Just hath father bene to every wight,
my
His first unjustice he will not extend
To me, I trust, that geve no cause therof;
My brother's pride shall hurt himselfe, not me.
Vid. So graunt the goddes: but yet thy father so
Hath firmly fixed his unmoved minde,
That plaintes and prayers can no whit availe,
(For those have I assaid,) but even this day
He will endeavour to procure assent
Of all his counsell to his fonde devise.

Fer. Their ancestors, from race to race, have borne

True fayth to my forefathers; and their seede,
I trust, they eke will beare the like to me.
Vid. There resteth all; but if they faile thereof,
And if the end bring forth an ill successe,
On them and theirs the mischiefe shall befall.
And so I pray the goddes requite it them;
And so they will, for so is wont to be
When lordes and trusted rulers under kinges,
To please the present fancie of the prince,
With wrong transpose the course of governance:
Murders, mischief, or civill sword at length,
Or mutual treason, or a just revenge,
When right succeeding line returnes again
By Jove's just judgement and deserved wrath,
Bringes them to cruell, and reprochfull death,
And rootes their names and kindredes from the
earth.

Fer. Mother, content you, you shall see the end.
Vid. The end? Thy end I feare: Jove end me first!

SCENA SECUNDA.

GORBODUC, AROstus, Philander, Eubulus. Gorb. My lords, whose grave advise and faithfull aide

Have long upheld my honour and my realme,
And brought me to this age from tender yeres,
Guidyng so great estate with great renowne :
Nowe more importeth me than erst to use
Your fayth and wisdome whereby yet I reigne;
That when by death my life and rule shall cease,
The kingdome yet may with unbroken course
Have certayne prince, by whose undoubted right
Your wealth and peace may stand in quiet stay:
And eke that they whome nature hath preparde,
In time to take my place in princely seate,
While in their father's tyme their pliant youth
Yeldes to the frame of skilfull governaunce,
Maye so be taught, and trayned in noble artes,
As what their fathers, which have reigned before,
Have with great fame derived downe to them,

Erst-formerly, heretofore.

With honour they may leave unto their seede:
And not be thought for their unworthy life,
And for their lawlesse swarvynge out of kinde,
Worthy to lose what lawe and kind them gave;
But that they may preserve the common peace,
(The cause that first began and still mainteines,
The lyneall course of kinges inheritance,)
For me, for myne, for you, and for the state,
Whereof both I and you have charge and care.
Thus do I meane to use your wonted fayth
To me and myne, and to your native lande.
My lordes, be playne without all wrie respect,
Or. poysonous craft to speake in pleasyng wise,
Lest as the blame of yll succedyng thinges
Shall light on you, so light the harmes also.

Arost. Your good acceptance so, most noble king,

Of suche our faithfulnesse, as heretofore
We have employed in dueties to your grace,
And to this realme, whose worthy head you are,
Well proves that neyther you mistrust at all,
Nor we shall neede in boasting wise to shewe
Our trueth to you, nor yet our wakefull care
For you, for yours, and for our native lande.
Wherefore, Ŏ kyng, I speake as one for all,
Sithe all as one do beare you egall faith:
Doubt not to use our counsells and our aides,
Whose honours,goods,and tyves, are whole avowed,
To serve, to ayde, and to defende your grace.

Gorb. My lordes, I thanke you all. This is the case.
Ye know, the gods, who have the soveraigne care,
For kings, for kingdomes, and for common weales,
Gave me two sonnes in my more lusty age,
Who nowe in my decayeng yeres are growen
Well towardes ryper state of minde and strength,
To take in hand some greater princely charge.
As yet they lyve and spende their hopefull daies
With me and with their mother here in courte:
Their age nowe asketh other place and trade,
And myne also doth aske an other chaunge;
Theirs to more travaile, myne to greater ease:
When fatall death shall ende my mortall life,
My purpose is to leave unto them twaine,
The realme divided in two sondry partes:
The one, Ferrex myne elder sonne shall have;
The other, shall the yonger Porrex rule.
That both my purpose may more firmely stande,
And eke that they may better rule their charge,
I meane forthwith to place them in the same;
That in my life they may both learne to rule,
And I may joy to see their ruling well.
This is, in summe, what I would have ye wey :
First, whether allowe9 my
ус
whole devise,

REESE LIB's hy

CITY

Allow obedience."

See Mr Steevens's note thereon.

And thinke it good for me, for them, for you,
And for our countrey, mother of us all:
And if ye lyke it, and allowe it well,
Then for their guydinge and their governaunce,
Shew forth such means of circumstance,

As ye thinke meete to be both knowne and kept:
Loe, this is all; now tell me your advise.
Arost. And this is much, and asketh great advise:
But for my part, my soveraigne lord and kyng,
This do I thinke :-Your majestie doth know,
How under you, in justice and in peace,
Great wealth and honour longe we have enjoyed,
So as we cannot seeme with gredie mindes
To wishe for change of prince or governaunce;
But if we lyke your purpose and devise,
Our lyking must be deemed to proceede
Of rightfull reason, and of heedefull care,
Not for ourselves, but for our common state :
Sithe our owne state doth neede no better change.
I thinke in all, as erst your grace hath saide:
Firste, when you shall unlode your aged mynde
Of hevye care and troubles manifolde,
And laye the same upon my lordes your sonnes,
Whose growing yeres may beare the burden long,
And long I pray the goddes to graunt it so:
And in your life while you shall so beholde
Their rule, their vertues, and their noble deedes,
Suche as their kinde behighteth1 to us all,
Great be the profites that shall growe thereof;
Your age in quiet shall the longer last,
Your lasting age shall be their longer stay.
For cares of kynges, that rule as you have ruled,
For publique wealth, and not for private joye,
Do waste mannes lyfe, and hasten crooked age,
With furrowed face, and with enfeebled lymmes,
To draw on creepyng death a swifter pace.
They two yet yong shall beare the parted reigne
With greater ease than one, now olde, alone
Can welde the whole, for whom much harder is
With lessened strength the doubled weight to beare.
Your eye, your counsell, and the grave regarde
Of father, yea of such a father's name,
Now at beginning of their sondred reigne,

When is the hazarde of their whole successe,
Shall bridle so their force of youthfull heates,
And so restreine the rage of insolence,
Which most assailes the yong and noble mindes,
And so shall guide and traine in tempred stay
Their yet greene bending wittes with reverent awe,
As now inured with vertues at the first,
Custome, O kyng, shall bring delightfulnesse,
By use of vertue, vice shall grow in hate :
But if you so dispose it, that the daye
Which ends your life shall first begin their reigne,
Great is the perill, what will be the ende,
When such beginning of such liberties,
Voide of such stayes as in your life do lye,
Shall leave them free to randon" of their will
An open praie to traiterous flatterie,
The greatest pestilence of noble youthe:
Whiche perill shall be past, if in your life
Their tempred youthe with aged father's awe
Be brought in ure1 of skilfull stayednesse,
And in your life their lives disposed so
Shall length your noble life in joyfulnesse.
Thus thinke I that your grace hath wisely thought,
And that your tender care of common weale
Hath bred this thought, so to divide your lande,
And plant your sonnes to beare the present rule
While you yet lyve to see their rulinge well,
That you may longer lyve by joye therein.
What furder meanes behovefull are and meete,
At greater leisure may your grace devise,
When all have said, and when we be agreed
If this be best, to part the realme in twaine,
And place your sounes in present governement:
Whereof as I have plainely said my mynde,
So woulde I here the rest of all my lordes.

Phil. In part I thinke as hath ben saide before:
In parte agayne my minde is otherwise.
As for dividing of this realme in twaine,
And lotting out the same in egall partes
To either of my lordes your grace's sonnes,
That thinke I best for this your realmes behofe,
For profite and advauncement of your sonnes,
And for your comfort and your honour eke:

But so to place them while your life do last,
To yelde to them your royall governaunce,
To be above them onely in the name
Of father, not in kingly state also,

I thinke not good for you, for them, nor us.
This kingdome since the bloudie civill fielde,
13 Where Morgan slaine did yeld his conquered
part

Unto his cosin's sworde in Camberland,
Conteineth all that whilome did suffice
Three noble sonnes of your forefather Brute;
So your two sonnes it may suffice also,
The moe1 the stronger, if they gree in one:
The smaller compasse that the realme doth holde,
The easier is the swey thereof to welde,
The nearer justice to the wronged poore,
The smaller charge, and yet ynoughe for one.
And when the region is divided so
That brethren be the lordes of either parte,
Such strength doth nature knit betwene them both
In sondrie bodies by conjoyned love,
That not as two, but one of doubled force,
Eche is to other as a sure defence:
The noblenesse and glory of the one
Doth sharpe the courage of the other's mynde
With vertuous envie to contende for praise.
And such an egalnesse1 hath nature made
Betweene the brethren of one father's seede,
As an unkindly wrong it seemes to be,
To throwe the brother subject under feete
Of him, whose peere he is by course of kinde;
And nature, that did make this egalncsse,
Ofte so repineth at so great a wrong,
That ofte she rayseth up a grudging griefe
In yonger brethren at the elder's state:
Whereby both townes and kingdomes have been
rased,

And famous stockes of royall blood destroied;
The brother that shoulde be the brother's aide,
And have a wakefull care for his defence,
Gapes for his death, and blames the lyngering

If egall state may nourishe egall love,
Where none hath cause to grudge at other's good.
But nowe the head to stoupe beneth them both,
Ne kinde, ne reason, ne goud ordre beares.
And oft it hath ben seene, where nature's course
Hath ben perverted in disordered wise,
When fathers cease to know that they should rule,
And children cease to know they should obey,
That often over kindly tendernesse
Is mother of unkindly stubbornesse.
I speake not this in envie or reproche,
As if I grudged the glorie of your sonnes,
Whose honour I besech the goddes encrease:
Nor yet as if I thought there did remaine,
So filthie cankers in their noble brestes,
Whom I esteeme (which is their greatest praise)
Undoubted children of so good a kyng;
Onelie I mean to shewe by certaine rules,
Which kinde hath graft within the mind of man,
That nature hath her ordre and her course,
Which (being broken) doth corrupt the state
Of myndes and thinges, even in the best of all.
My lordes, your sonnes may learne to rule of you,
Your owne example in your noble courte
Is fittest guyder of their youthful yeares.
If you desire to see some present joye
By sight of their well-rulynge in your lyfe,
See them obey, so shall you see them rule:
Who so obeyeth not with humblenesse
Will rule with outrage and with insolence.
Longe may they rule I do beseche the goddes,
But longe may they learne, ere they begyn to rule;
If kinde and fates would suffre, I would wishe
Them aged princes and immortal kynges:
Wherfore, most noble kynge, I well assent,
Betwene your sonnes that you divide your realme,
And as in kinde, so match them in degree.
But while the goddes prolong your royall life,
Prolong your reigne, for therto lyve you here,
And therfore have the goddes so long forborne
To joyne you to themselves, that still you might
Be prince and father of our common weale:
They, when they see your children ripe to rule,
Will make them roume, and will remove you hence,
That yours in right ensuynge of your life
May rightly honour your immortall name.

Eubul. Your wonted true regarde of faithfull
hartes

13 Where Morgan slaine did yeld his conquered part

Makes me, O kynge, the bolder to presume
To speake what I conceive within my brest,
Although the same do not agree at all
With that which other here my lordes have said,
Nor which yourselfe have seemed best to lyke.
Pardon I crave, and that my wordes be demed
To flowe from hartie zeale unto your grace,'
And to the safetie of your common weale.
To parte your realme unto my lordes your sonnes
I thinke not good for you, ne yet for them,
But worste of all for this our native lande:
Within one land, one single rule is best:
Divided reignes do make divided hartes,
But peace preserves the countrey and the prince.
Suche is in man the gredy minde to reigne,
So great is his desire to climbe alofte,
In worldly stage the stateliest partes to beare,
That faith and justice, and all kindly love,
Do yeide unto desire of soveraigntie,
Where egall state doth raise an egall hope
To winne the thing that either wold attaine.
Your grace remembreth how in passed yeres,
The mightie Brute, first prince of all this lande,16
Possessed the same, and ruled it well in one;
He thinking that the compasse did suffice
For his three sonnes three kingdoms eke to make,
Cut it in three, as you would now in twaine:
But how much British bloud hath since bene spilt,
To joyne again the sondred unitie!

What princes slaine before their timely houre!
What waste of townes and people in the lande!
What treasons heaped on murders and on spoiles!
Whose just revenge even yet is scarcely ceased,
Ruthefull remembraunce is yet rawe in minde.
The gods forbyd the like to chaunce againe !
And you, O kynge, geve not the cause thereof.
My lord Ferrex, your elder sonne, perhappes,
Whome kinde and custome geves a rightfull hope
To be your heire, and to succede your reigne,
Shall thinke that he doth suffer greater wronge
Then he perchaunce will beare, if power serve:
Porrex, the younger, so upraised in state,
Perhappes in courage will be raysed also;
If flatterie then, which fayles not to assaile
The tendre mindes of yet unskilfull youth,
In one shall kindle and encrease disdaine,
And envie in the other's harte enflame;
This fire shall waste their love, their lives, their
land,

And ruthefull ruine shall destroy them both.
I wish not this, O kynge, so to befall,
But feare the thing, that I do most abhorre.
Geve no beginning to so dreadfull ende,
Kepe them in order and obedience,
And let them both, by now obeying you,
Learne such behaviour as beseemes their state;
The elder myldenesse in his governaunce,

The yonger, a yelding contentednesse :
And kepe them neare unto your presence still,
That they, restreyned by the awe of you,
May live in compasse of well tempred staye,
And passe the perrilles of their youthfull yeares,
Your aged life drawes on to febler tyme,
Wherin you shall lesse able be to beare
The travailes that in youth you have susteyned,
Both in your person's and your realme's defence.
If planting now your sonnes in furder partes,
You sende them furder from your present reach,
Lesse shall you know how they themselves de-

meane:

Traiterous corrupters of their plyant youth
Shall have unspied a much more free accesse:
And if ambition, and inflamed disdaine,
Shall arme the one, the other, or them both,
To civill warre, or to usurping pride,
Late shall you rue that you ne recked" before.
Good is I graunt of all to hope the best,
But not to live still dreadlesse of the worst.
So truste the one, that the other be forsene,
Arme not unskilfulnesse with princely power.
But you, that long have wisely ruled the reynes
Of royaltie within your noble realme,

So holde them, while the gods for our avayles
Shall stretch the thred of your prolonged daies.
To soone he clambe into the flaming carre,
Whose want of skill did set the earth on fire:
Time and example of your noble grace,
Shall teache your sonnes both to obey and rule:
When time hath taught them, time shall make
them place,

The place that now is full; and so I pray
Long it remaine, to comforte of us all.

Gorb. I take your faithful harts in thankfull

part;

But sithe I see no cause to draw my minde,
To feare the nature of my loving sonnes,

Or to misdeme that envie or disdaine

Can there worke hate, where nature planteth love,
In one selfe purpose do I still abide.
My love extendeth egally to both,
My lande suffiseth for them both also:
Humber shall parte the marches of theyr realmes:
The sotherne parte the elder shall possesse,
The northerne shall Porrex, the yonger, rule:
In quiet I will passe mine aged dayes,
Free from the travaile and the painefull cares
That hasten age upon the worthiest kinges.
But lest the fraude that ye do seeme to feare,
Of flattering tongues, corrupt their tender youth,
And wrythe them to the wayes of youthfull lust,
To climyng pride, or to revenging hate,
Or to neglecting of their carefull charge
Lewdely to live in wanton recklessnesse,
Or to oppressing of the rightfull cause,