now the case.
In tender youth, not long agone, near sixteen years of space,
Virginius a thrall of mine, a child and infant young,
From me did take by subtle means, and keeps by arm full strong:
And here before your grace I crave, that justice be extended,
That I may have my thrall again, and faults may be amended.
VIRGINIUS. Ah gods, that guide the globe above, what forged tales I
hear!
O Judge Appius, bend your ears, while this my crime I clear.
She is my child, and of my wife her tender corpse did spring:
Let all the country where I dwell bear witness of the thing.
[APPIUS _and_ CLAUDIUS _go forth, but_
APPIUS _speaketh this_.
Nay, by the gods, not so, my friend, I do not so decree:
I charge thee here in pain of death thou bring the maid to me.
In chamber close, in prison sound, she secret shall abide,
And no kind of wight shall talk with her, until the truth be tried.
This do I charge, this I command: in pain of death, let see,
Without any let that she be brought as prisoner unto me.
[_Exit_.
[_Here let Virginius go about the scaffold._
Ah fickle fall, unhappy doom, O most uncertain fate,[205]
That ever chance so churlishly, that never stay’d in state.
What judge is this? what cruel wretch? what faith doth Claudius find?
The gods do recompense with shame his false and faithless mind!
Well, home I must, no remedy; where shall my soaking tears.
Augment my woes, decrease my joys, while death do rid my fears.
_Here entereth_ RUMOUR.
Come, Ventus, come: blow forth thy blast:
Prince Eol, listen well:
The filthiest fact that ever was
I, Rumour, now shall tell.
You gods, bend down to hear my cry,
Revengement duly show,
Thy Rumour craves, bid[206] Claudius stay,[207]
And bring Judge Appius low.
That wicked man, that fleshly judge,
Hath hired Claudius
To claim a child, the only heir
Of old Virginius:
A virgin pure, a queen in life,
Whose state may be deplored;
For why the queen of chaste life
Is like to be deflow’red
By false Judge Appius, cruel wretch,
Who straitly hath commanded,
That she to keeping his be brought:
Prince Pluto this demanded.
To skies I fly, to blaze abroad
The tromp of deep defame.
Revenge, you gods, this Rumour craves,
This blood and bloody shame.
Have through the air! give place, you airs,
This is my duty done.
The gods confound such lecherers!
Lo, Rumour, this I run.
VIRGINIUS. O man, O mould, O muck, O clay! O hell, O hellish hound,
O false Judge Appius, rabbling[208] wretch, is this thy treason
found?
Woe worth the man that gave the seed, whereby ye first did spring!
Woe worth the womb that bare the babe to mean this bloody thing!
Woe worth the paps that gave thee suck, woe worth the fosters eke:
Woe worth all such as ever did thy health or liking seek!
O, that these gravèd hairs[209] of mine were covered in the clay!
_Here entereth_ VIRGINIA.
Let patience, dear father mine, your rigour something stay:
Why do you wail in such a sort? why do you weep and moan?
VIRGINIUS. O daughter dear and only heir, my life is near begone,
And all for love of thee.
VIRGINIA. Ah, gods, how may this be?
Dear father, do withdraw your dread, and let me know the cause:
Myself will aid with life or death without demur or pause.
Then tender your child that craveth this bound.[210]
VIRGINIUS. O, hearken, dear daughter, attend thou my sound.
Judge Appius, prick’d forth with filthy desire,
Thy person as leman doth greatly require;
And no kind of entreaty, no fear, nor no shame,
Will he hear alleged, defending[211] the same.
And straight without staying, in pain of my death,
I must bring thee thither. Wherefore stop my breath.
O sisters; I search, I seek, and I crave
No more at your hands but death for to have,
Rather than see my daughter deflow’red,
Or else in ill sort so wildly devour’d.
VIRGINIA. O father, O friendship, O fatherly favour,
Whose dulcet words so sweetly do savour,
On knees I beseech thee to grant my request,
In all things according as liketh thee best.
Thou knowest, O my father, if I be once spotted,
My name and my kindred then forth will be blotted:
And if thou, my father, should die for my cause,
The world would accompt me guilty in cause.
Then rather, dear father, if it be thy pleasure,
Grant me the death; then keep I my treasure,
My lamp, my light, my life undefiled,
And so may Judge Appius of [my] flesh be beguiled.
This upon my knees with humble behest,
Grant me, O father, my instant request.
VIRGINIUS. Then rise up, my daughter: my answer do note
From mouth of thy father, whose eyes do now float.
O daughter, O dear, O darling, O dame,
Dispatch me, I pray thee, regard not my name:
But yet as thou sayest, sith remedy none,
But leman thou must be, if I were gone,
And better it is to die with good fame,
Than longer to live to reap us but shame:
But if thou do die no doubt is at all,
But presently after myself follow shall,
Then end without shame, so let us persever,
With trump of good fame, so die shall we never.
[_Virginia here kneeleth._
Then, tender arms, complect the neck: do dry thy father’s tears,
You nimble hands, for woe whereof my loving heart it wears.
VIRGINIA. O father mine, refrain no whit your sharped knife to take
From gilded[212] sheath my shame to end, and body dead to make.
Let not the shameless bloody judge defile my virgin’s life;
Do take my head, and send it him upon your bloody knife:
Bid him imbrue his bloody hands in guiltless blood of me:
I virgin die, he lecher lives; he was my end, you see.
No more delays--lo, kiss me first, then stretch your strongest arm:
Do rid my woe, increase my joy, do ease your child of harm.
VIRGINIUS. O weary wits of woe or wealth, O feeble aged man,
How can thy arm give such a blow! thy death I wish thee then!
But sith that shame with endless trump will sound, if case thy joy
By[213] means of false Judge Appius be, myself will thee destroy.
Forgive me, babe, this bloody deed, and meekly take thy end.
[_Here let him proffer a blow_.
VIRGINIA. The gods forgive thee, father dear! farewell, thy blow do
bend.
Yet stay a while, O father dear, for flesh to death is frail:
Let first my wimple bind my eyes, and then thy blow assail.
Now, father, work thy will on me, that life I may enjoy.
[_Here tie a handkercher about her eyes, and
then strike off her head._
Now stretch thy hand, Virginius, that loth would flesh destroy.
O cruel hands, O[214] bloody knife, O man, what hast thou done?
Thy daughter dear and only heir her vital end hath won.
Come, fatal blade, make like despatch: come, Atropos: come, aid![215]
Strike home, thou careless arm, with speed; of death be not afraid.
_Here entereth_ COMFORT.
O noble knight, Virginius, do stay, be not dismay’d:
I, curing Comfort, present am, your dolor [for] to aid.
VIRGINIUS. Sith joy is gone, sith life is dead,
What comfort can there be?
No more! there is but deep despair,
And deadly death to me.
COMFORT. No more, Sir Knight, but take the head, and wend a while
with me:
It shall be sent to court, for that Judge Appius may it see.
In recompense of lecher’s lust this present let him have,
And stay your corpse for certain space in coping from the grave:
So shall you see the end of him and all his whole concent.[216]
This will be comfort to your heart: Virginius, be content.
VIRGINIUS. Of truth, even so, for comfort else I know right well is
none,
Wherefore I do consent with you: come on, let us be gone.
But messenger myself will be, myself will give the gift.
Come on, good Comfort, wend we then; there is no other shift.
[_Exeunt._
_Here entereth_ JUDGE APPIUS.
Well, hap as hap can, hap or no,
In hazard it is, but let that go.
I will, what so happen, pursue on still:
Why, none there is living can let me my will.
I will have Virginia; I will her deflow’r,
Else rigorous sword her heart shall devour.
_Here entereth_ HAPHAZARD.
I came from Caleco even the same hour,
And Hap was hired to hackney in hempstrid:
In hazard he was of riding on beamstrid.
Then, crow crop on tree-top, hoist up the sail,
Then groaned their necks by the weight of their tail:
Then did Carnifex put these three together,
Paid them their passport for clust’ring thither.
APPIUS. Why, how now, Haphazard, of what dost thou speak?
Methinks in mad sort thy talk thou dost break.
Those three words, chop all in one,
Is Carnifex: that signifieth hangman.
Peace! no such words before me do utter.
HAPHAZARD. Nay, I lie as still as a cat in a gutter.
Go to, Judge Appius; go forward, good prince:
Perhaps ye may have that the which will not blince.
APPIUS. What is the man that liveth now so near to door of death,
As I for lust of lady fair, whose lack will stop my breath?
But long I shall not want her sight, I stay her coming here.
O lucky light! lo, present here her father doth appear.
O, how I joy! yet brag thou not; dame beauty bides behind.
Virginius, where is the maid? how haps thou break my mind?
_Here entereth_ VIRGINIUS [_bearing Virginia’s head_.]
Ah wicked judge, the virgin chaste
Hath sent her beauteous face,
In recompense of lecher gain,
To thee, so void of grace.
She bids thee imbrue thy bloody hands
And filthy lecherous mind
With Venus’ damsels, void of shame,
Where such thou haps to find.
But thou as with Diana’s imps
Shalt never be acquainted:
They rather wish the naked knife
Than virgin’s life attainted.
And in[217] just proof whereof
Behold Virginia’s head:
She sought her fame, thou sought her shame:
This arm hath smit her dead.
APPIUS. O curst and cruel cankered churl, O carl unnatural;
Which hast the seed of thine own loin[218] thrust forth to funeral!
Ye gods, bend down your ire, do plague him for his deed,
You sprites below, you hellish hounds, do give him gall for meed.
Myself will see his latter end; I judge him to the death.
Like death that fair Virginia took, the like shall stop his breath;
The flashy[219] fiends of Limbo lake his ghost do so turmoil,
That he have need of Charon’s help for all his filthy toil.
Come, Justice, then; come on, Reward; come, aid me in my need.
Thou wicked knight, shalt slaughtered[220] be with self-same knife
with speed.
VIRGINIUS. Sith she a virgin pure and chaste in heaven leads her
life,
Content I am to die with her, and die upon her knife.
APPIUS. Come, Justice, then: come on, Reward, when Judgment now doth
call.
_Here entereth_ JUSTICE _and_ REWARD, _and they both speak this_.
We both are ready here at hand to work thy fatal fall.
JUSTICE [_speaketh_]. O gorgon judge, what lawless life hast thou
most wicked led!
Thy soaking sin hath sunk thy soul, thy virtues all are fled.
Thou chaste and undefiled life did seek for to have spotted,
And thy reward is ready here, by Justice now allotted.
REWARD. Thy just reward is deadly death; wherefore come, wend away:
To death I straight will do thy corpse; then lust shall have his prey.
Virginius, thou woful knight, come near and take thy foe.
In prison [do] thou make him fast: no more let him do so.
Let Claudius for tyranny be hanged on a tree.
VIRGINIUS. Ah, right Reward: the gods be bless’d, this day I chance
to see!
_Enter_ HAPHAZARD.
HAPHAZARD. Why, how now, my lord Appius, what cheer?
Why, where is my reward for this gear?
Why did I ride, run, and revel,
And for all my jaunting now made a javel?
Why--run, sir knave, call me Claudius?
Then--run with a vengeance, watch Virginius:
Then--ride, sirrah; is Virginia at church?
Then--gallop to see where her father doth lurch.
Then--up, sirrah; now what counsel?
Of dame beauty what news canst thou tell?
Thus in hurly burly, from pillar to post,
Poor Haphazard daily was toss’d;
And now with Virginius he goes sadly walking,
And nothing at all will listen my talking:
But shall I be so used at his hands?
As lief I were near in Limbo bands.
That dronel, that drousy drakenosed drivel,
He never learned his manners in Siville.[221]
A judge may cause a gentleman--a gentleman? nay, a jack-herring,
As honest as he that carries his hose on his neck for fear of
wearing.
A caitiff, a cut-throat, a churl worthy blame.
I will serve him no longer, the devil give him shame!
Yet, by the mouse-foot, I am not content,
I will have a reward, sure, else will I repent.
To master Reward I straightways will go:
The worst that can hap is but a no.
But sure I know his honesty is such,
That he will recompense me with little or much:
And well this proverb cometh in my head,
By ’r lady, half a loaf is better than ne’er a whit of bread.
Therefore hap and be happy,[222] hap that hap may,
I will put it in hazard, I[’ll] give it assay.
All hail, Master Reward and righteous Justice:
I beseech you let me be recompensed too, according to my service;
For why all this long time I have lived in hope.
REWARD. Then for thy reward, then, here is a rope.
HAPHAZARD. Nay, soft, my masters: by Saint Thomas of Trunions,
I am not disposed to buy of your onions.
A rope? (quoth you) away with that showing!
It would grieve a man having two ploughs going.
Nay, stay, I pray you, and let the cat wink:
It is naught in dry summer for-letting my drink.[223]
JUSTICE. Let or let not, there is no remedy: hanging shall be thy
reward verily.
HAPHAZARD. Is there nothing but hanging to my lot doth fall?
Then take you my reward; much good do it you withal.
I am not so hasty, although I be claiming,
But that I can afford you the most of my gaining.
I will set, let, grant, yield, permit and promise
All the revenues to you of my service.
I am friendly, I am kindly, I proffer you fair:
You shall be my full executor and heir.
REWARD. Nay, make you ready first to die, by the rood,
Then we will dispose it, as we think good:
Then those that with you to this did consent,
The like reward shall cause them repent.
JUSTICE. Nay, stay a while, Virginius is coming.
Nay, soft, Haphazard, you are not so cunning,
Thus to escape without punishment.
[HAPHAZARD _presses to go forth, but is
forced to stay_.][224]
REWARD. No, certes, it is not so expedient.
_Here entereth_ VIRGINIUS.
O noble Justice, duty done, behold I come again,
To show you that Appius he himself hath lewdly slain.
As soon as he in prison was enclosed out of sight,
He desperate for bloody deed did sle himself outright;
And Claudius doth mercy crave, who did the deed for fear.
Vouchsafe, O judge, to save his life, though country he forbear.
JUSTICE. We grant him grace at thy request, but banish him the land.
And see that death be done outright on him that here doth stand.
HAPHAZARD. Nay, Master Virginius, [_Take him by the hand._[225]] I
crave not for service the thing worth ought:
Hanging, quoth you? it is the last end of my thought.
Fie for shame, fie--stay, by my father’s soul,
Why, this is like to Tom Turner’s dole:
Hang one man and save all the rest!
Take part one with another: plain dealing is best.
REWARD. This is our dealing; thus deal we with thee.
Take him hence, Virginius; go, truss him to a tree.
HAPHAZARD. Shall ye,[226] in a rope’s name? whither away with me?
VIRGINIUS. Come, wend thou in haste thy death for to take,
To the hangman I will lead thee, a quick despatch to make.
HAPHAZARD. Must I needs hang? by the gods, it doth spite me
To think how crabbedly this silk lace will bite me.
Then come, cousin Cutpurse, come, run, haste and follow me:
Haphazard must hang; come, follow the livery.
[_Exit_.
JUSTICE.. Well, wend we now: the final end of fleshly lust we see.
REWARD. Content: Reward is ready bent with Justice to agree.
_Here entereth_ FAME [_with_ DOCTRINA _and_ MEMORY
_bearing a tomb, also_ VIRGINIUS].[227]
O stay, you noble Justice, stay! Reward, do make no haste.
We ladies three have brought the corse, in earth that must be
placed.
We have brought back Virginius the funeral to see.
I grant him that the learned pen shall have the aid of me,
To write in learned verse the honour of her name.
FAME. And eke it shall resound by trump of me Dame Fame.
[_Here let_ MEMORY _write on the tomb_.
I Memory will mind her life: her death shall ever reign
Within the mouth and mind of man, from age to age again.
JUSTICE. And Justice, sure, will aid all those that imitate her life.
REWARD. And I Reward will punish those that move such dames to strife.
FAME. Then sing we round about the tomb, in honour of her name.
REWARD. Content we are with willing mind to sing with sound of Fame.
THE EPILOGUE.
As earthly life is granted none for evermore to reign,
But denting death will cause them all to grant this world as vain;
Right worshipful, sith sure it is that mortal life must vade,
Do practise then to win his love, that all in all hath made.
And by this poet’s feigning here example do you take
Of Virginia’s life of chastity, of duty to thy make;
Of love to wife, of love to spouse, of love to husband dear,
Of bringing up of tender youth: all these are noted here.
I doubt it not, right worshipful, but well you do conceive
The matter that is ended now, and thus I take my leave:
Beseeching God, as duty is, our gracious Queen to save
The nobles and the commons eke, with prosperous life, I crave!
FINIS.
[150] This list is inserted in the centre of the title
page of the old copy. [The title runs as follows: “A
new Tragicall Comedie of Apius and Virginia. Wherein is
liuely expressed a rare example of the vertue of
Chastitie by Virginias Constancy in wishing rather to
be slaine at her owne Fathers handes, then to be
dishonored of the wicked Iudge Apius. By R. B. The
players’ names (as above). Imprinted at London by
William How for Richard Ihones. 1575.”]
[151] It was well to reprint this singular production,
if only to rescue it from the ravages of time. The old
copy has received damage, and is fast decaying: the
beginnings of the nine following lines have crumbled
away, but it has not been difficult to restore the
words, or parts of words lost.
[152] [These Latin lines are full of false grammar,
sense, and quantities, of which some are beyond
conjecture.]
[153] [Old copy has _like_.]
[154] [Old copy, _infected_.]
[155] [Old copy, _detected_.]
[156] [Old copy, _Thy sufferent_.]
[157] [Old copy, _feare_.]
[158] The old copy gives this line to Virginius.
[159] [_i.e._, The earth. Old copy, _Glope_.]
[160] [Old copy gives this line to Virginia.]
[161] [Old copy has _keyser to, ber_.]
[162] [In the old copy this line runs thus--
“I babe, and I blisse, your health am againe.”]
[163] In the old copy the word _earth_ is repeated.
[164] [Old copy, _When_.]
[165] The old copy reads “to _nurtue_ to be brought,”
but it is probably a misprint.
[166] [Old copy, _Exit_, but all three leave the stage.]
[167] [The ordinary proverb runs, “Who _sups_,” &c.]
[168] [A sleepy-head or a stupid.]
[169] [For the future.]
[170] This allusion to the _sweat_, a word anciently
used as synonymous with the _plague_, seems to fix the
date, when “Appius and Virginia” was written, in 1563:
according to Camden’s Annals, there was then “a raging
plague in London.”
[171] [Old copy, _Bayberry_.]
[172] [Strown.]
[173] [Knowledge, perception.]
[174] [If the case be that.]
[175] [Old copy, _coy strange_.]
[176] [Old copy, _he_.]
[177] [Old copy, _wages_.]
[178] [_i.e._, Commune.]
[179] No matter.
[180] [Old copy, _of_.]
[181] [Old copy, _gwerdon_.]
[182] [It at first appeared as if _gransier_, the
reading of the old copy, was an error or corruption for
_gain, sir_, but possibly the word is used in the sense
of _great_.]
[183] [The nearer.]
[184] [Old copy, _as if to her it were to me_.]
[185] [To be pronounced as a trisyllable here.]
[186] [Old copy, _Graunted ... With dewes and
bewteous_. It is conceivable that _beauteous_ may be
misprinted for _beauty’s use_, and the meaning of the
passage may then be, that Virginia had forgotten him
(Appius), or, in the words of the writer, “That drowsy
Morpheus has granted his slumb’ry kingdom _to beauty’s
use_?”]
[187] [Old copy, _imbace_.]
[188] Mansipulus, Mansipula, and Subservus enter, but
their names are omitted.
[189] [Old copy, _venterous_.]
[190] [Old copy, _maude_.]
[191] [Serious.]
[192] [Stutterer.]
[193] [Query, _guide_, _carter_.]
[194] [_Scarce_.]
[195] [Old copy, _things_.]
[196] [Old copy, _wights_.]
[197] [See Halliwell in _v. Hale._]
[198] [The dangers of Charybdis.]
[199] [Old copy, _was_.]
[200] [Old copy, _Adrice_.]
[201] [Old copy, _Laceface_.]
[202] [Old copy, _that_.]
[203] [Old copy, _leach_.]
[204] [Thus.]
[205] [Old copy, _faul ... rate_.]
[206] [Old copy, _did_.]
[207] [Old copy, _lay_.]
[208] [Intriguing, insinuating.]
[209] [Vexed or troubled hairs. Old copy, _the graued yeares_.]
[210] [Boon.]
[211] Opposing, preventing.
[212] [Old copy, _giltes_.]
[213] [Old copy, _thou joy, My meanes_.]
[214] [Old copy, _or_.]
[215] [Old copy, _end_.]
[216] [Old copy, _consent_. _Concent_ here must be
understood to signify _following_ or _adherents_.]
[217] [Old copy, _In end_.]
[218] [Old copy, _lym_.]
[219] [Old copy, _flasky_. Perhaps even _flashy_ may
not be the true word. See Nares, 1859, in _v._ Could
the author have written _dusky_?]
[220] [Old copy, _shal slaughter_.]
[221] [_Seville_. So for the sake of the _jeu de mot_.]
[222] [Old copy, _happely_]
[223] [Old copy, _naught ... for letting_--the meaning
being apparently “It is too bad of you to stop my drink
in this dry weather by hanging me.”]
[224] [Old copy, _Prece to go foorth_.]
[225] The words “take him by the hand” [in the old copy
form part of the text].
[226] [Old copy, _ye shall_.]
[227] [This stage direction, in the old copy, is
divided into two portions, but all appear to enter
together. The old copy reads also, as if it was
Virginius who brought in the tomb; but surely it is
Doctrina and Memory who do so.]
CAMBYSES.
_EDITIONS._
_A lamentable tragedy mixed ful of pleasant mirth, conteyning the life
of Cambises King of Percia, from the beginning of his kingdom vnto his
death, his one good deed of execution, after that many wicked deeds
and tirannous murders, committed by and through him, and last of all
his odious death by Gods Iustice appointed, in such order as
followeth. By Thomas Preston._
THE DIVISION OF THE PARTS.
COUNSEL, }
HUFF, }
PRAXASPES, } _For one man._
MURDER, }
LOB, }
THE THIRD LORD. }
LORD, }
RUFF, }
COMMON’S CRY, } _For one man._
COMMON’S COMPLAINT, }
LORD SMIRDIS, }
VENUS. }
KNIGHT, }
SNUFF, }
SMALL HABILITY, }
PROOF, } _For one man._
EXECUTION, }
ATTENDANCE, }
SECOND LORD. }
CAMBYSES, } _For one man._
EPILOGUS. }
PROLOGUE, }
SISAMNES, }
DILIGENCE, }
CRUELTY, } _For one man._
HOB, }
PREPARATION, }
THE FIRST LORD. }
AMBIDEXTER, } _For one man._
TRIAL. }
MERETRIX, }
SHAME, }
OTIAN, } _For one man._
MOTHER, }
LADY, }
QUEEN. }
YOUNG CHILD, } _For one man._
CUPID. }
[Col.] Imprinted at London by John Allde. 4o. Black letter.
A Lamentable Tragedie, &c. [Col.] Imprinted at London by Edward Allde.
4o. Black letter.
HAWKINS’S PREFACE.
This is the play that Shakespeare is supposed to allude to, when he
introduces Falstaff speaking in King Cambyses’ vein, in the “First
Part of King Henry the Fourth.”[228] It was written early in the reign
of Elizabeth (according to some in 1561), by Thomas Preston, M.A.,
Fellow of King’s College, and afterwards L.D. and Master of Trinity
Hall, in Cambridge. He performed so admirably well in the tragedy of
Dido, before Queen Elizabeth, when she was entertained in that
university in 1564; and did so genteelly and gracefully dispute before
her, that she gave him £20 per annum for so doing. See Thomas Hatcher,
or his continuator, in the catalogue of provosts, fellows, and
scholars of King’s College--MS. under the year 1560 (Oldys’ MSS. Notes
on Langbaine).
The play is here given from a black-letter copy in Mr Garrick’s
collection, printed by John Allde. [There is a second edition from the
press of his son and successor Edward Allde; both are undated.[229]]
The prologue and great part of “Cambyses” was written by the author in
long Alexandrines, which the narrowness of the page rendered it
necessary here to subdivide.
The prevailing turn for drollery and comic humour was at first so
strong, that in order to gratify it even in more serious and solemn
scenes, it was necessary still to retain the Vice or artful Buffoon,
who (like his contemporary the privileged Fool in the courts of
princes and castles of great men) was wont to enter into the most
stately assemblies and vent his humour without restraint. We have a
specimen of this character in the play of “Cambyses,” where
Ambidexter, who is expressly called the Vice, enters “with an old
capcase for a helmet and a skimmer for his sword,” in order, as the
author expresses it, “to make pastime.”[230]