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Full speech
Let not these woes ecclypse your Virtues light. Strive of your sorrows for to stop the source. That is not kingly. Such woeful plaints cannot repair your State: What graue-browd Stoic void of all affections, With tearless eyes could that Youths death behold? Though green in years, yet ripe in all perfections, A hoary judgement under locks of gold. No, no man lives but must lament to see The world's chief hope even in his blossom choked: But men cannot control the Heavens decree: And mischief done, can never be revoked. Then let not this torment your mind no more, This cross with you alike your Country bears, If wailing could your ruinde State restore, Souls fraught with grief should sail in Seas of tears. Lest all our comfort dash against one shelf, And his untimely end occasion yours, Have pity of your people, spare your self, If not to your own use, yet unto ours. Oft Kings of Judges thence have parties gone, Where both their ears were patent but to one. Though Nature's law you cared not to transgress, And this your wronged ally would not repare, Yet the regard t'a Monarch in distress, Should move the mighty with a mutual care. These terrors to that thunder in your ear, I think the Lidians will not well allow, For when the Cedar falls, the Oak may fear, the Assyrians overthrow may astonish you. And when we see our neighbours house afire, Then we may judge our own to be in danger, It's better first with others to conspire, Or we be forced our selves invade that stranger. Ah this is but the outside of your course, A dangerous ambush by ambition planted, There may come raging rivers from this source, To drown your state while fancies are undaunted. I know these newborn monsters of your mind, Have armed your ravished thoughts with fair conceates, Yet may these wonders that you have divined, Prove traitorous projects painted for deceits. And (pardon Sir) it is not good to be Too rashly stout nor curiously wise, Lest that you from that which is certain flee, And not attain to that which you devise. Thus still in love with what we mind to do, What we affect we fairest still conceive, This feeds our humour while we labour, to Seem full of wit our selves for to deceive. You flatter so yourself, you can not spy What secret danger this design does bear, But while I look with and indifferent eye On your intentions, I find cause of fear. You vnaduisdlie purpose to pursue A barbarous people that are foes to peace, Who but by rapine to their greatness grew, And would for each light cause the wars embrace. No dainty silks of the Assyrian die, Do deck their bodies to abase their minds, But clothed with wild beasts skins they do defy The force of Phœbus rays, and Eols winds. They simply feed and are not grieved each day, With stomachs cloyed decocting diverse meats, They fare not as they would, but as they may, Of judgement found not carried with conceates. These uncorrupted customs that they hold, Make all things easy that they feel no pain, This cools the Summers heat, kills Winter's cold, This makes the Rivers dry, the Mountains plain. Those whose ambition poverty did bound, Of the delights of Lidia if they taste Will have in hatred straight their barren ground, And insolently all our treasures waste. To govern such although that you prevail, You shall but buy vexation with your blood, And do your self and yours, if fortune fail, From a possessed Sovereignty seclude. Yea, though this rash desire your judgement leads, I for my partly must praise the gods for you, The have not put into the Persians heads, To war against the Lidians long ere now. This benefit must bind me with the rest, To love your Majesty, and wish you well, I'll give you my advise, and I protest, That you take friendly what I freely tell.
Plot summary
Plot — Croesus
Alexander the Great is dead, poisoned by Cassander. He leaves behind a pregnant widow but no definite heir. Unable to get into the underworld because as yet unburied, his ghost returns to earth and recounts his life story, a tale of escalating atrocity as power progressively divorced him from ordinary humanity. He decides to inspire his captains with ambition and bloodlust. The captains are unable to agree on how best to secure the Macedonian Empire, and various proposals are advanced: to await the birth of Alexander's posthumous child, and appoint a regent in the interim; to crown either Alexander’s bastard brother or his elder son, who is half-barbarian and so unacceptable to the people; to split up the empire between themselves. The only thing they can agree on is that the common foot-soldiers should have no say in the decision. Lysimachus and Seleucus decide to bide their time, let their fellow captains wear themselves out with wrangling, and then step in to take the empire for themselves. Meleager tries to have Perdiccas, his rival, murdered, but the plot fails and Perdiccas responds in kind with more success. When Alexander’s child is born, it is a son. Perdiccas and others become his joint regents, but Perdiccas schemes for personal supremacy. He removes his two colleagues in the regency, gives the other captains their own kingdoms in an effort to secure their loyalty, and plans to marry into the royal family. Two of his new subject kings, Antigonus and Ptolemy, ally themselves against him. He accepts the advice of Eumenes to deal with the rebels first before engaging with dynastic matters, but is murdered by his own soldiers during the campaign. Olympias, Alexander’s mother, plots against Cassander, but Cassander besieges her and, starving, she has to give herself up. She refuses his mercy and is executed. Cassander then procures the murder of Alexander’s remaining family. Antigonus secures the support of Eumenes, but then has him treacherously killed. The four remaining captains (Cassander, Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and Seleucus) agree to unite against Antigonus. Philastrus prophesies continuing strife: Cassander will die in disgrace, Seleucus will kil Lysimachus and then die himself, and Ptolemy’s line will ultimately end with a lustful queen who will see his empire fall into the hands of the enemy.