Aub. Author of prodigies, Otto. Oh, give me a weapon, Aubrey! Aub. For Heav'n's sake, no more! Otto. No more resist his fury; no rage can Add to his mischief done! [Dies. Soph. Take spirit, my Otto; Heav'n will not see thee die thus. Mat. He is dead, And nothing lives but death of every goodness. Soph. Oh, he hath slain his brother; curse him, Heaven! Rollo. Curse and be curs'd! it is the fruit of cursing. Latorch, take off here; bring too of that To colour o'er my shirt; then raise the court, Enter Gisbert and Baldwin. Gis. Prince Otto slain? Bald. Ob, execrable slaughter! What hand hath author'd it? Aub. Your scholar's, Baldwin, Bald. Unjustly arg'd, lord Aubrey; as if I, Aub. Burst it then [bound, With his full swing given. Where it brooks no Complaints of it are vain; and all that rests To be our refuge (since our powers are strengthless) Is, to conform our wills to suffer freely 35 Erect your princely countenances and spirits, Wish all amends, and yow to it your best, Gis. Those temporizings are too dull and To breathe the free air of a manly soul, Bald. Pour lives before him, till his own Of all life's services and human comforts! None left that looks at Heav'n's left half so base 36 To do these black and hellish actions grace! Enter Rollo, Latorch, Hamond, and Guard, Rallo. Haste, Latorch, And raise the city, as the court is rais'd, Lat. I shall, my lord. [Exit. Rollo. You there that mourn upon the justly slain, Arise and leave it, if you love your lives! 34 What affairs inform these outcries?] Varied by Mr. Theobald. 35 Is to conform our wills to suffer freely.] Passive obedience and non-resistance to princes being the absurd but almost universal doctrine of our Authors' age, Aubrey is upon that principle a very complete character. And every reader, who wants to form a true taste of any poem, should always use an occasional conformity to the doctrines and tenets of the age the Poet wrote in. Without this, the characters of Amintor in The Maid's Tragedy, of Aecius in Valentinian, and Aubrey here, together with many inferior characters, will not be near so interesting as they really deserve to be. Seward. 26 None less that looks at Heav'n is half so base To do those black and hellish actions grace.] There is a stiffness in the first line which gives suspicion of a mistake. The old quarto reads, 'None left that looks at Heaven 's left half so base.' This was evidently wrong, and the folio and octavo are only the conjectural emendation of the former. Mr. Sympson has, I believe, restored the original, as he gives it a stronger connexion with the foregoing lines, and renders the sentence natural and easy: ''Till none that looks at Heaven's left half so hase.' We think the quarto right, and perfectly intelligible, Seward And hear from me what (kept by you) may save you. [stir. Mat. What will the butcher do? I will not Rollo. Stir, and unforc'd stir, or stir never more ! [better Command her, you grave beldame, that know My deadly resolutions, since I drew them From the infective fountain of your own; Or, if you have forgot, this fiery prompter Shall fix the fresh impression on your heart! Soph. Rise, daughter! serve his will in what we may, Lest what we may not he enforce the rather. Is this all you command us? Rollo. This addition Only admitted; that, when I endeavour not To cross me with a syllable, nor your souls Murmur 37 nor think against it; but weigh well, It will not help your ill, but help to more, And that my hand, wrought thus far to my will, Will check at nothing 'till his circle fill. Mat. Fill it, so I consent not; but who sooths it [it. Consents, and who consents to tyranny, does Rollo. False traitress, die then with him! Aub. Are you mad, To offer at more blood, and make yourself More horrid to your people? I'll proclaim, It is not as your instrument will publish. Rollo. Do, and take that along with you.So nimble! [Aub. disarms him. Resign my sword, and dare not for thy soul To offer what thou insolently threat'nest, One word proclaiming cross to what Latorch Hath in commission, and intends to publish. Aub. Well, sir, not for your threats, but for your good, Since more hurt to you would more hurt your country, And that you must make virtue of the need Survive to rule but you, and that I wish That now you have committed, made asham'd With that fair blessing, that, in place of plagues, Heav'n tries our mending disposition with, Take here your sword; which now use like a prince, And no more like a tyrant. Rollo. This sounds well; Gis. & Bald. Wonder invades me 38 ! Bald. Nor is't your tutor's part to shield In praise of your pure oratory that rais'd you, ther To witness what is done here) are arriv'd Gis. I fashion an oration to acquit you? Sir, know you then, that 'tis a thing less easy T'excuse a parricide than to commit it. Rollo. I do not wish you, sir, to excuse me, But to accuse my brother as the cause It were another murder, to accuse Rollo. Away with him! [pain. Guard, do your office on him, on your lives' Gis. Tyrant, 'twill haste thy own death. Rollo. Let it wing it! He threatens me: Villains, tear him piecemeal hence! Guard. Avant, sir. Ham. Force him hence! Rollo. Dispatch him, captain: 37 To cross me, &c.] We have here followed the quarto. All other copies exhibit, To cross me with a syllable, for your souls; Murmur, nor think, &c.' 38 Rollo. Wonder iudes me; do you two think much, &c.] The words' Wonder invades me,' which express a person wrapt up in wonder and horror, seemed at first sight, both to Mr. Sympson and me, to be out of character in Rollo's mouth, and by joint consent we give it to Sophia, though it would he equally proper to Matilda, Baldwin, or Gisbert. As the verses are often divided between the speakers, this alone has produced several hundred mistakes in speakers in our Authors' plays. Seward. We think the speech should he placed to Gisbert and Baldwin, as the words 'Oh, lord Aubrey!' are. Rollo's reply authorizes it. And bring me instant word he is dispatch'd, Ham. I'll not fail, sir. [chief; Rollo. Captain, besides remember this in Rollo. Upon your life, not fail! [Exeunt Ham. Gis. and Guard. Bald. What impious daring is there here of Heav'n! [the people Rollo. Sir, now prepare yourself, against Make here their entry, to discharge th’oration He hath denied my will. Bald. For fear of death? [best Bald. For teaching thee no better; 'tis the Edith. Oh, stay there, duke; And, in the midst of all thy blood and fury, Rollo. Away with this fond woman If there be any spark of pity in you, 33 I stand up thus then; Thus boldly, bloody tyrant, ! Rollo. By Heav'n, I'll strike thee, woman seize me, [man, All the most studied torments, so this good This old man, and this innocent, escape thee! Rollo. Carry him away, I say! [pity, Edith. Now blessing on thee! Oh, sweet I see it in thy eyes. I charge you, soldiers, Ev'n by the prince's power, release my father! The prince is merciful; why do you hold him? The prince forgets his fury; why do you tug [speak, sir! He is old; why do you hurt him? Speak, oh, Speak, as you are a man! a man's life hangs, him? sir, A friend's life, and a foster life, upon you. Rollo. Will no man here obey me? Rollo. Hew off her hands! Edith. No, hew 'em; Hew off my innocent hands, as he commands sion Thou seed of rocks, will nothing move thee And to thy face in Heav'n's high name defy thee.] I am far from thinking it necessary to fill up hemistichs where the sense does not require it: Here it does not, and yet I verily think there has been an omission. This is one of the noblest and most correct scenes in the whole play, and a repetition of her defiance filling up the measure, and giving a fine climax to the workings of her passion, I have ventured to insert it, and to divide the sentence into separate parts. Scaurd. Mr. Thus boldly, bloody tyrant, [thee! And to thy face, in Heav'n's high name, defy And may sweet Mercy, when thy soul sighs for it; [trembles; When under thy black mischiefs thy flesh When neither strength,nor youth,nor friends, nor gold, [conscience, Can stay one hour; when thy most wretched Wak'd from her dream of death, like fire shall melt thee; [wounds, When all thy mother's tears, thy brother's Thy people's fears, and curses, and my loss, ly aged father's loss, shall stand before thee [her father; Rollo. Save him, I say; run, save him, save Fly, and redeem his head! [Exit Latorch. Edith. May then that pity, That comfort thou expect'st from Heav'n, that Mercy, [thee, Be lock'd up from thee,fly thee! howlings find Despair, (oh, my sweet father!) storms of Blood till thou burst again! [terrors, Rollo. Oh, fair sweet anger! Enter Latorch and Hamond, with a head. Lat. I came too late, sir; 'twas dispatch'd His head is here. [before; Rollo. And my heart there! Go, bury him; Give him fair rites of funeral,decent honours. Edith. Wilt thou not take me, monster? Give him a punishment fit for his mischief! But were Belov'd of Heav'n, whom Heav'n hath thus preserv'd. [know, 2 Cit. And if he be belov'd of Heav'n, you He must be just, and all his actions so. Rollo. Concluded like an oracle. Oh, how great A grace of Heav'n is a wise citizen! [just, For Heav'n 'tis makes 'em wise, as 't made me As it prescrv'd me, as I now survive By his strong hand to keep you all alive: Your wives, your children, goods and lands kept yours, [power, That had been else prey to his tyrannous That would have prey'd on me, in bed assaulted me, In sacred time of peace. My mother here, My sister, this just lord, and all had till'd The Curtian gulf of this conspiracy4°, Of which my tutor and my chancellor [nest, (Two of the gravest, and most counted hoIn all my dukedom) were the monstrous heads. Oh, trust no honest men for their sakes ever, My politick citizens; but those that bear The names of cut-throats, usurers, and ty [world rants, Oh, those believe in; for the foul-mouth'd Can give no better terms to simple goodness. Ev'n me it dares blaspheme, and thinks me tyrannous [ther: -I stand up thus then; Thus boldly, bloody tyrant, I defy thee; And to thy face; in Heav'n's high name defy thee.' it necessary to fill up the hemistich, we should recommend this mode: -I stand up thus then, Thus boldly, bloody tyrant, I stand up, And to thy face,' &c. which supposes an omission easily accounted for; viz. the transcriber taking the words for an accidental repetition; or, finding words he had but just wrote, hastily passing on to the following line. 40 And all had felt The Curtian gulf of this conspiracy.] To feel a gulf is certainly a poor if not an absurd expression; but to fill the gulf, as Mr. Sympson reads, is the exact poetical idea which the metaphor demands. Seward. 4 In Heav'n's great help.] The particle in, which renders this passage stiff and obscure, seems only to have slipt from the former line, and excluded the true one. Seward. Either particle is sense. The name and virtue of Heav'n's king ad vance For yours (in chief), for my deliverance ! Aub. If this game end thus, Heav'n's will What we have yielded to, we could not let*. [Exeunt omnes præter Latorch and Edith. Lat. Good lady, rise; and raise your spirits withal, More high than they are humbled: You have Which, tho' death stop your ears, methinks should ope 'em. Assay to forget death. Edith. Oh, slaughter'd father! Lat. Cast off what cannot be redress'd, The fate that yet you curse so; since, for that And be not barr'd up from yourself, nor add graces, [tion And do my hopes the honour of your mo- 4 Make me your servant to attend with all joys Lat. Time will make you, lady. [Ereunt. Your sad estate, till they both bless and speak it: See how they'll bow to you, make me wait, &c.] This strange chaos has just light enough left to shew the general tendency of the passage: viz. That both he and all the courtiers by their humblest obeisance (if she would accept it) would endeavour to turn her sorrow into joy. From the word amendful, in Latorch's first speech to her above, it is highly probable that attend should be amend; that the word courtiers, or some one of the same import, is left out, seems almost evident, and a whole sentence must have accompanied it. We may hope to come very near the sense, however wide we are in guessing at the words of the original. But what is till they both bless and speak it?' It seems probable that a mistake in the points having joined the two verbs together, the former part was changed, and both falsely inserted to make out something that looked like grammar. I read the whole thus, marking in Italicks what I suppose only to contain something like the scase of the original. Make me your servant, make the courtiers all Your servants, studious to AMEND with joys Your sad estate, till YOU ARE BLEST ;and speak it, 'See how they'll bow to you,' &c. Seward. Thus runs Mr. Seward's reading: but we cannot follow it, because the text is not in our opinion corrupt, and means (though perhaps with some little inaccuracy of expression, not unusual in our Authors) 'Let me attend your melancholy with amusements, 'till they both remove your sorrows, and make it manifest that they do so.' 43 for the stay Your modest sorrow funcies, &c.] Mr. Seward, we think improperly, substitutes fall for stay. Stay and motion are plainly opposed to each other: He desires her not to remain in her present humble rank, but to let him have the honour of promoting her.' 44 how the duke Is slain already with your flames imbrac't!] So quarto. Folio: 'Is slain already with your flames embrac'd!' This Mr. Seward treats as corrupt, and prints, Is slain already with your flames! embrace it.' But surely, the duke' embrac'd with her flames,' is not at all unintelligible. |