Lady.  Sir, I have vowd,
Since by my meanes my daughter and her love
Perishd unhappily, to seclude my selfe
From mans Society.

         [Bonvil, Belisia, and Grimes discover.

Tho.  Weele cancell
That obligation quickly.—­Lady, I now
Will urge your promise:  twas a plot betwixt us
To give them out for drownd, least your pursuite
Should have impeachd their marriage, which is now
Most iustly consummate; and[138] only I
Remaine at your devotion for a wife.

Lady.  Take her,
And with me a repentance as profound
As Anchorites for their sin pay.

Sir Hu.  Madam, how blest am I
To see you thus past hope recovered,
My mirth at your faire wedding shall demonstrate.

Sir Gef.  I will daunce too, that[s] certain, though I breake my legs or get the tissick.

[Suc.[139] Doe you know me, Sir?

Bon.  Yes, very well, sir.

Suc.  You are married, sir.

Bon.  I, what of that?

Suc.  Nothing, but send you Joy, sir?]

Lady.  But where’s my Steward? hees not hangd I hope:  This mirth admits no Tragedy.

Gri.  Behold the figure.

Alex.  I crave forgivenesse.

Lady.  Goe to, you have it.

Alex.  Thanke you, madam,—­I, I will goe to and goe to, and there be ere a wench to be got for love or money, rath[er] then plot murder:  tis the sweeter sinn of [the two]; besides, theres noe danger of ones cragg; [the] worst is but stand in one sheet for ly[ing] in two:  and therefore goe to and goe to, I [say] and I sayt agen.

Sir Gef. Bunch take my cloake, Bunch; it shal [not] be sed, so many weddings and nere a Da[nce]:  for soe many good turnes the hangman ha done you, theres one for all, hey!

Tho.  Well said, Sir Geffrey.

Sir Gef.  Hey, when I was young! but come, we loose [time]:  every one his lasse, and stricke up Musick!

Daunce.

Lady.  Now, gentlemen, my thanks to all, and since [I]t is my good hap to escape these ills, Goe in with me and celebrate this feast With choyse solemnitie; where our discourse Shall merrily forgett these harmes, and prove Theres no Arraingment like to that of love.

[Exeunt omnes.

FINIS.

This Play, call’d the Lady Moth[er] (the Reformacons observ’d) may be acted.  October the xvth, 1635.

WILL.  BLAGRAVE, Dept. to the [Master] of the Revell[s].

INTRODUCTION TO THE TRAGEDY OF SIR JOHN VAN OLDEN BARNAVELT.

I have never met anywhere with the slightest allusion to this fine historical play, now for the first time printed from a MS.[140] in the British Museum (Add.  MS. 18,653).  It is curious that it should have been left to the present editor to call attention to a piece of such extraordinary interest; for I have no hesitation in predicting that Barnavelt’s Tragedy, for its splendid command of fiery dramatic rhetoric, will rank among the masterpieces of English dramatic literature.