Amint. You that can know to wrong, should know how
Men must right themselves: what punishment is due
From me to him that shall abuse my bed!
It is not death; nor can that satisfie,
Unless I send your lives through all the Land,
To shew how nobly I have freed my self.
King. Draw not thy Sword, thou knowest I cannot fear
A subjects hand; but thou shalt feel the weight of this
If thou dost rage.
Amint. The weight of that?
If you have any worth, for Heavens sake think
I fear not Swords; for as you are meer man,
I dare as easily kill you for this deed,
As you dare think to do it; but there is
Divinity about you, that strikes dead
My rising passions, as you are my King,
I fall before you, and present my Sword
To cut mine own flesh, if it be your will.
Alas! I am nothing but a multitude
Of walking griefs; yet should I murther you,
I might before the world take the excuse
Of madness: for compare my injuries,
And they will well appear too sad a weight
For reason to endure; but fall I first
Amongst my sorrows, ere my treacherous hand
Touch holy things: but why? I know not what
I have to say; why did you choose out me
To make thus wretched? there were thousand fools
Easie to work on, and of state enough within the Island.
Evad. I would not have a fool, it were no credit for me.
Amint. Worse and worse!
Thou that dar'st talk unto thy Husband thus,
Profess thy self a Whore; and more than so,
Resolve to be so still; it is my fate
To bear and bow beneath a thousand griefs,
To keep that little credit with the World.
But there were wise ones too, you might have ta'ne
another.
King. No; for I believe thee honest, as thou wert valiant.
Amint. All the happiness
Bestow'd upon me, turns into disgrace;
Gods take your honesty again, for I
Am loaden with it; good my Lord the King, be private
in it.
King. Thou may'st live Amintor,
Free as thy King, if thou wilt wink at this,
And be a means that we may meet in secret.
Amint. A Baud! hold my breast, a bitter curse
Seize me, if I forget not all respects
That are Religious, on another word
Sounded like that, and through a Sea of sins
Will wade to my revenge, though I should call
Pains here, and after life upon my soul.
King. Well I am resolute you lay not with her,
And so leave you.