The bridal eve is not much enlivened by a masque of Neptune and Æolus, and is saddened by the wails and prophecies of the forlorn Aspatia. Other bridesmaids talk ribaldry enough, but the bridegroom, whose heart is with Aspatia, feels
A grief shoot suddenly through all my veins;
Mine eyes rain: this is strange at such a time.
The bride receives him coldly. A man has wronged her, will he slay that man? She names the king: "To cover shame I took thee" she says. The situation,—with the horror-stricken loyalty of Amintor; his heart already a chaos of remorse, regret, and desire; the implacable resolution of Evadne; "the murderess-Magdalen, whose penitence is of one crimson colour with her sin—" is undeniably tragically great. Ribaldries as of Pandarus in "Troilus and Cressida" greet the happy pair in the morning. The secret reaches Melanthius, brother of Evadne and the king's bravest captain. Evadne binds the sleeping king in his bed, wakens him, taunts him, and stabs him for her husband, her brother, and herself. Aspatia disguises herself as her own avenging brother, challenges Amintor who has deserted her, strikes him, kicks him; at last he draws, and she falls by the hand of the man she loves. Evadne enters, red-handed from regicide,
Am I not fair?
Looks not Evadne beauteous with these rites?
The seeming dead speaks,—
I am Aspatia yet—
and takes farewell. Amintor stabs himself, but not before Evadne has set him the example. Had Ophelia fallen by the sword of Hamlet the tragedy would not have been "deeper".
"Philaster," again, is a romantic comedy, that deserves its second title "Love lies a'bleeding". Philaster is kept out of his royalty by the king, who is wedding his daughter, Arethusa, beloved by Philaster, to Pharamond, prince of Spain, a random debauchee. His intrigue with the audacious wanton Megra, a Court lady, and the besetting of him by the armed burgesses, devoted to Philaster, yield the grim comic material. Philaster gives his page, Bellario (really the disguised Euphrasia, who loves him), to Arethusa. She is accused of an intrigue with the page, who is the soul of loyalty to her and to Philaster. He, in jealousy, rejects both his lady and his page: they meet in a forest: he dismisses Bellario, and bids Arethusa stab him, or he will stab her.
We are two
Earth cannot bear at once.
He does stab her, and is attacked by a country fellow, who wounds him; he then flies from some of the Court who are approaching. Finding Bellario asleep in a glade, Philaster wounds her; so that the pursuers, who