Classic Poem

[SCENE III.]

Enter Don DE M ENYSIS , Governor of Tangier, speaking to the Captain[s].

De Men . Captain[s], we have received letters from the king,
That with such signs and arguments of love
We entertain the King of Barbary,
That marcheth toward Tangier with his men,
The poor remainders of those that fled from Fess,
When Abdelmelec got the glorious day,
And stall'd himself in his imperial throne.
First Cap. Lord governor, we are in readiness
To welcome and receive this hapless king,
Chased from his land by angry Amurath;
And if the right rest in this lusty Moor,
Bearing a princely heart unvanquishable,
A noble resolution then it is
In brave Sebastian our Christian king,
To aid this Moor with his victorious arms,
Thereby to propagate religious truth,
And plant his springing praise in Africa.
Sec. Cap. But when arrives this brave Sebastian,
To knit his forces with this manly Moor,
That both in one, anDone in both, may join
In this attempt of noble consequence?
Our men of Tangier long to see their king,
His princely face, that like the summer's sun,
Glads all these hither parts of Barbary.
De Men. Captains, he cometh hitherward amain,
Top and top-gallant, all in brave array:
The six-and-twentieth day of June he left
The bay of Lisbon, and with all his fleet
At Cardis happily he arrived in Spain
The eighth of July, tarrying for the aid
That Philip King of Spain had promised:
And fifteen days he there remain'd aboard,
Expecting when this Spanish force would come,
Nor stept ashore, as he were going still.
But Spain, that meant and minded nothing less,
Pretends a sudden fear and care to keep
His own from Amurath's fierce invasion,
And to excuse his promise to our king;
For which he storms as great Achilles erst
Lying for want of wind in Aulis' gulf,
And hoiseth up his sails and anchors weighs,
And hitherward he comes, and looks to meet
This manly Moor whose case he undertakes.
Therefore go we to welcome and receive,
With cannon-shot and shouts of young and old,
This fleet of Portugals and troop of Moors.