“Fuimus Troes” (Aeneid 2).
THE TRUE TROJANS.
Edited by Chris Butler, Sheffield
Hallam University.
Contents.
Introduction.
--- First Publication and
Authorship. 3.
--- Dates of Composition and
Performance. 4.
---Sources. 6.
---Type of Play. 8.
---Major Thematic Concerns.
---James
as “Second Brute”. 11.
---Prince
Henry and Chivalric Values. 13.
---James/Charles
as Second Augustus. 15.
---Tranlatio Imperii. 17.
---The
Golden Age (and the Marriage of Princess Elizabeth
and Frederick V, Elector Palatine). 19.
---National
Identity. 22.
---Editorial Procedures. 24.
Works Cited in the Introduction and Notes. 25.
“Fuimus Troes” (Aeneid 2). The
True Trojans. 29.
Appendix 1: Fisher’s Epithalamium. 139.
Introduction.
First Publication and Authorship.
“Fuimus Troes” (Aeneid 2). The True Trojans (hereafter referred to as Fuimus Troes) was first published,
anonymously, in a quarto-sized edition, in London, 1633. Wood, the
seventeenth-century historian of Oxford, affirmed that Jasper Fisher was the
author of Fuimus Troes, and this
attribution has been widely accepted.[1]
Jasper Fisher was born in Carleton, Bedfordshire in 1591, the son of William Fisher, “deputy auditor for Yorkshire” (Foster 500), and Alice Roane of Wellingborough. After matriculating at Magdalen Hall, Oxford (1607), Fisher obtained his BA (1611), MA (1614) and BD and DD (1638). While still at Oxford, he contributed a Latin poem to Epithalamia (1613), the university’s volume celebrating the wedding of James I’s daughter Princess Elizabeth and Frederick V, Elector Palatine (see Appendix 1). In 1624, Fisher became rector of St. Nicholas Church in the “somewhat straggling” village of Wilden, Bedfordshire (Page, Counties 223), and, in 1627, married Elizabeth Sams. Their two children (Jasper and Elizabeth) were baptized at Wilden.
In addition to Fuimus Troes, Fisher published sermons,
including The Priest’s Duty and Dignity
(1635), which argues that while priests should not be regarded as infallible
(in the Roman Catholic manner), nor should every believer assume the right to
interpret scripture according to his/her own lights. Notwithstanding its
promotion of Anglican views, the sermon could be read as implicitly criticising
the absolutist position espoused by Stuart monarchs. On the priest’s role as
mediator of God’s laws, Fisher insists it is “[t]he law which he speaks, not which he makes of which he is the lawyer, not the
law-giver” (16). Conversely, in True Law
of Free Monarchies (1598), James I (who equated the authority of kings with
that of bishops) had asserted: “Kings were the authors and makers of the laws,
and not the laws of the king”. Comparing these statements, it seems justifiable
to assume that Fisher was no mere mouthpiece for the Stuart polity.
In later life, according to a
manuscript note by Oldys, Fisher became blind, “whether from old age or an
accident is not known. Wood calls him “an ingenious man, as those that knew him
have divers times informed me”” (Bradley). Fisher’s death, in 1643, is recorded
on a monument on the north wall of the chancel in St. Nicholas Church (Page, Counties 226).
Dates of Composition and Performance.
Neither the date of composition
of Fuimus Troes, nor the date of its
one attested performance is known. Curran cites Brinkley’s assessment that
“1625 is probably the latest possible date [of composition] for Fuimus Troes” (261). This supposition is
based on the assumption that because the play contains a song in Scottish
dialect it was written with a view to pleasing King James I, who died in 1625
(see Bentley 304 and Hazlitt 447). However, the inclusion of a song in Scottish
dialect may well have pleased King Charles after 1625. Apparent analogical
references not only to the death of Prince Henry (1612; see 3.7.1.ff), but also
(arguably) to the disasters which befell Frederick V, the Elector Palatine
suggest that the play was written after 1620 when “Frederick’s forces were …
defeated at the Battle of White Mountain, outside Prague, on 8 November”
(Yates, Rosicrucian 34). In any case,
as Hopkins remarks: “It seems reasonable to assume [that the play’s] … dates of
composition and [original] performance … were close together” (39).
In the early seventeenth-century,
academics who wrote plays “tried to maintain their amateur profile by keeping
their works unpublished” (Elliott, Plays 181).
Fuimus Troes would have been “written
exclusively for the use of student actors, not for any profit that might be
gained from either the printed page or the professional stage” (181). This
would explain why, if the play was
written around (or several years before) 1625, it remained unpublished until
1633. It does not, however, explain why the play eventually was printed in that year. Possibly Fuimus Troes was restaged, or considered
for revival, in the early 1630s.
To consider this possibility, it
will be useful to discuss Cartwright’s The
Royal Slave. The latter play was performed in Christ Church hall, at Oxford
University, before King Charles and Queen Henrietta. It received “a warm
reception from the entire court, especially the queen, who made a special
request to have it performed by her own company … at Hampton Court the
following January” (Elliott, Drama
652-3). It must be acknowledged that The
Royal Slave is a very different play to the comparatively dry Fuimus Troes. Nonetheless, there is
evidence here of a relationship between successful academic drama and
subsequent re-presentations at court, around the Christmas season. Royal
attendance at academic drama was more frequent under James and Charles than it
had been with Elizabeth. Consequently, academic drama can be said to have had
more contact with the court after 1603 than during the Elizabethan period.
Certainly, “Oxford’s proximity to London ensured that the worlds of court,
capital and university remained in close connection” (Fincham 180). In this
context, it is worth noting that Shakespeare’s
Cymbeline (which, like Fuimus Troes, features an encounter
between Romans and Britons on British soil around the time of the birth of
Christ) was revived “on Charles I’s return from his Scottish coronation [1633]”
(Kerrigan 133) and performed “at court on 1 January 1634, when, according to
the Master of the Revels, it was “well liked by the King” (Warren 6). Also, the
inclusion of over a dozen songs in Fuimus
Troes, in addition to “triumphs” (3.7.49.sd) and a masque, suggests the
play was written (or had been revised and extended) with a view to making its
otherwise rather old-fashioned (Senecan) treatment of a historical subject as
entertaining for a courtly audience as possible. Bearing in mind Charles I’s
Scottish coronation of 1633, a song in Scottish dialect may have been included
by special request, for “from the accession of the new dynasty it became
increasingly fashionable for the university to produce verses to commemorate
the births, marriages, deaths and peregrinations of the Stuarts, with as many
as eight collections being published in the decade after 1630” (Fincham 180).
Sources.
The play’s list of Dramatis Personae cites the main
historical sources. Camillus and Brennus, we are told, come from Livy’s history
Book 5. The majority of the remaining characters derive from either Julius
Caesar’s Commentaries on the Gallic Wars
or Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the
Kings of Britain.[2]
Whoever composed the list of Dramatis
Personae was meticulous, not only listing two “lad[ies] mentioned” who do
not appear onstage during the play, but also listing the character of Cassibelane
twice: once as Caesar’s
“Cassibellaunus” and again as Geoffrey’s “Cassibelane”. The author of this list
was either careless or keen to assert an equivalence between Caesar and
Geoffrey’s texts as “history”.
Indeed, I feel Fuimus Troes may offer more to the
modern reader as a dramatisation of the historiographical contest between
native and classical (Latin) texts for discursive eminence in the early decades
of the seventeenth-century than to the modern playgoer as an early modern
representation of historical characters in conflict. Investigation of
character-psychology is not a priority in the play. Only Rollano, the cowardly
Belgian who prefers tackling dead capons to live Romans, Eulinus, the lovesick
noble given to neo-platonic excess in his utterance and Spenserian intensity in
his dreams, and Nennius, the British champion who wins Caesar’s sword in
one-to-one combat, emerge as memorable characters. However, the play becomes
more fascinating if its two main sources (Caesar and Geoffrey) are regarded as
the real protagonist and antagonist among the Dramatis Personae. And though the traitor Androgeus, as character,
may not captivate an audience with his pallid vacillations, as a
Geoffrey-derived creation he attracts the informed reader’s eye by appearing
onstage with his Caesarian double, Mandubratius (Mandubrace). For Mandubratius
and Androgeus are the same “historical” character under two different names. In
such ways, “the play calls attention [both] to its use of Galfridian
non-history and to its own story as a mixture” (Curran 22).
Of course, Fuimus Troes has other sources besides those cited in the list of Dramatis Personae. The playwright paraphrases Tacitus, Lucian and others, among Latin authors. He also includes abundant echoes of early modern English poets and dramatists such as Spenser, Shakespeare and Kyd. Other details derive from English/British chroniclers and antiquarians such as Holinshed and Camden. In addition, eulogistic imagery familiar from the many masques and pageants written after the accession of King James in 1603 is often employed by Fisher as patriotic ammunition. Details of such borrowings and adaptations can be found in the notes accompanying the text of the play in this edition.
Type of Play.
Under conditions affected by strict state censorship (as obtained under
the Tudor-Stuart polities), the distancing effect inherent in “history plays”
allowed playwrights to comment obliquely on contemporary political issues in
relative safety. Also, a dramatist might claim he did not seek to criticise the
existing regime in his history play, but rather wished to demonstrate
“universal” laws of government in a historical setting. After all, “kings, by
understanding these laws, could rule wisely and well” (Ribner 19). Nonetheless,
“historical eras were chosen for dramatisation particularly because they
offered direct parallels with the events of the dramatists’ own times” (17).
As mentioned, a frequent “source
of entertainment for the Stuart royalties was provided by the plays performed
at the Oxford and Cambridge colleges” (Boas 401). Given the perceived function
of the history play as a means of recommending, in acceptable terms, a style of
government to a monarch, it comes as no surprise to find that many academic
plays were history plays. However, from 1605-1636, Cambridge “had the monopoly
of the royal presence at its entertainments” (409). We can assume, therefore,
that the performance of Fuimus Troes
at Magdalen did not receive a royal audience. But academic plays did not require
a royal audience to justify their existence: “In the training of young men for
public life, either in the church or state, plays were regarded as a branch of
rhetoric whose educational function was to hone the skills of the future
preacher, orator and statesman in the classical style” (Elliott, Plays 180). Fuimus Troes, then, may not have been written to advise a king, but
to assist in the training of young men who later would be in positions where
they would be called upon to advise their monarch or his council. As we know,
Fisher not only became a rector after leaving Oxford, he also preached sermons
which touched on controversial areas of doctrine.
As for why an academic history
play like Fuimus Troes should contain
so many songs, it appears that at Oxford, in the Tudor-Stuart period, bachelors
were sometimes admitted to Master’s status only on condition that they write a
play well-stocked with songs (see Elliot, Plays
179). This provided Oxford’s musical scholars (including choristers) with an
opportunity to perform new work before a large audience.
Completing ignoring the play’s
musical content, Ribner regards Fuimus
Troes as “an academic exercise in the vernacular [which] cannot be said to
have had … much influence … upon … the mainstream of English drama”. Yet, he
concedes:
The play is interesting as a late
survival of the type of rigid imposition of Senecan form on chronicle matter
[as, for example, in The Misfortunes of
Arthur [1587-8]]. Fisher’s play does, however, show some influence of the
popular dramatic tradition in that the serious historical matter is combined
with a romantic love affair and with comic interludes provided by a cowardly
clown (228).
Aspects of Fuimus Troes may certainly be regarded as a throwback to
Elizabethan Senecan tragedy. Its patriotic welding of “British” (i.e.
Galfridian) material to a classical form follows the practice inaugurated by
“the first original English tragedy extant [based on the] Senecan model, Gorboduc” (Charlton 140-1). In lieu of
presenting action, the many “long, static and declamatory speeches” (Cuddon
806) in both plays strive for rhetorical effect at the expense of the
(relative) naturalism cultivated by commercial dramatists after Marlowe.
Similarly, stichomythia tends to appear in plays regarded as Senecan (see Fuimus Troes 5.1.22ff). While this
device may be “highly effective in the creation of tension and conflict”
(Cuddon 864), it can also make characters seem like interchangeable conduits of
rhetorical technique rather than distinct individuals. In addition, the authors
of Gorboduc and Fuimus Troes appear to have designed their plays to deliver clear
moral messages. Characters in both plays assert that national tragedy follows
private rebellion. At the end of Gorboduc,
surviving Britons are told: “These mischiefes spring when rebells will arise, /
To worke revenge and iudge their princes fact, / This, this ensues, when noble
men do faile / In loyall trouth, and subiectes will be kinges” (5.2.242-5; in
Cunliffe). Fisher’s Androgeus likewise says: “Thus, civil war by me and
factious broils / Deface this goodly land” (5.5.1-2). Admittedly, Androgeus is
a traitor: this speech might be read as expressive of his remorse (and so not
primarily didactic). But the patriotic Belinus sententiously concurs: “No way
half so quick / To ruinate kingdoms as by home-bred strife. Thus, while we
single fight, we perish all” (5.2.8-10). Also, Fisher’s play, like Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy (an “amalgam of Seneca
and popular tradition” [Charlton 144]), has Mercury guide the ghosts of
illustrious soldiers from the classical underworld back “to this upper sky” (Fuimus, induction 38) to watch the
living wreak revenge.
In place of the customary Senecan
moralising chorus, however, Fisher puntuates the main action with songs, dances,
triumphs and a masque (though the first song in Act 2 Scene 8 strikingly
resembles a Greek tragic chorus). Given that opera began as “chanted tragedy”
(Cuddon 616) and “musicologists … have charted in the masque the development of
a musical style which, in projecting the words of songs in recitative and
arioso setting, may have contributed to the rise of opera” (Lindley ix-x),
Fisher’s play may be given some credit for a role in the development and
combination of existing dramatic forms which culminated in opera.
Major thematic concerns.
James as
“Second Brute”.
The Tudor monarchs “exploited their Welsh ancestry to
claim descent from the early British kings as a way of legitimising their rule”
(Wymer 4), basing their claims largely on genealogical “evidence” contained in
Geoffrey’s history. Then, in 1603, James I became king of an ambiguous
amalgamation of realms. As a result:
just when all this body of [Galfridian] mythical material was beginning to be historically discredited by the emergence of “modern” historiography and proper antiquarian research, it was being reinvigorated poetically by the reunion of Britain under James, … [who] was hailed as the second Brute in the pageantry which accompanied his Royal entry into London in 1604 and in many other poems and pageants over the next few years (Wymer 5-6).
Thus, Munday’s The
Triumphs of Reunited Britania (1605) declares that James, “a second Brute”,
is descended from the first (Trojan) Brute “by the blessed marriage of
Margaret, eldest daughter of King Henrie the Seaventh, to Iames the fourth king
of Scotland” (47-9). James, however, was a better Brute, for “whereas the first
Brutus had “severed and divided” the kingdom of Britain among his sons, the new
Stuart king would make “one happy Britannia again, peace and quietness bringing
that to pass which war nor any other means could attain unto”” (King 41).
With this in mind, it seems legitimate to ask if Fuimus Troes endorses James as a “second
Brute”. As Ronan observes, history plays “provided … audiences … with the
aesthetic pleasure of ironic endings” (16); i.e. plays that “end” happily end
ironically for an audience which knows that history holds unhappiness in store
for some of the characters onstage at the play’s close. Obviously, this device
affords not only “aesthetic pleasure” for an audience, but also a means of
sending a message to a reigning (currently happy) monarch. In Fuimus Troes, Caesar is told by Hulacus,
a druid soothsayer, “Be Saturn, and so thou shalt not be Tarquin” (5.1.45).
Primed by Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (among
many other works), the audience knows that Caesar, as ruler, will become, or
come to be perceived as, a tyrant (as did Tarquin) and invite assassination by
Brutus. (The name “Brutus” here is another source of irony; Caesar—or James,
the second Brute—is told: “Rule as Saturn or be killed by another second Brute…”). So while the play’s conclusion seems to
celebrate the union of Caesar and Cassibelane, it indicates elsewhere their
shared destinies as would-be absolutists. (Charles I, of course, was to meet a
fate comparable to Caesar’s in 1642.)
Prince Henry
and Chivalric Values.
Nennius, “a character among Geoffrey’s most brazen
fictions … symbolised not only British identity and defiance against Rome, but also
continuity [in that he] objected to
the renaming of Troynovant into what was to become “London”” (Curran 162;
stress added). Likewise, in Fuimus Troes,
Nennius represents continuity, in a Stuart context, with the Elizabethan era,
espousing Spenserian-Elizabethan chivalric, militant Protestant values. In this
he resembles James I’s son Prince Henry, who “ever much reverenced [the] memory
and government” of Elizabeth I (Sir John Holles, in Strong 2). As a result of
his “reverence” for Elizabeth I’s reign, Henry’s court tended to be the
focus-point for a faction of opposition to James’s policies.
Given the positive portrayal of Nennius in Fuimus Troes as a Spenserian chivalric
hero, we might suppose that Fisher, like Drayton, was in the pro-Henry / anti-James
camp. “For Drayton’s generation (and the one that followed),” says Helgerson,
an “intense nostalgia for the age of Elizabeth went hand in hand with a disdain
for the Stuart monarch and his court” (129). Drayton, it should be noted,
dedicated Polyolbion (1612) to Prince
Henry. Indeed, poets at this time frequently reiterated “themes of laudation of
Henry living and lament for him dead … [identifying him] with other worthies,
like Hector … [and celebrating] his prowess in the lists” (Strong 19).[3]
Fisher also compares Nennius with Hector (3.7.19) and shows his knightly
prowess in single combat with Caesar himself (3.2). It is worth observing,
then, that Prince Henry was closely connected with Oxford: “a census [of
scholars at the university] was drawn up [in 1610] … at the request of the
prince of Wales” (Porter 35). It is also known that “the prince’s college
chapel of Magdalen [Fisher’s college] was draped in black” for Henry’s funeral
(Fincham 180).
Reading Nennius as analogue for Henry, then, must lead us
to view Fuimus Troes as, to some
extent, a challenge to the authority of James I, in that it presents feudal
values (i.e. values consistent with a belief in the limited authority of a monarch) in a more positive light than that
accorded to values consistent with a belief in the absolute powers of the monarch. Here, I feel, it would be helpful
to consider the comparable tension between feudal and absolutist values which
exists in a prototype for Spenser’s epic The
Faerie Queene: Tasso’s Jerusalem
Liberated. In Book Five of the latter work:
Rinaldo slays Gernando [another noble] … in a fight over honour and precedence … Goffredo [the king] resolves to punish the offender … [But Rinaldo] refuses even to submit to trial … For Rinaldo, the freeborn nobleman, submission to the law is a sign of servile subjection. The state and its claims must give way before the higher claim of honour and lineage … Tasso leaves no doubt concerning the official allegiance of his poem. It supports Goffredo … [But the notion that] Tasso’s … allegiance [to absolutist state values] is only official, that his poem betrays a ‘secret solidarity’ with the feudal, romantic ideology that it ostensibly rejects, has been a commonplace of criticism almost since the poem was issued (Helgerson 45-6).
Fisher’s play conforms to the same pattern. After all, it
is virtually inevitable that the character who heroically (and successfully)
challenges no less a personage than Julius Caesar to single combat and takes
part in an exciting duel onstage (or on page) will cut a more dashing figure
than the representative of state values (i.e. the king), whatever the
“official” line of the poem or play in question. Indeed, this “pattern” may be
a generic feature common to epics and revenge tragedies exploring heroic-epic
values. Choosing to represent Prince Henry as Nennius, then, as an application
of this generic “feature”, may be regarded as a political gesture on the
dramatist’s part.
James/Charles as Second Augustus.
The relationship of Britain, or England, or whatever name we choose
to give to James’s ambiguous realm(s), to classical and Catholic Rome is of
central importance to the play. Caesar’s Rome is the Britons’ enemy, but it
also represents (as imperial power) a model of excellence to be imitated and
surpassed. “In place of Geoffrey’s belief that the Britons resembled the Romans
because both descended from Troy, [the governing elite of Stuart Britain] began
to embrace the idea that the Roman mission to conquer and civilize had translated westwards and been inherited
by Britain” (Kerrigan 114).
In this context, it is significant that James’s “accession medal is
the first example of a British monarch adopting the title and dress of a Roman
emperor” (King 81). At the pageant welcoming him to London, James was “hailed
as a new Augustus … The character of Roman Emperor is [thus] imposed over that
of Trojan Prince [“second Brute”] to herald a great imperial reign” (Parry 14).
Identification with Augustus, though, not only involves the presentation of the
monarch as an emperor who ushers in a new golden age of peace, but may also
give rise to concern over the political dangers associated with an absolutist
model of rule. For “a state which breaks out of the shell of an ageing empire
and claims its autonomy—as Henry VIII broke free of the power of Rome … is
likely to be imprinted not just with the ideology but the vices of the
apparatus that fostered it” (Kerrigan 114). The growing tendency for English
monarchs to represent themselves as Roman emperors represented a clear threat
to those who favoured a parliamentarian system. This threat became more serious
under James who consistently espoused his belief in his divine right to rule
absolutely and reached its presumptuous apogee under Charles. For example,
Rubens’s panels for Whitehall, commissioned by Charles, represented James not
only as a Roman emperor but as a Roman emperor turned god: “the central oval of
the ceiling shows the apotheosis of James … [the king is] borne heavenwards on
an imperial eagle” (Parry 28). Like the Romans Julius and Augustus, and the
Stuart James, Charles, such imagery implies, is a future god. Gods do not need
parliaments to ratify their decrees.
At the Christmas festivities of 1631-2, Charles played Caesar; he led
captive kings in Aurelian Townshend’s Albion’s
Triumph, and bought Mantegna’s Triumph
of Caesar in 1629. This painting, along with twelve portraits of Roman
emperors by Titian, “held a particular significance for Charles, for … he was
increasingly disposed to cast himself in an imperial role as Emperor of Great
Britain, a style already adopted by King James but more grandiosely assumed by
Charles” (Parry 49). Albion’s Triumph
ends in the joint apotheosis of Charles and Henrietta.
Turning to Fuimus Troes, we
find expressed the idea that the Britons can be beaten by the Romans only
because a number of British tribes have gone over to Caesar’s side (5.2.5-10).
But the British tribes have defected not through fear of Caesar but in
opposition to their king’s tyranny: Cassibelane usurps the claims of Androgeus
and Themantius to the throne (at least, according to Androgeus and Themantius),
refuses to compromise on the question of where Eulinus should be tried for
killing Hirildas, and persecutes the tribal chieftain Mandubrace, apparently
for political reasons. Whether Cassibelane is in the right or wrong on these
issues, the obvious implication is that it is his autocratic style of
government that sets in motion the chain of events that leads to the British
defeat by Caesar. Had Cassibelane’s “parliament” been given its due, the Romans
could have been repulsed. As Themantius pointedly declares: “A body politic
must on two legs stand” (5.5.37).
Translatio Imperii.
The concept of translatio imperii (the translation of
empire) became “extremely influential in the Middle Ages, when the Roman empire
was ‘translated’ first to the Franks under Charlemagne and subsequently to the
Germans as the Holy Roman Empire, and in a rather different form in the
Renaissance, when Spain, France and England all saw themselves as heirs to Rome
… [In the use the Tudors made of Geoffrey’s material,] we can see a deliberate
imitation of Virgil’s use of the legend of the Trojan Aeneas to support the
political position of Augustus. Just as empire had passed from Troy to Rome, so
now it passed to New Troy, London” (Rivers 59, 61).
The Renaissance historian
Panvinio “locates the main triumphal succession not in the papacy but in the
Holy Roman Empire … from Romulus to Charles V” (Miller 47). Charles V (“the
second Charlemagne”), on being elected as Holy Roman Emperor in 1519, was
perceived as “the potential Lord of the World … due to the Hapsburg dynastic
marriage policy which had brought … vast territories under his rule” (Yates, Astraea 1), “territories more extensive
than the ancient Roman empire” (Miller 2).
This reading of history extended
into the reign of Charles I. George Lauder, a Scot and a “robust poetic
supporter of Charles in his early reign” (Miller 120), represented Charles as
another Charlemagne: “his royall brow / Crown’d with triumphant bayes …may HEE
… take his place / In Charlemaigne’s fair chayre” (Miller 120-1). Poets such as
Lauder, then, were asserting that a new “Charles the Great” was the heir to the
British throne at the time Fuimus Troes
was written (if a date of composition based on supposed analogical references
to Frederick’s downfall is accepted [see below]). Also, this new Charlemagne
occupied the throne when the play was finally published. Hence, it is
intriguing to find, in the play’s opening scene, Brennus (who “throughout the
sixteenth-century and well into the seventeenth … continued to be invoked as a figure for England’s / Britain’s independence from, rivalry with,
and primordial superiority to Rome” [Schwyzer 15]), referring anachronistically to “Charles his
wain” (line 17) as the starting point for his victorious campaign against Rome.
Charles’s Wain, of course, was an old name for the Great Bear constellation. As
Berry and Archer observe:
An
important figurative strand within Union-inspired literature expands on
classical allusions to the British as ‘the nations on whom the Pole Star looks
down’, whose island ‘lies under the Great Bear’, the constellation ‘that
circleth ever in her place’ … Following the
acceptance of Copernicus’s hypothesis of the earth’s planetary status,
both the new Britain and its ruler are equated with the polar stars as the
‘loadstone’ or fixed points within the newly mobile globe (124).
With a new Charlemagne reigning
at the new imperial/geographical centre of the world, Charles’s empire
supersedes that of old Rome (previously regarded, at least by the ancient
Romans themselves, as the centre of the known world), thereby “reversing the
Roman conquest of Britain” (Miller 121). In this way, Charles may be said to
“appropriate the triumphal boast of Julius Caesar: ‘hee shall come and see, and
overcome’ (Miller 121; quoting Lauder). Fisher participates in the same
discursive field, cancelling Caesar’s boast by having Caesar himself admit,
regarding his British campaign: “Nor can I write now, ‘I came over, / And I
overcame’” (3.4.19-20). Also, Fisher interrogates the notion that Caesar
discovered Britain by implying that the pole star lures Caesar to Britain precisely so that Rome’s imperial authority
may be transmitted: “I long to stride / This Hellespont [i.e. the Channel]”
declares Caesar in Act 1, “Disclosing to our empire unknown lands / Until the
arctic star for zenith stands” (2.33-6). That is, the arctic star will not only
magnetically distort the borders of the Roman Empire and de-centre Rome, but
the island it shines upon (Britain) will replace Rome as the “zenith” of the
world. In asserting that the Britons are no less “true Trojans” than the
Romans, and in showing Nennius the British hero defeating Julius Caesar in
single combat, taking Caesar’s sword as a sign of victory to be paraded in a
triumphal procession, Fisher announces that the imperial mantle is being
translated from pagan (or Catholic) Rome to Christian (Protestant) Britain. Thus,
the “triumphs” in Act 3 Scene 7, though they appear only as a stage direction
in the text of the play, in performance would presumably play a major role,
representing the moment of translatio
imperii.
The Golden Age (and the Marriage of Princess Elizabeth and Frederick V,
Elector Palatine).
The Christian Holy Roman empire was to be created by (ostensibly)
peaceful means, not conquest. Charles V “had providentially inherited territories in Europe which recalled the
Roman Empire [and] … did not entertain the ambition of achieving a world empire
by conquering other states” (Yates, Astraea
25-6; emphasis added). But the dream of Charles V peacefully ruling a
united Christian world ended with the reformation. After that, individual
national monarchs “representing the ordered rule of the One within their
individual realms—took over something of the imperial role” (Astraea 28). James was represented as
having providentially united the island of Britain for the first time since the
birth of Christ. Thus, “the small world of the Tudor union [of the houses of
Lancaster and York] and the Tudor pax”
and the slightly larger world of (symbolic) British union under James and the
Jacobean pax “have behind them the
vaster European perspectives of the Hapsburg union and the Hapsburg pax; and behind these again is the
august concept of Holy Roman Empire, reaching out in ever-widening influence to
include the whole globe” (54).
James I saw dynastic union as the
means by which a Christian empire could expand without recourse to arms.
Accordingly, he decided his daughter, Princess Elizabeth, should marry
“Frederick V, Elector Palatine of the Rhine, … the senior Elector of the Holy
Roman Empire who … was [putatively] descended from Charlemagne” (Strong 56-7).
An account published in Heidelberg in 1613 of a masque intended to be performed
at the marriage of Elizabeth and Frederick provides
insight as to how the Palatine
match was viewed … The argument [of the masque states:] … ‘although the poets
say, divisus ab orbe Britannus; yet
the marriage, made in heaven, and consummated on earth, of the only daughter of
this wise King of Great Britain with the Serene Prince Frederick V, Elector of
Palatine … had given occasion … to believe, that one day, if it pleased God,
the world (quitting its errors) would come to give recognition to Truth which
resides solely in England and the Palatinate’ (Strong 135).
In other words, the marriage of
Elizabeth and Frederick brought the dream of a world Protestant empire one step
closer to fulfillment.
Early modern plays featuring Roman characters set in the decades
before the birth of Christ participate in the belief that Christ awaited the
coming of Augustus in order to be born into a world stable enough to facilitate
the growth of Christianity (see 5.6.62-3 and note). A further implication of
this belief in the providential function of imperially-ensured peace was that,
in the Stuart period, the creation of a reformed Christian world empire (larger
than that governed by Augustus) would see the return of Christ and the
completion of history. Consequently, Fuimus
Troes includes not only several references to Astraea, the goddess of
justice whom Virgil had predicted, in Eclogue 4, would return to earth for a
new golden age (see 3.8.16), but also millennial imagery (5.2.16-21). The fact
that Fuimus Troes takes its title
from Virgil’s Aeneid becomes highly
significant in this context, for the latter work had come to be seen as “a
semi-sacred poem glorifying the historical framework of the Saviour’s birth”
(Yates, Astraea 1). Moreover, from a
Christian perspective, the reference to the prophecies of Daniel in the final
scene (“The world’s fourth empire Britain doth embrace” [line 20]) suggests
that, after the final defeat of Rome, the reign of Christ on earth will begin.
However, hopes for a reformed Christian empire were shown to be
unrealistic following the outbreak in Europe of the Thirty Years War around
1620, and the play seems to allude to this disappointment. The heroine of Fuimus Troes, Landora, is referred to as
a “phoenix” (4.2.40; as Yates points out, “the return of the golden age and the
rebirth of the phoenix are symbols with parallel meanings” [Astraea 38]). But instead of performing
a glorious resurrection, this phoenix commits suicide after being involved in a
somewhat sordid subplot. Eulinus, a Briton, impersonating the man Landora
loved, had been sleeping with her. In the notes to 1.4.85-7, it is suggested
that this subplot refers analogically to Frederick V claiming Elizabeth as his bride
on the strength of his descent from Charlemagne. Here, there is only space to
observe that the name “Landora” is an anagram of “a Roland”. A Roland, it might
be felt, must love (and serve) a (descendant of) Charlemagne. In any case, when
his country has been ravaged as a result of his actions, Eulinus laments:
“Shall ensigns be displayed, and nations rage / About so vile a wretch?”
(4.2.34-5). As mentioned, the Thirty Years War was to devastate Europe
following Frederick’s attempt to reign as King of Bohemia. In the aftermath of
the Battle of White Mountain, “propaganda pamphlets against Frederick …
delighted to show him as a poor fugitive [“a wretch”] with one of his stockings
coming down” (Yates, Rosicrucian 34).
Certainly, events following his marriage to Elizabeth showed that Frederick was
no Charlemagne.
The play concludes not with the dynastic union of Britain and Rome
through marriage, but with the “masculine embrace” of Cassibelane and Caesar
(Mikalachki 96-7). Translatio imperii,
it seems, is achieved between men at a symbolic level (via exchanged gifts
[5.6.36-40], trophies won in single combat, etc.)
not through men and women in a biological manner.
If England depends, to an extent,
on Scotland as other for self-definition, what happens when England “merges”
with Scotland? Or is English identity, insofar as it can be said to exist at
all, simply the product of such mergers? “‘My muse is rightly of the English
strain, / That cannot long one fashion
entertain.’ Drayton mocks both himself and the English for their lack of any
single fixed identity. Yet in this self-mockery there is also pride” (Helgerson
14). By definition, an empire is a nation with an identity crisis, a notional
space with shifting boundaries. To become (or extend) an empire is to admit
change. “To be like the Greeks [or the Trojans] … to base one’s identity and
the identity of one’s country on a project of imitative self-transformation is
precisely to adopt “the English strain”, as Drayton defines it” (14). To
possess a fluid identity is to possess a recipe for successful imperialism. The
mission of world rule is transferred from Rome to Britain because Britain
possesses the more flexible identity; put another way: Britain lacks a sense of identity even more than
the Romans do.
Are the Britons savages or
Trojans? Caesar’s spy, Volusenus, describes the Britons as exotic barbarians:
“their statures tall and big, / With blue-stained skins, and long, black,
dangling hair / Promise a barbarous fierceness” (2.4.10-12). “The catalogue of
British forces offers similar imagery, as the Ordovices are said to ‘rush
half-naked on their foes’ [2.5.43]. But British warriors are elsewhere referred
to as ‘worthy [k]nights’ [2.8.4]” (Curran 23). Nennius is a chivalric hero,
fighting alongside cannibals who “gnaw and suck / Their enemies’ bones”
(2.5.62-3). If they are descended from Trojans, these Britons no longer act
like it. As Samuel Purchas asks in a
marginal note of 1625: “Were not wee our selves made and not borne civill in
our Progenitors dayes? and were not Caesars Britaines as brutish as Virginians?
The Romane swords were best teachers of civilitie to this & other Countries
neere us” (in Wymer 4). The alliteration Purchas found so ready to hand
(“Britaines … brutish)” should be noted. As a result of ongoing developments in
historiographical method, Britain’s Trojan ancestry (via Brute) had become
material for self-mocking word-play. Through its fusion of Latin and “British”
sources, Fuimus Troes participates in
this self-mockery (for example, see 3.8.38 for a comparable equation of Britons
with “brutes”) at the same time that it refuses to relinquish the notion that
the Britons, no less than the Romans, are “true Trojans”.
Editorial Procedures.
I have based this edition on the
quarto edition of Fuimus Troes
(1633). Spelling and punctuation have been modernised. In some cases,
vocabulary has been (silently) modernised. Elisions in the original have also
been silently regularised, except where metre would be affected by the change.
The “-ed” form is used for unstressed terminations in past tenses and past
participles, and “-èd” for stressed. Unaccented vowels have occasionally been
given accents to correct what I regard as faulty metre. I have also corrected
what I consider to be obvious errors (such changes are referred to in the
relevant footnotes). Square brackets enclose any additions to or changes in the
stage directions.
It will be noticed that this
edition contains a great many notes. There are several reasons for this.
Firstly, I have not included a glossary. Therefore, every word which I felt a
modern reader might not understand is glossed in a note below the text.
Secondly, the play contains a great many classical allusions which require
explanation for a modern reader. Thirdly, there has been very little criticism
written about this play. Therefore, I have attempted to include every salient
piece of commentary I could find, distributed in relevant footnotes. Hence,
this edition functions as a compilation of existing criticism on Fuimus Troes. Finally, as explained in
the introduction, I find it useful to regard Fisher’s sources (especially
Geoffrey and Caesar) as characters in the play. To enable the reader to discern
these “characters” beneath their disguises, I have given perhaps more examples
of “source-passages” than is customary in most editions.
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“Fuimus
Troes” (Aeneid 2).°
THE
TRUE TROJANS,°
Being
a story of the Britons’ valour at the Romans’ first
invasion.
London.
Printed by J[ohn] L[egatt] for Robert Allot,° and are to be sold at the sign of the
Bear in Paul’s churchyard, 1633.
Publicly° represented by the gentlemen students° of
Magdalen College° in Oxford.
Quis
Martem tunicâ tectum adamantinâ dignè scripserit?°
Dramatis Personae.
Mercury [characters
Furius Camillus.° from] Livy
Julius Caesar.°
C. Volusenus.°
Q. Laberius, alias Labienus.° [characters
Q. Atrius. from]
Comius Atrebas.° Caesar’s
Mandubratius,°
princeps Trinobantum. on
the
Cingetorix, petty king in Kent. Gallic War
Carvilius, petty king in Kent. Books 4 and 5.
Taximagulus, petty king in Kent.
Segonax, petty King in Kent.
Androgeus,° Lud’s
son.
Cassibelane,° Beli
Mawr's° son. [Characters
Nennius, Beli Mawr’s son.° from]
Belinus, a chief nobleman.° Geoffrey’s
Hirildas, nephew to Cassibelane. Monuments
Eulinus, nephew to Androgeus. Book 4.
Cridous, King of Albania.
Britael, King of Demetia.
Guerthed, King of Ordovicia.
Names feigned:
Lantonus, druid or priest.
Hulacus, druid or priest.
Landora, lady mentioned.°
Cordella, lady mentioned.
Rollano, a Belgic.
Chorus of five bards or poets laureate.
Soldiers.
Shipmen.
Servants.
[Enter] Mercury,°
conducting° the
ghosts of Brennus and Camillus in complete armour and with swords drawn.°
Mercury:
As in the vaults of this big-bellied earth
Are dungeons, whips and
flames for wicked ghosts,
So° fair Elysian fields, where spotless souls
Do bathe themselves in
bliss. Among the rest,
Two pleasant groves by two
sorts are possessed: 5
One by true lovers crowned
with myrtle boughs,
Who, hand in hand, sing
paeans of their joy;
Brave soldiers hold the
second, clad in steel,
Whose glittering arms
brighten those gloomy shades,
In lieu of starry lights.° From hence I bring 10
A pair of martial imps,° by Jove’s decree,
As sticklers° in their nations’ enmity.
Furius Camillus, and, thou
Briton bold,
Great Brennus, sheathe
your conquering blades. In vain
You threaten death, for
ghosts may not be slain.° 15
Brennus:
From the unbounded ocean and cold climes
Where Charles his wain° circles the northern pole,
I first led out great swarms of shaggy Gauls
And big-boned Britons.° The white-pated Alps,
Where snow and winter dwell, did bow their necks° 20
To our victorious feet. Rome, proudest Rome,
We clothed in scarlet of patrician blood,°
And ’bout your Capitol pranced our vaunting steeds,
Defended more by geese than by your gods.°
Camillus:
But I cut short your fury, and my sword 25
To fat our crows and dung our Latin fields.°
I turned your torrent to another coast,°
And what you quickly won, you sooner lost.
Mercury:
Leave these weak brawlings. Now swift time hath spent 30
A Pylian age, ° and more, since you two breathed,
Mirrors° of British and of Roman valour.
Lo, now the black imperial bird° doth clasp
Under her wings the continent, and Mars,
Trampling down nations with his brazen wheels, 35
Fights for his nephews° and hath once more made
Britons and Romans meet. To view these deeds,
I, Hermes, bring you to this upper sky,
Where you may wander, and with ghastly looks
Incite your country-men. When night and sleep 40
Conquer the eyes; when weary bodies rest
And senses cease,° be furies° in their breast.
Never two nations better matched, for Jove
Loves both alike. Whence then these armèd bands?°
Mavors° for Rome, Neptune for Albion stands.° 45
Brennus:
Then let war ope° his jaws as wide as hell
And fright young babes; my country-folk, more stern,
Can out-look Gorgon. Let the Fates,° transposed,°
Hang beaten flags° up in the victors’ land.°
Full dearly will each pace of ground be sold, 50
Which rated is at dearest blood, not gold.°
So soon forgot? Doth Allia° yet run clear?°
Or can three hundred summers slake their° fear?
Camillus:
Arise, thou Julian star, whose angry beams° 55
Be heralds to the north of war and death.°
Let those black calends° be revenged, those ghosts
(Whose mangled sheaths deprived of funeral rites,
Made the six hills° promise a Cadmus crop°)
Be expiated with a fiery deluge. 60
Jove rules the spheres, Rome all the world beside,
And shall this little corner be denied?°
Mercury: Bandy no more these private frowns, but
haste,
Fly to your parties and enrage their minds,
Till at the period° of these broils,° I call 65
And back reduce° you to grim Pluto’s hall.
Exeunt.
The True Trojans.
Act 1 Scene 1.
Duke°
Nennius, alone.
Nennius. Methinks I
hear Bellona’s° dreadful voice,
Redoubled from the concave
shores of Gaul.°
Methinks I hear their
neighing steeds, the groans
Of complemental° souls, taking their leave,
And all the din and
clamorous rout° which sounds 5
When falling kingdoms
crack in fatal flames.
Die, Belgics,° die like men. Free minds need have
Naught but the ground they
fight on for their grave,
And we are next. Think ye the smoky mist
Of sun-boiled seas can
stop the eagle’s eye,° 10
Or can our wat’ry walls keep
dangers out,°
Which fly aloft,° that thus we, snorting,° lie,
Feeding impostumed humours° to be lanced
As they° are now, whose flaming towns, like beacons, 15
Give us fair warning, and
even gild our spires,°
Whilst merrily we warm us
at their fires?
Yet we are next, who,
charmed with peace and sloth,
Dream golden dreams. Go,
warlike Britain, go,
For olive bough exchange
thy hazel bow,° 20
Hang up thy rusty helmet,
that the bee
May have a hive or spider
find a loom.
Instead of soldiers’ fare
and lodging hard
(The bare ground being
their bed and table), lie
Smothered in down, melting
in luxury. 25
Instead of bellowing drum
and cheerful flute,
Be lulled in lady’s lap
with amorous lute.°
But, as for Nennius, know
I scorn this calm.
The ruddy planet at my
birth bore sway—
Sanguine adust° my humour, and wild fire 30
My ruling element.° Blood and rage and choler°
Make up the temper° of a captain’s valour.
Exit.
Act 1 Scene 2.
[Enter] Julius Caesar, Comius,
Volusenus, Laberius, soldiers with ensign° (a
two-necked
eagle, displayed sable),° drum,
ancient,°
trumpet. A flourish.
Caesar: Welcome thus far, partners of weal and
woe;
Welcome, brave bloods. Now
may our weapons sleep,
Since Ariovist° in cock-boat° basely flies;
Vast Germany stands
trembling at our bridge,°
And Gaul lies bleeding in
her mother’s lap. 5
Once the Pellean duke° did eastward march
To rouse the drowsy sun,
before he rose,
Adorned with Indian
rubies, but the main°
Bade him retire. He was my
type.° This
day,
We stand on nature’s
western brink.° Beyond, 10
Nothing but sea and sky.
Here is nil ultra.°
Democritus, make good thy
fancy,° give
me
More worlds to conquer,
which may be both seen
And won together. But
methinks I ken
A whitish cloud° kissing the waves, or else 15
Some chalky rocks surmount
the barking flood.
Comius, your knowledge can
correct our eyes.°
Comius:
It is the British shore, which ten leagues hence
Displays her shining
cliffs unto your sight.
Caesar:
I’ll hit the white.° That sea-mark° for our ships 20
Invites destruction and
gives to our eye
A treacherous beck.° Dare but resist,° your shore
Shall paint her pale face
with red crimson gore.
Comius: Thus much I know, great Caesar, that
they lent
Their secret aid unto the
neighbour Gauls,° 25
Fostering their fugitives
with friendly care,
Which made your victory
fly with slower wing.
Caesar: That’s cause enough.° They shall not henceforth range
Abroad for war, we’ll
bring him° to their doors.
His ugly idol shall
displace their gods, 30
Their dear Penates,° and in desolate streets
Raise trophies high of
barbarous bones, whose stench
May poison all the rest. I
long to stride°
This Hellespont,° or bridge it with a navy,°
Disclosing to our empire
unknown lands° 35
Until the arctic star° for zenith stands.
Laberius: Then raise the camp and strike a
dreadful march
And unawares pour
vengeance on their heads.
Be like the wingéd bolt of
angry Jove,
Or chiding torrent whose
late-risen stream 40
From mountains bended top
runs raging down,
Deflow’ring all the virgin
dales.
Caesar: First, let’s advise,° for soon to ruin come
Rash weapons which lack
counsel grave at home.
Laberius:
What need consulting where the cause° is plain? 45
Caesar: The likeliest° cause without regard° proves vain.
Laberius: Provide for battle, but of truce no
word.
Caesar: Where peace is first refused should
come the sword.°
Laberius:
But ’tis unlike° their self-presuming might
Will curbéd be° with terms of civil right.° 50
Caesar: ’Tis true, yet so we stop the people’s
cry,°
When we propose and they
do peace deny.
We’ll therefore wise
ambassadors dispatch
(Parents of love, the harbingers
of leagues,
Men that may speak with
mildness mixed with courage, 55
Having quick feet, broad
eyes, short tongues, long ears)
To warn the British court,
And further view the
ports, fathom the seas,
Learn their complotments,° where invasion may
Be soonest entertained.° All this shall lie 60
On Volusene, a legate° and a spy.
Volusenus:
My care and quickness shall deserve this kindness.
Meantime, unite and range° your scattered troops,
Embark your legions at the
Iccian shore°
And teach Erinyes° swim, which crawled before. 65
Exeunt.
Act 1 Scene 3.
[Enter] Cassibelane,
Androgeus, Themantius, Belinus, attendants.
Cassibelane: Although
the people’s voice constrains me hold
This regal staff,° whose massy weight would bruise
Your age and pleasures,
yet this, nephews, know:
Your trouble less,° your honour is the same,
As if you wore the diadem
of this isle. 5
Meanwhile, Androgeus, hold
unto your use
Our lady-city Troynovant° and all
The toll and tribute of
delicious Kent,
Of which each quarter can
maintain a king.
Have you, Themantius,
Cornwall’s dukedom large, 10
Both rich and strong in
metals and in men.°
I must to Verulam’s fencèd
town°
repair,
And as protector for the whole
take care.°
Androgeus:
My heart agrees. Henceforth, ye sovereign cares,
State-mysteries, false
graces, jealous fears, 15
The linings of a crown,
forsake my brain.
These territories neither
are too wide
To trouble my content, nor
yet too narrow
To feed a princely train.
Themantius: All thanks
I render. Your will shall guide ours. 20
With treble-twisted love,
we’ll strive to make
One soul inform three
bodies, keeping still
The same affections both
in good and ill.
Now am I for a hunting match.
Yon thickets
Shelter a boar which
spoils the plough-man’s hope— 25
Whose jaws with
double-sword, whose back is armed
With bristled pikes, whose
fume inflames the air,
And° foam besnows the trampled corn. This beast
I long to see come smoking
to a feast.
Exit Themantius. Enter Rollano.
Belinus:
Here comes my Belgic friend, Landora’s servant. 30
What news, Rollano, that
thy feet so strive
To have precedence° of each other? Speak.
I read disturbèd passions
on thy brow.
Rollano: My trembling heart quavers upon my
tongue,
That scarce I can with
broken sounds vent forth 35
These sad, strange,
sudden, dreary, dismal news.
A merchant’s ship,
arrived,° tells how the Roman,
Having run Gaul quite through
with bloody arms,
Prepares for you. His
navy, rigged in bay,
Only expects a gale.
Further, they say, 40
A pinnace,° landed, from him brings command
Either to lose your
freedom or your land.
Cassibelane: And dares
proud Caesar back our untamed surges?
Dreads he not our sea-monsters, whose wild shapes
Their theatres ne’er yet
in picture saw?° 45
Come, sirs, to arms, to
arms. Let speedy posts
Summon our petty kings and
muster up
Our valorous nations from
the north and west.
Androgeus, haste you to
the Scots° and Picts,°
Two names which now
Albania’s kingdom° share. 50
Entreat their aid, if not
for love, yet fear
For° new foes should imprint swift-equal fear
Through all the arteries
of our isle.°
Belinus, thy authority
must rouse
The vulgar troops within
my special charge.° 55
Fire° the beacons. Strike alarums loud.
Raise all the country
’gainst this common foe.
We’ll soon confront him in
his full career.
This news more moves my
choler° than
my fear.
Exeunt.
Rollano, alone.
Rollano: I am by birth a Belgic, whence I fled 60
To Germany for fear of
Roman arms.
But when their bridge
bridled the stately Rhine,°
I soon returned, and
thought to hide my head
In this soft halcyon’s
nest,° this
Britain isle.
But now, behold, Mars is a-nursing here, 65
And ’gins to speak aloud.
Is no nook safe from Rome?
Do they still haunt° me?
Some peaceful god
transport me through the air,
Beyond cold Thule,° or the sun’s bedchamber,
Where only swine or goats
do live and reign; 70
Yet these° may fight. Place me where quiet peace
Hushes all storms, where
sleep and silence dwell,
Where never man nor beast
did wrong the soil,
Or crop the first fruits,° or made so much noise
As with their breath. But
foolish thoughts, adieu. 75
Now catch° I must, or° stand or fall with you.
Exit.
Act 1 Scene 4.
[Enter] Eulinus, Hirildas.
Eulinus:
The court a wardrobe is of living shapes,
And ladies are the
tissue-spangled suits
Which nature wears on
festival high days.°
The court a spring, each
madam is a rose.
The court is heaven, fair
ladies are the stars. 5
Hirildas:
Aye, falling stars.
Eulinus: False echo, don’t blaspheme that glorious
sex,
Whose beauteous rays can
strike rash gazers blind.
Hirildas: Love should be blind.
Eulinus:
Pray, leave this cynic humour, whilst I sigh 10
My mistress’ praise: her
beauty’s past compare;
Oh, would she were more
kind or not so fair.
Her modest smiles both
curb and kindle love.
The court is dark without
her. When she rises,
The morning is her
hand-maid, strewing roses 15
About love’s hemisphere.
The lamps above
Eclipse themselves for
shame, to see her eyes
Out-shine their chrysolites° and more bless the skies
Than they the Earth—
Hirildas:
Give me her name.
Eulinus:
—Her body is a crystal cage, whose pure 20
Transparent mould not° of gross elements
Compacted, but° the extracted quintessence
Of sweetest forms
distilled, where graces bright
Do live immured, but not
exempt from sight…
Hirildas:
I prithee speak° her. 25
Eulinus:
Her model is beyond all poets’ brains
And painters’ pencils. All
the lively nymphs,
Sirens and dryads are but
kitchen-maids,
If you compare. To frame
the like Pandore,°
The gods repine,° and nature would grow poor… 30
Hirildas: By love, who is’t? Hath she no mortal
name?
Eulinus: For here you find great Juno’s stately
front,
Pallas’ gray eye, Venus
her dimpled chin,
Aurora’s rosy fingers, the
small waist
Of Ceres’ daughter and
Medusa’s hair 35
Before it hissed…°
Hirildas:
Oh love, as deaf as thou art blind! Good Eulinus,
Call home thy soul and
tell thy mistress’ name.
Eulinus:
Oh, strange! What, ignorant still, when as so plainly
These attributes describe
her? Why, she is 40
A rhapsody of goddesses!
The elixir°
Of all their several
perfections. She is
(Now bless your ears) by
mortals called Landora.
Hirildas:
What, Landora the Trinobantic lady°?
How grow your hopes?° What metal is her breast?° 45
Eulinus:
All steel and adamant. ’Tis beauty’s pride to stain
Her lily white with blood
of lovers slain.°
Their groans make music,
and their scalding sighs
Raise a perfume, and,
vulture-like, she gnaws
Their bleeding hearts. No
gifts, no learned flattery, 50
No stratagems can work
Landora’s battery.°
As a tall rock maintains
majestic state,
Though Boreas° gallop on the tottering seas
And, tilting, split° his froth out, spurging° waves
Upon his surly breast, so° she resists, 55
And all my projects on her
cruel heart
Are but retorted to° their author’s smart.
Hirildas: Why then, let scorn succeed thy love
and bravely
Conquer thy self, if thou
wilt conquer her.
Stomachs with kindness
cloyed, disdain must stir.° 60
Eulinus:
Most impious thoughts! Oh, let me rather perish
And, loving, die, than,
living, cease to love.
And when I faint, let her
but hear me cry,
“Aye me, there’s none
which truly loves, but I”.
Hirildas:
Oh, ye cross° darts of Cupid! This very lady, 65
This lady-wasp,° woos me, as thou dost her,
With glances, jewels,
bracelets of her hair,
Lascivious banquets and
most eloquent eyes.
All which my heart
misconsters° as immodest,
It being pointed for
another pole. 70
But hence learn courage,
coz.° Why
stand you dumb?
Women are women, and may
be o’ercome.
Eulinus: Your words are earwigs° to my vexéd brain,
Like henbane° juice or aconite° diffused,
They strike me senseless. 75
My kinsman and Hirildas,
to my end,°
But I’ll ne’er call you
counsellor or friend. Adieu.
Hirildas:
Stay, stay. For now I mean with gentler breath
To waft you to your happy
landing place.
Seeing this crocodile
pursues me flying, 80
Flies you pursuing, we’ll
catch her by a trick.
With promise feigned, I’ll
point° a
Cupid’s stage,°
But in the night, and
secret, and disguised,
Where thou, which art my
self,° shalt
act my part.
In Venus’ games, all
cozening° goes for art.° 85
Eulinus:
Blest be these means, and happy the success.
Now ’gin I rear my crest
above the moon°
And in those gilded books
read lectures of
The feminine sex.° There moves Cassiope,°
Whose garments shine with
thirteen precious stones, 90
Types of as many virtues;
then her daughter,°
Whose beauty without° Perseus would have tamed
The monstrous fish,° glides with a starry crown;
Then just Astraea° combs her golden hair;
And my Landora can become
the skies 95
As well as they. Oh, how
my joys do swell!
He mounted not more proud
whose burning throne
Kindled the cedar-tops and
quaffed whole fountains.°
Fly then, ye wingéd hours,
as swift as thought,
Or my desires. Let day’s
bright wagoner° 100
Fall headlong and lie
buried in the deep,
And, dormouse-like,
Alcides’ night° out-sleep.
Good Tethys,° quench his beams, that he ne’er rise
To scorch the Moors, to
suck up honey-dews
Or to betray my person.° 105
But prithee, tell, what
mistress you adore?
Hirildas:
The kind Cordella,° loving and belov’d.
Only some jar of late about
a favour
Made me inveigh ’gainst
women. Come, away,
Our plots desire the
night, not babbling day. 110
Eulinus: We must give way. Here come our
reverend bards
To sing in synod,° as their custom is,°
With former chance
comparing present deeds.°
Exeunt.
Act 1 Scene 5.
Chorus of five bards laureate, [comprised of] four voices and a harper, attired.
First Song.
Birds do sing,
Now with high,
Then low cry;
Flat, acute; 5
And salute
The sun born
Every morn.
All: He’s no bard that cannot sing
The praises of the flow’ry spring. 10
2: Flora,° queen,
All in green,
Doth delight
To paint white
And to spread 15
Cruel red
With a blue
Colour true.
All: He’s no bard that cannot sing
The praises of the flow’ry spring. 20
3: Woods renew
Hunter’s hue.
Shepherd’s gray,°
Crowned with bay,°
With his pipe 25
Care doth wipe,°
Till he dream
By the stream.
All: He’s
no bard that cannot sing
The praises of the flow’ry spring. 30
4: Faithful loves,
Turtle doves,
Sit and bill
On a hill.
Country swains 35
Run and leap,
Turn and skip.
All: He’s
no bard that cannot sing
The praises of the flow’ry spring. 40
5: Pan° doth play
Care away.
Fairies small,
Two foot tall,
With caps red 45
On their head,
On the ground.
All: He’s no bard that cannot sing
The praises of the flow’ry spring. 50
6: Phyllis° bright,
Clothed in white,
With neck fair,
Yellow hair,
Rocks doth move 55
With her love
And make mild
Tigers wild.
All: He’s
no bard that cannot sing
Second song.
Thus spend we time in laughter,
While peace and spring do smile,
But I hear a sound of slaughter
Draw nearer to our isle.
Leave then your wonted prattle, 65
The oaten reed° forbear,
For I hear a sound of battle,
And trumpets tear the air.
Let bagpipes die for want of wind,
Let crowd° and harp be dumb. 70
Let little tabor come behind,
For I hear the dreadful drum.
Let no birds sing, no lambkins dance,
No fountains murmuring go.
Let shepherd’s crook be made a lance, 75
For the martial horns do blow.
Exeunt.
Act 2 Scene 1.
[Enter] Cassibelane, Cridous,
Britael, Guerthed, Nennius, Belinus, Eulinus, [with] Volusenus
following.
Cassibelane: Heavens
favour Cridous, fair Albania’s° king,
And Britael decked with
the Demetian° crown.
The same to famous
Guerthed, whose command
Embraces woody Ordovic’s° black hills.°
Legate, you may your
message now declare. 5
Volusenus:
By me, great Caesar greets the Briton state.
This letter speaks the
rest.
Cassibelane: Then read the
rest.
Volusenus: [Reads]
“Caesar, Proconsul° of Gallia, to Cassibelane, King of Britain.
Since Romulus’ race, by will of Jove,
Have stretched their empire wide, 10
From Danube’s° banks, by° Tigris swift,
Unto Mount Atlas’ side,
And provinces and nations strong,
With homage due obey,
We wish that you, hid in the sea, 15
Do likewise tribute pay,
Submitting all unto our wills,
For rashly aiding Gaul,
And noble lads for hostages
Make ready at our call. 20
These, granted, may our friendship gain,
Denied, shall work your woe.
Now take your choice: whether you’d find
Rome as a friend or foe.”
Cassibelane: Bold
mandates are unwelcome to free princes. 25
Legate, withdraw; you
shall be soon dispatched.
Exit Volusenus.
Cridous:
He writes more like a victor than a foe,
Whose greatness, risen
from subduéd nations,
Is fastened only with
fear’s slippery knot.
Nor can they fight so
fierce for wealth or fame, 30
As we for native liberty.
With answer rough
Bid him defiance. So
thinks Cridous.
Guerthed:
Guerthed maintains the same, and on their flesh
I’ll write my answer in
red characters.
Britael:
Thou ravenous wolf,° imperious monster Rome, 35
Seven-headed hydra,° know we scorn thy threats.
We can oppose thy hills
with mounts as high
And scourge usurpers with
like cruelty.
And thus thinks Britael.
Eulinus:
Let Caesar come. Our land doth rust with ease 40
And wants° an object whose resisting power
May strike out valorous
flashes from her veins.
So shadows give a picture
life. So flames
Grow brighter by a fanning
blast. Nor think
I am a courtier and no
warrior-born, 45
Nor love object,° for well my poet° says,
“Militat omnis amans”: each lover is a soldier.
I can join Cupid’s bow and
Mars his lance.
A pewter-coat° fits me as well as silk.
It grieves me see our
martial spirits trace 50
The idle streets while
weapons by their side
Dangle and lash their
backs, as t’were to upbraid
Their needless use.° Nor is it glory small
They° set upon us last, when their proud arms
Fathom the land and seas
and teach both poles. 55
On then. So great a foe,
so good a cause,
Shall make our name more
famous. So thinks Eulinus.
Cassibelane: Then,
friends and princes, on this blade take oath,
First, to your country, to
revenge her wrongs,
And next, to me, as
general, to be led 60
With unity and courage.
They kiss the sword.
All: The gods bless Britain and Cassibelane.
Nennius:
Now, royal friends, the heirs of mighty Brute,°
You see what storm hangs
hovering o’er this land,
Ready to pour down
cataclysms° of blood. 65
Let ancient glory then
inflame your hearts.
Beyond the craggy hills of
grim-faced death,
Bright honour keeps
triumphant court, and deeds
Of martial men live there
in marble rolls.
Death is but Charon° to the Fortunate Isles,° 70
Porter to fame.°
What though the Roman,
armed with foreign spoil,
Behind him lead the
conquered world and hope
To sink our island with
his army’s weight,
Yet we have gods and men
and horse to fight, 75
And we can bravely die.
But our just cause,
Your forward loves and all
our people edged
With Dardan° spirit, and the powerful name
Of country bid us hope for
victory.
We have a world within
ourselves,° whose breast 80
No foreigner hath,
unrevengèd, pressed
These thousand years.
Though Rhine and Rhone can serve°
And envy Thames his never
captive stream,
Yet maugre° all, if we ourselves are true,
Cassibelane: Let’s then
dismiss the legate with a frown
And draw our forces toward the sea to join
With the four kings of Kent, and so affront
His first arrival. But,
before all, let
Our priests and druids in
their hallowed groves 90
Propitiate the gods and
scan events
By their mysterious arts.
Exeunt.
Act 2 Scene 2.
[Enter] Eulinus, Hirildas,
Rollano.
Hirildas:
Well, so. Your tongue’s your own, though drunk or angry.
Rollano: Umh!
[Hirildas] seals his mouth.
Hirildas: Speak not a word upon your life. Be
dumb.
Rollano: Umh!
[Hirildas] gives him money.
Hirildas:
I’ll winch up thy estate.° Be Harpocrates.° 5
Rollano: Umh!
Hirildas:
Thy fortunes shall be double-gilt.° Be midnight.°
Rollano: Umh!
Hirildas:
[Aside] An excellent instrument to be
the bawd
To his dear lady. [To Rollano] But, Rollano, hark. 10
What words, what looks,
did give my letter welcome?
Rollano: Umh!
Hirildas:
Nay, now thy silence is antedated.° Speak.
Rollano: Umh!
Hirildas: I give thee
leave, I say. Speak. Be not foolish. 15
[Hirildas unseals his mouth.]
Rollano: Then (with your leave), she used,° upon receipt,
No words, but silent joy
purpled her face,°
And, seeing your name,
straight clapped it to her heart
To print there a new copy,
as she’d° say
The words went by her eyes
too long a way. 20
Hirildas: You told her my conditions, and my oath
Of silence, and that only
you be used?
Rollano:
All, sir.
Hirildas:
And that this night—
Rollano:
Aye, sir.
Hirildas: You guard the door—
Rollano:
Aye, sir. 25
Hirildas: But I ne’er mean to come.
Rollano:
No, sir? Oh, wretch!
Shall I deceive when she
remains so true?
Hirildas:
No, thou shall be true,° and she remain deceived.
Eulinus, in my shape,
shall climb her bed.
This is the point.° You’ll promise all your aid?
Rollano:
Your servant to command, and then reward.
Eulinus:
We’ll draw thee meteor-like by our warm favour
Unto the roof and ceiling
of the court. 35
We’ll raise thee (hold but
fast) on fortune’s ladder.
Exit
Rollano.
This fellow is a medley of
most lewd
And vicious qualities: a
braggart, yet a coward;
A knave, and yet a slave;
true to all villainy,
But false to goodness. Yet
now I love him 40
Because he stands just in
the way of love.°
Hirildas:
Coz, I commend you to the Cyprian queen°
Whilst I attend Diana in
the forest.
My kinsman Mandubrace and
I must try
Our greyhounds’ speed
after a light-foot hare. 45
Exit Hirildas.
Eulinus:
Oh love, whose nerves unite in equal bonds
This massy frame; thou
cement of the world,
By which the orbs and
elements agree,°
By which all living
creatures joy to be,
And, dying, live in their
posterity. 50
Thy holy raptures warm
each noble breast,
Sweetly inspiring more
soul. Thy delight
Surpasses melody, nectar
and all pleasures
Of Tempe,° and of Tempe’s oldest sister,
Elysium°—a banquet of all the senses! 55
By thy commanding power,
gods into beasts
And men to gods are
changed, as poets say.
When sympathy rules, all
like what they obey.
But love triumphs when man
and woman meet
His sacred shrine. Yet,
this to me denied,
More whets my passion.° Mutual love grows° cold.
And laugh at lovers’
perjuries and guiles.
Exit.
Act 2 Scene 3.
[Enter] Lantonus, Hulacus [and] two druids, in long robes [with] hats like pyramids [and] branches of mistletoe.
Lantonus:
That souls immortal are, I easily grant,
Their future state
distinguished, joy or pain,
According to the merits of
this life,
But then, I rather think,
being free from prison
And bodily contagion, they
subsist 5
In places fit for
immaterial spirits,
Are not transfused from
men to beasts, from beasts
To men again, wheeled
round about by change.
Hulacus:
And were it not more cruel, to turn out
Poor naked souls stripped
of warm flesh, like landlords 10
Bidding them wander? Then
(forsooth) imagine
Some unknown cave or
coast, whither° all the myriads
Of souls deceased are
shipped° and thrust together!
Nay, reason rather says:
as at one moment
Some die and some are
born, so may their ghosts, 15
Without more cost, serve
the succeeding age.
For sure they don’t wear,° to be cast aside,
But enter straight less or
more noble bodies,
According to desert of
former deeds:
The valiant into lions,
coward minds 20
Into weak hares,
th’ambitious into eagles,
Soaring aloft, but the
perverse and peevish
Are next indeniz’d into° wrinkled apes,
Each vice and virtue
wearing seemly shapes.°
Lantonus: So you debase the gods’ most lively image,° 25
The human soul, and rank
it with mere brutes,
Whose life, of reason
void, ends with their sense.
Enter Belinus.
Belinus:
Hail to heaven’s privy counsellors. The king
Desires your judgement of
these troublesome times.
Lantonus: The gods foretold these mischiefs long
ago. 30
In Eldol’s° reign, the earth and sky were filled
With prodigies, strange
sights and hellish shapes:
Sometimes two hosts with
fiery lances met,
Armour and horse being
heard amid the clouds;
With streamers red, now
march these airy warriors, 35
And then a sable
hearse-cloth wraps up all,°
And bloody drops speckled
the grass, as falling
From their deep-wounded
limbs,
Whilst staring comets
shook their flaming hair.
Thus all our wars were
acted first on high, 40
And we taught what to look
for.°
Hulacus:
Nature turns° step-dame to her brood and dams
Deny their monstrous
issue. Saturn, joined
In dismal league with
Mars, portends some change.
Late in a grove by night,
a voice was heard 45
To cry aloud, “Take heed, more
Trojans come.”°
What may be known or done,
we’ll search and help,
With all religious care.°
Belinus:
The king and army do expect as much,
That powers divine,
perfumed with odour sweet 50
And feasted with the fat
of bulls and rams,
Be pleased to bless their
plots.
Lantonus: All rites and orisons due shall be
performed.
Chiefly, night’s empress° fourfold honour craves,
Mighty in heaven and hell,
in woods and waves. ° 55
Exeunt.
Act 2 Scene 4.
[Enter] Caesar, Volusenus,
Laberius, soldiers.
Caesar:
What land, what people and what answer, show.
Volusenus: We saw a paradise whose bosom teems
With silver ore, whose
seas are paved with pearl.°
The meadows richly spread
with Flora’s tapestry;
The fields even wonder at
their harvest loads.° 5
In crystal streams the
scaly nations play,°
Fringed all along with
trembling poplar trees.
The sun in summer, loath
to leave their sight,
Forgets to sleep, and,
glancing,° makes no night.°
Then, for° the men: their statures° tall and big, 10
With blue-stained skins
and long black dangling hair,
Promise a barbarous
fierceness.° They scarce know,
And much less fear, our
empire’s might, but thus
Seeing your empire’s
great, why should it not suffice?
To covet more and more is
tyrant’s usual guise.°
To lose what Jove you
gave, you’d think it but unjust.
You have your answer then:
defend this isle we must,
Hath iron more for swords
than gold for tribute’s pay.
If amity, and like° fear, succour° to Gaul imparts,
Pardon,° for this small brook could not divide our hearts.°
We hope the gods will help
(and fortune back) our cause,
As you from Troy, so we
our pedigree do claim.
Why should the branches
fight when as° the root’s the same?°
Despise us not because the
sea and north us close.°
Who can no further go,
must turn upon their foes.
Thus, rudely° we conclude: wage war or change your will. 30
We hope to use a lance far
better than a quill.”
Caesar: I grieve to draw my sword against the
stock
Of thrice-renownéd Troy,° but they are rude°
And must be frighted ere
we shall be friends.°
Then let’s aboard and,
hoisting sails, convey 35
Two legions over, for I
long to view
This unknown land and all
their fabulous rites°
And gather margarites° in my brazen cap.°
Nature nor fates can
valorous virtue stop.
Laberius: Now Caesar speaks like Caesar: stronger
and stronger. 40
Rise like a whirlwind.
Tear the mountain’s pride.
Shake thy brass harness,
whose loud clattering may
Of Haemus,° lulled with° Boreas’ roaring base,
And put to flight this
nation with the noise. 45
A fly is not an eagle’s
combatant,
Nor may a pygmy with a
giant strive.
Exeunt.
Act 2 Scene 5.
[Enter] Cassibelane, Belinus
and attendants, [with] Comius following.
Comius:
Health and good fortune on Cassibelane tend.
My love to you and Britain
waft me hither
To make atonement° ere the Roman leader
Bring fire and spoil and
ruin on your heads.
Nothing withstands his
force. Be not too hardy°
But buy a friend with
kindness, lest you buy
His anger dearly.
Cassibelane: Comius, speak no more. He knows our mind.
Comius: Oh, let not rage so blind your
judgement but 10
Prevent with ease the
hazard of a war—
Of war (a word composed of
thousand ills).
Oh, be not cruel to
yourselves. I’ll undertake,
Without discredit, to
appease his wrath
If you’ll cashier° your soldiers and receive 15
Him like a guest, not like
an enemy.
Cassibelane: False-hearted Gaul, dar’st thou persuade e’en me
For to betray my people to
the sword?
Now know I thou art sent
for to solicit
Our princes to rebel, to
learn our strength. 20
Lay hands on him: a spy.
All: A spy, a spy, a traitor and a spy.
They chain him.
Comius:
Is this the guerdon° of my loving care?
You break the laws of
nature, nations, friends.
But look for due revenge
at Caesar’s hand. 25
Cassibelane: Expect° in prison thy revenge. Away with him.
Exit Comius.
Belinus, have you mustered
up our forces?
Belinus:
Yes, if it please your highness.
Cassibelane: And what are the particulars?
Belinus:
First, Cridous leads from the Albanian realm, 30
Where Grampius’° ridge divides the smiling dales,
Five thousand horse, and
twenty thousand foot,
Three thousand chariots
manned. The Brigants° come,
Decked with blue-painted
shields, twelve thousand strong.
Under the conduct of
Demetia’s prince, 35
March twice three
thousand, armed with pelts° and glaves,°
Whom the Silures° flank, eight thousand stout,
Greedy of fight, born
soldiers the first day,
Whose gray-goose-wingèd
shafts ne’er flew in vain.
Then Guerthed, mounted on a shag-hair steed, 40
Full fifteen thousand
brings, both horse and foot,
Of desperate Ordovicians,
whose use° is
To rush half-naked on
their foes, enraged
With a rude noise of
pipes.
Your province bounded with
that boiling stream 45
Where Sabrine°—lovely damsel—lost her breath,°
And with curled-pated
Humber, Neptune’s heir,
Affords eight thousand
cars,° with
hooks and scythes,
And fifty thousand expert
men of war
(All brave Logrians, armed
with pike and spear), 50
Each nation being
distinguished into troops,
With gaudy pennons° flickering in the air.
Beside these, Kent is up
in arms, to blunt
The edge of their first
furious shock.
Cassibelane: We’ll now
invite them° to a martial feast, 55
Carving with falchions° and carousing healths
In their lives’ moisture.
Well returned, Androgeus.
Enter
Androgeus.
Have you obtained, or is
your suit denied?
Androgeus: Our message told unto the Scots, their
king,
With willing sympathy,
levies a band: 60
Ten thousand footmen,
whose strange appetites
Murder and then devour and
dare gnaw and suck
Their enemies’ bones.
Conducted thence, we saw
The Pictish court and,
friendly° entertained,
Receive eight thousand,
whose most ugly shapes, 65
Painted like bears and
wolves° and
brinded° tigers,°
May kill and stonify° without all weapons.
More aid they promise, if
more need. These forces,
Led by Cadallan, hither
march with speed.
Cassibelane: ’Tis well.
Our kings consent for common good. 70
When all are joined, we
shall o’er-spread the hills,
And, soldiers thicker than
the sand on shore,
Hide all the landing
coasts. Ere next day break,
The rocks shall answer
what the drum doth speak.
Exeunt.
Act 2 Scene 6.
[Enter] Hulacus, Lantonus,
ministers.
Lantonus:
That ceremonious fear,° which bends the heart
Of mortal creatures and
displays itself
In outward signs of true
obedience,
As° prayer, kneeling, sacrifice and hymns,
Requires again help from
immortal deities 5
As promise, not as debt.
We laud° their names;
They give us blessings and
forgive our blames.
Thus, gods and men do
barter. What in piety
Ascends, as much descends
again in pity—
A golden chain reaching
from heaven to earth. 10
Hulacus:
And now’s the time, good brother, of their aid,°
When danger’s black face
frowns upon our state.
Away, away, ye hearts and
tongues profane;
Without devotion,
mysteries are vain.°
They kneel,
elevate hands thrice.
Lantonus:
Draw near, ye heavenly powers 15
Who dwell in
starry bowers,
And ye who in
the deep
On mossy
pillows sleep,
And ye who
keep the centre
Where never
light did enter, 20
And ye whose
habitations
Are still
among the nations,
To see and
hear our doings
(Our births,
our wars, our wooings).
Behold our present grief. 25
Belief doth beg relief.
Both: (going
around) By the vervain° and lunary,°
By the
dreadful mistletoe°
Which doth on
holy oak grow. ° 30
Draw near,
draw near, draw near.
Hulacus: Help us, beset with danger,
And turn away your anger.
Help us, begirt with trouble,
And now your mercy double. 35
Help us, oppressed with sorrow,
And fight for us tomorrow.
Let fire consume the foe-man.
Let air infect the Roman.
Let seas entomb their fury. 40
Let gaping earth them bury.
Let fire and air and water
And earth conspire their slaughter.
Both: [going
around] By the vervain and lunary,
By fern-seed
planetary, 45
By the
dreadful mistletoe
Which doth on
holy oak grow.
Draw near, draw near, draw near.
Help us, help us, help us.
Lantonus:
We’ll praise then your great power, 50
Each month, each day, each hour,
And blaze in lasting story,
Your honour and your glory.
High altars lost in vapour,
Young heifers free from labour, 55
White lambs for suck still crying
Shall make your music, dying.
The boys and girls around,
With honeysuckles crowned,
The bards with harp and rhyming, 60
Green bays their brows entwining,
Sweet tune and sweeter ditty
Shall chant your gracious pity.
Both: [going
around] By the vervain and lunary,
By fern-seed
planetary, 65
By the
dreadful mistletoe
Which doth on
holy oak grow.
Draw near, draw near, draw near.
We’ll praise, we’ll praise, we’ll praise.
Hulacus:
Fix, holy brother, now your prayers on one: 70
Britain’s chief patroness.° With humble cry,
Let us invoke the moon’s
bright majesty.°
They
kneel.
Lantonus:
Thou, queen of heaven, commandress of the deep,
Lady of lakes, regent of
woods and deer,
A lamp dispelling irksome
night, the source 75
Of generable° moisture,° at whose feet,
With garments blue and
rushy garlands dressed,
Wait twenty thousand
naiads. Thy crescent
Brute elephants adore,° and man doth feel
Thy force run through the
zodiac of his limbs.° 80
Oh, thou first guide of
Brutus to this isle,°
Drive back these proud
usurpers from this isle.
Whether the name of
Cynthia’s silver globe
Or chaste Diana with a
gilded quiver
Or dread Proserpina, stern
Dis° his
spouse, 85
Or soft Lucina, called in
child-bed throes,
Doth thee delight—rise
with a glorious face,
Green drops of Nereus° trickling down thy cheeks,
And with bright horns,
united in full orb,
Toss high the seas, with
billows beat the banks, 90
Conjure up Neptune and the
Aeolian slaves,°
Contract both night and
winter in a storm,°
That° Romans lose their way and sooner land
At sad Avernus° than at Albion’s strand.
So mayst thou shun the
dragon’s head and tail.° 95
So may Endymion° snort° on Latmian bed.°
So may the fair game fall
before thy bow.
Shed light on us, but
lightning on our foe.
Hulacus:
Methinks a gracious lustre spreads her brow,
[Voice] within [the shrine]: Come near and take this
oracle.
Lantonus:
Behold, an oracle flies out from her shrine,
Which both the king and
state shall see before
We dare unfold it.
Exeunt.
Act 2 Scene 7.
[Enter] Brennus’s ghost [and]
Nennius in night-robes.
Brennus:
Follow me.
Nennius:
“Follow”? What means that word?° Who art? Thy will?°
Brennus:
Follow me, Nennius.
Nennius:
He names me. Sure it is some friend which speaks.
I’ll follow thee, though’t
be through Stygian lakes. 5
Brennus: ’Tis ancient Brennus calls, whose
victories
Europe and Asia felt, and
still record.
Dear Nennius, now’s the
time to steel thy courage.
Canst thou behold thy
mother°
captive, then
Look back upon thy
ancestors, enrolled 10
Among the worthies,° who spread wide her fame?
First let thy eyeballs
pour out poisoned beams
And kill them with disdain
who dare but lift
Their hand against her.
No! No consul must
Boast of her thralldom and
out-brave our walls. 15
I wonder that such
impudent owls should gaze
Against the splendor of
our British cliffs.
Play thou a second
Brennus. Let thy lance,
Like an Herculean club,
two monsters tame:
Rome’s avarice and pride.
So, come life or death, 20
Let honour have the
incense° of thy breath.
Exit.
Nennius:
Farewell, heroic soul. Thou shalt not blush
At Nennius’ deeds. The smallest
drop of fame
Is cheap if death and
dangers may it buy.
Yet give thy words new
vigour to my spirits 25
And spur the Pegasus of my
mounting thoughts.
I’ll follow thee o’er
piles of slaughtered foes
And knock at Pluto’s gate.
I come. Come life or death,
Honour, to thee I
consecrate my breath.
Exit.
[Enter] Caesar, [with] Camillus’s ghost following.
Camillus:
Julius, stay here. Thy friend Camillus speaks. 30
Caesar: Oh, thou preserver of our present race,
Our city’s second founder!° What dire fate
Troubles thy rest that
thou shouldst trouble mine?
Camillus:
Only to bid thee fight.
Caesar:
Thou shalt not need.
Camillus:
And bid thee take a full revenge on this, 35
This nation° which did sack and burn down Rome,
Quenching the coals with
blood, and kicked our ashes,
Trampling upon the ruins
of our state,
Then led the Gauls in
triumph thorough° Greece,
To fix their tents beside
Euxinus’ gulf.° 40
Caesar: Is this that northern rout,° the scourge of kingdoms,
Whose names, till now
unknown, we judgéd Gauls,
Their tongue and manners
not unlike?
Camillus:
Gauls were indeed the bulk, but Brennus led
(Then brother to the
Briton king)° those armies, 45
Backed with great troops of
warlike islanders.
To thee belongs° to render bad for ill.
Oh, be my spirit doubled
in thy breast,
With all the courage of
three Scipios,°
Marius° and Sylla,° that° this nation, fierce 50
In feats of war, be forced
to bear our yoke.
Exit.
Caesar:
So mayst thou sweetly rest, as I shall strive
To trace your steps.° Nor let me live if I
Thence° disappointed ever seem to fly.
Exit.
Act 2 Scene 8.
[Enter] Chorus.
First song.
Ancient bards have sung,
With lips dropping honey
And a sugared tongue,
Of our worthy knights:
How Brute did giants tame,° 5
And, by Isis’° current,
A second Troy did frame
(A centre of delights);
Locrinus, eldest son,°
Did drown the furious Hun° 10
But burnt himself with Elstrid’s love;°
Leil, rex
pacificus;°
Eliud,° judicious
How heavenly bodies roll above;°
Both soul and body’s Bath°
(Like Icarus, he flew);°
A golden crown, ° whose heirs
More than half the world subdue.° 20
[Enter soldiers]
Second song.
Thou nurse of champions, oh, thou spring
Whence chivalry did flow;
Thou diamond of the world’s great ring,°
Thy glorious virtue show.
Thou many a lord hast bred, 25
In catalogue of fame read,°
And still we have
As captains brave
As° ever Britons led.
Then dub a dub dub.° 30
The soldiers join [with] tantara.°
Chorus:
Cassibelane, with armour gay
And strongly couchèd lance,
His courser° white, turned into bay,°
On carcasses shall prance.
What a crimson stream the blade 35
Of Nennius’ sword hath made.°
Black Allia’s day°
And Canae’s fray°
Have for a third long stayed.°
Then dub a dub, dub. 40
The soldiers join [with] tantara.
[Exeunt.]
Act 3 Scene 1.
Noise of ships landing and the battle within. [Enter] Caesar, Volusenus, Laberius, Atrius, ensign, drums, flag.
Caesar:
Our landing cost us dearly, many lives
Between the ships and
shore being sacrificed.
Our men with heavy armour
clogged, and ignorant
Of all the flats and
shallows, were compelled
To wade and fight, like
Tritons: half above, 5
Half under water.° Now we surer tread
Though much diminished by
so many lost.
Come on. Come on.
They march and go out.
[Enter] Cassibelane, Cridous,
Britael, Guerthed, the four kings of Kent, Nennius, Androgeus, Themantius,
Eulinus, Hirildas, Belinus, Rollano, ensigns, drum. A march [plays].
Cassibelane: So let them land. No matter which they choose—
Fishes or crows—to be
executors;° 10
They’ll find the land as
dangerous as the sea.
The nature of our soil
won’t bear a Roman,
As Irish earth doth poison
poisonous beasts.°
On then. Charge close,
before they gather head.
Nennius: Brother, advance. On this side, I’ll
lead up 15
The new-come succours° of the Scots and Picts.
They march and go out.
[Enter] Caesar [accompanied.]
Caesar:
What, still fresh supplies come thronging from their dens?
The nest of hornets is
awake. I think,
Here’s nature’s shop.° Here men are made, not born,
Nor stay nine tedious
months, but in a trice 20
Sprout up like mushrooms
at war’s thunderclap.°
We must make out a way.°
Exeunt.
[Enter] Rollano, armed
cap-a-pie.°
Rollano:
Since I must fight, I am prepared to fight,
And much enflamed with
noise of trump and drum.
Methinks I am turned lion
and durst meet 25
Ten Caesars. Where° all these covetous rogues
Who spoil the rich for
gain and kill the poor
For glory?° Blood-suckers and public robbers.
Laberius enters. Rollano retires afraid but, [Laberius] being gone out, [Rollano] goes forward [again].
Rollano:
Nay, stay, and brag Rollano did thee kill.
Stay, let me flesh my
sword° and
wear thy spoils. 30
Laberius re-enters with an ensign.
Laberius: Come, will ye forsake your ensign and
fall off?°
I call to witness all the
gods: I here
Perform my duty. Thou
canst not ’scape.
Rollano would fly, fights, falls as [though] wounded.
Now die, or yield thyself.
Rollano:
I yield, I yield. Oh, save my life, I yield. 35
I am no Briton, but by
chance come hither.
I’ll never more lift
weapon in their quarrel.
Laberius:
How may I trust your faith?
Rollano:
Command me any thing.
Laberius: Lay down your neck.
Treads on it.
Give up your sword. 40
Beats him with it.
Base coward, live.° Such foes will
ne’er do hurt.
Exit
Laberius.
Enter Eulinus, Androgeus [and] Belinus, with bloody swords.
Eulinus:
Rollano, what, at stand?° Pursue the chase.
Rollano:
I made their strongest captain fly. This hand,
This martial hand, I say,
did make him fly.
Eulinus:
Some silly scout. 45
Rollano:
He was a match for Cyclops. At each step,
The ground danced, and his
nostrils blew the dust;
Armed as the god of battle
pictured is.°
Eulinus:
What were his looks?
Rollano:
His brows were like a stormy winter night, 50
When Juno, scolding, and
Mars, malcontent,
Disturb the air. At each
look, lightning flies.
Jove ’gainst the giants
needed but his eyes.°
Eulinus:
How eloquent is fear!
Rollano:
So came he stalking with a beam-like spear. 55
I gave the onset then
received his charge,
And next blow cleft his
morion.° So, he flies.
Eulinus:
Oh, bravely done. Here comes a straggling soldier.
Enter
Laberius.
Rollano:
’Tis he! ’Tis he! I care not for vainglory.
It’s sweeter live than
dead to be a story.° 60
[He] runs away.
Eulinus:
Oh, valiant coward, stay. There’s not a spark
Of British spirit doth
enlive° thy
corpse.
Exeunt.
Act 3 Scene 2.
Nennius, pursuing.
Nennius:
Fight, Britons, fight. The day is ours. I’m cloyed
And glutted e’en with
slaughter. There some fly,°
And, flying, die, and,
dying, mangled lie.
I twice broke through the
ranks, yet cannot find
That vent’rous captain
Caesar, on whose breast 5
I long to try my blade and
prick that bladder
Puffed with ambition and
victorious fight.
Caesar enters.
Caesar:
We may confess they come of Trojan kind;
A hundred valiant Hectors
here we find.
Nennius:
Fairly encountered. Let our blades discuss 10
Who hath the justest
cause, and on this combat
May Victory her equal
balance hang.
Caesar:
Thou seem’st a worthy prince, and Caesar’s match.
They fight. [Caesar] wounds Nennius in the head, who staggers,
fights, and recovers Caesar’s fallen sword, and puts him to flight.°
Nennius:
Stay, stay. Thou art at home. Here’s Campus
Martius.°
The Britons, sought-for,
see thy frighted back.° 15
Return and take possession
of our isle,
And by thy death be styled
Britannicus.°
Leave not thy blade
unsheathed. A tyrant’s heart
To his own sword a
scabbard should impart.°
Ye senators and
gaily-gowned Quirites,° 20
Open the Capitol’s ivory
gates and lead
Fat bulls with garlands
green and gilded horns.
Let supplications last for
twice ten days—
Caesar returns a victor.
Prepare the laureate coach
and snow-white steeds, 25
Embroidered canopy and
scarlet gowns;°
Let altars smoke, and
tholes° expect
our spoils—
Caesar returns in triumph:
basely flies
And leaves his conquest in
weak infancy.°
For had he won this coast,
yet many blows 30
Must pass, ere he could
pass the Thames. And then,
Ere he touch Humber, many
nations° must
Be tamed. And then, before
he Tweed can drink
And climb the craggy rocks
of Caledon,°
A life is° spent, yea, many thousand lives. 35
Oh, my wound rages, and
tormented brain
Doth labour of a fury, not
a Pallas.°
This blade was steeped in
poison. Oh, I’m poisoned!
Well didst thou fly, ° or I had made thee taste
Thine own provision.° Now my wrath and pain 40
With double force shall
flow in purple streams.
The three infernal ladies° with wire whips
And speckled snakes shall
lackey close° my steps,
Whilst that I offer
hecatombs° of men.
The Latian shepherd’s brood° shall ban° those stars 45
Whose glimmering sparks° led their audacious pines°
To lie so far from home in
foreign soil.°
When cedars fall, whole
woods are crushed, nor die
Can Nennius private
without company.
Enter Laberius.
Thou runn’st upon thy
death. 50
Laberius:
A Roman never daunted was with looks,
Else had not Sarmatian° and Libyan° bugbears°
Been captive led in
chains.
Nennius: But our looks kill.
[They] fight. Laberius falls.°
Die slave, by Caesar’s
sword. Thou art his friend;
Die as the ransom of his
greater ghost, 55
And learn as well as I how
venom smarts.
Be thou my post to the
Tartarian prince°
And tell him Nennius
comes. But first, I’ll send
More of you headlong home
a nearer way
Than by the cloudy Alps. 60
Exit. A retreat [is] sounded.
Act 3 Scene 3.
[Enter] Cassibelane, Belinus,
Lantonus.
Cassibelane: Now hot alarums die in fainter notes.
Tempestuous night is gone.
Victorious joy
(As when pale Eos° cleaves the eastern fogs
And, blushing more and
more, opes half her eye,
With holy water° sprinkling all the meads, 5
Whose clear reflex° serves as her morning glass)
Doth paint with gaudy
plumes the checkered sky.
The only° name of victory sounds sweeter,
Than all mellifluous
rhetoric.
Lantonus: Thanks to Andates,° whose power kingdoms feel. 10
Andates, greatest goddess,
in whose train
Fear, red-faced anger and
confusions wheel.
Murder and desolation run
before,
But joyful shouts, mirth,
olive-budding peace
And laurel-crowned
triumph, at her back, 15
Do pace with stately
steps. Thy temple is
The earth, where furious
monarchs play the priests;
Armies of men imbrue° thy altar-stones.
Thanks also to the
trident-shaker’s mace,
Drawn by two ramping° sea-horses, at whose beck° 20
The waters, wrinkled,
frown or smoothly smile.
But thou, heaven’s
diamond,° fair Phoebus’ sister,
Nor Delian dames° nor the Ephesian towers°
Shall blazon more thy
praise. Thy influence strong°
Struck up the sandy ooze,
that madding waves 25
Battered their ships and
dashed their bended sails
And, with a tempest,
turned them round in scorn.°
Cassibelane: But where’s the answer which her idol gave?
Can you expound the sense?
Lantonus:
Dread sovereign, thus runs the oracle: 30
“Loud doth the king of
beasts roar;
High doth the queen of
birds° soar,
But her wings, clipped,
soon grow out;
Both° repent they are so stout°
Till “C” ’gainst “C”
strike a round, ° 35
In a perfect circle
bound.”°
The meaning, wrapped up in
cross,°
doubtful terms,
Lies yet thus open: that
disastrous fate
Must be the prologue to a
joyful close.
The rest we’ll search out
if our skill don’t fail. 40
Belinus:
Renowned Cassibelane, might my counsel speak!
Cassibelane: I know thy
loyal heart and prudent head,
Upon whose hairs time’s
child, experience, hangs
(A milk-white badge of
wisdom), and canst wield
Thy tongue in senate and
thy hands in field. 45
Speak free, Belinus.
Belinus:
We forfeit fame and smother° victory
By idle lingering. The
foe, discomfited,
Must needs be much amazed.
His ships, dismembered,°
Do piecemeal float upon
the waves. The horse° 50
Whose succour he expects
are beaten back
By friendly winds.° His camp contracted is
(A tithe of° soldiers left, the rest all slain),
His chief munition spent
or lost. Provision
(An army’s soul), but° what we give, he wants.° 55
What then shall hinder to
destroy their name,°
So none again shall venture,
but our isle
Rounded with Nereus’
girdle° may
enjoy
Eternal peace?
Cassibelane: I like thy warning. With united stroke 60
Of all our nations, we’ll
his camp beleaguer,
Devouring ships and men.
But one mischance,
My brother’s wound (his
mortal wound I fear),
Turns all to wormwood.° Why were ye dumb, ye idols?
No sainted° statue did foretell this grief. 65
Come, let’s go visit him.
You may, lord general,
Set Comius free. We love
not to insult
But render good for ill.
Exeunt.
Act 3 Scene 4.
[Enter] Caesar, Volusenus, [accompanied].
Caesar:
Heaven, sea and wind and all the elements
Conspire to work us harm.
Our ships in Gaul,
Wind-bound, at length put
forth and come in view,
Are tossed and torn. Our
navy on° the shore
With civil discord break
each other’s planks.° 5
The airy rulers° are displeased. All day,
Noises and nimble° flashes mixed with rain
Amaze° our soldiers.
To make grief full, my
daughter’s death I hear.°
When, powerful Fortune,° will thy anger cease? 10
Never till now did Caesar
Fortune fear.
Mount Palatine,° thou throne of Jove,° and ye°
Whose lesser turrets
pinnacle Rome’s head,
Are all your deities fled?
Or was I bold°
To out-go nature° and our empire stretch 15
Beyond her limits? Pardon
then my fault.
Or do we basely faint?° Or is our might
Answered with like, since
Troy ’gainst Troy doth fight?
Nor can I write now, “I
came over, and
I overcame”;° such foes deny such haste.° 20
Volusenus: The islanders consult, and sure° intend
Some sudden stratagem. And
now the scales
Poise equal day and night,° when rougher seas
And stormy Pleiads may our
passage stop.°
Caesar: Then sirs, to ship. Compelled, I leave this
land 25
But° to return, if gods do not withstand.°
Exeunt.
Act 3 Scene 5.
[Enter] Cassibelane, Belinus,
Lantonus [and] Nennius in a chair.
Nennius:
We won the day, and all our foes are fled?
Belinus:
Yes, noble Nennius. Scattered on the shore,
Thick lay the Latins, and
the glutted stream
Spews up her dead, whom
death hath taught to swim
Though ignorant alive.
Their flowing blood 5
Made a new Red Sea. But
those few we lost,
Sweetly reposed upon their
mother’s breast,
And wounded all before,° kept in their face
A warlike frown.°
Nennius:
Where is false Caesar’s° sword, called Crocea
Mors,° 10
Which never hurt, but
killed? Let it be placed
Within my tomb.°
Belinus:
Here is the fatal blade.
Nennius:
Death like a Parthian° flies, and, flying, kills.
In midst of conquest came
my deadly wound.
Accursed weapon, more
accursed man, 15
Who serpent-like in poison
bathes his sting.
Tiber doth breed as
venomous beasts as Nile.°
We scorn such cruel craft.° But death draws near.
A giddy horror seizeth on
my brain.
Dear brother and thou,° holy priest of heaven, 20
Witness my words: I leave
my country free
And die a victor. Thus,
with lighter wing,
My purified soul mounts to
her first best cause.°
I long even to behold
those glorious cloisters
Where Brutus, great
Dunwallo and his sons, 25
Thrice noble spirits,
walk.°
Thou mighty enginer° of this wondrous globe,
Protect this isle,
confound all foreign plots;
Grant Thames and Tiber
never join their channels,
But may a natural hate
derived from us 30
Live still in our
long-trailèd progeny.°
(My eyes do swim in
death.)
Before this land shall
wear the Roman yoke,
Let first the adamantine
axle crack,
Which binds the ball
terrestrial to her poles,° 35
And dash the empty air;
let planets drop
Their scalding jelly and,
all flame being spent,
Entomb the world in
everlasting smoke.
Come faster, death. I can behold thy grim
And ugly jaws with quiet
mind. Now, now, 40
I hear sweet music, and my
spirit flies.
He dies.
Cassibelane: His breath is gone who was his country’s prop
And my right hand. Now
only doth he crave
To see him° laid with honour in the grave.
[Exeunt.]
Act 3 Scene 6.
[Enter] Eulinus, Hirildas.
Eulinus:
A mind content, oh, ’tis a mind of pearl,
A mint of golden thoughts,
a heaven on earth!
When eager longer meet
full but their scope,
And hopes are actuated
beyond hope.°
So Jason joyed,° the golden fleece obtained;° 5
So Hercules joyed, the
golden fruit being gained;
So Venus joyed, the golden
ball to hold;
So Midas joyed, when he
turned all to gold;
So, and much more,
rejoiced the Phrygian swain,°
Which air did ever kiss.
His brazen keel,
Proud of° her burden, sliced the capering brine.
The Tritons blew their
horns, and sea-gods dance;°
Before, behind, about his
ship,° they
prance.
The mermaids skip on high
but to compare 15
Their dangling tresses
with her silken hair.
These° were but shadows° of my bliss. A robe
Of pure beatitude° wraps me round about,
Without a speck or
blemish, nor can invention
Wish more unto me than I
have: Landora. 20
I’m rich, free, learnèd,
honoured, all, in this.
Who dares conceive against
the female sex
But one base thought? Lo,
here I stand, their champion,
And will maintain he is a
beast, a devil,
Begot between a bitch-wolf
and an incubus.° 25
Women—all good, all
perfect, and all gracious
Men-making creatures,
angels clad in flesh—
Let me adore your name.
Hirildas:
And let me speak.
Eulinus:
But I in you° enjoy Landora’s love. 30
Hirildas:
But she enjoys not your love, cause unknown.°
Eulinus:
No matter I in you, or you in me,
So that° I still possess my dearest dear.
A paltry fancy last night
in her bed
Turmoiled my thoughts,
which since I shaped in rhymes, thus… 35
Hirildas:
Prithee, let’s hear. I know thou art turned poet.
Eulinus: [reads]
“The Dream.
By one°; for worse,° Saturnius° left the sky.
Slumb’ring at last (for
love can hardly sleep), 40
Straight-ways I dreamed
(for love doth revels keep°):
A damsel fair, and
fashioned for delight
(Our day-born objects do
return at night),
With flow’ry chaplet and
red velvet gown,
Which from her breast was
fastened along down 45
With rich enamelled locks,
all which one key,
Whose bright gold ’bout
her silver neck did play,
Could open and divorce. A
veil most fair
(Such whiteness only
Paphian doves° do wear)
With false light did her
beauteous front improve. 50
From this arch,° Cupid shot his darts of love.
With gentle strain,° she took me by the hand
(Touches in love do more
than tongue’s command),
Then leads me with an
amorous smile along
(He’s easily led whom
beauty draws, more strong 55
Than cable-ropes). An
altar we descry,
In little rolling° curls. A reverend priest,
With snowy beard waving
upon his breast,
There kneeling, did his
eyes in sorrow steep, 60
Whose passionate cry made
me, though ignorant,° weep.
Phlegon’s° hot breath no sooner licks up dew
Than joy had dried those
tears, for, lo, I view
A circular room,° all built with marble dear—
It seemed. I know not how
we came, nor whence,
Nor any passage saw to get
from thence,
But, oh, the rich delight
and glorious fire
Which dazzled me, no heart
can more desire.
Her first, my guide, oped
her spice-breathing door:° 70
“Ask what thou wilt, this
is the ark of store.°
No vows are here
repulsed,” she said. But I,
Surprised with extreme joy
and ecstasy,
By chance a scorpion’s
tail behind her spied°
(Pity, such° beauty such° a monster hide). 75
Trembling, yet silent,
doubtful what to crave;°
Lo, wit a stink and
fearful screech, this brave°
And glorious dame doth
vanish, and a dart,°
Which still I quake at,
struck me to the heart.
But, waking, I revived,
and found in bed 80
Such sovereign balm would
cure old Pelias° dead.”°
Hirildas:
Ha, ha. Your tedious dream hath made me drowsy.
But hark, we must attend
the funeral pomp.
[Exeunt.]
Act 3 Scene 7.
The funeral [cortege, including Cassibelane,] passes over the stage.°
Nennius’s escutcheon° [and] armour, [and] Caesar’s sword borne;
[the procession includes figures carrying]
torches [and other] mourners.
Cassibelane: Set down that heavy load with heavier hearts.°
Could virtuous valour,
honourable thoughts,°
A noble scorn of fortune,
pride and death,
Myriads of vows and
prayers sent to heaven…
Could country’s love or
Britain’s genius° save 5
A mortal man from sleeping
in his grave,
Then hadst thou lived,
great Nennius, and outlived
The smooth-tongued Greek.° But we may more envy,
And less bewail, thy loss,
since thou didst fall
On honour’s lofty
field-bed,° on which stage 10
Never did worthy° act a statelier part.
Nor durst pale death
approach with cypress° sad,
Till flourishing bay° thy conquering temples clad.
A funeral elegy [is] sung to the harp.
Mourners:
Turnus° may
conceal his name,
Nennius had Aeneas’ fame.° 15
Hannibal, let Afric’
smother,
Nennius was great Scipio’s
brother.°
Greece, forbear Achilles’
story,
Nennius had brave Hector’s
glory.°
Sorrowful songs befit a
tomb.
Turn, ye marble stones, to
water.°
Isis’ nymphs,° forswear all laughter,
Sigh and sob upon your
bed,
Heli’s° noble son is dead. 25
A banquet [is] served over the stage. [Enter] Rollano with a leg of a capon and a tankard of wine.
Rollano:
I like such slaughtering well of birds and beasts,
Which wear no swords, nor
shake a fatal pike,
When hogsheads bleed, and
oxen, mangled, lie.
Oh, what a world of victuals
is prepared