But when to his sought bed, thy wandring air
Shall for the happiness it wished repair,
How will it groan to find thy rival there?
How ghastly wilt thou look, when thou shalt see,
Through the drawn curtains, that great man and

me,

Wearied with laughing, joys shot to the soul, While thou shalt grinning stand, and gnash thy teeth, and howl?

Stat. O barbarous rage! my tears I cannot keep, But my full eyes in spite of me will weep. Ror. The king and I in various pictures drawn, Clasping each other, shaded o'er with lawn, Shall be the daily presents I will send, To help thy sorrow to her journey's end. And when we hear at last thy hour draws nigh, My Alexander, my dear love and I, Will come and hasten on thy lingering fates, And smile and kiss thy soul out through the grates. Stat. Tis well, I thank thee; thou hast waked a rage,

Whose boiling now no temper can assuage :
I meet thy tides of jealousy with more,
Dare thee to duel, and dash thee o'er and o'er.
Rar. What would you dare? -
Stat. Whatever you dare do,

My warring thoughts the bloodiest tracts pursue;
I am by love a fury made, like you:
Kill or be killed, thus acted by despair.

Ror. Sure the disdained Statira does not dare?
Stat. Yes, towering proud Roxana, but I dare.
Ror. I tower indeed o'er thee;

Like a fair wood, the shade of kings I stand;
While thou, sick weed, do but infest the land.
Stat. No, like an ivy I will curl thee round,
Thy sapless trunk of all its pride confound,
Then, dry and withered, bend thee to the ground.
What Sysigambis' threats, objected fears,
My sister's sighs, and Alexander's tears,
Could not effect, thy rival rage has done :

My soul, whose start at breach of oaths begun,
Shall to thy ruin violated run.

I'll see the king in spite of all I swore,

For one poor fault so early should remove,·· And fall a martyr to the god of love.

Ror. Is then Roxana's love and life so poor,
That for another you can chuse to die,
Rather than live for her? what have I done?
How am I altered since at Susa last
You swore, and sealed it with a thousand kisses,
Rather than lose Roxana's smallest charm,
You would forego the conquest of the world?
Aler. Madam, you best can tell what magic
drew

Me to your charms, but let it not be told
For your own sake; take that conquered world,
Dispose of crowns and scepters as you please,
Let me but have the freedom of an hour,
To make account with this wronged innocence.
Stat. You know, my lord, you did commit a
fault:

I ask but this, repeat your crime no more.
Alex. O never, never.

Ror. Am I rejected, then?
Alex. Exhaust my treasures,

Take all the spoils of the fair conquered Indies;
But, for the ease of my afflicted soul,
Go, where I never may behold thee more.

Rox. Yes, I will go, ungrateful as thou art,
Bane to my life! thou torment of my days,
Thou murderer of the world! for, as thy sword
Hath cut the lives of thousand thousand men,
So will thy tongue undo all woman-kind.
But I'll be gone; this last disdain hath cured me,
And I am now grown so indifferent,

I could behold you kiss without a pang,
Nay, take a torch and light you to your bed:
But do not trust me, no, for if you do,
By all the furies and the flames of love,
By love, which is the hottest burning hell,
I'll set you both on fire to blaze for ever. [Exit.

Stat. O Alexander, is it possible? Good gods, That guilt can shew so lovely yet I pardon, Forgive thee all, by thy dear life I do.

Alex. Ha, pardon! saidst thou, pardon me? Sys. Now all thy mother's blessings fall upon thee,

Per. Madam, your royal mother, and the king.
Aler. O my Statira! O my angry dear!
Turn thine eyes on me, I would talk to them:
What shall I say to work upon thy soul?
Where shall I throw me? whither shall I fall?
Stat. For me you shall not fall.
Aler. For thee I will,

Before thy feet I'll have a grave dug up,
And perish quick, be buried straight alive:
Give but, as the earth grows heavy on me,
A tender look, and a relenting word,
Say but, 'twas pity that so great a man,
Who had ten thousand deaths in battles 'scaped,

Alex. Is it then true, that thou hast pardoned me?

And is it given me thus to touch thy hand,
And fold thy body in my longing arms?
To gaze upon thy eyes, my happier stars,
To taste thy lip, and thy dear balmy breath,
While every sigh comes forth so fraught with
sweets,

'Tis incense to be offered to a god.

Stat. Yes, dear impostor, 'tis most true, that I Have pardoned thee; and 'tis as true, that while I stand in view of thee, thy eyes will wound, Thy tongue will make me wanton as thy wishes; And while I feel thy hand, my body glows: Therefore be quick, and take your last adieu, These your last sighs, and these your parting tears: Farewell, farewell, a long and last farewell!

Aler. O my Hephestion, bear me, or I sink. Stat. Nay, you may take-Heaven, how my heart throbs!

You may, you may, if yet you think me worthy,
Take from these trembling lips a parting kiss.
Alex. No, let me starve first-why, Statira,
why?

What is the meaning of all this?-O gods!
I know the cause, my working brain divines-
You'll say you pardoned, but with this reserve,
Never to make me blest as I have been,
To slumber by the side of that false man,
Nor give a heaven of beauty to a devil:
Think you not thus? Speak, madam.

Sys. She is not worthy, son, of so much sorrow :
Speak comfort to him, speak, my dear Statira,
I ask thee by those tears: Ah! canst thou e'er
Pretend to love, yet with dry eyes behold him?
Alex. Silence more dreadful than severest

sounds:

Would she but speak, though death, eternal exile Hung on her lips, yet, while her tongue pronoun

ces,

There must be music even in my undoing.

Stat. Still, my loved lord, I cannot see you
thus;

Nor can I ever yield to share your bed:
OI shall find Roxana in your arms,
And taste her kisses left upon your lips.
Alex. Yes, obstinate, I will, madam, you shall,
You shall, in spite of this resistless passion,
Be served; but you must give me leave to think
You never loved:-O could I see you thus!
Hell has not half the tortures that you raise.
Cly. Never did passions combat thus before.
Alex. O I shall burst,

Unless you give me leave to rave a while.

Sys. Yet e'er destruction sweep us both away, Relent, and break through all to pity him! Alex. Yes, I will shake this Cupid from my

arms,

If all the rages of the earth would fright him;
Drown him in the deep bowl of Hercules;
Make the world drunk, and then, like Eolus,
When he gave passage to the struggling winds,
I'll strike my spear into the reeling globe
To let it blood, set Babylon in a blaze,

And drive this god of flames with more consuming fire.

Stat. My presence will but force him to extremes;

Besides, 'tis death to me to see his pains:
Yet stand resolved never to yield again-
Permit me to remove.

Alex. I charge ye, stay her!

For if she pass, by all the hell I feel,

Your souls, your naked ghosts, shall wait upon her.

O turn thee! turn! thou barbarous brightness, turn!

Hear my last words, and see my utmost pang:

Alex. O my Statira!

I swear, my queen, I'll not out-live thy hate,
My soul is still as death-But one thing more,
Pardon my last extremities--the transports
Of a deep wounded breast, and all is well.
Stat. Rise, and may heaven forgive you all,
like me.

Aler. You are too gracious.-Clytus, bear me hence;

When I am laid in earth, yield her the world. There's something here heaves, as cold as ice, That stops my breath-Farewell, oh gods! for

ever.

Stat. Hold off, and let me run into his arms, My dearest, my all love, my lord, my king! You shall not die, if that the soul and body Of thy Statira can restore thy life: Give me thy wonted kindness.

Alex. O the killing joy!

O extasy! my heart will burst my breast,
To leap into thy bosom; but, by heaven,
This night I will revenge me of thy beauties,
For the dear rack I have this day endured;
For all the sighs and tears that I have spent,
I'll have so many thousand burning loves;
So swell thy lips, so fill me with thy sweetness,
Thou shalt not sleep nor close thy wandring eyes:
The smiling hours shall all be loved away,
We'll surfeit all the night, and languish all the
day.

Stat. Nor shall Roxana

Alex. Let her not be named

O mother! how shall I requite your goodness!
And you, my fellow warriors, that could weep
For your lost king-But I invite you all,
My equals in the throne as in the grave,
Without distinction to the riot come,
To the king's banquet-

Cly. I beg your majesty
Would leave me out.

Alex. None, none shall be excused; All revel out the day, 'tis my command. Gay as the Persian god our self will stand, With a crowned goblet in our lifted hand. Young Ammon and Statira shall go round, While antic measures beat the burdened ground, And to the vaulted skies our clangors sound.

[Exeunt.

SCENE I.

sian robes.

Cly. AWAY, I will not wear these Persian
robes;

Nor ought the king be angry for the reverence
I owe my country: sacred are her customs,
Which honest Clytus shall preserve to death.
O let me rot in Macedonian rags,
Rather than shine in fashions of the east.
Then for the adorations he requires,
Roast my old body in infernal flames,
Or let him cage me like Calisthenes.
Eum. Dear Clytus, be persuaded.
Heph. You know the king

Is godlike, full of all the richest virtues,
That ever royal heart possessed; yet you
Perverse, but to one humour will oppose him.
Cly. Call you it humour? 'tis a pregnant one,
By Mars there's venom in it, burning pride;
And, though my life should follow, rather than
Bear such a hot ambition in my bowels,
I'd rip them up to give the poison vent.

Mele. Was not that Jupiter, whom we adore, A man, but, for his more than human acts, Advanced to heaven, and worshipped for its lord! Heph. By all his thunder and his sovereign power,

I'll not believe the earth yet ever felt
An arm like Alexander's; not that god
You named, though riding in a car of fire,
And drawn by flying horses, winged with light-
ning,

Could, in a shorter space, do greater deeds,
Drive all the nations, and lay waste the world.
Cly. There's not a man of war among you all,
That loves the king like me; yet I'll not flatter,
Nor soothe his vanity, it is blameable;

And when the wine works, Clytus's thoughts will

out.

Heph. Then go not to the banquet.
Cly. I was called,

My minion, was I not, as well as you?
Til go, my friends, in this old habit thus,
And laugh, and drink the king's health heartily;
And while you, blushing, bow your heads to earth,
And hide them in the dust, I'll stand upright,
Straight as a spear, the pillar of my country,
And be by so much nearer to the gods-
But see, the king and all the court appear.
Enter ALEXANDER, SYSIGAMBIS, STATIRA, PA-
RISATIS, &c.

Par. Spare him, O spare Lysimachus his life! I know you will; kings should delight in mercy. Aler. Shield me, Statira, shield ine from her sorrow!

VOL. I.

Sys. Nor would I make my son so bold a prayer Had I not first consulted for his honour.

Aler. Honour! what honour! has not Statira said it!

Were I the king of the blue firmament,
And the bold Titans should again make war,
Though my resistless arrows were made ready,
By all the gods she should arrest my hand.
Fly then, even thou, his rival so beloved,
Fly with old Clytus, snatch him from the jaws
Of the devouring beast, bring him adorned
To the king's banquet, fit for loads of honour.
[Exeunt Heph. Eum--Par. and Cly.
Stat. O my loved lord! let me embrace your
knees!

I am not worthy of this mighty passion :
You are too good for goddesses themselves:
No woman, nor the sex, is worth a grain
Of this illustrious life of my dear master.
Why are you so divine, to cause such fondness,
That my
heart leaps, and beats, and fain would
out,

To make a dance of joy about your feet?
Alex. Excellent woman! no, 'tis impossible
Το say how much I love thee-Ha! again!
Such extasies life cannot carry long;

The day comes on so fast, and beamy joy
Darts with such fierceness on me, night will fol
low.

A pale crowned head flew lately glaring by me,
With two dead hands, which threw a crystal globe
From high, that shattered in a thousand pieces.
But I will lose this boding dream in wine;
Then, warm and blushing for my queen's embra-

ROXANA meets him, with CASSANDER, POLYPERCHON, PHILIP, and THESSALUS.

Why, madam, gaze you thus?

Ror. For a last look, [She holds his hand.
And that the memory of Roxana's wrongs
May be for ever printed on your mind.
Alex. O madam, you must let me pass.
Ror. I will.

But I have sworn, that you shall hear me speak,
And mark me well, for fate is in my breath:
Love on the mistress, you adore, to death;
Still hope, but I fruition will destroy;
Languish for pleasures, you shall ne'er enjoy.
Still may Statira's image draw your sight,
Like those deluding fires that walk at night;
Lead you through fragrant grots and flow'ry groves,
And charm you through deep grass with sleeping
loves;

That when your fancy to its height does rise,
That light, you loved, may vanish from your
eyes,

Darkness, despair, and death, your wandering soul surprize.

Alex. Away! lead, Meleager, to the banquet. [Ex. with Mel. &c. Ror. So unconcerned! O I could tear my flesh,

Or him, or you, nay all the world to pieces.

Cass. Still keep this spirit up, preserve it still, Lose not a grain, for such majestic atoms First made the world, and must preserve its greatness.

My

Rox. I know I am whatever thou canst soul is pent, and has not elbow room;

say.

Shall curst Roxana fly with this dear load?
Where shall she find a refuge from the arms
Of all the successors of this great man?
No barbarous nation will receive a guilt
So much transcending theirs, but drive me out :
The wildest beasts will hunt me from their dens,
And birds of prey molest me in the grave.

Cass. No, you shall live-pardon the insolence
Which this almighty love enforces from me—
You shall live safer, nobler than before,
In your Cassander's arms.

Ror. Disgraced Roxana, whither wilt thou fall? I ne'er was truly wretched till this moment: There's not one mark of former majesty To awe my slave, that offers at my honour. Cass. Madam, I hope you'll not impute my passion

To want of that respect, which I must bear you; Long have I loved

Ror. Peace, most audacious villain, Or I will stab this passion in thy throat! What, shall I leave the bosom of a deity, To clasp a clod, a moving piece of earth, Which a mole heaves? So far art thou beneath

me.

Cass. Your majesty shall hear no more folly. Ror. Nor dare to meet my eyes; for if thou

dost

bounds:

Command Cassander to obey your pleasure,
And I will on, swift as your nimble eye
Scales heaven; when I am angry with the fates,
No age, nor sex, nor dignity of blood,
No ties of law nor nature, not the life
Imperial, though guarded by the gods,
Shall bar Cassander's vengeance-he shall die.
Ror. Ha! shall he die? shall I consent to kill
him?

To see him clasped in the cold arms of death,
Whom I with such an eagerness have loved?

Cass. I know, dread madam, that Cassander's life

Is in your hands, só cast to do you service.

Ror. You thought, perhaps, because I practised

charms

To gain the king, that I had loose desires :
No, 'tis my pride, that gives me height of plea-

sure,

To see the man, by all the world admired,
Bowed to my bosom, and my captive there.

Cass. By your own life, the greatest oath I

swear,

Cassander's passion from this time is dumb.

Ror. No, if I were a wanton, I would make Princes the victims of my raging fires:

I, like the changing moon, would have the stars My followers, and mantled kings by night