Locrine

ACT IV

PROLOGUE

Enter Ate as before. Then let there follow Omphale, daughter to the king of Lydia, having a club in her hand, and a lion’s skin on her back, Hercules following with a distaff. Then let Omphale turn about, and taking off her pantole, strike Hercules on the head; then let them depart, Ate remaining, saying:

Quem non Argolici mandota severa Tyranni,
Non potuit Juno vincere, vicit amor.

Stout Hercules, the mirror of the world,
Son to Alemena and great Jupiter,
After so many conquests won in field,
After so many monsters quelled by force,
Yielded his valiant heart to Omphale,
A fearful woman void of manly strength.
She took the club, and wear the lion’s skin;
He took the wheel, and maidenly gan spin.
So martial Locrine, cheered with victory,
Falleth in love with Humber’s concubine,
And so forgetteth peerless Gwendoline.
His uncle Corineus storms at this,
And forceth Locrine for his grace to sue.
Lo here the sum, the process doth ensue.

[Exit.]