Welcome e'en to my heart. Rise, I should kneel To thee for mercy. Oct. The poor remainder of A page I had, Ascanio. Your highness' servant still. Lor. All stand amazed At this unlook'd-for meeting; but defer Your several stories. Fortune here hath shewn Is crown'd with laurel: Love hath done his parts [too; [Exeunt. 2 Law. I will maintain, sir, That cut off poor men's debts to their rich cre- Was good and charitable, but not full, allow'd; As that a young woman, in her husband's weakness, Lewd and luxurious limits to their laws : Enter CLEANTHES. Sim. Forbear the praise, sir, 'Tis in itself most pleasing :-Cleanthes! O, lad, here's a spring for young plants to flourish! Clean. Whither, sir, I pray? To the bleak air of storms, among those trees Sim. Yes, from our growth Our sap and livelihood, and from our fruit. with me. Sim. Prithee, how old's thy father? then I can tell thee. Clean. I know not how to answer you, Si- He is too old, being now exposed Sim. These very passions I speak to my father. Come, come, here's none but friends here, we may speak Our insides freely; these are lawyers, man, Clean. They shall be now, sir, And shall have large fees if they'll undertake 1 Law. O, sir, we must undertake of both parts; But the good we have most good in. Clean. Pray you, say, How do you allow of this strange edict? 1 Law. Secundum justitiam; by my faith, sir, The happiest edict that ever was in Epire. Clean. What, to kill innocents, sir? it cannot It is no rule in justice there to punish. 1 Law. Oh, sir, [be, You understand a conscience, but not law. Clean. I think, then, 'tis the best to be a bad one. both do overthrow you in this statute, which speaks, that every man living to fourscore years, and women to threescore, shall then be cut off as fruitless to the republic, and law shall finish what nature linger'd at. Clean. And this suit shall soon be dispatch'd in law? 1 Law. It is so plain it can have no demur, The church-book overthrows it. Clean. And so it does; The church-book overthrows it, if you read it well. 1 Law. Still you run from the law into error: You say it takes the lives of innocents, I say no, and so says common reason; What man lives to fourscore, and woman to three, Clean. A fine law evasion! Good sir, rehearse the whole statute to me. Sim. Fie! that's too tedious; you have already The full sum in the brief relation. Clean. Sir, 'Mongst many words may be found contradictions; And these men dare sue and wrangle with a statute, If they can pick a quarrel with some error. 2 Law. Listen, sir, I'll gather it as brief as I can for you: Anno primo Evandri, Be it for the care and good of the commonwealth, (for divers necessary reasons that we shall urge,) thus peremptorily enacted, Clean. A fair pretence, if the reasons foul it not? 2 Law. That all men living in our dominions of Epire, in their decayed nature, to the age of fourscore, or women to the age of threescore, shall on the same day be instantly put to death, by those means and instruments that a former proclamation, had to this purpose, through our said territories dispersed. Clean. There was no woman in this senate, certain. 1 Law. That these men, being past their bearing arms, to aid and defend their country; past their manhood and likelihood, to propagate any further issue to their posterity; and as well past their councils (whose overgrown gravity is now run into dotage) to assist their country; to whom, in common reason, nothing should be so wearisome as their own lives, as they may be supposed tedious to their successive heirs, whose times are spent in the good of their country: yet wanting the means to maintain it; and are like to grow old before their inheritance (born to them) come to their necessary use, be condemned to die for the women, for that they never were a defence to their country; never by counsel admitted to assist in the government of their country; only necessary to the propagation of posterity, and now, at the age of threescore, past that good, and all their goodness: it is thought fit (a quarter abated from the more worthy member) that they be put to death, as is before recited: provided that for the just and impartial execution of this our statute, the example shall first begin in and about our court, which ourself will see carefully performed; and not, for a full month following, extend any further into our dominions, Dated the sixth of the second month, at our Palace Royal in Epire. Clean. A fine edict, and very fairly gilded! And is there no scruple in all these words, 1 Law. Why, sir, the very letter and the sense To demur the law upon occasion ? Sim. Pox! 'tis an unnecessary inquisition; Prithee set him not about it. 2 Law. Troth, none, sir: It is so evident and plain a case, Clean. Possible! can nothing help in a good case? 1 Law. Faith, sir, I do think there may be a hole, Which would protract; delay, if not remedy. Clean. Why, there's some comfort in that; good sir, speak it. 1 Law. Nay, you must pardon me for that, sir. Sim. Prithee, do not; It may ope a wound to many sons and heirs, Clean. Come, sir, I know How to make you speak :—will this do it? [Gives him his purse. 1 Law. I will afford you my opinion, sir. Clean. Pray you, repeat the literal words exThe time of death. [pressly, Sim. 'Tis an unnecessary question; prithee let it alone. That man, 2 Law. Hear his opinion, 'twill be fruitless sir. at the age of fourscore, and woman at threescore, shall the same day be put to death. 1 Law. Thus I help the man to twenty-one years Clean. That were a fair addition. [more. 1 Law. Mark it, sir; we say, man is not at age Till he be one and twenty; before, 'tis infancy, And adolescency; now, by that addition, Fourscore he cannot be, till a hundred and one. Sim. Oh, poor evasion! He is fourscore years old, sir. 1 Law. That helps more, sir; He begins to be old at fifty, so, at fourscore, Sim. The worst hope of safety that e'er I heard! Give him his fee again, 'tis not worth two deniers. 1 Law. There is no law for restitution of fees, sir. Clean. No, no, sir; I meant it lost when it was given. Enter CREON and ANTIGONA. Sim. No more, good sir, Here are ears unnecessary for your doctrine. 1 Law. I have spoke out my fee, and I have Sim. O my dear father! [done, sir. Creon. Tush! meet me not in exclaims; I understand the worst, and hope no better. A fine law! if this hold, white heads will be cheap, And many watchmen's places will be vacant; Forty of them I know my seniors, That did due deeds of darkness too:-their country Has watch'd them a good turn for't, And ta'en them napping now: The fewer hospitals will serve too, many May be used for stews and brothels; and those Will never trouble them to fourscore. [people Ant. Can you play and sport with sorrow, sir? Creon. Sorrow! for what, Antigona? for my life? My sorrow is I have kept it so long well, With bringing it up unto so ill an end. I might have gently lost it in my cradle, Before my nerves and ligaments grew strong, To bind it faster to me. Sim. For mine own sake, I was a soldier, no coward in my age; To greet the cheerful spring of health again. Is only deadly to me, 'cause it numbers 1 Law. Oh, say not so, sir, it is by the law. Creon. And what's that, but the sword of tyranny, When it is brandish'd against innocent lives? I should unbosom my free conscience, Sim. Would it were gone By one means or other! what a long day Creon. Simonides. Sim. Here, sir,-weeping. Creon. Wherefore dost thou weep ? [Aside. Clean. 'Cause you make no more haste to your A disease of drought dry up all pity from him, Creon. Be good unto your mother, Simonides, She must be now your care. Ant. To what end, sir? The bell of this sharp edict tolls for me, As it rings out for you.-I'll be as ready, Creon. Thou must not, woman, there are years behind, Before thou canst set forward in this voyage; Ant So many morrows! Those five remaining years I'll turn to days, Sim. I hope Clean. 'Twas pity thou died'st not on't. Turn'd her upside down, thrown her upon her side, Sim. I know the hope of that; He did not make the law for that purpose. Creon. Then to this hopeless mercy last I go; I have so many precedents before me, I must call it hopeless: Antigona, And then we'll part ;-five years hence I'll look for thee. Sim. I hope she will not stay so long behind you. [Aside. Creon. Do not bate him an hour by grief and sorrow, Since there's a day prefix'd, hasten it not. Or when death's slow to come, say tyrants send. Clean. Why, here's a villain, To comfort his old limbs in fruitless winter? Forgettest still the former, ever making The burthen of thy last throes the dearest darling! Whose souls die with them. Nature, as thou art old, If love and justice be not dead in thee, Lest all do turn unnaturally against thee, Enter LEONIDES and HIPPOLITA. And brutish reluctations! Ay, here's the ground Whereon my filial faculties must build Clean. They were all blessed angels to direct thee; And take their counsel. How do you fare, sir? As I did never think would there have enter'd. I was in contemplation of this woman: Clean. 'Twere much better, sir, Leon. I'll prevent them, And die the way I told thee, in the wonder Of blood and propagation! I should never Clean. This admiration |