and full of foule reproch Yet none offence but deckt with glorious name Of noble conquestes in the handes of kinges But if you like not yet so hoâ—e deuise Ne list to take such vauntage of the time But though with perill of your owne estate You will not be the first that shall inuade Assemble yet your force for your defence And for your safetie stand vpon your garde Dordan O heauen was there euer heard or knowen So wicked counsell to a noble prince Let me my Lorde disclose vnto your grace This hainous tale what mischiefe it containes Your fathers death your brothers and your owne Your present murder and eternall shame Heare me O King and suffer not to sinke So high a treason in your princely brest Ferrex The mightie Goddes forbid that euer I Should once conceaue such mischiefe in my hart Although my brother hath bereft my realme And beare perhappes to me an hatefull minde Shall I reuenge it with his death therefore Or shall I so destroy my fathers life That gaue me life the Gods forbid I say Cease you to speake so any more to me Ne you my frend with answere once repeate So foule a tale In silence let it die What lord or subiect shall haue hope at all That vnder me they safely shall enioye Their goods their honours landes and liberties With whom neither one onely brother deare Ne father dearer could emoye their liues But sith I feare my yonger brothers rage And sith perhappes some other man may geue Some like aduise to moue his grudging head At mine estate which counsell may perchaunce Take greater force with him than this with me I will in secrete so prepare my selfe As if his malice or his lust to reigne Breake forth in armes or sodeine violence I may withstand his rage and keepe mine owne Dordan I feare the fatall time now draweth on When ciuil hate shall end the noble line Of famous Brute and of his royall seede Great Ioue defend the mischiefes now at hand O that the Secretaries wise aduise Had erst bene heard when he besought the king Not to diuide his land nor send his sonnes To further partes from presence of his court Ne yet to yelde to them his gouernaunce Lo such are they now in the royall throne As was rashe Phaeton in Phebus carre Ne then the fiery stedes did draw the flame With wilder randoâ— through the kindled skies Than traitorous counseâ—â— now will whirle abouâ— The youthfull heades of these vnskilfull kinges But I here of their father will enforme The reuerence of him perhappes shall stay The growing mischiefes while they yet are greene If this helpe not then woe vnto them selues The prince the people the diuided land Actus secundus Scena secunda Porrex Tyndar Philander POrrex And is it thus And doth he so prepare Against his brother as his mortall foe And now while yet his aged father liues Neither regardes he him nor feares he me Warre would he haue and he shall haue it so Tyndar I saw my selfe the great prepared store Of horse of armour and of weapon there Ne bring I to my lorde reported tales Without the ground of seen and fearched trouth Loe secrete quarrels runne about his court To bring the name of you my lorde in hate Ech man almost can now debate the cause And aske a reason of so great a wrong Why he so noble and so wise a prince Is as vnworthy rest his heritage And why the king misseledde by craftie meanes Diuided thus his land from course of right The wiser sort holde downe their griefull heades Eche man withdrawes from talke and company Of those that haue bene knowne to fauour you To hide the mischiefe of their meaning there Rumours are spread of your preparing here The rascall numbers of vnskilfull sort Are filled with monstrous tales of you and yours In secrete I was counselled by my frendes To hast me thence and brought you as you know Letters from those that both can truely tell And would not write vnlesse they knew it well Philand My lord yet ere you moue vnkindly warre Send to your brother to demaund the cause Perhappes some traitorous tales haue filled his eares With false reportes against your noble grace Which once disclosed shall end the growing strife That els not stayed with wise foresight in time Shall hazarde both your kingdomes and your liues Send to your father eke he shall appease Your kindled mindes and rid you of this feare Porrex Ridde me of feare I feare him not at all Ne will to him ne to my father send If danger were for one to tary there Thinke ye it safetie to returne againe In mischiefes such as Ferrex now intendes The wonted courteous lawes to messengers Are not obserued which in iust warre they vse Shall I so hazard any one of mine Shall I betray my trusty frendes to him That haue disclosed his treason vnto me Let him entreate that feares I feare him not Or shall I to the king my father send Yea and send now while such a mother liues That loues my brother and that hateth me Shall I geue leasure by my fonde delayes To Ferrex to oppresse me all vnware I will not but I will inuade his realme And seeke the traitour prince within his court Mischiefe for mischiefe is a due reward His wretched head shall pay the worthy price Of this his treason and his hate to me Shall I abide and treate and send and pray And holde my yelden throate to traitours knife While I with valiant minde and conquering force Might rid my selfe of foes and winne a realme Yet rather when I haue the wretches head Then to the king my father will I send The bootelesse case may yet appease his wrath If not I will defend me as I may Philand Lo here the end of these two youthful kings The fathers death the ruine of their realmes O most vnhappy state of counsellers That light on so vnhappy lordes and times That neither can their good aduise be heard Yet must they beare the blames of ill successe But I will to the king their father haste Ere this mischiefe come to the likely end That if the mindfull wrath of wrekefull Gods Since mightie Ilions fall not yet appeased With these poore remnantes of the Troian name Haue not determined by vnmoued fate Out of this realme to rase the Brittishe line By good aduise by awe of fathers name By force of wiser lordes this kindled hate May yet be quentched ere it consume vs all Chorus When youth not bridled with a guiding stay Is left to randon of their owne delight And welds whole realmes by force of soueraign sway Great is the daunger of vnmaistred might Lest skillesse rage throwe downe with headlong fallâ— Their lands their states their liues them selues alâ— When growing pride doth fill the swelling brest And gredy lust doth rayse the climbing minde Oh hardlie maye the perill be represt Ne feare of angrie Goddes ne lawes
reason ledde the king â–ª My Father thus without all my desert To reue me halfe the kingdome which by course Of law and nature should remayne to me Hermon If you with stubborne and vntamed pryde Had stood against him in rebelling wise Or if with grudging minde you had enuied So slow a slidyng of his aged yeres Or sought before your time to haste the course Of fatall death vpon his royall head Or stained your stocke with murder of your kyn Some face of reason might perhaps haue seemed To yelde some likely cause to spoyle ye thus Ferrox The wrekeful Gods powre on my cursed head Eternall plagues and neuer dying woes The hellish prince adiudge my dampned ghost To Tantales thirste or proude Ixions wheele Or cruell gripe to gnaw my growing harte To during tormentes and vnquenched flames If euer I conceyued so foule a thought To wisshe his ende of life or yet of reigne Dordan Ne yet your father O most noble Prince Did euer thinke so fowle a thing of you For he with more than fathers tendre loue While yet the fates do lende him life to rule Who long might lyue to see your ruling well To you my Lorde and to his other sonne Lo he resignes his realme and royaltie Which neuer would so wise a Prince haue done If he had once misdemed that in your harte There euer lodged so vnkinde a thought But tendre loue my Lorde and setled truste Of your good nature and your noble minde Made him to place you thus in royall throne And now to geue you half his realme to guide Yea and that halfe which in abounding store Of things that serue to make a welthy realme In stately cities and in frutefull soyle In temperate breathing of the milder heauen In thinges of nedefull vse which frendly sea Transportes by traffike from the forreine partes In flowing wealth in honour and in force Doth passe the double value of the parte That Porrex hath allotted to his reigne Such is your case such is your fathers loue Ferrex Ah loue my frendes loue wrongs not whoÌ„ he loues Dordan Ne yet he wrongeth you that geueth you So large a reigne ere that the course of time Bring you to kingdome by discended right Which time perhaps might end your time before Ferrex Is this no wrong say you to reaue from me My natiue right of halfe so great a realme And thus to matche his yonger sonne with me In egall power and in as great degree Yea and what sonne the sonne whose swelling pride Woulde neuer yelde one poinct of reuerence Whan I the elder and apparaunt heire Stoode in the likelihode to possesse the whole Yea and that sonne which from his childish age Enuieth myne honour and doth hate my life What will he now do when his pride his rage The mindefull malice of his grudging harte Is armed with force with wealth and kingly state Hermon Was this not wrong yea yll aduised wrong To giue so mad a man so sharpe a sworde To so great perill of so great missehappe Wide open thus to set so large a waye Dordan Alas my Lord what griefull thing is this That of your brother you can thinke so ill I neuer saw him vtter likelie signe Whereby a man might see or once misdeme Such hate of you ne such vnyelding pride Ill is their counsell shamefull be their ende That raysing such mistrustfull feare in you Sowing the seede of such vnkindly hate Trauaile by treason to destroy you both Wise is your brother and of noble hope Worthie to welde a large and mightie realme So much a stronger frende haue you therby Whose strength is your strength if you gree in one Hermon If nature and the Goddes had pinched so Their flowing bountie and their noble giftes Of princelie qualities from you my Lorde And powrde them all at ones in wastfull wise Upon your fathers yonger sonne alone Perhappes there be that in your preiudice Would say that birth should yeld to worthinesse But sithe in eche good gift and princelie arte Ye are his matche and in the chiefe of all In mildenesse and in sobre gouernaunce Ye farre surmount And sith there is in you Sufficing skill and hopefull towardnesse To weld the whole and match your elders prayse I see no cause why ye should loose the halfe Ne would I wisshe you yelde to such a losse Lest your milde sufferaunce of so great a wronge Be deemed cowardishe and simple dreade Which shall geue courage to the fierie head Of your yonge brother to inuade the whole While yet therfore stickes in the peoples minde The lothed wrong of your disheritaunce And ere your brother haue by settled power By guile full cloke of an alluring showe Got him some force and fauour in the realme And while the noble Queene your mother lyues To worke and practise all for your auaile Attempt redresse by armes and wreake your self Upon his life that gayneth by your losse Who nowe to shame of you and griefe of vs In your owne kingdome triumphes ouer you Shew now your courage meete for kingly state That they which haue auowed to spend theyr goods Their landes their liues and honours in your cause â–ª May be the bolder to mainteyne your parte When they do see that cowarde feare in you Shall not betray ne faile their faithfull hartes If once the death of Porrex ende the strife And pay the price of his vsurped reigne Your mother shall perswade the angry kyng The Lords your frends eke shall appease his rage For they be wise and well they can forsee That ere longe time your aged fathers death Will bryng a time when you shall well requite Their frendlie fauour or their hatefull spite Yea or their slackenesse to auaunce your cause Wise men do not so hang on passing staâ—â— Of present Princes chiefely in their age But they will further cast their reaching eye To viewe and weye the times and reignes to come Ne is it likely though the kyng be wrothe That he yet will or that the realme will beare Extreme reuenge vpon his onely sonne Or if he woulde what one is he that dare Be minister to such an enterprise And here you be now placed in your owne Amyd your Frendes your vassalles and your strength We shall defende and kepe your person safe Till either counsell turne his tender minde Or age or sorrow end his werie dayes But if the feare of Goddes and secrete grudge Of natures law repining at the fact Withholde your courage from so great attempt Know ye that lust of kingdomes hath no law The Goddes do beare and well allow in kinges The thinges they abhorre in rascall routes When kinges on slender quarrells runne to warres And then in cruell and vnkindely wise Commaund theftes rapes murders of innocentes The spoile of townes ruines of mighty realmes Thinke you such princes do suppose them selues Subiect to lawes of kinde and feare of Gods Murders and violent theftes in priuate men Are hainous crimes
vaine of cattell slaine To send the sacred smoke to heauens throne For thee my sonne if thinges do so succede As now my ielous minde misdemeth sore Ferrex Madame leaue care carefull plaint for me Iust hath my father bene to euery wight His first vniustice he will not extend To me I trust that geue no cause therof My brothers pride shall hurt him selfe not me Viden. So graunt the Goddes But yet thy father so Hath firmely fixed his vnmoued minde That plaintes and prayers can no whit auaile For those haue I assaied but euen this day He will endeuour to procure assent Of all his counsell to his fonde deuise Ferrex Their ancestors from race to race haue borne True fayth to my forefathers and their seede I trust they eke will beare the like to me Viden. There resteth all But if they faile thereof And if the end bring forth an ill successe On them and theirs the mischiefe shall befall And so I pray the Goddes requite it them And so they will for so is wont to be When lordes and trusted rulers vnder kinges To please the present fancie of the prince With wrong transpose the course of gouernance Murders mischiefe or ciuill sword at length Or mutuall treason or a iust reuenge When right succeding line returnes againe By Ioues iust iudgement and deserued wrath Bringes them to cruell and reprochfull death And rootes their names and kindredes from the earth Ferrex Mother content you you shall see the end Viden. The end thy end I feare Ioue end me first Actus primus Scena secunda Gorboduc Arostus Philander Eubulus GOrb. My lords whose graue aduise faithful aide Haue long vpheld my honour and my realme And brought me to this age from tender yeres Guidyng so great estate with great renowme Nowe more importeth mee than erst to vse Your fayth and wisedome whereby yet I reigne That when by death my life and rule shall cease The kingdome yet may with vnbroken course Haue certayne prince by whose vndoubted right Your wealth and peace may stand in quiet stay And eke that they whome nature hath preparde In time to take my place in princely seate While in their fathers tyme their pliant youth Yeldes to the frame of skilfull gouernance Maye so be taught and trayned in noble artes As what their fathers which haue reigned before Haue with great fame deriued downe to them With honour they may leaue vnto their seede And not be thought for their vnworthy life And for their lawlesse swaruynge out of kinde Worthy to lose what lawe and kind them gaue But that they may preserue the common peace The cause that first began and still mainteines The lyne all course of kinges inheritance For me for myne for you and for the state Where of both I and you haue charge and care Thus do I meane to vse your wonted fayth To me and myne and to your natiue lande My lordes be playne without all wrie respect Or poysonous craft to speake in pleasyng wise Lest as the blame of yll succedyng thinges Shall light on you so light the harmes also Arostus Your good acceptance so most noble king Of suche our faithfulnesse as heretofore We haue employed in dueties to your grace And to this realme whose worthy head you are Well proues that neyther you mistrust at all Nor we shall neede in boasting wise to shewe Our trueth to you nor yet our wakefull care For you for yours and for our natiue lande Wherefore O kyng I speake as one for all Sithe all as one do beare you egall faith Doubt not to vse our counsells and our aides Whose honours goods and lyues are whole auowed To serue to ayde and to defende your grace Gorb. My lordes I thanke you all This is the case Ye know the Gods who haue the soueraigne care For kings for kingdomes and for common weales Gaue me two sonnes in my more lusty age Who nowe in my decayeng yeres are growen Well towardes typer state of minde and strength To take in hande some greater princely charge As yet they lyue and spende hopefull daies With me and with their mother here in courte Their age nowe asketh other place and trade And myne also doth aske an other chaunge Theirs to more trauaile myne to greater case Whan fatall death shall ende my mortall life My purpose is to leaue vnto them twaine The realme diuided into two sondry partes The one Ferrex myne elder sonne shall haue The other shall the yonger Porrex rule That both my purpose may more firmely stande And eke that they may better rule their charge I meane forthwith to place them in the same That in my life they may both learne to rule And I may ioy to see their ruling well This is in summe what I woulde haue ye wey First whether ye allowe my whole deuise And thinke it good for me for them for you And for our countrey mother of vs all And if ye lyke it and allowe it well Then for their guydinge and their gouernaunce Shew forth such meanes of circumstance As ye thinke meete to be both knowne and kept Loe this is all now tell me your aduise Aros And this is much and asketh great aduise But for my part my soueraigne lord and kyng This do I thinke Your maiestie doth know How vnder you in iustice and in peace Great wealth and honour long we haue enioyed So as we can not seeme with gredie mindes To wisshe for change of Prince or gouernaunce But if we lyke your purpose and deuise Our lyking must be deemed to proceede Of rightfull reason and of heedefull care Not for our selues but for the common state Sithe our owne state doth neede no better change I thinke in all as erst your Grace hath saide Firste when you shall vnlode your aged mynde Of heuye care and troubles manifolde And laye the same vpon my Lordes your sonnes Whose growing yeres may beare the burden long And long I pray the Goddes to graunt it so And in your life while you shall so beholde Their rule their vertues and their noble deedes Suche as their kinde behighteth to vs all Great be the profites that shall growe therof Your age in quiet shall the longer last Your lasting age shal be their longer stay For cares of kynges that rule as you haue ruled For publique wealth and not for priuate ioye Do wast mannes lyfe and hasten crooked age With furrowed face and with enfcebled lymines To draw on creepyng death a swifter pace They two yet yong shall beare the parted reigne With greater ease than one nowe olde alone Can welde the whole for whom muche harder is With lessened strength the double weight to beare Your eye your counsell and the graue regarde Of Father yea of such a fathers name Nowe at beginning of their sondred reigne When is the hazarde of their whole successe Shall bridle so their force of youthfull heates And so restreine the rage of insolence Whiche most assailes the
one He thinking that the compasse did suffice For his three sonnes three kingdoms eke to make Cut it in three as you would now in twaine But how much Brittish bloud hath since bene spilt To ioyne againe the sondred vnitie What princes slaine before their tunely houre What wast of townes and people in the lande What treasons heaped on murders and on spoiles Whose iust reuenge euen yet is scarcely ceased Ruthefull remembraunce is yet rawe in minde The Gods forbyd the like to chaunce againe And you O king geue not the cause therof My Lord Ferrex your elder sonne perhappes Whome kinde and custome geues a rightfull hope To be your heire and to succede your reigne Shall thinke that he doth suffre greater wrong Than he perchaunce will beare if power serue Porrex the younger so vpraised in state Perhappes in courage will be raysed also If flatterie then which fayles not to assaile The tendre mindes of yet vnskilfull youth In one shall kindle and encrease disdaine And enuie in the others harte enflame This fire shall waste their loue their liues their land And ruthefull ruine shall destroy them both I wishe not this O kyng so to befall But feare the thing that I do most abhorre Geue no beginning to so dreadfull ende Kepe them in order and obedience And let them both by now obeying you Learne such behauiour as beseemes their state The elder myldenesse in his gouernaunce The yonger a yelding contentednesse And kepe them neare vnto your presence still That they restreyned by the awe of you May liue in compasse of well tempred staye And passe the perilles of their youthfull yeares Your aged life drawes on to febler tyme Wherin you shall lesse able be to beare The trauailes that in youth you haue susteyned Both in your persones and your realmes defence If planting now your sonnes in furder partes You sende them furder from your present reach Lesse shall you know how they them selues demeane Traiterous corrupters of their plyant youth Shall haue vnspied a muche more free accesse And if ambition and inflamed disdaine Shall arme the one the other or them both To ciuill warre or to vsurping pride Late shall you rue that you ne recked before Good is I graunt of all to hope the best But not to liue still dreadlesse of the worst So truste the one that the other be forsene Arme not vnskilfulnesse with princely power But you that long haue wisely ruled the reignes Of royaltie within your noble realme So holde them while the Gods for our auayles Shall stretch the thred of your prolonged daies To soone he clambe into the flaming carre Whose want of skill did set the earth on fire Time and example of your noble grace Shall teach your sonnes both to obey and rule When tune hath taught them time shal make theÌ„ place The place that now is fullâ— and so I pray Long it remaine to comforte of vs all Gorboduc I take your faithful harts in thankful part â–ª But sithe I see no cause to draw my minde To feare the nature of my louing sonnes Or to misdeme that enuie or disdaine Can there worke hate where nature planteth loue In one selfe purpose do I still abide My loue extendeth egally to both My lande suffiseth for them both also Humber shall parte the marches of theyr realmes The Sotherne part the elder shall possesse The Notherne shall Porrex the yonger rule In quiet I will passe mine aged dayes Free from the trauaile and the painefull cares That hasten age vpon the worthiest kinges But lest the fraude that ye do seeme to feare Of flattering tongues corrupt their tender youth And wrythe them to the wayes of youthfull lust To clâ—â—yng pride or to reuenging hate Or to neglecting of their carefull charge Lewdely to lyue in wanton recklessnesse Or to oppressing of the rightfull cause Or not to wreke the wronges done to the poore To treade downe truth or fauour false deceite I meane to ioyne to eyther of my sonnes Some one of those whose long approued faith And wisdome tryed may well assure my harte That â—â—ynyng fraude shall finde no way to câ—epe Into their â—ensed eares with graue adiuse â–ª This is the ende and so I pray you all To beare my sonnes the loue and loyaltie That I haue founde within your faithfull brestes Arostus You nor your sonnes our soueraign lord shal want Our faith and seruice while our liues do last Chorus When settled stay doth holde the royall throne In stedfast place by knowen and doubtles right And chiefely when discent on one alone Makes single and vnparted reigne to light Eche chaunge of course vnioynts the whole estate And yeldes it thrall to ruyne by debate The strength that knit by faste accorde in one Against all forrein power of mightie foes Could of it selfe defende it selfe alone Disioyned once the former force doth lose The stickes that sondred brake so soone in twaine In faggot bounde attempted were in vaine Oft tender minde that leades the parciall eye Oferring parentes in their childrens loue Destroyes the wrongly loued childe therby This doth the proude sonne of Apollo proue Who rasshely set in chariot of his sire Inflamed the parched earth with heauens fire And this great king that doth deuide his land And chaunge the course of his discending crowne And yeldes the reigne into his childrens hande From blisfull state of ioye and great renowne A myrrour shall become to Princes all To learne to shunne the cause of suche a fall ¶ The order and signification of the domme shew before the second acte ¶ First the Musicke of Cornettes began to playe â–ª during which came in vpon the stage a King accompanied with a nombre of his nobilitie and gentlemen And after he had placed him self in a chaire of estate prepared for him there came and kneled before him a graue and aged gentelman and offred vp a cuppe vnto him of wyne in a glasse which the the King refused After him commes a braue and lustie yong gentleman and presentes the King with a cup of golde filled with poyson which the King accepted and drinking the same immediatly fell downe dead vpon the the stage and so was carried thence away by his Lordes and gentelmen and then the Musicke ceased Hereby was signified that as glasse by nature holdeth no poyson but is clere and may easely be seen through ne boweth by any arte So a faythfull counsellour holdeth no treason but is playne and open nâ— yeldeth to any vndiscrete affection but geueth holsome counsell which the yll aduised Prince refuseth The delightfull golde filled with poyson betokeneth flattery which vnder faire seeming of pleasaunt wordes beareth deadly poyson which destroyed the Prince that receyueth it As befell in the two brethren Ferrex and Porrex who refusing the holsome aduise of graue counsellours credited these yong Paracites and brought to them selues death and destruction therby Actus secundus Scena prima Ferrex Hermon Dordan FErrex I meruaile much what