University of Virginia Library

Scene 5.

Ambigamor
ent.
Groaning heard within.
Groaning again.
Draws his sword
Intermission.
Withdrawing a while returns drawing as it were to the light, the body of Zizania.

Ziz.
Oh! Ludaster!

In a languishing tone.
Kneeling on his knee bends her forward in raising her.
Am.
Zizania! confirm my sense again,
My tortur'd soul may with thee take her flight.
Speak yet again; art thous Zizania,
My lov'd Zizania?

Ziz.
Zizania

raiseth himself destractedly.
Am.
That very sound's enough t'extinguish life,
By preying on my languishing spirits,
Had love a temper to spin out my Fate.
Why trifle I with passion to unman
My self; and let shame with distraction play.
Resolution is but cheated by delay—
Offers to kill himself.
Hold—
pause.
Due Rights must first be tender'd to her Ghost,
Puts up his sword and kneels to raise and bow her as before.
Whom I shall fear to meet yet unreveng'd.
Pardon! thou Innocent Object of my vows,
If I disturb thy rest, yet once again,
To lend direction to just sacrifice,
My Honour, Love, and Vows have me engaged,
To offer to thy horrid sufferings.
Speak, and declare the barbrous instrument.

Ziz.
Oh!

Bends her and chases her temples.
Am.
Lend so much vigour to her spirits yet,
You higher Powers! as may mark out your justice.
Speak, oh speak.
Who wast that wrought this bloody cruelty?

Ziz.
Oh—Ludaster!

Am.
Forbid it Heav'n! and be my safer guide!
Confirm't again; who was thy Murderer?
Speak!

Ziz.
Oh! Ludaster.

Am.
Why mock you thus our frailty with a Name
Would charme a dying Testimony?
Yet lend it but the next assertion,
And I pursue the tenor of my vows
Without a scruple to relation.
Speak who thus hath spilt thy guiltless blood, speak.

Ziz.
Oh! Ludaster.

Straining her forward.
Am.
Enough, farewell my souls delight! my stay
Shall make our meeting more agreeable,
Kisses her.
And thou Religious union of my soul,
Like a declining shadow vanish hence;
Nor leave behind the least Impression,
Since that light is extinguisht formed thee.
Mundolo ent. mufled.
Spying Mu. withdraws.
Hah! more spies abroad still roving; I must
Obscure my self for new discoveries.

Mu.
Precipitate thy course dull Night! take on
Thy deepest tinctures: Such, as when with spels
The Canting Hagg frights nature from her seat
To masque the tracts of Mischief and confound
The world in errour. oh! how much should ow
Th'inferiour Kingdome to thy Ministry.
Were fear but an Authentike Evidence
To truth. The worlds Philosophy stiles Ill,
What they would shun to suffer, not what they
Shun to act: Which practice makes good, where they
Are no relatives. Oh! th'abusive world!
Whose well known Mysteries instruct my sense,
That ills are none which want their Evidence.
Fancy works high o'th Object of delight,
Yet let not joy elate the spirits; least
Thus rarified, they should effuse themselves
Before they reach to Action. Hah! who's this?
Fidelius ent.
If doubtful light may yeeld a Certainty,
This is the Stripling that escap'd my fury,
Whose bosom only can disclose the deed
I have already done; or yet pervert
What I intend to act; this both secures.

stabs him.
Fi.
Oh! oh! cruell villain!

Falls to the ground.
Ludaster ent.
Wounds Mu. who falls being hurt in the arm, the dagger drops from him.
Lu.
So swift be justice in thy punishment,
And in the progress lasting, till it meet
A measure equal unto thy desert.
Hadst thou of man so little left in thee,
To violate such tender innocence.
Speak, what art thou? or why this mischief wrought?
Is insolence swell'd up to stubbornness
In thy mouth, and daring in thine eyes? Speak.
That little life thou hast shall be reserv'd,
binds and ties him to a tree with his girdle.
To make exemplar farther sufferings.—
Now my Fidelius what hopes of safety?

Fi.
Little where yours is yet in hazard Sr.

Lu.
'Tis but the figure of thy jealousie.

kneels & raises Fi.
Fi.
Withdraw good Sr, and timely yet provide
For your security.

Lu.
Thou would'st not have me yet more infamous?
Thus to involve thee in an accident,
Speaks nothing louder than my own dishonour,
And to abandon thee in this extream.

Fi.
Your presence Sr, may prejudice your being
Mine not support; past the capacity
Of succour.

Lu.
Heav'n is more gracious to my misery.
Nor let the fear of me suggest thy ills
To be more great than thou conceivest them.
Humanity enjoynes us ne're to leave
The means so long as there is motive to't.
Try if thy strength will suffer thee to be
Transported. So, gently.

raises him.
Fi.
Oh! I faint;
My soul is sliding from her mansion.
Sets him gently on the earth again.
Restore me to the earth: Thither I must,
Our frail Original: where set, I may
Spin out but so much breath as may remove
Doubt and dishonour from my memory.—
pause.
Will you remember me when I am dead?

Lu.
Else must forget my self.

Fi.
'Twere needful thereto that you knew me first.

Lu.
Know thee! why so I do. I know thou art
Fidelius. My faithful lov'd Fidelius.

Fi.
I would not rob you of his memory,
Who gave me access to your knowledge Sr,
Yet pardon me if I must say you erre.

Lu.
Erre! in what my sweet Fidelius?

Fi.
When you affirm me him you name.

Lu.
Why, art thou not?

Fi.
No.
Although our souls had but one motion,
Our bodies still held their distinction
He died when he departed from you sick;
With so much passion to your vertue Sr,
That I became transported with th'admir'd
Idea, and took the advantage which
Nature had lent me in similitude,
I might succeed to his relation.
Yet with a flame so pure did never reach
To the distinction of my hidden Sex;
Which was the only difference made us known
Unto the womb that bore us.

Lu.
Wonder hath captiv'd ev'ry faculty,
To the detention of their offices;
And but suspends a grief will soon or'eflow
Her shallow Continent, to pay the Rights
To double Interests: Yet say how must
They be distinguished.

Fi.
Fidelia, twin'd sister to Fidelius.

Lu.
As if nature had but one only frame
And Constellation, to produce so rare
And exact a moddell.

Fi.
Oh!

Lu.
Courage! thou miracle of Nature.

Fi.
Oh! the cloud of death hangs o're my senses,
And steals away my Spirits; yet I dy
Content, in the belief I have receiv'd
The fatal stroak directed unto you.
Lend me your hand thereon my vows to seal.
Be all united here, which man calls weal.

Kissing his hand and languishingly uttering his last words dies.
Lu.
They are divorc'd, fairwell the loveliest pair,
That ever made one happy union!
Kisses her cheek.
Accept this offering to your vertuous loves
weeps.
Though too too mean,
Yet strugling nature nere could force them forth
The tainted source of proper interest.

Ambigamor discouers.
Amb.
If yet in thy exterior part thou hast
Thy self but truly figur'd unto me,
That habit and this place speak thee Ludaster.

Lu.
Ambigamor!
Thou welcome balsome to my wounded soul!
Open thine Arms that I may slide into
Thy bosom, where mutual imbraces may
Translate our Members to an union.

Lu. running to imbrace him, Amb. puts him by with his hand.
Amb.
Forbear.

Lu.
What new disorder hath disguis'd thy love
In this sullen Austerity?

Amb.
Such as that name of Friend thus casteth off,
Like a despised trifle, and bids the
Waves his hand & draws his sword.
To be such unto thy proper safety.

Lu.
How strangely art thou wandred from thy self!
Collect thy thoughts to a becoming temper.

stands amaz'd.
Amb.
Play not with Rage. Be sudden in defence,
I east my distraction this proceeding judge
More grace than thy guilt deserves.

Lu.
Let me first know the nature of my crime?

Amb.
Persevere not herein. Ask me not why.
Who knows ills t'act, knows how them to deny.

Lu.
I shall suspect the Base whereon I rais'd
That holy Title keeps my hand in Aw;
If thou insistest thus.

Amb.
No more those vain illusions, Draw.

Lu.
I will not, do thy worst, since thy folly
Hath cast away the last thing I held dear:
Chance hath left nought for chance to work upon.

Amb.
Tempt not thy Ruine, from which this hand restrains,
But to take off the blemish of the manner.

Lu.
Hold!
Casts off his disguise.
Perhaps the cloud of this disguise resists
The influence of our Amity. Vainly
He's hid from others, to himself is lost.
Doth thy wild sence perceive thy errour yet?

Amb.
Those were the masques but to conceal thine own.
Draw, or the lightning is not swifter than
My execution.

Lu.
Hold!
I to my self may prove an Homicide:
Who doth betray his being by neglect,
Is guilty of his own destruction.
What Nature first commands, see, I obey,
Draws his sword.
What friendship, though contemned, thus I may.

Letting the point of his sword fall on the ground.
breaks off the point with his foot.
Amb.
A handsome flourish, but I must not vie,
Revenge is not restrain'd by Gallantrie.

They fight. Lu. only defends himself.
Eumena ent.
Lu.
Oh! thou hast thy will, he's but half guarded
I see, stands only on his own defence.

Eu.
Hold, I enjoyn by your Allegiance, hold.
By all those ties are strictest to your soul,
If there rest any unattainted yet
to Amb.
In this your violence.

Amb.
It is the Princess voice.

Eu.
And such her person, though misfortune hath
Transfigur'd it in shew as it hath you
In truth.
Sharper Rebukes I should insist upon;
But that my love suspends my Ire a while,
Nor shameth it my frailty to assume
That Attribute, which may a mind indue
Without distemper, by such object form'd:
Why shifts those secret signals of thy thoughts
to Lu.
So oft their Scenes, as they gave place to trouble?

Lu.
To find a ruder Sov'raign intercept
The Rights I ow to that fair Majesty
By his untimely tribute.

Eu.
Speak not my fears in mystery. What hurt?
Mine eye may find the proof without reply.
Approaches him as 'twere to search. Takes of her scarff to bind his wound, and closes it with her handkerchif.
Unhappy conducts of our destinies!
Why mock you thus our frailty. Whom I sought
You led me to by errour. Whom I had
By errour you took from me. Whom I find,
By errour unrepar'd, is to me lost
For ever. Oh! Erring Ministry!
O're which you prudent Powers that preside!
Instruct our incapacities, and shew,
Why you from man exact ought in his own
Direction; since thus subordinate
Unto Others Rule, those faculties
Intangle in their Exercise, wanting
Of the Superiour Clear Intelligence.
How find you Nature yet dispos'd in you?

Lu leaning on his sword she supports him on t'other side.
Lu.
Like to an Artificial fire to Heav'n
Aspires, whose frail composure being unapt
Thereto; by his own violence consum'd,
Toucheth his height, and drops to Earth again:
Such is the active and aspiring flame
Your Grace, and Graces have inspir'd in me,
Which meeting in a Subject farre too mean
To reach so full proportion of Felicity,
Falls from't at Distance through his own defects.

Eu.
The wide worlds fleeting Glories are too mean.
Dignities but to instile thy Attributes,
And her vast Theater a receptacle
Too narrow to present the Action
Of thy Immortal vertues, whose only light
If rightly plac'd might free her course from Errour.

Lu.
Your happy fortunes, and more Glorious Life
Will certainly make good all these in yours:
While mine rests doubtful in Opinion.

Eu.
You Powers! of whose most Glorious Essences
These fair Ideas we admire, are thought,
But the imperfect shadows! if not for ours
For your own Interests. If we you concern,
Restore your Beauties fairest Continent,
Least shallow man too suddenly conclude
You have your proper cause abandoned.
Or else inform us, why vertue y'have rais'd
To vertues overthrow. This valiant hand
Had power and cause sufficient to pursue
Their Ruine, who his shamefully procur'd.
Unhappy wretch! How art thou lost in shame!
turns to Ambig. they raise him & set him up.
If not Remorse, let Pitty speak thee Man,
And lend thy hand, if yet in time it may,
To stop the nature of thy threatning guilt.

Gratianus, Liberanus, Serverus, and other Souldiers with Nefarius bound.
Gra.
Is this the Scene unmasques your Mischief? speak,
Or farther torture shall enforce you to't.

Ne.
Of what I acted, I confess, it was.
And by o're heard remorse; I judge there might
Be some mistake i'th' Execution;
But know not whether extended to these.

Gra.
The circumstance is evidence enough.
What new disorder's here? Hah! Blood and Tears!

Eu. seems weeping ouer Lu. set in-a chare.
Lu.
Gratianus, thy only stay retarded hath my flight,
Receive my thanks for thy so faithfull love,
Which if my will have force to guld it still,
As thy approved faith assures it hath,
Let me transact it unto her support
May make it glorious and fruitful to thee.
Seal your engagement on the Princess hand.

Lu. takes the Prin. hand and extends it to Gra. who kisses it.
Gra.
Hah! the Princess! my Duty Sr,
And your command meet equally in this.

Lu.
Oh! fairwell to both, we must divide.
Take the supreamest tender of my Love.—

Intermission.
Extending his arm to imbrace them, dies.
Eu. thereon sinks down and expires.
Gra. catches her in his arms and there holds her awhile till others come to help him.
Gra.
Madam! how do you? help, your succour friends,—
Her eyes are fix'd, her breath already lost.
Strange miseries that stop their sense with wonder!
I hope you can unty these Riddles Sr.

Amb.
In part I can. The Princess death hath pay'd
Her secret witness to Ludasters Love.
And his to mine.

Gra.
The latter words will ask a Comment Sr.

Amb.
I kill'd him to revenge my Love.

Gra.
Be yet more plain e're I seal up thy last
draws his sword.
Intelligence, to whom? or how?

Amb.
To my belov'd Zizania murthered
By him, and unto me confirmed by
Her dying Accents.

Gra.
As yet, I cannot pitty thee enough
puts up his sword again.
To kill thee: But here is one shall do it
With crueltie, if in thee yet be left
But so much Reason to distinguish guilt.
Speak Sirrah, was't not you and your Agents
That wrought this mischief on her, and her Brother?

Ne.
It is confest already.

to Amb.
Gra.
Nay! let not silent trouble speak your doubt;
His Evidence is valuable, it costs
Amb. stands confused.
Him, Sr, his Life. This is more shameful yet.
Amb. offers in kill himself but is disarmed.
The nature of your crime will first require
A larger time for penitence. Be he
Your Charge Libranus. Hah! more spectacles
Of Horror yet, who is't, Fidelius!
spies Fi.
Grief will not yield a truce unto the sense
To ease it self in the effusion.
Search yet about there are more Actors yet,
discovers Mu.
A Villain in his perfect character!
Unlose him, and to torture presently,
Untill he makes a true discovery.

Mun.
You shall not need, I love my crimes too well,
Not to revive their Memory, and scorn
Your punishmens too much, once to disguise
Their Natures in the Circumstance.

Gra.
Guilt hath attain'd the height where it assumes
A Glory from the execution.
Pulls his hat sadly over his eyes, and marcheth out with the bodies.
Which we will hear, when pious Rites are done:
Grief speaks there loudest, where the Mourner's dumb.