University of Virginia Library

Sce. 4.

Cratander, Atossa.
Crat.
He must be more than Man that gaynes it backe
Without my will.

Atos.
Your Justice must restore it.
Will your severer Majesty triumph,
With soft spoyles of a Lady's Cabinet?

Crat.
As I would not feigne Favour, and be-ly
A Jewell or a Twist, to gaine the name
Of Creature, or of Servant unto any;
So by your Beauty, (for if Persians may
Sweare by their Sun, I well may sweare by that)
Where honour is transmitted in a true
Mysterious Gage of an Immaculate minde,
I will defend it as some sacred Relique,
Or some more secret pledge, drop'd downe from Heav'n,
To guard me from the dangers of the Earth.

Atos.
But in that
You make it common, you bereave it of
All that you call Divinity.

Crat.
He that vaunts
Of a received Favour, ought to be
Punish'd as Sacrilegious Persons are,
'Cause he doth violate that sacred thing,
Pure, spotlesse Honour. But it may be seene,
And yet not prostitute. I would not smother
My Joyes, and make my happinesse a stealth.

Atos.
How your thoughts flatter your deceived Fancy
Into a State, that when you leave to thinke,
Dyes, as your thoughts that kept it up! what is't
That you call joy and happinesse?

Crat.
I must
Confesse, I have no Merits, whose just heat
May extract ought from you, call'd Love: yet when
I doe consider, that Affection
Cannot looke vertuously on any thing
That is resplendent, but a subtle image
Purely reflecting thence, must needs arise,
And pay that Looke againe; I doe take leave
To say, the carefull Deities provide,
That Love shall ne're be so unhappy, as
To want his Brother.

Atos.
Why? I never spent
A sigh for you; you never had a kisse,
Nor the reversion of one yet.

Crat.
Such Love
Is but Love's Idoll; and these soft ones, that
Confine it to a kisse, or an embrace,
Doe, as the superstitious did of old,
Contract the Godhead into a Bull, or Goat,
Or some such lustfull Creature. Be it far,
Be't far from me to thinke, where e're I see
Cleare streames of Beauty, that I may presume
To trouble them with quenching of my thirst.
Where a full splendor, where a bright effusion
Of immateriall Beames doe meet to
Make up one Body of perfection;
I should account my selfe injurious
Unto that Deity, which hath let downe
Himselfe into those Rayes, if that I should
Draw nigh without an awfull Adoration.
Which my Religion payes to you: but being
You like not the Devotion, be content
To slight the Sacrifice, but spare the Altar.

Atos.
I am so farre from ruining that Breast
In which there lives a sparke of chaster honour,
That I would hazzard this so priz'd a trifle,
Which men call Life, that I might live there still;
And prove that Love is but an Engine of
The carefull Pow'rs, invented for the safety
And preservation of afflicted goodnesse.
Conceive not hence a passion burning toward you;
For she that speakes like woman, is a Queene.

Crat.
I can distinguish betwixt Love, and Love,
'Tweene Flames and good Intents, nay between Flames
And Flames themselves: the grosser now fly up,
And now fall downe againe, still cov'ting new
Matter for food; consuming, and consum'd.
But the pure clearer Flames, that shoot up alwayes
In one continued Pyramid of lustre,
Know no commerce with Earth, but unmixt still,
And still aspiring upwards, (if that may
Be call'd aspiring, which is Nature) have
This property of Immortality
Still to suffice themselves, neither devouring,
And yet devour'd; and such I knowledge yours.
On which I looke as on refin'd Ideas,
That know no mixture or corruption,
Being one eternall simplenesse; that these
Should from the Circle of their chaster Glories
Dart out a beame on me, is farre beyond
All humane merit; and I may conclude,
They've only their owne Nature for a cause,
And that they're good, they are diffusive too.

Atos.
Your tongue hath spoke your thoughts so nobly that
I beare a pity to your vertues, which
E're night shed Poppy twice o're th'weary'd world,
Must only be in these two Registers;
Annalls, and Memory. Could you but contrive,
How you might live without an injury
Unto Religion, you should have this glory,
To have a Queene your Instrument.

Crat.
There's nothing
Can wooe my heart unto a thought of life,
But that your presence will be wanting to me,
When I'm shut up in silence: yet I have
A strong Ambition in me to maintaine
An equall faith 'twixt Greece and Persia:
That like a river running 'twixt two fields,
I may give growth and verdure unto both.
Praxaspes, and Masistes, potent Lords,
Are both 'gainst my designes; so that I shall not
Obtaine an Army, for they thinke I have
That vile minde in me to betray this kingdome.
To which I've sworne fidelity; when by
Your selfe, by all thats good, my 'intent is only
To perfect great Arsamnes Conquest, and
In that be beneficiall to my Country.
In which if that your Majesty will descend
To act a part, after the Scene is shut,
I'le downe t'Elysium, with a joyfull minde,
And teach our Grecian Poëts your blest name
And vertues, for an everlasting Song.

Atos.
Were it against my selfe, I'de not deny it.
Walke in, I'le follow you. In great designes.
[Ex. Crat.
Valour helps much, but vertuous Love doth more.