_Alph._ Oh raging, impious, and yet hopeless fire! Not daring to possess what I desire; Condemned to suffer what I cannot bear; Tortured with love, and furious with despair. Of all the pains which wretched mortals prove, The fewest remedies belong to love: But ours has none; for, if we should enjoy, Our fatal cure must both of us destroy. Oh dear Victoria! cause of all my pain; Oh dear Victoria! whom I would not gain; Victoria, for whose sake I would survive! Victoria, for whose sake I dare not live! _Enter_ GARCIA _with Attendants. The two Princes salute_, _but_ ALPHONSO _very coldly_. _Gar._ I come to show my grief for your distemper; For, if my noble brother saw my heart, There should you find a plain, a holy friendship, Unmixt with interest, equally partaking Of what affects you, both of good and ill. _Alph._ I thank you; but my malady increases At your approach. I have no more to say; But wish you better health than I can boast, And to myself a lonely privacy. _Gar._ I find I am not welcome to your sight; But know not from what cause. Alph. [_Angrily._] My surest remedy is in your absence. 'Tis hard my lodgings cannot be my own, But importuned with visits undesired; And therefore, I must tell you, troublesome. _Gar._ 'Tis an odd way of entertaining friends; But, since I find you discomposed with sickness, That shall excuse your humours; where I go, I hope for better welcome. _Alph._ Sir, I must ask, whom you pretend to visit? _Gar._ My mistress, prince. _Alph._ Your mistress! who's that mistress? _Gar._ What need I name Victoria? _Alph._ Who? my sister! _Gar._ Whom else could you imagine? _Alph._ Any other. _Gar._ And why not her? _Alph._ Because I know not if she will admit you. _Gar._ Her father has allowed it. _Alph._ But not she; Or, if both have, yet my consent is wanting. You take upon you in a foreign kingdom, As if you were at home in your Navarre. _Gar._ And you, methinks, As if you had no father, or no king. Farewell, I will not stay. _Alph._ You shall not go: Thus as I am, thus single, thus unarmed, And you with guards attended-- _Gar._ You teach me to forget the rule of manners. _Alph._ I mean to teach you better. [_As_ GARCIA _is going to pass by him_, ALPHONSO _runs to one of his Attendants, and snatches his Sword away, then steps between_ GARCIA _and the Door_. _Enter_ VERAMOND _and_ XIMENA, _attended_. _Vera._ What means this rude behaviour in my court? As if our Arragon were turned to Thrace, Unhospitable to her guests, and thou, Alphonso, a Lycurgus.