THE TRAITOR. A TRAGEDY [LICENSED 1631: PUBLISHED 1635]. BY J. SHIRLEY. BY SOME SAID [PROBABLY ERRONEOUSLY] TO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN BY ONE RIVERS, A JESUIT, 1635

Sciarrah, whose life is forfeited, has offer of pardon, condition
ally, that he bring his sister Amidea to consent to the
Prince's unlawful suit. He jestingly tries her affection.
Sci. if thou couldst redeem me

With anything but death, I think I should
Consent to live.1

Amid. Nothing can be too precious

To save a brother, such a loving brother

As

you have been.

Sci. Death's a devouring gamester,

And sweeps up all ;-what think'st thou of an eye?

Could'st thou spare one, and think the blemish recompenced

To see me safe with the other? or a hand

This white hand, that has so often

With admiration trembled on the lute,

Till we have pray'd thee leave the strings awhile,
And laid our ears close to thy ivory fingers,
Suspecting all the harmony proceeded
From their own motions without the need
Of any dull or passive instrument.—
No, Amidea; thou shalt not bear one scar,
To buy my life; the sickle shall not touch
A flower, that grows so fair upon his stalk: 2
I would live, and owe my life to thee,
So 'twere not bought too dear.

Amid. Do you believe, I should not find

The way to heav'n, were both mine eyes thy ransom?
I shall climb up those high and rugged cliffs
Without a hand.

My transcript breaks off here. haps I broke off, as I own I have and an inclination to explore for dramatic delicacies.

1[" But I'd not have thee venture All at one chance."]

[Act v., Sc. 1.3]

Perhaps what follows was of less value; or per sometimes done, to leave in my readers a relish themselves the genuine fountains of these aid

2[Two lines and a half omitted.]

[Shirley's Works, vol. ii. For other extracts from Shirley see note on p. 393-]

THE HUNTINGDON

DIVERTISEMENT. AN INTERLUDE, FOR THE GENERAL ENTERTAINMENT AT THE COUNTY FEAST, HELD AT MERCHANT TAYLORS' HALL, JUNE 20TH, 1678.1 BY W. M. [AUTHOR UNKNOWN]

Humour of a retired Knight.

Sir JEOFFRY DOE-RIGHT.

Master GENEROUS GOODMAN.

Gen. Sir Jeoffry, good morrow.

Sir J. The same to you, Sir.

Gen. Your early zeal condemns the rising sun
Of too much sloth; as if you did intend
To catch the Muses napping.

Sir J. Did you know

The pleasures of an early contemplation,
You'd never let Aurora blush to find

You drowsy on your bed; but rouse, and spend
Some short ejaculations,-how the night
Disbands her sparkling troops at the approach
Of the ensuing day, when th' grey-eyed sky
Ushers the golden signals of the morn;
Whilst the magnanimous cock with joy proclaims
The sun's illustrious cavalcade. Your thoughts
Would ruminate on all the works of Heaven,
And th' various dispensations of its power.
Our predecessors better did improve
The precious minutes of the morn than we
Their lazy successors. Their practice taught
And left us th' good Proverbial, that "To rise
Early makes all men healthy, wealthy, wise."

Gen. Your practice, Sir, merits our imitation;
Where the least particle of night and day's
Improv'd to th' best advantage, whilst your soul
(Unclogg'd from th' dross of melancholic cares)
Makes every place a paradise.

Sir J. "Tis true,

I bless my lucky stars, whose kind aspects
Have fix'd me in this solitude. My youth
Past thro' the tropics of each fortune, I

Was made her perfect tennis-ball; her smiles

Now made me rich and honour'd; then her frowns

1 1 [Not divided into Acts. See ed. of 1678, p. 2.]

Dash'd all my joys, and blasted all my hopes;
Till, wearied by such interchange of weather,
In court and city, I at length confined
All my ambition to the Golden Mean,
The Equinoctial of my fate; to amend
The errors of my life by a good end.

DEDICATIONS

TO FLETCHER'S

FAITHFUL SHEP

HERDESS, WITHOUT DATE; PRESUMED TO BE
THE FIRST EDITION [See page 301]1

I.

To that noble and true lover of learning, Sir Walton Aston.

Sir, I must ask your patience, and be true.

This Play was never liked, except by few

That brought their judgments with them; for of late
First the infection, then the common prate

Of common people, have such customs got
Either to silence Plays, or like them not :
Under the last of which this Interlude
Had fal'n, for ever press'd down by the rude
That, like a torrent which the moist South feeds,
Drowns both before him the ripe corn and weeds;
Had not the saving sense of better men
Redeem'd it from corruption. Dear Sir, then
Among the better souls be you the best,
In whom as in a center I take rest,
And proper being; from whose equal eye
And judgment nothing grows but purity.
Nor do I flatter; for, by all those dead
Great in the Muses, by Apollo's head,
He that adds any thing to you, 'tis done
Like his that lights a candle to the sun.
Then be as you were ever, yourself still
Moved by your judgment, not by love or will.
And when I sing again (as who can tell
My next devotion to that holy Well?)
Your goodness to the Muses shall be all
Able to make a work Heroical.

[See Mermaid Series, vol. ii., pp. 318-21. See also p. 533.]

The Plague in which times, the acting of Plays appears to have been

discountenanced.

II.

To the Inheritor of all Worthiness, Sir William Scipwith.

To the perfect gentleman, Sir Robert Townesend.

If the greatest faults may crave
Pardon, where contrition is,
Noble Sir, I needs must have
A long one for a long amiss.
If you ask me how is this,

Upon my faith I'll tell you frankly;
You love above my means to thank ye.
Yet according to my talent,

As sour fortune loves to use me,
A poor Shepherd I have sent
In home-spun gray, for to excuse me :
And may all my hopes refuse me
But, when better comes ashore,
You shall have better, never more;
"Till when, like our desperate debtors,
Or our three-piled sweet "protesters,"
I must please you in bare letters!
And so pay my debts, like jesters.
Yet I oft have seen good feasters,
Only for to please the pallet,
Leave great meat, and chuse a sallet.

Apologetical Preface, following these :
To the Reader.

If you be not reasonably assured of your knowledge in this kind of Poem, lay down the Book; or read this, which I would wish had been the Prologue. It is a Pastoral Tragic-Comedy; which the people seeing when it was played, having ever had a singular gift in defining, concluded to be a play of Country hired Shepherds, in gray cloaks, with cur-tailed dogs in strings, sometimes laughing together, and sometimes killing one another; and, missing Whitsun ales, cream, wassail, and Morris dances, began to be angry. In their error I would not have you fall, lest you incur their censure.1 Understand, therefore, a Pastoral to be a Representation o Shepherds and Shepherdesses, with their Actions and Passionsf which must be such as agree with their natures; at least, not exceeding former fictions and vulgar traditions. They are not to be adorn'd with any art, but such improper ones as nature is said to bestow, as Singing and Poetry; or such as experience may them, as the virtues of herbs and fountains; the ordinary course of the sun, moon, and stars; and such like. But you are ever to remember Shepherds to be such, as all the ancient poets (and modern of understanding) have received them; that is, the Owners of Flocks, and not Hirelings.-A Tragic-comedy is not so called in respect of mirth and killing, but in respect it wants deaths (which

teach

'We can almost be not sorry for the ill dramatic success of this Play, which brought out such spirited apologies; in particular, the masterly definitions of Pastoral and Tragi-Comedy in this Preface.

He damns the Town: the Town before damn'd him.-ED.