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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
BELIEVE AS YOU LIST, by PHILIP MASSINGER Poet's Biography
First Line: So far our author is from arrogance
Last Line: Despoil him of his money, jewels, and rich garments.
First Line: So far our author is from arrogance
Last Line: Despoil him of his money, jewels, and rich garments.
PROLOGUE.
SO far our author is from arrogance
That he craves pardon for his ignorance
In story. If you find what's Roman here,
Grecian, or Asiatic, draw too near
A late and sad example, 'tis confessed
He's but an English scholar at his best,
A stranger to cosmography, and may err
In the countries' names, the shape and character
Of the persons he presents. Yet he is bold
In me to promise, be it new or old,
The tale is worth the hearing; and may move
Compassion, perhaps deserve your love
And approbation. He dares not boast
His pains and care, or what books he hath tossed
And turned to make it up. The rarity
Of the events in this strange history,
Now offered to you, by his own confession,
Must make it good, and not his weak expression.
You sit his judges, and like judges be
From favour to his cause, or malice, free;
Then, whether he hath hit the white or missed,
As the title speaks, Believe you as you list.
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ
ANTIOCHUS, King of the Lower Asia.
TITUS FLAMINIUS, Roman Ambassador at Carthage.
LENTULUS, Successor of FLAMINIUS at Carthage.
METELLUS, Proconsul of Lusitania.
MARCELLUS, Proconsul of Sicily.
AMILCAR, Prince of the Carthaginian Senate.
HANNO, Carthaginian Senator.
ASDRUBAL, Carthaginian Senator.
CARTHALO, Carthaginian Senator.
PRUSIAS, King of Bithynia.
PHILOXENUS, his Minister and Tutor.
BERECINTHIUS, a Flamen of Cybele.
1st Merchant, former Subject of ANTIOCHUS.
2nd Merchant, former Subject of ANTIOCHUS.
3rd Merchant, former Subject of ANTIOCHUS.
CALISTUS, Freedmen of FLAMINIUS.
DEMETRIUS,
TITUS, a Spy in the service of FLAMINIUS.
CHRYSALUS, Servant of ANTIOCHUS.
SYRUS, Servant of ANTIOCHUS.
GETA, Servant of ANTIOCHUS.
SEMPRONIUS, a Captain.
A Stoic Philosopher.
A Jailor.
Senators, Captain, Officers, Guards, Attendants, &c.
Queen of PRUSIAS.
CORNELIA, Wife of MARCELLUS.
A Courtezan.
A Moorish Waiting-woman.
SCENE—CARTHAGE, BITHYNIA, CALLIPOLIS, and SYRACUSE.
ACT THE FIRST.
SCENE I.—The neighbourhood of Carthage.
Enter ANTIOCHUS and a Stoic Philosopher.
STOIC. You are now in sight of Carthage, that great city,
Which, in her empire's vastness, rivals Rome
At her proud height; two hours will bring you thither.
Make use of what you have learned in your long travels,
And from the golden principles read to you
In the Athenian Academy, stand resolved
For either fortune. You must now forget
The contemplations of a private man,
And put in action that which may comply
With the majesty of a monarch.
Ant. How that title,
That glorious attribute of majesty,
That troublesome though most triumphant robe
Designed me in my birth, which I have worn
With terror and astonishment to others,
Affrights me now! O memory, memory
Of what I was once, when the Eastern world
With wonder, in my May of youth, looked on me;
Ambassadors of the most potent kings,
With noble emulation, contending
To court my friendship, their fair daughters offered
As pledges to assure it, with all pomp
And circumstance of glory; Rome herself,
And Carthage, emulous whose side I should
Confirm in my protection! O remembrance!
With what ingenious cruelty and tortures,
Out of a due consideration of
My present low and desperate condition,
Dost thou afflict me now!
Stoic. You must oppose
(For so the Stoic discipline commands you)
That wisdom, with your patience fortified,
Which holds dominion over fate, against
The torrent of your passion.
Ant. I should,
I do confess I should, if I could drink up
That river of forgetfulness poets dream of:
But still in dreadful forms, (philosophy wanting
Power to remove them,) all those innocent spirits,
Borrowing again their bodies, gashed with wounds,
Which strowed Achaia's bloody plains, and made
Rivulets of gore, appear to me, exacting
A strict account of my ambition's folly,
For the exposing of twelve thousand souls,
Who fell that fatal day, to certain ruin;
Neither the counsel of the Persian king
Prevailing with me, nor the grave advice
Of my wise enemy, Marcus Scaurus, hindering
My desperate enterprise, too late repented.
Methinks I now look on my butchered army_____
Stoic. This is mere melancholy.
Ant. O, 'tis more, sir;
Here, there, and everywhere they do pursue me.
The genius of my country, made a slave,
Like a weeping mother, seems to kneel before me,
Wringing her manacled hands; the hopeful youth
And bravery of my kingdom, in their pale
And ghastly looks, lamenting that they were
Too soon by my means forced from their sweet being;
Old ... sper with his fierce beams nour .... e in vain
Their olives and ..........
Trained up in all delights, or sacred to
The chaste Diana's rites, compelled to bow to
The soldier's lusts, or at an outcry sold
Under the spear like beasts, to be spurned and trod on
By their proud mistresses, the Roman matrons!—
O, sir, consider then if it can be
In the constancy of a Stoic to endure
What now I suffer.
Stoic. Two and twenty years
Travelling o'er the world, you have paid the forfeit
Of this engagement; shed a sea of tears
In your sorrow for it; and now, being called from
The rigour of a strict philosopher's life
By the cries of your poor country, you are bound
With an obedient cheerfulness to follow
The path that you are entered in, which will
Guide you out of a wilderness of horror
To the flourishing plains of safety, the just gods
Smoothing the way before you.
Ant. Though I grant
That all impossibilities are easy
To their omnipotence, give me leave to fear
The more than doubtful issue. Can it fall
In the compass of my hopes, the lordly Romans,
So long possessed of Asia, their plea
Made good by conquest, and that ratified
With their religious authority,
The propagation of the commonwealth,
To whose increase they are sworn to, will e'er part with
A prey so precious, and dearly purchased?
A tigress circled with her famished whelps
Will sooner yield a lamb, snatched from the flock,
To the dumb oratory of the ewe
Than Rome restore one foot of earth that may
Diminish her vast empire.
Stoic. In her will,
This may be granted; but you have a title
So strong and clear that there's no colour left
To varnish Rome's pretences. Add this, sir:
The Asian princes, warned by your example,
And yet unconquered, never will consent
That such a foul example of injustice
Shall, to the scandal of the present age,
Hereafter be recorded. They in this
Are equally engaged with you, and must,
Though not in love to justice, for their safety,
In policy assist, guard, and protect you.
And you may rest assured neither the king
Of Parthia, the Gauls, nor big-boned Germans,
Nor this great Carthage, grown already jealous
Of Rome's encroaching empire, will cry aim
To such an usurpation, which must
Take from their own security. Besides,
Your mother was a Roman; for her sake,
And the families from which she is derived,
You must find favour.
Ant. For her sake! Alas, sir,
Ambition knows no kindred; "right and lawful"
Was never yet found as a marginal note
In the black book of profit. I am sunk
Too low to be buoyed up, it being held
A foolish weakness and disease in statists,
In favour of a weak man, to provoke
Such as are mighty. The imperious waves
Of my calamities have already fallen
............ ll unravel^1^
[Exeunt all but ANTIOCHUS.
Ant ..............
..... opes despair with sable wings
....... ore my head; the gold with which
..... us furnished me to supply my wants
... made my first appearance like myself
..... s disloyal villains ravished from me.
Wretch that I was to tempt their abject minds
With such a purchase! Can I, in this weed,
And without gold to fee an advocate
To plead my royal title, nourish hope
Of a recovery? Forlorn majesty,
Wanting the outward gloss and ceremony
To give it lustre, meets no more respect
Than knowledge with the ignorant. Ha! what is
Contained in this waste paper? 'Tis endorsed
"To the no-king Antiochus"; and subscribed
"No more thy servant, but superior, Chrysalus."
What am I fallen to? There is something writ more.
Why this small piece of silver? What I read may
Reveal the mystery:—"Forget thou wert ever
Called King Antiochus. With this charity
I enter thee a beggar." Too tough heart,
Will nothing break thee? O that now I stood
On some high pyramid, from whence I might
Be seen by the whole world, and with a voice
Louder than thunder pierce the ears of proud
And secure greatness with the true relation
Of my remarkable story, that my fall
Might not be fruitless, but still live the great
Example of man's frailty. I that was
Born and bred up a king, whose frown or smile
Spake death or life, my will a law, my person
Environed with an army, now exposed
To the contempt and scorn of my own slave,
Who in his pride, as a god compared with me,
Bids me become a beggar! But complaints
Are weak and womanish: I will, like a palm-tree,
Grow under my huge weight; nor shall the fear
Of death or torture that dejection bring,
To make me live or die less than a king. [Exit.
SCENE II.—A Street in Carthage.
Enter BERECINTHIUS, with three petitions, and three Merchants
of Asia.
1st Mer. We are grown so contemptible he disdains
To give us hearing.
2nd Mer. Keeps us off at such distance,
And with his Roman gravity declines
Our suit for conference, as with much more ease
We might make our approaches to the Parthian,
Without a present, than work him to have
A feeling of our grievances.
3rd Mer. A statesman!
The devil, I think, who only knows him truly,
Can give his character. When he is to determine
A point of justice, his words fall in measure
Like plummets of a clock, observing time
And just proportion.
1st Mer. But when he is
To speak in any cause concerns himself,
Or Rome's republic, like a gushing torrent,
Not to be stopped in its full course, his reasons,
Delivered like a second Mercury,
Break in, and bear down whatsoever is
Opposed against them.
2nd Mer. When he smiles, let such
Beware as have to do with him, for then,
Sans doubt, he's bent to mischief.
Bere. As I am
Cybele's flamen (whose most sacred image,
Drawn thus in pomp, I wear upon my breast),
I am privileged, nor is it in his power
To do me wrong; and he shall find I can
Think, and aloud too, when I am not at
Her altar kneeling. Mother of the gods! what is he?
At his best but a patrician of Rome,
His name Titus Flaminius; and speak mine,
Berecinthius, arch-flamen to Cybele,
It makes as great a sound.
3rd Mer. True; but his place, sir,
And the power it carries in it, as Rome's legate,
Gives him pre-eminence o'er you.
Bere. Not an atom.
When moral honesty and jus gentium fail
To lend relief to such as are oppressed,
Religion must use her strength. I am perfect
In these notes you gave me. Do they contain at full
Your grievances and losses?
Ist Mer. Would they were
As well redressed, as they are punctually
Delivered to you.
Bere. Say no more; they shall,
And to the purpose.
2nd Mer. Here he comes.
Bere. Have at him!
Enter FLAMINIUS, CALISTUS, and DEMETRIUS.
Flam. Blow away these troublesome and importunate drones;
I have embryons of greater consequence
In my imaginations, to which
I must give life and form, not now vouchsafing
To hear their idle buzzes.
2nd Mer. Note you that?
Bere. Yes, I do note it; but the flamen is not
So light to be removed by a groom's breath:
I must and will speak, and I thus confront him.
Flam. But that the image of the goddess which
Thou wear'st upon thy breast protects thy rudeness,
It had forfeited thy life. Dost thou not tremble
When an incensèd Roman frowns?
Bere. I see
No Gorgon in your face.
Flam. Must I speak in thunder
Before thou wilt be awed?
Bere. I rather look
For reverence from thee, if thou respectest
The goddess' power, and in her name I charge thee
To give me hearing. If these lions roar,
For thy contempt of her expect a vengeance
Suitable to thy pride.
Flam. Thou shalt o'ercome;
There's no contending with thee.
3rd Mer. Hitherto
The flamen hath the better.
Ist Mer. But I fear
He will not keep it.
Bere. Know you these men's faces?
Flam. Yes, yes, poor Asiatics.
Bere. Poor! they are made so
By your Roman tyranny and oppression.
Flam. ............
If arrogantly you presume to take
The Roman government, your goddess cannot
Give privilege to it, and you'll find and feel
'Tis little less than treason, flamen.
Bere. Truth
In your pride is so interpreted: these poor men,
These Asiatic merchants, whom you look on
With such contempt and scorn, are they to whom
Rome owes her bravery; their industrious search
To the farthest Ind, with danger to themselves
Brings home security to you unthankful;
Your magazines are from their sweat supplied;
The legions with which you fright the world
Are from their labour paid; the Tyrian fish,
Whose blood dyes your proud purple in the colour
Distinguishing the senator's garded robe
From a plebeian habit, their nets catch;
The diamond hewed from the rock, the pearl
Dived for into the bottom of the sea,
The sapphire, ruby, jacinth, amber, coral,
And all rich ornaments of your Latian dames
Are Asian spoils. They are indeed the nurses
And sinews of your war, and without them
What could you do?—Your handkercher_____
Flam. Wipe your face;
You are in a sweat: the weather's hot; take heed
Of melting your fat kidneys.
Bere. There's no heat
Can thaw thy frozen conscience.
Flam. To it again now;
I am not moved.
Bere. I see it. If you had
The feeling of a man you would not suffer
These men, who have deserved so well, to sink
Under the burthen of their wrongs. If they
Are subjects, why enjoy they not the right
And privilege of subjects? What defence
Can you allege for your connivance to
The Carthaginian galleys, who forced from them
The prize they took, belonging not to them
Nor their confederates?
Flam. With reverence
To your so sacred goddess, I must tell you
You are grown presumptuous; and, in your demands,
A rash and saucy flamen. Meddle with
Your juggling mysteries, and keep in awe
Your gelded ministers. Shall I yield account
Of what I do to you?
Ist Mer. He smiles in frown.
2nd Mer. Nay, then, I know what follows.
3rd Mer. In his looks
A tempest rises.
Flam. How dare you complain,
Or in a look repine? Our government
Hath been too easy, and the yoke which Rome
In her accustomed lenity imposed
Upon your stubborn necks begets contempt.
Hath our familiar commerce and trading,
Almost as with our equals, taught you to
Dispute our actions? Have you quite forgot
What we are, and you ought to be? Shall vassals
Capitulate with their lords?
2nd Mer. I vow he speaks
In his own dialect.
Flam. 'Tis too frequent, wretches,
To have the vanquished hate the conqueror,
And from us needs no answer. Do not I know
How odious the lordly Roman is
To the despisèd Asian; and that
To gain your liberty you would pull down
The altars of your gods, and, like the giants,
Raise a new war 'gainst Heaven?
Ist Mer. Terrible.
Flam. Did you not give assurance of this, when
Giddy Antiochus died? and, rather than
Accept us guardians of your orphan kingdom,
When the victorious Scaurus with his sword
Pleaded the Roman title, with our vote,
You did exclaim against us as the men
That sought to lay an unjust gripe upon
Your territories; ne'er remembering that
In the brass-leaved book of fate it was set down
The earth should know no sovereign but Rome:
Yet you repined, and rather chose to pay
Homage and fealty to the Parthian,
The Egyptian Ptolemy, or indeed any,
Than bow unto the Roman.
Bere. And perhaps
Our government in them had been more gentle,
Since yours is insupportable.
Flam. If thou wert not
In a free state, the tongue that belcheth forth
These blasphemies should be seared.—For you, presume not [To the
Merchants.
To trouble me hereafter. If you do,
You shall with horror to your proudest hopes
Feel really that we have iron hammers
To pulverize rebellion, and that
We dare use you as slaves.—Be you, too, warned, sir,
[To BERECINTHIUS.
Since this is my last caution. I have seen
A murmurer, like yourself, for his attempting
To raise sedition in Rome's provinces,
Hanged up in such a habit.
[Exeunt FLAMINIUS, CALISTUS, and DEMETRIUS.
Bere. I have took
Poison in at my ears, and I shall burst
If it come not up in my reply.
Ist Mer. He's gone, sir.
Bere. He durst not stay me. If he had, had found
I would not swallow my spittle.
2nd Mer. As we must
Our wrongs and our disgraces.
3rd Mer. O, the wretched
Condition that we live in; made the anvil
On which Rome's tyrannies are shaped and fashioned!
1st Mer. But our calamities there's nothing left us
Which we can call our own.
2nd Mer. Our wives and daughters
Lie open to their lusts, and such as should be
Our judges dare not right us.
3rd Mer. O Antiochus!
Thrice happy were the men whom fate appointed
To fall with thee in Achaia.
2nd Mer. They have set
A period to their miseries.
1st Mer. We survive
To linger out a tedious life; and death—
We call in vain what flies us.
Bere. If religion
Be not a mere word only, and the gods
Are just, we shall find a delivery
When least expected.
1st Mer. 'Tis beyond all hope, sir.
Enter ANTIOCHUS.
Bere. Ha! who is this?
Ant. Your charity to a poor man,
As you are Asians.
2nd Mer. Pray you observe him.
3rd Mer. I am amazed!
1st Mer. I thunderstruck!
Bere. What are you?
Ant. The King Antiochus.
2nd Mer. Or some deity
That hath assumed his shape?
Bere. He only differs
In the colour of his hair, and age.
Ant. Consider
What two and twenty years of misery
Can work upon a wretch, that long time spent too
Under distant zeniths, and the change you look on
Will not deserve your wonder.
1st Mer. His own voice.
2nd Mer. His very countenance, his forehead, eyes.
3rd Mer. His nose, his very lip.
Bere. His stature, speech.
1st Mer. His very hand, leg, and foot, on the left side
Shorter than on the right
2nd Mer. The moles upon
His face and hands.
3rd Mer. The scars caused by his hurts
On his right brow and head.
Bere. The hollowness
Of his under-jaw, occasioned by the loss
Of a tooth pulled out by his chirurgion.
1st Mer. To confirm us,
Tell us your chirurgion's name, when he served you.
Ant. You all knew him,
As I do you: Demetrius Castor.
2nd Mer. Strange!
3rd Mer. But most infallibly true.
Bere. So many marks
Confirming us, we owe, in our distrust,
A sacrifice for his safety.
1st Mer. May Rome smile!
2nd Mer. And Asia once more flourish!
3rd Mer. You the means, sir!
Ant. Silence your shouts: I will give stronger proofs
Than these exterior marks when I appear
Before the Carthaginian senators,
With whom I have held more intelligence
And private counsels than with all the kings
Of Asia or Afric: I'll amaze them
With the wonder of my story.
Bere. Yet, until
Your majesty be furnished like yourself,
To a neighbour village_____
Ant. Where you please. The omen
Of this encounter promises a good issue:
And, our gods pleased, oppressèd Asia.
When aid is least expected, may shake off
The insulting Roman bondage, and in me
Gain and enjoy her pristine liberty. [Exeunt.
ACT THE SECOND.
SCENE I.—Carthage. A Room in the House of FLAMINIUS.
Enter FLAMINIUS and CALISTUS.
FLAM. A man that styles himself Antiochus, say you?
Cal. Not alone styled so, but as such received
And honoured by the Asians.
Flam. Two impostors,
For their pretension to that fatal name,
Already have paid dear; nor shall this third
Escape unpunished.
Cal. 'Twill exact your wisdom
With an Herculean arm (the cause requires it)
To strangle this new monster in the birth.
For, on my life, he hath delivered to
The credulous multitude such reasons why
They should believe he is the true Antiochus
That, with their gratulations for his safety,
And wishes for his restitution, many
Offer the hazard of their lives and fortunes
To do him service.
Flam. Poor seducèd fools!
However, 'tis a business of such weight
I must not sleep in't. Is he now in Carthage?
Cal. No, sir; removed to a grange some two miles off;
And there the malcontents, and such whose wants
With forfeited credits make them wish a change
Of the Roman government, in troops flock to him,
Flam. With one puff—thus—I will disperse and scatter
This heap of dust. Here, take my ring: by this
Entreat my friend Amilcar to procure
A mandate from the Carthaginian senate
For the apprehension of this impostor,
And with all possible speed. [Exit CALISTUS.] Howe'er I know
The rumour of Antiochus' death uncertain,
It much imports the safety of great Rome
To have it so believed.
Enter DEMETRIUS.
Dem. There wait without
Three fellows I ne'er saw before, who much
Importune their access. They swear they bring
Business along with them that deserves your ear,
It being for the safety of the republic,
And quiet of the provinces. They are full
Of gold; I have felt their bounty.
Flam. Such are welcome;
Give them admittance. [Exit DEMETRIUS.] In this various play
Of state and policy, there's no property
But may be useful.
Re-enter DEMETRIUS, with CHRYSALUS, GETA, and SYRUS.
Now, friends, what design
Carries you to me?
Geta. My most honoured lord_____
Syr. May it please your mightiness_____
Flam. Let one speak for all;
I cannot brook this discord.
Chrys. As our duties
Command us, noble Roman, having discovered
A dreadful danger, with the nimble wings
Of speed, approaching to the state of Rome,
We hold it fit you should have the first notice,
That you may have the honour to prevent it.
Flam. I thank you; but instruct me what form wears
The danger that you speak of.
Chrys. It appears
In the shape of King Antiochus.
Flam. How! is he
Rose from the dead?
Chrys. Alas! he never died, sir;
He at this instant lives; the more the pity
He should survive, to the disturbance of
Rome's close and politic counsels, in the getting
Possession of his kingdom, which he would
Recover (simple as he is) the plain
And downright way of justice.
Flam. Very likely.
But how are you assured this is Antiochus,
And not a counterfeit? Answer that.
Chrys. I served him
In the Achaian war, where, his army routed,
And the warlike Romans hot in their execution,
To shun their fury he and his minions were
(Having cast off their glorious armour) forced
To hide themselves as dead, with fear and horror,
Among the slaughtered carcases. I lay by them,
And rose with them at midnight. Then retiring
Unto their ships, we sailed to Corinth; thence
To India, where he spent many years
With their gymnosophists. There I waited on him,
And came thence with him; but, at length, tired out
With an unrewarded service, and affrighted
In my imagination with the dangers,
Or rather certain ruins, in pursuing
His more than desperate fortunes, we forsook him.
Flam. A wise and politic fellow! Give me thy hand.
Thou art sure of this?
Chrys. As of my life.
Flam. And this is
Known only to you three?
Chrys. There's no man lives else
To witness it.
Flam. The better: but inform me,
And, as you would oblige me to you, truly,
Where did you leave him?
Syr. For the payment of
Our long and tedious travel, we made bold
To rifle him.
Flam. Good!
Geta. And, so disabling him
Of means to claim his right, we hope despair
Hath made him hang himself.
Flam. It had been safer
If you had done it for him. But, as 'tis,
You are honest men. You have revealed this secret
To no man but myself?
Chrys. Nor ever will.
Flam. [Aside.] I will take order that you never shall.—
And, since you have been true unto the state,
I'll keep you so. I am e'en now considering
How to advance you.
Chrys. What a pleasant smile
His honour throws upon us!
Geta. We are made.
Flam. And now 'tis found out. That no danger may
Come near you, should the robbery be discovered,
Which the Carthaginian laws, you know, call death,
My house shall be your sanctuary.
Syr. There's a favour!
Flam. And that our entertainment come not short
Of your deservings, I commit you to
My secretary's care.—See that they want not,
Among their other delicates_____
Chrys. Mark that!
Flam. [Aside to DEMETRIUS.] A sublimated pill of mercury,
For sugar to their wine.
Dem. I understand you.
Flam. Attend these honest men, as if they were
Made Roman citizens; and be sure, at night,
I may see them well-lodged.—Dead in the vault, I mean:
Their gold is thy reward. [Aside to DEMETRIUS.
Dem. Believe it done, sir.
Flam. And when 'tis known how I have recompensed
(Though you were treacherous to your own king)
The service done to Rome, I hope that others
Will follow your example. Enter, friends;
I'll so provide that when you next come forth
You shall not fear who sees you.
Chrys. Was there ever
So sweet a tempered Roman?
Flam. You shall find it. [Exeunt all but FLAMINIUS.
Ha! what's the matter? Do I feel a sting here,
For what is done to these poor snakes? My reason
Will easily remove it. That assures me,
That, as I am a Roman, to preserve
And propagate her empire, though they were
My father's sons, they must not live to witness
Antiochus is in being. The relation
The villain made, in every circumstance
Appeared so like to truth, that I began
To feel an inclination to believe
What I must have no faith in. By my birth
I am bound to serve thee, Rome, and what I do
Necessity of state compels me to. [Exit.
SCENE II.—The Senate Hall in Carthage.
Enter AMILCAR, HANNO, ASDRUBAL, CARTHALO, Senators, and Attendants.
Amil. To steer a middle course 'twixt these extremes
Exacts our serious care.
Han. I know not which way
I should incline.
Amil. The reasons this man urges,
To prove himself Antiochus, are so pregnant,
And the attestation of his countrymen
In every circumstance so punctual,
As not to show him our compassion were
A kind of barbarous cruelty.
Car. Under correction,
Give me leave to speak my thoughts. We are bound to weigh
Not what we should do in the point of honour,
Swayed by our pity, but what may be done
With the safety of the state.
Asd. Which is, indeed,
The main consideration; for, grant
This is the true Antiochus, without danger,
Nay, almost certain ruin to ourselves,
We cannot yield him favour or protection.
Han. We have feared and felt the Roman power, and must
Expect, if we provoke him, a return
Not limited to the quality of the offence,
But left at large to his interpretation,
Which seldom is confined. Who knows not that
The tribute Rome receives from Asia is
Her chief supportance? other provinces
Hardly defray the charge by which they are
Kept in subjection. They, in name, perhaps,
Render the Roman terrible; but his strength
And power to do hurt, without question, is
Derived from Asia. And can we hope, then,
That such as lend their aids to force it from them
Will be held for less than capital enemies,
And as such pursued and punished?
Car. I could wish
We were well rid of him.
Asd. The surest course
Is to deliver him into the hands
Of bold Flaminius.
Han. And so oblige
Rome, for a matchless benefit.
Amil. If my power
Were absolute, as 'tis but titular,
And that confined too, being by you elected
Prince of the Senate only for a year,
I would oppose your counsels, and not labour
With arguments to confute them; yet, however,
Though a fellow-patriot with you, let it not savour
Of usurpation, though in my opinion
I cross you abler judgments. Call to mind
Our grandsires' glories (though not seconded
With a due imitation), and remember
With what expense of coin, as blood, they did
Maintain their liberty, and kept the scale
Of empire even 'twixt Carthage and proud Rome;
And, though the Punic faith is branded by
Our enemies, our confederates and friends
Found it as firm as fate; and seventeen kings,
Our feodaries, our strengths upon the sea
Exceeding theirs, and our land soldiers
In number far above theirs, though inferior
In arms and discipline (to our shame we speak it);
And then for our cavallery, in the champaign
How often have they brake their piles, and routed
Their coward legions!
Han. This, I grant, sir, is not
To be contradicted.
Amil. If so, as we find it
In our records, and that this state hath been
The sanctuary to which mighty kings
Have fled to for protection, and found it,
Let it not to posterity be told
That we so far degenerate from the race
We are derived as, in a servile fear
Of the Roman power, in a kind to play the bawds
To their ravenous lusts, by yielding up a man,
That wears the shape of our confederate,
To their devouring gripe, whose strong assurance
Of our integrity and impartial doom
Hath made this seat his altar.
Car. I join with you
In this opinion, but no farther than
It may be done with safety.
Asd. In his ruins
To bury ourselves, you needs must grant to be
An inconsiderate pity, no way suiting
With a wise man's reason.
Car. Let us face to face
Hear the accuser and accused, and then,
As either's arguments work on us, determine
As the respect of our security
Or honour shall invite us.
Amil. [To an Attendant.] From the Senate,
Entreat the Roman, Titus Flaminius,
To assist us with his counsel.
Han. And let the prisoner
Be brought into the court. [Exit Attendant.
Amil. The gods of Carthage
Direct us to the right way!
Enter FLAMINIUS.
Asd. With what gravity
He does approach us!
Car. As he would command,
Not argue his desires.
Amil. May it please your lordship
To take your place?
Flam. In civil courtesy,
As I am Titus Flaminius, I may thank you;
But, sitting here as Rome's ambassador,
(In which you are honoured,) to instruct you in
Her will (which you are bound to serve, not argue),
I must not borrow—that were poor—but take,
As a tribute due to her that's justly styled
The mistress of this earthly globe, the boldness
To reprehend your slow progression in
Doing her greatness right. That she believes,
In me, that this impostor was suborned
By the conquered Asiatics, in their hopes
Of future liberty, to usurp the name
Of dead Antiochus, should satisfy
Your scrupulous doubts; all proofs beyond this being
Merely superfluous.
Car. My lord, my lord,
You trench too much upon us.
Asd. We are not
Led by an implicit faith.
Han. Nor, though we would
Preserve Rome's amity, must not yield up
The freedom of our wills and judgments to
Quit or condemn as we shall be appointed
By her imperious pleasure.
Car. We confess not,
Nor ever will, she hath a power above us:
Carthage is still her equal.
Amil. If you can
Prove this man an impostor, he shall suffer
As he deserves; if not, you shall perceive
You have no empire here.
Han. Call in the prisoner;
Then, as you please, confront him.
Flam. This neglect
Hereafter will be thought on.
Amil. We shall stand
The danger howsoever. When we did,
His cause unheard, at your request commit
This king or this impostor, you received
More favour than we owed you.
Officer. [Within.] Room for the prisoner.
Enter ANTIOCHUS, habited like a king, BERECINTHIUS, the three
Merchants, and a Guard.
Ant. This shape that you have put me in suits ill
With the late austereness of my life.
Bere. Fair gloss
Wrongs not the richest stuff, but sets it off;
And let your language, high and stately, speak you,
As you were born, a king.
Ant. Health to the Senate!
We do suppose your duties done; sit still.
Titus Flaminius, we remember you:
As you are a public minister from Rome
You may sit covered.
Flam. How!
Ant. But as we are
A potent king, in whose court you have waited
And sought our favour, you betray your pride,
And the more than saucy rudeness of your manners.
A bended knee, remembering what we are,
Much better would become you.
Flam. Ha!
Ant. We said it;
But fall from our own height to hold discourse
With a thing so far beneath us.
Bere. Admirable!
Amil. The Roman looks as he had seen the wolf.
How his confidence awes him!
Asd. Be he what he will,
He bears himself like a king; and I must tell you
I am amazed too.
Ant. Are we so transformed
From what we were, since our disaster in
The Grecian enterprise, that you gaze upon us
As some strange prodigy ne'er seen in Afric?
Antiochus speaks to you, the King Antiochus,
And challenges a retribution in
His entertainment of the love and favours
Extended to you. Call to memory
Your true friend and confederate, who refused
In his respect to you the proffered amity
Of the Roman people. Hath this vile enchanter
Environed me with such thick clouds in your
Erroneous belief, from his report
That I was long since dead, that, being present,
The beams of majesty cannot break through
The foggy mists raised by his wicked charms,
To lend you light to know me? I cite you,
My Lord Amilcar—now I look on you
As prince of the Senate, but, when you were less,
I have seen you in my court, assisted by
Grave Hanno, Asdrubal, and Carthalo,
The pillars of the Carthaginian greatness:
I know you all. Antiochus ne'er deserved
To be thus slighted.
Amil. Not so; we in you
Look on the figure of the King Antiochus,
But, without stronger proofs than yet you have
Produced to make us think so, cannot hear you
But as a man suspected.
Ant. Of what guilt?
Flam. Of subornation and imposture.
Ant. Silence
This fellow's saucy tongue. O majesty!
How soon a short eclipse hath made thy splendour,
As it had never shined on these, forgotten!
But you refuse to hear me as a king;
Deny not yet, in justice, what you grant
To common men,—free liberty without
His interruption (having heard what he
Objects against me) to acquit myself
Of that which, in his malice, I am charged with.
Amil. You have it.
Ant. As my present fortune wills me,
I thank your goodness. Rise, thou cursèd agent
Of mischief, and accumulate in one heap
All engines by the devil thy tutor fashioned
To ruin innocence; in poison steep
Thy bloodied tongue, and let thy words, as full
Of bitterness as malice, labour to
Seduce these noble hearers; make me, in
Thy coinèd accusation, guilty of
Such crimes whose names my innocence ne'er knew,
I'll stand the charge; and when that thou hast shot
All arrows in thy quiver, feathered with
Slanders, and aimed with cruelty, in vain,
My truth, though yet concealed, the mountains of
Thy glossèd fictions in her strength removed,
Shall in a glorious shape appear, and show
Thy painted mistress, Falsehood, when stripped bare
Of borrowed and adulterate colours, in
Her own shape and deformity.
Bere. I am ravished!
1st Mer. O more than royal sir!
Amil. Forbear.
2nd Mer. The monster
Prepares to speak.
Bere. And still that villainous smile
Ushers his following mischiefs.
Flam. Since the assurance,
From one of my place, quality, and rank,
Is not sufficient with you to suppress
This bold seductor, to acquit our state
From the least tyrannous imputation,
I will forget awhile I am a Roman,
Whose arguments are warranted by his sword,
And not filed from his tongue. This creature here,
That styles himself Antiochus, I know
For an apostata Jew, though others say
He is a cheating Greek called Pseudolus,
And keeps a whore in Corinth. But I'll come
To real proofs; reports and rumours being
Subjects unsuitable with my gravity
To speak, or yours to hear. 'Tis most apparent
The King Antiochus was slain in Greece;
His body, at his subjects' suit, delivered;
His ashes from the funeral pile raked up,
And in a golden urn preserved, and kept
In the royal monument of the Asian kings,—
Such was the clemency of Marcus Scaurus,
The Roman conqueror, whose triumph was
Graced only with his statue. But suppose
He had survived (which is impossible)
Can it fall in the compass of your reason
That this impostor (if he were the man
Which he with impudence affirms he is)
Would have wandered two and twenty tedious years
Like a vagabond o'er the world, and not have tried
Rome's mercy as a suppliant?
Han. Shrewd suspicions.
Flam. A mason of Callipolis, heretofore,
Presumed as far, and was, like this impostor,
By slavish Asians followed; and a second,
A Cretan of a base condition, did
Maintain the like. All ages have been furnished
With such as have usurped upon the names
And persons of dead princes. Is it not
As evident as the day this wretch, instructed
By these poor Asians (sworn enemies
To the majesty of Rome), but personates
The dead Antiochus, hired to it by these
To stir up a rebellion, which they call
Delivery or restoring? And will you,
Who, for your wisdom, are esteemed the sages
And oracles of Afric, meddle in
The affairs of this affronter, which no monarch
Less rash and giddy than Antiochus was
Would undertake?
Ant. Would I were dead indeed,
Rather than hear this, living!
Flam. I confess
He hath some marks of King Antiochus, but
The most of them artificial. Then observe
What kind of men they are that do abet him:
Proscribed and banished persons; the ringleader
Of this seditious troop a turbulent flamen,
Grown fat with idleness_____
Bere. That's I.
Flam. And puffed up
With the wind of his ambition.
Bere. With reverence to
This place, thou liest. I am grown to this bulk
By being .......
.........
Amil....... your goddess. She
Defends you from a whipping.
Han. Take him off;
He does disturb the court.
Bere. I shall find a place yet
Where I will roar my wrongs out.
[Exeunt Officers with BERECINTHIUS.
Flam. As you have,
In the removing of that violent fool,
Given me a taste of your severity,
Make it a feast, and perfect your great justice
In the surrendering up this false pretender
To the correction of the law, and let him
Undergo the same punishment which others
Have justly suffered that preceded him
In the same machination.
Ant. As you wish
A noble memory to after times,
Reserve one ear for my defence, and let not—
For your own wisdoms let not—that belief
This subtle fiend would plant be rooted in you
Till you have heard me. Would you know the truth,
And real cause, why poor Antiochus hath
So long concealed himself? Though in the opening
A wound, in some degree by time closed up,
I shall pour scalding oil and sulphur in it,
I will, in the relation of my
To be lamented story, punctually
Confute my false accuser. Pray you conceive,
As far as your compassion will permit,
How great the grief and agony of my soul was,
When I considered that the violence
Of my ill-reined ambition had made Greece
The fatal sepulchre of so many thousands
Of brave and able men, that might have stood
In opposition for the defence
Of mine own kingdom, and a ready aid
For my confederates; after which rout,
And my retreat in a disguise to Athens,
The shame of this disgrace, though I then had
The forehead of this man, would have deterred me
From being ever seen where I was known;
And such was then my resolution.
Amil. This granted, whither went you?
Ant. As a punishment
Imposed upon myself, and equal to
My wilful folly, giving o'er the world,
I went into a desert.
Flam. This agrees
With the dead slaves' report; but I must contemn it.
[Aside.
Amil. What drew you from that austere life?
Asd. Clear that.
Ant. The counsel of a grave philosopher
Wrought on me to make known myself the man
That I was born; and, of all potentates
In Afric, to determine of the truth
Of my life and condition, I preferred
The commonwealth of Carthage.
Flam. As the fittest
To be abused.
Ant. This is not fair.
Amil. My lord,
If not entreat, I must command your silence,
Or absence, which you please.
Flam. So peremptory!
Ant. To vindicate myself from all suspicion
Of forgery and imposture, in this scroll,
Writ with my royal hand, you may peruse
A true memorial of all circumstances,
Answers, despatches, doubts, and difficulties
Between myself and your ambassadors,
Sent to negotiate with me.
Amil. Fetch the records. [Exit Attendant.
Ant. 'Tis my desire you should; truth seeks the light:
And, when you have compared them, if you find them
In any point of moment differing,
Re-enter Attendant with the Book of Records.
Conclude me such a one as this false man
Presents me to you. But, if you perceive
Those private passages, in my cabinet argued,
And, but to your ambassadors and myself,
Concealed from all men, in each point agreeing,
Judge if a cheating Greek, a Pseudolus,
Or an apostata Jew, could e'er arrive at
Such deep and weighty secrets.
Han. To a syllable
They are the same.
Amil. It cannot be but this is
The true Antiochus.
Flam. A magician rather,
And hath the spirit of Python.
Car. These are toys.
Ant. You see he will omit no trifle, that
His malice can lay hold of, to divert
Your love and favour to me. Now for my death,
The firmest base on which he builds the strength
Of his assertions, if you please to weigh it
With your accustomed wisdom, you'll perceive
'Tis merely fabulous. Had they meant fairly,
And, as a truth, would have it so confirmed
To the doubtful Asians, why did they not
Suffer the carcase they affirmed was mine
To be viewed by such men as were interessed
In the great cause, that were bred up with me,
And were familiar with the marks I carried
Upon my body, and not rely upon
Poor prisoners taken in the war, from whom,
In hope of liberty and reward, they drew
Such depositions as they knew would make
For their dark ends? Was anything more easy
Than to suppose a body, and, that placed on
A solemn hearse, with funeral pomp to inter it
In a rich monument, and then proclaim
"This is the body of Antiochus,
King of the Lower Asia"?
Flam. Rome's honour
Is taxed in this of practice and corruption:
I'll hear no more. In your determinations,
Consider what it is to hold and keep her
Your friend or enemy. [Exit.
Amil. We wish we could
Receive you as a king, since your relation
Hath wrought so much upon us that we do
Incline to that belief. But, since we cannot
As such protect you but with certain danger,
Until you are by other potent nations
Proclaimed for such, our fitting caution
Cannot be censured, though we do entreat
You would elsewhere seek justice.
Ant. Where, when 'tis
Frighted from you by power?
Amil. And yet take comfort.
Not all the threats of Rome shall force us to
Deliver you: the short time that you stay
In Carthage you are safe; no more a prisoner;
You are enlarged; with full security
Consult of your affairs. In what we may
We are your friends.—Break up the court.
[Exeunt all but ANTIOCHUS and the three Merchants.
1st Mer. Dear sir,
Take courage in your liberty; the world
Lies open to you.
2nd Mer. We shall meet with comfort
When most despaired of by us.
Ant. Never, never!
Poor men, though fallen, may rise; but kings like me,
If once by fortune slaved, are ne'er set free. [Exeunt.
ACT THE THIRD.
SCENE I.—Carthage. A Room in the House of FLAMINIUS.
Enter FLAMINIUS (with two letters), CALISTUS, and DEMETRIUS.
FLAM. You gave him store of gold with the instructions
That I prescribed him?
Cal. Yes, my lord, and, on
The forfeiture of my credit with your honour,
Titus will do his parts, and dive into
Their deepest secrets.
Flam. Men of place pay dear
For their intelligence; it eats out the profit
Of their employment; but, in a design
Of such weight, prodigality is a virtue.
The fellow was of trust that you despatched
To Rome with the packets?
Dem. Yes, sir; he flies, not rides.
By this, if his access answer his care,
He is upon return.
Flam. I am on the stage,
And if now, in the scene imposed upon me,
So full of change—nay, a mere labyrinth
Of politic windings—I show not myself
A Protean actor, varying every shape
With the occasion, it will hardly poise
The expectation. I'll so place my nets
That, if this bird want wings to carry him
At one flight out of Afric, I shall catch him.
Calistus!
Cal. Sir.
Flam. Give these at Syracusa
To the proconsul Marcellus. Let another post
To Sardinia with these.—You have the picture
Of the impostor?
Dem. Drawn to the life, my lord.
Flam. Take it along with you. I have commanded,
In the Senate's name, that they man out their galleys,
And not to let one vessel pass without
A strict examination; the sea
Shall not protect him from me. I have charged too
The garrisons, that keep the passages
By land, to let none scape that come from Carthage,
Without a curious search. [Exit CALISTUS.
Enter LENTULUS.
Len. [Speaking to one within.] I will excuse
My visit without preparation; fear not.
Flam. Who have we here?
Len. When you have viewed me better
You will resolve yourself.
Flam. My good lord Lentulus!
Len. You name me right. The speed that brought me hither
As you see accoutred, and without a train
Suitable to my rank, may tell your lordship
That the design admits no vacant time
For compliment. Your advertisements have been read
In open court; the consuls and the Senate
Are full of wonder and astonishment
At the relation; your care is much
Commended, and will find a due reward,
When what you have so well begun is ended.
In the meantime, with their particular thanks
They thus salute you. [Tenders a letter.] You shall find there that
(Their good opinion of me far above
My hopes or merits) they have appointed me
Your successor in Carthage, and commit
Unto your abler trust the prosecution
Of this impostor.
Flam. As their creature ever
I shall obey and serve them. I will leave
My freedman to instruct you in the course
Of my proceedings. You shall find him able
And faithful, on my honour.
Len. I receive him
At his due value. Can you guess yet whither
This creature tends? By some passengers I met
I was told, howe'er the state denies to yield him
To our dispose, they will not yet incense us
By giving him protection.
Flam. Ere long,
I hope I shall resolve you.—To my wish!
Enter TITUS.
Here comes my true discoverer. Be brief,
And labour not with circumstance to endear
The service thou hast done me.
Tit. As your lordship
Commanded me, in this Carthaginian habit
I made my first approaches, and delivered
The gold was given me as a private present
Sent from the Lord Amilcar for his viaticum
To another country; for I did pretend
I was his menial servant.
Flam. Very well.
Tit. 'Twas entertained almost with sacrifice,
And I, as one most welcome, was admitted
Into their turbulent counsel. Many means
Were there propounded, whither, and to whom,
Their King Antiochus (for so they style him)
Should fly for safety. One urged to the Parthian,
A second into Egypt, and a third
To the Batavian; but, in conclusion,
The corpulent flamen, that would govern all,
And in his nature would not give allowance
To any proposition that was not
The child of his own brain, resolved to carry
Their May-game prince, covered with a disguise,
To Prusias King of Bithynia. His opinion
Carried it; and thither, without pause or stay,
To thank my lord for his bounty, they are gone,
Upon my certain knowledge for I rid
Two days and nights along, that I might not build
Upon suppositions; by this they are
At their journey's end.
Flam. With my thanks, there's thy reward.
[Giving money.
I will take little rest until I have
Soured his sweet entertainment.—You have been
In the court of this Prusias; of what temper is he?
Len. A well-disposed and noble gentleman,
And very careful to preserve the peace
And quiet of his subjects.
Flam. I shall find him
The apter to be wrought on. Do you know who is
His special favourite?
Len. One that was his tutor,
A seeming politician, and talks often;
The end of his ambition is to be
A gentleman of Rome.
Flam. I shall fit him, fear not.
Your travel's ended; mine begins, and therefore
I will take my leave.
Formality of manners now is useless:
I long to be a-horseback.
Len. You have my wishes
For a fair success.
Flam. My care shall not be wanting. [Exeunt.
SCENE II.—Bithynia. Before the Palace.
Enter ANTIOCHUS and the three Merchants.
1st Mer. This tedious journey, from your majesty's
Long discontinuance of riding hard,
With weariness hath dulled your spirits.
2nd Mer. The flamen,
His corpulency considered, hath held out
Beyond imagination.
3rd Mer. As often
As he rode down a hill I did expect
The chining of his horse.
Ant. I wonder more
How mine sustained his burden, since the weight
That sits on my more heavy heart would crack
The sinews of an elephant.
2nd Mer. 'Tis said
That beast hath strength to carry six armed men
In a turret on his back.
Ant. True; but the sorrow
Of a wretched and forsaken king like me
Is far more ponderous.
1st Mer. O, part not, sir,
From your own strength by yielding to despair.
I am most confident Berecinthius will,
From the great King Prusias—in his goodness great—
Bring comfort to you.
Ant. I am prepared, however;
Lower I cannot fall. [Flourish.
3rd Mer. Ha! these are signs
Of a glorious entertainment, not contempt!
Enter BERECINTHIUS.
Bere. Bear up, sir. I have done you simple service;
I thank my eloquence and boldness for it.
When would a modest silent fool effect
What I have done? but such men are not born
For great employments. The fox that would confer
With a lion without fear must see him often.
O for a dozen of rubbers and a bath!
And yet I need no tub, since I drench myself
In mine own balsam.
1st Mer. Balsamum! it smells
Like a tallow-chandler's shop.
Bere. Does it so? thou thin-gut!
Thou thing without moisture! But I have no time
To answer thee. The great king—by my means, sir,
Ever remember that—in his own person,
With his fair consort and a gallant train, [Flourish.
Are come to entertain you.
Ant. Jove! if thou art
Pleased that it shall be so_____
Bere. Change not you Jove's purpose
In your slowness to receive it; in your carriage
Express yourself. They come.
Enter PRUSIAS, his Queen, PHILOXENUS, and Attendants.
Pru. The strong assurance
You gave at Carthage to confirm you are
The King Antiochus (for so much from
My agent there I have heard) commands me to
Believe you are so; and however they,
Awed by the Roman greatness, durst not lend you
Aid or protection, in me you shall find
A surer guard: I stand on mine own bases,
Nor shall or threats or prayers deter me from
Doing a good deed in itself rewarded.
You are welcome to my bosom.
Ant. All that yet
I can return you, sir, is thanks, expressed
In tears of joy, to find here that compassion
Hath not forsook the earth.
Queen. Alas, good king,
I pity him!
Pru. This lady, sir, your servant,
Presents her duty to you.
Ant. Pray you forgive me:
Calamity, my too long rude companion,
Hath taught me, gracious madam, to forget
Civility and manners. [Kisses her.
Queen. [Aside] I ne'er touched
But the king my husband's lips, and, as I live,
He kisses very like him.
Pru. Here is one
I dare present to you for a knowing man
In politic designs. But he is present,
I should say more else.
Ant. Your assistance, sir,
To raise a trod-down king will well become you.
Phi. What man can do that is familiar with
The deep directions of Xenophon,
Or Aristotle's politics, besides
Mine own collections, which some prefer,
And with good reason, as they say, before them,
Your highness may expect.
Pru. We will at leisure
Consider of the manner and the means
How to restore you to your own.
Queen. And till then
Suppose yourself in your own court.
Ant. The gods
Be sureties for the payment of this debt
I stand engaged! Your bounties overwhelm me.
[Flourish. Exeunt all but BERECINTHIUS and the Merchants.
Bere. Ay, marry, this is as it should be! Ha!
After these storms raised by this Roman devil,
Titus Flaminius—you know whom I mean—
Are we got into the port once. I must purge.
1st Mer. Not without cause.
Bere. Or my increasing belly
Will metamorphose me into the shape
Of a great tortoise, and I shall appear
A cipher, a round man, or what you will.
Now jeer at my bulk, and spare not.
1st Mer. You are pleasant.
Bere. Farce thy lean ribs with hope, and thou wilt grow to
Another kind of creature. When our king is
Restored, let me consider, as he must be,
And I the principal means, I'll first grow rich,
Infinite rich, and build a strange new temple
To the goddess that I worship, and so bind her
To prosper all my purposes.
2nd Mer. Be not rapt so.
Bere. Prithee, do not trouble me. First I will expel
The Romans out of Asia; and, so breaking
Their reputation in the world, we will
Renew our league with Carthage; then draw to
Our party the Egyptian Ptolemy,
And great Arsaces' issue. I will be
The general, and march to Rome, which taken,
I'll fill proud Tiber with the carcases
Of men, women, and children. Do not persuade me;
I'll show no mercy.
3rd Mer. Have the power to hurt first.
Bere. Then by the senators, whom I'll use as horses,
I will be drawn in a chariot, made for my bulk,
In triumph to the Capitol, more admired
Than Bacchus was in India; Titus Flaminius,
Our enemy, led like a dog in a chain,
As I descend or reascend in state,
Shall serve for my foot-stool. I will conjure him,
If revenge hath any spells.
Enter FLAMINIUS and DEMETRIUS.
Flam. Command the captain
To wait me with his galley at the next port;
I am confident I shall fraught him. [Exit DEMETRIUS.
1st Mer. You are conjuring,
And see what you have raised.
Bere. Cybele save me!
I do not fear thee, Pluto, though thou hast
Assumed a shape not to be matched in Cocytus!
Why dost thou follow me?
Flam. Art thou mad?
Bere. Thou comest
To make me so. How my jelly quakes! Avaunt!
What have I to do with thee?
Flam. You shall know at leisure;
The time is now too precious. [Exit.
Bere. 'Tis vanished:
Sure, 'twas an apparition.
1st Mer. I fear
A fatal one to us.
2nd Mer. We may easily guess at
The cause that brings him hither.
3rd Mer. Now, it ever,
Confirm the king.
1st Mer. Against this battery
New works are to be raised, or we are ruined.
Bere. What think you of this rampire? 'twill hold out;
And he shall shoot through and through it but I'll cross him. [Exeunt.
SCENE III.—Bithynia. An Apartment in the Palace.
Enter FLAMINIUS and PHILOXENUS.
Flam. What we have said the consuls will make good,
And the glad Senate ratify.
Phi. They have so
Obliged me for this favour, that there is not
A service of that difficulty from which
I would decline. In this rest confident,
I am your own, and sure.
Flam. You shall do, sir,
A noble office in it; and, however
We thank you for the courtesy, the profit
And certain honours, the world's terror, Rome,
In thankfulness cannot but shower upon you,
Are wholly yours. How happy I esteem
Myself, in this employment, to meet with
A wise and provident statesman!
Phi. My good lord!
Flam. I flatter not in speaking truth. You are so,
And, in this prompt alacrity, confirm it;
Since a wise forecast in the managing
Worldly affairs is the true wisdom, rashness
The schoolmistress of idiots. You well know
Charity begins at home, and that we are
Nearest unto ourselves; fools build upon
Imaginary hopes, but wise men ever
On real certainties; a tender conscience,
Like a glowworm, shows a seeming fire in darkness,
But, set near to the glorious light of honour,
It is invisible. As you are a statesman,
And a master in that art, you must remove
All rubs, though with a little wrong sometimes,
That may put by the bias of your counsels
From the fair mark they aim at.
Phi. You are read well
In worldly passages.
Flam. I barter with you
Such trifles as I have; but, if you pleased,
You could instruct me that philosophy
And policy in states are not such strangers
As men o'er-curious and precise would have them.
But to the point. With speed get me access
To the king your pupil: and 'tis well for him
That he hath such a tutor; rich Bithynia
Was never so indebted to a patriot
And vigilant watchman, for her peace and safety,
As to yourself.
Phi. Without boast I may whisper
I have done something that way.
Flam. All in all;
Fame, filling her loud trump with truth, proclaims it:
But, when it shall be understood you are
The principal means by which a dangerous serpent,
Warmed in your sovereign's bosom, is delivered
To have his sting and venomous teeth pulled out,
And the ruin, in a willing grant, avoided,
Which in detaining him falls on the kingdom,
Not Prusias alone, but his saved people,
Will raise your providence altars.
Phi. Let me entreat
Your patience some few minutes: I'll bring the king
In person to you.
Flam. Do, and, this effected,
Think of the ring you are privileged to wear
When a Roman gentleman; and, after that,
Of provinces and purple. [Exit PHILOXENUS.] I must smile now
In my consideration with what glibness
My flatteries, oiled with hopes of future greatness,
Are swallowed by this dull pate. But it is not
Worth the observation. Most of our seeming statesmen
Are caught in the same noose.
Enter PRUSIAS and PHILOXENUS.
Returned so soon!
And the king with him! but his angry forehead
Furrowed with frowns. No matter, I am for him.
Pru. From the people of Rome? so quick? Hath he brought with him
Letters of credence, and authority
To treat with us?
Phi. I read them.
Pru. What can he
Propound which I must fear to hear? I would
Continue in fair terms with that warlike nation,
Ever provided I wrong not myself
In the least point of honour.
Phi. To the full
He will instruct your majesty.
Flam. So may
Felicity, as a page, attend your person,
As you embrace the friendly counsel sent you
From the Roman Senate!
Pru. With my thanks to you
Their instrument, if the advice be such
As by this preparation you would have me
Conceive it is, I shall, and 'twill become me,
Receive it as a favour.
Flam. Know then, Rome,
In her pious care that you may still increase
The happiness you live in, and your subjects,
Under the shadow of their own vines, eat
The fruit they yield them, their soft musical feasts
Continuing, as they do yet, unaffrighted
With the harsh noise of war, entreats as low
As her known power and majesty can descend
You would return, with due equality,
A willingness to preserve what she hath conquered
From change and innovation.
Pru. I attempt not
To trouble her, nor ever will.
Flam. Fix there;
Or if, for your own good, you will move farther,
Make Rome your thankful debtor by surrendering
Into her hands the false impostor that
Seeks to disturb her quiet.
Pru. This I looked for,
And that I should find mortal poison wrapped up
In your candied pills. Must I, because you say so,
Believe that this most miserable king is
A false affronter, who, with arguments
Unanswerable, and near miraculous proofs,
Confirms himself the true Antiochus?
Or is it not sufficient that you Romans,
In your unsatisfied ambition, have
Seized with an unjust gripe on half the world,
Which you call conquest, if that I consent not
To have my innocence soiled with that pollution
You are willingly smeared o'er with?
Flam. Pray you, hear me.
Pru. I will be first heard. Shall I, for your ends,
Infringe my princely word; or break the laws
Of hospitality; defeat myself
Of the certain honour to restore a king
Unto his own, and what you Romans have
Extorted and keep from him? Far be it from me!
I will not buy your amity at such loss.
So it be to all after times remembered
I held it not sufficient to live
As one born only for myself, and I
Desire no other monument.
Flam. I grant
It is a specious thing to leave behind us
A fair report, though in the other world
We have no feeling of it; and to lend
A desperate, though fruitless, aid to such
As Fate, not to be altered, hath marked out
Examples of calamity, may appear
A glorious ornament: but here's a man,
The oracle of your kingdom, that can tell you,
When there's no probability it may be
Effected, 'tis mere madness to attempt it.
Phi. A true position.
Flam. Your inclination
Is honourable, but your power deficient
To put your purposes into act.
Pru. My power?
Flam. Is not to be disputed, if weighed truly
With the petty kings your neighbours; but, when balanced
With the globes and sceptres of my mistress Rome,
Will—but I spare comparisons. But you build on
Your strength to justify the fact. Alas!
It is a feeble reed, and leaning on it,
Will wound your hand much sooner than support you.
You keep in pay, 'tis true, some peace-trained troops,
Which awe your neighbours; but consider, when
Our eagles shall display their sail-stretched wings,
Hovering o'er our legions, what defence
Can you expect from yours?
Phi. Urge that point home.
Flam. Our old victorious bands are ever ready;
And such as are not our confederates tremble
To think where next the storm shall fall with horror:
Philoxenus knows it. Will you, to help one
You should contemn, and is not worth your pity,
Pull it on your own head? Your neighbour Carthage
Would smile to see your error. Let me paint
The danger to you ere it come. Imagine
Our legions, and the auxiliary forces
Of such as are our friends and tributaries,
Drawn up; Bithynia covered with our armies;
All places promising defence blocked up
With our armed troops; the siege continuing;
Famine within and force without disabling
All opposition; then, the army entered,
As victory is insolent, the rapes
Of virgins and grave matrons, reverend old men
With their last groans accusing you; your city
And palace sacked_____
Phi. Dear sir!
Flam. And you yourself
Captived; and, after that, chained by the neck;
Your matchless queen, your children, officers, friends,
Waiting, as scorns of fortune, to give lustre
To the victor's triumph.
Phi. I am in a fever
To think upon't.
Flam. As a friend I have delivered,
And more than my commission warrants me,
This caution to you. But now, peace or war?
If the first, I entertain it; if the latter,
I'll instantly defy you.
Phi. Pray you say peace, sir.
Pru. On what conditions?
Flam. The delivery
Of this seductor and his complices;
On no terms else, and suddenly.
Pru. How can I
Dispense with my faith given?
Phi. I'll yield you reasons.
Pru. Let it be peace then—Oh! Pray you call in
[Exit PHILOXENUS.
The wretched man; in the meantime I'll consider
How to excuse myself.
Flam. [Aside.] While I, in silence,
Triumph in my success, and meditate
On the reward that crowns it. A strong army
Could have done no more than I alone, and with
A little breath, have effected.
Enter Queen, ANTIOCHUS, BERECINTHIUS, the three Merchants, PHILOXENUS,
DEMETRIUS, and Attendants.
Ant. Goodness guard me!
Whom do I look on? Sir, come further from him,
He is infectious; so swollen with mischiefs
And strange impieties, his language too
So full of siren sorceries, if you hear him
There is no touch of moral honesty,
Though rampired in your soul, but will fly from you.
The mandrake's shrieks, the aspic's deadly tooth,
The tears of crocodiles, or the basilisk's eye
Kill not so soon, nor with that violence,
As he, who, in his cruel nature, holds
Antipathy with mercy.
Pru. I am sorry_____
Ant. Sorry! for what? That you had an intent
To be a good and just prince? Are compassion
And charity grown crimes?
Pru. The gods can witness
How much I would do for you; and but that
Necessity of state_____
Ant. Make not the gods
Guilty of your breach of faith! From them you find not
Treachery commanded; and the state, that seeks
Strength from disloyalty, in the quicksands which
She trusteth in is swallowed. 'Tis in vain
To argue with you: if I am condemned,
Defences come too late. What do you purpose
Shall fall on poor Antiochus?
Pru. For my
Security—there being no means left else—
Against my will I must deliver you.
Ant. To whom?
Enter Guard.
Pru. To Rome's ambassador.
Ant. O, the Furies!
Exceed not him in cruelty! Remember
I am a king, your royal guest; your right hand
The pawn and pledge that should defend me from
My bloody enemy. Did you accuse
The Carthaginian senate for denying
Aid and protection to me, giving hope
To my despairing fortunes; or but now
Raise me to make my fall more terrible?
Did you tax them of weakness, and will you
So far transcend them in a coward fear,
Declaimed against by your own mouth? O sir,
If you dare not give me harbour, set me safe yet
In any desert, where this serpent's hisses
May not be heard; and to the gods I'll speak you
A prince both wise and honourable.
Pru. Alas!
It is not in my power.
Ant. As an impostor
Take off my head then; at the least, so far
Prove merciful; or with any torture ease me
Of the burthen of a life, rather than yield me
To this politic state hangman.
Flam. [Aside.] This to me is
A kind of ravishing music.
Queen. I have lived
For many years, sir, your obedient handmaid,
Nor ever in a syllable presumed
To cross your purposes; but now, with a sorrow
As great almost as this poor king's, beholding
Your poverty of spirit—for it does
Deserve no better name—I must put off
Obsequiousness and silence, and take to me
The warrant and authority of your queen,
And as such give you counsel.
Pru. You displease me.
Queen. The physic promising health is ever bitter.
Hear me. Will you that are a man—nay more,
A king of men—do that, forced to it by fear,
Which common men would scorn? I am a woman—
A weak and feeble woman—yet before
I would deliver up my bondwoman,
And have it told I did it by constraint,
I would endure to have these hands cut off,
These eyes pulled out_____
Pru. I'll hear no more.
Queen. Do you, then,
As a king should.
Pru. Away with her! [They bear off the Queen.]
Flam. My affairs
Exact a quick despatch.
Pru. He's yours. Conceive
What I would say. Farewell.
[Exeunt PRUSIAS and PHILOXENUS.
Ant. That I had been
Born dumb! I will not grace thy triumph, tyrant,
With one request of favour. [Exit ANTIOCHUS guarded.
Bere. My good lord!
Flam. Your will, dear flamen?
Bere. I perceive you are like
To draw a great charge upon you. My fat bulk,
And these my lions, will not be kept for a little,
Nor would we be chargeable; and, therefore, kissing
Your honoured hands, I take my leave.
Flam. By no means;
I have been busy, but I shall find leisure
To treat with you in another place.
Bere. I would not
Put your lordship to the trouble.
Flam. It will be
A pleasure rather.—Bring them all away.
Bere. The comfort is, whether I drown or hang
I shall not be long about it; I'll preserve
The dignity of my family.
Flam. 'Twill become you. [Exeunt.
ACT THE FOURTH.
SCENE I.—Callipolis. A Room in the Proconsul's House.
Enter METELLUS and SEMPRONIUS.
MET. A revolt in Asia?
Semp. Yes, on the report
The long-thought-dead Antiochus lives.
Met. I heard
Such a one appeared in Carthage, but suppressed
By Titus Flaminius, my noble friend,
Who, by his letters, promised me a visit,
If his designs, as I desire they may,
Succeeded to his wishes.
Semp. Till you behold him
I can bring your honour, if you please, where you
May find fair entertainment.
Met. From whom, captain?
Semp. A new-rigged pinnace, that put off from Corinth,
And is arrived among us, tight and yare;
Nor comes she to pay custom for her fraught,
But to impose a tax on such as dare
Presume to look on her, which smock-gamesters offer
Sooner than she demands it.
Met. Some fresh courtezan,
Upon mine honour!
Semp. You are i' the right, my lord.
Met. And there lies your intelligence?
Semp. True, my good lord;
'Tis a discovery will not shame a captain
When he lies in garrison. Since I was a trader
In such commodities I never saw
Her equal: I was ravished with the object;
And, would you visit her, I believe you would write
Yourself of my opinion.
Met. Fie upon thee!
I am old.
Semp. And therefore have the greater use
Of such a cordial. All Medea's drugs,
And her charms to boot, that made old Æson young,
Were nothing to her touch; your viper wine,
So much in practice with grey-bearded gallants,
But vappa to the nectar of her lip.
She hath done miracles since she came: a usurer.
Full of the gout, and more diseases than
His crutches could support, used her rare physic
But one short night, and, rising in the morning,
He danced a lavolta.
Met. Prithee, leave thy fooling,
And talk of something else.
Semp. The whole world yields not
Apter discourse. She hath all the qualities
Conducing to the sport: sings like a siren;
Dances as the gross element of earth
Had no part in her; her discourse so full
Of eloquence and prevailing, there is nothing
She asks to be denied her. Had she desired
My captain's place, I had cashiered myself;
And, should she beg your proconsulship, if you heard her,
'Twere hers, upon my life.
Met. She should be damned first,
And her whole tribe.
Enter FLAMINIUS.
My Lord Flaminius, welcome!
I have long been full of expectation
Of your great design, and hope a fair success
Hath crowned your travail in your bringing in
This dangerous impostor.
Flam. At the length,
I have him and his complices.
Met. I'll not now
Inquire how you achieved him, but would know,
Since 'tis referred to you, what punishment
Should fall upon him.
Flam. If you please, in private,
I will acquaint you.
Met. Captain, let me entreat you
To meditate on your woman in the next room;
We may have employment for you.
Semp. I had rather
She would command my service. [Exit.
Met. Pray you sit.
Flam. Now, my good lord, I ask your grave advice
What course to take.
Met. That, in my judgment, needs not
Long consultation. He is a traitor,
And, his process framed, must, as a traitor, suffer
A death due to his treason.
Flam. There's much more
To be considered, there being a beliet,
Dispersed almost through Asia, that he is
The true Antiochus; and we must decline
The certain scandal it will draw upon
The Roman government, if he die the man
He is by the most received to be; and therefore,
Till that opinion be removed, we must
Use some quaint practice, that may work upon
His hopes or fears, to draw a free confession
That he was suborned to take on him the name
He still maintains.
Met. That, torture will wrest from him;
I know no readier way.
Flam. If you had seen
His carriage in Carthage and Bithynia,
You would not think so. Since I had him in
My power I have used all possible means that might
Force him into despair, and so to do
A violence on himself. He hath not tasted
These three days any sustenance, and still
Continues fasting.
Met. Keep him to that diet
Some few hours more.
Flam. I am of opinion rather,
Some competence offered him, and a place of rest,
Where he might spend the remnant of his days
In pleasure and security, might do more
Than fear of death or torture.
Met. It may be;
There are such natures; and now I think upon't,
I can help you to a happy instrument
To motion it. Your ear. [Whispers.
Flam. 'Tis wondrous well,
And it may prove fortunate.
Met. 'Tis but a trial;
However, I will send for her.
Flam. Pray you do;
She shall have my directions.
Met. What botches
Are made in the shop of policy!
Flam. So they cover
The nakedness we must conceal, it skills not. [Exeunt.
SCENE II.—Callipolis. The Prison.
Enter Jailor, with a poniard and a halter.
Jai. Why should I feel compunction for that
Which yields me profit? ha! a prisoner's tears
Should sooner pierce flint or Egyptian marble
Than move us to compassion. Yet I know not,
The sufferings of this miserable man
Work strangely on me. Some say he is a king:
It may be so; but, if they hold out thus,
I am sure he is like to die a beggar's death,
And starve for hunger. I am, by a servant
Of the Lord Flaminius, strictly commanded,
Before I have raised him out of the dungeon,
To lay these instruments in his view; to what end
I am not to inquire, but I am certain,
After his long fast, they are viands that
Will hardly be digested. Do you hear, sir?
Ant. [Below.] If thou art my deathsman, welcome!
Jai. I so pity you
That I wish I had commission, as you rise,
To free you from all future misery,
To knock your brains out.
Ant. Would thou hadst!
Jai. You have
The liberty to air yourself, and that
Is all I can afford you. Fast, and be merry;
I am elsewhere called on. [Exit.
Ant. [Rising from below.] Death! as far as faintness
Will give me leave to chide thee, I am angry
Thou comest not at me. No attendance? Famine,
Thy meagre harbinger, flatters me with hope
Of thy so wished arrival; yet thy coming
Is still deferred. Why? Is it in thy scorn
To take a lodging here? I am a king,
And, though I know the reverence that waits
Upon the potent sceptre, nor the guards
Of faithful subjects, neither threats, nor prayers
Of friends or kindred, nor yet walls of brass
Or fire, should their proud height knock at the moon,
Can stop thy passage, when thou art resolved
To force thy entrance: yet a king, in reason,
By the will of fate severed from common men,
Should have the privilege and prerogative,
When he is willing to disrobe himself
Of this cobweb garment, life, to have thee ready
To do thy fatal office. What have we here?
Enter FLAMINIUS, METELLUS, and SEMPRONIUS above.
A poniard, and a halter! From the objects
I am easily instructed to what end
They were prepared; either will serve the turn
To ease the burthen of a wretched life,
Or thus [Lifts the dagger], or thus [Lifts the halter], in death! I
must
commend
The Roman courtesy. How am I grown
So cheap and vile in their opinion that
I am denied an executioner?
Will not the loss of my life quit the cost?
O rare frugality! will they force me to
Be mine own hangman? Every slave, that's guilty
Of crimes not to be named, receives such favour
By the judge's doom, and is my innocence—
The oppressed innocence of a star-crossed king—
Held more contemptible? My better angel,
Though wanting power to alter fate, discovers
Their hellish purposes. Yes, yes, 'tis so:
My body's death will not suffice, they aimed at
My soul's perdition; and shall I, to shun
A few hours more of misery, betray her?
No, she is free still, and shall so return
From whence she came, and in her pureness triumph,
Their tyranny chained and fettered.
Flam. O, the devil!
Thou art weak. This will not do.
Met. Mark how he'll stand
The second charge.
Semp. The honour is reserved
For the pretty tempting friend I brought, my life on't.
Re-enter Jailor, with brown bread, and a wooden dish of water.
Jai. Here, sir, take this; though coarse, it will kill hunger;
It is your daily pittance; yet, when you please,
Your commons may be mended.
Ant. Show me the way.
Jai. Confess yourself to be a cozening knave;
The matter's feasible; but, if you will be
Still king of the crickets, feed on this and live:
You shall not say we starved you. [Exit.
Ant. Stay, I beseech thee,
And take thy cruel pity back again
To him that sent it. This is a tyranny
That doth transcend all precedents. My soul,
But even now, this lump of clay, her prison,
Of itself, in the want of nourishment, opening,
Had shook off her sick feathers, and prepared
Herself to make a noble flight, as set
At liberty, and now this reparation
Again immures. You, for whose curious palates
The elements are ransacked, look upon
This bill of fare, by my penurious steward,
Necessity, served to a famished king;
And, warned by my example, when your tables
Crack not with the weight of dear and far-fetched dainties,
Dispute not with Heaven's bounties. What shall I do?
If I refuse to touch and taste these coarse
And homely cates, I hasten my own fate,
And so, with willingness, embrace a sin
I hitherto have fled from. No, I'll eat;
And if, at this poor rate, life can continue,
I will not throw it off.
Flam. I pine with envy
To see his constancy.
Met. Bid your property enter,
And use her subtlest magic. [A lute is heard.
Semp. I have already
Acquainted her with her cue. The music ushers
Her personal appearance. [A song within.
Ant. From what hand
And voice do I receive this charity?
It is unusual at such a feast.
But I miscall it; 'tis some new-found engine
Mounted to batter me. Ha!
Enter Courtezan.
Cour. If I were not
More harsh and rugged in my disposition
Than thy tormentors, these eyes had outstripped
My tongue, and, with a shower of tears, had told you
Compassion brings me hither.
Ant. That I could
Believe so much, as, by my miseries!
(An oath I dare not break) I gladly would;
Pity, methinks, I know not how, appears
So lovely in you.
Cour. It being spent upon
A subject in each circumstance deserving
An universal sorrow, though 'tis simple,
It cannot be deformed. May I presume
To kiss your royal hand? for sure you are not
Less than a king.
Ant. Have I one witness living
Dares only think so much?
Cour. I do believe it,
And will die in that belief; and nothing more
Confirms it than your patience, not to be
Found in a meaner man. Not all the trim
Of the majesty you were born to, though set off
With pomp and glorious lustre, showed you in
Such full perfection as at this instant
Shines round about you, in your constant bearing
Your adverse fortune, a degree beyond
All magnanimity that ever was
Canonized by mankind.
Ant. Astonishment
And wonder seizes on me. Pray you what are you?
Cour. Without your pity, nearer to the grave
Than the malice of prevailing enemies
Can hurry you.
Ant. My pity! I will part with
So much from what I have engrossed to mourn
Mine own afflictions as I freely grant it.
Will you have me weep before I know the cause
In which I may serve you?
Cour. You already have
Spent too much of that stock. Pray you, first hear me,
And wrong not my simplicity with doubts
Of that I shall deliver. I am a virgin_____
Semp. If I had not toyed with her myself, I should now believe her!
Cour. And though not of the eagle's brood, descended
From a noble family.
Semp. Her mother sold her
To a Corinthian lecher at thirteen,
As 'tis reported.
Met. Be silent, I command you.
Ant. To be a virgin, and so well derived,
In my opinion, fair one, are not things
To be lamented.
Cour. If I had not fallen
From my clear height of chastity—I confess it—
In my too forward wishes .... that is
A sin I am guilty of. I am in love, sir,—
Impotently mad in love, and my desires
Not to be stopped in their career.
Ant. With whom
Are you so taken?
Cour. With your own dear self, sir:
Behold me not with such a face of wonder;
It is too sad a truth. The story of
Your most deplorable fortune at the first warmed me
With more than modest heats; but, since I saw you,
I am all fire, and shall turn cinders, if
You show not mercy to me.
Ant. Foolish creature,
If I could suppose this true, and met your wishes
With equal ardour, as I am, what shadow
Of seeming hope is left you to arrive at
The port you long for?
Cour. If you will be good
Unto yourself, the voyage is accomplished:
It is but putting off a poisoned shirt,
Which in the wearing eats into your flesh,
And must, against your will, be soon forced from you,
The malice of your enemies tendering to you
More true security and safety than
The violence of your friends' and servants' wishes
Could heap upon you.
Ant. 'Tis impossible.
Clear this dark mystery, for yet, to me,
You speak in riddles.
Cour. I will make it easy
To your understanding, and thus sweeten it
[Offers to kiss him.
In the delivery. 'Tis but to disclaim,
With the continual cares that wait upon it,
The title of a king.
Ant. [Aside.] Devil Flaminius!
I find you here!
Cour. Why do you turn away?
The counsel that I offer, if you please
To entertain it, as long-wished companions,
In her right hand brings liberty, and a calm
After so many storms; and you no sooner
Shall, to the world, profess you were suborned
To this imposture—though I still believe
It is a truth—but, with a free remission
For the offence, I, as your better genius,
Will lead you from this place of horror to
A paradise of delight, to which compared,
Thessalian Tempe, or that garden where
Venus with her revived Adonis spend
Their pleasant hours, and make from their embraces
A perpetuity of happiness,
Deserve not to be named. There, in an arbour,
Of itself supported o'er a bubbling spring,
With purple hyacinths and roses covered,
We will enjoy the sweets of life, nor shall
Arithmetic sum up the varieties of
Our amorous dalliance; our viands such,
As not alone shall nourish appetite,
But strengthen our performance; and, when called for,
The quiristers of the air shall give us music;
And, when we slumber, in a pleasant dream
You shall behold the mountains of vexations
Which you have heaped upon the Roman tyrants
In your free resignation of your kingdom,
And smile at their afflictions.
Ant. Hence, you siren!
Cour. Are you displeased?
Ant. Were all your flatteries
Aimed at this mark? Will not my virtuous anger,
Assisted by contempt and scorn, yield strength
To spurn thee from me? But thou art some whore—
Some common whore—and, if thou hast a soul
(As in such creatures it is more than doubted),
It hath its being in thy wanton veins,
And will, with thy expense of blood, become
Like that of sensual beasts.
Met. This will not do.
Ant. How did my enemies lose themselves to think,
A painted prostitute with her charms could conquer
What malice, at the height, could not subdue!
Is all their stock of malice so consumed,
As, out of penury, they are forced to use
A whore for their last agent?
Cour. If thou wert
Ten times a king thou liest. I am a lady,
A gamesome lady of the last edition;
And, though I physic noblemen, no whore.
Met. He hath touched her freehold.
Semp. Now let her alone,
And she will worry him.
Cour. Have I lived to have
My courtesies refused? That I had leave
To pluck thy eyes out!
Are you so coy? Thou art a man of snow,
And thy father got thee in the wane of the moon!
But scorn me not. 'Tis true I was set on
By the higher powers; but now, for all the wealth
In Asia, thou shalt not have the favour,
Though, prostrate on the earth, thou wouldst implore it,
To kiss my shoestring.
Re-enter Jailor and others.
Flam. We lose time, my lord.
Cour. Foh! how he stinks! I will not wear a rag more
That he hath breathed on. [Exit.
Met. Without more ado
Let him have his sentence.
Flam. Drag him hence.
Ant. Are you there?
Nay, then_____
Flam. I will not hear him speak. My anger
Is lost. Why linger you?
Ant. Death ends all, however! [Exeunt.
SCENE III.—Callipolis. A Street.
Enter Officers, leading in BERECINTHIUS and 1st
Merchant,
with halters.
Bere. What a skeleton they have made of me! Starve me first,
And hang me after! Is there no conscience extant
To a man of my order? They have degraded me,
Ta'en away my lions, and to make me roar like them
They have pared the flesh off from my fingers' ends,
And then laughed at me; I have been kept in darkness
These five long days, no visitants but devils,
Or men in shapes more horrid, coming at me;
A chafing-dish of coals and a butcher's knife
I found set by me, and, inquiring why,
I was told that I had flesh enough of mine own,
And, if that I were hungry, I might freely
Eat mine own carbonadoes, and be chronicled
For a cannibal never read of.
Off. Will you walk, sir?
Bere. I shall come too soon, though I creep, to such a breakfast.
I ever use to take my portion sitting:
Hanging in the air, 'tis not physical.
Off. Time flies away, sir.
Bere. Why, let him fly, sir. Or, if you please to stay him,
And bind up the bold knave's wings, make use of my collar;
There is substance in it, I can assure your worship,
And I thank your wisdom that you make distinction
Between me and this starveling. He goes to it
Like a greyhound for killing of sheep in a twopenny slip;
But here's a cable will weigh up an anchor,
And yet, if I may have fair play, ere I die
Ten to one I shall make it crack.
Off. What would you have, sir?
Bere. My ballast about me; I shall ne'er sail well else
To the other world. My bark, you see, wants stowage;
But give me half a dozen of hens and a loin of veal
To keep it steady, and you may spare the trouble
Of pulling me by the legs, or setting the knot
Under mine ear. This drum, well braced, defies
Such foolish courtesies.
1st Mer. This mirth, good flamen,
Is out of season. Let us think of Elysium,
If we die honest men; or what we there
Shall suffer from the Furies.
Bere. Thou art a fool
To think there are or gods or goddesses:
For the latter, if that she had any power,
Mine, being the mother of them, would have helped me.
They are things we make ourselves. Or, grant there should be
A hell, or an Elysium, sing I cannot
To Orpheus' harp in the one, nor dance in the other:
But, if there be a Cerberus, if I serve not
To make three sops for his three heads, that may serve
For something more than an ordinary breakfast,
The cur is devilish hungry. Would I had
Ran away with your fellow merchants! I had then
Provided for my fame. Yet, as I am,
I have one request to make, and that, my friends,
Concerns my body, which I pray you grant,
And then I shall die in peace.
Off. What is it?
Bere. Marry,
That you would be suitors to the proconsul for me
That no covetous Roman, after I am dead,
May beg to have my skin flayed off, and stuff it
With straw like an alligator, and then show it
In fairs and markets for a monster. Though
I know the sight will draw more fools to gape on't
Than a camel or an elephant, aforehand
I tell you, if you do, my ghost shall haunt you.
Off. You shall have burial, fear not.
Bere. And room enough
To tumble in, I pray you, though I take up
More grave than Alexander. I have ill luck
If I stink not as much as he, and yield the worms
As large a supper.
1st Mer. Are you not mad to talk thus?
Bere. I came crying into the world, and am resolved
To go out merrily: therefore despatch me. [Exeunt.
SCENE IV.—Callipolis. A Room in the Proconsul's House.
Enter METELLUS and FLAMINIUS.
Met. There never was such constancy.
Flam. You give it
Too fair a name: 'tis foolish obstinacy,
For which he shall, without my pity, suffer.
What we do for the service of the republic,
And propagation of Rome's glorious empire,
Needs no defence, and we shall wrong our judgments
To feel compunction for it. Have you given order,
According to the sentence, that the impostor,
Riding upon an ass, his face turned to
The hinder part, may in derision be
Brought through Callipolis?
Met. Yes; and a paper
Upon his head, in which, with capital letters,
His faults inscribed, and by three trumpeters
Proclaimed before him; and, tht done, to have him
Committed to the galleys. Here comes Sempronius,
Enter SEMPRONIUS.
To whom I gave the charge.
Semp. I have performed it
In every circumstance.
Flam. How do the people
Receive it?
Semp. As an act of cruelty,
And not of justice: it drew tears from all
The sad spectators. His demeanour was
In the whole progress worth the observation,
But one thing most remarkable.
Flam. What was that?
Semp. When the city-clerk with a loud voice read the cause
For which he was condemned, in taking on him
The name of a king, with a settled countenance
The miserable man replied, "I am so:"
But when he touched his being a cheating Jew,
His patience moved, with a face full of anger
He boldly said, '"Tis false." I never saw
Such magnanimity.
Flam. Frontless impudence rather.
Semp. Or anything else you please.
Flam. Have you forced on him.
The habit of a slave?
Semp. Yes, and in that,
Pardon my weakness, still there does appear
A kind of majesty in him.
Flam. You look on it
With the eyes of foolish pity that deceives you.
Semp. This way he comes; and, I believe, when you see him,
You'll be of my opinion.
Off.[Within.] Make way there.
Enter Officers, leading in ANTIOCHUS, his head shaved, in
the habit of
a slave.
Ant. Fate! 'tis thy will it should be thus, and I
With patience obey it. Was there ever,
In all precedent maps of misery,
Calamity so drawn out to the life
As she appears in me? In all the changes
Of fortune, such a metamorphosis
Antiquity cannot show us. Men may read there
Of kings deposed, and some in triumph led
By the proud insulting Roman; yet they were
Acknowledged such, and died so; my sad fate
Is of a worse condition, and Rome
To me more barbarous than ere yet to any
Brought in subjection. Is it not sufficient
That the locks of this our royal head are shaved off;
My glorious robes changed to this slavish habit;
This hand that grasped a sceptre manacled;
Or that I have been, as a spectacle,
Exposed to public frown, if to make perfect
The cruel reckoning I am not compelled
To live beyond this, and, with stripes, be forced
To stretch my shrunk-up sinews at an oar,
In the company of thieves and murderers,
My innocence and their guilt no way distinguished,
But equal in our sufferings?
Met. You may yet
Redeem all, and happy.
Flam. But, persisting
In this imposture, think but what it is
To live in hell on earth, and rest assured
It is your fatal portion.
Ant. Do what you please.
I am in your power, but still Antiochus,
King of the Lower Asia—no impostor—
That, four and twenty years since, lost a battle,
And challenge now mine own, which tyrannous Rome
With violence keeps from me.
Flam. Stop his mouth!
Ant. This is the very truth; and, if I live
Thrice Nestor's years in torture, I will speak
No other language.
Met. I begin to melt.
Flam. To the galley with him!
Ant. Every place shall be
A temple to my penitence in me! [Exeunt.
ACT THE FIFTH.
SCENE I.—Syracuse. An Apartment in a Palace.
Enter MARCELLUS, and the 2nd and 3rd Merchants.
MAR. Upon your recantation this gallerien
Was not Antiochus, you had your pardons
Signed by the senate?
2nd Mer. Yes, my lord.
Mar. Troth, tell me,
And freely—I am no informer—did you
Believe and know him such, or raised that rumour
For private ends of your own?
3rd Mer. May it please your excellence
To understand the fear of death wrought on us,
In a kind, to turn apostatas: besides,
Having proved our testimonies could not help him,
We studied our safeties.
2nd Mer. A desire too
Of the recovery of our own, kept from us
With strong hand, by his violent persecutor,
Titus Flaminus, when he was at Carthage,
Urged us to seek redress; nor was it fit
We should oppose great Rome.
Mar. In worldly wisdom
You are excusable; but_____
3rd Mer. We beseech your honour
Press us no further.
Mar. I do not purpose it.
Do you know what this contains? [Holding up a letter.
2nd Mer. No, my good lord.
3rd Mer. Perhaps we bring the warrant for our deaths,
As 'tis said of Bellerophon, yet we durst not
Presume to open it.
Mar. 'Twas manners in you;
But I'll discharge you of that fear. There is
No hurt intended to you.
3rd Mer. We thank your lordship.
Mar. How is the service of Flaminius spoke of
In Rome?
2nd Mer. With admiration, and many
Divine great honours to him.
Mar. The people's voice
Is not oraculous ever. Are you sure
The galley in which your supposed king is chained
Was bound for Syracusa?
3rd Mer. She is now
In the port, my lord.
Mar. Titus Flaminius in her?
3rd Upon my certain knowledge.
Mer. Keep yourselves
Concealed till you are called for. When least hoped for,
You shall have justice.
2nd Mer. Your honour's vassals ever.
[Exeunt Merchants.
Mar. Here, here, it is apparent that the poet
Wrote truth, though no proof else could be alleged
To make it good, that, though the Heavens lay open
To human wishes, and the Fates were bound
To sign what we desire, such clouds of error
Involve our reason, we still beg a curse,
And not a blessing. How many, born unto
Ample possessions, and, like petty kings,
Disposing of their vassals, sated with
The peace and quiet of a country life,
Carried headlong with ambition, contend
To wear the golden fetters of employment,
Presuming there's no happiness but in
The service of the state! but when they have tried,
By a sad experience, the burthen of them,
When 'tis not in their power, at any rate
They would redeem their calm security,
Mortgaged in wantonness. Alas! what are we,
That govern provinces, but preys exposed
To every subtle spy? and when we have,
Like sponges, sucked in wealth, we are squeezed out
By the rough hand of the law; and, failing in
One syllable of our commission, with
The loss of what we got with toil, we draw
Enter CORNELIA and a Moor-woman.
What was our own in question.—You come timely,
To turn my tired thoughts from a sad discourse
That I had with myself.
Corn. I rather fear, sir,
I bring an argument along with me
That will increase, not lessen, such conceptions
As I found with you.
Mar. Why, sweet? what's the matter?
Corn. When I but name Antiochus, though I spare
To make a brief relation how he died,
Or what he is, if he now live, a sigh,
And seconded with a tear, I know, must fall
As a due tribute to him.
Mar. Which I pay
Without compulsion; but why do you
Lance this old sore?
Corn. The occasion commands it,
And now I would forget it, I am forced,
In thankfulness, to call to memory
The favours for which we must ever owe him.
You had the honour, in his court at Sardis,
To be styled his friend, an honour Rome and Carthage
Were rivals for, and did deserve the envy
Of his prime minions and favourites;
His natural subjects planted in his favour
Or rooted up, as your dislike or praise
Reported them; the good king holding what
You spake to be oraculous, and not
To be disputed. His magnificent gifts
Confirmed his true affection, which you were
More weary to receive than he to give;
Yet still he studied new ones.
Mar. Pray you, no more.
Corn. Oh, 'tis a theme, sir, I could ever dwell on;
But, since it does offend you, I will speak
Of what concerns myself. He did not blush,
In the height of his felicity, to confess
Fabricius, my lord and father, for
His much-loved kinsman, and as such observed him
You may please to remember too, when, at
A public sacrifice made to the gods
After a long infection, in which
The Asian kings and queens were his assistants,
With what respect and grace he did receive me;
And, at a solemn tilting, when he had
Put on the richest armour of the world,
Smiling he said—his words are still, and shall be,
Writ in the tablet of my heart—"Fair cousin,"
So he began (and then you thought me fair too),
"Since I am turned soldier, 'twere a solecism,
In the language of the war, to have no mistress;
And therefore, as a prosperous omen to
My undertakings, I desire to fight,
So you with willingness give suffrage to it,
Under your gracious colours:" and then, loosening
A scarf tied to mine arm, he did entreat me
To fasten it on his. O, with what joy
I did obey him, rapt beyond myself
In my imagination to have
So great a king my servant!
Mar. You had too
Some private conference.
Corn. And you gave way to it
Without a sign of jealousy, and dispensed with
The Roman gravity.
Mar. Would I could again
Grant you like opportunity ....
Is this remembered now?
Corn. It does prepare
A suit I have, which you must not deny me,
To see the man, who, as it is reported,
In the exterior parts Nature hath drawn
As his perfect copy. There must be something in him
Remarkable in his resemblance only
Of King Antiochus' features.
Mar. 'Twas my purpose;
Enter FLAMINIUS and DEMETRIUS.
And so much, my Cornelia, Flaminius
Shall not deny us.
Flam. As my duty binds me,
My stay here being but short, I come unsent for
To kiss your lordship's hands.
Mar. I answer you
In your own language, sir.—And yet your stay here
May be longer than you think. [Aside.
Flam. Most honoured madam,
I cannot stoop too low in tendering of
My humblest service.
Corn. You disgrace your courtship
In overacting it, my lord: I look not
For such observance.
Flam. I am most unhappy,
If that your excellence make any scruple
Of doubt you may command me.
Corn. This assurance
Gives me encouragement to entreat a favour,
In which my lord being a suitor with me,
I hope shall find a grant.
Flam. Though all that's mine
Be comprehended in 't.
Mar. Your promise, sir,
Shall not so far engage you. In respect
Of some familiar passages between
The King Antiochus, when he lived, and us,
And, though it needs it not, for farther proof
That this is an impostor, we desire
Some conference with him.
Flam. For your satisfaction
I will dispense a little with the strictness
Of my commission.—Sirrah, will the captain
To bring him to the proconsul.
Corn. His chains took off;
That I entreat too, since I would not look on
The image of a king I so much honoured
Bound like a slave.
Flam. See this great lady's will
Be punctually obeyed. [Exit DEMETRIUS.
Mar. Your wisdom, sir,
Hath done the state a memorable service,
In strangling in the birth this dreadful monster;
And, though with some your cruel usage of him
(For so they call your fit severity)
May find a harsh interpretation, wise men
In judgment must applaud it.
Flam. Such as are
Selected instruments for deep designs,
As things unworthy of them, must not feel
Or favours or affections. Though I know
The ocean of your apprehensions needs not
The rivulet of my poor cautions, yet,
Bold from my long experience, I presume
(As a symbol of my zeal and service to you)
To leave this counsel: when you are, my lord,
Graced or distasted by the state, remember
Your faculties are the state's, and not your own;
And therefore have a care the empty sounds
Of friend or enemy sway you not beyond
The limits are assigned you. We, with ease,
Swim down the stream; but to oppose the torrent
Is dangerous, and to go more or less
Than we are warranted, fatal.
Mar. With my thanks
For your so grave advice, I'll put in practice
On all occasions what you deliver,
And study them as aphorisms: in the meantime,
Pray you accept such entertainment as
Syracusa can present you. When the impostor
Arrives let us have notice. Pray you walk, sir. [Exeunt.
SCENE II.—Another Room in the same.
Enter ANTIOCHUS, Captain, and Soldiers.
Capt. Wait at the palace gate. There is no fear now
Of his escape; I'll be myself his guardian
Till you hear further from me. [Exeunt Soldiers.
Ant. What new engine
Hath cruelty found out to raise against
This poor demolished rampire? it is levelled
With the earth already. Will they triumph in
The ruins they have made; or is there yet
One masterpiece of tyranny in store
Beyond that I have suffered? If there be
A vial of affliction not poured out yet
Upon this sinful head, I am prepared,
And will look on the cloud before it break
Without astonishment. Scorn me not, captain,
As a vain braggart; I will make this good,
And I have strength to do it. I am armed
With such varieties of defensive weapons,
Lent to me from my passive fortitude,
That there's no torment of a shape so horrid
Can shake my constancy. Where lies the scene now?
Though the hangings of the stage were congealed gore,
The chorus flinty executioners,
And the spectators, if it could be, more
Inhuman than Flaminius, the cue given,
The principal actor's ready.
Capt. If I durst
I could show my compassion.
Ant. Take heed, captain;
Pity in Roman officers is a crime
To be punished more than murder in cold blood:
Bear up. To tell me where I am, I take it,
Is no offence.
Capt. You are in Syracusa,
In the court of the proconsul.
Ant. Who? Marcellus?
Capt. That noble Roman. By him you are sent for,
But to what end I am ignorant.
Ant. Ha! He was
My creature, and, in my prosperity, proud
To hold dependence of me, though I graced him
With the title of a friend; and his fair lady
In courtship styled my mistress. Can they be
Infected with such barbarism as to make me
A spectacle for their sport?
Enter MARCELLUS, FLAMINIUS, CORNELIA, MOOR-WOMAN, and Servants.
Capt. They are here, and soon
They will resolve you.
Mar. Be reserved, and let not
The near resemblance of his shape transport you
Beyond yourself; though I confess the object
Does much amaze me.
Corn. You impose, my lord,
What I want power to bear.
Mar. Let my example,
Though your fierce passions make war against it,
Strengthen your reason.
Ant. Have you taken yet
A full view of me? In what part do I
Appear a monster?
Corn. His own voice!
Mar. Forbear.
Ant. Though I were an impostor, as this fellow
Labours you to believe, you break the laws
Of fair humanity in adding to
Affliction at the height; and I must tell you
The reverence you should pay unto the shape
Of King Antiochus may challenge pity
As a due debt, not scorn. Wise men preserve
Dumb pictures of their friends, and look upon them
With feeling and affection, yet not hold it
A foolish superstition; but there is
In thankfulness a greater tie on you
To show compassion.
Mar. Were it possible
Thou couldst be King Antiochus_____
Ant. What then?
Mar. I should both say and do_____
Ant. Nothing for me
(As far as my persuasion could prevent it)
Not suiting with the quality and condition
Of one that owes his loyalty to Rome;
And since it is by the inscrutable will
Of fate determined that the royalties
Of Asia must be conferred upon her,
For what offence I know not, 'tis in vain
For men to oppose it. You express, my lord,
A kind of sorrow for me, in which, madam,
You seem to be a sharer. That you may
Have some proof to defend it, for your mirth's sake
I'll play the juggler, or more subtle gipsy,
And to your admiration reveal
Strange mysteries to you, which, as you are Romans,
You must receive for cunning tricks, but give
No farther credit to them,
Flam. At your peril
You may give him hearing; but to have faith in him
Neighbours to treason. Such an impudent slave
Was never read of.
Mar. I dare stand his charms
With open ears.—Speak on.
Ant. If so, have at you!
Can you call to your memory, when you were
At Sardis with Antiochus, before
His Grecian expedition, what he,
With his own hands, presented you as a favour,
No third man by to witness it?
Mar. Give me leave
To recollect myself. Yes—sure 'twas so—
He gave me a fair sword.
Ant. 'Tis true, and you
Vowed never to part from it. Is it still
In your possession?
Mar. The same sword I have,
And, while I live, will keep.
Ant. Will you not say,
It being four and twenty years since you
Were master of that gift, if now I know it,
Among a thousand others, that I have
The art of memory?
Mar. I shall receive it
As no common sleight.—Sirrah, fetch all the swords
For mine own use in my armoury; and, do you hear?
Do as I give directions. [Whispers.
Serv. With all care, sir. [Exit.
Ant. To entertain the time until your servant
Returns, there is no syllable that passed
Between you and Antiochus which I could not
Articulately deliver. You must still
Be confident that I am an impostor,
Or else the trick is nothing.
Re-enter Servant, with many swords.
Corn. Can this be?
Ant. O, welcome, friend. Most choice and curious swords,
But mine is not among them.
Mar. Bring the rest.
Enter another Servant, with more swords.
Ant. Ay, this is it: this is the sword I gave you
Before I went to Greece. Be not amazed,
Nor let this trifle purchase a belief
I am Antiochus. Here is one will assure you
These are but juggling tricks of an affronter.
Flam. They are no more. A contract's sealed between
The devil and this seducer, at the price
Of his damned soul, and his familiar dæmon
Acquaints him with these passages.
Mar. I know not,
But I am thunderstruck.
Corn. I can contain
Myself no longer.
Ant. Stay, dear madam; though
Credulity be excusable in your sex,
To take away all colour of guilt in you,
You shall have stronger proofs. The scarf you gave me,
As a testimony you adopted me
Into your service, I ware on mine armour,
When I fought with Marcus Scaurus; and mine eye
Hath on the sudden found a precious jewel
You deigned to receive from me ...
Which you wear on your ...
Corn. I acknowledge
It was the King Antiochus' gift.
Ant. I will
Make a discovery of a secret in it
Of which you yet are ignorant. Pray you trust it,
For King Antiochus' sake, into my hands.
I thank your readiness. Nay, dry your eyes;
You hinder else the faculty of seeing
The cunning of the lapidary. I can
Pull out the stone, and under it you shall find
My name, and cipher I then used, engraven.
Corn. 'Tis most apparent. Though I lose my life for't,
These knees shall pay their duty.
Ant. By no means;
For your own sake be still incredulous,
Since your faith cannot save me. I should know
This Moorish woman. Yes, 'tis she.—Thou wert
One of my laundry, and thou wast called Zanthia
While thou wert mine. I am glad thou hast lighted on
So gracious a mistress.
Moor-wo. Mine own king!
O, let me kiss your feet. What cursèd villains
Have thus transformed you?
Flam. 'Tis not safe, my lord,
To suffer this.
Mar. I am turned statue, or
All this is but a vision.
Ant. Your ear, madam;
Since what I now shall say is such a secret
As is known only to yourself and me,
And must exclude a third, though your own lord,
From being of the counsel. Having gained
Access and privacy with you, my hot blood
(No friend to modest purposes) prompted me,
With pills of poisoned language, candied o'er
With hopes of future greatness, to attempt
The ruin of your honour. I enforced then
My power to justify the ill, and pressed you
With mountainous promises of love and service:
But when the building of your faith and virtue
Began to totter, and a kind of grant
Was offered, my then sleeping temperance
Began to rouse itself; and, breaking through
The obstacles of lust, when most assured
To enjoy a pleasant hour, I let my suit fall,
And, with a gentle reprehension, taxed
Your forward proneness, but with many vows
Ne'er to discover it, which Heaven can witness
I have and will keep faithfully.
Corn. This is
The King Antiochus, as sure as I am
The daughter of my mother.
Mar. Be advised.
Flam. This is little less than treason!
Corn. They are traitors,
Traitors to innocence and oppressed justice,
That dare affirm the contrary.
Mar. Pray you temper
The violence of your passion. ...
Corn. ....... but express
Your thankfulness for his so many ...
And labour that the Senate may restore him
Unto his own; I'll die else.
Ant. Live long, madam,
To nobler and more profitable uses:
I am a falling structure, and desire not
Your honours should be buried in my ruins.
Let it suffice, my lord, you must not see
The sun, if, in the policy of state,
It is forbidden. With compassion
Of what a miserable king hath suffered,
Preserve me in your memory.
Flam. You stand as
This sorcerer had bewitched you.—Drag him to
His oar, and let his weighty chains be doubled.
Mar. For my sake, let the poor man have what favour
You can afford him.
Flam. Sir, you must excuse me.—
You have abused the liberty I gave you;
[To ANTIOCHUS.
But, villain, you pay dear for't.—I will trust
The execution of his punishment
To no man but myself; his cries and groans
Shall be my hourly music. So, my lord,
I take my leave abruptly.
Corn. May all plagues,
That ever followed tyranny, pursue thee!
Mar. Pray you stay a little.
Flam. On no terms.
Mar. Yield so much
To my entreaties.
Flam. Not a minute, for
Your government!
Mar. I will not purchase, sir,
Your company at such a rate; and yet
Must take the boldness upon me to tell you
You must and shall stay.
Flam. How!
Mar. Nay, what is more,
As a prisoner, not a guest. Look not so high;
I'll humble your proud thoughts.
Flam. You dare not do this
Without authority.
Mar. You shall find I have
Sufficient warrant, with detaining you,
To take this man into my custody.—
Though 'tis not in my power, whate'er you are,
To do you further favour, I thus free you
Out of this devil's paws.
Ant. I take it as
A lessening of my torments.
Flam. You shall answer
This in another place.
Mar. But you shall here
Yield an account without appeal for what
You have already done. You may peruse ....
[Hands him a letter.
Shake you already? Do you find I have
...... Call in the Asian merchants.
Enter 2nd and 3rd Merchants and Guards.
.......
...... now to be hanged
..... him that pities thee
.... cusers
... die and will prove that you took bribes
Of the Carthaginian merchants, to detain
Their lawful prize; and, for your sordid ends,
Abused the trust, committed by the state,
To right their vassals. The wise Senate, as
They will reward your good and faithful service,
Cannot, in justice, without punishment
Pass o'er your ill. Guiltiness makes you dumb;
But, till that I have leisure, and you find
Your tongue, to prison with him.
Flam. I prove too late,
As Heaven is merciful, man's cruelty
Never escapes unpunished.
[Exeunt Guards with FLAMINIUS.
Ant. How a smile
Labours to break forth from me! But what is
Rome's pleasure shall be done with me.
Mar. Pray you think, sir,
A Roman, not your constant friend, that tells you
You are confined unto the Gyaræ
With a strong guard upon you.
Re-enter Guard.
Ant. Then 'tis easy
To prophesy I have not long to live,
Though the manner how I shall die is uncertain.
Nay, weep not: since 'tis not in you to help me,
These showers of tears are fruitless. May my story
Teach potentates humility, and instruct
Proud monarchs, though they govern human things,
A greater power does raise, or pull down, kings!
[Flourish. Exeunt.
EPILOGUE.
The end of epilogues is to inquire
The censure of the play, or to desire
Pardon for what's amiss. In his intent
The maker vows that he is innocent;
And, for me and my fellows, I protest,
And you may believe me, we have done our best;
And reason too we should: but whether you
Conceive we have with care discharged what's due
Rests yet in supposition; you may
If you please resolve us. If our fate this day
Prove prosperous, and you too vouchsafe to give
Some sign your pleasure is this work shall live,
We will find out new ways for your delight,
And, to our power, ne'er fail to do you right.
^FOOTNOTE^
^1^ Page 2 of the manuscript ended here; the second leaf, containing
about
120 lines, was almost wholly missing. From the few prefixes and detached words
and syllables remaining, and from the following speech, it may be gathered
that
Chrysalus, Syrus, and Geta, servants of Antiochus, come upon the scene, and
despoil him of his money, jewels, and rich garments.
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