ALAHAM: A TRAGEDY [PUBLISHED IN 1633]. BY FULKE GREVILLE, LORD BROOKE [1554-1628] Alaham, second Son to the King of Ormus, deposes his Father, whose Eyes, and the Eyes of his elder Brother Zophi (acting upon a maxim of Oriental Policy), he causes to be put out. They, blind, and fearing for their Lives, wander about. In this Extremity they are separately met by the King's Daughter Calica, who conducts them to places of Refuge; hiding her Father amid the Vaults of a Temple, and guiding her Brother to take Sanctuary at the Altar. KING. CELICA. King. Cælica; thou only child, whom I repent Not yet to have begot, thy work is vain : Thou run'st against my destiny's intent. Who nothing but mischance can have to friend. When our succession springs, then ripe to fall. Age there is also in a prince's state, Which is contempt, grown of misgovernment; Then mark! Blind, as a man; scorn'd, as a king; O safety! thou art then a hateful thing, Cælica, then cease; importune me no more: My son, my age, the state where things are now, Calica. Though fear see nothing but extremity, King. Occasion to my son hath turn'd her face; Calica. Yet live: Live for the state. King. Whose ruins glasses are Wherein see errors of myself I must, And hold my life of danger, shame, and care. Calica. When fear propounds, with loss men ever chuse. Calica. And is it nothing then to lose the state? King. Where chance is ripe, there counsel comes too late. I do conjure thee, leave me to my chance. If nature saw no cause of sudden ends, She, that but one way made to draw our breath, Calica. Yet, Sir, if weakness be not such a sand As neither wrong nor counsel can manure; King. This sword, thy hands, may offer up my breath, Calica. Unto that duty if these hands be born, I must think God, and truth, were names of scorn. Again, this justice were if life were loved, Now merely grace; since death doth but forgive A life to you, which is a death to live. Pain must displease that satisfies offence. King. Chance hath left death no more to spoil but sense. I offer more than that he hates to thee. [Offers to kill herself. King. Ah! stay thy hand. My state no equal hath, And much more matchless my strange vices be: Kings' plagues by chance or destiny should fall; Calica. No cliff or rock is so precipitate, Calica. Then be a king, no tyrant of thyself: King. If disobedience, and obedience both, If thus you yield to Alaham's treachery, He ruins you: 'tis you, Sir, ruin me. King. Cælica, call up the dead; awake the blind; Turn back the time; bid winds tell whence they come : As vainly strength speaks to a broken mind. Fly from me, Cælica; hate all I do: Misfortunes have in blood successions too. Calica. Will you do that which Alaham cannot? He hath no good; you have no ill, but he : This mar-right yielding's honor's tyranny. That ruin'd have a king's authority? And not one king alone: since princes all Feel part of those scorns, whereby one doth fall. All laws have lost authority in me. Calica. The laws of power chain'd to men's humors be. The good have conscience; the ill (like instruments) Are, in the hands of wise authority, Moved, divided, used, or laid down; Still, with desire, kept subject to a crown. King. Put down my son; for that must be the way: A father's shame; a prince's tyranny; The sceptre ever shall misjudged be. Calica. Let them fear rumour that do work amiss ; Have time, and place. Look through these skins of fear King. Danger is come, and must I now unarm, To thee I give my life, crown, reputation; My pomps to clouds; and (as forlorn with men) Though fear'd, sought, and a king, to live unknown. This living darkness, wherein I do go. Calica. My soul now joys. Doing breathes horror out. Absence must be our first step. Let us fly: A pause in rage makes Alaham to doubt; Which doubt may stir in people hope, and fear, As dainty sparks, which till men dead do know, But hark! what's this? Malice doth never sleep: I hear the spies of power drawing near. Sir, follow me: Misfortune's worst is come; Her strength is change: and change yields better doom. Built under color of a sacrifice; If God do grant, it is a place to save; If God denies, it is a ready grave. ZOPHI appears. [Act iv., Sc. 1.1] Calica. What see I here? more spectacles of woe! And are my kindred only made to be Agents and patients in iniquity? Ah forlorn wretch! ruin's example right! Lost to thyself, not to thy enemy, Whose hand even while thou fliest thou fall'st into And with thy fall thy father dost undo. [Edited Grosart, Fuller Worthies Library, 1870, vol. iii. The whole Scene.] Save one I may: Nature would save them both; No, no. Our God left duty for a law; Dost thou, that canst not see, hope to escape? Zophi. Make calm thy rage: pity a ghost distrest: Give him, that never harm'd thee, leave to live. Calica. Nay, God, the world, thy parents it deny ; Calica. Fly unto God: for in humanity rape Zophi. Help, God! defend thine altar! since thy might, In earth, leaves innocents no other right. Calica. Eternal God! that see'st thyself in us, If vows be more than sacrifice of lust, Rais'd from the smokes of hope and fear in us, [Act iv., Sc. 2.] 1 1 Zophi is represented as a prince of weak understanding. |