_Mart._ Sir, a duty well discharg'd is never follow'd By sad repentance, nor did your Highness ever Make payment of the debt you ow'd her, better Than in your late reproofs not of her, but Those crimes that made her worthy of reproof. The most remarkeable point in which Kings differ From private men, is that they not alone Stand bound to be in themselves innocent, But that all such as are allyed to them In nearness, [or] dependance, by their care Should be free from suspition of all crime; And you have reap'd a double benefit From this last great act: first in the restraint Of her lost pleasures, you remove th' example From others of the like licentiousness, Then when 'tis known that your severitie Extended to your mother, who dares hope for The least indulgence or connivence in The easiest slips that may prove dangerous To you, or to the Kingdome?
_Theod._ I must grant Your reason[s] good (_Martell_) if as she is My mother, she had been my subject, or That only here she could make challenge to A place of Being; But I know her temper And fear (if such a word become a King,) That in discovering her, I have let lo[o]se A Tygress, whose rage being shut up in darkness, Was grievous only to her self; Which brought Into the view of light, her cruelty, Provok'd by her own shame, will turn on him That foolishly presum'd to let her see The loath'd shape of her own deformitie.
_Mart._ Beasts of that nature, when rebellious threats Begin to appear only in their eyes, Or any motion that may give suspition Of the least violence should be chain'd up; Their fangs and teeth, and all their means of hurt, Par'd off, and knockt out, and so made unable To do ill; They would soon begin to loath it. I'll apply nothing: but had your Grace done, Or would doe yet, what your less forward zeal In words did only threaten, far less danger Would grow from acting it on her, than may Perhaps have Being from her apprehension Of what may once be practis'd: For believe it, Who confident of his own power, presumes To spend threats on an enemy, that hath means To shun the worst they can effect, gives armor To keep off his own strength; Nay more, disarms Himself, and lyes unguarded 'gainst all harms, Or doubt, or malice may produce.