_Theoph._ Eats through Cæsarea's heart like liquid poison. Have I invented tortures to tear Christians, To see but which, could all that feel hell's torments Have leave to stand aloof here on earth's stage, They would be mad till they again descended, Holding the pains most horrid of such souls, May-games to those of mine; has this my hand Set down a Christian's execution In such dire postures, that the very hangman Fell at my foot dead, hearing but their figures; And shall Macrinus and his fellow-masquer Strangle me in a dance? _Harp._ No:--on; I hug thee, For drilling thy quick brains in this rich plot Of tortures 'gainst these Christians: on; I hug thee! _Theoph._ Both hug and holy me: to this Dorothea, Fly thou and I in thunder. _Harp._ Not for kingdoms Piled upon kingdoms: there's a villain page Waits on her, whom I would not for the world Hold traffic with; I do so hate his sight, That, should I look on him, I must sink down. _Theoph._ I will not lose thee then, her to confound: None but this head with glories shall be crown'd. _Harp._ Oh! mine own as I would wish thee! [_Exeunt._ FOOTNOTES: [33] _Theoph._ Glad'st _thou in such scorn_?] Theophilus, who is represented as a furious zealot for paganism, is mortified at the indifference with which Macrinus returns the happiness he had wished him by his god. Mr. M. Mason reads, Gaddest _thou in such scorn_? He may be right; for Macrinus is evidently anxious to pass on: the reading of the text, however, is that of all the old copies.--GIFFORD. [34] _Hand_,] here used for _inch_, _moment_. We often meet the phrase _of his hands_, for _of his inches_. [35] ----_flies_.] This word is used by Ben Jonson, a close and devoted imitator of the ancients, for _a domestic parasite_, _a familiar_, &c. and from him, probably, Decker adopted it in the present sense.--GIFFORD. [36] _Roman angels_,] i. e. the _Roman eagle_, the well-known military ensign. _Angel_ in the sense of _bird_ is frequently met with among our old writers. Jonson beautifully calls the nightingale "The dear good angel of the spring." And if this should be thought, as it probably is, a Grecism; yet we have the same term in another passage, which will admit of no dispute: "Not an _angel_ of the air, _Bird_ melodious, or _bird_ fair," &c. _Two Noble Kinsmen._ GIFFORD. [37] Harp. _This Macrinus, The_ line _is_, &c] The allusion is to the rude fire-works of our ancestors. So, in the _Fawne_, by Marston: "_Page._ There be squibs, sir, running upon _lines_, like some of our gawdy gallants," &c.--GIFFORD.