 | The Female Rebelion |  |
ACT 5t h.
SCEN: 1s t.
App: A Royal Presence Chamber.Enter Queen (from the right) & looks about; Anti. (from the left.)
Ant.
Your Majesty return'd safe to yr place!
Providence has in this so fully heard me,
'Twould seem presumption e're to ask for more.
Que.
How can this language suit with your Rebellion?
Ant.
That I, though hurry'd with the stream o'th'times,
[she casts up her eys.
Have honour'd you next heav'n, Heav'n it self can witness.
How have I melted off my Flesh in tears,
And blown away part of my soul in sighs,
[she weeps, sighs, & groans.
While what remain'd converted all to groans;
To see proud Vapours cloud yr light that rais'd 'em!
Yet those too show'd you greater by refraction.
Que.
Rise, Rise!
[Ant. kneels, offering to kiss the Queens feel, then rises.
Ant.
Unseasonable Tears, why do ye blind me,
When that's in Presence I most wish to look on?
But had your diffidence not forced these drops,
At your Appearance Joy had forced them faster.
Que.
Banish all sorrow, as I all suspicion.
Ant.
Madam, if these showers cannot, let my blood
Wash of[f] distrust, I then shall dy yr Martyr,
At once both courting and contemning Death.
[Anti. offers her naked cymitar: Queen puts it by.
Que.
Yr sword should more confirm me drawn against others.
Ant.
Then I'll ne're sheath it till my heart be known,
I'll open other breasts to show my own.
Que.
Now shew that Fealty you boast of, now.
[To Ant., who sheaths her cymitar.
Ant.
What, when you're bound? I'm faithfull to yr Majesty;
But if you fall from that, you change, not I.
[Ant. smiles.
Que.
Thou scandal ev'n to Vice, base beyond name,
Shameless without, and yet within not fraught
So much as with one creditable fault.
Ant.
Slight our Imposture hallow'd by success,
And dub yr wretched Vertue Happyness.
[Ant. smiles again.
Que.
Oh! whether now shall my defiance climb!
I'll pardon you to Aggravate yr crime;
While my mere Patience all yr hate controuls,
Til conscience, if y'have any, mad yr souls;
Making you strive from every hand to run,
But more your selves, your worst persuers, shun;
Finding this only means to ease your woe,
If sin could, as 'tis nothing, make you so.
Ant.
We've born yr yoke too long, lead her away.
[To Erib., who is leading out the Queen (at the left); but all stop.
Enter Sagalus unarm'd (from the right.)
Sag.
Hold! if y'are not worse than Inhuman, stay,
Other offences only by the by
Slighting its laws, glance 'gainst Divinity;
But you with the first cause directly fight,
Who thus at his Vice-gerent vent yr spight.
Pen.
It were not worth the while our hands to rear
'Gainst any Power, but what all others fear.
Sure the first mover's for us, who rise
'Gainst her who robs him of his sacrifice.
Que.
How doth my Private Act infringe yr Fredome?
Enter Eorpata with burning Pincers (from the left); Guards unbind the Queen, & exeunt there.
Ant.
Resign your Crown, or here you see your Torturer.
Sag.
O name such damnable designs no more,
Which would raise blushes in a Gorgons cheeks.
Ant.
What we shall do, you must ensure as Hostage.
[To Sag.
Set on the Pincers.
[Eorp. goes to Pinch the Queen, Sag. getts betwixt them.
Sag.
Freely on my skin,
'Tis there high treason, which is here no sin;
I'll thank ye, so my blood might here secure,
For since I may not act, I would endure.
Ant.
This Punishment's our favour, if the Pains
Make her desert the Throne, her life she gains.
Que.
For any Torture I'll not leave my right,
Tortures if great, are short; if long, are light.
Ant.
Lets try what this Mysterious strife does mean:
Apply yr Irons here.
[Eor. offers to pinch Sag., Queen steps between.
Que.
O Vent your spleen
Wholly on me; I who disdain'd before
To ask yr smiles, yr Fury now Implore.
Ant.
Then will you quit the Crown?
Que.
Can I betray
Heav'ns highest trust, & give its gift away?
Whatever's below that I'll gladly grant;
Yet if I part with any right, the want
Whereof disables me (while thus employ'd)
[Anti. beckons to Eor. to depart: who exit (at ye left.)
To execute my charge, the grant is void.
Pen.
Let me with her destroy that Idol Majesty.
Stop, here's a poyson will steal subtly to her
[Pen. draws, & would run at the Queen, Ant. stops her, and shows her a glass.
Heart, & leave no print behind; Her death
May thus b'imputed to her grief or rage,
And we plead Innocence.—Here drink & dy.
[Ant. offers a glass to ye Queen: Pen. sheaths her Cymitar.
Sag.
Do not attempt a crime, might make the Sun
Stand still amaz'd before it were half done;
Or else start back from his disorder'd frame,
Consuming your whole Citty with his Flame;
And Acted would for a new Hell fire cry.
Que.
I dare not fear, thats harder than to dy.
And oft in streights, when human strength falls short,
Divine releives, that we thank that for't.
Sag.
Oh that my spirit first m[a]y reach Heav'ns gate,
[to Queen.
There it would hover, & yr coming wait,
Watching yr bright Ascension from afar,
Least you by th'way ly darken'd in a star,
And there I'd claim you, for if Angells knew
Your goodness first, they'd quickly seiz[e] my due.
Then side by side we might safe entrance make,
And I become more wellcome for yr sake,
None would of promis'd Joys less craving be,
For I should bring my heaven 'long with me;
My share of Glory I'd on you bestow,
And covet none unless yours should ore flow;
Making it my choice Blessing yours to veiw,
Mine were less bliss unless it came thrô you.
[Sag. snatches the Glass & drinks it off: Queen strives to hinder him.
Que.
Oh, Sr, what have you done? this, this has stole
All Life both from my body & my soul;
To dy's to live elsewhere, but now I shall,
Benumm'd with greif, enjoy no life at all.
[To Ant. & Pen.
That so I may preceed him in the dust;
I then in kindness too shall him outvie,
[Pen. offers to draw & stops.
He dying leaves me, I to meet him die.
Sag.
Hear her not! Know my Nation ne're will suffer
Our murders to pass unreveng'd: but spare
Her, & I'll lay my death to my own charge.
Ant.
Write this, and we'll not kill her.
[Ant. takes Pen & parchment from Erib., and delivers them to Sag., who writes this distich, then reads it aloud, and delivers it to Ant.
Sag.
Let none revenge my Fate, the hand that penn'd
This Declaration, did procure my end.
Sagalus Rex.
Que.
Greif and Amazement me to marble turn,
That to his Ashes I may be the Urn;
And cover'd over with cold drops contrive
To weep him dead, who cannot weep alive;
And may my Flame be, to compleat the doom,
An Unconsuming Lamp within his tomb.
Sag.
The Poys'nous Fire begins my blood to boil,
'Twill make by Body its own Funeral Pile:
Farewell, I'll stagger to some cave where I
Unseen may burn to embers as I die,
Praying that Heav'n to you my Years would give,
And make you to two happy Ages live.
Ant.
Bury him strait incognito: & since
Our camp is Pacify'd, cajole the Trojans.
[To Erib., who ex. with Sag. (at ye left.)
Queen.
Oh! oh!
[Queen sighes.
With him the best part of my soul is fled,
Who can survive by halves who's Friend is dead?
My Life henceforth of day will have no mark,
'Twill be but as a watching in th'dark.
For if it be, 'twill be quite broke e're night.
Enter Eorpata (from the left.)
Eor.
By yea & nay, Sagalus's son leads An Army on our Frontiers.
Ant.
These are the Men your willfullness preserved.
[to Queen.
Pen.
We'll fight 'em strait by our late Victory, we will.
Ant.
You must march to countenance, not command us,
[To Queen.
And charge in the Forlorn.
Que.
I'll choose that place, where danger shall my country most annoy;
Only to fall for't now can be my joy.
[Exe. Queen, Ant., Pen. (at ye inner pt of ye left.)
Enter Erib. (from the outer pt of the left) dragging Jas., Eric., & Ilu. halter'd.
Erib.
Bring me an account of the Scythians.
[To Eor., who exit
(at the left.)
Come, ye disaffected Varlets, you that stand to be
undone, I must bastinado the wind out of yr bodys, to keep my self
in breath.
Jas.
Yes, walking Bridewell, you that sell affliction, were our flesh
as hard as hartshorn, your recreation would turn 'em to a Jelly, and
soften our bones sooner than the new digester.
Erib.
Then (conscientious coxcombs) why don't ye bend your
wire sinew'd neck to the Yoke of Reformation, rather then thread 'em
into halters? and at last rott above ground, as unworthy to keep company
with carcasses.
Eric.
How! should we side with the Rump of Authority? The
Tail rampant of Goverment, which, like the Amphisbena, hath a head
at both ends.
A Club of Republican Quacks, whose cure outkills any sickness;
who would cut the Patient in peices to find out the seat of the
Disease.
Ilu.
A paltry parcel of state demicastors, half witted mungrells,
whose megrim brains are at variance in their own heads.
Enter Eorpata (from the left.)
Eor.
The Scythians demanded their King, and thô they read his
own hand writing, were unsatisfied; but when they saw Orithya with us,
they all acquiesc'd, and now she comes this way to the steeple house.
Erib.
Crawl back, ye dull crabbs, that are all gutts instead of
Brains, and fit your selves for the high preferment.
Jas.
Of that Pillar of Justice, the gallows.
[Ironically.
Erib.
Ay (ye Persecution to cudgells, whips, and halters) that as
before ye were a burthen to the country—
Eric.
Ye may now be so to the Gibbete.
Ilu.
And more executing ballads.
Erib.
Yes (thirteen pence-half-penny rascalls) And then be mangled
by such bungling Anatomists, who dare not touch their own dead
Patients, least they should discover their Murderers by Bleeding.
[Erib. drags out Jas., Eric., & Ilu. (at the left.)
SCEN: 2d.
App: a Temple, with a Charnel house lozengewise.Enter Queen, Antiopa, & Penthesilea (from the left.)
Ant.
Argue no more, your Virtue pleads against you,
'Tis but a gaudy gloss to guild our fetters;
But here our bondage, with your self, we'll bury.
[Anti. points to ye Charnel House.
Que.
What, Ye Voluptu'rys in mischeif, still
Thirsting for Royal blood? How can ye break
So soon yr solemn promise to the King?
Ant.
We only promis'd we'd not kill you, therefore
You shall go down alive into your Tomb;
If there you die, 'tis Nature's Act, not ours.
Que.
D'you think equivocating sophistry
Can blind that Eye above which dazels reason?
[she points upwards.
Anti.
You must descend, you must.
Que.
Thô since the Apotheosis
Of Sagalus, I've long'd for Heaven's great call,
While I can stand, I scorn so tame a fall.
[Ant. stamps, Alc. below makes a trapdoor sink, & close upon ye Que. strugling against it.
Ant.
So, now the Queen's entomb'd, the Scythians sati[s]fied,
Our Army too confirm'd in their obedience;
Fates cannot Injure us.
Pen.
Which of 'em dares?
Our words are as much destiny as theirs.
Ant.
Come, lets embrace till our souls kiss each other.
[Ant. & Pen. Hug closely.
Enter Sagalus's ghost (from ye right) & frights Ant. about the stage.
What art thou—look'st my soul—into a Palsy?
What wouldst thou?
Rem̄ember our Agreement, or hope no rest.
Ant.
Since the Grave yeilds none—to the murdered,—what rest
can come to the live-murderers?
Pen.
Shall we fear Phantasms? those ourselves have made?
I'll grasp it, thô it make me a ghost too.
[Exit Ghost (at the left) & stares upon 'em. Pen. follows it.
Ant.
Conscience, thou worm—how thou gnawest—the place that
bred thee!
[Penthesilea finding the Ghost to be Sagalus, brings him back.
Pen.
Here, take your Royal Bugbear, the Ghost incarnate.
Ant.
King Sagalus alive! Were you not buried?
Sag.
Yes, but ne're dead; for I have taken Antidotes
So long, as sometimes Asian Princes do
(And I most use it when in a strange land)
That I am grown poyson proof; at least 'gainst yr
Weak dose, made to subvert a Female Temper.
Ant.
What charm of yours brought you out of the grave?
Sag.
Pardon all faults, and you shall hear it.
Anti.
We do.
Sa.
I, before Lanthinus, charged Eribea
To bury this Jewell with me, she did so,
[he shows a Jewell.
But opened my Tomb afterwards to steal it:
I rising up amazed her, yet by promising
I would reward, & you should not correct her,
I gain'd her silence.
Ant.
But why walk'd you thus?
Sag.
To tend the Queen, and cheat you into Honesty.
Ant.
O! she's in her Tomb.
Sag.
O Treachery! O Parricide! let me go thither,
And try to part my soul, her soul between us;
One spirit may serve two whose minds are one.
Or else I'll strive to breath mine whole into her,
And when she's well reviv'd to take it back;
And die, & die & live by turns for ever.
Anti. opens the Vault, Sag. enters: Ant. locks it.
Ant.
Go in, yr dress becomes no other place.
Now we have him sure. We are staid for in the Palace.
[Exeunt Ant. & Pen. (at ye right.)
SCEN: 3d.
App: a Royal Presence Chamber.Enter Nicostrate (from the left); Antiopa & Penthesilea (from the right.)
Ant.
Myriads of wellcomes to you.
[To Nic., who shakes hands with Ant. & Pen.
Nic.
Thô I before had qualify'd the Army,
I could not draw the heads of the sedition
Into your Noose, but now they're fast, and will
Sneak hither strait.
Ant.
Happy beyond our Hopes!
Enter Alcymen & Coloness's (from the left.)
Nic.
Seiz[e] those two Traytors.
[To Alcy. & Colo., who disarm and manacle Anti. resisting; Pen. repulses them; Nic. attacks Pen.; & Alcymen, coming with Colo. at her back, tyes her hands behind her.
Pen.
Let who dares Approach my poyson'd steel.
Nic.
Intreat the Queen, sister.
[To Alcy., who exit (at ye right.)
Ant.
Tumbl'd o'th'sodain from the Zenith of
Greatness, by our own side? I see to climb
The Top of Empire on an Armys wings,
Is as a Paper Kite to mount the clouds
Upon the back of the deceitfull wind.
They who do first from their Allegiance stray,
Teach those whom the[y] would Rule to disobey;
Brats of example still such parents slay.
Ant.
To found on Frauds a Politic Device,
Is not to build on rock, or sand, but Ice.
Nic.
Such grow besotted before Perishing;
As malefactors blinded are then swing.
Pen.
Oh! That I could a fiery deluge call,
'Cause Heaven to rain Hell on you at my fall,
To burn, and drown, & styx in both forestall;
Or the whole Globe with one great Earthquake tear,
To make a grave, and bury Nature there;
Then having all to its first Chaos hurl'd,
Not leave an Attom for a future world.
Nic.
Peace, Hothead! I have pay'd the Army off
With the Queens Treasure, hid within her Palace:
Which secret known to none besides, still made me,
When most distress'd, hope for success, or safety.
Enter Queen with Cymitar, Alcy., Erib., & Atten. (from the right.)
All.
Long live Orithya, Queen of Amazons!
Que.
Intreat King Sagalus hither.
[To Alcy., who exit (at ye right.)
Call Laranda.
[To Erib., who exit (at the left.)
Dear Cozen—
To find you mine contents me more alone,
[Nic. kisses the Queens hand kneeling: Qu. helps her up.
Then all delights beside which crowd a Throne;
But how got you these scars?
Nic.
By my own hand to make these credit me,
[Nic. points to Ant. & Pen.
Which the same hand can cure. The rest in private.
Que.
Laranda, you deserve my choicest care.
[Lar. kisses the Queens hand.
Pen.
This was yr cursed wisdome to admit
[Nic. aside relates to ye Queene the transactions in her absence.
Nicostrate, that Syren, to our councels.
Ant.
No, it was your severity to Laranda;
And breaking Articles with our own consorts.
Pen.
Are you yrself, & thus presume to brave me?
Ant.
You are, because y'are Mad.
Pen.
Hellhound & Fiends, my very Anger mock'd.
Ant.
'Tis toothless barking.
Pen.
Thou Viper!
Ant.
Thou Tiger!
Pen.
Thou Hag!
Ant.
Thou Fury!
Pen.
Thou weeping Crocodile!
Ant.
Thou bloody saint!
Pen.
O! Thou preaching Divel!
Que.
But where's my Grandmother?
Ant.
Where she must starve, except we name the Place.
Que.
Save her Life, and Live.
Release the Trojans, I'll reward 'em amply;
And then proclaim a general Indemnity.
[To Erib., who exit with Pen., Ant., & Colo. (at the left.)
Lar.
I see the Queen will never be Loyal; she grants these
Rebells ingrain, a writ of ease for a Torment; the only use she makes
of her Prerogative, is to be a Tyrant to her self.
Tha.
Here's no talk of prefering me, yet, 'tis well known, I have
been more true of all sides than any one.
Lar.
God've mercy, you a glove for both hands, a Time-ist that
can be of every party togather.
Tha.
Yes, and of every Religion too; how else could I be certain
to be of the True?
Sure you have a Theology windmill in your sconce, will
veer with every wind.
Tha.
No, 'tis a way I have Invented to be of the Universal Church.
Lar.
But who shall judge of your deserts?
Tha.
Nay, I'll have no body judge in my own cause but my self;
I think I have most reason to understand it.
Lar.
'Tis pity preferments are not set apart for eminent Fops of
a new edition.
Tha.
Well! I'll run home, &, right or wrong, take Justice for
this on my Consort, that whipping post in ordinary, He shall have a
basting before hand, against he deserves it, & I'll come no more
hither, till the Court tryes for my Joking Golgotha to make 'em laugh,
& petitions me to save 'em the keeping of an overgrown Child in
hanging sleves, for a state officer.
Lar.
Were not this Humourist the Courtiers standing dish of
mirth, They'd languish for want of laughing; & 'twere both Pity &
wonder the court should stand without one great fool in't.
Enter Sagalus, Lanthi., & Alcymen (from the left): exit Alc. (at ye right.)
Sag.
Madam, I more rejoyce to see you reign,
Then if I did myself ten Empires gain.
[Queen & King embrace.
Que.
And, Sr, when I'd to you my thanks impart,
The finite world's too narrow for my heart:
You went for me into death's gloomy cave.
Sag.
But you, whats more, redeem me from the grave.
Enter Celeno (from the right.)
Cel.
Some without desire to congratulate your Majesty in a masq.
We accept it.
[exit Celeno (at the right.)
Queen and King sit in state, Nicostrate and Lanthinus by them. Enter Queens attendants (from the right) & sit lower. Enter Celeno there; then Alcymen with seven Coloness's, who dance a warlike masq, expressing a discontented Army, to the sound of trumpets, Spectators rise, & Masquers disarm Queen, King, & Nic.
Enter Jasius, Ericthonius, & Ilus (from the left.)
Cel.
Madam, thô the great Councel voted yr last march
Against the Scythians, & concessions,
Then a foundation for a peace; yet th'Army's
Dissatisfy'd until you choose a consort.
Que.
Unhappy Soveraigns! may Peasant[s] elect
When they think fit, and whom they please reject;
But we, unless our Wills we subjugate
Unto their choice, are objects of their hate:
We wear the fetters, thô aloft we goe;
They share the freedom, though they creep below.
[Exeunt all but Trojans (at the right.)
Ilu.
Hey brave doings! This goverment's a mere weather cock,
it has chang'd owners, as fast as if they had thrown dice for't.
Eric.
I never heard the like but once of the Island Eutopia,
wc
h ran into slavery to acquire Liberty, till early Mushroom sects of
the Nation usurp'd supremacy by turns.
Jas.
These Apostating Demagogues, though from Traytors they
were pardon'd into Peers, by their old leven are sour'd into new fits
of sedition; in spight of Amnesty, they revive the memory of their
crimes by reaching them.
Nic.
They are still as round as a Bowle, & every way so like,
they can not but fallow their natural Bias.
These foul humours of the Body politic, imposthum'd into
Nobles, make high sinning their Privilege, & stigmatize their lives
with vices, as Indians brand their foreheads, for a mark of honour,
yet count all Satyr upon their enormitys, a slander of their Peerage,
whereas there is nothing so much a Scandalum Magnatum as themselves.
Enter Queen, King, & Nicostrate discoursing, blind Ortera in Jewells, Celeno, Laranda, & Lanthinus (from the right.)
Nic.
Do you for Progeny so little care?
If not t'yourself, t'your Country pitty bear.
Que.
For their least good I'd cast all mine away,
Do, suffer anything, but them obey;
I from the Sacred Crown must crop no flower,
They want what they reserve that part with Power:
Soveraignity should entirely be possest,
Who ask a part, do it to take the rest.
Nic.
If you Love's Passion quite detest, declare.
Que.
I don't, with all its faults 'tis best by far:
And thô Virginity is not th'high way
Where nature leads, but where the will doth stray,
Which might all human kind annihilate;
Who'd have a Phenix live, ne're to have mate?
Nic.
Why are your words and deeds at such Hostility?
Love, & the King you like, yet fly them both.
Que.
No humour cross, nor oath keeps me a maid:
But, since you press me so, know you are the cause.
[To Nic.
Nic.
O, how, I pray? our Sphynx ne're spoke such riddle.
Que.
'Tis thus, you too well understand the souldiers
Dethron'd your Mother Lampedo, & then
Enthron'd Marpesia, her younger sister,
Whose daughter I am, in my nonage crown'd,
Who, when I came to years, resolv'd to dy
In you to my Aunts line, whose right it is.
Nic.
Madam, the Crown by Law clears all attainders.
Que.
But Equity, that Law of Nature,
Of Nations says, whate're's unjust at first,
Can never by continuance grow just:
And no time antiquates a royal claim.
Sag.
Then why don't you devolve the Rule now on her?
Que.
I would but cant; For the camp (who disrelish her
For her mothers sterness) wont permit it.
But when I'm dead, she alone, left o'th'Royal
Race, will have no competitour to cross her.
Yet, if she die first without Heir, I here
Declare to have King Sagalus, & none else.
Sag.
I'm thoroughly pleas'd with this kind Declaration.
Que.
How weak a Tryal were my Death to prove
What I would do for him—I must not love.
Sag.
Then since my Queen is dead, and son alive,
In expectation I'll, like you, live single.
Que.
Yet let yr son her consort be, that you
[Queen points to Nic.
Or he may fix an Interest here, & answer
My Peoples Importunity for succession.
Sag.
Pasanagoras's heart has long been hers.
Nic.
And mine must move, as you shall please to set it.
[To Qu., Nic. kneels, Que. raises her.
Yet, Madam, all my right I prostrate at
Yr Feet; nor would I e're accept the Crown,
Tho offer'd by all Partys, while you live.
Que.
Why not? My blood might reign if you enjoy'd it,
Here by yr daughters, by yr sons in Scythia.
[Queen confers with Cel. aside. Exit Cel. (at the right.)
Jas.
Now, fellow sufferers, if we had but the haltering of score of
those holy faith breakers, those right honourable submechanicks.
With a dozen of the Kirk Boutefeus, who call vehement
nonsence breathings of the Spirit: And nose their black piety as they
do their smoke.
Eric.
The Tragedy of those superreformers would be a comedy to
the whole Nation.
Ilu.
At least we'd turn 'em back to their dungcarts of Inheritance,
& close body'd shops, where the[y] first mended shoes and Church-goverment.
Enter Celeno & maskers (from the right.)
Cel.
Before a Child of Lampedo shall reign
[she points to ye maskers.
They're enjealoused, they'l remain a state.
Que.
Let them rage on, my just resolve shall stand.
Lan.
A Third defection! now what Power can save her!
[Ortera talks aside with the Queen.
Jas.
Leave these cutthroat Imps of camp Antipathy to concord, &
are most afraid of being out of danger, nothing like Peace kills 'em.
They are Salamanders that choose to live in the Flames of contention.
Eric.
They are resolv'd to fall out with the Queen, because they
alone, these Boutefeus, will not endure that themselves should be
happy, Quarrelling at the bad times, when only their quarrells make
'em such.
Ilu.
And will needs have a blank Licence, call'd liberty of
conscience, when they have no conscience at all.
Ort.
Not take the King to have the Empire?
[To Que.
Que.
No.
Ort.
Then hear Ortera.—Your two mothers were
My Twins, But I ne're published which was eldest,
That so I might confer the scepter on the worthyest;
And b'cause Lampedo proved fiercest
In War, I (by my loss of sight disabled
[Ort. points to her eys.
For fight, or conduct) did resign it to her;
[speaks to Nic.
Because she lay deepest, But Marpesia was
First born, & therefore by Law heir Apparent.
[To Queen.
Sag.
Can you prove this by witness?
Ort.
By the Midwifes.
But this discovery ne're till now was needfull.
Nic.
Blest news! my Plea is quash'd, and ye Queens title
To th'Empire is most clear.
Sag.
And mine to Her.
[Queen & King joyn both their hands across.
Thus Cappadocia may with Scythia bound
A Champion breed, To whom some King will found
An Order, to make Brittain more renown'd.
Qu.
Yet, Sr, let her match with your son proceed.
Sag.
Madam, it shall effectually with speed.
Lar.
A Pair royal of such seraphic Rivals in glory, are able to
make the Angells Translate their mansions hither for more heavenly
society.
[Cel. & Maskers unmasked kneel, & lay their cymitars at the Queens feet, then kiss her [hand].
Qu.
Rise all, & be my Councellers; you have
Drawn out a secret which new crowns yr Queen.
Now let our thanks be to that throne addrest,
[Qu. looks upwards.
Which does to Usurpation grant no rest.
For as the needle by the Loadstone grac'd,
If by Irregular motion 'tis displac'd,
Suffers Vibrations, and will never stay,
Till to its proper Pole it points the Way.
| The Female Rebelion | |