Enter the Moor in his chariot, attended with his Son: PISANO his captain, with his guard and treasure [and his Queen]. MOOR. Pisano, take a cornet of our horse, As many argolets* and armed pikes, And with our carriage march away before That to Moroccus leads the lower way: Our enemies keep upon the mountain tops, And have encamp'd themselves not far from Fesse. war and revenge; And, if I shall declare the circumstance, "Tis thus. Rubin, our uncle's wife, that wrings her hands. With many dames of Fesse in mourning weeds, That bends his force, puft up with Amurath's aid, argolets] "argolet, a light horseman." Cotgrave. + The Moor's Son] The old copy" Muly Mahamet :" in the third act the title prefixed to his speech is “The Moor's Son,” which, to avoid the confusion caused by the family name, I have adopted in this scene. Sends to invade your right and royal realm;... And basely beg revenge arch-rebels all, i To be inflict upon our progeny. MOOR. Why, boy, is Amurath's Bassa such a bug," That he is mark'd to do this doughty deed? mi Then, Bassa, lock the winds in wards of brass, ~, }} Thunder from heaven, damn wretched men to death, Bar all the offices of Saturn's sons, a Be Pluto then in hell, and bar the fiends, Take Neptune's force to thee, and calm the seas, THE MOOR'S SON. The Bassa grossly flatter'd to his face, And Amurath's praise advanc'd above the sound And that brave guard of sturdy janisaries That Amurath to Abdilmelec gave, And bade him boldly be to them as safe As if he slept within a walled town; Who take them to their weapons, threatening revenge, Bloody revenge, bloody revengeful war. * bug] i. e. bugbear. + Tamburlaine, triumph not, for thou must die] In the second part of the well-known tragedy that bears his name, the last words of Tamburlaine are ; "For Tamburlaine, the scourge of God, must die." MOOR. Away, and let me hear no more of this. Why, boy, are we successors to the great Abdil melec Descended from the Arabian Muly Xarif, And shall we be afraid of Bassas, and of bugs, Boy, seest here this scymitar by my side? Blood be the theme whereon our time shall tread; THE MOOR'S SON. And of those slaughter'd bodies shall thy son A huge tower erect like Nimrod's frame, Sound an alarum within, and enter a Messenger. MESS. Fly, king of Fesse, king of Moroccus fly, Fly with thy friends, emperor of Barbary ; O, fly the sword and fury of the foe, That rageth as the ramping lioness, In rescue of her younglings from the bear! VOL. II. seymitar] Old copy “semitarie.” H Thy land to Abdilmelec's rule resigns, By Amurath's soldiers, that have sworn thy death ; Is this, wherewith thou dost afflict our ears? The favour, fortune, and success of war, Of some unhaunted place, some blasted grove Far from the light or comfort of the sun, There to curse heaven, and he that heaves me hence; And pine the thought and terror of mishaps: *hue] Qy." yew.” [Exeunt. + To seek as Envy at Cecropia's gate] The old copy" Cecrope's." Perhaps "to seek" is put here adverbially in the sense of at a loss. I suspect we should read; "To sicken as Envy at Cecrops' gate." Envy is frequently accented on the last syllable by our old poets. The allusion is to a story in the second book of Ovid's Metamorphoses. ACTUS SECUNDI SCENA PRIMA. Three Ghosts crying "Vindicta."+ Hark, lords, as in a hollow place afar, The dreadful shrieks and clamours that resound + Three Ghosts crying "Vindicta"] Our author, I believe, was the first who put this exclamation (which was afterwards much ridiculed) into the mouth of a ghost; but Gifford (note on the Poetaster; Ben Jonson's Works, vol. ii. p. 457,) seems to have thought that it was originally used by the ghost of Albanact in Locrine. The Battle of Alcazar was acted in 1591, (perhaps earlier,) and printed in 1594: Locrine was entered on the Stationers' books in 1594, and printed the following year. Let me observe that when Gifford (note on the same play, p.518,) says "Cothurnal buskins is parodied from an absurd expression in Antonio and Mellida, Part 2, A. II. s. 5. O now tragedia cothurnata mounts," He forgets to quote the following line in the Spanish Tragedy ; 66 Tragedia cothurnata, fitting Kings." The truth is, Gifford was prejudiced against Marston. |