Those garments that he weares I oft haue seene,--
Alas! it is Horatio, my sweet sonne!
O, no; but he that whilome was my sonne!
O, was it thou that call'dst me from my bed?
O, speak, if any sparke of life remaine!
I am thy father. Who hath slaine my sonne?
What sauadge monster, not of humane kinde,
Hath heere beene glutted with thy harmeles blood,
And left they bloudie corpes dishonoured heere,
For me amidst these darke and dreadfull shades
To drowne thee with an ocean of my teares?
O heauens, why made you night, to couer sinne?
By day this deed of darknes had not beene.
O earth, why didst thou not in time deuoure
The [vile] prophaner of this sacred bower?
O poore Horatio, what hadst thou misdoone
To leese thy life ere life was new begun?
O wicked butcher, what-so-ere thou wert,
How could thou strangle vertue and desert?
Ay me, most wretched! that haue lost my ioy
In leesing my Horatio, my sweet boy!
Enter ISABELL.
ISA. My husbands absence makes my hart to throb.
Hieronimo!
HIERO. Heere, Isabella. Helpe me to lament;
For sighes are stopt, and all my teares are spent.
ISA. What worlde of griefe--my sonne Horatio!
O wheres the author of this endles woe?
HIERO. To know the author were some ease of greefe,
For in reuenge my hart would finde releefe.
ISA. Then is he gone? and is my sonne gone too?
O, gush out, teares! fountains and flouds of teares!
Blow, sighes, and raise and euerlasting storme;
For outrage fits our cursed wretchedness.
HIERO. Sweet louely rose, ill pluckt before thy time!
Faire, worthy sonne, not conquerd, but betraid!
Ile kisse thee now, for words with teares are [stainde].
ISA. And Ile close vp the glasses of his sight;
For once these eyes were onely my delight.
HIERO. Seest thou this handkercher besmerd with blood?
It shall not from me till I take reuenge;
Seest thou those wounds that yet are bleeding fresh?
Ile not intombe them till I haue reueng'd:
Then will I ioy amidst my discontent,
Till then, my sorrow neuer shalbe spent.
ISA. The heauens are iust, murder cannot be hid;
Time is the author of both truth and right,
And time will bring this trecherie to light.
HIERO. Meane-while, good Isabella, cease thy plaints,
Or, at the least, dissemble them awhile;
So shall we sooner finde the practise out,
And learne by whome all this was brought about.
Come, Isabell, now let vs take him vp.
They take him vp.
And beare him in from out this cursed place.
Ile say his dirge,--singing fits not this case.
O aliquis mihi quas pulchrum ver educet herbas
HIERO[NIMO] sets his brest vnto his sword.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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