[394] Christian Priest: "But we by martyrdom our faith avow."
Montezuma: "You do no more than I for ours do now.
To prove religion true,
If either wit or sufferings would suffice,
All faiths afford the constant and the wise,
And yet even they, by education sway'd,
In age defend what infancy obeyed."
Christian Priest: "Since age by erring childhood is misled,
Refer yourself to our unerring head."
Montezuma: "Man, and not err! what reason can you give?"
Christian Priest: "Renounce that carnal reason, and believe...."
Pizarro: "Increase their pains, the cords are yet too slack."
—"The Indian Emperor," V. 2.
[395]"Tyrannic Love," III. 5, 1. When dying Maximin says: "And shoving back this earth on which I sit, I'll mount, and scatter all the Gods I hit."
[396]"Aureng-Zebe," V. 4, 1. Dryden thought he was imitating Racine, when six lines further on he makes Nourmahal say:
"I am not changed, I love my husband still;
But love him as he was, when youthful grace
And the first down began to shade his face:
That image does my virgin-flames renew,
And all your father shines more bright in you."
Racine's Phèdre (2, 5) thinks her husband Thesus dead, and says to her stepson Hippolytus:
"Oui, prince, je languis, je brûle pour Thésée:
Je l'aime...
Mais fidèle, mais fier, et même un peu farouche,
Charmant, jeune, traînant tous les coeurs après soi,
Tel qu'on dépeint nos dieux, ou tel que je vous voi.
Il avait votre port, vos yeux, votre langage;
Cette noble pudeur colorait son visage."
According to a note in Sir Walter Scott's edition of Dryden's works, Langbaine traces this speech also to Seneca's Hippolytus.—Tr.
[397]"The Indian Emperor," I. 2.
[398]"Aureng-Zebe," V. 2, 1.
[399]"Marriage à la Mode," IV. 3, 1.