Philip :: :: University of Virginia Library

Thy transport seems to baffle reason's power.
My ready sympathy awaits thy grief.
Ah, speak! thou answerest not! from earliest years
Have I not grown thy comrade at thy side?
Hast thou not call'd me friend?

Car.
Within these walls
Dar'st thou to such a word give utterance?
A word that's banish'd in its real meaning
From impious courts, though often there pronounced.
Useless to me, and fatal to thyself,
Henceforth will be thy truth. Oh imitate
The fickle crowd, and to the sovereign idol
Present, with it, a profitable incense.

Per.
Ah, do not thus degrade me: from that crowd
Sever me in thy judgment; yet what boots it
To swear affiance here? where all men swear it,
And all are perjured. To more certain proof
Bring both my hand and heart. Point out the danger
That I may brave for thee. Where is the foe
That most offends thee? Speak ...

Car.
No enemy
Have I except my father. I disdain
To grace his parasites with such a name.
With silence his, their hate with scorn, I meet.

Per.
The king knows not the truth: hence he is inflamed
Towards thee with wrath unjust; and artfully
Others that wrath foment. In manly tones
I will assert it for thee.

Car.
What sayest thou?
More than thou thinkest, Philip knows the truth;
He hates it rather than is ignorant of it.

But in my favour he hears no one speak.

Per.
He must perforce the voice of nature hear.

Car.
He has a heart less flexible than steel.
Leave to my innocence my best defence,
And to divine protection, which sometimes
Deigns to shed on me a benign regard.
If I were guilty, I would not disdain
As intercessor thee, and thee alone:
What greater proof of friendship can I give thee?

Per.
Permit me then to share, whate'er it be,
Thy destiny—this, and no more, I ask.
In this flagitious court what other track,
That honour's voice forbids not to pursue?

Car.
Perchance thou art ignorant that my destiny,
Whate'er it be, can ne'er be fortunate.

Per.
I am thy friend, and not the friend of fortune.
If it be true that grief, when shared, is lessened,
A persevering friend, thou shalt possess
Me, by thy side, in all adversity.

Car.
My heart conceals a grief that ends in death,
A lofty grief, that yet is precious to me.
Why cannot I to thee reveal my thoughts?
Ah, no! I do not seek, nor could I find,
A more disinterested friend than thou:
Yet by disburthening my oppressed heart,
I cannot give thee a sure pledge of friendship.
Depart: What can result to thee from faith
So generous, and so lucklessly affianced?
I am not worthy of so rich a tribute.
Once more I bid thee quit me. Knowest thou not
'Tis an atrocious fault to fix thy love
On one towards whom his king directs his hate?

Per
But knowest thou not, in spite of every king,

What glory 'tis that friendship to preserve?
Thou piercest, but thou changest not my heart,
With doubting thus my faith. A mortal grief,
A grief thou mayest not speak, weighs on thy breast.
I do not wish to know it. But if I
Wish, yea implore, that, with thy life, my life
May fall a victim to that grief, canst thou
Fiercely reject that brotherhood in woe?

Car.
Well, as thou wilt. Here is my plighted hand,
Disastrous pledge of a disastrous friendship.
Thee I compassionate: but shall not bewail
Henceforth my fate; nor providence upbraid,
So bounteous to me in so rare a friend.—
Philip, how much am I more blest than thou!
Thou, 'midst vain pomp and treacherous adulation,
Object of pity rather than of envy,
Hast never known the blessedness of friendship.