Her malice cannot hurt us. Set her free

As she was born, saving from shame and sin.

King. Set her at liberty.

This is no place for such.

But leave the court;

You, Pharamond,

Shall have free passage, and a conduct home

Worthy so great a prince. When you come there,
Remember 'twas your faults that lost you her,

And not my purposed will.

Pha. I do confess,

Renowned sir.

Enjoy, Philaster,

King. Last, join your hands in one.
This kingdom, which is yours, and, after me,
Whatever I call mine. My blessing on you!
All happy hours be at your marriage-joys,
That you may grow yourselves over all lands,
And live to see your plenteous branches spring
Wherever there is sun! Let princes learn

By this to rule the passions of their blood;
For what Heaven wills can never be withstood.

240

250

[Curtain falls.1

1 Of Euphrasia, disguised as Bellario, Dyce says: "She is one of our authors' most perfect creations, — unequalled in the romantic tenderness and the deep devotedness of her affection by any character which at all resembles her in the wide range of fiction, from her supposed prototype, the Viola of Shakespeare, down to the Constance of Scott and the Kaled of Byron."

stilted romantic conventions breaks haunds at moments a "sweet" play.

S.

IV.

THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN.

BY JOHN FLETCHER AND WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

Probably written between 1608 and 1612. The story is borrowed from The Knighte's Tale of Chaucer, who took it from Boccaccio's Teseide.

SCENE: Athens and the neighbourhood; and in part of the first act, Thebes and the neighbourhood.

PROLOGUE.

Chaucer, of all admir'd, the story gives;

There constant to eternity it lives.

If we let fall the nobleness of this,

And the first sound this child hear be a hiss,

How will it shake the bones of that good man,

And make him cry from under ground, “O,

fan

From me the witless chaff of such a writer

That blasts my bays, and my fam'd works makes lighter
Than Robin Hood!" This is the fear we bring ;

For, to say truth, it were an endless thing,

And too ambitious, to aspire to him.
Weak as we are, and almost breathless swim
In this deep water, do but you hold out
Your helping hands, and we shall tack about,
And something do to save us: you shall hear
Scenes, though below his art, may yet appear

Worth two hours' travail. To his bones sweet sleep!
Content to you!— If this play do not keep

A little dull time from us, we perceive

ΙΟ

Our losses fall so thick, we needs must leave. [Flourish. 20

Enter HYMEN, with a torch burning; a Boy, in a white robe, before, singing and strewing flowers; after HYMEN, a Nymph, encompassed in her tresses, bearing a wheaten garland; then THESEUS, between two other Nymphs with wheaten chaplets on their heads; then HIPPOLYTA, the bride, led by PIRITHOUS, and another holding a garland over her head, her tresses likewise hanging; after her, EMILIA, holding up her train; ARTESIUS and Attendants.

1 The First Act is attributed to Shakespeare by most of the critics.
2 Emblem of virginity.