that I know
197
Her goodness is the rock from whence it issues
198
Unmoveable as fate, 'twould more afflict me
199
Than all my sufferings for her, which so long
200
As she holds constant to the House she comes of,
201
The whiteness of the cause, the side, the quality,
202
Are sacrifices to her worth and virtue;
203
And, though confined in my religious joys,
204
I marry her and possess her.
205
(Enter Black Knight's Pawn.)
Black Bishop's Pawn
Behold, lady,
The two inhuman enemies, the Black Knight's Pawn
206
And the White Bishop's; the gelder and the gelded.
207
White Queen's Pawn
There's my grief, my hate!
208
Black Knight's Pawn
What, in the Jesuit's fingers? By this hand,
209
I'll give my part now for a parrot's feather,
210
She never returns virtuous, 'tis impossible:
211
I'll undertake more wagers will be laid
212
Upon a usurer's return from hell
213
Than upon hers from him now. Have I been guilty
214
Of such base malice that my very conscience
215
Shakes at the memory of, and, when I look
216
To gather fruit, find nothing but the savin-tree,
217
Too frequent in nuns' orchards, and there planted,
218
By all conjecture, to destroy fruit rather?
219
I'll be resolvèd now. Most noble virgin —
220
White Queen's Pawn
Ignoble villain! dare that unhallowed tongue
221
Lay hold upon a sound so gracious?
222
What's nobleness to thee, or virgin chastity?
223
They're not of thy acquaintance: talk of violence
224
That shames creation, deeds would make night blush,
225
That's company for thee. Hast thou the impudence
226
To court me with a leprosy upon thee
227
Able t'infect the walls of a great building?
228
Black Bishop's Pawn
Son of offence, forbear! go, set your evil
229
Before your eyes; a penitential vesture
230
Would better become you, some shirt of hair.
231
Black Knight's Pawn
And you a three-pound smock 'stead of an alb,
232
An epicoene chasuble. — This holy fellow
233
Robs safe and close: I feel a sting that's worse, too.
234
White Pawn, hast so much charity to accept
235
A reconcilement? Make thy own conditions,
236
For I begin to be extremely burdened.
237
White Bishop's Pawn
No truth or peace of that Black House protested
238
Is to be trusted; but for hope of quittance
239
And warned by diffidence, I may entrap him soonest. —
240
I admit conference.
241
Black Knight's Pawn
It is a nobleness
That makes confusion cleave to all my merits.
242
([Exeunt White Black Pawn and Black Knight's Pawn.])
(Enter Black Knight.)
Black Bishop's Pawn
[To White Queen Pawn.] That treatise will instruct you fully.
243
Black Knight
So, so!
The business of the universal monarchy
244
Goes forward well now! the great college-pot,
245
That should be always boiling with the fuel
246
Of all intelligences possible
247
Thorough the Christian kingdoms. Is this fellow
248
Our prime incendiary, one of those
249
That promised the White Kingdom seven years since
250
To our Black House? Put a new daughter to him,
251
The great work stands; he minds nor monarchy
252
Nor hierarchy, diviner principality.
253
I've bragged less,
254
But have done more than all the conclave on 'em,
255
Take their assistant fathers in all parts,
256
Ay, or their Father General in to boot;
257
And what I have done, I have done facetiously,
258
With pleasant subtlety and bewitching courtship,
259
Abused all my believers with delight, —
260
They took a comfort to be cozened by me:
261
To many a soul I have let in mortal poison,
262
Whose cheeks have cracked with laughter to receive it;
263
I could so roll my pills in sugared syllables,
264
And strew such kindly mirth o'er all my mischief,
265
They took their bane in way of recreation,
266
As pleasure steals corruption into youth.
267
He spies me now: I must uphold his reverence,
268
Especially in public, though I know
269
Priapus, guardian of the cherry-gardens,
270
Bacchus' and Venus' chit, is not more vicious.
271
Black Bishop's Pawn
Blessings' accumulation keep with you, sir!
272
Black Knight
Honour's dissimulation be your due, sir!
273
White Queen's Pawn
How deep in duty his observance plunges!
274
His charge must needs be reverend.
275
Black Bishop's Pawn
I am confessor
To this Black Knight too; you see devotion's fruitful,
276
Sh'as many sons and daughters.
277
Black Knight
I do this the more
T'amaze our adversaries to behold
278
The reverence we give these guitonens,
279
And to beget a sound opinion
280
Of holiness in them and zeal in us.
281
([Exit White Queen Pawn.])
As also to invite the like obedience
282
In other pusills by our meek example. —
283
So, is your trifle vanished?
284
Black Bishop's Pawn
Trifle call you her? 'tis a good Pawn, sir;
Sure she's the second Pawn of the White House,
285
And to the opening of the game I hold her.
286
Black Knight
Ay, you
Hold well for that, I know your play of old:
287
If there were more Queen's Pawns, you'd ply the game
288
A great deal harder. Now, sir, we're in private;
289
But what for the main work, the great existence,
290
The hope monarchal?
291
Black Bishop's Pawn
It goes on in this.
Black Knight
In this! I cannot see 't.
292
Black Bishop's Pawn
You may deny so
A dial's motion, 'cause you cannot see
293
The hand move, or a wind that rends the cedar.
294
Black Knight
Where stops the current of intelligence?
295
Your Father General, Bishop of the Black House,
296
Complains for want of work.
297
Black Bishop's Pawn
Here's from all parts,
Sufficient to employ him; I received
298
A packet from the Assistant Fathers lately;
299
Look you, there's Anglica, this Gallica.
300
([Gives letters.])
Black Knight
Ay, marry, sir, there's some quick flesh in this.
301
Black Bishop's Pawn
Germanica.
302
([Gives letter.])
Black Knight
I think they've sealed this with butter.
303
Black Bishop's Pawn
Italica this.
304
([Gives letter.])
Black Knight
They put their pens the Hebrew way, methinks.
305
Black Bishop's Pawn
Hispanica here.
306
([Gives letter.])
Black Knight
Hispanica! blind work 'tis; the Jesuit
307
Has writ this with juice of lemons sure,
308
It must beheld close to the fire of purgatory
309
Ere 't can be read.
310
Black Bishop's Pawn
You will not lose your jest, Knight;
Though it wounded your own fame.
311
Black Knight
Curanda pecunia.
312
Black Bishop's Pawn
Take heed, sir; we're entrapped, — the White King's Pawn.
313
(Enter White King's Pawn.)
Black Knight
He's made our own, man; half in voto yours,
314
His heart's in the Black House: leave him to me. —
315
([Exit Black Bishop's Pawn.])
Most of all friends endeared, preciously special!
316
White King's Pawn.
You see my outside, but you know my heart, Knight,
317
Great difference in the colour. There's some intelligence;
318
([Gives letter.])
And as more ripens, so your knowledge still
319
Shall prove the richer: there shall nothing happen,
320
Believe it, to extenuate your cause,
321
Or to oppress her friends, but I will strive
322
To cross it with my counsel, purse, and power;
323
Keep all supplies back both in means and men
324
That may raise strength against you. We must part:
325
I dare not longer of this theme discuss;
326
The ear of state is quick and jealous.
327
Black Knight
Excellent estimation! thou art valued
328
Above the fleet of gold that came short home.
329
([Exit White King's Pawn.])
Poor Jesuit-ridden soul! how art thou fooled
330
Out of thy faith, from thy allegiance drawn.
331
Which way soe'er thou tak'st, thou'rt a lost Pawn.
332
([Exit.])
Finit Actus Primus.
[ACT II] Incipit Secundus.
[SCENE I]
([Field between the two Houses])
(Enter White Queen's Pawn with a book in her hand)
White Queen's Pawn
And here again:
1
[Reads.] It is the daughter's duty
2
To obey her confessor's command in all things,
3
Without exception or expostulation:
4
'Tis the most general rule that e'er I read of;
5
Yet when I think how boundless virtue is,
6
Goodness and grace, 'tis gently reconciled,
7
And then it appears well to have the power
8
Of the dispenser as uncircumscribed.
9
(Enter Black Bishop's Pawn)
Black Bishop's Pawn
She's hard upon 't; 'twas the most modest key
10
That I could use to open my intents:
11
What little or no pains goes to some people!
12
Hah! a sealed note! whence this?
13
([Takes up a letter.])
[Reads.] "To the Black Bishop's Pawn, these." How? to me?
14
Strange! who subscribes it? The Black King: what would he?
15
((The Letter))
[Reads.] "Pawn sufficiently holy, but unmeasurably politic; we had late intelligence from our most industrious servant; famous in all parts of Europe, our Knight of the Black House, that you have at this instant in chase the White Queen's Pawn, and very likely, by the carriage of your game, to entrap and take her: these are therefore to require you, by the burning affection I bear to the rape of devotion, that speedily, upon the surprisal of her, by all watchful advantage you make some attempt upon the White Queen's person, whose fall or prostitution our lust most violently rages for."
Sir, after my desire has took a julep
17
For its own inflammation, that yet scorches me,
18
I shall have cooler time to think of yours.
19
Sh'as passed the general rule, the large extent
20
Of our prescriptions for obedience;
21
And yet with what alacrity of soul
22
Her eyes moves on the letters! FFF
23
White Queen's Pawn
Holy sir,
Too long I have missed you; O, your absence starves me!
24
Hasten for time's redemption: worthy sir,
25
Lay your commands as thick and fast upon me
26
As you can speak 'em; how I thirst to hear 'em!
27
Set me to work upon this spacious virtue,
28
Which the poor span of life's too narrow for,
29
Boundless obedience!
30
The humblest yet the mightiest of all duties,
31
Well here set down, a universal goodness.
32
Black Bishop's Pawn
By holiness of garment, her safe innocence
33
Has frighted the full meaning from itself;
34
She's farder off from understanding now
35
The language of my intent than at first meeting.
36
White Queen's Pawn
For virtue's sake, good sir, command me something;
37
Make trial of my duty in some small service; so
38
And as you find the faith of my obedience there,
39
Then trust it with a greater.
40
Black Bishop's Pawn
You speak sweetly:
I do command you first then —
41
White Queen's Pawn
With what joy
I do prepare my duty!
42
Black Bishop's Pawn
To meet me,
And seal a kiss of love upon my lip.
43
White Queen's Pawn
Hah!
44
Black Bishop's Pawn
At first disobedient! in so little too!
45
How shall I trust you with a greater, then,
46
Which was your own request?
47
White Queen's Pawn
Pray, send not back
My innocence to wound me; be more courteous.
48
I must confess, much like an ignorant plaintiff, who,
49
Presuming on the fair path of his meaning,
50
Goes rashly on, till on a sudden brought
51
Into the wilderness of law by words
52
Dropped unadvisedly, hurts his good cause,
53
And gives his adversary advantage by it, —
54
Apply it you can best, sir. If my obedience
55
And your command can find no better way,
56
Fond men command, and wantons best obey.
57
Black Bishop's Pawn
If I can at that distance send you a blessing,
58
Is it not nearer to you in mine arms?
59
It flies from these lips dealt abroad in parcels;
60
And I, to honour thee above all daughters,
61
Invite thee home to the House, where thou may'st surfeit
62
On that which others miserably pine for;
63
A favour which the daughters of great potentates
64
Would look on envy's colour but to hear.
65
White Queen's Pawn
Good men may err sometimes; you are mistaken sure:
66
If this be virtue's path, 'tis a most strange one;
67
I never came this way before.
68
Black Bishop's Pawn
That's your ignorance;
And therefore shall that idiot still conduct you
69
That knows no way but one, nor ever seeks it?
70
If there be twenty ways to some poor village
71
'Tis strange that virtue should be put to one.
72
Your fear is wondrous faulty; cast it from you;
73
'Twill gather else in time a disobedience
74
Too stubborn for my pardon.
75
White Queen's Pawn
Have I locked myself
At unawares into sin's servitude
76
With more desire of goodness? Is this the top
77
Of all strict order, and the holiest
78
Of all societies, the three-vowed people
79
For poverty, obedience, chastity, —
80
The last the most forgot? When a virgin's ruined,
81
I see the great work of obedience
82
Is better than half finished.
83
Black Bishop's Pawn
What a stranger
Are you to duty grown! What distance keep you!
84
Must I bid you come forward to a happiness
85
Yourself should sue for? 'twas never so with me.
86
I dare not let this stubbornness be known,
87
'Twould bring such fierce hate on you: yet presume not
88
To make that courteous care a privilege
89
For wilful disobedience; it turns then
90
Into the blackness of a curse upon you:
91
Come, come, be nearer.
92
White Queen's Pawn
Nearer!
Black Bishop's Pawn
Was that scorn?
I would not have it prove so for the hopes
93
Of the grand monarchy: if it were like it,
94
Let it not dare to stir abroad again;
95
A stronger ill will cope with 't.
96
White Queen's Pawn
Bless me, threatens me,
And quite dismays the good strength that should help me!
97
I never was so doubtful of my safety.
98
Black Bishop's Pawn
'Twas but my jealousy; forgive me, sweetness:
99
Yours is the house of meekness, and no venom lives
100
Under that roof. Be nearer: why so fearful?.
101
Nearer the altar, the more safe and sacred.
102
White Queen's Pawn
But nearer to the offerer, oft more wicked.
103
Black Bishop's Pawn
A plain and most insufferable contempt!
104
My glory I have lost upon this woman,
105
In freely offering that she should have kneeled
106
A year in vain for; my respect is darkened.
107
Give me my reverence again thou hast robbed me of
108
In thy repulse; thou shalt not carry it hence.
109
White Queen's Pawn
Sir?
110
Black Bishop's Pawn
Thou'rt too great a winner to depart so,
111
And I too deep a loser to give way to it.
112
White Queen's Pawn
O heaven!
113
Black Bishop's Pawn
Lay me down reputation
Before thou stirr'st; thy nice virginity
114
Is recompense too little for my love,
115
'Tis well if I accept of that for both:
116
Thy loss is but thine own, there's art to help thee,
117
And fools to pass thee to; in my discovery
118
The whole Society suffers, and in that
119
The hope of absolute monarchy eclipsed.
120
Assurance thou canst make none for thy secrecy
121
But by thy honour's loss; that act must awe thee.
122
White Queen's Pawn
O my distressed condition!
123
Black Bishop's Pawn
Dost thou weep?
If thou hadst any pity, this necessity
124
Would wring it from thee: I must else destroy thee;
125
We must not trust the policy of Europe
126
Upon a woman's tongue.
127
White Queen's Pawn
Then take my life, sir,
And leave mine honour for my guide to heaven!
128
Black Bishop's Pawn
Take heed I take not both, which I have vowed,
129
Since if longer thou resist me —
130
White Queen's Pawn
Help! O, help!
Black Bishop's Pawn
Art thou so cruel, for an honour's bubble
131
T'undo a whole fraternity, and disperse
132
The secrets of most nations locked in us?
133
White Queen's Pawn
For heaven and virtue's sake!
134
Black Bishop's Pawn
Must force confound —
((A noise within.))
Hah! what's that? — Silence, if fair worth be in thee.
135
White Queen's Pawn
I venture my escape upon all dangers now.
136
Black Bishop's Pawn
Who comes to take me? Let me see that Pawn's face,
137
Or his proud tympanous master, swelled with state-wind,
138
Which being once pricked in the convocation-house,
139
The corrupt air puffs out, and he falls shrivelled.
140
White Queen's Pawn
I will discover thee, arch-hypocrite,
141
To all the kindreds of the earth.
142
(Exit.)
Black Bishop's Pawn
Confusion!
In that voice rings the alarum of my undoing.
143
How, which way 'scaped she from me?
144
(Enter Black Queen's Pawn)
Black Queen's Pawn
Are you mad?
Can lust infatuate a man so hopeful?
145
No patience in your blood? the dog-star reigns, sure:
146
Time and fair temper would have wrought her pliant.
147
I spied a Pawn of the White House walk near us,
148
And made that noise o' purpose to give warning —
149
For mine own turn, which end in all I work for.
150
Black Bishop's Pawn
Methinks I stand over a powder-vault,
151
And the match now a-kindling: what's to be done?
152
Black Queen's Pawn
Ask the Black Bishop's counsel; you're his pawn;
153
'Tis his own case, he will defend you mainly;
154
And happily here he comes, with the Black Knight too.
155
(Enter Black Bishop and Black Knight)
Black Bishop
O, y'ave made noble work for the White House yonder!
156
This act will fill the adversary's mouth,
157
And blow the Lutherans' cheek till 't crack again.
158
Black Knight
This will advance the great monarchal business
159
In all parts well, and help the agents forward!
160
What I in seven years laboured to accomplish,
161
One minute sets back by some codpiece college still.
162
Black Bishop's Pawn
I dwell not, sir, alone in this default,
163
The Black House yields me partners.
164
Black Bishop
All more cautelous.
Black Knight
Qui caute, caste ; that's my motto ever;
165
I have travelled with that word over most kingdoms,
166
And lain safe with most nations; of a leaking bottom,
167
I have been as often tossed on Venus' seas
168
As trimmer, fresher barks, when sounder vessels
169
Have lain at anchor, that is, kept the door.
170
Black Bishop
She has no witness then?
171
Black Bishop's Pawn
None, none..
Black Knight
Gross! witness?
When went a man of his Society
172
To mischief with a witness?
173
Black Bishop
I have done't then:
Away upon the wings of speed! Take post-horse,
174
Cast thirty leagues of earth behind thee suddenly;
175
Leave letters ante-dated with our House
176
Ten days at least from this.
177
Black Knight
Bishop, I taste thee;
Good, strong, episcopal counsel! take a bottle on 't,
178
'Twill serve thee all the journey.
179
Black Bishop's Pawn
But, good sir,
How for my getting forth unspied?
180
Black Knight
There's check again.
Black Queen's Pawn
No, I'll help that.
181
Black Knight
Well said, my bouncing Jesuitess!
182
Black Queen's Pawn
There lies a secret vault.
183
Black Knight
Away, make haste then!
Black Bishop's Pawn
Run for my cabinet of intelligences,
184
For fear they search the house.
185
([Exit Black Queen's Pawn.])
— Good Bishop, burn 'em rather;
I cannot stand to pick 'em now.
186
Black Bishop
Begone!
The danger's all in you.
187
([Exit Black Bishop's Pawn.])
([Enter Black Queen's Pawn with cabinet])
Black Knight
Let me see, Queen's Pawn:
How formally h'as packed up his intelligences!
188
H'as laid 'em all in truckle-beds, methinks,
189
And, like court-harbingers, has writ their names
190
In chalk upon their chambers: Anglica, —
191
O, this is the English House; what news there, trow?
192
Hah, by this hand, most of these are bawdy epistles!
193
Time they were burnt indeed! whole bundles on 'em.
194
Here's from his daughter Blanche and daughter Bridget,
195
From their safe sanctuary in the Whitefriars;
196
These from two tender sisters of Compassion
197
In the bowels of Bloomsbury;
198
Three from the nunnery in Drury Lane.
199
A fire, a fire, good Jesuitess, a fire! —
200
What have you there?
201
Black Bishop
A note, sir, of state policy,
And one exceeding safe one.
202
Black Knight
Pray, let's see it, sir, —
[Reads.] "To sell away all the powder in a kingdom,
203
To prevent blowing up:" that's safe; I'll able it.
204
Here's a facetious observation now,
205
And suits my humour better; he writes here
206
Some wives in England will commit adultery,
207
And then send to Rome for a bull for their husbands.
208
Black Bishop
Have they those shifts?
209
Black Knight
O, there's no female breathing
210
Sweeter and subtler! — Here, wench, take these papers,
211
Scorch me 'em soundly, burn 'em to French russet,
212
And put 'em in again.
213
Black Bishop
Why, what's your mystery?
Black Knight
O, sir, 'twill mock the adversary strangely,
214
If e'er the House be searched: 'twas done in Venice
215
Upon the Jesuitical expulse there,
216
When the Inquisitors came all spectacled
217
To pick out syllables out of the dung of treason,
218
As children pick out cherry-stones, yet found none
219
But what they made themselves with ends of letters. —
220
Do as I bid you, Pawn.
221
([Exeunt Black Knight and Black Bishop])
Black Queen's Pawn
Fear not: in all,
I love roguery too well to let it fall. —
222
(Enter Black Knight's Pawn)
How now, what news with you?
223
Black Knight's Pawn
The sting of conscience
Afflicts me so for that inhuman violence
224
On the White Bishop's Pawn, it takes away
225
My joy, my rest.
226
Black Queen's Pawn
This 'tis to make an eunuch!
You made a sport on't then.
227
Black Knight's Pawn
Cease aggravation:
I come to be absolved for 't: where's my confessor?
228
Why dost thou point to the ground?
229
Black Queen's Pawn
'Cause he went that way.
230
Come, come, help me in with this cabinet;
231
And after I have singed these papers throughly,
232
I'll tell thee a strange story.
233
Black Knight's Pawn
If 't be sad,
'Tis welcome.
234
Black Queen's Pawn
'Tis not troubled with much mirth, sir.
(Exeunt.)
[SCENE II]
([The Same])
(Enter Fat Bishop with a Pawn)
Fat Bishop
Pawn.
1
Fat Bishop's Pawn
I attend at your great holiness' service.
2
Fat Bishop
For great, I grant you, but for greatly holy,
3
There the soil alters: fat cathedral bodies
4
Have very often but lean little souls,
5
Much like the lady in the lobster's head,
6
A great deal of shell and garbage of all colours,
7
But the pure part, that should take wings and mount,
8
Is at last gasp; as if a man should gape,
9
And from this huge bulk let forth a butterfly,
10
Like those big-bellied mountains, which the poet
11
Delivers, that are brought abed with mouse-flesh.
12
Are my books printed, Pawn, my last invectives
13
Against the Black House?
14
Fat Bishop's Pawn
Ready for publication,
For I saw perfect books this morning, sir.
15
Fat Bishop
Fetch me a few, which I will instantly
16
Distribute 'mongst the White House.
17
Fat Bishop's Pawn
With all speed, sir.
(Exit Fat Bishop's Pawn.)
Fat Bishop
'Tis a most lordly life to rail at ease,
18
Sit, eat and feed upon the fat of one kingdom,
19
And rail upon another with the juice on 't.
20
I have writ this book out of the strength and marrow
21
Of six and thirty dishes at a meal,
22
But most on 'tout of cullis of cock-sparrows;
23
'Twill stick and glue the faster to the adversary, '
24
'Twill slit the throat of their most calvish cause;
25
And yet I eat but little butcher's meat
26
In the conception.
27
Of all things I commend the White House best
28
For plenty and variety of victuals:
29
When I was one of the Black side professed,
30
My flesh fell half a cubit; time to turn
31
When mine own ribs revolted. But to say true,
32
I have no preferment yet that's suitable
33
To the greatness of my person and my parts:
34
I grant I live at ease, for I am made
35
The master of the beds, the long acre of beds;
36
But there's no marigolds that shuts and opens,
37
Flower-gentles, Venus-baths, apples of love,
38
Pinks, hyacinths, honeysuckles, daffadowndillies:
39
There was a time I had more such drabs than beds;
40
Now I've more beds than drabs;
41
Yet there's no eminent trader deals in wholesale,
42
But she and I have clapped a bargain up,
43
Let in at water-gate, for which I have racked
44
My tenants' purse-strings that they have twanged again.
45
(Enter Black Knight and Black Bishop)
Yonder Black Knight, the fistula of Europe,
46
Whose disease once I undertook to cure
47
With a High Holborn halter! When he last
48
Vouchsafed to peep into my privileged lodgings,
49
He saw good store of plate there and rich hangings;
50
He knew I brought none to the White House with me:
51
I have not lost the use of my profession
52
Since I turned White-House Bishop.
53
(Enter his Pawn with books)
Black Knight
Look, more books yet!
Yond greasy, turncoat, gormandising prelate
54
Does work our House more mischief by his scripts,
55
His fat and fulsome volumes, than the whole
56
Body of the adverse party.
57
Black Bishop
O, 'twere
A masterpiece of serpent subtlety
58
To fetch him o' this side again!
59
Black Knight
And then damn him
Into the bag for ever, or expose him
60
Against the adverse party, which now he feeds upon;
61
And that would double-damn him. My revenge
62
Hath prompted me already: I'll confound him
63
On both sides for the physic he provided,
64
And the base surgeon he invented for me.
65
I'II tell you what a most uncatholic jest
66
He put upon me once when my pain tortured me:
67
He told me he had found a present cure for me,
68
Which I grew proud on, and observed him seriously.
69
What think you 'twas? being execution-day,
70
He showed the hangman to me out at window,
71
The common hangman!
72
Black Bishop
O, insufferable!
Black Knight
I'll make him the balloon-ball of the churches,
73
And both the sides shall toss him: he looks like one,
74
A thing swelled up with mingled drink and urine,
75
And will bound well from one side to another.
76
Come, you shall write; our second bishop absent,
77
(Which has yet no employment in the game,
78
Perhaps nor ever shall; it may be won
79
Without his motion, it rests most in ours,)
80
He shall be flattered with sede vacante ;
81
Make him believe he comes into his place,
82
And that will fetch him with a vengeance to us;
83
For I know powder is not more ambitious
84
When the match meets it, than his mind, for mounting;
85
As covetous and lecherous —
86
Black Bishop
No more now, sir;
(Enter both Houses)
Both the sides fill.
87
White King
This has been looked for long.
88
Fat Bishop
The stronger sting it shoots into the blood
89
Of the Black adversary: I am ashamed now
90
I was theirs ever; what a lump was I
91
When I was led in ignorance and blindness!
92
I must confess,
93
I've all my lifetime played the fool till now.
94
Black Knight
And now he plays two parts, the fool and knave.
95
Fat Bishop
There is my recantation in the last leaf,
96
Writ, like a Ciceronian, in pure Latin.
97
White Bishop
Pure honesty, the plainer Latin serves then.
98
Black Knight
Plague on those pestilent pamphlets! those are they
99
That would our cause to the heart.
100
Black Bishop
Here comes more anger.
(Enter White Queen's Pawn)
Black Knight
But we come well provided for this storm.
101
White Queen
Is this my Pawn, she that should guard our person,
102
Or some pale figure of dejection
103
Her shape usurping? Sorrow and affrightment
104
Has prevailed strangely with her.
105
White Queen's Pawn
King of integrity,
Queen of the same, and all the House, professors
106
Of noble candour, uncorrupted justice,
107
And truth of heart, through my alone discovery —
108
My life and honour wondrously preserved —
109
I bring into your knowledge with my sufferings,
110
Fearful affrightments, and heart-killing terrors:
111
The great incendiary of Christendom,
112
The absolut'st abuser of true sanctity,
113
Fair peace, and holy order, can be found
114
In any part of the universal globe;
115
Who, making meek devotion keep the door, —
116
His lips being full of holy zeal at first, —
117
Would have committed a foul rape upon me.
118
White Queen
Ha!
119
White King
A rape? that's foul indeed; the very sound
120
To our ear fouler than the offence itself
121
To some kings of the earth.
122
White Queen's Pawn
Sir, to proceed, —
123
Gladly I offered life to preserve honour,
124
Which would not be accepted without both,
125
The chief of his ill aim being at my honour;
126
Till heaven was pleased, by some unlooked-for accident,
127
To give me courage to redeem myself.
128
White King
When we find desperate sins in ill men's companies,
129
We place a charitable sorrow there,
130
But custom, and their leprous inclination,
131
Quits us of wonder, for our expectation
132
Is answered in their lives; but to find sin,
133
Ay, and a masterpiece of darkness, sheltered
134
Under a robe of sanctity, is able
135
To draw all wonder to that monster only,
136
And leave created monsters unadmired.
137
The pride of him that took first fall for pride
138
Is to be angel-shaped, and imitate
139
The form from whence he fell; but this offender,
140
Far baser than sin's master, fixed by vow
141
To holy order, which is angels' method,
142
Takes pride to use that shape to be a devil.
143
It grieves me that my knowledge must be tainted
144
With his infected name:
145
O, rather with thy finger point him out!
146
White Queen's Pawn
The place which he should fill is void, my lord,
147
His guilt hath seized him, — the Black Bishop's Pawn.
148
Black Bishop
Ha! mine? my Pawn? the glory of his order,
149
The prime and president zealot of the earth?
150
Impudent Pawn, for thy sake at that's minute
151
Modesty suffers, all that's virtuous blushes,
152
And truth's self, like the sun vexed with a mist,
153
Looks red with anger.
154
White Bishop
Be not you drunk with rage too.
155
Black Bishop
Sober sincerity, nor you with a cup
156
Spiced with hypocrisy.
157
White Knight
You name there, Bishop,
158
But your own Christmas-bowl, your morning's draught,
159
Next your episcopal heart all the twelve days,
160
Which smack you cannot leave all the year following.
161
Black Knight
A shrewd retort!
162
H'as made our Bishop smell of burning too:
163
Would I stood farder off! were't no impeachment
164
To my honour or the game, would they'd play faster! —
165
White Knight, there is acknowledged from our House
166
A reverence to you, and a respect
167
To that loved Duke stands next you: with the favour
168
Of the White King and the 'forenamed respected,
169
I combat with this cause. If with all speed, —
170
Waste not one syllable, unfortunate Fawn,
171
Of what I speak, — thou dost not plead distraction,
172
A plea which will but faintly take thee off, neither,
173
From this leviathan-scandal that lies rolling
174
Upon the crystal waters or devotion;
175
Or, what may quit thee more, though enough nothing,
176
Fall down and foam, and by that pang discover
177
The vexing spirit of falsehood strong within thee,
178
Make thyself ready for perdition:
179
There's no remove in all the game to 'scape it;
180
This Pawn or this, the Bishop or myself,
181
Will take thee in the end, play how thou canst.
182
White Queen's Pawn
Spite of sin's glorious ostentation,
183
And all loud threats, those thunder-cracks of pride,
184
Ushering a storm of malice; House of impudence,
185
Craft, and equivocation, my true cause
186
Shall keep the path it treads in.
187
Black Knight
I play thus, then:
Now in the hearing of this high assembly
188
Bring forth the time of this attempt's conception.
189
White Queen's Pawn
Conception? O, how tenderly you handle it!
190
White Bishop
It seems, Black Knight, you are afraid to touch it.
191
Black Knight
Well, its eruption: will you have it so then?
192
Or you, White Bishop, for her? the uncleaner,
193
Vile, and more impious that you urge the strain to,
194
The greater will her shame's heap show i' th' end,
195
And the wronged, meek man's glory. — The time, Pawn?
196
White Queen's Pawn
Yesterday's cursèd evening.
197
Black Knight
O the treasure
Of my revenge! I cannot spend all on thee,
198
Ruin to spare for all thy kindred too:
199
For honour's sake call in more slanderers;
200
I have such plentiful confusion,
201
I know not how to waste it. I 'II be nobler yet,
202
And put her to her own House. — King of meekness,
203
Take the cause to thee, for our hand's too heavy;
204
Our proofs will fall upon her like a tower,
205
And grind her bones to powder.
206
White Queen's Pawn
What new engine
Has the devil raised in him now?
207
Black Knight
Is it he,
And that the time? Stand firm now to your scandal,
208
Pray, do not shift your slander.
209
White Queen's Pawn
Shift your treacheries;
They've worn one suit too long.
210
Black Knight
That holy man,
So wrongfully accused by this lost Pawn,
211
Hath not been seen these ten days in these parts.
212
White Knight
How?
213
Black Knight
Nay, at this instant thirty leagues from hence.
214
White Queen's Pawn
Fathomless falsehood! will it 'scape unblasted?
215
White King
Can you make this appear?
216
Black Knight
Light is not clearer;
By his own letters, most impartial monarch.
217
White King's Pawn
How wrongfully may sacred virtue suffer, sir!
218
Black Knight
Bishop, we have a treasure of that false heart.
219
White King
Step forth, and reach those proofs.
220
([Exit Black Knight's Pawn, who presently returns with papers.])
White Queen's Pawn
Amazement covers me!
Can I be so forsaken of a cause
221
So strong in truth and equity? Will virtue
222
Send me no aid in this hard time of friendship?
223
Black Knight
There's an infallible staff and a red hat
224
Reserved for you.
225
White King's Pawn
O, sir endeared!
Black Knight
A staff
That will not easily break; you may trust to it;
226
And such a one had your corruption need of;
227
There's a state-fig for you now.
228
White King
Behold all,
How they cohere in one! I always held
229
A charity so good to holiness
230
Professed, I ever believed rather
231
The accuser false than the professor vicious.
232
Black Knight
A charity, like all your virtues else,
233
Gracious and glorious.
234
White King
Where settles the offence,
235
Let the fault's punishment be derived from thence:
236
We leave her to your censure.
237
Black Knight
Most just majesty!
([Exeunt White King, White Queen, White Bishop, and White King's Pawn; Fat Bishop and Fat Bishop's Pawn.])
White Queen's Pawn
Calamity of virtue! my Queen leave me too!
238
Am I cast off as th' olive casts her flower?
239
Poor harmless innocence, art thou left a prey
240
To the devourer?
241
White Knight
No, thou art not lost,
Let 'em put on their bloodiest resolutions,
242
If the fair policy I aim at prospers. —
243
Thy counsel, noble Duke!
244
White Duke
For that work cheerfully.
White Knight
A man for speed now!
245
White Bishop's Pawn
Let it be my honour, sir;
Make me that flight, that owes her my life's service.
246
(Exeunt [White Knight, White Duke, and White Bishop's Pawn.])
Black Knight
Was not this brought about well for our honours?
247
Black Bishop
Pish, that Galician sconce can work out wonders.
248
Black Knight
Let's use her as, upon the like discovery,
249
A maid was used at Venice; every one
250
Be ready with a penance. — Begin, majesty. —
251
Vessel of foolish scandal, take thy freight:
252
Had there been in that cabinet of niceness
253
Half the virginities of the earth locked up,
254
And all swept at one cast by the dexterity
255
Of a Jesuitical gamester, 't had not valued
256
The least part of that general worth thou hast tainted.
257
Black King
First, I enjoin thee to a three days' fast for 't.
258
Black Queen
You're too penurious, sir; I'll make it four.
259
Black Bishop
I to a twelve hours' kneeling at one time.
260
Black Knight
And in a room fillèd all with Aretine's pictures,
261
More than the twice-twelve labours of luxury:
262
Thou shalt not see so much as the chaste pommel
263
Of Lucrece' dagger peeping; nay, I'll punish thee
264
For a discoverer, I'll torment thy modesty.
265
Black Duke
After that four days' fast, to the Inquisition-house,
266
Strengthened with bread and water for worse penance.
267
Black Knight
Why, well said, duke of our House, nobly aggravated!
268
White Queen's Pawn
Virtue, to show her influence more strong,
269
Fits me with patience mightier than my wrong.
270
(Exeunt.)
Finit Actus Secundus.
[ACT III] Incipit Tertius.
[SCENE I]
([Field between the two Houses])
(Enter Fat Bishop)
Fat Bishop
I know my pen draws blood of the Black House,
1
There's never a book I write but their cause bleeds;
2
It hath lost many an ounce of reputation
3
Since I came of this side; I strike deep in,
4
And leave the orifex gushing where I come,
5
But where's my advancement all this while I ha' gaped for?
6
I'd have some round preferment, corpulent dignity,
7
That bears some breadth and compass in the gift on 't:
8
I am persuaded that this flesh would fill
9
The biggest chair ecclesiastical,
10
If it were put to trial.
11
To be made master of an hospital
12
Is but a kind of diseased bed-rid honour;
13
Or dean of the poor alms-knights that wear badges:
14
There's but two lazy, beggarly preferments
15
In the White Kingdom, and I have got 'em both:
16
My merit doth begin to be crop-sick
17
For want of other titles.
18
(Enter Black Knight)
Black Knight
O, here walks
19
His fulsome holiness: now for the master-trick
20
T'undo him everlastingly, that's put home,
21
And make him hang in hell most seriously
22
That jested with a halter upon me.
23
Fat Bishop
The Black Knight! I must look to my play then.
24
Black Knight
I bring fair greetings to your reverend virtues
25
From Cardinal Paulus, your most princely kinsman.
26
([Gives a letter.])
Fat Bishop
Our princely kinsman, say'st thou? we accept 'em.
27
Pray, keep your side and distance; I am chary
28
Of my episcopal person:
29
I know the Knight's walk in this game too well;
30
He may skip over me; and where am I then?
31
Black Knight
There where thou shalt be shortly, if art fail not.
32
(The Letter.)
Fat Bishop
"Right reverend and noble," — meaning ourself, — "our true kinsman in blood, but alienated in affection, your unkind disobedience to the mother cause proves at this time the only cause of your ill fortune: my present remove by election to the papal dignity had now auspiciously settled you in my sede vacante " — ha! had it so? — ''which at my next remove by death might have proved your step to supremacy."
How! all my body's blood mounts to my face
34
To look upon this letter.
35
Black Knight
The pill works with him.
Fat Bishop
[Reads.] “Think on't seriously; it is not yet too late, thorough the submiss acknowledgment of your disobedience, to be lovingly received into the brotherly bosom of the conclave. "
This was the chair of ease I ever aimed at.
37
I'll make a bonfire of my books immediately;
38
All that are left against that side I'll sacrifice;
39
Pack up my plate and goods, and steal away
40
By night at water-gate. It is but penning
41
Another recantation, and inventing
42
Two or three bitter books against the White House,
43
And then I'm in on t'other side again
44
As firm as e'er I was, as fat and flourishing. —
45
Black Knight, expect a wonder ere 't be long,
46
You shall see me one of the Black House shortly.
47
Black Knight
Your holiness is merry with the messenger;
48
Too happy to be true; you speak what should be,
49
If natural compunction touched you truly.
50
O, y'ave drawn blood, life-blood, the blood of honour,
51
From your most dear, your primitive mother's heart!
52
Your sharp invectives have been points of spears
53
In her sweet tender sides! The unkind wounds
54
Which a son gives, a son of reverence 'specially,
55
They rankle ten times more than the adversary's:
56
I tell you, sir, your reverend revolt
57
Did give the fearfull'st blow to adoration
58
Our cause e'er felt; it shook the very statues,
59
The urns and ashes of the sainted sleepers.
60
Fat Bishop
Forbear, or I shall melt in the place I stand,
61
And let forth a fat bishop in sad syrup:
62
Suffices I am yours, when they least dream on 't;
63
Ambition's fodder, power and riches, draws me:
64
When I smell honour, that's the lock of hay
65
That leads me through the world's field every way.
66
(Exit.)
Black Knight
Here's a sweet paunch to propagate belief on,
67
Like the foundation of a chapel laid
68
Upon a quagmire! I may number him now
69
Amongst my inferior policies, and not shame 'em.
70
But let me a little solace my designs
71
With the remembrance of some brave ones past,
72
To cherish the futurity of project,
73
Whose motion must be restless till that great work,
74
Called the possession of the world, be ours.
75
Was it not I procured a precious safeguard
76
From the White Kingdom to secure our coasts
77
'Gainst the infidel pirate, under pretext
78
Of more necessitous expedition?
79
Who made the jails fly open, without miracle,
80
And let the locusts out, those dangerous flies,
81
Whose property is to burn corn with touching?
82
The heretic granaries feel it to this minute:
83
And now they have got amongst the country crops,
84
They stick so fast to the converted ears,
85
The loudest tempest that authority rouses
86
Will hardly shake 'em off: they have their dens
87
In ladies' couches — there's safe groves and fens!
88
Nay, were they followed and found out by th' scent,
89
Palm-oil will make a pursuivant relent.
90
Whose policy was't to put a silenced muzzle
91
On all the barking tongue-men of the time?
92
Made pictures, that were dumb enough before,
93
Poor sufferers in that politic restraint?
94
My light spleen skips and shakes my ribs to think on 't.
95
Whilst our drifts walked uncensured but in thought,
96
A whistle or a whisper would be questioned
97
In the most fortunate angle of the world.
98
The court has held the city by the horns
99
Whilst I have milked her: I have had good sops too
100
From country ladies for their liberties,
101
From some for their most vainly-hoped preferments,
102
High offices in the air. I should not live
103
But for this mel aerium , this mirth-manna.
104
(Enter his Pawn)
My Pawn! — How now, the news?
105
Black Knight's Pawn
Expect none very pleasing
106
That comes, sir, of my bringing; I'm for sad things.
107
Black Knight
Thy conscience is so tender-hoofed of late,
108
Every nail pricks it.
109
Black Knight's Pawn
This may prick yours too,
If there be any quick flesh in a yard on 't.
110
Black Knight
Mine?
111
Mischief must find a deep nail, and a driver
112
Beyond the strength of any Machiavel
113
The politic kingdoms fatten, to reach mine.
114
Prithee, compunction needle-pricked, a little
115
Unbind this sore wound.
116
Black Knight's Pawn
Sir, your plot's discovered.
117
Black Knight
Which of the twenty thousand and nine hundred
118
Four score and five? canst tell?
119
Black Knight's Pawn
Bless us, so many!
How do poor countrymen have but one plot
120
To keep a cow on, yet in law for that?
121
You cannot know 'em all, sure, by their names, sir.
122
Black Knight
Yes, were their number trebled: thou hast seen
123
A globe stands on the table in my closet?
124
Black Knight's Pawn
A thing, sir, full of countries and hard words?
125
Black Knight
True, with lines drawn, some tropical, some oblique.
126
Black Knight's Pawn.
I can scarce read, I was brought up in blindness.
127
Black Knight
Just such a thing, if e'er my skull be opened,
128
Will my brains look like.
129
Black Knight's Pawn
Like a globe of countries?
Black Knight
Ay, and some master-politician,
130
That has sharp state-eyes, will go near to pick out
131
The plots, and every climate where they fastened;
132
'Twill puzzle 'em too.
133
Black Knight's Pawn
I'm of your mind for that, sir.
134
Black Knight
They’ll find 'em to fall thick upon some countries;
135
They'd need use spectacles: but I turn to you now;
136
What plot is that discovered?
137
Black Knight's Pawn
Your last brat, sir,
Begot 'twixt the Black Bishop and yourself,
138
Your ante-dated letters 'bout the Jesuit.
139
Black Knight
Discovered! how?
Black Knight's Pawn
The White Knight's policy has outstripped yours, it seems,
140
Joined with th' assistant counsel of his Duke:
141
The Bishop's White Pawn undertook the journey,
142
Who, as they say, discharged it like a flight,
143
Ay, made him for the business fit and light.
144
Black Knight
'Tis but a bawdy Pawn out of the way a little;
145
Enow of them in all parts.
146
(Enter Black Bishop and both the Houses)
Black Bishop
You have heard all then?
Black Knight
The wonder's past with me; but some shall down for 't.
147
White Knight
Set free that virtuous Pawn from all her wrongs;
148
Let her be brought with honour to the face
149
Of her malicious adversaries.
150
([Exit White King's Pawn.])
Black Knight
Good.
White King
Noble chaste Knight, a title of that candour
151
The greatest prince on earth without impeachment
152
May have the dignity of his worth comprised in,
153
This fair delivering act Virtue will register
154
In that white book of the defence of virgins,
155
Where the clear fames of all preserving knights
156
Are to eternal memory consecrated;
157
And we embrace, as partner of that honour,
158
This worthy Duke, the counsel of the act,
159
Whom we shall ever place in our respect.
160
White Duke
Most blest of kings, throned in all royal graces,
161
Every good deed sends back its own reward
162
Into the bosom of the enterpriser;
163
But you to express yourself as well to be
164
King of munificence as integrity,
165
Adds glory to the gift.
166
White King
Thy deserts claim it,
Zeal, and fidelity. — Appear, thou beauty
167
Of truth and innocence, best ornament
168
Of patience, thou that mak'st thy sufferings glorious!
169
([Enter White King's Pawn with White Queen's Pawn])
Black Knight
I'll take no knowledge on 't.
170
How dares yond Pawn unpenanced, with a cheek
171
Fresh as her falsehood yet, where castigation
172
Has left no pale print of her visiting anguish,
173
— Let me alone:
174
Sin must be bold; that's all the grace 'tis born to.
175
White Knight
What's this?
176
White King
I'm wonder-struck!
White Queen's Pawn
Assist me, goodness!
177
I shall to prison again.
178
Black Knight
At least I have mazed 'em,
Scattered their admiration of her innocence,
179
As the fired ships put in severed the fleet
180
In eighty-eight: I'll on with 't; impudence
181
Is mischief's patrimony. — Is this justice?
182
Is injured reverence no sharplier righted?
183
I ever held that majesty impartial
184
That, like most equal heaven, looks on the manners,
185
Not on the shapes they shroud in.
186
White King
That Black Knight
Will never take an answer; 'tis a victory
187
To make him understand he does amiss,
188
When he knows in his own clear understanding
189
That he does nothing else. Show him the testimony,
190
Confirmed by good men, how that foul attempter
191
Got but this morning to the place from whence
192
He dated his forged lines for ten days past.
193
Black Knight
Why, may not that corruption sleep in this
194
By some connivance, as you have waked in ours
195
By too rash confidence?
196
White Duke
I'll undertake
That Knight shall teach the devil how to lie.
197
White Knight
If sin were half so wise as impudent,
198
She'd ne'er seek farder for an advocate.
199
(Enter Black Queen's Pawn)
Black Queen's Pawn
Now to act treachery with an angel's tongue:
200
Since all's come out, I'll bring him strangely in again.
201
Where is this injured chastity, this goodness
202
Whose worth no transitory piece can value?
203
This rock of constant and invincible virtue,
204
That made sin's tempest weary of his fury?
205
Black Queen
What, is my Pawn distracted?
206
Black Knight
I think rather
There is some notable masterprize of roguery
207
This drum strikes up for.
208
Black Queen's Pawn
Let me fall with reverence
Before this blessed altar.
209
Black Queen
This is madness.
Black Knight
Well, mark the end; I stand for roguery still,
210
I will not change my side.
211
Black Queen's Pawn
I shall be taxed, I know;
I care not what the Black House thinks of me.
212
Black Queen
What say you now?
213
Black Knight
I will not be unlaid yet.
Black Queen's Pawn
How any censure flies, I honour sanctity;
214
That is my object, I intend no other:
215
I saw this glorious and most valiant virtue
216
Fight the most noblest combat with the devil.
217
Black Knight
If both the Bishops had been there for seconds,
218
'T'ad been a complete duel.
219
White King
Then thou heard'st
The violence intended?
220
Black Queen's Pawn
'Tis a truth
I joy to justify: I was an agent, sir,
221
On virtue's part, and raised that confused noise
222
That startled his attempt, and gave her liberty.
223
White Queen's Pawn
O, 'tis a righteous story she has told, sir!
224
My life and fame stand mutually engaged
225
Both to the truth and goodness of this Pawn.
226
White King
Does it appear to you yet clear as the sun?
227
Black Knight
'Las, I believed it long before 'twas done!
228
Black King
Degenerate —
229
Black Queen
Base —
Black Bishop
Perfidious —
Black Duke
Trait'rous Pawn!
Black Queen's Pawn
What, are you all beside yourselves?
230
Black Knight
But I;
231
Remember that, Pawn.
232
Black Queen's Pawn
May a fearful barrenness
233
Blast both my hopes and pleasures, if I brought not
234
Her ruin in my pity! a new trap
235
For her more sure confusion.
236
Black Knight
Have I won now?
Did not I say 'twas craft and machination?
237
I smelt conspiracy all the way it went,
238
Although the mess were covered; I'm so used to it.
239
Black King
That Queen would I fain finger.
240
Black Knight
You're too hot, sir;
If she were took, the game would be ours quickly:
241
My aim's at that White Knight; entrap him first,
242
The Duke will follow, too.
243
Black Bishop
I would that Bishop
Were in my diocese! I'd soon change his whiteness.
244
Black Knight
Sir, I could whip you up a Pawn immediately;
245
I know where my game stands.
246
Black King
Do it suddenly;
Advantage least must not be lost in this play.
247
Black Knight
Pawn, thou art ours.
248
([Seizes White King's Pawn.])
White Knight
He's taken by default,
By wilful negligence. Guard the sacred persons;
249
Look well to the White Bishop, for that Pawn
250
Gave guard to the Queen and him in the third place.
251
Black Knight
See what sure piece you lock your confidence in!
252
I made this Pawn here by corruption ours,
253
As soon as honour by creation yours.
254
This whiteness upon him is but the leprosy
255
Of pure dissimulation: view him now,
256
His heart and his intents are of our colour.
257
(His upper garment taken off, he appears black underneath.)
White Knight
Most dangerous hypocrite!
258
White Queen
One made against us!
White Duke
His truth of their complexion!
259
White King
Has my goodness
Clemency, love, and favour gracious, raised thee
260
From a condition next to popular labour,
261
Took thee from all the dubitable hazards
262
Of fortune, her most unsecure adventures,
263
And grafted thee into a branch of honour,
264
And dost thou fall from the top-bough by the rottenness
265
Of thy alone corruption, like a fruit
266
That's over-ripened by the beams of favour?
267
Let thy own weight reward thee; I have forgot thee:
268
Integrity of life is so dear to me,
269
Where I find falsehood or a crying trespass,
270
Be it in any whom our grace shines most on,
271
I'd tear 'em from my heart.
272
White Bishop
Spoke like heaven's substitute!
273
White King
You have him, we can spare him; and his shame
274
Will make the rest look better to their game.
275
Black Knight
The more cunning we must use then.
276
Black King
We shall match you,
277
Play how you can, perhaps and mate you too.
278
Fat Bishop
Is there so much amazement spent on him
279
That's but half black? there might be hope of that man;
280
But how will this House wonder if I stand forth
281
And show a whole one, instantly discover
282
One that's all black, where there's no hope at all!
283
White King
I'll say, thy heart then justifies thy books;
284
I long for that discovery.
285
Fat Bishop
Look no farder then:
Bear witness, all the House, I am the man,
286
And turn myself into the Black House freely;
287
I am of this side now.
288
White Knight
Monster ne'er matched him!
Black King
This is your noble work, Knight.
289
Black Knight
Now I'll halter him.
Fat Bishop
Next news you hear, expect my books against you,
290
Printed at Douay, Brussels, or Spalato.
291
White King
See his goods seized on!.
292
Fat Bishop
'Las, they were all conveyed
Last night by water to a tailor's house,
293
A friend of the Black cause.
294
White Knight
A prepared hypocrite!
White Duke
Premeditated turncoat!
295
(Exeunt [White King, White Queen, White Knight, White Duke, and White Bishop.])
Fat Bishop
Yes, rail on;
I'll reach you in my writings when I'm gone.
296
Black Knight
Flatter him a while with honours till we put him
297
Upon some dangerous service, and then burn him.
298
Black King
This came unlooked for.
299
Black Duke
How we joy to see you!
Fat Bishop
Now I'll discover all the White House to you.
300
Black Duke
Indeed, that will both reconcile and raise you.
301
([Exeunt Black King, Black Queen, Black Duke, Black Bishop, and F. Bishop.])
White King's Pawn
I rest upon you, Knight, for my advancement.
302
Black Knight
O, for the staff, the strong staff that will hold,
303
And the red hat, fit for the guilty mazzard?
304
Into the empty bag know thy first way:
305
Pawns that are lost are ever out of play.
306
White King's Pawn
How's this? .
307
Black Knight
No replications, you know me:
No doubt ere long you'll have more company;
308
The bag is big enough, 'twill hold us all.
309
(Exeunt [Black Knight, White King's Pawn, and Black Knight's Pawn.])
White Queen's Pawn
I sue to thee, prithee be one of us!
310
Let my love win thee: thou hast done truth this day
311
And yesterday my honour noble service;
312
The best Pawn of our House could not transcend it.
313
Black Queen's Pawn
My pity flamed with zeal, especially
314
When I foresaw your marriage, then it mounted.
315
White Queen's Pawn
How! marriage?
316
Black Queen's Pawn
That contaminating act
Would have spoiled all your fortunes — a rape! God bless us!
317
White Queen's Pawn
Thou talk'st of marriage!
318
Black Queen's Pawn
Yes, yes, you do marry;
I saw the man.
319
White Queen's Pawn
The man!
320
Black Queen's Pawn
An absolute handsome gentleman, a complete one, -
321
You'll say so when you see him, — heir to three red hats,
322
Besides his general hopes in the Black House.
323
White Queen's Pawn
Why, sure thou'rt much mistaken for this man;
324
Why, I have promised single life to all my affections.
325
Black Queen's Pawn
Promise you what you will, or I or all on's,
326
There's a Fate rules and overrules us all, methinks.
327
White Queen's Pawn
Why, how came you to see or know this mystery?
328
Black Queen's Pawn
A magical glass I bought of an Egyptian,
329
Whose stone retains that speculative virtue,
330
Presented the man to me: your name brings him
331
As often as I use it; and methinks
332
I never have enough, person and postures
333
Are all so pleasing.
334
White Queen's Pawn
This is wondrous strange!
The faculties of soul are still the same;
335
I can feel no one motion tend that way.
336
Black Queen's Pawn
We do not always feel our faith we live by,
337
Nor ever see our growth, yet both work upward.
338
White Queen's Pawn
'Twas well applied; but may I see him too?
339
Black Queen's Pawn
Surely you may, without all doubt or fear,
340
Observing the right use, as I was taught it,
341
Not looking back or questioning the spectre.
342
White Queen's Pawn
That's no hard observation; trust it with me:
343
Is't possible? I long to see this man.
344
Black Queen's Pawn
Pray follow me, then, and I'll ease you instantly.
345
(Exeunt.)
[SCENE II]
(Enter a Black Jesting Pawn)
Black Jesting Pawn
I would so fain take one of these White Pawns now!
1
I'd make him do all under-drudgery,
2
Feed him with asses' milk crumbed with goats' cheese,
3
And all the whitemeats could be devised for him;
4
(Enter a White Pawn)
So make him my white jennet when I prance it.
5
After the Black Knight's litter.
6
White Pawn
And you would look then
Just like the devil striding o'er a nightmare
7
Made of a miller's daughter.
8
Black Jesting Pawn
A pox on you,
Were you so near? I'm taken, like a blackbird
9
In the great snow, this White Pawn grinning over me.
10
White Pawn
And now because I will not foul my clothes
11
Ever hereafter, for white quickly soils, you know —
12
Black Jesting Pawn
I prithee, get thee gone, then; I shall smut thee.
13
White Pawn
Nay, I'll put that to venture; now I have snapped thee,
14
Thou shalt do all the dirty drudgery
15
That slavery was e'er put to.
16
Black Jesting Pawn
I shall cozen you:
You may chance come and find your work undone then,
17
For I'm too proud to labour, — I'll starve first;
18
I tell you that beforehand.
19
White Pawn
I will fit you then
With a black whip, that shall not be behind-hand.
20
Black Jesting Pawn
Pugh, I have been used to whipping; I have whipped
21
Myself three mile out of town in a morning; and
22
I can fast a fortnight, and make all your meat
23
Stink and lie on your hands.
24
White Pawn
To prevent that,
Your food shall be blackberries, and upon gaudy-days
25
A pickled spider, cut out like an anchovis:
26
I'm not to learn a monkey's ordinary.
27
Come, sir, will you frisk?
28
(Enter a Second Black Pawn)
Second Black Pawn
Soft, soft, you! you have no
29
Such bargain on 't, if you look well about you.
30
White Pawn
By this hand,
31
I am snapped too, a Black Pawn in the breech of me!
32
We three look like a bird-spit, a white chick
33
Between two russet woodcocks.
34
Black Jesting Pawn
I'm glad of this!
White Pawn
But you shall have but small cause, for I'll firk you.
35
Second Black Pawn
Then I'll firk you again.
36
White Pawn
And I'll firk him again.
Black Jesting Pawn
Mass, here will be old firking! I shall have
37
The worst on 't; I can firk nobody.
38
We draw together now for all the world
39
Like three flies with one straw thorough their buttocks.
40
(Exeunt.)
[SCENE III]
([A Chamber, with a large Mirror])
(Enter Black Queen's Pawn and White Queen's Pawn)
Black Queen's Pawn
This is the room he did appear to me in;
1
And, look you, this the magical glass that showed him.
2
White Queen's Pawn
I find no motion yet: what should I think on 't?
3
A sudden fear invades me, a faint trembling,
4
Under this omen,
5
As is oft felt the panting of a turtle
6
Under a stroking band.
7
Black Queen's Pawn
That bodes good luck still,
Sign you shall change state speedily; for that trembling
8
Is always the first symptom of a bride.
9
For any vainer fears that may accompany
10
His apparition, by my truth to friendship,
11
I quit you of the least; never was object
12
More gracefully presented; the very air
13
Conspires to do him honour, and creates
14
Sweet vocal sounds, as if a bridegroom entered;
15
Which argues the blest harmony of your loves.
16
White Queen's Pawn
And will the using of my name produce him?
17
Black Queen's Pawn
Nay, of yours only, else the wonder halted:
18
To clear you of that doubt, I'll put the difference
19
In practice, the first thing I do, and make
20
His invocation in the name of others.
21
White Queen's Pawn
'Twill satisfy me much, that.
22
Black Queen's Pawn
It shall be done. —
(The Invocation)
Thou, whose gentle form and face
23
Filled lately this Egyptic glass,
24
By the imperious powerful name
25
And the universal fame
26
Of the mighty Black-House Queen,
27
I conjure thee lo be seen! —
28
What, see you nothing yet?
29
White Queen's Pawn
Not any part:
Pray, try another.
30
Black Queen's Pawn
You shall have your will. —
I double my command and power,
31
And at the instant of this hour
32
Invoke thee in the White Queen's name,
33
With stay for time, and shape the same. —
34
What see you yet?
35
White Queen's Pawn
There's nothing shows at all.
Black Queen's Pawn
My truth reflects the clearer then: now fix
36
And bless your fair eyes with your own for ever. —
37
Thou well-composed, by Fate's hand drawn
38
To enjoy the White Queen's Pawn,
39
Of whom thou shalt, by virtue met,
40
Many graceful issues get;
41
By the beauty of her fame,
42
By the whiteness of her name,
43
By her fair and fruitful love,
44
By her truth that mates the dove,
45
By the meekness of her mind,
46
By the softness of her kind,
47
By the lustre of her grace, —
48
By all these thou art summoned to this place! —
49
Hark; how the air, enchanted with your praises
50
And his approach, those words to sweet notes raises!
51
(Music: Enter the Jesuit in rich attire, like an apparition; presents himself before the glass; then exit.)
White Queen's Pawn
O, let him stay a while! a little longer!
52
Black Queen's Pawn
That's a good hearing.
53
White Queen's Pawn
If he be mine, why should he part so soon?
54
Black Queen's Pawn
Why, this is but the shadow of yours. How do you?
55
White Queen's Pawn
O, I did ill to give consent to see it!
56
What certainty is in our blood or state?
57
What we still write is blotted out by fate;
58
Our wills are like a cause that is law-tossed,
59
What one court orders, is by another crossed.
60
Black Queen's Pawn
I find no fit place for this passion here,
61
'Tis merely an intruder. He is a gentleman
62
Most wishfully composed; honour grows on him,
63
And wealth pil'd up for him; h'as youth enough, too,
64
And yet in the sobriety of his countenance
65
Grave as a tetrarch, which is gracious
66
In the eye of modest pleasure. Where's the emptiness?
67
What can you more request?
68
White Queen's Pawn
I do not know
What answer yet to make; it does require
69
A meeting 'twixt my fear and my desire.
70
Black Queen's Pawn
She's caught, and, which is strange, by her most wronger.
71
(Exeunt.)
Finit Actus Tertius.
[ACT IV] Incipit Quartus.
[SCENE I]
([Field between the two Houses])
(Enter Black Knight's Pawn meeting the Black Bishop's Pawn richly accoutred)
Black Knight's Pawn
'Tis he, my cónfessor; he might ha' passed me
1
Seven year together, had I not by chance
2
Advanced mine eye upon that lettered hat-band,
3
The Jesuitical symbol to be known by,
4
Worn by the brave collegians with consent:
5
'Tis a strange habit for a holy father,
6
A President of poverty especially;
7
But we, the sons and daughters of obedience,
8
Dare not once think awry, but must confess ourselves
9
As humbly to the father of that feather,
10
Long spur, and poniard, as to the alb and altar,
11
And happy we're so highly graced to attain to 't. —
12
Holy and reverend!
13
Black Bishop's Pawn
How! hast found me out?
Black Knight's Pawn
O sir, put on the sparkling'st trim of glory,
14
Perfection will shine foremost; and I knew you
15
By the catholical mark you wear about you,
16
The mark above your forehead.
17
Black Bishop's Pawn
Are you grown
So ambitious in your observance? Well, your business?
18
I have my game to follow.
19
Black Knight's Pawn
I have a worm
Follows me so, that I can follow no game:
20
The most faint-hearted pawn, if he could see his play,
21
Might snap me up at pleasure. I desire, sir,
22
To be absolved: my conscience being at ease,
23
I could then with more courage play my game.
24
Black Bishop's Pawn
'Twas a base fact.
25
Black Knight's Pawn
'Twas to a schismatic pawn, sir.
26
Black Bishop's Pawn
What's that to the nobility of revenge?
27
Suffices I have neither will nor power
28
To give you absolution for that violence.
29
Make your petition to the Penance-chamber:
30
If the tax-register relieve you in 't
31
By the Black Bishop's clemency, you have wrought out
32
A singular piece of favour with your money;
33
That's all your refuge now.
34
Black Knight's Pawn
The sting shoots deeper.
(Exit.)
(Enter White Queen's Pawn and Black Queen's Pawn)
Black Bishop's Pawn
Yonder's my game, which, like a politic chess-master,
35
I must not seem to see.
36
White Queen's Pawn
O my heart!
Black Queen's Pawn
That 'tis.
37
White Queen's Pawn
The very self-same that the magical mirror
38
Presented lately to me.
39
Black Queen's Pawn
And how like
A most regardless stranger he walks by,
40
Merely ignorant of his fate! You are not minded,
41
The principall'st part of him. What strange mysteries
42
Inscrutable love works by!
43
White Queen's Pawn
The time, you see,
Is not yet come.
44
Black Queen's Pawn
But 'tis in our power now
45
To bring time nearer — knowledge is a mastery —
46
And make it observe us, and not we it.
47
White Queen's Pawn
I would force nothing from its proper virtue;
48
Let time have his full course. I'd rather die
49
The modest death of undiscovered love
50
Than have heaven's least and lowest servant suffer,
51
Or in his motion receive check, for me.
52
How is my soul's growth altered! that single life,
53
The fittest garment that peace ever made for 't,
54
Is grown too strait, too stubborn, on the sudden.
55
Black Queen's Pawn
He comes this way again.
56
White Queen's Pawn
O, there's a traitor
Leaped from my heart into my cheek already,
57
That will betray all to his powerful eye,
58
If it but glance upon me!
59
Black Queen's Pawn
By my verity,
Look, he's passed by again, drowned in neglect,
60
Without the prosperous hint of so much happiness
61
To look upon his fortunes! How close fate
62
Seals up the eye of human understanding,
63
Till, like the sun's flower, time and love uncloses it!
64
'Twere pity he should dwell in ignorance longer.
65
White Queen's Pawn
What will you do?
66
Black Queen's Pawn
Yes, die a bashful death, do,
67
And let the remedy pass by unused still:
68
You are changed enough already, an you'd look into it. —
69
Absolute sir, with your most noble pardon
70
For this my rude intrusion, I am bold
71
To bring the knowledge of a secret nearer
72
By many days, sir, than it would arrive
73
In its own proper revelation with you.
74
Pray, turn and fix: do you know yond noble goodness?
75
Black Bishop's Pawn
'Tis the first minute my eye blessed me with her,
76
And clearly shows how much my knowledge wanted,
77
Not knowing her till now.
78
Black Queen's Pawn
She's to be liked, then?
79
Pray, view advisedly: there is strong reason
80
That I'm so bold to urge it; you must guess
81
The work concerns you nearer than you think for.
82
Black Bishop's Pawn
Her glory and the wonder of this secret
83
Puts a reciprocal amazement on me.
84
Black Queen's Pawn
And 'tis not without worth: you two must be
85
Better acquainted.
86
Black Bishop's Pawn
Is there cause, affinity,
Or any courteous help creation joys in,
87
To bring that forward?
88
Black Queen's Pawn
Yes, yes, I can show you
The nearest way to that perfection
89
Of a most virtuous one that joy e'er found.
90
Pray, mark her once again, then follow me,
91
And I will show you her must be your wife, sir.
92
Black Bishop's Pawn
The mystery extends, or else creation
93
Has set that admirable piece before us
94
To choose our chaste delights by.
95
Black Queen's Pawn
Please you follow, sir.
Black Bishop's Pawn
What art have you to put me on an object
96
And cannot get me off! 'tis pain to part from 't.
97
(Exit [with Black Queen's Pawn].)
White Queen's Pawn
If there prove no check in that magical glass,
98
But my proportion come as fair and full
99
Into his eye as his into mine lately,
100
Then I'm confirmed he is mine own for ever.
101
(Enter again [Black Queen's Pawn and Black Bishop's Pawn])
Black Bishop's Pawn
The very self-same that the mirror blessed me with,
102
From head to foot the beauty and the habit! —
103
Kept you this plate still? did you not remove, lady?
104
White Queen's Pawn
Not a foot farder, sir.
105
Black Bishop's Pawn
Is't possible?
I would have sworn I'd seen the substance yonder,
106
'Twas to that lustre, to that life presented.
107
White Queen's Pawn
E'en so was yours to me, sir.
108
Black Bishop's Pawn
Saw you mine?
White Queen's Pawn
Perfectly clear; no sooner my name used
109
But yours appeared.
110
Black Bishop's Pawn
Just so did yours at mine now.
111
Black Queen's Pawn
Why stand you idle? will you let time cozen you,
112
Protracting time, of those delicious benefits
113
That fate hath marked to you? You modest pair
114
Of blushing gamesters, — and you, sir, the bathfull'st,
115
l cannot flatter a foul fault in any, —
116
Can you be mote than man and wife assigned,
117
And by a power the most irrevocable?
118
Others, that be adventurers in delight,
119
May meet with crosses, shame, or separation,
120
Their fortunes hid, and the events locked from 'em:
121
You know the mind of fate, you must be coupled.
122
Black Bishop's Pawn
She speaks but truth in this: I see no reason then
123
That we should miss the relish of this night,
124
But that we are both shamefaced,
125
White Queen's Pawn
How? this night, sir?
126
Did not I know you must be mine, and therein
127
Your privilege runs strong, for that loose motion
128
You never should be. Is it not my fortune
129
To match with a pure mind, then am I miserable.
130
The doves and all chaste-loving wingèd creatures
131
Have their pairs fit, their desires justly mated;
132
Is woman more unfortunate, a virgin,
133
The May of woman? Fate, that has ordained, sir,
134
We should be man and wife, has not given warrant
135
For any act of knowledge till we are so.
136
Black Bishop's Pawn
Tender-eyed modesty, how it grieves at this! —
137
I'm as far off, for all this strange imposture,
138
As at first interview. Where lies our game now?
139
You know I cannot marry by my order.
140
Black Queen's Pawn
I know you cannot, sir; yet you may venture
141
Upon a contract.
142
Black Bishop's Pawn
Ha!
143
Black Queen's Pawn
Surely you may, sir,
Without all question, so far without danger,
144
Or any stain to your vow; and that may take her:
145
Nay, do't with speed, she'll think you mean the better, too.
146
Black Bishop's Pawn
Be not so lavish of that blessed spring;
147
Y'ave wasted that upon a cold occasion now
148
Would wash a sinful soul white. By our love-joys,
149
That motion shall ne'er light upon my tongue more
150
Till we're contracted; then, I hope, y' are mine.
151
White Queen’s Pawn
In all just duty ever.
152
Black Queen's Pawn
Then? do you question it?
Pish! then y' are man and wife, all but church-ceremony:
153
Pray, let's see that done first; she shall do reason then. —
154
Now I'll enjoy the sport, and cozen you both
155
My blood's game is the wages I have worked for.
156
(Exeunt.)
[SCENE II]
([An Apartment in the Black House])
(Enter Black Knight with his Pawn)
Black Knight
Pawn, I have spoke to the Fat Bishop for thee;
1
I'll get thee absolution from his own mouth.
2
Reach me my chair of ease, my chair of cozenage;
3
Seven thousand pound in women, reach me that:
4
I love a' life to sit upon a bank
5
Of heretic gold. O, soft and gently, sirrah!
6
There's a foul flaw in the bottom of my drum, Pawn:
7
I ne'er shall make sound soldier, but sound treacher
8
With any he in Europe. How now? qualm?
9
Thou hast the puking'st soul that e'er I met with;
10
It cannot bear one suckling villainy:
11
Mine can digest a monster without crudity,
12
A sin as weighty as an elephant,
13
And never wamble for 't.
14
Black Knight's Pawn
Ay, you have been used to it, sir;
15
That's a great help. The swallow of my conscience
16
Has but a narrow passage; you must think yet
17
It lies in the penitent pipe, and will not down:
18
If I had got seven thousand pound by offices,
19
And gulled down that, the bore would have been bigger.
20
Black Knight
Nay, if thou prov'st facetious, I shall hug thee.
21
Can a soft, rear, poor-poached iniquity
22
So ride upon thy conscience? I'm ashamed of thee.
23
Hadst thou betrayed the White House to the Black,
24
Beggared a kingdom by dissimulation,
25
Unjointed the fair frame of peace and traffic,
26
Poisoned allegiance, set faith back, and wrought
27
Women's soft souls e'en up to masculine malice
28
To pursue truth to death, if the cause roused 'em,
29
That stares and parrots are first taught to curse thee —
30
Black Knight's Pawn
Ay, marry, sir, here's swapping sins indeed!
31
Black Knight
All these, and ten times trebled, has this brain
32
Been parent to; they are my offsprings all.
33
Black Knight's Pawn
A goodly brood!
34
Black Knight
Yet I can jest as lightly,
Laugh and tell stirring stories to court-madams,
35
Daughters of my seducement, with alacrity
36
As high and hearty as youth's time of innocence
37
That never knew a sin to shape a sorrow by:
38
I feel no tempest, not a leaf wind-stirring
39
To shake a fault; my conscience is becalmed rather.
40
Black Knight's Pawn
I'm sure there is a whirl-wind huffs in mine, sir.
41
Black Knight
Sirrah, I have sold the groom-o'-the-stool six times,
42
And received money of six several ladies
43
Ambitious to take place of baronets' wives:
44
To three old mummy matrons I have promised
45
The mothership o' the maids: I have taught our friends, too,
46
To convey White-House gold to our Black Kingdom
47
In cold baked pasties, and so cozen searchers:
48
For venting hallowed oil, beads, medals, pardons,
49
Pictures, Veronica's heads in private presses,
50
That's done by one i' th' habit of a pedlar;
51
Letters conveyed in rolls, tobacco-balls:
52
When a restraint comes, by my politic counsel,
53
Some of our Jesuits turn gentlemen-ushers,
54
Some falconers, some park-keepers, and some huntsmen;
55
One took the shape of an old lady's cook once,
56
And despatched two chares on a Sunday morning,
57
The altar and the dresser. Pray, what use
58
Put I my summer-recreation to,
59
But more to inform my knowledge in the state
60
And strength of the White Kingdom? No fortification,
61
Haven, creek, landing-place about the White coast,
62
But I got draft and platform; learned the depth
63
Of all their channels, knowledge of all sands,
64
Shelves, rocks, and rivers for invasion proper'st;
65
A catalogue of all the navy royal,
66
The burden of the ships, the brassy murderers,
67
The number of the men, to what cape bound:
68
Again, for the discovery of the inlands,
69
Never a shire but the state better known
70
To me than to her best inhabitants;
71
What power of men and horse, gentry's revénues,
72
Who well affected to our side, who ill,
73
Who neither well nor ill, all the neutrality:
74
Thirty-eight thousand souls have been seduced, Pawn,
75
Since the jails vomited with the pill I gave 'em.
76
Black Knight's Pawn
Sure, you put oil of toad into that physic, sir.
77
Black Knight
I'm now about a masterpiece of play
78
To entrap the White Knight, and with false allurements
79
Entice him to the Black House, — more will follow,—
80
Whilst our Fat Bishop sets upon the Queen;
81
Then will our game lie sweetly.
82
(Enter Fat Bishop [with a book])
Black Knight's Pawn
He's come now, sir.
Fat Bishop
Here's Taxa Poenitentiaria, Knight,
83
The Book of General Pardons, of all prices:
84
I have been searching for his sin this half hour,
85
And cannot light upon 't.
86
Black Knight
That's strange; let me see it.
87
Black Knight's Pawn
Pawn wretched that I am! has my rage done that
88
There is no precedent of pardon for?
89
Black Knight
[Reads.] "For wilful murder thirteen pound four shillings
90
And sixpence," — that's reasonable cheap,— "For killing,
91
Killing, killing killing, killing, killing" —
92
Why, here's nothing but killing, Bishop, of this side.
93
Fat Bishop
Turn the sheet over, and you shall find adultery
94
And other trivial sins.
95
Black Knight
Adultery? O,
[Reads.] "For adultery a couple I'm in't now. —
96
Of shillings, and for fornication fivepence," -—
97
Mass, those are two good pennyworths! I cannot
98
See how a man can mend himself. — "For lying
99
With mother, siter, and daughter," — ay, marry, sir, —
100
"Thirty-three pound three shillings, three-pence," —
101
The sin's gradation right, paid all in threes too.
102
Fat Bishop
You have read the story of that monster, sir,
103
That got his daughter, sister, and his wife
104
Of his own mother?
105
Black Knight
[Reads.] "Simony, nine pound."
106
Fat Bishop
They may thank me for that; 'twas nineteen
107
Before I came;
108
I have mitigated many of the sums.
109
Black Knight
[Reads.] "Sodomy, sixpence" — you should put that sum
110
Ever on the backside of your book, Bishop.
111
Fat Bishop
There's few on's very forward, sir.
112
Black Knight
What's here, sir?
113
[Reads.] "Two old precedents of encouragement''.
114
Fat Bishop
Ay, those are ancient notes.
115
Black Knight
[Reads.] "Given, as a gratuity, for the killing of an heretical prince with a poisoned knife, ducats five thousand."
Fat Bishop
True, sir; that was paid.
117
Black Knight
[Reads.] "Promised also to Doctor Lopez for poisoning the maiden queen of the White Kingdom, ducats twenty thousand; which said sum was afterwards given as a meritorious alms to the nunnery at Lisbon, having at this present ten thousand pound more at use in the town-house of Antwerp."
Black Knight's Pawn
What's all this to my conscience, worthy holiness?
119
I sue for pardon; I have brought money with me.
120
Fat Bishop
You must depart; you see there is no precedent
121
Of any price or pardon for your fact.
122
Black Knight's Pawn
Most miserable! Are fouler sins remitted,
123
Killing, nay, wilful murder?
124
Fat Bishop
True, there's instance
Were you to kill him, I would pardon you;
125
There's precedent for that, and price set down,
126
But none for gelding.
127
Black Knight's Pawn
I have picked out understanding now for ever
128
Out of that cabalistic bloody riddle:
129
I'll make away all my estate, and kill him,
130
And by that act obtain full absolution.
131
(Exit.)
(Enter Black King)
Black King
Why, Bishop, Knight, where's your removes, your traps?
132
Stand you now idle in the heat of game?
133
Black Knight
My life for yours, Black sovereign, the game's ours;
134
I have wrought underhand for the White Knight
135
And his brave Duke, and find 'em coming both.
136
Fat Bishop
Then for their sanctimonious Queen's surprisal,
137
In this state-puzzle and distracted hurry,
138
Trust my arch-subtlety with.
139
Black King
O eagle pride!
Never was game more hopeful of our side.
140
([Exeunt Black King and Fat Bishop.])
Black Knight
If Bishop Bull-beef be not snapped next bout,
141
As the men stand, I'll never trust art more.
142
(Exit.)
[SCENE III]
([Dumb Show])
(Enter Black Queen's Pawn, as conducting the White to a chamber; then, fetching in the Black Bishop's Pawn, the Jesuit, conveys him to another, puts out the light, and she follows.)
[SCENE IV]
([Field between the two Houses])
(Enter White Knight and White Duke)
White Knight
True, noble Duke, fair virtue's most endeared one;
1
Let us prevent their rank insinuation
2
With truth of cause and courage, meet their plots
3
With confident goodness that shall strike 'em grovelling.
4
White Duke
Sir, all the gins, traps, and alluring snares,
5
The devil has been at work since eighty-eight on,
6
Are laid for the great hope of this game only.
7
White Knight
Why, the more noble will truth's triumph be:
8
When they have wound about our constant courages
9
The glittering'st serpent that e'er falsehood fashioned,
10
And glorying most in his resplendent poisons,
11
Just heaven can find a bolt to bruise his head.
12
White Duke
Look, would you see destruction lie a-sunning?
13
(Enter Black Knight)
In yonder smile sit blood and treachery basking;
14
In that perfidious model of face falsehood
15
Hell is drawn grinning.
16
White Knight
What a pain it is
For truth to feign a little!
17
Black Knight
O fair knight,
The rising glory of that House of Candour,
18
Have I so many protestations lost,
19
Lost, lost, quite lost? Am I not worth your confidence?
20
I that have vowed the faculties of soul,
21
Life, spirit, and brain, to your sweet game of youth,
22
Your noble, fruitful game? Can you mistrust
23
Any foul play in me, that have been ever
24
The most submiss observer of your virtues,
25
And no way tainted with ambition,
26
Save only to be thought, your first admirer?
27
How often have I changed, for your delight,
28
The royal presentation of my place
29
Into a mimic jester, and become,
30
For your sake and th' expulsion of sad thoughts,
31
Of a grave state-sire a light son of pastime,
32
Made three-score years a tomboy, a mere wanton!
33
I'll tell you what I told a Savoy dame once,
34
New-wed, high, plump, and lusting for an issue:
35
Within the year I promised her a child,
36
If she could stride over Saint Rumbant's breeches,
37
A relique kept at Mechlin: the next morning
38
One of my followers' old hose was conveyed
39
Into her chamber, where she tried the feat;
40
By that, and a court-friend, after grew great.
41
White Knight
Why, who could be without thee?
42
Black Knight
I will change
To any shape to please you; and my aim
43
Has been to win your love in all this game.
44
White Knight
Thou hast it nobly, and we long to see
45
The Black-House pleasure, state, and dignity.
46
Black Knight
Of honour you'll so surfeit and delight,
47
You'll ne'er desire again to see the White.
48
(Exeunt.)
(Enter White Queen)
White Queen
My love, my hope, my dearest! O, he's gone,
49
Ensnared, entrapped, surprised amongst the Black ones!
50
I never felt extremity like this;
51
Thick darkness dwells upon this hour; integrity,
52
Like one of heaven's bright luminaries, now
53
By error's dullest element interposed,
54
Suffers a black eclipse. I never was
55
More sick of love than now I of horror:
56
I shall be taken; the game's lost, I'm set upon! —
57
(Enter Fat Bishop)
O, 'tis the turncoat Bishop, having watched
58
The advantage of his play, comes now to seize on me!
59
O, I'm hard beset, distressed most miserably!
60
Fat Bishop
'Tis vain to stir; remove which way you can,
61
I take you now; this is the time we've hoped for:
62
Queen, you must down.
63
White Queen
No rescue, no deliverance!
Fat Bishop
The Black King's blood burns for thy prostitution,
64
And nothing but the spring of thy chaste virtue
65
Can cool hi inflammation; instantly
66
((Enter White Bishop))
He dies upon a pleurisy of luxury,
67
If he deflower thee not.
68
White Queen
O strait of misery!
White Bishop
And is your holiness his divine procurer?
69
Fat Bishop
The devil's in 't, I'm taken by a ringdove!
70
Where stood this Bishop that l saw him not?
71
White Bishop
You were so ambitious you looked over me!
72
You aimed at no less person than the Queen,
73
The glory of the game; if she were won,
74
The way were open to the master-check,
75
(Enter White King)
Which, look you, he or his lives to give you;
76
Honour and virtue guide him in his station!
77
White Queen
O my safe sanctuary!
78
White King
Let heaven's blessings
Be mine no longer than I am thy sure one!
79
The dove's house is not safer in the rock
80
Than thou in my firm bosom.
81
White Queen
I am blest in 't.
White King
Is it that lump of rank ingratitude,
82
Swelled with the poison of hypocrisy?
83
Could he be so malicious, has partaken
84
Of the sweet fertile blessings of our kingdom? —
85
Bishop, thou'st done our White House gracious service,
86
And worthy the fair reverence of thy place. —
87
For thee, Black Holiness, that work'st out thy death
88
As the blind mole, the proper'st son of earth,
89
Who, in the casting his ambitious hills up,
90
Is often taken and destroyed i' the midst
91
Of his advancèd work; 'twere well with thee
92
If, like that verminous labourer, which thou imitat'st
93
In hills of pride and malice, when death puts thee up,
94
The silent grave might prove thy bas for ever;
95
No deeper pit than that: for thy vain hope
96
Of the White Knight and his most firm assistant,
97
Two princely pieces, which I know thy thoughts
98
Give lost for ever now, my strong assurance
99
Of their fixed virtues, could you let in seas
100
Of populous untruths against that fort,
101
'Twould burst the proudest billows.
102
White Queen
My fear's past then,.
White King
Fear? you were never guilty of an injury
103
To goodness, but in that.
104
White Queen
It stayed not with me, sir.
White King
It was too much if it usurped a thought:
105
Place a good guard there.
106
White Queen
Confidence is set, sir.
White King
Take that prize hence; go, reverend of men,
107
Put covetousness into the bag again.
108
Fat Bishop
The bag had need be sound, or it goes to wrack;
109
Sin and my weight will make a strong one crack.
110
([Exeunt.])
Finit Actus Quartus.
[ACT V] Incipit Quintus et Ultimus.
[SCENE I]
([Before the Black House])
(Music.)
([Black Bishop's Pawn discovered above.])
(Enter the Black Knight in his litter: calls)
Black Knight
Hold, hold!
1
Is the Black Bishop's Pawn, the Jesuit,
2
Planted above for his concise oration?
3
Black Bishop's Pawn
Ecce triumphante me fixum
4
Caesaris arce!
5
Black Knight
Art there, my holy boy? sirrah, Bishop Tumbrel
6
Is snapped in the bag by this time.
7
Black Bishop's Pawn
Haeretici pereant sic!
8
Black Knight
All Latin! Sure the oration has infected him.
9
Away, make haste, they're coming.
10
(Hautboys.)
(Enter Black King, [Black] Queen, [Black] Duke, meeting the White Knight and Duke: Black Bishop's Pawn from above entertains him [i.e., White Knight] with this Latin oration.)
(The Oration)
Black Bishop's Pawn
Si quid mortalibus unquam oculis hilarem et gratum aperuit diem, si quid peramantibus amicorum animis gaudium attulit peperitve laetitiam, Eques Candidissime, praelucentissime, felicem profecto tuum a Domo Candoris ad Domum Nigritudinis accessun promisisse, peperisse, attulisse fatemur: omnes adventus tui conflagrantissimi, omni qua possumus laetitia, gaudio, congratulatione, acclamatione, animis observantissimis, affectibus devotissimis, obsequiis venerabundis, te sospitem congratulamur!
11
Black King
Sir, in this short congratulatory speech
12
You may conceive how the whole House affects you.
13
Black Knight
The colleges and sanctimonious seed-plots.
14
White Knight
'Tis clear and so acknowledged, royal sir.
15
Black King
What honours, pleasures, rarities, delights,
16
Your noble thought can think —
17
Black Queen
Your fair eye fix on,
18
That's comprehended in the spacious circle
19
Of our Black Kingdom, they're your servants all.
20
White Knight
How amply you endear us!
21
White Duke
They are favours
That equally enrich the royal giver,
22
As the receiver, in the free donation.
23
Music. An altar discovered and statues, with a song.
24
Black Knight
Hark, to enlarge your welcome, from all parts
25
Is heard sweet-sounding airs! abstruse things open
26
Of voluntary freeness; and yond altar,
27
The seat of adoration, seems to adore
28
The virtues you bring with you.
29
White Knight
There's a taste
Of the old vessel still, the erroneous relish.
30
(Song)
Wonder work some strange delight,
31
(This place was never yet without),
32
To welcome the fair White-House Knight,
33
And lo bring our hopes about!
34
May from the altar flames aspire,
35
Those tapers set themselves afire!
36
May senseless things our joys approve,
37
And those brazen statues move,
38
Quickened by some power above,
39
Or what more strange, to show our love!
40
(The images move in a dance.)
Black Knight
A happy omen waits upon this hour;
41
All move portentously the right-hand way.
42
Black King
Come, let's set free all the most choice delights,
43
That ever adornèd days or quickened nights.
44
(Exeunt.)
[SCENE II.]
([Field between the two Houses])
(Enter White Queen's Pawn)
White Queen's Pawn
I see 'twas but a trial of my love now;
1
H'as a more modest mind, and in that virtue
2
Most worthily has fate provided for me.
3
((Enter Jesuit))
Ha! 'tis the bad man in the reverend habit:
4
Dares he be seen again, traitor to holiness,
5
marble-fronted impudence! and knows
6
How much he has wronged me? I'm ashamed he blushes not.
7
Black Bishop's Pawn
Are you yet stored with any woman's pity?
8
Are you the mistress of so much devotion,
9
Kindness, and charity, as to bestow
10
An alms of love on your poor sufferer yet
11
For your sake only?
12
White Queen's Pawn
Sir, for the reverence and respect you ought
13
To give to sanctity, though none to me,
14
In being her servant vowed and wear her livery,
15
If I might counsel you, you should ne'er speak
16
The language of unchasteness in that habit;
17
You would not think how ill it does with you.
18
The world's a stage on which all parts are played:
19
You'd think it most absurd to have a devil
20
Presented there not in a devil's shape,
21
Or, wanting one, to send him out in yours;
22
You'd rail at that for an absurdity
23
No college e'er committed. For decorum's sake, then,
24
For pity's cause, for sacred virtue's honour,
25
If you'll persist still in your devil's part,
26
Present him as you should do, and let one
27
That carries up the goodness of the play
28
Come in that habit, and I'll speak with him;
29
Then will the parts be fitted, and the spectators
30
Know which is which: they must have cunning judgments
31
To find it else, for such a one as you
32
Is able to deceive a mighty audience;
33
Nay, those you have seduced, if there be any
34
In the assembly, if they see what manner
35
You play your game with me, they cannot love you.
36
Is there so little hope of you, to smile, sir?
37
Black Bishop's Pawn
Yes, at your fears, at the ignorance of your power,
38
The little use you make of time, youth, fortune,
39
Knowing you have a husband for lust's shelter,
40
You dare not yet make bold with a friend's comfort;
41
This is the plague of weakness.
42
White Queen's Pawn
So hot burning!
The syllables of sin fly from his lips
43
As if the letter came new-cast from hell.
44
Black Bishop's Pawn
Well, setting aside the dish you loathe so much,
45
Which has been heartily tasted by your betters,
46
I come to marry you to the gentleman
47
That last enjoyed you: 'hope that pleases you;
48
There's no immodest relish in that office.
49
White Queen's Pawn
Strange of all others he should light on rum
50
To tie that holy knot that sought to undo me! —
51
Were you requested to perform that business, sir?
52
Black Bishop's Pawn
I name you a sure token.
53
White Queen's Pawn
As for that, sir,
Now y' are most welcome; and my fair hope's of you,
54
You'll never break the sacred knot you tie once
55
With any lewd solicitings hereafter.
56
Black Bishop's Pawn
But all the craft's in getting of it knit:
57
You're all on fire to make your cozening market.
58
I am the marrier and the man — do you know me?
59
Do you know me, nice iniquity, strict luxury,
60
And holy whoredom? — that would clap on marriage
61
With all hot speed to solder up your game:
62
See what a scourge fate hath provided for thee!
63
You were a maid; swear still, y' are no worse now,
64
I left you as I found you: have I startled you?
65
I am quit with you now for my discovery,
66
Your outcries, and your cunnings: farewell, brokage!
67
White Queen's Pawn
Nay, stay, and hear me but give thanks a little,
68
If your ear can endure a work so gracious;
69
Then you may take your pleasure.
70
Black Bishop's Pawn
I have done that.
White Queen's Pawn
That power, that hath preserved me from this devil —
71
Black Bishop's Pawn
How?
72
White Queen's Pawn
This that may challenge the chief chair in hell,
73
And sit above his master —
74
Black Bishop's Pawn
Bring in merit.
White Queen's Pawn
That suffered'st him, through blind lust, to be led
75
Last night to the action of some common bed —
76
Black Queen's Pawn
(Intus.) Not over-common, neither.
77
Black Bishop's Pawn
Ha, what voice is that?
78
White Queen's Pawn
Of virgins be thou ever honoured! —
79
Now you may go; you hear I have given thanks, sir.
80
Black Bishop's Pawn
Here's a strange game! Did not I lie with you?
81
Black Queen's Pawn
(Intus.) No.
82
Black Bishop's Pawn
What a devil art thou?
83
White Queen's Pawn
I will not answer you, sir,
84
After thanksgiving.
85
Black Bishop's Pawn
Why, you made promise to me
86
After the contract.
87
Black Queen's Pawn
(Intus.) Yes.
88
Black Bishop's Pawn
A pox confound thee!
I speak not to thee — and you were prepared for 't,
89
And set your joys more high —
90
Black Queen's Pawn
(Intus.) Than you could reach, sir.
91
Black Bishop's Pawn
Light, 'tis a bawdy voice; I'll slit the throat on 't!
92
(Enter Black Queen's Pawn)
Black Queen's Pawn
What, offer violence to your bedfellow?
93
To one that works so kindly without rape?
94
Black Bishop's Pawn
My bedfellow?
Black Queen's Pawn
Do you plant your scorn against me?
95
Why, when I was probationer at Brussels,
96
That engine was not known; then adoration
97
Filled up the place, and wonder was in fashion:
98
Is't turned to the wild seed of contempt so soon?
99
Can five years stamp a bawd? Pray, look upon me,
100
I have youth enough to take it: 'tis no more
101
Since you were chief agent for the transportation
102
Of ladies' daughters, if you be remembered:
103
Some of their portions I could name; who pursed 'em, too:
104
They were soon dispossessed of worldly cares
105
That came into your fingers.
106
Black Bishop's Pawn
Shall I hear her?
Black Queen's Pawn
Holy derision, yes, till thy ear swells
107
With thy own venom, thy profane life's vomit:
108
Whose niece was she you poisoned, with child twice,
109
Then gave her out possessed with a foul spirit,
110
When 'twas indeed your bastard?
111
Black Bishop's Pawn
I am taken
In mine own toils!
112
(Enter White Bishop's Pawn and White Queen)
White Bishop's Pawn
Yes, and 'tis just you should be.
113
White Queen
And thou, lewd Pawn, the shame of womanhood!
114
Black Bishop's Pawn
I'm lost of all hands!
115
Black Queen's Pawn
And I cannot feel
The weight of my perdition; now he's taken,
116
'T 'as not the burden of a grasshopper.
117
Black Bishop's Pawn
Thou whore of order, cockatrice in voto!
118
(Enter Black Knight's Pawn)
Black Knight's Pawn
Yond's the White Bishop's Pawn; have at his heart now.
119
White Queen's Pawn
Hold, monster-impudence! would'st thou heap a murder
120
On thy first foul attempt? O merciless blood-hound,
121
'Tis time that thou wert taken!
122
Black Knight's Pawn
Death! prevented!
White Queen's Pawn
For thy sake and yond partner in thy shame,
123
I'll never know man farder than by name.
124
(Exeunt.)
[SCENE III
(In the Black House])
(Enter Black King, [Black] Queen, [Black] Duke, Black Knight, [Black Bishop], with the White Knight and his Duke)
White Knight
Y'ave both enriched my knowledge, royal sir,
1
And my content together.
2
Black King
'Stead of riot
We set you only welcome: surfeit is
3
A thing that's seldom heard of in these parts.
4
White Knight
I hear of the more virtue when I miss on 't.
5
Black Knight
We do not use to bury in our bellies
6
Two hundred thousand ducats, and then boast on 't;
7
Or exercise the old Roman painful idleness
8
With, care of fetching fishes far from home,
9
The golden-beaded coracine out of Egypt,
10
The salpa from Eleusis, or the pelamis,
11
Which some call summer-whiting, from Chalcedon,
12
Salmons from Aquitaine, helops from Rhodes,
13
Cockles from Chios, franked and fatted up
14
With far and sapa, flour and cocted wine;
15
We cram no birds, nor, Epicurean-like,
16
Enclose some creeks of the sea, as Sergius Crata did,
17
He that invented the first stews for oysters
18
And other sea-fish, who, beside the pleasure of his
19
Own throat, got large revenues by th' invention,
20
Whose fat example the nobility followed;
21
Nor do we imitate that arch-gormandizer
22
With two-and-twenty courses at one dinner,
23
And, betwixt every course, he and his guess
24
Washed and used women, then sat down and strengthened,
25
Lust swimming in their fishes, which no sooner
26
Was tasted but was ready to be vented.
27
White Knight
Most impious epicures!
28
Black Knight
We commend rather,
Of two extremes, the parsimony of Pertinax,
29
Who had half-lettuces set up to serve again;
30
Or his successor Julian, that would make
31
Three meals of a lean hare, and often sup
32
With a green fig and wipe his beard, as we can.
33
The old bewailers of excess in those days
34
Complained there was more coin bid for a cook
35
Than for a war-horse; but now cooks are purchased
36
After the rate of triumphs, and some dishes
37
After the rate of cooks; which must needs make
38
Some of your White-House gormandizers, 'specially
39
Your wealthy, plump plebeians, like the hogs
40
Which Scaliger cites, that could not move for fat,
41
So insensible of either prick or goad,
42
That mice made holes to needle in their buttocks,
43
And they ne'er felt 'em. There was once a ruler,
44
Cyrene's governor, choked with his own paunch;
45
Which death fat Sanctius, King of Castile, fearing,
46
Through his infinite mass of belly, rather chose
47
To be killed suddenly by a pernicious herb
48
Taken to make him lean, which old Corduba,
49
King of Morocco, counselled his fear to,
50
Than he would hazard to be stunk to death,
51
As that huge cormorant that was choked before him.
52
White Knight
Well, you're as sound a spokesman, sir, for parsimony,
53
Clean abstinence, and scarce one meal a day,
54
As ever spake with tongue.
55
Black King
Censure him mildly, sir;
'Twas but to find discourse.
56
Black Queen
He'll raise't of any thing.
White Knight
I shall be half afraid to feed hereafter.
57
White Duke
Or I, beshrew my heart, for I fear fatness,
58
The fog of fatness, as I fear a dragon:
59
The comeliness I wish for, that's as glorious.
60
W, Knight. Your course is wondrous strict: I should transgress, sure,
61
Were I to change my side, as you have wrought me.
62
Black Knight
How you misprize! this is not meant to you-ward:
63
You that are wound up to the height of feeding
64
By clime and custom, are dispensed withal;
65
You may eat kid, cabrito, calf, and tons,
66
Eat and eat every day, twice, if you please;
67
Nay, the franked hen, fattened with milk and corn,
68
A riot which the inhabitants of Delos
69
Were first inventors of, or the crammed cockle.
70
White Knight
Well, for the food I'm happily resolved on;
71
But for the diet of my disposition,
72
There comes a trouble; you will hardly find
73
Food to please that.
74
Black Knight
It must be a strange nature
75
We cannot find a dish for, having Policy,
76
The master-cook of Christendom, to dress it:
77
Pray, name your nature's diet.
78
White Knight
The first mess
Is hot ambition.
79
Black Knight
That's but served in puff-paste;
80
Alas, the meanest of our cardinals' cooks
81
Cat dress that dinner: your ambition, sir,
82
Can fetch no farder compass than the world?
83
White Knight
That's certain, sir.
84
Black Knight
We're about that already;
And in the large feast of our vast ambition
85
We count but the White Kingdom, whence you come from,
86
The garden for our cook to pick his salads;
87
The food's lean France, larded with Germany;
88
Before which comes the grave, chaste signiory
89
Of Venice, served in, capon-like, in white broth;
90
From our chief oven, Italy, the bake-meats;
91
Savoy the salt, Geneva the chipped manchet;
92
Below the salt the Netherlands are placed,
93
A common dish at lower end o' the table,
94
For meaner pride to fall to: for our second course,
95
A spit of Portugals served in for plovers;
96
Indians and Moors for blackbirds: all this while
97
Holland stands ready-melted to make sauce
98
On all occasions: when the voider comes,
99
And with such cheer out crammed hopes we suffice,
100
Zealand says grace for fashion; then we rise.
101
White Knight
Here's meat enough, o' conscience, for ambition!
102
Black Knight
If there be any want, there's Switzerland,
103
Polonia, and such pickled things will serve
104
To furnish out the table.
105
White Knight
You say well, sir:
But here's the misery; when l have stopped the mouth
106
Of one vice, there's another gapes for food;
107
I am as covetous as a barren womb,
108
The grave, or what's more ravenous.
109
Black Knight
We are for you, sir:
Call you that heinous, that's good husbandry?
110
Why, we make money of our faiths, our prayers;
111
We make the very deathbed buy het comforts,
112
Most dearly pay for all her pious counsels,
113
Leave rich revénues for a few sale orisons,
114
Or else they pass unreconciled without 'em:
115
Did you but view the vaults within our monasteries,
116
You'd swear then Plutus, which the fiction calls
117
The lord of riches, were entombed within 'em.
118
Black Duke
You cannot pass for tuns.
119
White Knight
Is't possible?
White Duke
But how shall I bestow the vice I bring, sirs?
120
You quite forget me; I shall be locked out
121
By your strict key of life.
122
Black Knight
Is yours so foul, sir?
White Duke
Some that are pleased to make a wanton on 't,
123
Call it infirmity of blood, flesh-frailty;
124
But certain there's a worse name in your books for 't.
125
Black Knight
The trifle of all vices; the mere innocent,
126
The very novice of this house of clay, — venery:
127
If I but hug thee hard, I show the worst on 't;
128
'Tis all the fruit we have here after supper;
129
Nay, at the ruins of a nunnery once,
130
Six thousand infants' heads found in a fish-pond.
131
White Duke
How!
132
Black Knight
How, ay; how? how came they thither, think you?
Huldrick, bishop of Augsburg, in his Epistle
133
To Nicholas the First, can tell you how;
134
May be he was at cleansing of the pond:
135
I can but smile to think how it would puzzle
136
All mother-maids that ever lived in those parts
137
To know their own child's heads. But is this all?
138
Black Duke.
Are you ours yet?
139
White Knight
One more, and I am silenced:
But this that comes now will divide us questionless;
140
'Tis ten times, ten times worse than the fore-runners.
141
Black Knight
Is it so vild there is no name ordained for 't?
142
Toads have their titles; and creation gave
143
Serpents and adders those names to be known by.
144
White Knight
This of all others bears the hidden'st venom.
145
The smoothest poison; I am an arch-dissembler, sir.
146
Black Knight
How?
147
White Knight
'Tis my nature's brand; turn from me, sir;
148
The time is yet to come that e'er I spake
149
What my heart meant.
150
Black Knight
And call you that a vice? —
Avoid all profanation, I beseech you, —
151
The only prime state-virtue upon earth,
152
The policy of empires; O take heed, sir,
153
For fear it take displeasure and forsake you!
154
It is a jewel of that precious value,
155
Whose worth's not known but to the skilful lapidary;
156
The instrument that picks ope princes' hearts,
157
And locks up ours from them, with the same motion:
158
You never yet came near our souls till now.
159
Black Duke
Now y'are a brother to us.
160
Black Knight
What we have done
Has been dissemblance ever.
161
White Knight
There you lie then,
And the game's ours; we give thee check-mate by
162
Discovery, King, the noblest mate of all!
163
Black King
I'm lost, I'm taken!
164
(A great shout and flourish.)
White Knight
Ambitious, covetous,
Luxurious falsehood!
165
White Duke
Dissembler, that includes all.
Black King
All hopes confounded!
166
Black Queen
Miserable condition!
(Enter White King, [White] Queen, [White Bishop, White Queen's Pawn, and other] White Pawns)
White King
O, let me bless mine arms with this dear treasure,
167
Truth's glorious masterpiece! See, Queen of sweetness,
168
He's in my bosom safe; and yond fair structure
169
Of comely honour, his true blest assistant.
170
([Embracing White Knight and White Duke.])
White Queen
May their integrities ever possess
171
That peaceful sanctuary!
172
White Knight
As 'twas a game, sir,
Won with much hazard, so with much more triumph.
173
We gave him check-mate by discovery, sir.
174
White King
Obscurity is now the fittest favour
175
Falsehood can sue for; it well suits perdition:
176
'T is their best course that so have lost their fame
177
To put their heads into the bag for shame;
178
And there, behold, the bag's mouth, like hell, opens
179
The bag opens, the Black Side in it.
180
To take her due, and the lost sons appear
181
Greedily gaping for increase of fellowship
182
In infamy, the last desire of wretches,
183
Advancing their perdition-branded foreheads
184
Like Envy's issue, or a bed of snakes.
185
Black Bishop's Pawn
[In the bag.] See, all's confounded; the game's lost, King's taken.
186
Fat Bishop
[In the bag.] The White House has given us the bag, I thank 'em.
187
Black Jesting Pawn
[In the bag.] They had need have given you a whole bag by yourself:
188
'Sfoot, this Fat Bishop has so squelched and squeezed me,
189
So overlaid me, I have no verjuice left in me!
190
You shall find all my goodness, an you look for 't,
191
In the bottom of the bag.
192
Fat Bishop
Thou malapert Pawn.
The Bishop must have room; he will have room,
193
And room to lie at pleasure.
194
Black Jesting Pawn
All the bag, I think,
195
Is room too scant for your Spalato paunch.
196
Black Bishop's Pawn
Down, viper of our order! art thou showing
197
Thy impudent whorish front?
198
Black Queen's Pawn
Yes, monster-holiness!
White Knight
Contention in the pit! is hell divided?
199
White King
You'd need have some of majesty and power
200
To keep good rule amongst you: make room, Bishop.
201
([Puts Black King into the bag.])
Fat Bishop
I am not so easily moved; when I'm once set,
202
I scorn to stir for any king on earth.
203
White Queen
Here comes the Queen; what say you then to her?
204
([Puts Black Queen into the bag.])
Fat Bishop
Indeed a Queen may make a Bishop stir.
205
White Knight
Room for the mightiest Machiavel-politician
206
That e'er the devil hatched of a nun's egg!
207
([Puts Black Knight into the bag.])
Fat Bishop
He'll peck a hole in the bag and get out shortly;
208
But I'm sure I shall be the last creeps out,
209
And that's the misery of greatness ever.
210
Foh, your politician is not sound i' the vent.
211
I smell him hither.
212
White Duke
Room for a sun-burnt, tansy-faced beloved,
213
An olive-coloured Ganymede! and that's all
214
That's worth the bagging.
215
Fat Bishop
Crowd in all you can,
The Bishop will be still uppermost man,
216
Maugre King, Queen, or politician.
217
White King
So, now let the bag close, the fittest womb
218
For treachery, pride, and malice; whilst we, winner-like,
219
Destroying, through heaven's power, what would destroy,
220
Welcome our White Knight with loud peals of joy.
221
(Exeunt.)
Finis.
EPILOGUE
(White Queen's Pawn)
My mistress, the White Queen, hath sent me forth,
222
And bade me bow thus low to all of worth,
223
That are true friends of the White House and cause,
224
Which she hopes most of this assembly draws:
225
For any else, by envy's mark denoted,
226
To those night glow-worms in the bag devoted,
227
Where'er they sit, stand, and in comers lurk,
228
They'll be soon known by their depraving work;
229
But she's assured what they'd commit to bane,
230
Her White friends' loves will build up fair again.
231