University of Virginia Library

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,
Yet when the Crowne, when that imperiall Gem
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.