 | Hannibal and Scipio |  |
Scene the third.
To them Hanniball.Musick.
Husht. Our Generall.
Mah.
How doth he like this softnesse? it agrees not
With his rough nature.
Hanni.
Musick every place
Surfets with this lasciviousnesse.
A Song as from some window.
Surfets with this lasciviousnesse.
March on my merry mates
To Venus warres:
You need not feare your pates,
You shall receive no wounds nor scarres,
You may come naked to the fight:
Wee'l have no other veile but night.
Onely you must not see
The blushes of your enemy.
Chorus.
To Venus warres:
You need not feare your pates,
You shall receive no wounds nor scarres,
You may come naked to the fight:
Wee'l have no other veile but night.
Onely you must not see
The blushes of your enemy.
The loving battail's set,
And we begin
To counter meete
With active striving who shall win.
I faint and yet mee thinkes you yeeld,
Both lose, and yet both winne the field.
Recover strength, and then
Wee'l to these pleasant warres agen.
And we begin
To counter meete
With active striving who shall win.
I faint and yet mee thinkes you yeeld,
Both lose, and yet both winne the field.
Recover strength, and then
Wee'l to these pleasant warres agen.
A fight.
Bravely maintain'd, and well come off on both sides.
Curse on this ease. Y'are well met noble Captaines,
How doth your courage brooke this silken slavery?
Is't not an easie bondage to be ty'd
In bracelets of a wanton Ladyes haire?
And chayne your daring spirits to the awe
Of every glance her eye shoots? Tell me truely
How doe the pleasures of this Capua
Relish upon your senses? are they not
Even what desire can shape?
Bravely maintain'd, and well come off on both sides.
Curse on this ease. Y'are well met noble Captaines,
How doth your courage brooke this silken slavery?
Is't not an easie bondage to be ty'd
In bracelets of a wanton Ladyes haire?
Of every glance her eye shoots? Tell me truely
How doe the pleasures of this Capua
Relish upon your senses? are they not
Even what desire can shape?
Mah.
They are my Lord
Most absolute.
Han.
And you are pleas'd with them?
Him.
They cannot bee refus'd, being offer'd us
So aptly after labour, as the fruits
And harvest of our paines. What stupid earth
Can be so void of apprehension,
As not to thinke them blessings?
Han.
That can Hanniball;
Who through the swarthy vizard age and cares
Have tann'd his face with, blusheth at the change
Of Souldiers into women. Why in stead
Of Plume-crown'd crests weare you not tyres? and deck
Your neckes with gemmes, instead of arming them
With Corslets? Lay by all command, save onely
To set your distaffe-servants taskes, and study
Lascivious dressings, not warres discipline?
Better employ invention how to court
A Mistresse in the fashionable garbe,
Than to contrive a usefull stratagem
Where force prevailes not.
Mah.
Whom have we to fight with?
Lead us againe to action, wee'l expresse
A courage doubled by this little rest:
And from the hopes of such another conquest
We will act wonders, to make victory
Dote on our valours.
Han.
You like Carthaginians
Speake from the soules of men. Muster your Souldiers:
We will againe to Rome, and with the terrour
Of our approach make earthquakes in the hearts
Of her gown'd Senators; burne the proud trophees,
Bury her high-ascending Towers in heapes
Of their owne ruines; and till Tyber's dy'd
With bloud of his owne children, not an arme
Shall cease from slaughter. Have we cut our way
Thorow Mountaines, and thaw'd rocks of Ice for passage
To reach the head of Rome, and shall we not
Triumph in her rich spoyles? Yes; we will triumph.
Or by the Genius of my native Carthage,
And the religious oath I made my Father,
When yet my youth had seene the progresse but
Of nine sunnes through the twelve celestial mansions,
Ile levell all the rugged Appennines;
And mount the humblest valleys, 'till their heads
Be wrapt in clouds; whence thunder shall not force me,
Till I survey the playnes of Italy,
Like earth manur'd chalkt with the bones of Romanes,
After their flesh is buried in the gorges
Of Kites and Vultures.
Him.
Speake like Hanniball.
| Hannibal and Scipio | |