Choose out the least: and ere the hand of death Should suck this ivory palace of thy life,

Embrace my counsel, and receive this poison; Which, in the instant he attempts thy love, Then give it him: do, do,

Do poison him; (aside) he gone, thou'rt next. Be sound in resolution, and farewell.

(Aside.) By one, and one, I'll ship you all to hell. Spain, I will drown thee with thine own proud

Then make an ark of carcasses: farewell!

Revenge and I will sail in blood to hell. [Exit. Maria. Poison the king! alas, my trembling

hand

Would let the poison fall; and through my cheeks
Fear, suited in a bloodless livery,

Would make the world acquainted with my guilt.
But thanks prevention, I have found a means,
Both to preserve my royal sovereign's life,
And keep myself a true and loyal wife. [Exit.

ACT III. SCENE I.

Enter QUEEN MOTHER with a Torch.

Qu. Mo. Fair eldest child of love, thou spot

less night,

Empress of silence, and the queen of sleep,
Who with thy black cheeks pure complexion,
Mak'st lovers eyes enamour'd of thy beauty,
Thou art like my Moor; therefore will I adore
thee

For lending me this opportunity,

Oh! with the soft-skin'd negro. Heavens, keep back

The saucy staring day from the world's eye,
Until my Eleazar make return:

Then, in his castle shall be find his wife
Transform'd into a strumpet by my son:
Then shall he hate her whom he would not kill;
Then shall I kill her whom I cannot love.
The king is sporting with his concubine;
Blush not, my boy, be bold like me thy mother
But their delights torture my soul like devils,
Except her shame be seen: wherefore, awake!
Christophero! Roderigo! raise the court;
Arise, you peers of Spain; Alvero rise,
Preserve your country from base infamies.

;

Enter at several Doors, with Lights and Rapiers drawn, ALVERO, RODERIGO, and CHRISTOPHERO, with others.

All. Who rais'd these exclamations through the court?

Qu. Mo. Sheath up your swords; you need

not swords, but eyes

To intercept this treason.

Alv. What's the treason?

Who are traitors? ring the larum bell;
Cry arm through all the city: once before
The horrid cry of treason did affright
Our sleeping spirits.

Qu. Mo. Stay ;

You need not cry arm, arm; for this black deed
Works treason to your king, to me, to you,
To Spain, and all that shall in Spain ensue.
This night Maria (Eleazar's wife)

Hath drawn the king by her lascivious looks
Privately to a banquet; I unseen,

Stood and beheld him in her lustful arms;
O God! shall bastards wear Spain's diadem?
If you can kneel to baseness, vex them not;
If you disdain to kneel, wash off this blot.
Rod. Let's break into the chamber, and sur-
prise her.

Alv. Oh, miserable me! do, do, break in;
My country shall not blush at my child's sin.
Qu. Mo. Delay is nurse to danger, follow me;
Come you and witness to her villany.

Alv. Hapless Alvero, how art thou undone, In a light daughter, and a stubborn son!

SCENE II.

[Exeunt omnes.

Enter KING with his Rapier drawn in one Hand, leading MARIA, seeming affrighted, in the other. Maria. Oh! kill me ere you stain my chastity. King. My hand holds death, but love sits in mine eye.

Exclaim not, dear Maria, do but hear me:
Though thus in dead of night, as I do now,
The lustful Tarquin stole to the chaste bed
Of Collatine's fair wife, yet shall thou be
No Lucrece, nor thy king a Roman slave,
To make rude villany thine honour's grave.
Maria. Why from my bed have you thus
frighted me?

King. To let thee view a bloody horrid tragedy. Maria. Begin it then, I'll gladly lose my life, Rather than be an emperor's concubine.

King. By my high birth, I swear thou shalt

be none;

The tragedy I'll write with my own hand,

A king shall act it, and a king shall die,
Except sweet mercy's beam shine from thine eye.
If this affright thee it shall sleep for ever.
If still thou hate me, thus this noble blade,
This royal purple temple shall invade.

Maria. My husband is from hence, for his sake spare me.

King. Thy husband is no Spaniard; thou art one, So is Fernando; then for country's sake, Let me not spare thee: on thy husband's face, Eternal night in gloomy shades doth dwell; But I'll look on thee like the gilded sun, When to the west his fiery horses run.

Maria. True, here you look on me with sun

set eyes,

For by beholding you my glory dies.

King. Call me thy morning then, for like the

morn,

In pride Maria shall through Spain be borne. [Music plays within.

This music was prepar'd to please thine ears
Love me, and thou shalt hear no other sounds.
[A banquet brought in.
Lo, here's a banquet set with mine own hands;
Love me, and thus I'll feast thee like a queen.
I might command thee, being thy sovereign;
But love me, and I'll kneel and sue to thee,
And circle this white forehead with the crown
Of Castile, Portugal, and Arragon,

And all those petty kingdoms which do bow
Their tributary knees to Philip's heir.

Maria. I cannot love you whilst my husband lives.

King. I'll send him to the wars, and in the front Of some main army shall he nobly die.

Maria. I cannot love you if you murder him. King. For thy sake then I'll call a Parliament, And banish, by a law, all Moors from Spain. Maria. I'll wander with him into banishment. King. It shall be death for any Negro's hand To touch the beauty of a Spanish dame. Come, come, what needs such cavils with a king? Night blinds all jealous eyes, and we may play; Carouse that bowl to me, I'll pledge all this; Being down, we'll make it more sweet with a kiss. Begin, I'll lock all doors, begin Spain's queen, [Locks the doors.

Love's banquet is most sweet when 'tis least seen.

Maria. Oh! thou conserver of my honour's life, Instead of poisoning him, drown him in sleep;

* In the original it runs, "This music was prepar'd thine An omission was evident; I trust the right reading is

ears." restored.