University of Virginia Library

SCEN: 2d.

App: a Temple, with a Charnel house lozengewise.
Enter Queen, Antiopa, & Penthesilea (from the left.)
Ant.
Argue no more, your Virtue pleads against you,
'Tis but a gaudy gloss to guild our fetters;
But here our bondage, with your self, we'll bury.

[Anti. points to ye Charnel House.
Que.
What, Ye Voluptu'rys in mischeif, still
Thirsting for Royal blood? How can ye break
So soon yr solemn promise to the King?

Ant.
We only promis'd we'd not kill you, therefore
You shall go down alive into your Tomb;
If there you die, 'tis Nature's Act, not ours.

Que.
D'you think equivocating sophistry
Can blind that Eye above which dazels reason?

[she points upwards.
Anti.
You must descend, you must.

Que.
Thô since the Apotheosis
Of Sagalus, I've long'd for Heaven's great call,
While I can stand, I scorn so tame a fall.

[Ant. stamps, Alc. below makes a trapdoor sink, & close upon ye Que. strugling against it.
Ant.
So, now the Queen's entomb'd, the Scythians sati[s]fied,
Our Army too confirm'd in their obedience;
Fates cannot Injure us.

Pen.
Which of 'em dares?
Our words are as much destiny as theirs.

Ant.
Come, lets embrace till our souls kiss each other.
[Ant. & Pen. Hug closely.
Enter Sagalus's ghost (from ye right) & frights Ant. about the stage.
What art thou—look'st my soul—into a Palsy?
What wouldst thou?

Gho.
Rem̄ember our Agreement, or hope no rest.

Ant.

Since the Grave yeilds none—to the murdered,—what rest
can come to the live-murderers?

Pen.
Shall we fear Phantasms? those ourselves have made?
I'll grasp it, thô it make me a ghost too.

[Exit Ghost (at the left) & stares upon 'em. Pen. follows it.
Ant.

Conscience, thou worm—how thou gnawest—the place that
bred thee!

[Penthesilea finding the Ghost to be Sagalus, brings him back.
Pen.
Here, take your Royal Bugbear, the Ghost incarnate.

Ant.
King Sagalus alive! Were you not buried?

Sag.
Yes, but ne're dead; for I have taken Antidotes
So long, as sometimes Asian Princes do
(And I most use it when in a strange land)
That I am grown poyson proof; at least 'gainst yr
Weak dose, made to subvert a Female Temper.

Ant.
What charm of yours brought you out of the grave?

Sag.
Pardon all faults, and you shall hear it.

Anti.
We do.

Sa.
I, before Lanthinus, charged Eribea
To bury this Jewell with me, she did so,
[he shows a Jewell.
But opened my Tomb afterwards to steal it:
I rising up amazed her, yet by promising
I would reward, & you should not correct her,
I gain'd her silence.

Ant.
But why walk'd you thus?

Sag.
To tend the Queen, and cheat you into Honesty.

Ant.
O! she's in her Tomb.

Sag.
O Treachery! O Parricide! let me go thither,
And try to part my soul, her soul between us;
One spirit may serve two whose minds are one.
Or else I'll strive to breath mine whole into her,
And when she's well reviv'd to take it back;
That by a Transmigration we may live.
And die, & die & live by turns for ever.

Anti. opens the Vault, Sag. enters: Ant. locks it.
Ant.
Go in, yr dress becomes no other place.
Now we have him sure. We are staid for in the Palace.

[Exeunt Ant. & Pen. (at ye right.)