See Cusay, see the flower of Israel, The fairest daughter that obeys the king In all the land the Lord subdued to me. Fairer than Isaac's lover at the well,
Brighter than inside bark of new-hewn cedar,' Sweeter than flames of fine perfumed myrrh ; And comelier than the silver clouds that dance On Zephyr's wings before the king of Heaven. Cusay. Is it not Bethsabe the Hethite's wife Urias, now at Rabath siege with Joab?
David. Go now and bring her quickly to the King; Tell her, her graces hath found grace with him. Cusay. I will my Lord.
David. Bright Bethsabe shall wash in David's bower
In water mix'd with purest almond flower, And bathe her beauty in the milk of kids; Bright Bethsabe gives earth to my desires, Verdure to earth, and to that verdure flowers, To flowers sweet odours, and to odours wings, That carries pleasures to the hearts of Kings.
Now comes my Lover tripping like the Roe, And brings my longings tangled in her hair To joy her love I'll build a kingly bower, Seated in hearing of a hundred streams, That, for their homage to her sovereign joys, Shall, as the serpents fold into their nests, In oblique turnings wind the nimble waves About the circles of her curious walks, And with their murmer summon easeful sleep To lay his golden sceptre on her brows.
[There is more of the same stuff, but I suppose the reader has a surfeit; especially as this Canticle of David has never been suspected to contain any pious sense couched underneath it, whatever his son's may. The Kingly bower "seated in hearing of a hundred streams," is the best of it.]
LUST'S DOMINION, OR THE LASCIVIOUS QUEEN. A TRAGEDY, BY CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE.
The Queen Mother of Spain loves an insolent Moor*. QUEEN. ELEAZAR, the Moor.
Queen. Chime out your softest strains of harmony, And on delicious Music's silken wings
Send ravishing delight to my love's ears;
That he may be enamour'd of your tunes.
Eleaz. Away, away.
Queen. No, no, says aye; and twice away, says stay.
Come, come, I'll have a kiss; but if you'll strive,
For one denial you shall forfeit five.
Eleaz. Be gone, be gone.
Queen. What means my love?
Burst all those wires; burn all those instruments; For they displease my Moor. Art thou now pleas'd? Or wert thou now disturb'd I'll wage all Spain
To one sweet kiss, this is some new device To make me fond and long. Oh, you men Have tricks to make poor women die for you. Eleaz. What, die for me? Away. Queen. Away, what way? kindly.
Why dost thou frown? at whom?
Such another as Aaron in Titus Andronicus.
Eleaz. At thee.
Queen. At me?
O why at me? for each contracted frown, A crooked wrinkle interlines my brow: Spend but one hour in frowns, and I shall look Like to a Beldam of one hundred years. I prithee, speak to me, and chide me not, I prithee, chide, if I have done amiss; But let my punishment be this, and this, I prithee, smile on me, if but a while; Then frown on me, I'll die. I prithee, smile. Smile on me; and these two wanton boys, These pretty lads that do attend on me, Shall call thee Jove, shall wait upon thy cup And fill thee nectar: their enticing eyes Shall serve as crystal, wherein thou may'st see To dress thyself; if thou wilt smile on me. Smile on me; and with coronets of pearl And bells of gold, circling their pretty arms, In a round ivory fount these two shall swim, And dive to make thee sport:
Bestow one smile, one little little smile, And in a net of twisted silk and gold
In my all-naked arms thyself shalt lie.
[Kit Marlowe, as old Izaak Walton assures us, made that smooth song which begins "Come live with me and be my love." same romantic invitations "in folly ripe in reason rotten," are given by the queen in the play, and the lover in the ditty. talks of beds of roses, buckles of gold:"
Thy silver dishes for thy meat,
As precious as the Gods do eat, Shall on an ivory table be
Prepared each day for thee and me.
The lines in the extract have a luscious smoothness in them, and they were the most temperate which I could pick out of this
Play. The rest is in King Cambyses' vein; rape, and murder, and superlatives; "huffing braggart puft" lines, such as the play-writers anterior to Shakspeare are full of, and Pistol "but coldly imitates." Blood is made as light of in some of these old dramas as money in a modern sentimental comedy; and as this is given away till it reminds us that it is nothing but counters, so that is spilt till it affects us no more than its representative, the paint of the property-man in the theatre.]
SHEPHERD. IN TWO PARTS. BY CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE.-PART THE FIRST.
Tamburlaine's person described.
Of stature tall, and straightly fashioned; Like his desire, lift † upwards and divine. So large of limbs, his joints so strongly knit, Such breadth of shoulders, as might mainly bear Old Atlas' burthen. "Twixt his manly pitch A pearl more worth than all the world is placed:
Take a specimen from a speech of the Moor's:-
Now Tragedy, thou minion of the night, Rhamnusia's pue-fellow, to thee I'll sing Upon an harp made of dead Spanish bones, The proudest instrument the world affords; When thou in crimson jollity shall bathe Thy limbs as black as mine, in springs of blood Still gushing from the conduit head of Spain. To thee that never blush'st, though thy cheeks Are full of blood, O Saint Revenge, to thee I consecrate my murders, all my stabs,
My bloody labours, tortures, stratagems, The volume of all wounds that wound from me; Mine is the Stage, thine is the Tragedy.
Wherein by curious soverainty of art Are fixed his piercing instruments of sight: Whose fiery circles bear encompassed
A heaven of heavenly bodies in their spheres: That guides his steps and actions to the throne Where Honour sits invested royally.
Pale of complexion, wrought in him with passion Thirsting with soverainty and love of arms. His lofty brows in folds do figure death; And in their smoothness amity and life. About them hangs a knot of amber hair, Wrapped in curls, as fierce Achilles' was; On which the breath of heaven delights to play, Making it dance with wanton majesty. His armes long, his fingers snowy-white, Betokening valour and excess of strength; In every part proportioned like the man Should make the world subdue to Tamburlaine.
The first day when he pitcheth down his tents, White is their hue; and on his silver crest A snowy feather spangled white he bears; To signify the mildness of his mind, That, satiate with spoil, refuseth blood: But when Aurora mounts the second time,
As red as scarlet is his furniture;
Then must his kindled wrath be quench'd with blood,
Not sparing any that can manage arms : But if these threats move not submission. Black are his colours, black pavilion,
His spear, his shield, his horse, his armour, plumes, And jetty feathers, menace death and hell; Without respect of sex, degree or age,
He raseth all his foes with fire and sword.
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