LAMB'S SPECIMENS OF ENGLISH DRAMATIC POETS I. GORBODUC: A TRAGEDY. BY THOMAS SACKVILLE, LORD BUCKHURST, AFTERWARDS EARL OF DORSET; AND THOMAS NORTON. Whilst King GORBODUC in the presence of his councillors laments the death of his eldest son, FERREX, whom PORREX, the younger son, has slain; MARCELLA, a court lady, enters and relates the miserable end of PORREX, stabbed by his mother in his bed. GORBODUC, AROSTUS, EUBULUS, and others. Gorb. What cruel destiny, What froward fate hath sorted us this chance? Should rest and be, even there our only grief And deepest sorrows to abridge our life, Most pining cares and deadly thoughts do grow. Arost. Your grace should now, in these grave years of yours, Have found ere this the price of mortal joys, To whom both man and all the world doth owe 10 Their end at last; neither should nature's power MARCELLA enters. 11 20 Marc. Oh where is ruth? or where is pity now? Whither is gentle heart and mercy fled? Are they exil'd out of our stony breasts, Never to make return? is all the world Drowned in blood, and sunk in cruelty? If not in women mercy may be found, If not (alas) within the mother's breast To her own child, to her own flesh and blood; If ruth be banished thence, if pity there May have no place, if there no gentle heart Do live and dwell, where should we seek it then? Gorb. Madam (alas) what means your woful tale? Marc. O silly woman I, why to this hour Have kind and fortune thus deferr'd my breath, That I should live to see this doleful day? Will ever wight believe that such hard heart Could rest within the cruel mother's breast, With her own hand to slay her only son? But out (alas) these eyes beheld the same, They saw the dreary sight, and are become Most ruthful records of the bloody fact. Porrex, alas, is by his mother slain, And with her hand, a woful thing to tell, While slumb'ring on his careful bed he rests, His heart stabb'd in with knife is reft of life. Gorb. O Eubulus, oh draw this sword of ours, And pierce this heart with speed. O hateful light, O loathsome life, O sweet and welcome death. Dear Eubulus, work this we thee beseech. Eub. Patient your grace, perhaps he liveth yet, *Nature; natural affection. 30 40 With wound receiv'd but not of certain death. Marc. Alas, he liveth not, it is too true, [Exit. The noble prince, pierced with the sudden wound, 10 Out of his wretched slumber hastely start,t 20 Whose strength now failing, straight he overthrew, Arost. Never did age bring forth so vile a fact. Unto so worthy wight so wretched end: By which, alas, so heinous crime was wrought. If not his princely cheer and countenance, † Started. 40 If not his fair and seemly personage; 9 His noble limbs, in such proportion cast, 20 Arost. Madam, alas, in vain these plaints are shed. Rather with me depart, and help to assuage The thoughtful griefs, that in the aged king Must needs by nature grow, by death of this His only son, whom he did hold so dear. Marc. What wight is that which saw that I did see, And could refrain to wail with plaint and tears? But let us go, for I am griev'd anew, 29 To call to mind the wretched father's woe. [Exeunt. Chorus of aged men. When greedy lust in royal seat to reign Hath reft all care of gods and eke of men; And cruel heart, wrath, treason, and disdain, Behold how mischief wide herself displays, And with the brother's hand the brother slays. When blood thus shed doth stain the heaven's face, Crying to Jove for vengeance of the deed, The mighty God e'en moveth from his place With wrath to wreak; then sends he forth with speed The dreadful Furies, daughters of the night, 41 With serpents girt, carrying the whip of ire, Blood asketh blood, and death must death requit ; This times before record, and times to come O happy wight that suffers not the snare 10 [The style of this old play is stiff and cumbersome, like the dresses of its times. There may be flesh and blood underneath, but we cannot get at it. Sir Philip Sydney has praised it for its morality. One of its authors might easily furnish that. Norton was an associate to Hopkins, Sternhold, and Robert Wisdom, in the Singing Psalms. I am willing to believe that Lord Buckhurst supplied the more vital parts. The chief beauty in the extract is of a secret nature. Marcella obscurely intimates that the murdered prince Porrex and she had been lovers.] II. (G.) TANCRED AND GISMUND: ACTED BEFORE THE COURT BY THE GENTLEMEN OF Mess. Thy father, O queen, here in this cup hath sent The thing to joy and comfort thee withal, 19 Which thou lovedst best: ev'n as thou wast content To comfort him with his best joy of all. |