Por. Refused it!-like a miser, midst his store, Who grasps and grasps, till he can hold no more; And when his strength is wanting to his mind, Looks back, and sighs on what he left behind. Val. No, I resume that heart thou didst possess ; My father shall my injuries redress : With me thou losest his imperial crown, And speedy death attends upon his frown. Por. You may revenge your wrongs a nobler way; Command my death, and I will soon obey. Val. No, live! for, on thy life my cure depends: In debtors' deaths all obligation ends: Twill be some ease ungrateful thee to call; But fortune will revenge what you forgive. Your interest in the army is so high, prove, That he must make you his, or you must die. [Aside, after a pause. I'll show that I deserve him more than she; And if, at last, he does ungrateful prove, My constancy itself rewards my love. [Exit. Por. She's gone, and, gazing round about, I see Nothing but death, or glorious misery; Here empire stands, if I could love displace; There, hopeless love, with more imperial grace; Thus, as a sinking hero, compassed round, Beckons his bravest foe for his last wound, And him into his part of fame does call, To him BERENICE, and EROTION. Ber. I come, Porphyrius, to congratulate This happy change of your exalted fate: You to the empire are, I hear, designed; And fair Valeria must the alliance bind. Por. Would heaven had my succession so decreed, Ber. In me! I never did accept your love: Por. I never sought that crown but on your brow; But you with such indifference would allow My change, that you have killed me with that breath; I feel your scorn cold as the hand of death. Ber. You'll come to life in your Valeria's arms. 'Tis true, I cannot boast of equal charms; Or, if I could, I never did admit Your love to me, but only suffered it. I am a wife, and can make no return; And 'twere but vain in hopeless fires to burn. Set open to your slave the prison-door? Whom, breeding, you ne'er taught to seek its food; Ber. Then, if you you will love on, and disobey, And lose an empire for my sake, you may. Will a kind look from me pay all this score, A beauty, and an empire too deny? I love you now so well-that you shall die.、 Ber. And yet is there no other way to try? 'Tis hard to say I love, and let you die. Por. Yes, there remains some help which you might give, If you, as I would die for love, would live., Ber. If death for love be sweet, sure life is more: Teach me the means your safety to restore. Por. Your tyrant the Egyptian princess loves; And to that height his swelling passion moves, That, fearing in your death the soldiers' force, He from your bed does study a divorce.. Ber. The Egyptian princess I disputing heard, And as a miracle her mind regard. But yet I wish that this divorce be true. [Gives her hand. Por. "Tis, madam, but it must be sought by you. By this he will all mutinies prevent;:{ Something so sacred in that bond there is, That none should think there could be aught amiss: And if there be, we should in silence hide Those faults, which blame our choice, when they are spied. Por. But, since to all the world his crimes are known, And by himself the civil war's begun, Would you the advantage of the fight delay, Ber. I would, like Jews upon their sabbath, fall; Ber. Then death from all my griefs shall set me free. Por. And would you rather chuse your death, than me? Ber. My earthly part Which is my tyrant's right, death will remove; Por. She has but done what honour did require; I'll stand betwixt, it first shall pierce my heart: But yet the danger not so high does grow: [Exit. ACT IV. SCENE I.-An Indian cave. Enter PLACIDIUS and NIGRINUS. NIGRINUS, with two drawn swords, held upward in his hands. Plac. All other means have failed to move her heart; Our last resource is, therefore, to your art. Nig. Of wars, and bloodshed, and of dire events, Nig. An earthy fiend by compact me obeys; |