Byron's conspiracy.  

ACTVS I. SCAENA I.  Savoy, Roncas, Rochette, Breton. Sau. 
I Would not for half Savoy, but have bound  
France to some favour, by my personal presence  
More than yourself, (my Lord Ambassador)  
Could have obtained; for all Ambassadors  
(You know) have chiefly these instructions;  
To note the State and chief sway of the Court,  
To which they are employed; to penetrate  
The heart, and marrow of the king's designs,  
And to observe the countenances and spirits,  
Of such as are impatient of rest;  
And wring beneath, some private discontent:  
But, past all these, there are a number more  
Of these State criticisms: That our personal view  
May profitably make, which cannot fall  
Within the powers of our instruction,  
To make you comprehend; I will do more  
With my mere shadow, than you with your persons.  
All you can say against my coming here,  
Is that, which I confess, may for the time,  
Breed strange affections in my brother Spain;  
But when I shall have time to make my Cannans,  
The long-tongued Heralds of my hidden drifts,  
Our reconcilement will be made with triumphs.  Ron. 
If not, your Highness hath small cause to care,  
Having such worthy reason to complain  
Of Spain's cold friendship, and his lingering succours,  
Who only entertains your griefs with hope,  
To make your medicine desperate.  Roch. 
My Lord knows  
The Spanish gloss too well; his form▪ stuffe'lasting,  
And the most dangerous conditions,  
He lays on them with whom he is in league.  
Th'Injustice in the most unequal dower,  
Given with th'Infanta whom my Lord espoused,  
Compared with that her elder sister had,  
May tell him how much Spain's love weighs to him;  
When of so many Globes and Sceptres held  
By the great King, he only would bestow  
A portion but of six score thousand Crowns  
In yearly pension, with his highness wife,  
When the Infanta wedded by the Archduke  
Had the Franch County, and low Provinces.  Bret. 
We should not set these passages of Spleen  
Twixt Spain and Savoy; to the weaker part,  
More good by sufferance grows, than deeds of heart,  
The nearer Princes are, the further off  
In rites of friendship; my advice had never  
Consented to this voyage of my Lord,  
In which he doth endanger Spain's whole loss,  
For hope of some poor fragment here in France.  Sau. 
My hope in France you know not, though my counsel,  
And for my loss of Spain, it is agreed,  
That I should sleight it, oft-times PRINCE's rules  
Are like the Chemical Philosophers;  
Leave me then to mine own projection,  
In this our thrifty Alchemy of state,  
Yet help me thus far, you that have been here  
Our Lord Ambassador; and, in short inform me,  
What Spirits here are fit for our designs.  Ron. 
The new-created Duke Byron is fit,  
Were there no other reason for your presence,  
To make it worthy; for he is a man  
Of matchless valour, and was ever happy  
In all encounters, which were still made good,  
With an unwearied sense of any toil,  
Having continued fourteen days together  
Upon his horse; his blood is not voluptuous,  
Nor much inclined to women; his desires  
Are higher than his state, and his deserts  
Not much short of the most he can desire,  
If they be weighed with what France feels by them:  
He is past measure glorious: And that humour  
Is fit to feed his Spirits, whom it possesseth  
With faith in any error; chiefly where  
Men blow it up, with praise of his perfections,  
The taste whereof in him so soothes his palate,  
And takes up all his appetite, that oft times  
He will refuse his meat, and company  
To feast alone with their most strong conceit;  
Ambition also, cheek by cheek doth march  
With that excess of glory, both sustained  
With an unlimited fancy, That the King,  
Nor France itself, without him can subsist.  Sau. 
He is the man (my Lord) I come to win;  
And that supreme intention of my presence  
Saw never light till now, which yet I fear,  
The politic king, suspecting, is the cause  
That he hath sent him so far from my reach,  
And made him chief in the Commission,  
Of his embassage to my brother Archduke,  
With whom he is now; and (as I am told)  
So entertained and fitted in his humour,  
That ere I part, I hope he will return  
Prepared, and made the more fit for the physic  
That I intend to minister.  Ron. 
My Lord,  
There is another discontented Spirit  
Now here in Court, that for his brain, and aptness  
To any course that may recover him  
In his declined and litigious state,  
Will serve Byron, as he were made for him,  
In giving vent to his ambitious vain,  
And that is, De Laffin.  Sau. 
You tell me true,  
And him I think you have prepared for me.  Ron. 
I have my Lord, and doubt not he will prove,  
Of the yet taintless fortress of Byron,  
A quick Expugner, and a strong Abider.  Sau. 
Perhaps the battery will be brought before him,  
In this embassage, for I am assured  
They set high price of him, and are informed  
Of all the passages, and means for mines  
That may be thought on, to his taking in:  Enter Henry and Laffin. 
The King comes, and Laffin: the king's aspect  
Folded in clouds.  Hen. 
I will not have my train,  
Made a retreat for bankrupts, nor my Court,  
A hive for Drones: proud Beggars, and true Thieves,  
That with a forced truth they swear to me,  
Rob my poor subjects, shall give up their Arts,  
And henceforth learn to live by their deserts;  
Though I am grown, by right of Birth and Arms  
Into a greater kingdom, I will spread  
With no more shade, then may admit that kingdom  
Her proper, natural, and wonted fruits,  
Navarre shall be Navarre, and France still France:  
If one may be the better for the other  
By mutual rites, so, neither shall be worse.  
Thou art in law, in quarrels, and in debt,  
Which thou wouldst quit with countenance; Borrowing  
With thee is purchase, and thou seekst by me  
(In my supportance) now our old wars cease  
To wage worse battles, with the arms of Peace.  Laf. 
Peace must not make men Cowherds, nor keep calm  
Her pursy regiment with men's smothered breaths;  
I must confess my fortunes are declined,  
But neither my deservings, nor my mind:  
I seek but to sustain the right I found,  
When I was rich, in keeping what is left,  
And making good my honour as at best,  
Though it be hard; man's right to every thing  
Wanes with his wealth, wealth is his surest King;  
Yet justice should be still indifferent.  
The overplus of Kings, in all their might,  
Is but to piece out the defects of right:  
And this I sue for, nor shall frowns and taunts  
(The common Scarecrows of all poor men's suits)  
Nor misconstruction that doth colour still  
Licentiate justice, punishing good for ill,  
Keep my free throat from knocking at the Sky,  
If thunder chid me for my equity.  Hen. 
Thy equity, is to be ever banished  
From Court, and all society of noblesse,  
Amongst whom thou throwest balls of all dissension;  
Thou art at peace with nothing but with war,  
Hast no heart but to hurt, and eatst thy heart,  
If it but think of doing any good:  
Thou witchest with thy smiles, suckest blood with praises,  
Mockest all humanity; society poison'st;  
cozen'st with virtue; with religion  
betray'st, and massacrest; so vile thyself,  
That thou suspectest perfection in others:  
A man must think of all the villainies  
He knows in all men, to decipher thee,  
That art the centre to impiety:  
Away, and tempt me not.  Laf. 
But you tempt me,  
To what, thou Sun be judge, and make him see. Exit.  Sau. 
Now by my dearest Marquisate of Salusses,  
Your Majesty hath with the greatest life  
Described a wicked man; or rather thrust  
Your arm down through him to his very feet,  
And plucked his inside out, that ever yet,  
Mine ears did witness; or turned ears to Eyes;  
And those strange Characters, writ in his face,  
which 'at first sight, were hard for me to read,  
The Doctrine of your speech, hath made so plain,  
That I run through them like my natural language:  
Nor do I like that man's Aspect, methinks,  
Of all looks where the Beams of Stars have carved  
Their powerful influences; And (O rare)  
What an heroic, more than royal Spirit  
Bewrayed you in your first speech, that defies  
Protection of vile drones, that eat the honey  
Sweat from laborious virtue, and denies  
To give those of Navarre, though bred with you,  
The benefits and dignities of France.  
When little Rivers by their greedy currants,  
(Far far extended from their mother springs)  
Drink up the foreign brooks still as they run,  
And force their greatness, when they come to Sea,  
And justle with the Ocean for a room,  
O how he roars, and takes them in his mouth,  
Digesting them so to his proper streams,  
That they are no more seen, he nothing raised  
Above his usual bounds, yet they devoured,  
That of themselves were pleasant, goodly floods.  Hen. 
I would do best for both, yet shall not be secure,  
Till in some absolute heirs my Crown be settled,  
There is so little now betwixt Aspirers  
And their great object in my only self,  
That all the strength they gather under me,  
Tempts combat with mine own: I therefore make  
Means for some issue by my marriage,  
Which with the great Duke's niece is now concluded,  
And she is coming; I have trust in heaven  
I am not yet so old, but I may spring,  
And then I hope all traitorous hopes will fade.  Sau. 
Else may their whole estates fly, rooted up  
To Ignominy and Oblivion:  
And (being your neighbour servant, and poor kinsman)  
I wish your mighty Race might multiply,  
Even to the Period of all Empery.  Hen. 
Thanks to my princely cousin, this your love  
And honour shown me in your personal presence,  
I wish to welcome to your full content:  
The peace I now make with your brother Archduke,  
By Duke Byron our Lord Ambassador,  
I wish may happily extend to you,  
And that at his return we may conclude it.  Sau. 
It shall be to my heart the happiest day  
Of all my life, and that life all employed,  
To celebrate the honour of that day. Exeunt.  Enter Roiseau. Rois. 
The wondrous honour done our Duke Byron  
In his embassage here, in th'archduke's Court,  
I fear will taint his loyalty to our King.  
I will observe how they observe his humour,  
And glorify his valour; and how he  
Accepts and stands attractive to their ends,  
That so I may not seem an idle spot  
In train of this embassage but return  
Able to give our King some note of all,  
Worth my attendance; And see, here's the man,  
Who (though a French man, and in Orleans borne  
Serving the Archduke) I do most suspect,  
Is set to be the tempter of our Duke;  
I'll go where I may see, all though not hear.  Enter Picoté, with two other spreading a Carpet. Pic. 
Spread here this history of Catiline,  
That Earth may seem to bring forth Roman Spirits;  
Even to his Genial feet; and her dark breast  
Be made the clear Glass of his shining Graces,  
we'll make his feet so tender, they shall gall  
In all paths but to Empire; and therein  
I'll make the sweet Steps of his State begin. Exit.  Loud Music, and enter Byron. Byr. 
What place is this? what air? what region?  
In which a man may hear the harmony  
Of all things moving? Hymen marries here,  
Their ends and uses and makes me his Temple.  
Hath any man been blessed, and yet lived?  
The blood turns in my veins, I stand on change,  
And shall dissolve in changing; 'tis so full  
Of pleasure not to be contained in flesh:  
To fear a violent Good, abuseth Goodness,  
'tis Immortality to die aspiring,  
As if a man were taken quick to heaven;  
What will not hold Perfection, let it burst;  
What force hath any cannon, not being charged,  
Or being not discharged? To have stuff and form,  
And to lie idle, fearful, and unused,  
Nor form, nor stuff shows; happy Semele  
That died compressed with Glory: Happiness  
Denies comparison, of less, or more,  
And not at most, is nothing: like the shaft  
Shot at the Sun, by angry Hercules,  
And into shivers by the thunder broken  
Will I be if I burst: And in my heart  
This shall be written: yet 'twas high and right.  Music again. 
Here too? they follow all my steps with Music,  
As if my feet were numerous, and trod sounds  
Out of the Centre, with Apollo's virtue,  
That out of every thing his each-part touched,  
Struck musical accents: wheresoe'er I go,  
They hide the earth from me with coverings rich,  
To make me think that I am here in heaven.  Enter Picote in haste. Pic. 
This way, your Highness.  Byr. 
Come they?  Pic. 
I my Lord. Exeunt.  Enter the other Commissioners of France, Belieure, Brulart, Aumall, Orenge. Bel. 
My Lord d' Aumall, I am exceeding sorry,  
That your own obstinacy to hold out,  
Your mortal enmity against the King,  
When Duke du main, and all the faction yielded,  
Should force his wrath to use the rites of treason,  
Upon the members of your senseless Statue,  
Your Name and House, when he had lost your person,  
Your love and duty.  Bru. 
That which men enforce  
By their own wilfulness; they must endure  
With willing patience, and without complaint.  D'Aum. 
I use not much impatience nor complaint.  
Though it offends me much, to have my name  
So blotted with addition of a Traitor.  
And my whole memory, (with such despite,  
Marked and begun to be so rooted out.)  Bru. 
It was despite that held you out so long,  
Whose penance in the King was needful justice.  Bael 
Come let us seek our Duke, and take our leaves  
Of th'archduke's grace. Exeunt.  Enter Byron and Pycotè. Byr. 
Here may we safely breath?  Py. 
No doubt (my Lord) no stranger knows this way;  
only the Archduke, and your friend Count Mansfield,  
Perhaps may make their general scapes to you,  
To utter some part of their private loves,  
Ere your departure.  Byr. 
Then, I well perceive  
To what th'intention of his highness tends;  
For whose, and others here, most worthy Lords,  
I will become (with all my worth) their servant,  
In any office, but disloyalty;  
But that hath ever showed so foul a monster  
To all my Ancestors, and my former life,  
That now to entertain it; I must wholly  
Give up my habit, in his contrary,  
And strive to grow out of privation.  Py. 
My Lord, to wear your loyal habit still,  
When it is out of fashion; and hath done  
Service enough; were rustic misery:  
The habit of a servile loyalty,  
Is reckoned now amongst privations,  
With blindness, dumbness, deafness, silence, death,  
All which are neither natures by themselves  
Nor substances, but mere decays of form,  
And absolute decessions of nature,  
And so, 'tis nothing, what shall you then lose?  
Your highness hath a habit in perfection,  
And in desert of highest dignities,  
Which carve yourself, and be your own rewarder;  
No true power doth admit privation,  
Adverse to him; or suffers any fellow  
joined in his subject; you, superiors;  
It is the nature of things absolute.  
One to destroy another; be your Highness,  
Like those steep hills that will admit no clouds,  
No dews, nor lest fumes bound about their brows;  
Because their tops pierce into purest air,  
Expert of humour; or like air itself  
That quickly changeth; and receives the sun  
Soon as he riseth; everywhere dispersing  
His royal splendour; girds it in his beams,  
And makes itself the body of the light;  
Hot, shining, swift, light, and aspiring things,  
Are of immortal, and celestial nature;  
Cold, dark, dull, heavy of infernal fortunes,  
And never aim at any happiness:  
Your excellency knows; that simple loyalty,  
Faith, love, sincerity, are but words, no things;  
Merely devised for form; and as the Legate,  
Sent from his Holiness, to frame a peace  
Twixt Spain and Savoy; laboured fervently,  
(For common ends, not for the Duke's particular)  
To have him sign it; he again endeavours  
(Not for the Legates pains, but his own pleasure)  
To gratify him; and being at last encountered;  
Where the flood Tesyn enters into Po,  
They made a kind contention, which of them  
Should enter th'other's boat; one thrust the other:  
One leg was over, and another in:  
And with a fiery courtesy, at last  
Savoy leaps out, into the Legates arms,  
And here ends all his love, and th'other's labour;  
So shall these terms, and impositions  
Expressed before, hold nothing in themselves  
Really good; but flourishes of form:  
And further than they make to private ends  
None wise, or free, their proper use intends.  Byr. 
O 'tis a dangerous, and a dreadful thing  
To steal prey from a Lion; or to hide  
A head distrustful, in his opened jaws;  
To trust our blood in others veins; and hang  
Twixt heaven and earth, in vapours of their breaths:  
To leave a sure pace on continuate earth,  
And force a gate in jumps, from tower to tower,  
As they do that aspire, from height to height;  
The bounds of loyalty are made of glass,  
Soon broke, but can in no date be repaired;  
And as the Duke D'Aumall, (now here in Court)  
Flying his country; had his Statue torn  
piece-meal with horses; all his goods confiscate,  
His Arms of honour, kicked about the streets,  
His goodly house at Annet razed to th'earth.  
And (for a strange reproach of his foul treason)  
His trees about it, cut off by their wastes;  
So, when men fly the natural clime of truth,  
And turn themselves loose, out of all the bounds  
Of justice, and the straightway to their ends;  
Forsaking all the sure force in themselves  
To seek, without them, that which is not theirs,  
The forms of all their comforts are distracted;  
The riches of their freedoms forfeited;  
Their humane noblesse shamed; the Mansions  
Of their cold spirits, eaten down with Cares;  
And all their ornaments, of wit, and valour,  
Learning, and judgement, cut from all their fruits.  Alb. 
O, here were now the richest prize in Europe,  
Were he but taken in affection,  
Would we might grow together, and be twins  
Of either's fortune; or that, still embraced  
I were, but Ring to such a precious stone:  Byr. 
Your highness honours, and high bounty shown me,  
Have won from me, my voluntary power;  
And I must now move by your eminent will;  
To what particular objects; if I know  
By this man's intercession, he shall bring:  
My uttermost answer, and perform betwixt us,  
Reciprocal and full intelligence.  Alber. 
even for your own deserved royal good,  
'tis joyfully accepted, use the loves  
And worthy admirations of your friends,  
That beget vows of all things you can wish,  
And be what I wish: danger says, no more. Exit.  Enter Mansfield at another door. Exit Picoté. Mans. 
Your highness makes the light of this Court stoop,  
With your so near departure, I was forced  
To tender to your excellence, in brief,  
This private wish in taking of my leave;  
That in some army Royal, old Cont Mansfield,  
Might be commanded by your matchless valour,  
To the supremest point of victory:  
Who vows for that renown all prayer, and service:  
No more lest I may wrong you. Exit Mansf.  Byr. 
Thank your Lordship.  Enter D'Aumall and Oreng. D'Au. 
All majesty be added to your highness,  
Of which, I would not wish your breast to bear  
More modest apprehension: then may tread,  
The high gate of your spirit; and be known  
To be a fit Bound for your Boundless valour;  Or. 
So Oreng wisheth, and to the deserts  
Of your great actions, their most royal Crown.  Enter Picoté. Pic. 
Away my Lord, the Lords inquire for you. Exit Bir.  Manet Oreng, D'Aum. Roisean. Ore. 
Would we might win his valour to our part.  D'Au. 
'tis well prepared in his entreaty here;  
With all states highest observations:  
And to their form, and words are added gifts,  
He was presented with two goodly horses,  
One of which two, was the brave Beast Pastrana:  
With plate of gold, and a much prized jewel;  
Girdle and hangers, set with wealthy stones:  
All which were valued, at ten thousand crowns;  
The other Lords had suits of tapestry,  
And chains of gold, and every gentleman  
A pair of Spanish Gloves, and rapier blades:  
And here ends their entreaty; which I hope  
Is the beginning of more good to us,  
Than twenty thousand times their gifts to them.  Enter Alber: By'r: Beli. Man's: Roiseau: with others. Alber. 
My Lord, I grieve that all the setting forth,  
Of our best welcome, made you more retired:  
Your chamber hath been more loved than our honours;  
And therefore we are glad your time of parting  
Is come to set you in the air you love:  
Commend my service to his Majesty,  
And tell him that this day of peace with him  
I'll hold, as holy. All your pains my Lords  
I shallbe always glad to gratify  
With any love and honour, your own hearts  
Shall do me grace to wish expressed to you.  Ruis. 
Here hath been strange demeanour, which shall fly,  
To the great author of this embassy.  
FINIS Actus 1.   

ACT. 2. SCE. 1.  Savoy, Laffin, Roncas, Rochette, Breton. Savoy. 
Admit no entry, I will speak with none,  
Good signor de Laffin, your worth shall find,  
That I will make a jewel for my cabinet,  
Of that the King (in surfeit of his store)  
Hath cast out, as the sweepings of his hall;  
I told him, having threatened you away,  
That I did wonder, this small time of peace,  
Could make him cast his armour so securely  
In such as you, and as 'twere set the head  
Of one so great in counsels, on his foot,  
And pitch him from him with such guardlike strength.  Laffi. 
He may perhaps find he hath pitched away,  
The axle-tree that kept him on his wheels.  Sau. 
I told him so, I swear, in other terms  
And not with too much note of our close loves  
lest so he might have smoked our practises.  Laffi. 
To choose his time, and spit his poison on me,  
Through th'ears, and eyes of strangers.  Sau. 
So I told him  
And more than that, which now I will not tell you:  
It rests now then, Noble, and worthy friend,  
That to our friendship, we draw Duke Byron,  
To whose attraction there is no such chain,  
As you can forge, and shake out of your brain.  Laffi. 
I have devised the fashion and the weight;  
To valures hard to draw, we use retreats;  
And, to pull shafts home, (with a good bow-arm)  
We thrust hard from us: since he came from Flanders  
He heard how I was threatened with the King,  
And hath been much inquisitive to know  
The truth of all, and seeks to speak with me;  
The means he used, I answered doubtfully;  
And with an intimation that I shunned him,  
Which will (I know) put more spur to his charge;  
And if his haughty stomach be prepared,  
With will to any act: for the aspiring  
Of his ambitious aims, I make no doubt  
But I shall work him to your highness wish.  Sau. 
But undertake it, and I rest assured:  
You are reported to have skill in Magic,  
And the events of things, at which they reach  
That are in nature apt to overreach:  
Whom the whole circle of the present time,  
In present pleasures, fortunes, knowledges,  
Can not contain: those men (as broken loose  
From humane limits) in all violent ends  
Would feign aspire the faculties of fiends,  
And in such air breath his unbounded spirits,  
Which therefore well will fit such conjurations,  
Attempt him then by flying; close with him,  
And bring him home to us, and take my dukedom.  Laf. 
My best in that, and all things, vows your service.  Sau. 
Thanks to my dear friend; and the French Ulysses.  Exit Savoy, Enter Byron. Byr. 
Here is the man; my honoured friend, Laffin?  
Alone, and heavy countenanced? on what terms  
Stood th' insultation of the King upon you?  Laffi. 
Why do you ask?  Byr. 
Since I would know the truth.  Laf. 
And when you know it; what?  Byr. 
I'll judge betwixt you,  
And (as I may) make even th' excess of either.  Laf. 
Ah 'las my Lord, not all your loyalty,  
Which is in you, more than hereditary,  
Nor all your valour (which is more than human)  
Can do the service you may hope on me  
In sounding my displeased integrity;  
Stand for the King, as much in policy  
As you have stirred for him in deeds of arms,  
And make yourself his glory, and your countries  
Till you be sucked as dry, and wrought as leave,  
As my stead carcase: you shall never close  
With me, as you imagine.  Byr. 
You much wrong me,  
To think me an intelligencing Lord.  Laff. 
I know not now your so affected zeal,  
To be reputed a true hearted subject,  
May stretch or turn you; I am desperate;  
If I offend you, I am in your power:  
I care not how I tempt your conquering fury,  
I am predestined to too base an end,  
To have the honour of your wrath destroy me;  
And be a worthy object for your sword:  
I lay my hand, and head too at your feet,  
As I have ever, here I hold it still,  
End me directly, do not go about.  Byr. 
How strange is this? the shame of his disgrace  
Hath made him lunatic.  Laff 
Since the King hath wronged me  
He thinks I'll hurt myself; no, no, my Lord:  
I know that all the Kings in Christendom,  
(If they should join in my revenge) would prove  
Weak foes to him: still having you to friend:  
If you were gone (I care not if you tell him)  
I might be tempted then to right myself. Exit.  Byr. 
He has a will to me, and dares not show it,  
His state decayed, and he disgraced; distracts him.  Redit Laffin. Laff 
Change not my words my Lord, I only said  
I might be tempted then to right myself:  
Temptation to treason, is no treason;  
And that word (tempted) was conditional too,  
If you were gone, I pray inform the truth. Exitur.  Byr. 
Stay injured man, and know I am your friend,  
Far from these base, and mercenary reaches,  
I am I swear to you.  Laff. 
You may be so;  
And yet you'll give me leave to be Laffin,  
A poor and expuate humour of the Court:  
But what good blood came out with me; what veins  
And sinews of the Triumphs, now it makes;  
I list not vaunt; yet will I now confess,  
And dare assume it; I have power to add  
To all his greatness; and make yet more fixed  
His bold security; Tell him this my Lord;  
And this (if all the spirits of earth and air,  
Be able to enforce) I can make good:  
If knowledge of the sure events of things,  
Even from the rise of subjects into Kings:  
And falls of Kings to subjects hold a power  
Of strength to work it; I can make it good;  
And tell him this to; if in midst of winter  
To make black Groves grow green; to still the thunder;  
And cast out able flashes from mine eyes,  
To beat the lightning back into the skies,  
Prove power to do it, I can make it good;  
And tell him this too; if to lift the Sea  
Up to the Stars, when all the Wind are still;  
And keep it calm, when they are most enraged:  
To make earth's driest palms, sweat humorous springs  
To make fixed rocks walk; and loose shadows stand,  
To make the dead speak. midnight see the Sun,  
Midday turn midnight; to dissolve all laws  
Of nature, and of order, argue power  
Able to work all, I can make all good,  
And all this tell the King.  Byr. 
'tis more than strange,  
To see you stand thus at the rapiers point  
With one so kind and sure a friend as I.  Laff. 
Who cannot friend himself, is foe to any,  
And to be feared of all, and that is it,  
Makes me so scorned, but make me what you can;  
Never so wicked, and so full of fiends,  
I never yet, was traitor to my friends:  
The laws of friendship I have ever held,  
As my religion; and for other laws;  
He is a fool that keeps them with more care,  
Than they keep him, safe, rich, and popular:  
For riches, and for popular respects  
Take them amongst ye Minions, but for safety,  
You shall not find the least flaw in mine arms,  
To pierce or taint me; what will great men be,  
To please the King, and bear authority. Exit.  Byr. 
How fic a tort were this to handsel fortune?  
And I will win it though I lose myself,  
Though he prove harder than Egyptian Marble,  
I'll make him malleable, as th'Ophyr gold;  
I am put off from this dull shore of East,  
Into industrious, and high-going Seas;  
Where, like Pelides in Scamander's flood,  
Up to the ears in surges, I will fight,  
And pluck French Ilion underneath the waves;  
If to be highest still, be to be best,  
All works to that end are the worthiest:  
Truth is a golden Ball, cast in our way,  
To make us stripped by falsehood: And as Spain  
When the hot scuffles of Barbarian arms,  
Smothered the life of Don Sebastian,  
To guild the leaden rumor of his death  
Gave for a slaughtered body (held for his)  
A hundred thousand crowns; caused all the state  
Of superstitious Portugal to mourn  
And celebrate his solemn funerals;  
The moors to conquest, thankful feasts prefer,  
And all made with the carcase of a Swisser:  
So in the Giant like, and politic wars  
Of barbarous greatness, raging still in peace,  
Shows to aspire just objects; are laid on  
With cost, with labour, and with form enough,  
Which only makes our best acts brook the light,  
And their ends had, we think we have their right,  
So worst works are made good, with good success,  
And so for Kings, pay subjects carcases. Exit.  Enter Henry, Roisieau. Hen. 
Was he so courted?  Rois. 
As a City Dame,  
Brought by her jealous husband, to the Court,  
Some elder Courtiers entertaining him,  
While others snatch, a favour from his wife:  
One starts from this door; from that nook another,  
With gifts, and junkets, and with printed phrase,  
Steal her employment, shifting place by place  
Still as her husband comes: so Duke Byron  
Was wood, and worshipped in the archdukes Court,  
And as th'assistants that your Majesty,  
joined in Commission with him, or myself,  
Or any other doubted eye appeared,  
He ever vanished: and as such a dame,  
As we compared with him before, being won  
To break faith to her husband, lose her fame,  
Stain both their progenies, and coming fresh  
From underneath the burden of her shame,  
Visits her husband with as chaste a brow,  
As temperate, and confirmed behaviour,  
As she came quitted from confession.  
So from his scapes, would he present a presence,  
The practice of his state adultery,  
And guilt that should a graceful bosom strike,  
Drowned in the set lake, of a hopeless cheek.  Hen. 
It may be he dissembled, or suppose,  
He be a little tainted: men whom virtue  
Forms with the stuff of fortune great, and gracious,  
Must needs partake with fortune in her humour  
Of instability: and are like to shafts  
Grown crooked with standing, which to rectify,  
Must twice as much be bowed another way,  
He that hath borne wounds for his worthy parts,  
Must for his worst be borne with: we must fit  
Our government to men, as men to it:  
In old time, they that hunted savage beasts,  
Are said to clothe themselves in savage skins,  
They that were Fowlers when they went on fowling,  
Wore garments made with wings resembling Fowls:  
To Bulls, we must not show ourselves in red,  
Nor to the warlike Elephant in white,  
In all things governed, their infirmities  
Must not be stirred, nor wrought on; Duke Byron  
Flows with adust, and melancholy choler,  
And melancholy spirits are venomous:  
Not to be touched, but as they may be cured:  
I therefore mean to make him change the air,  
And send him further from those Spanish vapours,  
That still bear fighting sulphur in their breasts,  
To breathe a while in temperate English air,  
Where lips are spiced with free and loyal counsels,  
Where policies are not rumours, but saving;  
Wisdom is simple, valour righteous,  
Human, and hating facts of brutish forces  
And whose grave natures, scorn the scoffs of France,  
The empty compliments of Italy,  
The anyway encroaching pride of Spain,  
And love men modest, hearty, just and plain.  Savoy, whispering with Laffin. Sau. 
I'll sound him for Byron; and what I find,  
In the king's depth; I'll draw up, and inform,  
In excitations to the Duke's revolt,  
When next I meet with him.  Laff. 
It must be done  
With praising of the Duke; from whom the king  
Will take to give himself; which told the Duke,  
Will take his heart up into all ambition.  Sau. 
I know it (politic friend:) and 'tis my purpose, Exit Laf.  
Your Majesty hath missed a royal sight,  
The Duke Byron, on his brave beast Pastrana,  
Who sits him like a full-sailed argosy,  
Danced with a lofty billow, and as snug  
Plies to his bearer, both their motions mixed;  
And being considered in their site together,  
They do the best present the state of man,  
In his first royalty ruling; and of beasts  
In their first loyalty serving; one commanding,  
And no way being moved; the other serving,  
And no way being compelled; of all the sights  
That ever my eyes witnessed; and they make  
A doctrinal and witty hierogliphic,  
Of a blessed kingdom: to express and teach,  
Kings to command as they could serve, and subjects  
To serve as if they had power to command.  Hen. 
You are a good old horseman I perceive,  
And still out all the use of that good part:  
Your wit is of the true Pierean spring,  
That can make any thing, of any thing.  Sau. 
So brave a subject as the Duke, no king  
Seated on earth, can vaunt of but your Highness,  
So valiant, loyal, and so great in service.  Hen. 
No question he sets valour in his height,  
And hath done service to an equal pitch,  
Fortune attending him with fit events,  
To all his venturous and well-laid attempts.  Sau. 
Fortune? to him was juno, to Alcides,  
For when, or where did she but open way,  
To any act of his? what stone took he  
With her help or without his own lost blood?  
What sort won he by her? or was not forced?  
What victory but 'gainst odds? on what Commander  
Sleepy or negligent, did he ever charge?  
What Summer ever made she fair to him?  
What winter, not of one continued storm?  
Fortune is so far from his creditress,  
That she owes him much; for in him, her looks  
Are lovely, modest, and magnanimous,  
Constant, victorious; and in his Achievements,  
Her cheeks are drawn out with a virtuous redness,  
Out of his eager spirit to victory,  
And chaste contention to convince with honour;  
And (I have heard) his spirits have flowed so high,  
In all his conflicts against any odds,  
That (in his charge) his lips have bled with terror:  
How served he at your famous siege of Dreux?  
Where the enemy (assured of victory)  
Drew out a body of four thousand horse,  
And twice six thousand foot, and like a Crescent,  
Stood for the signal, you: (that showed yourself  
A sound old soldier) thinking it not fit  
To give your enemy the odds, and honour  
Of the first stroke, commanded de la Guiche,  
To let fire all his cannons, that did pierce  
The adverse thickest squadrons, and had shot  
Nine volleys ere the foe had once given fire:  
Your troup was charged, and when your Duke's old father,  
Met with th'assailants, and their Grove of Reiters  
Repulsed so fiercely, made them turn their beards  
And rally up themselves behind their troops;  
Fresh forces seeing your troops a little severed,  
From that part first assaulted, gave it charge,  
Which then, this duke made good, seconds his father,  
Beats through and through the enemies greatest strength,  
And breaks the rest like Billows 'gainst a rock  
And there the heart of that huge battle broke.  Hen. 
The heart but now came on, in that strong body,  
Of twice two thousand horse, lead by Du main  
Which (if I would be glorious) I could say  
I first encountered.  Sau. 
How did he take in,  
Beaune in view of that invincible army  
Lead by the Lord great Constable of Castille?  
Autun, and Nuis: in Burgundy chaste away,  
Viscount I'avanne's troops before Dijon,  
And puts himself in, and there that was won.  Hen. 
If you would only give me leave my Lord,  
I would do right to him, yet must not give.  Sau. 
A league from Fountain Francois, when you sent him,  
To make discovery of the Castille army,  
When he discerned 'twas it (with wondrous wisdom  
joined to his spirit) he seemed to make retreat,  
But when they priest him, and the baron of Lux,  
Set on their charge so hotly, that his horse,  
Was slain, and he most dangerously engaged,  
Then turned your brave duke head, and (with such ease  
As doth an Echo beat back violent sounds,  
With their own forces) he, (as if a wall  
Start suddenly before them) pashed them all  
Flat, as the earth, and there was that field won.  Hen. 
You're all the field wide.  Sau. 
O, I ask you pardon,  
The strength of that field yet lay in his back,  
Upon the foe's part; and what is to come.  
Of this your Marshal, now your worthy Duke  
Is much beyond the rest: for now he sees  
A sort of horse troops, issue from the woods,  
In number near twelve hundred: and retiring  
To tell you that the entire army followed,  
Before he could relate it, he was forced  
To turn head, and receive the main assault  
Of five horse troops: only with twenty horse:  
The first he met, he tumbled to the earth,  
And broke through all, not daunted with two wounds,  
One on his head, another on his breast,  
The blood of which, drowned all the field in doubt:  
Your majesty himself was then engaged,  
Your power not yet arrived, and up you brought  
The little strength you had: a cloud of foes,  
Ready to burst in storms about your ears:  
Three squadrons rushed against you, and the first,  
You took so fiercely, that, you beat their thoughts  
Out of their bosoms, from the urged fight:  
The second, all amazed you overthrew,  
The third dispersed, with five and twenty horse  
Left of the fourscore that pursued the chase:  
And this brave conquest, now your Marshal seconds  
Against two squadrons, but with fifty horse,  
One after other he defeats them both,  
And made them run, like men whose heels were tripped,  
And pitch their heads, in their great generals lap:  
And him he sets on, as he had been shot  
Out of a cannon: beats him into rout,  
And as a little brook being overrun  
With a black torrent; that bears all things down,  
His fury overtakes, his foamy back,  
Loaded with cat-tail, and with stacks of Corn,  
And makes the miserable Ploughman mourn;  
So was du Maine surcharged, and so Byron  
Flowed over all his forces; every drop  
Of his lost blood, bought with a worthy man;  
And, only with a hundred Gentlemen  
He won the place, from fifteen hundred horse;  Hen. 
He won the place?  Sau. 
On my word, so 'tis said:  Hen. 
Fie you have been extremely misinformed.  Sau. 
I only tell your highness what I heard,  
I was not there; and though I have been rude,  
With wonder of his valour, and presumed,  
To keep his merit in his full career,  
Not hearing you, when yours made such a thunder;  
Pardon my fault, since 'twas t'extol your servant;  
But, is it not most true, that twixt ye both,  
So few achieved, the conquest of so many?  Henr. 
It is a truth, must make me ever thankful.  
But not performed by him, was not I there?  
Commanded him, and in the main assault,  
Made him but second?  Sau. 
he's the capital soldier,  
That lives this day in holy Christendom,  
Except your highness, always except Plato.  Hen. 
We must not give to one, to take from many,  
For (not to praise our countrymen) here served,  
The General My lord. Norris, sent from England:  
As great a captain as the world affords:  
One fit to lead, and fight for Christendom;  
Of more experience; and of stronger brain;  
As valiant for abiding; In Command,  
On any sudden; upon any ground  
And in the form of all occasions  
As ready, and as profitably, dauntless;  
And hear was then another; Colonel Williams,  
A worthy Captain; and more like the Duke,  
Because he was less temperate than the General;  
And being familiar with the man you praise,  
(Because he knew him haughty and incapable,  
Of all comparison) would compare with him,  
And hold his swelling valour to the mark,  
justice had set in him, and not his will:  
And as in open vessels filled with water,  
And on men's shoulders borne, they put treene cups,  
To keep the wild and slippery element,  
From washing over: follow all his Sways  
And tickle aptness to exceed his bounds,  
And at the Brim contain him: so this knight,  
Swum in Byron, and held him, but to right.  
But leave these hot comparisons, he's mine own,  
And then what I possess, I'll more be known,  Sau. 
All this shall to the duke, I fished for this. Exeunt.  
FINIS. Actus Secundi.   

ACTVS 3. SCAENA I.  Enter La Fin, Byron following unseen. Laff. 
A feigned passion in his hearing now,  
(Which he thinks I perceive not) making conscience,  
Of the revolt that he hath urged to me,  
Which now he means to prosecute would sound,  
How deep he stands affected with that scruple.  
As when the Moon hath comforted the Night,  
And set the world in silver of her light,  
The Planets, Asterisims and whole state of Heaven,  
In beams of gold descending; all the winds,  
Bound up in caves, charged not to drive abroad,  
Their cloudy heads; an universal peace,  
Proclaimed in silence of the quiet earth.  
Soon as her hot and dry fumes are let loose,  
Storms and clouds mixing; suddenly put out.  
The eyes of all those glories: The creation,  
Turned into Chaos, and we then desire,  
For all our joy of life, the death of sleep;  
So when the glories of our lives, men's loves,  
Clear consciences, our fames, and loyalties,  
That did us worthy comfort, are eclipsed,  
Grief and disgrace invade us; and for all,  
Our night of life beside, our Misery craves,  
Dark earth would ope and hide us in our graves,  Byr. 
How Strange is this?  Laff. 
What? did your highness hear?  Byr. 
Both heard and wondered, that your wit and spirit.  
And profit in experience of the slaveries,  
Imposed on us; in those mere politic terms,  
Of love, fame, loyalty, can be carried up,  
To such a height of ignorant conscience;  
Of cowardice, and dissolution,  
In all the freeborn powers of royal man.  
You that have made way through all the guards,  
Of jealous State; and seen on both your sides,  
The pikes points charging heaven to let you pass,  
Will you, (in flying with a Scrupulous wing,  
Above those pikes to heavenward) fall on them?  
This is like men, that (spirited with wine,)  
Pass dangerous places safe; and die for fear,  
With only thought of them, being simply sober;  
We must (in passing to our wished ends,  
Through things called good and bad) be like the air,  
That evenly interposed betwixt the seas,  
And the opposed Element of fire;  
At either toucheth, but partakes with neither;  
Is neither hot, nor cold, but with a sleight.  
And harmless temper mixed of both th' extremes;  Laff. 
'tis shrewd.  Byr. 
There is no truth of any good  
To be discerned on earth: and by conversion,  
Nought therefore simply bad: But as the stuff,  
Prepared for Arras pictures, is no Picture,  
Till it be formed, and man hath cast the beams,  
Of his imaginous fancy through it,  
In forming ancient Kings and conquerors,  
As he conceives they looked, and were attired,  
Though they were nothing so: so all things here,  
Have all their price set down, from men's concepts,  
Which make all terms and actions, good, or bad,  
And are but pliant, and well-coloured threads,  
Put into feigned images of truth:  
To which, to yield, and kneel, as truth pure kings,  
That pulled us down with clear truth of their Gospel,  
Were Superstition to be hissed to hell.  Laff. 
Believe it, this is reason;  Byr. 
'tis the faith,  
Of reason and of wisdom.  Laff. 
You persuade,  
As if you could create: what man can shun,  
The searches, and compressions of your graces.  Byr. 
We must have these lures when we hawk for friends,  
And wind about them like a subtle River,  
That (seeming only to run on his course)  
Doth search yet, as he runs; and still finds out,  
The easiest parts of entry on the shore;  
Gliding so slily by, as scarce it touched,  
Yet still eats some thing in it: so must those,  
That have large fields, and currants to dispose.  
Come, let us join our streams, we must run far.  
And have but little time: The duke Savoy,  
Is shortly to be gone, and I must needs,  
Make you well known to him,  Laff. 
But hath your highness,  
Some enterprise of value joined with him?  Byr. 
With him and greater persons?  Laffi. 
I will creep.  
Upon my bosom in your Princely service,  
Vouchsafe to make me known. I hear there lives not,  
So kind, so bounty full, and wise a Prince,  
But in your own excepted excellence.  Byr. 
He shall both know, and love you: are you mine?  Laff. 
I take the honour of it, on my knee,  
And hope to quite it with your Majesty. Exit.  Enter Savoy, Roncas, Rochet Breton. Sau. 
La Fin, is in the right; and will obtain;  
He draweth with his weight; and like a plummet  
That sways a door, with falling of, pulls after,  Ron. 
Thus will Laffin be brought a Stranger to you,  
By him he leads; he conquers that is conquered,  
That's sought, as hard to win, that sues to be won.  Sau. 
But is my Painter warned to take his picture.  
When he shall see me, and present Laffin?  Roch. 
He is (my Lord) and (as your highness willed)  
All we will press about him, and admire,  
The royal promise of his rare aspect,  
As if he heard not.  Sau. 
'twill inflame him.  
Such tricks the Archduke used t' extol his greatness,  
Which compliments though plain men hold absurd,  
And a mere remedy for desire of Greatness.  
Yet great men use them; as they eat Potatoes,  
High Coollises, and potions to excite  
The lust of their ambition: and this Duke;  
You know is noted in his natural garb  
Extremely glorious; who will therefore bring  
An appetite expecting such a bait;  
He comes, go instantly, and fetch the Painter.  Enter Byron La Fin. Byr. 
All honour to your highness,  Sau. 
'tis most true.  
All honours flow to me, in you their Ocean;  
As welcome worthiest duke, as if my marquisate,  
Were circled with you in these amorous arms;  Byr. 
I sorrow Sir I could not bring it with me,  
That I might so supply the fruitless complement,  
Of only visiting your excellence,  
With which the king now sends me t' entertain you,  
Which notwithstanding doth confer this good,  
That it hath given me some small time to show,  
My gratitude for the many secret bounties,  
I have (by this your Lord Ambassador)  
Felt from your highness and in short, t' assure you,  
That all my most deserts are at your service.  Sau. 
Had the king sent me by you half his kingdom,  
It were not half so welcome;  Byr. 
For defect.  
Of whatsoever in myself, (my Lord,)  
I here commend to your most Princely Service  
This honoured friend of mine;  Sau. 
Your name I pray you Sir.  Laff. 
Laffin, my Lord  Sau. 
Laffin? Is this the man,  
That you so recommended to my Love?  Ron. 
The same my Lord,  Sau. 
You're next my Lord the duke,  
The most desired of all men. O my Lord,  
The King and I, have had a mighty conflict,  
About your conflicts, and your matchless worth,  
In military virtues; which I put  
In Balance with the continent of France,  
In all the peace and safety it enjoys.  
And made even weight with all he could put in  
Of all men's else; and of their own deserts,  Byr. 
Of all men's else? would he weigh other men's,  
With my deservings,  Sau. 
I upon my life,  
The English General, the Mylord Norris,  
That served amongst you here, he paralleled  
With you, at all parts, and in some preferred him,  
And Colonel Williams (a Welsh Colonel)  
He made a man, that at your most contained you:  
Which the Welsh Herald of their praise, the cuckoo.  
Would scarce have put, in his monology,  
In jest, and said with reverence to his merits,  Byr. 
With reverence? Reverence scorns him: by the spoil,  
Of all her Merits in me, he shall rue it;  
Did ever Curtain gulf play such a part?  
Had Curtius been so used, if he had brooked,  
That ravenous whirlpool, poured his solid spirits,  
Through earth dissolved sinews, stopped her veins,  
And rose with saved Rome, upon his back,  
As I swum pools of fire, and gulfs of brass,  
To save my country? thrust this venturous arm,  
Beneath her ruins; took her on my neck,  
And set her safe on her appeased shore?  
And opes the king, a fouler bog than this,  
In his so rotten bosom, to devour  
Him that devoured, what else had swallowed him  
In a detraction, so with spite imbrued,  
And drown such good in such ingratitude?  
My spirit as yet, but stooping to his rest,  
Shines hotly in him, as the Sun in clouds,  
Purpled, and made proud with a peaceful Even:  
But when I thoroughly set to him; his cheeks,  
Will (like those clouds) forego their colour quite,  
And his whole blaze, smoke into endless night,  Sau. 
Nay nay, we must have no such gall my Lord,  
o'erflow our friendly livers: my relation,  
Only delivers my inflamed zeal  
To your religious merits; which methinks,  
Should make your highness canonized, a Saint.  Byr. 
What had his arms been, without my arm,  
That with his motion, made the whole field move?  
And this held up, we still had victory.  
When over charged with number, his few friends,  
Retired amazed, I set them on assured,  
And what rude ruin seized on I confirmed;  
When I left leading, all his army reeled,  
One fell on other foul, and as the Cyclop  
That having lost his eye, struck every way,  
His blows directed to no certain scope;  
Or as the soul departed from the body,  
The body wants coherence in his parts,  
Can not consist, but sever, and dissolve;  
So I removed once, all his armies shook,  
Panted, and fainted, and were ever flying,  
Like wandering pulses spersed through bodies dying,  Sau. 
It cannot be denied, 'tis all so true,  
That what seems arrogance, is desert in you,  Byr. 
What monstrous humours feed a PRINCE's blood,  
Being bad to good men, and to bad men good?  Sau. 
Well let these contradictions pass (my lord,)  
Till they be reconciled, or put in form,  
By power given to your will, and you present,  
The fashion of a perfect government;  
In mean space but a word, we have small time,  
To spend in private, which I wish may be  
With all advantage taken; Lord Laffin.  Ron. 
be't not a face of excellent presentment,  
Though not so amorous with pure white, and red,  
Yet is the whole proportion singular;  Roch. 
That ever I beheld,  Bret 
It hath good lines,  
And tracts drawn through it: The purfle, rare,  Ron. 
I heard the famous and right learned Earl,  
And Archbishop of Lions Peirse Pinac,  
Who was reported to have wondrous judgement  
In men's events, and natures, by their looks:  
(Upon his death bed, visited by this duke)  
He told his sister, when his grace was gone,  
That he had never yet observed a face,  
Of worse presage than this: and I will swear,  
That (something seen in Physiognomy)  
I do not find in all the rules he gives  
One slenderest blemish tending to mishap,  
But (on the opposite part) as we may see,  
On trees late blossomed, when all frosts are past,  
How they are taken and what will be fruit:  
So, on this tree of Sceptres, I discern  
How it is laden with appearances,  
Rules answering Rules; and glances, crowned with glances;  He snatches away the picture. Byr. 
What, does he take my picture?  Sau. 
I my Lord.  Byr. 
Your Highness will excuse me; I will give you  
My likeness put in Statue, not in picture;  
And by a Statuary of mine own,  
That can in Brass express the wit of man,  
And in his form, make all men see his virtues:  
Others that with much strictness imitate,  
The something stooping carriage of my neck,  
The voluble, and mild radiance of mine eyes,  
Never observe my Masculine aspect,  
And lion-like instinct, it shadoweth:  
Which Envy cannot say, is flattery:  
And I will have my Image promised you,  
Cut in such matter, it shall ever last;  
Where it shall stand, fixed with eternal roots,  
And with a most unmoved gravity;  
For I will have the famous mountain Oros,  
That looks out of the Duchy where I govern,  
(Into your highness Dukedom) first made yours,  
And then with such inimitable art  
Expressed and handled; chiefly from the place  
Where most conspicuously, he shows his face,  
That though it keep the true form of that hill  
In all his longitudes, and latitudes,  
His height, his distances, and full proportion,  
Yet shall it clearly bear my counterfeit,  
Both in my face and all my lineaments:  
And every man shall say, this is Byron.  
Within my left hand, I will hold a City,  
Which is the City Amiens; at whose siege  
I served so memorably: from my right,  
I'll power an endless flood, into a Sea  
Raging beneath me; which shall intimate  
My ceaseless service, drunk up by the King  
As th' Ocean drinks up rivers, and makes all  
Bear his proud title; ivory, Brass and Gold,  
That thieves may purchase; and be bought and sold,  
Shall not be used about me; lasting worth  
Shall only set the duke of Byron forth;  Sau. 
O that your statuary could express you,  
With any nearness to your own instructions;  
That statue would I prize past all the jewels  
Within my cabinet of Beatrice,  
The memory of my grandam Portugal;  
Most royal duke: we can not long endure  
To be thus private, let us then conclude,  
With this great resolution: that your wisdom,  
Will not forget to cast a pleasing vail  
Over your anger; that may hide each glance,  
Of any notice taken of your wrong,  
And show yourself the more obsequious.  
'tis but the virtue of a little patience,  
There are so oft attempts made 'gainst his person,  
That sometimes they may speed, for they are plants  
That spring the more for cutting, and at last  
Will cast their wished shadow; mark ere long,  Enter Nemours Soisson. 
See who comes here my Lord, as now no more,  
Now must we turn out stream another way;  
My Lord, I humbly thank his majesty,  
That he would grace my idle time spent here  
With entertainment of your princely person;  
Which, worthily, he keeps for his own bosom.  
My Lord, the duke Nemours? and Count Soisson?  
Your honours have been bountifully done me  
In often visitation: let me pray you,  
To see some jewels now, and help my choice:  
In making up a present for the King.  Nem. 
Your highness shall much grace us.  Sau. 
I am doubtful  
That I have much incensed the duke Byron,  
With praising the king's worthiness in arms  
So much past all men.  Sois. 
He deserves it, highly. Exit. manet By'r: Laffin.  Byr. 
What wrongs are these, laid on me by the King,  
To equal others worths in war, with mine;  
Endure this, and be turned into his Moil  
To bear his sumptures: honoured friend be true,  
And we will turn these torrents, hence. The King. Exit Laffi.  Enter Henry, Espe: Vitry, janin. Hen. 
Why suffer you that ill aboding vermin,  
To breed so near your bosom? be assured,  
His haunts are ominous, not the throats of Ravens,  
Spent on infected houses; howls of dogs,  
When no sound stirs, at midnight; apparitions,  
And strokes of spirits, clad in blackmen's shapes:  
Or ugly women's: the adverse decrees  
Of constellations, not security,  
In vicious peace, are surer fatal ushers  
Of female mischiefs, and mortalities,  
Than this prodigious fiend is, where he fawns:  
La fiend, and not Laffin, he should be called.  Byr. 
Be what he will, men in themselves entire,  
March safe with naked feet on coals of fire:  
I build not outward, nor depend on props,  
Nor choose my consort by the common ear:  
Nor by the Moonshine, in the grace of Kings:  
So rare are true deservers, loved or known,  
That men loved vulgarly, are ever none:  
Nor men graced servilely, for being spots  
In princes' trains, though borne even with their crowns;  
The Stallion power, hath such a besom tail,  
That it sweeps all from justice, and such filth  
He bears out in it, that men mere exempt,  
Are merely clearest men will shortly buy  
Friends from the prison, or the pillory,  
Rather than honours markets. I fear none,  
But foul Ingratitude, and Detraction,  
In all the brood of villainy.  Hen. 
No? not treason?  
Be circumspect, for to a credulous eye,  
He comes invisible, veiled with flattery,  
And flatteries look like friends, as Wolves, like Dogs.  
And as a glorious Poem fronted well  
With many a goodly Herald of his praise,  
So far from hate of praises to his face,  
That he prays men to praise him, and they ride  
Before, with trumpets in their mouths, proclaiming  
Life to the holy fury of his lines:  
All drawn, as if with one eye he had leered,  
On his loved hand, and led it by a rule;  
That his plumes only Imp the muse's wings,  
He sleeps with them, his head is napped with bay,  
His lips break out with Nectar, his tuned feet  
Are of the great last, the perpetual motion,  
And he puffed with their empty breath believes  
Full merit, eased those passions of wind,  
Which yet serve, but to praise, and cannot merit,  
And so his fury in their air expires:  
So de Laffin, and such corrupted heralds,  
Hired to encourage, and to glorify  
May force what breath they will into their cheeks  
Fitter to blow up bladders, then full men:  
Yet may puff men to, with persuasions  
That they are Gods in worth; and may rise Kings  
With treading on their noises; yet the worthiest,  
From only his own worth receives his spirit  
And right is worthy bound to any merit;  
Which right, shall you have ever; leave him then,  
He follows none but marked, and wretched men;  
And now for England you shall go my lord,  
Our Lord Ambassador to that matchless Queen;  
You never had a voyage of such pleasure  
Honour, and worthy objects: there's a Queen  
Where nature keeps her state, and state her Court,  
Wisdom her study, continence her fort,  
Where Magnanimity, Humanity:  
Firmness in counsel and integrity:  
Grace to her poorest subjects: Majesty  
To awe the greatest, have respects divine,  
And in her each part, all the virtues shine. Exit Hen. & Sau. manet Byron.  Byr. 
Enjoy your will a while, I may have mine.  
Wherefore (before I part to this embassage)  
I'll be resolved by a Magician  
That dwells hereby, to whom I'll go disguised,  
And show him my birth's figure, set before:  
By one of his profession, of the which  
I'll crave his judgement, feigning I am sent  
From some great parsonage, whose nativity,  
He wisheth should be censured by his skill.  
But on go my plots, be it good or ill. Exit.  Enter La Brosse. 
This hour by all rules of Astrology,  
Is dangerous to my person, if not deadly.  
How hapless is our knowledge to foretell  
And not be able to prevent a mischief,  
O the strange difference twixt us and the stars:  
They work with inclinations strong and fatal  
And nothing know; and we know all there working  
And nought can do, or nothing can prevent?  
Rude ignorance is beastly, knowledge wretched:  
The heavenly powers envy what they Enjoin:  
We are commanded t'imitate there natures,  
In making all our ends eternity:  
And in that imitation we are plagued,  
And worse than they esteemed, that have no souls,  
But in their nostrils, and like beasts expire;  
As they do that are ignorant of arts,  
By drowning there eternal parts in sense,  
And sensual affectations: while we live  
Our good parts take away, the more they give.  Byron solus disguizd like a Carrier of letters. Byr. 
The forts that favourites hold in princes' hearts,  
In common subjects loves; and their own strengths  
Are not so sure, and unexpugnable,  
But that the more they are presumed upon,  
The more they fail; daily and hourly proof,  
Tells us prosperity is at highest degree  
The fount and handle of calamity:  
Like dust before a whirlwind those men fly,  
That prostrate on the grounds of fortune lie:  
And being great (like trees that broadest sprout)  
Their own top-heavy state grubs up their root.  
These apprehensions startle all my powers,  
And arm them with suspicion 'gainst themselves,  
In my late projects; I have cast myself  
Into the arms of others; and will see  
It they will let me fall; or toss me up  
Into th'affected compass of a throne,  
God save you sir.  Labross. 
You're welcome friend: what would you?  Byr. 
I would entreat you, for some crowns I bring,  
To give your judgement of this figure cast.  
To know by his nativity there seen;  
What sort of end the person shall endure,  
Who sent me to you, and whose birth it is.  Labross. 
I'll herein do my best, in your desire;  
The man is raised out of a good descent,  
And nothing older than yourself I think;  
Is it not you?  Byr. 
I will not tell you that:  
But tell me on what end he shall arrive.  Labross. 
My son, I see, that he whose end is cast  
In this set figure, is of Noble parts,  
And by his military valour raised,  
To princely honours; and may be a king,  
But that I see a Caput Algol here,  
That hinders it I fear.  Byr. 
A Caput Algol?  
What's that I pray?  Labross. 
Forbear to ask me, son,  
You bid me speak, what fear bids me conceal.  Byr. 
You have no cause to fear, and therefore speak.  Labross. 
You'll rather wish you had been ignorant,  
Then be instructed in a thing so ill.  Byr. 
Ignorance is an idle salve for ill,  
And therefore do not urge me to enforce,  
What I would freely know: for by the skill  
Shown in thy aged hairs, I'll lay thy brain  
Here scattered at my feet, and seek in that,  
What safely thou must utter with thy tongue,  
If thou deny it.  Labross. 
Will you not allow me  
To hold my peace? what less can I desire?  
If not, be pleased with my constrained speech.  Byr. 
Was ever man yet punished for expressing  
What he was charged? be free, and speak the worst.  Labross. 
Then briefly this; the man hath lately done  
An action that will make him lose his head.  Byr. 
Cursed be thy throat & soul, Raven, screech-owl, hag.  Labross. 
O hold, for heavens sake hold.  Byr. 
Hold on, I will,  
Vault, and contractor of all horrid sounds,  
Trumpet of all the miseries in hell,  
Of my confusions; of the shameful end  
Of all my services; witch, fiend, accursed  
For ever be the poison on thy tongue,  
And let the black fume of thy venomed breath,  
Infect the air, shrink heaven, put out the stars,  
And rain so fell and blew a plague on earth,  
That all the world may falter with my fall.  Labross. 
Pity my age, my Lord.  Byr. 
Out prodigy,  
Remedy of pity, mine of flint,  
Whence with my nails and feet, I'll dig enough,  
Horror, and savage cruelty, to build  
Temples to Massacre: dam of devils take thee,  
Hadst thou no better end to crown my parts.  
The Bulls of Colchos, nor his triple neck,  
That howls out Earthquakes; the most mortal vapours,  
That ever stifled and struck dead the fowls,  
That flew at never such a sightly pitch,  
Could not have burnt my blood so.  Labross. 
I told truth,  
And could have flattered you.  Byr. 
O that thou hadst;  
Would I had given thee twenty thousand crowns  
That thou hadst flattered me: there's no joy on earth,  
Never so rational, so pure, and holy,  
But is a jester, Parasite, a Whore,  
In the most worthy parts, with which they please,  
A drunkenness of foul, and a disease.  Labross. 
I knew you not.  Byr. 
Peace dog of Pluto, peace,  
Thou knewst my end to come, not me here present:  
Pox of your halting human knowledges;  
O death! how far off hast thou killed? how soon  
A man may know too much though never nothing?  
Spite of the Stars, and all Astrology,  
I will not lose my head: or if I do,  
A hundred thousand heads shall off before.  
I am a nobler substance them the Stars,  
And shall the baser overrule the better?  
Or are they better, since they are the bigger?  
I have a will, and faculties of choice,  
To do, or not to do: and reason why,  
I do, or not do this; the stars have none,  
They know not why they shine, more than this Taper,  
Nor how they work, nor what: I'll change my course,  
I'll piece-meal pull, the frame of all my thoughts,  
And cast my will into another mould:  
And where are all your Caput Algol's then?  
Your Planets all, being underneath the earth,  
At my nativity: what can they do?  
Malignant in aspects? in bloody houses?  
Wild fire consume them; one poor cup of wine,  
More than I use, that my weak brain will bear,  
Shall make them drunk and reel out of their spheres,  
For any certain act they can enforce.  
O that mine arms were wings, that I might fly,  
And pluck out of their hearts, my destiny!  
I'll wear those golden Spurs upon my heels,  
And kick at fate; be free all worthy spirits,  
And stretch yourselves, for greatness and for height:  
Untruss your slaveries, you have height enough,  
Beneath this steep heaven to use all your reaches,  
'Tis too far off, to let you, or respect you.  
Give me a spirit that on this life's rough sea,  
loves t'have his sails filled with a lusty wind,  
Even till his Sail-yards tremble; his Masts crack,  
And his rapt ship run on her side so low  
That she drinks water, and her keel ploughs air;  
There is no danger to a man, that knows  
What life and death is: there's not any law,  
Exceeds his knowledge; neither is it lawful  
That he should stoop to any other law.  
He goes before them, and commands them all,  
That to himself is a law rational. Exit.   

ACTVS 4. SCE. I.  Enter D'Aumont, with Crequi. 
The duke of Byron is returned from England,  
And (as they say) was Princely entertained,  
Schooled by the matchless Queen there, who I hear  
Spoke most divinely; and would gladly hear,  
Her speech reported.  Cre. 
I can serve your turn,  
As one that speaks from other's not from her,  
And thus it is reported at his parting,  
THus Monsieur Du Byron you have beheld,  
Our Court proportioned to our little kingdom.  
In every entertainment; yet our mind,  
To do you all the rites of your repair,  
Is as unbounded as the ample air.  
What idle pains have you bestowed to see  
A poor old woman? who in nothing lives  
More, than in true affections, borne your king;  
And in the perfect knowledge she hath learned,  
Of his good knights, and servants of your sort.  
We thank him that he keeps the memory  
Of us and all our kindness; but must say,  
That it is only kept; and not laid out  
To such affectionate profit as we wish;  
Being so much set on fire with his deserts,  
That they consume us; not to be restored  
By your presentment of him; but his person;  
And we had thought, that he whose virtues fly  
So beyond wonder, and the reach of thought,  
Should check at eight hours sail, and his high spirit  
That stoops to fear, less than the Poles of heaven;  
Should doubt an under billow of the Sea,  
And (being a Sea) be sparing of his streams;  
And I must blame all you that may advise him;  
That (having helped him through all martial dangers)  
You let him stick, at the kind rites of peace,  
Considering all the forces I have sent,  
To set his martial seas up in firm walls,  
On both his sides for him to pass at pleasure;  
Did plainly open him a guarded way  
And led in Nature to this friendly shore,  
But here is nothing worth his personal sight,  
Here are no walled Cities; for that Crystal  
Sheds with his light, his hardness, and his height  
About our thankful person, and our Realm;  
Whose only aid, we ever yet desired;  
And now I see, the help we sent to him,  
Which should have swum to him in our own blood,  
Had it been needful; (our affections  
Being more given to his good, than he himself)  
Ends in the actual right it did his state,  
And ours is slighted; all our worth is made,  
The common-stock, and bank; from whence are served  
All men's occasions; yet (thanks to heaven)  
Their gratitudes are drawn dry; not our bounties.  
And you shall tell your King, that he neglects  
Old friends for new; and sets his soothed Ease  
Above his honour; Marshals policy  
In rank before his justice; and his profit  
Before his royalty: his humanity gone,  
To make me no repayment of mine own.  D'Au. 
What answered the Duke?  Cre. 
In this sort.  
Your highness sweet speech hath no sharper end,  
Than he would wish his life; if he neglected,  
The least grace you have named; but to his wish,  
Much power is wanting: the green roots of war,  
Not yet so close cut up, but he may dash  
Against their relics to his utter ruin,  
Without more near eyes, fixed upon his feet,  
Than those that look out of his country's soil,  
And this may well excuse his personal presence,  
Which yet he oft hath longed to set by yours:  
That he might imitate the Majesty,  
Which so long peace hath practised, and made full,  
In your admired appearance; to illustrate  
And rectify his habit in rude war.  
And his will to be here, must needs be great,  
Since heaven hath throned so true a royalty here,  
That he thinks no king absolutely crowned,  
Whose temples have not stood beneath this sky,  
And whose height is not hardened with these stars,  
Whose influences for this altitude,  
distilled, and wrought in with this temperate air,  
And this division of the Element  
Have with your reign, brought: forth more worthy spirits,  
For counsel, valour, height of wit, and art,  
Than any other region of the earth:  
Or were brought forth to all your ancestors,  
And as a cunning Orator, reserves  
His fairest similes, best-adorning figures,  
Chief matter, and most moving arguments  
For his conclusion; and doth then supply  
His ground-streams laid before, glides over them,  
Makes his full depth seen through; and so takes up,  
His audience in applauses past the clouds.  
So in your government, conclusive nature,  
(Willing to end her Excellence in earth  
When your foot shall be set upon the stars)  
Shows all her Sovereign Beauties, Ornaments,  
Virtues, and Raptures; overtakes her works  
In former Empires, makes them but your foils,  
Swells to her full Sea, and again doth drown  
The world, in admiration of your crown.  D'Au. 
He did her (at all parts) confessed right.  Cre. 
She took it yet, but as a part of Courtship,  
And said, he was the subtle Orator,  
To whom he did too gloriously resemble,  
Nature in her, and in her government,  
He said, he was no Orator, but a Soldier,  
More than this air, in which you breathe hath made me,  
My studious love, of your rare government,  
And simple truth, which is most eloquent,  
Your Empire is so amply absolute,  
That even your Theatres show more comely rule,  
True noblesse, royalty, and happiness  
Then others' courts: you make all state before  
Utterly obsolete; all to come, twice sod.  
And therefore doth my royal Sovereign wish  
Your years may prove, as vital, as your virtues,  
That (standing on his Turrets this way turned,  
Ordering and fixing his affairs by yours)  
He may at last, on firm grounds, pass your Seas,  
And see that Maiden-sea of Majesty,  
In whose chaste arms, so many kingdoms lie.  D' Au. 
When came she to her touch of his ambition?  Cre. 
In this speech following, which I thus remember.  
If I hold any merit worth his presence,  
Or any part of that, your Courtship gives me,  
My subjects have bestowed it; some in counsel,  
In action some, and in obedience all;  
For none knows, with such proof as you my Lord,  
How much a subject may renown his Prince,  
And how much Princes of their subjects hold;  
In all the services that ever subject  
Did for his Sovereign; he that best deserved  
Must (in comparison) except, Byron;  
And to win this prize clear; without the maims  
Commonly given men by ambition,  
When all their parts lie open to his view,  
Shows continence, past their other excellence,  
But for a subject to affect a kingdom,  
Is like the Camel, that of jove begged horns,  
And such mad-hungry men, as well may eat,  
Hot coals of fire, to feed their natural heat;  
For, to aspire to competence with your king  
What subject is so gross, and Giantly?  
He having now a dauphin borne to him,  
Whose birth, ten days before, was dreadfully  
ushered with Earthquakes, in most parts of Europe,  
And that gives all men, cause enough to fear  
All thought of competition with him.  
Commend us good my Lord, and tell our Brother  
How much we joy, in that his royal issue,  
And in what prayers, we raise our heart to heaven,  
That in more terror to his foes, and wonder  
He may drink Earthquakes, and devour the thunder,  
So we admire your valour, and your virtues,  
And ever will contend, to win their honour.  
Then spoke she to Crequie, and Prince D' Auvergne,  
And gave all gracious farewells; when Byron  
Was thus encountered by a Councillor  
Of great and eminent name, and matchless merit:  
I think (my Lord) your princely dauphin bears  
Arion in his Cradle, through your kingdom,  
In the sweet Music joy strikes from his birth.  
He answered; and good right; the cause commands it.  
But (said the other) had we a fift Henry,  
To claim his old right: and one man to friend,  
Whom you well know my Lord, that for his friendship  
Were promised the Vice-royalty of France,  
We would not doubt of conquest, in despite  
Of all those windy Earthquakes. He replied;  
Treason was never guide to English conquests,  
And therefore that doubt shall not fright our dauphin;  
Nor would I be the friend to such a foe,  
For all the royalties in Christendom.  
Fix there your foot (said he) I only give  
False fire, and would be loath to shoot you of:  
He that wins Empire with the loss of faith,  
outbuys it; and will bankrupt; you have laid  
A brave foundation, by the hand of victory:  
Put not the roof to fortune, foolish statuaries,  
That under little Saints suppose, great bases  
Make less, to sense, the Saints; and so where fortune,  
Advanceth vile minds, to states great and noble,  
She much more exposeth them to shame,  
Not able to make good, and fill their bases,  
With a conformed structure; I have found,  
(Thanks to the blesser of my search) that counsels,  
Held to the line of justice; still produce,  
The surest states, and greatest, being sure,  
Without which fit assurance, in the greatest,  
As you may see a mighty promontory  
More digged and under-eaten, then may warrant,  
A safe supportance, to his hanging brows,  
All passengers avoid him, shun all ground  
That lies within his shadow, and bear still  
A flying eye upon him, so great men  
Corrupted in their ground, and building out.  
Too swelling fronts, for their foundations;  
When most they should be propped, are most forsaken,  
And men will rather thrust into the storms  
Of better grounded States, then take a shelter  
Beneath their ruinous, and fearful weight;  
Yet they, so oversee, their faulty bases,  
That they remain securer in conceit:  
And that security, doth worse presage  
Their near destructions, than their eaten grounds;  
And therefore heaven itself is made to us  
A perfect hierogliphic to express,  
The Idleness of such security,  
And the grave labour, of a wise distrust,  
In both sorts of the all-enclying stars;  
Where all men note this difference in their shining,  
As plain as they distinguish either hand;  
The fixed stars manner, and the erring, stand.  D' Aum. 
How took he this so worthy admonition?  Cre. 
Gravely applied (said he) and like the man,  
Whom all the world says, overrules the stars;  
Which are divine books to us; and are read  
By understanders only, the true objects,  
And chief companions of the truest men;  
And (though I need it not) I thank your counsel,  
That never yet was idle, But sphere-like,  
Still moves about, and is the continent  
To this blessed I'll.   

ACT. 5. SCEN. 1.  Enter Byron, D' Auergne, Laffin. Byr. 
The Circle of this embassy is closed,  
For which I long have longed, for mine own ends;  
To see my faithful, and leave courtly friends,  
To whom I came( methought) with such a spirit,  
As you have seen, a lusty courser show,  
That hath been long time at his manger tied;  
High fead, alone, and when (his headstall broken)  
He runs his prison, like a trumpet neighs,  
Cuts air, in high curvets, and shakes his head:  
(With wanton stopings, twixt his forelegs) mocking  
The heavy centre; spreads his flying crest,  
Like to an Ensign, hedge, and ditches leaping,  
Till in the fresh meat, at his natural food  
He sees free fellows, and hath met them free:  
And now (good friend) I would be feign informed,  
What our right Princely Lord, the duke of Savoy  
Hath thought on, to employ my coming home.  Laf. 
To try the Kings trust in you, and withal,  
How hot he trails on our conspiracy:  
He first would have you, beg the government,  
Of the important Citadel of Bourg:  
Or to place in it, any you shall name:  
Which willbe wondrous fit, to march before,  
His other purposes; and is a fort  
He rates, in love, above his patrimony;  
To make which fortress worthy of your suit:  
He vows (if you obtain it) to bestow  
His third fair daughter, on your excellence,  
And hopes the King will not deny it you.  Byr. 
Deny it me? deny me such a suit?  
Who will he grant, if he deny it me.  Laf. 
He'll find some politic shift to do't, I fear.  Bir. 
What shift? or what evasion can he find,  
What one patch is there in all policy's shop,  
(That botcher up of Kingdoms) that can mend  
The brack betwixt us, any way denying.  D' Au. 
That's at your peril:  Byr. 
Come, he dares not do't.  D' Au. 
Dares not? presume not so; you know (good duke)  
That all things he thinks fit to do, he dares.  Byr. 
By heaven I wonder at you, I will ask it,  
As sternly, and secure of all repulse  
As th' ancient Persians did when they implored,  
Their idol fire to grant them any boon;  
With which they would descend into a flood,  
And threaten there to quench it, if they failed,  
Of that they asked it:  Laffi. 
Said like your king's King;  
Cold hath no act in depth, nor are suits wrought  
(Of any high price) that are coldly sought:  
I'll haste, and with your courage, comfort Savoy. Exit Laffin.  D' Au. 
I am your friend (my Lord) and will deserve  
That name, with following any course you take;  
Yet (for your own sake) I could wish your spirit  
Would let you spare all broad terms of the King,  
Or, on my life you will at last repent it:  Byr. 
What can he do?  D' Au. 
All that you can not fear.  Byr. 
You fear too much, be by, when next I see him,  
And see how I will urge him in this suit,  
He comes, mark you, that think  
He will not grant it.  Enter Henry, Esp. Soiss. Ia. 
I am become a suitor to your highness.  Hen. 
For what, my Lord, 'tis like you shall obtain.  Byr. 
I do not much doubt that; my services,  
I hope have more strength in your good conceit  
Then to receive repulse, in such requests.  Hen. 
What is it?  Byr. 
That you would bestow on one whom I shall name,  
The keeping of the Citadel of Bourg,  Hen. 
Excuse me sir, I must not grant you that.  Byr. 
Not grant me this suit?  Hen. 
It is not fit I should;  
You are my governor in Burgundy,  
And Province governors, that command in chief,  
Ought not to have the charge of fortresses;  
Besides, it is the chief key of my kingdom,  
That opens towards italy, and must therefore,  
Be given to one that hath immediately  
Dependence on us.  Byr: 
These are wondrous reasons,  
Is not a man depending on his merits  
As fit to have the charge of such a key  
As one that merely hangs upon your humours?  Hen: 
Do not enforce your merits so yourself;  
It takes away their luster, and reward.  Byr: 
But you will grant my suit?  Hen: 
I swear I cannot  
Keeping the credit of my brain and place.  Byr: 
Will you deny me then?  Hen: 
I am enforced;  
I have no power, more than yourself in things  
That are beyond my reason.  Byr: 
Then myself?  
That's a strange sleight in your comparison;  
Am I become th'example of such men  
As have lest power? Such a diminutive?  
I was comparative in the better sort;  
And such a King as you, would say I cannot,  
Do such; or such a thing; were I as great  
In power as he; even that indefinite he,  
Expressed me full: This Moon is strangely changed;  Hen: 
How can I help it? would you have a King  
That hath a white beard; have so green a brain?  Byr: 
A plague of brain; what doth this touch your brain?  
You must give me more reason or I swear  Hen: 
Swear; what do you swear?  Byr: 
I Swear you wrong me,  
And deal not like a King to jest, and sleight,  
A man that you should curiously reward;  
Tell me of your grey beard? it is not grey  
With care to recompense me, who eased your care.  Hen: 
You have been recompensed, from head to foot.  Byr: 
With a distrusted dukedom: Take your dukedom  
Bestowed on me again; It was not given  
For any love, but fear, and force of shame;  Hen: 
Yet 'twas your honour; which if you respect not,  
Why seek you this Addition?  Byron: 
Since this honour,  
Would show you loved me to, in trusting me,  
Without which love, and trust; honour is shame;  
A very Pageant, and a property:  
Honour, with all his Adjuncts, I deserve,  
And you quit my deserts, with your grey beard.  Hen: 
Since you expostulate the matter so;  
I tell you plain; Another reason is  
Why I am moved to make you this denial  
That I suspect you to have had intelligence  
With my vowed enemies.  Byr: 
Misery of virtue,  
Ill is made good, with worse? This reason pours  
Poison, for Balm, into the wound you made;  
You make me mad, and rob me of my soul,  
To take away my tried love, and my Truth;  
Which of my labours, which of all my wounds,  
Which overthrow, which Battle won for you,  
Breeds this suspicion? Can the blood of faith,  
(Lost in all these to find it proof, and strength)  
Beget disloyalty? all my rain is fallen,  
Into the horse-fair; springing pools and mire;  
And not in thankful grounds, or fields of fruit;  
Fall then before us, O thou flaming Crystal,  
That art the uncorrupted Register  
Of all men's merits: And remonstrate here,  
The fights, the dangers, the affrights and horrors,  
Whence I have rescued this unthankful King:  
And show (commixed with them) the joys, the glories  
Of his state then: Then his kind thoughts of me:  
Than my deservings: Now my infamy:  
But I will be mine own King: I will see,  
That all your Chronicles be filled with me,  
That none but I, and my renowned Sire  
Be said to win the memorable fields  
Of Arques and Deep: and none but we of all  
Kept you from dying there, in an Hospital;  
None but myself, that won the day at Dreux:  
A day of holy name, and needs, no night:  
Nor none but I at Fountain Francois burst,  
The heart strings of the leaguers; I alone,  
Took Amiens in these arms and held her fast,  
In spite of all the Pitchy fires she cast,  
And clouds of bullets poured upon my breast,  
Till she showed yours; and took her natural form,  
Only myself (married to victory)  
Did people Artois, Douay, picardy,  
Bethune, and Saint Paul, Bapaume, and Courcelles,  
With her triumphant issue;  Hen. 
Ha ha ha, Exit,  Byron drawing and is held by D'Au. D'Au. 
O hold my Lord; for my sake, mighty spirit.  Exit. Enter Byron Dau following unseen. Byr. 
Respect, Revenge, slaughter repay for laughter,  
What's 'grave in Earth, what awful? what abhorred?  
If my rage be ridiculous? I will make it,  
The law and rule of all things serious.  
So long as such as he  
Are suffered, soothed and wrest all right, to safety  
So long is mischief gathering massacres,  
For their cursed kingdoms; which I will prevent,  
Laughter? I'll fright it from him, far as he,  
Hath cast irrevocable shame; which ever,  
Bring found is lost and lost returneth never;  
Should Kings cast of their bounties, with their dangers?  
He that can warm at fires, where virtue burns,  
Hunt pleasure through her torments; nothing feel,  
Of all his subjects suffer; but (long hid)  
In wants, and miseries, and having passed  
Through all the gravest shapes, of worth and honour,  
(For all Heroic fashions to be learned,  
By those hard lessons) show an antic vizard,  
Who would not wish him rather hewed to nothing,  
Then left so monstrous? slight my services?  
Drown the dead noises of my sword, in laughter?  
My blows, as but the passages of shadows,  
Over the highest and most barren hills,  
And use me, like, no man; but as he took me  
Into a desert, gashed with all my wounds,  
Sustained for him, and buried me in flies;  
Forth vengeance then, and open wounds in him  
Shall let in Spain, and Savoy.  Offers to draw and D'Au: again holds him. D'Au: 
O my Lord,  
This is to large a licence given your fury;  
Give time to it, what reason, suddenly,  
Can not extend, respite doth oft supply.  Byr. 
While respite, holds revenge, the wrong redoubles,  
And so the shame of sufferance, it torments me,  
To think what I endure, at his shrunk hands,  
That scorns the gift, of one poor for't to me:  
That have subdued for him; O injury,  
Forts, Cities, Countries, ay, and yet my fury. Exeunt.  Hen. 
Byron?  D'Au. 
My Lord? the King calls,  Hen. 
Turn I pray,  
How now? from whence flow these distracted faces?  
From what attempt return they? as disclaiming,  
Their late Heroic bearer? what, a pistol?  
Why, good my Lord, can mirth make you so wrathful?  Byr. 
Mirth? 'twas mockery, a contempt; a scandal  
To my renown for ever: a repulse,  
As miserably cold, as Stygian water,  
That from sincere earth issues, and doth break  
The strongest vessels, not to be contained,  
But in the tough hoof of a patient Ass.  Hen. 
My Lord, your judgement is not competent,  
In this dissension, I may say of you;  
As Fame says of the ancient Eleans,  
That, in th' olympian contentions,  
They ever were the justest Arbitrators,  
If none of them contended, nor were parties;  
Those that will moderate disputations well,  
Must not themselves affect the coronet;  
For as the air, contained within our ears:  
If it be not in quiet; nor refrains,  
Troubling our hearing, with offensive sounds;  
But our affected instrument of hearing,  
Replete with noise, and singings in itself,  
It faithfully receives no other voices;  
So, of all judgements, if within themselves  
They suffer spleen, and are tumultuous;  
They can not equal differences without them;  
And this wind, that doth sing so in your ears,  
I know, is no disease bred in yourself;  
But whispered in by others; who in swelling  
Your veins with empty hope of much, yet able,  
To perform nothing; are like shallow streams,  
That make themselves so many heavens; to sight;  
Since you may see in them, the Moon, and Stars,  
The blue space of the air; as far from us,  
(To our weak senses) in those shallow streams  
As if they were as deep, as heaven is high;  
Yet with your middle finger only, sound them,  
And you shall pierce them to the very earth;  
And therefore leave them, and be true to me  
Or you'll be left by all; or be like one  
That in cold nights will needs have all the fire,  
And there is held by others, and embraced  
Only to burn him: your fire willbe inward,  
Which not another deluge can put out:  Byron kneels while the King goes on. 
O innocence the sacred amulet,  
'gainst all the poisons of infirmity:  
Of all misfortune, injury, and death,  
That makes a man, in tune still in himself;  
Free from the hell to be his own accuser,  
Ever in quiet, endle, joy enjoying;  
No strife, nor no sedition in his powers:  
No motion in his will, against his reason,  
No thought 'gainst thought, Nor (as 'twere in the confines  
Of wishing, and repenting) doth possess  
Only a way ward, and tumultuous peace,  
But (all parts in him, friendly and secure,  
Fruitful of all best things in all worst Seasons)  
He can with every wish, be in their plenty,  
When, the infectious guilt of one foul crime,  
Destroys the free content of all our time.  Byr: 
'tis all acknowledged, and, (though all too late)  
Here the short madness of my anger ends:  
If ever I did good I locked it safe  
In you, th'impregnable defence of goodness:  
If ill, I press it with my penitent knees  
To that unsounded depth, whence nought returneth.  Hen: 
'tis music to mine ears: rise then for ever,  
Quit of what guilt soever, till this hour,  
And nothing touched in honour or in spirit,  
Rise without flattery, rise by absolute merit.  Enter: Esp: to the King, Byron: etc. Enter Savoy with three Ladies. Esp: 
Sir if it please you to be taught any Courtship take you to your stand: Savoy is at it with three Mistresses at once he loves each of them best, yet All differently.  Hen: 
For the time he hath been here, he hath talked a Volume greater than the Turks Alcaron; stand up close; his lips go still  Sau: 
Excuse me, excuse me; The King has ye all;  1. 
True Sir, in honourable subjection.  2. 
To the which we are bound by our loyalty.  Sau: 
Nay your excuse, your excuse, intend me for affection? you are all bearers of his favours; and deny him not your opposition by night.  3 
You say rightly in that; for therein we oppose us to his command.  1. 
In the which he never yet priest us.  2. 
Such is the benediction of our peace.  Sau: 
You take me still in flat misconstruction, and conceive not by me.  1 
Therein we are strong in our own purposes; for it were something scandalous for us to conceive by you.  2, 
Though there might be question made of your fruitfulness, yet dry weather in harvest does no harm.  Hen. 
They will talk him into Savoy; he begins to hunt down.  Sau. 
As the King is, and hath been, a most admired, and the most unmatchable soldier, so hath he been, and is, a sole excellent, and unparalleled Courtier.  Hen. 
Povure Amy Merciè.  1. 
Your highness does the king but right sir.  2. 
And heaven shall bless you for that justice,  
With plentiful store of want in ladies' affections.  Sau. 
You are cruel, and will not vouchsafe me audience to any conclusion.  1. 
Beseech your grace conclude, that we may present our curtsies to you, and give you the adieu.  Sau. 
It is said, the king will bring an army into Savoy.  2 
Truly we are not of his counsel of war.  Sau. 
Nay but vouchsafe me.  3. 
Vouchsafe him, vouchsafe him, else there's no play in't.  1. 
Well I vouchsafe your Grace.  Sau. 
Let the king bring an army into Savoy, and I'll find him sport for forty years.  Hen. 
Would I were sure of that, I should then have a long gay, and a merry.  1. 
I think your Grace would play with his army at Balloon.  2. 
My faith, and that's a martial recreation.  3. 
It is next to impious courting.  Sau. 
I am not he that can set my Squadrons overnight, by midnight leap my horse, curry seven miles, and by three, leap my mistress; return to mine army again, and direct as I were infatigable, I am no such tough soldier.  1. 
Your disparity is believed sir.  2. 
And 'tis a piece of virtue to tell true.  3. 
God's me, the king,  Sau. 
Well, I have said nothing that may offend.  1. 
'tis hoped so,  2. 
If there be any mercy in laughter.  Sau. 
I'll take my leave.  
After the tedious stay my love hath made,  
(Most worthy to command our earthly zeal)  
I come for pardon, and to take my leave;  
Affirming though I reap no other good,  
By this my voyage; but t' have seen a Prince  
Of greatness, in all grace so past report;  
I nothing should repent me, and to show,  
Some token of my gratitude, I have sent,  
Into your treasury, the greatest jewels,  
In all my Cabinet of Beatrice.  
And of my late-deceased wife, th'Infanta.  
Which are two Basigus, and their ewers of crystal,  
Never yet valued for their workmanship,  
Nor the exceeding riches of their matter  
And to your stable, (worthy duke of Byron,  
I have sent in two of my fairest horses.  Byr. 
Sent me your horses? upon what desert?  
I entertain no presents, but for merits;  
Which I am far from at your highness hands;  
As being of all men to you the most stranger,  
There is as ample bounty in refusing;  
As in bestowing, and with this I quit you.  Sau. 
Then have I lost nought but my poor good will,  Hen. 
Well cousin, I with all thanks, welcome that;  
And the rich arguments with which you prove it,  
Wishing I could, to your wish welcome you;  
Draw, for your marquisate, the articles;  
Agreed on in our composition,  
And it is yours, but where you have purposed,  
(In your advices) my design for Milan,  
I will have no war with the king of Spain,  
Unless his hopes prove weary of our peace;  
And (Princely cousin) it is far from me,  
To think your wisdom, needful of my counsel,  
Yet love, oft-times must offer things unneedful;  
And therefore I would counsel you to hold  
All good terms, with his Majesty of Spain:  
If any troubles should be stirred betwixt you,  
I would not stir therein, but to appease them;  
I have too much care of my royal word,  
To break a Peace so just and consequent,  
Without force of precedent injury:  
Endless desires are worthless of just Princes,  
And only proper to the swinge of tyrants.  Sau. 
At all parts spoke like the most christian king,  
I take my humblest leave, and pray your Highness,  
To hold me as your servant, and poor kinsman,  
Who wisheth no supremer happiness  
Than to be yours: To you (right worthy Princes)  
I wish for all your favours poured on me  
The love of all these Ladies mutually,  
And (so they please their Lords) that they may please  
Themselves by all means. And be you assured  
(Most lovely Princesses) as of your lives,  
You cannot be true women, if true wives. Exit.  Hen. 
Is this he Espernon, that you would needs  
Persuade us courted so absurdly.  Esp. 
This is even he sir, howsoever he hath studied his Parting Courtship.  Hen. 
In what one point seemed he so ridiculous as you would present him?  Esp. 
Behold me sir, I beseech you behold me, I appear to you as the great Duke of Savoy with these three Ladies.  Hen. 
Well sir, we grant your resemblance.  Esp. 
He stole a carriage sir, from Count d'Awergne here.  D'Auer. 
From me sir?  Esp. 
Excuse me sir, from you I assure you: here sir, he lies at the Lady Antoniette, just thus, for the world, in the true posture of Count d'Auuergne.  D'Auer. 
You're exceeding delightsome.  Hen. 
Why is not that well it came in with the organ hose.  Esp. 
Organ hose? a pox an't; let it pipe itself into contempt; he hath stolen it most feloniously, and it graces him like a disease.  Hen. 
I think he stole it from D'Auvergne indeed.  Esp. 
Well, would he had robbed him of all his other diseases, He were then the soundest lord in France.  D'Au. 
As I am sir, I shall stand all weathers with you.  Esp. 
But sir, he has praised you above th'invention of Rhymers.  Hen. 
Wherein? or how?  Esp. 
He took upon him to describe your victories in war, and where he should have said, you were the most absolute soldier in Christendom, (no Ass could have missed it) he delivered you for as pretty a fellow of your hands, as any was in France.  Hen. 
Marry God dild him.  Esp. 
A pox on him.  Hen. 
Well, (to be serious) you know him well  
To be a gallant Courtier: his great wit  
Can turn him into any form he lists,  
More fit to be avoided, then deluded.  
For my Lord Duke of Byron here, well knows,  
That it infecteth, where it doth affect:  
And where it seems to counsel, it conspires.  
With him go all our faults, and from us fly,  
(With all his counsel) all conspiracy.  
Finis Actus Quinti, & ultimi.