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.