GENTLEMEN

Arbaces has been away from his kingdom for many years fighting a war with Armenia, which he has just won. He has received reports from his Lord Protector, Gobrias, about the virtue and accomplishments of his younger sister Panthea, whom he has not seen since she was nine years old. He offers her hand in marriage to Tigranes, the vanquished Armenian King, but Tigranes demurs. Arbaces takes him back to Iberia to see her for himself. Tigranes’ objection lies in the fact that he already has a girlfriend, Spaconia, and he bribes the cowardly Bessus to bring her along and place her in Panthea’s household. Once there, she begs Panthea not to marry Tigranes, and Panthea agrees. Arane, Arbaces’ mother, has been trying to assassinate him since he came to the throne. Another attempt is foiled, but he pardons her when he returns in triumph. She clearly has an ulterior motive which is known to Gobrias, but both are discreet about its precise nature. Arbaces’ first meeting with Panthea as an adult proves unsettling: he falls in love with her. So does Tigranes. Identifying a rival, Arbaces imprisons him. Torn between desire and conscience, he also imprisons Panthea. Panthea gives Spaconia a token authorizing her to visit Tigranes in prison. He rejects her, but Arbaces finds them together and assumes that she is a go-between. Gobrias importunes him to release Panthea, who persuades him that his suspicions are unfounded: she loves him, and would act upon that love if to do so were not incestuous. The Armenians send Spaconia’s father as an ambassador to negotiate for Tigranes’ release. He believes his daughter has eloped with Bessus, but his denunciations of her bring Tigranes to his senses: he will make Spaconia his Queen. When Arbaces decides to kill Gobrias for corrupting him to incest, the truth comes out. Arbaces is not of royal blood. The old King married Arane when he was old and impotent, and, fearful about the succession, Gobrias and Arane conspired to produce an heir: Gobrias gave Arane his new-born son, and she faked his birth. Later, it proved that the King was not so impotent after all, and he died leaving Arane pregnant with Panthea, but by the time this was known, the young Arbaces had already succeeded to the throne. Since then, Gobrias and Arane have both been trying to put matters to rights, Arane with her murder plots and Gobrias by encouraging Arbaces to marry his putative sister and so establish the legitimacy of his teign. Arbaces publicly announces…