ACT V.
SCENE I.
A Council-Table: The King of Scythia seated on a Throne, Officers, Attendants, Guards.
King. Bring the fair Prisoner forth, and let’s examine What Reasons could inspire her with this Cruelty; —How beautiful she is! [Gazes on her.
Enter Cleomena in Fetters, Lysander, with Guards.
Cleo. Thy Silence seems to license me to speak,
And tell thee, King, that now our Faults are equal;
My Father thou hast kill’d, and I thy Son;
This will suffice to tell thee who I am.
—Now take my Life, since I have taken his,
And thou shalt see I neither will implore
Thy needless Clemency by any Word or Sign:
But if my Birth or Sex can merit ought,
Suffer me not to languish any longer
Under these shameful Irons.
[With scorn.
King. Cruel as Fair, ‘tis with too much injustice
Thou say’st our Crimes are equal:
For thou hast kill’d a Prince that did adore thee;
And I depriv’d thy Father of his Life,
When he assaulted mine in open Field,
And so, as cannot leave a stain on thee,
Or give thee Cause to say I’ve done thee wrong,
But if I had, wherefore (oh, cruel Maid)
Didst thou not spare that Heart that dy’d for thee,
And bend thy Rage against thy Father’s Foe?
But thou well know’st, in killing of Tkersander,
The Father’s Life would quickly follow after.
Cleo. I will not seek excuses for my actions,
But I protest to thee before the Gods,
It was not to revenge my self on thee
I kill’d thy Son;
But what he suffered was for his own Sin,
For he has banish’d from me all on Earth
That could compleat my Happiness—
[Weeps.
—And now dispose my Destiny as you please,
Only remember that I am a Woman.
King. What thou hast said will find but little credit:
—But yet if Thersander lives,
And if it please the Gods to spare that Life,
I shall have Generosity enough
To set thee free in favour of thy Sex,
And my Thersander’s Love.
Cleo. Not dead? Why should the Gods protect him?