Hieronimo.
Why, this is well: I tell you, lordings,
It was determined to have been acted
By gentlemen and scholars too;
Such as could tell what to speak.
Balthazar.
And now it shall be play'd[284] by princes and courtiers,
Such as can tell how to speak;
If, as it is our country manner,
You will but let us know the argument.
Hieronimo.
That shall I roundly. The chronicles of Spain
Record this written of a knight of[285] Rhodes:
He was betroth'd, and wedded at the length,
To one Perseda, an Italian dame,
Whose beauty ravish'd all that her beheld;
Especially the soul of Solyman,
Who at the marriage was the chiefest guest.
By sundry means sought Solyman to win
Perseda's love, and could not gain the same:
Then 'gan he break his passions to a friend—
One of his bashaws, whom he held full dear;
Her had this bashaw long solicited,
And saw she was not otherwise to be won,
But by her husband's death, this knight of Rhodes;
Whom presently by treachery he slew:
She, stirr'd with an exceeding hate therefore,
As cause of this slew Solyman:
And, to escape the bashaw's tyranny,
Did stab herself: and this[286] the tragedy.
Lorenzo.
Ay, sir!
Bell'-Imperia.
But say, Hieronimo, what then became of him,
That was the bashaw?