[ACT II, Scene 3]

 

 Enter the MOOR, withCALIPOLIS, his wife, MULY MAHAME 

This Son , and two others.

 

THE MOOR

   Where art thou, boy?Where is Calipolis?

   Odeadly wound that by mine eye,

   The fatal prison of my swelling heart!

   O fortune constant in unconstancy!

   Fightearthquakes in the entrails of the earth,

   And eastern whirlwinds in the hellish shades!

   Some foul contagion of the infected heaven

   Blast all the trees, and their cursed tops

   The dismal night-racen and tragic owl

   Breed, and become fortellers of my fall,

   The fatal ruinof my name and me!

   Adders and serpents hissat my disgrace,

   And wound the earth with anguish of their strings!

   Now, Abdelmelec, now triumph in Fez;

   Fortune hath made thee King of Barbary.

CALIPOLIS

   Alas, my lord, what boot these huge exclaims

   To advantage us in this distress’d estate?

   O, pity our perplex’d estate, my lord,

   And turn all curses to submiss complaints,

   And those complaints to actions of relief!

   Ifaint, my lord and naught may cursing plaints

   Refresh the fading substance of my life.

THE MOOR

   Faint all the world, consume and be accused,

   Since my state faints, and is accused.

CALIPOLIS

   Yet patience, lord, to conquer sorrows so.

THE MOOR

   What patience is for him that lacks his crown?

    There is no patience where the loss is such:

    The shame of my disgrace hath put on wings,

   And swiftly flies about this earthly ball.

   Carest thou to live, then, fond Calipolis,

   When he that should give essence to thy soul,

   He on whose glory all thy joy should stay,

   Is soulless, gloryless, and desperat,

   Crying for battle, famine, sword, and fire,

   Rather than calling for relief or life?

   But be content, thy hunger shall have end;

   Famine shall pine to death, and thou shalt live:

   I will go hunt these cursed solitaries,

   And make the sword and tager here my hound,

   To pull down lions and untamed beasts.  

                              Exit  

THE MOOR’S SON

   Tush, mother, cherish your unhearty soul,

   And feed with hope of hapiness and ease;

   For it by valour or by policy

   My kingly fathercan be fortunate,

   We shall be Jove’s commanders once again,

   And flourish in a threefold happiness.

ATTENDANT

   His majesty hath sent Sebastian,

   The good and harmless King of Portugal,

   A promise to resign the royalty

   And kingdom of Morocco to his hands;

   But when this haughty offer takes effect,

   And workes affiance in Sebastian,

   My gracious lord, warn’d wisely to advise,

   I doobt not but will watch occasion,

   And take her for-top by the slendersthair,

   To rid of this miserable life.

THE MOOR’S SON

   Good madam, cheer yourself: my father’s wise;

   He can submit himself and live below,

   Make show of friendship, promise, vow and swear,

   Till, by the virtue of his fair pretence,

   Sebastiantrusting his integrity,

   He makes himself possessor of such fruits

   As grow upon such great advantages.

CALIPOLIS

   But more dishonour hangs on such misdeeds

   Than all the profit their return can bear:

   Such secret judgments have the heavens imposed

   Upon the drooping state of Barbary,

   As public merits in such lewd attempts

   Have drown with voilnce upon our heads.

 

Enter the [MOOR] MULY MAHAMET with lion’s flesh 

upon his sword

 

THE MOOR

   Hold thee, Calipolis, feed and faint no more;

   This flesh I forced frome a liness,

   Meat of a princess, for a princess meet:

   Learn by her noble stomach to esteem

   Penury plenty in ewtremest death;

   Who, when she saw her foragement bereft,

   Pined not in melancoly or childish fear,

   But as brave minds are strongest in extremes,

   She redoubling her former force,

   Ranged through the woods, and rent the breeding vaults

   Of proudest savages to save herself,

   Feed, then, and faint not fair Calipolis;

   For rather than fierce Famine shall prevail,

   To gnaw thy entrails with her thorny teeth,

   The conquering lioness shall attend on thee,

   And lay huge heaps of slaughtered carcasses,

   As buiwarkes in her way, to keep her back.

   I will provide thee of a princely osprey,

   That as she flieth over fish in pools,

   The fish shall turn their glistering bellis up,

   And thou shalt take thy liberal choice of all;

   Jove’sstately bird wiyh wide-commanding wings

   Shall hover still about thy princely head,

   And beat down fowl by shoals into thy lap:

   Feed, then,and faint not, faireCalipolis.

CALIPOLIS

   Thanks, goodmy lord, and though my stomachbe

   Too queasy to digest such bloodymeat,

   Yet, strength I it with virtue of my mind,

   I doubt no whit but I shall live, my lord.

THE MOOR

   Into the shades, then, fair Calipolis,

   And makes thy son and negroes her good cheer:

   Feed and be fat, that we may meet the foe

   With strength and terror, to revenge our wrong.

                                                                         [Exeunt.]