The Indian Queen

Act I

Enter Inca, ORAZIA, MONTEZUMA, ACACIS, prisoners, with Peruvians.

Inca. Thrice have the Mexicans before us fled,

Their armies broke, their prince in triumph led;

Both to thy valour, brave young man, we owe;

Ask thy reward, but such as it may show

It is a king thou hast obliged, whose mind

Is large, and, like his fortune, unconfined.

Mont. Young, and a stranger, to your court I came,

There, by your favour, raised to what I am:

I conquer, but in right of your great fate,

And so your arms, not mine, are fortunate.

Inca. I am impatient, till this debt be paid.

Which still encreases on me while delayed;

A bounteous monarch to himself is kind:

Ask such a gift as may for ever bind

Thy service to my empire, and to me.

Mont. What can this gift, he bids me ask him, be!

Perhaps he has perceived our mutual fires,

And now, with ours, would crown his own desires;

'Tis so, he sees my service is above

All other payments but his daughter's love.

[Aside.

Inca. So quick to merit, and to take so slow?

I first prevent small wishes, and bestow

This prince, his sword and fortunes, to thy hand;

He's thine unasked; now make thy free demand.

Mont. Here, prince, receive this sword, as only due

[Gives ACACIS his sword.

To that excess of courage shown in you.

When you, without demand, a prince bestow,

Less than a prince to ask of you were low.

Inca. Then ask a kingdom; say, where thou wilt reign.

Mont. I beg not empires, those my sword can gain;

But, for my past and future service too,

What I have done, and what I mean to do;

For this of Mexico which I have won,

And kingdoms I will conquer yet unknown;

I only ask from fair Orazia's eyes

To reap the fruits of all my victories.

1 Peru. Our Inca's colour mounts into his face.

2 Peru. His looks speak death.

Inca. Young man of unknown race,

Ask once again; so well thy merits plead,

Thou shall not die for that which thou hast said;

The price of what thou ask'st, thou dost not know;

That gift's too high.

Mont. And all besides too low.

Inca. Once more I bid thee ask.

Mont. Once more I make The same demand.

Inca. The Inca bids thee take

Thy choice, what towns, what kingdoms thou would'st have.

Mont. Thou giv'st me only what before I gave. Give me thy daughter.

Inca. Thou deserv'st to die.

O thou great author of our progeny,

Thou glorious sun, dost thou not blush to shine,

While such base blood attempts to mix with thine!

Mont. That sun, thou speak'st of, did not hide his face,

When he beheld me conquering with his race.

Inca. My fortunes gave thee thy success in fight!

Convey thy boasted valour from my sight;

I can o'ercome without thy feeble aid.

[Exeunt Inca, ORAZIA, and Peruvians.

Mont. And is it thus my services are paid?

Not all his guards

[Offers to go, ACACIS holds him.

Aca. Hold, sir.

Mont. Unhand me.

Aca. No, I must your rage prevent

From doing what your reason would repent;

Like the vast seas, your mind no limits knows,

Like them, lies open to each wind that blows.

Mont. Can a revenge, that is so just, be ill?

Aca. It is Orazia's father, you would kill.

Mont. Orazia! how that name has charmed my sword!

Aca. Compose these wild distempers in your breast;

Anger, like madness, is appeased by rest.

Mont. Bid children sleep, my spirits boil too high;

But, since Orazia's father must not die,

A nobler vengeance shall my actions guide;

I'll bear the conquest to the conquered side,

Until this Inca for my friendship sues,

And proffers what his pride does now refuse.

Aca. Your honour is obliged to keep your trust.

Mont. He broke that bond, in ceasing to be just.

Aca. Subjects to kings should more obedience pay.

Mont. Subjects are bound, not strangers, to obey.

Aca. Can you so little your Orazia prize,

To give the conquest to her enemies?

Can you so easily forego her sight?

I, that hold liberty more dear than light,

Yet to my freedom should my chains prefer,

And think it were well lost to stay with her.

Mont. How unsuccessfully I still o'ercome!

I brought a rival, not a captive, home;

Yet I may be deceived; but 'tis too late

To clear those doubts, my stay brings certain fate.

[Aside.

Come, prince, you shall to Mexico return,

Where your sad armies do your absence mourn;

And in one battle I will gain you more

Than I have made you lose in three before.

Aca. No, Montezuma, though you change your side,

I, as a prisoner, am by honour tied.

Mont. You are my prisoner, and I set you free.

Aca. 'Twere baseness to accept such liberty.

Mont. From him, that conquered you, it should be sought.

Aca. No, but from him, for whom my conqueror fought.

Mont. Still you are mine, his gift has made you so.

Aca. He gave me to his general, not his foe.

Mont. How poorly have you pleaded honour's laws!

Yet shun the greatest in your country's cause.

Aca. What succour can the captive give the free.

Mont. A needless captive is an enemy.

In painted honour you would seem to shine;

But 'twould be clouded, were your wrongs like mine.

Aca. When choler such unbridled power can have,

Thy virtue seems but thy revenge's slave:

If such injustice should my honour stain,

My aid would prove my nation's loss, not gain.

Mont. Be cozened by thy guilty honesty,

To make thyself thy country's enemy.

Aca. I do not mean in the next fight to stain

My sword in blood of any Mexican,

But will be present in the fatal strife,

To guard Orazia's and the Inca's life.

Mont. Orazia's life, fond man! First guard thy own;

Her safety she must owe to me alone.

Aca. Your sword, that does such wonders, cannot be,

In an ill cause, secure of victory.

Mont. Hark, hark! [Noise of trampling.

Aca. What noise is this invades my ear?

Fly, Montezuma! fly, the guards are near:

To favour your retreat, I'll freely pay

That life, which you so frankly gave this day.

Mont. I must retire; but those, that follow me,

Pursue their deaths, and not their victory.

[Exit MONT.

Aca. Our quarrels kinder than our friendships prove:

You for my country fight, I for your love.

Enter INCA and Guards.

Inca. I was to blame to leave this madman free;

Perhaps he may revolt to the enemy,

Or stay, and raise some fatal mutiny.

Aca. Stop your pursuits, for they must pass through me.

Inca. Where is the slave?

Aca. Gone.

Inca. Whither?

Aca. O'er the plain;

Where he may soon the camp, or city, gain.

Inca. Curse on my dull neglect!

And yet I do less cause of wonder find,

That he is gone, than that thou stayest behind.

Aca. My treatment, since you took me, was so free,

It wanted but the name of liberty.

I with less shame can still your captive live,

Than take that freedom, which you did not give.

Inca. Thou brave young man, that hast thy years outdone,

And, losing liberty, hast honour won,

I must myself thy honour's rival make,

And give that freedom, which thou would'st not take.

Go, and be safe.

Aca. But that you may be so

Your dangers must be past before I go.

Fierce Montezuma will for fight prepare,

And bend on you the fury of the war,

Which, by my presence, I will turn away,

If fortune gives my Mexicans the day.

Inca. Come, then, we are alike to honour just,

Thou to be trusted thus, and I to trust.

[Exeunt.

Enter ZEMPOALLA, TRAXALLA, and attendants.

Zemp. O my Acacis!

Does not my grief, Traxalla, seem too rude,

Thus to press out before my gratitude

Has paid my debts to you?*** it does move

My rage and grief, to see those powers above

Punish such men, as, if they be divine,

They know will most adore, and least repine.

Trax. Those, that can only mourn when they are crost,

May lose themselves with grieving for the lost.

Rather to your retreated troops appear,

And let them see a woman void of fear:

The shame of that may call their spirits home.

Were the prince safe, we were not overcome,

Though we retired: O, his too youthful heat,

That thrust him where the dangers were so great!

Heaven wanted power his person to protect

From that, which he had courage to neglect:

But since he's lost, let us draw forth, and pay

His funeral rites in blood; that we or they

May, in our fates, perform his obsequies,

And make death triumph when Acacis dies.

Zemp. That courage, thou hast shown in fight, seems less

Than this, amidst despair to have excess:

Let thy great deeds force fate to change her mind:

He, that courts fortune boldly, makes her kind.

Trax. If e'er Traxalla so successful proves,

May he then say he hopes, as well as loves;

And that aspiring passion boldly own,

Which gave my prince his fate, and you his throne?

I did not feel remorse to see his blood

Flow from the spring of life into a flood;

Nor did it look like treason, since to me

You were a sovereign much more great than he.

Zemp. He was my brother, yet I scorned to pay

Nature's mean debts, but threw those bonds away;

When his own issue did my hopes remove,

Not only from his empire, but his love.

You, that in all my wrongs then bore a part,

Now need not doubt a place within my heart:

I could not offer you my crown and bed,

Till fame and envy with long time were dead;

But fortune does now happily present

Occasions, fit to second my intent.

Your valour may regain the public love,

And make the people's choice their queen's approve.

[Shout.

Hark, hark, what noise is this, that strikes my ear!

Trax. 'Tis not a sound that should beget a fear;

Such shouts as these have I heard often fly

From conquering armies, crowned with victory.

Zemp. Great God of vengeance, here I firmly vow,

Make but my Mexicans successful now,

And with a thousand feasts thy flames I'll feed;

And that I take shall on the altars bleed;

Princes themselves shall fall, and make thy shrine,

Died with their blood, in glorious blushes shine.

Enter a Messenger.

Trax. How now!

What news is this that makes thy haste a flight?

Mess. Such as brings victory without a fight.

The prince Acacis lives

Zemp. Oh, I am blest!

Mess. Reserve some joy till I have told the rest.

He's safe, and only wants his liberty:

But that great man, that carries victory

Where'er he goes; that mighty man, by whom

In three set battles we were overcome;

Ill used (it seems) by his ungrateful king,

Does to our camp his fate and valour bring.

The troop gaze on him, as if some bright star

Shot to their aids; call him the god of war:

Whilst he, as if all conquest did of right

Belong to him, bids them prepare to fight;

Which if they should delay one hour, he swears

He'll leave them to their dangers, or their fears,

And shame, which is the ignoble coward's choice.

At this the army seemed to have one voice,

United in a shout, and called upon

The god-like stranger, "Lead us, lead us on."

Make haste, great sir, lest you should come too late,

To share with them in victory, or fate.

Zemp. My general, go; the gods be on our side;

Let valour act, but let discretion guide.

[Exit TRAX.

Great god of vengeance,

I see thou dost begin to hear me now:

Make me thy offering, if I break my vow. [Exeunt.