Single Life. O fie upon this single life: forego it. Became flowers, precious stones, or eminent stars. Fable. Upon a time, Reputation, Love, and Death, 'Mongst quiet kindred that had nothing left By their dead parents: stay, quoth Reputation ; If once I part from any man I meet, Another. A Salmon, as she swam unto the sea, That for the calmest and fresh time of the year In the market then iny price may be the higher; THE WHITE DEVIL: OR, VITTORIA COROMBONA, A LADY OF VENICE. A TRAGEDY. BY JOHN WEBSTER® The arraignment of Vittoria,—Paulo Giordano Ursini, Duke of Brachiano, for the love of Vittoria Corombona, a Venetian Lady, and at her suggestion, causes her husband Camillo to be murdered. Suspicion falls upon Vittoria, who is tried at Rome, on a double charge of Murder and Incontinence, in the presence of Cardinal Monticelso, Cousin to the deceased Camillo; Francisco de Medicis, Brother-in-Law to Brachiano; the Ambassadors of France, Spain, England, &c. As the arraignment is beginning, the Duke confidently enters the Court. Mon. Forbear, my Lord, here is no place assign'd you: This business, by his holiness, is left To our examination. The Author's Dedication to this Play is so modest, yet so conscious of self-merit withal, he speaks so frankly of the deservings of others, and by implication insinuates his own deserts so ingenuously, that I cannot forbear inserting it, as a specimen how a man may praise himself gracefully and commend others without suspicion of envy. "To the Reader. "In publishing this Tragedy, I do but challenge to myself that liberty which other men have taken before me; not that I affect praise by it, for nos hæc novimus esse nihil; only since it was acted in sʊ open and black a theatre, that it wanted (that which is the only grace and setting out of a tragedy) a full and understanding auditory; and that, since that time I have noted most of the people that come to that play-house resemble those ignorant asses (who, visiting stationers' shops, their use is not to inquire for good books, but new books) I present it to the general view with this confidence, Nec rhoncos metues malignorum Nec scombris tunicas dabis molestas. If it be objected this is no true dramatic poem, I shall easily confess it, non potes in nugas dicere plura meas, ipse ego quam dixi ; willingly, and not ignorantly, have I faulted. For should a man present, to such în auditory, the most sententious tragedy that ever was written, observing all the critical Bra. May it thrive with you. Fra. A chair there for his lordship. [Lays a rich gown under him. Bra. Forbear your kindness; an unbidden guest Should travel as Dutch women go to church, Bear their stool with them. Mon. At your pleasure, Sir, Stand to the table, gentlewoman.-Now, Signior, Fall to your plea. Lawyer. Domine judex converte oculos in hanc pestem mulierum corruptissimam. Vit. What's he? Fra. A lawyer, that pleads against you. Vit. Pray, my Lord, let him speak his usual tongue, I'll make no answer else. Fra. Why, you understand Latin. laws, as height of style, and gravity of person, enrich it with the sententious chorus, and, as it were, enliven death, in the passionate and weighty Nuntius: yet after all this divine rapture, O dura messorum ilia, the breath that comes from the uncapable multitude is able to poison it; and ere it be acted, let the author resolve to fix to every scene this of Horace: Hae hodie porcis comedenda relinques. "To those who report I was a long time in finishing this Tragedy, I confess, I do not write with a goose-quill wing'd with two feathers: and if they will needs make it my fault, I must answer them with that of Euripides to Alcestides, a tragic writer: Alcestides objecting that Euripides had only, in three days, composed three verses, whereas himself had written three hundred: Thou tell'st truth (quoth he); but here's the difference, thine shall only be read for three days, whereas mine shall continue three ages. "Detraction is the sworn friend to ignorance: for mine own part, I have ever truly cherish'd my good opinion of other men's worthy labors, especially of that full and heighten'd stile of Master Chapman, the labor'd and understanding works of Master Jonson, the no less worthy composures of the both worthily excellent Master Beaumont and Master Fletcher; and lastly (without wrong last to be named), the right happy and copious industry of Master Shakspeare, Master Decker, and Master Heywood, wishing what I write may be read by their light; protesting, that in the strength of mine own judgment, I know theta so worthy, that tho' I rest silent in my own work, yet to most of theirs, I dare (without flattery) to fix that of Martial: non norunt hæc monumenta mori.” Vit. I do, Sir, but amongst this auditory Which come to hear my cause, the half or more Mon. Go on, Sir. Vit. By your favor, I will not have my accusation clouded In a strange tongue: all this assembly Shall hear what you can charge me with. Fra. Signior, You need not stand on 't much; pray, change your language. Mon. Oh, for God's sake! gentlewoman, your credit Shall be more famous by it. Law. Well then have at you. Vit. I am the mark, Sir, I'll give aim to you, And tell you how near you shoot. Law. Most literated judges, please your lordships So to connive your judgments to the view Of mischief hath effected, that to extirp The memory of it, must be the consummation Of her and her projections. Vit. What's all this? Law. Hold your peace! Exorbitant sins must have exulceration. Vit. Surely, my Lords, this lawyer hath swallowed Some apothecaries bills, or proclamations ; And now the hard and undigestible words Come up like stones we use give hawks for physic. Why, this is Welch to Latin. Law. My Lords, the woman Knows not her tropes, nor is perfect In the academick derivation Of grammatical clocution Fra. Sir, your pains Shall be well spared, and your deep eloquence Which understand you. [FRANCISCO speaks this as in scorn. Cry mercy, Sir, 'tis buckram, and accept My notion of your learn'd verbosity. Law. I most graduatically thank your lordship; I shall have use for them elsewhere. Mon. (to VITTORIA.) I shall be plainer with you, and paint out Your follies in more natural red and white, Vit. O you mistake, You raise a blood as noble in this cheek As ever was your mother's. Mon. I must spare you, till proof cry whore to that. Observe this creature here, my honor'd Lords, A woman of a most prodigious spirit. Vit. My honorable Lord, It doth not suit a reverend Cardinal To play the Lawyer thus. Mon. Oh your trade instructs your language. To grow where Sodom and Gomorrah stood, Vit. Your invenom'd apothecary should do 't. Were there a second paradise to lose, This devil would betray it. Vit. O poor charity, Thou art seldom found in scarlet. Mon. Who knows not how, when several night by night Her gates were choakt with coaches, and her rooms Outbrav'd the stars with several kinds of lights; When she did counterfeit a Prince's court In music, banquets, and most riotous surfeits; |