Passages from this character's speech that contain the most distinguishing words for Cluster 21 (gar, shillings, alii, yongrave, ogenes, nat…). Matches are highlighted.
all thou owest the Gods, and me, I do conjure thee; Leave me to my chance. What's passed was errors way; the truth it is, Wherein I wretch can only go amiss. " If Nature saw no cause of sudden ends, " She; that but one way made to draw our breath, " Would not have left so many doors to death. This sword, thy hands, may offer
Destinies intent. Fear not my fallen; the steep is fairest plain, And error safest guide unto his end, Who nothing but mischance can have to friend. We parents are but Nature's nursery, When our succession springs then ripe to fallen; Privation unto age is natural. Age there is also in a Princes State, Which is contempt, grown of
Full speech
Occasion to my son hath turned her face; My inward wants all outward strengths betray; And so make that impossible I may. Whose ruins glasses are, Wherein see errors of my self I must, And hold my life of danger, shame, and care. Nothing is left me, but my self, to loose. Where chance is ripe, there counsel comes too late: Celica! by all thou owest the Gods, and me, I do conjure thee; Leave me to my chance. What's passed was errors way; the truth it is, Wherein I wretch can only go amiss. " If Nature saw no cause of sudden ends, " She; that but one way made to draw our breath, " Would not have left so many doors to death. This sword, thy hands, may offer up my breath, And plague my life's remissness in my death. Chance hath left death no more to spoil, but sense. Ah! Stay thy hand. My State no equal hath, And much more matchless my strange vices be: One kind of death becomes not thee, and me. Kings plagues by chance, or destiny should fallen; Headlong he perish must that ruins all. Celica! and wilt thou Alaham exceed? His cruelty is death, you torments use; He takes my Crown, you take my self from me; A Prince of this fallen Empire let me be. If disobedience, and obedience both Still do me hurt; in what strange state am I? But hold thy course: It well becomes my blood, To do their parents mischief with their good. Celica! Call up the dead; awake the blind; Turn back the time; bid winds tell whence they come; As vainly strength speaks to a broken mind. Fly from me Celica! hate all I do: Misfortunes have in blood successions too. Have I not done amiss? Am I not ill, That ruined have a Kings authority? And not one King alone; since Princes all Feel partly of those scorns, whereby one does fallen. Treason against me cannot treason be: All laws have lost authority in me. Put down my son: For that must be the way; A father's shame, a Princes Tyranny: The Sceptre ever shall misjudged be. Danger is come: and must I now unarm? And let in hope to weaken resolution? Passion! be thou my Legacy, and Will; To thee I give my life, Crown, reputation; My pomps to clouds; and (as forlorn with men) My strength to women; hoping this alone, Though feared, sought, and a King, to live unknown. Celica! all these to thee: do thou bestow This living darkness, wherein I do go. Flatter thy wickedness; adorn thy rage; To wear a Crown tear up thy Father's age. Kill not thy sister: It is lack of wit, To do and ill that brings no good with it. " Oh God! who madest those laws which this " Wretch breaks, " Let parents blood this curse upon him bring; " That he, who of a child breaks all respect, " May, in his children, find the same neglect. Celica! thou only child, whom I repent Not yet to have begotten! thy work is vain: Thou runnest against my Destinies intent. Fear not my fallen; the steep is fairest plain, And error safest guide unto his end, Who nothing but mischance can have to friend. We parents are but Nature's nursery, When our succession springs then ripe to fallen; Privation unto age is natural. Age there is also in a Princes State, Which is contempt, grown of misgovernment; Where love of change begetteth Princes hate: For Hope's must wither, or grow violent, If fortune bind desires to one Estate. Then mark: Blind, as a Man: Scorned, as a King: A Father's kindness loathed, and desolate: Life without joy, or light: what can it bring, But inward horror unto outward hate? Oh safety! thou art then a hateful thing, When children's death assures the father's State. No; Safe I am not, though my son were slain, My frailty would beget such sons again. Beside, if fatal be the heavens will, Repining adds more force to destiny, Whose iron wheels stay not on fleshly wit, But headlong run down steep Necessity. And as in danger, we do catch at it That comes to help; and unadvisedly Oft do our friends to our misfortune knit: So with the harm of those who would us good, Is Destiny impossibly withstood. Celica then cease; importune me no more: My son, my age, the state where things are now Require my death. Who would consent to live, Where love cannot revenge, nor truth forgive? What found is this of Celica's distress? Alaham! wrong not a silly sisters faith. It's plague enough that she is innocent; My child, thy sister; born (by thee, and me) With shame, and sin to have affinity. Break me; I am the prison of thy thought: Crowns deer enough, with father's blood, are bought.
Plot summary
Plot — Alaham
Before the start of the action, an oracle foretold that the kingdom’s security depended on the death of the King’s eldest son, Zophi; but the pashas, ruling during the King’s senility, merely banished him. Hala, wife of the younger son, Alaham, has had a series of affairs with pashas: first Muhammad, who was forced into exile as a result, then Cain. Seeking to secure his position, Alaham has recalled Muhammad, ===== PAGE 189 ===== 1600 but Muhammad has recalled Zophi in turn, cutting Alaham out of the succession. Hala seeks to make Cain king, and persuades him to murder Muhammad; but he changes his mind after Muhammad warns him of Alaham’s ambition: Cain will tell Alaham that Muhammad is dead, but in reality he will go into hiding. Meanwhile Alaham corrupts the guard, blinds his father and brother, and seizes power. When Cain tells him of Muhammad's death, he is sent for execution — if not for murder then for lying about it, as he is told when he tries to save himself. Alaham’s sister Caelica helps Zophi and their father to take sanctuary in the temple. Alaham has the city searched, finds Caelica, and arrests her. Her cries bring the old King out of hiding, and he too is arrested. The King, Caelica, and Zophi are all burned to death; as they die, their souls call out for vengeance. Seeking to avenge Cain’s death, Hala sends Alaham a poisoned robe, and plans to kill their son before his face, so that the other child, Cain’s bastard, will inherit the kingdom; but she mistakenly kills the wrong infant. The robe kills Alaham; Hala intends to kill herself too.