Know this, and let it somewhat raise your spight, [Act iii., Sc. 1.2] Marcello and Flamineo, Sons to Cornelia, having quarrelled; Flamineo slays his Brother Marcello, their Mother being present. CORNELIA. MARCELLO. Cor. I hear a whispering all about the court, You are to fight: who is your opposite? What is the quarrel? Mar. "Tis an idle rumour. Cor. Will you dissemble? sure you do not well Mar. Publish not a fear, Which would convert to laughter: 'tis not so. Cor. Yes. Mar. I have heard you say, giving my brother suck, He took the crucifix between his hands, And broke a limb off. Cor. Yes; but 'tis mended. FLAMINEO enters. Fla. I have brought your weapon back. Cor. Ha, oh my horror! [FLAMINEO runs MARCELLO through. Mar. You have brought it home, indeed. Cor. Help, oh he's murder'd! Fla. Do you turn your gall up? I'll to sanctuary, And send a surgeon to you. [Exit Flam. 1 This White Devil of Italy sets off a bad cause so speciously, and pleads with such an innocence-resembling boldness, that we seem to see that matchless beauty of her face which inspires such gay confidence into her; and are ready to expect, when she has done her pleadings, that her very judges, her accusers, the grave ambassadors who sit as spectators, and all the court, will rise and make proffer to defend her in spite of the utmost conviction of her guilt; as the shepherds in Don Quixote make proffer to follow the beautiful shepherdess Marcela "without reaping any profit out of her manifest resolution made there in their hearing.”— So sweet and lovely does she make the shame, 2[Mermaid Series, ed. J. A. Symonds.] HORTENSIUS (an Officer) enters. Hor. How, o' th' ground? Mar. O mother, now remember what I told Of breaking off the crucifix. Farewell. There are some sins, which Heaven doth duly punish By all dishonest means. Let all men know, Hor. Virtuous Marcello ! He's dead. Pray leave him, lady: come, you shall. Hor. I would you were deceived. Cor. O you abuse me, you abuse me, you abuse me! How many have gone away thus, for lack of 'tendance! Rear up's head, rear up's head; his bleeding inward will kill him. Hor. You see he is departed. I Cor. Let me come to him; give me him as he is; if he be turn'd to earth, let me but give him one hearty kiss, and you shall put us both into one coffin. Fetch a looking-glass, see if his breath will not stain it; or pull out some feathers from my pillow, and lay them to his lips: will you lose him for a little painstaking? Hor. Your kindest office is to pray for him. Cor. Alas! I would not pray for him yet. He may live to lay me i' th' ground, and pray for me, if you'll let me come to him. The DUKE enters with FLAMINEO, and PAGE. Bra. Was this your handy-work? Fla. It was my misfortune. Cor. He lies, he lies; he did not kill him: these have kill'd him, that would not let him be better look'd to. Bra. Have comfort, my griev'd mother. Cor. O yon' screech-owl! Hor. Forbear, good Madam. Cor. Let me go, let me go. [She runs to FLAMINEO with her knife drawn, and coming to him, lets it fall. The God of heaven forgive thee. Dost not wonder I'd not spend that in cursing. Fare thee well: Bra. Mother, pray tell me How came he by his death? what was the quarrel ? Page. This is not true, Madam. Cor. I pr'ythee peace. One arrow's graz'd already: it were vain To lose this, for that will ne'er be found again.1 [Act v., Sc. 2.] Francisco describes to Flamineo the grief of Cornelia at the funeral of Marcello. Your reverend Mother Is grown a very old woman in two hours. I found them winding of Marcello's corse: "Tween doleful songs, tears, and sad elegies; Such as old grandames, watching by the dead, Were wont to outwear the nights with; that, believe me, I had no eyes to guide me forth the room, They were so o'ercharg'd with water. [Act v., Sc. 4.] [His Mother sings it. Funeral Dirge for Marcello. Call for the Robin-red breast, and the Wren, The Ant, the Field-mouse, and the Mole, [Sixteen lines end the Scene.] [Act v., Sc. 4.3] I never saw anything like this Dirge, except the Ditty which reminds Ferdinand of his drowned Father in the Tempest. As that is of the water, watery; so this is of the earth, earthy. Both have that intenseness of feeling, which seems to resolve itself into the elements which it contemplates. Folded Thoughts. Come, come, my lord, untie your folded thoughts, And let them dangle loose as a bride's hair. Your sister's poison'd. Dying Princes. [Act iii., Sc. 2.] To see what solitariness is about dying Princes! As heretofore they have unpeopled towns, divorced friends, and made great houses unhospitable! so now, O justice! where are their flatterers now? flatterers are but the shadows of princes' bodies; the least thick cloud makes them invisible. Natural Death. O, thou soft natural death! that art joint twin Vow of Murder rebuked. Miserable creature, If thou persist in this 'tis damnable. Dost thou imagine thou canst slide on blood, Or like the black and melancholic yew-tree, Dost think to root thyself in dead men's graves [Act v., Sc. 3.] [Ibid.] And yet to prosper? [Act iv., Sc. 2.] [Act v., Sc. 3.] Despair. O the cursed devil, Which doth present us with all other sins Thrice candied o'er; despair, with gall and stibium, [Act v., Sc. 6.] [For other extracts from Webster see pages 59 and 498.] VOL. IV.-13 THE LOVER'S MELANCHOLY [PUBLISHED 1629: PRODUCED 1628]. BY JOHN FORD [FLOURISHED 1639] Contention of a Bird and a Musician. Passing from Italy to Greece, the tales Which poets of an elder time have feign'd Desire of visiting that paradise. To Thessaly I came, and living private, This accident encounter'd me: I heard This youth, this fair-fac'd youth, upon his lute Nature's best skill'd musician, undertakes The challenge; and, for every several strain The well-shap'd youth could touch, she sung her down; Upon his quaking instrument, than she The nightingale did with her various notes Some time thus spent, the young man grew at last Whom art had never taught cliffs, moods, or notes, Should vie with him for mastery, whose study Had busied many hours to perfect practice: To end the controversy, in a rapture Upon his instrument he plays so swiftly, [Two lines omitted.] 2 [A line.] [Four lines.] |