though bought with sweat and bloud And long expected Princess Pardon Sir 'T is with our souls As with our eyes that after a long darkness Are dazled at the approach of sudden light When i' th' midst of fears we are surpriz'd With unexpected happiness the first Degrees of joy are meer astonishment And 't was so lately in a dreadful dream I saw my Lord so near destruction Deprived of his eyes a wretched Captive Then shrickt my self awake then slept again And dream't the same my ill presaging fancy Suggesting still 't was true Prince Then I forgive thy sadness since love caus'd it For love is full of fears and fear the shadow Of danger like the shadow of our bodies Is greater then when that which is the cause Is farthest off Princess But still there 's something That checks my joys Nor can I yet distinguish Which is an apparition this or that Prince An apparition At night I shall resolve that doubt and make Thy dreams more pleasing Exeunt Enter Haly and Mirvan Mir. The time has been my Lord When I was no such stranger to your thoughts You were not wont to wear upon your brow A frown or smile but still have thought me worthy At least to know the cause Ha. 'T is true Thy breast hath ever been the Cabinet Where I have lockt my secrets Mir. And did you ever find That any art could pick the lock or power Could force it open Ha. No I have ever found thee Trusty and secret But is 't observ'd i' th' Court That I am sad Mir. Observ'd 't is all mens wonder and discourse That in a Joy so great so universal You should not bear a part Ha. Discour'st of too Mir. Nothing but treason More commonly more boldly spoken So singular a sadness Must have a cause as strange as the effect And grief conceal'd like hidden fire consumes Which flaming out would call in help to quench it Ha. But since thou canst not mend it To let thee know it will but make thee worse Silence and time shall cure it Mir. But in diseases when the cause is known 'T is more than half the cure you have my Lord My heart to counsel and my hands to act And my advice and actions both have met Success in things unlikely Ha. But this Is such a secret I dare hardly trust it To my own soul. And though it be a crime In friendship to betray a trusted Counsel Yet to conceal this were a greater crime And of a higher nature Mir. Now I know it And your endeavour to conceal it Speaks it more plainly 'T is some plot upon the Prince Ha. Oh thou hast touch't my Sore and having searcht it Now heal it if thou canst The Prince hates me Or loves me not or loves another better Which is all one This being known in Court Has rendred me despis'd and scorn'd of all For I that in his absence Blaz'd like a star of the first magnitude Now in his brighter sun-shine am not seen No applications now no troops of suitors No power no not so much as to do mischief 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 look or womanish complaint How can you hope to compass your designs And not dissemble ' em Go flatter adore him Stand first among the crowd of his admirers Ha. Oh I have often spread those nets but he Hath ever been too wise to think them real Mir. However Dissemble still thank him for all his injuries Take 'em for favours if at last You cannot gain him some pretty nimble poyson May do the feat Or if he will abroad Find him some brave and honourable danger Ha. Have I not found him out as many dangers As Iuno did for Hercules yet he returns Like Hercules doubled in strength and honour Mir. If danger cannot do it then try pleasure Which when no other enemy survives Still conquers all the Conquerers Endeavour To soften his ambition into lust Contrive fit opportunities and lay Baits for temptation Ha. I le leave nothing unattempted But sure this will not take for all his Passions Affections and Faculties are slaves Only to his ambition Mir. Then let him fall by his own greatness And puffe him up with glory till it swell And break him First betray him to himself Then to his ruine From his virtues suck a poyson As Spiders do from flowers praise him to his Father You know his nature Let the Princes glory Seem to eclipse and cast a cloud on his And let fall something that may raise his jealousie But lest he should suspect it draw it from him As Fishers do the bait to make him follow it Ha. But the old King is so suspitious Mir. But withall Most fearful He that views a Fort to take it Plants his Artillery 'gainst the weakest part Work on his fears till fear hath made him cruel And cruelty shall make him fear again Methinks my Lord you that so oft have sounded And fathom'd all his thoughts that know the deeps And shallows of his heart should need no instruments To advance your ends his passions and his fears Lie Liegers for you in his brest and there Negotiate your affairs Enter King Solyman and Lords to them King Solyman Be it your care to entertain the Captains And the Prisoners use them kindly Sol. Sir I am not for entertainments now I am melancholy King What griev'd for your good fortune Sol. No Sir but now the wars are done we have no pretences To put off Creditors I am haunted Sir King Not with Ghosts Sol. No Sir Material and Substantial Devils King I know the cause what is 't thou ow'st them Sol. Not much Sir but so much as spoils me for a good fellow 'T is but 2000 Dollars A small sum to you Sir King Well it shall be paid Sol. Then if the Devil come for drinking let me alone with him Well Drink I love thee but too well already But I shall love thee better hereafter I have often Drunk my self into debt but never out of debt till now Exeunt Finis Actus primi Actus Secundus Scena Prima Enter Prince Haly Captains and Prisoners Bashawes Prince Pray let these strangers find such entertainment As you would have desir'd Had but the chance of war determin'd it For them as now for us And you brave enemies Forget your Nation and ungrateful 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 clemency 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 suit I have already mov'd the King in private That in our next years expedition they
suffice If light forgive for no Man 's alwaies wise The Preface MY early Mistress now my Antient Muse That strong Circaean liquor cease to infuse Wherewith thou didst Intoxicate my youth Now stoop with dis-inchanted wings to Truth As the Doves flight did guide Aeneas now May thine conduct me to the Golden Bough Tell like a Tall Old Oake how Learning shoots To Heaven Her Branches and to Hell her Roots The Progress of Learning WHen God from Earth form'd Adam in the East He his own Image on the Clay imprest As Subjects then the whole Creation came And from their Natures Adam them did Name Not from experience for the world was new He only from their Cause their Natures knew Had Memory been lost with Innocence We had not known the Sentence nor th' Offence 'T was his chief Punishment to keep in store The sad remembrance what he was before And though th' offending part felt mortal pain Th' immortal part its Knowledg did retain After the Flood Arts to Chaldaea fell The Father of the faithful there did dwell Who both their Parent and Instructer was From thence did Learning into Aegypt pass Moses in all th' Aegyptian Arts was skill'd When Heavenly power that chosen Vessel fill'd And we to his High Inspiration owe That what was done before the Flood we know From Aegypt Arts their Progress made to Greece Wrapt in the Fable of the Golden Fleece Musaeus first then Orpheus civilize Mankind and gave the world their Deities To many Gods they taught Devotion Which were the distinct faculties of one The eternal cause in their immortal lines Was taught and Poets were the first Divines God Moses first then David did inspire To compose Anthems for his Heavenly Quire To th' one the style of Friend he did impart On th' other stampt the likeness of his heart And Moses in the Old Original Even God the Poet of the world doth call Next those old Greeks Pythagoras did rise Then Socrates whom th' Oracle call'd Wise The Divine Plato Moral Vertue shows Then his Disciple Aristotle rose Who Natures secrets to the world did teach Yet that great Soul our Novelists impeach Too much manuring fill'd that field with weeds Whilst Sects like Locusts did destroy the seeds The tree of Knowledg blasted by disputes Produces sapless leaves instead of Fruits Proud Greece all Nations else Barbarians held Boasting her learning all the world excell'd Flying from thence to Italy it came And to the Realm of Naples gave the Name Till both their Nation and their Arts did come A welcom Trophy to Triumphant Rome Then wheresoe're her Conquering Eagles fled Arts Learning and Civility were spread And as in this our Microcosm the heart Heat Spirit Motion gives to every part So Rome's Victorious influence did disperse All her own Vertues through the Universe Here some digression I must make t' accuse Thee my forgetful and ingrateful Muse Could'st thou from Greece to Latium take thy flight And not to thy great Ancestor do Right I can no more believe Old Homer blind Then those who say the Sun hath never shin'd The age wherein he liv'd was dark but he Could not want sight who taught the world to see They who Minerva from Ioves head derive Might make Old Homers Skull the Muses Hive And from his Brain that Helicon distil Whos 's Racy Liquor did his off-spring fill Nor old Anacreon Hesiod Theocrite Must we forget nor Pindar's lofty Flight Old Homer's soul at last from Greece retir'd In Italy the Mantuan Swain inspir'd When Great Augustus made wars Tempests cease His Halcion days brought forth the arts of Peace He still in his Tryumphant Chariot shines By Horace drawn and Virgil's mighty lines 'T was certainly mysterious that the Name Of Prophets and of Poets is the same What the Tragedian wrote the late success Declares was Inspiration and not Guess As dark a truth that Author did unfold As Oracles or Prophets e're fore-told At last the Ocean shall unlock the Bound Of things and a New World by Typhis found Then Ages far remote shall understand The Isle of Thule is not the farthest Land Sure God by these Discoveries did design That his clear Light through all the World should shine But the Obstruction from that Discord springs The Prince of Darkness makes 'twixt Christian Kings That peaceful age with happiness to Crown From Heaven the Prince of Peace himself came down Then the true Sun of Knowledg first appear'd And the old dark mysterious Clouds were clear'd The heavy Cause of th' old accursed Flood Sunk in the sacred Deluge of his Blood His Passion Man from his first fall redeem'd Once more to Paradise restor'd we seem'd Satan himself was bound till th' Iron chain Our Pride did break and him let loose again Still the Old Sting remain'd and Man began To tempt the Serpent as He tempted Man Then Hell sends forth her Furies Avarice Pride Fraud Discord Force Hypocrisie their Guide Though the Foundation on a Rock were laid The Church was undermin'd and then betray'd Though the Apostles these events fore-told Yet even the Shepherd did devour the Fold The Fisher to convert the world began The Pride convincing of vain-glorious Man But soon his Follower grew a Soveraign Lord And Peter's Keys exchang'd for Peter's Sword Which still maintains for his adopted Son Vast Patrimonies though himself had none Wresting the Text to the old Gyants sense That Heaven once more must suffer violence Then subtle Doctors Scriptures made their prize Casuists like Cocks struck out each others Eyes Then dark distinctions Reasons light disguis'd And into Attoms Truth anatomiz'd Then Mahomets Crescent by our fewds encreast Blasted the learn'd Remainders of the East That project when from Greece to Rome it came Made Mother Ignorance Devotions Dame Then He whom Lucifer's own Pride did swell His faithful Emissary rose from Hell To possess Peter's Chair that Hildebrand Whose foot on Miters then on Crowns did stand And before that exalted Idol all Whom we call Gods on Earth did prostrate fall Then Darkness Europe's face did over-spread From lazy Cells where superstition bred Which link'd with blind Obedience so encreast That the whole world some ages they opprest Till through those Clouds the Sun of Knowledg brake And Europe from her Lethargy did wake Then first our Monarchs were acknowledg'd here That they their Churches Nursing-Fathers were When Lucifer no longer could advance His works on the false ground of Ignorance New Arts he tries and new designs he laies Then his well-study'd Master-piece he plays Loyola Luther Calvin he inspires And kindles with infernal Flames their fires Sends their fore-runner conscious of th' event Printing his most pernicious Instrument Wild Controversie then which long had slept Into the Press from ruin'd Cloysters leapt No longer by Implicite faith we erre Whilst every Man 's his own Interpreter No more conducted now by Aarons Rod Lay-Elders from their Ends create their God But seven wise men
may have Some command Ha. I shall my Lord And glad of the occasion aside I wonder Sir you 'll leave the Court the sphere Where all your graces in full lustre shine Prince I Haly but the reputation Of virtuous actions past if not kept up With an access and fresh supply of new ones Is lost and soon forgotten and like Palaces For want of habitation and repair Dissolve to heaps of ruine Ha. But can you leave Sir Your old indulgent Father and forsake The embraces of so fair so chast 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 arms Than in a cold Pavilion in the Camp Where your short sleeps are broke and interrupted With noises and alarms Prince Haly Thou know'st not me how I despise These short and empty pleasures and how low They stand in my esteem which every Peasant The meanest Subject in my Fathers Empire Enjoys as fully in as high perfection As he or I and which are had in common By beasts as well as men wherein they equal If not exceed us pleasures to which we 're led Only by sence those creatures which have least Of reason most enjoy Ha. Is not The Empire you are born to a Scene large enough To exercise your virtues There are virtues Civil as well as military for the one You have given the world an ample proof already Now exercise the other 't is no less To govern justly make your Empire flourish With wholesom laws in riches peace plenty Than by the expence of wealth and bloud to make New acquisitions Prince That I was born 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 own rewards and those too little Princes are then themselves when they arise More glorious in mens thoughts than in their eyes Ha. Sir your fame Already fills 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 seems not fuller And if you tempt her more the wind of fortune May come about and take another point And blast your glories Prince No My glories are past danger they 're full blown Things that are blasted are but in their bud And as for fortune I nor love nor fear her I am resolv'd go 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 only hath usurp't the place But the reward and even the name of vertue Ha. Still still Slighted 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 succeeds I 'm lost past all recovery then I Must meet my danger and destroy him first But cunningly and closely or his son And wife like a fierce Tygress will devour me There 's danger every way and since 't is so 'T is brave and noble when the falling weight Of my own ruine crushes those I hate But how to do it that 's the work 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 envy To him but to my self 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 extreams and then remove all Mediums That each may be the others object Enter Mirvan Mir. My Lord Now if your plots be ripe 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 he 's coming Exit Mir. Enter King Ha. Sir have you known an action of such glory Less swell'd with ostentation or a mind Less tainted with felicity 'T is a rare temper in the Prince King Is it so rare to see a son so like His Father Have not I performed 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 Year King 'T is well but with all his conquests what I get in Empire I lose in fame I think my self 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 half their greatness And what is new finds better acceptation Than 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 greatness so familiar King Sure Haly Thou hast forgot thy self art thou a Courtier Or I a King my ears are unacquainted With such bold truths especially from thee Ha. Sir when I am call'd to 't I must speak Boldly and plainly King But with what eagerness what circumstance Unaskt thou tak'st such pains to tell me only My son 's the better man Ha. Sir where Subjects want the priviledge To speak 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 boldness might become thee But such nnnecessary rudeness savours Of some design And this is such a false and squint-eyed praise Which seeming to look upwards on his glories Looks down uon my fears I know thou hat'st him And like infected persons fain wouldst rub The ulcer of thy malice upon me Ha. Sir I almost believe you speak your thoughts But that I want the guilt to make me fear it King What mean these guilty blushes then Ha. Sir if I blush it is because you do not To upbraid so try'd a servant that so often Have wak'd that you might sleep and been expos'd To dangers for your safety King And therefore think'st Thou art so wrapt so woven into all My trusts and counsels that I now must suffer All thy Ambition aims at Ha. Sir if your love grows weary And thinks you have worn me long enough I 'me willing To be left off but he 's a foolish Sea-man That when his Ship is sinking will not Unlade his hopes into another bottom King I understand no Allegories Ha. And he '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 known it practiz'd In other States King What 's that Ha. To make The Fathers life the price of the sons favour To walk upon the graves of our dead Masters To our own security King
Prince How does my Father Princess Still talks and plays with Fatyma but his mirth Is forc'd and strain'd In his look appears A wild distracted fierceness I can read Some dreadful purpose in his face but where This dismal cloud will break and spend his fury I dare not think pray heaven make false his fears Sometimes his anger breaks through all disguises And spares not gods nor men and then he seems Jealous of all the world suspects and starts And looks behind 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 counsels And think on all those stratagems which nature Keeps 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 look Something of danger but in act or thought I never did that thing should make me fear it Princess Nay good Sir let not so secure a confidence Betray you to your ruine Prince Prethee woman Keep to thy self thy fears 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 look on dangers As he that stands upon a Rock Can look on storms and tempests Fear guilt Are the same thing when our actions are not Our fears are crimes And he deserves it less that guilty bears A punishment than he that guiltless fears Ex. Enter Haly and Torturers Ha. This is the place appointed assist me courage This hour ends all my fears but pause a while Suppose I should discover to the Prince The whole conspiracy and so retort it Upon the King it were an handsom plot But full of difficulties and uncertain And he 's so fool'd with down-right honesty He 'l ne're believe it and now 't is too late The guards are set and now I hear him coming 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 scarf over his face Ha. That title is your own and we are sent to let you know it Prince Is not that the voice of Haly that thunders in my ears Ha. I vertuous Prince I come to make you exercise One vertue more your patience Heat the Irons quickly Prince Insolent villain for what cause Ha. Only to gaze upon a while until your eyes are out Prince O villain shall I not see my Father To ask him what 's my crime who my accusers Let me but rry if I can wake his pity From his Lethargick sleep Ha. It must not be Sir Prince Shall I not see my wife nor bid farewell To my dear Children Ha. Your pray'rs are all in vain Prince Thou shalt have half my Empire Haly let me but See the Tyrant that before my eyes are lost They may dart poys'nous flashes like the Basilisk And look him dead These eyes that still were open Or to fore-see or to prevent his dangers Must they be closed in eternal night Cannot his thirst of bloud be satisfied With any but his own And can his tyranny Find out no other object but his Son I seek not mercy tell him I desire To die at once not to consume an age In lingring deaths Ha. Our ears are charm'd Away with him Prince Can ye behold ye Gods a wronged Innocent Or sleeps your Justice like my Fathers Mercy Or are you blind as I must be Finis Actus Tertii Actus Quartus Enter Abd. and Morat Ab. I ever fear'd the Princes too much greatness Would make him less the greatest heights are near The greatest precipice Mor. 'T is in worldly accidents As in the world it self where things most distant Meet one another Thus the East and West Upon the Globe a Mathematick point Only divides Thus happiness and misery And all extreams are still contiguous Ab. Or if 'twixt happiness and misery there be A distance 't is an Aery Vacuum Nothing to moderate or break the fall Mor. But oh this Saint-like Devil This damned Caliph to make the King believe To kill his son 's religion Ab. Poor 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 links to fix and tie Them to the foot-stool of the Deity Even by these men Religion that should be The curb is made the spur to tyranny They with their double key of conscience bind The Subjects souls and leave Kings unconfin'd While their poor Vassals sacrifice their blouds T' Ambition and to Avarice their goods Blind with Devotion They themselves esteem Made for themselves and all the world for them While heavens great Law given for their guide appears Just or unjust but as it waits 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 aw the world while they Religion as their Mistress seem t' obey Yet as their slave command her while they seem To rise to heaven they make heaven stoop 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 neck the royal yoke With popular rage Religion doth conspire Flows into that and swells the torrent higher Then powers first pedigree from force derives And calls to mind the old prerogatives Of free-born man and with a saucy eye Searches the heart and soul of Majesty Then to a strict account and censure brings The actions errors and the end of Kings Treads on authority and sacred Laws Yet all for God and his pretended cause Acting such things for him which he in them And which themselves in others will condemn And thus engag'd nor safely can retire Nor safely stand but blindly bold aspire Forcing their hopes even through despair to climb To new attempts disdain the present time Grow from disdain to threats from threats to arms While they though sons of peace still sound th' alarms Thus whether Kings or people seek extreams Still conscience and religion are their Theams And whatsoever change the State invades The pulpit either forces or perswades Others may give the fewel or the fire But they the breath that makes the flame inspire Ab. This and much more is true but let not us Add 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 son so noble so unnatural What will he be to us who
a Tragedy Coopers Hill SUre there are Poets which did never dream Upon Parnassus nor did tast the stream Of Helicon we therefore may suppose Those made not Poets but the Poets those And as Courts make not Kings but Kings the Court So where the Muses their train resort Parnassus stands if I can be to thee A Poet thou Parnassus art to me Nor wonder if advantag'd in my flight By taking wing from thy auspicious height Through untrac't ways and aery paths I fly More boundless in my Fancy than my eie My eye which swift as thought contracts the space That lies between and first salutes the place Crown'd with that sacred pile so vast so high That whether 't is a part of Earth or sky Uncertain seems and may be thought a proud Aspiring mountain or descending cloud Pauls the late theme of such a Muse whose flight Has bravely reach't and soar'd above thy height Now shalt thou stand though sword or time or fire Or zeal more fierce than they thy fall conspire Secure whilst thee the best of Poets sings Preserv'd from ruine by the best of Kings Under his proud survey the City lies And like a mist beneath a hill doth rise Whose state and wealth the business and the crowd Seems at this distance but a darker cloud And is to him who rightly things esteems No other in effect than what it seems Where with like hast though several ways they run Some to undo and some to be undone While luxury and wealth like war and peace Are each the others ruine and increase As Rivers lost in Seas some secret vein Thence reconveighs there to be lost again Oh happiness of sweet retir'd content To be at once secure and innocent Windsor the next where Mars with Venus dwells Beauty with strength above the Valley swells Into my eye and doth it self present With such an easie and unforc't ascent That no stupendious precipice denies Access no horror turns away our eyes But such a Rise as doth at once invite A pleasure and a reverence from the sight Thy mighty Masters Embleme in whose face Sate meekness heightned with Majestick Grace Such seems thy gentle height made only proud To be the basis of that pompous load Than which a nobler weight no Mountain bears But Atlas only that supports the Sphears When Natures hand this ground did thus advance 'T was guided by a wiser power than Chance Mark't out for such a use as if 't were meant T' invite the builder and his choice prevent Nor can we call it choice when what we chuse Folly or blindness only could refuse A Crown of such Majestick towrs doth Grace The Gods great Mother when her heavenly race Do homage to her yet she cannot boast Amongst that numerous and Celestial host More Hero's than can Windsor nor doth Fames Immortal book record more noble names Not to look back so far to whom this Isle Owes the first Glory of so brave a pile Whether to Caesar Albanact or Brute The Brittish Arthur or the Danish Knute Though this of old no less contest did move Then when for Homers birth seven Cities strove Like him in birth thou should'st be like in fame ' As thine his fate if mine had been his Flame But whosoere it was Nature design'd First a brave place and then as brave a mind Not to recount those several Kings to whom It gave a Cradle or to whom a Tombe But thee great Edward and thy greater son The lillies which his Father wore he won And thy Bellona who the Consort came Not only to thy Bed but to thy Fame She to thy Triumph led one Captive King And brought that son which did the second bring Then didst thou found that Order whither love Or victory thy Royal thoughts did move Each was a noble cause and nothing less Than the design has been the great success Which forraign Kings and Emperors esteem The second honour to their Diadem Had thy great Destiny but given thee skill To know as well as power to act her will That from those Kings who then thy captives were In after-times should spring a Royal pair Who should possess all that thy mighty power Or thy desires more mighty did devour To whom their better Fate reserves what ere The Victor hopes for or the Vanquisht fear That bloud which thou and thy great Grandsire shed And all that since these sister Nations bled Had been unspilt had happy Edward known That all the bloud he spilt had been his own When he that Patron chose in whom are joyn'd Souldier and Martyr and his arms confin'd Within the Azure Circle he did seem But to foretell and prophesie of him Who to his Realms that Azure round hath joyn'd Which Nature for their bound at first design'd That bound which to the Worlds extreamest ends Endless it self its liquid arms extends Nor doth he need those Emblemes which we paint But is himself the Souldier and the Saint Here should my wonder dwell here my praise But my fixt thoughts my wandring eye betrays Viewing a neighbouring hill whose top of late A Chappel crown'd till in the Common Fate The adjoyning Abby fell may no such storm Fall on our times where ruine must reform Tell me my Muse what monstrous dire offence What crime could any Christian King incense To such a rage was 't Luxury or Lust Was he so temperate so chast so just Were these their crimes they were his own much more But wealth is Crime enough to him that 's poor Who having spent the Treasures of his Crown Condemns their Luxury to feed his own And yet this Act to varnish o're the shame Of sacriledge must bear devotions name No Crime so bold but would be understood A real or at least a seeming good Who fears not to do ill yet fears the Name And free from Conscience is a slave to Fame Thus he the Church at once protects spoils But Princes swords are sharper than their stiles And thus to th' ages past he makes amends Their Charity destroys their Faith defends Then did Religion in a lazy Cell In empty airy contemplations dwell And like the block unmoved lay but ours As much too active like the stork devours Is there no temperate Region can be known Betwixt their Frigid and our Torrid Zone Could we not wake from that Lethargick dream But to be restless in a worse extream And for that Lethargy was there no cure But to be cast into a Calenture Can knowledge have no bound but must advance So far to make us wish for ignorance And rather in the dark to grope our way Than led by a false guide to erre by day Who sees these dismal heaps but would demand What barbarous Invader sackt the land But when he hears no Goth no Turk did bring This desolation but a Christian King When nothing but the Name of Zeal appears 'Twixt our best actions and the worst of theirs What does he
13. But Death in all her forms appears From every thing he sees and hears For whom he leads and whom he bears 14. Love making all things else his Foes Like a fierce torrent overflows Whatever doth his course oppose 15. This was the cause the Poets sung Thy Mother from the Sea was sprung But they were mad to make thee young 16. Her Father not her Son art thou From our desires our actions grow And from the Cause the Effect must flow 17. Love is as old as place or time 'T was he the fatal Tree did climb Grandsire of Father Adam's crime 18. Well mayst thou keep this world in awe Religion Wisdom Honour Law The tyrant in his triumph draw 19. 'T is he commands the Powers above Phoebus resigns his Darts and Iove His Thunder to the God of Love 20. To him doth his feign'd Mother yield Nor Mars her Champions flaming shield Guards him when Cupid takes the Field 21. He clips hopes wings whose aery bliss Much higher than fruition is But less than nothing if it miss 22. When matches Love alone projects The Cause transcending the Effects That wild-fire's quencht in cold neglects 23. Whilst those Conjunctions prove the best Where Love 's of blindness dispossest By perspectives of Interest 24. Though Solomon with a thousand wives To get a wise Successor strives But one and he a Fool survives 25. Old Rome of Children took no care They with their Friends their beds did share Secure t'adopt a hopeful Heir 26. Love drowsie days and stormy nights Makes and breaks Friendship whose delights Feed but not glut our Appetites 27. Well chosen Friendship the most noble Of Vertues all our joys makes double And into halves divides our trouble 28. But when the unlucky knot we tye Care Avarice Fear and Jealousie Make Friendship languish till it dye 29. The Wolf the Lyon and the Bear When they their prey in pieces tear To quarrel with themselves forbear 30. Yet timerous Deer and harmless Sheep When Love into their veins doth creep That law of Nature cease to keep 31. Who then can blame the Amorous Boy Who the Fair Helen to enjoy To quench his own set fire on Troy 32. Such is the worlds preposterous fate Amongst all Creatures mortal hate Love though immortal doth Create 33. But Love may Beasts excuse for they Their actions not by Reason sway But their brute appetites obey 34. But Man 's that Savage Beast whose mind From Reason to self-Love declin'd Delights to prey upon his Kind ON Mr ABRAHAM COWLEY His Death and Burial amongst the Ancient Poets OLd Chaucer like the morning Star To us discovers day from far His light those Mists and Clouds dissolv'd Which our dark Nation long involv'd But he descending to the shades Darkness again the Age invades Next like Aurora Spencer rose Whose purple blush the day foreshows The other three with his own fires Phoebus the Poets God inspires By Shakespear ' s Iohnson ' s Fletcher ' s lines Our Stages lustre Romes's outshines These Poets neer our Princes sleep And in one Grave their Mansion keep They liv'd to see so many days Till time had blasted all their Bays But cursed be the fatal hour That pluckt the fairest sweetest flower That in the Muses Garden grew And amongst wither'd Lawrels threw Time which made them their Fame outlive To Cowly scarce did ripeness give Old Mother Wit and Nature gave Shakespear and Fletcher all they have In Spencer and in Iohnson Art Of flower Nature got the start But both in him so equal are None knows which bears the happy'st share To him no Author was unknown Yet what he wrote was all his own He melted not the ancient Gold Nor with Ben Iohnson did make bold To plunder all the Roman stores Of Poets and of Orators Horace his wit and Virgil's state He did not steal but emulate And when he would like them appear Their Garb but not their Cloaths did wear He not from Rome alone but Greece Like Iason brought the Golden Fleece To him that Language though to none Of th' others as his own was known On a stiff gale as Flaccus sings The Theban Swan extends his wings When through th' aetherial Clouds he flies To the same pitch our Swan doth rise Old Pindar's flights by him are reacht When on that gale his wings are stretcht His fancy and his judgment such Each to the other seem'd too much His severe judgment giving Law His modest fancy kept in awe As rigid Husbands jealous are When they believe their Wives too fair His English stream so pure did flow As all that saw and tasted know But for his Latin vein so clear Strong full and high it doth appear That were immortal Virgil here Him for his judge he would not fear Of that great Portraicture so true A Copy Pencil never drew My Muse her Song had ended here But both their Genii strait appear Joy and amazement her did strike Two Twins she never saw so like T was taught by wise Pythagoras One Soul might through more Bodies pass Seeing such Transmigration here She thought it not a Fable there Such a resemblance of all parts Life Death Age Fortune Nature Arts Then lights her Torch at theirs to tell And shew the world this Parallel Fixt and contemplative their looks Still turning over Natures Books Their works chast moral and divine Where profit and delight combine They guilding dirt in noble verse Rustick Philosophy rehearse When Heroes Gods or God-like Kings They praise on their exalted wings To the Celestial orbs they climb And with the Harmonious sphears keep time Nor did their actions fall behind Their words but with like candour shin'd Each drew fair Characters yet none Of these they feign'd excels their own Both by two generous Princes lov'd Who knew and judg'd what they approv'd Yet having each the same desire Both from the busie throng retire Their Bodies to their Minds resign'd Car'd not to propagate their Kind Yet though both fell before their hour Time on their off-spring hath no power Nor fire nor fate their Bays shall blast Nor Death's dark vail their day o'recast A Speech against Peace at the close Committee To the Tune of I went from England BUt will you now to Peace incline And languish in the main design And leave us in the lurch I would not Monarchy destroy But only as the way to enjoy The ruine of the Church Is not the Bishops Bill deny'd And we still threatned to be try'd You see the Kings embraces Those Councels he approv'd before Nor doth he promise which is more That we shall have their Places Did I for this bring in the Scot For 't is no Secret now the Plot Was Sayes and mine together Did I for this return again And spend a Winter there in vain Once more to invite them hither Though more our Money than our Cause Their Brotherly assistance draws My labour was not lost At my return I brought you thence
Necessity their strong Pretence And these shall quit the cost Did I for this my County bring To help their Knight against their King And raise the first Sedition Though I the business did decline Yet I contriv'd the whole Design And sent them their Petition So many nights spent in the City In that invisible Committee The Wheel that governs all From thence the Change in Church and State And all the Mischiefs bear the date From Haberdashers Hall Did we force Ireland to despair Upon the King to cast the War To make the world abhor him Because the Rebells us'd his Name Though we our selves can do the same While both alike were for him Then the same fire we kindled here With that was given to quench it there And wisely lost that Nation To do as crafty Beggars use To maim themselves thereby to abuse The simple mans compassion Have I so often past between Windsor and Westminster unseen And did my self divide To keep his Excellence in awe And give the Parliament the Law For they knew none beside Did I for this take pains to teach Our zealous Ignorants to Preach And did their Lungs inspire Gave them their Text shew'd them their Parts And taught them all their little Arts To fling abroad the Fire Sometimes to beg sometimes to threaten And say the Cavaliers are beaten To stroke the Peoples ears Then streight when Victory grows cheap And will no more advance the heap To raise the price of Fears And now the Book 's and now the Bells And now our Act the Preachers tells To edifie the People All our Divinity is News And we have made of equal use The Pulpit and the Steeple And shall we kindle all this Flame Only to put it out again And must we now give o're And only end where we begun In vain this Mischief we have done If we can do no more If men in Peace can have their right Where 's the necessity to fight That breaks both Law the Oath They 'l say they fight not for the Cause Nor to defend the King and Laws But as against them both Either the cause at first was ill Or being good it is so still And thence they will infer That either now or at the first They were deceiv'd or which is worst That we our selves may erre But Plague and Famine will come in For they and we are near of kin And cannot go asunder But while the wicked starve indeed The Saints have ready at their need Gods Providence and Plunder Princes we are if we prevail And Gallant Villains if we fail When to our Fame 't is told It will not be our least of praise Sin' a new State we could not raise To have destroy'd the old Then let us stay and fight and vote Till London is not worth a Groat Oh 't is a patient Beast When we have gall'd and tyr'd the Mule And can no longer have the rule We 'le have the spoyl at least To the five Members of the Honourable House of Commons The Humble Petition of the POETS AFter so many Concurring Petitions From all Ages and Sexes and all conditions We come in the rear to present our Follies To Pym Stroude Haslerig H. and H. Though set from of Prayer be an Abomination Set forms of Petitions find great Approbation Therefore as others from th' bottom of their souls So we from the depth and bottom of our Bowls According unto the blessed form you have taught us We thank you first for the Ills you have brought us For the Good we receive we thank him that gave it And you for the Confidence only to crave it Next in course we Complain of the great violation Of Priviledge like the rest of our Nation But 't is none of yours of which we have spoken Which never had being until they were broken But ours is a Priviledge Antient and Native Hangs not on an Ordinance or power Legislative And first 't is to speak whatever we please Without fear of a Prison or Pursuivants fees Next that we only may lye by Authority But in that also you have got the Priority Next an old Custom our Fathers did name it Poetical license and alwaies did claim it By this we have power to change Age into Youth Turn Non-sence to Sence and Falshood to Truth In brief to make good whatsoever is faulty This art some Poet or the Devil has taught ye And this our Property you have invaded And a Priviledge of both Houses have made it But that trust above all in Poets reposed That Kings by them only are made and Deposed This though you cannot do yet you are willing But when we undertake Deposing or Killing They 're Tyrants and Monsters and yet then the Poet Takes full Revenge on the Villains that do it And when we resume a Scepter or a Crown We are Modest and seek not to make it our own But is 't not presumption to write Verses to you Who make the better Poems of the two For all those pretty Knacks you compose Alas what are they but Poems in prose And between those and ours there 's no difference But that yours want the rhime the wit and the sense But for lying the most noble part of a Poet You have it abundantly and your selves know it And though you are modest and seem to abhor it 'T has done you good service and thank Hell for it Although the old Maxime remains still in force That a Sanctified Cause must have a Sanctified Course If poverty be a part of our Trade So far the whole Kingdom Poets you have made Nay even so far as undoing will do it You have made King Charles himself a Poet But provoke not his Muse for all the world knows Already you have had too much of his Profe A Western Wonder DO you not know not a fortnight ago How they brag'd of a Western wonder When a hundred and ten slew five thousand men With the help of Lightning and Thunder There Hopton was slain again and again Or else my Author did lye With a new Thanksgiving for the Dead who are living To God and his Servant Chidleigh But now on which side was this Miracle try'd I hope we at last are even For Sir Ralph and his Knaves are risen from their Graves To Cudge'l the Clowns of Devon And now Stamford came for his Honour was lame Of the Gout three months together But it prov'd when they fought but a running Gout For his heels were lighter then ever For now he out-runs his Arms and his Guns And leaves all his money behind him But they follow after unless he take water At Plymouth again they will find him What Reading hath cost and Stamford hath lost Goes deep in the Sequestrations These wounds will not heal with your new Great Seal Nor Iepsons Declarations Now Peters and Case in your Prayer and Grace Remember the new Thanksgiving Isaac and his Wife now dig for your life Or shortly you 'l
starts and scratches his head Ha. aside 'T is this must take Does this plainness please you Sir King 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 Kindoms Sir King But has my Son no such design 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 lest the care of future safety tempt thee To forfeit present loyalty or present loyalty Forfeit thy future safety I le be your reconciler call him hither Ha. Oh Sir I wish he were within my call or yours King Why where is he Ha. He has left the Court Sir King I like not these Excursions why so suddenly Ha. 'T is but a sally of youth yet some say he 's discontented King That grates my heart-strings What should discontent him Except the think I live too long Ha. Heaven forbid And yet I know no cause of his departure I 'me sure he 's honoured and lov'd by all The Souldiers god the Peoples Idol King I Haly The Persians still worship the rising sun But who went with him Ha. None but the Captains King The Captains I like not that Ha. Never fear it Sir 'T is true they love him but as their General not their Prince And though he be most forward and ambitious 'T is temper'd with so much humility King And so much the more dangerous There are some that use Humility to serve their pride and seem Humble upon their way to be the prouder At their wisht journeys end Ha. Sir I know not What ways or ends you mean 't is true In popular States or where the Princes Title Is weak must be propt by the peoples power There by familiar ways 't is necessary To win on mens affections But none of these Can be his end King But there 's another end For if his glories rise upon the ruines Of mine why not his greatness too Ha. True Sir Ambition is like love impatient Both of delays and rivals But Nature King But Empire Ha. I had almost forgot Sir he has A suit to your Majesty King What is 't Ha. To give the Turkish prisoners some command In the next action King Nay then 't is too apparent He fears my Subjects loyalty And now must call in strangers come deal plainly I know thou canst discover more Ha. I can discover Sir The depth of your great judgment in such dangers King What shall I do Haly Ha. Your wisdom is so great it were presumption for me to advise King Well we 'll consider more of that but for the present Let him with speed be sent for Mahomet I thank thee I have one faithful servant honest Haly. Exit King Enter Mirvan Mir. How did he take it Ha. Swallow'd it as greedily As parched earth drinks rain Now the first part of our design is over His ruine but the second our security Must now be thought on Mir. My Lord you are too sudden though his fury Determine rashly yet his colder fear Before it executes consults with reason And that not satisfied with shews or shadows Will ask to be convinc'd by something real Now must we frame some plot and then discover it Ha. Or intercept some Letter which our selves Had forg'd before Mir. And still admire the miracle And thank the providence Ha. Then we must draw in some body To be the publick Agent that may stand 'Twixt us and danger and the peoples envy Mir. Who fitter than the grand Caliph And he will set a grave religious face Upon the business Ha. But if we cannot work him For he 's so full of foolish scruples Or if he should prove false and then betray us Mir. Betray us sure my Lord your fear has blinded Your understanding for what serves the King Will not his threats work more than our perswasions While we look on and laugh and seem as ignorant As unconcern'd and thus appearing friends To either side on both may work our ends Enter Mess. Mess. My Lord the Turkish Bashaws Desire access Ha. Admit 'em I know their business Mir. They long to hear with what success The King in their behalf Ha. But now they 're come I 'le make 'em do you mov'd Better than I did theirs my business Mir. Leave us a while Ex. Mir. Enter two Bashaws Ha. My Lords my duty and affection to the Prince And the respects I owe to men of honour Extort a secret from me which yet I grieve to utter The Prince departing left to me the care Of your affairs which I as he commanded Have recommended to the King but with so unlookt for A success 1. Bas. My Lord fear not to speak our doom while we Fear not to hear it we were lost before And can be ready now to meet that fate We then expected Ha. Though he that brings unwelcom news Has but a losing Office yet he that shews Your danger first and then your way to safety May heal that wound he made You know the King With jealous eyes hath ever lookt awry On his Sons actions but the fame and glory Of the last war hath rais'd another spirit Envy and Jealousie are twin'd together Yet both lay hid in his dissembled smiles Like two concealed serpents till I unhappy I Moving this question trod upon them both And rouz'd their sleeping angers then casting from him His doubts and straight confirm'd in all his fears Decrees to you a speedy death to his own son A close restraint but what will follow I dare not think you by a sudden flight may find your safety 2 Bas. Sir Death and we are not such strangers That we should make dishonour or ingratitude The price of life it was the Princes gift And we but wear it for his sake and service Ha. Then for his sake and service Pray follow my advice though you have lost the favour Of your unworthy Master yet in the Provinces You lately governed you have those dependances And interests that you may raise a power To serve the Prince I le give him timely notice To stand upon his guard 1 Bas. My Lord we thank you But we must give the Prince intelligence Both when and how to imploy us Ha. If you will write Commit it to my care and secrecy To see it safe convey'd 2 Bas. We shall my Lord. Ex. Ha. These men were once the Princes foes and then Unwillingly they made him great but now Being his friends shall willingly undo him And which is more be still his friends What little Arts govern the world we need not An armed enemy or corrupted friend When service but misplac'd or love mistaken Performs the work nor is this all the use I 'le make of them when once they are in Arms Their Master shall be wrought to think these forces Rais'd against him and this shall so endear me To him that though dull
vertue and the gods O'recome my subtle mischief I may find A safe retreat and may at least be sure If not more mighty to be more secure Exeunt Finis Actus Secundi Actus Tertius Scena Prima Enter King and Haly. King But Haly what confederates ha's the Prince In his conspiracy Ha. Sir I can yet suspect None but the Turkish prisoners and that only From their late sudden flight King Are they fled For what Ha. That their own fears best know their entertainment I 'me sure was such as could not minister Suspition or dislike but sure they 're conscious Of some intended mischief and are fled To put it into act King This still confirms me more But let 'em be pursu'd let all the passages Be well secur'd that no intelligence May pass between the Prince and them Ha. It shall be done Sir King Is the Caliph prepar'd Ha. He 's without Sir And waits your pleasure King Call him Enter Haly and Caliph King I have a great design to act in which The greatest part is thine In brief 't is this I fear my Sons high spirit and suspect Designs upon my Life and Crown Ca. Sure Sir your fears are causeless Such thoughts are strangers to his noble soul. King No 't is too true I must prevent my danger And make the first attempt there 's no such way To avoid a blow as to strike first and sure Ca. But Sir I hope my function shall exempt me From bearing any part in such designs King Your function Laughs Do you think that Princes Will raise such men so near themselves for nothing We but advance you to advance our purposes Nay even in all Religions Their Learned'st and their seeming holiest men but serve To work their Masters ends and varnish o're Their actions with some specious pious colour No scruples do 't or by our holy Prophet The death my rage intends to him is thine Ca. Sir 't is your part to will mine to obey King Then be wise and sudden Enter Lords as to Council Ab. Mor. Ca. My Lords it grieves me to relate the cause Of this Assembly and 't will grieve you all The prince you know stands high in all those graces Which Nature seconded by fortune gives Wisdom he ha's and to his Wisdom Courage Temper to that and unto all Success But Ambition the disease of Virtue bred Like surfets from an undigested fulness Meets death in that which is the means of life Great Mahomet to whom our Soveraigns life And Empire is most dear appearing thus Advis'd me in a Vision Tell the King The Prince his Son attempts his Life Crown And though no creature lives that more admires His vertues nor affects his person more Than I yet zeal and duty to my Soveraign Have cancell'd all respects nor must we slight The Prophets Revelations Abd. Remember Sir he is your Son Indeared to you by a double bond As to his King and Father King And the remembrance of that double bond Doubles my sorrows 'T is true Nature and duty bind him to Obedience But those being placed in a lower sphere His fierce ambition like the highest mover Has hurried with a strong impulsive motion Against their proper course But since he has forgot The duty of a son I can forget The affections of a Father Abd. But Sir in the beginning of diseases None try the extreamest remedies King But when they 're sudden The cure must be as quick when I 'me dead you 'll say My fears have been too slow Treasons are acted Assoon as thought though they are ne're believed Until they come to act Mor. But consider Sir The greatness of the attempt the people love him The lookers on and the enquiring vulgar Will talk themselves to action thus by avoyding A danger but suppos'd you tempt a real one King Those Kings whom envy or the peoples murmur Deters from their own purposes deserve not Nor know not their own greatness The peoples murmur 't is a sulphurous vapour Breath'd from the bowels of the basest earth And it may soyl and blast things near it self But ere it reach the region we are plac'd in It vanishes to ayr we are above The sence or danger of such storms Cap. True Sir they are but storms while Royalty Stands like a Rock and the tumultuous vulgar Like billows rais'd with wind that 's with opinion May roar and make a noise and threaten But if they rowl too near they 're dash't in pieces While they stand firm Abd. Yet Sir Crowns are not plac'd so high But vulgar hands may reach 'em King Then 't is when they are plac'd on vulgar heads Abd. But Sir Look back upon your self why should your son Anticipate a hope so near so certain we may wish and pray For your long life but neither prayers nor power Can alter Fates decree or Natures Law Why should he ravish then that Diadem From your gray temples which the hand of time Must shortly plant on his King My Lords I see you look upon me as a Sun Now in his West half buryed in a cloud Whose rays the vapours of approaching night Have rendred weak and faint But you shall find That I can yet shoot beams whose heat can melt The waxen wings of this ambitious Boy Nor runs my bloud so cold nor is my arm So feeble yet but he that dares defend him Shall feel my vengeance and shall usher me Into my grave Ab. Sir we defend him not Only desire to know his crime 'T is possible It may be some mistake or mis-report Some false suggestion or malicious scandal Or if ambition be his fault 't was yours He had it from you when he had his being Nor was 't his fault nor yours for 't is in Princes A crime to want it from a noble spirit Ambition can no more be separated Than heat from fire Or if you fear the Vision Will you suspect the noble Prince because This holy man is troubled in his sleep Because his crazy stomach wants concoction And breeds ill sumes or his melancholy spleen Sends up phantastick vapours to his brain Dreams are but dreams these causeless fears become not Your noble soul. King Who speaks another word Hath spoke his last Great Mahomet we thank thee Protector of this Empire and this life Thy cares have met my fears this on presumptions Strong and apparent I have long presag'd And though a Prince may punish what he fears Without account to any but the Gods Wise States as often cut off ills that may be As those that are and prevent purposes Before they come to practise aud foul practises Before they grow to act You cannot but observe How he dislikes the Court his rude departure His honour from the people and the souldiers His seeking to oblige the Turks his prisoners Their sudden and suspected flight And above all his restless towring thoughts A Horn winded without King If the business be important Admit him Enter Post with a
Hell But a long sleepless night and what 's their torment But to compare past joyes with present sorrows And what can death deprive me of the sight Of day of children friends and hope of Empire And whatsoever others lose in death In life I am depriv'd of then I will live Only to die reveng'd nor will I go Down to the shades alone Prompt me some witty some revengeful Devil His Devil that could make a bloudy feast Of his own son 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 than all those My fathers Devil Come mischief I embrace thee fill my soul And thou Revenge ascend and bear the Scepter O're all my passions banish thence All that are cool and tame Know old Tyrant My heart 's too big to break I know thy fears Exceed my sufferings and my revenge Though but in hope is much a greater pleasure Than thou canst take in punishing Then my anger Sink to the Center of my heart and there Lie close in ambush till my seeming patience Hath made the cruel Tyrant as secure Though with as little cause as now he 's jealous Whose there Enter two or three I find my nature would return To her old course I feel an inclination To some repose welcome thou pleasing slumber A while embrace me in thy leaden arms And charm my careful thoughts Conduct me to my bed Exit Enter King Haly and Caliph King How do's the Prince how bears he his restraint Ha. Why Sir as all great spirits Bear great and sudden changes with such impatience As a Numidian Lion when first caught Endures the toyl that holds him He would think of nothing But present death and sought all violent means To compass it But time hath mitigated Those furious heats he now returns to food And sleep admits the conversation Of those that are about him King I would I had not So easily believ'd my fears I was too sudden I would it were undone Cal. If you lament it That which now looks like Justice will be thought An inconsiderate rashness King But there are in nature Such strong returns That I punisht him I do not grieve but that he was my Son Ha. But it concerns you to bear up your passion And make it good for if the people know That you have cause to grieve for what is done They 'll think you had no cause at first to do it King to the Ca. Go visit him from me and teach him patience Since neither all his fury nor my sorrow Can help what 's past tell him my severity To him shall in some measure be requited By my indulgence to his children And if he desire it Let them have access 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 Ex. King and C. Ma. Haly. 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 handsomly lest it appear Ha. Appear 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 known We 'll say he poysoned himself Mir. But the curious will pry further Than bare report and the old King's suspitions Have piercing eyes Ha. But those nature Will shortly close you see his old disease Grows strong upon him Mir. But if he should recover Ha. But I have cast his Nativity he cannot he must not I' th' mean time I have so besieg'd him So blockt up all the passages and plac'd So many Centinels and Guards upon him That no intelligence can be convey'd But by my instruments But this business will require More heads and hands than ours Go you to the prison And bring the Keeper privately to me To give him his instructions Ex. several ways Enter Prince and Caliph Cal. Sir I am commanded by the King To visit you Prince What to give a period to my life And to his fears 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 voice Ca. I am the Caliph and am come to tell you your Father Is now return'd to himself Nature ha's got The victory o're passion all his rigour Is turn'd to grief and pity Prince Alas good man I pity him and his infirmities His doubts and fears and accidents of age Which first provok'd his cruelty Ca. He bid me tell you His love to yours should amply recompence His cruelty to you And I dare say 't is real For all his thoughts his pleasures and delights Are fixt on Fatyma when he is sad She comforts him when sick she 's his Physitian And were it not for the delight he takes In her I think hee 'd die 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 She 's fair beyond comparison and witty Above her age and bears a manly spirit Above her sex Prince But may not I admire her Is that too great a happiness pray let her make it Her next suit to be permitted to visit me her self Ca. She shall Sir I joy to see your mind So well compos'd I fear'd I should have found A tempest in your soul and came to lay it I 'le to the King I know to him that news will be Most acceptable Prince Pray do and tell him I have cast off all my passions and am now A man again fit for society And conversation Ca. I will Sir Exit Prince I never knew my self till now how on the sudden I 'me grown an excellent dissembler to out-do One at the first that has practiz'd it all his life So now I am my self again what is 't I feel within Me thinks some vast design Now takes possession of my heart and swells My labouring thoughts above the common bounds Of humane actions something full of horror My soul hath now decreed my heart does beat As if 't were forging thunder-bolts for Iove To strike the Tyrant dead So now I have it I have it 't is a gallant mischief Worthy my Father or my Fathers Son All his delight 's in Fatyma poor innocent But not more innocent than 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 virtuous I was a stranger to thy bloud but now Sure thou wilt love