You will be quiet men, we may allow you Some lodgings in our garrets or out-houses: Your great looks cannot carry it. Cimb. The truth is, Brought under their command; who, grown un useful, Are less esteemed than beasts.-This you have practised, We've been bold with your wives, toyed with your Practised on us with rigour; this hath forced us daughters Their servants almost equal with their sons, With such decorum, as wise law-makers, To shake our heavy yokes off; and, if redress Grac. And not leave One house unfired. Cimb. Or throat uncut of those Pol. Nor will we fall alone; Timol. What are your demands? Pis. A general pardon, first, for all offences Committed in your absence: Liberty To all such as desire to make return To each man's proper use; no lord acknowledged; Timag. Let the city sink first. Leost. And ruin seize on all, ere we subscribe To such conditions. Arch. Carthage, though victorious, Could not have forced more from us. Leost. Scale the wall! Capitulate after. Timol. He that wins the top first, [Exeunt. [Flourish and arms. Or death or victory.-Charge them home, and fear not. Enter TIMOLEON, ARCHIDAMUS, and Senators. Timol. We wrong ourselves, and we are justly To deal with bondmen, as if we encountered Arch. They fight like devils; And run upon our swords, as if their breasts Enter LEOSTHENES and TIMAGoras. Timal. They are wild beasts, And to be tamed by policy.-Each man take Twill force them to remember what they are, And stoop to due obedience. Enter CIMBRIO, GRACCULO, ond other Slaves. Arch. Here they come. Drinking the bitter water of afflictions, Leost. Fears? Your sufferings, For which I am so overgone with grief, Cimb. Leave not a man alive: A wound is but I dare not ask, without compassionate tears, a flea-biting, To what we suffered being slaves. Grac. O, my heart! Cimbrio, what do we see? the whip! our masters! Tumag. Dare you rebel, slaves! [Senators shake their whips, and they throw away their weapons, and run off. Cimb. Mercy! mercy! where Shall we hide us from their fury! Grac. Fly! they follow. Oh! we shall be tormented. Timol. Enter with them, But yet forbear to kill them. Still remember They are part of your wealth; and being disarmed, There is no danger. Arch. Let us first deliver Such as they have in fetters, and at leisure Least. Friend, to you I leave the disposition of what's mine: SCENE III. [Exeunt. Enter PISANDER and TIMANDRA. Pis. I know I am pursued; nor would I fly, Although the ports were open, and a convoy Ready to bring me off-The baseness of These villains, from the pride of all my hopes, Has thrown me to the bottomless abyss Of horror and despair. Had they stood firm, I could have bought Cleora's free consent With the safety of her father's life and brother's; And forced Leosthenes to quit his claim, And kneel a suitor to me. Timan. You must not think The villain's name, that robbed thee of thy ho nour; For being trained up in chastity's cold school, Timan. How mean you? Fell, sir! Leost. I would thou did'st not, Or that I could not read upon thy face, Under which odds I know Cleora fell too, Timan. Pray you, do not bring, sir, Leost. O Timandra, That I had faith enough but to believe thee! Or all the blessings in this life a mother must not Credit impossibilities; yet I strive To find out that, whose knowledge is a curse, What might have been, but what must now be (Though men and angels should proclaim him ho Timan. Nay, she deserves The bending of your heart, that to content you, Has kept a vow, the breach of which a vestal Jove turn all to the best!-You are welcome, sir. (Though the infringing it had called upon her Leost. Thou givest it in a heavy tone. Timan. Alas! sir, We have so long fed on the bread of sorrow, A living funeral) must of force have shrunk at. No danger could compel her to dispense with Her cruel penance; though hot lust came armed To seize upon her; when one look or accent Leost. Might? O do not shew me A beam of comfort, and straight take it from me. -The means by which she was freed?-Speak, O speak quickly! Each minute of delay's an age of torment: 0! speak, Timandra! Timan. Free her from the oath; Herself can best deliver it. [Takes off the scarf. Never did galley-slave shake off his chains, Cleora. I forgive you. He was a lover. Leost. Not yours, lady? Cleora. Yes; Loved me, Leosthenes; nay more, so doted, (If e'er affections scorning gross desires May without wrong be styled so, that he durst not Least. How greedily I receive this! Stay, best In fear it might take from me, whom he made lady, And let me by degrees ascend the height The pleasant taste these cares of comfort yield The object of his better part, discover I was the saint he sued to. Leost. A rare temper! Cleora. I cannot speak it to the worth: All praise Least. You conceal still This kiss, (so help me, goodness!) which I bor- My father's bondman. Leost. Ha, ha, ha! Cleora. Why do you laugh? Leost. To hear the labouring mountain of your praise Delivered of a mouse. Cleora. The man deserves not This scorn, I do assure you. Leost. Do you call What was his duty merit? Cleora. Yes, and place it As high in my esteem, as all the honours Cleora. Zealous, I grant, in the defence of Why, good Leosthenes, though I endured How would you tyrannize, if you stood possessed of That, which is only yours in expectation, Of conjurers or wise women, bound together, Timag. An ass thou wert ever. Asot. And would have given one leg, with all my heart, That now prescribe such hard conditions to me? For good security to have been a man Leost. One kiss, and I am silenced. Cleora. I vouchsafe it; Yet, I must tell you 'tis a favour that Leost. Pray you end; The story does not please me. Cleora. Well, take heed Of doubts and fears;-for know, Leosthenes, To innocent chastity than unjust suspicion. I love Marullo's fair mind, not his person; Let that secure you. And I here command you, Between him and all punishment, and oppose Leost. What a bridge Of glass I walk upon, over a river [Exit. Of certain ruin! Mine own weighty fears helps, Which confidence yields to others, are from me SCENE IV. After three lives, or one and twenty years, Cleon. Never varlets So triumphed o'er an old fat man-I was famished. On cullises and jelly, though his cooks Timag. How now, friend? Enter LEOSTHENES, and DIPHILUS, with • guard. Timan. You are unmannered grooms Enter DIPHILUS with PISANDER. Diph. Close hid in your sister's chamber. Enter TIMAGORAS, CLEON, ASOTUS, CORISCA, All she delivered, false. and OLYMPIA. Cleon. But are you sure we're safe? Timag. But that I scorn To rust my sword in thy slavish blood, To pity poor Arch. Tis my purpose To do him all the good I can, Cleora: [Exit Arch. Cleora. I am much distracted; in Leosthenes I can find nothing justly to accuse, But this excess of love, which I have studied To cure with more than common means; yet still It grows upon him. And, if I may call His sufferings merit, I stand bound to think on Marullo's dangers; though I save his life, His love is unrewarded. I confess, Both have deserved me; yet of force I must be Unjust to one-such is my destiny. Enter TIMANDRA. How now? whence flow these tears? An object of such cruelty, as would force Cleora. Speak ! What is it? Timan. Men pity beasts of rapine, if over matched, Though baited for their pleasure: but these mon sters, Upon a man that can make no resistance, A capital offender; yet in justice Not to be tortured, till the judge pronounce Cleora. Where is he? Timan. Dragged to prison With more than barbarous violence; spurned and spit on By the insulting officers, his hands Pinioned behind his back; loaden with fetters; Yet, with a saint-like patience, he still offers His face to their rude buffets. Cleora. O my grieved soul ! By whose command ? Timan. It seems, my lord your brother, For he is a looker on: and it takes from For his respects to you, whose name in vain |