Elizabeth Cary - The Tragedy of Mariam, Act 1, Scene 6 lyrics

scene 6 [SALOME. CONSTABARUS.] CONSTABARUS Oh Salome, how much you wrong your name, Your race, your country, and your husband most! A stranger's private conference is shame, I blush for you, that have your blushing lost. Oft have I found, and found you to my grief, Consorted with this base Arabian here: Heaven knows that you have been my comfort chief, Then do not now my greater plague appear. Now by the stately carvèd edifice That on Mount Sion makes so fair a show, And by the altar fit for sacrifice, I love thee more than thou thyself dost know. Oft with a silent sorrow have I heard How ill Judea's mouth doth censure thee: And did I not thine honor much regard, Thou shouldst not be exhorted thus for me. Didst thou but know the worth of honest fame, How much a virtuous woman is esteemed, Thou wouldest like hell eschew deservèd shame, And seek to be both chaste and chastely deemed. Our wisest prince did say, and true he said, A virtuous woman crowns her husband's head. SALOME Did I for this uprear thy low estate? Did I for this requital beg thy life, That thou hadst forfeited to hapless fate, To be to such a thankless wretch the wife? This hand of mine hath lifted up thy head, Which many a day ago had fallen full low, Because the sons of Babas are not dead; To me thou dost both life and fortune owe. CONSTABARUS You have my patience often exercised, Use make my choler keep within the banks: Yet boast no more, but be by me advised. A benefit upbraided forfeits thanks: I prithee, Salome, dismiss this mood, Thou dost not know how ill it fits thy place: My words were all intended for thy good, To raise thine honor and to stop disgrace. SALOME To stop disgrace? Take thou no care for me, Nay, do thy worst, thy worst I set not by: No shame of mine is like to light on thee, Thy love and admonitions I defy. Thou shalt no hour longer call me wife, Thy jealousy procures my hate so deep: That I from thee do mean to free my life, By a divorcing bill before I sleep. CONSTABARUS Are Hebrew women now transformed to men? Why do you not as well our battles fight, And wear our armor? Suffer this, and then Let all the world be topsy-turvèd quite. Let fishes graze, beasts swim and birds descend, Let fire burn downwards whilst the earth aspires: Let winter's heat and summer's cold offend, Let thistles grow on vines, and grapes on briars, Set us to spin or sew, or at the best Make us wood-hewers, water-bearing wights: For sacred service let us take no rest, Use us as Joshua did the Gibonites. SALOME Hold on your talk, till it be time to end, For me I am resolved it shall be so: Though I be first that to this course do bend, I shall not be the last, full well I know. CONSTABARUS Why then be witness Heav'n, the judge of sins, Be witness spirits that eschew the dark: Be witness angels, witness cherubins, Whose semblance sits upon the holy Ark: Be witness earth, be witness Palestine, Be witness David's city, if my heart Did ever merit such an act of thine: Or if the fault be mine that makes us part. Since mildest Moses, friend unto the Lord, Did work his wonders in the land of Ham, And slew the first-born babes without a sword, In sign whereof we eat the holy lamb: Till now that fourteen hundred years are past, Since first the Law with us hath been in force. You are the first, and will, I hope, be last, That ever sought her husband to divorce. SALOME I mean not to be led by precedent, My will shall be to me instead of Law. CONSTABARUS I fear me much you will too late repent, That you have ever lived so void of awe: This is Silleus' love that makes you thus Reverse all order: you must next be his. But if my thoughts aright the cause discuss, In winning you, he gains no lasting bliss; I was Silleus, and not long ago Josephus then was Constabarus now: When you became my friend you proved his foe, As now for him you break to me your vow. SALOME If once I loved you, greater is your debt: For certain 'tis that you deserved it not. And undeservèd love we soon forget, And therefore that to me can be no blot. But now fare ill, my once belovèd lord, Yet never more belov'd than now abhorred. [Exit SALOME.] CONSTABARUS Yet Constabarus biddeth thee farewell. Farewell, light creature. Heaven forgive thy sin: My prophesying spirit doth foretell Thy wavering thoughts do yet but new begin. Yet I have better scaped than Joseph did, But if our Herod's d**h had been delayed, The valiant youths that I so long have hid, Had been by her, and I for them, betrayed. Therefore in happy hour did Caesar give The fatal blow to wanton Anthony: For had he lived, our Herod then should live, But great Anthonius' d**h made Herod die. Had he enjoyed his breath, not I alone Had been in danger of a deadly fall: 485 But Mariam had the way of peril gone, Though by the tyrant most belov'd of all— The sweet-faced Mariam, as free from guilt As Heaven from spots, yet had her lord come back, Her purest blood had been unjustly spilt, And Salome it was would work her wrack. Though all Judea yield her innocent, She often hath been near to punishment. [Exit.] CHORUS Those minds that wholly dote upon delight, Except they only joy in inward good, unless Still hope at last to hop upon the right, And so from sand they leap in loathsome mud. Fond wretches, seeking what they cannot find, For no content attends a wavering mind. If wealth they do desire, and wealth attain, Then wondrous fain would they to honor leap: If mean degree they do in honor gain, They would but wish a little higher step. Thus step to step, and wealth to wealth they add, Yet cannot all their plenty make them glad. Yet oft we see that some in humble state, Are cheerful, pleasant, happy, and content: When those indeed that are of higher state, With vain additions do their thoughts torment. Th'one would to his mind his fortune bind, Th'other to his fortune frames his mind. To wish variety is sign of grief, For if you like your state as now it is, Why should an alteration bring relief? Nay, change would then be feared as loss of bliss. That man is only happy in his fate That is delighted in a settled state. Still Mariam wished she from her lord were free, For expectation of variety: Yet now she sees her wishes prosperous be, She grieves, because her lord so soon did die. Who can those vast imaginations feed, Where in a property contempt doth breed? Were Herod now perchance to live again, She would again as much be grieved at that: All that she may,5 she ever doth disdain, Her wishes guide her to she knows not what. And sad must be their looks, their honor sour, That care for nothing being in their power.