There's death in this eclipse too; sweet, dismiss
Thy ungentle veil, and let thy eyes make bright
This melancholy air, that droops and dies
For want of thy restoring beams.
Estef. Now, sir,
[Takes off her veil.
What think you of your mistress?
Alb. You are the lady Estefania, I take it.
Estef. Yes, you did take me from the coach,
Alberto,
But by a consequence I find you thought
Jacinta in your power; I could have told you,
Had you discover'd sooner what you were,
Where to have found your mistress, but she's
now
Above your hope, and by the priest, ere this, Made wife to Don Francisco.
Alb. To Don Pedro.
Estef. It was not, sir, impossible that I, Had not your violence prevented me (By a plot between Jacinta and myself, To take her place and person in the coach), Had by this time been married to Count Pedro, Whom I have power and justice, sir, to challenge, If contracts carry weight.
Alb. Have I so long
Lain beating at the bush, and is the bird Fled to Francisco?
Estef. I should show I had
A passion, sir, and sense of this captivity,
But that I find 'twas error, and not will,
Led you to this; and your own loss, now made
Irreparable, helps to tie up my anger.
Alb. Madam, I must confess a wrong, and dare
Submit to let your anger punish me,
For I despise myself, now I have lost
My expectation; and if you please
To think I had no malice in this act
To you, you can propose no satisfaction
I shall esteem a penance to repair you,
As far as my poor life, if you'll direct it.
Estef. 'Tis nobly promis'd, sir. You shall re-
deem
But to Don Carlos' house.
Alb. You shall command me.
In my thoughts what is past, if you be pleas'd
To make my stay no longer here; I have
No desperate aim to make Don Pedro yet
Know how to right [me], or make public what
Should bind his honour to perform.
Alb. Was not Luys, madam, entertain'd your servant?
Estef. I shall make known the story, if you walk
[Exeunt.
Enter FERNANDO with his sword drawn.
Fer. I come to seek one that I late call'd
brother,
But he hath forfeited that name, and Justice,
Weary of such a prodigy in nature,
Hath arm'd me thus in her revenge.-Don Carlos,
Obscure him not, no darkness can protect him;
My sword shall forage every room like lightning,
No cave but it shall visit, and through ribs
[Exit. Of steel compel my passage to his heart,
y love, Although I meet him in his mistress' arms,
The lover's sanctuary, I dare force Francisco,
And with my sword cut the embrace that chains him,
Luys. You are witness.-
Now to Alberto.
Re-enter FRANCISCO with a parchment in his hand.
Fran. It shall not need, Fernando.
Ped. Hum! here is like to be a bloody business; himself I'll not disturb them.
[Exit.
Car. As you are brothers, by your father's dust
That should sleep quiet in his urn, by her
Dear name that gave you life, that now prays
for you,
Chide this unnatural fury.
Fran. What demands
Fernando?
Car. Manage the business temperately.
Luys. Let me alone to be temperate; if I do not cozen somebody, let me never drink sack again. [Exit. Car. What think you of Jacinta now, my
lord?
Ped. As of the saint I pay my chief devotions to.
Rather than he shall glory in my ruins,
And revel out those honours with her he
Took from my blood.
Fran. 'Tis not, sure,
Fernando, but his passion, that obeys not
The counsel of his reason, would accuse me;
And if my father now (since spirits lose not
Intelligence, but more active when they have
Shook off their chains of flesh) would leave his
dwelling,
And visit this coarse orb again, my innocence
Should dare the appeal, and make Fernando see
His empty accusations.
Fer. He that thrives
By wicked art, has confidence to dress body: His action with simplicity, and shapes
O
Fer. My inheritance, wrought from me
By thy sly creeping to supplant my birth,
And cheat our father's easy soul, unworthily
Betraying to his anger, for thy lust
Of wealth, the love and promise of two hearts;
Poor Felisardo and Fernando now
Wither at soul, and, robb'd by thee of that
Should cherish virtue, like to rifled pilgrims
Met on the way, and having told their story,
And dropp'd their even tears for both their loss,
Wander from one another.
To cheat our credulous natures; 'tis my wonder
Thou durst do so much injury, Francisco,
As must provoke my justice to revenge,
Yet wear no sword.
1. I need no guard; I know
est not kill me.
I not?
That should preserve your bosom suffer for
My sake, 'twere better I were dead.
Fer. No, live,
And live for ever happy: thou deservedst it.
It is Fernando doth make haste to sleep
In his forgotten dust.
Fel. Those accents did
Not sound so cheerfully.
Fer. Dost love me?
Fel. Sir?
Fer. Do not, I pr'ythec, do not; I am lost,
Alas! I am no more Fernando, there
Is nothing but the empty name of him
That did betray thee; place a guard about
Thy heart betime; I am not worth this sweetness.
Fel. Did not Fernando speak all this? Alas,
He knew that I was poor before, and needed not
Despise me now for that.
Fer. Desert me goodness,
When I upbraid thy wants. 'Tis I am poor, For I have not a stock in all the world
Of so much dust as would contrive one narrow
Cabin to shroud a worm: my dying father
Hath given away my birthright to Francisco;
I'm disinherited, thrown out of all,
But the small earth I borrow, thus to walk on;
And having nothing left, I come to kiss thee,
And take my everlasting leave of thee too.
Farewell! this will persuade thee to consent
To my eternal absence.
Fel. I must beseech you stay a little, sir,
And clear my faith. Hath your displeased father
Depriv'd you then of all, and made Francisco
The lord of your inheritance, without hope
To be repair'd in fortune?
Fer. "Tis sad truth.1
Fel. This is a happiness I did not look for. Fer. A happiness!
Fel. Yes, sir, a happiness.
Fer. Can Felisarda take delight to hear What hath undone her servant?
Fel. Heaven avert it.
But 'tis not worth my grief to be assured
That this will bring me nearer now to him
Whom I most honour of the world; and 'tis
My pride, if you exceed me not in fortune,
That I can boast my heart, as high and rich,
With noble flame, and every way your equal.
And if you be as poor as I, Fernando,
I can deserve you now, and love you more
Than when your expectation carried all
The pride and blossoms of the spring upon it.
Fer. Those shadows will not feed more than
your fancies;
Two poverties will keep but a thin table;
And while we dream of this high nourishment,
We do but starve more gloriously.
Fel. 'Tis ease
And wealth first taught us art to surfeit by: Nature is wise, not costly, and will spread A table for us in the wilderness;
And the kind earth keep us alive and healthful,
With what her bosom doth invite us to;
The brooks, not there suspected, as the wine
That sometime princes quaff, are all transparent,
And with their pretty murmurs call to taste them.
In every tree chorister to sing
Health to our loves; our lives shall there be free
As the first knowledge was from sin, and all
Our dreams as innocent.
Fer. Oh, Felisarda!
If thou didst own less virtue I might prove Unkind, and marry thee: but being so rich
1'Tis sad truth. Had Fernando forgotten that a pension was left him by his father?-See p. 541.
In goodness, it becomes me not to bring
One that is poor in every worth, to waste
So excellent a dower: be free, and meet
One that hath wealth to cherish it; I shall
Undo thee quite; but pray for me, as I,
That thou mayst change for a more happy bride-
groom;
I dare as soon be guilty of my death,
As make thee miserable by expecting me.
Farewell! and do not wrong my soul, to think
That any storm could separate us two,
But that I have no fortune now to serve thee.
Fel. This will be no exception, sir, I hope,
When we are both dead, yet our bodies may
Be cold, and strangers in the winding-sheet,"
We shall be married when our spirits meet.
[Exeunt.
There's death in this eclipse too; sweet, dismiss
Thy ungentle veil, and let thy eyes make bright
This melancholy air, that droops and dies
For want of thy restoring beams.
Estef. Now, sir,
[Takes off her veil.
What think you of your mistress?
Alb. You are the lady Estefanía, I take it.
Estef. Yes, you did take me from the coach,
Alberto,
But by a consequence I find you thought
Jacinta in your power; I could have told you,
Had you discover'd sooner what you were,
Where to have found your mistress, but she's
now
Above your hope, and by the priest, ere this, Made wife to Don Francisco.
Alb. To Don Pedro.
Estef. It was not, sir, impossible that I, Had not your violence prevented me (By a plot between Jacinta and myself, To take her place and person in the coach), Had by this time been married to Count Pedro, Whom I have power and justice, sir, to challenge, If contracts carry weight.
Alb. Have I so long
Lain beating at the bush, and is the bird
Fled to Francisco?
Estef. I should show I had
A passion, sir, and sense of this captivity,
But that I find 'twas error, and not will,
Led you to this; and your own loss, now made
Irreparable, helps to tie up my anger.
Alb. Madam, I must confess a wrong, and dare
Submit to let your anger punish me,
For I despise myself, now I have lost
My expectation; and if you please
To think I had no malice in this act
To you, you can propose no satisfaction
I shall esteem a penance to repair you,
As far as my poor life, if you'll direct it.
Estef. "Tis nobly promis'd, sir. You shall redeem
ACT V.-SCENE III.
A Room in DON CARLOS' House. Enter CARLOS, ALSIMIRA, and Servant. Car. No news yet of Jacinta? Als. None.
Car. He must
Not live in Spain, nor in the world, if my
Revenge can overtake him, that has stolen
My daughter; could you not by voice or habit
Guess at the ravisher? ye are traitors all.
Als. Now I consider better, I suspect
Alberto one of the conspiracy;
Some voice did sound like his. You know he lov'd her.
Car. Ha! Alberto?
Als. And how he might engage some ruffians To cross Don Pedro.
Car. It was he; where's Luys?
I do not like his absence, they're both guilty: My own blood turn'd a rebel! Send for the alcaides,
They shall both trot like thieves to the corregidor.
Where is Count Pedro?
Als. Gone in search
Of his lost mistress.
Car. When all things were ripe,
The very priest prepar'd to seal our joys,
A work my brain did labour for, and sweat
With hope to see accomplish'd, undermin'd,
And in a minute all blown up!
Als. Have patience,
She may be found again.
Car. But how my lord
May be inclin'd to accept her, foil'd, or wounded
Enter LUYS drunk.
Car. Where is Alberto?
Luys. Where every honest man should be. Old man, I have consider'd o' the former matter we talked on, and would do things like a dutiful son, but I find that a wife is not altogether so convenient for me as a
Car. Will none deliver me?
Luys. They are somewhat slug.'-Now I have found out an excellent tumbler, that can do the
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