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Dor. If I'm a traitor, think, and blush, thou tyrant, Whose injuries betrayed me into treason.

Seb. Thy old presumptuous arrogance again,
That bred my first dislike, and then my loathing.
Once more be warn'd, and know me for thy king.
Dor. Too well I know thee, but for king no more:
This is not Lisbon, nor the circle this,

Where, like a statue, thou hast stood besieged
By sycophants and fools, the growth of courts;
Where thy gull'd eyes in all the gaudy round
Met nothing but a lie in every face;

And the gross flattery of a gaping crowd,
Envious who first should catch and first applaud
The stuff or royal nonsense; when I spoke,
My honest homely words were carped and censured,
For want of courtly style related actions,
Though modestly reported, passed for boasts;
Secure of merit, if I ask reward,

Thy hungry minions thought their rights invaded,
And the bread snatched from worthless parisites.
Henriquez answered, with a ready lie,

To save his king's, the boon was begged before.
Seb. What say'st thou of Henriquez ?

Thou mov'st me more by barely naming him,
Than all thy foul unmannered scurril taunts.

Dor. And therefore 'twas to gall thee, that I nam'd him, That thing, that nothing but a cringe and smile.

Seb. I meant thee a reward of greater worth.
Dor.

When justice wanted, could reward be hoped?
Could the rob'd passenger expect a bounty
From those rapacious hands who stripp'd him first?
Seb. He had my promise, ere I knew thy love.
Dor. My services deserved thou shouldst revoke it.
Seb. Thy insolence had cancell'd all thy service;
To violate my laws, even in my court,

Sacred to peace, and safe from all affronts ;
Even to my face, and done in my despite,
Under the wing of awful majesty,

To strike the man I lov'd! So was I forced
To do a sovereign justice to myself,
And spurn thee from my presence.

Thou hast dared

Dor.
To tell me what I durst not tell myself;
I durst not think that I was spurn'd, and live;
And live to hear it boasted to my face;

All my long avarice of honour lost,

Heaped up in youth, and hoarded up for age;
Has honour's fountain then sucked back the stream?
He has; and hooting boys may dryshod pass,
And gather pebbles from the naked ford.
Give me my love, my honour; give them back:
Give me revenge while I have breath to ask it.

Seb. Now by this honoured order which I wear,
More gladly would I give than thou dar'st ask it:
Nor shall the sacred character of king

Be urged to shield me from thy bold appeal.
If I have injured thee, that makes us equal:
The wrong, if done, debased me down to thee.
But thou hast charg'd me with ingratitude; •
Hast thou not charged me? Speak.

Dor. Thou know'st I have:

If thou disown'st that imputation, draw,
And prove my charge a lie.

Seb. No; to disprove that charge I must not draw:

Be conscious to thy worth, and tell thy soul

What thou hast done this day in my defence;
To fight thee after this, what where it else
Than owning that ingratitude thou urgest?
That isthmus stands between two rushing seas;
Which mounting view each other from afar,
And strive in vain to meet.

Dor.

I'll cut that isthmus : Thou know'st I meant not to preserve thy life,

But to reprieve it for my own revenge.

I saved thee out of honourable malice:

Now draw; I should be loth to think thou dar'st not:
Beware of such another vile excuse.

Seb. O, patience!

Dor.

Beware of patience too!

That's a suspicious word; it had been proper,

Before thy foot had spurned me; now 'tis base:
Yet to disarm thee of thy last defence,

I have thy oath for my security:

The only boon I begg'd was this fair combat;

Fight, or be perjur'd now; that's all thy choice.

Seb. Now can I thank thee as thou wouldst be thank'd:

Never was vow of honour better paid,

If my true sword but hold, than this shall be.
Go; bear my message to Henriquez' ghost,
And say his master and his friend reveng'd him.

Dor. His ghost! then is my hated rival dead? Seb. The question is beside our present purpose. Thou seest me ready; we delay too long.

Dor. A minute is not much in either's life, When there's but one betwixt us; throw it in, And give it him of us who is to fall.

Seb. He's dead make haste, and thou may'st yet o'ertake him.

Dor.
I pr'ythee let me hedge one moment more
Into thy promise: for thy life preserved,

When I was hasty, thou delay'st me longer.

Be kind and tell me how that rival died,

Whose death, next thine, I wished.

Seb. If it would please thee, thou shouldst never know : But thou, like jealousy, inquir'st a truth,

Which found, will torture thee: he died in fight;
Fought next my person, as in concert fought;
Kept pace for pace, and blow for every blow;
Save when he heav'd his shield in my defence,
And on his naked side received my wound:
Then, when he could no more, he fell at once,
But roll'd his falling body cross their way,
And made a bulwark of it for his prince.
Dor. I never can forgive him such a death!
Seb.
Confess, proud spirit,

(For I will have it from thy very mouth)

That better he deserved my love than thou.

Dor. For you he fought and died; I fought against you: Through all the mazes of the bloody field

Hunted your sacred life; which that I miss'd

Was the propitious error of my fate,

Not of my soul; my soul's a regicide.

Seb. Thou might'st have given it a more gentle name : Thou mean'st to kill a tyrant, not a king.

Speak, didst thou not, Alonzo?

Dor.

Can I speak?

Alas, I cannot answer to Alonzo:
No, Dorax cannot answer to Alonzo:
Alonzo was too kind a name for me.

Then, when I fought and conquer'd with your arms,
In that blest age I was the man you named;

Till rage and pride debased me into Dorax ;

And lost, like Lucifer, my name above.

Seb.

Yet twice this day I owed my life to Dorax. Dor. I saved you but to kill you: there's my grief.

Seb. Nay, if thou canst be grieved, thou canst repent: Thou couldst not be a villain, tho' thou would'st: Thou own'st too much in owning thou hast erred: And I too little, who provoked thy crime.

Dor. O, stop this headlong torrent of your goodness! It comes too fast upon a feeble soul,

Half-drown'd in tears before; spare my confusion,
For pity spare, and say not first you err'd.

For yet I have not dar'd, through guilt and shame,
To throw myself beneath your royal feet.
Now spurn this rebel, this proud renegade;
'Tis just you should, nor will I more complain.
Seb. Indeed thou shouldst not ask forgiveness first,
But thou prevent'st me still in all that's noble.
Here let me ever hold thee in my arms;
And all our quarrels be but such as these,
Who shall love best, and closest shall embrace :
Be what Henriquez was-be my Alonzo.

Let

Dor.

What, my Alonzo, said you? my Alonzo! my tears thank you, for I cannot speak ; And if I could,

Words were not made to vent such thoughts as mine.

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Sir, I love

I'm angry.

I would be private leave me.

you,

And therefore will not leave you.

Ant. Will not leave me?

Where have you learnt that answer? Who am I?

Ven. My emperor: the man I love next Heaven. If I said more, I think 'twere scarce a sin

You're all that's good and noble.

Ant.

You will not leave me, then?

All that's wretched.

Ven.

'Twas too presuming
To say I would not but I dare not leave you;
And 'tis unkind in you to chide me hence
So soon, when I so far have come to see you.
Ant. Now thou hast seen me, art thou satisfied?
For, if a friend, thou hast beheld enough ;
And, if a foe, too much.

Ven. Look, emperor, this is no common dew,
I have not wept these forty years; but now

My mother comes afresh into my eyes;

I cannot help her softness.

Ant. Sure there's contagion in the tears of friends; See, I have caught it too. Believe me, 'tis not For my own griefs, but thine-nay, father

Ven. Emperor !

Ant. Emperor! why that's the style of victory. The conqu'ring soldier, red with unfelt wounds, Salutes his general so: but never more

Shall that sound reach my ears.

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Ant. Thou favour'st me, and speak'st not half thou

think'st;

For Julius fought it out, and lost it fairly:

But Antony

Ven.

Ant.

Nay, stop not.

Antony

(Well, thou wilt have it)—like a coward fled,

Fled while his soldiers fought; fled first, Ventidius.
Thou long'st to curse me, and I give thee leave.

I know thou cam'st prepared to rail.

I did.

I know thy meaning.

Ven.
Ant. I'll help thee-I have been a man, Ventidius.
Ven. Yes, and a brave one: but-
Ant.
But I have lost my reason, have disgraced
The name of soldier, with inglorious ease.
In the full vintage of my flowing honours
Sate still, and saw it prest by other hands.
Fortune came smiling to my youth, and woo'd it,
And purple greatness met my ripen'd years.

Ven. You are too sensible already

Of what you've done, too conscious of your failings;
And like a scorpion, whipt by others first
To fury, sting yourself in mad revenge.
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