Shall be my charge: remove the bloodless body. [Exeunt. SCENE III. A Temple. An Altar, covered with white; two lights of virgin wax upon it.-Recorders; during which enter Attendants, bearing ITHOCLES on a hearse, in a rich robe, with a crown on his head; and place him on the one side of the Altar. After which, enter CALANTHA, in white, crowned, attended by EUPHRANEA, PHILEMA, and CHRISTALLA, also in white; NEARCHUS, ARMOSTES, CROTOLON, PROPHILUS, AMELUS, BASSANES, HEMOPHIL, and GRONEAS. CALANTHA kneels before the Altar, the Ladies kneeling behind her, the rest stand off. The Recorders cease during her devotions. Soft music. CALANTHA and the rest rise, doing obeisance to the Altar. Cal. Our orisons are heard; the gods are merciful. Now tell me, you, whose loyalties pay tribute To us your lawful sovereign, how unskilful Your duties or obedience is, to render Subjection to the sceptre of a virgin, Who have been ever fortunate in princes Of masculine and stirring composition? A woman has enough to govern wisely Her own demeanours, passions, and divisions. A nation warlike, and inured to practice Of policy and labour, cannot brook A feminate authority; we therefore Command your counsel, how you may advise us Near. Royal lady, Your law is in your will. Arm. We have seen tokens Of constancy too lately to mistrust it. Crot. Yet, if your highness settle on a choice, Cal. Hold you the same mind? Bass. Alas, great mistress! reason is so clouded With the thick darkness of my infinite woes, That I forecast nor dangers, hopes, or safety. Give me some corner of the world to wear out The remnant of the minutes I must number, Where I may hear no sounds, but sad complaints Of virgins, who have lost contracted partners; Of husbands howling that their wives were ravish'd By some untimely fate; of friends divided By churlish opposition; or of fathers Weeping upon their children's slaughtered car casses; Or daughters, groaning o'er their fathers' hearses. Cal. Cousin of Argos! Cal. Were I presently To choose you for my lord, I'll open freely Near. Name them, virtuous lady. Cal. I would presume you would retain the royalty Of Sparta in her own bounds; then in Argos Armostes might be viceroy; in Messene Might Crotolon bear sway; and Bassanes- Cal. Be Sparta's marshal; The multitudes of high employments could not She'll prove a constant wife; and Philema Bass. This is a testament! It sounds not like conditions on a marriage. He should be, cousin, solemnly invested Pro. I am unworthy To live in your remembrance. Euph. Excellent lady! Near. Madam, what means that word, "neglected husband ?" Cal. Forgive me :-now I turn to thee' thou shadow Of my contracted lord! Bear witness all, I put my mother's wedding ring upon His finger; 'twas my father's last bequest. [Places a ring on the finger of ITHOCLES. Thus I new-marry him, whose wife I am: Death shall not separate us. Oh, my lords, I but deceiv'd your eyes with antic gesture, When one news straight came huddling on another, Of death! and death! and death! still I danced forward! But it struck home, and here, and in an instant. cries, Can vow a present end to all their sorrows, Yet live to [court] new pleasures, and outlive them: They are the silent griefs which cut the heartstrings; Let me die smiling. Near. "T is a truth too ominous. Cal. One kiss on these cold lips, my last!-(kisses Argos now 's Sparta's king. Command the voices Near. Sirs, the song! Cho. DIRGE. Glories, pleasures, pomps, delights, and ease, Can but please [The] outward senses, when the mind First Voice. Crowns may flourish and decay, Second. Third. Cho. Beauties shine, but fade away. Love only reigns in death; thougn art Arm. Look to the queen! Bass. Her" heart is broke" indeed. Oh, royal maid, would thou hadst miss'd this part' Arm. Wise Tecnicus! thus said he . When youth is ripe, and age from time doin part, Near. I am your king. All. Long live Nearchus, king of Sparta! Shall never be digress'd from; wait in order 1 "I do not know," says Mr. Lamb, who brings to the perusal of our o.d dramatists a sensibility almost painfully exquisite, "where to find, in any play, a catastrophe so grand, so solemn, and so surprising as this. This is indeed, according to Milton, to describe high passions and high actions. The fortitude of the Spartan Boy, who let a beast gnaw out his bowels till he died, without expressing a groan, is a faint bodily image of this dilaceration of the spirit, and exenteration of the inmost mind, which Calantha, with a holy violence against her nature, keeps closely covered till the last duties of a wife and a queen are fulfilled.-But Ford was of the first order of poets. He sought for sublimity, not by parcels in metaphors or visible images, but directly where she has full residence in the heart of man, in the actions and sufferings of the greatest minds."--LAMB's Specimens of Dramatic Poets. EPILOGUE. WHERE noble judgments and clear eyes are fix'd |