foord Herc. Receiue her Centaure and in her the wealth And potency of mighty Hercules Ness. Now my reuenge for that inhumaine banquet In which so many of the Centaures fell I 'le rape this Princesse hauing past the floud Come beauteous Deyaneira mount my shoulders And feare not your safe waftage Exeunt Herc. That done returne for vs faire Deianeira White as the garden lilly pyren snow Or rocks of Christall hardned by the Sunne Thou shalt be made the potent Queene of Thebes And all my Iouiall labours shall to thee Be consecrate as to Alcides loue Well plundge bold Centaure how thy boysterous brest Plowes vp the streames thou through the swelling tides Sail'st with a freight more rich and beautifull Then the best ship cram'd with Pangeous gold With what a swift dexterity he parts The mutinous waues whose waters claspe him round Hee plaies and wantons on the curled streames And Deyanira on his shoulders fits As safe as if she stear'd a pine-tree barke They grow now towards the shore my club and armes I 'le first cast or'e the deepe Euenus foord But from my side my quiuer shall not part Nor this my trusty bow Deyan. Helpe Hercules Within Herc. 'T was Deyaneiraes voyce Deyan. The Traytor Nessus Seekes to despoile mine honour Ioue you Gods Out trayterous Centaure Helpe great Hercules Here. Hold lust-burnt Centaure 't is Alcides cals Or swifter then Ioues lightning my fierce vengeance Shall crosse Euenus Deyan. Oh oh Herc. Darst thou deuill Couldst thou clime Heauen or sinke below the Center So high so low my vengeance should persue thee Hold if I could but fixe thee in my gripes I de teare thy limbes into more Atomies Then in the Summer play before the Sunne Deyan. Helpe Hercules out dog Alcides helpe Herc; I 'le send till I can come this poisonous shaft Shall speake my fury and extract thy bloud Till I my selfe can crosse this raging floud Hercules shoots and goes in Enter Nessus with an arrow through him and Deianeira Ness. Thy beauty Deyaneira is my death And yet that Nessus dies embracing thee Takes from my sences all those torturing pangues That should associate death to shew I lou'd thee I 'le leaue thee in my will a legacy Shall stead thee more then should thy father giue thee Vnto thy Dower the Crowne of Calidon Of such great vertue is my liuing bloud And of such prize that couldst thou valew it Thou wouldst not let one drop fall to the ground But oh I die Deyan. Teach me to rate it truely Ness. Now Nessus in thy death be aueng'd on him On whom in life thou couldst not wreake thy rage My bloud is poison all these pure drops saue Which I bequeath thee ere I take my graue I know thy Lord lasciuious bent to lust Witnesse the fifty daughters of King Thespeius Whom in one night he did adulterate And of those fifty begot fifty sonnes Now if in all his quests he be with-held By any Ladies loue and stay from thee Such is the vertue of my bloud now shed That if thou dipst a shirt steept in the least Of all these drops and sendst it to thy Lord No sooner shall it touch him but his loue Shall die to strangers and reuiue to thee Make vse of this my loue Deyan. Centaure I will Ness. And so whom Nessus cannot do thou kill Still dying men speake true 't is my last cry Saue of my bloud 't may steede thee ere thou die Deyan. Though I my loue mistrust not yet this counsell I 'le not despise this if my Lord should stray Shall to my desolate bed teach him the way Enter Hercules Herc. After long strugling with Euenus streames I forc't the riuer beare me on her brest And land me safely on this further strond To make an end of what my shaft begunne The life of Nessus liues the Centaure yet Deyan. Behold him grouelling on the sencelesse earth His wounded breast transfixt by Hercules Herc. That the luxurious slaue were sencible Of torture not th'infernals with more pangues Could plague the villaine then Alcides should Ixions bones rackt on the torturing wheele Should be a pastime the three snake-hair'd sisters That lash offenders with their whips of steele Should seeme to dally when with euery string They cut the flesh like razors but the dead Wee hate to touch as cowardly and base And vengeance not becomming Hercules Come Deyaneira first to consumate Our high espowsals in triumphant Thebes That done our future labours wee 'le persue And by the assistance of the powers Diuine Striue to act more then Iuno can assigne Exit Enter HOMER Faire Deyaneira vnto Thebes being guided And Hercules espousals solemnized Hee for his further labours soone prouided As Iuno by Euritius had deuised The Apples of Hesperia first he wan Mauger huge Atlas that supports the spheares And whilst the Gyant on his businesse ran Alcides takes his place and proudly beares The heauens huge frame thence into Scithia hies And their the Amazonian Baldricke gaines By conquering Menalip a braue prise The warlike Quene that ore the Scithians raignes That hee supported heauen doth well expresse His Astronomicke skill knowledge in starres They that such practise know what do they lesse Then beare heauens weight so of the Lernean warres Where he the many-headed Hydra slew A Serpent of that nature when his sword Par'd off one head from that another grew This shewed his Logicke skill from euery word And argument confuted there arise From one a multiplicity therefore we Poets and such as are esteemed wise Instruct the world by such morality To conquer Hydra showed his powerfull skill In disputation how to argue well By all that vnderstand in custome still And in this Art did Hercules excell Now we the Aegyptian tyrant must present Bloudy Busiris a king fell and rude One that in murder plac't his sole content With whose sad death our first Act we conclude Enter Busyris with his Guard and Priests to sacrifice to them two strangers Busyris takes them and kils them vpon the Altar enter Hercules disguis'd Busyris sends his Guard to apprehend him Hercules discouering himselfe beates the Guard kils Busyris and sacrificeth him vpon the Altar at which there fals a shower of raine the Priests offer Hercules the Crowne of Aegypt which he refuseth HOMER In Aegypt there of long time fell no raine For which vnto the Oracle they sent Answeres return'd that till one stranger slaine Immou'd shall be the Marble firmament Therefore the Tyrant all these strangers kils That enter Aegypt till Alcides came And with the tyrants bulke the Altar fils At whose red slaughter fell a plenteous raine For he that stranger and vsurper was Whose bloudy fate the Oracle forespake But for a while we let Alcides passe Whom these of Aegypt would their soueraigne make For freeing them from such a tyrants rage Now Meleager next must fill our stage Actus 2. Scoena 2. Enter Venus like a Huntresse with Adonis Venus Why doth
ruin Clamours of men and woemens loud exclaimes Burnings of children the vniuersall curse Of a great people all to saue one man A straggler God knowes whence deriu'd where borne Or hether where Noble let the proud Greeke die Wee still in Colchos sit instated hye Oh me that looke vpon Medea cast Drownes all these feares and hath the rest surpast Iason Madam because I loue I pitty you That you a beauteous Lady art-full wise Should haue your beauty and your wisedome both Inuelopt in a cloud of Barbarisme That on these barren Confines you should liue Confin'd into an Angle of the world And ne're see that which is the world indeed Fertile and populous Greece Greece that beares men Such as resemble Gods of which in vs You see the most deiected and the meanest How harshly doth your wisedome sound in th' eares Of these Barbarians dull unapprehensible And such in not conceiuing your hid Arts Depriue them of their honour In Greece springs The fountaines of Diuine Phylosophy They are all vnderstanders I would haue you Bright Lady with vs enter to that world Of which this Colchos is no part at all Shew then your beauty to these iudging eies Your wisedome to these vnderstanding eares In which they shall receiue their merited grace And leaue this barraine cold and stirrill place Medea His presence without all this Oratory Did much with vs but where they both conioyne To entrap Medea shee must needs bee caught Iason I long to see this Colchian Lady clad In Hymens stateliest roabes whom the glad Matrones Bright Ladies and Imperiall Queenes of Greece Shall welcome and applaud and with rich gifts Present for sauing of their sonnes and kinsmen From these infernall monsters As for Iason If you Medea shall despise his loue He craues no other life then to die so Since life without you is but torturing paine And death to men distrest is double gaine Medea That tongue more then Medeaes spels inchants And not a word but like our exorcismes And power of charmes preuailes Oh lone thy Maiesty Is greater then the triple Hecates Bewitching Circes or these hidden skils Ascrib'd vnto th' infernall Proserpine I that by incantations can remoue Hils from their syts and make huge mountaines shake Darken the Sunne at noone call from their graues Ghosts long since dead that can command the earth And affright heauen no spell at all can find To bondage loue or free a captiue minde Iason Loue Iason then and by thy Diuine aide Giue me such power that I may tug vnscorcht Amidst the flames with these thy fiery fiends That I vnuenom'd may these Vipers teeth Cast from my hand through Morpheus leaden charmes Ouer that wakefull snake that guards the Fleece For which liue Iasons happy Bride in Greece Medea A match what hearbs or spels what Magicke can Command in heauen earth or in hell below What either aire or sea can minister To guard thy person all these helps I 'le gather To girdle thee with safety Iason Be thou then For euer Iasons and through Greece renown'd In whom our Heroes haue such safety found Our bargaine thus I seale He kisseth her Medea Which I 'le make good With Colchos fall and with my fathers bloud Enter Absyrtus Absyr. Prince Iason all the Heroes at the banquet Inquire for you twice hath my father Oetes Made search for you Oh sister Medea No word you saw vs two in conference Absyr. Do you take me to be a woman to tell all I see And blab all I know I that am in hope one day to Lie with a woman will once lie for a woman Sister I saw you not Iason Remember come Prince will you leade the way Absyr. I haue parted you that neuer parted fray Come sir will you follow Exit Manet Medea Medea The night growes on and now to my black Arts Goddesse of witchcraft and darke ceremony To whom the elues of Hils of Brookes of Groues Of standing lakes and cauernes vaulted deepe Are ministers three-headed Hecate Lend me thy Chariot drawne with winged snakes For I this night must progresse through the Aire What simples grow in Tempe of Thessaly Mount Pindus Otheris Ossa Appidane Olimpus Caucas or high Teneriff I must select to finish this great worke Thence must I flye vnto Amphrisus Foords Aud gather plants by the swift Sperchius streames Where rushy Bebes and Anthedon flow Where hearbes of bitter iuice and strong sent grow These must I with the haires of Mandrakes vse Temper with Poppy-seeds and Hemlocke iuice With Aconitum that in Tartar springs With Cypresse Ewe and Veruin and these mix With Incantations Spels and Exorcisims Of wonderous power and vertue oh thou night Mother of darke Arts hide mee in thy vaile Whilst I those banks search and these mountaines skale Sownd Enter King Oetes Absyrtus and Lords Oetes Vpon the safeguard of this golden Fleece Colchos depends and he that beares it hence Beares with it all our fortunes the Argonautes Haue it in quest if Iason scape our monsters I 'le rather at some banquet poyson him And quaffe to him his death or in the night Set fire vpon his Argoe and in flames Consume the happy hope of his returne This purpose we as we are Colchos King Absyrtus where 's your sister Absyrtus In her chamber Oetes When you next see her giue to her this noate The manner of our practise her fell hand Cannot be mist in this but it shall fall Heauy on these that Colchos seekes to thrall The howre drawes nigh the people throng on heapes To this aduenture in the field of Mars And noble Iason arm'd with his good shield Is vp already and demands the field Enter Iason Hercules and the Argonauts Iason Oetes I come thus arm'd demanding combat Of all those monsters that defend thy Fleece And to these dangers singly I oppose My person as thou seest when setst thou ope The gates of hell to let thy deuils out Glad would I wrastle with thy fiery Buls And from their throats the flaming dewlops teare Vnchaine them and to Iason turne them loose That as Alcides did to Achelous So from their hard fronts I may teare there hornes And lay the yoake vpon their vntam'd necks Oetes Yet valiant Greeke desist I though a stranger Pitty thy youth or if thou wilt persist So dreadfull is the aduenture thou persuest That thou wilt thinke I shall vnbowell hell Vnmacle the fiends and make a passage Free for the Infernals Iason I shall welcome all Medea now if there be power in loue Or force in Magicke if thou hast or will Or Art try all the power of Characters Vertue of Symples Stones or hidden spels If earth Elues or nimble airy Spirits Charmes Incantations or darke Exorcismes If any strength remaine in Pyromancy Or the hid secrets of the aire or fire If the Moones spheare can any helpe infuse Or any influent Starre collect them all That I by thy aide may these monsters thrall Oetes Discouer them Two fiery
this shirt vnknowne to me that brought it Or what hath iealous Deyaneira done To employ me an vnwilling messenger In her Lords death well whosoe're it proue My innocence I know I 'le if I may Looke to my life and keepe out of his way Enter Hercules Herc. Lychas Lychas where 's he that brought this poyson'd shirt That I may teare the villaine lim from lim And flake his body small as Winters snow His shattered flesh shall play like parched leaues And dance in th' aire tost by the sommer winds Lychas. Defend me heauen Herc. Oh that with stamping thus I could my selfe beneath the Center sinke And tombe my tortured body beneath hell Had I heauens massy columnes in my gripes Then with one sway I would or'e-turne yon frame And make the marble Elementall sky My Tombe-stone to enterre dead Hercules Oh father Ioue thou laist vpon thy sonne Torments aboue supporture Lichas oh I 'le chase the villaine o're Oetaes rockes Till I haue nak't those hils and left no shade To hide the Traytor Lichas. Which way shall I flye To scape his fury if I stay I dye Hercules sees him Herc. Stay stay what 's he that creeps into yon caue Is not that Lycas Dyaneiraes squire That brought this poysoned shirt to Hercules I thanke thee Ioue yet this is some allayment And moderation to the pangues I feele Nay you shall out fir Lychas by the heeles Hercules swings Lychas about his head and kils him Thus thus thy limbs about my head I twine Eubaean sea receiue him for he 's thine Enter Iason Tellamon and all the Princes after them Omphale Ias. Princes his torments are 'boue Physicke helpe And they that wish him well must wish his death For that alone giues period to his anguish Tell. In vaine we follow and pursue his rage There 's danger in his madnesse Nest. Yet aloofe Let 's obserue him and great Ioue implore To qualifie his paines Phy. As I am Philoctetes I 'le not leaue him Vntill he be immortall Princes harke Hercules within Cannot these grones peirce heauen and moue to pitty The obdure Iuno Omph. Beneath this rocke where we haue often kist I will lament the noble Thebans fall The Lydian Omphale will be to him A truer Mystresse then his wife whose hate Hath brought on him this sad and ominous fate Nor hence for any force or prayer remoue But die with him whom I so deerely loue cry within Cast. His torments still increase heare oh you Gods And hearing pitty Enter Hercules from a rocke aboue tearing downe trees Herc. Downe downe you shadowes that crowne Oeta Mount And as you tumble beare the Rockes along I will not leaue an Oake or standing Pine But all these mountaines with the dales make euen That Oetaes selfe may mourne with Hercules Hah what art thou Omph. I am thy Omphale Herc. Art thou not Deyaneira come to mocke Alcides madnesse and his pangues deride Yes thou art she thou thou hast fier'd my bones And mak'st me boyle in poyson for which minion And for by fate thou hast shortned my renowne Behold this monstrous rocke thy death shal crowne Hercules kils Omphale with a peece of a rocke So Deyaneira and her squire are now Both in their sins extinct Thes. What hath Alcides done slaine Omphale A guiltlesse queene that came to mourne his death Herc. Torment on torment But shall Hercules Dye by a womans hand No ayd me Princes If you haue in you any generous thoughts In my last fabricke Come tosse trees on trees Till you haue rear'd me vp a funerall pile Which all that 's mortall in me shall consume Cast. Princes let none deny their free assistance In his release of torture Ther 's for me Pol. My hand shall likewise helpe to bury him And of his torments giue him ease by death All the Princes breake downe the trees and make a fire in which Hercules placeth himselfe Her Thanks thus I throne me in the midst of fire And with a dreadlesse brow confront my death Olimpicke thunderer now behold thy sonne Of whose diuine parts make a starre that Atlas May shrinke beneath the weight of Hercules And step-dame Iuno glut thy hatred now That hast beene weary to command when we Haue not beene weary to performe and act I that Busiris slue Antheus strangled And conquer'd still at thy vnkinde behest The three-shap't Gerion and the dogge of hell The Bull of Candy and the golden Hart Augeus and the fowles of Stymphaly The Hesperian fruit and bolt of Thermidon The Lernean Hydra and Arcadian Boare The Lyon of Naemea Steeds of Thrace The monster Cacus thousands more then these That Hercules in death dares thee to chide And shewes his spirit which torments cannot hide Lye there thou dread of Tyrants and thou skin He burns his Club Lyons Skin Invulner'd still burne with thy maisters bones For these be armes which none but we can weild My bow and arrowes Philoctetes take Reserue them as a token of our loue For these include the vtmost fate of Troy Which without these the Greekes can nere destroy You Hero's all fare-well heape fire on fire And pile on pile till you haue made a structure To flame as high as heauen and record this Though by the Gods and Fates we are ore-throwne Alcides dies by no hand but his owne Iupiter aboue strikes him with a thunder-bolt his body sinkes and from the heauens discends a hand in a cloud that from the place where Hercules was burnt brings vp a starre and fixeth it in the firmament Iason Iuno thou hast done thy worst he now defies What thou canst more his fame shall mount the skies What heauenly musicke 's this Tel. His soule is made a star and mounted heauen I see great Ioue hath not forgot his sonne All that his mothers was is chang'd by fire But what he tooke of Ioue and was deuine Now a bright star in the high heauens must shine Enter Atreus Nest. We all haue seene Alcides deifi'd But what newes brings Atreus Air A true report of Deianeira's death Who when she heard the tortures of her Lord And what effect her fatall present tooke Exclaim'd on Nessus and to proue herselfe Guiltlesse of treason in her husbands death Witth her owne hand she boldly slue herselfe Pel. That noble act proclaim'd her innocent And cleares all blacke suspition but faire princes Let vniuersall Greece in funerall blacke Mourne for the death of Theban Hercules Ias. Who now shal monsters quel or tyrants tame Th' oppressed free or fill Greece with their fame Princes your hands take vp these monuments Of his twelue labours in a marble Temple We will erect and dedicate to him Reserue them to his lasting memory His brazen pillers shall be fixt in Gades On which his monumentall deeds wee 'l graue Arm'd with these worthy Trophies le ts march on Towards Thebes that claimes the honour of his birth His body 's dead his fame shall nere expire Earth claimes his earth heauen shewes his heauenly fire Exeunt omnes HOMER He that expects fiue short Acts can containe Each circumstance of these things we present Me thinkes should shew more barrennesse then raine All we haue done we aime at your content Striuing to illustrate things not knowne to all In which the learnd can onely censure right The rest we craue whom we vnlettered call Rather to attend then iudge for more then sight We seeke to please The understanding eare Which we haue hitherto most gracious found Your generall loue we rather hope then feare For that of all our labours is the ground If from your loue in any point we stray Thinke HOMER blind and blind men misse their way FINIS
Thes. Then let vs from this harbour launch our Argoe To Colchos first and in our voyage home Reuenge vs on this false Laomedon Herc. You sway me princes farewell trecherous King Nought saue thy bloud shall satisfie this wrong And base dishonour done to Hercules Expect me for by Olimpicke Ioue I sweare Nere to set foot within my natiue Thebes See Deianeira or to touch in Greece Till I'haue scal'd these mures inuaded Troy Ransack't thy Citty slaine Laomedon And venge the Gods that gouerne Sea and Sunne Come valiant Heroes first the fleece to enioy And in our backe returne to ransacke Troy Exeunt Lao. We dread you not wee 'l answere what is done As well as stand 'gainst Neptune and the Sunne Enter Oetes King of Colchos Medea yong Absyrtus with Lords Oetes How may we glory aboue other kings Being by our birth descended from the Gods Our wealth renowned through the world tripartite Most in the riches of the golden fleece And not the least of all our happinesse Medea for her powerfull magicke skill And Negromanticke exorcismes admir'd And dreaded through the Colchian territories Medea I can by Art make riuers retrograde Alter their channels run backe to their heads And hide them in the springs from whence they grew The curled Ocean with a word I l'e smooth Or being calme raise waues as high as hils Threatning to swallow the vast continent With powerfull charmes I l'e make the Sunne stand still Or call the Moone downe from her arched spheare What cannot I by power of Hecate Absyr. Discourse faire sister how the golden fleece Came first to Colchos Medea Let Absyrtus know Phrixus the sonne of Theban Athamas And his faire sister Helles being betraid By their curst step-dame Ino fled from Greece Their Innocence pittied by Mercury He gaue to them a golden-fleeced Ramme Which bore them safe to the Sygean sea Which swimming beauteous Helles there was drown'd And gaue that sea the name of Hellespont That which parts Sestus and Abidos still Phrixus arriues at Colchos and to Mars There sacrific'd his Ramme in memory Of his safe waftage fauoured by the Gods The golden Fleece was by the Oracle Commanded to be fixt there kept and guarded By two fierce Buls that breath infernall fires And by a wakefull Dragon in whose eyes Neuer came sleepe for in the safe conseruing Of this diuine and worthy monument Our kingdomes weale and safety most consists Oetes And he that striues by purchase of this fleece To weaken vs or shake our Royalty Must tast the fury of these fiery fiends A shoote The nouell speake Enter a Lord Lord Vpon the Cholchian shores A stately vessell man'd it seemes from Greece Is newly lancht full fraught with Gentlemen Of braue aspects and presence Oetes Whos 's their Generall Lord Iason he stiles himselfe a Prince of Greece And Captaine o're the noble Argonautes Oetes Vsher them in that we may know their quest And what aduenture drew them to these shoares Sound Enter Iason Hercules Theseus Castor Pollux c. Iason Haile king of Colchos thou beholdst in vs The noblest Heroes that inhabite Greece Of whom I though vnworthiest stile my selfe The Generall the intent of this our voyage Is to reduce the rich and golden prise To Greece from whence it came know I am come To tug and wrastle with the infernall Buls And in their hot fiers double guild my armes To place vpon their necks the seruile yoake And bondage force them plow the field of Mars Till in the furrowes I haue sowed the teeth Of vipers from which men in armour grow To enter combat with the sleepelesse Dragon And mauger him fetch thence the golden Fleece All this Oetes I am prest to atchieue Against these horrid tasks my life to ingage Buls fury Vipers poyson Dragons rage Medea Such a bold spirit and noble presence linkt Neuer before were seene in Phasis Isle Colchos be proud a Prince demands thy Fleece Richer then that he comes for let the Greekes Our Phasian wealth and Oetes treasure beare So they in liew will leaue me Iason here Oetes Princes you aime at dangers more in proffe Then in report which if you should behold In their true figure would amaze your spirits Yea terifye the Gods let me aduise you As one that knowes their terrour to desist Ere you enwrap your selfe into these perils Whence there is no euasion Herc. Oetes know Peril 's a babe the greater dangers threaten The greater is his honour that breaks through Haue we in th' Agoe rowed with sixty oares And at each Oare a Prince pierc't Samo-thrace The Chersoneson sea the Hellespont Euen to the waues that breake on Colchos shoares And Shall we with dishonour turne to Greece Know Oetes not the least of sixty Heroes That now are in thy Confines but thy monsters Dare quell and baffle Tellamon Much more Hercules Oetes Hercules Iason Starts Oetes at the name of Hercules What would he do to see him in his eminence But leauing that this must be Iasons quest A worke not worthy him where be these monsters Medea May all inchantments be confinde to hell Rather then he encounter fiends so fell Oetes Princes since you will needs attempt these dangers You shall and if atchieue the Golden Fleece Transport it where you please meane time this day Repose your selues wel 'e feast you in our Pallace To morrow morning with the rising Sunne Our golden prise shall be conseru'd or wonne Exit Medea If he attempts he dies what 's that to mee Why should Medea feare a strangers life Or what 's that Iason I should dread his fall If he o're-come my fathers glory waines And all our fortunes must reward his paines Let lason perish then and Colchos flourish Our pristine glories let vs still enioy And these our brasse-head buls the Prince destroy Oh! what distraction 's this within me bred Although he die I would not see him dead The best I see the worst I follow still Hee nere wrong'd mee why should I wish him ill Shall the Buls tosse him whom Medea loues A Tygresse not a Princesse should I proue To see him tortured whom I deerely loue Bee then a torteresse to thy fathers life A robber of the clime where thou wast bred And for some straggler that hath lost his way Thy fathers Kingdome and his State betray Tush these are nothing first his faith I 'le craue That couenant made him by enchantments faue Enter Iason Iason My task is aboue strength Duke Peleus sent me Not to atchieue but die in this pursuite And to preuent the Oracle that told him I must succeed Iason bethinke thee then Thou com'st to execution not to act Things aboue man I haue obseru'd Medea Retort vpon me many an amorous looke Of which I 'le studdy to make prosperous vse If by her art the Inchantments I can bind Immur'd with death I certaine safety find Medea Shall I o're-whelme vpon my captiue head The curse of all our Nation the Crownes