CRATANDER

It's a discourse o'th' Nature of the Soul; That shows the vicious Slaves, but the well inclined Free and their own though conquered. I not deny your Conquest, for you may Have virtues to entitle't yours; but otherwise, If one of strange and ill contrived desires, One of a narrow or intemperate mind Prove Master of the field, I cannot say That he hath conquered, but that he hath had A good hand of it; he hath God the day, But not subdued the men: Victory being Not Fortune's gift, but the deservings Purchase, Him, who dares Die next his heart in cold blood; him, who fights Not out of thirst, or the unbridled lust Of a fleshed sword, but out of Conscience To kill the Enemy, not the man. Who when The Laurel's planted on his brow, even then Under that safe-protecting Wreathe, will not Contemn the Thunderer, but will Acknowledge all his strength derived, and in A pious way of gratitude return Some of the spoil to Heaven in Sacrifice; As Tenants do the first fruits of their Trees, In and acknowledgment that the rest is endue. The best, unto the Best. If I had destined And Ox unto the Altar, he should be Fair, and well fed; for the Deity does not love The maimed, or mishapen, because it is A thing so different from himself, deformity Being one of Nature's trespasses: he should Be crowned then, and conducted solemnly, That my Religion might be specious, 'Twere stealth else, not Devotion. I could Tell you, the Gods have neither appetite Nor enthralls; that they do not hunger after Your Cookery of sacrifice, and that A grain of Incense, or a piece of Gum, If offered with Devotion, may redeem A destined Hecatomb. But this would be To deprecate my fate; which by your Sun, Your Sun that does require me, I expect With the same mind, as I would do my Nuptials. I swear. Come from the Dungeon to the Throne To be a King, and straight be none. 'Reigne then a while, that thou mayest be 'Fitter to fallen by Majesty. I neither take New courage from the Power, nor suffer new Fears from the Death that waits it: both are things That have two ears, by which they may be taken; So that they are indifferent in themselves; And only good or bade as they are ordered. Off with their shakells Sirrah: you my Lords Take order they be quickly well attired, That they may come to Court, and do us service. It's next of all our Royal pleasure, that Battle be reinforced by the next Sun, To make our Conquest perfect: all's not safe Till the Snake leave to threaten with his tail. Our Reign is short, and business much, be speedy. Our Counsels and our deeds must have one birth. That's and innocent pleasure; Spheres make it, and Gods hear it. I did expect some solemn Hymn of the Great world's beginning, or some brave Captains Deserving deeds extolled in lofty numbers. These softer Subject's grate our ears: But what Are these my Lords? she Minstrels? I have No humane thought about me now, forbear. If you will Needs put your selves to the trouble of Procurers, Bring me a Kingdom in one face, or show me A People in one body; then you might Happily work on mine Affections. There I durst pour my self into Embracements, Losing my self in a Labyrinth of joy. As it's you only make me colder, by Surrounding me with these your hostile flames. Let me ask you Was't not enough you tried me with those baits Of wines, and meats, culled from the spoil of Nature, But you must bring vice in another fashion? It's one To punish such offenders as your selves, That will abase your honour to so vile And abject and employment. If you offer The Like again, you shall perceive, that Kings, How short so ever their Reigns be, have long hands. This Act, what ever you style it, is flat Treason. Our Honour is abused in't. Oh the foreheads Prax. and Mass. steal out, and leave the two women with him. Of women once grown impudent! that these Can stand so long, and hear their infamy Debated quietly, expecting when They shall be called to their reproach! what fled? And left the Prey behind to tempt me? Ho! Who waits without? Convey these wicked creatures Unto the Gaolor Molops: give him charge To use them as he would do Enemies. My Country would twice suffer, should I yield Unto their vices too. But Greece is not Only preserved in me: had they perhaps Carried these Creatures to the wilder knot, Headlong Archippus, or bold Stratocles, Easy Leocrates, or prove Philotas, Their Present might have hit. But hark, they come. I'll step aside, and watch their actions. YE Villains hold. What is the matter? why this violence? Wicked Villains, That in your Misery's can't forget your vices, Acting those crimes to day, which ever the Sun Thrice set, will elsewhere be your Torture. Cannot The chain and hunger kill those seeds of evil, But even in the amid of your misfortunes, Your sports must be the robbing of fair honour And Rapes your Recreations? which, an't please The Gods, you call Philosophy. Leave the place; Infection's busy where you breath; the next Attempt installs you in the Dungeon. I owe this duty to your virtues Madam. Ex. Manned. Ary These Slaves must be repressed; the giddy People Are ready to transpose all crimes upon Him that should moderate them; so perhaps Their faults might be accounted mine. Beside Snares are laid close in every path for me; And if a King but stumble, it's a Precipice: When all eyes see't, a blemish is a Monster. Pure virtue then, and thou fair honour, give me Leave to continued ̄ template on your Beauty's; let As he is musing, Ato . from above throw him a gold c yne. The strength of my Imagination dwell U on the sighed of your Divinities. What? more temptations yet? would? whence? from whom The heavens' I hope don't drop down follies too: No arm out of the clouds a chain? why this Is but and Exprobration of my late Distressed fortune. It's rich yet, and Royal; I 'cann't be the wealth of any, but the Throne Fallen out what will, I'll wear it, Till I know From whence it came; and if it prove a Mettle That some foul drossy mind could not endure Should longer dwell with it, I then will cast it With as much scorn and anger from my shoulders, As now I do receive't with admiration. Good Hippias, Phocion! you are welcome; how Dare you trust your selves in and Enemies Court? Alas! I am not, after The perjod of three days; this makes the time Which even now I thought and age, seem short And too contract for my desires. What is your meaning? O! is this your Errant? Here, take your chain again, it cannot bind. Why you threw't in before you, to make way Unto your Suit. I am so still; no sooner did I come Within the Persian Walls, but I was theirs And since, good Hippias, this power hath only Added one link more to the Chain. I am Become Arsamnes Instrument: I've sworn Faith to his Sceptre and himself, and must Ask his leave, ever I do betray his Country. As if the valiant could be forced by any. Empires are Desired for glory; be all wickedness then Far absent, for in that there can be none. I cannot tell what powers you pretend; Tell me of Justice and Fidelity, These are the Grecian Gods. Pray stay, I will go with you, and consider, How am I straighteneth! Life is short unto me: And the good man's End ought still to be a business We must die doing something, least perhaps We lose our Death's; we must not yet do ill That we misplace not Actium: If I strike On this hand, I'm a Parricide; if on that, The same brand waits me too: how do I tremble, Like to the doubtful Needle betwixt two Loadstones, At once inclining unto both, and neither! Here Piety calls me, there my Justice stops me. It is resolved; Faith shall consist with both; And aged Fame after my Death shall tell, Betwixt two sins, Cratander did do well. Which the most vicious have: must I still meet Some thing must grieve me more than your misfortunes? The Chain and Fetter were your Innocence. But to be drunk is all. Do but consider (If that at least you can) how Greece it self Now suffers in you; thus, say they, the Grecians Do spend their Nights: Your vices are esteemed The Rites and Customs of your Country, while The beastly Reveling of a Slave or two, Is made the Nations Infamy. Your wreathes Blu h at your Ignominy: what praise is't When't shall be said, Philotas stood up still After the hundredth Flagon; when it's known He did not so in war? you're now just fit To reach the Spartan boys sobriety; Are all good Principles washed out? how ever Be without vices, if not virtuous. That I should have authority to command Vices but not forbid they! I would put you Once more into his charge, but that you would Make even the Dungeon yet more infamous. HE must be more than Man that gains it back Without my will. As I would not feign Favour, and belly A Jewel or a Twist, to gain the name Of Creature, or of Servant unto any; So by your Beauty, (for if Persians may Swear by their Sun, I well may swear by that) Where honour is transmitted in a true Mysterious Gage of and Immaculate mind, I will defend it as some sacred Relic, Or some more secret pledge, dropped down from Heav n To guard me from the dangers of the Earth. He that vaunts Of a received Favour, ought to be Punished as Sacrilegious Persons are, Because he does violate that sacred thing, Pure, spotless Honour. But it may be seen, And yet not prostitute. I would not smother My Joys, and make my happiness a stealth. I must Confess, I have no Merits, whose just heat May extract ought from you, called Love: yet when I do consider, that Affection Cannot look virtuously on any thing That is resplendent, but a subtle image Purely reflecting thence, must needs arise, And pay that Look again; I do take leave To say, the careful Deities provide, That Love shall never be so unhappy, as To want his Brother. Such Love Is but Love's I doll; and these soft ones, that Confine it to a kiss, or and embrace, Do, as the superstitious did of old, Contract the Godhead into a Bull, or Goat, Or some such lustful Creature. Be it far, Be't far from me to think, where ever I see Clear streams of Beauty, that I may presume To trouble them with quenching of my thirst. Where a full splendour, where a bright effusion Of immaterial Beams do meet to Make up one Body of perfection; I should acc unt my self injurious Unto that Deity, which hath let down Himself into those Rays, if that I should Draw nigh without and awful Adoration. Which my Religion pays to you: but being You Like not the Devotion, be content To slight the Sacrifice, but spare the Altar. I can distinguish betwixt Love, and Love, Tween Flames and good Intents, nay between Flames And Flames themselves: the grosser now fly up, And now fallen down again, still cov'ting new Matter for food; consuming, and consumed. But the pure clearer Flames, that shoot up always In one continued Pyramid of lustre, Know no commerce with Earth, but unmix still, And still aspiring upward, (if that may Be called aspiring, which is Nature) have This property of Immortality Still to suffice themselves, neither devouring, And yet devoured; and such I knowledge yours. On which I look as on refined Ideas, That know no mixture or corruption, Being one eternal simpleness; that these Should from the Circle of their chaster Glories Dart out a beam on me, is far beyond All humane merit; and I may conclude, They've only their own Nature for a cause, And that they're good, they are diffusive too. There's nothing Can woo my heart unto a thought of life, But that your presence will be wanting to me, When I'm shut up in silence: yet I have A strong Ambition in me to maintain And equal faith betwixt Greece and Persia: That Like a river running betwixt two fields, I may give growth and verdure unto both. Praxaspes, and Masistes, potent Lords, Are both against my designs; so that I shall not Obtain and Army for they think I have That vile mind in me to betray this Kingdom To which I've sworn fidelity; when by Your self, by all thats good, my'intent is only To perfect great Arsamnes Conquest, and In that be beneficial to my Country. In which if that your Majesty will descend To act a partly, after the Scene is shut, I'll down to Elysium with a joyful mind, And teach our Grecian Poets your blessed name And virtues, for and everlasting Song. Urge me no more, I am sure my Country Requires not Perjury. Oh Phocion! Such men as you have made our Grecian faith Become a Proverb to express Treachery. And Oath's the same in Persia, and in Greece: And binds alike in either. Your forces are so weakened, that you cannot Regain a perfect Liberty: your Friends Begin to fallen off too: all that you can Expect now, is to settle these your evils, And live protected as a weakened friend Under the Persian shelter: still preserving Your Laws and Liberties inviolate. A thing perhaps yet rather to be wished for, Then compassed. What may be done in so Short space, shall all be to your good: go then And deal discreetly with the Army: tell them The tempest that is falling on their head, Unless the Persian shield them. When you have Persuaded them to this, conduct your Forces Towards Arsamnes Castle, where the Queen, And Ladies now expect me. But be sure You come not within sighed of Sardis. By no means, for you'll cut off all retreat, Now, when you see the numerous Persian come, You may securely fly without the lose Of any; this will quell the future rising Of those, whose frowardness is not content Either with calm or Tempest of Affairs We must comply with Fortune, now wee're conquered, Permit the rest unto the Gods and me. So; my next care now Must be to avoid those Slaves, who, I overheard, Have a design upon my life. But let Even the plotting Destinies contrive, And be themselves of Council, all their malice Shall only show and idle fruitless Hate, While Wisdom takes the upper hand of Fate. What's your request? MOst virtuous Queen, you make me search my self, To find the worth which you do so far prize; As thus to hazard for one man whose life Is under valve, that which others would not For a whole Kingdom, Reputation. Had great Arsamnes been in danger, had Your whole Line been in jeopardy of ruin, You could have done no more; Your pity hath Thrust you into Heroic Actions, far Beyond the eager Valour of tried Captains; Which I can never worthily admire, When I consider your reward will only Be, to be ranked in story with a Slave. 'Twould be a piece of exemplary Ingratitude, To bring you into any danger hence: You're safe as in your Court; your Subject's shall not Run any doubtful hazard, in the Chance Of and uncertain Battle: their first step Shall be Victorious: and when your Eloquence, Guarded with Beauty, shall procure the freedom Of our Enthralled City, the Ephesians Shall know a Goddess greater than their own, And you depose our magnified Diana; Having Shrines in every Breast outshining hers. As for my self, I shall live still in those Good benefits my Country shall receive. This day instating me in Immortality: While raising thus our City by my fallen, I shall go down a welcome shade, and dwell Among the Ancient Father's of my Country. It is not in your Power To grant it great Arsamnes: your Queen speaks Out of a tender pity to no purpose. You must not hear her, Sir, against the Gods, Who now expect their solemn Feast and Banquet. Let not Affection call a Curse upon you, While you permit it to take place of your Religion. It's the best time to fallen, when there are most Requests made for our preservation. Though, great Atossa, I could wish that your Blessed Prayers were spent in gaining a good peace For hopeful Ephesus. The Gods that do Require my ruin, would accept their safety. Bear witness o ye Gods, that I do suffer This as his Servant too. And ye the Souls Of my deceased Countrymen, who fell in the last Battle, if there yet be sense In the forgetful Urn, know that it was No stratagem of mine to be detained Thus long from your Society. Now to you, Arsamnes: Good Kings equal those in Laws Whom they have overcome in war; and to The Valiant, that chief partly of good, to which We all are born, sweet Liberty, is pleasing Even in the Enemy. Your Queen, and others Her Ladies here, with the most beautiful Partly of your Royal Court, are in my power. But far be't from me injure but the meanest: Only one life I'm so much Master of, (Since you have put it in my Power) that I Must give it back again, if it must be Beyond the Ephesian safety: the Altar comes More welcome than the Throne, if this shall bring Freedom to me, and Slavery to my City. There I confess a Conquest, where I find He that subdued my body, gains my mind. I know that diverse minds are here contained Under one silence, all expecting how I'll bear this sudden accident. T'accuse Or Gods, or Men,is the partly of him that would Live longer. If I look on the desires Of some here, whensoever I shall fallen, I shall be thought to-have lived too little: if On the Actions I have done, I've lived enough If on the injuries of Fortune, too much: If on mine honour, and my fame, I shall Live still; he gains by death that does die praised Others have longer kept and Empire, but None better left it. To speak more, were but A sluggard's Policy, to defer his sufferings. On to the Altar. These tears do neither befit you to pay, Nor me to take; be then Arsamnes, on. Being then You so interpret it, I'll thus divide That life they lend me, one haife shall be yours, The other Ephesus's, that mine Actions Wearing both Gratitude and Piety, Like to some well wrought Picture, may at once Behold both you, and that. I shall never be said, The Gods reserved Cratander to a crime, To make him fallen more foul. THose glorious Triumphs of the Persian Court Are honoured much in being made your sport The Slave though freed by the King, and his Priest too, Thinks not his Pardon good, till sealed by you: And Hope's, although his faults have many been, To find here too the favour of a Queen. For it's our forward duty that hath shown These loyal faults in honour to your Throne Great joy does bring some madness with it still; We challenge that as title to do ill. Can you expect then perfect motion, where It's the Digression only of our Sphere Which wheels in this new course, express the sense Of your approach, it's best Intelligence? Oh were you still fixed to it! your resort, Makes us desire and everlasting Course. And though wee've read you over so long, that we Begin to know each line of Majesty, We think you snatched too soon, and grieve, as they Who for and half year's night, partly with their day. And shall, till your return, though you appear In favours still, think darkness in our Sphere. Your sighed will be preserved yet, though you rise When ever you go, Great Sir, hearts will have eyes. PErish their Tables, and themselves: a Throne May stand without those tumults of delights, That wait on big and pompous Luxury I'll cross their expectation, and quite banish All that their weaker minds do think delight. Kings pleasures are more subtle, then to be Seen by the vulgar; they are Men, but such As never had any dregs, or if they had, Dropped they as they were drawing up from out The groveling Press of Mortals. To offend Beyond the reach of Law without control, Is not the Nature, but the vice of Power; And he is only great, that dares be good. I am not well skilled in your Persian Rites, As Cra. views the ̄ narrowly they fallen to their Po stures I know not what Man, or how qualified Your Temple may admit of, but I have Two or three Servants within call here, they Shall umpire this your variance. Ho! Sisarmes, Ho! Artobazes, draw nigh quickly; seize Ent. Servants. These four pernicious Rascals: did you think You could lie hid? it's not your leg good Stratocles, Nor your close arm Leocrates, that can Disguise you from mine eye. I can tell you Who drank my death, who were your grand Abettors. In this design. You now would know who's fittest To make a Persian Priest: Malicious fools, Is it not all one as to ask me, who Is fittest to Sacrifice me? But you see I live, and will do, to your Punishment. Go, away with they; take them as they are. Let they not altar either Clothes, or Posture, But led they through the City thus to Molops; And give him charge to keep they so, until He hear our farther Pleasure.