University of Virginia Library

ACT. V.

SCÆNA. I.

Libacer Solus.
Lib.
What Politician was there ever yet
Who swimming through a sea of plots & treasons,
Sunk not at last ith' very havens mouth?
And shall I do so too? No, my thoughts prompt me,
I shall be told in story as the first
That stood secure upon the dreadful ruines
He had thrown down beneath him. Yet I am nigh
The precipice I strive to shun with so much care.
I have betray'd Plangus tis true, and still
Have found a growing fortune, but so long
As jealousie binds up Ephorbas thoughts
From searching deeper deeper; Tis not well
That Plangus lives at all, though he be disgrac't
H'has friends enow about the King, and they will finde
A time to pacifie him, which will be my undoing,
He must not therefore live. Andromana
Is of that minde too; but how to compass it—
Or when perhaps I have, what will become of me?
Nothing more usual then for those folks
Who have by sinister means reach't to the top
Oth' mountain of their hopes, but they throw down
And forget the power that rais'd them;
Indeed necessity enforceth them, lest others climb
By the same steps they did, and ruine them.
I must not therefore trust her woman-ship,
Who though I know she cannot stand without me now,
Yet when she's Queen alone
Fortune may alter her, and make her look upon me
As one whose life whispers unto her own guilt;
It is not safe to be the object of a Princes fear,
Then she will finde others will be as apt
To keep her up, as I to raise her;
I will prevent her first.
Time is not ripe yet, but when it is
(For I must walk on with her a little farther)
I will unravel all this Labyinth
E'ne to the King himself. Then let her accuse me,
Though she should damn her self to hell,
I know shee'l be beleev'd no more, then
Plangus hath been hitherto.
Thus shall I still grow great, though all the world
Be to a dreadful ruine madly hurld.

Exit.

SCÆNA 2.

Plangus Solus.
Pl.
I can no longer hold, tis not ith' power
Of fate to make me less; bid me out-stare
The Sun, out-run a falling star,
Feed upon flames, or pocket up the clouds,
And so burn up a land with plagues, the son
Of flaming heat, for want of rain
To cool the yawning chaps of the dry earth;
Or if there be a task mad Juno's hate
Could not invent to plague poor Hercules,
Impose it upon me, I'le do't without a grudge:
Condemn me to a Gally, load me with chains,
Whose weight may so keep me down, I can scarce swell
Under my burden to let out a sigh. I would o'recome all
Were there a Deity that men adore
And throw their prayers upon, that would lend
Just ears to humane wishes,
I would grow great by being punished, and be
A plague my self, so that when people curst
Beyond invention, to their prodigious Rhetorick
This Epiphonema should be added,
Become as miserable as wretched Plangus.
I have been jaded, basely jaded, by those tame fools
Honour and piety, and now am wake't into revenge,
Breathing forth ruine to those first spread
This drowsiness upon my soul.
A woman! O heaven! had I been gull'd
By any thing had born the name of man!
But this will look so sordidly in story,
I shall be grown, discourse for Grooms and Foot-boyes,
Be ballated, and sung to filthy tunes.
But do I talk still? well I must leave
This patience: And now Ephorbas
Since thou hast wrought me to this temper,
Ile be reveng'd with as much skill as thou
Hast injur'd me. Ile to these presently,
For my hour-glass shall not return ten minutes longer,
And having kill'd my self before thee,
Ile pluck my heart out, tell thee all
My innocence, and leave thee hem'd in with
A despair thicker then Ægyptian darkness.
I know thou canst not choose but dye for grief,
But here he is.

SCÆNA 3.

Ephorbas Solus.
Eph.
Riddle upon riddle: I have dreamt this night
Plangus was cloathd like innocence, all white;
And Andromana then methoughts was grown
So black, nothing but all one guilt was shewn.
What shall I do? Shall I beleeve a dream?
Which is a vapour born along the stream
Of fancy, and sprung up from the gross fumes
Of a full stomach, sent to the upper rooms
Oth' brain by our ill Genius to spoyl our sight,
And cloud our judgements like a misty night.
Why do I doubt? tis ominous to stay
Demurring when the way is plain: Is day
Or night best to judge colours? shall I stand
Trying the waters foundness, when the land
Presents firm footing? Truth by day appears,
And from Papers hope to find my fears
Oppos'd. And yet me thinks 'tis very strange
A son of mine should suddenly thus change,
And throw his nature off, I did not so
When I was young I am resolvd to know
The truth, and clear this mist from fore my eyes,
If't can be done by care, by gold, or spies.

Exit.

SCÆNA 4.

Andromana Sola.
Andr.
So Badgers dig the holes
And Foxes live in them: Of all Factors
State-factors are the worst, and yet least to themselves
Of all their labour. This Libacer is wading
To the throat in blood to do me service,
And Ile reward him with a halter.
Tame fool, can he imagine I remove
A husband and a son, to suffer him
To live still and upbraid my ills.

Lib.
It is resolv'd.
Enter Libacer.
But here she is, I must speak fairly for a while:

An.
How doth it succeed now, my darling?
Shall we be great? great alone?

Lib.
As great as pride and fulness of revenge
Can swell us. Hark in your ear, Madam,
Ile tell you all our plot, but softly,
For perhaps the jealous walls may eccho
Back the treason.

They whisper.

SCÆNA 5.

Enter Plangus with his Sword drawn.
Pl.
I bore whilst I could, but no tis grown
Too great to be contain'd in humane breast,
And it shall out, though hoopt with walls of brass.
Are they at it? I stood once a listning at their intreaty,
This time at my own I'le stand and hearken.

Steps aside.
An.
It is impossible.

Lib.
I tell you no, Ile aggravate the injuries,
And tell him how basely poorly it was
For a father to betray his son so.

An.
His piety will never—

Lib.
But his fury shall, Ile stab the King my self, and bring
Those witnesses shall swear 'twas Plangus.

Pl.
Nay then tis time to strike;
There, carry thy intents to hell.

He stabs Libacer.
An.
Help, Murder, Murder, a Rape, a Rape.

Ep.
What dismal note was that?

An.
Sir, there you see your Martyr,
Whose force being too vveak to save my honour,
His fidelity vvas greater, and dy'd a loyal sacrifice
Offerd by the impious hand of that vile man.

Eph.
O heaven! doth not the earth yet gape and svvallovv thee.
Thy life shall be my crime no longer, I gave it thee
And thus resume it with a thousand curses.

He stabs Plangus.
Pl.
Sir, I at length am happy
To the height of all my vvishes,
I am a going suddenly—from all
Faints.
My troubles all your fears—
But I vvill tell my story first—
How you have vvrong'd, and been vvrong'd your self.
This vvoman—to be short—
Hath tvvin'd like Ivy with my naked limbs
Before she marryd you—
—And would—Oh—in spight of death
I will go on—have tempted me to bed her since
—Upon refusal she turnd her love to hate,
And plots my ruine—And—
Next your death—I can no more—
I kill'd the instrument—farewel—
—Forgive me—

Dyes.
Ep.
Can this be true Andromana.

An.
Do you beleeve it?

Ep.
I wish I had not cause—

An.
Sir every syllable was true he told you;
Whose words I thus confirm

She takes Plang. Dagger, flings it at Ephorbas, and kills him.
Ep.
Ime slain, mercy heaven

An.
You should have come a little sooner.

Enter Inoph.
In.
Do I see well? or is the Prince here slain?

An.
He is, and cause you love him,
Carry that token of
Stabs Ino.
My love to him, I know hee'l take it kindly that you take
So long a journey only to see him.

In.
It was the Devil strook sure,
A vvoman could not do it—Plangus Oh—

Dyes.

SCÆNA 6.

Enter to them Rinatus, Eubulus, Anamedes.
Rin.
Heaven defend us! what a sight is here?
The King, The Prince both slain? vvhat and my son too?
Only this vvoman living? speak out
Scritch-ovvl, Witch, how came they by their deaths:

An.
By me, how else?

Rin.
Lets torture her.

An.
I can prevent you, I would not live a minute longer,
Unless to act my ills again, for all Iberia.
She stabs herself.
I have lived long enough to boast an act,
After which no mischief shall be new—

Dyes.
Rin.
Lets in, and weep our wearey lives away;
When this is told, let after ages say,
But Andromana none could have begun it,
And none but Andromana could have done it.

Exeunt.