University of Virginia Library

Scæn. 1.

Enter King, young Florelio, Fidelio.
King.
And must the Vilain kill me too?

Flor.
This very night.

King.
Why 'tis not possible, what would he have had more?
He had my heart, and might have had
All but the name of King:
Oh, heaven had tyed
So strict a friendship, we could not part with't;
I durst have thought that I had merited
Fidelity from him.

Fid.
O my Lord, let ne'r so many drops
Sweet as the morning-dew fall on the sea,
The brinish water turns them all to salt:
Where there's an ocean of ingratitude,
Favors must needs be lost.

King.
Thou speak'st but truth;
Who does to merit trust,
But writes an obligation in the dust.
Your councels now my faithful life preserve,
Is there a way for pardon?

Fid.
Faith Sir, it would pollute mercy to use it here;
The fact's so foul, it calls it self for death.

King.
And it shall have it:
Traitor's enough; but when Ungrateful comes,
It stops the mouth of pity: Go take our guards
And apprehend him straight.

Flor.
Soft great Sir,
'Twere fit your Justice should consider
What way is made, if you shall apprehend him,
For Treason unborn, and which he only did intend:
Foolish report which never was ith' right,
May clear his guiltiness, and censure Majesty.
If youl'd permit him to approach the Chamber,
(Yet who'ld advise Treason should come so near?)
You would take him in the act,
And leave no place for foul suspition:
Then if your Grace sent for his father,
And kept him with pretence of business by you,
Till he became the witness of the attempt,
Envy it self could have no cause to bark.

King.
Thou art my Oracle; I cannot tell
Whether my debt be greater to thy faith,
Or to thy councel: Go and watch abroad,
And let these cares wait upon fate and me.
The Captain of the Guard 'twere fit you sounded,
He may do mischief: Florelio, you
Shal to his father, the rest is mine to manage.
Exeunt.
These men are honest, and must be rewarded,
They do deserve it; 'tis most rare to find
A Greatness that enjoys true friends:
For commonly it makes us fear'd and hated;
The one doth breed offence, th'other leaves naked.
Let the impartial eye but look upon
All we call ours, and then again behold
The many hungry eyes of expectation
That wait upon our bounty, and it shall find
That we have scarce enough to keep mens hopes up,
We are rich if we can purchase friends:
Thrones, though they advance their glory ne'r so high,
Are but the seats of fear and misery.

Exit.