SCENE IX.

_Enter +Plotwell+ and +Roseclap+, with +Bannswright+ and +Quartfield+ disguised._

+Ware.+ O nephew, welcome to my ransom! here My house is made a new erection; gallants Are brought in varied forms. Had I not look'd By providence into that frame, these two Had been convey'd for night-pieces and landskips Into my chaste bride's chamber. Till now, she took And let herself out; now she will be able To hire and buy offenders.

+Plot.+ I'll ease you, sir; We two have made a full discovery of her.

+Rose.+ She's married to another man, sir.

+Ware.+ Good nephew, thou art my blessed angel. Who are these two?

+Plot.+ Two that will secure your ships, Sent by the office. Seal you, sir: th' have brought Th' assurance with 'em.

+Ware.+ Nephew, thou were't born To be my dear preserver.

+Plot.+ It is duty, sir, To help you out with your misfortunes. Gentlemen, Produce your instruments. Uncle, put your seal And write your name here; they will do the like To the other parchment. So, now deliver.

[_They subscribe, seal, and deliver interchangeably._

+Ware.+ I do deliver this as my act and deed.

+Ban.+, +Quart.+ And we this, as our act and deed.

+Plot.+ Pray, gentlemen, Be witness here. Upon a doubtful rumour Of two ships wreck'd, as they return'd from Ormus, My uncle covenants to give three parts To have the fourth secured. And these two here,

[_+Seathrift+, +Roseclap+, +Bright+, and +Newcut+ subscribe as witnesses._

As delegates of the office, undertake At that rate to assure them. Uncle, now Call forth the sailor, and send for the priest That married you.

_Enter +Salewit+ and +Cypher+._

+Ware.+ Look, here they come.

+Plot.+ First then, Not to afflict you longer, uncle; since We now are quiet, know all this was my project.

+Ware.+ How!

+Plot.+ Your two ships are richly landed: if You'll not believe me, here's the sailor who, [_+Cypher+ undisguises._ Transform'd to Cypher, can tell you.

+Cyph.+ 'Tis very true, sir. I hired this travelling case of one o' th' sailors That came in one of 'em: they lie at Blackwall. Troth, I in pity, sir, to Master Plotwell, Thought it my duty to deceive you.

+Ware.+ Very well, sir; What, are these masquers too?

+Plot.+ Faith, sir, these [_Exit +Cypher+._ Can change their forms too. They are two friends, [_They undisguise._ Worth threescore thousand pounds, sir, to my use.

+Ware.+ Bannswright and Captain Quartfield!

+Quart.+ Nay, old boy, Th' hast a good pennyworth on't. The jest is worth Three parts of four.

+Ban.+ Faith, sir, we hope you'll pay Tonnage and poundage into th' bargain.

+Ware.+ O, you are a precious rogue! you ha' preferr'd me To a chaste Lucrece, sirrah!

+Ban.+ Your nephew, sir, Hath married her with all her faults. They are New-come from church.

+Ware.+ How!

+Plot.+ Wonder not, sir: you Were married but in jest. 'Twas no church-form, But a fine legend out of Rab'lais.

+Sale.+ Troth, This reverend weed cast off, I'm a lay poet, [_+Salewit+ undisguises._ And cannot marry, unless't be in a play-- In the fifth act or so; and that's almost Worn out of fashion too.

+Mis. Sea.+ These are the two That show'd my son. [_Aside._

+Mis. Hol.+ Let's have our money back. [_Aside._

+Plot.+ But, uncle, for the jointure you have made her I hope you'll not retract. That and three parts Of your two ships, besides what you will leave Us at your death, will make a pretty stock For young beginners.

+Ware.+ Am I o'erreach'd so finely?

+Sea.+ But are you married, sir, in earnest?

+Plot.+ Troth We have not been abed yet, but may go, And no law broken.

+Sea.+ Then I must tell you, sir, Y' have wrong'd me; and I look for satisfaction.

+Plot.+ Why, I beseech you, sir?

+Sea.+ Sir, were not you Betroth'd once to my daughter?

+Mis. Sea.+ And did not I And Mistress Holland help to make you sure?

+Plot.+ I do confess it.

+Sea.+ Bear witness, gentlemen, he doth confess it.

+Plot.+ I'll swear it too, sir.

+Sea.+ Why, Then, have you match'd this woman?

+Plot.+ Why! because This is your daughter, sir. I'm hers by conquest For this day's service.

+Sea.+ Is't possible I should Be out in my own child so?

+Mis. Sea.+ I told you, husband.

+Mis. Scr.+ Surely my spirit gave me it was she; And yet to see, now you have not your wire Nor city ruff on, Mistress Sue, how these Clothes do beguile! In truth, I took you for A gentlewoman.

+Sea.+ Here be rare plots indeed! Why, how now, sir, these young heads have outgone us. Was my son o' th' plot too?

+Plot.+ Faith, sir, he Is married too. I did strike up a wedding Between him and my sister.

_Enter +Timothy+ and +Aurelia+._

Look, sir! They come without their maidenheads.[262]

+Sea.+ Why, this Is better still. Now, sir, you might have ask'd Consent of parents.

+Tim.+ Pray forgive me, sir. I thought I had match'd a lady, but she proves----

+Sea.+ Much better, sir: I'd chide you as a fish, But that your choice pleads for you.

+Tim.+ Mother, pray Salute my wife, and tell me if one may not Lie with her lips: nay, you too, Mistress Holland, You taught her to make shirts and bone-lace; she's Out of her time now.

+Mis. Hol.+ I release her, sir.

+Ware.+ I took your sister for a lady, nephew.

+Plot.+ I kept her like one, sir. My Temple scores Went to maintain the title out of hope To gain some great match for her; which you see Is come to pass.

+Ware.+ Well, Master Seathrift, Things are just fallen out as we contriv'd 'em: I grieve not I'm deceiv'd. Believe me, gentlemen, You all did your parts well; 'twas carried cleanly; And though I could take some things ill of you, Fair mistress, yet 'twas plot, and I forget it. Let's in and make 'em portions.

+Sea.+ Lead the way, sir.

+Ban.+ Pray stay a little.

+Ware.+ More revelations yet?

+Ban.+ I all this while have, stood behind the curtain. You have a brother, sir, and you a father.

+Plot.+ If he do live, I have.

+Ban.+ He in his time Was held the wealthiest merchant on th' Exchange.

+Ware.+ 'Tis true, but that his shipwrecks broke him.

+Ban.+ And The debt for which he broke I hear you have Compounded.

+Sea.+ I am paid it.

+Ban.+ Then I thank you. [_+Bannswright+ undisguises._

+Ware.+ My brother Plotwell!

+Ban.+ Son, I wish you joy.

+Plot.+ O my bless'd stars! my father!

+Ban.+ And to you, fair mistress, Let it not breed repentance that I have, For my security, to 'scape your father, Awhile descended from myself to this Unworthy shape. Now I can cast it off, And be my true self. I have a ship which fame Gave out for lost, but just now landed too, Worth twenty thousand pounds, towards your match.

+Sea.+ Better and better still.

+Ware.+ Well, what was wanting Unto our joys, and made these nuptials Imperfect, brother, you by your discovery Have fully added.

_Enter +Cypher+._

+Cyp.+ Sir, the two sheriffs are Within, and have both brought their wives.

+Ware.+ The feast Intended for my wedding shall be yours.

To which I add--_May you so love to say, When old, your time was but one marriage-day._

FOOTNOTES:

[256] Dr Warburton observes (note to "Henry IV.," Part I., act ii. sc. 4) that in the persecutions of the Protestants in Flanders under Philip II. those who came over into England on that occasion brought with them the woollen manufactory. These being Calvinists were joined by those of the same persuasion from other countries, and amongst the rest from Geneva.

[257] _Rosemary_ was anciently supposed to strengthen the memory, and was therefore distributed at marriages and funerals. See a note on "Hamlet," x. 355, edit. 1778.

[258] [Old copies, _ach_.]

[259] The stately step and pompous manner, used by the prologue-speakers of the times, are still retained in delivering the few lines used as a prologue in "Hamlet." These particularities seem to have been delivered traditionally to the present race of actors from their brethren in the seventeenth century.

[260] See a note on "Timon of Athens," edit. 1778, viii. 409.--_Steevens._

[261] See [Randolph's Works, by Hazlitt, i. 209.] Aretine's _pictures_, there mentioned, were in fact Aretine's pictures of postures here alluded to.--_Collier._

[262] In the old copies the name of Penelope (_i.e._, Aurelia) is placed before this line, but it seems to belong to Plotwell, and to be a continuation of what he has just before said.--_Collier._

THE EPILOGUE AT WHITEHALL.

The author was deceiv'd; for, should the parts And play which you have seen plead rules and arts, Such as strict critics write by, who refuse T' allow the buskin to the Comic Muse; Whose region is the people, every strain Of royalty being tragic, though none slain; He'd now, Great Sir, hold all his rules untrue, And think his best rules are the Queen and You. He should have search'd the stories of each age, And brought five acts of princes on the stage; He should have taken measure, and rais'd sport From persons bright and glorious as your court, And should have made his argument to be Fully as high and great as they that see. Here, he confesseth, you did nothing meet, But what was first a comedy i' th' street: Cheapside brought into verse; no passage strange To any here that hath been at th' Exchange. Yet he hopes none doth value it so low, As to compare it with my Lord Mayor's Show. 'Tis so unlike that some, he fears, did sit, Who, missing pageants, did o'ersee the wit. Since then his scene no pomp or highness boasts, And low things grac'd show princes princes most, Your royal smiles will raise't, and make him say, He only wrote, your liking made, the play.

THE EPILOGUE AT BLACKFRIARS.

Once more the Author, ere you rise, doth say, Though he have public warrant for his play, Yet he to the King's command needs the King's writ To keep him safe, not to be arraign'd for wit. Not that he fears his name can suffer wrack From them who sixpence pay and sixpence crack, To such he wrote not; though some parts have been So like here, that they to themselves came in. To them who call't reproof to make a face, Who think they judge, when they frown i' th' wrong place, Who, if they speak not ill o' th' poet, doubt They lose by the play, nor have their two shillings out; He says, he hopes they'll not expect he'd woo, The play being done, they'd end their sour looks too. But before you, who did true hearers sit, Who singly make a box, and fill the pit, Who do[263] this comedy read, and unseen, Had throng'd theatres and Blackfriars been, He for his doom stands: your hands are his bays, Since they can only clap who know to praise.

FOOTNOTES:

[263] [Old copy, _to_.]

THE QUEEN OF ARRAGON.

_EDITION._

_The Queene of Arragon. A Tragi-Comedie. London Printed by Tho. Cotes, for William Cooke, and are to be sold at his shop at Furnivals Inne gate in Holburne 1640. Folio._

INTRODUCTION.

William Habington, the son of Thomas Habington,[264] of Hendlip, in the county of Worcester, Esq., was born at the seat of his father, on the 4th, or, as others say, the 5th, of November 1605.[265] He received his education at St Omers and Paris, and at the former of these places was earnestly solicited to become one of the order of the Jesuits. On his return from Paris, being then at man's estate, he was instructed at home in matters of history by his father, and became an accomplished gentleman. He married Lucia, daughter of William Lord Powis, and is charged by Wood with running with the times, and being not unknown to Oliver Cromwell. He died the 30th of November 1654, and was buried in the vault at Hendlip, by the bodies of his father and grandfather.

Besides the play now republished, he was the author of--

1. Poems, under the title of "Castara," 4º, 1634; 12º, 1635, 1640.[266] They are divided into three parts, each under a different title, suitable to the subject: the first, written when he was suitor to his wife, is ushered in by a character of a mistress, written in prose: the second contains verses written to her after marriage; after which is a character of a friend, before several funeral elegies: and the third consists of Divine Poems, preceded by the portrait of a holy man.[267]

2. "Observations upon History." 8º, 1641.

3. "History of Edward IV., King of England," fº, 1640, written and published at the desire of King Charles I.[268]

Wood observes that the MSS. which our author and his father left[269] were then in the hands of the former's son, and might be made useful for the public, if in the possession of any other person.[270]

FOOTNOTES:

[264] This Thomas Habington was born 26th October 1560, and married Mary, the sister of Lord Mounteagle, the lady who is supposed to have written that letter to her brother which occasioned the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot. For harbouring Garnet and Alchorne, two Popish priests, he is said to have been condemned to die, but by the intercession of Lord Mounteagle he was reprieved and pardoned. He lived many years afterwards, not dying until the 8th of October 1647, at the advanced age of eighty-seven years. Wood says he surveyed the county of Worcester, and made a collection of most of its antiquities. He also translated "The Epistle of Gildas, the most ancient British author," 12º, 1638, and had a considerable hand in the "History of Edward IV.," published by his son.

[265] In a poem on p. 104 of his "Castara," 1640, Habington claims alliance with several noble families--

"Now I resolve, in triumph of my verse, To bring great _Talbot_ from that foreign herse Which yet doth to her fright his dust enclose: Then to sing _Herbert_, who so glorious rose With the fourth Edward, that his faith doth shine Yet in the faith of noble _Pembroke's_ line. Sometimes my swelling spirits I prepare To speak the mighty _Percy_, nearest heir In merits, as in blood, to Charles the Great: Then _Derby's_ worth and greatness to repeat; Or _Morley's_ honour, or _Mounteagle's_ fame, Whose valour lives eterniz'd in his name: But while I think to sing those _of my blood_, And my _Castaras_," &c.

--_Collier._

[266] Mr Park, in a MS. note to a copy of these poems, in 1640, observes, "The first and second parts of these poems were printed in 1634, 4º; again (with additions) in 1635, 12º; and the third part was added in 1640. He is said to have entitled his collection "Castara" in compliment to his mistress, Lucia, daughter of Lord Powis, who became his wife." This is evident from a poem on p. 102 of the edition of 1640, addressed to Lord Powis, where he speaks of his daughter as Castara.--_Collier._

[267] Phillips, speaking of Habington ("Theatrum Poetarum," 1675), says "that he may be ranked with those who deserve neither the highest nor the lowest seat in the theatre of fame." Mr Park is of opinion "that this character of him is rather below par; for he appears (as an amatory poet) to have possessed a superior degree of unaffected tenderness and delicacy of sentiment to either Carew or Waller, with an elegance of versification very seldom inferior to his more famed contemporaries." Perhaps Habington's "amiable piety," rendered him a peculiar favourite with Mr Park.--_Collier._

[268] Phillips, in his "Theatrum Poetarum," complains that this work is written in a style "better becoming a poetical than a historical subject."--_Collier._ [In "Jonsonus Virbius," verses to the memory of Ben Jonson, 1638, is a poem by W. Abington.]

[269] The collections he made of the antiquities, &c., of Worcestershire, formed the foundation of Dr Nash's history of that county.--_Collier._

[270] The following is from "Wit's Recreations," 1640--

+"To Mr. William Habington, on his 'Castara,' a Poem.+

Thy Muse is chaste, and thy Castara too; 'Tis strange at Court: and thou hadst power to woo And to obtain what others were denied, The fair Castara for thy virtuous bride. Enjoy what you dare wish, and may there be Fair issues branch from both to honour thee."

--_Gilchrist._

THE PROLOGUE AT COURT.

Had not obedience o'errul'd the Author's fear And judgment too, this humble piece had ne'er Approach'd so high a majesty: not writ By the exact and subtle rules of wit, Ambitious for the splendour of this night, But fashion'd up in haste for 's own delight. This by my lord[271] with as much zeal as e'er Warm'd the most loyal heart, is offer'd here, To make this night your pleasure, although we, Who are the actors, fear 'twill rather be Your patience; and if any mirth, we may Sadly suspect, 'twill rise quite the wrong way. But you have mercy, sir; and from your eye, Bright madam, never yet did lightning fly; But vital beams of favour, such as give A growth to all who can deserve to live. Why should the author tremble then, or we Distress our hopes, and such tormentors be Of our own thoughts? since in those happy times We live, when mercy's greater than the crimes.

FOOTNOTES:

[271] Meaning, most likely, the Earl of Pembroke, at whose instance the play was represented before the King and Queen at court.--_Collier._

THE PROLOGUE AT THE FRIARS.

Ere we begin, that no man may repent Two shillings and his time, the Author sent The prologue with the errors of his play, That, who will, may take his money and away. First for the plot, it's no way intricate By cross deceits in love, nor so high in state, That we might have given out in our playbill, This day's "The Prince," writ by Nick Machiavil. The language too is easy, such as fell Unstudied from his pen: not like a spell Big with mysterious words, such as enchant The half-witted, and confound the ignorant. Then what must needs afflict the amorist, No virgin here in breeches casts a mist Before her lover's eyes: no ladies tell, How their blood boils, how high their veins do swell. But, what is worse, no bawdy mirth is here (The wit of bottle-ale and double-beer), To make the wife of citizen protest, And country-justice swear 'twas a good jest. Now, sirs, you have the errors of his wit: Like or dislike, at your own perils be't.

THE ACTOR'S NAMES.

+The Queen of Arragon.+ +Decastro+, _General of the Forces of Arragon, in love with the queen_. +Ossuna+, _friend to Decastro_. +Florentio+, _General of the Forces of Castile, enamoured of the queen_. +Velasco+, _a great commander under Florentio_. +Ascanio+, _the King of Castile disguised_. +Lerma+, _a nobleman privy to his disguise_. +Oniate+, _a sober courtier_. +Sanmartino+, _a half-witted lord_. +Browfildora+, _dwarf to Sanmartino_.

+Floriana+, _wife to Sanmartino_. +Cleantha+, _a witty court-lady_.

+Captain.+ +Servants.+ _Several +Soldiers+._

THE QUEEN OF ARRAGON.[272]