Enter three or four Courtiers.
1 Court.:
By this light, a brave prince!
He made no more of the guard, than they
Would of a tailor on a masque night, that has refused
2 Court.:
He's as active as he is valiant too?
Didst mark him how he stood like all the points
O' th' compass, and, as good pictures,
Had his eyes towards every man?
3 Court.:
And his sword too.
All th' other side walk up and down the court now
As if they had lost their way, and stare,
Like greyhounds, when the hare has taken the furze.
And have more troubles about them
Than a serving-man that has forgot his message
When he's come upon the place.
2 Court.:
Yonder's the king within chasing and swearing,
Like an old falconer upon the first flight
Of a young hawk, when some clown
Has taken away the quarry from her;
And all the lords stand round about him,
As if he were to be baited, with much more fear
And at much mort distance,
Than a country gentlewoman sees the lions the first time.
KING:
Find him; or, by Osiris' self, you are all traitors;
And equally shall pay to justice; a single man,
And guilty too, break through you all!
Thou paint of women and the statesman's wisdom!
Valour for cowards, and of the guilty's innocence!
Sir, send these starers off:
I have some business will deserve your privacy.
IOLAS:
How the villain swells upon us! [Exeunt.
ZIRIFF:
Not to punish thought, or keep it
Long upon the rack of doubt, know, sir,
That, by corruption of the waiting-woman,
The common key of secrets, I have found
The truth at last, and have discovered all.
The prince, your son, was, by Aglaura's means,
Convey'd last night unto the cypress grove,
Through a close vault that opens in the lodgings.
He does intend to join with Carimania,
But ere he goes, resolves to finish all
The rites of love, and this night means
KING:
How good is Heav'n unto me,
That, when it gave me traitors for my subjects,
Would lend me such a servant!
ZIRIFF:
How just, sir, rather,
That would bestow this fortune on the poor;
And where your bounty had made debt so infinite
That it grew desperate their hope to pay it——
KING:
Enough of that. Thou dost but gently chide
Me for a fault that I will mend; for I
Have been too poor and low in my rewards
Unto thy virtue; but to our business.
The question is, whether we shall rely
ZIRIFF:
By no means, sir.
Hope on his future fortunes, or their love
Unto his person, has so sicklied o'er
Their resolutions, that we must not trust them.
Besides, it were but needless here.
He passes through the vault alone, and I
Myself durst undertake that business,
If that were all; but there is something else
This accident doth prompt my zeal to serve you in.
I know you love Aglaura, sir, with passion,
And would enjoy her; I know besides
She loves him so that whosoe'er shall bring
The tidings of his death, must carry back
The news of hers, so that your justice, sir,
Must rob your hope. But there is yet a way——
KING:
Here, take my heart; for I have hitherto
Too vainly spent the treasure of my love.
I'll have it coin'd straight into friendship all,
And make a present to thee.
ZIRIFF:
If any part of this rich happiness,
Fortune prepares now for you, shall owe itself
Unto my weak endeavours, I've enough.
Aglaura without doubt this night expects
The prince, and why should you not then
Supply his place by stealth, and in disguise?
KING:
I apprehend thee, Ziriff;
ZIRIFF:
Who trades in love must be an adventurer, sir.
But here is scarce enough to make the pleasure dearer,
I know the cave; your brother and myself
With Iolas (for these, we're sure, do hate him),
With some few chosen more, betimes will wait
The prince's passing through the vault; if he
Comes first, he's dead; and if it be yourself,
We will conduct you to the chamber door,
And stand 'twixt you and danger afterwards.
KING:
I have conceiv'd of joy, and am grown great;
Till I have safe deliverance, time's a cripple
And goes on crutches. As for thee, my Ziriff,
I do here entertain a friendship with thee,
Shall drown the memory of all patterns past.
We will oblige by turns, and that so thick
And fast, that curious studiers of it
Shall not once dare to cast it up, or say
By way of guess, whether thou or I
Remain the debtor, when we come to die. [Exeunt.
Enter SEMANTHE, ORITIHIE, PHILAN, ORSAMES,
ORITHIE:
Is the Queen ready to come out?
PHILAN:
Not yet, sure; the king's brother is but newly entered.
SEMANTHE:
Come, my lord, the song then.
ORSAMES:
A vengeance take this love! it spoils a voice
Worse than the losing of a maidenhead.
I have got such a cold with rising
And walking in my shirt a-nights, that
A bittern whooping in a reed is better music.
ORITHIE:
This modesty becomes you as ill, my lord,
As wooing would us women; pray, put's not to it.
ORSAMES:
Nay, ladies, you shall find me
As free as the musicians of the woods
Themselves; what I have, you shall not need to call for,
Nor shall it cost you anything.
Why so pale and wan, fond lover?
Will, when looking well can't move her,
Why so dull and mute, young sinner?
Will, when speaking well can't win her,
Quit, quit, for shame, this will not move:
If of herself she will not love,
ORITHIE:
I should have guess'd it had been the issue of
Your brain, if I had not been told so.
ORSAMES:
A little foolish counsel, madam, I gave a friend
Of mine four or five years ago, when he was
Falling into a consumption.
ORBELLA:
Which of all you have seen the fair prisoner,
ORBELLA:
And how behaves she now herself?
SEMANTHE:
As one that had intrench'd so deep in innocence,
She fear'd no enemies: bears all quietly,
And smiles at Fortune whilst she frowns on her.
ORBELLA:
So gallant? I wonder where the beauty lies,
That thus inflames the royal blood?
ORITHIE:
Faces, madam, are like books; those that do study them
Know best; and to say truth, 'tis still
Much as it pleases the Courteous Reader.
ORBELLA:
These lovers sure are like astronomers,
That, when the vulgar eye discovers but
A sky above, studded with some few stars,
Find out, besides, strange fishes, birds, and beasts.
SEMANTHE:
As men in sickness, scorched into a raving,
Do see the devil in all shapes and forms,
When standers-by, wondering, ask where and when:
So they in love: for all's but fever there,
ORBELLA:
That's too severe, Semanthe;
But we will have your reasons in the park;
Are the doors open through the gardens?
Lord.:
The king has newly led the way. [Exeunt.
Enter ARIASPES: ZIRIFF with a warrant sealed.
ARIASPES:
Thou art a tyrant, Ziriff: I shall die with joy.
ZIRIFF:
I must confess, my lord, had but the prince's ills
Proved slight, and not thus dangerous,
He should have ow'd to me—at least I would
Have laid a claim unto his safety; and,
Like physicians that do challenge right
In nature's cures, look'd for reward and thanks;
But, since 'twas otherwise, I thought it best
To save myself, and then to save the state.
ARIASPES:
'Twas wisely done.
ZIRIFF:
Safely, I'm sure, my lord! you know 'tis not
Our custom, where the king's dislike once swells to hate,
There to engage ourselves. Court friendship
Is a cable, that in storms is ever cut,
And I made bold with it; here is the warrant seal'd;
And for the execution of it, if you think
We are not strong enough, we may have
Iolas; for him the king did name.
ARIASPES:
And him I would have named.
ZIRIFF:
But is he not too much the prince's, sir?
ARIASPES:
He is as lights in scenes at masques,
What glorious show soe'er he makes without,
I that set him there, know why and how.
But here he is. [Enter Iolas.
Come, Iolas; and since the heav'ns decreed
The man whom thou shouldst envy, should be such,
That all men else must do't, be not ashamed
Thou once wert guilty of it:
But bless them, that they give thee now a means
To make a friendship with him, and vouchsafe
To find thee out a way to love, where well
IOLAS:
What means my lord?
ARIASPES:
Here, here he stands that has preserved us all:
That sacrific'd unto a public good
The dearest private good we mortals have,
Friendship: gave into our arms the prince,
When nothing but the sword, perchance a ruin,
IOLAS:
How could I chide my love and my ambition now,
That thrust upon me such a quarrel? here I do vow——
ZIRIFF:
Hold, do not vow, my lord, let it deserve it first,
And yet (if heav'n bless honest men's intents),
'Tis not impossible. My lord, you will be pleased
T' inform him in particulars. I must be gone.
The king, I fear, already has been left too long alone.
ARIASPES:
Stay: the hour and place.
ZIRIFF:
Eleven, under the Terrace Walk;
I will not fail you there; I had forgot.
[Goes out, returns back again.
'T may be, the small remainder of those lost men,
That were of the conspiracy, will come along with him:
'Twere best to have some chosen of the guard
Within our call. [Exit Ziriff.
ARIASPES:
Honest and careful Ziriff! [Iolas stands musing.
IOLAS:
This Ziriff will grow great with all the world.
ARIASPES:
Shallow man, short-sighteder than travellers in mists,
Or women that outlive themselves; dost thou not see,
That whilst he does prepare a tomb with one hand
For his friend, he digs a grave with th' other for himself?
ARIASPES:
Dost think he shall not feel the weight of this,
As well as poor Thersames?
IOLAS:
Shall we then kill him, too, at the same instant?
ARIASPES:
And say the prince made an unlucky thrust.
ARIASPES:
Dull, dull, he must not die so uselessly.
As when we wipe off filth from any place,
We throw away the thing that made it clean,
So this once done, he's gone.
Thou know'st the people love the prince; to their rage
Something the state must offer up. Who fitter
Than thy rival and my enemy?
IOLAS:
Rare! our witness will be taken.
ARIASPES:
Pish! let me alone.
The giants that made mountains ladders,
And thought to take great love by force, were fools:
Not hill on hill, but plot on plot, does make
Us sit above, and laugh at all below us. [Exeunt.
Enter AGLAURA and a Singing Boy.
Boy.:
Madam, 'twill make you melancholy,
I'll sing the prince's song; that's sad enough.
AGLAURA:
What you will, sir.
No, no, fair heretic, it needs must be
To love thee now this hour
More than I did the last:
Love that can flow, and can admit increase,
Admits as well an ebb, and may grow less.
True love is still the same; the torrid zones,
And those more frigid ones,
For love, grown cold or hot,
Is lust or friendship, not
For that's a flame would die,
Held down or up too high:
Then think I love more than I can express,
And would love more, could I but love thee less.
Leave me, for to a soul so out of tune,
As mine is now, nothing is harmony:
When once the mainspring, Hope, is fall'n into
Disorder; no wonder if the lesser wheels,
Desire and Joy, stand still; my thoughts, like bees,
When they have lost their king, wander
Confusedly up and down, and settle nowhere.
Orithie, fly, fly the room,
As thou wouldst shun the habitations
Which spirits haunt, or where thy nearer friends
Walk after death. Here is not only love,
But love's plague too, misfortune; and so high,
That it is sure infectious.
ORITHIE:
Madam, so much more miserable am I this way than you,
That should I pity you, I should forget myself,
My sufferings are such, that with less patience
You may endure your own, than give mine audience.
There is that difference, that you may make
Yours none at all, but by considering mine.
AGLAURA:
O, speak them quickly then; the marriage-day
To passionate lovers never was more welcome,
Than any kind of ease would be to me now.
ORITHIE:
Could they be spoke, they were not then so great.
I love, and dare not say I love; dare not hope,
What I desire; yet still too must desire.
And, like a starving man brought to a feast,
And made say grace to what he ne'er shall taste,
Be thankful after all, and kiss the hand,
That made the wound thus deep.
AGLAURA:
'Tis hard indeed; but with what unjust scales
Thou took'st the weight of our misfortunes,
Thou mourn'st for loss of that thou never hadst;
Or if thou hadst a loss, it never was
Wouldst thou not think a merchant mad, Orithie,
If thou shouldst see him weep and tear his hair,
Because he brought not both the Indies home?
And wouldst not think his sorrows very just,
If, having fraught his ship with some rich treasure,
He sank i' th' very port? This is our case.
ORITHIE:
And do you think there is such odds in it?
Would heaven we women could as easily change
Our fortunes as, 'tis said, we can our minds.
I cannot, madam, think them miserable,
That have the prince's love.
AGLAURA:
He is the man then.
Blush not, Orithie; 'tis a sin to blush
For loving him, though none at all to love him.
I can admit of rivalship without
A jealousy, nay, shall be glad of it:
We two will sit, and think, and sigh,
And sigh, and talk of love and of Thersames.
Thou shalt be praising of his wit, while I
Admire he governs it so well:
Like this thing said thus, th' other thing thus done,
And in good language him for these adore,
While I want words to do't, yet do it more.
Thus will we do till death itself shall us
Divide, and then whose fate shall be to die
First of the two, by legacy shall all
Her love bequeath, and give her stock to her,
That shall survive; for no one stock can serve
To love Thersames so as he'll deserve.
KING:
What, have we here impossibility?
A constant night, and yet within the room,
That that can make the day before the sun,
AGLAURA:
I know not what you say:
Is't to your pity or your scorn I owe
The favour of this visit, sir; for such
My fortune is, it doth deserve them both?
KING:
And such thy beauty is, that it makes good
All fortunes; sorrow looks lovely here;
And there's no man that would not entertain
His griefs as friends, were he but sure they'd show
No worse upon him. But I forget myself;
AGLAURA:
If I have sinn'd so high,
That yet my punishment equals not my crime,
Do, sir. I should be loth to die in debt
To justice, how ill soe'er I paid
KING:
And those indeed thou hast but paid indifferently
To me. I did deserve at least fair death:
Not to be murthered thus in private.
That was too cruel, mistress.
And I do know thou dost repent, and wilt
Yet make me satisfaction.
AGLAURA:
What satisfaction, sir?
I am no monster, never had two hearts;
One is by holy vows another's now,
And could I give it you, you would not take it,
For 'tis alike impossible for me
To love again, as you love perjury.
O sir, consider, what a flame love is!
If by rude means you think to force a light,
That of itself it would not freely give,
You blow it out, and leave yourself i' th' dark.
The prince once gone, you may as well persuade
The light to stay behind, when the sun posts
To th' other world, as me. Alas! we two
Have mingled souls more than two meeting brooks;
And whosoever is design'd to be
The murtherer of my lord (as sure there is),
Has anger'd heav'n so far, that 'twas decreed
Him to increase his punishment that way,
Would he but search the heart, when he has done,
He there would find Aglaura murthered too.
KING:
Thou hast o'ercome me, mov'd so handsomely
For pity, that I will disinherit
The elder brother, and from this hour be
Thy convert, not thy lover.
And he that brings news of the prince's welfare,
Look that he have the same reward we had decreed
To him brought tidings of his death.
'T must be a busy and bold hand, that would
Unlink a chain the gods themselves have made:
Peace to thy thoughts, Aglaura. [Exit.
[Ziriff steps back and speaks.
Whate'er he says, believe him not, Aglaura;
For lust and rage ride high within him now.
He knows Thersames made th' escape from hence,
And does conceal it only for his ends;
For by the favour of mistake and night,
He hopes t' enjoy thee in the prince's room;
I shall be miss'd, else I would tell thee more;
But thou may'st guess, for our condition
Admits no middle ways; either we must
Send them to graves, or lie ourselves in dust. [Exit.
[Aglaura stands still and studies.
AGLAURA:
Ha! 'tis a strange act thought puts me now upon;
Yet sure my brother meant the self-same thing,
And my Thersames would have done't for me:
To take his life, that seeks to take away
The life of life—honour—from me; and from
The world the life of honour—Thersames:
Must needs be something, sure, of kin to justice.
If I do fail, th' attempt howe'er was brave,
And I shall have at worst a handsome grave. [Exit.
[Semanthe steps back, Iolas stays her.
IOLAS:
What, are we grown, Semanthe, night and day?
Must one still vanish, when the other comes?
Of all that ever love did yet bring forth
(And 't has been fruitful too) this is
SEMANTHE:
You do mistake; if I do shun you, 'tis
As bashful debtors shun their creditors.
I cannot pay you in the self-same coin,
And am asham'd to offer any other.
IOLAS:
It is ill done, Semanthe, to plead bankrupt,
When with such ease you may be out of debt.
In love's dominions native commodity
Is current payment; change is all the trade,
And heart for heart the richest merchandise.
SEMANTHE:
'Twould here be mean, my lord, since mine would prove
In your hands but a counterfeit, and yours in mine
Worth nothing. Sympathy, not greatness,
Makes those jewels rise in value.
IOLAS:
Sympathy? O, teach but yours to love then,
And two so rich no mortal ever knew.
SEMANTHE:
That heart would love but ill that must be taught;
Such fires as these still kindle of themselves.
IOLAS:
In such a cold and frozen place as is
Thy breast, how should they kindle of themselves,
SEMANTHE:
Ask how the flint can carry fire within!
'Tis the least miracle that love can do.
IOLAS:
Thou art thyself the greatest miracle,
For thou art fair to all perfection,
And yet dost want the greatest part of beauty—
Kindness. Thy cruelty (next to thyself)
Above all things on earth takes up my wonder.
SEMANTHE:
Call not that cruelty, which is our fate.
Believe me, Iolas, the honest swain,
That from the brow of some steep cliff far off,
Beholds a ship labouring in vain against
The boisterous and unruly elements, ne'er had
Less power or more desire to help than I.
At every sigh I die, and every look
Does move; and any passion you will have
But love, I have in store. I will be angry.
Quarrel with destiny and with myself,
That 'tis no better: be melancholy;
And (though mine own disasters well might plead
To be in chief) yours only shall have place.
I'll pity, and (if that's too low) I'll grieve,
As for my sins, I cannot give you ease.
All this I do, and this I hope will prove
'Tis greater torment not to love than love.
IOLAS:
So perishing sailors pray to storms,
And so they hear again. So men,
With death about them, look on physicians, that
Have given them o'er, and so they turn away:
Two fixed stars, that keep a constant distance,
And by laws made with themselves must know
No motion eccentric, may meet as soon as we:
The anger that the foolish sea does show,
When it does brave it out, and roar against
A stubborn rock that still denies it passage,
Is not so vain and fruitless as my prayers.
Ye mighty powers of love and fate, where is
Your justice here? It is thy part (fond boy),
When thou dost find one wounded heart, to make
The other so; but if thy tyranny
Be such, that thou wilt leave one breast to hate,
If we must live, and this survive,
How much more cruel's fate? [Exit.