A King, and No King | Page 6

by treason hence this loathed life, that would but
be to serve her, I have pardoned, and pardoned, and by that have made
her fit to practise new sins, not repent the old: she now had stirr'd a
slave to come from thence, and strike me here, whom Gobrias sifting
out, took and condemn'd and executed there, the carefulst servant:
Heaven let me but live to pay that man; Nature is poor to me, that will
not let me have as many deaths as are the times that he hath say'd my
life, that I might dye 'em over all for him.
Mar.

Sir let her bear her sins on her own head,
Vex not your self.
Arb.
What will the world
Conceive of me? with what unnatural sins
Will
they suppose me loaden, when my life
Is sought by her that gave it to
the world?
But yet he writes me comfort here, my Sister,
He saies,
is grown in beauty and in grace.
In all the innocent vertues that
become
A tender spotless maid: she stains her cheeks
With morning
tears to purge her mothers ill,
And 'mongst that sacred dew she
mingles Prayers
Her pure Oblations for my safe return:
If I have
lost the duty of a Son,
If any pomp or vanity of state
Made me
forget my natural offices,
Nay farther, if I have not every night

Expostulated with my wandring thoughts,
If ought unto my parent
they have err'd,
And call'd 'em back: do you direct her arm
Unto
this foul dissembling heart of mine:
But if I have been just to her,
send out
Your power to compass me, and hold me safe
From
searching treason; I will use no means
But prayer: for rather suffer
me to see
From mine own veins issue a deadly flood,
Than wash
my danger off with mothers blood.
Mar.
I n'ere saw such suddain extremities.
[Exeunt.
Enter_ Tigranes _and Spaconia.
Tigr.
Why? wilt thou have me die Spaconia.
What should I do?
Spa.
Nay let me stay alone,
And when you see Armenia again,
You shall

behold a Tomb more worth than I;
Some friend that ever lov'd me or
my cause,
Will build me something to distinguish me
From other
women, many a weeping verse
He will lay on, and much lament
those maids,
That plac'd their loves unfortunately high,
As I have
done, where they can never reach;
But why should you go to Iberia?
Tigr.
Alas, that thou wilt ask me, ask the man
That rages in a Fever why he
lies
Distempered there, when all the other youths
Are coursing o're
the Meadows with their Loves?
Can I resist it? am I not a slave
To
him that conquer'd me?
Spa.
That conquer'd thee Tigranes! he has won
But half of thee, thy body,
but thy mind
May be as free as his, his will did never
Combate
thine, and take it prisoner.
Tigr.
But if he by force convey my body hence,
What helps it me or thee to
be unwilling?
Spa.
O Tigranes, I know you are to see a Lady there,
To see, and like I
fear: perhaps the hope
Of her make[s] you forget me, ere we part,

Be happier than you know to wish; farewel.
Tigr.
Spaconia, stay and hear me what I say:
In short, destruction meet me
that I may
See it, and not avoid it, when I leave
To be thy faithful
lover: part with me
Thou shalt not, there are none that know our love,

And I have given gold unto a Captain
That goes unto Iberia from

the King,
That he will place a Lady of our Land
With the Kings
Sister that is offered me;
Thither shall you, and being once got in

Perswade her by what subtil means you can
To be as backward in her
love as I.
Spa.
Can you imagine that a longing maid
When she beholds you, can be
pull'd away
With words from loving you?
Tigr.
Dispraise my health, my honesty, and tell her I am jealous.
Spa.
Why, I had rather lose you: can my heart
Consent to let my tongue
throw out such words,
And I that ever yet spoke what I thought,

Shall find it such a thing at first to lie?
Tigr.
Yet do thy best.
Enter Bessus.
Bes.
What, is your Majesty ready?
Tigr.
There is the Lady, Captain.
Bes.
Sweet Lady, by your leave, I co[u]ld wish my self more full of
Courtship for your fair sake.

Spa.
Sir I shall feel no want of that.
Bes.
Lady, you must hast, I have received new letters from the King that
require more hast than I expected, he will follow me suddenly himself,
and begins to call for your Majesty already.
Tigr.
He shall not do so long.
Bes.
Sweet Lady, shall I call you my Charge hereafter?
Spa.
I will not take upon me to govern your tongue Sir, you shall call me
what you please.
Actus Secundus.
Enter_ Gobrias, Bacurius, Arane, Panthe, _and Mandane,
_
Waiting-women with Attendants_.
Gob.
My Lord Bacurius, you must have regard unto the Queen, she is your
prisoner, 'tis at