ACT IVPROLOGUEEnterAteas before. Then let there followOmphale,daughter to the king of Lydia, having a club in her hand, and a lion’s skin on her back,Herculesfollowing with a distaff. Then letOmphaleturn about, and taking off her pantole, strikeHerculeson the head; then let them depart,Ateremaining, saying:Quem non Argolici mandota severa Tyranni,Non potuit Juno vincere, vicit amor.Stout Hercules, the mirror of the world,Son to Alemena and great Jupiter,After so many conquests won in field,After so many monsters quelled by force,Yielded his valiant heart to Omphale,A fearful woman void of manly strength.She took the club, and wear the lion’s skin;He took the wheel, and maidenly gan spin.So martial Locrine, cheered with victory,Falleth in love with Humber’s concubine,And so forgetteth peerless Gwendoline.His uncle Corineus storms at this,And forceth Locrine for his grace to sue.Lo here the sum, the process doth ensue.[Exit.]SCENE I. The camp of LocrineEnterLocrine, Camber, Corineus, Assaracus, Thrasimachusand the soldiers.LOCRINE.Thus from the furty of Bellona’s broils,With sound of drum and trumpets’ melody,The Brittain king returns triumphantly.The Scithians slain with great occasionDo equalize the grass in multitude,And with their blood have stained the streaming brooks,Offering their bodies and their dearest bloodAs sacrifice to Albanactus’ ghost.Now, cursed Humber, hast thou paid thy due,For thy deceits and crafty treacheries,For all thy guiles and damned strategems,With loss of life, and everduring shame.Where are thy horses trapped with burnished gold,Thy trampling coursers ruled with foaming bits?Where are thy soldiers, strong and numberless,Thy valiant captains and thy noble peers?Even as the country clowns with sharpest scythesDo mow the withered grass from off the earth,Or as the ploughman with his piercing shareRenteth the bowels of the fertile fields,And rippeth up the roots with razours keen:So Locrine with his mighty curtleaxeHath cropped off the heads of all thy Huns;So Locrine’s peers have daunted all thy peers,And drove thin host unto confusion,That thou mayest suffer penance for thy fault,And die for murdering valiant Albanact.CORINEUS.And thus, yea thus, shall all the rest be servedThat seek to enter Albion gainst our wills.If the brave nation of the Troglodites,If all the coalblack Aethiopians,If all the forces of the Amazons,If all the hosts of the Barbarian lands,Should dare to enter this our little world,Soon should they rue their overbold attempts,That after us our progeny may say,There lie the beasts that sought to usurp our land.LOCRINE.Aye, they are beasts that seek to usurp our land,And like to brutish beasts they shall be served.For mighty Jove, the supreme king of heaven,That guides the concourse of the Meteors,And rules the motion of the azure sky,Fights always for the Brittains’ safety.—But stay! me thinks I hear some shriking noise,That draweth near to our pavilion.Enter the soldiers leading inEstrild.ESTRILD.What prince so ere, adorned with golden crown,Doth sway the regal scepter in his hand,And thinks no chance can ever throw him down,Or that his state shall everlasting stand:Let him behold poor Estrild in this plight,The perfect platform of a troubled wight.Once was I guarded with manortial bands,Compassed with princes of the noble blood;Now am I fallen into my foemen’s hands,And with my death must pacific their mood.O life, the harbour of calamities!O death, the haven of all miseries!I could compare my sorrows to thy woe,Thou wretched queen of wretched Pergamus,But that thou viewdst thy enemies’ overthrow.Night to the rock of high Caphareus,Thou sawest their death, and then departedst thence;I must abide the victor’s insolence.The golds that pitied thy continual griefTransformed thy corps, and with thy corps thy care;Poor Estrild lives despairing of relief,For friends in trouble are but few and rare.What, said I few? Aye! few or none at all,For cruel death made havoc of them all.Thrice happy they whose fortune was so good,To end their lives, and with their lives their woes!Thrice hapless I, whom fortune so withstood,That cruelly she gave me to my foes!Oh, soldiers, is there any misery,To be compared to fortune’s treachery.LOCRINE.Camber, this same should be the Scithian queen.CAMBER.So may we judge by her lamenting words.LOCRINE.So fair a dame mine eyes did never see;With floods of woe she seems overwhelmed to be.CAMBER.O Locrine, hath she not a cause for to be sad?LOCRINE.[At one side of the stage.]If she have cause to weep for Humber’s death,And shed salt tears for her overthrow,Locrine may well bewail his proper grief,Locrine may move his own peculiar woe.He, being conquered, died a speedy death,And felt not long his lamentable smart:I, being conqueror, live a lingering life,And feel the force of Cupid’s sudden stroke.I gave him cause to die a speedy death,He left me cause to wish a speedy death.Oh that sweet face painted with nature’s dye,Those roseall cheeks mixed with a snowy white,That decent neck surpassing ivory,Those comely breasts which Venus well might spite,Are like to snares which wily fowlers wrought,Wherein my yielding heart is prisoner caught.The golden tresses of her dainty hair,Which shine like rubies glittering with the sun,Have so entrapt poor Locrine’s lovesick heart,That from the same no way it can be won.How true is that which oft I heard declared,One dram of joy, must have a pound of care.ESTRILD.Hard is their fall who, from a golden crown,Are cast into a sea of wretchedness.LOCRINE.Hard is their thrall who by Cupid’s frownAre wrapt in waves of endless carefulness.ESTRILD.Oh kingdom, object to all miseries.LOCRINE.Oh love, the extremest of all extremities.[Let him go into his chair.]FIRST SOLDIER.My lord, in ransacking the Scithian tents,I found this Lady, and to manifestThat earnest zeal I bear unto your grace,I here present her to your majesty.SECOND SOLDIER.He lies, my Lord; I found the Lady first,And here present her to your majesty.FIRST SOLDIER.Presumptuous villain, wilt thou take my prize?SECOND SOLDIER.Nay, rather thou deprivest me of my right.FIRST SOLDIER.Resign thy title, cative, unto me,Or with my sword I’ll pierce thy coward’s loins.SECOND SOLDIER.Soft words, good sir, tis not enough to speak;A barking dog doth seldom strangers bite.LOCRINE.Unreverent villains, strive you in our sight?Take them hence, Jailor, to the dungeon;There let them lie and try their quarrel out.But thou, fair princess, be no whit dismayed,But rather joy that Locrine favours thee.ESTRILD.How can he favor me that slew my spouse?LOCRINE.The chance of war, my love, took him from thee.ESTRILD.But Locrine was the causer of his death.LOCRINE.He was an enemy to Locrine’s state,And slew my noble brother Albanact.ESTRILD.But he was linked to me in marriage bond,And would you have me love his slaughterer?LOCRINE.Better to live, than not to live at all.ESTRILD.Better to die renowned for chastity,Than live with shame and endless infamy.What would the common sort report of me,If I forget my love, and cleave to thee?LOCRINE.Kings need not fear the vulgar sentences.ESTRILD.But Ladies must regard their honest name.LOCRINE.Is it a shame to live in marriage bonds?ESTRILD.No, but to be a strumpet to a king.LOCRINE.If thou wilt yield to Locrine’s burning love,Thou shalt be queen of fair Albania.ESTRILD.But Gwendoline will undermine my state.LOCRINE.Upon mine honor, thou shalt have no harm.ESTRILD.Then lo, brave Locrine, Estrild yields to thee;And by the gods, whom thou doest invocate,By the dead ghost of thy deceased sire,By thy right hand and by thy burning love,Take pity on poor Estrild’s wretched thrall.CORINEUS.Hath Locrine then forgot his Gwendoline,That thus he courts the Scithian’s paramour?What, are the words of Brute so soon forgot?Are my deserts so quickly out of mind?Have I been faithful to thy sire now dead,Have I protected thee from Humber’s hands,And doest thou quite me with ungratitude?Is this the guerdon for my grievous wounds,Is this the honour for my labor’s past?Now, by my sword, Locrine, I swear to thee,This injury of thine shall be repaid.LOCRINE.Uncle, scorn you your royal sovereign,As if we stood for cyphers in the court?Upbraid you me with those your benefits?Why, it was a subject’s duty so to do.What you have done for our deceased sire,We know, and all know you have your reward.CORINEUS.Avaunt, proud princox; bravest thou me withall?Assure thyself, though thou be Emperor,Thou ne’er shalt carry this unpunished.CAMBER.Pardon my brother, noble Corineus;Pardon this once and it shall be amended.ASSARACHUS.Cousin, remember Brutus’ latest words,How he desired you to cherish them;Let not this fault so much incense your mind,Which is not yet passed all remedy.CORINEUS.Then, Locrine, lo, I reconcile myself;But as thou lovest thy life, so love thy wife.But if thou violate those promises,Blood and revenge shall light upon thy head.Come, let us back to stately Troinouant,Where all these matters shall be settled.LOCRINE.[To himself.]Millions of devils wait upon thy soul!Legions of spirits vex thy impious ghost!Ten thousand torments rack thy cursed bones!Let every thing that hath the use of breathBe instruments and workers of thy death![Exeunt.]SCENE II. A forestEnterHumberalone, his hair hanging over his shoulders, his arms all bloody, and a dart in one hand.HUMBER.What basilisk was hatched in this place,Where every thing consumed is to nought?What fearful Fury haunts these cursed groves,Where not a root is left for Humber’s meat?Hath fell Alecto, with invenomed blasts,Breathed forth poison in these tender plains?Hath triple Cerberus, with contagious foam,Sowed Aconitum mongst these withered herbs?Hath dreadful Fames with her charming rodsBrought barrenness on every fruitful tree?What, not a root, no fruit, no beast, no bird,To nourish Humber in this wilderness?What would you more, you fiends of Erebus?My very entrails burn for want of drink,My bowels cry, Humber, give us some meat.But wretched Humber can give you no meat;These foul accursed groves afford no meat,This fruitless soil, this ground, brings forth no meat.The gods, hard hearted gods, yield me no meat.Then how can Humber give you any meat?EnterStrumbowith a pitchfork, and a scotch-cap, saying:.STRUMBO.How do you, masters, how do you? how have you scaped hanging this long time? Yfaith, I have scaped many a scouring this year; but I thank God I have past them all with a good couragio, couragio, & my wife & I are in great love and charity now, I thank my manhood & my strength. For I will tell you, masters: upon a certain day at night I came home, to say the very truth, with my stomach full of wine, and ran up into the chamber where my wife soberly sat rocking my little baby, leaning her back against the bed, singing lullaby. Now, when she saw me come with my nose foremost, thinking that I had been drunk, as I was indeed, she snatched up a faggot stick in her hand, and came furiously marching towards me with a big face, as though she would have eaten me at a bit; thundering out these words unto me: Thou drunken knave, where hast thou been so long? I shall teach thee how to beknight me an other time; and so she began to play knaves’ trumps. Now, although I trembled, fearing she would set her ten commandments in my face, I ran within her, and taking her lustily by the middle, I carried her valiantly to the bed, and flinging her upon it, flung myself upon her; and there I delighted her so with the sport I made, that ever after she would call me sweet husband, and so banished brawling for ever. And to see the good will of the wench! she bought with her portion a yard of land, and by that I am now become one of the richest men in our parish. Well, masters, what’s a clock? is it now breakfast time; you shall see what meat I have here for my breakfast.[Let him sit down and pull out his vittails.]HUMBER.Was ever land so fruitless as this land?Was ever grove so graceless as this grove?Was ever soil so barren as this soil?Oh no: the land where hungry Fames dweltMay no wise equalize this cursed land;No, even the climate of the torrid zoneBrings forth more fruit than this accursed grove.Ne’er came sweet Ceres, ne’er came Venus here;Triptolemus, the god of husbandmen,Ne’er sowed his seed in this foul wilderness.The hunger-bitten dogs of Acheron,Chased from the ninefold Puriflegiton,Have set their footsteps in this damned ground.The iron hearted Furies, armed with snakes,Scattered huge Hydras over all the plains,Which have consumed the grass, the herbs, the trees;Which have drunk up the flowing water springs.[Strumbo,hearing his voice, shall start up and put meat in his pocket, seeking to hide himself.]Thou great commander of the starry sky,That guidest the life of every mortal wight,From the inclosures of the fleeting cloudsFain down some food, or else I faint and die:Pour down some drink, or else I faint and die.O Jupiter, hast thou sent MercuryIn clownish shape to minister some food?Some meat! some meat! some meat!STRUMBO.O, alas, sir, ye are deceived. I am not Mercury;I am Strumbo.HUMBER.Give me some meat, villain; give me some meat,Or gainst this rock I’ll dash thy cursed brains,And rent thy bowels with my bloody hands.Give me some meat, villain; give me some meat!STRUMBO.By the faith of my body, good fellow, I had rather give an whole oxe than that thou shouldst serve me in that sort. Dash out my brains? O horrible! terrible! I think I have a quarry of stones in my pocket.Let him make as though he would give him some, and as he putteth out his hand, enter the ghost ofAlbanact,and strike him on the hand: and soStrumboruns out,Humberfollowing him. Exit.ALBANACT’S GHOST.Lo, here the gift of fell ambition,Of usurpation and of treachery!Lo, here the harms that wait upon all thoseThat do intrude themselves in other’s lands,Which are not under their dominion.[Exit.]SCENE III. A chamber in the Royal PalaceEnterLocrinealone.LOCRINE.Seven years hath aged Corineus lived,To Locrine’s grief, and fair Estrild’s woe,And seven years more he hopeth yet to live.Oh supreme Jove, annihilate this thought!Should he enjoy the air’s fruition?Should he enjoy the benefit of life?Should he contemplate the radiant sun,That makes my life equal to dreadful death?Venus, convey this monster fro the earth,That disobeyeth thus thy sacred hests!Cupid, convey this monster to dark hell,That disanulls thy mother’s sugared laws!Mars, with thy target all beset with flames,With murthering blade bereave him of his life,That hindreth Locrine in his sweetest joys!And yet, for all his diligent aspect,His wrathful eyes, piercing like Linces’ eyes,Well have I overmatched his subtilty.Nigh Deurolitum, by the pleasant Lee,Where brackish Thamis slides with silver streams,Making a breach into the grassy downs,A curious arch, of costly marble fraught,Hath Locrine framed underneath the ground;The walls whereof, garnished with diamonds,With ophirs, rubies, glistering emeralds,And interlast with sun-bright carbuncles,Lighten the room with artificial day:And from the Lee with water-flowing pipesThe moisture is derived into this arch,Where I have placed fair Estrild secretly.Thither eftsoons, accompanied with my page,I covertly visit my heart’s desire,Without suspicion of the meanest eye;For love aboundeth still with policy:And thither still means Locrine to repair,Till Atropos cut off mine uncle’s life.[Exit.]SCENE IV. The entrance of a cave, near which runs the river, afterward the HumberEnterHumberalone, saying:.HUMBER.O vita misero longa, foelici brevis,Eheu! malorum fames extremum malum.Long have I lived in this desert cave,With eating haws and miserable roots,Devouring leaves and beastly excrements.Caves were my beds, and stones my pillow-bears,Fear was my sleep, and horror was my dream,For still me thought, at every boisterous blast,Now Locrine comes, now, Humber, thou must die:So that for fear and hunger, Humber’s mindCan never rest, but always trembling stands,O, what Danubius now may quench my thirst?What Euphrates, what lightfoot Euripus,May now allay the fury of that heat,Which, raging in my entrails, eats me up?You ghastly devils of the ninefold Styx,You damned ghosts of joyless Acheron,You mournful souls, vexed in Abyss’ vaults,You coalblack devils of Avernus’ pond,Come, with your fleshhooks rent my famished arms,These arms that have sustained their master’s life.Come, with your razors rip my bowels up,With your sharp fireforks crack my sterved bones:Use me as you will, so Humber may not live.Accursed gods, that rule the starry poles,Accursed Jove, king of the cursed gods,Cast down your lightning on poor Humber’s head,That I may leave this deathlike life of mine!What, hear you not? and shall not Humber die?Nay, I will die, though all the gods say nay!And, gentle Aby, take my troubled corps,Take it and keep it from all mortal eyes,That none may say, when I have lost my breath,The very floods conspired gainst Humber’s death.[Fling himself into the river.]Enter the ghost ofAlbanact.ALBANACT’S GHOST.En coedem sequitur coedes, in coede quiesco.Humber is dead! joy heavens! leap earth! dance trees!Now mayest thou reach thy apples, Tantalus,And with them feed thy hunger-bitten limbs!Now, Sisiphus, leave tumbling of thy rock,And rest thy restless bones upon the same!Unbind Ixion, cruel Rhadamanth,And lay proud Humber on the whirling wheel.Back will I post to hell mouth Taenarus,And pass Cocitus, to the Elysian fields,And tell my father Brutus of these news.[Exit.]
EnterAteas before. Then let there followOmphale,daughter to the king of Lydia, having a club in her hand, and a lion’s skin on her back,Herculesfollowing with a distaff. Then letOmphaleturn about, and taking off her pantole, strikeHerculeson the head; then let them depart,Ateremaining, saying:
Quem non Argolici mandota severa Tyranni,Non potuit Juno vincere, vicit amor.
Stout Hercules, the mirror of the world,Son to Alemena and great Jupiter,After so many conquests won in field,After so many monsters quelled by force,Yielded his valiant heart to Omphale,A fearful woman void of manly strength.She took the club, and wear the lion’s skin;He took the wheel, and maidenly gan spin.So martial Locrine, cheered with victory,Falleth in love with Humber’s concubine,And so forgetteth peerless Gwendoline.His uncle Corineus storms at this,And forceth Locrine for his grace to sue.Lo here the sum, the process doth ensue.
[Exit.]
EnterLocrine, Camber, Corineus, Assaracus, Thrasimachusand the soldiers.
LOCRINE.Thus from the furty of Bellona’s broils,With sound of drum and trumpets’ melody,The Brittain king returns triumphantly.The Scithians slain with great occasionDo equalize the grass in multitude,And with their blood have stained the streaming brooks,Offering their bodies and their dearest bloodAs sacrifice to Albanactus’ ghost.Now, cursed Humber, hast thou paid thy due,For thy deceits and crafty treacheries,For all thy guiles and damned strategems,With loss of life, and everduring shame.Where are thy horses trapped with burnished gold,Thy trampling coursers ruled with foaming bits?Where are thy soldiers, strong and numberless,Thy valiant captains and thy noble peers?Even as the country clowns with sharpest scythesDo mow the withered grass from off the earth,Or as the ploughman with his piercing shareRenteth the bowels of the fertile fields,And rippeth up the roots with razours keen:So Locrine with his mighty curtleaxeHath cropped off the heads of all thy Huns;So Locrine’s peers have daunted all thy peers,And drove thin host unto confusion,That thou mayest suffer penance for thy fault,And die for murdering valiant Albanact.
CORINEUS.And thus, yea thus, shall all the rest be servedThat seek to enter Albion gainst our wills.If the brave nation of the Troglodites,If all the coalblack Aethiopians,If all the forces of the Amazons,If all the hosts of the Barbarian lands,Should dare to enter this our little world,Soon should they rue their overbold attempts,That after us our progeny may say,There lie the beasts that sought to usurp our land.
LOCRINE.Aye, they are beasts that seek to usurp our land,And like to brutish beasts they shall be served.For mighty Jove, the supreme king of heaven,That guides the concourse of the Meteors,And rules the motion of the azure sky,Fights always for the Brittains’ safety.—But stay! me thinks I hear some shriking noise,That draweth near to our pavilion.
Enter the soldiers leading inEstrild.
ESTRILD.What prince so ere, adorned with golden crown,Doth sway the regal scepter in his hand,And thinks no chance can ever throw him down,Or that his state shall everlasting stand:Let him behold poor Estrild in this plight,The perfect platform of a troubled wight.Once was I guarded with manortial bands,Compassed with princes of the noble blood;Now am I fallen into my foemen’s hands,And with my death must pacific their mood.O life, the harbour of calamities!O death, the haven of all miseries!I could compare my sorrows to thy woe,Thou wretched queen of wretched Pergamus,But that thou viewdst thy enemies’ overthrow.Night to the rock of high Caphareus,Thou sawest their death, and then departedst thence;I must abide the victor’s insolence.The golds that pitied thy continual griefTransformed thy corps, and with thy corps thy care;Poor Estrild lives despairing of relief,For friends in trouble are but few and rare.What, said I few? Aye! few or none at all,For cruel death made havoc of them all.Thrice happy they whose fortune was so good,To end their lives, and with their lives their woes!Thrice hapless I, whom fortune so withstood,That cruelly she gave me to my foes!Oh, soldiers, is there any misery,To be compared to fortune’s treachery.
LOCRINE.Camber, this same should be the Scithian queen.
CAMBER.So may we judge by her lamenting words.
LOCRINE.So fair a dame mine eyes did never see;With floods of woe she seems overwhelmed to be.
CAMBER.O Locrine, hath she not a cause for to be sad?
LOCRINE.[At one side of the stage.]If she have cause to weep for Humber’s death,And shed salt tears for her overthrow,Locrine may well bewail his proper grief,Locrine may move his own peculiar woe.He, being conquered, died a speedy death,And felt not long his lamentable smart:I, being conqueror, live a lingering life,And feel the force of Cupid’s sudden stroke.I gave him cause to die a speedy death,He left me cause to wish a speedy death.Oh that sweet face painted with nature’s dye,Those roseall cheeks mixed with a snowy white,That decent neck surpassing ivory,Those comely breasts which Venus well might spite,Are like to snares which wily fowlers wrought,Wherein my yielding heart is prisoner caught.The golden tresses of her dainty hair,Which shine like rubies glittering with the sun,Have so entrapt poor Locrine’s lovesick heart,That from the same no way it can be won.How true is that which oft I heard declared,One dram of joy, must have a pound of care.
ESTRILD.Hard is their fall who, from a golden crown,Are cast into a sea of wretchedness.
LOCRINE.Hard is their thrall who by Cupid’s frownAre wrapt in waves of endless carefulness.
ESTRILD.Oh kingdom, object to all miseries.
LOCRINE.Oh love, the extremest of all extremities.
[Let him go into his chair.]
FIRST SOLDIER.My lord, in ransacking the Scithian tents,I found this Lady, and to manifestThat earnest zeal I bear unto your grace,I here present her to your majesty.
SECOND SOLDIER.He lies, my Lord; I found the Lady first,And here present her to your majesty.
FIRST SOLDIER.Presumptuous villain, wilt thou take my prize?
SECOND SOLDIER.Nay, rather thou deprivest me of my right.
FIRST SOLDIER.Resign thy title, cative, unto me,Or with my sword I’ll pierce thy coward’s loins.
SECOND SOLDIER.Soft words, good sir, tis not enough to speak;A barking dog doth seldom strangers bite.
LOCRINE.Unreverent villains, strive you in our sight?Take them hence, Jailor, to the dungeon;There let them lie and try their quarrel out.But thou, fair princess, be no whit dismayed,But rather joy that Locrine favours thee.
ESTRILD.How can he favor me that slew my spouse?
LOCRINE.The chance of war, my love, took him from thee.
ESTRILD.But Locrine was the causer of his death.
LOCRINE.He was an enemy to Locrine’s state,And slew my noble brother Albanact.
ESTRILD.But he was linked to me in marriage bond,And would you have me love his slaughterer?
LOCRINE.Better to live, than not to live at all.
ESTRILD.Better to die renowned for chastity,Than live with shame and endless infamy.What would the common sort report of me,If I forget my love, and cleave to thee?
LOCRINE.Kings need not fear the vulgar sentences.
ESTRILD.But Ladies must regard their honest name.
LOCRINE.Is it a shame to live in marriage bonds?
ESTRILD.No, but to be a strumpet to a king.
LOCRINE.If thou wilt yield to Locrine’s burning love,Thou shalt be queen of fair Albania.
ESTRILD.But Gwendoline will undermine my state.
LOCRINE.Upon mine honor, thou shalt have no harm.
ESTRILD.Then lo, brave Locrine, Estrild yields to thee;And by the gods, whom thou doest invocate,By the dead ghost of thy deceased sire,By thy right hand and by thy burning love,Take pity on poor Estrild’s wretched thrall.
CORINEUS.Hath Locrine then forgot his Gwendoline,That thus he courts the Scithian’s paramour?What, are the words of Brute so soon forgot?Are my deserts so quickly out of mind?Have I been faithful to thy sire now dead,Have I protected thee from Humber’s hands,And doest thou quite me with ungratitude?Is this the guerdon for my grievous wounds,Is this the honour for my labor’s past?Now, by my sword, Locrine, I swear to thee,This injury of thine shall be repaid.
LOCRINE.Uncle, scorn you your royal sovereign,As if we stood for cyphers in the court?Upbraid you me with those your benefits?Why, it was a subject’s duty so to do.What you have done for our deceased sire,We know, and all know you have your reward.
CORINEUS.Avaunt, proud princox; bravest thou me withall?Assure thyself, though thou be Emperor,Thou ne’er shalt carry this unpunished.
CAMBER.Pardon my brother, noble Corineus;Pardon this once and it shall be amended.
ASSARACHUS.Cousin, remember Brutus’ latest words,How he desired you to cherish them;Let not this fault so much incense your mind,Which is not yet passed all remedy.
CORINEUS.Then, Locrine, lo, I reconcile myself;But as thou lovest thy life, so love thy wife.But if thou violate those promises,Blood and revenge shall light upon thy head.Come, let us back to stately Troinouant,Where all these matters shall be settled.
LOCRINE.[To himself.]Millions of devils wait upon thy soul!Legions of spirits vex thy impious ghost!Ten thousand torments rack thy cursed bones!Let every thing that hath the use of breathBe instruments and workers of thy death!
[Exeunt.]
EnterHumberalone, his hair hanging over his shoulders, his arms all bloody, and a dart in one hand.
HUMBER.What basilisk was hatched in this place,Where every thing consumed is to nought?What fearful Fury haunts these cursed groves,Where not a root is left for Humber’s meat?Hath fell Alecto, with invenomed blasts,Breathed forth poison in these tender plains?Hath triple Cerberus, with contagious foam,Sowed Aconitum mongst these withered herbs?Hath dreadful Fames with her charming rodsBrought barrenness on every fruitful tree?What, not a root, no fruit, no beast, no bird,To nourish Humber in this wilderness?What would you more, you fiends of Erebus?My very entrails burn for want of drink,My bowels cry, Humber, give us some meat.But wretched Humber can give you no meat;These foul accursed groves afford no meat,This fruitless soil, this ground, brings forth no meat.The gods, hard hearted gods, yield me no meat.Then how can Humber give you any meat?
EnterStrumbowith a pitchfork, and a scotch-cap, saying:.
STRUMBO.How do you, masters, how do you? how have you scaped hanging this long time? Yfaith, I have scaped many a scouring this year; but I thank God I have past them all with a good couragio, couragio, & my wife & I are in great love and charity now, I thank my manhood & my strength. For I will tell you, masters: upon a certain day at night I came home, to say the very truth, with my stomach full of wine, and ran up into the chamber where my wife soberly sat rocking my little baby, leaning her back against the bed, singing lullaby. Now, when she saw me come with my nose foremost, thinking that I had been drunk, as I was indeed, she snatched up a faggot stick in her hand, and came furiously marching towards me with a big face, as though she would have eaten me at a bit; thundering out these words unto me: Thou drunken knave, where hast thou been so long? I shall teach thee how to beknight me an other time; and so she began to play knaves’ trumps. Now, although I trembled, fearing she would set her ten commandments in my face, I ran within her, and taking her lustily by the middle, I carried her valiantly to the bed, and flinging her upon it, flung myself upon her; and there I delighted her so with the sport I made, that ever after she would call me sweet husband, and so banished brawling for ever. And to see the good will of the wench! she bought with her portion a yard of land, and by that I am now become one of the richest men in our parish. Well, masters, what’s a clock? is it now breakfast time; you shall see what meat I have here for my breakfast.
[Let him sit down and pull out his vittails.]
HUMBER.Was ever land so fruitless as this land?Was ever grove so graceless as this grove?Was ever soil so barren as this soil?Oh no: the land where hungry Fames dweltMay no wise equalize this cursed land;No, even the climate of the torrid zoneBrings forth more fruit than this accursed grove.Ne’er came sweet Ceres, ne’er came Venus here;Triptolemus, the god of husbandmen,Ne’er sowed his seed in this foul wilderness.The hunger-bitten dogs of Acheron,Chased from the ninefold Puriflegiton,Have set their footsteps in this damned ground.The iron hearted Furies, armed with snakes,Scattered huge Hydras over all the plains,Which have consumed the grass, the herbs, the trees;Which have drunk up the flowing water springs.
[Strumbo,hearing his voice, shall start up and put meat in his pocket, seeking to hide himself.]
Thou great commander of the starry sky,That guidest the life of every mortal wight,From the inclosures of the fleeting cloudsFain down some food, or else I faint and die:Pour down some drink, or else I faint and die.O Jupiter, hast thou sent MercuryIn clownish shape to minister some food?Some meat! some meat! some meat!
STRUMBO.O, alas, sir, ye are deceived. I am not Mercury;I am Strumbo.
HUMBER.Give me some meat, villain; give me some meat,Or gainst this rock I’ll dash thy cursed brains,And rent thy bowels with my bloody hands.Give me some meat, villain; give me some meat!
STRUMBO.By the faith of my body, good fellow, I had rather give an whole oxe than that thou shouldst serve me in that sort. Dash out my brains? O horrible! terrible! I think I have a quarry of stones in my pocket.
Let him make as though he would give him some, and as he putteth out his hand, enter the ghost ofAlbanact,and strike him on the hand: and soStrumboruns out,Humberfollowing him. Exit.
ALBANACT’S GHOST.Lo, here the gift of fell ambition,Of usurpation and of treachery!Lo, here the harms that wait upon all thoseThat do intrude themselves in other’s lands,Which are not under their dominion.
[Exit.]
EnterLocrinealone.
LOCRINE.Seven years hath aged Corineus lived,To Locrine’s grief, and fair Estrild’s woe,And seven years more he hopeth yet to live.Oh supreme Jove, annihilate this thought!Should he enjoy the air’s fruition?Should he enjoy the benefit of life?Should he contemplate the radiant sun,That makes my life equal to dreadful death?Venus, convey this monster fro the earth,That disobeyeth thus thy sacred hests!Cupid, convey this monster to dark hell,That disanulls thy mother’s sugared laws!Mars, with thy target all beset with flames,With murthering blade bereave him of his life,That hindreth Locrine in his sweetest joys!And yet, for all his diligent aspect,His wrathful eyes, piercing like Linces’ eyes,Well have I overmatched his subtilty.Nigh Deurolitum, by the pleasant Lee,Where brackish Thamis slides with silver streams,Making a breach into the grassy downs,A curious arch, of costly marble fraught,Hath Locrine framed underneath the ground;The walls whereof, garnished with diamonds,With ophirs, rubies, glistering emeralds,And interlast with sun-bright carbuncles,Lighten the room with artificial day:And from the Lee with water-flowing pipesThe moisture is derived into this arch,Where I have placed fair Estrild secretly.Thither eftsoons, accompanied with my page,I covertly visit my heart’s desire,Without suspicion of the meanest eye;For love aboundeth still with policy:And thither still means Locrine to repair,Till Atropos cut off mine uncle’s life.
[Exit.]
EnterHumberalone, saying:.
HUMBER.O vita misero longa, foelici brevis,Eheu! malorum fames extremum malum.
Long have I lived in this desert cave,With eating haws and miserable roots,Devouring leaves and beastly excrements.Caves were my beds, and stones my pillow-bears,Fear was my sleep, and horror was my dream,For still me thought, at every boisterous blast,Now Locrine comes, now, Humber, thou must die:So that for fear and hunger, Humber’s mindCan never rest, but always trembling stands,O, what Danubius now may quench my thirst?What Euphrates, what lightfoot Euripus,May now allay the fury of that heat,Which, raging in my entrails, eats me up?You ghastly devils of the ninefold Styx,You damned ghosts of joyless Acheron,You mournful souls, vexed in Abyss’ vaults,You coalblack devils of Avernus’ pond,Come, with your fleshhooks rent my famished arms,These arms that have sustained their master’s life.Come, with your razors rip my bowels up,With your sharp fireforks crack my sterved bones:Use me as you will, so Humber may not live.Accursed gods, that rule the starry poles,Accursed Jove, king of the cursed gods,Cast down your lightning on poor Humber’s head,That I may leave this deathlike life of mine!What, hear you not? and shall not Humber die?Nay, I will die, though all the gods say nay!And, gentle Aby, take my troubled corps,Take it and keep it from all mortal eyes,That none may say, when I have lost my breath,The very floods conspired gainst Humber’s death.
[Fling himself into the river.]
Enter the ghost ofAlbanact.
ALBANACT’S GHOST.En coedem sequitur coedes, in coede quiesco.Humber is dead! joy heavens! leap earth! dance trees!Now mayest thou reach thy apples, Tantalus,And with them feed thy hunger-bitten limbs!Now, Sisiphus, leave tumbling of thy rock,And rest thy restless bones upon the same!Unbind Ixion, cruel Rhadamanth,And lay proud Humber on the whirling wheel.Back will I post to hell mouth Taenarus,And pass Cocitus, to the Elysian fields,And tell my father Brutus of these news.
[Exit.]