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Enter
Dion, Cleremont, Thrasilin, Megra and Galatea. [2.4]
Di.
Come Ladies, shall we talk a round? As men
Do walk a mile, women should
take an hour
After supper: 'Tis their exercise.
Gal. 'Tis
late.
Meg.
'Tis all
My eyes will do to lead me to
my bed.
Gal.
I fear they are so heavy, you'l scarce find
The way to your lodging with
'em to night.
Enter
Pharamond.
Thra.
The Prince.
Pha.
Not a bed Ladies? y'are good sitters up;
What think you of a pleasant
dream to last
Till morning?
Meg.
I should choose, my Lord, a pleasing wake before it.
Enter
Arethusa and Bellario.
Are.
'Tis well my Lord y'are courting of Ladies.
Is't not late Gentlemen?
Cle.
Yes Madam.
Are.
Wait you there. [Exit
Arethusa.
Meg.
She's jealous, as I live; look you my Lord,
The Princess has a Hilas,
an Adonis.
Pha.
His form is Angel-like.
Meg.
Why this is he, must, when you are wed,
Sit by your pillow, like young
Apollo, with
His hand and voice, binding your
thoughts in sleep;
The Princess does provide him
for you, and for her self.
Pha.
I find no musick in these boys. Meg.
Nor I.
They can do little, and that
small they do,
They have not wit to hide.
Di.
Serves he the Princess? Thra.
Yes.
Di.
'Tis a sweet boy, how brave she keeps him!
Pha.
Ladies all good rest; I mean to kill a Buck
To morrow morning, ere y'ave
done your dreams. (rest,
Meg.
All happiness attend your Grace, Gentlemen good
Come shall we to bed?
Gal.
Yes, all good night. [Ex.
Gal. and Meg.
Di.
May your dreams be true to you;
What shall we do Gallants? 'Tis
late, the King
[end column one, page 27]
Is up still, see, he comes, a
Guard along
With him.
Enter
King, Arethusa and Guard.
King.
Look your intelligence be true.
Are.
Upon my life it is: and I do hope,
Your Highness will not tye me
to a man,
That in the heat of wooing throws
me off,
And takes another.
Di. What should this mean?
King.
If it be true,
That Lady had been better have
embrac'd
Cureless Diseases, get you to
your rest, [Ex. Are. and Bel.
You shall be righted: Gentlemen
draw near,
We shall imploy you: Is young
Pharamond
Come to his lodging?
Di. I saw him enter there.
King.
Haste some of you, and cunningly discover,
If Megra be in her lodging.
Cle. Sir,
She parted hence but now with
other Ladies.
King.
If she be there, we shall not need to make
A vain discovery of our suspicion.
You gods I see, that who unrighteously
Holds wealth or state from others,
shall be curst,
In that, which meaner men are
blest withall
Ages to come shall know no male
of him
Left to inherit, and his name
shall be
Blotted from earth; If he have
any child,
It shall be crossly matched:
the gods themselves
Shall sow wild strife betwixt
her Lord and her,
Yet, if it be your wills, forgive
the sin
I have committed, let it not
fall
Upon this understanding child
of mine,
She has not broke your Laws;
but how can I,
Look to be heard of gods, that
must be just,
Praying upon the ground I hold
by wrong?
Enter
Dion.
Di.
Sir, I have asked, and her women swear she is within,
but they I think are bawds; I
told 'em I must speak with
her: they laught, and said their
Lady lay speechless. I
said, my business was important;
they said their Lady was
about it: I grew hot, and cryed
my business was a matter
that concern'd life and death;
they answered, so was sleep-
ing, at which their Lady was,
I urg'd again, she had scarce
time to be so since last I saw
her; they smil'd again, and
seem'd to instruct me, that sleeping
was nothing but lying
down and winking: Answers more
direct I could not get:
in short Sir, I think she is
not there.
King.
'Tis then no time to dally: you o'th' Guard,
Wait at the back door of the
Princes lodging,
And see that none pass thence
upon your lives.
Knock Gentlemen: knock loud:
louder yet:
What, has their pleasure taken
off their hearing?
I'le break your meditations?
knock again:
Not yet? I do not think he sleeps,
having this
Larum by him; once more, Pharamond,
Prince.
Pharamond above.
Pha.
What sawcy groom knocks at this dead of night?
Where be our waiters? By my vexed
soul,
He meets his death, that meets
me, for this boldness.
K.
Prince, you wrong your thoughts, we are your friends,
Come down.
Pha. The King?
King.
The same Sir, come down,
We have cause of present Counsel
with you.
Pha.
If your Grace please to use me, I'le attend you
To your Chamber.
[Pha. below.
King.
No, 'tis too late Prince, I'le make bold with yours.
Pha.
I have some private reasons to my self,
Makes me unmannerly, and say
you cannot;
Nay, press not forward Gentlemen,
he must come
Through my life, that comes here.
Enter.
King.
Sir be resolv'd, I must and will come.
Pha.
I will not be dishonour'd;
He that enters, enters upon his
death;
[end page 27, signature E 2, catchword: Sir,]
Sir, 'tis a sign you make no
stranger of me,
To bring these Renegados to my
Chamber,
At these unseason'd hours.
King. Why do you
Chase your self so? you are not
wrong'd, nor shall be;
Onely I'le search your lodging,
for some cause
To our self known: Enter I say.
Pha.
I say no.
[Meg. Above.
Meg.
Let 'em enter Prince,
Let 'em enter, I am up, and ready;
I know their business,
'Tis the poor breaking of a Ladies
honour,
They hunt so hotly after; let
'em enjoy it.
You have your business Gentlemen,
I lay here.
O my Lord the King, this is not
noble in you
To make publick the weakness
of a Woman.
King.
Come down.
Meg.
I dare my Lord; your whootings and your clamors,
Your private whispers, and your
broad fleerings,
Can no more vex my soul, than
this base carriage;
But I have vengeance yet in store
for some,
Shall in the most contempt you
can have of me,
Be joy and nourishment.
King.
Will you come down?
Meg.
Yes, to laugh at your worst: but I shall wrong you,
If my skill fail me not.
King.
Sir, I must dearly chide you for this looseness,
You have wrong'd a worthy Lady,
but no more,
Conduct him to my lodging, and
to bed. (deed.
Cle.
Get him another wench, and you bring him to bed in
Di.
'Tis strange a man cannot ride a Stagg
Or two, to breath himself, without
a warrant:
If this geer hold, that lodgings
be search'd thus,
Pray heaven we may lie with our
own wives in safety,
That they be not by some trick
of State mistaken.
Enter
with Megra.
King.
Now Lady of honour, where's your honour now?
No man can fit your palat, but
the Prince.
Thou most ill shrowded rottenness;
thou piece
Made by a Painter and a Pothecary;
Thou troubled sea of lust, thou
wilderness,
Inhabited by wild thoughts; thou
swoln cloud
Of Infection; thou ripe Mine
of all Diseases;
Thou all Sin, all Hell, and last,
all Devils, tell me,
Had you none to pull on with
your courtesies,
But he that must be mine, and
wrong my Daughter?
By all the gods, all these, and
all the Pages,
And all the Court shall hoot
thee through the Court,
Fling rotten Oranges, make ribald
Rimes,
And fear thy name with Candles
upon walls:
Do you laugh Lady Venus?
Meg.
Faith Sir, you must pardon me;
I cannot chuse but laugh to see
you merry
If you do this, O King; nay,
if you dare do it;
By all these gods you swore by,
and as many
More of my own; I will have fellows,
and such
Fellows in it, as shall make
noble mirth;
The Princess, your dear Daughter,
shall stand by me
On walls, and sung in ballads,
any thing:
Urge me no more, I know her,
and her haunts,
Her layes, leaps, and outlayes,
and will discover all;
Nay will dishonour her. I know
the boy
She keeps, a handsome boy, about
eighteen:
Know what she does with him,
where, and when
Come Sir, you put me to a womans
madness,
The glory of a fury; and if I
do not
Do it to the height?
King.
What boy is this she raves at?
Meg.
Alas! good minded Prince, you know not these things?
I am loth to reveal 'em. Keep
this fault
As you would keep your health
from the hot air
Of the corrupted people, or
by heaven,
I will not fall alone
what I have known,
Shall be as publick as a print:
all tongues
Shall speak it as they do the
language they
[end column one, page 28]
Are born in, as free and commonly;
I'le set it
Like a prodigious star for all
to gaze at, (reign
And so high and glowing, that
other Kingdoms far and For-
Shall read it there, nay travel
with it, till they find
No tongue to make it more, nor
no more people;
And then behold the fall of
your fair Princess.
King.
Has she a boy?
Cle.
So please your Grace I have seen a boy wait
On her, a fair boy.
King.
Go get you to your quarter:
For this time I'le study to
forget you.
Meg.
Do you study to forget me, and I'le study
To forget you.
[Ex. King, Meg. and Guard.
Cle.
Why here's a Male spirit for Hercules, if ever there
be nine worthies of women, this
wench shall ride astride, and
be their Captain.
Di.
Sure she hath a garrison of Devils in her tongue, she
uttereth such balls of wild-fire.
She has so netled the King,
that all the Doctors in the
Country will scarce cure him
That boy was a strange found
out antidote to cure her in-
fection: that boy, that Princess
boy: that brave, chast, ver-
tuous Ladies boy: and a fair
boy, a well spoken boy: All
these considered, can make nothing
else----but there I leave
you Gentlemen.
Thra.
Nay we'l go wander with you. [Exeunt
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Pictures, March
2001. This text is freely available for
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