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Against Justina's soul, I will extract
From one effect two vengeances.
Cyp.
Met a more learned person. Let me now

I never

Revolve this doubt again with careful mind.

Enter LELIO and FLORO.

[Exit.

[He reads.

Lel. Here stop. These toppling rocks and tangled

boughs,

Impenetrable by the noonday beam,

Shall be sole witnesses of what we

Flo.

Draw!

If there were words, here is the place for deeds.
Lel. Thou needest not instruct me; well I know
That in the field the silent tongue of steel

Speaks thus.

Cyp.

[They fight.

Ha! what is this? Lelio, Floro, Be it enough that Cyprian stands between you, Although unarm'd.

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Mos.

Enter MosCON and CLARIN.

Run, run! for where we left my master

I never

We hear the clash of swords.

Cla.

Run to approach things of this sort, but only

To avoid them. Sir! Cyprian! sir!

Cyp. Be silent, fellows! What! two friends who are In blood and fame the eyes and hope of Antioch:

One of the noble men of the Colatti,

The other son of the Governor, adventure

And cast away, on some slight cause no doubt,
Two lives the honour of their country?

Cyprian!

Lel. Although my high respect towards your person Holds now my sword supended, thou canst not Restore it to the slumber of its scabbard. Thou knowest more of science than the duel ; For when two men of honour take the field, No [ ] or respect can make them friends, But one must die in the pursuit.

Flo.

I pray

That you depart hence with your people, and
Leave us to finish what we have begun
Without advantage.

Cyp.

Though you may imagine

That I know little of the laws of duel,
Which vanity and valour instituted,
You are in error. By my birth I am

Held no less than yourselves to know the limits
Of honour and of infamy, nor has study
Quench'd the free spirit which first order'd them;
And thus to me, as one well experienced

In the false quicksands of the sea of honour,
You may refer the merits of the case;
And if I should perceive in your relation
That either has the right to satisfaction

From the other, I give you my word of honour
To leave you.

Lel.

Under this condition then
I will relate the cause, and you will cede
And must confess th' impossibility
Of compromise; for the same lady is
Beloved by Floro and myself.

Flo.

It seems

Much to me that the light of day should look
Upon that idol of my heart--but he

Leave us to fight, according to thy word.

Cyp. Permit one question further is the lady

She is

Impossible to hope or not?
Lel.

So excellent, that if the light of day
Should excite Floro's jealousy, it were

Without just cause, for even the light of day
Trembles to gaze on her.

Cyp.

Would you

for your

Part marry her?

Flo.

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Cyp. And you?

O, would that I could lift my hope

Lel.

So high? for though she is extremely poor,

Her virtue is her dowry.

Cyp.

And if you both

Would marry her, is it not weak and vain,

Culpable and unworthy, thus beforehand

To slur her honour. What would the world say
If one should slay the other, and if she
Should afterwards espouse the murderer?

[The rivals agree to refer their quarrel to CYPRIAN; who in consequence visits JUSTINA, and becomes enamoured of her : she disdains him, and he retires to a solitary sea-shore.

SCENE II.

Cyp. Oh, memory! permit it not
That the tyrant of my thought
Be another soul that still

Holds dominion o'er the will,

That would refuse, but can no more,
To bend, to tremble, and adore.
Vain idolatry!—I saw,

And gazing, became blind with error;
Weak ambition, which the awe

Of her presence bound to terror!

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So beautiful she was—and I,
Between my love and jealousy,
Am so convulsed with hope and fear,
Unworthy as it may appear ;-
So bitter is the life I live,

That, hear me, Hell! I now would give
To thy most detested spirit

My soul, for ever to inherit,

To suffer punishment and pine,

So this woman may be mine.

Hear'st thou, Hell! dost thou reject it?
My soul is offer'd!

Dæmon (unseen). I accept it.

[Tempest, with thunder and lightning.
Cyp. What is this? ye heavens for ever pure,
At once intensely radiant and obscure !
Athwart the ethereal halls

The lightning's arrow and the thunder-balls
The day affright.

As from the horizon round,

Burst with earthquake sound,

In mighty torrents the electric fountains ;-
Clouds quench the sun, and thunder smoke
Strangles the air, and fire eclipses heaven.
Philosophy, thou canst not even

Compel their causes underneath thy yoke,
From yonder clouds even to the waves below
The fragments of a single ruin choke

Imagination's flight;

For, on flakes of surge, like feathers light,
The ashes of the desolation cast

Upon the gloomy blast,

Tell of the footsteps of the storm.
And nearer see the melancholy form
Of a great ship, the outcast of the sea,
Drives miserably!

And it must fly the pity of the port,
Or perish, and its last and sole resort
Is its own raging enemy.

The terror of the thrilling cry

Was a fatal prophecy

Of coming death, who hovers now

Upon that shatter'd prow,

That they who die not may be dying still.

And not alone the insane elements

Are populous with wild portents,
But that sad ship is as a miracle
Of sudden ruin, for it drives so fast
It seems as if it had array'd its form
With the headlong storm.

It strikes-I almost feel the shock,—

It stumbles on a jagged rock,—

Sparkles of blood on the white foam are cast.

All exclaim (within). We are all lost!
Damon (within).

[A Tempest,

Now from this plank will I Pass to the land and thus fulfil my scheme. Cyp. As in contempt of the elemental rage A man comes forth in safety, while the ship's Great form is in a watery eclipse

Obliterated from the Ocean's page,

And round its wreck the huge sea-monsters sit,
A horrid conclave, and the whistling wave
Are heap'd over its carcase, like a grave.

The DÆMON enters, as escaped from the sea.

Damon (aside). It was essential to my purposes
To wake a tumult on the sapphire ocean,

That in this unknown form I might at length
Wipe out the blot of the discomfiture

Sustain'd upon the mountain, and assail

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