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this time lend an ear to an idle pastime. Ap- I would conceive; or Lynces, who having a quick pion raising Homer from hell, demanded only sight to discern, have a short memory to forget. who was his father; and we calling Alexander With us it is like to fare as with these torches, from his grave, seek only who was his love. What- | which, giving light to others, consume themselves; soever we present, we wish it may be thought the and we showing delight to others, shame our dancing of Agrippa's shadows, who in the mo- selves, ment they were seen, were of any shape one

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thrown down, bodies not thrust aside; a conquest without conflict, and a cruel war in a mild peace. Par. Clytus, it becometh the son of Philip to be none other than Alexander is; therefore see

Clyt. Parmenio, I cannot tell whether I shoulding in the father a full perfection, who could have more commend in Alexander's victories, courage, doubted in the son an excellency? For as the or courtesy: in the one being a resolution with- moon can borrow nothing else of the sun but out fear, in the other a liberality above custom.light; so of a sire, in whom nothing but virtue Thebes is rased, the people not racked; towers was, what could the child receive but singular?

Appion raising Homer from hell, demanded only who was his father."Querat aliquis, quæ sint mentiti veteres Magi, cum adolescentibus nobis visus Apion Grammaticæ artis, prodiderit cynocephaliam herbam, que in Egypto vocaretur osyrites, divinam, et contra omnia venesicia: sed si ea erueretur, statim eum qui eruisset, mori. Seque evocasse umbras ad percontandum Homerum, qua patria quibusque parentibus genitus esset, non tamen ausus profiteri, quid sibi respondisse diceret.”—C. Plin. Nat. Hist. 1. xxx. c. 2. 9 The subject of this play is taken from Pliny's Natural History, lib. xxxv. c. 10. "Tantum erat auctoritati juris in regem, alioquin iracundum: quanquam Alexander ei honorem clarissimo præbuit exemplo. Namque cum dilectam sibi ex pallacis suis præcipue nomine Campaspem nudam pingi ob admirationem formæ ab Apelle jussissit, eumque tum pari captum amore sensisset, dono eam dedit. Magnus an.mo, major imperio sui, nec minor hoc facto, quam victoria aliqua. Quippe, se vicit nec torum tantum suum, sed etiam affecum donavit artifici: ne dilectæ quidam respectu motus, ut quæ modo regis fuissct, modo pictovis esset. Sunt qui Venerem Anadyomenem illo pictam exemplari putant.”

It is for 10 turquois to staiu each other, not for | diamonds; in the one to be made a difference in goodness, in the other no comparison.

Clyt. You mistake me, Parmenio, if whilst I commend Alexander, you imagine I call Philip into question; unless haply you conjecture, (which none of judgment will conceive,) that because I like the fruit, therefore I heave at the tree; or coveting to kiss the child, I therefore go about to poison the teat.

Par. Ay, but Clytus, I perceive you are born in the east, and never laugh but at the sun-rising; which argueth, though a duty where you ought, yet no great devotion where you might.

Clyt. We will make no controversy of that which there ought to be no question; only this shall be the opinion of us both, that none was worthy to be the father of Alexander but Philip, nor any meet to be the son of Philip but Alexander.

Par. Soft, Clytus, behold the spoils and prisoners! a pleasant sight to us, because profit is join'd with honour; not much painful to them, because their captivity is eased by mercy.

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eth a king In all things, than which nothing can be greater, he is Alexander.

Cam. Then if it be such a thing to be Alexander, I hope it shall be no miserable thing to be a virgin. For if he save our honours, it is more than to restore our goods. And rather do I wish he'd preserve our fame than our lives, which if he do, we will confess there can be no greater thing than to be Alexander.

Alex. Clytus, are these prisoners? of whence these spoils?

Clyt. Like your majesty, they are prisoners, and of Thebes.

Alex. Of what calling or reputation?

Clyt. I know not, but they seem to be ladies of honour.

Alex. I will know- Madam, of whence you are I know, but who, I cannot tell.

Timo. Alexander, I am the sister of Theagines, who fought a battel with thy father, before the city of Chieronte, where he died, I say which none can gainsay, valiantly.

II

Alex. Lady, there seem in your words sparks of your brother's deeds, but worser fortune in your life than his death: but fear not, for you shall live without violence, enemies, or necessityBut what are you, fair lady, another sister to Theagines?

Cam. No sister to Theagines, but an humble handmaid to Alexander, born of a mean parentage, but to extream fortune.

Timo. Fortune, thou didst never yet deceive virtue, because virtue never yet did trust fortune. Sword and fire will never get spoil, where wisdoin and fortitude bears sway. O Thebes, thy walls were raised by the sweetness of the harp, but rased by the shrillness of the trumpet. Alexander had never come so near the walls, had Epaminondas walk'd about the walls; and yet Alex. Well, ladies, for so your virtues shew might the Thebans have been merry in their you, whatsoever your births be, you shall be hostreets, if he had been to watch their towers. nourably entreated. Athens shall be your Thebes, But destiny is seldom foreseen, never prevented. and you shall not be as abjects of war, but as subWe are here now captives, whose necks are yok-jects to Alexander. Parmenio, conduct these ed by force, but whose hearts can not yield by death. Come, Campaspe, and the rest, let us not be ashamed to cast our eyes on him, on whom we fear'd not to cast our darts.

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honourable ladies into the city, charge the soldiers not so much as in words to offer them any offence, and let all wants be supply'd so far forta as shall be necessary for such persons, and my prisoners.

[Exeunt PARMENIO and Captives. Hephestion, it resteth now that we have as great care to govern in peace, as conquer in war: that whilst arms cease, arts inay flourish, and joining letters with launces, we endeavour to be as good philosophers as soldiers; knowing it no less praise to be wise, than commendable to be valiant.

Heph. Your majesty therein sheweth, that you have as great desire to rule as to subdue; and needs must that commonweaith be fortunate, whose captain is a philosopher, and whose philo sopher is a captain. [Exeunt.

10 Turquois-In the first edition, Turkes. "Turquesis," says Malynes, in his Treatise of the Canker of England's Common-wealth, 12mo, 1601, "are found in Malabar, being of Turquey's color by the day time, and by night, by the light, greene; they grow upon a black stone, whereof retaining some little blacke veines is the better." "It is," as Mr Steevens observes," said of the Turky stone, that it faded or brightened in its colour, as the health of the wearer increased or grew less." (Note on Merchant of Venice, p. 188. Vol. III.) See also Dr Morell's Account of it, p. 417. of his edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, 8vo. 1737.

"Chieronte-Chieronie, in the first and second editions.

SCENE II.

MANES, GRANICHUS, PSYLLUS.

Manes. I serve instead of a master, a mouse, whose house is a tub, whose dinner is a crust, and 12 whose bed is a board,

Psyl. Then art thou in a state of life which philosophers commend. A crumb for thy supper, a hand for thy cup, and thy clothes for thy sheets. For Natura paucis contenta.

Gra. Manes, it is pity so proper a man should be cast away upon a philosopher; but that Diogenes, that dog, should have Manes that dog-bolt, it grieveth nature, and spiteth art; the one having found thee so dissolute, absolute I would say, in body, the other so single, singular in mind.

Manes. Are you merry? it is a sign by the trip of your tongue, and the toys of your head, that you have done that to-day, which I have not done these three days.

Psyl. What's that?
Manes. Dined.

Gra. I think Diogenes keeps but cold chear. Manes. I would it were so; but he keepeth neither hot nor cold.

Gra. What then, luke warm? That made Manes run from his master the last day.

Psyl. Manes had reason; for his name foretold

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Manes. You may see how dull a fasting wit is; therefore, Psyllus, let us go to supper with Granichus: Plato is the best fellow of all philosophers. Give me him that reads in the morning in the school, and at noon in the kitchen. Psyl. And me.

Gra. Ah, sirs, my master is a king in his parlour for the body; and a God in his study for the soul. Among all his men he commendeth one that is an excellent musician, then stand I by and clap another on the shoulder, and say, this is a passing good cook.

Manes. It is well done, Granichus; for give me pleasure that goes in at the mouth, not the ear; I had rather fill my guts than my brains.

Psyl. I serve Apelles, who feedeth me, as Diogenes doth Manes; for at dinner the one preacheth abstinence, the other commendeth counterfeiting: When I would eat meat, he paints a spit; and when I thirst, O, saith he, is not this a fair pot? and points to a table, which contains the Psyl. You know that it is called Mons à mo- | banquet of the gods, where are many dishes to vendo, because it stands still.

as much.

Manes. My name! how so, sir boy?

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feed the eye, but not to fill the gut.

Gra. What dost thou then?

Psyl. This doth he then, bring in many examples that some have lived by savours, and proveth that much easier it is to grow fat by colours, and tells of birds that have been fatted by painted grapes in winter; and how many have so fed their eyes with their mistress's picture, that they never desir'd to take food, being glutted with the delight in their favours. 13 Then doth he shew me counterfeits, such as have surfeited with their

12 Whose bed is a board.―The first and second editions read, whose board is a bed.

13 Then doth he shew me counterfeits-Counterfeit was a term formerly used for any kind of painting, but more especially for a portrait. Psyllus says above, “ for a dinner the one preacheth abstinence, the other commendeth counterfeiting."

And, in Dekker's Strange Horserace, 16-. B. 2: -" and more to dignifie the conqueror, pictures, and counterfets of all the citties, mountaines, rivers, and battailes, from whence they came victors, were drawn in ensignes to the liveliest portrature, all supported before the triumpher.”

Again, Arden of Feversham, 1592:

I happen'd on painter yesternight,

The onely cunning man of Christendoome:
For he can temper poyson with his oyle,
That whoso lookes upon the worke he drawes,
Shall with the beames that issue from his sight,
Suck vennome to his breast, and slay himselfe,
Sweet Ales he shall draw thy counterfet,
That Arden may by gaizing on it perish.

filthy and loathsome vomits, and with the riotous, bacchanals of the god Bacchus, and his disorderly crew, which are painted ali to the life in his shop. To conclude, I fare hardly, though I go richiy, which maketh me when I should begin to shadow a lady's face, to draw a lamb's head, and sometime to set to the body of a maid, a shoulder of mutton; for Semper animus meus est in patinis.

Manes. Thou art a god to me; for could I see but a cook's-shop painted, I would make mine eyes fat as butter. For I have nought but sentences to fill my maw; as, plures occidit crapula quam gladius: musa jejunantibus amica: repletion killeth delicately. And an old saw of abstinence by Socrates: the belly is the head's grave. Thus with sayings, not with meat, he maketh a gallimafrey.

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Gra. But how do'st thou then live?
Manes. With fine jests, sweet air, and the dogs

alms.

Gra. Well, for this time, I will staunch thy gut; and, among pots and platters, thou shalt see what it is to serve Plato.

Psyl. For joy of Granichus, let's sing.

Fine dancing in such fairy rings.
Manes. O for a plump fat leg of mutton,
Veal, lamb, capon, pig, and coney;
None is happy but a glutton,
None an ass but who wants money.
Cha. Wines, indeed, and girls are good,
But brave victuals feast the blood;
For wenches, wine, and lusty cheer,
Jove would leap down to surfeit here.

SCENE III.

MELIPPUS, PLATO, ARISTOTLE, CRISIPPUS, CRATES, CLEANTHES, ANAXARCHUS, ALEXANDER, HEPHESTION, PARMENIO, CLYTUS, DIOGENES. Mel. I had never such ado to warn scholars to come before a king: first, I came to Crisippus, a tall, lean, old mad man, willing him presently to appear before Alexander; he stood staring on my face, neither moving his eyes nor his body; I urging him to give some answer, he took up a book, sat down, and said nothing. Melissa, his maid, told me it was his manner, and that oftentimes she was fain to thrust meat into his mouth;

Manes. My voice is as clear in the evening as for that he would rather starve than cease study.

in the morning.

Gra. Another commodity of emptiness.

SONG. 15

Gra. O for a bowl of fut canary,
Rich Palermo, sparkling sherry;
Some nectar else from Juno's dairy,
O these draughts would make us merry.
Psyl. O for a wench, (I deal in faces,
And in other duintier things,)
Tickled am I with her embraces,

Well, thought I, seeing bookish men are so blockish, and so great clerks such simple courtiers, I will neither be partaker of their commons nor their commendations. From thence I came to Plato, and to Aristotle, and to divers others, none refusing to come, saving an old obscure fellow, who, sitting in a tub turned towards the sun, read Greek to a young boy; him when I willed to appear before Alexander, he answered, if Alexander would fain see me, let him come to me; if learn of me, let him come to me; whatsoever it

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Lyly's Euphues and his England, 1582, Dedication to the Ladies," Therefore, in my mind, you are more beholding to gentlemen that make the colours, than to the painters that draw your counterfaite," &c. Ibid. p. 67" At last it came to this passe, that hee in painting deserved most praise that could set down most colours: wherby ther was more contention kindled about the colour than the counterfait, and greater emulation for varietie in shew than workemanship in substance."

Euphues, 1581, p. 55: “A certaine painter brought Apelles the counterfaite of a face in a table," &c. 144 gallimafrey.-i. e. a medley. So, in Pierce Penilesse Supplication to the Devill, 1592, p. 27. They mingled them all in one gallimafry of glory."

Prologue to Wily Beguiled, 1606: “ Why, noble Cerberus, nothing but patch pannel stuff, old gally❤ maxfries and cotton candle eloquence."

15 This song is restored from Blount's edition of "Sixe Court Comedies," 1632. It is omitted in all the 4to editions.

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be, let him come to me. Why, said I, he is a king; he answered, why, I am a philosopher. Why, but he is Alcxander; ay, but I am Diogenes. I was half angry to see one so crooked in his shape, to be so crat bed in his sayings. So, going my way, I said, thou shalt repent it, if thou comest not to Alexander; nay, smiling, answered he, Alexander may repent it, if he come not to Diogenes; virtue must be sought, not offered: and so turning himself to his cell, he grunted I know not what, like a pig under a tub. But I must be gone, the philosophers are coming.

[Exit. Pla. It is a difficult controversy, Aristotle, and rather to be wondered at than believed, how natural causes should work supernatural effects.

Aris. I do not so much stand upon the apparition seen in the moon, neither the Dæmonium of Socrates, as that I cannot, by natural reason, give any reason of the ebbing and flowing of the sea, which makes me, in the deph of my studies, to cry out, O ens entium miserere mei!

Pla. Cleanthes and you attribute so much to nature, by searching for things which are not to be found, that whilst you study a cause of your own, you omit the occasion itself. There is no man so savage in whom resteth not this divine particle, that there is an omnipotent, eternal, and divine mover, which may be called God.

Cle. I am of this mind, that the first mover, which you term God, is the instrument of all the movings which we attribute to nature. The earth, which is mass, swimmeth on the sea, seasons divided in themselves, fruits growing in themselves, the majesty of the sky, the whole firmament of the world, and whatsoever else appeareth miraculous, what man almost of mean capacity but can prove it natural?

Anar. These causes shall be debated at our philosophers feast; in which controversy I will take part with Aristotle, that there is natura naturuns, and yet not God.

Cra. And I with Plato, that there is Deus optimus maximus, and not nature.

Aris. Here cometh Alexander. Alex. I see, Hephestion, that these philosophers are here attending for us.

Heph. They 16 were not philosophers, if they knew not their duties.

Alex. But I much marvel Diogenes should be so dogged.

Heph. I do not think but his excuse will be better than Melippus message.

Alex. I will go see him, Hephestion, because I long to see him that would command Alexander to come, to whom all the world is like to come. Aristotle and the rest, sithence my coming from

Thebes to Athens, from a place of conquest to a palace of quiet, I have resolved with myself in my court to have as many philosophers as I had in my camp soldiers. My court shall be a school, wherein I will have used as great doctrine in peace, as I did in war discipline.

Aris. We are all here ready to be commanded, and glad we are that we are commanded; for that nothing better becometh kings than literature, which maketh them come as near to the gods in wisdom, as they do in dignity.

Alex. It is so, Aristotle; but yet there is among you, yea, and of your bringing up, that sought to destroy Alexander: Calistenes, Aristotle, whose treasons against his prince shall not be borne out with reasons of his philosophy.

Aris. If ever mischief entered into the heart of Calistenes, let Calistenes suffer for it; but that Aristotle ever imagined any such thing of Calistenes, Aristotle doth deny.

Alex. Well, Aristotle, kindred may blind thee, and affection me; but, in kings causes I will not stand to scholars arguments. This meeting shall be for a commandment, that you all frequent my court, instruct the young with rules, confirm the old with reasons: let your lives be answerable to your learnings, lest my proceedings be contrary to my promises.

Heph. You said you would ask every one of them a question, which yesternight none of us could answer.

Alex. I will.-Plato, of all beasts, which is the subtilest?

Pla. That which man hitherto never knew. Alex. Aristotle, how should a man be thought a God?

Aris. In doing a thing impossible for a man. Aler. Crisippus, which was first, the day, or the night?

Cri. The day, by a day.

Alex. Indeed, strange questions must have strange answers. Cleanthes, what say you, is life or death the stronger?

Cle. Life, that suffereth so many troubles. Alex. Crates, how long should a man live? Cra. Till he think it better to die than to live. Alex. Anaxarchus, whether doth the sea or the earth bring forth most creatures?

Anax. The earth; for the sea is but a part of the earth.

Aler. Hephestion, methinks they have answered all well; and in such questions I mean often to try them.

Heph. It is better to have in your court a wise man, than in your ground a golden mine. There fore would I leave war to study wisdom, were I Alexander.

16 They were not, &c.-The third and Blount's editions read, these are not.

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