The Complete Plays (71 page)

Cossin, the captain of the Admiral's guard,

20     Placed by my brother, will betray his lord.

Now, Guise, shall Catholics flourish once again,

The head being off, the members cannot stand.

RETES

But look, my lord, there's some in
the Admiral's house
.

Enter
[
GONZAGO
and others
]
into the
ADMIRAL'S
house, and he in his bed
.

ANJOU

In lucky time; come, let us keep this lane

And slay his servants that shall issue out.

GONZAGO
Where is the Admiral?

ADMIRAL
O, let me pray before I die!

GONZAGO
Then pray unto our Lady; kiss this cross.

Stab him
.

ADMIRAL
O God, forgive my sins!

[
Dies
.]

30     
GUISE
Gonzago, what, is he dead?

GONZAGO
Ay, my lord.

GUISE
Then throw him down.

[
The body of the
ADMIRAL
is thrown down
.]

ANJOU
Now, cousin, view him well; it may be it is some other and he escaped.

GUISE

Cousin, 'tis he, I know him by his look.

See where my soldier shot him through the arm;

He
missed him near
, but we have struck him now.

Ah, base
Shatillian
and degenerate,

Chief standard-bearer to the Lutherans,

40     Thus in
despite
of thy religion

The duke of Guise stamps on thy lifeless bulk!

ANJOU

Away with him! Cut off his head and hands,

And send them for a present to the Pope;

And when this just revenge is finished,

Unto
Mount Faucon
will we drag his corse,

And he that living hated so the cross,

Shall, being dead, be hanged
thereon
in chains.

GUISE

Anjou, Gonzago, Retes, if that you three

Will be as resolute as I and Dumaine,

50      There shall not be a Huguenot breathe in France.

ANJOU

I swear by this cross, we'll not be
partial
,

But slay as many as we can come near.

GUISE

Mountsorrell, go shoot the ordnance off,

That they which have already set the street

May know their watchword, then toll the bell,

And so let's forward to the massacre.

MOUNTSORRELL
I will, my lord.

Exit
MOUNTSORRELL
.

GUISE
And now, my lords, let us closely to our business.

ANJOU
Anjou will follow thee.

60     
DUMAINE
And so will Dumaine.

The ordinance being shot off, the bell tolls
.

GUISE
Come, then, let's away.

Exeunt
.

The
GUISE
enters again, with all the rest, with their swords drawn, chasing the
PROTESTANTS
.

GUISE
Tue, tue, tue
!

Let none escape. Murder the Huguenots.

ANJOU
Kill them, kill them!

Exeunt
.

Enter
LOREINE
,
running; the
GUISE
and the rest pursuing him.

GUISE

Loreine, Loreine,
follow Loreine
! Sirrah,

Are you a preacher of these heresies?

LOREINE

I am a preacher of the word of God,

And thou a traitor to thy soul and Him.

GUISE

5     
'Dearly beloved brother'
– thus 'tis written.

He stabs him
[
and
LOREINE
dies
].

ANJOU

Stay
, my lord, let me begin the psalm.

GUISE

Come, drag him away, and throw him in a ditch.

Exeunt.

Enter
MOUNTSORRELL
and knocks at
SEROUNE'S
door
.

SEROUNE'S WIFE
[
within
] Who is that which knocks there?

MOUNTSORRELL
Mountsorrell, from the duke of Guise.

SEROUNE'S WIFE
[
within
] Husband, come down, here's one would speak with you from the duke of Guise.

Enter
SEROUNE
.

SEROUNE
To speak with me, from such a man as he?

MOUNTSORRELL
Ay, ay, for this, Seroune, and thou shalt
ha't
.

Showing his dagger
.

SEROUNE
O, let me pray before I take my
death
.

MOUNTSORRELL
Dispatch then, quickly.

SEROUNE
O
Christ
, my saviour!

10     
MOUNTSORRELL
Christ, villain? Why dar'st thou to presume

to call on Christ, without the intercession of some saint?
Sanctus Jacobus
, he was my saint; pray to him.

SEROUNE
O, let me pray unto my God.

MOUNTSORRELL
Then take this with you.

Stab him. Exit.

Enter
RAMUS
in his study
.

RAMUS

What fearful cries comes from the river
Seine

That frights poor Ramus sitting at his book?

I fear the Guisians have passed the bridge,

And mean once more to menace me.

Enter
TALEUS.

TALEUS

Fly, Ramus, fly, if thou wilt save thy life.

RAMUS

Tell me, Taleus, wherefore should I fly?

TALEUS

The Guisians are

Hard at thy door, and mean to murder us.

Hark, hark, they come. I'll leap out at the window.

10     
RAMUS
Sweet Taleus, stay.

Enter
GONZAGO
and
RETES
.

GONZAGO
Who goes there?

RETES
'Tis Taleus, Ramus' bedfellow.

GONZAGO
What art thou?

TALEUS
I am as Ramus is – a Christian.

RETES
O, let him go, he is a Catholic.

Exit
TALEUS
.

GONZAGO

Come Ramus, more gold, or thou shalt have the stab.

RAMUS

Alas, I am a scholar, how should I have gold?

All that I have is but my stipend from the king,

Which is no sooner received but it is spent.

Enter the
GUISE
and
ANJOU
[
with
DUMAINE, MOUNT-SORRELL
and
SOLDIERS
].

20     
ANJOU
Who have you there?

RETES
'Tis Ramus, the king's Professor of Logic.

GUISE
Stab him.

RAMUS

O, good my lord, wherein hath Ramus been so offencious?

GUISE

Marry, sir, in having a
smack in
all,

And yet didst never sound anything to the depth.

Was it not thou that
scoff' dst the Organon
,

And said it was a heap of vanities?

He that will be a
flat dichotomist
,

And
seen in
nothing but epitomes,

30     Is in your judgement thought a learnèd man;

And he, forsooth, must go and
preach in Germany
,

Excepting
against doctors' axioms,

And
ipse dixi
with this
quiddity
,

Argumentum
testimonii est inartificiale
.

To contradict which, I say: Ramus shall die.

How answer you that? Your
nego argumentum

Cannot serve, sirrah. Kill him.

RAMUS

O, good my lord, let me but speak a word.

ANJOU
Well, say on.

RAMUS

40     Not for my life do I desire this pause,

But in my latter hour to
purge myself
,

In that I know the things that I have wrote,

Which, as I hear, one
Scheckius
takes it ill,

Because
my places
, being but three, contains all his.

I knew the
Organon
to be confused,

And I
reduced
it into better form;

And this for Aristotle will I say,

That he that despiseth him can ne'er

Be good in logic or philosophy;

50     And that's because the blockish
Sorbonnists

Attribute as much unto their works

As to the service of the eternal God.

GUISE

Why suffer you that peasant to declaim?

Stab him, I say, and send him to his friends in hell.

ANJOU

Ne'er was there
collier's son
so full of pride.

Kills him.

GUISE

My lord of Anjou, there are a hundred Protestants

Which we have chased into the river Seine

That swim about and so preserve their lives;

How may we do? I fear me they will live.

DUMAINE

60     Go place some men upon the bridge

With bows and darts to shoot at them they see,

And sink them in the river as they swim.

GUISE

'Tis well advised, Dumaine; go see it straight be done.

[
Exit
DUMAINE
.]

And, in the meantime, my lord, could we devise

To get those
pedants
from the King Navarre

That are tutors to him and the prince of Condé –

ANJOU

For that, let me alone; cousin, stay you here,

And when you see me in, then follow hard.

He
[
ANJOU
]
knocketh, and enter the
KING OF NAVARRE

and
[
the
]
PRINCE OF CONDÉ
,
with their
[
two
]
SCHOOL-

MASTERS
.

How now, my lords, how fare you?

NAVARRE
                 My lord, they say

70     That all the Protestants are massacred.

ANJOU

Ay, so they are, but yet what remedy?

I have done what I could to
stay this broil
.

NAVARRE

But yet, my lord, the report doth run

That you were one that made this massacre.

ANJOU

Who, I? You are deceived, I
rose
but now.

Enter
[
to them
]
GUISE
[
with
GONZAGO, RETES, MOUNT-SORRELL
and
SOLDIERS
].

GUISE

Murder the Huguenots, take those pedants hence.

NAVARRE

Thou traitor, Guise, lay off thy bloody hands.

CONDÉ
Come, let us go tell the king.

Exeunt
[
CONDÉ
and
NAVARRE
].

GUISE
                Come sirs,

I'll
whip you
to death with my poniard's point.

He kills them
[
the
SCHOOLMASTERS
].

80     
ANJOU
Away with them both.

Exit
ANJOU
[
with
SOLDIERS
carrying the bodies
].

GUISE

And now, sirs, for this night let our fury stay.

Yet will we not that the massacre shall end:

Gonzago, post you to Orleans,

Retes to Dieppe, Mountsorrell unto Rouen,

And spare not one that you suspect of heresy.

And now stay that bell, that to
the devil's matins
rings.

Now every man put off his burgonet,

And so
convey him closely
to his bed.

Exeunt.

Enter
ANJOU
,
with two
LORDS OF POLAND
.

ANJOU

My lords of Poland, I must needs confess

The offer of your
Prince Electors
far

Beyond the reach of my deserts;

For Poland is, as I have been informed,

A martial people, worthy such a king

As hath sufficient counsel in himself

To lighten doubts and frustrate subtle foes;

And such a king whom practice long hath taught

To please himself with manage of the wars,

10      The greatest wars within our Christian bounds –

I mean our wars against the
Muscovites
,

And on the other side against the Turk,

Rich princes both, and mighty emperors.

Yet by my brother Charles, our king of France,

And by his grace's council, it is thought

That if I undertake to wear the crown