DUKE OF VENICE Mr. Maddocks. Mr. Davenport. Mr. Powell. Mr. Murray. Mr. Raymond. Mr. Brunton. Mr. Barrymore. Mr. Cooke. Mr. H. Siddons. Mr. C. Kemble. Mr. Eyre.
Mr. Chapman.
Mr. Creswell.
Mr. Claremont. Mr. L. Bologna. Mr. King. Mr. Jefferies.
Mr. Field.
Mr. Treby. Mr. Powers.
Enter PRIULI and JAFFIER.
Priuli. No more! I'll hear no more! begone, and leave me!
Jaff. Not hear me! by my sufferings, but you
My lord-my lord! I'm not that abject wretch You think me. Patience! where's the distance throws Me back so far, but I may boldly speak
In right, though proud oppression will not hear me? Priuli. Have you not wrong'd me?
Jaff. Could my nature e'er
Have brook'd injustice, or the doing wrongs, I need not now thus low have bent myself To gain a hearing from a cruel father.- Wrong'd you?
Priuli. Yes, wrong'd me! in the nicest point, The honour of my house, you've done me wrong. You may remember (for I now will speak,
And urge its baseness) when you first came home
From travel, with such hopes as made you look'd on By all men's eyes, a youth of expectation; Pleas'd with your growing virtue, I receiv'd you ; Courted, and sought to raise you to your merits; My house, my table, nay, my fortune too, My very self was yours; you might have us'd me To your best service; like an open friend I treated, trusted you, and thought you mine; When, in requital of my best endeavours, You treacherously practis'd to undo me; Seduc'd the weakness of my age's darling, My only child, and stole her from my bosom. Oh! Belvidera!
Jaff. 'Tis to me you owe her:
Childless you had been else, and in the grave Your name extinct; no more Priuli heard of. You may remember, scarce five years are past, Since in your brigantine you sail'd to see The Adriatic wedded by our duke;
And I was with you; your unskilful pilot Dash'd us upon a rock; when to your boat You made for safety; enter'd first yourself; Th' affrighted Belvidera, following next, As she stood trembling on the vessel's side, Was by a wave wash'd off into the deep : When instantly I plung'd into the sea, And buffeting the billows to her rescue, Redeem'd her life with half the loss of mine. Like a rich conquest, in one hand I bore her, And with the other dash'd the saucy waves, That throng'd and press'd to rob me of my prize. I brought her, gave her to your despairing arms; Indeed you thank'd me; but a nobler gratitude
Rose in her soul: for from that hour she lov'd me, Till for her life she paid me with herself.
Priuli. You stole her from me; like a thief you stole her,
At dead of night; that cursed hour you chose
To rifle me of all my heart held dear.
May all your joys in her prove false, like mine! A sterile fortune, and a barren bed,
Attend you both: continual discord make Your days and nights bitter and grievous still : May the hard hand of a vexatious need Oppress and grind you; till at last you find The curse of disobedience all your portion.
Jaff. Half of your curse you have bestow'd in vain. Heav'n has already crown'd our faithful loves With a young boy, sweet as his mother's beauty : May he live to prove more gentle than his grandsire, And happier than his father.
To bait thee for his bread, and din your ears With hungry cries; whilst his unhappy mother Sits down and weeps in bitterness of want. Jaff. You talk as if 'twould please you. Priuli. "Twould, by Heaven!
Jaff. 'Would I were in my grave!
Priuli. And she too with thee:
For, living here, you're but my curs'd remembrancers. I once was happy!
Jaff. You use me thus, because you know my soul Is fond of Belvidera. You perceive
My life feeds on her, therefore thus you treat me. Were I that thief, the doer of such wrongs
As you upbraid me with, what hinders me
But I might send her back to you with contumely, And court my fortune where she would be kinder? Priuli. You dare not do't.
Jaff. Indeed, my lord, I dare not.
My heart, that awes me, is too much my master: Three years are past since first our vows were plighted, During which time, the world must bear me witness, I've treated Belvidera like your daughter, The daughter of a senator of Venice:
Distinction, place, attendance, and observance, Due to her birth, she always has commanded: Out of my little fortune I've done this;
Because, (though hopeless e'er to win your nature) The world might see I lov'd her for herself; Not as the heiress of the great Priuli.
Jaff. Yes, all, and then adieu for ever.
There's not a wretch, that lives on common charity, But's happier than me; for I have known The luscious sweets of plenty; every night Have slept with soft content about my head, And never wak'd, but to a joyful morning : Yet now must fall, like a full ear of corn, Whose blossom'scap'd, yet's wither'd in the ripening. Priuli. Home, and be humble; study to retrench; Discharge the lazy vermin of thy hall,
Those pageants of thy folly:
Reduce the glitt'ring trappings of thy wife To humble weeds, fit for thy little state: Then to some suburb cottage both retire;
Drudge to feed loathsome life; gets brats and starve Home, home, I say.
Jaff. Yes, if my heart would let me
This proud, this swelling heart: home I would go,
But that my doors are hateful to my eyes,
Fill'd and damm'd up with gaping creditors: I've now not fifty ducats in the world,
Yet still I am in love, and pleas'd with ruin. Oh Belvidera! Oh! she is my wife-
And we will bear our wayward fate together, But ne'er know comfort more.
Pierre. My friend, good-morrow; How fares the honest partner of my heart? What, melancholy! not a word to spare me!
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