Yet there is nothing prosy or commonplace.
The spirit of poetry and strength is everywhere.

Our last extract is from the famous abdication scene (Act V, Scene 1).

_Leicester._ Call them again, my lord, and speak them fair;
For, if they go, the prince shall lose his right.

_K. Edward._ Call thou them back; I have no power to speak.

_Leicester._ My lord, the king is willing to resign.

_Bishop of Winchester._ If he be not, let him choose.

_K. Edward._ O, would I might! but heavens and earth conspire
To make me miserable. Here, receive my crown.
Receive it? no, these innocent hands of mine
Shall not be guilty of so foul a crime:
He of you all that most desires my blood,
And will be called the murderer of a king,
Take it. What, are you moved? pity you me?
Then send for unrelenting Mortimer,
And Isabel, whose eyes, being turned to steel,
Will sooner sparkle fire than shed a tear.
Yet stay; for, rather than I'll look on them,
Here, here! [_Gives the crown._]--Now, sweet God of heaven,
Make me despise this transitory pomp,
And sit for aye enthronised in heaven!
Come, death, and with thy fingers close my eyes,
Or, if I live, let me forget myself.

In the writing of _Dido, Queen of Carthage_ Nash had a share.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to say how much was his or to what
portion of the play his work belongs. The supposition that Nash finished
the play does not necessarily imply that he wrote the last part. It may
have been that Marlowe originally conceived of a three act play--like
_The Massacre at Paris_--and that Nash filled it out to five acts by the
addition of scenes here and there. The unusual shortness of the play
rather supports this theory. But it is best to let it stand uncertain.
At least this much is clear, that the genius of Marlowe is strongly
present both in the character of the queen and in the splendid passages
of poetry.

Again we have a well-constructed tragedy based on the loss of a dear
friend and ending in death. But here the friendship is elevated to the
passionate affection of a woman for her lover, and the conclusion moves
our pity with double force by its picture of suffering and by the fact
that the queen is the unhappy victim of a cruel fate. It is the old
story of love ending in desertion and a broken heart, only the faithless
lover would be true if the gods had not ordered otherwise; h