SCENE V.

PLANGUS, ANDROMANA.

PLAN. It cannot be so late.

AND. Believe't, the sun is set, my dear, And candles have usurp'd the office of the day.

PLAN. Indeed, methinks a certain mist, Like darkness, hangeth[81] on my eyelids. But too great lustre may undo the sight: A man may stare so long upon the sun That he may look his eyes out; and certainly 'Tis so with me: I have so greedily Swallow'd thy light that I have spoil'd my own.

AND. Why shouldst thou tempt me to my ruin thus? As if thy presence were less welcome to me Than day to one who, 'tis so long ago He saw the sun, hath forgot what light is. Love of thy presence makes me wish this absence. Phoebus himself must suffer an eclipse, And clouds are still foils to the brightest splendour: Some short departure will (like [to] a river Stopp'd) make the current of our pleasures run The higher at our next meeting.

PLAN. Alas, my dearest! tell those so That know not what it is to part from blessing; Bid not him surfeit to taste health's sweetness, That knows what 'tis to groan under a disease.

AND. Then let us stand and outface danger, Since you will have it so; despise report, And contemn scandals into nothing, Which vanish with the breath that utters 'em; Love is above these vanities. Should the Innocent thing my husband take thee here, He could not spite me but by growing jealous; And jealousy's black[est] effect would be a cloister, Perhaps to kill me too: but that's impossible-- I cannot die so long as Plangus loves me. Yet say this piece of earth should play the coward, And fall at some unlucky stroke, Love would transport my better half to its centre [In] Plangus' heart, and I should live in him. But, sir, you have a fame to lose, which should be A prince's only care and darling: which Should have an eternity beyond his life: If he should take that from you, I should be Killed indeed.

PLAN. Why dost thou use These arguments to bid me go, Yet chain me to thy tongue, while the angel-like Music of thy voice, ent'ring my thirsty ears, Charms up my fears to immobility? 'Tis more impossible for me to leave thee Than for this carcase to quoit[82] away its gravestone, When it lies destitute of a soul t' inform it. Mariners might with far greater ease Hear whole shoals of Sirens singing, And not leap out to their destruction, Than I forsake so dangerous a sweetness.

AND. I will be dumb then.

PLAN. I will be deaf first. I have thought a way now, I'll run from hence, and leave my soul behind me. It shall be so--and yet it shall not neither: What! shall a husband banish a prince his house For fear? A husband! 'tis but an airy title; I will command there shall be no such thing, And then Andromana is mine, or his, Or any man's she will herself. These ceremonies Fetter the world, and I was born to free it. Shall man, that noble creature, be afraid Of words, things himself made? Shall sounds, A thing of seven small letters, give check T'a prince's will?

AND. Did you not promise me, dear sir? Have you not sworn, too, you would not stay beyond the time? Have oaths no more validity with princes? Let me not think so.

PLAN. Come, I will go; thou shalt not ask in vain. But let us kiss at parting; it may be Our last, perhaps-- I cannot now move one foot, though all the furies Should whip me forward with their snakes. Woman, thou stol'st my heart--just now thou stol'st it. A cannon bullet might have kiss'd my lips, And left me as much life.

[_The_ KING, _having listened, comes in softly_.

Are we betray'd? What art? speak, or resolve to die.

KING. A well-wisher of the prince's.

PLAN. The king? It cannot be!

[_He starts._

KING. Though thou hast thrown all nature off, I cannot what's my duty. Ungracious boy! Hadst been the offspring of a sinful bed, Thou might'st have claim'd adult'ry as inheritance; Lust would have been thy kinsman, And what enormity thy looser life Could have been guilty of had found excuse In an unnatural conception. Prythee, hereafter seek another father: Ephorbas cannot call him son that makes Lust his deity. Had I but known (But we are hoodwink'd still to all mischances) I should have had a son that would make it His study to embrace corruption, and Take delight in unlawful sheets. I would Have hugg'd a monster in mine arms Before thy mother. Good, O heavens! What will this world come to at last? When princes, that should be the patterns Of all virtue, lead up the dance to vice! What shall we call our own, when our own wives Banish their faith, and prove false to us? Have I with so much care promis'd myself So pleasing a spring of comfort, and are all Those blossoms nipp'd, and buds burnt up by th' fire Of lust and sin?-- Have I thus long laboured against the billows, That did oppose my growing hopes, And must I perish in the haven's mouth? No gulf but this to be devoured in? Could not youth's inclination find out Another rock to split itself upon? Hadst thou hugg'd drunkenness, the wit Or mirth of company might have excus'd it. Prodigality had been a sin a prince Might have been proud in compared to this. Or had thy greener years incited thee To treason and attempt a doubting father's crown, T' had been a noble vice. Ambition Runs through the veins of princes; it brings forth Acts [as] great as themselves and it; spurs on To honour, and resolves great things. But this--this lechery is such a thing, sin is Too brave a name for it. A prince (I might say son,[83] But let that pass), and dare to show himself To nought but darkness and black chambers, Whose motions, like some planet, are all eccentric: Not two hours together in his own sphere, The court?--but I am tame to talk thus; Begone, with as much speed as a coward would Avoid his death; and never more presume To look upon this woman, [upon] this whore: Thou losest both thy eyes and me else.

[PLANGUS _is going out, but comes again._

PLAN. [O] sir, the reverence that I owe my father, And the injury I have done this gentlewoman, Had charm'd me up to silence; but I must Speak something for her honour: When I have done, command me to the altar. Whilst (I confess) you tainted me with sin, I did applaud you, and condemn myself-- It looked like a father's care--but when You us'd that term of whore to her that stands there, I would have given ten thousand kingdoms, You had had no more relation to me Than hath the northern to the southern pole. I should Have flown to my revenge swifter than lightning. But I forbear; and pray, imagine not What I had done----

KING. Upon my life, she's very handsome.

[_Aside._

PLAN. To be a whore is more unknown to her, Than what is done in the Antipodes; She is so pure she cannot think a sin, Nor ever heard the name to understand it.

KING. No doubt, these private meetings were to read Her moral lectures, and teach her chastity!

PLAN. Nay, give me leave, sir. I do not say My addresses have been all so virtuous; For whatsoever base desires a flaming Beauty could kindle in a heart, were all alive In me, and prompted me to seek some ease By quenching burnings hotter than A†tna. Imagine but a man that had drunk mercury, And had a fire within his bones, Whose blood was hotter than the melted ore! If he should wish for drink, nay, steal it too, Could you condemn him?

EPH. Marri'd, do they say?

[_Aside._

PLAN. I did endure a heat seas could not cool; It would have kill'd a salamander. Then, taught both impudence and wit, I singled out my foe, us'd all the arts That love could think upon, and in the end Found a most absolute repulse.

KING. Well, Plangus, youth excuses the first fault; But a relapse exceeds all pardon.

[_Exeunt_ KING _and_ PLANGUS.