SCENE VIII.
Androgeus, Tenantius, Mandubratius.
And. Shall justice and just Libra ne'er forsake
Th' embroider'd belt? no sign of them on earth?
Are gods dim-sighted grown, or do they sleep
The morning, and carouse the afternoon,
That mortal motions tumble thus by chance?
Cleave, thou blue marble ceiling, that heaven's king
With clearer aim may strike a tyrant's crown,
Nor spend his brimstone bullets 'gainst some hill
Or innocent pine.
Man. Your injuries run low; mine break all bounds.
My father butcher'd at his lawless will:
I banish'd from my lands, depos'd from rule,
Owing my life to night and flight.
Ten. I do confess, you may complain aloud,
And tear the element with a dolorous note:
Call down Astræa from her crystal chair,
Or call up Nemesis from the direful deep,
To expiate your wrongs.
Else would the manes of your father slain
In a white sheet come sliding to your bed,
And be reveng'd on you. He gave you life;
How can you better spend it, than to wreak
His death and slaughter? but our case and cause,
Brother, is not the same. Eulinus slew
His innocent friend, and we defend the fact,
With hostile noise drowning law's reverend voice;
But murder outcries both. Give me then leave
To be a neutral: my young years, unfit
For any desperate course, can but complain,
The king our uncle doth not use us well. [Exit.
And. Usurpers use this method still: at first
He as protector slily got the stern,
During our nonage: then the commons' voice,
Bought with a fawning brow and popular grace,
Confirms his regiment;[319] we appointed sharers,
With empty titles to beguile our thoughts,
Like puppet-lords dress'd up with crown and scarf,
Glad that we live and hunt, and reign o'er brutes—
Our uncle is the king who,[320] when he saw
His throne establish'd and his foes repuls'd,
Grown big with prosperous fortune, proudly spurns
All fear of God or man.
Man. His anger, nurs'd by jealousies, must feed
On princes' flesh, who lose both state and life,
If they but look awry. A tyrant's growth,
Rear'd up by ruins, thence may learn his fall:
For whom all fear, he justly feareth all.
And. In antiphons[321] thus tune we female plaints;
But plots and force beseem us. Thus great Cæsar
Shall pull him down below us. Thou, Mandubrace,
Sure pledges take of our revolt, and quickly
Implore his aid, blow up his drooping fire
With hopeful terms. But let him stronger come.
Man. I fly unseen, as charmers[322] in a mist.
Grateful revenge, whose sharp-sweet relish fats
My apprehensive soul![323] though all were pared off
Which doth accrue from fortune, and a man left
As barely poor as nature thrust him out;
Nay worse—though spirits boil: rage, anger, care,
And grief, like wild-horse, tear the affrighted mind;
Though wrongs excoriate the heart; yet all is sweeten'd
If vengeance have her course. I reck[324] not how;
Let commonwealth expire, and owls proclaim
Sad desolation in our halls; let heaps
Of dust and rubbish epitaph our towns;
Let fire and water fight, who first shall spoil
This universal frame. From north or south,
Revenge, th' art welcome! No sin worse than pity;
A tyrant's only physic is phlebotomy. [Exeunt.