Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow SCENE III. - The Works of Christopher Marlowe vol. 1

Return to Title Page for The Works of Christopher Marlowe vol. 1

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Literature

SCENE III. - Christopher Marlowe, The Works of Christopher Marlowe vol. 1 [1590]

Edition used:

The Works of Christopher Marlowe, ed. A.H. Bullen (London: John C. Nimmo, 1885). Vol. 1.

Part of: The Works of Christopher Marlowe, 3 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


SCENE III.

OLYMPIA discovered Mane.

Olym.

  • Distressed Olympia, whose weeping eyes
  • Since thy arrival here behold no sun,
  • But closed within the compass of a1 tent
  • Hath stained thy cheeks, and made thee look like death,
  • Devise some means to rid thee of thy life,
  • Rather than yield to his detested smt,
  • Whose drift is only to dishonour thee;
  • And since this earth, dewed with thy brinish tears,
  • Affords no herbs whose taste may poison thee,
  • Nor yet this air, beat often with thy sighs, io
  • Contagious smells and vapours to infect thee,
  • Nor thy close cave a sword to murder thee;
  • Let this invention be the instrument.
  • EnterTHERIDAMAS.

Ther.

  • Well met, Olympia; I sought thee in my tent,
  • But when I saw the place obscure and dark,
  • Which with thy beauty thou was wont to light,
  • Enraged, I ran about the fields for thee,
  • Supposing amorous Jove had sent his son,
  • The winged Hermes, to convey thee hence;
  • But now I find thee, and that fear is past.

    20

  • Tell me, Olympia, wilt thou grant my suit?

Olym.

  • My lord and husband's death, with my sweet son's,
  • (With whom I buried all affections
  • Save grief and sorrow, which torment my heart,)
  • Forbids my mind to entertain a thought
  • That tends to love, but meditate on death,
  • A fitter subject for a pensive soul.

Ther.

  • Olympia, pity him, in whom thy looks
  • Have greater operation and more force
  • Than Cynthia's in the water), wilderness,

    30

  • For with thy view my joys are at the full,
  • And ebb again as thou departest from me.

Olym.

  • Ah, pity me, my lord! and draw your sword,
  • Making a passage for my troubled soul,
  • Which beats against this prison to get out,
  • And meet my husband and my loving son.

Ther.

  • Nothing but sull thy husband and thy son!
  • Leave this, my love, and listen more to me.
  • Thou shalt be stately queen of fair Argier;
  • And clothed in costly cloth of massy gold,

    40

  • Upon the marble turrets of my court
  • Sit like to Venus in her chair of state,
  • Commanding all thy princely eye desires;
  • And I will east off arms to sit with thee,
  • Spending my life in sweet discourse of love.

Olym.

  • No such discourse is pleasant in mine ears,
  • But that where every period ends with death,
  • And every line begins with death again.
  • I cannot love, to be an emperess.

Ther.

  • Nay, lady, then, if nothing will prevail,

    50

  • I'll use some other means to make you yield :
  • Such is the sudden fury of my love,
  • I must and will be pleased, and you shall yield :
  • Come to the tent again.

Olym.

  • Stay now, my lord; and, will1 a you save my honour,
  • I'll give your grace a present of such price,
  • As all the world cannot afford the like.

Ther.

  • What is it?

Olym.

  • An ointment which a cunning alchymist,
  • Distilled from the purest balsamum

    60

  • And simplest extracts of all minerals,
  • In which the essential form of marble stone,
  • Tempered by science metaphysical,
  • And spells of magic from the mouths1 of spirits,
  • With which if you but 'noint your tender skin,
  • Nor pistols, sword, nor lance, can pierce your flesh.

Ther.

  • Why, madam, think you to mock me thus palpably?

Olym.

  • To prove it, I will 'noint my naked throat,
  • Which, when you stab, look on your weapon's point,
  • And you shall see't rebated1 with the blow.

    70

Thor.

  • Why gave you not your husband some of it,
  • If you loved him, and it so precious?

Olym.

  • My purpose was, my lord, to spend it so,
  • But was prevented by his sudden end;
  • And for a present, easy proof thereof,
  • That I dissemble not, try it on me.

Ther.

  • I will, Olympia, and will 2 keep it for
  • The richest present of this eastern world.

[She anoints her throat.3

OZym.

  • Now stab, my lord, and mark your weapon's point,
  • That will be blunted if the blow be great.

    80

Ther.

  • Here then, Olympia. [Stabs her.
  • What, have I slain her! Villain, stab thyself,
  • Cut off this arm that murdered thy love,
  • In whom the learned Rabbis of this age
  • Might find as many wondrous miracles
  • As in the Theoria of the world.
  • Now hell is fairer than Elysium; 4
  • A greater lamp than that bright eye of heaven,
  • From whence the stars do borrow1 all their light,
  • Wanders about the black circumference;

    90

  • And now the damned souls are free from pain,
  • For every Fury gazeth on her looks;
  • Infernal “Dis is courting of my love,
  • Inventing masks and stately shows for her,
  • Opening the doors of his rich treasury
  • To entertain this queen of chastity;
  • Whose body shall be tombed with all the pomp
  • The treasure of my2 kingdom may afford.
  • [Exit, with the body.

ACT THE SECOND.

[1]So 4to.--8vo. “the.”

[1]So 8vo.--4to. “Stay, good my lord. if you will.”

[1]So 4to.—8vo. “mother.”

[1]Blunted.

[1]So 4to.--Svo. “and I wil.”

[3]Colher pointed out that thisincidentwas taken from Ariosto's Orl. Fur., Book xx4_, “where Isabella, to save herself from the lawlesspassion of Rodomont, anoints her neck with a decoction of herbs which she pretends will render it invulnerable : she then presents her throat to the pagan, who, believing her assertion, aims a blow and strikes off her head.”--Engl. Dram. Poetry, in. zz9 (olded.)

[4]8vo. “ELism.”--4to. “Ehzaan.”

[1]So 4to.—Boo. “borrow doo.”

[2]So 4to.—Boo. “thy.”