Mor. I smile at what your female fear foresees; I’m in fate’s place, and dictate her decrees.—­ Let Arimant be called. [Exit one of his Attendants.

Aur. Give me the poison, and I’ll end your strife;
I hate to keep a poor precarious life. 
Would I my safety on base terms receive,
Know, sir, I could have lived without your leave. 
But those I could accuse, I can forgive;
By my disdainful silence, let them live.

Nour. What am I, that you dare to bind my hand? [To MORAT. 
So low, I’ve not a murder at command! 
Can you not one poor life to her afford,
Her, who gave up whole nations to your sword? 
And from the abundance of whose soul and heat,
The o’erflowing served to make your mind so great?

Mor. What did that greatness in a woman’s mind? 
Ill lodged, and weak to act what it designed? 
Pleasure’s your portion, and your slothful ease: 
When man’s at leisure, study how to please,
Soften his angry hours with servile care,
And, when he calls, the ready feast prepare.

From wars, and from affairs of state abstain;
Women emasculate a monarch’s reign;
And murmuring crowds, who see them shine with gold,
That pomp, as their own ravished spoils, behold.

Nour. Rage choaks my words:  ’Tis womanly to weep:  [Aside. In my swollen breast my close revenge I’ll keep; I’ll watch his tenderest part, and there strike deep. [Exit.

Aur. Your strange proceeding does my wonder move; Yet seems not to express a brother’s love.  Say, to what cause my rescued life I owe.

Mor. If what you ask would please, you should not know.  But since that knowledge, more than death, will grieve, Know, Indamora gained you this reprieve.

Aur. And whence had she the power to work your change?

Mor. The power of beauty is not new or strange. 
Should she command me more, I could obey;
But her request was bounded with a day. 
Take that; and, if you spare my farther crime,
Be kind, and grieve to death against your time.

  Enter ARIMANT.

Remove this prisoner to some safer place: 
He has, for Indamora’s sake, found grace;
And from my mother’s rage must guarded be,
Till you receive a new command from me.

Arim. Thus love, and fortune, persecute me still, And make me slave to every rival’s will. [Aside.

Aur. How I disdain a life, which I must buy
With your contempt, and her inconstancy! 
For a few hours my whole content I pay: 
You shall not force on me another day. [Exit with ARI.

  Enter MELESINDA.

Mel. I have been seeking you this hour’s long space,
And feared to find you in another place;
But since you’re here, my jealousy grows less: 
You will be kind to my unworthiness. 
What shall I say?  I love to that degree,
Each glance another way is robbed from me. 
Absence, and prisons, I could bear again;
But sink, and die, beneath your least disdain.