A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VII (4th edition) | Page 2

lyes
she here in shrine. [GISMONDA dieth TANCRED. O me alas, nowe
do the cruell paines Of cursed death my dere daughter bereave. Alas
whie bide I here? the sight constraines Me woefull man this woefull
place to leaue.

SCENE III.
TANCRED cometh out of GISMOND'S Chamber.
TANCRED. O dolorous happe, ruthefull and all of woe Alas I carefull
wretche what resteth me? Shall I now live that with these eyes did soe
Beholde my daughter die? what, shall I see Her death before my face
that was my lyfe And I to lyve that was her lyves decay? Shall not this
hand reache to this hart the knife That maye bereve bothe sight and life
away, And in the shadowes darke to seke her ghoste And wander there
with her? shall not, alas, This spedy death be wrought, sithe I have lost

My dearest ioy of all? what, shall I passe My later dayes in paine, and
spende myne age In teres and plaint! shall I now leade my life All
solitarie as doeth bird in cage, And fede my woefull yeres with
waillfull grefe? No, no, so will not I my dayes prolonge To seke to live
one houre sith she is gone: This brest so can not bende to suche a
wronge, That she shold dye and I to live alone. No, this will I: she shall
have her request And in most royall sorte her funerall Will I performe.
Within one tombe shall rest Her earle and she, her epitaph withall
Graved thereon shal be. This will I doe And when these eyes some
aged teres have shed The tomb my self then will I crepe into And with
my blood all bayne their bodies dead. This heart there will I perce, and
reve this brest The irksome life, and wreke my wrathful ire Upon my
self. She shall have her request, And I by death will purchace my
desyre.
FINIS.

EPILOGUS.
If now perhappes ye either loke to see Th'unhappie lovers, or the cruell
sire Here to be buried as fittes their degree Or as the dyeng ladie did
require Or as the ruthefull kinge in deepe despaire Behight of late (who
nowe himself hath slayen) Or if perchaunse you stand in doutfull fere
Sithe mad Megera is not returnde againe Least wandring in the world
she so bestowe The snakes that crall about her furious face As they may
raise new ruthes, new kindes of woe Bothe so and there, and such as
you percase Wold be full lothe so great so nere to see I am come forth
to do you all to wete Through grefe wherin the lordes of Salerne be The
buriall pompe is not prepared yet: And for the furie, you shall
onderstand That neither doeth the litle greatest god Finde such rebelling
here in Britain land Against his royall power as asketh rod Of ruth from
hell to wreke his names decaie Nor Pluto heareth English ghostes
complaine Our dames disteyned lyves. Therfore ye maye Be free from
feare, sufficeth to maintaine The vertues which we honor in you all, So
as our Britain ghostes when life is past Maie praise in heven, not plaine
in Plutoes hall Our dames, but hold them vertuous and chast, Worthie
to live where furie never came, Where love can see, and beares no
deadly bowe, Whoes lyves eternall tromp of glorious fame With joyfull
sounde to honest eares shall blowe.

FINIS.
The Tragedie of Gismonde of Salerne.
Such is a specimen of the play as it was originally acted before Queen
Elizabeth, at the Inner Temple, in the year 1568. It was the production
of five gentlemen, who were probably students of that society; and by
one of them, Robert Wilmot, afterwards much altered and published in
the year 1591.[1] [Wilmot had meanwhile become rector of North
Okenham, in Essex];[2] and in his Dedication to the Societies of the
Inner and Middle Temples, he speaks of the censure which might be
cast upon him from the indecorum of publishing a dramatic work
arising from his calling. When he died, or whether he left any other
works, are points equally uncertain.
"Nearly a century after the date of that play," observes Lamb, in his
'Extracts from the Garrick Plays,' "Dryden produced his admirable
version of the same story from Boccaccio. The speech here extracted
(the scene between the messengers and Gismunda) may be compared
with the corresponding passage in the 'Sigismunda and Guiscardo' with
no disadvantage to the older performance. It is quite as weighty, as
pointed, and as passionate."

To the Right Worshipful and Virtuous Ladies, the Lady MARY
PETER and the Lady ANNE GRAY, long health of body, with quiet of
mind, in the favour of God and men for