Scene II

Enter the Duke of Guise.

GUISE
If ever Hymen lowr'd at marriage rites,
And had his alters decks with duskie lightes:
If ever sunne stainde heaven with bloudy clowdes,
And made it look with terrour on the worlde:
If ever day were turnde to ugly night,
And night made semblance of the hue of hell,
This day, this houre, this fatall night,
Shall fully shew the fury of them all.
Apothecarie.--

Enter the Pothecarie.

POTHECARIE
My Lord.

GUISE
Now shall I prove and guerdon to the ful,
The love thou bear'st unto the house of Guise:
Where are those perfumed gloves which late I sent
To be poysoned, hast thou done them? speake,
Will every savour breed a pangue of death?

POTHECARIE
See where they be my Lord, and he that smelles
but to them, dyes.

GUISE
Then thou remainest resolute.

POTHECARIE
I am my Lord, in what your grace commaundes till death.

GUISE
Thankes my good freend, I wil requite thy love.
Goe then, present them to the Queene Navarre:
For she is that huge blemish in our eye,
That makes these upstart heresies in Fraunce:
Be gone my freend, present them to her straite.
Souldyer.--

Exit Pothecaier.

Enter a Souldier.

SOULDIER
My Lord.

GUISE
Now come thou forth and play thy tragick part,
Stand in some window opening neere the street,
And when thou seest the Admirall ride by,
Discharge thy musket and perfourme his death:
And then Ile guerdon thee with store of crownes.

SOULDIER
I will my Lord.

Exit Souldier.

GUISE
Now Guise, begin those deepe ingendred thoughts
To burst abroad, those never dying flames,
Which cannot be extinguisht but by bloud.
Oft have I leveld, and at last have learnd,
That perill is the cheefest way to happines,
And resolution honors fairest aime.
What glory is there in a common good,
That hanges for every peasant to atchive?
That like I best that flyes beyond my reach.
Set me to scale the high Peramides,
And thereon set the Diadem of Fraunce,
Ile either rend it with my nayles to naught,
Or mount the top with my aspiring winges,
Although my downfall be the deepest hell.
For this, I wake, when others think I sleepe,
For this, I waite, that scorn attendance else:
For this, my quenchles thirst whereon I builde,
Hath often pleaded kindred to the King.
For this, this head, this heart, this hand and sworde,
Contrive, imagine and fully execute
Matters of importe, aimed at by many,
Yet understoode by none.
For this, hath heaven engendred me of earth,
For this, the earth sustaines my bodies weight,
And with this wait Ile counterpoise a Crowne,
Or with seditions weary all