ô too blest Whom Yester-night saw leaning on thy brest If Love in death survive if yet as great Even by that Love thy pardon I intreat By this thy weeping Mother I the Heire By thee adopted to thy filiall care Though alike wretched and as comfortlesse Yet as I can will comfort her distresse O Virgin-mother favour thy Reliefe Though just yet moderate thy flowing griefe Thy downe-cast Minde by thy owne Vertue raise Th' old Prophets fill their Volumes with thy praise No Age but shall through all the round of Earth Sing of that heavenly Love and sacred Birth What female glory parallels thy Worth So grew a Mother such a Son brought forth She who prov'd fruitfull in th' extreame of age And found the truth of that despis'd presage She whose sweet Babe expos'd among the reeds Which ancient Nilus with his moisture feeds Who then a smiling Infant overcame The threatning floud aspir'd not to thy fame But these expressions are for thee too low The op'ning Heavens did their observance show Those radiant Troopes which Darknesse put to flight Thy Throws assisted in that festive Night Who over thy adored Infant hung With golden wings and Allelujah's sung While the Old Sky to imitate that birth Bare a new Starre to amaze the wondring Earth MARY Sorrow is fled Joy a long banish'd Guest With heavenly rapture fill's my inlarged brest More great then that in youth when from the Sky An Angel brought that blessed Embassy When Shame not soon instructed blush'd for feare How I a Son by such a Fate should beare I greater things fore-see my eyes behold What ever is by Destiny inrold With troops of pious Soules more great then they Thou to felicity shalt lead the way A holy People shall obey thy Throne And Heaven it selfe surrender thee thy own Subjected Death thy Triumph now attends While thou from thy demolish'd Tombe ascends Nor shalt thou long be seene by mortall eies But in perfection mount above the Skies Propitious ever from that heighth shalt give Peace to the World instructed how to live A thousand Languages shall thee adore Thy Empire know no bounds The farthest Shore Washt by the Ocean those who Dayes bright Flame Scarce warmes shall heare the thunder of thy Name Licentious sword nor hostill Fury shall Prevaile against thee thou the Lord of all Those Tyrants whom the vanquisht Worlds obay Before thy feete shall Caesars Scepter lay The Time draws on in which it selfe must end When thou shalt in a Throne of Clouds descend To judge the Earth In that reformed World Those by their sins infected shall be hurl'd Downe under one perpetuall Night while they Whom thou hast cleans'd injoy perpetuall Day The END THe Tragedie of CHRIST'S PASSION was first written in Greek by Apollinarius of Laodicea Bishop of Hieropolis and after him by Gregory Nazianzen though this now extant in his Works is by some ascribed to the former by others accounted suppositions as not agreeing with his Strain in the rest of his Poems which might alter in that particular upon his imitation of Euripides But Hugo Grotius of late hath transcended all on this Argument whose steps afar-off I follow ANNOTATIONS VPON THE FIRST ACT. VErse 23. Ephratian Dames Of Ephrata the same with Bethlehem Ver. 33. Magi Tradition will have them three of severall Nations and honour them with crownes But the word delivers them for Persians for so they called their Philosophers such as were skilfull in the Coelestiall Motions from whence they drew their predictions and with whom their Princes consulted in all matters of moment Some write that they were of the posteritie of Balaam by his Prophesies informed of the birth of Christ and apparition of that narrative Starre but more consonant to the Truth that they received it from divine inspiration Ver. 34. My Starre None of those which adorne the Firmament nor Comet proceeding from condensed Vapors inflamed in the Aire but above Nature and meerely miraculous which as they write not onely illuminated the eye but the understanding excited thereby to that heavenly inquisition Some will have it an Angel in that forme The excellencie whereof is thus described by Prudentius This which in Beames and Beauty far Exceld the Sunnes flame-bearing Car Shew'd Gods descent from Heaven to Earth Accepting of a humane Birth No servant to the humerous Night Nor following Phoebe's changing Light But didst thy single Lamp display To guide the Motion of the Day Hym Epiphaniae It is probable that this Starre continued not above thirteene dayes if we may beleeve that Tradition How the Magi were so long in travelling from their Countrey unto Bethlehem Ver. 34. Mithra's flame Mithra the same with the Sunne adored by the Persians His Image had the countenance of a Lion with a Tiara on his head depressing an Oxe by the hornes Of this Statius Come O remember thy owne Temple prove Propitious still and Juno's Citie love Whether we should thee rosy Titan call Osyris Lord of Ceres festivall Or Mithra shrin'd in Persian rocks a Bull Subduing by the horror of his skull Thebaid l. 1. And in a Cave his Rites were solemnized from whence they drew an Oxe by the hornes which after the singing of certaine Paeans was sacrificed to the Sun Zorastes placeth him between Oremazes and Arimanius the good and bad Daemon from which he took that denomination Vers. 39. Pharisees A precise Sect among the Iews separating themselves from others in habit manners and conversation from whence they had their Name as their Originall from Antigonus Sochaeus who was contemporary with Alexander the Great Men full of appearing Sanctitie observant to Traditions and skilfull expositors of the Moysaicall Law wearing the Precepts thereof in Phylacters narrow scroules of parchment bound about their browes and above their left elbowes passing thorow the streets with a slow motion their eyes fixed on the ground as if ever in divine contemplations and wincking at the approach of women by meanes whereof they not seldome met with churlish incounters Superstitious in their often washing keeping their bodies cleaner then their soules They held that all was governed by God and Fate yet that man had the power in himselfe to doe good or evill That his Soule was immortall that after the death of the body if good it returned into an other more excellent but if evill condemned to perpetuall torments Vers. 43. Sadduces These derived the Sect and name from Sadock the scholar of Antigonus Socaeus as he his Heresie by misinterpreting the words of his Master that we should not serve God as servants in hope of reward concluding thereupon that in another World there was no reward for Pietie and consequently no resurrection holding the Soul to be annihilated after the death of the Body herein agreeing with the Stoicks As smoke from trembling flames ascends and there Lost in its liberty resolves to aire As empty Clouds which furious tempests chace Consume and vanish in their aiery race So our commanding Souls
jaws of Hell thy guilt extend This death we owe to our impiety But what are his misdeeds why should he die Then looking on his face with dropping eyes Forgive me O forgive a wretch he cries And O my Lord my King when thou shalt be Restor'd to thy own Heaven remember me He mildly gives consent and from the barres Of that sad Crosse thus rais'd him to the Starres With me a happy Guest thou shalt injoy Those sacred Orchards where no frosts destroy The eternall Spring before the Morne display The purple Ensigne of th' ensuing Day CHORVS What 's this the Centre pants with sudden throwes And trembling Earth a sad distemper showes The Sun affrighted hides his golden Head From hence by an unknown Ecliptick fled Irregular Heavens abortive shades display And Night usurpes the empty Throne of Day What threats do these dire Prodigies portend To our offending Race Those ills transcend All that can be imagin'd which inforce Disturbed Nature to forget her Course I heare approaching feet What ere thou art Whom darknesse from our sight conceales impart All that thou know'st to our prepared eares Accomplish or dissolve our pressing feares II NVNCIVS Fury from which if loose the Earth had fled And fatall Starres have their event He 's dead CHORVS O Heaven we pardon now Dayes hasty flight Nor will complain since they have quencht this light Yet tell how he dispos'd of his last breath The passages and order of his death II NVNCIVS As the declining Sun the shades increast Reflecting on the more removed East His blazing haire grew black no clouds obscures His vanisht Light this his own Orb immures The Dayes fourth part as yet invests the Pole Were this a Day when from the afflicted Soule This voice was clearely heard not like the breath Of those who labour between life and death My God O why dost thou thy own forsake VVhich purposely the Multitude mistake But to prolong their cruel mirth who said He on the Thesbian Prophet calls for aid Now to return and draw from Heaven again Devouring Showres of Fire or Flouds of Rain VVith silence this he indures His body rent His bloud exhausted and his Spirits spent He cry'd I Thirst As servants to his will The greedy hollowes of a spunge they fill VVith vineger which Hyssops sprigs combine And on a reed exalt the deadly Wine This scarcely tasted his pale lips once more He opens and now lowder then before Cry'd All is finisht here my labours end To thee O heavenly Father I commend My parting Soul This said hung down his head And with his words his mixed Spirits fled Leaving his body which again must bleed Now senselesse of the Crosse From prison freed Those happy seats he injoyes by God assign'd To injur'd Vertue and th' etheriall Minde But Terrours which with Nature war affright Our peacelesse Souls The World hath lost its Light Heaven and the Deeps below our Guilt pursue Pale troops of wandring Ghosts now hurrie through The holy Citie whom from her unknown And secret Wombe the trembling Earth hath thrown The cleaving Rocks their horrid jawes display And yawning Tombes afford the dead a way To those that live Heaven is the generall And undistinguisht Sepulcher to all Old Chaos now returnes Ambitious Night Impatient of alternate Rule or Right Such as before the Dayes etheriall birth With her own shady People fills the Earth CHORVS How did the many-minded People look At these Portents with what affection strook II. NVNCIVS The Lamentations mixed with the cries Of weeping Women in low'd Vollies rise Those who had known him who his followers were While yet he liv'd and did in death adhere In that new Night sighs from their sorrowes send And to those Heavens they could not see extend Their pious hands complaining that the Sun Would then appeare when this was to be done The safety of their lives the Vulgar dread Some for themselves lament some for the dead Others the ruine of the world bewaile Their Courages the cruel Romanes faile Those hands which knew no peace now lazie grew And conquering Feare to earth their weapons threw Th' amaz'd Centurion with our thoughts compli'd And swore the Heros most unjustly dy'd Whose punishment the Earth could hardly brook But groaning with a horrid motion shook Confirmed by the Dayes prodigious flight To be a beame of the celestiall Light And so the mourning Heavens inverted face Showes to the Vnder world his Heavenly Race CHORVS Why flock the People to the Temple thus No cause excepting piety in us Can want belief Hope they to satisfie With Sacrifice the Wrath of the most High II. NVNCIVS New prodigies as horrid thither hale Th' astonisht Multitude The Temples Vale That hung on guilded Beames in purple dy'd Asunder rent and fell on either side The trust of what was sacred is betray'd And all the Hebrew Mysteries display'd That fatall Ark so terrible of old To our pale foes which Cherubins of Gold Veil'd with their hovering wings whose closure held Those two-leav'd Tables wherein God reveal'd His sacred Lawes That Food which by a new Example fell from Heaven in fruitfull Dew About our Tents and tacidly exprest By intermitted showres the seventh Dayes rest The Rod with never dying blossoms spread Which with a Miter honour Aarons Head These with th' old Temple perisht Th' eye could reach No object in this rupture but the Breach What was from former Ages hid is shown Which struck so great a reverence when unknown The Temple shines with flames and to the sight That fear'd Recesse disclos'd with its own Light Either Religion from their fury flies Leaving it naked to profaner eyes Or God doth this abhorred Seat reject And will his Temple in the Minde erect CHORVS Shall Punishment in Death yet finde an end Shall his cold Corps to earth in peace descend Or naked hang and with so dire a sight Profane the Vefper of the sacred Night II. NVNCIVS Too late Religion warmes their savage brests Lest that neare Houre which harbengers their Feast Should take them unprepar'd to Pilat they Repaire intreat him that the Souldier may From bloudy crosses take their bodies down Before their Festivalls the Morning crown That no uncleannesse might from thence arise In memory of th' Aegyptian Sacrifice The leggs of the two Thieves they brake whose breath Yet groan'd between the bounds of life and death The crashing bones report a dreadfull sound While both their souls at once a passage found Nor had the Cohort lesse to Jesus done Who now the Course prescrib'd by Fate had runne But dead deep in his side his trembling speare A Souldier strake his entrails bare appeare And from that wide-mouth'd Orifice a floud Of water gusht mixt with a stream of bloud The Crosses now discharged of their fraught The People fled not with one look or thought Part sad and part amaz'd Spent Fury dies Whither so fast run you to sacrifice A silly Lambe too mean an Offering Is this for you
who have sacrific'd your King CHORVS Either deceiv'd by the ambiguous Day Or troops of mourners to my eyes display A perfect Sorrow Women with their bare And bleeding brests drown'd cheeks dissheveld haire The Souldiers slowly march with knees that bend Beneath their feares and Pilats staires ascend CHORVS OF ROMANE SOVLDIERS O Thou who on thy flaming Charriot rid'st And with perpetuall Motion Time divid'st Great King of Day from whose farre-darting Eye Night-wandring Stars with fainting Splendor flie Whither thus intercepted dost thou stray Through what an unknown darknesse lies thy way In Heaven what new-born Night the Day invades The Mariner that sails by Tyrian Gades As yet sees not thy panting Horses steepe Their fiery fet-locks in th' Hesperian Deep No pitchy storme wrapt up in swelling Clouds By Earth exhal'd thy golden Tresses shrouds Nor thy pale Sister in her wandring Race With interposed wheeles obscures thy Face But now farre-off retires with her stolne Light Till in a silver Orbe her hornes unite Hath some Thessalian Witch with Charms unknown Surpriz'd and bound thee What new Phaëton With feeble hands to guide thy Charriot strives And farre from the deserted Zodiack drives What horrid fact before th' approach of Night Deservedly deprives the World of Light As when stern Atreus to his Brother gave His Childrens flesh who made his owne their grave Or when the Vestall Ilia's God-like Sun Who our unbounded Monarchie begun Was in a hundred pieces cut by theft At once of Life and Funerals bereft Or hath that Day wherein the Gods were borne Finish'd the Course of Heaven in its returne And now the aged Stars refuse to run Beyond that place from whence they first begun Nature what plagues dost thou to thine intend Whither shrinks this huge Masse what fatall end If now the Generall Floud againe retire If the World perish by licentious Fire What shall of those devouring Seas become Where shall those funerall Ashes finde a Tomb What ever innovates the Course of Things To men alone nor Nations ruine brings Either the groaning Worlds disordered Frame Now suffers or that Power which guides the same Doe proud Titanians with their impious War Again provoke th' Olympian Thunderer Is there a mischiefe extant greater then Dire Python or the Snake of Lerna's Fen That poysons the pure Heavens with Viperous breath What God from Gods deriv'd opprest by Death Is now in his own Heaven bewail'd Divine Lyeus gave to man lesse precious Wine Not Hercules so many Monsters flew Vnshorne Apollo lesse in Physick knew Sure we with darknesse are invelloped Because that innocent bloud by Envy shed So deare unto the Gods this place defam'd VVhich shook the Earth and made the Day asham'd Great Father of us all whose Influence Informes the World thou mad'st though Sin incense Thy just displeasure easie to forgive Those who confesse and for their Vices grieve Now to the desperate Sons of men who stray In sinnes dark Labyrinth restore the Day One Sacrifice seek we to expiate All our Offences and appease his hate VVhich the Religion of the Samian Nor Thracian Harpe wild beasts instructing can Nor that Prophetick Boy the Gleabs swart son VVho taught the Thuscans Divination The Bloud which from that mangled body bled Must purge our sins which we unjustly shed O smooth thy brows Receive the innocence Of one for all and with our guilt dispence For sin what greater Ransome can we pay VVhat worthier Offering on thy Altar lay THE FIFTH ACT. JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA NICODEMVS SEe Citizens we Pilats bounty beare With-out a suite men cannot man interre The Romane Progeny nor freely will Doe what is good nor unrewarded ill Nothing is now in use but barbarous Vice They sell our bloud on graves they set a price NICODEMVS O Joseph these vaine extasies refraine But if it seeme so pleasant to Complaine Let Rome alone and seek a neerer guilt His bloud not Romulus sons but Abrahams spilt VVho so the purer sense sincerely draws From those celestiall Oracles and Lawes By God above himselfe inspir'd will say None led to Eternitie a straighter way VVhat 's that to Pilat fell the Innocent by A Romane Oath was 't through the subtilty Of Senators or Priests The Doome display'd They Caesar lesse then Caiaphas obay'd Let us transferre the fact the impious Jew VVith heart with tongue and eyes first Jesus slew The Romans onely acted their Offence How well the Heavens with Hebrew hands dispence For this the Jew th' Italians Crime envi'd And wish'd himselfe the bloody Homicide Doe we as yet our servitude lament VVhen such a murder meets no punishment This doe they this command JOSEPH The Progeny Of Romane Ilia and of Sara I VVith equall detestation execrate O may they perish by a fearefull Fate Just Heaven why sleepes thy Lightning in a Showre Of pitch descend Let stenching Seas deuour This cursed City Sodome thou art cleare Compar'd to ours No more will I a teare Shed for my Countrey Let the Great in War VVorse then the Babylonian Conquerar Enter her Breaches like a violent Floud Vntill the bloudy City swim in bloud Is this too little Let Diseases sow Their fruitfull Seed and in destruction grow Famine in their dry entrailes take thy seat VVhat Nature most abhors inforce to eat Let th' Infant tremble at his Fathers knife The Babe re-enter her who gave it Life VVhile yet the eager Foe invests the wall VVithin may they by their own weapons fall The Temple wrapt in flames Let th' Enemy Decide their Civill Discord and destroy VVith fire and sword ungratefull Solyma The reliques of their slaughter drive away Nor seventy yeers dissolve their servill bands Despis'd and wretched wander through all Lands Abolish'd be their Law all forme of State No Day see their returne Let sudden Fate Succeed my curses This infected Soyle No more shall feed me What unusuall toyle Shall my old feet refuse so they no more Tread on this Earth though to that unknown shore VVhich lyes beneath the slow Bootes VVaine Dasht by th' unconstant billows of that Maine That Countrey shall be mine where Justice swayes And bold Integrity the Truth obayes NICODEMVS This Error with a secret poyson feeds The minds Disease VVho censures his own deeds VVho not anothers These accusing Times Rather the men condemne then taxe their Crimes Such is the Tyranny of Judgement prone To sentence all Offences but our owne Because of late we cry'd not Crucifie Nor falsely doom'd the Innocent to die Our selves we please as it a Vertue were And Great one if from great Offences cleare Confesse what Orator would plead his Cause To vindicate his truth who urg'd the Laws Or once accus'd their bloudy suffrages By Envy sign'd VVho durst those Lords displease So Piety suffer'd while by speaking they And we by silence did the Just betray VVhen women openly their zeale durst show VVe in acknowledging our Master slow Vnder the shady coverture of Night Secur'd our feares which would not brook the Light Joseph
CHRISTS PASSION A TRAGEDIE WITH ANNOTATIONS LONDON Printed by Iohn Legatt M. D. C. XL. M. TO THE KINGS MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTIE SIR I Am bold to present you with this Peece of the PASSION the Originall designed by the curious Pensill of Grotius whose former afflictions seeme to have taught him pliable passions and art to rule the affections of others cloathing the saddest of Subjects in the sutable attire of Tragedy not without the Example of two ancient Fathers of the Primitive Church Apollinarius and Nazianzen The Argument is of both the Testaments a patheticall Abstract Those formidable Wonders effected by God in his owne Common-wealth those stupendious Miracles for truth a Pattern to all History for strangenesse to all Fables here meet together to attend on CHRIST'S PASSION The effects of his Power here sweetly end in those of his Mercy and that terrible Lord of Hosts is now this meeke God of Peace reconciling all to one another and Man-kinde to Him-selfe Sr. in this change of Language I am no punctuall Interpreter a way as servill as ungracefull Quintilian censures a Painter that he more affected Similitude then Beauty who would have shown greater Skill if lesse of Resemblance the same in Poetry is condemned by Horace of that Art the great Law-giver Thus in the Shadow of your Absence dismist from Arms by an Act of Time have I in what I was able continued to serve you The humblest of your Majesties Servants GEORGE SANDYS THE PERSONS JESUS CHORUS OF JEWISH WOMEN PETER PONTIUS PILATE CAIAPHAS JUDAS THE JEWS FIRST NUNCIUS SECOND NUNCIUS CHORUS OF ROMANE SOULDIERS JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA NICODEMUS JOHN MARY THE MOTHER OF JESUS Imprimatur Tho: Wykes September 17. 1639 THE FIRST ACT. JESVS O Thou who govern'st what thou didst create With equall sway great Arbiter of Fate The Worlds Almighty Father I thy Son Though born in Time before his Course begun Thus far my Deeds have answered thy Commands If more remain my Zeale prepared stands To execute thy Charge all that I feare All that I hate I shall with patience beare No misery refuse no toile nor shame I know for this into the world I came And yet how long shall these extreames indure What Day or Night have known my life secure My burthen by induring heavier grows And present ills a way to worse disclose My Kingdome Heaven I left to visit Earth And suffer'd banishment before my Birth An unknown Infant in a stable born Lodg'd in a manger little poore forlorn And miserable though so vile a Thing Yet worthy of the envy of a King Two yeers scarce yet compleat too old was thought By Herods fears while I alone was sought The bloudy Sword Ephratian Dames deprives Of their dear Babes through wounds they exhal'd their lives Secur'd by flying to a forreign Clime The Tyrant through his Error lost his Crime A Thousand Miracles have made me known Through all the World and my extraction shown Envy against me raves yet Vertue hath More storms of Mischief rais'd then Herods wrath It is decreed by thy unchanging Will I should be acknowledg'd and rejected still Th' inspired Magi from the Orient came Prefer'd my Starre before their Mithra's flame And at my infant feet devoutly fell But Abrahams Seed the House of Israel To thee sequestred from Eternity Degenerate and ingrate their God deny Behold the contumacious Pharisies Arm'd with dissembled Zeale against me rise The bloudy Priests to their stern Party draw The Doctors of their unobserved law And impious Sadduces to perpetrate My intended Overthrow incense the State What rests to quicken Faith Even at my Nod Nature submits acknowledging her God The Galilean Youth drink the pure bloud Of generous Grapes drawn from the Neighbor floud I others famin cur'd subdu'd my own Life-strengthning food for fourty dayes unknown Twixt the Dispensers hands th' admired Bread Increas'd great multitudes of People fed Yet more then all remain'd The Windes asswage Their stormes threatning Billows calme their rage The hardned Waves unsinking feet indure And pale Diseases which despise their cure My Voice subdues Long Darknesse chac'd away To me the Blind by Birth now owes his Day He hears who never yet was heard now speaks And in my Praises first his silence breaks Those damned Spirits of infernall Night Rebels to God and to the Sonnes of Light Inveterate foes my Voice but heard forsake The long possest and struck with terror quake Nor was 't enough for Christ such wonders done To profit those alone who see the Sunne To vanquish Death my powerfull hand invades His silent Regions and inferior Shades The Stars the Earth the Seas my triumphs know VVhat rests to conquer but the Deeps below Through op'ning Sepulchers Nights gloomy Caves The violated priviledge of Graves I sent my dread Commands A heat new born Reanimates the Dead from funerals torn And Deaths-numb Cold expulst inforc'd a way For Soules departed to review the Day The Ashes from their ransackt Tombs receive A second life and by my bounty breathe But Death his late free Empire thus restrain'd Not used to restore his Spoyles complain'd That I should thus unweave the web of Fate Decrease his Subjects and subvert his State I for so many ransomed from Death Must to his anger sacrifice my breath And now that horrid Houre is almost come When sinfull Mortalls shall their Maker doom When I the worlds great Lord who life on all Mankinde bestow'd must by their fury fall That Tragick Time to my last Period hasts And Night who now on all her Shadows casts While with the motion of the Heavens she flies This short delay of my sad life envies Fate be lesse sterne in thy intended Course Nor drag him who will follow without force After so many miseries indur'd Cold Heat Thirst Famine eyes to teares inur'd The end yet worst of ills draws neare their breath For whom I suffer must procure my death The Innocent made guilty by the foule Defects of others must his weary Soule Sigh into aire and though of heavenly birth With his chaste bloud distain th' ungratefull Earth They traffick for my Soule my death long sought Is by the mitred Merchants faction bought And Treason findes reward My travels draw Neare their last end These practices I saw See what this Nights confederate Shadows hide My Minde before my Body crucifi'd Horrour shakes all my Powers my entrailes beat And all my Body flowes with purple sweat O whither is my ancient Courage fled And God-like Strength by Anguish captive led O Death how farre more cruell in thy kinde Th' anxiety and torment of the Minde Then must I be of all at once bereft Or is there any hope of safety left O might I to my heavenly Father pray So supple to my teares to take away Part of these ills But his eternall Doome Forbids and ordered Course of things to come His purpose fixt when yet the world was young And Oracles so oft by Prophets sung Now rushing on their
gall'd deep dy'd in their own gore His sides exhausted all the rest appeares Like that Fictitious Scarlet which he weares And for a Crown the wreathed Thornes infol'd His bleeding browes With griefe his griefe behold JEWES Away with him from this Contagion free Th' infected Earth and naile him on a Tree PILAT. What crucifie your King JEWES Dominion can No Rivall brook His rule a Law to Man Whom Rome adores we readily obay And will admit of none but Caesars Sway He Caesars right usurps who hopes to ascend The Hebrew Throne Thy own affairs intend Dost thou discharge thy Masters trust if in Thy government a president begin So full of danger tending to the rape Of Majesty Shall treason thus escape PILAT. The Tumult swels the Vulgar and the Great Joyne in their Votes with contributed heat Whose whisperings such a change of murmur raise As when the rising Windes first Fury strayes 'Mong wave-beat Rocks when gathering Clouds deforme The face of Heaven whose Wrath begets a Storme The fearefull Pilot then distrusts the Skies And to the neerest Port for refuge flies To these rude Clamours they mine eares inure Such sharpe diseases crave a sudden cure You my Attendants hither quickly bring Spot-purging Water from the living Spring Thou liquid Chrystall from pollution cleare And you my innocent hands like record beare On whom these cleansing streames so purely runne I voluntarily have nothing done Nor am I guilty though he guiltlesse die Yours is the Crime his Blood upon you lie JEWES Rest thou secure If his destruction shall Draw down celestiall Vengeance let it fall Thick on our heads in punishment renew And ever our dispersed Race pursue PILAT. Then I from this Tribunall mounted on Imbellish'd Marble Judgements awfull Throne Thus censure Lead him to the Crosse and by A servil death let Judahs King there dye CHORVS OF JEWISH WOMEN JESVS VVE all deplore thy miseries For Thee we beat our brests our eyes In bitter teares their moysture shed If thou be he by Ravens fed Aloft on flaming Charriot born Yet wouldst to cruell Lords return Or that sad Bard believ'd too late Who sung his Countreys servil Fate Now come to sigh her destiny A like unhappy twice to dye Or he long nourish'd in the Wood Who late in Jordans cleansing Flood So many wash'd that durst reprove A King for his incestious love Slain for a Dancer If the same Or other of an elder fame Sent back to Earth in vices drown'd To raise it from that dark Profound 'T is sure thy Sanctitie exceeds Blaz'd by thy Vertue and thy Deeds O never more ring'd with a Throng Of Followers shall thy sacred tongue Informe our Actions nor the way To Heaven and heavenly joyes display The Blind who now the unknown light Beholds scarce trusting his own sight Thy gift shall not the Giver see Those maladies subdu'd by thee Which powerfull Art and Hearbs desie No more thy soveraign Touch shall fly Nor Loaves so tacidly increast Againe so many thousands feast Thou Rule of Lifes Perfection By Practice as by Precept shown Late hemb'd with Auditors whose store Incumbred the too-narrow Shore The Mountains cover'd with their Preasse The Mountains then their People lesse For whom our Youths their garments strew Victorious Boughs before thee threw While thou in Triumph rid'st along Saluted with a joyfull Song Now see what change from Fortune springs O dire Vicissitude of Things Betray'd abandon'd by thy owne Drag'd by thy Foes oppos'd by none Thou hope of our afflicted state Thou Balme of Life and Lord of Fate Not erst to such unworthy bands Did'st thou submit thy powerfull Hands Lo he who gave the dumbe a tongue With patient silence bears his wrong The Souldier ah renews his blows The whip new-op'ned furrows shows Which now in angry tumors swel To us their wrath the Romans sel Lo how his members flow the smart Confin'd to no particular part His stripes which make all but one sore Run in confused streames of gore Art thou the Slave of thy owne Fate To beare thy torments cursed waight What Arab though he wildly stray In wandring Tents and live by prey Or Cyclop who no pitty knowes Would such a cruel task impose O that the fatall pressure might Sinke thee to Earth nor weigh more light Then Death upon thee that thy weake Vntwisted thread of life might breake It were a blessing so to dye But O for how great cruelty Art thou reserv'd the Crosse thou now Support'st must with thy burden bow JESVS Daughters of Solyma no more My wrongs thus passionately deplore These teares for future sorrows keep Wives for your selves and children weep That horrid day will shortly come When you shall blesse the barren Wombe And Brest that never infant fed Then shall you wish the mountains head Would from his trembling basis slide And all in tomb's of ruins hide CHORVS Alas thou spotlesse Sacrifice To greedy Death no more our eyes Shall see thy Face ah never more Shalt thou return from Deaths dark shore Though Lazarus late at thy call Brake through the barrs of Funerall Rais'd from that Prison to review The World which then he hardly knew Who forth-with former sense regains The bloud sprung in his heated Veins His sinews supple grew yet were Again almost conjeal'd with feare Thy followers Sadock now may know Their Error from the Shades below A Few belov'd by the Most High Through Vertue of the Deitie To others rarely rendred breath None ever rais'd himselfe from death THE FOVRTH ACT. FIRST NVNCIVS CHORVS OF JEWISH WOMEN SECOND NVNCIVS I From the horrid'st Act that ever fed The fire of barbarous Rage at length am fled Yet O too neare The Object still pursues Flotes in mine eyes that sad Scene renewes CHORVS Art thou a witnesse of his miserie Saw'st thou the Galilean Prophet die 1. NVNCIVS Those Savages to Scythian Rocks confin'd Who know no God nor vertue of the Minde But onely Sense pursue who hunger tame With slaughtered Lives they and their food the same Would this detest CHORVS Vain Innocence would none Lend him a teare were all transform'd to stone 1. NVNCIVS No certainly yet so commiserate As Pittie prov'd more tyrannous then Hate The cursed Tree with too much weight opprest His stooping shoulders Death had now releast His fainting Soul but O the Lenitie Of Malice would not suffer him to die Part of the load impos'd with idle scorn On Lybian Simon in Cyrene born To whom th' affected quiet of the fields Secur'd by Poverty no safety yeelds The Furies of the Citie him surprise Who from the vices of the Citie flies Who beares not his own burden that none may Misdoubt the Innocent became their prey CHORVS Forth-with unmask this wretched face of Wo All that he suffer'd and the manner show What words brake from his sorrow give thy tongue A liberall scope Our mindes not seldome long To know what they abhorre nor spare our eares What can be heard is fancied by our feares
1. NVNCIVS With-out the Citie on that side which lies Exposed to the boysterous injuries Of the cold North to War a fatall Way Infamous by our slaughters Golgotha Exalts his Rock No flowers there paint the field Nor flourishing trees refreshing shadowes yield The ground all white with bones of mortalls spread Stencht with the putrefaction of the dead And reliques of unburied Carcases Who on his aged Fathers throat durst sease Rip-up his mothers wombe who poyson drest For his own brother or his unknown Guest Betray'd and gave his mangled flesh for food Vnto the wild inhabitants of the Wood This Stage of Death deserv'd while every soule Misdeed of theirs pursues the guilty Soule Now when the Nazarite at this dismall place Arrived with a weak and tardy pace Least he should die too quickly some preferre Sweet wine mixt with the bitter teares of Myrrhe He of the idle present hardly tasts But to incounter with his torments hasts The Steel now bor'd his feet whose slit veines spout Like pierced conduits both his armes strechtout His hands fixt with two nailes While his great Soule These tortures suffer'd while the rising Bole Forsook the Earth and crimson Torrents sprung From his fresh wounds he gave his Grief no tongue The Crosse advanc'd and fixt then as more nigh To his own Heaven his eyes bent on the Skie Among such never to be equal'd woes Who would beleeve it pities his stern foes And thinks those false Contrivers those who gor'd His flesh with wounds more fit to be deplor'd Who even their merited destruction feares And falsely judg'd the truly guilty cleares Father he cries forgive this sinne they knew Not what they did nor know what now they do Mean-while the Souldiers who in bloud delight With hearts more hard then Rocks behold this sight And savage Rigor never reconcil'd To Pitty all humanitie exil'd Who us'd to pillage now intend their prey Nor for his death though then a dying stay But he alive and looking on divide The Spoil yet more in the Spectatour joy'd Fury in trifles sports their scorn his poore Yet parted garments distribute to foure His inward Robe with one contexture knit Nor of the like division would admit Their votes to the dispose of Lots referre Electing Chance for their blinde Arbiter Nor wa st the least of evils to behold Th' ignoble Partners of his pain who old In mischief rob'd the murder'd Passengers Follow'd by Troops that fill'd the Night with feares While thus they hung none could the doubt explain VVhether He more had sav'd then They had slain The numerous Index of each bloudy deed Now brand their lives when those who could not read At such a distance of the next inquire For what they dy'd who had the same desire But above his declining Head they hung A table in three Languages the Tongue The first of tongues which taught our Abrahamites Those heavenly Precepts and mysterious Rites Next that which to th' informed World imparts The Grecian Industry and learned Arts Then this from whence the conquer'd Earth now takes Her Lawes and at the Romane Virtue quakes All of one sense His place of birth his Name Declare and for the Hebrew King proclame After the bloudy Priests so long had fed On this lov'd Spectacle at length they read The Title and in such a miserie So full of ruth found something to envy The Governour intreating to take down That glorious Stile lest he the Hebrew Crown Should vindicate in Death and so deny That Princes by Subordinates should die But who that Day so readily compli'd To give a life austerely this deni'd CHORVS While lingring Death his sad release deferr'd How lookt the standers by what words were heard I. NVNCIVS Not all alike discording murmurs rise Some with transfixed hearts and wounded eyes Astonisht stand some joy in his slow fate And to the last extend their Barbarous hate Motion it self variety begets And by a strange vicissitude regrets What it affected nor one posture beares Teares scornfull laughter raise and laughter teares Who to the Temple from th' impoverisht shore Of Galilee his followed steps adore And ministred to his life now of his End The Witnesses still to their dying friend Their faith preserve which as they could they show In all th' expressions of a perfect woe One from her panting brest her garments tare Another the bright tresses of her haire This with her naked armes her bosome beats The hollow rock Her fearfull shriekes repeat She stiff with sorrow But what grief could vie With that example of all piety His virgin Mothers this affords no way To lessening teares nor could it self display Where should she fix her looks if on the ground She sees that with her bloud he bleeding drown'd Or if she raise her eyes the killing sight Of her wombes tort'red Issue quencht their light Fearing to look on either both disclose Their terrours who now licences her woes Ready to have stept forward and imbrast The bloudy Crosse her feeble lims stuck fast Her feet their motion lost her voice in vain A passage sought such Grief could not complain Whose Soul almost as great a Sorrow stung As his who on the Tree in torments hung That Youth one of the Twelve so dignifi'd By his deare Masters love stood by her side Beholding this sad Paire those Souls that were To him then life while life remain'd more deare He found an other Crosse his spirits melt More for the sorrow seen then torments felt At length in strength transcending either brake The barres of his long silence and thus spake A legacie to each of you I leave Mother this sonne in stead of me receave By thy adoption and thou gentle boy The seed of Zebedeus late my joy Thy friend now for thy mother take This said Again he to his torments bow'd his Head The Vulgar with the Elders of our Race And Souldiers shake their heads in his disgrace Is this the man said they whose hands can raise The Temple and rebuild it in three dayes Now shew thy strength Or if the Thunderer Above the rank of Mortalls thee preferre Acknowledg'd for his Heir let him descend Confirme thy hopes and timely succour lend Behold the help thou gav'st to others failes The Authour Break these Bonds these stubborn Nails And from the Crosse descend then we will say Thou art our King and thy Commands obey Nor wast enough that the surrounding Throng Wound with reproches Who besides him hung Doth now again a murderers minde disclose And in his punishment more wicked growes Who thus If thou be he whom God did choose To Govern the free'd Nation of the Jews Thy self and us release thus honour win The Partner of his death as of his sinne Who had his fiercenesse with the thief cast-off Ill brookes and thus reprooves that impious scoff Hast thou as yet not learnt to acknowledge God Nor sacred Justice fear who now the rod Of vengeance feel'st wilt thou again offend And to the
river in Hell Vers. 361. Solyma So called by the Grecians as by the Hebrews Salem and when David had taken it from the Iebusites Ierusalem which is as much as Jebusalem turning B into R for the better harmony called after the building of the Temple Hierosolyma by the Greeks of Hieron which signifies a Temple in their language Vers. 264. From th' Isthmos This Isthmos lies between Aegypt and the bottom of the Red Sea from whence to Euphrates David extended his conquests inforcing all the Arabians to become his Tributaries Who also overthrew the King of Sophona hard by the eruption of Tygris overcame the Mesopotamians the King of Damascus and drew that City with all Syria under his obedience having before subdued the neighbouring Nations Vers. 267. Th' admiring Queen c. Josephus makes her Queen of Aethiopia and to have bestowed on Solomon that pretious Plant of Balsamum which he after planted in Engaddi but this grew in Canaan in the dayes of Jacob who sent a Present thereof among other fruits of that Countrey into Aegypt The Aethiopian Emperours glory in their descent from Solomon by this Queen in regard whereof they greatly favour the Jewish nation They have a Citie called Saba which lies on the West side of the Arabian Gulf But by the presents which she brought and vicinitie of the Countrey it is more probable that she came from Saba the principall Citie of Arabia the Happy Vers. 271. Canopus Scepter c. Kings of Aegypt of Canopus a principal Citie which stood on that branch of Nilus which is next to Alexandria taking that Name from Menelaus his Pilot there buried by his shipwrackt master Vers. 272. Those Monarchs c. Chaldean Monarchs Babylon the seat of their Empire who as the Persians adored the Sun under the name of Mithra Vers. 274. Sarrana Tyrus so called in that it was built on a rock the Arabians pronouncing Scar for Sar from whence the Tyrian purple takes the name of Scarlet He Cities sacks and houses fills with grones To lie on scarlet drink in pretious stones Virg. Geor. l. c. Not onely Iosephus but the Scriptures make often mention of the ancient amitie between the Iews and Tyrians Vers. 277. Ths land c. See the Note upon V. 275. Act. 1. Vers. 283. Antiochus guilt Antiochus Epiphanes who abrogated their Law and by threatnings and tortures enforced the Iews to Idolatry polluting their Altar with sacrificed Swine Vers. 291. Iönian Gods The Gods of Greece Antiochus being of a Grecian Family and zealous in their Superstitions Vers. 293. Their brothers slew c. Aristobulus the first that ware a Crown of the race of the Asmones upon a false suspicion by the machination of Salome the Queen caused his valiant and affectionate brother Antigonus to be treacherously murdred who before had imprisoned the rest of his brethren and famished his mother After the desperate death of Aristobulus Alexander his brother was removed from a Prison to a Throne who slew his third brother out of a vain suspicion of his aspiring to the Kingdome To conclude from the first King of the Asmones to the last of the Herods no history is so fruitfull in examples of unnaturall Cruelties Vers. 297. Twice vanquished c Pompey was the first of the Romanes that subdued the Iews neither were the Romanes expulsed by any forrein Prince but untill this time maintained their Government It must then be meant by their expulsion of one another in their Civill warres Iuilus Coesar vanquishing Pompey Mark Anthony being his Lieutenant in Syria who gave a great part of the Territories of the Iews to Cleopatra after absolute Lord of the Eastern parts of the Romane Empire in the end overthrown and deprived of all by Augustus Vers. 303. One part by Romane c. Iudea reduced into a Romane Province by Pompey and then governed by Pontius Pilat Vers. 304. The other two by brothers c. Philip and Antipas called also Herod sons to Herod the Great the one Tetrarch of Iturea a Countrey which lies at the foot of Libanus and the other of Galilee to whōm Agrippa succeeded the son of Aristobulus slain by his father Herod with the title of a King bestowed by Coesar Vers 305. From savage Idumaeans Antipater the father of Herod was an Idumoean who in the contention between the two brethren Hircanus and Aristobulus about the Kingdome took part with Hircanus and grew so powerfull that he made a way for his son to the Soveraigntie though he himself was prevented by poyson Vers. 327. That Name Iehova ANNOTATIONS VPON THE THIRD ACT. VErse 47. Brutish Thunder The Philosophers will have two sorts of Lightning calling the one fatall that is pre-appointed and mortall the other Brutish that is accidentall and flying at random Vers. 119. He whom c. Herod Antipas then Tetrarch of Galilee whose father Herod the Great so magnificently reedified the Temple that the glory of the latter exceeded that of the former Verse 122. The land c. Phoenicia the ancient kingdome of Agenor son to Belus Priscus who was reputed a God after his death and honoured with Temples called Bel by the Assyrians and Baal by the Hebrews Verse 142. Whose flouds in Summer swell Nilus which constantly begins to rise with the rising Sunne on the seventeenth of Iune increasing by degrees untill it make all the Land a Lake Not ty'd to laws of other Streams the Sun When furthest off thy streams then poorest run Intemperate heaven to temper midst of heat Vnder the burning Zone bid to grow great Then Nile assists the world lest fire should quell The Earth and make his high-borne waters swell Against the Lions flaming jaws Lucan l. 10. Ver. 187. The free born It was the custome of the Romanes to punish slaves onely with whips but their children and the free with rods Verse 195. The wreathed Thorns in reverence of this crown of Thorns which was platted about the brows of our Saviour the Christians forbare to wear any garlands on their heads in their Festivalls although it were the custome of those Nations among whom they lived Vers. 221. Thou liquid chrystall c. Pilat washt not his hands to expresse his innocencie as a Romane Custome but therein observing the Iewish Ceremony which was that he who would professe himself guiltlesse of a suspected Man slaughter should wash his hands over a Heifer with her head cut off Verse 338. Let it fall c. This imprecation soon after fell upon them in all the fulnesse of horrour and throughout the world at this day pursues them Verse 233. Drag him to the Crosse c. Pilat not onely out of fear and against his conscience but therein infringed a Law lately made by Tiberius in the sudden execution for by the same no offendour was to suffer within ten dayes after his condemnation But he met with a Nemesis soon after turn'd out of his Government by Vitellius for his cruelty inflicted upon the Samaritanes and sent to