Locrine / Mucedorus | Page 4

I erected have?Triumphantly in every place we came.?The Grecian Monarch, warlike Pandrassus,?And all the crew of the Molossians;?Goffarius, the arm strong King of Gauls,?And all the borders of great Aquitaine,?Have felt the force of our victorious arms,?And to their cost beheld our chivalry.?Where ere Aurora, handmaid of the Sun,?Where ere the Sun, bright guardiant of the day,?Where ere the joyful day with cheerful light,?Where ere the light illuminates the world,?The Trojan's glory flies with golden wings,?Wings that do soar beyond fell ennui's flight.?The fame of Brutus and his followers?Pierceth the skies, and with the skies the throne?Of mighty Jove, Commander of the world.?Then worthy Brutus, leave these sad laments;?Comfort your self with this your great renown,?And fear not death though he seem terrible.
BRUTUS.?Nay, Corineius, you mistake my mind?In construing wrong the cause of my complaints.?I feared to yield my self to fatal death!?God knows it was the least of all my thoughts;?A greater care torments my very bones,?And makes me tremble at the thought of it,?And in you, Lordings, doth the substance lie.
THRASI.?Most noble Lord, if ought your loyal peers?Accomplish may, to ease your lingering grief,?I, in the name of all, protest to you,?That we will boldly enterprise the same,?Were it to enter to black Tartarus,?Where triple Cerberus with his venomous throat,?Scarreth the ghosts with high resounding noise.?We'll either rent the bowels of the earth,?Searching the entrails of the brutish earth,?Or, with his Ixion's overdaring son,?Be bound in chains of everduring steel.
BRUTUS.?Then harken to your sovereign's latest words,?In which I will unto you all unfold?Our royal mind and resolute intent:--?When golden Hebe, daughter to great Jove,?Covered my manly cheeks with youthful down,?Th' unhappy slaughter of my luckless sire,?Drove me and old Assarachus, mine eame,?As exiles from the bounds of Italy:?So that perforce we were constrained to fly?To Graecia's Monarch noble Pandrassus.?There I alone did undertake your cause,?There I restored your antique liberty,?Though Graecia frowned, and all Mollossia stormed,?Though brave Antigonus, with martial band,?In pitched field encountered me and mine,?Though Pandrassus and his contributories,?With all the route of their confederates,?Sought to deface our glorious memory?And wipe the name of Trojans from the earth,?Him did I captivate with this mine arm,?And by compulsion forced him to agree?To certain articles which there we did propound.?From Graecia through the boisterous Hellespont,?We came unto the fields of Lestrigon,?Whereas our brother Corineius was,?Since when we passed the Cicillian gulf,?And so transfretting the Illirian sea,?Arrived on the coasts of Aquitaine,?Where with an army of his barbarous Gauls?Goffarius and his brother Gathelus?Encountering with our host, sustained the foil.?And for your sakes my Turnus there I lost,?Turnus that slew six hundred men at arms?All in an hour, with his sharp battle-axe.?From thence upon the strons of Albion?To Corus haven happily we came,?And quelled the giants, come of Albion's race,?With Gogmagog son to Samotheus,?The cursed Captain of that damned crew.?And in that Isle at length I placed you.?Now let me see if my laborious toils,?If all my care, if all my grievous wounds,?If all my diligence were well employed.
CORINEIUS.?When first I followed thee & thine, brave king,?I hazarded my life and dearest blood,?To purchase favour at your princely hands,?And for the same in dangerous attempts?In sundry conflicts and in diverse broils,?I showed the courage of my manly mind.?For this I combated with Gathelus,?The brother to Goffarius of Gaul;?For this I fought with furious Gogmagog,?A savage captain of a savage crew;?And for these deeds brave Cornwall I received,?A grateful gift given by a gracious King:?And for this gift, this life and dearest blood,?Will Corineius spend for Brutus good.
DEB.?And what my friend, brave prince, hath vowed to you,?The same will Debon do unto his end.
BRUTUS.?Then, loyal peers, since you are all agreed,?And resolute to follow Brutus hosts,?Favor my sons, favor these Orphans, Lords,?And shield them from the dangers of their foes.?Locrine, the column of my family,?And only pillar of my weakened age,?Locrine, draw near, draw near unto thy sire,?And take thy latest blessings at his hands:?And for thou art the eldest of my sons,?Be thou a captain to thy brethren,?And imitate thy aged father's steps,?Which will conduct thee to true honor's gate;?For if thou follow sacred virtue's lore,?Thou shalt be crowned with a laurel branch,?And wear a wreath of sempiternal fame,?Sorted amongst the glorious happy ones.
LOCRINE.?If Locrine do not follow your advise,?And bear himself in all things like a prince?That seeks to amplify the great renown?Left unto him for an inheritage?By those that were his ancestors,?Let me be flung into the Ocean,?And swallowed in the bowels of the earth,?Or let the ruddy lightning of great Jove?Descend upon this my devoted head.
BRUTUS.
[Taking Gwendoline by the hand.]
But for I see you all to be in doubt,?Who shall be matched with our royal son,?Locrine, receive this present at my hand,?A gift more rich than are the wealthy mines?Found in the bowels of America.?Thou shalt be