David. Go know, and bring her quickly to the King;
Tell her, her graces have found grace with him.
Cusay. I will, my lord.
[Exit.
David. Bright Bethsabe shall wash, in David's bower,
In water mix'd with purest almond flower,
And bathe her beauty in the milk of kids :
Bright Bethsabe gives earth to my desires;
Verdure to earth; and to that verdure flowers;
To flowers sweet odours; and to odours wings
That carry pleasures to the hearts of kings.
Now comes my lover tripping like the roe,
And brings my longings tangled in her hair.
To joy her love I 'll build a kingly bower,
Seated in hearing of a hundred streams,
That, for their homage to her sovereign joys,
Shall, as the serpents fold into their nests
In oblique turnings, wind the nimble waves
About the circles of her curious walks
And with their murmur summon easeful sleep
To lay his golden sceptre on her brows.
[There is more of the same stuff, but I suppose the reader has a surfeit; especially as this Canticle of David has never been suspected to contain any pious sense couched underneath it, whatever his son's may.-The kingly bower, "seated in hearing of a hundred streams," is the best of it."]
Nath. Thus Nathan saith unto his lord the king.
There were two men both dwellers in one town:
The one was mighty, and exceeding rich
In oxen, sheep, and cattle of the field;
The other poor, having nor ox, nor calf,
Nor other cattle, save one little lamb
Which he had bought and nourish'd by his hand;
And it grew up, and fed with him and his,
And ate and drank as he and his were wont,
And in his bosom slept, and was to him
As was his daughter or his dearest child.-
There came a stranger to this wealthy man ;
And he refus'd and spar'd to take his own,
Or of his store to dress or make him meat,
But took the poor man's sheep, partly, poor man's
store,
And dress'd it for this stranger in his house. What, tell me, shall be done to him for this? Dav. Now, as the Lord doth live, this wicked man Is judg'd and shall become the child of death Fourfold to the poor man he shall restore, That without mercy took his lamb away. Nath. Thou art the man ; and thou hast judg'd thyself.
David, thus saith the Lord thy God by me:
I thee anointed king in Israel,
And sav'd thee from the tyranny of Saul
Thy master's house I gave thee to possess ;
His wives into thy bosom did I give,
And Judah and Jerusalem withal;
And might, thou know'st, if this had been too small,
Have given thee more:
Wherefore, then, hast thou gone so far astray,
And hast done evil, and sinned in my sight?
Urias thou hast killed with the sword;
Yea, with the sword of the uncircumcis'd
Thou hast him slain: wherefore, from this day forth,
The sword shall never go from thee and thine;
For thou hast ta’en this Hethite's wife to thee:
Wherefore, behold, I will, saith Jacob's God,
In thine own house stir evil up to thee;
Yea, I before thy face will take thy wives,
And give them to thy neighbour to possess:
This shall be done to David in the day,
That Israel openly may see thy shame.
Dav. Nathan, I have against the Lord, I have
Sinned; O, sinned grievously! and, lo,
From heaven's throne doth David throw himself,
And groan and grovel to the gates of hell!
Nath. David, stand up: thus saith the Lord by me :
David the king shall live, for he hath seen
The true repentant sorrow of thy heart;
But, for thou hast in this misdeed of thine
Stirr'd up the enemies of Israel
To triumph, and blaspheme the Lord of Hosts,
And say, "He set a wicked man to reign
Over his loved people and his tribes,”-
The child shall surely die, that erst was born,
His mother's sin, his kingly father's scorn.
Dav. How just is Jacob's God in all His works!
But must it die, that David loveth so?
O, that the mighty one of Israel
Nill change his doom, and says the babe must die! Mourn, Israel, and weep in Sion gates;
Wither, ye cedar trees of Lebanon ;
Ye sprouting almonds, with your flowing tops, Droop, drown, and drench in Hebron's fearful
The babe must die that was to David born,
His mother's sin, his kingly father's scorn.
Now for the crown and throne of Israel,
To be confirm'd with virtue of my sword,
And writ with David's blood upon the blade.
Now, Jove,1 let forth the golden firmament,
And look on him with all thy fiery eyes,
Which thou hast made to give their glories light:
To show thou lov'st the virtue of thy hand,
Let fall a wreath of stars upon my head,
Whose influence may govern Israel
With state exceeding all her other kings.
Fight, lords and captains, that your sovereign's face
May shine in honour brighter than the sun;
And with the virtue of my beauteous rays
Make this fair land as fruitful as the fields
That with sweet milk and honey overflow'd.
God, in the whizzing of a pleasant wind,
Shall march upon the tops of mulberry trees,
To cool all breasts that burn with any griefs,
As whilom he was good to Moses' men.
By day the Lord shall sit within a cloud,
To guide your footsteps to the fields of joy ;
And in the night a pillar, bright as fire,
Shall go before you, like a second sun,
Wherein the essence of his godhead is;
That day and night you may be brought to peace,
And never swerve from that delightsome path
That leads your souls to perfect happiness.
This shall he do for joy when I am king.
Then fight, brave captains, that these joys may fly
Into your bosoms with sweet victory.
Abs. First, Absalom was by the trumpet's sound
Proclaim'd through Hebron king of Israel;
And now is set in fair Jerusalem
With complete state and glory of a crown :
Fifty fair footmen by my chariot run,
And to the air whose rupture rings my fame,
Where'er I ride, they offer reverence.
Why should not Absalom, that in his face
New raifed from his graue to write the Tragique Hiftorie of faire
WHEREIN IS TRVLY DISCOVERED the rare and lamentable flue of a Hu bands do. cage, a wiues leudnesse, & childrens disobedience. Received and reported by I.D.
Veritas non quarit angulos, vmbragaudet.
Printed at London by RICHARD BRADOCKE for Willam Iones, dwelling at the figne of the Gunne neare Holborne conduit. 1598.
Reduced facsimile of title-page Greene in Conceipt,' 1598.
|
