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"Cast. Roll all the world within thy pitchy "cloud.

"Hier. Now do I applaud what I have acted. 6310 Nunc mors cede manus. "Now to express the rapture of my part, "First take my tongue, and afterward my heart. "[He bites out his Tongue." King. O monstrous resolution of a wretch !— See, Viceroy, he hath bitten forth his tongue, Rather than to reveal what we required.

Cast. Yet can he write.

King. And if in this he satisfy us not, We will devise th' extremest kind of death That ever was invented for a wretch.

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My brother, and the whole succeeding hope
That 31 Spain expected after my decease-
Go bear his body hence, that we may mourn
The loss of our beloved brother's death,
That he may be entombed, whate'er befal:
I am the next, the nearest, last of all.

Vice. And thou, Don Pedro, do the like for us:
Take up our hapless son, untimely slain:
Set me with him, and be with woful me,
Upon the main-mast of a ship unmanned,
And let the wind and tide hale me along
To Sylla's barking and untamed gulph;
Or to the loathsome pool of Acheron,
To weep my want 312 for my sweet Balthezar:
Spain hath no refuge for a Portingale. [Exeunt.
[The Trumpets sound a Dead March; the
King of Spain mourning after his Bro-
ther's Body; and the King of Portin-
gale bearing the Body of his Son.

Enter Ghost and REVENGE.

Ghost. Aye, now my hopes have end in their effects,

When blood and sorrow finish my desires.
Horatio murdered in his father's bower;
Vile Serberine by Pedringano slain;
False Pedringano hanged by quaint device;
Fair Isabella by herself misdone;
Prince Balthezar by Belimperia stabbed;
The Duke of Castile, and his wicked son,
Both done to death by old Hieronimo;
My Belimperia fallen, as Dido fell;
And good Hieronimo slain by himself:
Aye, these were spectacles to please my soul.
Now will I beg at lovely Proserpine,
That by the virtue of her princely doom,
I may consort my friends in pleasing sort,
And on my foes work just and sharp revenge.
I'll lead my friend Horatio through those fields,
Where never-dying wars are still indured.
I'll lead fair Isabella to that train
Where pity weeps, but never feeleth pain.
[He with the Knife stabs the Duke and I'll lead my Belimperia to those joys
himself.
That vestal virgins and fair queens possess.

[He makes Signs for a Knife to mend his

Pen.

Cast. O, he would have a knife to mend his

pen.

Vice. Here, and advise thee that thou write the

troth.

Look to my brother, save Hieronimo.

But never shalt thou force me to reveal

The thing which I have vow'd inviolate;

And therefore, in despite of all thy threats,

Pleased with their deaths, and eased with their revenge,
First take my tongue, &c.

308 Inward,-i. e. intimate. So, in the Malecontent, A. 4. S. 3.:

"Come, we must be inward, thou and I all one.”

The Revengers Tragedy, A. 2.:

66 My lord, most sure on't; for 'twas spoke by one,
"That is most inward with the duke's son's lust."

309 Thou omitted, 1623. 33.
310 Nunc mers cade manus, 1618.-
311 Of, 1618. 23. 33.

-Nunc mens cade manus, 1623. 33.
312 Of, 1623. 33.

I'll lead Hieronimo where Orpheus plays,
Adding sweet pleasure to eternal days.
But say, Revenge, (for thou must help, or none,)
Against the rest how shall my hate be shewn?
Rev. This hand shall hale them down to deep-
est hell,
Where 313

none but furies, bugs, 314 and tortures dwell.

Ghost. Then, sweet Revenge, do this at my request,

Let me be judge, and doom them to unrest.
Let loose poor Titius from the vulture's gripe,
And let Don Cyprian supply his room:
Place Don Lorenzo on Ixion's wheel,

And let the lovers' endless pains surcease;

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THE SPANISH TRAGEDY,

Containing the Lamentable Murder of HORATIO and Belimperia; with the Pitiful Death of Old HIERONIMO.

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"And in their place came fearful bugges,
"As blacke as any pitche:

"With bellies big, and swagging dugges,
"More lothsome than a witch."

Churchyard's Worthiness of Wales, p. 16. edit. 1776:

315 Doth, 1623. 33.

"A kynd of sound, that makes a hurling noyse,
"To feare young babes, with brute of bugges and toyes."

The Duke of Castile's daughter then
Desired Horatio to relate

The death of her beloved friend,-
Her love Andrea's woeful fate:

But when she knew who had him slain,
She vowed she would revenge the same.

Then more to vex prince Balthezar,
Because he slew her chiefest friend,
She chose my son for her chief flower,-
Thereby meaning to work revenge.
But mark what then did straight befall,
To turn my sweet to bitter gall.

Lorenzo then, to find the cause,
Why that his sister was unkind;
At last he found, within a pause,
How he might sound her secret mind:
Which for to bring well to effect,
To fetch her man he doth direct.

Who being come into his sight,
He threatneth for to rid his life,
Except straightways he should recite,
His sister's love,-the cause of strife.
Compelled therefore t' unfold his mind,
Said with Horatio she's combined.

The villain then, for hope of gain,
Did straight convey them to the place
Where these two lovers did remain,
Joying in sight of others face;

And to their foes they did impart
The place where they should joy their heart.
Prince Balthezar, with his comperes,
Enters my bower all in the night,
And there my son slain they uprear,
The more to work my greater spight;
But as I lay and took repose,

A voice I heard, whereat I rose.

And finding then his senseless form,
The murderers I sought to find,
But missing them I stood forlorn,
As one amazed in his mind;

And rent and pulled my silvered hair,

And cursed and damned each thing was there,

And that I would revenge the same,

I dipt a napkin in his blood,
Swearing to work their woful bain,
That so had spoiled my chiefest good:
And that I would not it forget,
It always at my heart I kept.

THEN Isabella, my dear wife, Finding her son bereaved of breath, And loving him dearer than life,

THE SECOND PART.

To the same Tune.

Her own hand straight doth work her death, And now their deaths doth meet in one, My griefs are come, my joys are gone.

Then frantickly I ran about,
Filling the air with mournful groans,
Because I had not yet found out
The murtherers to ease to moans.

I rent and tore each thing I got,
And said, and did, I knew not what.

Thus as I passed the streets, hard by
The Duke of Castile's house, as then
A letter there I did espy,
Which shewed Horatio's woful end;

Which Belimperia forth had flung,
From prison, where they kept her strong.

Then to the court forthwith I went,
And of the king did justice crave;
But by Lorenzo's bad intent,

1 hindred was, which made me rave.
Then vexed more I stamped and frowned,
And with my poinard ript the ground.

But false Lorenzo put me out,
And told the king then by and by,
That frantickly I ran about,
And of my son did always cry,

And said, 'twere good I would resign
My marshalship, which grieved my mind.

The Duke of Castile hearing then,
How I did grudge still at his son,
Did send for me to make us friends,
To stay the rumour then begun :

Whereto I straightway gave consent,
Although in heart I never meant.

Sweet Belimperia comes to me,
Thinking my son I had forgot,
To see me with his foes agree,
The which I never meant, God wot;
But when we knew each other's mind,
To work revenge a mean I find.

Then bloody Balthezar enters in,
Entreating me to shew some sport
Unto his father and the king,
That to his nuptial did resort.

Which gladly I prepared to shew,
Because I knew 'twould work their woe.

And from the chronicles of Spain,

I did record Erastus life,

And how the Turk had him so slain,

And straight revenge wrought by his wife.
Then for to act this tragedy,
I gave their parts immediately.

Sweet Belimperia Balthezar kills,
Because he slew her dearest friend,
And I Lorenzo's blood did spill,
And eke his soul to hell did send.
Then died my foes by dint of knife,
But Belimperia ends her life.

Then for to specify my wrongs,
With weeping eyes and mournful heart,
I shewed my son with bloody wounds,
And eke the murtherers did impart;

And said-my son was as dear to me
As thine, or thine, though kings you be.

But when they did behold this thing,
Now I had slain their only sons,
The duke, the viceroy, and the king,
Upon me all they straight did run.

To torture me they do prepare,
Unless I should it straight declare.

But that I would not tell it then,
Even with my teeth I bit my tongue,
And in despite did give it them,

That me with torments sought to wrong.
Thus when in age I sought to rest,
Nothing but sorrows me opprest.

They knowing well that I could write,
Unto my hand a pen did reach,
Meaning thereby I should recite
The authors of this bloody fetch.

Then fained I my pen was naught,
And by strange signs a knife I sought.

But when to me they gave the knife,
I killed the duke then standing by,
And eke myself bereaved of life,
For I to see my son did hie.

The kings that scorned my griefs before,
With nought can they their joys restore.

Here have you heard my tragic tale,
Which on Horatio's death depends,
Whose death I could anew bewail,
But that in it the murderers ends.

For murder God will bring to light,
Though long it be hid from man's sight.

Printed at London for H. Gosson.

EDITIONS.

Of this Play, Mr Hawkins says, there are many Editions, viz. 1603, 1615, 1618, 1623, 1633; and one without a date, " printed by Edward Allde, amended of such gross blunders as passed in the "first." None of these several Editions have come under my notice, except those of 1623 and 1633; but, by comparing the collation of Mr Hawkins with these copies, I can so far bear testimony to that gentleman's accuracy, as to think myself warranted to follow his Edition of this Play, as printed in the Origin of the English Drama, Vol. II. Mr Hawkins printed from Alide's Edition, compared with those of 1618, 1623, and 1633.

The foregoing Ballad is printed from a Black Letter Copy in the valuable Collection of Thomas Pearson, Esq. It seems to have been written after the Play.

THE HONEST WHORE.

THOMAS DEKKAR wrote in the reign of James the First. He was, says Langbaine, more famous for the contention he had with Ben Jonson for the bayes, than for any great reputation he had gained by his own writings. He was, however, not destitute of genius; and among his contemporaries, se veral of whom joined with him in writing, was much esteemed, especially by Richard Brome, who al ways gave him the title of Father. We know very few particulars concerning him. Oldys says, he was in the King's Bench Prison from the year 1613 to 1616, if not longer. We may therefore conclude, that, like the generality of his poetical friends, he was in indigent circumstances. At what time he died we do not know with certainty; but the same writer says, he was alive in 1638, and at that time full threescore years of age. From a passage in the dedication to Match me in Loudon, published in 1631, it may be conjectured that he was older than Oldys imagines, as he there says, “ I have beene a priest in Apollo's temple many years, my voyce is decaying with my age." He was a voluminous writer; and, besides a great number of pamphlets, of which a list is hereafter given of as many as can at present be discovered, he wrote the following plays:

1. "The Pleasant Comedie of OLD FORTUNATUS. As it was plaied before the Queen's Majestie "this Christmas, by the Right Honourable the Earle of Nottingham, Lord High Admirall of Eng"land his Servants, 4to, 1600."

2. "Satiro-mastix, or the Untrussing of the Humorous Poet. As it hath bin presented publikely, "by the Right Honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his Servants; and, privately, by the Children of Paules, 1602, 4to,-1610, 4to."

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3. The Honest Whore, with the Humours of the Patient Man and the Longing Wife, 1604, 4to,— 1615, 4to,-1616, 4to,-1635, 4to.

4. Westward Hoe. As it hath beene divers times acted by the Children of Paules. Written by Thomas Decker and John Webster, 1607, 4to.

5. Northward Hoe. Sundry times acted by the Children of Paules. By Thomas Decker and John Webster, 1607, 4to.

6. The Famous History of Sir Thomas Wyat; with the Coronation of Queen Mary, and the comingin of King Philip. As it was plaied by the Queen's Majestie's Servants. Written by Thomas Deckers and John Webster, 1607, 4to.

7. The Whore of Babylon. Acted by the Prince's Servants, 1607, 4to.

8. "If it be not good, the Divel is in it. A new Play. As it hath bin lately acted, with great ap"plause, by the Queenes Majestie's Servants, at the Red Bull, 1612, 4to."

9. " The Second Part of the Honest Whore, with the Humors of the Patient Man, the Impatient "Wife: the Honest Whore perswaded, by strong arguments, to turne Curtizan againe; her brave refuting those arguments; and, lastly, the Comicall Passages of an Italian Bridewell, where the "Scene ends, 1630, 4to."

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10. "A Tragi-Comedy, called, Match mee in London. As it hath beene often presented; first, "at the Bull in Saint John's Street; and lately at the Private House in Drury-Lane, called the "PHENIX, 1631, 4to."

11. The Wonder of a Kingdome, 4to, 1636.

He also joined with Massinger in writing The Virgin Martyr; with Rowley and Ford, in The Witch of Edmonton; Middleton and Rowley, in The Roaring Girl; and with Ford, in The Sun's Darling.

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