THE HISTORY OF ANTONIO AND MELLIDA. THE FIRST PART. BY JOHN MARSTON. Andrugio Duke of Genoa, banished his country, with the loss of a son supposed drowned, is cast upon the territory of his mortal enemy the Duke of Venice; with no attendants but Lucio an old nobleman, and a page. Andr. Is not yon gleam the shuddring Morn that flakes With silver tincture the east verge of heaven? Luc. I think it is, so please your Excellence. My thoughts are fixt in contemplation eyes and ears. Did Nature make the earth, or the earth Nature? Moulds me up honour, and, like a cunning Dutchman, Paints me a puppet even with seeming breath, Go to, go to; thou ly'st, Philosophy. Nature forms things unperfect, useless, vain. Which men do gape for till thou cram'st their mouths Luc. Sweet Lord, abandon passion; and disarm. We are roll'd up upon the Venice marsh, Let's clip all fortune, lest more low'ring fate Andr. More low'ring fate! O Lucio, choak that breath. Now I defy chance. Fortune's brow hath frown'd, Even to the utmost wrinkle it can bend : And that Nor mischief, force, distress, nor hell can take : Luc. Speak like yourself: but give me leave, my Lord, To wish your safety. If you are but seen, Your arms display you; therefore put them off, Andr. Would'st have me go unarm'd among my foes? Being besieg'd by Passion, entering lists To combat with Despair and mighty Grief: Shall Shall hurry on before, and usher us, Whilst trumpets clamour with a sound of death. Luc. Peace, good my lord, your speech is all too light. Alas, survey your fortunes, look what's left Of all your forces and your utmost hopes; A weak old man, a page, and your poor self. Andr. Andrugio lives; and a Fair Cause of Arms. He who hath that, hath a battalion royal, 25 The situation of Andrugio and Lucio resembles that of Lear and Kent, in that King's distresses. Andrugio, like Lear, manifests a kind of royal impatience, a turbulent greatness, an affected resignation. The Enemies which he enters lists to combat, "Despair, and mighty Grief, and sharp Impatience," and the Forces ("Cornets of Horse," &c.) which he brings to vanquish them, are in the boldest style of Allegory. They are such a “race of mourners" as "the infection of sorrows loud" in the intellect might beget on 66 some pregnant cloud "in the imagination. ANTONIO'S REVENGE. THE SECOND PART OF THE HISTORY OF ANTONIO AND MELLIDA. BY JOHN MARSTON. The Prologue.26 The rawish dank of clumsy winter ramps : The fluent summer's vein and drizzling sleet From the nak'd shuddring branch, and pills26 the skin O now methinks a sullen tragic scene Would suit the time with pleasing congruence. (As from his birth being hugged in the arms From common sense of what men were, and are; 26 This Prologue for its passionate earnestness, and for the tragic note of preparation which it sounds, might have preceded one of those old tales of Thebes, or Pelops' line, which Milton has so highly commended, as free from the common error of the poets in his days," of intermixing comic stuff with tragic sadness and gravity, brought in without discretion corruptly to gratify the people."It is as solemn a preparative as the "warning voice which he who saw th' Apocalyps, heard cry”—. 28 27 peels. "Sleek favorites of Fortune." Preface to Poems by S. T. Coleridge. Nail'd to the earth with grief; if any heart, Antonio, Son to Andrugio Duke of Genoa, whom Piero the Venetian Prince and father-in-law to Antonio has cruelly murdered, kills Piero's little son Julio, as a sacrifice to the ghost of Audrugio.-The scene, a church-yard: the time, midnight. JULIO. ANTONIO. Jul. Brother Antonio, are you here i' faith? Why do you frown? Indeed my sister said, That I should call you brother, that she did, When you were married to her. Buss me: good truth, I love you better than my father, 'deed, Ant. Thy father? gracious, O bounteous heaven, I do adore thy justice. Venit in nostras manus you best, Jul. Truth, since my mother died, I loved As your accordance sweets my breast withal. O that I knew which joint, which side, which limb Were |