As sit in tender bosoms: Lordly Ithocles
Hath grac'd my entertainment in abundancce;
Too humbly hath descended from that height
Of arrogance and spleen which wrought the rape
On griev❜d Penthea's purity; his scorn
Of my untoward fortunes is reclaimed
Unto a courtship, almost to a fawning:
I'll kiss his foot, since you will have it so.

Crot. Since I will have it so? Friend, I will
have it so

Without our ruin by your politic plots,
Or wolf of hatred snarling in your breast.
You have a spirit, sir; have ye? a familiar
That posts i'th' air for your intelligence?

Some such hobgoblin hurried you from Athens,
For yet you come unsent for.

Org. If unwelcome,

I might have found a grave there.
Crot. Sure, your business

Was soon dispatch'd, or your mind altered quickly. Org. 'Twas care, sir, of my health, cut short my journey;

For there, a general infection
Threatens a desolation.

Crot. And I fear

Thou hast brought back a worse infection with thee,

Infection of thy mind; which, as thou sayst,
Threatens the desolation of our family.

Org. Forbid it, our dear genius! I will rather
Be made a sacrifice on Thrasus' monument,
Or kneel to Ithocles his son in dust,

Than woo a father's curse: My sister's marriage With Prophilus is from my heart confirm'd: May I live hated, may I die despised,

If I omit to further it in all

That can concern me!

Crot. I have been too rough,

My duty to my king made me so earnest ;
Excuse it, Orgilus.

Org. Dear sir!

SONG.

Comforts lasting, loves increasing, Like soft hours never ceasing; Plenty's pleasure, peace complying, Without jars, or tongues envying; Hearts by holy union wedded, More than theirs' by custom bedded; Fruitful issues; life so graced, Not by age to be defaced; Budding as the year ensu'th, Every spring another youth: All what thought can add beside, Crown this bridegroom and this bride,

Proph. You have seal'd joy close to my soul:
Euphrania,

Now I may call thee mine.
Ith. I but exchange
One good friend for another.
Org. If these gallants

Will please to grace a poor invention,
By joining with me in some slight device,
I'll venture on a strain my younger days
Have studied for delight.

Hem. With thankful willingness
I offer my attendance.

Gro. No endeavour

Of mine shall fail to shew itself.
Ith. We will

All join to wait on thy direction, Orgilus.
Org. Oh, my good lord, your favours flow to-

wards

Cal. You feed too much your melancholy.
Pen. Glories

Of human greatness are but pleasing dreams,
And shadows soon decaying; on the stage
Of my mortality, my youth hath acted
Some scenes of vanity, drawn out at length
By varied pleasures, sweetened in the mixture,
But tragical in issue: beauty, pomp,
With every sensuality our giddiness
Doth frame an idol, are inconstant friends,
When any troubled passion makes us halt
On the unguarded castle of the mind.

Cal. Contemn not your condition for the proof
Of bare opinion only: to what end
Reach all these moral texts?

Pen. To place before ye

A perfect mirror, wherein you may see
How weary I am of a lingering life,
Who count the best a misery.

Cal. Indeed

Must be a winding-sheet, a fold of lead,

And some untrod-on corner of the earth.-
Not to detain your expectation, princess,
I have a humble suit.

Cal. Speak: enjoy it.

Pen. Vouchsafe then to be my executrix,
And take that trouble on you to dispose
Such legacies as I bequeath, impartially;
I have not much to give, the pains are easy,
Heaven will reward your piety, and thank it
When I am dead; for sure I must not live:
I hope I cannot

Cal. Now beshrew thy sadness,
Thou turn'st me to much woman.
Pen. Her fair eyes

Melt into passion; then I have assurance Encouraging my boldness. [Aside.] In this paper My will was character'd, which you, with pardon, Shall now know from mine own mouth.

Cal. To whom that?

A faith as humbly perfect, as the prayers
Of a devoted suppliant can endow it:
Look on him, princess, with an eye of pity
How like the ghost of what he late appear'd
He moves before you!

Cal. Shall I answer here,
Or lend my ear too grossly!

Pen. First his heart

Shall fall in cinders, scorch'd by your disdain,
Ere he will dare, poor man, to ope an eye
On these divine looks, but with low-bent thoughts
Accusing such presumption; as for words,
He dares not utter any but of service.
Yet this lost creature loves ye. Be a princess
In sweetness as in blood; give him his doom,
Or raise him up to comfort.

Cal. What new change
Appears in my behaviour, that thou darʼst
Tempt my displeasure?

Pen. I must leave the world

To revel in Elysium, and 'tis just

To wish my brother some advantage here;
Yet by my best hopes, Ithocles is ignorant
Of this pursuit. But if you please to kill him,
Lend him one angry look, or one harsh word,
And you shall soon conclude how strong a power
Your absolute authority holds over

His life and end.

Cal. You have forgot, Penthea,

lock

By freedom of desires, but covet chiefly
The pledges of chaste beds, for ties of love,'
Rather than raging of their blood: and next
To married maids, such as prefer the number
Of honourable issue in their virtues
Before the flattery of delights by marriage;
May those be ever young!
Cal. A second jewel
You mean to part with.

Pen. 'Tis my fame; I trust,

By scandal yet untouched: this I bequeath To Memory, and Time's old daughter Truth. If ever my unhappy name find mention, When I am fallen to dust, may it deserve

Pen. But remember

1th. Look ye, uncle:

Some such there are, whose liberal contents
Swarm without care in every sort of plenty;
Who, after full repasts, can lay them down
Tosleep; and they sleep, uncle: in which silence
Their very dreams present 'em choice of pleasures:
Pleasures, (observe me uncle!) of rare object:
Here heaps of gold, there increments of honours;
Now change of garments, then the votes of people';
Anon varieties of beauties, courting,

In flatteries of the night, exchange of dalliance;
Yet these are still but dreams: give me felicity
Of which my senses waking are partakers;
A real, visible, material happiness:
And then too, when I stagger in expectance
Of the least comfort that can cherish life.-
I saw it, sir, I saw it; for it came
From her own hand.

Arm. The princess threw it to you.

Ith. True, and she said-well I remember
what!-

Her cousin prince would beg it?
Arm. Yes, and parted

In anger at your taking on't.
Ith. Penthea,

Oh! thou hast pleaded with a powerful language:
I want a fee to gratify thy merit.
But I will do-

Arm. What is't you say?
Ith. In anger?

In anger let him part; for could his breath,
Like whirlwinds, toss such servile slaves, as lick
The dust his footsteps print, into a vapour,
it durst not stir a hair of mine; it should not;
I'd rend it up by th' roots first. To be any thing
Calantha smiles on, is to be a blessing
More sacred than a petty prince of Argos
Can wish to equal, or in worth, or title.

Arm. Contain yourself, my lord: Ixion aim-
ing

To embrace Juno, bosomed but a cloud,
And begat Centaurs: 'tis an useful moral;
Ambition, hatched in clouds of mere opinior,
Proves but in birth a prodigy.

Ith. I thank ye;

Yet, with your licence, I should seem unchari

table

To gentler fate, if, relishing the dainties
Of a soul's settled peace, I were so feeble
Not to digest it.

Arm. He deserves small trust,
Who is not privy counsellor to himself.

Enter NEARCHUS, ORGILUS, and AMELUS.
Neur. Brave me?

Org. Your excellence mistakes his temper;
For Ithocles, in fashion of his mind,
Is beautiful, soft, gentle, the clear mirror
Of absolute perfection.

Ame. Was't your modesty

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.

Sports are more gamesome: am I yet in merriment?

Why dost not laugh?

Bass. Divine and best of ladies,

Please to forget my outrage: mercy ever
Cannot but lodge under a roof so excellent:
I have cast off that cruelty of frenzy
Which once appeared, impostor, and then juggled
To cheat my sleeps of rest.

Org. Was I in earnest?

Pen. Sure, if we were all sirens, we should sing pitifully;

And 'twere a comely musick, when in parts
One sung another's knell: the turtle sighs
When he hath lost his mate; and yet some say
He must be dead first: 'tis a fine deceit
To pass away in a dream: indeed I've slept
With mine eyes open a great while. No false-
hood

Equals a broken faith; there's not a hair
Sticks on my head, but, like a leaden plummet,
It sinks me to the grave. I must creep thither;
The journey is not long.

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 neʼer 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.