Page:Works of Sir John Suckling.djvu/245

] It is then handsom'st, when the king comes to

Reduce, not ruin.

Bren. Who puts but on the face of punishing,

And only gently cuts, but prunes rebellion:

He makes that flourish which he would destroy.

Who would not be a rebel, when the hopes

Are vast, the fears but small?

Mel. Why, I would not,

Nor you, my lord, nor you, nor any here.

Fear keeps low spirits only in; the brave

Do get above it when they do resolve.

Such punishments, in infancy of war,

Make men more desperate, not the more yielding.

The common people are a kind of flies:

They're caught with honey, not with wormwood, sir.

Severity exasp'rates the stirr'd humour;

And state-distempers turns into diseases.

Bren. The gods forbid great Poland's state should be

Such as it dares not take right physic! Quarter

To rebels? Sir, when you give that to them,

Give that to me which they deserve. I would

Not live to see it.

3rd Lord. Turn o'er your own and others chronicles,

And you shall find, great sir,

'That nothing makes a civil war long-liv'd,

But ransom and returning back the brands,

Which unextinct kindled still fiercer fires.'

Mi. Mercy, bestow'd on those that do dispute

With swords, does lose the angel's face it has,

And is not mercy, sir, but policy

With a weak vizard on.

King. Y'have met my thoughts,

My lords; nor will it need larger debate.

To-morrow, in the sight of the besieg'd,

The rebel dies. Miesta, 'tis your care.

The mercy of heav'n may be ofiended so,

That it cannot forgive: mortals' much more,

Which is not infinite, my lords.

Iph. O Almerin! would we had never known

The ruffle of the world! but were again