Enter ZIRIFF, ARIASPES, IOLAS.
ARIASPES:
Pray heav'n it prove so.
ZIRIFF:
'Tis about this hollow. [Enter the cave.
ARIASPES:
How now! what region are we got into?
Th' inheritance of night!
Are we not mistaken a turning, Ziriff,
And stept into some melancholy devil's territory?
Sure 'tis a part of the first Chaos,
That would endure no change.
ZIRIFF:
No matter, sir, 'tis as proper for our purpose
As the lobby for the waiting-woman's.
Stay you here: I'll move a little backward;
And so we shall be sure to put him past
Retreat. You know the word, if't be the prince.
[Goes to the mouth of the cave.
Here, sir, follow me, all's quiet yet.
KING:
He's not come then?
[He leads him on: steps behind him, gives
the false word: they kill the King.
IOLAS:
I do not like this waiting,
Nor this fellow's leaving us.
ARIASPES:
This place does put odd thoughts into thee.
Then thou art in thine own nature, too, as jealous
As either love or honour. Come, wear thy sword in readiness,
And think how near we are a crown.
Lo, let us drag him to the light, and search
His pockets; there may be papers there, that will
Discover the rest of the conspirators.
Iolas, your hand. [Draws him out.
IOLAS:
Whom have we here? the king!
ZIRIFF:
Yes, and Zorannes too. Hallo, ho!
[Enter Pasithas and others.
This for my father's injuries and mine!
[Points to the King's dead body.
Half love's, half duty's sacrifice:
This for the noble prince, an offering to friendship!
IOLAS:
Basely and tamely. [Dies.
ARIASPES:
What hast thou done?
ZIRIFF:
Nothing! kill'd a traitor.
So, away with them; and leave us.
Pasithas, be only you in call.
ARIASPES:
What, dost thou pause?
Hast thou remorse already, murtherer?
ZIRIFF:
No, fool: 'tis but a difference I put
Betwixt the crimes: Orbella is our quarrel;
And I do hold it fit, that love should have
A nobler way of justice than revenge
Or treason. Follow me out of the wood,
And thou shalt be master of this again:
And then best arm and title take.
[They go out and enter again.
There! [Gives him his sword.
ARIASPES:
Extremely good! Nature took pains, I swear:
The villain and the brave are mingled handsomely.
ZIRIFF:
'Twas fate that took it, when it decreed
We two should meet, nor shall they mingle now:
We are brought together straight to part. [Fight.
ARIASPES:
Some devil, sure, has borrowed this shape. [Pause.
My sword ne'er stay'd thus long to find an entrance.
ZIRIFF:
To guilty men all that appears is a devil;
Come, trifler, come. [Fight again. Ariaspes falls.
ARIASPES:
Whither, whither, thou fleeting coward life?
Bubble of time, Nature's shame, stay a little, stay;
Till I have look'd myself into revenge,
And star'd this traitor to a carcass first.
The crown, the crown, too,
Now is lost, for ever lost. O!
Ambition's but an ignis fatuus, I see,
Misleading fond mortality,
That hurries us about, and sets us down
Just—where—we—first—began. [Dies.
ZIRIFF:
What a great spreading mighty thing this was,
And what a nothing now! how soon poor man
Vanishes into his noontide shadow!
But hopes o'erfed have seldom better done. [Halloes.
Take up this lamp of vanity and honour,
And carry it the back way to my lodging,
There may be use of statesmen when they're dead;
So. For the Citadel now; for in such times
As these, when the unruly multitude
Is up in swarms, and no man knows which way
They'll take, 'tis good to have retreat. [Exeunt.
THERSAMES:
The dog-star's got up high; it should be late;
And sure by this time every waking ear
And watchful eye is charm'd; and yet methought
A noise of weapons struck my ear just now!
'Twas but my fancy, sure, and were it more,
I would not tread one step that did not lead
To my Aglaura, stood all his guard betwixt,
With lightning in their hands.
Danger! thou dwarf dress'd up in gaint's clothes,
That show'st far off still greater than thou art,
Go, terrify the simple and the guilty, such
As with false optics still do look upon thee.
But fright not lovers: we dare look on thee
In thy worst shapes, and meet thee in them too.
Stay. These trees I made my mark; 'tis hereabouts,
Love, guide me but [a]right this night,
And lovers shall restore thee back again
Those eyes the poets took so boldly from thee.
AGLAURA, with a torch in one hand and a dagger
AGLAURA:
How ill this does become this hand, how much the worse
This suits with this! one of the two should go.
The she within me says, it must be this:
Honour says this; and honour is Thersames' friend.
What is that she then? is it not a thing
That sets a price, not upon me, but on
Life in thy name, leading me into doubt,
Which, when't has done, it cannot light me out.
For fear does drive to fate, or fate, if we
Do fly, o'ertakes, and holds us, till or death
Or infamy, or both, doth seize us.
Ha! would 'twere in again!
Antics and strange misshapes,
Such as the porter to my soul, mine eye,
Was ne'er acquainted with, fancy lets in,
Like a distracted multitude, by some strange accident
Piec'd together. Fear now afresh comes on,
And charges love too home.
Woman, if thou wouldst be the subject of man's wonder,
Not his scorn hereafter, now show thyself.
Enter PRINCE, rising from the vault; she stabs him
two or three times; he falls; she goes back to her
My better angel, sure, did both infuse
A strength, and did direct it.
So slow to let in such a long'd-for guest?
Must joy stand knocking, sister? come, prepare, prepare:
The king of Persia's coming to you straight!
AGLAURA:
I thought how poor the joys you brought with you,
Were in respect of those that were with me.
Joys are our hopes stript of their fears,
And such are mine; for know, dear brother,
The king is come already, and is gone. Mark that.
ZIRIFF:
Is this instinct or riddle? what king? how gone?
AGLAURA:
The cave will tell you more——
ZIRIFF:
Some sad mistake: thou hast undone us all.
[Goes out, enters hastily again.
The prince, the prince! cold as the bed of earth he lies
Upon, as senseless too! death hangs upon his lips,
Like an untimely frost upon an early cherry.
The noble guest (his soul) took it so ill,
That you should use his old acquaintance so,
That neither prayers nor tears can e'er persuade
Him back again. [Aglaura swoons; he rubs her.
Hold, hold! we cannot sure part thus!
Sister! Aglaura! Thersames is not dead,
It is the prince that calls.
AGLAURA:
The prince? where?
Tell me, or I will straight go back again
Into those groves of jessamine thou took'st me from
And find him out, or lose myself for ever.
ZIRIFF:
For ever? Ay, there's it!
For in those groves thou talk'st of,
There are so many byways and odd turnings,
Leading unto such wide and dismal places,
That should we go without a guide, or stir,
Before heav'n calls, 'tis strongly to be feared,
We there should wander up and down for ever,
And be benighted to eternity.
AGLAURA:
Benighted to eternity? What's that?
ZIRIFF:
Why, 'tis to be benighted to eternity,
To sit i' th' dark, and do I know not what;
Unriddle at our own sad cost and charge
The doubts the learned here do only move.
AGLAURA:
What place have murtherers, brother, there? for, sure,
The murtherer of the prince must have
A punishment that heav'n is yet to make.
ZIRIFF:
How is religion fool'd betwixt our loves
And fears! Poor girl, for ought that thou hast done,
They chaplets may be fair and flourishing,
AGLAURA:
Do you think so?
ZIRIFF:
Yes, I do think so.
The juster judges of our actions, would they
Have been severe upon our weaknesses,
Would, sure, have made us stronger. Fie! those tears?
A bride upon the marriage-day as properly
Might shed as thou; here widows do't,
And marry next day after. To such a
Funeral as this there should be nothing common.
We'll mourn him so that those, that are alive,
Shall think themselves more buried far than he;
And wish to have his grave, to find his obsequies:
[Brings up the body; she swoons and dies.
O, speak once more, once more look out, fair soul.
She's gone, irrevocably gone;
And winging now the air like a glad bird
Poor bankrupt heart, when 't had
Not wherewithal to pay to sad
Disaster all that was its due, it broke!
Would mine would do so too. My soul
Is now within me, like a well-mettled hawk
On a blind falc'ner's fist: methinks I feel
It baiting to be gone: and yet I have
A little foolish business here on earth.
Enter PASITHAS, with the body of Ariaspes.
PASITHAS:
Let me be like my burthen, if I had not here
As lief kill two of the blood royal for him,
As carry one of them; these gentlemen of high
Actions are three times as heavy after death,
as your private retir'd ones; look if he be not reduc'd
to the state of a courtier of the second form now,
and cannot stand upon his own legs,
nor do anything without help? Hum!
and what's become of the great prince,
in prison as they call it now, the toy within us,
that makes us talk and laugh, and fight:
ay, why, there's it; well, let him be what he will,
and where he will, I'll make bold
with the old tenement here.
Come, sir, come along. [Exit.
ZIRIFF:
All's fast too here; they sleep to-night
I' their winding-sheets, I think, there's such
A general quiet. O, here is light, I warrant;
For lust does take as little rest as care or age:
Courting her glass, I swear—fie! that's a flatterer, madam,
In me you shall see trulier what you are. [Knocks.
ORBELLA:
What make you up at this strange hour, my lord?
ZIRIFF:
My business is my boldness' warrant, madam.
And I could well afford t' have been without
It now, had heav'n so pleas'd.
ORBELLA:
'Tis a sad prologue:
What follows, in the name of virtue?
ORBELLA:
Ay, what of him? [he] is well, is he not?
If to be free from the great load
We sweat and labour under here on earth,
ORBELLA:
Why, he's not dead, is he?
ZIRIFF:
Yes, madam, slain; and the prince too.
ZIRIFF:
I know not; but dead they are.
ORBELLA:
Didst see them dead?
ZIRIFF:
As I see you alive.
ORBELLA:
Well, we must all die;
The sisters spin no cables for us mortals;
They're Thread, and Time, and Chance.
Trust me, I could weep now;
But wat'ry distillations do but ill on graves:
They make the lodging colder. [She knocks.
ZIRIFF:
What would you, madam?
ORBELLA:
Why, my friends, my lord,
I would consult, and know what's to be done.
ZIRIFF:
Madam, 'tis not so safe to raise the court,
Things thus unsettled: if you please to have——
ORBELLA:
Where's Ariaspes?
ZIRIFF:
In's dead sleep by this time, I'm sure.
ORBELLA:
I know he is not! find him instantly.
ZIRIFF:
I'm gone. [Turns back again.
But madam, why make you [a] choice of him,
From whom, if the succession meet disturbance,
ORBELLA:
My lord, I am not yet so wise, as to
Be jealous; pray, dispute no further.
ZIRIFF:
Pardon me, madam, if, before I go,
I must unlock a secret unto you: such a one
As, while the king did breathe, durst know no air—
ZIRIFF:
And, in the hope of such a day as this,
Has ling'red out a life, snatching, to feed
His almost famished eyes,
Sights now and then of you in a disguise.
ORBELLA:
Strange! this night is big with miracle.
ZIRIFF:
If you did love him, as they say you did,
And do so still, 'tis now within your power——
ORBELLA:
I would it were, my lord; but I am now
No private woman. If I did love him once
(And 'tis so long ago, I have forgot),
My youth and ignorance may well excuse't.
ORBELLA:
Yes, excuse it, sir.
ZIRIFF:
Though I confess I lov'd his father much,
And pity him, yet having offer'd it
Unto your thoughts, I have discharg'd a trust;
And zeal shall stray no further.
Your pardon, madam. [Exit. Queen studies.
ORBELLA:
Maybe it is a plot to keep off Ariaspes'
Greatness; which he must fear, because he knows
He hates him: for these are statesmen;
That, when time has made bold with king and subject,
Throwing down all fence that stood betwixt their power
And others' right, are on a change,
Like wanton salmons coming in with floods,
That leap o'er wires and nets, and make their way
To be at the return to every one a prey.
Enter ZIRIFF and PASITHAS; they throw down
the dead body of Ariaspes.
Ha! murthered too! Treason, treason!
ZIRIFF:
But such another word, and half so loud,
ORBELLA:
Why? thou wilt not murther me too?
ZIRIFF:
I do not know my temper; [Discovers himself.
Look here, vain thing, and see thy sins full blown:
There's scarce a part in all this face thou hast
Not been forsworn by, and heav'n forgive thee for't!
For thee I lost a father, country, friends,
Myself almost, for I lay buried long;
And when there was no use thy love could pay
Too great, thou mad'st the principal away.
Had I but stay'd, and not begun revenge,
Till thou hadst made an end of changing,
I had bad the kingdom to have kill'd.
As wantons, ent'ring a garden, take
The first fair flower they meet, and treasure
It in their laps: then seeing more, do make
Fresh choice again, throwing in one and one,
TIll at the length the first poor flower, o'ercharg'd
With too much weight, withers and dies:
So hast thou dealt with me, and having kill'd
ORBELLA:
Hold, hold! Not for my sake,
But Orbella's, sir, a bare and single death
Is such a wrong to justice, I must needs
Find out a way to make me long a-dying;
For death's no punishment: it is the sense,
The pains and fears afore, that makes a death.
To think what I had had, had I had you:
What I have lost in losing of myself,
Are deaths far worse than any you can give.
Yet kill me quickly; for, if I have time,
I shall so wash this soul of mine with tears,
Make it so fine, that you would be afresh
In love with it, and so perchance I should
Again come to deceive you.
[She rises up weeping, and hanging down her head.
ZIRIFF:
So rises day, blushing at night's deformity:
And so the pretty flowers, blubber'd with dew,
And overwash'd with rain, hang down their heads.
I must not look upon her. [She goes towards him.
ORBELLA:
Were but the lilies in this face as fresh
As are the roses; had I but innocence
Join'd to these blushes, I should then be bold;
For when they went on begging, they were ne'er
Denied. 'Tis but a parting kiss, sir.
ZIRIFF:
I dare not grant it.
ORBELLA:
Your hand, sir, then; for that's a part I shall
Love after death (if after death we love),
'Cause it did right the wrong'd Zorannes here
[Steps to him, and opens the box of poison;
Sleep, sleep for ever; and forgotten too,
All but thy ills, which may succeeding time
Remember, as the seaman does his marks,
To know what to avoid. May at thy name
All good men start, and bad too; may it prove
Infection to the air, that people dying of it
May help to curse thee for me.
Turns to the body of Ariaspes.
Could I but call thee back as eas'ly now!
But that's a subject for our tears, not hopes!
There is no piecing tulips to their stalks,
When they are once divorc'd by a rude hand;
All we can do is to preserve in water
A little life, and give by courteous art,
What scanted nature wants commission for.
That thou shalt have: for to thy memory
Such tribute of moist sorrow I will pay,
And that so purifi'd by love, that on thy grave
Nothing shall grow but violets and primroses,
Of the mysterious number, so that lovers shall
Come hither, not as to a tomb, but to an oracle.
[She knocks, and raises the court.
[Enter Ladies and Courtiers, as out of their beds.
Come, come! help me to weep myself away,
And melt into a grave; for life is but
Repentance' nurse, and will conspire with memory
To make my hours my tortures.
ORITHIE:
What scene of sorrow's this? Both dead?
ORBELLA:
Dead? Ay, and 'tis but half death's triumphs this;
The king and prince lie somewhere, just
Such empty trunks as these.
Then in grief's burthen I must bear a part.
SEMANTHE:
The noble Ariaspes: valiant Ziriff too. [Weeps.
ORBELLA:
Weep'st thou for him, fond prodigal? dost know,
On whom thou spend'st thy tears? This is the man,
To whom we owe our ills; the false Zorannes
Disguised not lost; but kept alive by some.
Enter PASITHAS, surveys the bodies, finds his master.
Incensed power, to punish Persia thus!
He would have kill'd me too; but heav'n was just,
And furnish'd me with means to make him pay
His score of vill'ny, ere he could do more.
PASITHAS:
Were you his murther'r then?
[Pasithas runs to her, kills her, and flies.
ORITHIE:
Ah me! the queen!
[They rub her till she comes to herself.
SEMANTHE:
How do you do, madam?
ORBELLA:
Well; but I was better and shall—— [Dies.
SEMANTHE:
O, she is gone for ever!
Enter Lords in their nightgowns, ORSAMES, PHILAN.
ORSAMES:
What have we here? A churchyard?
Nothing but silence and [the] grave?
ORITHIE:
O, here has been, my lords,
The blackest night the Persian world e'er knew;
The king and prince are not themselves exempt
From this arrest; but pale and cold as these,
Have measured out their lengths.
Lords.:
Impossible; which way?
SEMANTHE:
Of that we are as ignorant as you;
For, while the queen was telling of a story,
An unknown villain here has hurt her so
That, like a sickly taper, she but made
One flash, and so expir'd.
[Enter, bearing in Pasithas.
ORITHIE:
Torture must force him then:
Though 'twill indeed but weakly satisfy
To know, now they are dead, how they did die.
PHILAN:
Come, take the bodies up, and let us all
Go drown ourselves in tears. This massacre
Has left so torn a state, that 'twill be policy,
As well as debt, to weep till we are blind;
For who would see the miseries behind?