HODGE. I warrant you, my Lord; let me alone to take state upon me: but hark you, my Lord, do you feel nothing bite about you?
BEDFORD. No, trust me, Hodge.
HODGE. Aye, they know they want their pasture; it's a strange thing of this vermine, they dare not meddle with Nobility.
CROMWELL. Go, take thy place, Hodge; I'll call them in.--
[Hodge sits in the study, and Cromwell calls in the States.]
All is done, enter and if you please.
[Enter the States and Officers, with Halberts.]
GOVERNOUR. What, have you won him? will he yield himself?
CROMWELL. I have, an't please you, and the quiet Earl Doth yield himself to be disposed by you.
GOVERNOUR. Give him the money that we promised him; So let him go, whether it please himself.
CROMWELL. My business, sir, lies unto Mantua, Please you to give me safe conduct thether.
GOVERNOUR. Go and conduct him to the Mantua Port, And see him safe delivered presently.
[Exit Cromwell and Bedford.]
Go draw the curtains, let us see the Earl.-- O, he is writing; stand apart awhile.
HODGE. Fellow William, I am not as I have been: I went from you a Smith, I write to you as a Lord. I am, at this present writing, among the Polonian Sasiges. I do commend my Lordship to Raphe & to Roger, to Bridget & to Doritie, & so to all the youth of Putney.
GOVERNOUR. Sure, these are the names of English Noblemen, Some of his special friends, to whom he writes: But stay, he doth address himself to sing.
[Here he sings a song.]
My Lord, I am glad you are so frolic and so blithe: Believe me, noble Lord, if you knew all, You'd change your merry vein to sudden sorrow.
HODGE. I change my merry vein? no, thou Bononian, no. I am a Lord--and therefore let me go-- And do defy thee and thy Sasigis; Therefore stand off, and come not near my honor.
GOVERNOUR. My Lord, this jesting cannot serve your turn.
HODGE. Doost think, thou black Bononian beast, That I do flout, do gibe, or jest, No, no, thou Beer-pot, know that I, A noble Earl, a Lord pardie--
[A Trumpet sounds.]
GOVERNOUR. What means this Trumpet's sound?
[Enter a Messenger.]
CITIZEN. One come from the States of Mantua.
GOVERNOUR. What would you with us? speak, thou man of Mantua.
MESSENGER. Men of Bononia, this my message is: To let you know the Noble Earl of Bedford Is safe within the town of Mantua, And wills you send the peasant that you have, Who hath deceived your expectation; Or else the States of Mantua have vowed They will recall the truce that they have made, And not a man shall stir from forth your town, That shall return, unless you send him back.
GOVERNOUR. O this misfortune, how it mads my heart! The Neopolitan hath beguiled us all. Hence with this fool! what shall we do with him, The Earl being gone? a plague upon it all.
HODGE. No, I'll assure you, I am no Earl, but a smith, sir; One Hodge, a smith at Putney, sir; One that hath gulled you, that hath bored you, sir.
GOVERNOUR. Away with him! take hence the fool you came for.
HODGE. Aye, sir, and I'll leave the greater fool with you.
MESSENGER. Farewell, Bononians. Come, friend, a long with me.
HODGE. My friend, afore; my Lordship will follow thee.
[Exit.]
GOVERNOUR. Well, Mantua, since by thee the Earl is lost, Within few days I hope to see thee crossed.
[Exit omnes.]
[Enter Chorus.]
CHORUS. Thus far you see how Cromwell's fortune passed. The Earl of Bedford, being safe in Mantua, Desires Cromwell's company into France, To make requital for his courtesy: But Cromwell doth deny the Earl his suit, And tells him that those parts he meant to see, he had not yet set footing on the land, And so directly takes his way to Spain: The Earl to France, and so they both do part. Now let your thoughts, as swift as is the wind, Skip some few years, that Cromwell spent in travel, And now imagine him to be in England, Servant unto the master of the Rules, Where in short time he there began to flourish. An hour shall show you what few years did cherish.