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How chear you, mother?

JOAN.

Oh, now my son is my deliverer,

Yet I must name him with my deepest sorrow.

(Alarum afar off.

MER.

Take comfort now: past times are ne're recal'd;

I did foresee your mischief, and prevent it.

Hark, how the sounds of war now call me hence

To aid Pendragon that in battail stands

Against the Saxons, from whose aid

Merlin must not be absent. Leave this soyl,

And Ile conduct you to a place retir'd,

Which I by art have rais'd, call'd Merlins Bower.

There shall you dwell with solitary sighs,

With grones and passions your companions,

To weep away this felsh you have offended with,

And leave all bare unto your aierial soul:

And when you die, I will erect a Monument

Upon the verdant Plains of Salisbury,

No King shall have so high a sepulchre,

With pendulous stones that I wll hang by art,

Where neither Lime nor Morter shalbe us'd,

A dark Enigma to the memory,

For none shall have the power to number them, -

A place that I will hollow for your rest,

Where no Night-hag shall walk, nor Warewolf tread,

Where Merlins Mother shall be sepulcher'd

(Exeunt.

Scene II.

The British Camp.)

Enter DONOBERT, Goster and HERMIT.

DONO.

Sincerely, Gloucester, I have told you all:

My Daughters are both vow'd to Single Life,

And this day gone unto the Nunnery,

Though I begot them to another end,

And fairly promis'd them in Marriage,

One to Earl Cador, t'other to your son,

My worthy friend, the Earl of Gloucester.

Those lost, I am lost: they are lost, all's lost.

Answer me this, then: Ist a sin to marry?

HERMIT.

Oh no, my Lord.

DONO.

Go to, then, Ile go no further with you;

I perswade you to no ill; perswade you then,

That I perswade you well.

GLOUCESTER.

'Twill be a good Office in you, sir.

Enter CADOR and EDWIN.

DONO.

Which since they thus neglect,

My memory shall lose them now for ever. -

See, see, the Noble Lords, their promis'd Husbands!

Had Fate so pleas'd, you might have call'd me Father.

EDWIN.

Those hopes are past, my Lord; for even this minute

We saw them both enter the Monastery,

Secluded from the world and men for ever.

CADOR.

'Tis both our griefs we cannot, Sir:

But from the King take you the Times joy from us:

The Saxon King Ostorius slain and Octa fled,

That Woman-fury, Queen Artesia,

Is fast in hold, and forc't to re-deliver

London and Winchester (which she had fortifi'd)

To Princely uter, lately styl'd Pendragon,

Who now triumphantly is marching hither

To be invested with the Brittain Crown.

DONO.

The joy of this shall banish from my breast

All thought that I was Father to two Children,

Two stubborn Daughters, that have left me thus.

Let my arms embrace, and call you Sons,

For, by the Honor of my Fathers House,

I'le part my estate most equally betwixt you.

EDWIN, CADOR.

Sir y'are most noble!

Flor. Tromp. Enter EDOL with Drum and Colours, OSWOLD bearing

the Standard, TOCLIO the Sheild, with the Red Dragon pictur'd in'em,

two Bishops with the Crown, PRINCE UTER, MERLIN, ARTESIA bound,

Guard, and CLOWN.

PRINCE.

Set up our Sheild and Standard, noble Soldiers.

We have firm hope that, tho' our Dragon sleep,

Merlin will us and our fair Kingdom keep.

CLOWN.

As his Uncle lives, I warrant you.

GLOST.

Happy Restorer of the Brittains fame,

Uprising Sun, let us salute thy glory:

Ride in a day perpetual about us,

And no night be in thy thrones zodiack.

Why do we stay to binde those Princely browes

With this Imperial Honor?

PRINCE.

Stay, noble Gloucester:

That monster first must be expel'd our eye,

Or we shall take no joy in it.

DONO.

If that be hindrance, give her quick Judgement,

And send her hence to death; she has long deserv'd it.

EDOL.

Let my Sentence stand for all: take her hence,

And stake her carcase in the burning Sun,

Till it be parcht and dry, and then fley off

Her wicked skin, and stuff the pelt with straw

To be shown up and down at Fairs and Markets:

Two pence a piece to see so foul a Monster.

Will be a fair Monopoly,