ISAAC

LEt the world feel thee, and those Demigods, Proud with the name of Kings, debase themselves To honour thee, this Crown commands as much Wherewith I do invest thy happy brow, Happy indeed if that succeeding times Shall set up virtue, so to lessen crimes. Thus from the ashes of dead Solyman Is raised another Phoenix great Corcutus; Live equally adored, when Princes bend To better courses, all their subjects mend. Death, and the furies plunge the obsequious laues, Would he have joined with us? we would have kept Corcutus high, and honoured, where he sits In spite of a whole host of Baiazets. Zemes is valiant, and Armenia strong, Here's Bajazet, he must beware the wrong. My Liege, you have forgotten Archmetes ath, In which he vowed never to draw his sword In your defence. Tush, for we makes men fools, Isaac be wise, Shake off the tender fetters of remorse, And hug that chance, that opens thee the way To ruinate Achmetes: did he stand On terms of conscience, neighbourhood or love, When he cashiered my daughter from his house, And to the world's broad eye, opened her crime? No: he was swift and bitter in his hate, And so will I, he is but now returned In Triumph from the field, as full of pride As I of envy, hence I'll ground my hate. When fierce Bellona smiled on Bajazet, Amid the fiery tumults of the War, She offered Zemes to Achmetes hand, They fought, Achmetes conquered at his foot, Fell the proud rebel, wounded, but not slain, There might Achmetes with a blow of death Cut off our fears, continued in his breath: This shall incense the angry Emperor, And crush Achmetes in his fairest Hope's. True politicians work by others hands, So I will by the Prince, my plot stands firm: See where he comes, now sly Mercurius, whet My tongue, to kindle hate in Bajazet, Well by your guard, and he hath sent us now, All to invite your presence to a feast, We must be frolic, and this following night, Shall Crown your joy with revels and delight, Or else deprive thy soul of that good light. Pursue the project. Good health to Bajazet. Use your best patience it may be regained. Affection in your stubborn multitude Is a prove torrent not to be withstood. Were you as sacred as their household gods, Yet when you thwart the current of their will, They'le break the bans of duty, and profane That holiness to which they bound their thoughts. Mine eyes are witness with what lively joy They boar him through the streets upon their necks, Offering the use of their best strength. Mine is a blunt advice, and deep in blood To cut off those base Peasants that withstood The force of your decree. Here lies the safest course, to rid these griefs Give out, you'll go to war, so to enlarge your territories, And to this end fetch home, Those warlike Soldiers placed in Garrison. Let them remain without the walls; at last, When things shall fit your purpose, lead them all By night into the City, and in one stroke Strike off so many thousand perjured heads, As shall amaze posterity to hear, How many lives redeemed thee from thy fear. But of indeed! As bade A stroke attends thee as thy Father had Princes suspicion is a flame of fire, Exhaled first from our manners, and by desire Of rule is nourished, fed, and rores about Till the whole matter die, and then goes out. I go; and could It stand with mine allegiance, sure I should Employ my service to a better end, Then to disrobe the Court of such a friend. We are prevented; see the fates command False deeds, must die though by the Actors hand. Return to Bajazet, and bear that corpses. So now I am alone, nor needs I fear To breath my thoughts out to the silent air; My conscience will not hear me, that being deaf I may joy freely: first thy hated breath Achmetes vanished, next Caigub fell, Thus we climb Thrones, while they drop down to hell. The glorious eye of the all-seeing sun, Shall not behold (when all our plots are done) A greater Prince then Selymus; it's he Must share with Jove and equal Majesty. But for my self his Engineer I'll stand Above mortality, and with a hand Of power, dash all beneath me into dust, If they but cross the current of my lust. What I but speak, it's Oracle and Law, Thus I will rule and keep the world in awe. Happy Selymus. No more: I will; And Empire be our Hope's; that to obtain We'll watch, plot, fight, sweat, and be cold again. Unwelcome news. Then thus. Young Selymus is fled. Fled this night to the Tartarian King. By heaven I am not. I know not. Great Mahomet hath kept you safe from harm, It never touched you. Untouched as yet; His quaking hand deceived him of his aim, And he quite missed your body, here behold The bullet yet unstained with blood. As our alleagea ce binds us we'll obey. But what we grant, the Soldiers will gainsay. Thou shalt not thrive in this: I dare be bold My golden hooks have taken a faster hold. And this: fly, let thy winged speed Return a sudden answer, Ely we bleed. Peace, it's too late to chide at what is done, We have so deeply waded in the streams Of those procellous plots, nor can revoke Repentant footsteps, or securely creep Back to the Throne of safety, it's now good To venture on, and swim quite through the flood. Here comes the Emperou . Dejected Cowards: are you not ashamed Thus to give up the goal of dignity To heartless fear? Here comes the Messenger. What news from Selymus? Force out one nail with tother of these two, Choose him you most affect, and best dare trust, Allure him fairly home, wink at his crimes, And then create him you high General, To lead against his brother, since your self Cannot at once oppress two foes so stout Try if one heat can driven another out. Good news to Selym S. From Bajazet. And full as good as strange March quickly hence. I'll tell you as we walk; if constant Chance Smile on our project ever this Sun go down, We may salute you with a glorious Crown. Practice your skill. Would. Hast thou betrayed us so? What use? Me Emperor? Thy counsel's good. I would not let slip this sweet occasion, For all the precious plenty of the world. Come let's away. Stay— It's no less, Sir witness this, Traitor I'm slain. Darest thou oppose his greatness? is not Gr Already wracked enough? have thy proved Towers Reared up their lofty spires? which steeped in blood, Threw a reflex of read back to the clouds, And blush' at their own ruins, are thy crude wounds Already stopped, and is that day forgotten, In which the Turkish Mavors Ott man, Wielded a sword of death within thy Walls? Charon grew weary with hurrying souls to ell, When threescore thousand Greeks in one day fell. What? Oh Zemes? Yes I know Matter of weight, such as concern thy life. But you must hear. Your brother Zemes, when swift winged Fame Told him your father Mahomet was dead, Flew quickly hither first to celebrate His funeral pomp, then to assume his State, His Crown, and Sceptre: which he rightly knew, Unto your hand, and head, both to be endue. But when applausive joys, and peals of mirth, Sounded loud Mosique in his troubled ears, Of you enthroned; then he began too late To brawl at heaven, and wrangle with his Fate. So he went hence and cried; revenge be mine: Quake thou great City of proud Constantine At my fierce anger, when I next return, With clouds of misty powder, I shall choke Thy breath, and dull thy beauty with it's smoke. This posted he hence to Armenia's King, There to implore his aid, which he will bring To front thy power: nor does he yet despair, To dispossess, and fright thee from thy chair. Then I'll go. We had, yet could not the event, Lie so concealed, but Isaac found it out, Which when I first discovered, straight it wrought Tempests of passion in me, joy and grief Reigned at one instant in the self same breast. As thus. I joyed that Zemes fell, Was sorry he escaped. Beneath Achmetes feet the traitor fell. Thus it might be, and was so: when sad death Was glutted with the ruin of each side, When slaughtering Mars had stained the field with blood, And cast a purple colour over the earth, At length some milder providence desired, And end of those hight tumults that were seen, To last in Zemes breath; so that their fire Would be extinct, when Zemes should expire Then from the middle skirmish forth were brought He and Achmetes, being met they fought, Zemes was vanquished by a violent blow, Which struck him trembling lower then his knees Now whither flattering, or present gifts Redeemed him from his fate I cannot show Something they plotted, what, none yet can know. Thus you may, He being come from Z mes overthrow, And yet lukewarm in blood, and full of joy, You may in way of honour and free mind, Call him this night to banquet, then being see , When the hight spirits of caroused healths, Have spoiled his wit of smooth and painted tales, And wine unlocked the passage for the truth, Bid him relate the manner of his war, The chances and events; then when he comes To Zemes, if he err about his light, His ends are bade, his bosom black as night. I shall: would not a private warning serve But open penance must correct my child, And a severe divorcem nt Q item degrade Her oh her honoured Matrimonial rights? Were he as strong, as steel-like jointed Mars, As much applauded through our popular streets, As erst Dictator F bius was in Room, Or great Augustus, yet the slave should feel The wrath of and inflamed father light Heavy upon his soul, and that e'r the next sun Appear, Achmetes all thy glory's done. Never to return more, Jove split me with his thunder, if my breast Harbour one bade thought, when this draught is passed. And so I greet thy son? health to Caigubus. He's gone already, I have sent him hence. Let not conceit thus steal away your life. Let your high sp rit shrink below it self In a diss mbled she of penitence. Not Cherseogles villain, whom then? speak. What blessed angel art thou? True, they'le not endure my Sovereignty. Hast no sudden wits how to remove them both? I am thine: I hate to have copartners in my state: There shall not breath a man whose envious eye Dares look a squint on my dread Majesty. Great Sir, most happily, The Bassa's murmur at Achmetes wrong: Seize on their wavering love, their breasts are open, To him that first will enter ther's free scope; Drop down thy frank affection in their hands, To bribe is lawful, and it's strongly proved By good examples, Otho never was loved, Till he had bought the soldiers, that once done, Gall a grew out of fashion so must we Addict them to us by a gainful fee: Give freely, and speak fairly I'll be gone Stay, here, the Bassae will be here anon. Even the man you wished; What did the golden work good effect? And make the Bassa's stoop unto your mind? I shall. Awake preventions eyes, we must not sleep If we would see proud Bajazet displaced, And Selymus elated to his height. Name him the people favours;—heeaffects Achomates: and knows the multitude Wrapped with his heavenly wisdom, cry for him, We must be quick and wary, here are keys Left, and laid up by Selym S, that store Shall visit empty purses, and inchant The needy sort of men, that the ones wealth, Shall weigh up 'tothers wisdom in the scale Of their light judgement; lend your best endeavors We'll cross thee Bajazet, and thy Hope's shall die By thine own ill-contriued policy. Lift up your downcast spirits—who comes here? Good Mes these It's nothing so: they say Disdaining to be mocked out of his Hope's, And most desired possession of the Crown, Ha in contempt of Bajazet and all, Slain the Ambassador, and vows revenge On every guilty agent in his wrong. We greet you friends, And your sad spectacle. And so it shall; lay down the injured corpse. Achomates ha wronged his Father's love, To grossly, in the murder even of him That boar his sacred person, and should stand Inviolably honoured by the law Of men and nations, But here comes Bajazet. Sir, your intrusion is unseasonable. Achomates and Selymus? Fate to your lives. See more Harpies gathered to catch a Crown, Oh 'tis a charming bait. A subtle trick And well pretended, I admire thy wit. Not yet rid from our wars? Fair Prince take heed, Treason's a Raze that must be run with speed: Aelus beckons, and the flattering winds Join all to help our project: quickly hence: All's full of worser nger. Did your Father know Hee'd stop your flight, and breath at one death's blow. After our strict enquiry, 'twas our chance To light on one that saw him take a ship, At the next haven. My Liege hold in your fury: spend not one drop Of your fierce anger, on so base a worm, Keep it entire and whole, within your breast, That with it's vigor it may crush the bulk Of him whose treasons move it. Hear me Sir, You are not wounded. Mahometes disguised. I am thine, And come to finish up our great design. Joy to my Liege, of his last victory. Fame in mine ear never blabbed a sweeter tale, This shall redeem our low dejected Hope's, To their full height. no more; be it my charge, To chase out the event—whats this comes here? First weigh their f ults, the one a brainsick youth, Endeavoured to supplant your Majesty, The other in defiance, and contempt, Of God and man profaned the holy rights Of and Ambassador. How ( Mesithes ) we're blessed. Easily thus: our laws allow a custom, Not used of late, yet firm still in effect, And thus it is; when there does breath a man, Direfully hated of the Emperor, And he in strict severity of right Cannot proceed against him, then he may Oh ewhelme him in a robe of mourning black, Which we have called eaths mantle, that thing done, The man thus v ed, is for et ed to fate, And a devoted sacrifice to him Whom he had er' to offend , neither can Strength or intr atie, w est him from his death, Both which are treason, and inexpiable. Thus then you may procee e, when banquets done, And all their comic merrim nt run on To the last scene, and every man expects A solemn gift, endue to Achmetes worth, Call for a robe therewith to deck your friend, And perfect all his glory, let that be This robe of fate, in which ready at hand, You may entomb the traitor, and bewrap His pampered body in a veil of death, So let him die, dream not on the event, Vice is rewarded in it's punishment. Divorced my Daughter? found and insolent man, I'll crush thee into nothing, if I can Endure the noise of my disgrace I know How to return it; I am a flame of fire, A chafing heat distempers all my blood. Achmetes thou must cool it, when thy limbs Are emptied of that moisture they suck in, And thy stained blood enchanted from thy veins, Then shall I be appeased, mean while I live Thy mortal foe: But stay, let me contain Mine anger undiscovered. Friend how is't? My honoured Liege, Bear your best care about you; it's a time Of double danger, but remove the one, The other straight called forward, Sely S Great in the favour of Tartaria's King, Is maned afresh with soldiers; his assault Threatens as much as fierce , And must be born off with your ablest forces, Then if you leave the City to subdue, One of these two, expect ever you return Tother possessed, and seated on your throne. Mustapha I'll tell you Had not my daughter been espoused to him, I had named his death, and by some plot Worked him a quick destruction long e'r this; Now let us temporize with Bajazet; Yet keep thy nature ever, and be true To thine own profit; Fortune may advance Some other Prince, worth both thy love and mine. Enough, I will not—happy Selymus. And I admire it, ' were a miracle If that ambitious boy intend no harm. It's done at twelve a clock. Fortune's best care go with thee. Again in heart? Let's follow Bajazet, come lads away, The sun of all his glory sets this day. 'Tis strange and full of fear. The plot has took.