The tragedie of Chabot admirall of France as it vvas presented by her Majesties Servants, at the private house in Drury Lane. Written by George Chapman, and Iames Shirly.
About this Item
- Title
- The tragedie of Chabot admirall of France as it vvas presented by her Majesties Servants, at the private house in Drury Lane. Written by George Chapman, and Iames Shirly.
- Author
- Chapman, George, 1559?-1634.
- Publication
- London :: Printed by Tho. Cotes, for Andrew Crooke, and William Cooke,
- 1639.
- Rights/Permissions
-
To the extent possible under law, the Text Creation Partnership has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above, according to the terms of the CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). This waiver does not extend to any page images or other supplementary files associated with this work, which may be protected by copyright or other license restrictions. Please go to http://www.textcreationpartnership.org/ for more information.
- Subject terms
- Chabot, Philippe, 1480-1543 -- Drama -- Early works to 1800.
- Link to this Item
-
http://name.umdl.umich.edu/B12027.0001.001
- Cite this Item
-
"The tragedie of Chabot admirall of France as it vvas presented by her Majesties Servants, at the private house in Drury Lane. Written by George Chapman, and Iames Shirly." In the digital collection Early English Books Online 2. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/B12027.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 4, 2024.
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Actus Secundus.
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Actus Tertius.
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To them
To them
It is not unknowne to you my very good Lords the Iudges, and indeed to all the world, for I will make short worke, since your honourable eares neede not to be enlarged, I speake by a figure with prolixe ennumeration how infinitly the King hath favoured this ill favoured Traitor; and yet I may worthily too insist and prove that no grace hath beene so large and voluminous, as this, that he hath appointed such up∣right Iudges at this time, and the chiefe of this Triumvirie, our Chancellor by name Poyet, which deriveth from the Greeke his Etymology from Poyeni, which is to make, to create, to invent matter that was never extant in nature, from
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whence also is the name and dignitie of Poeta, which I will not insist upon, in this place, although I am confident his Lordshippe wanteth no facultie in making of Verses: but what addition I say is it to the honour of this Delinquent, that he hath such a Iudge, a man so learned, so full of equity, so noble, so notable in the progresse of his life, so innocent, in the manage of his office so incorrupt; in the passages of State so wise, in affection to his country so religious, in all his services to the King so fortunate, and exploring, as envie it selfe cannot accuse, or malice vitiate, whom all lippes will open to commend, but those of Philip; and in their hearts will erect Altars, and Statues, Columnes, and Obelishes, Pillars and Pyramids, to the perpetuitie of his name and memory. What shall I say •• but conclude for his so great and sacred ser∣vice, both to our King and Kingdome, and for their everla∣sting benefit, there may everlastingly be left here one of his loynes, one of his loynes ever remaine I say, and stay upon this Bench, to be the example of all Iustice, even while the North and South Starre shall continue.
Thus with your Lordships pardon, I proceede; and the first thing I shall glance at, will be worth your Lordships reflection, his ingratitude, and to whom? to no lesse person than a King, and to what King, his owne, and our generall So∣veraigne Proh deum atque hominum fidem; a King, and such a King, the health, life, and soule of us all, whose very mention drawes this s••lt water from my eyes; for hee indeede is our eye, who wakes and watches for us when we sleepe, and who will not sleep•• for him, I meane not sleepe, which the Philosophers call, a naturall c••ssation of the common and consequently▪ of all the exterior sences, caused first and immediatly by a detension of spirits, which can have no communication, since the way is obstructed, by which thēse spirits should commearce, by vapours ascending from the stomacke to the head, by which evaporation the rootes of the nerves are filled, through which the annuall spirits, to be powred into the dwellings of the externall sences; but sleepe
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I takē for death, which all know to be Ʋltima linea, who will not sleepe eternally for such a King as wee enjoy? If there∣fore in generall as hee is King of us all, all sharing and divi∣ding the benefits of this our Soveraigne: none should be so in∣gratefull as once to murm••re against him, what shall be said of the ingratitude more monstrous in this Chabot, for our Francis hath loved, not in generall in the croud with other subjects, but particularly this Ph••l••p advanc'd him to the supreme dig∣nitie of a Statsman, lodg'd him in his very heart, yet Monstrum horrendum; even to this Francis hath Philip beene ingratefull. Brutus the loved sonne hath stabbed Caesar with a Bodkin: Oh what brute may be compared to him? and in what parti∣culars may this crime be exemplified; hee hath, as wee say, chopt Logicke with the King, nay to the very teeth of his Soveraigne advance his owne Gnat-like merits, and justified with Luciferous pride, that his services have deserved more than all the bounty of our Munificent King hath paid him.
O••serve that my Lords.
Nay he hath gone further, and most traitaerously hath commitred outrage and impiety to the Kings owne hand, and royall character, which presented to him in a bill from the whole counsell, hee most violently did teare in peeces, and will doe the very body and person of your King, if our Justice make no timely prevention, and strike out the Serpentine teeth of th•• high and more than ho••rible monster.
This was e••forced home.
In the next place I will relate to your honours his most cruell exactions upon the subject, the old vantcurriers of rebellions. In the yeare 15. 6. and 37. This oppressour, and this extortioner, under pretext of his due taxation, being Ad∣mirall impo••'d upon certaine Fishermen, (observe I beseech you the circumstance of their persons, Fishermen) who poore Iohns were embarqued upon the cost of Normandy, and fishing there for Herrings (which some s••y is the king of Fishes) he impos'd I say twenty souse, and upon every boate sixe liuers, oh intollerable exaction! enough not onely to alienate the hearts of these miserable people from their King, which Ipso facto is high treason, but an occasion of a greater inconveni∣ence,
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for want of due provision of fish among the subjects, for by this might ensue a necessitie of mortall sins, by breaking the religious fast upon Vigils, Embers, and other dayes comman∣ded by sacred authority, besides the miserable rut that would follow, and perhaps contagion, when feasting and flesh should be licenced for every carnall appetite.—I could urge ma∣ny more particulars of his dangerous insatiate and boundlesse Avarice, but the improvement of his estate in so few yeares, from a private Gentlemans fortune, to a great Dukes reve∣newes, might save our soveraigne therein an Orator to en∣force and prove faulty even to gyantisme against heaven.
This is but a noise of words.
To the foule outrages so violent, let us adde his Com∣missions granted out of his owne presum'd authoritie, his Majestie neither infround or respected his disloyalties, infide∣lities, contempts, oppressions, extortions, with innumerable abuses, offences, and forfeits, both to his Majesties most royall person, crowne, and dignitie, yet notwithstanding all these injustices, this unmatchable, u••just delinquent affecteth to be thought inculpable, and incomparable just; but alas my most learned Lord, none knowes better than your selves, how easie the sinceritie of Iustice is pretended, how hard it is to be per∣formed, and how common it is for him that hath least colour of title to it, to be thought the very substance and soule of it, he that was never true scholler in the least degree, longs as a woman with child to be great with scholler she that was ne∣ver with child longs Omnibus vijs modis to be got with child, and will weare a cushion to seeme with child, and hee that was never just, will fly in the Kings face to be counted just, though for all he be nothing, but just, a Traytor.
The Admirall smil••s.
Answer your selfe my Lord.
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And how this great and mighty fortune hath exalted him to pride is apparant, not onely in his b••aves and bearings to the King, the fountaine of all this increase, but in his con∣tempt and scorne of the subject, his vast expences in buil∣dings, his private bounties, above royall to souldiers and schollers, that he may be the Generall and Patron, and prote∣ctor of armes and arts; the number of domesticke attendants, an army of Grashoppers and gay Butterflies able to devoure the Spring; his glorious wardrobes, his stable of horses that are prick'd with provender, and will enforce us to weede up our Vineyards to sow Oates for supply of their provision, his caroches shining with gold, and more bright than the chariot of the Sunne, wearing out the pavements; nay, he is of late so transcendently proud, that men must be his Mules, and carry him up and downe as it were in a Procession for men to gaze
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at him till their chines crackes with the weight of his insup∣portable pride, and who knowes but this may prove a fashion? But who grones for this? the subject, who murmure, and are ready to beginne a rebellion, but the tumultuous saylers, and water-rats, who tunne up and downe the citie, like an over∣bearing tempest, cursing the Admirall, who in duty ought to undoe himself for the generall satisfaction of his countrymen.
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Actus Quartus.
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Actus Quintus.
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I am ready for your Lordships: It hath beene said, and will be said agen, and may truely be justified, Omnia ex lite fieri. It was the position of Philosophers, and now proved by a more Phylosophycall sect, the Lawyers, that Omnia ex lite fiant, we are all made by Law, made I say, and worthily if we be just, if we be un just, marr'd, though in marring some, there is necessitie of making others, for if one sall by the Law, tenne to one but another is exalted by the execution of the Law, since the corruption of one must conclude the genera∣tion of another, though not alwayes in the same profession; the corruption of an Apothecary, may be the generation of a Doctor of Physicke; the corruption of a Citizen may beget a Courtier, & a Courtier may very well beget an Alderman, the corruption of an Alderman may be the generation of a Coun∣try Iustice, whose corrupt ignorance easily may beget a tumult,
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a tumult may beget a Captaine, and the corruption of a Cap∣taine may beget a Gentleman-Vsher, and a Gentleman-Vsher may beget a Lord, whose wit may beget a Poet, and a Poet may get a thousand pound a yeare, but nothing without cor∣ruption.
Good Mr. Advocate be pleased to leave all digressi∣ons, and speake of the Chancellor.
Your Lordship doth very seasonably premonish, and I shall not neede to leave my subject corruption, while I dis∣course of him, who is the very fenne and stigian abisse of it, five thousand and odde hundred foule and impious corrupti∣ons, for I will be briefe; have beene found by severall exami∣nations, and by oathes prov'd against this odious and polluted Chancelor, a man of so tainted, and contagious a life, that it is a miracle any man enjoyeth his nostrills, that hath lived with∣in the sent of his offices; he was borne with teeth in his head, by an affidavit of his Midwife, to note his devouring, and hath one toe on his left foote crooked, and in the forme of an Eagles talon, to foretell his rapacitie: What shall I say? branded, mark'd, and design'd in his birth for shame and oblo∣quie, which appeareth further by a mole under his right eare, with only three Witches haires int, strange and ominous pre∣dictions of nature.
Your Lordship hath most aptly interpos'd, and with a word I shall easily satisfie all your judgements; He was then
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a Judge, and in Cathedra, in which he could not erre; it may be your Lordships cases, out of the chaire and seate of Iustice, he hath his frailties, is loos'ed and expos'd to the conditions of other humane natures; so every Iudge, your Lordships are not ignorant hath a kinde of priviledge while he is in his state, office and being, and although hee may quoad se, internally and privately be guilty of bribery of Iustice, yet quoad nos, and in publike he is an upright and innocent Iudge, we are to take no notice, nay, we deserved to suffer, if wee should detect or staine him; for in that we disparage the Office, which is the Kings, and may be our owne, but once remov'd from his place by just dishonour of the King, he is no more a Iudge but a common person, whom the law takes hold on, and wee are then to forget what hee hath beene, and without partialitie to strip and lay him open to the world, a counterfeit and cor∣rupt Iudge, as for example, hee may and ought to flourish in his greatnesse, and breake any mans necke, with as much faci∣litie as a jeast, but the case being altered, and hee downe, eve∣ry subject shall be heard, a Wolfe may be appareld in a Lamb∣skinne; and if every man should be afraid to speake truth, nay and more than truth, if the good of the subject which are cli∣ents sometime require it, there would be no remove of Offi∣cers, if no remove no motions▪ if no motion in Court no heate, and by consequence but cold Termes; take away this moving, this removing of Iudges, the Law may bury it selfe in Buck∣ram, and the kingdome suffer for want of a due execution; and now I hope your Lordships are satisfied.
Most learnedly concluded to acquity our selfe.
I shall obey your Lordship—So v••st so infi∣nite hath beene the impudence of this Chancellor▪ not onely toward the subject, but even the sacred person of the King, that I tremble as with a Palsie to remember it. This man, or rather this monster, having power and commission trusted for the examination of the Lord Admirall, a man perfect in all ho∣nour and justice; indeede the very ornament and second
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flower of France, for the Flower de lis, is sacred and above all flowers, and indeede the best flower in our garden. Having used all wayes to circumvent his innocence by suborning and promising rewards to his betrayers, by compelling others by the cruelty of tortures, as namely Mounsieur Allegre a most ho∣nest and faithfull servant to his Lord, tearing and extending his sinewes upon the ••acke to force a confession to his purpose, and finding nothing prevaile upon the invincible vertue of the Admirall.
How he would flatter him?
Yet most maliciously proceeded to arraigne him; to be short against all colour of Iustice condemn'd him of high treasons; oh thinke what the life of man is, that can never be recompenced; but the life of a just man, a man that is the vi∣gour and glory of our life and nation to be torne to death, and sacrifis'd beyond the mallice of common persecution. What Tiger of Hercanian breede could have beene so cruell? but this is not all? he was not guilty onely of murder, guilty I may say In foro cōsctieniae, though our good Admirall was miraculously preserv'd, but unto this he added a most prodigious & fearefull rape, a rape even upon Iustice it self, the very soule of our state, for the rest of the Iudges upon the Bench, venerable images of Austria, he most tyranously compel'd to set their hands to his most unjust sentence; did ever story remember the like outr••ge and injustice; what forfeit, what penalty can be enough to satisfie this transcendent offence? and yet my good Lords, this is but veniall to the sacriledge which now followes, and by him committed, not content with this sentence, not satisfied with horrid violence upon the sacred Tribunall, but hee pro∣ceedes and blasphemes the very name and honour of the King himselfe, observe that, making him the author and impulsive cause of all these rapines, justifying that he mov'd onely by his speciall command to the death, nay the murder of his most faithfull subject, translating all his owne blacke and damnable guilt upon the Kings heires, a traytor to his Country, first, he conspires the death of one whom the King loves, and whom e∣very subject ought to honour, and then makes it no conscience to proclaime it the Kings act, & by consequ••nce declares him a
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murderer of his owne, and of his best subjects.
How? Did your Lordships note his request to you, he would direct your sentence to punish him with confining
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him to live in the country, like the Mouse in the Fable, that having offended to deserve death, beg'd he might be banished into a Parmisan. I hope your Lordships will be more just to the nature of his offences.
My Lord, this is your sentence for you high misde∣meanours against his Majesties Iudges, for your unjust sentence of the most equall Lord Admirall, for many and foule corrup∣tions and abuse of your office, and that infinite staine of the Kings person, and honour, we in his Majesties name, deprive you of your estate of Chancellor, & declare you uncapeable of any judiciall office, & besides condemne you in the sum of two hundred thousand crownes; whereof one hundred thousand to the King, and one hundred thousand to the Lord Admirall, and what remaineth of your estate to goe to the restitution of those you have injur'd, and to suffer perpetuall imprisonment in the Castle, so take him to your custody. Your Lordships have beene mercifull in his sentence.