Force ope the door seiz on his Royal person now Clotair Thou are the Monsieur 's pris'ner Tyrant say Where is Aphelia your Adulteres stands amaz'd Clot. It makes no matter where Bris O my dear Sister O my dearest life Dum. See Noble Lords Here lies that Hel-hound Eunuch villain up And tell us who ha's done these fatall deeds Eu. They 'r ne'r ali'd to thee that did these Acts Chrotilda and a woman Dum. Villain thou li'st my sister 's gone a weary pilgrimage And for this many years with grief I speak it Been travel'd none knows where Clot. What am I What strange and uncouth thing Eu. A ravisher And better to instruct thee in thy self Had not Chrotilda been incestuous Omnes Hold hold your Royal hand what will you do Clot. What else but follow her shall Clotair live A Captive to his Brother slav'd to sin Inthral's in wedlock that 's incestuous O ravisher and murtherer of his friend There 's no way left to rid me but my sword Of all these ills at once Oh wrong'd Chrotilda Dum. My sister Clot I Dumain no Eunuch she No sun-burnt vagabond of Aethiope Though entertain'd for such by Fredigond I say here lies thy ravisht sister slain By me the ravisher Dum. Hold hold my heart Eu. Lend me thy hand Clotair have I thy hand Clot. Thou most abus'd of womenkind thou hast Eu. I should have kill'd thee King and had put on A masculine spirit to perform the deed Alas how frail our resolutions are A womans weakness conquer'd my revenge I 'd spirit enough to quit my Fathers wrongs And they which should have seen me act that part Would not believe I should so soon prove haggard But there is something dwels upon thy brow Which did perfwade me to humanitie Thou injur'dst me and yet I spar'd thy life Thou injurd'st me yet I would fall by thee And like to my soft sex I fall and perish Clot. Speak for ever speak Chrotilda Chrotilda Dum. My Sister 's in mine eies this brave revenge Should have been mine and not thy act Chrotilda Away salt rhume Chrotilda laughs at thee Her spirit is more manly Aphe I must weep too Mine injuries and hers are so near kin That they must bear each other company In tears of blood and death For my griev'd heart too long with earth Would gladly seek a way to find out rest Clot. Art thou joyn'd with her too against thy self Will my Aphelia leave me pardon sweet My love is fatall and too well thou know'st The deadly proof in fair Chrotilda death Yet leave me not though I refrain thy bed And must abandon all those thoughts of love Which married couples use yet we may sit And gaze upon each other tell sad tales Of ruin'd Princes wrong'd Virginitie And when our utterance is tyr'd by speech Wee 'l sit and sigh a sad parenthesis And then proceed again then sigh again A silent Chorus to our History Our tears shall keep our sorrows ever green Still springing never ripe shall we do thus To lengthen out our grief Aphe For ever King The hand of heaven lies on me for I feel My in ward and externall injuries Wrestle with life in which condition My soul is woried by that Tyrant death I must forsake thee Clotair Clot. Stay awhile it is unkindly done to leave me thus O she is gone for ever ever gone And I stand prating here between them both The fatall cause of death unto them both Wilt thou not break proud heart I prethee break Prove not a Rebell to thy Prince like these It 's well there is some loyaltie in thee yet Thou art commanded by me the King faints Bris Gracious my Liege Clot. Charles I have injur'd thee and thee Dumain Can ye forgive me Bris Good your Grace Call back your spirits think what 's to be done Clot. I consider well and the now King The quondam Mounsieur shall not denie me this Half of the honours of the deal Landrey We do confer on thee the other half Be thine Dumain Charles shall be Duke of France Thou of the Palace Major this is our will Dum. Great King you are not yet so neer your end Forsend it heaven Bris Look up my Gracious Lord. Monsi My Royall Brother Clot. I begin to faint A darknesse like to death hangs on mine eies Lend me thine hand Brissac and thine Dumain. Good gentle souls when ye shal mention me And elder time shall rip these stories up Diffected and Anatomiz'd by you Touch sparingly this story do not read Too harsh a comment on this loathed deed Left you inforce posterity to blast My name and Memory with endlesse curses Call me an honouralbe murtherer And finish there as I do He dyes Dum. O Noble Lord Whose fame was very essence to his souls That gone the other fled choosing to die Rather then live a King in infamy Monsi A heavie spectacle of grief and woe Have beheld since our arivall here Take up the body of the King and these That for his love on either hand lie slain They shall lie buried in one Monument And take up these this was Royall Queen When virtue steer'd her thoughts but we may see When we turn foes to good to vice a friend We fall like these and like these thus we end A dead March within FINIS
I grant thou art his elder by which law Thou' rt born his subject not his equal Clovis Know Clotair's thy King and subjects hands Without the deep and dangerous traytors name May not advance against their sovereignes head Clota Neither shall his without Correction Upon him slaves Qu. Hold I command ye hold Oh Clotair thou art of a valiant soul And wilt thou basely thus beset thy Brother Fear argues spirits most degenerate And that thou fear'st th' advantage argues it O set not on thy slaves if he must die Let thy sacrifice not butcher him Clota That argument sounds harsh does Clotair fear Clo. Sacrifice me it is not in his power Eu. Exquisite Philter how it operates Qu. We hope so Clovis yet thy brother King Is as an earthly God his will his law His power uncircumscrib'd unlimited Whose Majesty can look a subject dead Clo. How look me dead I do not fear his frowns Qu. I grant th 'as great a Basiliske as he As thou art meerly man but as thy King Divinity doth prop him he stands firm That builds on that foundation yet I know Thy sword 's as sharp as his and where it lights Imprints as much of fate thine arm 's as strong Thy spirit as daring and thy will as prompt To any action that may write man Man Clot. He is your darling you do wel to praise him When I have slain him write his Epitaph Clo. My Epitaph this Pen of steel shall first Write on thy heart thine end Eu. Stil still better The venom'd poyson of a womans tongue Is more sublim'd than Mercurie they fight again Char. Hold hold O dearest Maddam your maternal breath Bears a Mandamus in it and like heaven Will lay this tempest Eu. As the wind the Sea Which makes it rage the lowder Clot. Where 's our guard That lets a tray tor pull me by the berd Upon him slaves The Guard fall on him and he falls Qu. O they have slain my Son Bloody villain thy hands have made these holes Hell take thee for 't Clot. Mother rise and depart For I am bent on mischief Qu. Do thy worst Thou murderous minded Prince this blood is mine For in some sort I bleed out Paricide Eu. How cunningly she spits her poyson forth I know her soul is light she 's glad he 's dead And joyes in the opportuntie to curse the killer For which she gaines the name of pious mother Here 's pretty woman-villany and dissimulation Aphe If they have slain him wherefore do I live O my swoln heart Clot. Remove the Corps withall Convey this Syren from our wandring eyes And howse her in a Dungeon let no light Peep through a cranney on her mask the day Put the all-searching eyes of Phaebus out Lest accidentally he gazing here Here fix eternally and so we may Despair of night as once we did of day Bear her to prison reason not the cause A Kings prerogative's above his lawes Aphe Be mercifull and lead to earth away Since he is gone it is to die to stay Exeunt some with the King others leading Aphelia and bearing away the Corps Manent Eunuch Queen Landrey Qu. Now we begin to flourish this black night Is onely lighted by our stars which smile Upon these actions and rejoyce to see Thee our sole favorite so neer a Crown But tell me Landrey how did I play the mother Did not I seem a Niobe in passion A deluge of salt tear Land Most true you wept Qu. As a good Actor in a play would do Whose fancy works as if he waking dreamt Too strongly on the Object that it copes with Shaping realities from mockeries And so the Queen did weep By this good night I think I could become the Stage as well As any she that sels her breath in publique Come shall we Act Landrey Land Act Lady what Qu. Nothing that 's new old Playes you know are best Eunuch is our bed ready Eu. Great Queen it is Qu. Come then my joy to bed where we will Act The truth which others doubt and in that sport We 'l laugh at death which triumphs in the Court. Exeunt Qu. Lan. Eu. Go sleep your last I 'l straight unto the King And he shall take them in the very act And then to cover my discoverie I 'l set on fire the Queens Bed-chamber That so I may disturb them more secure And yet the plot not mine I 'l tell the King Unlesse he present help his mother burns About it then this is a happie night The more it works their woe more 's my delight Exit Actus Tertius Scena Prima Enter King Clotair and the Eunuch Eu. LOok how it fiames I fear some treachrie the bedchamb on fire Beat at her Chamber door cry it aloud And let your voice be thunder to this lightning Cry fire fire fire the Court is all a hot-house fire fire Clot. Great Queen royall mother open your door Lest you do sleep for ever mother awake The God of sleep lies heavie on her eyes Force up the door fire fire fire Eu. It 's fortifi'd ' gainst strength you must call louder Clot. Mother Queen Mother awake awake Your sleep was never more like death than now Lady Great Princess fire fire fire Enter Queen above in night attire Landrey Qu. What saucie Groom Beats our offendless doores thus daringly H 'had better rows'd a sleeping Lyoness Than thus t' have broke our slumbers what art thou Clot. Look The fire will give you light 't is I your Son Flie from your Chamber else you are but dead Your Court is all a Bonsire Qu. Let it burn I have lost my credit everlastingly I will not move afoot aside Clot. You must be forced then Exit Eunuch busie to quench the fire Land Ladie Where is your wit now in necessitie Whe shall be taken and you sham'd for ever Bethink bethink your self what shall we do aside Qu. I have 't it shall be so there put on that And as the door flies open meet him full Appearing in his Brothers warlike form Thou wilt amaze and so passe by him safely Do not appear to me I did not wound thee aloud this Seek out the beds of those that caus'd thy death And howl to them thy pittious complaints O do not look on me be gone be gone Clot. Whom d' ee hold discourse with with the air Bethink your self this is no time to dallie Qu O my Son such horrid apparitions full of dread Have I beheld have quite unwitted me Thy brothers Ghost young Clovis Ghost in armes Has thrice appear'd to me this dismall night You heard me speak too 't Clot. True I heard you speak But what of that Qu. Calls for Aphelia To bear him company i'th'other world Or else hee 'l nightly haunt us in our sleep Enter Landrey as in the Princes Armour Clot. O see it comes Qu. Fear it not Son Clot. What art thou that usurp'st this dead of night In metal like the age
injurie thou dost to him But wounds me to the soul Eu. Pray then look here How easily this Skean is sheath'd in him An Engine of his own preparing Ladie And pittie't were so brave a Gentleman Such a neat hopeful whore-master as he Should die by any weapon but his own So perish all that love Adulterie There sit you there again once more to you he sets him in his Chair Who if your poyson do not work too fast Shall see more sights like these before you die But lest you should prevent us with your tongue I will be bold to gag your Ladyship I 'l leave a peeping hole through which you shall See sights shall kill thee faster than thy poyson draws the Curtain again I am prepar'd now for Aphelia's death All things are ready and behold the King Now for my part Ent. Clotair melancholly Clot. I am too pittiful a watrie flux Which soft and tender hearted men call tears Stand on mine eies and do's express a nature Too like my Bearer it is now with me Full tide in sorrow my Cynthia governs strongly Eu. How fares the great Clotair Clot. What do the wise Castrato call the moisture which presumes To meditate betwixt my wrath and me Eu. Expressions of a weak and silly nature Passion of fools and women are you a man And bear so tame a soul such a smock spirit The Distaff owns more spleen more noble anger Pray let her live untill the Pages write An hopping balladry verse rime upon you Great Clotair had a wife and she was fair Yea fairer than the flowerie meads in May scoffingly Oh she was fair yet foul most ridling sence Oh it is horrid then to conclude In what a high streign you did take revenge How like your house and honour hark how she dies Strangled in tears fall'n from the Cuckolds eies You are her husband sir and now must own Her doubtfull issue and her lawlesse lust Although a Bull should leap her you must father And have a drove of forked Animals Shall have their horns born with them to the sound 'T will save their prodigall wives the reacky labour Clot. Marry a Whore father a bastard issue Eu. I tell you truth there 's no avoiding it Clot. Come bring her forth Ent. Aphelia drag'd by two Ruffins in her petticoat hair Aphe Use not such violence good Gentlemen I 'l walk a lamb to slaughter not repine At any torments you shall put me too Onely be modest commend me to my Lord I doubt I never shall behold him more For by the calculation of your looks I have not long to live Clot. True Aphelia confess turn thy fate give me to know With what foul Monster thou hast wrong'd thy soul Seam-rent that holy weed Virginitie And case me of a load that bears more weight Than what my youthful sins have heap'd upon me Aphe If e'r my Lord Clot. No more of that it tends to madness I 'l force it from thee bring forth the tortures there I 'l trie if in these fiery instruments Ent. man with pan and irons There lie a tongue which better can perswade Confession from thee these red hot applied Unto thy breast adulterate shall extract All future hope to suckle lawless issue The poysonous springs which from these hills arise Shall have their fountain head dam'd up by these Aphe I 've heard you swear that you were poor in words And knew not to express the happiness Which you conceiv'd was habitable here How much my Lord is altred from himself Clot. 'T is thou art altred true Aphelia That whilst thy purer thoughts did awe thy will I lov'd like an Idolater I was possest That these two twins these Globes of flesh contain'd All that was happy both in earth and heaven In this I could descrie the Milkey way The maiden Zone that girds the waste of heaven In this the seat of Paradice and how The wanton Rivelets plai'd about the Isle Which puzzel yet Geographie all this I could I could in thee my sometime chast Aphelia Find and rejoyce in but thou art now An undrest wilderness wherein I walk Losing my self ' mongst multitude of beasts O savage actions Come dispatch Aphe Sir Clot. I'I hear no more Aphe Heaven will then And though it bear an ear far distant hence Both hear and pitty me O my lov'd Lord Should but a dream work on my fancy That you were thus to suffer as I am It would conspire to kill me with more speed Than these your threatning Ministers alas I 'l force a gentler nature in the steel And with my rainy eies weep out their heat Which as it dies should hiss it self to scorn For offering to contain but fire to hurt you And will you then a bold spectator stand Smiling at what I suffer shed but one tear Or counterfeit a sorrow for my sake A little seeming woe and I shall die Sick of your kindnesse not your crueltie Clot. O my soft temper her sweet harmonic Will melt me into fool to hear these words The Mother is to busie in mine eies What shall I do Eu. Make a new Hell And if thou canst create more Devils do And they will find imployment all on her For since the generall Creation Time never did produce a fowler sinner Or one more begger'd hell in punishing Clot. Thou hast awak'd me Whore will you confesse Do not inforce your death through wilfulness drags her by the hair Speak stubborn silence or I 'l break thy heart Aphe My Lord and Husband oh my Lord and husband Regard my miserie and pittie me Clot. Thou' rt cruel to thy self I wrong thee not It is not I that tear this precious Fleece again This glorious excrement in validitie Another Cholcos better seeming Jason I pull not off these curious sporting Tresses again Fit braids to Captive Kings hadst thou been honest I wound thee not confesse and live as free As mountain air I will not injure thee Aphe My gracious Prince I dare not call you husband Your actions do forbid which write me slave And not your equall if to be your wife Has pluckt this misery upon my head Or caus'd in you this phrensie put me off I will indure it patiently but if e'r Clot. The old tune this come come the Irons there Aph. Oh oh oh cruel my Lord unmanly they bind her to the Chair the Eu. much sears her breast I will not curse yet heaven no nor blaspheme Although mine injuries would half perswade Gods are not or are deaf to innocents Sould. Arm arm my Lord the Castle 's wall'd about Enter a Souldier hastily with his sword drawn With living Clay three times ten thousand men Approved Warrlers souls of blood and fire That onely known to do and not to suffer Make head against you believe me sir A braver Troop and spirits more resolv'd Life never put in action young Brissac Now old enough to quit his Fathers death Together with the ruine of his Sister