Seg. With all my heart, were it a far greater thing;
And what I may to furnish up their rites
With pleasant sports and pastimes you shall see.
King. Thanks, good Segasto: I will think of this.
Muc. Thanks, good my lord, and while I live,
Account of me in what I can, or may.

Am. And, good Segasto, these great courtesies
Shall not be forgot.

Bones! what have you

Mouse. Why, hark you master. done? What! given away the wench you made me take such pains for? You are wise, indeed! Mass! and I had known that, I would have had her myself. 'Faith, master, now we may go to breakfast with a woodcock pie. Seg. Go, sir. You were best leave this knavery. King. Come on, my lords: let's now to court, Where we may finish up the joyfullest day That ever happ'd to a distressed king;2 Were but thy father, the Valencia lord, Present in view of this combining knot.

Enter a Messenger.

What shout was that?

Mess. My lord, the great Valencia king,

Newly arriv'd, entreats your presence.

Muc. My father!

[A shout within.

King. Prepared welcomes give him entertainment!

A happier planet never reign'd than that

Which governs at this hour,

[Sound.

2 That ever happ'd to a distressed king,] Here the old drama ends

in the edition of 1598.

Enter the KING OF VALENCIA, ANSELMO, RODERIGO, BORACHIUS, with others. The KING runs and embraces his son.

King Va. Rise, honour of my age, food to my rest!— Condemn not, mighty king of Aragon,

My rude behaviour, so compell'd by nature,

That manners stood unacknowledged.

King Ar. What we have to recite would tedious prove By declaration: therefore, in and feast.

To-morrow the performance shall explain

What words conceal: till then, drums speak, bells ring! Give pleasant welcome to our brother king!

[Sound drums and trumpets. Exeunt omnes.

Enter COMEDY, and ENVY.3

Com. How now, Envy? What! blushest thou already?

Peep forth hide not thy head with shame,

But with a courage praise a woman's deeds.

Thy threats were vain: thou couldst do me no hurt,
Although thou seem'st to cross me with despite,
I overwhelm'd and turned upside down thy blocks,
And made thyself to stumble at the same.

Env. Though stumbled, yet not overthrown.
Thou canst not draw my heart to mildness,
Yet must I needs confess thou hast done well,
And play'd thy part with mirth and pleasant glee.

This supplement to the performance, obviously not by Shakespeare, and personally directed against some poet of the day and the Children of the Revels, must have been added to the performance after James I. had ascended the throne: we give it from the edition of 1609, the earliest known that contains it.

Say all this, yet can'st thou not conquer me;
Although this time thou hast got,

Yet not the conquest neither:

A double revenge another time I'll have.
Com. Envy, spit thy gall:

Plot, work, contrive, create new fallacies:

Teem from thy womb each minute a black traitor,
Whose blood and thoughts have twin's conception :
Study to act deeds yet unchronicled,

Cast native monsters in the moulds of men,
Case vicious devils under sancted rochets,
Unclasp the wicket where all perjureds roost,
And swarm this ball with treasons: do thy worst,
Thou canst not, hell-hound, cross my star to-night,
Nor blind that glory where I wish delight.

Env. I can, I will.

Com. Nefarious hag, begin,

And let us tug, till one the mastery win.

Env. Comedy, thou art a shallow goose:

I'll overthrow thee in thine own intent,

And make thy fall my comic merriment.

Com. Thy policy wants gravity: thou art too weak ; Speak, fiend, as how?

Env. Why thus.

From my foul study will I hoist a wretch,

A lean and hungry, meagre cannibal,*

Whose jaws swell to his eyes with chawing malice,

♦ — MEAGRE cannibal,] Printed "neager canibal" in the old editions -a mere mistake of n for m. We cannot explain the evident personal allusion; but the "theatre" must have been the Globe, for which Shakespeare was the chief dramatist: see the next page.

And him I'll make a poet.

Com. What's that to the purpose?

Env. This scrambling raven, with his needy beard, Will I whet on to write a Comedy,

Wherein shall be compos'd dark sentences,

Pleasing to factious brains :

And every otherwhere place me a jest,

Whose high abuse shall more torment than blows:

Then, I myself, quicker than lightning,

Will fly me to a puissant magistrate,

And waiting with a trencher at his back,

In midst of jollity rehearse those galls

(With some additions) so lately vented in your theatre. He upon this cannot but make complaint,

To your great danger, or at least restraint.

Com. Ha, ha, ha! I laugh to hear thy folly.
This is a trap for boys, not men, nor such
Especially desertful in their doings,
Whose staid discretion rules their purposes.
I, and my faction, do eschew those vices.-
But see, oh, see! the weary sun for rest
Hath lain his golden compass in the West,
Where he perpetual bide, and ever shine
As David's offspring in this happy clime.

Stoop, Envy, stoop: bow to the earth with me,

Let's beg our pardons on our bended knee. [They kneel. Env. My power has lost her might Envy's date's

expir'd.

Yond' splendant majesty hath fell'd my sting,5

5-hath FELL'D my sting] i.e., refell'd my sting: we have had the

And I amazed am!

[Fall down and quake.

Com. Glorious and wise arch-Cæsar on this earth,
At whose appearance Envy's stricken dumb,
And all bad things cease operation,
Vouchsafe to pardon our unwilling error,
So late presented to your gracious view,
And we'll endeavour, with excess of pain,
To please your senses in a choicer strain.—
Thus we commit you to the arms of night,
Whose spangled carkass would for your delight
Strive to excel the day be blessed, then!
Who other wishes, let him never speak.

Env. Amen!

To fame and honour we commend your rest:
Live still more happy, every hour more blest!

[Finis.

word used in the sense of repell'd in Measure for Measure, act v, sc. I, p. 93 it was by no means unusual.

• Whose spangled CARKASS] Possibly, a misprint for darkness. We are unable to give any explanation regarding the "unwilling error", which had recently given offence to his Majesty.