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_ ACT II - SCENE I
[Enter SIGISMUND, FREDERICK, and BALDWIN, with their train.]
SIGISMUND.
Now say, my lords of Buda and Bohemia,
What motion is it that inflames your thoughts,
And stirs your valours to such sudden arms?
FREDERICK.
Your majesty remembers, I am sure,
What cruel slaughter of our Christian bloods
These heathenish Turks and pagans lately made
Betwixt the city Zula and Danubius;
How through the midst of Varna and Bulgaria,
And almost to the very walls of Rome,
They have, not long since, massacred our camp.
It resteth now, then, that your majesty
Take all advantages of time and power,
And work revenge upon these infidels.
Your highness knows, for Tamburlaine's repair,
That strikes a terror to all Turkish hearts,
Natolia hath dismiss'd the greatest part
Of all his army, pitch'd against our power
Betwixt Cutheia and Orminius' mount,
And sent them marching up to Belgasar,
Acantha, Antioch, and Caesarea,
To aid the kings of Soria [63] and Jerusalem.
Now, then, my lord, advantage take thereof, [64]
And issue suddenly upon the rest;
That, in the fortune of their overthrow,
We may discourage all the pagan troop
That dare attempt to war with Christians.
[Footnote 63: Soria] See note ?, p. 44. [i.e. note 13.]]
[Footnote 64: thereof] So the 8vo.--The 4to "heereof."]
SIGISMUND.
But calls not, then, your grace to memory
The league we lately made with King Orcanes,
Confirm'd by oath and articles of peace,
And calling Christ for record of our truths?
This should be treachery and violence
Against the grace of our profession.
BALDWIN.
No whit, my lord; for with such infidels,
In whom no faith nor true religion rests,
We are not bound to those accomplishments
The holy laws of Christendom enjoin;
But, as the faith which they profanely plight
Is not by necessary policy
To be esteem'd assurance for ourselves,
So that we vow [65] to them should not infringe
Our liberty of arms and victory.
[Footnote 65: that we vow] i.e. that which we vow. So the 8vo.--The 4to "WHAT we vow." Neither of the modern editors understanding the passage, they printed "WE THAT vow."]
SIGISMUND.
Though I confess the oaths they undertake
Breed little strength to our security,
Yet those infirmities that thus defame
Their faiths, [66] their honours, and religion, [67]
Should not give us presumption to the like.
Our faiths are sound, and must be consummate, [68]
Religious, righteous, and inviolate.
[Footnote 66: faiths] So the 8vo.--The 4to "fame."]
[Footnote 67: and religion] Old eds. "and THEIR religion."]
[Footnote 68: consummate] Old eds. "consinuate." The modern editors print "continuate," a word which occurs in Shakespeare's TIMON OF ATHENS, act i. sc. 1., but which the metre determines to be inadmissible in the present passage.--The Revd. J. Mitford proposes "continent," in the sense of--restraining from violence.]
FREDERICK.
Assure your grace, 'tis superstition
To stand so strictly on dispensive faith;
And, should we lose the opportunity
That God hath given to venge our Christians' death,
And scourge their foul blasphemous paganism,
As fell to Saul, to Balaam, and the rest,
That would not kill and curse at God's command,
So surely will the vengeance of the Highest,
And jealous anger of his fearful arm,
Be pour'd with rigour on our sinful heads,
If we neglect this [69] offer'd victory.
[Footnote 69: this] So the 8vo.--The 4to "the."]
SIGISMUND.
Then arm, my lords, and issue suddenly,
Giving commandment to our general host,
With expedition to assail the pagan,
And take the victory our God hath given.
[Exeunt.] _
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