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Front Page Titles (by Subject) SCENE III. - The Works of Christopher Marlowe vol. 1
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.
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SCENE III.
OLYMPIA discovered Mane.
Olym.- Distressed Olympia, whose weeping eyes
- Since thy arrival here behold no sun,
- But closed within the compass of a 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, will a you save my honour,
- I'll give your grace a present of such price,
- As all the world cannot afford the like.
Ther.
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 mouths 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 rebated 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 keep it for
- The richest present of this eastern world.
[She anoints her throat.
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;
- A greater lamp than that bright eye of heaven,
- From whence the stars do borrow 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 my kingdom may afford.
- [Exit, with the body.
ACT THE SECOND.
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