SELIMUS

Am I so poor in worth? still kept so low? Was I egot only to live and die, To fill a place, move idly to and from Like other naturals? unmanly life, The world shall take more notice of my fame, Else will I with the venomed sting of war, Deface the beauty, of the universe. Po teritie shall know, once there did breath A Selymus, a mortal diety, A man at whose blessed birth the planets smiled, And spent their influence to create a boy, As brave as Greece e'r hatched, or Room, or Troy. Here's Isaac Bassa, he's already mine, He courts my father, but intends for me, And furthers all my counsels; Noble friend How stand our Hope's? Continuance to your health Sir. But to deserve your kindness, and avoid The hated censure of ingratitude, So: things run well along, and now I find Io e hears my prayers, and the gods grow kind. Now the storms are passed. Now to my lot, I thought 'twould never a fell, Noble assistant. It's thou must make me so, for should I stay Waiting my Father's pleasure, I might stand Gazing with envy at my Brother's pride, My self lying prostrate, even beneath their feet. Towns, Cities, Countries, and what ere so ever Can give high thoughts content, are freely theirs, I only Like a spend thrift of my years Idle my time away, as if some God Had razed my name out of the roll of Kings, Which if he have, then Isaac be thy hand As great as his, to print it in again Though Bajazet say nay. Let not my absence steal away my love, Or local distance weaken the respect Which you have ever born me: I must fly To shake the yoke of bondage from my neck: My Father's eyes shall not scan out my life In every Actium; then when I am gone, Our love Like precious mettle shall not crack In the protraction, but be gently framed Into a subtler thinness, which shall reach From either partly, not crazed by any breach. We trust you: if there lie unspoken love Hid in your bosoms? we must bury it In silent Farewells. So the swift wings of flight shall mount me up Above these walls into the open air, And I will tower above thee Bajazet. Farewell soft Court; I have been kept too long Within thy narrow walls, and am new born To golden liberty; now stretch out you heavens, Spread forth the dewy mantle of the clouds Thou powerful Sun of Saturn, and remove The terminating Poles of the fixed earth To entertain me in my second birth. Friend I am gone: thou hoary God of Seas, Smooth the rough bosom of thy wrinkled tide, That my winged Boat may gently on it glide. Farewell; now I will meet thee Bajazet With a career as free as if Heavens Jove Had bid me go: bespeak the stoutest gods To take thy partly; tell them that thou must meet A Sely , who when the wars are done, Will scale the Forts and Castles of the Sun, Break up the brazen gates of Acheron, And bury Nature with the world together. Captains lead on; Now shall the sword and fire By public ruins crown my joust desire. Sleep H ngary, I'll not break off thy rest With the unwelcome Music of my Drums; I'll turn the edge of my revengeful sword Upon the bosom of my native soil; There dwells the motive of my Tragic wars, Whose ruthless sad Catastrophe shall wound Posterity in us: Infants shall mourn Over their Fathers' tombs as yet unborn. But who comes here? I'll meet him. Noble Vize-roy. Health, but not peace, while yonder light can see Mortals, whom Turkish force could never subdue. Would: I am vilely non-plust. Courteous Vize-roy Return our duty back to Bajazet, Even in the humblest terms wit can invent, Tell him would h a son of that high spirit, As does detest a cowardly retreat. Were all the dead Heroes of our foes All that are now, and all that are to come Met in one age, I'de face them drum to drum. Bid our deer Father be secure of me And my proceedings: then true valour shines Most bright, when busied in the greatest designs. Is not this answer fair? And so it shall: sage Vize-roy I obey, And reverence his counsel more, then fear And host of armed foes: tell him I'll come To his Court gates with neither man nor drum. Remember my just duty: it's no matter, I will retain that till I come my self. I am not out-reach'd yet by all these tricks, My Hope's are farther strong, I'll to the Court With a close march, in no submissive sort, And steal upon them: Instantly I go To meet my Fa h r, but a subtle foe. Those good Trinm v I what is't they, speak? Come on the honoured youth of Tartary, My brother's and joint sharers of my woe, Draw forth the weapons of inflamed revenge, Against this horrid monsters Tyranny; I eeme Like Rome's great Caesar, when oppressed With Pompey's grating malice he led forth His noble Frenchmen through the snowy Alps, I have my Curio Isaacke in the Court, And Cherseogles Like grim Cato's ghost, Sooths the rough humour of fierce Bajazet, These men's examples, were we faint and loath 1 page duplicate 1 page duplicate Would set sharp spurs unto ourslow paced wrath, And whet our dull-eged anger but I see In your smooth brow perfect alacrity; We stand to thwart the passage of a fiend, Through whose wide yawning throat hath coasted down. The blood of Princes, in continual streams, Ha fed and pampered up his appetite With the abhorred destruction of his own, And glutted on the blood of jnnocents. Stood we Like marble statues in his way, And had no use of policy and wit, Our Ireful Prophet Mahomet would send Sense, life, and valour through our stony joints, That we might ruinate this ghastly boar, Made by some hellish fury to confound The order of this wondered Universe. I'll grapple with the monster, he's at hand, If you stand firm the Common Wealth may be, A slave to Bajazet, but I'll live free. Bajazet? Dare I be eal'd a King? Dare I unsheath my sword, or gather might? If I dare ought of these, I dare to fight. Once more (in hope to gain, and fear to loose A Crown and Kingdom) we have marched thus near The seat of a dread Emperor, to try The chance of war, or resolutely die. Fear no cross blow, for with this hand I mou The wheel of Fate: and each success shall run Even with our pleasures, till our Hope's are spun Up to their full perfection, this days light That looks so cheerfully, shall see as bright As it, my crown and glory. What stranger's this? my blessed Genius haunts me. Isaac I take thee in with open love. What speaks they Presence? From whom? It's strange if good. I follow even to death. Grand M rs to thee I'll built and Altar if thou prosper me. Tush I can bow, as if my joints were old, And tumble at his feet. Right noble Father, Mine expedition to avenge your cause Upon the head of proud Achomates, Be my joust trial. We fly to the performance; who both dare And will correct his boldness: now we tread The path to honour, and me thinks I hear The peoples Viva, Echo in mine ear. Father? What furious Baiaz to, and raging hight? I hug the amorous pleasure that I feel Creep through y joints: observe our Father, Else by some wilful murder he'll prevent My purposed project, I'de not lose the gilded Of his destruction for a crown: heaven knows I love him better then to let him dig Himself a graven, while I may take the pains. Now mount my soul, and let my soaring plumes Brush the smooth surface of the Azure sky. With this I charm obeyfance from the world: Thou golden counterfeit of all the heavens: See how the shining stars in car l sse ranks Grace the composure; and the beauteous Moon Holds her irregular motion at the height Of the four poles; this is a complete heaven, And thus I wear it: but me thinks it's fixed But weakly on my brow, while there yet breath Any whose envy once reflect on it, And those are three: the angry Bajazet, Puling Corcutus, proud Achomates: One of these three is cared for, that's Corcutus Who ere the blushing morn salutes the Sun, Shall be dispatched by two most hideous slaves, Whom I have bred a purpose to the fact: The other rival, wise Achomates, I'll bear aside by force of men and arms, Which ready Mustered, but attend the stroke, Then attend our Father's. Here's one deals for him, Shall send him quick to hell. It is decreed. He that makes lesser greatness soon shall bleed, Hamon draw near, most welcome my deer Hamon, What guess of your patient Bajazet? Is he all healthful? A sad case. Hamon I love him, and would rid him from't. Were I so skill ed in naturals as you. Unapprehending fool: I must speak broader. Hamon is he ill In mind and body both? Then should I think him happier in his death, Then in so hateful life and so weak breath. (Has found me now) but Hamon can thy Art Reach to the cure? Then let it. Walk, and thy pains, Shall be rewarded highly, with the Like As thou bestowest on Bajazet: the Court Makes it a fashion now first to bring the event About, and then hang up the instrument. What? A soldier thus licentious in his walks, A stranger? Would? What art thou? Then return Back into thy ranks and order, no edict From me hath ratified this liberty, To scout at random from the standing camp. How's that? The ruin of our enemies? Then thou art a traitor? Thou Queen of shades; Bright Cynthia, and you starry lamps of heaven, What sphere hath told you? o you're envious all, And therefore hate to grace the time, in which I ruinate my latest foe; this is the sand On which I am to wrestle for a Crown, And I am entered full of greedy lust, To m et my adverse champion; here's my God, Whom I adore with greater confidence Then all those beauty's, Sun, or Moon, or Stars That with malicious absence have disrobed, This gracious hour of i'ts endue respect. O thou the silent darkness of the night, Arm me with desperate courage and contempt, Of gods—loved men, now I applaud the guile, Of our brave roarers which select this time, To drink and swagger, and spurn at all the powers Of either world, blessed mortals, had that mother Strangled her other infant, white faced day, And brought forth only night, my limbs are stiff, And I must both them in my brother's blood, I'll steep this grass in a read purple gore, Scatter the carcase piecemeal, and that done I'll rear a lasting monument, I'll sign A trophy, which inscribed, shall speak my deed To after ages, that's my chief intent, He's coldly praised that's written innocent; Whose there? my soldier? I have the Crown, and I will, O, o, o. Indeed we may be thought upon in time, When there be Countries more then there be men, We may get some preferment: fit at home And prove good boys, and please our father well. My thoughts are two unbridled, Bajazet, I neither can, nor will endure thy curb, My compressed valour Like a strangled fire. Breaks out in violent flames, and I must rule. Trizham and Mahomet are slipped in hast Each to their several Province, we must stay, That are their Elders for another day; This Court will prove our scaffold where we stand Placed in the eye of angry Bajazet: Who thwarts him in his fury is but dead, And in that passio S heat, off goes his head. I must not line thus. I than ke you brother, then belike some crimes Lie heavy on my conscience, and I fear, Unless I shift my station, it'll be known; You think well of me kind Mahometes. Can I apply them then unto my self? Am I so lose in manners? by heaven and earth, Thou shalt repent this deeply. Straight I will follow you. Away found wretches, o that every breast Were of so dull a temper as you two. But who come's here? Brother Corcutus whither are you bent What from the Court so soon? You go to rule there? I am the last be prodigallin wine, Fill up my bowl with Nectar, let it rise Above the goblets side, and may it Like A swelling Ocean flow above the banks, I will exhaust it greedily, it's my endue. I shall observe thy precepts, Mesithes welcome, How fare you in these days of discontent? My duty bids me ask, and wish you well; I have been long a barren debtor to you, At length I may prove thankful: wear my love, It's yours without refusal, a sleight gift, Yet your looks tells me, it'll help out my drift. Your kind acceptance of that recompense, Binds me more strictly to you. So one hath took, see where another comes: All health to Mustapha. Command my pardon, and commend my lo e To thy bright daughter: tell her I admire Her virtuous perfection; let that chain Make me remembered often in her mind. No Cynic compliment, good Mustapha. Health follow you, And honour me; here is a third at hand. Yes, thus far Spend me that purse of gold. Words are but empty shadows, but if deeds Answer their words, we cannot doubt their faith, They stoop beneath my feet, I seem to be As true as Jove, but sly as Mercury, Here comes Mesithes muttering back again, But step aside and we shall know his mind. He daunted me at first, but now I find The golds bright lustre made his judgement blind, Mustapha comes. I'st so? a while I'll feed thy airy Hope's Then dash thee into nothing. Here's a third. What we resolved, stands firm, but the event Be scanned when leisure serves, weel now prevent My brother's Hope's, and by a sudden ate Unto their lives and days give equal date, To compass a blessed end: now we begin Jove hath offended if it be a sin To throw a father down: Saturn did dwell Once in the heavens, Jou threw him down to hell. But stay. Achmetes, and our father's friends? We thank you friends: Your care hath fostered up our infant Hope's Beyond the pitch of expectation. We hear that Bajazet is going now From hence to Constantinople; my men Lie closely ambushed in the middle way, Close by a ruinous city, there expect A sudden onset, but till then farewell. When we meet next, our ensigns waved on high, Shall shine Like Meteors blazing in the sky. Soldier as thou hopest to live, Mock not my thoughts with false and painted tales, Of a supposed stratagem. What wilt thou swear? Enough, unfold the meaning and the way By which this happy project must be wrought. O were thou faithful— I will jnoble thee place thee my second self In all my power for thy rare faith. Where's our Achomates? Answer thy Prince first I say, what art thou? But he that wears it is a Saint, and such am I. Achomates thou liest, this night shall prove I shrink not to unmake what I have done. So I hope; Three steps are trod already to a Throne, And I am rich in friends, these pr fferd gifts Conjure observance from their servile breasts: O powerful gold, whose influence does win Men with desire for to engender sin. Isaacke Bassa? Vencharitable Father. Go, make hast, But if this base rascal should deceive My trust? a trifle—my nerves are plumped up And filled with vigor, strong enough to fright, A million of such big backed, drowfie laues; I hear them both approach. Good brother we know your virtues, one that Gain country, gods, and men, Slew and Ambassador which here we must revenge. But We should frown On them which harbour such black treasons, Well, Were I great Bajazet, I'de ring a noise Of spiteful horror, that should make the ground Tremble beneath their weight at such a found: A younger son enthroned and Emperor. All save one, And he's a great deal better so alone. Heavens speed you well. Brother farewell. Revenge and you, three furious twins of night, Ascend up to our theater of ill, Plunge my black soul twice in your Stygian flood, That by it's virtue it may be congealed, And hardened against remorse: Pluto enrich My breast, with a diviner policy, Then every trifling brain can reach unto; I'll fill the world with Treasons, and my wit Shall put new tracts to death: Charon shall see, His uva tage still in use by company, Sent thither by my care, it'll do well, To blast the earth with want, and furnish hell, My courage and a proud contempt of all Corrival Nations, could send back a no, Able to fright a Parliament of gods. It could so: but if Bajazet gainsay My plumy valour flags, my thoughts gave way. Good health: From whom? Then hear me speaketoo: you have been to me No Father, but a sour Pedantic wretch, One that with frosty precepts, strived to kill The flaming heat of my ambitious youth, As vainly as to strangle fire with straw: You fit so daily hovering on your Throne, As if you'd hatch new Monarchies to feed The hungry gulf of your unbridled pride, Y'aue surfettted on titles, y'aue engrossed Honour, you are the moth of eminence, And liberal Fortune's answered your desires; You had deflow'rd infinity of Crowns, With your adulterate ambition, You're Sovereignties horseleech, and have spilled The blood of State, to have your own veins filled. Th'ast won our credit, bear a noble mind About thee, then to find me forward trust This night when sleep triumphant hath subdued Her wakeful Subject's, and the midnight clock Sounded full twelve, in this appointed place, Expect my presence, and till then adieu Our next shall be a tragic interview. No, it cannot be: If there be too much valour in this breast, Blame him that placed it there, even Ba azet. My virtues and my blood, are both derived From his first I fluence, and I must either hate Disgraceful calum is, or degenerate. Would? Then we May veil our heads in black, no mourners be. Wilt thou envious dotard Strangle my greatness in a miching hold? The world's my study Bajazet, my name, Shall fill each angle of this round-built frame. What Mahomet?