  A Room in Montsurry's House.] Enter Monts[urry] and Tamyra. Montsurry. Who have you let into my house? Tamyra. I? none. Mont. Tis false; I savour the rancke bloud of foes In every corner. Tam. That you may doe well; It is the bloud you lately shed you smell. Mont. Sdeath! the vault opens. The gulfe opens. Tam. What vault? hold your sword. 5 Clermont ascends. Clermont. No, let him use it. Mont. Treason! murther! murther! Cler. Exclaime not; tis in vaine, and base in you, Being one to onely one. Mont. O bloudy strumpet! Cler. With what bloud charge you her? it may be mine As well as yours; there shall not any else10 Enter or touch you: I conferre no guards, Nor imitate the murtherous course you tooke, But single here will have my former challenge Now answer'd single; not a minute more My brothers bloud shall stay for his revenge,15 If I can act it; if not, mine shall adde A double conquest to you, that alone Put it to fortune now, and use no ods. Storme not, nor beate your selfe thus gainst the dores, Like to a savage vermine in a trap:20 All dores are sure made, and you cannot scape But by your valour. Mont. No, no, come and kill mee. Cler. If you will die so like a beast, you shall; But when the spirit of a man may save you, Doe not so shame man, and a Nobleman. Mont. I doe not show this basenesse that I feare thee, But to prevent and shame thy victory, Which of one base is base, and so Ile die. Cler. Here, then. Mont. Stay, hold! One thought hath harden'd me, He starts up. And since I must afford thee victorie, It shall be great and brave, if one request Thou wilt admit mee. Cler. What's that? Mont. Give me leave To fetch and use the sword thy brother gave mee, When he was bravely giving up his life. Cler. No; Ile not fight against my brothers sword;35 Not that I feare it, but since tis a tricke For you to show your backe. Mont. By all truth, no: Take but my honourable othe, I will not. Cler. Your honourable othe! Plaine truth no place has Where othes are honourable. Tam. Trust not his othe. Hee will lie like a lapwing; when shee flyes Farre from her sought nest, still "Here tis" shee cryes. Mont. Out on thee, damme of divels! I will quite Disgrace thy bravos conquest, die, not fight. Lyes downe. Tam. Out on my fortune, to wed such an abject!45 Now is the peoples voyce the voyce of God; Hee that to wound a woman vants so much, As hee did mee, a man dares never touch. Cler. Revenge your wounds now, madame; I resigne him Up to your full will, since hee will not fight.50 First you shall torture him (as hee did you, And justice wils) and then pay I my vow. Here, take this ponyard. Mont. Sinke earth, open heaven, And let fall vengeance! Tam. Come sir, good sir, hold him. Mont. O shame of women, whither art thou fled!55 Cler. Why (good my lord) is it a greater shame For her then you? come, I will be the bands You us'd to her, prophaning her faire hands. Mont. No, sir, Ile fight now, and the terror be Of all you champions to such as shee.60 I did but thus farre dally; now observe. O all you aking fore-heads that have rob'd Your hands of weapons and your hearts of valour, Joyne in mee all your rages and rebutters, And into dust ram this same race of Furies;65 In this one relicke of the Ambois gall, In his one purple soule shed, drowne it all. Fight. Mont. Now give me breath a while. Cler. Receive it freely. Mont. What thinke y'a this now? Cler. It is very noble, Had it beene free, at least, and of your selfe; And thus wee see (where valour most doth vant) What tis to make a coward valiant. Mont. Now I shall grace your conquest. Cler. That you shall. Mont. If you obtaine it. Cler. True, sir, tis in fortune. Mont. If you were not a D'Ambois, I would scarce75 Change lives with you, I feele so great a change In my tall spirits breath'd, I thinke, with the breath A D'Ambois breathes here; and necessitie (With whose point now prickt on, and so whose helpe My hands may challenge) that doth all men conquer,80 If shee except not you of all men onely, May change the case here. Cler. True, as you are chang'd; Her power, in me urg'd, makes y'another man Then yet you ever were. Mont. Well, I must on. Cler. Your lordship must by all meanes. Mont. Then at all. Fights, and D'Ambois hurts him. [Enter Renel, the Countess, and] Charlotte above. Charlotte. Death of my father, what a shame is this! Sticke in his hands thus! She gets downe. Renel [trying to stop her]. Gentle sir, forbeare! Countess. Is he not slaine yet? Ren. No, madame, but hurt In divers parts of him. Mont. Y'have given it me, And yet I feele life for another vennie.90 Enter Charlotte [below]. Cler. What would you, sir? Char. I would performe this combat. Cler. Against which of us? Char. I care not much if twere Against thy selfe; thy sister would have sham'd To have thy brothers wreake with any man In single combat sticke so in her fingers.95 Cler. My sister! know you her? Tam. I, sir, shee sent him With this kinde letter, to performe the wreake Of my deare servant. Cler. Now, alas! good sir, Thinke you you could doe more? Char. Alas! I doe; And wer't not I, fresh, sound, should charge a man100 Weary and wounded, I would long ere this Have prov'd what I presume on. Cler. Y'have a minde Like to my sister, but have patience now; If next charge speede not, Ile resigne to you. Mont. Pray thee, let him decide it. Cler. No, my lord, 105 I am the man in fate; and since so bravely Your lordship stands mee, scape but one more charge, And, on my life, Ile set your life at large. Mont. Said like a D'Ambois, and if now I die, Sit joy and all good on thy victorie!110 Fights, and fals downe. Mont. Farewell! I hartily forgive thee; wife, And thee; let penitence spend thy rest of life. Hee gives his hand to Cler[mont] and his wife. Cler. Noble and Christian! Tam. O, it breakes my heart. Cler. And should; for all faults found in him before These words, this end, makes full amends and more.115 Rest, worthy soule; and with it the deare spirit Of my lov'd brother rest in endlesse peace! Soft lie thy bones; Heaven be your soules abode; And to your ashes be the earth no lode! Musicke, and the Ghost of Bussy enters, leading the Ghost[s] of the Guise, Monsieur, Cardinall Guise, and Shattilion; they dance about the dead body, and exeunt. Cler. How strange is this! The Guise amongst these spirits,120 And his great brother Cardinall, both yet living! And that the rest with them with joy thus celebrate This our revenge! This certainely presages Some instant death both to the Guise and Cardinall. That the Shattilions ghost to should thus joyne In celebration of this just revenge With Guise that bore a chiefe stroke in his death, It seemes that now he doth approve the act; And these true shadowes of the Guise and Cardinall, Fore-running thus their bodies, may approve130 That all things to be done, as here wee live, Are done before all times in th'other life. That spirits should rise in these times yet are fables; Though learnedst men hold that our sensive spirits A little time abide about the graves135 Of their deceased bodies, and can take, In colde condenc't ayre, the same formes they had When they were shut up in this bodies shade. Enter Aumall. Aumale. O sir, the Guise is slaine! Cler. Avert it heaven! Aum. Sent for to Councill by the King, an ambush (Lodg'd for the purpose) rusht on him, and tooke His princely life; who sent (in dying then) His love to you, as to the best of men. Cler. The worst and most accursed of things creeping On earths sad bosome. Let me pray yee all145 A little to forbeare, and let me use Freely mine owne minde in lamenting him. Ile call yee straight againe. Aum. We will forbeare, And leave you free, sir. Exeunt. Cler. Shall I live, and hee Dead, that alone gave meanes of life to me?150 Theres no disputing with the acts of Kings; Revenge is impious on their sacred persons. And could I play the worldling (no man loving Longer then gaine is reapt or grace from him) I should survive; and shall be wondred at155 Though (in mine owne hands being) I end with him: But friendship is the sement of two mindes, As of one man the soule and body is, Of which one cannot sever but the other Suffers a needfull separation. Ren. I feare your servant, madame: let's descend. Descend Ren[el] & Coun[tess]. Cler. Since I could skill of man, I never liv'd To please men worldly, and shall I in death Respect their pleasures, making such a jarre Betwixt my death and life, when death should make165 The consort sweetest, th'end being proofe and crowne To all the skill and worth wee truely owne? Guise, O my lord, how shall I cast from me The bands and coverts hindring me from thee? The garment or the cover of the minde170 The humane soule is; of the soule, the spirit The proper robe is; of the spirit, the bloud; And of the bloud, the body is the shrowd. With that must I beginne then to unclothe, And come at th'other. Now, then, as a ship175 Touching at strange and farre removed shores, Her men a shore goe, for their severall ends, Fresh water, victuals, precious stones, and pearle, All yet intentive, when the master cals, The ship to put off ready, to leave all180 Their greediest labours, lest they there be left To theeves or beasts, or be the countries slaves: So, now my master cals, my ship, my venture All in one bottome put, all quite put off, Gone under saile, and I left negligent185 To all the horrors of the vicious time, The farre remov'd shores to all vertuous aimes, None favouring goodnesse, none but he respecting Pietie or man-hood—shall I here survive, Not cast me after him into the sea,190 Rather then here live, readie every houre To feede theeves, beasts, and be the slave of power? I come, my lord! Clermont, thy creature, comes. Hee kils himselfe. Enter Aumal, Tamyra, Charlotte. Aum. What! lye and languish, Clermont! Cursed man, To leave him here thus! hee hath slaine himselfe.195 Tam. Misery on misery! O me wretched dame, Of all that breath! all heaven turne all his eyes In harty envie thus on one poore dame. Char. Well done, my brother! I did love thee ever, But now adore thee: losse of such a friend None should survive, of such a brother [none.] With my false husband live, and both these slaine! Ere I returne to him, Ile turne to earth. Enter Renel leading the Countesse. Ren. Horror of humane eyes! O Clermont D'Ambois! Madame, wee staid too long, your servant's slaine.205 Coun. It must be so; he liv'd but in the Guise, As I in him. O follow life mine eyes! Tam. Hide, hide thy snakie head; to cloisters flie; In pennance pine; too easie tis to die. Char. It is. In cloisters then let's all survive. Madame, since wrath nor griefe can helpe these fortunes, Let us forsake the world in which they raigne, And for their wisht amends to God complaine. Count. Tis fit and onely needfull: leade me on; In heavens course comfort seeke, in earth is none. Exeunt. 215 Enter Henry, Espernone, Soissone, and others. Henry. Wee came indeede too late, which much I rue, And would have kept this Clermont as my crowne. Take in the dead, and make this fatall roome (The house shut up) the famous D'Ambois tombe. Exeunt. FINIS. LINENOTES:opens. Emended by ed.; Q, opes. 29 Cler. Here, then. Placed by Q at the end of l. 29. |
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