Locrine / Mucedorus | Page 5

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 spoused to fair Gwendoline;
Love her, and take her, for she is
thine own,
If so thy uncle and her self do please.
CORINEIUS.
And herein how your highness honors me
It cannot
now be in my speech expressed;
For careful parents glory not so
much
At their honour and promotion,
As for to see the issue of their
blood
Seated in honor and prosperity.
GWENDOLINE.
And far be it from any maiden's thoughts
To
contradict her aged father's will.
Therefore, since he to whom I must
obey
Hath given me now unto your royal self,
I will not stand aloof
from off the lure,
Like crafty dames that most of all deny
That
which they most desire to possess.
BRUTUS.
[Turning to Locrine. Locrine kneeling.]
Then now, my son, thy part is on the stage,
For thou must bear the
person of a King.
[Puts the Crown on his head.]
Locrine, stand up, and wear the regal Crown,
And think upon the
state of Majesty,
That thou with honor well mayest wear the crown.

And if thou tendrest these my latest words,
As thou requirest my
soul to be at rest,
As thou desirest thine own security,
Cherish and
love thy new betrothed wife.

LOCRINE.
No longer let me well enjoy the crown,
Than I do
honour peerless Gwendoline.
BRUTUS.
Camber.
CAMBER.
My Lord.
BRUTUS.
The glory of mine age,
And darling of thy mother
Imogen,
Take thou the South for thy dominion.
From thee there
shall proceed a royal race,
That shall maintain the honor of this land,

And sway the regal scepter with their hands.
[Turning to Albanact.]
And Albanact, thy father's only joy,
Youngest in years, but not the
youngest in mind,
A perfect pattern of all chivalry,
Take thou the
North for thy dominion,
A country full of hills and ragged rocks,

Replenished with fierce untamed beasts,
As correspondent to thy
martial thoughts,
Live long, my sons, with endless happiness,
And
bear firm concordance amongst your selves.
Obey the counsels of
these fathers grave,
That you may better bear out violence.--
But
suddenly, through weakness of my age,
And the defect of youthful
puissance,
My malady increaseth more and more,
And cruel death
hasteneth his quickened pace,
To dispossess me of my earthly shape.

Mine eyes wax dim, overcast with clouds of age,
The pangs of
death compass my crazed bones;
Thus to you all my blessings I
bequeath,
And with my blessings, this my fleeting soul
My glass is
run, and all my miseries
Do end with life; death closeth up mine eyes,

My soul in haste flies to the Elysian fields.
[He dieth.]
LOCRINE.
Accursed stars, damned and accursed stars,
To
abbreviate my noble father's life!
Hard-hearted gods, and too envious
fates,
Thus to cut off my father's fatal thread!
Brutus, that was a

glory to us all,
Brutus, that was a terror to his foes,
Alas, too soon,
by Demagorgon's knife,
The martial Brutus is bereft of life!
CORINEIUS.
No sad complaints may move just Aeacus,
No
dreadful threats can fear judge Rhodomanth.
Wert thou as strong as
mighty Hercules,
That tamed the huge monsters of the world,

Playedst thou as sweet, on the sweet sounding lute,
As did the spouse
of fair Eurydice,
That did enchant the waters with his noise,
And
made stones, birds, and beasts, to lead a dance,
Constrained the hilly
trees to follow him,
Thou couldst not move the judge of Erebus,

Nor move compassion in grim Pluto's heart;
For fatal Mors expecteth
all the world,
And every man must tread the way of death.
Brave
Tantalus, the valiant Pelops' sire,
Guest to the gods, suffered untimely
death,
And old Tithonus, husband to the morn,
And eke grim Minos,
whom just Jupiter
Deigned to admit unto his sacrifice.
The
thundering trumpets of blood-thirsty Mars,
The fearful rage of fell
Tisiphone,
The boistrous waves of humid Ocean,
Are instruments
and tools of dismal death.
Then, novel cousin, cease to mourn his
chance,
Whose age & years were signs that he should die.
It reseth
now that we inter his bones,
That was a terror to his enemies.
Take
up the course, and, princes, hold him dead,
Who while he lived,
upheld the Trojan state.
Sound drums and trumpets; march to
Troinouant,
There to provide our chieftain's funeral.
[Exeunt.]
ACT 1. SCENE 2. The house of Strumbo.
[Enter Strumbo above in a gown, with ink and paper
in his hand,
saying:--]
STRUMBO.
Either the four elements, the seven planets, and all the

particular stars of the pole Antastick, are adversative
against me, or
else I was begotten and born in the wane

of the Moon, when every

thing as Lactantius in his
fourth book of Consultations doth say,
goeth asward.
Aye, masters, aye, you may laugh, but I must weep;

you may joy, but I must sorrow; shedding salt tears
from the watery
fountains of my most dainty fair eyes,
along my comely and smooth
cheeks, in as great plenty
as the water