The pilot from the helm leaps in the sea, They stay'd not either to pray or sacrifice; As loath to leave Rome whom they held so dear: O gods, that easy grant men great estates, But hardly grace to keep them! Rome, that With citizens and captives,* and would hold Now evermore, lest some one hope might ease Struck with th' earth's sudden shadow, waxed pale; Titan himself, thron'd in the midst of heaven, men Despair of day; as did Thyestes' town, The flame in Alba, consecrate to Jove, tops.* The ocean swell'd as high as Spanish Calpe Sweat tears, to show the travails of their city: Strange sights appear'd; the angry threatening Prodigious births with more and ugly joints gods Fill'd both the earth and seas with prodigies. seen Wandering about the north, and rings of fire Than nature gives, whose sight appals the mother; And dismal prophecies were spread abroad: priests, Curling their bloody locks, howl dreadful things. graves; Clashing of arms was heard; in untrod woods men. Those that inhabited the suburb-fields Which wont to run their course through empty Fled: foul Erinnys stalk'd about the walls, night, At noon-day muster'd; Phoebe, having fill'd Shaking her snaky hair and crooked pine * Shook the old snow from off their trembling tops] Old ed. " their trembling laps."—"veteremque jugis nutantibus Alpes," &c Defil'd the day] Qy. "The day defiled"? But perhaps some word has dropped out; for the original gives,— silvisque feras sub nocte relictis Audaces media posuisse cubilia Roma." § schright] i. e. screaked, shrieked. And Marius' head above cold Tav'ron* peering, First he commands such monsters Nature hatch'd Against her kind, the barren mule's loath'd issue, No vein sprung out, but from the yawning gash, These direful signs made Arruns stand amaz'd, And searching farther for the gods' displeasure, The very colour scar'd him; a dead blackness Ran through the blood, that turn'd it all to jelly, And stain'd the bowels with dark loathsome spots; The liver swell'd with filth; and every vein peer'd ; And which (ay me!) ever pretendeth * ill, Yet more will happen than I can unfold: terms Involving all, did Arruns darkly sing. For skill in stars and tuneful planeting,‡ In this sort spake: "The world's swift course is lawless And casual; all the stars at random range; § Shall towns be swallow'd? shall the thicken'd air astra." range] Old ed. radge."-" et incerto discurrunt sidera motu." Shall water be congeal'd and turn'd to ice ?] But the original is, "Omnis an infusis miscebitur unda venenis?" Qy. could Marlowe have read ". unda pruinis"? Mean ye to rage? the death of many men The fell Nemæan beast, th' earth would be fir'd, Kind Jupiter hath low declin'd himself; Alter their course, and vainly dim their virtue? Let all laws yield, sin bear the name of virtue : War only gives us peace. O Rome, continue Ganymede] So Marlowe chooses to render "Aquarius," adopting the notion of some mythologists that Ganymede was changed into that sign. † cleys] i. e. claws. The quivering Romans; but worse things affright them. As Mænas full of wine on Pindus raves, With hoary top, and, under Hæmus' mount, foes? Whither turn I now? thou lead'st me toward th' east, Where Nile augmenteth the Pelusian sea: mounts Pyrene; and so back to Rome again. See, impious war defiles the senate-house! I go. O Phœbus, show me Neptune's shore, * Manas] i. e. a Bacchante.-Old ed. "Manus." (The original has "Edonis ".) ↑ thoroughout] Old ed. "throughout." pine-bearing hills] Marlowe must have read here Pinifera colles" (instead of "Nubiferæ," &c.). § thence] Old ed. "hence. THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE.* COME + live with me, and be my love; And we will || sit upon the rocks, And I will make thee beds of roses,++ And a thousand §§ fragrant posies; * The Passionate Shepherd to his love] The present text of this song, with the exception of the third line of the first stanza and two very trifling variations in the second and sixth stanzas, is from England's Helicon, 1600, where it is subscribed with Marlowe's name. Four stanzas of it (the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th,) had previously appeared in The Passionate Pilgrim, 1599. It was inserted, as the composition of Marlowe, in Walton's Complete Angler, 1653. See more particulars concerning this song in the Account of Marlowe and his Writings. + Come] So B. H. and C. A.-Omitted in P. P. That hills and valleys, dales and fields] So P. P.—B. H. "That vallies, groues, hills and fleldes."-C. A. "That vallies, groves, or hils, or fields." § Woods or steepy mountain yields] So E. H.—P. P. "And the craggy mountain yields."—C. A. "Or woods and steepie mountains yeelds." And we will] So E. H.-P. P. "There will we."—C. A. "Where we will." Seeing] So E. H.-P. P. and C. A. "And see." ** their] So B. H. and P. P.-C. A. "our." tt sing] So P. P. and C. A.-B. E. "sings." 11 And I will make thee beds of roses] So B. H. and C. A.— P. P. "There will I make thee a bed of roses." §§ And a thousand] So E. H.-P. P. “With a thousand." -C. A. "And then a thousand." A cap of flowers, and a kirtle Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle; A gown* made of the finest wool A belt of straw and ivy-buds, The shepherd-swains § shall dance and sing * A gown, &c.] This stanza is not in P. P. ↑ Fair-lined slippers] So E. H.-C. A. "Slippers lin'd choicely." Come] So B. H. and C. A.-P. P. "Then."-After this stanza, the following one was inserted in the second edition of the C. A., 1655; "Thy silver dishes for thy meat, Prepar'd each day for thee and me." § The shepherd-swains, &c.] This stanza is not in P. P. -B. H. and C. A." The sheepheards swaines." FRIEND. Let him give her gay gold rings Or tufted gloves, were they ne'er so [gay]; [F]or were her lovers lords or kings, They should not carry the wench away. who prefaced it with the following remarks. "In the original MS. this dramatic dialogue in verse is written as prose, on one side of a sheet of paper, at the back of which, in a more modern hand, is the name Kitt Marlowe.' What connection, if any, he may have had with it, it is impossible to determine, but it was obviously worthy of preservation, as a curious stage-relic of an early date, and unlike anything else of the kind that has come down to us. In consequence of haste or ignorance on the part of the writer of the manuscript, it has been necessary to supply some portions, which are printed within brackets. There are also some obvious errors in the distribution of the dialogue, which it was not easy to correct. The probability is that, when performed, it was accompanied with music." I have hazarded a conjecture that this Dialogue may be a fragment of The Maiden's Holiday, a lost comedy, which is said to have been written partly by Marlowe: see Account of Marlowe and his Writings. |