Soliman.
Yet that allays the fury of my pain,
Before I die, for doubtless die I must.
Ay, fates, injurious fates have so decreed:
For now I feel the poison 'gins to work,
And I am weak, ev'n to the very death;
Yet something more contentedly I die,
For that my death was wrought by her device
Who, living, was my joy, whose death my woe.
Ah, Janissaries! now dies your emperor,
Before his age hath seen his mellow'd years;
And, if you ever lov'd your emperor,
Affright me not with sorrows and laments:
And, when my soul from body shall depart,
Trouble me not; but let me pass in peace,
And in your silence let your love be shown.
My last request, for I command no more,
Is that my body with Perseda's be
Interr'd, where my Erastus lies entomb'd,
And let one epitaph contain us all.
Ah! now I feel the paper told me true;
The poison is dispers'd through ev'ry vein,
And boils, like Ætna, in my frying guts.
Forgive me, dear Erastus, my unkindness;
I have reveng'd thy death with many deaths:
And, sweet Perseda, fly not Soliman,
When as my gliding ghost shall follow thee
With eager mood thorough eternal night.
And now pale death sits on my panting soul,
And with revenging ire doth tyrannise,
And says: for Soliman's too much amiss
This day shall be the period of my bliss.
[Then Soliman dies, and they carry him forth with silence. Exeunt omnes.
Enter Chorus.
Fortune.
I gave Erastus woe and misery
Amidst his greatest joy and jollity.
Love.
But I that have power in earth and heav'n above,
Stang them both with never-failing love.
Death.
But I bereft them both of love and life.
Love.