Читать книгу Beaumont and Fletcher's Works. Volume 9 - Beaumont Francis - Страница 6

Ros.

I am deaf to all your intreaties: she that moves me

For pity or compassion to these Pirats,

Digs up her Fathers, or her Brothers Tomb,

And spurns about their ashes.

Couldst thou remember what a Father thou hadst once,

'Twould steel thy heart against all foolish pity.

By his memory, and the remembrance of his dear embraces,

I am taught, that in a Noble cause revenge is Noble;

And they shall fall the sacrifices to appease

His wandring Ghost, and my incensed fury.

Cla. The new come prisoner too!

Ros. He too[. Y]et that we may learn

Whether they are the same, or near ally'd

To those that forc'd me to this cruel course,

Better their poor allowance, and permit 'em

To meet together and confer,

Within the distance of your ear; perhaps

They may discover something that may kill

Despair in me, and be a means to save 'em

From certain ruine.

C[r]o. That shall be my charge.

Ros. Yet to prevent

All hope of rescue: for this new-come Captain

Hath both a Ship and Men not far [off] from us,

Though ignorant to find the only Port,

That can yield entrance to our happy Island,

Guard the place strongly, and e'r the next Sun

Ends his diurnal progress, I will be

Happy in my revenge, or set 'em free.

Cro. So serve it plentifully,

And lose not time to enquire the cause;

There is a main design that hangs upon this bounty.

See the Table furnisht with Wine too,

That discovers secrets which tortures cannot open:

Open the doors too of the several prisons,

And give all free entrance into this room.

Undiscover'd I can here mark all.

Here's Captain careless, and the tough Ship-master,

The slaves are nos'd like Vultures

How wild they look.

Tib. Ha, the mistery of this,

Some good Hobgoblin rise and reveal.

Mast. I'm amazed at it: nor can I sound the intent.

Tib. Is not this bread,

Substantial bread, not painted?

Mast. But take heed,

You may be poisoned.

Tib. I am sure I am famish'd;

And famine, as the wise man says,

Gripes the guts as much as any Mineral.

This may be Treacle sent to preserve me

After a long Fast: or be it Vipers spittle,

I'll run the hazard.

Mast. We are past all fear, I'll take part with ye.

Tib. Do: and now i'faith, how d'ye feel your self?

I find great ease in't. What's here;

Wine, and it be thy Will;

Strong lusty Wine. Well, fools may talk

Of Mythridate, Cordials, and Elixirs.

But from my youth this was my only Physick.

Here's a colour, what Ladies cheek,

Though cerus'd over, comes near it?

It sparkles too: hangs out Diamonds.

Oh my sweet-heart, how I will hug thee,

Again, and again! They are poor drunkards,

And not worth thy favors,

That number thy moist kisses in these Crystals.

Mast. But Mounsieur,

Here are Suckets, and sweet dishes.

Tib. Tush, boys meat,

I am past it; here's strong food fit for men:

Nectar, old lad. Mistriss of merry hearts,

Once more I am bold with you.

Mast. Take heed (man)

Too much will breed distemper.

Tib. Hast thou liv'd at Sea

The most part of thy life, where to be sober

While we have Wine aboard, is capital Treason;

And dost thou preach sobriety?

Mast. Prethee forbear,

We may offend in it; we know not for whom

It was provided.

Tib. I am sure for me: therefore footra,

When I am full, let 'em hang me, I care not.

Mast. This has been his temper ever.

See, provoking dishes; candid Eringoes,

And Potatoes.

Tib. I'll not touch 'em, I will drink;

But not a bit on a march, I'll be an Eunuch rather.

Mast. Who are these?

Tib. Marry, who you will;

I keep my Text here.

Alb. Raymond!

Ray. Albert!

Tib. Away, I'll be drunk alone;

Keep off Rogues, or I'll belch ye into air;

Not a drop here.

Amint. Dear brother, put not in your eyes such anger;

Those looks poison'd with fury, shot at him,

Reflect on me. Oh brother, look milder, or

The Crystal of his temperance

Will turn 'em on your self.

Alb. Sir, I have sought ye long

To find your pardon: you have plough'd the Ocean

To wreak your vengeance on me, for the rape

Of this fair Virgin. Now our fortune guides us

To meet on such hard terms, that we need rather

A mutual pitty of our present state,

Than to expostulate of breaches past,

Which cannot be made up. And though it be

Far from you[r] power, to force me to confess,

That I have done ye wrong, or such submission

Failing to make my peace, to vent your anger;

You being your self slav'd, as I to others:

Yet for you[r] Sisters sake, her blessed sake,

In part of recompence of what she has suffer'd

For my rash folly; the contagion

Of my black actions, catching hold upon

Her purer innocence, I crave your mercy;

And wish however several motives kept us

From being friends, while we had hope to live,

Let death which we expect, and cannot fly from,

End all contention.

Tib. Drink upon't, 'tis a good motion;

Ratifie it in Wine, and 'tis authentical.

Ray. When I consider

The ground of our long difference, and look on

Our not to be avoided miseries,

It doth beget in me I know not how

A soft Religious tenderness; which tells me,

Though we have many faults to answer for

Upon our own account, our Fathers crimes

Are in us punish'd. Oh Albert, the course

They took to leave us rich, was not honest,

Nor can that friendship last, which virtue joyns not.

When first they forc'd the industrious Portugals,

From their Plantations in the Happy Islands.

Cro. This is that I watch for.

Ray. And did omit no tyranny, which men,

Inured to spoil, and mischief could inflict,

On the grie[v]'d sufferers; when by lawless rapine

They reap'd the harvest, which their Labou[rs] sow'd;

And not content to force 'em from their dwelling,

But laid for 'em at Sea to ravish from 'em

The last remainder of their wealth: then, then,

After a long pursuit, each doubting other,

As guilty of the Portugals escape,

They did begin to quarrel, like [ill] men;

(Forgive me piety, that I call 'em so)

No longer love, or correspondence holds,

Than it is cimented with prey or profit:

Then did they turn these swords they oft had bloodi'd

With innocent gore, upon their wretched selves,

And paid the forfeit of their cruelty

Shewn to Sebastian, and his Colonie,

By being fatal enemies to each other.

Thence grew Amintas rape, and my desire

To be reveng'd. And now observe the issue:

As they for spoil ever forgot compassion

To women, (who should be exempted

From the extremities of a lawful War)

We now, young able men, are fall'n into

The hands of Women; that, against the soft

Tenderness familiar to their Sex,

Will shew no mercy.

Cro. None, unless you shew us

Our long lost Husbands.

We are those Portugals you talk'd of.

Ray. Stay,

I met upon the Sea in a tall Ship

Two Portugals, famish'd almost to death.

Tib. Our Ship by this Wine.

And those the rogues that stole her,

Left us to famish in the barren Islands.

Ray. Some such tale they told me,

And something of a Woman, which I find,

To be my Sister.

Cro. Where are these men?

Ray. I left 'em,

Supposing they had deluded me with forg'd tales,

In the Island, where they said

They had liv'd many years the wretched owners

Of a huge mass of treasure.

Alb. The same men: and that the fatal muck

We quarrell'd for.

Cro. They were Portugals you say.

Ray. So they profess'd.

Cro. They may prove such men as may save your lives,

And so much I am taken with fair hope,

That I will hazard life to be resolv'd on't:

How came you hither?

Ray. My ship lies by the Rivers mouth,

That can convey ye to these wretched men,

Which you desire to see.

Cro. Back to your prisons,

And pray for the success: if they be those

Which I desire to find, you are safe;

If not, prepare to die to morrow:

For the world cannot redeem ye.

Alb. However, we are arm'd

For either fortune.

Tib. What must become of me now

That I am not dismiss'd?

Cro. Oh Sir, I purpose

To have your company.

Ti. Take heed wicked woman,

I am apt to mischief now.

Cro. You cannot be so unkind,

To her that gives you liberty.

Ti. No, I shall be too kind, that's the devil on't;

I have had store of good wine: and when I am drunk,

Joan is a Lady to me, and I shall

Lay about me like a Lord: I feel strange motions:

Avoid me temptation.

Cro. Come Sir, I'll help ye in.

Nicu. What may that be

That moves upon the Lake?

Sebast. Still it draws nearer,

And now I plainly can discern it.

'Tis the French Ship.

Nicu. In it a woman,

Who seems to invite us to her.

Sebast. Still she calls with signs of Love to hasten to her;

So lovely hope doth still appear:

I feel nor age, nor weakness.

Nicu. Though it bring death,

To us 'tis comfort: and deserves a meeting.

Or else fortune tyr'd with what we have suffer'd,

And in it overcome, as it may be,

Now sets a period to our misery.

Ray. What dreadful sounds are these?

Amint. Infernal Musick,

Fit for a bloody Feast.

Alb. It seems prepar'd

To kill our courages e'r they divorce

Our souls and bodies.

Ray. But they that fearless fall,

Deprive them of their triumph.

Amin. See the furies,

In their full trym of cruelty.

Ros. 'Tis the last

Duty that I can pay to my dead Lord,

Set out the Altar, I my self will be

The Priest, and boldly do those horrid Rites

You shake to think on, lead these Captains nearer,

For they shall have the honor to fall first

To my Sebastian's ashes: and now wretches,

As I am taught already, that you are,

And lately by your free confession,

French Pirats, and the sons of those I hate,

Even equal with the devil; hear with horror,

What 'tis invites me to this cruel course,

And what you are to suffer, no Amazons we,

But women of Portugal that must have from you

Sebastian and Nicusa; we are they

That groan'd beneath your fathers wrongs:

We are those wretched women,

Their injuries pursu'd, and overtook;

And from the sad remembrance of our losses

We are taught to be cruel; when we were forc'd

From that sweet air we breathed in, by their rapine,

And sought a place of being; as the Seas

And Winds conspir'd with their ill purposes,

To load us with afflictions in a storm

That fell upon us; the two ships that brought us,

To seek new fortunes in an unknown world

Were severed: the one bore all the able men,

Our Treasure and our Jewels: in the other,

We Women were embarqu'd: and fell upon,

After long tossing in the troubled main,

This pleasant Island: but in few months,

The men that did conduct us hither, died,

We long before had given our Husbands lost:

Remembring what we had suff'red by the French

We took a solemn Oath, never to admit

The curs'd society of men: necessity

Taught us those Arts, not usual to our Sex,

And the fertile Earth yielding abundance to us,

We did resolve, thus shap'd like Amazons

To end our lives; but when you arriv'd here,

And brought as presents to us, our own Jewels;

Those which were boorn in the other Ship,

How can ye hope to scape our vengeance?

Amint. It boots not then to swear our innocence?

Alb. Or that we never forc'd it from the owners?

Ray. Or that there are a remnant of that wrack,

And not far off?

Ros. All you affirm, I know,

Is but to win time; therefore prepare your throats,

The world shall not redeem ye: and that your cries

May find no entrance to our ears,

To move pity in any: bid loud Musick sound

Their fatal knells; if ye have prayers use 'em quickly,

To any power will own ye; but ha!

Who are these? what spectacles of misfortune?

Why are their looks

So full of Joy and Wonder?

Cro. Oh! lay by

These instruments of death, and welcome

To your arms, what you durst never hope to imbrace:

This is Sebastian, this Nicusa, Madam:

Preserv'd by miracle: look up dear Sir,

And know your own Rossella: be not lost

In wonder and amazement; or if nature

Can by instinct, instruct you what it is,

To be blessed with the name of Father,

Freely enjoy it in this fair Virgin.

Seb. Though my miseries,

And many years of wants I have endur'd,

May well deprive me of the memory

Of all joys past; yet looking on this building,

This ruin'd building of a heavenly form

In my Rosilla; I must remember, I am Sebastian.

Ros. Oh my joyes!

Seb. And here,

I see a perfect model of thy self,

As thou wert when thy choice first made thee mine:

These cheeks and fronts, though wrinkled now with time

Which Art cannot restore: had equal pureness,

Of natural white and red, and as much ravishing:

Which by fair order and succession,

I see descend on her: and may thy virtues

Wind into her form, and make her a perfect dower:

No part of thy sweet goodness wanting to her.

I will not now Rosilla, ask thy fortunes,

Nor trouble thee with hearing mine;

Those shall hereafter serve to make glad hours

In their relation: All past wrongs forgot;

I'm glad to see you Gentlemen; but most,

That [it] is in my power to save your lives;

You say'd ours, when we were near starv'd at Sea,

And I despair not, for if she be mine,

Rosilla can deny Sebastian nothing.

Ros. She does give up her self,

Her power and joys, and all, to you,

To be discharged of 'em as too burthensom;

Welcome in any shape.

Seb. Sir, in your looks,

I read your sute of my Clarinda: she is yours:

And Lady, if it be in me to confirm

Your hopes in this brave Gentleman,

Presume I am your servant.

Alb. We thank you Sir.

Amin. Oh happy hour!

Alb. O my dear Aminta;

Now all our fears are ended.

Tib. Here I fix: she's mettle,

Steel to the back: and will cut my leaden dagger,

If not us'd with discretion.

Cro. You are still no changling.

Sebast. Nay,

All look chearfully, for none shall be

Deny'd their lawful wishes; when a while

We have here refresh'd our selves; we'll return

To our several homes; and well that voyage ends,

That makes of deadly enemies, faithful friends.