We, as their messengers, beseech ye all
On their behalfs to pity all their smarts.
And for ourselves (although the worth be small)
We pray ye to accept our humble hearts,
Avow'd to serve with prayer and with praise
Your honours, all unworthy other ways.[9]
DRAMATIS PERSONAE.[10]
CUPID.
TANCRED, _the King_.
GISMUNDA, _the King's Daughter_.
LUCRECE, _her Aunt_.
GUISCARD, _Count Palurin_.
RENUCHIO, _Captain of the Guard_.
JULIO, _Lord Chamberlain_.
MEGAERA.
CHORUSES.[11]
ARGUMENT OF THE TRAGEDY.[12]
Tancred, the Prince of Salerne, overloves
His only daughter (wonder of that age)
Gismund, who loves the County[13] Palurin
Guiscard, who quites her likings with his love:
A letter in a cane describes the means
Of their two meetings in a secret cave.
Unconstant fortune leadeth forth the king
To this unhappy sight, wherewith in rage
The gentle earl he doometh to his death,
And greets his daughter with her lover's heart.
Gismunda fills the goblet with her tears,
And drinks a poison which she had distill'd,
Whereof she dies, whose deadly countenance
So grieves her father, that he slew himself.
ANOTHER OF THE SAME, MORE AT LARGE, IN PROSE.[14]
Tancred, King of Naples and Prince of Salerne, gave his only daughter
Gismund (whom he most dearly loved) in marriage to a foreign prince,
after whose death she returned home to her father, who having felt great
grief of her absence whilst her husband lived, immeasurably esteeming
her, determined never to suffer any second marriage to bereave him of
her.
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