ACT I

SCENE I

Enter PRIULI and JAFFEIR.

Priu. No more! I'll hear no more; begone and leave.

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 dis-
tance throws

Me back so far, but I may boldly speak
In right, though proud oppression will not
hear me!

Priu. Have you not wronged me?
Jaff.

Could my nature e'er
Have brooked injustice or the doing wrongs,
I need not now thus low have bent myself
To gain a hearing from a cruel father!
Wronged you?
Priu.

nicest point:

And buffeting the billows to her rescue, Redeemed her life with half the loss of mine;

Like a rich conquest in one hand I bore

her,

And with the other dashed the saucy waves, That thronged and pressed to rob me of my prize:

I brought her, gave her to your despairing

arms:

Indeed you thanked me; but a nobler grati

tude

Rose in her soul: for from that hour she loved me,

Till for her life she paid me with herself. Priu. 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;

Yes! wronged me, in the A sterile fortune, and a barren bed,
Attend you both; continual discord make
Your days and nights bitter and grievous:
still

The honor of my house; you have 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
looked on

By all men's eyes, a youth of expectation;
Pleased with your growing virtue, I received

you:

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 bestowed in vain;

Heaven has already crowned our faithful loves

Courted, and sought to raise you to your With a young boy, sweet as his mother's merits:

My house, my table, nay my fortune too, My very self, was yours; you might have used me

To your best service; like an open friend,
I treated, trusted you, and thought you
mine;

When in requital of my best endeavors,
You treacherously practised to undo me,
Seduced the weakness of my age's darling,
My only child, and stole her from my bosom:
O Belvidera!
Jaff.
'Tis to me you owe her,
Childless you had been else, and in the
grave,

Your name extinct, nor no more Priuli
heard of.

You may remember, scarce five years are
past,

Since in your brigandine you sailed to see
The Adriatic wedded by our Duke,
And I was with you: your unskilful pilot
Dashed us upon a rock; when to your
boat

You made for safety; entered first yourself;
The affrighted Belvidera following next,
As she stood trembling on the vessel side,
Was by a wave washed off into the deep,
When instantly I plunged into the sea,

beauty.

With hungry cries; whilst his unhappy
mother

Sits down and weeps in bitterness of want.
Jaff. You talk as if 'twould please you.
Priu.
'Twould, by Heaven.
Once she was dear indeed; the drops that
fell

From my sad heart, when she forgot her
duty,

The fountain of my life was not so precious:
But she is gone, and if I am a man
I will forget her.

Jaff. Would I were in my grave!
Priu.

And she too with thee; For, living here, you're but my curst remembrancers

That makes us slaves and tells us 'tis our charter.

Jaff. O Aquilina! friend, to lose such
beauty,

The dearest purchase of thy noble labors;
She was thy right by conquest, as by love.
Pierr. O Jaffeir! I'd so fixed my heart
upon her,

That wheresoe'er I framed a scheme of life
For time to come, she was my only joy
With which I wished to sweeten future

cares;

I fancied pleasures, none but one that loves
And dotes as I did can imagine like 'em:
When in the extremity of all these hopes,
In the most charming hour of expectation,
Then when our eager wishes soar the high-
est,

Ready to stoop and grasp the lovely game,
A haggard owl, a worthless kite of prey,
With his foul wings sailed in and spoiled my

quarry.

Jaff. I know the wretch, and scorn him as thou hat'st him.

And villains fatten with the brave man's labors.

Pierr. We have neither safety, unity, nor peace,

For the foundation's lost of common good; Justice is lame as well as blind amongst us; The laws (corrupted to their ends that make 'em)

Serve but for instruments of some new tyranny,

That every day starts up to enslave us deeper:

Now could this glorious cause but find out friends

To do it right! O Jaffeir! then might'st
thou

Not wear these seals of woe upon thy face,
The proud Priuli should be taught humanity,
And learn to value such a son as thou art.
I dare not speak! But my heart bleeds this
moment!

Jaff. Curst be the cause, though I thy
friend be part on't:

Let me partake the troubles of thy bosom,

Pierr. Curse on the common good that's For I am used to misery, and perhaps so protected,

Where every slave that heaps up wealth enough

To do much wrong, becomes a lord of right!
I, who believed no ill could e'er come near
me,

Found in the embraces of my Aquilina
A wretched, old but itching senator;

A wealthy fool, that had bought out my
title,

A rogue, that uses beauty like a lambskin,
Barely to keep him warm: that filthy cuckoo

too

Was in my absence crept into my nest,
And spoiling all my brood of noble pleasure.
Jaff. Didst thou not chase him thence?
Pierr.
I did; and drove
The rank old bearded Hirco stinking home:
The matter was complained of in the Senate,
I summoned to appear, and censured basely,
For violating something they call privilege-
This was the recompense of [all] my serv-
ice:

May find a way to sweeten 't to thy spirit.
Pierr. Too soon it will reach thy knowl-
edge-
Jaff.

Then from thee

Let it proceed. There's virtue in thy friendship

Would make the saddest tale of sorrow
pleasing,

Strengthen my constancy, and welcome ruin.
Pierr. Then thou art ruined!
Jaff.

I

That I long since knew, and ill-fortune have been long acquaint

ance.

Pierr. I passed this very moment by thy doors,

And found them guarded by a troop of
villains;

The sons of public rapine were destroying:
They told me, by the sentence of the law
They had commission to seize all thy for-
tune,

Nay more, Priuli's cruel hand hath signed it.
Here stood a ruffian with a horrid face
Lording it o'er a pile of massy plate,
Tumbled into a heap for public sale:
There was another making villainous jests
At thy undoing; he had ta'en possession
dissolves all former bonds of Of all thy ancient most domestic ornaments,
Rich hangings, intermixed and

are

Would I'd been rather beaten by a coward!
A soldier's mistress, Jaffeir, 's his religion,
When that's profaned, all other ties
broken;
That even
service,
And from that hour I think myself as free
To be the foe as e'er the friend of Venice.
Nay, dear Revenge, whene'er thou call'st
I'm ready.

Jaff. I think no safety can be here for
virtue,

And grieve, my friend, as much as thou to
live

In such a wretched state as this of Venice;
Where all agree to spoil the public good,

with gold;

wrought

The very bed, which on thy wedding-night
Received thee to the arms of Belvidera,
The scene of all thy joys, was violated
By the coarse hands of filthy dungeon vil-
lains,

And thrown amongst the common lumber.
Jaff. Now, thank Heaven-

Pierr. Thank Heaven! for what?
Jaff.

That I am not worth a ducat.

Where brothers, friends, and fathers, all
are false;
Thy Belvidera suffers; Belvidera!
Where there's no trust, no truth; where Die!-damn first!-what! be decently in-

innocence Stoops under vile oppression, and vice lords In a churchyard, and mingle thy brave dust it. With stinking rogues that rot in dirty winding-sheets,

Governed their roaring throats and grum- I take my evening's walk of meditation, bled pity:

There we two will meet, and talk of precious I could have hugged the greasy rogues; Mischiefthey pleased me.

At any hour, my plagues Since now I know the worst that can be- Will keep me waking. [Erit PIERRE. fall me: Tell me why, good Heaven, Ah, Pierre! I have a heart, that could have Thou mad'st me what I am, with all the borne

The roughest wrong my fortune could have Aspiring thoughts and elegant desires

Thou, or thy cause, shall never want assist- Happy my eyes, when they behold thy face: My heavy heart will leave its doleful beating

If thou art altered, where shall I have Wilt thou then talk thus to me? Wilt thou harbor?

Where ease my loaded heart? complain?

then

Oh! where Hush my cares thus, and shelter me with

Belv. Does this appear like change, or
love decaying?

When thus I throw myself into thy bosom,
With all the resolution of a strong truth:
Beats not my heart, as 'twould alarum thine
To a new charge of bliss? I joy more in
thee,

Than did thy mother when she hugged thee
first,

And blessed the gods for all her travail past. Jaff. Can there in women be such glorious faith?

Sure all ill stories of thy sex are false;

O woman! lovely woman! Nature made thee
To temper man: we had been brutes with-
out you;

Angels are painted fair, to look like you;
There's in you all that we believe of heaven,
Amazing brightness, purity and truth,
Eternal joy, and everlasting love.

Belv. If love be treasure, we'll be won-
drous rich;

love?

Belv. Oh, I will love thee, even in madness love thee.

Though my distracted senses should forsake

me,

I'd find some intervals, when my poor heart Should suage itself and be let loose to thine.

Though the bare earth be all our resting-
place,

Its roots our food, some clift our habitation,
I'll make this arm a pillow for thy head;
And as thou sighing liest, and swelled with
sorrow,

Creep to thy bosom, pour the balm of love
Into thy soul, and kiss thee to thy rest;
Then praise our God, and watch thee till the
morning.

Jaff. Hear this, you Heavens, and wonder
how you made her!

Reign, reign, ye monarchs that divide the world,

Busy rebellion ne'er will let you know

I have so much, my heart will surely break Tranquillity and happiness like mine; with't;

Vows cannot express it; when I would declare

How great's my joy, I am dumb with the
big thought;

I swell, and sigh, and labor with my longing.
O lead me to some desert wide and wild,
Barren as our misfortunes, where my soul
May have its vent: where I may tell aloud
To the high heavens, and ever listening
planet,

With what a boundless stock my bosom's
fraught;

Where I may throw my eager arms about thee,

Give loose to love with kisses, kindling

Like gaudy ships, the obsequious billows
fall

And rise again, to lift you in your pride;
They wait but for a storm and then devour

you:

I, in my private bark, already wrecked,
Like a poor merchant driven on unknown
land,

That had by chance packed up his choicest
treasure

In one dear casket, and saved only that,
Since I must wander further on the shore,
Thus hug my little, but my precious store;
Resolved to scorn, and trust my fate no
[Exeunt.

more.

ACT II

SCENE I

Enter PIERRE and AQUILINA.

Aquil. By all thy wrongs, thou'rt dearer
to my arms

Than all the wealth of Venice: prithee stay,
And let us love to-night.
Pierr.
No: there's fool,
There's fool about thee: when a woman sells
Her flesh to fools, her beauty's lost to me;
They leave a taint, a sully where they've
past,

There's such a baneful quality about 'em,
E'en spoils complexions with their own

nauseousness.

They infect all they touch; I cannot think
Of tasting anything a fool has palled.
Aquil. I loathe and scorn that fool thou
mean'st, as much