 | The Tragedy of Tancred and Gismund |  |
Scæna. 3.
Tancred.Faire daughter, I haue sought thee out with griefe,
To ease the sorrowes of thy vexed heart
How long wilt thou torment thy father thus?
Who daily dies to see thy needles teares,
Such bootlesse plaints that know nor meane nor end
So but increase the flouds of thy lament,
In thee, of ought that did to him belong
Yet all thou seest could not his life prolong.
Why thē doest thou prouoke the heauens to wrath?
His doome of death was dated by his starres,
“And who is he that may withstand his fate?
By these complaintes small good to him thou doest,
Much griefe to me, most hurt vnto thy selfe,
And vnto Nature greatest wrong of all.
Gis.
Tell me not of the date of natures daies,
Then in the Aprill of her springing age:
No, no, it was my cruell destinie,
That spited at the pleasance of my life.
Tanc.
My daughter knowes the proofe of natures course
“For as the heauens do guide the lamp of life
“So can they search no further forth the flame,
“Then whilst with oyle they do maintain the same.
Gis.
Curst be the starres, and vanish may they curst,
Or fall from heauen, that in the dire aspect,
Abridgde the health and welfare of my loue.
Tanc.
Gismund my ioy, set all these griefes apart,
“The more thou art with hard mishap beset,
“The more thy patience should procure thine ease.
Gis.
What hope of hap may cheere my haples chance
What sighs, what teares may counteruail my cares?
What should I do, but still his death bewaile,
That was the solace of my life and soule?
Now, now I want the wonted guide and stay
Of my desires, and of my wreaklesse thoughts,
My Lord, my loue, my life, my liking gone,
In whome was all the fulnes of my ioy,
To whom I gaue the first fruites of my loue,
All cares and sorrowes could from me remoue.
But father, now my ioyes forepast to tel,
Doe but reuiue the horrors of my hell.
As she that seemes in darkenes to behold
The gladsome pleasures of the chearefull light.
Tanc.
What then auailes thee fruitlesse thus to rue
His absence whom the heauens cannot returne:
Impartiall death thy husband did subdue,
Yet hath he spar'd thy kingly fathers life:
Who during life, to thee a double stay,
As father, and as husband will remaine,
With doubled loue to ease thy widowes want.
Of him whose want is cause of thy complaint,
Forbeare thou therefore al these needlesse teares,
That nippe the blossoms of thy beauties pride.
Gis.
Father, these teares loue chalengeth of due.
Tan.
But reason saith thou shouldst the same subdue.
Gis.
His funerals are yet before my sight.
Tan.
In endles mones Princes should not delight.
Gis.
The turtle pines in losse of her true mate.
Tan.
And so continues poore and desolate.
Gis.
Who can forget a iewell of such price?
Tanc.
She that hath learnd to master her desires.
“Let reason worke that time doth easilie frame
“In meanest wittes: to beare the greatest illes.
Gis.
So plenteous are the springs
Of sorrowes that increase my passions,
As neither reason can recure my smart,
Nor can your care, nor fatherly comfort
Appease the stormie combats of my thoughts,
Such is the sweet remembrance of his life.
Then geue me leaue, of pittie pittie me,
Tan.
These solitarie walkes thou doest frequent,
Yeeld fresh occasions to thy secrete mones:
We wil therefore thou keep vs companie,
Leauing thy maidens with their harmonie.
Wend thou with vs, virgins withdraw your selues.
Tan. and Gis. with the Gard, depart into the pallace, the four maydens stay behind, as Chorus to the Tragædie.
Chor. 1.
The diuers haps which alwayes worke our care,
Our ioyes so farre, our woes so neere at hand,
Haue long ere this, and dayly doe declare
The fickle foot on which our state doeth stand.
“Who plants his pleasures here to gather roote,
“And hopes his happy life wil still endure,
“Let him behold how death with stealing foote
“Steps in, when he shall thinke his ioyes most sure.
“No ransome serueth to redeem our daies.
If prowes could preserue, or worthy deedes,
He had yet liu'd whose twelue labours displayes
His enddlesse fame, and yet his honor spreades.
And that great king that with so small a power
Bereft the mightie Persian his crowne:
Doeth witnesse well our life is but a flower,
Though it be deckt with honor and renowme.
Chor. 2.
“What growes to day in fauor of the heauen,
“Nurst with the sun, and with the showers sweete,
“Pluckt with the hand it withereth ere euen.
“So passe our daies euen as the riuers fleete.
The valiant Greekes that vnto Troya gaue
The tenne yeeres siege, left but their names behind.
And he that did so long and onelie saue
His fathers walles, found there at last his end.
On the wide world, and vanquisht all with warre,
Yet could she not, remoue the fatall stroke
Of death, from them that stretcht her power so farre.
Chor. 3.
Looke what the cruell sisters once decreed
The thunderer himselfe cannot remoue:
They are the Ladies of our destinie,
To worke beneath, what is conspirde aboue,
But happie he that ends this mortall life,
By speedie death, who is not forst to see,
The many cares, nor feele the sundrie griefes
Which we sustaine, in wo and miserie.
Heere Fortune rules, who when she list to play,
Whirleth her wheele, and brings the high full low,
To morow takes, what she hath giuen to daie,
To shew she can aduance, and ouer throw.
Not Euripus vnquiet floud so oft
Ebs in a daie, and floweth too and fro,
As Fortunes change, pluckes downe that was aloft,
And mingleth ioy, with enterchange of wo.
Chor. 4.
“Who liues below, and feeleth not the strokes,
“Which often times on highest towers do fall,
“Nor blustering winds, wherwith the strongest okes
Are rent and torne, his life is surste of all:
For he may scorne Fortune, that hath no power
On him, that is well pleasd with his estate:
He seeketh not her sweets, nor feares her sower,
But liues contented in his quiet rate,
And marking how these worldly things do wade,
Reioyceth to himselfe, and laughs to see
The folly of men, that in their wits haue made,
Fortune a goddesse, placed in the skie.
Exegit Rod. Staf.
| The Tragedy of Tancred and Gismund | |