A King, and No King | Page 2

think, we
owe thy fear for our victory; If I were the King, and were sure thou
wouldst mistake alwaies and run away upon th' enemy, thou shouldst
be General by this light.
Bes.
You'l never leave this till I fall foul.
Mar.
No more such words dear Bessus, for though I have ever known thee a
coward, and therefore durst never strike thee, yet if thou proceedest, I
will allow thee valiant, and beat thee.
Bes.
Come, our King's a brave fellow.
Mar.
He is so Bessus, I wonder how thou cam'st to know it. But if thou wer't
a man of understanding, I would tell thee, he is vain-glorious, and
humble, and angry, and patient, and merry and dull, and joyful and
sorrowful in extremity in an hour: Do not think me thy friend for this,
for if I ear'd who knew it, thou shouldst not hear it Bessus. Here he is
with his prey in his foot.
Enter &c. Senet Flourish.

Enter_ Arbaces _and_ Tigranes, _Two Kings and two Gentlemen.
Arb.
Thy sadness brave Tigranes takes away
From my full victory, am I
become
Of so small fame, that any man should grieve
When I
o'recome him? They that plac'd me here,
Intended it an honour large
enough, (though he
For the most valiant living, but to dare oppose me
single, Lost the day. What should afflict you, you are as free as I, To be
my prisoner, is to be more free
Than you were formerly, and never
think
The man I held worthy to combate me
Shall be us'd servilely:
Thy ransom is
To take my only Sister to thy Wife.
A heavy one
Tigranes, for she is
A Lady, that the neighbour Princes send
Blanks
to fetch home. I have been too unkind
To her Tigranes, she but nine
years old
I left her, and ne're saw her since, your wars
Have held
me long and taught me though a youth,
The way to victory, she was a
pretty child,
Then I was little better, but now fame
Cries loudly on
her, and my messengers
Make me believe she is a miracle;
She'l
make you shrink, as I did, with a stroak
But of her eye Tigranes.
Tigr.
Is't the course of Iberia to use their prisoners thus? Had fortune thrown
my name above Arbace,
I should not thus have talk'd Sir, in Armenia

We hold it base, you should have kept your temper
Till you saw
home again, where 'tis the fashion
Perhaps to brag.
Arb.
Be you my witness earth, need I to brag,
Doth not this captive Prince
speak
Me sufficiently, and all the acts
That I have wrought upon his
suffering Land;
Should I then boast! where lies that foot of ground

Within his whole Realm, that I have not past,
Fighting and
conquering; Far then from me
Be ostentation. I could tell the world

How I have laid his Kingdom desolate
By this sole Arm prop't by

divinity,
Stript him out of his glories, and have sent
The pride of all
his youth to people graves,
And made his Virgins languish for their
Loves,
If I would brag, should I that have the power
To teach the
Neighbour world humility,
Mix with vain-glory?
Mar.
Indeed this is none.
_Arb.
Tigranes, Nay did I but take delight
To stretch my deeds as others do,
on words,
I could amaze my hearers.
Mar.
So you do.
Arb.
But he shall wrong his and my modesty,
That thinks me apt to boast
after any act
Fit for a good man to do upon his foe.
A little glory in
a souldiers mouth
Is well-becoming, be it far from vain.
Mar.
'Tis pity that valour should be thus drunk.
Arb.
I offer you my Sister, and you answer
I do insult, a Lady that no suite

Nor treasure, nor thy Crown could purchase thee,
But that thou
fought'st with me.
Tigr.
Though this be worse
Than that you spake before, it strikes me not;


But that you think to overgrace me with
The marriage of your Sister,
troubles me.
I would give worlds for ransoms were they mine,

Rather than have her.
Arb.
See if I insult
That am the Conquerour, and for a ransom
Offer rich
treasure to the Conquered,
Which he refuses, and I bear his scorn:
It
cannot be self-flattery to say,
The Daughters of your Country set by
her,
Would see their shame, run home and blush to death,
At their
own foulness; yet she is not fair,
Nor beautiful, those words express
her not,
They say her looks have something excellent,
That wants a
name: yet were she odious,
Her birth deserves the Empire of the
world,
Sister to such a brother, that hath ta'ne
Victory prisoner, and
throughout the earth,
Carries her bound, and should he let her loose,

She durst not leave him; Nature did her wrong,
To Print continual
conquest on her cheeks,
And make no man worthy for her to taste

But me that am too near her, and as strangely
She did for me, but you
will think I brag.
Mar.
I do I'le be sworn. Thy valour and thy passions sever'd, would have
made two excellent fellows