University of Virginia Library

Lycus. Megara. Amphitrion.
Meg.
What thing doth this destroyer of our stocke agayne anew
Prepare? what proueth he?

Ly.
O Queene that name renowmed hye
And tytle takste of regall stocke ful gentle and easily
A litle whyle receiue and heare my wordes with pacient eare,
If alwayes men eternal hates should one to th'other beare,
And rage be gone out of the hart should neuer fall away,
But th'happy still should armour holde, th'vnhappy stil obay,
Then shall the battayles nothing leaue: with wide fieldes then the lande
Shall lie vntild, with vnderlayd to housen fiery brand
Then ashes deepe shal ouerwhelme the buried people all.
Expedient is to conquerour to wish that peace befall:
To conquerd nedefull partner of the kingdome come to me:
Let's ioyne our myndes, take here this pledge of fayth and truth to thee.
My right hand touch. Why whishtest thou with cruell face and moode?

Meg.
Should I abyde, that I the hand sprinkt with my fathers bloud,
Should ouch, and double death imbrewd of both my brethren? nay
Fyrst shall sunne ryse extinguish quite, and West shal bring the day:
First faythful peace betweene the snowes and fiers there shalbe tryde,
And Scilla shall t'Ausonius fyrst ioyne his Sicilian syde:
And fyrst, the fleetyng floud that with swift turnes of course doth flowe
Euripus with Euboik waue shall standful stil and slow.
My father, th'empire, bretherne, house, thou hast me cleare bereft,
My countrey to: what may be more? one thing to me is left,
Then brother, father, kingdome, house, that dearer is to mee
The hate of thee, the which to me with people for to be
In commune woe I am: how great is myne alonly part?
Rule on ful proude, beare vp ful hye thy sprites and haughty hart:
Yet God the proude behynd theyr backes doth follow them to wreake.
I know the Thebane kingdomes: what should I the mothers speake,
Both suffring, and aduentring gyltes? what double mischiefe done?
And mixed name of spouse at once, of father and of sonne?
What bretherns double tentes? or what as many roages also?
The mother proude of Tantals brood congeald in mourning loe,
And sory stone yet flowes with teares in Phrygian Sipylye.
Himselfe likewyse erected vp his scaled heade awrye.
Euen Cadmus measuring throughout th'Illyrian landes in flight,
Behynd him left of body drawne long slymy markes in sight.
All these examples wayte for thee: rule thou as likes thy will,
Whyle thee our kingdomes wonted fates do call and oft hap yll.

Ly.
Goe to, these fierce and furious wordes thou woman mad refraine.
And imperyes of princes learne of Hercles to sustayne.
Though I the scepters gotten by the force of war do beare,
In conquering hand & all do rule without the law his feare.
Which armes subdue, a few wordes yet to thee now speake I shall
For this my cause thy father did in bloudy battel fall:
Thy brethren fell, the weapons kepe no measurable slay.
For neither easily tempred be, nor yet repressed may
The drawne swordes yre, the battels doth the bloud delite out shedde.
But he yet for his kingdome fought, wee altogether led
With wicked lust: yet th'end of war is now complayned, loe,
And not the cause, but now let all remembraunce therof goe:
When conquerour hath weapons left, the conquerds part should be
To leaue his hates. Not I that thou with lowly bended knee
Mee raygning worship should'st, require: euen this doth mee delight,
That thou thy myseries do'st beare with mynde so stout vpright.
Thou for a king a spouse art meete, let's ioyne our beds anone.

ME.
A trembling colde doth run throughout my bloudles lims ech one.
What hainous thinge comes to myne eares? I fear'de not then at all,
When (all peace broake) the noyse of warre did by the city wall
Resounde about, I bare all that vnfearefully to see,
I feare the wedding chambers: nowe I captiue seeme to mee.
Let heauy chaynes my body greeue, and eke with hunger long
Let lingring death be slowly brought, yet shall no force full strong
My truthe subdue: for euen thine owne Alcides will I dye.

LY.
Doth then thy husband droun'de in hell geue thee this stomack hie?

ME.
The hells alowe he toucht, that he the height againe might get.

LY.
The heauy paise oppresseth him of all the earth full great.

ME.
Hee with no burdein shall be prest, that heauen it selfe sustayn'de.

LY.
Thou shalt be forst.

ME.
He wots not how to die, that is cōstrain'd.

LY.
Speake, what may rather I prepare then wedding newe for thee.
More royall gyft?

ME.
Thine owne death els, or els the death of mee.

LY.
Thou shalt mad woman die.

ME.
I shall then to my husbande go.

LY.
More then my Sceptors is to thee a seruaunt loued so?

ME.
How many hath this seruant slayne of kings with hendy stroake?

LY.
Why doth he yet a king then serue, and still sustayne his yoake?

ME.
Take once away the hard behests, what's vertue then at last?

LY.
Do'st thou it vertue counte, to bee to beasts, and monsters cast?

ME.
T'is vertues part, to tame the things, that all men quake to know.

LY.
Him great things braggīg, darknes deepe of tartare presse ful low.

ME.
There neuer may from ground to stars an easy passage be.

LY.
Of whom begot, the housen then of Gods through pearceth he?

AM.
O wretched wife of Hercles great, thy words a whyle now spare.
My parte it is, the father of Alcides to declare,
And his true stocke, yet after all of man so stoute as this
So famous deedes, and after all appeas'de with hand of his
What euer Titan rysen vp, doth see, or els at fall,
And after all these monsters tam'de, and Phlegrey sprinkled all
With wicked bloud, and after Gods defended all on hye,
Is not his father yet well knowne? or Ioue doe we beelye?
Beleeue it yet by Iunoes hate.

LY.
Why do'ste thou sclaunder Ioue?
No mortall kinred euer may be mixt with heauen aboue.

AM.
To many of the Gods in skyes is this a common trade.

LY.
But were they euer seruauntes yet, before they Gods were made?

AM.
Of Delos Ile the sheepherde loe the flocks of Pherey fed.

LY.
But through all coasts he wandred not abroade as banished.

AM.
Whō straying mother first brought forth in wādring lond to sight?

LY.
Yet Phœbus did no monsters feare, or beasts of cruell might.

AM.
First Dragon with his bloud embrew'd the shafts of Phœbus lo.
Howe greeuous ills euen yet full yong he bare, doe you not knoe?
From mothers wombe ye babe out thrown with lightning flame frō hie,
Euen next his lightning Father stoode forthwith aboue in skye.
What? he him selfe that guides the starres, & shakes the clouds at will,
Did not that Infant lurke in Den of hollowe caued hill?
The byrthes so great full troublous pryce to haue loe alwayes ought:
And euer to be borne a God, with coste full great is bought.

LY.
Whom thou a miser see'st, thou mai'st know him a man to bee.

AM.
A miser him deny yee may, whom stout of heart yee see.

LY.
Call we him stout, from shoulders hye of whom the Lyon throwne
A gift for mayden made, and eke his Club from hand fell downe,
And paynted side with purple weede did shyne that he did weare?
Or may we him call stout of heart, whose staring lockes of heare
With ointmēt flowde? who hands renownde & knowne by prayses hye
To sound vnmeete for any man of timber did applye,
With barbarous mytar cloasing in his forhead rounde about?

AM.
The tender Bacchus did not blushe abroade to haue layde out
His brayded heares, nor yet with hand full soft the Thyrsus light
For to haue shooke, what time that he with pace vnstout in sight
His long train'de barbarous garment drew with golde full fayre to see.
Still vertue after many workes is woont releast to bee.

LY.
Of this the house of Euritus destroyde doth witnesse beare,
And virgins flockes that brutishly by him oppressed weare.
No Iuno did commaunde him this, nor none Eurystheus loe.
But these in deede his owne workes are.

AM.
Yet all yee doe not knoe,
His worke it is, with weapons of his owne hand vanquished
Both Eryx, and to Eryx ioyn'de Antæus Lybian ded:
And aulters which with slaughter of the straungers flowing fast,
Busyris well deserued bloud likewise haue drunke at last.
His deede it is, that he that met the wounde, and sworde is slayne
Constrain'de to suffre death before those other Geryons twayne.
Nor one all onely Geryon doth with one hand conquer'de lye.
Thou shalt among these be which yet with none adulterye
Haue wedlocke hurt.

LY.
What is to Ioue, to king is leefull thyng:
To Ioue thou gau'ste a wyfe, thou shalt nowe geue one to a kyng.
And euen of thee shee shall it learne to bee a thing not newe,
Her husband euen approuing it the better man t'ensewe.
But if shee stubberne to be matcht with me deny it still,
Then euen by force a noble childe of her beget I will.

Meg.
O Creons ghosts and all yee Gods of th'house of Labdacus,
And wedding torches blasing bryght, of wicked Oedipus,
To this my wedding geue yee nowe our wonted destenyes.
Now, now yee bloudy daughters all of Ægypts king likewyse,
Bee here whose hands defyled are with so much bloud out spilt:
One daughter lacks of Danaus, I wyll fyll vp the gylt.

Ly.
Because that stubburnely thou do'st refuse my wedding so,
And fear'ste a king, thou shalt know what the Scepters now may do.
Embrace thyne aulters, yet no God shall euer take away
Thee from my hands: no not although with world vpturned, may
Alcides victor yet agayne to Gods aboue returne.
The woods on heapes together cast, let all their temples burne
Euen throwne vpon theyr heads: his wyfe, and all his flocke at laste
With vnderlayed fyre, let one wood pyle consume and waste.

AM.
This only bowne I father of Alcides aske of thee,
Which well may me beseeme to craue, that I fyrst slayne may bee.

LY.
Who all appoyncts with present death to haue their punishment,
He tyrant wots not how to be: more sundry greeues inuent.
Restrayne the wretched man from death, commaunde that th'happy dye.
I, while with beames prepar'de to burne the pyle encreaseth hye,
Will him with vowing sacrifyce that rules the seas entreate.

AM.
Oh chiefest powre of Gods, and oh of heauenly things so great
The guyde, and parent eke, with whose throwne thunderbolts do shake
All things humane throughout the world of king so cruell slake
The wicked hande: but why do I to Gods in vayne thus cry?
Where euer thou be, heare me soone, why start so sodaynely
The temples thus with moouing shakte? Why roareth out the groūd?
The noyse of Hell from bottome deepe byneathe hath made a sound:
Wee herde are, loe it is the sound of Hercules his pace.