• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

PRINCE.

Hold, Edol.

ED.

Hold out, my sword,

And listen not to King or Princes word;

There's work enough abroad, this task is mine.

(Alarum.

PRINCE.

Prosper thy Valour, as thy Vertues shine.

(Exeunt.

Scene IV.

Another Part of the Field of Battle.)

Enter CADOR and EDWIN.

CADOR.

Bright Victory her self fights on our part,

And, buckled in a golden Beaver, rides

Triumphantly before us.

EDW.

Justice is with her,

Who ever takes the true and rightful cause.

Let us not lag behinde them.

Enter PRINCE.

CADOR.

Here comes the Prince. How goes our fortunes, Sir?

PRINCE.

Hopeful and fair, brave Cador.

Proud Vortiger, beat down by Edols sword,

Was rescu'd by the following multitudes,

And now for safety's fled unto a Castle

Here standing on the hill: but I have sent

A cry of hounds as violent as hunger,

To break his stony walls; or, if they fail,

We'l send in wilde fire to dislodge him thence,

Or burn them all with flaming violence.

(Exeunt.

Scene V.

Another Part of the Field.)

Blazing Star Appears.

Florish Tromp. Enter PRINCE UTER, EDOL, CADOR, EDWIN, TOCLIO,

with Drum and Soldiers.

PRIN.

Look, Edol:

Still this fiery exalation shoots

His frightful horrors on th'amazed world;

See, in the beam that's 'bout his flaming ring,

A Dragons head appears, from out whose mouth

Two flaming flakes of fire stretch East and West.

EDOL.

And see, from forth the body of the Star

Seven smaller blazing streams directly point

On this affrighted Kingdom.

CADOR.

'Tis a dreadful Meteor.

EDWIN.

And doth portend strange fears.

PRINCE.

This is no Crown of Peace; this angry fire

Hath something more to burn then Vortiger;

If it alone were pointed at his fall,

It would pull in his blazing Piramids

And be appeas'd, for Vortiger is dead.

EDOL.

These never come without their large effects.

PRINCE.

The will of heaven be done! our sorrow's this,

We want a mistick Pithon to expound

This fiery Oracle.

CADOR.

Oh no, my Lord,

You have the best that ever Brittain bred;

And durst I prophecy of your Prophet, sir,

None like him shall succeed him.

PRINCE.

You mean Merlin?

CADOR.

True, sir, wonderous Merlin;

He met us in the way, and did foretell

The fortunes of this day successful to us.

EDWIN.

He's sure about the Camp; send for him, sir.

CADOR

He told the bloody Vortiger his fate,

And truely too, and if I could give faith

To any Wizards skill, it should be Merlin.

Enter MERLIN and CLOWN.

CADOR.

And see, my Lord, as if to satisfie

Your Highness pleasure, Merlin is come.

PRINCE.

See,

The Comet's in his eye, disturb him not.

EDOL.

With what a piercing judgement he beholds it!

MER.

Whither will Heaven and Fate translate this Kingdom?

What revolutions, rise and fall of Nations

Is figur'd yonder in that Star, that sings

The change of Brittians State and death of Kings?

Ha! He's dead already; how swiftly mischief creeps!

Thy fatal end, sweet Prince, even Merlin weeps.

PRINCE.

He does foresee some evil, his action shows it,

For, e're he does expound, he weeps the story.

EDOL.

There's another weeps too. Sirrah, dost thou understand what thou

lamentst for?

CLOWN.

No, sir, I am his Uncle, and weep because my Cousin weeps;

flesh and blood cannot forbear.

PRINCE.

Gentle Merlin, speak thy prophetick knowledge

In explanation of this fiery horror,

From which we gather from thy mournful tears

Much sorrow and disaster in it.

MER.

'Tis true,

Fair Prince, but you must hear the rest with patience.

PRINCE.

I vow I will, tho' it portend my ruine.

MER.

There's no such fear.

This brought the fiery fall of Vortiger,

And yet not him alone: this day is faln

A King more good, the glory of our Land,

The milde and gentle, sweet Aurelius.

PRINCE.

Our brother!

EDWIN.

Forefend it heaven!

MER.

He at his Palace Royal, sir,

At Winchester, this day is dead and poison'd.

CADOR.

By whom? Or what means, Merlin?

MER.

By the Traiterous Saxons.

EDOL.

I ever fear'd as much: that devil