Enter Cassander. THE CORONATION. Cass. Oh, let me beg until my knees take root I'th' earth. Sir, can you pardon me? [treason: Cass. For treason, desperate, most malicious I have undone you, sir! Dem. It does appear You had a will, [can; Cass. I'll make you all the recompense But ere you kill me, bear me! Know the man Whom I, to serve my unjust ends, advanc'd T'your throne, is an impostor, a mere counterfeit, Eubulus' son. [Exit Ant. Dem. It is not then our brother? come on's now? We're at his mercy. Cass. Sir, the people's hearts Dem. Rise, our misfortune Carries this good; altho' it lose our hopes, Cass. You are too merciful. Lysim. Our duties shall beg Heaven still to preserve you. Enter Antigonus. Ant. Our enemy desires some parley, sir. Lysim. 'Tis not amiss to hear their proposition. [ourselves! Polid. I'll wait upon you. Cass. And in death be blest To find your charity. Lysim. Madam? Sophia. Lysimachus! [Exit. [the small time Sophia. They will not miss your presence, Is spent in asking of a question, Lysim. I wait your pleasure. Sophia. Sir, I have a suit to you, Sophia. If y you Have cancelled Deny me not to know who hath succeeded opinion of Sophia in your heart? I beg the name Of your new mistress. Our soul's bound to acknowledge: you sup- Bishop. I am subscrib'd to both his legacies, To whose policy I gave this aim, altho’ Bishop. Your sister, fair Sophia, in your Life, was design'd to marry with Lysimachus; Leo. No more! lest you destroy again Of young Demetrius' fortune; there were A gentle spirit walk'd upon my blood?] This would imply, that before he knew his rela Enter Demetrius, Polidora, Sophia, Macarius, Cassander, and Lysimachus. Eub. They're here. Leo. Then thus I fly into their bosoms! Nature has rectified in me, Demetrius, The wandrings of ambition. Qur dear sister, You are amaz'd; I did expect it: read Assurance there! the day is big with wonder. Mac. What means all this? Leo. Lysimachus, be dear to us! I do not look for't; all this sha'not bribe Dem. All love and duty Flow from me to my royal king, and brother! Cass. You are too credulous! Leo. But where's your other mistress? Lysim. Even here, sir. [sir? [gan Leo. Our sister? is this another mistress, Lysim. It holds To prove my thoughts were so: when she beHer sorrow for neglecting me, that sweetness Deserv'd I should esteem her another mistress Than when she cruelly forsook Lysimachus. Your pardon, madam! and receive a heart Proud with my first devotions to serve you! Sophia. In this I'm crown'd again! now mine for ever! Leo. You have deceiv'd her happily. Joy to you both! Dem. We're ripe for the same wishes; Polidora's part of me. Polid. He all my blessing. Leo. Heav'n pour full joys upon you! Muc. We're all blest: There wants but one to fill your arms. And wife shall be my country, to which I Tho' kingdoms by just titles prove our own, The subjects' hearts do best secure a crown. [Exeunt omnes. tion to his brother and sister, he had often had, by secret instinct, a love for them: but as no hint of this appears in any thing he before says or does, I prefer the present tense : walks upon my blood? This expression is noble, and seems taken from Genesis. The spirit of God mov'd upon the face of the waters. Seward. I conceive, that the poet designed here to express, how dormant that affection which ought to be toward brethren, though strangers to each other, had lain in Seleucus; and upon this account I would suppose, that a word of a stronger import may yet bid fairer for the true one: I read thus, A gentle spirit wakes upon my blood? Sympson. We have retained the old reading, as thinking it far preferable to either of the variations. EPILOGUE. THERE is no Coronation to-day, appear, (Both) how we please, and bless our covetous With your applause; more welcome thatt the bells Upon a triumph, bonfires, or what else THE SEA-VOYAGE'. A COMEDY. This Play is in the Commendatory Verses by Gardiner ascribed to Fletcher alone, and was first printed in the folio of 1647. It was revived by Tom Durfey, with alterations, in the year 1686, and exhibited at the Theatre-Royal, under the title of The Commonwealth of Women, and at the same time printed in quarto. This play, as it stands in all the former copies, has not received so much injury in its sense as measure, and so we have not so much cause to complain of the former as of the latter: yet cause there is, as the reader will see in the following notes. Mr. Shirley, who published the old folio edition, seems to have had little care of making our poets appear to advantage, when he sent this play into the world in so unpoetical a dress; I own the restoring of the measure cost me abundantly more application and pains than the correcting the text; but yet the reader must not expect that musical, exact flow of numbers which our modern gentlemen of Parnassus are so careful about, here, any more than in Shakespeare: however, I think I may remark once for all, both upon our authors and him, that whenever any subject requires the sublime, the pathetick or descriptive, there the numbers are equal to both the sentiment and diction, and the happy mixture is capable of transporting any soul who has the least taste for the beauties of poetry. Sympson. In restoring the measure' (as Mr. Sympson calls it) he has tacitly interpolated, and omitted in a manner unprecedented in any editors but those of these Works in 1750. The variations, both avowed and secret, we may safely pronounce to be almost all for the worse, and unworthy mention; those which are otherwise, shall be properly noticed. VOL. III. G K ACT A Tempest, Thunder and Lightning. Enter Master and two Sailors. ACT I. Master.LA AY her aloof, the sea grows dan gerous: How't spits against the clouds! how it capers, Down with the main-mast! lay her at hull! Can she not buffet with a storm a little? 2 Sailor. We have discover'd the land, She is so drunk else she may chance 1 Sailor. Staud in, stand in! We are all lost else, lost and perish'd. Master. Steer her a-starboard there! 2 Sailor. Bear in with all the sail we can! See, Master, See what a clap of thunder there is! what A face of Heav'n! bow dreadfully it looks! Master. Thou rascal, thou fearful rogue, th' hast been praying! 1 see it in thy face; thou hast been mumbling, When we are split, you slave2! Is this a time To discourage our friends with your cold orizons? Call up the boatswain. How it storms! holla! Master. You are too hasty, monsieur; do you long To be i' th' fish-market before your time? Aminta. Oh, miserable fortune! We ha' storms enough already; no more Aminta. Gentle master! Master. Clap this woman under hatches. Alb. Prithee speak mildly to her. Aminta. Can no helpMaster. None, that I know. Aminta. No promise from your goodnessMaster. Am I a god? For Heaven's sake, stow this woman! [to your business! Tib. Go, take your gilt prayer-book, and Wink and die! There an old haddock stays for you. [the terrors, Aminia. Must I die here in all the frights, The thousand several shapes death triumphs No friend to counsel me? [in? Alb. Have peace, sweet mistress! Aminta. No kindred's tears upon me? Oh, my country! No gentle hand to close mine eyes? Alb. Be comforted; [same mercy. Heaven has the same pow'r still, and the 2 When we are split, you slave.] The accurate Sympson reads, When we are splitring, slave. 3 We have sprung five leaks, and no little ones; Still rage; besides, her ribs are open.] Here the words still rage, should either be in a parenthesis with a note of admiration, (still rage!) or else, which is more probable, from the defect in the measure, something is lost, and I believe the original was, -five leaks, and no little ones; The winds still rage; besides, her ribs are open, or perhaps, The scus. Sympson. We think the first conjecture best. Aminta. |