hopes his contract is cut off,
Which divine justice more exemplifies.

Enter Medina.

MEDINA
Where's the King?

DAENIA
Wrapped up in clouds of lightning.

MEDINA
What has he done? Saw you the contract torn?
As I did here a minion swear he threatened.

ALBA
He tore it not, but burned it.

MEDINA
Openly!

DAENIA
And heaven with us to witness.

MEDINA
Well, that fire
Will prove a catching flame to burn his kingdom.

ALBA
Meet and consult.

MEDINA
No more, trust not the air
With our projections, let us all revenge
Wrongs done to our most noble kinswoman.
Action is honours language, swords are tongues,
Which both speak best, and best do right our wrongs.

Exeunt.

ACT 2 SCENE 2

Enter Onaelia from one way, Cornego another.

CORNEGO
Madam, there's a bear without to speak with you

ONAELIA
A bear?

CORNEGO
It's a man all hair, and that's as bad.

ONAELIA
Who is it?

CORNEGO
'Tis one Master Captain Balthazar.

ONAELIA
I do not know that Balthazar.

CORNEGO He desires to see you: and if you love a water-spaniel before he be shorn, see him.

ONAELIA
Let him come in.

Enter Balthazar.

CORNEGO
Hist; a duck, a duck. There she is, Sir.

BALTHAZAR
A soldier's good wish bless you lady.

ONAELIA
Good wishes are most welcome Sir, to me,
So many bad ones blast me.

BALTHAZAR
Do you not know me?

ONAELIA
I scarce know myself.

BALTHAZAR I have been at tennis Madam, with the king. I gave him fifteen and all his faults, which is much, and now I come to toss a ball with you.

ONAELIA
I am bandied too much up and down already.

CORNEGO
Yes, she has been struck under line, master soldier.

BALTHAZAR
I conceit you, dare you trust yourself alone with me?

ONAELIA
I have been laden with such weights of wrong
That heavier cannot press me. Hence Cornego.

CORNEGO
Hence Cornego? Stay Captain? When man and woman are put together,
Some egg of villainy is sure to be sat upon.

Exit Cornego.

BALTHAZAR What would you say to him should kill this man that hath you so dishonoured?

ONAELIA
Oh, I would Crown him
With thanks, praise, gold and tender of my life.

BALTHAZAR Shall I be that German fencer, and beat all the knocking boys before me? Shall I kill him?

ONAELIA
There's music in the tongue that dares but speak it.

BALTHAZAR That fiddle then is in me, this arm can do it, by poniard, poison or pistol: but shall I do it indeed?

ONAELIA
One step to human bliss is sweet revenge.

BALTHAZAR
Stay. What made you love him?

ONAELIA
His most goodly shape
Married to royal virtues of his mind.

BALTHAZAR Yet now you would divorce all that goodness; and why? For a little lechery of revenge? It's a lie. The burr that sticks in your throat is a throne. Let him out of his mess of kingdoms cut out but one, and lay Sicily, Aragon or Naples or any else upon your trencher <25>, and you will praise bastard <26> for the sweetest wine in the world, and call for another quart of it. 'Tis not because the man has left you, but because you are not the woman you would be that mads you. A she- cuckold is an untameable monster.

ONAELIA
Monster of men thou are, thou bloody villain,
Traitor to him who never injured thee.
Dost thou profess arms, and art bound in honour
To stand up like a brazen wall to guard
Thy king and country, and would'st thou ruin both?

BALTHAZAR
You spur me on to it.

ONAELIA
True;
Worse am I then the horridest fiend in hell
To murder him who I once loved too well:
For thou I could run mad, and tear my hair,
And kill that godless man that turned me vile,
Though I am cheated by a purjurious Prince
Who has done wickedness, at which even heaven
Shakes when the sun beholds it, O yet I'd rather
Ten thousand poisoned poniards stab my breast
Than one should touch his. Bloody slave! I'll play
Myself the hangman, and will butcher thee
If thou but prickest his finger.

BALTHAZAR Sayest thou me so! Give me thy goll <27>, thou are a noble girl. I did play the Devil's part, and roar in a feigned voice, but I am the honestest Devil that ever spat fire. I would not drink that infernal draft of a King's blood, to go reeling to damnation, for the weight of the world in diamonds.

ONAELIA
Art thou not counterfeit?

BALTHAZAR
Now by my scars I am not.

ONAELIA
I'll call thee honest soldier then, and woo thee
To be an often visitant.

BALTHAZAR
Your servant,
Yet must I be a stone upon a hill,
For thou I do no good, I'll not lie still.

Exeunt.

ACT THREE SCENE ONE

Enter Malateste and the Queen.

MALATESTE
When first you came from Florence, would the world
Had with a universal dire eclipse
Been overwhelmed, no more to gaze on day,
That you to Spain had never found the way,
Here to be lost forever.

QUEEN
We from one climate
Drew suspiration <28>. As thou then hast eyes
To read my wrongs, so be thy head an engine
To raise up ponderous mischief to the height,
And then thy hands, the executioners.
A true Italian spirit is a ball
Of wild-fire, hurting most when it seems spent.
Great ships on small rocks, beating oft are rent.
And so, let Spain by us. But Malateste,
Why from the presence did you single me
Into this gallery?

MALATESTE
To show you Madam,
The picture of yourself, but so defaced,
And mangled by proud Spaniards, it would whet
A sword to arm the poorest Florentine
In your just wrongs.

QUEEN
As how? Let's see that picture.

MALATESTE
Here 'tis then: time is not scarce four days old,
Since I, and certain Dons, sharp-witted fellows,
And of good rank, were with two Jesuits
Grave profound scholars, in deep argument
Of various propositions. At the last,
Question was moved touching your marriage
And the King's pre-contract.

QUEEN
So, and what followed?

MALATESTE
Whether it were a question moved by chance,
Or spitefully of purpose, I being there,
And your own Countryman, I cannot tell.
But when much tossing had bandied both the King
And you, as pleased those that took up the racquets.
In conclusion, the Father Jesuits,
To whose subtle music every ear there
Was tied, stood with their lives in stiff defence
Of this opinion - oh pardon me
If I must speak their