But with a fit restraint, and not take from her
To give himself: he should make it the height
Of his ambition, if it lie in

His stretch'd-out nerves to effect it, though she fly in

An eminent place, to add strength to her wings, And mount her higher, though he fall himself Into the bottomless abyss; or else

The services he offers are not real,

But counterfeit.

Matil. What can Hortensio

Infer from this?

Hort. That I stand bound in duty, (Though in the act I take my last farewell Of comfort in this life,) to sit down willingly, And move my suit no further. I confess, While you were in danger, and heaven's mercy made me

[ness

Its instrument to preserve you, (which your good-
Prized far above the merit,) I was bold
To feed my starv'd affection with false hopes
I might be worthy of you: for know, madam,
How mean soever I appear'd in Mantua,
I had in expectation a fortune,
Though not possess'd of't, that encouraged me
With confidence to prefer my suit, and not
To fear the prince Uberti as my rival.

Gon. I ever thought him more than what he
Lor. Pray you, forbear.

Hort. But when the duke of Florence

[seem'd.

Put in his plea, in my consideration
Weighing well what he is, as you must grant him
A Mars of men in arms, and, those put off,
The great example for a kingly courtier
To imitate; annex to these his wealth,
Of such a large extent, as other monarchs

Call him the king of coin; and, what's above all,
His lawful love, with all the happiness
This life can fancy, from him flowing to you;
The true affection which I have ever born you,
Does not alone command me to desist,
But, as a faithful counsellor, to advise you
To meet and welcome that felicity,
Which hastes to crown your virtues.

Lor. We must break off this parley:
Something I have to say.

Matil. In tears I thank

[Exeunt above.

Your care of my advancement; but I dare not
Follow your counsel. Shall such piety
Pass unrewarded? such a pure affection,
For any ends of mine, be undervalued?
Avert it, heaven! I will be thy Matilda,
Or cease to be; no other heat but what

Glows from thy purest flames, shall warm this

bosom,

Nor Florence, nor all monarchs of the earth, Shall keep thee from me.

Re-enter below LORENZO, GONZAGA, ÜBERTI, FARNEZE, and MANFROY.

Hort. I fear, gracious lady,

Our conference hath been overheard.

Matil. The better:

Your part is acted; give me leave at distance
To zany it.-Sir, on my knees thus prostrate
Before your feet-

Lor. This must not be, I shall

Both wrong myself and you in suffering it.

Matil. I will grow here, and weeping thus turn marble,

In a dream, and now begin to wake.
Matil. And will you

Forbear to reap the harvest of such glories,
Now ripe, and at full growth, for the embraces
Of a slight woman? or exchange your triumphs
For chamber-pleasures, melt your able nerves
(That should with your victorious sword make way
Through the armies of your enemies) in loose
And wanton dalliance? be yourself, great sir,
The thunderbolt of war, and scorn to sever
Two hearts long since united; your example
May teach the prince Uberti to subscribe
To that which you allow of.

Lor. The same tongue

That charm'd my sword out of my hand, and threw
A frozen numbness on my active spirit,
Hath disenchanted me. Rise, fairest princess!
And, that it may appear I do receive

Your counsel as inspired from heaven, I will
Obey and follow it: I am your debtor,

And must confess you have lent my weaken'd

reason

New strengths once more to hold a full command Over my passions. Here, to the world,

I freely do profess that I disclaim

All interest in you, and give up my title,
Such as it is, to you, sir; and, as far
As I have power, thus join your hands.
Gon. To yours

I add my full consent.

Uber. I am lost, Farneze.

Farn. Much nearer to the port than you sup

pose:

In me our laws speak, and forbid this contract.
Matil. Ah me, new stops!

Hort. Shall we be ever cross'd thus?
Farn. There is an act upon record, confirm'd
By your wise predecessors, that no heir
Of Mantua (as questionless the princess
Is the undoubted one) must be join'd in marriage,
But where the match may strengthen the estate
And safety of the dukedom. Now, this gentleman,
However I must style him honourable,
And of a high desert, having no power
To make this good in his alliance, stands
Excluded by our laws; whereas this prince,
Of equal merit, brings to Mantua

The power and principality of Parma:
And therefore, since the great duke hath let fall
His plea, there lives no prince that justlier can
Challenge the princess' favour.

Lor. Is this true, sir?

Gon. I cannot contradict it.

Enter SIMONIDES and two Lawyers.

Sim. Is the law firm, sir?

1 Law. The law! what more firm, sir, More powerful, forcible, or more permanent? Sim. By my troth, sir,

I partly do believe it; conceive, sir,

You have indirectly answered my question.
I did not doubt the fundamental grounds
Of law in general, for the most solid;
But this particular law that me concerns,
Now, at the present, if that be firm and strong,
And powerful, and forcible, and permanent?
I am a young man that has an old father.
2 Law. Nothing more strong, sir.

Sim. Faith, near her days too; Wants some two of threescore.

1 Law. So she'll drop away

One of these days too: here's a good age now, For those that have old parents, and rich inherit

ance!

2 Law. I will maintain, sir,

Draco's oligarchy, that the government
Of community reduced into few,
Framed a fair state; Solon's chreokopia,

That cut off poor men's debts to their rich creditors,

Was good and charitable, but not full, allow'd ;
His seisactheia did reform that error,
His honourable senate of Areopagitæ.
Lycurgus was more loose, and gave too free
And licentious reins unto his discipline;

As that a young woman, in her husband's weakness,
Might choose her able friend to propagate;
That so the commonwealth might be supplied
With hope of lusty spirits. Plato did err,
And so did Aristotle, in allowing

Lewd and luxurious limits to their laws :
But now our Epire, our Epire's Evander,
Our noble and wise prince, has hit the law
That all our predecessive students
Have miss'd, unto their shame.

Enter CLEANTHES.

Sim. Forbear the praise, sir,

'Tis in itself most pleasing :-Cleanthes!

O, lad, here's a spring for young plants to flourish! The old trees must down kept the sun from us; We shall rise now, boy.

Clean. Whither, sir, I pray?

To the bleak air of storms, among those trees
Which we had shelter from?

Sim. Yes, from our growth

Our sap and livelihood, and from our fruit.
What! 'tis not jubilee with thee yet, I think,
Thou look'st so sad on't. How old is thy father?
Clean. Jubilee! no, indeed; 'tis a bad year

with me.

Sim. Prithee, how old's thy father? then I can tell thee.

Clean. I know not how to answer you, Si

monides;

He is too old, being now exposed
Unto the rigour of a cruel edict;
And yet not old enough by many years,
'Cause I'd not see him go an hour before me.

Sim. These very passions I speak to my father. Come, come, here's none but friends here, we may speak

Our insides freely; these are lawyers, man,
And shall be counsellors shortly.

Clean. They shall be now, sir,

And shall have large fees if they'll undertake
To help a good cause, for it wants assistance;
Bad ones, I know, they can insist upon.

both do overthrow you in this statute, which speaks, that every man living to fourscore years, and women to threescore, shall then be cut off as fruitless to the republic, and law shall finish what nature linger'd at.

Clean. And this suit shall soon be dispatch'd in

law?

1 Law. It is so plain it can have no demur, The church-book overthrows it.

Clean. And so it does;

The church-book overthrows it, if you read it well. 1 Law. Still you run from the law into error: You say it takes the lives of innocents,

I say no, and so says common reason;
What man lives to fourscore, and woman to three,
That can die innocent?

Clean. A fine law evasion!

Good sir, rehearse the whole statute to me.

Sim. Fie! that's too tedious; you have already The full sum in the brief relation.

Clean. Sir,

'Mongst many words may be found contradictions; And these men dare sue and wrangle with a statute, If they can pick a quarrel with some error.

2 Law. Listen, sir, I'll gather it as brief as I can for you:

Anno primo Evandri, Be it for the care and good of the commonwealth, (for divers necessary reasons that we shall urge,) thus peremptorily enacted,

Clean. A fair pretence, if the reasons foul it not! 2 Law. That all men living in our dominions of Epire, in their decayed nature, to the age of fourscore, or women to the age of threescore, shall on the same day be instantly put to death, by those means and instruments that a former proclamation, had to this purpose, through our said territories dispersed.

Clean. There was no woman in this senate,

certain.

1 Law. That these men, being past their bearing arms, to aid and defend their country; past their manhood and likelihood, to propagate any further issue to their posterity; and as well past their councils (whose overgrown gravity is now run into dotage) to assist their country; to whom, in common reason, nothing should be so wearisome as their own lives, as they may be supposed tedious to their successive heirs, whose times are spent in the good of their country: yet wanting the means to maintain it; and are like to grow old before their inheritance (born to them) come to their necessary use, be condemned to die: for the women, for that they never were a defence to their country; never

Clean. Pray you, say,

How do you allow of this strange edict?

1 Law. Secundum justitiam; by my faith, sir, The happiest edict that ever was in Epire.

Clean. What, to kill innocents, sir? it cannot It is no rule in justice there to punish. 1 Law. Oh, sir,

[be,

You understand a conscience, but not law. Clean. Why, sir, is there so main a difference? 1 Law. You'll never be good lawyer if you understand not that.

Clean. I think, then, 'tis the best to be a bad

one.

1 Law. Why, sir, the very letter and the sense

their country; only necessary to the propagation of posterity, and now, at the age of threescore, past that good, and all their goodness: it is thought fit (a quarter abated from the more worthy member) that they be put to death, as is before recited: provided that for the just and impartial execution of this our statute, the example shall first begin in and about our court, which ourself will see carefully performed; and not, for a full month following, extend any further into our dominions. Dated the sixth of the second month, at our Palace Royal in Epire.

Clean. A fine edict, and very fairly gilded!
And is there no scruple in all these words,
To demur the law upon occasion?

Sim. Pox! 'tis an unnecessary inquisition; Prithee set him not about it.

2 Law. Troth, none, sir:

It is so evident and plain a case,
There is no succour for the defendant.

Clean. Possible! can nothing help in a good

case?

1 Law. Faith, sir, I do think there may be a hole,

Which would protract; delay, if not remedy. Clean. Why, there's some comfort in that; good sir, speak it.

1 Law. Nay, you must pardon me for that, sir. Sim. Prithee, do not;

It may ope a wound to many sons and heirs,
That may die after it.

Clean. Come, sir, I know

How to make you speak :—will this do it?

[Gives him his purse. 1 Law. I will afford you my opinion, sir. Clean. Pray you, repeat the literal words ex[pressly,

The time of death. Sim. 'Tis an unnecessary question; prithee let it alone.

2 Law. Hear his opinion, 'twill be fruitless sir. That man, at the age of fourscore, and woman at threescore, shall the same day be put to death.

1 Law. Thus I help the man to twenty-one years Clean. That were a fair addition.

[more.

1 Law. Mark it, sir; we say, man is not at age Till he be one and twenty; before, 'tis infancy, And adolescency; now, by that addition, Fourscore he cannot be, till a hundred and one. Sim. Oh, poor evasion!

He is fourscore years old, sir.

1 Law. That helps more, sir;
He begins to be old at fifty, so, at fourscore,
He's but thirty years old; so, believe it, sir,
He may be twenty years in declination;
And so long may a man linger and live by it.

Sim. The worst hope of safety that e'er I heard! Give him his fee again, 'tis not worth two deniers. 1 Law. There is no law for restitution of fees, sir.

Clean. No, no, sir; I meant it lost when it was given.

Enter CREON and ANTIGONA.

Sim. No more, good sir,

Here are ears unnecessary for your doctrine.

1 Law. I have spoke out my fee, and I have Sim. O my dear father!

[done, sir.

Creon. Tush! meet me not in exclaims; I understand the worst, and hope no better. A fine law! if this hold, white heads will be cheap, And many watchmen's places will be vacant; Forty of them I know my seniors,

That did due deeds of darkness too:-their country Has watch'd them a good turn for't,

And ta'en them napping now:

The fewer hospitals will serve too, many

May be used for stews and brothels; and those Will never trouble them to fourscore.

[people

Ant. Can you play and sport with sorrow, sir? Creon. Sorrow! for what, Antigona? for my life? My sorrow is I have kept it so long well, With bringing it up unto so ill an end. I might have gently lost it in my cradle, Before my nerves and ligaments grew strong, To bind it faster to me.

Sim. For mine own sake,

I should have been sorry for that.
Creon. In my youth

I was a soldier, no coward in my age;
I never turn'd my back upon my foe;
I have felt nature's winters, sicknesses,
Yet ever kept a lively sap in me

To greet the cheerful spring of health again.
Dangers, on horse, on foot, [by land,] by water,
I have scaped to this day; and yet this day,
Without all help of casual accidents,

Is only deadly to me, 'cause it numbers
Fourscore years to me. Where is the fault now?
I cannot blame time, nature, nor my stars,
Nor aught but tyranny. Even kings themselves
Have sometimes tasted an even fate with me.
He that has been a soldier all his days,
And stood in personal opposition
'Gainst darts and arrows, the extremes of heat
And pinching cold, has treacherously at home,
In's secure quiet, by a villain's hand
Been basely lost, in his stars' ignorance :-
And so must I die by a tyrant's sword.

1 Law. Oh, say not so, sir, it is by the law. Creon. And what's that, but the sword of

A disease of drought dry up all pity from him,
That can dissemble pity with wet eyes!

Creon. Be good unto your mother, Simonides, She must be now your care.

Ant. To what end, sir?

The bell of this sharp edict tolls for me,

As it rings out for you.-I'll be as ready,
With one hour's stay, to go along with you.
Creon. Thou must not, woman, there are years
behind,

Before thou canst set forward in this voyage;
And nature, sure, will now be kind to all:
She has a quarrel in't, a cruel law
Seeks to prevent her, she will therefore fight in't,
And draw out life even to her longest thread :
Thou art scarce fifty-five.

Ant. So many morrows!

Those five remaining years I'll turn to days,
To hours, or minutes, for your company.
'Tis fit that you and I, being man and wife,
Should walk together arm in arm.

Sim. I hope