RAMUS
What fearfull cries come from the river Sene,
That fright poore Ramus sitting at his book?
I feare the Guisians have past the bridge,
And meane once more to menace me.
TALEUS
Flye Ramus flye, if thou wilt save thy life.
RAMUS
Tell me Taleus, wherfore should I flye?
TALEUS
The Guisians are hard at thy doore,
And meane to murder us:
Harke, harke they come, Ile leap out at the window.
RETES
Tis Taleus, Ramus bedfellow.
TALEUS
I am as Ramus is, a Christian.
RETES
O let him goe, he is a catholick.
Enter Ramus [out of his studie].
GONZAGO
Come Ramus, more golde, or thou shalt have the stabbe.
RAMUS
Alas I am a scholler, how should I have golde?
All that I have is but my stipend from the King,
Which is no sooner receiv'd but it is spent.
Enter the Guise and Anjoy [, Dumaine, Mountsorrell,
with soldiers].
RETES
Tis Ramus, the Kings professor of Logick.
RAMUS
O good my Lord,
Wherein hath Ramus been so offencious?
GUISE
Marry sir, in having a smack in all,
And yet didst never sound any thing to the depth.
Was it not thou that scoff'dst the Organon,
And said it was a heape of vanities?
He that will be a flat decotamest,
And seen in nothing but Epitomies:
Is in your judgment thought a learned man.
And he forsooth must goe and preach in Germany:
Excepting against Doctors actions,
And ipse dixi with this quidditie,
Argumentum testimonis est in arte partialis.
To contradict which, I say Ramus shall dye:
How answere you that? your nego argumentum
Cannot serve, Sirrah, kill him.
RAMUS
O good my Lord, let me but speak a word.
RAMUS
Not for my life doe I desire this pause,
But in my latter houre to purge my selfe,
In that I know the things that I have wrote,
Which as I heare one Shekins takes it ill,
Because my places being but three, contain all his:
I knew the Organon to be confusde,
And I reduc'd it into better forme.
And this for Aristotle will I say,
That he that despiseth him, can nere
Be good in Logick or Philosophie.
And thats because the blockish Sorbonests
Attribute as much unto their workes,
As to the service of the eternall God.
GUISE
Why suffer you that peasant to declaime?
Stab him I say and send him to his freends in hell.
ANJOY
Nere was there Colliars sonne so full of pride.
GUISE
My Lord Anjoy, there are a hundred Protestants,
Which we have chaste into the river Sene,
That swim about and so preserve their lives:
How may we doe? I feare me they will live.
DUMAINE
Goe place some men upon the bridge,
With bowes and cartes to shoot at them they see,
And sinke them in the river as they swim.
GUISE
Tis well advisde Dumain, goe see it done.
And in the mean time my Lord, could we devise,
To get those pedantes from the King Navarre,
That are tutors to him and the prince of Condy—
ANJOY
For that let me alone, Cousin stay heer,
And when you see me in, then follow hard.
He knocketh, and enter the King of Navarre and Prince
of Condy, with their scholmaisters.
How now my Lords, how fare you?
NAVARRE
My Lord, they say
That all the protestants are massacred.
ANJOY
I, so they are, but yet what remedy:
I have done all I could to stay this broile.
NAVARRE
But yet my Lord the report doth run,
That you were one that made this Massacre.
ANJOY
Who I? you are deceived, I rose but now
GUISE
Murder the Hugonets, take those pedantes hence.
NAVARRE
Thou traitor Guise, lay of thy bloudy hands.
CONDY
Come let us goe tell the King.
GUISE
Come sirs, Ile whip you to death with my punniards point.
Exit Anjoy [and soldiers with bodies].
GUISE
And now sirs for this night let our fury stay.
Yet will we not the Massacre shall end:
Gonzago posse you to Orleance, Retes to Deep,
Mountsorrell unto Roan, and spare not one
That you suspect of heresy. And now stay
That bel that to the devils mattins rings.
Now every man put of his burgonet,
And so convey him closely to his bed.
