Acast. Delay not then, but haste and cheer thy love. Cast. Oh! I will throw my impatient arms about her, In her soft bosom sigh my soul to peace, SCENE II. A Chamber. Enter MONIMIA. Mon. Stand off, and give me room! I will not rest till I have found Castalio, My wishes' lord, comely as the rising day, Amidst ten thousand eminently known! Flowers spring up where'er he treads; his eyes, Fountains of brightness, cheering all about him! When will they shine on me?--Oh, stay my soul! I cannot die in peace till I have seen him. CASTALIO within. Cast. Who talks of dying with a voice so sweet, That life's in love with it? Mon. Hark! 'tis he that answers. Cast. [Entering.] Here, my love. Cast. Have I been in a dream, then, all this And art thou but the shadow of Monimia? Mon. Oh, were it possible, that we could drown Cast. Is it then so hard, Monimia, to forgive A fault, where humble love, like mine, implores thee? For I must love thee, though it prove my ruin. What shall I do to be enough thy slave, Mon. If I am dumb, Castalio, and want words Just as thy poor heart thinks! Have not I wronged thee? Cast. No. Mon. Still thou wander'st in the dark, Castalio; But wilt, ere long, stumble on horrid danger. Cast. What means my love? Deaf to my criefs, and senseless of my pains? Mon. Did not I beg thee to forbear inquiry? Readst thou not something in my face, that speaks Wonderful change, and horror from within me? Cast. Then there is something yet, which I have not known: What dost thou mean by horror and forbearance Cast. If, labouring in the pangs of death, Mon. My heart won't let me speak it; but Monimia, poor Monimia, tells you this, Cast. What means my destiny? For all my good or evil fate dwells in thee! Mon. No, never. Cast. Where's the power On earth, that dare not look like thee, and say so? Thou art my heart's inheritance; I served And who shall rob me of the dear bought blessing? Mon. Time will clear all; but now, let this content you. Heaven has decreed, and therefore I'm resolved In some far distant country waste my life, And never more shall find the way to rest; I should know all, for love is pregnant in them; [Exit Monimia. Mon. Ah, poor Castalio! Cast. Pity, by the gods, She pities me! then thou wilt go eternally, What means all this? Why all this stir to plague A single wretch? If but your word can shake This world to atoms, why so much ado With me? Think me but dead, and lay me so. Pol. Well, go on. Cast. Our destiny contrived To plague us both with one unhappy love. And made a contract I ne'er meant to keep, Cast. Still new ways I studied to abuse thee, Cast. No; to conceal it from thee was much a fault. Pol. A fault! when thou hast heard The tale I tell, what wilt thou call it then? Pol. First for thy friendship, traitor, I cancel it thus; after this day, I'll ne'er Cast. What will my fate do with me? Pol. Perjured, treacherous wretch, Farewell! Cast. I'll be thy slave, and thou shalt use me Just as thou wilt, do but forgive me. Bb Pol. Never. Cast. Oh! think a little what thy heart is do- How, from our infancy, we, hand in hand, Even in the womb we embraced; and wilt thou now, For the first fault, abandon and forsake me, Pol. Blind wretch! thou husband! there is a Go to her fulsome bed, and wallow there: Cast. Hold there, I charge thee. Cast. Whore? Pol. Ay, whore; I think that word needs no Cast. Alas! I can forgive even this, to thee! To wrong that virtue, which thou couldst not ruin. Pol. It seems I lie, then? Cast. Should the bravest man That e'er wore conquering sword, but dare to whisper What thou proclaim'st, he were the worst of liars: My friend may be mistaken. Pol. Damn the evasion! Thou meanest the worst; and he is a base-born villain, That said I lied. Cast. Do, draw thy sword, and thrust it through There is no joy in life, if thou art lost. Pol. Yes; thou never cam'st From old Acasto's loins; the midwife put Of a true brother, in a cradle by me, Mon. I am here, who calls me? Sweet as the shepherd's pipe upon the mountains, Cast. Ay, brother's blood. Art thou prepared for everlasting pains? Hurt not her tender life! Cast. Not kill her? Rack me, Ye powers above, with all your choicest torments, And wreak revenge some way yet never known. die Before we part; I have drank a healing draught thee. Pol. O she's innocent! Cast. Tell me that story, And thou wilt make a wretch of me indeed. Pol. Hadst thou, Castalio, used me like a friend, This ne'er had happened; hadst thou let me know Placed some coarse peasant's cub, and thou art he. Thy marriage, we had all now met in joy; Cast. Thou art my brother still. Pol. Thou liest. Cast. Nay then——— Yet I am calm. Pol. A coward's always so. But, ignorant of that, Hearing the appointment made, enraged to think [He draws. Thou hadst outdone me in successful love, Cast. Ah!-ah-that stings home-Coward! Cast. This to thy heart, then, though my mother I, in the dark, went and supplied thy place; tune; None but myself could e'er have been so cursed! | But here remain, till my heart burst with sobbing. My fatal love, alas! has ruined thee, Thou fairest, goodliest frame the gods e'er made, Why wouldst thou study ways to damn me farther, And force the sin of parricide upon me? Pol. Twas my own fault, and thou art cent; Cast. Vanish, I charge thee, or— [Draws a dagger. Cha. Thou canst not kill me; That would be kindness, and against thy nature. More sorrows on thy aged father's head. Forgive the barbarous trespass of my tongue; 'Twas a hard violence: I could have died With love of thee, even when I used thee worst; Nay, at each word, that my distraction uttered, My heart recoiled, and 'twas half death to speak them. Mon. Now, my Castalio, the most dear of men, Wilt thou receive pollution to thy bosom, And close the eyes of one, that has betrayed thee? Cast. Oh, I am the unhappy wretch, whose cursed fate Has weighed thee down into destruction with him. Why then, thus kind to me? Mon. When I am laid low in the grave, and Mayst thou be happy in a fairer bride; Thank Heaven, I go prepared against that curse. Enter CHAMONT, disarmed and seized by ACASTO and Servants. Cha. Gape earth, and swallow me to quick de- If I forgive your house! if I not live My sister, my Monimia breathless!Now, Acast. My Polydore ! Pol. Who calls? Acast. How camest thou wounded? Cast. Stand off, thou hot-brained, boisterous, noisy ruffian, And leave me to my sorrows! Cha. By the love I bore her living, I will ne'er forsake her; Pol. That must be my But 'tis too long for one in pain to tell; Cast. Thou, unkind Chamont, Now, if thou wilt embrace a nobler vengeance, Come, join with me, and curse Cha. What? Cast. First, thyself, As I do, and the hour, that gave thee birth: Acast. Have patience. Cast. Patience! preach it to the winds, Pol. Castalio! oh! [Acasto faints into the arms of a servant. For I perceive they fall with weight upon him. And, for Monimia's sake, whom thou wilt find I never wronged, be kind to poor Serina. Now, all I beg, is, lay me in one grave Thus with my love. Farewell. I now am-nothing. [Dies. Chu. Take care of good Acasto, whilst I go To search the means, by which the fates have plagued us. 'Tis thus that Heaven its empire does maintain; It may afflict, but man must not complain. [Exeunt omnes. SCENE I-A Street in Venice. Enter PRIULI and JAFFIER. Pri. No more! I'll hear no more! Begone and leave me. Jaf. Not hear me! By my suffering 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 And urge its baseness) when you first came home By all men's eyes, a youth of expectation, I treated, trusted, you, and thought you mine: In right, though proud oppression will not hear me? You treacherously practised to undo me; Pri. Have you not wronged me? Jaf. Could my nature e'er Have brooked injustice, or the doing wrongs, Pri. Yes, wronged me! In the nicest point, wrong. You may remember (for I now will speak, Seduced the weakness of my age's darling, Jaf. 'Tis to me you owe her! Childless you had been else, and in the grave |