KING OF VALENTIA. Rise, honour of my age, food to my rest:
Condemn not (mighty King of Arragon)
My rude behaviour, so compell'd by Nature,
That manner stood unknowledged.
KING OF ARRAGON. What we have to recite would tedious prove
By declaration; therefore in and feast.
To-morrow the performance shall explain,
What words conceal; till then, drums, speak, bells, ring:
Give plausive welcomes to our brother king.
[Sound drums and trumpets. Exeunt omnes.
[198] [In the edition of 1610, the conclusion, from this line, is so different, that the best mode appeared to be to give it at the foot of the page:—
COMEDY. Envy, spit thy gall;
Plot, work, contrive; create new fallacies;
Team from thy womb each minute a black traitor,
Whose blood and thoughts have twin conception:
Study to act deeds yet unchronicled;
Cast native monsters in the moulds of men;
Case vicious devils under sancted rochets;
Unhasp the wicket, where all perjureds roost,
And swarm this ball with treasons. Do thy worst;
Thou canst not (hell-hound) cross my star[A] to-night.
[A] [Old copy, steare.]
Nor blind that glory, where I wish delight.
ENVY. I can. I will.
COMEDY. Nefarious hag, begin;
And let us tug, till one the mast'ry win.
ENVY. Comedy, thou art a shallow goose;
I'll overthrow thee in thine own intent,
And make thy fall my comic merriment.
COMEDY. Thy policy wants gravity; thou art too weak.
Speak, fiend. As how?
ENVY. Why thus;
From my foul study will I hoist a wretch,
A lean and hungry negro [Old copy, neagre.] cannibal:
Whose jaws swell to his eyes with chawing malice,
And him I'll make a poet.