 | Love In it's Extasie : Or, The large Prerogative |  |
Actus Primus.
Scena Prima.
Enter Arontas and Spadatus.Spa.
Your feares are vaine Arontas.
Aron.
I wish to heavens they would not prove
True Omens to the Kingdome.
Spa.
Can you suppose the King, whose powerfull nod
Can force a thousand Virgins, to become their owne bawdes,
And prostitue themselves unto his loose embraces,
Will for one coy girle resigne that gift
Onely in which the Gods can truely boast their liberty?
Fye Arontas, think not so poorly of your Soveraign;
He is a Man, and therefore has Ambition.
Aron.
So has he Love.
Sapd.
But can that Love,
That weaker fancy of an idle braine,
Make Charastus yeeld, unto a composition, so absurd?
As for to grant a Kingdome for a conquest.
Aron.
'Tis to be feard; The obdurate Girle
Persists still in her enterprise: nor will shee yeeld
The fortresse of her Love without the resignation
Of his Diadem unto her Brother, a man
Ambitious as the Devill.
Spa.
Hear reason.
Aron.
'Tis not her will alone,
The womans cheifest argument, that denyes him,
But her weighty reasons, with which she still convinces
All that dare venture opposition.
Spa.
Is not the Kings prerogative an argument
Beyond weake womans will? The wise men say,
Kings ought to force when subjects wo'nt obey.
Aron.
Love cannot sir be forc'd;
It is a spirit thinner than Ayr, which when
With boysterous hands we strive to captivate
Doth vanish into nothing.
Spa.
But should the King, in this his height of dotage,
Offer up his crowne, the Trophee of her cruelty,
Think you his Subjects will e're give consent
That one should weare it, so generally hated as Bermudo?
One fill'd with such variety of wickednesse,
As if the end of his creation was
Onely to shame his Maker.
Aron.
Did he deserve a Worser character,
Once triumphs on his brow, his Vices Sir
Will turne to virtues: such is the fate of Princes.
Nor may we sir oppose his reign
Since tis our King that wills it.
Kings are the Gods immediate Substitutes,
And their Wills are most divine, and holy statutes,
Which our Religion in so strict a manner
Bindes us to observe, that should Bermudo,
In that very instant, on which the Crowne
Is plac'd upon his head, command our lives,
'Twere more impiety to contradict,
Than cruelty to obey.
Spa.
Strange superstition!
Aron.
It may seeme so to you, a stranger: for
Forraign Nations laugh at us, and call our zeale
A blinde obedience, their prouder hearts
Can brooke no Kings, but like unruly steeds
Contemn their Riders, and blow Rebellion, Witchcrafts Ape,
Even in the faces of their Soveraignes; good Gods!
Is this piety? is this Religion? shall He
The principall of all subordinates, one by that Royall wreath
Distinguish'd from the common Chaos, and created Head?
Shall He be subject to the Wills of an
Irregular Multitude that Knowes nothing of a States necessity?
The Sun-tand slave that labours at the Oare
Knowes not a life so servile then. But let'um on,
And glory in their disobedience: we whose soules
Has stil been subject to those higher powers,
Must allwayes think that man is cheifly blest,
That suffers.
Spa.
Be Happy then, I dare pronounce you Happy
If Bermudo reignes; Felicity with a vengeance
Will flow unto you, till 'its hideous torrent
Has consum'd the Kingdome.
Aron.
If 'tis our fate 'tis wellcome, 'twill onely prove
The greater Argument of our Allegiance:
The Citadell, of which I am the unworthy Master
Must be kept strongly for him, till his Will,
Not Tyranny disclaimes it.
Spa.
No more: The Kings on entrance.
Sce. 2.
Loud Musick. Enter Charastus, Flavanda, Bermudo, Halisdus, Spadatus, Arontas, and Attendants.Cha.
Was't not a direfull Tempest that last night
Affrighted our Horizon? was ever yet your age
Acquainted with the like Halisdus?
Hal.
Never my gratious Lord: yet I have seene
Many, that would have terrified the boldest:
When our Ætnean Hill, spitted his fiery venome
'Gainst the Heavens; when the affrighted Sun
For three dayes has withdrawn himself; yet these
Compar'd with this for horror,
Deserve not to be mentioned.
Cha.
It was a dreadfull night indeed; yet see
How gloriously the Sunne appeares: the Heavens
In labour were all night, & from their pregnant womb
This morn a Sun springs forth, whose glorious beames
Frights back their pristine terrour.
Hal.
Wer't not a sin too great and irreligious
To mistrust the heavens diviner Mercy,
I should conceive this ill-aboding night
Portendeth some ensuing misery.
Cha.
Doe not Halisdus with thy misconstruing fear
Strive to disturb our joyes: Thy sight Flavanda,
Like to Auroras Beames, darted from out the Eastern Hills,
Expells those drossie exhalations, which this too sad night
Infused to my fadder soul.
Fla.
Your highnesse has a privilege for flattery.
Still harping on that string Flavanda?
If for to speake what my inclining soul
Prompts me to utter, and to conceive what I have said
Is but a derogation from thy worth, be Flattery,
I must confesse I am guilty of that fault,
Which never King did act, unlesse upon himselfe.
Fla.
Pardon my incredulity great Sir.
When I consider that the lofty Pines
Stoop not to brambles, that your Soaring Hawkes
Bend not to lesser Birds, except for prey: I must confesse
My virgin fear holds back those wandring thoughts
VVhich your Al-potent Majesty extracted
Lest I should perish like a hasty Blossome
Cropt by the setting winter.
Cha.
Is yet my Loyalty in question?
How oft have I with sacrilegious lipps
Dissected all the Gods for Oathes, and must I still
Remain suspected of disloyalty? surely I have a conscience.
Fla.
Yes, pure and more spotlesse than the wandering snow
VVhich the least breath of any calmer wind
Blowes up and down: such a conscience,
That had it not a burthen of Felicity
I should court its Master.
Cha.
VVas ever yet Felicity a Burthen?
Fla.
Yes, that which you vainly stile one:
You doe suppose a Crown a brave and glorious
Trophee of felicity, which had you been without,
One poor commanding word had done that deed,
VVhich now your vain intreaties sue for.
You are my King Sir.
Cha.
But tell me Dearest, how has my former life
Deservd that title of your King: has my taxations
Ever yet filld my oreflowing coffers?
Have I replenish'd once my appetite
VVith the direfull noyse of any subjects curses?
Our gentler reign abhorr'd those vices
Which most Kings doe Boast in: And canst thou think
When I doe subjugate my self to thee,
I shall become more ravenous than when I was
Sole Monarch?
Fla.
I dare not question Sir that virtue which in you
All Princes can't admire enough, much more not imitate.
Tis not the Tyrannick usage of a Scepter
That confirm's a King; He that is truely Royall,
Rules not his kingdome with the severe
And cruell Rigour of an austerer judgement,
But with a mild severity, a virtue which you
Have practis'd long; I must confesse, you are adorn'd
With all the Ornaments that make a King
A second Deity; But can those glorious trappings,
Your Crown, your scepter, arm'd with that virtue too,
Can they all resist those blasts, which envious fame
Will hurl upon my honour?
Cha.
What can the giddy multitude report
Against thy virtues? Thou art beyond their malice.
Fla.
I were beyond then all that's good,
Beyond the heavens themselves, and the celestiall powers.
That Love that tends to a superior,
Be it ne're so pure, is amongst them
But an ambitious Lust, sold for preferment.
Should Hymen joyn our hands in a lawfull union
With our hearts, yet they would say,
Flavanda does not give, but prostitutes her love
To satisfie her vaine Ambition: Thus I should ever
Rather bee thought your Strumpet, than your Wife.
Cha.
Canst thou suspect me yet Flavanda?
I should suspect my selfe rather, for I know
Our sex are all like watry clouds
Made various still by the reflecting Sun.
Whilst that the Crowne, Great Sir,
Impalls your Royall Brow, I cannot be your Wife
And to be your Whore, I dare not.
Cha.
Infortunate condition of a King! when that
His chiefest Ornament becomes his greatest punishment.
A Crowne, and Scepter are but transitory toyes,
That wait on bigg and pompous Misery.
Oh thou ambitious Man, whose soaring thoughts
Aime onely at a crown! knewst thou
The inconvenience now of mine, thou then
Wouldst wish, thou hadst rested in security,
And nere had sought so vain a happinesse.
Fla.
If that your boasted constancy bee firm
As 'twere a sinne to suspect the contrary,
That our loves may not diminish from each others lustre,
Invest my Brother in your dignity: So I a Princess
May equall you a some-times King.
Cha.
Must I resigne, or perish in felicity?
Is this thy doome then still irrevocable?
Fla.
As Fate.
Cha.
A sad and dismall sentence! yet stay,
And ere I part with this same glorious gemme,
Let me recall the long lost man within mee,
And with him, Mans better part, my Reason,
Reason! alas I have none
This trifle woman has unmand my soule,
And made me like her selfe irrationall.
Reason would tell me that I am a King,
And in that name, something there is
That whispers to my thoughts I may command.
'Tis true, I may, o're things
Grosse as my self; This arme of mine can levell
Cedars with the humblest shrubbs, and this my voyce
Can with one accent, breath more certain Fate
Than plague, or Fire. But can its loudest note
Silence one murmuring thought? or can this potent grasp
Inclose heavens lighting, or the smallest beame
Which from the sun is darted? Love is more pure
And lesse substantiall, 'tis no created body, Form,
And Matter, but an etheriall essence, Fancyes creatures.
And to be Master of an immateriall Soule,
Who would refuse to sacrifice that drosse,
That clogges Mortality? He is a beast
That would not fall, to rise a Constellation.
Hal.
Yet, Sir, consider what you give,
A Crowne, a Scepter, and a Kingdome.
Cha.
These are but titular Emblemes of felicity,
Visions of Blisse, Symptomes of Happinesse.
What is there in a crowne, worthy our estimation?
(He puts it on Flavandus head.
Place it here in its most proper sphære,
'Tis but a glorious trifle; looke now Halisdus
With impartiall eyes, and tell me which casts
The greater lustre; thy silence does condemne thee.
See, I kisse it, embrace it, and no virtuous heat
Payes a gratuity: One Kisse of hers
Makes me contemplate of a future happinesse
That rapes me to an Extasie of pleasure.
Dull, sencelesse, and base stupid Earth,
Goe to the Center; My aery thoughts climbes Heaven,
And graspeth now a Deity.
Ber.
Beware a cloud Ixion: if my plotes hitt right,
It shall be twice as fatall.
Char.
Yet ere Bermudo
I doe fully cease, 'ere that my soul
Be quite dismantled of that glorious robe
Which Fate so freely did allot mee,
Oh let these dewy drops, the truest Harbingers
Of a setting, Sun, entreat thee
Not to bring my frailty to a custome:
Do not, oh do not! doate like me Bermudo,
Account this folly lawfull, and traduce Me,
Me the Originall; 'Twill vex me in my urn.
Ber.
It shall not sir. I'le break the custome,
And to show how much my soule's
Obedient to your will, and that the world may see
That 'tis not pompe nor majesty affects me,
I make a vow before just heavens, and you,
That if ere my heart be conquer'd with a womans love,
Your Crown shall be restor'd.
Cha.
Thou knowst not what thou vow'st Bermudo.
Ber.
I doe my Lord, and know withall
How strictly Religion bindes me to performance;
For should I dare to violate what I have vow'd,
It would call a curse upon me, high
As the punishment Damnation payes to sinners:
I must then royall sir, & so must ye, my Lords,
And Peeres of Lelybæus, acknowledge him again
Your Soveraign, unlesse a doe a deed
Which humane frailty names impossible.
Cha.
Canst thou be so good Bermudo?
Ber.
'Tis not a Crowne great sir,
With that same large Prerogative annext,
Can make Bermudo be ingratefull;
You nourish'd my declining fortunes,
And brought them to that height which now
They stand in, and should I like ungatefull plant
Consume the stemme that nourish'd me,
Infamy would surely blast me.
Cha.
Thus then I doe indulge thee
All the prerogatives of Majestie.
Goe and ascend my throne, and let all with one applause
Say after me, Long live Bermudo King of Lelybæus.
Trumpets and shouts within.
Omnes.
Long live Bermudo King of Lelybæus.
Omnes.
Long live Bermudo King of Lelybæus.
Omnes.
Long live Bermudo King of Lelybæus.
Ber.
I have it now, seated firm, beyond the power
Of Revocation: Thanks to the Heavens,
And our diviner Policy. Long has this Kingdome
Under the easie yoak of an effeminate King
Surfetted with luxury, and been a Proverb
For our neighbouring Princes to express lasciviousness:
The thought whereof did grate my heart,
And stir'd a noble Anger in my blood.
Shame of all Kings, dishonor of thy race,
It was I that forc't my credulous sister
To make this tryall of thy constancy.
I made Flavanda to demand thy Crowne, onely
With a promise to restore it: But can you think
A Gemme so lost, will e're be sound
Before the extirpation of that seed
Which thy effeminate government has sown
In this too much abused Kingdome?
Cha.
If that the thought of what I was
Can not procure some reverence,
Yet slight me not for what I may be,
When the conditions which you hold
Your Kingdome by are broken.
Ber.
Conditious? 'Tis true, I promis'd when e're
My heart was conquer'd with a womans love
Your Crown should be restor'd.
Fla.
That was not all. A vow
Was past to me, seal'd with an Oath,
That when our Nuptialls should be solemniz'd
You would restore the Kingdome.
Ber.
It is confess'd: nor dare I disobey it.
Vowes of this nature may not be broken
Without the violation of Religion.
Cha.
Come dearest then, let Hymenæall Rites
Restore a double happiness.
Ber.
Stay rash man, hear our Decree first,
Reade Arontas, and let thy voiyce
Strike terror to the Nation.
Arontas
reads.
Whereas this fertile Kingdome, under
the easie raign of our effeminate predecessor,
has long surfetted with a degenerate
passion, which the weaker ones stile Love,
the wiser Folly, to the high dishonor of the
Goddess whose rites we ought to celebrate.
That we may now therefore repair our lost
honour, appease the wrath of that incensed
Deity, and avert those judgments which
are now so imminent; We have thought
fit to decree, and be it decreed by the most
high, and excellent Bermudo, the Supreme
Lord, and Ruler of this Nation, that for
the space of seven years next ensuing, none
shall presume to entertain that passion; If
any one shall presumptuously, contrary to
this our pleasure, be found so weak as to
express it in the least of Circumstance, their
lives to Heavens shall forfeit.
Bermudo.
Ber.
You have heard our will Charastus,
Presume not then to disobey it: 'Tis not the remembrance
Of your former greatness, or the Peoples love,
Can exempt you from the justice of our anger.
Could'st thou suppose, fond man, Bermudo
Would restore a Crown for bare gratuity; No,
I did but pull away the baite, to make
The hasty fish receive it with more eagerness,
Which now is caught, thanks to our Industry:
And that the captive may not flatter his imagination
With a hopes of a Recovery, Let our Decrees be publish'd.
Exit Arontas.
Cha.
That sir you have a power to punish my credulity,
This knee, nere bent before to humane greatness, testifies.
Oh Royall sir! Let the severity of your Law stop here,
Here on my head let your anger fall:
Punish not my folly in your loyall Subjects,
Guilty in nothing but obedience. If not for my sake,
For my sisters sake, for Desdonellas sake,
Shee though a Princess lov'd you sir a Subject:
I saw it, and was silent, and surely,
Had not I thought, you had suppos'd
Ingratitude the worst of evills,
I neere had left my self so bare,
Cloath'd onely with my shame and ruine.
Ber.
If Desdonella harbours such a thought,
She feeds the flame that will consume her:
Nor she, nor any sir shall dare to doe,
What is deni'd their Soveraigne.
Cha.
Then thus proud man I rise,
And boldly tell you, that though Religion
Tyes our hands, yet there's a power above you,
Which neither custome nor Religion can controul,
He sir will punish to the height the deadly sin
Of an abus'd Authority: Remember it, and tremble.
Fla.
Alas, fond mayd, to what a deluge of misfortune
Has this thy incredulity now brought thee?
VVhat indigested heaps of misery has it thrown
On thy ore-charged soul? Yee sacred Powers
That guard distressed Innocence!
If that my brothers tyranny has not as yet
Exiled ye this Nation, pitie my teares,
And since I needs must hate where I am forc'd to love
Learn me a loving hate: But can I hope
The heavens will pity me in such a vale of wickedness?
No surely, I'le therefore to the woods,
There harmeless Innocence wrapt in security,
Entombs faint envie, there vain Ambition
Covets no other Crown but Roses, No Scepter
But a Sheephook, these will I covet too.
Farewell Bermudo; and because once thou wert my brother,
In Heavens I wish thee.
Ber.
And I thee in hell for wishing it.
Fla.
Since that the Constellations yet do want
A fierce and cruell Tyger, I'le pray the Heavens
To place thee there, that when a Tyrant's born,
The world may say Bermudo gave the influence.
My ill-spent tears bids thee adue: Farewell all cruelty,
May well be stil'd the Zodiacks Gemini.
Exit.
Cha.
Farewell thou perfect Modell of all goodness,
Haste to the shadie woods, there I will live,
In contemplation of thy excellence:
Loves Theory shall be my study; a Science
Far beyond thy reach Bermudo; thy grosser sence
Is ignorant of all loves, except of that
VVhose baser flame knowes no commerce with purity,
That which insatiate lust perhaps has prompt thee too;
Mine is a love superplatonick, a flame,
VVhose bright continued Pyramide of splendour
Shall soare above thy duller reach Bermudo,
And make thy faint ambition become more blinde
Than are thy thoughts that guide it.
Ber.
What curses mutterst to thy self?
Are they 'gainst me, or 'gainst the destinies?
Cha.
Thou art not worthy of my curses,
And to curse my stars were irreligious,
For 'twas Love, not Fate
That made Charastus thus infortunate.
Exit.
Ber.
Farewell, a pair of Fondlins.
Is Arontas gon to publish our Decree?
Hall.
He is my Lord. Shall I recall him?
Ber.
Stir not a foot to hinder our designs.
Hall.
Oh good my Lord! This is not the way
To keep you in your Kingdome long Sir.
Ber.
VVhy? Lives there a man so bold
As to violate the Majesty of a King?
Hal.
It is a crime I must confess, that we Scicilians
Most abhor; nor do I think there lives a man
So irreligious: But by your leave,
He is no King that has no Subjects,
And if you take this course, what Subjects will remain?
Consider sir, Love is the principall cause
That begets you Subjects, And if you take away
The Cause, the effect will follow.
Ber.
Let not that trouble you sir.
Let it be your care joyn'd with Arontas
To send a Guard unto the utmost limits of our Kingdom
That bound upon the other Promontories
With a Commission to let none pass:
If any of another Nation come within their reach,
Bring straight to our subjection; which don
Haste ye unto our Ports, burn there our ships;
If that a man escapes, your heads shall pay his ransome.
We long have surfeted with extremes, and now
Extremes shall cure this deadly malady,
Which Justice is Halisdus, and not Tyranny.
Exeunt.
Sce. 3.
Enter Virtusus.Vir.
Once more in spight of fortune, and the raging waves
Of a tumultuous Sea, does my unhappy foot
Salute the Earth again. Did ever man
From all eternity behold a night so dismall
Leave behinde no sad remembrance of its former horror?
Here's not a stemm that's widdowed of his leaf,
No, nor one branch become
The hopeless issue of the Husbandman, but all
In a sweet tranquillity enjoy that happiness
Which Nature has allotted them: I am
The onely object of Heavens Tyranny,
Else had these senseless Plants
Perish'd this fatall night, when both the Artick,
And Antartick Poles, striving to kiss each other,
Confounded Heaven, Earth, Sea, Hell, and All
Into an indigested Chaos: yet in this dire
Confusion of the Elements, these stand untoucht
Outbraving Fortunes Malice, whil'st wretched I,
The heavens least part of care,
Was banded too and fro by the immerciless winds
Uncertain of a rest, and had not the thought
Of thee my Thesbia, ballanc't my tottering soul,
The insatiate bosome of the Ocean
Had been my wish't for grave.
Sir, the fortune of the Sea having cast me,
A sad and desolate man, upon the Confines
Of an unknown Land, I must desire
Your charitable disposition to declare
Your Countreys name unto me.
Fid.
Most willingly. Know sir you are cast
Upon a most unfortunate shore, Lelybæus
Is the Countreys Name, one of the three
Promontorian Kingdoms of famous Scicily.
Vir.
Heavens, now I see ye are not altogether cruell:
This is the happy Countrey that my voyage aim'd at.
Fid.
Call it not happy sir, for tis the most
Infortunat'st habitation that ever man enjoy'd.
Vir.
It seems not so by the outward Appearance.
Fid.
Oh no! Nature has bedeck't it with the best
Of all her ornaments, nor could she, if she would
Create another world, frame any part
To parallel with this.
Vir.
What diastrous chance then
Has made it thus unfortunate?
Fid.
Pardon me if I refuse to tell you that,
The relation whereof would draw tears
From my ore-charged eyes. Let this Decree
Inform you sir.
He gives him a paper, and he reads.
Heavens I thank ye: This curtesie
Will make me dye ungratefull to your bounty.
Oh how my soul now gluts it self, to see his enemy
Thus offer'd as a sacrifice to his incensed Ire!
Just anger seise me then, and Constantina,
Let the thoughts of thy sad sufferings
Inspire my soul with vengeance, arm my strength
With a Revenge as ample as the cause:
Yet Prince Virtusus I'le not kill thee basely;
That were to mistrust my cause, which is as just
As heavens are innocent, Thou shalt not dye
For to be dam'd in ignorance: No, I'le summon
All thy faults, and thunder 'um to thy ears;
If then thy treachery has not exil'd thy valour,
Let thy sword plead thy innocence:
By which most noble pleading thou shalt dye
Honor'd, by my Revenges charity.
Vir.
Oh my unjuster stars! Why did ye stop
The Oceans mouth, denying me an entrance,
Yet bring me here to be entomb'd
Alive upon the shore? was it because I fear'd
Your threatning waves, or that the louder windes
Strake terror to my affrighted Conscience? This cannot be:
For how oft in scorn has my undaunted sighs
Ecchoed the blustering winds, and my full tide eyes
For fear of scarcity, how oft have they
Replenished the waves, and nourish'd
The decaying Billowes? Yet must all this be
The Prologue only to my ensuing Tragedy?
Oh cruell Pity! Oh inhumane charity!
Enter Charastus.
Fid.
Peace sir: The King.
They Kneel.
Cha.
Why kneel ye unto me sirs?
If I have not deserv'd your pity,
I have not deserv'd your scorn I am sure.
Fid.
The Heavens forbid, when ere I see
Such Beames of Majesty, that I should presume
To approach without that awfull adoration
Which my Allegiance payes unto my Soveraign.
Cha.
'Tis true, good Subjects ought to do so:
But when a Lyon's dead, the baser Ass
Will come, and trample on him,
And spurn that face, which when alive
Was death to look on.
Fid.
Such incivility becomes the Beasts;
But man whose purer soul
Claimes something of divinity, can easily discern
That sacred Majesty which on Kings
Hang like the Gods refin'd Idæas: He cannot be
So foolishly impious, to think the Sun,
Because oft times he does obscure himself
Under the gloomy shade of some gross exhalation,
That he never will again come to his pristine splendor.
How oft do we see those blazing Members
Which though compos'd of exhalations
Covet the highest Region, where hurried
With their vain imaginations for a while they reign,
Contracting their own ruine that at length will come
As suddenly as fearfull? Such will Bermudo's fall be,
And the higher he lifts his towting thoughts,
The deadlier will his precipice become.
Cha.
Canst thou perceive that Majesty which to Kings
Is still essentiall, and speak these words against
Thy lawfull Soveraign? Surely thou art no Scicilian.
Fid.
I am great sir, and yet dare say
'Tis virtue makes a King: Majestie without that
Is a disjoynted structure that must fall,
And come to ruine. 'Tis not a Crown alone
That I adore, for should I dote on that,
And slight the goodness which you are Master of,
I were worse than he, that fears the Idoll,
Yet contemnes the Godhead: since then Bermudo
Wants the better part of King, a Royall soul,
I'le look on him, as on polluted incense,
Sacred, though not holy; And on you, as on
An unfurnish'd Temple, pious, though not glorious.
Then pardon sir, if I prefer an undecent sanctity
Before a comely wickedness.
Cha.
Couldst thou distinguish, I confess 'twere just:
But since wise Nature has ordain'd
Goodness essentiall to Supremacy, 'tis fit
You serve and honour him.
Fid.
And so I will: but it must he
As Infidels do Devils, for fear, not love.
Far be it from me fir to confine
Goodness to Greatness only, or suppose that man
Is solely Royall that's ambitious;
That were to thinke the Heavens an easie spunge,
From which the daring soul
Squeases his ends out: He rather fir is great
That dares be good.
Cha.
Then thou art great I swear; exceeding great:
Thou canst distinguish between good and good.
Had I had such an intellectuall soul
To put a difference 'twixt those attributes
That make a King compleat, the gilded flashes of his tongue
Would then have rendred him, as far contemptible,
As now he is fatall. Come nearer to us Shepherd:
Nay! flatter not a falling greatness;
To kneel unto an Altar that's defac't
Smels more of Superstition than Devotion.
Arise, worthy our Armes,
And if thou needs will serve thy King
In me his small Epitome, chide not his folly
With his strickt observance; to make him Master
Of those joyes, which be han's power to command,
Is exprobation not affection.
Vir.
Noble Charastus!
Thy miseries cannot outvie thy virtues,
Nor can they suffer an ignoble act
To derogate from fortunes Conquest,
Though she has made thy sufferings
Ample as her power. Wonder not, great Prince,
Who 'tis dares Comment on thy miseries,
Since none can truly know a Kingdomes loss,
But he that feels it.
Cha.
If thou hast lost one then,
And that experience stimulates this boldness,
I shall rejoice in thy society: I oft have seen
A feather'd Captive sadly in a cage
Mourning in silence his determin'd freedome,
But having got a partner of his sufferings, the silly Bird,
As if revived by anothers mischief,
Has from his drousie taciturnity awak't,
Chirping sweet Io Pæans to our ravish't ears,
Untill his eyes became the sad oblation
Of his fainting voyce.
Vir.
Behold a partner then, One
Horrid as Cowards fears, or midnight apprehensions,
Strove to appall his courage, yet to him
Those Panick horrors seem'd but painted fires
Quench't with the smallest drop of's resolution.
Behold a Prince equally distressed:
But if our sympatheticall disasters
Has not created an instinct to know me,
Summe up your patience sir, and that will tell you
That none can parallell its fortitude,
Except Pachynas Prince, Infortunate Virtusus.
Cha.
Stay, and ere thou further speak'st
Let me survey thee fully, for in thee is drawn
The just resemblance of my misery.
By all our former happiness! 'Tis rarely limm'd;
Fortune, thou hadst eyes, thou nere couldst
Copie me so truly else.
Oh Royall Prince, my woes sad character!
Let us incorporate, and be one,
One Monumentall Trophee of misfortune.
Bear witness oh thou sacred Register of united hearts,
How Virtusus here ioyes to behold Charastus there.
Vir.
Alli'd thus by misfortune, our united wills
Shall hate a separation. One act wee'l still pursue;
One thought wee'l think; One soul wee'l have;
One heart, and one Ambition.
Cha.
Ambition! In that wee'l imitate our mother Earth,
To fall is her Ambition, should she aspire,
'Twere not Ambition, because not naturall.
Vir.
This Union sown in tears
Shall rise in glory; my prophetick soul divines it:
Mean while wee'l live here in these woods disguis'd,
Sometimes wee'l visit Court, and see if Fate
Will put a period to our sufferings, till then
From you renowned Shepherd we must crave concealment.
Fid.
Your graces may command your humblest vassall.
I have a story of my own to tell you; But for a while
I must crave leave to lie conceal'd.
Cha.
Then wee'l not urge it.
Hence, hence Ambition now, and all those pleasing thoughts,
Which Crowns and Scepters whistled to our ears,
The silent Groves, and murmuring streams,
The shadie woods, and whistling windes, will be,
A recreation beyond Court vanities. There we three
Will fancy to our selves a Triarchy.
Exeunt.
Scen. 4.
Enter Bermudo.Ber.
Of what aery substance is Mans soul
That still 'tis so ambitious to aspire?
The higher stil I am lifted, the more I covet.
Is there no end Heavens of our vain desires?
Cannot a Crown and Scepter stay our towring thoughts?
But must we aim at things impossible?
Are we All compos'd of that same disputable element
Whose question'd flames outstrips the highest Region?
Is there no Earth commixt within us,
Or did we drop it at our first creation?
Enter Halisdus.
Thou envious Man, why com'st thou with a face
So wretched, thus to check our joyes?
What sorrow 'ist thy tears does thus prognosticate?
Hal.
I now lament the wofull fruits
Of your dire cruelty: Oh too much wronged Princess!
Wretched Desdonella!
Ber.
What of her? Perhaps her passion
Has caus'd her to lay violent hands upon her self.
Is't not so?
Hal.
Your Highness is too true a Prophet,
For the wofull Princess when as the fatall newes
Of her dear brothers Misery, resounding in her ears
Was seconded by the late publish't edict, Knowing
Which to her was worst of miseries,
Threw her dejected body into the hideous stream,
Where the enamoured waves proud of their rich prey
Even kild her with embracings.
Ber.
She was a fond and foolish woman.
We will not spend one tear would it recover her.
Hal.
She lov'd you sir too too well.
Ber.
For that we will not. Those looser thoughts
Shall never ceise Bermudo: The world shall know,
To offend in those absurdities is not the Nature
But the Vice of Power, from which I'le flye
As from a singing Syren, or a weeping Crocadile.
Enter Arontas.
What newes portends your haste?
Aron.
Two ships, my gracious Lord, this morn
Arriv'd within your harbour, which we,
Bound by our duty, & your express Command,
Took, ransaked, and burnt: But seizing of the men,
Two cried out, Lay not your hands on sacred Majesty;
For we are Kings: yet nevertheless
We have brought 'um here to be examin'd by your highness.
Ber.
Spies on my life! Let 'um be brought before us;
They shall dye. Tis I, their fate, have said it.
Exeunt.
Kings are not safe in their own territories;
But still are subject unto Treachery.
He that ascends a Throne by such severe,
And unjust dealing, goes but on a slippery path,
Where but to a stumble is a precipice.
Beware Bermudo then, Traps are laid to take thee,
Envie's big, and will be deliver'd of her brat Ambition,
Which we must strangle in the Infancy,
Or all will perish.
He that begins in mischief must go on, and in it reign,
If he but leanes to virtue once, he fals amain.
Exit.
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