Em. I will not make his majesty a liar; I kill'd thy father, therefore let me die, But save the life of this unguilty prince. Ed. I kill'd thy father, therefore let me die,

But save the life of this unguilty Empress. Alp. Hark thou to me, and think their words as wind.

I kill'd thy father, therefore let me die, And save the lives of these two guiltless princes.

Art thou amazed to hear what I have said? There, take the weapon, now revenge at full

Thy father's death and those my dire deceits,

That made thee murderer of so many souls.

Ale. O Emperor, how cunningly wouldst thou

Entrap my simple youth to credit fictions!
Thou kill my father? no, no, Emperor,
Cæsar did love Lorenzo all too dearly:
Seeing thy forces now are vanquished,
Frustrate thy hopes, thy highness like to
fall

Into the cruel and revengeful hands
Of merciless, incensed enemies,
Like Caius Cassius weary of thy life,
Now wouldst thou make thy page an
instrument

By sudden stroke to rid thee of thy bonds. Alp. Hast thou forgotten, how that very night

Thy father died I took the master-key, And with a lighted torch walk'd through the court?

Ale. I must remember that, for to my death

I never shall forget the slightest deed,
Which on that dismal night or day I did.
Alp. Thou wast no sooner in thy restful
bed,

But I disturb'd thy father of his rest,
And to be short, not that I hated him,
But for he knew my deepest secrets,

With cunning poison I did end his life.
Art thou his son? Express it with a stab,
And make account, if I had prospered,
Thy date was out, thou wast already
doom'd;

Thou knew'st too much of me to live with

me.

Ale. What wonders do I hear, great
Emperor !

Not that I [now] do steadfastly believe
That thou did'st murder my beloved father,
But in mere pity of thy vanquish'd state
I undertake this execution:
Yet for I fear the sparkling majesty,
Which issues from thy most imperial eyes,
May strike relenting passion to my heart,
And, after wound received from fainting
hand,

Thou fall half-dead among thine enemies,
I crave thy highness leave to bind thee first.
Alp. Then bind me quickly, use me as
thou please.

Em. O villain! wilt thou kill thy sove-
reign?

Ale. Your highness sees that I am forced unto it.

Alp. Fair Empress, I shame to ask thee pardon,

Whom I have wrong'd so many thousand ways.

Em. Dread lord and husband, leave

these desperate thoughts,

Doubt not the princes may be reconciled. Ale. T may be the princes will be reconciled,

But what is that to me? All potentates on earth

Can never reconcile my grieved soul.
Thou slew'st my father, thou didst make

this hand

The rightful gods have pour'd their justful wrath

Upon thy tyrant's head, devil as thou art, And saved by miracles these princes' lives. For know, thy side hath got the victory, And Saxon triumphs o'er his dearest friends;

Richard and Collen both are prisoners, And everything hath sorted to thy wish; Only hath heaven put it in my mind (For he alone directed then my thoughts, Although my meaning was most mischie⚫ vous)

To tell thee thou hadst lost, in certain hope That suddenly thou would'st have slain them both;

But were you traitors four, four hundred

thousand,

Then might I satisfy myself with blood.

Enter Brandenburg, Alexander, and
Soldiers.

Sa. See, Alexander, where Cæsar lieth slain,

The guilt whereof the traitors cast on thee; Speak, canst thou tell who slew thy sovereign?

Ale. Why, who but I? How should I curse myself,

If any but myself had done this deed! This happy hand-bless'd be my hand, therefore!

Revenged my father's death upon his soul: And, Saxon, thou hast cause to curse and ban

That he is dead, before thou didst inflict Torments on him that so hath torn thy heart.

Sa. What mysteries are these?

Br. Princes, can you inform us of the truth?

Ed. The deed's so heinous that my faltering tongue

Abhors the utterance, yet I must tell it. Ale. Your highness shall not need to take the pains;

What you abhor to tell, I joy to tell. 'Therefore be silent and give audience. You mighty men and rulers of the earth, Prepare your ears to hear of stratagems Whose dire effects have gall'd your princely hearts,

Confounded your conceits, muffled your eyes.

First to begin, this villanous fiend of hell
Murder'd my father, sleeping in his chair;
The reason why, because he only knew
All plots and complots of his villany;
His death was made the basis and the
ground

Of every mischief that hath troubled you.
Sa. If thou, thy father, and thy progeny
Were hang'd and burnt, and broken on
the wheel,

How could their deaths heap mischief on our heads?

Ale. An' if you will not hear the reason
-choose!

I tell thee, I have slain an emperor,
And thereby think myself as good a man
As thou, or any man in Christendom ;
Thou shalt entreat me, ere I tell thee more.

Sa. Proceed.

Ale. Not I.

Sa. I prithee now proceed.

Ale. Since you entreat me, then, I will proceed.

This murderous devil, having slain my father,

Buzz'd cunningly into my credulous ears,
That by a general council of the states,
And, as it were, by act of parliament,
The seven electors had set down his death,
And made the Empress executioner,
Transferring all the guilt from him to you.
This I believed, and first did set upon
The life of princely Richard, by the boors,
But how my purpose fail'd in that, his
grace best knows;

Next, by a double intricate deceit,
Midst all his mirth, was Bohem poisoned,
And good old Mentz, to save Alphonsus'

life

(Who at that instant was in perfect health), 'Twixt jest and earnest made a sacrifice; As for the Palatine, your graces knew His highness' and the queen's unguiltiness; But now, my lord of Saxon, hark to me, Father of Saxon should I rather call you, 'Twas I that made your grace a grandfather.

Prince Edward plough'd the ground, I sow'd the seed;

Poor Hedewick bore the most unhappy fruit,

Created in a most unlucky hour,

To a most violent and untimely death.

Sa. O loathsome villain! O detested deeds!

O guiltless prince! O me most miserable! Br. But tell us, who reveal'd to thee at last

'This shameful guilt and our unguiltiness? Ale. Why, that's the wonder, lords, and

thus it was:

When like a tyrant he had ta'en his seat,
And that the fury of the fight began,
Upon the highest watch-tower of the fort
It was my office to behold aloft

The war's event, and having seen the end,
I saw how victory, with equal wings,
Hung hovering 'twixt the battles here and
there,

Till at last the English lions fled,
And Saxon's side obtain'd the victory;
Which seen, I posted from the turret's top
More furiously than e'er Laocoon ran,
When Trojan hands drew in Troy's over-
throw,

But yet as fatally as he or any.

The tyrant, seeing me, stared in my face, And suddenly demanded what's the news; I, as the fates would have it, hoping

that he

Even in a twinkling would have slain 'em both,

For so he swore before the fight began, Cried bitterly that he had lost the day, The sound whereof did kill his dastard heart,

And made the villain desperately confess The murder of my father, praying me With dire revenge to rid him of his life. Short tale to make, I bound him cunningly,

Told him of my deceit, triumphing o'er him,

And lastly with my rapier slew him dead. Sa. O heavens justly have you ta'en revenge.

But thou, thou murderous, adulterous slave,

What bull of Phalaris, what strange device Shall we invent to take away thy life?

Ale. If Edward and the Empress, whom I saved,

Will not requite it now, and save my life, Then let me die: contentedly I die, Having at last revenged my father's death.

Sa. Villain, not all the world shall save thy life.

Ed. Hadst thou not been author of my Hedewick's death,

I would have certainly saved thee from death;

But if my sentence now may take effect, I would adjudge the villain to be hang'd As here the Jews are hang'd in Germany.

Sa. Young prince, it shall be so; go, drag the slave

Unto the place of execution :

There let the Judas, on a Jewish gallows, Hang by the heels, between two English

mastiffs;

There feed on dogs, let dogs there feed on thee,

And by all means prolong his misery.

Ale. O, might thyself, and all these English curs,

Instead of mastiff-dogs, hang by my side, How sweetly would I tug upon your flesh. Sa. Away with him, suffer him not to speak.

And now, my lords, Collen, Trier, and Brandenburg,

Whose hearts are bruised to think upon these woes,

Though no man hath such reason as myself;

We of the seven electors that remain
After so many bloody massacres,
Kneeling upon our knees, humbly entreat
Your excellence to be our emperor.
The royalties of the coronation
Shall be, at Aix, shortly solemnized.
Co. Brave, princely Richard, now refuse
it not,

Though the election be made in tears,
Joy shall attend thy coronation.

Ri. It stands not with mine honour to deny it,

Yet, by mine honour, fain I would refuse it.

Ed. Uncle, the weight of all these miseries

Maketh my heart as heavy as your own, But an imperial crown would lighten it ; Let this one reason make you take the

crown.

Ri. What's that, sweet nephew?

Ed. Sweet uncle, this it is;

Was never Englishman yet emperor, Therefore to honour England and yourself,

Let private sorrow yield to public fame, That once an Englishman bare Cæsar's

name.

Ri. Nephew, thou hast prevail'd; princes, stand up,

We humbly do accept your sacred offer. Co. Then sound the trumpets, and cry, Vivat Cæsar!

All. Vivat Cæsar!

Co. Richardus, Dei Gratia Romanorum Imperator, semper Augustus, Comes Cornubia.

Ri. Sweet sister, now let Cæsar comfort you,

And all the rest that yet are comfortless,

Let them expect from English Cæsar's hands

Peace and abundance of all earthly joy !

Almanzor, Caliph of Arabia.
Abilqualit, his eldest son.

Abrahen his son, by a second wife, brother to Abilqualit.

Tarifa, an old general, conqueror of Spain, tutor to Abilqualit.

Mura, a rough lord, a soldier, kinsman by his mother to Abrahen. Simanthes, a court lord, allied to Abrahen.

Selinthus, an honest, merry court lord.
Mesithes, a court eunuch, attendant on
Abilqualit.

Osman, a captain to Tarifa.
Gaselles, another captain.

Caropia, wife to Mura, first beloved of
Abrahen, then of Abilqualit.
Perilinda, her woman.

Soldiers, Mutes, Guard, Attendants.