Elizabeth Cary - The Tragedy of Mariam, Act 4, Scene 3 lyrics

scene 3 [HEROD. MARIAM.] HEROD And here she comes indeed: happily met, My best and dearest half: what ails my dear? Thou dost the difference certainly forget 'Twixt dusky habits and a time so clear. MARIAM My lord, I suit my garment to my mind, And there no cheerful colors can I find. HEROD Is this my welcome? Have I longed so much To see my dearest Mariam discontent? What is't that is the cause thy heart to touch? Oh speak, that I thy sorrow may prevent. Art thou not Jewry's queen, and Herod's too? Be my commandress, be my sovereign guide: To be by thee directed I will woo, For in thy pleasure lies my highest pride. Or if thou think Judea's narrow bound Too strict a limit for thy great command: Thou shalt be empress of Arabia crowned, For thou shalt rule, and I will win the land. I'll rob the holy David's sepulchre To give thee wealth, if thou for wealth do care: Thou shalt have all they did with him inter, And I for thee will make the Temple bare. MARIAM I neither have of power nor riches want, I have enough, nor do I wish for more: Your offers to my heart no ease can grant, Except they could my brother's life restore. No, had you wished the wretched Mariam glad, Or had your love to her been truly tied: Nay, had you not desired to make her sad, My brother nor my grandsire had not died. HEROD Wilt thou believe no oaths to clear thy lord? How oft have I with execration sworn: Thou art by me belov'd, by me adored, Yet are my protestations heard with scorn. Hircan*s plotted to deprive my head Of this long-settled honor that I wear: And therefore I did justly doom him dead, To rid the realm from peril, me from fear. Yet I for Mariam's sake do so repent The d**h of one whose blood she did inherit: I wish I had a kingdom's treasure spent, So I had ne'er expelled Hircan*s' spirit. As I affected that same noble youth, In lasting infamy my name enroll If I not mourned his d**h with hearty truth. Did I not show to him my earnest love, When I to him the priesthood did restore, And did for him a living priest remove, Which never had been done but once before? MARIAM I know that, moved by importunity, You made him priest, and shortly after die. HEROD I will not speak, unless to be believed, This froward° humor will not do you good: peevish It hath too much already Herod grieved, To think that you on terms of hate have stood. Yet smile, my dearest Mariam, do but smile, And I will all unkind conceits exile. MARIAM I cannot frame disguise, nor never taught My face a look dissenting from my thought. HEROD By Heaven, you vex me, build not on my love. MARIAM I will not build on so unstable ground. HEROD Nought is so fixed, but peevishness may move. MARIAM 'Tis better slightest cause than none were found. HEROD Be judge yourself, if ever Herod sought Or would be moved a cause of change to find: Yet let your look declare a milder thought, My heart again you shall to Mariam bind. How oft did I for you my mother chide, Revile my sister, and my brother rate: And tell them all my Mariam they belied; Distrust me still, if these be signs of hate.