Enter CROTOLON and ORGILUS

CROTOLON
Dally not further; I will know the reason
That speeds thee to this journey.

ORGILUS
Reason! good sir,
I can yield many.

CROTOLON
Give me one, a good one;
Such I expect, and ere we part must have.
Athens! Pray, why to Athens? You intend not
To kick against the world, turn cynic, stoic,
Or read the logic lecture, or become
An Areopagite, and judge in cases
Touching the commonwealth; for, as I take it,
The budding of your chin cannot prognosticate
So grave an honour.

ORGILUS
All this I acknowledge.

CROTOLON
You do! Then, son, if books and love of knowledge
Inflame you to this travel, here in Sparta
You may as freely study.

ORGILUS
'T is not that, sir.

CROTOLON
Not that, sir! As a father, I command thee
To acquaint me with the truth.

ORGILUS
Thus I obey ye.
After so many quarrels as dissension,
Fury, and rage had broacht in blood, and sometimes
With death to such confederates as sided
With now-dead Thrasus and yourself, my lord;
Our present king, Amyclas, reconcil'd
Your eager swords and seal'd a gentle peace:
Friends you profest yourselves; which to confirm,
A resolution for a lasting league
Betwixt your families was entertain'd,
By joining in a Hymenean bond
Me and the fair Penthea, only daughter
To Thrasus.

CROTOLON
What of this?

ORGILUS
Much, much, dear sir.
A freedom of converse, an interchange
Of holy and chaste love, so fixt our souls
In a firm growth of union, that no time
Can eat into the pledge: we had enjoy'd
The sweets our vows expected, had not cruelty
Prevented all those triumphs we prepar'd for,
By Thrasus his untimely death.

CROTOLON
Most certain.

ORGILUS
From this time sprouted up that poisonous stalk
Of aconite, whose ripened fruit hath ravisht
All health, all comfort of a happy life;
For Ithocles, her brother, proud of youth,
And prouder in his power, nourisht closely
The memory of former discontents,
To glory in revenge. By cunning partly,
Partly by threats, 'a woos at once and forces
His virtuous sister to admit a marriage
With Bassanes, a nobleman, in honour
And riches, I confess, beyond my fortunes.

CROTOLON
All this is no sound reason to importune
My leave for thy departure.

ORGILUS
Now it follows.
Beauteous Penthea, wedded to this torture
By an insulting brother, being secretly
Compell'd to yield her virgin freedom up
To him who never can usurp her heart,
Before contracted mine, is now so yok'd
To a most barbarous thraldrom, misery,
Affliction, that he savours not humanity,
Whose sorrow melts not into more than pity
In hearing but her name.

CROTOLON
As how, pray?

ORGILUS
Bassanes,
The man that calls her wife, considers truly
What heaven of perfections he is lord of
By thinking fair Penthea his: this thought
Begets a kind of monster-love, which love
Is nurse unto a fear so strong and servile
As brands all dotage with a jealousy:
All eyes who gaze upon that shrine of beauty
He doth resolve do homage to the miracle;
Some one, he is assur'd, may now or then,
If opportunity but sort, prevail.
So much, out of a self-unworthiness,
His fears transport him; not that he finds cause
In her obedience, but his own distrust.

CROTOLON
You spin out your discourse.

ORGILUS
My griefs are violent:
For knowing how the maid was heretofore
Courted by me, his jealousies grow wild
That I should steal again into her favours,
And undermine her virtues; which the gods
Know I nor dare nor dream of. Hence, from hence
I undertake a voluntary exile;
First, by my absence to take off the cares
Of jealous Bassanes; but chiefly, sir,
To free Penthea from a hell on earth;
Lastly, to lose the memory of something
Her presence makes to live in me afresh.

CROTOLON
Enough, my Orgilus, enough. To Athens,
I give a full consent. — Alas, good lady! —
We shall hear from thee often?

ORGILUS
Often.

CROTOLON
See,
Thy sister comes to give a farewell.

Enter EUPHRANEA

EUPHRANIA
Brother!

ORGILUS
Euphranea, thus upon thy cheeks I print
A brother's kiss; more careful of thine honour,
Thy health, and thy well-doing, than my life.
Before we part, in presence of our father,
I must prefer a suit t' ye.

EUPHRANIA
You may style it,
My brother, a command.

ORGILUS
That you will promise
To pass never to any man, however
Worthy, your faith, till, with our father's leave,
I give a free consent.

CROTOLON
An easy motion!
I'll promise for her, Orgilus.

ORGILUS
Your pardon;
Euphranea's oath must yield me satisfaction.

EUPHRANIA
By Vesta's sacred fires I swear.

CROTOLON
And I,
By Great Apollo's beams, join in the vow,
Not without thy allowance to bestow her
On any living.

ORGILUS
Dear Euphranea,
Mistake me not: far, far 't is from my thought,
As far from any wish of mine, to hinder
Preferment to an honourable bed
Or fitting fortune; thou art young and handsome;
And 't were injustice, — more, a tyranny, —
Not to advance thy merit. Trust me, sister,
It shall be my first care to see thee match'd
As may become thy choice and our contents.
I have your oath.

EUPHRANIA
You have. But mean you, brother,
To leave us, as you say?

CROTOLON
Ay, ay, Euphranea;
He has just grounds direct him. I will prove
A father and a brother to thee.

EUPHRANIA
Heaven
Does look into the secrets of all hearts:
Gods, you have mercy with ye, else —

CROTOLON
Doubt nothing;
Thy brother will return in safety to us.

ORGILUS
Souls sunk in sorrows never are without 'em.
They change fresh airs, but bear their griefs
about 'em.

Exeunt omnes