The shrieks of men, the princely courser's neigh...|'| Now vail your bonnets to your friends at home:" Bid all the lovely British dames adieu,
That under many a standard well advanc'd
Have hid the sweet alarms and braves of love;
Bid theatres, and proud tragedians,
Bid Mahomet's Poo,+ and mighty Tamburlaine, t King Charlemagne, § Tom Stukeley, and the rest/ Adieu. To arms, to arms, to glorious arms! With noble Norris, and victorious Drake, »d Under the sanguine cross, brave England's badge, To propagate religious piety,
And hew a passage with your conquering swords By land and sea, wherever Phoebus' eye,
Th' eternal lamp of heaven lends us light: By golden Tagus, or the western Inde,
Or through the spacious bay of Portugal,
+ Mahomet's Poo] Of this strange expression (which is most probably an error of the press,) I can make nothing.
Tamburlaine] The well-known tragedy in two parts, which I still believe to be the work of Marlowe, notwithstanding what has been urged to the contrary: Gifford (note on Ben Jonson's Works, vol. viii. p. 330.) pronounces it to contain lines which Shakespeare" might have fathered, without disgrace to his supe rior powers."
§ King Charlemagne] No drama called Charlemagne has come down to us, nor am I acquainted with any old play in which that monarch figures.
Tom Stukeley] See the remarks prefixed to the Battle of
The wealthy ocean main, the Tyrrhene sea, From great Alcides' pillars branching forth 1. Even to the gulf that leads to lofty Rome; bd There to deface the pride of Antichrist, basd ́i And pull his paper walls and popery down but A famous enterprise for England's strength, To steel your swords on Avarice' triple crown, And cleanse Augeus' stalls in Italy. To arms, my fellow soldiers! Sea and land Lie open to the voyage you intend ; And sea or land, bold Britons, far or near, Whatever course your matchless virtue shapes, Whether to Europe's bounds, or Asian plains, To Afric's shore, or rich America,
Down to the shades of deep Avernus' crags, ta Sail on, pursue your honours to your graves : Heaven is a sacred covering for your heads, And every climate virtue's tabernacle.
To arms, to arms, to honourable arms! *
Hoise sails, weigh anchors up, plough up the seas With flying keels, plough up the land with swords:
arms, to arms, to honourable arms] In the tragedy of Locrine first printed in 1595, I find;
"To arms, my lord, to honourable arms,'
which is followed by what forms part of the eleventh verse of the present poem,
I am aware that such trifling coincidences afford no grounds for supposing Peele to have been the author of Locrine; though there is as much probability that it was written by him as by Marlowe, to whom Malone ascribes it.
In God's name venture on; and let me say To you, my mates, as Cesar said to his, Striving with Neptune's hills; you bear, quoth he, Cæsar, and Cæsar's fortune in your ships. You follow them, whose swords successful are : You follow Drake by sea, the scourge of Spain, The dreadful dragon, terror to your foes, Victorious in his return from Indego In all his high attempts unvanquished; You follow noble Norris, whose renown, Won in the fertile fields of Belgia, "oute Spreads by the gates of Europe to the courts Of Christian kings, and heathen potentates. You fight for Christ, and England's peerless queen, Elizabeth, the wonder of the world,
Over whose throne the enemies of God
Have thunder'd erst their vain successless braves!
O, ten times treble happy men, that fight Under the cross of Christ and England's queen, And follow such as Drake and Norris are! Jon All honours do this cause accompany; All glory on these endless honours waits :>> These honours, and this glory shall he send, Whose honour, and whose glory, you defend. 12
THE BEGINNING, ACCIDENTS, AND END
OF THE WAR OF TROY.*ODIŠ
WHILOM in Troy, that ancient noble town, Hot so【 Did dwell a king of honour and renownjuthesab 901 Of port, of puissance, and mickle fame, 3 OHOJOL✓ And Priam was this mighty prince's name; Whom, in regard of his triumphant state, The world as then surnam'd the fortunate, ** So happy was he for his progeny,' `!
His queen, his court, his children, and country: 10 Yelypped stately Hecuba was she, (1) toj rayon poť So fair a creature hardly might you see, fockvil So brave, and of so comely personage; od 1970 And, long before she tasted fortune's rage, With twenty sons and daughters, wondrous thing, This lusty lady did enrich her king,
Fruit not unlike the tree whereof they sprong; LA The daughters lovely, modest, wise, and yong; A The sons, as doth my story well unfold,
All knights at arms, gay, gallant, brave and bold, Of wit and manhood such as might suffice, od 17 To venture on the highest piece of service : His peers as loyal to their royal lord,
As might ne tainted be for deed or word;
The old copy has a short running argument, in the shape of marginal notes, which I have dismissed as an unnecessary incumbrance to the page.
His court presenting to our earthly eyes, A sky of stars, or shining paradise.
Thus happy, Priam, didst thou live of yore, That to thy hap could nought be added more: Till 'mong the gods I wot not what was he Envying tho* this happiness to thee, Or goddess, or accursed fiend below,
Conspiring thy Troy's wrack and overthrow, baź Alack, that happiness may not long last, That all these braveries been so brief a blast!' Till one (I say) avenging power or other Buzz'd in the brain of the unhappy mother A dreadful dream, and as it did befall, To Priam's Troy a dream deadly and fatal. For when the time of mother's pain drew nigh, And now the load that in her womb did lie" Began to stir, and move with proper strength, Ready to leave his place; behold at length She dreams and gives her lord to understand, That she should soon bring forth a fire-brand, Whose hot and climbing flame should grow so great That Neptune's Troy it would consume with heat. And, counsel taken of this troublous dream, The soothsayers said that not swift Simois' stream Might serve to quench that fierce devouring fire, That did this brand 'gainst town of Troy conspire. Which to prevent (a piteous tale to tell) Both sire and dame 'gainst law and kind rebel,
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