University of Virginia Library

Act V.

Scene 1.

Filathes.
You inverst Eyes of Night,
Who on our easie Nature work our Fates,
Concur in your auspitious Ministry
To crown a flame,
As bright and lasting as your Essences:
Attract some vapour, that your light may be
Doubtfull to us, as your uncertainty.
Loves superstitious reverence hath seis'd
My heart: He prompts me to go on,
Yet interjects an Interdiction.
Styles violence t'him, what he enforceth to:
And wills me leave, what he enjoyns to do,
Enlighten thine own Mysteries, blinde Pow'r!
Force not, or force permit; if that thy Eye
Be onely placed in the phantasie;
My fear and thy Restraint are void. This shade
Translates me to the Image of her thoughts,
Where high consent shall meet in equall Fires,
And when the guilty blushes of the Morn,
Hasten'd by hers, betray the fallacy,
Her prepossessed fancy will reflect,
Upon the first Impression of delight,
Which will her ravisht senses so suspend,
They will not find or not dislike th'Errour:
While strugling Honour, finding not a Name
To stile the Act, is forced to assume
Those Rites may yeeld it priviledge.
Confirm'd, I'le wait, when met; all still become,
Nature contract all senses into one.

withdraws, ex. Fi.
Zizania ent.
Ziz.
She's lost to me, as I am to my self.
What unform'd shaddows fancy works upon?
So busily, as thence she would create
New Essences without the Intellect.
Intermission.
Work on—Chance is a weak foundation—
Yet doth the light of Nature captivate,
And by co-herence of her links drags on
The worlds important Agitation:
While ev'ry new occurrent she, but forms
Supplants the Fabrique of Resolution,
And in a Minute scatters what Reason
Hath many Ages toiled to erect.
Chance past, since not sought, not attaints my will:
Succeeding blames not, if the same fulfill.
Assenting Love sayes force I can not suffer:
And passive Nature force I cannot act:
Without impulsion guilt is not in fact:
Yet if so far chance reach not, or their leave,
She others may, but shall not me deceive.
Hope is abandon'd: what chance hath begun,
I leave the sequell by her to be done.
Ex. Ziz.

Nefarius and a band of Villains.
Ne.
Fate is our handmaid, th'are met neer to part.
As lightning, in your execution be
Swift and silent, 'tis double mercy thought,
Where Death implyes Necessity.

1. Vil.
You need not stile it so to us, we shall.
Vertue's no motive in our Element:
Those are the shadows of our safety sir.

Vo. gives them mony
Ne.
In earnest of your undertakings, hold.
Nay, tis all right; Mans better Angels.
Nefarius remains.
Your purpose finisht trebles your reward.

2. Vil.
Soul-quickning action! think't already done.

Ne.
Hah!
Ex. Vil. Shriking & noise within.
If that this Organ can distinguish sounds,
Those voices it hath been familiar with
Th'Agents discharg'd; I have a private light
Shall yeeld me safe intelligence.

Villains re-ent.
1. Vil.
Their fates are spun, what is your pleasure more?

Ne.
At present nothing; hold take your rewards
gives more.
And now disperse you to your severall beings,
To morrow waite for new directions.

2. Uil.
We are your Creatures.

Ex. Uil. Ne. withdraws a while, after some intermission returns with a dark lantern in one hand, a ring and medall in the other.
Ne.
Now to my second purpose.

Nefarius re-ent.
Ne.
New prodigies! massacre his children!
Nature is started forth her proper seat,
For lust and ambition to make way,
To which Idols no Sacrifice is dear.
He yeelds to this, that she might yeeld to that.
It must be so; a direfull Commerce 'tis.
I have way'd deep in mischief: but till now,
Horrour could never make my hand to shake.
This Mystery must still be such to me.
It is not safe to finde what Tyrants seek
To hide: These unsuspected Emblems shall
To the Event be silent Evidence.
Who in a Tyrants bosome would securely rest,
Must seem to know, but what he finds exprest.

Scene 2.

A Banquet set with a soft kind of musick.
Fidelius, Mundolo, Enter.
Fidelius seems strook with wonder after some intermission.
A SONG

Fi.
What means the flatt'ries of this gaudy Scene?

Mu.
The charming preludes to a glorious Love.

Fi.
My years reach not to the capacity,
Or to distinguish, or to relish them:

Mu.
Our facile natures easily receive
The Elements of that Philosophy,
Which in our pleasure plac'd the chiefest good.

Fi.
If grounded o'th sense: A false position,
The which another Sect abandons quite.

Mu.
A rigid, Tenent, nature would distort
From her first purity her Functions
Making uselesse.

Fi.
I question neither, since neither approve;
But sure I am, so high a subject can
Not settle on the base of an extream.

Mu.
Nor doubt of that which is in evidence.
Let others search for that, which you, enjoy.
These Arguments admit no solœcisme
shews him the banquet
To cheat the sense. Their excellence perswades
And satisfies: See here how splendid Lux
Hath rifled Natures Treasury,
Not onely to restore, but to exalt
Her faculties; which when dispenced, shall
Replenisht, flow from inexhausted Springs.
See how th'industrious hand of wanton Art,
Contracted hath, in this smal Epitom,
The scatter'd peices o'th worlds perfections.
These Virgin Spangles guild Nights sable robe,
Whilest from their Orbs we hear
Exclusive Harmony; not judging where.
Here Aromatique odours which perspire
In their immortall Essences. If yet
Thy years extend to be Opinion sick.
Shews him a Cabinet of jewels and gold.
See, what beauty, use or difficulty
Hath made pretious in esteem: Here find none,
If honoured not in yours, to whom they are
Presented.
Yet on these trifles, why should I insist?
Since she, to whom these glories hommage owe,
Is yours. She'fore whom their beauties vanish,
As things too mean to entertain the sense.
She adds fresh lustre to th'exalted Day,
The Object of all vows; of all desires,
Who moves more sprightly influence in her grace,
Than all those Dames Antiquity recites
To have made captive the worlds Conquerors.
Yet she, with equall spoils invested, is
Become your Captive, Sir, why suffer you
Those your distracted looks to speak repulse
In trouble. Those years and beauty promise
A more relenting Nature: To whose Rites,
If inclination will not yeeld: Be wise,
Comply, and to your fortunes minister.

Fi.
Mine are already framed to my wish,
And find lesse agitation in their seat,
Though humble, shelter'd by anothers care,
Than if more high, erected by my own:
Nor can you Nature blame, she answers not
To what her immaturity withholds.

Mu.
Art hastens that we see in fruits and flowers:
Nor will this all-informing light of Love
Act less when you approach her Orb. Advise,
And be more flexible; let not your will
Transport your Reason to a stubornness.
If the enlargement of your Fate move not;
Yeeld to secure your present safety Sir,
Fi. starts
Start not: I now speak but the resentments
Of another, not my own: yet figure
To your self the Rage of Love neglected,
High in Expectation, as desire,
Met in a Subject, high in her own esteem,
And others; whose power, for an offence,
Hath no bounds, but her will to act vengeance.

Fi.
Though high discourses in me cannot frame
A Resolution to remove my Fears,
The Office is supply'd by Innocence,
And I, immoved, must the issue wait.

Mu.
Nay, then I beat the ayre; and cast away,
That time grows ripe to hasten my own ruine—

pause
Mu.
Awake dull temper! can'st thou only act
For others Interests, and not for thy own?—
pause
Rise high you struggling spirits, and cast off
The servile badges of this supprest mind,
Fear and respect, with this their Livery.
casts off his cloak
I have let in a flame, wilde as the worlds
Embracement, when that proud Boy miscarried
In his Rule: And must pursue it, though it
Meet his Fate: Who falls in attempts are high,
Into Org. bedchamber.
Erects his Fame unto Eternity.
Ex. Mu.

Fi.
How strange a labyrinth am I involved in!
So full of errour, Hope cannot figure
An Evasion: Why sport you so, you Pow'rs
That guide our Fates, with our Infirmities?
If they offend, it is enough that you
Abandon them, to work their punishment.
My being so inconsiderable is,
Imagination could not once suggest
So weighty a dependance, as might move
For preservation; were it not engag'd
In his peculiar interests: who doth,
In his onely bosome, vertue preserve
Alive in her unblemisht purity.
May be, these new disorders you produce,
By farther opposition, yet to make
This his admired life more glorious:
And shewing how far one mans strength may reach,
From others all excuses take away
Of humane frailty; Give me leave to say
Tis already at this height so penible,
The soon reputed will is easily
Induc'd to think't past imitation:
Or if it yet want proof, 'tis in that part,
Might shew undoubted Moderation,
Not his Constancy. Afford it matter;
Raise him to that height of Felicity,
Wants onely durance but to equall yours;
Twill neither prove miscognisant to you;
To others insupportable; nor yet
Unto Himself obnoxious. For this,
My prayers shall never want or fervency,
Or perseverance to become successfull.

Mundolo re-ent. unbutton'd in a loose posture.
Mu.
In this circumference of our Lives, I see,
Extreams meet in one point; delight will force
A breach to let out life, as well as grief;
to himself
In which swelling excesse, but now, I felt
My Soul ev'n floating o're these shallow banks.
Hah! 'tis with'n; hence sear; my Fate is full,
noise, looks behind Mu. stinks behinde the hanging, while Org. enters in a night Robe, and dressing amorously accosting Fid.
Nor can it meet that change, shall force a wish
Once to retract my being.

Orgula Ent.
Or.
Why slides my Love so silently away,
As it were stealth but to exact his own?
Which offer'd is with so much Ardency,
As it enricht the greedy tenderer.
Why shifts those Scenes of Beauty in thy Face?
Unlesse to take with new variety:
Let no motion raise, or retract thy bood,
Unlesse it be the Passion of thy Love.
Why so much distance, where Loves mysteries
Fi. seems to withdraw from her
Already frame an union? Let our souls
Meet in their faculties, as their Organs have
In theirs: Hang not thy head down like a flower
Drooping for a timely show'r. I'le transplant
Thee to my Brest from whence thou shalt assume
Fresh vigour: where thus my soule I'le effuse
To multiply thy spirits.

She offers to him, he falls on his knee
Mu.
His coldness will betray me.

Mu. peeps.
Fi.
Madam, place not my error in my will,
But my Infirmity.

She raises him
Or.
Why kneelest thou to her, o're whom thou act'st
All Rights of Soveraignty. I farther will
Not hear thee in that unseemly posture.
Although thy undistinguisht Accents charm
Beyond the pow'rfull Notes of Harmony.

Fi.
Your pleasure is my Priviledge, Madam,

Or.
This disproportion still in our discourse
Fi. rises. Kisse him
Might well become Love in his Infancy;
But where his true maturity admits
Him to the full fruition of his Rights,
Ceremonies are then of us receiv'd
But as suspected Prefaces.

Fi.
In me this title is litigious.

Or.
Who then is the Competitor?
How pleasant tis to hear thee question that
Admits no Ambiguity.

Fi.
Not in your own Opinion, Madam,

Or.
And is not that enough to stile it just,
Confirm'd by my Election?

Fi.
A fraile one 'tis, which will not hold the tryall.

Or.
Thou art not so inconstant sure, art thou?
So soon to wipe out th'Image of our Loves.

Fi.
I first must have capacity to receive it.

Or.
Pr'y thee no more;
Thou'lt make me jealous of I know not what.

Fi.
Ere to become a habit it have time,
Or. extends her hand.
Lend me your hand to take away the Errour.
Yet first I must beg two requests of you,
Your Pardon and your privacy:

Or.
This serious preparation doth o'recast
Delight: Yet thou of both mayst be assur'd.

Fi.
Place your hand here it may distinguish that,
To which, perhaps your other senses would
Prove but suspected witnesses.

Opens his bosome. raises her hand and puts it into his bosome.
Or.
Hah! thou hast a Viper in thy bosome,
Whose poyson hath already seis'd my heart,
And chang'd my former passion to a fury,
Which is let loose, by one solution more,
To make the face of Nature, but one Scene
For universall Tragedy.
Who enter'd hath, or from my lodgings came?

Fi.
None but your servant, Mundolo, Madam.

starts
Or.
How! Fury chase fury, hasten to their doom;
Rage on it self preys, till to Action come.
Ex. Orgula.

Mundolo, appears from behind the hanging.
Mu.
Consuming lightning flashed from her Eye.
This Villain hath betray'd me sure; Come sir,
To him self.
Reveale the subject of your Conference,
Or this sharp steel it from thy Bosome digs

Mundolo draws a dagger.
Fi.
How sir, you will not kill me, will you?

Fi distracted runs up and down seeking some passage to escape.
Mu.
That is, as I shall finde your temper sir,
Or plyant, or inflexible: Nay! nay!
You rove in vain: here are no starting holes.
Be brief.

Fi.
It can be no advantage unto you,
Since it concerns you not.

Mu.
It matters not.
Her change assures me it must be of weight,
Speak, speak truth, and the whole truth, suddenly.
Or present tortures shall enforce thee to't.

Fi.
Since in your satisfaction onely
Fi. hastily flings a purse of money to Mu. with a letter.
My safeties plac'd; first give me leave to beg
Or purchase else thereto your privacy

Mu.
A fair inducement, you shall have your wish,
Hah! a letter too.

Offers to catch it, but desists with much distraction.
Fi.
That was not my intention Sir, I pray
Restore it back, without your violence,
Or turn the fury thereof upon me.

Mu.
Forbear, so hardy grown to tempt your ruin:
New subjects for higher undertakings.
reads to himself
Success in ills gives ills encouragement.
Unto whose tempting height I must ascend,
Or give my envied fall a glorious end.
A noise clattering to break down the doores.
Hah! what strange alarum's this? new terrours?
Hell is broke loose, tis time to shun the fury.

Mu. flies.
Mu. runs frighted away, and drops the letter, which Fi. gathers up.
Gratianus, Serverus, Libranus, and a band of Souldiers, with Torches in one hand, swords in the other.
Gra.
Fidelius! what mak'st thou here? feare not:
I see a wilde distraction in thy looks:
What caus'd in thee this trouble?

Fi.
Your presence sir, hath my delivery wrought.
Time must suspend civility awhile,
To lend you fuller resolution.
I've for my Master letters of Import;
Which have been intercepted in their course.
I must entreat of you, with speed to have
Safe conduct through the tumult of your Bands.

Gra.
Thou shalt, thou pretty piece of diligence.
Thou shalt, be it your charge Lybranus.

Ex. Om. with fresh claimours.

Scene 1.

Sinevero
in a Night-gown.
How cold a damp benums my senses still,
As if I had engendred with the Night;
And thus forsaken of the living, were
Already numbered amongst the Dead.
Th'errour of her sense, in my distemper,
Might thus perhaps affright her from her rest.
What ho! who waits without there?

Nefarius.
Ne.
My Lord!

Sin.
It is your Lady I enquire for.

Ne.
I of her being can yeeld no account,
But newly entered from finishing
Your Honours last commands.

Sin.
And how,
Are all my fears asleep? Nefarius.

Ne.
If they extended onely unto what
I had in charge: my Lord, I dare affirm
They are.

Sin.
Thou art my better Angel, onely trust:
Yet joys are doubtful till they meet the sense.
Art thou assured of thy enterprise?

Ne.
I am Sir.
Give him the ring and medal
And brought these Reliques to remove your doubts.

Sin.
What sudden noise is that,
noise
Startles my bloud without intelligence?
Go learn the cause thereof, Nefarius.
Exit Ne.
A table with pen, ink, and paper, and a watch is discovered. Looks o'th' watch, he sets down thereat.
'Tis twelve: The Politicians hour to consult
His Fate; and visit the obstructive springs
Retard her motion,—hah! What Object's this
Intermission.
Curdles my blood in ev'ry shaking limb?
Mischief in me; ne'r horrour met till now.
These fatal tokens were the pledges of
Their tender Mothers latest Love, who them
Injoyn'd by vow from them, they ne're should be
Divided.—
Some secret and all-seeing power there is,
With which my soul was ne're acquainted yet,
Speaks loud in this to wake the sense of ills.
How sensibly their justice strikes, when as
Th'offence thus ministers the punishment.
Let it suffice soft Nature, to resent
Seems to weep.
The motions of our common frailty:
Tender'd to thy Rites. Without insisting
By a wild revolt, to revive a light,
Custom hath travell'd so long to extinguish.
When as our misled purpose may perhaps
Question our safety yet; and call to act
A larger progress in our tragique Scene.
Clamour and noyse.
Looks back into his Chamber.
This clam'rous noise approacheth nigher yet.
Hah! An armed tumult questing for prey.
The Object of their Fury, questionless,
I am! 'Tis so. Hence you glorious shadows,
Whose proper lusters only obvious make
Your own distinctions. Retire from your Orbs
Flings off a rich night-gown and cap. Finding Mu. cloake and hat, mufling himself seems to steal away.
To lend your owner safety. Hah! This vail
Is happily encountered.

Orgula her face full of fury and in her hand a poyniard.
Org.
Hah! Vanishing! Take that to stop your Course,
And that, and that

Org. taking him for Mu. stabs him. he falls.
Sin.
Oh! Oh! 'Twas fatally directed.

Org.
Sinev'ro's voice—hah! And his person too.

Shee unmuffles him.
Sin.
Orgula! Why that steel? Ire in thine Eye
Had force enough to change my destiny.

Faintly spoken.
Sin. expires.
Org. astonisht, her eyes fixt, as distracted turns him.
Gratianus and his Troop ent.
Gra.
Who's this Sinevero?
And you Madam, the fatal Minister?
'Twas rudely handled for th'first encounter.
That just, though guilty Instrument, wrest from
They go about to force it from her, and she lets it go without any emotion.
Her hand—Immoveable—Her eyes are fixt—
Madam—Madam.

Looks on her. Puls her by the sleeve.
Or.
'Tis poor—cast in—of brass—
Or. speaks as if she had restrained her breath beyond the usual course.
A Bull bellowing forth flames of fire—

Ser.
Madam,
No, No—Bound living to a stake whereon
Is fixt a vulture preying on his heart.

Ser.
She is distracted sure with the horrour
Of her own remorse. How do you Madam.

Jogs her.
Or.
The starting Sinues fastned to a spring,
Which wound, wound, wound up to the height—Buz—Snap—
And shrivel into Knots. Ha ha ha ha.

She laughs.
Gra.
She's evidently madde.
Serverus, be she your charge. Come Souldiers
The work is half advanced to our hands.
If that the sequel but succesful prove,
Your own wishes crown with desert your love.

ex. om.

Scene 4.

Eumena.
Surely in each exteriour Ministry
There is a secret Influence diffus'd
From the Intention first directed it,
According to which Agitation
Th'effect is wrought: it could else never be,
The hidden vertues, but of senselesse things,
So suddenly should meet their Attributes.
As my late grief, assures my sense, they have.
raising her arm hung in a scarff, she casts her eye thereon.
With what a tender care the good oldman
Breaks his own rest t'officiate unto mine:
With so much fervency, as if those Pow'rs
To whom he is devoted; onely judg'd,
Like faithless man, the will by the event.
His sweet society, and sollitude
Would charm my mind to a secure neglect,
Had it Capacity but to receive
Their pow'rfull Impressions.
But my sollicitous Passion will admit
No Object, but her own; or if it do,
Tis but as a predominant quality
All differing humours doth convert into
Their proper Aliment: oft it o're flows
To such distemper, that my Pious host
Seems to discover, in his suffering,
A civill notice of't, which flatters so
My sense; I often prompted am to poure
The Rest in his religious bosome.
And crave thereto his farther charity.
Which see, how vigilant o're my safety still!

Ludaster ent.
Lu.
Too long emotion yet brings accident
By inflammation or debility.
Retire your self, good Sir, to your repose;
On happy nature you too much presume.

Eu.
Unto your charity and skill her bounty
And my errour Sir, do their beings ow,
The one restor'd encouraged th'other.

Lu.
I joy to finde such symptoms of success,
Which must be cherisht in their Infancy,
Till time confirm their issues evident.
Besides, excuse o're busie observation,
If it judge, this lonelinesse may foment
Your mindes distemper to the prejudice
Of your recovery, be not abash't;
My rudenesse doth affirm I have disclos'd.
What those blushes assure, they would have hid.
A reverent fear intrusion shall restrain
From a more nigh distinction.

Eu.
So indiscreet a jealousie, in me,
Might question my integrity and yours,
The former I assure you, onely can
Be impeacht of Natures Infirmities,
Which I presume the latter hath convinc'd,
And challenge rather might the overture
Of mine, but for their safe direction.

Lu.
Yours are not so remote from that instinct
Conducteth them in their first purity,
To want so fraile a Ministry as his,
Whose more corrupting years hath given o're
To the digression of a froward will.

Eu.
Which is to such conformity reduc'd
By an industrious prudence, that in you,
Vertue is now become a proper Habit,
Which in our undiscerning youth remains
A fleeting accident.

Lu.
I rather will assume this vanity
The Errour to confute of your belief,
Then farther to extend this Argument
To the hazard of your present welfare,
By too much thus effusing of your spirits,
Which for their Restitution must exact
Your rest.

Eu.
Of your judgement I've proofes too sensible,
To question your prescriptions. I obey.

ex. Eu.
Ludaster conducts Eu. in.
Lu. returns.
Lu.
So excellent a temper in a minde
So young, I have not found; nor yet opprest
With so much Anxiety; which he endears
With so severe a privacy, as if
He on his trouble were enamored.
But time must be his better medicine.
Day waxeth old Trouble hath seis'd my thought,
I've from Gratianus no intelligence:
I fear his unrestrained courage should
Too high tempt danger to his overthrow.
Fi. en.
Fidelius! Welcome.
Embraces him.
Sweet reconciler of distractions!
Of Gratianus hast thou nothing learn'd.

Fi.
Let not th'inquiry of his safety Sr
Leave yours in hazard with the circumstance.
He is secure. This lettr, Sr, ere this,
gives him a let.
Should have been guided to your hand by me,
But my unhappy Starres have in my course
Made frustrate my Endeavours.

Lu.
Thy safety shall excuse their opposition.

Fi.
Nor judge the freedome you have us'd me to,
So insolent as to forerun your hand
In the unclosure, 'twas a violence
My life escaped narrowly.

Lu.
What need'st thou plead thy innocence, as I
Had any secret were not safe in thee,
Or from thee would not learn, if yet unknown.
Returns the letter.
Thy lips shall give it evidence; Read out.

Let. read by Fi. according to the contents of the former only signed Ambigamor.
Fi.
Sr. Not to blemish with suspect your choice,
Nor so farre to presume as to intrude
My self your Counsellor. Give duty leave
To move your caution in the enterprise.

Lu.
'Tis strange. Nay, ev'n incredible.
Yet that hand sign'd it yields it certainty.
Friend, is a powerful charm 'gainst all distrust,
What he adviseth, that pursue I must.

Fi.
Yet Sr. I must crave one request of you,
Since yo' are resolv'd the issue to attempt,
This masque of your disguise you would retain;
And suffer me but to become your scout,
While you at distance follow, that thereby
If treachery intended be, you may
Secure your person.

Lu.
Thy Love is Zealous of my safety still.
Be it my guide. Who steareth by such light
Shall find no errour ith' obscurest night.

ex. Lu. Fi. Eu. re-ent.
Eu.
If my sense well distinguish, I o're heard
Them name the Princess. I'le follow unseen:
That I my self my own affairs may know.
Who's lost t'her self needs fear no overthrow.
ex. Eu.

Scene 5.

Ambigamor
ent.
Groaning heard within.
Groaning again.
Draws his sword
Intermission.
Withdrawing a while returns drawing as it were to the light, the body of Zizania.

Ziz.
Oh! Ludaster!

In a languishing tone.
Kneeling on his knee bends her forward in raising her.
Am.
Zizania! confirm my sense again,
My tortur'd soul may with thee take her flight.
Speak yet again; art thous Zizania,
My lov'd Zizania?

Ziz.
Zizania

raiseth himself destractedly.
Am.
That very sound's enough t'extinguish life,
By preying on my languishing spirits,
Had love a temper to spin out my Fate.
Why trifle I with passion to unman
My self; and let shame with distraction play.
Resolution is but cheated by delay—
Offers to kill himself.
Hold—
pause.
Due Rights must first be tender'd to her Ghost,
Puts up his sword and kneels to raise and bow her as before.
Whom I shall fear to meet yet unreveng'd.
Pardon! thou Innocent Object of my vows,
If I disturb thy rest, yet once again,
To lend direction to just sacrifice,
My Honour, Love, and Vows have me engaged,
To offer to thy horrid sufferings.
Speak, and declare the barbrous instrument.

Ziz.
Oh!

Bends her and chases her temples.
Am.
Lend so much vigour to her spirits yet,
You higher Powers! as may mark out your justice.
Speak, oh speak.
Who wast that wrought this bloody cruelty?

Ziz.
Oh—Ludaster!

Am.
Forbid it Heav'n! and be my safer guide!
Confirm't again; who was thy Murderer?
Speak!

Ziz.
Oh! Ludaster.

Am.
Why mock you thus our frailty with a Name
Would charme a dying Testimony?
Yet lend it but the next assertion,
And I pursue the tenor of my vows
Without a scruple to relation.
Speak who thus hath spilt thy guiltless blood, speak.

Ziz.
Oh! Ludaster.

Straining her forward.
Am.
Enough, farewell my souls delight! my stay
Shall make our meeting more agreeable,
Kisses her.
And thou Religious union of my soul,
Like a declining shadow vanish hence;
Nor leave behind the least Impression,
Since that light is extinguisht formed thee.
Mundolo ent. mufled.
Spying Mu. withdraws.
Hah! more spies abroad still roving; I must
Obscure my self for new discoveries.

Mu.
Precipitate thy course dull Night! take on
Thy deepest tinctures: Such, as when with spels
The Canting Hagg frights nature from her seat
To masque the tracts of Mischief and confound
The world in errour. oh! how much should ow
Th'inferiour Kingdome to thy Ministry.
Were fear but an Authentike Evidence
To truth. The worlds Philosophy stiles Ill,
What they would shun to suffer, not what they
Shun to act: Which practice makes good, where they
Are no relatives. Oh! th'abusive world!
Whose well known Mysteries instruct my sense,
That ills are none which want their Evidence.
Fancy works high o'th Object of delight,
Yet let not joy elate the spirits; least
Thus rarified, they should effuse themselves
Before they reach to Action. Hah! who's this?
Fidelius ent.
If doubtful light may yeeld a Certainty,
This is the Stripling that escap'd my fury,
Whose bosom only can disclose the deed
I have already done; or yet pervert
What I intend to act; this both secures.

stabs him.
Fi.
Oh! oh! cruell villain!

Falls to the ground.
Ludaster ent.
Wounds Mu. who falls being hurt in the arm, the dagger drops from him.
Lu.
So swift be justice in thy punishment,
And in the progress lasting, till it meet
A measure equal unto thy desert.
Hadst thou of man so little left in thee,
To violate such tender innocence.
Speak, what art thou? or why this mischief wrought?
Is insolence swell'd up to stubbornness
In thy mouth, and daring in thine eyes? Speak.
That little life thou hast shall be reserv'd,
binds and ties him to a tree with his girdle.
To make exemplar farther sufferings.—
Now my Fidelius what hopes of safety?

Fi.
Little where yours is yet in hazard Sr.

Lu.
'Tis but the figure of thy jealousie.

kneels & raises Fi.
Fi.
Withdraw good Sr, and timely yet provide
For your security.

Lu.
Thou would'st not have me yet more infamous?
Thus to involve thee in an accident,
Speaks nothing louder than my own dishonour,
And to abandon thee in this extream.

Fi.
Your presence Sr, may prejudice your being
Mine not support; past the capacity
Of succour.

Lu.
Heav'n is more gracious to my misery.
Nor let the fear of me suggest thy ills
To be more great than thou conceivest them.
Humanity enjoynes us ne're to leave
The means so long as there is motive to't.
Try if thy strength will suffer thee to be
Transported. So, gently.

raises him.
Fi.
Oh! I faint;
My soul is sliding from her mansion.
Sets him gently on the earth again.
Restore me to the earth: Thither I must,
Our frail Original: where set, I may
Spin out but so much breath as may remove
Doubt and dishonour from my memory.—
pause.
Will you remember me when I am dead?

Lu.
Else must forget my self.

Fi.
'Twere needful thereto that you knew me first.

Lu.
Know thee! why so I do. I know thou art
Fidelius. My faithful lov'd Fidelius.

Fi.
I would not rob you of his memory,
Who gave me access to your knowledge Sr,
Yet pardon me if I must say you erre.

Lu.
Erre! in what my sweet Fidelius?

Fi.
When you affirm me him you name.

Lu.
Why, art thou not?

Fi.
No.
Although our souls had but one motion,
Our bodies still held their distinction
He died when he departed from you sick;
With so much passion to your vertue Sr,
That I became transported with th'admir'd
Idea, and took the advantage which
Nature had lent me in similitude,
I might succeed to his relation.
Yet with a flame so pure did never reach
To the distinction of my hidden Sex;
Which was the only difference made us known
Unto the womb that bore us.

Lu.
Wonder hath captiv'd ev'ry faculty,
To the detention of their offices;
And but suspends a grief will soon or'eflow
Her shallow Continent, to pay the Rights
To double Interests: Yet say how must
They be distinguished.

Fi.
Fidelia, twin'd sister to Fidelius.

Lu.
As if nature had but one only frame
And Constellation, to produce so rare
And exact a moddell.

Fi.
Oh!

Lu.
Courage! thou miracle of Nature.

Fi.
Oh! the cloud of death hangs o're my senses,
And steals away my Spirits; yet I dy
Content, in the belief I have receiv'd
The fatal stroak directed unto you.
Lend me your hand thereon my vows to seal.
Be all united here, which man calls weal.

Kissing his hand and languishingly uttering his last words dies.
Lu.
They are divorc'd, fairwell the loveliest pair,
That ever made one happy union!
Kisses her cheek.
Accept this offering to your vertuous loves
weeps.
Though too too mean,
Yet strugling nature nere could force them forth
The tainted source of proper interest.

Ambigamor discouers.
Amb.
If yet in thy exterior part thou hast
Thy self but truly figur'd unto me,
That habit and this place speak thee Ludaster.

Lu.
Ambigamor!
Thou welcome balsome to my wounded soul!
Open thine Arms that I may slide into
Thy bosom, where mutual imbraces may
Translate our Members to an union.

Lu. running to imbrace him, Amb. puts him by with his hand.
Amb.
Forbear.

Lu.
What new disorder hath disguis'd thy love
In this sullen Austerity?

Amb.
Such as that name of Friend thus casteth off,
Like a despised trifle, and bids the
Waves his hand & draws his sword.
To be such unto thy proper safety.

Lu.
How strangely art thou wandred from thy self!
Collect thy thoughts to a becoming temper.

stands amaz'd.
Amb.
Play not with Rage. Be sudden in defence,
I east my distraction this proceeding judge
More grace than thy guilt deserves.

Lu.
Let me first know the nature of my crime?

Amb.
Persevere not herein. Ask me not why.
Who knows ills t'act, knows how them to deny.

Lu.
I shall suspect the Base whereon I rais'd
That holy Title keeps my hand in Aw;
If thou insistest thus.

Amb.
No more those vain illusions, Draw.

Lu.
I will not, do thy worst, since thy folly
Hath cast away the last thing I held dear:
Chance hath left nought for chance to work upon.

Amb.
Tempt not thy Ruine, from which this hand restrains,
But to take off the blemish of the manner.

Lu.
Hold!
Casts off his disguise.
Perhaps the cloud of this disguise resists
The influence of our Amity. Vainly
He's hid from others, to himself is lost.
Doth thy wild sence perceive thy errour yet?

Amb.
Those were the masques but to conceal thine own.
Draw, or the lightning is not swifter than
My execution.

Lu.
Hold!
I to my self may prove an Homicide:
Who doth betray his being by neglect,
Is guilty of his own destruction.
What Nature first commands, see, I obey,
Draws his sword.
What friendship, though contemned, thus I may.

Letting the point of his sword fall on the ground.
breaks off the point with his foot.
Amb.
A handsome flourish, but I must not vie,
Revenge is not restrain'd by Gallantrie.

They fight. Lu. only defends himself.
Eumena ent.
Lu.
Oh! thou hast thy will, he's but half guarded
I see, stands only on his own defence.

Eu.
Hold, I enjoyn by your Allegiance, hold.
By all those ties are strictest to your soul,
If there rest any unattainted yet
to Amb.
In this your violence.

Amb.
It is the Princess voice.

Eu.
And such her person, though misfortune hath
Transfigur'd it in shew as it hath you
In truth.
Sharper Rebukes I should insist upon;
But that my love suspends my Ire a while,
Nor shameth it my frailty to assume
That Attribute, which may a mind indue
Without distemper, by such object form'd:
Why shifts those secret signals of thy thoughts
to Lu.
So oft their Scenes, as they gave place to trouble?

Lu.
To find a ruder Sov'raign intercept
The Rights I ow to that fair Majesty
By his untimely tribute.

Eu.
Speak not my fears in mystery. What hurt?
Mine eye may find the proof without reply.
Approaches him as 'twere to search. Takes of her scarff to bind his wound, and closes it with her handkerchif.
Unhappy conducts of our destinies!
Why mock you thus our frailty. Whom I sought
You led me to by errour. Whom I had
By errour you took from me. Whom I find,
By errour unrepar'd, is to me lost
For ever. Oh! Erring Ministry!
O're which you prudent Powers that preside!
Instruct our incapacities, and shew,
Why you from man exact ought in his own
Direction; since thus subordinate
Unto Others Rule, those faculties
Intangle in their Exercise, wanting
Of the Superiour Clear Intelligence.
How find you Nature yet dispos'd in you?

Lu leaning on his sword she supports him on t'other side.
Lu.
Like to an Artificial fire to Heav'n
Aspires, whose frail composure being unapt
Thereto; by his own violence consum'd,
Toucheth his height, and drops to Earth again:
Such is the active and aspiring flame
Your Grace, and Graces have inspir'd in me,
Which meeting in a Subject farre too mean
To reach so full proportion of Felicity,
Falls from't at Distance through his own defects.

Eu.
The wide worlds fleeting Glories are too mean.
Dignities but to instile thy Attributes,
And her vast Theater a receptacle
Too narrow to present the Action
Of thy Immortal vertues, whose only light
If rightly plac'd might free her course from Errour.

Lu.
Your happy fortunes, and more Glorious Life
Will certainly make good all these in yours:
While mine rests doubtful in Opinion.

Eu.
You Powers! of whose most Glorious Essences
These fair Ideas we admire, are thought,
But the imperfect shadows! if not for ours
For your own Interests. If we you concern,
Restore your Beauties fairest Continent,
Least shallow man too suddenly conclude
You have your proper cause abandoned.
Or else inform us, why vertue y'have rais'd
To vertues overthrow. This valiant hand
Had power and cause sufficient to pursue
Their Ruine, who his shamefully procur'd.
Unhappy wretch! How art thou lost in shame!
turns to Ambig. they raise him & set him up.
If not Remorse, let Pitty speak thee Man,
And lend thy hand, if yet in time it may,
To stop the nature of thy threatning guilt.

Gratianus, Liberanus, Serverus, and other Souldiers with Nefarius bound.
Gra.
Is this the Scene unmasques your Mischief? speak,
Or farther torture shall enforce you to't.

Ne.
Of what I acted, I confess, it was.
And by o're heard remorse; I judge there might
Be some mistake i'th' Execution;
But know not whether extended to these.

Gra.
The circumstance is evidence enough.
What new disorder's here? Hah! Blood and Tears!

Eu. seems weeping ouer Lu. set in-a chare.
Lu.
Gratianus, thy only stay retarded hath my flight,
Receive my thanks for thy so faithfull love,
Which if my will have force to guld it still,
As thy approved faith assures it hath,
Let me transact it unto her support
May make it glorious and fruitful to thee.
Seal your engagement on the Princess hand.

Lu. takes the Prin. hand and extends it to Gra. who kisses it.
Gra.
Hah! the Princess! my Duty Sr,
And your command meet equally in this.

Lu.
Oh! fairwell to both, we must divide.
Take the supreamest tender of my Love.—

Intermission.
Extending his arm to imbrace them, dies.
Eu. thereon sinks down and expires.
Gra. catches her in his arms and there holds her awhile till others come to help him.
Gra.
Madam! how do you? help, your succour friends,—
Her eyes are fix'd, her breath already lost.
Strange miseries that stop their sense with wonder!
I hope you can unty these Riddles Sr.

Amb.
In part I can. The Princess death hath pay'd
Her secret witness to Ludasters Love.
And his to mine.

Gra.
The latter words will ask a Comment Sr.

Amb.
I kill'd him to revenge my Love.

Gra.
Be yet more plain e're I seal up thy last
draws his sword.
Intelligence, to whom? or how?

Amb.
To my belov'd Zizania murthered
By him, and unto me confirmed by
Her dying Accents.

Gra.
As yet, I cannot pitty thee enough
puts up his sword again.
To kill thee: But here is one shall do it
With crueltie, if in thee yet be left
But so much Reason to distinguish guilt.
Speak Sirrah, was't not you and your Agents
That wrought this mischief on her, and her Brother?

Ne.
It is confest already.

to Amb.
Gra.
Nay! let not silent trouble speak your doubt;
His Evidence is valuable, it costs
Amb. stands confused.
Him, Sr, his Life. This is more shameful yet.
Amb. offers in kill himself but is disarmed.
The nature of your crime will first require
A larger time for penitence. Be he
Your Charge Libranus. Hah! more spectacles
Of Horror yet, who is't, Fidelius!
spies Fi.
Grief will not yield a truce unto the sense
To ease it self in the effusion.
Search yet about there are more Actors yet,
discovers Mu.
A Villain in his perfect character!
Unlose him, and to torture presently,
Untill he makes a true discovery.

Mun.
You shall not need, I love my crimes too well,
Not to revive their Memory, and scorn
Your punishmens too much, once to disguise
Their Natures in the Circumstance.

Gra.
Guilt hath attain'd the height where it assumes
A Glory from the execution.
Pulls his hat sadly over his eyes, and marcheth out with the bodies.
Which we will hear, when pious Rites are done:
Grief speaks there loudest, where the Mourner's dumb.