The Brazen Age, The first Act containing, The death of the Centaure Nessus, The Second, The Tragedy of Meleager: The Third The Tragedy of Iason and Medea. The Fourth. Vulcans Net. The Fifth. The Labours and death of Hercules

 Oeneus  King of Calidon.

 

Althea,  and

 

Her  two brothers.

 

Deyaneira.

 

Meleager.

 

Hercules.

 

Achelous.

 

Nessus.

 

Iason.

 

Atreus.

 

Tellamon.

 

Nestor.

 

Medes.

 

Oetes.

 

Absyrtus,

 

Adonis.

 

Atlanta.    

 

Apollo.

 

Aurora.

 

Iupiter.

 

Mercury.

 

Iuno.

 

Mars.

 

Venus.

 

Gallus.

 

Vulcan.

 

Lychas.

 

Omphale.

 

Her  maids.

 

Æneas.

 

Anchises.

 

Laomedon.

 

Hesione.

 

Priam.

 

Philoctetes.

 

Water  Nymphes.

 

Castor.

 

Pollux.

 

Pyragmon.

 
 

 

 
 

 

The  Brazen Age, containing The labours and death of  Hercules.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Homer.

 

 
 

 

Homer

 

As  the  world growes in yeares (‘tis the Heavens curse

 

Mens  sinnes increase; the pristine times were  best:

 

The  Ages in their growth wax worse and worse

 

The  first was pretious, full of golden rest.

 

Silver  succeeded; good, but not so pure:

 

Then  love and harmelesse lusts might currant passe:
The third that  followes we finde more obdure,
And that we title by the Age  of Brasse.
In this more grosse and courser mettal'd  Age,
Tyrants and fierce oppressors we present.
Nephewes  that 'gainst their Unckles wreake their rage,
Mothers against  their children discontent,
A sister with her brother at fierce  warre,
(Things in our former times not seene or knowne)
But  vice with vertue now begins to iarre,
And sinnes (though not at  height) yet great are growne.
Still with our history we shall  proceed,
And Hercules vistorious acts relate:
His  marriage first, next many a noble deed
Perform'd by him: last  how he yeelds to Fate.

 

And  these, I hope, may (with some mixtures) passe,
So you sit  pleas'd in this our Age of Brasse.

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

Actus  i. Scoena i.

 

 
 

 

Enter  Oeneus, King of Calidon, Queene Althea, Meleager, Deianeira,  Plexippus, and Toxeus, brothers to the Queene.

 

 

King  Oeneus

 

Thus  midst our brothers, daughter, Queene and sonne,
Sits Oeneus crown'd  in fertill Calidon
Whose age and weakenesse is supported  only,
In those ripe ioyes that I receive from you.

 

 
 

 

Plexippus    

 

May  we long stand supporters of your royaltyes,
And glad spectators  of your age and peace.

 

 
 

 

Toxeus    

 

The  like I wish.

 

 
 

 

King  Oeneus

 

We  have found you brothers royall,
And subiects loyall.

 

 
 

 

Althea    

 

They  are of our line,
Of which no branch did ever perish yet,
By  Cankers, blastings, or dry barrennesse.
But Meleager let  me turne to thee,
Whose birth the Fates themselues did  calculate?

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

Pray  mother how was that? I have heard you say
Somewhat about my  birth miraculous,
But never yet knew the true circumstance.

 

 
 

 

Althea    

 

’Twas  thus: the very instant thou wast borne,
The sisters, that draw,  spinne, and clip our lives,
Entred my chamber with a fatall  brand,
Which hurling in the fire, thus said: One day, one  date,
Betide this brand and childe, even be their fate.
So  parted they, the brand begins to burne:
And as it wasted, so  didst thou consume;
Which I perceiving, leap't unto the  flame,
And quenching that, stayd thy consumption.
The  brand I (as a iewell) have reserv'd,
And keepe it in a casket,  lock't as safe
As in thy bosome thou maintainst thy heart.

 

Melea.  Pray keepe it well: for if not with my mother,
With whom  dare Meleager trust his life?
But  sister Deianeira, now to you.
Two worthy Champians  must this day contend,
And try their eminence in Armes for  you,
Great Achelous, and strong Hercules.

 

 
 

 

Deianeira    

 

We  know it: my love must be bought with blowes,
Not Oratory wins  me, but the sword:
He that can braveliest in the lists  contend,
Must Deianeira's nuptiall bed ascend.

 

 
 

 

King  Oeneus

 

Brothers,  conduct these Champions to the lists,
Meane time Althea state  thee on that hand,
On this side Deianeira the rich  prize
Of their contention.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

Clamors  from a farre,
Tell us these Champions are a drest for warre.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  at one doore the river Achelous, his weapons borne in by  Water-Nymphes. At the other Hercules.

 

 
 

 

 King  Oeneus

 

Stand  forth you warlike Champions, and expresse
Your loves  to Deianeira, in your valours.
As we  are Oeneus the Aetolians King,
And under us  command whole Calidon.
So we contest we make her here the  prize
Of the proud victor.

 

 
 

 

Achelous    

 

Dares  the Theban bastard
Contend with us, as we are eldest  sonne
Unto the grave and old Oceanus,
And the  Nymph Nais, borne on Pindus mount,
From  whence our broad and spacious currents rise?
So are we proud to  coape with Hercules.
Nere let my streames  wash Acarnania's bankes,
Or we confin'de  in Thous, our grand seat,
Till (by the ruine  of Alcmena's sonne)
We lodge bright Deianeira in  our armes.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Have  we the Cleonean Lyons torne?

 

And  deck’t our shoulders in their honored  spoyles?
The Calidonian Boare crusht with our  Club?
The rude Thessalian Centaurs sunke  beneath
Our Iuiall hand? pierc'd hell?  bound Cerberus?
And buffeted so long, till from the  fome
The dogge belch't forth strong Aconitum spring?
And  shall a petty river make our way
To Deianeira's bed  impassable?
Know then the pettiest streame that flowes  through Greece,
Il'e make thee run thy head below thy  bankes,
Make red thy waters with thy vitall bloud,
And  spill thy waves in droppes as small as teares,
If thou  presum'st to coape with Hercules.

 

 
 

 

Achelous    

 

What's Hercules that  I should dread his name?
Or what's he greater  then Amphitrio’s sonne?
When we assume the name of  Demi-god
Not Proteus can trans-shape himselfe like  us,
For we command our figure when we please.
Sometimes we  like a serpent run along
Our medowy bankes: and sometimes like  a Bull
Graze on these strands we water with our streames.
We  can translate our fury to a fire,
And when we swell, in our  fierce torrents swallow
The Champian plaines, and flow above  the hils,
Drowne all the continents by which we  run;
Yea Hercules himselfe.

 

 
 

 

Hercules

 

Me Achelous!
I  can do more then this: love Deianeira,
Swin with her on my  shoulders through thy streames,
And with my huge Club beat thy  torrents backe,
With thine owne waters quench th'infernall  fires
Thy figure serpentine, flat on the earth:
And when  th'art Bull, catch fast hold by thy hornes,
And whirle thee  'bout my head thus into ayre.
Thou faire Aetolian dame,  I cannot wooe,
Nor paint my passions in smooth Oratory,
But  fight for thee I can, 'gainst Achelous,

 

Or  all the horrid monsters of the earth.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

When  ’gins your proud and hostile enmity?
Behold the prize  propos'd, the victors meed,
Champions your spirits inkindle at  her eyes.

 

 
 

 

Achelous    

 

It  is for her this bastard I despise.
Prepare thee Theban.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

See,  I am adrest
With this to thunder on thy captive crest.
I  cannot bellow in thy bombast phrase;
Nor deafe these free  spectators with my braves.
I cut off words with deeds, and now  behold
For me, the eccho of my blowes thus scold.

 

 
 

 

 Alarme.  Achelous is beaten in, and immediatly enters in the shape of a  Dragon.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Bee’st  thou a God or hell-hound thus transhap't,
Thy terrour frights  not me, serpent or divell Il'e pash thee.

 

 
 

 

 Alarme.  He beats away the dragon. Enter a Fury all fire-workes.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Fright  us with fire? our Club shall quench thy flame,
And beat it  downe to hell, from whence it came.

 

 
 

 

 When  the Fury sinkes, a Buls head appeares.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

What,  yet more monsters? Serpent, Bull, and Fire,
Shall all alike  taste great Alcides ire.

 

 
 

 

 He  tugs with the Bull, and pluckes off one of his horns. Enter from the  same place Achelous with his fore-head all bloudy.

 

 
 

 

Achelous    

 

No  more, I am thy Captive, thou my Conquerer:
I see, no Magicke,  or inchanting spell
Have power on vertue and true fortitude.
No  sleight Illusion can deceive the eyes
Of him that is divinely  resolute.
I lay me at thy feet, a lowly vassaile,
Since  thou hast reft me of that prccious horne,
Which tearing from my  head in shape of Bull,
Thus wounded me.  Take Deianeira freely,
Onely restore me that rich  spoyle thou hast wonne,
Which all the Nymphes and graces  dwelling neere,
Shall fill with redolent flowers, and delicate  fruits,
And call it Cornucopiae, plenties horne,

 

In  memory of Achelous losse,
And this high conquest won  by Hercules.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Hadst  thou not stoopt thy horrid Taurine shape
I would have  peece-meale rent, and thy tough hide
Torne into rags as thicke  as Autumne leaves:
Take thee thy life, and with thy life that  spoile
Pluckt from thy mangled front, give me my love,
I'le  stoare no hornes at winning of a wife.
Give me  bright Deyanira, take that horne,
So late from thy  disfigured Temples torne.

 

 
 

 

Deianeira    

 

I  have my prayers, Alcides his desires,
Both meete in  love.

 

 
 

 

King  Oeneus

 

Receive  her Hercules,
The  conquest of thy warlike fortitude.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Wee  take but what our valour purchast us,
And beauteous Queene thou  shalt assure his love,
Whose puissant arme shall awe the triple  world,
And make the greatest Monarches of the earth
To thy  divinest beauty tributary.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

Will Hercules stay  heere in Calidon,
To solemnize the nuptials of our  sister?
I Meleager, rich Aetolians heire,
Whose  large Dominions stretch to Oeta Mount,
And to the  bounds of fertile Thessaly
Will grace thy Bridals with the  greatest pompe
Greece can affoord, nor is't my meanest  honour
To be the brother to great Hercules.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Thanks Meleager, soiourne  heere we cannot,
My step-dame luno tasks me to more  dangers:
Wee take thy beauteous sister in our guard,
Whom  by Ioves aide wee straight will beare to Thebes.

 

 
 

 

King  Oeneus

 

A  fathers wishes crowne the happinesse
Of his faire daughter.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

And  a brothers love
Comfort thee where thou goest: If not  with Hercules
Whom dare we trust thy safety.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Not loves guard
Can  circle her with more security.

 

Time  cals us hence, Aetolian Lords farewell.

 

 
 

 

King  Oeneus

 

Adiew  brave sonne, and daughter, onely happy
In being thus bestowed,  come Achelous,
With you we'le feast, nor let your foyle  deiect you,
Or Deyaniraes losse; he's more then  man,
And needes must he do this, that all things can.   

 

 
 

 

 Exeunt.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Dares Deyaneira trust  her persons safety
With us a stranger, onely knowne by Fame.

 

 
 

 

Deaineira    

 

Wer't  gainst the Lyons in Chimera bred,
Or those rude  Beares that breed in Caucasus:
The Hyrcan Tigers or  the Syrian Wolues,
Nay gainst the Giants that  assaulted heaven
And with their shoulders made those bases  shake
That prop Olimpus: liv'd Enceladus
With  whom love wrestled: even against those monsters,
I'de  thinke me safe incircled in these armes.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Thou  art as safe as if immur'd in heaven,
Pal'd with that Christall  wall that girts loves house,
Where all the Gods  inhabite, built by fate,
Stay, I should know that Centaure.      

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Nessus.

 

 
 

 

Nessus    

 

That's Hercules I  know him by his Club,
Whose ponderous weight I felt upon my  Skull
At the great Bridall of the Lapithes.
What  lovely Ladie's shee that in her beauty
So much exceedes  faire Hypodamia?

 

 
 

 

Hercules

 

Oh Nessus, thou  of all thy cloud-bred race,
Alone didst scape by trusting to  thy heeles
At Hypodamia's Bridals, but we now
Are  friends, are wee not Nessus?

 

 
 

 

Nessus    

 

Yes  great Hercules,
(Till I can find fit time for iust  revendge)
Methinkes my braines still rattle in my skull)
What  Ladie's that in great Alcides Guard?

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Deyaneira, daughter  to the Aetolian King,
Sister to Meleager, now  our Bride;
Wonne by the force of armes from Achelous,
The  boysterous floud that flowes through Calidon.

 

Ness.  A double enuy burnes in all my veines,
First for revenge; next,  that he should enioy
That beauteous maide whom Nessus dearely  loves.
Will Hercules commande me? or his Bride?
I'le  lackey by thee wheresoer'e thou goest,
And be the vassall to  great Hercules.

 

 
 

 

Hercules

 

We  are bound for Thebes, but  soft, what torrent's this
That intercepts our way? How shall we  passe
These raging streames?

 

 
 

 

Nessus    

 

This  is Evenus floud,
A dangerous current, full of  whirle-pooles deepe,
And yet unsounded: dar'st thou trust thy  Bride
On Nessus backe?  I'le undertake to swimme her
Unto the furthest strond, upon my  shoulders,
And yet not lave her shooe.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

I'le  pay thee for thy waftage Centaure, well,
And make thee Prince  of all thy by-form'd race,
If thou willt do this grace  to Hercules:
But ferry her with safety, for by Iove,
If  thou but make her tremble in these streames,
Or let the least  wave dash against her skirt;
If the least feare of drowning  pale her cheeke,
I'le pound thee smaller then the Autumne  dust
Tost by the warring winds?

 

 
 

 

Nessus    

 

Have  I not swomme
The Hellesepont, when  waves high as yon hils
Tost by the winds, have crown'd me, yet  in spight
Of all their briny weight I have wrought my  selfe
Above the topmost billow to ore-looke
The troubled  maine: come beauteous Deyaneira,
Not Charon with  more safety ferries soules,
Then I will thee through this  impetuous foord,

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Receive  her Centaure, and in her the wealth
And potency of  mighty Hercules.

 

 
 

 

Nessus    

 

Now  my revenge for that inhumaine banquet,
In which so many of the  Centaures fell,
I'le rape this Princesse, having past the floud

 

Come  beauteous Deyaneira, mount my shoulders,
And feare  not your safe wastage.      

 

 
 

 

 Exeunt.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

That  done returne for us: faire Deianeira,
White as the garden  lilly, pyren snow,
Or rocks of Christall hardned by the  Sunne:
Thou shalt be made the potent Queene of Thebes,
And  all my Ioviall labours shall to thee
Be consecrate,  as to Alcides love.
Well plundge bold Centaure, how  thy boysterous brest
Plowes up the streames: thou through the  swelling tides,
Sail'st with a freight more rich and  beautifull,
Then the best ship cram'd with Pangeous gold:
With  what a swift dexterity he parts
The mutinous waves, whose  waters claspe him round,
Hee plaies and wantons on the curled  streames,
And Deyanira on his shoulders fits
As  safe, as if she stear'd a pine-tree barke.
They grow now  towards the shore: my club and armes
I'le first cast or'e the  deepe Evenus foord,
But from my side my quiver shall  not part,
Nor this my trusty bow.

 

 
 

 

Deianeira  (within)

 

Helpe Hercules.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

 
 

 

’Twas Deyaneiraes voyce.

 

 
 

 

Deianeira    

 

The  Traytor Nessus
Seekes  to despoile mine honour, Iove, you Gods:
Out  trayterous Centaure: Helpe great Hercules.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Hold,  lust-burnt Centaure, 'tis Alcides cals
Or swifter  then Ioves lightning, my fierce vengeance
Shall  crosse Evenus.

 

 
 

 

Deianeira    

 

Oh,  oh.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Darst  thou devill?
Couldst thou clime Heaven or sinke below the  Center
So high, so low, my vengeance should persue thee,
Hold;  if I could but fixe thee in my gripes,
I de teare thy limbes  into more Atomies
Then in the Summer play before the Sunne.

 

 
 

 

Deianeira    

 

Helpe Hercules (out  dog) Alcides helpe.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

I'le  send till I can come, this poisonous shaft

 

Shall  speake my fury and extract thy bloud,
Till I my selfe can  crosse this raging floud.

 

 
 

 

 Hercules  shoots, and goes in: Enter Nessus with an arrow through him, and  Deianeira.

 

 
 

 

Nessus    

 

Thy  beauty Deyaneira is my death,
And yet  that Nessus dies embracing thee
Takes from my sences  all those torturing pangues
That should associate death: to  shew I lou'd thee,
I'le leave thee, in my will, a legacy;
Shall  stead thee more, then should thy father give thee
Unto thy  Dower the Crowne of Calidon.
Of such great vertue is my  living bloud,
And of such prize, that couldst thou valew  it,
Thou wouldst not let one drop fall to the ground:
But  oh I die.

 

 
 

 

Deianeira    

 

Teach  me to rate it truely.

 

 
 

 

Nessus    

 

Now Nessus, in  thy death be aveng'd on him
On whom in life thou couldst not  wreake thy rage:
(My bloud is poison) all these pure drops  save,
Which I bequeath thee ere I take my grave:
I know  thy Lord lascivious, bent to lust,
Witnesse the fifty daughters  of King Thespeius,
Whom  in one night he did adulterate:
And of those fifty begot fifty  sonnes:
Now if in all his quests, he be with-held
By any  Ladies love, and stay from thee,
Such is the vertue of my bloud  now shed,
That if thou dipst a shirt, steept in the least
Of  all these drops, and sendst it to thy Lord,
No sooner shall it  touch him, but his love
Shall die to strangers, and revive to  thee,
Make use of this my love.

 

 
 

 

Deianeira    

 

Centaure,  I will.

 

 
 

 

Nessus    

 

And  so, whom Nessus cannot,  do thou kill;
Still dying men speake true: 'tis my last  cry,
Save of my bloud, ’tmay steede thee ere thou die.

 

 
 

 

Deianeira    

 

Though  I my love mistrust not, yet this counsell

 

I'lenot  despise: this if my Lord should stray,
Shall to my desolate bed  teach him the way.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Hercules.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

After  long strugling with Evenus streames,
I forc't the  river beare me on her brest,
And land me safely on this further  strond,
To make an end of what my shaft begunne,
The life  of Nessus, lives  the Centaure yet?

 

 
 

 

Deianeira    

 

Behold  him grovelling on the sencelesse earth,
His wounded breast  transfixt by Hercules.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

That  the luxurious slave were sencible
Of torture; not th'infernals  with more pangues
Could plague the villaine  then Alcides should.
Ixions bones  rackt on the torturing wheele
Should be a pastime: the three  snake-hair'd sisters,
That lash offenders with their whips of  steele,
Should seeme to dally, when with every string
They  cut the flesh like razors: but the dead
Wee hate to touch, as  cowardly and base,
And vengeance not  becomming Hercules.
Come Deyaneira, first  to consumate
Our high spowsals in triumphant Thebes,
That  done, our future labours wee'le persue,
And by the assistance  of the powers Divine,
Strive to act more then Iuno can  assigne.     

 

 
 

 

 Exit.  Enter Homer.

 

 
 

 

Homer

 

Faire Deyaneira unto, Thebes being  guided,
And Hercules espousals solemnized.
Hee  for his further labours soone provided,
As Iuno by Euritius had  devised.
The Apples of Hesperia first he wan,
Mauger  huge Atlas that supports the spheares:
And whilst the  Gyant on his businesse ran;
Alcides takes his place, and  proudly beares
The heavens huge frame: thence  into Scithia hies,

 

And  their the Amazonian Baldricke gaines,
By  conquering Menalip (a brave prise)
The warlike Quene  that ere the Scithians raignes.
That hee supported  heaven, doth well expresse
His Astronomicke skill, knowledge in  starres:
They that such practise know, what do they lesse
Then  beare heavens weight so of the Lernean warres.
Where  he the many-headed Hydra slew,
A Serpent of that  nature, when his sword
Par'd off one head, from that another  grew.
This shewed his Logicke skill: from every word
And  argument confuted, there arise
From one a multiplicity,  therefore we
Poets and such as are esteemed wise,
Instruct  the world by such morality.
To conquer Hydra showed  his powerfull skill
In disputation, how to argue well.
(By  all that understand in custome still)
And in this Art  did Hercules excell.
Now we the Aegyptian tyrant must  present,
Bloudy Busiris, a king fell and rude,
One  that in murder plac't his sole content,
With whose sad death  our first Act we conclude.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Busyris with  his Guard and Priests to sacrifice; to them two  strangers, Busyris takes  them and kils them upon the Altar:  enter Hercules disguis'd, Busyris sends  his Guard to apprehend him, Hercules discovering himselfe  beates the Guard, kils Busyris and sacrificeth him upon  the Altar, at which there fals a shower of raine, the Priests  offer Hercules the Crowne of Ægypt which he refuseth.

 

 
 

 

Homer

 

In  Aegypt there of long time fellnoraine,
For which unto the  Oracle they sent:
Answeres return'd, that till one stranger  slaine,
Immou'd shall be the Marble firmament.
Therefore  the Tyrant all these strangers kils
That enter Aegypt,  till Alcides came

 

And  with the tyrants bulke the Altar fils:
At whose red slaughter  fell a plenteous raine.
For he that stranger and usurper  was,
Whose bloudy fate the Oracle forespake.
But for a  while we let Alcides passe,
Whom these of Ægypt  would their sover aigne make,
 For freeing them from such a  tyrants rage;
 Now Meleager next must fill our  stage.

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

Actus  2. Scoena 2.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Venus like a Huntresse, with Adonis.

 

 
 

 

Venus    

 

Why  doth Adonis flye the Queene of love?
And shun this  Iuory girdle of my armes?
To be thus scarft the dreadfull God  of warre
Would give me conquered kingdomes: For a kisse
(But  halfe like this) I could command the Sunne
Rise 'fore his  houre, to bed before his time:
And (being love-sicke) change  his golden beames,
And make his sace pale, as his sister  Moone.
Come, let us tumble on this violet banke:
Pre'thee  be wanton; let us toy and play,
Thy Icy fingers warme betweene  my breasts;
Looke on me Adon with a stedfast  eye,
That in these Christall glasses I may see
My beauty,  that charmes Gods, makes men amaz'd,
And stownd with wonder:  doth this roseat pillow
Offend my love? come, wallow in my  lap,
With my white fingers I will clap thy cheeke,
Whisper  a thousand pleasures in thine eare.

 

 
 

 

Adonis    

 

Madame,  you are not modest: I affect
The unseene beauty that adornes  the minde.
This loosenesse makes you fowle in Adons eye:
If  you will tempt me, let me in your face
Reade blushfulnesse, and  feare; a modest blush
Would make your cheeke seeme much more  beautifull.

 

If  you will whisper pleasure in mine eare,
Praise chastity, or  with your lowd voyce shrill
The tunes of hornes, and hunting;  they please best:
Il'e to the chase, and leave you to the rest.

 

 
 

 

Venus    

 

Thou  art not man; yet wer't thou made of stone,
I have heate to melt  thee. I am Queene of love,
There is no practive art of  dalliance
Of which I am not Mistresse, and can use.
I have  kisses that can murder unkinde words,
And strangle hatred, that  the gall sends forth:
Touches to raise thee, were thy spirits  halfe dead:
Words that can powre affection downe thine  eares.
Love me! thou canst not chuse, thou shalt not chuse.
Am  I not Venus? Hadst thou Cupids arrowes,
I  should have tooke thee to have beene my sonne:
Art thou so like  him, and yet canst not love?
I thinke you are brothers.

 

 
 

 

Adonis

 

Madame,  you wooe not well, men covet not
These proffered pleasures; but  love-sweets deny'd:
What I command, that cloyes my  appetite;
But what I cannot come by I adore.
These  prostituted pleasures surfet still,
Wheres feare, or doubt, men  sue with best good will.

 

 
 

 

Venus

 

Thou  canst instruct the Queene of love in love.
Thou shalt not  (Adon) take me by the hand;
Yet if thou needs wilt force me,  theres my palme.
Il'e frowne on him (alas! my brow's so  smooth
It will not beare a wrinkle:) hye thee hence
Unto  the chace, and leave me: but not yet,
Il'e sleepe this night  upon Endimions banke,
On which the Swaine was courted  by the Moone.
Dare not to come, thou art in our disgrace;
(Yet  if thou come I can affoord thee place.)

 

 
 

 

Adonis

 

I  must begone.

 

 
 

 

Venus

 

Sweet  whither?

 

 
 

 

Adonis    

 

To  the Chace.

 

 
 

 

Venus

 

What  doest thou hunt?

 

 
 

 

Adonis    

 

The  Calidonian Boare,
To which the Princes and best spirits  of Greece
Are  now assembled.

 

 
 

 

Venus

 

I  beshrew thee boy,
That very word strooke from my heart all  ioy:
It startled mee, me thinkes I see thee dye
By that  rude Boare. Hunt thou the beasts that flye,
The wanton  Squirrell, or the trembling Hare,
The crafty Fox: these  pastimes fearlesse are.
The greedy Wolues, and fierce Beares  arm'd with clawes,
Rough shouldred Lyons, such as glut their  iawes
With heards at once, Fell Boares, let them passe  by,
Adon, these looke not with thy Venus eye.
They  iudge not beauty, nor distinguish youth,
These are their prey;  My pitty, love and ruth
Lives not in them. Oh to thy selfe be  kinde,
Thou from their mouthes, my kisses shalt not find.

 

 
 

 

 Winde  hornes within.

 

 
 

 

Adonis

 

The  summons to the chace, Venus adue.

 

 
 

 

Venus

 

Leave  those, turne head, chuse those thou maist pursue

 

 
 

 

Adonis

 

I  am resolu'd, Il'e helpe to rouze yon beast.  

 

 
 

 

Venus

 

Thou  art to dee// his savadge throat to feast.
Forbeare.     

 

 
 

 

Adonis

 

In  vaine.

 

 
 

 

Venus    

 

Appoynt  when we shall meet.

 

 
 

 

Adonis    

 

After  the chace. Farewell then.

 

 
 

 

Venus

 

Farewell  sweet.

 

 
 

 

Adonis    

 

This  kissing.

 

 
 

 

Venus

 

Adon, guard  thee well, expresse
Thy love to me, in being of thy  selfe
Carefull and chary: they that raze thy skin
Wound  me. Be wise my Adon.

 

 
 

 

Adonis

 

Never  doubt. So then    

 

 
 

 

He  kisseth her.

 

 
 

 

Venus

 

But  lip-labour, yet ill left out.     

 

 
 

 

 Exeunt.  Winde hornes. Enter with Iavelings, and in greene, Meleager,  Theseus, Telamon, Castor, Pollux, Iason, Peleus, Nestor, Atreus,  Toxeus, Plexippus.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

The  cause of this conuention (Lords of Greece)
Needs no  expression; and yet briefly thus:
Oeneus our father,  the Aetolians King,
Of all his fruits and plenty,  gave due rights
To all the Gods and Goddesses, Iove,  Ceres,
Bacchus, and Pallas; but among the  rest,
Diana he neglects: for which inrag'd,
She hath  sent (to plague us) a huge savadge Boare,
Of an un-measured  height and magnitude.
What better can describe his shape and  terror
Then all the pittious clamours shrild through Greece?
Of  his depopulations, spoyles, and preyes?
His flaming eyes they  sparkle bloud and fire,
His bristles poynted like a range of  pikes
Ranck't on his backe: his foame snowes where he feeds
His  tuskes are like the Indian Oliphants.
Out of his iawes (as  if Ioves lightning flew)
He scortches all the  branches in his way,
Plowes up the fields, treads flat the  fields of graine.
In vaine the Sheepheard or his dogge  secures
Their harmlesse fowlds. In vaine the furious  Bull
Strives to defend the heard ore which he Lords.
The  Collonies into the Citties flye,
And till immur'd, they thinke  themselues not safe.
To chace this beast we have met  on Oeta mount,
Attended by the noblest spirits  of Greece.

 

 
 

 

Telamon    

 

From  populous Salamine I Telamon
Am at thy faire  request, King Meleager,
Come to behold this beast  of Calidon,
And prove my vertue in his sterne pursuite.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Not Meleagers love,  more then the zeale
I beare my honour, hath  drawne Iason hither,
To this aduenture, yet both  forcible
To make me try strange maisteries 'gainst that  monster,
Whose fury hath so much amaz'd all Greece.

 

 
 

 

Castor    

 

That  was the cause I Castor, with my brother
Pollux, arriv'd,  and left our sister Hellen

 

Imbrac't  by our old father Tyndarus,
To  rouze this beast.

 

 
 

 

Pollux    

 

Let  us no more be held
The sonnes of Leda, and be got  by Iove,
Brothers, and cal'd the two Tyndarian twins
If  we returne not crimson'd in the spoiles
Of this fierce Boare.

 

 
 

 

Nestor    

 

To  that end Nestor came.
Nestor, that hath already  liv'd one age,
And entred on the second, to the third
May  I nere reach, if part of that wilde swine
I bring not home  to Pylos where I reigne.

 

 
 

 

Atreus    

 

My  yong son Agamemnon, and his brother
Prince Menclaus in  his swathes at home,
Without some honour purchast on this  Boare,
May I no more see, or Myeenes visit.

 

 
 

 

Theseus    

 

Well  speakes Atreus, and his noble acts
Stil equalize his  language. Shall not Theseus
Veoter as farre as any?  heavens you know
I dare as much 'gainst any mortall foe.

 

 
 

 

Toxeus    

 

Wher's Hercules, that  at this noble busines
He is not present, being neere  ally'd
To Meleager, having late espowsed
His  sister Deianeira?

 

 
 

 

Plexippus

 

He's  for Busiris, that Aegytian tyrant.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

Else  noble valour, he would have bin first
To have purchast honour  in this hauty quest.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Atlanta with a Iavelin, Hornes winded.

 

 
 

 

Atlanta    

 

Haile  princes, let it not offend this troop,
That I a Princesse  and Atlanta cald,
A virgin Huntresse, presse into the  field,
In hope to double guild my Iavelins poynt
In bloud  of yon wilde swine.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

Virgineam  in  puero, puerilem in virgine vultum

 

 
 

 

Aspicio

 

Oh  you Gods! or make her mine,
Stated with us  the Calidonian Queene,
Or let this monstrous beaft  confound me quite,

 

And  in his vast wombe bury all my face.
Beauteous Atlanta welcome,  grace her princes
For Meleagers honour.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Come,  shal's uncupple Lords,
Some plant the toiles, others bravely  mount,
To un-den this savadge.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

Time  and my bashfull love
Admits no courtship, Lady ranke with  us.
Il'e be this day your guardian, and a shield
Betweene  you and all danger.

 

 
 

 

Atlanta

 

We  are free,
And in the chace will our owne guardian be.
Shals  to the field, my Iavelin and these shafts,
Pointed with death,  shall with the formost flye,
And by a womans hand the beast  shall dye.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Adonis winding his horne.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

As  bold as faire; but soft, whose bugle's that
Which cals us to  the chace? Adonis yours?

 

 
 

 

Adonis

 

Mine  oh you noble Greekes, we have discovered
The  dreadfull monster wallowing in his den:
The toyles are fixt,  the huntsmen plac't on hils
Prest for the charge, the  fierce Tbessalian hounds
With their flagge eares,  ready to sweep the dew
From the moist earth: their breasts are  arm'd with steele,
Against the incounter of so grim a  beast:
The hunters long to uncupple, and attend
Your  presence in the field.

 

 
 

 

Atlanta

 

Follow Atlanta.
Il'e  try what prince will second me in field,
And make his Iavelins  point shake even with mine.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

That Meleagers shall.

 

 
 

 

Telamon    

 

Nor Telamon
Will  come behinde Atlanta, or the Prince.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Charge  bravely then your Iavelins, send them singing
Through the  cleare aire, and aime them at yon fiend,
Den'd in the quechy  bogge, the signall Lords.

 

 
 

 

All

 

Charge,  charge.   

 

 
 

 

 A  great winding of hornes, and shouts.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

Princes,  shrill your Bugles free.
And all Atlanta's danger  fall on me.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Iason and Telamon.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

This  way, this way, renowned Telamon,
The Boare makes through  yon glade, and from the hils
He hurries like a tempest: In his  way
He prostrates trees, and like the bolt of Iove,
Shatters  where ere he comes.

 

 
 

 

Telamon    

 

Diana's wrath
Sparkles  grim terrour from his fiery eyes:
One Iavelin pointed with the  purest brasse,
I have blunted 'gainst his ribs, yet he  unscar'd,
The head, as darted 'gainst a rocke of  marble,
Rebounded backe.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

He  shakes off from his head
Our best Thessalian dogges,  like Sommer flyes:
Nor can their sharpe phangs fasten on his  hide.
Follow the cry.    

 

 
 

 

 A  shout. Enter Castor and Pollux.

 

 
 

 

Castor    

 

Wher's  noble Telamon?

 

 
 

 

Pollux    

 

Or  warlike Iason?

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Here  you Tyndarides,
Speake, which way bends this plague  of Calidon?

 

 
 

 

Castor    

 

Here  may you stand him, for behold he comes
Like a rough torrent,  swallowing where he spreads,
Over his head a cloud of terrour  hangs
In which leane death (as in a Chariot) rides,
Darting  his shafts on all sides: 'mongst the Princes
Of fertill Greece,  Anceus bowels  lye
Strewd on the earth, torne by his ravenous tuskes:
And  had not Nestor (by his Iavelins helpe)
Leap’t up  into an Oke to have scap't his rage,
He had now perisht in his  second Age.

 

 
 

 

Pollux    

 

Peleus is  wounded, Pelegon lies slaine,
Eupalemon hath all  his body rent
With an oblique wound:  yet Meleager still,
And Theseus, and Atreus, with  the rest,

 

Pursue  the chace, with Boare-speares cast so thicke,
That where they  flye, they seeme to darke the ayre,
And where they fall, they  threaten imminent ruine.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

To  these wee'/ adde our fury, and our fire,
And front him, though  his brow bare figured hell,
And every wrinkle were the gulfe of  Styx
By which the Gods contest: Come  noble Telamon,
Diana's monster by our hands shall  fall,
Or (with the Princes slaine) let's perish all.    

 

 
 

 

 Exeunt.  Hornes  and shouts. Enter Meleager, Atlanta.

 

   

 

Meleager    

 

Thou  beauteous Nonacris, Arcadia's pride,
How hath thy  valour with thy fortune ioyn'd,
To make thee staine the  generall fortitude
Of all the Princes we derive  from Greece,
Thy launces poynt hath on yon armed  monster,
Made the first wound, and the first crimson  droppe
Fell from his side, thy ayme and arme extracted,
Thy  fame shall never dye in Calidon.

 

 
 

 

Atlanta    

 

We  trifle heere, what shall Atlanta gaine
The first  wounds honour, and be absent from
The monsters death, we must  have hand in both.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

Thou  hast purchast honour and renowne enough,
Oh staine not all the  generall youth of Greece,
By thy too forward spirit. Come  not neere
Yon rude blood-thirsty savadge, lest he prey
On  thee, as on Anceus, and the rest,
Let me betweene  thee and all dangers stand.    

 

 
 

 

 Hornes.

 

 
 

 

Fight,  but fight safe beneath our puissant hand.

 

 
 

 

Atlanta    

 

The  cry comes this way, all my shafts Il'e spend.
To give the fury  that affrights us, end.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

And  ere that monster on Atlanta pray,
This point of  steele shal through his hart make way.   

 

 
 

 

 Exeunt.  After  great shouts, enter Venus.

 

 

 

Venus

 

Adonis, thou  that makest Venus a Huntresse,
Leave Paphos,  Gnidon, Eryx, Erecine,
And Amathon, with precious  mettals bigge,
Mayst thou this day live bucklerd in our wing,

 

And  shadowed in the amorous power of love:
My swannes I have  unyoakt, and from their necks
Tane of their bridles made of  twisted silke.
And from my chariot stucke with Doves white  plumes
Lighted upon this verdure, where the Boare
Hath in  his fury snow'd his scattered foame.      

 

 
 

 

 A  cry within.

 

 
 

 

What  cry was that? It was Adonis sure.   
That  piercesant shrike shrild through the musicall pipes
Of his  sweete voyces organs, thou Diana
If thou hast sent this  fiende to ruin love,
Or print the least skarre in  my Adons flesh
Thy chastity I will abandon quite,
And  with my loosenesse, blast thy Cinthian light.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Theseus and Nestor, bringing in Adonis wounded to death.

 

 
 

 

Theseus    

 

There  lie most beauteous of the youths of Greece,
Whose death I  will not mourne, ere I revenge.

 

 
 

 

Nestor    

 

I'le  second thee, thou pride of Greece adiew,
Whom too  much valor in thy prime ore-threw.   

 

 
 

 

 Exit.

 

   

 

Venus    

 

Y'are  not mine eyes, for they to fee him dead
Would from their soft  beds drop upon the earth:
Or in their owne warme liquid  moisture drowne
Their native brightnesse: th'art  not Venus heart,
For wer't thou mine, at this sad  spectacle
Th'dst breake these ribs though they were made of  brasse,
And leap out of my bosome instantly.
My sorrowes  like a populous throng, all striving
At once to passe through  some inforced breach,
In stead of winning passage stop the  way,
And so the greatest hast, breeds the most stay.
Oh  mee! my multiplicity of sorrowes,
Makes me almost forget to  grieve at all.
Speake, speake, my Adon, thou whom  death hath fed on
Ere thou wast yet full ripe; and this thy  beautie's
Devour'd ere tasted. Eye, where's now thy  brightnesse?
Or hand thy warmth? Oh that such lovely parts

 

Should  be by death thus made unserviceable.
That (livest then) had the  power to intrance Iove:
Ravish, amaze, and surfet, all  these pleasures
Venus hath lost by thy untimely fall.
And  therefore for thy death eternally
Venus shall mourne;  Earth shall thy trunke devoure,
But thy lives bloud I'le turne  into a flower,
And every Month in sollemne rights deplore,
This  beauteous Greeke slaine by Dianaes Boare.    

 

 
 

 

 Exit.  The  fall of the Boare being winded, Meleager with the head of the Boare,  Atlanta, Nestor, Toxeus, Plexippus, Iason, Thesus, etc. with their  iavellins bloudied.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

Thus  lies the terror that but once to day
Aw'd all the boldest  hearts of Calidon
Wallowing and weltering in his native  bloud,
Transfixt by us, but bravely seconded,
By  noble Iason, Theseus, Peleus,
Telamon,  Nestor, the Tyndarides,
And our bold unkles, al our  bore-speares stain'd
And gory hands lav'd in his reeking  bloud,
To whom belongs this brave victorious spoile?

 

 
 

 

All

 

To Meleager Prince  of Calidon.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

Is  that your generall suffrage?

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Let  not Greece
Suffer such merite unregarded passe,
Or  valour live unguerdon'd, that fel Swine
Whom yet, even dead,  th'amazed people feare,
And dare not touch but with  astonishment
Fell by thy hand.

 

 
 

 

Telamon    

 

Thou  stodst his violence,
Til thy sharpe Iavelin grated gainst his  broines,
Beneath his shield thou entred'st to his heart.
At  that we guirt him till a thousand wounds,
Hee from a thousand  hands receiv'd at once:
And in his fall it seem'd the earth did  groane,

 

And  the fixt Center tremble under him.

 

 
 

 

Castor    

 

The  spoile is thine, the yong Adonis death,
Anceus slaughter,  and the massacre
Of Archas, Pelagon, Eupateinon
And  all the Grecian Printes lost this day,
Thou hast  reveng'd, therefore be thine the fame,
Which with a generall  voyce Greece shall proclaime.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

Princes  wee thanke you, 'tis mine given me free.
Which faire Atlanta we  bestow on thee.

 

 
 

 

 Toxeus    

 

Ha,  to a woman.

 

 
 

 

Plexippus

 

And  so many men,
Ingag'd in't, call backe thy gift againe.

 

 
 

 

Castor    

 

Greece is  by this disparaged, and our fame
Fowly eclipst.

 

 
 

 

Pollux    

 

Snatch't  from that emulous Dame.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

Murmur  you Lords at Meleagers bounty,
We first bestow'd it  as our owne by guift,
Yea, and by right, but now we render  it
To bright Atlanta, as her owne by due
As shee  that from the Boare the first bloud drew.

 

 
 

 

Nestor    

 

We  must not suffer this disgrace to Greece.

 

 
 

 

Atreus    

 

Let  women claime 'mongst women eminence,
Our Lofty spirits, that  honour have in chace,
Cannot disgest wrongs womanish and base.

 

 
 

 

Castor    

 

Restore  this woman and thy sex enuy
For fortitude, aime not at quests  so hye.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Castor forbeare.

 

 
 

 

Telamon    

 

Hee  gives but what's his owne.

 

 
 

 

Theseus    

 

Tis  the Kings bounty.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

By  the immortall Gods,
That gave us this daies honour, the same  hand
By which the Calidonian terror fell,
Shall  him that frownes or murmurs lanch to hell.

 

 
 

 

All

 

That  will we try.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

Then  reskue for Atlanta,
This day shall fall for thee, that art  divine,
Monsters more savadge then Dianaes  swine.

 

 
 

 

 A  strange confused fray, Toxeus and Plexippus are slaine by Meleager,  Iason and Tellamon stand betweene the two factions.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

No  more, no more, behold your unkles slaine,
Save in this act two  Noble Gentlemen,
Pursue not fury to the spoile of Greece,
And  death of more brave Princes: let your rage
Be here confin'de,  cut off this purple streame
In his mid course, and turne this  torrent backe
Which in his fury else may drown'd us all.

 

 
 

 

Telamon    

 

I  second Iason and expose my selfe,
Betweene these  factions to compose a peace.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

Wee  have done too much already, impious fury,
How boundlesse is thy  power: uncircumscribed
By thought or reason, th'art all  violence,
Thy end repentance, sorrow and distast:
How  will Althea take her brothers death
From her sons  hand, but rash deeds executed
May be lamented, never be  recal'd
Shall the suruivers bee atton'd?

 

 
 

 

Atreus    

 

So  it be done with honour on both parts
Wee have swords to guard  our fortunes and our lives,
And but an equall language will  keepe both
Thus at the point.

 

 
 

 

Theseus    

 

Ioyne  hands renowned Princes,
The fury of the Prince of Calidon
Hath  prey'd but on his owne, there let it end,
No further by your  vrgent spleenes extend.

 

 
 

 

Castor    

 

We  are appeas'd.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Lords  freely then embrace.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

First  then, wee'le royally interre our unkles,
And spend some teares  upon their funerall rites,
That done we'le in our Palace feast  these Princes,
With bright Atlanta, whom wee'le make  our Queene.
Our Unkles once bestow'de into the earth,
Our  mournings shall expire in Bridall mirth.    

 

 
 

 

 Exeunt.  Enter King Oeneus and Althea, meeting the bodies of their two  brothers borne.

 

 
 

 

King  Oeneus

 

Come  to the Temple there to sacrifice
For these glad tydings, since  the Boare lies dead,
That fil'd our kingdome with such awe and  dread.

 

 
 

 

Althea    

 

What  ioy names Oeneus in this spectacle?
This of a  thousand the most sad and tragicke,
Whose murdered trunkes be  these?

 

 
 

 

Servant

 

Your  royall brothers, Prince Toxeus and Plexippus.

 

 
 

 

Althea    

 

Speake,  how slaine?

 

 
 

 

Servant  
Not by the Boare, but by your sons owne hand.

 

Althea    

 

By Meleagers, how?  upon what quarrell?
Could the proud boy ground such a damned  act.

 

 
 

 

Servant

 

Your  sonne to faire Atlanta gave the prise
Of this daies  travell, which for, they with-stood
In mutinous armes they  losse their vitall blouds.

 

 
 

 

Althea    

 

Shall  I revenge or mourne them.

 

 
 

 

King  Oeneus

 

O  strange fate.
An obiect that must shorten Oeneus daies,
And  bring these winter haires to a sad Tombe
Long ere there dare; I  sinke beneath these sorrowes
Into my blacke and timelesse  monument.

 

 
 

 

Althea    

 

My  sorrowes turne to rage, my teares to fire,
My praiers to  curses, vowes into revenge.   

 

 
 

 

King  Oeneus

 

Peace,  peace my Queene, let's beare the Gods vindiction
With patience,  as wee did Dianaes wrath:
Where Gods are bent to  punish, we may grieve
But can our selues nor succour, nor  relieve.
Come, let us do to them their latest rites,
Wait  on their Hearses in our mourning blacke;
Their happy soules are  mounted 'bove the spheares,
We'le wash their bodies in our  funerall teares.   

 

 
 

 

 Exit.  Manet  Althea.

 

   

 

Althea    

 

Althea what  distraction's this within thee?
A sister or a mother wilt thou  bee?
Since both I cannot, (for these Princes slaine)

 

Sister  I chuse, a mothers name disdaine:
The fatall brand in which the  murderers life
Securely lies, I'le hurle into the fire
And  as it flames, so shall the slave expire.
Mischeife I'le heape  on mischeife, bad on ill,
Wrong pay with wrongs, and slaughter  these that kill.
And since the Gods would all our glories  thrall,
I will with them have chiefe hand in our fall.
But  hee's my sonne: oh pardon me deere brothers,
Being a mother if  I spare his life,
Though it bee fit his sinne be plaug'd with  death,
And that his life lie in yon fatall brand,
'T will  not come fitly from a mothers hand.
Is this the hope of all my  ten months paine,
Must he by th'hand of him that nurst him now  be slaine?
Would he had perisht in his cradle, when
I gave  him twice life: in his birth, and then
When I the brand snatcht  from the ravenous flame,
And for this double good, hast thou  with shame
And inivry repaide me? I will now
A sister be,  no mother, for I vow
Revenge and death; Furies, assist my  hand
Whilst in red flames I cast his vitall brand.     

 

 
 

 

 Exit.  A banquet, enter Meleager, Iason, Theseus, Castor, Pollux, Nestor,  Peleus. Atreus, Atlanta.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

For  faire Atlanta, and your Honours, Lords
We banquet you  this day: and to beginne
Our festivals we'le crowne  this Ioviall health
Unto our brother, Theban  Hercules
And Deyaneira, will you pledge it Lords?

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

None  but admire and love their matchlesse worths,
Not  faire Atlanta will refuse this health.

 

 
 

 

Atlanta    

 

You  beg of mee a pledge, I'le take it Iason,
As  well for his sake that beginnes the round,
As those to whom  'tis vow'd.

 

 

Telamon    

 

Well  spoke Atlanta, but I wonder Lords
What Province now  holds Theban Hercules?

 

 
 

 

Theseus    

 

He  is the mirrour and the pride of Greece,
And shall in after  ages be renoun'd,
But we forget his health, come Tellamon
Aime  it at mee.    

 

 
 

 

 A fire:  enter Althea with the brand.

 

   

 

Althea    

 

Assist  my rage you sterne Eumenides,
To you this blacke deed will  I consecrate.
Pitty away, hence thou consanguine  love,
Maternall zeale, peccentall piety.
All cares, loves,  duties, offices, affections,
That grow 'tweene sonnes and  mothers, leave this place;
Let none but furies, murders,  paracides,
Be my assistants in this dam'd attempt:
All  that's good and honest, I confine,
Blacke is my purpose; Hell  my thoughts are thine.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

To  bright Atlanta this loud musicke sown'd,
Her health  shall with our loftiest straines be crown'd.

 

 
 

 

Althea    

 

Drinke,  quaffe, be blith; oh how this festive ioy
Stirs up my fury to  revenge and death,
Thus, thus, (you Gods above, abiect your  eies
From this unnaturall act) the murderer dies.

 

 
 

 

 Shee  fires the brand.

 

   

 

Meleager    

 

Oh,  oh.

 

 
 

 

Atlanta    

 

My  Lord.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

I  burne, I burne.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

What  suddaine passion's this?

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

The  flames of hell, and Pluto's fightlesse fires,
Are  through my entrals and my veines dispierst, oh!

 

 
 

 

Telamon    

 

My  Lord take courage.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

Courage Tellamon?
I  have a heart dares threate or challenge hell,
A brow front  heaven; a hand to challenge both:
But this my paine's beyond  all humane sufferance,
Or mortall patience.

 

 
 

 

Althea    

 

What  hast thou done Althea? stay thy fury,
And bring not  these strange torments on thine owne

 

Thou  hast too much already, backe my hand,

 

And  save his life as thou conferust this brand.    

 

 

 

 She  takes out the brand.

 

 
 

 

Atlanta

 

How  cheeres the warlike Prince of Calidon?

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

Well  now, I am at ease and peace within,
Whither's my torture fled?  that with such suddennesse
Hath freed me from disturbance, were  we ill?
Come sit againe to banquet, musicke sownd,
Till  this to Deyaneiraes health go round.

 

 
 

 

Althea    

 

Shall  mirth and ioy crowne his degenerate head?
Whilst his cold  Unkles on the earth lie spread?
No, wretehed youth whilst this  hand can destroy,
I'le cut thee off in midst of all thy ioy.   

 

 
 

 

 She  fires the brand.

 

   

 

Meleager    

 

Againe,  Againe.

 

 
 

 

Althea    

 

Burne,  perish, wast, fire, sparkle, and consume
And all thy vitall  spirits flie with this fume.

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

Still,  still, there is an Aetna in my bosome
The flames  of Stix, and fires of Acheron
Are from the  blacke Chimerian shades remou'd,
And fixt heere,  heere; oh for Evenus floud,
Or some coole streame, to  shoote his currents through
My flaming body, make thy channell  heere
Thou mighty floud that streamest through Calidon
And  quench me, all you springs of Thessaly
Remove your heads,  and fixe them in my veines
To coole me, oh!

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Defend  us heaven, what fuddaine extasy
Or unexpected torture hath  disturb'd
His health and mirth?

 

 
 

 

Meleager    

 

Worse  then my torment,
That I must die thus, thus, that the Boare had  slaine me,
Happy Anceus and Adonis blest,
You  died with fame, and honour crownes your rest;
My flame  increaseth still, oh father Oeneus
And you Althea, whom  I would call mother
But that my genius prompts me th'art  unkind,
And yet farewell, Atlanta beauteous maide,
I  cannot speake my thoughts for torture, death,

 

Anguish  and paines, all that Promethean fire
Was stolne from  heaven, the Thiefe left in my bosome.
The Sunne hath cast his  element on me,
And in my entralls hath he fixt his Spheare,
His  pointed beames he hath darted through my heart,
And I am still  on flame.

 

 
 

 

Althea    

 

So,  now'tis done,
The brand consum'd, his vitall threed quite spun.     

 

 
 

 

 Exit.

 

   

 

Meleager    

 

Now'gins  my fire waste, and my naturall heat
To change to Ice, and my  scortch't blood to freeze.
Farewell, since his blacke ensigne  death displayes,
I dye, cut off thus in my best of dayes.      

 

 
 

 

 He  dyes.

 

   

 

Iason    

 

Dead  is the flower and pride of Calidon.
Who would displease  the Gods? Diana's wrath
Hath stretch't even to the  death, and tragicke ruine
Of this faire hopefull Prince, here  stay thy vengeance
Goddesse of chastity, and let it hang
No  longer ore the house of Calidon:
Since thou hast cropt the  yong, spare these old branches
That yet survive.      

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Althea.

 

   

 

Althea    

 

She  shall not, Iason no,
She shall not. Do you wonder  Lords of Greece,
To see this Prince lye dead? why that's  no novell,
All men must dye, thou, he, and every one,
Yea  I my selfe must: but Il'e tell you that
Shall stiffe your  haire, your eyes start from heads,
Print fixt amazement in your  wondring fronts,
Yea and astonish all: This was my sonne,
Borne  with sick throws, nurst from my tender brest
Brought up with  femine care, cherisht with love:
His youth, my pride; his  honour all my wishes,
So deere, that little lesse he was then  life.
But will you know the wonder ('lasse) too true,
Him  (all my sonnes) this my inrag'd hand slue,
This hand,  that Dians quenchlesse rage to fill,
Shall with the  slaine sonnes sword the mother kill.

 

 
 

 

 Althea  kils herselfe with Meleagers sword.

 

 
 

 

Telamon    

 

The  Queene hath slaine herselfe: who'l beare these newes to the sad  King?     

 

 
 

 

 Enter  a servant.

 

   

 

Servant

 

That  labour may be spar'd:
The King no sooner heard of his sonnes  death,
(wrought by his mother in the fatall brand)
But he  sunke dead: sorrow so chang'd his weakenesse,
And without word  or motion he expir'd.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Wee'l  see them (ere we part from Calidon)
Inter'd with honour:  But we soiourne long
In this curst Clime; oh let us not  incurro
Diana's fury, our next expedition
Shall be  for Colchos, and the golden Fleece,
Unto which  (Princes) we inuite you all.
Our stately Argoe we  have rig'd and trim'd,
And in it we will beare the best  of Greece,
Stil'd from our ship by name  of Argonauts.
Great Hercules will with his  company,
Grace our aduenture, and renowne all Greece,
By  the rich purchase of the Colchian Fleece.   

 

 
 

 

 Exit.

 

 
 

 

Homer

 

   Let  not even Kings against the Gods contest,
 Lest in this fall  their ruines be exprest.
Thinke Hercules, from  clensing the fowle stall
And stable of Augeus, in  which fed
Three hundred Oxen, (never freed at all,
Till  his arrive) return'd where he was  bred,
To Thebes; there Deianeira him  receives
With glad imbraces, but he staies not long,
Iason the  Lady of her Lord bereaves:
For in the new-rig'd Argoe, with  the yong
 And sprighly Heroes, he at Colchos aimes,
   Where the rich Fleece must publish their high fames.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Deianeira and Lychas: to her Hercules, received with ioy,  after the presentment of some of his labours. To them march in all  the Argonauts, Iason, Telamon, Atreus, Castor, Pollux, Theseus, etc.  Iason perswades Hercules to the aduenture: hee leaves Deianeira, and  marcheth off with the Argonauts.

 

Imagine  now these Princes under saile,
Stearing their course as farre  as high-rear'd Troy,
Where King Laomedon doth much  bewaile
His daughter, whom a Sea-whale must destroy.
   Observe this well: for here begins the iarre
 Made Troy  rack't after in a ten yeares warre.

 

 
 

 

 Sownd.  Enter King Laomedon, Anchises, yong Priam, Aeneas, Hesione bound,  with other Lords and Ladyes.

 

 
 

 

King  Laomedon    

 

Hesione, this  is thy last on earth,
Whose fortunes we may mourne, though not  prevent:
Would Troy, whose walles I did attempt to  reare,
Had nere growne higher then their ground-fils, or
In  their foundation buried beene, and lost,
Since their high  structure must be thus maintain'd,
With bloud of our bright  Ladyes: Oh Hesione!
Th'onely remainder of these female  dames
Begot by us, I must be queath thy body
To be the  food of Neptunes monstrous Whale.

 

 
 

 

Priam    

 

Had  you kept troth and promise with the Gods,
This had not chanc't:  You borrowed of the Priests
Of Neptune and Apollo, Sea,  and Sunne,
That quantity of gold, which to this height
And  spacious compasse, hath immur'd great Troy;
But the worke  finish't, you deny'd to pay
The Priests their due, for which  inraged N•…ptune
Assembled his high tides, thinking to  drowne
Our lofty buildings, and to ruine Troy:
But  when the Moone, by which the Seas are govern'd,
Retir'd his  waters by her powerfull wane,
He left behind him such  infectious slime,
Which the Sunne poysoning by his persant  beames.
They by their mutuall power, rais'd a hot plague,

 

To  slacke this hot pest, Neptune made demand,
Monthly a  Lady to be chus'd by lot,
To glut his huge Sea-monsters  ravenous iawes:
The lot this day fell on Hesione
Our  beauteous sister.

 

 
 

 

King  Laomedon    

 

Priam 'tis  too true,
Till now Laomedon nere knew his guilt,
Or  thought the Gods could punish.

 

 
 

 

Hesione    

 

Royall  father,
Mourne not for me, the Gods must be appeas'd,
And  I in this am happy, that my death
Is made th'attonement 'tweene  those angry powers
And your afflicted people, though my  Innocence
Never deserv'd such rigor from the Gods.
Come  good Anchises, binde me to this rocke,
And let my  body glut th'insatiate fury
Of angry Neptune, and  th'offended Sunne.

 

 
 

 

Anchises    

 

A  more unwilling monster never past
Anchises hand.

 

 
 

 

King  Laomedon    

 

Now,  now the time drawes nye,
That my sweet childe by Neptunes whale  must dye.

 

 
 

 

Priam    

 

The  very thought of it swallowes my heart
As deepe in sorrow, as  the monster can
Bury my sister.     

 

 
 

 

 A  great showt within.

 

   

 

King  Laomedon    

 

Soft,  what clamor's that?

 

 
 

 

Æneas

 

A  stately ship, well rig'd with swelling failes,
Enters the  harbour, bound (by their report)
For Colchos; but when  they beheld the shores
Covered with multitudes, and spy'd from  farre,
Your beauteous daughter fastned to the rocke,
They  made to know the cause; which certified,
One  noble Greeke amongst these Heroes stands,
And offers  to incounter Neptunes whale,
And free from death the  bright Hesione.

 

 
 

 

King  Laomedon    

 

Thou  hast (Æneas) quickned me from death,
And added to my date a  second Age.
Admit them.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Hercules, Iason, Castor, Pollux, Theseus, and all the Argonauts.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

’Tis  told us that thy name's Laomedon,
And that thy beauteous  daughter must this day
Feed a sea-monster: how wilt thou  reward
The man that shall incounter Neptunes whale?
Tugge  with that fiend upon thy populous strond,
And with my club  sowse on his armed scales?
Hast thou not heard of Theban  Hercules?
I that have aw'd the earth, and ransack't hell,
Will  through the Ocean hunt the God of streames,
And chace him from  the deepe Abismes below.
Il'e dare the Sea-god from his watery  deepes
If he take part with this Leviathan.

 

 
 

 

King  Laomedon    

 

Thy  name and courage warlike Hercules
Assures her life, if  thou wilt undertake
This hauty quest: two milke white steeds,  the best
Asia ere  bred, shall be thy valours prize.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

We  accept them; keepe thy faith Laomedon,
If thou but  break'st with Iove-borne Hercules,
These marble  structures, built with virgins bloud,
Il'e raze even with the  earth. When comes the monster?

 

 
 

 

Hesione

 

Now,  now, helpe Iove.   

 

 
 

 

 A  cry within.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

I  see him sweepe the sea's along.
Blow rivers through his  nostrils as he glides,
As if he meant to quench the Sunnes  brightfire,
And bring a palped darknesse ore the earth:
He  opes his iawes as if to swallow Troy,
And at one yawne  whole thousands to destroy.

 

 
 

 

King  Laomedon    

 

Fly,  flye into the Citty.   

 

 
 

 

 Exeunt  the Troians.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Take  along
This beauteous Lady, if he must have pray,
In stead  of her Alcides here will stay.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

The  heartlesse Troians fly into the towne
At fight of yon  sea-divell: here wee'l stand
To wait the conquest of  thy Ioviall hand.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Gramercy Iason, see  he comes in tempest,
Il'e meet him in a storme as violent,
And  with one stroke which this right hand shall aime,
Ding him into  th'abisse from whence he came.

 

 
 

 

 Hercules  kils the Sea-Monster, the Troians on the walles, the Greekes below.

 

 
 

 

Priam    

 

The  monster's slaine, my beautuous sister freed.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Be  ever for this noble deed renown'd,
Let Asia speake  thy praise.

 

 
 

 

Telamon    

 

The Argonauts
Are  glorifi'd by this victorious act.

 

 
 

 

Priam    

 

All Troy shall  consecrate to Hercules
Temples and Altars: lets descend  and meet him.

 

 
 

 

King  Laomedon    

 

Stay,  none presume to stirre, wee'l parly them
First from the walles.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Why  doth not Troy's King from those wals descend?
And  since I have redeem'd Hesione,
Present my travels with two  milke-white steeds,
The prize of my indevours?

 

 
 

 

King  Laomedon    

 

Hercules we  owe thee none, none will we tender thee,
Thou hast won thee  honour, a reward sufficient
For thy attempt: our gates are shut  against thee,
Nor shall you enter, you are Greekish spies,
And  come to pry but where our land is weake.

 

 
 

 

Priam    

 

Oh  royall father!

 

 
 

 

King  Laomedon    

 

Peace  boy: Greekes away:
For imminent death attends on your  delay.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

The  Sea nere bred a monster halfe so vile
As this Land-fiend. Darft  threaten Hercules?
Would universall Troy were  in one frame,
That I might whelme it on thy cursed head,
And  crowne thee in thy ruine. Menace us?

 

 
 

 

King  Laomedon    

 

Depart  our walles, or we will fire your Argoe,
Lying in our  harbour, and prevent your purpose
In the atchievement of the  golden fleece,

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Laomedon, Il'e  tosse thee from thy walles,
Batter thy gates to shivers with my  Club,
Nor will I leave these broad Scamander plaines,
Til  thy aspiring Towers of Illium
Lye levell with the place on  which we stand.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Great Hercules, th'aduenture  fals to me,
Our voyage bent for Colchos, not  for Troy,
The golden fleece, and not Laomedon:
Why  should we hazard here our Argonauts?
Or spend our selues  on accidentall wrongs?

 

 
 

 

Telamon    

 

Iason adviseth  well, great Hercules,
We should dishonour him, and  th'expectation
Greece hath of us, delude by this delay.

 

 
 

 

Theseus    

 

Then  let us from this harbour launch our Argoe,
To Colchos first,  and in our voyage home
Revenge us on this false Laomedon.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

You  sway me princes: farewell trecherous King,
Nought, save thy  bloud, shall satisfie this wrong
And base dishonour done  to Hercules.
Expect me; for by Olimpicke Iove I  sweare.
Nere to set foot within my  native Thebes,
See Deianeira, or to touch  in Greecs,
Till I'have scal'd these mures,  inuaded Troy,
Ransack't thy Citty, slaine Laomedon,
And  venge the Gods that governe Sea and Sunne.
Come  valiant Heroes, first the fleece to enioy,
And in our  backe returne to ransacke Troy.    

 

 
 

 

 Exeunt.

 

 
 

 

King  Laomedon    

 

We  dread you not, wee'l answere what is done.
As well as stand  'gainst Neptune and the Sunne.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Oetes, King of Colchos, Medea, yong Absyrtus, with Lords.

 

 
 

 

Oetes

 

How  may we glory above other kings
Being (by our birth) descended  from the Gods?
Our wealth renowned through the world  tripartite,
Most in the riches of the golden fleece,
And  not the least of all our happinesse,
Medea for her  powerfull magicke skill,
And Negromanticke exorcismes  admir'd,
And dreaded through the Colchian territories.

 

 
 

 

Medea

 

I  can by Art make rivers retrograde,
Alter their channels, run  backe to their heads,
And hide them in the springs from whence  they grew.
The curled Ocean with a word Il'e smooth,
(Or  being calme) raise waves as high as hils,
Threatning to swallow  the vast continent.
With powerfull charmes Il'e make the Sunne  stand still,
Or call the Moone downe from her arched  spheare.
What cannot I by power of Hecate?

 

 
 

 

Absyrtus    

 

Discourse  (faire sister) how the golden fleece
Came first to Colchos.

 

 
 

 

Medea    

 

Let Absyrtus know,
Phrixus the  sonne of Theban Athamas,
And his faire  sister Helles, being betraid
By their curst  step-dame Ino, fled from Greece,
Their Innocence  pittied by Mercury,
He gave to them a golden-fleeced  Ramme,
Which bore them safe to the Sygean sea,
Which  swimming, beauteous Helles there was drown'd,
And  gave that sea the name of Hellespont,
That which  parts Sestus and Abidos still:
Phrixus arrives  at Colchos, and to Mars
There sacrific'd his  Ramme in memory
Of his safe wastage, favoured by the Gods.
The  golden Fleece was by the Oracle
Commanded to be fixt there,  kept and guarded
By two fierce Buls, that breath insernall  fires,
And by a wakefull Dragon, in whose eyes
Never came  sleepe: for in the safe conserving
Of this divine and worthy  monument,
Our kingdomes weale and safety most consists.

 

 
 

 

Oetes

 

And  he that strives by purchase of this fleece,
To weaken us, or  shake our Royalty,

 

Must  tast the fury of these fiery fiends,     

 

 
 

 

 A  shoote.

 

 
 

 

The  novell: speake.       

 

 
 

 

 Enter  a Lord.

 

 
 

 

Lord

 

Upon  the Cholchian shores
A stately vessell, man'd it  seemes from Greece
Is newly lancht, full fraught with  Gentlemen
Of brave aspects and presence.

 

 
 

 

Oetes    

 

Whose  their Generall?

 

 
 

 

Lord

 

Iason, he  stiles himselfe a Prince of Greece
And Captaine o're the  noble Argonautes.

 

 
 

 

Oetes    

 

Usher  them in, that we may know their quest
And what aduenture drew  them to these shoares.

 

 
 

 

 Sound.  Enter Iason, Hercules, Theseus, Castor, Pollux, etc.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Haile  king of Colchos, thou beholdst in us
The noblest  Heroes that inhabite Greece
Of whom I, though unworthiest,  stile my selfe
The Generall; the intent of this our voyage
Is  to reduce the rich and golden prise
To Greece, from  whence it came, know I am come
To tug and wrastle with the  infernall Buls,
And in their hot fiers double guild my armes
To  place upon their necks the servile yoake,
And bondage, force  them plow the field of Mars,
Till in the furrowes I have  sowed the teeth
Of vipers, from which men in armour grow
To  enter combat with the sleepelesse Dragon,
And mauger him fetch  thence the golden Fleece.
All this Oetes, I am prest  to atchieve
Against these horrid tasks my life to ingage
Buls  fury, Vipers poyson, Dragons rage.

 

 
 

 

Medea    

 

Such  a bold spirit, and noble presence linkt,
Never before were  seene in Phasis Isle,
Colchos be proud, a Prince  demands thy Fleece,
Richer then that he comes for; let  the Greekes
Our Phasian wealth  and Oetes treasure beare,
So they in liew will leave  me Iason here.

 

 

Oetes    

 

Princes,  you aime at dangers more in proffe
Then in report, which if you  should behold
In their true figure, would amaze your  spirits:
Yea, terifye the Gods; let me advise you,
As one  that knowes their terrour, to desist
Ere you enwrap your seffe  into these perils,
Whence there is no evasion.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Oetes, know
Peril's  a babe, the greater dangers threaten
The greater is his honour  that breaks through.
Have we in th' Agoe rowed with  sixty oares
And at each Oare a Prince;  pierc't Samothrace,
The Chersoneson sea,  the Hellespont;
Even  to the waves that breake on Colchos shoares?
And  Shall we with dishonour turne to Greece?
Know Oetes, not  the least of sixty Heroes
That now are in thy Confines,  but thy monsters
Dare quell and baffle.

 

 
 

 

Telamon

 

Much  more Hercules.

 

 
 

 

Oetes    

 

Hercules.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Starts Oetes at  the name of Hercules,
What would he do to see him in his  eminence;
But leaving that, this must be Iasons quest,
A  worke not worthy him; where be these monsters?

 

 
 

 

Medea    

 

May  all inchantments be confinde to hell,
Rather then he encounter  fiends so fell.

 

 
 

 

Oetes    

 

Princes,  since you will needs attempt these dangers
You shall; and if  atchieve the Golden Fleece
Transport it where you please, meane  time, this day
Repose your selues, wel'e feast you in our  Pallace.
To morrow morning with the rising Sunne,
Our  golden prise shall be conserv'd or wonne.    

 

 
 

 

 Exit.

 

 
 

 

Medea    

 

If  he attempts he dies, what's that to mee?
Why should Medea feare  a strangers life?
Or what's that Iason I should dread  his fall?
If //////////, my fathers glory waines,
And all  our fortunes must reward his paines.
Let Iason perish  then, and Colchos flourish.
Our pristine glories let  us still enioy,
And these our brasse-head buls the Prince  destroy.
Oh! what distraction's this within me bred,
Although  he die, I would not see him dead?
The best I see, the worst I  follow still,
Hee nere wrong'd mee, why should I wish him  ill?
Shall the Buls tosse him whom Medea loves,
A  Tygresse, not a Princesse, should I prove?
To see him tortured  whom I deerely love?
Bee then a torteresse to thy fathers  life,
A robber of the clime where thou wast bred,
And for  some straggler that hath lost his way,
Thy fathers Kingdome and  his State betray.
Tush, these are nothing, first his faith I'le  crave,
That covenant made, him by enchantments save.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Iason.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

My  task is above strength, Duke Peleus sent me
Not to  atchieve, but die in this pursuite,
And to prevent the Oracle  that told him
I must succeed; Iason bethinke thee  then
Thou com'st to execution, not to act
Things above  man; I have observ'd Medea
Retort upon me many an amorous  looke,
Of which I'le studdy to make prosperous use.
If by  her art the Inchantments I can bind
Immur'd with death, I  certaine safety find.

 

 
 

 

Medea    

 

Shall  I o're-whelme upon my captive head,
The curse of all our  Nation, the Crownes ruin?
Clamours of men, and woemens loud  exclaimes.
Burnings of children; the universall curse
Of a  great people, all to save one man,
A straggler (God knowes  whence deriv'd, where borne,
Or hether where Noble? let the  proud Greeke die,
Wee still in Colchos sit  instated hye
Oh me! that looke upon Medea cast
Drownes  all these feares, and hath the rest surpast.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Madam,  because I love I pitty you,
That you a beauteous Lady, art-full  wise,
Should have your beauty and your wisedome both
Inuelopt  in a cloud of Barbarisme:
That on these barren Confines you  should live,
Confin'd into an Angle of the world.
And  ne're see that which is the world indeed,
Fertile and  populous Greece, Greece that beares men,
Such as  resemble Gods, of which in us
You see the most deiected, and  the meanest.
How harshly doth your wisedome sound in  th'eares
Of these Barbarians, dull, unapprehenfible,
And  such, in not conceiving your hid Arts,
Deprive them of their  honour; In Greece springs
The fountaines of Divine  Phylosophy,
They are all understanders; I would have you
Bright  Lady with us, enter to that world
Of which this Colchos is  no part at all.
Shew then your beauty to these iudging  eies,
Your wisedome to these understanding eares.
In which  they shall receive their merited grace,
And leave this  barraine, cold, and stirrill place.

 

 
 

 

Medea    

 

His  presence without all this Oratory
Did much with us, but where  they both conioyne
To entrap Medea, shee must needs  bee caught.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

I  long to see this Colchian Lady clad
In Hymens stateliest  roabes, whom the glad Matrones,
Bright Ladies, and Imperiall  Queenes of Greece
Shall welcome and applaud, and with rich  gifts
Present, for saving of their sonnes and kinsmen
From  these infernall monsters: As for Iason
If you Medea shall  despise his love,
He craves no other life then to die so,
Since  life without you is but torturing paine,
And death to men  distrest is double gaine.

 

 
 

 

Medea    

 

That  tongue more then Medeaes spels inchants,
And not a  word, but like our exoreismes
And power of charmes prevailes,  Oh lone! thy Maiesty
Is greater then the  triple Hecates,
Bewitching Circes, or these  hidden skils,
Ascrib'd unto th'infernall Proserpine.
I  that by incantations can remove
Hils from their syts, and make  huge mountaines shake,
Darken the Sunne at noone, call from  their graves
Ghosts long since dead, that can command the  earth,
And affright heaven, no spell at all can find
To  bondage love, or free a captive minde.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Love Iason then,  and by thy Divine aide,
Give me such power, that I may tug  unscorcht
Amidst the flames with these thy fiery fiends,
That  I unuenom'd may these Vipers teeth
Cast from my hand,  through Morpheus leaden charmes,
Over that wakefull  snake that guards the Fleece,
For which live Iasons happy  Bride in Greece.

 

 
 

 

Medea    

 

A  match, what hearbs or spels, what Magicke can
Command in  heaven, earth, or in hell below,
What either aire, or sea can  minister,
To guard thy person, all these helps I'le gather
To  girdle thee with safety.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Be  thou then
For ever Iasons, and  through Greece renown'd
In whom our Heroes have  such safety found,
Our bargaine thus I seale.      

 

 
 

 

 He  kisseth her.

 

 
 

 

Medea    

 

Which  I'le make good
With Colchos fall, and with my fathers  bloud.   

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Absyrtus.

 

 
 

 

Absyrtus    

 

Prince Iason, all  the Heroes at the banquet
Inquire for you, twice hath  my father Oetes
Made search for you; Oh sister!

 

 
 

 

Medea    

 

No  word you saw us two in conference.

 

 
 

 

Absyrtus    

 

Do  you take me to be a woman, to tell all I see,
And blab all I  know, I that am in hope one day to
Lie with a woman, will once  lie for a woman,
Sister, I saw you not.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Remember;  come Prince, will you leade the way?

 

 

Absyrtus    

 

I  have parted you that never parted fray
Come sir will you  follow.   

 

 
 

 

 Exit.  Manet Medea.

 

 
 

 

Medea    

 

The  night growes on, and now to my black Arts,
Goddesse of  witchcraft and darke ceremony,
To whom the elues of Hils, of  Brookes, of Groves,
Of standing lakes, and cavernes vaulted  deepe
Are ministers; three-headed Hecate
Lend me thy  Chariot drawne with winged snakes,
For I this night must  progresse through the Aire.
What simples grow in Tempe  of Thessaly,
Mount Pindus, Otheris, Ossa,  Appidane,
Olimpus, Caucas. or high Teneriff.
I  must select to finish this great worke,
Thence must I flye  unto Amphrisus Foords,
Aud gather plants by the  swift Sperchius streames,
Where  rushy Bebes, and Anthedon flow,
Where  hearbes of bitter iuice and strong sent grow;
These must I with  the haires of Mandrakes use,
Temper  with Poppy-seeds and Hemlocke iuice:
With Aconitum that  in Tartar springs,
With Cypresse,  E//, and Veruin, and these mix
With  Incantations, Spels, and Exorcismes
Of wonderous power and  vertue; oh thou night,
Mother of darke Arts hide mee in thy  vaile,
Whilst I those banks search, and these mountaines skale.

 

 
 

 

 Sownd.  Enter King Oetes, Absyrtus, and Lords.

 

 
 

 

Oetes

 

Upon  the safeguard of this golden Fleece
Colchos depends,  and he that beares it hence
Beares with it all our fortunes;  the Argonautes
Have it in quest, if Iason scape  our monsters
I'le rather at some banquet poyson him,
And  quaffe to him his death, or in the night
Set fire upon  his Argoe, and in flames
Consume the happy hope of  his returne,
This purpose we, as we are Colchos King,

 

Absyrtus where's  your sister?

 

 
 

 

Absyrtus

 

In  her chamber.

 

 
 

 

Oetes    

 

When  you next see her give to her this noate,
The manner of our  practise, her fell hand
Cannot be mist in this, but it shall  fall
Heauy on these that Colchos seekes to  thrall.
The howre drawes nigh, the people throng on heapes,
To  this aduenture in the field of Mars,
And noble Iason arm'd  with his good shield,
Is up already and demands the field.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Iason, Hercules, and the Argonauts.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Oetes, I  come thus arm'd, demanding combat
Of all those monsters that  defend thy Fleece:
And to these dangers singly, I oppose
My  person as thou seest, when setst thou ope
The gates of hell to  let thy devils out?
Glad would I wrastle with thy fiery  Buls,
And from their throats the flaming dewlops  teare.
Unchaine them, and to Iason turne them  loose,
That as Alcides did to Achelous;
So  from their hard fronts I may teare there hornes,
And lay the  yoake upon their untam'd necks.

 

 
 

 

Oetes    

 

Yet  valiant Greeke desist, I, though a stranger
Pitty thy  youth, or if thou wilt persist
So dreadfull is the aduenture  thou persuest,
That thou wilt thinke I shall unbowell  hell,
Unmacle the fiends, and make a passage
Free for the  Infernals.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

I  shall welcome all.
Medea now if there be power in love;
Or  force in Magicke; if thou hast or will
Or Art, try all the  power of Characters,
Vertue of Symples, Stones, or hidden  spels,
If earth Elues, or nimble airy Spirits,
Charmes,  Incantations, or darke Exorcismes.
If any strength remaine in  Pyromancy,
Or the hid secrets of the aire or fire.
If the  Moones spheare can any helpe infuse,
Or any influent Starre,  collect them all
That I by thy aide may these monsters thrall.

 

 
 

 

Oetes    

 

Discover  them.

 

 
 

 

 Two  fiery Buls are discovered, the Fleece hanging over them, and the  Dragon sleeping beneath them: Medea with strange  fiery-workes, hangs above in the Aire in the strange habite of a  Coniuresse.

 

 
 

 

Medea    

 

The  hidden power of Earth, Aire, Water, Fire,
Shall from this place  to Iasons helpe conspire.
Fire withstand fire, and  magicke temper flame,
By my strong spels the savadge monster's  tame:
So, that's perform'd, now take the Vipers teeth
And  sow them in the furrowed field of Mars.
Of which strange  seed, men ready arm'd must grow
To assault Iason. Already  from beneath
Their deadly pointed weapons gin to appeare,
And  now their heads, thus moulded in the earth,
Streight way shall  teeme; and having freed their fate
(The stalkes by which they  grow) all violently
Pursue the valiant Greeke, but by  my sorcery
I'le turne their armed points against themselues
And  all these slaves that would on Iason flie.    

 

 
 

 

 Shoutes.

 

 
 

 

Shall  wound themselues and by sedition die.
Yet thrives  the Greeke, now kill the sleeping snake
Which I have  charm'd, and thence the Trophy take,
These shouts witnesse his  conquest, Ile discend,
Heare Iasons feares and all my  charmes take end.

 

 
 

 

Hercules

 

Oetes,  now is this rich and pretious Fleece,
By Iasons sword  repurchast, and must turne
Unto the place  whence Phrixus brought his Ramme.

 

 
 

 

Oetes    

 

That  practise by your ruins; Ile prevent,
And sooner then with that  returne to Greece,
Your slaughtered bodies leave with this  rich fleece.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Since  our aduenture is atchiev'd and done,
The prize is ours, we  ceize what we have wone.

 

 
 

 

Oetes    

 

Enioy  it Iason, I admire thy worth,
Which as it hath  exceeded admiration,
So must we needs applaud it. Noble  gentlemen.
Depart not Colchos, ere your worths and  valour
We with some rich and worthy gifts present.
The  conquest of our Buls, and Dragons death,
(Though we esteem'd  them) yet they sad us not,
Since we behold the safety of this  prince.
Enter our palace, and your praise sownd hye,
Where  you shall feast, (or all by treason dye.)    

 

 
 

 

 Exeunt.

 

 
 

 

Absyrtus    

 

I  have not seeene my sister to day, I muse she hath
not beene at  this solemnity, me thinkes she should not have
lost this  triumph; I have a note to deliver her from my fa-
ther. Here  she comes.    

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Medea.

 

 
 

 

Sister,  peruse this briefe, you know the character,
It is my fathers.  This is all.   

 

 
 

 

 Exit.  She reads.

 

 
 

 

Medea    

 

Iason with  his Argonauts this night must perish, the
fleece not  be trāsported to Greece—Medea, your assistance.
This  is my fathers plot to overthrow
Prince Iason, and the  noble Argonauts,
Which Il'e prevent: I know the King is  sudden,
And if prevention be delay'd, they dye:
I that  have ventured thus farre for a love,
Even to these arts that  Nature would have hid
As dangerous and forbidden, shall I  now
Undoe what I have done, through womanish feare,
Paternall  duty, or for filiall love?
No Iason, thou art mine,  and my desire,
Shall wade with thee through bloud, through  seas, through fire.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Iason.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Madam.

 

 
 

 

Medea    

 

My  Lord, I know what you would say,
Thinke now upon your life, the  King my father
Intends your ruine, to redeeme the fleece,

 

And  it repurchase with your tragicke deaths:
Therefore assemble all  your Argonauts,
And let them (in the silence of the  night)
Lanch from the Colchian harbour; Il'e  associate you
As Iasons bride.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

You  are my patronesse,
And under you I triumph: when the least
Of  all these graces I forget, the Gods
Revenge on me my hated  periury.
Must we then lanch this night? you are my  directresse,
And by your art Il'e manage all my actions.

 

 
 

 

Medea    

 

Then  flye, Il'e send to see your Argoe trim'd,
Rig'd and  made tight: night comes, the time growes on:
Hye then aboord.       

 

 
 

 

Iason

 

I  shall.    

 

 
 

 

 Exit.

 

 
 

 

Medea    

 

Now  populous Greece,
Thanke us (not Iason) for this  conquer'd fleece.  

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Oetes.

 

 
 

 

Oetes    

 

Medea, we  are rob'd, despoil'd, dishonored,
Our Fleece rap't hence, we  must not suffer it,
Since all our ominous fortunes it  includes,
I am resolu'd Iason this night shall dye.

 

 
 

 

Medea    

 

Should  he survive, you might be held unworthy
The name of King; my  hand shall be as deepe
As yours in his destruction.

 

 
 

 

Oetes    

 

A  strong guard
I will select, and in the dead of night,
When  they are sunke in Lethe, set upon them,
And kill them in their  beds.

 

 
 

 

Medea    

 

Il'e  second you,
And lave my stain'd hands in their reeking  blouds
That practise your dishonour.

 

 
 

 

Oetes    

 

Iason then  dyes,
When he most hopes for this rich Colchian prize.     

 

 
 

 

 Exit.

 

 
 

 

Medea    

 

But  ere the least of all these ils betide,
This Colchian strond  shall with thy bloud be dy'd.
For Iason and  his Argonauts I stand,
And will protect them with my  art and hand.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Iason with the Fleece, and all the Greekes muffled.

 

 

Iason    

 

Madam Medea.

 

 
 

 

Medea    

 

Leave  circumstance, away,
Hoyse up your sailes, death and  destruction
Attends you on the shoare.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

You'l  follow Madam.    

 

 
 

 

 Exit.

 

 
 

 

Medea    

 

Instantly:  Blow gentle gales, assist them winds and tide,
That I  may Greece see, and live Iasons bride.   

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Absyrtus.

 

 

 

Absyrtus    

 

How  now sister, so solitary?

 

 
 

 

Medea    

 

Oh  happy met, though it be late Absyrtus,
You must along with  me.     

 

 
 

 

Absyrtus    

 

Whither  pray?

 

 
 

 

Medea    

 

Il'e  tell you as we walke.
This lad betweene me and all harme shall  stand;
And if the King pursue us with his Fleet,
His  mangled limbes shall (scattered in the way)
Worke our escape,  and the Kings speed delay.
Come brother.   

 

 
 

 

Absyrtus    

 

Any  where with you sister.  

 

 
 

 

 Exeunt.  Enter Homer.

 

 
 

 

Homer

 

Let  none to whom true Art is not deny'd,
Our monstrous Buls, and  magicke Snakes deride.
Some thinke this rich Fleece was a  golden Booke,
The leaves of parchment, or the skins of  Rammes,
Which did inclide the Art of making gold
By  Chimicke skill, and therfore rightly stild,
The Golden  Fleece, which to attaine and compasse,
Includes as many  travels, mysteries,
Changes and Chymicke bodies, fires and  monsters,
As ever Iason could in Colchos meet.
The  sages, and the wise, to keepe their Art
From being vulgar: yet  to have them tasted
With appetite and longing, give those  glosses,
And flourishes to shadow what they write,
Which  might (at once) breed wonder and delight.
So did th' Ægyptians  in the Arts best try'd,
In Hierogliphickes all their  Science hide.
But to proceed, the Argonauts are  fled,
Whom the inrag'd Oetes doth pursue,
And  being in sight, Medea takes the head

 

Of  yong Absyrtus, whom (unkinde) she slue,
And all his  other limbes strawes in the way
Of the old father, his pursute  to stay.

 

 
 

 

The  Shew.

 

In  memory of this inhumane deed,
These Islands where his  flaughtered limbes lye spred,
Were cal'd Absyrtides: But  we proceed
With King Laomedon, 'gainst whom are  led
The Argonauts, Troy by Alcides rac'd,
Askes  the next place, and must in ranke be plac'd.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Laomedon, Priam, Anchises, Æneas, Hesione, etc.

 

 
 

 

King  Laomedon    

 

The Argonauts return'd?

 

 
 

 

Anchises    

 

They  are my Lord.

 

 
 

 

King  Laomedon    

 

And  landed?

 

 
 

 

Anchises    

 

Landed.

 

 
 

 

King  Laomedon    

 

Where?

 

 
 

 

Anchises    

 

At Tenedos.

 

 
 

 

King  Laomedon    

 

Could  not those Colchian monsters in their bowels
Bury  the Greekes, but must they all survive
To threat us  with inuasion. Speake Anchises,
March  they towards Troy?

 

 
 

 

Anchises    

 

In  conduct of the mighty Hercules,
Wasting with sword and  fire where ere they march:
Scamander fields they have  strew'd with carkasses,
And Simois streames already  purpled are
With bloud of Troians.

 

 
 

 

Priam    

 

Let  us give them battell.

 

 
 

 

King  Laomedon    

 

In  vaine, our forces are disperst abroad,
Nor have we order to  withstand their fury:
Best were we to immure our selues  in Troy,
And trust unto the vertue of our walles.   

 

 
 

 

 Shouts.

 

 
 

 

Æneas

 

Do  not delay your safety, you may heare
Their cryes, and lofty  clamors, threatning Troy:
They dogge us to our gates, and  without speed
And expedition, they will enter with us.
Come  then, our threatned lives we will immure,
And thinke us in our  strong built walles secure.   

 

 
 

 

 Exeunt.  After  an alarme enter Hercules, Iason, Theseus, Telamon, and all the other  Argonauts.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Pursue  the chace even to the gates of Troy,
Then  call th'ingrate Laomedon to parlee.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

The  periur'd King shall pay us for the wrong
Done to Alcides in  his promis'd steeds.

 

 
 

 

Telamon    

 

Better  he had the monster had devour'd
His beauteous daughter, then  t'abide our furies.

 

 
 

 

Nestor    

 

He  did exclude our vertue from the Citty,
And now therefore he  shall admit our fury.

 

 
 

 

Castor    

 

These  wals first rear'd at the great Gods expence,
Wee'l ruine to the  earth: let's summon him.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

We  will call him to parlee.       

 

 
 

 

 A  parlee.  Enter  upon the wals, Laomedon, Anchises, Æneas, Priam, etc.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Laomedon, we  do not summon thee
To parlee, but to warne thee guard thy  walles,
Which (without pause) we now intend to scale.

 

 
 

 

King  Laomedon    

 

Wilt  heare me Hercules?

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

I  listen'd thy periurious tongue too late.
Scale, batter, mount,  assault, sacke, and deface,
And leave (of Troy) nought  save the name and place.

 

 
 

 

 Alarme.  Telamon first mounts the walles, the rest after, Priam flyes,  Laomedon is slaine by Hercules, Hesione taken, Enter with victory.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Thus  is the tyrant, that but late aw'd Troy,
Buried amidst his  ruines; he chastis'd,
And we reveng'd: the spoyle of this rich  Towne
Rated as high as Iasons Colchian prize,
You  shall divide: but first these lofty walles,
Builded by periury,  and maintain'd by pride,
Wee'l ruine to the earth: Who saw  yong Priam?

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Hee's  fled, and tooke the way to Samothrace,
With  him Anchises, that on Venus got
The  yong Æneas, they are fled together,
And left the  spoyle of all the towne to us.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Which  shall enrich Thebes, and the townes  of Greece,
And Telamon, to do thy valour  right,
For mounting first over the walles of Troy,
The  first and choyce of all the spoyle be thine.

 

 
 

 

Telamon

 

Then  let Alcides honour Telamon
With this bright  Lady, faire Hesione,
Sister to Priam, daughter  to Laomedon,
Whose beauty I preferre before the state
And  wealth of Troy.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Receive  her Telamon,
Shee  is thine owne by gift of Hercules.

 

 
 

 

Telamon    

 

A  present more delighting Telamon,
Then  were I made Lord of high Illiums Towers,
And heire  unto the dead Laomedon.

 

 
 

 

Hesione    

 

I  am a Princesse, shall my fathers ils
Fall on my head? If he  offended Hercules,
He hath made satisfaction with his  life.
Oh be not so severe, to stretch his punishment
Even  after life; hast thou from death redeem'd me,
To give me  captive, and to slave my youth?
Things worse then death: rather  let Hercules
Expose me to the rocke, where first he found  me,
To abide the wrath both of the Sea and Sunne.
Oh!  rather make my body food for monsters,
Then brand my birth with  bondage.

 

 
 

 

Telamon    

 

Faire Hesione,
I  will not loose thy beauty, nor thy youth,
Nor part with this my  honour, couldst thou give me
For ransome of them, both  our Argoes cram'd
With gold and gemmes; you are my  valours prize,
And shall with me to populous Salamine.

 

 
 

 

Hesione

 

Can  you so wrong the daughter of a king,

 

To  give her as a Dukes base Concubine?
Touch me not Telamon, for  I devine,
Ifere my brother Priam re-build Troy,
And  be the king of Asia, hee'l revenge
This base  dishonour done Hesione;
And for his sister, ravish't hence  perforce,
Do the like out-rage on some Grecian Queene,
In  iust revenge of my iniurious wrong.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Should  all the kings in Asia, or the world,
Take part  with Priam in that proud designe,
Like fate, like  fortune with Laomedon
They shall abide:  renowned Telamon,
She is the warlike purchase of thy  sword,
Enioy her as the gift of Hercules.
And now  brave Grecian Hero's, lets towards Greece
With  al these honored spoils from Colchos brought
And from  the treasures of defaced Troy.
Faire Deianeira longs  for us in Thebes,
Whom we will visit next, and thence  proceed
Unto our future labours. Cacus lives
A  bloudy tyrant, whom we must remove:
And the  three-headed Gerion swayes in Spaine,
Notorious  for his rapes and out-rages;
Both these must perish  by Alcides hand,
And when we can the earth from  tyrants cleare,
In the worlds vtmost bounds our pillers reare. 

 

 
 

 

 Exit.

 

 
 

 

Homer

 

Loath  are we (curteous auditors) to cloy
Your appetites with viands  of one tast,
The beauteous Venus we must next  imploy,
Whom we saw mourning for Adonis last.
Suppose  her still for the yong Adon sad,
But cheer'd  by Mars, their old loves they renue,
And she, that  (whil'st he liv'd) preferd the Lad,
Hath quite forgot him,  since the Boare him slue.
Mars is in grace, a meeting they  devise,
Iealous of all, but fearing most the Sunne,
Hee  that sees all things from his first up-rise,
And like a blab,  tels all that hee knowes done.
Our mortals must a while their  spleenes asswage,
And to the Gods, for this Act, leave the  Stage.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Mars and Venus.

 

 
 

 

Mars    

 

I  knew loves Queene could not be long unkind,
Though (whil'st I  absent, to teach Armes in Thrace)
You tooke th'aduangtage  to forget your Mars,
To doate  on Adon, and Anchises too;
Yet  (those worne out) let us renue our loves,
And practise our  first amorous dalliance.

 

 
 

 

Venus

 

How  can I hate; that am the Queene of love?
Or practise ought  against my native power?
As I one day, playd with  my Cupids shafts,
The wanton with his arrow raz'd my  skin.
Trust me, at first I did neglect the smart:
At  length it rankled, and it grew unsound,
Till he that now lies  wounded, cut'd my wound.

 

 
 

 

Mars    

 

Come  shall we now, whilst Vulcan plyes his forge,
Sweats  at his Anuill, choakes himselfe with dust,
And labours at his  bellowes, kisse and toy?

 

 
 

 

Venus

 

Why  met we else? Here is a place remote,
An obscure cave, fit for  our amorous sport:
In this darke caverne wee'l securely  rest,
And Mars shall  adde unto my Vulcans crest.
But how if we be spy'd?

 

 
 

 

Mars    

 

Whom  need we feare?
Unlesse the Sunne, who now the lower  world
Lights with his beames; I meane the Antipodes,
The  tell-tale blab is busie now else-where:
And I will set to watch  at the caves doore,
My trusty groome, who (ere the Sunne shall  rise
With his bright beames to light our Hemispheare)
Shall  waken us.

 

 
 

 

Venus

 

For  all the world I would not have the Sunne
Discover our sweet  sport, or see whats done.

 

 
 

 

Mars    

 

Be  that my charge. Wher's Gallus?   

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Gallus.

 

 
 

 

 Gallus    

 

 At  hand fir: I am not that Gallows that is made of three  trees, or one that is never without hangers on: nor that Gallus that  is latine for a French-man; but your owne Gallus  gallinacius, servant and true squire to God Mars.

 

 
 

 

Mars

 

Syrrah,  you know this Lady.

 

 
 

 

 Gallus

 

 Yes,  Mistresse Vulcan, shee is as well knowne in Paphos here  for her Meretrix, as any Lady in the land, shee was the first that  devis'd stew'd meate, and proclaim'd pickle-oysters to bee good for  the backe; shee is the first that taught wenches the trade of  Venery, and such as were borne to nothing but beauty, she taught  them how to use their Talent: Yes, I know her I warrant you.

 

 
 

 

 Mars    

 

Syrrah  attend, this night yon Queene and I
Must have some private  conference, in yon cave,
Where whilst we stay, 'tmust be thy  care to watch
That no suspicious eye pry through these  chinks,
Especially I warne thee of the Sunnes.

 

 
 

 

Gallus    

 

I  smell knavery, if my Lady Venus play the whoore  

 

What  am I that keepe the dore?

 

 
 

 

Mars    

 

See  thou do call us, e're the Sunne uprise,
But sleepe  not for by all my Armes I sweare,
If by thy carelesse floth, or  negligence
We be describe, thy body I'le translate,
To  some strange Monster.

 

 
 

 

Gallus

 

I'me  hard favor'd enough already, you need not
Make my face worse  then it is.

 

 
 

 

Mars    

 

Com  enter then faire Queene, we are secure,
Now safely maist thou  claspe the God of warre,
Spight of Sunne, Moone, or a  iealous starre.

 

 
 

 

Venus

 

Love  answers love, desire with ardor meetes,
Both which this night  shall tast a thousand sweetes.   

 

 
 

 

 Exeunt.

 

 
 

 

 Gallus

 

 I  see you can make shift to go too't without sheetes: How shall I  passe this night away till morning, I am
as drowsy as a  dormouse, the very thought that I must wake, charmes mee a sleepe  already, I would I durst venture on a nap; Hey ho, sure I may wake  againe afore they rise, and never the wiser, I will stand to't,  there is not a more sleepy trade in the world then a watchman, nor  one that is more acquainted with deeds of darkenesse, tell mee of  the Sunne! the Sunne will not rise this two houres; well, let them  watch that will, or can, I must have a nod or two, God night to you  all,  for here am I fast till morning.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Aurora, attended with Seasons, Daies, and Howers.

 

 
 

 

Aurora    

 

The  day-starre shines and cals me blushing up.
From Tithons bed  to harnesse Phoebus Steeds.
My roseate fingers have  already stroakt
The element where light beginnes to  appeare,
And straight Apollo with his glistering  beames,
Will guild the East, the Seasons, Months, and  Daies
Attend him in the pallace of the Sunne.
The Howers  have brought his Chariot to the gate
Of Christall, where the  Sunne-God mounts his throne,
His fiery Steeds have all their  traces fet,
Th'unruly stalions fed with Ambrosy
(With  their round hoofes shod with the purest gold)
Thunder against  the Marble floores of Heaven,
And waite till Phoebus hath  but don'd his beames,
Which I the blushing Morning still put  on.
And now's the howre (for thus time fleeteth still)
That  the Sunnes up to clime the Easterne hill.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Phoebus to them, kisses Aurora, and they all exeunt.

 

 
 

 

Phoebus    

 

Beauteous Aurora, for  full twice twelue howers
Till in my spheare I have compast  round the world
Farewell, I with my beames will dry these  teares
Thou shedst at parting; we have chac't hence night,
And  frighted all the twinkling starres from heaven,
And now the  steepe Olimpus we must clime,
Till from the high  Meridian we peruse
The spatious bounds of this large  universe,
And thence decline our Chariot towards the West,
Till  we have washt our Coach-steeds and our selfe
In Isters icy  streames: Wee with this eye
Can all things see that mortals do  on earth,
And what wee find inhumane, or to offend,
Wee  tell to Iove, that he may punish sinnes.
For this I  am term'd a tel-tale and a blab,
And that I nothing can  conceale abroad.
But let spight spit the worst and wrong me  still,

 

Day  hateth sinnes, and light despiseth ill.    

 

 
 

 

 Hee  spies Mars and Venus.

 

 

And  now behold a most abhorred deed,   

 

Mars beds  with Venus, shall not Vulcan know it?
By my  light hee shall; I have seene, and I will tell,
The Sunne hates  sinne but crownes them that do well.  

 

 
 

 

 Exit.  Enter Mars.

 

 
 

 

Mars    

 

Venus awake,  wee have ore-slept our selues,
The Sunne's above in his  diurnall taske,
I saw his piercing beames pry through a  cranny,
And cast his right eye full upon our bed.   

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Venus.

 

 
 

 

Venus

 

We  are betraide, the blab will tell the Smith,
Our love will come  to th'eare of Iupiter
And all the other Gods, what  will Diana
Say when shee heares of our inchastity?
Or  how will Iuno take this spouse-breach from us?

 

 
 

 

Mars    

 

Nay  rather, how will Vulcan tast our sport?
He might  suspect, but never prove till now,
Where is the  villaine Gallus set to watch?

 

 
 

 

Venus

 

See  where he snorts, the slave is dead asleep.

 

 
 

 

Mars    

 

Awake  thou drowsy Groome, thy chaflisement
Shall exceed torture.

 

 
 

 

Gallus    

 

Hey  ho, what's the matter there, ha?

 

 
 

 

Mars    

 

Looke,  hast thou eies? is not the Sun two howres
Mounted aloft? hath  he not seene theesleeping
At the Caves dore, Yea beheld us too?    

 

 
 

 

Gallus    

 

More  shame for him to looke in at any bodies window.

 

 
 

 

Mars    

 

Speake,  how canst thou excuse this?

 

 
 

 

Gallus    

 

Oh  great God Mars.

 

 
 

 

Mars    

 

Behold,  this is thy doome, thy negligence
Thus I'le chastice, thou  shalt thy humane shape
Henceforth forgo, I will translate thy  body
Into a bird shall ever beare thy name,
Bee Gallus still,  a Cocke, and be thy nature
Ever hereafter this; to watch the  Sunne,
And by thy crowes and clamours warne the world
Two  howres before he rise, that the Sunne comes
Clap with thy  wings, and with thy shrieking loud,

 

Proclaime  his comming when thou thrice hast crowed.

 

 
 

 

 Gallus  sinkes, and in his place riseth a Cocke and crowes.

 

 
 

 

Venus

 

The  slaves right serv'd, let this his punishment
Live to all ages,  and let Gallus name
Thy iust revenge to all the world  proclaime.
But whither shall we now?

 

 
 

 

Mars    

 

I  will to Thrace, go you to Lemnos.

 

 
 

 

Venus

 

Will  you leave me then
To Vulcans rage, no let us once  more meete
In Paphos, and if Vulcan needs  will chide
Give him some cause.

 

 
 

 

Mars    

 

Content  faire Queene of love.
For more, he cannot be much more  displeas'd,
Let's score on still, and make our reckoning  full,
As yet, alas faire Queene, the debts but small,
Make  up the summe, and answere once for all.

 

 
 

 

Venus

 

Content  sweete Mars, and since that he was borne
To be a  Cuckold, let's augmennt his horne.    

 

 
 

 

 Exeunt.  Enter  Vulcan with two Ciclops, Pyragman, and Berontes.

 

 
 

 

Vulcan    

 

Make  hast with that shield, see’t hammer'd well,
For when 'tis  done I'le give't my father Iove,
'Tis of the purest  mettall Lemnos yeelds.

 

 
 

 

Pyragman    

 

I  shall sir, must the plate of two cubes high,
Be put into the  Forge?

 

 
 

 

Vulcan    

 

Pyragmon yes,  that masse must be wrought well
And soundly temper'd, bid your  fellow Cyclops
Worke lustily, it must be soone dispatcht.

 

 
 

 

Pyragman    

 

When  saw you my Lady Venus?

 

 
 

 

Vulcan    

 

No  matter when, the Huswiffe's too fine finger'd,

 

And  saith, the very smoake my Fordge doth cast
Choakes her, the  very aire of Lemnos (man)
Blasts her white cheekes,  she scarce will let me kisse her,
But shee makes vergisse  faces, saith my visadge
Smug'd thus with cole-dust, doth infect  her beauty,
And makes her weare a beard, shee's, sure,  in Paphos,
Cypresse, or Candy, shee's all  for play
Whilst we Ioves thunders hammer hard all  day.

 

 

Pyragman    

 

I  heard her once mocke that polt-foote of yours
How came it pray?

 

 
 

 

Vulcan

 

I'le  tell thee man, I was when I was borne
A pretty smug knave, and  my father Iove
Delighted much to dance me in his lap.
Upon  a time as hee was toying with mee
In his high house above,  that Phaeton
Had at that instant set the world a fire,
My  father when he saw heavens bases smoake,
Th'earth burne,  and Neptunes broth to seeth with heate;
But startles  up to thunder-strike the lad,
And lets me fall: downe tumbled I  towards the earth:
I fell through all the Planets by  degrees,
From Saturne first, so by the Moone at  last:
And from the Moone downe into Lemnos Isle
Where  I still live, and halt upon my fall,
No maruell if't lam'd mee,  for, Pyragmon.
How high I tumbled, who can gesse  aright,
Falling a Summers day from morne to night?

 

 
 

 

Pyragman    

 

’Twas  maruell you did not breake your necke.

 

 
 

 

Vulcan    

 

Had  I not bene deriv'd from God-like seed,
Trust me Pyragmon I  had don't indeed.   

 

 
 

 

 The  Cocke crows and enter Phoebus.

 

 
 

 

But  to the Forge, for I Appollo spie, 
Hee that sees  all things with the daies bright eye.
Good  morrow Phoebus, what's the newes abroad?
For thou  seest all things in the world are done,
Men act by day-light,  or the sight of Sunne.

 

 
 

 

Phoebus    

 

Sometime  I cast mine eie upon the sea,
To see the  tumbling Seale, or Porpoise play,
There see  I Marchants trading, and their sayles
Big bellied with the  wind; sea fights some times
Rise with their smoake, thicke  clouds to darke my beames.
Sometimes, I fixe my face upon the  earth
With my warme fervour, to give mettals, trees,
Hearbes,  plants, and flowers life; here in gardens walke
Loose Ladies  with their lovers arme in arme,
Yonder the labouring Plow-man  drives his Teeme.
Further, I may behold maine battels  pitcht,
And whom I favour most (by the winds helpe)
I can  assist with my transparant raies.
Heere, spye I Cattell  feeding, Forrests there
Stor'd with wilde beasts; here  Shepeheards with their lasses
Piping beneath the trees, whilst  their flockes graze.
In Citties, I see trading, walking,  bargening,
Buying, and selling, goodnesse, badnesse, all  things.
And shine alike on all.

 

 
 

 

Vulcan    

 

Thrice  happy Phoebus,
That whilst poore Vulcan is  confin'd to Lemnos
Hast every day these pleasures. What  newes else.

 

 
 

 

Phoebus

 

No  Emperour walks forth, but I see his State,
Nor sports, but I  his pastimes can behold,
I see all Coronations,  Funerals,
Marts, Faires, Assemblies, Pageants, Sights; and  Showes.
No hunting, but I better see the chase
Then they  that rowse the game, what see not I?
There's not a window but  my beames breakes in,
No thinke or cranny but my raies pierce  through,
And there I see (oh Vulcan) wondrous  things.
Things that thy selfe nor any God besides
Would  give beliefe to.

 

 
 

 

Vulcan    

 

What,  good Phoebus speake.

 

 
 

 

Phoebus    

 

Here,  wantons on their day-beds, I see spread
Clasping their amorous  lovers in their armes,
Who even before my face, are not  sometimes
Asham'd to shew all.     

 

 
 

 

Vulcan    

 

Could  not god Phoebus bring mee to see this pastime.

 

 
 

 

Phoebus    

 

Sometimes  even meane fellowes
A bed with noble Ladies whom they  serve,
Servant with servant, married men with maides,
And  wives with Batchelours.

 

 
 

 

Vulcan    

 

There's  simple doing.

 

 
 

 

Phoebus    

 

And  shall I tell thee Vulcan, tother day
What I beheld, I  saw the great God Mars.

 

 
 

 

Vulcan    

 

God Mars.

 

 

Phoebus    

 

As  I was peeping through a cranny; a bed.

 

 
 

 

Vulcan    

 

A  bed; with whom? some pretty wench I warrant.

 

 
 

 

Phoebus    

 

Shee  was a pretty wench.

 

 
 

 

Vulcan    

 

Tell  me good Phoebus,
That when I meete him I may floute  God Mars,
Tell mee, but tell me truely on thy life.

 

 
 

 

Phoebus    

 

Not  to dissemble Vulcan, 'twas thy wife!

 

 
 

 

Vulcan    

 

Out  on her whore, out on him Cuckold-maker,
Phoebus I'le be  revendge on great God Mars,
Who, whilst I hammer here his  swords and shields,
Hammers upon my head, I will  complaine
To Iove, and all the Gods, and tell them  flat
I am a Cuckold.

 

 
 

 

Phoebus    

 

Vulcan be  advis'd,
I have had notice where they use to meete,
Couldst  not devise to catch them by some wile?
And lay their guilt,  wide open to the Gods,
Then mightst thou have fit colour of  complaint.

 

 
 

 

Vulcan    

 

Enough,  I have devis'd a secret snare,
A draw-net, which I'le place  upon the Couch
Where they still use to bed, a wire so  temper'd,
And of such finenesse to deceive the eie.
So  catch them when they are at it, and by this
I may presume, and  be sure I am Cuckold.

 

 
 

 

Phoebus    

 

That's  the way to be satisfied.

 

 
 

 

Vulcan    

 

If  I can catch them, all the Gods I'le call
To see my wrongs,  there sports I'le neere to marre,
And venge me on that  letcherous God of warre.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  the Nymph, Cloris, with two more, with floures in their laps.

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

Nymph

 

Cloris, you  are the Nymph whose office is
To strow  faire Venus bed with hearbes and flowers,
Here is the  place shee meanes to sport her selfe.

 

 
 

 

Cloris    

 

I  am the hand-maide to the Queene of love,
And unto all her  pleasures minister,

 

When  she drinkes Nectar, 'tis from Cloris hand,
If  feede on sweete Ambrotia, or those  fruits
That Cornu-copia yeelds, I serve them up,
Come  let us with fresh Roses strow her Couch
With pances and the  buds of Eglantine,
Her pillow is the purple Violet banke,
About  whose verges the blancht Lillies grow,
Whose bodies twin'd  about with wood-byne leaves
Make a confused sweetnesse, so 'tis  well,
Come Venus when shee please to take her  rest,
Her Arbour's dight, and all things well addrest.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Vulcan and Pyragmon with his net of wire.

 

 
 

 

Vulcan    

 

By  her baud Charis, this I know the place,
Which with  adulterate pastimes they pollute.
Here will I set my pit-fall  for these birds,
And catch them in the closure of this  wire,
So, so, al's fit, my snare in order plac't,  
Happy  the time, that I this Charis trac't.    

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Mars and Venus.

 

 
 

 

Mars    

 

Once  more in spight of Phoebus and these eies,
That dog  our pastimes, we are closely met,
And whilst the  Cuckold Vulcan blowes the fire,
Our amorous soules  their sportive blisse conspire.

 

 
 

 

Venus

 

Hee's  limping thus, and like a cripple halts
From Forge to Fornace;  where were Venus eies,
When she made choise of that  foule polt-foote Smith,
He smels all smoake, and with his nasty  sweate
Tawnies my skinne, out on him vgly knave,
Mars is  my love, and he my sweets shall have.

 

 
 

 

Vulcan    

 

Gramercy  my kind wife.

 

 
 

 

Venus

 

Come  God of warre,
I'le teach thee a new skirmish, better farre
Then  thy sterne battails, meete me with a kisse
Which I retort thus,  there's spirit in this,
What's he would play the coward and  turne face,
When such sweete amorous combats are in place?
My  hot incounters, leave me wound nor skarre
Yet naked I dare  meete the God of Warre.

 

 
 

 

Vulcan    

 

Out  of her Whoore.

 

 
 

 

Mars    

 

I  am arm'd for thee, prepare thee, for this night

 

Il'e  breast to breast dare thee to single fight.

 

 
 

 

Venus

 

Come  tumble in my lap, great Mars I dare
To do his worst.     

 

 
 

 

 Vulcan  catcheth them fast in his net.

 

 
 

 

Vulcan    

 

’Tis  well, your sports are faire.

 

 
 

 

Mars    

 

Betraid?  bound? catcht? release me, or by Iove,
Thou dy'st what ere  thou art.

 

 
 

 

Vulcan    

 

God Mars, good  words;
This is a fight in which you use no swords.
You  have left your steele behinde.

 

 
 

 

Venus    

 

Sweet  vulcan.   

 

 
 

 

Vulcan

 

No  more.

 

 
 

 

Venus

 

Canst  thou use Venus thus? Vul. Away you whore,
Il'e keepe  you fast, and call the Gods to see
Your practise, Neptune,  Iove, and Mercury,
Phoebus and Iuno, from  your spheares looke downe,
And see the cause I weare a forked  crowne.

 

 
 

 

 All  the Gods appeare above, and laugh, Iupiter, Iuno, Phoebus, Mercury,  Neptune.

 

 
 

 

Mars    

 

The  Gods are all spectators of our shame,
And laugh at us.

 

 
 

 

Venus

 

Oh!  I could cry for anger.
Sweet Vulcan let me loose. 

 

 
 

 

Vulcan

 

When  Gods and men
Have seene thy shame, but (strumpet) not till  then.

 

 
 

 

Iupiter    

 

See  how Mars chafes.   

 

 
 

 

Iuno

 

But Venus weeps  for rage

 

 
 

 

Neptune

 

Why  should Mars fret? if it so tedious be,
Good God of  warre bestow thy place on me.

 

 
 

 

Mercury

 

By  all the Gods, would she do me that grace,
I would fall too't  even before Vulcans face.

 

 
 

 

Vulcan    

 

To  Gods and men let it be fully knowne
I am a Cuckold.    

 

 
 

 

All

 

Vulcan is  no lesse.

 

 
 

 

Vulcan    

 

Now  since red shame your cheeks with bloud hath dy'd,
I am  reveng'd, and see my net's unti'd.     

 

 
 

 

Phoebus

 

The  Gods have laught their fill, Vulcan's reveng'd,
And  now all friends: speake, are we?

 

 
 

 

Iupiter    

 

Mars still  frownes.

 

 
 

 

Iuno

 

And Venus scarce  well pleas'd.

 

 
 

 

Vulcan    

 

For  my part (oh you Gods!) what's past is past,
And what is once  done, cannot be recald:

 

If Vulcan in  this ieast hath pleas'd the Gods,
All his owne wrongs he freely  can forgive.
Venus we are friends, to Lemnos we  will hast,
And never more record what's done and past.

 

 
 

 

Venus    

 

No  foole, before I did offend with feare,
My guilt was but  suspected, but not prou'd:
And therefore I selected  privacy,
Closenesse of place, and bashfully transgrest;
But  since both Gods and men now know my sinne,
Why should I dread  to say I love God Mars?
What helpe hast thou in proving  thy wife false?
Onely to make me doe with impudence,
What  I before with feare did, on thy selfe
Brought a most certaine  shame, where it before
Was but suspected.

 

 
 

 

Vulcan    

 

Venus speakes  good sence,
That's certaine now, which was before suspence.

 

 
 

 

Venus    

 

Now  fare well iealous foole, for my disgrace,
Him whom I love, I  blushlesse thus imbrace,
And may all such as would their wives  so take,
(Although they might) be serv'd thus for thy sake.

 

 
 

 

Vulcan    

 

I  am undone, be warn'd by me oh men,
Although you know your wives  false, where and when,
Take them not in the manner, though you  may:
They that with feare before, now blushlesse stray,
Their  guilt 'tis better to suspect then know,
So you may take some  part of that you owe.
Where I by seeking her good name to  thrall,
Have made my selfe a scorne, and quite left all.

 

 
 

 

Iupiter    

 

To Lemnos then,  to make our Thunders fit,
Which against mortals we have cause  to use,
Mars, you to Thrace, Venus in Paphos stay,
Or  where you please, we to our severall spheares.
Vulcan, thy  morrall this good use contrives,
None search too farre  th'offences of their wives.   

 

 
 

 

 Exeunt.

 

 
 

 

Homer

 

Our  last Act comes, which lest it tedious grow,
What is too long in  word, accept in show.
Thinke Hercules his labours  having ended,
The Spanish Gerion kild,  and Cacus slaine,
As farre as Lydea he his  palme extended,
Where beauteous Omphale this time  doth raigne.
He that before to Deianeira sent,
As  presents, all the spoyles that he could win,
Now fils her heart  with iealous discontent,
She heares how Hercules doth  card and spin
With Omphale, and serves her as a  slave.
(She quite forgot in Thebes) her griefe to  cheare,
Th'assembled Princes with their Counsels grave,
Are  come to comfort and remove her feare.
By these all his stor'd  labours he hath sent
To call him home, to free her discontent.

 

 
 

 

 Ashew.  Enter Deianeira sad, with Lychas: to her Iason, Telamon,  Castor, Pollux, Nestor, etc. They seeme to comfort her, she  sends Lychas, who brings the Trophies of his twelue  labours, she delivers them to the Princes, to beare to her husband.  They part severall waies.

 

 
 

 

Homer

 

Iason, and  the other Hero's for her sake,
Travell to Lydia, to  perswade him thence
And by his twelue knowne labours,  undertake
To move him, quite t'abandon his faire wench.
Further  then this her iealousie extends,
Afarre worse present she  by Lychas sends.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Deianeira, and her servant Lychas.

 

 
 

 

Lychas    

 

Madam,  these sorrowes are too violent
For your weake sex, I do not  thinke tis true,
Your husband can preferre that Omphale
Before  your beauty.

 

 
 

 

Deianeira    

 

Hee's  forgot in Greece.
Greece that was wont to clangor  with his fame,
Is now all silent, who  but Iason now,
And Telamon, that scal'd the  walles of Troy,
Alcides is a name for got amongst  us,
And Deianeira too forgot with him.
Oh! that  I had the tempting strumpet here
That keepes my Lord away,  confining me
Unto the coldnesse of a widowed bed.

 

 
 

 

Lychas    

 

Madam,  these presents sent, and so wel knowne
Coming from you, must  needs prevaile with him.
These Princes have great interest in  his love,
And can perswade much.

 

 
 

 

Deianeira    

 

But  that strumpet more.
Lychas, he doates upon her tempting  lookes,
And is so much with her inchantments blear'd,
That  hee's turn'd woman: woman Lychas, spinnes,
Cards,  and doth chare-worke, whilst his mistres sits
And makes a  cushion of his Lyons skin,
Makes of his club a rocke. I loose  my selfe
In thismy sorrow, and forget the meanes;
I still  keepe by my me, to restore my love,
Lychas, fetch me the  shirt within my chamber,
I have bethought me now.

 

 
 

 

Lychas    

 

Madam  I shall.

 

 
 

 

Deianeira    

 

This  shirt (in bloud of Centaur Nessus dipt,
And since  washt out) Il'e send my Hercules,
Which hath the power to  make his hot love dye
To any stranger, and revive to me.
This  (as his last) the dying Centaur spake,   
To  this Il'e trust, all other hopes forsake.     

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Lychas.

 

 
 

 

Lychas    

 

Madam  the shirt.

 

 
 

 

Deianeira    

 

This  as my best and deerest,
Present me (trusty Lychas) to my  Lord,
Intreat withall, that if he have not quite
Put off  my love, hee'l daine to put on this.
If he despise my gift,  returne it backe,
And in it my death.

 

 
 

 

Lychas    

 

Feare  not faire Princesse,
I hope to prove as fortunate as faithfull.

 

 
 

 

Deianeira    

 

Farewell,  prove as thou speakest. If my gift faile,
I have sentenced all  my sorrowes to one death,
Whilst Deianeira hath  a hand to use,
Shee'l not live hated where she once did chuse.     

 

 
 

 

 Exit.  Enter  Omphale, Queene of Lydia, with 4 or 5 maids,  Hercules attired like a woman, with a distaffe and a spindle.

 

 
 

 

Omphale    

 

Why  so, this is a power infus'd in love,
Beyond all magicke; Is't  not strange to see
A womans beauty tame the Tyrant-tamer?
And  the great Monster-maister over-match?
Have you done your taske?

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Beauteous  Queene, not yet.

 

 
 

 

Omphale    

 

Then  I shall frowne.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Before  that (lovely faire)
Augment my taske, unto a treble chare.
For  one sweet smile from beauteous Omphale,
Il'e  lay before thee all the monstrous heads
Of the grim tyrants  that oppresse the earth.
I that before, at Iuno's strict  behest,
The hundred gyants of Cremona slue,
Will  twice five hundred kill for Omphale.
Finde me a Cacus in  a cave of fire,
Il'e dragge him from the  mountaine Aventine,
And lay his bulke at thy victorious  feet.
Finde me me another Gerion to captive,
All  his three heads Il'e tumble in thy skirt.
Bid me once more  sacke hell, to binde the furies,
Or to present thee with the  Gods in chaines,
It shall be done for beauteous Omphale.

 

 
 

 

Omphale    

 

Leave  prating, ply your worke.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Oh  what a sweetnesse
Lives in her lookes! no bondage, or base  slavery
Seemes servitude, whilst I may freely gaze
(And  uncontrold) on her: but for one smile,
Il'e make her Empresse  ore the triple world,
And all the beauteous Queenes from East  to West,
The Lydians vassails, and my  fellow-slaves.
There is no Lord but Love, no  vassailage

 

But  in affection, and th'Emperious Queene
Doth tyranize ore  captive Hercules.    

 

 
 

 

 Enter  a maid.

 

 
 

 

Maid

 

Madam,  some Dukes of Greece attend without,
And crave to see  your captive Theban here.

 

 
 

 

Omphale    

 

Admit  them, they shall see what pompe we have,
And that our beauty  can the loftiest slave.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Iason, Telamon, Castor, Pollux, Nestor, Atreus, etc.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Our  businesse was to Thehan Hercules,
'Twas told us he  remain'd with Omphale,
The Lydian Queene.

 

 
 

 

Telamon    

 

Speake,  which is Omphale? or which Alcides?

 

 
 

 

Omphale    

 

We  are queene of Lydia,
And this our vassaile. Do you know  him Lords?
Stoope slave, and kisse the foot of Omphale.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

I  shall.

 

 
 

 

Nestor    

 

Oh  wonderous alteration!

 

 
 

 

Castor    

 

Till  now I trusted this report was false,
And scarcely can I yet  beleeve mine eyes.

 

 
 

 

Pollux

 

Lady,  our purpose was to Hercules,
Shew us the man.

 

 
 

 

Omphale    

 

Behold  him Greekes there.

 

 
 

 

Atreus

 

Where?     

 

 

 

Omphale    

 

There  at his taske.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Alas!  This Hercules?
This is some base effeminate groome, not  hee
That with his puissance frighted all the earth:
This  is some woman, some Hermophrodite.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Hath Iason,  Nestor, Castor, Telamon,
Atreus, Pollux, all forgot their  friend?
We are the man.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Woman  we know thee not.
We came to seeke the  Iove-borne Hercules,
That  in his cradle strangled Iuno's snakes,
And triumpht  in the brave Olimpicke games.
He that  the Cleonean Lyon slue,
The Eremanthian Boare,  the Bull of Marathon,
The Lernean Hydra, and the  winged Hart.
He that drag'd Cerberus from hell in  chaines,

 

And  stownded Pluto in his Ebon Chaire.
That Hercules, by  whom the Centaurs fell.
Great Achelous, the Stymphalides,
And  the Cremona giants? Where is he?

 

Telamon  That traiterous Nessus with a shaft  trans-fixt,
Strangled Antheus, purg'd Augeus stalles,
Wan  the bright Apples of the Hesperides,
And whilst the  Giant Atlas eas'd his limbes,
Bore on his shoulders  the huge frame of heaven.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

And  are not we the man? see Telamon,
A woman do this? we would  see the Theban,
That Cacus slue, Busiris sacrific'd,
And  to his horses hurl'd sterne Diomed
To be devour'd.

 

 
 

 

Pollux

 

That  freed Hesione
From  the Sea-whale, and after ransackt Troy,
And with his owne  hand slue Laomedon.

 

 
 

 

Nestor    

 

He  by whom Dercilus and Albion fell,
He  that Oecalia and Betricia wan.

 

 
 

 

Atreus    

 

That  monstrous Gerion with his three heads  vanquisht
With Linus, Lichas that usurp't  in Thebes,
And captiv'd there his beauteous Megara.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

He  that the Amazonian Baldricke wan,
That Achelous with  his club subdu'd,
And wan from him the pride  of Calidon
Bright Deianeira, that now mournes  in Thebes
For absenc of that noble Hercules.
To  him we came, but since he lives not here,
Come Lords, we wil  returne these presents backe
Unto the constant Lady, whence  they came.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Stay  Lords.   

 

 

 

Iason

 

 ’Mongst  women?

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

For  that Thebans sake
Whom you professe to love, and came  to seeke,
Abide awhile, and by my love to Greece,
Il'e  bring before you that lost Hercules,
For  whom you came to enquire.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

On  that condition (Princes) lets stay a little.

 

Telamon    

 

It  workes, it workes.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

How  have I lost my selfe?
Did we all this? where is that spirit  become
That was in us? no maruell Hercules,
If thou  beest strange to them, that thus disguis'd,
Art to thy selfe  unknowne. Hence with this distaffe
And base effeminate chares.

 

 
 

 

Omphale    

 

How  slave? submit and to thy taske againe.
Dar'st thou rebell?

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Pardon  great Omphale.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Will Telamon perswade  me this is Hercules
The Libian Conquerer, now a  slaves slave.
He liv'd in midst of battailes, this 'mongst  truls:
This welds a distaffe, he a conquering Club.
Shall  we bestow faire Deianeiraes presents
On this (heaven  knowes) whether man or woman?

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Who  nam'd my Deianeira? Iason you?
How fares my love? how  fares my beauteous wife?
I know these presents, did they come  from her?
What strumpet's this that hath detain'd my  soule?
Captiv'd my fame, trans-shap't me to a foole?
Made  me (of late) but little lesse then God,
Now scarce a man? Hence  with these womanish tyres,
And let me once more be my selfe  againe.

 

 
 

 

Telamon    

 

Keep  from him Omphale, be that your charge,
Wee'l second  these good thoughts.

 

 
 

 

Omphale    

 

Alcides heare  me.

 

 
 

 

Castor    

 

By  your favour madam.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Who  spake?

 

 
 

 

Iason

 

Thinke  that was Deianeira's voyce,
That cals thee home to  dry her widowed teares,
And to bring comfort to her desolate  bed.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Oh Deianeira.

 

 
 

 

Omphale

 

Heare  me Hercules.   

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Ha Omphale?

 

 
 

 

Pollux    

 

You  shall not trouble him.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

’Twas  she that made Alcides womanish,
But Deianeira to  be more then man.
For thy wives sake thou art renown'd  in Greece,
This Strumpet hath made Greece forget  thee quite,
And scarce remember there was such a  man.
Thebes that was wont to triumph in thy glories,
Is  now all silent. Tyrants every where
Beginne to oppresse,  thinking Alcides dead
For so the fame's already.  Shall a Strumpet
Do this upon the Theban  Hercules?
And Deyaneira, faire, chast absolute
In  all perfections, live despis'd in Thebes?

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

By Iove she  shall not, first I'le rend these eies out,
That sotted with the  love of Omphale
Hath transhapt me, and deepely iniur'd  her.
Come we will shake off this effeminacy
And by our  deeds repurchase our renowne.
Iason and you  brave Greekes, I know you now,
And in your honours I  behold my selfe
What I have bene, hence Strumpet Omphale,
I  cast thee off, and once more will resume
My native vertues, and  to prove this good
This day unto the Gods I'le sacrifice
To  grace which pompe, and that we may appeare
The same we were,  before us shall be borne
These of our labours twelue, the  memory,
Unto Ioves Temple, grace us worthy Heroes
To  assist us in this high sollemnity.
Whilst we upon our manly  shoulders beare
These massy pillars we in Gades must reare.   

 

 
 

 

 Exeunt.  Manet  Omphale.

 

 
 

 

Omphale

 

We  have lost our servant, never yet had Lady
One of the like  ranke. All King Thespius daughters,
Fifty in number,  childed all one night,
Could not prevaile so much  with Hercules
As we have done; no not faire Yole
Daughter  to Cacus, beauteous Megara,
Nor all the faire  and amorous queenes of Greece,
Could slave him like  the Lydian Omphale.
Therefore where e're his labours be  renown'd,
Let not our beauty passe unregistred.
Bondaging  him that captiv'd all the earth,
Nor will we leave him, or yet  loose him thus
What either beauty, cunning, flattery, teares
Or  womans Art can, we will practise on him.
But now the Priests  and Princes are prepar'd
For the great sacrifice, which we will  grace
With our high presence, and behold aloofe
These  rights unto the gods perform'd and done
We'le gaine by Art,  what we with beauty won.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  to the sacrifice two Priests to the Altar, sixe Princes with sixe of  his labours, in the midst Hercules bearing his two brazen  pillars, six other Princes, with the other six  labours, Hercules staies  them.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Now Iove behold  us from thy spheare of Starres,
And shame not to acknowledge us  thy sonnes.
Thus should Alcides march amidst his  spoiles,
Inguirt with slaughtered Lyons, Hydraes,  Whales,
Boares, Buls, grim Tyrants, Hel-hounds, Monsters,  Furies,
And Princes his spectators: oh you Gods,
To whom  this day we consecrate your praiers,
And dedicate our sacred  orisons,
Daine us your cies, behold these sholders beare
Two  brazen pillars, trophies of our fame,
That have  eas'd Atlas, and supported heaven,
And had we shrunke  beneath that heavenly structure
The Spheares, Orbs, Planets,  Zeniths, Signes, and Stars,
With loves high Pallace,  all confusedly
Had shattered, falne, and o're-whelm'd earth and  sea,
Wee have done that, and all these labours else,
Which  we this day make sacred, lune see
These we surrender  to thy love and thee.    

 

 
 

 

 Set  on.  As  they march over the Stage, enter Lychas with the shirt.

 

 
 

 

Lychas    

 

From Deianera I  present this guift,
Wrought with her owne hand, with more kind  commends
Then I have measured steps to Lydia
From Thebes, which  she intreats you weare for her.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

More  welcome is this guift  to Hercules
Then Iason's Fleece, Laomedon's white  Steeds,
Or should Iove grace me with eternity,
Here  stand our pillars, with non vltra insculpt,
Which we  must reare beyond the Pyrene Hils
At Gades in Spaine (Alcides vtmost  bounds)
Whilst we put on this shirt, the welcome  present
Of Deyianeira, whom we deerely  love,
Lychas thy hand, In this wee'le sacrifice
And  make our peace with her and Iupiter.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Never  was Hercules so much himselfe,
How will this newes  glad Deyaneiraes heart,
Or how this sight inrage  faire Omphale?

 

 
 

 

Telamon    

 

All  his dead honours he revives in this,
And Greece shall  once more echoe with his fame.

 

          

 

 Hercules  puts on the shirt.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

With  this her present, I put on her love,
Witnesse heaven, earth,  and all you Peeres of Greece,
I wed her once more in this  ornament,
Her love and her remembrance sit to me
More  neere by thousands then this roabe can cleave.
So now  before Ioves Altar let us kneele,
And make our peace  with heaven, attone our selfe
With beauteous Dyaneira our  chast wife  
And  cast away the love of Omphale.     

 

 
 

 

 All  the Princes knele to the Altar.

 

 
 

 

Priest

 

Princes  of Greece assist us with your thoughts,
And let your  prayers with ours ascend the Speares,
For mortals orisons are  sonnes to Iove,
And when none else can, they have free  accesse
Unto there fathers eare, haile sonne of Saturne,
To  whom when the three lots of heaven, of sea,
And hell were cast,  the high Olimpus fell.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Oh,  oh.

 

 
 

 

Priest

 

That  with a nod canst make heavens collomes bend,
And th'earths  Center tremble, whose right hand
Is arm'd with lightning, and  the left with feare.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

No  more, are all the furies with their tortures,
Their whips and  lashes crept into my skin?
Hath any sightlesse and infernall  fire
Laid hold upon my flesh? when did Alcides
Thus  shake with anguish? thus change face, thus shrinke?
Shall  torture pale our cheeke? no, Priest proceed,
We will not feele  the paine, thou shalt not breed,

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

What  alteration's this? a thousand pangues
I see even in his visage,  in his silence
He doth expresse even hell.

 

 
 

 

Priest

 

Thou  sacred Iove
Behold us at thy Altar prostrate here
To  beg attonement 'tweene our sins and thee,
Lend us a gracious  eare and eye.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Priest  no more,
I'le rend thy Typet, hurle Ioves Altars  downe,
Havock his Offerings, all his Lamps extinguish,
Raze  his high Temples, and skale heaven it selfe
Unlesse he stay my  tortures.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Warlike Theban,
Whence  comes this fury? is this madnes forc't,
That makes Alcides thus  blaspheme the Gods.

 

 
 

 

Telamon    

 

Patient  your selfe.

 

 
 

 

Hercules

 

I  will not Iason, cannot Tellamon,
A stipticke  poyson boyles within my veines,
Hell is within me, for my  marrow fries,
A vulture worse then  that Prometheus feeles,
Fiers on my entrails, and my  bulke in flames.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Yet  be your selfe, renowned Hercules,
Strive with your  torture, with yourrage contend
Seek to ore-come this anguish.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Well,  I will,
See Iason, see renowned Tellamon
I  will be well, I'le feele no poison boyle,
Though my bloud  skal'd me, though my hot suspires,
Blast where I breath like  lightning, though my lungs
Seeth in my bloud, I will not pale a  cheeke,
Nor change a brow, I will not, spight of  torture
Anguish, and paine, I will not.

 

 
 

 

Omphale    

 

What  strange fury
Hath late possest him to be thus disturb'd?

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Why  this is well, once more repaire Ioves Altar.
Kindle  these holy Tapers and proceed.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

To  plucke the Thunderer from his Christall throne
And throw the  Gallaxia, by the locks,
And amber tresses, drag the Queene of  heaven.

 

 
 

 

Nestor    

 

Alcides.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Princes, Iason,  Tellamon,
Helpe me to teare of this infernall shirt,
Which  rawes me where it cleaves, unskin my brawnes,
And like one  nak't rowl'd in a Tun of spikes
Of thousands, make one  universall wound,
And such is mine:  oh Deyaneira false,
Treacherous, unkind, disloyall;  plucke, teare, rend
Though you my bones leave naked, and my  flesh
Frying with poyson you cast hence to  dogs.
Dread Neptune, let me plundge me in thy  seas,
To coole my body, that is all on flame.
Or with thy  tri-sulke thunder strike me Iove,
And so let fire quench  fire, unhand me Lords,
Let me spurne mountaines downe, and  teare up rockes
Rend by the roots huge Okes, till I have  dig'd
Away to hell, or found a skale to heaven.
Something  I must, my torments are so great,
To quench this flame and  qualify this heate.    

 

 
 

 

 Exit.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Let  us not leave him Princes least this out-rage
Make him lay  violent hands upon him selfe.
If Deyaneiraes heart,  were with her hand,
She is her sexes scandall, and her  shame
Even whilst Time lives, shall every tongue proclaime.   

 

 
 

 

 Exit.

 

 
 

 

Omphale    

 

I'le  follow to, and with what Art I can,
Strive this his rage and  torture to allay.   

 

 
 

 

 Exit.

 

 
 

 

Lychas    

 

What's  in this shirt unknowne to me that brought it?
Or what hath  iealous Deyaneira done?
To employ me, an unwilling  messenger,
In her Lords death: well, whosoe're it prove
My  innocence I know, I'le, if I may
Looke to my life, and keepe  out of his way.  

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Hercules.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Lychas,  Lychas, where's he that brought this poyson'd shirt,
That  I may teare the villaine lim from lim.   
And flake his  body small as Winters snow,
His shattered flesh shall play like  parched leaves,
And dance in th'aire, tost by the sommer winds.

 

 
 

 

Lychas

 

Defend  me heaven.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Oh  that with stamping thus,
I could my selfe beneath the Center  sinke,
And tombe my tortured body beneath hell.
Had I  heavens massy columnes in my gripes,
Then with one sway I would  or'e-turne yon frame,
And make the marble Elementall sky
My  Tombe-stone to enterre dead Hercules.
Oh father Iove thou  laist upon thy sonne
Torments above  supporture, Lichas, oh!
I'le chase the villaine  o're Oetaes rockes,
Till I have nak't those hils, and  left no shade
To hide the Traytor.

 

 
 

 

Lychas

 

Which  way shall I flye
To scape his fury? if I stay I dye.   

 

 
 

 

 Hercules  sees him.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Stay,  stay, what's he that creeps into yon cave?
Is not that Lycas  Dyaneiraes squire,
That brought this poysoned shirt  to Hercules?
I thanke thee Iove, yet this is  some allayment
And moderation to the pangues I feele,
Nay,  you shall out fir Lychas by the heeles.

 

 
 

 

 Hercules  swings Lychas about his head, and kils him.

 

 
 

 

Thus,  thus, thy limbs about my head I twine,
Eubaean sea receive  him, for he's thine.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Iason, Telamon, and all the Princes, after them Omphale.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Princes,  his torments are 'bove Physicke helpe,
And they that wish him  well, must wish his death,
For that alone gives period to his  anguish.

 

 
 

 

Telamon    

 

In  vaine we follow and pursue his rage,
There's danger in his  madnesse.

 

 
 

 

Nestor    

 

Yet  aloofe,
Let's observe him, and great Iove implore
To  qualifie his paines.

 

 
 

 

Philoctetes

 

As  I am Philoctetes I'le not leave him,
Untill he be  immortall, Princes harke,   

 

 
 

 

Hercules  (within)

 

Cannot  these grones peirce heaven and move to pitty
The obdure Iuno.

 

 
 

 

Omphale    

 

Beneath  this rocke where we have often kist,
I will lament the  noble Thebans fall,
The Lydian Omphale will  be to him
A truer Mystresse, then his wife, whose hate
Hath  brought on him this sad and ominous fate.
Nor hence, for any  force or prayer remove,
But die with him whom I so deerely  love.    

 

 
 

 

 Cry  within.

 

 
 

 

Castor    

 

His  torments still increase, heare oh you Gods,
And hearing pitty.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Hercules from a rocke above, tearing downe trees.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Downe,  downe, you shadowes that crowne Oeta Mount,
And as you  tumble beare the Rockes along. 
I will not leave an Oake or  standing Pine
But all these mountaines with the dales make  even,
That Oetaes selfe may mourne  with Hercules.
Hah! what art thou?

 

 
 

 

Omphale    

 

I  am thy Omphale.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Art  thou not Deyaneira come to mocke
Alcides madnesse,  and his pangues deride?
Yes, thou art she, thou, thou hast  fier'd my bones,
And mak'st me boyle in poyson, for which  (minion)
And for (by fate) thou hast shortned my  renowne,
Behold, this monstrous rocke thy death shal crowne,

 

 
 

 

 Hercules  kils Omphale, with a peece of a rocke.

 

 
 

 

So Deyaneira and  her squire are now
Both in their sins extinct.

 

 
 

 

Theseus    

 

What  hath Alcides done? slaine Omphale,
A guiltlesse  queene that came to mourne his death.

 

 
 

 

Hercules    

 

Torment  on torment. But shall Hercules
Dye by a womans hand? No,  ayd me Princes,
(If you have in you any generous thoughts)
In  my last fabricke: Come, tosse trees on trees,
Till you have  rear'd me up a funerall pile,
Which all that's mortall in me  shall consume.

 

 
 

 

Castor    

 

Princes,  let none deny their free assistance,
In his release of torture.  Ther's for me.

 

 
 

 

Pollux

 

My  hand shall likewise helpe to bury him,
And of his torments give  him ease by death.

 

 
 

 

 All  the Princes breake downe the trees, and make a fire, in  which Hercules placeth himfelfe.

 

 
 

 

Hercules

 

Thanks,  thus I throne me in the midst of fire,
And with a dreadlesse  brow confront my death.
Olimpicke thunderer now behold thy  sonne,
Of whose divine parts make a starre, that Atlas
May  shrinke beneath the weight of Hercules.
And  step-dame Iuno, glut thy hatred now,
That hast beene  weary to command, when we
Have not beene weary to performe and  act.
I that Busiris slue, Antheus strangled,
And  conquer'd still at thy unkinde behest,
The  three-shap't Gerion, and the dogge of hell,
The Bull  of Candy, and the golden Hart,
Augeus and  the fowles of Stymphaly,
The Hesperian fruit,  and bolt of Thermidon,
The Lernean  Hydra, and Arcadian Boare,
The Lyon  of Naemea, Steeds of Thrace,
The  monster Cacus; thousands more then these,
That Hercules in  death dares thee to chide,
And shewes his spirit, which  torments cannot hide.
Lye there thou dread of Tyrants, and thou  skin,   

 

Invulner'd  still, burne with thy maisters bones:  
For these be armes  which none but we can weild. 
My bow and  arrowes Philoctetes take.    

 

      

 

 He  burns his Club, and Lyons Skin.

 

 
 

 

Reserve  them as a token of our love,
For these include the vtmost fate  of Troy,
Which without these; the Greekes can  nere destroy.
You Hero's all fare-well, heape fire on fire,
And  pile on pile, till you have made a structure
To flame as high  as heaven, and record this
Though by the Gods and Fates we  are ore-throwne,
Alcides dies by no hand but his owne.

 

 
 

 

 Iupiter  above strikes him with a thunder-bolt, his body sinkes, and from the  heavens discends a hand in a cloud, that from the place where  Hercules was burnt, brings up a starre, and fixeth it in the  firmament.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Iuno thou  hast done thy worst; he now defies
What thou canst more, his  fame shall mount the skies.
What heavenly musicke's this?

 

 
 

 

Telamon    

 

His  soule is made a star, and mounted heaven,
I see great Iove hath  not forgot his sonne:
All that his mothers was is chang'd by  fire,
But what he tooke of Iove, and was devine,
Now  a bright star in the high heavens must shine.

 

 
 

 

 Enter  Atreus.

 

 
 

 

Nestor    

 

We  all have seene Alcides deifi'd.
But what newes  brings Atreus?

 

 
 

 

Atreus

 

A  true report of Deianeira's death,
Who when she heard  the tortures of her Lord,
And what effect her fatall present  tooke,
Exclaim'd on Nessus, and to prove  herselfe
Guiltlesse of treason in her husbands death,
Witth  her owne hand she boldly slue herselfe.

 

 
 

 

Pollux

 

That  noble act proclaim'd her innocent,
And cleares all blacke  suspition: but faire princes,
Let universall Greece in  funerall blacke,
Mourne for the death of Theban Hercules.

 

 
 

 

Iason    

 

Who  now shal monsters quel, or tyrants tame?
Th'oppressed free, or  fill Greece with their fame.
Princes your hands, take  up these monuments

 

Of  his twelue labours in a marble Temple
(We will erect and  dedicate to him)
Reserve them to his lasting memory:
His  brazen pillers shall be fixt in Gades,
On which his  monumentall deeds wee'l grave.
Arm'd with these worthy Trophies  lets march on
Towards Thebes, that claimes the honour  of his birth.
His body's dead, his fame shall nere  expire,
Earth claimes his earth, heaven shewes his heavenly  fire.

 

 
 

 

 Exeunt  omnes.

 

 
 

 

Homer

 

He  that expects five short Acts can containe
Each circumstance of  these things we present,
Me thinkes should shew more  barrennesse then braine:
All we have done we aime at your  content,
Striving to illustrate things not knowne to all,
In  which the learnd can onely censure right:
The rest we crave,  whom we unlettered call,
Rather to attend then iudge: for more  then sight
We seeke to please. The understanding eare
Which  we have hitherto most gracious found,
Your generall love, we  rather hope then feare:
For that of all our labours is the  ground.
If from your love in any point we  stray,
Thinke Homer blind, and blind men misse their  way.