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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 monu-

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

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Phil. Dead. Christ. Dead.

Phil. Starv'd.

Christ. Stary'd.

Ith. Me miserable!

Org. Tell us,

How parted she from life?

Phil. She called for music,

And begg'd some gentle voice to tune a farewell

To life and griefs: Christalla touched the lute; I wept the funeral song.

Christ. Which scarce was ended,

But her last breath sealed up these hollow sounds:
“Oh cruel Ithocles, and injured Orgilus !"
So down she drew her veil, so died.
Ith. So died!

Org. Up! you are messengers of death: go from us; [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,

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Safety, with best success: oh 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.

ACT V.

For here in Sparta, there's not left amongst us SCENE I.—A Room in the House of BASSANES. One wise man to direct; we're all turn'd mad

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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,

Enter ORGILUS.

Org. Honour
Attend thy counsels ever.

Bass. I beseech thee,

With all my heart, let me go from thee quietly;
I will not aught to do with thee, of all men.
The doublers of a hare, or in a morning
Salutes from a splay-footed witch, to drop
Three drops of blood at th' nose just, and no more,
Croaking of ravens, or the screech of owls,
Are not so boding mischief as thy crossing
My private meditations: shun me, pr'ythee:
And if I cannot love thee heartily,

I'll love thee as well as I can.

Org. Noble Bassanes,

Mislike me not..

Bass. Phew! then we shall be troubled: Thou wert ordain'd my plague; Heaven make me thankful!

And give me patience too, Heaven, I beseech thee!
Org. Accept a league of amity; for henceforth,
I vow, by my best genius, in a syllable
Never to speak vexation: I will study
Service and friendship, with a zealous sorrow
For my past incivility towards ye.

Bass. Heyday! good words, good words?-I must believe 'em,

And be a coxcomb for my labour.
Org. Use not

So hard a language: your misdoubt is causeless:
For instance, if you promise to put on
A constancy of patience; such a patience
As chronicle or history ne'er mentioned,
As follows not example, but shall stand
A wonder and a theme for imitation,
The first, the index pointing to a second,
I will acquaint ye with an unmatch'd secret,
Whose knowledge to your griefs shall set a period.
Bass. Thou canst not, Orgilus ; 'tis in the power
Of the gods only: yet for satisfaction,
Because I note an earnest in thine utterance,
Unforc'd and naturally free, be resolute;
The virgin-bays shall not withstand the lightning
With a more careless danger, than my constancy
The full of thy relation. Could it move
Distraction in a senseless marble statue,
It should find me a rock. I do expect now
Some truth of unheard moment.

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Intrusted to my courtship. Be not jealous, Euphranea; I shall scarcely prove a temptress.Fall to our dance!

[Music. NEARCHUS dances with EUPHRANEA, PROPHILUS with CALANTHA, CHRISTALLA with HEMOPHIL, PHILEMA with GRONEAS. They dance the first change. During which enter ARMOSTES.

Arm. [In a whisper to CALANTHA.] The king your father's dead.

Cal. To the other change!
Arm. Is't possible!

Another Dance. Enter Bassanes.

Bass. [In a whisper to CALANTHA.] Oh, madam,

Penthea, poor Penthea's starved.
Cal. Beshrew thee!-

Lead to the next!

Bass. Amazement dulls my senses.

Another Dance. Enter ORGILUS. Org. Brave Ithocles is murder'd, murder'd cruelly. [Aside to CALANTHA. Cal. How dull this music sounds! Strike up more sprightly:

Our footings are not active like our heart,
Which treads the nimbler measure.
Org. I am thunderstruck.

The last Change. Music ceases.

Cal. So let us breathe awhile.-Hath not this

:

motion

Rais'd fresher colours on our cheeks?

Near. Sweet princess,

A perfect purity of blood enamels
The beauty of your white.

Cal. We all look cheerfully:

[Exeunt. And, cousin, 'tis, methinks, a rare presumption In any who prefers our lawful pleasures

Before their own sour censure, to interrupt

The custom of this ceremony bluntly.
Near. None dares, lady.

Cal. Yes, yes; some hollow voice deliver❜d to

me

How that the king was dead.

Arm. The king is dead:

That fatal news was mine; for in mine arms

He breath'd his last, and, with his crown, bequeath'd ye

Your mother's wedding-ring, which here I tender. Crot. Most strange!

Cal. Peace crown his ashes! We are queen then.

Near. Long live Calantha, Sparta's sovereign queen!

All. Long live the queen!

Cal. What whispered Bassanes?

Bass. That my Penthea, miserable soul, Was starved to death.

Cal. She's happy: she hath finish'd

A long and painful progress.-A third murmur Pierced mine unwilling ears.

Org. That Ithocles

Was murthered, rather butchered, had not bra

very

Of an undaunted spirit, conquering terror,
Proclaimed his last act triumph over ruin,
Arm. How? murther'd?

Cal. By whose hand?

Org. By mine; this weapon

Was instrument to my revenge: the reasons

Are just and known: quit him of these, and then
Never lived gentleman of greater merit,

Hope or abiliment to steer a kingdom.
Crot. Fye, Orgilus !

Euph. Fye, brother!
Cal. You have done it?

Bass. How it was done, let him report, the for-
feit

Of whose allegiance to our laws doth covet
Rigour of justice; but, that done it is,
Mine eyes have been an evidence of credit
Too sure to be convinc'd. Armostes, rent not
Thine arteries with hearing the bare circumstances
Of these calamities: thou'st lost a nephew,
A niece, and I a wife: continue man still;
Make me the pattern of digesting evils,
Who can outlive my mighty ones, not shrinking
At such a pressure as would sink a soul
Into what's most of death, the worst of horrors:
But I have sealed a covenant with sadness,
And enter'd into bonds without condition,
To stand these tempests calmly. Mark me, nobles,
I do not shed a tear, not for Penthea.
Excellent misery!

Cal. We begin our reign
With a first act of justice. Thy confession,
Unhappy Orgilus, dooms thee a sentence;
But yet thy father's or thy sister's presence
Shall be excus'd. Give, Crotolon, a blessing
To thy lost son: Euphranea, take a farewell,
And both be gone.

Crot. [To ORGILUS.] Confirm thee, noble

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[Exeunt CROTOLON, PROPHILUS, and
EUPHRANEA.

Bloody relater of thy stains in blood,
For that thou hast reported him, whose fortunes
And life by thee are both at once snatch'd from
him,

With honourable mention, make thy choice
Of what death likes thee best; there's all our
bounty:

But, to excuse delays, let me, dear cousin,
Intreat you
and these lords see execution
Instant before ye part.

Near. Your will commands us.

Org. One suit, just queen, my last: vouchsafe your clemency,

That by no common hand I be divided
From this my humble frailty.

Cal. To their wisdoms,

Who are to be spectators of thine end,

I make the reference: those that are dead,
Are dead; had they not now died of necessity,
They must have paid the debt they owed to nature,
One time or other.-Use dispatch, my lords,
We'll suddenly prepare our coronation.

[Exeunt CALANTHA, PHILEMA, and
CHRISTALLA.

Arm. 'Tis strange these tragedies should never touch on

Her female pity.

Bass. She has a masculine spirit:
And wherefore should I pule, and, like a girl,
Put finger in the eye? let's be all toughness,
Without distinction betwixt sex and sex.

Near. Now, Orgilus, thy choice.
Org. To bleed to death.
Arm. The executioner?
Org. Myself: no surgeon.

I am well skill'd in letting blood: bind fast
This arm, that so the pipes may from their con
duits

Convey a full stream: here's a skilful instrument,
Only I am a beggar to some charity
To speed me in this execution,

By lending th' other prick to th' other arm,
When this is bubbling life out.

Bass. I am for ye.

It most concerns my art, my care, my credit.
Quick fillet both his arms.

[The arms of ORGILUS are bared, and
pieces of tape tied round the elbows.
He receives a stick in each arm.

Org. Gramercy, friendship

Such courtesies are real, which flow chearfully
Without an expectation of requital.
Reach me a staff in this hand: If a proneness
Or custom in my nature, from my cradle,
Had been inclined to fierce and eager bloodshed,
A coward guilt, hid in a coward quaking,
Would have betrayed fame to ignoble flight,

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they place him on the one side of the altar. After him enter CALANTHA, in a white robe, and crowned; EUPHRANEA, PHILEMA and CHRISTALLA, in white; NEARCHUS, ARMOSTES, CROTOLON, Prophilus, Amelus, BasSANES, HEMOPHIL, and Groneas. Calantha goes and kneels before the altar, the women kneeling behind her; the rest stand off. The Recorders cease during her devotions. Soft music-CALANTHA and the rest rise, doing obeisance to the altur.

Cal. Our orisons are heard; the gods are merciful.

Now tell me, you, whose loyalties pay tribute
To us your lawful sovereign, how unskilful
Your duties or obedience is to render
Subjection to the scepter of a virgin,
Who have been ever fortunate in princes
Of masculine and stirring composition?
A woman has enough to govern wisely
Her own demeanours, passions and divisions.
A nation, warlike and inur'd to practice
Of policy and labour, cannot brook

A feminate authority: we therefore
Command your counsel, how you may advise us
In choosing of a husband, whose abilities
Can better guide this kingdom.

Near. Royal lady,

Your law is in your will.

Arm. We have seen tokens

Of constancy too lately to mistrust it.

Crot. Yet, if your highness settle on a choice, By your own judgment both allow'd and lik'd of,Sparta may grow in power, and proceed To an increasing height.

Cal. Hold you the same mind?

Bass. Alas, great mistress, reason is so clouded
With the thick darkness of my infinite woes,
That I forecast nor dangers, hopes, or safety.
Give me some corner of the world to wear out
The remnant of the minutes I must number,
"Where I may hear no sounds, but sad complaints
Of virgins, who have lost contracted partners;
Of husbands howling that their wives were ra-
vished.

By some untimely fate; of friends divided
By churlish opposition; or of fathers
Weeping upon their children's slaughtered car-

cases;

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