Languages & literature > Albion queens, or, The death of Mary Queen of Scots

THE ALBION QJUEEN'S. 6$
Bow. Hold off thy curfcd hands—I am refolv’d
My royal miftrefs (hall not fall alone,
But, hand in hand, the joyful courfe we’ll run.
Attend, ye bright inhabitants on high,
Whilft I proclaim th’ imperial faint is nigh :
Now, now fhe ftarts, and now begins the race,
A nd now with blufhings veils her charming face ;
The lovely pillar that fuftains her head.
Her fnowy neck now on the block is laid ;
Tears in vaft torrents flow from every eye,
And groans, like thunder, rend the vaulted Iky;
The axe is up, and points the way to heaven—
Now, now it falls, and now the ftroke is given. . [Diet*
Enter Queen Elizabeth, and Attendants*
Qu. El. Speak, Morton, traitor to thy fovereign,
Yet give me comfort, and I’ll pardon all: i
: Where is the Qjjeen ? Say, does my After live ?
Where is fhe ?
Mor. Dead, ere this, upon the fcaffold. [Queens?-
tgu. El. ‘ Now, who will fwifteft run to fave both)
Fly fafter than the rulhing thought to. fave her*
* And he that from the lifted axe the dove
* Can fave, fliall be a king.
* Vanifh ; a kingdom’s thy reward.’
Seize on that fiend ; Truth has at laft been kind.
And brought to light ’twas he that murder’d Darnley.
Bind him in chains, and in an iron cage.
Let him be fent to Scotland to be tortur’d
[Ex. 'M.onon, dragged avjay.
Ha ! what unthought-of, difmal object’s this ?
‘ A fecond profpefi, fure, of grief to none
The pretty, innocent, and faithful Dowglas,
Dead with no other wound than forrow’s dart,
Qr fome unhappy poifon.
Enter Cecil and Davifon.
Cec. Madam, I wi(h the ranfom of our lives
Could fave the Queen’s, or mediate our offence.
If you fhall think it fo; for ihe is dead.
Qu. El. How couldft thou be fo curs’d a villain l
What boots the thunder, or the bolts of kings.
Which traitors fear no more than fummer’s hail,
EKe why art thou alive, and why dy’d Mary fo ?
E a Etc*