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Leost. 'Tis my fault.

Distrust of others springs, Timagoras,

From diffidence in ourselves. But I will strive,
With the assurance of my worth and merits,
To kill this monster jealousy.

Timag. "Tis a guest,

In wisdom, never to be entertained
On trivial probabilities; but when

He does appear in pregnant proofs, not fashioned
By idle doubts and fears, to be received.
They make their own horns that are too secure,
As well as such as give them growth and being
From mere imagination. Though I prize
Cleora's honour equal with mine own;
And know what large additions of power
This match brings to our family, I prefer
Our friendship, and your peace of mind, so far
Above my own respects or hers, that if
She hold not her true value in the test,
'Tis far from my ambition for her cure,
That you should wound yourself.
Timan. This argues for me.

[Aside.

Timag. Why she should be so passionate for a bondman,

Falls not in compass of my understanding,
But for some nearer interest; or he raise
This mutiny, if he loved her (as, you say,
She does confess he did), but to enjoy.
By fair or foul play, what he ventured for,
To me is a riddle.

Leost. I pray you, no more; already

I have answered that objection, in my strong
Assurance of her virtue.

Timag. 'Tis unfit, then,

That I should press it farther.
Timan. Now I must

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Leost. Who, Cleora?

Timag. Deliver, how. 'Sdeath, be a man, sir! speak.

Timan. Take it, then, in as many sighs as words: My lady

Timag. What of her?

Timan. No sooner heard

Marullo was imprisoned, but she fell
Into a deadly swoon.

Timug. But she recovered?

Say so, or he will sink too: hold, sir! fie,
This is unmanly.

Timan. Brought again to life,

But with much labour, she awhile stood silent, Yet in that interim vented sighs, as if

They laboured from the prison of her flesh,

To give her grieved soul freedom. On the sudden, Transported on the wings of rage and sorrow, She flew out of the house, and, unattended, Entered the common prison.

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Pis. Could I expire now,

These white and innocent hands closing my eyes thus,

Twere not to die, but in a heavenly dream
To be transported, without the help of Charon,
To the Elysian shades.-You make me bold;
And, but to wish such happiness, I fear,
May give offence

Chora. No, for believe it, Marullo,
You've won so much upon me, that I know not
That happiness in my gift but you may challenge.
Leost. Are you yet satisfied?

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And be not too indulgent to your folly;

And then (but that grief stops my speech) imagine What language I should use.

Cleora. Against thyself.Thy malice cannot reach me. Timag. How?

Cleora. No, brother!

Though you join in the dialogue to accuse me,
What I have done, I'll justify; and these favours,
Which you presume will taint me in my honour,
Though jealousy use all her eyes to spy out
One stain in my behaviour, or envy

As many tongues to wound it, shall appear
My best perfections. For, to the world,
I can, in my defence, alledge such reasons,
As my accusers shall stand dumb to hear them;.
When in his fetters this man's worth and virtues,
But truly told, shall shame your boasted glories,
Which fortune claims a share in.

Timag. The base villain

Shall never live to hear it.

[Offers to stab Pisander, Cleora interposes. Cleora. Murder! help! Through me you shall pass to him.

Enter ARCHIDAMUS, DIPHILUS, and officers.
Arch. What's the matter?

On whom is your sword drawn? Are you a judge?
Or else ambitious of the hangman's office
Before it be designed you? You are bold too!
Unhand my daughter.

Leost. She's my valour's prize.

Arch. With her consent, not otherwise. You

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And, though at first it did appear a fable,
All circumstances meet to give it credit;
Which works so on me, that I am compelled
To be a suitor, not to be denied,
He may have equal hearing.

Cleora. Sir, you graced me

With the title of your mistress: but my fortune Is so far distant from command, that I

Lay by the power you gave me, and plead humbly

For the preserver of my fame and honour;
And pray you, sir, in charity believe,

That, since I had ability of speech,

My tongue hath been so much inured to truth, I know not how to lie.

Timol. I'll rather doubt

The oracles of the gods, than question what
Your innocence delivers; and, as far
As justice with mine honour can give way,
He shall have favour. Bring him in unbound:
[Exeunt Officers.
And, though Leosthenes may challenge from me,
For his late worthy service, credit to
All things he can alledge in his own cause,
Marullo (so I think you call his name)
Shall find I do reserve an ear for him,

Enter CLEON, ASOTUS, DIPHILUS, OLYMPIA, and CORISCA.

To let in mercy. Sit, and take your places:
The right of this fair virgin first determined,
Your bondmen shall be censured.

Cleon. With all rigour

We do expect—

Cor. Tempered, I say, with mercy.

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Supply defects in such a thing, that never
Knew any thing but want and emptiness,
Give him a name, and keep it such, from this
Unequal competition? If my pride,

Or any bold assurance of my worth,
Has plucked this mountain of disgrace upon me,
I'm justly punished, and submit; but if

I have been modest, and esteemed myself
More injured in the tribute of the praise,
Which no desert of mine, prized by self-love,
Ever exacted: may this cause and minute
For ever be forgotten. I dwell long
Upon mine anger, and now turn to you,
Ungrateful fair one; and, since you are such,
'Tis lawful for me to proclaim myself,
And what I have deserved.

Cleora. Neglect and scorn
From me, for this proud vaunt.
Leost. You nourish, lady,

Your own dishonour in this harsh reply,
And almost prove, what some hold of your sex,
You're all made up of passion: For, if reason
Or judgment could find entertainment with you,
Or that you would distinguish of the objects
You look on in a true glass, not seduced
By the false light of your too violent will,
I should not need to plead for that which you

With joy should offer.-Is my high birth a ble- | Retaining still the clearness of the spring,

mish?

Or does my wealth, which all the vain expence
Of women cannot waste, breed loathing in you?
The honours, I can call mine own, thought scan-
dals?

Am I deformed, or, for my father's sins,
Mulcted by Nature? If you interpret these
As crimes, 'tis fit I should yield up myself,
Most miserably guilty; But, perhaps,
(Which yet I would not eredit) you have seen
This gallant pitch the bar, or bear a burden
Would crack the shoulders of a weaker bondman;
Or any other boisterous exercise,
Assuring a strong back, to satisfy

Your loose desires, insatiate as the grave.
Cleora. You are foul-mouthed.
Arch. Ill-mannered too.
Leost. I speak

In the way of supposition, and entreat you,
With all the fervour of a constant lover,
That you would free yourself from these
sions,

From whence it took beginning, may be thought
Worthy acceptance; then I dare rise up,
And tell this gay man to his teeth, I never
Durst doubt her constancy, that like a rock
Beats off temptations, as that mocks the fury
Of the proud waves; nor from my jealous fears
Question that goodness, to which, as an altar
Of all perfection, he, that truly loves,
Should rather bring a sacrifice of service,
Than raze it with the engines of suspicion;
Of which, when he can wash an Ethiop white,
Leosthenes may hope to free himself;
But, till then, never.

Timag. Bold, presumptuous villain!

Pis. I will go farther, and make good upon him, In the pride of all his honours, birth and fortunes, He's more unworthy than myself.

Leost. Thou liest.

Timag. Confute him with a whip, and, the
doubt decided,

asper-Punish him with a halter.
Pis. O the gods!

Or any imputation black-tongued slander
Could throw on your unspotted virgin whiteness;
To which there is no easier way, than by
Vouchsafing him your favour; him, to whom,
Next to the general, and to the gods,
The country owes her safety.

Timag. Are you stupid?

Slight, leap into his arms, and there ask pardon-
Oh! you expect your slave's reply; no doubt
We shall have a fine oration; I will teach
My spaniel to howl in sweeter language,
And keep a better method.

Arch. You forget The dignity of the place. Diph. Silence!

Timol. Speak boldly.

Pis. Tis your authority gives me a tongue; I should be dumb else; and I am secure, I cannot clothe my thoughts, and just defence, In such an abject phrase, but 'twill appear Equal, if not above, my low condition. I need no bombast language, stolen from such As make nobility from prodigious terms The bearers understand not; I bring with me No wealth to boast of, neither can I number Uncertain fortune's favours with my merits: I dare not force affection, or presume To censure her discretion, that looks on me As a weak man, and not her fancy's idol. How I have loved, and how much I have suffered,

And with what pleasure undergone the burthen
Of my ambitious hopes (in aiming at

The glad possession of a happiness,
The abstract of all goodness in mankind
Can at no part deserve), with my confession

Of mine own wants, is all that can plead for me.
But if that pure desire, not blended with
Foul thoughts, that like a river keeps his course,

My ribs, though made of brass, cannot contain My heart, swoln big with rage-The lie! A whip! [Plucks off his disguise. Let fury then disperse these clouds, in which I long have masked, disguised; that, when they

know

Whom they have injured, they may faint with horror

Of my revenge, which, wretched men! expect, As sure as fate, to suffer!

Lcost. Ha! Pisander?

Timag. 'Tis the bold Theban!

Asot. There's no hope for me then!

I thought I should have put in for a share, And borne Cleora from them both: But now, This stranger looks so terrible, that I dare not So much as look on her.

Pis. Now, as myself,

Thy equal at thy best, Leosthenes.—

For you, Timagoras, praise heaven you were born
Cleora's brother, 'tis your safest armour.
But I lose time.-The base lie cast upon me,
I thus return. Thou art a perjured man,
False and perfidious, and hast made a tender
Of love and service to this lady, when
Thy soul (if thou hast any) can bear witness,
That thou wert not thine own. For proof of this,
Look better on this virgin, and consider,
This Persian shape laid by, and she appearing
In a Greekish dress, such as when first you saw
her,

If she resemble not Pisander's sister,
One called Statilia ?

Leost. 'Tis the same! my guilt
So chokes my spirits, I cannot deny
My falsehood, nor excuse it.

Pis. This is she,

To whom thou wert contracted: This is the lady, That, when thou wert my prisoner, fairly taken

In the Spartan war, that begged thy liberty,
And with it gave herself to thee, ungrateful!
Timan. No more, sir, I entreat you: I per-
ceive

True sorrow in his looks, and a consent

To make me reparation in mine honour;
And then I am most happy.

Pis. The wrong done her

I was preparing for defence elsewhere,
So soon got entrance; In this I am guilty:
Now, as you please, your censure.

Timol. Bring them in;

And, though you have given me power, I do en

treat

Such as have undergone their insolence,
It may not be offensive, though I study

Drew me from Thebes with a full intent to kill Pity more than revenge.

thee:

But this fair object met me in my fury,

And quite disarmed me. Being denied to have

her

By you, my lord Archidamus, and not able
To live far from her, love (the mistress of
All quaint devices) prompted me to treat
With a friend of mine, who as a pirate sold me
For a slave to you, my lord, and gave my sister
As a present to Cleora.

Timol. Strange meanders!

Čor. 'Twill best become you.
Cleon. I must consent.

Asot. For me, I'll find a tune
To be revenged hereafter.

Enter GRACCULO, CIMBRIO, POLIPHRON, ZANTHIA and the other slaves, with halters about their necks.

Grac. Give me leave;

I'll speak for all.

Timol. What canst thou say, to hinder

Pis. There how I bare myself needs no rela- The course of justice?

tion.

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Grac. Nothing. You may see

We are prepared for hanging, and confess
We have deserved it. Our most humble suit is,
We may not twice be executed.

Timol. Twice? How mean'st thou?

Grac. At the gallows first, and after in a ballad,

Sung to some villainous tune. There are tengroat rhymers

About the town grown fat on these occasions.—
Let but a chapel fall, or a street be fired,
A foolish lover hang himself for pure love,

Or any such like accident, and before

They are cold in their graves, some damned ditty's made,

Which makes their ghosts walk.-Let the state take order

For the redress of this abuse, recording
'Twas done by my advice, and for my part,
I'll cut as clean a caper from the ladder
As ever merry Greek did.

Timol. Yet I think

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