Garden and orchard, lawns and flowery meads, (Where the amorous wind plays with the golden heads [Ch. i.] of these pretty little winged creatures are with continued liveliness portrayed throughout the whole of this curious old Drama, in words which Bees would talk with, could they talk; the very air seems replete with humming and buzzing melodies, while we read them. Surely Bees were never so be-rhymed before. THE REWARDS OF VIRTUE. A COMEDY. BY JOHN FOUNTAIN. PRINTED 1661 Success in Battle not always attributable to the General. Generals ofttimes 2 famous grow By valiant friends, or cowardly enemies; Or, what is worse, by some mean piece of chance. How little Princes and great Generals Contribute oftentimes to the fame they win. How oft hath it been found, that noblest minds With two short arms, have fought with fatal stars ; To mollify those diamonds, where dwell The fate of kingdoms; and at last have faln By vulgar hands, unable now to do More for their cause than die; and have been lost 3 No more remember'd than poor villagers, 1[See page 451 for further extracts.] 2["Ofttimes" should be "only."] [Four words omitted.] A thousand times; in times of war, when we That Heav'n, which holds the purest vows most rich, But grant her wish, (for, would the Gods not 1 hear And none but he's spoke loud of for the act; Unlawful Solicitings. When I first Mention'd the business to her all alone, 1["Not" should be "ne'er."] [Act i., Sc. 1.3] [Act i., Sc. 1.] Is it possible that Cowper might have remembered this sentiment in his description of the advantages which the world, that scorns him, may derive from the noiseless hours of the contemplative man? Perhaps she owes Her sunshine and her rain, her blooming spring And plenteous harvest, to the prayer he makes, When, Isaac-like, the solitary saint Walks forth to meditate at eventide, And think on her, who thinks not on herself.-Task. [Bk. vi., 948. [Edition of 1661.] Proportion in Pity. There must be some proportion still to pity Modesty a bar to preferment. Sure 'twas his modesty. He might have thriven [Act iii., p. 46.] Been greater much. They ofttimes take more pains Innocence vindicated at last. Heav'n may awhile correct the virtuous; Doth ofttimes do; but like the Sun breaks forth, Dying for a Beloved Person. [Act iii., p. 51.] There is a gust in Death, when 'tis for Love, The perfectest Love: for here it sees itself The sum of delectation, since it now Attains its perfect end; and shows its object, [Act v., p. 88.] 1[The preceding lines really follow those that here succeed them.] By one intense act, all its verity: Which by a thousand and ten thousand words It would have took a poor diluted pleasure [Act iv., p. 75.] Urania makes a mock assignation with the King, and substitutes the Queen in her place. The King describes the supposed meeting to the Confident, whom he had employed to solicit for his guilty passion. Pyrrhus, I'll tell thee all. When now the night She only whisper'd to me, as she promised, And, tho' her words were gentler far than those And (what did more impress whate'er she said) I did the faithful'st Princess in the world; For him who mock'd both Heav'n and her, and was When she urged this, and wept, and spake so like TWO TRAGEDIES IN ONE. BY ROBERT YARRINGTON, WHO WROTE IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [TWO LAMENTABLE TRAGEDIES, PUBLISHED 1601] Truth, the Chorus, to the Spectators. All you, the sad Spectators of this Act, "1 [Act ii., Sc. 6.2] Murderer to his Sister, about to stow away the trunk of the body, having severed it from the limbs. Hark, Rachel! I will cross the water strait, And fling this middle mention of a Man [Act iii., Sc. 1.] It is curious, that this old Play comprises the distinct action of two Atrocities; the one a vulgar murder, committed in our own Thames Street, with the names and incidents truly and historically set down; the other a Murder in high life, supposed to be acting at the same time in Italy, the scenes alternating between that country and England: the Story of the latter is mutatis mutandis no other than that of our own "Babes in the Wood," transferred to Italy, from delicacy no doubt to some of the family of the rich Wicked Uncle, who might yet be living. The treatment of the two differs as the romance-like narratives in "God's Revenge against Murder," in which the Actors of the Murders (with the trifling exception that they were Murderers) are represented as most accomplished and every way amiable young Gentlefolks of either sex-as much as that differs from the honest unglossing pages of the homely Newgate Ordinary. 1 The whole theory of the reason of our delight in Tragic Representations, which has cost so many elaborate chapters of Criticism, is condensed in these four last lines: Aristotle quintessentialised. 2[Old Plays, ed. Bullen, 1885.] |