then halfe the cure You have my Lord My heart to counsell and my hand to act And my advice and actions both have met Successe in things unlikely Ha. But this Is such a secret I dare hardly trust it To my owne soule And though it be a crime In friendship to betray a trusted Counsell Yet to conceale this were a greater crime And of a higher nature Mir. Now I know it And your endeavour to conceale it Speakes it more plainly 'T is some plot upon the Prince Ha. Oh thou hast toucht my soare and having searcht it Now heale it if thou canst The Prince doth hate me Or loves me not or loves another better Which is all one This being knowne in Court Has rendred me despis'd and scorn'd of all For I that in his absence Blaz'd like a starre of the first magnitude Now in his brighter sun-shine am not seene No applications now no troopes of suitors No power no not so much as to doe mischiefe Mir. My Lord I am asham'd of you So ill a master in an art so long Profest and practiz'd by you to be angry And angry with a Prince And yet to shew it In a sad looke or womanish complaint How can you hope to compasse your designes And not dissemble 'em Goe flatter and adore him Stand first among the crowd of his admirers Ha. Oh I have often spread those nets but he Hath ever beene too wise to thinke them reall Mir. However Dissemble still thanke him for all his injuries Take 'em for favours if at last You cannot gaine him some pretty nimble poyson May doe the feat Or if he will abroad Finde him some brave and honourable danger Ha. Have I not found him out as many dangers As Iuno did for Hercules yet he returnes Like Hercules doubled in strength and honour Mir. If danger cannot doe it then trie pleasure Which when no other enemie survives Still conquers all the Conquerours Endeavour To soften his ambition into lust Contrive fit opportunities and lay Baytes for temptation Ha. I le leave nothing unattempted But sure this will not take for all his Passions Affections and Faculties are slaves Onely to his ambition Mir. Then let him fall by his owne greatnesse And puffe him up with glory till it swell And breake him First betray him to himselfe Then to his ruine From his vertues suck a poyson As Spiders doe from flowers praise him to his father You know his nature Let the Princes glory Seeme to ecclipse and cast a cloud on his And let fall something that may raise his jealousie But least he should suspect it draw it from him As fishers doe the bayte to make him follow it Ha. But the old King is so suspitious Mir. But withall Most fearefull He that viewes a Fort to take it Plants his Artillerie gainst the weakest part Worke on his feares till feare hath made him cruell And cruelty shall make him feare againe Me thinkes my Lord you that so oft have sounded And fathom'd all his thoughts that know the deeps And shallowes of his heart should need no instruments To advance your ends his passions and his feares Lye Liegers for you in his brest and there Negotiate their affaires Enter King Solyman and Lords to them King Solyman be it your care to entertaine the Captaines And the Prisoners and use them kindly Sol. Sir I am not for entertainments now I am melancholy King What griev'd for our good fortune Sol. No Sir but now the warres are done we want pretences To put off Creditors I am haunted Sir King Not with Ghosts Sol. No Sir Materiall and Substantiall Devils King I know the cause what is 't thou ow'st them Sol. Not much Sir but so much as spoyles me for a good fellow 'T is but 2000 Dollars A small summe to you Sir King Well it shall be paid Sol. Then if the Devill come for drinking let me alone with him Well Drinke I love thee but too well already But I shall love thee better hereafter I have often Drunke my selfe into debt but never out of debt till now Exeunt Finis Act. Primi Actus Secundus Scaena Prima Enter Prince Haly Captaines and Prisoners Bashawes Prince Captaines me-thinkes you looke like fishes out of water I see the Court is not your element You must to the warres againe 1. Cap. Faith Sir These young Gallants are so taken up with Their Mistresses I doubt their edge is taken off from The warres 2. Cap. I and their backes too 1. Cap. But for us old ones we 're weary of being laught at By these Court hobby-horses for making legges and Kissing hands unhandsomely 2. Cap. And to be censured by the she criticks because our Legges are bigger then the Court standard And therefore out of fashion 1. Cap. And such a gigling because ones band 's unpin'd Anothers beard not well turn'd up And such a Fiddle faddle 't is not to be endur'd Prince Well howsoever you are dealt with Pray let these strangers finde such entertainment As you would have desir'd Had but the chance of warre determin'd it For them as now for us and you brave enemies Forget your Nation and ungratefull Master And know that I can set so high a price On valour though in foes as to reward it With trust and honour 1. Bashaw Sir your twice conquered Vassals First by your courage then your clemencie Here humbly vow to sacrifice their lives The gift of this your unexampled mercy To your commands and service Prince to Haly. I pray my Lord second my suite I have already mov'd the King in private That in our next yeares expedition they may have Some command Ha. I shall my Lord And glad of the occasion aside I wonder Sir you 'le leave the Court the sphere Where all your graces in full lustre shine Prince I Haly but the reputation Of vertuous actions past if not kept up With an accesse and fresh supply of new ones Is lost and soone forgotten and like Palaces For want of habitation and repaire Dissolve to heapes of ruine Ha. But can you leave Sir Your old indulgent father and forsake The embraces of so faire so chaste a wife And all the beauties of the Court besides Are mad in love and dote upon your person And is 't not better sleeping in their armes Then in a cold Pavilion in the campe Where your short sleepes are broke and interrupted With noyses and alarms Prince Haly thou know'st not me how I despise These short and empty pleasures and how low They stand in my esteeme which every Peasant The meanest Subject in my fathers Empire Enjoyes as fully in as high perfection As he or I and which are had in common By beasts aswell as men wherein they equall If not exceed us pleasures to which wee 're led Onely by sence those creatures which have least Of reason most enjoy Ha. Is not The Empire you are borne to a Scene large enough To exercise your vertues There are vertues
Civill aswell as militarie for the one You have given the world an ample proofe already Now exercise the other 't is no lesse To governe justly make your Empire flourish With wholesome lawes in riches peace and plenty Then by the expence of wealth and bloud to make New acquisitions Prince That I was borne so great I owe to fortune And cannot pay that debt till vertue set me High in example as I am in title Till what the world calls fortune's gifts my actions May stile their owne rewards and those too little Princes are then themselves when they arise More glorious in mens thoughts then in their eyes Ha. Sir your fame Already fils the world and what is infinite Cannot receive degrees but will swallow All that is added as our Caspian sea Receives our rivers and yet seemes not fuller And if you tempt her more the winde of fortune May come about and take another point And blast your glories Prince No My glories are past danger they 're full blowne Things that are blasted are but in their bud And as for fortune I nor love nor feare her I am resolved goe Haly flatter still your aged Master Still sooth him in his pleasures and still grow Great by those arts Well farewell Court Where vice not onely hath usurp't the place But the reward and even the name of vertue Wee 'le goe and hunt it is a Princely sport And much resembles warre Cap. Such warres as ours Where we have us'd to follow chases Prince It shewes us pretty dangers and acquaints us With scituations while I view the hills The thickets and the rivers here me-thinkes With best advantage I could pitch my campe Here range my Army there the battaile joyne Here make a safe retreat and there enclose The enemie as beasts within a toyle And yet I can observe the chased Stagge How he can cast about to seeke his safety And when he sees his death is unavoydable How he will weepe I can observe the Dogs too How some in swiftnesse some in scent excell Others in cry But let us lose no time Me-thinkes the Courts a prison Ex Man Ha. Still still Sleighted and scorn'd yet this affront Hath stampt a noble title on my malice And married it to Justice The King is old And when the Prince succeedes I 'me lost past all recovery then I Must meet my danger and destroy him first But cunningly and closely or his sonne And wife like a fierce Tygresse will devoure me There 's danger every way and since 't is so 'T is brave and noble when the falling waight Of my owne ruine crushes those I hate But how to doe it that 's the worke he stands So high in reputation with the people There 's but one way and that 's to make his father The instrument to give the name and envie To him but to my selfe the prize and glory He 's old and jealous apt for suspitions gainst which tyrants ears Are never clos'd The Prince is young Fierce and ambitious I must bring together All these extreames and then remove all Mediums That each may be the others object Enter Mirvan Mir. My Lord Now if your plots be right you are befriended With opportunity The King is melancholy Apted for any ill impressions Make an advantage of the Princes absence Urge some suspected cause of his departure Use all your art hee 's comming Exit Mir. Enter King Ha. Sir have you knowne an action of such glory Lesse swel'd with ostentation or a minde Lesse tainted with felicitie 'T is a rare temper in the Prince King Is it so rare to see a sonne so like His father Have not I perform'd actions As great and with as great a moderation Ha. I Sir but that 's forgotten Actions o'th' last age are like Almanacks o' th' last yeare King 'T is well but if with all his conquests what I get in Empire I lose in fame I thinke my selfe no gainer But am I quite forgotten Ha. Sir you know Age breeds neglect in all and actions Remote in time like objects Remote in place are not beheld at halfe their greatnesse And what is new findes better acceptation Then what is good or great yet some old men Tell Stories of you in their chimney corners King No otherwise Ha. They 're all so full of him some magnifie His courage some his wit but all admire A greatnesse so familiar King Sure Haly Thou hast forgot thy selfe art thou a Courtier Or I a King my eares are unacquainted With such bold truthes especially from thee Ha. Sir when I am call'd to 't I must speake Boldly and plainly King But with what eagernesse what circumstance Unaskt thou tak'st such paines to tell me onely My sonne 's the better man Ha. Sir where Subjects want the priviledge To speake there Kings may have the priviledge To live in ignorance King If 't were a secret that concern'd my life Or Empire then this boldnesse might become thee But such unnecessary rudenesse savours Of some designe And this is such a false and squint-ey'd praise Which seeming to looke upwards on his glories Lookes downe upon my feares I know thou hat'st him And like infected persons faine would'st rub The ulcer of thy malice upon me Ha. Sir I almost beleeve you speake your thoughts But that I want the guilt to make me feare it King What meane these guilty blushes then Ha. Sir if I blush it is because you doe not To upbraid so try'd a servant that so often Have wak'd that you might sleepe and beene expos'd To dangers for your safety King And therefore think'st Thou art so wrapt so woven into all My trusts and counsells that I now must suffer All thy Ambition aymes at Ha. Sir if your love growes weary And thinks you have worne me long enough I 'me willing To be left off but hee 's a foolish Sea-man That when his shippe is sinking will not Unlade his hopes into another bottome King I understand no Allegories Ha. And hee 's as ill a Courtier that when His Master 's old desires not to comply With him that must succeed King But if He will not be comply'd with Ha. Oh Sir There 's one sure way and I have knowne it practiz'd In other States King What 's that Ha. To make The fathers life the price of the sonnes favour To walke upon the graves of our dead Masters To our owne securitie King starts and scratches his head Ha. aside 'T is this must take Does this plainnesse please you Sir King and Haly thou know'st my nature too too apt To these suspitions but I hope the question Was never mov'd to thee Ha. In other Kingdomes Sir King But has my sonne no such designe Ha. Alas You know I hate him and should I tell you He had you 'd say it was but malice King No more of that good Haly I know thou lov'st me But least the care of future safety tempt thee To forfeit present loyaltie or present loyaltie
could make a bloudy feast Of his owne sonne and call the gods his guests Her 's that could kill her aged Sire and cast Her brothers scatter'd limbs to Wolves and Vultures Or his that slew his father to enjoy His mothers bed and greater then all those My fathers Devill Come mischiefe I embrace thee fill my soule And thou revenge ascend and beare the Scepter O're all my other passions banish thence All that are coole and tame Know old Tyrant My heart 's to big to breake I know thy feares Exceed my sufferings and my revenge Though but in hope is much a greater pleasure Then thou canst take in punishing Then my anger Sinke to the Center of my heart and there Lye close in ambush till my seeming patience Hath made the cruell Tyrant as secure Though with as little cause as now hee 's jealous Whos 's there Enter two or three I finde my nature would returne To her old course I feele an inclination To some repose welcome thou pleasing slumber A while embrace me in thy leaden armes And charme my carefull thoughts Conduct me to my bed Exit Enter King Haly and Caliph King How doe's the Prince how beares he his restraint Ha. Why Sir as all great spirits Beare great and sudden changes with such impatience As a Numidian Lyon when first caught Endures the toyle that holds him He would thinke of nothing But present death and sought all violent meanes To compasse it But time hath mitigated Those furious heats he now returnes to food And sleepe admits the conversation Of those that are about him King I would I had not So easily beleev'd my feares I was too sudden I would it were undone Cal. If you lament it That which now lookes like Justice will be thought An inconsiderate rashnesse King But there are in nature Such strong returnes that I punish't him I doe not grieve but that he was my sonne Ha. But it concernes you to beare up your passion And make it good for if the people know That you have cause to grieve for what is done They 'le thinke you had no cause at first to doe it King to the Ca. Go visit him from me and teach him patience Since neither all his furie nor my sorrow Can helpe what 's past tell him my severitie To him shall in some measure be requited By my indulgence to his children And if he desire it Let them have accesse to him endeavour to take off His thoughts from revenge by telling him of Paradise and I know not what pleasures In the other world Cal. I shall Sir Exit King and Ca. Man Ha. Enter Mirvan Ha. Mirvan the King relents and now there 's left No refuge but the last he must be poysoned And suddenly lest he survive his father Mir. But handsomely lest it appeare Ha. Appeare To whom you know there 's none about him But such as I have plac't and they shall say 'T was discontent or abstinence Mir. But at the best 'T will be suspected Ha. Why though 't be knowne Wee 'le say he poysoned himselfe Mir. But the curious will pry further Then bare report and the old Kings suspitions Have piercing eyes Ha. But those nature Will shortly close you see his old disease Growes strong upon him Mir. But if he should recover Ha. But I have cast his nativitie he cannot he must not I' th' meane time I have so besieg'd him So block't up all the passages and plac't So many Centinels and Guards upon him That no intelligence can be convey'd But by my instruments But this businesse will require More heads and hands then ours Goe you to the prison And bring the Keeper privately to me To give him his instructions Ex. severall wayes Enter Prince and Caliph Cal. Sir I am commanded by the King To visite you Prince What to give a period to my life And to his feares You 're welcome here 's a throat A heart or any other part ready to let In death and receive his commands Ca. My Lord I am no messenger nor minister of death 'T is not my function Prince I should know that voyce Ca. I am the Caliph and am come to tell you your father Is now returned to himselfe Nature ha's got The victory o're passion all his rigour Is turn'd to griefe and pitty Prince Alas good man I pitty him and his infirmities His doubts and feares and accidents of age Which first provok't his crueltie Ca. He bid me tell you His love to yours should amply recompence His cruelty to you And I dare say 't is reall For all his thoughts his pleasures and delights Are fixt on Fatyma when he is sad She comforts him when sicke shee 's his Physitian And were it not for the delight he takes In her I thinke hee 'de dye with sorrow Prince But how are his affections fixt so strangely On her alone sure 't is not in his nature For then he had lov'd me or hated her Because she came from me Ca. 'T is her desert Shee 's faire beyond comparison and witty Above her age and beares a manly spirit Above her sexe Prince But may not I admire her Is that too great a happinesse pray let her make it Her next suit to be permitted to visit me her selfe Ca. She shall Sir I joy to see your minde So well compos'd I fear'd I should have found A tempest in your soule and came to lay it I 'le to the King I know to him that newes will be Most acceptable Prince Pray doe and tell him I have cast off all my passions and am now A man againe fit for societie And conversation Ca. I will Sir Exit Prince I never knew my selfe till now how on the sudden I 'me growne an excellent dissembler to out-doe One at the first that ha's practiz'd it all his life So now I am my selfe againe what is 't I feele within me thinkes some vaste designe Now takes possession of my heart and swels My labouring thoughts above the common bounds Of humane actions something full of horror My soule hath now decreed my heart does beat As if 't were forging thunderbolts for Jove To strike the Tyrant dead so now I have it I have it 't is a gallant mischiefe Worthy my father or my fathers sonne All his delight 's in Fatyma poore innocent But not more innocent then I and yet My father loves thee and that 's crime enough By this act old Tyrant I shall be quit with thee while I was vertuous I was a stranger to thy bloud but now Sure thou wilt love me for this horrid crime It is so like thy owne In this I 'me sure Although in nothing else I am thy sonne But when 't is done I leave him yet that remedie I take my selfe Revenge but I aswell Will rob him of his anger as his joy And having sent her to the shades I 'le follow her But to returne againe and dwell In his dire thoughts for there 's
behinde him Enter Morat as in haste Mor. Sir with hazard of my life I 've ventur'd To tell you you are lost betray'd undone Rouze up your courage call up all your counsells And thinke on all those stratagems which nature Keepes ready to encounter sudden dangers Prince But pray my Lord by whom for what offence Mor. Is it a time for story when each minute Begets a thousand dangers the gods protect you Ex. Prince This man was ever honest and my friend And I can see in his amazed looke Something of danger but in act or thought I never did that thing should make me feare it Princesse Nay good Sir let not so secure a confidence Betray you to your ruine Prince Prethee woman Keepe to thy selfe thy feares I cannot know That there is such a thing I stand so strong Inclosed with a double guard of Vertue And Innocence that I can looke on dangers As he that stands upon a Rocke Can looke on stormes and tempests Feare and guilt Are the same thing and when our actions are not Our feares are crimes And he deserves it lesse that guilty beares A punishment then he that guiltlesse feares Ex. Enter Haly and Torturers Ha. This is the place appointed assist me courage This houre ends all my feares but pause a while Suppose I should discover to the Prince The whole conspiracie and so retort it Upon the King it were an handsome plot But full of difficulties and uncertaine And hee 's so fool'd with downe-right honesty Hee 'le ne're beleeve it and now it is too late The guards are set and now I heare him comming Enter Prince stumbles at the entrance Prince 'T is ominous but I will on destruction O'retakes as often those that fly as those that boldly meet it Ha. By your leave Prince your father greets you Prince Unhand me traytors Haly casts a scarfe over his face Ha. That title is your owne and we are sent to let you know it Is not that the voyce of Haly that thunders in my eares Ha. I vertuous Prince I come to make you exercise One vertue more your patience Heat the irons quickly Prince Insolent villaine for what cause Ha. Onely to gaze upon a while untill your eyes are out Prince O villaine shall I not see my father To aske him what 's my crime who my accusers Let me but try if I can wake his pitty From his Lethargicke sleepe Ha. It must not be Sir Prince Shall I not see my wife nor bid farewell To my deare children Ha. Your pray'rs are all in vaine Prince Thou shalt have halfe my Empire Haly let me but See the Tyrant that before my eyes are lost They may dart poys'nous flashes like the Basiliske And looke him dead These eyes that still were open Or to fore-see or to prevent his dangers Must they be closed in eternall night Cannot his thirst of bloud be satisfied With any but his owne And can his tyrannie Finde out no other object but his sonne I seeke not mercy tell him I desire To die at once not to consume an age In lingring deathes Ha. Our eares are charm'd Away with him Prince Can ye behold ye Gods a wronged innocent Or sleepes your Justice like my fathers Mercy Or are you blinde as I must be Finis Act. Tertii Actus Quartus Enter Ab. and Morat Ab. I ever fear'd the Princes too much greatnesse Would make him lesse the greatest heights are neare The greatest precipice Mor. 'T is in worldly accidents As in the world it selfe where things most distant Meet one another Thus the East and West Upon the Globe a Mathematick point Onely divides Thus happinesse and miserie And all extreames are still contiguous Ab. Or if 'twixt happinesse and miserie there be A distance 't is an Aery Vacuum Nothing to moderate or breake the fall Mor. But oh this Saint-like Devill This damned Caliph to make the King beleeve To kill his sonne 's religion Ab. Poore Princes how are they mis-led While they whose sacred office 't is to bring Kings to obey their God and men their King By these mysterious linkes to fixe and tye Them to the foot-stoole of the Deity Even by these men Religion that should be The curbe is made the spurre to tyrannie They with their double key of conscience binde The Subjects soules and leave Kings unconfin'd While their poore Vassals sacrifice their blouds T'Ambition and to Avarice their goods Blinde with Devotion They themselves esteeme Made for themselves and all the world for them While heavens great law given for their guide appeares Just or unjust but as it waytes on theirs Us'd but to give the eccho to their words Power to their wills and edges to their swords To varnish all their errors and secure The ills they act and all the world endure Thus by their arts Kings awe the world while they Religion as their mistresse seeme t' obey Yet as their slave command her while they seeme To rise to Heaven they make Heaven stoope to them Mor. Nor is this all where feign'd devotion bends The highest things to serve the lowest ends For if the many-headed beast hath broke Or shaken from his necke the royall yoake With popular rage religion doth conspire Flowes into that and swells the torrent higher Then powers first pedigree from force derives And calls to minde the old prerogatives Of free-borne man and with a saucy eye Searches the heart and soule of Majestie Then to a strict account and censure brings The actions errors and the ends of Kings Treads on authority and sacred lawes Yet all for God and his pretended cause Acting such things for him which he in them And which themselves in others will condemne And thus ingag'd nor safely can retire Nor safely stand but blindly bold aspire Forcing their hopes even through despaire to climbe To new attempts disdaine the present time Grow from disdaine to threats from threats to armes While they though sonnes of peace still sound th' alarm's Thus whether Kings or people seeke extreames Still conscience and religion are their Theams And whatsoever change the State invades The pulpit either forces or perswades Others may give the fewell or the fire But they the breath that makes the flame inspire Ab. This and much more is true but let not us Adde to our ills and aggravate misfortunes By passionate complaints nor lose our selves Because we have lost him for if the Tyrant Were to a sonne so noble so unnaturall What will he be to us who have appear'd Friends to that sonne Mor. Well thought on and in time Farewell unhappy Prince while we thy friends As strangers to our Countrey and our selves Seeke out our safety and expect with patience Heavens Justice Ab. Let 's rather act it then expect it The Princes injuries at our hands require More then our teares and patience His army is not yet disbanded And onely wants a head thither wee 'le fly And all who love the Prince or hate the Tyrant
Must seize his dearest favourite sure my turne comes next Ab. 'T is come already Sir but to succeed him not them Long live King Soffy Without drums and trumpets So. But why are these men prisoners Ab. Let this enforme you So. But is my Grandsire dead Ab. As sure as we are alive So. Then let 'em still be prisoners away with 'em Invite our mother from her sad retirement And all that suffer for my fathers love Restraint or punishment Enter Princesse So. Deare mother make Our happinesse compleat by breaking through That cloud of sorrow And let us not be wanting to our selves Now th' heavens have done their part Lest so severe and obstinate a sadnesse Tempt a new vengeance Princesse Sir to comply with you I 'le use a violence Upon my nature Joy is such a forrainer So meere a stranger to my thoughts I know Not how to entertaine him but sorrow Ill made by custome so habituall 'T is now part of my nature So. But can no pleasure no delight divert it Greatnesse or power which women most affect If that can doe it rule me and rule my Empire Princesse Sir seek not to rob me of my tears Fortune Her selfe is not so cruell for my counsels Then may be unsuccessefull but my prayers Shall wait on all your actions Enter Solyman as from the Rack Guard So. Alas poore Solyman how is he altered Sol. I know not Sir it an art your Grandfather had to make Me grow I think he took me for some crooked Lady I 'm sure the engine is better for the purpose than Steele bodies or bolsters So. But for what cause was all this crueltie Sol. Why because I would not accuse your father when he Saw he could not stretch my conscience thus he has Stretcht my carkasse Mor. I think they have stretcht his wit too Sol. This is your fathers love that lyes thus in my joynts I might have lov'd all the pockie whores in Persia and Have felt it lesse in my bones So. Thy faith and honestie shall be rewarded According to thine owne desire Sol. Friend I pray thee tell me whereabout my knees are I would faine kneele to thank his Majestie Why Sir for the present my desire is only to have A good Bone-setter and when your Majestie has done the office Of a Bone-setter to the Body Politike and some skilfull Man to this body of mine which if it had been a Body Politike had never come to this I shall by that Time think on something according to my deserts But must none of these great ones be hang'd for Aside Their villanies Mor. Yes certainly Sol. Then I need look no further some of their places Will serve my turne So. Bring back those villaines Enter Haly and Caliph So. Now to your teares deare Madam and the Ghost Of my dead father will I consecrate The first fruits of my justice Let such honours And funerall rites as to his birth and vertues Are due be first performed then all that were Actors or Authors of so black a deed Be sacrific'd as Victims to his ghost First thou my holy Devill that couldst varnish So foule an act with the faire name of Pietie Next thou th' abuser of thy Princes eare Cal. Sir I beg your mercie Ha. And I a speedy death nor shall my resolution Disarme it selfe nor condescend to parley With foolish hope So. 'T were crueltie to spare 'em I am sorrie I must commence my raigne in bloud but dutie And justice to my fathers soule exact This cruell pietie let 's study for a punishment A feeling one And borrow from our sorrow so much time T' inuent a torment equall to their crime Exeunt FINIS