II.
Every nymph of the flood, her tresses rending,
Throws off her armlet of pearl in the main;
Neptune in anguish his charge unattending,
Vessels are foundering, and vows are in vain.
_Enter_ TYRANNY, DEMOCRACY, _represented by Men, attended by_ ASEBIA
_and_ ZELOTA, Women._
_Tyr._ Ha, ha! 'tis what so long I wished and vowed:
Our plots and delusions
Have wrought such confusions,
That the monarch's a slave to the crowd.
_Dem._ A design we fomented,--
_Tyr._ By hell it was new!
_Dem._ A false plot invented,--
_Tyr._ To cover a true.
_Dem._ First with promised faith we flattered.
_Tyr._ Then jealousies and fears we scattered.
_Aseb._ We never valued right and wrong,
But as they served our cause.
_Zel._ Our business was to please the throng,
And court their wild applause;
_Aseb._ For this we bribed the lawyer's tongue.
And then destroyed the laws.
_Cho._ For this, &c.
_Tyr._ To make him safe, we made his friends our prey;
_Dem._ To make him great, we scorned his royal sway,--
_Tyr._ And to confirm his crown, we took his heir away.
_Dem._ To encrease his store,
We kept him poor;
_Tyr._ And when to wants we had betrayed him,
To keep him low,
Pronounced a foe,
Whoe'er presumed to aid him.
_Aseb._ But you forget the noblest part,
And master piece of all your art,--
You told him he was sick at heart.
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