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row. Nay Strumbo, kill thyfelf, drown thyfelf, hang thyself, starve thyfelf. Oh, but then I fhall leave my fweetheart. Oh my heart! Now, pate, for thy mafter! I will 'dite an aliquant love-piftle to her, and then the hearing the grand verbofity of my fcripture, will love me presently. [Writes. My pen is naught; gentlemen, lend me a knife 7; I think the more hafte the worst speed.

[Writes again, and then reads.

So it is, miftrefs Dorothy, and the fole effence of my foul, that the little sparkles of affection kindled in me towards your fweet felf, hath now increas'd to a great flame, and will, ere it be long, confume my poor heart, except you with the pleasant water of your fecret fountain quench the furious heat of the fame. Alas, I am a gentleman of good fame and name, in perfon majestical, in 'parel comely, in gait portly. Let not therefore your gentle heart be fo bard as to defpife a proper tall young man of a handfome life; and by defpifing him, not only but also, to kill him. Thus expecting time and tide, I bid you farewell. Your fervant, Signior Strumbo.

- Now, pate, for thy mafter !] i. e. now good head-piece affift me! STEEVENS.

-

7- gentlemen, lend me a knife;-] Strumbo here, and in many other places in this play, addresses the groundlings, for whole entertainment alone he feems to have been introduced, In fome of B. Jonion's plays the fame licence, I think, is taken. MALONE.

There is nothing uncommon in these appeals to the audience. So in A mad World my Mafters, by Middleton, 1608': "Anold man's venery is very chargeable, my mafters; there's much cookery belongs to it." STEEVENS.

8 of good fame and name, majeftical, in 'parel comely, in gait portly.-] The context, I think, fhews, that the word perfon was omitted by the negligence of the copyift or printer. Stephen Goffon, in a work entitled Playes confuted in five feveral actions, bl. no date, fpeaking of his antagonist, defcribes him as

one in wit fimple; in learning ignorant; in attempt rafh; in name Lodge." Perhaps in the prefent paffage this writer was intended to be ridiculed. MALONE.

O wit! O pate! O memory! O hand! O ink! O paper! Well, now I will fend it away. Trompart, Trompart. What a villain is this? Why firrah, come when your mafter calls you. Trompart,

Trom. Anon, fir.

Enter Trompart.

Strum. Thou knoweft, my pretty boy, what a good mafter I have been to thee ever fince I took thee into my fervice.

Trom. Ay, fir.

Strum. And how I have cherished thee always, as if thou hadst been the fruit of my loins, flesh of my flesh, and bone of my bone.

Trom. Ay, fir.

Strum. Then fhew thyself herein a trufty fervant; and carry this letter to mistress Dorothy, and tell her[Whispers him. Exit Trompart. Strum. Nay, mafters, you fhall fee a marriage by and by. But here the comes. Now muft I frame

my amorous paffions.

Enter Dorothy and Trompart.

Dor. Signior Strumbo, well met. I receiv'd your letters by your man here, who told me a pitiful story of your anguish; and so understanding your paffions were fo great, I came hither speedily.

Strum. Oh, my fweet and pigfney, the fecundity of my ingeny is not fo great that may declare unto you the forrowful fobs and broken fleeps that I fuffer'd for you fake; and therefore I defire you to receive me into your familiarity;

9 Thou knoweft, my pretty boy, &c.] The author feems here to have had the first fcene of the Andria of Terence in his thoughts,

MALONE.

For

For your love doth lie
As near and as nigh

Unto my heart within,
As mine eye to my nose,
My leg unto my hofe,

And my flesh unto my skin.

Dor. Truly, Master Strumbo, you speak too learnedly for me to understand the drift of your mind; and therefore tell your tale in plain terms, and leave off your dark riddles.

Strum. Alas, miftrefs Dorothy, this is my luck, that when I moft would, I cannot be understood; fo that my great learning is an inconvenience unto .me. But to speak in plain terms, I love you, miftrefs Dorothy, if you like to accept me into familiarity.

Dor. If this be all, I am content.

your

Strum. Say'ft thou fo, fweet wench, let me lick thy toes. Farewel, miftrefs. If any of you be in love, [Turning to the audience] provide ye a cap-cafe full of new-coin'd words, and then fhall you foon have the fuccado de labres', and something else.

SCENE III.

[Exeunt.

Enter Locrine, Guendolen, Camber, Albanact, Corineus,
Alfaracus, Debon, and Thrafimachus.

Loc. Uncle, and princes of brave Britany,
Since that our noble father is entomb'd,
As beft befeem'd fo brave a prince as he,
If fo you pleafe, this day my love and I,
Within the temple of Concordia,

- and then you fall foon have the fuccado de labres,-] The meaning is fufficiently clear; but unless the reader happens to be poffeffed of a Strumbonian dictionary, I believe, he will feek for an explanation of the word fuccado in vain. MALONE.

Will folemnize our royal marriage.

Thra. Right noble lord, your fubjects every one Muft needs obey your highness at command; Efpecially in fuch a cafe as this,

That much concerns your highnefs' great content.
Loc. Then frolick, lordings, to fair Concord's walls,
Where we will pafs the day in knightly sports,
The night in dancing and in figur'd masks,
And offer to god Rifus all our sports 2.

[Exeunt.

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Enter Até as before. After a little lightning and thundering, let there come forth this show. Enter at one door Perfeus and Andromeda, hand in hand, and Cepheus alfo, with fwords and targets. Then let there come out of another door Phineus, in black armour, with Ethiopians after him, driving in Perfeus; and having taken away Andromeda, let them depart. Até remains.

Até. REGIT OMNIA NUMEN.

When Perfeus married fair Andromeda,
The only daughter of king Cepheus,

He thought he had establish'd well his crown,
And that his kingdom fhould for aye endure.
But lo! proud Phineus with a band of men,
Contriv'd of fun-burnt Æthiopians,

- god Rifus-] i. e. the deity who was supposed to prefide over merriment and laughter. STEEVENS.

This deity is likewife introduced by Marston in his Infatiate Counters, 1603:

"to Rifus will we confecrate this evening.

I think it probable that the Act closed with a rhime, and that the author wrote,

And offer to god Rifus all our tasks.

The compofitor might have caught the word ports from a preceding line. MALONE.

By

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By force of arms the bride he took from him,
And turn'd their joy into a flood of tears.
So fares it with young Locrine and his love;
He thinks this marriage tendeth to his weal,
But this foul day, this foul accurfed day,
Is the beginning of his miferies.

Behold where Humber and his Scythians
Approacheth nigh with all his warlike train.
I need not, I, the fequel fhall declare,
What tragick chances fall out in this war.

SCENE I..

[Exit.

Enter Humber, Hubba, Eftrild, Segar, and their Soldiers. Hum. At length the fnail doth climb the highest

tops,

Afcending up the ftately caftle walls;
At length the water with continual drops
Doth penetrate the hardest marble ftone;
At length we are arriv'd in Albion.
Nor could the barbarous Dacian fovereign,
Nor yet the ruler of brave Belgia,
Stay us from cutting over to this ifle,
Whereas I hear a troop of Phrygians
Under the conduct of Pofthumius' fon,
Have pitched up lordly pavillions,
And hope to profper in this lovely ifle.
But I will fruftrate all their foolish hope,
And teach them that the Scythian emperor
Leads Fortune tied in a chain of gold,
Conftraining her to yield unto his will,
And grace him with their regal diadem;
Which I will have, maugre their treble hofts,
And all the power their petty kings can make.

Hub. If the that rules fair Rhamnus' golden gate

If he that rules fair Rhamnus' golden gate,] That is, For tune. One of the chief places where the was worshipped, was Rhamnus, a town in Attica. STEEVENS.

Grant

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