Will ye creep into your mothers' wombs again? Back, cowards!

Hares, fearful hares, doves in your angers! leave me?

Leave your queen desolate? her hapless children To Roman rape again, and fury?

Enter CARATACH and HENGO.

Car. Fly, ye buzzards!

Ye have wings enough, ye fear! Get thee gone,

woman,

[Loud shout within. Shame tread upon thy heels! All's lost, all's lost!

Hark,

Hark how the Romans ring our knells!

[Exeunt BONDUCA, Daughters, &c.

Hengo. Good uncle,

Let me go too.

Car. No, boy; thy fortune's mine;

I must not leave thee. Get behind me; shake not;

I'll breech you, if you do, boy.

Enter PETILLIUS, JUNIUS, and DECIUS.

Come, brave Romans!

All is not lost yet.

Jun. Now I'll thank thee, Caratach.

[Fight. Drums.

Car. Thou art a soldier; strike home, home!

have at you!

Pen. His blows fall like huge sledges on an

Drus. What think you now?
Pen. Oh, Drusius,

I have lost mine honour, lost my name,

Lost all that was my light: These are true Romans,
And I a Briton coward, a base coward!
Guide me where nothing is but desolation,
That I may never more behold the face

Of man, or mankind know me! Oh, blind Fortune,
Hast thou abused me thus?

Drus. Good sir, be comforted;

It was your wisdom ruled you. Pray you go home;
Your day is yet to come, when this great fortune
Shall be but foil unto it.
[Retreat.

Pen. Fool, fool, coward!

[Exeunt PENIUS and DRUSIUS into the Tent.

Enter SUETONIUS, DEMETRIUS, Soldiers, drum and colours.

Suet. Draw in, draw in !-Well have you fought, and worthy

Rome's noble recompense. Look to your wounds; The ground is cold and hurtful. The proud queen Has got a fort, and there she and her daughters Defy us once again: To-morrow morning

We'll seek her out, and make her know our for

tunes

Stop at no stubborn walls.-Come, sons of Honour, True Virtue's heirs, thus hatch'd with Britain blood,

Let's march to rest, and set in gules like suns.3 Beat a soft march, and each one ease his neighbours! [Exeunt.

Thus hatch'd with Britain blood,

Let's march to rest, and set in gules like suns.] The word hatch'd has already received sufficient explanation, (vol. II. 400, III. 370.) Gules is the heraldic term for red.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

The Roman Camp. The Tent of Junius.

Enter PETILLIUS, JUNIUS, DECIUS, and
DEMETRIUS, singing.

Dec. And his chin it was sleek,

Jun. With, whoop, he has done wooing!
Dem. Junius was this captain's name,
A lad for a lass's viewing.

Pet. Full black his eye, and plump his thigh,
Dec. Made up for love's pursuing.

Dem. Smooth was his cheek,

Pet. And his chin it was sleek,

Jun. With, whoop, he has done wooing

Pet. Oh, my vex'd thief, art thou come home again?

Are thy brains perfect?

Jun. Sound as bells.

Pet. Thy back-worm

Quiet, and cast his sting, boy?

Jun. Dead, Petillius,

Dead to all folly, and now my anger only

Pet. Why, that's well said; hang Cupid and his quiver,

A drunken brawling boy! Thy honour'd saint Be thy ten shillings, Junius; there's the money,

And there's the ware; square dealing: This but sweats thee

Like a nesh nag, and makes thee look pin-buttock'd;

The other runs thee whining up and down
Like a pig in a storm, fills thy brains full of ballads,
And shews thee like a long Lent, thy brave body
Turn'd to a tail of green fish without butter.

Dec. When thou lovest next, love a good cup

wine,

of

A mistress for a king! she leaps to kiss thee, Her red and white's her own, she makes good blood, Takes none away; what she heats sleep can help, Without a groping surgeon.

Jun. I am counsel'd;

And henceforth, when I dote again-
Dem. Take heed;

Ye had almost paid for't.

Pet. Love no more great ladies;

Thou canst not step amiss then; there's no delight in 'em :

All's in the whistling of their snatcht-up silks; They're only made for handsome view, not hand

ling;

Their bodies of so weak and wash a temper,5
A rough-paced bed will shake them all to pieces;
A tough hen pulls their teeth out, tires their souls;
Plena rimarum sunt, they are full of rinnet,
And take the skin off where they're tasted: Shun
'em;

Like a nesh nag.] Nesh, i. e. tender, delicate, from the 4. S. nesc, mollis, delicatus.—Sympson.

5 Their bodies of so weak and wash a temper.] So in Rule a Wife and Have a Wife" "Tis a wash knave, he will not keep his flesh well."

6

They live in cullisses, like rotten cocks,

Stew'd to a tenderness that holds no tack;
Give me a thing I may crush.

Jun. Thou speak'st truly:

The wars shall be my mistress now.

Pet. Well chosen !

For she's a bouncing lass; she'll kiss thee at night,

bov,

And break thy pate i' th' morning.

Jun. Yesterday

I found those favours infinite.
Dem. Wench good enough,
But that she talks too loud.
Pet. She talks to the purpose,
Which never woman did yet.

She'll hold grapp

ling,
And he that lays on best is her best servant;
All other loves are mere catching of dottrels,"
Stretching of legs out only, and trim laziness.
Here comes the general.

Enter SUETONIUS, CURIUS, and MACER.

Suet. I'm glad I have found ye:

Are those come in yet that pursued bold Caratach ? Pet. Not yet, sir, for I think they mean to lodge

him;

Take him I know they dare not, 'twill be danger

ous.

Cullisses.] Cotgrave explains coulis, and cullis, or broth of boiled meat strained, " fit for a sicke or weake bodie."

7 Mere catching of dottrels, stretching of legs out only.] Thé dottrel is a foolish bird which apes the actions of the fowler; when he stretches out a leg, the bird does the same, and is therefore easily caught. See vol. II. p. 226.