_Theoph._ Most glorious vision!-- Did e'er so hard a bed yield man a dream So heavenly as this? I am confirm'd, Confirm'd, you blessed spirits, and make haste To take that crown of immortality You offer to me. Death! till this blest minute, I never thought thee slow-paced; nor would I Hasten thee now, for any pain I suffer, But that thou keep'st me from a glorious wreath, Which through this stormy way I would creep to, And, humbly kneeling, with humility wear it. Oh! now I feel thee:--blessed spirits! I come; And, witness for me all these wounds and scars, I die a soldier in the Christian wars. [_Dies._ _Sap._ I have seen thousands tortured, but ne'er yet A constancy like this. _Harp._ I am twice damn'd. _Ang._ Haste to thy place appointed, cursed fiend! [HARPAX _sinks with thunder and lightning_. In spite of hell, this soldier's not thy prey; 'Tis I have won, thou that hast lost the day. [_Exit with_ DOR. _&c._ _Diocle._ I think the centre of the earth be crack'd-- Yet I stand still unmoved, and will go on: The persecution that is here begun, Through all the world with violence shall run. [_Flourish. Exeunt._ FOOTNOTE: [58] _As the Sicilian did his brazen bull._] The brazen bull, an ingenious instrument of torture, invented by Perillus, and presented to Phalaris, the tyrant of Agrigentum, was fatal both to its author and its owner. Phalaris made the first experiment of its powers upon Perillus; and when the people, exasperated by his cruelties, eventually rose against him, the tyrant suffered death by its means himself. THE GREAT DUKE OF FLORENCE. THE GREAT DUKE OF FLORENCE.] This play, under the title of The Great Duke, was licensed by Sir Henry Herbert, July 5th, 1627. The plot is raised on those slight materials afforded by our old chroniclers in the life of Edgar, which Mason has since worked up into the beautiful drama of Elfrida.