God save you, Sir, Labross. You're welcome friend: what would you? Byr. I would entreat you for some crowns I bring, To give your judgment of this figure cast. To know by his nativity there seen, What sort of end the person shall endure, Who sent me to you, and whose birth it is. Lab. I'll herein do my best, in your desire. The man is rais'd out of a good descent, And nothing older than yourself I think: Is it not you? Byr. I will not tell you that: But tell me on what end he shall arrive. Lab. My son, I see that he whose end is cast In this set figure, is of noble parts, And by his military valour rais'd To princely honours; and may be a king But that I see a Caput Algol here, That hinders it I fear. Byr. A Caput Algol! What's that, I pray? Lab. Forbear to ask me, son. You bid me speak what fear bids me conceal. Byr. You have no cause to fear, and therefore speak. Than be instructed in a thing so ill. Byr. Ignorance is an idle salve for ill; Lab. Will you not allow me To hold my peace! What less can I desire, Byr. Was ever man yet punish'd for expressing Byr. Curs'd be thy throat and soul! Raven, screetch owl, hag! Lab. O hold! for heaven's sake hold! Byr. Hold on I will. Vault and contractor of all horrid sounds, Of my confusions, of the shameful end And let the black fume of thy venom❜d breath Byr. Out, prodigy. Remedy of pity, mine of flint. Whence, with my nails and feet, I'll dig enough Horror and savage cruelty to build Temples to massacre. Dam of devils take thee! The bulls of Colchos, nor his triple neck That howls out earthquakes; the most mortal vapours That ever stifled and struck dead the fowls That flew at never such a sightly pitch, Could not have burn'd blood so. Lab. I told truth, · my And could have flatter'd you. Byr. O that thou hadst; Would I had given thee twenty thousand crowns That thou hadst flatter'd me. There's no joy on earth, Never so rational, so pure, and holy, But is a jester, parasite, a whore In the most worthy parts, with which they please, A drunkenness of soul and a disease. Lab. I knew you not. Byr. Peace, dog of Pluto, peace! Thou knew'st my end to come, not me here present! Pox of your halting human knowledges." Soon after this, the king has an interview with Byron, and succeeds in persuading him to leave his traitorous practices, and disappoint the enemies of the state. We extract the following exhortation. "So of all judgements, if within themselves But whisper'd in by others; who in swelling We must now proceed to the Tragedy, only stopping by the way to collect some short passages, chiefly similes which have struck us in our perusal of the Conspiracy. Our author thus compares the state of a man whose fortunes have shot beyond the foundation of his merits. son. "As you may see a mighty promontory, More digg'd and under-eaten than may warrant When most they should be prop'd are most forsaken, Of better-grounded states, than take a shelter Yet they so oversee their faulty bases, Their near destructions, than their eaten grounds." Byron describes his own manner in this spirited compari "To whom I came, methought, with such a spirit That hath been long time at his manger tied, Like to an ensign; hedge and ditches leaping, He sees free fellows, and hath met them free." Henry addressing Byron, thus speaks of Queen Elizabeth, a topic upon which our poet is always eloquent. "And now for England you shall go, my lord, And in her each part, all the virtues shine." Chapman in this manner alludes to the common practice of the old writers, who always ushered their works into the world, with a "battalous array" of eulogistical poems. "And as a glorious poem, fronted well That he prays men to praise him, and they ride All drawn as if with one eye he had leer'd Full merit, eas'd those passions of wind, Which yet serve but to praise, and cannot merit, The character of Henry through both these plays is represented as wise and humane, easy to forgive, and unwilling to judge harshly. In the beginning of the Tragedy of Byron, this fine blessing upon his infant son is put into his mouth. "Hen. Have thy old father's angel for thy guide; Redoubled be his spirit in thy breast; .Who when this state ran, like a turbulent sea, Their wraths and envies, like so many winds, The very beasts knew the alarum bell, And, hearing it, ran bellowing to their home: Thee and thy kingdoms govern'd after me." When Byron is recalled from his government to court, under a strong suspicion of his having entered into a treasonable correspondence, he is of course in disgrace with the king, and consequently receives but little countenance from his courtiers. Whereupon the Duke makes some bitter reflections on the servility of mankind, and the fickleness of court-favour, in which he is heartily joined by his friend and companion in misfortune, D'Auvergne. "But men themselves, instead of bearing fruits, Their spirits and freedoms smother'd in their ease; All men cling to it, though they see their bloods |