University of Virginia Library

ACT I.

SCENE I.

Thunder: The Ghost of Tantalus, Megæra.
SCENE the Palace.
Tan.
Thou merciless, detested, horrid Fury:
To what new Colonies of mocking Fruits,
And vanishing false Streams, dost thou transplant
The Hungry Thirsty Shade of Tantalus?

Me.
To Colonies, where thou shalt eat and drink
Thy fill in quiet.

Tan.
Wilt thou clothe me then
In Flesh and Blood again? For had I them
Thou woud'st permit me to devour my self.

Me.
I lash thee hither, to devour thy self;
Monsters I mean descended from thy self.
Thou lazy Ghost hast done thy work by halves:
I chas'd thee hither once, to fill thy House
With Incest, Treason, Blood. Incest I see,
Brother whor'd Brother's Wife; Treason I see,
Brother depos'd his Brother from his Throne;
But where's the Blood? I see no blood at all,
Th'incestuous Traytour is in Exile safe.
Let me have Murders, such as all my Snakes
May rear themselves to see, and hiss Applause.
The Father eat the Nephew he begot;
The Bastard Nephew go out of the World,
A way more horrid than he came into it:
Let the vast Villany of thy damn'd Race
Reach, and confound the Heavens; make the Night
Engender with the Day; the groaning Day
Bring forth Gygantick darkness at full Noon,
Such as for hours may pluck the Sun from Heaven.
At this black Feast, I'le let thee be a Guest,
Devour thy fill in quiet, when thy Cup
Flowes with the Blood of thy incestuous Race,
Nothing shall dare to snatch it from thy Lips.

Tan.
Return me to my dark dire Prison in Hell,
And all your tortur'd Spirits hug your pains;
Nor, might you be releas'd, return to Life;
For Earth in Sin and Torment exceeds Hell:
Finish thy execrable work thy self,
The pain is more than I am bound to bear.

Me.
Look'st thou for Laws and Equity in Hell?
Thy Sword was all thy Reason upon Earth,
And this is ours.

Tan.
Oh! hold thy gnawing Whip,
I will obey.

Me.
Enter the Palace then;
Here with thy Son didst thou once feast thy Gods,
With thy great Grand-Sons now Feast all the Furies.
[The Scene is drawn, Atreus asleep.
Behold a Shadow of thy pains in Hell
Heir'd, by thy Grand-son Atreus upon Earth;
Night seems to offer him her shady Fruit,
And squeeze her Balmy slumbers in his Eyes,
And when he catches at 'em, she pulls back,
So from the Evening's Valley to the Morning Hill
He rowls his time, as Sysiphus his Stone.
The trembling Shade obeys, and pours himself
Into the Palace, which shakes more than he.
[Ex. Tan.
Nature's diseas'd and scar'd at his approach;
Trees shed their Leaves, as poyson'd men their Hair;
Streams crowd into their Mother-Fountain's Womb;
The Seas that hung on the Corinthian Neck,
Like Rival Queens in endless enterview,
Swell'd with Convulsion Fits, runfoaming back,
Nor can be held by all their watry Train;
And in their fright miscarry of new Isles.
Winds scowre the Air like midnight Revellers,
Mad with strong Spirits they ne're drunk before.
Night us'd to Apparitions, sweats at this,
And calls the Morning up, Morn dares not rise,
But like a timerous Virgin lower creeps.
[Enter Tantalus.
The work is done!—Atreus begins to rise,
And rising raves, descend damn'd Shade; the Earth
Cannot support at once Atreus and thee;
You both will break both Poles.—Descend to Hell.

[Tan. and Me. descend: Atreus rises.
Atr.
All of the sudden quiet? is the Masque
Concluded then, and Furies gone to rest?
Then Furies may have rest, though I'm denyed:
The Gods grudge me what they bestow on Hell.
What Nights have I? Sure I mistake for Nights
Whole pieces torn out of th'Infernal Blacks,
To wrap the Furies whilst they sport themselves
In this cold upper Air, by tort'ring me.
Confound you Furies, why do you vex me?
Is Earth grown good, that you want work below?
I'm sure my share has wickedness enough,
And find my Brother, and I'le fill your hands;
Mean while torment me not with Nightly pains,
Want of revenge is pain enough to me.
Till revenge Crowns me, I am still depos'd,
A Contemn'd, Artless, Nerveless, Spiritless Slave,
A loaded emptyness, on which my Brother,
Like a God, hangs an Universe of wrongs.
Ho! there!

[Enter a Waiter.
1.
Your Royal Will.

Atr.
Thou fawning Dog!
Thou lazy useless Cur, how long wilt thou
And all thy fellow Curs, with flattering Tongues,
Lye licking my wide Wounds, and not hunt out
The Savage Beast, from whom I had 'em all?
My gaping aking wounds can ne're be cur'd,
Till they are tented with his naked Bones.
By Tantalus, my wicked Grandfather
Who fear'd no Gods, by my more wicked self,
Who have no fear of Gods, or Men, or Devils,
Bring me Thyestes all to pieces torn,
E're I be rack'd by one more restless Night,
Or you, and all the Race of you shall dye;
For I'le leave nothing upon Earth to groan
For all your Deaths, but the o're-loaded Trees,
On whose torn boughs in Clusters you shall hang.

[Enter a Second.
2.
Sir, Tereus is return'd from the strict search
Of Prince Thyestes.

Atr.
Ha! go bring him in.
Enter Tereus.
Now speak the Tydings, yet thou need'st not speak,
Thy trembling Joints bow under evil news,
Death fills thy Face, and stands as in the Door
Ready to take possession of the House.
Thy Eyes, like Evening-lights before their time
Consum'd with Storms, are ready to go out,
And let thy Soul in darkness scape away:
But first I'le make it lay its burden down.
Speak, can Thyestes yet be found?

Ter.
Not yet.

Atr.
Then from this hour thou shalt be found no more.

1.
Great Sir.—

Atr.
Nor thou!—thus will I use you all;
[Stabs both.
For you are Traytors all, hir'd Traytors, all
Brib'd by Thyestes, you are all his Slaves,
He governs here in Argos, and not I;
I am his Slave, poor Slave; I have not Wealth
Enough, to purchase from his Head one Hair;
Yet he can buy my Peace, my Throne, my Wife,
And after all can keep me on the Rack
In my own Kingdom; in the midst of all
My Slaves and Guards, a Slave can rack a King,
An exil'd Slave a King; so many Friends
In Heaven, Earth, and Hell, has Villany.

Enter Antigone with Agamemnon and Menelaus, Infants.
Atr.
Now! what art thou?

Ant.
Antigone.

Atr.
What's that?

Ant.
Your Daughter, Sir.

Atr.
And are you sure o' that?
By Heavens, thy Mother was so rank a Whore,
That it is more than all the Gods can tell
What share of thee is mine.

Ant.
You have been pleas'd
To think me all your own.

Atr.
I have been pleas'd
To be a Fool, and think thy Mother too
Was all my own, and chaste.

Ant.
So sure she was,
Though any Chastity may be surpriz'd.
However, Sir, we came—

Atr.
To make me mad?
Was it for that?

Ant.
No, Sir, to make you Calm:
You have been pleas'd sometimes to take delight
In most unworthy me, and in these two
Poor innocent young Princes, who did ne're
Offend you yet.

Atr.
How! not offend me yet?
Then shou'd two flames, all of the sudden burst
Out of the Hill, on which my Palace stands,
The Hill upon whose brow by night I sleep,
By day I take my prospects of my delight,
The horrid flames wou'd not offend me? ha!
By all the Gods, these damn'd incestuous Brats
Are the irruptions of a burning Whore,
More hot than Ætna.

Ant.
Oh! Sir! howe're my Mother sin'd of late,
Yet I have heard your self sometimes confess
You thought her innocent when we were born.
She never saw my wicked Uncle's Face
Till after we were born.

Atr.
And what o' that?
Are there no men to sin withall but he?
What a vast Monster dost thou make thy Mother?
At the first minute of her Birth in Sin,
To conquer Nature, cancel all her Laws,
Do more than Fiends have done these thousand years?
No, no, so well of her do I believe,
I rather think she always was a Whore,
And by degrees ascended to this height:
Oh! how I lov'd that Woman! oh! the Gods!
Why in her stead was I not doom'd to love
Some gastly, grim, devouring, Hellish Fury;
Whose Hairs were Serpents, and her breath a plague;
Whose Bones were Gibets, and her Nerves Iron Chains;
Whose Eyes were Comets, and her Voice was Thunder;
Whose Teeth were Hooks all gor'd with humane blood;
Whose Flesh and Blood was a devouring bog,
Compounded of all poysons in the world?
In her abhor'd embrace I had not found
So many Deaths and Hells as I do now.

Ant.
Gods! if my Mother sin'd against such love,
And sin'd so foulely as some say she has;
Pour all your vengeance on her impious head,
And spare the injur'd King; his heavy wrongs
Are sufferings great enough for all his sins.

Atr.
Gods! with what witchcraft did this woman deal?
She has transform'd me to I know not what,
I am a mingle of Fool, Tyrant, Devil,
Madman, and Child, for by the Gods I weep,
Who ne're did so in tender'st Infancy.

Ant.
Hard were the Heart that would not melt at this.

Atr.
I am a madman too, I tear my self,
Cause him I ought to tear I cannot reach:
I'm such a Tyrant, were he in my reach,
I'd teach the Furies to torment the damn'd.
I was not always thus, this hellish mind
Was the Creation of that cursed woman;
Whom yet I love, so rank a Fool am I,
And for her sake, her sin-begotten brood,
For which I loathe my self, away with 'em.

Ant.
Pray, Sir.

Atr.
How now? Resist my will? Begone,
Or on the floor I'le mingle all your Brains.
What hinders me from killing these lewd Brats?
Sure it is Hell, which is afraid to lose
Fruit of a Stock, the like was ne're before:
Hence from my sight you Bastards, or my Guards
Shall bear you hence upon their Holbard points.

Enter Peneus.
Pen.
Get you hence, Children; leave the King to me:
Go, fair Antigone, your Planets lowr,
I like 'em not; but Children your's shine out:
Prince Agamemnon, Oracles agree,
Shall lay a glorious Empire in the Dust,
And Menelaus be the chiefest Cause.
But yet no Oracle did utter this
Without ill-boding sounds; then Children hence:
Argos perhaps may perish by your Death,
And that sad way the Oracle fulfill'd.

[Ex. An. Agam. Mene.
Atr.
How now, old Dotard, what is thy business here?

Pen.
Business I have, or I wou'd ne're come here:
A Court is not a place for an old man;
'Specially if in dotage so far gone,
As to be honest.

Atr.
Hence with thy old Cant;
That was the unintelligible stuff
Thou taught'st my foolish Youth; which now I find
All non-sence, and not fit for Princes Courts?

Pen.
What is not Vertue fit for Princes Courts?

Atr.
No, 'tis an Art of washing o're false Coin,
And stamping Images of Gods, on Knaves:
Thou seem'st the humblest Creature in the World,
The Fool that into flaming Ætna leapt,
To be esteem'd a God, had not more pride.
Thou fling'st thy self into the jaws of want,
To be ador'd, and thought a Godlike man.
He strove to disappear in Flame and Smoke,
And thou in cloudy words of good and wise.

Pen.
I serv'd so faithfully your Royal House,
Upwards of threescore years, that I believ'd
I might assume the name of honest man,
Since it was all the wages I desir'd.
When did I ever wrong you in my life,
That you shou'd throw this scandal on my age?
I speak for Vertues sake, and not my own,
Lest all men shou'd forsake her for a Cheat.
I'le do her right, as I'm in Conscience bound,
And boldly tell you, Vertue makes my Age
More pleasant, than your Kingdom does your Youth.

Atr.
Thanks to Thyestes.

Pen.
He has wrong'd you indeed.
But what have your obedient Subjects done?
And you kill them; to save their lives I came.

Atr.
They hide the Traytour.

Pen.
I believe the Gods
Hide him, lest you by death shou'd set him free
From greater punishments which they inflict:
Vengeance belongs to Gods, and they devour
Their luscious Morsels of Revenge alone.

Atr.
I'le find their Banquet out, and have my share,
I care not what it cost me; let our fam'd
Great House Pelops tumble on my head,
So damn'd Thyestes perish under me.

Pen.
You'l make your self as odious as he;
Almost as impious too.

Atr.
I wou'd be more,
I wou'd do all that Villany to him,
That he can only wish were done to me,
I have no other way to prove my self
His Elder Brother, and a lawful King.
For he of us that is the greatest Fiend
Ought to be King of Argos, 'cause he gives
The greatest proof of Tantalus his blood.
And I'le appear no Bastard to the World.

Pen.
What will your People say?

Atr.
I'le make 'em say
What I command.

Pen.
Falshoods perhaps you may.

Atr.
That is the great Prerogative of Power,
To tax the world for Praise as well as Coin;
I'le make 'em praise my actions good or bad.

Pen.
Yes whilst you live you may, but when you are dead
The world will curse you to Eternity.

Atr.
My Name will live then to Eternity.

Pen.
So will your Soul, but lost.

Atr.
Let 'em but live,
No matter how.

Pen.
Fear you not Men or Gods?

Atr.
The Fear of Gods ne're came in Pelops House.

Pen.
Think you there are no Gods?

Atr.
I find all things
So false, I'm sure of nothing but of wrongs.

Pen.
Then fear your injur'd Subjects, for the beams
Of Vertue breed the Golden Mines of Praise;
But Vice the Iron of Rebellion.

Atr.
Let them fear that! oh! I am mad, I burn,
Furies with flaming brands are in my breast:
Their Snakes with their own poyson almost burst;
And every Vein o' mine contains a Snake.
Ho! there! bid Mycenæ get in Arms,
I will pour all my Kingdom upon Greece.

Pen.
And who shall guard your Cities then?

Atr.
The Furies.
They are their Temples, and belov'd abodes.

Pen.
Oh! Sir!

Atr.
Away! or I will spurn thee hence;
I am transported from my self—arm!—arm!—
I'le do!—

Pen.
What will you do?

Atr.
I know not what,
Something that all the Gods shall tremble at.

Pen.
How miserable a thing is a great man?
Take noysie vexing greatness they that please;
Give me obscure, and safe, and silent ease:
Acquaintaince and Commerce let me have none,
With any powerful thing, but time alone:
My rest let time be fearful to offend,
And creep by me, as by a slumb'ring Friend;
Till with ease glutted, to my Grave I steal,
As men to sleep after a plentious Meal.
Oh! wretched he! who call'd abroad by power,
To know himself can never find an hour.
Strange to himself, but to all others known,
Lends every one his Life, and uses none,
So e're he tasted Life, to Death he goes,
And himself loses, e're himself he knows.

[Exit.