ORESTES

COme now my dearest friend, my other self, My empty soul is now filled to the top, Brimful with gladness, and it must run over Into my deer friends heart: those silver hairs, Which Time hath crowned my Father's brow withal, Do shine within mine eyes, and Like the Sun, Extract all drossy vapours from my soul, Like as the earth, whom frost hath long benumbed, And brought and Icy dryness on her face, Her veins so open at a sudden thaw, That all plants, fruits, flowers, and tender grafts, Kept as close prisoners in their mother's womb, Starts out their heads, and on a sudden does The sad earth's countenance with a summer look, So in this breast, here in this breast, deer friend While Annus ten times circled in the world Ten clumzie winter's, and ten lagging springs Hath with my Father's absence frozen been All thoughts of joy, which now shall make a spring In my refreshed soul; " Things that we daily seeth' affections cloy, " Hope's long desired bring the greatest joy: Tush Pylades, talk not of what may be, We may, indeed i'th' clearest afternoon Expect a storm. Oh, but I'll be above all fatal power; I that have such a Father new come home, I that have such a friend, such too rare gifts, Who gave me these gifts, thought no scowling frown Of angry fortune e'r should throw me down: True, Pylades, but owners use to warn Their debtors when they must bring in their sums, But heavens tell me with favouring aspects, I still must keep their lendings, and possess, With from Like joy, all their happiness. Tush: mortals must Lean on the sacred Heaven with greater trust; But it grows far in night, come let us in To morrow shall our joys a fresh begin. Exeunt. Oh some are come now to help me grieve, See, see mother, see, your husband and my Father, The King of Greece, great shepherd of his Land See, see him here: She feigns her self to swown: Aeg. catches her fall ling, If ever he have children let them be Murdered before his face, that he may know How nature binds a father and a son, Me thinks I see a Tragedy at hand, To which this night hath as a Prologue been; I'll make a prayer now worthy Atreus grandchild, Let the foul Adder sting me as I walk, The poisonous toad belch her black venom forth In my despised face, let it be thought I never had a father, but some monster Bred by a slimy exhalation; If my revenge fly not with ample wing, Till then rest soul, hate told may loose his sting. Father deer Agamem. Let us join words then now, and Swanlike sing, The doleful dirge to a departed King: Thou friend didst of this misery divine, Therefore the burden of the song is mine: Words Orators for woe, which plead the cause, When grief's the Judge, and sighs are all the laws, Each one a sob, for Diapason bears, Our tunes shall drown the music of the spheres: Oh what Hirudo with unsatiate thirst, Could draw the blood from out those Princely veins, From whence flows comfort to so many souls. Spies his mother, goes to her. Mother, when wept you last, here take a scarf Dry your eyes, now by Jove you needs none, What shine of comfort hath dried up your tears? Us? good: Who is't makes the plurality? 'Twas wont to be my father, does he live? No Uncle, no, by heaven, I do suspect, Oh, my prophetic soul divines much ill: Well, I will fly, but hear this stratagem, It shall be rumoured i'th ear o'th Court I was found dead, I'll put a new shape on, And live alone, to hear how things go here. Oh, but deer friend, should we but act a partly, The play being ended, passion left the heart, And we should share of joy, but my whole age Must never move from off this woeful Stage: But we must take our leave; Uncle, farewell, Remember what I spoke; and Sister, you Must tarry here, my thoughts shall busied be, To find the man that let my father blood; Can I but find Aegystheus did consent, To spill one drop, Oh I would pierce his heart With venomed daggers, and so butcher him, That all Apollo's skill in physic herbs, Nor Aesculapius the Epidaurian God, Should keep his soul out of Enio's hand; Come my deer friend, to all the rest farewell, If heaven relate it not, I'll know't ftom hell. IF ever God lent any thing to earth, Whereby it seemed to symphatize with heaven, It is this sacred friendship: Gordian knot Which Kings, nor Gods, nor Fortune can undo. Oh what Horoscopus, what constellation, Held in our birth so great and influence, Which one affection in two minds unites? How hath my woe been thine, my fatal ill Hath still been parted, and one share been thine! Yes, witness heaven I would. True, Pylades, thou puttest me well in mind, I have lost a father, a deer, deer father, A King, a brave old King, a noble soldier, And yet he was murdered: Oh my forgetful soul; Why should not I now draw my vengeful sword, And straightway sheath it in the murderers heart? Minos should never have vacation, While any of our progeny remained. Well, I will go, and so massacre him, I'll teach him how to murder and old man, A King, my Father, and so dastardly To kill him in his bed. Why, he, or she, or they that killed my father. Nay, I know not yet, But I will know. Oh, now my thirsty soul expects full draughts Of Ate's boiling cup: Oh, how two'ld ease My heart, to see a channel of his blood, Streaming from hence to hell, that killed my father, True, friend, but, Oh, who ever will reveal This hideous act! what power shall we invoke? If I dare assay? yes, yes, deer friend, Were it to burst my Father's sepulchre, And wake his Manes, show them Radamanth, Their iterated sighed will burn my soul With such a sparkling flame of dire revenge, As Nessus shirt did burn great Hercules, If that the scroll which did contain their names, Were in a lake of flaming brimstone drenched, I'ld take it out, or fetched from Pluto's arms: But come; I fea that have such a creature as can tell, 'Twill save a journey for this once from hell. Nay, Pylady, see here, Oh give me leave to descant on these bones: This was my Father's scull; but who can know Whither it were some subjects scull, or no: Where be these Princely eyes, commanding face, The brave Majestic look, the Kingly grace, Where's the imperious frown, the Godlike smile, The graceful tongue, that spoke a soldiers style? Would, would, worms eat them: could no princely look, No line of eloquence writ in this book, Command, nor yet persuade the worms away! Rebellious worms! could a King bear no sway? Injurious worms! what could no flesh serve, But Kings for you? By heaven you all shall starve: Had I but known't; what must my father make A feast for you? Oh you devouring creatures! You cowardly bones, would you be thus unclothed By little crawling worms! by Jove I never thought My Father's bones could ever have been such cowards: Oh you ungrateful worms how have you used him; See their ingratitude: Oh ambitious creatures, How they still domineer, or`e a Kings carcase, True? Pylades, should not I rend their maws, Devise some new tortures? Oh most horrible treason, That worms should come unto a great Kings face, And eat his eyes: why, I would undertake But at one stamp to kill a thousand of they, And I will kill these: Stamps upon them. Go you Kings-eating creatures: I will mar All your digestion. PRotect us Oh you Ministers of Heaven, Stand near me my good Genius, my soul hath lost His humane function, at this hellish sighed. Yes, he that did owe these bones which worms have eat; It is not now one of the meaner sort That craves this boon, but it's the heir of Greece, Heir only now but to my Father's graven; I not command, but my astonished soul Intreats to know. If in thy book it be not yet put down, Command the Gods to unlock the gates of Heaven; And fetch forth death, command him to relate Who 'twas put Agamemnon in his hands, This is our business, this, great prophetess, Made us approach to thy most hallowed cell. Oh then relate great Mistress of thy Art, The things we crave: Here, take them Mother, use them gently, They were a Kings bones once; Oh not so hard. This head had once a royal diadem, Now knock it, beat it, and it'll never cry treason. There was a player once upon a stage, Who striving to present a dreery passion, Brought out the urn of his late buried son, It might the more affect him, and draw tears: But I, as if I had no passion left, Not acting of a partly, but really In a true cause having my Father's bones, His hollow scull, yet crawling full of worms, I cannot weep, no not a tear will come. Now pale Tisiphone, Oh for thy Snakes! Oh that renonw'ned spirit, that more then man, Whom all the Trojan host could not o'rwhelme, Murdered; but what brave warrior wore a crown, By guilding a dire sword in his deer blood? Hector, nor Priam, no, nor Mars himself, Only his wife was his Bellona now. Oh miserable valour, to escape foes, And come for to be murdered of his friends: Oh shameful conquest! Oh most coward Fate, That a weak woman was competitor In Agamemnon's death: had it been any, yet It should have been a Goddess at the least, And yet snee's but a Queen, a mortal woman. Were she a Goddess, I would make he mortal; Dull coward that I am, and, worse then all, After so many wrongs, yet unrevenged, Their Palace now should fire over their heads, And the huge beams dash out their guilty brains: The roof, should fallen on me, so't fell on them. Begin revenge, and now perform and act, May give a theme to all posterity, Ever to talk of, fraught so full of horror, Aegystheus and my mother, may with their's, Yet none was ever greater, yes, my deed. Revenge is lost, unless we do exceed. Nor Gods, nor nature shall keep me inawe, Why towards my mother, by heavens Parliament, Who is most guilty, is most innocent. Tush, this is too little. Too little too. Oh, here's the Palace under whose kind roof My tender years were gently fostered: But now the sighed on't seems to strike my soul, When I but think it holds within the walls, The patrons of such lust incarnate devils, Mere Pythonists, that fascinate the world. Oh, Pylades, knew I thou art my friend? I do, I dare swear it, So I dare swear it was Aegystheus, and The dumb witch, the Oh, what things enough To be and attribute to term her by. The Clytemnestra, Oh, we saw her do't. Oh, hell it self has not the pattern to't: Some stench, some fogs, vapours stop their breath, Exhaled from out the dampish womb of Styx, Did ever foul, disastrous, friendlike hands, Cast up so huge a heap of hellbred mischief. Were I to dive to'th depth of Phlageton, Or fetch young Ganymede from the arms of Jove, To rend Proserpina from Pluto's bed, Or take the vulture from off Titius heart, And set it on my mother's, I'ld do't; I'll break open doors, and nayle'em to their bed; Harka, revenge calls me, I, I come, I come, I will, deer friend, Thou hast played music to my doleful soul; And when my heat was tympanized with grief, Thou lauedst out some into thy heart from mine, And keptest it so from bursting; thou hast tide With thy kind counsel, as these loosened strings, They should not crack asunder with their weight. Rarely invented, I'll speak Amphorismes, Sublimed purgations, Quintessence distilled. Each dose I give shall make a heart to bleed, And prove a true Physician so indeed. Oh hold good heart, hark, hark, he calls us villains Oh I am now undone; he must fit judge, To condemn us that should massacre him. No King, it's he which in his desperate thoughts, Would loof the bans betwixt his soul and him, Ones self against ones self is witness store, My self confesses, what wouldst thou have more. kneels, And on my knees I the Like oath do take, I gave the stab, my dagger's bloody yet. Oh what she spoke, to dambe, it had been better. Oh how his words now rail against a sin, Which Beatrice upon his conscious thoughts within. His tongue speaks fair, his inparts, look on them, And they Like Jurymen himself condemn No it's not King, 'twas I that did the deed, And for my Actium, let no other bleed. Yes, I confess. My gracious sovereign, words must not have wings To pass and outfly the bounds of truth, Only to win the Elixar of opinion; But for my friend does here profess so much, And for my life do stand so deeply bound, That all my Art can never make recompense, Please but your graces self and your deer queen, Appoint the secrets of the safest room, To let me show my self to none but you; Though Nature dried up with too much time, Deny to spring in fruit from forth your loins, Or any other strange impediment, Or Art preserves from sickness ruining, And it'll be blessed to show it to a King. Great Sovereign, boasting words shall never out weigh The things I will perform, I speak not fame, But what I first have said, I'll do the same. Good heavens I thank you, your effectual power Hath showed your justice in this blessed hour, They take Str. and Elect. back. Now is occasion put, thus murder lays The trap wherein it self, it self betrays. and with you Lady. And had not you a brother Lady once? When herd you of him last? he went travel. Uncle, and sister, we must not stand now Embracing much, and bidding welcome home, You see before I come, how things do stand; My business hastens, and my friend, and I, Have yet a greater project to perform: Only Electra we must have your aid, To help with their child, for now's the time, When blessed occasion strives to help revenge. Tush, I must have it, it shall have no hurt, Worse then my Father: Believe me, no worse hurt; but let's be gone. I'll be tripod Paracelsian. Exeunt. You must avoid it then, and tell his Grace, That I stay here provided gainst he come. Like my mother, Oh most execrable Hadst ranked the confused Chaos of all sins, Thou couldst not have found out a fault more black, More stinking, more infectious to my heart, Art Like my mother, Oh transcendent crime! The King thy father, yes, too Like them both, How, Like Orestes ! when didst see him child. Would thou Wertenberg not my mother's, I could weep But see, Oh see now my relenting heart, Must now grow flinty, see my Father, see, Now to show pity were Impiety. Stay, stay, and see't, Stay Spright, thou strikest no terror to my soul For unamazed I now would dare outlook Ranks of Medusa's, and the grim aspect Of the most frowning object hell affords: Think on me, and revenge: yes, those two words Shall serve as burden unto all my acts, I will revenge, and then I'll think on thee: I'll think on thee, and then again revenge, And stab, and wound, and still I'll think on thee. I have a dropsy now to suck up fumes, And drink the reaking streams of vengeance some: Great Agamemnon's Ghost, I will be Due, Thy hearse with blood in steed of brinish tears, And built a pile up of their murdered trunks, To burn thy marrow less consumed bones. Arrows of forked lightning never flew, More swiftly from the awful arms of Jove, Then Nemesis black Scorpions from me. My gracious Lord, I had no cause to fail. First, Madame, for the physic that I give, Now the diastall fabric of your pulse. Shows all your passion most hysterical, Pleases your grace fit down? one at each end o'th Table. Yes, now is Saturn, governor of nature, In free conjunction with the planet Venus : And joust at this time, Jupiter begat Great Hercules, Solemnizing, Luna, Mercury, In that Diameter, now favour propagation, And now will my Alexipharmacum, Stir the Analeptique veins and arteries: If you outlive this night, you'll live to see A royal, strange, and Princely progeny. Think it, nay, I know't: Hem. Nay, 'tis your privatest room, View me well mother, would, do you know me yet? Here, here's the drugs my Art hath thought upon, Puts off his gown. Be pitiless now Pylades, be my friend. Oh, yee'r fast bound, Yes, he is thine, thy face, thy eyes, thy heart, And would I knew where Nature had couched most, Of thy damned blood, I thus would let it out, Stabs the child. And thus't should spirt in thy most loathed face Hold Pylades, be steadfast, for by heaven He wounds me, that persuades me not to wound. It was my father, he entreated you, Who many a time had clipped you in his arms, Who made you Queen of Greece, yes, it was he Good Agamemnon, he did plead for life. Nay, but Aegystheus, you can aggravate To do a heinous murder, and i'th Court; I'th place of Justice, where the King might hear, Upon a chief attendant of the Kings. Murder it self is passed all expiation, A crime that nature most of all abhors, And look how manhood and civility, Stand at the bar of Justice, and there plead, How much they're wronged, and how much defaced, When man does die his hands in blood of man. Now harken King, I'll use thy Rhetoric, Thou didst a heinous murder in the Court, Not which the King did hear, but which he felt; When no petition could (good man) prevail, Therefore this die, this first shall have his endue. Stabs it a gain, that the blood spirts in his face. Turns it to her. This mischief done, revenge shall prompt a new: Oh why did you so banish womanhood, When you and this damned villain, base adulterer, Made in my father's side so many wounds, And brought a brave old King into this state: Pulls bones from his pocket. See, here's his bones, my pocket can contain Great Agamemnon ; and repaid you thus His kind embraces? all his loving signs? Aegysteus, you are thirsty, you shall drink, Fills two cups with the Heniochus child's blood: gives it them. Yes, you shall clear your throat, by heaven you shall. Pray with Thyestes, it shall never move me: But first, Aegystheus, do thou haste revenge. Stabs him. Now mother you, and your love the same. You know your sentence, let him feel he die. Who strait threats death, knows not to tyrannise. Now friend, I see my father live again, And in his royal state at Argos Court: This is the night in which he first came home, Oblessed powers of hell, divine Canidia, Now am I satisfied, now hath revenge perfection. And nothing grieves me, but that Tyndarus, My mother's father, did not see her die. I'll in and tell him, my thoughts must reveal Those acts I do: this night who would conceal? Now soul tr umph, while that my deeds shall shine, I'th face o'th Court, and all the world know't mine. MY Lord your daughters potion works most rare lie. The King's asleep, God bless his Majesty. Oh: do not wake him, faith it's pity, la: Your Lordship's eyes do fail, it's but spilled w Nay friends, hands off, it's no Physician now: Worser vers him See, see, old Tyndarus, dost thou know me yet? Fetch me my Crown and robes, nay, I'll ascend: Is not Atrides eldest son your King? Why Grandsire, I go not about to wash, By heaven, 'twas all the fruit thought to win, To think all mischief here could be no sin. No, Tyndarus, had I desired but one, I should have thought I had desired none. Why, me thinks, I should too have killed thee, The number is too little yet of three. Why, let heaven look as it'll, it is my crown, That I have done and act shall make heaven frown: Why, that will make me swell with greater pride, To think my name shall drop in lines of blood; From some great poets quils, who well shall paint How bravely I revenged my father's death, That is the thing I wished, and it's my glory, I shall be matter for so brave a story. But where's my Crown? Why farewell Grandsire, since thou bidst, I fly, And scorn companions for my misery. Exit Orest. BY heaven you shall not, nay, I am decreed, Do tear, tear me, yes, I have deserved it. Mother, why mother will you kill my father? Then I'll kill you; tush, I have don't already. Much patience will grow fury in time, Follow you me, you beast, you damned Aegysteus, I'll hew thee piece by piece, look of my mother. Out you witch, you witch. Dost whisper with the devils, to torment me, Oh how they lash me with their snaky whips, Why Megaera, Megaera, wilt not hold thy hand? Are you there too, Erynnis ? hay, all hell, My Grandsire Atreus he stands fighting there, But hee'll ha'th better on't; keep Cerberus keep, Keep the fates fast, or all hell breaks lose. Mother I see you, Oh you are a whore, Did I kill you witch, dost thou lash, dost thou? Could I but get the stone from Sysiphus, I'de dash thy brains out; Oh are you there I faith, Spics Stro. and Elect. dead. A bed so close with you adulterer, I'll stab your lustful souls with your own knives. Stabs them with Electra's knife. Will you not wake, sleep, sleep then your last, Look how they flyi'th air, Why Jove, dost mean to let them into heaven, Oh th'art come down, and gone to hell, Pluto, see Pluto he's afraid of them, Oh spare my sides, my sides, my sides, the blood Oh now you touch my ribs: Lash on, lash on Canidia, arth thou there? Why grandsire would it were to do again, Nay Aeacus I fear no whipping posts, currentes Exeunt. Laughest thou, thou witch? I'll follow thee to hell. Wilt bid me to dinner Pluto, would, with what? Give me no snakes, I, I go, I go, Up to Cythaerus top, I hate thy meat. Would, Pylades, I, they have banished him, But grandsire look too't, I'll tear out your maw, Pylades, Pylades I come — Yes, yes thou Wertenberg with me when I killed my mother And see, the Furies now would whip thee too, Alecto look, look, here's Alecto too, Oh Clytemnestra, hay, how the lion skips, And Taurus he would toss me on his horns. Look on the Ram, see the Bear roars at me, And Charon he would fling me into Styx. Dash out the puppets brains, the little boy, The bastard, my mother's bastard: so blood, spin, My mother killed my Father, killed the King, But she God little by't, look on her breast It bleeds, it bleeds; so, so Aegystheus, so. Hark, hark the Furies entertain my mother, Orpheus would fetch Eurydice from Hell, See, he looks back, wouldst venture so thou fool, I'de see my mother burned before Idem go, Why shouldst thou bring her? she would stifle thee, Stifle thee in thy bed as my mother did. Harping, no, Let Orpheus harp: Oh, I, she was, she was, A very, very Harpy. Oh I sucked out my mother's dearest blood, I did indeed, Oh she plagues me for't now, Oh I must go lie down in Tytius place, Ixion too, he Sir would feign resign. I scorn your petty plagues, I'll have a Worse, Oh the vulture, the wheel, the vulture. I did, I confess I did, I killed them all, Ripped up the womb that bore me; nay I did, Oh Tantalus thy plague, some meat, some meat, Who pulls thoseapples hence? let them alone, Nay sink to the bottom, I will follow thee, Lies down to drink The rivers dry, my mother hath drunk all. Is Pluto's buttery open, his drinks too hight, I doubt it'll scald me, but I'll taste on't yet the Eumenides stand to whip me as I go, Nay I will pass you, I will out-slip them all. Exit currens, MY Fury leaves me, now I'm at my last, And now me thinks thou truly art a friend, Now with undaunted spirit prevent my grief, And let thy rapier drink blood greedily, As if it loved it, cause it is thy friend, Now rid me of my woe, thy friendly vow, Never did truly show it self till now: Yes Pylades, we will beguile our time, And make him search through every nook a'th world, If he in all his raze can ever spy, Two that Like us did live, Like us did die: But we delay our death, now bravely come And the last parting word shall strike home. they run at one another run again Fly thou best partly of man, where Hecate Born on the swarthy shoulders of the Even, Sits in agroue of oaks, till grey eyed morn, Bids her to throw off nights black Canopy. Oh grasp me then, our names Like Gemini, Shall make new stars for to adorn the sky. Is thy breath gone? Oh piety! Oh most prodigious nature! What creatures hast thou made to live on earth? How hast thou clothed black darkness with a scarf Of unstained purity, and put a godly face Upon portentous devils? O, how my mother wept! How Clitemnestra ! how that Hiena wept! No more my mother, I abjure the name, She did not bring me forth, I know she did not: But I'll o'rtake they; show me Canidia where, Which way they went, where have they hid themselves. Should they mount up to the chariot of the Sun, And in his Car fly to the Antipodes, Or in the farthest nook of yonder sphere: Get up and place themselves betwixt Taurus horns, The fire-breathing bull, nor Lerna's Hydra, Were there no entrance but ten Lyons jaws, I'ld run through all, and make my way my self: I'ld fix them to the Axell tree of heaven, Where their infectious Carcases shauld hang, Abait for flying spirits in the Air. Canidia, I thank thee for thy pains; Still may thy sacred Act reveal such deeds, Still keep the gates of Orcus yawning open, Make the dark powers ready at command. All this too little. Hell and the furies shall stand all amazed, All cto shall come there for to behold New kinds of murders which she knew not yet: And nature learn to violate her self, I'll instantly to Court, and what I do, My self will see done, yes, and act it too. Thanks great Canidia, this black night being done, Revenge now knows her game whereat to run. Save you too, if you please. Therefore on thee our medicine first shall work. Nay Parasite I'll gag you, Stabs him. You shall not fawn again, or wag your tail, When the King nods. I, didst thou see't, friend? All of those wounds will I stick in his breast. Yes, it shall take. Hem. Pylades binds Clytemnestra to the chair: Orestes, Aegystheus: Pylades brings in the child. My haste deceives my will; tush, all this yet, May be called piety, you shall taste too mother. Who first does mischief, may keep mean i'th deed, But who revengeth, must all mean exceed. Nay, mother, wee'll not bar you of your draught. Wil't Bastardise me? Yes, mother, yes, I know I was his son: Alas! why, what are you? a senseless piece Of rotten earth can do as much to corn, As you to me, bear it, and bring it forth, But Agamemnon he that seed did sow, And only unto him my self I owe: And for him thou shalt die. See, see these bones, these nasty rotten bones, Which had so often locked his hands in hers; Here stood the tongue which oft had called her sweet, Dear Glytemnestra, and then stopped his speech, And told his love in a more speaking sign. Here stood those eyes, which fed upon her face, And made her of thy daughter, a great Queen, And thee made him a dish for loathed worms. Why, Sir, this is mine, And this shall bear me. Am I not righ heir? Why, think you upon your worst, I scorn to crave. I had three lives, you but my one shall have. Oh it's above my bearing, were I linked here with chains, I would Like Cerberus draw Alcides back: Stay, stay, by heavens, revenge shall Nay, I will follow you, should they take Where Aetna vomits fire, I would in: My mother, Clytemnestra, Aegystheus, was it they? Nay, I will o'rtake them. Oh crack my eyestrings, let these balls drop out Or the quick sights Like darts fly to their souls, And pierce their enthralls; he King, my mother Queen! The Briseis and Achilles, that in my dream, We come to be condemned amongst our friends, I will to speak to them, Electra's there, And Strophius your old father, Pylades. He do's me wrong, by heaven 'twas ever mine. I, but she shall have more, a while go by: Pyl. takes the child aside Were all the world their lives, the world should die. Now Tragedy fetch out thy crimson robes, And buckle sure thy purple buskin's on, Steep't ten grains deeper in their scarlet die; This night shall give me now a deep carouse, Of Clytemnestra's and Aegystheus blood, And Cerberus himself stand by to pledge me, Whilst to hells fire I shall sacrifice Three Hecatombs; it does the furies good, When e'r we wet the Altars with such blood. And now ye fiends of hell, each take a place, As 'twere spectators at a first days play, Raise all the hellish winds to expel nature; Great Goddess give me leave now to forget All strains of duty; all obedient thoughts Die in me quite: a mother's memory, Pious affections take no hold on me. Be all my senses circled in with Fiends, And let Erynnis hold her flaming brand To guide my murderous sword; for all lights else, Vanish from out this Centre, be this room fraught So full of mischief, may make the Fabric crack, And let no time, now come into my thoughts, But that dire night wherein my father died. I'll only be a Doctor now in word, Each potion that I give shall be my sword: But I must change. Nay, I have scarce begun, now mother, you, Stabs her. So now I'll stand and look, and on hell call, Nay, my revenge must not be usual; One more for thee. Aegystheus ; only let out, The blood you drank before. Would't would a hundred bring, One death's too little to revenge a King. Hence, hence, adul erous soul to Tantalus, And let hell know who 'twas sent thee thither: He die. Now, mother, you shall follow, but he first, Lest that Like lovers you go hand in hand. Would, must I sink, can I not keep a loft? Falls a sleep. What is the stream so strong? why then I'll dive, And come to hell the sooner. Oh prethe laugh not at me me, call her, call her; Pyl. knocks. While I stand gathering up my Father's bones, His deer disiected bones; Oh, I remember, here Ran the strong sinews, betwixt his knitting joints, Here to this bone was joined his Princely arm, Here stood the hand that bore this warlike shield, And on this little joint was placed the head, That Atlas -Like bore up the weight of Greece, Here, here betwixt these hollow yawning jaws Stood once a tongue, which with one little word Could have commanded thousand souls to death: Good hands endure this your weighty task, And good eyes strive not to make moist his bones With weeping tears: What since our Procustes ever could Have hacked a King into such things as these; Alas hers every partly now so deformed, I know not which was his, yet all was his. Is this the room, friend, where the King must be? Yes at one thrust two friends must not be slave, Oh, how I love these wounds, heaven dropping showers, When the outrageous dog makes clouds of dust Upon the thirsty earth, come not more sweet, Then the blessed streams of blood, thy rapier reins. Hence weapon: for my loins now scorn all props, But my friends arms, Oh, bear good legs a while, The weight of murder sits upon my soul, And bends my staggering joints unto the earth. My mother, no, She is not here, no, she hath hid her self In some odd nook, or angle unperceived, She might not see this impious stygian world. Then, if thy doom be spent, great King here stands; The man that did it, showing his guilty hands.