For this great favour shall prevent your trouble. The honourable trust that was imposed Upon my weakness, since you witness for me, It was not ill discharged, I will not mention; Nor now, if age had not deprived me of The little strength I had to govern well The province that I undertook, forsake it. Nov. sen. That we could lend you of our years! Du Croy. Or strength!
Nov. sen. Or, as you are, persuade you to con- tinue
The noble exercise of your knowing judgement! Roch. That may not be; nor can your lordships' goodness,
Since your employments have conferred upon me Sufficient wealth, deny the use of it;
And though old age, when one foot is in the grave,
In many, when all humours else are spent, Feeds no affection in them, but desire
To add height to the mountain of their riches; In me it is not so; I rest content
With the honours and estate I now possess. And, that I may have liberty to use, What Heaven, still blessing my poor industry, Hath made me master of, I pray the court To ease me of my burthen; that I may Employ the small remainder of my life In living well, and learning how to die so.
Enter ROMANT and CHARALOIS.
Rom. See, sir, our advocate.
Du Croy. The court intreats
Your lordship will be pleased to name the man, Which you would have your successor, and in me
All promise to confirm it.
Roch. I embrace it
As an assurance of their favour to me,
And name my lord Novall.
Du Croy. The court allows it.
Nov. sen. Speak to the cause. Charmi. I will, my lord. To say, the late dead marshal,
The father of this young lord here, my client, Hath done his country great and faithful service, Might tax me of impertinence, to repeat What your grave lordships cannot but remember: He, in his life, became indebted to
These thrifty men, (I will not wrong their credits, By giving them the attributes they now merit) And failing, by the fortune of the wars, Of means to free himself from his engagements, He was arrested, and for want of bail, Imprisoned at their suit: And not long after With loss of liberty ended his life. And, though it be a maxim in our laws, All suits die with the person, these men's malice In death finds matter for their hate to work on, Denying him the recent rites of burial, Which the sworn enemies of the christian faith Grant freely to their slaves: May it therefore please
Your lordships so to fashion your decree, That, what their cruelty doth forbid, your pity May give allowance to.
Nov. sen. How long have you, sir, practised in
Or the next motion, savouring of this boldness, May force you to leap (against your will) Over the place you plead at.
Charmi. I foresaw this.
Rom. Why, does your lordship think the moving of
A cause, more honest than this court had ever
Roch. But there are suitors wait here, and The honour to determine, can deserve
May be of more necessity to be heard,
And therefore wish that mine may be deferred, And theirs have hearing.
Du Croy. If your lordship please
To take the place, we will proceed. Charmi. The cause
We come to offer to your lordship's censure, Is in itself so noble, that it needs not Or rhetoric in me that plead, or favour From your grave lordships, to determine of it; Since to the praise of your impartial justice (Which guilty, nay, condemned men, dare not scandal)
It will erect a trophy of your mercy Which married to that justice
A check like this?
Nov sen. Strange boldness!
Rom. Tis fit freedom:
Or, do you conclude, an advocate cannot hold His credit with the judge, unless he study
His face more than the cause for which he pleads? Charmi. Forbear!
Rom. Or cannot you, that have the power To qualify the rigour of the laws, When you are pleased, take a little from The strictness of your sour decrees, enacted In favour of the greedy creditor, Against the overthrown debtor?
Nov. sen. Sirrah! you that prate Thus saucily, what are you? Rom. Why, I'll tell you,
Disdain to be put in the scale with thee, Confess myself unworthy to be valued With the least part, nay, hair of the dead mar- shal,
Of whose so many glorious undertakings, Make choice of any one, and that the meanest, Performed against the subtle fox of France, The politic Lewis, or the more desperate Swiss, And 'twill outweigh all the good purpose, Though put in act, that ever gownman practised. No. sen. Away with him to prison! Ro. If that curses,
Urged justly, and breathed forth so, ever fell On those that did deserve them, let not mine spent in vain now, that thou, from this instant, Mavest, in thy fear that they will fall upon thee, Be sensible of the plagues they shall bring with them.
And for denying of a little earth,
To cover what remains of our great soldier, May all your wives prove whores, your factors thieves,
And, while you live, your riotous heirs undo you. And thou, the patron of their cruelty, Of all thy lordships live not to be owner Of so much dung as will conceal a dog, Or, what is worse, thyself in. And thy years, To the end thou mayst be wretched, I wish many; And, as thou hast denied the dead a grave, May misery in thy life make thee desire one, Which men, and all the elements, keep from thee:
I have begun well; imitate; exceed.
Roch. Good counsel, were it a praise-worthy deed:
[Exeunt officers with Romont. Du Croy. Remember what we are. Char. Thus low my duty Answers your lordship's counsel. I will use, In the few words with which I am to trouble Your lordship's ears, the temper that you wish
Not that I fear to speak my thoughts as loud, And with a liberty beyond Romont:
But that I know, for me, that am made up Of all that's wretched, so to haste my end, VOL. I.
Would seem to most rather a willingness To quit the burden of a hopeless life, Than scorn of death, or duty to the dead. I, therefore, bring the tribute of my praise To your severity, and commend the justice, That will not, for the many services
That any man hath done the commonwealth, Wink at his least of ills: What though my father Writ man before he was so, and confirmed it, By numbering that day no part of his life, In which he did not service to his country; Was he to be free therefore from the laws, And ceremonious form in your decrees? Or else, because he did as much as man, In those three memorable overthrows, At Granson, Morat, Nancy, where his master, The warlike Charalois (with whose misfortunes I bear his name) lost treasure, men, and life, To be excused from payment of those sums Which (his own patrimony spent) his zeal To serve his country, forced him to take up? Nov. sen. The precedent were ill. Char. And yet, my lord, thus much
I know you'll grant; after those great defeatures, Which in their dreadful ruins buried quick Enter Officers.
Courage and hope in all men but himself, He forced the proud foe, in his height of con- quest,
To yield unto an honourable peace, And in it saved an hundred thousand lives, To end his own, that was sure proof against The scalding summer's heat, and winter's frost, Ill airs, the cannon, and the enemy's sword, In a most loathsome prison.
Du Croy. Twas his fault To be so prodigal.
Nov, sen. He had from the state Sufficient entertainment for the army.
Char. Sufficient, my lord? You sit at home, And, though your fees are boundless at the bar, Are thrifty in the charges of the warBut your wills be obeyed. To these I turn, To these soft-hearted men, that wisely know They're only good men that pay what they owe. 2 Cred. And so they are.
1 Cred. 'Tis the city doctrine; We stand bound to maintain it.
Char. Be constant in it;
And, since you are as merciless in your natures, As base and mercenary in your means, By which you get your wealth, I will not urge The court to take away one scruple from The right of their laws, or one good thought In you to mend your disposition with. I know there is no music to your ears So pleasing as the groans of men in prison, And that the tears of widows, and the cries Of famished orphans, are the feasts that take
That to be in your danger, with more care F
Should be avoided than infectious air, The loathed embraces of diseased women, A flatterer's poison, or the loss of honour. Yet, rather than my father's reverend dust Shall want a place in that fair monument, In which our noble ancestors lie entombed, Before the court I offer up myself
A prisoner for it. Load me with those irons That have worn out his life: in my best strength I'll run to the encounter of cold hunger,
And chuse my dwelling where no sun dares enter, So he may be released.
1 Cred. What mean you, sir?
It is not now to be disputed; therefore To my own cause. Already I have found Your lordships bountiful in your favours to me: And that should teach my modesty to end here, And press your loves no farther.
Du Croy. There is nothing
The court can grant, but with assurance you May ask it, and obtain it.
Roch. You encourage a bold petitioner, and 'tis not fit
Your favours should be lost. Besides, it has been A custom many years, at the surrendering The place I now give up, to grant the president
2 Advo. Only your fee again: There's so much One boon that parted with it. And, to confirm
Already in this cause, and said so well, That, should I only offer to speak in it,
I should not be heard, or laughed at for it.
1 Cred. 'Tis the first money advocate e'er gave back,
'Though he said nothing.
Roch. Be advised, young lord,
And well considerate; you throw away Your liberty and joys of life together: Your bounty is employed upon a subject
That is not sensible of it, with which a wise man Never abused his goodness; the great virtues Of your dead father vindicate themselves
From these men's malice, and break ope the prison, Though it contain his body.
Nov. sen. Let him alone:
Your grace towards me, against all such as may Detract my actions and life hereafter, I now prefer it to you.
Du Croy. Speak it freely.
Roch. I then desire the liberty of Romont, And that my lord Novall, whose private wrong Was equal to the injury that was done
To the dignity of the court, will pardon it, And now sign his enlargement.
Nov. sen. Pray you demand
The moiety of my estate, or any thing Within my power but this.
Roch. Am I denied then-my first and last re- quest?
Du Croy. It must not be.
2 Pre. I have a voice to give in it.
If he love cords, a God's name, let him wear them, And, if persuasion will not work him to it,
Provided these consent.
Char. I hope they are not
So ignorant in any way of profit,
As to neglect a possibility
To get their own, by seeking it from that Which can return them nothing but ill fame, And curses for their barbarous cruelties.
3 Cred. What think you of the offer? 2 Cred. Very well.
1 Cred. Accept it by all means: Let us shut
He is well shaped, and has a villainous tongue, And, should he study that way of revenge, As I dare almost swear he loves a wench, We have no wives, nor ever shall get daughters, That will hold out against him.
Du Croy. What's your answer? 2 Cred. Speak you for all.
1 Cred. Why, let our executions, That lie upon the father, be returned Upon the son, and we release the body.
Nov. sen. The court must grant you that. Char. I thank your lordships;
They have in it confirmed on me such glory, As no time can take from me. I am ready: Come, lead me where you please: Captivity, That comes with honour, is true liberty.
[Exit Charalois, Creditors, and Officers. Nov. sen. Strange rashness. Roch. A brave resolution rather, Worthy a better fortune: but, however,
We will make known our power.
Nov sen. You are too violent;
You shall have my consent. But would you had Made trial of my love in any thing
But this, you should have found then-But it skills not.
You have what you desire.
Roch. I thank your lordships.
Du Croy. The court is up-Make way. [Exeunt all but Rochfort and Beaumont. Roch. I follow you-Beaumont ! Beaum. My lord?
Roch. You are a scholar, Beaumont,
And can search deeper into the intents of men, Than those that are less knowing. How appeared The piety and brave behaviour of Young Charalois to you?
Beaum. It is my wonder,
Since I want language to express it fully; And sure the colonel-
Roch. Fie! he was faulty.-What present money have I?
Beaum. There is no want
Of any sum a private man has use for.
I am strangely taken with this Charalois; Methinks, from his example, the whole age Should learn to be good, and continue so. Virtue works strangely with us; and his goodness, Rising above his fortune, seems to me,
Prince-like, to will, not ask a courtesy. [Exeunt.
Enter PONTALIER, MALOTIN and BEAUMONT.
Malot. 'Tis strange. Beaum. Methinks so.
Pont. In a man but young,
Yet old in judgment; theorick and practick, In all humanity, and (to increase the wonder) Religious, yet a soldier, that he should Yield his free-living youth a captive, for The freedom of his aged father's corpse, And rather chuse to want life's necessaries, Liberty, hope of fortune, than it should In death be kept from christian ceremony. Malot. Come, 'tis a golden precedent in a son To let strong Nature have the better hand, (In such a case) of all affected reason. What years sit on this Charalois ?
For since the clock did strike him seventeen old, Under his father's wing this son hath fought, Served and commanded, and so aptly both, That sometimes he appeared his father's father, And never less than his son; the old man's virtues So recent in him as the world may swear, Nought but a fair tree could such fair fruit bear. Pont. But wherefore lets he such a barbarous law,
And men more barbarous to execute it, Prevail on his soft disposition,
That he had rather die alive for debt
Of the old man in prison, than they should Rob him of sepulture, considering These monies borrowed bought the lenders peace, And all their means they enjoy, nor was diffused In any impious or licentious path?
Beaum. True! for my part, were it my father's trunk,
The tyrannous ram-heads with their horns should gore it,
Or cast it to their curs, than they less currish, Ere prey on me so, with their lion-law, Being in my free will (as in his) to shun it.
Enter funeral. The body borne by four. Captains and soldiers, mourners, 'scutcheons, &c. in very good order. CHARALOIS and ROMONT meet it. Charalois speaks. Romont weeping. Solemn musick. Three creditors.
Char. How like a silent stream shaded with night,
And gliding softly with our windy sighs, Moves the whole frame of this solemnity: Tears, sighs and blacks filling the simile! Whilst I, the only murmur in this grove
Of death, thus hollowly break forth!--Vouchsafe To stay awhile.-Rest, rest in peace, dear earth! Thou that broughtest rest to their unthankful lives,
Whose cruelty denied thee rest in death: Here stands thy poor executor, thy son, That makes his life prisoner to bail thy death: Who gladlier puts on this captivity, Than virgins, long in love, their wedding weeds: Of all that ever thou hast done good to, These only have good memories; for they Remember best, forget not gratitude.
I thank you for this last and friendly love; And though this country, like a viperous mother, Not only hath eat up ungratefully All means of thee her son, but last thyself, Leaving thy heir so bare and indigent, He cannot raise thee a poor monument, Such as a flatterer or an usurer hath, Thy worth, in every honest breast, builds one, Making their friendly hearts thy funeral stone.
Be these thy body's balm: These and thy virtue Keep thy fame ever odoriferous,
Pont. Alas! he knows himself in poverty lost : Whilst the great proud, rich, undeserving man,
For in this partial avaricious age
What price bears honour? virtue? Long ago It was but praised and freezed, but now-a-days Tis colder far, and has nor love nor praise; Very praise now freezeth too: For nature Did make the heathen far more christian then, Than knowledge us (less heathenish) christian. Malot. This morning is the funeral. Pont. Certainly.
And from this prison 'twas the son's request, That his dear father might interment have. [Recorders Music.
See the young son enters alive the grave. Beaum. They come Observe their order.
1 Cred. Would they so? We'll keep them to stop bottles then. Rom. No, keep them for your own sins, you
Till you repent; you'll die else, and be damned. 2 Cred. Damned, ha! ha! ha!
2 Cred. Yes, faith, sir; we would be very glad To please you either way.
1 Cred. You are never content,
Crying nor laughing.
Rom. Both with a birth, ye rogues. 2 Cred. Our wives, sir, taught us.
Rom. Look, look, you slaves! your thankless cruelty,
And savage manners of unkind Dijon, Exhaust these floods, and not his father's death. 1 Cred. 'Slid,,sir! what would you, you're so cholerick!
2 Cred. Most soldiers are so, in faith.-Let him alone.
They've little else to live on; we have not had A penny of him, have we?
3 Cred. 'Slight, would you have our hearts? 1 Cred. We have nothing but his body here in durance,
For all our money.
Priest. On.
Char. One moment more,
But to bestow a few poor legacies,
All I have left in my dead father's right,
Charm bulls, bears, and men more savage,to be mutè. Weak foolish singer, here is one Would have transformed thyself to stone.
1 Cred. No farther! look to them at your own peril.
2 Cred. No, as they please :-Their master's a good man.
I would they were at the Bermudas.
Jailor. You must no farther.—— The prison limits you, and the creditors Exact the strictness.
Rom. Out, you wolfish mongrels! Whose brains should be knocked out, like dogs in July,
Lest your infection poison a whole town.
Char. They grudge our sorrow. Your ill wills,
Turn now to charity: They would not have us Walk too far mourning; usurers relief Grieves if the debtors have too much of grief. [Exeunt.
Enter BEAUMELLE, FLORIMEL, and BELLAPERT, on one side, and NovALL, jun. PONTALIER, MALOTIN, LILADAM, and AYMER, on the other. Nov. jun. Best day to nature's curiosity, Star of Dijon, the lustre of all France! Perpetual spring dwell on thy rosy cheeks, Whose breath is perfume to our continent;
And I have done. Captain, wear thou these See Flora trimmed in her varieties.
That yet ne'er made his horse run from a foe. Lieutenant, thou this scarf; and may it tie Thy valour and thy honesty together: For so it did in him. Ensign, this cuirass, Your general's necklace once. You gentle bearers, Divide this purse of gold: This other strew Among the poor.-Tis all I have. Romont, Wear thou this medal of himself, that like A hearty oak, grew'st close to this tall pine, (E'en in the wildest wilderness of war) Whercon foes broke their swords, and tired them- selves;
Wounded and hacked ye were, but never felled. For me, my portion provide in heaven: My root is earthed, and I, a desolate branch, Left scattered in the highway of the world; Trod under foot, that might have been a column Mainly supporting our demolished house, This would I wear as my inheritance. And what hope can arise to me from it, When I and it are here both prisoners? Only may this, if ever we be free, Keep or redeem me from all infamy.
Though you hear Orpheus, with his ivory lute, Move trees and rocks,
Nov. jun. No autumn nor no age ever ap- proach
This heavenly piece, which nature having wrought, She lost her needle, and did then despair Ever to work so lively and so fair.
Lilad. Uds-light, my lord, one of the purls of your band
Is, without all discipline, fallen out of his rank. Nov. jun. How? I would not for a thousand crowns she had seen it. Dear Liladam, reform it.
Bella. Oh lord! Per se, lord! Quintessence of honour! she walks not under a weed that could deny thee any thing.
Beaumel. Prythee peace, wench! thou dost but blow the fire that flames too much already.
[Liladam and Aymer trim Novall, whilst Bellapert her lady.
Aymer. By gad, my lord, you have the divinest taylor in Christendom; he hath made you look like an angel in your cloth of tissue doublet.
Pont. This is a three-legged lord: There is a fresh assault. Oh! that men should spend time thus!--See, see how her blood drives to her heart, and strait vaults to her cheeks again.
Malot. What are these?
Pont. One of them there, the lower, is a good, foolish, knavish, sociable gallimaufry of a man, and has much caught my lord with singing; he is master of a music house. The other is his dres
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