The Discontented
CONFERENCE
BETWIXT
The two great Associates,
THOMAS
Late Earle of STRAFFORD,
AND
WILLIAM
Arch-bishop of Canterbury.
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Straff. GOD save your Grace: How doe you doe?
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Cant. My Lord, I thanke you, well as you.
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Straff. I have not seene your Grace of late
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So full of mirth, may't auspicate
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Some good event, and such as wee
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May by it finde our libertie;
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The Proverb him unwise doth hold,
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Who loves his fetters, though of gold.
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Cant. Last night (my Lord) some nobler dreame
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Then did to sanguine, choler, phlegme,
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Or unto melancholy owe
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It's birth, did on my fancy grow:
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Me thought I was in Oxford, where
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Lord Chancellours name and power I beare;
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What showts Saint JOHNS there to me gave,
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My gladed eares yet ringing have;
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I heard their labouring joyes, and throng
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Of praises both in prose and song.
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And as, me-thought, from thence I came
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To Lambeth, I still heard the same
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So loud, that Eccho from Whitehall
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Return'd them to my Lambeths wall.
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Straff. In such a dreame, O who would keepe
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A noyse to breake your Graces sleepe!
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And though dreames erre, yet may this be
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To you a happy prophesie,
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And such a one as may prove true,
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And faire unto my selfe, as you,
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For so by one compact of wit,
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Our Counsels were together knit
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So close, so even they did goe
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To worke the Common-weale it's woe,
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We cannot well ourselves define
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What plot was yours, or which was mine,
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They were each others Inmates, twins
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That vi'd which most should number sins;
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Both slept, both wak'd at once; and whether
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They lost or won, both play'd together.
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Cant. My Lord, you rage. Straf. You cannot call
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Truth a disease, or rage at all:
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Truth neither can, nor will deceive you.
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Cant. Farewell my Lord, for I must leave you.
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Straf. Yet stay a while, and give to me
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Once more your Benedicitee;
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I must confesse I did begin
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To chide, but now forget my spleene.
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Cant. It doth increase my joy, and sure
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The joy may well your praise procure:
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How thinke you? Would this Kingdome flout,
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To heare wee two were falling out?
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Come, be your selfe; relate at length
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What arm'd Recusants, what new strength
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May come from Ireland, to relieve
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Our dying faction. Straf. Never grieve.
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My setled Soule; I doe not know
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That root on which one hope might grow;
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But in conclusion there must be
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A rope for you, an axe for me.
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Cant. Was this your well grounded guesse
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Of our increasing happinesse?
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Ends thus your boasting, that you could
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Get money, men, or what you would,
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To curbe the insolency of those
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That were, or would become our foes?
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False Straffords Earle. Straf. Stop there, your Grace
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His tongue doth trot too round a pace;
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Looke, looke abroad, can you now see
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No Patent, no Monopolee;
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Are all your projects, all your fine
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sick as Medium wine?
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Can now no more Lauds, lawlesse might,
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The Parson from the Pulpit fright,
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The Subject from the Kingdome? What
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Could ruine doe which you did not?
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Cant. There's something yet undone, 'tis true,
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But shortly to be done to you:
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Each you have (for 'tis the will
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Of Fate to have you guarded still)
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Shall serve the Minister of your doome,
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Your Executioner, not your Groome:
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Your head that mastered so much art,
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Ere long shall from your shoulders part;
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Your blood your scarlet must new dye,
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Your Spurres fall off, your Ermines flye,
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And of so great, so fear'd a Name,
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Scarce left a man that loves your Fame.
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Straf. So, so, (my Lord) my heart is glad
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I owne that griefe your Grace can mad;
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Your Head, no doubt, is growne the lighter
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Since dis-invested of the Miter;
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It was too proud a weight, and knowne
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To nurse bad thoughts, 'tis better gone.
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The Shepheards on their Sheephooks laugh
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And doe upbraid your Crosier staffe;
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No more, your now deafe Chaplaines harke
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What houre shall speake you Patriarke.
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Cant. Farewell, farewell, your Time cals on,
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Speake thoughts more sanctifide, or none;
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'Tis you must lead the way, and I
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Shall follow after by and by.
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Straf. My lifes short knarled thred doth stand,
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Expecting Fates impartiall hand:
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Heav'n hath my thoughts, (my Lord) yet stay,
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Shall we nere meet againe? Cant. We may.
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There's roome enough in Heav'n for two
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Have more transgrest then I or you:
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But I what place and time forbeare
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To name, 'tis GOD knowes when and where.
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