Be not too hard on him with statutes neither; }
Be kind; and do not set your teeth together, }
To stretch the laws, as coblers do their leather. }
Horses by Papists are not to be ridden,
But sure the muses’ horse was ne’er forbidden;
For in no rate-book it was ever found
That Pegasus was valued at five pound[1]: 
Fine him to daily drudging and inditing: 
And let him pay his taxes out in writing.

Footnote: 
1.  Alluding to the act for disarming the Catholics, by which, inter
   alia, it is enacted, “that no Papist, or reputed Papist, so
   refusing, or making default, as aforesaid, at any time after the
   15th of May, 1689, shall, or may have, and keep in his own
   possession, or in the possession of any other person for his use,
   or at his disposition, any horse or horses, which shall be above
   the value of L.5.”—­1st William and Mary, c. 15.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE.

Don SEBASTIAN, King of Portugal.
MULEY-MOLUCH, Emperor of Barbary.
DORAX, a noble Portuguese, now a renegade; formerly Don ALONZO DE
SYLVERA, Alcade, or Governor of Alcazar.
BENDUCAR, chief Minister, and favourite to the Emperor.
The Mufti ABDALLA. 
MULEY-ZEYDAN, brother to the Emperor.
Don ANTONIO, a young, noble, amorous Portuguese; now a slave.
Don ALVAREZ, an old counsellor to Don SEBASTIAN; now a slave also.
MUSTAPHA, Captain of the Rabble.
Two Merchants.
Rabble.
A Servant to BENDUCAR.
A Servant to the Mufti.

ALMEYDA, a captive Queen of Barbary.
MORAYMA, daughter to the Mufti.
JOHAYMA, chief wife to the Mufti.

SCENE,—­In the Castle of Alcazar.

DON SEBASTIAN,

KING OF PORTUGAL.

ACT I. SCENE I.

The scene at Alcazar, representing a market-place under the
Castle.

Enter MULEY-ZEYDAN and BENDUCAR.

M.  Zey. Now Africa’s long wars are at an end,
And our parched earth is drenched in Christian blood;
My conquering brother will have slaves enow,
To pay his cruel vows for victory.—­
What hear you of Sebastian, king of Portugal?

Bend. He fell among a heap of slaughtered Moors,
Though yet his mangled carcase is not found. 
The rival of our threatened empire, Mahomet,
Was hot pursued; and, in the general rout,
Mistook a swelling current for a ford,
And in Mucazar’s flood was seen to rise: 
Thrice was he seen:  At length his courser plunged,
And threw him off; the waves whelmed over him,
And, helpless, in his heavy arms he drowned.

M.  Zey. Thus, then, a doubtful title is extinguished;
Thus Moluch, still the favourite of fate,
Swims in a sanguine torrent to the throne,
As if our prophet only worked for him: 
The heavens, and all the stars, are his hired servants;
As Muley-Zeydan were not worth their care,
And younger brothers but the draff of nature.