University of Virginia Library

Act the First,

Scene the First.

The SCENE is a Prospect of Rhodes beleaguer'd at Sea and Land by the Fleet and Army of SOLYMAN.
Enter Alphonso, Admiral, Marshal of Rhodes.
Alph.
When shall we scape from the delays of Rome?
And when, slow Venice, will thy Succours come?

Mar.
How often too have we in vain
Sought ayd from long consulting Spain?

Adm.
The German Eagle does no more
About our barren Island Sore.
Thy Region, famisht Rhodes, she does forsake;
And cruelly at home her Quarrie make.

Alph.
The furious French, and fiercer English fail.

Adm.
We watch from Steeples and the Peer
What Flaggs remoter Vessels bear;
But no glad Voice cries out, a Sail! a Sail!

Mar.
Brave Duke! I find we are to blame
In playing slowly Honour's Game,
Whilst lingring Famine wasts our strength,
And tires afflicted Life with length.

Alph.
The Council does it rashness call
When we propose to hazard all
The parcells we have left in one bold Cast:
But their Discretion makes our Torments last.

Adm.
When less'ning Hope flyes from our Ken,
And still Despair shews great and near,
Discretion seems to Valour then
A formal shape to cover fear.

Alph.
Courage, when it at once adventures all,
And dares with human aids dispence,
Resembles that high confidence
Which Priests may Faith and Heav'nly-Valour call.

Adm.
Those who in latter dangers of fierce Warr
To distant hope and long consults are given,
Depend too proudly on their own wise care;
And seem to trust themselves much more than Heav'n.

Alph.
Let then the Elder of our Rhodian Knights
Discourse of slow designs in antient Fights;
Let them sit long in Council to contrive
How they may longest keep lean Fools alive:
Whilst (Marshal) thou, the Admiral, and I
(Grown weary of this tedious strife
Which but prolongs imprison'd Life)
Since we are freely Born will freely Dye.

Adm.
From sev'ral Ports wee'l Sally out
With all the bolder Youth our Seas have bred.

Mar.
And we at Land through storms of Warr have led,
Then meet at Mustapha's Redoubt.

Alph.
And this last Race of Honour being run,
Wee'l meet agen, farr, farr, above the Sun.

Adm.
Already Fame her Trumpet sounds:
Which more provokes and warms
Our Courage than the smart of Wounds.
Away! to Arms! to Arms!—

Enter Villerius.
Vill.
What from the Camp, when no Assault is near,
Fierce Duke does thee to Slaughter call?
Or what bold Fleet does now at Sea appear,
To hale and boord our Admiral?

Adm.
We give, Great Master, this alarm
Not to forwarn your Chiefs of harm:
To whom assaults from Land or Sea
Would now but too much welcome be.

Alph.
We want great dangers, and of mischiefs know
No greater ill but that they come too slow.

Adm.
Why should we thus, with Arts great care
Of Empire, against Nature Warr?
Nature, with sleep and food, would make Life last;
But artfull Empire makes us watch and fast.

Alph.
If Valour virtue be, why should we lack
The means to make it move?
Which progress would improve;
But cannot march when Famine keeps it back.

Adm.
When gen'ral Dearth
Afflicts the Earth,
Then even our loudest Warriours calmly pine.
High courage (though with Sourness still
It yields to Yoaks of human will)
Yet gracefully does bow to Pow'r Divine.

Alph.
But when but mortal Foes
Imperiously impose
A Martial Lent
Where strength is spent;
That Famine, doubly horrid, wears the face
Both of a Lingring death, and of disgrace.

Mar.
For those, whose Valour makes them quickly Dye,
Prevent the Fast to shun the infamy.

Vill.
Whom have I heard? 'Tis time all Pow'r should cease
When men high born, and higher bred
(Who have out-done what most have read,)
Grow like the Gowd, impatient of distress.
Is there no room for Hope in any Breast?

Adm.
Not, since she does appear
Boldly a dweller where
She first was intertain'd but as a Guest.

Alph.
She may in Sieges be receiv'd
Be courted too, and much believ'd;
And thus continue after wants begin;
But is thrust out when Famine enters in.

Vill.
You have been tir'd in vain with passiveness;
But where, when active, can you meet Success?

Alph.
With all the strength of all our Forts
Wee'l sally out from all the Ports;
And with a hot and hot alarm
Still keep the Turkish Tents so warm
That Solyman shall in a Feaver lye:

Mar.
His Bassas, marking what we do,
Shall find that we were taught by you
To manage Life, and teach them how to Dye.

Vill.
Valour's designs are many heights above
All pleasures fancy'd in the dreams of Love.
But whilst, voluptuously, you thus devise
Delightfull ways to end those miseries
Which over-charge your own impatient mind;
Where shall the softer Sex their safety find?
When you with num'rous Foes lye dead,
(I mean asleep in Honour's Bed)
They then may subject be
To all the wild and fouler force
Of rudest Victory;
Where noise shall Deafen all remorse.

Alph.
If still concern'd to watch and arm
That we may keep from harm
All who defenceless are
And seldome safe in Warr,
When, Admiral, shall we
From weariness be free?

Vill.
The Rhodians by your gen'ral Sally may
Get high renown;
Though you at last must bravely lose the Day,
And they their Town.
Then when by anger'd Solyman 'tis sway'd,
On whom shall climbing Infants smile for aid?
Or who shall lift and rescue falling Age,
When it can only frown at Turkish rage?
The living thus advise you to esteem
And keep your Life that it may succour them:
But though you are inclin'd to hear Death plead
As strongly to invite you to the Dead,
Whilst glory does beyond compassion move,
Yet stay till your Ianthe speaks for Love!

Alph.
Ianthe's name is such a double charm,
As strait does arm me, and as soon unarm.
Valour as farr as ever Valour went,
Dares go, not stopping at the Sultans Tent,
To free Ianthe when to Rhodes confin'd:
But halts, when it considers I
Amidst ten Thousand Turks may Dye,
Yet leave her then to many more behind.

Adm.
Since life is to be kept, what must be done?

Vill.
All those attempts of Valour we must shun
Which may the Sultan vex; And, since bereft
Of food, there is no help but Treaty left.

Adm.
Rhodes, when the World shall thy submission know,
Honour, thy antient friend, will court thy Foe.

Mar.
Honour begins to blush, and hide his face:
For those who Treat sheath all their Swords,
To try by length of fencing words
How farr they may consent to meet Disgrace.

Alph.
As noble minds with shame their wants confess;
So Rhodes will bashfully declare distress.

A Shout within, and a Noise of forcing of Doors.
Vill.
Our guards will turn confed'rates with the crowd,
Whose mis'ries now insult and make them loud.
Their leaders strive with praises to appease,
And soften the mis-led with promises.

[Exit Admiral.
Alph.
These us'd with awe to wait
Far from your Palace gate;
But, like lean Birds in Frosts, their hunger now
Makes them approach us and familiar grow.

Vill.
They have so long been Dying that 'tis fit
They Deaths great privilege should have;
Which does in all a parity admit:
No rooms of State are in the Grave.

Enter Admiral.
Adm.
The Peoples various minds
(Which are like sudden winds,
Such as from Hilly-coasts still changing blow)
Were lately as a secret kept
In many whispers of so soft a breath,
And in a calm so deeply low,
As if all Life had soundly slept;
But now, as if they meant to waken Death,
They rashly rise, and loud in Tumults grow.

Mar.
They see our strength is hourly less,
Whilst Solyman's does still increase.

Adm.
Thus, being to their last expectance driven,
Ianthe, now they cry!
Whose name they raise so high
And often that it fills the vault of Heaven.

Alph.
If Solyman does much her Looks esteem,
Looks captive him, and may enfranchise them.

Adm.
By many pris'ners, since our Siege began,
They have been told, how Potent Solyman,
In all assaults, severely did command
That you and she
Should still be free
From all attempts of every Turkish hand.

Alph.
It rudeness were in me, not to confess
That Solyman has civil been,
And did much Christian honour winn
When he Ianthe rescu'd from distress.

Adm.
They were from many more advertis'd too,
That he hath Passports sent for her and you:
Which makes them hope the Pow'r divine
Does by some blessed cause design
Ianthe to procure their Liberty:
Or if by Heaven 'tis not intirely me'nt
That powerfull Beauties force should set them free,
Yet they would have her strait in Treaty sent
To gain some rest for those,
Who of their restless foes
Continual wounds and fasts are weary grown.

Mar.
Whose mighty hearts conceiv'd before,
That they were built to suffer more
Assaults and Battries than our Rocky Town.

Vill.
Those who, with Gyant-stature, shocks receiv'd,
Now down to Dwarfish size and weakness fall.

Mar.
Who once no more of harm from shot believ'd
Than that an arrow hurts a wounded Wall.

Alph.
She Treat? What pleasant, but what frantick dreams,
Rise from the Peoples feaver of extremes?
I will allay their Rage, or try
How farr Ianthe will comply.

[Exit.
Enter Ianthe and her two Women at the other Door.
Iant.
Why wise Villerius, had you power to sway
That Rhodian Valour, which did yours obey?
Was not that pow'r deriv'd from awfull Heav'n
Which to your Valour hath your Wisdome given?
And that directs you to the Seasons meet
For deeds of Warr, and when 'tis fit to treat.

Vill.
Ere we to Splyman can sue,
Ianthe, we must treat with you.
The people find that they have no defence
But in your Beauty and your Eloquence.

Mar.
To your requests Great Solyman may yield.

Iant.
Can hope on such a weak Foundation build?

Mar.
In you the famish't peoples hopes are fed.

Iant.
Can your discerning eyes
(Which may inform the wise)
Be by vain hope, their blind Conductor, led?

Vill.
When winds in Tempests rise
Pilots may shut their eyes.

Mar.
And, though their practice knows their way,
Must be content a while to stray.

Iant.
Though Solyman should softer grow;
And to my tears compassion show;
What shape of comfort can appear to me,
When all your outward Warr shall cease,
If then my Lord renew his jealousie
And strait destroy my inward peace?

Vill.
The Rhodian Knights shall all in Council sit;
And with perswasions, by the publick Voice,
Your Lord shall woo till you to that submit
Which is the Peoples will, and not your Choice.
No arguments, by forms of Senate made,
Can Magisterial Jealousie perswade;
It takes no Counsel, nor will be in awe
Of Reasons force, necessity, or Law.

[Exit with the Marshal and her Women.
Vill.
Call thy experience back,
Which safely coasted every shore;
And let thy reason lack
No wings to make it higher soar;
For all those aids will much too weak appear,
With all that gath'ring fancy can supply,
When she hath travell'd round about the Sphere,
To give us strength to govern Jealousie.

Adm.
Will you believe that Fair Ianthe can
Consent to go, and treat with Solyman,
Vainly in hope to move him to remorse?

Vill.
'Twill not be said by me
That she consents, when she
Does yield to what the People would inforce.
Their strength they now will in our weakness find,
Whom in their plenty we can sway,
But in their wants must them obey,
And wink when they the Cords of pow'r unbind.

Adm.
'Tis likely then that she must yield to go.

Vill.
Who can resist, if they will have it so?

Adm.
Where 'ere she moves she will last innocent.

Vill.
Heav'ns spotless Lights are not by motion spent.

Adm.
Alphonso's Love cannot so sickly be
As to express relapse of Jealousie.

Vill.
Examine Jealousie and it will prove
To be the carefull tenderness of Love.
It can no sooner than Celestial fire
Be either quench't, or of it self expire.

Adm.
No signs are seen of Embers that remain
For windy passion to provoke.

Vill.
Talk not of signs; Celestial fires contain
No matter which appears in smoak.
Be heedfull Admiral; The private peace
Of Lovers so Renown'd requires your care:
Their League, renew'd of late, will if it cease
As much perplex us as the Rhodian Warr.

[Exit.
Adm.
How vainly must I keep mine eyes awake,
Who now, Alphonso, am enjoyn'd to take,
For publick good, a private care of thee;
When I shall rather need thy care of me?
Love, in Ianthe's shape, pass't through my eyes
And tarries in my breast. But if the wise
Villerius does high Jealousie approve
As Virtue, and because it springs from Love:
My Love, I hope, will so much Virtue be
As shall, at least, take place of Jealousie.
For all will more respect
The cause than the effect.
What I discern of Love, seems virtue yet,
And whilst that Face appears I'le cherish it.

[Exit.