ruine Base ALLYBEG and impious FLORADELLA And all the rest of their dire Complices This day fell sacrifices to thy wrath SOFFIE is found too and doth here attend thee Mâ—r. Turn then your love to him to him requite My wrongs and from him too expect my duty Now shall I die with much a lighter heart Since I have liv'd to hear those Traytors fall Nym. O this I ever hop'd for from heavens Justice And grieve the more that thou despairedst of it Mir. I come sweet FATYMA-Father farewell Use SOFFIE like a Son Abb. O that Heaven would Let me excuse thee Mir. SOFFIE Farewel Obey thy Grandfire as thou wouldst do me Forget my wrongs and eschew Tyranny Sof Ah! that I could forget sense and turn stone Mir. Adieu sweet Spouse Nym. O! Mir. From thee I hardliest go But thy grief will not suffer thee I know To be long from me Nym. O my wretched ears Do you heare this and will you ever hear Any thing after it O woefull eyes Why at this wailfull sight drop you not out Or frighted recoile deep into you holes O stubborn heart can't all this shiver thee Am I turn'd Rock too Mâ—r. Friends adieu make ore To my young Son the love to me you bore Ema O that I could not hear Met. Or I could help Mir. Yet love my memory Bel. O Grief Alk. O Anger That griefe is all we can Mir. Thou DORIDO Art to attend me to the shades below Pag. Yes my dear Lord. Iff. O that he 'd gone before Mâ—r. I shall again live and on some sad Stage Be mourn'd Great wrongs reach further then one Age. O O. Dâ—es Abb. He 's gone he 's gone break heart and follow Omnes O Heavens Nym. Stay winged spirit stay and take Me with thee at least 8 let me suck thy last breath Bel. Madam forbear you will infect your self Nym. O Gods what have been my deserts to be Thus punished or if such be my deserts Why am I yet not punish'd more with death Yet that were to give end unto my woes To joyne me with him were to make me happy That happiness I shortly will obtain In spight of fate if not from thy kind hand O ATROPOS from mine own grief at least Mean while lie soft O loved Corps and thou Adored soul if love to earthly creatures Remain in death think of me in thy shade And oft Petition Fate to send me to thee Sof Unhappy DORIDO how hast thou wrong'd All Ages Alk. And shalt still be curs'd by all Pag. Is 't not too late to say forgive pass'd errors I hâ—st to follow him to his shade I 'l there Wait on him too and try to be more happy They that behold the Sun must see his shaddow And who remembers my brave Lord must cast A thought on me and may they say thus of me I was his faithfull servant waited still On him in life and death good state and ill So used to obey his each command I did it though it to his hurt did tend If any fault of mine be known to time Service mistaken was my onely crime O O. Dyes Iff. He dyes Ema Would 't were our greatest losse Abb. Our losse alasse is above words to ease And we must more then mourn it Do thou see METHICULI all rites of pomp and sorrow Perform'd to that brave body This vile trunk Of DORIDO'S for giving his Lord poyson We will have burnt upon his Tomb. Met. Sad office Nym. Ah sadder sight that 't were Methiculi and Alkahem carry out the Princes body and the Servants the Pages my last Abb. SOFFIE Thou now art our and the Empire 's hope EMANGOLY be thou his Governour And breed him such as you intend to serve Ema My care shall labour to requite the honour Sof And mine t' improve your honour by my profit Abb. Daughter your losses we can ne'r requite Yet as we can let us attempt amends But that must come from you look ore your wishes And be the Mistress of your own desires Nym. ' Las sir what is there left for me to wish But a short term of wretched life mean while Some humble Country seat shall be my Cell Free from the trouble of all tongues and eyes I being unworthy either waiting their Kind deaths cold hand to lead me to my Lord. Abb. If that be your desire you must enjoy it But we could wish we could deserve you still Nym. Wilt thou partake of my retirement IFFIDA Iff. Madam it would seem hard to me to spend My years which my youth promise will be many In solitude I 'm an ill comforter And then my fortunes arâ— before me too Nym. Be happy in them Ema Poor ingratitude Nym. Farewell great sir if ever you remember You had a Daughter-in-law deserv'd your love Pay it to my poor Son at least forget not You had a Son that did deserve it well Abb. To him we 'l pay the love we ow'd his Father Adieu sweet Princesse BELTAZAR attend her Nym. I thank your Grace Farewell my dearest Boy But that thou still wilt dwell in my best thoughts I would I could forget I ere was happy Be thou so ever Sof Madam if you please not To stay still with us you 'l I hope admit Me in your solitude to do my duty Nym. Things of more weight will take thee up be happy And so shall I when sighs have spent this breath A mortalls happinesse begins in death Abb. Comâ— SOFFIE and leaâ—n to be a Prince But 9 when thy hand shall close mine aged eyes And on thy head my Diadem shall shine Learn by my harms to eschew Tyranny It was thy dying Fathers Legacy And shall be mine too and I leave thee more In that then in my splendid wreath of Oare For cruell Acts in them their torment have Guilt on our souls blots on our names they leave THE END ANNOTATIONS READER IF by perusing the former pages thou deservest that name Thou hast in them perhaps met with divers historicall matters which unexplained may defraud thee of the content I wish thee therefore I here offer thee a Key for every Lock ANNOTATIONS which if thou shalt find usefull I am glad I inserted them if superfluous they cost thee nothing for they are so few theâ— have not swell'd the Play to a much greater rate I will not trouble thee with tedious digressions upon the Poetick Names and â—â—gments strew'd up and down the Poem those if thou beest Learned thou knowst already if not a Dictionary may inform thee and spare my paines I only touch and that lightly upon such historicall concernments and customary rites of the Persians essentiall to our Scene as every Scholar is not bound to know for to such chiefly I wrote this Tragedy ANNOTATIONS UPON THE FIRST ACT. 1. THE Murder of our Sire This King Abbas being a younger Son was onely King of Heri near Tartaria by birth but aiming at the Persian Empire he to make his way to it privily
the face you know the man so by these as by Titles you know the contents of that division It was composed by Mahomet their Prophet with the help of Abdalla a Jew Sergius a Nestorian Monk who for embracing the Heresies of Arrius Cedron Sabellinâ—s and others was banished from Constantinople and comming into Arabia fell acquainted with Mahomet whom though formerly circumcised he baptized and taught to misinterpret many places of the Scriptures out of which false glosses of theirs they coined a new Religion neither wholly Jewish or wholly Christian but rejecting in both what they disliked and this newest Religion from him was called Mahumetisme So Pomponius Laetus Joan. Baptista Egnatius c. But the Glossers of the Alcoran and their Book Azar which is a History of Mahomet authentique among the Moores as the Gospel among us Christians say that those that helped Mahomet in compiling his Alcoran were two Sword-Cutlers Christian slaves unto one of Mecca who knew much confusedly of the new Testament and out of their imperfect informations he gleaned what served his turn not looking for antecedents subsequents or coherence any where So observes Joannes Andreas Maurus who was once an Alfaqui or Bishop among the Moores of the City of Sciatinia in the Kingdom of Valentia and afterwards Circ An. 1487. a Christian Priest and probable it is that the composers of that rapsody of errours were illiterate persons because they contradict all philosophy sciences History and Reason the Alcoran being a Fardel of Blasphemies Rabinical Fables Ridiculous Discourses Impostures Bestialities Inconveniences Impossibilities and Contradictions To speak a word of the chief Author Mahomet his peâ—son he was born about the year 600 not to mention any paâ—ticular yeare I find Authors so differ about it and I want room heâ—e to reconcile them or shew reason for adâ—ering to any one some say in Itrarip a Village of Arabia others in the City of Mecca others in Medina Alnabi of obscure parentage some that name his Father call him Abdalla a Pagan pâ—rhaps mistaken him for one of his Tutors such make his Mother a Jewess and of ill repute whom they call Emina So uncertain was the beginning of this Impostor Baudier saith that his Father dying and his Mother being left very poor she not able to keep him committed him to an Uncle but he casting him off young Mahomet was a prey to Theeves who put him in chaines among other slaves and in that quality being set to sale a rich Merchant named Abdemonople bought him he dying Mahomet by marriage of his mistresse the Merchants wife not effected as was thought without Witch-craft attained to much riches whereupon leaving the exercise of Merchandize he became a Captain of certain voluntary Arabians that followed the Emperour Heraclius in his Persian Wars who falling into a mutiny for that they were denyed the military Garment and incensing the rest of their Nation with the reproachful answer given them by the Treasurer which was that they ought not to give that to Dogs which was ordained for the Roman Souldiers a paâ—t of them chose Mahomet for their Ring-leader but being disdained by the better sort for the basenesse of his birth to avoid ensuing contempt he gave it out that he attained not to that honour by military favour but by divine appointment That he was sent by God to give a new Law unto man and by force of armes to reduce the world to his obedience then wrested he every thing to a divine honour even his naturall defects calling those fits of the falling sicknesse wherewith he was troubled holy trances and that Pigeon which he had taught to feed out of his Ear on pease the holy Ghost So went he on to feign his messages from heaven by the Angel Gabriel and to composse his Alcoran A man of a most infamous life he was Bonsinus writes that he permitted adultery and Sodomy and lay himselfe with beasts and Mr. Smith in his Confutation of Mahumetism arraigns him of Blasphemy Pridâ— lyes Sodomy Blood Fraud Robbery for he was a common Thief usually robbing the Caravans of Merchants as they travelled as entitles him Heir apparent unto Lucifer no lesse then 12000. falshoods being contained in his fabulous Alcoran To particularize a little what higher blasphemy could he be guilty of then to prefer himselfe as far before Christ as he was above Moses He also denyes the divinity of our Saviour and affirms that the Holy Ghost is not distinct in peâ—son but onely an operative virtue of the God-head that inspires good motions Many other absurdities he is guilty of concerning the Trinity as not comprehending that glorious mysterie The Alcoran impugnes both the divine Law and naturall Reason at once in that assertion lib. 4. Cap. 2. viz. That at the end of the world a Trumpet shall blow and the Angels in Heaven and men on Earth shall fall downe dead and at the second sounding rise again So it makes the Angels mortal when who knows not that the Angels are Spirâ—ts having no bodies so cannot die for death is nothing but the separation of the soul from the body Adams sinne was the cause of his death and his posterity whence it followes had he not sinn'd neither he nor we had dyed And surely the good Angels being not guilty of the cause of death sin must be exempt from the effect Lucifer and the evill Angels that sinn'd with him by their Pride were deprived of the glory of heaven and cast into the bottomlesse pit for ever but not condemned to die because they were spirits And if the Devils that sinned dyed not how is it that the Alcoran saith that the Angels that sinned not shall die Another fable concerning Angels is in the first Chaper lib. 1. Sc. That God sent two Angels called Harod and Marod as Judges to do justice in the City of Babylon where in a Cave for soliciting a Ladies chastity they hang by the eye-lids and must so hang till the day of judgement and the woman was transformed into the morning star O divine Metamorphosis It 's like Mahomet might have heard somewhat of the story of Susanna and the Elders and so ignorantly shuffled it into this But to follow his Text I would ask a Moorish Astrologer whether the morning star be not more ancient then the City of Babylon how then could an inhabitant of that City be turned into that star And I would know of their Divines why if the Angels have bodies the Alcoran in many places contradicting it selfe calls them Roch Spirits if they be spirits and uncorporeal how were they capable of knowing women or hanging by the eye-lids If they be Corporeal where abouts in Babylon may one see them hanging and why doth the Alcoran confesse them to be Spirits Another ridiculous assertion of the Alcoran concerning Angels is s. 1. cap. 1. and l. 2. c. 1. c. viz. That God made man of all sorts and colours of earth and being formed for some
ears may be your certain witnesses Fail you they cannot clap a Guard on us Send but another Guard to OMAY'S House There may you apprehend most of the Traitors There at this instant hold they their black counsell Abb. No lie can bee avouch 't with thus much forehead EMANGOLY thou hast deserv'd much of me And you HYDASPVS first we cry you mercy For our too much rigour to you both Wee 'l study an amends if this be true If not you both die without further process Ema Sir be it so Hyd. Yes so my Liege we 'd have it Abb. Come then our selfe will goe to OMAY'S house 'T is worth our pains you shall attend me thither Ema Your Majestie still meets our wishes neerer Abb. Is BELTAZAR engag'd Ema No surely sir We believe him too honest and a spirit Too great to truckle to base ALLYBEG Though he had the mis-fortune to be us'd I' th Princes ruine we might see regret And an unwillingnesse in him to th' action Abb. He did indeed I think obey for fear Nor did he more then what our own commands Did urge so we 've no ground for wrath to him Him then we 'l keep in favour still and call T' attend us to unkennell the base Fox First send for FARRABAN and make him sure Then plant a Guard upon the Cittadell Ema It will be best sir. Abb. Guard attend us here FLORADELLA OLYMPA EARINA OMAY CLOE WOmen are still most forward in great actions I wonder yet none of the Lords are come Oly. All in Good time Madam 't is a close day Me thinks it'bodes not well I like it not Flo. The day is as it should be close and dark And fittest for our Plot that must be secret Ear. The Sun perhaps mourns for poor FATYMA Oly. O that sad accident takes up my mind I 'm almost statue still Oma 'T was sad and cruell Flo. Ladies you see 't is more then time we help Poor Persia from ruining her selfe To which she hasts amaine Clo. Madam my Lords MAHOMET-ALLY-BEG ELCHEE MOZENDRA BENEFIAN FLORADELLA OLYMPA EARINA OMAY CLOE SAve you Ladies Elc. Hail beauties all aâ—row Flo. Hail Persia's Genius Oly. Hail my honour'd Lord. Mah. Are we all here Moz I see not FARRABAN Elc. FARRABAN wanting Mah. What makes him so slow Flo. Slow y' are all Snails to us you must confesse The Ladies still most active we 'l not lose Our shares of glory Elc. FARRABAN not here I like it not Flo. My Lord he 's gain'd already Ear. So we are all I hope Flo. I 'l engage for him What you here order him he shall be ready Upon first intimation to perform He may be busie searching SOFFIE up You heard the Kings threats if he were not found Mah. Would he were found Flo. Let not that trouble you 1 If we cannot recover him give out He is baptiz'd and so incapable 'T is no new way in India ASSAPH did it And well it took My Lord you are not cheerfull Elc. MAHOMET'S troubled Oly. 'T is for PARRABAN To Olym. Ben. What! doe's my Lord Court her To Moâ— to be her Guardian Now had I rather talke of Love and Court-ship To EARINA then these state-affaires How well she looks Moz Fie Flesh-flie hold your peace Secret Flo. My Lord I hope you flag not To Maâ—â— will you saile Bravely three quarters of your course out-ride Many a storm break thousand raging waves And then sink in the Haven Mah. My soul is dull And dreads some treachery never till now Knew I what 't was to fear Flo. Come sacrifice To confidence she 'l carry you through all I 'l promise largely when we come to th'Loane More then you must expect to bring them on Ear. But sure we came not here to whisper sirs Oma No I did think our businesse had been publique Mah. Rouze my dull soul Publique indeed it is And private too it must be the Consult Private the benefit most publique shall be Flo. Now he 's himselfe againe Death aside dead ith'nest Mah. And reach to all old men shall owe that short Portion of life by natures course they hold And reverend Matrons their white age to us Those shall thank us they see their manly Sons Spend in soft exercise their peacefull time And that themselves sit in their chimny-corners Telling the loved stories of their youth And feel not at their wither'd throats the swords Of foes to force them to detect their wealth And these that they enjoy their blooming daughters Unravished and see their Grand-children Come skipping on their aged knees and not Sprawling upon the Enemies hostile Speares The Nurse shall owe to us that her dear childe Doth suck her milk still and not she its blood So to sustaine a while her famish'd soul. The Gods shall be indebted unto us That still their Temples stand and do not crack In sacrilegious flames the Genius Of every City that he is not forc'd To leave his walk or wander ' â—out the ruines The dead that fury ransack not their Urnes And puffe their ashes in the face of light Th' unborn that we procur'd them time to ripen And that they fell not blasted ere they blow'd The benefit shall to the meanest Swaine Extend that toyls in the Parmenian fields And farthest parts the Persian name doth reach To us his morning and his evening thanks Shall he ere pay for that his wretched eyes See not the battering hoofs of wastfâ—ll Troops Trample his hopefull Corne and springing grasse For that the sheafes ar'nt from his reaping hand Torn by the Foe nor his full Barns blaze high With dreadfull flames nor stalled Cattel low Under the plundering Souldiers hungry blade For that the hated noise of bellowing Drums Fright him not from his Plough with fear of pressing Ber. He shepheardesses thanks might promise too For having time to sing still and make To Moz in secret Chaplets Moz Those thanks shall you reap Ben. Those I chiefly covet I soon can tell them how they may requite me Mah. This generall good must unto all accrue By our incountring of that violent torrent Of ruine that flows strongly towards all And will ore-whelm us if not stopt in time Is not our aged King alas given up To dotage and unneedful jealousie Has he not cast down his chiefe prop the Prince Disbanded his strong Armies so the Empire Lies open to her Foes like as a Vineyard To the wild beasts its fence being trodden down Elc. Princes were given to defend their subjects If he 'l quit the Protection of us Yet must not we quit our own safeties Mah. True Doth not the royall stock decay apace One of the best and fairest branches of it Is torn away to death Oly. O that the Tyrants Selfe had excused her Mah. An act so horrid The Sun ne'r shin'd out since but hid for shame His face with clouds the other forc'd to hide Perhaps in some foul shed poor and forlorn His innocent head from his hard Grand-father And
thousand of years laid him a baking in the Sun untill he was pleased to breath life into him Then commanded he all the Angels to fall down and worship Adam which all did but Sathan then an Angel of light saying he was created of a more excellent nature fire and man of durt then God cursed and cast out Sathan who has ever since continued an Enemy to man How did the Angels fall for not reverencing of man when they were fallen before man was made and envying his standing tempted him to his fall and how could man lay a baking some thousand of yeares in the Sun when the Sun was made but two dayes before man Gen. 1. The Alcoran failes in point of History and Time l. 3. c. 1. where it mistakes Mary the Prophetesse for the B. Virgâ—n Mary making Mary the sister of Moses Mother of our Saviour when there were above 1500. years between them The reason of this mistake might be Mahomets ignorance in Antiquities and Chronology finding in Arabic Moses his Father called Hembram by which name Joachim our Ladies Father is also called But by what infallible Spirit was this Scripturist led that could admit to grosse a mistake Another errour in Time and Reason is l. 3. c. 3. Where he affirms that God sent the Alforcan which is the same with the Alcoran as Andreas Maurus proves unto Moses and Aaron for a light and admonition to the just and yet l. 1. c. 2. He sayes God inspired the Thora the Gospel and the Alforcan or Alcoran unto Mahomet how can this agree with the former or with what followes in the Book called Sunè or way of Mahomet viz. That David read all the Alcoran whilst they saddled his Mule unlesse Moses David and Mahomet had been contemporaâ—ies and yet again in above 300. places in his Alcoran he sayes that God gave the Athorata or five Books to Moses the Gospel to Jesus Christ the Azabor or Pâ—alter to David and the Alcoran to Mahomet He also faulters in the time wherein he was composing of his Alcoran in one place telling us he was twenty yeares about it in another place he sayes that it was revealed to him in one night in the City of Mecca by the Angel Gabriel so frequent aâ—e contradictions with him though neither of these assertions are absolutely true for he was 23 yeares composing of it ten yâ—ars at the City of Mecca eleven at Almedina and two in the cave of Mecca He dyed in the 63d year of his age and he began to call himself a Prophet and to compile his Alcoran in his fourtiteh year But how could David if the Alcoran had been made in his time have read it all over in the time that his Mule was saddled when as Andreas Maurus reports when the Caliph because of the multiplicity of papers that Mahomet left summoned all the Doctors to Damascus and out of them chose six to Epitomize all his Books of the Alcoran and Sune each of those six composed one Book and the rest of his writâ—ngs were thrown into the River even so many Books and bundles of Papers as loaded 200 Camels For Mahomet because he was illiterate and could not write kept a Secretary who wrote the Chapters of the Alcoran for him giving out that God sent them by the Angel as occasion required These he kept in a Chest and that he might alter expugne or add at pleasure what served his turn he would never have collected and reduced into Books as they were by his Son in law Hozman after his death King and Caliph who made the foresaid Epitome at which time the Papers being sought for many were found in his house having lain behind Chests so spoiled with damp and eaten with Mice as nothing could be made of them A goodly Scripture when the power that inspired it could not preserve it from Mice or if nothing Materiall was lost the Author was guilty of superfluity and so of vanity The Moores took scandall as well they might at those revocations and alterations of above 150 Verses of the Alcoran annulled by others called â—evocatory Verses If they were inspired by God it was unjust they should be abolished by a man That Mahomet made his Religion servâ— his occasion appears by this Baheira a King of the Jacobitâ— presented unto Mahomet one Marine a young beautifuâ— Jewesse with whom the old Leacher was taken in Adulter by two of his wives whom Andreas Maurus calls Axa anâ— Hafeza they reâ—uked him having done an Act unwoâ—thy 〈◊〉 a Prophet or holy man He promised to abandon her if the â— would passe by this one slip and keep his credit but beinâ— by them surprized the second time with her they went fâ—om him to their Fathers houses as repudiated wives upon the publishing of it the Moors murmured the Pagans jeered and Mahomet was disgraced and troubled his wives Fathers being potent men so he had no way but to have recourse to his old remedy for all sores the Alcoran wherein he razed out of thâ— 6. Ch. of the light in the 3d. Book that verse that commanded that married persons taken in Adultery should be stoned called the ver Lapidation composed a new Ch. the contentâ— wherof are that it is lawful for all Mussulmen or true believeâ—s to lie with their slaves that their wives ought not to repine at it and that Mahomet did not sin in his late Act knowing thiâ— Law would come but his wives sinned in publishing what he did in secret and that God warned them to return to him So he cleared himself repaired his credit pleased his sect by this Licentious liberty and got his wivâ—s again who returned well satisfied and very penitent and now might hee use his young slave by the Law Thâ—s Chapter is called the Chapteâ— of Prohibition l. 4. because his wives would have prohibited him his freedom Most insatiable he was in this point and made particular Laws for himself as that he might repudiate any of his wives at pleasure and none might marry them which kept them in obedience but he might take any ones repudiated wife or any that profered her self or admitted of his sollicitation and whereas others might marry two or three or four at most hee might have as many wives as hee pleased The Book Assamiel or the Book of the good customs of Mahomet praising him and speaking of his virile strength saith that in one hour he lay with all his wives which were 11. The Book Azar saith he married fifteen wives and had 11. together besides four who proffered themselves by Vertue of the foresaid Law Caelius reports hee had forty wives yet took he away his servant Zeideus his wife and whose else he pleased saying it was fit he should do so that the greater number of Prophets and holy men might issue from him A life worthy or such a Prophet and author of â—uch a Religion a good Religion sure when hee affirmes the Divells were