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Lyg. I grant all that too. But this wretched fellow
Reaches no further than the empty name

That serves to feed him: were he valiant, 25

Or had but in him any noble nature,
That might hereafter promise him a good man,
My cares were so much lighter, and my grave
A span yet from me.

Mar. I confess, such fellows

Be in all royal camps, and have and must be, 30

To make the sin of coward more detested
In the mean soldier, that with such a foil
Sets off much valour. By description,
I should now guess him to you; it was Bessus,
I dare almost with confidence pronounce it. 35

Lyg. 'Tis such a scurvy name as Bessus;
And now I think 'tis he.

Mar. Captain do you call him?
Believe me, sir, you have a misery
Too mighty for your age: a pox upon him!

For that must be the end of all his service. 40

Your daughter was not mad, sir?

Lyg. No; would she had been!
The fault had had more credit. I would do something.

Mar. I would fain counsel you, but to what I know
not.

He's so below a beating, that the women

Find him not worthy of their distaves; and 45

To hang him were to cast away a rope.
He's such an airy, thin, unbodied coward,
That no revenge can catch him.
I'll tell you, sir, and tell you truth; this rascal
Fears neither God nor man; has been so beaten, 50

Sufferance has made him wainscot; he has had,
Since he was first a slave,
At least three hundred daggers set in's head,
As little boys do new knives in hot meat;
Theres not a rib in's body, o' my conscience, 55

____________________
32 -3 In the mean soldier . . . muck valour] in the rank and file, whose bravery
is more conspicuous by contrast with poltroonery in a man of higher rank; or
the passage may merely mean that such mean-spirited soldiers as Bessus act as
a foil to the valour of the rest.
53 -4 three hundred . . . hot meat] i.e. his head is a mere block on which to
test a weapon's edge.

-331-

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Publication Information: Book Title: The Maid's Tragedy; Philaster; A King and No King; The Scornful Lady; The Custom of the Country. Contributors: Francis Beaumont - author, John Fletcher - author. Publisher: George Bell and Sons & A. H. Bullen. Place of Publication: London. Publication Year: 1904. Page Number: 331.
    
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