University of Virginia Library

Orestes—Medius
MEDIUS
Give ear, Orestes; the strange waves of time
Have rolled upon our shores this chance event,
That at Larissa's gate with crown and stave
Crannonian heralds enter, and their lips
Are heavy with the messages of kings;
A bitter word from a detested race
The Scopadæ, our kinsmen and our foes,
One with our blood but in our hatred twain:
These look not for thy good, so thou beware,
For a king lives in watchful days and fear.

ORESTES
Brother in love, poor courier at the best,
Why do you din this “king” into mine ears?
Why waste your breath and colour on this news?
Tell it my robe and crown, they are the king;
Or shall my regent mother fast of news
While I am fed? I thank you for this love;
But, in God's name, I am merely your poor friend,
And mock me not with this old lying song
I hear all day: for I am almost sure
You are the only man that loves me here.
Consider then I am a fine great king
That cannot move one soldier without leave,
Of that meek soul, my general, wholly mine,
Because he is so careful lest the reins
Should slip my puny fingers, that he keeps
The royal driving bench sole charioteer.
Tell me, good Medius, since I am unthroned,
I'll be a loyal subject, if I knew
Whom to obey, that's the confusion of it:
For now my mother is regent like the moon;
And then this Simus rules us like the sun;
I shall turn out a rebel, ere I know it,
By crying out at night, long live king Phœbus.

MEDIUS
That Simus loves you, lord, I do believe,
But he loves all things after his own will.
For there is this infirmity in men,
That, having watched one growing from a child,
They hold him always child, and cannot see
The mighty years breathing all wisdom in:
So ripens he, but they the old men wane—
Behold, my lord, the envoys.