Acast. Delay not then, but haste and cheer thy love. Cast. Oh! I will throw my impatient arms In her soft bosom sigh my soul to peace, A Chamber. Enter MONIMIA. CASTALIO within. Cast. Who talks of dying with a voice so sweet, Mon. Hark! 'tis he that answers. Cast. [Entering.] Here, my love. What danger threatens me, and where it lies: Cast. Have I been in a dream, then, all this As might have moved the hardest heart; why while? And art thou but the shadow of Monimia? Why dost thou fly me thus? 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. Mon. If I am dumb, Castalio, and want words Just as thy poor heart thinks! Have not I wronged Cast. No. Mon. Still thou wander'st in the dark, Castalio; But wilt, ere long, stumble on horrid danger. Cast. What means my love? were thou 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 Thou art my heart's inheritance; I served And who shall rob me of the dear bought bles-] sing? Mon. Time will clear all; but now, let this content you. Heaven has decreed, and therefore I'm resolved (With torment I must tell it thee, Castalio) Ever to be a stranger to thy love, 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; Mon. Ah, poor Castalio! [Exit Monimia. She pities me! then thou wilt go eternally. Enter POLYDORE. Pol. To live, and live a torment to myself, What dog would bear it, that knew but his condition? We have little knowledge, and that makes us cowards, Because it cannot tell us what's to come. Cast. Who's there?— Pol. Why, what art thou? Cast. My brother Polydore? Cast. Of my Monimia ! Pol. No. Good-day. Cast. In haste! Knows any thing, which he is ashamed to tell me ; Or didst thou e'er conceal thy thoughts from Polydore? Cast. Oh, much too oft! By all the kind affection of a brother, 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, And kept thee as a stranger to my passion, 'Till yesterday I wedded with Monimia. Pol. Ah, Castalio, was that well done! 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 For the first fault, abandon and forsake me, Pol. Blind wretch! thou husband! there is a question! Go to her fulsome bed, and wallow there : Cast. Hold there, I charge thee. Pol. Is she not a 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. Cast. Do, draw thy sword, and thrust it through my heart; There is no joy in life, if thou art lost. A base-born villain! Pol. Yes; thou never cam'st From old Acasto's loins; the midwife put A cheat upon my mother, and instead 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. Cast. Nay then Yet I am calm. But, ignorant of that, Hearing the appointment made, enraged to think [He draws. Thou hadst outdone me in successful love, Pol. A coward's always so. Cast. This to thy heart, then, though my mother I, in the dark, went and supplied thy place; Cast. And all this is the work of my own for 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 inno Has weighed thee down into destruction with him. Why then, thu's kind to me? Mon. When I ain laid low in the grave, and quite forgotten, Mayst thou be happy in a fairer bride; Thank Heaven, I go prepared against that curse. and Servants. Cast. Vanish, I charge thee, or [Draws a dagger. Cha. Thou canst not kill me; That would be kindness, and against thy nature. Acast. What means Castalio? Sure thou wilt not pull More sorrows on thy aged father's head. Pol. That must be my task: Cast. Thou, unkind Chamont, Now, if thou wilt embrace a nobler vengeance, Cast. First, thyself, ! As I do, and the hour, that gave thee birth: Acast. Have patience. Cast. Patience! preach it to the winds, Cha. Gape earth, and swallow me to quick de- Thus I find rest, and shall complain no more. struction, If I forgive your house! if I not live An everlasting plague to thee, Acasto, My sister, my Monimia breathless!-Now, Pol. Castalio! oh! Cast. I come. [Stabs himself. Chamont, to thee my birth-right I bequeath; [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. АСТ І. 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, 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, Juf. 'Tis to me you owe her! Childless you had been else, and in the grave |