Arim. Brand not their actions with so foul a name: 
Pity at least what we are forced to blame. 
When death’s cold hand has closed the father’s eye,
You know the younger sons are doomed to die. 
Less ills are chosen greater to avoid,
And nature’s laws are by the state’s destroyed. 
What courage tamely could to death consent,
And not, by striking first, the blow prevent? 
Who falls in fight, cannot himself accuse,
And he dies greatly, who a crown pursues.

  To them SOLYMAN AGA.

Solym. A new express all Agra does affright: 
Darah and Aureng-Zebe are joined in fight;
The press of people thickens to the court,
The impatient crowd devouring the report.

Arim. T’ each changing news they changed affections bring, And servilely from fate expect a king.

Solym. The ministers of state, who gave us law,
In corners, with selected friends, withdraw: 
There, in deaf murmurs, solemnly are wise;
Whispering, like winds, ere hurricanes arise. 
The most corrupt are most obsequious grown,
And those they scorned, officiously they own.

Asaph. In change of government, The rabble rule their great oppressors’ fate; Do sovereign justice, and revenge the state.

Solym. The little courtiers, who ne’er come to know
The depth of factions, as in mazes go,
Where interests meet and cross so oft, that they,
With too much care, are wildered in their way.

Arim. What of the emperor?

Solym. Unmoved, and brave, he like himself appears,
And, meriting no ill, no danger fears: 
Yet mourns his former vigour lost so far,
To make him now spectator of a war: 
Repining that he must preserve his crown
By any help or courage but his own: 
Wishes, each minute, he could unbeget
Those rebel sons, who dare usurp his seat;
To sway his empire with unequal skill,
And mount a throne, which none but he can fill.

Arim. Oh! had he still that character maintained,
Of valour, which, in blooming youth, he gained! 
He promised in his east a glorious race;
Now, sunk from his meridian, sets apace. 
But as the sun, when he from noon declines,
And, with abated heat, less fiercely shines,
Seems to grow milder as he goes away,
Pleasing himself with the remains of day;
So he, who, in his youth, for glory strove,
Would recompense his age with ease and love.

Asaph. The name of father hateful to him grows, Which, for one son, produces him three foes.

Fazel. Darah, the eldest, bears a generous mind,
But to implacable revenge inclined: 
Too openly does love and hatred show;
A bounteous master, but a deadly foe.

Solym. From Sujah’s valour I should much expect,
But he’s a bigot of the Persian sect;
And by a foreign interest seeks to reign,
Hopeless by love the sceptre to obtain.