Another room in the castle
Enter Amphridote and Mazeres.
AMPHRIDOTE
My lord, what is the matter?
MAZERES
I know not what;
The king sent.
AMPHRIDOTE
Well, we obey.
Enter tyrant [Armatrites].
MAZERES
Here comes his highness.
[ARMATRITES]
How now, what’s she?
AMPHRIDOTE
I, my lord? Your highness
Knew me once, your most obedient daughter.
[ARMATRITES]
They lie that tell me so; this is not she.
AMPHRIDOTE
No, my lord?
[ARMATRITES]
No, for as thou art I know thee not,
And I shall strive still to forget thee more.
Thou neither bear’st in memory my respects
Nor thy own worths; how can we think of thee
But as of a dejected, worthless creature,
So far beneath our grace and thy own lustre,
That we disdain to know thee?
Was there no choice ‘mong our selected nobles
To make thy favourite besides Tymethes,
Son to our enemy, a wretch, a beggar,
Dead to all fortunes, honours, or their hopes,
Besides his breath worth nothing? Abject wretch,
To place thy affection so vigourously
On him can ne’er requite it! Deny ‘t not;
We know the favours thou hast given him:
Pledges of love, close letters, private meetings,
And whisperings are customary ‘twixt you.
Come, which be his gifts? Whereabout lie his pledges?
AMPHRIDOTE
Your grace hath been injuriously inform’d;
I ne’er receiv’d pledge.
[ARMATRITES]
Impudent creature,
When in our sight and hearing,
Shamefully undervaluing thy best honours
And setting by all modesty of blood,
Thou begg’dst a jewel of him.
AMPHRIDOTE
Oh, pardon me, my lord, I had forgot. Here ’tis;
That is the same, and that e’er was his.
[ARMATRITES]
Ha! This! How came this hither?
AMPHRIDOTE
I gave it you, my lord.
[ARMATRITES]
Who gave it thee?
AMPHRIDOTE
Tymethes.
[ARMATRITES]
He! Who gave it him?
AMPHRIDOTE
I know
Not that, my lord.
[ARMATRITES]
Then here it sticks, Mazeres!
MAZERES
My lord!
[ARMATRITES]
’Tis my queen’s, my queen’s, Mazeres!
How to him came this?
MAZERES
I can resolve your highness.
[ARMATRITES]
Can Mazeres?
MAZERES
He is some ape; the husk falls from him now,
And you shall know his inside: he’s a villain,
A traitor to the pleasures of your bed.
[ARMATRITES]
Oh, I shall burst with torment!
MAZERES
He’s receiv’d this night
Into her bosom.
[ARMATRITES]
I feel a whirlwind in me
Ready to tear the frame of my mortality!
MAZERES
I trac’d him to the deed.
[ARMATRITES]
And saw it done?
MAZERES
I abus’d my eyes in the true survey of’t,
Tainted my hearing with lascivious sounds;
My loyalty did prompt me to be sure
Of what I found so wicked and impure.
[ARMATRITES]
’Tis spring-tide in my gall; all my blood’s bitter,
Puh, lungs too!
MAZERES
This night.
[ARMATRITES]
[Lodovicus]!
Enter [Lodovicus].
LODOVICUS
My lord.
[ARMATRITES]
How cam’st thou up? Let’s hear.
LODOVICUS
My lord, my first beginning was a broker.
[ARMATRITES]
A knave from the beginning; there’s no hope
Of him. [Sextorio]?
Enter [Sextorio].
[SEXTORIO]
Here, my lord.
[ARMATRITES]
We know thee just; how cam’st thou up? Let’s hear.
[SEXTORIO]
From no desert that I can challenge
But your highness’ favour.
[ARMATRITES]
Thou art honest in that answer.
Go, report we are forty leagues off:
Ride forth; spread it about the castle cunningly.
[SEXTORIO]
I’ll do it faithfully, my lord.
[ARMATRITES]
Do’t cunningly,
Go; if thou shouldst do’t faithfully, thou liest.
[Exit Sextorio.]
I’m lost by violence through all my senses;
I’m blind with rage, Mazeres. Guide me forth:
I tread in air, and see no foot nor path;
I have lost myself, yet cannot lose my wrath.
Exeunt all but Amphridote.
AMPHRIDOTE
What have I heard? It dares not be but true.
Tymethes taken in adulterate trains,
And with the queen my mother? Now I hate him,
As beauty abhors years or usurers charity;
He does appear unto my eye a leper,
Full of sin’s black infection, foul adultery.
Enter Mazeres.
Cursed be the hour in which I first did grace him,
And let Mazeres starve in my disdain
That hath so long observ’d me with true love,
Whose loyalty in this approves the same.
MAZERES
Madam.
AMPHRIDOTE
My love?
My lord, I should say, but would say my love.
MAZERES
I do beseech your grace for what I have done.
Lay no oppressing censure upon me;
I could not but in honesty reveal it,
Not envying in that he was my rival,
Nor in the force of any ancient grudge,
But as the deed in its own nature crav’d.
So ‘mong the rest it was reveal’d to me,
Appearing so detested that yourself,
Gracious and kind, had you but seen the manner
Would have thrown by all pity and remorse
And took my office or one more in force.
AMPHRIDOTE
Rise, dear Mazeres, in our favours, rise;
So far am I from censure to reprove thee
That in my hate to him I choose and love thee.
MAZERES
If constant service may be call’d desert,
I shall deserve.
AMPHRIDOTE
Man hath no better part.
MAZERES aside
Why, this was happily observ’d and follow’d;
The king will to the castle late tonight
And tread through all the vaults. I must attend.
AMPHRIDOTE
I wish that at first sight th’ hadst forc’d his end.
Exit.
MAZERES
’Tis better thus; so my revenge imports.
Now thrive my plots; the end shall make me great:
She mine, the crown sits here; I am then complete.
Exit.