A room in the castle
Enter Zenarchus solus.
ZENARCHUS
Oh, my Tymethes! Truest joy on earth!
Hath thy fate prov’d so flinty, so perverse
To the sweet spring both of thy youth and hopes?
This was Mazeres’ spite, that cursed rival,
And if I fail not, his own plot shall shower
Upon his bosom like a falling tower.
Enter tyrant [Armatrites].
My worthy lord.
[ARMATRITES]
Oh, you should have seen us sooner.
ZENARCHUS
Why, my lord?
[ARMATRITES]
The quarters of your friend passed by in triumph,
A sight that I presume had pleas’d you well.
ZENARCHUS
I call a villain to my father’s pleasure
No friend of mine; the sight had pleas’d me better
Had I, not like Mazeres, run my hate
Into the sin before it grew to act
And kill’d it ere ‘t had knotted. ’Twas rare service,
If your vex’d majesty conceive it right,
In politic Mazeres, serving more
In this discovery his own vicious malice
Than any true peace that should make you perfect,
Suffering the hateful treason to be done
He might have stopp’d in his confusion.
[ARMATRITES]
Most certain.
ZENARCHUS
Good your majesty, bethink you
In manly temper and considerate blood,
Went he the way of loyalty or your quiet
After he saw the courtesies exceed
T’ abuse your peace and trust them with the deed?
[ARMATRITES]
Oh, no, none but a traitor would have done it.
ZENARCHUS
For, my lord, weigh ‘t indifferently.
[ARMATRITES]
I do, I do.
ZENARCHUS
What makes it heinous, [burthensome], and monstrous,
Fills you with such distractions, breeds such furies
In your incensed breast, but the deed doing?
[ARMATRITES]
Oh!
ZENARCHUS
Th’ intent had been sufficient for his death,
And that full satisfaction, but the act —
[ARMATRITES]
Insufferable!
[Sextorio!] Where’s [Sextorio]?
Enter [Sextorio].
[SEXTORIO]
My lord.
[ARMATRITES]
Seek out Mazeres suddenly.
[Exit Sextorio.]
Peace, Zenarchus;
Let me alone to trap him.
[Zenarchus withdraws.]
ZENARCHUS
[Aside] It may prove.
Behold, my friend, how I express my love.
[ARMATRITES]
[Aside] Oh, villain, had he pierc’d him at first sight,
Where I have one grief, I had miss’d ten thousand by’t!
Enter Mazeres and [Sextorio].
MAZERES
[Aside] I dreamt of some new honours for my late service,
And I wonder’d how he could keep off so long from my desert.
[ARMATRITES]
Mazeres?
MAZERES
My lov’d lord.
[ARMATRITES]
I am forgetful;
I am in thy debt some dignities, Mazeres.
What shift shall we make for thee? Thy late service
Is warm still in our memory and dear favour:
Prithee discover to’s the manner how
Thou tookest them subtly.
MAZERES
I was received
Into a waiter’s room, my lord.
[ARMATRITES]
Thou wast!
MAZERES
And in a vizard help’d to serve the banquet.
[ARMATRITES]
Ha, ha!
MAZERES
Saw him convey’d into a chamber privately.
[ARMATRITES]
And still thou let’st him run?
MAZERES
I let him play, my lord.
[ARMATRITES]
Ha, ha, ha!
MAZERES
I watch’d still near till her arms clasp’d him.
[ARMATRITES]
And there thou let’st him rest?
MAZERES
There he was caught, my lord.
[ARMATRITES]
So art thou here;
Drag him to execution: he shall die
With tortures ‘bove the thought of tyranny.
[Exeunt Armatrites, Sextorio with Mazeres.]
ZENARCHUS
No words are able to express my gladness;
’Tis such a high-born rapture that the soul
Partakes it only.
Enter Amphridote and [Lodovicus].
AMPHRIDOTE
My Lord Mazeres led
Unto his death?
LODOVICUS
It proves too true, dear princess.
[Exit Lodovicus.]
AMPHRIDOTE
[Aside] Curs’d be the mouth that doom’d him, and forever
Blasted the hand that parts him from his life!
Was there none fit to practice tyranny on
But whom our heart elected? Misery of love!
I must not live to think on’t!
ZENARCHUS
[Aside] Here’s my sister;
I could not bring that news will please her better. —
My news brings that command over your passions:
You must be merry.
AMPHRIDOTE
Have you warrant for’t, brother?
ZENARCHUS
Yes, strong enough, i’faith. Hear me: Mazeres
By this time is at his everlasting home,
Where’er his body lies. I struck the stroke;
I wrought a bitter pill that quickly chok’d him.
AMPHRIDOTE
[Aside] Oh, me, my soul will out! — Some wine there, ho!
ZENARCHUS
Wine for our sister, for the news is worth it!
Enter Lodovicus with wine.
AMPHRIDOTE
[Aside] It will prove dear to both. — So, give it me; now leave us.
Exit [Lodovicus].
ZENARCHUS
Revenge ne’er brought forth a more happy issue
Than I think mine to be.
She poisons the wine.
AMPHRIDOTE
[Aside] I’m setting forth, Mazeres. — Here, Zenarchus.
ZENARCHUS
Thou art not like this hour, jovial.
AMPHRIDOTE
I shall be after this.
ZENARCHUS
That does’t if any;
Wine doth both help defects and causeth many.
Here’s to the deed, faith, of our last revenge.
[They drink.]
AMPHRIDOTE
Dying men prophesy; faith, ’tis our last end.
Now I must tell you, brother, that I hate you
In that you have betray’d my lov’d Mazeres.
ZENARCHUS
What’s this?
AMPHRIDOTE
His deed was loyal, his discovery just;
He brought to light a monster and his lust.
ZENARCHUS
Nay, if you grow
So strumpet-like in your behaviour to me,
I’ll quickly cool that insolence.
AMPHRIDOTE
Peace, peace:
There is a champion fights for me unseen;
I need not fear thy threats.
ZENARCHUS
Indeed, no harlot
But has her champion, besides bawd and varlet —
Oh!
AMPHRIDOTE
Why, law you now, such gear will ne’er thrive with you.
ZENARCHUS
I’m sick of thy society, poison to mine eyes!
AMPHRIDOTE
’Tis lower in thy breast the poison lies.
ZENARCHUS
How?
AMPHRIDOTE
’Tis for Mazeres.
ZENARCHUS
Oh, you virtuous powers,
What a right strumpet! Poison under love?
AMPHRIDOTE
That man can ne’er be safe that divides love.
She dies.
ZENARCHUS
Nor she be honest can so soon impart.
Oh, ‘ware that woman that can shift her heart!
Dies.