University of Virginia Library

Scena prima.

The Scene drawn, Cambyses is discover'd seated in a Chair sleeping: The Scene representing a steep Rock, from the top of which descends a large Cloud, which opening, appear various shapes of Spirits seated in form of a Councel, to whom a more glorious Spirit descends half way, seated on a Throne; at which, the former Spirits rise and Dance: In the midst of the Dance arises a Woman with a Dagger in her hand; at which the Scene shuts.
In the time of this Representation this Song is sung from within, as suppos'd, by Spirits.
Chorus.

[Cambyses rises from his Chair, as newly waking, and seems disorder'd.
Camb.
A Fatal Dagger, and a Womans hand!

Enter to him, Prexaspes.
Prex.
This Night, great Sir, your Presence does demand.
'Tis now th'appointed hour, your Forces wait
To gain admission at the Western Gate.—
Sir, you forget your self; one moments stay
Hazards your Crown, and loses you the day.

Camb.
Tell me no more of hazards, nor of Crowns.—
Cambyses threatn'd by a Woman's frowns!

Prex.
Remember, Sir, your Honour 'tis does call,
Your Empire's safety, and th'Impostor's fall.
And now's the time. What, can you tardy be
To wait on Triumph?

Camb.
—Let Triumph wait on me.
I will not go.

Prex.
—Not go! what pow'rful cause
Can force your courage to retreat, or pause!
Or can you leisure for debate afford,
When Conquest, and revenge invites your Sword?

Camb.
No, I shall meet my Fate; but thanks to Heav'n,
My Friends above have timely notice giv'n.

Prex.
Ha! meet his Fate! He dreams of Treason too:
Some superstitious god has told him so.
[Aside.
Can you fear dangers, or can dangers be
An envious Cloud 'twixt you, and Victorie?
Or is the pow'r of Heav'n so dreadful grown,
That fearing that, you can forget your own?
No, Sir, you must this glorious deed fulfill:
Let gods be gods, you are Cambyses still.
Seeing Cambyses make no answer, he proceeds.
Since you are with Prophetick thoughts possest:
What mystick fears have thus disturb'd your breast?

Camb.
My lab'ring fancy lead me to the brow
Of a steep Rock, that shaded all below.
From thence I saw a low-hung Cloud appear,
Swoln big with mists, and loaded with the Air:
Which with ingender'd Tempests seem'd to roar;
Reel'd, sunk, and stagger'd with the weight it bore.
A num'rous issue from its bowels flew;
Whilst the Cloud broke, and melted to a dew:
In which the wanton Spirits bath'd and plaid,
And greedily upon their Mother prey'd.
Then from above—
I saw the Prince of Fates his Arm display:
Lightning and Thunder usher'd in his way.
His Scepter mov'd, bow'd his Imperial head;
The lower Fates with Reverence obey'd.
Their Volumns instantly were brought, and He
Op'ning the Fatal Legend, pitcht on Me.
Then, in the Councel a dispute did grow,
Whether Cambyses mortal were, or no.
But they in vain their arguments did bring,
The Prince of Fates said, No; I was a King.
Straight in the midst I saw a Woman stand,
Grasping a bloody Dagger in her hand.
She by her looks their Sentence did condemn;
And by her posture threaten'd Me, and Them.
Then, as I wak'd, methought, I saw the dart
Snatcht from her hand, and levell'd at my heart.

Prex.
And can a dream Cambyses's spirits daunt,
Riddles as dark as are the Nights they haunt?
Your groundless jealousies unjust appear;
Thus greatest Valours smallest dangers fear,
As Lyons tremble at a spark of fire;
Shall it be said, Cambyses did retire,
Or shrink from that brave cause he should maintain?
Dreams are but th'unshap'd Monsters of the brain.
And Monster-like should onely be abhorr'd:
No more delays, you must imploy your Sword.

Camb.
Urge me no more.
Should I to Susa go, Fate has design'd
I from a Woman's hand my death should find.
Are these your stratagems? you had forgot
To keep your projects close, I'le spoil your plot.
My Pow'r has o're their policy this odds;
I'le stay at home, and disappoint the gods.
I'le baffle your Divinity. And since
They have resolv'd it, I'le my Stars convince.
Their borrow'd infl'erce common Fates may sway:
Cambyses has a greater pow'r than they.
Stars are like Galley-slaves, chain'd to a sphear,
And Subject-like onely Heav'ns Vassals are,
To move by Laws, act what th'higher pow'r decrees:
I can move where I will, act what I please.
Cambyses rules Cambyses's destiny:
Nor am I taught how to obey, or dye:
Prexaspes, see Mandana hither brought:
I'le by my Love divert this sullen thought.

Prex.
And must a Dream his Sanctuary be,
Protected by this Ridling Prophecy?
No, though his stay has my designs o'rethrown:
I'le take his Life, though I expose my own.

[Aside.]
[Exit.
Camb.
Though they have thus foretold my destiny,
Perhaps my Stars have dreamt as well as I.
[Prexaspes enters with Mandana, and Exit.
Mandana, you've my resolution heard;
The choice is easie, speak, are you prepar'd
To be my Mistress, or my Sacrifice?

Mand.
When 'tis your Royal pleasure, Sir, she dyes.

Camb.
No, no, I will a milder sentence give:
It is my Royal pleasure you should live;
And live in my embraces too.

Mand.
—In his—
In his embrace that murder'd Amasis!
And more, that bloody Tyrant that decreed
Osiris's cruel Fate; that barb'rous deed,
A deed enough t'infect the breath of Fame:
At which thy lesser treasons lose their name.

Camb.
And am I dallied with? your doom is seal'd:
Cambyses's sentence cannot be repeal'd.
Prepare to Love or dye; choose, and be free,
My speedy kindness, or my cruelty.

Mand.
Your cruelty my courage cannot bear,
Mandana then will in your kindness share.
I blush to say I offer up my heart;
But yet obedience is a Captives part.

[Passionately.
Camb.
Welcom kind Princess: All the pow'rs above
Shall envy at your kindness, and my Love.
If there be any pow'rs above my own,
For they that call 'emselves the gods, have none.
For if they had—
They had not to mankind this favour giv'n,
T'enjoy a blessing greater than their Heav'n.
We Princes to our selves our greatness owe;
They are but Kings above, we gods below.
Now you are kind.

Mand.
And why are not you so?

Camb.
Can you my kindness doubt? no, you shall find
'Tis you alone have taught me to be kind.
With the next Sun you shall your Reign begin;
To morrow you shall be proclaim'd my Queen.

Mand.
No, Sir, that is not all—

Camb.
—Oh, 'tis not all.
Our Love does for a stricter kindness call.
The night, the night, Love's chief Triumphant hour,
When blushes o're our pleasures have no pow'r:
When Lovers Revel in each others arms,
Confining to one Circle all their charms;
To an embrace. This to your Beauty's due,
First, I will crown our Loves, and then crown you.

Mand.
Oh, no, Sir, this is but a barren grant:
I still the crowning of my wishes want.
The favour I would have, is this—to dye.
Raising her voice at the two last words.
Tyrant, your Love's the greatest Cruelty.
Cambyses, no, you do mistake my part;
'Tis thus alone I'le offer up my heart;
Not to your lust, but Fury's Sacrifice.
Command my Death: then though your Sword denies,
On Earth, that Empire which my birth had giv'n;
Mandana will commence her Reign in Heav'n,
With my Osiris, in that glorious seat
Where Cruelty, and Tyrants never meet.

Camb.
How, Captive, am I scorn'd, and scorn'd by you?
To shew what injur'd Majesty can do,
Your death to this dispute an end shall bring,
I'le act no more your Lover, but your King.
Your Beauty shall no more my Arm controul,
I'le find a nobler passage to your soul.

[Proffers to draw his Sword to kill her.
Mand.
Cambyses, hold! come, I will milder be;
My kindness shall prevent your Cruelty.

[Kindly.
Camb.
Then use me thus no more, and you shall know
What Heav'n and Monarchs when they're pleas'd can do.

Mand.
Your Sword for nobler Actions is design'd:
To you then, and my self I'le now be kind.
I'le rob you of my Death—
[Draws her Dagger.
—Cambyses, no,
[Raises her voice.
Your Sword, Sir, shall not condescend so low,
To be a Womans Executioner,
My hand alone that guilty stain shall bear.
Rather then let a King that guilt contract,
Mandana her own murd'rers part will Act.
In dying thus her kindness will be shown,
She'le save your honour, and defend her own.
Now Tyrant, dare to violate her fame,
To stain her Virtue, or to force her shame;
This, this, shall guard her from your injuries,
[Pointing the Dagger to her own Breast.
For when her Honour you attempt, she dyes.

Enter Prexaspes.
Prex.
Welcome this happy opportunity,
[Aside.
Mandana, hold, you rob the World, and Me.
Runs to her, and snatches the Dagger from her hand.
And to my Gracious Sovereign I bring
This Present as a Subject's offering—
[Advancing to Cambyses, as if he design'd to present him the dagger.
Your Death, proud Tyrant—Dye, Cambyses, Dye.

[Stabs him.
Camb.
And by Prexaspes's hand!

[Proffering to resist, but sinks into his Chair.
Prex.
—Yes, Sir, 'tis I.

Mand.
Oh, Murderer! Help! Guards.

Prex.
—That will not do:
Madam, the Guards are safe, and so are you.

Camb.
Ungrateful Traytor, must my glory be
Unravell'd by so base a Slave as thee?
Did I for this my favours thus dispense,
And give thee being by my influence?

Prex.
Ay, Sir, and 'twas from you I understood
This dextrous way of letting Monarch's Blood.

Camb.
Oh, that I could but so much pow'r recall,
As but to rise, and crush thee in my fall.
[Proffering to rise, but cannot.
Or borrow so much kindness from my blood,
To swell so high to drown thee in a flood;
Oh, had I so much poison in my breath,
At once both to pronounce, and give thee death.
I would revenge my wrongs—but 'tis too late:
And Heav'n it self is a Confederate.
I do forget 'twas by your wills decreed,
I by that Dagger, and that hand should bleed.
But since, ye gods, ye did my Fate proclaim,
And ravisht from me both my Life, and Fame,
To let me tamely fall; may you pursue
That just revenge which is to murder due.
But if you fail to right my wrongs, and me,
May you want Temples, Altars, Flames, and be
From Homage and from Sacrifice debar'd,
And, that which makes you gods, be never fear'd—
My passion with my blood now milder flows:
Your dying Prince for your last pardon sues:
[To Mand. sinking his voice.
Now all your scorn and Cruelty must cease,
Death, that disarms my Love, concludes its peace.

[He dyes.
Mand.
His unjust Fate has o're my wrongs prevail'd;
Farewel, dead Prince, death has thy pardon seal'd:
Though thou wert wicked, yet thou wert a King.
But, Traitor, whence did thy black fury spring:
[To Prex.
Who in your Prince's blood your hands embrue?

Prex.
Madam, His Death must copyed be by you.
Now is the time, proud Girle, in which I'le prove,
The just Revenger of my injur'd Love.
[Holding the Dagger towards her breast.
Since you a greater Tyrant are than He,
'Tis just that you should share his destiny.

Enter Otanes, Darius, and Artaban.
Otan.
'Tis some strange cause our King thus long has staid.

Prex.
Return'd so suddenly! ha! I'm betraid.
Yet my Revenge I'le end.—

[Goes to stab Mandana.
Dar.
—Prexaspes, hold.
[Stays him.
What unshap'd fury makes your Arm thus bold?

Prex.
The King, the King—

Dar., Otan. and Artab.
Speak, what?

Prex.
—There murder'd lyes:
Oh, Fatal blow both to our hearts, and his.

[Weeps.
Dar. and Otan.
Cambyses Murder'd!

Prex.
—Oh, inhumane deed,
For which all Persia, with our King, does bleed!
[Weeps.
See here the Fatal Dagger, and see there
Mandana's hand, Cambyses's Murderer.
[Weeps again,
Oh, horrour! Envious Heav'n!

Dar.
—Mandana's hand,
In our great Monarch's bloody Murder stain'd!

Mand.
Perfidious Lyar, must my innocence
Be thus abus'd, and made thy Crime's defence?
Ye gods!

Prex.
What does she mean!
The dismal horror of a deed so foul,
Has rais'd so black a Cloud over her soul;
That she forgets the Royal blood she spilt,
Stifled and stupify'd with her own guilt.
What fury made you this black deed pursue,
[To Mandana.
'Gainst him that had no fault,—but Loving you?
How could your hand—

[Weeps.
Mand.
How can your impudence
Accuse Mandana of your own offence?
Did not thy hand, thy hand, proud Traitor, give
That wound he from no other could receive?
None but thy hand that cursed deed durst do,
To shake all Persia at one Fatal blow.

Otan.
Ha! this strange parley, and dispute does breed
More wonder then the strangeness of the deed.
Prexaspes, let the story then be told,
That may this cruel Mystery unfold.

Prex.
Know then, my Lords, entring this fatal place,
I saw distraction painted in a Face
'Twixt guilt and horrour; as I nearer drew,
By this faint light I straight Mandana knew.
I saw her in a trembling posture stand,
Grasping this bloody Dagger in her hand.
'Twas then, 'twas then my eyes the Night abhor'd,
The Night which did her guilty shades affor'd,
To that black deed, at which our rising Sun
Must blush to see what her bold hand has done.
[Weeps.
Then from her hand I straight the Dagger snatcht,
And soon a speedy Justice had dispatcht;
But that your entrance did my Arm restrain;
And stay my zeal to my dead Sovereign.
[Weeps.
Else I'ad perform'd the second Tragick part,
Righting his wrongs upon his Murd'rers heart.

Mand.
Oh, perjur'd Slave! dare you tempt Heav'n, and know
The gods and Justice have a Pow'r below?
Thus to out-face their vengeance?—

Prex.
Ha! Was this murder then a bastard guilt,
To Father thus on me that blood she spilt?
But I forget, they who dare kill their King,
Want not the Face to dare say any thing.
Well, since I must my Loyalty dispute,
Let this, my Lords, all jealousies confute?

[Shews them the Dagger.
Dar.
Mandana's Dagger! Oh, prodigious Fate!

Otan.
The sacred Relique of th'Egyptian State,
Worn by Succession from their Kings of old:
Of which their Priests a wond'rous rise have told;
Which their Religious Legends do pretend
God Ammon did to their first Monarch send;
Which since has by his Heirs been kept, to be
A Badge of the Egyptian Majesty.

Prex.
What caus'd her rage is plainly understood;
The deep resentments of her Father's blood,
Her Slavery, and her lost Crown, and more,
The hate she to Cambyses's Passion bore.

Dar.
Mandana—
Oh, ye gods, that men should be
So much mistaken in Divinity.
Who could have thought, that she who is adorn'd
With Divine Beauty, has a soul deform'd?

Otan.
Guards, there within.
Oh, Madam, have you so ill understood
The tyes of Majesty, and your high blood?
To shed his blood, and thus prophane your own;
Remembring you were born unto a Throne.
Enter Guards.
But now forgive me, Madam, that I must
To our dead King, and to our Laws be just.
Impute my Rigour to my Loyalty,
That forces me to tell you, you must dye.

Mand.
To shew how gladly I accept that breath,
I'le rob you of the Sentence of my Death.
Guards, I'm your Prisoner. Conduct me straight,
There where Mandana may embrace her Fate:
Death is the only happiness I court.

Prex.
The plot was well then, since she likes the sport.

[Aside.
Mand.
Osiris, now Fate has this favour giv'n,
To let me dye, to visit thee, and Heav'n.
Yet though the name of Death has made me proud,
When I am dead may Heav'n remove the Cloud:
And may my better Stars restore my Fame
To its first whiteness, that my injur'd Name
May grow unsullied, as my Innocence.

Dar.
And may kind Heav'n forgive you your offence.
The mildness, Madam, of your Death shall show
What pity we to such perfections owe.
Conduct her safely there where she may be
[To the Guards.
Debarr'd from nothing else but Liberty;
Untill her Death your Office shall discharge.

Mand.
Untill her Death shall her freed soul enlarge.
I come, Osiris, and may some kind Star,
That smiles on Lovers, guide me to thy sphear.
There our divided souls shall meet, and be
A part of the Cœlestial Harmony.

[Exit, lead out by Guards.
Dar.
The Fates are still malignant to the great:
They rise in glory, but in blood they set.

Exeunt Artaban and Guards, bearing out Cambyses.
Otan.
The ashes of a King's no common dust:
Nor is it fit their memories should rust.
It is not just Cambyses's wrongs should be
Idly recorded to Posterity.
Since the World needs his injuries must hear,
They shall be utter'd in the voice of War.
His Empire's freedom, and th'Impostor's fall,
Summons our courage, and to Arms does call.
But since his Brother by your hand did bleed;
[To Prex.
Before we further in this cause proceed,
'Tis just we first from you more fully know
When 'twas, and where you gave that Fatal blow.
Surpriz'd!

[Prexaspes starts.
Prex.
It needs my wonder must create,
Never to know, and yet to Act his Fate.

Otan.
Did you not hear it from our Kings own breath,
And yet are ignorant of Smerdis's death?

Prex.
By all that's true, no more to me is known,
Then that he lives, and wears the Persian Crown.

Dar.
Can we believe Cambyses would disclaim
His only Heir, that should preserve his Name?
Besides, it against Natures Laws would be
T'accuse himself of a false Cruelty.

Prex.
The Laws of Nature, and the tyes of blood,
Are things Cambyses never understood.
No, 'twas his Brother that he would destroy;
He envied him that Crown he did enjoy.
He then would have you that revenge pursue,
Which now Death will not give him leave to do.
Smerdis still lives—but you a War must bring,
And out of Loyalty depose your King.
Take heed—

Otan.
We know too well, Cambyses's breast
Was sway'd by passion, and false Interest.
But could he before you and us declare,
You were his Brother Smerdis's Murderer?
If it were false, he could not but suspect,
To clear your self, you would his guilt detect.

Prex.
Then, to convince you, I with shame confess
My Loyalty was great, and Virtue less.
To quench his thirst I blood too oft have spilt,
The Confident and Actor of his guilt.
And he might think who blood for him had shed,
Would not refuse, barely to say, I did.
Thus he t'assure you of his Brothers death,
Took this advantage to confirm your faith.
He knew—
Rather than any stain his fame should touch,
I would say any thing, who had done so much.

Otan.
We are convinc'd—

Dar.
Long may thy Brother live, and live to be
Heir to thy Conquests, but not Cruelty.

Prex.
Prexaspos, well, by Treasons thou didst grow,
They made thee great, and shall preserve thee so.

[Aside.]
[Exeunt.