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DRAMATIS PERSONE.

DRURY-LANE.

COVENT-GARDEN.

PRIULI

BEDAMAR

PIERRE

JAFFIER

RENAULT

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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. Male.
Mr. Evans.

Mr. Chapman.

Mr. Creswell.

Mr. Claremont.
Mr. L. Bologna.
Mr. King.
Mr. Jefferies.

Mr. Field.

Mr. Treby.
Mr. Powers.

BELVIDERA

Mrs. Powell.

Mrs. Siddons.

VENICE PRESERVED.

ACT THE FIRST.

SCENE I.

St. Mark's.

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

shall!

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.

Priuli. Rather live

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.

Priuli. No more.

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

[Exit.

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.

Enter PIERre.

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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