University of Virginia Library

ACT IV.

SCENE I.

Urania, Sola.
Ura.
How long, my Dear Cesario, shall I want
Thy presence, to drive all these troubles hence?
My Soul is heavy, and my Eye-lids feel
A pressing weight that fain wou'd shut out light,
And let in Peace; hush my lull'd Sorrows silent,
And give my feeble strength a short repose.
More Clouds do gather round my Eyes, 'tis strange,
I am not us'd to be inclin'd to sleep,
Whilst the day shines. I'll take what nature offers,
It may discharge my waking Melancholy;
[Sits down.
I feel it gently slide upon my Sences:
Take me you Heavenly Rulers to your Care,
And let my Dreams be nothing but Cesario.

[Lies down.
Enter Ferdinand, and Oswell, Attendants.
Ferd.
I cannot find 'em, sure the Prince of Darkness,
Or some of his Commission'd Fiends, have snatcht 'em
From the Orb of Light to hide their guilty shames
In his own sable shades, black as their Crimes:
There's not a Corner in this spreading Realm,
But we have searcht with strictest diligence.

Osw.
My Lord, here lies a Woman, Dead I think.

Ferd.
A Woman, ha! By Heaven and Earth 'tis she,
And wrapt in the dull leaden Arms of sleep.
But where's Cesario? Where lies he Conceal'd?
I've happiness by halves, if he escapes.

Osw.
He cannot be far off, 'twere best, my Lord,
Behind yon Thicket to conceal your self,
Till you have got 'em both within your Snare.

Ferd.
You Counsel well. Let us a while retire.
By Heaven, I keep a Jubilee within me;
Riot in Joy, and Revel in delight,
To think how bravely I shall take revenge.

[Ex.
Uran.
Defend me Heaven! Do I dream still, or wake?
[Uran. wakes.
What horrid Visions have appear'd before me!
Methought I saw Cesario gash'd with Wounds,
And Ferdinand all o'er dy'd in his Blood,
Whilst my Unkind and Cruel Father stood
Triumphing over him, and with a smile,
Rejoic'd to see his Soul and Body part.
But why shou'd I give credit to a Dream,
An airy Vision fram'd by straggling fancy,
Deluding my weak sence with air and shadow?

Enter Cesario with a Basket of Meat, Tachmas with Drink.
Cesa.
Look up, Urania, cast thy Sorrow off,
See, I have brought thee Food to cheer thy Spirits.
[They all sit down.
Angels protect her, with how much delight
She feeds upon the homely fare of Peasants.

Enter Ferdinand, Oswell, and Attendants.
Ferd.
Do you not want Attendants to your Banquet?
Nay let not us disturb you, we are Friends,
And only come to take repast with you.

Cesa.
Curst Fate!
[The Guards seize Cesario and Tachmas.
Surpriz'd, Unarm'd! and made so tame a Sacrifice!

Uran.
Now, now, I see too late my Dreams were true.

Tach.
Oh, Sir, I beg you wou'd not let me suffer.
Alas, I'm Innocent, my Charity,
Oblig'd me to assist the miserable,
Let not your Vengeance fall on an old Man,
But spare my Age.

Ferd.
Thou art below my anger.
Be gone, and keep thy Life, not worth my taking.

Tach.
How has my Hypocrite Tongue belyed my Heart.
Think not, mistaken Tyrant, that the fear
[Aside.
Of Death, makes me so poor a Suppliant.
When I descend thus low, I only stoop,
To borrow Life, to lend it my Cesario.

[Ex. Tach.
Ferd.
Now, Sir, for you.

[To Cesario.
Cesa.
Me! I despise thy rage.
Let all the Tortures Malice can invent
Be laid on me, I can endure 'em all;
But do not dare to touch that Angel-Form,
Whose unexampled Vertue is alone
Enough t'atone for all her Sexes Frailty.
Take heed how you provoke the Gods, by hurting
That brighest, nearest Image of themselves.

Ferd.
Young angry Sir, spend not your Breath in vain:
Keep it to curse the Hour thou saw'st that Face:
I have a Scourge for thee, I have, bold Lord,
Fierce as the Vengeance of an angry God,
And swifter than a Pestilence; for You,
[To Uran.
In whom I once had treasur'd up my Soul,
You're in my Power; my Love is turn'd to Hate,
And thou, before thy Face, shalt see her die.

[To Cesario.
Cesar.
O bloody Tyrant! aim your Rage at me;
Send me to Ruine, kill me, wrack me, burn me;
Do any thing, so you'll but save her Life:
Think, when you murder that Celestial Form,
You wound all Mankind at the dismal Blow;
Not only all the mourning Globe, the Gods
Themselves will suffer when such Vertue bleeds.

Ferd.
Most amorous Raptures.

Uran.
Do not touch one Hair
Of that dear Gallant, God-like Man; on mine,
My head alone pour all your impious Vengeance.
Live, my kind, dearest Lord.

Ferd.
Not Fate shall save him,
Nor Heaven it self keep thee from my Revenge.

Uran.
How I disdain thy Rage, do, shew thy Malice;
Kill me as barbarously as thou art base:
But as I die, I'll send my last kind Looks,
Sighs, Prayers and Life into Cesario's Eyes;
Nay, though you scatter all my sprinkled Ashes
Around the World, each Atome of my Dust,
Shall find a Soul, and fly into his Bosome.

Cesar.
O mighty Love!

Ferd.
So brave! nay then I'll find a means to tame you.
Attend me to my Chariot with the Princess,
But to your Horse's Tayl tye fast that Slave,
And drag him to the King.

Uran.
Hold! Hold! yet hold!
You do not sure mean this Barbarity:
How can you look on him, and be so cruel?
See how he stands like a tame suffering Saint,
And smiles i'th' midst of all his Miseries.
If not for him, shew pity then to me,
And though he be your Prisoner use him nobly.

Ferd.
I'm deaf to all Intreaties. Drag him forward.

[Ex. Omnes.
The King discover'd melancholy, some Attendants standing by him; A Song, and Symphony of Musick within.
SONG.
VVritten by a Person of Quality.

King.
No more; no more; cease all your Harmony,
It suits not with a Wretch so curst as I:
Yet why, unpitying Heaven, this hard Decree!
There might have been some milder Doom for me.
Why was my Daughter
Destin'd to punish him who gave her Breath,
And by her Flight to seal a Father's Death?

Enter Fabio hastily.
Fabio.
Where's the King?

King.
Here; what portends thy Haste and busie Countenance?

Fab.
Haste, my good Lord!
When Fortune points me out the Instrument,
And happy Messenger to please my King;
Do I not ought to fly like Mercury,
And pour the Joy into his Royal Ears.

King.
Has thy Intelligence brought me any Knowledge
Of Ferdinand? Speak, is Urania found?

Fab.
The News I bring my gracious Lord,
Concerns the Prince, and how my Heart flows o'er,
That I am pointed out by Heaven,
The first, and happy Messenger.

King.
Proceed, and we'll reward thee.

Fab.
Reward, alas!
All my Ambition aims but at your Favour;
My Soul was never Mercenary:
It is my Duty to wear out my Life
In Services for you and the whole State,
Whereof, although I am no able Member—

King.
He's mad.

Fab.
It is with Joy then, my good Lord.

King.
Tell me thy News in short, or thy Life pays for't.

Fab.
Alas, my Life is the least thing to be minded:
He is no faithful Subject would refuse
To kill his Wife and Children, after that
To hang himself to do his King a Service.

King.
Villain, why dost thou wrack my Expectation?
Answer me quickly without Circumstance,
Where is the Prince? be brief, or—

Fab.
The Prince! I know not, my good Lord.

King.
Traytor! didst not prepare me to expect
News of the Prince, pronouncing thy self happy
In being the Messenger? Is he in health, answer to that?

Fab.
Indeed, my Lord, I know not.

King.
Hang up the Slave; I shall become the Scorn
Of my own Subjects.

Fab.
But, with your Royal Licence, I am able
To produce those that do.

King.
Where? whom? speak that, and quickly save thy Life.

Fab.
He waits without, Sir.

King.
Haste, and bring him in.

[Ex. Fab.
Re-enter Fabio, with Oswell.
Oswell.
Health to the King: the Prince, my Master, Sir,
With fair Urania, and the General,
I left within less than a League o'th' City,
And came before to bring the joyful Tidings.

King.
Are they then found, thou welcome Harbinger?
Seiz'd and brought back, Oh! let the Satyrs dance it;
The sweet Birds sing it; let the Winds be wanton;
And, as they softly with an Evening Whisper,
Steal through the curled Locks of the lofty Woods,
Let 'em, in their sweet Language, seem to murmur,
This was the Day that Crown'd a King's Revenge.

Enter Messenger.
Messeng.
My Lord, Prince Ferdinand.

King.
Conduct him in.
Enter Ferdinand.
Thou welcom'st Guest my Court yet ever harbour'd:
Oh I want Power to recompense thy Care.
Where be the Fugitives? Speak, Ferdinand.

Ferd.
They wait without, my Lord.

King.
Bring 'em in.

[Exit Fabio.
Re-enter with Cesario and Urania guarded; Cesario and Urania kneel.
Cesar.
With my Soul trembling, like a fearful Criminal,
With Terrour struck at sight of his great Judge:
Behold the wretched, poor Cesario falls,
Not to beg Life, since Death I have deserv'd,
But that you'd Mercy shew to this dear Innocence,
A Virgin, though my Bride.

Uran.
O Royal Sir!
I kneel to you, as Heaven when I offend,
Not to beg Life, unless my dear Cesario,
By your Consent, be given to my Arms.

King.
Rise!
I've heard you both; and, Sir, your Suit will grant;
Death thou hast merited, Death thou shalt have:
Thy Torments, by degrees, shall rise to kill thee;
And what will plague thy Soul, thy Latest Gasp
Shall see Urania married to this Prince.

Cesar.
It is a studied Tyranny; but, Sir,
All this, and more, I'd bear, might she live happy.

Uran.
Live, my Cesario! Canst thou think I'll live?
Live in the Arms of him my Soul abhors!
No, cruel Father, Nature shall not bind me:
I will forget 'twas you that gave me Life,
And, in despight of Duty, be his Bride:
We'll mount above, far, far beyond your reach;
Where in a glorious Clowd, we'll Arm in Arm,
Look down and smile with Scorn on that gay nothing.

King.
Furies and Death then I will quite put off,
The name of Father, take as little notice
Thou art my Off-spring, as the surly North
Does of the Snow, which when it has engender'd,
It's wild Breath scatters through the Earth forgotten.

Ferd.
Sir, she's your Daughter.

King.
Do not call her so.
There's not one drop of my Blood in her Veins.
She makes her self a Bastard, and deserves
To be cut off like a disorder'd Branch,
Disgracing the fair Tree from whence she sprung.

Ferd.
But yet, my Lord.

King.
I'm deaf, inexorable as Seas
To th'Prayers of Mariners:
Oswell, be't your care,
To lodge that hated Slave in a dark Dungeon;
And confine her close Prisoner to her Chamber.

[Ex. King, Ferd. Attended.
Cesa.
Is this for Kindness, or for Cruelty?
Ah no, he gives me this short moment's sight,
That I may lose my Heaven with greater torment.

Uran.
No, my Cesario, we'll both die together:
For when thou'rt gone, oh what a weary Load
Will Life be to me!
But when you see me die, will you be kind?
And pity my hard fate, when you behold
My panting Breast laid open, and that Heart,
Where my dear Lord once Reign'd, all torn and mangled?
Will you look pale, and with a trembling sigh,
Let a kind Pearl fall trickling from your Eye?
Say, will you do all this for poor Urania?

Cesa.
Not do all this for thee; If th'inraged King
Will wreak his barbarous Vengeance in thy Veins,
Thy sacred Veins, and the unthinking Gods
Dare see it done; shall not I mourn for thee?
Doubt not that pious Tribute of my Eyes.
Shall not my Dew fall at thy setting Sun?
Not weep to see thee bleed! I'll make my Eyes
Start from their Spheres, to view the killing object:
And when thy sweetness draws near to Heaven,
My fainting, bleeding Heart,
Shall just keep Life enough to break with thine.

Uran.
My kindest Lord, now with full Tides of Joy,
I can meet death, since he has made me thine.
My Soul's all Rapture, all Delight; grim Death,
Whose ghastly Visage frights the trembling World,
To me's all Gay, and with a charming Smile,
Does with sweet Wreaths and Flowery Garlands come,
My Bridal Pleasures Blossom on my Tomb.

Cesa.
Now you transport my ravisht sense too high,
The worth of Ages, and thy Sex's glory,
Is all summ'd up in thee; but must you die!
Must this Celestial Light fall like a Meteor!
This blooming Spring fade like a wither'd Autumn!
Must this fair Book of Life, writ by Heaven's Hand,
The Legend of a God, be all defac'd?
And must I see it done! oh my Urania,
I never was a Coward till this moment.

Osw.
My Lord, we wait too long; the King Commanded
The Princess to her Chamber, you to Prison.
We must obey him.

Cesa.
'Tis indeed your duty.
Resist not Destiny. My Love obey him;
And leave Cesario with his griefs. Farewel.
Farewel, for ever, my belov'd Urania,
Till we shall meet again above the Stars.

Uran.
My Lord, my Life, my Soul, my All, Farewel.
Grief choaks my words, and I can say no more.

[Ex. Ura. Osw.
Cesa.
Come, Gentlemen, now lead me to my Fate,
For Death's the only thing I wish to find.
I think there are some here have follow'd me:
Where I have sought him oft, but ne'r fled from him.
But it is past, Cesario now's no more.
My Fame, Life, Honour's gone: yet what is Death?
To think no more: and Honours but a Breath.
But my Urania's lost! nought could provoke
My Soul to pain like that dire killing stroke.
Oh that last Wound has toucht so near my Heart,
That Fate's whole Quiver wants another Dart.

[Ex. Omn.