Chapter IX: Act II: , Scene 1

_Enter two_ LORDS, PHILIP, MENDOZA, ELEAZAR, _with him the_
KING _crowned_; QUEEN-MOTHER, ALVERO, ZARACK, BALTHAZAR,
_and Attendants_.

MEN. Why stares this devil thus, as if pale death Had made his eyes the dreadful messengers To carry black destruction to the world? Was he not banish'd Spain?

PHIL. Your sacred mouth Pronounc'd the sentence of his banishment: Then spurn the villain forth.

ELE. Who spurns the Moor, Were better set his foot upon the devil. Do spurn me, and this confounding arm of wrath Shall, like a thunderbolt breaking the clouds, Divide his body from his soul! Stand back. Spurn Eleazar!

ROD. Shall we bear this pride?

ALV. Why not? he underwent much injury.

MEN. What injury have we perform'd, proud lord?

ELE. Proud cardinal, my unjust banishment.

MEN. 'Twas we that did it, and our words are laws.

KING. 'Twas we repeal'd him, and our words are laws.

ZAR. BAL. If not, these are.

[_All the Moors draw._

PHIL. How! threaten'd and outdar'd!

KING. Shall we give arm to hostile violence? Sheathe your swords, sheathe them: it's we command.

ELE. Grant Eleazar justice, my dread liege.

MEN. Eleazar hath had justice from our hands, And he stands banish'd from the court of Spain.

KING. Have you done justice? Why, Lord Cardinal, From whom do you derive authority To banish him the court without our leave?

MEN. From this, the staff of our protectorship; From this, which the last will of your dead father Committed to our trust; from this high place, Which lifts Mendoza's spirits beyond the pitch Of ordinary honour, and from this----

[KING _takes the staff from_ MENDOZA, _and gives it to_
ELEAZAR.

KING. Which too much overweening insolence Hath quite ta'en from thee. Eleazar, up, And from us sway this staff of Regency.

ALL. How's this!

PHIL. Dare sons presume to break their father's will?

KING. Dare subjects countercheck their sovereign's will? 'Tis done, and who gainsays it, is a traitor.

PHIL. I do, Fernando, yet am I no traitor.

MEN. Fernando, I am wrong'd; by Peter's chair, Mendoza vows revenge. I'll lay aside My cardinal's hat, and in a wall of steel, The glorious livery of a soldier, Fight for my late-lost honour.

KING. Cardinal!

MEN. King! thou shalt be no king for wronging me. The Pope shall send his bulls through all thy realm, And pull obedience from thy subjects' hearts, To put on armour of the Mother Church. Curses shall fall like lightnings on thy head, Bell, book, and candle: holy water, prayers, Shall all chime vengeance to the court of Spain, Till they have power to conjure down that fiend, That damn'd Moor, that devil, that Lucifer, That dares aspire the staff the card'nal sway'd.

ELE. Ha, ha, ha! I laugh yet, that the cardinal's vex'd.

PHIL. Laugh'st thou, base slave! the wrinkles of that scorn Thine own heart's blood shall fill. Brother, farewell; Since you disprove the will our father left For base lust of a loathed concubine.

ELE. Ha! concubine! who does Prince Philip mean?

PHIL. [_To_ ELEAZAR.] Thy wife. [_To_ ALVERO.] Thy daughter. Base, aspiring lords, Who to buy honour are content to sell Your names to infamy, your souls to hell. And stamp you now? Do, do, for you shall see I go for vengeance, and she'll come with me.

ELE. Stay, for she's here already, see, proud boy.

[_They both draw._

QUEEN-M. Hold! stay this fury; if you long for blood, Murder me first. Dear son, you are a king; Then stay the violent tempest of their wrath.

KING. Shall kings be oversway'd in their desires?

ROD. Shall subjects be oppress'd by tyranny?

QUEEN-M. No state shall suffer wrong; then hear me speak: Mendoza, you have sworn you love the queen; Then by that love I charge you leave these arms. Eleazar, for those favours I have given you, Embrace the cardinal, and be friends with him.

ELE. And have my wife call'd strumpet to my face!

QUEEN-M. 'Twas rage made his tongue err; do you not know The violent love Mendoza bears the queen? Then speak him fair, for in that honey'd breath I'll lay a bait shall train him to his death.

[_Aside._

Come, come, I see your looks give way to peace; Lord Cardinal, begin; and [_Aside_] for reward, Ere this fair setting sun behold his bride, Be bold to challenge love, yet be denied.

MEN. That promise makes me yield.

[_Aside._]

My gracious lord, Though my disgrace hath graven its memory On every Spaniard's eye, yet shall the duty I owe your sacred highness, and the love My country challengeth, make me lay by Hostile intendments, and return again To the fair circle of obedience.

KING. Both pardon and our favour bids you welcome; And for some satisfaction for your wrongs, We here create you Salamanca's Duke: But first, as a true sign all grudges die, Shake hands with Eleazar, and be friends; This union pleaseth us. Now, brother Philip, You are included in this league of love, So is Roderigo. To forget all wrongs, Your castle for awhile shall bid us welcome; Eleazar, shall it not? It is enough. Lords, lead the way, that [_Aside_] whilst you feast yourselves, Fernando may find time all means to prove, To compass fair Maria for our love.

[_Exeunt omnes._

SCENE II.

QUEEN-MOTHER _and_ ELEAZAR.

ELE. Madam, a word: now have you wit or spirit?

QUEEN-M. Both.

ELE. Set them both to a most gainful task. Our enemies are in my castle-work.

QUEEN-M. Ay; but the king's there too; it's dangerous pride To strike at those that crouch by a lion's side.

ELE. Remove them.

QUEEN-M. How?

ELE. How! a thousand ways: By poison, or by this [_Points to his sword_]; but every groom Has skill in such base traffic; no, our policies Must look more strange, must fly with loftier wings; Vengeance, the higher it falls, more honour brings; But you are cold--you dare not do.

QUEEN-M. I dare.

ELE. You have a woman's heart; look you, this hand--

[_Takes her hand._

O, 'tis too little to strike home.

QUEEN-M. At whom?

ELE. Your son.

QUEEN-M. Which son? the king?

ELE. Angels of heaven Stand like his guard about him! how, the king! Not for so many worlds as there be stars Sticking upon th' embroider'd firmament. The king! he loves my wife, and should he die, I know none else would love her; let him live In heaven.[54]

[_Aside_.

Good Lord Philip----

QUEEN-M. He shall die.

ELE. How? good, good.

QUEEN-M. By this hand.

ELE. When? good, good; when?

QUEEN-M. This night, if Eleazar give consent.

ELE. Why, then, this night Philip shall not live To see you kill him! Is he not your son? A mother be the murd'rer of a brat That liv'd within her! ha!

QUEEN-M. 'Tis for thy sake.

ELE. Pish! What excuses cannot damn'd sin make To save itself! I know you love him well; But that he has an eye, an eye, an eye. To others, our two hearts seem to be lock'd Up in a case of steel; upon our love others Dare not look; or, if they dare, they cast Squint, purblind glances. Who care, though all see all, So long as none dare speak? But Philip Knows that iron ribs of our villains Are thin: he laughs to see them, like this hand, With chinks and crevices; how [with] a villanous, A stabbing, [a] desperate tongue the boy dare speak: A mouth, a villanous mouth! let's muzzle him.

QUEEN-M. How?

ELE. Thus: Go you, and with a face well-set do In good sad colours, such as paint out The cheek of that foul penitence, and with a tongue Made clean and glib, cull from their lazy swarm Some honest friars whom that damnation, gold, Can tempt to lay their souls to the stake; Seek such--they are rank and thick.

QUEEN-M. What then? I know such--what's the use?

ELE. This is excellent! Hire these to write books, preach, and proclaim abroad That your son Philip is a bastard.

QUEEN-M. How?

ELE. A bastard. Do you know a bastard? do't: Say conscience spake with you, and cried out do't; By this means shall you thrust him from all hope Of wearing Castile's diadem, and, that spur Galling his sides, he will fly out and fling, And grind the cardinal's heart to a new edge Of discontent; from discontent grows treason, And on the stalk of treason, death: he's dead, By this blow and by you; yet no blood shed. Do't then; by this trick he is gone. We stand more sure in climbing high; Care not who fall, 'tis real policy: are you Arm'd to do this, ha?

QUEEN-M. Sweet Moor, it is done.

ELE. Away then; work with boldness and with speed: On greatest actions greatest dangers feed.

[_Exit_ QUEEN-MOTHER.

Ha, ha! I thank thee, provident creation, That seeing[55] in moulding me thou didst intend I should prove villain; thanks to thee and nature, That skilful workman: thanks for my face: Thanks that I have not wit to blush! What, Zarack! ho, Balthazar!

_Enter the two_ MOORS.

BOTH. My lord.

ELE. Nearer. So: silence! Hang both your greedy ears upon my lips; Let them devour my speech, suck in my breath, and in. Who let's it break prison, here is his death. This night the card'nal shall be murder'd.

BOTH. Where?

ELE. And to fill up a grave Philip dies.

BOTH. Where?

ELE. Here.

BOTH. By whom?

ELE. By thee, and, slave, by thee. Have you [the] hearts and hands to execute?

BOTH. Here's both.

1ST MOOR. He dies, were he my father.

ELE. Ho, away. Stay--go, go--stay; see me no more till night. Your cheeks are black; let not your souls look white.

BOTH. Till night?

ELE. Till night: a word! the Mother-Queen Is trying, if she can, with fire of gold Warp the green consciences of two covetous friars To preach abroad Philip's bastardy.

_1st Moor._ His bastardy! who was his father?

ELE. Who? Search for these friars: hire them to work with you. Their holy callings will approve the fact Most good and meritorious: sin shines clear, When her black face religion's mask doth wear. Here comes the queen--good--and the friars.

SCENE III.

_Enter two friars_, CRAB _and_ COLE, _and_ QUEEN-MOTHER.

COLE. Your son a bastard? say, we do; But how then shall we deal with you? I tell you, as I said before, His being a bastard, you are so poor In honour and in name, that time Can never take away the crime.

QUEEN-M. I grant that, friar; yet rather I'll endure The wound of infamy to kill my name, Than to see Spain bleeding with civil swords. The boy is proud, ambitious; he woos greatness; He takes up Spanish hearts on trust to pay them, When he shall finger Castile's crown. O, then, Were it not better my disgrace were known, Than such a base aspirer fill the throne?

COLE. Ha, brother Crab, what think you?

CRAB. As you, dear brother Cole.

COLE. Then we agree. Cole's judgment is as Crab's, you see. Lady, we swear to speak and write What you please, so all go right.

QUEEN-M. Then, as we gave directions, spread abroad In Cadiz, Madrid, Granada, and Medina, And all the royal cities of the realm, Th' ambitious hopes of that proud bastard Philip: And sometimes, as you see occasion, Tickle the ears of the rude multitude With Eleazar's praise; gild his virtues, Naples' recovery, and his victories Achiev'd against the Turkish Ottoman. Will you do this for us?

ELE. Say, will you?

BOTH. Ay.

ELE. Why start you back and stare? Ha! are you afraid?

COLE. O, no, sir, no! but, truth to tell, Seeing your face, we thought of hell.

ELE. Hell is a dream.

COLE. But none do dream in hell.

ELE. Friars, stand to her and me; and by your sin I'll shoulder out Mendoza from his seat, And of two friars create you cardinals. O, how would cardinals' hats on their heads sit?

COLE. This face would look most goodly under it. Friar[s] Crab and Cole do swear In those circles still to appear, In which she or you do charge us rise; For you our lives we'll sacrifice. _Valete, gaudete: Si pereamus, flete; Orate pro nobis, Oremus pro vobis._ Cole will be burnt and Crab be press'd, Ere they prove knaves; thus are you cross'd and bless'd.

ELE. Away! you know. [_Exeunt_ FRIARS.] Now, madam, none shall throw Their leaden envy in an opposite scale, To weigh down our true golden happiness.

QUEEN-M. Yes, there is one.

ELE. One! who? Give me his name, and I will turn It to a magic spell to bind Him here, here. Who?

QUEEN-M. Your wife Maria.

ELE. Ha! my Maria!

QUEEN-M. She's The Hellespont divides my love and me: She being cut off----

ELE. Stay, stay; cut off! Let's think upon't; my wife! Humph! kill her too!

QUEEN-M. Does her love make thee cold?

ELE. Had I a thousand wives, down go they all. She dies; I'll cut her off. Now, Balthazar!

_Enter_ BALTHAZAR.

BAL. Madam, the king entreats your company.

QUEEN-M. His pleasure be obey'd. Dear love, farewell; Remember your Maria.

[_Exit._

ELE. Dear,[56] adieu; With this I'll guard her, whilst it stabs at you.

[_Points to his sword._

My lord,[57] the friars are won to join with us. Be prosperous! about it, Balthazar.

BAL. The watchword?

ELE. O, the word; let it be _Treason_. When we cry treason, break ope chamber doors: Kill Philip and the cardinal. Hence!

BAL. I fly.

[_Exit._

ELE. Murder, now ride in triumph; darkness, horror, Thus I invoke your aid; your act begin; Night is a glorious robe for th' ugliest sin.

SCENE IV.

_Enter_ COLE _and_ CRAB _in trousers; the_ CARDINAL _in one
of their weeds, and_ PHILIP _putting on the other_.

FRIARS. Put on, my lord, and fly, or else you die.

PHIL. I will not, I will die first. Cardinal, Prythee, good cardinal, pluck off, friars; slave! Murder us two! he shall not, by this sword.

CAR. My lord, you will endanger both our lives.

PHIL. I care not; I'll kill some before I die. Away! s'heart! take your rags! Moor, devil, come.

FRIARS. My lord, put on, or else----

PHIL. God's foot! come, help.

CAR. Ambitious villain! Philip, let us fly Into the chamber of the mother-queen.

PHIL. Thunder beat down the lodgings.

CAR. Else Let's break into the chamber of the king.

PHIL. Agreed. A pox upon these lousy gabardines. Agreed; I am for you, Moor; stand side by side; Come, hands off; leave your ducking.[58] Hell cannot fright Their spirits that do desperately fight.

COL. You are too rash, you are too hot; Wild desperateness doth valour blot. The lodging of the king's beset With staring faces black as jet, And hearts of iron: your deaths are vow'd, If you fly that way; therefore shroud Your body in friar Cole's grey weed; For is't not madness, man, to bleed, When you may 'scape untouch'd away? Here's hell, here's heaven: here if you stay, You're gone, you're gone; friar Crab and I Will here dance friskin, whilst you fly. Gag us, bind us, come put on; The gag's too wide; so gone, gone, gone!

PHIL. O, well, I'll come again. Lord Cardinal, Take you the castle, I'll to Portugal. I vow I'll come again, and if I do----

CAR. Nay, good my lord.

PHIL. Black devil, I'll conjure you.

[_Exeunt._

SCENE V.

_To the_ FRIARS _making a noise, gagged and bound, enter_
ELEAZAR, ZARACK, BALTHAZAR, _and other Moors, all with
their swords drawn_.

ELE. Guard all the passages. Zarack, stand there; There Balthazar, there you. The friars? Where have you plac'd the friars?

ALL. My lord, a noise![59]

BAL. The friars are gagg'd and bound.

ELE. 'Tis Philip and the cardinal; shoot:--ha! stay-- Unbind them. Where's Mendoza and the prince?

COLE. Santa Maria, who can tell! By Peter's keys, they bound us well, And having crack'd our shaven crowns, They have escap'd you in our gowns.

ELE. Escap'd! escap'd away! I am glad, it's good; I would their arms may turn to eagles' wings, To fly as swift as time. Sweet air, give way: Winds, leave your two-and-thirty palaces, And meeting all in one, join all your might To give them speedy and a prosperous flight. Escaped, friars! which way?

BOTH. This way.

ELE. Good! Alas, what sin is't to shed innocent blood? For look you, holy men, it is the king: The king, the king. See, friars, sulphury wrath Having once entered into royal breasts, Mark how it burns. The queen, Philip's mother. O, most unnatural! will have you two Divulge abroad that he's a bastard. O, Will you do it?

CRAB. What says my brother friar?

COLE. A prince's love is balm, their wrath is fire.

CRAB. 'Tis true; but yet I'll publish no such thing; What fool would lose his soul to please a king?

ELE. Keep there--good, there; yet, for it wounds my soul To see the miserablest wretch to bleed, I counsel you, in care unto your lives, T' obey the mother-queen; for by my life, I think she has been prick'd [in] her conscience. O, it has stung her for some fact misdone, She would not else disgrace herself and son. Do't therefore; hark! she'll work your deaths else, hate Bred in woman is insatiate. Do't, friars.

CRAB. Brother Cole, zeal sets me in a flame: I'll do't.

COLE. And I: his baseness we'll proclaim.

[_Exeunt_ FRIARS.

ELE. Do, and be damn'd; Zarack and Balthazar, Dog them at the heels; and when their poisonous breath Hath scatter'd this infection on the hearts Of credulous Spaniards, here reward them thus:

[_Points to his sword._

Slaves too much trusted do grow dangerous. Why this shall feed and fat suspicion And my policy. I'll ring through all the court this loud alarum, That they contriv'd the murder of the king, The queen, and me; and, being undermin'd, To 'scape the blowing up, they fled. O, good! There, there, thou there, cry treason; each one take A several door; your cries my music make.

BAL. Where is the king? treason pursues him.

_Enter_ ALVERO _in his shirt, his sword drawn_.

ELE. Where is the sleeping queen? Rise, rise, and arm against the hand of treason.

ALV. Whence comes this sound of treason?

_Enter the_ KING _in his shirt, his sword drawn_.

KING. Who frights our quiet slumbers with This heavy noise?

_Enter_ QUEEN _in her night attire_.

QUEEN-M. Was it a dream, or did the sound Of monster treason call me from my rest?

KING. Who rais'd this rumour? Eleazar, you?

ELE. I did, my liege, and still continue it, Both for your safety and mine own discharge.

KING. Whence comes the ground then?

ELE. From the cardinal And the young prince who, bearing in his mind The true idea of his late disgrace In putting him from the protectorship, And envying the advancement of the Moor, Determined this night to murder you; And for your highness lodged within my castle, They would have laid the murder on my head.

KING. The cardinal and my brother! bring them forth: Their lives shall answer this ambitious practice.

ELE. Alas! my lord, it is impossible; For when they saw I had discovered them, They train'd two harmless friars to their lodgings, Disrob'd them, gagg'd them, bound them to two posts, And in their habits did escape the castle.

KING. The cardinal is all ambition, And from him doth our brother gather heart.

QUEEN-M. Th' ambition of the one infects the other, And, in a word, they both are dangerous: But might your mother's counsel stand in force, I would advise you, send the trusty Moor To fetch them back, before they have seduc'd The squint-ey'd multitude from true allegiance, And drawn them to their dangerous faction.

KING. It shall be so. Therefore, my state's best prop, Within whose bosom I durst trust my life, Both for my safety and thine own discharge, Fetch back those traitors; and till your return Ourself will keep your castle.

ELE. My liege, the tongue of true obedience Must not gainsay his sovereign's impose. By heaven! I will not kiss the cheek of sleep, Till I have fetched those traitors to the court!

KING. Why, this sorts right: he gone, his beauteous wife Shall sail into the naked arms of love.

[_Aside._

QUEEN-M. Why, this is as it should be; he once gone, His wife, that keeps me from his marriage-bed, Shall by this hand of mine be murdered.

[_Aside._

KING. This storm is well-nigh past; the swelling clouds That hang so full of treason, by the wind In awful majesty are scattered. Then each man to his rest. Good night, sweet friend! Whilst thou pursu'st the traitors that are fled, Fernando means to warm thy marriage-bed.

[_Exeunt._

ELE. Many good nights consume and damn your souls! I know he means to cuckold me this night, Yet do I know no means to hinder it: Besides, who knows whether the lustful king, Having my wife and castle at command, Will ever make surrender back again? But if he do not, with my falchion's point I'll lance those swelling veins, in which hot lust Does keep his revels; and with that warm blood, Where Venus' bastard cooled his swelt'ring spleen, Wash the disgrace from Eleazar's brow.

SCENE VI.

_Enter_ MARIA.

MARIA. Dear Eleazar!

ELE. If they lock the gates, I'll toss a ball of wildfire o'er the walls.

MARIA. Husband! sweet husband!

ELE. Or else swim o'er the moat, And make a breach th[o]rough the flinty sides Of the rebellious walls.

MARIA. Hear me, dear heart.

ELE. Or undermine the chamber where they lie, And by the violent strength of gunpowder Blow up the castle and th' incestuous couch, In which lust wallows; but my labouring thoughts, Wading too deep in bottomless extremes, Do drown themselves in their own stratagems.

MARIA. Sweet husband, dwell not upon circumstance, When weeping sorrow, like an advocate, Importunes you for aid; look in mine eye, There you shall see dim grief swimming in tears, Invocating succour. O, succour!

ELE. Succour! zounds! for what?

MARIA. To shield me from Fernando's unchaste love, Who with uncessant prayers importun'd me----

ELE. To lie with you! I know't.

MARIA. Then seek some means how to prevent it.

ELE. 'Tis [im]possible: For, to the end that his unbridled lust Might have more free access unto thy bed, This night he hath enjoined me To fetch back Philip and the cardinal.

MARIA. Then this ensuing night shall give an end To all my sorrows; for before foul lust Shall soil the fair complexion of mine honour, This hand shall rob Maria of her life.

ELE. Not so, dear soul; for in extremities Choose out the least: and ere the hand of death Should suck this ivory palace of thy life, Embrace my counsel, and receive this poison Which, in the instant he attempts thy love, Then give it him: do, do, Do poison him. [_Aside_.] He gone, thou'rt next-- Be sound in resolution, and farewell. By one and one I'll ship you all to hell.

[_Aside._]

Spain, I will drown thee with thine own proud blood, Then make an ark of carcases: farewell! Revenge and I will sail in blood to hell.

[_Exit._

MARIA. Poison the king! alas! my trembling hand Would let the poison fall; and through my cheeks Fear, suited in a bloodless livery, Would make the world acquainted with my guilt. But thanks, prevention: I have found a means, Both to preserve my royal sovereign's life And keep myself a true and loyal wife.

[_Exit._