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The pilot from the helm leaps in the sea,
And mariners, albeit the keel be sound,
Shipwreck themselves; even so, the city left,
All rise in arms; nor could the bed-rid parents
Keep back their sons, or women's tears their
husbands:

They stay'd not either to pray or sacrifice;
Their household-gods restrain them not; none
linger'd,

As loath to leave Rome whom they held so dear:
Th' irrevocable people fly in troops.

O gods, that easy grant men great estates,

But hardly grace to keep them! Rome, that
flows

With citizens and captives, and would hold
The world, were it together, is by cowards
Left as a prey, now Cæsar doth approach.
When Romans are besieg'd by foreign foes,
With slender trench they escape night-stratagems,
And sudden rampire rais'd of turf snatch'd up,
Would make them sleep securely in their tents.
Thou, Rome, at name of war runn'st from thyself,
And wilt not trust thy city-walls one night:
Well might these fear, when Pompey fear'd and
fled.

Now evermore, lest some one hope might ease
The commons' jangling minds,+ apparent signs

arose,

Struck with th' earth's sudden shadow, waxed
pale;

Titan himself, thron'd in the midst of heaven,
His burning chariot plung'd in sable clouds,
And whelm'd the world in darkness, making

men

Despair of day; as did Thyestes' town,
Mycenae, Phoebus flying through the east.
Fierce Mulciber unbarrèd Etna's gate,
Which flamèd not on high, but headlong pitch'd
Her burning head on bending Hespery.
Coal-black Charybdis whirl'd a sea of blood.
Fierce mastives howl'd. The vestal fires went
out;

The flame in Alba, consecrate to Jove,
Parted in twain, and with a double point
Rose, like the Theban brothers' funeral fire.
The earth went off her hinges; and the Alps
Shook the old snow from off their trembling

tops.*

The ocean swell'd as high as Spanish Calpe
Or Atlas' head. Their saints and household-
gods

Sweat tears, to show the travails of their city:
Crowns fell from holy statues. Ominous birds
Defil'd the day;† and wild beasts were seen,
Leaving the woods, lodge in the streets of Rome.
Cattle were seen that mutter'd human speech;

Strange sights appear'd; the angry threatening Prodigious births with more and ugly joints

gods

Fill'd both the earth and seas with prodigies.
Great store of strange and unknown stars were

seen

Wandering about the north, and rings of fire
Fly in the air, and dreadful bearded stars,
And comets that presage the fall of kingdoms;
The flattering sky glitter'd in often flames,
And sundry fiery meteors blaz'd in heaven,
Now spear-like long, now like a spreading torch;
Lightning in silence stole forth without clouds,
And, from the northern climate snatching fire,
Blasted the Capitol; the lesser stars,

Than nature gives, whose sight appals the

mother;

And dismal prophecies were spread abroad:
And they, whom fierce Bellona's fury moves
To wound their arms, sing vengeance; Cybel's +

priests,

Curling their bloody locks, howl dreadful things.
Souls quiet and appeas'd sigh'd from their

graves;

Clashing of arms was heard; in untrod woods
Shrill voices schright; § and ghosts encounter

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
Her meeting horns to match her brother's light,

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Shaking her snaky hair and crooked pine
With flaming top; much like that hellish fiend

* Shook the old snow from off their trembling tops] Old
ed."- their trembling laps."-"veteremque jugis nu-
tantibus 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."
Cybel's] Old ed. "Sibils."

§ schright] i. e. screaked, shrieked.

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And Marius' head above cold Tav'ron* peering,
His grave broke open, did affright the boors.
To these ostents, as their old custom was,
They call th' Etrurian augurs: amongst whom
The gravest, Arruns, dwelt in forsaken Luca,t
Well-skill'd in pyromancy; one that knew
The hearts of beasts, and flight of wandering
fowls.

First he commands such monsters Nature hatch'd

Against her kind, the barren mule's loath'd issue,
To be cut forth and cast in dismal fires;
Then, that the trembling citizens should walk
About the city; then, the sacred priests
That with divine lustration purg'd the walls,
And went the round, in and without the town;
Next, an inferior troop, in tuck'd-up vestures,
After the Gabine manner; then, the nuns
And their veil'd matron, who alone might view
Minerva's statue; then, they that keep and read
Sibylla's secret works, and wash § their saint
In Almo's flood; next, learnèd augurs follow;
Apollo's soothsayers, and Jove's feasting priests;
The skipping Salii with shields like wedges;
And Flamens last, with net-work woollen veils.
While these thus in and out had circled Rome,
Look, what the lightning blasted, Arruns takes,
And it inters with murmurs dolorous,
And calls the place Bidental. On the altar
He lays a ne'er-yok'd bull, and pours down wine,
Then crams salt leaven on his crookèd knife:
The beast long struggled, as being like to prove
An awkward sacrifice; but by the horns
The quick priest pull'd him on his knees, and
slew him:

No vein sprung out, but from the yawning gash,
Instead of red blood, wallow'd venomous gore.

*Tav'ron] i. e. Anio.

Luca] Old ed. has "Leuca," with a marginal note,or Lunæ,"

eut forth] i. e. cut out from the womb. But this is not warranted by the original.

$ wash] Old ed. "wash'd."

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
Did threaten horror from the host of Cæsar;
A small thin skin contain'd the vital parts;
The heart stirr'd not; and from the gaping liver
Squeez'd matter through the caul; the entrails
peer'd;

And which (ay me!) ever pretendeth* ill,
At that bunch where the liver is, appear'd
A knob of flesh, whereof one half did look
Dead and discolour'd, th' other lean and thin.†
By these he seeing what mischiefs must ensue,
Cried out, "O gods, I tremble to unfold
What you intend! great Jove is now displeas'd;
And in the breast of this slain bull are crept
Th' infernal powers. My fear transcends my
words;

Yet more will happen than I can unfold:
Turn all to good, be augury vain, and Tages,
Th' art's master, false!" Thus, in ambiguous
terms

Involving all, did Arruns darkly sing.
But Figulus, more seen in heavenly mysteries,
Whose like Egyptian Memphis never had
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; §
Or if Fate rule them, Rome, thy citizens
Are near some plague. What mischief shall

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Mean ye to rage? the death of many men
Meets in one period. If cold noisome Saturn
Were now exalted, and with blue beams shin'd,
Then Ganymede* would renew Deucalion's flood,
And in the fleeting sea the earth be drench'd.
O Phoebus, shouldst thou with thy rays now
singe

The fell Nemæan beast, th' earth would be fir'd,
And heaven tormented with thy chafing heat:
But thy fires hurt not. Mars, 'tis thou inflam'st
The threatening Scorpion with the burning tail,
And first his cleys: why art thou thus
enrag'd?

Kind Jupiter hath low declin'd himself,
Venus is faint; swift Hermes retrograde;
Mars only rules the heaven. Why do the
planets

Alter their course, and vainly dim their virtue?
Sword-girt Orion's side glisters too bright:
War's rage draws near; and to the sword's
strong hand

Let all laws yield, sin bear the name of virtue :
Many a year these furious broils let last:
Why should we wish the gods should ever end
them?

War only gives us peace. O Rome, continue
The course of mischief, and stretch out the date
Of slaughter! only civil broils make peace."
These sad presages were enough to scare

The quivering Romans; but worse things affright

them.

*

As Mænas full of wine on Pindus raves,

So runs a matron through th' amazèd streets,
Disclosing Phoebus' fury in this sort:
"Paan, whither am I hal'd? where shall I fall,
Thus borne aloft? I see Pangaus' hill
With hoary top, and, under Hæmus' mount,
Philippi plains. Phoebus, what rage is this?
Why grapples Rome, and makes war, having no
foes?

Whither turn I now? thou lead'st me toward th' east,

Where Nile augmenteth the Pelusian sea:
This headless trunk that lies on Nilus' sand
I know. Now thoroughout+ the air I fly
To doubtful Syrtes and dry Afric, where
A Fury leads the Emathian bands. From thence
To the pine-bearing hills; thence§ to the

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Ganymede] So Marlowe chooses to render "Aquarius," adopting the notion of some mythologists that Ganymede was changed into that sign.

t cleys] i. e. claws.

*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 all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,+
Woods or steepy mountain yields.§

And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their ** flocks
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing ++ madrigals.

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 E. H. and C. A.-Omitted in P. P.

↑ That hills and valleys, dales and fields] So P. P.—E. H, "That vallies, groues, hills and fieldes."-C. A. "That vallies, groves, or hils, or fields."

§ Woods or sleepy mountain yields] So E. H.-P. P. "And the craggy mountain yields.”—C. A. "Or woods and steepie mountains yeelds."

And we will] So B. H.-P. P. "There will we."-C. A. Where we will.”

Seeing] So E. H.-P. P. and C. A. "And see." ** their] So E. H. and P. P.-C. A. "our.'

tt sing] So P. P. and C. A.-E. H. "sings."

And I will make thee beds of roses] So E. 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
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair-lined slippers † for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw and ivy-buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs:
An if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.

The shepherd-swains § shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me, and be my love.

* A gown, &c.] This stanza is not in P. P.

+ Fair-lined slippers] So E. H.-C. A. "Slippers lin'd choicely."

Come] So E. 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,
As precious as the gods do eat,
Shall on an ivory table be

Prepar'd each day for thee and me."

§ The shepherd-swains, &c.] This stanza is not in P. P. -E. H. and C. A. "The sheepheards swaines."

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He hath stoln my love from What shall I do? I am undone; My heart will ne'er be as it was. O, but he gives her gay gold rings, And tufted gloves [for] holiday, And many other goodly things,

*

That hath stoln my love away.

alas!

Fragment] From England's Parnassus, 1600, p. 480 (under Description of Seas, Waters, Riuers, &c.), where it is signed "Ch. Marlowe."-The Editor of Marlowe's Works, 1826, having a very short memory, could not recollect from what source the compiler of England's Parnassus had derived a passage which he ascribes to Marlowe,

"The rites

In which love's beauteous empress most delights," &c. It is taken from Hero and Leander: see p. 283, first col. t twining] So in the "Errata" to E. P., which in the text has "twindring."

Dialogue in verse] Was first printed in The Alleyn Papers (for the Shakespeare Society), p. 8, by Mr. Collier,

Let him give her gay gold rings

Or tufted gloves, were they ne'er so [gay]; [Flor were her lovers lords or kings,

They should not carry the wench away.

who prefaced it with the following remarks. original MS. this dramatic dialogue in verse is written as "In the 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. on the part of the writer of the manuscript, it has been In consequence of haste or ignorance 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.

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