Give lords the affront.-Is it, my Zephyrus, right? Thou'rt sure thou saw'st it blood? Face. Both blood and spirit, sir. Drest with an exquisite and poignant sauce, Go forth, and be a knight? Sir, I'll go look 45 [Exit Face. A little, how it heightens. With gums of Paradise and eastern air. Mam. No; I stone with this? do think t'have all this with the stone! Sur. Why, I have heard he must be homo frugi, Mam. I will have all my beds blown up, A pious, holy, and religious man, not stuff"d: 20 Down is too hard.-My mists room To lose ourselves in; and my baths, like pits, And roll us dry in gossamer and roses, My meat shall all come in, in Indian shells, rubies, heels, Boil'd in the spirit of sol, and dissolv'd pearl, 35 Apicius' diet 'gainst the epilepsy: Headed with diamond and carbuncle. My foot-boy shall eat pheasants, calver'd (1) salmons, Knots, (2) godwits, (3) lampreys: I myself will have 40 The beards of barbels serv'd, instead of Of a fat pregnant sow, newly cut off, (1) Sliced. (2) A species of snipe, of which King Knot or Camute was very fond; hence the name. (3) Å bird, mentioned also by Cowley; probably the plover. Where you nel-house, As fearful and melancholic as that their farrow, 15 And housewives' tun not work, (3) nor the milk churn! Writhe children's wrists, and suck their Get vials of their blood! and where the sea Wherewith she kills! where the sad mandrake grows, Whose groans are deathful; and dead-numbing night-shade, The stupefying hemlock, adder's tongue, And martagan: (1) the shrieks of luckless owls We hear, and croaking night-crows in the 35 air! Green-bellied snakes, blue fire-drakes in the sky, And giddy flitter-mice with leather wings! The scaly beetles, with their habergeons, That make a humming murmur as they fly! There in the stocks of trees, white fairies do dwell, 40 And span-long elves that dance about a pool, arms! With each a little changeling in their The airy spirits play with falling stars, And mount the spheres of fire to kiss the moon! While she sits reading by the glow-worm's light, 45 Or rotten wood, o'er which the worm hath crept, The baneful schedule of her nocent (2) charms. Horned poppy, cypress boughs, These knots untied (she unties them)- exha Charm. Deep, O We leave thee Both milk and drink by, if thou chance to be dry; blood, the dew and th flood; We breathe in thy bed, at the foot and the head; (1) Quarry, prey. (2) Discharge. BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. And when thou dost wake, Dame Earth shall quake Such a birth to make, as is the Blue Drake. Dame. Stay; all our charms do nothing win 60 Upon the night; our labour dies, At thy rising again thou shalt have two; Hoo! har! har! hoo! 60 A cloud of pitch, a spur and a switch, Before and after, with thunder for laughter And storms of joy, of the roaring boy, His head of a drake, his tail of a snake. (A loud and beautiful music is heard, and the Witches vanish.) BEAUMONT AND FRANCIS BEAUMONT, the son of Judge Beaumont, was born in 1586, studied at Cambridge, and entered the Middle Temple, but abandoned his legal pursuits as early as 1606 and attached himself to the stage. In 1602 he wrote poetry, and attracted attention by the publication of his Salamis and Hermaphroditus. He produced his first play, "The Woman Hater,' at the age of 21, in conjunction with Fletcher. Between the years 1607 and 1615 he composed, with the help of Fletcher, plays to the number of thirty-eight, of which the principal are the following: 'Rule a Wife and Have a Wife, The Chances,' 'The Wild-Goose-Chase,' 'The Night-Walker,' "The False One,' 'The Bloody Brother,' "The Maid's Tragedy' and 'Boadicea.' Beaumont and Fletcher show their talents better in Comedy than in Tragedy, but in the greater number of their plays there is much obscenity and indelicacy, which render them unfit for general perusal. Their partnership was brought to a close by the death of FLETCHER. Beaumont, which took place in 1616, when he was not quite thirty years of age. JOHN FLETCHER was born in 1576 and studied at Cambridge, but did not take a degree there. Although Fletcher was ten years older than his friend Beaumont, the latter came first before the public, for Fletcher had written nothing alone, before the publication of their first joint play, The Woman-Hater,' in 1607. From this time till 1616 Fletcher and Beaumont wrote conjointly, and after the death of the latter, Fletcher composed eleven more pieces. He died in 1625. After Shakespeare, they have left us the best and richest dramas in the English language; but although their plays are very effective on the stage, exciting interest perhaps even more than those of Shakespeare, they fall short of his in force of expression and delineation of dramatists there is a coarseness which renders them character; and in nearly all the compositions of these unfit to be brought before the public at the present day. CARATACH, PRINCE OF THE BRI- Has hung a little food and drink. Cheer TONS, WITH HIS NEPHEW HENGO. And when thou wakest either get meat to save thee, Or lose my life i' the purchase. Good gods comfort thee! Enter Caratach and Hengo on the rock. Car. up, boy! Do not forsake me now. I feel I cannot stay long; yet I'll fetch it And would live. Car. Thou shalt, long, I hope. Enter Macer and Judas, Romans. The noise of bells? Car. Of bells, boy? 'tis thy fancy. 20 25 They ring a strange sad knell, a prepara tion 30 To some near funeral of state. Nay, weep not. chicken. Car. Oh! my poor Courage, my boy, I've found meat: 10 look, Hengo, Hengo. Fie, faint-hearted uncle; Look, where some blessed Briton, to pre- Come, tie me in your belt, and let me serve thee, down. Makes thee suspect, in need, that Providence Who made the morning, and who plac'd the light 5 Guide to thy labours; who call'd up the night. Or painful to his slumbers;-easy, sweet, 5 |