No More Learning

But, to prevent what ills on my account
May hence ensue betwixt a son and parent,
Take here the sword, you trusted in my hands,
Which you alone could take. --Now, Veramond,
[_Presents his Sword to_ ALPHONSO.
Dispose of old Ramirez as thou pleasest:

[_He presents it sullenly to_ VERAMOND, _who puts it into the Hand
of an Officer_.

Secure thy hate, ambition, and thy fear,
And give Ramirez death, who scorns a life
Which he must owe to thee.

_Vera. _ [_To the Guards. _] Go, bear him to the castle; at more leisure
His doom shall be decreed.

_Ram. _ Whene'er it comes, 'tis welcome; only this,--
(If enemies be suffered to request)
Forgive the imprudent zeal thy son has shown
On my behalf, and take him to thy bosom;
A noble temper shines even through his faults,
And gilds them into virtues.

_Vera. _ Take him hence.

[RAMIREZ _is led off by_ SANCHO _and_ CARLOS, _and followed by the
Guards_; ALPHONSO _looking frowningly. The rest stay. _

_Alph. _ [_Aside. _] How I abhor this base inhuman act!
But patience! he's my father.

_Vera. _ Thus all his praises are thy accusations;
And even that very sword,--
Punish me, heaven, if I believe not so! --
Is far less dangerous in his hand than thine.

_Xim. _ Forgive the hasty sallies of his youth.

_Vera. _ He never loved me.

_Alph. _ You never gave me cause.

_Xim. _ [_To_ ALPH. ] Come, you both loved,
But both were jealous of each other's kindness.
His silence shows, he longs to pardon you. --
And did not you, my lord, observe Alphonso,
[_Turning to_ VERAM.
How, though at first he could not rule his passion,--
Not at the very first, for that's impossible
To hasty blood, like his, and yours, my lord,--
Yet in the second moment, he repented,
As soon as thought had leisure to be born?

_Vera. _ For aught I see, you do him better office
Than he desires, Ximena.

_Alph. _ [_Kneeling. _] Sir, your pardon;
And, if you please, your love.

_Vera. _ Receive the first;
The last, as you deserve.

_Re-enter Don_ GARCIA, _with_ VICTORIA, CELIDEA, _and the Ladies_.
VERAMOND _sees them at a distance_.

_Vera. _ This had not been thus easily o'erpast,
But that I see Don Garcia with your sisters.
A fair occasion offers you this hour
To cancel your offences; mark, and take it.

[_The King_, _Queen_, _and_ ALPHONSO _entertain_ GARCIA _in dumb
show, while_ VICTORIA _and_ CELIDEA _speak at a distance_.

_Cel. _ What think you, sister, of this youthful hero?

_Vict. _ Our dear Alphonso?

_Cel. _ No, I mean Navarre.

_Vict. _ As of a valiant prince; what would you more?

_Cel. _ Methinks you give him a short commendation;
Yet all his applications were to you.

_Vict. _ I minded not his words.

_Cel. _ He made a warm beginning of a love.

_Vict. _ It seems my thoughts were otherwise employed.

_Cel. _ Neither your thoughts nor eyes could be employed
Upon a nobler object.

_Vict. _ That's your judgment.

_Cel. _ His every action, nay, his every motion.
Were graceful, and becoming his high birth.

_Vict. _ All of a piece, and all like other men.
He seems to me a common kind of creature,
One that may pass among a crowd of courtiers,
And not be known for king.

_Cel. _ Sure you forget the troops he brought our father,
Besides his personal valour in the fight.

_Vict. _ You more forget Alphonso's greater actions,
When the young hero, yet unfledged in arms,
Made the tough age of bold Ramirez bend:
He fought, like Mars descending from the skies,
And looked, like Venus rising from the waves.

_Cel. _ Navarre had done the same; 'twas fortune's fault,
That showed him not Ramirez.

_Vict. _ You are too young to judge of men or merits;
You praise the vulgar flight a falcon makes,
When Jove's imperial bird, that bears the thunder,
Is towering far above him.

_Re-enter_ CARLOS, SANCHO, _and the rest of the Officers_.

_Vera. _ Are my commands performed?

_Carl. _ With all exactness.

_Vera. _ Approach, Victoria, and you, Celidea,
That in your presence I may pay some part
Of what I owe your brave deliverer.

_Cel. _ We cannot show too much of gratitude.

_Vera. _ Victoria, what say you?

_Vict. _ He did the duty of a brave ally:
I do not know the war, nor dare I load
His modesty with larger commendations.

_Gar. _ Even those are much too large, when given by you,
To whom my soul, with all my future service,
Are with devotion offered.

_Vera. _ I have indeed disclosed to her alone
The important secret of the intended match;
And that, perhaps, has made her fear to praise
A prince, who shortly is to be her own.

_Alph. _ [_Aside. _] Oh heavens! what bode these words?

[_The Queen and_ CELIDEA _shew amazement_, ALPHONSO _and_ VICTORIA
_discontent_.

_Vera. _ Now therefore I declare the wished alliance.
Ximena, you may give your daughter joy;
And you your sister, of the imperial crown, [_To_ CEL.
Which Garcia put on our Victoria's head. --
Your share, Alphonso, in this happy day [_To_ ALPH.
Is not the least, nor will you be the last,
To applaud my worthy choice of such a son.

_Alph. _ A sudden damp has seized my vital spirits;
I see but through a mist, and hear far off. --
Nay trouble not yourselves: a little time
Of needful rest, and solitary thought,
Will mend my health; till when, excuse my presence.
[_Exit_ ALPHONSO, _and looks back on_
VICTORIA.

_Xim. _ [_Aside. _] He's much disturbed,--a sickness of the soul;
Or I mistake, he does not like this marriage. --
Assist us, heaven, if I divine aright,
And prosper thy own work!

_Vera. _ [_Aside. _] I like not this,
But must dissemble, till I clear my doubts. --
Fortune, brave prince, has given us this allay; [_To_ GAR.
Our joys were else too full:
An hour of sleep will bring him back restored;
Mean time we may withdraw.

_Gar. _ [_To_ VICT. ] Come, my fair mistress, by your father's leave
I seize this precious gage.

_Vict. _ Then thank my father;
He may dispose of all things but my heart,
And that's my own--[_Aside. _] Alas! I wish it were.

[_Exeunt_ VER. XIM. CEL. GAR. VICT. _and all the Courtiers_, _Men
and Women. The Guards follow_: SAN. CARL. _remain_.

_San. _ Good news; Carlos, the old Jew, is dead.

_Carl. _ What Jew?

_San. _ Why, the rich Jew, my father. He's gone to the bosom of Abraham
his father, and I, his Christian son, am left sole heir. Now do I
intend to be monstrously in love.

_Carl. _ With whom, colonel?

_San. _ That's not yet resolved, colonel; but with one of the court
ladies. You may stand a man's friend, Carlos, in such a business.

_Carl. _ You may depend on me, Sancho, because my dependance is on you.
You got plunder in the battle; while I was hacked and hewed, and almost
laid asleep in the damned bed of honour.

_San. _ Nay, I confess I am a lucky rogue, for I was born with a caul
upon my head.

_Carl. _ I'm sure I came bare enough into the world, and live as barely
in it.

_San. _ Make me but lustily in love, and I'll adopt thee into my
fortune; but thou standest--shall I, shall I, till all the ladies are
out of sight. Here, take that _billet-doux_, which I have pulled out
by chance from amongst twenty, that I always wear about me for such
occasions.

_Carl. _ But to which of them shall I deliver it?

_San. _ Even to her thou canst first overtake. --Nay, do not lose thy
time in looking on't, there's no particular direction, man. Fortune
ever superscribes my letters to the fair sex: I let her alone to
find me out a handsome mistress; and let me alone to make her kind
afterwards.

_Carl. _ But suppose I should happen to deliver it to my own mistress,
for she was in the presence with her father.

_San. _ Then I suppose thou wilt be the first that shall repent it; for
she will certainly fall in love with me.

LOPEZ _and_ DALINDA _re-enter, and walk softly over the Stage_.

Look, there's one of them already; my heart beats at the very sight of
her. This must and shall be she, by Cupid.

_Carl. _ And, by Venus, the very she I love!

_San. _ Pr'ythee no more words then, for fate will have it so.

_Carl. _ [_Aside. _] I know it's impossible for her father to receive
him, or her to love him; and yet his good fortune, and my rascally,
three-penny planet[56], make me suspicious without reason. But hang
superstition! I'll draw such a picture of him as shall do his business.

_San. _ Now will I stand _incognito_, like some mighty potentate, and
see my own embassy delivered.

[CARLOS _overtakes_ LOPEZ _and_ DALINDA,
_just going off, and salutes them_.

_Lop. _ Cousin Carlos, you are welcome from the wars; I
think I saw you in the show to day.

_Carl. _ The ceremony hindered me from paying my respects; but I made
haste, you see----

_Lop. _ I hope you'll no more be a stranger to my house, than you have
been formerly. Your mistress here will be proud to entertain you;
and then you shall tell me the whole expedition. I love battles
wonderfully, when a man may hear them without peril of his person.

_San. _ [_Aside. _] Nothing of my letter all this while! --why when
Carlos? [_Whispering aloud to him. _

_Carl. _ [_Aside. _] Now I dare not but deliver it, because he sees
me.
--Don Lopez, I have a foolish kind of petition to you. [_To_ LOP.

_Lop. _ Why do you call it a foolish petition?

_Carl. _ Because I bring it from a fool. There's a friend of mine, of a
plentiful fortune, that's desperately in love with your fair daughter,
Dalinda; and has commanded me, by your permission, to deliver this
letter to her.

_Lop. _ A rich man's letter may be delivered.
[CARLOS _gives her the Letter_.

_Dal. _ What's here? A note without a superscription [_She seems to
read. _] As I live, a bill of exchange for two hundred pistoles, charged
upon a banker, and payable to the bearer! An accomplished cavalier I
warrant him; he writes finely, and in the best manner.

_Carl. _ [_Aside. _] There's the covetous sex, at the first syllable!
The fool's good planet begins to work already; but I shall stop its
influence.

_Lop. _ Good cousin colonel, what manner of man is my son-in-law that
may be?

_Carl. _ D'ye see that sneaking fellow yonder?

_Lop. _ Who, that gallant cavalier?

_Dal. _ I wish it were no worse.

_Carl. _ Plague, ye make me mad betwixt ye. His outside's tawdry, and
his inside's fool. He's an usurer's son, and his father was a Jew.

_Dal. _ No matter for all that, he's rich.

_Carl. _ He was begot upon the wife of a desperate debtor, out of pure
good husbandry, to save something. He's covetous by the father's side,
a blockhead by the mother's, and a knave by both.

_Lop. _ I see nothing like your description of him, at this distance.
Call him hither, I would fain speak with him.

_Carl. _ Come hither, Don Sancho, and make good the character I have
given of you.

[SANCHO _comes up, and salutes them awkwardly_.

_Lop. _ Cavalier, I shall be glad to be better known to you.

_San. _ [_To_ CARL. ] You see I have luck in a bag, Carlos.

_Carl. _ [_Aside. _] Ay, in a bag of money; I see it to my sorrow. --Try
his wit, signior, you'll find it as heavy as lead. [_Aside to_ LOPEZ.

_Lop. _ [_To_ SANCHO. ] So his money be silver, I care not. --Come,
cavalier, what say you to my daughter?

_San. _ Why, I say, I was resolved to love the first fair lady that I
met.

_Dal. _ Oh lord, sir!

_Carl. _ [_To_ LOP. ] Do but mark his breeding.

_Lop. _ I like him never the worse for his plain dealing.

_Dal. _ Bluntness, methinks, becomes a soldier.

_Carl. _ [_Aside. _] How naturally old men take to riches, and women to
fools!

_Lop. _ [_To_ SAN. ] You have made a noble declaration of your love, sir,
with a handsome present of two hundred pistoles.

_San. _ What, I hope I have not mistaken papers, and sent you my letter
of exchange for two hundred pistoles, charged upon the banker Porto
Carrero? Pray return that letter, madam, and I'll look out for another,
that shall treat only of dry love, without those terrible appendixes.

_Dal. _ Why, did not you intend this for me, cavalier?

_San. _ No; you shall hear me rap out all the oaths in Christendom,
that I am wholly innocent of this accusation.

_Dal. _ Come, you bely your noble nature. Look upon me again, cavalier,
[_She makes the doux yeux to him. _] and then examine your own heart, if
you meant it not to me.

_San. _ Nay, I confess my heart beats a charge towards you;--and yet two
hundred pistoles is a swinging sum for one kind look, Carlos!

_Carl. _ A damnable hard penny-worth! hold you there, Don Sancho.

[DALINDA _looks upon him again more sweetly_.

_San. _ She has two devils in her eyes; that last ogle was a
lick-penny. --Well, madam, I dedicate those fair two hundred pistoles to
your more fair hand; and, now you have received them, I meant them for
you.

_Dal. _ And, in requital, I receive you for my servant, cavalier.

_Carl. _ [_Aside. _] Damn him for his awkward liberality; he's always
covetous, but when 'tis to do me a mischief.

_Lop. _ [_To_ DAL. ] He's come on again; my heart was almost at my
mouth. --Now, Mrs Minion, let me take you to task in private. [_Draws
her aside a little. _] What hope have you of the Conde Don Alonzo de
Cardona?

_Dal. _ Little or none; a bare possibility. You know what has passed
betwixt us.

_Lop. _ But suppose he should renew his love, had you rather marry that
rich old Conde, or this poor young rogue, Don Carlos?

_Dal. _ This poor young rogue, if you please, father.

_Lop. _ I thought as much, good madam. But, to come closer to the
present business, betwixt Don Carlos and Don Sancho, that is to say,
a poor young wit, and a rich young fool; put the case, gentlewoman,
which of them would you chuse?

_Dal. _ If it were not for mere necessity, I have a kind of a loathing
to a fool.

_Lop. _ The more fool you, madam.

_Dal. _ Would you have a race of booby grandsons?

_Lop. _ That's as your conscience serves you. I say only, that your
husband shall be a fool; I say not, your children's father shall be one.

_San. _ [_To_ CAR. ] This is a plaguy long whisper, I do not like it. And
yet, now I think on't, my left eye itches, some good luck is coming
towards me.

_Lop. _ [_To them. _] I'll be short and pithy with you. Don Sancho,--I
think they call ye,--if out of my abundant love I should bestow my
dutiful daughter on you, what kind of husband would you make?

_San. _ Husband, sennor? Why, none at all. None of my predecessors were
ever married; my father and my mother never were, and I will not be
the first of my family that shall degenerate. I thought my two hundred
pistoles would have done my business with Dalinda, and a little winking
money with you.

_Lop. _ What, would you make me a pimp to my own daughter?

_Dal. _ And imagine my chastity could be corrupted with a petty bribe?

_San. _ Nay, I am not so obstinate neither against marriage. Carlos gave
me this wicked counsel, on purpose to banish me; and, in revenge to
him, I will marry.

_Lop. _ I hope you'll ask her leave first?

_San. _ Pho! I take that for granted; no woman has the power to resist
my courtship.

_Lop. _ Suppose then, as before supposed; what kind of husband would you
make?

_San. _ Then, to deal roundly with you, I would run a rambling myself,
and leave the drudgery of my house to her management; all things should
go at sixes and sevens for Sancho. In short, sennor, I will be as
absolute as the Great Turk, and take as little care of my people as a
heathen god.

_Lop. _ Now, Don Carlos, what say you?

_Carl. _ [_Aside. _] I'll fit them for a husband. --[_To_ LOP. ] Why,
sennor, I would be the most careful creature of her business; I would
inspect every thing, would manage the whole estate, to save her the
trouble; I would be careful of her health, by keeping her within doors;
she should neither give nor receive visits; nor kneel at church among
the fops, that look one way, and pray another.

_Dal. _ Oh abominable!

_Lop. _ Why, thou ungrateful fellow! wouldst thou make a slave of my
daughter? And leave her no business, that is to say, no authority in
her own house?

_Dal. _ Ay, and to call fine young gentlemen fops too? To lock me
up from visitants, which are the only comfort of a disconsolate,
miserable, married woman!

_Lop. _ An' 'twere not for fear thou shouldst beat me, I could find in
my heart to beat thee. --Don Sancho, I have an olla at home, and you
shall be welcome to it. --Farewell, kinsman. [_To_ CARL.

[_Exeunt_ LOP. _and_ SAN. _leading out_ DAL.

_Carl. _ Now, if I had another head, I could find in my heart to run
this head against that wall. Nature has given me my portion in sense,
with a pox to her, and turned me out into the wide world to starve upon
it. She has given Sancho an empty noddle; but fortune, in revenge,
has filled his pockets: just a lord's estate in land and wit. Well,
I have lost Dalinda; and something must be done to undermine Sancho
in her good opinion. Some pernicious counsel must be given him. He
is my prince, and I am his statesman; and when our two interests come
to clash, I hope to make a mere monarch of him[57]: and my hunger is
somewhat in my way to quicken my invention.

Wants whets the wit, 'tis true; but wit, not blest
With fortune's aid, makes beggars at the best.
Wit is not fed, but sharpened with applause;
For wealth is solid food, and wit but hungry sauce. [_Exit. _




ACT II.


SCENE I. --_A Bed-Chamber; a Couch prepared, and set so near the
Pit that the Audience may hear. _

ALPHONSO _enters with a Book in his Hand, and sits; reads to
himself a little while. Enter_ VICTORIA, _and sits by him, then
speaks. _

_Vict. _ If on your private business I intrude,
Forgive the excess of love, that makes me rude.
I hope your sickness has not reached your heart,
But come to bear a suffering sister's part;
Yet, lest I should offend you by my stay,
Command me to depart, and I obey.

_Alph. _ The patient, who has passed a sleepless night,
Is far less pleased with his physician's sight.
Welcome, thou pleasing, but thou short reprieve,
To ease my death, but not to make me live.
Welcome, but welcome as a winter's sun,
That rises late, and is too quickly gone.

_Vict. _ You are the star of day, the public light; }
And I am but your sister of the night; }
Eclipsed, when you are absent from my sight.