when the miraculous gifts which Christ vouchsafed to his church, those which the apostles transmitted to ceased to be manifest, can we say that Justin, Tatius, Arnobius,

their disciples,

he outrages probability.

Irenæus, nay, writers so late as Augustine and Gregory the Great, assert that angels were, in their days, the Dorothea had met with her visitants of mankind. This is in conformity

angel in the garb of a beggar. with the apostolic injunction to hospitality and almsgiving, "For know ye not," says the apostle of the Gentiles, "that many have entertained angels unawares? We must not, therefore, regard this as a poetic creation; it was the belief of the age; and Massinger would have erred had he entirely overlooked it. That age was so near to the apostolic, that, without incurring the charge of superstition, he might adopt the belief. In this case, however, he did no more than follow a legend which we have seen in Bollandus; but as that huge collection is not at this moment before us, we cannot refer to the place.

Macrinus has no eloquence sufficient to move Dorothea; that of Antoninus, who follows him, is equally ineffectual. She has never given him encouragement: she could not love him if he were a Christian; and, though she does not say so, she has evidently taken the vow of chastity, an engagement that may be traced to the earliest age of the church. She is the bride of heaven, and will have no human lord. In vain does he boast his fortunes:

"Sir, for your fortunes, were they mines of gold, He that I love is richer; and for worth,

You are to him lower than any slave

Is to a monarch,"

He offers her the heart which Cæsar's daughter could not move in vain; she exhorts him only to become a Christian. During part of the scene they are overlooked by Artemia and Sapritius; the one mortally enraged the other that he

ther

"Theoph. Peace, damn'd enchantress, peace! - I should look on you

With eyes made red with fury, and my hand,

That shakes with rage, should much outstrip my tongue,

And seal my vengeance on your hearts;

To you that have fallen once, bids me again

To be a father.

Oh! how durst you tempt

The anger of great Jove?

"Dor. Alack, poor Jove!

He is no swaggerer; how smug he stands!

He'll take a kick, or any thing.

66

Sap. Stop her mouth.

but nature,

"Dor. It is the patient'st godling; do not fear him;

He would not hurt the thief that stole away

Two of his golden locks; indeed he could not:

And still 't is the same quiet thing.

"Theoph. Blasphemer!

Ingenious cruelty shall punish this;

Thou art past hope: but for you yet, dear daughters,

Again bewitch'd, the dew of mild forgiveness

May gently fall, provided you deserve it

With true contrition: be yourselves again;

Sue to the offended deity.

"Christ. Not to be

The mistress of the earth.

"Cal. I will not offer

A grain of incense to it, much less kneel,
Nor look on it but with contempt and scorn,
To have a thousand years conferr'd upon me
Of worldly blessings. We profess ourselves
To be, like Dorothea, Christians,

And owe her for that happiness.

"Theoph. My ears

Receive, in hearing this, all deadly charms,
Powerful to make man wretched.

"Artem. Are these they

You bragg'd could convert others!
"Sap. That want strength

To stand themselves!

Hurp. Your honour is engaged,

The credit of your cause depends upon it;

Something you must do suddenly.

"Theoph. And I will.

"Harp. They merit death; but, falling by your hand, 'T will be recorded for a just revenge,

1

"for the Roman empire he would not wound her honour." The incensed Sapritius rushes in, upbraids the youth for his pusillanimity, and swears that the proud maiden shall be undone by one of his slaves. That slave is a Briton, and Sapritius asks him

"What wouldst thou do to gain thy liberty? "Slave. Do! liberty! fight naked with a lion, Venture to pluck a standard from the heart Of an arm'd legion. Liberty! I'd thus Bestride a rampire, and defiance spit

I' the face of death, then, when the battering-ram

Was fetching his career backward, to pash

Me with his horns in pieces. To shake my chains off,

And that I could not do 't but by thy death,

Stoodst thou on this dry shore, I on a rock

Ten pyramids high, down would I leap to kill thee,

Or die myself: what is for man to do

I'll venture on, to be no more a slave.

"Sap. Thou shalt, then, be no slave, for I will set thee Upon a piece of work is fit for man,

Brave for a Briton: - drag that thing aside,

*

"Slave.

*
*

* is this your manly service?

A devil scorns to do it; 't is for a beast,

A villain, not a man: I am, as yet,

But half a slave; but, when that work is past,

A damned whole one, a black ugly slave,

The slave of all base slaves:

'Tis drudgery fit for thee.

"Sap. He's bewitch'd too.

do 't thyself, Roman,

Bind him, and with a bastinado give him,
Upon his naked belly, two hundred blows.
"Slave. Thou art more slave than I.

[He is carried in."

But if this noble-minded slave thus refuses to do the deed, the revengeful old pagan calls others. In vain : she is miraculously protected by the angel her page, until she is expelled the house.

In a subsequent scene, Dorothea is led to the place of Antoninus is resolved to see the last scene, execution. and, with his friend Macrinus, he is there before her arrival: