A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Xi Part 87

LEL. But were't not better, Cricca, Keep him fast lock'd, till his own shape return; And so by open course of law correct him.

CRI. No. For my master would conceive that counsel Sprung from my brains, and so should I repent it.

Advise no more, but home, and charge your people That, if Antonio come, they drive him thence With threat'ning words--and blows, if need be.

LEL. 'Tis done.

I kiss your hands, Eugenio.

EUG. Your servant, sir. [_Exit_ LELIO.

SCENE VIII.

EUGENIO, CRICCA, FLAVIA.

EUG. Cricca, commend my service to my mistress.

CRI. Commend it to her yourself. Mark'd you not, while We talk'd, how through the window she attended, And fed her eyes on you? there she is.

EUG. 'Tis true: And, as from nights of storms the glorious sun Breaks from the east, and chaseth thence the clouds That chok'd the air with horror, so her beauty Dispels sad darkness from my troubled thoughts, And clears my heart.

FLA. Life of my soul, well met.

EUG. How is't, my dearest Flavia?

FLA. Eugenio, As best becomes a woman most unfortunate-- That, having lov'd so long, and been persuaded Her chaste affection was by yours requited, Have by delays been famish'd. Had I conceal'd Those flames your virtue kindled, then y' had sued, Entreated, sworn, and vow'd, and, long ere this, Wrought all means possible to effect our marriage.

But now----

EUG. Sweet soul, despair not; weep not thus, Unless you wish my heart should lifeblood drop, Fast as your eyes do tears. What is't you fear?

FLA. First, that you love me not.

EUG. Not love my Flavia!

Wrong not your judgment: rip up this amorous breast, And in that temple see a heart that burns I' th' vestal sacrifice of chastest love Before your beauty's deity.

FLA. If so, Whence grows this coldness in soliciting My brother to the match?

EUG. Consider, sweetest, I have a father, rival in my love; And though no duty, reverence, nor respect, Have power to change my thoughts; yet 'tis not comely With open violence to withstand his will; But by fair courses try to divert his mind[304]

From disproportioned affections.

And if I cannot, then nor fear of anger, Nor life, nor lands, shall cross our purposes.

Comfort yourself, sweet Flavia; for your brother Seconds our hopes with his best services.

FLA. But other fears oppress me: methinks I see Antonio, my old father, new-return'd, Whom all intelligence gave drown'd this three months,[305]

Enforcing me to marry th' fool Pandolfo, Thus to obtain Sulpitia for himself; And so last night I dream'd, and ever since Have been so scar'd, that, if you haste[n] not, Expect my death.

EUG. Dreams flow from thoughts of things we most desire Or fear; and seldom prove true prophets; would they did!

Then were I now in full possession Of my best Flavia, as I hope I shall be.

CRI. Sir, pray take your leave: this is to no end, 'Twill but increase your grief and hers.

EUG. Farewell, Sweet Flavia; rest contented with a.s.surance Of my best love and service.

FLA. Farewell, Eugenio. [_Exeunt_ EUGENIO _and_ CRICCA.

SCENE IX.

SULPITIA, FLAVIA.

SUL. Flavia, I kiss your hands.

FLA. Sulpitia, I pray you pardon me; I saw you not.

SUL. I' faith, you have Some fixed thoughts draw your eyes inward, When you see not your friends before you.

FLA. True; and, I think, the same that trouble you.

SUL. Then 'tis the love of a young gentleman, And bitter hatred of an old dotard.

FLA. 'Tis so. Witness your brother Eugenio, and the rotten carcase of Pandolfo. Had I a hundred hearts, I should want room to entertain his love and the other's hate.

SUL. I could say as much, were't not sin to slander the dead. Miserable wenches! How have we offended our fathers, that they should make us the price of their dotage, the medicines of their griefs, that have more need of physic ourselves? I must be frostbitten with the cold of your dad's winter, that mine may thaw his old ice with the spring of your sixteen. I thank my dead mother, that left me a woman's will in her last testament. That's all the weapons we poor girls can use, and with that will I fight 'gainst father, friends, and kindred, and either enjoy Lelio, or die in the field in his quarrel.

FLA. Sulpitia, you are happy that can withstand your fortune with so merry a resolution.

SUL. Why should I twine mine arms to cables,[306] and sigh my soul to air? Sit up all night like a watching-candle,[307] and distil my brains through my eyelids. Your brother loves me, and I love your brother; and where these two consent, I would fain see a third to hinder us.

FLA. Alas! our s.e.x is most wretched, nursed up from infancy in continual slavery. No sooner able to prey for ourselves, but they brail and hud us[308] so with sour awe of parents, that we dare not offer to bate[309]

at our own desires. And whereas it becomes men to vent their amorous pa.s.sions at their pleasure, we (poor souls) must rake up our affections in the ashes of a burnt heart, not daring to sigh without excuse of the spleen or fit of the mother.

SUL. I plainly will profess my love of Lelio. 'Tis honest, chaste, and stains not modesty. Shall I be married to Antonio, that hath been a soused sea-fish these three months? And if he be alive, comes home with as many impairs as a hunting gelding or a fallen pack-horse. No, no; I'll see him freeze to crystal first. In other things, good father, I am your most obedient daughter, but in this a pure woman. 'Tis your part to offer--mine to refuse, if I like not. Lelio's a handsome gentleman, young, fresh, rich, and well-fashioned; and him will Sulpitia have, or die a maid. And, i' faith, the temper of my blood tells me I never was born to so cold a misfortune. Fie, Flavia! fie, wench! [labour] no more with tears and sighs; cheer up. Eugenio, to my knowledge, loves you, and you shall have him; I say, you shall have him.

FLA. I doubt not of his love, but know no means how he dares work against so great a rival. Your father, in a spleen, may disinherit him.

SUL. And give't to whom? H' has none but him and me. What though he doat awhile upon your beauty, he will not prove unnatural to his son. Go to your chamber. My genius whispers in my ear, and swears this night we shall enjoy our loves, and with that hope farewell.

FLA. Farewell, Sulpitia. [_Exeunt._

FOOTNOTES:

[272] See note to "Green's Tu quoque," p. 200.

[273] Two playhouses. The _Fortune_ belonged to the celebrated Edward Alleyn, and stood in Whitecross Street. The _Red Bull_ was situated in St John Street.

[274] This alludes to the fashion then much followed, of wearing bands washed and dyed with _yellow starch_. The inventress of them was Mrs Turner, a woman of an infamous character; who, being concerned in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, was executed at Tyburn in a lawn ruff of her favourite colour. "With her," says Howell, in his "Letters," p.

19, edit. 1754, "I believe that yellow starch, which so much disfigured our nation, and rendered them so ridiculous and fantastic, will receive its funeral." And of the same opinion was Sir Simonds D'Ewes who, in [his "Autobiography," edit. Halliwell, p. 79], says, "Mrs Turner had first brought upp that vaine and foolish use of _yellow starch_, ... and therefore, when shee was afterwards executed at Tiburne, the hangman had his _bande_ and cuffs of the same couler, which made many, after that day, of either s.e.x, to forbeare the use of that _coulered starch_, till at last it grew generallie to bee detested and disused." This execution happened in the year 1615; but the reformation predicted by Howell, and partly a.s.serted by D'Ewes to have happened, was not the consequence, as will appear from the following pa.s.sage, extracted from a pamphlet called "The Irish Hubbub, or the English Hue and Crie," by Barnaby Rich, 4, 1622, p. 40: "Yet the open exclamation that was made by Turner's wife at the houre of her death, in the place where shee was executed, cannot be hidden, when, before the whole mult.i.tude that were there present, she so bitterly protested against the vanitie of those _yellow starcht bands_, that her outcries (as it was thought) had taken such impression in the hearts of her hearers, that _yellow starcht bands_ would have been ashamed (for ever after to have shewed themselves about the neckes, either of men that were wise, or women that were honest) but we see our expectations have failed us, for _they beganne even then to be more generall than they were before_." Again, p. 41: "You knowe tobacco is in great trading, but you shall be merchants, and onely for egges: for whereas one pipe of tobacco will suffice three or four men at once; now ten or twenty eggs will hardly suffice to starch one of these _yellow bands:_ a fashion that I thinke shortly will be as conversant amongst taylors, tapsters, and tinkers, as now they have brought tobacco. But a great magistrate, to disgrace it, enjoyned the hangman of London to become one of that fraternitie, and to follow the fashion; and, the better to enable him, he bestowed of him some benevolence to pay for his laundry: and who was now so briske, with a yellow feather in his hat, and a _yellow starcht band_ about his necke, walking in the streets of London, as was master hangman? so that my young masters, that have sithence fallen into that trimme, they doe but imitate the hangman's president, the which, how ridiculous a matter it is, I will leave to themselves to thinke on."

And that the fashion prevailed some years after Mrs Turner's death may be proved from Sir Simon D'Ewes's relation of the procession of King James from Whitehall to the Parliament House, Westminster, 30th January 1620 [_i.e._, 1621]: "In the king's short progresse from Whitehall to Westminster, these pa.s.sages following were accounted somewhat remarkable--And fourthlie, that, looking upp to one window, as he pa.s.sed, full of gentlewomen or ladies, all in _yellow bandes_, he cried out aloud, 'A pox take yee, are yee ther?' at which, being much ashamed, they all withdrew themselves suddenlie from the window."