It is then handsom'st, when the king comes to75
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 hopes80
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,85
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.90
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.95
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.'100
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.105
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.[Exeunt110
Scene IV
Enter Iphigene, Almerin, as in prison
Iph. O Almerin! would we had never known
The ruffle of the world! but were again
