ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

"in the right to run away from a nunnery:" and I think our young master was not in the wrong but in marrying without a portion.

Nurse. That was the quarrel, I believe, Sampson: upon this, my old lord would never see him; disinherited him; took his younger brother, Carlos, into favour, whom he never car'd for before; and at last forc'd Biron to go to the siege of Candy, where he was killed.

Samp. Alack-a day, poor gentleman.

Nurse. For which my old lord hates her, as if she had been the cause of his going thither.

Samp. Alas, alas, poor lady! she has suffered for it: she has liv'd a great while a widow.

Nurse. A great while indeed, for a young woman, Sampson.

Samp. Gad so here they come; I won't venture

to be seen.

Enter Count BALDWIN, followed by ISABELLA and her Child.

C. Bald. Whoever of your friends directed you, Misguided, and abus'd you―There's your way; I can afford to shew you out again;

What could you expect from me?

Isa. Oh, I have nothing to expect on earth! But misery is very apt to talk:

I thought I might be heard.

C. Bald. What can you say?

Is there in eloquence, can there be in words

A recompensing pow'r, a remedy,

A reparation of the injuries,

The great calamities, that you have brought

On me, and mine? You have destroy'd those hopes
I fondly rais'd, through my declining life,

To rest my age upon; and most undone me.
Isa. I have undone myself too.

C. Bald. Speak it again;

Say still you are undone, and I will hear you,
With pleasure hear you.

Isa. Would my ruin please you

C. Bald. Beyond all other pleasures.

Isa. Then you are pleas'd-for I am most undone. C. Bald. I pray'd but for revenge, and Heav'n has heard,

And sent it to my wishes: these grey hairs
Would have gone down in sorrow to the grave,
Which you have dug for me, without the thought,
The thought of leaving you more wretched here.
Isa. Indeed I am most wretched-" When I lost
"My husband-

"C. Bald. Would he had never been ; "Or never had been yours.

"Isa. I then believ'd

"The measure of my sorrow then was full:

"But every moment of my growing days

"Makes room for woes, and adds them to the sum." I lost with Biron all the joys of life:

But now its last supporting means are gone,
All the kind helps that Heav'n in pity rais'd,

In charitable pity to our wants,

At last have left us: now bereft of all,
But this last trial of a cruel father,

To save us both from sinking.

Oh, my child!
Kneel with me, knock at nature in his heart:
Let the resemblance of a once-lov'd son
Speak in this little one, who never wrong'd you,
And plead the fatherless and widow's cause.
Oh, if you ever hope to be forgiven,

As you will need to be forgiven too,

Forget our faults, that Heaven may pardon yours!
C. Bald. How dare you mention Heav'n! Call to

mind

Your perjur'd vows; your plighted, broken faith
To Heav'n, and all things holy: were you not
Devoted, wedded to a life recluse,

The sacred habit on, profess'd and sworn,
A votary for ever? Can you think

The sacrilegious wretch, that robs the sluine,
Is thunder proof?

Isa. There, there, began my woes.

"Let women all take warning at my fate;
"Never resolve, or think they can be safe,
"Within the reach and tongue of tempting men.”
Oh! had I never seen my Biron's face,
Had he not tempted me I had not fall'n,
But still continued innocent and free

Of a bad world, which only he had pow'r
To reconcile, and make me try again,
C

C. Bald. Your own inconstancy, "your graceless

thoughts,

"Debauch'd and" reconcil'd you to the world:

He had no hand to bring you back again, But what you gave him. Circe, you prevail'd Upon his honest mind, transforming him From virtue, and himself, into what shapes You had occasion for; and what he did Was first inspir'd by you. "A cloister was "Too narrow for the work you had in hand: "Your business was more general; the whole world "To be the scene: therefore you spread your charms "To catch his soul, to be the instrument,

"The wicked instrument of your cursed flight. "Not that you valued him; for any one,

"Who could have serv'd the turn, had been as welcome."

Isa. Oh! I have sins to Heav'n, but none to him.
C. Bald. Had my wretched son

Marry'd a beggar's bastard; taken her

Out of her rags, and made her of my blood,

The mischief might have ceas'd, and ended there.

But bringing you into a family,

Entails a curse upon the name and house

That takes you in the only part of me
That did receive you, perish'd for his crime.
'Tis a defiance to offended Heav'n

Barely to pity you; your sins pursue you :
"The heaviest judgments that can fall upon you,
"Are your just lot, and but prepare your doom:

"Expect 'em, and despair-Sirrah, rogue,`

"How durst thou disobey me !"

[To the Porter.

Isa. Not for myself- -for I am past the hopes

Of being heard but for this innocent-
And then I never will disturb you more.

C. Bald. I almost pity the unhappy child:
But being yours-

Isa. Look on him as your son's;

And let his part in him answer for mine.

Oh, save, defend him, save him from the wrongs
That fall upon the poor!

C. Bald. It touches me

And I will save him-But to keep him safe;
Never come near him more.

Isa. What! take him from me!

No, we must never part: Ptis the last hold
Of comfort I have left; and when he fails,
All goes along with him: Oh! "could you
"The tyrant to divorce life from my life?"
I live but in my child.

No, let me pray in vain, and beg my bread
From door to door, to feed his daily wants,
Rather than always lose him.

be

C. Bald. Then have your child, and feed him with your prayer.

You, rascal, slave, what do I keep you for

How came this woman in ?

Samp. Why indeed, my lord, I did as good as tell her, before, my thoughts upon the matter

C. Bald. Did you so, sir? Now then tell her mine;

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »