Demetrio, Re Di Siria: Dramma Per Musica (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Demetrio, Re di Siria: Dramma per Musica Emetrius Soteros, king of Siria, being driven out of his kingdom by the uforper Alexander B dieci in exile among the Cretans; who' alone continued theirfriendihip to him in his misfortunes. Before his fright... he introi'red his infant fon Deme trits to the care of his mofi: faithful fubjeét Pheni cius, ... that he might preferve him as the future in fimment of his jail: revenge; The royal prince in creaîfed in years and fiature, ignorant of his condi tion among the woods, where the prudence of 'phe nicias had, for forno time, concealed him from the fearch of Àlexancier, under the marne of - Aicefres. A'fterwards' he took him into his family in Seleucia, and gave dextrous proofs both of the greatnefs of his fool, and of that loyalty, which he owed his fo vere1gn. In a ihort time - the fuppofed Alceftes be came the admiration of the whole kingdofn, fo far, that he was raifed to confiderablc po*ts in the ar mies of his enemy Alexander, and was pafiionateiy beloved by Cleonice, the ufurper's daughter, a princefs worthy of a more virtuous father. When the vigilant Phehicius thought the time proper, he began to found the min, ds of the people., and art fully gave out, that Ùernetrius was {till hvmg, though in obfcurityand unknown. Upon this ru mour, l which in an ia...difi'ufcd itieli, the Cre tans afiei*ted the risr ts of the lawful prince, and Alexander endeavouring to extinguiih this fire', be fore it got too great a firength, was defeated, and flain. Alcefies, by the poft he had in the army, was obliged to be at this battle, and, for fome time, it was not known at Seleucia what was be come of him. The death of Alexander, whichthe ambition of the grandees (every one of whom afpired to the crown) would have made the lawful heir an impoftor; wherefore waiting for his return, and, in the interim, folliciting, under-hand, afiift ance from the Cretans, he defer'd the making 'pub' lick the fecret. Mean while it was agreed among the pretenders, who' all acknowiedgcd Cleonice queen, that the fhould chufe a hufband from a mong them, She, by various pretences, for a confiderablc time, defor'd making this choice, ex pecting the return of Alceftes, who luckily arrived when the afiiiéted queen was at the very point or declaring the future king. After this, by a variety of incidents, Alceî'tes is difcove'red to be the true Demetrius, and recovers the throne of his anccf t01'5. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.