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Thou art all beset with storms, more overcast

Than ever any man that brightness flattered.

'Tis only wretchedness to be there with thee,

And happiness to be here.

TYRANT

Sure some dream crowned me.

If it were possible to be less than nothing,

I wake the man you seek for. There's the kingdom

Within yon valley fixed, while I stand here

Kissing false hopes upon a frozen mountain,

Without the confines. I am he that's banished;

The king walks yonder, chose by her affection,

Which is the surer side, for where she goes

Her eye removes the court. What is he here

Can spare a look? They're all employed on her.

Helvetius! Thou art not worth the waking neither.

I lose but time in thee. Go sleep again.

Like an old man, thou canst do nothing;

Thou tak'st no pain at all to earn thine honours.

Which way shall we be able to pay thee

To thy content, when we receive not ours?

The master of the work must needs decay

When he wants means and sees his servant play.

HELVETIUS

[To Lady] Have I bestowed so many blessings on thee

And do they all return to me in a curse?

Is that the use I ha' for 'em? Be not to me

A burden ten times heavier than my years.

Thou'dst wont to be kind to me and observe

What I thought pleasing. Go, entreat the king.

LADY

I will do more for you, sir; y'are my father.

I'll kiss him too.

[Kisses Govianus.]

HELVETIUS

How am I dealt withal!

LADY

Why, that's the usurper, sir; this is the king.

I happened righter than you thought I had.

And were all kingdoms of the earth his own

As sure as this is not, and this dear gentleman

As poor as virtue and almost as friendless,

I would not change this misery for that sceptre,

Wherein I had part with him. Sir, be cheerful.

'Tis not the reeling fortune of great state

Or low condition that I cast mine eye at;

It is the man I seek, the rest I loose

As things unworthy to be kept or noted.

Fortunes are but the outsides of true worth;

It is the mind that sets his master forth.

TYRANT

Has there so many bodies been hewn down,

Like trees in progress, to cut out a way

That was ne'er known, for us and our affections,

And is our game so crossed? There stands the first

Of all her kind that ever refused greatness.

A woman to set light by sovereignty!

What age bring her forth and hide that book?

'Tis their desire most commonly to rule

More than their part comes to: sometimes their husbands.

HELVETIUS

'Tis in your power, my lord, to force her to you

And pluck her from his arms.

TYRANT

Thou talk'st unkindly;

That had been done before thy thought begot it

If my affection could be so hard-hearted

To stand upon such payment. It must come

Gently and kindly, like a debt of love,

Or 'tis not worth receiving.

GOVIANUS

Now, usurper,

I wish no happier freedom than the banishment

That thou hast laid upon me.

TYRANT

[Aside] Oh, he kills me

At mine own weapon! 'Tis I that live in exile

Should she forsake the land. I'll feign some cause

Far from the grief itself to call it back.--

That doom of banishment was but lent to thee

To make a trial of thy factious spirit,

Which flames in thy desire. Thou wouldst be gone:

There is some combination betwixt thee

And foreign plots; thou hast some powers to raise,

Which to prevent, thy banishment we revoke,

Confine thee to thy house nearest our court,

And place a guard about thee. Lord Memphonius,

See it effected.

MEMPHONIUS

With best care, my lord.

GOVIANUS

Confine me? Here's my liberty in mine arms;

I wish no better to bring me consent.

Love's best freedom is close prisonment.

Exeunt Lady and Govianus [with Memphonius].

TYRANT

Methinks the day e'en darkens at her absence.

I stand as in a shade, when a great cloud

Muffles the sun, whose beams shine afar off

On tow'rs and mountains, but I keep the valleys,

The place that is last served.

HELVETIUS

My lord.

TYRANT

Your reason, sir.

HELVETIUS

Your grace is mild to all but your own bosom.

They should have both been sent to several prisons,

And not committed to each other's