The Complete Works of William Shakespeare - Israel Gollancz William Shakespeare [1843]
In 1994 a professional handwriting expert, Charles Hamilton, claimed the manuscript of this play to be the lost Shakespearean play Cardenio. Most literary scholars reject his argument and the position of mainstream literary scholarship is that the play is by Thomas Middleton, though the play does draw on elements of Don Quixote, as Cardenio is assumed to have done.
CONTENTS
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
ACT I.I. THE COURT
ACT I.II. ANSELMUS' HOUSE
ACT II.I. GOVIANUS' HOUSE
ACT II.II. ANSELMUS' HOUSE
ACT II.III. THE COURT
ACT III.I. GOVIANUS' HOUSE
ACT IV.I. ANSELMUS' HOUSE
ACT IV.II. THE COURT
ACT IV.III. A CATHEDRAL, BEFORE THE LADY'S TOMB
ACT IV.IV. THE LADY'S TOMB
ACT V.I. ANSELMUS' HOUSE, THE BEDCHAMBER
ACT V.II. THE COURT
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
The TYRANT, the usurping king
GOVIANUS, the deposed king
MEMPHONIUS }
SOPHONIRUS } nobles
HELVETIUS }
FIRST and SECOND NOBLES
The LADY, daughter to Helvetius, afterwards her spirit
VOTARIUS, friend to Anselmus
ANSELMUS, brother to Govianus
The WIFE to Anselmus
LEONELLA, her waiting-woman
BELLARIUS, lover to Leonella
A GUARD
SERVANT to Govianus
FIRST and SECOND FELLOWS
FOUR SOLDIERS
PAGE to Govianus
TWO SERVANTS to Anselmus
Nobles, Fellows, Attendants to the Tyrant] Acts and Scenes
ACT I.i. The court
Enter the new usurping Tyrant; the Nobles of his faction, Memphonius, Sophonirus, Helvetius, with others; the right heir Govianus, deposed. A sennet.
TYRANT
Thus high, my lords, your powers and constant loves
Hath fixed our glories like unmoved stars
That know not what it is to fall or err.
We're now the kingdom's love, and he that was
Flattered awhile so stands before us now
Readier for doom than dignity.
GOVIANUS
So much
Can the adulterate friendship of mankind,
False fortune's sister, bring to pass on kings,
And lay usurpers sunning in their glories
Like adders in warm beams.
TYRANT
There was but one
In whom my heart took pleasure (amongst women),
One in the whole creation, and in her
You dared to be my rival. Was't not bold?
Now we are king, she'll leave the lower path
And find the way to us. Helvetius,
It is thy daughter. Happier than a king
And far above him, for she kneels to thee
Whom we have kneeled to, richer in one smile
That came from her than she in all thy blessings!
If thou be'st proud, thou art to be forgiven;
It is no deadly sin in thee. While she lives,
High lust is not more natural to youth
Than that to thee: be not afraid to die in't;
'Tis but the sin of joy. There is no gladness
But has a pride it lives by--that's the oil
That feeds it into flames. Let her be sent for,
And honourably attended, as beseems
Her that we make our queen. My [lords] Memphonius
And Sophonirus, take into your care
The royal business of my heart. Conduct her
With a respect equal with that to us.
If more, it shall be pardon'd; so still err.
You honour us, but ourself honours her.
MEMPHONIUS
[Aside] Strange fortune! Does he make his queen of her?
Exit Memphonius.
SOPHONIRUS
[Aside] I have a wife; would she were so preferred!
I could be but her subject; so I'm now.
I allow her her one friend to stop her mouth
And keep her quiet; give him his table free,
And the huge feeding of his great stone-horse
With which he rides in pomp about the city
Only to speak to gallants in bay-windows.
Marry, his lodging he pays dearly for:
He gets me all my children; there I save by't.
Beside, I draw my life out by the bargain
Some twelve years longer than the times appointed,
When my young prodigal gallant kicks up's heels
At one and thirty, and lies dead and rotten
Some five and forty years before I'm coffined.
'Tis the right way to keep a woman honest;
One friend is barricado to a hundred
And keeps 'em out. Nay, more, a husband's sure
To have his children all of one man's getting,
And he that performs best can have no better.
I'm e'en as happy then that save