SCENE VI.

_Enter_ GENTLEMAN-USHER.

G.-USHER. Give way! make present way for his excellence and his consuls.

_Enter_ DUKE EUGENIO _and his Consuls. After them the deserted_ KNIGHTS; _the_ PLATONIC CONFIDANTS; _the_ ALIMONY LADIES; _the_ TUNIS ENGAGERS.

DUKE. As we have view'd and clear'd our foreign coasts, We're now to prune those wild luxurious sprays, Which give impede unto this spreading vine, Our flow'ry Seville, whose succeeding fame, Acquir'd by civil[179] discipline, exacts Our care and yours, grave councillors of state. 'Tis not enough with balms to close the skin, And leave the wound t' exulcerate within; For he, whose care's to cure the core without And searcheth not the bottom, spoils the root. Let's first then look on vices, which put on The face of virtue; and where modesty (Merely dissembled) cloth'd with taking beauty, Arms itself strongly 'gainst all opposition. Nay, what retains ofttimes such influence On reverend scarlet, as it darks the light Of judgment; and makes elders fix their eyes On rare-light objects, which so strangely takes, As they make judges vice's advocates. But here's none such, I hope. Our state is free, And so our patriots and state-consuls be. Complaints inform us, and we wond'red much At th' first perusal, how a feminine nature, So sweetly pleasing, should be so deprav'd.

FRI. What means the duke?

[_Aside._

CAR. I relish not th' discourse.

[_Aside._

DUKE. Have we not here some ladies o'th' New Dress, So newly styl'd, and in their honour soil'd, Who have deserted whom they ought to love?

LADIES. Is this the court masque, and the ball we look'd for?

[_Aside._

DUKE. Be you those ladies?

CHRIS. I am one of them, forsooth.

LADIES. We are the same, so like your excellence. And now redress'd.

DUKE. We understand no less: Your alimonies signed by our court!

CHRIS. They have not signed mine, if't please your dukeship. Truly, I am a very impudent, lame woman, and my husband a feeble, weak-doing man. Your grace must needs grant me ale-money.

DUKE. See what examples, ladies, you have given To simple women! I shall here propose Two tenders to your choice: either receive (And with a conjugal endearment, too) Your late-deserted husbands, or prepare The remainder of your days to entertain A strict monastic life. Your sentence's pass'd: Choose which you please.

JOC. I never shall endure A cloister'd life, unless I had a friar; Sir Gregory Shapeless shall be my Platonic.

MED. Rather than none, I'll take Sir Tristram Shorttool.

JUL. I for Sir Arthur Heartless.

CAV. I must put on my nightgown for Sir Jasper Simpleton.

FRI. Sir Amadin Puny then must be my joy, Who will be still, I think, a puny boy.

TIN. Well, since we are to this condition grown, 'Tis better far to use our own than none. While I, of youthful favourites bereft, Will live with Scattergood, if aught be left.

SIR REU. Nay, madam, but it were not amiss if you knew first whether Scattergood will live with you, or no. Release your alimony, and I'll resign my right in your propriety;[180] and in my widowed life mourn in sack: lo, infinitely.[181]

DUKE. This juncto must be fix'd on firmer ground; Coolness of fancy acts not on the object Which it pretends to love. Join hearts to hands, And in this second contract reunite What was so long divided. Love's a cement Admits no other allay but itself To work upon th' affections. [_To the husbands._] Be it yours (For virile spirits should be so demean'd), With pleasing candour to remit what's pass'd, And with mild glosses to interpret thus In their defence still to the better sense; "Their frailties in your ladies wrought these failings, Which pious pity should commiserate, And seal it with indulgence. [_To the ladies._] Then intend Your office, madams: which is to redeem Your late-abused time: which may be deem'd Richly recover'd, being once redeem'd."

LADIES. May all our actions close with discontent When we oppose their humours.

KNIGHTS. Say and hold; And this act of oblivion shall be sign'd.

[_They salute, and take hands._

DUKE. This does content us highly; powers above Makes lovers' breach renewal of their love.[182]

CHRIS. And must Christabel, too, pack home to her husband without her ale-money?

DUKE. Or to thy death an aged prioress!

CHRIS. Nay, but by your good favour I'll meddle with none of your priorities; I'll rather go mumble a crust at home, and chuck my old Jocelin.

DUKE. Nor is this all; our sentence must extend Unto those ladies' favourites, whose hours, Strangely debauch'd, make spoil of women's honours.

LADIES. We hate them worse than hell.

FAVOURITES. Good your grace, we are reclaim'd.

DUKE. That's but an airy note. When practical, we'll hold it cordial. Meantime, we do adjudge you to the quarries; Where you shall toil, till a relation give Test of your reformation. Look on those Tunis-engagers, who were timely drawn From their trepanning course, and by their hazard, Secur'd through valour, rais'd their ruin'd fortunes Above expectance! When your work is done, We shall find like adventures[183] for your spirits To grapple with, and rear your blanch'd repute. Leave interceding, for we are resolv'd. Now, conscript consuls, whose direction gives Life to our laws, we cannot choose but wonder How your impartial judgments should submit (As if they had been biassed) to grant These alimonies to their loose demands. Sure, such decrees would not have relish'd well Your jealous palates, had you so been used. "Wives to desert your beds, impeach your fames, In public courts discover your defects, Nay, to belie your weakness, and recover For all these scandals alimonious wages To feed their boundless riot!"

CONSUL. They're annull'd; Our courts will not admit them.

DUKE. 'Tis well done, For gentlemen t' engage their state and fame, And beds of honour, were a juggling game. So we dismiss you. May the palms of peace Crown Seville's state with safety and increase. Whereto when our reluctant actions give The least impede, may we no longer live!

[_Exeunt omnes. Trumpets sounding._

EPILOGUE

_You see our Ladies now are vanished, And gone, perchance, unto their husbands' bed, Convinc'd of guilt; where if they cannot tame Their loose desires, but still retain the name Of Alimony Ladies, you shall hear, They will not forfeit what they hold so dear-- Prohibited delights; and in that stain With blushless dalliance visit you again. Nor shall we build on these our confidence Who give less reins to reason than to sense: Yet for redemption of their husbands' lands, Seal our acquittance with your graceful hands._

_Naviter incumbens calamo, sine merce laboro; Merce carens vates nomine verus ero._

_HA|c thalami socias alimonia fecit iniquas; "Haud aries uni sufficit unus ovi."_--Arnold.

FINIS.

* * * * *

THE PARSON'S WEDDING.

_EDITION._

_The Parson's Wedding, A Comedy. The Scene London. Written at Basil in Switzerland: by Thomas Killigrew. Dedicated to the Lady Vrsvla Bartv [Bertie] Widow. London: Printed by J. M. for Henry Herringman...._ 1663.

This forms part of the collected edition of the works in folio, mentioned presently.

[PREFACE TO THE FORMER EDITION.]

THOMAS KILLIGREW, one of the sons of Sir Robert Killigrew, Chamberlain to the Queen, was born at Hanworth, in the county of Middlesex, in the month of February 1611.[184] Although his writings are not wanting in those requisites which confer reputation on an author, yet [we are permitted to conclude that it was chiefly to his conversational and social qualities, that Killigrew owed his ascendancy at Charles II.'s court--first abroad, and afterwards in England. Hence Sir John Denham was probably led to write those lines--

"Had Cowley ne'er spoke, Killigrew ne'er writ, Combin'd in one, they'd made a matchless wit."

But, as we know, for at least two generations the Killigrews were all men and women of genius, and were as remarkable, too, for their physical as for their intellectual graces. Killigrew] seems to have been early intended for the court; and to qualify him for rising there, every circumstance of his education appears to have been adapted. In the year 1635, while upon his travels, he chanced to be at London, and an eyewitness of the celebrated imposture of exorcising the devil out of several nuns belonging to a convent in that town. Of this transaction he wrote a very minute and accurate account,[185] still in MS. in the Pepysian Library at Magdalen College, Cambridge. He was appointed page-of-honour to King Charles I., and faithfully adhered to his cause until the death of his master, after which he attended his son in his exile, to whom he was highly acceptable, on account of his social and convivial qualifications. He married Mrs Cicilia Crofts, one of the maids-of-honour to Queen Henrietta. With this lady he had a dispute on the subject of jealousy, at which Thomas Carew was present, and wrote a poem, introduced into the masque of "Coelum Britannicum," and afterwards a copy of verses on their nuptials, printed in his works.[186]

[It appears from the original documents still preserved, that Killigrew was with Prince Charles at Paris in April 1647, and obtained from him a licence to travel, dated April 23. In 1649 he had a grant from James, Duke of York, of the office of Gentleman of the Bed-chamber; and from 1649 to 1652 he was engaged in diplomatic negotiations at Vienna and Florence. His papers, as well as those which he addressed to the Republic of Venice, are extant. Speaking of his mission to Venice], "Although," says Lord Clarendon,[187] "the king was much dissuaded from it, but afterwards his majesty was prevailed upon, only to gratify him (Killigrew) that in that capacity he might borrow money of English merchants for his own subsistence; which he did, and nothing to the honour of his master, but was at last compelled to leave the Republic for his vicious behaviour, of which the Venetian ambassador complained to the king, when he came afterwards to Paris." On his return from Venice, Sir John Denham wrote a copy of verses, printed in his works,[188] bantering the foibles of his friend Killigrew who, from his account, was as little sensible to the inconveniences of exile as his royal master. [But the curious preface to Killigrew's Plays where, under the thin veil of levity, so strong a vein of seriousness seems to be perceptible, tells a different story, perhaps. He wishes the public as much leisure to read his plays as he had to write them--a banishment of twenty years. One of the documents connected with the Killigrews which have come down to us, shows that in 1660 Thomas received the freedom of the city of Maastricht, in Holland. This was perhaps a parting compliment, when he prepared to return to England with his royal companion in exile. At the Restoration] he was appointed Groom of the Bedchamber, and became so great a favourite with his majesty, that he was admitted into his company on terms of the most unrestrained familiarity, and at times when audience was refused to the first ministers, and even on the most important occasions. It does not appear that he availed himself of his interest with the king, either to amass a fortune, or to advance himself in the state. We do not find that he obtained any other preferment than the post of Master of the Revels, which he held with that of Groom of the Bed-chamber. Oldys [very foolishly and absurdly] says he was king's jester at the same time; but although he might, and certainly did entertain his majesty in that capacity, it can scarce be imagined to have been in consequence of any appointment of that kind. He died at Whitehall on the 19th of March 1682,[189] having in 1664 published a collected edition of his plays, viz.:--

1. The Prisoners: a Tragi-Comedy. Written at London, and acted at the Phoenix in Drury Lane.

2. Claracilla: a Tragi-Comedy. Written in Rome, and acted at the Phoenix in Drury Lane. [Dedicated to his dear sister, the Lady Shannon.][190]

3. The Princess; or, Love at First Sight: a Tragi-Comedy. Written in Naples. [Dedicated to his dear Niece, the Lady Anne Wentworth, wife to the Lord Lovelace.]

4. The Parson's Wedding.

5. The Pilgrim: a Tragedy. Written in Paris.

6. The First Part of Cicilia and Clorinda; or, Love in Arms: a Tragi-Comedy. Written in Turin.

7. The Second Part of Cicilia and Clorinda; or, Love in Arms: a Tragi-Comedy. Written in Florence.

8. Thomaso; or the Wanderer: a Comedy. Written in Madrid.

9. The Second Part of Thomaso; or, The Wanderer. Written in Madrid.

10. The First Part of Bellamira, her Dream; or, The Love of Shadows: a Tragi-Comedy. Written in Venice.

11. The Second Part of Bellamira, her Dream; or, The Love of Shadows: a Tragi-Comedy. Written in Venice.

Thomas Killigrew had two brothers, both dramatic writers, viz., Sir William Killigrew,[191] author of Ormasdes, Pandora, Selindra, and The Siege of Urbin;[192] and Dr Henry Killigrew, a clergyman, author of a play called The Conspiracy, printed in 4^o, 1638, and afterwards altered, and printed in folio, 1653, under the title of Pallantus and Eudora.

Dr Henry Killigrew was father to Mrs Ann Killigrew, a young lady celebrated for her wit, beauty, and virtue, and who was the writer of several poems, very highly esteemed by Dryden.

_DRAMATIS PERSONA†._

MASTER CARELESS, _a gentleman and a wit_. MASTER WILD, _a gentleman, nephew to the Widow_. MASTER JOLLY, _a humorous gentleman, and a courtier_. CAPTAIN, _a leading wit, full of designs_. PARSON, _a wit also, but overreached by the Captain and his Wanton_. MASTER CONSTANT, } _two dull suitors to the lady Widow and_ MASTER SAD, } _Mistress Pleasant_. CROP, _the Brownist, a scrivener_. LADY WILD, _a rich (and somewhat youthful) widow_. MISTRESS PLEASANT, _a handsome young gentlewoman, of a good fortune_. MISTRESS SECRET, _her (indifferent honest) woman_. LADY LOVEALL, _an old stallion-hunting widow_. FAITHFUL, _her (errant honest) woman_. MISTRESS WANTON, _the Captain's livery punk, married to the Parson by confederacy_.

_Bawds_, _Servants_, _Drawers_, _Fiddlers_.

THE PARSON'S WEDDING.[193]