_Max._ You take too much----but, ere you lay it down, Consider what you part with in a crown: Monarchs of cares in policy complain, Because they would be pitied, while they reign; For still the greater troubles they confess, They know their pleasures will be envied less. _Por._ Those joys I neither envy nor admire; But beg I from the troubles may retire. _Max._ What soul is this which empire cannot stir! Supine and tame as a philosopher! Know then, thou wert adopted to a throne, Not for thy sake so much as for my own. My thoughts were once about thy death at strife; And thy succession's thy reprieve for life. _Por._ My life and death are still within your power; But your succession I renounce this hour. Upon a bloody throne I will not sit, Nor share the guilt of crimes which you commit. _Max._ If you are not my Cæsar, you must die. _Por._ I take it as the nobler destiny. _Max._ I pity thee, and would thy faults forgive; But, thus presuming on, thou canst not live. _Por._ Sir, with your throne your pity I restore; I am your foe, nor will I use it more. Now all my debts of gratitude are paid, I cannot trusted be, nor you betrayed. [_Is going._ _Max._ Stay, stay! in threatening me to be my foe, You give me warning to conclude you so. Thou to succeed a monarch in his seat! _Enter_ PLACIDIUS. No, fool, thou art too honest to be great! Placidius, on your life this prisoner keep: Our enmity shall end before I sleep. _Plac._ I still am ready, sir, whene'er you please, [_To_ POR. To do you such small services as these. _Max._ The sight, with which my eyes shall first be fed, Must be my empress' and this traitor's head. _Por._ Where'er thou stand'st, I'll level at that place My gushing blood, and spout it at thy face. Thus, not by marriage, we our blood will join; Nay more, my arms shall throw my head at thine. [_Exit guarded._ _Max._ There, go, adoption: I have now decreed, That Maximin shall Maximin succeed: Old as I am, in pleasures I will try To waste an empire yet before I die: Since life is fugitive, and will not stay, I'll make it fly more pleasantly away. [_Exit._ ACT V. SCENE I. _Enter_ VALERIA _and_ PLACIDIUS. _Val._ If, as you say, you silently have been So long my lover, let my power be seen: One hour's discourse before Porphyrius die, Is all I ask, and you too may be by. _Plac._ I must not break The order, which the emperor did sign. _Val._ Has then his hand more power with you than mine?