Timan. See, she kneels,

And seems to call upon the gods to pay The debt she owes your virtue: To perform which

As a sure pledge of friendship, she vouchsafes you Her right-band.

Pis. I am paid for all my sufferings.

Now, when you please, pass to your private chamber,

My love and duty, faithful guards, shall keep you
[Makes a low courtesy as she goes off.
From all disturbance; and when you are sated
With thinking of Leosthenes, as a fee
Due to my service, spare one sigh for me.

SCENE III,

[Exeunt.

Enter LEOSTHENES and TIMAGOras.
Timag. I am so far from envy, I am proud
You have outstripped me in the race of honour.
Oh! 'twas a glorious day, and bravely won!
Your bold performance gave such lustre to
Timoleon's wise directions, as the army
Rests doubtful, to whom they stand most engaged
For their so great success.

Leost. The gods first honoured,
The glory be the general's; 'tis far from me
To be his rival.

Timag. You abuse your fortune,

To entertain her choice and gracious favours
With a contracted brow; plumed victory
Is truly painted with a cheerful look,
Equally distant from proud insolence,
And base dejection.

Leost. O Timagoras!

You only are acquainted with the cause,
That loads my sad heart with a hill of lead;
Whose ponderous weight, neither my new-got ho-

nour,

Assisted by the general applause

The soldiers crown it with, nor all war's glories,
Can lessen or remove: and, would you please,
With fit consideration, to remember,
How much I wronged Cleora's innocence
With my rash doubts; and what a grievous pen-

ance

She did impose upon her tender sweetness,
To pluck away the vulture jealousy,

That fed upon my liver, you cannot blame me,
But call it a fit justice on myself,
Though I resolve to be a stranger to
The thought of mirth or pleasure.
Timag. You have redeemed

The forfeit of your fault with such a ransom
Of honourable action, as my sister
Must of necessity confess her sufferings
VOL. I.

Weighed down by your fair merits; and, when she views you,

Like a triumphant conqueror, carried through
The streets of Syracusa, the glad people
Pressing to meet you, and the senators
Contending who shall heap most honours on you;
The oxen, crowned with garlands, led before you,
Appointed for the sacrifice; and the altars
Smoaking with thankful incense to the gods;
The soldiers chaunting loud hymns to your praise;
The windows filled with matrons and with virgins,
Throwing upon your head, as you pass by,
The choicest flowers, and silently invoking
The queen of love, with their particular vows,
To be thought worthy of you; can Cleora,
(Though in the glass of self-love, she behold
Her best deserts) but with all joys acknowledge,
What she endured was but a noble trial
You made of her affection? and her anger,
Rising from your too amorous fears, soon drenched
In Lethe, and forgotten.

Leost. If those glories

You so set forth, were mine, they might plead for

me:

But I can lay no claim to the least honour
Which you with foul injustice ravish from her.
Her beauty in me wrought a miracle,
Taught me to aim at things beyond my power,
Which her perfections purchased, and gave to me
From her free bounties; she inspired me with
That valour which I dare not call mine own;
And, from the fair reflection of her mind,
My soul received the sparkling beams of courage.
She, from the magazine of her proper goodness,
Stocked me with virtuous purposes; sent me forth
To trade for honour: and, she being the owner
Of the bark of my adventures, I must yield her
A just account of all, as befits a factor:
And, howsoever others think me happy,
And cry aloud, I have made a prosperous
One frown of her dislike at my return,
(Which, as a punishment for my fault, I look for)
Strikes dead all comfort.

voyage,

SCENE I.

Enter PISANDER and TIMANDRA.

Pis. SHE has her health, then? Timan. Yes, sir, and, as often As I speak of you, lends attentive ear To all that I deliver; nor seems tired, Though I dwell long on the relation of

Your sufferings for her, heaping praise on praise On your unequalled temperance, and command You hold o'er your affections.

Pis. To my wish:

Have you acquainted her with the defeat

Of the Carthaginians, and with what honours Leosthenes comes crowned home?

Timan. With all care.

Pis. And how does she receive it?
Timan. As I guess,

With a seeming kind of joy: but yet appears not
Transported, or proud of his happy fortune.
But when I tell her of the certain ruin
You must encounter with at their arrival
In Syracusa, and that death with torments
Must fall upon you, which you yet repent not,
Esteeming it a glorious martyrdom,
And a reward of pure unspotted love,
Preserved in the white robe of innocence,
Though she were in your power; and, still spur-

red on

Enter TIMOLEON, ARCHIDAMUS, DIPHILUS, LEOSTHENES, TIMAGORAS, and others.

Timol. Thus far we are returned victorious; crowned

With wreaths triumphant, (famine, blood and death

Banished your peaceful confines) and bring home
Security and peace. 'Tis therefore fit

That such as boldly stood the shock of war,
And with the dear expence of sweat and blood
Have purchased honour, should with pleasure reap
The harvest of their toil; and we stand bound
Out of the first file of the best deservers,
(Though all must be considered to their merits)
To think of you, Leosthenes, that stand,
And worthily, most dear in our esteem,
For your heroic valour.

Arch. When I look on

(The labour of so many men and ages)
This well-built city, not long since designed
To spoil and rapine, by the favour of
The gods, and you their ministers, preserved,
I cannot, in my height of joy, but offer
These tears for a glad sacrifice.

Diph. Sleep the citizens?

Or are they overwhelmed with the excess
Of comfort that flows to them?

Leost. We receive

A silent entertainment.

Timag. I have long since

Expected that the virgins and the matrons,
The old men striving with their age, the priests,
Carrying the images of their gods before them,
Should have met us with procession. Ha! the gates
Are shut against us!

Arch. And upon the walls
Armed men seem to defy us!

Enter above PISANDER, POLIPHRON, CIMBRIO, GRACCULO, &c.

Diph. I should know

These faces. They are our slaves.

Timag. The mystery, rascals?

Open the ports, and play not with an anger
That will consume you.

Timol. This is above wonder!

Arch. Our bondmen stand against us?
Grac. Some such things

We were in man's remembrance.-The slaves are turned

Lords of the town, or so.-Nay, be not angry: Perhaps, on good terms, giving security

daughters

Leost. O my prophetic soul?

Grac. Rifled your chests,

Been busy with your wardrobes.

Timag. Can we endure this!
Leost. O! my Cleora?

Grac. A caudle for the gentleman!

He'll die of the pip else.

Timag. Scorned too! Are you turned stone?

Hold parley with our bondmen? Force our en

In your destruction.

Grac. That, as please the fates; But we vouchsafe.-Speak, captain, Timag. Hell and furies!

Arch. Bayed by our own curs!

Cimb. Take heed you be not worried,
Pol. We are sharp set.
Cimb. And sudden.

Pis. Briefly thus then,

Since I must speak for all.-Your tyranny
Drew us from our obedience. Happy those times
When lords were styled fathers of families,
And not imperious masters! when they num-
bered

Their servants almost equal with their sons,
Or one degree beneath them; when their labours
Were cherished and rewarded, and a period
Set to their sufferings; when they did not press
Their duties or their wills beyond the power
And strength of their performance; all things
ordered

With such decorum, as wise law-makers,
From each well-governed private house, derived
The perfect model of a commonwealth.
Humanity then lodged in the hearts of men,
And thankful masters carefully provided
For creatures wanting reason. The noble horse,
That in his fiery youth from his wide nostrils
Neighed courage to his rider, and broke through
Groves of opposed pikes, bearing his lord
Safe to triumphant victory, old or wounded,
Was set at liberty, and freed from service.
The Athenian mules, that from the quarry drew
Marble, hewed for the temples of the gods,
The great work ended, were dismissed, and fed
At the public cost; nay, faithful dogs have found
Their sepulchres; but man, to man more cruel,
Appoints no end to the sufferings of his slave;
Since pride stepped in and riot, and overturned
This goodly frame of concord, teaching masters
To glory in the abuse of such as are

To shake our heavy yokes off; and, if redress
Of these just grievances be not granted us,
We'll right ourselves, and by strong hand defend
What we are now possessed of.

Grac. And not leave

One house unfired.

Cimb. Or throat uncut of those

We have in our power.

Pol. Nor will we fall alone;
You shall buy us dearly.
Timag. O the gods!
Unheard of insolence?

Timol. What are your demands?

Pis. A general pardon, first, for all offences Committed in your absence: Liberty

To all such as desire to make return

Into their countries; and to those that stay,
A competence of land freely allotted

To each man's proper use; no lord acknowledged;
Lastly, with your consent, to chuse them wives
Out of your families.

Timag. Let the city sink first.

Leost. And ruin seize on all, ere we subscribe To such conditions.

Arch. Carthage, though victorious, Could not have forced more from us. Leost. Scale the wall!

--

Enter LEOSTHENES and TIMAGORAS.
Timag. Make a firm stand.
The slaves, not satisfied they've beat us off,
Prepare to sally forth.

Tomol. They are wild beasts,
And to be tamed by policy. Each man take
A tough whip in his hand, such as you used
To punish them with as masters: In your looks
Carry severity and awe; 'twill frighten them
More than your weapons; Savage lions fly from
The sight of fire; and these that have forgot
That duty you ne'er taught them with your swords,
When, unexpected, they behold those terrors
Advanced aloft, that they were made to shake at,

Twill force them to remember what they are, And stoop to due obedience.

Enter CIMBRIO, GRACCULO, ond other Slaves.

Arch. Here they come.

Drinking the bitter water of afflictions,
Made loathsome too by our continued fears,
Comfort's a stranger to us.

Leost. Fears? Your sufferings,

For which I am so overgone with grief,

a flea-biting,

To what we suffered being slaves.
Grac. O, my heart!

Cimbrio, what do we see? the whip! our masters!
Timag. Dare you rebel, slaves?
[Senators shake their whips, and they throw
away their weapons, and run off.
Cimb. Mercy! mercy! where
Shall we hide us from their fury!
Grac. Fly! they follow.

Oh! we shall be tormented.

Timol. Enter with them,

But yet forbear to kill them. Still remember They are part of your wealth; and being disarmed, There is no danger.

Arch. Let us first deliver

Such as they have in fetters, and at leisure
Determine of their punishment.

Leost. Friend, to you

I leave the disposition of what's mine:
I cannot think I am safe without your sister.
She's only worth my thought: and till I see
What she has suffered I am on the rack,
And furies my tormentors.

SCENE III.

[Exeunt.

Enter PISANDER and TIMANDRA. Pis. I know I am pursued; nor would I fly, Although the ports were open, and a convoy Ready to bring me off-The baseness of These villains, from the pride of all my hopes, Has thrown me to the bottomless abyss Of horror and despair. Had they stood firm, I could have bought Cleora's free consent With the safety of her father's life and brother's; And forced Leosthenes to quit his claim, And kneel a suitor to me.

Timan. You must not think

The villain's name, that robbed thee of thy ho

nour;

For being trained up in chastity's cold school,
And taught by such a mistress as Cleora,
Twere impious in me to think Timandra
Fell with her own consent.

Timan. How mean you? Fell, sir!
I understand you not.

Leost. I would thou did'st not,
Or that I could not read upon thy face,
In blushing characters, the story of
Libidinous rape.-Confess it, for you stand not
Accountable for a sin, against whose strength
Your overmatched innocence could make no re
sitance,

Under which odds I know Cleora fell too,
Heaven's help in vain invoked!—the amazed sun,
Hiding his face behind a mask of clouds,
Not daring to look on it.-In her sufferings
All sorrow's comprehended.-What Timandra,
Or the city, has endured, her loss considered,
Deserves not to be named.

Timan. Pray you, do not bring, sir,
In the chimeras of your jealous fears,
New monsters to affright us.

Leost. O Timandra,

That I had faith enough but to believe thee!
I should receive it with a joy beyond
Assurance of Elysian shades hereafter,

Or all the blessings in this life a mother
Could wish her children crowned with.-But I

must not

Credit impossibilities; yet I strive

To find out that, whose knowledge is a curse,
And ignorance a blessing.-Come, discover
What kind of look he had that forced thy lady,
(Thy ravisher I will enquire at leisure)
That when hereafter I behold a stranger
But near him in aspect, I may conclude

practised,

And suddenly resolve.

Pis. All my poor fortunes

Are at the stake, and I must run the hazard.
Unseen, convey me to Cleora's chamber;
For, in her sight, if it were possible,

I would be apprehended.-Do not enquire
The reason why, but help me.
Timan. Make haste-One knocks.
[Exit Pisander.

Enter LEOSTHENES.

nest)

He is a hell-bred villain.

Timan. You are unworthy

To know she is preserved, preserved untainted. Sorrow (but ill bestowed) hath only made

A rape upon her comforts in your absence. [Exit, and returns with Cleora. Come forth, dear madam. [Kneels.

Leost. Ha!

Leost. Thou givest it in a heavy tone.
Timan. Alas! sir,

We have so long fed on the bread of sorrow,

A living funeral) must of force have shrunk at. No danger could compel her to dispense with iler cruel penance; though hot lust came armed

To seize upon her; when one look or accent
Might have redeemed her.

Leost. Might? O do not shew me

A beam of comfort, and straight take it from me.
-The means by which she was freed ?-Speak,
O speak quickly!

Each minute of delay's an age of torment:
O! speak, Timandra!

Timan. Free her from the oath;

Herself can best deliver it. [Takes off the scarf.
Leost. O blest office!

Never did galley-slave shake off his chains,
Or look on his redemption from the oar,
With such true feeling of delight as now
I find myself possessed of.-Now I behold
True light indeed: For, since these fairest stars
(Covered with clouds of your determinate will)
Denied their influence to my optic sense,
The splendor of the sun appeared to me
But as some little glimpse of his bright beams
Conveyed into a dungeon, to remember
The dark inhabitants there how much they wanted.
Open these long-shut lips, and strike mine cars
With music more harmonious than the spheres
Yield in their heavenly motions: And, if ever
A true submission for a crime acknowledged
May find a gracious hearing, teach your tongue,
In the first sweet articulate sounds it utters,
To sign my wished-for pardon.

Cleora. I forgive you.

Least. How greedily I receive this! Stay, best
lady,

And let me by degrees ascend the height
Of human happiness! All at once delivered,
The torrent of my joys will overwhelm me ;-
So, now a little more; and pray excuse me,
If, like a wanton epicure, I desire

The pleasant taste these cares of comfort yield

Cleora. I restore

Cleora. I cannot speak it to the worth: All praise I can bestow upon it, will appear Envious detraction. Not to rack you further, Yet make the miracle full; though, of all men, He hated you, Leosthenes, as his rival ;

So high yet prized he my content, that, knowing You were a man I favoured, he disdained not Against himself to serve you.

Leost. You conceal still

To owner of these excellencies. Cleora. 'Tis Marullo,

rowed

When I last saw you.

Leost. Miracle of virtue!

One pause more, I beseech you :-I am like

A man, whose vital spirit, consumed and wasted
With a long and tedious fever, unto whom
Too much of a strong cordial at once taken,
Brings death, and not restores him. Yet I can-

not

Fix here; but must enquire the man to whom
I stand indebted for a benefit,
Which to requite at full, though in this hand
I grasped all scepters the world's empire bows to,
Would leave me a poor bankrupt.-Name him,
lady;

If of a mean estate, I'll gladly part with

Leost. Ha, ha, ha!

Cleora. Why do you laugh?

Leost. To hear the labouring mountain of your praise

Delivered of a mouse.

Cleora. The man deserves not
This scorn, I do assure you.
Leost. Do you call
What was his duty merit?

Cleora. Yes, and place it

As high in my esteem, as all the honours
Descended from your ancestors, or the glory,
Which you may call your own, got in this action,
In which, I must confess, you have done nobly,
And, I would add, as I desired;—but that
I fear 'twould make you proud.