Apel. Were you ever shadow'd before of any? Cam. No: and would you could so now shadow ine, that I might not be perceived of any. Apel. Because you have been loved of many. Cam. Flattered perchance of some. Apel. It is not possible that a face so fair, and a wit so sharp, both without comparison, should Apel. It were pity, but that so absolute a face should furnish Venus's temple amongst these pic-not be apt to love. tures. Cam. What are these pictures? Apel. This is Læda, whom Jove deceived in likeness of a swan. Cam. A fair woman; but a foul deceit. Apel. This is Alcmena, unto whom Jupiter came in shape of Amphitrion her husband, and begat Hercules. Cam. A famous son, but an infamous fact. Apel. He might do it, because he was a God. Cam. Nay, therefore it was evil done, because he was a God. Apel. This is Danae, into whose prison Jupiter drizled a golden shower, and obtained his desire. Cam. What! gold can make one yield to desire. Apel. This is Europa, whom Jupiter ravish'd. This Antiopa. Cam. Were all the Gods like this Jupiter? Apel. There were many Gods, in this, like Jupiter. Cam. I think, in those days, love was well ratified among men on earth, when lust was so fully authorized by the Gods in heaven. Apel. Nay, you may imagine there were women passing amiable, when there were Gods exceeding amorous. Cam. Were women never so fair, men would be false. Apel. Were women never so false, men would be foud. Cam. What counterfeit is this, Apelles? Apel. This is Venus, the goddess of love. Cam. What, be there also loving goddesses? Apel. This is she that hath power to command the very affections of the heart. Cam. How is she hired, by prayer, by sacrifice, or bribes? Apel. By prayer, sacrifice, and bribes. Apel. Hearts ever sighing, never dissembling. Apel. Roses and kisses. But were you never in love? Cam. No, nor love in me. Apel. Then have you injured many. Cam. If you begin to tip your tongue with cunning, I pray dip your pencil in colours, and fall to that you must do, not that you would do. SCENE IV. CLYTUS, PARMENIO, ALEXANDER, HEPHESTION, CRYSUS, DIOGENES, APELLES, CAMPASPE. Cly. Parmenio, I cannot tell how it cometh to pass, that in Alexander now-a-days there groweth an unpatient kind of life: in the morning he is melancholy, at noon solemn; at all times either more sour or severe than he was accustomed. Par. In kings causes I rather love to doubt than conjecture, and think it better to be ignoraut than inquisitive: 23 they have long ears and stretched arms, in whose heads suspicion is a proof, and to be accused is to be condemn'd. Cly. Yet between us, there can be no danger to find out the cause; for that there is no malice to withstand it. It may be an unquenchable thirst of conquering maketh him unquiet: it is not unlikely his long ease hath altered his humour: that he should be in love, it is not impossible. Par. In love, Clytus? no, no, it is as far from his thought as treason from ours: he, whose everwaking eye, whose never-tired heart, whose body patient of labour, whose mind unsatiable of victory hath always been noted, cannot so soon be melted into the weak conceits of love: Aristotle told him there were many worlds, and that be hath not conquered one that gapeth for all galleth Alexander. But here he cometh. Alex. Parmenio and Clytus, I would have you both ready to go into Persia about an embassage no less profitable to me than to yourselves honourable. Cly. We are ready at all commands, wishing nothing else but continually to be commanded. Alex. Well, then, withdraw yourselves till I have farther considered of this matter. [Exeunt CLYTUS and PARMENIO.] Now we will see how Apelles goeth forward: I doubt me that nature hath overcome art, and her countenance his cunning. Heph. You love, and therefore think any thing. 23 They have long ears and stretched arms-So, in Euphues, 1581, p. 23: "Knowest thou not, Euphues, that kings have long armes, and rulers large reaches?" Again, in Damon and Pithias: "What then? An nescis longas regibus esse manus ?” with Bucephalus, if accasion serve either of con- | flict or of conquest. Heph. Occasion cannot want, if will do not. Behold all Persia swelling in the pride of their own power, the Scythians careless what courage or fortune can do: the Egyptians dreaming in the soothsayings of their augurs, and gaping over the smoke of their beasts intrails. All these, Alexander, are to be subdued, if that world be not slipped out of your head which you have sworn to conquer with that hand. Alex. I confess the labour's fit for Alexander, and yet recreation necessary among so many assaults, bloody wounds, intolerable troubles; give ine leave a little, if not to sit, yet to breathe. And doubt not but Alexander can, when he will, throw affections as far from him, as he can cowardise. But behold Diogenes talking with one at his tub. Cry. One penny, Diogenes, I am a Cynick. Diog. He made thee a beggar, that first gave. thee any thing. Cry. Why, if thou wilt give nothing, nobody will give thee. Diog. I want nothing, till the springs dry, and the earth perish. Cry. I gather for the gods.. Diog. And I care not for those gods, which Alex. Now, gentlewoman, doth not your beauty put the painter to his trump? Cam. Yes, my lord, seeing so disordered a countenance, he feareth he shall shadow a deformed counterfeit. Aler. Would he could colour the life with the feature. And me thinketh, Apelles, were you as cunning as report saith you are, you may paint flowers as well with sweet smells as fresh colours, observing in your mixture such things as should draw near to their savours. Apel. Your majesty must know, it is no less faces. Apel. I marvel in half an hour he did not four. Apel. No, but he doth it so homely. Alex. Why should not. I 24 be as cunning as Apel. God shield you should have cause to be so cunning as Apelles? Alex. Me thinketh four colours are sufficient to shadow any countenance, and so it was in the time of Phydias. Apel. Then had men fewer fancies, and women Aler. The coal breaks. Apel. Your eye goeth not with your hand. Apel. Your hand goeth not with your mind. 24 Be as cunning as Apelles?-The word cunning, at the time this play was written, had not acquired its present bad signification. It was generally, as here, used synonymously with skilful. So, in Lyly's, Epistle Dedicatorie to Euphues and his England, 1582: "So that whereas I had thought to shewe the "cunning of a chyrurgian by mine anatomie with a knife, I must plaie the tailour on the shoppe board "with a paire of sheeres." Again, in his Epistle to the Ladies: "It was objected unto her by a ladie more captious than cun"ning, that in her worke there wanted some colours." And in the same sense it is frequently used throughout the English translation of the Bible. terfeit after me. Apel. I will. Apel. I will cudgel your body for it, and then will I say it was no body, because it was no honest body. Away, in. [Erit PSYLLUS.] Unfortunate Apelles, and therefore unfortunate because Apelles! Hast thou by drawing her beauty brought to pass, that thou canst scarce draw thine own breath? And by somuch the more hast thou incrcased thy care, by how much the more thou hast shewed thy cunning? was it not sufficient to behold the fire and warm thee, but with Satyrus Alex. Now, Hephestion, 25 doth not this mat-thou must kiss the fire and burn thee? O Camter cotton as I would? Campaspe looketh pleasantly; liberty will encrease her beauty, and my love shall advance her honour. PSYLLUS, MANES, APELLES. Psyl. I shall be hanged for tarrying so long. Munes. I pray God, my master be not flown before I come. Psyl. Away, Manes, my master doth come. Apel. Who was here sithence my coming? Apel. Ungracious wag, I perceive you have been a loitering; was Alexander nobody? Psyl. He was a king, I meant no mean body. paspe, Campaspe, art must yield to nature, reason to appetite, wisdom to affection! Could Pygmalion entreat by prayer to have his ivory turned into flesh; and cannot Apelles obtain by plaints to have the picture of his love changed to life? Is painting so far inferior to carving? or dost thou, Venus, more delight to be hewed with chissels, than shadowed with colours? What Pygmalion, or 27 what Pyrgoteles, or what Lysippus, is he, that ever made thy face so fair, or spread thy fame so far as I; unless, Venas, in this thou enviest mine art, that in colouring my sweet Campaspe, I have left no place by canning to make thee so amiable? But, alas! she is the paramour to a prince; Alexander, the monarch of the earth, hath both her body and affection. For what is it that kings cannot obtain by prayers, threats, and promises? Will not she think it bet ter to sit under a cloth of estate like a queen, than in a poor shop like a housewife? and esteem it sweeter to be the concubine of the lord of the world, than spouse to a painter in Athens? Yes, yes, Apelles, thou may'st swim against the stream with the crab, and feed against the wind with the deer, and peck against the steel with the cockatrice: Stars are to be look'd at, not reach'd at; princes to be yielded unto, not contended with; Campaspe to be honour'd, not obtain'd; to be painted, not possessed of thee. O fair face! O unhappy hand! and why didst thou draw it so fair 25 Doth not this matter cotton as I would?—The Glossary to the Praise of Yorkshire Ale, 1697, explains the phrase Naught cottons weell, to be Nothing goes right. Alexander therefore means, doth not this matter go as I would? So, in Mons. Thomas, by Beaumont and Fletcher, A. 4. S. 8: "Still mistress Dorothy? this geer will cotton." Again, in Middleton's Inner Temple Masque, 1619: "To shew you good, bad, and indifferent dayes, 26 I will not contrary your majesty ;—1 will not contradict your majesty. So, in the Fable of Ferdinanda Jeronimi. Gascoigne's Works, 1587, p. 273: "The Lady Fraunces did not seeme to contrary him, but "rather smiled, &c." 27 What Pyrgoteles, &c.-" Idem hic imperator [Alexander] edixit, ne quis ipsum alius, quam "Apelles pingeret: quam Pyrgoteles, sculpseret: quam Lysippus, ex ære duceret: quæ artes pluribus inclaruere exemplis." Plinii Nat. Hist. lib. vii. c. 37. a face? O beautiful countenance! the express image of Venus, but somewhat fresher: the only pattern of that eternity which Jupiter dreaming asleep, could not conceive again waking, Blush, Venus, for I am ashamed to end thee. Now must I paint things impossible for mine art, but agreeable with my affections: deep and hollow sighs, sad and melancholy thoughts, wounds and slaughters of conceits, a life posting to death, a death galloping from life, a wavering constancy, an unsettled resolution, and what not, Apelles? and what but Apelles? but as they that are shaken with a fever are to be warmed with clothes, not groans, and as he that melteth in a consumption is to be recured by 28cullises, not conceits; so the feeding canker of my care, the never-dying worm of my heart, is to be killed by counsel, not cries; by applying remedies, not by replying of reasons. And sith in cases desperate there must be used medicines that are extreme, I will hazard that little life that is left, to restore the greater part that is lost; and this shall be my first practice; for wit must work where authority is not. As Cupid and my Campaspe played He stakes his quiver, bow, and arrows; SCENE I. SOLINUS, PSYLLUS, GRANICHUS, MANES, DIOGENES, POPULUS. ACT IV. Sol. This is the place, the day, the time, that Diogenes hath appointed to fly. Psyl. I will not lose the flight of so fair a fowl as Diogenes is, though my master cudgel my nobody, as he threatened. Gra. What, Psyllus, will the beast wag his wings to-day? Psyl. We shall hear, for here cometh ManesManes, will it be? Manes. Be! he were best be as cunning as a bee, or else shortly he will not be at all. Gra. How is he furnished to fly, hath he feathers? Manes. Thou art an ass; capons, geese, and owls, have feathers. He hath found Dedalus' old waxen wings, and hath been piecing them this month, he is so broad in the shoulders: O you shall see him cut the air even like a tortoise. Sol. Methinks so wise a man should not be so mad, his body must needs be too heavy. Manes. Why, he hath eaten nothing this se ven-night but cork and feathers. Psyl. Touch him, Manes. Manes. He is so light that he can scarce keep him from flying at midnight. Populus intrat. Manes. See, they begin to flock, and behold my master bustles himself to fly. Dio. Ye wicked and bewitched Athenians, whose bodies make the earth to groan, and whose breaths infect the air with stench, come ye to see Diogenes fly? Diogenes cometh to see you sink: you call me dog, so I am, for I long to gnaw the bones in your skins. Ye term me an hater of men; no, I am a hater of your manners. Your lives dissolute, not fearing death, will prove your deaths desperate, not hoping for life. What do you else in Athens but sleep in the day, and surfeit in the night? Back-gods in the morning with pride, in the evening belly-gods with gluttony. You flatter kings, and call them gods; speak truth of yourselves, and confess you are devils. From the bee you have taken not the honey, but the wax to make your religion, 28 Cullises-Cullises were compositions calculated to restore worn-out constitutions, and invigorate feeble ones. They were of the same kind as jellies.-See Marston's Fawne, A. 2. S. 1. Massinger's Bondman, A. 4. S. 4. The Picture, A. 1. S. 2. The Emperor of the East, A. 1. S. 2. ; and in most of the plays of the times. 29 This elegant little sonnet is restored from Blount's edition. It is also printed in the third volume of Dr Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry, p. 83. A translation of it into French, by an unknown hand, is likewise published in the same volume, p. 348, framing it to the time, not to the truth. Your filthy lust you cover under a courtly colour of love: injuries abroad under the title of policies at home; and sacred malice creepeth under the name of public justice. You have caused Alexander to dry up springs, and plant vines; to sow rocket, and weed endive; to shear sheep, and shrine foxes. All conscience is seared 30 at Athens. Swearing cometh of a hot metal, lying of a quick wit, flattery of a flowing tongue, undecent talk of a merry disposition; all things are lawful at Athens. Either you think there are no gods, or I must think ye are no men. You build as though you should live for ever, and surfeit as though you should die to-morrow. None teacheth true philosophy but Aristotle, because he was the king of school-masters. O times! O men! O corruption in manners! Remember that green grass must turn to dry hay. When you sleep, you are not sure to wake; and when you rise, not certain to lie down. Look ye never so high, your heads must lie level with your feet. Thus have I flown over your disordered lives, and if you will not amend your manners, I will study to fly farther from you, that I may be nearer to honesty. Sol. Thou ravest, Diogenes, for thy life is different from thy words. Did not I see thee come out of a brothel-house? was it not a shame! Dio. It was no shame to go out, but a shame to go in. Gra. It were a good deed, Manes, to beat thy master. Manes. You were as good eat my master. One of the People. Hast thou made us all fools, and wilt thou not fly? Dio. I tell thee, unless thou be honest, I will fly. Peo. Dog, dog, take a bone. Dio. Thy father need fear no dogs, but dogs thy father. Peo. We will tell Alexander, that thou reprovest him behind his back. Dio. And I will tell him, that you flatter him before his face. Peo. We will cause all the boys in the street to hiss at thee. Dio. Indeed I think the Athenians have their children ready for any vice, because they be Athenians. Manes. Why, master, mean you not to fly? Psyl. I care not, it was sport enough for me Psyl. Come, let us go, and hereafter when I mean to rail upon any body openly, it shall be given out I will fly. [Exeunt, SCENE II. CAMPASPE, APELLES. Cam. [sola.] Campaspe, it is hard to judge whether thy choice be more unwise, or thy chance unfortunate. Dost thou prefer-but stay, utter not that in words, which maketh thine ears to glow with thoughts. Tush, better thy tongue wag, than thy heart break. Hath a painter crept farther into thy mind than a prince? Apelles, than Alexander? 32 fond wench! the baseness of thy mind bewrays the meanness of thy birth. But alas, affection is a fire, which kindleth as well in the bramble, as in the oak, and catcheth_hold where it first lighteth, not where it may best burn. Larks that mount aloft in the air, build their uests below in the earth; and women that cast their eyes upon kings, may place their hearts upon vassals. A needle will become thy fingers better than a lute, and a distaff is fitter for thy hand than a sceptre. Ants live safely till they have gotten wings; and juniper is not blown up, till it hath gotten an high top. The mean estate is without care as long as it continueth without pride. But here cometh Apelles, in whom I would there were the like affection. Enter APELLES. Apel. Gentlewoman, the misfortune I had with your picture will put you to some pains to sit again to be painted. 30 Seared-All the editions read sealed, except the last by Mr Dodsley. I have retained his alteration; although sealed may probably be right, being a term in falconry, signifying blinded. 31 Old huddles-This contemptuous term is frequently used by our ancient writers, and is always applied to old people, who are either covetous or subject to any other vice peculiar to old age. As in Euphues, 1581, p. 7: " But as to the stomacke quatted with deinties, all delicates seeme queasie, and as he that surfetteth with wine, useth afterwards to allay with water; so these olde huddles having overcharged their gorges with fancie, accompt all honest recreation mere follye," &c. Ibid. p. 54: " This old miser asking of Aristippus what he woulde take to teach and bring up his sonne, he answered a thousande groates: a thousand groates God shield, answered this olde huddle, I can have two servants of that price !"-See also Tom Tyler and his Wife, 1661, p. 4. 32 Fond wench-It is observed by Mr Steevens (Notes to Shakespeare, Vol. X. p. 619.) that wench originally signified a young woman. The truth of this observation will appear from many instances in the course of these volumes. The word, in the common acceptation of it, is hardly yet disused. |