A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 15Dodsley, Robert
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 15
Dodsley, Robert
English drama
+Zor.+ Your sentence brings me
Joy. Welcome the keenest axe that can be set!
'Twill cut my head and chains both off together.
Welcome, most happy stroke, since it will bring
Rest to my eyes, and make a slave a king. [_Exit with a Guard._
+Duke.+ Madam, I suppose this journey has so wearied
You, that it is time to show you the way
To your lodgings, and leave you to your
Repose.
+Guard.+ Make way there for the duke!
+Amph.+ My lord, you had best attend the duke, because
'Tis a respect due to him.
+Ort.+ I shall, madam,
At your command. [_Exeunt._
+Amph.+ How has my tongue belied my too true heart,
In speaking hate unto
The duke, and love to Ortellus! I hate the duke?
So eyes do sleep, that long have known no rest.
How could my lips give passage to such words,
And not have clos'd for ever?
Not by my heart's direction, I am sure; for that
So swell'd, being injured by my mouth, as, had
Not pride and reason kept it here from this
Unquiet feat, it would have forc'd away
To Archimedes' breast, and there have whisper'd to
His heart my tongue's untruth. Why should I love
This man, that shows me nothing but contempt
And hate? Rouse, drooping heart, and think
Of that; think of it always, so by degrees
'Twill bring a winter round thee, that in time
Shall chill the heat of thy undone and lost
Affections. O, it is not true that all
Our sex love change, then I might find one path
That leads to it;
That womanish vice were virtue now in me,
'Twould free my heart, and that were charity.
_Enter +Duke+._
See, where he comes again; O, how I love
And hate that man! Now help me, pride, and fill
My breast with scorn; and pr'ythee, tongue, take heed
You do not falter: hear not, my heart, that will
Distract thy speech, and so betray my feign'd
Unkindness.
+Duke.+ What, Amphelia all alone?
Weary of your new love already? can't
You pass away the time with him one hour?
+Amph.+ Were he
No finer man than yourself, to be with him
A minute, I should think a
Seven years' penance.
Good heart, lie still, and let my tongue alone. [_Aside._
I wonder what a woman can see in you,
Or hear from you, to make her love you.
(I was just going to have said, hate him.) [_Aside._
O, what a task is this! therefore let me
Advise you to have a mean opinion
Of yourself.
+Duke.+ Methinks that advice might serve
For yourself. Ha, ha, ha!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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