From Eleusis (mine own shrine)
To thee, a Monarch all divine;
And, as true impost of my grove,
Present it to great Oberon's love.
Ober. Honey dews refresh thy meads.
Cowslips spring with golden heads;
July-flowers and carnations wear
Leaves double-streakt, with maiden-hair;
May thy lilies taller grow,
Thy violets fuller sweetness owe;
And last of all, may Phoebus love
To kiss thee and frequent thy grove
As thou in service true shalt be
Unto our crown and royalty.
Oberon holds a Court, in which he sentences the Wasp, the Drone, and the Humble-bee, for divers offences against the Commonwealth of Bees.
OBERON. PROREX, his Viceroy, and other Bees.
Pro. And whither must these flies be sent ?
Ober. To Everlasting Banishment.
Underneath two hanging rocks
(Where babbling Echo sits and mocks
Poor travellers) there lies a grove,
With whom the Sun's so out of love,
He never smiles on't: pale Despair
Calls it his Monarchal Chair.
Fruit half-ripe hang rivell'd and shrunk
On broken arms, torn from the trunk:
The moorish pools stand empty, left
By water, stol'n by cunning theft
To hollow banks, driven out by snakes,
Adders, and newts, that man these lakes:
The mossy leaves, half-swelter'd, serv'd
As beds for vermin hunger-sterv'd:
The woods are yew-trees, bent and broke
By whirlwinds; here and there an oak,
Half-cleft with thunder. To this grove
We banish them.
Culprits. Some mercy, Jove!
Ober. You should have cried so in your youth,
When Chronos and his daughter Truth
Sojourn'd among you; when you spent
years in riotous merriment.
[Day's Works, ed. Bullen, 1881.]
Thrusting poor Bees out of their hives,
Seizing both honey, wax, and lives.
You should have call'd for mercy when
You impaled common blossoms; when,
Instead of giving poor Bees food,
You ate their flesh, and drank their blood.
Fairies, thrust 'em to their fate.1
Oberon then confirms Prorex in his Government; and breaks
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 live
1[Sixteen lines omitted.] [See also page 401.]
As was his daughter or his dearest child.-
There came a stranger to this wealthy man,
And he refused and spared to take his own,
Or of his store to dress or make his meat,
But took the poor man's sheep, partly poor man's store ;
And drest 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 judged, 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 JUDGED THYSELF.David, thus saith the Lord thy God by me:
I thee anointed King in Israel,
And saved thee from the tyranny of Saul;
Thy master's house I gave thee to possess,
His wives unto thy bosom I did give,
And Juda 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 uncircumcised
That hast him slain; wherefore from this day forth
The sword shall never go from thee and thine :
For thou hast ta'en this Hithite'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, oh 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 streams :
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, let forth the golden firmament,
And look on him with all thy fiery eyes,
Which thou hast made to give their glories light.
To shew thou lovest 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
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 overflowed.
God in the whissing 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 Moyses' 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 soul to perfect happiness:
This he shall do for joy when I am King.
Then fight, brave Captains, that these joys may fly
Into your bosoms with sweet victory.
[Peele's Works, ed. Bullen, vol. ii.]
[Sc. 12 entire.] "Jove, for Jehovah.
Abs. First Absalon was by the trumpet's sound
Proclaim'd thro' 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 rapture rings my fame,
Where'er I ride, they offer reverence.
Why should not Absalon, that in his face
Carries the final purpose of his God,
(That is, to work him grace in Israel),
Endeavour to achieve with all his strength
The state that most may satisfy his joy-
Keeping his statutes and his covenants sure?
His thunder is intangled in my hair,
And with my beauty is his lightning quench'd.
I am the man he made to glory in,
When by the errors of my father's sin
He lost the path, that led unto the Land
Wherewith our chosen ancestors were blest.
A LOOKING GLASS FOR ENGLAND AND LONDON. TRAGI-COMEDY [PUBLISHED 1594]. BY THOMAS LODGE [1558?-1625] AND ROBERT GREEN [1560?1592]
Alvida, Paramour to Rasni, the Great King of Assyria, courts a petty King of Cilicia.
Alv. Ladies, go sit you down amidst this bower, And let the Eunuchs play you all asleep:
Put garlands made of roses on your heads,
And play the wantons, whilst I talk awhile.
Ladies. Thou beautiful of all the world, we will.
Alv. King of Cilicia, kind and courteous;
Like to thyself, because a lovely King;
Come lay thee down upon thy Mistress' knee,
And I will sing and talk of Love to thee.
Cil. Most gracious Paragon of excellence,
1[For other extracts from Peele see note to p. 13.]
[Not divided into Acts. See Lodge's Works, ed. for the Hunterian Club, 1883, vol. iv., pp. 45-47. For another extract from Lodge see p. 569.]
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