GEORGE

You may, you can. I wish it not, but so much love To my kind Nurse, as shows a tender mother To her Child, when she first blesses him After a long absence. Then thus: Although I want no Parent in your self, By your kind fostering and indulgency: Be not offended, that I here renew my former suit, Which though so long put by, Your Oath stands now unto me for to grant. The knowledge of my Parents, that by them I may not be a stranger to my self. It's granted. J answer to that name: say on. Oh say, resolve me complete shadows of my Parents, Upon my knees with Reverence I bow, tell me, o tell me, Since from your airy shapes I hear both found & voice Add to distressed George a second birth and life, In saying that ye live. How soon fresh flowers fallen, which now did grow. Farewell. Go rest, go rest sweet shadows, be no more disturbed, All my sick passion, that late were scattered with My troubled thoughts, are reunited in this little Orb: But for this Calib, this accursed Hag, Whose deeds are blacker than her tempting tutors, Revenge hath filled her cup unto the brim, And she shall quaff her foul souls black perdition. No more, no more, revenge Like lightning flies. Have I found thee witch? I'll not be long from thy accursed heart; The bastard, hag, is proved legitimate heir To great Coventry, whom thou, thou devil, Worse than those that guard thee, murdered. But in despite of all thy hellish host, Who faint against the justice of my cause, I thus assay thee. This instrument is not of power to deal with fiends. I will make trial of this other tool. Sink down unto thy black infernal fellows hag. This messenger assures me Heaven's pleased, At whose sweet air the other air dissolves, And all the black enchanted vapours hell cast up, Descends to make her night more horrid there: And now those woods that were so long choked up With Hells black sulphur and disastrous fumes, Give welcome to the golden eye of day, As a most cheerful and blessed visitant. But stay a little, all is not firmly finished, There is and unlicked lump of hers remains, Suckabus her son: o are you there sir? Come, prepare you. To make a brand for the devils fire: I'll cut your throat, and send you thither strait. Well, take thy life, be faithful in my service, Thy Mother's sin hath perished with her life: Learn thou by her example then to shun it, Be my attendant still and follow me. Well sir, we'll construe your good meaning, I long to be in armour, mounted on a Steed, To scuffle with black danger and her bugbears: First I'll set free those Knights, and cherish them; Then see how long lost armour sits upon their backs, That done to Arms, to hunt out Honours game, For George is no George till I purchase fame. Thanks to my great preserver, by whose sacred power Poor George of England is set free again From death, danger, and imprisonment; I bow with duty to thy Deity; seven years Hath Famine under bolts and bars dungeoned me up, Accompanied with my tears in the dark bowels Of a loathsome Den, a place so far remote from comfort, That not the smallest chink or cranny Could let the Sunbeam in to point on me; Yet thou, in whose foundation stands my building, Hast given me freedom and my hope again, Those sweet companions that despair shut out. Now George again may wear a plumed crest, And wave the Standard of great Christendom In the defiance of her opposites: I'm poor in show, Yet since my freedom hath thus long lain rusty, And unoiled loins unarmed, are grown a strength immutable And from the pinching pangs of famines jaws A second time ransomed my pining life; But since I have left those desert woods behind, Let me behold this goodly prospective. A goodly place, pleasant, and full of air. Enriched with plenties hand. Would? what Echo's that gives me my name, Without a summons which it answers to? What fellow's this that walks and stares about me? I am no wonder that I know of; And but that time makes me to doubt, I should suppose Him for to be my servant Suckabus I lost. In me glad to see thee; It seems you have altered fortune with your Master: Where hast thou lived and wandered since I lost thee? It's very well sir; but will you leave your sheep & your sheephook, and follow me without leesing? Be true to me, once more you're entertained, IT shall not be long before thou seest This low dejected state shining in complete steel: He that in pursuit of adventures goes, Must not shun danger, though he meet with blows: Come Suckabus. Come on sir Suckabus, how do you Like this alteram cion? Leave your folly sir. Villain no more; How pleasant is this place, how fresh and clear, As when the last of April offers to sweet May The pride and glory of the youthful Spring, The lovers coupling time! the farther that I go, The more Elizium Like it does appear. I think so too: What's here the platform of a Garden? If that the Sun robbed in his brightest glory, Dazzle not mine eyes, it is the richest that I ever saw, The Paradise of some Deity:—Music too. List Suckabus, hearest thou no Music? Most heavenly Music, follow me close, We'll see the guider of this heavenly sphere, For sure no mortal owns it. The happier men: rise, we have no hate against ye. Would, my brother! Prepare thee Ormand, this shall wake him. Do not engage so far, Who knows what haps attend our next adventure? Dead! Brave Britain Knight with patience hear, I'll tell over your own Story. This Sword you see is mine, enchantments done, You wakened from death's sleep, think it not strange, Ormand did declare before his death, Your Oaths adventure for to fetch his head: By the Tartarian King, your Oath shall be performed, We'll take it off; these harmless men That hither fled, only to save their lives, Shall you get favoured of their King again; I'll bear you company unto the King, Where we again must partly: you shall be further satisfied In all what appears dark, I'll open as we ride. Come brother David, we the world that range, Must not admire at accidents or change. Dispatch, and hang the slave. Take comfort, royal Macedon, as heaven for to preserve Their honours, changed their shapes it may be pleased For to restore't again, for after prescripts to believing men, And would you but become— What's here, a wonder passed the other beauty's far? A Brazen Pillar, through whose impregnable body Sticks a Sword, a Tablet, and Inscriptions Writ upon't, wonder falls on me! Be'st thou enchantment, th'art the loveliest shape That ever hels Art strove to tempt withal: By your leave a little, it seems these are no secrets, You're open breasted, I must know your mind: We will not stand on doubts. What is the cause, you ten times worse than devils, That thus, Like Traitors, you deface and spoil So fair a stamp as your great Makers is? Why have you sold your endless bliss for bane? Had they the Hope's man has shining on them, World's would not gain a life of thousand years, And in those lives reign Kings and Emperors, Change those Celestial joys you might have had: Ever lost wretches, where's your power now? If thy request in honours grant stands fair, Give us the knowledge, we will see't performed, Are they not practised in thy horrid Art? Now Ormandine quit this my grant With one request from me. Well to your Fate: farewell. So, farewell Ormandine; wake David, wake. No more, they shall not noble Britain Knight, See who with joy embrace thee in his arms. Through black Enchantments, misbelieving men, Wild beasts and monsters, and through death himself, Hath George of England made his passage, to the desire Of my longing thoughts; and by my Tedious travails have I now obtained, And here I am arrived, where ends my fame, Or deeper shall insculpe my honoured name. The Castle bears a foul usurped title, Which I will read out of the Tyrants heart, And back deliver injured honours endue, Or die in the attempt. A rich and stately building How fast it's rivited into the Rock, As if the sure foundations and the walls were one, How gaind'd the monster such a policy to vanquish, And still hold it as his own? I have no other way but one, and this is it, This sword must play the Pioneer for me, Which through Brandrons plaited coat of brass, Shall cut his passage to his heart: And thus I ring death's alarm at his gate. Amazement throws his wonders on my head: Brother resolve me, is it so, or no? I see you're prisoners to his power and will, But let me know the means that makes you so, Lives there no foul enchantment in this place? Brood of the Devil thou shalt pay for this. What we must fight then? Well then, what remedy? But tell me Brandron, ere we begin, Since thou hast set this quarrel on our heads, Shall I have fair and single opposition? Seal it with your oath, and then it's firm. You are welcome. For England, and the Britons do I fight. Brother you're mine, your quarrel is not good. You are noble. Come the next. I stand for Scotland now. You're welcome home. Let us unite our brotherhoods again. You are welcome to your liberty. One ruin ends for to begin another: Enter the Castle, seek the slave his man. And give his guerdon for his treachery. What drum is that? lets in, and stand upon our guard, We'll greet him with a token of our loves. Which glory once more shines upon thy head; The hateful monster, that usurped so long, And kept poor Tenopas in dread and awe, Hath Justice from his own hand done himself, And you are honour of your lose again: Therefore reserve it as our loving deed, And wear it as our favour. Of that these gentlemen can more resolve ye. You must not kneel:upon condition that thou dost perform, Thy words, we will not only give thee life, But guard on thee with rich rewards, and love: But if thy fear delude us, hoping to save thy life— Those were the Swans that in the fountain lived: Did not I tell you what this slave would do? Dispatch and hang him straight. Blessed Macedon, thou hast sent a gift to heaven, Born upon Angels wings; And is by us on earth here ratified, Which without this could never have been done. Then here's three Ladies, take they to your beds. Which thus we ratify: Fit with the Brides, most noble Macedon, And since kind fortune sent such happy chance, We'll grace your Nuptials with a soldiers dance. Both Nurse and Mother, my duty, With my thanks gives it acknowledgement: But could my mother, finding painful throws, Through which I hastened to give her ease, Before my tender eyes did open to see the world, Seek to entomb me up again? Were they ashamed of their own work? How were they titled, Base or Noble pray? I have enough: Ime glad I soar above the common wing, Both base and noble too, they ar bloods that keep Two currents in my veins, but they must meet: Smile honour and assist me, Let me thy footsteps trace, My noble deeds shall purge the blood that's base. I am ready mother; farewell the name of Nurse: Speak, and I grant. Though born in bastardy, how happy was my fate, In this good Calib; she's cruel unto others, And few or none, whose foot do chance to stray Near the abiding of this great enchantress, But death's therein, to which they travail to. A world of fancies dance about my brains. And shapes me thoughts, which says I am no bastard: Or what a war my self hath with my self, And spurs me on to know what Fate denies me: She told me too my Parentage was noble, But name and Title she obscured from me: How, or which way; o I hav't, I will make trial Of her sorcery: she said, what I desired to see or know, This rod wave about my head should amplify: Take courage George then, though they loved not thee, Yet thus I do desire their shapes to see. Defend me all you ministers of grace. Renowned Christian Knights welcome to liberty, The black Enchantress, by whose hellbred power, Bright honour was subdued, and pinioned up dark, Is now her self fettered and manacled in the storehouse Where her accursed crimes can never Pay the sum that ransoms her. Let us embrace, and seal it with each breast: And here behold your maiden Knight does draw Defence to all that wrong insultion treads on: First in our cause against those fell miscreants, That trample on the Christians sacred Cross, Lifting aloft the Mahometan Moon, Dishonour both to heaven and Christendom: Next to maintain by force and dint of Arms Oppressed Ladies wrongs, widows, & Orphans, or who else, Which wrongfully dares tread within a List; And further let this Christian power extend against black Enchantments, witchcraft, and the Like, That Arts foul potency may meet us with. Oh my unhappy Fate! am I a Bastard then? My tears deliver't as my deed; it's done. A sighed would pierce a rock, Goodly shaped persons, how I suffer for them? But yet I must dissemble love and pity: Are these they Mother? take them away, They have been used too well; we'll think Of harder pain and courser fare. Thanks loving Mother. What ails my mother? Thus do I cancel all those bonds but love, There rest my debtor still, as I will yours: The lazy dust, that long hath hid your gilded, Is now brushed off, and you new polished to the world again: Sift the dead Ashes ere they kill the sparks, And let Fame's wings fan they to glorious flames; Shine bright my Christian Comets of the world, And English George, whom these your loves hath made Seventh brother with you, in the School of Arms Shall prove no truant, Noble Christian Knights. I crave a general voice, are all so pleased? It shall suffice; the Brazen Piller's not far, Unto whose circuits knits the heads and paths Of seven fair several ways: Honour we altogether win, is not to one; Then let us partly, and as we partly proclaim, Whose Champions we go forth to purchase fame. George for brave England stands. Bravely resolved, at all the world we'll play, But Christendom that is our tiring house, The rest our stage. On which our buskin seams must wade in blood, But time no trifling loves, nor stays for none, Lets mount, and partly, honour is yet unwon. Follow me slave, we'll in, and with this Immured blade, that I set free, cut out my passage through the Gates of horror: the inchantment's done, and Georges happy fate Some Christians may redeem from Tyrants hate. I crave the knowledge of your former being, Before you found the path of your destruction. I do accept it: Brandron in this alone Do I find thee honourable: mean time, I will prepare to entertain them. Monster, I know thou tookest they not in fight; The meanest of them them there that stands by thee, But with the quick flames of his resolution, Had scorched thee into ashes: give reason then How this should come to pass? Each Lady does deserve a Monarchs bed. No more good Macedon: pray led the way, We'll see your Nuptial Rites, That task once done, We must abroad for same of Christendom.