[After a solemn service, enter from the widow's house a service, musical songs of marriages, or a masque, or what pretty triumph you list: to them ÂTEUKIN,* [and JAQUES.]
ATEU. What means this triumph, friend? Why are these feasts?
SERV. Fair Ida, sir, was married yesterday
Unto Sir Eustace, and for that intent
We feast and sport it thus to honour them:
And if you please, come in and take your part,
My lady is no niggard of her cheer.
[Exit. JAQ. Monsignieur, why be you so sadda? faites bonne chere: foutre de ce monde !
ATEU. What! was I born to be the scorn of kin?
To gather feathers like to a hopper crow,
And lose them in the height of all my pomp?
Accursed man, now is my credit lost!
Where are my vows I made unto the king?
What shall become of me, if he shall hear
That I have caus'd him kill a virtuous queen,
And hope in vain for that which now is lost?
Where shall I hide my head? I know the heavens
Are just and will revenge: I know my sins
Exceed compare. Should I proceed in this?
This Eustace must amain ‡ be made away.
O, were I dead, how happy should I be !
JAQ. Est ce donc à tel point votre etat? faith then, adieu Scotland, adieu Signieur Ateukin: me will homa to France, and no be hanged in a strange country. [Exit. ATEU. Thou dost me good to leave me thus alone, That galling grief and I may yoke in one.
* Ateukin] The 4to. adds "and Gnato:" but see note ‡ p. 105, and note + p. 108.
O, what are subtle means to climb on high,
When every fall swarms with exceeding shame ?
I promis'd Ida's love unto the prince,
But she is lost, and I am false forsworn.
I practis'd Dorothea's hapless death,
And by this practice have commenc'd a war.
O cursed race of men, that traffic guile,
And in the end themselves and kings beguile!
Asham'd to look upon my prince again,
Asham'd of my suggestions and advice,
Asham'd of life, asham'd that I have err'd,
I'll hide myself, expecting for my shame.
Thus God doth work with those that purchase fame
By flattery, and make their prince their gain.*
[Exit. Enter the King of ENGLAND, Lord PERCY,SAMLES, and others.
K. OF ENG. Thus far then, English peers, have we display'd
Our waving ensigns with a happy war;
Thus nearly hath our furious rage reveng'd
My daughter's death upon the traitrous Scot.
And now before Dunbar our camp is pitch'd;
Which, if it yield not to our compromise,
The ploughs shall furrow where the palace stood,
And fury shall envy || so high a power
That mercy shall be banish'd from our swords.
Enter DOUGLAS, on the walls.
DOUG. What seeks the English king? [enter in :
K. OF ENG. Scot, open those gates, and let me
+ K. of Eng.] To the speeches of the King of England throughout this scene is prefixed" Arius."
then] Old copy "the."
S plough] The 4to. " place." envy] Qy."enjoy."
Submit thyself and thine unto my grace,
Or I will put each mother's son to death,
And lay this city level with the ground.
DOUG. For what offence, for what default of ours,
Art thou incens'd so sore against our state?
Can generous hearts in nature be so stern
To prey on those that never did offend?
What though the lion, king of brutish race,
Through outrage sin, shall lambs be therefore slain?
Or is it lawful that the humble die,
Because the mighty do gainsay the right?
O English king, thou bearest in thy crest*
The king of beasts, that harms not yielding ones;
The roseal cross is spread within thy field,
A sign of peace, not of revenging war.
Be gracious then unto this little town;
And, though we have withstood thee for a while
To shew allegiance to our liefest liege,
Yet since we know no hope of any help,
Take us to mercy, for we yield ourselves.
K. OF ENG. What, shall I enter then, and be your
lord?
DOUG. We will submit us to the English king.
[They descend down, open the gates, and hum-
ble them.
K. OF ENG. Now life and death dependeth on my sword:
This hand now rear'd, my Douglas, if I list,
Could part thy head and shoulders both in twain;
But since I see thee wise and old in years,
True to thy king, and faithful in his wars,
Live thou and thine. Dunbar is too too small
To give an entrance to the English king:
I, eagle-like, disdain these little fowls,
And look on none but those that dare resist.
Enter your town, as those that live by me :
*crest] The 4to. "brest."
For others that resist, kill, forage, spoil.
Mine English soldiers, as you love your king,
Revenge his daughter's death, and do me right.
Enter the LAWYER, the MERCHANT, and the
LAW. My friends, what think you of this present state?
Were ever seen such changes in a time?
The manners and the fashions of this age
Are like the ermine's skin so full of spots:
As soon may the Moor be washed white,
Than these corruptions banish'd from this realm.
MERCH. What sees Mas Lawyer in this state amiss?
LAW. A wrestling power that makes a nose of wax
Of grounded law, a damn'd and subtle drift,
In all estates to climb by others' loss,
An eager thirst* of wealth, forgetting truth:
Might I ascend unto the highest states,
And by descent discover every crime,
My friends, I should lament, and you would grieve
To see the hapless ruins of this realm.
Div. O lawyer, thou hast curious eyes to pry
Into the secret maims of their estate;
But if thy veil of error were unmask'd,
Thyself should see your sect do maim her most.
Are you not those that should maintain the peace,
Yet only are the patrons of our strife?
If your profession have his ground and spring
First from the laws of God, then country's right,
Not any ways inverting nature's power,
Why thrive you by contentions? why devise you
Clauses, and subtle reasons to except?
Our state was first, before you grew so great,
thirst] The 4to. "thrift."
A lantern to the world for unity:
Now they that are befriended and are rich,
Oppress the poor: come Homer without coin,
He is not heard. What shall we term this drift?
To say the poor man's cause is good and just,
And yet the rich man gains the best in law.
It is your guise (the more the world laments)
To coin provisos to beguile your laws,
To make a gay pretext of due proceeding,
When you delay your common pleas for years.
Mark what these dealings lately here have wrought:
The crafty men have purchas'd great men's lands;
They powl, they pinch, their tenants are undone;
If these complain, by you they are undone;
You fleece them of their coin, their children beg,
And many want, because you may be rich:
This scar is mighty, master lawyer.
Now wart hath gotten head within this land,
Mark but the guise. The poor man that is wrong'd,
Is ready to rebel; he spoils, he pills;
We need no foes to forage that we have:
The law, say they, in peace consumed us,
And now in war we will consume the law.
Look to this mischief, lawyers: conscience knows
You live amiss; amend it, lest you end.
LAW. Good Lord, that their divines should see so far
In others' faults, without amending theirs!
Sir, sir, the general defaults in state
(If you would read before you did correct)
Are by a hidden working from above,
By their successive changes still remov'd.§
Were not the law by contraries maintain'd,
* Oppress] The 4to. "Or press."
+ powl] See note* vol. i. p. 121.
war] The 4to. " man.
$ remov'd] The 4to. " remainde."
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