Act 2 — SCENE II.
Reading edition
A Street, near Dorothea's House.
Enter Macrinus, met by Theophilus and Harpax.
Theoph. The Sun, god of the day, guide thee, Macrinus!
Mac. And thee, Theophilus!
Theoph. Glad'st thou in such scorn[33]? I call my wish back.
Mac. I'm in haste.
Theoph. One word, Take the least hand[34] of time up:—stay.
Mac. Be brief.
Theoph. As thought: I prithee tell me, good Macrinus, How health and our fair princess lay together This night, for you can tell; courtiers have flies[35], That buzz all news unto them.
Mac. She slept but ill.
Theoph. Double thy courtesy; how does Antoninus?
Mac. Ill, well, straight, crooked,—I know not how.
Theoph. Once more; —Thy head is full of windmills:—when doth the princess Bestow herself on noble Antoninus?
Mac. I know not.
Theoph. No! thou art the manuscript, Where Antoninus writes down all his secrets: Honest Macrinus, tell me.
Mac. Fare you well, sir.[Exit.
Harp. Honesty is some fiend, and frights him hence; A many courtiers love it not.
Theoph. What piece Of this state-wheel, which winds up Antoninus, Is broke, it runs so jarringly? the man Is from himself divided: O thou, the eye, By which I wonders see, tell me, my Harpax, What gad-fly tickles this Macrinus so, That, flinging up the tail, he breaks thus from me.
Harp. Oh, sir, his brain-pan is a bed of snakes, Whose stings shoot through his eye-balls, whose poisonous spawn Ingenders such a fry of speckled villanies, That, unless charms more strong than adamant Be used, the Roman angel's[36] wings shall melt, And Cæsar's diadem be from his head Spurn'd by base feet; the laurel which he wears, Returning victor, be enforced to kiss That which it hates, the fire. And can this ram, This Antoninus-Engine, being made ready To so much mischief, keep a steady motion?— His eyes and feet, you see, give strange assaults.
Theoph. I'm turn'd a marble statue at thy language, Which printed is in such crabb'd characters, It puzzles all my reading: what, in the name Of Pluto, now is hatching?
Harp. This Macrinus, The line is[37], upon which love-errands run 'Twixt Antoninus and that ghost of women, The bloodless Dorothea; who in prayer And meditation, mocking all your gods, Drinks up her ruby colour: yet Antoninus Plays the Endymion to this pale-faced Moon, Courts, seeks to catch her eyes—
Theoph. And what of this?
Harp. These are but creeping billows, Not got to shore yet: but if Dorothea Fall on his bosom, and be fired with love, (Your coldest women do so),—had you ink Brew'd from the infernal Styx, not all that blackness Can make a thing so foul, as the dishonours, Disgraces, buffetings, and most base affronts Upon the bright Artemia, star o' the court, Great Cæsar's daughter.
Theoph. I now conster[38] thee.
Harp. Nay, more; a firmament of clouds, being fill'd With Jove's artillery, shot down at once, To pash[39] your gods in pieces, cannot give, With all those thunderbolts, so deep a blow To the religion there, and pagan lore, As this; for Dorothea hates your gods, And, if she once blast Antoninus' soul, Making it foul like hers, Oh! the example—
Theoph. Eats through Cæsarea's heart like liquid poison. Have I invented tortures to tear Christians, To see but which, could all that feel hell's torments Have leave to stand aloof here on earth's stage, They would be mad till they again descended, Holding the pains most horrid of such souls, May-games to those of mine; has this my hand Set down a Christian's execution In such dire postures, that the very hangman Fell at my foot dead, hearing but their figures; And shall Macrinus and his fellow-masquer Strangle me in a dance?
Harp. No:—on; I hug thee, For drilling thy quick brains in this rich plot Of tortures 'gainst these Christians: on; I hug thee!
Theoph. Both hug and holy me: to this Dorothea, Fly thou and I in thunder.
Harp. Not for kingdoms Piled upon kingdoms: there's a villain page Waits on her, whom I would not for the world Hold traffic with; I do so hate his sight, That, should I look on him, I must sink down.
Theoph. I will not lose thee then, her to confound: None but this head with glories shall be crown'd.
Harp. Oh! mine own as I would wish thee! [Exeunt.