And if I dare not, then am I the slave,
And my own slaves the sovereigns:-'tis resolved.
Weak princes flatter, when they want the power
To curb their people; tender plants must bend:
But when a government is grown to strength,
Like some old oak, rough with its armed bark,
It yields not to the tug, but only nods,
And turns to sullen state.

Bend. Then you resolve

To implore her pity, and to beg relief?

Emp. Death! must I beg the pity of my slave? Must a king beg?-Yes; love's a greater king; A tyrant, nay, a devil, that possesses me : He tunes the organs of my voice, and speaks, Unknown to me, within me; pushes me, And drives me on by force.

Say I should wed her, would not my wise subjects
Take check, and think it strange? perhaps revolt?
Bend. I hope they would not.

Emp. Then thou doubtst they would?
Bend. To whom?

Emp. To her

Perhaps, or to my brother,-or to thee.

Bend. [in disorder.] To me! me, did you mention? how I tremble!

The name of treason shakes my honest soul.
If I am doubted, sir,

Secure yourself this moment, take my life.

Emp. No more: If I suspected thee-I would. Bend. I thank your kindness.-Guilt had almost

lost me.

[Aside. Emp. But clear my doubts:-thinkst thou they may rebel?

Bend. This goes as I would wish.Tis possible:

A secret party still remains, that lurks

Like embers raked in ashes,-wanting but

[Aside.

A breath to blow aside the involving dust,
And then they blaze abroad.

Emp. They must be trampled out.
Bend. But first be known.

Emp. Torture shall force it from them.

Bend. You would not put a nation to the rack? Emp. Yes, the whole world; so I be safe, I care.

not.

Bend. Our limbs and lives

Are yours; but mixing friends with foes is hard. Emp. All may be foes; or how to be distinguished,

If some be friends?

Bend. They may with ease be winnowed. Suppose some one, who has deserved your trust, Some one, who knows mankind, should be employed To mix among them, seem a malcontent,

And dive into their breasts, to try how far
They dare oppose your love?

Emp. I like this well; 'tis wholesome wickedness.
Bend, Whomever he suspects, he fastens there,
And leaves no cranny of his soul unsearched;
Then like a bee bag'd with his honeyed venom,
He brings it to your hive;-if such a man,
So able and so honest, may be found;

If not, my project dies.

Emp. By all my hopes, thou hast described thy

self:

Thou, thou alone, art fit to play that engine,
Thou only couldst contrive.

Bend. Sure I could serve you:

I think I could:-but here's the difficulty;
I am so entirely yours,

That I should scurvily dissemble hate;
The cheat would be too gross.

Emp. Art thou a statesman,

And canst not be a hypocrite? Impossible!

Do not distrust thy virtues.

Bend. If I must personate this seeming villain, Remember 'tis to serve you.

Emp. No more words:

Love goads me to Almeyda, all affairs

Are troublesome but that; and yet that most.

Bid Dorax treat Sebastian like a king;
I had forgot him;-but this love mars all,
And takes up my whole breast.

[Going.

[Exit EMPEROR.

[Alone.

Bend. [To the EMP.] Le sure I'll tell him—
With all the aggravating circumstances
I can, to make him swell at that command.
The tyrant first suspected me;

Then with a sudden gust he whirled about,
And trusted me too far:-Madness of power!
Now, by his own consent, I ruin him.

For, should some feeble soul, for fear or gain,
Bolt out to accuse me, even the king is cozened,
And thinks he's in the secret.

How sweet is treason, when the traitor's safe!

Sees the MUFTI and DORAX entering, and seeming to confer.

The Mufti, and with him my sullen Dorax.
That first is mine already :

'Twas easy work to gain a covetous mind,
Whom rage to lose his prisoners had prepared :
Now caught himself,

He would seduce another. I must help him:
For churchmen, though they itch to govern all,
Are silly, woeful, aukward politicians:

They make lame mischief, though they mean it well:

Their interest is not finely drawn, and hid,

But seams are coarsely bungled up, and seen.

Muf. He'll tell you more.

Dor. I have heard enough already,

To make me loath thy morals.

Bend. [To DoR.] You seem warm;

The good man's zeal perhaps has gone too far.
Dor. Not very far; not farther than zeal goes;
Of course a small day's journey short of treason.
Muf. By all that's holy, treason was not named:
I spared the emperor's broken vows, to save
The slaves from death, though it was cheating
heaven;

But I forgave him that.

Dor. And slighted o'er

The wrongs himself sustained in property;
When his bought slaves were seized by force, no loss
Of his considered, and no cost repaid. [Scornfully.
Muf. Not wholly slighted o er, not absolutely.-
Some modest hints of private wrongs I urged.

Dor. Two-thirds of all he said: there he began To shew the fulness of his heart; there ended. Some short excursions of a broken vow

He made indeed, but flat insipid stuff';

But, when he made his loss the theme, he flourished, Relieved his fainting rhetoric with new figures, And thundered at oppressing tyranny.

Muf. Why not, when sacrilegious power would

seize

My property? 'tis an affront to heaven,
Whose person, though unworthy, I sustain.

Dor. You've made such strong alliances above, That 'twere profaneness in us laity

To offer earthly aid.

I tell thee, Mufti, if the world were wise,

They would not wag one finger in your quarrels.
Your heaven you promise, but our earth you covet;
The Phatons of mankind, who fire that world,
Which you were sent by preaching but to warm.
Bend. This goes beyond the mark.
Muf. No, let him rail;

His prophet works within him;
He's a rare convert.

Dor. Now his zeal yearns

To see me burned; he damns me from his church,
Because I would restrain him to his duty.-

Is not the care of souls a load sufficient?
Are not your holy stipends paid for this?
Were you not bred apart from worldly noise,
To study souls, their cures and their diseases?
If this be so, we ask you but our own:
Give us your whole employment, all your care.
The province of the soul is large enough
To fill up every cranny of your time,

And leave you much to answer, if one wretch
Be damned by your neglect.

Bend. [To the MUFTI.] He speaks but reason.
Dor. Why, then, these foreign thoughts of state-
employments,

Abhorrent to your function and your breedings?
Poor droning truants of unpractised cells,
Bred in the fellowship of bearded boys,
What wonder is it if you know not men?

Yet there you live demure, with down-cast eyes,
And humble as your discipline requires ;
But, when let loose from thence to live at large,
Your little tincture of devotion dies:
Then luxury succeeds, and, set agog
With a new scene of yet untasted joys,
You fall with greedy hunger to the feast.
Of all your college virtues, nothing now
But your original ignorance remains;
Bloated with pride, ambition, avarice,
You swell to counsel kings, and govern kingdoms.
Muf. He prates as if kings had not consciences,
And none required directors but the crowd.

Dor. As private men they want you, not as kings; Nor would you care to inspect their public conscience,