University of Virginia Library

THE FOVRTH ACT.

FIRST NVNCIVS.
CHORVS OF JEWISH WOMEN. SECOND NVNCIVS.

CHORVS.
Art thou a witnesse of his miserie?
Saw'st thou the Galilean Prophet die?

I. NVNCIVS.
Those Savages, to Scythian Rocks confin'd,
Who know no God, nor vertue of the Minde,
But onely Sense pursue; who hunger tame
With slaughtered Lives; they, and their food, the same;
Would this detest.

CHORVS.
Vain Innocence! would none
Lend him a teare! were all transform'd to stone!

I. NVNCIVS.
No certainly: yet so commiserate,
As Pittie prov'd more tyrannous then Hate.
The cursed Tree with too much weight opprest
His stooping shoulders: Death had now releast
His fainting Soul: but O, the Lenitie
Of Malice would not suffer him to die.
Part of the load impos'd with idle scorn
On Lybian Simon, in Cyrene born.
To whom th'affected quiet of the fields,
Secur'd by Poverty, no safety yeelds.
The Furies of the Citie him surprise,
Who from the vices of the Citie flies:
Who beares not his own burden, that none may
Misdoubt, the Innocent became their prey.

CHORVS.
Forth-with unmask this wretched face of Wo:
All that he suffer'd, and the manner show;
What words brake from his sorrow; give thy tongue
A liberall scope: Our mindes not seldome long
To know what they abhorre: nor spare our eares;
What can be heard, is fancied by our feares.

I. NVNCIVS.
With-out the Citie, on that side which lies
Exposed to the boysterous injuries
Of the cold North, to War a fatall Way,
Infamous by our slaughters, Golgotha
Exalts his Rock. No flowers there paint the field,
Nor flourishing trees refreshing, shadowes yield:
The ground all white, with bones of mortalls spread,
Stencht with the putrefaction of the dead,
And reliques of unburied Carcases.
Who on his aged Fathers throat durst sease,
Rip-up his mothers wombe; who poyson drest
For his own brother; or his unknown Guest
Betray'd, and gave his mangled flesh for food
Vnto the wild inhabitants of the Wood;
This Stage of Death deserv'd: while every foule
Misdeed of theirs pursues the guilty Soule.
Now when the Nazarite at this dismall place
Arrived, with a weak and tardy pace;
Least he should die too quickly, some preferre
Sweet wine, mixt with the bitter teares of Myrrhe.
He of the idle present hardly tasts;
But to incounter with his torments hasts.
The Steel now bor'd his feet, whose slit veines spout
Like pierced conduits; both his armes stretcht out.
His hands fixt with two nailes. While his great Soule
These tortures suffer'd, while the rising Bole
Forsook the Earth, and crimson Torrents sprung
From his fresh wounds, he gave his Grief no tongue.
The Crosse advanc'd and fixt; then, as more nigh
To his own Heaven, his eyes bent on the Skie,
Among such never to be equal'd woes
(Who would beleeve it!) pities his stern foes;
And thinks those false Contrivers, those who gor'd
His flesh with wounds, more fit to be deplor'd:
Who even their merited destruction feares;
And falsely judg'd, the truly guilty cleares.
Father, he cries, forgive this sinne! they knew
Not what they did, nor know what now they do.
Mean-while the Souldiers, who in bloud delight,
With hearts more hard then Rocks, behold this sight;
And savage Rigor never reconcil'd
To Pitty, all humanitie exil'd:
Who, us'd to pillage, now intend their prey;
Nor for his death, though then a dying, stay;
But he alive, and looking on, divide
The Spoil; yet more in the Spectatour joy'd.
Fury in trifles sports: their scorn his poore,
Yet parted garments, distribute to foure.
His inward Robe, with one contexture knit,
Nor of the like division would admit,
Their votes to the dispose of Lots referre,
Electing Chance for their blinde Arbiter.
Nor wast the least of evils to behold
Th'ignoble Partners of his pain; who old
In mischief rob'd the murder'd Passengers;
Follow'd by Troops, that fill'd the Night with feares.
While thus they hung, none could the doubt explain,
VVhether He more had sav'd then They had slain.
The numerous Index of each bloudy deed
Now brand their lives: when those who could not read
At such a distance, of the next inquire
For what they dy'd; who had the same desire.
But above his declining Head they hung
A table in three Languages: the Tongue,
The first of tongues, which taught our Abrahamites
Those heavenly Precepts, and mysterious Rites;
Next, that which to th'informed World imparts
The Grecian Industry, and learned Arts;
Then this, from whence the conquer'd Earth now takes
Her Lawes, and at the Romane Virtue quakes;
All of one sense. His place of birth, his Name
Declare; and for the Hebrew King proclame.
After the bloudy Priests so long had fed
On this lov'd Spectacle; at length they read
The Title: and in such a miserie,
So full of ruth, found something to envy.
The Governour intreating to take down
That glorious Stile; lest he the Hebrew Crown
Should vindicate in Death; and so deny
That Princes by Subordinates should die.
But who that Day so readily compli'd
To give a life, austerely this deni'd.

CHORVS.
While lingring Death his sad release deferr'd,
How lookt the standers-by? what words were heard?

I. NVNCIVS.
Not all alike: discording murmurs rise.
Some, with transfixed hearts, and wounded eyes,
Astonisht stand: some joy in his slow fate,
And to the last extend their Barbarous hate.
Motion it self variety begets,
And by a strange vicissitude regrets
What it affected, nor one posture beares:
Teares scornfull laughter raise, and laughter teares.
Who to the Temple from th'impoverisht shore
Of Galilee his followed steps adore,
And ministred to his life, now of his End
The Witnesses; still to their dying friend
Their faith preserve: which, as they could, they show
In all th'expressions of a perfect woe.
One, from her panting brest her garments tare;
Another, the bright tresses of her haire;
This, with her naked armes her bosome bears;
The hollow rock Her fearfull shriekes repeat;
She, stiff with sorrow. But what grief could vie
With that example of all piety,
His virgin Mothers! this affords no way
To lessening teares; nor could it self display.
Where should she fix her looks! if on the ground;
She sees that with her bloud, he bleeding, drown'd:
Or if she raise her eyes; the killing sight
Of her wombes tortored Issue quencht their light.
Fearing to look on either, both disclose
Their terrours; who now licences her woes.
Ready to have stept forward, and imbrast
The bloudy Crosse, her feeble lims stuck fast:
Her feet their motion lost; her voice in vain
A passage sought: such Grief could not complain.
Whose Soul almost as great a Sorrow stung,
As his, who on the Tree in torments hung.
That Youth, one of the Twelve, so dignifi'd
By his deare Masters love, stood by her side.
Beholding this sad Paire, those Souls that were
To him then life, while life remained, more deare;
He found an other Crosse: his spirits melt
More for the sorrow seen, then torments felt.
At length, in strength transcending either, brake
The barres of his long silence, and thus spake:
A legacie to each of you I leave:
Mother, this sonne in stead of me receave
By thy adoption: and thou gentle boy,
The seed of Zebedeus, late my joy,
Thy friend now for thy mother take. This said,
Again he to his torments bow'd his Head.
The Vulgar with the Elders of our Race,
And Souldiers, shake their heads in his disgrace:
Is this the man, said they, whose hands can raise
The Temple, and rebuild it in three dayes?
Now shew thy strength. Or if the Thunderer
Above the rank of Mortalls thee preferre,
Acknowledg'd for his Heir; let him descend,
Confirme thy hopes, and timely succour lend.
Behold, the help thou gav'st to others, failes
The Authour. Break these Bonds, these stubborn Nails,
And from the Crosse descend: then we will say
Thou art our King, and thy Commands obey.
Nor wast enough that the surrounding Throng
Wound with reproches: Who besides him hung,
Doth now again a murderers minde disclose;
And in his punishment more wicked growes.
Who thus: If thou be he whom God did choose
To Govern the free'd Nation of the Jews,
Thy self, and us release: thus honour win.
The Partner of his death, as of his sinne,
Who had his fiercenesse, with the thief, cast-off,
Ill brookes, and thus reprooves, that impious scoff:
Hast thou as yet not learnt to acknowledge God?
Nor sacred Justice fear? who now the rod
Of vengeance feel'st? wilt thou again offend,
And to the jaws of Hell thy guilt extend?
This death we owe to our impiety:
But what are his misdeeds? why should he die?
Then looking on his face with dropping eyes:
Forgive me, O forgive a wretch, he cries:
And O my Lord, my King, when thou shalt be
Restor'd to thy own Heaven, remember me.
He mildly gives consent; and from the barres
Of that sad Crosse, thus rais'd him to the Starres:
With me, a happy Guests, thou shalt injoy
Those sacred Orchards where no frosts destroy
The eternall Spring, before the Morne display
The purple Ensigne of th'ensuing Day.

CHORVS.
What's this! the Centre pants with sudden throwes!
And trembling Earth a sad distemper showes!
The Sun, affrighted, hides his golden Head;
From hence by an unknown Ecliptick fled!
Irregular Heavens abortive shades display;
And Night usurpes the empty Throne of Day!
What threats do these dire Prodigies portend
To our offending Race! Those ills transcend
All that can be imagin'd, which inforce
Disturbed Nature to forget her Course.
I heare approaching feet: What ere thou art,
Whom darknesse from our sight conceales, impart
All that thou know'st to our prepared eares:
Accomplish, or dissolve our pressing feares.

II NVNCIVS.
Fury (from which, if loose, the Earth had fled)
And fatall Starres have their event: He's dead.

CHORVS.
O Heaven! we pardon now Dayes hasty flight;
Nor will complain, since they have quencht this light.
Yet tell how he dispos'd of his last breath;
The passages, and order of his death.

II NVNCIVS.
As the declining Sun the shades increast,
Reflecting on the more removed East,
His blazing haire grew black: no clouds obscures
His vanisht Light; this his own Orb immures.
The Dayes fourth part as yet invests the Pole,
Were this a Day; when from the afflicted Soule
This voice was clearely heard, not like the breath
Of those who labour between life and death;
My God, O why dost thou thy own forsake!
VVhich purposely the Multitude mistake,
But to prolong their cruel mirth; who said,
He on the Thesbian Prophet calls for aid;
Now to return, and draw from Heaven again
Devouring Showres of Fire, or Flouds of Rain.
VVith silence this he indures. His body rent,
His bloud exhausted, and his Spirits spent,
He cry'd; I Thirst. As servants to his will,
The greedy hollowes of aspunge they fill
VVith vineger, which Hyssops sprigs combine,
And on a reed exalt the deadly Wine.
This scarcely tasted, his pale lips once more
He opens, and now lowder then before
Cry'd, All is finisht; here my labours end:
To thee, O heavenly Father, I commend
My parting Soul. This said, hung down his head;
And with his words his mixed Spirits fled:
Leaving his body, which again must bleed,
Now senselesse of the Crosse. From prison freed,
Those happy seats he injoyes, by God assign'd
To injur'd Vertue, and th'etheriall Minde.
But Terrours, which with Nature war, affright
Our peacelesse Souls. The World hath lost its Light:
Heaven, and the Deeps below, our Guilt pursue:
Pale troops of wandring Ghosts now hurrie through
The holy Citie; whom, from her unknown
And secret Wombe, the trembling Earth hath thrown.
The cleaving Rocks their horrid jawes display:
And yawning Tombes afford the dead a way
To those that live. Heaven is the generall
And undistinguisht Sepulcher to all.
Old Chaos now returnes. Ambitious Night
Impatient of alternate Rule, or Right,
Such as before the Dayes etheriall birth,
With her own shady People fills the Earth.

CHORVS.
How did the many-minded People look
At these Portents? with what affection strook?

II. NVNCIVS.
The Lamentations, mixed with the cries
Of weeping Women, in low'd Vollies rise.
Those who had known him, who his followers were
While yet he liv'd, and did in death adhere,
In that new Night sighs from their sorrowes send;
And to those Heavens they could not see, extend
Their pious hands; complaining that the Sun
Would then appeare when this was to be done.
The safety of their lives the Vulgar dread:
Some for themselves lament, some for the dead;
Others the ruine of the world bewaile.
Their Courages the cruel Romanes faile:
Those hands, which knew no peace, now lazie grew;
And conquering Feare to earth their weapons threw.
Th'amaz'd Centurion with our thoughts compli'd;
And swore the Heros most unjustly dy'd:
Whose punishment the Earth could hardly brook,
But groaning, with a horrid motion shook.
Confirmed by the Dayes prodigious flight
To be a beame of the celestiall Light:
And so the mourning Heavens inverted face,
Showes to the Vnder world his Heavenly Race.

CHORVS.
Why flock the People to the Temple thus?
No cause, excepting piety, in us
Can want belief. Hope they to satisfie
With Sacrifice the Wrath of the most High?

II. NVNCIVS.
New prodigies, as horrid, thither hale
Th'astonisht Multitude. The Temples Vale
That hung on guilded Beames in purple dy'd,
Asunder rent, and fell on either side.
The trust of what was sacred is betray'd;
And all the Hebrew Mysteries display'd.
That fatall Ark, so terrible of old
To our pale foes, which Cherubins of Gold
Veil'd with their hovering wings; whose closure held
Those two-leav'd Tables, wherein God reveal'd
His sacred Lawes; That Food which by a new
Example fell from Heaven in fruitfull Dew
About our Tents, and tacidly exprest
By intermitted showres the seventh Dayes rest;
The Rod with never dying blossoms spread;
Which with a Miter honour Aarons Head:
These, with th'old Temple perisht: Th'eye could reach
No object in this rupture, but the Breach.
What was from former Ages hid, is shown;
Which struck so great a reverence when unknown.
The Temple shines with flames; and to the sight
That fear'd Recesse disclos'd with its own Light.
Either Religion from their fury flies,
Leaving it naked to profaner eyes:
Or God doth this abhorred Seat reject,
And will his Temple in the Minde erect.

CHORVS.
Shall Punishment in Death yet finde an end?
Shall his cold Corps to earth in peace descend?
Or naked hang, and with so dire a sight
Profane the Vesper of the sacred Night?

II. NVNCIVS.
Too late Religion warmes their savage brests,
Lest that neare Houre, which harbengers their Feast,
Should take them unprepar'd: to Pilat they
Repaire; intreat him that the Souldier may
From bloudy crosses take their bodies down,
Before their Festivalls the Morning crown:
That no uncleannesse might from thence arise;
In memory of th'Ægyptian Sacrifice.
The leggs of the two Thieves, they brake, whose breath
Yet groan'd between the bounds of life and death.
The crashing bones report a dreadfull sound;
While both their souls at once a passage found.
Nor had the Cohort lesse to Jesus done,
Who now the Course prescrib'd by Fate had runne:
But dead, deep in his side his trembling speare
A Souldier strake: his entrails bare appeare;
And from that wide-mouth'd Orifice, a floud
Of water gusht, mixt with a stream of bloud.
The Crosses now discharged of their fraught,
The People fled; not with one look or thought:
Part sad, and part amaz'd. Spent Fury dies.
Whither so fast? run you to sacrifice
A silly Lambe? too mean an Offering
Is this for you, who have sacrific'd your King.

CHORVS.
Either deceiv'd by the ambiguous Day,
Or troops of mourners to my eyes display
A perfect Sorrow: Women with their bare
And bleeding brests, drown'd cheeks, dissheveld haire.
The Souldiers slowly march, with knees that bend
Beneath their feares, and Pilats staires ascend.

CHORVS OF ROMANE SOVLDIERS.
O thou who on thy flaming Charriot rid'st,
And with perpetuall Motion Time divid'st;
Great King of Day, from whose farre-darting Eye
Night-wandring Stars with fainting Splendor flie;
Whither, thus intercepted, dost thou stray!
Through what an unknown darknesse lies thy way!
In Heaven, what new-born Night the Day invades!
The Mariner that sails by Tyrian Gades,
As yet sees not thy panting Horses steepe
Their fiery fet-locks in th'Hesperian Deep.
No pitchy storme, wrapt up in swelling Clouds
By Earth exhal'd, thy golden Tresses shrouds:
Nor thy pale Sister in her wandring Race
With interposed wheeles obscures thy Face;
But now farre-off retires with her stolne Light,
Till in a silver Orbe her hornes unite.
Hath some Thessalian Witch with Charms unknown
Surpriz'd and bound thee! What new Phaëton
With feeble hands to guide thy Charriot strives,
And farre from the deserted Zodiack drives!
What horrid fact, before th'approach of Night,
Deservedly deprives the World of Light!
As when stern Atreus to his Brother gave
His Childrens flesh, who made his owne their grave:
Or when the Vestall Ilia's God-like Sun,
Who our unbounded Monarchie begun,
Was in a hundred pieces cut; by theft
At once of Life and Funerals bereft.
Or hath that Day wherein the Gods were borne
Finish'd the Course of Heaven in its returne;
And now the aged Stars refuse to run
Beyond that place from whence they first begun!
Nature, what plagues dost thou to thine intend!
Whither shrinks this hugh Masse! what fatall end?
If now the Generall Floud againe retire,
If the World perish by licentious Fire,
What shall of those devouring Seas become!
Where shall those funerall Ashes finde a Tomb!
What ever innovates the Course of Things,
To men alone, nor Nations, ruine brings:
Either the groaning Worlds disordered Frame
Now suffers, or that Power which guides the same.
Doe proud Titanians with their impious War
Again provoke th'Olympian Thunderer?
Is there a mischiefe extant, greater then
Dire Python, or the Snake of Lerna's Fen,
That poysons the pure Heavens with Viperous breath?
What God, from Gods deriv'd, opprest by Death,
Is now in his own Heaven bewail'd? Divine
Lyeus gave to man lesse precious Wine;
Not Hercules so many Monsters slew;
Vnshorne Apollo lesse in Physick knew.
Sure we with darknesse are invelloped
Because that innocent bloud by Envy shed,
So deare unto the Gods, this place defam'd:
VVhich shook the Earth, and made the Day asham'd.
Great Father of us all, whose Influence
Informes the World thou mad'st; though Sin incense
Thy just displeasure, easie to forgive
Those who confesse, and for their Vices grieve;
Now to the desperate Sons of men, who stray
In sinnes dark Labyrinth, restore the Day.
One Sacrifice seek we to expiate
All our Offences, and appease his hate.
VVhich the Religion of the Samian,
Nor Thracian Harpe, wild beasts instructing, can;
Nor that Prophetick Boy, the Gleabs swart son,
VVho taught the Thuscans Divination.
The Bloud, which from that mangled body bled,
Must purge our sins, which we unjustly shed.
O smooth thy brows! Receive the innocence
Of one for all; and with our guilt dispence.
For sin, what greater Ransome can we pay?
VVhat worthier Offering on thy Altar lay?