The Prologue-speaker, before going out, draws a curtain and discovers BETHSABE, with her Maid, bathing over a spring. She sings, and DAVID sits above viewing her.

THE SONG.

HOT sun, cool fire, temper'd with sweet air,
Black shade, fair nurse, shadow my white hair:
Shine, sun; burn, fire; breathe, air, and ease me;
Black shade, fair nurse, shroud me, and please me:
Shadow, my sweet nurse, keep me from burning;
Make not my glad cause cause of [my] mourning.
Let not my beauty's fire
Inflame unstaid desire,

Nor pierce any bright eye
That wandereth lightly.

Beth. Come, gentle zephyr, trick'd with those perfumes

That erst in Eden sweeten'd Adam's love,
And stroke my bosom with thy silken fan.
This shade, sun-proof, is yet no proof for thee;
Thy body, smoother than this waveless spring,
And purer than the substance of the same,
Can creep through that his lances cannot pierce.
Thou, and thy sister, soft and sacred Air,
Goddess of life, and governess of health,
Keep every fountain fresh and arbour sweet.
No brazen gate her passage can repulse,
Nor bushy thicket bar thy subtle breath:
Then deck thee with thy loose delightsome robes,
And on thy wings bring delicate perfumes,
To play the wanton with us through the leaves.
Dav. What tunes, what words, what looks,
what wonders pierce

My soul, incensed with a sudden fire?
What tree, what shade, what spring, what para-
dise,

Enjoys the beauty of so fair a dame?
Fair Eva, placed in perfect happiness,

Lending her praise-notes to the liberal heavens,
Struck with the accents of archangels' tunes,
Wrought not more pleasure to her husband's
thoughts

Than this fair woman's words and notes to mine. May that sweet plain, that bears her pleasant weight,

Be still enamell'd with discolour'd2 flowers;
That precious fount bear sand of purest gold;
And, for the pebble, let the silver streams
That pierce earth's bowels to maintain the source,
Play upon rubies, sapphires, chrysolites;
The brims let be embraced with golden curls
Of moss, that sleeps with sound the waters make,
For joy to feed the fount with their recourse.
Let all the grass that beautifies her bower
Bear manna every morn instead of dew;
Or let the dew be sweeter far than that
That hangs, like chains of pearl, on Hermon hill,
Or balm which trickled from old Aaron's beard.-
Cusay, come up, and serve thy lord the king.

Enter CUSAY, above.

Cu. What service doth my lord the king command?

Dav. 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! Cu. Is it not Bethsabe the Hethite's wife, Urias, now at Rabbah siege with Joab?

1 incensed-inflamed.

2 discoloured-variously coloured.

Dav. Go know, and bring her quickly to the king;

Tell her, her graces have found grace with him. Cu. I will, my lord. [Exit.

Dav. 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 carry pleasures to the hearts of kings.
Enter CUSAY, below, to BETHSABE, she starting
as something affright."

Cu. Fair Bethsabe, the king of Israel From forth his princely tower hath seen theo bathe,

And thy sweet graces have found grace with him.

Come, then, and kneel unto him where he stands; The king is gracious, and hath liberal hands.

Beth. Ah! what is Bethsabe to please the king? Or what is David, that he should desire, For fickle beauty's sake, his servant's wife?

Cu. David, thou know'st, fair dame, is wise and just,

Elected to the heart of Israel's God;
For any action that contents his soul.
Then do not thou expostulate with him

Beth. My lord the king, elect to God's own Should not his gracious jealousy incense? heart, Whose thoughts are chaste: I hate incontinence. Cu. Woman, thou wrong'st the king, and doubt'st his honour,

Whose truth maintains the crown of Israel, Making him stay that bade me bring thee straight. Beth. The king's poor handmaid will obey my lord.

Cu. Then come, and do thy duty to his grace, And do what seemeth favour in his sight. [Exit, below, with BETHSABE. Dav. 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,
Shall, as the serpents fold into their nests
That, for their homage to her sovereign joys,'
In oblique turnings, wind their nimble waves
About the circles of her curious walks,
And with their murmur summon easeful sleep
To lay his golden sceptre on her brows.-
Open the doors, and entertain my love;
Open, I say, and, as you open, sing—
Welcome, fair Bethsabe, King David's darling!'

Enter, above, CUSAY with BETHSABE. Welcome, fair Bethsabe, King David's darling. Thy bones' fair covering, erst discovered fair," And all mine eyes with all thy beauties pierced; As heaven's bright eye burns most when most he climbs

The crooked zodiac with his fiery sphere,
And shineth furthest from this earthly globe;
So, since thy beauty scorch'd my conquer'd soul,
I call'd thee nearer for my nearer cure.

Beth. Too near, my lord, was your unarmèd heart,

When furthest off my hapless beauty pierced;
And would this dreary day had turn'd to night,
Or that some pitchy cloud had cloak'd the sun,
Before their lights had caus'd my lord to see
His name disparag'd and my chastity!
Dav. My love, if want of love have left thy soul
A sharper sense of honour than thy king
(For love leads princes sometimes from their
seats),

As erst my heart was hurt, displeasing thee,
So come and taste thy ease with easing me.
Beth. One medicine cannot heal our different
harms,

But rather make both rankle at the bone;
Then let the king be cunning in his cure,
Lest flattering both, both perish in his hand.
Dav. Leave it to me, my dearest Bethsabe,
Whose skill is conversant in deeper cures.-
And, Cusay, haste thou to my servant Joab,
Commanding him to send Urias home
With all the speed can possibly be us'd.
Cu. Cusay will fly about the king's desire.

[Exeunt. Enter JOAB, ABISAI, URIAS, and others, with drum and ensign.

Joab. Courage, ye mighty men of Israel, And charge your fatal instruments of war Upon the bosoms of proud Ammon's sons, That hath disguis'd your king's ambassadors, Cut half their beards and half their garments off, In spite of Israel and his daughters' sons! Ye fight the holy battles of Jehovah,

King David's God, and ours, and Jacob's God, That guides your weapons to their conquering strokes,

Orders you footsteps, and directs your thoughts
To stratagems that harbour victory:

He casts his sacred eyesight from on high,
And sees your foes run seeking for their deaths,
Laughing their labours and their hopes to scorn;
While 'twixt your bodies and their blunted

swords

He puts on armour of his honour's proof,
And makes their weapons wound the senseless

winds. !

Abis. Before this city Rabbah we will lie, And shoot forth shafts as thick and dangerous As was the hail that Moses mix'd with fire, And threw with fury round about the fields, Devouring Pharaoh's friends and Egypt's fruits. Ur. First, mighty captains, Joab and Abisai, Let us assault and scale this kingly tower, Where all their conduits and their fountains are; Then we may easily take the city too.

Joab. Well hath Urias counsell'd our attempts; And as he spake us, so assault the tower: Let Hanon now, the king of Ammon's son, Repulse our conquering passage if he dare. Enter HANON, MACHAAS, and others, upon the walls.

Ha. What would the shepherd's-dogs of Israel Snatch from the mighty issue of King Ammon, The valiant Ammonites and haughty Syrians? Tis not your late successive victories Can make us yield, or quail our courages; But if ye dare assay to scale this tower, Our angry swords shall smite ye to the ground, And venge our losses on your hateful lives.

Joab. Hanon, thy father Nahas gave relief To holy David in his hapless exile,

1 venge-revenge.

Lived his fixed date, and died in peace;
But thou, instead of reaping his reward,
Hast trod it under foot, and scorn'd our king;
Therefore thy days shall end with violence,
And to our swords thy vital blood shall cleave.
Mach. Hence, thou that bear'st poor Israel's
shepherd's-hook,

The proud lieutenant of that base-born king,
And keep within the compass of his fold;
For, if ye seek to feed on Ammon's fruits,
And stray into the Syrians' fruitful meads,
The mastiffs of our land shall worry ye,
And pull the weesels' from your greedy throats.
Abis. Who can endure these pagans' blas-
phemies?

Ur. My soul repines at this disparagement. Joab. Assault, ye valiant men of David's host, And beat these railing dastards from their doors. Assault, and they win the tower; and then JOAB speaks above.

Thus have we won the tower, which we will keep,

Maugre2 the sons of Ammon and of Syria.

Enter CUSAY, below.

Cu. Where is Lord Joab, leader of the host? Joab. Here is Lord Joab, leader of the host. Cusay, come up, for we have won the hold.3 Cu. In happy hour, then, is Cusay come. CUSAY goes up.

Joab. What news, then, brings Lord Cusay from the king?

Cu. His Majesty commands thee out of hand To send him home Urias from the wars, For matter of some service he should do.

Ur. "Tis for no choler hath surprised the king, I hope, Lord Cusay, 'gainst his servant's truth? Cu. No; rather to prefer Urias' truth.

Joab. Here, take him with thee, then, and go

in peace;

And tell my lord the king that I have fought
Against the city Rabbah with success,
And scaled where the royal palace is,
The conduit-heads and all their sweetest springs:
Then let him come in person to these walls,

With all the soldiers he can bring besides,
And take the city as his own exploit,
Lest I surprise it, and the people give
The glory of the conquest to my name.

Cu. We will, Lord Joab; and great Israel's
God

Bless in thy hands the battles of our king! Joab. Farewell, Urias; haste away the king. Ur. As sure as Joab breathes a victor here, Urias will haste him and his own return.

[Exeunt CUSAY and URIAS. Abis. Let us descend, and ope the palace gate, Taking our soldiers in to keep the hold.

Joab. Let us, Abisai:-and, ye sons of Judah, Be valiant, and maintain your victory. [Exeunt.

Enter THAMAR.

Tha. Whither, alas, ah! whither shall I fly, With folded arms and all-amazèd soul? Cast as was Eva from that glorious soil (Where all delights sat .bating, wing'd with thoughts,

Ready to nestle in her naked breasts),

To bare and barren vales with floods made waste, To desert woods, and hills with lightning scorch'd,

1 weesels-weasands, i.e. windpipes.

2 Mangre-in spite of. French malgré.

3 hold stronghold, or keep.

With death, with shame, with hell, with horror sit;

There will I wander from my father's face;
There Absalon, my brother Absalon,
Sweet Absalon shall hear his sister mourn;
There will I lure with my windy sighs
Night-ravens and owls to rend my bloody side,
Which with a rusty weapon I will wound,
And make them passage to my panting heart.
Why talk'st thou, wretch, and leav'st the deed
undone ?

Rend hair and garments, as thy heart is rent
With inward fury of a thousand griefs,
And scatter them by these unhallow'd doors,
To figure Amnon's resting cruelty,
And tragic spoil of Thamar's chastity.

Enter ABSALON.

Abs. What causeth Thamar to exclaim so much?

Tha. The cause that Thamar shameth to disclose.

Abs. Say; I thy brother will revenge that

cause.

Hath Amnon forced thee? by David's hand,
And by the covenant God hath made with him,
Amnon shall bear his violence to hell;
Traitor to heaven, traitor to David's throne,
Traitor to Absalon and Israel.

This fact hath Jacob's ruler seen from heaven,
And through a cloud of smoke and tower of fire,
As he rides vaunting him upon the greens,
Shall tear his chariot-wheels with violent winds,
And throw his body in the bloody sea;
At him the thunder shall discharge his bolt;
And his fair spouse, with bright and fiery wings,
Sit ever burning on his hateful bones:
Myself, as swift as thunder or his spouse,'
Will hunt occasion with a secret hate,

To work false Amnon an ungracious end.-
Go in, my sister; rest thee in my house;
And God in time shall take this shame from thee.
Tha. Nor God nor time will do that good for

son,

My brother and fair Thamar's by the king,
My step-brother by mother and by kind:
He hath dishonour'd David's holiness,
And fix'd a blot of lightness on his throne.
Dav. Hath Amnon brought this evil on my
house,

And suffer'd sin to smite his father's bones?
Smite, David, deadlier than the voice of heaven,
And let hate's fire be kindled in thy heart:
Frame in the arches of thy angry brows,
Making thy forehead, like a comet, shine,
To force false Amnon tremble at thy looks.
Sin, with his sevenfold crown and purple robe,
Begins his triumphs in my guilty throne;
There sits he watching with his hundred eyes
Our idle minutes and our wanton thoughts;
And with his baits, made of our frail desires,
Gives us the hook that hales our souls to hell:
But with the spirit of my kingdom's God
I'll thrust the flattering tyrant from his throne,

Kind-nature.

And scourge his bondslaves from my hallow'd

court

With rods of iron and thorns of sharpen'd steel. Then, Absalon, revenge not thou this sin; Leave it to me, and I will chasten him.

Abs. I am content: then grant, my lord the
king,

Himself with all his other lords would come
Up to my sheep-feast on the plain of Hazor.

Dav. Nay, my fair son, myself with all my lords Will bring thee too much charge; yet some shall go.

Abs. But let my lord the king himself take
pains;

The time of year is pleasant for your grace,
And gladsome summer in her shady robes,
Crowned with roses and with painted flowers,
With all her nymphs, shall entertain my lord,
That, from the thicket of my verdant groves,
Will sprinkle honey-dews about his breast,
And cast sweet balm upon his kingly head:
Then grant thy servant's boon, and go, my lord."
Dav. Let it content my sweet son Absalon,
That I may stay, and take my other lords.
Abs. But shall thy best-belovèd Amnon go?
Dav. What needeth it, that Amnon go with
thee?

Abs. Yet do thy son and servant so much grace.

Dav. Amnon shall go, and all my other lords, Because I will give grace to Absalon.

Enter CUSAY and URIAS, with others.

Cu. Pleaseth my lord the king, his servant Joab Hath sent Urias from the Syrian wars.

Dav. Welcome, Urias, from the Syrian wars, Welcome to David as his dearest lord.

Ur. Thanks be to Israel's God and David's grace,

Urias finds such greeting with the king.

Dav. No other greeting shall Urias find
As long as David sways th' elected seat
And consecrated throne of Israel.
Tell me, Urias, of my servant Joab;
Fights he with truth the battles of our God,
And for the honour of the Lord's anointed?

Ur. Thy servant Joab fights the chosen wars
With truth, with honour, and with high success,
And 'gainst the wicked king of Ammon's sons,
Hath, by the finger of our sovereign's God,
Besieg'd the city Rabbah, and achiev'd1
The court of waters, where the conduits run,
And all the Ammonites' delightsome springs:
Therefore he wisheth David's mightiness
Should number out the host of Israel,
And come in person to the city Rabbah,
That so her conquest may be made the king's,
And Joab fight as his inferior.

Dav. This hath not God and Joab's prowess done

Without Urias' valour, I am sure,

Who, since his true conversion from a Hethite
To an adopted son of Israel,

Hath fought like one whose arms were lift by heaven,

And whose bright sword was edg'd with Israel's wrath.

Go therefore home, Urias, take thy rest;
Visit thy wife and household with the joys
A victor and a favourite of the king's
Should exercise with honour after arms.

Ur. Thy servant's bones are yet not half so craz'd,

Nor constitute on such a sickly mould,

I achiev'd-won, or reached.