University of Virginia Library

ACT the Fifth.

Scene the First.

The Scene a Prison. Clarmount and Fredigond appear bound.
Enter Nigrello.
Clarm.
Art thou here?
Perfidious Slave, is this the gratitude
Thou pay'st thy Royal Mistriss?

Queen.
Barbrous Villain,
Thou hast out-done even thy own Native soyle,
And made thy self a Monster, more deform'd
Then e're thy Africk bred.

Nigr.
Go on.

Clarm.
Oh Impudence!
Hear me ye sacred Pow'rs, in punishment
To such Ingratitude, may you invent
A Plague, for yet your Vengeance never sent
On all the sinners since the Worlds Creation,
One bad enough for him. But if the Gods
Are barren at Invention, let 'em joyn
All their old Plagues in one; and if that prove
Too light, add my Gall to't to make it weight.

Nigr.
You're not so good at Curses, as I am
At pardoning 'em: Thus I reward your Rage.

[Unbinds 'em.
Clarm.
What means this Pageantry? some fair disguise
To palliate thy guilt. Mock us with freedom,
To cut our throats more pleasantly. Is't not
Enough to kill, but you must have the vanity
Of a Surprize in acting it?

Nigr.
You wrong me.

Clarm.
'Tis likely; you're so innocent the least
Spot stains you. First, betray our privacy
And thy Queens Honour, then to have her seiz'd
And drag'd by servile hands into a Dungeon,
Loaded with Chains; and all to have th'occasion
T'oblige her with the taking of'em off agen.
How thin, and how transparent are thy cheats?

Nigr.
Sir, t'undeceive you, know that I am guiltless:
And though I was the man that seiz'd you, sent you
To Prison, used all cruelty and rudeness
I could invent, 'twas all design'd to serve you.

Queen.
He speaks like Oracles in Mysteries.

Nigr.
And like them too speak truth. Your Son betrayd you:
But by what information he surpriz'd you
In so retired a place, I know not; but
Finding you were betrayd, and by the Prince
Beset; I, at the Alarm strait joyn'd
With the Confederates, appeared their Friend.
Pursued the chace more eagerly then they,
And was the first, and fiercest that attacqued you.
I first proposed this Dungeon for your Lodging,
And as kind Fate would have it, by that intrest,
My Service to the Prince in his recovery,
Had gain'd me in his breast, It was thought honest,
And my design embraced. Thus was I made
Your Jaylour, and thus your Deliverer.

Clarm.
Can this be truth?

Queen.
He cant sure be so great
A Villain as this makes him, if't be false:
We have found him honest; this was not the first time
That he has been the Guardian of our Honour,
In places too, where had he then proved false,
Our Infancy had been more loud, and our
Disgrace more publick then by seizing us
In so retired a place as this. Why not
A Villain then? If he intended Treason,
Why mist he such much fairer opportunities
To act it? no, he is; he must be honest.

Clarm.
Since your mistrust is gone, mine too must vanish.

Nigr.
But Madam, Courtesies that cost us nothing,
Cannot be acts of Gratitude: Fate (I thank it)
To pay my Debts to you, a glorious path has shown,
By saving your Lives I expose my own:
But danger's welcome in so great a cause.

Queen.
Nigrello, kind Nigrello, how I love thee.

Nigr.
Your pious Son has such strict sense of Honour,
That though perhaps Nature may intercede for You;
For Clarmount, he designs a death in Tortures:
But when he shall have heard I saved his Life,
What danger will my humble weakness run,
By the just anger of so great a Prince;
How easily am I crusht by such a hand:
Yet all this Madam, I dare undertake,
When acted for my Royal Mrs. sake.

Queen.
My kind preserver, I want words to thank thee.

Nigr.
I ask no thanks; all the requital I
Desire, is, that you two would Love for ever.
Under the shelter of so blest an Union
I'm certain to be safe; whilst that Tye holds,
That sacred tye of Love, you'l cast some thoughts
On your poor humble Slave, and guard him from
An angry Princes rage: But if that Chain
Be ever broke, my shaken fortune sinks,
And all I am expires and dyes, if e're
You cease to Love—

Queen.
If what we owe to thee,
Can by our Loves be paid, doubt not your Debtors,
We are too Rich in Love e're to be Bankrupts.

Clarm.
When we cease Loving, we must cease to be:
Our Loves are Register'd in Heaven; or if
They be not yet, they shall be. Ye dull Destinies,
I'le dictate while you write. Our Love desires
To last as long as Fate, for I am serves
'Tis as unchangeable. To those fair Eyes
I'le dedicate my Life, my Soul, my—

Nigrello stamps, and immediately a Company of Villains rush in with drawn Swords, and massacre the Queen and Clarmount.
Nigr.
Down, down with them you Dogs; one minutes Life
May save their souls. So, you've done well,
Lay their bodyes where I order'd,
And when I give the sign agen, be ready.
Exeunt Villains, carrying out Clarmount and Fredigond.
Revenge, oh dear Revenge. Name me the man
In Story that e're prosecuted Vengeance
So far as I have done. Had I took their lives
When they expected death, they then might have
Prepared for dying, and death would have been all.
But now to raise 'em to the hopes of Life,
Nay, and to work'em up to vow the leading
A profane Life in an unlawful Lust;
And whilst the impious Vow was sealing, then
To stop th'Adultrous breath just in that minute,
As damn'd their Souls, is a revenge so charming.
But business now grows thick. Here I have lodged
Aphelia, and expect the King. Burn on,
Burn on my best loved Rage. Ye infernal Furies
Be kind, and heighten my weak gall; be but
My Slaves to day, and be my Saints to morrow.

Enter King and a Lord attending him.
Lord.
The Castle is surrounded, and their number
Is twenty thousand, and the greatest part
Are Childricks Souldiers, Souls of blood and fire.
A fiercer Troop, and spirits more resolved,
Life never put in action.

King.
Let 'em come on,
This Castle will endure
A Fortnights Siege. Before which time's expired,
My Brother with the noblest blood of France,
Whom I have Commission'd to suppress their out-rage,
Shall lash these Rebels for their insolence.
Leave us.
Nigrello.
Exit Lord.

Nigr.
Sir.

King.
Bring Aphelia in.
Exit Nigrello.
Love, thou hast had thy flight; now Hate take thine,
Whilst my blind Faith believed her Chast, my Faith
Made my Devotion; I believ'd that Heav'n
Was lodged in her, and so I kneelt and worshipt.
But now I see I have misplaced my prayers,
And find that Idol-Beauty I adored,
No true Divinity: To expiate
My misled Zeal, I'le put the false light out,
And down in dust, low as the grave, degrade
That painted God my Superstition made.

Enter Nigrello and Aphelia.
Aph.
Is this my King? why wears your angry brow
So dark a Cloud? I have deserved no frowns:
Yet by the calculation of your looks,
I find I have not long to Live.

Nigr.
Yes, Live.
Confess, and turn thy Fate: Tell me what damnd
Infernal Fury tempted thee to quit
Thy Innocence, and leave a stain behind it
So deep, as spreads Contagion o're thy Soul.

Aph.
How Royal Sir, what means—

King.
Hold,
Confess thy Crimes, but make 'em not too horrid;
Say that thy sin was not so black; say that
The lustful Villain offer'd Marriage to thee,
And by a Trecherous and Perfidious craft,
Gilded the sin, till it look'd fair and lovely.
Abused thy tender years and weaker knowledge,
To take a possession of thy Virgin-Honour
Before the deeds were sealed that should convey it.
Say he betray'd thee.

Aph.
Hold Sir—

King.
That too much still.
Say that he gave thee philters, and so poyson'd
Thy purer Nature, till the infectious herbs
Had stupified that sense which was the guard
Of thy untainted Honour, till thy Soveraign
Reason was from its Royal seat deposed,
And so thy Frenzy, not thy Lust undid thee.

Aph.
I am all horrour.

King.
Hold; That shape's too black still;
Say that the Villain did it by surprize.
Found thee alone, or sleeping, and his Dagger
Pointed against thy heart, by force extorted
The fatal prize, whilst fear, not guilt betray'd thee.
Say any thing to make thee seem less monstrous.
Whilst I behold that face I love so well still,
I would not have thee faln from all that's good;
I fain would think thee Virtuous, if I could.

Aph.
Stay Royal Sir, and hear an injur'd Maid:
I've felt the Tyranny of Prisons, Chains,
My Soveraigns frowns; and those I've born with courage.
But t'hear my King accuse me of a Crime,
Of which my thoughts, nor dreams were never guilty.
If I betray'd my Virtue, I must lay
The Scene of Treason in some strange dark place
As Sun ne're saw: For after such a stain
I could not look Light in the face and live.

King.
How impudent is Lust; she never thought,
Not she, nor dreamt an ill. Because some Charity
For her Soul, and some little kindness for her Beauty
Made me so fond, to wish her Crime might be
As little as it could; she at next word
Has Innocence enough to stock a Saint,
And takes the borrow'd Name without a blush.

Aph.
Mistaken Sir, you are abused. What Monster
Has some malicious Traytor rendred me?

King.
Ask your Gallant, your Clarmount.

Aph.
You distract me:

Clarmount
Sir, what of him?

King.
You'd have me tell you:
The sport's so Ravishing, that by this Light,
She's for the pleasure of the repetition on't.

Aph.
Why do you shake my tender sense, & offer
Such Violence to my chast ears? Indeed
If you could read my Soul, you would not talk
So like a Stranger to't. What-ever malice
Conspires against your quiet and my Life,
By my best hopes of Heav'n, Heav'n that should guard
The fame of Virtue, and the peace of Kings,
I'm injur'd, basely wrong'd, and am so far
From what my King suspects me, that I never spoke
To Clarmount.

King.
You're wondrous good at signs then. Sure you rated
Your Honour at low price, to make no words
At parting with it. 'Sdeath, not speak to him!
What numerous Crimes
Attend on Lust? All other sins came singly.
The Murdrer kills a Man; the Sacrilegious
Plunders a Temple; the Blasphemer Curses
His God; and who makes more on't? But a Woman
That's Damnd in Lust, commits all sorts of sins.
The Hypocrite she must be; she appears
The thing she is not. Perjury's her study;
For she protests for Chastity. If she Marries
Her antidated Monster in the Bridal Night,
Wrapt in false light, snatches at unknown joys,
And cheated with a Conquest that required
Not half the pains he takes for't, thinks he has gain'd
An infinite spoyle; when Heav'n knows, long since
The Mine was ransackt, and the Treasure gone.
And next perhaps, the Issue of her Groom,
Or Page, is made her cousen'd Husbands Heir:
And thus not only her own blood's defiled,
But the base Canker spreads through Families;
And so one minutes sin leaves stains to Ages.
But to unridle this dumb show of Virtue,
Though you were modest, and you durst not speak',
I'le try if you dare read. Is not that yours?

Shews her the Letter.
Aph.
Yes Sir; and where's the offence of this?

King.
She's witty with me. Where's the offence on't says she!

Aph.
What's this I see, what a black line is here.
Reads.

Be careful of my Honour, when I am Married and a Queen, our
stolne pleasures will be more difficult, but shall not be less desired,
nor less grateful to yours still

Aphelia.

The greatest favour that you e're can grant me,
Tell me who gave you this.

Nigr.
I gave it him.

Aph.
I am betrayd. This false Nigrello told me
That Clarmount had prevail'd with you to quit
All Love to me, and give me to your Brother,
And then perswaded me to write my thanks
To Clarmount, in acknowledgment of such
An eminent favour. I, surprized at such
A sudden bliss, what by my Brother, who
Confirm'd his words—

King.
Brisac too in the Treason!

Aph.
—And my own passionate desires too apt
To take impression from so fair a stamp,
Which ease believ'd so wisht a story; and
In height of extasy, exprest my sense
Of Clarmounts Friendship in that Letter to him:
Which this unkind ill man, to spot my fame,
And shake your peace, has Treacherously corrupted,
And by that last forg'd line, subverted all
My innocent meaning.

King.
Did you write that Postscript?

Nigr.
Yes.

King.
And abused her Innocence?

Nigr.
Aye Sir.

King.
Can I believe my Ears.

Nigr.
I know no reason
To th'contrary.

King.
How Slave,
Art thou in earnest?

Nigr.
Why Sir, do I look
As if I jested?

King.
Death, Hell, and the Devil!

Nigr.
Death, Hell, and Devil; you do well to call 'em:
But trouble not your self; they're near enough
To come without a call.

King.
I'm all amazement:
But what I want in words, I'le speak in deeds.
Offers to draw, at which Nigrello stamps, and the former Villains rush in, seize, and disarm him.
You are too rash: Kings may be Kings in Pallaces,
But not in Dungeons. 'Tis I am Monarch here.
Clotair, it would be Charity to kill you,
For you've outliv'd your pow'r. This day your Brother
By my Conspiracy, converts that force
You lent him to assist the Rebels cause.
And you shall live to see him crownd. Release him.

The Villains let him go.
King.
Thou black Infernal Dog. Thank Heav'n that gave thee
A Face of such a dye as cannot blush:
Or rather thank the Devil that lent thee Impudence
To be bejond the use or fear of blushing.

Nigr.
But now I think on't better, Life's a burthen,
And I will ease you on't. Have at your heart.

Aph.
Hold, hold Nigrello, stay, stay, save the King.
Interposing.
And I'le forgive thee all thy wrongs to Me.

Nigr.
Peace foolish Woman, I that kill one King,
Have rais'd another; one too, that shall make
Aphelia Queen. But King, before thou dyest
Ile shew thee my Experience in Murder.

A Curtain drawn, Clarmount and Fredigond appear dead.
King.
My Mother dead! Inhumane Villain, though
I scorne to fear my Death, or ask my Life
Of thee, I'le condescend t'as mean an act
As King was ever guilty of; I'le stoope
To talk to thee, and ask thee what strange cause
Made thee this Traytor.

Nigr.
Think upon the wrongs
Of the abused Chlotilda.

King.
What's her wrongs to thee?

Nigr.
I'le not capitulate my Injuries.

Within:
Long Live Lewis King of France.

Nigr.
I hear my time is short.

King.
My Brother Crownd!
How! can the Slave speak truth!

Nigr.
Now for thy blood.—
I cannot strike him: Oh relenting heart!
What Awe hangs on the brow of Majesty.
Faint heart! A Man so long, and now turn Woman
In the last action of my Life. Here, take
Gives him his Sword.
This Sword: But I conjure you by the wrongs
That I have heap'd upon you, by the loss
Of fair Aphelia,
To guide the point directly at my heart.

King.
What means this turn? But I've no time for questions.
A Villain and a Traytor dye with thee.

Kills him.
Enter Lewis, Brisac, Burbon, Lamot, Dumane, and Attendants.
Lewis.
Aphelia, welcome to my Armes. Clotair,
Thou art thy Brothers Prisoner.

King.
No Usurper,
This gives me freedom.

falls on his Sword.
Lew.
Hold your hand.

King.
No Rebel,
Your Mercy comes too late after your Treason.
I cannot loose Aphelia, and out-live
That loss. Nigrello, tell me who thou art;
For by thy glorious Villany, thy Wit,
Thy Courage, and thy Conduct, I am sure
That blackness hides some noble blood. What art?

Nigr.
Chlotilda.

Lam.
How! my Sister!

All.
Chlotilda.

Nigr.
Ravisht by thee Clotair, betrayd by Clarmount
And Fredigond, for which they are no more.
'Twas they seduced me to that fatal place,
Where you my Honour stole; 'twas they that spilt
My Guiltless Parents blood; and in requital
'Twas I betray'd them hither, where at once
I took Revenge both on their Lives and Souls.
But when I came to my last stroke of Vengeance,
After I had rob'd thee of a Crown and Mrs.
To kill thee King, there, there, my fury stopt.
Thou hadst injur'd me, yet I would dye by Thee.
And though I had worne so long a masculine shape
For all my other Scenes of Cruelty,
I put on my own Sex agen to dye.

Dum.
Our Sister and our Patroness! This Revenge
Is an Estate to th'Family; 'twill make
The Dumane race immortall.

Nigr.
Now I dye.
To Lewis.
Grant me this favour for the Crown I gave you,
Though I have justly wrought your Brothers fall,
I must not blast his Fame after his Death:
He was no Murd'rer till I made him one;
Your Fathers Destiny was your Mothers Crime.
But oh I dye. When elder time shall rip
This story up, be courteous to my Fame;
Call not these Ruines Treason, but Revenge;
A satisfaction due to an Injur'd Lady.
Call me an honourable Murderer,
And finish there as I do.

Dyes.
King.
Art thou gone?
Farewell thy Sexes Champion; thou hast acted
A cruel part so high, so well, that it
Commands applause from those it has destroy'd.
And Rival Brother, if you dare be just,
Build her a Pyramid for a Monument.
But whilst
I give her Cruelties pardon, I forget
To ask it for my own. Injur'd Aphelia,
Forgive a sin greater then what thy Chains
And this black Dungeon brands me with. Forgive
My Impious Faith that durst believe a wanton
And unchast thought could harbour in thy Breast;
A Seat, Divinities would choose to dwell in.
Here I would gaze for ever, but an envyous darkness
Hangs on my Eyes, farewell. Must we part then?
Is King and Lover such a mortal name?
Where's all my mighty Vows? Where's all
My passionate Devotion to the fair Aphelia?
Shrunk to a poor faint Sigh, a dying look,
A cold farewell to Love; and then no more.

dyes.
Aph.
Farewell great Soul, when in thy glorious flight
Thou hast reacht thy high Immortal Seat above,
Forget thy harsh and rigid Fate below,
And borrow so much Mercy from that Heav'n,
Of which thou makest a part, to pardon faults
Unkind Aphelia had not pow'r to shun:
Who to such kindness could so cruel prove,
Wanting a heart to pay so great a Love.

Lew.
What strange intrigues has Fate wrought up to day?
Disguis'd Nigrello, the abus'd Chlotilda!
And I by false suggestions blindly led,
Have aimd a Sword against a guiltless head:
Deposed a Brother to Revenge a Father.
Thy Rage was just, but mine was too severe.
The sad resentments of my fatal errour,
And thy wrongs, spread a darkness o're my Soul
That mis-becomes this day.
But Tears are all, we to the dead can pay;
And whilst I view such happiness so near
My griefs at this bright Object disappear.
But injur'd Prince t'appease thy angry doom,
I'le be a pious Mourner at thy Tomb,
When my great joys, and my Aphelias charms
Will give me time t'attend thy Sacred Dust,
And Love afford me leisure to be just.

Exeunt omnes.