Thou art the very honeycomb of honesty.
Phu. The garland of good-will:-Old lady,
hold up

Thy reverend snout, and trot behind me softly,
As it becomes a moil of ancient carriage.
[Exeunt GRA. and PHU.
Bass. Beasts, only capable of sense, enjoy
The benefit of food and ease with thankfulness:
Such silly creatures with a grudging kick not
Against the portion nature hath bestowed:
But men, endowed with reason, and the use
Of reason, to distinguish from the chaff
Of abject scarcity, the quintessence,
Soul, and elixir of the earth's abundance,
The treasures of the sea, the air, nay heaven,
Repining at these glories of creation,

Are verier beasts than beasts; and of those beasts
The worst am I: I, who was made a monarch
Of what a heart could wish, of a chaste wife,
Endeavoured what in me lay, to pull down
That temple built for adoration only,
And level in the dust of causeless scandal.
But to redeem a sacrilege so impious,
Humility shall pour before the deities:
I have incensed a largess of more patience
Than their displeased altars can require.
No tempests of commotion shall disquiet
The calms of my composure.

Your trials for addition to my penance :
I am resolv'd.

Org. Play not with misery

Past cure some angry minister of fate hath Deposed the empress of her soul, her reason, From its most proper throne. But, what's the miracle

More new, I, I have seen it, and yet live.

Ith. But thou, Penthea,

Hast many years, I hope, to number yet, Ere thou canst travel that way,

Bass. Let the sun first

Be wrapped up in an everlasting darkness,
Before the light of nature, chiefly formed
For the whole world's delight, feel an eclipse
So universal.

Org. Wisdom, look ye,
Begins to rave:-art thou mad too, antiquity?

Pen. Since I was first a wife, I might have been Mother to many pretty prattling babes: They would have smil'd, when I smil'd; and, for certain,

I should have cried when they cried. Truly, bro ther,

My father would have picked me out a husband, And then my little ones had been no bastards: But 'tis too late for me to marry now.

I am past child-bearing: 'tis not my fault.

Bass. Fall on me, if there be a burning Etna, And bury me in flames; sweats, hot as sulphur,

judgment:

'Tis anchor'd into a firm resolution; Dalliance of mirth or wit can ne'er unfix it: Practise no further.

Org. May the death of love to her Damn all thy comforts to a lasting fast From every joy of life! Thou barren rock, By thee we have been split in ken of harbour.

Enter PENTHEA, with her hair flying, ITHOCLES, PHILEMA and CHRYSTALLA.

Ith. Sister, look up; your Ithocles, your brother,

Speaks to you: Why do you weep? Dear, turn not from me!

Here is a killing sight; to Bassanes
A lamentable object!

Org. Man, dost see't?

No torture like to this.

Org. Behold a patience!

Lay by thy whining, gray dissimulation,
Do something worth a chronicle; shew justice
Upon the author of this mischief; dig out
The jealousies that hatched this thraldom first
With thine own poniard: every antick rapture
Can roar as thine does.

Ith. Orgilus, forbear.
Bass. Disturb him not: it is a talking motion
Provided for my torment. What a fool am I
To baudy passion? Ere I'll speak a word,
I will look on and burst.

Pen. I loved you once. [To ORGILUS. Org. Thou didst, wrong'd creature, in despite of malice;

For it I love thee ever.

Pen. Spare your hand;

he:

Will make folk proud, they say.-But that is
[Pointing to ITHOCLES.
And yet he paid for't home. Alas! his heart
Is crent into the cabinet of the princess;
We shall have points and bride-laces. Remember
When we last gathered roses in the garden,
I found my wits, but truly you lost yours.
That's he, and still 'tis he.

Ith. Poor soul, how idly
Her fancies guide her tongue!
Bass. Keep in vexation,
And break not into clamour.
Org. She has tutor❜d me:

[Aside.

Some powerful inspiration checks my laziness.
Now let me kiss your hand, grieved beauty.
Pen. Kiss it.-

Alack, alack, his lips be wond'rous cold;
Dear soul, he's lost his colour: Have ye seen
A straying heart? All crannies, every drop
Of blood is turned to an amethyst,
Which married batchelors hang in their ears.
Org. Peace usher her into Elysium!
If this be madness, madness is an oracle.

[Erit ORG.

Ith. Christalla, Philema, when slept my sister? Her ravings are so wild!

Christ. Sir, not these ten days.

Phi. We watch by her continually; beşideş, We cannot any way pray her to eat.

Bass. Oh, misery of miseries!
Pen. Take comfort,

You may live well, and die a good old man :
Bv yea and nay, an oath not to be broken,
If you had joined our hands once in the temple,
(Twas since my father died, for had he lived
He would have done't,) I must have called you
father.

Oh, my wreck'd honour, ruin'd by those tyrants,
A cruel brother and a desperate dotage!
There is no peace left for a ravish'd wife
Widowed by lawless marriage; to all memory,
Penthea's, poor Penthea's name is strumpeted:
But since her blood was seasoned by the forfeit
Of noble shame, with mixtures of pollution,
Her blood-'tis just,-be henceforth never
heightened

With taste of sustenance. Now let that fulness
Whose pleurisy hath fevered faith and modesty-
Forgive me!-Oh! I faint.

Arm. Be not so wilful,

Sweet niece, to work thine own destruction.
Ith. Nature

Will call her daughter monster. What? not eat?
Refuse the only ordinary means

Which are ordained for life? Be not, my sister,

What you shall still admire: 'tis wonderful, 'Tis supersingular, not to be matched:

Yet, when I've done't, I've done't; ye shall all thank me.

Arm. The sight is full of terror.
Ith. On my soul

[Erit.

Lies such an infinite clog of massy dulness,
As that I have not sense enough to feel it.
See, uncle! the angry thing returns again;
Shall's welcome him with thunder? We are
haunted,

And must use exorcising to conjure down
This spirit of malevolence.
Arm. Mildly, nephew.

Enter NEARCHUS and AMELUS. Near. I come not, sir, to chide your late disorder;

Admitting that th' inurement to a roughness
In soldiers of your years and fortunes, chiefly
So lately prosperous, hath not yet shook off
The custom of the war in hours of leisure:
Nor shall you need excuse, since you're to render
Account to that fair excellence, the princess,
Who in her private gallery expects it
From your own mouth alone: I am a messenger
But to her pleasure.

Ith. Excellent Nearchus,

Be prince still of my services, and conquer,
Without the combat of dispute; I honour ye.

Near. The king is on a sudden indisposed; Physicians are called for: 'twere fit, Armostes, You should be near him.

Arm. Sir, I kiss your hands.

[Exeunt ITHOCLES and ARMOSTES. Near. Amelus, I perceive Calantha's bosom Is warm'd with other fires than such as can Take strength from any fuel of the love I might address to her; young Ithocles, Or ever I mistake, is lord ascendant Of her devotions; one, to speak him truly, In every disposition nobly fashioned.

Ame. But can your highness brook to be sq rivall'd,

Considering the inequality of the persons?

Near. I can, Amelus; for affections, injured By tyranny or rigour of compulsion, Like tempest-threatened trees unfirmly rooted, Ne'er spring to timely growth: observe, for in

stance,

Life-spent Penthea, and unhappy Orgilus.
Ame. How does your grace determine?
Near. To be jealous

In public of what privately I'll further;
And, though they shall not know, yet they shall
find it.
[Exeunt.

SCENE III.-A Royal Apartment.

Enter AMYCLAS, led by HEMOPHIL and GRONEAS, and is placed in a chair; followed by ARMOSTES, CROTOLON, and PROPHILUS. Amy. Our daughter is not near?

Arm. She is retired, sir,

Into her gallery.

Amy. Where's the prince, our cousin?

Proph. New walked unto the grove, my lord. Amy. All leave us,

Except Armostes, and you, Crotolon:

We would be private.

Proph. Health unto your majesty.

Amy. What? Tecnicus is gone?
Arm. He is, to Delphos ;

And to your royal hands presents this box.
Amy. Unseal it, good Armostes; therein lie
The secrets of the oracle: out with it;
Apollo live our patron! Read, Armostes.

Arm. [Reads.] "The plot in which the vine
takes root,

Begins to dry from head to foot;
The stock, soon withering, want of sap
Doth cause to quail the budding grape :
But from the neighbouring elm a dew
Shall drop, and feed the plot anew."

Amy. That is the oracle; what exposition
Makes the philosopher?

Arm. This brief one only:

[Reads.] "The plot is Sparta, the dried vine the king;

The quailing grape his daughter; but the thing
Of most importance, not to be reveal'd,
Is a near prince, the elm: the rest conceal'd.
TECNICUS."

Amy. Enough: although the opening of this riddle

Be but itself a riddle, yet we construe
How near our labouring age draws to a rest:
But must Calantha quail to that young grape,
Untimely budded? I could mourn for her;
Her tenderness hath yet deserved no rigour
So to be crost by fate.

Arm. You misapply, sir,

With favour let me speak it, what Apollo
Hath clouded in hid sense: I here conjecture
Her marriage with some neighbouring prince, the

dew

Of which befriending elm shall ever strengthen Your subjects with a sovereignty of power.

The fall of age, or call back youth and vigour,
As your consents in duty: I will shake off
This languishing disease of time, to quicken
Fresh pleasures in these drooping hours of sad-

Our sister looks, methinks, mirthful and sprightly;

As if her chaster fancy could already
Expound the riddle of her gain in losing

A trifle; maids know only that they know not.
Pish! prythee, blush not: 'tis but honest change
Of fashion in the garment, loose for straight,
And so the modest maid is made a wife.
Shrewd business,-is't not, sister?
Euph. You are pleasant.

Amy. We thank thee, Orgilus, this mirth becomes thee.

But wherefore sits the court in such a silence? A wedding without revels is not seemly.

Cal. Your late indisposition, sir, forbade it. Amy. Be it thy charge, Calantha, to set forward

The bridal sports, to which I will be present; If not, at least consenting. Mine own Ithocles, I have done little for thee yet.

Ith. You've built me

To the full height I stand in.
Cal. Now or never!-

May I propose a suit?

Amy. Demand, and have it.

Cal. Pray, sir, give me this young man, and no farther

Account him yours, than he deserves in all things To be thought worthy mine; I will esteem him According to his merit.

Amy. Still thou'rt my daughter,

Still grow'st upon my heart! Give me thine hand; Calantha, take thine own; in noble actions Thou'lt find him firm and absolute: I would

not

Have parted with thee, Ithocles, to any
But to a mistress, who is all what I am.

Ith. A change, great king, most wished for, cause the same.

Cal. Thou art mine.-Have I kept my word? Ith. Divinely.

Org. Rich fortune's guard, the favour of a princess,

Rock thee, brave man, in every crowned plenty! You're minion of the time; be thankful for it.

Ho, here's a swing in destiny!—Apparent,
The youth is up on tiptoe, yet may stumble.

[Aside. Amy. On to your recreations!-Now convey

me

Unto my bed-chamber: none on his forehead
Wear a distemper'd look.

All. The gods preserve ye!

Cal. Sweet, be not from my sight.
Ith. My whole felicity!

[AMYCLAS is led out. Exeunt all but ITHOCLES, detained by ORGILUS.

Org. Shall I be bold, my lord?
Ith. Thou canst not, Orgilus:

Call me thine own, for Prophilus must henceforth

Be all thy sister's; friendship, though it cease not
In marriage, yet is oft at less command
Than when a single freedom can dispose it.

Org. Most right, my most good lord, my most great lord,

My gracious princely lord, I might add royal.
Ith. Royal? a subject royal?

Org. Why not, pray, sir?

The sovereignty of kingdoms in their nonage

Stoop'd to desert, not birth: there's as much

Stands seated in your will, secure and settled, I dare pronounce you will be a just monarch; Greece must admire and tremble.

Ith. Then the sweetness

Of so imparadised a comfort, Orgilus!
It is to banquet with the gods.
Org. The glory

Of numerous children, potency of nobles,
Bent knees, hearts pav'd to tread on,
Ith. With a friendship

So dear, so fast as thine!
Org. I am unfitting
For office, but for service.

Ith. We'll distinguish

Our fortunes merely in the title; partners
In all respects else, but the bed.

Org. The bed?

Forefend it, Jove's own jealousy, till lastly
We slip down in the common earth together,
And there our beds are equal, save some mont

ment

To shew this was the king, and this the subject.[Soft sad music, List, what sad sounds are these? extremely sad

ones.

Ith. Sure from Penthea's lodgings,
Org. Hark! a voice too,

A SONG.-Sung behind the Scene.
Oh no more, no more! too late
Sighs are spent; the burning tapers
Of a life as chaste as fate,

Pure as are unwritten papers,
Are burnt out; no heat, no light
Now remains; 'tis ever night.
Love is dead; let lovers' eyes,
Lock'd in endless dreams,
Th' extremes of all extremes
Open no more, for now love dies;
Now love dies, implying

Love's martyrs must be ever, ever dying,

Ith. Oh, my misgiving heart!

Org. A horrid stilness

Succeeds this deathful air. Let's know the rea

Ith. So died!

from us;

Org. Up! you are messengers of death: go [CHRIST. and PHIL. rise. Here's woe enough to court without a prompter. Away! and,-hark ye,-till you see us next, No syllable that she is dead.-Away, Keep a smooth brow.-My lord! [To ITHOCLES. [Exeunt CHRIST. and PHIL,

Ith. Mine only sister!
Another is not left me,
Org. Take that chair,

I'll seat me here in this: between us sits
The object of our sorrows; some few tears
We'll part among us; I perhaps can mix
One lamentable story to prepare them,-
There, there! sit there, my lord,

Ith. Yes, as you please.

[Sits down, and is caught in the engine. What means this treachery?

Org. Caught; you are caught,
Young master: 'tis thy throne of coronation,
Thou fool of greatness. See, I take this veil off:
Survey a beauty withered by the flames
Of an insulting Phæton, her brother.

Ith. Thou mean'st to kill me basely.
Org. I foreknew

The last act of her life, and trained thee hither
To sacrifice a tyrant to a turtle.

You dreamt of kingdoms, did ye? how to bosom
The delicacies of a youngling princess,
How with this nod to grace that subtle courtier,
How with that frown to make this noble tremble,
And so forth; whilst Penthea's groans and tor-
tures,

Her agonies, her miseries, afflictions,
Ne'er touched upon your thought? As for my in-
juries,

Determin'd, my resolves shall quickly follow
Thy wrathful ghost; then, if we tug for mastery,
Penthea's sacred eyes shall lend new courage.
Give me thy hand: be healthful in thy parting
From lost mortality. Thus, thus I free it.

Ith. Yet, yet I scorn to shrink.
Org. Keep up thy spirit:

[Stabs him,

I will be gentle even in blood; to linger
Pain, which I strive to cure, were to be cruel.
Ith. Nimble in vengeance, I forgive thee. Fol-
low

Safety, with best success: ob may it prosper!
Penthea, by thy side thy brother bleeds,
The earnest of his wrongs to thy forc'd faith.
Thoughts of ambition or delicious banquet,
With beauty, youth, and love, together perish
In my
last breath, which on the sacred altar
Of a long look'd for peace-now-moves-to
Heaven.

[Dies. Org. Farewell, fair spring of manhood; henceforth welcome

Best expectation of a noble sufferance!
I'll look the body's safe, till what must follow
Shall be approved.-Sweet twins, shine stars for
ever!

In vain they build their hopes, whose life is shame;
No monument lasts but a happy name. [Exit.

For here in Sparta, there's not left amongst us

Enter BASSanes.

Bass. Athens-to Athens I have sent, the nur sery

Of Greece for learning, and the fount of knowledge;

caps.

'Tis said Apollo is the god of herbs;
Then certainly he knows the virtue of them:
To Delphos I have sent too; if there can be
A help for nature, we are sure yet.