Omnes. A brave blacke villaine.
Bal. That's I; all that brave blacke villaine dwels in me,
If I be that blacke villaine; but I am not:
A Nobler Character prints out my brow,
Which you may thus read: I was banish'd Spaine
For emptying a Court-Hogshead, but repeal'd
So I woo'd (e're my reeking Iron was cold)
Promise to give it a deepe crimson dye
In—none heare?—stay—no, none heare.
Med. Whom then?
Bal. Basely to stab a woman, your wrong'd Neece, And her most innocent sonne Sebastian.
Alb. The Boare now foames with whetting.
Daen. What has blunted Thy weapons point at these?
Bal. My honesty,
A signe at which few dwell, pure honesty.
I am a vassaile to Medina's house;
He taught me first the A, B, C of warre[203]
E're I was Truncheon-high I had the stile
Of beardlesse Captaine, writing then but boy:
And shall I now turne slave to him that fed me
With Cannon-bullets, and taught me, Estridge[204]-like,
To digest Iron and Steele? no: yet I yeelded
With willow-bendings to commanding breaths.
Med. Of whom?
Bal. Of King and Queene: with supple Hams
And an ill-boading looke I vow'd to doo't;
Yet, lest some choake-peare[205] of State-policy
Shoo'd stop my throat and spoyle my drinking-pipe,
See (like his cloake) I hung at the Kings elbow
Till I had got his hand to signe my life.
Daen. Shall we see this and sleepe?