A present sum he may command a city
Impossibilities, and for non-performance
Compel it to submit to any fine
His officers shall impose. Is this the way
To make our emperor happy? Can the groans
Of his subjects yield him music? Must his thoughts
Be wash'd with widows' and wrong'd orphans' tears,
Or his power grow contemptible?[75]
The Englishman's love of liberty inspires a vigorous speech delivered by the British slave in The Virgin Martyr.[76]
Further, the impatience which Englishmen felt from time to time at the poor part played by their country in the Thirty Years' War is reflected in The Maid of Honour. Bertoldo there gets leave from the King of Sicily to go to help the beleaguered Duke of Urbin. He is, however, disavowed by the crafty, peace-loving king. In the debate Bertoldo describes Sicily in language which might easily be applied to England, and then proceeds in an eloquent passage to refer to England's glorious naval tradition in the past: