Carre
on 15th August, 1586. The dramatist has invested the story with the
glamour of that poetical strangeness which is the very salt of such
narrations:--
"_Alf_. He did proclaime reliefe unto the poore;
Assembled them unto a private Barne,
And, having lockt the doore, set it on fire,
Saying hee'de rid the countrie of such Mice:
And Mice and Rats have rid him from the World.
* * * * *
_Duke_. Could not this palace, seated in the _Rheine_
In midst of the great River, (to the which
No bridge, nor convay, other then by boats
Was to be had) free him from vermine Rats?
_Alf_. Against their kind the land Rats took the water
And swomme in little armies to the house,
And, though we drownd and killed innumerable,
Their numbers were like _Hydra's_ heads increasing;
Ruine bred more untill our brother died.
_Duke_. The house is execrable; Ile not enter.
_Hat_. You need not feare, my Lord; the house is free
From all resort of Rats; for _at his death,
As if a trumpet sounded a retreat,
They made a kind of murmure and departed_.
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