Mar. The Night comes on, and offers me two Pleasures,
The least of which would make another blest,
Love and Revenge: but I, whilst I dispute
243 Which Happiness to chuse, neglect them both.
The greatest Bliss that Mankind can possess,
Persuades me this way, to my fair _Clarinda:_
But tyrannick Honour
Presents the Credit of my House before me,
And bids me first redeem its fading Glory,
By sacrificing that false Woman’s Heart
That has undone its Fame.
But stay, Oh Conscience, when I look within,
And lay my Anger by, I find that Sin
Which I would punish in _Antonio’s_ Soul,
Lie nourish’d up in mine without Controul.
To fair _Clarinda_ such a Siege I lay,
As did that Traitor to _Hippolyta_;
Only _Hippolyta_ a Brother has,
_Clarinda_, none to punish her Disgrace:
And ’tis more Glory the defenc’d to win,
Than ’tis to take unguarded Virtue in.
I either must my shameful Love resign,
Or my more brave and just Revenge decline.
[Enter _Alonzo_ drest, with _Lovis_. _Marcel_ stays.
Alon. But to be thus in love, is’t not a Wonder, _Lovis?_
Lov. No, Sir, it had been much a greater, if you had stay’d a Night in
Town without being so; and I shall see this Wonder as often as you see
a new Face of a pretty Woman.
Alon. I do not say that I shall lose all Passion for the fair Sex
hereafter; but on my Conscience, this amiable Stranger has given me a
deeper Wound than ever I received from any before.
Lov. Well, you remember the Bargain.
Alon. What Bargain?
Lov. To communicate; you understand.
Alon. There’s the Devil on’t, she is not such a Prize: Oh, were she not
honest, Friend! [Hugs him.
244 Lov. Is it so to do? What, you pretend to be a Lover, and she
honest, now only to deprive me of my Part: remember this, _Alonzo_.
Mar. Did not I hear _Alonzo_ nam’d? [Aside.
Alon. By all that’s good I am in earnest, Friend;
Nay thy own Eyes shall convince thee
Of the Power of hers.
Her Veil fell off, and she appear’d to me,
Like unexpected Day, from out a Cloud;
The lost benighted Traveller
Sees not th’ Approach of the next Morning’s Sun
With more transported Joy,
Than I this ravishing and unknown Beauty.
Lov. Hey day! What Stuff’s here? Nay, now I see thou art quite gone
indeed.
Alon. I fear it. Oh, had she not been honest!
What Joy, what Heaven of Joys she would distribute!
With such a Face, and Shape, a Wit, and Mein—
But as she is, I know not what to do.
Lov. You cannot marry her.
Alon. I would not willingly, tho I think I’m free: For _Pedro_ went to
_Marcel_ to tell him I was arriv’d, and would wait on him; but was
treated more like a Spy, than a Messenger of Love: They sent no Answer
back, which I tell you, _Lovis_, angers me: ’twas not the Entertainment
I expected from my brave Friend _Marcel_. But now I am for the fair
Stranger who by this expects me.
Mar. ’Tis _Alonzo_. O how he animates my Rage, and turns me over to
Revenge, upon _Hippolyta_ and her false Lover! [Aside.
Lov. Who’s this that walks before us? [They go out.
Alon. No matter who.
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