A prince's charge is to protect them all.
And shall it nothing be that I am yours?

The world without, my heart within, doth know,
I never had unkind, unreverent powers.

If thus you yield to Alaham's treachery,

He ruins you: 'tis you, Sir, ruin me.

King. Cælica, 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, Calica, hate all I do :

Misfortunes have in blood successions too.

Calica. Will you do that which Alaham cannot ?
He hath no good; you have no ill, but he :
This mar-right yielding's honor's tyranny.
King. Have I not done amiss? am I not ill,
That ruin'd have a king's authority?

And not one king alone; since princes all
Feel part of those scorns, whereby one doth fall.
Treason against me cannot treason be:

All laws have lost authority in me.

Calica. The laws of power chain'd to men's humors

be.

The good have conscience; the ill (like instruments)
Are, in the hands of wise authority,

Moved, divided, used, or laid down;

Still, with desire, kept subject to a crown.

Stir up all states, all spirits: hope and fear,

Wrong and revenge, are current every where.

King. Put down my son: for that must be the way: A father's shame; a princes tyranny;

The sceptre ever shall misjudged be.

Calica. Let them fear rumour that do work amiss;
Blood, torments, death, horrors of cruelty,

Have time, and place. Look through these skins of fear,
Which still persuade the better side to bear.
And since thy son thus trait'rously conspires,
Let him not prey on all thy race, and thee:
Keep ill example from posterity.

King. 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 fear'd, sought, and a king, to live unknown.
Cælica, all these to thee: do thou bestow
This living darkness, wherein I do go.

Calica. My soul now joys. Doing breathes horror out. Absence must be our first step. Let us fly:

A pause in rage makes Alaham to doubt;
Which doubt may stir in people hope, and fear,
With love, or hate, to seek you every where.
For princes' lives are fortune's misery:

As dainty sparks, which till men dead do know,
To kindle for himself each man doth blow.

But hark! what's this? Malice doth never sleep:
I hear the spies of power drawing near.

Sir, follow me: Misfortune's worst is come;

Her strength is change; and change yields better doom. Choice now is past. Hard by there is a pile,

Built under color of a sacrifice;

If God do grant, it is a place to save;

If God denies, it is a ready grave.

Zophi appears.

Calica. What see I here? more spectacles of woe! And are my kindred only made to be

Agents and patients in iniquity?

Ah forlorn wretch! ruin's example right!

Lost to thyself, not to thy enemy,

Whose hand even while thou fliest thou fall'st into;

And with thy fall thy father dost undo.

Save one I may: Nature would save them both;
But Chance hath many wheels, Rage many eyes.
What, shall I then abandon Innocents ?84

Not help a helpless brother thrown on me?

34 Zophi is represented as a prince of weak understanding.

I

Is nature narrow to adversity?

No, no. Our God left duty for a law;
Pity, at large; love, in authority;

Despair, in bonds; fear, of itself in awe :
That rage of time, and power's strange liberty,
Oppressing good men, might resistance find:
Nor can I to a brother be less kind.

Dost thou, that canst not see, hope to escape?
Disgrace can have no friend; contempt no guide;
Right is thy guilt; thy judge iniquity;
Which desolation casts on them that see.

Zophi. Make calm thy rage: pity a ghost distrest:
My right, my liberty, I freely give:

Give him, that never harm'd thee, leave to live.
Calica. Nay, God, the world, thy parents it deny;
A brother's jealous heart; usurped might

Grows friends with all the world, except thy right.
Zophi. Secure thyself. Exile me from this coast:
My fault, suspicion is; my judge, is fear;
Occasion, with myself, away I bear.

Calica. Fly unto God: for in humanity
Hope there is none. Reach me thy fearful hand :
I am thy sister; neither fiend, nor spy
Of tyrant's rage; but one that feels despair
Of thy estate, which thou dost only fear.
Kneel down; embrace this holy mystery;
A refuge to the worst for rape and blood,
And yet, I fear, not hallow'd for the good.

Zophi. Help, God! defend thine altar! since thy might,

In earth, leaves innocents no other right.

Calica. Eternal God! that see'st thyself in us,

If vows be more than sacrifice of lust,

Rais'd from the smokes of hope and fear in us,
Protect this Innocent, calm Alaham's rage ;
age to age.

By miracles faith goes from

Affection trembles; reason is opprest;

Nature, methinks, doth her own entrails tear :
In resolution ominous is fear.

Alaham

Alaham causes Search to be made after his Father and Brother. Zophi is discovered, and Calica; who, being questioned by Alaham where she has hid her Father, dissembles as though she thought that the King was dead; but being threatened with the rack, her Exclamations call her Father from his hiding-place; who, together with her, and her Brother Zophi, are sentenced by Alaham to the Flames.

ALAHAM. Attendants.

Alaham. Sirs, seek the city, examine, torture, rack;
Sanctuaries none let there be; make darkness known;
Pull down the roofs, dig, burn, put all to wrack;
And let the guiltless for the guilty groan.

Change, shame, misfortune, in their 'scaping lie,
And in their finding our prosperity.

He sees Calica.

Good fortune welcome! We have lost our care,
And found our loss: Cælica distract I see.
The king is near: She is her father's eyes.

He sees Zophi.

Behold! the forlorn wretch, half of my fear,
Takes sanctuary at holy altar's feet:

Lead him apart, examine, force, and try;
These bind the subject not the monarchy.

Cælica! awake: that God of whom you crave

Is deaf, and only gives men what they have.

Calica. Ah cruel wretch! guilty of parent's blood!
Might I, poor innocent, my father free,
My murther yet were less impiety.
But on; devour: fear only to be good:
Let us not scape: thy glory then doth rise,
When thou at once thy house dost sacrifice,
Alaham. Tell me where thy father is.
Calica. O bloody scorn,

Must he be kill'd again that gave thee breath?
Is duty nothing else in thee but death?

Alaham.

Alaham. Leave off this mask; deceit is never wise; Though he be blind, a king hath many eyes.

Calica. O twofold scorn! God be reveng'd for me. Yet since my father is destroy'd by thee,

Add still more scorn, it sorrow multiplies.

Alaham. Passions are learn'd, not born within the heart, That method keep: Order is quiet's art.

Tell where he is: for look what love conceals,

Pain out of nature's labyrinths reveals.

Calica. This is reward which thou dost threaten me :

If terror thou wilt threaten, promise joys.

Alaham. Smart cools these boiling styles of vanity.
Calica. And if my father I no more shall see,

Help me unto the place where he remains :

To hell below, or to the sky above,

The way is easy where the guide is love.
Alaham. Confess; where is he hid?

Calica. Rack not my woe.

Thy glorious pride of this unglorious deed
Doth mischief ripe, and therefore falling, shew.

Alaham. Bodies have place, and blindness must be led. Graves be the thrones of kings when they be dead.

Calica. He was (unhappy) cause that thou art now;
Thou art, ah wicked! cause that he is not,
And fear'st thou parricide can be forgot?
Bear witness, thou Almighty God on high,
And you black powers inhabiting below,
That for his life myself would yield to die.

Alaham. Well, Sirs, go seek the dark and secret caves, The holy temples, sanctified cells,

All parts wherein a living corpse may dwell.

Calica. Seek him amongst the dead, you placed him

there :

Yet lose no pains, good souls, go not to hell;
And, but to heaven, you may go every where.
Guilty, with you, of his blood let me be,
If any more I of my father know,

Than that he is where you would have him go.
Alaham. Tear up the vaults. Behold her agonies!

Sorrow