ABDELMELEC
All hail, Argers Zareo; and, ye Moors,
Salute the frontiers of your native home:
Cease, rattling
drums; and, Abdelmelec, here
Throw up thy trembling hands to heaven’s throne,
Pay to thy God due thanks, and thanks to him
That strengthens thee with mighty grrcious arms
Against the proud usurper of thy right,
The royal seat and crown of Barbary,
Great Amurath, great Emperor of the world,
The world bear witness how I do adore
The sacred name of Amurath the Geat.
Calsepius Bassa, Bassa Calsepius,
To thee, and to thy trusty band of men
That carefully attend us in our camp,
Pick’d soldiers, comparable to the guard
Of Myrmidons that kept Achilles tent,
Such thanks we giveto thee and to them all,
As may concern a poor distressed king,
In honour and in princely couresy.
CALSEPIUS
BASSA
Courteous and honourable Abdelmalec,
We are not come, at Amurath’s command,
As mercenary men, to serve for pay,
But as sure friends, by our great master sent
To gratify and to remunerate
Thy love, thy loyalty, and forwardness,
Thy service in his father’s dangerous war;
And to perform, in view of all the world,
The true office of right and royalty;
To see thee in thy chair enthroned,
To settle and to seat in the same,
To make thee Emperor of this Barbary,
Are come the viceroys and sturdy Janizaries
Of Amurath, son to Sultan Slimon.
Enter MULY MAHAMET SETH, RUBIN ARCHES, ABDEL RAYES, with others.
ABDIL RAYES
Long live my lord, the sovereign of my heart,
Lord Abdelmelec, whom the god of kings,
The mighty Amurath hath happy made!
And long live Amurath for this good deed!
MULY
MAHAMET SETH
Our Moors have seen the silver moons to wave,
In banners bravely spreading o’er the plain,
And in these semicercleshave described,
All in a golden field, a star to rise,
A glorious comet that begins to blaze,
Promising happy sorting to us all.
ROBIN ACHES
Brave man-at-arms, whom Amurath hath sent
To saw the lawful true-succeeding seed
In Barbary, that bows and groans withal
Under a proud usurping tyrant’s mace,
Right thou the wrongs this rightful king hath borne.
ABDELMELEC
Distressed ladies, and ye dames of Fez,
Sprung from the true Arabian Muly Xarif,
The loadstar and the honour of our line,
Now clear your watery eyes, wipe tears away,
And cheefully give welcome to these arms:
Amurath hath sent scourges by his men,
To whip that tyrant traitor-king from us, and maim’d youall.
Soldiers, sith rightful quarrels’ aid
Successful are, and men that managethem
Fight not in fear as traitorsand their feres;
That you may undrstand what arms we bear,
What lawful arms against our brother’s son,
In sight of heaven, even of mine honour’s worth,
Truly Iwill deliver and discourse
The sum of all. Descended from the line
Of Mahamet, our grandsir Muly Xarif
With store of gold and treasure leaves Arabia;
And strongly plants himself in Barbary;
And of the Moors tht now with us do wend
Our grandsire Muly Xarif was the first,
From him well wot ye Muly Mahamet
Xeque,
Who in his liftime made a perfect law,
Confirm’d with general voice of all his peers,
That in his kingdom should successively
His sons succeed. Abdellas was the first,
Eldest of four, Abdelmumen the second,
And we the rest, my brothes and myself.
Abdallas riegned his time: but see the change!
Helabours to invest his son in all,
To disannul the law our father made,
And disinherit us his brethren;
And his liftime wrongfully proclaims
His son for king that now contends with us.
Therefor I crave to re-obtain my right,
That Muly Mahamet the traitor holds,
Traitorand bloody tyrant both at once,
That murdered his younger brethren both:
But on this damned wrech, this traitor-king,
The gods shall poor down showers of sharp revenge.
And thus a matter not to you unknown
I have delivered; yet for no distrust
Of loyalty, my well-beloved friend,
But that the occasions fresh in memory
Of these ncumbers so may move your minds,
As for the lawful true-succeeding prince
Ye neither think your lives nor honoursdear,
Spent in a quarrel just and honourable.
CALSEPIUS BASSA
Such and no other we repute the cause
That forwardly for thee we undertake,
Thrice-puissant and renowed Abdelmelec,
And for thine honours frankly to epose
To all the dangerous that our war attends,
As freely and as resolutely all,
And any Moor whom thou commandest most.
MULY MAHAMETH SETH
And whyAbdelmelec, then, so siow
To chastis him with fury of the sword
Whose prid doth swell to sway beyond his reach?
Follow this prid, then, with fury of revenge.
ROBINARCHES
Of death, of blood, of wreak, and deep revenge,
Sall rubin arches frame here tragic songs:
I n blood, in death, inmurdre, and misdeed,
This heaven’s malice did begin and end.
ABDELMELEC
Rubin, these rights to Abdelmumen’s ghost
Have pierced by this to Pluto’s grave below;
The Furies and the fiends conspire with thee;
War bids me drow my weapons for revenge
Of my deep wrongs and my dear brpther’s death.
MULY MAHAMET SETH
Sheaht not your swords, you soldiers of Amurath,
Sheath not your swords, youMoors of Barbary,
That fight in your anointed king,
But follow to the gates of death and hell,
Pale death and hall, to entertain his soul.
Follow, Isay, to buirning Fhlegethon,
This traitor-tyrant and his companies.
CALISPIUS
BASSA
Heave
up your swords against these stony holds,
Wherein
thses barbarous rebels are enclosed:
Called for Abdelmelec by the gods
To sit upon the throne of Barbary.
ABDIL
RAYES
Bassa, great thanks, the honour of the
Turks.-
Forward, brave lords, unto this rightful
war!
How can this battle but successful be,
Where courage meeteth with a rightful cause?
RUBIN
ARCHES
Go in good time, my best-beloved lord,
Successful in thy work thou undertakes!
[ Exeunt with sound and sennet.]