Sweeter than Nectar or Ambrofia
And caft away the clods of curfed care,
With goblets crown'd with Semeleius' gifts'.
Now let us march to Abis' filver ftreams,
That clearly glide along the champain fields,
And moift the graffy meads with humid drops.
Sound drums and trumpets, found up chearfully,
Sith we return with joy and victory.

[Exeunt.

Enter Até as before. Then this dumb show. A crocodile fitting on a river's bank, and a little Snake flinging it. Both of them fall into the water.

Até. SCELERA IN AUTHOREM CADUNT. High on a bank, by Nilus' boiflerous ftreams, Fearfully fat the Egyptian crocodile,

Dreadfully grinding in her fharp long teeth.

The broken bowels of a filly fish.

His back was arm'd against the dint of fpear,
With fhields of brafs that fhin'd like burnish'd gold:
And as he stretched forth his cruel paws,

A fubtle adder creeping clofely near,
Thrufting his forked fting into his claws,
Privily fhed his poifon through his bones,

Which made him fwell, that there his bowels burst,
That did fo much in his own greatness truft.
So Humber having conquer'd Albanact,
Doth yield his glory unto Locrine's fword.
Mark what enfues, and you may eafily fee
That all our life is but a tragedy.

[Exit.

with Semeleius' gifts ] With the gifts of Bacchus, the fon of Jupiter and Semele.-No one but a pedant would have used this title in an English tragedy. MALONE.

SCENE

Enter Locrine, Guendolen, Corineus, Aaracus, Thrafimachus, and Camber.

Loc. And is this true? Is Albanactus flain?
Hath curfed Humber with his ftraggling hoft,
With that his army made of mungrel curs,
Brought our redoubted brother to his end?
O that I had the Thracian Orpheus' harp,
For to awake out of the infernal fhade
Thofe ugly devils of black Erebus,

That might torment the damned traitor's foul!
O that I had Am, hion's inftrument,
To quicken with his vital notes and tunes
The flinty joints of every ftony rock,
By which the Scythians might be punished!
For, by the lightning of almighty Jove,
The Hun fhall die, had he ten thousand lives:
And would to God he had ten thousand lives,
That I might with the arm-ftrong Hercules
Crop off fo vile an hydra's hiffing heads!
But fay, my coufin, (for I long to hear)
How Albanact came by untimely death.
Thra. After the traiterous hoft of Scythians
Enter'd the field with martial equipage,
Young Albanact, impatient of delay,

Led forth his army 'gainst the ftraggling mates;
Whofe multitude did daunt our foldiers minds.
Yet nothing could difmay the forward prince;
But with a courage moft heroical,

Like to a lion 'mong'ft a flock of lambs,
Made havock of the faint-heart fugitives,
Hewing a paffage through them with his fword.
Yea, we had almoft given them the repulfe,
When, fuddenly from out the filent wood,
Hubba, with twenty thousand foldiers,
Cowardly came upon our weaken'd backs,
And murther'd all with fatal maffacre:

Amongst

Amongst the which old Debon, martial knight,
With many wounds was brought unto the death;
And Albanact, opprefs'd with multitude,
Whilst valiantly he fell'd his enemies,
Yielded his life and honour to the duft.
He being dead, the foldiers fled amain ;
And I alone efcaped them by flight,
To bring you tidings of these accidents.
Loc. Not aged Priam, king of stately Troy,
Grand emperor of barbarous Afia,
When he behel! his noble-minded fon
Slain traiteroufly by all the Mirmidons,
Lamented more than I for Albanact.

Guen. Not Hecuba the queen of Ilion,
When the beheld the town of Pergamus,
Her palace, burnt with all-devouring flames,
Her fifty fons and daughters, fresh of hue,
Murther'd by wicked Pyrrhus' bloody fword,
Shed fuch fad tears as 1 for Albanact.

Cam. The grief of Niobe, fair Athens' queen
For her feven fons magnanimous in field,
For her feven daughters, fairer than the fairest,
Is not to be compar'd with my laments.

*

Cor. In vain you forrow for the flaughter'd prince,
In vain you. forrow for this overthrow..
He loves not moft that doth lament the moft,
But he that feeks to venge the injury.

Think you to quell the enemies' warlike train
With childish fobs and womanifh laments?

Unsheath your fwords, unfheath your conquering fwords,

And feek revenge, the comfort for this fore.
In Cornwall, where I hold my regiment 2,

Niobe, fair Athens' queen,] Niobe was the wife of Am phion, king of Thebes. The poet, therefore, either wrote: The grief of Niobe, fair Amphion's queen,

-(So lord Sterline has Darius, and Shakspeare Hyperion) or has made a blunder. MALONE.

2 where I hold my regiment,] i. e. my government. The old tranflation of the Schola Salernitana is entitled The Regiment of Health. MALONE.

Even

Even just ten thousand valiant men at arms
Hath Corineus ready at command.

All these and more, if need shall more require,
Hath Corineus ready at command.

Cam. And in the fields of martial Cambria,
Close by the boisterous Ifcan's filver ftreams,
Where light-foot fairies fkip from bank to bank,
Full twenty thoufand brave courageous knights
Well exercis'd in feats of chivalry,

In manly manner most invincible,

Young Camber hath, with gold and victual.
All these and more, if need fhall more require,
I offer up to venge my brother's death,

Loc. Thanks, loving uncle, and good brother too; For this revenge, for this fweet word, revenge, Muft ease and ceafe my wrongful injuries: And by the fword of bloody Mars I fwear, Ne'er fhall fweet quiet enter this my front, Till I be venged on his traiterous head, That flew my noble brother Albanact.

Sound drums and trumpets; mufter up the camp; For we will straight march to Albania.

[Exeunt.

Enter Humber, Eftrild, Hubba, Thraffier, and Soldiers.

Hum. Thus are we come victorious conquerors
Unto the flowing current's filver ftreams,
Which, in memorial of our victory,
Shall be agnominated by our name
And talked of by our pofterity:
For fure I hope before the golden fun
Pofteth his horses to fair Thetis' plains *,

3 Shall be agnominated by our name,] Here again is a pedantick difplay of minute learning. This word (formed from the agnomen of the Romans) is, I believe, used by no other English writer. MALONE.

* - fair Thetis' plains,] i. e. the level of the fea. Equor. Lat.

STEEVENS.

To

To see the water turned into blood,
And change his blueish hue to rueful red,
By reafon of the fatal maffacre

Which fhall be made upon the virent plains.
Enter the Ghoft of Albanac*.

Ghost. See how the traitor doth prefage his harm; See how he glories at his own decay ;

See how he triumphs at his proper loss;
O Fortune vile, unstable, fickle, frail!

Hum. Methinks I fee both armies in the field.
The broken lances climb the crystal skies ';
Some headlefs lie, fome breathlefs, on the ground,
And every place is ftrew'd with carcaffes:
Behold the grafs hath loft his pleasant green,
The sweetest fight that ever might be seen.

Ghoft. Ay, traiterous Humber, thou fhalt find
it fo.

Yea to thy coft thou fhalt the fame behold,
With anguifh, forrow, and with fad laments.
The graffy plains, that now do please thine eyes,
Shall ere the night be colour'd all with blood.
The fhady groves which now inclofe thy camp,
And yield fweet favour to thy damned corps,
Shall ere the night be figur'd all with blood.
The profound ftream that paffeth by thy tents,
And with his moisture ferveth all thy camp,
Shall ere the night converted be to blood,
Yea with the blood of thofe thy ftraggling boys:
For now revenge fhall eafe my lingering grief,
And now revenge fhall glut my longing foul. [Exit.

4

the virent plains.] i. e. green. The affected Brown uses this word in his Vulgar Errors. STEEVENS.

The broken lances climb the chryfial fkies;] So in Marlowe's Luft's Dominion:

"Veins why crack you not,

"And tilt your blood into the face of heaven ?" MALONE. *Enter the Ghoft of Albanact.] Why this perfonage is fum"moned from the dead, it is not eafy to fay. Though an interlocutor in the fcene, he neither addreffes Humber, nor is feen by him. MALONE.

Hub.