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Why this man Works theis or theis waies, with or against the State, We know and give allowaunces. 2 D. W. Why such a Gentleman, Thus hansom and thus yong, commaunds such a quarter; Where theis faire Ladies lye; why the Grave's angry And Mounseiur Barnavelt now discontent, Do you thinck it's fitt we should be ignorant? 2 D. W. Or why there's sprung up now a new devotion? Good Gentlewoman, no.
We know you have byn the headman of the parish A great while, Utricht, and ministerd much Justice, Nickt many a worthie gamester; and that you, Harlem, Have shortend many a hanging cause, to your Commendation: Yet, for all this, who shall trym Monsieur Barnavelt Must run by fortune.
Come, come, they dare not, Or if they should I will not suffer it; I that have without dread ever maintaind The freedom I was borne to, against all That ever have provoakd me, will not feare What this old Grave or the new Prince of Orange Dare undertake beyond this, but will rise up And if he lay his hands on Barnavelt, His Court, our Guift, and where the generall States Our equalls sit ile fry about their eares And quench it in their blood.
Too many and strong proofes invyting us To creadit it. Bar. Yf you will have them such, All truth I can bring to dyvert your Lordships From your determinate opinion that way Will not remove them. Who then labourd More then the now suspected Barnavelt T'appease seditions and compound all Quarrells? Who pacified the Malcontents? Who taught you To stand upon your Guards and trust yourselves?
The end of this Scene I have not seen, as pages 296-305 were missing in the proof-sheets I examined. Nearly all Scene 2 is also missing. It and the rest of the play seem to be Fletcher's, who, as usual, spoiled Massinger's fine conception of Barnavelt, and makes him whine like Buckingham in Henry VIII. This moral collapse of all energy in the face of death in the two characters is significant.
It gives the end of our play quite a wrench, and deprives Barnavelt of the sympathies which we had been forced to turn on him through his intrepid behaviour in the great trial scene.
There is no doubt that the audience wandered away in their thoughts from Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt, the saviour of his country from the Spanish yoke, as he professed himself in his defence on his trial, and Spain's determined enemy, to Sir Walter Raleigh, whose head had just fallen on the block, the victim of a perfidious foe and of a mean, shuffling king. The following is the passage:
Enter Barnavelt, Modes-bargen, Leidenberck, Grotius, and Hogebeets. Bar. The States are sitting: all that I can doe Ile say in little; and in me theis Lords Promise as much. I am of your belief In every point you hold touching religion, And openly I will profes myself Of the Arminian sect. Gro. You honour it. Hog. And all our praires and service. Bar. Reverend man Your loves I am ambitious of.
Here I stand saffe 'gainst all their strengths and Stratagems: I was a boy, a foole to follow Barnavelt, To step into his attempts, to wedd my freedom To his most dangerous faction, a meere Coxcomb; But I have scapd their clawes. Have ye found more game? Enter 2 Huntesmen . 2 Hunt. Beating about to find a new Hare, we discoverd Mod. Discoverd what? 2 Hunt.
Now, Barnavelt, thou treadst the subtlest path, The hardest and the thorniest, most concernes thee, That ere thy carefull course of life run through: The Master peece is now a foot, which if it speed And take but that sure hold I ayme it at, I make no doubt but once more, like a Comet, To shine out faire and blaze prodigiously Even to the ruyn of those men that hate me. Enter Leidenberch.
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