And the main ocean crusted into land,
If universal monarchy were mine,

Here should the gift be placed.

ACT H.

Dor. And from some hands I should refuse that gift.

Be not too prodigal of promises;

But stint your bounty to one only grant,
Which I can ask with honour.

Seb. What I am

Is but thy gift; make what thou canst of
Secure of no repulse.

Dor. [To SEB.] Dismiss your train.--

me,

[To ALM.] You, madam, please one moment to retire.

[SEBASTIAN signs to the Portugueses to go off; ALMEYDA, bowing to him, goes off also. The Africans follow her.

Dor. [To the Captain of the Guard.] With you one word in private.

[Goes out with the Captain.

Seb. [Solus.] Reserved behaviour, open nobleness,

A long mysterious track of stern bounty:

But now the hand of fate is on the curtain,
And draws the scene to sight.

Re-enter DORAX, having taken off his Turban, and put on a Peruke, Hat, and Cravat.

Dor. Now, do you know me ?

Seb. Thou shouldst be Alonzo.

Dor. So you should be Sebastian :
But when Sebastian ceased to be himself,
I ceased to be Alonzo.

Seb. As in a dream,

I see thee here, and scarce believe mine eyes,

my wrongs,

Dor. Is it so strange to find me, where
And your inhuman tyranny, have sent me?
Think not you dream; or, if you did, my injuries

Shall call so loud, that lethargy should wake,
And death should give you back to answer me.
A thousand nights have brushed their balmy wings
Over these eyes; but ever when they closed,
Your tyrant image forced them ope again,
And dried the dews they brought:

The long expected hour is come at length,
By manly vengeance to redeem my fame;
And, that once cleared, eternal sleep is welcome.
Seb. I have not yet forgot I am a king,
Whose royal office is redress of wrongs:

If I have wronged thee, charge me face to face;-
I have not yet forgot I am a soldier.

Dor. 'Tis the first justice thou hast ever done me. Then, though I loath this woman's war of tongues, Yet shall my cause of vengeance first be clear; And, honour, be thou judge.

Seb. Honour befriend us both.

Beware, I warn thee yet, to tell thy griefs
In terms becoming majesty to hear:

I warn thee thus, because I know thy temper
Is insolent, and haughty to superiors.

How often hast thou braved my peaceful court,
Filled it with noisy brawls, and windy boasts;
And with past service, nauseously repeated,
Reproached even me, thy prince?

Dor. And well I might, when you forgot reward,
The part of heaven in kings; for punishment
Is hangman's work, and drudgery for devils.-
I must, and will reproach thee with my service,
Tyrant! It irks me so to call my prince;
But just resentment, and hard usage, coined
The unwilling word; and, grating as it is,
Take it, for 'tis thy due.

Seb. How, tyrant?
Dor. Tyrant.

Seb. Traitor!-that name thou canst not echo

back;

That robe of infamy, that circumcision

Ill hid beneath that robe, proclaim thee traitor;
And, if a name

More foul than traitor be, 'tis renegade.

Dor. If I'm a traitor, think,—and blush, thou
tyrant,-

Whose injuries betrayed me into treason,
Effaced my loyalty, unhinged my faith,
And hurried me, from hopes of heaven, to hell.
All these, and all my yet unfinished crimes,
When I shall rise to plead before the saints,
I charge on thee, to make thy damning sure.

Seb. Thy old presumptuous arrogance again, That bred my first dislike, and then my loathing.Once more be warned, and know me for thy king.

Dor. Too well I know thee, but for king no more.
This is not Lisbon; nor the circle this,
Where, like a statue, thou hast stood besieged
By sycophants and fools, the growth of courts;
Where thy gulled eyes, in all the gaudy round,
Met nothing but a lie in every face;

And the gross flattery of a gaping crowd,
Envious who first should catch, and first applaud,
The stuff of royal nonsense: When I spoke,
My honest homely words were carped and censured
For want of courtly style; related actions,
Though modestly reported, passed for boasts;
Secure of merit if I asked reward,

Thy hungry minions thought their rights invaded,
And the bread snatched from pimps and parasites.
Henriquez answered, with a ready lie,

To save his king's,-the boon was begged before! Seb. What say'st thou of Henriquez? Now, by heaven,

Thou mov'st me more by barely naming him,

Than all thy foul unmannered scurril taunts.
Dor. And therefore 'twas, to gall thee, that I
named him.

That thing, that nothing, but a cringe and smile;
That woman, but more daubed; or, if a man,
Corrupted to a woman; thy man-mistress.
Seb. All false as hell, or thou.

Dor. Yes; full as false

As that I served thee fifteen hard campaigns,
And pitched thy standard in these foreign fields:
By me thy greatness grew, thy years grew with it,
But thy ingratitude outgrew them both.

Seb. I see to what thou tend'st: but, tell me first,
If those great acts were done alone for me?
If love produced not some, and pride the rest?
Dor. Why, love does all that's noble here below;
But all the advantage of that love was thine.
For, coming fraughted back, in either hand
With palm and olive, victory and peace,
I was indeed prepared to ask my own,
(For Violante's vows were mine before :)
Thy malice had prevention, ere I spoke;
And asked me Violante for Henriquez.

Seb. I meant thee a reward of greater worth. Dor. Where justice wanted, could reward be hoped?

Could the robbed passenger expect a bounty
From those rapacious hands, who stripped him first?
Seb. He had my promise, ere I knew thy love.
Dor. My services deserved thou shouldst revoke
it.

Seb. Thy insolence had cancelled all thy service: To violate my laws, even in my court,

Sacred to peace, and safe from all affronts;
Even to my face, and done in my despite,
Under the wing of awful majesty,

To strike the man I loved!

Dor. Even in the face of heaven, a place more

sacred,

Would I have struck the man, who, prompt by power,
Would seize my right, and rob me of my love:
But, for a blow provoked by thy injustice,
The hasty product of a just despair,

When he refused to meet me in the field,

That thou shouldst make a coward's cause thy own! Seb. He durst; nay more, desired, and begged with tears,

To meet thy challenge fairly: 'Twas thy fault
To make it public; but my duty, then,

To interpose, on pain of my displeasure,
Betwixt your swords.

Dor. On pain of infamy,

He should have disobeyed.

Seb. The indignity, thou didst, was meant to me: Thy gloomy eyes were cast on me with scorn, As who should say,-the blow was there intended; But that thou didst not dare to lift thy hands Against anointed power. So was I forced To do a sovereign justice to myself, And spurn thee from my presence.

Dor. Thou hast dared

To tell me, what I durst not tell myself:
I durst not think that I was spurned, and live;
And live to hear it boasted to my face.

All my long avarice of honour lost,

Heaped up in youth, and hoarded up for age!
Has honour's fountain then sucked back the stream?
He has; and hooting boys may dry-shod pass,
And gather pebbles from the naked ford.
Give me my love, my honour; give them back-
Give me revenge, while I have breath to ask it!

Seb. Now, by this honoured order which I wear, More gladly would I give, than thou dar'st ask it; Nor shall the sacred character of king