_Sar._ No; They dared not. They were kept to toil and combat; And never changed their chains but for their armour: Now they have peace and pastime, and the license To revel and to rail; it irks me not. I would not give the smile of one fair girl For all the popular breath[12] that e'er divided A name from nothing. What are the rank tongues[13] 340 Of this vile herd, grown insolent with feeding, That I should prize their noisy praise, or dread Their noisome clamour? _Sal._ You have said they are men; As such their hearts are something. _Sar._ So my dogs' are; And better, as more faithful:--but, proceed; Thou hast my signet:--since they are tumultuous, Let them be tempered, yet not roughly, till Necessity enforce it. I hate all pain, Given or received; we have enough within us, The meanest vassal as the loftiest monarch, 350 Not to add to each other's natural burthen Of mortal misery, but rather lessen, By mild reciprocal alleviation, The fatal penalties imposed on life: But this they know not, or they will not know. I have, by Baal! done all I could to soothe them: I made no wars, I added no new imposts, I interfered not with their civic lives, I let them pass their days as best might suit them, Passing my own as suited me. _Sal._ Thou stopp'st 360 Short of the duties of a king; and therefore They say thou art unfit to be a monarch. _Sar._ They lie.--Unhappily, I am unfit To be aught save a monarch; else for me The meanest Mede might be the king instead. _Sal._ There is one Mede, at least, who seeks to be so. _Sar._ What mean'st thou!--'tis thy secret; thou desirest Few questions, and I'm not of curious nature. Take the fit steps; and, since necessity Requires, I sanction and support thee. Ne'er 370 Was man who more desired to rule in peace The peaceful only: if they rouse me, better They had conjured up stern Nimrod from his ashes, "The Mighty Hunter!" I will turn these realms To one wide desert chase of brutes, who _were_, But _would_ no more, by their own choice, be human. _What_ they have found me, they belie; _that which_ They yet may find me--shall defy their wish To speak it worse; and let them thank themselves. _Sal._ Then thou at last canst feel? _Sar._ Feel! who feels not 380 Ingratitude?[14] _Sal._ I will not pause to answer With words, but deeds. Keep thou awake that energy Which sleeps at times, but is not dead within thee, And thou may'st yet be glorious in thy reign, As powerful in thy realm. Farewell! [_Exit_ SALEMENES.