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 | The Tragedy of Philotas |  |
NVNCIVS.
This worke is done, the sad Catastrophe
Of this great act of blood is finisht now,
Philotas ended hath the Tragedy.
Cho.
Now my good friend, I pray thee tell vs how.
Nun.
Cho.
That part was acted well, God grant we heare
No worse a Scene than this, and all goes cleare:
So should worth act, and they who dare to fight
Against corrupted times, should die vpright;
Such hearts Kings may dissolue, but not defeat.
A great man where he falles he should lie great,
Whose ruine, like the sacred carcases
Of scattred Temples which still reuerent lie,
And the religious honour them no lesse
Than if they stood with all their gallantry.
But on with thy report.
Nun.
Straight were hot irons appli'd to sere his flesh,
Then wresting racks his comly body straine.
Then iron whips, and then the racke afresh,
Then fire againe, and then the whips againe;
Which he endures with so resolu'd a looke,
As if his mind were of another side
Than of his body and his sense forsooke
The part of nature, to be wholy tide
To honour, that he would not once consent
So much as with a sigh t'his punishment.
Cho.
Yet doth he like himselfe, yet all is well,
This argument no tyrant can refell;
This plea of resolution winnes his cause
More right than all, more admiration drawes:
For we loue nothing more, than to renowne
Men stoutly miserable, highly downe.
Nun.
But now?
Cho.
We feare that But. O, if he ought descend,
Leaue here, and let the Tragedy here end.
Let not the least act now of his, at last,
Marre all his act of life and glory past.
Nun.
Cho.
O would we had not heard his latter iarre:
This all his former straines of worth doth marre.
Before this last his spirits commends,
But now he is vnpitied of his friends.
Nun.
Cho.
What, must the punishment arriue beyond
Th'offence! not with th'offender make an end!
Nun.
They all must die who may be fear'd in time
To be the heires vnto their kindreds crime.
All other punishments end with our breath,
But treason is pursu'd beyond our death.
Cho.
The wrath of Kings doth seldome measure keepe,
Seeking to cure bad parts they lance too deepe.
When punishment like lightning should appeare
To few mens hurt, but vnto all mens feare,
Great elephants and lions murder least,
Th'ignoble beast is the most cruell beast.
But all is well, if by the mighty fall
Of this great man, the King be safely freed:
But if this Hydra of ambition shall
Haue other heads to spring vp in his steed,
Then hath he made but way for them to rise,
Who will assault him with fresh treacheries.
The which may teach vs to obserue this straine,
To admire high hill's, but liue within the plaine.
This worke is done, the sad Catastrophe
Of this great act of blood is finisht now,
Philotas ended hath the Tragedy.
Cho.
Now my good friend, I pray thee tell vs how.
Nun.
As willing to relate, as you to beare:
A full-charg'd heart is glad to find an eare.
A full-charg'd heart is glad to find an eare.
The Councell being dismiss'd from hence, and gone,
Still Craterus plies the King, still in his eare,
Still whispering to him priuatly alone,
Vrging (it seem'd) a quicke dispatch of feare:
For they who speake but priuatly to Kings,
Do seldome speake the best and fittest things.
Some would haue had him forthwith ston'd to death,
According to the Macedonian course,
But yet that would not satisfie the breath
Of busie rumour, but would argue force:
There must be some confessions made within.
That must abroad more satisfaction win,
Craterus, with Cænus, and Ephestion,
Do mainly vrge to haue him tortured;
Whereto the King consents, and thereupon
They three are sent to see't accomplished.
Racks, irons, fires, the grisely torturers
Still Craterus plies the King, still in his eare,
Still whispering to him priuatly alone,
Vrging (it seem'd) a quicke dispatch of feare:
For they who speake but priuatly to Kings,
Do seldome speake the best and fittest things.
Some would haue had him forthwith ston'd to death,
According to the Macedonian course,
But yet that would not satisfie the breath
Of busie rumour, but would argue force:
There must be some confessions made within.
That must abroad more satisfaction win,
Craterus, with Cænus, and Ephestion,
Do mainly vrge to haue him tortured;
Whereto the King consents, and thereupon
They three are sent to see't accomplished.
Racks, irons, fires, the grisely torturers
And hideously prepar'd before his face.
Philotas all vnmou'd, vnchang'd appeares,
As if he would deaths ougliest brow out-face,
And scorn'd the worst of force, and askt them, Why
Then stai'd to torture the Kings enemy?
249
As if he would deaths ougliest brow out-face,
And scorn'd the worst of force, and askt them, Why
Then stai'd to torture the Kings enemy?
Cho.
That part was acted well, God grant we heare
No worse a Scene than this, and all goes cleare:
So should worth act, and they who dare to fight
Against corrupted times, should die vpright;
Such hearts Kings may dissolue, but not defeat.
A great man where he falles he should lie great,
Whose ruine, like the sacred carcases
Of scattred Temples which still reuerent lie,
And the religious honour them no lesse
Than if they stood with all their gallantry.
But on with thy report.
Nun.
Straight were hot irons appli'd to sere his flesh,
Then wresting racks his comly body straine.
Then iron whips, and then the racke afresh,
Then fire againe, and then the whips againe;
Which he endures with so resolu'd a looke,
As if his mind were of another side
Than of his body and his sense forsooke
The part of nature, to be wholy tide
To honour, that he would not once consent
So much as with a sigh t'his punishment.
Cho.
Yet doth he like himselfe, yet all is well,
This argument no tyrant can refell;
This plea of resolution winnes his cause
More right than all, more admiration drawes:
For we loue nothing more, than to renowne
Men stoutly miserable, highly downe.
Nun.
But now?
Cho.
We feare that But. O, if he ought descend,
Leaue here, and let the Tragedy here end.
Let not the least act now of his, at last,
Marre all his act of life and glory past.
250
I must tell all, and therefore gine me leaue.
Swoll'n with raw tumors, vlcered with the ierks
Of iron whips, that flesh from bone had raz'd,
And no part free from wounds, it erks
His soule to see the house so foule defast,
Wherein his life had dwelt so long time cleane,
And therefore craues he, they would now dismisse
His grieuous tortures, and he would begin
To open all wherein h'had done amisse.
Streight were his tortures ceast: and after they
Had let him to recouer sense, he sayd,
Now Craterus, Say what you will haue me say:
Wherewith, as if deluded or delaid,
Craterus in wrath calles presently againe
To haue the tortures to be reapplied.
When, whatsoeuer secret of his heart
Which had beene fore-conceiu'd but in a thought,
What friend soeuer had but tooke his part
In common loue h'accus'd; and so forgot
Himselfe, that now he was more forward to
Confesse, that they to vrge him thereunto,
Whether afflictions had his spirits vndone,
Or seeing, to hide or vtter, all was one;
Both wayes lay death: and therefore he would vie
Now to be sure to say enough to die,
And then began his fortunes to deplore,
Humbly be sought them whom he scorn'd before;
That Alexander (where he stood, behind
A Trauers, out of sight) was heard to speake:
I neuer thought, a man that had a mind
T'attempt so much, had had, a heart so weake!
Swoll'n with raw tumors, vlcered with the ierks
Of iron whips, that flesh from bone had raz'd,
And no part free from wounds, it erks
His soule to see the house so foule defast,
Wherein his life had dwelt so long time cleane,
And therefore craues he, they would now dismisse
His grieuous tortures, and he would begin
To open all wherein h'had done amisse.
Streight were his tortures ceast: and after they
Had let him to recouer sense, he sayd,
Now Craterus, Say what you will haue me say:
Wherewith, as if deluded or delaid,
Craterus in wrath calles presently againe
To haue the tortures to be reapplied.
When, whatsoeuer secret of his heart
Which had beene fore-conceiu'd but in a thought,
What friend soeuer had but tooke his part
In common loue h'accus'd; and so forgot
Himselfe, that now he was more forward to
Confesse, that they to vrge him thereunto,
Whether afflictions had his spirits vndone,
Or seeing, to hide or vtter, all was one;
Both wayes lay death: and therefore he would vie
Now to be sure to say enough to die,
And then began his fortunes to deplore,
Humbly be sought them whom he scorn'd before;
That Alexander (where he stood, behind
A Trauers, out of sight) was heard to speake:
I neuer thought, a man that had a mind
T'attempt so much, had had, a heart so weake!
There he confest, that one Hegelochus,
When first the King proclaim'd himselfe Ioues sonne,
In cens'd his fathers heart against him thus,
By telling him, That now we were vndone,
If we endur'd, that he, which did disdaine
To haue beene Philips sonne, should liue and raigne.
He that aboue the state of man will straine
His stile, and will not be that which we are,
Not only vs contemnes, but doth disdaine
The gods themselues, with whom he would compare.
We haue lost Alexander, lost (said he)
The King, and fall'n on pride and vanity;
And we haue made a god of our owne blood,
That glorifies himselfe, neglects our good.
Intolerable is this impious deed
To gods, whom he would match, to men he would exceed.
When first the King proclaim'd himselfe Ioues sonne,
In cens'd his fathers heart against him thus,
By telling him, That now we were vndone,
If we endur'd, that he, which did disdaine
251
He that aboue the state of man will straine
His stile, and will not be that which we are,
Not only vs contemnes, but doth disdaine
The gods themselues, with whom he would compare.
We haue lost Alexander, lost (said he)
The King, and fall'n on pride and vanity;
And we haue made a god of our owne blood,
That glorifies himselfe, neglects our good.
Intolerable is this impious deed
To gods, whom he would match, to men he would exceed.
Thus hauing ouer night Hegelochus,
Discours'd, my father sends next day
For me to heare the same: and there to vs
All he had sayd to him he made him resay,
Supposing, out of wine, the night before,
He might but idly raue. When he againe,
Far more inrag'd, in heat and passion more,
Vrg'd vs to cleere the State of such a staine,
Coniur'd vs to redeeme the Common-weale,
And do like men, or els as men conceale.
Discours'd, my father sends next day
For me to heare the same: and there to vs
All he had sayd to him he made him resay,
Supposing, out of wine, the night before,
He might but idly raue. When he againe,
Far more inrag'd, in heat and passion more,
Vrg'd vs to cleere the State of such a staine,
Coniur'd vs to redeeme the Common-weale,
And do like men, or els as men conceale.
Parmenio thought, whil'st yet Darius stood,
This course was out of season, and thereby
Th'extinguishing of Alexanders blood
Would not profit vs, but th'others pow'rs
Might make all th'Orient and all Asia ours,
That course we lik't, to that our counsell stands,
Thereto we tide our oaths and gaue our hands.
And as for this, he said, for Dymnus plot,
Though he were cleere, yet now he cleer'd him not.
And yet the force of racks at last could do
So much with him, as he confest that too,
And sayd, that fearing Bactra would detaine
The King too long, he hast'ned on his ends,
Lest that his father, Lord of such a traine
And such a wealth, on whom the whole depends,
Should, being aged, by his death preuent
These his designes, and frustrate his intent.
This course was out of season, and thereby
Th'extinguishing of Alexanders blood
Would not profit vs, but th'others pow'rs
Might make all th'Orient and all Asia ours,
That course we lik't, to that our counsell stands,
Thereto we tide our oaths and gaue our hands.
And as for this, he said, for Dymnus plot,
Though he were cleere, yet now he cleer'd him not.
And yet the force of racks at last could do
So much with him, as he confest that too,
And sayd, that fearing Bactra would detaine
The King too long, he hast'ned on his ends,
Lest that his father, Lord of such a traine
253
Should, being aged, by his death preuent
These his designes, and frustrate his intent.
Cho.
O would we had not heard his latter iarre:
This all his former straines of worth doth marre.
Before this last his spirits commends,
But now he is vnpitied of his friends.
Nun.
Then was Demetrius likewise brought in place,
And put to torture, who denies the deed.
Philotas he auerres it to his face.
Demetrius still denies. Then he espide
A youth, one Calin, that was standing by,
Calin, sayd he how long wilt thou abide
Demetrius vainly to auouch a lie?
And put to torture, who denies the deed.
Philotas he auerres it to his face.
Demetrius still denies. Then he espide
A youth, one Calin, that was standing by,
Calin, sayd he how long wilt thou abide
Demetrius vainly to auouch a lie?
The youth, that neuer had beene nam'd before
In all his tortures gaue them cause to gesse
Philotas car'd not now to vtter more
Than had beene priuy to his practises.
And seeing they had as much as they desir'd,
They with Demetrius ston'd him vnto death
And all whom Dymnus nam'd to haue conspir'd,
With grieuous tortures now must lose their breath:
And all that were alli'd which could not flie,
Are in the hands of iustice now to die.
In all his tortures gaue them cause to gesse
Philotas car'd not now to vtter more
Than had beene priuy to his practises.
And seeing they had as much as they desir'd,
They with Demetrius ston'd him vnto death
And all whom Dymnus nam'd to haue conspir'd,
With grieuous tortures now must lose their breath:
And all that were alli'd which could not flie,
Are in the hands of iustice now to die.
Cho.
What, must the punishment arriue beyond
Th'offence! not with th'offender make an end!
Nun.
They all must die who may be fear'd in time
To be the heires vnto their kindreds crime.
All other punishments end with our breath,
But treason is pursu'd beyond our death.
Cho.
The wrath of Kings doth seldome measure keepe,
Seeking to cure bad parts they lance too deepe.
When punishment like lightning should appeare
To few mens hurt, but vnto all mens feare,
Great elephants and lions murder least,
Th'ignoble beast is the most cruell beast.
253
Of this great man, the King be safely freed:
But if this Hydra of ambition shall
Haue other heads to spring vp in his steed,
Then hath he made but way for them to rise,
Who will assault him with fresh treacheries.
The which may teach vs to obserue this straine,
To admire high hill's, but liue within the plaine.
| The Tragedy of Philotas | |