The 1639 quarto of the play
CONTENTS
Dramatis Personæ
Inductio
Act I Scene 1.
Act I Scene 2.
Act I Scene 3.
Act I Scene 4.
Act II Scene 1.
Act II Scene 2.
Act II Scene 3.
Act III Scene 1.
Act III Scene 2.
Act III Scene 3.
Act IV Scene 1.
Act IV Scene 2.
Act IV Scene 3.
Act V Scene 1.
Act V Scene 2.
Dramatis Personæ
The KING of Lydia
TYMETHES, his son
LAPYRUS, his nephew
The King of Lycia
Zantippus, his son
Eurymone, his daughter
ARMATRITES, King of Cilicia
ZENARCHUS, his son
AMPHRIDOTE, his daughter
His YOUNG QUEEN
Her MAID
[A LADY]
MAZERES, his favourite
[ROXANO], the Young Queen’s keeper
FIDELIO }
AMORPHO } two faithful servants to the Lydian King
SEXTORIO }
LODOVICUS } two unfaithful servants of his
The OLD QUEEN of Lydia
Her two little children
CHORUS
The CLOWN
Two SHEPHERDS
Four SERVANTS [the first called VALESTA]
Soldiers [in the Induction]
[Two] SOLDIERS [in the forest]
Inductio
FLOURISH. ENTER AT one door the old King of Lydia, Tymethes his son, Lapyrus his nephew, and soldiers. At the other the old King of Lycia, Zantippus his son, Eurymone his daughter, and soldiers. The two kings parley and change hostages for peace. Lapyrus is given to the Lycian, and Zantippus to the Lydian. The Lycian seems to offer his daughter Eurymone to Lapyrus to fall from his uncle and join with him; he accepts her, drawing his sword against his country and uncle. The Lydian sends his son Tymethes for aid; he enters again with Armatrites, King of Cilicia, Zenarchus his son, and Mazeres, a young prince, the Cilician king’s follower. All they draw against the Lycian’s party, whereat they all [with] Lapyrus fly, the two other kings pursuing them. Then enter the Old Queen of Lydia flying from her nephew Lapyrus, with two babes in her arms, he pursuing her with his drawn sword. Enter Chorus.
CHORUS
After the waste of many thousand wounds
Given and receiv’d alike in seven set battles,
Lydia’s old king, upon conditions sign’d
For peace and truce, enter’d consigned league
With his fierce enemy, the Lycian king,
Gave him in hostage as his pledge of faith
His nephew, Lord Lapyrus, and receiv’d
Noble Zantippus from the Lycian.
To make the contract full and honourable,
This Lord Lapyrus entertain’d and welcom’d,
But chiefly by the fair Eurymone,
The king’s sole daughter, who unto Lapyrus
Offers her as his bride, so he would turn
A traitor to his country and his king;
Lapyrus, to obtain the beauteous maid,
Turns traitor to his king and joins his force
Unto his fair love’s father, Lycia’s king.
Th’ old King of Lydia, being so beset
By his own nephew’s unexpected treacheries,
Sent forth his son Tymethes to crave aid
From Armatrites, King of great Cilicia,
Which he obtain’d in a disastrous hour,
As the event will witness. In this trouble
The frighted queen with her two infants fled
Into a forest, fearing the sad ruin
Hourly expected, until Armatrites
With a fresh army forc’d Lapyrus fly
And sav’d the king, doom’d for worse treachery.
What follows shows itself; ’tis our full due
If we with labour give content to you.
Exit.
Act I Scene 1.
THE PRESENCE CHAMBER of the King of Lydia
Enter the two kings of Lydia and Cilicia, Zenarchus son to the Cilician, Tymethes son to the Lydian, Mazeres, Fidelio, Amorpho, Sextorio, Lodovicus; when they come unto the throne, the tyrant of Cilicia puts by the old King and ascends alone. All snatch out their swords. Mazeres crowns him. The old King and Tymethes stand amazed. Flourish.
ARMATRITES
Speranza!
OMNES
Long live Armatrites, King of Lydia!
KING
How?
ARMATRITES
Art thou amaz’d, old king, and all thy people
Mutually labouring in a fit of wonder?
Start from those pale dreams; we will prove all true:
Who wins the day the brightness is his due.
KING
King of Cilicia.
ARMATRITES
Ay, and Lydia now.
Bate us not our titles; we and ours
Have sweat and clearly earn’d them in our flesh.
KING
It savours not of nobleness nor virtue,
Religion, loyalty, heaven or nature’s laws
So most perfidiously to enter, tyrant,
Where was expected honesty and honour,
Assistance from a friend, not a dissembler,
A royal neighbour and no politic foe.
What worse than this could th’ enemy perform?
And when shines friendship best but in a storm?
ARMATRITES
Why, doting Lydia, is it of no virtue
To bring our army hither and put in venture
Our person and their lives upon our foes?
Wasting our courage, weakening our best forces,
Impoverishing the heart of our munition,
And having won the honour of the battle,
To throw our glory on unworthy spirits,
And so unload victory’s honey thighs
To let drones feed?
KING
Will nothing satisfy but all?
ARMATRITES
Without all, nothing.
The kingdom and not under suits our blood:
Flies are not eagles’ preys nor thanks our food.
And for Cilicia, our other sphere,
Our son Zenarchus, let thy beams move there.
ZENARCHUS
[Kneeling] Rather, my lord, let me move pity here,
Unto the reverend, fate-afflicted king,
For whom, with his disconsolate son, my friend
And plighted brother, I here kneel as suitor.
Oh, my most noble father, still retain
The seal of honour and religion:
A kingdom rightly possessed by course
Contains more joy than is usurp’d by force.
ARMATRITES
[Aside] The boy hath almost chang’d us.
MAZERES
[Aside] He cools. — My lord, remember you are possess’d.
ARMATRITES
What, with the devil?
[MAZERES]
The devil! The dukedom, the kingdom, Lydia:
All pant under your sceptre; the sway’s yours.
Be not bought out with words; a kingdom’s dear:
Kiss fortune; keep your mind and keep your state.
Y’are laugh’d at if you prove compassionate.
ARMATRITES
Thanks to Mazeres; he hath refresh’d our spirits.
Zenarchus, ’tis thy death if thou proceed:
Thy words we threat; rise silent or else bleed.
[Zenarchus rises.]
KING
Who can expect but blood where tyrants govern?
ARMATRITES
We are not yet so cruel to thy fortune
As was Lapyrus, thy own nephew, treacherous,
That stole upon thy life, beseig’d thee basely,
And had betray’d thee to thine enemy’s anger
Had we not beat his strength to his own throat
And made him shrink before us. All can tell
In him ’twas monstrous; ’tis in us but well,
A trick of war, advantage, policy, nay, rather recompense.
There’s more deceit in peace: ’tis common there
T’ unfold young heirs; the old may well stand bare.
You have your life; be thankful, and ’tis more
Than your perfidious nephew would consent to
Had he surpris’d you first. Your fate is cast;
The sooner you be gone ‘twill prove the safer.
KING
On thee, Lapyrus, and thy treacheries fall
The heavy burthen of an old man’s curse.
FIDELIO
Your queen with her two infants fled the city
Affrighted at this treason and new wars.
KING
News of more sadnesses than the kingdom’s loss;
She fled upon her hour, for had she stay’d
Sh’ had either died, been banish’d, or betray’d.
I have some servants here?
ARMATRITES
All these, my lord.
KING
All these? Not all; you did forget
I am not worth the flattering. I am done,
Old and at set: honour the rising sun.
If any for love serve me, which is he?
Now let him shame the world and follow me.
FIDELIO
That’s I, my lord.
AMORPHO
And I.
KING
What, two of you?
Let it be enroll’d
Two follow a king when he is poor and old.
[King] exit cum suis [Fidelio and Amorpho].
SEXTORIO
Farewell, king. I’ll play the flounder, keep me to my tide.
LODOVICUS
And so will I; this is the flowing side.
MAZERES
Those men are yours, my lord.
ARMATRITES
We’ll grace them chiefly.
[To Sextorio and Lodovicus] Wait for employment, place and eminence;
The like to each that to our bounty flies,
For he that falls to us shall surely rise.
[Taking Mazeres aside] His son Tymethes little frights our thoughts:
He’s young and given to pleasure, not to plots.
MAZERES
Your grace defines him right; he may remain.
The prince your son binds him in a love-chain;
There’s little fear of him.
ARMATRITES
Their loves are dear.
Base boy! He leaves his father to live here.
MAZERES
His presence sets a gloss on your attempts;
They have their lustre from him.
ARMATRITES
He’s their countenance;
’Twas well observ’d and follow’d: he shall stay.
Mazeres, thou armest us that won the day.
[Exeunt] all but Zenarchus and Tymethes.
ZENARCHUS
[Aside] None but Mazeres, that court fly, could on
The virtues of the king blow such corruption;
Man falls to vice in minutes, runs and leaps,
But unto goodness he takes wary steps.
How soon a tyrant! — Why, Tymethes, friend, brother?
TYMETHES
Peace, prithee, peace: you undo me if you wake me;
I hope I’m in a dream.
ZENARCHUS
Would ‘twere so happy.
TYMETHES
No? Why then, wake, beggar; but the comfort is
I have brave-seeming kinsmen. Why, Zenarchus,
’Tis not the loss of kingdom, father’s banishment,
Uncertainty of mother afflicts me
With half the violence that those cross’d affections
Betwixt your princely sister and ourself,
Who upon fortune, or her father’s frown,
Erecting the whole fabric of her love,
Either now will not, or else dare not love me.
ZENARCHUS
Chance alters not affection; see in me
That hold thee dear still spite of tyranny.
Fate does but dim the glass of a right man;
He still retains his worth, do what fate can.
Change faith for dross? I will not call her sister
That shall hate virtue for affliction.
Enter Amphridote.
And here she comes to clear those doubts herself.
AMPHRIDOTE
Strange alteration! Will the king my father
In his gray hairs turn tyrant to his friends,
Wasting his penitential times in plots,
Acting more sins than he hath tears to weep for them?
TYMETHES
Alas, lady, fortune hath chang’d my state; can you love a beggar?
AMPHRIDOTE
Why, fortune hath the least command o’er love;
She cannot drive Tymethes from himself,
And ’tis Tymethes, not his painted glories,
My soul in her accomplish’d wish desires.
ZENARCHUS
What say you now, sir?
TYMETHES
Nothing but admire
That heaven can frame a creature like a woman
And she be constant, seeing most are common.
ZENARCHUS
Put by your wonder, sir, she proves the same:
I spake her virtues for her ere she came;
And when my father dies, I here do vow
This kingdom now detained wrongfully
Shall then return unforcedly to you,
In part thy dowry, but in all thy due.
TYMETHES
Unmatched, honest young man!
Enter Mazeres observing.
ZENARCHUS
Come, let your lips meet, though your fortunes wander.
MAZERES
[Aside] Ha! Taste lips so bounteously with a beggar?
ZENARCHUS
Thus in firm state let your affections rest;
Time, that makes wretched, makes the same men bless’d.
Exeunt [all but Mazeres].
MAZERES
What’s here? Either the princes out of charity’s rashness
Are pleas’d to lay aside their glories and refresh
The gasping fortunes of a desperate wretch,
Or if for larger bounties [ ]. I was mad
T’ advise the king for his remaining here
That had been banish’d, and with him my fear:
I love the princess, and the king allows it;
If he should prove a rival to my love,
I have argued fair for his abiding here.
My plots shall work his ruin; if one fail,
I’ll raise a second, for I must prevail.
I that us’d policy to cause him stay
Can show like art to rid my fears away.
Exit.
Act I Scene 2.
A FOREST
Enter the Old Queen with two babes, as being hard pursued.
[OLD] QUEEN
Oh, whither shall I fly with these poor babes?
Twice set upon by thieves within this forest,
Who robb’d me of my clothes and left me these,
Which better suit with my calamity!
What fate pursues the good old king my husband?
I cannot learn which is my worst affliction.
Oh, treacherous Lapyrus! Impious nephew!
All horrors of a guilty breast keep with thee!
Either, poor babes, you must pine here for food,
Or have the wars drink your immaculate blood.
Cry within, “Follow, follow!”
Oh, fly, lest life and honour be betray’d!
Exit.
Act I Scene 3.
A
NOTHER PART OF the forest
Enter Lapyrus disguised.
LAPYRUS
Villain and fugitive, where wilt thou hide
Th’ abhorred burthen of thy wretched flesh?
In what disguise canst thou be safe and free,
Having betray’d thy [country]? Base Lapyrus!
Earth, stretch thy throat, take down this bitter pill,
Loathing the hateful taste of his own will!
Enter the [Old] Queen and two Soldiers pursuing her.
[OLD] QUEEN
Oh, help! Good heaven, save a poor wretch from slaughter!
[FIRST SOLIDER]
Stop her mouth first; soldiers must have their sport.
’Tis dearly earn’d: they venture their blood for’t.
LAPYRUS
[Aside] A mother so enforc’d by pitiless slaves?
Let me redeem my honour in her rescue,
And in this deed my former baseness die.
[SECOND SOLDIER]
Come, come!
[OLD] QUEEN
If ever woman bore you —
LAPYRUS
[Drawing his sword] Whoe’er bore them, monsters begot them! Merciless, damn’d villains!
BOTH [SOLDIERS]
Hold, hold, sir! We are soldiers, but do not love to fight.
Exeunt [Soldiers].
[OLD] QUEEN
Let me dissuade you from all hope of recompense
Save thanks and prayers, which are the beggar’s gifts.
LAPYRUS
You cannot give me that I have more need of
Than prayers, for my soul hath a poor stock;
There’s a fair house within, but ’tis ill-furnish’d:
There wants true tears for hangings, penitent falls,
For without prayers, soldiers are but bare walls.
Whence are you that with such a careful charge
Dare pass this dangerous forest?
[OLD] QUEEN
Generous sir,
I was of Lydia once, as happy then
As now unfortunate, till one Lapyrus,
That traitorous villain nephew to the king,
Sought the confusion of his state and him,
And with a secret army girt his land
When peace was plighted by his enemy’s hand,
Complete Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker Page 191