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
By Scyras, and those plots of ground

That to Moroccus leads the lower

way:

Our enemies keep upon the mountain tops,

And have encamp'd themselves not far from Fesse.
Madam, gold is the glue, sinews, and strength of war,
And we must see our treasure may go safe.
Away: now, boy, what's the news? [Ex. Pisano, &c.
THE MOOR'S SON.+ The news, my lord, is war,

war and revenge;

And, if I shall declare the circumstance,

"Tis thus.

Rubin, our uncle's wife, that wrings her hands.
For Abdelmunen's death, accompanied

With many dames of Fesse in mourning weeds,
Near to Argier encounter'd Abdilmelec,

That bends his force, puft up with Amurath's aid,
Against your holds and castles of defence.
The younger brother, Muly Mahamet Seth,
Greets the great Bassa, that the king of Turks

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,
And execute Jove's justice on the world,
Convey Tamburlaine into our Affric here,
To chastise and to menace lawful kings:
Tamburlaine, triumph not, for thou must die,t.
As Philip did, Cæsar, and Cæsar's peers..

THE MOOR'S SON. The Bassa grossly flatter'd to

his face,

And Amurath's praise advanc'd above the sound
Upon the plains, the soldiers being spread,.

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,
Raw head, and bloody bone?

Boy, seest here this scymitar by my side?
Sith they begin to bathe in blood,

Blood be the theme whereon our time shall tread;
Such slaughter with my weapon shall I make,
As through the stream and bloody channels deep,
Our Moors shall sail in ships and pinnaces,
From Tangier shore unto the gates of Fesse.

THE MOOR'S SON. And of those slaughter'd bodies shall thy son

A huge tower erect like Nimrod's frame,
To threaten those unjust and partial gods,
That to Abdallas' lawful seed deny
A long, a happy, and triumphant reign.

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!
Thy towns and holds by numbers basely yield,

VOL. II.

seymitar] Old copy “semitarie.”

H

Thy land to Abdilmelec's rule resigns,
Thy carriage and thy treasure taken is

By Amurath's soldiers, that have sworn thy death ;
Fly Amurath's power, and Abdilmelec's threats,
Or thou and thine look here to breathe your last.
MOOR. Villain, what dreadful sound of death and
flight

Is this, wherewith thou dost afflict our ears?
But if there be no safety to abide

The favour, fortune, and success of war,
Away in haste, roll on my chariot wheels,
Restless till I be safely set in shade

Of some unhaunted place, some blasted grove
Of deadly hue* or dismal cypress tree,

Far from the light or comfort of the sun,

There to curse heaven, and he that heaves me hence;
To seek as Envy at Cecropia's gate, †

And pine the thought and terror of mishaps:
Away.

*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.
Alarum, and then the PRESENTER speaketh.
Now war begins his rage and ruthless reign,
And Nemesis with bloody whip in hand
Thunders for vengeance on this negro Moor;
Nor may the silence of the speechless night
Divine architect* of murders and misdeeds,
Of tragedies, and tragic tyrannies,
Hide or contain this barbarous cruelty
Of this usurper to his progeny.

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.