3. Lo, here the end that kingly pomp imparts: The quiet rest that princely palace plights! Care upon care, and every day anew Fresh rising tempest tires the tossed minds. Who strives to stand in pomp of princely port, On giddy top and culm of slippery court, Finds oft a heavy fate; whiles too much known To all, he falls unknown unto himself.[275] Let whoso else that list affect the name, But let me seem a potentate to none: My slender bark shall creep[276] anenst the shore, And shun the winds that sweep the waltering waves. Proud fortune overslips[277] the safest roads, And seeks amidst the surging seas those keels, Whose lofty tops and tacklings touch the clouds. 4. O base, yet happy boors! O gifts of gods Scant yet perceiv’d! when powd’red ermine robes With secret sighs, mistrusting their extremes, In baleful breast forecast their foultring[278] fates, And stir, and strive, and storm, and all in vain; Behold the peasant poor with tattered coat, Whose eyes a meaner fortune feeds with sleep, How safe and sound the careless snudge doth snore. Low-roofed lurks the house of slender hap, Costless, not gay without, scant clean within; Yet safe, and oft’ner shrouds the hoary hairs, Than haughty turrets, rear’d with curious art, To harbour heads that wield the golden crest. With endless cark in glorious courts and towns, The troubled hopes and trembling fears do dwell. _The Argument of the Fourth Act._ 1. In the first scene Gildas and Conan confer of the state of Britain. 2. In the second scene Nuntius maketh report of the whole battle, with the death of Mordred, and Arthur’s and Cador’s deadly wound. 3. In the third scene Gildas and Conan lament the unfortunate state of the country. _The Argument and Manner of the Fourth Dumb Show._ During the music appointed after the third act, there came in a Lady courtly attired with a counterfeit child in her arms, who walked softly on the stage. From another place there came a king crowned, who likewise walked on another part of the stage. From a third place there came four soldiers all armed who, spying this Lady and King, upon a sudden pursued the Lady, from whom they violently took her child, and flung it against the walls; she, in mournful sort wringing her hands, passed her way. Then in like manner they set on the king, tearing his crown from his head, and casting it in pieces under feet, drave him by force away, and so passed themselves over the stage. By this was meant the fruit of war, which spareth neither man, woman, nor child, with the end of Mordred’s usurped crown. THE FOURTH ACT AND FIRST SCENE. GILDAS, CONAN.