all use of speech, or for that he resolved himself to a more convenient
revenge, he then spake nothing, but noted their return into the vault,
and secretly departed. Afterward, bewailing his mishap, he commanded the
earl to be attached, imprisoned, strangled, unbowelled, and his heart in
a cup of gold to be presented to his daughter:[16] she thankfully
receiveth the present, filling the cup (wherein the heart was) with her
tears, with a venomous potion (by her distilled for that purpose) she
drank to her earl. Which her father hearing of, came too late to comfort
his dying daughter, who for her last request besought him that her lover
and herself might in one tomb be together buried for a perpetual memory
of their faithful loves; which request he granted, adding to the burial
himself, slain with his own hands, to his own reproach, and the terror
of all other hard-hearted fathers.


Introductio in Actum Secundum.

Before the second act there was heard a sweet noise of still pipes,
which sounding, Lucrece entered, attended by a maiden of honour with a
covered goddard of gold, and, drawing the curtains, she offereth unto
Gismunda to taste thereof; which when she had done, the maid returned,
and Lucrece raiseth up Gismunda from her bed, and then it followeth _ut_
in act ii. sc. 1.


Introductio in Actum Tertium.

Before this act the hautboys sounded a lofty almain, and Cupid ushereth
after him Guiscard and Gismunda, hand in hand; Julio and Lucrece,
Renuchio and another maiden of honour. The measures trod, Gismunda gives