Racine: Phaedra

258
CALDERON
Soldiers.—Segismund ! Segismund ! Prince Segismund
King Segismund ! Down
with Basilio
Down with Astolfo! Segismund our King!
First Soldier.—He stares upon us wildly. He cannot speak.
Second Soldier.—I said so—driv'n him mad.
Third Soldier.— Speak to him, Captain.
Captain.—Oh Royal Segismund, our Prince and King,
Look on us—listen to us—answer us.
Your faithful soldiery and subjects, now
About you kneeling, but on fire to rise
And cleave a passage through your enemies.
Until we seat you on your lawful throne.
For though your father, King Basilio,
Now King of Poland, jealous of the stars
That prophesy his setting with your rise,
Here holds you ignominiously eclipsed.
And would Astolfo, Duke of Muscovy,
Mount to the throne of Poland after him
So will not we, your loyal soldiery
And subjects; neither those of us now first
Apprised of your existence and your right:
Nor those that hitherto deluded by
Allegiance false, their vizors now fling down,
And craving pardon on their knees with us
For that unconscious disloyalty.
Offer with us the service of their blood
Not only we and they ; but at our heels
The heart, if not the bulk, of Poland follows
To join their voices and their arms with ours.
In vindicating with our lives our own
Prince Segismund to Poland and her throne.
Soldiers.—Segismund, Segismund, Prince Segismund!
Our own King Segismund. [They all rise.
Segismund.—Again? So soon?—What, not yet done with me?
The sun is little higher up, I think,
Than when I last lay down,
To bury in the depth of your own sea
You that infest its shallows.
Captain.— Sir
Segismund.— And now.