Scene 1
The Castle on Zion. Mariamne’s Apartments. Mariamne. Alexandra.
Alex.
You pose me with your riddles. First the oath
“I kill myself if he return no more!”
Then bitter coldness when he came, so froward
That he was mortified as keen as I
Rejoiced; and now again the deepest mourning!
I’d gladly see the man who comprehends you.
Mar.
If ’tis so hard, why do you plague yourself?
Alex.
And then the tart repugnance in the manner
With which you fend Soemus to his distance!
His looks betray there’s something on his heart——
Mar.
You think so?
Alex.
Ay, and he would make avowal
But dare not venture it; he would perhaps,
If he should see you leap into the Jordan,
Be dubious if he were privileged
To rescue you from death; and he were right,
For this blunt gracelessness is past all bounds.
Mar.
You’ll own at least that Herod cannot say
I probed the virtue of his friend, and lured
His secret, if he has one, out of him
With cozening-tongued duplicity. No, no;
It lies on the knees of God if I should learn it;
And my heart says I take no risk therein.[10]
[Enter Sameas, with fetters on his hands.