Scene III Morocco. The Court
Enter Mullisheg, Bashaw Alcade, and Bashaw Joffer, with other Attendants.
Mullisheg.
Out of these bloody and intestine broils
We have at length attained a fortunate peace,
And now at last established in the throne
Of our great ancestors, and reign as King
Of Fez and great Morocco.
Alcade.
Mighty Mullisheg,
Pride of our age and glory of the Moors,
By whose victorious hand all Barbary
Is conquered, awed, and swayed, behold thy vassals
With loud applauses greet thy victory.
[Shout; flourish.
Mullisheg.
Upon the slaughtered bodies of our foes
We mount our high tribunal; and being sole,
Without competitor, we now have leisure
To stablish laws, first for our kingdom’s safety,
The enriching of our public treasury,
And last our state and pleasure; then give order
That all such Christian merchants as have traffic
And freedom in our country, that conceal
The least part of our custom due to us,
Shall forfeit ship and goods.
Joffer.
There are appointed
Unto that purpose careful officers.
Mullisheg.
Those forfeitures must help to furnish up
The exhausted treasure that our wars consumed:
Part of such profits as accrue that way
We have already tasted.
Alcade.
’Tis most fit
Those Christians that reap profit by our land
Should contribute unto so great a loss.
Mullisheg.
Alcade, they shall.—But what’s the style of king,
Without his pleasure? Find us concubines,
The fairest Christian damsels you can hire,
Or buy for gold; the loveliest of the Moors
We can command, and negroes everywhere;
Italians, French, and Dutch, choice Turkish girls,
Must fill our Alkedavy, the great palace
Where Mullisheg now deigns to keep his court.
Joffer.
Who else are worthy to be libertines
But such as bear the sword?
Mullisheg.
Joffer, thou pleasest us.
If kings on earth be termèd demigods,
Why should we not make here terrestrial Heaven?
We can, we will: our God shall be our pleasure;
For so our Meccan prophet warrants us.
And now the music of the drums surcease;
We’ll learn to dance to the soft tunes of peace.
[Hautboys. Exeunt.