The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Publisher's Notice
• To My Worthy Friend , Master Thomas Hammon, of Gray's Inn , &c.
• Persons Represented.
• The Jew of Malta.
• Act the First.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Act the Second.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Act the Third.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Scene V.
• Scene VI.
• Act the Fourth.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Scene V.
• Scene VI.
• Act the Fifth.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Scene V.
• Edward the Second.
• Act the First.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Act the Second.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Scene V.
• Act the Third.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Act the Fourth.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Scene V.
• Scene VI.
• Act the Fifth.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Scene V.
• Scene VI.
• The Massacre At Paris.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Scene V.
• Scene VI.
• Scene VII.
• Scene VIII.
• Scene IX.
• Scene X.
• Scene XI.
• Scene XII.
• Scene XIII.
• Scene XIV.
• Scene XV.
• Scene XVI.
• Scene XVII.
• Scene XVIII.
• Scene XIX.
• Scene XX.
• Scene XXI.
• Scene XXII.
• Scene XXIII.
• Scene XXIV.
• The Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage.
• Act I.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Act II.
• Scene I.
• Act III.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Act IV.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene Iii
• Scene IV.
• Scene V
• Act V.
• Scene I.

SCENE IX.

EnterRamus, in his study.

Ramus.

• What fearful cries come from the river Seine.3
• That fright poor Ramus sitting at his book!
• I fear the Guisians have pass'd the bridge,
• And mean once more to menace me.
• EnterTalæus.

Tal.

• Fly, Ramus, fly, if thou wilt save thy life!

Ramus.

• Tell me, Talæus, wherefore should I fly?

Tal.

• The Guisians are
• Hark at thy door, and mean to murder us:
• Hark, hark, they come! I'll leap out at the window.

Ramus.

• Sweet TalÆus, stay.

  10

• EnterGonzagoandRetes.

Gon.

• Who goes there?

Retes.

• 'Tis TalÆus, Ramus' bedfellow.

Gon.

• What art thou?

Tal.

• I am, as Ramus is, a Christian.

Retes.

• O, let him go; he is a Catholic.
• [ExitTalæus.

Gon.

• Come, Ramus, more gold, or thou shalt have the stab.

Ramus.

• Alas, I am a scholar! how should I have gold?
• All that I have is but my stipend from the king,
• Which is no sooner receiv'd but it is spent.
• EnterGuise, Anjou, Dumaine, Mountsorrell, and Soldiers.

Anj.

• Who have you there?

Retes.

• 'Tis Ramus, the king's Professor of Logic.

Guise.

• Stab him.

  20

Ramus.

• O, good my lord,
• Wherein hath Ramus been so offensious?

Guise.

• Marry, sir, in having a smack in all,
• And yet didst never sound anything to the depth.
• Was it not thou that scoff'dst1 the Organon,
• And said it was a heap of vanities?
• He that will be a flat dichotomist,
• And seen in nothing but epitomes,
• Is in your judgment thought a learnèd man;
• And he, forsooth, must go and preach in Germany,

  30

• Excepting against doctors' axioms,2
• And ipse dixi with this quiddity,
• Argumentum testimonii est inartificiale.3
• To contradict which, I say, Ramus shall die:
• How answer you that? your nego argumentum
• Cannot serve, sirrah.—Kill him.
• “Argumentum testmonii est inartificiale.”

Ramus.

• O, good my lord, let me but speak a word!

Anj.

• Well, say on.

Ramus.

• Not for my life do I desire this pause;
• But in my latter hour to purge myself,

  40

• In that I know the things that I have wrote,
• Which, as I hear, one Scheckius1 takes it ill,
• Because my places,2 being but three, contain all his.
• I knew the Organon to be confus'd,
• And I reduc'd it into better form:
• And this for Aristotle will I say,
• That he that despiseth him can ne'er
• Be good in logic or philosophy;
• And that's because the blockish Sorbonnists3
• Attribute as much unto their [own] works

  50

• As to the service of the eternal God.

Guise.

• Why suffer you that peasant to declaim?
• Stab4 him, I say, and send him to his friends in hell.

Anj.

• Ne'er was there collier's5 son so full of pride.
• [StabsRamus, who dies.

Guise.

• My Lord of Anjou, there are a hundred Protestants
• Which we have chased into the river Seine,1
• That swim about, and so preserve their lives:
• How may we do? I fear me they will live.

Dum.

• Go place some men upon the bridge,
• With bows and darts, to shoot at them they see,

  60

• And sink them in the river as they swim.

Guise.

• 'Tis well advis'd, Dumaine; go see it straight be done.
• [ExitDumaine.
• And in the meantime, my lord, could we devise
• To get those pedants from the King Navarre,
• That are tutors to him and the Prince of Condè—

Anj.

• For that, let me alone: cousin, stay you here,
• And when you see me in, then follow hard.2
• Anjouknocketh at the door: and enter theKingofNavarreand thePrinceofCondè,3with their two Schoolmasters.
• How now, my lords! how fare you?

Nav.

• My lord, they say
• That all the Protestants are massacred.

Anj.

• Ay, so they are; but yet, what remedy?

  70

• I have done what I could to stay this broil.

Nav.

• But yet, my lord, the report doth run
• That you were one that made this massacre.

Anj.

• Who, I? you are deceiv'd; I rose but now.
• [Guiseand the others come forward1 from the back of the stage.

Guise.

• Murder the Huguenots! take those pedants hence!

Nav.

• Thou traitor, Guise, lay off thy bloody hands!

Con.

• Come, let us go tell the king.
• [Exit with theKingofNavarre.

Guise.

• Come, sirs,
• I'll whip you to death with my poniard's point.
• [Stabs the Schoolmasters, who die.

Anj.

• Away with them both!
• [ExeuntAnjouand Soldiers with the bodies.

Guise.

• And now, sirs, for this night let our fury stay.
• Yet will we not that the massacre shall end:

  81

• Gonzago, post you to Orleans,
• Retes to Dieppe, Mountsorrell unto Rouen,
• And spare not one that you suspect of heresy.
• And now stay
• That bell, that to the devil's matins rings.
• Now every man put off his burgonet,
• And so convey him closely to his bed.
• [Exeunt.

[3]Old ed. “Rene.”

[1]Old ed. “scoftes.”

[2]Old ed. “acuons.”

[3]I have adopted Mitford's emendauon. The read the old ed.

[1]Old ed. “Shekins.”

[2]Grounds of proof,—in the scholastic sense of τόποι, or loci. “Itaqui licet definire, locum esse argumenti sedem.”—Cicero, Top. ii. 3.

[3]Old ed. “thorbonest.”

[4]“… tandemque P. Ramum diu quaesitum vicariorum coryphaen unus offendit, eique veniam frustra deprecanti vulnus in brachio infligit et plurimis aliis ictibus postea confoditur. … E fenestra spiritum trahens praecipitatur in aream, pedibusque fune devinctis per urbis sordes devol vitur et capite a chirurgo quodam truncato cadaver in … Sequanam flumen misere projicitur.”—Theephilus Banosius' Vita Rami, prefixed to Commentarii de Religione Christiana (Francofuru, 1577).

[5]“‘Carbonarius pater probri loco illi [sc. Ramo] objectus est. Rami Vita per Freigium.' —Dyce.

[1]Old ed. “Rene.”

[2]The scene shifts to the King of Navarre's quarters in the Louvre.

[3]The young Prince of Condè, cousin to the King of Navarre.

[1]The stage-direction in old ed. is “Enter Guise.”