Which endes your life, fhal firft begin their reigne,
Great is the perill. What will be the ende,
When fuche beginning of suche liberties
Voide of fuche stayes' as in your life do lye,
Shall leaue them free to random of their will,
An open prey to traiterous flattery,

t

The greatest peftilence of noble youthe:
Which perill fhal be paft, if in your life,
Their tempred youth, with aged fathers awe,
Be brought in vre of skilfull ftaiedness, &c ".

From an obfequious complaifance to the king, who is present, the topic is not agitated with that oppofition of opinion and variety of arguments which it naturally fuggefts, and which would have enlivened the difputation and displayed diverfity of character. But Eubulus, the king's fecretary, declares his fentiments with fome freedom, and feems to be the most animated of all our three political orators.

To parte your realme vnto my lords your fonnes,
I think not good, for you, ne yet for them,

But worst of all for this our native land:

W

Within one lande one fingle rule is best.

Diuided reignes do make diuided hartes,

But peace preferues the countrey and the prince.
Suche is in man the gredie minde to reigne,
So great is his defire to climbe aloft

In wordly stage the ftatelieft partes to beare,
That faith, and iuftice, and all kindly loue,
Do yelde vnto defire of foueraigntie.
Where egall ftate doth raise an egall hope,
To winne the thing that either wold attaine.
Your grace remembreth, howe in paffed yeres

States, edit. 1565.

To free randon, edit. 1565.
Adi. Sc. ii.

For with, edit. 1565.

* Natural.

The

66

The mightie Brute, firft prince of all this lande,
Poffeffed the fame, and ruled it well in one:
He, thinking that the compaffe did suffice,
For his three fonnes three kingdoms eke to make,
Cut it in three, as you would nowe in twaine :
But how much Brittish' blod hath fince been spilt,
What princes flaine before their timely hour,
To ioyne againe the fondred vnitie?

What waft of townes and people in the lande ?
What treasons heaped on murders and on spoiles?
Whofe iuft reuenge euen yet is scarcely ceased,
Ruthfull remembraunce is yet raw in minde, &c°.

The illuftration from Brutus is here both appofite and poetical. Spence, with a reference to the fituation of the author lord Buckhurst in the court of queen Elifabeth, has obferved in his preface to the modern edition of this tragedy, that "'tis no "wonder, if the language of kings and statesmen should be less happily imitated by a poet than a privy counsellor." This is an infinuation that Shakespeare, who has left many historical tragedies, was lefs able to conduct some parts of a royal story than the statesman lord Buckhurft. But I will venture to pronounce, that whatever merit there is in this play, and particularly in the speeches we have just been examining, it is more owing to the poet than the privy counsellor. If a first minister was to write a tragedy, I believe the piece will be the better, the lefs it has of the first minifter. When a statesman turns poet, I should not wish him to fetch his ideas or his language from the canbinet. I know not why a king should be better qualified than a private man, to make kings talk in blank verfe. The chafte elegance of the following description of a region abounding in every convenience, will gratify the lover of claffical purity.

Brutish, edit. 1565.
Sithence, edit. 1565.
Honour, edit. 1565.

Had, edit. 1565.

• Ibid.

Yea

d

Yea, and that half, which in abounding store
Of things that ferue to make a welthie realme,
In statelie cities, and in frutefull foyle,

In temperate breathing of the milder heauen,
In thinges of nedeful vfe, whiche friendlie fea
Transportes by traffike from the forreine partes,
In flowing wealth, in honour and in force, &c.

The close of Marcella's narration of the murther of Porrex by the queen, which many poets of a more enlightened age would have exhibited to the fpectators, is perhaps the most moving and pathetic fpeech in the play. The reader will observe, that our author, yet to a good purpose, has transferred the ceremonies of the tournament to the court of an old British king.

queene of adamante! O marble breafte!

If not the fauour of his comelie face,

If not his princelie chere and countenaunce,
His valiant active armes, his manlie breafte,
If not his faier and femelie personage,

h

His noble lymmes in fuche proporcion cafte,
As would have wrapped a fillie womans thought,
If this mought not haue moued thy bloodie harte,
And that most cruell hande, the wretched weapon
Euen to let fall, and kiffe* him in the face,
With teares for ruthe to reaue fuche one by death :
Should nature yet confent to flaye her fonne?
O mother thou, to murder thus thie childe!

Euen Joue, with Juftice, muft with lightening flames
From heauen fend downe fome strange reuenge on thee.
Ah! noble prince, how oft have I beheld

Within, edit. 1565.
Portes, edit. 1565.
A&t ii. Sci.

In the edition of 1565, this word is preparacion. I mention this, as a specimen of the great incorrectnefs of that edition.

Wrapped, rapt, i. e. ravished. I once conjectured warped. We have "wrapped "in wo." A&t iv. Sc. ii.

i The, edit. 1565.

Kifte, edit. 1565.

Thee

Thee mounted on thy fierce and traumpling ftede,
Shyning in armour bright before thy tylte,
And with thy miftreffe' fleaue tied on thy helme,
And charge thy staffe, to please thy ladies eie,
That bowed the head peece of thy frendly foe?
Howe oft in armes on horfe to bende the mace'?
How oft in arms on foote to breake the fworde?
Which neuer now these eyes may fee againe "!

Marcella, the only lady in the play except the queen, is one of the maids of honour; and a modern writer of tragedy would have made her in love with the young prince who is murthered.

The queen laments the lofs of her eldest and favorite fon, whofe defeat and death had just been announced, in the following foliloquy. The ideas are too general, although happily expreffed but there is fome imagination in her wishing the old maffy palace had long ago fallen, and crushed her to death.

Why should I lyue, and lynger forth my time
In longer liefe, to double my diftreffe?

O me most wofull wight, whome no mishap
Long ere this daie could haue bereued hence!
Mought not these handes, by fortune or by fate,
Haue perft this breft, and life with iron reft?
Or in this pallaice here, where I fo longe
Haue spent my daies, could not that happie houre
Ones, ones, haue hapt, in which thefe hugie frames
With death by fall might haue oppreffed me!
Or should not this most hard and cruell foile,
So oft where I haue preft my wretched steps,
Somtyme had ruthe of myne accursed liefe,
To rend in twaine, and fwallowe me therin!
So had my bones poffeffed nowe in peace
Their happie graue within the closed grounde,

1 The shaft of the lauce.

m A&t iv. Sc. ii.

And

And greadie wormes had gnawen this pyned hart
Without my feelynge paine! So should not nowe
This lyvynge breft remayne the ruthefull tombe
Wherein my hart, yelden to dethe, is graued, &c".

There is fome animation in these imprecations of prince Ferrex upon his own head, when he protests that he never conceived any malicious defign, or intended any injury, against his

brother Porrex°.

The wrekefull gods poure on my curfed head
Eternall plagues, and neuer dyinge woes!
The hellish prince adiudge my dampned ghoste
To Tantales thirfte, or proude Ixions wheele,
Or cruel gripe', to gnaw my growing harte;
To durynge tormentes and vnquenched flames;
If euer I conceiued fo foule a thought,

To wishe his ende of life, or yet of reigne.

It must be remembered, that the antient Britons were fupposed to be immediately defcended from the Trojan Brutus, and that confequently they were acquainted with the pagan history and mythology. Gordobuc has a long allufion to the miseries of the fiege of Troy'.

In this ftrain of correct verfification and language, Porrex explains to his father Gordobuc, the treachery of his brother Ferrex.

When thus I fawe the knot of loue unknitte;
All honest league, and faithfull promise broke,
The lawe of kind and trothe thus rent in twaine,
His hart on mischiefe fet, and in his breft