hadst been perswaded to O cruel Volusius cruel in thy malice and cruel in thy remorse thou art in both equally the messenger of death to me and I find fatal poison in this appearance of life which thou bringst me when thou tellest me that Coriolanus is constant to me Let us then till death bewaile the misfortune which attends us as well in the one as in the other condition and never entertain any comfort since that is a kind of happinesse which guilty souls are never to expect Here the tears interrupted the course of her speech and fell from her in such abundance that she was forced to allow them a free passage and to let them expresse some part of what she felt within her In that interval she repented her of her last reflections and assoon as she was in a condition to reassume her discourse I crave thy pardon said she with a voice imperfectly accented with sobs I crave thy pardon faithful Prince for so unjust an apprehension and what ever I may fear from my own remorse and the reproaches thou maist justly make me yet must I needs acknowledge that it is more satisfactory to me nay a thousand times more satisfactory to me to be found criminal by thy innocence then to be found innocent by thy infidelity for I set such a value on thy affection that nothing can repair the losse of it nor counterballance the happinesse it were to me to recover it I am content to be thought guilty of all that the artifices of my enemies have occasioned me to commit and shall not seek for any excuse either in my errour or my repentance but onely flatter my self with this comfort that thou hast ever loved me lovest me now and wilt love me to the last gasp It is not therefore in thy justification that I would be thought unfortunate because then the guilt lies on my side but I acknowledge my self unfortunate in the ingratitude I have expressed towards thee in the misfortunes I have occasioned thee in the irrecoverable losses I have caused thee and the cruel resolutions I have forced thee upon It was by my means that at Syracuse thou wert reduced to those extremities that brought thy life into danger upon my account hast thou lost a Kingdom which thou didst design for me thou hast spent thy daies in wandring up and down the World with much misery thou hast sought death among the Waves and thou art still resolved to run thy self upon death meerly becase thou wouldst not either by thy presence or memory disturb the enjoiments thou wishest me Ah Coriolanus t is in that resolution thou art unjust and cruel no lesse then I have been and thou oughtest not by loosing thy own life imagine to adde any thing to my happinesse since it is from thee alone that all the happinesse of my life is derived Thou hast but little acquaintance with Cleopatra if thou canst think the losse of thy Kingdom able to abate any thing of the value I set on thee I have ever preferred thy person before all the Monarchies of the World and supposing the condition thou art reduced to as miserable as can be imagined I would run fortunes with thee with no lesse satisfaction then if thou hadst the universe at thy disposal Do not therefore court thy own death Coriolanus if thou dost it not to rid thy hands of an unhappy woman whom for her ingratitude thou hast reason to abhor or 〈◊〉 thou proposest to thy self greater felicity in death then in Cleopatra let us go to it together and know that as well as thy â—elâ— I am come from a house wherein the examples of voluntary death are but too too familiar for me to be daunted at any such thing With these words she as it were opened the flood-gates to that grief which was ready to over-run her and cast her self on her bed after a most pittifull manner insomuch that Marcellus who had never seen her so unable to command her passions being astonished at it and rising from the place where he sate came to her with an endeavour to recover and comfort her Is it possible Sister said he to her that so unreasonable a grief should have such a powerfull influence on your imaginanations whom I have known with so much constancy resist the assaults of a just affliction and cannot you entertain an account of Coriolanus's innocency with some moderation who have supported his infidelity with so much settlednesse and resolution Can it possibly come to passe if the affections of that Prince were ever deare to you that you should not with joy entertain this change of your condition and that the remorse you conceive at the miscarriages that have happened through your misapprehensions should have a more powerfull operation on you then the assurances of a fidelity which you have wished with more earnestnesse than you could have done any thing relating to your own life Ah Sister if these must be the effects of your regretts let them fall onely upon me who am ore-burthened with crimes by the engagement I have had in your mistake for that it was upon my sollicitation principally that you came to hate a Friend who loved me beyond himself It was I that travelled up and down severall Kingdomes and crossed many seas to find him out purposely to dispatch him when in the mean time I was dearer to him than his own life and that was it that all my attempts were bent to cut off even while by the force of his Friendship he contributed to the execution of my designe by presenting his naked breast to me to satisfie my cruelty Let therefore all those arrowes of remorse be stuck in my brest with all the care of the reparation we owe him and take heed you do not incense heaven by not entertaining with the acknowledgements you ought a favour you have put up so many suits to the gods for I entertain Brother replied the Princesse this favour from the celestiall powers with all the resentments I ought to have for it and cannot but acknowledge that there is not any thing could be more deare to me than the innocence of Coriolanus but Brother after what manner would you have me consider the miserable condition whereto he is reduced for my sake and upon my account and with what constancy can I heare of the fatall resolution which he sends me word he intends to take to run upon death meerly to prevent his being any way a hindrance to my felicity For what concernes his Fortunes replied Marcellus what lownesse soever they may now be reduced to it is not impossible but that they may be recovered to their former greatnesse by such another revolution as that whereby they were ruined and that either by open hostility or thâ—â—e other waies he practised formerly he may yet reascend into the throne of his Ancestors But supposing all this were nothing but pure matter of imagination and should never come to
make but the unfortunate Elisena who stood neerest to me receiving the mortal wound fell down at my feet in a torrent of bloud and as she fell fastening on my knees she held me so that I could not get off from her to run after Cleontes In the mean time Elisena expiring strove as much as she could to speak and with abundance of difficulty made a shift to bring forth these words Zenodorus said she to me thou hast spilt innocent bloud which will cry out for vengeance against thee but far be it from me to desire it of the gods and I forgive thee my death which my own imprudence and thy want of recollection hath brought me to thou wilt find that I have not injured thee and therefore content thy self that thou hast taken away my life and medle not with Cleontes who is ... She would have said somewhat else but ere she could bring it out both voice and life had taken their leaves of her This spectacle you may well imagine was deplorable enough to move me to some pitty and the love which I had formerly had for Elisena whom I saw expiring at my feet beautiful even in her palenesse and amidst the very looks of death as amiable as ever she had been in her life must in all likelihood force me to some compassion But rage and fury being grown predominant over my soul and I looking on the losse of my honour as a thing infallibly certain and from the last words of Elisena when she recommended unto me the life of Cleontes and seemed so indifferent as to her own drawing no other conclusion then that of the excessive love she had for him my fury derives new strength from that cruel confirmation and leaving the body of Elisena in the hands of her Women who were come in at the noise out of a place where they waited hard by I pursued Cleontes with the sword all bloudy in my hand that way that I had seen him run away He was gotten far enough from me and I should have found it no small difficulty to overtake him if at the same time a noise had not been spread about the Garden that Elisena was dead At this unhappy news Cleontes stayes not desirous to save his life after the misfortune which he had been the occasion of as I came into the Knot of the Garden I saw him coming towards me tearing his cloaths pulling his hair and filling the place with his lamentations Instead of avoiding my sword he would run upon the point of it and presenting his naked breast to me he therein received the mortal thrust which ran him through and through After he had gone two or three paces backward staggering he fell down at the feet of a Diana of Alablaster which stood at one of the corners of the Knot and as he fell embraced it Goddesse of chastity said he receive this life which I offer up up to thee and if I stain it with my bloud thou knowest it is pure and innocent There was something in these words that seemed so mild withall so mournful that the better part of my fury was thereby abated and while a many persons were running to the place where I was the expiring Cleontes turning his eyes from the statue and fastening them on me Barbarous man said he to me hope not that the gods will pardon thee the death of the innocent Elisena though I forgive thee mine and since I have not life enough left me to convince thee of her innocence acknowledge it upon the sight of what I had never shewn any man and which thou of all mankind art the most unworthy to see With these words contracting together all the strength he had left he made a shift to open or to tear that which covered his stomack and by discovering to us a neck and breasts whiter then the Alablaster which he embraced easily satisfied us that he was a Woman Artaxus interrupting Zenodorus at this passage Heavens Zenodorus said he to him what is this that you relate to me and what an unfortunate adventure was this of yours Till now though there were things deplorable enough in your relation yet had I not been moved to compassion at any and I thought there was so much reason in all proceedings that I could not bemoane the destiny of two persons whom I conceived worthy the chastisement they received at your hands But these last words of your relation having changed the whole scene of the adventure and though there lies no more guilt on you then there would have done had it been otherwise yet I must confesse your are so much the more to be pittyed You may very well think it my Lord replyed Zenodorus and with the same labour comprehend some part of what I was not then able to expresse At that sight that fatal sight that fatall and too slow discovery I was in a manner more like a dead carkase then those I had deprived of life and not able to oppose all the passions which then made their several assaults on my soul with as much violence as can be well imagined nor expresse them by words I was almost grown immoveable and senselesse in the arms of those persons that were about me I apprehended my self at the same to be the murtherer of two Women of two beautiful and amiable persons and two innocent persons whereof one had been my own Wife whom I had loved as dearly as my own soul and the other meerly upon the account of compassion had already raised in me an affection towards her This demonstration of the innocence and fidelity of Elisena did at the first reflection on it stick a sword into my heart much more cruel than that wherewith I had pierced her brest and the sight of that unfortunate person now no more Cleontes but one of the handsomest Ladies in the World wounded my soul with the most violent affliction that it was capable of Certain it is that some other person endued with a greater tendernesse of mind than I who have ever been of a fierce and harsh disposition had not survived so deplorable an accident and yet such as I was I really felt in my heart whatever a lively and piercing grief can have in it of torment After I had recollected my self for some time in the hands of those persons who had taken away my sword from me as having gathered from the fury of my looks that it was not unlikely I might do my self a mischief I drew neerer to that expiring Lady making signs to others to endeavour to help her when perceiving my intention Stand away cruel man said she to me and come not neer me Thy assistance is more hateful to me then the death thou hast given me and since the unfortunate Elisena whose death I have unhappily been the occasion of is no longer living oppose not the last demonstrations of the friend ship I had for her and suffer me to expire
without any other regret than that of having sacrificed to my misfortune a person so vertuous as she was O Elisena Elisena since my last kisses proved so fatal to thee learn among the dead where I am coming to enjoy thee again that I was unwilling to survive thee and that I run after thee to continue among the shades that friendship which was so dear to us hear As she uttered these words she saw passing by the body of Elisena which they were carrying out of the Garden and at that sight crying out louder than her weaknesse could bear she withal sent out her last breath in the arms of those that were come about to relieve her Among those that came immediately after a young Gentlewoman that served her and who after her example disguised her sex by mans cloaths casting her self upon the body as soon as she could get neer it made the aire echo again with her cryes and her lamentations and did a many things worthy compassion which I was not in a condition to take notice of for that as the sight of the body of Elisena which they had very indiscreetly caused to be carryed close by me I grew absolutely senselesse and distracted and was conveyed away and cast upon my bed where I was carefully looked after out of a fear I should have fallen into despaire When I had a little recovered my self I ran to the place where they had laid the body of Elisena and giving it thousands of kisses with an affection equal to that I had for her at the beginning of our unfortunate marriage I did all that lay in my power to dye neer her and have a thousand times since wondred that my grief alone should not be strong enough to do that which no doubt I should have done with my sword had I been left at liberty Her innocency and her vertue being then but too too well known to me I became a continual prey to that remorse and those implacable furies which unmercifully torment the soule and looking on my self as a Dragon or some horrid monster I made against my self the most terrible imprecations that a man could make against his most inveterate enemies From the body of Elisena I went to that of the unfortunate companion and partaker of her death and though I had not had any affection for her while she lived yet had the unhappinesse of her destiny such an influence upon me and she had appeared to me so amiable even in the last minutes of her life and in the last words she spoke that my soul was possessed by something greater then compassion and I was no lesse liberal of my tears for her death then for that of Elisena When I was so far recovered as that I could apprehend any thing was sad to me I was very desirons to know who she was and the Gentlewoman that had waited on her and who after her death had no reason to conceal what she had kept secret while she lived being brought before me though she could not look on me without horrour and detestation and being informed what my desires were gave me this account of her Since you are so desirous to know said she to me who this unfortunate woman whom you have put to death was I shall soon satisfie you to your sorrow for with that you shall know what enemies you have raised your self by your crueltie She was born among the Parthians of an extraction that is equally noble with any of the subjects of Phraates and was allyed on both sides to the Illustrious Family of the Arsacides Her name was Artesia and her beauty such when it appeared in its meridian lustre under cloaths suitable to her sex that the World can afford but few comparable to her She hath neglected it very much ever since and indeed hath had no great reason to be much in love with it because it hath proved the occasion of all the misfortunes that have happened to her Being brought up about the Queen as a Princesse that could claime some kinred to her and having in a short time discovered to the whole Court as well the beauty of her countenance as that of her understanding she was there generally beloved but indeed much more than she desired to be insomuch that the amiablenesse of her person having enflamed Phraates with an affection towards her she became accordingly the object of his cruel persecution She endured the torment of it for some time with an admirable vertue and endeavoured to smother the extravagant inclinations of the King by all those wayes which in any other soul might have produced that effect But her modesty and resistance adding to the eagernesse of the Kings love he would at last needs come to violence and without any consideration of the noblenesse of Artesia's bloud which was no other than a branch of his own he laid a design how to put his wicked resolutions in execution upon her This vertuous Lady whose Father had been dead many years before destitute of all protection against her King and that such a King as to whom after he had put to death his own Father all crimes ought to be easie and familiar had no way but to flye to deliver her vertue from that tempest and there being no way for her to conceale her self from so great a King but by disguising her sex she put on mans cloaths and causing me to do the like took onely me along with her in her flight and two ancient men-servants of her Fathers whose fidelity she was confident of After several journies to and fro wherein she had still inviolably kept the secrets of her adventure she at last came into your territories It was not her design to make any long stay therein but she was immediately charmed by the vertue of â—lisena and in processe of time coming to a perfect knowledge of her and conceaving her a person with whom she might safely enter into a solid friendship and in whom she might repose a great confidence she discovered her self to her acquainted her with her Fortune and revealed to her what she had so carefully concealed from all the World Elisena entertained these demonstrations of her affection and confidence with an admirable goodnesse and offered her all the assistance that lay in her power This was meerly the effect of her generosity as to a stranger but not long after the vertue and excellent endowments of Artesia having wrought their effect on the spirit of Elisena as those of Elisena had upon that of Artesia it became the cement of such a perfect friendship between these two amiable persons that the present age could hardly have furnished us with a nobler example The mutual demonstrations which they gave thereof one to another with lesse circumspection than persons whose intentions are criminal are wont to observe raised jealousies and suspicions in you insomuch that upon the first discoveries you made thereof they consulted together and considered whether
another Nay there was yet something more in it as to what resentment the Emperour might have of it for when he considered that he could not quarrel with Cecinna upon the account of any interest in Tullia without declaring openly and discovering at the same time the little regard he had for the advantageous design which the Emperour and Octavia had for him and that in a conjuncture on which his absolute fortune depended he knew not what course he should take to overcome that difficulty And yet this was not considerable to him in comparison of the fear he was in of Tullia's indignation as putting it out of all doubt that he must needs force her to the extremities of enmity towards him by putting himself in a posture to take away that mans life whom she accepted for her Husband To be short this consideration prevailed so far upon him that he hardly minded the rest and how far soever he might be from deserving the cruel treatments he receaved from that incenced Beauty yet was his soule guilty of such extraordinary respects towards her that he would have lookt death in the face with lesse disturbance than the occasion of offending her These contradictions kept his thoughts in an aequilibrium in so strange a perplexity so that finding it a hard matter to fix on any thing he continued some dayes without fastening on any resolution During that time he delighted altogether in solitude avoiding the company even of his Friend Scipio and retiring into the most solitary places where he would not admit any of his own people to be about him Without the gate called Porta Capena there is a little Wood neer the fair Gardens of Metellus where the shadynesse and solitude of the place afford very pleasant walking for such as avoid company Antonius going out of Metellus's Garden was directed thither by his own cruel thoughts or rather by some genius who would determine his irresolutions He walked there a long time alone having left those servants that he brought with him from home which he could not dismisse at the Garden door of Metellus and had endeavoured to find out though with no successe what might prevent the happinesse of Cecinna without any violation of the respect he ought Tullia or incurring the displeasure if it were possible of the generous Octavia and the Emperour when coming to a crosse-walk he spies a man coming all alone towards the place where he was and having looked on him very attentively when he was come somewhat neer he found him to be Cecinna The sight of him enflamed Antonius with indignation and jealousie and though he suspected what design brought Cecinna towards him yet did he mistrust his own thoughts of mistake and was in some fear he should not have so much power over himself as to reflect in that emergency upon those considerations whereby his hands were as yet tyed up In this uncertainty he expected him as ready to fight and in such a posture as put Cecinna into some disturbance Now my Brother being a person of higher quality in Rome than he was and his interest consequently with those that managed the supreme power much greater he was more cautious and circumspect in what he undertook then he had haply been with another person whose fortunes had been meaner and accordingly coming very civilly towards him It hath been my businesse for some dayes to find you out said he to him and should have spoken to you sooâ—â—r could I have done it with the same liberty as I now do I should have given you all you could have expected answered Antonius if I had had but the least notice of your desires and since you now have as much freedom as you could have wished neglect not this opportunity to acquatnt me with what you think sit to let me know I doubt not replyed Cecinna but you know that sufficiently well already and if you but remember that Tullia's picture is still in your hands you are at the same time satisfied of the great concernment I have to entreat you to return it to me I have not desired it of you while I was of opinion it might be gotten out of your hands without my interposition But now that the interest of Tullia and that of her friends hath proved ineffectual you will not think it strange if as things now stand between us I endeavour to obtain that from you which you had denyed them Antonius looking on him with a scornful smile There is indeed but very little likelihood said he to him I should grant Cecinna what I had denyed Emilia besides I am of opinion that if you had been so desirous of Tullia's picture you would have gone for it to the place whence I took it Though I was much lesse obliged to do it than you it were unjust I should with the hazard of my life procure a thing you had slighted to bestow it on you with so much ease and you may haply find your self very much mistaken if you imagine there may be lesse danger to get it out of my hands then to recover it out of the Area of the Amphitheatre Had there been any necessity for that action replyed Cecinna I should have done it as well as you And if there had been any justice interrupted Antonius very roundly to restore what I had so well gotten I had restored it to Emilia and not to you However it be Cecinna you ought not to expect it as being the last of all men for whom I should have that complyance I thought indeed replyed Cecinna I should be forced to those extremities with you which the Emperour hath forbidden us and it is with that design that I sought you out resolved to take away either your life or Tullia's picture This is it I expected from thee replyed Antonius fiercely and which I thought I had so sufficiently obliged thee to as to make thee contemn all other considerations With these words they both layd hands on their swords and drew at the same time there being not any body neer to hinder them They exchanged a many blows with much more fury then circumspection Cecinna fought with abundance of courage but with little good fortune and being over-rash and inconsiderate he receaved two mortal wounds in the body upon which he fell down at my Brother's feet with very little remainder of life Antonius had no doubt wished the death of Cecinna and had behaved himself in that duel with abundance of indignation and animosity against him but being a person of a great and noble soul seeing him fall with all the mortal signes his anger vanished and compassion took place in his heart into which the passions whereby it was then moved were not against its admittance He came to Cecinna to do him all the good he could and endeavouring to stop his bloud perswaded him to take courage by all the words which might expresse the regret and sorrow he conceaved at his misfortune
to have continued to the very last gasp had he persevered in his or am by his death disengaged as to him of a friendship which it is needlesse to observe towards the shades there is nothing can disengage me from my self that is from what I imposed upon my self when I first submitted to that innocent affection and consequently nothing can set my soul at liberty in order to a second choice or into a condition to entertain any new impression of love T is enough that the great Cleopatra hath once given way to love and been taken with the great perfections of the most amiable among men but the justification which I might find for my former weaknesses would not haply be accepted for the latter Expect not therefore from me my dearest Sister what I could not obtain of my self for my self though I should pretend a greater interest it should be so then that which you represent and imagine that there cannot be any selicity hoped from an affection contracted by such extraordinary waies To do you what service I can with the King your Brother and to oblige him to treat you more civility I shall conceale part of my resentments and the aversion I have for him and therefore you ought to be satisfied with me when you shall see me do that for you which I should never endure to do one minute formy self and consider the violence I do my self for your sake as no slight demonstration of my Friendship Artemisa gave Cleopatra many thanks for the promise she had made her to force her inclinations upon her account and begged her pardon for what she had said concerning her own concernments and in requital made a protestation to her that she would never speak to her more on the behalf of the King her Brother and that she had two great an esteem for those resolutions of fidelity and constancy which she had taken ever to be guilty of any design to oppose them Thus were they engaged in discourse when of a sudden they heard a very great noise in the ship and not long after that it was upon occasion of the Kings coming into it What lectures soever they might have read one to another of constancy they both grew pale and were a little startled at this news and looking one upon the other without speaking they were at a losse as to all resolution yet so as that there might be some difference in their thoughts and if the soul of Cleopatra was burthened with a more lively grief that of Artemisa was subject to more fear At last Cleopatra whose courage was greater than that of Artemisa was the first that broke forth into any resolution and looking on Artemisa with a countenance that spoke something of more confidence Sister said she to her let us rely on the assistance of Heaven in our misfortune and in the mean time summon together all our vertue and let us not forget the resolution we have taken Artemisa had not the power to make her any answer nor indeed had she time for immediately thereupon their chamber-door being opened the first thing they saw was the dreadful countenance of the King of Armenia He was somewhat of a pale complexion and lean'd as he came along upon one of his men but his palenesse was dispelled at the sight of that object by which he was enflamed and he made a shift to forget all his weaknesse to get near Cleopatra who at his first coming in was risen from the place where she sate Artaxus saluted her with abundance of respect and Cleopatra who was glad to continue him in that humour and laoth to force him to those extremities which she might justly fear from a man so violent returned him though with a sad and serious countenance what was due to his quality from a Princesse of hers Before he spoke to Cleopatra he cast his eyes on Artemisa who trembling for feer had her eyes fixed on the ground not having the confidence to look him in the face The fear and confusion he perceived her to be in added not a little to his joy but however he thought fit to speak to Cleopatra before he addressed himself to the other and looking on her with a countenance wherein he endeavoured to moderate some part of his natural fiercenesse and to take off somewhat of that which was most dreadfull in him Madam said he to her my love forces me to waite on you though the justice of the gods hath made you mine to be disposed as I please even in the late accident you might have taken notice of so much and you ought to forget your own resentments of it out of a consideration of the blood I have lost to preserve you I shall never believe answered Cleopatra that it is to be attributed to the justice of the gods that a free person and one of my birth should become your prisoner without any war and contrary to the Laws of all Nations You might have observed no lesse your self in this very adventure wherein it hath cost you so much bloud and it is impossible they should approve the unjust violence you do me if they are as it is believed the assertors and patrons of Justice and innocence What violence replies Artaxus can he be said to do you who casts himself at your feet Or wherein does he violate the Law of Nations when he gives you a full right and absolute power over both his heart and his crown Do you in agine that this injustice is of the same kind with those which the gods punish and are you not afraid to incense them your self by entertaining so much aversion and animosity against a King that adores you and is ready to dye at your feet Having said these words he turned towards Artemisa and looking on her with a little more mildnesse than ordinary by reason of the presence of Cleopatra whom he knew to have a horrour for his cruelties Well Artemisa said he to her you see after what manner Heaven hath prospered your designes and how it hath approved that the Daughter of Artabasus should forsake her Brother and her King to run away with the Son of Anthony My Lord replies Artemisa endeavouring to recover her self a little though my affection was I must confesse very great towards Alexander yet was it not such as should have obliged me to forsake you to follow him could I have taken any other course to have saved his life which you would have taken from him and he should have lost for my sake This makes nothing for your justification replies Artaxus but you do not stand much in need of any having found such a sanctuary in the Princesse Cleopatra The power she hath over me disarms the indignation I have against you and I have no hatred for Alexander since I adore Cleopatra In a word your destiny is in her hands and I shall not onely pardon you the offence you have committed against me but I shall
for joy gave me so many kisses and spoke to me with so much earnestnesse that at last he absolutely recovered me to life again I began to feele and to see but had not the power to stir and though I saw Eteocles yet did I not perfectly know him but as it were by some broken remainders of an Idaea halfe forced out of my memory In the mean time he perceived it was impossible for him any way to relieve me and though he saw I was come to my selfe yet did he in a manner put it out of all question that I would die for want of assistance and out of the fear he was in it might so come to passe he importuned heaven with cries and exclamations and did all that lay in his power to call in somebody to our reliefe Yet were they not his cries that wrought that effect but it happened by an adventure very strange and unexpected whereof for many reasons I thought fit to give the Queen but a slender and imperfect account but shall now relate at large since it hath been your pleasure to command it from me I had already made a shift to open my eies fully though all I could do was onely to stir them a little when Eteocles heares the neighings of certain horses and the noise of their going which made him imagine that there were some people coming towards us He thereupon lookes about him and perceives a chariot coming into the field among the dead bodies wherewith it was covered and a man riding on horseback before the chariot as if he had been a guide to those persons that were within it Those were onely two women one whereof filled the aire with the dolefulnesse of her Lamentations and there followed the chariot onely three slaves all asoot At last when they were come quite into the field the heaps of dead bodies hindering the passage of the chariot the women that were within it were forced to alight and the man that was on horseback having done the like took the more considerable of the two by the arme and led her towards the place where we were Eteocles whom this accident put into a great hopes of relief took very much notice of all that passed and distinctly heard the mournfull cries and expostulations of that disconsolate Lady which certainly were such as might have been heard many Stadia's Her hair was loose and dishevelled as if she had been fallen into some extravagance her eies showred down teares her breast almost rent with the violence of hersighes in a word her deportment was no other then that of a person distracted and ready to fall into despair Terrible death cried she implacable devourer of mankind which appearest to me here in so many formes is it possible that in this place where thou hast exercised thy power with so much cruelty thou shouldst forbear to dispatch one miserable creature that defies thee or that thou canst deny her thy assistance after thou hast deprived her of all that could oblige her to shun thy face Insatiable Goddesse to whom my malicious Fortune hath sacrificed all that the earth had that was amiable in my sight is it possible thou shouldst avoid an unfortunate woman as I am while thou cuttest off such noble lives and that more inhumane in thy compassion than thy cruelty thou must needs strike a thousand times at a heart which there needs but one blow to deliver from thy Tyranny Here sighs and sobs made a patenthesis in her discourse forsome minutes but soon after reassuming it with an accent much more dolefull Teramenes continued she my dear Teramenes where art thou why dost thou conceale thy selfe from me O thou body that I have loved beyond all things why dost thou hide thy self from her eies that was sometimes so dear to thee Art thou afraid thy countenance covered with the horrours of death might frighten me or that it will be a lesse delightfull object to me in that figure then it was in that wherein I was so much taken with it No no my dearest Teramenes even under that dreadfull livery under that irremissible ice of death I shall think thee amiable and it may not haply be impossible I should by my kisses restore to thee some part of that which thou hast lost and reinfuse into thy cold body that soule which thou hadst enflamed with a fire that death it self is not able to put out At this passage she made a little truce with her Lamentations but it lasting not above a minute or two she turnes her self to the man that conducted her But Pelorus said she to him where is then the body of Teramenes You shewed me this place with a confidence it was that where I should infallibly find it and yet among this vast number of carkases I see not that of my Teramenes Fear not Madam replied the man to whom she spake it will not be long e're we find it for now we are come to the place where I saw him fall yesterday by the hands of Cleomedon No doubt but he came by his own death out of the over earnestnesse he had to revenge that of your Brothers who died by the same hand in the former battle as also out of an excessive desire to have the honour of dispatching with his own hands a Prince of so great a fame Cleomedon falling at his feet drew him upon him and with that little remainder of strength he was yet master of ran him into the throat with a dagger which he had still in his hand Teramenes though mortally wounded with that thrust made a shift to get off the body of the expiring Cleomedon but after he had staggered a little he fell down within some ten paces of him and by reason of the bloud which coming out abundantly hindred his respiration died immediately Ah cruell man cries out the Lady ah inhumane stranger whom I had never any waies injured and that leavest thy native soile to bring death after so many severall waies into the breast of the innocent Eurinoe May it please the gods since I have no other revenge either to take or desire upon thee that thy body may be the prey of Vultures and that thy shade may eternally wander amongst the most unfortunate ones without ever obtaining of the infernal Gods any other rest then what thou leavest this miserable woman Thou hadst opened the sluces of my tears by the death of a brother I infinitely loved which thy unmerciful arms had deprived me of not many daies before but thou thoughtst it not sufficient to assault my self only upon the account of Blood and Friendship without sacrificing to thy cruelty whatever there is in Love that is most passionate and most violent in the death of my Teramenes While she disburthened her grief by such expostulations he who conducted her shewed her the body she looked after which lay not above fifteen or twenty paces from us and it was upon the cruel spectacle that
might well happen that the Princesse and the Prince her Brother could not upon the first sight discover the face of their Brother in that of Cleomedon whose speech proportionably to the rest was altered by growing bigger since their separation Yet was not all this alteration so great nor their memories so weak but that after what Cleomedon had said and the particular observation which he had obliged them to make they would have known the Prince had they not been carried away with the general opinion that he had departed this World Nay after they had well considered his face they in a manner knew him but that discovery had no further effect on them then to force out certain sighes whereupon the Princesse Cleopatra assuming the discourse after she had looked on Alexander to see whether he was of the same opinion I must needs acknowledge said she to the Prince that I find abundance of resemblance between your countenance and that of a Prince with whom my Brother and my self were brought up and one that might have been much about your age if the gods had thought fit to have continued him in life and health and to preserve him against those powers by which he received an untimely death I am also very much satisfied added Prince Alexander that if out Brother Caesario were living he might be very like the brave Cleomedon And thought that from the age of fourteen years which was that of Caesario when he dyed to that of Cleomedon which seems to be greater by nine or ten years there happens more alteration both in the bulk and countenances of men then in all mans life besides and that it might be withal granted that time may in some measure have worn away out of our memories those Idaeas which cannot be expected otherwise then imperfect in the minds of children such as we were then yet can I not call them to my remembrance without a certain conceit that I find them again in Cleomedon and imagining to my self that if Caesario were now alive there would be a very great resemblance between them Nay I am much inclined to believe from the great hopes that were conceived of him and the glorious bloud that ran in his veines derived from illustrious ancestors that this resemblance might have reached to the greatnesse of courage and that he would have thought it a dishonour to come too far short of that stupendous man whom it was his glory to imitate in all things The modesty of the son of Caesario made him blush at these obliging expressions of the son of Anthony whereupon looking on him with a smiling countenance It is but just indeed I should suffer any thing said he to him from a Prince to whom I am obliged for an assistance that preserved my life But since you and the Princesse Cleopatra are pleased to flatter me so pleasantly with so advantageous a resemblance I must in requittal assure you that it is yet greater in all things then you imagine it and that I am not onely as to my inclinations comparable to Prince Caesario but also that my fortunes have been absolutely suitable to his I should put you to some astonishment should I tell you that as he so I was dearly loved by Alexander and Cleopatra in their younger years That I was loved as tenderly as he was by the Queen your mother and that her indulgence towards me was as great as what she expressed towards him that as he so I also left you to seek out my safty in Ethiopia after the downfall of your house That I was born as well as he of an unfortunate Queen and am son to the greatest that ever was of mankind and in a word I am so extreamly like him that I might even in Alexandria presume to own the name of Caesario if by such an acknowledegment I should not put you to the hazard of loosing him once again These words of Caesario raised such a distraction in the souls of Cleopatra and Alexander that neither of them being able to comprehend any thing of it could do no more then look on him that had spoke them with a silence which argued their astonishment much more then any verbal expressions could have done The sonne of Caesar had suffered them to coninue a while in that posture when he sees Eteocles coming in whom he had caused Clitia to call from the Terrace where he had left him Whereupon reassuming the discourse with an action which held the Brother and the Sister equally in suspence That you may be absolutely satisfied said he to them that my fortunes have been in all things conformable to those of Caesario behold the man that brought me up and who presumes that he hath been of the same name was of the same Birth same Country and same countenance as the Governour of Caesario If you look on him with more earnestness then you have done for some daies past when he was with you in that very house where I received your assistances you will easily observe that resemblance and he is a person of such an age as wherein ten years cannot make so great an alteration as they may in that wherein one passes from infancy to a more advanced age While he thus spoke the eies of Cleopatra and Alexander were fixed on the countenance of Eteocles and it being very certain that it had undergone much lesse alteration then that of the Prince they immediately found therein all the features of that of Eteocles with whom they had sometime been so familiar as having been one that had carryed them thousands of times in his arms and had been brought up in the house as son to the faithfull Apollodorus the dear favorite and confident of Queen Cleopatra Whereupon both the Prince and Princesse cryed out that it was really Eteocles and immediately turning to the Prince with an astonishment much greater then what they were in before by reason of this last circumstance Cleomedon said the Princesse to him for heavens sake keep us not any longer in the disturbance which you have raised in us and let us know that Caesario is living to tell us so much himself T is onely his death that abates that confidence which we raise from all the other circumstances and if Caesario were living I should be immediately satiefied that you were he Should he discover himself to be Caesario in any place that is under the jurisdiction of Augustus replyed the Princesse there is so little expectation of any Fortune thereby that it were hard to suspect such a confession subject to any imposture but it is withall a thing so glorious to be born of Caesar and Cleopatra thaâ— without an excesse of basenesse a man cannot disclaime it and there is so much satisfaction to Caesario to meet with a Brother and Sister great and amiable as Alexander and Cleopatra that no consideration in the World can oblige him any longer to conceale from them a brother they have
were at the same time subject to such a distraction of thoughts that it had been some difficulty to unravel them and to make their confusion capable of some order Yet is it certain that their first apprehensions were those of joy and that neither of them could without being infinitely glad entertain the news that Coriolanus had ever been a constant lover and a faithful friend and that they could not any longer doubt of that innocence which they so much wished They looked one upon another during this first apprehension and in their countenances expressed their mutual satisfaction Cleopatra as the most concerned in the businesse spoke first and letting the Prince read in her eies what her heart was so full of Well Brother said she to him you see that Coriolanus is innocent and that it was not without some ground that I was satisfied of it before I had understood so much from the mouth of Volusius I acknowledge the indulgence of the gods replies Marcellus as great towards me in this as in the greatest favour they ever did me and I take them to witnesses that what you and Volusius have perswaded me to of the constancy of Julia hath not caused in me such a satisfaction as what I have understood of the â—idelity of Coriolanus How replyed the Princesse with a certain transportation not suitable to her ordinary moderation it is then infallible that Coriolanus whose pretended infidelity cost me so many tears hath ever been constant to his Cleopatra and that Princesse who by her misapprehension thought her self condemned to eternal afflictions may now re-assume those joies and hopes she had before broke off all acquaintance with Here would she have taken occasion to open her soul for the reception of a passion which of a long time had not had any entertainment there but that joy was soon eclipsed by an interposition of grief and a certain reflection which filled her heart with all the sadnesse it was capable of when she thought on her cruel depâ—rtment towards that Prince the deplorable effect it had produced as having proved the occasion of the losse of his Crown and of all her hopes and that fatal resolution which he had expressed to Volusius that he intended to take and whereof he had given her some notice at their last parting In a word being thus convinced of his fidelity she could not call to mind the cruel entertainment she had made him at Syracuse when enflamed to the highest pitch of love and thinking it a thousand times more glorious to be her servant then what so noble a conquest and the recovery of his Kingdoms had made him he had passed through thousands of dangers to come and offer her those very Kingdoms she could not think on the cruel and injurious speeches wherewith she had received him and the sad condition wherein she had left him without a mortal wound in that heart which nothing but the love of that Prince could ever make any impression in From that doleful reflection calling to mind how she had met him in the Woods of Alexandria the day that he relieved her with greater valour then successe against those that afterwards carried her away and lastly remembring the meeting she had had with him in the King of Armenia's ship whereof she represented to her self all the particulars after another manner then they had appeared to her while she was still prepossessed by her cruel mistake as well out of a consideration of that long swounding into which her sight and words had put him as the discourse full of a generous confidence he had made to her and the admirable resolution he had taken and gone through with by sighting alone for her liberty against so great a number of enemies with such prodigious valour and by the last words he had spoken to her at their parting wherein as well as in his actions his innocency was but too too apparent And from these things whereof her eies had been but too too faithful witnesses diverting her thoughts to others that were of no lesse consequence such as the losse of a great Kingdom which he had conquered for her and which he neglected to maintain through the despair she had reduced him to that which he had expressed when he cast himself into the sea because he would not survive his disgrace and the shame he thought it that he was not able to rescue her from her Ravishers the miserable condition he was brought to having no place of refuge no relief nor any comfort in the World and lastly the resolution he had discovered to Volusius and her self of his unwillingnesse to have her any longer engaged in his misfortunes and to seek out the remedies thereof onely in death which for a courage such as his was it would not be hard to find she could not fasten her thoughts on all these truths which were but too importunate upon her memory without giving way to such a grief as neither all her own great constancy nor yet the joy she conceived at the innocence of Coriolanus were able to abate After she had for some time smothered the disordered agitations she was in being not able to hold out any longer and conceiving she might freely disburthen her self before Marcellus whom she was confident of and whose soul during that time was persecuted by imaginations much of the same nature Coriolanus is innocent said she breaking forth into a rivulet of tears But O ye heavenly powers such is my cruel destiny that Coriolanus cannot be innocent but I must at the same time be the most criminal person in the World That Prince the most amiable the most generous and the most vertuous of men hath continued inviolately constant to me and hath still persisted in the same perfect affection which had at first taken in my soul and yet unfortunate wretch that I am I have had the cruelty to banish him my presence as a Monster I have had the inhumanity to see him in a manner expiring at my feet and never could be moved at it and I have at last reduced him to such extremities as have proved the occasion of loosing that Kingdom which he had designed for me have made him a restlesse vagabond all over the earth made him seek out precipices and now make him resolve to seek in death a Period of these deplorable miseries into which I onely I have brought him O Cleopatra unfortunate Cleopatra what pretence of joy canst thou find in the justification of Coriolanus since it must needs expose thee to the most cruel regrets that ever persecuted guilty souls It were much more for thy satisfaction at least if it were not for thy satisfaction it would be much more to thy advantage that thy Coriolanus had been found unconstant and that thou shouldst be found innocent thy self and since that thy innocence and his are things inconsistent either he ought to be guilty or thou have continued in the misprision which thou