So, reign, my son; scourge and control those slaves, Guiding thy chariot with thy father's hand.

As precious is the charge thou undertak'st

As that which Clymene's || brain-sick son did guide, When wandering Phoebe's ivory cheeks were

scorch'd,

And all the earth, like Ætna, breathing fire:
Be warn'd by him, then; learn with awful eye
To sway a throne as dangerous as his;
For, if thy body thrive not full of thoughts
As pure and fiery as Phyteus' + beams,
The nature of these proud rebelling jades
Will take occasion by the slenderest hair,
And draw thee piecemeal, like Hippolytus,
Through rocks more steep and sharp than Caspian
cliffs §:

The nature of thy chariot will not bear

A guide of baser temper than myself,

More than heaven's coach the pride of Phaeton. Farewell, my boys! my dearest friends, farewell!

Clymene's] So the 8vo.—The 4to" Clymeus."

⁕ Phœbe's] So the 8vo.—The 4to " Phœbus."

† Phyteus'] Meant perhaps for "Pythius'", according to the usage of much earlier poets:

"And of Phyton [i. e. Python] that Phebus made thus fine Came Phetonysses," &c.

Lydgate's Warres of Troy, B. ii. Sig. K vi. ed. 1555. Here the modern editors print " Phœbus" ".

thee] So the 8vo.—The 4to "me."

$ cliffs] Here the old eds. clifts" and "cliftes": but see

p. 27.

VOL. I.

My body feels, my soul doth weep to see
Your sweet desires depriv'd my company,
For Tamburlaine, the scourge of God, must die.
[Dies.
AMY. Meet heaven and earth, and here let all

things end,

For earth hath spent the pride of all her fruit, And heaven consum'd his choicest living fire. Let earth and heaven his timeless death deplore, For both their worths will equal him no more.

THE

JEW OF MALTA.

The Famous Tragedy of The Rich Iew of Malta. As it was playd before the King and Qveene, in His Majesties Theatre at White-Hall, by her Majesties Servants at the Cock-pit. Written by Christopher Marlo. London; Printed by I. B. for Nicholas Vavasour, and are to be sold at his Shop in the Inner-Temple, neere the Church. 1633. 4to.

TO MY WORTHY FRIEND,

MASTER THOMAS HAMMON,

of gray's inn, etc.

This play, composed by so worthy an author as Master Marlowe, and the part of the Jew presented by so unimitable an actor as Master Alleyn, being in this later age commended to the stage; as I ushered it unto the court, and presented it to the Cock-pit, with these prologues and epilogues here inserted, so now being newly brought to the press, I was loath it should be published without the ornament of an Epistle; making choice of you unto whom to devote it; than whom (of all those gentlemen and acquaintance within the compass of my long knowledge) there is none more able to tax ignorance, or attribute right to merit. Sir, you have been pleased to grace some of mine own works with your courteous patronage: I hope this will not be the worse accepted, because commended by me; over whom none can claim more power or privilege than yourself. I had no better a new-year's gift to present you with; receive it therefore as a continuance of that inviolable obligement, by which he rests still engaged, who, as he ever hath, shall always remain,

Tuissimus,

Tho. HEYWOOD*.

*Tho. Heywood] The well-known dramatist.