I make the reference. Those that are dead,
Are dead; had they not now died, of necessity
They must have paid the debt they owed to nature
One time or other. Use dispatch, my lords.-
We'll suddenly prepare our Coronation.

[Exit. Arm. Tis strange these tragedies should never touch on Her female pity.

Bass. She has a masculine spirit.

The Coronation of the Princess takes place after the execution of Orgilus. She enters the Temple, dressed in White, having a Crown on her Head. She kneels at the Altar. The dead Body of Ithocles (whom she should have married) is borne on a Hearse, in rich Robes, having a Crown on his Head; and placed by the side of the Altar, where she kneels. Her devotions ended, she rises.—

CALANTHA. NEARCHUS. PROPHILUS. CROTOLON. BASSANES. ARMOSTES. EUPHRANEA. AMELUS. CHRISTALLA. PHILEMA,

and others.

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 labor, cannot brook
A feminate authority: we therefore
Command your counsel, how you may
In chusing of a husband, whose abilities
Can better guide this kingdom.

Near. Royal Lady,

Your law is in your will.

Arm. We have seen tokens

advise us

Of constancy too lately to mistrust it.

Crot.

Crot. Yet if your Highness settle on a choice By your own judgment both allow'd and liked of, Sparta may grow in power and proceed

To an increasing height.

Cal. Cousin of Argos.

Near. Madam.

Cal. Were I presently

To chuse you for my Lord, I'll open freely
What articles I would propose to treat on,
Before our marriage.

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 vice-roy; in Messene
Might Crotolon bear sway; and Bassanes
Be Sparta's marshall:

The multitudes of high employments could not
But set a peace to private griefs. These gentlemen,
Groneas and Lemophil, with worthy pensions,
Should wait upon your person in your chamber.
I would bestow Christalla on Amelus;
She'll prove a constant wife; and Philema
Should into Vesta's Temple.

Bass. This is a testament;

It sounds not like conditions on a marriage.
Near. All this should be perform❜d.
Cal. Lastly, for Prophilus,

He should be (cousin) solemnly invested

In all those honors, titles, and preferments,

Which his dear friend and my neglected husband

Too short a time enjoy'd.

Proph. I am unworthy

To live in your remembrance.

Euph. Excellent Lady.

Near. Madam, what means that word, neglected hus

band?

Cal. Forgive me: Now I turn to thee, thou shadow

(To the dead Body of Ithocles.)

Of my contracted Lord: bear witness all,

I put my mother's wedding ring upon
His finger; 'twas my father's last bequest:
Thus I new marry him, whose wife I am;
Death shall not separate us. O my lords,
I but deceiv'd your eyes with antick gesture,
When one news straight came huddling on another,
Of death, and death, and death, still I danc'd forward
But it struck home, and here, and in an instant.
Be such mere women, who with shrieks and outcries
Can vow a present end to all their sorrows;

Yet live to vow new pleasures, and out-live them.
They are the silent griefs which cut the heart-strings:
Let me die smiling,

Near. 'Tis a truth too ominous.

Cal. One kiss on these cold lips; my last. Crack,

crack.

Argos now's Sparta's King.

(Dies.)83

83 I do not know 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. Stories of martyrdom are but of chains and the stake; a little bodily suffer. ing; these torments

1

On the purest spirits prey

As on entrails, joints, and limbs,

With answerable pains, but more intense,

What a noble thing is the soul in it strengths and in its weaknesses! who would be less weak than Calantha? who can be so strong? the expression of this transcendant scene almost bears me in imagination to Calvary and the Cross; and I seem to perceive some analogy between the scenical sufferings which I am here contemplating, and the real agonies of that final completion to which I dare no more than hint a reference.

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 her full residence in the heart of man; in the actions and sufferings

of the greatest minds. There is a grandeur of the soul above mountains, seas, and the elements. Even in the poor perverted reason of Giovanni and Annabella (in the Play which precedes this) we discern traces of that fiery particle, which in the irregular starting from out of the road of beaten action, discovers something of a right line even in obliquity, and shews hints of an improveable greatness in the lowest descents and degradations of our

nature.

HYMEN'S

HYMEN'S TRIUMPH. A PASTORAL TRAGI-COMEDY. BY SAMUEL DANIEL.

Love in Infancy.

Ah, I remember well (and how can I
But evermore remember well) when first

Our flame began, when scarce we knew what was
The flame we felt; whenas we sat and sigh'd
And look'd upon each other, and conceiv'd
Not what we ail'd, yet something we did ail;
And yet were well, and yet we were not well,
And what was our disease we could not tell.

Then would we kiss, then sigh, then look: And thus
In that first garden of our simpleness

We spent our childhood: But when years began
To reap the fruit of knowledge; ah, how then
Would she with graver looks, with sweet stern brow,
Check my presumption and my forwardness;
Yet still would give me flowers, still would me show
What she would have me, yet not have me know.

Love after Death.

Palamon. Fie, Thirsis, with what fond remembrances

Dost thou these idle passions entertain!

For shame leave off to waste your youth in vain,
And feed on shadows: make your choice anew;
You other nymphs shall find, no doubt will be
As lovely, and as fair, and sweet as she.

Thirsis.