¶ The Tragedy of Ferrex and Porrex, set forth without addition or alteration but altogether as the same was showed on stage before the Queen's Majesty, about nine years past, uz. the xviij. day of januarie. 1561. by the gentlemen of the Inner Temple.  
Seen and allowed. etc.  
❧ Imprinted at London by john day, dwelling over Aldersgate.   

¶ The argument of the Tragedy.  
Gorboduc king of Britain, divided his realm in his life time to his sons, Ferrex and Porrex. The sons fell to dissension. The younger killed the elder. The mother that more dearly loved the elder, for revenge killed the younger. The people moved with the cruelty of the fact, rose in rebellion and slew both father and mother. The nobility assembled and most terribly destroyed the rebels. And afterwards for want of issue of the prince whereby the succession of the crown become uncertain, they fell to civil war, in which both they and many of of their issues were slain, and the land for a long time almost desolate and miserably wasted.   

¶ The P. to the Reader.  
WHere this Tragedy was for furniture of part of the grand Christmas in the Inner Temple first written about nine years ago by the right honourable Thomas now Lord Buckherst, and by T. Norton, and after showed before her Majesty, and never intended by the authors thereof to be published: yet one W. G. getting a copy thereof at some youngman's hand that lacked a little money and much discretion, in the last great plague. an. 1565. about u years past, while the said Lord was out of England, and T. Norton far out of London, and neither of them both made privy, put it forth exceedingly corrupted: even as if by means of a broker for hire, he should have enticed into his house a fair maid and done her villainy, and after all to bescratched her face, torn her apparel, bewrayed and disfigured her, and then thrust her out of doors dishonored. In such plight after long wandering she came at length home to the sight of her friends who seant knew her but by a few tokens and marks remaining. They, the authors I mean, though they were very much displeased that she so ran abroad without leave, whereby she caught her shame, as many wantoness do, yet seeing the case as it is remediless, have for common honesty and shamefastness new appareled, trimmed, and attired her in such form as she was before. In which better form since she hath come to me, I have harboured her for her friends sake and her own, and I do not doubt her parents the authors will not now be discontent that she go abroad among you good readers, so it be in honest company. For she is by my encouragement and others somewhat less ashamed of the dishonesty done to her because it was by fraud and force. If she be welcome among you and gently entertained, in favour of the house from whence she is descended, and of her own nature courteously disposed to offend no man, her friends will thank you for it. If not, but that she shall be still reproached with her former mishap, or quarreled at by envious persons, she poor gentlewoman will surely play Lucreces part & of herself die for shame, and I shall wish that she had tarried still at home with me, where she was welcome: for she did never put me to more charge, but this one poor black gown lined with white that I have now given her to go abroad among you withal.   


¶ The names of the speakers.  
Gorboduc, King of great Britain.  
Videna, Queen and wife to king Gorboduc.  
Ferrex, elder son to king Gorboduc.  
Porrex, younger son to king Gorboduc.  
Cloyton, Duke of Cornwall.  
Fergus, Duke of Albany.  
Mandud, Duke of Loegris.  
Gwenard, Duke of Cumberland.  
Eubulus, Secretary to the king.  
Arostus, a counsellor to the king.  
Dordan, a counsellor assigned by the king to his eldest son Ferrex.  
Philander, a counsellor assigned by the king to his youngest son Porrex.  
Both being of the old kings counsel before.  
Hermon, a parasite remaining with Ferrex.  
Tyndar, a parasite remaining with Porrex,  
Nuntius, a messenger of the elder brother's death.  
Nuntius, a messenger of Duke Fergus rising in arms.  
Marcelia, a lady of the Queen's privy chamber.  
Chorus, four ancient and sage men of Britain.    

¶ The order of the domme show before the first act, and the sigsignification thereof.  
¶ First the Music of Uiolenze began to play, during which came in upon the stage six wild men clothed in leaves. Of whom the first bore in his neck a faggot of small sticks, which they all both severally and together assayed with all their strengths to break, but it could not be broken by them. At the length one of them plucked out one of the sticks and broke it: And the rest plucking out all the other sticks one after an other did easily break them, the same being severed: which being conjoined they had before attempted in vain. After they had this done, they departed the stage, and the Music ceased. Hereby was signified, that a state knit in unity doth continued strong against all force. But being divided, is easily destroyed. As befell upon Duke Gorboduc dividing his land to his two sons which he before held in Monarchy. And upon the dissension of the brethren to whom it was divided.   

Actus primus.  

Scena prima.  Viden. Ferrex. VIden. 
The silent night, that brings the quiet pause,  
From painful travails of the weary day,  
Prolongs my careful thoughts, and makes me blame  
The slow Aurore, that so for love or shame  
Doth long delay to show her blushing face,  
And now the day renews my griefful plaint.  Ferrex. 
My gracious lady and my mother dear,  
Pardon my grief for your so grieved mind,  
To ask what cause tormenteth so your heart.  Viden. 
So great a wrong, and so unjust despite,  
Without all cause, against all course of kind!  Ferrex. 
Such causeless wrong and so unjust despite,  
May have redress, or at the lest, revenge.  Viden. 
Neither, my son: such is the froward will,  
The person such, such my mishap and thine.  Ferrex. 
Mine know I none, but grief for your distress.  Viden. 
Yes: mine for thine my son: A father? no:  
In kind a father, not in kindliness.  Ferrex. 
My father? why? I know nothing at all,  
Wherein I have misdone unto his grace.  Viden. 
Therefore, the more unkind to thee and me.  
For knowing well (my son) the tender love  
That I have ever borne and bear to thee,  
He grieved thereat, is not content alone,  
To spoil thee of my sight my chiefest joy,  
But thee, of thy birthright and heritage  
Causeless, unkindly, and in wrongful wise,  
Against all law and right, he will bereave:  
Half of his kingdom he will give away.  Ferrex. 
To whom?  Viden. 
Even to Porrex his younger son,  
Whose growing pride I do so sore suspect,  
That being raised to equal rule with thee,  
Me thinks I see his envious heart to swell,  
Filled with disdain and with ambitious hope,  
The end the Gods do know, whose altars I  
Full often have made in vain, of cattle slain  
To sand the sacred smoke to heavens throne,  
For thee my son, if things do so succeed,  
As now my jealous mind misdeemeth sore.  Ferrex. 
Madame, leave care & careful plaint for me,  
Just hath my father been to every wight:  
His first unjustice he will not extend  
To me I trust, that give no cause thereof:  
My brother's pride shall hurt himself, not me.  Viden. 
So grant the Gods: But yet thy father so  
Hath firmly fixed his unmoved mind,  
That plaints and prayers can no whit avail,  
For those have I assayed, but even this day,  
He will endeavour to procure assent  
Of all his counsel to his fond devise.  Ferrex. 
Their ancestors from race to race have borne  
True faith to my forefathers and their seed:  
I trust they eke will bear the like to me.  Viden. 
There resteth all. But if they fail thereof,  
And if the end bring forth an ill success:  
On them and theirs the mischief shall befall,  
And so I pray the Gods requited it them,  
And so they will, for so is wont to be.  
When lords, and trusted rulers under kings,  
To please the present fancy of the prince.  
With wrong transpose the course of governance,  
Murders, mischief, or civil sword at length,  
Or mutual treason, or a just revenge,  
When right succeeding line returns again,  
By Ioues just judgement and deserved wrath,  
Brings them to cruel and reproachful death,  
And roots their names and kindreds from the earth.  Ferrex. 
Mother, content you, you shall see the end.  Viden. 
The end? thy end I fear, jove end me first.   

Actus primus.  
Scena secunda.  Gorboduc. Arostus. Philander. Eubulus. GOrb. 
My lords, whose grave advise & faithful aid,  
Have long upheld my honour and my realm,  
And brought me to this age from tender years,  
Guiding so great estate with great renown:  
Now more importeth me, than erst, to use  
Your faith and wisdom, whereby yet I reign:  
That when by death my life and rule shall cease,  
The kingdom yet may with unbroken course,  
Have certain prince, by whose undoubted right,  
Your wealth and peace may stand in quiet stay,  
And eke that they whom nature hath prepared,  
In time to take my place in princely seat,  
While in their father's time their pliant youth  
Yields to the frame of skilful governance,  
May so be taught and trained in noble arts,  
As what their fathers which have reigned before  
Have with great fame derived down to them,  
With honour they may leave unto their seed:  
And not be thought for their unworthy life,  
And for their lawless swerving out of kind,  
Worthy to loose what law and kind them gave:  
But that they may preserve the common peace,  
The cause that first began and still maintains  
The lineal course of kings inheritance.  
For me, for mine, for you, and for the state,  
Where of both I and you have charge and care,  
Thus do I mean to use your wonted faith  
To me and mine, and to your native land.  
My lords be plain without all wry respect  
Or poisonous craft to speak in pleasing wise,  
Jest as the blame of ill succedyng things  
Shall light on you, so light the harms also.  Arostus. 
Your good acceptance so (most noble king)  
Of such our faithfulness as heretofore  
We have employed in duties to your grace,  
And to this realm whose worthy head you are,  
Well proves that neither you mistrust at all,  
Nor we shall need in boasting wise to show,  
Our truth to you, nor yet our wakeful care  
For you, for yours, and for our native land.  
Wherefore (O king) I speak as one for all,  
sith all as one do bear you equal faith:  
Doubt not to use our counsels and our aids,  
Whose honours, goods and lives are whole avowed  
To serve, to aid, and to defend your grace.  Gorb. 
My lords, I thank you all. This is the case.  
You know, the Gods, who have the sovereign care  
For kings, for kingdoms, and for common weals,  
Gave me two sons in my more lusty age.  
Who now in my decaying years are grown  
Well towards typer state of mind and strength,  
To take in hand some greater princely charge.  
As yet they live and spend hopeful days,  
With me and with their mother here in court.  
Their age now asketh other place and trade,  
And mine also doth ask an other change:  
There's to more travail, mine to greater case.  
When fatal death shall end my mortal life,  
My purpose is to leave unto them twain  
The realm divided into two sundry parts:  
The one Ferrex mine elder son shall have,  
The other shall the younger Porrex rule.  
That both my purpose may more firmly stand,  
And eke that they may better rule their charge,  
I mean forthwith to place them in the same:  
That in my life they may both learn to rule,  
And I may joy to see their ruling well.  
This is in sum, what I would have ye weigh:  
First whether ye allow my whole devise,  
And think it good for me, for them, for you,  
And for our country, mother of us all:  
And if ye like it, and allow it well,  
Then for their guiding and their governance,  
Show forth such means of circumstance,  
As ye think meet to be both known and kept.  
Lo, this is all, now tell me your advise.  Aros. 
And this is much, and asketh great advise,  
But for my part, my sovereign lord and king,  
This do I think. Your majesty doth know,  
How under you in justice and in peace,  
Great wealth and honour, long we have enjoyed.  
So as we can not seem with greedy minds  
To wish for change of Prince or governance:  
But if we like your purpose and devise,  
Our liking must be deemed to proceed  
Of rightful reason, and of heedful care,  
Not for ourselves, but for the common state,  
sith our own state doth need no better change:  
I think in all as erst your Grace hath said.  
first when you shall unload your aged mind  
Of heavy care and troubles manifold,  
And lay the same upon my Lords your sons,  
Whose growing years may bear the burden long,  
And long I pray the Gods to grant it so,  
And in your life while you shall so behold  
Their rule, their virtues, and their noble deeds,  
Such as their kind behighteth to us all,  
Great be the profits that shall grow thereof,  
Your age in quiet shall the longer last.  
Your lasting age shallbe their longer stay,  
For cares of kings, that rule as you have ruled,  
For public wealth and not for private joy,  
Do waste man's life, and hasten crooked age,  
With furrowed face and with enfcebled limbs,  
To draw on creeping death a swifter pace.  
They two yet young shall bear the parted reign  
With greater ease, than one, now old, alone,  
Can weld the whole, for whom much harder is  
With lessened strength the double weight to bear.  
Your eye, your counsel, and the grave regard  
Of Father, yea of such a father's name,  
Now at beginning of their sundered reign,  
When is the hazard of their whole success,  
Shall bridle so their force of youthful heats,  
And so restrain the rage of insolence,  
Which most assails the young and noble minds,  
And so shall guide and train in tempered stay  
Their yet green bending wits with reverent awe,  
As now enured with virtues at the first,  
Custom (O King) shall bring delightfulness.  
By use of virtue, vice shall grow in hate,  
But if you so dispose it, that the day,  
Which ends your life, shall first begin their reign,  
Great is the peril what will be the end,  
When such beginning of such liberties  
Uoide of such stays as in your life do lie,  
Shall leave them free to random of their will,  
An open pray to traitorous flattery,  
The greatest pestilence of noble youth.  
Which peril shallbe passed, if in your life,  
Their tempered youth with aged father's awe,  
Be brought in ure of skilful staidness.  
And in your life their lives disposed so,  
Shall length your noble life in joyfulness.  
Thus think I that your grace hath wisely thought,  
And that your tender care of common weal,  
Hath bred this thought, so to divide your land,  
And plant your sons to bear the present rule,  
While you yet live to see their ruling well,  
That you may longer live by joy therein.  
What further means behoveful are and meet  
At greater leisure may your grace devise,  
When all have said, and when we be agreed  
If this be best to part the realm in twain,  
And place your sons in present government.  
Whereof as I have plainly said my mind,  
So would I here the rest of all my Lords,  Philand. 
In part I think as hath been said before,  
In part again my mind is otherwise,  
As for dividing of this realm in twain,  
And lotting out the same in equal parts,  
To either of my lords your grace's sons,  
That think I best for this your realms behoof,  
For profit and advancement of your sons,  
And for your comfort and your honour eke.  
But so to place them, while your life do last,  
To yield to them your royal governance,  
To be above them only in the name  
Of father, not in kingly state also,  
I think not good for you, for them, nor us.  
This kingdom since the bloody civil field  
Where Morgan slain did yield his conquered part  
Unto his cousin's sword in Camberland,  
Containeth all that whilom did suffice  
Three noble sons of your forefather Brutus.  
So your two sons, it may suffice also.  
The more, the stronger, if they 'gree in one.  
The smaller compass that the realm doth hold,  
The easier is the sway thereof to weld,  
The nearer justice to the wronged poor,  
The smaller charge, and yet enough for one.  
And when the region is divided so,  
That brethren be the lords of either part,  
Such strength doth nature knit between them both,  
In sundry bodies by conjoined love,  
That not as two, but one of doubled force,  
Each is to other as a sure defence.  
The nobleness and glory of the one  
Doth sharp the courage of the others mind,  
With virtuous envy to contend for praise.  
And such an egalness hath nature made,  
Between the brethren of one father's seed,  
As an unkindly wrong it seems to be,  
To throw the brother subject under feet  
Of him, whose peer he is by course of kind,  
And nature that did make this egalnesse,  
Oft so repineth at so great a wrong,  
That oft she raiseth up a grudging grief,  
In younger brethren at the elders state:  
Whereby both towns and kingdoms have been razed,  
And famous stocks of royal blood destroyed:  
The brother, that should be the brother's aid,  
And have a wakeful care for his defence,  
Gapes for his death, and blames the lingering years  
That draw not forth his end with faster course:  
And often impatient of so long delays,  
With hateful slaughter he prevents the fates,  
And heaps a just reward for brother's blood,  
With endless vengeance on his stock for ay.  
Such mischiefs here are wisely met withal,  
If equal state may nourish equal love,  
Where none hath cause to grudge at others good.  
But now the head to stoop beneath them both,  
Ne kind, ne reason, ne good order bears.  
And often it hath been seen, where nature's course  
Hath been perverted in disordered wise,  
When fathers cease to know that they should rule,  
The children cease to know they should obey.  
And often overkindly tenderness  
Is mother of unkindly stubbornness.  
I speak not this in envy or reproach,  
As if I grudged the glory of your sons,  
Whose honour I beseech the Gods increase:  
Nor yet as if I thought there did remain,  
So filthy cankers in their noble breasts,  
Whom I esteem (which is their greatest praise)  
Undoubted children of so good a king,  
Only I mean to show by certain rules,  
Which kind hath grafted within the mind of man,  
That nature hath her order and her course,  
Which (being broken) doth corrupt the state  
Of minds and things, even in the best of all.  
My lords your sons may learn to rule of you.  
Your own example in your noble court  
Is fittest guider of their youthful years.  
If you desire to see some present joy  
By sight of their well ruling in your life,  
See them obey, so shall you see them rule,  
Who so obeyeth not with humbleness  
Will rule with outrage and with insolence.  
Long may they rule I do beseech the Gods,  
But long may they learn, ere they begin to rule.  
If kind and fates would suffer, I would wish  
Them aged princes, and immortal kings.  
Wherefore most noble king I well assent,  
Between your sons that you divide your realm,  
And as in kind, so match them in degree.  
But while the Gods prolong your royal life,  
Prolong your reign: for thereto live you here,  
And therefore have the Gods so long forborn  
To join you to themselves, that still you might  
Be prince and father of our common weal.  
They when they see your children ripe to rule,  
Will make them room, and will remove you hence,  
That yours in right ensuing of your life  
May rightly honour your immortal name.  Eub. 
Your wonted true regard of faithful hearts,  
Makes me (O king) the bolder to presume,  
To speak what I conceive within my breast,  
Although the same do not agreed at all  
With that which other here my lords have said.  
Nor which yourself have seemed best to like.  
Pardon I crave, and that my words be deigned  
To flow from hearty zeal unto your grace,  
And to the safety of your common weal.  
To part your realm unto my lords your sons,  
I think not good for you, ne yet for them,  
But worst of all for this our native land,  
Within one land, one single rule is best:  
Divided reigns do make divided hearts.  
But peace preserves the country and the prince,  
Such is in man the greedy mind to reign,  
So great is his desire to climb aloft,  
In worldly stage the stateliest parts to bear,  
That faith and justice and all kindly love,  
Do yield unto desire of sovereignty,  
Where equal state doth raise an equal hope  
To win the thing that either would attain.  
Your grace remembreth how in passed years  
The mighty Brutus, first prince of all this land,  
Possessed the same and ruled it well in one,  
He thinking that the compass did suffice,  
For his three sons three kingdoms eke to make,  
Cut it in three, as you would now in twain.  
But how much British blood hath since been spilled,  
To join again the sundered unity?  
What princes slain before their tunely hour?  
What wast of towns and people in the land?  
What treasons heaped on murders and on spoils?  
Whose just revenge even yet is scarcely ceased,  
Ruthful remembrance is yet raw in mind.  
The Gods forbid the like to chance again:  
And you (O king) give not the cause thereof.  
My Lord Ferrex your elder son, perhaps  
Whom kind and custom gives a rightful hope  
To be your heir and to succeed your reign,  
Shall think that he doth suffer greater wrong  
Than he perchance will bear, if power serve.  
Porrex the younger so upraised in state,  
Perhaps in courage will be raised also.  
If flattery then, which fails not to assail  
The tender minds of yet unskilful youth,  
In one shall kindle and increase disdain,  
And envy in the other's heart inflame,  
This fire shall waste their love, their lives, their land,  
And ruthful ruin shall destroy them both.  
I wish not this (O king) so to befall,  
But fear the thing, that I do most abhor.  
give no beginning to so dreadful end.  
Keep them in order and obedience:  
And let them both by now obeying you,  
Learn such behaviour as beseems their state,  
The elder, mildness in his governance,  
The younger, a yielding contentedness.  
And keep them near unto your presence still,  
That they restrained by the awe of you,  
May live in compass of well tempered stay,  
And pass the perils of their youthful years.  
Your aged life draws on to feebler time,  
Wherein you shall less able be to bear  
The travails that in youth you have sustained,  
Both in your persons and your realms defence.  
If planting now your sons in further parts,  
You send them further from your present reach,  
Less shall you know how they themselves demean:  
Traitorous corrupters of their pliant youth,  
Shall have unspied a much more free access,  
And if ambition and inflamed disdain  
Shall arm the one, the other, or them both,  
To civil war, or to usurping pride,  
Late shall you rue, that you ne recked before.  
Good is I grant of all to hope the best,  
But not to live still dreadless of the worst.  
So trust the one, that the other be foreseen.  
Arm not unskilfulness with princely power.  
But you that long have wisely ruled the reigns.  
Of royalty within your noble realm,  
So hold them, while the Gods for our avails  
Shall stretch the thread of your prolonged days.  
To soon he clomb into the flaming car,  
Whose want of skill did set the earth on fire.  
Time and example of your noble grace,  
Shall teach your sons both to obey and rule,  
When tune hath taught them, time shall make them place,  
The place that now is fully: and so I pray  
Long it remain, to comfort of us all.  Gorboduc. 
I take your faithful hearts in thankful part,  
But sith I see no cause to draw my mind,  
To fear the nature of my loving sons,  
Or to misdeem that envy or disdain,  
Can there work hate, where nature planteth love:  
In one self purpose do I still abide.  
My love extendeth equally to both,  
My land sufficeth for them both also.  
Humber shall part the marches of their realms:  
The Southern part the elder shall possess:  
The Northern shall Porrex the younger rule:  
In quiet I will pass mine aged days,  
Free from the travail and the painful cares,  
That hasten age upon the worthiest kings.  
But jest the fraud, that ye do seem to fear,  
Of flattering tongues, corrupt their tender youth,  
And writhe them to the ways of youthful lust,  
To climbing pride, or to revenging hate,  
Or to neglecting of their careful charge,  
Lewdly to live in wanton recklessnesse,  
Or to oppressing of the rightful cause,  
Or not to wreak the wrongs done to the poor,  
To tread down truth, or favour false deceit:  
I mean to join to either of my sons  
Some one of those, whose long approved faith  
And wisdom tried, may well assure my heart:  
That mining fraud shall find no way to creep  
Into their sensed ears with grave advise.  
This is the end, and so I pray you all  
To bear my sons the love and loyalty  
That I have found within your faithful breasts.  Arostus. 
You, nor your sons, our sovereign lord shall want,  
Our faith and service while our lives do last.  Chorus. 
When settled stay doth hold the royal throne  
In steadfast place, by known and doubtless right,  
And chiefly when descent on one alone  
Makes single and unparted reign to light:  
Each change of course unjoints the whole estate,  
And yields it thrall to ruin by debate.  
The strength that knit by fast accord in one,  
Against all foreign power of mighty foes,  
Can of itself defend itself alone,  
Disjoined once, the former force doth loose.  
The sticks, that sundered brake so soon in twain,  
In faggot bound attempted were in vain.  
Often tender mind that leads the partial eye  
Oferring parents in their children's love,  
Destroys the wrongly loved child thereby  
This doth the proud son of Apollo prove,  
Who rashly set in chariot of his sire.  
Inflamed the parched earth with heavens fire.  
And this great king, that doth divide his land,  
And change the course of his descending crown,  
And yields the reign into his children's hand,  
From blissful state of joy and great renown,  
A mirror shall become to Princes all,  
To learn to shun the cause of such a fall.    

¶ The order and signification of the domme show before the second act.  
¶ First the Music of Cornets began to play, during which came in upon the stage a King accompanied with a number of his nobility and gentlemen. And after he had placed himself in a chair of estate prepared for him: there came and kneeled before him a grave and aged gentleman and offered up a cup unto him of wine in a glass, which the the King refused. After him comes a brave and lusty young gentleman and presents the King with a cup of gold filled with poison, which the King accepted, and drinking the same, immediately fell down dead upon the the stage, and so was carried thence away by his Lords and gentlemen, and then the Music ceased. Hereby was signified, that as glass by nature holdeth no poison, but is clear and may easily be seen through, ne boweth by any art: So a faithful counsellor holdeth no treason, but is plain and open, ne yieldeth to any undiscrete affection, but giveth wholesome counsel, which the ill advised Prince refuseth. The delightful gold filled with poison betokeneth flattery, which under fair seeming of pleasant words beareth deadly poison, which destroyed the Prince that receiveth it. As befell in the two brethren Ferrex and Porrex, who refusing the wholesome advise of grave counsellors, credited these young Parasites, and brought to themselves death and destruction thereby.   

Actus secundus.  

Scena prima.  Ferrex. Hermon. Dordan. FErrex. 
I marvel much what reason led the king  
My Father, thus without all my desert,  
To reave me half the kingdom, which by course  
Of law and nature should remain to me.  Hermon. 
If you with stubborn and untamed pride  
Had stood against him in rebelling wise,  
Or if with grudging mind you had envied  
So slow a sliding of his aged years,  
Or sought before your time to haste the course  
Of fatal death upon his royal head,  
Or stained your stock with murder of your kin:  
Some face of reason might perhaps have seemed,  
To yield some likely cause to spoil ye thus.  Ferrox. 
The wrekeful God's power on my cursed head  
Eternal plagues and never dying woes,  
The hellish prince, adjudge my dampened ghost  
To Tantales thirst, or proud Ixion's wheel,  
Or cruel gripe to gnaw my growing heart,  
To during torments and unquenched flames,  
If ever I conceived so foul a thought,  
To wish his end of life, or yet of reign.  Dordan. 
Ne yet your father (O most noble Prince)  
Did ever think so fowl a thing of you.  
For he, with more than father's tender love,  
While yet the fates do lend him life to rule,  
(Who long might live to see your ruling well)  
To you my Lord, and to his other son:  
Lo he resigns his realm and royalty:  
Which never would so wise a Prince have done,  
If he had once misdemed that in your heart  
There ever lodged so unkind a thought.  
But tender love (my Lord) and settled trust  
Of your good nature, and your noble mind,  
Made him to place you thus in royal throne,  
And now to give you half his realm to guide,  
Yea and that half which in abounding store  
Of things that serve to make a wealthy realm,  
In stately cities, and in fruitful soil,  
In temperate breathing of the milder heaven,  
In things of needful use, which friendly sea,  
Transports by traffic from the foreign parts,  
In flowing wealth, in honour and in force,  
Doth pass the double value of the part,  
That Porrex hath allotted to his reign.  
Such is your case, such is your father's love.  Ferrex. 
Ah love, my friends? love wrongs not whom he loves.  Dordan. 
Ne yet he wrongeth you, that giveth you  
So large a reign, ere that the course of time  
Bring you to kingdom by descended right,  
Which time perhaps might end your time before.  Ferrex. 
Is this no wrong, say you, to reave from me  
My native right of half so great a realm?  
And thus to match his younger son with me  
In equal power, and in as great degree?  
Yea and what son? the son whose swelling pride  
Would never yield one point of reverence,  
When I the elder and apparent heir  
Stood in the likelihood to possess the whole,  
Yea and that son which from his childish age  
Envieth mine honour and doth hate my life.  
What will he now do, when his pride, his rage,  
The mindful malice of his grudging heart,  
Is armed with force, with wealth, and kingly state?  Hermon. 
Was this not wrong, yea ill advised wrong,  
To give so mad a man so sharp a sword,  
To so great peril of so great mishap,  
Wide open thus to set so large a way?  Dordan. 
Alas my Lord, what griefful thing is this,  
That of your brother you can think so ill?  
I never saw him utter likely sign,  
Whereby a man might see or once misdeem  
Such hate of you, ne such unyelding pride.  
Ill is their counsel, shameful be their end,  
That raising such mistrustful fear in you,  
Sowing the seed of such unkindly hate,  
Travail by treason to destroy you both.  
Wise is your brother, and of noble hope,  
Worthy to weld a large and mighty realm.  
So much a stronger friend have you thereby,  
Whose strength is your strength, if you 'gree in one.  Hermon. 
If nature and the Gods had pinched so  
Their flowing bounty, and their noble gifts  
Of princely qualities, from you my Lord,  
And powered them all at ones in wasteful wise  
Upon your father's younger son alone:  
Perhaps there be that in your prejudice  
Would say that birth should yield to worthiness.  
But sith in each good gift and princely art  
You are his match, and in the chief of all  
In mildness and in sober governance  
You far surmount: And sith there is in you  
Sufficing skill and hopeful towardness  
To wield the whole, and match your elders praise:  
I see no cause why ye should lose the half.  
Ne would I wish you yield to such a loss:  
Jest your mild sufferance of so great a wrong,  
Be deemed cowardish and simple dread:  
Which shall give courage to the fiery head  
Of your young brother to invade the whole.  
While yet therefore sticks in the people's mind  
The loathed wrong of your disheritance,  
And ere your brother have by settled power,  
By guile full cloak of an alluring show,  
Got him some force and favour in the realm,  
And while the noble Queen your mother lives,  
To work and practise all for your avail,  
Attempt redress by arms, and wreak yourself  
Upon his life, that gaineth by your loss,  
Who now to shame of you, and grief of us,  
In your own kingdom triumphs over you.  
Show now your courage meet for kingly state,  
That they which have avowed to spend their goods,  
Their lands, their lives and honours in your cause,  
May be the bolder to maintain your part,  
When they do see that coward fear in you,  
Shall not betray ne fail their faithful hearts.  
If once the death of Porrex end the strife,  
And pay the price of his usurped reign,  
Your mother shall persuade the angry king,  
The Lords your friends eke shall appease his rage.  
For they be wise, and well they can foresee,  
That ere long time your aged father's death  
Will bring a time when you shall well requited  
Their friendly favour, or their hateful spite,  
Yea, or their slackness to advance your cause.  
" Wise men do not so hung on passing state  
" Of present Princes, chiefly in their age,  
" But they will further cast their reaching eye,  
" To view and weigh the times and reigns to come.  
Ne is it likely, though the king be wroth,  
That he yet will, or that the realm will bear,  
Extreme revenge upon his only son.  
Or if he would, what one is he that dare  
Be minister to such an enterprise?  
And here you be now placed in your own,  
Amid your Friends, your vassals and your strength.  
We shall defend and keep your person safe,  
Till either counsel turn his tender mind,  
Or age, or sorrow end his weary days.  
But if the fear of Gods, and secret grudge  
Of nature's law, repining at the fact,  
Withhold your courage from so great attempt:  
Know ye, that lust of kingdoms hath no law.  
The Gods do bear and well allow in kings,  
The things they abhor in rascal routs.  
" When kings on slender quarrels run to wars,  
" And then in cruel and unkindly wise,  
" Command thefts, rapes, murders of innocentes,  
" The spoil of towns, ruins of mighty realms:  
" Think you such princes do suppose themselves  
" Subject to laws of kind, and fear of Gods?  
Murders and violent thefts in private men,  
Are heinous crimes and full of foul reproach,  
Yet none offence, but decked with glorious name  
Of noble conquests, in the hands of kings.  
But if you like not yet so hot devise,  
Ne list to take such vantage of the time,  
But though with peril of your own estate,  
You will not be the first that shall invade:  
Assemble yet your force for your defence,  
And for your safety stand upon your guard.  Dordan. 
O heaven was there ever heard or known,  
So wicked counsel to a noble prince?  
Let me (my Lord) disclose unto your grace  
This heinous tale, what mischief it contains,  
Your father's death, your brothers and your own,  
Your present murder and eternal shame.  
Hear me (O King) and suffer not to sink  
So high a treason in your princely breast.  Ferrex. 
The mighty Gods forbidden that ever I  
Should once conceive such mischief in my heart.  
Although my brother hath bereft my realm,  
And bear perhaps to me an hateful mind:  
Shall I revenge it, with his death therefore?  
Or shall I so destroy my father's life  
That gave me life? the Gods forbidden, I say.  
Cease you to speak so any more to me.  
Ne you my friend with answer once repeat  
So foul a tale. In silence let it die.  
What lord or subject shall have hope at all,  
That under me they safely shall enjoy  
Their goods, their honours, lands and liberties,  
With whom, neither one only brother dear,  
Ne father dearer, could enjoy their lives?  
But sigh, I fear my younger brothers rage,  
And sith perhaps some other man may give  
Some like advise, to move his grudging head  
At mine estate, which counsel may perchance  
Take greater force with him, than this with me,  
I will in secret so prepare myself,  
As if his malice or his lust to reign  
Break forth in arms or sudden violence,  
I may withstand his rage and keep mine own.  Dordan. 
I fear the fatal time now draweth on,  
When civil hate shall end the noble line  
Of famous Brutus and of his royal seed.  
Great jove defend the mischiefs now at hand.  
O that the Secretaries wise advise  
Had erst been heard when he besought the king  
Not to divide his land, nor sand his sons  
To further parts from presence of his court,  
Ne yet to yield to them his governance.  
Lo such are they now in the royal throne  
As was rash Phaeton in Phoebus' car.  
Ne then the fiery steeds did draw the flame  
With wilder random through the kindled skies,  
Than traitorous counsels now will whirl about  
The youthful heads of these unskilful kings.  
But I here of their father will inform.  
The reverence of him perhaps shall stay  
The growing mischiefs, while they yet are green.  
If this help not, than woe unto themselves,  
The prince, the people, the divided land.   

Actus secundus.  
Scena secunda.  Porrex. Tyndar. Philander. POrrex. 
And is it thus? And doth he so prepare,  
Against his brother as his mortal foe?  
And now while yet his aged father lives?  
Neither regards he him? nor fears he me?  
War would he have? and he shall have it so.  Tyndar. 
I saw myself the great prepared store  
Of horse, of armour, and of weapon there,  
Ne bring I to my lord reported tales  
Without the ground of seen and searched troth.  
Lo secret quarrels run about his court,  
To bring the name of you my lord in hate.  
Each man almost can now debate the cause,  
And ask a reason of so great a wrong,  
Why he so noble and so wise a prince,  
Is as unworthy rest his heritage?  
And why the king, misseledde by crafty means,  
Divided thus his land from course of right?  
The wiser sort hold down their griefful heads.  
Each man withdraws from talk and company,  
Of those that have been known to favour you.  
To hide the mischief of their meaning there,  
Rumours are spread of your preparing here.  
The rascal numbers of unskilful sort  
Are filled with monstrous tales of you and yours.  
In secret I was counseled by my friends,  
To hast me thence, and brought you as you know  
Letters from those, that both can truly tell,  
And would not writ unless they knew it well.  Philand. 
My lord, yet ere you move unkindly war,  
Sand to your brother to demand the cause.  
Perhaps some traitorous tales have filled his ears  
With false reports against your noble grace:  
Which once disclosed, shall end the growing strife,  
That else not stayed with wise foresight in time  
Shall hazard both your kingdoms and your lives.  
Sand to your father eke, he shall appease  
Your kindled minds, and rid you of this fear.  Porrex. 
Rid me of fear? I fear him not at all:  
Ne will to him, ne to my father sand.  
If danger were for one to tarry there,  
Think ye it safety to return again?  
In mischiefs, such as Ferrex now intends,  
The wonted courteous laws to messengers  
Are not observed, which in just war they use.  
Shall I so hazard any one of mine?  
Shall I betray my trusty friends to him,  
That have disclosed his treason unto me?  
Let him entreat that fears, I fear him not.  
Or shall I to the king my father sand?  
Yea and sand now, while such a mother lives,  
That loves my brother, and that hateth me?  
Shall I give leisure, by my fond delays,  
To Ferrex to oppress me all unware?  
I will not, but I will invade his realm,  
And seek the traitor prince within his court.  
Mischief for mischief is a due reward.  
His wretched head shall pay the worthy price  
Of this his treason and his hate to me.  
Shall I abide, and treat, and sand and pray,  
And hold my yelden throat to traitors knife?  
While I with valiant mind and conquering force,  
Might rid myself of foes: and win a realm?  
Yet rather, when I have the wretch's head,  
Then to the king my father will I sand.  
The bootless case may yet appease his wrath:  
If not, I will defend me as I may.  Philand. 
Lo here the end of these two youthful kings,  
The father's death, the ruin of their realms.  
" O most unhappy state of counsellors,  
" That light on so unhappy lords and times,  
" That neither can their good advise be heard,  
" Yet must they bear the blames of ill success.  
But I will to the king their father haste,  
Ere this mischief come to the likely end,  
That if the mindful wrath of wreakful Gods,  
Since mighty Ilion's fall not yet appeased  
With these poor remnants of the Trojan name,  
Have not determined by unmoved fate  
Out of this realm to raze the British line,  
By good advise, by awe of father's name,  
By force of wiser lords, this kindled hate  
May yet be quenched, ere it consume us all.  Chorus. 
When youth not bridled with a guiding stay  
Is left to random of their own delight,  
And wields whole realms, by force of sovereign sway,  
Great is the danger of unmaistred might,  
Jest skilless rage throw down with headlong fall●  
Their lands, their states, their lives, themselves & all  
When growing pride doth fill the swelling breast,  
And greedy lust doth raise the climbing mind,  
O hardly may the peril be repressed,  
Ne fear of angry Gods, ne laws kind.  
Ne countries care can fired hearts restrain,  
When force hath armed envy and disdain.  
When kings of foreset will neglect the read  
Of best advise, and yield to pleasing tales,  
That do their fancies noisome humour feed,  
Ne reason, nor regard of right avails.  
Succeeding heaps of plagues shall teach to late,  
To learn the mischiefs of misguided state.  
foul fall the traitor false, that undermines  
The love of brethren to destroy them both.  
woe to the prince, that pliant care inclines,  
And yields his mind to poisonous tale, that floweth  
From flattering mouth. And woe to wretched land  
That wastes itself with civil sword in hand.  
Lo, thus it is, poison in gold to take,  
And wholesome drink in homely cup forsake.    

¶ The order and signification of the domme show before the third act.  
¶ first the music of flutes began to play, during which came in upon the stage a company of mourners all clad in black betokening death and sorrow to ensue upon the ill advised misgovernment and dissension of brethren, as befell upon the murderer of Ferrex by his younger brother. After the mourners had passed thrice about the stage, they departed, and than the music ceased.   

Actus tertius.  

Scena prima.  Gorboduc. Eubulus. Arostus. Philander. Nuntius. GOrb. 
O cruel fates, O mindful wrath of Gods,  
Whose vengeance neither Simois stained streams  
Flowing with blood of Trojan princes slain,  
Nor Phrygian fields made rank with corpses dead  
Of Asian kings and lords, can yet appease,  
Ne slaughter of unhappy Priam's race,  
Nor Ilion's fall made level with the soil.  
Can yet suffice: but still continued rage  
Pursues our lines, and from the farthest seas  
Doth chase the issues of destroyed Troy.  
" O no man happy, till his end be seen.  
If any flowing wealth and seeming joy  
In present years might make a happy wight,  
Happy was Hecuba the woefullest wretch  
That ever lived to make a mirror of,  
And happy Priam with his noble sons.  
And happy I, till now alas I see  
And feel my most unhappy wretchedness.  
Behold my lords, read ye this letter here.  
Lo it contains the ruin of our realm,  
If timely speed provide not hasty help.  
Yet (O ye Gods) if ever woeful king  
Might move ye kings of kings, wreak it on me  
And on my sons, not on this guiltless realm.  
Sand down your wasting flames from wrathful skies,  
To reave me and my sons the hateful breath.  
Read, read my lords: this is the matter why  
I called ye now to have your good advise.  
¶ The letter from Dordan the Counsellor of the elder prince.  Eubulus readeth the letter. 
MY sovereign lord, what I am loath to writ,  
But loathest am to see, that I am forced  
By letters now to make you understand.  
My lord Ferrex your eldest son misled  
By traitorous fraud of young untempered wits,  
Assembleth force against your younger son,  
Ne can my counsel yet withdraw the heat  
And furious pangs of his inflamed head.  
Disdain (saith he) of his disheritance  
Arms him to wreak the great pretended wrong,  
With civil sword upon his brother's life.  
If present help do not restrain this rage,  
This flame will waste your sons, your land, & you.  
Your majesties faithful and most humble subject Dordan.  ARostus. 
O king, appease your grief and stay your plaint.  
Great is the matter, and a woeful case.  
But timely knowledge may bring timely help.  
Send for them both unto your presence here.  
The reverence of your honourage, and state,  
Your grave advice, the awe of father's name,  
Shall quickly knit again this broken peace.  
And if in either of my lords your sons,  
Be such untamed and unyelding pride,  
As will not bend unto your noble hests:  
If Ferrex the elder son can bear no peer,  
Or Porrex not content, aspires to more  
Than you him gave above his native right:  
join with the juster side, so shall you force  
Them to agreed, and hold the land in stay.  Eub. 
What meaneth this? Lo yonder comes in haste  
Philander from my lord your younger son.  Gorb. 
The Gods send joyful news.  Phil. 
The mighty jove  
Preserve your majesty, O noble king.  Gorb. 
Philander, welcome: but how doth my son?  Phil. 
Your son, sir, lives, and healthy I him left.  
But yet (O king) the want of lustful health  
Can not be half so grief-full to your grace,  
As these most wretched tidings that I bring.  Gorb. 
O heavens, yet more? not end of woes to me?  Phil. 
Tyndar, O king, came lately from the court  
Of Ferrex, to my lord your younger son,  
And made report of great prepared store  
For war, and saith that it is wholly meant  
Against Porrex, for high disdain that he  
lives now a king and equal in degree  
With him, that claimeth to succeed the whole,  
As by due title of descending right.  
Porrex is now so set on flaming fire,  
Partly with kindled rage of cruel wrath,  
Partly with hope to gain a realm thereby,  
That he in haste prepareth to invade  
His brother's land, and with unkindly war  
Threatens the murder of your elder son,  
Ne could I him persuade that first he should  
Sand to his brother to demand the cause,  
Nor yet to you to stay this hateful strife,  
Wherefore scythe there no more I can be heard,  
I come myself now to inform your grace,  
And to beseech you, as you love the life  
And safety of your children and your realm,  
Now to employ your wisdom and your force  
To stay this mischief ere it be to late.  Gorb. 
Are they in arms? would he not send to me?  
Is this the honour of a father's name?  
In vain we travail to assuage their minds,  
As if their hearts, whom neither brother's love,  
Nor father's awe, nor kingdoms cares, can move,  
Our counsels could withdraw from raging heat.  
jove slay them both, and end the cursed line.  
For though perhaps fear of such mighty force  
As I my lords, joined with your noble aids,  
May yet raise, shall repress their present heat,  
The secret grudge and malice will remain,  
The fire not quenched, but kept in close restraint,  
Fed still within, breaks forth with double flame.  
Their death and mine must pease the angry Gods  Phil. 
Yield not, O king, so much to weak despair.  
Your sons yet live, and long I trust, they shall.  
If fates had taken you from earthly life,  
Before beginning of this civil strife:  
Perhaps your sons in their unmaistered youth,  
Lose from regard of any living wight,  
Would run on headlong, with unbridled race,  
To their own death and ruin of this realm.  
But sith the Gods, that have the care for kings,  
Of things and times dispose the order so,  
That in your life this kindled flame breaks forth,  
While yet your life, your wisdom, and your power.  
May stay the growing mischief, and repress  
The fiery blaze of their enkindled heat:  
It seems, and so ye aught to deem thereof,  
That loving jove hath tempered so the time  
Of this debate to happen in your days,  
That you yet living may the same appease,  
And add it to the glory of your latter age,  
And they our sons may learn to live in peace.  
Beware (O king) the greatest harm of all,  
Jest by your waylefull plaints your hastened death  
Yield larger room unto their growing rage.  
Preserve your life, the only hope of stay.  
And if your highness herein list to use  
Wisdom or force, counsel or knightly aid:  
Lo we, our persons, powers and lives are yours,  
Use us till death, O king, we are your own.  Eub. 
Lo here the peril that was erst foreseen,  
When you, (O king) did first divide your land,  
And yield your present reign unto your sons,  
But now (O noble prince) now is no time  
To wail and plain, and waste your woeful life.  
Now is the time for present good advise.  
Sorrow doth dark the judgement of the wit.  
" The heart unbroken and the courage free  
" From feeble faintness of bootless despair,  
" Doth either rise to safety or renown  
" By noble valour of unvanquished mind,  
" Or yet doth perish in more happy sort.  
Your grace may sand to either of your sons  
Some one both wise and noble parsonage,  
Which with good counsel and with weighty name,  
Of father, shall present before their eyes  
Your hest, your life, your safety and their own,  
The present mischief of their deadly strife.  
And in the while, assemble you the force  
Which your commandment and the speedy haste  
Of all my lords here present can prepare.  
The terror of your mighty power shall stay  
The rage of both, or yet of one at least.  Nun. 
O king the greatest grief that ever prince did hear,  
That ever woeful messenger did tell,  
That ever wretched land hath seen before,  
I bring to you. Porrex your younger son  
With sudden force, invaded hath the land  
That you to Ferrex did allot to rule,  
And with his own most bloody hand he hath  
His brother slain, and doth possess his realm.  Gorb. 
O heavens sand down the flames of your revenge,  
Destroy I say with flash of wreakful fire  
The traitor son, and then the wretched sire.  
But let us go, that yet perhaps I may  
Die with revenge, and pease the hateful gods.  Chor. 
The lust of kingdom knows no sacred faith,  
No rule of reason, no regard of right,  
No kindly love, no fear of heavens wrath:  
But with contempt of Gods, and man's despite,  
Through bloody slaughter, doth prepare the ways  
To fatal sceptre and accursed reign.  
The son so loathes the father's linger days,  
Ne dreads his hand in brother's blood to stain.  
O wretched prince, ne dost thou yet record  
The yet fresh murders done within the land  
Of thy forefathers, when the cruel sword  
Bereft Morgan his life with cousins hand?  
Thus fatal plagues pursue the guilty race,  
Whose murderous hand imbrued with guiltless blood  
Asks vengeance still before the heavens face,  
With endless mischiefs on the cursed brood.  
The wicked child thus brings to woeful sire  
The mournful plaints, to waste his very life.  
Thus do the cruel flames of civil fire  
Destroy the parted reign with hateful strife.  
And hence doth spring the well from which doth flow  
The dead black streams of mourning, plaints & woe.    

¶ The order and signification of the domme show before the fourth act.  
¶ First the music of oboes began to play, during which there came from under the stage, as though out of hell three furies. Allecto, Megaera, and Ctesiphone, clad in black garments sprinkled with blood and flames, their bodies girt with snakes, their heads spread with serpents in stead of hear, the one bearing in her hand a Snake, the other a Whip, and the third a burning Firebrand: each driving before them a king and a queen, which moved by furies unnaturally had slain their own children. The names of the kings and queens were these. Tantalus, Medea, Athamas, Ino, Cambyses, Althaea, after that the furies and these had passed about the stage thrice, they departed and than the music ceased: hereby was signified the unnatural murders to follow, that is to say. Porrex slain by his own mother. And of king Gorboduc and queen Uiden, killed by their own subjects.   

Actus quartus.  

Scena prima.  Viden sola. VId. 
Why should I live, and liuger forth my time  
In longer life to double my distress?  
O me most woeful wight, whom no mishap  
Long ere this day could have bereaved hence.  
Might not these hands by fortune, or by fate,  
Have pierced this breast, and life with iron rest?  
Or in this palace here, where I so long  
Have spent my days, could not that happy hour  
Once, once have happed in which these hugy frames  
With death by fall might have oppressed me?  
Or should not this most hard and cruel soil,  
So often where I have priest my wretched steps,  
Sometime had ruth of mine accursed life,  
To rend in twain swallow me therein?  
So had my bones possessed now in peace  
Their happy grave within the closed ground,  
And greedy worms had gnawn this pined heart  
Without my feeling pain: so should not now  
This living breast remain the ruthful tomb,  
Wherein my heart yelden to death is graved:  
Nor dreary thoughts with pangs of pining grief  
My doleful mind had not afflicted thus.  
O my beloved son: O my sweet child,  
My dear Ferrex, my joy, my lives delight.  
Is my beloved son, is my sweet child,  
My dear Ferrex, my joy, my lives delight.  
Murdered with cruel death? O hateful wretch,  
O heinous traitor both to heaven and earth.  
Thou Porrex, thou this damned deed hast wrought,  
Thou Porrex, thou shalt dearly buy the same.  
Traitor to kin and kind, to sire and me,  
To thine own flesh, and traitor to thyself.  
The Gods on thee in hell shall wreak their wrath,  
And here in earth this hand shall take revenge,  
On thee Porrex, thou false and caitiff wight.  
If after blood, so eager were thy thirst,  
And murderous mind had so possessed thee,  
If such hard heart of rock and stony flint  
Lived in thy breast, that nothing else could like  
Thy cruel tyrants thought but death and blood:  
Wild savage beasts, might not their slaughter serve  
To feed thy greedy will, and in the midst  
Of their entrails to stain thy deadly hands  
With blood deserved, and drink thereof thy fill?  
Or if naught else but death and blood of man  
Might please thy lust, could none in Britain land,  
Whose heart betorne out of his panting breast  
With thine own hand, or work what death thou wouldst,  
Suffice to make a sacrifice to pease  
That deadly mind and murderous thought in thee?  
But he who in the self same womb was wrapped,  
Where thou in dismal hour receivedst life?  
Or if needs, needs, thy hand must slaughter make,  
moughtst thou not have reached a mortal wound,  
And with thy sword have pierced this cursed womb,  
That the accursed Porrex brought to light,  
And given me a just reward therefore?  
So Ferrex yet sweet life might have enjoyed,  
And to his aged father comfort brought,  
With some young son in whom they both might live.  
But whereunto waste I this ruthful speech,  
To thee that hast thy brother's blood thus shed?  
Shall I still think that from this womb thou sprung?  
That I thee bore? or take thee for my son?  
No traitor, no: I thee refuse for mine,  
Murderer I thee renounce, thou art not mine.  
Never, O wretch, this womb conceived thee,  
Nor never bode I painful throws for thee.  
Changeling to me thou art, and not my child,  
Nor to no wight, that spark of pity knew.  
Ruthless, unkind, monster of nature's work,  
Thou never sucked the milk of woman's breast,  
But from thy birth the cruel Tigers teats  
Have nursed thee, nor yet of flesh and blood  
Formed is thy heart, but of hard iron wrought,  
And wild and desert woods bred thee to life.  
But canst thou hope to scape my just revenge?  
Or that these hands will not be wrooke on thee?  
Dost thou not know that Ferrex mother lives  
That loved him more dearly than herself?  
And doth she live, and is not venged on thee?   

Actus quartus.  
Scena secunda.  Gorboduc. Arostus. Eubulus. Porrex. Marcelia. GOrb. 
We marvel much whereto this lingering stay  
Falls out so long: Porrex unto our court  
By order of our letters is returned,  
And Eubulus received from us by hest  
At his arrival here to give him charge  
Before our presence strait to make repair,  
And yet we have no word whereof he stays.  Arostus. 
Lo where he comes & Eubulus with him.  Eubulus. 
According to your highness hest to me,  
Here have I Porrex brought even in such sort  
As from his wearied horse he did alight,  
For that your grace did will such haste therein.  Gorboduc. 
We like and praise this speedy will in you,  
To work the thing that to your charge we gave.  
Porrex, if we so far should serve from kind,  
And from those bounds which law of nature sets,  
As thou hast done by vile and wretched deed,  
In cruel murder of thy brother's life,  
Our present hand could stay no longer time,  
But strait should bathe this blade in blood of thee  
As just revenge of thy detested crime.  
Not: we should not offend the law of kind,  
If now this sword of ours did slay thee here:  
For thou hast murdered him, whose heinous death  
Even nature's force doth move us to revenge  
By blood again: and justice forceth us  
To measure death for death, thy due desert.  
Yet sithence thou art our child, and sith as yet  
In this hard case what word thou canst allege  
For thy defence, by us hath not been heard,  
We are content to stay our will for that  
Which justice bids us presently to work,  
And give thee leave to use thy speech at full  
If aught thou have to lay for thine excuse.  Porrex. 
Neither O king, I can or will deny  
But that this hand from Ferrex life hath reft:  
Which fact how much my doleful heart doth wail,  
O would it might as full appear to sight  
As inward grief doth pour it forth to me.  
So yet perhaps if ever ruthful heart  
Melting in tears within a manly breast,  
Through deep repentance of his bloody fact,  
If ever grief, if ever woeful man  
Might move regreite with sorrow of his fault,  
I think the torment of my mournful case  
Known to your grace, as I do feel the same,  
Would force even wrath herself to pity me.  
But as the water troubled with the mud  
Shows not the face which else the eye should see.  
Even so your ireful mind with stirred thought,  
Can not so perfectly discern my cause.  
But this unhap, amongst so many heaps,  
I must content me with, most wretched man,  
That to myself I must reserve my woe  
In pining thoughts of mine accursed fact,  
Since I may not show here my smallest grief  
Such as it is, and as my breast endures,  
Which I esteem the greatest misery  
Of all misschappes that fortune now can sand,  
Not that I rest in hope with plaint and tears  
To purchase life: for to the Gods I clepe  
For true record of this my faithful speech,  
Never this heart shall have the thoughtful dread  
To die the death that by your grace's doom  
By just desert, shall be pronounced to me:  
Nor never shall this tongue once spend the speech  
Pardon to crave, or seek by suit to live.  
I mean not this, as though I were not touched  
With care of dreadful death, or that I held  
Life in contempt: but that I know, the mind  
Stoops to no dread, although the flesh be frail,  
And for my gilt, I yield the same so great  
As in myself I find a fear to sue  
For grant of life.  Gorbodue. 
In vain, O wretch, thou showest  
A woeful heart, Ferrex now lies in grave,  
Slain by thy hand.  Porrex. 
Yet this, O father, hear:  
And then I end. Your majesty well knows,  
That when my brother Ferrex and myself  
By your own hest were joined in governance  
Of this your grace's realm of Britain land,  
I never sought nor traveled for the same,  
Nor by myself, nor by no friend I wrought,  
But from your highness will alone it sprung,  
Of your most gracious goodness bend to me.  
But how my brother's heart even then repined  
With swollen disdain against mine equal rule,  
seeing that realm, which by descent should grow  
Wholly to him, allotted half to me?  
Even in your highness court he now remains,  
And with my brother then in nearest place,  
Who can record, what proof thereof was showed,  
And how my brother's envious heart appeared.  
Yet I that judged it my part to seek  
His favour and good will, and loath to make  
Your highness know, the thing which should have brought  
Brief to your grace, & your offence to him,  
Hoping my earnest suit should soon have won  
A loving heart within a brother's breast,  
Wrought in that sort that for a pledge of love  
And faithful heart, he gave to me his hand.  
This made me think, that he had banished quite  
All rancour from his thought and bore to me  
Such hearty love, as I did own to him.  
But after once we left your grace's court,  
And from your highness presence lived apart,  
This equal rule still, still, did grudge him so  
That now those enumous sparks which erst lay raked  
In living cinders of dissembling breast,  
Kindled so far within his heart disdain,  
That longer could he not refrain from proof  
Of secret practice to deprive me life  
By poisons force, and had bearest me so,  
If mine own servant hired to this fact  
And moved by troth with hate to work the same,  
In time had not bewrayed it unto me.  
When thus I saw the knot of love unknit,  
All honest league and faithful promise broke,  
The law of kind and troth thus rend in twain,  
His heart on mischief set, and in his breast  
Black treason hid, then, then did I despair  
That ever time could win him friend to me.  
Then saw I how he smiled with slaying knife  
Wrapped under cloak, than saw I deep deceit  
Lurk in his face and death prepared for me:  
Even nature moved me than to hold my life  
Moore dear to me than his, and had this hand,  
Since by his life my death must needs ensue,  
And by his death my life to be preserved,  
To shed his blood, and seek my safety so.  
And wisdom willed me without protract  
In speedy wise to put the same in ure.  
Thus have I told the cause that moved me  
To work my brother's death and so I yield  
My life, my death, to judgement of your grace.  Gord. 
O cruel wight, should any cause prevail  
To make thee stain thy hands with brother's blood:  
But what of thee we will resolve to do,  
Shall yet remain unknown: Thou in the mean  
Shalt from our royal presence banished be,  
Until our princely pleasure further shall  
To thee be showed. Departed therefore our sight  
Accursed child. What cruel destiny,  
What froward fate hath sorted us this chance,  
That even in those where we should comfort found,  
Where our delight now in our aged days  
Sold rest and be, even there our only grief  
And deepest sorrows to abridge our life,  
Most pining cares and deadly thoughts do grow?  Aros. 
Your grace should now in these grave years of yours  
Have found ere this the price of mortal joys,  
How short they be, how fading here in earth,  
How full of change, how brittle our estate,  
Of nothing sure, save only of the death,  
To whom both man and all the world doth own  
Their end at last, neither should natures power  
In other sort against your heart prevail,  
Than as the naked hand whose stroke assays  
The armed breast where force doth light in vain.  Gorbod. 
Many can yield right sage and grave advise  
Of patient spirit to others wrapped in woe,  
And can in speech both rule and conquer kind,  
Who if by proof they might feel nature's force,  
Would show themselves men as they are in deed,  
Which now will needs be gods. But what doth mean  
The sorry cheer of her that here doth come?  Marcelia. 
O where is ruth? or where is pity now?  
Whether is gentle heart and mercy fled?  
Are they exiled out of our stony breasts,  
Never to make return? is all the world  
Drowned in blood, and sunk in cruelty?  
If not in women mercy may be found,  
If not (alas) within the mother's breast,  
To her own child, to her own flesh and blood,  
If ruth be banished thence, if pity there  
May have no place, if there no gentle heart  
Do live and devil, where should we seek it then?  Gorb. 
Madam (alas) what means your woeful tale?  Marcelia. 
O silly woman I, why to this hour  
Have kind and fortune thus deferred my breath,  
That I should live to see this doleful day?  
Will ever wight believe that such hard heart  
Can rest within the cruel mother's breast,  
With her own hand to slay her only son?  
But out (alas) these eyes beheld the same,  
They saw the dreary sight, and are becomen  
Most ruthful records of the bloody fact.  
Porrex (alas) is by his mother slain,  
And with her hand, a woeful thing to tell,  
While slumbering on his careful bed he rests  
His heart stabbed in with knife is rest of life.  Gorboduc. 
O Eubulus, o draw this sword of ours,  
And pierce this heart with speed. O hateful light,  
O loathsome life, O sweet and welcome death.  
Dear Eubulus work this we thee beseech.  Eubulus. 
Patient your grace, perhaps he liveth yet.  
With wound received, but not of certain death.  Gorboduc. 
O let us then repair unto the place,  
And see if Porrex live, or thus be slain.  Marcelia. 
Alas he liveth not, it is to true,  
That with these eyes of him a peerless prince,  
Son to a king, and in the flower of youth,  
Even with a twink a senseless stock I saw.  Arostus. 
O damned deed.  Marcelia. 
But hear his ruthful end.  
The noble prince, pierced with the sudden wound,  
Out of his wretched slumber hastily start,  
Whose strength now failing strait he overthrew,  
When in the fall his eyes even new unclosed  
Beheld the Queen, and cried to her for help.  
We then, alas, the ladies which that time  
Did there attend, seeing that heinous deed,  
And hearing him often call the wretched name  
Of mother, and to cry to her for aid,  
Whose direful hand gave him the mortal wound,  
Pitying (alas) for naught else could we do)  
His ruthful end, ran to the woeful bed,  
Despoiled strait his breast, and all we might  
Wiped in vain with napkins next at hand,  
The sudden streams of blood that flushed fast  
Out of the gaping wound, O what a look,  
O what a ruthful steadfast eye me thought  
He fixed upon my face, which to my death  
Will never part fro me, when with a braid  
A deep fet sigh he gave, and therewithal  
Clasping his hands, to heaven he cast his sight.  
And strait pale death pressing within his face  
The flying ghost his mortal corpses forsook.  Arostus. 
Never did age bring forth so vile a fact.  Marcelia. 
O hard and cruel hap, that thus assigned  
Unto so worthy a wight so wretched end:  
But most hard cruel heart, that could consent  
To lend the hateful destinies that hand,  
By which, alas, so heinous crime was wrought.  
O Queen of adamant, O marble breast.  
If not the favour of his comely face,  
If not his princely cheer and countenance,  
His valiant active arms, his manly breast,  
If not his fair and seemly parsonage,  
His noble limbs in such proportion cast  
As would have wrapped a silly woman's thought,  
If this might not have moved thy bloody heart.  
And that most cruel hand the wretched weapon  
Even to let fall, and kissed him in the face,  
With tears for ruth to reave such one by death:  
Should nature yet consent to slay her son?  
O mother, thou to murder thus thy child?  
Even jove with justice must with lightning flames  
Fron heaven sand down some strange revenge on thee.  
Ah noble prince, how often have I beheld  
Thee mounted on thy fierce and trampling stead,  
Shining in armour bright before the tilt,  
And with thy mistress sleeve tied on thy helm,  
And charge thy staff to please thy lady's eye,  
That bowed the head piece of thy friendly foe?  
How often in arms on horse to bend the mace?  
How often in arms on foot to break the sword,  
Which never now these eyes may see again.  Arostus, 
Madame, alas, in vain these plaints are shed,  
Rather with me departed, and help to suage,  
The thoughtful griefs that in the aged king  
Must needs by nature grow, by death of this  
His only son, whom he did hold so dear.  Marcelia. 
What wight is that which saw that I did see,  
And could refrain to wail with plaint and tears?  
Not I, alas, that heart is not in me.  
But let us go, for I am grieved anew,  
To call to mind the wretched father's woe.  Chorus. 
When greedy lust in royal seat to reign  
Hath rest all care of Gods and eke of men,  
And cruel heart, wrath, treason, and disdain  
Within ambitious breast are lodged, then  
Behold how mischief wide herself displays,  
And with the brother's hand the brother slays.  
When blood thus shed, doth stain the heavens face,  
Crying to jove for vengeance of the deed,  
The mightic God even moveth from his place,  
With wrath to wreak: then sends he forth with speed  
The dreadful furies, daughters of the night,  
With Serpents girt, carrying the whip of ire,  
With hear of stinging Snakes, and shining bright  
With flames and blood, and with a brand of fire.  
These for revenge of wretched murder done,  
Do make the mother kill her only son.  
Blood asketh blood, and death must death requited.  
jove by his just and everlasting doom  
justly hath ever so requited it.  
The times before record, and times to come  
Shall find it true, and so doth present proof  
Present before our eyes for our behoof.  
O happy wight that suffres not the snare  
Of murderous mind to tangle him in blood.  
And happy he that can in time beware  
By others harms and turn it to his good.  
But woe to him that fearing not to offend  
Doth serve his lust, and will not see the end,    

¶ The order and signification of the domme show before the fifth act.  
¶ First the drums & sluites, began to sound, during which there came forth upon the stage a company of Harquebusiers and of Armed men all in order of battle. These after their pieces discharged, and that the armed men had three times marched about the stage, departed, and then the drums and flutes did cease. Hereby was signified tumults, rebellions. arms and civil wars to follow, as fell in the realm of great Britain, which by the space of fifty years & more continued in civil war between the nobility after the death of king Gorboduc, and of his issues, for want of certain limitation in succession of the crown, till the time of Dunwallo Molmutius, who reduced the land to monarchy.   

Actus quintus.  

Scena prima.  Clotyn. Mandud. Gwenard. Fergus. Eubulus. CLot. 
Did ever age bring forth such tyrants hearts?  
The brother hath bereft the brother's life,  
The mother she hath died her cruel hands  
In blood of her own son, and now at last  
The people lo forgetting troth and love,  
Contemning quite both law and loyal heart,  
Even they have slain their sovereign lord & queen.  Mand. 
Shall this their traitorous crime unpunished rest?  
Even yet they cease not, carried on with rage,  
In their rebellious routs, to threaten still  
A new blood shed unto the prince's kin,  
To slay them all, and to uproote the race  
Both of the king and queen, so are they moved  
With Porrex death, wherein they falsely charge  
The guiltless king without desert at all,  
And traitorously have murdered him therefore,  
And eke the queen.  Gwena. 
Shall subjects dare with force  
To work revenge upon their prince's fact?  
Admit the worst that may, as sure in this  
The deed was fowl, the queen to slay her son,  
Shall yet the subject seek to take the sword,  
Arise against his lord, and slay his king?  
O wretched state, where those rebellious hearts  
Are not rend out even from their living breasts,  
And with the body thrown unto the fowls  
As carrion food, for terror of the rest.  Ferg. 
There can no punishment be thought to great  
For this so grievous cryine: let speed therefore  
Be used therein for it behoveth so.  Eubulus. 
You all my lords, I see, consent in one  
And I as one consent with ye in all.  
I hold it more than need with sharpest law  
To punish this tinnultuous bloody rage.  
For nothing more may shake the common state,  
Than sufferance of uproars without redress,  
Whereby how some kingdoms of mighty power  
After great conquests made, and flourishing  
In fame and wealth, have been to ruin brought,  
I pray to jove that we may rather wail  
Such hap in them than witness in ourselves.  
Eke fully with the duke my mind agrees,  
Though kings forget to govern as they aught,  
Yet subjects must obey as they are bound.  
But now my lords, before ye farther wade,  
Or spend your speech, what sharp revenge shall fall  
By justice plague on these rebellious wights,  
Me thinks ye rather should first search the way,  
By which in time the rage of this uproar  
Might be repressed, and these great tumults ceased.  
Even yet the life of Britain land doth hung  
In traitors balance of unegal weight.  
Think not my lords the death of Gorboduc,  
Nor yet Videna's blood will cease their rage:  
Even our own lives, our wives and children dear,  
Our country dearest of all, in danger stands,  
Now to be spoiled, now, now made desolate,  
And by ourselves a conquest to ensue.  
For give once sway unto the people's lusts,  
To rush forth, on, and stay them not in time,  
And as the stream that rolleth down the hill,  
So will they headlong run with raging thoughts  
From blood to blood, from mischief unto woe,  
To ruin of the realm, themselves and all,  
So giddy are the common people's minds,  
So glad of change, more wavering than the sea.  
You see (my lords) what strength these rebels have,  
What hugy number is assembled still,  
For though the traitorous fact, for which they rose  
Be wrought and done, yet lodge they still in field  
So that how far their furies yet will stretch  
Breat cause we have to dread. That we may seek  
By present battle to repress their power,  
Speed must we use to levy force therefore.  
For either they forthwith will mischief work,  
Or their rebellious roars forthwith will cease.  
These violent things may have no lasting long.  
Let us therefore use this for present help,  
Persuade by gentle speech, and offer grace  
With gift of pardon save unto the chief,  
And that upon condition that forthwith  
They yield the captains of their enterprise,  
To bear such guerdon of their traitorous fact,  
As may be both due vengeance to themselves,  
And wholesome terror to posterity.  
This shall, I think, scatter the greatest part,  
That now are holden with desire of home,  
Wearied in field with cold of winter's nights,  
And some (no doubt) stricken with dread of law.  
When this is once proclaimed, it shall make  
The captains to mistrust the multitude,  
Whose safety bids them to betray their heads,  
And so much more because the rascal routs,  
In things of great and perilous attempts,  
Are never trusty to the noble race.  
And while we treat and stand on terms of grace,  
We shall both stay their furies rage's the while,  
And eke gain time, whose only help sufficeth  
without war to vanquish rebels power  
In the mean while, make you in readiness  
Such band of horsemen as ye may prepare.  
Horsemen (you know) are not the commons strength,  
But are the force and store of noble men,  
Whereby the unchosen and unarmed sort  
Of skilless rebels, whom none other power  
But number makes to be of dreadful force,  
With sudden brunt may quickly be oppressed.  
And if this gentle mean of proffered grace,  
With stubborn hearts cannot so far avail,  
As to assuage their desperate courages.  
Then do I wish such slaughter to be made,  
As present age and eke posterity  
May be adread with horror of revenge,  
That justly then shall on these rebels fall.  
This is my lord the sum of mine advise.  Clotyn. 
Neither this case admits debate at large,  
And though it did, this speech that hath been said  
Hath well abridged the tale I would have told.  
Fully with Eubulus do I consent  
In all that he hath said: and if the same  
To you my lords, may seem for best advise,  
I wish that it should straight be put in ure.  Mandud. 
My lords than let us presently departed,  
And follow this that liketh us so well.  Fergus. 
If ever time to gain a kingdom here  
Were offered man, now it is offered me.  
The realm is reft both of their king and queen,  
The offspring of the prince is slain and dead,  
No issue now remains, the heir unknown,  
The people are in arms and mutinies,  
The nobles they are busied how to cease  
These great rebellious tumults and uproars,  
And Brittaune land now desert left alone  
Amid these broils uncertain where to rest,  
Offers herself unto that noble heart  
That will or dare pursue to bear her crown.  
Shall I that am the duke of Albany  
Descended from that line of noble blood,  
Which hath so long flourished in worthy fame,  
Of valiant hearts, such as in noble breasts  
Of right should rest above the the base sort,  
Refuse to venture life to win a crown?  
Whom shall I find enemies that will withstand  
My fact herein, if I attempt by arms  
To seek the same now in these times of broil?  
These duke's power can hardly well appease  
The people that already are in arms.  
But if perhaps my force be once in field,  
Is not my strength in power above the best  
Of all these lords now left in Britain land?  
And though they should match me with power of men,  
Yet doubtful is the chance of battles ioyved,  
If victors of the field we may departed,  
Ours is the sceptre then of great Britain.  
If slain amid the plain this body lie,  
Mine enemies yet shall not deny me this,  
But that I died giving the noble charge  
To hazard life for conquest of a crown.  
Forthwith therefore will I in post departed  
To Albany, and raise in armour there  
All power I can: and here my secret friends,  
By secret practice shall solicit still,  
To seek to win to me the people's hearts.   

Actus quintus.  
Scena Secunda.  Eubulus. Clotyn. Mandad. Gwenard. Arostus. Nuntius. Eub. 
O jove, how are these people's hearts abused▪  
What blind fury, thus he adlong carries them?  
That though so many books, so many rolls  
Of ancient time record, what grievous plagues  
Light on these rebels ay, and though so often  
Their cares have heard their aged fathers tell,  
What just reward these traitors still receive,  
Yea though themselves have seen deep death & blood,  
By strangling cord and slaughter of the sword,  
To such assigned, yet can they not beware,  
Yet can not stay their lewd rebellious hands,  
But suffering lo fowl treason to distain  
Their wretched minds, forget their loyal heart,  
Reject all truth and rise against their prince.  
A ruthful case, that those, whom duties bond,  
Whom grafted law by nature, truth, and faith,  
Bond to preserve their country and their king,  
Born to defend their common wealth and prince,  
Even they should give consent thus to subvert  
Thee Britain land, & from thy womb should spring  
(O native soil) those, that will needs destroy  
And tuyne thee and eke themselves in fine.  
For lo, when once the dukes had offered grace  
Of pardon sweet, the multitude missledde  
By traitorous fraud of their ungracious heads,  
One sort that saw the dangerous success  
Of stubborn standing in rebellious war,  
And knew the difference of prince's power  
From headless number of tumultuous routs,  
Whom common countries care, and private fear,  
Taught to repent the error of their rage,  
Laid hands upon the captains of their band,  
And brought them bound unto the mighty dukes.  
And other sort not trusting yet so well  
The truth of pardon, or mistrusting more  
Their own offence than that they could conceive  
Such hope of pardon for so foul misdeed,  
Or for that they their captains could not yield,  
Who fearing to be yielded fled before,  
Stolen home by silence of the secret night,  
The third unhappy and enraged sort  
Of desperate hearts, who stained in prince's blood  
From traitorous furor could not be withdrawn  
By love, by law, by grace, ne yet by fear,  
By proffered life, ne yet by threatened death,  
With minds hopeless of life, dreadless of death,  
Careless of country, and aweless of God,  
Stood bend to fight, as furies did them move,  
With violent death to close their traitorous life.  
These all by power of horsemen were oppressed,  
And with revenging sword slain in the field,  
Or with the strangling cord hanged on the tree,  
Where yet their carrion carcases do preach  
The fruits that rebels reap of their uproars,  
And of the murder of their sacred prince.  
But lo, where do approach the noble dukes,  
By whom these tumults have been thus appeased.  Clotyn. 
I think the world will now at length beware  
And fear to put on arms against their prince.  Mand. 
If not? those traitorous hearts that dare rebel,  
Let them behold the wide and hugy fields  
With blood and bodies spread of rebels slain,  
The lofty trees clothed with the corpses dead  
That strangled with the cord do hung thereon.  Arostus. 
A just reward, such as all times before  
Have ever lotted to those wretched folks.  Gwen. 
But what means he that cometh here so fast?  Nun. 
My lords, as duty and my troth doth move  
And of my country work a care in me,  
That if the spending of my breath availed  
To do the service that my heart desires,  
I would not shun to embrace a present death:  
So have I now in that wherein I thought  
My travail might perform some good effect,  
Uentred my life to bring these tidings here.  Fergus 
the mighty duke of Albany  
Is now in arms and lodgeth in the field  
With twenty thousand men, hither he bends  
His speedy march, and minds to invade the crown,  
Daily he gathereth strength, and spreads abroad  
That to this realm no certain heir remains,  
That Britain land is left without a guide,  
That he the sceptre seeks, for nothing else  
But to preserve the people and the land,  
Which now remain as ship without a stern.  
Lo this is that which I have here to say.  Cloyton. 
Is this his faith? and shall he falsely thus  
Abuse the vantage of unhappy times?  
O wretched land, if his outrageous pride,  
His cruel and untempered wilfulness,  
His deep dissembling shows of false pretence,  
Should once attain the crown of Britain land.  
Let us my lords, with timely force resist  
The new attempt of this our common foe,  
As we would quench the flames of common fire.  Mand. 
Though we remain without a certain prince,  
To wield the realm or guide the wandering rule,  
Yet now the common mother of us all,  
Our native land, our country, that contains  
Our wives, children, kindred, ourselves and all  
That ever is or may be dear to man,  
Cries unto us to help ourselves and her,  
Let us advance our powers to repress  
This growing foe of all our liberties.  Gwenard. 
Yea let us so, my lords, with hasty speed.  
And ye (O Gods) sand us the welcome death,  
To shed our blood in field, and leave us not  
In loathsome life to longer out our days,  
To see the hugy heaps of these unhaps,  
That now roll down upon the wretched land,  
Where empty place of princely governance,  
No certain stay now left of doubtless heir,  
Thus leave this guideless realm an open pray,  
To endless storms and waste of civil war.  Arostus. 
That ye (my lords) do so agreed in one,  
To save your country from the violent reign  
And wrongfully usurped tyranny  
Of him that threatens conquest of you all,  
To save your realm, and in this realm yourselves,  
From foreign thraldom of so proud a prince,  
Much do I praise, and I beseech the Gods,  
With happy honour to requited it you.  
But (O my lords) sith now the heavens wrath  
Hath reft this land the issue of their prince,  
Sigh of the body of our late sovereign lord  
Remains no more, since the young kings be slain,  
And of the title of descended crown  
Uncertainly the diverse minds do think  
Even of the learned sort, and more uncertainly  
Will partial fancy and affection deem:  
But most uncertainly will climbing pride  
And hope of reign withdraw to sundry parts  
The doubtful right and hopeful lust to reign:  
When once this noble service is achieved  
For Britain land the mother of ye all,  
When once ye have with armed force repressed  
The proud attempts of this Albanian prince,  
That threatens thraldom to your native land,  
When ye shall vanquishers return from field,  
And find the princely state an open pray  
To greedy lust and to usurping power,  
Then, then (my lords) if ever kindly care  
Of ancient honour of your ancestors,  
Of present wealth and noblesse of your stocks,  
Yea of the lives and safety yet to come  
Of your dear wives, your children, and yourselves,  
Might move your noble hearts with gentle ruth,  
Then, then, have pity on the torn estate,  
Then help to salve the well-near hopeless sore  
Which ye shall do, if ye yourselves withhold  
The slaying knife from your own mother's throat.  
Her shall you save, and you, and yours in her,  
If ye shall all with one assent forbear  
Once to lay hand or take unto yourselves  
The crown, by colour of pretended right,  
Or by what other means so ever it be,  
Till first by common counsel of you all  
In Parliament the regal diadem  
Be set in certain place of governance,  
In which your Parliament and in your choice,  
Prefer the right (my lords) with respect  
Of streugth or friends, or what soever cause  
That may set forward any others part.  
For right will last, and wrong can not endure.  
Right mean I his or hers, upon whose name  
The people rest by mean of native line,  
Or by the virtue of some former law,  
Already made their title to advance.  
Such one (my lords) let be your chosen king,  
Such one so borne within your native land,  
Such one prefer, and in no wise admit  
The heavy yoke of foreign governance,  
Let foreign titles yield to public wealth.  
And with that heart wherewith ye now prepare  
Thus to withstand the proud muading foe,  
With that same heart (my lords) keep out also  
Unnatural thraldom of stranger's reign,  
Ne suffer you against the rules of kind  
Your mother land to serve a foreign prince.  Eubulus. 
Lo here the end of Brutus royal line,  
And lo the entry to the woeful wrack,  
And utter ruin of this noble realm.  
The royal king, and eke his sons are slain,  
No ruler rests within the regal seat,  
The heir, to whom the sceptre longs, unknown,  
That to each force of foreign prince's power,  
Whom vantage of our wretched state may move  
By sudden arms to gain so rich a realm,  
And to the proud and greedy mind at home,  
Whom blinded lust to reign lead to aspire,  
Lo Britain realm is left an open pray,  
A present spoil by conquest to ensue.  
Who seeth not now how many rising minds  
Do feed their thoughts, with hope to reach a realm?  
And who will not by force attempt to win  
So great a gain, that hope persuades to have?  
A simple colour shall for title serve.  
Who wins the royal crown will want no right,  
Nor such as shall display by long descent  
A lineal race to prove him lawful king.  
In the mean while these civil arms shall rage's,  
And thus a thousand mischiefs shall unfold,  
And far and near spread thee (O Britain land)  
All right and law shall cease, and he that had  
Nothing to day, to morrow shall enjoy  
Great heaps of gold, and he that flowed in wealth,  
Lo he shall be bereft of life and all,  
And happiest he that than possesseth least,  
The wives shall suffer rape, the maids deflowered,  
And children fatherless shall weep and wane,  
With fire and sword thy native folk shall perish,  
One kinsman shall bereave an other's life,  
The father shall unwitting slay the son,  
The son shall slay the sire and know it not,  
Women and maids the cruel soldiers sword  
Shall pierce to death, and silly children lo,  
That play in the streets and fields are found,  
By violent hand shall close their latter day.  
Whom shall the fierce and bloody soldier  
Reserve to life? Whom shall he spare from death?  
Even thou (O wretched mother) half alive,  
Thou shalt behold thy dear and only child  
Slain with the sword while he yet sucks thy breast.  
Lo, guiltless blood shall thus each where be shed.  
Thus shall the wasted soil yield forth no fruit,  
But dearth and famine shall possess the land.  
The towns shall be consumed and burnt with fire,  
The peopled cities shall wax desolate,  
And thou, O Britain, whilom in renown,  
Whilom in wealth and fame, shalt thus be torn,  
Dismembered thus, and thus be rend in twain,  
Thus wasted and defaced, spoiled and destroyed,  
These be the fruits your civil wars will bring.  
Hereto it comes when kings will not consent  
To grave advise, but follow wilful william.  
This is the end, when in fond princes' hearts  
Flattery prevails, and sage read hath no place.  
These are the plagues, when murder is the mean  
To make new heirs unto the royal crown.  
Thus wreak the Gods, when that the mother's wrath  
Naught but the blood of her own child may suage.  
These mischiefs spring when rebels will arise,  
To work revenge and judge their prince's fact.  
This, this ensues, when noble men do fail  
In loyal troth, and subjects will be kings.  
And this doth grow when lo unto the prince,  
Whom death or sudden hap of life bereaves,  
No certain heir remains, such certain heir,  
As not all only is the rightful heir,  
But to the realm is so made known to be,  
And troth thereby vested in subjects hearts.  
To own faith there where right is known to rest.  
Alas, in Parliament what hope can be,  
When is of Parliament no hope at all?  
Which, though it be assembled by consent,  
Yet is not likely with consent to end,  
While each one for himself, or for his friend,  
Against his foe, shall travail what he may.  
While now the state left open to the man,  
That shall with greatest force invade the same,  
Shall fill ambitious minds with gaping hope,  
When will they once with yielding hearts agreed?  
Or in the while, how shall the realm be used?  
Not, not: then Parliament should have been holden,  
And certain heirs appointed to the crown,  
To stay the title of established right,  
And in the people plant obedience,  
While yet the prince did live, whose name and power  
By lawful summons and authority  
Might make a Parliament to be of force,  
And might have set the state in quiet stay.  
But now O happy man, whom speedy death  
Deprives of life, ne is enforced to see  
These hugy mischiefs and these miseries,  
These civil wars, these murders & these wrongs.  
Of justice, yet must God in fine restore  
This noble crown unto the lawful heir:  
For right will always live, and rise at length,  
But wrong can never take deep root to last.