A Select Collection of Old English Plays: Originally Published by Robert Dodsley in the year 1744
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays: Originally Published by Robert Dodsley in the year 1744
English drama
GORLOIS.
GORLOIS. Now, Gorlois, ’suage thyself. Pride hath his pay,
Murther his price, adult’ry his desert,
Treason his meed, disloyalty his doom,
Wrong hath his wreak, and guilt his guerdon bears!
Not one abuse erst offered by thy foes,
But, since most sternly punish’d, is now purg’d.
Where thou didst fall, ev’n on the self-same soil,
Pendragon, Arthur, Mordred, and their stock
Found all their foils: not one hath ’scaped revenge;
Their line from first to last quite razed out!
Now rest content, and work no further plagues:
Let future age be free from Gorlois’ ghost:
Let Britain henceforth bathe in endless weal.
Let Virgo come from heaven, the glorious star,
The Zodiac’s joy, the planets’ chief delight,
The hope of all the year, the ease of skies,
The air’s relief, the comfort of the earth!
That virtuous Virgo, born for Britain’s bliss;
That peerless branch of Brute; that sweet remain
Of Priam’s state; that hope of springing Troy,
Which, time to come and many ages hence,
Shall of all wars compound eternal peace.
Let her reduce the golden age again,
Religion, ease, and wealth of former world.
Yea, let that Virgo come, and Saturn’s reign,[283]
And years, oft ten times told, expir’d in peace.
A rule that else no realm shall ever find,
A rule most rare, unheard, unseen, unread;
The sole example that the world affords.
That (Britain), that renowm, yea, that is thine.
B’ it so: my wrath is wrought. Ye furies black
And ugly shapes, that howl in holes beneath:
Thou Orcus dark, and deep Avernus nook,
With duskish dens out-gnawn in gulfs below,
Receive your ghastly charge, Duke Gorlois’ ghost!
Make room! I gladly, thus reveng’d, return!
And though your pain surpass, I greet them tho!
He hates each other heaven, that haunteth hell.
[_Descendit._
EPILOGUS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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