The WIFE of FERGUS.

Fergusius 3. periit veneno ab uxore dato. Alii scribun cum uxor sæpe exprobrasset ei matrimonii contemptum et pellicum greges, neque quicquam profecisset, tandem noctu dormientem ab eâ strangula un. Quastione de morte ejus habitá, cum amicorum plurimi insimularentur, nec quisquam ne in gravissimis quidem tormentis quicquam fateretur, mulier, alioqui ferox, tot innoxiorum capitum miserta, in medium processit, ac e superiore loco cædem a se faciam confessa, ne ad ludibrium superesset, pectus cultro transfodit: quod ejus factum varie pro cujusque ingenio est acceptum, ac perinde sermonibus celebratum.

Buchanan.

SCENE The Palace Court. The Queen speaking from the
Battlements.

Cease.. cease your torments! spare the sufferers! Scotchmen, not theirs the deed; . . the crime was mine Mine is the glory.

Idle threats! I stand

Secure. All access to these battlements

Is barr'd beyond your sudden strength to force;
And lo! the dagger by which Fergus died!

E

Shame on ye Scotchmen, that a woman's hand
Was left to do this deed! Shame on ye Thanes,
Who with slave-patience have so long endured
The wrongs, and insolence of tyranny!

Ye coward race!.. that not a husband's sword
Smote that adulterous King! that not a wife
Revenged her own pollution; in his blood
Wash'd her soul pure, and for the sin compell'd
Aton'd by virtuous murder! O my God!

Of what beast matter hast thou moulded them
To bear with wrongs like these? There was a time
When if the Bard had feign'd you such a tale
Your eyes had throbb'd with anger, and your hands
In honest instinct would have graspt the sword.
O miserable men who have disgraced

Your fathers, whom your sons must blush to name!

Aye,..ye can threaten me! ye can be brave
In anger to a woman! one whose virtue
Upbraids your coward vice; whose name will live
Honoured and prais'd in song, when not a hand
Shall root from your forgotten monuments
The cankering moss. Fools! fools! to think that death
Is not a thing familiar to my mind!

As if I knew not what must consummatè
My glory! as if ought that earth can give
Could tempt me to endure the load of life! ...
Scotchmen! ye saw when Fergus to the altar
Led me, his maiden Queen.

Ye blest me then,..

I heard you bless me,.. and I thought that Heaven
Had heard you also and that I was blest,

For I loved Fergus. Bear me witness, God!
With what a sacred heart-sincerity

My lips pronounced the unrecallable vow

That made me his, him mine; bear witness Thou! Before whose throne I this day must appear

Stain'd with his blood and mine! my heart was his,.. His in the strength of all its first affections.

In all obedience, in all love, I kept

eye

Holy my marriage vow. Behold me Thanes!
Time hath not changed the face on which his
So often dwelt, when with assiduous care
He sought my love; with seeming truth, for one,
Sincere herself, impossible to doubt.

Time hath not changed that face; .. I speak not now
With pride of beauties that will feed the worm

To morrow! but with joyful pride I say

That if the truest and most perfect love

Deserved requital, such was ever mine.
How often reeking from the adulterous bed
Have I received him! and with no complaint.
Neglect and insult, cruelty and scorn

Long, long did I endure, and long curb down
The indignant nature.

Tell your countrymen, Scotchmen, what I have spoken! say to them Ye saw the Queen of Scotland lift the dagger Red from her husband's heart; that in her own She plunged it.

stabs herself.

Tell them also, that she felt

No guilty fear in death.

LUCRETIA.

Scene, the house of COLLATINE.

Welcome, my father! good Valerius,
Welcome! and thou too, Brutus! ye were both
My wedding guests, and fitly ye are come.
My husband.. Collatine.. alas! no more
Lucretia's husband, for thou shalt not clasp
Pollution to thy bosom,... hear me on!
For I will tell thee all.

I sate at eve

Spinning amid my maidens as I wont,
When from the camp at Ardea Sextus came.
Curb down thy swelling feelings, Collatine!
I little liked the man! yet, for he came
From Ardea, for he brought me news of thee,
I gladly gave him welcome, gladly listen'd,..
Thou canst not tell how gladly! to his tales