ACT II. SCENE I.

_Enter_ ISABINDA, _and_ HARMAN _Junior._

_Isab._ This to me, from you, against your friend!

_Har. Jun._ Have I not eyes? are you not fair? Why does it seem so strange?

_Isab._ Come, it is a plot betwixt you: My Englishman is jealous, and has sent you to try my faith: he might have spared the experiment, after a three years absence; that was a proof sufficient of my constancy.

_Har. Jun._ I heard him say he never had returned, but that his masters of the East India company preferred him large conditions.

_Isab._ You do bely him basely.

_Har. Jun._ As much as I do you, in saying you are fair; or as I do myself, when I declare I die for you.

_Isab._ If this be earnest, you have done a most unmanly and ungrateful part, to court the intended wife of him, to whom you are most obliged.

_Har. Jun._ Leave me to answer that: Assure yourself I love you violently, and, if you are wise, you will make some difference betwixt Towerson and me.

_Isab._ Yes, I shall make a difference, but not to your advantage.

_Har. Jun._ You must, or falsify your knowledge; an Englishman, part captain, and part merchant; his nation of declining interest here: Consider this, and weigh against that fellow, not me, but any, the least and meanest Dutchman in this isle.

_Isab._ I do not weigh by bulk: I know your countrymen have the advantage there.

_Har. Jun._ Hold back your hand, from firming of your faith; you will thank me in a little time, for staying you so kindly from embarking in his ruin.

_Isab._ His fortune is not so contemptible as you would make it seem.

_Har. Jun._ Wait but one month for the event.

_Isab._ I will not wait one day, though I were sure to sink with him the next: So well I love my Towerson, I will not lose another sun, for fear he should not rise to-morrow. For yourself, pray rest assured, of all mankind, you should not be my choice, after an act of such ingratitude.

_Har. Jun._ You may repent your scorn at leisure.

_Isab._ Never, unless I married you.

_Enter_ TOWERSON.

_Tow._ Now, my dear Isabinda, I dare pronounce myself most happy: Since I have gained your kindred, all difficulties cease.

_Isab._ I wish we find it so.

_Tow._ Why, is aught happened since I saw you last? Methinks a sadness dwells upon your brow, like that I saw before my last long absence. You do not speak: My friend dumb too? Nay then, I fear some more than ordinary cause produces this.

_Har. Jun._ You have no reason, Towerson, to be sad; you are the happy man.

_Tow._ If I have any, you must needs have some.

_Har. Jun._ No, you are loved, and I am bid despair.

_Tow._ Time and your services will perhaps make you as happy, as I am in my Isabinda's love.

_Har. Jun._ I thought I spoke so plain, I might be understood; but since I did not, I must tell you, Towerson, I wear the title of your friend no longer, because I am your rival.

_Tow._ Is this true, Isabinda?

_Isab._ I should not, I confess, have told you first, because I would not give you that disquiet; but since he has, it is too sad a truth.

_Tow._ Leave us, my dear, a little to ourselves.

_Isab._ I fear you will quarrel, for he seemed incensed, and threatened you with ruin. [_To him aside._

_Tow._ 'Tis to prevent an ill, which may be fatal to us both, that I would speak with him.

_Isab._ Swear to me, by your love, you will not fight.

_Tow._ Fear not, my Isabinda; things are not grown to that extremity.

_Isab._ I leave you, but I doubt the consequence. [_Exit_ ISAB.

_Tow._ I want a name to call you by; friend, you declare you are not, and to rival, I am not yet enough accustomed.

_Har. Jun._ Now I consider on it, it shall be yet in your free choice, to call me one or other; for, Towerson, I do not decline your friendship, but then yield Isabinda to me.

_Tow._ Yield Isabinda to you?

_Har. Jun._ Yes, and preserve the blessing of my friendship; I'll make my father yours; your factories shall be no more oppressed, but thrive in all advantages with ours; your gain shall be beyond what you could hope for from the treaty: In all the traffic of these eastern parts, ye shall--

_Tow._ Hold! you mistake me, Harman, I never gave you just occasion to think I would make merchandize of love; Isabinda, you know, is mine, contracted to me ere I went for England, and must be so till death.

_Har. Jun._ She must not, Towerson; you know you are not strongest in these parts, and it will be ill contesting with your masters.

_Tow._ Our masters? Harman, you durst not once have named that word, in any part of Europe.

_Har. Jun._ Here I both dare and will; you have no castles in Amboyna.

_Tow._ Though we have not, we yet have English hearts, and courages not to endure affronts.

_Har. Jun._ They may be tried.

_Tow._ Your father sure will not maintain you in this insolence; I know he is too honest.

_Har. Jun._ Assure yourself he will espouse my quarrel.

_Tow._ We would complain to England.

_Har. Jun._ Your countrymen have tried that course so often, methinks they should grow wiser, and desist: But now there is no need of troubling any others but ourselves; the sum of all is this, you either must resign me Isabinda, or instantly resolve to clear your title to her by your sword.

_Tow._ I will do neither now.

_Har. Jun._ Then I'll believe you dare not fight me fairly.

_Tow._ You know I durst have fought, though I am not vain enough to boast it, nor would upbraid you with remembrance of it.

_Har. Jun._ You destroy your benefit with rehearsal of it; but that was in a ship, backed by your men; single duel is a fairer trial of your courage.

_Tow._ I'm not to be provoked out of my temper: Here I am a public person, entrusted by my king and my employers, and should I kill you, Harman--

_Har. Jun._ Oh never think you can, sir.

_Tow._ I should betray my countrymen to suffer, not only worse indignities than those they have already borne, but, for aught I know, might give them up to general imprisonment, perhaps betray them to a massacre.

_Har. Jun._ These are but pitiful and weak excuses; I'll force you to confess you dare not fight; you shall have provocations.

_Tow._ I will not stay to take them. Only this before I go; if you are truly gallant, insult not where you have power, but keep your quarrel secret; we may have time and place out of this island: Meanwhile, I go to marry Isabinda, that you shall see I dare.--No more, follow me not an inch beyond this place, no not an inch. Adieu. [_Exit_ TOWERSON.

_Har. Jun._ Thou goest to thy grave, or I to mine. [_Is going after him._

_Enter_ FISCAL.

_Fisc._ Whither so fast, mynheer?

_Har. Jun._ After that English dog, whom I believe you saw.

_Fisc._ Whom, Towerson?

_Har. Jun._ Yes, let me go, I'll have his blood.

_Fisc._ Let me advise you first; you young men are so violently hot.

_Har. Jun._ I say I'll have his blood.

_Fisc._ To have his blood is not amiss, so far I go with you; but take me with you further for the means: First, what's the injury?

_Har. Jun._ Not to detain you with a tedious story, I love his mistress, courted her, was slighted; into the heat of this he came; I offered him the best advantages he could or to himself propose, or to his nation, would he quit her love.

_Fisc._ So far you are prudent, for she is exceeding rich.

_Har. Jun._ He refused all; then I threatened him with my father's power.

_Fisc._ That was unwisely done; your father, underhand, may do a mischief, but it is too gross aboveboard.

_Har. Jun._ At last, nought else prevailing, I defied him to single duel; this he refused, and I believe it was fear.

_Fisc._ No, no, mistake him not, it is a stout whoreson. You did ill to press him, it will not sound well in Europe; he being here a public minister, having no means of 'scaping should he kill you, besides exposing all his countrymen to a revenge.

_Har. Jun._ That's all one; I'm resolved I will pursue my course, and fight him.

_Fisc._ Pursue your end, that's to enjoy the woman and her wealth; I would, like you, have Towerson despatched,--for, as I am a true Dutchman, I do hate him,--but I would convey him smoothly out of the world, and without noise; they will say we are ungrateful else in England, and barbarously cruel; now I could swallow down the _thing_ ingratitude and the _thing_ murder, but the names are odious.

_Har. Jun._ What would you have me do then?

_Fisc._ Let him enjoy his love a little while, it will break no squares in the long run of a man's life; you shall have enough of her, and in convenient time.

_Har. Jun._ I cannot bear he should enjoy her first; no, it is determined; I will kill him bravely.

_Fisc._ Ay, a right young man's bravery, that's folly: Let me alone, something I'll put in practice, to rid you of this rival ere he marries, without your once appearing in it.

_Har. Jun._ If I durst trust you now?

_Fisc._ If you believe that I have wit, or love you.

_Har. Jun._ Well, sir, you have prevailed; be speedy, for once I will rely on you. Farewell. [_Exit_ HARMAN.

_Fisc._ This hopeful business will be quickly spoiled, if I not take exceeding care of it.--Stay,--Towerson to be killed, and privately, that must be laid down as the groundwork, for stronger reasons than a young man's passion; but who shall do it? No Englishman will, and much I fear, no Dutchman dares attempt it.

_Enter_ PEREZ.

Well said, in faith, old Devil! Let thee alone, when once a man is plotting villany, to find him a fit instrument. This Spanish captain, who commands our slaves, is bold enough, and is beside in want, and proud enough to think he merits wealth.

_Per._ This Fiscal loves my wife; I am jealous of him, and yet must speak him fair to get my pay; O, there is the devil for a Castilian, to stoop to one of his own master's rebels, who has, or who designs to cuckold him.--[_Aside._]--[_To_ FISCAL.] I come to kiss your hand again, sir; six months I am in arrear; I must not starve, and Spaniards cannot beg.

_Fisc._ I have been a better friend to you, than perhaps you think, captain.

_Per._ I fear you have indeed. [_Aside._

_Fisc._ And faithfully solicited your business; send but your wife to-morrow morning early, the money shall be ready.

_Per._ What if I come myself?

_Fisc._ Why ye may have it, if you come yourself, captain; but in case your occasions should call you any other way, you dare trust her to receive it.

_Per._ She has no skill in money.

_Fisc._ It shall be told into her hand, or given her upon honour, in a lump: but, captain, you were saying you did want; now I should think three hundred doubloons would do you no great harm; they will serve to make you merry on the watch.

_Per._ Must they be told into my wife's hand, too?

_Fisc._ No, those you may receive yourself, if you dare merit them.

_Per._ I am a Spaniard, sir; that implies honour: I dare all that is possible.

_Fisc._ Then you dare kill a man.

_Per._ So it be fairly.

_Fisc._ But what if he will not be so civil to be killed that way? He is a sturdy fellow, I know you stout, and do not question your valour; but I would make sure work, and not endanger you, who are my friend.

_Per._ I fear the governor will execute me.

_Fisc._ The governor will thank you; 'Tis he shall be your pay-master; you shall have your pardon drawn up beforehand; and remember, no transitory sum, three hundred quadruples in your own country gold.

_Per._ Well, name your man.

_Enter_ JULIA.

_Fisc._ Your wife comes, take it in whisper. [_They whisper._

_Jul._ Yonder is my master, and my Dutch servant; how lovingly they talk in private! if I did not know my Don's temper to be monstrously jealous, I should think, they were driving a secret bargain for my body; but _cuerpo_ is not to be digested by my Castilian. _Mi Moher_, my wife, and my mistress! he lays the emphasis on me, as if to cuckold him were a worse sin, than breaking the commandment. If my English lover, Beamont, my Dutch love, the Fiscal, and my Spanish husband, were painted in a piece, with me amongst them, they would make a pretty emblem of the two nations that cuckold his Catholic majesty in his Indies.

_Fisc._ You will undertake it then?

_Per._ I have served under Towerson as his lieutenant, served him well, and, though I say it, bravely; yet never have been rewarded, though he promised largely; 'tis resolved, I'll do it.

_Fisc._ And swear secresy?

_Per._ By this beard.

_Fisc._ Go wait upon the governor from me, confer with him about it in my name, this seal will give you credit. [_Gives him his seal._

_Per._ I go. [_Goes a step or two, while the other approaches his wife._] What shall I be, before I come again? [_Exit._

_Fisc._ Now, my fair mistress, we shall have the opportunity which I have long desired. [_To_ JULIA.

_Per._ The governor is now a-sleeping; this is his hour of afternoon's repose, I'll go when he is awake. [_Returning._

_Fisc._ He slept early this afternoon; I left him newly waked.

_Per._ Well, I go then, but with an aching heart. [_Exit._

_Fisc._ So, at length he's gone.

_Jul._ But you may find he was jealous, by his delay.

_Fisc._ If I were as you, I would give evident proofs, should cure him of that disease for ever after.

_Enter_ PEREZ _again._

_Per._ I have considered on't, and if you would go along with me to the governor, it would do much better.

_Fisc._ No, no, that would make the matter more suspicious. The devil take thee for an impertinent cuckold! [_Aside._

_Per._ Well, I must go then. [_Exit_ PEREZ.

_Jul._ Nay, there was never the like of him; but it shall not serve his turn, we'll cuckold him most furiously.

_Enter_ PEREZ _again._

_Per._ I had forgot one thing; dear sweet-heart, go home quickly, and oversee our business; it won't go forward without one of us.

_Fisc._ I warrant you, take no care of your business; leave it to me, I'll put it forward in your absence: Go, go, you'll lose your opportunity; I'll be at home before you, and sup with you to-night.

_Per._ You shall be welcome, but--

_Fisc._ Three hundred quadruples.

_Per._ That's true, but--

_Fisc._ But three hundred quadruples.

_Per._ The devil take the quadruples!

_Enter_ BEAMONT.

_Beam._ There's my cuckold that must be, and my fellow swaggerer, the Dutchman, with my mistress: my nose is wiped to-day; I must retire, for the Spaniard is jealous of me.

_Per._ Oh, Mr Beamont, I'm to ask a favour of you.

_Beam._ This is unusual; pray command it, signior.

_Per._ I am going upon urgent business; pray sup with me to-night, and, in the meantime, bear my worthy friend here company.

_Beam._ With all my heart.

_Per._ So, now I am secure; though I dare not trust her with one of them, I may with both; they'll hinder one another, and preserve my honour into the bargain. [_Exit._

_Beam._ Now, Mr Fiscal, you are the happy man with the ladies, and have got the precedence of traffic here too; you've the Indies in your arms, yet I hope a poor Englishman may come in for a third part of the merchandise.

_Fisc._ Oh, sir, in these commodities, here's enough for both; here's mace for you, and nutmeg for me, in the same fruit, and yet the owner has to spare for other friends too.

_Jul._ My husband's plantation is like to thrive well betwixt you.

_Beam._ Horn him; he deserves not so much happiness as he enjoys in you; he's jealous.

_Jul._ 'Tis no wonder if a Spaniard looks yellow.

_Beam._ Betwixt you and me, 'tis a little kind of venture that we make, in doing this Don's drudgery for him; for the whole nation of them is generally so pocky, that 'tis no longer a disease, but a second nature in them.

_Fisc._ I have heard indeed, that 'tis incorporated among them, as deeply as the Moors and Jews are; there's scarce a family, but 'tis crept into their blood, like the new Christians.

_Jul._ Come, I'll have no whispering betwixt you; I know you were talking of my husband, because my nose itches.

_Beam._ Faith, madam, I was speaking in favour of your nation: What pleasant lives I have known Spaniards to live in England.

_Jul._ If you love me, let me hear a little.

_Beam._ We observed them to have much of the nature of our flies; they buzzed abroad a month or two in the summer, would venture about dog-days to take the air in the Park, but all the winter slept like dormice; and, if they ever appeared in public after Michaelmas, their faces shewed the difference betwixt their country and ours, for they look in Spain as if they were roasted, and in England as if they were sodden.

_Jul._ I'll not believe your description.

_Fisc._ Yet our observations of them in Holland are not much unlike it. I've known a great Don at the Hague, with the gentleman of his horse, his major domo, and two secretaries, all dine at four tables, on the quarters of a single pullet: The victuals of the under servants were weighed out in ounces, by the Don himself; with so much garlic in the other scale: A thin slice of bacon went through the family a week together; for it was daily put into the pot for pottage; was served in the midst of the dish at dinners, and taken out and weighed by the steward, at the end of every meal, to see how much it lost; till, at length, looking at it against the sun, it appeared transparent, and then he would have whipped it up, as his own fees, at a morsel; but that his lord barred the dice, and reckoned it to him for a part of his board wages.

_Beam._ In few words, madam, the general notion we had of them, was, that they were very frugal of their Spanish coin, and very liberal of their Neapolitan.

_Jul._ I see, gentlemen, you are in the way of rallying; therefore let me be no hinderance to your sport; do as much for one another as you have done for our nation. Pray, Mynheer Fiscal, what think you of the English?

_Fisc._ Oh, I have an honour for the country.

_Beam._ I beseech you, leave your ceremony; we can hear of our faults without choler; therefore speak of us with a true Amsterdam spirit, and do not spare us.

_Fisc._ Since you command me, sir, 'tis said of you, I know not how truly, that for your fishery at home, you're like dogs in the manger, you will neither manage it yourselves, nor permit your neighbours; so that for your sovereignty of the narrow seas, if the inhabitants of them, the herrings, were capable of being judges, they would certainly award it to the English, because they were then sure to live undisturbed, and quiet under you.

_Beam._ Very good; proceed, sir.

_Fisc._ 'Tis true, you gave us aid in our time of need, but you paid yourselves with our cautionary towns: And, that you have since delivered them up, we can never give sufficient commendation, either to your honesty, or to your wit; for both which qualities you have purchased such an immortal fame, that all nations are instructed how to deal with you another time.

_Beam._ A most grateful acknowledgment; sweet sir, go on.

_Fisc._ For your trade abroad, if you should obtain it, you are so horribly expensive, that you would undo yourselves and all Christendom; for you would sink under your very profit, and the gains of the universal world would beggar you: You devour a voyage to the Indies, by the multitude of mouths with which you man your vessels: Providence has contrived it well, that the Indies are managed by us, an industrious and frugal people, who distribute its merchandise to the rest of Europe, and suffer it not to be consumed in England, that the other members might be starved, while you of Great Britain, as you call it, like a rickety head, would only swell and grow bigger by it.

_Jul._ I have heard enough of England; have you nothing to return upon the Netherlands?

_Beam._ Faith, very little to any purpose; he has been beforehand with us, as his countrymen are in their trade, and taken up so many vices for the use of England, that he has left almost none for the Low Countries.

_Jul._ Come, a word, however.

_Beam._ In the first place, you shewed your ambition when you began to be a state: For not being gentlemen, you have stolen the arms of the best families of Europe; and wanting a name, you made bold with the first of the divine attributes, and called yourselves the High and Mighty: though, let me tell you, that, besides the blasphemy, the title is ridiculous; for High is no more proper for the Netherlands, than Mighty is for seven little rascally provinces, no bigger in all than a shire in England. For my main theme, your ingratitude, you have in part acknowledged it, by your laughing at our easy delivery of your cautionary towns: The best is, we are used by you as well as your own princes of the house of Orange: We and they have set you up, and you undermine their power, and circumvent our trade.

_Fisc._ And good reason, if our interest requires it.

_Beam._ That leads me to your religion, which is only made up of interest: At home, you tolerate all worships in them who can pay for it; and abroad, you were lately so civil to the emperor of Pegu, as to do open sacrifice to his idols.

_Fisc._ Yes, and by the same token, you English were such precise fools as to refuse it.

_Beam._ For frugality in trading, we confess we cannot compare with you; for our merchants live like noblemen; your gentlemen, if you have any, live like boors. You traffic for all the rarities of the world, and dare use none of them yourselves; so that, in effect, you are the mill-horses of mankind, that labour only for the wretched provender you eat: A pot of butter and a pickled herring is all your riches; and, in short, you have a good title to cheat all Europe, because, in the first place, you cozen your own backs and bellies.

_Fisc._ We may enjoy more whenever we please.

_Beam._ Your liberty is a grosser cheat than any of the rest; for you are ten times more taxed than any people in Christendom: You never keep any league with foreign princes; you flatter our kings, and ruin their subjects; you never denied us satisfaction at home for injuries, nor ever gave it us abroad.

_Fisc._ You must make yourselves more feared, when you expect it.

_Beam._ And I prophecy that time will come, when some generous monarch of our island will undertake our quarrel, reassume the fishery of our seas, and make them as considerable to the English, as the Indies are to you.

_Fisc._ Before that comes to pass, you may repent your over-lavish tongue.

_Beam._ I was no more in earnest than you were.

_Jul._ Pray let this go no further; my husband has invited both to supper.

_Beam._ If you please, I'll fall to before he comes; or, at least, while he is conferring in private with the Fiscal. [_Aside to her._

_Jul._ Their private businesses let them agree; The Dutch for him, the Englishman for me. [_Exeunt._