Envious who first should catch, and first applaud
The stuff or royal nonsense: when I spoke,
My honest homely words were carp'd, and censur'd,
For want of courtly style: related actions,
Though modestly reported, pass'd for boasts:
Secure of merit, if I ask'd reward,

Thy hungry minions thought their rights invaded,
And the bread snatch'd from pimps and parasites.
Henriquez answer'd with a ready lie,

To save his king's, the boon was begg'd before.
Seb. What say'st thou of Henriquez? now, by heav'n,
Thou mov'st me more by barely naming him,

Than all thy foul unmanner'd scurril taunts.

Dor. And therefore 'twas to gall thee, that I nam'd him. That thing, that nothing, but a cringe and smile: That woman, but more daub'd; or if a man, Corrupted to a woman: thy man-mistress.

Seb. All false as hell or thou.

Dor. Yes; full as false

As that I serv'd thee fifteen hard campaigns,
And pitch'd thy standard in these foreign fields:
By me thy greatness grew, thy years grew with it,
But thy ingratitude outgrew them both.

Seb. I see to what thou tend'st, but tell me first,
If those great acts were done alone for me;
If love produc'd not some, and pride the rest?
Dor. Why, love does all that's noble here below:
But all th' advantage of that love was thine.
For, coming fraughted back in either hand,
With palm and olive, victory and peace,
I was indeed prepar'd to ask my own,
(For Violante's vows were mine before:)
Thy malice had prevention, ere I spoke;
And ask'd me Violante for Henriquez.

Seb. Thy insolence had cancell'd all thy service;
To violate my laws, even in my court,

Sacred to peace, and safe from all affronts;
Ev'n to my face, and done in my despite,
Under the wing of awful majesty

To strike the man I lov'd!

Dor. Ev'n in the face of heaven, a place more sacred, Would I have struck the man, who, prompt by power, Would seize my right, and rob me of my love: But, for a blow provok'd by thy injustice,

The hasty product of a just despair,

When he refus'd to meet me in the field,

That thou shouldst make a coward's cause thy own!
Seb. He durst: nay more, desir'd and begg'd with tears,
To meet thy challenge fairly; 'twas thy fault

To make it public; but my duty, then

To interpose, on pain of my displeasure,
Betwixt your swords.

Dor. On pain of infamy

He should have disobey'd.

Seb. Th' indignity thou didst was meant to me:
Thy gloomy eyes were cast on me with scorn,
As who should say, the blow was there intended;
But that thou didst not dare to lift thy hands
Against anointed power:-so was I forc'd
To do a sov'reign justice to myself,

And spurn thee from my presence.

Dor. Thou hast dar'd

To tell me, what I durst not tell myself:
I durst not think that I was spurn'd, and live;
And live to hear it boasted to
my face.

All my long avarice of honour lost,

Heap'd up in youth, and hoarded up for age;

Has honour's fountain then suck'd back the stream?
He has; and hooting boys may dry-shod pass,
And gather pebbles from the naked ford.

Give me my love, my honour; give them back-
Give me revenge, while I have breath to ask it.

Seb. Go: bear my message to Henriquez' ghost; And say, his master and his friend reveng'd him. Dor. His ghost! then is my hated rival dead? Seb. The question is beside our present purpose; Thou seest me ready; we delay too long.

Dor. A minute is not much in either's life, When there's but one betwixt us; throw it in, And give it him of us who is to fall.

Seb. He's dead; make haste, and thou mayst yet o'ertake him.

Dor. When I was hasty, thou delay'dst me longer.
I pr'ythee let me edge one moment more
Into thy promise: for thy life preserv'd,
Be kind; and tell me how that rival died,
Whose death next thine I wish'd.

Seb. If it would please thee, thou shouldst never know; But thou, like jealousy, inquir'st a truth,

Which found will torture thee: he died in fight:
Fought next my person: as in concert fought:
Kept pace for pace, and blow for every blow;
Save when he heav'd his shield in my defence;
And on his naked side receiv'd my wound:
Then when he could no more, he fell at once:
But roll'd his falling body 'cross their way;
And made a bulwark of it for his prince.

Dor. I never can forgive him such a death!
Seb. I prophesied thy proud soul could not bear it.
Now judge thyself, who best deserv'd my love.
I knew you both; and (durst I say) as Heav'n
Foreknew among the shining angel host

Who would stand firm, who fall.

Dor. Had he been tempted so, so had he fall'n;

And so, had I been favour'd, had I stood.

Seb. What had been, is unknown; what is, appears.

Confess, he justly was preferr'd to thee.

Dor. Had I been born with his indulgent stars,

My fortune had been his, and his been mine.

O worse than hell! what glory have I lost,
And what has he acquir'd by such a death!
I should have fallen by Sebastian's side;
My corpse
had been the bulwark of my king.
His glorious end was a patch'd work of fate,
Ill sorted with a soft effeminate life;

It suited better with my life than his
So to have died: mine had been of a piece,
Spent in your service, dying at your feet.

Seb. The more effeminate and soft his life,
The more his fame, to struggle to the field,
And meet his glorious fate: confess, proud spirit,
(For I will have it from thy very mouth)

That better he deserv'd my love than thou.

Dor. O, whither would you drive me! I must grant, Yes, I must grant, but with a swelling soul, Henriquez had your love with more desert: For you he fought, and died; I fought against you; Through all the mazes of the bloody field, Hunted your sacred life; which that I miss'd Was the propitious error of my fate,

Not of my soul; my soul's a regicide.

Seb. Thou mightst have given it a more gentle name:

Thou meant'st to kill a tyrant, not a king.

Speak, didst thou not, Alonzo?

Dor. Can I speak!

Alas, I cannot answer to Alonzo:

No, Dorax cannot answer to Alonzo:
Alonzo was too kind a name for me.

[More calmly.

Then, when I fought and conquer'd with your arms,
In that blest age I was the man you

nam'd:

Till rage and pride debas'd me into Dorax;
And lost, like Lucifer, my name above.

Seb. Yet twice this day I ow'd my life to Dorax.
Dor. I sav'd you but to kill you; there's my grief.
Seb. Nay, if thou canst be griev'd, thou canst repent:
Thou couldst not be a villain, though thou wouldst:

Thou own'st too much in owning thou hast err'd;
And I too little, who provok'd thy crime.

Dor. O stop this headlong torrent of your goodness: It comes too fast upon a feeble soul,

Half drown'd in tears before; spare my confusion,
For pity spare, and say not, first you err'd:

[Falls at his feet.

For yet I have not dar'd, through guilt and shame,
To throw myself beneath your royal feet.
Now spurn this rebel, this proud renegade:
'Tis just you should,, nor will I more complain.

Alcmena. Ye niggard gods! you make our lives too long: You fill them with diseases, wants, and woes, And only dash them with a little love; Sprinkled by fits, and with a sparing hand: Count all our joys, from childhood even to age, They would but make a day of ev'ry year: Take back your sev'nty years, (the stint of life,) Or else be kind, and cram the quintessence Of sev❜nty years into sweet sev'nty days: For all the rest is flat, insipid being.

Jupiter. Follow, and thou shalt see her soon appeas'd: For I, who made her, know her inward state:

No woman, once well pleas'd, can throughly hate:

I

gave them beauty, to subdue the strong;

(A mighty empire, but it lasts not long:)

I

gave them pride, to make mankind their slave; But, in exchange, to men I flatt'ry gave.

Th' offending lover, when he lowest lies,
Submits, to conquer; and but kneels, to rise.