John Dryden - Delphi Poets Series

by John Dryden

  Merc. The clouds divide; what wonders,

  What wonders do I see!

  The wife of Jove! ’Tis she,

  That thunders, more than thundering he!

  Juno. No, Hermes, no;

  ’Tis peace above

  As ’tis below;

  For Jove has left his wand’ring love.

  Tham. Great queen of gathering clouds,

  Whose moisture fills our floods,

  See, we fall before thee,

  Prostrate we adore thee!

  Aug. Great queen of nuptial rites,

  Whose power the souls unites,

  And fills the genial bed with chaste delights,

  See, we fall before thee,

  Prostrate we adore thee!

  Juno. ’Tis ratified above by every god,

  And Jove has firmed it with an awful nod,

  That Albion shall his love renew:

  But oh, ungrateful fair,

  Repeated crimes beware,

  And to his bed be true!

  Iris appears on a very large Machine. This was really seen the 18th of March, 1684, by Captain Christopher Gunman, on Board his R.H. Yacht, then in Calais Pierre: He drew it as it then appeared, and gave a Draught of it to us. We have only added the Cloud where the Person of Iris sits.

  Juno. Speak, Iris, from Batavia, speak the news!

  Has he performed my dread command,

  Returning Albion to his longing land,

  Or dare the nymph refuse?

  Iris. Albion, by the nymph attended,

  Was to Neptune recommended;

  Peace and Plenty spread the sails,

  Venus, in her shell before him,

  From the sands in safety bore him,

  And supplied Etesian gales.[Retornella.

  Archon, on the shore commanding,

  Lowly met him at his landing,

  Crowds of people swarmed around;

  Welcome rang like peals of thunder;

  Welcome, rent the skies asunder;

  Welcome, heaven and earth resound.

  Juno. Why stay we then on earth,

  When mortals laugh and love?

  ’Tis time to mount above,

  And send Astræa down,

  The ruler of his birth,

  And guardian of his crown.

  ’Tis time to mount above,

  And send Astræa down.

  Mer. Jun. Ir. ’Tis time to mount above,

  And send Astræa down.[Mer. Ju. and Ir. ascend.

  Aug. and Tham. The royal squadron marches,

  Erect triumphal arches,

  For Albion and Albanius;

  Rejoice at their returning,

  The passages adorning:

  The royal squadron marches,

  Erect triumphal arches

  For Albion and Albanius.

  Part of the Scene disappears, and the Four Triumphal arches, erected on his Majesty’s Coronation, are seen.

  Albion appears, Albanius by his Side, preceded by Archon, followed by a Train, &c.

  Full Chorus. Hail, royal Albion, Hail!

  Aug. Hail, royal Albion, hail to thee,

  Thy longing people’s expectation!

  Tham. Sent from the gods to set us free

  From bondage and from usurpation!

  Aug. To pardon and to pity me,

  And to forgive a guilty nation!

  Tham. Behold the differing Climes agree,

  Rejoicing in thy restoration.

  Entry. Representing the Four Parts of the World, rejoicing at the Restoration of Albion.

  ACT II.

  The Scene is a Poetical Hell. The Change is total; The Upper Part of the House, as well as the Side-Scenes. There is the Figure of Prometheus chained to a Rock, the Vulture gnawing his Liver; Sisyphus rolling the Stone; the Belides, &c. Beyond, Abundance of Figures in various Torments. Then a great Arch of Fire. Behind this, three Pyramids of Flames in perpetual Agitation. Beyond this, glowing Fire, which terminates the Prospect.

  Pluto, and the Furies; with Alecto, Democracy, and Zelota.

  Plu. Infernal offspring of the night,

  Debarred of heaven your native right,

  And from the glorious fields of light,

  Condemned in shades to drag the chain,

  And fill with groans the gloomy plain;

  Since, pleasures here are none below,

  Be ill our good, our joy be woe;

  Our work to embroil the worlds above,

  Disturb their union, disunite their love,

  And blast the beauteous frame of our victorious foe.

  Dem. and Zel. O thou, for whom those worlds are made,

  Thou sire of all things, and their end,

  From hence they spring, and when they fade,

  In shuffled heaps they hither tend;

  Here human souls receive their breath,

  And wait for bodies after death.

  Dem. Hear our complaint, and grant our prayer.

  Plu. Speak what you are,

  And whence you fell?

  Dem. I am thy first-begotten care,

  Conceived in heaven, but born in hell.

  When thou didst bravely undertake in fight

  Yon arbitrary power,

  That rules by sovereign might,

  To set thy heaven-born fellows free,

  And leave no difference in degree,

  In that auspicious hour

  Was I begot by thee.

  Zel. One mother bore us at a birth,

  Her name was Zeal before she fell;

  No fairer nymph in heaven or earth,

  ‘Till saintship taught her to rebel:

  But losing fame,

  And changing name,

  She’s now the Good Old Cause in hell.

  Plu. Dear pledges of a flame not yet forgot,

  Say, what on earth has been your lot?

  Dem. and Zel. The wealth of Albion’s isle was ours,

  Augusta stooped with all her stately towers.

  Dem. Democracy kept nobles under.

  Zel. Zeal from the pulpit roared like thunder.

  Dem. I trampled on the state.

  Zel. I lorded o’er the gown.

  Dem. and Zel. We both in triumph sate,

  Usurpers of the crown.

  But oh, prodigious turn of fate!

  Heaven controuling,

  Sent us rolling, rolling down.

  Plu. I wondered how of late our Acherontic shore

  Grew thin, and hell unpeopled of her store;

  Charon, for want of use, forgot his oar.

  The souls of bodies dead flew all sublime,

  And hither none returned to purge a crime:

  But now I see, since Albion is restored,

  Death has no business, nor the vengeful sword.

  ’Tis too, too much that here I lie

  From glorious empire hurled;

  By Jove excluded from the sky;

  By Albion from the world.

  Dem. Were common-wealth restored again,

  Thou shouldst have millions of the slain

  To fill thy dark abode.

  Zel. For he a race of rebels sends,

  And Zeal the path of heaven pretends,

  But still mistakes the road.

  Plu. My labouring thought

  At length hath wrought

  A bravely bold design,

  In which you both shall join.

  In borrowed shapes to earth return;

  Thou, Common-wealth, a Patriot seem,

  Thou, Zeal, like true Religion burn,

  To gain the giddy crowd’s esteem. —

  Alecto, thou to fair Augusta go,

  And all thy snakes into her bosom throw.

  Dem. Spare some, to fling

  Where they may sting

  The breast of Albion’s king.

  Zel. Let jealousies so well be mixed,

  That great Albanius be unfixed.

  Plu. Forbear your vain attempts, forbear:

  Hell ca
n have no admittance there;

  The people’s fear will serve as well,

  Make him suspected, them rebel.

  Zel. You’ve all forgot

  To forge a plot,

  In seeming care of Albion’s life;

  Inspire the crowd

  With clamours loud,

  To involve his brother and his wife.

  Alec. Take, of a thousand souls at thy command,

  The basest, blackest of the Stygian band,

  One, that will swear to all they can invent,

  So thoroughly damned, that he can ne’er repent:

  One, often sent to earth,

  And still at every birth

  He took a deeper stain:

  One, that in Adam’s time was Cain;

  One, that was burnt in Sodom’s flame,

  For crimes even here too black to name:

  One, who through every form of ill has run:

  One, who in Naboth’s days was Belial’s son;

  One, who has gained a body fit for sin;

  Where all his crimes

  Of former times

  Lie crowded in a skin.

  Plu. Take him,

  Make him

  What you please;

  For he can be

  A rogue with ease.

  One for mighty mischief born;

  He can swear, and be forsworn.

  Plu. and Alect. Take him, make him what you please;

  For he can be a rogue with ease.

  Plu. Let us laugh, let us laugh, let us laugh at our woes,

  The wretch that is damned has nothing to lose. —

  Ye furies, advance

  With the ghosts in a dance.

  ’Tis a jubilee when the world is in trouble;

  When people rebel,

  We frolic in hell;

  But when the king falls, the pleasure is double.

  [A single entry of a Devil, followed by an entry of twelve Devils.

  Chorus. Let us laugh, let us laugh, let us laugh at our woes,

  The wretch that is damned hath nothing to lose.

  The Scene changes to a Prospect taken from the middle of the Thames; one side of it begins at York-Stairs, thence to White-Hall, and the Mill-bank, &c. The other from the Saw-mill, thence to the Bishop’s Palace, and on as far as can be seen in a clear day.

  Enter Augusta: She has a Snake in her Bosom hanging down.

  Aug. O jealousy, thou raging ill,

  Why hast thou found a room in lovers’ hearts,

  Afflicting what thou canst not kill,

  And poisoning love himself, with his own darts?

  I find my Albion’s heart is gone,

  My first offences yet remain,

  Nor can repentance love regain;

  One writ in sand, alas, in marble one.

  I rave, I rave! my spirits boil

  Like flames increased, and mounting high with pouring oil;

  Disdain and love succeed by turns;

  One freezes me, and t’other burns; it burns.

  Away, soft love, thou foe to rest!

  Give hate the full possession of my breast.

  Hate is the nobler passion far,

  When love is ill repaid;

  For at one blow it ends the war,

  And cures the love-sick maid.

  Enter Democracy and Zelota; one represents a Patriot, the other, Religion.

  Dem. Let not thy generous passion waste its rage,

  But once again restore our golden age;

  Still to weep and to complain,

  Does but more provoke disdain.

  Let public good

  Inflame thy blood;

  With crowds of warlike people thou art stored.

  And heaps of gold;

  Reject thy old,

  And to thy bed receive another lord.

  Zel. Religion shall thy bonds release,

  For heaven can loose, as well as tie all;

  And when ’tis for the nation’s peace,

  A king is but a king on trial;

  When love is lost, let marriage end,

  And leave a husband for a friend.

  Dem. With jealousy swarming,

  The people are arming,

  The frights of oppression invade them.

  Zel. If they fall to relenting,

  For fear of repenting,

  Religion shall help to persuade them.

  Aug. No more, no more temptations use

  To bend my will;

  How hard a task ’tis to refuse

  A pleasing ill!

  Dem. Maintain the seeming duty of a wife,

  A modest show with jealous eyes deceive;

  Affect a fear for hated Albion’s life,

  And for imaginary dangers grieve.

  Zel. His foes already stand protected,

  His friends by public fame suspected,

  Albanius must forsake his isle;

  A plot, contrived in happy hour,

  Bereaves him of his royal power,

  For heaven to mourn, and hell to smile.

  The former Scene continues.

  Enter Albion and ALBANIUS with a train.

  Alb. Then Zeal and Common-wealth infest

  My land again;

  The fumes of madness, that possest

  The people’s giddy brain,

  Once more disturb the nation’s rest,

  And dye rebellion in a deeper stain.

  II.

  Will they at length awake the sleeping sword,

  And force revenge from their offended lord?

  How long, ye gods, how long

  Can royal patience bear

  The insults and wrong

  Of madmen’s jealousies, and causeless fear?

  III.

  I thought their love by mildness might be gained,

  By peace I was restored, in peace I reigned;

  But tumults, seditions,

  And haughty petitions,

  Are all the effects of a merciful nature;

  Forgiving and granting,

  Ere mortals are wanting,

  But leads to rebelling against their creator.

  Mercury descends.

  Mer. With pity Jove beholds thy state,

  But Jove is circumscribed by fate;

  The o’erwhelming tide rolls on so fast,

  It gains upon this island’s waste;

  And is opposed too late! too late!

  Alb. What then must helpless Albion do?

  Mer. Delude the fury of the foe,

  And, to preserve Albanius, let him go;

  For ’tis decreed,

  Thy land must bleed,

  For crimes not thine, by wrathful Jove;

  A sacred flood

  Of royal blood

  Cries vengeance, vengeance, loud above.[Mercury ascends.

  Alb. Shall I, to assuage

  Their brutal rage,

  The regal stem destroy?

  Or must I lose,

  To please my foes,

  My sole remaining joy?

  Ye gods, what worse,

  What greater curse,

  Can all your wrath employ!

  Alban. Oh Albion! hear the gods and me!

  Well am I lost, in saving thee.

  Not exile or danger can fright a brave spirit,

  With innocence guarded,

  With virtue rewarded;

  I make of my sufferings a merit.

  Alb. Since then the gods and thou will have it so,

  Go; (Can I live once more to bid thee?) go,

  Where thy misfortunes call thee, and thy fate;

  Go, guiltless victim of a guilty state!

  In war, my champion to defend,

  In peaceful hours, when souls unbend,

  My brother, and, what’s more, my friend!

  Borne where the foamy billows roar,

  On seas less dangerous than the shore;

  Go, where the gods thy refuge have assigned,

  Go from my sight; but nev
er from my mind.

  Alban. Whatever hospitable ground

  Shall be for me, unhappy exile, found,

  ‘Till heaven vouchsafe to smile;

  What land soe’er, —

  Though none so dear

  As this ungrateful isle, —

  O think! O think! no distance can remove

  My vowed allegiance, and my loyal love.

  Alb. and Alban. The rosy-fingered morn appears,

  And from her mantle shakes her tears,

  In promise of a glorious day;

  The sun, returning, mortals chears,

  And drives the rising mists away,

  In promise of a glorious day.[Ritornelle.

  The farther part of the heaven opens, and discovers a Machine; as it moves forward, the clouds which are before it divide, and shew the person of Apollo, holding the Reins in his Hand. As they fall lower, the Horses appear with the Rays, and a great glory about Apollo.

  Apol. All hail, ye royal pair,

  The Gods’ peculiar care!

  Fear not the malice of your foes;

  Their dark designing,

  And combining,

  Time and truth shall once expose:

  Fear not the malice of your foes.

  II.

  My sacred oracles assure,

  The tempest shall not long endure;

  But when the nation’s crimes are purged away,

  Then shall you both in glory shine;

  Propitious both, and both divine;

  In lustre equal to the god of day. [Apollo goes forward out of sight.

  Neptune rises out of the Water, and a Train of Rivers, Tritons, and Sea-Nymphs attend him.

  Tham. Old father Ocean calls my tide;

  Come away, come away;

  The barks upon the billows ride,

  The master will not stay;

  The merry boatswain from his side

  His whistle takes, to check and chide

  The lingering lads’ delay,

  And all the crew aloud have cried,

  Come away, come away.

  See, the god of seas attends thee,

  Nymphs divine, a beauteous train;

  All the calmer gales befriend thee,

  In thy passage o’er the main;

  Every maid her locks is binding,

  Every Triton’s horn is winding;

  Welcome to the watry plain!

  CHACON.

  Two Nymphs and Tritons sing.

  Ye Nymphs, the charge is royal,

  Which you must convey;

  Your hearts and hands employ all,

  Hasten to obey;

  When earth is grown disloyal,

  Shew there’s honour in the sea.

  The Chacon continues.

  The Chorus of Nymphs and Tritons repeat the same Verses.

  The Chacon continues.

  Two Nymphs and Tritons.

  Sports and pleasures shall attend you

  Through all the watry plains,

  Where Neptune reigns;

  Venus ready to defend you,

  And her nymphs to ease your pains,