1.  Letters[189] of Mart I humblie then intreate, To cease on Rovers that doe secure the seas.

Hat.  And on our friends too, if thou canst do’t cleanlie. 
Spare none, but passe it very closely;
We will be loath to sift thy Piracie,
But open eare to heare what they [thou?] complaine. 
Hast thou a Letter?

1.  Ready drawne my Lord.  And heres a brace of hundred pounds for you.

Hat.  ’Tis very well; I thinke I shall be rich
If dayly tenants pay me rent thus fast. 
Give me your licenses, they shall bee seal’d. 
About an houre hence, here attend our pleasure.

Omnes.  We thanke your Lordship.
                              [Exeunt petiti.

Hat.  O vild catterpillers,
And yet how necassarie for my turne! 
I have the Dukes seale for the Citie Meath,
With which Ile signe their warrants. 
This corne and twentie times as much
Alreadie covertly convai’d to France,
And other bordering Kingdomes neere the sea,
Cannot but make a famine in this land;
And then the poore, like dogs, will die apace. 
Ile seeme to pittie them, and give them almes
To blind the world; ’tis excellent policie
To rid the land of such, by such device. 
A famine to the poore is like a frost
Unto the earth, which kills the paltry wormes
That would destroy the harvest of the spring. 
As for the which, I count them painefull men
Worthy to enjoy what they can get: 
Beggars are trash, and I esteeme them so;
Starve, hang, or drowne themselves, I am alive;
Loose all the world, so I have wit to thrive. 
But I must to the Parliment, and then
Ile have a clause to beggar some rich men.

[Exit.

Actus Tertius.

[SCENE 1.]

Enter Duke, Fredericke, Constantine, Reinaldo,
Alberto, Alfrid, and amongst them Hatto shuffles in.

Alberto.  Princes and pillars of the Saxon State.

Duke.  You are the elected, speake for the Court.—­ Stay, Lord Alberto, we usurpe your office:  Who had the charge to fetch Valentia?

Con.  I, gracious Lord; and when I gave the charge,
A sudden feare, by palenesse, was displai’d
Upon her rosie cheeke; the crimson blood,
That like a robe of state did beautifie
The goodly buildings with a two fold grace,
From either side shrunke downewards to her heart
As if those summons were an adversarie
And had some mighty crime to charge her with. 
Millions of thoughts were crowded in her braines: 
Her troubled minde her abrupt words describ’d;
She did accuse her selfe without accusers,
And in the terrour of a soule perplext
Cry’d out, ’the Duke intends to cease my goods
Cause I am noted for a Concubine.’ 
I did replie such comfort as beseemes,
But comfortlesse I brought her to the Court.