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Straight to the king they sacred reverence gave, With solemn words, O son of thundering Jove, Young Ammon, live for ever! then kissed the ground.

I laughed aloud, and scoffing, asked them why They kissed no harder ;-but the king leapt up, And spurned me to the earth, with this reply:'Do thou !'whilst with his foot he prest my neck,

The Indies, kept him revelling at Susa;
But as I found, a deep repentance since
Turns his affections to the queen Statira,
To whom he swore (before he could espouse her)
That he would never bed Roxana more.
Fot. How did the Persian queen receive the

news

Of his revolt?

Thess. With grief incredible:

Great Sysigambis wept, but the young queen Fell dead among her maids;

Till from my ears, my nose, and mouth, the
blood
Gushed forth, and I lay foaming on the earth-Nor could their care
For which I wish this dagger in his heart.

Cass. There spoke the spirit of Calisthenes!
Remember he's a man, his flesh as soft
And penetrable as a girl's: we have seen him
wounded,

A stone has struck him, yet no thunderbolt:
A pebble felled this Jupiter along:

A sword has cut him, a javelin pierced him,
Water will drown him, fire burn him,
A surfeit, nay a fit of common sickness,
Brings this immortal to the gate of death.
Pol. Why should we more delay the glorious
business?

Are your hearts firm?

Phil. Hell cannot be more bent, To any ruin, than I to the king's. Thess. And I.

Pol. Behold my hand; and if you doubt my truth,

Tear up my breast, and lay my heart upon it. Cass. Join then, O worthy, hearty, noble hands,

Fit instruments for such majestic souls!
Remember Hermolaus, and be hushed.

Pol. Still as the bosom of the desert night,
As fatal planets, or deep-plotting fiends.

Cass. To-day he comes from Babylon to Susa, With proud Roxana.

Ah! who's that?-look there!

Enter the Ghost of King PHILIP, shaking a truncheon at them, walks over the Stage. Cass. Now by the gods, or furies, which I ne'er Believed, -there's one of them arrived to shake us. What art thou? glaring thing, speak! What, the spirit

Of our king Philip, or of Polyphemus?
Nay hurl thy truncheon, second it with thunder;
We will abide-Thessalus, saw you nothing?
Thess, Yes, and am more amazed than you
can be.

Phil. "Tis said, that many prodigies were seen
This morn, but none so horrible as this,
Fol. What! can you fear? though the earth
yawned so wide,

That all the labours of the deep were seen,
And Alexander stood on the other side,
I'd leap the burning ditch to give him death,
Or sink myself for ever: Pray, to the business,
Cass. As I was saying, this Roxana, whom,
To aggravate my hate to him, I love,
Meeting him as he came triumphant from

With richest cordials, for an hour or more,
Recover life.

Cass. Knowing how much she loved,
hoped to turn her all into Medea;
For, when the first gust of her grief was past,
I entered, and with breath prepared did blow
The dying sparks into a towering flame,
Describing the new love he bears Roxana,
Conceiving, not unlikely, that the line
Of dead Darius in her cause might rise.
Is any panther's, lioness's rage

So furious, any torrent's falls so swift,
As a wronged woman's hate? Thus far it helps
To give him troubles; which perhaps may end
him,

And set the court in universal uproar.
But see! it ripens more than I expected:
The scene works up; kill him, or kill thyself;
So there be mischief any way, 'tis well;
Now change the vizor, every one disperse,
And with a face of friendship meet the king.

SCENE III.

[Exeunt.

Enter SYSIGAMBIS, STATIRA, PARISATIS, Attendants.

Stat. Give me a knife, a draught of poison,
flames!

Swell heart, break, break, thou stubborn thing!
Now, by the sacred fire, I'll not be held;
Why do ye wish my life, yet stifle me
For want of air? pray give me leave to walk.

Sys. Is there no reverence to my person due? Darius would have heard me; trust not rumour. Stat. No, he hates,

He loaths the beauties, which he has enjoyed.
O, he is false, that great, that glorious man
Is tyrant midst of his triumphant spoils,
Is bravely false, to all the gods forsworn:
Yet, who would think it! no, it cannot be,
It cannot -What, that dear protesting man!
He, that has warmed my feet with thousand
sighs,

Then cooled them with his tears, died on my knees,

Outwept the morning with his dewy eyes,
And groaned and swore the wandering stars away!
Sys. No, 'tis impossible, believe thy mother,
That knows him well.

Stat. Away, and let me die :
O'tis my fondness, and my easy nature,
That would excuse him; but I know he's false,

'Tis now the common talk, the news of the, I will have remedy, I will, I will,

world,

False to Statira, false to her that loved him; That loved him, cruel victor as he was, And took him, bathed all o'er in Persian blood; Kissed the dear cruel wounds, and washed them o'er And o'er in tearshair,

-then bound them with my

Laid him all night upon my panting bosom,
Lulled like a child, and hushed him with my songs.
Par. If this be true, ah, who will ever trust
A man again!

Stat. Å man! a man! my Parisatis;

Thus with thy hand held up, thus let me swear thee

By the eternal body of the sun,
Whose body, O forgive the blasphemy,
I loved not half so well as the least part
Of my dear precious faithless Alexander;
For I will tell thee, and to warn thee of him,
Not the spring's mouth, nor breath of jessamin,
Nor violet's infant-sweets, nor opening buds,
Are half so sweet as Alexander's breast;
From every pore of him a perfume falls,
He kisses softer than a southern wind,
Curls like a vine, and touches like a god.
Sys. When will thy spirits rest, these transports
cease?

Stat. Will you not give me leave to warn my sister?

As I was saying-but I told his sweetness;
Then he will talk-good gods, how he will talk!
Even when the joy he sighed for is possest,
He speaks the kindest words, and looks such
things,

Vows with such passion, swears with so much grace,

That 'tis a kind of heaven to be deluded by him. Par. But what was it, that you would have

me swear?

Stat. Alas, I had forgot! let me walk by And weep awhile, and I shall soon remember. Sys. Have patience, child, and give her liberty; Passions, like seas, will have their ebbs and flows: Yet, while I see her thus, not all the losses We have received, since Alexander's conquest, Can touch my hardened soul, her sorrow reigns Too fully there.

Par. But what if she should kill herself? Stat. Roxana then enjoys my perjured love, Roxana clasps my monarch in her arms: Doats on my conqueror, my dear lord, my king, Devours his lips, eats him with hungry kisses: him all, she, the curst happy she! By heaven I cannot bear it, 'tis too much; I'll die, or rid me of the burning torture.

She grasps

Or go distracted; madness may throw off
The mighty load, and drown the flaming pas-

sion.

Madam, draw near, with all that are in presence, And listen to the vow, which here I make.

Sys. Take heed, my dear Statira, and con*sider,

What desperate love enforces you to swear.

Stat. Pardon me, for I have considered well; And here I bid adieu to all mankind. Farewell, ye cozeners of the easy sex, And thou the greatest, falsest, Alexander! Farewell, thou most beloved, thou faithless dear! If I but mention him, the tears will fall; Sure there is not a letter in his name, But is a charm to melt a woman's eyes. Sys. Clear up thy griefs; thy king, thy Alexander,

Comes on to Babylon:

Stat. Why, let him come,

Joy of all eyes but the forlorn Statira's.
Sys. Wilt thou not see him?

Stat. By heaven I never will,

This is my vow, my secret resolution; [Knecls. And when I break it

Sys. Ah, do not ruin all!

Stat. May I again be flattered and deluded, May sudden death, and horrid, com instead Of what I wished, and take me unprepared!

Sys. Still kneel, and with the same breath

call again

The woeful imprecation thou hast made.

Stat. No, I will publish it through all the court,
Then, in the bowers of great Semiramis,
For ever lock my woes from human view.
Sys. Yet be persuaded.

Stat. Never urge me more,
Lest, driven to rage, I should my life abhor,
And in your presence put an end to all
The fast calamities, that round me fall.

Par. O angry heaven! what have the guiltless done!

And where shall wretched Parisatis run!

Sys. Captives in war, our bodies we resigned; But now made free, love does our spirits bind.

Stat. When to my purposed loneness I retire, Your sight I through the grates shall oft desire, And after Alexander's health enquire. And if this passion cannot be removed, Ask how my resolution he approved, How much he loves, how much he is beloved? Then, when I hear that all things please him well,

Thank the good gods, and hide me in my cell. [Exeunt.

SCENE I.

ACT II.

Noise of trumpets sounding far off-The scene draws, and discovers a battle of crows and ravens in the air; an eagle and a dragon meet and fight; the eagle drops down with all the rest of the birds, and the dragon flies away. Soldiers walk off, shaking their heads. The conspirators come forward.

Cass. He comes, the fatal glory of the world, The headlong Alexander, with a guard Of thronging crowns, comes on to Babylon, Though warned, in spite of all the powers above, Who, by these prodigies, foretel his ruin. Pol. Why all this noise, because a king must

die?

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Like silk-worms we are hid in our own web, But we shall burst at last through all the strings; And, when time calls, come forth in a new form, Not insects to be trod, but dragons winged.

Thess. The face of all the court is strangely

altered:

There's not a Persian I can meet, but stares
As if he were distracted. Oxyartes,
Statira's uncle, openly declaimed
Against the perjury of Alexander.

Phil. Others, more fearful, are removed to
Susa,

Dreading Roxana's rage, who comes i'th' rear To Babylon.

Cass. It glads my rising soul, That we shall see him racked before he dies: I know he loves Statira more than life, And on a crowd of kings in triumph borne, Comes big with expectation to enjoy her. But when he hears the oaths, which she has ta ken,

Her last adieu made public to the world, Her vowed divorce, how will remorse consume him,

Prey, like the bird of hell, upon his liver!

Pol. To baulk his longing, and delude his lust, Is more than death, 'tis earnest for damnation. Cass. Then comes Roxana, who must help our

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Lo the Chaldean priests appear; behold
The sacred fire, Nearchus and Eumenes,
With their white wands, and dressed in eastern
robes,

To soothe the king, who loves the Persian mode:
But see, the master of the world appears.

Enter ALEXANDER; all kneel but CLYTUS.
Heph. O son of Jupiter, live for ever!
Alex. Rise all; and thou my second self, my
love,

O my Hephestion, raise thee from the earth
Up to my breast, and hide thee in my heart.
Art thou grown cold? Why hang thine arms at

distance?

Hug me, or, by Heaven, thou lov'st me not.
Heph. Not love, my lord! break not the heart
you framed,

And moulded up to such an excellence,
Then stamped on it your own immortal image.
Not love the king? such is not woman's love;
So fond a friendship, such a sacred flame,
As I must doubt to find in breasts above.

Alex. Thou dost, thou lov'st me, crown of all my wars,

Thou dearer to me than my groves of laurel:
I know thou lov'st thy Alexander more
Than Clytus does the king. No tears, Hephestion;
I read thy passion in thy manly eyes,
And glory in those planets of my life,
Above the rival lights, that shine in Heaven.
Lys. I see, that death must wait me, yet I'll on.
Aler. I'll tell thee, friend,—and mark it, all ye
princes,-

Though never mortal man arrived to such
A height as I, yet I would forfeit all,
Cast all my purples, and my conquered crowns,
And die to save this darling of my soul.
Give me thy hand, share all my sceptres while
I live; and, when my hour of fate is come,
I leave thee, what thou merit'st more than I, the

world.

Lys. Dread sir, I cast me at your royal feet. Aler. What! my Lysimachus, whose veins are

rich

With our illustrious blood? My kinsman, rise ;Is not that Clytus?

Cly. Your old faithful soldier.

Alex. Come to my hands, thus double arm the

king:

And now, methinks, I stand like the dread God,

I have seen

Acknowledged me his son. My lightning thou,
Who, while his priests and I quaffed sacred blood,
And thou, my mighty thunder.-
Thy glittering sword out-fly celestial fire:
And when I cried, "Begone and execute,'
I've seen him run swifter than starting hinds,
Nor bent the tender grass beneath his feet;
Swifter than shadows fleeting o'er the fields;
Nay, even the winds, with all their stock of wings,
Have puffed behind, as wanting breath to reach
him.

Lys. But if your majesty
Cly. Who would not lose

The last dear drop of blood for such a king?'

Alex. Witness, my elder brothers of the sky, How much I love a soldier!O my Clytus, Was it not when we passed the Granicus, Thou didst preserve me from unequal force? 'Twas then, when Spithridates and Rhesaces, Fell both upon me with two dreadful strokes, And clove my tempered helmet quite in sunder, Then I remember, then thou didst me service; I think my thunder split them to the navel.

Cly. To your great self you owe that victory, And sure your arms did never gain a nobler.

Aler. By Heaven, they never did; for well thou

know'st,

And I am prouder to have passed that stream,
Than that I drove a million o'er the plain :
Can none remember? Yes, I know all must,
When glory, like the dazzling eagle, stood,
Perched on my beaver in the Granick flood;
When Fortune's self my standard trembling bore,
And the pale Fates stood frighted on the shore,
When the immortals on the billows rode,
And I myself appeared the leading god.

Aris. But all the honours, which your youth

has won,

Are lost, unless you fly from Babylon;
Haste with your chiefs, to Susa take your way,
Fly for your life, destructive is your stay.
This morning having viewed the angry sky,
And marked the prodigies, that threatened high,
To our bright God I did for succour fly ;·
But oh-

Alex. What fears thy reverend bosom shake?
Or dost thou from some dream of horror wake?
If so, come grasp me with thy shaking hand,
Or fall behind, while I the danger stand.

Aris. To Orosmades' cave I did repair, Where I atoned the dreadful God with prayer: But as I prayed I heard long groans within, And shrieks as of the damned, that howl for sin: I knew the omen, and I feared to stay, But prostrate on the trembling pavement lay. When he bodes happiness, he answers mild; "Twas so of old, and the great image smiled: But now in abrupt thunder he replied, Loud as rent rocks, or roaring seas, he cried, ་ All empires, crowns, glory of Babylon, Whose head stands wrapped in clouds, must tumble down.'

Alex. If Babylon must fall, what is't to me? Or can I help immutable decree?

Down then, vast frame, with all thy lofty towers,

Since 'tis so ordered by almighty powers: Pressed by the fates, unloose your golden bars, 'Tis great to fall, the envy of the stars.

Enter PERDICCAS, MELEAGER.

Mel. O horror!

Per. Dire portents!

Alex. Out with them, then;

What, are ye ghosts, ye empty shapes of men?
If so, the mysteries of hell unfold,
Be all the scrolls of destiny unrolled,
Open the brazen leaves, and let it come;

Point with a thunder-bolt your monarch's doom.
Per. As Meleager and myself in field,
Your Persian horse about the army wheeled,
We heard a noise as of a rushing wind,
And a thick storm the eye of day did blind:
A croaking noise resounded through the air,
We looked, and saw big ravens battling there;
Each bird of night appeared himself a cloud,
They met and fought, and their wounds rained
black blood.

Mel. All, as for honour, did their lives expose; Their talons clashed, and beaks gave mighty blows,

Whilst dreadful sounds did our scared sense assail,
As of small thunder, or huge Scythian hail.
Per. Our augurs shook, when, with a horrid

groan,

We thought that all the clouds had tumbled down.
Soldiers and chiefs,-who can the wonder tell!
Struck to the ground, promiscuously fell;
While the dark birds, each ponderous as a shield,
For fifty furlongs hid the fatal field.

Alex. Be witness for me, all ye powers divine,
If ye be angry, 'tis no fault of mine;
Therefore let furies face me with a band
From hell, my virtue shall not make a stand;
Though all the curtains of the sky be drawn,
And the stars wink, young Ammon shall go on:
While my Statira shines, I cannot stay,
Love lifts his torch to light me on my way,
And her bright eyes create another day.

Lys. Ere you remove, be pleased, dread sir, to

hear

A prince allied to you by blood.

Alex. Speak quickly.

Lys. For all that I have done for you in war, I beg the princess Parisatis.

Alex. Ha!

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Would the gods themselves, should they command.

Alex. You should, brave sir? hear me, and thes

be dumb!

When by my order curst Calisthenes

Was, as a traitor, doomed to live in torments,
Your pity sped him in despite of me.
Think not I have forgot your insolence;
No, though I pardoned it, yet if again
Thou darest to cross me with another crime,
The bolts of fury shall be doubled on thee.
In the mean time think not of Parisatis;
For if thou dost, by Jupiter Ammon,
By my own head, and by king Philip's soul,
I'll not respect that blood of mine thou sharest,
But use thee as the vilest Macedonian.

Lys. I doubted not at first but I should meet
Your indignation, yet my soul's resolved;
And I shall never quit so brave a prize,
While I can draw a bow, or lift a sword.

Alex. Against my life! Ah! was it so? how
now?

'Tis said, that I am rash, of hasty humour;
But I appeal to the immortal gods,
If ever petty poor provincial lord
Had temper like to mine: My slave, whom I
Could tread to clay, dares utter bloody threats!
Cly. Contain yourself, dread sir; the noble

prince,

I see it in his countenance, would die
To justify his truth; but love makes many faults.
Lys. I meant his minion there should feel my

arm;

Love asks his blood, nor shall he live to laugh At my destruction.

Alex. Now be thy own judge;

I pardon thee for my old Clytus' sake;
But, if once more thou mention thy rash love,
Or darest attempt Hephestion's precious life,
I'll pour such storms of indignation on thee,
Philotus' rack, Calisthenes' disgrace,

Shall be delight to what thou shalt endure.

Enter SYSIGAMBIS, PARISATIS.
Heph. My lord, the queen comes to congratu-
late
Your safe arrival.

Aler. O thou the best of women,
Source of my joy, blest parent of my love!

Sys. Permit me kneel, and give those adorations,

Which from the Persian family are due:
Have you not raised us, from our ruins, high?
And when no hand could help, nor any eye
Behold us with a tear, your's pitied me;
You, like a god, snatched us from sorrow's gulf,
Fixed us in thrones above our former state.

Par. Which, when a soul forgets, advanced so nobly,

May it be drowned in deeper misery!

Alex. To meet me thus, was generously done; But still there wants, to crown my happiness, Life of my empire, treasure of my soul, My dear Statira: O that heavenly beam,

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