University of Virginia Library

SCENE THE SECOND.

Soldiers, with Arms and Torches.
Philip, Carlos.
Car.
Oh, heavens!
My father, with so many arm'd attendants?

Phi.
At night, alone, arm'd, and in these apartments,
What art thou doing? what dost meditate?
Whither art going? Speak.

Car.
... What shall I say?
The arms I grasp'd at the supposed approach
Of bloody ruffians, in my father's presence
Fall from my hands. Dost thou conduct them? Thou,
My father? At thy will dispose of me.
But tell me, was it needful to use pretexts?
And such as these? Ah, father! pretexts are
Unworthy of a king; apologies
From my lips now were only more unworthy.

Phi.
Dost add presumption to thy other crimes?
Display it then, for evermore it is
The sure attendant of consummate guilt.
Thou throw'st a cloak of ill-assumed respect
Over thy faithless and ambitious nature;
Thou dost not seek to palliate thy offences:
To give full vent to thy atrocious rage
Would better suit thy purpose. Pour it out,
The deadly poison that thy heart contains.
With a magnanimous audacity
Confess at once each machination dire,
Worthy of one in treason so accomplish'd!

Car.
What have I to confess? Spare me, oh father,
These useless outrages. Chuse at thy will
What torture suits thee best; if it please thee,
I question not its justice.

Phi.
By what means,
In such an unripe age, hast thou attain'd
To this perfection of atrocity?
How hast thou so consummately acquired
The art of wickedness, that, by thy king,
Caught in this monstrous crime, thou wear'st the mien
Of innocence?

Car.
Where did I learn it, father?
Born in thy palace ...

Phi.
Villain, thou wert born there
To my disgrace and shame!

Car.
Why dost thou doubt
That shame to wipe away? who knows it not?
Thou thirstest for the life-blood of thy son?

Phi.
My son art thou!

Car.
But what have I committed?

Phi.
Ask'st thou that question? ask'st thou it of me?
Does no compunction agonize thy heart?
Ah, no! Thou long, long since of such a weakness
Hast got clear riddance. 'Tis a pang thou know'st not;
Except thou feel it, since in thought alone,
And not in act, thou art a parricide.

Car.
A parricide! What do I hear? A parricide?
Thyself dost not believe it: what suspicion,
What probability, what proof, hast thou?

Phi.
Suspicion, probability, and proof,
Thy contumelious aspect yields them all.

Car.
Oh, father, father, do not drive me on
Those holiest of bounds to violate,
Which Heaven, which nature, and the laws, have placed
Between a king and subject, son and father.

Phi.
Thy sacrilegious character long since
Has passed those bounds. What do I say? those bounds
Were never binding on thy froward nature.
Use not, for ill they suit thee, any longer
The pompous phrases of a high-soul'd virtue.
At once confess to me thy many plots
Projected and accomplished. Speak, what fear'st thou?
That I am less magnanimous than thou vile?
If thou wilt speak the truth, the whole truth, hope;
If thou equivocate, or be silent, fear.

Car.
I speak the truth; 'tis thou compell'st me to it.
I know myself too well ever to fear;
And thee too well I know ever to hope.
A luckless gift, take thou my life, for thine
It is to take; my honour is my own,
Thou gav'st it not, nor canst thou take it from me.
Guilty I should be, could I stoop to own
A guilt to which my nature is a stranger.
Thou shalt here see me breathe my last; a death
Lingering, opprobrious, full of agonies,
Do thou prepare. Death, in its direst shape,
Cannot degrade me, cannot make me tremble.
Thee, thee alone, and not myself, I pity.

Phi.
Presumptuous youth! and dar'st thou, to thy king,
Thus give account of thy misdeeds?

Car.
Account?
Thou hatest me, that is my sole misdeed;
Thirstest to have my blood, my only crime:
Thou art absolute, this constitutes thy right.

Phi.
Guards, mark me, he is your prisoner.

Car.
The reply
Is this, usual to tyrants. Here's my arm,
I yield it to the fetters: here my breast,
I bare it to thy sword. Dost hesitate?
Hast only learned to-day to play the tyrant?
Day after day thy reign is registered
In characters indelible of blood.

Phi.
Guards, drag him from my presence; and confine him
In yon adjacent tower's profoundest dungeon.
Death to the slave that listens to his pleadings.

Car.
Thou need'st not fear, thy minions emulate
In cruelty their king.

Phi.
Drag him by force;
By force and violence drag him from my presence.