Aspatia, in this tragedy, is a good instance of Beaumont and Fletcher's pathetic characters. She is troth-plight wife to Amintor, and after he, by the king's command, has forsaken her for Evadne, she disguises herself as a man, provokes her unfaithful lover to a duel, and dies under his sword, blessing the hand that killed her. This is a common type in Beaumont and Fletcher, and was drawn originally from Shakspere's Ophelia. All their good women have the instinctive fidelity of a dog, and a superhuman patience and devotion, a "gentle forlornness" under wrongs, which is painted with an almost feminine tenderness. In _Philaster, or Love Lies Bleeding_, Euphrasia, conceiving a hopeless passion for Philaster--who is in love with Arethusa--puts on the dress of a page and enters his service. He employs her to carry messages to his lady-love, just as Viola, in _Twelfth Night_, is sent by the duke to Olivia. Philaster is persuaded by slanderers that his page and his lady have been unfaithful to him, and in his jealous fury he wounds Euphrasia with his sword. Afterward, convinced of the boy's fidelity, he asks forgiveness, whereto Euphrasia replies, Alas, my lord, my life is not a thing Worthy your noble thoughts. 'Tis not a life, 'Tis but a piece of childhood thrown away. Beaumont and Fletcher's love-lorn maids wear the willow very sweetly, but in all their piteous passages there is nothing equal to the natural pathos--the pathos which arises from the deep springs of character--of that one brief question and answer in _King Lear_. _Lear_. So young and so untender? _Cordelia_. So young, my lord, and true.