The Noble Spanish Soldier Part 20

KING b.l.o.o.d.y Medina, stab'st thou Brutus too?

DAENIA As he is, so are we all.

KING I burn, My brains boil in a cauldron, oh one drop Of water now to cool me.

ONAELIA Oh, let him have physicians.

MEDINA Keep her back.

KING Physicians for my soul, I need none else.

You'll not deny me those. Oh holy father, Is there no mercy hovering in a cloud For me a miserable King so drenched In perjury and murder?

CARDINAL Oh Sir, great store.

KING Come down, come quickly down.

CARDINAL I'll forthwith send For a grave Friar to be your confessor.

KING Do, do.

CARDINAL And he shall cure your wounded soul.

Fetch him good soldier.

BALTHAZAR So good a work, I'll hasten.

[Exit Balthazar.]

KING Onaelia! Oh she's drowned in tears! Onaelia, Let me not die unpardoned at thy hands.

Enter Balthazar, Sebastian as a Friar with others.

CARDINAL Here comes a better surgeon.

SEBASTIAN Hail my good son I come to be thy ghostly father.

KING Ha?

My child! 'Tis my Sebastian, or some spirit Sent in his shape to fright me.

BALTHAZAR 'Tis no goblin, Sir, feel. Your own flesh and blood, and much younger than you though he be bald, and calls you son. Had I been as ready to have cut his sheep's throat, as you were to send him to the shambles <61>, he had bleated no more. There's less chalk upon your score of sins by these round O'es <62>.

KING Oh my dull soul look up, thou art somewhat lighter.

n.o.ble Medina, see Sebastian lives.

Onaelia cease to weep, Sebastian lives.

Fetch me my crown. My sweetest pretty Friar Can my hands do't, I'll raise thee one step higher.

Thou'st been in heaven's house all this while sweet boy?

SEBASTIAN I had but coa.r.s.e cheer.

KING Thou could'st n'er fare better.

Religious houses are those hives where bees Make honey for men's souls. I tell thee boy, A Friary is a cube, which strongly stands, Fas.h.i.+oned by men, supported by heaven's hands.

Orders of holy priesthood are as high I'th eyes of Angels, as a King's dignity.

Both these unto a Crown give the full weight, And both are thine. You that our contract know, See how I seal it with this marriage.

My blessing and Spain's kingdom both be thine.

ALL Long live Sebastian.

ONAELIA Doff that Friar's coa.r.s.e grey.

And since he's crowned a King, clothe him like one.

KING Oh no. Those are right sovereign ornaments.

Had I been clothed so, I had never filled Spain's chronicle with my black calumny.

My work is almost finished. Where's my Queen?

QUEEN Here piecemeal, torn by Furies.

KING Onaelia!

Your hand Paulina too, Onaelia yours.

This hand, the pledge of my twice broken faith, By you usurped is her inheritance.

My love is turned, see as my fate is turned, Thus they today laugh, yesterday which mourned.

I pardon thee my death. Let her be sent Back into Florence with a trebled dowry.

Death comes, oh now I see what late I feared!

A contract broke, though pieced up ne'r so well, Heaven sees, earth suffers, but it ends in h.e.l.l.

King Dies.

ONAELIA Oh, I could die with him.

QUEEN Since the bright sphere I moved in falls, alas what make I here?

Exit Queen.

MEDINA The hammers of black mischief now cease beating, Yet some irons still are heating. You Sir Bridegroom, Set all this while up as a mark to shoot at, We here discharge you of your bedfellow, She loves no barber's was.h.i.+ng <63>.

c.o.c.kADILLIO My b.a.l.l.s are saved then.

MEDINA Be it your charge, so please you reverend Sir, To see the late Queen safely to Florence.

My niece Onaelia, and that trusty soldier, We do appoint to guard the infant King.

Other distractions, time must reconcile.

The State is poisoned like a crocodile.

FINIS