There is no possible reason why he should not have conveyed this intelligence to her himself, and Leonora must have been ingenious indeed to divine it, except that the plot would not allow it. Presently another match is found for Jolenta in Ercole, which Romelio favors for reasons again known only to himself, though he is a noble quite as much as Contarino. Ercole is the pattern of a chivalrous gentleman. Though he at once falls in love with Jolenta, according to Marlowe’s rule that “he never loved that loved not at first sight,” and though Romelio and the mother both urge the immediate signing of the contract, he refuses. “Lady, I will do A manly office for you; I will leave you To th’ freedom of your own soul; may it move Whither Heaven and you please! * * * * * I’ll leave you, excellent lady, and withal Leave a heart with you so entirely yours That I protest, had I the least of hope To enjoy you, though I were to wait the time That scholars do in taking their degree In the noble arts, ’t were nothing: howsoe’er, He parts from you, that will depart from life To do you any service; and so humbly I take my leave.” Never, I think, was more delicate compliment paid to a woman than in that fine touch which puts the service of her on a level with the “noble arts.” On this ground of sentiment idealized by devotion, Webster always moves with the assured ease and dignified familiarity of a thorough gentleman. Ercole’s pretension to the hand of Jolenta leads, of course, to a duel with Contarino. They had been fellow-students together at Padua, and the scene in which the preliminaries of the duel are arranged is pitched on as nobly grave a key as can be conceived. Lamb very justly calls it “the model of a well-arranged and gentlemanlike difference.” There is no swagger and no bravado in it, as is too commonly apt to be the case in the plays of that age. There is something Spanish in its dignity. To show what its tone is, I quote the opening. It is Contarino who first speaks. “Sir, my love to you has proclaimed you one Whose word was still led by a noble thought, And that thought followed by as fair a deed. Deceive not that opinion. We were students At Padua together, and have long To th’ world’s eye shown like friends; was it hearty On your part to me? _Erc._ Unfeigned. _Con._ You are false To the good thought I held of you, and now Join the worst part of man to you, your malice, To uphold that falsehood: sacred innocence Is fled your bosom. Signior, I must tell you, To draw the picture of unkindness truly Is to express two that have dearly loved And fall’n at variance; ’t is a wonder to me, Knowing my interest in the fair Jolenta, That you should love her.