Describing the new love he bears Roxana, So furious, any torrent's falls so swift, As a wronged woman's hate? Thus far it helps To give him troubles; which perhaps may end him, And set the court in universal uproar. SCENE III. [Exeunt. Whose body, O forgive the blasphemy, Stat. Will you not give me leave to warn my As I was saying Then he will talk-good gods, how he will talk! Even when the joy he sighed for is possest, Enter SYSIGAMBIS, STATIRA, PARISATIS, At- He speaks the kindest words, and looks such tendants. Stat. Give me a knife, a draught of poison, flames; Swell heart, break, break, thou stubborn thing! Sys. Is there no reverence to my person due? Darius would have heard me: trust not rumour. Stat. No, he hates, He loaths the beauties, which he has enjoyed. Outwept the morning with his dewy eyes, Stat. Away, and let me die : False to Statira, false to her, that loved him; things, Vows with so much passion, swears with so much grace, That 'tis a kind of heaven to be deluded by him. Par. But what was it, that you would have me swear? Stat. Alas, I had forgot! let me walk by, And weep awhile, and I shall soon remember. Sys. Have patience, child, and give her liberty; Passions, like seas, will have their ebbs and flows: Yet, while I see her thus, not all the losses Par. But what if she should kill herself? Stat. Roxana, then, enjoys my perjured love: Or go distracted; madness may throw off Sys. Take heed, my dear Statira, and consider, What desperate love enforces you to swear. Stut. Pardon me, for I have considered well; And here I bid adieu to all mankind. Farewell, ye cozeners of the easy sex, And thou the greatest, falsest, Álexander! Farewell, thou most beloved, thou faithless dear! If I but mention him, the tears will fail; Sure there is not a letter in his name, But is a charm to melt a woman's eyes. Sys. Clear up thy griefs; thy king, thy Alexander, Comes on to Babylon. Stat. Why, let him come, Thus with thy hand held up, thus let me swear Joy of all eyes but the forlorn Statira's. thee By the eternal body of the sun, Sys. Wilt thou not see him? Stat. By heaven I never will, This is my vow, my sacred resolution; [Kneels. | The fast calamities, that round me fall. And when I break it Sus. Ah, do not ruin all! Stat. May I again be flattered and deluded, May sudden death, and horrid, come instead Of what I wished, and take me unprepared ! Sys. Still kneel, and with the same breath call again The woful imprecation thou hast made. Stat. No, I will publish it through all the court, Then, in the bowers of great Semiramis, For ever lock my woes from human view. Sys. Yet be persuaded. Stat. Never urge me more; Lest, driven to rage, I should my life abhor, SCENE I. Par. O angry heaven! what have the guiltless done? And where shall wretched Parisatis run? Sys. Captives in war, our bodies we resigned; But now made free, love does our spirits bind. Stat. When to my purposed loneness I retire, Your sight I through the grates shall oft desire, And after Alexander's health enquire. And if this passion cannot be removed, Ask how my resolution he approved, How much he loves, how much he is beloved? Then, when I hear that all things please him well, Thank the good gods, and hide me in ACT II. Notes of trumpets sounding fur off-The scene draws, and discovers a battle of crows and ravens in the air; an eagle and a dragon meet and fight; the eagle drops down with all the rest of the birds, and the dragon flies away. Soldiers walk off, shaking their heads. The conspirators come forward. Cass. He comes, the fatal glory of the world, The headlong Alexander, with a guard Of thronging crowns, comes on to Babylon, Though warned, in spite of all the powers above, Who, by these prodigies, foretell his ruin. Pol. Why all this noise, because a king must die? Or does heaven fear, because he swayed the earth, court, His dreadful eye-balls rolled their horror upwards; He waved his arms, and shook his wondrous head. I met a monstrous child, that, with his hands, | my cell. [Exeunt. There is not a Persian I can meet, but stares Phil. Others, more fearful, are removed to Dreading Roxana's rage, who comes in the rear To Babylon. Cass. It glads my rising soul, That we shall see him racked before he dies: Her last adieu made public to the world, And sympathy of natures, caused me love her : 'Tis fixed, I must enjoy her, and no way So proper as to make her guilty first. Pol. To see two rival queens of different.hu mours, With a variety of torments vex him! Enter LYSIMACHUS, and HEPHESTION. Cass. Of that anon: But see Lysimachus, And the young favourite. Sort, sort yourselves, And, like to other mercenary souls, Adore this mortal god, that soon must bleed. Lys. Here I will wait the king's approach, and stand His utmost anger, if he do me wrong. Not love the king? such is not woman's love; Alex. Thou dost, thou lovest me, crown of all my wars, Thou dearer to me than my groves of laurel : Though never mortal man arrived to such Heph. That cannot be, from power so abso- A height as I; yet I would forfeit all, Lo, the Chaidean priests appear; behold To soothe the king, who loves the Persian mode: Enter ALEXANDER; all kneel but CLYTUS. O my Hephestion, raise thee from the carth Hug me, or, by Heaven, thou lovest me not. And moulded up to such an excellence! Cast all my purples, and my conquered crowns, Lys. Dread sir, I cast me at your royal feet. rich With our illustrious blood? My kinsman, rise; Cly. Your old faithful soldier. Alex. Come to my hands, thus double arm the And now, methinks, I stand like the dread God, Lys. But if your majesty Cly. Who would not lose The last dear drop of blood for such a king? Aler. Witness, my elder brothers of the sky, How much I love a soldier-O my Clytus, Was it not when we passed the Granicus, Thou didst preserve me from unequal force? It was then, when Spithridates and Rhesaces, Fell both upon me with two dreadful strokes, And clove my tempered helmet quite in sunder, Then I remember, then thou didst me service; I think my thunder split them to the navel. Cly. To your great self you owe that victory, And I am prouder to have passed that stream, ૨ has won, Are lost, unless you fly from Babylon; Aler. What fears thy reverend bosom shake? Aris. To Orosmades' cave I did repair, Where I atoned the dreadful God with prayer : But as I prayed I heard long groans within, And shrieks as of the damned, that howl for sin: Alex. If Babylon must fall, what is it to me? Or can I help immutable decree? Down, then, vast frame, with all thy lofty towers, Since it is so ordered by almighty powers: Pressed by the fates, unloose your golden bars, 'Tis great to fall the envy of the stars. Enter PERDICCAS, MELEAGER. Mel. O horror! Per. Dire portents! Alex. Out with them, then; · What, are ye ghosts, ye empty shapes of men? Mel. All, as for honour, did their lives expose; Their talons clashed, and beaks gave mighty blows, Whilst dreadful sounds did our scared sense assail, As of small thunder, or huge Scythian hail. Per. Our augurs shook, when, with a horrid groan, We thought that all the clouds had tumbled down. Alex. Be witness for me, all ye powers divine, Lys. Ere you remove, be pleased, dread sir, to hear Is not my word already past? Hephestion, Lys. I never failed to obey your majesty, Alex. You should, brave sir? hear me, and then be dumb; When by my order curst Calisthenes Lys. I doubted not at first but I should meet 'Tis said, that I am rash, of hasty humour; Had temper like to mine: My slave, whom I Could tread to clay, dares utter bloody threats. Cly. Contain yourself, dread sir; the noble prince, I see it in his countenance, would die To justify his truth; but love makes many faults. Lys. I meant his minion there should feel my arm; Love asks his blood, nor shall he live to laugh Aler. Now be thy own judge; I pardon thee for my old Clytus' sake; Enter SYSIGAMBIS, PARISATIS. Heph. My lord, the queen comes to congratulate Your safe arrival. Aler. O thou, the best of women, Source of my joy, blest parent of my love! Which from the Persian family are due: May it be drowned in deeper misery! Aler. To meet me thus, was generously done; But still there wants, to crown my happiness, Life of my empire, treasure of my soul, My dear Statira: O that heavenly beain, Warmth of my brain, and fire of my heart; Had she but shot to see me, had she met me, By this time I had been amongst the gods, If any extasy can make a height, Or any rapture hurl us to the heavens, Cly. Now, who shall dare to tell him the queen's vow? Aler. How fares my love? ha-neither answer me! Ye raise my wonder, darkness overwhelms me ;/ me. Aler. If she be dead-That if is impossible; And let none here affirm it for his soul: For he, that dares but think so damned a lie, I'll have his body straight impaled before me, And glut my eyes upon his bleeding entrails. Cass, How will this engine of unruly passion Roar, when we have rammed him to the mouth with poison? [Aside. Alex. Why stand you all, as you were rooted here, Like the senseless trees, while to the stupid grove I, like a wounded lion, groan my griefs, And none will answer-what, not my Hephestion? If thou hast any love for Alexander, If ever I obliged thee by my care, When my quick sight has watched thee in the fight; Or if to see thee bleed I sent forth cries, Ease me, and tell the cause of my disaster. Heph. Your mourning queen (which I had told before Had you been calm) has no disease but sorrow, ver?) That you at Susa, breaking all your vows, Relapsed, and conquered by Roxana's charms, Gave up yourself devoted to her arms. Alex. I know that subtle creature, in my riot, My reason gone, seduced me to her bed; But when I waked I shook the Circe off, Though that enchantress held me by the arm, And wept, and gazed with all the force of love; Nor grieved I less for that, which I had done, Than when at Thais' suit, enraged with wine, I set the famed Persepolis on fire. Heph. Your queen Statira took it so to heart, With dreadful imprecations she confirmed I'll not believe it; no, she is all softness, Par. I and my weeping mother heard her |